AGRICULTURAL INDUSTRIES. 185 



got a roast now and then by the chase, and in that way alone, — 

 except when he caught wild birds, such as ducks and pheasants, 

 or even jays and ravens — the game being mostly wild swine, which 

 were plenty {Siis leticornystox^ Tem., Jap. I), stags {Cervus Sika, 

 Tem., Jap. Shika), bears {Urstis jaJ>o?iiacs, Schl, Jap. Kuma), apes 

 {hums speciosus, Jap. Saru), and several other animals. Apart 

 from this his animal food was limited to the products of domestic 

 fishery, and a few eggs.^ 



The domestic fowl (Tori, i.e., bird ; On-dori, the cock ; Men-dori, 

 the hen) is the only poultry to whose breeding the Japanese are 

 universally devoted, and of this they raise various breeds. The 

 tame duck (Ahiru), on the other hand, is as scarce as in Germany, 

 and the goose is unknown. 



Dogs, cats, rabbits, white and coloured mice (and also rats), which 

 must be counted among the domestic animals of Japan, are kept 

 almost exclusively as pets. The cultivation of honey-bees (mitzu- 

 bachi) is very limited and conducted with little care. A substitute 

 for their wax, as we have already seen, is the vegetable tallow from 

 the fruits of two species of sumach. 



I turn finally to that one of the domestic animals of the Japanese 

 which although more helpless and insignificant than all the others, 

 is yet more important and valuable than these all put together — 

 the silkworm. For, farming excepted, it is of the very greatest 

 importance for the prosperity of many millions of the land's in- 

 habitants. Hence, in the following pages, we give it and its 

 product the more detailed consideration which their importance 

 demands. 



(b) Silk-groiving. 



Of all the articles which China and Japan export to other 

 countries, raw silk and silken fabrics are in many respects of first 

 importance. Not only do they represent the highest money value, 

 and contribute most toward increasing the prosperity of these two 

 nations, but the trade in them dates farthest back, and has steadily 

 increased in extent, despite many changes, ever since Roman mer- 

 chants- opened it overland, and Portuguese 1,500 years later by sea. 

 And to all appearances this great eminence will be maintained by 

 silk in the future also, against all the competition of wool on the 

 one hand and cotton on the other. The production of raw silk and 

 of silken yarns and fabrics forms one of the corner-stones of the 

 national well-being of great empires and of existence itself for 



^ Details on this subject, as well as concerning the Japanese fauna in general, 

 are to be found in the first volume of this work, pp. 175-210. 



^ Silk undoubtedly found its way into West Asia many centuries earlier, for 

 it was the material of the Persian and Median garments, so often celebrated by 

 Greek authors. Yet Roman merchants were the first Europeans that penetrated 

 into Central Asia on the so-called silk- roads, at the time of the Empire, to make 

 better roads for this much-prized article. 



