remained, chiefly in England and the United States, as students, during periods varying from one to six years. Among the reforms carried out by the mikado and his government are the abandonment of the old life of seclusion, and his conformance to the dress and public manner of life of European sovereigns; the elevation of the Eta or pariah class to citizenship; the abolition of the feudal system; the encouragement of a native press; the establishment of a national post; the reorganization of the army and navy on European models; the suppression of the sale of obscene pictures and phallic symbols; the adoption of foreign dress by Japanese officials; the abolition of the custom of wearing two swords; reform in the marriage laws; the reformation of the penal code; the adoption of railways, telegraphs, lighthouses, steam lines of transports, arsenals, and dockyards; a civil service of foreign employees; the abolition of the lunar and adoption of the solar calendar; the establishment of legations in foreign countries; the colonization of Yezo; the annexation of the Riu Kiu or Loo Choo islands; and the planning of an educational system on the foreign model, in which science has a high place.—The history of Japan, like that of other ancient nations, begins with a mythological period. According to the holy hooks of Shinto: "In the beginning the world had no form, but was like unto an egg. The clear portion (the white) became heaven, and the heavy portion (the yolk) became earth." Something like a reed then appeared and became a god, or kami; he was the father of a line of spiritual beings, who ruled the universe as it then was for millions of years, ending in a god and goddess Izanagi and Izanami (evidently the equivalents for the Chinese ying and yang, the male and female principles that pervade all creation). From their union sprang the islands of Japan, the mountains, seas, and other natural objects therein. Another legend is that Izanagi, taking his heavenly jewelled spear, stirred up the sea, and the drops which fell from the point of it congealed and became an island, upon which the two gods descended and took up their abode. Subsequently a daughter was born, whose body was so bright that she ascended to heaven and became the sun, and was called Ten Sho Dai Jin. Another daughter became the moon, O Tsuki Sama. These divinities are of no further importance in history than as serving to make a line of ancestry for the reigning family. At the time when, according to tradition, the genealogy merged into mortal men, the country was found to be peopled, and there is no attempt to show whence these people came, though described as hairy, uncivilized, and living in the open air. What seem to be the authentic annals of the country begin about 600 B. C., though there is no native documentary proof of this, and the Japanese have no writings that antedate the 7th century. At the time when Jimmu Tenno, who is called the first emperor, set out upon his career, the people of the country are said to have been hairy and uncivilized, living under the rule of a head man in each village. The Japanese have to this day a great contempt for the people of Yezo, who may he thus described, and they allege that similar tribes occupied the whole of the islands, and that they were gradually driven back by the armies of Jimmu. It is more likely that they were conquered and gradually amalgamated with their conquerors, by the intermarriage of these with native females, and that in this way, and by the effects of the warm climate of the south, they lost that hirsute appearance which is so characteristic of the people of Yezo, who are called Ainos. There are two strongly marked varieties of feature in Japan, which are strikingly portrayed in their own pictures; these are the broad flat face of the lower classes, and the high nose and oval face of the higher. The difference is so marked as to be some argument in favor of a previous mixing of two different races, the one of which had extended southward from the Kurile islands and Siberia, hairy and broad-featured, while the other had originated from the south, with Indian features and smooth skins. Jimmu, setting out from Hiuga, on the east side of the island of Kiushiu, gradually overran that island, the adjoining one of Shikoku, and the west half of the main island, as far as Mino. His capital was a place near Kioto, which was finally selected after several changes. He began the civilization of the people, and established laws and a settled government. For many centuries his posterity reigned on the throne he had founded, bearing the title of mikado, and claiming to rule by divine right and inheritance. They exercised the most absolute power. Women were not excluded from the succession, and in ancient Japanese history there were many famous empresses. Jingo Kogo, the empress regent, conquered Corea and gave birth to a son, who succeeded her. At his death he was deified, and is now the Japanese god of war. A social revolution in Japan followed the conquest of Corea. Learned Coreans brought over to Japan the works of Confucius and other Chinese books, and the language and literature of China became the study of the higher classes. In A. D. 552 a Corean prince presented the emperor with Buddhist idols and hooks. The doctrines of Buddhism won their way in spite of all opposition. On the accession to the throne of the empress Suiko, the first female sovereign, in 593, full toleration was declared to the Buddhist faith. Written codes and official grades were now formed; the empire was resurveyed, and the provincial boundaries were fixed more exactly. The invention of native syllabaries or alphabets (the hiragana, the script or running hand, and katakana, or square letters) to facilitate the reading, understanding, and pronunciation of Chinese, was the work of the famous priest Kobo,
