Japan and the Japanese

88 JAPAN. A. D. 1.-.77 1586.
greeted their arrival with deafening shouts. As they alighted from
their carriage, they were received by Father Aquivivu, attended
by all the Jesuits then at Home, who conducted them to the church,
where Te Deum was chanted.
The next day a magnificent procession was formed to escort them
to the Vatican. It was headed by the light horse, followed by the
Pope's Swiss guard, the officers of the cardinals, the carriages of the
ambassadors of Spain, France, Venice, and the Roman princes, the
whole Roman nobility on horseback, the pages and officers of the
ambassadors, with trumpets and cymbals, the chamberlains of the
Pope, and the officers of the palace,
all in red robes. Then followed
the Japanese on horseback, in their national dress,* three silken
gowns of a light fabric, one over the other, of a white ground, splen-
didly embroidered with fruits, leaves and birds. In their girdles
they wore the two swords, symbols of Japanese gentility. Their
heads, shaven, except the hair round the ears and neck, which was
gathered into a cue bent upwards, had no covering. Their features
were hardly less divergent from the European standard than their
dress, yet their whole expression, air and manner, modest and ami-
able, but with a conscious sentiment of nobility, was such as impressed
the bystanders very favorably. The prince of Fiunga came
first, between two archbishops. The prince of Arima followed,
between two bishops. Of their counsellors, one was kept away by
sickness, the other followed between two nobles, and after him
Father de Mesquita, the interpreter,
also on horseback. A great
number of richly-dressed courtiers closed the procession. The
crowds, which filled the streets and the windows, looked on in
almost breathless silence. As the ambassadors crossed the bridge
of St. Angelo, all the cannon of the castle were fired, to which
those of the Vatican responded, at which signal all the bands
struck up, and continued to play till the hall of audience was
reached.
The ambassadors approached the foot of the papal throne, each
with the letter of his prince in his hand. Prostrating themselves
at the Pope's feet, they declared in Japanese, in a voice loud and
distinct, that they had come from the extremities of the earth tc
For a particular description of the dress of the Japanese, see chap. Xll