Japan and the Japanese

418 JAPAN. A. D. 17751776.
The men generally have them made of plain silk of one color ;
the silken stuffs won by the women are flowered, sometimes in
gold. In the summer they are either without any lining at all, or
else with a thin lining only. In winter, by way of defence against
the cold weather, they are quilted with cotton or silk wad. The
men seldom wear many of them, but the women often from thirty
to
fifty, or more, and all so thin, that together they hardly weigh
more than four or five pounds. The undermost serves for a shirt,
and is therefore either white or bluish, and, for the most part, thin
and transparent. All these gowns are fastened about the waist by
a belt, which for the men is about the breadth of a hand, and for
the women of twelve inches, and of such length as to go twice
round the body, with a large knot and rose. The knot worn by the
fair sex, which is larger than that worn by the men, shows imme-
diately whether the woman is married or not ; as the married
women wear the knot before, and the single behind. The men fasten
to this belt their sabres,* fan, tobacco-pipe and pouch. The gowns
are rounded off about the neck, without a cape, open before, and
show the bare bosom, which is never covered, either with a hand-
kerchief or anything else. The sleeves are ill-shaped, wide and
long, the openings partly sewed up, so as to form a bag,
into which
they put their hands in cold weather, or use it as a pocket to hold
their papers and other
things.! Young girls,
in
particular, have the
sleeves of their gowns so long as frequently to reach quite down to
the ground. On account of the width of their garments, they are
soon dressed and undressed, as they have nothing more to do than to
untie their girdle and draw in their arms, when the whole of their
dress instantly falls off of itself. The gowns serve also for bedclothes.
The common people, when at work, are frequently seen naked,
with only a girdle about them, or with their gowns taken off the
upper part of their bodies, and hanging down loose from their gir-
* The two swords, the badge of nobility, are worn stuck into the belt, on
the left side, with no belt of their own, a little crosswise and with the edge
apwards. When a person is seatel the longer sword is taken from the belt
and laid on the ground by him.
t The bosom of the gown is also used for the same purpose.
but
For pocket-
handkerchiefs, the Japanese carry about them a supply of small, squar*
bits of soft paper, which they throw away as they use them.