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Title: Child-Life in Japan and Japanese Child Stories

Author: Matilda Chaplin Ayrton

Editor: William Elliot Griffis

Release date: May 28, 2009 [eBook #28979]

Language: English

Credits: Produced by Meredith Bach, Asad Razzaki and the Online
        Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This
        file was produced from images generously made available
        by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.)


*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CHILD-LIFE IN JAPAN AND JAPANESE CHILD STORIES ***




Produced by Meredith Bach, Asad Razzaki and the Online
Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This
file was produced from images generously made available
by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.)






Transcriber's note:

      A few typographical and punctuation errors have been
      corrected. A complete list follows the text.

      Variations in spelling and hyphenation have been
      retained as in the original.

      Words italicized in the original are surrounded by
      _underscores_.

      Words with bold emphasis in the original are surrounded
      by =equals signs=.


[Illustration: The Lion of Korea.]




CHILD-LIFE IN JAPAN

AND

JAPANESE CHILD STORIES


BY


MRS. M. CHAPLIN AYRTON


EDITED WITH INTRODUCTION AND NOTES BY

WILLIAM ELLIOT GRIFFIS, L.H.D.

Author of "The Mikado's Empire" and "Japanese Fairy World"


_WITH MANY ILLUSTRATIONS, INCLUDING SEVEN FULL-PAGE PICTURES DRAWN AND
ENGRAVED BY JAPANESE ARTISTS_


 BOSTON, U.S.A.
 D. C. HEATH & CO., PUBLISHERS
 1909


 COPYRIGHT, 1901,
 BY D. C. HEATH & CO.




PREFACE.


Over a quarter of a century ago, while engaged in introducing the
American public school system into Japan, I became acquainted in Tokio
with Mrs. Matilda Chaplin Ayrton, the author of "Child-Life in Japan."
This highly accomplished lady was a graduate of Edinburgh University,
and had obtained the degrees of Bachelor of Letters and Bachelor of
Sciences, besides studying medicine in Paris. She had married Professor
William Edward Ayrton, the electric engineer and inventor, then
connected with the Imperial College of Engineering of Japan, and since
president of the Institute of Electric Engineers in London. She took a
keen interest in the Japanese people and never wearied of studying them
and their beautiful country. With my sister, she made excursions to some
of the many famous places in the wonderful city of Tokio. When her own
little daughter, born among the camellias and chrysanthemums, grew up
under her Japanese nurse, Mrs. Ayrton became more and more interested in
the home life of the Japanese and in the pictures and stories which
delighted the children of the Mikado's Empire. After her return to
England, in 1879, she wrote this book.

In the original work, the money and distances, the comparisons and
illustrations, were naturally English, and not American. For this
reason, I have ventured to alter the text slightly here and there, that
the American child reader may more clearly catch the drift of the
thought, have given to each Japanese word the standard spelling now
preferred by scholars and omitted statements of fact which were once,
but are no longer, true. I have also translated or omitted hard Japanese
words, shortened long sentences, rearranged the illustrations, and added
notes which will make the subject clearer. Although railways,
telegraphs, and steamships, clothes and architecture, schools and
customs, patterned more or less closely after those in fashion in
America and Europe, have altered many things in Japan and caused others
to disappear, yet the children's world of toys and games and stories
does not change very fast. In the main, it may be said, we have here a
true picture of the old Japan which we all delighted in seeing, when, in
those sunny days, we lived in sight of Yedo Bay and Fuji Yama, with
Japanese boys and girls all around us.

The best portions and all the pictures of Mrs. Ayrton's big and costly
book have been retained and reproduced, including her own preface or
introduction, and the book is again set forth with a hearty "ohio" (good
morning) of salutation and sincere "omédéto" (congratulations) that the
nations of the world are rapidly becoming one family. May every reader
of "Child-Life in Japan" see, sometime during the twentieth century, the
country and the people of whom Mrs. Ayrton has written with such lively
spirit and such warm appreciation.

    WM. ELLIOT GRIFFIS.

ITHACA, N.Y.




CONTENTS


                                         Page

 Preface by William Elliot Griffis          v

 Introduction by the Author                xi

 Seven Scenes of Child-Life in Japan        1

 First Month                               16

 The Chrysanthemum Show                    30

 Fishsave                                  34

 The Filial Girl                           37

 The Parsley Queen                         38

 The Two Daughters                         40

 Second Sight                              44

 Games                                     46

 The Games and Sports of Japanese
     Children, by William Elliot Griffis   50




LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.


 The Lion of Korea                _Frontispiece_

                                            PAGE
 A Ride on a Bamboo Rail                       1

 A Game of Snowball                            3

 Boys' Concert--Flute, Drum, and Song          5

 Lion Play                                     6

 Ironclad Top Game                             7

 Playing with Doggy                            9

 Heron-Legs, or Stilts                        11

 The Young Wrestlers                          13

 Playing with the Turtle                      15

 Presenting the Tide-Jewels to Hachiman       18

 "Bronze fishes sitting on their throats"     19

 The Treasure-Ship                            23

 Girls' Ball and Counting Game                26

 Firemen's Gymnastics                         28

 Street Tumblers                              29

 Eating Stand for the Children                31

 Fishsave riding the Dolphin                  35

 Bowing before her Mother's Mirror            37

 Imitating the Procession                     39

 The Two White Birds                          41

 Eye-Hiding, or Blindman's Buff               47

 Stilts and Clog-Throwing                     48

 Playing at Batter-Cakes                      49

 Hoisting the Rice-Beer Keg                   51

 Getting ready to raise the Big Humming Kite  60

 Daruma, the Snow-Image                       62




INTRODUCTION


In almost every home are Japanese fans, in our shops Japanese dolls and
balls and other knick-knacks, on our writing-tables bronze crabs or
lacquered pen-tray with outlined on it the extinct volcano [Fuji San][1]
that is the most striking mountain seen from the capital of Japan. At
many places of amusement Japanese houses of real size have been
exhibited, and the jargon of fashion for "Japanese Art" even reaches our
children's ears.

[1] _Fuji San_, or Fuji no Yama, the highest mountain in the Japanese
archipelago, is in the province of Suruga, sixty miles west of Tokio.
Its crest is covered with snow most of the year. Twenty thousand
pilgrims visit it annually. Its name may mean Not Two (such), or
Peerless.

Yet all these things seem dull and lifeless when thus severed from the
quaint cheeriness of their true home. To those familiar with Japan, that
bamboo fan-handle recalls its graceful grassy tree, the thousand and one
daily purposes for which bamboo wood serves. We see the open shop where
squat the brown-faced artisans cleverly dividing into those slender
divisions the fan-handle, the wood-block engraver's where some dozen
men sit patiently chipping at their cherry-wood blocks, and the
printer's where the coloring arrangements seem so simple to those used
to western machinery, but where the colors are so rich and true. We see
the picture stuck on the fan frame with starch paste, and drying in the
brilliant summer sunlight. The designs recall vividly the life around,
whether that life be the stage, the home, insects, birds, or flowers. We
think of halts at wayside inns, when bowing tea-house girls at once
proffer these fans to hot and tired guests.

The tonsured oblique-eyed doll suggests the festival of similarly
oblique-eyed little girls on the 3rd of March. Then dolls of every
degree obtain for a day "Dolls' Rights." In every Japanese household all
the dolls of the present and previous generations are, on that festival,
set out to best advantage. Beside them are sweets, green-speckled rice
cake, and daintily gilt and lacquered dolls' utensils. For some time
previous, to meet the increased demand, the doll shopman has been very
busy. He sits before a straw-holder into which he can readily stick, to
dry, the wooden supports of the plaster dolls' heads he is painting, as
he takes first one and then another to give artistic touches to their
glowing cheeks or little tongue. That dolly that seems but "so odd" to
Polly or Maggie is there the cherished darling of its little owner. It
passes half its day tied on to her back, peeping companionably its head
over her shoulder. At night it is lovingly sheltered under the green
mosquito curtains, and provided with a toy wooden pillow.

The expression "Japanese Art" seems but a created word expressing either
the imitations of it, or the artificial transplanting of Japanese things
to our houses. The whole glory of art in Japan is, that it is not Art,
but Nature simply rendered, by a people with a fancy and love of fun
quite Irish in character. Just as Greek sculptures were good, because in
those days artists modelled the corsetless life around them, so the
Japanese artist does not draw well his lightly draped figures, cranes,
and insects because these things strike him as beautiful, but because he
is familiar with their every action.

The Japanese house out of Japan seems but a dull and listless affair. We
miss the idle, easy-going life and chatter, the tea, the sweetmeats, the
pipes and charcoal brazier, the clogs awaiting their wearers on the
large flat stone at the entry, the grotesquely trained ferns, the glass
balls and ornaments tinkling in the breeze, that hang, as well as
lanterns, from the eaves, the garden with tiny pond and goldfish, bridge
and miniature hill, the bright sunshine beyond the sharp shadow of the
upward curving angles of the tiled roof, the gay, scarlet folds of the
women's under-dress peeping out, their little litter of embroidery or
mending, and the babies, brown and half naked, scrambling about so
happily. For, what has a baby to be miserable about in a land where it
is scarcely ever slapped, where its clothing, always loose, is yet warm
in winter, where it basks freely in air and sunshine? It lives in a
house, that from its thick grass mats, its absence of furniture, and
therefore of commands "not to touch," is the very beau-ideal of an
infant's playground.

The object with which the following pages were written, was that young
folks who see and handle so often Japanese objects, but who find books
of travels thither too long and dull for their reading, might catch a
glimpse of the spirit that pervades life in the "Land of the Rising
Sun." A portion of the book is derived from translations from Japanese
tales, kindly given to the author by Mr. Basil H. Chamberlain, whilst
the rest was written at idle moments during graver studies.

The games and sports of Japanese children have been so well described by
Professor Griffis, that we give, as an Appendix, his account of their
doings.




Child-Life in Japan.




SEVEN SCENES OF CHILD-LIFE IN JAPAN.


[Illustration: A Ride on a Bamboo Rail.]

These little boys all live a long way off in islands called "Japan."
They have all rather brown chubby faces, and they are very merry. Unless
they give themselves a really hard knock they seldom get cross or cry.

