large portion of the people profess the Buddhist religion. We visited
a large temple at Hakodadi, full sixty feet high. The tiled roof is
supported on an arrangement of girders, posts, and tie-beams, resting
upon large lacquered pillars. The ornaments in the interior, consisting
of dragons, phoenixes, cranes, tortoises, all connected with the worship
of Buddha, are elaborately carved and richly gilt. There are three
shrines, each containing an image, and the raised floor is thickly
covered with mats. We were shown a curious praying machine covered with
inscriptions. At about the height easily reached by a person was a
wheel with three spokes, and on each spoke a ring: turning the wheel
once round is considered equivalent to saying a prayer, and the jingle
of the ring is supposed to call the attention of the divinity to the
presence of the person paying his devotions. The Sintoo worship is
practised also among the Japanese, but its temples are less resorted to
than those of Buddha.

We saw a number of junks building. In shape they were like the Chinese,
but none were more than a hundred tons burden. Canvas instead of bamboo
is used for sails.

The Japanese are decidedly a literary people. All classes can read and
write; and works of light reading appear from their presses almost with
the same rapidity that they do with us. They print from wooden blocks,
and have wooden type. They have also long been accustomed to print in
colours. The paper they employ is manufactured from the bark of the
mulberry, but is so thin that only one side can be used. They have
sorts of games, some like our chess, and cards, and lotto, and we saw
the lads in the streets playing ball very much as boys do in an English
country village.

As we did not go to the capital, I cannot describe it. We understood
that there are two emperors of Japan--one acts as the civil governor,
and the other as the head of all ecclesiastical affairs, a sort of pope
or patriarch. The laws are very strict, especially with regard to all
communication with foreigners. If a person of rank transgresses them
and he is discovered, notice is sent to him, and he instantly cuts
himself open with his sword, and thus prevents the confiscation of his
property. The people exhibit an extraordinary mixture of civilisation
and barbarism; the latter being the result of their gross superstitious
faith, and their seclusion from the rest of the world; the former shows