The Japanese appear to be very partial to the theater, and there seems in the nation an innate aptitude for such representation. But while the government regulates this, as it does every other branch of the amusements as well as the education of the people, actors as a class are looked upon as the lowest in the scale of society. The female parts are generally taken by boys. Some companies go about the country composed entirely of boys or young children, none of whom are apparently upward of ten or twelve years of age. The people enjoy these very much, and will take their meals and sit all day watching the different acts, applauding vigorously at whatever they appreciate in acting, or what may amuse them in the play. Nothing seems to excite their feelings and evoke their applause more than a well-acted suicide by stabbing the abdomen. During the evenings many minor places of amusement are open, such as jugglers, marionettes, and tellers of stories. Wrestling by professionals is another spectacle which always draws a very large concourse of spectators, generally male; but women are on occasions to be seen viewing the maneuvers of the contest with the greatest interest. These spectacles have been well, though perhaps over, described by Commodore Perry. Besides these full-grown wrestlers, companies go about, having under tuition boys of from eight to twelve years of age, who wrestle with all the pomp and circumstance of their full-grown compeers. The same laws regulate the game under the formal umpire. A successful wrestler is hailed with loud applause; and under the influence of the excitement of the moment, money is frequently thrown to the conqueror, or for want of it men will throw their coats or napkins, which they afterward redeem.