to explain the different forms to be observed by the official witnesses who inspect and verify the head, &c., and then to instruct him in the ceremonies to be observed in the act of suicide; then he showed all these rites to his son and to all his retainers.  Another person has said that, as the ceremonies to be gone through by principal, witnesses, and seconds are all very important matters, men should familiarize themselves with a thing which is so terrible, in order that, should the time come for them to take part in it, they may not be taken by surprise.

The witnesses go to see and certify the suicide.  For seconds, men are wanted who have distinguished themselves in the military arts.  In old days, men used to bear these things in mind; but now-a-days the fashion is to be ignorant of such ceremonies, and if upon rare occasions a criminal is handed over to a Daimio’s charge, that he may perform hara-kiri, it often happens, at the time of execution, that there is no one among all the prince’s retainers who is competent to act as second, in which case a man has to be engaged in a hurry from some other quarter to cut off the head of the criminal, and for that day he changes his name and becomes a retainer of the prince, either of the middle or lowest class, and the affair is entrusted to him, and so the difficulty is got over:  nor is this considered to be a disgrace.  It is a great breach of decorum if the second, who is a most important officer, commits any mistake (such as not striking off the head at a blow) in the presence of the witnesses sent by the Government.  On this account a skilful person must be employed; and, to hide the unmanliness of his own people, a prince must perform the ceremony in this imperfect manner.  Every Samurai should be able to cut off a man’s head:  therefore, to have to employ a stranger to act as second is to incur the charge of ignorance of the arts of war, and is a bitter mortification.  However, young men, trusting to their youthful ardour, are apt to be careless, and are certain to make a mistake.  Some people there are who, not lacking in skill on ordinary occasions, lose their presence of mind in public, and cannot do themselves justice.  It is all the more important, therefore, as the act occurs but rarely, that men who are liable to be called upon to be either principals or seconds or witnesses in the hara-kiri should constantly be examined in their skill as swordsmen, and should be familiar with all the rites, in order that when the time comes they may not lose their presence of mind.

According to one authority, capital punishment may be divided into two kinds—­beheading and strangulation.  The ceremony of hara-kiri was added afterwards in the case of persons belonging to the military class being condemned to death.  This was first instituted in the days of the Ashikaga[102] dynasty.  At that time the country was in a state of utter confusion; and there were men who, although