[“The name _Nihon_ (‘Japan’) seems to have been first officially employed by the Japanese Government in A.D. 670. Before that time, the usual native designation of the country was _Yamato_, properly the name of one of the central provinces. Yamato and _Ō-mi-kuni_, that is, ‘the Great August Country,’ are the names still preferred in poetry and _belles-lettres_. Japan has other ancient names, some of which are of learned length and thundering sound, for instance, _Toyo-ashi-wara-no-chi-aki-no-naga-i-ho-aki-no-mizu-ho-no-kuni_, that is ‘the Luxuriant-Reed-Plains-the-Land-of-Fresh-Rice-Ears-of- a-Thousand-Autumns-of-Long-Five-Hundred-Autumns.’” (_B. H. Chamberlain_, _Things Japanese_, 3rd ed. p. 222.)—H. C.] It is remarkable that the name _Nipon_ occurs, in the form of _Al-Náfún_, in the _Ikhwán-al-Safá_, supposed to date from the 10th century. (See _J. A. S. B._ XVII. Pt. I. 502.) [I shall merely mention the strange theory of Mr. George Collingridge that _Zipangu_ is Java and not Japan in his paper on _The Early Cartography of Japan_. (_Geog. Jour._ May, 1894, pp. 403–409.) Mr. F. G. Kramp (_Japan or Java?_), in the _Tijdschrift v. het K. Nederl. Aardrijkskundig Genootschap_, 1894, and Mr. H. Yule Oldham (_Geog. Jour._, September, 1894, pp. 276–279), have fully replied to this paper.—H. C.] NOTE 2.—The causes briefly mentioned in the text maintained the abundance and low price of gold in Japan till the recent opening of the trade. (See Bk. II. ch. 1. note 5.) Edrisi had heard that gold in the isles of Sila (or Japan) was so abundant that dog-collars were made of it. NOTE 3.—This was doubtless an old “yarn,” repeated from generation to generation. We find in a Chinese work quoted by Amyot: “The palace of the king (of Japan) is remarkable for its singular construction. It is a vast edifice, of extraordinary height; it has nine stories, and presents on all sides an exterior shining with the purest gold.” (_Mém. conc. les Chinois_, XIV. 55.) See also a like story in Kaempfer. (_H. du Japon_, I. 139.) [Illustration: Ancient Japanese Archer. (From a Native Drawing.)] NOTE 4.—Kaempfer speaks of pearls being found in considerable numbers, chiefly about Satsuma, and in the Gulf of Omura, in Kiusiu. From what Alcock says they do not seem now to be abundant. (_Ib._ I. 95; _Alcock_, I. 200.) No precious stones are mentioned by Kaempfer. Rose-tinted pearls are frequent among the Scotch pearls, and, according to Mr. King, those of this tint are of late the most highly esteemed in Paris. Such pearls were perhaps also most highly esteemed in old India; for red pearls (_Lohitamukti_) form one of the seven precious objects which it was incumbent to use in the adornment of Buddhistic reliquaries, and to distribute at the building of a Dagoba. (_Nat. Hist. of Prec. Stones_, etc., 263; _Koeppen_, I. 541.) CHAPTER III.