There are also round and bulging kinds, sometimes quite spherical and sometimes more elongated, stretched out by a bow and having a hook attached to the top, so that they can be carried about or hung on to bars. They have also lids like the coolies’ lanterns. They are especially used at fires; indeed, they form a distinctive feature in the confusion and disorder which invariably prevail on such occasions. There is another kind, known as the horseman’s lantern, which is spherical, with a roof over the top which is open; the handle is of lacquered wood, within which is a piece of whalebone with its end attached to the lantern, and by means of this whalebone the handle can be lengthened at will. This lantern is also used by foot-passengers among the better classes. All lanterns have a round nail sticking up from the centre of the bottom, on which the candle is fixed; for the Japanese candle which is made of vegetable wax, has a hollow paper wick. These candles have, when they are set in a candlestick, to be snuffed from time to time; but the swing of the lantern facilitates the combustion of the wick, and the candles rarely need snuffing when they are being carried in the street. CHAPTER XI. DAILY LIFE. Busy life at home—Discomforts of early morning—Ablutions—Off to school and office—Smoking—Giving orders—Morning work—Washing—Needlework—The work-box—Japanese way of sewing—Ironing—Remaking clothes—Home duties—Bath—Evening—Early hours. Many foreigners think that Japanese women must lead a pretty dull life as they can have little to do in a house bare of furniture. But whether their lives be dull or not compared with the lives of women in other countries, they certainly are not idle. They do not, it is true, go out much; it is a red-letter day with them when they visit a public place in the flower-season or betake themselves to the theatre. But at home they are kept all day to their work. The very scarcity of furniture in a Japanese room implies constant sweeping and tidying; and what with the care of children, making and unmaking of clothes, and superintending of the kitchen, the Japanese housewife has by no means an easy time of it.