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+The Project Gutenberg eBook, Unbeaten Tracks in Japan, by Isabella L. Bird
+
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most
+other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions 
+whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of
+the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at 
+www.gutenberg.org.  If you are not located in the United States, you'll have
+to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook.
+
+
+
+
+Title: Unbeaten Tracks in Japan
+
+
+Author: Isabella L. Bird
+
+
+
+Release Date: September 12, 2019  [eBook #2184]
+[This file was first posted on September 19, 1999]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: UTF-8
+
+
+***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK UNBEATEN TRACKS IN JAPAN***
+
+
+Transcribed from the 1911 John Murray edition by David Price, email
+ccx074@pglaf.org.  Second proofing by Kate Ruffell.
+
+                          [Picture: Book cover]
+
+               [Picture: The Yomei Gate, Shrines of Nikkô]
+
+
+
+
+UNBEATEN TRACKS
+IN JAPAN
+
+
+                  AN ACCOUNT OF TRAVELS IN THE INTERIOR
+              INCLUDING VISITS TO THE ABORIGINES OF YEZO AND
+                           THE SHRINE OF NIKKÔ
+
+                           BY ISABELLA L. BIRD
+              AUTHOR OF ‘SIX MONTHS IN THE SANDWICH ISLANDS’
+                  ‘A LADY’S LIFE IN THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS’
+                                ETC. ETC.
+
+                                * * * * *
+
+                            WITH ILLUSTRATIONS
+
+                                * * * * *
+
+                                  LONDON
+                      JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET
+                                   1911
+
+                                * * * * *
+
+FIRST EDITION,              _January_ 1905
+_Reprinted_,                   _June_ 1907
+SECOND EDITION (1/-)        _October_ 1911
+
+                                * * * * *
+
+                              To the Memory
+                                    OF
+                               LADY PARKES,
+                      WHOSE KINDNESS AND FRIENDSHIP
+                                ARE AMONG
+                 MY MOST TREASURED REMEMBRANCES OF JAPAN,
+                              THIS VOLUME IS
+                        GRATEFULLY AND REVERENTLY
+                                DEDICATED.
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE
+
+
+HAVING been recommended to leave home, in April 1878, in order to recruit
+my health by means which had proved serviceable before, I decided to
+visit Japan, attracted less by the reputed excellence of its climate than
+by the certainty that it possessed, in an especial degree, those sources
+of novel and sustained interest which conduce so essentially to the
+enjoyment and restoration of a solitary health-seeker.  The climate
+disappointed me, but, though I found the country a study rather than a
+rapture, its interest exceeded my largest expectations.
+
+This is not a “Book on Japan,” but a narrative of travels in Japan, and
+an attempt to contribute something to the sum of knowledge of the present
+condition of the country, and it was not till I had travelled for some
+months in the interior of the main island and in Yezo that I decided that
+my materials were novel enough to render the contribution worth making.
+From Nikkô northwards my route was altogether off the beaten track, and
+had never been traversed in its entirety by any European.  I lived among
+the Japanese, and saw their mode of living, in regions unaffected by
+European contact.  As a lady travelling alone, and the first European
+lady who had been seen in several districts through which my route lay,
+my experiences differed more or less widely from those of preceding
+travellers; and I am able to offer a fuller account of the aborigines of
+Yezo, obtained by actual acquaintance with them, than has hitherto been
+given.  These are my chief reasons for offering this volume to the
+public.
+
+It was with some reluctance that I decided that it should consist mainly
+of letters written on the spot to my sister and a circle of personal
+friends, for this form of publication involves the sacrifice of artistic
+arrangement and literary treatment, and necessitates a certain amount of
+egotism; but, on the other hand, it places the reader in the position of
+the traveller, and makes him share the vicissitudes of travel,
+discomfort, difficulty, and tedium, as well as novelty and enjoyment.
+The “beaten tracks,” with the exception of Nikkô, have been dismissed in
+a few sentences, but where their features have undergone marked changes
+within a few years, as in the case of Tôkiyô (Yedo), they have been
+sketched more or less slightly.  Many important subjects are necessarily
+passed over.
+
+In Northern Japan, in the absence of all other sources of information, I
+had to learn everything from the people themselves, through an
+interpreter, and every fact had to be disinterred by careful labour from
+amidst a mass of rubbish.  The Ainos supplied the information which is
+given concerning their customs, habits, and religion; but I had an
+opportunity of comparing my notes with some taken about the same time by
+Mr. Heinrich Von Siebold of the Austrian Legation, and of finding a most
+satisfactory agreement on all points.
+
+Some of the Letters give a less pleasing picture of the condition of the
+peasantry than the one popularly presented, and it is possible that some
+readers may wish that it had been less realistically painted; but as the
+scenes are strictly representative, and I neither made them nor went in
+search of them, I offer them in the interests of truth, for they
+illustrate the nature of a large portion of the material with which the
+Japanese Government has to work in building up the New Civilisation.
+
+Accuracy has been my first aim, but the sources of error are many, and it
+is from those who have studied Japan the most carefully, and are the best
+acquainted with its difficulties, that I shall receive the most kindly
+allowance if, in spite of carefulness, I have fallen into mistakes.
+
+The Transactions of the English and German Asiatic Societies of Japan,
+and papers on special Japanese subjects, including “A Budget of Japanese
+Notes,” in the _Japan Mail_ and _Tôkiyô Times_, gave me valuable help;
+and I gratefully acknowledge the assistance afforded me in many ways by
+Sir Harry S. Parkes, K.C.B., and Mr. Satow of H.B.M.’s Legation,
+Principal Dyer, Mr. Chamberlain of the Imperial Naval College, Mr. F. V.
+Dickins, and others, whose kindly interest in my work often encouraged me
+when I was disheartened by my lack of skill; but, in justice to these and
+other kind friends, I am anxious to claim and accept the fullest measure
+of personal responsibility for the opinions expressed, which, whether
+right or wrong, are wholly my own.
+
+The illustrations, with the exception of three, which are by a Japanese
+artist, have been engraved from sketches of my own or Japanese
+photographs.
+
+I am painfully conscious of the defects of this volume, but I venture to
+present it to the public in the hope that, in spite of its demerits, it
+may be accepted as an honest attempt to describe things as I saw them in
+Japan, on land journeys of more than 1400 miles.
+
+Since the letters passed through the press, the beloved and only sister
+to whom, in the first instance, they were written, to whose able and
+careful criticism they owe much, and whose loving interest was the
+inspiration alike of my travels and of my narratives of them, has passed
+away.
+
+                                                         ISABELLA L. BIRD.
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS.
+
+                              LETTER I.
+First View of Japan—A Vision of Fujisan—Japanese             Pages 1–7
+_Sampans_—“Pullman Cars”—Undignified Locomotion—Paper
+Money—The Drawbacks of Japanese Travelling
+                              LETTER II.
+Sir Harry Parkes—An “Ambassador’s Carriage”—Cart                   8–9
+Coolies
+                             LETTER III.
+Yedo and Tôkiyô—The Yokohama Railroad—The Effect of              10–14
+Misfits—The Plain of Yedo—Personal Peculiarities—First
+Impressions of Tôkiyô—H. B. M.’s Legation—An English
+Home
+                              LETTER IV.
+“John Chinaman”—Engaging a Servant—First Impressions             15–20
+of Ito—A Solemn Contract—The Food Question
+                              LETTER V.
+Kwan-non Temple—Uniformity of Temple Architecture—A              21–31
+_Kuruma_ Expedition—A Perpetual Festival—The
+_Ni-ô_—The Limbo of Vanity—Heathen Prayers—Binzuru—A
+Group of Devils—Archery Galleries—New Japan—An
+_Élégante_
+                              LETTER VI.
+Fears—Travelling Equipments—Passports—Coolie Costume—A           32–42
+Yedo Diorama—Rice—Fields—Tea-Houses—A Traveller’s
+Reception—The Inn at Kasukabé—Lack of Privacy—A
+Concourse of Noises—A Nocturnal Alarm—A Vision of
+Policemen—A Budget from Yedo
+                      LETTER VI.—(_Continued_.)
+A Coolie falls ill—Peasant Costume—Varieties in                  43–50
+Threshing—The Tochigi _Yadoya_—Farming Villages—A
+Beautiful Region—An _In Memoriam_ Avenue—A Doll’s
+Street—Nikkô—The Journey’s End—Coolie Kindliness
+                             LETTER VII.
+A Japanese Idyll—Musical Stillness—My Rooms—Floral               51–53
+Decorations—Kanaya and his Household—Table Equipments
+                             LETTER VIII
+The Beauties of Nikkô—The Burial of Iyéyasn—The                  54–61
+Approach to the Great Shrines—The Yomei Gate—Gorgeous
+Decorations—Simplicity of the Mausoleum—The Shrine of
+Iyémitsu—Religious Art of Japan and India—An
+Earthquake—Beauties of Wood-carving
+                              LETTER IX.
+A Japanese Pack-Horse and Pack-Saddle—_Yadoya_ and               62–65
+Attendant—A Native Watering-Place—The Sulphur Baths—A
+“Squeeze”
+                              LETTER X.
+Peaceful Monotony—A Japanese School—A Dismal                     66–72
+Ditty—Punishment—A Children’s Party—A Juvenile
+Belle—Female Names—A Juvenile
+Drama—Needlework—Caligraphy—Arranging
+Flowers—Kanaya—Daily Routine—An Evening’s
+Entertainment—Planning Routes—The God-shelf
+                       LETTER X.—(_Continued_.)
+Darkness visible—Nikkô Shops—Girls and Matrons—Night             73–76
+and Sleep—Parental Love—Childish
+Docility—Hair-dressing—Skin Diseases
+                       LETTER X.—(_Completed_.)
+Shops and Shopping—The Barber’s Shop—A Paper                     77–79
+Waterproof—Ito’s Vanity—Preparations for the
+Journey—Transport and Prices—Money and Measurements
+                              LETTER XI.
+Comfort disappears—Fine Scenery—An Alarm—A                       80–91
+Farm-house—An unusual Costume—Bridling a Horse—Female
+Dress and Ugliness—Babies—My _Mago_—Beauties of the
+Kinugawa—Fujihara—My Servant—Horse-shoes—An absurd
+Mistake
+                             LETTER XII.
+A Fantastic Jumble—The “Quiver” of Poverty—The                   92–95
+Water-shed—From Bad to Worse—The Rice Planter’s
+Holiday—A Diseased Crowd—Amateur Doctoring—Want of
+Cleanliness—Rapid Eating—Premature Old Age
+                      LETTER XII.—(_Concluded_.)
+A Japanese Ferry—A Corrugated Road—The Pass of                   96–98
+Sanno—Various Vegetation—An Unattractive
+Undergrowth—Preponderance of Men
+                             LETTER XIII.
+The Plain of Wakamatsu—Light Costume—The Takata                 99–105
+Crowd—A Congress of Schoolmasters—Timidity of a
+Crowd—Bad Roads—Vicious Horses—Mountain Scenery—A
+Picturesque Inn—Swallowing a Fish-bone—Poverty and
+Suicide—An Inn-kitchen—England Unknown!—My Breakfast
+Disappears
+                             LETTER XIV.
+An Infamous Road—Monotonous Greenery—Abysmal Dirt—Low          106–108
+Lives—The Tsugawa _Yadoya_—Politeness—A Shipping
+Port—A “Barbarian Devil”
+                              LETTER XV.
+A Hurry—The Tsugawa Packet-boat—Running the                    109–112
+Rapids—Fantastic Scenery—The
+River-life—Vineyards—Drying Barley—Summer Silence—The
+Outskirts of Niigata—The Church Mission House
+                             LETTER XVI.
+Abominable Weather—Insect Pests—Absence of Foreign             114–119
+Trade—A Refractory River—Progress—The Japanese
+City—Water Highways—Niigata Gardens—Ruth Fyson—The
+Winter Climate—A Population in Wadding
+                             LETTER XVII.
+The Canal-side at Niigata—Awful                                120–127
+Loneliness—Courtesy—Dr. Palm’s Tandem—A Noisy
+_Matsuri_—A Jolting Journey—The Mountain
+Villages—Winter Dismalness—An Out-of-the-world
+Hamlet—Crowded Dwellings—Riding a Cow—“Drunk and
+Disorderly”—An Enforced Rest—Local
+Discouragements—Heavy Loads—Absence of Beggary—Slow
+Travelling
+                            LETTER XVIII.
+Comely Kine—Japanese Criticism on a Foreign Usage—A            128–136
+Pleasant Halt—Renewed Courtesies—The Plain of
+Yonezawa—A Curious Mistake—The Mother’s
+Memorial—Arrival at Komatsu—Stately Accommodation—A
+Vicious Horse—An Asiatic Arcadia—A Fashionable
+Watering-place—A Belle—“Godowns”
+                             LETTER XIX.
+Prosperity—Convict Labour—A New                                137–142
+Bridge—Yamagata—Intoxicating Forgeries—The Government
+Buildings—Bad Manners—Snow Mountains—A Wretched Town
+                              LETTER XX.
+The Effect of a Chicken—Poor Fare—Slow                         143–145
+Travelling—Objects of Interest—_Kak’ké_—The Fatal
+Close—A Great Fire—Security of the _Kuras_
+                      LETTER XX.—(_Continued_.)
+Lunch in Public—A Grotesque Accident—Police                    146–151
+Inquiries—Man or Woman?—A Melancholy Stare—A Vicious
+Horse—An Ill-favoured Town—A Disappointment—A _Torii_
+                      LETTER XX.—(_Concluded_.)
+A Casual Invitation—A Ludicrous Incident—Politeness of         152–154
+a Policeman—A Comfortless Sunday—An Outrageous
+Irruption—A Privileged Stare
+                             LETTER XXI.
+The Necessity of Firmness—Perplexing                           155–158
+Misrepresentations—Gliding with the Stream—Suburban
+Residences—The Kubota Hospital—A Formal Reception—The
+Normal School
+                             LETTER XXII.
+A Silk Factory—Employment for Women—A Police                   159–160
+Escort—The Japanese Police Force
+                            LETTER XXIII.
+“A Plague of Immoderate Rain”—A Confidential                   161–164
+Servant—Ito’s Diary—Ito’s Excellences—Ito’s Faults—A
+Prophecy of the Future of Japan—Curious
+Queries—Superfine English—Economical Travelling—The
+Japanese Pack-horse again
+                             LETTER XXIV.
+The Symbolism of Seaweed—Afternoon Visitors—An Infant          165–169
+Prodigy—A Feat in Caligraphy—Child Worship—A Borrowed
+Dress—A _Trousseau_—House Furniture—The Marriage
+Ceremony
+                             LETTER XXV.
+A Holiday Scene—A _Matsuri_—Attractions of the                 170–174
+Revel—_Matsuri_ Cars—Gods and Demons—A Possible
+Harbour—A Village Forge—Prosperity of _Saké_ Brewers—A
+“Great Sight”
+                             LETTER XXVI.
+The Fatigues of Travelling—Torrents and Mud—Ito’s              175–182
+Surliness—The Blind Shampooers—A Supposed Monkey
+Theatre—A Suspended Ferry—A Difficult Transit—Perils
+on the Yonetsurugawa—A Boatman Drowned—Nocturnal
+Disturbances—A Noisy _Yadoya_—Storm-bound
+Travellers—_Hai_! _Hai_!—More Nocturnal Disturbances
+                            LETTER XXVII.
+Good-tempered Intoxication—The Effect of Sunshine—A            183–186
+tedious Altercation—Evening Occupations—Noisy
+Talk—Social Gatherings—Unfair Comparisons
+                            LETTER XXVIII.
+Torrents of Rain—An unpleasant Detention—Devastations          187–192
+produced by Floods—The Yadate Pass—The Force of
+Water—Difficulties thicken—A Primitive _Yadoya_—The
+Water rises
+                    LETTER XXVIII.—(_Continued_.)
+Scanty Resources—Japanese Children—Children’s Games—A          193–196
+Sagacious Example—A Kite Competition—Personal
+Privations
+                             LETTER XXIX.
+Hope deferred—Effects of the Flood—Activity of the             197–199
+Police—A Ramble in Disguise—The _Tanabata_
+Festival—Mr. Satow’s Reputation
+                             LETTER XXX.
+A Lady’s Toilet—Hair-dressing—Paint and                        200–202
+Cosmetics—Afternoon Visitors—Christian Converts
+                             LETTER XXXI.
+A Travel Curiosity—Rude Dwellings—Primitive                    203–205
+Simplicity—The Public Bath-house
+                            LETTER XXXII.
+A Hard Day’s Journey—An Overturn—Nearing the                   206–209
+Ocean—Joyful Excitement—Universal Greyness—Inopportune
+Policemen—A Stormy Voyage—A Wild Welcome—A Windy
+Landing—The Journey’s End
+                            LETTER XXXIII.
+Form and Colour—A Windy Capital—Eccentricities in              212–213
+House Roof
+                            LETTER XXXIV.
+Ito’s Delinquency—“Missionary Manners”—A Predicted             214–215
+Failure
+                             LETTER XXXV.
+A Lovely Sunset—An Official Letter—A “Front                    216–230
+Horse”—Japanese Courtesy—The Steam Ferry—Coolies
+Abscond—A Team of Savages—A Drove of Horses—Floral
+Beauties—An Unbeaten Track—A Ghostly Dwelling—Solitude
+and Eeriness
+                     LETTER XXXV.—(_Continued_.)
+The Harmonies of Nature—A Good Horse—A Single                  231–233
+Discord—A Forest—Aino Ferrymen—“_Les Puces_! _Les
+Puces_!”—Baffled Explorers—Ito’s Contempt for Ainos—An
+Aino Introduction
+                            LETTER XXXVI.
+Savage Life—A Forest Track—Cleanly Villages—A                  234–243
+Hospitable Reception—The Chief’s Mother—The Evening
+Meal—A Savage _Séance_—Libations to the Gods—Nocturnal
+Silence—Aino Courtesy—The Chief’s Wife
+                     LETTER XXXVI.—(_Continued_.)
+A Supposed Act of Worship—Parental Tenderness—Morning          244–253
+Visits.—Wretched Cultivation—Honesty and Generosity—A
+“Dug-out”—Female Occupations—The Ancient Fate—A New
+Arrival—A Perilous Prescription—The Shrine of
+Yoshitsuné—The Chief’s Return
+                            LETTER XXXVII.
+Barrenness of Savage Life—Irreclaimable Savages—The            254–261
+Aino Physique—Female Comeliness—Torture and
+Ornament—Child Life—Docility and Obedience
+                    LETTER XXXVII.—(_Continued_.)
+Aino Clothing—Holiday Dress—Domestic                           262–272
+Architecture—Household Gods—Japanese Curios—The
+Necessaries of Life—Clay Soup—Arrow Poison—Arrow
+Traps—Female Occupations—Bark Cloth—The Art of Weaving
+                    LETTER XXXVII.—(_Continued_.)
+A Simple Nature-Worship—Aino Gods—A Festival                   273–284
+Song—Religious Intoxication—Bear-Worship—The Annual
+Saturnalia—The Future State—Marriage and
+Divorce—Musical Instruments—Etiquette—The
+Chieftainship—Death and Burial—Old Age—Moral Qualities
+                           LETTER XXXVIII.
+A Parting Gift—A Delicacy—Generosity—A Seaside                 285–288
+Village—Pipichari’s Advice—A Drunken Revel—Ito’s
+Prophecies—The _Kôckô’s_ Illness—Patent Medicines
+                            LETTER XXXIX.
+A Welcome Gift—Recent Changes—Volcanic                         289–295
+Phenomena—Interesting Tufa Cones—Semi-strangulation—A
+Fall into a Bear-trap—The Shiraôi Ainos—Horsebreaking
+and Cruelty
+                     LETTER XXXIX.—(_Continued_.)
+The Universal Language—The Yezo _Corrals_—A “Typhoon           296–298
+Rain”—Difficult Tracks—An Unenviable Ride—Drying
+Clothes—A Woman’s Remorse
+                              LETTER XL.
+“More than Peace”—Geographical                                 299–305
+Difficulties—Usu-taki—Swimming the Osharu—A Dream of
+Beauty—A Sunset Effect—A Nocturnal Alarm—The Coast
+Ainos
+                      LETTER XL.—(_Continued_.)
+The Sea-shore—A “Hairy Aino”—A Horse Fight—The Horses          306–311
+of Yezo—“Bad Mountains”—A Slight Accident—Magnificent
+Scenery—A Bleached Halting-Place—A Musty Room—Aino
+“Good-breeding”
+                             LETTER XLI.
+A Group of Fathers—The Lebungé Ainos—The _Salisburia           312–319
+adiantifolia_—A Family Group—The Missing
+Link—Oshamambé—Disorderly Horses—The River Yurapu—The
+Seaside—Aino Canoes—The Last Morning—Dodging Europeans
+                             LETTER XLII.
+Pleasant Last Impressions—The Japanese Junk—Ito                320–321
+Disappears—My Letter of Thanks
+                            LETTER XLIII.
+Pleasant Prospects—A Miserable Disappointment—Caught           322–324
+in a Typhoon—A Dense Fog—Alarmist Rumours—A Welcome at
+Tôkiyô—The Last of the Mutineers
+                             LETTER XLIV.
