either with the primitive flails above mentioned, or with a sort of large comb or heckle. Many Europeans believe that two rice crops are produced in the year. This Occurs as a solitary exception in the province of Tosa, where the warming effect of the Kuro-shio, or Japanese Gulf Stream, makes itself felt with special energy. Elsewhere such a thing is rendered impossible by the length and severity of the winter.
Japanese rice is highly esteemed throughout the neighbouring countries, on account of its glutinous nature. The manner in which it is cooked makes it exceptionally palatable and nutritious, quite different from the Indian process which leaves each grain separate and dry. Every one lives on it who can afford to do so; but as a rule, the peasantry cannot. Wheat, barley, and especially millet, are the real staples throughout the rural districts, rice being there treated as a luxury to be brought out only on high days and holidays, or to be resorted to in case of sickness. We once heard a beldame in a country village remark to another, with a grave shake of the head: "What! do you mean to say that it has come to having to give her rice?"—the unexpressed inference being that the patients case must be alarming indeed, if the family had thought it necessary to resort to so expensive a dainty.
The market price of rice is quoted on 'change at so much per hyō ("bag")[1]; but the retail vendors sell it at so many shō and gō per yen (Japanese dollar). In other words, in large transactions it is a fixed amount of the commodity itself that sells for a variable sum; in small purchases it is a fixed sum that is given for a variable amount of the commodity. The former method of calculation is familiar only to business men. But every pater and mater-familias takes a keen not to say painful interest in knowing whether rice is, say, 6 shō' 1 gō' per yen, or has advanced to 5 shō' 9 gō'. Four or five grades are habitually quoted, of which the extremes differ about 20 per cent. in price. Japanese rice is exported as a luxury to the neighbouring continent of Asia,
- ↑ See Article on Weights and Measures.
