PUT HIM IN A BOX. 
231 
judge with astonishing accuracy as to tliose wuth which wo 
seemed most struck, and the next day all similar articles 
would be advanced in price, sometimes as much as a 
hundred per cent. They w'ould take the tallies oft' at 
night, and put on others with higher marks on them, 
and then insist, wdth their usual barefaced disregard for 
truth, that ‘^all the same as yesterday.” This w'as all 
very provoking, truly; and yet what could we do? Wo 
had either to consent, in the first place, to be swindled 
by the treaty, and, in the second place, by the merchants 
themselves, or we must leave Japan without purchasing 
presents of their rare and beautiful woidcmanship for our 
absent friends. We chose the former of the two, and, 
with the unenviable feelings of men who are aware of 
the fleecing they are being subjected to without the 
most remote hope of being able to protect themselves, 
we continued our daily selections. 
We were even denied the pleasure (?) of haggling 
over the price of things with any prospect of success. 
There was nothing like that there. There it was in bold 
relief, ’written in the plainest of both English and Ja- 
panese ; so we only had to say the magic woi'ds, “ Put 
him in a box,” or, “Put him in paper,” or pass on to 
some other article more or less expensive. Those 
“magic words” require a word of explanation. 
As a general I'ule, the Japanese make neat boxes of a 
species of white cedar for their lacqueiMvare, &c., when 
it is of ordinary, fair, or No. 1 quality; but for the in- 
ferior articles they use paper as wrappings. While ex- 
posed for sale, all of the former were set on the top of 
their empty boxes, w^hile the latter w'ere stowed cn masse 