In the second large picture two of the little boys are playing at
snowball. Although it may be hotter in the summer in their country than
it is here, the winter is as cold as you feel it. Like our own boys,
these lads enjoy a fall of snow, and still better than snowballing they
like making a snowman with a charcoal ball for each eye and a streak of
charcoal for his mouth. The shoes which they usually wear out of doors
are better for a snowy day than your boots, for their feet do not sink
into the snow, unless it is deep. These shoes are of wood, and make a
boy seem to be about three inches taller than he really is. The shoe,
you see, has not laces or buttons, but is kept on the foot by that thong
which passes between the first and second toe. The thong is made of
grass, and covered with strong paper, or with white or colored calico.
The boy in the check dress wears his shoes without socks, but you see
the other boy has socks on. His socks are made of dark blue calico, with
a thickly woven sole, and a place, like one finger of a glove, for his
big toe. If you were to wear Japanese shoes, you would think the thong
between your toes very uncomfortable. Yet from their habit of wearing
this sort of shoe, the big toe grows more separate from the other toes,
and the skin between this and the next toe becomes as hard as the skin
of a dog's or a cat's paw.

[Illustration: A Game of Snowball.]

The boys are not cold, for their cotton clothes, being wadded, are warm
and snug. One boy has a rounded pouch fastened to his sash. It is red
and prettily embroidered with flowers or birds, and is his purse, in
which he keeps some little toys and some money. The other boy very
likely has not a pouch, but he has two famous big pockets. Like all
Japanese, he uses the part of his large sleeve which hangs down as his
pocket. Thus when a group of little children are disturbed at play you
see each little hand seize a treasured toy and disappear into its
sleeve, like mice running into their holes with bits of cheese.

In the next large picture are two boys who are fond of music. One has a
flute, which is made of bamboo wood. These flutes are easy to make, as
bamboo wood grows hollow, with cross divisions at intervals. If you cut
a piece with a division forming one end you need only make the outside
holes in order to finish your flute.

[Illustration]

The child sitting down has a drum. His drum and the paper lanterns
hanging up have painted on them an ornament which is also the crest of
the house of "Arima."[2] If these boys belong to this family they wear
the same crest embroidered on the centre of the backs of their coats.

[2] _Arima_ was one of the daimios or landed nobleman, nearly three
hundred in number, out of whom has been formed the new nobility of
Japan, a certain number of which are in the Upper House of the Imperial
Diet.

[Illustration: Boys' Concert--Flute, Drum, and Song.]

[Illustration: Kangura, or Korean Lion Play]

Korean Lion is the title of the picture which forms the frontispiece; it
represents a game that children in Japan are very fond of playing. They
are probably trying to act as well as the maskers did whom they saw on
New Year's Day, just as our children try and imitate things they see
in a pantomime. The masker goes from house to house accompanied by one
or two men who play on cymbals, flute, and drum. He steps into a shop
where the people of the house and their friends sit drinking tea, and
passers-by pause in front of the open shop to see the fun. He takes a
mask, like the one in the picture, off his back and puts it over his
head. This boar's-head mask is painted scarlet and black, and gilt. It
has a green cloth hanging down behind, in order that you may not
perceive where the mask ends and the mans body begins. Then the masker
imitates an animal. He goes up to a young lady and lays down his ugly
head beside her to be patted, as "Beast" may have coaxed "Beauty" in the
fairy tale. He grunts, and rolls, and scratches himself. The children
almost forget he is a man, and roar with laughter at the funny animal.
When they begin to tire of this fun he exchanges this mask for some of
the two or three others he carries with him. He puts on a mask of an old
woman over his face, and at the back of his head a very different second
mask, a cloth tied over the centre of the head, making the two faces
yet more distinct from each other. He has quickly arranged the back of
his dress to look like the front of a person, and he acts, first
presenting the one person to his spectators, then the other. He makes
you even imagine he has four arms, so cleverly can he twist round his
arm and gracefully fan what is in reality the back of his head.

[Illustration: Ironclad Top Game.]

The tops the lads are playing with in this picture[3] are not quite the
same shape as our tops, but they spin very well. Some men are so clever
at making spinning-tops run along strings, throwing them up into the air
and catching them with a tobacco-pipe, that they earn a living by
exhibiting their skill.

[3] See page 7.

Some of the tops are formed of short pieces of bamboo with a wooden peg
put through them, and the hole cut in the side makes them have a fine
hum as the air rushes in whilst they spin.

The boys in the next large picture (p. 9) must be playing with the
puppies of a large dog, to judge from their big paws. There are a great
many large dogs in the streets of Tokio; some are very tame, and will
let children comb their hair and ornament them and pull them about.
These dogs do not wear collars, as do our pet dogs, but a wooden label
bearing the owner's name is hung round their necks. Other big dogs are
almost wild.[4]

[4] _Wild-dogs:_ ownerless dogs have now been exterminated, and every
dog in Japan is owned, licensed, taxed, or else liable to go the way of
the old wolfish-looking curs. The pet spaniel-like dogs are called
_chin_.

Half-a-dozen of these dogs will lie in one place, stretched drowsily on
the grassy city walls under the trees, during the daytime. Towards
evening they rouse themselves and run off to yards and rubbish-heaps to
pick up what they can. They will eat fish, but two or three dogs soon
get to know where the meat-eating Englishmen live. They come trotting in
regularly with a business-like air to search among the day's refuse for
bones. Should any interloping dog try to establish a right to share the
feast he can only gain his footing after a victorious battle. All these
dogs are very wolfish-looking, with straight hair, which is usually
white or tan-colored. There are other pet dogs kept in houses. These
look something like spaniels. They are small, with their black noses so
much turned up that it seems as if, when they were puppies, they had
tumbled down and broken the bridge of their nose. They are often
ornamented like dog Toby in "Punch and Judy," with a ruff made of some
scarlet stuff round their necks.

[Illustration: Playing with Doggy.]

After the heavy autumn rains have filled the roads with big puddles,
it is great fun, this boy thinks, to walk about on stilts. You see him
on page 11. His stilts are of bamboo wood, and he calls them
"Heron-legs," after the long-legged snowy herons that strut about in the
wet rice-fields. When he struts about on them, he wedges the upright
between his big and second toe as if the stilt was like his shoes. He
has a good view of his two friends who are wrestling, and probably
making hideous noises like wild animals as they try to throw one
another. They have seen fat public wrestlers stand on opposite sides of
a sanded ring, stoop, rubbing their thighs, and in a crouching attitude
and growling, slowly advance upon one another. Then when near to one
another, the spring is made and the men close. If after some time the
round is not decided by a throw, the umpire, who struts about like a
turkey-cock, fanning himself, approaches. He plucks the girdle of the
weaker combatant, when the wrestlers at once retire to the sides of the
arena to rest, and to sprinkle a little water over themselves.

[Illustration: Heron-legs, or Stilts.]

[Illustration: The Young Wrestlers.]

In the neighborhood in which the children shown in the picture live,
there is a temple (p. 11). In honor of the god a feast-day is held on
the tenth of every month. The tenth day of the tenth month is a yet
greater feast-day. On these days they go the first thing in the morning
to the barber's, have their heads shaved and dressed, and their faces
powdered with white, and their lips and cheeks painted pink. They wear
their best clothes and smartest sashes. Then they clatter off on their
wooden clogs to the temple and buy two little rice-cakes at the gates.
Next they come to two large, comical bronze dogs sitting on stands, one
on each side of the path. They reach up and gently rub the dog's nose,
then rub their own noses, rub the dog's eyes, and then their own, and so
on, until they have touched the dog's and their own body all over. This
is their way of praying for good health. They also add another to the
number of little rags that have been hung by each visitor about the
dog's neck. Then they go to the altar and give their cakes to a boy
belonging to the temple. In exchange he presents them with one rice-cake
which has been blessed. They ring a round brass bell to call their god's
attention, and throw him some money into a grated box as big as a
child's crib. Then they squat down and pray to be good little boys. Now
they go out and amuse themselves by looking at all the stalls of toys
and cakes, and flowers and fish.

The man who sells the gold-fish, with fan-like tails as long as their
bodies, has also turtles. These boys at last settle that of all the
pretty things they have seen they would best like to spend their money
on a young turtle. For their pet rabbits and mice died, but turtles,
they say, are painted on fans and screens and boxes because turtles live
for ten thousand years. Even the noble white crane is said to live no
more than a thousand years. In this picture they have carried home the
turtle and are much amused at the funny way it walks and peeps its head
in and out from under its shell.

[Illustration: Playing with the Turtle.]




FIRST MONTH.


Little Good Boy had just finished eating the last of five rice cakes
called "dango," that had been strung on a skewer of bamboo and dipped in
soy sauce, when he said to his little sister, called Chrysanthemum:--

"O-Kiku, it is soon the great festival of the New Year."

"What shall we do then?" asked little O-Kiku, not clearly remembering
the festival of the previous year.

Thus questioned, Yoshi-san[5] had his desired opening to hold forth on
the coming delights, and he replied:--

"Men will come the evening before the great feast-day and help
Plum-blossom, our maid, to clean all the house with brush and broom.
Others will set up the decoration in front of our honored gateway. They
will dig two small holes and plant a gnarled, black-barked father-pine
branch on the left, and the slighter reddish mother-pine branch on the
right. They will then put with these the tall knotted stem of a bamboo,
with its smooth, hard green leaves that chatter when the wind blows.
Next they will take a grass rope, about as long as a tall man, fringed
with grass, and decorated with zigzag strips of white paper. These, our
noble father says, are meant for rude images of men offering themselves
in homage to the august gods."

[5] _Yoshi-san. Yoshi_ means good, excellent, and _san_ is like our
"Mr.," but is applied to any one from big man to baby. The girls are
named after flowers, stars, or other pretty or useful objects.

"Oh, yes! I have not forgotten," interrupts Chrysanthemum, "this cord is
stretched from bamboo to bamboo; and Plum-blossom says the rope is to
bar out the nasty two-toed, red, gray, and black demons, the badgers,
the foxes, and other evil spirits from crossing our threshold. But I
think it is the next part of the arch which is the prettiest, the whole
bunch of things they tie in the middle of the rope. There is the
crooked-back lobster, like a bowed old man, with all around the camellia
branches, whose young leaves bud before the old leaves fall. There are
pretty fern leaves shooting forth in pairs, and deep down between them
the little baby fern-leaf. There is the bitter yellow orange, whose
name, you know, means 'many parents and children.' The name of the black
piece of charcoal is a pun on our homestead."

