of wood. Several volcanoes are. still in eruption.
There is no eternal snow in Japan. The
neighbouring seas are the most stormy in the
world, ravaged by redoutable typhoons. The
equinoctial gales are of unusual strength. St.
Francis Xavier said that, in his time, out of
three ships that sailed to Japan, it was a rare
event for one to come back. The climate of
Japan, cold in the north and hot in the south,
but always dry, is very healthy. The Dutch
say that, during the heats, it is almost as warm
in the island of Kiousiou as in Java; but in
winter, snow falls.

In favourable weather, the voyage from
Shanghai to Nangasaki takes only three days;
that from the Chinese coast to Jeddo, a week.
Nevertheless, the trade between the Celestial
Empire and Japan is almost null, owing to the
jealous exclusion of all foreigners by Japan,
Not more than four or five trading junks, at the
outside, pay an annual visit to Nangasaki. The
Japanese silk is very plentiful, but not so fine as
tje Chinese; the tea in Japan is of inferior
flavour, and even slightly acrid; but the national
vanity pronounces it far superior to that of the
continent. It is but sparingly imported. On
the other hand, medicines are excessively dear
throughout the whole of Nipon, and it is
asserted that the cargoes of the few junks
which do arrive, consist principally of Chinese
drugs.

The Japanese women receive a certain amount
of education; they have schools; and, unlike the
Chinese ladies, they do not regard foreigners as
devils. Married women distinguish themselves
from single women by plucking out their eye-
brows and staining their teeth black, with a
mixture of iron filings and saki. They walk about
the streets at complete liberty, and are not shut
up in yamouns, like the female inhabitants of
the Celestial Empire.

There does not exist the least scrap of a
newspaper, in Japan: the publication of news
being strictly forbidden. It is worse even than
in China, where at least the official journal, the
Pekin Gazette, with its numerous columns,
appears every day, and is spread throughout the
empire. Japanese history is the most wearisome
in the world; it is almost a daily record of the
acts and deeds of the Taïcoun: "The emperor
went out, the emperor has been ill, the emperor
went to look at the flowers."

The Japanese of all classes are passionately
fond of the hot bath. Hot baths are a
national institution. They are held to be preferable
to sleep itself, for cooling the blood and
reposing the members. The attendants of the
embassy at Jeddo bathed so boisterously as to
prevent their guests from sleeping during half
the night. It is said that in summer the entire
operation is completed in the streets, and that
ladies do not hesitate to perform their ablutions
in front of their doors. But the approach of
winter prevented the Europeans from witnessing
that singular spectacle.

When the Japanese want to designate their
"I," their own self, their personality, they point
to their nose; with them, the tip of the nose is
the seat of individuality. In this there is
nothing so very absurb; a Frenchman, for the
same purpose, will indicate his stomach.

The monetary unit of Japan is the itchibou:
a pretty piece of silver, shaped like a domino.
Three itchibous are worth a Mexican piastre.
The kobang, a gold coin, is worth four itchibous.
The Dutch at Nangasaki employ, besides, paper
taëls; the common people use sapeks, a copper
coin, for small transactions.

China is the country of equality; every one
there, except the sons of tankaderes or boat-
women, may, on passing a good examination,
become a mandarin, and aspire to honours.
Japan, on the contrary, is a feudal empire,
governed by a military aristocracy. There are
nine classes of Japanese; with very rare
exceptions, no one can rise above the class in
which he was born. Every attempt of the kind
is unfavourably regarded, and is adverse to
public opinion. The absence of ambition and
of luxury is the probable cause of the quiet air,
the complete satisfaction, the expansive gaiety,
which mark the Japanese character. Nowhere
else, do you meet with people so contented, and
so devoid of anxious thought.

The princes or daïmio, the nobles, the priests,
and the military, constitute the four first classes
of the nation, and enjoy the privilege of wearing
two sabres. The subaltern officials and the
medical men form the fifth class, and may wear one
sabre. The merchants and wholesale dealers,
the retail dealers and artisans, the peasants and
the coolies, the tanners and the leather curriers,
make the four last classes of the population,
and may not, in any case, wear any sabre. All
who deal in skins are reckoned impure; they
are not allowed to reside in towns, but. dwell in
villages especially allotted to them in the open
country. They supply the state with
executioners, who do not lead an idle life; for the
penal laws of Japan are exceedingly rigorous,
and inflict the punishment of death for very
trifling offences. Whosoever causes his neighbour's
death through imprudence, or conceals
a criminal, is immediately beheaded. It is to
be hoped that further intercourse with Europe
may temper the severity of Japanese legislation.

The only sciences cultivated in the empire are
medicine and astronomy. There are two
observatories in the island of Nipon; one at Jeddo,
the other at Meako. The great comet of October,
1858, did not cause the slightest signs of astonishment
or uneasiness in the natives' countenances.
At Shanghai, during an eclipse of the moon, very
different manifestations were made. The
military mandarins shot their arrows, to kill the
dragon who was devouring the moon; from
every junk and every pagoda there resounded
a deafening din of gongs, intended to frighten
the monster away. The Japanese physicians
read Dutch medical books and seriously studied
their art. Two of them assiduously frequented
the embassy, for the sake of consulting the navy
surgeons respecting the cholera.