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Brought death to both, to him full sore repenting.
'Stay thou within these four strong walls,' he said;
'Thou art a cruel disobedient maid.
Sweep, day by day, thy cold and dusty floor,
For Norman thou shalt surely see no more.'
'I make my shroud, my father,' then she said;
'I soon shall wear it—I shall soon be dead.
For ever sweep my cold and dusty floor,
For Norman I shall never see him more!'
Clean, day by day, the maiden's floor appears,
As daily swept, though passed a hundred years.
And some hear sounds as of a rustling broom—
(The maiden sweeping in the haunted room;)
A voice reëchoing in the stilly air—
'Father, my shrouded robe I soon shall wear!'
H. C.
JAPAN AND THE JAPANESE.
In consequence of the long seclusion of the Japanese, and their inveterate antipathy to giving the slightest information to foreigners concerning their government, religion, character, or institutions, combined with their disposition to disguise the truth upon all matters, great and small, we have hitherto been without much reliable information concerning this singular people. This want has to some extent been supplied by a recent publication entitled, 'A Three Years' Residence in Japan,' by Sir Rutherford Alcock, K.C.B., her Majesty's Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary. And although the latter does not pretend to give a complete history of the Japanese empire and its internal organization, yet he has given a great deal of interesting information concerning the character of the people, their daily life, customs, and manners. The troubles, too, that have arisen between foreign nations and Japan have contributed to excite a keener interest in all that tends to dispel the mystery that has hitherto shrouded this curious people. We shall endeavor, as far as possible, in the limited space at our disposal, to give a résumé of what has now been added to our knowledge of Japan and the Japanese.
History of Japan.
And first, of their history. Accident first led to the discovery of Japan. Three Portuguese adventurers, on a half-piratical, half-trading expedition, in a Chinese junk, were driven by stress of weather upon its shores. From this time dates the commencement of European intercourse and trade. Our adventurers were treated with kindness, and there were no signs of that jealousy and hatred of foreigners which has since been manifested. Some years later, a Japanese nobleman fled his country and took refuge in Goa. By his representations that a profitable trade might be carried on, the merchants of Goa, together with the Jesuit fathers, who anticipated a rich harvest of souls, loaded a vessel with goods and presents, to open trade. In those days, commerce and the Bible went hand in hand; the latter, doubtless, to counteract the inevitable