Page:Things Japanese (1905).djvu/197

Rh moment he tires of it, he can pack and be oft". The foreign employé cannot treat life so jauntily, for he has to make his living; and when a man is forced to live in Lotus-land, it is Lotus-land no longer. Hence an irreconcilable feud between the foreign employés in Japan and those literary gentlemen who paint Japan in the brilliant hues of their own imagination. For our part, we see no excuse even from a literary point of view for inaccuracy in this matter. Japan is surely fair enough, her people are attractive enough, her progress has been remarkable enough, for plenty of praise to remain, even when all just deductions are made and credit awarded to those who have helped her to her present position. Why exaggerate? Japan can afford to borrow Cromwell's word, and say, "Paint me as I am!"

(See also Article on Things Japanese/Europeanisation.)

 Forfeits. The Japanese play various games of forfeits, which they call ken, sitting in a little circle and flinging out their fingers, after the manner of the Italian mora. The most popular kind of ken is the kitsune ken, or "fox forfeit," in which various positions of the fingers represent a fox, a man, and a gun. The man can use the gun, the gun can kill the fox, the fox can deceive the man; but the man cannot kill the fox without the gun, nor the fox use the gun against the man. This leads to a number of combinations. Another variety of the game of forfeits is the tomo-se, or "follow me," in which the beaten player has to walk round the room after the conqueror, with something on his back, as if he were the conqueror's baggage coolie. The dance called by foreigners "John Kino" is a less reputable member of the same family of games.

 Formosa. The hazy geography of early times distinguished so imperfectly between Formosa and Luchu that it is often