Page:Kojiki by Chamberlain.djvu/37

Rh of the space being simply a mud-floor, and that the size of the couch was gradually increased until it occupied the whole interior. The rafters projected upward beyond the ridge-pole, crossing each other as is seen in the roofs of modern Shiñ-tau temples, whether their architecture be in conformity with early traditions (in which case all the rafters are so crossed) or modified in accordance with more advanced principles of construction, and the crossed rafters retained only as ornaments at the two ends of the ridge. The roof was thatched, and perhaps had a gable at each end, with a hole to allow the smoke of the wood-fire to escape, so that it was possible for birds flying in and perching on the beams overhead, to defile the food, or the fire with which it was cooked.” To this description it need only be added that fences were in use, and that the wooden doors, sometimes fastened by means of hooks, resembled those with which we are familiar in Europe rather than the sliding, screen-like doors of modern Japan. The windows seem to have been mere holes. Rugs of skins and rush matting were occasionally brought in to sit upon, and we even hear once or twice of “silk rugs” being used for the same purpose by the noble and wealthy.

The habits of personal cleanliness which so pleasantly distinguish the modern Japanese from their neighbours in continental Asia, though less fully developed than at present, would seem to have existed in the germ in early times, as we read more than once of bathing in rivers, and are told of bathing-women being specially attached to the person of a certain imperial infant. Lustrations, too, formed part of the religious practices of the race. Latrines are mentioned several times. They would appear to have been situated away from the houses and to have generally been placed over a running stream, whence doubtless the name for latrine in the Archaic Dialect,—kaha-ya, i. e. “river-house.” A well-known Japanese classic of the tenth century, the “Yamato Tales,” tells us indeed that “in older days the people dwelt in houses raised on platforms built out on the river Ikuta,” and goes on to relate a story which presupposes such a method of architecture. A passage in the account