ative of the rose family.

In the houses which we entered--all are open; there are no fastenings
upon dwelling-houses in Japan--we found neither chairs nor tables, the
people all sitting, eating, and sleeping upon the floors, which were as
neat and clean as a newly-laid table-cloth. The humility and deference
of all classes was quite disconcerting, for when we entered or departed
from a house, the host, hostess, and children bowed their heads until
their foreheads touched the floor. Japanese women, both in features and
general appearance, are far from prepossessing, but we were told there
were marked exceptions among the people of rank. The exclusiveness and
debased condition of the sex produces a shyness and diffidence very
prejudicial to their appreciation by strangers. The eyes of the women,
though elongated, are not nearly so much so as those of the Chinese, the
features being more open in expression, and devoid of a certain cunning
almost always observable in the face of a Chinese woman.

Japanese women give the greatest attention to dressing their ebon-black
hair. None are so poor or humble as to forget this inexpensive
ornamentation. Nature has endowed them with a profusion of covering for
the head, and they wear no other. It is not very fine, to be sure, but
always black as ink, long and heavy, and when arranged in their peculiar
style, with broad-spread puffs, like old-fashioned bow-knots, it forms a
very striking exhibition of head-gear, shining with oil and sparkling
with flashy hair-pins. When once disposed to the wearer's satisfaction,
the hair is not disturbed for several days, and is almost the only
evidence of personal vanity which they exhibit, as they wear no other
ornaments in the form of jewelry. The pillow of which they make use at
night, when sleeping, is calculated to preserve the well-greased and
plastered tresses in good order, being nothing more nor less than a
curved piece of wood upon which the neck rests rather than the head and
frightfully suggestive of an execution block.

Here and there, upon the roadside, shrines and holy niches were often
observed, approached generally by a flight of stone steps, on a
hill-side, looking very old and moss-grown. Upon these were placed
consecrated idols, or religious emblems of peculiar character,
calculated in our uninitiated eyes to provoke mirth rather than
reverence. The principal object was usually a sitting figure in stone,
wood, or metal, gilded,