Japan and the Japanese

.BUILDINGS. 293
them, if the wind fails. The watermen's benches are towards the
stern. They row according to the air of a song, or other noi.se,
which serves at the same time to direct and regulate their work
and to encourage the rowers. They do not row after our European
manner, extending their oars straight forwards, and cutting just
the surface of the water, but let them fall down into the water
almost perpendicularly, and then lift them up again. This way of
rowing not only answers all the ends of the other, but is done with
less trouble. The benches of the rowers are raised considerably
above the surface of the water. Their oars are, besides, made in a
particular manner, calculated for this way of rowing, being not
straight like our European oars, but somewhat bent, with a movable
joint in the middle, which, yielding to the violent pressure of the
water, facilitates tho taking them up. The ship's timbers and planks
are fastened together with hooks and bands of copper. The stern
is adorned with a knot of fringes made of thin, lone, black ' strings.