+Fine Weather—Cremation in Japan—The Governor of                325–328
+Tôkiyô—An Awkward Question—An Insignificant
+Building—Economy in Funeral Expenses—Simplicity of the
+Cremation Process—The Last of Japan
+
+
+
+
+LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
+
+                                                                  PAGE
+The Yomei Gate, Shrines of Nikkô                        _Frontispiece_
+Fujisan                                                              2
+Travelling Restaurant                                                5
+Japanese Man-Cart                                                    9
+A Lake Biwa Tea-House                                               20
+Stone Lanterns                                                      28
+A Kuruma                                                            35
+Road-Side Tea-House                                                 38
+Sir Harry’s Messenger                                               42
+Kanaya’s House                                                      52
+Japanese Pack-Horse                                                 63
+Attendant at Tea-House                                              64
+Summer and Winter Costume                                           82
+Buddhist Priests                                                   112
+Street and Canal                                                   117
+The Flowing Invocation                                             130
+The Belle of Kaminoyama                                            135
+Torii                                                              149
+Daikoku, the God of Wealth                                         154
+Myself in a Straw Rain-Cloak                                       176
+A Lady’s Mirror                                                    201
+Akita Farm-House                                                   204
+Aino Store-House at Horobets                                       223
+Aino Lodges.  (_From a Japanese Sketch_)                           224
+Aino Houses                                                        234
+Ainos at Home.  (_From a Japanese Sketch_)                         235
+Aino Millet-Mill and Pestle                                        238
+Aino Store-House                                                   247
+Ainos of Yezo                                                      256
+An Aino Patriarch                                                  258
+Tattooed Female Hand                                               260
+Aino Gods                                                          266
+Plan of an Aino House                                              267
+Weaver’s Shuttle                                                   270
+A Hiogo Buddha                                                     272
+The Rokkukado                                                      288
+My Kuruma-Runner                                                   305
+Temple Gateway at Isshinden                                        311
+Entrance to Shrine of Seventh Shôgun, Shiba, Tôkiyô                323
+Fujisan, from a Village on the Tokaido                             326
+
+
+
+
+LETTER I.
+
+
+First View of Japan—A Vision of Fujisan—Japanese Sampans—“Pullman
+Cars”—Undignified Locomotion—Paper Money—The Drawbacks of Japanese
+Travelling.
+
+                                                 ORIENTAL HOTEL, YOKOHAMA,
+                                                                 _May_ 21.
+
+EIGHTEEN days of unintermitted rolling over “desolate rainy seas” brought
+the “City of Tokio” early yesterday morning to Cape King, and by noon we
+were steaming up the Gulf of Yedo, quite near the shore.  The day was
+soft and grey with a little faint blue sky, and, though the coast of
+Japan is much more prepossessing than most coasts, there were no
+startling surprises either of colour or form.  Broken wooded ridges,
+deeply cleft, rise from the water’s edge, gray, deep-roofed villages
+cluster about the mouths of the ravines, and terraces of rice
+cultivation, bright with the greenness of English lawns, run up to a
+great height among dark masses of upland forest.  The populousness of the
+coast is very impressive, and the gulf everywhere was equally peopled
+with fishing-boats, of which we passed not only hundreds, but thousands,
+in five hours.  The coast and sea were pale, and the boats were pale too,
+their hulls being unpainted wood, and their sails pure white duck.  Now
+and then a high-sterned junk drifted by like a phantom galley, then we
+slackened speed to avoid exterminating a fleet of triangular-looking
+fishing-boats with white square sails, and so on through the grayness and
+dumbness hour after hour.
+
+For long I looked in vain for Fujisan, and failed to see it, though I
+heard ecstasies all over the deck, till, accidentally looking heavenwards
+instead of earthwards, I saw far above any possibility of height, as one
+would have thought, a huge, truncated cone of pure snow, 13,080 feet
+above the sea, from which it sweeps upwards in a glorious curve, very
+wan, against a very pale blue sky, with its base and the intervening
+country veiled in a pale grey mist. {2}  It was a wonderful vision, and
+shortly, as a vision, vanished.  Except the cone of Tristan d’Acunha—also
+a cone of snow—I never saw a mountain rise in such lonely majesty, with
+nothing near or far to detract from its height and grandeur.  No wonder
+that it is a sacred mountain, and so dear to the Japanese that their art
+is never weary of representing it.  It was nearly fifty miles off when we
+first saw it.
+
+The air and water were alike motionless, the mist was still and pale,
+grey clouds lay restfully on a bluish sky, the reflections of the white
+sails of the fishing-boats scarcely quivered; it was all so pale, wan,
+and ghastly, that the turbulence of crumpled foam which we left behind
+us, and our noisy, throbbing progress, seemed a boisterous intrusion upon
+sleeping Asia.
+
+                            [Picture: Fujisan]
+
+The gulf narrowed, the forest-crested hills, the terraced ravines, the
+picturesque grey villages, the quiet beach life, and the pale blue masses
+of the mountains of the interior, became more visible.  Fuji retired into
+the mist in which he enfolds his grandeur for most of the summer; we
+passed Reception Bay, Perry Island, Webster Island, Cape Saratoga, and
+Mississippi Bay—American nomenclature which perpetuates the successes of
+American diplomacy—and not far from Treaty Point came upon a red
+lightship with the words “Treaty Point” in large letters upon her.
+Outside of this no foreign vessel may anchor.
+
+The bustle among my fellow-passengers, many of whom were returning home,
+and all of whom expected to be met by friends, left me at leisure, as I
+looked at unattractive, unfamiliar Yokohama and the pale grey land
+stretched out before me, to speculate somewhat sadly on my destiny on
+these strange shores, on which I have not even an acquaintance.  On
+mooring we were at once surrounded by crowds of native boats called by
+foreigners _sampans_, and Dr. Gulick, a near relation of my Hilo friends,
+came on board to meet his daughter, welcomed me cordially, and relieved
+me of all the trouble of disembarkation.  These _sampans_ are very
+clumsy-looking, but are managed with great dexterity by the boatmen, who
+gave and received any number of bumps with much good nature, and without
+any of the shouting and swearing in which competitive boatmen usually
+indulge.
+
+The partially triangular shape of these boats approaches that of a
+salmon-fisher’s punt used on certain British rivers.  Being floored gives
+them the appearance of being absolutely flat-bottomed; but, though they
+tilt readily, they are very safe, being heavily built and fitted together
+with singular precision with wooden bolts and a few copper cleets.  They
+are _sculled_, not what we should call rowed, by two or four men with
+very heavy oars made of two pieces of wood working on pins placed on
+outrigger bars.  The men scull standing and use the thigh as a rest for
+the oar.  They all wear a single, wide-sleeved, scanty, blue cotton
+garment, not fastened or girdled at the waist, straw sandals, kept on by
+a thong passing between the great toe and the others, and if they wear
+any head-gear, it is only a wisp of blue cotton tied round the forehead.
+The one garment is only an apology for clothing, and displays lean
+concave chests and lean muscular limbs.  The skin is very yellow, and
+often much tattooed with mythical beasts.  The charge for _sampans_ is
+fixed by tariff, so the traveller lands without having his temper ruffled
+by extortionate demands.
+
+The first thing that impressed me on landing was that there were no
+loafers, and that all the small, ugly, kindly-looking, shrivelled,
+bandy-legged, round-shouldered, concave-chested, poor-looking beings in
+the streets had some affairs of their own to mind.  At the top of the
+landing-steps there was a portable restaurant, a neat and most compact
+thing, with charcoal stove, cooking and eating utensils complete; but it
+looked as if it were made by and for dolls, and the mannikin who kept it
+was not five feet high.  At the custom-house we were attended to by
+minute officials in blue uniforms of European pattern and leather boots;
+very civil creatures, who opened and examined our trunks carefully, and
+strapped them up again, contrasting pleasingly with the insolent and
+rapacious officials who perform the same duties at New York.
+
+Outside were about fifty of the now well-known _jin-ti-ki-shas_, and the
+air was full of a buzz produced by the rapid reiteration of this uncouth
+word by fifty tongues.  This conveyance, as you know, is a feature of
+Japan, growing in importance every day.  It was only invented seven years
+ago, and already there are nearly 23,000 in one city, and men can make so
+much more by drawing them than by almost any kind of skilled labour, that
+thousands of fine young men desert agricultural pursuits and flock into
+the towns to make draught-animals of themselves, though it is said that
+the average duration of a man’s life after he takes to running is only
+five years, and that the runners fall victims in large numbers to
+aggravated forms of heart and lung disease.  Over tolerably level ground
+a good runner can trot forty miles a day, at a rate of about four miles
+an hour.  They are registered and taxed at 8s. a year for one carrying
+two persons, and 4s. for one which carries one only, and there is a
+regular tariff for time and distance.
+
+                     [Picture: Travelling Restaurant]
+
+The _kuruma_, or jin-ri-ki-sha, {5} consists of a light perambulator
+body, an adjustable hood of oiled paper, a velvet or cloth lining and
+cushion, a well for parcels under the seat, two high slim wheels, and a
+pair of shafts connected by a bar at the ends.  The body is usually
+lacquered and decorated according to its owner’s taste.  Some show little
+except polished brass, others are altogether inlaid with shells known as
+Venus’s ear, and others are gaudily painted with contorted dragons, or
+groups of peonies, hydrangeas, chrysanthemums, and mythical personages.
+They cost from £2 upwards.  The shafts rest on the ground at a steep
+incline as you get in—it must require much practice to enable one to
+mount with ease or dignity—the runner lifts them up, gets into them,
+gives the body a good tilt backwards, and goes off at a smart trot.  They
+are drawn by one, two, or three men, according to the speed desired by
+the occupants.  When rain comes on, the man puts up the hood, and ties
+you and it closely up in a covering of oiled paper, in which you are
+invisible.  At night, whether running or standing still, they carry
+prettily-painted circular paper lanterns 18 inches long.  It is most
+comical to see stout, florid, solid-looking merchants, missionaries, male
+and female, fashionably-dressed ladies, armed with card cases, Chinese
+compradores, and Japanese peasant men and women flying along Main Street,
+which is like the decent respectable High Street of a dozen forgotten
+country towns in England, in happy unconsciousness of the ludicrousness
+of their appearance; racing, chasing, crossing each other, their lean,
+polite, pleasant runners in their great hats shaped like inverted bowls,
+their incomprehensible blue tights, and their short blue over-shirts with
+badges or characters in white upon them, tearing along, their yellow
+faces streaming with perspiration, laughing, shouting, and avoiding
+collisions by a mere shave.
+
+After a visit to the Consulate I entered a _kuruma_ and, with two ladies
+in two more, was bowled along at a furious pace by a laughing little
+mannikin down Main Street—a narrow, solid, well-paved street with
+well-made side walks, kerb-stones, and gutters, with iron lamp-posts,
+gas-lamps, and foreign shops all along its length—to this quiet hotel
+recommended by Sir Wyville Thomson, which offers a refuge from the nasal
+twang of my fellow-voyagers, who have all gone to the caravanserais on
+the Bund.  The host is a Frenchman, but he relies on a Chinaman; the
+servants are Japanese “boys” in Japanese clothes; and there is a Japanese
+“groom of the chambers” in faultless English costume, who perfectly
+appals me by the elaborate politeness of his manner.
+
+Almost as soon as I arrived I was obliged to go in search of Mr. Fraser’s
+office in the settlement; I say _search_, for there are no names on the
+streets; where there are numbers they have no sequence, and I met no
+Europeans on foot to help me in my difficulty.  Yokohama does not improve
+on further acquaintance.  It has a dead-alive look.  It has irregularity
+without picturesqueness, and the grey sky, grey sea, grey houses, and
+grey roofs, look harmoniously dull.  No foreign money except the Mexican
+dollar passes in Japan, and Mr. Fraser’s compradore soon metamorphosed my
+English gold into Japanese _satsu_ or paper money, a bundle of yen nearly
+at par just now with the dollar, packets of 50, 20, and 10 sen notes, and
+some rouleaux of very neat copper coins.  The initiated recognise the
+different denominations of paper money at a glance by their differing
+colours and sizes, but at present they are a distracting mystery to me.
+The notes are pieces of stiff paper with Chinese characters at the
+corners, near which, with exceptionally good eyes or a magnifying glass,
+one can discern an English word denoting the value.  They are very neatly
+executed, and are ornamented with the chrysanthemum crest of the Mikado
+and the interlaced dragons of the Empire.
+
+I long to get away into real Japan.  Mr. Wilkinson, H.B.M.’s acting
+consul, called yesterday, and was extremely kind.  He thinks that my plan
+for travelling in the interior is rather too ambitious, but that it is
+perfectly safe for a lady to travel alone, and agrees with everybody else
+in thinking that legions of fleas and the miserable horses are the great
+drawbacks of Japanese travelling.
+
+                                                                  I. L. B.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER II.
+
+
+Sir Harry Parkes—An “Ambassador’s Carriage”—Cart Coolies.
+
+                                                       YOKOHAMA, _May_ 22.
+
+TO-DAY has been spent in making new acquaintances, instituting a search
+for a servant and a pony, receiving many offers of help, asking questions
+and receiving from different people answers which directly contradict
+each other.  Hours are early.  Thirteen people called on me before noon.
+Ladies drive themselves about the town in small pony carriages attended
+by running grooms called _bettos_.  The foreign merchants keep _kurumas_
+constantly standing at their doors, finding a willing, intelligent coolie
+much more serviceable than a lazy, fractious, capricious Japanese pony,
+and even the dignity of an “Ambassador Extraordinary and Minister
+Plenipotentiary” is not above such a lowly conveyance, as I have seen
+to-day.  My last visitors were Sir Harry and Lady Parkes, who brought
+sunshine and kindliness into the room, and left it behind them.  Sir
+Harry is a young-looking man scarcely in middle life, slight, active,
+fair, blue-eyed, a thorough Saxon, with sunny hair and a sunny smile, a
+sunshiny geniality in his manner, and bearing no trace in his appearance
+of his thirty years of service in the East, his sufferings in the prison
+at Peking, and the various attempts upon his life in Japan.  He and Lady
+Parkes were most truly kind, and encourage me so heartily in my largest
+projects for travelling in the interior, that I shall start as soon as I
+have secured a servant.  When they went away they jumped into _kurumas_,
+and it was most amusing to see the representative of England hurried down
+the street in a perambulator with a tandem of coolies.
+
+As I look out of the window I see heavy, two-wheeled man-carts drawn and
+pushed by four men each, on which nearly all goods, stones for building,
+and all else, are carried.  The two men who pull press with hands and
+thighs against a cross-bar at the end of a heavy pole, and the two who
+push apply their shoulders to beams which project behind, using their
+thick, smoothly-shaven skulls as the motive power when they push their
+heavy loads uphill.  Their cry is impressive and melancholy.  They draw
+incredible loads, but, as if the toil which often makes every breath a
+groan or a gasp were not enough, they shout incessantly with a coarse,
+guttural grunt, something like _Ha huida_, _Ho huida_, _wa ho_, _Ha
+huida_, etc.
+
+                                                                  I. L. B.
+
+                       [Picture: Japanese Man-Cart]
+
+
+
+
+LETTER III.
+
+
+Yedo and Tôkiyô—The Yokohama Railroad—The Effect of Misfits—The Plain of
+Yedo—Personal Peculiarities—First Impressions of Tôkiyô—H. B. M.’s
+Legation—An English Home.
+
+                                        H.B.M.’s LEGATION, YEDO, _May_ 24.
+
+I HAVE dated my letter Yedo, according to the usage of the British
+Legation, but popularly the new name of Tôkiyô, or Eastern Capital, is
+used, Kiyôto, the Mikado’s former residence, having received the name of
+Saikiô, or Western Capital, though it has now no claim to be regarded as
+a capital at all.  Yedo belongs to the old régime and the Shôgunate,
+Tôkiyô to the new régime and the Restoration, with their history of ten
+years.  It would seem an incongruity to travel to _Yedo_ by railway, but
+quite proper when the destination is Tôkiyô.
+
+The journey between the two cities is performed in an hour by an
+admirable, well-metalled, double-track railroad, 18 miles long, with iron
+bridges, neat stations, and substantial roomy termini, built by English
+engineers at a cost known only to Government, and opened by the Mikado in
+1872.  The Yokohama station is a handsome and suitable stone building,
+with a spacious approach, ticket-offices on our plan, roomy waiting-rooms
+for different classes—uncarpeted, however, in consideration of Japanese
+clogs—and supplied with the daily papers.  There is a department for the
+weighing and labelling of luggage, and on the broad, covered, stone
+platform at both termini a barrier with turnstiles, through which, except
+by special favour, no ticketless person can pass.  Except the
+ticket-clerks, who are Chinese, and the guards and engine-drivers, who
+are English, the officials are Japanese in European dress.  Outside the
+stations, instead of cabs, there are _kurumas_, which carry luggage as
+well as people.  Only luggage in the hand is allowed to go free; the rest
+is weighed, numbered, and charged for, a corresponding number being given
+to its owner to present at his destination.  The fares are—3d class, an
+_ichibu_, or about 1s.; 2d class, 60 _sen_, or about 2s. 4d.; and 1st
+class, a _yen_, or about 3s. 8d.  The tickets are collected as the
+passengers pass through the barrier at the end of the journey.  The
+English-built cars differ from ours in having seats along the sides, and
+doors opening on platforms at both ends.  On the whole, the arrangements
+are Continental rather than British.  The first-class cars are
+expensively fitted up with deeply-cushioned, red morocco seats, but carry
+very few passengers, and the comfortable seats, covered with fine
+matting, of the 2d class are very scantily occupied; but the 3d class
+vans are crowded with Japanese, who have taken to railroads as readily as
+to _kurumas_.  This line earns about $8,000,000 a year.
+
+The Japanese look most diminutive in European dress.  Each garment is a
+misfit, and exaggerates the miserable _physique_ and the national defects
+of concave chests and bow legs.  The lack of “complexion” and of hair
+upon the face makes it nearly impossible to judge of the ages of men.  I
+supposed that all the railroad officials were striplings of 17 or 18, but
+they are men from 25 to 40 years old.
+
+It was a beautiful day, like an English June day, but hotter, and though
+the _Sakura_ (wild cherry) and its kin, which are the glory of the
+Japanese spring, are over, everything is a young, fresh green yet, and in
+all the beauty of growth and luxuriance.  The immediate neighbourhood of
+Yokohama is beautiful, with abrupt wooded hills, and small picturesque
+valleys; but after passing Kanagawa the railroad enters upon the immense
+plain of Yedo, said to be 90 miles from north to south, on whose northern
+and western boundaries faint blue mountains of great height hovered
+dreamily in the blue haze, and on whose eastern shore for many miles the
+clear blue wavelets of the Gulf of Yedo ripple, always as then,
+brightened by the white sails of innumerable fishing-boats.  On this
+fertile and fruitful plain stand not only the capital, with its million
+of inhabitants, but a number of populous cities, and several hundred
+thriving agricultural villages.  Every foot of land which can be seen
+from the railroad is cultivated by the most careful spade husbandry, and
+much of it is irrigated for rice.  Streams abound, and villages of grey
+wooden houses with grey thatch, and grey temples with strangely curved
+roofs, are scattered thickly over the landscape.  It is all homelike,
+liveable, and pretty, the country of an industrious people, for not a
+weed is to be seen, but no very striking features or peculiarities arrest
+one at first sight, unless it be the crowds everywhere.
+
+You don’t take your ticket for Tôkiyô, but for Shinagawa or Shinbashi,
+two of the many villages which have grown together into the capital.
+Yedo is hardly seen before Shinagawa is reached, for it has no smoke and
+no long chimneys; its temples and public buildings are seldom lofty; the
+former are often concealed among thick trees, and its ordinary houses
+seldom reach a height of 20 feet.  On the right a blue sea with fortified
+islands upon it, wooded gardens with massive retaining walls, hundreds of
+fishing-boats lying in creeks or drawn up on the beach; on the left a
+broad road on which _kurumas_ are hurrying both ways, rows of low, grey
+houses, mostly tea-houses and shops; and as I was asking “Where is Yedo?”
+the train came to rest in the terminus, the Shinbashi railroad station,
+and disgorged its 200 Japanese passengers with a combined clatter of 400
+clogs—a new sound to me.  These clogs add three inches to their height,
+but even with them few of the men attained 5 feet 7 inches, and few of
+the women 5 feet 2 inches; but they look far broader in the national
+costume, which also conceals the defects of their figures.  So lean, so
+yellow, so ugly, yet so pleasant-looking, so wanting in colour and
+effectiveness; the women so very small and tottering in their walk; the
+children so formal-looking and such dignified burlesques on the adults, I
+feel as if I had seen them all before, so like are they to their pictures
+on trays, fans, and tea-pots.  The hair of the women is all drawn away
+from their faces, and is worn in chignons, and the men, when they don’t
+shave the front of their heads and gather their back hair into a quaint
+queue drawn forward over the shaven patch, wear their coarse hair about
+three inches long in a refractory undivided mop.
+
+Davies, an orderly from the Legation, met me,—one of the escort cut down
+and severely wounded when Sir H. Parkes was attacked in the street of
+Kiyôto in March 1868 on his way to his first audience of the Mikado.
+Hundreds of _kurumas_, and covered carts with four wheels drawn by one
+miserable horse, which are the omnibuses of certain districts of Tôkiyô,
+were waiting outside the station, and an English brougham for me, with a
+running _betto_.  The Legation stands in Kôjimachi on very elevated
+ground above the inner moat of the historic “Castle of Yedo,” but I
+cannot tell you anything of what I saw on my way thither, except that
+there were miles of dark, silent, barrack-like buildings, with highly
+ornamental gateways, and long rows of projecting windows with screens
+made of reeds—the feudal mansions of Yedo—and miles of moats with lofty
+grass embankments or walls of massive masonry 50 feet high, with
+kiosk-like towers at the corners, and curious, roofed gateways, and many
+bridges, and acres of lotus leaves.  Turning along the inner moat, up a
+steep slope, there are, on the right, its deep green waters, the great
+grass embankment surmounted by a dismal wall overhung by the branches of
+coniferous trees which surrounded the palace of the Shôgun, and on the
+left sundry _yashikis_, as the mansions of the _daimiyô_ were called, now
+in this quarter mostly turned into hospitals, barracks, and Government
+offices.  On a height, the most conspicuous of them all, is the great red
+gateway of the _yashiki_, now occupied by the French Military Mission,
+formerly the residence of Ii Kamon no Kami, one of the great actors in
+recent historic events, who was assassinated not far off, outside the
+Sakaruda gate of the castle.  Besides these, barracks, parade-grounds,
+policemen, _kurumas_, carts pulled and pushed by coolies, pack-horses in
+straw sandals, and dwarfish, slatternly-looking soldiers in European
+dress, made up the Tôkiyô that I saw between Shinbashi and the Legation.
