hemselves in the military arts. In old
days, men used to bear these things in mind; but now-a-days the
fashion is to be ignorant of such ceremonies, and if upon rare
occasions a criminal is handed over to a Daimio's charge, that he may
perform _hara-kiri,_ it often happens, at the time of execution, that
there is no one among all the prince's retainers who is competent to
act as second, in which case a man has to be engaged in a hurry from
some other quarter to cut off the head of the criminal, and for that
day he changes his name and becomes a retainer of the prince, either
of the middle or lowest class, and the affair is entrusted to him, and
so the difficulty is got over: nor is this considered to be a
disgrace. It is a great breach of decorum if the second, who is a most
important officer, commits any mistake (such as not striking off the
head at a blow) in the presence of the witnesses sent by the
Government. On this account a skilful person must be employed; and, to
hide the unmanliness of his own people, a prince must perform the
ceremony in this imperfect manner. Every Samurai should be able to cut
off a man's head: therefore, to have to employ a stranger to act as
second is to incur the charge of ignorance of the arts of war, and is
a bitter mortification. However, young men, trusting to their youthful
ardour, are apt to be careless, and are certain to make a mistake.
Some people there are who, not lacking in skill on ordinary occasions,
lose their presence of mind in public, and cannot do themselves
justice. It is all the more important, therefore, as the act occurs
but rarely, that men who are liable to be called upon to be either
principals or seconds or witnesses in the _hara-kiri_ should
constantly be examined in their skill as swordsmen, and should be
familiar with all the rites, in order that when the time comes they
may not lose their presence of mind.

According to one authority, capital punishment may be divided into two
kinds--beheading and strangulation. The ceremony of _hara-kiri_ was
added afterwards in the case of persons belonging to the military
class being condemned to death. This was first instituted in the days
of the Ashikaga[102] dynasty. At that time the country was in a state
of utter confusion; and there were men who, although fighting, were
neither guilty of high treason nor of infidelity to their feudal
lords, but who by the chances of war were taken prisoners. To drag out
such men a