ided for. Rice, the leading article of food, needs to
be grown in well-watered fields, and the stealing of water from a
neighbor's field is looked upon as a crime of deepest dye. In old times
the water-thief was dealt with much as the horse-thief was recently
dealt with in some parts of our own country.

Sujin's work was continued by his successor, who, in 6 A.D., ordered
canals and sluices to be dug in more than eight hundred places. At
present Japan has great irrigating reservoirs and canals, through which
the water is led for miles to the farmers' fields. In one mountain
region is a deep lake of pure water, five thousand feet above the sea.
Many centuries ago a tunnel was made to draw off this water, and
millions of acres of soil are still enriched by its fertilizing flood.
Such are some of the results of Sujin's wise reforms.

Another of the labors of Sujin the civilizer was to devise a military
system for the defence of his realm. In the north, the savage Ainos
still fought for the land which had once been all their own, and between
them and the subjects of the mikado border warfare rarely ceased. Sujin
divided the empire into four military departments, with a shogun, or
general, over each. At a later date military magazines were established,
where weapons and rations could be had at any time in case of invasion
by the wild tribes on the border or of rebellion within the realm. In
time a powerful military class arose, and war became a profession in
Japan. Throughout the history of the island kingdom the war spirit has
been kept alive, and Japan is to-day the one nation of Eastern Asia
with a love of and a genius for warlike deeds. So important grew the
shoguns in time that nearly all the power of the empire fell into their
hands, and when the country was opened to foreign nations, one of these,
calling himself the Tai Kun (Tycoon), posed as the emperor himself, the
mikado being lost to sight behind the authority of this military chief.

At length old age began to weigh heavily upon Sujin, and the question of
who should succeed him on the throne greatly troubled his imperial mind.
He had two sons, but his love for them was so equally divided that he
could not choose between their claims. In those days the heirship to the
throne seems to have depended upon the father's will. Not being able to
decide for himself, he appealed to fate or divination, asking his sons
one evening to tell him the next morning what they had