126 
JAPANESE. 
more, all so thin, that they scarcely together amount to 5lbs. The 
undermost serves for a shirt, and is therefore either white or blue, 
and for the most part thin and transparent. All these gowns are 
fastened round the waist with a belt, which in the men are about an 
handbreadth, in the w'omen about a foot, of such a length that they 
go twice round the w aist, and afterwards are tied in a knot with many 
ends and bows. The knot, particularly among the fair sex, is very 
conspicuous, and immediately informs the spectator whether they are 
married. The unmarried have it behind on their back, the married 
before. 
In this belt the men fix their sabres, fans, pipes, tobacco, and 
medicine boxes. In the neck, the gowns are always cut round, with- 
out a collar; these, therefore, leave the neck bare, nor is it covered 
with cravat, cloth, or any thing else. The sleeves are always very 
wide at the opening before, they are half sewed up, so that they form a 
sack, in which the hands can be put in cold weather ; they also serve 
for pockets. Girls have their sleeves so long, that they reach to the 
ground. Such is the simplicity of their habit, that they are soon 
dressed ; and to undress, they need only open their girdle, and draw 
in their arms. As the gowns, from their length, keep the thighs and 
legs warm, there is no occasion for stockings, nor do they use them 
in all the empire. Among poorer persons on a journey, and among 
soldiers, w ho have not such long gow ns, buskins of cotton are used. 
Shoes, or more properly slippers, are, of all that is w orn by the Ja- 
panese, the simplest and meanest, though in general use among high 
and low, rich and poor. They are made of interw'oven rice straw, 
and sometimes, for persons of distinction, of reeds split very thin. They 
consist only of sole, without upper-leathers or quarters. Before, 
runs transversely a bow of linen, of a finger’s breadth ; from the point 
of the shoe to this bow goes a thin round band, which running 
within the great toe, serves to keep the shoe fixed to the foot. The 
shoe being without quarters, slides in walking like a slipper. Tra- 
vellers have three bands of twisted straw, by which they fasten 
the band to the foot and leg. The Japanese never enter their houses 
in shoes, but put them off in the entrance, on account of their neat 
carpets. 
During the time of the Dutch reside in Japan, as they have occa- 
sion to pay the natives visits in their houses, and as they have their 
ow n apartments at the factory covered with the same sort of carpets, 
they do not wear the European shoes, but have in their stead red, 
green, or black slippers, which can easily be put off* at entering in. 
They, however, wear stockings, with shoes of cotton, fastened by 
buckles. These shoes are made in Japan, and may be washed when- 
ever they become dirty. 
The method of dressing the hair is not less peculiar to this people, 
nor less universally prevalent than the use of their long gowms. The 
men shave the head from the forehead to the neck ; and the hair 
remaining on the temples, and in the napes, is well besmeared with 
oil, turned upwards, and then tied with a white thread, wrapped 
round several times. The ends of the hair beyond the head are 
cut crosswise, about a finger’s length being left. This part, after 