"But best of all," says Yoshi-san, "I like the seaweed hontawara, for it
tells me of our brave Queen Jingu Kogo, who, lest the troops should be
discouraged, concealed from the army that her husband the king had died,
put on armor, and led the great campaign against Korea.[6] Her troops,
stationed at the margin of the sea, were in danger of defeat on account
of the lack of fodder for their horses; when she ordered this hontawara
to be plucked from the shore, and the horses, freshened by their meal of
seaweed, rushed victoriously to battle. On the bronzed clasp of our
worthy father's tobacco-pouch is, our noble father says, the Queen with
her sword and the dear little baby prince,[7] Hachiman, who was born
after the campaign, and who is now our Warrior God,[8] guiding our
troops to victory, and that spirit on whose head squats a dragon has
risen partly from the deep, to present an offering to the Queen and the
Prince."

[6] _The campaign against Korea_: 200 A.D.

[7] _The Queen and the Prince_: See the story of "The Jewels of the
Ebbing and the Flowing Tide" in the book of "Japanese Fairy Tales" in
this series.

[8] Ojin, son of Jingu Kogo, was, much later, deified as the god of
war, Hachiman. See "The Religions of Japan," p. 204.

[Illustration: Presenting the Tide-jewels to Hachiman.]

"Then there is another seaweed, whose name is a pun on 'rejoicing.'
There is the lucky bag that I made, for last year, of a square piece of
paper into which we put chestnuts and the roe of a herring and dried
persimmon fruit. Then I tied up the paper with red and white
paper-string, that the sainted gods might know it was an offering."

[Illustration: "Bronze fishes sitting on their throats."]

Yoshi-san and his little sister had now reached the great gate
ornamented with huge bronze fishes[9] sitting on their throats and
twisting aloft their forked tails, that was near their home. He told his
sister she must wait to know more about the great festival till the time
arrived. They shuffled off their shoes, bowed, till their foreheads
touched the ground, to their parents, ate their evening bowl of rice and
salt fish, said a prayer and burnt a stick of incense to many-armed
Buddha at the family altar. They spread their cotton-wadded quilts,
rested their dear little shaved heads, with quaint circlet of hair, on
the roll of cotton covered with white paper that formed the cushion of
their hard wooden pillows. Soon they fell asleep to their mother's
monotonously chanted lullaby of "Nenné ko."

    "Sleep, my child, sleep, my child,
     Where is thy nurse gone?
     She is gone to the mountains
     To buy thee sweetmeats.
     What shall she buy thee?
     The thundering drum, the bamboo pipe,
     The trundling man, or the paper kite."

[9] The _bronze fishes_, called shachi-hoko, are huge metal figures,
like dolphins, from four to twelve feet high, which were set on the
pinnacles of the old castle towers in the days of feudalism. That from
Nagoya, exhibited at the Vienna Exposition, had scales of solid gold.

The great festival drew still nearer, to the children's delight, as they
watched the previously described graceful bamboo arch rise before their
gateposts. Then came a party of three with an oven, a bottomless tub,
and some matting to replace the bottom. They shifted the pole that
carried these utensils from their shoulders, and commenced to make the
Japanese cake that may be viewed as the equivalent of a Christmas
pudding. They mixed a paste of rice and put the sticky mass, to prevent
rebounding, on the soft mat in the tub. The third man then beat for a
long time the rice cake with a heavy mallet. Yoshi-san liked to watch
the strong man swing down his mallet with dull resounding thuds. The
well-beaten dough was then made up into flattish rounds of varying size
on a pastry board one of the men had brought. Three cakes of graduated
size formed a pyramid that was placed conspicuously on a lacquered
stand, and the cakes were only to be eaten on the 11th of January.

The mother told Plum-blossom and the children to get their clogs and
overcoats and hoods, for she was going to get the New Year's
decorations. The party shuffled off till they came to a stall where were
big grass ropes and fringes and quaint grass boats filled with supposed
bales of merchandise in straw coverings, a sun in red paper, and at bow
and stern sprigs of fir. The whole was brightened by bits of gold leaf,
lightly stuck on, that quivered here and there. When the children had
chosen the harvest ship that seemed most besprinkled with gold,
Plum-blossom bargained about the price. The mother, as a matter of form
and rank, had pretended to take no interest in the purchase. She took
her purse out of her sash, handed it to her servant, who opened it, paid
the shopman, and then returned the purse to her mistress. This she did
with the usual civility of first raising it to her forehead. The
decorations they hung up in their sitting-room. Then they sent presents,
such as large dried carp, tea, eggs, shoes, kerchiefs, fruits, sweets,
or toys to various friends and dependants.

On the 1st of January all were early astir, for the father, dressed at
dawn in full European evening dress,[10] as is customary on such
occasions, had to pay his respects at the levee of the Emperor. When
this duty was over, he returned home and received visitors of rank
inferior to himself. Later in the day and on the following day he paid
visits of New Year greeting to all his friends. He took a present to
those to whom he had sent no gift. Sometimes he had his little boy with
him. For these visits Yoshi-san, in place of his usual flowing robe,
loose trousers, and sash, wore a funny little knickerbocker suit, felt
hat, and boots. These latter, though he thought them grand, felt very
uncomfortable after his straw sandals. They were more troublesome to
take off before stepping on the straw mats, that, being used as chairs
as well as carpets, it would be a rudeness to soil. The maids, always
kneeling, presented them with tiny cups of tea on oval saucers, which,
remaining in the maid's hand, served rather as waiters. Sweetmeats, too,
usually of a soft, sticky nature, but sometimes hard like sugar-plums,
and called "fire-sweets," were offered on carved lotus-leaf or lacquered
trays.

[10] _First of January_: The old Chinese or lunar calendar ended in
Japan, and the solar or Gregorian calendar began, January 1, 1872, when
European dress was adopted by the official class.

For the 2nd of January Plum-blossom bought some pictures of the
treasure-ship or ship of riches, in which were seated the seven Gods of
Wealth.[11] It has been sung thus about this Ship of Luck:--

    "Nagaki yo no,          It is a long night.
    To no numuri no.        The gods of luck sleep.
    Mina mé samé.           They all open their eyes.
    Nami nori funé no.      They ride in a boat on the waves.
    Oto no yoki kana."      The sound is pleasing!

[11] _The seven Gods of Wealth_: Concerning the origin of these popular
deities, see "The Religions of Japan," p. 218.

[Illustration: The Treasure-ship and the Seven Gods of Happiness.]

These pictures they each tied on their pillow to bring lucky dreams.
Great was the laughter in the morning when they related their dreams.
Yoshi-san said he had dreamt he had a beautiful portmanteau full of nice
foreign things, such as comforters, note-books, pencils, india-rubber,
condensed milk, lama, wide-awakes, boots, and brass jewelry. Just as he
opened it, everything vanished and he found only a torn fan, an odd
chop-stick, a horse's cast straw shoe, and a live crow.

When at home, the children, for the first few days of the New Year,
dressed in their best crepe, made up in three silken-wadded layers.
Their crest was embroidered on the centre of the back and on the sleeves
of the quaintly flowered long upper skirt. Beneath its wadded hem peeped
the scarlet rolls of the hems of their under-dresses, and then the
white-stockinged feet, with, passing between the toes, the scarlet thong
of the black-lacquered clog. The little girl's sash was of many-flowered
brocade, with scarlet broidered pouch hanging at her right side. A
scarlet over-sash kept the large sash-knot in its place. Her hair was
gay with knot of scarlet crinkled crepe, lacquered comb, and hairpin of
tiny golden battledore. Resting thereon were a shuttlecock of coral,
another pin of a tiny red lobster and a green pine sprig made of silk.
In her belt was coquettishly stuck the butterfly-broidered case that
held her quire of paper pocket-handkerchiefs. The brother's dress was of
a simpler style and soberer coloring. His pouch of purple had a dragon
worked on it, and the hair of his partly shaven head was tied into a
little gummed tail with white paper-string. They spent most of the day
playing with their pretty new battledores, striking with its plain side
the airy little shuttlecock whose head is made of a black seed. All the
while they sang a rhyme on the numbers up to ten:--

    "Hitogo ni futa-go--mi-watashi yo me-go,
     Itsu yoni musashi nan no yakushi,
     Kokono-ya ja--to yo."

When tired of this fun, they would play with a ball made of paper and
wadding evenly wound about with thread or silk of various colors. They
sang to the throws a song which seems abrupt because some portions have
probably fallen into disuse; it runs thus:--

"See opposite--see Shin-kawa! A very beautiful lady who is one of the
daughters of a chief magistrate of Odawara-cho. She was married to a
salt merchant. He was a man fond of display, and he thought how he would
dress her this year. He said to the dyer, 'Please dye this brocade and
the brocade for the middle dress into seven-or eight-fold dresses;' and
the dyer said, 'I am a dyer, and therefore I will dye and stretch it.
What pattern do you wish?' The merchant replied, 'The pattern of falling
snow and broken twigs, and in the centre the curved bridge of Gojo.'"

[Illustration: Girls' Ball and Counting Game.]

Then to fill up the rhyme come the words, "Chokin, chokera, kokin,
kokera," and the tale goes on: "Crossing this bridge the girl was struck
here and there, and the tea-house girls laughed. Put out of countenance
by this ridicule, she drowned herself in the river Karas, the body sunk,
the hair floated. How full of grief the husband's heart--now the ball
counts a hundred."

This they varied with another song:--

    "One, two, three, four,
     Grate hard charcoal, shave kiri wood;
     Put in the pocket, the pocket is wet,
     Kiyomadzu, on three yenoki trees
     Were three sparrows, chased by a pigeon.
     The sparrows said, 'Chiu, chiu,'
     The pigeon said, 'po, po,'--now the
     Ball counts a hundred."

The pocket referred to means the bottom of the long sleeve, which is apt
to trail and get wet when a child stoops at play. Kiyomadzu may mean a
famous temple that bears that name. Sometimes they would simply count
the turns and make a sort of game of forfeiting and returning the number
of rebounds kept up by each.

Yoshi-san had begun to think battledore and balls too girlish an
amusement. He preferred flying his eagle or mask-like kite, or playing
at cards, verses, or lotteries. Sometimes he played a lively game with
his father, in which the board is divided into squares and diagonals. On
these move sixteen men held by one player and one large piece held by
the second player. The point of the game is either that the holder of
the sixteen pieces hedges the large piece so it that can make no move,
or that the big piece takes all its adversaries. A take can only be made
by the large piece when it finds a piece immediately on each side of it
and a blank point beyond. Or he watched a party of several, with the
pictured sheet of Japanese backgammon before them, write their names on
slips of paper or wood, and throw in turn a die. The slips are placed on
the pictures whose numbers correspond with the throw. At the next round,
if the number thrown by the particular player is written on the picture,
he finds directions as to which picture to move his slip backward or
forward to. He may, however, find his throw a blank and have to remain
at his place. The winning consists in reaching a certain picture. When
tired of these quieter games, the strolling woman player on a
guitar-like instrument, would be called in. Or, a party of Kangura boy
performers afforded pastime by the quaint animal-like movements of the
draped figure. He wears a huge grotesque scarlet mask on his head, and
at times makes this monster appear to stretch out and draw in its neck
by an unseen change in position of the mask from the head to the
gradually extended and draped hand of the actor. The beat of a drum and
the whistle of a bamboo flute formed the accompaniment to the dumb-show
acting.

