paper, which is passed up the stem and pulled out through the head, the operation being repeated until all the nicotine has been removed. An industry worth mentioning in this connection is that of workmen who replace worn-out bamboo pipe-stems by new ones of any desired length. The stems are now often beautifully speckled in imitation of tortoise-shell, porcupine quills, and other things.
Must it be revealed, in conclusion, that in vulgar circles the pipe, besides its legitimate use, occasionally serves as a domestic rod? The child, or possibly the daughter-in-law, who has given cause for anger to that redoubtable empress, the Obāsan, or "Granny," before whom the whole household trembles, may receive a severe blow from the metal-tipped pipe, or even a whole volley of blows, after which the old lady resumes her smoke. (See also Article on Tobacco.)
Poetry. Japanese prosody, though exceptionally simple, has interest in the eyes of specialists, because it is one of the few indisputably original productions of the Japanese mind. There is no rhyme, no weighing of syllables, as in China and other lands further to the west. All syllables count alike. The rule is that lines of 5 syllables and 7 syllables must alternate. Besides this, there must be an additional line of 7 syllables at the end. That is all. "Stanzas," "cantos," etc., are things entirely unknown. Thus, Japanese poems assume the following shape:, 7, 5, 7, 5, 7, . . . . . . 7. Some poems may run into as many as fifty or a hundred lines, say, a page or two of this book. Such are styled Naga-uta, literally "long poems," though they would be deemed short in other literatures. But the overwhelming majority are tiny odes (Tanka) of no more than five lines each, of the shape 5, 7, 5, 7, 7, making but thirty-one syllables all told. The first three lines of such an ode, is called the kami no ku, or "upper hemistich;" the second is the shimo no ku, or "lower hemistich." A slight pause is always made between the two in reciting. Thus:
