young wives only avoid showing to their male relatives-in-law the uncovered body.  Amongst the rich they avoid going about in the presence of these in the chemise alone.  In some places, they lay especial emphasis on the fact that it is a shame for young wives to show their uncovered hair and feet to the male relatives of their husbands.  On the other side, the male relatives of the husband ought to avoid showing to the young wife the body uncovered above the elbow or the sole of the foot, and they ought to avoid indecent expressions and vulgar vituperations in her presence....  That these observances are not the result of a specially delicate modesty, is proved by the fact that even young girls constantly twist thread upon the naked thigh, unembarrassed by the presence of men who do not belong to the household; nor do they show any embarrassment if a strange man comes upon them when uncovered to the waist.  The one thing which they do not like, and at which they show anger, is that such persons look carefully at their uncovered feet....  The former simplicity, with lack of shame in uncovering the body, is disappearing.” (Sieroshevski, “The Yakuts,” Journal of the Anthropological Institute, Jan.-June, 1901, p. 93.)

“In Japan (Captain ——­ tells me), the bathing-place of the women was perfectly open (the shampooing, indeed, was done by a man), and Englishmen were offered no obstacle, nor excited the least repugnance; indeed, girls after their bath would freely pass, sometimes as if holding out their hair for innocent admiration, and this continued until countrymen of ours, by vile laughter and jests, made them guard themselves from insult by secrecy.  So corruption spreads, and heathenism is blacker by our contact.”  (Private communication.)

“Speaking once with a Japanese gentleman, I observed that we considered it an act of indecency for men and women to wash together.  He shrugged his shoulders as he answered:  ’But these Westerns have such prurient minds!’” (Mitford, Tales of Old Japan, 1871.)

Dr. Carl Davidsohn, who remarks that he had ample opportunity of noting the great beauty of the Japanese women in a national dance, performed naked, points out that the Japanese have no aesthetic sense for the nude.  “This was shown at the Jubilee Exposition at Kyoto.  Here, among many rooms full of art objects, one was devoted to oil pictures in the European manner.  Among these only one represented a nude figure, a Psyche, or Truth.  It was the first time such a picture had been seen.  Men and women crowded around it.  After they had gazed at it for a time, most began to giggle and laugh; some by their air and gestures clearly showed their disgust; all found that it was not aesthetic to paint a naked woman, though in Nature, nakedness was in no way offensive to them.  In the middle of the same city, at a fountain reputed to possess special virtues, men and women will stand together naked and let the