JAl'AN AND SOME OF ITS PROBLEMS, KELIGIOUS AND SOCIAL. 37 



peculitar to Japan. He quoted, on the authority of Mr. Ijima, an 

 old-time tradition that " Izanami no Mikoto came down from 

 heaven, divided heaven from earth, and created everything." He 

 considered that mediaeval Europeans adopted decorated altar tables, 

 rosaries and the like from the Buddhists and other Asiatic pagans, 

 rather than the other way about. He had watched the ritual of the 

 Kalmucks, who derived their Buddhism from Thibet, at their show 

 encampment in Dresden, and in Chinese temples, one image 

 constantly recurs, that of the queen of heaven with her infant in 

 her arms. (N. Wright and H. Allom, Illustrated Chiiia, I, p. 40, and 

 n, pp. 52 et passim.) 



Lt.-Col. Mackinlay said : As an instance of the great and rapid 

 changes that had taken place in Japan, I may mention that 50 

 years ago, dissection of the human dead body was not practised, as 

 it was thought to be improper. On the other hand, in their recent 

 war with Eussia, the Japanese led the way in sound scientific 

 regulations for the sanitation of armies in the field ; their losses 

 from typhoid being far less than ours in the South African 

 campaign. 



The Japanese do not now oppose Christianity with bitterness, and 

 they have no very strong attachment to their own religions, but a 

 peculiar difficulty exists. The Japanese, under a guise of very great 

 politeness, practise a reticence which renders it difficult to know 

 their real thoughts. You seem to know a Japanese to whom you 

 may be introduced, almost at once, but in most cases after many 

 years' friendship little advance seems to be made in real knowledge 

 of his character. As an example of a Christian Japanese I may 

 mention a friend of mine, who came to England some years ago, for 

 education at Cambridge as an undergraduate ; he lived at the house 

 of one of the tutors, whose wife read the Bible with the young- 

 foreigner every day. He was converted and baptised in Cambridge, 

 some months before his return to Japan. What opportunities there 

 are for reaching non-Christian foreigners with the Gospel, during 

 their stay in England ! During the Russo-Japanese war a Christian 

 J apanese officer, when dying, showed his change of heart by leaving 

 a large bequest to needy Russians, the enemies of his country. 



Mr. Schwartz said : Our author suggests that what good there 

 may be in Buddhism had been carried by Nestorians to China. 

 Max Miiller and other scholars have pointed out the many similarities 



