As to the frequent bathing, its cleanliness is exaggerated by Western thought, for instead of supplying fresh water for each person, the Japanese public baths consist usually of a large tank used by multitudes in common.  Clean water is allowed for the face, but the main tank is supplied with clean hot water only once each day.  In Kumamoto, schoolgirls living with us invariably asked permission to go to the bath early in the day that they might have the first use of the water.  They said that by night it was so foul they could not bear to use it.  Each hotel has its own private bath for guests; this is usually heated in the afternoon, and the guests take their baths from four o’clock on until midnight, the waiting girls of the hotel using it last.  My only experience with public baths has been mentioned already.  At first glance the conditions were reassuring, for a large stream of hot water was running in constantly, and the water in the tank itself was quite transparent.  But on entering I was surprised, not to say horrified, to see floating along the margin of the tank and on the bottom of it suggestive proofs of previous bathers.  On inquiry I learned that the tank was never washed out, nor the water entirely discharged at a single time; the natural overflow along the edge of the tank being considered sufficient.  In the interest of accuracy it is desirable to add that New Japan is making progress in the matter of public baths.  In some of the larger cities, I am told, provision is sometimes made for entirely fresh water for each bather in separate bathrooms.

In view of these facts—­as unpleasant to mention as they are essential to a faithful description of the habits of the people—­it is clear that the “horror of physical impurity” has not been, and is not now, so great as some would have us believe.  Whatever may have been the condition in ancient times, it would be difficult to believe that the rite of ceremonial purification could arise out of the present practices and habits of thought.  One may venture the inquiry whether the custom of using the “purificatory water” may not have been introduced from abroad.

But whatever be the present thought of the people, on the general subject of sin, it may be shown to be due to the prevailing system of ideas, moral and religious, rather than to the inherent racial character.  In an interesting article by Mr. G. Takahashi on the “Past, Present, and Future of Christianity in Japan” I find the statement that the preaching of the monks who came to Japan in the sixteenth century was of such a nature as to produce a very deep consciousness of sin among the converts.  “The Christians or martyrs repeatedly cried out ‘we miserable sinners,’ ‘Christ died for us,’ etc., as their letters abundantly prove.  It was because of this that their consciences were aroused by the burning words of Christ, and kept awake by means of contrition and confession.”  Among modern Christians the sense of sin is much more clear and