trunk highway like the
Nakasen-do.

Along these roads the lower classes travelled on foot; the higher on
horseback, and the highest in carts drawn by bullocks. For
equestrians who carried official permits, relays of horses could
always be obtained at posting stations. Among the ox-carts which
served for carriages, there was a curious type, distinguished by the
fact that between the shafts immediately in front of the dashboard
stood a figure whose outstretched arm perpetually pointed south. This
compass-cart, known as the "south-pointing chariot," was introduced
from China in the year 658. There was also a "cloud-chariot," but
this served for war purposes only, being a movable erection for
overlooking an enemy's defensive work, corresponding to the turris of
Roman warfare. Borrowed also from China was a battering engine which
moved on four wheels, and, like the cloud-chariot, dated from 661,
when a Tang army invaded Korea.

HABILIMENTS

A reader of the Chronicles is struck by the fact that from the close
of the seventh century much official attention seems to have been
bestowed on the subject of costume. Thus, during the last five years
of the Emperor Temmu's reign--namely, from 681--we find no less than
nine sumptuary regulations issued. The first was an edict, containing
ninety-two articles, of which the prologue alone survives, "The
costumes of all, from the princes of the Blood down to the common
people, and the wearing of gold and silver, pearls and jewels,
purple, brocade, embroidery, fine silks, together with woollen
carpets, head-dresses, and girdles, as well as all kinds of coloured
stuffs, are regulated according to a scale, the details of which are
given in the written edict." In the next year (682), another edict
forbids the wearing of caps of rank, aprons, broad girdles, and
leggings by princes or public functionaries, as well as the use of
shoulder-straps or mantillas by palace stewards or ladies-in-waiting.
The shoulder-strap was a mark of manual labour, and its use in the
presence of a superior has always been counted as rude in Japan.

A few days later, this meticulous monarch is found commanding men and
women to tie up their hair, eight months being granted to make the
change, and, at the same time, the practice of women riding astride
on horseback came into vogue, showing that female costume had much in
common with male. Caps of varnished gauze, after the Chinese type,
began to be worn by both se