matters have improved, and the figures are now about 1 to 5. The immense majority of cases occur among the lower classes. The upper classes rarely resort to divorce. Why, indeed, should a man take the trouble to get separated from an uncongenial wife, when any wife occupies too inferior a position to be able to make herself a serious nuisance, and when society has no objection to his keeping any number of mistresses?
The student of anthropology may like to know that neither ancient nor modern Japanese custom shows any trace of exogamy,—a fact the more remarkable when one considers the immense influence exerted on Japan by China, where it has been forbidden from time immemorial for a man to marry a girl bearing the same surname as his own.
Books recommended. Japanese Girls and Women, by Miss Bacon.—The Japanese Bride, by N. Tamura. The publication of this latter little book, in 1893, raised such a storm of indignation among the author's countrymen that he was forced to resign his position of pastor of one of the native Christian Churches.
Maru. It is often asked: What does the word Maru mean in the names of ships as Tōkyō Maru, Sagami Maru, Hiryu Maru, etc.? The answer is that the origin of the term is obscure. Maru means "round;" but how came ships by so inappropriate a name?
The first thing to note is that in former times ships had not the monopoly of the name. Swords, musical instruments of various kinds, pieces of armour, dogs, hawks, and the concentric sections of castles, were called Maru also. The probability is that two distinct words—maru and maro—have flowed into one, and so got confused. To name the concentric sections of a castle maru, "round," was but natural. The word maro, on the other hand, is an archaic term of endearment. Hence its use in such ancient proper names as Tamura-Maro, a great general who subdued the Ainos; Abe-no-Nakamaro, an eminent scholar of the eighth century; Okina-Maro, a favourite dog of the Emperor Ichijō, and so on. The warrior's pet sword, the sportsman's favourite dog or hawk, the oarsman's boat, would
