90 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan. 



While Miss Bird, who has given us a most accurate picture 

 of Japanese life, boldly tells her readers that the prevailing 

 faults of its people are lying and licentiousness, she is com- 

 pelled to admire their many good qualities. They are, indeed, 

 an incongruous people, but their character is full of compen- 

 sations. Whatever its unpleasant features, you may not look 

 for to find corresponding bright ones. 



One exception to this rule is a sin of omission common to 

 most Eastern races. I never found a parallel virtue that 

 adequately compensated Oriental procrastination. Impressed 

 by its dire associations, the merest novice soon learns the 

 Japanese word mio-niclii (to-morrow) , the time when every- 

 thing is promised to be done, yet even then is not, that 

 should have been done to-day or yesterday. 



Early in my travels in the interior, I overheard my in- 

 terpreter, whom I had directed to order our horses for seven 

 o'clock next morning, instruct the driver in this wise : " The 

 horses are to be ready to-morrow morning at five o'clock." I 

 admonished him, saying we ought not to give orders the 

 fulfilment of which we did not propose to exact. The follow- 

 ing evening, at the close of our day's journey, he said that 

 he had ordered the horses to be ready the next morning at 

 seven o'clock, /orez^n style. " Seven o'clock, foreign style," 

 he said, " means seven o'clock, sharp. Japanese style, any 

 time during the day." 



The people are generally tasteful in their attire and sur- 

 roundings, although some of their customs do not conform 

 to our ideas of neatness and propriety. They wear no linen 

 or underclothing. 



The principal garment, the himono^ worn alike by both 

 sexes, is a loose, flowing gown of cotton or silk, reaching the 

 ankles. It has large, bag-like sleeves, through the upper 

 part of which the arms pass, the bottom hanging as low as 

 the waist, or lower, making huge bags or pockets, in which 

 they carry handkerchiefs, usually of paper, and often used 

 more than once, early writers to the contrary notwith- 

 standing. 



The garment is made throughout of one roll of cloth, 

 which they weave in breadths of about thirteen inches, each 

 piece containing the precise quantity required for one 



