SQUADRON PROCEEDS TO YEDO. 



397 



fhemselves, and tliey frequently Intermingle in friendly intercourse. There is one feature in the 

 society of Japan, by which the superiority of the people, to all other oriental nations, is clearly 

 manifest. Woman is recognised as a companion, and not merely treated as a slaT^e. Her 

 position is certainly not as elevated as in those countries under the influence of the Christian 

 dispensation, but the mother, wife, and daughter of Japan, are neither the chattels and 

 hnisehold drudges of China, nor the purchased objects of the capricious lust of the harems of 

 Tarkey. The fact of the non-existence of polygamy, is a distinctive feature, which pre-eminently 

 characterizes the Japanese, as the most moral and refined of all eastern nations. The absence 

 of this degrading practice shows itself, not only in the superior character of the women, but in 

 the natural consequence of the greater prevalence of the domestic virtues. 



Japanese Wjuicii. — Simoda. 



The Japanese women, always excepting the dv gusting black t' eth nf thrre who are marrie 1, are 

 not ill-looking. The young girls are well formed and rather pretty, and have much of that vivacity 

 and self-reliance in manners, which come from a consciousness of dignity, c''erived from the 

 comparatively high regard in which they r re held. In t' e onl nary mu'ual intercourse of friends 

 and families the women have their share, and rounds of visiting and tea parties are kept up 

 as briskly in Japan as in the United States. The attitude assumed by the women, who 



