[Footnote 52: I have some good reasons for making this suggestion. Yokoi Héishiro had dwelt for some time in Fukui, a few rods away from the house in which I lived, and the ideas he promulgated among the Echizen clansmen in his lectures on Confucianism, were not only Christian in spirit but, by their own statement, these ideas could not be found in the texts of the Chinese sage or of his commentators. Although the volume (edited by his son, Rev. J.F. Yokoi) of his Life and Letters shows him to have been an intense and at times almost bigoted Confucianist, he, in one of his later letters, prophesied that when Christianity should be taught by the missionaries, it would win the hearts of the young men of Japan. See also Satow's Kinsé Shiriaku, p. 183; Adams's History of Japan; and in fiction, see Honda The Samurai, p. 242, and succeeding chapters.] [Footnote 53: In the colorless and unsentimental language of government publications, the Japanese edict of emancipation, issued to the local authorities in October, 1871, ran as follows: "The designations of eta and hinin are abolished. Those who bore them are to be added to the general registers of the population and their social position and methods of gaining a livelihood are to be identical with the rest of the people. As they have been entitled to immunity from the land tax and other burdens of immemorial custom, you will inquire how this may be reformed and report to the Board of Finance." (Signed) Council of State.] [Footnote 54: In English fiction, see The Eta Maiden and the Hatamoto, in Mitford's Tales of Old Japan, Vol. I., pp. 210-245. Discussions as to the origin of the Eta are to be found in Adams's History of Japan, Vol. I, p. 77; M.E., index; T.J., p. 147; S. and H., p. 36; Honda the Samurai, pp. 246, 247; Mitford's Tales of Old Japan, Vol. I., pp. 210-245. The literature concerning the Ainos is already voluminous. See Chamberlain's Aino Studies, with bibliography; and Rev. John Batchelor's Ainu Grammar, published by The Imperial University of Tōkiō; T.A.S.J., Vols. X., XL, XVI., XVIII., XX.; The Ainu of Japan, New York, 1892, by J. Batchelor (who has also translated the Book of Common Prayer, and portions of the Bible into the Ainu tongue); M. E., Chap. II.; T.A.S.J., Vol. X., and following volumes; Unbeaten Tracks in Japan, Vol. II.; Life with Trans-Siberian Savages, London, 1895.]