No. 144.] 27 



nished ware is preferred to gold or silver. The Kus, or camphor 

 tree, is a species of laurel, bearing black berries, the roots and 

 wood are cut into small pieces, steeped, and camphor is made of 

 the decoction. 



The tea shrub, tsianoki, is one of the most useful plants grow- 

 ing in Japan, and still it is only permitted to exist in barren 

 places, and around rice fields. The coarse leaves are brewed into 

 a beverage for the common people and laboring classes, and the 

 fine leaves are dried, powdered, and mixed in a cup of hot water, 

 and thus used in the houses of the people of quality. Friends 

 visiting receive tea when they arrive and when they depart. 



Sansio is a tree, the bark af wiiich is used instead of ginger or 

 pepper, having a pleasant aromatic taste. There are fig trees, 

 chestnut trees, walnut trees, firs, cypress, bamboos, maple and 

 others. 



They cultivate hemp, cotton, rice, barley, wheat, turnips, beans, 

 carrots, melons, cucumbers, and others too numerous to mention 

 here. 



Japan is miserably supplied with four footed animals, either 

 tame or wild ; they are only bred for agriculture and carriage, 

 and always soiled. They believe in the transmigration of souls, 

 and therefore eat no flesh; they live mainly upon vegetables. 

 They have horses, oxen and cows, but do not use milk or butter. 

 Asses, mules and camels are not made use of. Formerly im- 

 mense numbers of dogs were bred in Japan ; they were not allow- 

 ed to be abused, and to kill one was a capital crime. They have 

 deer, monkeys, bears, wild dogs, rats, mice, foxes. There are 

 many reptiles. Snakes are scarce. Fowls, birds and insects are 

 numerous. Fish abound in the seas, whales are very abundant, 

 oysters and other shell fish are plentiful and in great variety. 



Japan, by the natives called Nipon, which signifies the founda- 

 tion of the sun, is the same which Marco Paulo, the celebrated 

 Venetian traveller, calls Zipangri. It is a whole set of islands, 

 situate in the most remote part of the east, invincible, and almost 

 inaccessible, on account of its dangerous and tempestuous sea. 



