In regard to sash windows, he says: “This room is lighted by what may be defined ‘the unscientific window.’ Here, in this single structure, you may see most of the intellectual vices that mark the unscientific mind. The scientific way is always the simple way; so here you have complication on complication,—one half the window is to go up, the other half is to come down. The maker of it goes out of his way to struggle with Nature's laws; he grapples insanely with gravitation, and therefore he must use cords and weights and pulleys, and build boxes to hide them in. He is a great hider. His wooden frames move up and down wooden grooves, open to atmospheric influence. What is the consequence? The atmosphere becomes humid; the wooden frame sticks in the wooden box, and the unscientific window is jammed. What, ho! Send for the Curse of Families, the British workman! On one of the cords breaking (they are always breaking), send for the Curse of Families to patch the blunder of the unscientific builder.”
A Government bureau called the Kaitakushi, now fortunately extinct, established in Yezo, the seat of its labors, one or two saw-mills; but whether they are still at work I do not know.
A structure of stone or wood, not unlike the naked frame-work of a gate, erected in front of shrines and temples.
This sketch was made from a photograph taken for this work, at the suggestion of Dr. W. S. Bigelow, by Percival Lowell, Esq.
We have characterized as a ridge-roof that portion which has truncate ends,—in other words, the form of a gable,—and which receives special methods of treatment. The line of demarcation between the long reach of thatch of the roof proper and the ridge-roof is very distinct.
An odor which at home we recognize as “Japanesy,” arising from the wood-boxes in which Japanese articles are packed.
In the plan ([fig. 97]) P is an eight-mat room; D and L are six-mat rooms; S is a four and one-half mat room; S, H, and St. are three-mat rooms; S B, and F are two-mat rooms.
The following is a brief explanation of the names of the rooms given in plan [fig. 99]: Agari-ba (Agari, “to go up; ” ba, “place”), Platform, or place to stand on in coming out of the Bath. Cha-dokoro, Tea-place; Ge-dan, Lower Step; ō-dan, Upper Step; Iri-kawa, Space between verandah and room; Kami-no-ma, Upper place or room; Tsugi-no-ma, Next place or room; Kesho-no-ma, Dressing-room (Kesho,—“adorning the face with powder”). Nan-do, Store-room; Naka-tsubo, Middle space, Oshi-ire, Closet (literally, “push,” “put in”); Ro-ka, Corridor, Covered way; Tamari, Ante-chamber; Tsume-sho, Waiting-room for servants; Yu-dono, Bath-room; Yen-zashiki, End parlor; Watari,—“to cross over;” Sunoko, Bamboo shelf or platform.
See chapter viii. for further considerations regarding the matter.
A correspondent in the “Pall Mall Gazette,” in protesting against the attempt to impose European clothing on those people who are accustomed to go without any, says: “In many parts of India there is a profound suspicion of the irreligiousness of clothing. The fakir is distressed even by the regulation rag upon which the Government modestly insists, and a fully dressed fakir would be scouted. The late Brahmo minister, Chesub Chunder Sen, expressed the belief that India would never accept a Christ in hat and boots. The missionary should remember that clothes-morality is climatic, and that if a certain degree of covering of the body has gradually become in the Northwest associated with morality and piety, the traditions of tropical countries may have equally connected elaborate dress rather with the sensualities of Solomon in his glory than with the purity of the lily as clothed by Nature.”