PAINTING AND ENGRAVING. The knowl edge of natural form shown in these deco rative designs was also shown, and even more plainly, in the books of, patterns and again in the books of legendary or popular story. Little books filled with prints in outline, or nearly so, or again Nvith their outlines filled up with flat coloring, dealt with the daily manners and customs of the people and with fairy tales. ghostly legends, the dramatic stage, and the doings of heroes and poets of antiquity. The natural history of the archipelago was also treated in great series of hand !rooks, and in these extraordinary skill was shown in rendering the life and movements of insects, birds, and the smaller animals, for sonic reason not quite clear, the larger ani nods were less perfectly rendered, as if a tra ditional way of drawing was to be observed, which greatly affected the draughtsman's dealings with the horse and the bear, although he seemed to he free when treating the song-bird and the rat.
There came also from Japan great numbers of water-color drtmings mounted in albums or or rolls, either fur hanging up (kakemono) or for handling, like the Roman Colored wood-cuts appeared, also prints from wood blocks. of which no two were exactly alike in the color, a fact which soon found its explanation in the process used by the printer. ile paints the wood ğlock with the brush, and takes an impression immediately, before the color has time to dry; then paints again and takes another impression. A kindred process was in Ilse in Europe in the eighteenth century for those colored prints front stipple engravings which formed the admiration and the puzzle of our own time. The Japanese pu ints of this character have extraordinary refine ment. and have been (hiring the years since ISS5 in constantly increasing demand in the \Vest, and at rapidly growing prices.