94 
PROMISCUOUS BATHING. 
Chap. VI. 
for a very small sum, can enjoy themselves at 
the public baths. After coming in from a long 
journey, or when tired with the labours of the day, 
the Japanese consider a bath to be particularly 
refreshing and enjoyable ; and it is probably on 
this account, as well as for cleanliness, that it is so 
universally employed. The stern moralist of 
Western countries will no doubt condemn the 
system of promiscuous bathing, as it is contrary 
to all his ideas of decency; on the other hand, 
there are those who tell us that the custom only 
shows simplicity and innocence such as that which 
existed in the Garden of Eden before the fall 
of man. All I can say is, that it is the custom 
of the country to bathe in this way' and that, if 
appealed to. on the subject, the Japanese would 
probably tell us that many of the customs amongst 
ourselves — such, for example, as our mode of 
dressing and dancing — are much more likely 
to lead to immorality than bathing, and are not 
so useful nor so healthy ; at any rate, the practice 
cannot he attributed to habits of primitive inno- 
cence in this case, as no people in the world 
are more licentious in their behaviour than the 
Japanese. 
Never in my wanderings in any other coun- 
try did I meet with such charming lanes as we 
passed through on this occasion. Sometimes 
they reminded me of what I had met with in 
some of the country districts of England ; but I 
was compelled, notwithstanding early prejudices, 
