of
the Chinese swastika to signify "long life," "many years," _i. e._, a
complete life, a complete cycle of years.

A prolonged study of the most ancient civilization of America, which
centred in Mexico and Central America and thence spread northward and
southward, has so deeply convinced me of its great antiquity, isolation
and prolonged period of independent evolution that, when Asiatic origin
and influence are discussed, I am tempted to take the national food-plant
of America, the maize, and, placing it beside the rice-plant of China,
invite comparisons to be made between them.

JAPAN.

It is a curious fact that, although it is recognized that the junks which
have been repeatedly driven by storms upon the Pacific coast have
generally been Japanese, no searching comparison between the culture of
ancient America and that of Japan has as yet been published; although it
is believed by many that it may have been to the occupants of the wrecked
junks that the American race owed its civilization. The curious idea seems
to prevail among some writers, that purely Chinese influence was conveyed
by Japanese fishermen and sailors to the dwellers on American soil. It
does not seem to be sufficiently recognized that the differences between
Japanese and Chinese civilizations are as great as that between their
different languages and writings, and that direct influence derived from
Japan, for many centuries back would have left traces so characteristic as
to be easily distinguished from the effects of direct influence from
China.

In the third century of the Christian era the Japanese empire was founded
on a plan derived from Corea and soon became known to the Chinese and
dwellers on the main land as Dschi-Poennkwo, or Zipanco, the "land of the
east, or of the rising sun." The Japanese themselves, however, regarded
their empire as the "great centre of the world," _i. e._ a "Middle
Kingdom." The mythical birthplace of the Japanese race and the cradle of
its civilization is said to have been the island of the Congealed Drop,
which was formerly at the North Pole, but subsequently removed to its
present position. How this happened is not told.(88)

The most superficial examination shows that the fundamental scheme of the
Japanese empire was the same as that of China and other Asiatic countries.
Its centre was the island Hon-shiu, Hondo or Nippon, on which was situated
the ancient Fu or capital, named Yedo; the modern Tokio in the v