File:Narrative of the Earl of Elgin's mission to China and Japan in the years 1857, '58, '59 (1859) (14587648477).jpg

Identifier: narrativeofearlo02olip (find matches)
Title: Narrative of the Earl of Elgin's mission to China and Japan in the years 1857, '58, '59
Year: 1859 (1850s)
Authors: Oliphant, Laurence, 1829-1888
Subjects: Elgin, James Bruce, Earl of, 1811-1863
Publisher: Edinburgh W. Blackwood
Contributing Library: Robarts - University of Toronto
Digitizing Sponsor: University of Toronto

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being placed in a sitting posture, theshape of the coffin is more that of a sedan chairthan an oblong case. It is preceded by servantsand members of the establishment, and followed bypriests and mourners in white, with norimons for theladies, and policemen, as usual, to keep off the crowd.According to Siebold, the corpse is interred to funerealmusic, produced by striking copper basins. We were so fortunate as to discover, not far fromour abode, a small back-street, which was an unfail-ing resource, when time did not permit of an expe-dition into that part of the city which correspondsto the Borough of London. Here were a quan-tity of book-stalls, some shops containing very curi-ous China, and a great variety of the peculiar manu-factures of the country. The Japanese are a peopleplain and simple in their tastes, and as a rule eschew-ing ornaments. Those, however, in which the ladiesindulge most freely are made of glass, in the fabri-cation of which into quaint devices the manufacturers
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MODE OF DEESSING LADIES HAIR. 189 are peculiarly expert. A favourite trick is to fillglass tubes of various shapes and patterns with col-oured fluids. These are frequently used as hair-pins.Sometimes there is a globe at the end, in whichthe liquid may be detected by the air-bubble as itglances in the raven tresses of a Japanese belle. Mostof the women wear their hair somewhat in the stylewhich was in vogue among ourselves forty or fiftyyears ago—the back-hair being massively arranged,and skewered in various directions with glass orna-ments. The female attendants in the establishmentsof princes are alone allowed to wear their hair dVImperatrice. It is singular that while the Japanesehave brought the manufacture of glass to such per-fection in certain forms—as, for instance, the mostexquisitely-shaped bottles, so light and fragile thatthey seem as though they were mere bubbles, ofevery shade of colour, and beautifully enamelled withdevices—plate-glass is unknown among them. Theirl

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