VOL. LXX.] PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. (335 



every thing, muster the people, give passports to such as go on shore, and every 

 day report to the governor of Nagasacci the proceedings on board. 



The attention and care with which these gentlemen execute the orders issued 

 by the Imperial Court in 1775> is well worthy of relation. The most minute 

 articles which are carried out of a ship undergo a jealous inspection, both when 

 they are put into the boats, and when they are landed from them ; and the same 

 caution is used in embarking goods from the shore. Bedding is ripped open, 

 and the very feathers examined ; chests are not only emptied of their contents, 

 but the boards of which they are made are searched, lest contraband goods 

 should be concealed in their substance. Pots of sweetmeats and of butter are 

 stirred round with an iron skewer. The cheeses had a more narrow inspection ; 

 a large hole was cut into the middle of each, and a knife thrust into the sides of 

 it in every direction : even the eggs were not exempted from suspicion ; many of 

 them were broken, lest they should conceal contraband goods within them. 

 The people themselves, from the highest to the lowest, underwent the same sus- 

 picious scrutiny, whenever they went from or returned on board the ship. Their 

 backs were first stroked down by the hand of the inspector ; their sides, bellies, 

 and thighs, were then in like manner examined ; so that it was next to impossi- 

 ble that any thing could be concealed. 



Formerly they were less exact in this visitation ; the chief of the factory and 

 captain of the vessel were even exempted from it. This privilege they used in 

 its utmost extent : each dressed himself in a great coat, in which were 2 large 

 pockets, or rather sacks, for the reception of contraband goods, and they gene- 

 rally passed backwards and forwards 3 times a day. Abuses of this nature irri- 

 tated the Japan government so much, that they resolved to make new regula- 

 tions. For some time they found, that the more dexterity they used in detect- 

 ing the tricks of the Europeans, the more dexterously they contrived to evade 

 them : at last however, by repeated trials, they have so completely abridged their 

 liberties, that it is now almost, if not absolutely impossible, to smuggle any 



thing. 



The complexions of the Japanese are in general yellowish, though some few, 

 generally women, are almost white. Their narrow eyes and high eye-brows are 

 like those of the Chinese and Tartars. Their noses, though not flat, are shorter 

 and thicker than ours. Their hair is universally black ; and such a sameness of 

 fashion reigns through this whole empire, that the head-dress is the same from 

 the emperor to the peasant. The mode of the men's head-dress is singular ; the 

 middle part of their heads, from the forehead very far back, is close shaven ; 

 the hair remaining round the temples and nape of the neck is turned up, and tied 

 on the top of the head into a kind of brush about as long as a finger ; this 



4m 2 



