88 BOARD OF AGRICULTUEE. [Jan. 



altogether improbable. Physically and morally, in habits, 

 and so far as we can learn in language, they are quite dis- 

 tinct; while, to this day, intermarriage, in any form or 

 degree, is not known to occur between them. 



The Japanese physique is not prepossessing. The men are 

 small, narrow-chested and lank. Their heads are of medium 

 size, covered with black hair, usually straight ; and the high 

 cheek bones, large, coarse mouth, inferior nose and irreso- 

 lute chin, though not universal, are noticeably character- 

 istic. The French have a saying, " His face was carved 

 with an axe." It does not inaptly fit the Japanese face. 

 Their hands are of finer mould than their features, which 

 fact, considered in connection with that aristrocratic obliquity 

 of the eye which they admire, helps one, if I mistake not, 

 to know the leading traits of their character. 



The women are quite small, and of full, rounded figure. 

 The nose is short, lips full and inexpressive, and the neck 

 painfully slender. While young, and not given to the 

 ofiensive but fortunately vanishing customs of blackening 

 the teeth and shaving the eyebrows, they are not altogether 

 unattractive, while their easy grace of manner, pretty gest- 

 ures and musical voices, constitute undeniable charms. 



The Japanese countenance lacks expression. The features 

 brighten in conversation, however, and lighten amazingly 

 with a smile. The people age rapidly from early youth, 

 the average period of their efliciency being shorter by ten 

 or fifteen years than is that of Europeans. 



Their extreme politeness is proverbial. In the typical 

 Japanese it even suggests a distortion of character, since it 

 becomes vastly paramount to sincerity. Said one of their 

 oflScers who travelled much with me : " Foreigners speak 

 very plainly, and I always know what they mean. A 

 Japanese is very polite with his tongue, but you do not 

 know what he thinks in his heart." 



It is not unusual for literary travellers the world over to 

 estimate the traits and character of a people upon the most 

 brief and limited acquaintance. The wider the divergence 

 between the superficial and fundamental in national traits 

 and character, the greater the error of such conclusions ; for 

 the superficial not only impresses the ordinary observer more 



