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changed several times in the course of life. A child receives, at birth, from its parents, a name, which is retained till it has itself a fon arrived at maturity. A perfon again changes his name, when he is invested with any office; as alfo when he is advanced to a higher truft; fome, as emperors and princes, acquire a new name after death. The names of women are less variable; they are, in general, borrowed from the most beautiful flowers.

The drefs of the Japanese deferves, more than that of any other people, the name of national; fince they are not only different from that of all other men, but are also of the fame form in all ranks, from the monarch to his meaneft fubject, as well as in both fexes; and, what exceeds all credibility, they have not been altered for at least 2444 years. They univerfally confift of nightgowns, made long and wide, of which feveral are worn at once, by all ranks and all ages. The more diftinguished, and the rich, have them of the finest filk; the poorer fort, of cotton. Those of the women reach down to the ground, and fometimes have a train; in the men, they reach down to the heels: travellers, foldiers, and labourers, either tuck them up, or wear them only down to the knees. The habit of the men is generally of one colour; the women have theirs variegated, and frequently with flowers of gold interwoven. In fummer, they are either without lining, or have but a thin one; in winter, they are stuffed to a great thicknefs with cotton or filk. The men feldom wear a great number, but the women thirty, fifty, or more, all fo thin, that they fcarce together amount to five pounds. The undermoft ferves for a fhirt, and is therefore either white or blue, and, for the most part, thin and transparent. All these gowns are faftened round the waift with a belt, which, in the men, are about a hand's-breadth; in the women, about a foot; of such a length that they go twice round the waift, and afterwards are tied in a knot, with many ends and bows. The knot, particularly among the fair fex, is very confpicuous, and immediately informs the fpectator whether they are married or not. The unmarried have it behind, on their back; the married, before. In this belt the men fix their fabres, fans, pipe, tobacco, and medicine boxes. In the neck the gowns are always cut round, without a collar; they, therefore, leave the neck bare; nor is it covered with cravat, cloth, or any thing elfe. The fleeves are always ill made, and out of all proportion wide at the opening before, they are half fewed up, fo that they form a fack, in which the hands can be put in cold weather; they alfo ferve for a pocket. Girls, in particular, have their

fleeves fo long, that they reach down to the ground. Such is the fimplicity of their habit, that they are foon dreffed; and to undress, they need only open their girdle, and draw in their arms. There is, however, fome small variation in these gowns, according to the fex, age, condition, and . The very lower forts, as labourers, fishermen, and failors, have, at their work, in fummer, either the upper part of the body naked, so that the gown is fastened only by the girule; or they have only a girdle, which paffes between their legs, and is fastened behind.

Men of better condition have a fhort gown alfo, which reaches down to the waift, and a fort of breeches. The fhort gown is fometimes green, but generally black; when they return home, or enter their office, they take it off and fold it carefully, if no fuperior be prefent.

A drefs which is only used on particular occafions, is called the compliment drefs; in this the inferior fort wait on the fuperior, and go to court. It is worn on the long gowns, which constitute the general drefs of the nation. It confifts of two pieces, made of the fame kind of cloth. The lowermoft piece is the long breeches juft mentioned, which, for this purpose, are made of white ftuff, adorned with blue flowers. The upper piece is not very unlike the short gown lately defcribed; it differs only in being widened behind, between the thoulders, and makes the wearer appear very broad-shouldered.

These dreffes are partly of filk, partly of cotton, partly of linen, which is procured from a fpecies of nettle. The higher fort wear the finest filk, which in thinnefs and fineness exceeds every thing produced by Europe, or other parts of Afia. But as this cloth is feldom a foot in breadth, it is feldom brought to Europe as an article of commerce. The lower ranks wear cotton, which is produced and manufactured here in the greatest abundance.

Sometimes, though indeed only as a rarity, the Japanese make a cloth from the morus papyriferus, which is either prepared in the fame way as paper, or else spun or woven. The latter, which is very fine, white, and like cotton, is fometimes ufed for women's drefs. The former, with flowers printed on it, makes long gowns, which are worn only by people advanced in life, fuch as old dignitaries, and that only in winter.

In general, it may be faid of the Japanese drefs, that it is very large and warm; that it is eafily put on and off; that it conftrains no limb; that the fame habit fuits all; that there is no lofs of clota; and that it may be made with little art and trouble; but that it is inconvenient in mo

ing, and ill adapted for the execution of most things which occur to be done.

