THE following verses are definitely popular ones. They are folksongs, almoft music-hall songs, and are taken solely from the singing repertoire of Geishas. These girls have usually been sold into the trade by their parents, and their one desire is to be released by pur-chase or marriage. Release is the keynote of all their singing. It should be remembered, too, that practically all the Japanese poems with which we have been made familiar in English are classical and written to one or other of very ft rift rules, whereas these songs for the samisen are technically free. They have therefore no ftri£t literary junification, and I truft that, even in second-hand translation, they may not seem to need one. I have selected some of my ninety from Le Livre des Geishas of Gafton Morphy, and the reft from Chansons des Geishas by Steinilber-Oberlin and Hidetake-Iwamura.