ime; about the destination of the first arrow shot in
battle, etc.

The superstition of impurity being attached to the mother at the birth of
a child, and to the house and those associated with it in which a death
occurred, is often mentioned. A mother, when about to be delivered, was
required to retire alone into a separate dwelling or hut without windows.
This cruel custom has prevailed in the island of Hachijo(70) down almost
to the present time. A custom prevailed, also, of abandoning the dwelling
in which a death had occurred. The dead body was removed to a mourning
hut, where amid sobs and weeping the mourners continued to hold a
carousal, feasting upon the food provided for the dead. This abandonment
of the house occupied by the living may explain the custom, so often
referred to, of each new emperor occupying a different palace from that of
his predecessor. We have already referred to the dreadful custom which
prevailed until the reign of the Emperor Suinin, of burying living
retainers around the sepulchre of their dead master. The custom was
replaced by burying clay images of servants and animals around the tomb,
and this continued till about A.D. 700.

There is no evidence that children received any kind of education other
than a training in the use of arms and implements. The art of writing was
brought over from Korea in A.D. 284. Up to this time there is nothing to
show that the Japanese possessed any means of recording the events which
occurred. No books existed, and reading and writing were unknown. The
language spoken by the people was an ancient form of that which now
prevails. The earliest examples of this language are found in the songs
preserved in the _Kojiki_ and _Nihongi_. As in every language, the
earliest preserved specimens are poetry, so in Japanese the fragments
which have been remembered and brought down to us, are scraps of songs.
The origin of this language is, like the origin of the race, impossible at
present to verify. It seems plain that the race came from the continent by
way of Korea. If this is to be taken as the origin of the race, then the
language which developed into the Japanese came from the northern tribes
of China and of Siberia.

There is no indication of the method by which the early Japanese reckoned
time. The sun in the daytime and the cocks by night, must have given them
their division of hours. The year made itself apparent by the changes of
temperature. It was not, h