is is especially the fashion among
the nobles of the Mikado's court.) This applies only to persons who
wear the court cap, and not to gentlemen of lower grade. Still, these
latter persons, if they wish to go through the ceremony in its
entirety, may do so without impropriety. Gentlemen of the Samurai or
military class cut off the whole of the forelock. The sponsor either
ties up the hair of the young man, or else, placing the forelock on a
willow board, cuts it off with a knife, or else, amongst persons of
very high rank, he only pretends to do so, and goes into another room
whilst the real cutting is going on, and then returns to the same
room. The sponsor then, without letting the young man see what he is
doing, places the lock which has been cut into the pocket of his left
sleeve, and, leaving the room, gives it to the young man's guardians,
who wrap it in paper and offer it up at the shrine of the family gods.
But this is wrong. The locks should be well wrapped up in paper and
kept in the house until the man's death, to serve as a reminder of the
favours which a man receives from his father and mother in his
childhood; when he dies, it should be placed in his coffin and buried
with him. The wine-drinking and presents are as before.

* * * * *

In the "Sho-rei Hikki," the book from which the above is translated,
there is no notice of the ceremony of naming the child: the following
is a translation from a Japanese MS.:--

"On the seventh day after its birth, the child receives its name; the
ceremony is called the congratulations of the seventh night. On this
day some one of the relations of the family, who holds an exalted
position, either from his rank or virtues, selects a name for the
child, which name he keeps until the time of the cutting of the
forelock, when he takes the name which he is to bear as a man. This
second name is called _Yeboshina_,[122] the cap-name, which is
compounded of syllables taken from an old name of the family and from
the name of the sponsor. If the sponsor afterwards change his name,
his name-child must also change his name. For instance, Minamoto no
Yoshitsune, the famous warrior, as a child was called Ushiwakamaru;
when he grew up to be a man, he was called Kuro; and his real name was
Yoshitsune."

[Footnote 122: From _Yeboshi_, a court cap, and _Na_, a name.]

FUNERAL RITES

(FROM THE "SHO-REI HIKKI.")

On the death of a parent, the mo