+
+H.B.M.’s Legation has a good situation near the Foreign Office, several
+of the Government departments, and the residences of the ministers, which
+are chiefly of brick in the English suburban villa style.  Within the
+compound, with a brick archway with the Royal Arms upon it for an
+entrance, are the Minister’s residence, the Chancery, two houses for the
+two English Secretaries of Legation, and quarters for the escort.
+
+It is an English house and an English home, though, with the exception of
+a venerable nurse, there are no English servants.  The butler and footman
+are tall Chinamen, with long pig-tails, black satin caps, and long blue
+robes; the cook is a Chinaman, and the other servants are all Japanese,
+including one female servant, a sweet, gentle, kindly girl about 4 feet 5
+in height, the wife of the head “housemaid.”  None of the servants speak
+anything but the most aggravating “pidgun” English, but their deficient
+speech is more than made up for by the intelligence and service of the
+orderly in waiting, who is rarely absent from the neighbourhood of the
+hall door, and attends to the visitors’ book and to all messages and
+notes.  There are two real English children of six and seven, with great
+capacities for such innocent enjoyments as can be found within the limits
+of the nursery and garden.  The other inmate of the house is a beautiful
+and attractive terrier called “Rags,” a Skye dog, who unbends “in the
+bosom of his family,” but ordinarily is as imposing in his demeanour as
+if he, and not his master, represented the dignity of the British Empire.
+
+The Japanese Secretary of Legation is Mr. Ernest Satow, whose reputation
+for scholarship, especially in the department of history, is said by the
+Japanese themselves to be the highest in Japan {14}—an honourable
+distinction for an Englishman, and won by the persevering industry of
+fifteen years.  The scholarship connected with the British Civil Service
+is not, however, monopolised by Mr. Satow, for several gentlemen in the
+consular service, who are passing through the various grades of student
+interpreters, are distinguishing themselves not alone by their facility
+in colloquial Japanese, but by their researches in various departments of
+Japanese history, mythology, archæology, and literature.  Indeed it is to
+their labours, and to those of a few other Englishmen and Germans, that
+the Japanese of the rising generation will be indebted for keeping alive
+not only the knowledge of their archaic literature, but even of the
+manners and customs of the first half of this century.
+
+                                                                  I. L. B.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER IV.
+
+
+“John Chinaman”—Engaging a Servant—First Impressions of Ito—A Solemn
+Contract—The Food Question.
+
+                                                  H.B.M.’s LEGATION, YEDO,
+                                                                 _June_ 7.
+
+I WENT to Yokohama for a week to visit Dr. and Mrs. Hepburn on the Bluff.
+Bishop and Mrs. Burdon of Hong Kong were also guests, and it was very
+pleasant.
+
+One cannot be a day in Yokohama without seeing quite a different class of
+orientals from the small, thinly-dressed, and usually poor-looking
+Japanese.  Of the 2500 Chinamen who reside in Japan, over 1100 are in
+Yokohama, and if they were suddenly removed, business would come to an
+abrupt halt.  Here, as everywhere, the Chinese immigrant is making
+himself indispensable.  He walks through the streets with his swinging
+gait and air of complete self-complacency, as though he belonged to the
+ruling race.  He is tall and big, and his many garments, with a handsome
+brocaded robe over all, his satin pantaloons, of which not much is seen,
+tight at the ankles, and his high shoes, whose black satin tops are
+slightly turned up at the toes, make him look even taller and bigger than
+he is.  His head is mostly shaven, but the hair at the back is plaited
+with a quantity of black purse twist into a queue which reaches to his
+knees, above which, set well back, he wears a stiff, black satin
+skull-cap, without which he is never seen.  His face is very yellow, his
+long dark eyes and eyebrows slope upwards towards his temples, he has not
+the vestige of a beard, and his skin is shiny.  He looks thoroughly
+“well-to-do.”  He is not unpleasing-looking, but you feel that as a
+Celestial he looks down upon you.  If you ask a question in a merchant’s
+office, or change your gold into _satsu_, or take your railroad or
+steamer ticket, or get change in a shop, the inevitable Chinaman appears.
+In the street he swings past you with a purpose in his face; as he flies
+past you in a _kuruma_ he is bent on business; he is sober and reliable,
+and is content to “squeeze” his employer rather than to rob him—his one
+aim in life is money.  For this he is industrious, faithful,
+self-denying; and he has his reward.
+
+Several of my kind new acquaintances interested themselves about the (to
+me) vital matter of a servant interpreter, and many Japanese came to “see
+after the place.”  The speaking of intelligible English is a _sine quâ
+non_, and it was wonderful to find the few words badly pronounced and
+worse put together, which were regarded by the candidates as a sufficient
+qualification.  Can you speak English?  “Yes.”  What wages do you ask?
+“Twelve dollars a month.”  This was always said glibly, and in each case
+sounded hopeful.  Whom have you lived with?  A foreign name distorted out
+of all recognition, as was natural, was then given.  Where have you
+travelled?  This question usually had to be translated into Japanese, and
+the usual answer was, “The Tokaido, the Nakasendo, to Kiyôto, to Nikkô,”
+naming the beaten tracks of countless tourists.  Do you know anything of
+Northern Japan and the Hokkaido?  “No,” with a blank wondering look.  At
+this stage in every case Dr. Hepburn compassionately stepped in as
+interpreter, for their stock of English was exhausted.  Three were
+regarded as promising.  One was a sprightly youth who came in a well-made
+European suit of light-coloured tweed, a laid-down collar, a tie with a
+diamond (?) pin, and a white shirt, so stiffly starched, that he could
+hardly bend low enough for a bow even of European profundity.  He wore a
+gilt watch-chain with a locket, the corner of a very white cambric
+pocket-handkerchief dangled from his breast pocket, and he held a cane
+and a felt hat in his hand.  He was a Japanese dandy of the first water.
+I looked at him ruefully.  To me starched collars are to be an unknown
+luxury for the next three months.  His fine foreign clothes would enhance
+prices everywhere in the interior, and besides that, I should feel a
+perpetual difficulty in asking menial services from an exquisite.  I was
+therefore quite relieved when his English broke down at the second
+question.
+
+The second was a most respectable-looking man of thirty-five in a good
+Japanese dress.  He was highly recommended, and his first English words
+were promising, but he had been cook in the service of a wealthy English
+official who travelled with a large retinue, and sent servants on ahead
+to prepare the way.  He knew really only a few words of English, and his
+horror at finding that there was “no master,” and that there would be no
+woman-servant, was so great, that I hardly know whether he rejected me or
+I him.
+
+The third, sent by Mr. Wilkinson, wore a plain Japanese dress, and had a
+frank, intelligent face.  Though Dr. Hepburn spoke with him in Japanese,
+he thought that he knew more English than the others, and that what he
+knew would come out when he was less agitated.  He evidently understood
+what I said, and, though I had a suspicion that he would turn out to be
+the “master,” I thought him so prepossessing that I nearly engaged him on
+the spot.  None of the others merit any remark.
+
+However, when I had nearly made up my mind in his favour, a creature
+appeared without any recommendation at all, except that one of Dr.
+Hepburn’s servants was acquainted with him.  He is only eighteen, but
+this is equivalent to twenty-three or twenty-four with us, and only 4
+feet 10 inches in height, but, though bandy-legged, is well proportioned
+and strong-looking.  He has a round and singularly plain face, good
+teeth, much elongated eyes, and the heavy droop of his eyelids almost
+caricatures the usual Japanese peculiarity.  He is the most
+stupid-looking Japanese that I have seen, but, from a rapid, furtive
+glance in his eyes now and then, I think that the stolidity is partly
+assumed.  He said that he had lived at the American Legation, that he had
+been a clerk on the Osaka railroad, that he had travelled through
+northern Japan by the eastern route, and in Yezo with Mr. Maries, a
+botanical collector, that he understood drying plants, that he could cook
+a little, that he could write English, that he could walk twenty-five
+miles a day, and that he thoroughly understood getting through the
+interior!  This would-be paragon had no recommendations, and accounted
+for this by saying that they had been burned in a recent fire in his
+father’s house.  Mr. Maries was not forthcoming, and more than this, I
+suspected and disliked the boy.  However, he understood my English and I
+his, and, being very anxious to begin my travels, I engaged him for
+twelve dollars a month, and soon afterwards he came back with a contract,
+in which he declares by all that he holds most sacred that he will serve
+me faithfully for the wages agreed upon, and to this document he affixed
+his seal and I my name.  The next day he asked me for a month’s wages in
+advance, which I gave him, but Dr. H. consolingly suggested that I should
+never see him again!
+
+Ever since the solemn night when the contract was signed I have felt
+under an incubus, and since he appeared here yesterday, punctual to the
+appointed hour, I have felt as if I had a veritable “old man of the sea”
+upon my shoulders.  He flies up stairs and along the corridors as
+noiselessly as a cat, and already knows where I keep all my things.
+Nothing surprises or abashes him, he bows profoundly to Sir Harry and
+Lady Parkes when he encounters them, but is obviously “quite at home” in
+a Legation, and only allowed one of the orderlies to show him how to put
+on a Mexican saddle and English bridle out of condescension to my wishes.
+He seems as sharp or “smart” as can be, and has already arranged for the
+first three days of my journey.  His name is Ito, and you will doubtless
+hear much more of him, as he will be my good or evil genius for the next
+three months.
+
+As no English lady has yet travelled alone through the interior, my
+project excites a very friendly interest among my friends, and I receive
+much warning and dissuasion, and a little encouragement.  The strongest,
+because the most intelligent, dissuasion comes from Dr. Hepburn, who
+thinks that I ought not to undertake the journey, and that I shall never
+get through to the Tsugaru Strait.  If I accepted much of the advice
+given to me, as to taking tinned meats and soups, claret, and a Japanese
+maid, I should need a train of at least six pack-horses!  As to fleas,
+there is a lamentable concensus of opinion that they are the curse of
+Japanese travelling during the summer, and some people recommend me to
+sleep in a bag drawn tightly round the throat, others to sprinkle my
+bedding freely with insect powder, others to smear the skin all over with
+carbolic oil, and some to make a plentiful use of dried and powdered
+flea-bane.  All admit, however, that these are but feeble palliatives.
+Hammocks unfortunately cannot be used in Japanese houses.
+
+The “Food Question” is said to be the most important one for all
+travellers, and it is discussed continually with startling earnestness,
+not alone as regards my tour.  However apathetic people are on other
+subjects, the mere mention of this one rouses them into interest.  All
+have suffered or may suffer, and every one wishes to impart his own
+experience or to learn from that of others.  Foreign ministers,
+professors, missionaries, merchants—all discuss it with becoming gravity
+as a question of life and death, which by many it is supposed to be.  The
+fact is that, except at a few hotels in popular resorts which are got up
+for foreigners, bread, butter, milk, meat, poultry, coffee, wine, and
+beer, are unattainable, that fresh fish is rare, and that unless one can
+live on rice, tea, and eggs, with the addition now and then of some
+tasteless fresh vegetables, food must be taken, as the fishy and
+vegetable abominations known as “Japanese food” can only be swallowed and
+digested by a few, and that after long practice. {19}
+
+Another, but far inferior, difficulty on which much stress is laid is the
+practice common among native servants of getting a “squeeze” out of every
+money transaction on the road, so that the cost of travelling is often
+doubled, and sometimes trebled, according to the skill and capacity of
+the servant.  Three gentlemen who have travelled extensively have given
+me lists of the prices which I ought to pay, varying in different
+districts, and largely increased on the beaten track of tourists, and Mr.
+Wilkinson has read these to Ito, who offered an occasional remonstrance.
+Mr. W. remarked after the conversation, which was in Japanese, that he
+thought I should have to “look sharp after money matters”—a painful
+prospect, as I have never been able to manage anybody in my life, and
+shall surely have no control over this clever, cunning Japanese youth,
+who on most points will be able to deceive me as he pleases.
+
+On returning here I found that Lady Parkes had made most of the necessary
+preparations for me, and that they include two light baskets with covers
+of oiled paper, a travelling bed or stretcher, a folding-chair, and an
+india-rubber bath, all which she considers as necessaries for a person in
+feeble health on a journey of such long duration.  This week has been
+spent in making acquaintances in Tôkiyô, seeing some characteristic
+sights, and in trying to get light on my tour; but little seems known by
+foreigners of northern Japan, and a Government department, on being
+applied to, returned an itinerary, leaving out 140 miles of the route
+that I dream of taking, on the ground of “insufficient information,” on
+which Sir Harry cheerily remarked, “You will have to get your information
+as you go along, and that will be all the more interesting.”  Ah! but
+how?
+
+                                                                  I. L. B.
+
+                     [Picture: A Lake Biwa Tea-House]
+
+
+
+
+LETTER V.
+
+
+Kwan-non Temple—Uniformity of Temple Architecture—A _Kuruma_ Expedition—A
+Perpetual Festival—The Ni-ô—The Limbo of Vanity—Heathen Prayers—Binzuru—A
+Group of Devils—Archery Galleries—New Japan—An Élégante.
+
+                                                  H.B.M.’s LEGATION, YEDO,
+                                                                 _June_ 9.
+
+ONCE for all I will describe a Buddhist temple, and it shall be the
+popular temple of Asakusa, which keeps fair and festival the whole year
+round, and is dedicated to the “thousand-armed” Kwan-non, the goddess of
+mercy.  Writing generally, it may be said that in design, roof, and
+general aspect, Japanese Buddhist temples are all alike.  The sacred
+architectural idea expresses itself in nearly the same form always.
+There is a single or double-roofed gateway, with highly-coloured figures
+in niches on either side; the paved temple-court, with more or fewer
+stone or bronze lanterns; _amainu_, or heavenly dogs, in stone on stone
+pedestals; stone sarcophagi, roofed over or not, for holy water; a flight
+of steps; a portico, continued as a verandah all round the temple; a roof
+of tremendously disproportionate size and weight, with a peculiar curve;
+a square or oblong hall divided by a railing from a “chancel” with a high
+and low altar, and a shrine containing Buddha, or the divinity to whom
+the chapel is dedicated; an incense-burner, and a few ecclesiastical
+ornaments.  The symbols, idols, and adornments depend upon the sect to
+which the temple belongs, or the wealth of its votaries, or the fancy of
+the priests.  Some temples are packed full of gods, shrines, banners,
+bronzes, brasses, tablets, and ornaments, and others, like those of the
+Monto sect, are so severely simple, that with scarcely an alteration they
+might be used for Christian worship to-morrow.
+
+The foundations consist of square stones on which the uprights rest.
+These are of elm, and are united at intervals by longitudinal pieces.
+The great size and enormous weight of the roofs arise from the trusses
+being formed of one heavy frame being built upon another in diminishing
+squares till the top is reached, the main beams being formed of very
+large timbers put on in their natural state.  They are either very
+heavily and ornamentally tiled, or covered with sheet copper ornamented
+with gold, or thatched to a depth of from one to three feet, with fine
+shingles or bark.  The casing of the walls on the outside is usually
+thick elm planking either lacquered or unpainted, and that of the inside
+is of thin, finely-planed and bevelled planking of the beautiful wood of
+the _Retinospora obtusa_.  The lining of the roof is in flat panels, and
+where it is supported by pillars they are invariably circular, and formed
+of the straight, finely-grained stem of the _Retinospora obtusa_.  The
+projecting ends of the roof-beams under the eaves are either elaborately
+carved, lacquered in dull red, or covered with copper, as are the joints
+of the beams.  Very few nails are used, the timbers being very
+beautifully joined by mortices and dovetails, other methods of junction
+being unknown.
+
+Mr. Chamberlain and I went in a _kuruma_ hurried along by three liveried
+coolies, through the three miles of crowded streets which lie between the
+Legation and Asakusa, once a village, but now incorporated with this
+monster city, to the broad street leading to the Adzuma Bridge over the
+Sumida river, one of the few stone bridges in Tôkiyô, which connects east
+Tôkiyô, an uninteresting region, containing many canals, storehouses,
+timber-yards, and inferior _yashikis_, with the rest of the city.  This
+street, marvellously thronged with pedestrians and _kurumas_, is the
+terminus of a number of city “stage lines,” and twenty wretched-looking
+covered waggons, with still more wretched ponies, were drawn up in the
+middle, waiting for passengers.  Just there plenty of real Tôkiyô life is
+to be seen, for near a shrine of popular pilgrimage there are always
+numerous places of amusement, innocent and vicious, and the vicinity of
+this temple is full of restaurants, tea-houses, minor theatres, and the
+resorts of dancing and singing girls.
+
+A broad-paved avenue, only open to foot passengers, leads from this
+street to the grand entrance, a colossal two-storied double-roofed _mon_,
+or gate, painted a rich dull red.  On either side of this avenue are
+lines of booths—which make a brilliant and lavish display of their
+contents—toy-shops, shops for smoking apparatus, and shops for the sale
+of ornamental hair-pins predominating.  Nearer the gate are booths for
+the sale of rosaries for prayer, sleeve and bosom idols of brass and wood
+in small shrines, amulet bags, representations of the jolly-looking
+Daikoku, the god of wealth, the most popular of the household gods of
+Japan, shrines, memorial tablets, cheap _ex votos_, sacred bells,
+candlesticks, and incense-burners, and all the endless and various
+articles connected with Buddhist devotion, public and private.  Every day
+is a festival-day at Asakusa; the temple is dedicated to the most popular
+of the great divinities; it is the most popular of religious resorts; and
+whether he be Buddhist, Shintôist, or Christian, no stranger comes to the
+capital without making a visit to its crowded courts or a purchase at its
+tempting booths.  Not to be an exception, I invested in bouquets of
+firework flowers, fifty flowers for 2 _sen_, or 1d., each of which, as it
+slowly consumes, throws off fiery coruscations, shaped like the most
+beautiful of snow crystals.  I was also tempted by small boxes at 2 _sen_
+each, containing what look like little slips of withered pith, but which,
+on being dropped into water, expand into trees and flowers.
+
+Down a paved passage on the right there is an artificial river, not over
+clean, with a bridge formed of one curved stone, from which a flight of
+steps leads up to a small temple with a magnificent bronze bell.  At the
+entrance several women were praying.  In the same direction are two fine
+bronze Buddhas, seated figures, one with clasped hands, the other holding
+a lotus, both with “The light of the world” upon their brows.  The grand
+red gateway into the actual temple courts has an extremely imposing
+effect, and besides, it is the portal to the first great heathen temple
+that I have seen, and it made me think of another temple whose courts
+were equally crowded with buyers and sellers, and of a “whip of small
+cords” in the hand of One who claimed both the temple and its courts as
+His “Father’s House.”  Not with less righteous wrath would the gentle
+founder of Buddhism purify the unsanctified courts of Asakusa.  Hundreds
+of men, women, and children passed to and fro through the gateway in
+incessant streams, and so they are passing through every daylight hour of
+every day in the year, thousands becoming tens of thousands on the great
+_matsuri_ days, when the _mikoshi_, or sacred car, containing certain
+symbols of the god, is exhibited, and after sacred mimes and dances have
+been performed, is carried in a magnificent, antique procession to the
+shore and back again.  Under the gateway on either side are the _Ni-ô_,
+or two kings, gigantic figures in flowing robes, one red and with an open
+mouth, representing the _Yo_, or male principle of Chinese philosophy,
+the other green and with the mouth firmly closed, representing the _In_,
+or female principle.  They are hideous creatures, with protruding eyes,
+and faces and figures distorted and corrupted into a high degree of
+exaggerated and convulsive action.  These figures guard the gates of most
+of the larger temples, and small prints of them are pasted over the doors
+of houses to protect them against burglars.  Attached to the grating in
+front were a number of straw sandals, hung up by people who pray that
+their limbs may be as muscular as those of the _Ni-ô_.
+
+Passing through this gate we were in the temple court proper, and in
+front of the temple itself, a building of imposing height and size, of a
+dull red colour, with a grand roof of heavy iron grey tiles, with a
+sweeping curve which gives grace as well as grandeur.  The timbers and
+supports are solid and of great size, but, in common with all Japanese
+temples, whether Buddhist or Shintô, the edifice is entirely of wood.  A
+broad flight of narrow, steep, brass-bound steps lead up to the porch,
+which is formed by a number of circular pillars supporting a very lofty
+roof, from which paper lanterns ten feet long are hanging.  A gallery
+runs from this round the temple, under cover of the eaves.  There is an
+outer temple, unmatted, and an inner one behind a grating, into which
+those who choose to pay for the privilege of praying in comparative
+privacy, or of having prayers said for them by the priests, can pass.
+
+In the outer temple the noise, confusion, and perpetual motion, are
+bewildering.  Crowds on clattering clogs pass in and out; pigeons, of
+which hundreds live in the porch, fly over your head, and the whirring of
+their wings mingles with the tinkling of bells, the beating of drums and
+gongs, the high-pitched drone of the priests, the low murmur of prayers,
+the rippling laughter of girls, the harsh voices of men, and the general
+buzz of a multitude.  There is very much that is highly grotesque at
+first sight.  Men squat on the floor selling amulets, rosaries, printed
+prayers, incense sticks, and other wares.  _Ex votos_ of all kinds hang
+on the wall and on the great round pillars.  Many of these are rude
+Japanese pictures.  The subject of one is the blowing-up of a steamer in
+the Sumidagawa with the loss of 100 lives, when the donor was saved by
+the grace of Kwan-non.  Numbers of memorials are from people who offered
+up prayers here, and have been restored to health or wealth.  Others are
+from junk men whose lives have been in peril.  There are scores of men’s
+queues and a few dusty braids of women’s hair offered on account of vows
+or prayers, usually for sick relatives, and among them all, on the left
+hand, are a large mirror in a gaudily gilt frame and a framed picture of
+the P. M. S. _China_!  Above this incongruous collection are splendid
+wood carvings and frescoes of angels, among which the pigeons find a home
+free from molestation.
