98 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan. 



men such a less number as their means and position may 

 allow, it is also commendable in the eyes of the rising gen- 

 eration that they have none. 



The Japanese is, as a rule, the husband of one wife, who 

 enters upon her duties at so early an age that, save in the 

 happiness of her children, it is a positive evil. Becoming a 

 wife ere she ceases to be a child, she is still of childish char- 

 acter. Her children are not effeminately reared, however. 

 Their clothing is loose and airy. They wear no head cover- 

 ing, and their hair is shaved in conventional and grotesque 

 forms, varying with age and station. 



The Japanese kimono and ohi, by their peculiar service in 

 the rearing of their children, entitle the people to a position 

 among the marsupials (a group of animals having a pouch for 

 carrying its immature young, of which the kangaroo is a 

 type.) They carry the young child in the pocket formed 

 above the girdle between the bare back and the loose kimono. 

 There lie reigns for the day with his head and arms free, 

 playing with his straw rattle, crowing, crying or sleeping, 

 while liis i)rotector for the time being (be it mother, father, 

 brother or sister) walks, rides, works, plays, eats and 

 smokes unhampered l)y the precious burden. By an easy- 

 movement of the child's head and shoulders under the 

 mother's arm, it partakes of the nourishment nature provides, 

 without interrupting her various duties. The elder children 

 carry their younger brothers and sisters in like manner. 

 Indeed, so early is the infant made the carrier of the babe, 

 that it is often difficult to tell which is the elder of the two. 



The expressions used in polite conversation among the 

 higher classes are much burdened with stilted forms and 

 figures of s})eech, the speaker putting himself in the most 

 obsequious relation to the one addressed. For example, 

 instead of asking one's opinion by the simple question, 

 " What do you think of this? " one may say, "Be so good, 

 if you will, as to hang this upon your august eyebrow?" 

 If, however, one should address his servant or an inferior in 

 the same terms in which he converses with an equal, he 

 would hardly be understood. 



Extreme courtesy marks the intercourse of respectable 

 people, although coarseness and banter may characterize 



