used only at funerals, ringing out its brazen
notes, confuse the evil spirit so that he cannot
hear what the soul is about; while he is still
further perplexed by the whole company scampering
round and about before the inner porch
of the temple—scampering about in such loud
and noisy tumult that he cannot see the tube
when they all rush frantically with it into the
inner temple. By this clever device he does
not know where the soul has gone to, so must
grope about with his cruel paws empty until a
less carefully guarded victim is brought within
his power. Still the voices are howling, the
tomtoms beating, and the big bell ringing, while
they rush so frantically into the temple, where
they find a little white shrine, something like a
pagoda, all decked with white flowers and
lighted tapers; under which they lay the square
tube, while the bonzes read a few prayers, before
delivering up the body to the burners. The
body is then taken away to the proper place and
burnt, and the ashes are gathered up into an
urn which is placed in the most sacred part of
the " tera," to be lighted up, watched over, and
the soul belonging still kept from the power of
the demons, if prayer-wheels are good for anything
in the spiritual world. By the way, the
burner is completely isolated from society. He
may not enter a house or shop, and must even
pick up his pay from the ground where the
relatives have flung it, so strictly is the ban kept
up. But he is not despised like our executioner.
Perhaps his taboo is sacred, like some of the
Otaheitan forms; but it is complete.

If not actively religious in their own way, the
Japanese are yet singularly intolerant at any
attempt at proselytising or converting. The
massacre of the Portuguese at Papenberg was
mainly on account of religious interference, and
the Dutch have kept their favoured place only
because they consented to creep and crawl under
religious indignities which destroyed their power
of converting. This is a hint to our own missionary
societies and their emissaries, whose
presence at this time in Japan would be like a
match to a gunpowder barrel, and would blow
the whole concern of commerce and treaty to
the winds. Intolerant and tenacious, the
Japanese is also the most aristocratic and
punctilious, as he is the best bred man of his
time. No vulgar republican levelling for him!
No wild French revolution ideas of natural
equality and the rights of man, of the reign of
reason and the fraternisation of classes! Every
one in the empire would revolt at such social
impiety, and the very poor themselves would
refuse so sinful a boon. For every one in the
empire knows his exact place: the very spot
where he ought to sit in the presence of his
superior, and who, to the shadow of a hair, is his
superior; the very words he ought to say; the
compliments to return; the arms he may bear;
the dresses he may prefer; where he may ride,
and when, and how; with various other still
smaller matters, reeled out and plumbed, and
measured by instruments that never fail. There
is no mingling together of noblemen and mechanics,
and one class treading on the heels of
another, as in our sad old country. There kings
are kings, and lords are lords, and dirt is dirt.
What a new lesson for the Japanese daimios to
learn, that with God there is no respect of
persons, and that every man has rights of which
no society can lawfully deprive him!

When official visits are paid, or, indeed, any
visits at all, the order of the whole proceedings
is mapped out with curious exactness. The
manner and matter of the introductory and
complimentary speeches is as well known, and
as much of course, as the introductory hand-
shake and "how do you do" in England; the
exact position of each visitor—always placed at
your left hand—and where the seat must be an
inch pulled forward, and where an inch thrust
back, is also precisely known and arranged;
and how the gates are to be opened, and which
gates; and how the bows are to be made, and
what bows; when the one-sworded servant must
approach the two-sworded official, change his
shoes for clean new sandals, unbutton his oiled-
paper waterproof cloak, and relieve him of it,
his hat, and his umbrella; at what precise moment
in the conversation the longest sword
is to be taken from its silken sash, and placed
carefully against some solid piece of furniture;
when, the talk may begin, and in what
order of speech and speaker; all is as clearly
marked out as the lines on his sheet of
paper—lines which may not be departed from
under any condition whatsoever. Of the three
gentlemen who always make official visits in
company, one is the spokesman and mouth-
piece, the other the referee, the third the
acknowledged government spy, whose duty it is
to note down every word as it is uttered:—
when, woe to his two colleagues if they go a
hair's breadth beyond the instructions received
from Yedo, or assume as much freedom of action
and irresponsibility as we would allow a common
secretary! Every syllable is written down in
the tablets which each man carries in the bosom
of his robes, and in an incredibly short time—
for the transmission of news and the exactness
of report rank among the marvels of Japan—-
the whole conversation is sent to Yedo for the
consideration of the executive. Then there is
nothing for it but a grand feast, gay dresses,
and the neat, elegant manner of performing
the harikari, if either the mouthpiece or the
referee has given too free a translation to his
instructions and dared to speak out of his
own heart and understanding. " Individuality"
in an official is what the executive never forgives.

The harikari is sure to be self-administered well
and properly, if the man has been properly brought
up; for it is one of the earliest and most important
of all the lessons given to youth, and how to cut
himself open in the form of a cross, gracefully
and neatly, and without wounding his bowels,
an even more necessary part of a gentleman's
education than how to hand a cup of tea with
fitting form and gesture—which, perhaps, ranks
as the lesson next in value and consideration.