+
+Near the entrance there is a superb incense-burner in the most massive
+style of the older bronzes, with a mythical beast rampant upon it, and in
+high relief round it the Japanese signs of the zodiac—the rat, ox, tiger,
+rabbit, dragon, serpent, horse, goat, monkey, cock, dog, and hog.  Clouds
+of incense rise continually from the perforations round the edge, and a
+black-toothed woman who keeps it burning is perpetually receiving small
+coins from the worshippers, who then pass on to the front of the altar to
+pray.  The high altar, and indeed all that I should regard as properly
+the temple, are protected by a screen of coarsely-netted iron wire.  This
+holy of holies is full of shrines and gods, gigantic candlesticks,
+colossal lotuses of gilded silver, offerings, lamps, lacquer, litany
+books, gongs, drums, bells, and all the mysterious symbols of a faith
+which is a system of morals and metaphysics to the educated and
+initiated, and an idolatrous superstition to the masses.  In this
+interior the light was dim, the lamps burned low, the atmosphere was
+heavy with incense, and amidst its fumes shaven priests in chasubles and
+stoles moved noiselessly over the soft matting round the high altar on
+which Kwan-non is enshrined, lighting candles, striking bells, and
+murmuring prayers.  In front of the screen is the treasury, a wooden
+chest 14 feet by 10, with a deep slit, into which all the worshippers
+cast copper coins with a ceaseless clinking sound.
+
+There, too, they pray, if that can be called prayer which frequently
+consists only in the repetition of an uncomprehended phrase in a foreign
+tongue, bowing the head, raising the hands and rubbing them, murmuring a
+few words, telling beads, clapping the hands, bowing again, and then
+passing out or on to another shrine to repeat the same form.  Merchants
+in silk clothing, soldiers in shabby French uniforms, farmers, coolies in
+“vile raiment,” mothers, maidens, swells in European clothes, even the
+_samurai_ policemen, bow before the goddess of mercy.  Most of the
+prayers were offered rapidly, a mere momentary interlude in the gurgle of
+careless talk, and without a pretence of reverence; but some of the
+petitioners obviously brought real woes in simple “faith.”
+
+In one shrine there is a large idol, spotted all over with pellets of
+paper, and hundreds of these are sticking to the wire netting which
+protects him.  A worshipper writes his petition on paper, or, better
+still, has it written for him by the priest, chews it to a pulp, and
+spits it at the divinity.  If, having been well aimed, it passes through
+the wire and sticks, it is a good omen, if it lodges in the netting the
+prayer has probably been unheard.  The _Ni-ô_ and some of the gods
+outside the temple are similarly disfigured.  On the left there is a
+shrine with a screen, to the bars of which innumerable prayers have been
+tied.  On the right, accessible to all, sits Binzuru, one of Buddha’s
+original sixteen disciples.  His face and appearance have been calm and
+amiable, with something of the quiet dignity of an elderly country
+gentleman of the reign of George III.; but he is now worn and defaced,
+and has not much more of eyes, nose, and mouth than the Sphinx; and the
+polished, red lacquer has disappeared from his hands and feet, for
+Binzuru is a great medicine god, and centuries of sick people have rubbed
+his face and limbs, and then have rubbed their own.  A young woman went
+up to him, rubbed the back of his neck, and then rubbed her own.  Then a
+modest-looking girl, leading an ancient woman with badly inflamed eyelids
+and paralysed arms, rubbed his eyelids, and then gently stroked the
+closed eyelids of the crone.  Then a coolie, with a swelled knee, applied
+himself vigorously to Binzuru’s knee, and more gently to his own.
+Remember, this is the great temple of the populace, and “not many rich,
+not many noble, not many mighty,” enter its dim, dirty, crowded halls.
+{27}
+
+But the great temple to Kwan-non is not the only sight of Asakusa.
+Outside it are countless shrines and temples, huge stone _Amainu_, or
+heavenly dogs, on rude blocks of stone, large cisterns of stone and
+bronze with and without canopies, containing water for the ablutions of
+the worshippers, cast iron _Amainu_ on hewn stone pedestals—a recent
+gift—bronze and stone lanterns, a stone prayer-wheel in a stone post,
+figures of Buddha with the serene countenance of one who rests from his
+labours, stone idols, on which devotees have pasted slips of paper
+inscribed with prayers, with sticks of incense rising out of the ashes of
+hundreds of former sticks smouldering before them, blocks of hewn stone
+with Chinese and Sanskrit inscriptions, an eight-sided temple in which
+are figures of the “Five Hundred Disciples” of Buddha, a temple with the
+roof and upper part of the walls richly coloured, the circular Shintô
+mirror in an inner shrine, a bronze treasury outside with a bell, which
+is rung to attract the god’s attention, a striking, five-storied pagoda,
+with much red lacquer, and the ends of the roof-beams very boldly carved,
+its heavy eaves fringed with wind bells, and its uppermost roof
+terminating in a graceful copper spiral of great height, with the “sacred
+pearl” surrounded by flames for its finial.  Near it, as near most
+temples, is an upright frame of plain wood with tablets, on which are
+inscribed the names of donors to the temple, and the amount of their
+gifts.
+
+There is a handsome stone-floored temple to the south-east of the main
+building, to which we were the sole visitors.  It is lofty and very
+richly decorated.  In the centre is an octagonal revolving room, or
+rather shrine, of rich red lacquer most gorgeously ornamented.  It rests
+on a frame of carved black lacquer, and has a lacquer gallery running
+round it, on which several richly decorated doors open.  On the
+application of several shoulders to this gallery the shrine rotates.  It
+is, in fact, a revolving library of the Buddhist Scriptures, and a single
+turn is equivalent to a single pious perusal of them.  It is an
+exceedingly beautiful specimen of ancient decorative lacquer work.  At
+the back part of the temple is a draped brass figure of Buddha, with one
+hand raised—a dignified piece of casting.  All the Buddhas have Hindoo
+features, and the graceful drapery and oriental repose which have been
+imported from India contrast singularly with the grotesque extravagances
+of the indigenous Japanese conceptions.  In the same temple are four
+monstrously extravagant figures carved in wood, life-size, with clawed
+toes on their feet, and two great fangs in addition to the teeth in each
+mouth.  The heads of all are surrounded with flames, and are backed by
+golden circlets.  They are extravagantly clothed in garments which look
+as if they were agitated by a violent wind; they wear helmets and partial
+suits of armour, and hold in their right hands something between a
+monarch’s sceptre and a priest’s staff.  They have goggle eyes and open
+mouths, and their faces are in distorted and exaggerated action.  One,
+painted bright red, tramples on a writhing devil painted bright pink;
+another, painted emerald green, tramples on a sea-green devil, an indigo
+blue monster tramples on a sky-blue fiend, and a bright pink monster
+treads under his clawed feet a flesh-coloured demon.  I cannot give you
+any idea of the hideousness of their aspect, and was much inclined to
+sympathise with the more innocent-looking fiends whom they were
+maltreating.  They occur very frequently in Buddhist temples, and are
+said by some to be assistant-torturers to Yemma, the lord of hell, and
+are called by others “The gods of the Four Quarters.”
+
+                        [Picture: Stone Lanterns]
+
+The temple grounds are a most extraordinary sight.  No English fair in
+the palmiest days of fairs ever presented such an array of attractions.
+Behind the temple are archery galleries in numbers, where girls, hardly
+so modest-looking as usual, smile and smirk, and bring straw-coloured tea
+in dainty cups, and tasteless sweetmeats on lacquer trays, and smoke
+their tiny pipes, and offer you bows of slender bamboo strips, two feet
+long, with rests for the arrows, and tiny cherry-wood arrows,
+bone-tipped, and feathered red, blue, and white, and smilingly, but quite
+unobtrusively, ask you to try your skill or luck at a target hanging in
+front of a square drum, flanked by red cushions.  A click, a boom, or a
+hardly audible “thud,” indicate the result.  Nearly all the archers were
+grown-up men, and many of them spend hours at a time in this childish
+sport.
+
+All over the grounds booths with the usual charcoal fire, copper boiler,
+iron kettle of curious workmanship, tiny cups, fragrant aroma of tea, and
+winsome, graceful girls, invite you to drink and rest, and more solid but
+less inviting refreshments are also to be had.  Rows of pretty paper
+lanterns decorate all the stalls.  Then there are photograph galleries,
+mimic tea-gardens, tableaux in which a large number of groups of
+life-size figures with appropriate scenery are put into motion by a
+creaking wheel of great size, matted lounges for rest, stands with
+saucers of rice, beans and peas for offerings to the gods, the pigeons,
+and the two sacred horses, Albino ponies, with pink eyes and noses,
+revoltingly greedy creatures, eating all day long and still craving for
+more.  There are booths for singing and dancing, and under one a
+professional story-teller was reciting to a densely packed crowd one of
+the old, popular stories of crime.  There are booths where for a few
+_rin_ you may have the pleasure of feeding some very ugly and greedy
+apes, or of watching mangy monkeys which have been taught to prostrate
+themselves Japanese fashion.
+
+This letter is far too long, but to pass over Asakusa and its novelties
+when the impression of them is fresh would be to omit one of the most
+interesting sights in Japan.  On the way back we passed red mail carts
+like those in London, a squadron of cavalry in European uniforms and with
+European saddles, and the carriage of the Minister of Marine, an English
+brougham with a pair of horses in English harness, and an escort of six
+troopers—a painful precaution adopted since the political assassination
+of Okubo, the Home Minister, three weeks ago.  So the old and the new in
+this great city contrast with and jostle each other.  The Mikado and his
+ministers, naval and military officers and men, the whole of the civil
+officials and the police, wear European clothes, as well as a number of
+dissipated-looking young men who aspire to represent “young Japan.”
+Carriages and houses in English style, with carpets, chairs, and tables,
+are becoming increasingly numerous, and the bad taste which regulates the
+purchase of foreign furnishings is as marked as the good taste which
+everywhere presides over the adornment of the houses in purely Japanese
+style.  Happily these expensive and unbecoming innovations have scarcely
+affected female dress, and some ladies who adopted our fashions have
+given them up because of their discomfort and manifold difficulties and
+complications.
+
+The Empress on State occasions appears in scarlet satin _hakama_, and
+flowing robes, and she and the Court ladies invariably wear the national
+costume.  I have only seen two ladies in European dress; and this was at
+a dinner-party here, and they were the wives of Mr. Mori, the go-ahead
+Vice-Minister for Foreign Affairs, and of the Japanese Consul at Hong
+Kong; and both by long residence abroad have learned to wear it with
+ease.  The wife of Saigo, the Minister of Education, called one day in an
+exquisite Japanese dress of dove-coloured silk _crêpe_, with a pale pink
+under-dress of the same material, which showed a little at the neck and
+sleeves.  Her girdle was of rich dove-coloured silk, with a ghost of a
+pale pink blossom hovering upon it here and there.  She had no frills or
+fripperies of any description, or ornaments, except a single pin in her
+chignon, and, with a sweet and charming face, she looked as graceful and
+dignified in her Japanese costume as she would have looked exactly the
+reverse in ours.  Their costume has one striking advantage over ours.  A
+woman is perfectly _clothed_ if she has one garment and a girdle on, and
+perfectly _dressed_ if she has two.  There is a difference in features
+and expression—much exaggerated, however, by Japanese artists—between the
+faces of high-born women and those of the middle and lower classes.  I
+decline to admire fat-faces, pug noses, thick lips, long eyes, turned up
+at the outer corners, and complexions which owe much to powder and paint.
+The habit of painting the lips with a reddish-yellow pigment, and of
+heavily powdering the face and throat with pearl powder, is a repulsive
+one.  But it is hard to pronounce any unfavourable criticism on women who
+have so much kindly grace of manner.
+
+                                                                  I. L. B.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER VI.
+
+
+Fears—Travelling Equipments—Passports—Coolie Costume—A Yedo
+Diorama—Rice-Fields—Tea-Houses—A Traveller’s Reception—The Inn at
+Kasukabé—Lack of Privacy—A Concourse of Noises—A Nocturnal Alarm—A Vision
+of Policemen—A Budget from Yedo.
+
+                                                      KASUKABÉ, _June_ 10.
+
+FROM the date you will see that I have started on my long journey, though
+not upon the “unbeaten tracks” which I hope to take after leaving Nikkô,
+and my first evening alone in the midst of this crowded Asian life is
+strange, almost fearful.  I have suffered from nervousness all day—the
+fear of being frightened, of being rudely mobbed, as threatened by Mr.
+Campbell of Islay, of giving offence by transgressing the rules of
+Japanese politeness—of, I know not what!  Ito is my sole reliance, and he
+may prove a “broken reed.”  I often wished to give up my project, but was
+ashamed of my cowardice when, on the best authority, I received
+assurances of its safety. {32}
+
+The preparations were finished yesterday, and my outfit weighed 110 lbs.,
+which, with Ito’s weight of 90 lbs., is as much as can be carried by an
+average Japanese horse.  My two painted wicker boxes lined with paper and
+with waterproof covers are convenient for the two sides of a pack-horse.
+I have a folding-chair—for in a Japanese house there is nothing but the
+floor to sit upon, and not even a solid wall to lean against—an
+air-pillow for _kuruma_ travelling, an india-rubber bath, sheets, a
+blanket, and last, and more important than all else, a canvas stretcher
+on light poles, which can be put together in two minutes; and being 2½
+feet high is supposed to be secure from fleas.  The “Food Question” has
+been solved by a modified rejection of all advice!  I have only brought a
+small supply of Liebig’s extract of meat, 4 lbs. of raisins, some
+chocolate, both for eating and drinking, and some brandy in case of need.
+I have my own Mexican saddle and bridle, a reasonable quantity of
+clothes, including a loose wrapper for wearing in the evenings, some
+candles, Mr. Brunton’s large map of Japan, volumes of the Transactions of
+the English Asiatic Society, and Mr. Satow’s Anglo-Japanese Dictionary.
+My travelling dress is a short costume of dust-coloured striped tweed,
+with strong laced boots of unblacked leather, and a Japanese hat, shaped
+like a large inverted bowl, of light bamboo plait, with a white cotton
+cover, and a very light frame inside, which fits round the brow and
+leaves a space of 1½ inches between the hat and the head for the free
+circulation of air.  It only weighs 2½ ounces, and is infinitely to be
+preferred to a heavy pith helmet, and, light as it is, it protects the
+head so thoroughly, that, though the sun has been unclouded all day and
+the mercury at 86°, no other protection has been necessary.  My money is
+in bundles of 50 _yen_, and 50, 20, and 10 _sen_ notes, besides which I
+have some rouleaux of copper coins.  I have a bag for my passport, which
+hangs to my waist.  All my luggage, with the exception of my saddle,
+which I use for a footstool, goes into one _kuruma_, and Ito, who is
+limited to 12 lbs., takes his along with him.
+
+I have three _kurumas_, which are to go to Nikkô, ninety miles, in three
+days, without change of runners, for about eleven shillings each.
+
+Passports usually define the route over which the foreigner is to travel,
+but in this case Sir H. Parkes has obtained one which is practically
+unrestricted, for it permits me to travel through all Japan north of
+Tôkiyô and in Yezo without specifying any route.  This precious document,
+without which I should be liable to be arrested and forwarded to my
+consul, is of course in Japanese, but the cover gives in English the
+regulations under which it is issued.  A passport must be applied for,
+for reasons of “health, botanical research, or scientific investigation.”
+Its bearer must not light fires in woods, attend fires on horseback,
+trespass on fields, enclosures, or game-preserves, scribble on temples,
+shrines, or walls, drive fast on a narrow road, or disregard notices of
+“No thoroughfare.”  He must “conduct himself in an orderly and
+conciliating manner towards the Japanese authorities and people;” he
+“must produce his passport to any officials who may demand it,” under
+pain of arrest; and while in the interior “is forbidden to shoot, trade,
+to conclude mercantile contracts with Japanese, or to rent houses or
+rooms for a longer period than his journey requires.”
+
+NIKKÔ, _June_ 13.—This is one of the paradises of Japan!  It is a
+proverbial saying, “He who has not seen Nikkô must not use the word
+kek’ko” (splendid, delicious, beautiful); but of this more hereafter.  My
+attempt to write to you from Kasukabé failed, owing to the onslaught of
+an army of fleas, which compelled me to retreat to my stretcher, and the
+last two nights, for this and other reasons, writing has been out of the
+question.
+
+I left the Legation at 11 a.m. on Monday and reached Kasukabé at 5 p.m.,
+the runners keeping up an easy trot the whole journey of twenty-three
+miles; but the halts for smoking and eating were frequent.
+
+These kuruma-runners wore short blue cotton drawers, girdles with tobacco
+pouch and pipe attached, short blue cotton shirts with wide sleeves, and
+open in front, reaching to their waists, and blue cotton handkerchiefs
+knotted round their heads, except when the sun was very hot, when they
+took the flat flag discs, two feet in diameter, which always hang behind
+_kurumas_, and are used either in sun or rain, and tied them on their
+heads.  They wore straw sandals, which had to be replaced twice on the
+way.  Blue and white towels hung from the shafts to wipe away the sweat,
+which ran profusely down the lean, brown bodies.  The upper garment
+always flew behind them, displaying chests and backs elaborately tattooed
+with dragons and fishes.  Tattooing has recently been prohibited; but it
+was not only a favourite adornment, but a substitute for perishable
+clothing.
+
+Most of the men of the lower classes wear their hair in a very ugly
+fashion,—the front and top of the head being shaved, the long hair from
+the back and sides being drawn up and tied, then waxed, tied again, and
+cut short off, the stiff queue being brought forward and laid, pointing
+forwards, along the back part of the top of the head.  This top-knot is
+shaped much like a short clay pipe.  The shaving and dressing the hair
+thus require the skill of a professional barber.  Formerly the hair was
+worn in this way by the _samurai_, in order that the helmet might fit
+comfortably, but it is now the style of the lower classes mostly and by
+no means invariably.
+
+                           [Picture: A Kuruma]
+
+Blithely, at a merry trot, the coolies hurried us away from the kindly
+group in the Legation porch, across the inner moat and along the inner
+drive of the castle, past gateways and retaining walls of Cyclopean
+masonry, across the second moat, along miles of streets of sheds and
+shops, all grey, thronged with foot-passengers and _kurumas_, with
+pack-horses loaded two or three feet above their backs, the arches of
+their saddles red and gilded lacquer, their frontlets of red leather,
+their “shoes” straw sandals, their heads tied tightly to the saddle-girth
+on either side, great white cloths figured with mythical beasts in blue
+hanging down loosely under their bodies; with coolies dragging heavy
+loads to the guttural cry of _Hai_! _huida_! with children whose heads
+were shaved in hideous patterns; and now and then, as if to point a moral
+lesson in the midst of the whirling diorama, a funeral passed through the
+throng, with a priest in rich robes, mumbling prayers, a covered barrel
+containing the corpse, and a train of mourners in blue dresses with white
+wings.  Then we came to the fringe of Yedo, where the houses cease to be
+continuous, but all that day there was little interval between them.  All
+had open fronts, so that the occupations of the inmates, the “domestic
+life” in fact, were perfectly visible.  Many of these houses were
+road-side _chayas_, or tea-houses, and nearly all sold sweet-meats, dried
+fish, pickles, _mochi_, or uncooked cakes of rice dough, dried
+persimmons, rain hats, or straw shoes for man or beast.  The road, though
+wide enough for two carriages (of which we saw none), was not good, and
+the ditches on both sides were frequently neither clean nor sweet.  Must
+I write it?  The houses were mean, poor, shabby, often even squalid, the
+smells were bad, and the people looked ugly, shabby, and poor, though all
+were working at something or other.
+
+The country is a dead level, and mainly an artificial mud flat or swamp,
+in whose fertile ooze various aquatic birds were wading, and in which
+hundreds of men and women were wading too, above their knees in slush;
+for this plain of Yedo is mainly a great rice-field, and this is the busy
+season of rice-planting; for here, in the sense in which we understand
+it, they do not “cast their bread upon the waters.”  There are eight or
+nine leading varieties of rice grown in Japan, all of which, except an
+upland species, require mud, water, and much puddling and nasty work.
+Rice is the staple food and the wealth of Japan.  Its revenues were
+estimated in rice.  Rice is grown almost wherever irrigation is possible.
+
+The rice-fields are usually very small and of all shapes.  A quarter of
+an acre is a good-sized field.  The rice crop planted in June is not
+reaped till November, but in the meantime it needs to be “puddled” three
+times, i.e. for all the people to turn into the slush, and grub out all
+the weeds and tangled aquatic plants, which weave themselves from tuft to
+tuft, and puddle up the mud afresh round the roots.  It grows in water
+till it is ripe, when the fields are dried off.  An acre of the best land
+produces annually about fifty-four bushels of rice, and of the worst
+about thirty.
+
+On the plain of Yedo, besides the nearly continuous villages along the
+causewayed road, there are islands, as they may be called, of villages
+surrounded by trees, and hundreds of pleasant oases on which wheat ready
+for the sickle, onions, millet, beans, and peas, were flourishing.  There
+were lotus ponds too, in which the glorious lily, _Nelumbo nucifera_, is
+being grown for the sacrilegious purpose of being eaten!  Its splendid
+classical leaves are already a foot above the water.
+
+After running cheerily for several miles my men bowled me into a
+tea-house, where they ate and smoked while I sat in the garden, which
+consisted of baked mud, smooth stepping-stones, a little pond with some
+goldfish, a deformed pine, and a stone lantern.  Observe that foreigners
+are wrong in calling the Japanese houses of entertainment
+indiscriminately “tea-houses.”  A tea-house or _chaya_ is a house at
+which you can obtain tea and other refreshments, rooms to eat them in,
+and attendance.  That which to some extent answers to an hotel is a
+_yadoya_, which provides sleeping accommodation and food as required.