[Illustration: Firemen's Gymnastics at New Year's Time.]

Yoshi-san thought the 4th and 5th days of January great fun, because
loud shoutings were heard. Running in the direction of the sound, he
found the men of a fire-brigade who had formed a procession to carry
their new paper standard, bamboo ladders, paper lanterns, etc. This
procession paused at intervals. Then the men steadied the ladder with
their long fire-hooks, whilst an agile member of the band mounted the
erect ladder and performed gymnastics at the top. His performance
concluded, he dismounted, and the march continued, the men as before
yelling joyously, at the highest pitch of their voices.

[Illustration: Street Tumblers playing Kangura in Tokio.]

After about a week of fun, life at the villa, gradually resumed its
usual course, the father returned to his office, the mother to her
domestic employments, and the children to school, all having said for
that new year their last joy-wishing greeting--omédéto
(congratulations).




THE CHRYSANTHEMUM SHOW.


Yoshi-san and his Grandmother go to visit the great temple at Shiba.
They walk up its steep stairs, and arrive at the lacquered threshold.
Here they place aside their wooden clogs, throw a few coins into a huge
box standing on the floor. It is covered with a wooden grating so
constructed as to prevent pilfering hands afterward removing the coin.
Then they pull a thick rope attached to a big brass bell like an
exaggerated sheep-bell, hanging from the ceiling, but which gives forth
but a feeble, tinkling sound. To insure the god's attention, this is
supplemented with three distinct claps of the hands, which are afterward
clasped in prayer for a short interval; two more claps mark the
conclusion. Then, resuming their clogs, they clatter down the steep,
copper-bound temple steps into the grounds. Here are stalls innumerable
of toys, fruit, fish-cakes, birds, tobacco-pipes, ironmongery, and rice,
and scattered amidst the stalls are tea-houses, peep-shows, and other
places of amusement. Of these the greatest attraction is a newly-opened
chrysanthemum show.

The chrysanthemums are trained to represent figures. Here is a
celebrated warrior, Kato Kiyomasa by name, who lived about the year
1600, when the eminent Hashiba (Hidéyoshi) ruled Japan. Near the end of
his reign Hashiba, wishing to invade China, but being himself unable to
command the expedition, intrusted the leadership of the fleet and army
to Kiyomasa. They embarked, reached Korea, where a fierce battle was
fought and victory gained by Kiyomasa. When, however, he returned to
Japan, he found Hidéyoshi had died, and the expedition was therefore
recalled. Tales of the liberality and generosity of the Chief, and how
he, single-handed, had slain a large and wild tiger with the spear that
he is represented as holding, led to his being at length addressed as a
god. His face is modelled in plaster and painted, and the yellow
chrysanthemum blossoms may be supposed to be gold bosses on the verdant
armor.

[Illustration: Eating Stand for the Children.]

Next they looked at eccentric varieties of this autumn flower, such as
those having the petals longer and more curly than usual. To show off
the flowers every branch was tied to a stick, which caused Yoshi-san to
think the bushes looked a little stiff and ugly. Near the warrior was a
chrysanthemum-robed lady, Benten, standing in a flowery sailing-boat
that is supposed to contain a cargo of jewels. Three rabbits farther on
appeared to be chatting together. Perhaps the best group of all was old
Fukurokujin, with white beard and bald head. He was conversing with two
of the graceful waterfowl so constantly seen in Japanese decorations. He
is the god of luck, and has a reputation for liking good cheer. This is
suggested by a gourd, a usual form of wine-bottle, that is suspended to
his cane, whilst another gourd contains homilies. He was said to be so
tender-hearted that even timid wild fowl were not afraid of him.

Not the least amusing part of the show was the figure before which
Yoshi's Grandmother exclaimed, "Why, truly, that is clever! Behold, I
pray thee, a barbarian lady, and even her child!" In truth it was an
unconscious caricature of Europeans, although the lady's face had not
escaped being made to look slightly Japanese. The child held a toy, and
had a regular shock head of hair. The frizzed hair of many foreign
children appeared very odd to Yoshi-san. He thought their mothers must
be very unkind not to take the little "western men" more often to the
barber's. He complacently compared the neatness of his own shaven crown
and tidily-clipped and gummed side-locks.

Being tired of standing, the old Grandmother told her grandson they
would go and listen to a recital at the story-teller's. Leaving their
wooden shoes in a pigeon-hole for that purpose, they joined an attentive
throng of some twenty listeners seated on mats in a dimly-lighted room.
Yoshi could not make out all the tale-teller said, but he liked to watch
him toy with his fan as he introduced his listeners to the characters of
his story. Then the story-teller would hold his fan like a rod of
command, whilst he kept his audience in rapt attention, then sometimes,
amidst the laughter of those present, he would raise his voice to a
shrill whine, and would emphasize a joke by a sharp tap on the table
with his fan. After they had listened to one tale Yoshi-san was sleepy.
So they went and bargained with a man outside who had a carriage like a
small gig with shafts called a "jin-riki-sha."[12] He ran after them to
say he consented to wheel them home the two and a half miles for five
cents.

[12] The _jin-riki-sha_, man-power-carriage, invented in Japan in 1871,
is now used all over the East.




FISHSAVE.


[Illustration]

There was once upon a time a little baby whose father was Japanese
ambassador to the court of China, and whose mother was a Chinese lady.
While this child was still in its infancy the ambassador had to return
to Japan. So he said to his wife, "I swear to remember you and to send
you letters by the ambassador that shall succeed me; and as for our
baby, I will despatch some one to fetch it as soon as it is weaned."
Thus saying he departed.

Well, embassy after embassy came (and there was generally at least a
year between each), but never a letter from the Japanese husband to the
Chinese wife. At last, tired of waiting and of grieving, she took her
boy by the hand, and sorrowfully leading him to the seashore, fastened
round his neck a label bearing the words, "The Japanese ambassador's
child." Then she flung him into the sea in the direction of the Japanese
Archipelago, confident that the paternal tie was one which it was not
possible to break, and that therefore father and child were sure to meet
again.

One day, when the former ambassador, the father, was riding by the beach
of Naniwa (where afterward was built the city of Osaka), he saw
something white floating out at sea, looking like a small island. It
floated nearer, and he looked more attentively. There was no doubt about
its being a child. Quite astonished, he stopped his horse and gazed
again. The floating object drew nearer and nearer still. At last with
perfect distinctness it was perceived to be a fair, pretty little boy,
of about four years old, impelled onward by the waves.

[Illustration: Fishsave riding the Dolphin to Japan.]

Still closer inspection showed that the boy rode bravely on the back of
an enormous fish. When the strange rider had dismounted on the strand,
the ambassador ordered his attendants to take the manly little fellow in
their arms, when lo, and behold! there was the label round his neck, on
which was written, "The Japanese ambassador's child." "Oh, yes," he
exclaimed, "it must be my child and no other, whom its mother, angry at
having received no letters from me, must have thrown into the sea. Now,
owing to the indissoluble bond tying together parents and children, he
has reached me safely, riding upon a fish's back." The air of the little
creature went to his heart, and he took and tended him most lovingly.

To the care of the next embassy that went to the court of China, he
intrusted a letter for his wife, in which he informed her of all the
particulars; and she, who had quite believed the child to be dead,
rejoiced at its marvellous escape.

The child grew up to be a man, whose handwriting was beautiful.[13]
Having been saved by a fish, he was given the name of "Fishsave."

[13] _Beautiful handwriting_ was considered one of the most admirable of
accomplishments in old Japan.




THE FILIAL GIRL.


[Illustration: Bowing before her Mother's Mirror.]

A girl once lived in the province of Echigo,[14] who from her earliest
years tended her parents with all filial piety. Her mother, when, after
a long illness she lay at the point of death, took out a mirror that she
had for many years concealed, and giving it to her daughter, spoke thus,
"when I have ceased to exist, take this mirror in thy hand night and
morning, and looking at it, fancy that 'tis I thou seest."

[14] A _Echigo:_ the province on the west coast, now famous for its
petroleum wells.

With these last words she expired, and the girl, full of grief, and
faithful to her mother's commands, used to take out the mirror night and
morning, and gazing in it, saw there in a face like to the face of her
mother. Delighted thereat (for the village was situated in a remote
country district among the mountains, and a mirror was a thing the girl
had never heard of), she daily worshipped her reflected face. She bowed
before it till her forehead touched the mat, as if this image had been
in very truth her mother's own self.

Her father one day, astonished to see her thus occupied, inquired the
reason, which she directly told him. But he burst out laughing, and
exclaimed, "Why! 'tis only thine own face, so like to thy mother's, that
is reflected. It is not thy mother's at all!"

This revelation distressed the girl. Yet she replied: "Even if the face
be not my mother's, it is the face of one who belonged to my mother, and
therefore my respectfully saluting it twice every day is the same as
respectfully saluting her very self." And so she continued to worship
the mirror more and more while tending her father with all filial
piety--at least so the story goes, for even to-day, as great poverty and
ignorance prevail in some parts of Echigo, the peasantry know as little
of mirrors as did this little girl.




THE PARSLEY QUEEN.[15]


How curious that the daughter of a peasant dwelling in a obscure country
village near Aska, in the province of Yamato,[16] should become a Queen!
Yet such was the case. Her father died while she was yet in her infancy,
and the girl applied herself to the tending of her mother with all
filial piety. One day when she had gone out in the fields to gather some
parsley, of which her mother was very fond, it chanced that Prince
Shotoku, the great Buddhist teacher,[17] was making a progress to his
palace, and all the inhabitants of the country-side flocked to the road
along which the procession was passing, in order to behold the gorgeous
spectacle, and to show their respect for the Mikado's son. The filial
girl, alone, paying no heed to what was going on around her, continued
picking her parsley. She was observed from his carriage by the Prince,
who, astonished at the circumstance, sent one of his retainers to
inquire into its cause.

