JAPANESE COSTUMES. 315 



from China, tlie latter conntry possessing neither coin, 

 excepting copper crt.s//, nor paper-money. The new 

 dollar has prohably changed all this, and the decimal 

 system is now prevailing, not only in money, but also 

 in weight and measure, whicli materially facilitates 

 dealings. Strange, indeed, that England should at this 

 day be still Avithout a decimal system I 



The people of Japan strike one at first as a quaint 

 creation ; they are small, have regular features, eyes 

 slightly oblique, and their women are pretty until they 

 marry, when they shave off their eye-brows and blacken 

 their teeth, — a hideous custom, which, however, is not 

 likely to continue long, since they have so readily 

 adapted themselves to European manners of late years. 

 The women are of a cheerful disposition, and do not 

 distort their feet as their neighbours, the Chinese, do. 

 The men are punctilious and polite ; both sexes have 

 small hands and feet, are sober, docile, and industrious ; 

 they dress well, and with taste, silk entering largely 

 into the articles of their wardroV)e. The women wear 

 a long loose jacket over a close-fitting under-robe, 

 which latter is gathered in at the waist by a hand- 

 some broad silk sash with an enormous bow behind. 

 The men of the lower orders dress in a kind 

 of blouse of dark colour, tied below the hip, and tight 

 trousers ; those of the upper classes M^ear silk gowns 