+The licenses are different.  Tea-houses are of all grades, from the
+three-storied erections, gay with flags and lanterns, in the great cities
+and at places of popular resort, down to the road-side tea-house, as
+represented in the engraving, with three or four lounges of dark-coloured
+wood under its eaves, usually occupied by naked coolies in all attitudes
+of easiness and repose.  The floor is raised about eighteen inches above
+the ground, and in these tea-houses is frequently a matted platform with
+a recess called the _doma_, literally “earth-space,” in the middle, round
+which runs a ledge of polished wood called the _itama_, or “board space,”
+on which travellers sit while they bathe their soiled feet with the water
+which is immediately brought to them; for neither with soiled feet nor in
+foreign shoes must one advance one step on the matted floor.  On one side
+of the _doma_ is the kitchen, with its one or two charcoal fires, where
+the coolies lounge on the mats and take their food and smoke, and on the
+other the family pursue their avocations.  In almost the smallest
+tea-house there are one or two rooms at the back, but all the life and
+interest are in the open front.  In the small tea-houses there is only an
+_irori_, a square hole in the floor, full of sand or white ash, on which
+the live charcoal for cooking purposes is placed, and small racks for
+food and eating utensils; but in the large ones there is a row of
+charcoal stoves, and the walls are garnished up to the roof with shelves,
+and the lacquer tables and lacquer and china ware used by the guests.
+The large tea-houses contain the possibilities for a number of rooms
+which can be extemporised at once by sliding paper panels, called
+_fusuma_, along grooves in the floor and in the ceiling or cross-beams.
+
+                      [Picture: Road-Side Tea-House]
+
+When we stopped at wayside tea-houses the runners bathed their feet,
+rinsed their mouths, and ate rice, pickles, salt fish, and “broth of
+abominable things,” after which they smoked their tiny pipes, which give
+them three whiffs for each filling.  As soon as I got out at any of
+these, one smiling girl brought me the _tabako-bon_, a square wood or
+lacquer tray, with a china or bamboo charcoal-holder and ash-pot upon it,
+and another presented me with a _zen_, a small lacquer table about six
+inches high, with a tiny teapot with a hollow handle at right angles with
+the spout, holding about an English tea-cupful, and two cups without
+handles or saucers, with a capacity of from ten to twenty thimblefuls
+each.  The hot water is merely allowed to rest a minute on the
+tea-leaves, and the infusion is a clear straw-coloured liquid with a
+delicious aroma and flavour, grateful and refreshing at all times.  If
+Japanese tea “stands,” it acquires a coarse bitterness and an unwholesome
+astringency.  Milk and sugar are not used.  A clean-looking wooden or
+lacquer pail with a lid is kept in all tea-houses, and though hot rice,
+except to order, is only ready three times daily, the pail always
+contains cold rice, and the coolies heat it by pouring hot tea over it.
+As you eat, a tea-house girl, with this pail beside her, squats on the
+floor in front of you, and fills your rice bowl till you say, “Hold,
+enough!”  On this road it is expected that you leave three or four _sen_
+on the tea-tray for a rest of an hour or two and tea.
+
+All day we travelled through rice swamps, along a much-frequented road,
+as far as Kasukabé, a good-sized but miserable-looking town, with its
+main street like one of the poorest streets in Tôkiyô, and halted for the
+night at a large _yadoya_, with downstairs and upstairs rooms, crowds of
+travellers, and many evil smells.  On entering, the house-master or
+landlord, the _teishi_, folded his hands and prostrated himself, touching
+the floor with his forehead three times.  It is a large, rambling old
+house, and fully thirty servants were bustling about in the _daidokoro_,
+or great open kitchen.  I took a room upstairs (i.e. up a steep
+step-ladder of dark, polished wood), with a balcony under the deep eaves.
+The front of the house upstairs was one long room with only sides and a
+front, but it was immediately divided into four by drawing sliding
+screens or panels, covered with opaque wall papers, into their proper
+grooves.  A back was also improvised, but this was formed of frames with
+panes of translucent paper, like our tissue paper, with sundry holes and
+rents.  This being done, I found myself the possessor of a room about
+sixteen feet square, without hook, shelf, rail, or anything on which to
+put anything—nothing, in short, but a matted floor.  Do not be misled by
+the use of this word matting.  Japanese house-mats, _tatami_, are as
+neat, refined, and soft a covering for the floor as the finest Axminster
+carpet.  They are 5 feet 9 inches long, 3 feet broad, and 2½ inches
+thick.  The frame is solidly made of coarse straw, and this is covered
+with very fine woven matting, as nearly white as possible, and each mat
+is usually bound with dark blue cloth.  Temples and rooms are measured by
+the number of mats they contain, and rooms must be built for the mats, as
+they are never cut to the rooms.  They are always level with the polished
+grooves or ledges which surround the floor.  They are soft and elastic,
+and the finer qualities are very beautiful.  They are as expensive as the
+best Brussels carpet, and the Japanese take great pride in them, and are
+much aggrieved by the way in which some thoughtless foreigners stamp over
+them with dirty boots.  Unfortunately they harbour myriads of fleas.
+
+Outside my room an open balcony with many similiar rooms ran round a
+forlorn aggregate of dilapidated shingle roofs and water-butts.  These
+rooms were all full.  Ito asked me for instructions once for all, put up
+my stretcher under a large mosquito net of coarse green canvas with a
+fusty smell, filled my bath, brought me some tea, rice, and eggs, took my
+passport to be copied by the house-master, and departed, I know not
+whither.  I tried to write to you, but fleas and mosquitoes prevented it,
+and besides, the _fusuma_ were frequently noiselessly drawn apart, and
+several pairs of dark, elongated eyes surveyed me through the cracks; for
+there were two Japanese families in the room to the right, and five men
+in that to the left.  I closed the sliding windows, with translucent
+paper for window panes, called _shôji_, and went to bed, but the lack of
+privacy was fearful, and I have not yet sufficient trust in my
+fellow-creatures to be comfortable without locks, walls, or doors!  Eyes
+were constantly applied to the sides of the room, a girl twice drew aside
+the _shôji_ between it and the corridor; a man, who I afterwards found
+was a blind man, offering his services as a shampooer, came in and said
+some (of course) unintelligible words, and the new noises were perfectly
+bewildering.  On one side a man recited Buddhist prayers in a high key;
+on the other a girl was twanging a _samisen_, a species of guitar; the
+house was full of talking and splashing, drums and tom-toms were beaten
+outside; there were street cries innumerable, and the whistling of the
+blind shampooers, and the resonant clap of the fire-watchman who
+perambulates all Japanese villages, and beats two pieces of wood together
+in token of his vigilance, were intolerable.  It was a life of which I
+knew nothing, and the mystery was more alarming than attractive; my money
+was lying about, and nothing seemed easier than to slide a hand through
+the _fusuma_ and appropriate it.  Ito told me that the well was badly
+contaminated, the odours were fearful; illness was to be feared as well
+as robbery!  So unreasonably I reasoned! {41}
+
+My bed is merely a piece of canvas nailed to two wooden bars.  When I lay
+down the canvas burst away from the lower row of nails with a series of
+cracks, and sank gradually till I found myself lying on a sharp-edged
+pole which connects the two pair of trestles, and the helpless victim of
+fleas and mosquitoes.  I lay for three hours, not daring to stir lest I
+should bring the canvas altogether down, becoming more and more nervous
+every moment, and then Ito called outside the _shôji_, “It would be best,
+Miss Bird, that I should see you.”  What horror can this be? I thought,
+and was not reassured when he added, “Here’s a messenger from the
+Legation and two policemen want to speak to you.”  On arriving I had done
+the correct thing in giving the house-master my passport, which,
+according to law, he had copied into his book, and had sent a duplicate
+copy to the police-station, and this intrusion near midnight was as
+unaccountable as it was unwarrantable.  Nevertheless the appearance of
+the two mannikins in European uniforms, with the familiar batons and
+bull’s-eye lanterns, and with manners which were respectful without being
+deferential, gave me immediate relief.  I should have welcomed twenty of
+their species, for their presence assured me of the fact that I am known
+and registered, and that a Government which, for special reasons, is
+anxious to impress foreigners with its power and omniscience is
+responsible for my safety.
+
+While they spelt through my passport by their dim lantern I opened the
+Yedo parcel, and found that it contained a tin of lemon sugar, a most
+kind note from Sir Harry Parkes, and a packet of letters from you.  While
+I was attempting to open the letters, Ito, the policemen, and the lantern
+glided out of my room, and I lay uneasily till daylight, with the letters
+and telegram, for which I had been yearning for six weeks, on my bed
+unopened!
+
+Already I can laugh at my fears and misfortunes, as I hope you will.  A
+traveller must buy his own experience, and success or failure depends
+mainly on personal idiosyncrasies.  Many matters will be remedied by
+experience as I go on, and I shall acquire the habit of feeling secure;
+but lack of privacy, bad smells, and the torments of fleas and mosquitoes
+are, I fear, irremediable evils.
+
+                                                                  I. L. B.
+
+                     [Picture: Sir Harry’s Messenger]
+
+
+
+
+LETTER VI.—(_Continued_.)
+
+
+A Coolie falls ill—Peasant Costume—Varieties in Threshing—The Tochigi
+_yadoya_—Farming Villages—A Beautiful Region—An _In Memoriam_ Avenue—A
+Doll’s Street—Nikkô—The Journey’s End—Coolie Kindliness.
+
+BY seven the next morning the rice was eaten, the room as bare as if it
+had never been occupied, the bill of 80 _sen_ paid, the house-master and
+servants with many _sayo naras_, or farewells, had prostrated themselves,
+and we were away in the _kurumas_ at a rapid trot.  At the first halt my
+runner, a kindly, good-natured creature, but absolutely hideous, was
+seized with pain and vomiting, owing, he said, to drinking the bad water
+at Kasukabé, and was left behind.  He pleased me much by the honest
+independent way in which he provided a substitute, strictly adhering to
+his bargain, and never asking for a gratuity on account of his illness.
+He had been so kind and helpful that I felt quite sad at leaving him
+there ill,—only a coolie, to be sure, only an atom among the 34,000,000
+of the Empire, but not less precious to our Father in heaven than any
+other.  It was a brilliant day, with the mercury 86° in the shade, but
+the heat was not oppressive.  At noon we reached the Toné, and I rode on
+a coolie’s tattooed shoulders through the shallow part, and then, with
+the _kurumas_, some ill-disposed pack-horses, and a number of travellers,
+crossed in a flat-bottomed boat.  The boatmen, travellers, and
+cultivators, were nearly or altogether without clothes, but the richer
+farmers worked in the fields in curved bamboo hats as large as umbrellas,
+_kimonos_ with large sleeves not girt up, and large fans attached to
+their girdles.  Many of the travellers whom we met were without hats, but
+shielded the front of the head by holding a fan between it and the sun.
+Probably the inconvenience of the national costume for working men partly
+accounts for the general practice of getting rid of it.  It is such a
+hindrance, even in walking, that most pedestrians have “their loins
+girded up” by taking the middle of the hem at the bottom of the _kimono_
+and tucking it under the girdle.  This, in the case of many, shows woven,
+tight-fitting, elastic, white cotton pantaloons, reaching to the ankles.
+After ferrying another river at a village from which a steamer plies to
+Tôkiyô, the country became much more pleasing, the rice-fields fewer, the
+trees, houses, and barns larger, and, in the distance, high hills loomed
+faintly through the haze.  Much of the wheat, of which they don’t make
+bread, but vermicelli, is already being carried.  You see wheat stacks,
+ten feet high, moving slowly, and while you are wondering, you become
+aware of four feet moving below them; for all the crop is carried on
+horses’ if not on human backs.  I went to see several
+threshing-floors,—clean, open spaces outside barns,—where the grain is
+laid on mats and threshed by two or four men with heavy revolving flails.
+Another method is for women to beat out the grain on racks of split
+bamboo laid lengthwise; and I saw yet a third practised both in the
+fields and barn-yards, in which women pass handfuls of stalks backwards
+through a sort of carding instrument with sharp iron teeth placed in a
+slanting position, which cuts off the ears, leaving the stalk unbruised.
+This is probably “the sharp threshing instrument having teeth” mentioned
+by Isaiah.  The ears are then rubbed between the hands.  In this region
+the wheat was winnowed altogether by hand, and after the wind had driven
+the chaff away, the grain was laid out on mats to dry.  Sickles are not
+used, but the reaper takes a handful of stalks and cuts them off close to
+the ground with a short, straight knife, fixed at a right angle with the
+handle.  The wheat is sown in rows with wide spaces between them, which
+are utilised for beans and other crops, and no sooner is it removed than
+_daikon_ (_Raphanus sativus_), cucumbers, or some other vegetable, takes
+its place, as the land under careful tillage and copious manuring bears
+two, and even three, crops, in the year.  The soil is trenched for wheat
+as for all crops except rice, not a weed is to be seen, and the whole
+country looks like a well-kept garden.  The barns in this district are
+very handsome, and many of their grand roofs have that concave sweep with
+which we are familiar in the pagoda.  The eaves are often eight feet
+deep, and the thatch three feet thick.  Several of the farm-yards have
+handsome gateways like the ancient “lychgates” of some of our English
+churchyards much magnified.  As animals are not used for milk, draught,
+or food, and there are no pasture lands, both the country and the
+farm-yards have a singular silence and an inanimate look; a mean-looking
+dog and a few fowls being the only representatives of domestic animal
+life.  I long for the lowing of cattle and the bleating of sheep.
+
+At six we reached Tochigi, a large town, formerly the castle town of a
+_daimiyô_.  Its special manufacture is rope of many kinds, a great deal
+of hemp being grown in the neighbourhood.  Many of the roofs are tiled,
+and the town has a more solid and handsome appearance than those that we
+had previously passed through.  But from Kasukabé to Tochigi was from bad
+to worse.  I nearly abandoned Japanese travelling altogether, and, if
+last night had not been a great improvement, I think I should have gone
+ignominiously back to Tôkiyô.  The _yadoya_ was a very large one, and, as
+sixty guests had arrived before me, there was no choice of accommodation,
+and I had to be contented with a room enclosed on all sides not by
+_fusuma_ but _shôji_, and with barely room for my bed, bath, and chair,
+under a fusty green mosquito net which was a perfect nest of fleas.  One
+side of the room was against a much-frequented passage, and another
+opened on a small yard upon which three opposite rooms also opened,
+crowded with some not very sober or decorous travellers.  The _shôji_
+were full of holes, and often at each hole I saw a human eye.  Privacy
+was a luxury not even to be recalled.  Besides the constant application
+of eyes to the _shôji_, the servants, who were very noisy and rough,
+looked into my room constantly without any pretext; the host, a bright,
+pleasant-looking man, did the same; jugglers, musicians, blind
+shampooers, and singing girls, all pushed the screens aside; and I began
+to think that Mr. Campbell was right, and that a lady should not travel
+alone in Japan.  Ito, who had the room next to mine, suggested that
+robbery was quite likely, and asked to be allowed to take charge of my
+money, but did not decamp with it during the night!  I lay down on my
+precarious stretcher before eight, but as the night advanced the din of
+the house increased till it became truly diabolical, and never ceased
+till after one.  Drums, tom-toms, and cymbals were beaten; _kotos_ and
+_samisens_ screeched and twanged; _geishas_ (professional women with the
+accomplishments of dancing, singing, and playing) danced,—accompanied by
+songs whose jerking discords were most laughable; story-tellers recited
+tales in a high key, and the running about and splashing close to my room
+never ceased.  Late at night my precarious _shôji_ were accidentally
+thrown down, revealing a scene of great hilarity, in which a number of
+people were bathing and throwing water over each other.
+
+The noise of departures began at daylight, and I was glad to leave at
+seven.  Before you go the _fusuma_ are slidden back, and what was your
+room becomes part of a great, open, matted space—an arrangement which
+effectually prevents fustiness.  Though the road was up a slight incline,
+and the men were too tired to trot, we made thirty miles in nine hours.
+The kindliness and courtesy of the coolies to me and to each other was a
+constant source of pleasure to me.  It is most amusing to see the
+elaborate politeness of the greetings of men clothed only in hats and
+_maros_.  The hat is invariably removed when they speak to each other,
+and three profound bows are never omitted.
+
+Soon after leaving the _yadoya_ we passed through a wide street with the
+largest and handsomest houses I have yet seen on both sides.  They were
+all open in front; their highly-polished floors and passages looked like
+still water; the _kakemonos_, or wall-pictures, on their side-walls were
+extremely beautiful; and their mats were very fine and white.  There were
+large gardens at the back, with fountains and flowers, and streams,
+crossed by light stone bridges, sometimes flowed through the houses.
+From the signs I supposed them to be _yadoyas_, but on asking Ito why we
+had not put up at one of them, he replied that they were all
+_kashitsukeya_, or tea-houses of disreputable character—a very sad fact.
+{46}
+
+As we journeyed the country became prettier and prettier, rolling up to
+abrupt wooded hills with mountains in the clouds behind.  The farming
+villages are comfortable and embowered in wood, and the richer farmers
+seclude their dwellings by closely-clipped hedges, or rather screens, two
+feet wide, and often twenty feet high.  Tea grew near every house, and
+its leaves were being gathered and dried on mats.  Signs of silk culture
+began to appear in shrubberies of mulberry trees, and white and sulphur
+yellow cocoons were lying in the sun along the road in flat trays.
+Numbers of women sat in the fronts of the houses weaving cotton cloth
+fifteen inches wide, and cotton yarn, mostly imported from England, was
+being dyed in all the villages—the dye used being a native indigo, the
+_Polygonum tinctorium_.  Old women were spinning, and young and old
+usually pursued their avocations with wise-looking babies tucked into the
+backs of their dresses, and peering cunningly over their shoulders.  Even
+little girls of seven and eight were playing at children’s games with
+babies on their backs, and those who were too small to carry real ones
+had big dolls strapped on in similar fashion.  Innumerable villages,
+crowded houses, and babies in all, give one the impression of a very
+populous country.
+
+As the day wore on in its brightness and glory the pictures became more
+varied and beautiful.  Great snow-slashed mountains looked over the
+foothills, on whose steep sides the dark blue green of pine and
+cryptomeria was lighted up by the spring tints of deciduous trees.  There
+were groves of cryptomeria on small hills crowned by Shintô shrines,
+approached by grand flights of stone stairs.  The red gold of the harvest
+fields contrasted with the fresh green and exquisite leafage of the hemp;
+rose and white azaleas lighted up the copse-woods; and when the broad
+road passed into the colossal avenue of cryptomeria which overshadows the
+way to the sacred shrines of Nikkô, and tremulous sunbeams and shadows
+flecked the grass, I felt that Japan was beautiful, and that the mud
+flats of Yedo were only an ugly dream!
+
+Two roads lead to Nikkô.  I avoided the one usually taken by Utsunomiya,
+and by doing so lost the most magnificent of the two avenues, which
+extends for nearly fifty miles along the great highway called the
+Oshiu-kaido.  Along the Reiheishi-kaido, the road by which I came, it
+extends for thirty miles, and the two, broken frequently by villages,
+converge upon the village of Imaichi, eight miles from Nikkô, where they
+unite, and only terminate at the entrance of the town.  They are said to
+have been planted as an offering to the buried Shôguns by a man who was
+too poor to place a bronze lantern at their shrines.  A grander monument
+could not have been devised, and they are probably the grandest things of
+their kind in the world.  The avenue of the Reiheishi-kaido is a good
+carriage road with sloping banks eight feet high, covered with grass and
+ferns.  At the top of these are the cryptomeria, then two grassy walks,
+and between these and the cultivation a screen of saplings and brushwood.
+A great many of the trees become two at four feet from the ground.  Many
+of the stems are twenty-seven feet in girth; they do not diminish or
+branch till they have reached a height of from 50 to 60 feet, and the
+appearance of altitude is aided by the longitudinal splitting of the
+reddish coloured bark into strips about two inches wide.  The trees are
+pyramidal, and at a little distance resemble cedars.  There is a deep
+solemnity about this glorious avenue with its broad shade and dancing
+lights, and the rare glimpses of high mountains.  Instinct alone would
+tell one that it leads to something which must be grand and beautiful
+like itself.  It is broken occasionally by small villages with big bells
+suspended between double poles; by wayside shrines with offerings of rags
+and flowers; by stone effigies of Buddha and his disciples, mostly
+defaced or overthrown, all wearing the same expression of beatified rest
+and indifference to mundane affairs; and by temples of lacquered wood
+falling to decay, whose bells sent their surpassingly sweet tones far on
+the evening air.
+
+Imaichi, where the two stately aisles unite, is a long uphill street,
+with a clear mountain stream enclosed in a stone channel, and crossed by
+hewn stone slabs running down the middle.  In a room built over the
+stream, and commanding a view up and down the street, two policemen sat
+writing.  It looks a dull place without much traffic, as if oppressed by
+the stateliness of the avenues below it and the shrines above it, but it
+has a quiet _yadoya_, where I had a good night’s rest, although my canvas
+bed was nearly on the ground.  We left early this morning in drizzling
+rain, and went straight up hill under the cryptomeria for eight miles.
