Thunberg noticed that venereal diseases, which he ascribed to European intercourse, were very common,[42] and he congratulated himself on the questionable service of having introduced the mercurial treatment.
As he had plenty of leisure and little taste for the Dutch fashion of killing time, he endeavored to find more rational and profitable employment. The residents were still allowed native servants, who, though not interpreters, had learned to speak the Dutch language. But the Dutch were strictly prohibited from learning the Japanese; and though the interpreters were sufficiently well inclined, Thunberg encountered many difficulties in his study of that language. It was only after many inquiries that he found at last an old dictionary, in the Latin, Portuguese, and Japanese, in quarto, containing nine hundred and six pages. The title-page was gone, but the book purported to have been compiled by the joint labors of the Jesuits at Japan, as well European as natives. It belonged to one of the interpreters, who possessed it as legacy from his ancestors, and he refused to sell it for any price.[43]
Afterwards, at Yedo, he saw a book in long quarto, about an inch thick, printed on Japanese paper, entirely in Japanese characters, except the title-page, which bore the imprint of the Jesuits, with the date, Nagasaki, A. D. 1598.
“Through incapacity in some and indolence in others,” the Dutch possessed no vocabulary of the Japanese, and all the knowledge the Dutch residents had of it did not go beyond calling by name a few familiar articles. Thunberg has annexed to his Travels a short Japanese vocabulary, but he does not appear to have made any great progress in the language.
With much difficulty he obtained, about the beginning of February, leave to botanize.[44] Every excursion cost him sixteen or eighteen taels, as he was obliged to feast from twenty to thirty Japanese officials, by whom he was always attended. On the neighboring hills he noticed many burying-grounds, containing tombstones of various forms, sometimes rough, but more frequently hewn, with letters, sometimes gilt, engraved upon them. Before these stones were placed vessels, made of large bamboos, containing water, with branches of flowers.
He also noticed, both around Nagasaki and afterwards on his journey to Yedo, the pits, or rather large earthen jars, sunk by the road-side for the collection of manure, both liquid and solid. To the fœtid exhalations from these open pits, and to the burning of charcoal without chimneys, he ascribed the red and inflamed eyes very common in Japan. In the gardens he saw growing the common red beet, the carrot, fennel, dill, anise, parsley, and asparagus; leeks, onions, turnips, radishes, lettuce, succory, and endive. Long ranges of sloping ground, at the foot of the mountains, were planted with the sweet potato. Attempts were also made to cultivate the common potato, but with little success. Several kinds of yams (Dioscoreæ) grew wild in the vicinity of Nagasaki, of which one species was used for food, and, when boiled, had a very agreeable taste.[45] Buckwheat, Windsor beans (Vicia faba), several species of French beans (Phascolus), and peas (Pisun sativum), were commonly cultivated; also, two kinds of cayenne pepper (Capsicum), introduced probably by the Portuguese. Tobacco was also raised, for the use and the name of which the Japanese were indebted to the Portuguese. He observed also hemp, the Acorus, strongly aromatic; a kind of ginger (Amomum miōga); the Mentha piperita; the Alcea rosea and Malva Mauritiana, cultivated for their flowers; the Celastrus alatus, a branch of which, stuck at a young lady’s door, is thought by the Japanese to have the power of making her fall in love with you; the common juniper-tree; the bamboo and the box, also the ivy; the China-root (Smilax China); wild figs, with small fruit like plums (Fiscus pumila and erecta); the pepper bush (Figara peperita); a species of madder (Rubia cordata), and several species of the Pologonum, used for dyeing. Also, two species of nettles, the bark of which furnished cordage and thread, and the seeds of one species an oil. The yellow flowers of the colewort (Brassica orientalis), which was largely cultivated for the oil afforded by its seeds, presented through the spring a beautiful appearance. This oil was used for lamps. Oil for food, used, however, but sparingly, was expressed from the Sesamum orientale and the mustard seed. Solid oils, for candles, were obtained from the nuts of the varnish-tree (Rhus vernix), and from those of the Rhus succedanea, the camphor-tree, the Melea azedarach, and the Camellia sasankwa.[46]
In striking fire a tinder is used made of the woolly part of the leaves of the common wormwood. The famous moxa [mogusa], spoken of hereafter, is a finer preparation of the same root. Instead of soap the meal of a species of bean is employed.
The bark of the Shikimi, or anise-tree (a near relation of the mangolia tribe, and whose flowers and leaves are much employed in religious ceremonies), is used as a time-measurer. A box a foot long is filled with ashes, in which are marked furrows, in parallel lines, strewed with fine powder of this bark. The lid being closed, with only a small hole left to supply air, the powder is set on fire at one end, and consumed very slowly, and the hours, marked beforehand on these furrows, are proclaimed in the daytime by striking the bells in the temples, and in the night by the watch striking together two pieces of wood. Another method of measuring time is by burning slow match, divided into knots to mark the hours. The Japanese also have a clock, the mechanism of which is described in a subsequent chapter.
“The first of January, according to custom,” says Thunberg, “most of the Japanese that had anything to do at the Dutch factory came to wish us a happy new year. Dressed in their holiday clothes, they paid their respects to the director, who invited them to dine with him. The victuals were chiefly dressed after the European manner, and, consequently, but few of the dishes were tasted by the Japanese. Of the soup they all partook, but of the other dishes, such as roasted pigs, hams, salad, cakes, tarts, and other pastries, they ate little or nothing, but put on a plate a little of every dish, and, when it was full, sent it home, labelled with the owner’s name; and this was repeated several times. Salt beef, and the like, which the Japanese do not eat, were set by, and used as a medicine. The same may be said of the salt butter, of which I was frequently desired to cut a slice for some of the company. It is made into pills, and taken daily in consumptions and other disorders. After dinner, warm sake was handed round, which was drank out of lackered wooden cups.
“On this festive occasion the director invited from the town several handsome girls, partly for the purpose of serving out the sake, and partly to dance and bear the girls company who were already on the island. After dinner, these girls treated the Japanese to several of their own country messes, placed on small square tables, which were decorated with an artificial fir-tree, the leaves of which were made of green silk, and in several places sprinkled over with white cotton, in imitation of the winter’s snow. The girls never presented the sake, standing, but, after their own fashion, sitting. In the evening they danced, and about five o’clock the company took their leave.”