Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1860-05-30
DISCOVERIES IN JAPANESE LITERA.
TIRE

eastern seas picked up a boat containing a
number Of men, who proved to be the officers
wrecked. This circumstance may lead to i'm
portant consequences. The following letter
relating to ii has been communicated to ]. C.
u Kennedy, Esq, the active and able Secre-
tary Of the National Institute, by the Hon
Secretary of the Interior:
L. s. REVENUE CUTTER Polk,
San Francisco, August Is, 1851 (
SIR: Herewith send you the alphabet and
compass in the japanese language, with the
names Of the officers and men now on board,
who were shipwrecked and brought to this
port, thinking they might be an object of Gu
Ilosity and worthy Of n small space in the
National Institute.
These shipwrecked mariners are very intel
hgent, and L, as well as many other citizens
are Of the opinion that were they to take
tour through the United States, to obtain son
idea of its extent and greatness, they would
on their return to their own country, have
most beneficial effect in opening the doors OF
that to US unknown portion Of Gods creation.
will send you as soon as possible daguer-
reOtype hkenesses of those on board which
might also be placed in connection with the
inclOsed.
With feelings of the highest esteem, have
the honor to be, your Obedient servant,
WN. A TENNIsON, Lieut.. U. S. R. NJ
Hon. A. II. II. STUART, Secretary Of Interior.
Accompanying the letter is a copy of the
Japanese alphabet, executed apparently BY
hand, but with so much skill that the work
might readily be mistaken for lithography; a
list OF the names of the japanese sailors, with
their autograph signstures found with them,
and the japanese numerals These papers are
objects of rational curiosity, and will SO con-
tnue, should We hear nothing further of the
individuals who are thus providentislly made
our guests; but should Lieut. Tennison's sug-
gesuons be carried out, they will attract the
or nm Tnfa n * L. i
them.
The Japanese alphabet, as represented by
Lieut.. Tennison's diagram, contains As char
acters, which consist of straight obliaue, par
allel, crooked and angular lines and marks
resembling thick and ragged scrawls with a
pad gum pen. There are, think, no circles
no Oysls, and but one curve in the as signs
Inc names OF these letters, take it, so as
10 give as near as may be the Japanese
pronunciation, are :-Ee, row, haw, nhee, no,
hey, thom, chee; ID, nhoo, chow; o, waw, cav,
you, than, day, sour, tzoOmay, nam, wrawmoo;
10, Eno, y, hoo, yaw, nam; h, foo, kow; A,
thea; An, sam, kee, you, may, nee; C, A, ghee,
NOW, say; DzOo, O. 1t will be remarked that
the character . occurs twice, and once in ad-
dition, followed by the same letter in smaller
size The repetition is no doubt susceptible
of explanation consistent with the ASSUMPTION
that they are separate letters. In this repre-
sentation Of the alphabet, and in the lists of
the numerals and the proper Names it is OBJ
servabls that the letters, numbers and names
stand in perpendicular columns that the place
OF beginning is at the righthand upper corner
of the page, at what would be with us the
head Of the last column; that the order of read
ing or writing Is from the top to the bottom of
tae column, and from the right to the left side
of the paper, after the manner of the Chinese
and directly the reverse of our own who write
and read horizontally, and from left to right
The name Of the captain is Months which Is
neither very foreign to our ears nor hard TO
be pronounced. Some of the others sound al
most familiar, as Jim-Potch, a cOnnexion very
possibly Of our Patch. who moistened his
unlucky clay in the Genessee; Sim-pay Tha-
me-tho, HeckO-jhO, and You-am-tho 100, /"
1.-The" and 'thO" seem to be favorite ternina-
tiOns, and, being written separately, are per-
haps surnsmeS. The ealligrsphy of these sig
natures looks grotesque enough, but not more
80 probably than the autographs of the Presi-
dent and Cabinet, for example would to the
most enlightened japanese.
The numerals afford decisive proof Of the ad-
vance Of this mysterious people in mathemat-
les, science the cultivation of which is always
an accompaniment of high eivilizatiOn Their
system Tor the expression OF numbers seems to
partake Oh both the Arabic and Roman meth
DDS They do not appear to nave attained the
noble and comprehensive simplicity of the
Arabian numerals, with their manner of ar
rangement, by winch the best and the greatest
OF conceivable quantities are expressed by the
they are far In advance Of the Romans who
had no better plan Of enumeration than the
employment OF less or greater number of
signs representing fixed quantities Lieut.
Tennison gives all the characters used by the
Japanese as numbers, from one to a hundred.
The method Of combination is nearly identical
with that which we have borrowed from the
East, and called Arabic only perhaps because
We have been able to trace il no further in that
direction; that is, by units and decimals. The
uaits are. sthoats 1; sthauts 2; meets 3; yoats T.
reestoois D; noots o. mannants q; yots g. coco
9; thOme 10. In order to show clearly the
structure OF their system, 1 will continue the
list OF terms until past the point of the multi
pllcation Of decimals, as follows: Ju-eecby III.
Ju-nshee l2; ju-song l3 ju-shee Il; ju-go Is; ju-
rOquee To- Ju-E -Ehee IL; Ju- hotchey Is iu-coo l9:
nee-shoo - 1t is obvious that the first syI-
liable, u, IN each Of these words, means ten.
and that the chief difference in their mode of
expressing, By words, the numbers between
ten and twenty, from ours, lie, that they put
the ten before the unit, and We place it after
that number. Thus, to express three and ten
we say thirteen, putting the lesser number
first in the continuation Tbs japanese saw
J~-song, tan and three, putting the greater
number frst. And above twenty, also, the diff
ference Of form is not material The Japanese
term meestoo seems to be u compound Of two
voTcs, each meaning ten, equivalent to ''ten
aud ten" Our word twenty is formed by the
But from twenty to thirty the japanese ex-
presses given number by q compound formed
o. the syllable ''nees, the root in twenty, and
a word Sgnifylng number from eleven to
nineteen. Instead Of saying, as We do, twenty
one, literally two tens and one, they say nees-
bu-eectehy, or one ten and eleven, and 90 on
10 nees- -hucoo, one ten and nineteen, and SOU
shoe, thirty.
The arrangement Of the figures expressing
these terms more resembles the Roman than
the Arabic, and is consequently more awk
vark and complicated and less efficient than
the latter. Tie figure one is a horizontal
mark, thick and nearly straight, though not
quite So Two and three are represented by
two or three marks respectively, perpendic-
ulArly under each other. Four has an arbi-
trary sign, and 50 has each number up to and
Including ten. From this to twenty they fol.
low the Roman method Of notation, with some
fmplifcations and Improvements. For any
number above the power of two decimals they
employ ut least three characters, and seldom
more until they reach q hundred. Thus, to
write thirty-four in figures. they place first