[15] A story much like that of "The Parsley Queen" is told in the
province of Echizen.

[16] Yamato is the old classic centre of ancient life and history.

[17] _Prince Shotoku Taishi_, a great patron of Buddhism, who, though a
layman, is canonized (see "The Religions of Japan," p. 180).

[Illustration: Imitating the Procession to the Temple.]

The girl replied, "My mother bade me pick parsley, and I am following
her instructions--that is the reason why I have not turned round to pay
my respects to the Prince." The latter being informed of her answer, was
filled with admiration at the strictness of her filial piety. Alighting
at her mother's cottage on the way back, he told her of the occurrence,
and placing the girl in the next carriage to his own, took her home with
him to the Imperial Palace, and ended by making her his wife, upon which
the people, knowing her story, gave her the name of the "Parsley Queen."




THE TWO DAUGHTERS.


At Akita, in the province of Inaba, lived an independent gentleman,[18]
who had two daughters, by whom he was ministered to with all filial
piety. He was fond of shooting with a gun, and thus very often committed
the sin (according to the teaching of holy Buddha) of taking life.[19]
He would never hearken to the admonitions of his daughters. These,
mindful of the future, and aghast at the prospect in store for him in
the world to come, frequently endeavored to convert him. Many were the
tears they shed. At last one day, after they had pleaded with him more
earnestly still than before, the father, touched by their supplications,
promised to shoot no more. But, after a while, some of his neighbors
came round to request him to shoot for them two storks.[20] He was
easily led to consent by the strength of his natural liking for the
sport. Still he would not allow a word to be breathed to his daughters.
He slipped out at night, gun in hand, after they were, as he imagined,
fast asleep.

[18] _An independent gentleman_, a _ronin_ or "wave man," one who had
left the service of his feudal lord and was independent,--sometimes a
gentleman and a scholar, oftener a ruffian or vagabond.

[19] Buddhism, on account of the doctrine of the transmigration of
souls, forbids the taking of life.

[20] There are very few storks in Japan, but white heron are quite
common.

[Illustration: The Two White Birds.]

They, however, had heard everything, and the elder sister said to the
younger: "Do what we may, our father will not condescend to follow our
words of counsel, and nothing now remains but to bring him to a
knowledge of the truth by the sacrifice of one of our own lives.
To-night is fortunately moonless; and if I put on white garments and go
to the neighborhood of the bay, he will take me for a stork and shoot me
dead. Do you continue to live and tend our father with all the services
of filial piety." Thus she spake, her eyes dimmed with the rolling
tears. But the younger sister, with many sobs, exclaimed: "For you, my
sister, for you is it to receive the inheritance of this house. So do
you condescend to be the one to live, and to practise filial devotion to
our father, while I will offer up my life."

Thus did each strive for death. The elder one, without more words,
seizing a white garment rushed out of the house. The younger one,
unwilling to cede to her the place of honor, putting on a white gown
also, followed in her track to the shore of the bay. There, making her
way to her among the rushes, she continued the dispute as to which of
the two should be the one to die.

Meanwhile the father, peering around him in the darkness, saw something
white. Taking it for the storks, he aimed at the spot with his gun, and
did not miss his shot, for it pierced through the ribs of the elder of
the two girls. The younger, helpless in her grief, bent over her
sister's body. The father, not dreaming of what he was about, and
astonished to find that his having shot one of the storks did not make
the other fly away, discharged another shot at the remaining white
figure. Lamentable to relate, he hit his second daughter as he had the
first. She fell, pierced through the chest, and was laid on the same
grassy pillow as her sister.

The father, pleased with his success, came up to the rushes to look for
his game. But what! no storks, alas! alas! No, only his two daughters!
Filled with consternation, he asked what it all meant. The girls,
breathing with difficulty, told him that their resolve had been to show
him the crime of taking life, and thus respectfully to cause him to
desist therefrom. They expired before they had time to say more.

The father was filled with sorrow and remorse. He took the two corpses
home on his back. As there was now no help for what was done, he placed
them reverently on a wood stack, and there they burnt, making smoke to
the blowing wind. From that hour he was a converted man. He built
himself a small cell of branches of trees, near the village bridge.
Placing therein the memorial tablets of his two daughters, he performed
before them the due religious rites, and became the most pious follower
of Buddha. Ah! that was filial piety in very truth! a marvel, that these
girls should throw away their own lives, so that, by exterminating the
evil seed in their father's conduct in this world, they might guard him
from its awful fruit in the world to come!




SECOND SIGHT.


A traveller arrived at a village, and looking about for an inn, he found
one that, although rather shabby, would, he thought, suit him. So he
asked whether he could pass the night there, and the mistress said
certainly. No one lived at the inn except the mistress, so that the
traveller was quite undisturbed.

The next morning, after he had finished break-fast, the traveller went
out of the house to make arrangements for continuing his journey. To his
surprise, his hostess asked him to stop a moment. She said that he owed
her a thousand pounds, solemnly declaring that he had borrowed that sum
from her inn long years ago. The traveller was astonished greatly at
this, as it seemed to him a preposterous demand. So fetching his trunk,
he soon hid himself by drawing a curtain all round him.

After thus secluding himself for some time, he called the woman and
asked, "Was your father an adept in the art of second sight?" The woman
replied, "Yes; my father secluded himself just as you have done." Said
the traveller, "Explain fully to me why you say I owe you so large a
sum." The mistress then related that when her father was going to die,
he bequeathed her all his possessions except his money. He said, that
on a certain day, ten years later, a traveller would lodge at her house,
and that, as the said traveller owed him a thousand pounds, she could
reclaim at that time this sum from his debtor. She must subsist in the
meanwhile by the gradual sale of her father's goods.

Hitherto, being unable to earn as much money as she spent, she had been
disposing of the inherited valuables, but had now exhausted nearly all
of them. In the meantime, the predicted date had arrived, and a
traveller had lodged at her house, just as her father had foretold.
Hence she concluded he was the man from whom she should recover the
thousand pounds.

On hearing this the traveller said that all that the woman had related
was perfectly true. Taking her to one side of the room, he told her to
tap gently with her knuckles all over a wooden pillar. At one part the
pillar gave forth a hollow sound. The traveller said that the money
spoken about by the poor woman lay hidden in this part of the pillar.
Then advising her to spend it only gradually, he went on his way.

The father of this woman had been extremely skilful in the art of second
sight or clairvoyance. By its means he had discovered that his daughter
would pass through ten years of extreme poverty and that on a certain
future day a diviner would come and lodge in the house. The father was
also aware that if he bequeathed his daughter his money at once, she
would spend it extravagantly. Upon consideration, therefore, he hid the
money in the pillar, and instructed his daughter as related. In
accordance with the father's prophecy, the man came and lodged in the
house on the predicted day, and by the art of divination discovered the
thousand pounds.




GAMES.


[Illustration]

The games we are daily playing at in our nurseries, or some of them,
have been also played at for centuries by Japanese boys and girls. Such
are blindman's buff (eye-hiding), puss-in-the-corner, catching, racing,
scrambling, a variety of "here we go round the mulberry bush." The game
of knuckle-bones is played with five little stuffed bags instead of
sheep bones, which the children cannot get, as sheep are not used by the
Japanese. Also performances such as honey-pots, heads in chancery,
turning round back to back, or hand to hand, are popular among that
long-sleeved, shaven-pated small fry. Still better than snow-balling,
the lads like to make a snow-man, with a round charcoal ball for each
eye, and a streak of charcoal for his mouth. This they call Buddha's
squat follower "Daruma," whose legs rotted off through his stillness
over his lengthy prayers.

[Illustration: Eye-Hiding, or Blindman's Buff.]

[Illustration: Stilts and Clog-Throwing.]

As might be expected, some of the Japanese games differ slightly from
ours, or else are altogether peculiar to that country. The facility with
which a Japanese child slips its shoes on and off, and the absence on
the part of the parents of conventional or health scruples regarding
bare feet, lead to a sort of game of ball in which the shoes take the
part of the ball, and to hiding pranks with the sandal, something like
our hunt the slipper and hide-and-seek. On the other hand, kago play is
entirely Japanese. In this game, two children carry a bamboo pole on
their shoulders, on to which clings a third child, in imitation of a
usual mode of travelling in Japan. In this the passenger is seated in a
light bamboo palanquin borne on men's shoulders. A miniature festival is
thought great fun, when a few bits of rough wood mounted on wheels are
decorated with cut paper and evergreens, and drawn slowly along amidst
the shouts of the exultant contrivers, in mimicry of the real festival
cars. Games of soldiers are of two types. When copied from the
historical fights, one boy, with his kerchief bound round his temples,
makes a supposed marvelous and heroic defence. He slashes with his
bamboo sword, as a harlequin waves his baton, to deal magical
destruction all around on the attacking party. When the late
insurrection commenced in Satsuma, the Tokio boys, hearing of the
campaign on modern tactics, would form attack and defence parties. A
little company armed with bamboo breech-loaders would march to the
assault of the roguish battalion lurking round the corner.

[Illustration: Playing at Batter-Cakes.]

Wrestling, again, is popular with children, not so much on account of
the actual throwing, as from the love of imitating the curious growling
an animal-like springing, with which the professional wrestlers
encounter one another. Swimming, fishing, and general puddling about are
congenial occupation for hot summer days; whilst some with a toy bamboo
pump, like a Japanese feeble fire-engine, manage to send a squirt of
water at a friend, as the firemen souse their comrades standing on the
burning housetops. Itinerant street sellers have, on stalls of a height
suited to their little customers, an array of what looks like pickles.
This is made of bright seaweed pods that the children buy to make a
"clup!" sort of noise with between their lips, so that they go about
apparently hiccoughing all day long. The smooth glossy leaves of the
camellia, as common as hedge roses are in England, make very fair little
trumpets when blown after having been expertly rolled up, or in spring
their fallen blossoms are strung into gay chains.

On a border-land between games and sweets are the stalls of the
itinerant batter-sellers. At these the tiny purchaser enjoys the
evidently much appreciated privilege of himself arranging his little
measure of batter in fantastic forms, and drying them upon a hot metal
plate. A turtle is a favorite design, as the first blotch of batter
makes its body, and six judiciously arranged smaller dabs soon suggest
its head, tail, and feet.




