historicalgeogra00psal

the Ijle Formofa.
Years of Age bred to trade,
will keep their Mailers
Books exa£lly •,
1 2 j
whereas you can fcarce find
a Man under 30 Years of Age that can readily
write the Language and Charafters of the Chinefe,
Befides, I have feen many Boxes and Bales
of Chinefe Merchandize, with the Names, Weight
and Value upon them, and all in Characlers far
different from what the Bonzos and other learned
Chinefe ufe ; But of this I can fey no more,
for I was not curious, nor at leifure to Iludy that
Language thoroughly.
Secondly , The Japannefe have four ways of
writing : The firft from the top of the Page to
the bottom in a perpendicular Line j this way
'tis thought they had from the Chinefe , as it is
alfo that they had their Ch,ara£lers from them ^
but time, and they hating the Chinefe^ has very
much alter'd the latter. 'The fecond way is known
only to the Priefts, and every one of their CharaQers
fignifies a whole Sentence ^ they write
from the left hand to the right, as the Europeans
do. The third way is much eafier than the two
former, and this they do by an Alphabet of
12 Vowels and 61 Confonants , with thefe they
can readily exprefs or fignifie moll Sounds , or
Modulations of the Voice ; This way of writing
is from the right to the left, from thence to
the right again, and fo on backwards and forwards
to the end of the Page, fo that the whole
Page is but one continued curve Line. This way
of writing is called Ribanatohy/n^ fron> Ribanar
to write, and Tohym^ which anfwers the Englijh
words backwards and forwards. The fourth is
what they have learnt from us, and of which I
^m about to fpeak.
Thirdly^ We in Yormofa ufe a far more clear
5n4 eafie way than either above- mentioned ; We
liave