JAPAN 



were Avhiter than those of Englishmen, or even Englishwomen. The Chinaman, however, strips 

 yellowish." 



The mental endowments of a people can seldom be correctly inferred from a view of their 

 physical qualities. This truth is forcibly illustrated in the Japanese race, who appear but a 

 feeble folk when compared with the average Chinese and with the Koreans, who are more 

 closely related to them. They possess very considerable powers of endurance, but are physically 

 weak, with only slight muscular development and narrow chests. Nevertheless, they stand 

 intellectually at the head of all the peoples of Mongol stock. In recent years the Japanese have 

 shown that, in this respect, they can claim to rank with the more advanced European nations, 

 being highly intelligent, progressive, quick-witted, and brave to a degree of heroism unsur- 

 passed by any other people. " The sense of personal honour, so feebly developed among other 

 Asiatics, became a passion under the medieval feudal system, and led to astounding acts of 







Taken during the Scientific Expedition ofH.M.S. ''Challenger" 1872-70. Published by Horsburgh & 



THE JAPANESE MODE OF CONVEYANCE. 



Government Copyright. 



devotion and self-sacrifice, as well as to deeds of incredible ferocity, of almost daily occurrence. 

 With much enterprise and originality is combined an imitative faculty surpassing even that 

 of the Chinese, as shown by the fact that their first steamer with engines complete was 

 constructed solely from the directions given in a Dutch treatise on the subject. These varied 

 mental qualities explain the rapidity with which the Japanese the barriers of exclusion once 

 broken down have taken their place in the comity of the Western nations" (Keane). It is 

 strange that the Koreans, to whom they are so nearly related, should have failed to rise to 

 the same height of intellectual culture. But by no means are all the Japanese educated, 

 many of those living away from the towns being in a very low state of culture. 



The Japanese commence their authentic history about the same time as that of Ancient 

 Rome began, namely 660 B.C. The first Emperor, or Mikado, established something like 

 systematic government in the vicinity of Kioto, not far from the modern port Osaka. For 

 centuries their histories speak of efforts to subdue the wild intractable aborigines (Hairy Ainu), 



