Japan and the Japanese

660
APPENDIX.
first verse is composed ot three feet, of which the first and lost have five syllables,
and the middle one seven syllables. The second verse consist of two
feet of seven syllables each. It is a great beauty for these distiches to bear
a double signification. Rodriguez gives the following specimen, supposed to
be the utterance of a mother weeping
for her children :
" \Vakete fuku, kaye kosa ukere, fana tomoni
Tsirade kono faiva, inulo no kururon "
Kayt signifies death and wind, ko, tree and son, and fawa mother and leaf.
Take the first senses of these words and the distich will signify, " cruel
wind, which, spending thy breath only on my roses, has uprooted them, yet
"
has left the leaves on the trees ! Take the other senses, and the meaning
is, " O cruel death, which has struck down my son, while it
wretched mother
"
!
has spared his
The poems called renga, composed in Chinese only, may extend to a hun-
dred or a thousand verses, each verse dependent (as the name remja implies)
upon that which immediately precedes it, or at least upon some word in it.
These poems are all didactic ; they have no narrative poems ; Rodriguez
mentions, however, that the popular prose observes a certain rhythm which
renders it very harmonious, and this corresponds with what Golownin
states of their chant-like manner of reading.
NOTE B.
JAPANESE NAMES.
The following curious statements on this subject are drawn chiefly from
Rodriguez's Japanese Grammar :
The Japanese take successively many sorts
of names, and change them at different epochs of their lives. They are, 1.
Names designating the individual (corresponding to our Christian names,
and to the surnames, or names of addition, of the Romans). 2. Family
names, common to all the individuals composing a family, or descended from
it. 3. Names indicative of rank or office.
I. The names of the first sort, taken at different epochs, are five. 1.
jJzo/irt, that given by one's parents at birth, generally that of some animal,
or of something long-lived, or thought to be of good omen. When the
individual employs this name to designate himself, he adds to the par-
ticle maron. When others use it (unless honorific particles are joined
with it), instead of maron the particle ilono is added. 2. Kemio or
Karina, the name of the adult man, taken when girded with the sword,
and bestowed by some distinguished person who acts the part, as it were,
of god-father. This is retained till superseded by some official or relig-
ious name. 3. J\"anori, or Yaliuio, a kind of personal designation pecu-
liar to nobles and the gi jat, employed by them in signing papers, along
with their Kemio, and tha.r name of office. They are all formed of eighty