se, we infer that they were of extreme simplicity. Stone was
never used. The structures were entirely of wood. Even the palaces of the
emperors were what we would call merely huts. Four upright posts sunk in
the ground formed the corners. At the half-way intervals between these
posts, were planted four other posts; those at the gable ends were high
enough to sustain the ridge pole. On the other sides on the top of the
posts were laid two plates. Abutting on these plates and crossing each
other at the ridge pole stood the rafters, which sustained the thatched
roof. In the absence of nails and pins, the timbers were fastened together
by the tough tendrils of climbing plants. A hole in the gable end
permitted the escape of the smoke from the fire built on the ground floor.
Around the sides of the interior stood a raised couch on which the
occupants sat by day and slept at night. The other parts of the floor were
uncovered and consisted only of earth. They used mats made from the skins
of animals or from rushes, on which they sat and slept. The doors of their
dwellings were fastened by means of iron hooks, and swung on hinges unlike
the modern Japanese door which always is made to slide.

The agricultural plants spoken of are numerous but leave unmentioned many
of the plants of first importance. Tea, now so extensively cultivated, is
nowhere spoken of. Tobacco was a late importation and came in with the
Portuguese in the sixteenth century. Cotton was not introduced, as we have
already said, until the beginning of the ninth century. Potatoes,
including both the sweet potato and the white potato, are unmentioned. The
orange came to Japan according to the received tradition at the close of
the reign of the Emperor Suinin (A.D. 29-70).

Very little is said of the implements used by the primitive Japanese.
Metal of any kind was almost unknown. We read of swords and fish-hooks,
but these are the only implements referred to which seem to have been made
of metal. Pots and cups of earthenware were used. The axes which they must
have used to cut down the trees for building and for fuel must have been
of stone, or sometimes of deer's horn. Archaeologists both native and
foreign have brought to light many ancient implements of the Stone age. An
interesting and detailed account of these discoveries will be found in the
work on _Japanese Archaeology_ by Henry Von Siebold, Yokohoma, 1879.

The arms used by the warriors were spears, bows a