express the wants, feelings, and concerns of everyday life, all that is
deepest in the human heart, are for the most part native. If we would
trace the fountains of the musical and beautiful language of Japan, we
must seek them in the hearts and hear them flow from the lips of the
mothers of the Island Empire. Among the anomalies with which Japan has
surprised and delighted the world may be claimed that of woman's
achievements in the domain of letters. It was woman's services, not man's,
that made the Japanese a literary language, and under her influence the
mobile forms of speech crystallized into perennial beauty.

The written language has heretofore consisted mainly of characters
borrowed from the Chinese, each character representing an idea of its own,
so that in order to read and write the student must make himself
acquainted with several thousand characters, and years are required to
gain proficiency in these elementary arts. There also exists in Japan a
syllabary alphabet of forty-seven characters, used at present as an
auxiliary to the Chinese. Within a very recent period, since the
acquisition of knowledge has become a necessity in Japan, a society has
been formed by the most prominent men of the empire, for the purpose of
assimilating the spoken and written language, taking the forty-seven
native characters as the basis.

2. RELIGION.--The two great religions of Japan are Shintoism and Buddhism.
The chief characteristic of the Shinto religion is the worship of
ancestors, the deification of emperors, heroes, and scholars, and the
adoration of the personified forces of nature. It lays down no precepts,
teaches no morals or doctrines, and prescribes no ritual.

The number of Shinto deities is enormous. In its higher form the chief
object of the Shinto faith is to enjoy this life; in its lower forms it