to get up quickly and bind the
gentleman from behind, and not from before. Tarokaja runs behind the
struggling pair, but is so clumsy that he slips the noose over his
master's head by mistake, and drags him down. The stranger, seeing
this, runs away laughing with the two swords. Tarokaja, frightened at
his blunder, runs off too, his master pursuing him off the stage. A
general run off, be it observed, something like the "spill-and-pelt"
scene in an English pantomime, is the legitimate and invariable
termination of the Kiyogen.

NOTE ON THE GAME OF FOOTBALL.

The game of football is in great favour at the Japanese Court. The
days on which it takes place are carefully noted in the "Daijokwan
Nishi," or Government Gazette. On the 25th of February, 1869, for
instance, we find two entries: "The Emperor wrote characters of good
omen," and "The game of football was played at the palace." The game
was first introduced from China in the year of the Empress Kokiyoku,
in the middle of the seventh century. The Emperor Mommu, who reigned
at the end of the same century, was the first emperor who took part in
the sport. His Majesty Toba the Second became very expert at it, as
also did the noble Asukai Chiujo, and from that time a sort of
football club was formed at the palace. During the days of the extreme
poverty of the Mikado and his Court, the Asukai family,
notwithstanding their high rank, were wont to eke out their scanty
income by giving lessons in the art of playing football.

THE WONDERFUL ADVENTURES OF FUNAKOSHI JIUYEMON

The doughty deeds and marvellous experiences of Funakoshi Jiuyemon are
perhaps, like those of Robin Hood and his Merry Men, rather
traditional than historical; but even if all or part of the deeds
which popular belief ascribes to him be false, his story conveys a
true picture of manners and customs. Above all, the manner of the
vengeance which he wreaked upon the wife who had dishonoured him, and
upon her lover, shows the high importance which the Japanese attach to
the sanctity of the marriage tie.

The 50th and 51st chapters of the "Legacy of Iyeyasu," already quoted,
say: "If a married woman of the agricultural, artisan, or commercial
class shall secretly have intercourse with another man, it is not
necessary for the husband to enter a complaint against the persons
thus confusing the great relation of mankind, but he may put them both
to death. Nevertheless, should he slay one of t