s that this Kami Sukuna-bikona is
explicitly stated to have come from a foreign country, and that if
the passage warrants any inference, it is that the visitor's place of
departure had been China.

As to the form of the garments worn, the principal were the hakama
and the koromo. The hakama was a species of divided skirt, used by
men and women alike. It has preserved its shape from age to age, and
is to-day worn by school-girls throughout Japan. The koromo was a
tunic having tight sleeves reaching nearly to the knees. It was
folded across the breast from right to left and secured by a belt of
cloth or silk tied round the loins. Veils also were used by both
sexes, one kind (the katsugi) having been voluminous enough to cover
the whole body. "Combs are mentioned, and it is evident that much
attention was devoted to the dressing of the hair."* Men divided
theirs in the middle and bound it up in two bunches, one over each
ear. Youths tied theirs into a top-knot; girls wore their locks
hanging down the back but bound together at the neck, and married
ladies "dressed theirs after a fashion which apparently combined the
last two methods." Decoration of the head was carried far on
ceremonial occasions, gems, veils, and even coronets being used for
the purpose. "There is no mention in any of the old books of cutting
the hair or beard except in token of disgrace; neither do we gather
that the sexes, but for this matter of head-dress, were distinguished
by a diversity of apparel or ornamentation."*

*B. H. Chamberlain.

FOOD AND DRINK

Rice was the great staple of diet in ancient, as it is in modern,
times. The importance attaching to it is shown by the fact that the
Sun goddess herself is represented as engaging in its cultivation and
that injuring a rice-field was among the greatest offences. Barley,
millet, wheat, and beans are mentioned, but the evidence that they
were grown largely in remote antiquity is not conclusive. The flesh
of animals and birds was eaten, venison and wild boar being
particularly esteemed. Indeed, so extensively was the hunting of deer
practised that bows and arrows were often called kago-yumi and
kago-ya (kago signifies "deer"). Fish, however, constituted a much
more important staple of diet than flesh, and fishing in the
abundantly stocked seas that surround the Japanese islands was
largely engaged in. Horses and cattle were not killed for food. It is
recorded in the Kogo-shui that the butchering