casionally; or they take
a few whiffs from their pipes, their tobacco-boxes, with live embers,
and other necessaries for smoking, being always at hand.

They are very cleanly in their habits, bathing-houses being everywhere
found; but it struck us as very odd to see men, women, and children
bathing together. Sometimes as we passed a house we saw the master or
mistress seated in a tub, up to the neck in water. The men, except when
they wear gala costume, are very simply dressed: their sandals are of
straw, and they use a plain fan of white paper and bamboo. They,
however, possess fine dresses, which are kept in their richly-ornamented
lacquered chests. They live chiefly on fish and rice, with various
vegetables, vermicelli, eggs, sea-weed, while cakes and sweetmeats vary
their diet. Tea, sugar-water, saki, are their chief beverages.

Their paper is one of the most interesting articles which they
manufacture. Some, of a thick sort, is made of bamboo and oil. This is
used for umbrellas, and water-proof coats, coverings for palanquins and
boxes, etcetera. The finer sort is made from the bark of the
mulberry-tree--the _Morus papyfira_--such as is used in Tahiti and other
South Sea islands. It is employed instead of a pocket-handkerchief for
blowing the nose, wiping the fingers, and wrapping up articles. Every
person has a long sleeve pocket filled with it. Printing is very
general, and all sorts of works are produced. Books are printed from
wooden blocks on a particularly fine silken paper, on one side only, the
blank sides being gummed together. The lacquer work is very fine. They
also manufacture silks, and crapes, and linen, and cotton cloth, which,
though coarse, is very soft. Many fruits of temperate and tropical
climes are grown. The lacquer-tree--the _Rhus vernix_--which is used in
the well-known lacquer work, is a handsome tree. The leaf is something
like that of the beech, but broader. The lacquer is drawn from its
milky sap and mixed with the oil of the _bignonia_. The camphor-tree--
the _Laurus camphora_--is another very fine tree, with red and black
berries. The camphor comes from it in white fragrant drops, which, when
they harden, require but slight purifying to give them the appearance
which the camphor we see in England presents. Everywhere we met with
the tea-tree or tea-plant. It is as common in Japan as our privet or
hawthorn. Japanese money is very thin. Some of the coins are oblon