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at the risk of offending the delicate feelings of the 

 reader. 



The Japanese does not construct his privy as we 

 do in Germany in some remote corner of the yard, 

 with half-open rear, giving free admission to wind 

 and rain ; but he makes it an essential part of the 

 interior of his dwelling. As he ignores altogether 

 the notion of a ' seat,' the cabinet which, as a 

 general rule, is very clean, neat, and in many cases 

 well prepared, or painted and varnished has a 

 simple hole in the form of an oblong square 

 running across and opposite to the entrance-door, 

 and serving to convey the excrements into the 

 lower space. Squatting over this hole, with legs 

 astride, the Japanese satisfies the call of nature 

 with the greatest cleanliness. I never saw a dirty 

 cabinet in Japan, even in the dwelling of the 

 poorest peasant. It appears to me that there is 

 something very practical in this form of construc- 

 tion of a closet. We in Germany construct privies 

 over our dung-holes and behind our barns for the 

 use of our farm-servants and labourers, and pro- 

 vide them with seats with round holes. With even 

 only one aperture, they are too often found, after a 

 few days' use, more like pigsties than closets for the 

 use of man, and this simply because our labourers 

 have a decided, perhaps natural, predilection for 

 squatting. The construction of the Japanese privies 

 shows how easy it would be to satisfy this predilection. 



