minutes’ appearance, her receipts therefrom come to a respectable amount.
The geisha’s expenses consist mostly of dresses and ornaments, among the latter being combs, hair-pins, rings, purses, and tobacco-pouches; but there are occasions when she is compelled to contribute to a general subscription, such as the presentation of a curtain by the whole geisha quarter to a theatre or to a favourite actor, for it is a great honour for an actor to have a curtain hung in his name at the theatre where he is engaged. If, without being actually a favourite, he has relatives or connections among the geisha-houses or tea-houses of the locality, the presentation is sometimes made as a mark of friendship. Many geisha also take an active part in the annual festivals of the local deity, when in gay dresses they precede the procession-cars that are drawn through the streets of the district under the god’s protection. It is a great advertisement for them, though the dresses are very expensive. The geisha’s profession naturally leads her to extravagance; and very few succeed in making both ends meet. Most geisha are acquainted with usurers, while almost as many put their dresses, when out of season, in mine uncle’s charge.
THE BOX CARRIERS’ OFFICE.
The geisha is always accompanied to a tea-house by the box-carrier, whose duty it is to take charge of her samisen-case, and dresses which she often changes, especially in summer. The carrier is sometimes a woman, but more generally of the other sex. There are three kinds of such carriers. In some quarters, every geisha has her own
