are usually twenty-four at least; that being the time, when having finished their education and training, a man is supposed to be in condition to maintain a family.

The ceremony is nearly as follows: on the appointed day the out

fit of the bride is brought to the house of the bridegroom early in the morning, and arranged in tasteful order. The room for the festival is decorated, and pictures of the household divinities of both families are hung upon the walls, along which altars are placed adorned with flowers Aquariums, lackered tables, miniature cedars, and the figures

of the first human pair, accompanied by a crane and a tortoise, the emblems of long life, are a part of the decorations. Among the bridal presents is placed a packet, containing dried fish, Saki (brandy), flax, edible sea weed, and muscles, to remind the newly married pair of the temperance and frugality of their ancestors.

Towards noon the bride is brought in, dressed in white, accompanied by her relatives and friends wearing gay colored dresses. The bride leads the procession with two bridesmaids, and the parties are grouped as seen in our picture. During the festival the bridesmaids in their gay apparel flutter from place to place like butterflies, attending to the arrangements, and seating the guests.

When the marriage is a family affair, the priests have little or nothing to do with it, unless the parties are Buddhists. Otherwise the police officer of the district simply notices the matter by inscribing the fact, and the names of the parties in the census lists. The only ceremony is the drinking together of the bride and groom, for which a cup with two beaks is provided, filled with Saki by one of the groomsmen, and handed to the couple, who kneel to receive it, and put their lips to its beaks.

The cup must be emptied to the last drop, to symbolize the complete enjoyment of life; and the remainder of the day is passed in amusements. The bride and groom are not accountable to each other for their past life; and in order to prevent any tender reminiscences of the lady by a previous lover, her exterior is entirely changed by blackening her teeth, plucking out her eyebrows, and dressing her entirely in black. The use of paint completes the metamorphosis, by the ruin of the complexion.

The rights of the woman are annulled, while those of the man are increased by marriage. Polygamy is forbidden; but a man may have as many unlawful connections as he pleases to maintain, in his own house. But such women rank below the lawful wife, and their children are subject to hers. That such relations go on continually in Japanese families without interrupting the harmony of the household, is a striking illustration of the lack of sensibility, and perhaps the licentiousness which characterize this people. Persons of both sexes

use the public baths together, in complete nudity; children have no concealments from each other, and obscenity seems to disturb no one. Under such circumstances, early marriages are imperative.

The husband cannot hold his wife to her marriage contract against her will, or divorce her without the concurrence of the proper court.

Till recently the Japanese never appeared in public with their wives. Now, gentlemen and ladies of the higher orders are frequently seen together. Schools for girls have been introduced, largely through the aid and instrumentality of the empress, and the higher education of the people is fairly begun.

Our information is tolerably complete upon the family life of the Japanese. The mother nurses her children at least two years, after which they are reared by a servant. At a month old the child is presented at the temple to receive its name, which is one of three which the father presents to the priest, who writes them on separate pieces of paper, tosses them in the air, and gives the child the one which reaches the ground first. The act is then registered, and the name written on a slip of paper is given to the father. The name thus given is by no means for life. At his puberty, the youth receives another, yet another at his marriage, others upon his preferment to office, and a final one at his death. Only the last is written upon his tombstone, a custom which seems not calculated to perpetuate the memory of the citizen, however he may distinguish himself under other titles.

The children are, usually, brought up simply and naturally. At school the first lesson is the Irowa, a kind of A B C, consisting of four lines, which contain the eight hundred principal sounds of the Japanese language, and form a little poem as follows:

"Irowa ninovesto tsirimuru iro,

Wagayo durezo tsune naramu,
U wi no okuyama Kefu Koyete,
Asaki yumemisi ewime sczu on

Which may be translated thus:

Color and odor will pass away,

What can the world give that will not decay?

The present, deep into the night must fall,

A picture, a dream, with no rest at all.

This is the doctrine upon which the children are trained to gayety, vivacity, carelessness, indifference to misfortune and even death itself. Childish innocence and delight in all manner of amusements are the fundamental elements of the Japanese character, and it is easy to see that the children are tolerably amiable. Gayety is so entirely their nature, that travelers have insisted that they do not know how to cry. At home the little fellows tumble about at pleasure. All the chambers and passages are covered with fine thick mats, and there are no chairs or bureaus for them to fall against-such household furniture

being unknown in Japan. Very little restraint is employed in governing them, even at school.

Many of their sports are the same as those of our own children. They fly kites, trundle hoops, spin tops, and play at blind man's buff, and fox and goose. The kite is a frightful figure, made up of paste and tinsel, with a long paper tail, and quite as delightful to the Japanese youngsters as to our own, with its grinning teeth and fantastic wings. There are kites, too, which, in flying through the air, play pieces of music by ingenious mechanism in their interiors.

Japanese houses are built of wood, and are mostly of one story. The roof of tiles, projects boldly in front-forming a sort of porch which can easily be enclosed if desired. No Japanese house is with