We found the village interesting. They bade us adios, and asked us to come again. Thank you, Mexico, we shall.
Your loving cousins,
JANE AND ELLEN.
DEAR COUSINS:
WE DO not know where we have been more beautifully entertained than we were in Japan. A lovely little Japanese maiden with an embroidered robe told us a good many interesting things. One of them was about “Boy Day.”
It seems that in Japan all the boys have one birthday, that is, May fifth is set aside for a universal boys’ birthday. They have then a celebration, all over the nation, and it is what with us would be a bank holiday like Thanksgiving, or Decoration Day.
The carp is chosen for the emblem, because he is the Samurai, or warrior fish, because he is so full of courage, and figures of him are made of crepe and floated from bamboo poles, along with their flag.
On that day the boys are instructed in the standards of manhood as they are expected to live, and shown their ancestors’ great deeds as recorded in the family records.