THE GAMES AND SPORTS OF JAPANESE CHILDREN[21]


How often in Japan one sees that the children of a larger growth enjoy
with equal zest games which are the same, or nearly the same, as those
of lesser size and fewer years! Certain it is that the adults do all in
their power to provide for the children their full quota of play and
harmless sports. We frequently see full-grown and able-bodied natives
indulging in amusements which the men of the West lay aside with their
pinafores, or when their curls are cut. If we, in the conceited pride of
our superior civilization, look down upon this as childish, we must
remember that the Oriental, from the pinnacle of his lofty, and to him
immeasurably elevated, civilization, looks down upon our manly sports
with contempt, thinking it a condescension even to notice them.

[21] From the paper read before The Asiatic Society of Japan.

[Illustration: Hoisting the Rice-beer Keg On Festival-day.]

A very noticeable change has passed over the Japanese people since the
modern advent of foreigners in respect to their love of amusement. Their
sports are by no means as numerous or elaborate as formerly, and they do
not enter into them with the enthusiasm that formerly characterized
them. The children's festivals and sports are rapidly losing their
importance, and some now are rarely seen. Formerly the holidays were
almost as numerous as saints' days in the calendar. Apprentice-boys had
a liberal quota of holidays stipulated in their indentures; and as the
children counted the days before each great holiday on their fingers, we
may believe that a great deal of digital arithmetic was being
continually done. We do not know of any country in the world in which
there are so many toy-shops or so many fairs for the sale of things
which delight children. Not only are the streets of every city
abundantly supplied with shops, filled as full as a Christmas stocking
with gaudy toys, but in small towns and villages one or more children's
bazaars may be found. The most gorgeous display of all things pleasing
to the eye of a Japanese child is found in the courts or streets leading
to celebrated temples. On a festival day, the toy-sellers and itinerant
showmen throng with their most attractive wares or sights in front of
the shrine or temple. On the walls and in conspicuous places near the
churches and cathedrals in Europe and America, the visitor is usually
regaled with the sight of undertakers' signs and gravediggers'
advertisements. How differently the Japanese act in these respects let
any one see, by visiting one or all of the three greatest temples in
Tokio, or one of the numerous smaller shrines on some renowned festival
day.

We have not space in this paper to name or describe the numerous street
shows and showmen who are supposed to be interested mainly in
entertaining children; though in reality adults form a part, often the
major part, of their audiences. Any one desirous of seeing these in full
glory must ramble down some of the side streets in Tokio, on some fair
day, and especially on a general holiday.

Among the most common are the street theatricals, in which two, three,
or four trained boys and girls do some very creditable acting, chiefly
in comedy. Raree shows, in which the looker-on sees the inside splendors
of the nobles' homes, or the heroic acts of Japanese warriors, or some
famous natural scenery, are very common. The showman, as he pulls the
wires that change the scenes, entertains the spectators with songs. The
outside of his box is usually adorned with pictures of famous actors,
nine-tailed foxes, demons of all colors, people committing hari-kiri or
stomach cutting, bloody massacres, or some such staple horror in which
the normal Japanese so delights. Story-tellers, posturers, dancers,
actors of charades, conjurers, flute-players, song-singers are found on
these streets, but those who specially delight the children are the men
who, by dint of fingers and breath, work a paste made of wheat-gluten
into all sorts of curious and gayly-smeared toys, such as flowers,
trees, noblemen, fair ladies, various utensils, the foreigner, the
jin-riki-sha, etc. Nearly every itinerant seller of candy,
starch-cakes, sugared peas, and sweetened beans, has several methods of
lottery by which he adds to the attractions on his stall. A disk having
a revolving arrow, whirled round by the hand of a child, or a number of
strings which are connected with the faces of imps, goddesses, devils,
or heroes, lends the excitement of chance, and, when a lucky pull or
whirl occurs, occasions the subsequent addition to the small fraction of
a sen's worth to be bought. Men or women walk about, carrying a small
charcoal brazier under a copper griddle, with batter, spoons, cups, and
shoyu[22] sauce to hire out for the price of a jumon[23] each to the
little urchins who spend an afternoon of bliss, making their own
griddle-cakes and eating them. The seller of sugar-jelly exhibits a
devil, taps a drum, and dances for the benefit of his baby-customers.
The seller of nice pastry does the same, with the addition of gymnastics
and skilful tricks with balls of dough. In every Japanese city there are
scores, if not hundreds of men and women who obtain a livelihood by
amusing the children.

[22] _Shoyu_: the origin of the English soy.

[23] _A jumon_: the tenth part of a sen or cent.

Some of the games of Japanese children are of a national character, and
are indulged in by all classes. Others are purely local or exclusive.
Among the former are those which belong to the great festival days,
which in the old calendar (before 1872) enjoyed vastly more importance
than under the new one. Beginning with the first of the year, there are
a number of games and sports peculiar to this time. The girls, dressed
in their best robes and girdles, with their faces powdered and their
lips painted, until they resemble the peculiar colors seen on a beetle's
wings, and their hair arranged in the most attractive coiffure, are out
upon the street playing battledore and shuttlecock. They play not only
in twos and threes, but also in circles. The shuttlecock is a small
seed, often gilded, stuck round with feathers arranged like the petals
of a flower. The battledore is a wooden bat; one side of which is of
bare wood, while the other has the raised effigy of some popular actor,
hero of romance, or singing girl in the most ultra-Japanese style of
beauty. The girls evidently highly appreciate this game, as it gives
abundant opportunity for the display of personal beauty, figure, and
dress. Those who fail in the game often have their faces marked with
ink, or a circle drawn round the eyes. The boys sing a song that the
wind will blow, the girls sing that it may be calm so that their
shuttlecocks may fly straight. The little girls at this time play with a
ball made of cotton cord, covered elaborately with many strands of
bright vari-colored silk.

Inside the house they have games suited not only for the daytime, but
for the evenings. Many foreigners have wondered what the Japanese do at
night, and how the long winter evenings are spent. On fair, and
especially moonlight nights, most of the people are out of doors, and
many of the children with them. Markets and fairs are held regularly at
night in Tokio, and in other large cities. The foreigner living in a
Japanese city, even if he were blind, could tell by stepping out of
doors, whether the weather were clear and fine, or disagreeable. On dark
and stormy nights the stillness of a great city like Tokio is unbroken
and very impressive; but on a fair and moonlight night the hum and
bustle tell one that the people are out in throngs, and make one feel
that it is a city that he lives in.

In most of the castle towns in Japan, it was formerly the custom of the
people, especially of the younger, to assemble on moonlight nights in
the streets or open spaces near the castle gates, and dance a sort of
subdued dance, moving round in circles and clapping their hands. These
dances often continued during the entire night, the following day being
largely consumed in sleep. In the winter evenings in Japanese households
the Japanese children amuse themselves with their sports, or are amused
by their elders, who tell them entertaining stories. The Samurai father
relates to his son Japanese history and heroic lore, to fire him with
enthusiasm and a love of those achievements which every Samurai youth
hopes at some day to perform. Then there are numerous social
entertainments, at which the children above a certain age are allowed to
be present.

But the games relied on as standard means of amusement, and seen
especially about New Year, are those of cards. In one of these, a large,
square sheet of paper is laid on the floor. On this card are the names
and pictures of the fifty-three post-stations between old Yedo and
Kioto. At the place Kioto are put a few coins, or a pile of cakes, or
some such prizes, and the game is played with dice. Each throw advances
the player toward the goal, and the one arriving first obtains the
prize. At this time of the year, also, the games of what we may call
literary cards are played a great deal. The Iroha Garuta[24] are small
cards each containing a proverb. The proverb is printed on one card, and
the picture illustrating it upon another. Each proverb begins with a
certain one of the fifty Japanese letters, i, ro, ha, etc., and so
through the syllabary. The children range themselves in a circle, and
the cards are shuffled and dealt. One is appointed to be reader. Looking
at his cards he reads the proverb. The player who has the picture
corresponding to the proverb calls out, and the match is made. Those
who are rid of their cards first, win the game. The one holding the
last card is the loser. If he be a boy, he has his face marked curiously
with ink. If a girl, she has a paper or wisp of straw stuck in her hair.

[24] _Garuta_, or karuta, our word "card," as spoken on Japanese lips.

The One Verse (from each of the) Hundred Poets game consists of two
hundred cards, on which are inscribed the one hundred stanzas or poems
so celebrated and known in every household. A stanza of Japanese poetry
usually consists of two parts, a first and second, or upper and lower
clause. The manner of playing the game is as follows: The reader reads
half the stanza on his card, and the player, having the card on which
the other half is written, calls out, and makes a match. Some children
become so familiar with these poems that they do not need to hear the
entire half of the stanza read, but frequently only the first word.

The game of Ancient Odes, that named after the celebrated Genji
(Minamoto) family of the Middle Ages, and the Shi Garuta are all
card-games of a similar nature, but can be thoroughly enjoyed only by
well-educated Chinese scholars, as the references and quotations are
written in Chinese and require a good knowledge of the Chinese and
Japanese classics to play them well. To boys who are eager to become
proficient in Chinese it often acts as an incentive to be told that
they will enjoy these games after certain attainments in scholarship
have been made. Having made these attainments, they play the game
frequently, especially during vacation, to impress on their minds what
they have already learned.

Two other games are played which may be said to have an educational
value. They are the "Wisdom Boards" and the "Ring of Wisdom." The former
consists of a number of flat thin pieces of wood, cut in many
geometrical shapes. Certain possible figures are printed on paper as
models, and the boy tries to form them out of the pieces given him. In
some cases much time and thinking are required to form the figure. The
ring-puzzle is made of rings of bamboo or iron, on a bar. Boys having a
talent for mathematics, or those who have a natural capacity to
distinguish size and form, succeed very well at these games and enjoy
them.

The game of Checkers is played on a raised stand or table about six
inches in height. The number of "go" or checkers, including black and
white, is 360. In the Sho-gi, or game of Chess, the pieces number 40 in
all. Backgammon is also a favorite play, and there are several forms of
it.

[Illustration: Getting Ready to Raise the big Humming Kite with the Sun
Emblem.]