As the gowns, from their length, keep the thighs and legs warm, there is no occafion for ftockings; nor do they use them in all the empire. Among poorer perfons on a journey, and among foldiers, which have not fuch long gowns, one fees buskins of cotton. I have seen poor people, at Nagafaki, with focks of hempen cloth, with foles of cotton, for keeping the feet warm in the feverest weather of winter.

Shoes, or, more properly fpeaking, flippers, are, of all that is worn by the Japanefe, the fimpleft, the meaneft, and the most miferable, though in general ufe among high and low, rich and poor. They are ma 'e of interwoven rice-ftraw; and fometimes, for perfons of distinction, of reeds fplit very thin. They confift only of a fole, without upperleather or quarters. Before there paffes over, tranfverfely, a bow of linen, of a finger's breadth from the point of the fhoe to this bow, goes a thin round band, which, running within the great toe, ferves to keep the fhoe fixed to the foot. The fhoe, being without quarters, flides, during walking, like a flipper.

In rainy excavaa band

Travellers have three bands of twifted ftraw, by which they faften the fhoe to the font and leg, to prevent its falling off. Some carry feveral pairs of shoes with them when they undertake a journey. Shoes may, moreover, be bought, at a cheap rate, in every city and village. When it rains, and when the roads are miry, these straw-fhoes abforb the moisture, and keep the feet wet. On the roads you may every where fee wornout shoes thrown aside by travellers; particularly at the brooks, where they can wath their feet when they change fhoes. and dirty weather, lumps of wood, ted in the middle, with a bow and for the toe, are used instead of shoes; fo that they can walk without foiling their feet. Some have the common ftraw-fhoes faftened on fuch pieces of wood, three inches high. The Japanese never enter their houfes with fhoes, but put them off in the entrance, or near the entrance. This precaution is taken for the fake of their neat carpets. During the time the Dutch refide in Japan, as they have fometimes occafion to pay the natives vifits in their houses, and as they have their own apartment at the factory covered with the fame fort of carpets, they do not wear European fhoes, but have, in - their ftead, red, green, or black flippers, which can easily be put off at entering in. They, however, wear stockings, with fhoes of cotton, fastened by buckles. These shoes are made in Japan, and may be washed whenever they become dirty.

on a

The way of dreffing the hair is not less peculiar to this people, and lefs univerfally prevalent among them, than the use of their long gowns. The men fhave the head from the forehead to the neck; and the hair remaining on the temples, and in the nape, is well befmeared with oil, turned upwards, and then tied with a white paper thread, which is wrapped round feveral times. The ends of the hair beyond the head are cut crossways, about a finger's length being left. This part, after being pafted together with oil, is bent in fuch a manner, that the point is brought to the crown of the head, in which fituation it is fixed, by paffing the fame thread round it once. Great attention is paid to this head-drefs; and the hair is shaved every other day, that the fprouting points may not dif figure the bald part. Priefts and phyficians, with interpreters that are not arrived at maturity, make the only exception to this rule. Priests and phyficians fhave the whole head, by which they are distinguished from all other ranks; and interpreters retain all their hair till the beard begins to appear. Women, except fuch as happen to be separated from their hufbands, fhave no part of their head. Such a perfon I had occafion to fee at Jeddo. She was wandering about the country, and, with her bald head, looked particularly ill. Other women turn their hair upwards with oil and vifcid fubftances, fometimes quite close to the head, and at others fpread out at the fides in the form of wings. The unmarried are frequently diftinguished by thefe wings. Before the knot is placed a broad comb, which, among the lower fort, of japanned wood; but, among the higher, of tortoise-shell. Some wear flowers in their hair; but vanity has not yet led them to load their ears with

ornaments.

The head is never covered with hat or bonnet in winter or in fummer, except when they are on a journey; and then they use a conical hat, made of a fort of grafs, and fixed with a ribband. I have feen fuch a hat worn by fishermen. Some travelling women, who are met on the roads, have a bonnet like a fhaving-bafon inverted on the head, which is made of cloth, in which gold is interwoven. On other occafions, their naked heads are preferved, both from rain and the fun, by umbrellas. Travellers, moreover, have a fort of riding-coat, made of thick paper oiled. They are worn by the upper fervants of princes, and the fuite of other travellers. I and my fellow-travellers, during our journey to court, were obliged to provide fuch for our attendants, when we paffed through the place where they are made.

A Japanese always has his arms painted on one or more of his garments,. efpecially on

the

the long and short gowns, on the fleeves, or between the thoulders; fo that nobody can fteal; which otherwife might eafily happen in a country where the clothes are fo much alike in fluff, fhape, and fize.

