Page:Knickerbocker 1864-09 64 3.pdf/60

feather pillow and bed.' Clean mats, six by three feet, stuffed with fine straw, with a beautiful silk border, constitute the bed. From this squatting custom it results, that sofas, chairs, and tables are superfluous. The house-furnishing can not be a serious obstacle to marriage in Japan, 'Their future house is taken, containing generally three or four little rooms, in which clean mats are put. Each then brings to the house-keeping a cotton-stuffed quilt and a box of wearing apparel for their own personal use; a pan to cook the rice; half a dozen lacker cups and trays to cat off; a large tub to bathe and wash in, is added on the general account; and these complete the establishment.' 'Arcadian simplicity,' indeed!

Some of the habits of the fair sex in Japan—blacking their teeth, plucking the hair from their eyebrows, daubing their lips with a brick-red color—would seem to conflict with our ideas of female beauty. However, here, as in numerous other instances, 'tastes differ.' In the matter of clothing we learn, also, that the working classes are very economical, their dress consisting of a very narrow girdle, The better classes are clothed, however, but the women seldom appear in public. Notwithstanding their nudity, and their custom of promiscuous public baths for both sexes, 'it is asserted by those who have lived longest among them, that the people are not less chaste than in Europe.'

Tattooing is common among the men, and they have carried the art to a high degree of perfection. With 'the greater part of the body and limbs scrolled over with bright blue dragons, and lions, and tigers, and figures of men and women tattooed into their skins with the most artistic and elaborate ornamentation,' they must present a striking appearance. The women, with less vanity, perhaps, are content with the skin that Nature gave them.

The amusements of the Japanese are, as is the case with other Eastern nations, what we should call of a childish character. Top-spinning—in which marvellous dexterity is displayed—blowing soap-bubbles, games with cards, and similar plays, are common among the grown population. Musicians and jugglers are extensively patronized. The latter are adepts, outrivalling the most skilful of Western professionals. They ‘not only swallow portentously long swords, but out of their mouths come the most unimaginable things: flying horses, swarms of flies, ribbons by the mile, and paper shavings without end.' But we shall rarely misjudge them, if we conceive them capable of nothing better than this, In regard to material civilization, they stand in the front rank among Eastern nations, and almost on par with Europeans. Supplied, as we are, with the most perfect appliances of art, it is something astonishing to find the results that may be achieved by a people with the rudest implements. A strong testimony to their enterprise and ingenuity is given in the fact, that they manufactured a complete steam-engine, with which they actually worked a boat. It was made entirely from plans in a Dutch work. They have also a keen perception of the advantage to be gained by using the powers of nature. Wherever nature has supplied a force, either in field or work-shop, it is laid under contribution. Another evidence of their genius is given, in the perfection to which they have carried the art of manufacturing paper. This is nearly all made from the bark of trees, and is superior, in some respects, to that manufactured in Europe. Cotton is also used for the same purpose, though bark is preferred on account of its toughness. Sixty-seven different kinds were forwarded to the London Exhibition. Considering the present high price of cotton, our own manufacturers might with advantage, perhaps, receive a lesson from their brethren in Japan.

We are told that the time which has elapsed, since the conclusion of the first treaty, has been employed in putting their powers for offence and defence, in