No. 144.] 31 



store room ; the lower part is all thrown into one large room, and 

 if othej' chambers are necessary, screens are used as divisions ; 

 they have neither chairs nor tables -, they eat their food in a squat- 

 ting position from large basins made of wood or earthen, and 

 having lids; the guests salute each other with a low bow before 

 they begin to eat, and like the Chinese, take up their food with 

 two small sticks ; between each basin they drink warm rice beer 

 — this, with tea and water, are the only liquids they use ; they 

 take their meals at 8 in the morning, 2 in the afternoon, and 8 in 

 the evening; the women eat by themselves. Polygamy is al- 

 lowed. The husband is a complete despot. The married women 

 distinguish themselves by painting the teeth black, or pulling out 

 the hair of their eyebrows. The bodies of persons of distinction 

 are burned, while others are interred. Schools generally abound, 

 but corporeal punishment has not been introduced. 



The origin of the inhabitants of Japan appears obscure. Euro- 

 pean geographers insist that they are of Chinese extraction, and 

 relate the two following stories in confirmation. It once hap- 

 pened in China that several families conspired against the emperor; 

 when the plot was discovered, he ordered that they should all be 

 put to death ; but the number being so extensive, that the execu- 

 tioners becoming weary of shedding blood, laid the affair again 

 before the emperor, who ordered them to be transported to the 

 uninhabited islands of Japan, and that they became the progeni- 

 tors of that populous and powerful nation. 



The other story is, that one of the emperors of China, unwilling 

 to part with his empire, desired to find some medicine that would 

 make him immortal. One of his chief physicians assured him 

 that such a medicine existed in the uninhabited islands of Japan, 

 — that it was a delicate plant, and would lose its virtue if touched 

 by any other than chaste pure hands — and proposed that 300 

 young men and 300 chaste young women should be carried over 

 there to collect the plants ; they were sent by the emperor, and 

 remained to people Japan. With regard to European nations, we 

 can trace their origin by their language. Thus : The Bohemians, 

 Muscovites, and Polanders are of Sclavonian extraction ; the 

 Spaniards, French, and Italians are of Roman extraction ; the 