+The vegetation is as profuse as one would expect in so damp and hot a
+summer climate, and from the prodigious rainfall of the mountains; every
+stone is covered with moss, and the road-sides are green with the
+_Protococcus viridis_ and several species of _Marchantia_.  We were among
+the foothills of the Nantaizan mountains at a height of 1000 feet, abrupt
+in their forms, wooded to their summits, and noisy with the dash and
+tumble of a thousand streams.  The long street of Hachiishi, with its
+steep-roofed, deep-eaved houses, its warm colouring, and its steep
+roadway with steps at intervals, has a sort of Swiss picturesqueness as
+you enter it, as you must, on foot, while your _kurumas_ are hauled and
+lifted up the steps; nor is the resemblance given by steep roofs, pines,
+and mountains patched with coniferæ, altogether lost as you ascend the
+steep street, and see wood carvings and quaint baskets of wood and grass
+offered everywhere for sale.  It is a truly dull, quaint street, and the
+people come out to stare at a foreigner as if foreigners had not become
+common events since 1870, when Sir H. and Lady Parkes, the first
+Europeans who were permitted to visit Nikkô, took up their abode in the
+Imperial Hombô.  It is a doll’s street with small low houses, so finely
+matted, so exquisitely clean, so finically neat, so light and delicate,
+that even when I entered them without my boots I felt like a “bull in a
+china shop,” as if my mere weight must smash through and destroy.  The
+street is so painfully clean that I should no more think of walking over
+it in muddy boots than over a drawing-room carpet.  It has a silent
+mountain look, and most of its shops sell specialties, lacquer work,
+boxes of sweetmeats made of black beans and sugar, all sorts of boxes,
+trays, cups, and stands, made of plain, polished wood, and more grotesque
+articles made from the roots of trees.
+
+It was not part of my plan to stay at the beautiful _yadoya_ which
+receives foreigners in Hachiishi, and I sent Ito half a mile farther with
+a note in Japanese to the owner of the house where I now am, while I sat
+on a rocky eminence at the top of the street, unmolested by anybody,
+looking over to the solemn groves upon the mountains, where the two
+greatest of the Shôguns “sleep in glory.”  Below, the rushing Daiyagawa,
+swollen by the night’s rain, thundered through a narrow gorge.  Beyond,
+colossal flights of stone stairs stretch mysteriously away among
+cryptomeria groves, above which tower the Nikkôsan mountains.  Just where
+the torrent finds its impetuosity checked by two stone walls, it is
+spanned by a bridge, 84 feet long by 18 wide, of dull red lacquer,
+resting on two stone piers on either side, connected by two transverse
+stone beams.  A welcome bit of colour it is amidst the masses of dark
+greens and soft greys, though there is nothing imposing in its structure,
+and its interest consists in being the Mihashi, or Sacred Bridge, built
+in 1636, formerly open only to the Shôguns, the envoy of the Mikado, and
+to pilgrims twice a year.  Both its gates are locked.  Grand and lonely
+Nikkô looks, the home of rain and mist.  _Kuruma_ roads end here, and if
+you wish to go any farther, you must either walk, ride, or be carried.
+
+Ito was long away, and the coolies kept addressing me in Japanese, which
+made me feel helpless and solitary, and eventually they shouldered my
+baggage, and, descending a flight of steps, we crossed the river by the
+secular bridge, and shortly met my host, Kanaya, a very bright,
+pleasant-looking man, who bowed nearly to the earth.  Terraced roads in
+every direction lead through cryptomerias to the shrines; and this one
+passes many a stately enclosure, but leads away from the temples, and
+though it is the highway to Chiuzenjii, a place of popular pilgrimage,
+Yumoto, a place of popular resort, and several other villages, it is very
+rugged, and, having flights of stone steps at intervals, is only
+practicable for horses and pedestrians.
+
+At the house, with the appearance of which I was at once delighted, I
+regretfully parted with my coolies, who had served me kindly and
+faithfully.  They had paid me many little attentions, such as always
+beating the dust out of my dress, inflating my air-pillow, and bringing
+me flowers, and were always grateful when I walked up hills; and just
+now, after going for a frolic to the mountains, they called to wish me
+good-bye, bringing branches of azaleas.
+
+                                                                  I. L. B.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER VII.
+
+
+A Japanese Idyll—Musical Stillness—My Rooms—Floral Decorations—Kanaya and
+his Household—Table Equipments.
+
+                                               KANAYA’S, NIKKÔ, _June_ 15.
+
+I DON’T know what to write about my house.  It is a Japanese idyll; there
+is nothing within or without which does not please the eye, and, after
+the din of _yadoyas_, its silence, musical with the dash of waters and
+the twitter of birds, is truly refreshing.  It is a simple but irregular
+two-storied pavilion, standing on a stone-faced terrace approached by a
+flight of stone steps.  The garden is well laid out, and, as peonies,
+irises, and azaleas are now in blossom, it is very bright.  The mountain,
+with its lower part covered with red azaleas, rises just behind, and a
+stream which tumbles down it supplies the house with water, both cold and
+pure, and another, after forming a miniature cascade, passes under the
+house and through a fish-pond with rocky islets into the river below.
+The grey village of Irimichi lies on the other side of the road, shut in
+with the rushing Daiya, and beyond it are high, broken hills, richly
+wooded, and slashed with ravines and waterfalls.
+
+Kanaya’s sister, a very sweet, refined-looking woman, met me at the door
+and divested me of my boots.  The two verandahs are highly polished, so
+are the entrance and the stairs which lead to my room, and the mats are
+so fine and white that I almost fear to walk over them, even in my
+stockings.  The polished stairs lead to a highly polished, broad verandah
+with a beautiful view, from which you enter one large room, which, being
+too large, was at once made into two.  Four highly polished steps lead
+from this into an exquisite room at the back, which Ito occupies, and
+another polished staircase into the bath-house and garden.  The whole
+front of my room is composed of _shôji_, which slide back during the day.
+The ceiling is of light wood crossed by bars of dark wood, and the posts
+which support it are of dark polished wood.  The panels are of wrinkled
+sky-blue paper splashed with gold.  At one end are two alcoves with
+floors of polished wood, called _tokonoma_.  In one hangs a _kakemono_,
+or wall-picture, a painting of a blossoming branch of the cherry on white
+silk—a perfect piece of art, which in itself fills the room with
+freshness and beauty.  The artist who painted it painted nothing but
+cherry blossoms, and fell in the rebellion.  On a shelf in the other
+alcove is a very valuable cabinet with sliding doors, on which peonies
+are painted on a gold ground.  A single spray of rose azalea in a pure
+white vase hanging on one of the polished posts, and a single iris in
+another, are the only decorations.  The mats are very fine and white, but
+the only furniture is a folding screen with some suggestions of landscape
+in Indian ink.  I almost wish that the rooms were a little less
+exquisite, for I am in constant dread of spilling the ink, indenting the
+mats, or tearing the paper windows.  Downstairs there is a room equally
+beautiful, and a large space where all the domestic avocations are
+carried on.  There is a _kura_, or fire-proof storehouse, with a tiled
+roof, on the right of the house.
+
+                        [Picture: Kanaya’s House]
+
+Kanaya leads the discords at the Shintô shrines; but his duties are few,
+and he is chiefly occupied in perpetually embellishing his house and
+garden.  His mother, a venerable old lady, and his sister, the sweetest
+and most graceful Japanese woman but one that I have seen, live with him.
+She moves about the house like a floating fairy, and her voice has music
+in its tones.  A half-witted servant-man and the sister’s boy and girl
+complete the family.  Kanaya is the chief man in the village, and is very
+intelligent and apparently well educated.  He has divorced his wife, and
+his sister has practically divorced her husband.  Of late, to help his
+income, he has let these charming rooms to foreigners who have brought
+letters to him, and he is very anxious to meet their views, while his
+good taste leads him to avoid Europeanising his beautiful home.
+
+Supper came up on a _zen_, or small table six inches high, of old gold
+lacquer, with the rice in a gold lacquer bowl, and the teapot and cup
+were fine Kaga porcelain.  For my two rooms, with rice and tea, I pay 2s.
+a day.  Ito forages for me, and can occasionally get chickens at 10d.
+each, and a dish of trout for 6d., and eggs are always to be had for 1d.
+each.  It is extremely interesting to live in a private house and to see
+the externalities, at least, of domestic life in a Japanese middle-class
+home.
+
+                                                                  I. L. B.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER VIII.
+
+
+The Beauties of Nikkô—The Burial of Iyéyasu—The Approach to the Great
+Shrines—The Yomei Gate—Gorgeous Decorations—Simplicity of the
+Mausoleum—The Shrine of Iyémitsu—Religious Art of Japan and India—An
+Earthquake—Beauties of Wood-carving.
+
+                                               KANAYA’S, NIKKÔ, _June_ 21.
+
+I HAVE been at Nikkô for nine days, and am therefore entitled to use the
+word “_Kek’ko_!”
+
+Nikkô means “sunny splendour,” and its beauties are celebrated in poetry
+and art all over Japan.  Mountains for a great part of the year clothed
+or patched with snow, piled in great ranges round Nantaizan, their
+monarch, worshipped as a god; forests of magnificent timber; ravines and
+passes scarcely explored; dark green lakes sleeping in endless serenity;
+the deep abyss of Kêgon, into which the waters of Chiuzenjii plunge from
+a height of 250 feet; the bright beauty of the falls of Kiri Furi, the
+loveliness of the gardens of Dainichido; the sombre grandeur of the
+passes through which the Daiyagawa forces its way from the upper regions;
+a gorgeousness of azaleas and magnolias; and a luxuriousness of
+vegetation perhaps unequalled in Japan, are only a few of the attractions
+which surround the shrines of the two greatest Shôguns.
+
+To a glorious resting-place on the hill-slope of Hotoké Iwa, sacred since
+767, when a Buddhist saint, called Shôdô Shônin, visited it, and declared
+the old Shintô deity of the mountain to be only a manifestation of
+Buddha, Hidetada, the second Shôgun of the Tokugawa dynasty, conveyed the
+corpse of his father, Iyéyasu, in 1617.  It was a splendid burial.  An
+Imperial envoy, a priest of the Mikado’s family, court nobles from
+Kivôto, and hundreds of _daimiyôs_, captains, and nobles of inferior
+rank, took part in the ceremony.  An army of priests in rich robes during
+three days intoned a sacred classic 10,000 times, and Iyéyasu was deified
+by a decree of the Mikado under a name signifying “light of the east,
+great incarnation of Buddha.”  The less important Shôguns of the line of
+Tokugawa are buried in Uyeno and Shiba, in Yedo.  Since the restoration,
+and what may be called the disestablishment of Buddhism, the shrine of
+Iyéyasu has been shorn of all its glories of ritual and its magnificent
+Buddhist paraphernalia; the 200 priests who gave it splendour are
+scattered, and six Shintô priests alternately attend upon it as much for
+the purpose of selling tickets of admission as for any priestly duties.
+
+All roads, bridges, and avenues here lead to these shrines, but the grand
+approach is by the Red Bridge, and up a broad road with steps at
+intervals and stone-faced embankments at each side, on the top of which
+are belts of cryptomeria.  At the summit of this ascent is a fine granite
+_torii_, 27 feet 6 inches high, with columns 3 feet 6 inches in diameter,
+offered by the _daimiyô_ of Chikuzen in 1618 from his own quarries.
+After this come 118 magnificent bronze lanterns on massive stone
+pedestals, each of which is inscribed with the posthumous title of
+Iyéyasu, the name of the giver, and a legend of the offering—all the
+gifts of _daimiyô_—a holy water cistern made of a solid block of granite,
+and covered by a roof resting on twenty square granite pillars, and a
+bronze bell, lantern, and candelabra of marvellous workmanship, offered
+by the kings of Corea and Liukiu.  On the left is a five-storied pagoda,
+104 feet high, richly carved in wood and as richly gilded and painted.
+The signs of the zodiac run round the lower story.
+
+The grand entrance gate is at the top of a handsome flight of steps forty
+yards from the _torii_.  A looped white curtain with the Mikado’s crest
+in black, hangs partially over the gateway, in which, beautiful as it is,
+one does not care to linger, to examine the gilded _amainu_ in niches, or
+the spirited carvings of tigers under the eaves, for the view of the
+first court overwhelms one by its magnificence and beauty.  The whole
+style of the buildings, the arrangements, the art of every kind, the
+thought which inspires the whole, are exclusively Japanese, and the
+glimpse from the _Ni-ô_ gate is a revelation of a previously undreamed-of
+beauty, both in form and colour.
+
+Round the neatly pebbled court, which is enclosed by a bright red timber
+wall, are three gorgeous buildings, which contain the treasures of the
+temple, a sumptuous stable for the three sacred Albino horses, which are
+kept for the use of the god, a magnificent granite cistern of holy water,
+fed from the Sômendaki cascade, and a highly decorated building, in which
+a complete collection of Buddhist Scriptures is deposited.  From this a
+flight of steps leads into a smaller court containing a bell-tower “of
+marvellous workmanship and ornamentation,” a drum-tower, hardly less
+beautiful, a shrine, the candelabra, bell, and lantern mentioned before,
+and some very grand bronze lanterns.
+
+From this court another flight of steps ascends to the Yomei gate, whose
+splendour I contemplated day after day with increasing astonishment.  The
+white columns which support it have capitals formed of great red-throated
+heads of the mythical _Kirin_.  Above the architrave is a projecting
+balcony which runs all round the gateway with a railing carried by
+dragons’ heads.  In the centre two white dragons fight eternally.
+Underneath, in high relief, there are groups of children playing, then a
+network of richly painted beams, and seven groups of Chinese sages.  The
+high roof is supported by gilded dragons’ heads with crimson throats.  In
+the interior of the gateway there are side-niches painted white, which
+are lined with gracefully designed arabesques founded on the _botan_ or
+peony.  A piazza, whose outer walls of twenty-one compartments are
+enriched with magnificent carvings of birds, flowers, and trees, runs
+right and left, and encloses on three of its sides another court, the
+fourth side of which is a terminal stone wall built against the side of
+the hill.  On the right are two decorated buildings, one of which
+contains a stage for the performance of the sacred dances, and the other
+an altar for the burning of cedar wood incense.  On the left is a
+building for the reception of the three sacred cars which were used
+during festivals.  To pass from court to court is to pass from splendour
+to splendour; one is almost glad to feel that this is the last, and that
+the strain on one’s capacity for admiration is nearly over.
+
+In the middle is the sacred enclosure, formed of gilded trellis-work with
+painted borders above and below, forming a square of which each side
+measures 150 feet, and which contains the _haiden_ or chapel.  Underneath
+the trellis work are groups of birds, with backgrounds of grass, very
+boldly carved in wood and richly gilded and painted.  From the imposing
+entrance through a double avenue of cryptomeria, among courts, gates,
+temples, shrines, pagodas, colossal bells of bronze, and lanterns inlaid
+with gold, you pass through this final court bewildered by magnificence,
+through golden gates, into the dimness of a golden temple, and there
+is—simply a black lacquer table with a circular metal mirror upon it.
+
+Within is a hall finely matted, 42 feet wide by 27 from front to back,
+with lofty apartments on each side, one for the Shôgun and the other “for
+his Holiness the Abbot.”  Both, of course, are empty.  The roof of the
+hall is panelled and richly frescoed.  The Shôgun’s room contains some
+very fine _fusuma_, on which _kirin_ (fabulous monsters) are depicted on
+a dead gold ground, and four oak panels, 8 feet by 6, finely carved, with
+the phoenix in low relief variously treated.  In the Abbot’s room there
+are similar panels adorned with hawks spiritedly executed.  The only
+ecclesiastical ornament among the dim splendours of the chapel is the
+plain gold _gohei_.  Steps at the back lead into a chapel paved with
+stone, with a fine panelled ceiling representing dragons on a dark blue
+ground.  Beyond this some gilded doors lead into the principal chapel,
+containing four rooms which are not accessible; but if they correspond
+with the outside, which is of highly polished black lacquer relieved by
+gold, they must be severely magnificent.
+
+But not in any one of these gorgeous shrines did Iyéyasu decree that his
+dust should rest.  Re-entering the last court, it is necessary to leave
+the enclosures altogether by passing through a covered gateway in the
+eastern piazza into a stone gallery, green with mosses and hepaticæ.
+Within, wealth and art have created a fairyland of gold and colour;
+without, Nature, at her stateliest, has surrounded the great Shôgun’s
+tomb with a pomp of mournful splendour.  A staircase of 240 stone steps
+leads to the top of the hill, where, above and behind all the stateliness
+of the shrines raised in his honour, the dust of Iyéyasu sleeps in an
+unadorned but Cyclopean tomb of stone and bronze, surmounted by a bronze
+urn.  In front is a stone table decorated with a bronze incense-burner, a
+vase with lotus blossoms and leaves in brass, and a bronze stork bearing
+a bronze candlestick in its mouth.  A lofty stone wall, surmounted by a
+balustrade, surrounds the simple but stately enclosure, and cryptomeria
+of large size growing up the back of the hill create perpetual twilight
+round it.  Slant rays of sunshine alone pass through them, no flower
+blooms or bird sings, only silence and mournfulness surround the grave of
+the ablest and greatest man that Japan has produced.
+
+Impressed as I had been with the glorious workmanship in wood, bronze,
+and lacquer, I scarcely admired less the masonry of the vast retaining
+walls, the stone gallery, the staircase and its balustrade, all put
+together without mortar or cement, and so accurately fitted that the
+joints are scarcely affected by the rain, damp, and aggressive vegetation
+of 260 years.  The steps of the staircase are fine monoliths, and the
+coping at the side, the massive balustrade, and the heavy rail at the
+top, are cut out of solid blocks of stone from 10 to 18 feet in length.
+Nor is the workmanship of the great granite cistern for holy water less
+remarkable.  It is so carefully adjusted on its bed that the water
+brought from a neighbouring cascade rises and pours over each edge in
+such carefully equalised columns that, as Mr. Satow says, “it seems to be
+a solid block of water rather than a piece of stone.”
+
+The temples of Iyémitsu are close to those of Iyéyasu, and though
+somewhat less magnificent are even more bewildering, as they are still in
+Buddhist hands, and are crowded with the gods of the Buddhist Pantheon
+and the splendid paraphernalia of Buddhist worship, in striking contrast
+to the simplicity of the lonely Shintô mirror in the midst of the blaze
+of gold and colour.  In the grand entrance gate are gigantic _Ni-ô_, the
+Buddhist Gog and Magog, vermilion coloured, and with draperies painted in
+imitation of flowered silk.  A second pair, painted red and green,
+removed from Iyémitsu’s temple, are in niches within the gate.  A flight
+of steps leads to another gate, in whose gorgeous niches stand hideous
+monsters, in human form, representing the gods of wind and thunder.  Wind
+has crystal eyes and a half-jolly, half-demoniacal expression.  He is
+painted green, and carries a wind-bag on his back, a long sack tied at
+each end, with the ends brought over his shoulders and held in his hands.
+The god of thunder is painted red, with purple hair on end, and stands on
+clouds holding thunderbolts in his hand.  More steps, and another gate
+containing the Tennô, or gods of the four quarters, boldly carved and in
+strong action, with long eye-teeth, and at last the principal temple is
+reached.  An old priest who took me over it on my first visit, on passing
+the gods of wind and thunder said, “We used to believe in these things,
+but we don’t now,” and his manner in speaking of the other deities was
+rather contemptuous.  He requested me, however, to take off my hat as
+well as my shoes at the door of the temple.  Within there was a gorgeous
+shrine, and when an acolyte drew aside the curtain of cloth of gold the
+interior was equally imposing, containing Buddha and two other figures of
+gilded brass, seated cross-legged on lotus-flowers, with rows of petals
+several times repeated, and with that look of eternal repose on their
+faces which is reproduced in the commonest road-side images.  In front of
+the shrine several candles were burning, the offerings of some people who
+were having prayers said for them, and the whole was lighted by two lamps
+burning low.  On a step of the altar a much-contorted devil was crouching
+uneasily, for he was subjugated and, by a grim irony, made to carry a
+massive incense-burner on his shoulders.  In this temple there were more
+than a hundred idols standing in rows, many of them life-size, some of
+them trampling devils under their feet, but all hideous, partly from the
+bright greens, vermilions, and blues with which they are painted.
+Remarkable muscular development characterises all, and the figures or
+faces are all in vigorous action of some kind, generally grossly
+exaggerated.
+
+While we were crossing the court there were two shocks of earthquake; all
+the golden wind-bells which fringe the roofs rang softly, and a number of
+priests ran into the temple and beat various kinds of drums for the space
+of half an hour.  Iyémitsu’s tomb is reached by flights of steps on the
+right of the chapel.  It is in the same style as Iyéyasu’s, but the gates
+in front are of bronze, and are inscribed with large Sanskrit characters
+in bright brass.  One of the most beautiful of the many views is from the
+uppermost gate of the temple.  The sun shone on my second visit and
+brightened the spring tints of the trees on Hotoké Iwa, which was
+vignetted by a frame of dark cryptomeria.
+
+Some of the buildings are roofed with sheet-copper, but most of them are
+tiled.  Tiling, however, has been raised almost to the dignity of a fine
+art in Japan.  The tiles themselves are a coppery grey, with a suggestion
+of metallic lustre about it.  They are slightly concave, and the joints
+are covered by others quite convex, which come down like massive tubes
+from the ridge pole, and terminate at the eaves with discs on which the
+Tokugawa badge is emblazoned in gold, as it is everywhere on these
+shrines where it would not be quite out of keeping.  The roofs are so
+massive that they require all the strength of the heavy carved timbers
+below, and, like all else, they gleam with gold, or that which simulates
+it.
+
+The shrines are the most wonderful work of their kind in Japan.  In their
+stately setting of cryptomeria, few of which are less than 20 feet in
+girth at 3 feet from the ground, they take one prisoner by their beauty,
+in defiance of all rules of western art, and compel one to acknowledge
+the beauty of forms and combinations of colour hitherto unknown, and that
+lacquered wood is capable of lending itself to the expression of a very
+high idea in art.  Gold has been used in profusion, and black, dull red,
+and white, with a breadth and lavishness quite unique.  The bronze
+fret-work alone is a study, and the wood-carving needs weeks of earnest
+work for the mastery of its ideas and details.  One screen or railing
+only has sixty panels, each 4 feet long, carved with marvellous boldness
+and depth in open work, representing peacocks, pheasants, storks,
+lotuses, peonies, bamboos, and foliage.  The fidelity to form and colour
+in the birds, and the reproduction of the glory of motion, could not be
+excelled.
