JAPAN
ceased to be allowed after the introduction of mats. For chairs and mats were incompatible; the former necessarily disappeared when the latter were adopted, and since a matted floor plainly invited a kneeling salutation, the palm-striking obeisance finally disappeared except as preface to a prayer before shrines or in temples.[1] When an inferior official met a superior on the road, the former had to step aside and stand still until the latter passed, and had further to kneel with his hands on the ground whenever he desired to make a remark. The same rule applied to youths and elders irrespectively of rank, and if an official of a class lower than fifth, or a commoner, happened to be riding on horseback when he encountered a superior, he had to dismount and stand aside.
The food of the people during the Nara era consisted of rice, steamed or boiled, millet, barley, fish of various kinds (fresh or salted), sea-weed, vegetables, fruit (pears, chestnuts, and minor varieties), and the flesh of fowl, deer, and wild-boar. Strenuous efforts were made by the Court to enforce the Buddhist commandment against taking life, but the nation steadily eschewed that kind of fanaticism, and even the priests themselves did not obey their own laws. Sake—a fermented liquor made from rice—and tea, which had recently been imported from China, were the chief beverages, and soy (a sauce made from
- ↑ See Appendix, note 28.
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