ul forms, to, in some manner,
reflect these beauties in their lives. This people possess these
qualities in an eminent degree, for a happier, healthier, more cheerful
race, one will rarely see. Their children--ridiculously like their
seniors from wearing the same style of garment--are the roundest,
rosiest, chubbiest little pieces of humanity ever born. Everybody has a
fresh, wholesome look, due to repeated ablutions. The bath amongst the
Japanese, as amongst the ancient Romans, is a public institution; in
fact, we think too public, for both sexes mix promiscuously together in
the same bath, almost in the full light of day; whilst hired wipers go
about their business in a most matter-of-fact manner. This is a feature
of the people we cannot understand, but they themselves consider it no
impropriety. A writer on Japan, speaking of this says:--"We cannot, with
justice, tax with immodesty the individual who, in his own country,
wounds none of the social proprieties in the midst of which he has been
brought up." These bath-houses are perfectly open to the public gaze, no
one evincing the slightest curiosity to look within, except, perhaps,
the diffident sailor. It is very evident that Mrs. Grundy has not yet
put in her censorious appearance in Japan, nor have our western
conventionalities set their seal on what, after all, is but a single act
of personal cleanliness. "_Honi soit qui mal y pense._"

Their mode of dress is an embodiment of simplicity and elegance. Both
sexes wear a sort of loose dressing gown, sometimes of silk--mostly so
in the case of the fair sex--crossed over the front of their bodies,
allowing the knee perfect liberty to protrude itself, if it is so
minded, and confined to the waist by a band. But it is more particularly
of the dress of the ladies I wish to speak. The band circling the waist,
and known as the "_obe_," is very broad, and composed of magnificent
folds of rich silk, and tied up in a large quaint bow behind. A Japanese
lady lavishes all her taste on the selection of the material and in the
choice of colour, of which these bands are composed, and which are to
them what jewellery is to the more refined Europeans. No ornament of the
precious metal is ever seen about their persons. Their taste in the
matter of hues is faultless; no people, I will venture to say, have such
a perception of the harmonies of colour. Their tints are of the most
delicate and charming shades the artist's fancy or the dy