+
+Yet the flowers please me even better.  Truly the artist has revelled in
+his work, and has carved and painted with joy.  The lotus leaf retains
+its dewy bloom, the peony its shades of creamy white, the bamboo leaf
+still trembles on its graceful stem, in contrast to the rigid needles of
+the pine, and countless corollas, in all the perfect colouring of
+passionate life, unfold themselves amidst the leafage of the gorgeous
+tracery.  These carvings are from 10 to 15 inches deep, and single
+feathers in the tails of the pheasants stand out fully 6 inches in front
+of peonies nearly as deep.
+
+The details fade from my memory daily as I leave the shrines, and in
+their place are picturesque masses of black and red lacquer and gold,
+gilded doors opening without noise, halls laid with matting so soft that
+not a footfall sounds, across whose twilight the sunbeams fall aslant on
+richly arabesqued walls and panels carved with birds and flowers, and on
+ceilings panelled and wrought with elaborate art, of inner shrines of
+gold, and golden lilies six feet high, and curtains of gold brocade, and
+incense fumes, and colossal bells and golden ridge poles; of the mythical
+fauna, _kirin_, dragon, and _howo_, of elephants, apes, and tigers,
+strangely mingled with flowers and trees, and golden tracery, and diaper
+work on a gold ground, and lacquer screens, and pagodas, and groves of
+bronze lanterns, and shaven priests in gold brocade, and Shintô
+attendants in black lacquer caps, and gleams of sunlit gold here and
+there, and simple monumental urns, and a mountain-side covered with a
+cryptomeria forest, with rose azaleas lighting up its solemn shade.
+
+                                                                  I. L. B.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER IX.
+
+
+A Japanese Pack-Horse and Pack-Saddle—_Yadoya_ and Attendant—A Native
+Watering-Place—The Sulphur Baths—A “Squeeze.”
+
+                                    YASHIMAYA, YUMOTO, NIKKÔZAN MOUNTAINS,
+                                                                _June_ 22.
+
+TO-DAY I have made an experimental journey on horseback, have done
+fifteen miles in eight hours of continuous travelling, and have
+encountered for the first time the Japanese pack-horse—an animal of which
+many unpleasing stories are told, and which has hitherto been as mythical
+to me as the _kirin_, or dragon.  I have neither been kicked, bitten, nor
+pitched off, however, for mares are used exclusively in this district,
+gentle creatures about fourteen hands high, with weak hind-quarters, and
+heads nearly concealed by shaggy manes and forelocks.  They are led by a
+rope round the nose, and go barefoot, except on stony ground, when the
+_mago_, or man who leads them, ties straw sandals on their feet.  The
+pack-saddle is composed of two packs of straw eight inches thick, faced
+with red, and connected before and behind by strong oak arches gaily
+painted or lacquered.  There is for a girth a rope loosely tied under the
+body, and the security of the load depends on a crupper, usually a piece
+of bamboo attached to the saddle by ropes strung with wooden counters,
+and another rope round the neck, into which you put your foot as you
+scramble over the high front upon the top of the erection.  The load must
+be carefully balanced or it comes to grief, and the _mago_ handles it all
+over first, and, if an accurate division of weight is impossible, adds a
+stone to one side or the other.  Here, women who wear enormous rain hats
+and gird their _kimonos_ over tight blue trousers, both load the horses
+and lead them.  I dropped upon my loaded horse from the top of a wall,
+the ridges, bars, tags, and knotted rigging of the saddle being smoothed
+over by a folded _futon_, or wadded cotton quilt, and I was then fourteen
+inches above the animal’s back, with my feet hanging over his neck.  You
+must balance yourself carefully, or you bring the whole erection over;
+but balancing soon becomes a matter of habit.  If the horse does not
+stumble, the pack-saddle is tolerable on level ground, but most severe on
+the spine in going up hill, and so intolerable in going down that I was
+relieved when I found that I had slid over the horse’s head into a
+mud-hole; and you are quite helpless, as he does not understand a bridle,
+if you have one, and blindly follows his leader, who trudges on six feet
+in front of him.
+
+                      [Picture: Japanese Pack-Horse]
+
+The hard day’s journey ended in an exquisite _yadoya_, beautiful within
+and without, and more fit for fairies than for travel-soiled mortals.
+The _fusuma_ are light planed wood with a sweet scent, the matting nearly
+white, the balconies polished pine.  On entering, a smiling girl brought
+me some plum-flower tea with a delicate almond flavour, a sweetmeat made
+of beans and sugar, and a lacquer bowl of frozen snow.  After making a
+difficult meal from a fowl of much experience, I spent the evening out of
+doors, as a Japanese watering-place is an interesting novelty.
+
+                    [Picture: Attendant at Tea-House]
+
+There is scarcely room between the lake and the mountains for the
+picturesque village with its trim neat houses, one above another, built
+of reddish cedar newly planed.  The snow lies ten feet deep here in
+winter, and on October 10 the people wrap their beautiful dwellings up in
+coarse matting, not even leaving the roofs uncovered, and go to the low
+country till May 10, leaving one man in charge, who is relieved once a
+week.  Were the houses mine I should be tempted to wrap them up on every
+rainy day!  I did quite the wrong thing in riding here.  It is proper to
+be carried up in a _kago_, or covered basket.
+
+The village consists of two short streets, 8 feet wide composed entirely
+of _yadoyas_ of various grades, with a picturesquely varied frontage of
+deep eaves, graceful balconies, rows of Chinese lanterns, and open lower
+fronts.  The place is full of people, and the four bathing-sheds were
+crowded.  Some energetic invalids bathe twelve times a day!  Every one
+who was walking about carried a blue towel over his arm, and the rails of
+the balconies were covered with blue towels hanging to dry.  There can be
+very little amusement.  The mountains rise at once from the village, and
+are so covered with jungle that one can only walk in the short streets or
+along the track by which I came.  There is one covered boat for
+excursions on the lake, and a few _geishas_ were playing the _samisen_;
+but, as gaming is illegal, and there is no place of public resort except
+the bathing-sheds, people must spend nearly all their time in bathing,
+sleeping, smoking, and eating.  The great spring is beyond the village,
+in a square tank in a mound.  It bubbles up with much strength, giving
+off fetid fumes.  There are broad boards laid at intervals across it, and
+people crippled with rheumatism go and lie for hours upon them for the
+advantage of the sulphurous steam.  The temperature of the spring is 130°
+F.; but after the water has travelled to the village, along an open
+wooden pipe, it is only 84°.  Yumoto is over 4000 feet high, and very
+cold.
+
+IRIMICHI.—Before leaving Yumoto I saw the _modus operandi_ of a
+“squeeze.”  I asked for the bill, when, instead of giving it to me, the
+host ran upstairs and asked Ito how much it should be, the two dividing
+the overcharge.  Your servant gets a “squeeze” on everything you buy, and
+on your hotel expenses, and, as it is managed very adroitly, and you
+cannot prevent it, it is best not to worry about it so long as it keeps
+within reasonable limits.
+
+                                                                  I. L. B.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER X.
+
+
+Peaceful Monotony—A Japanese School—A Dismal Ditty—Punishment—A
+Children’s Party—A Juvenile Belle—Female Names—A Juvenile
+Drama—Needlework—Calligraphy—Arranging Flowers—Kanaya—Daily Routine—An
+Evening’s Entertainment—Planning Routes—The God-shelf.
+
+                                               IRIMICHI, Nikkô, _June_ 23.
+
+My peacefully monotonous life here is nearly at an end.  The people are
+so quiet and kindly, though almost too still, and I have learned to know
+something of the externals of village life, and have become quite fond of
+the place.
+
+The village of Irimichi, which epitomises for me at present the village
+life of Japan, consists of about three hundred houses built along three
+roads, across which steps in fours and threes are placed at intervals.
+Down the middle of each a rapid stream runs in a stone channel, and this
+gives endless amusement to the children, specially to the boys, who
+devise many ingenious models and mechanical toys, which are put in motion
+by water-wheels.  But at 7 a.m. a drum beats to summon the children to a
+school whose buildings would not discredit any school-board at home.  Too
+much Europeanised I thought it, and the children looked very
+uncomfortable sitting on high benches in front of desks, instead of
+squatting, native fashion.  The school apparatus is very good, and there
+are fine maps on the walls.  The teacher, a man about twenty-five, made
+very free use of the black-board, and questioned his pupils with much
+rapidity.  The best answer moved its giver to the head of the class, as
+with us.  Obedience is the foundation of the Japanese social order, and
+with children accustomed to unquestioning obedience at home the teacher
+has no trouble in securing quietness, attention, and docility.  There was
+almost a painful earnestness in the old-fashioned faces which pored over
+the school-books; even such a rare event as the entrance of a foreigner
+failed to distract these childish students.  The younger pupils were
+taught chiefly by object lessons, and the older were exercised in reading
+geographical and historical books aloud, a very high key being adopted,
+and a most disagreeable tone, both with the Chinese and Japanese
+pronunciation.  Arithmetic and the elements of some of the branches of
+natural philosophy are also taught.  The children recited a verse of
+poetry which I understood contained the whole of the simple syllabary.
+It has been translated thus:—
+
+    “Colour and perfume vanish away.
+    What can be lasting in this world?
+    To-day disappears in the abyss of nothingness;
+    It is but the passing image of a dream, and causes only a slight
+    trouble.”
+
+It is the echo of the wearied sensualist’s cry, “Vanity of vanities, all
+is vanity,” and indicates the singular Oriental distaste for life, but is
+a dismal ditty for young children to learn.  The Chinese classics,
+formerly the basis of Japanese education, are now mainly taught as a
+vehicle for conveying a knowledge of the Chinese character, in acquiring
+even a moderate acquaintance with which the children undergo a great deal
+of useless toil.
+
+The penalties for bad conduct used to be a few blows with a switch on the
+front of the leg, or a slight burn with the _moxa_ on the
+forefinger—still a common punishment in households; but I understood the
+teacher to say that detention in the school-house is the only punishment
+now resorted to, and he expressed great disapprobation of our plan of
+imposing an added task.  When twelve o’clock came the children marched in
+orderly fashion out of the school grounds, the boys in one division and
+the girls in another, after which they quietly dispersed.
+
+On going home the children dine, and in the evening in nearly every house
+you hear the monotonous hum of the preparation of lessons.  After dinner
+they are liberated for play, but the girls often hang about the house
+with babies on their backs the whole afternoon nursing dolls.  One
+evening I met a procession of sixty boys and girls, all carrying white
+flags with black balls, except the leader, who carried a white flag with
+a gilded ball, and they sang, or rather howled, as they walked; but the
+other amusements have been of a most sedentary kind.  The mechanical
+toys, worked by water-wheels in the stream, are most fascinating.
+
+Formal children’s parties have been given in this house, for which formal
+invitations, in the name of the house-child, a girl of twelve, are sent
+out.  About 3 p.m. the guests arrive, frequently attended by servants;
+and this child, Haru, receives them at the top of the stone steps, and
+conducts each into the reception room, where they are arranged according
+to some well-understood rules of precedence.  Haru’s hair is drawn back,
+raised in front, and gathered into a double loop, in which some scarlet
+_crépe_ is twisted.  Her face and throat are much whitened, the paint
+terminating in three points at the back of the neck, from which all the
+short hair has been carefully extracted with pincers.  Her lips are
+slightly touched with red paint, and her face looks like that of a cheap
+doll.  She wears a blue, flowered silk _kimono_, with sleeves touching
+the ground, a blue girdle lined with scarlet, and a fold of scarlet
+_crépe_ lies between her painted neck and her _kimono_.  On her little
+feet she wears white _tabi_, socks of cotton cloth, with a separate place
+for the great toe, so as to allow the scarlet-covered thongs of the
+finely lacquered clogs, which she puts on when she stands on the stone
+steps to receive her guests, to pass between it and the smaller toes.
+All the other little ladies were dressed in the same style, and all
+looked like ill-executed dolls.  She met them with very formal but
+graceful bows.
+
+When they were all assembled, she and her very graceful mother, squatting
+before each, presented tea and sweetmeats on lacquer trays, and then they
+played at very quiet and polite games till dusk.  They addressed each
+other by their names with the honorific prefix _O_, only used in the case
+of women, and the respectful affix _San_; thus Haru becomes O-Haru-San,
+which is equivalent to “Miss.”  A mistress of a house is addressed as
+_O-Kami-San_, and _O-Kusuma_—something like “my lady”—is used to married
+ladies.  Women have no surnames; thus you do not speak of Mrs. Saguchi,
+but of the wife of Saguchi _San_; and you would address her as
+_O-Kusuma_.  Among the children’s names were _Haru_, Spring; _Yuki_,
+Snow; _Hana_, Blossom; _Kiku_, Chrysanthemum; _Gin_, Silver.
+
+One of their games was most amusing, and was played with some spirit and
+much dignity.  It consisted in one child feigning sickness and another
+playing the doctor, and the pompousness and gravity of the latter, and
+the distress and weakness of the former, were most successfully imitated.
+Unfortunately the doctor killed his patient, who counterfeited the
+death-sleep very effectively with her whitened face; and then followed
+the funeral and the mourning.  They dramatise thus weddings,
+dinner-parties, and many other of the events of life.  The dignity and
+self-possession of these children are wonderful.  The fact is that their
+initiation into all that is required by the rules of Japanese etiquette
+begins as soon as they can speak, so that by the time they are ten years
+old they know exactly what to do and avoid under all possible
+circumstances.  Before they went away tea and sweetmeats were again
+handed round, and, as it is neither etiquette to refuse them or to leave
+anything behind that you have once taken, several of the small ladies
+slipped the residue into their capacious sleeves.  On departing the same
+formal courtesies were used as on arriving.
+
+Yuki, Haru’s mother, speaks, acts, and moves with a charming
+gracefulness.  Except at night, and when friends drop in to afternoon
+tea, as they often do, she is always either at domestic avocations, such
+as cleaning, sewing, or cooking, or planting vegetables, or weeding them.
+All Japanese girls learn to sew and to make their own clothes, but there
+are none of the mysteries and difficulties which make the sewing lesson a
+thing of dread with us.  The _kimono_, _haori_, and girdle, and even the
+long hanging sleeves, have only parallel seams, and these are only tacked
+or basted, as the garments, when washed, are taken to pieces, and each
+piece, after being very slightly stiffened, is stretched upon a board to
+dry.  There is no underclothing, with its bands, frills, gussets, and
+button-holes; the poorer women wear none, and those above them wear, like
+Yuki, an under-dress of a frothy-looking silk _crépe_, as simply made as
+the upper one.  There are circulating libraries here, as in most
+villages, and in the evening both Yuki and Haru read love stories, or
+accounts of ancient heroes and heroines, dressed up to suit the popular
+taste, written in the easiest possible style.  Ito has about ten volumes
+of novels in his room, and spends half the night in reading them.
+
+Yuki’s son, a lad of thirteen, often comes to my room to display his
+skill in writing the Chinese character.  He is a very bright boy, and
+shows considerable talent for drawing.  Indeed, it is only a short step
+from writing to drawing.  Giotto’s O hardly involved more breadth and
+vigour of touch than some of these characters.  They are written with a
+camel’s-hair brush dipped in Indian ink, instead of a pen, and this boy,
+with two or three vigorous touches, produces characters a foot long, such
+as are mounted and hung as tablets outside the different shops.  Yuki
+plays the _samisen_, which may be regarded as the national female
+instrument, and Haru goes to a teacher daily for lessons on the same.
+
+The art of arranging flowers is taught in manuals, the study of which
+forms part of a girl’s education, and there is scarcely a day in which my
+room is not newly decorated.  It is an education to me; I am beginning to
+appreciate the extreme beauty of solitude in decoration.  In the alcove
+hangs a _kakemono_ of exquisite beauty, a single blossoming branch of the
+cherry.  On one panel of a folding screen there is a single iris.  The
+vases which hang so gracefully on the polished posts contain each a
+single peony, a single iris, a single azalea, stalk, leaves, and
+corolla—all displayed in their full beauty.  Can anything be more
+grotesque and barbarous than our “florists’ bouquets,” a series of
+concentric rings of flowers of divers colours, bordered by maidenhair and
+a piece of stiff lace paper, in which stems, leaves, and even petals are
+brutally crushed, and the grace and individuality of each flower
+systematically destroyed?
+
+Kanaya is the chief man in this village, besides being the leader of the
+dissonant squeaks and discords which represent music at the Shintô
+festivals, and in some mysterious back region he compounds and sells
+drugs.  Since I have been here the beautification of his garden has been
+his chief object, and he has made a very respectable waterfall, a rushing
+stream, a small lake, a rustic bamboo bridge, and several grass banks,
+and has transplanted several large trees.  He kindly goes out with me a
+good deal, and, as he is very intelligent, and Ito is proving an
+excellent, and, I think, a faithful interpreter, I find it very pleasant
+to be here.
+
+They rise at daylight, fold up the wadded quilts or _futons_ on and under
+which they have slept, and put them and the wooden pillows, much like
+stereoscopes in shape, with little rolls of paper or wadding on the top,
+into a press with a sliding door, sweep the mats carefully, dust all the
+woodwork and the verandahs, open the _amado_—wooden shutters which, by
+sliding in a groove along the edge of the verandah, box in the whole
+house at night, and retire into an ornamental projection in the day—and
+throw the paper windows back.  Breakfast follows, then domestic
+avocations, dinner at one, and sewing, gardening, and visiting till six,
+when they take the evening meal.
+
+Visitors usually arrive soon afterwards, and stay till eleven or twelve.
+Japanese chess, story-telling, and the _samisen_ fill up the early part
+of the evening, but later, an agonising performance, which they call
+singing, begins, which sounds like the very essence of heathenishness,
+and consists mainly in a prolonged vibrating “No.”  As soon as I hear it
+I feel as if I were among savages.  _Saké_, or rice beer, is always
+passed round before the visitors leave, in little cups with the gods of
+luck at the bottom of them.  _Saké_, when heated, mounts readily to the
+head, and a single small cup excites the half-witted man-servant to some
+very foolish musical performances.  I am sorry to write it, but his
+master and mistress take great pleasure in seeing him make a fool of
+himself, and Ito, who is from policy a total abstainer, goes into
+convulsions of laughter.
+
+One evening I was invited to join the family, and they entertained me by
+showing me picture and guide books.  Most Japanese provinces have their
+guide-books, illustrated by wood-cuts of the most striking objects, and
+giving itineraries, names of _yadoyas_, and other local information.  One
+volume of pictures, very finely executed on silk, was more than a century
+old.  Old gold lacquer and china, and some pieces of antique embroidered
+silk, were also produced for my benefit, and some musical instruments of
+great beauty, said to be more than two centuries old.  None of these
+treasures are kept in the house, but in the _kura_, or fireproof
+storehouse, close by.  The rooms are not encumbered by ornaments; a
+single _kakemono_, or fine piece of lacquer or china, appears for a few
+days and then makes way for something else; so they have variety as well
+as simplicity, and each object is enjoyed in its turn without
+distraction.
+
+Kanaya and his sister often pay me an evening visit, and, with Brunton’s
+map on the floor, we project astonishing routes to Niigata, which are
+usually abruptly abandoned on finding a mountain-chain in the way with
+never a road over it.  The life of these people seems to pass easily
+enough, but Kanaya deplores the want of money; he would like to be rich,
+and intends to build a hotel for foreigners.
+
+The only vestige of religion in his house is the _kamidana_, or
+god-shelf, on which stands a wooden shrine like a Shintô temple, which
+contains the memorial tablets to deceased relations.  Each morning a
+sprig of evergreen and a little rice and _saké_ are placed before it, and
+every evening a lighted lamp.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER X.—(_Continued_.)
+
+
+Darkness visible—Nikkô Shops—Girls and Matrons—Night and Sleep—Parental
+Love—Childish Docility—Hair-dressing—Skin Diseases.
+
+I DON’T wonder that the Japanese rise early, for their evenings are
+cheerless, owing to the dismal illumination.  In this and other houses
+the lamp consists of a square or circular lacquer stand, with four
+uprights, 2½ feet high, and panes of white paper.  A flatted iron dish is
+suspended in this full of oil, with the pith of a rush with a weight in
+the centre laid across it, and one of the projecting ends is lighted.
+This wretched apparatus is called an _andon_, and round its wretched
+“darkness visible” the family huddles—the children to play games and
+learn lessons, and the women to sew; for the Japanese daylight is short
+and the houses are dark.  Almost more deplorable is a candlestick of the
+same height as the _andon_, with a spike at the top which fits into a
+hole at the bottom of a “farthing candle” of vegetable wax, with a thick
+wick made of rolled paper, which requires constant snuffing, and, after
+giving for a short time a dim and jerky light, expires with a bad smell.
+Lamps, burning mineral oils, native and imported, are being manufactured
+on a large scale, but, apart from the peril connected with them, the
+carriage of oil into country districts is very expensive.  No Japanese
+would think of sleeping without having an _andon_ burning all night in
+his room.
+
+These villages are full of shops.  There is scarcely a house which does
+not sell something.  Where the buyers come from, and how a profit can be
+made, is a mystery.  Many of the things are eatables, such as dried
+fishes, 1½ inch long, impaled on sticks; cakes, sweetmeats composed of
+rice, flour, and very little sugar; circular lumps of rice dough, called
+_mochi_; roots boiled in brine; a white jelly made from beans; and ropes,
+straw shoes for men and horses, straw cloaks, paper umbrellas, paper
+waterproofs, hair-pins, tooth-picks, tobacco pipes, paper _mouchoirs_,
+and numbers of other trifles made of bamboo, straw, grass, and wood.
