Page:Japanese Physical Training (Hancock).djvu/119

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Stimulants and Narcotics
83

brandy are still imported from abroad. For that matter, English and German ales and beers are not much cared for by the Japanese, and most members of the race abstain from even beer.

As yet, no equivalents for beer, whiskey, and brandy have crept into the Japanese language. The foreigner who wishes to order such drinks must call for beer-sake, whiskey-sake, or brandy-sake. Sake means something, to Japanese, on which the imbiber means to get drunk, and he must order the particular kind of sake on which he proposes to do it.

In the matter of narcotics the Japanese are not addicted to the use of opium in any of its forms. Opium is little in favour, even with the physicians. There are, of course, some degenerates whom the Chinese have taught to use opium, but the number is not large. Tobacco, however, has been introduced largely into Japan since the days when Commodore Perry first secured the opening of the Empire's ports to commerce. There is now the same proportion of tobacco-users in Japan as is to be found in the United States. Cigarettes