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344 eighty singers out of a chaos of disagreeable, nasal voices, producing too a respectable orchestra of forty executants and two hundred and fifty pupils who possess a considerable amount of theoretical knowledge. First some of the Imperial Princesses, now also the Empress herself and the Crown Princess have taken the matter up, and the pupils of the academy, aided by foreign amateurs, occasionally give concerts at which over a thousand persons attend. It is to be presumed that most do so out of curiosity, and some bring infants who accompany the performance with their squalls. Still a beginning has been made, and we know that sometimes a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump. May this happen here before another century elapses, and then may all the samisens, kotos, and other native instruments of music be turned into firewood to warm the poor, when if at no previous period of their existence they will subserve a purpose indisputably useful!

 Mythology. See Things Japanese/History.

 Names. The Japanese have more than one kind of surname, more than one kind of Christian (or should we say heathen?)