102 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan. 



in native hotels for the benefit of the superstitious guest, 

 while travellers often carry a magnetic compass for the same 

 purpose. 



The order in which they enumerate the points of the com- 

 pass is the reverse of ours, — To, sai, nam, boJcu; or, east, 

 west, south, north. 



Equestrians mount and dismount on the right side of the 

 horse, and the rule of the road is that they shall turn to the 

 left. 



A decorous manner and a proper show of respect to your 

 host are manifested by a loud supping noise when you drink 

 tea and take food, and likewise by sucking air between the 

 lips and teeth as you make your salaam on meeting a person 

 of equal or superior rank. 



It is the impulse of a Caucasian, under cruder systems of 

 government, to kill the enemy who insults or grossly injures 

 him ; the Japanese who is wronged kills himself to spite his 

 foe. 



Examples of contrariety might be multiplied to an almost 

 endless extent. Even the golden rule of Confucius is nega- 

 tive, — " What you do not want done to yourself, do not do 

 to others " One might easily conceive the Occident and the 

 Orient to be at the opposite poles of some mysterious mag- 

 netic or psychological influence, actuating their respective 

 systems of civilization. 



The religious character of the Japanese as a people 

 appears to be in a transition state. The lasv of the empire 

 punishing with death the teaching of Christianity became 

 long ago practically inoperative ; and Christian missionary 

 enterprise is now tolerated, not so much perhaps because the 

 government is favorably inclined toward it, as because of 

 the apparent decay of their own religious ideas and dogmas. 



Many of the Buddhist sermons are of high moral excel- 

 lence, and indeed most interesting. In its forms of worship 

 Buddhism is strikingly similar to Romanism. While wit- 

 nessing the ceremonial ministrations of the priests, in one of 

 their ornate temples, aided usually by a lay clerk, both in 

 lono- orowns before an altar on which candles are kept con- 

 stantly burning ; while listening to their monotonous inton- 

 ations and the responses of the kneeling congregations, and 