The houses are, in general, of wood and plafter, whitewashed on the outside, fo as perfectly to refemble a house built of ftone. The beams are all perpendicular and horizontal; none go in an oblique direction, as elsewhere is ufual in houfes conftructed of fuch materials. Between the pieces of wood, which are fquare, and but thin, bambous are interwoven, which are afterwards plaftered with a mixture of clay, fand, and chalk. Thus the walls are not very thick, bat, when whitewashed, they make a tolerably good appearance. There are no partition-walls within the houfe; it is fupported by upright pieces, which, at the ceiling, and at the floor, have cross-picces paling between them with grooves, which after

The

wards ferve for parting the rooms. whole house, at first, makes but a fingie room, which can be parted into feveral, by fliding-boards in the grooves of the crosspieces. They ufe, for this purpose, thin boards varnished over and covered with thick opake and painted paper. The ceiling is made of boards jointed clofe together; but the floor, which is always elevated above the ground, confifts of loofe planks. The roof confifts of tiles, made in a peculiar manner, very thick and heavy. The meaner houfes are covered with flabs, upon which an heap of ftones is laid to fix them down.

The houfes commonly confift of two ftories, of which the upper is seldom inhabited; it is very low, and ferves for a lumber-room. The houfes of the rich and great are larger, and make a greater shew than thofe of others; but they are not above two stories, or at most twenty feet in height. [To be continued. ]

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The CRITICAL CLUB. On the juft STANDARD of HOMER'S MERITS. Quandoque bonus dormitat Homerus.

AST night, at the Club, Tom Triplet

LA

stunned us all with his vociferous criticifm. A few evenings before he had produced an ode, which he said was written by a young man in the country; but which every one prefent fufpected to be his own. Our Zosius, Dick Diftich, paffed feveral cutting obiervations upon it, every one of which evidently cut Mr. Triplet to the quick. He then turned his tale, and, recovering himfelf, faid he had only afcribed the ode to a young man that he might hear our opinions on it, but that in reality it was written by a young lady, whofe old maiden aunt, as it contained a family compliment, was defirous to have a few copies of it printed, and had sent it to him to get it corrected for that purpole. He was under great obligations, he added, to the old lady, and would be happy to ferve her: then archly turning to his old antagonift Dick Diftich, and claiming his friendship from his former profeffions, begged his affiftance in correcting the young lady's ode, as he now called it. Dick was a little puzzled at this request-Rather than mend a line of it, he would have fat a whole winternight on the cold ground.-At last, looking very ferious, Mr. Triplet, fays he, I will tell you a fahle,

"A countryman who was very fond of his bees, took great pleasure in feeing them rove from flower to flower. While be was thus one day obferving his little chy. miits, an unlucky bee lighted on a certain

fubftance which a dog leaves behind him. You curfed fool, cried the farmer, do you think to make honey of that? But you thail not spoil my hive; and inftantly he trampled the poor mistaken animal to death." Tom Triplet felt the allusion severely, and flipped the ode into his pocket in profound filence, which he preferved without one effort to speak during the rest of the evening. Dick Diftich, who is poffeffed neither of my friend Tom's ingenuity nor modefty, eagerly feized the opportunity of his deep filence, and with great triumph expatiated on the topics of dif pute which had formerly been between them. Rhyme, faid Dick, is a vile monkish invention, as different from what the ancients called rythinus, as Homer's exalted poetry is from the fchool-boy ftrains of Virgil. Blank verfe is the brightest glory of our English Mufes; and he that cannot read it properly ought never to open his mouth, when tafte and poetry are the fubjects of converfation. Mr. Pope ought to have been crucified for pretending to tranflate Homer in rhyme; and is certainly, at this moment, hung up in a bafket in Tartarus for to doing, like Socrates in Ariftoplanes's comedy of the Clouds. As to Virgil's Eneid, Taffo's Jerufalem, and Voltaire's Henriade, it is impoffible that any man who can read and relish the Greek, can read ten lines of them without unfpeakable difguft. Every thing that is tolerable in them is borrowed from Homer; but borrowed and re

flected

flected in fuch a manner as the moon borrows and reflects the light of the fun. For my part, I like to drink at the fountain-head; the waters of Helicon lofe their spirit, when conveyed through the leaden and wooden pipes of imitators and tranflators. After ali fuch evaporating and flattening conveyance, they may do very well for you, Mr. Triplet; but for me, even Milton, with all the advantage of blank verfe, is but like a tin tunnel conveying the fmoke, and but very feldom any of the genuine flashes of Homer's fire. In this manner Dick Diftich triumphed over his filent antagonist; and it must be owned, however abruptly he delivered himself, he fpoke the real fense of many a modern critic. As I am rather inclined to think better of Virgil and Taffo, I ventured to repeat the line from Horace at the top of this memorandum, to which I was immediately anfwered by the following well-known line from Rofcommon :

