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express speed. Thus the only scientific argument which could be adduced with reference to the theory, and which seems to me to dispose of it, is misconstrued into its service. The Japanese, according to Dr. Kaempfer, must, it seems, have travelled from Babylon by way of Persia and the shores of the Caspian Sea, whence they ascended the Oxus to its source. It was then no difficult matter for them to penetrate to China, discovering in their route the lake Argüm, continuing their journey along the river of the same name and then descending the Amoor, whence they found their way to the Corea and—being now accustomed to navigation—across to Japan.
Such is the theory as to the origin of the Japanese nation which is propounded by Dr. Kaempfer, but he, with much more reason, admits that the original stock may have been supplemented by Chinese colonists and the crews of ship-wrecked vessels. He gives proof that the Chinese writers had influenced Japan, and he cites several interesting instances, from the times in which he wrote, of vessels from strange countries being stranded on the Japanese coast, their crews being saved alive. Of one of these the three black sailors who were saved could distinctly pronounce only one word “tobacco.” (p. 94.) “The Japanese in the main, particularly the common people of Nipon, are,” says Kaempfer, “of a very ugly appearance, short-sized, strong, thick-legged, tawny, with flattish noses and thick eyelids, yet the descendants of the eldest and noblest families have somewhat more majestic in their shape and countenance.”
Having given the above theory as to the beginning of the Japanese race, according to his opinion, Dr. Kaempfer proceeds to give the theory (or, as he calls, the fabulous opinion) of the Japanese themselves upon the same subject, an opinion which many will think scarcely more fabulous than that propounded by Dr. Kaempfer. (p. 96.) “They pretend, that they arose within the compass of their own Empire, though not out of the earth. They esteem themselves no less than offsprings of their very Deities.” From their Deities “sprang an intermediate race between
