the altar. The sacristan
appealed to the saint thus: 'Father Francis! people say that you
passed from this life in the vicinity of China; that you were a
saint, that your body still remains entire and incorrupt at Goa. Now
here am I your sacristan; and I ask is it consistent with your honor
that a rat should have the audacity to gnaw the ornaments of your
altar? I demand his death at your hand.' On opening the door of the
sanctuary the next morning the sacristan found the culprit quite
dead."

150 See Woolley, "Historical Notes on Nagasaki", _Asiatic Society
Transactions_, vol. ix., p. 129.

151 For these facts concerning Nobunaga and Hideyoshi, and the condition
of the country during their times, the author is largely indebted to
the _Life of Toyotomi Hideyoshi_, by Walter Dening, Tokio, 1890.

152 The word _daimyo_ means _great name_, and was used in reference to
the ownership of land; _shomyo_ means _small name_, and was at first
employed to indicate the small land-owner. But the word never
obtained currency, the small land-owner always preferring to call
himself a daimyo. See Chamberlain's _Things Japanese_, p. 84.

153 The element of comedy shows itself from the beginning in Hideyoshi's
character when he adopted the calabash, in which he had carried
water, as his symbol of victory. He added a new one for each
victory, and at last adopted a bunch of calabashes for his
coat-of-arms. Afterwards he had this constructed of gold, which was
carried as the emblem of his triumphant career.

154 See Dening's _Life of Hideyoshi_, p. 207.

155 In Chamberlain's _Things Japanese_ the estimate is given that at
this most prosperous time the number of Japanese professing
Christianity was not less than six hundred thousand, p. 297.

156 See the letter which the ambassador from the Prince of Bungo
presented on this occasion. Hildredth's _Japan_, etc., p. 89.

157 In the First Part (1873) of _Mittheilungen der Deutschen
Gesellschaft fuer Natur und Voelkerkunde Ostasiens_, p. 15, the times
of Nobunaga, Hideyoshi, etc., are termed "die zeit der usurpatoren,"
the time of the usurpers. But Nobunaga and Hideyoshi were no more
usurpers than the Tokugawas, who succeeded them by force of arms.

158 Mr. Satow with rare literary insight has identified this Ku