It is well known that the Japanese are classed under the Mongolian (or Yellow) Race. They themselves boastfully assert that they belong to the “golden race,” and are superior to Caucasians, who belong to the “silver race”! As Mongolians, they are marked, not only by a yellowish hue, of many shades from the darkest to the lightest, but also by straight black hair (rather coarse), scanty beard, rather broad and prominent cheek-bones, and eyes more or less oblique. Some think that the Japanese people show strong evidences of Malay origin,[42] and claim that the present Emperor, for instance, is of a striking Malay type. It is not impossible, nor even improbable, that Malays were borne on the “Japan Current” northward from their tropical abodes to the Japanese islands; but there is no historical record of such a movement. Therefore the best authorities, like Rein and Baelz, do not acknowledge more than slight traces of Malay influence. A more recent theory concerning the origin of the real Japanese—or Yamato men, as they called themselves—is that they are descendants of the Hittites, whose capital was Hamath, or Yamath, or Yamato! There are two distinct types of Japanese: the oval-faced, narrow-eyed, small aristocratic class; and the pudding-faced, full-eyed, flat-nosed, stout common people. Of these, the latter is the one claimed to be Malay. The plebeians, having always been accustomed to hard labor by the sweat of the brow, are comparatively strong; the others, having been developed by centuries of an inactive life, have inherited weak constitutions. Indeed, the people, as a whole, are subject to early maturity and early decay. There is a Japanese proverb to this effect: “At ten, a god-like child; at twenty, a clever man; from twenty-five on, an ordinary man.” And, in spite of the fact that there have been remarkable exceptions to this rule, careful investigation by Japanese supports the truth of the proverb. And yet there seems to be no doubt that modern education and conditions of life show a gradual improvement in this respect. [Illustration: GROUP OF COUNTRY PEOPLE] The average Japanese, compared with the average European or American, has a lower stature[43] with a long body and short legs. A good authority states that “the average stature of Japanese men is about the same as the average stature of European women”; and that “the [Japanese] women are proportionately smaller.” Some one has wittily called the Japanese “the diamond edition of humanity.” The Japanese also weigh much less than Europeans. The average weight of young men of twenty years of age in Europe is about 144 pounds, while the average weight of the strongest young men of the suburban districts of Tōkyō was only about 121 pounds; which gives the European an advantage of 23 pounds.