precepts, but has published a voluminous commentary on the subject.
Few resident foreigners have any notion of the extent to which the Japanese with whom they come in contact are still under the influence of this order of ideas. We will give but one among several instances of which we have had personal cognizance. A favourite dog of the present writer's was lost in November, 1892, and all search, advertisement, and application to the police proved unavailing. Meanwhile, the servants and their friends privately had recourse to no less than three diviners, two of whom were priests. One of these foretold the dog's return in April, and another directed that an ancient ode containing the words, "If I hear that thou awaitest me, I will forthwith return," should be written on slips of paper and pasted upside down on the pillars of the house. It was the sight of these slips that drew our attention to the matter. The best of it is that the dog was found, and that, too, in a month of April, namely, April, 1896, after having been missing for three years and five months. How then attempt, with any good grace, to discredit the fortune teller in the eyes of these simple folk?
Books recommended. The Yi King, by Rev. Dr. Legge, published as Vol. XVI. of the "Sacred Books of the East."—Sugiura's translation of Takashima's book entitled Eki-dan.
Dress. It would take a folio volume elaborately illustrated to do justice to all the peculiarities of all the varieties of Japanese costume.
Speaking generally, it may be said that the men are dressed as follows. First comes a loin-cloth (shita-obi) of bleached muslin. Next to this a shirt (jubari) of silk or cotton, to which is added in winter an under-jacket (dogi) of like material. Outside comes the gown (kimono), or in winter two wadded gowns (shitagi and uwagi), kept in place by a narrow sash (obi). On occasions of ceremony, there is worn furthermore a sort of broad pair of trousers, or perhaps we should rather say a divided skirt, called kakama, and a stiff coat called haori. The hakama
