stings of insects. Scald-head affects nearly half the children
here.

I am very fond of Japanese children. I have never yet heard a baby
cry, and I have never seen a child troublesome or disobedient.
Filial piety is the leading virtue in Japan, and unquestioning
obedience is the habit of centuries. The arts and threats by which
English mothers cajole or frighten children into unwilling
obedience appear unknown. I admire the way in which children are
taught to be independent in their amusements. Part of the home
education is the learning of the rules of the different games,
which are absolute, and when there is a doubt, instead of a
quarrelsome suspension of the game, the fiat of a senior child
decides the matter. They play by themselves, and don't bother
adults at every turn. I usually carry sweeties with me, and give
them to the children, but not one has ever received them without
first obtaining permission from the father or mother. When that is
gained they smile and bow profoundly, and hand the sweeties to
those present before eating any themselves. They are gentle
creatures, but too formal and precocious.

They have no special dress. This is so queer that I cannot repeat
it too often. At three they put on the kimono and girdle, which
are as inconvenient to them as to their parents, and childish play
in this garb is grotesque. I have, however, never seen what we
call child's play--that general abandonment to miscellaneous
impulses, which consists in struggling, slapping, rolling, jumping,
kicking, shouting, laughing, and quarrelling! Two fine boys are
very clever in harnessing paper carts to the backs of beetles with
gummed traces, so that eight of them draw a load of rice up an