VEGETABLE WAX MAKING [XLVIII].  The wax-tree berries are flailed and then pounded.  Next comes boiling.  The mush obtained is put into a bag and that bag into a wooden press.  The result is wax in its first state.  A reboiling follows and then—­the discovery of the method was made by a wax manufacturer while washing his hands—­a slow dropping of the wax into water.  What is taken out of the water is wax in a flaked state.  It is dried, melted and poured into moulds.  The best berries yield 13 per cent. of fine wax.  The variety of wax grown was oro (yellow wax).  There is another variety.  The sort I saw is grafted at three years with its own variety.  The fruitful period lasts for a quarter of a century.  Roughly, the yield is 100 kwan per tan.  Formerly, wax was made from wild trees.

NAMES FOR ETA [XLIX].  Eta (great defilement) is an offensive name.  The phrase tokushu buraku (special villages), applied to Eta hamlets, is also objected to. Heimin is the official name, but the Eta are generally termed shin heimin (new common people), which is again regarded as invidiously distinguishing them.  The name chiho is now officially proposed for Eta villages.  The fact that many Eta have made large sums during the war has somewhat improved the position of their class.  Some Eta are well satisfied with their name and freely acknowledge their origin.  Year by year intermarriage increases in Japan.  A Home Department official has been quoted as saying that in 1918 as many as 450 marriages were registered between Eta and ordinary Japanese.

The population of the village I visited, 1,900 in 300 families, was getting its living as follows:  farming 682, trade 185, industry 31, day labour 97, travelling players 180, not reported 180.  The Parliamentary voters were 10, prefectural 17, county 19 and village 57.  There were 98 ex-soldiers in the community and one man was a member of the local education committee.  The birth rate was above the local average.  The crimes committed during the year were:  theft 2, gambling 2, assault 1, police offences 3.  Of the 300 families only one was destitute, and it had been taken care of by the young women’s society.

A considerable proportion of the early emigrants to America were Eta.  It is now recognised that it was a short-sighted policy on the part of the authorities to allow them to go.

PAPER MAKING [L].  A paper-making outfit may cost from 60 to 70 yen only.  The shrubs grown to produce bark for paper making are kozo (the paper mulberry), mitsumata (Edgworthia chrysantha) and gampi (Wilkstroemia sikokiana).  Someone has also hit on the idea of turning the bark of the ordinary mulberry to use in paper making.

LIBRARIES, THE PRESS AND THE CENSORSHIP [LI].  There are 1,200 libraries in the country with 4 million books and 8 million visitors in the year.  About 47,000 books are published in a year, of which less than half, probably, are original works.  From one to two hundred are translations, usually condensed translations.  The largest number deal with politics.  There are about 3,000 newspapers and periodicals.  In 1917 some 1,200 issues of newspapers and periodicals attracted the attention of the censor and the sale of 600 books was prohibited.  Some sixty foreign books were stopped.