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32 HONDA THE SAMURAI.
of the teapot, for many like to have the hot cha
poured
over their bowls of rice.
It is wonderful what may be done with chopsticks.
Even the little baby can use them. Fish is most
dexterously carved and served by the two sticks ;
and
soup can be eaten with them provided
thin. A new guest always has a new pair of sticks,
usually in the form of one piece of fresh, clean wood
it is not too
partly split, so that he can finish the process himself,
and by making two sticks of one prove that it has
not been used.
Our impressions of a Japanese house would be that
it is for summer weather a pleasant dwelling-place,
but that in the cold winter it would not suit Ameri-
cans. North of Osaka one needs fire six months in
the year ; but the Japanese have no safe or conven-
ient method of warming their houses, using only the
hibachi, or fire-bowl. Yet though we might think it
uncomfortable, it is less so to a Japanese. As the
cold weather increases, the natives put on additional
layers of clothing, like skins to an onion, until they
have as many as four, sfe, or even eight thicknesses
of clothing. With their padded long clothes confin-
ing the heat of their bodies, as they sit in their
kneeling fashion on the thick mats, they need warmth
only on their hands, which the handful of coal in
the brazier easily yields.