MANNERS, CUSTOMS, ETC. The Japanese are a cheerful, contented people, lovers of nature, and always ready for a holiday. Responsibility rests lightly on their shoulders, and employers have always to reckon on absences from time to time on account of 'sickness' when apparently there is none; and a contract is not always sacred. Opium-growing and the importation of it are forbidden. and Government supplies the needs of the medical profession. Courteousness is a distinguishing trait, and their ceremonious po liteness is oftentimes most embarrassing to the foreigner, who is not usually given to self-depre ciatory remarks. and whose stock of honorifics is small and not always instantly at command. Hand-shaking is not a Japanese custom. and the lowness of the obeisance varies with the rank of the individual. women and the lower classes usually getting down on their knees. Children dress exactly like their elders, and though their foot-gear is clogs held on by a band passing be tween the big toe and the next one. they romp and run as much and as fast as European or American children. Their socks—when they wear them—have a separate compartment for the big toe. Their toys and indoor amusements are in numerable. In dress th. .hipanese are not bur dened with much underclothing. Their chief outer garment is the loose-sleeved gown known as the kimono. open in front but bound round the waist with a sash. That of the women is a little longer, lifters somewhat in the sleeves, and the sash or obi is wide and formed into a how at the hack which varies in style according to age, etc. Married women shave off their eyebrows, and blacken their teeth with the juice of the per simmon-tree. The coiffure is an elaborate con struction with 'waterfalls.' plastered down with bandolin and decked with stickpins.
Japanese houses are usually of one story. There are no cellars. The floor is about or 3 feet from the ground. and is formed of soft. thickly padded mats measuring 0 feet by 3. and on these the family sit (or rather squat on their heels). eat. and sleep. There are no tables, chairs. or bedsteads. thick wadded quilts serving as mattress and blankets. Heat when wanted is provided by a hibachi or brazier filled with burn ing. charcoal. The pillow is a little paper-cov ered cylindrical cushion strapped on a narrow stool, which is placed under the neck so as not to disturb the hair. Foot-gear is left in the porch before stepping on the verandah. A single picture. changed with the season. and a small
wall vase containing a single sprig, form the only decoration. apart from that of tile shoji or sliding paper screens which serve as partitions. Passers-by may get a glimpse through the open screens of a tiny garden at the hack, with a miniature rivulet, a stone thrown across it as a bridge, a miniature hillock crowned with a dwarfed pine, and a flowering shrub or two, and perhaps a stone-pillar lantern. A necessary fea ture of every house is the 'god-shelf,' or family altar. where is the little shrine—Shinto or Bud dhist—before which the offerings are placed. Cleanliness is next to godliness, and the bathtub at the back, with its little furnace in one end for boiling the water, is patronized by every mem ber of the family in succession, the water being invariably hot (100' to 115° F.).
Food is served on little lacquered stands about a foot high. and is eaten with chop-sticks (both of the same material). Rice,. with soup of sea weed. beans, vegetables, or hard-boiled egg cut up into pieces, with a little fish with soy, and the like, daintily served, make the meal, sak6 (their fermented beverage) when used being heated and served in the tiniest of porcelain cups. Tea is the usual beverage. But there is no meal called 'tea.' Pickled daikon (or radish) is their chief Married life is usually happy. Of 8537 sui cides in 1399, only 212 were due to family quar rels, and hoil were attributable to 'love.' Cere monial uncleanness arises from contact with the dead in any way, and mourners are 'unclean.' Those returning, from a funeral are sprinkled with salt before reentering the house. Those who favor the Shinto cult bury their dead in coffins. Cremation was introduced by the Buddhists about A.D. 700. After the Restoration it was for bidden, but a custom of such long standing could not be wiped out with the stroke of a pen. The people. and especially the women, are very super stitious, and are believers in ghosts, (lemons, fairies, and witchcraft. A handful of green peas thrown at a suspected demon will cause him to scamper oli„ and when the fox (q.v.) or the badger is suspected by the careful mother with daughters of being around, a flash from her metallic magic mirror will strip Mr. Fox or Mr. Badger of his disguise; and it is a curious fact that the presence or proximity of a serpent should never he pointed out to a woman or men tioned to her. Everybody wears a charm or charms.