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284 its own, which would interest both the legal specialist and the student of history and sociology. In some cases of comparatively little importance, the customary law of an earlier date is still followed, though variously modified by the application, more or less tentative, of European principles of jurisprudence.

 Literature. We hear of one or two Japanese books as having been composed in the seventh century of the Christian era, shortly after the spread of a knowledge of the Chinese ideographs in Japan had rendered a written literature possible. The earliest work, however, that has come down to us is the Kojiki, or "Record of Ancient Matters," dating from the year 712. This has some times been called the Bible of the Japanese, because it contains the mythology and earliest history of the nation; but it gives no moral or religious precepts. It was followed in A.D. 720 by the Nihongi, or "Chronicles of Japan," a more pretentious work written in Chinese, the Latin of that age and country. In about A.D. 760 came the Man-yōshū, or "Collection of a Myriad Leaves." It is an anthology of the most ancient poems of the language, and is invaluable as a repertory of facts and allusions interesting to the philologist, the archaeologist, and the historian. Its poetical merit is also rated very high by the orthodox native critics, who are unacquainted with any literature but their own, unless it be the Chinese. From that time forward the literary stream has never ceased. It has flowed in a double channel, that of books