quite Irish in character. Just as Greek sculptures were good, because in
those days artists modelled the corsetless life around them, so the
Japanese artist does not draw well his lightly draped figures, cranes,
and insects because these things strike him as beautiful, but because he
is familiar with their every action.

The Japanese house out of Japan seems but a dull and listless affair. We
miss the idle, easy-going life and chatter, the tea, the sweetmeats, the
pipes and charcoal brazier, the clogs awaiting their wearers on the
large flat stone at the entry, the grotesquely trained ferns, the glass
balls and ornaments tinkling in the breeze, that hang, as well as
lanterns, from the eaves, the garden with tiny pond and goldfish, bridge
and miniature hill, the bright sunshine beyond the sharp shadow of the
upward curving angles of the tiled roof, the gay, scarlet folds of the
women's under-dress peeping out, their little litter of embroidery or
mending, and the babies, brown and half naked, scrambling about so
happily. For, what has a baby to be miserable about in a land where it
is scarcely ever slapped, where its clothing, always loose, is yet warm
in winter, where it basks freely in air and sunshine? It lives in a
house, that from its thick grass mats, its absence of furniture, and
therefore of commands "not to touch," is the very beau-ideal of an
infant's playground.

The object with which the following pages were written, was that young
folks who see and handle so often Japanese objects, but who find books
of travels thither too long and dull for their reading, might catch a
glimpse of the spirit that pervades life in the "Land of the Rising
Sun." A portion of the book is derived from translations from Japanese
tales, kindly given to the author by Mr. Basil H. Chamberlain, whilst
the rest was written at idle moments during graver studies.

The games and sports of Japanese children have been so well described by
Professor Griffis, that we give, as an Appendix, his account of their
doings.

Child-Life in Japan.

SEVEN SCENES OF CHILD-LIFE IN JAPAN.

[Illustration: A Ride on a Bamboo Rail.]

These little boys all live a long way off in islands called "Japan."
They have all rather brown chubby faces, and they are very merry. Unless
they give themselves a really hard knock they seldom get cross or cry.

In the second large picture two of the little boys are playing at
snowball. Although it may b