the grotesque. If somewhat Rabelaic in its grossness, it is not the less humor, and betokens a keen sense of the ludicrous. Here is a very pleasing specimen, full of life and fun, and worthy of Hogarth for its truth to nature; it needs no explanation.

It shows plainly how children of large growth blow soap-bubbles to amuse their progeny, and are not above enjoying the sport. When they yield themselves fairly up to the grotesque, they give loose rein to their imagination, and produce some of the most absurd and monstrous combinations and distortions of humanity. Sometimes they are simply monstrous or laughable, at other times they are grim in their significance. One now before me is of a gentleman who by some accident (not an uncommon one in Japan) has lost his head, or, at all events, it has flown from his shoulders, and, although the body expresses considerable discomfort, the head evidently thinks it a capital joke.

Another grotesque from the same pencil shows an uncommon tenuity about the epigastric region, but a happy state of mind notwithstanding, and is very laughably rendered, while for vis-a-vis he has a friend whose lower limbs have shot up

ward so immeasurably that he can not help laughing himself on finding his head in the clouds. Then follow a couple of amphibious-looking wayfarers with wings on their backs, and carrying a packet between them by means of a monstrous nose.

They are intended to represent some kind of gnomes or spirits. This prolongation of the nasal organ, sometimes not in very decent shape, is a favorite exemplification of the grotesque with the Japanese. It is very common in their masks, and in the leaves I am turning over there is a grand display of what noses may become, and to what strange uses perverted. On the following page will be found a rebus, in which a lantern-maker is represented at his work, and face, attitude, expression, and accessories are all perfect in their way.

Let us close up the list with the artist himself at his work. Here is one of the guild painting flowers, and, following him, another painting with two brushes at once-a tour de force by no means uncommon, though it seems quite as difficult and incomprehensible as the lady's performance, who, having no hands, used to paint with her toes, an example of which I saw, by the way, the last time I visited the picture-gallery at Antwerp. Lastly, welcome to the enthusiastic genius who, not

contented with a brush in each hand, has a third in his mouth, and a fourth and fifth between the great and small toes of each foot. I do not think dexterity in art can go beyond this, and it forms a fitting finale, therefore, to our exhibition of the Japanese school of painting.

Having thus passed in review some of the leading traits of character, and endeavored to trace the chief influences under which their national life has taken form and development, if I were asked to give in a few words the conclusion to which I have been led as to the kind and degree of civilization attained by the Japanese, without taking account of the various qualifications and reservations already touched upon, I should say that theirs was a material civilization of a high order, in which all the industrial arts were brought to as great perfection as could well be attainable without the aid of steam power and machinery, an almost unlimited command of cheap labor and material supplying apparently many connterbalancing advantages. Their intellectual and moral pretensions, on the other hand, compared with what has been achieved in the more civilized nations of the West during the last three centuries, must be placed very low; while their capacity for a higher and better civilization than they have yet attained should be ranked, I conceive, far before that of any other Eastern nation, not excepting the Chinese.

CHAPTER XXXVI.

Temples, Religion, and Amusements of Japanese.-Strange Combination of the two.-Description of Asaxa under both Aspects.-Jugglers.-Storytellers.-Top-spinners.-Various Games.-Game of throwing the Ball on Horseback.-Picnics in the Country much in vogue at Spring Festivals.Theatres.-Wrestlers.-Matsuris and Feasts.-Japanese Cemeteries.

IN a former chapter I have referred generally to the religion of the Japanese, so far as scanty information would permit, on a subject which, above all others, requires a thorough knowledge of the people and their language to qualify any one to speak with authority. Considering the religious doctrines and faith of a people as an important element of their civilization, it was necessary to form some estimate of its character and influence, however imperfect the data. But beyond the fact that the Japanese, with the written and ideographic language of the Chinese, borrowed a philosophy and a religion, and, in both instances, added it to their own, adopting them more or less completely in their integrity, we really do not know much. All that the Portuguese and Spanish missionaries of the sixteenth century seem to have left and they were the only people in a position to know and understand in what the different forms of religion in vogue consisted-amounts to very little. Kampfer, ever painstaking and indefatigable in his inquiries on all subjects, has given a general view of the different sects, and what they professed to believe in his day; and as Japanese must doubtless have been his informants, we may probably adopt his as a fair account, giving at least some idea of the modification the two systems of Confucius and Buddha may have undergone in the Japanese mind. My own impression I bave already stated to be, that religion, in any form, does not enter very largely into the life of the people, and that the higher and the educated classes are all more or less skeptical and indifferent. The strange mode in which their religious ceremonies and temples are made to amalgamate with and subserve their popular amusements is one of the evidences on which my convictions rest. Plays are performed in their temple gardens, which also contain shooting-galleries, bazars, teahouses, flower-shows, menageries of wild beasts, and exhibitors of models like those of Madame Tussaud in Baker Street.

Such a medley can scarcely consist with any reverential feeling or serious religious convictions.

In

That the Japanese should, nevertheless, be very much addicted to pilgrimages with professedly religious objects, may be taken, on the other hand, as an evidence that, among the lower orders at least, there is a religious sentiment of some vitality. There are pilgrimages to Isje, to the thirty-three chief Quanquon temples-pilgrimages to some of the most eminent Lin and Cami or Buddhist temples, celebrated for miracles wrought there and the benefits conferred on pilgrims, which, no doubt, is a powerful motive with the votaries, giving the hope of parcipitating in their turn. A true and orthodox disciple of Sinto visits only those of his own gods, and Kampfer adds, the 'Temple Saif in Sicousin, where Teentin died, is one of the most esteemed.' On the other hand, both Buddhists and Sintoists seem to go to the Quanquon temples as a means to obtain happiness in this world, and bliss in that to come. reference to the Sintoists, there seems to be a strong analogy in the laws of purity and purifying observances enjoined by their creed with those of the Mosaic dispensation, while their priests give to the pilgrims an ofarrai in a small oblong box, which is an absolution and remission of their sins-whether preceded by a confession or not, I can not say; sometimes it is wrapped in white paper, in order to remind the pilgrim to be pure and humble, these two virtues being the most pleasing to the gods.' The effects and virtues of the absolution last only for a year, otherwise it is obvious the priests' treasury would not be sufficiently frequently replenished, something being always given for this valuable document. And even for the benefit of those who can not make the pilgrimage, large numbers of ofarrai are sent throughout the country, for disposal like the indulgences that excited Luther's indignation. An indulgence or absolution, and an almanac, are generally supplied together at the new year, and in Kampfer's time might be had for an itziboo, or eighteen pence. It must be confessed neither could be considered very dear.

Making vows in times of trouble or distress, building temples as tokens of gratitude, and gifts to the poor, are not uncommon in Japan. There are several religious orders, hermits and holy men, who dedicate themselves to a life of prayer and solitude for the mortification of the flesh; nor are there wanting counter-types of the mendicant friars of Europe. Many of these seem to deal in charms and incantations for the cure of distempers, discovery of criminals, etc., and curiously enough their principal charm is called in the Japanese 'Sin.' There