It is not Homer nods, but we that dream. Homer in every instance, cried our exult ing orator, which dulnefs has called napping, is only preparing his audience for a glorious burft of lightning and thunder, which his feeble imitators can only emulate by fquibs and crackers. In fhort, Mr. Diftich had all the triumph and talk to himself. But last night, as mentioned at the beginning, the tables were fadly turned against him. Tom Triplet had recovered the fit of fickness which the damnation of his ode had given him, and came amply prepared to revenge himself on Dick Diftich, who, when Tom is in fpirits, is by no means his match. Without taking any particular notice of Diftich, Mr. Triplet expatiated on the abfurdity of appealing to the practice of the Greek and Roman poets in defence of English blank verfe, the genius of thefe languages not admitting the fmalleft comparifon. I have often found, faid he, that those who are most fupercilious in defpifing every thing except Homer in his native Greek, pretending with what raptures they relish him in his own tongue, are frequently, on trial, unable to conftrue three lines of that poet together. I have alfo met with many enthusiasts for the superior mufic and dignity of blank verfe, who, on trial, have been found to have no ear, and were utterly incapable of reading any one page of their admired Paradife Loft, the Seafons, or the Night Thoughts, with the fmalleft degree of modulation or harmony. The vanity of being thought wifêr than their neighbours, and of fuperior tafte, is the Will '-the-wifp that leads them on; and pitching on Homer and Milton as the objects of their admiration, they think they cannot be wrong. And right

as they may be in the general choice, they never defcend to particulars but they are sure to stumble, and shew how much they are in the dark. My friend Mr. Diftich, when he was all talk the other evening, afferted that Virgil and Taffo borrowed every thing that was tolerable in their works from Homer; but it was only as the moon borrows her light from the fun, reflecting back a very feeble ray of the original splendour. Many a conceited critic has faid the fame. But after all, the fact is not altered.-And the fact is,' that Virgil, in his Hell and Elyfium, and in many inferior places has lighted a torch at Homer's candle that has out blazed the original light. And there is one great fault that occurs, on every opportunity to admit it, in Homer; a fault that would nigh damn any modern production; I mean the wretched manner in which he acquits himself in his duels. After the grandeft preparations that can be imagined; imagery, fimilies, and defcription of the noblest kind exhausted, what a wretched figure do his heroes make in fingle combat !—They first hurl their lances at one another; fo far it is well; then they draw their swords, but do nothing with them; and then they throw ftones at one another, aud feem afraid to come within each other's reach : and then, if they happen to furvive fuch a dreadful combat, they tell long stories to one another. When Hector is like to be mastered by Achilles at lance and javelin toffing, he draws his fword, and flies at his enemy as an eagle on his prey ; but we hear no more of the sword, but find Hector immediately tugging a a huge ftone that ten men of Homer's days could not raife, while Achilles looks on quite · idle till Hector has time to throw it at him: he then returns the compliment in kind.. Hector then takes to his heels, and runs at leaft twelve miles at full speed with Achilles after him, drawn by his immortal horses. Nay, fmile not at the twelve miles, faid Mr. Triplet; for a city of four miles in circumfe rence could hardly contain the inhabitants given to Troy by Homer: yet Hector muft“ run three times round it before Achilles's im mortal, horfes can come up with him; and then he must be killed with a lance, at an opening in his armour; a victory much about as honourable as shooting a man with a piftol who has got no piftol to oppofe you Indeed Homer's conduct in the death of HeFor is fo abfurd, that it would have difgraced any of Blackmore's Arthurs. And what but the utmost depravity of taste and perverfeness of judgement can be blind to the infinite fuperiority of Tallo in defcribing his duels. In that modern you fee the high fpirit of chivalry, and fwordjmen in earneft.--There you fee done what you expected; no school-boy pelt

