Page:A handbook of modern Japan (IA handbookofmodern01clem).pdf/48

20 times and in all places. It is true that they drink it from a very small cup, which holds about two tablespoonfuls, but they drink, as we are told to pray, "without ceasing." Hot water is kept ever ready for making tea, which is sipped every few minutes, and is always served, with cake or confectionery, to visitors.

Tobacco was introduced into Japan by the Portuguese, but its use was at first strictly prohibited. The practice of smoking, however, rapidly spread until it became well-nigh a universal custom, not even restricted to the male sex. The Lilliputian pipe would seem to indicate that only a limited amount of the weed is used; but smoking, like tea-drinking, is practised "early and often." The Japanese tobacco is said to be "remarkable for its mildness and dryness."

The silk industry is the most important in relation to Japan's foreign trade, and is on the increase. Silk is sent away to American and European markets chiefly in its raw state, but is also manufactured into handkerchiefs, etc. The exports of silk for the year 1910 amounted to about $90,000,000, or about two-fifths of the entire export trade. It would, of course, be beyond the limits of this chapter to enter into the description of the details of sericulture; it may be sufficient here to state that only the stolid patience of Orientals can well endure the slow, tedious, and painstaking process of feeding the silkworms.