About the time of old style New Year's Day, when the winds of February
and March are favorable to the sport, kites are flown, and there are few
games in which Japanese boys, from the infant on the back to the
full-grown and the over-grown boy, take more delight. I have never
observed, however, as foreign books so often tell us, old men flying
kites and boys merely looking on. The Japanese kites are made of tough
paper pasted on a frame of bamboo sticks, and are usually of a
rectangular shape. Some of them, however, are made to represent children
or men, several kinds of birds and animals, fans, etc. On the
rectangular kites are pictures of ancient heroes or beautiful women,
dragons, horses, monsters of various kinds, the symbol of the sun, or
huge Chinese characters. Among the faces most frequently seen on these
kites are those of the national heroes or heroines. Some of the kites
are six feet square. Many of them have a thin tense ribbon of whalebone
at the top of the kite which vibrates in the wind, making a loud humming
noise. The boys frequently name their kites Genji or Héiki, and each
contestant endeavors to destroy that of his rival. For this purpose the
string for ten or twenty feet near the kite end is first covered with
glue, and then dipped into pounded glass, by which the string becomes
covered with tiny blades, each able to cut quickly and deeply. By
getting the kite in proper position and suddenly sawing the string of
his antagonist, the severed kite falls, to be reclaimed by the victor.

The Japanese tops are of several kinds, some are made of univalve
shells, filled with wax. Those intended for contests are made of hard
wood, and are iron-clad by having a heavy iron ring round as a sort of
tire. The boys wind and throw them in a manner somewhat different from
ours. The object of the player is to damage his adversary's top, or to
make it cease spinning. The whipping top is also known and used. Besides
the athletic sports of leaping, running, wrestling, slinging, the
Japanese boys play at blindman's buff, hiding-whoop, and with stilts,
pop-guns, and blow-guns. On stilts they play various games and run
races.

In the northern and western coast provinces, where the snow falls to the
depth of many feet and remains long on the ground, it forms the material
of the children's playthings, and the theatre of many of their sports.
Besides sliding on the ice, coasting with sleds, building snow-forts
and fighting mimic battles with snow-balls, they make many kinds of
images and imitations of what they see and know. In America the boy's
snow-man is a Paddy with a damaged hat, clay pipe in mouth, and the
shillelah in his hand. In Japan the snow-man is an image of Daruma.
Daruma was one of the followers of Shaka (Buddha) who, by long
meditation in a squatting position, lost his legs from paralysis and
sheer decay. The images of Daruma are found by the hundreds in
toy-shops, as tobacconists' signs, and as the snow-men of the boys.
Occasionally the figure of Géiho, the sage with a forehead and skull so
high that a ladder was required to reach his pate, or huge cats and the
peculiar-shaped dogs seen in the toy-shops, take the place of Daruma.

[Illustration: Daruma, the Snow-Image.]

Many of the amusements of the children in-doors are mere imitations of
the serious affairs of adult life. Boys who have been to the theatre
come home to imitate the celebrated actors, and to extemporize mimic
theatricals for themselves. Feigned sickness and "playing the doctor,"
imitating with ludicrous exactness the pomp and solemnity of the real
man of pills and powders, and the misery of the patient, are the
diversions of very young children. Dinners, tea-parties, and even
weddings and funerals, are imitated in Japanese children's plays.

Among the ghostly games intended to test the courage of, or perhaps to
frighten children, are two plays called respectively, the "One Hundred
Stories" and "Soul-Examination." In the former play, a company of boys
and girls assemble round the hibachi, while they or an adult, an aged
person or a servant, usually relate ghost stories, or tales calculated
to straighten the hair and make the blood crawl. In a distant dark room,
a lamp (the usual dish of oil) with a wick of one hundred strands or
piths, is set. At the conclusion of each story, the children in turn
must go to the dark room and remove a strand of the wick. As the lamp
burns down low the room becomes gloomy and dark, and the last boy, it is
said, always sees a demon, a huge face, or something terrible. In
"Soul-Examination," a number of boys during the day plant some flags in
different parts of a graveyard, under a lonely tree, or by a haunted
hill-side. At night they meet together and tell stories about ghosts,
goblins, devils, etc., and at the conclusion of each tale, when the
imagination is wrought up, the boys, one at a time, must go out in the
dark and bring back the flags, until all are brought in.

On the third day of the third month is held the Doll Festival. This is
the day especially devoted to the girls, and to them it is the greatest
day in the year. It has been called in some foreign works on Japan, the
"Feast of Dolls." Several days before the Matsuri the shops are gay with
the images bought for this occasion, and which are on sale only at this
time of year. Every respectable family has a number of these
splendidly-dressed images, which are from four inches to a foot in
height, and which accumulate from generation to generation. When a
daughter is born in the house during the previous year, a pair of hina
or images are purchased for the little girl, which she plays with until
grown up. When she is married her hina are taken with her to her
husband's house, and she gives them to her children, adding to the stock
as her family increases. The images are made of wood or enamelled clay.
They represent the Mikado and his wife; the kugé or old Kioto nobles,
their wives and daughters, the court minstrels, and various personages
in Japanese mythology and history. A great many other toys,
representing all the articles in use in a Japanese lady's chamber, the
service of the eating table, the utensils of the kitchen, travelling
apparatus, etc., some of them very elaborate and costly, are also
exhibited and played with on this day. The girls make offerings of saké
and dried rice, etc., to the effigies of the emperor and empress, and
then spend the day with toys, mimicking the whole round of Japanese
female life, as that of child, maiden, wife, mother, and grand-mother.
In some old Japanese families in which I have visited, the display of
dolls and images was very large and extremely beautiful.

The greatest day in the year for the boys is on the fifth day of the
fifth month. On this day is celebrated what has been called the "Feast
of Flags." Previous to the coming of the day, the shops display for sale
the toys and tokens proper to the occasion. These are all of a kind
suited to young Japanese masculinity. They consist of effigies of heroes
and warriors, generals and commanders, soldiers on foot and horse, the
genii of strength and valor, wrestlers, etc. The toys represent the
equipments and regalia of a daimio's procession, all kinds of things
used in war, the contents of an arsenal, flags, streamers, banners, etc.
A set of these toys is bought for every son born in the family. Hence in
old Japanese families the display on the fifth day of the fifth month
is extensive and brilliant. Besides the display in-doors, on a bamboo
pole erected outside is hung, by a string to the top of the pole, a
representation of a large fish in paper. The paper being hollow, the
breeze easily fills out the body of the fish, which flaps its tail and
fins in a natural manner. One may count hundreds of these floating in
the air over the city.

The nobori, as the paper fish is called, is intended to show that a son
has been born during the year, or at least that there are sons in the
family. The fish represented is the carp, which is able to swim swiftly
against the current and to leap over waterfalls. This act of the carp is
a favorite subject with native artists, and is also typical of the young
man, especially the young Samurai, mounting over all difficulties to
success and quiet prosperity.

One favorite game, which has now gone out of fashion, was that in which
the boys formed themselves into a daimio's procession, having
forerunners, officers, etc., and imitating as far as possible the pomp
and circumstance of the old daimio's train. Another game which was very
popular represented, in mimic war, the struggles of two great noble
families (like the red and white roses of England). The boys of a town,
district, or school, ranged themselves into two parties, each with
flags. Those of the Héiki were white, those of the Genji red. Sometimes
every boy had a flag, and the object of the contest, which was begun at
the tap of a gun, was to seize the flags of the enemy. The party
securing the greatest number of flags won the victory. In other cases
the flags were fastened on the back of each contestant, who was armed
with a bamboo for a sword, and who had fastened on a pad over his head a
flat round piece of earthenware, so that a party of them looked not
unlike the faculty of a college. Often these parties of boys numbered
several hundred, and were marshalled in squadrons as in a battle. At a
given signal the battle commenced, the object being to break the earthen
disk on the head of the enemy. The contest was usually very exciting.
Whoever had his earthen disk demolished had to retire from the field.
The party having the greatest number of broken disks, indicative of
cloven skulls, were declared the losers. This game has been forbidden by
the Government as being too severe and cruel. Boys were often injured in
it.

There are many other games which we simply mention without describing.
There are three games played by the hands, which every observant
foreigner long resident in Japan must have seen played, as men and women
seem to enjoy them as much as children. In the Stone game, a stone, a
pair of scissors, and a wrapping-cloth are represented. The stone
signifies the clenched fist, the parted fore and middle fingers the
scissors, and the curved forefinger and thumb the cloth. The scissors
can cut the cloth, but not the stone, but the cloth can wrap the stone.
The two players sit opposite each other at play, throwing out their
hands so as to represent either of the three things, and win, lose, or
draw, as the case may be.

In the Fox game, the fox, man, and gun are the figures. The gun kills
the fox, but the fox deceives the man, and the gun is useless without
the man. In the third game, five or six boys represent the various
grades of rank, from the peasant up to the great daimios or shogun. By
superior address and skill in the game the peasant rises to the highest
rank, or the man of highest rank is degraded.

From the nature of the Japanese language, in which a single word or
sound may have a great many significations, riddles and puns are of
extraordinary frequency. I do not know of any published collection of
riddles, but every Japanese boy has a good stock of them on hand. There
are few Japanese works of light, and perhaps of serious, literature, in
which puns do not continually recur. The popular songs and poems are
largely plays on words. There are also several puzzles played with
sticks, founded upon the shape of certain Chinese characters. As for
the short and simple story-books, song-books, nursery rhymes, lullabys,
and what for want of a better name may be styled Mother Goose
Literature, they are as plentiful as with us, but they have a very
strongly characteristic Japanese flavor, both in style and matter.

It is curious that the game of foot-ball seems to have been confined to
the courtiers of the Mikado's court, where there were regular
instructors of the game. In the games of Pussy wants a Corner and
Prisoner's Base, the Oni, or devil, takes the place of Puss or the
officer.

I have not mentioned all the games and sports of Japanese children, but
enough has been said to show their general character. In general they
seem to be natural, sensible, and in every sense beneficial. Their
immediate or remote effects, next to that of amusement, are either
educational, or hygienic. Some teach history, some geography, some
excellent sentiments or good language. Others inculcate reverence and
obedience to the elder brother or sister, to parents or to the emperor,
or stimulate the manly virtues of courage and contempt for pain. The
study of the subject leads one to respect more highly, rather than
otherwise, the Japanese people for being such affectionate fathers and
mothers, and for having such natural and docile children. The character
of the children's plays and their encouragement by the parents has, I
think, much to do with that frankness, affection, and obedience on the
side of the children, and that kindness and sympathy on the side of the
parents, which are so noticeable in Japan, and which is one of the many
good points of Japanese life and character.




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_REVISED AND ILLUSTRATED_

THE HEART OF OAK BOOKS

A Collection of Traditional Rhymes and Stories for Children, and of
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EDITED BY

CHARLES ELIOT NORTON

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  =Penniman's New Practical Speller.= Contains 6500 words. 20 cents.

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  =Penniman's Prose Dictation Exercises.= 25 cents.

