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of the rice-fields. All the country-folk are his friends. He sleeps under the trees; and the children awake him. Then he takes them in his arms, tells them stories of the sky, the moon, the stars, all the magnificence of nature, treasures which no one knows better than himself how to enjoy.

The government of Japan is a species of feudal confederation, with a theocratic head. The Mikado, the son of the gods, and hereditary emperor, is the representative of the sacred power; but the civil and military administration rested until very recently in the hands of his lieutenant-general, the Tycoon, whose headquarters were in Yeddo. The great princes, or Daimios, are in many instances almost independent, and they are only held in subjection by being obliged to have a double residence; one on their own estates, and the other in Yeddo, where their families are kept as hostages for their good behaviour. The Yaconins, or military following of the Daimios, constitute a turbulent class of the population, bound solely to their feudal lords, and ready for any fray that may happen. It is among the Japanese of the upper classes that the act of hara-kiri is practised. This is a suicide, nominally accomplished by plunging a knife into the bowels, but really, in cases of punishment, by the assistance of the person who stands prepared to strike off the head of the victim at the moment when the knife is placed for the fatal blow.

The Japanese are a cultivated people, with letters and literature partly of Chinese origin, but modified in order to adapt them to Japanese use. They have also a distinct national history: and their literature, though not rich in philosophical disquisitions, abounds in legends, in fables, in satirical descriptions. The Japanese have also highly developed artistic tastes; and painting, drawing, and sculpture are followed as distinct professions. The Japanese drawing does not always satisfy European exigencies with regard to perspective; but the colouring is brilliant, and in Japanese sketches, whether of plants or animals, people or landscape, there is a breadth, life, and truth, which many European artists of much higher pretensions might envy. In fact, the best notions that we can obtain of Japanese life and its surroundings are to be derived from the numerous sketches by Japanese artists which exist, and which represent the people pursuing their daily occupations. M. Humbert has profusely illustrated his work with pictures—partly facsimiles of native work, partly drawn after sketches made by Japanese artists. The Japanese have what the Chinese seem to be deficient in a strong sense of humour; and this they exhibit in a very striking manner in their sketches, in which human beings are represented by typical animals. Thus, sketches may be seen in which an old bonze is represented as a wolf, a group of Buddhist nuns as weasels, and a company of rats acting as rice-merchants.

The artistic tastes of the people and their love of Nature are both illustrated by their passion for flowers, and by the skill with which they are cultivated. No feast is considered perfect without flowers, and flower-shows meet with as much approbation in Japan as in England. The Japanese gardeners exhibit great skill in the arts of raising new varieties of flowers, of grafting plants, so that different flowers and leaves grow in what appear to be branches of the same plant: and they are, above all, learned in the manufacture of dwarfed plants, which are in great request as house ornaments. The Japanese delight in gardens, and they lay out small pieces of ground with wonderful skill, contriving to "give ample space to narrow bounds" with much ingenuity. The vast enceinte of Yeddo encloses much garden ground, and the people make at least three definite excursions to the suburbs at different times of the year, to see with their own eyes how the seasons progress. These excursions are often made as picnics, in which merry family groups take part. The Japanese have also a great fondness for aquaria; every house possesses one, and an aquarium, with small fish in it, is a very common object to be seen in houses.

The Japanese common people, both the bourgeoisie and the lower orders, take life with as much enjoyment as possible. The fêtes of various gods, who are patrons of one or other of the numerous industries exercised, afford occasion for long processions, with great displays of banners and symbols, for much merriment, and a not always dignified or moderate consumption of saki. Nor are the pilgrimages made to the sacred, snow-covered Fusi-yama and to the various habitations of holy hermits altogether without alleviations. The events of domestic life—births, marriages, deaths, presentations of children in the temple, the coming-of-age of boys, when they have completed their fifteenth year, visits to the burial-places of ancestors—all afford occasion for friendly meetings, and for much ceremonial.

Silken ornaments

Theatrical entertainments, and the performances of wrestlers, acrobats, jugglers, and ballet dancers are among the public amusements to which the Japanese are passionately attached. The theatres at Yeddo to which foreigners have had access are chiefly those patronised by the bourgeoisie; but among the audience are to be found nobles who assume a dress intended to show that they pay their visit incognito. Wrestlers are under special imperial patronage, and are much favoured by the people. The contests consist chiefly of struggles as to which of two competitors shall by mere weight push the other out of a circle marked off by bags filled with straw. Japanese wrestling is utterly unlike what is understood in England by the same term: and the men engaged in it are generally in a fleshy condition which, among ourselves, would be considered utterly incompatible with a state of "training." The feats of performers who execute wonderful