ing

ing with dirt and cabbage-stems, and then
either taking fome bafe advantage, or telling
tales to one another. Homer's duels deferve
no better illustration. If you fay he defcribes
fingle combat as it really was in his time, I
deny it. Hiftory gives us very different de-
fcriptions of the combats when heroes met
in battle. When Gryllus, the fon of Xeno-
phon, killed Epaminondas, at the battle of
Mantinea, there were no long tales told to
each other; there was none of Homer's
trifling between them. To fay that Homer
defcribed his fingle combats from real prac-
tice is just the fame as to fay, that a man al-
ready overpowered in the conflict could yet
run twelve miles, or more, ere the fleeteft
borfes of the age, for fuch are thofe of Achil-
les defcribed, could overtake him. Nor
is Homer lefs happy in his long tales, often
fo abfurdly told by his heroes in the heat
of battle. Prejudice itfelf, if not downright
wilfully blind, muft own, that the narrative
of Eneas to Dido, long as it is, is animated
throughout, and that the intereft rises to the
end in a mafterly manner. But what are
Homer's tales? They all either want intereft,
or propriety of introduction; and if we will
allow ourfelves to judge from what we do
feel, we must pronounce them tirefome.
What reader has patience to get through the
long old man's goffipping ftory which Pha-
nix tells Achilles, and with which one
of the most interesting parts of the Iliad,
the refufal of Achilles to be reconciled to
Agamemnon, is moft difagreeably fufpen-
ded? The other evening, when I ventured to
cite Horace for faying that beneft Homer's mufe
fometimes fell afleep, 1 was pertly anfwered,
It is not Homer nods, but we that dream.
The fame critic has faid,

"When Virgil feems to trifle in a line,
'Tis but the prelude of some grand defign."

For my part, I have no fuch blind complai fance to either Virgil or Homer. I flatter myself that I can both fee and relish their beauties; but no cool-brained man will turn knight-errant, as many of their Critics have done, to defend their faults. And fo far are those parts of Homer which have been called nodding, from being defigned only to prepare his audience, as Mr. Diftich and many a doughty critic have afferted, for a glorious burst of thunder and lightning, that the very contrary is the fact. All the thunder and fublimity are exhausted in the grand preparation with which he introduces more circumftances than his fingle combats: for often, after raifing the expectation to the very highest pitch, then comes Homer's nap, and the reader is left difappointed and chagrined, in proportion as he entered into the fpirit of the fublime introduction. When Hector has ftormed the Grecian camp, and is on the point of burning their fhips, the council of the Grecian chiefs, who are tired out, and mostly wounded in the day's battle, is described with the most solema importance. They are loft in terror, and know not what to do in this their most dangerous and critical emergency. The wife Ulyffes rifes to speak; all is attention; even the Gods stoop down from Olympus to hear what he has got to fay. And what is it? Why, truly, what is only fit for a burlesque poem,――――Confider, fays he, my friends, that fighting requires ftrength, without which we are fure to be vanquished. Strength depends on the animal fpirits, and thofe arife from good living; from porkers' chines and bowls of generous wine: therefore, I advise you to poftpone fighting of Hector, and let us go to fupper.Such is the exact argument of the speech of Ulyffes, introduced with all the preparatory importance and grandeur of which the fublime genius of Homer was mafter.—Cutera defunt,

CURIOUS PARTICULARS of the HORSES of this COUNTRY in ANCIENT TIMES.

[From the NORTHUMBERLAND HOUSEHOLD BOOK, first printed in 1768, the M S. of which is now in the poffeflion of the DUKE OF NORTHUMBERLAND, and which is intituled, "The Regulations and Establishment of Algernon Percy, the fifth Earl of Northum"berland, begun anno 1512."]

THIS is the ordre of the chequir roul of faddill, viz. oone for my lorde to ride,

the nombre, of all the horiys of my lordis and my ladys, that are apoynted to be in the charge of the hous yerely, as to fay: gentill hors, palfreys, hobys, naggis, cloth. fek hors, male-hors.

Firit, gentill hors, to ftand in my lordis ftable, fix. Item, palfreys of my ladys, to wit, one for my lady, and two for her gentill women, and oone for her chamberer. Four hobys and naggis for my lordis oone

oone to lede for my lode, and oone to itay at home for my lorde.

Item, chariot hors to ftond in my lordis ftable yerely. Seven great trottŷnge hors to draw in the chariott, and a pagg for the chariott man to ride; eight. Again, hors for lorde Percy, his lordfhips fon and heir. A grete doble trottynge hors for my lorde Percy to travel on in winter. Item, a great doble trottynge hors, called a curtal, for his lordlttp

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