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Rh intolerance which was afterwards dearly expiated. At any rate, the seed of religion then sown was never thoroughly eradicated. Christianity remained as a subterranean force, which rose to the surface again two or three centuries later, when some entire districts were found to be Christian (see Article on Things Japanese/Missions). Spain and Portugal's minor contributions to the Europeanisation of Japan are no longer easy to trace, partly because persecution destroyed records, partly because the subject has never yet been thoroughly investigated. A knowledge of bread, with its name pan, certainly came thence. Capes (Jap. kappa, from Portuguese "capa") and playing-cards (Jap. karuta, from Portuguese "carta") may be mentioned among the loans whose names bewray them. Sponge-cake, whose Japanese name kasuteira remains "Castille" scarcely disguised, is another humble but agreeable contribution from the same quarter; mosquito-nets arc another still more valuable. Before their introduction the fire of green wood, which is still used in some remote rural districts, was the only known method—a most disagreeable method as we can testify from personal experience—of driving away those insect pests. Doubt less a thorough sifting of Japanese customs, beliefs, arid products would bring to light a number of interesting details.

In the second act of the drama of the Europeanisation of Japan, the scene is the islet of Deshima in Nagasaki harbour, the actors are Dutchmen. No religious zeal this time, nothing military, nothing heroic of any sort. Even scenes of screaming farce are brought before our eyes, when the deputation of Dutch traders convoyed to Yedo to offer their congratulations on the accession of each Shōgun, are set to amuse His Highness by singing songs, dancing, and pretending to be drunk. But such buffoonery was discontinued at the end of the seventeenth century. Some of the members of the Dutch factory were distinguished men. More than once, too, German scientific investigators, anxious for information concerning the secluded empire of Japan, enrolled themselves in the service of the factory, as a stepping-stone to the acquisition of such knowledge. Those