produce its normal harvest of rice, which amounts to about two hundred and twenty million bushels. [Illustration: A SHRINE OF THE RICE-GOD.] Rice, however, certainly deserves the solicitude the whole nation feels for it; for it is not only the principal food-stuff, but it is also the grain from which the national drink is made. _Sake_ is produced by the fermentation of rice, and contains about fourteen per cent of alcohol. Though foreign wines are now imported into the country and beer is also brewed in large quantities, _sake_ is still the principal alcoholic beverage in Japan; almost all other drinks which were in use in the old times were either varieties of _sake_ or contained it as their chief ingredient. Among other cereals that are largely used are barley and wheat. The former is now much in request for brewing beer; and as it is more digestible than rice, a mixture of the two is eaten by many families in Tokyo. Wheat is mostly used as flour; it enters into many dishes as well as cakes. It is a popular favourite when it is made into macaroni, though in this respect it is eclipsed by buckwheat. But in point of utility the soy bean comes next to rice, for our soy sauce which enters into almost all dishes is made from the bean, wheat, and salt. So extensively is this sauce employed that table salt is comparatively little needed. The bean is also the principal ingredient in _miso_, which is a mixture of the soy bean, steamed and pounded, with rice-yeast and salt. This _miso_ is largely used in making soup; and soups into which it does not enter are usually flavoured by boiling shavings of sun-dried bonito and straining them off. _Mirin_ is a sweet variety of spirit, made by straining a mixture of _sake_, steamed rice, and a spirit distilled from _sake_ lees. It is largely used in boiling fish and other food. Vinegar is made in various ways from rice, barley, potato, or _sake_ lees.