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  =Smith's Studies in Nature, and Language Lessons.= A combination of
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Elementary Science


  =Austin's Observation Blanks in Mineralogy.= Detailed studies of 35
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  =Clark's Practical Methods in Microscopy.= Gives in detail
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  =Clarke's How to Find the Stars.= Accompanies the above and helps to
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  =Colton's Elementary Physiology and Hygiene.= For grammar grades. 317
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   XVI. Phenix's Lessons in Chemistry. 20 cts.

         Pupils' Note-book to accompany No. 15. 10 cts.

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  =Ricks's Natural History Object Lessons.= Information on plants and
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  =Rick's Object Lessons and How to Give Them.=

    Vol. I. Gives lessons for primary grades. 200 pages. 90 cents.

    Vol. II. Gives lessons for grammar and intermediate grades. 212
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  =Scott's Nature Study and the Child.= A manual for teachers, with
      outlines of lessons and courses, detailed studies of animal and
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      study to expression. 652 pages. Illustrated. Retail price, $1.50.

  =Sever's Elements of Agriculture.= For grammar grades. Illustrated.
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  =Shaler's First Book in Geology.= A helpful introduction to the study
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      cts. Boards, 45 cts.

  =Smith's Studies in Nature.= Combines natural history and language
      work. 48 pages. Paper. 15 cents.

  =Spear's Leaves and Flowers.= An elementary botany for pupils under
      twelve. 103 pages. Illustrated. 25 cents.

  =Wright's Seaside and Wayside Nature Reader, No. 4.= Elementary
      lessons in geology, astronomy, world life, etc. 372 pages.
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Elementary Mathematics


  =Atwood's Complete Graded Arithmetic.= New edition. Work for each
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      65 cts.

  =Badlam's Aids to Number.= Teacher's edition--First series, Nos. 1 to
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  =Bigelow and Boyden's Primary Number Manual.= For teachers. 25 cts.

  =Branson's Methods of Teaching Arithmetic.= 15 cts.

  =Hanus's Geometry in the Grammar Schools.= An essay, with outline of
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  =Heath's Beginner's Arithmetic.= For first and second years. 30 cts.

  =Heath's Primary Arithmetic.= Illustrated in color. 35 cts.

  =Heath's Complete Practical Arithmetic.= 65 cts.

  =Howland's Drill Cards.= For middle grades. Each, 3 cts.; per hundred,
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  =Hunt's Geometry for Grammar Schools.= The definitions and elementary
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  =Joy's Arithmetic Without a Pencil.= Mental Arithmetic. 35 cts.

  =Pierce's Review Number Cards.= Two cards, for second and third year
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  =Safford's Mathematical Teaching.= A monograph, with applications. 25
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  =Siefert's Principles of Arithmetic.= A teacher's guide. 75 cts.

  =Sloane's Practical Lessons in Fractions.= 25 cts. Set of six fraction
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  =Sutton and Bruce's Arithmetics.= Lower, 35 cts.; Higher, 60 cts.

  =The New Arithmetic.= By 300 teachers. Little theory and much
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  =Walsh's New Arithmetics.= New Primary, 30 cts. New Grammar School, 65
      cts. New Grammar School, Part I, 40 cts.; Part II, 45 cts.
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  =Walsh's Arithmetics.= _Two Book Series_--Primary, 30 cts.; Grammar
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  =Walsh's Algebra and Geometry for Grammar Grades.= 15 cts.

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Supplementary Reading

_A Classified List for all Grades._


  GRADE I. Bass's The Beginner's Reader                         .23
      Badlam's Primer                                           .25
      Fuller's Illustrated Primer                               .25
      Griel's Glimpses of Nature for Little Folks               .30
      Heart of Oak Readers, Book I                              .25
      Regal's Lessons for Little Readers                        .30

  GRADE II. Warren's From September to June with Nature         .35
      Badlam's First Reader                                     .30
      Bass's Stories of Plant Life                              .25
      Heart of Oak Readers, Book I                              .25
      Snedden's Docas, the Indian Boy                           .35
      Wright's Seaside and Wayside Nature, Readers No. 1        .25

  GRADE III. Heart of Oak Readers, Book II                      .35
      Pratt's America's Story, Beginner's Book                  .35
      Wright's Seaside and Wayside Nature Readers, No. 2        .35
      Miller's My Saturday Bird Class                           .25
      Firth's Stories of Old Greece                             .30
      Bass's Stories of Animal life                             .35
      Spear's Leaves and Flowers                                .25

  GRADE IV. Bass's Stories of Pioneer Life                      .40
      Brown's Alice and Tom                                     .40
      Grinnell's Our Feathered Friends                          .30
      Heart of Oak Readers, Book III                            .45
      Pratt's America's Story--Discoverers and Explorers        .40
      Wright's Seaside and Wayside Nature Readers, No. 3        .45

  GRADE V. Bull's Fridtjof Nansen                               .30
      Grinnell's Our Feathered Friends                          .30
      Heart of Oak Readers, Book III                            .45
      Pratt's America's Story--The Earlier Colonies             .00
      Kupfer's Stories of Long Ago                              .35

  GRADE VI. Starr's Strange Peoples                             .40
      Bull's Fridtjof Nansen                                    .30
      Heart of Oak Readers, Book IV                             .50
      Pratt's America's Story--The Colonial Period              .00
      Dole's The Young Citizen                                  .45

  GRADE VII. Starr's American Indians                           .45
      Penniman's School Poetry Book                             .30
      Pratt's America's Story--The Revolution and the Republic  .00
      Eckstorm's The Bird Book                                  .60
      Heart of Oak Readers, Book IV                             .50
      Wright's Seaside and Wayside Nature Readers, No. 4        .50

  GRADES VIII _and_ IX. Heart of Oak Readers, Book V            .55
      Heart of Oak Readers, Book VI                             .60
      Dole's The American Citizen                               .80
      Shaler's First Book in Geology (boards)                   .40
      Goldsmith's Vicar of Wakefield                            .50
      Addison's Sir Roger de Coverley                           .35

_Descriptive circular sent free on request._

D. C. HEATH & CO., Publishers, Boston, New York, Chicago

|______________________________________________________________|

AMERICA'S STORY
FOR AMERICA'S CHILDREN

By MARA L. PRATT.


A series of history readers which present the personal and picturesque
elements of the story in a way as attractive to young readers as
romance, and which will supplement the regular instruction in history in
an effective manner.

Every statement of fact is historically accurate and the illustrations
are correct even to the smallest details. Unusual care has been taken in
these matters.

These books are effectively illustrated in black and white and in color;
are bound in attractive and artistic cloth covers; uniform in size,
6-1/4 X 7-3/4; printed on extra heavy paper, in large type and contain
about 160 pages each.

  =Book I. The Beginners' Book.=                               35 cents.
        A delightful story book, developing centers of interest through
        picturesque and personal incidents.

  =Book II. Exploration and Discovery.=                        40 cents.
        The great explorers and discoverers from Lief Ericson to Henry
        Hudson.

  =Book III. The Earlier Colonies.=                            40 cents.
        An accurate and fascinating account of the first settlements and
        the 13 colonies.

  =Book IV. The Later Colonial Period.=                        40 cents.
        Settlements in the Mississippi Valley, The French and Indian
        Wars, etc.

  =Book V. The Revolution and the Republic.=                   40 cents.
        The causes that led to it, the men who guided events, and
        subsequent civil history.

_Descriptive circular free on request_

D. C. HEATH & CO., Publishers, Boston, New York, Chicago

|______________________________________________________________|

AN ELEMENTARY HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES

By ALLEN C. THOMAS, A. M.

_Author of "A History of the United States," and Professor of History in
Haverford College._


The Elementary History is for the use of younger classes, and serves as
an introduction to the author's larger History of the United States.

Effort has been made to present such important phases of national growth
as the difficulties and dangers of exploration, and how they were
overcome by earnestness and perseverance; the risks and hardships of
settlement, and how they were met and conquered; the independence and
patriotism of the colonists, and how they triumphed; the effect of
environment upon character; the development of the people in politics
and government and in social life; and the progress of invention and its
effect upon national development.

Realizing the fascination that the personalities of our national heroes
have for the young, the author has chosen those men who best illustrate
the important periods in the making of our nation, and in a series of
interesting biographical sketches uses their lives as centers around
which the history is written. Thus the book has all the freshness and
vitality, all the rapidity of action, and all the interest, of tales of
patriotism and courage and untiring endurance, and yet preserves
accuracy of fact and due proportion of importance of events.

_Cloth. 357 pages. Maps and illustrations. Introduction price, 60
cents._

D. C. HEATH & CO., Publishers, Boston New York Chicago

|______________________________________________________________|

THE HEATH READERS

A new series, that excels in its

  1. Interesting and well graded lessons.
  2. Masterpieces of English and American literature.
  3. Beautiful and appropriate illustrations.
  4. Clear and legible printing.
  5. Durable and handsome binding.
  6. Adaptation to the needs of modern schools.


THE HEATH READERS enable teachers, whether they have much or little
knowledge of the art, to teach children to read intelligently and to
read aloud intelligibly. They do this without waste of time or effort,
and at the same time that the books aid pupils in acquiring skill in
reading, they present material which is in itself worth reading.

The purpose of the HEATH READERS is, _first_, to enable beginners to
master the mechanical difficulties of reading successfully and in the
shortest time; _second_, to develop the imagination and cultivate a
taste for the best literature; _third_, to appeal to those motives that
lead to right conduct, industry, courage, patriotism, and loyalty to
duty. The larger purpose is, briefly, to aid in developing an
appreciation of that which is of most worth in life and literature.

The series contains seven books, as follows:

  Primer, 128 pages, 25 cents.
  First Reader, 130 pages, 25 cents.
  Second Reader, 176 pages, 35 cents.
  Third Reader, 256 pages, 40 cents.
  Fourth Reader, 320 pages, 45 cents.
  Fifth Reader, 352 pages, 50 cents.
  Sixth Reader, 352 pages, 50 cents.

_Descriptive circulars sent free on request._

D. C. HEATH & CO., Publishers, Boston, New York, Chicago

|______________________________________________________________|


Transcriber's notes:

The following corrections have been made to the text:

    Page 18, last line: Queen and the Prince."[added missing close
             quotes]

    Page 20, line 1: at the family altar.[added missing period]

    Page 25, fourth line from bottom: [added missing singlequote]I am a
             dyer,

    Page 39, line 1: the great Buddhist[original has Buddist] teacher








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