•Jl792- oh Japan. 303 



Language. 



The learned men of the nation use the Chuiese langu- 

 age, because their sciences are borrowtcl from China ; but 

 the vulgar language resembles it so littk, that a Japanese 

 and a Chinese cannot understand one another without an 

 interpreter. Their letters are also very different, although 

 in both languages each single character exprefses a word y 

 and they write iu vertical lines, or lines running from top 

 to bottom. When a native of Japan signs any act, he 

 begins with his family title, and then his own name, which 

 he otten changes at a certain age, according to his employ- 

 ment and any other remarkable incident of his life. 

 Dreft. 



Both sexes wear long robes, and they pretend that the fa- 

 Ihion of their drefs has not varied for two thousand years. 

 Those of the women are trailing, and commonly made of 

 gauze, some plain, others embroidered, and so fine, that they 

 wear from thirty to fifty plies, above one another, and they 

 are so very light that the whole together scarcely weighs 

 five pounds. A large libbon round her waist sets off her 

 Ihape ; the married women tie it before, the young women 

 behind. 



Mariner of building . 



The houses of the Japanese are generally built of wood 

 and mortar ; on the oetside they are white and resemble, 

 exactly those built of stone ; in the inside, instead of walls 

 for dividing the apartments, they use folding screens, 

 made of a strong kind of paper, which they move about and 

 make as many apartments as they chuse, 1 he windows 

 are of white paper, sometimes oiled, which admits the light 

 very well, but one cannot see through them. 



Mr Thunberg, in another volume, proposes to give an 

 account of the religion, the governuient, and the public 

 oEconomy of this cmiiire, which the public will wait for 

 with impatience. ' 



