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When the World was young and people believed in sea-serpents they used to say there was a huge sea-serpent athousand miles long in the sea near China. Wherever the humps on the sea-serpent's back stuck out of the water they looked like islands, and whenever the sea-serpent twisted or turned in his age-long sleep the islands would shake. Yet, long ago people from China went to these islands on the sea-serpent's back and made their homes there, in spite of the fact that he was squirming in his sleep. We now know that these islands are simply old volcanoes in the water, most of which have burned out, and when they shake, as they still do almost every day, we know that the shakes are just earthquakes. We call these islands on the sea-serpent "Japan"and the people "Japanese." The Japanese, however, don't call their island Japan; they call their country of islands "Nippon," which means the Land of the Rising Sun. Of course, the sun rises in other lands too, but when the Japanese went to Japan it was, for them, the land where the sun rose. So their white flag has on it the picture of a red sun with rays.
The Chinese and the Japanese both belong to the yellow race. But the Japanese are as different from the Chinese in most ways as the white people of our country are different from the white people of India. The Japanese are quick to learn and quick to copy. The Japanese used to copy the Chinese writing, the Chinese Buddha, the Chinese way of eating with chop-sticks, for they knew no other people and no other country but China and, like the Chinese, they kept all others out of their country. It was as if they had put up a sign, "No Admittance."
Now, for some reason or other, most people whenever they see a sign "Keep Out" want to "Go in"—like Mary, Mary quite contrary, they want to do what they are told they mustn't.
