ds in old book-rolls, bells, drums,
beautiful old lacquered articles, &c. The graves themselves lie
within a separate enclosure.

The common Japanese gardens are not beautiful according to European
taste. They are often so small that they might without inconvenience,
with trees, grottos, and waterfalls, be accommodated in a small State's
department in one of the crystal palaces of the international
exhibitions. All, passages, rocks, trees, ponds, yea, even the fishes in
the dams, are artificial or artificially changed. The trees are, by a
special art which has been very highly developed in Japan, forced to
assume the nature of dwarfs, and are besides so pruned that the whole
plant has the appearance of a dry stem on which some green clumps have
been hung up here and there. The form of the gold fish swimming in the
ponds has also been changed, so that they have often two or four
tail-fins each, and a number of growths not known in their natural
state. On the walks thick layers of pebbles are placed to keep the feet
from being dirtied, and at the doors of dwelling-houses there is nearly
always a block of granite with a cauldron-like depression excavated in
it, which is kept filled with clean water. Upon this stone cauldron is
placed a simple but clean wooden scoop, with which one can take water
out of the vessel to wash himself with.

The imperial garden in Tokio is distinguished from these miniature
gardens by its greater extent, and by the trees, at least at most
places, bearing fruit. There is here a veritable park, with
uncommonly large, splendid, and luxuriantly-growing trees.

[Illustration: STONE LANTERN AND STONE MONUMENT. In a Japanese Temple
Court. ]

The public is generally excluded from the garden. At our visit we
were entertained in one of the imperial summer-houses with Japanese
tea, sweetmeats, and cigars.

Last of all we visited the Exhibition. It had been closed for some
time back on account of cholera. We saw here a number of beautiful
specimens of Japanese art, from the flint tools and pottery of the
Stone Age to the silks, porcelain, and bronzes of the present. In no
country is there at this day such a love for exhibitions as in
Japan. There are small exhibitions in most of the large towns. Many
were exceedingly instructive; in all there were to be seen beautiful
lacquered wares, porcelain, swords, silk, cloths, &c. In one I saw a
collection of the birds and fishes of Japan, in another I discover