Page:Japanese Physical Training (Hancock).djvu/102

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Japanese Physical Training

taciturnity. They were not a strong class numerically, and it was necessary for them to keep the masses in subjection to the will of the ruler. It was an early discovery of the followers of jiu-jitsu that the greatest medicine nature provides is water. This remedy they employed both internally and externally, and with results that gradually made their class the wonder and the envy of the commoners.

At a very early date the samurai discovered the value of drinking a very considerable quantity of cool, pure water in every twenty-four hours. The amount consumed to-day by the average disciple of jiu-jitsu will reach the gallon mark. Ice-water was not known to the ancient Japanese as a summer beverage. It is not in favour to-day. All that is required is that the water shall be cool enough to be agreeable to the taste. Summer drinks, composed of shaved ice covered with fruit syrups, have crept into the life of the larger Japanese cities, but their use is not extensive, and the student of a jiu-jitsu school will have none of them. He is better taught.

It has been charged against the Japanese, by