The incense-burner retires behind a little screen, shuffles the flat packages like so many cards, takes the uppermost, prepares its contents in the censer, and then, returning to the party, sends the censer upon its round. This time, of course, he does not announce what kind of incense he has used. As the censer passes from hand to hand, each player, after inhaling the fume, puts into the tablet-box one tablet bearing that mark or number which he supposes to be the mark or number of the incense he has smelled. If, for example, he thinks the incense to be “guest-incense,” he drops into the box that one of his tablets marked with the ideograph meaning “guest;” or if he believes that he has inhaled the perfume of No. 2, he puts into the box a tablet numbered “2.” When the round is over, tablet-box and censer are both returned to the incense-burner. He takes the six tablets out of the box, and wraps them up in the paper which contained the incense guessed about. The tablets themselves keep the personal as well as the general record,—since each player remembers the particular design upon his own set. The remaining nine packages of incense are consumed and judged in the same way, according to the chance order in which the shuffling has placed them. When all the incense has been used, the tablets are taken out of their wrappings, the record is officially put into writing, and the victor of the day is announced. I here offer the translation of such a record: it will serve to explain, almost at a glance, all the complications of the game. According to this record the player who used the tablets decorated with the design called “Young Pine,” made but two mistakes; while the holder of the “White-Lily” set made only one correct guess. But it is quite a feat to make ten correct judgments in succession. The olfactory nerves are apt to become somewhat numbed long before the game is concluded; and, therefore it is customary during the _Kō-kwai_ to rinse the mouth at intervals with pure vinegar, by which operation the sensitivity is partially restored. RECORD OF A KŌ-KWAI. Order in which the ten packages of incense were used:— 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 No. No. — No. No. No. No. No. No. No. III I “GUEST” II I III II I III II Names given to the six sets of tablets used, according to decorative designs on the back: “Gold Chrysanthemum” 1 3 1 2* Guest 1 2* 2 3* 3 3 “Young Bamboo” 3* 1* 1 2* 1* Guest 3 2 1 3 4 “Red Peony” Guest 1* 2 2* 3 1 3 2 3* 1 3 “White Lily” 1 3 1 3 2 2 1 3 Guest 2* 1 “Young Pine” 3* 1* Guest* 3 1* 2 2* 1* 3* 2* 8 (Winner) “Cherry-Blossom-in-a-Mist” 1 3 Guest* 2* 1* 3* 1 2 3* 2* 6 Guesses recorded by numbers on the tablet; correct being marked * No. of correct guesses NAMES OF INCENSE USED.