+These goods are on stands, and in the room behind, open to the street,
+all the domestic avocations are going on, and the housewife is usually to
+be seen boiling water or sewing with a baby tucked into the back of her
+dress.  A lucifer factory has recently been put up, and in many house
+fronts men are cutting up wood into lengths for matches.  In others they
+are husking rice, a very laborious process, in which the grain is pounded
+in a mortar sunk in the floor by a flat-ended wooden pestle attached to a
+long horizontal lever, which is worked by the feet of a man, invariably
+naked, who stands at the other extremity.
+
+In some women are weaving, in others spinning cotton.  Usually there are
+three or four together—the mother, the eldest son’s wife, and one or two
+unmarried girls.  The girls marry at sixteen, and shortly these comely,
+rosy, wholesome-looking creatures pass into haggard, middle-aged women
+with vacant faces, owing to the blackening of the teeth and removal of
+the eyebrows, which, if they do not follow betrothal, are resorted to on
+the birth of the first child.  In other houses women are at their toilet,
+blackening their teeth before circular metal mirrors placed in folding
+stands on the mats, or performing ablutions, unclothed to the waist.
+Early the village is very silent, while the children are at school; their
+return enlivens it a little, but they are quiet even at play; at sunset
+the men return, and things are a little livelier; you hear a good deal of
+splashing in baths, and after that they carry about and play with their
+younger children, while the older ones prepare lessons for the following
+day by reciting them in a high, monotonous twang.  At dark the paper
+windows are drawn, the _amado_, or external wooden shutters, are closed,
+the lamp is lighted before the family shrine, supper is eaten, the
+children play at quiet games round the _andon_; and about ten the quilts
+and wooden pillows are produced from the press, the _amado_ are bolted,
+and the family lies down to sleep in one room.  Small trays of food and
+the _tabako-bon_ are always within reach of adult sleepers, and one grows
+quite accustomed to hear the sound of ashes being knocked out of the pipe
+at intervals during the night.  The children sit up as late as their
+parents, and are included in all their conversation.
+
+I never saw people take so much delight in their offspring, carrying them
+about, or holding their hands in walking, watching and entering into
+their games, supplying them constantly with new toys, taking them to
+picnics and festivals, never being content to be without them, and
+treating other people’s children also with a suitable measure of
+affection and attention.  Both fathers and mothers take a pride in their
+children.  It is most amusing about six every morning to see twelve or
+fourteen men sitting on a low wall, each with a child under two years in
+his arms, fondling and playing with it, and showing off its physique and
+intelligence.  To judge from appearances, the children form the chief
+topic at this morning gathering.  At night, after the houses are shut up,
+looking through the long fringe of rope or rattan which conceals the
+sliding door, you see the father, who wears nothing but a _maro_ in “the
+bosom of his family,” bending his ugly, kindly face over a gentle-looking
+baby, and the mother, who more often than not has dropped the _kimono_
+from her shoulders, enfolding two children destitute of clothing in her
+arms.  For some reasons they prefer boys, but certainly girls are equally
+petted and loved.  The children, though for our ideas too gentle and
+formal, are very prepossessing in looks and behaviour.  They are so
+perfectly docile and obedient, so ready to help their parents, so good to
+the little ones, and, in the many hours which I have spent in watching
+them at play, I have never heard an angry word or seen a sour look or
+act.  But they are little men and women rather than children, and their
+old-fashioned appearance is greatly aided by their dress, which, as I
+have remarked before, is the same as that of adults.
+
+There are, however, various styles of dressing the hair of girls, by
+which you can form a pretty accurate estimate of any girl’s age up to her
+marriage, when the _coiffure_ undergoes a definite change.  The boys all
+look top-heavy and their heads of an abnormal size, partly from a hideous
+practice of shaving the head altogether for the first three years.  After
+this the hair is allowed to grow in three tufts, one over each ear, and
+the other at the back of the neck; as often, however, a tuft is grown at
+the top of the back of the head.  At ten the crown alone is shaved and a
+forelock is worn, and at fifteen, when the boy assumes the
+responsibilities of manhood, his hair is allowed to grow like that of a
+man.  The grave dignity of these boys, with the grotesque patterns on
+their big heads, is most amusing.
+
+Would that these much-exposed skulls were always smooth and clean!  It is
+painful to see the prevalence of such repulsive maladies as _scabies_,
+scald-head, ringworm, sore eyes, and unwholesome-looking eruptions, and
+fully 30 per cent of the village people are badly seamed with smallpox.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER X.—(_Completed_.)
+
+
+Shops and Shopping—The Barber’s Shop—A Paper Waterproof—Ito’s
+Vanity—Preparations for the Journey—Transport and Prices—Money and
+Measurements.
+
+I HAVE had to do a little shopping in Hachiishi for my journey.  The
+shop-fronts, you must understand, are all open, and at the height of the
+floor, about two feet from the ground, there is a broad ledge of polished
+wood on which you sit down.  A woman everlastingly boiling water on a
+bronze _hibachi_, or brazier, shifting the embers about deftly with brass
+tongs like chopsticks, and with a baby looking calmly over her shoulders,
+is the shopwoman; but she remains indifferent till she imagines that you
+have a definite purpose of buying, when she comes forward bowing to the
+ground, and I politely rise and bow too.  Then I or Ito ask the price of
+a thing, and she names it, very likely asking 4s. for what ought to sell
+at 6d.  You say 3s., she laughs and says 3s. 6d.; you say 2s., she laughs
+again and says 3s., offering you the _tabako-bon_.  Eventually the matter
+is compromised by your giving her 1s., at which she appears quite
+delighted.  With a profusion of bows and “_sayo naras_” on each side, you
+go away with the pleasant feeling of having given an industrious woman
+twice as much as the thing was worth to her, and less than what it is
+worth to you!
+
+There are several barbers’ shops, and the evening seems a very busy time
+with them.  This operation partakes of the general want of privacy of the
+life of the village, and is performed in the raised open front of the
+shop.  Soap is not used, and the process is a painful one.  The victims
+let their garments fall to their waists, and each holds in his left hand
+a lacquered tray to receive the croppings.  The ugly Japanese face at
+this time wears a most grotesque expression of stolid resignation as it
+is held and pulled about by the operator, who turns it in all directions,
+that he may judge of the effect that he is producing.  The shaving the
+face till it is smooth and shiny, and the cutting, waxing, and tying of
+the queue with twine made of paper, are among the evening sights of
+Nikkô.
+
+Lacquer and things curiously carved in wood are the great attractions of
+the shops, but they interest me far less than the objects of utility in
+Japanese daily life, with their ingenuity of contrivance and perfection
+of adaptation and workmanship.  A seed shop, where seeds are truly
+idealised, attracts me daily.  Thirty varieties are offered for sale, as
+various in form as they are in colour, and arranged most artistically on
+stands, while some are put up in packages decorated with what one may
+call a facsimile of the root, leaves, and flower, in water-colours.  A
+lad usually lies on the mat behind executing these very creditable
+pictures—for such they are—with a few bold and apparently careless
+strokes with his brush.  He gladly sold me a peony as a scrap for a
+screen for 3 _sen_.  My purchases, with this exception, were necessaries
+only—a paper waterproof cloak, “a circular,” black outside and yellow
+inside, made of square sheets of oiled paper cemented together, and some
+large sheets of the same for covering my baggage; and I succeeded in
+getting Ito out of his obnoxious black wide-awake into a basin-shaped hat
+like mine, for, ugly as I think him, he has a large share of personal
+vanity, whitens his teeth, and powders his face carefully before a
+mirror, and is in great dread of sunburn.  He powders his hands too, and
+polishes his nails, and never goes out without gloves.
+
+To-morrow I leave luxury behind and plunge into the interior, hoping to
+emerge somehow upon the Sea of Japan.  No information can be got here
+except about the route to Niigata, which I have decided not to take, so,
+after much study of Brunton’s map, I have fixed upon one place, and have
+said positively, “I go to Tajima.”  If I reach it I can get farther, but
+all I can learn is, “It’s a very bad road, it’s all among the mountains.”
+Ito, who has a great regard for his own comforts, tries to dissuade me
+from going by saying that I shall lose mine, but, as these kind people
+have ingeniously repaired my bed by doubling the canvas and lacing it
+into holes in the side poles, {79} and as I have lived for the last three
+days on rice, eggs, and coarse vermicelli about the thickness and colour
+of earth-worms, this prospect does not appal me!  In Japan there is a
+Land Transport Company, called _Riku-un-kaisha_, with a head-office in
+Tôkiyô, and branches in various towns and villages.  It arranges for the
+transport of travellers and merchandise by pack-horses and coolies at
+certain fixed rates, and gives receipts in due form.  It hires the horses
+from the farmers, and makes a moderate profit on each transaction, but
+saves the traveller from difficulties, delays, and extortions.  The
+prices vary considerably in different districts, and are regulated by the
+price of forage, the state of the roads, and the number of hireable
+horses.  For a _ri_, nearly 2½ miles, they charge from 6 to 10 _sen_ for
+a horse and the man who leads it, for a _kuruma_ with one man from 4 to 9
+_sen_ for the same distance, and for baggage coolies about the same.
+[This Transport Company is admirably organised.  I employed it in
+journeys of over 1200 miles, and always found it efficient and reliable.]
+I intend to make use of it always, much against Ito’s wishes, who
+reckoned on many a prospective “squeeze” in dealings with the farmers.
+
+My journey will now be entirely over “unbeaten tracks,” and will lead
+through what may be called “Old Japan;” and as it will be natural to use
+Japanese words for money and distances, for which there are no English
+terms, I give them here.  A _yen_ is a note representing a dollar, or
+about 3s. 7d. of our money; a _sen_ is something less than a halfpenny; a
+_rin_ is a thin round coin of iron or bronze, with a square hole in the
+middle, of which 10 make a _sen_, and 1000 a _yen_; and a _tempo_ is a
+handsome oval bronze coin with a hole in the centre, of which 5 make 4
+_sen_.  Distances are measured by _ri_, _chô_, and _ken_.  Six feet make
+one _ken_, sixty _ken_ one _chô_, and thirty-six _chô_ one _ri_, or
+nearly 2½ English miles.  When I write of a road I mean a bridle-path
+from four to eight feet wide, _kuruma_ roads being specified as such.
+
+                                                                  I. L. B.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER XI.
+
+
+Comfort disappears—Fine Scenery—An Alarm—A Farm-house—An unusual
+Costume—Bridling a Horse—Female Dress and Ugliness—Babies—My
+_Mago_—Beauties of the Kinugawa—Fujihara—My Servant—Horse-shoes—An absurd
+Mistake.
+
+                                                      FUJIHARA, _June_ 24.
+
+ITO’S informants were right.  Comfort was left behind at Nikkô!
+
+A little woman brought two depressed-looking mares at six this morning;
+my saddle and bridle were put on one, and Ito and the baggage on the
+other; my hosts and I exchanged cordial good wishes and obeisances, and,
+with the women dragging my sorry mare by a rope round her nose, we left
+the glorious shrines and solemn cryptomeria groves of Nikkô behind,
+passed down its long, clean street, and where the _In Memoriam_ avenue is
+densest and darkest turned off to the left by a path like the bed of a
+brook, which afterwards, as a most atrocious trail, wound about among the
+rough boulders of the Daiya, which it crosses often on temporary bridges
+of timbers covered with branches and soil.  After crossing one of the low
+spurs of the Nikkôsan mountains, we wound among ravines whose steep sides
+are clothed with maple, oak, magnolia, elm, pine, and cryptomeria, linked
+together by festoons of the redundant _Wistaria chinensis_, and
+brightened by azalea and syringa clusters.  Every vista was blocked by
+some grand mountain, waterfalls thundered, bright streams glanced through
+the trees, and in the glorious sunshine of June the country looked most
+beautiful.
+
+We travelled less than a _ri_ an hour, as it was a mere flounder either
+among rocks or in deep mud, the woman in her girt-up dress and straw
+sandals trudging bravely along, till she suddenly flung away the rope,
+cried out, and ran backwards, perfectly scared by a big grey snake, with
+red spots, much embarrassed by a large frog which he would not let go,
+though, like most of his kind, he was alarmed by human approach, and made
+desperate efforts to swallow his victim and wriggle into the bushes.
+After crawling for three hours we dismounted at the mountain farm of
+Kohiaku, on the edge of a rice valley, and the woman counted her packages
+to see that they were all right, and without waiting for a gratuity
+turned homewards with her horses.  I pitched my chair in the verandah of
+a house near a few poor dwellings inhabited by peasants with large
+families, the house being in the barn-yard of a rich _saké_ maker.  I
+waited an hour, grew famished, got some weak tea and boiled barley,
+waited another hour, and yet another, for all the horses were eating
+leaves on the mountains.  There was a little stir.  Men carried sheaves
+of barley home on their backs, and stacked them under the eaves.
+Children, with barely the rudiments of clothing, stood and watched me
+hour after hour, and adults were not ashamed to join the group, for they
+had never seen a foreign woman, a fork, or a spoon.  Do you remember a
+sentence in Dr. Macgregor’s last sermon?  “What strange sights some of
+you will see!”  Could there be a stranger one than a decent-looking
+middle-aged man lying on his chest in the verandah, raised on his elbows,
+and intently reading a book, clothed only in a pair of spectacles?
+Besides that curious piece of still life, women frequently drew water
+from a well by the primitive contrivance of a beam suspended across an
+upright, with the bucket at one end and a stone at the other.
+
+When the horses arrived the men said they could not put on the bridle,
+but, after much talk, it was managed by two of them violently forcing
+open the jaws of the animal, while a third seized a propitious moment for
+slipping the bit into her mouth.  At the next change a bridle was a thing
+unheard of, and when I suggested that the creature would open her mouth
+voluntarily if the bit were pressed close to her teeth, the standers-by
+mockingly said, “No horse ever opens his mouth except to eat or to bite,”
+and were only convinced after I had put on the bridle myself.  The new
+horses had a rocking gait like camels, and I was glad to dispense with
+them at Kisagoi, a small upland hamlet, a very poor place, with
+poverty-stricken houses, children very dirty and sorely afflicted by skin
+maladies, and women with complexions and features hardened by severe work
+and much wood smoke into positive ugliness, and with figures anything but
+statuesque.
+
+                   [Picture: Summer and Winter Costume]
+
+I write the truth as I see it, and if my accounts conflict with those of
+tourists who write of the Tokaido and Nakasendo, of Lake Biwa and Hakone,
+it does not follow that either is inaccurate.  But truly this is a new
+Japan to me, of which no books have given me any idea, and it is not
+fairyland.  The men may be said to wear nothing.  Few of the women wear
+anything but a short petticoat wound tightly round them, or blue cotton
+trousers very tight in the legs and baggy at the top, with a blue cotton
+garment open to the waist tucked into the band, and a blue cotton
+handkerchief knotted round the head.  From the dress no notion of the sex
+of the wearer could be gained, nor from the faces, if it were not for the
+shaven eyebrows and black teeth.  The short petticoat is truly
+barbarous-looking, and when a woman has a nude baby on her back or in her
+arms, and stands staring vacantly at the foreigner, I can hardly believe
+myself in “civilised” Japan.  A good-sized child, strong enough to hold
+up his head, sees the world right cheerfully looking over his mother’s
+shoulders, but it is a constant distress to me to see small children of
+six and seven years old lugging on their backs gristly babies, whose
+shorn heads are frizzling in the sun and “wobbling” about as though they
+must drop off, their eyes, as nurses say, “looking over their heads.”  A
+number of silk-worms are kept in this region, and in the open barns
+groups of men in nature’s costume, and women unclothed to their waists,
+were busy stripping mulberry branches.  The houses were all poor, and the
+people dirty both in their clothing and persons.  Some of the younger
+women might possibly have been comely, if soap and water had been
+plentifully applied to their faces; but soap is not used, and such
+washing as the garments get is only the rubbing them a little with sand
+in a running stream.  I will give you an amusing instance of the way in
+which one may make absurd mistakes.  I heard many stories of the
+viciousness and aggressiveness of pack-horses, and was told that they
+were muzzled to prevent them from pasturing upon the haunches of their
+companions and making vicious snatches at men.  Now, I find that the
+muzzle is only to prevent them from eating as they travel.  Mares are
+used exclusively in this region, and they are the gentlest of their race.
+If you have the weight of baggage reckoned at one horse-load, though it
+should turn out that the weight is too great for a weakly animal, and the
+Transport agent distributes it among two or even three horses, you only
+pay for one; and though our _cortège_ on leaving Kisagoi consisted of
+four small, shock-headed mares who could hardly see through their bushy
+forelocks, with three active foals, and one woman and three girls to lead
+them, I only paid for two horses at 7 _sen_ a _ri_.
+
+My _mago_, with her toil-hardened, thoroughly good-natured face rendered
+hideous by black teeth, wore straw sandals, blue cotton trousers with a
+vest tucked into them, as poor and worn as they could be, and a blue
+cotton towel knotted round her head.  As the sky looked threatening she
+carried a straw rain-cloak, a thatch of two connected capes, one
+fastening at the neck, the other at the waist, and a flat hat of flags,
+2½ feet in diameter, hung at her back like a shield.  Up and down, over
+rocks and through deep mud, she trudged with a steady stride, turning her
+kind, ugly face at intervals to see if the girls were following.  I like
+the firm hardy gait which this unbecoming costume permits better than the
+painful shuffle imposed upon the more civilised women by their tight
+skirts and high clogs.
+
+From Kohiaku the road passed through an irregular grassy valley between
+densely-wooded hills, the valley itself timbered with park-like clumps of
+pine and Spanish chestnuts; but on leaving Kisagoi the scenery changed.
+A steep rocky tract brought us to the Kinugawa, a clear rushing river,
+which has cut its way deeply through coloured rock, and is crossed at a
+considerable height by a bridge with an alarmingly steep curve, from
+which there is a fine view of high mountains, and among them Futarayama,
+to which some of the most ancient Shintô legends are attached.  We rode
+for some time within hearing of the Kinugawa, catching magnificent
+glimpses of it frequently—turbulent and locked in by walls of porphyry,
+or widening and calming and spreading its aquamarine waters over great
+slabs of pink and green rock, lighted fitfully by the sun, or spanned by
+rainbows, or pausing to rest in deep shady pools, but always beautiful.
+The mountains through which it forces its way on the other side are
+precipitous and wooded to their summits with coniferæ, while the less
+abrupt side, along which the tract is carried, curves into green knolls
+in its lower slopes, sprinkled with grand Spanish chestnuts scarcely yet
+in blossom, with maples which have not yet lost the scarlet which they
+wear in spring as well as autumn, and with many flowering trees and
+shrubs which are new to me, and with an undergrowth of red azaleas,
+syringa, blue hydrangea—the very blue of heaven—yellow raspberries,
+ferns, clematis, white and yellow lilies, blue irises, and fifty other
+trees and shrubs entangled and festooned by the wistaria, whose beautiful
+foliage is as common as is that of the bramble with us.  The redundancy
+of the vegetation was truly tropical, and the brilliancy and variety of
+its living greens, dripping with recent rain, were enhanced by the slant
+rays of the afternoon sun.
+
+The few hamlets we passed are of farm-houses only, the deep-eaved roofs
+covering in one sweep dwelling-house, barn, and stable.  In every barn
+unclothed people were pursuing various industries.  We met strings of
+pack-mares, tied head and tail, loaded with rice and _saké_, and men and
+women carrying large creels full of mulberry leaves.  The ravine grew
+more and more beautiful, and an ascent through a dark wood of arrowy
+cryptomeria brought us to this village exquisitely situated, where a
+number of miniature ravines, industriously terraced for rice, come down
+upon the great chasm of the Kinugawa.  Eleven hours of travelling have
+brought me eighteen miles!
+
+IKARI, June 25.—Fujihara has forty-six farm-houses and a _yadoya_—all
+dark, damp, dirty, and draughty, a combination of dwelling-house, barn,
+and stable.  The _yadoya_ consisted of a _daidokoro_, or open kitchen,
+and stable below, and a small loft above, capable of division, and I
+found on returning from a walk six Japanese in extreme _déshabillé_
+occupying the part through which I had to pass.  On this being remedied I
+sat down to write, but was soon driven upon the balcony, under the eaves,
+by myriads of fleas, which hopped out of the mats as sandhoppers do out
+of the sea sand, and even in the balcony, hopped over my letter.  There
+were two outer walls of hairy mud with living creatures crawling in the
+cracks; cobwebs hung from the uncovered rafters.  The mats were brown
+with age and dirt, the rice was musty, and only partially cleaned, the
+eggs had seen better days, and the tea was musty.
+
+I saw everything out of doors with Ito—the patient industry, the
+exquisitely situated village, the evening avocations, the quiet
+dulness—and then contemplated it all from my balcony and read the
+sentence (from a paper in the Transactions of the Asiatic Society) which
+had led me to devise this journey, “There is a most exquisitely
+picturesque, but difficult, route up the course of the Kinugawa, which
+seems almost as unknown to Japanese as to foreigners.”  There was a pure
+lemon-coloured sky above, and slush a foot deep below.  A road, at this
+time a quagmire, intersected by a rapid stream, crossed in many places by
+planks, runs through the village.  This stream is at once “lavatory” and
+“drinking fountain.”  People come back from their work, sit on the
+planks, take off their muddy clothes and wring them out, and bathe their
+feet in the current.  On either side are the dwellings, in front of which
+are much-decayed manure heaps, and the women were engaged in breaking
+them up and treading them into a pulp with their bare feet.  All wear the
+vest and trousers at their work, but only the short petticoats in their
+houses, and I saw several respectable mothers of families cross the road
+and pay visits in this garment only, without any sense of impropriety.
+The younger children wear nothing but a string and an amulet.  The
+persons, clothing, and houses are alive with vermin, and if the word
+squalor can be applied to independent and industrious people, they were
+squalid.  Beetles, spiders, and wood-lice held a carnival in my room
+after dark, and the presence of horses in the same house brought a number
+of horseflies.  I sprinkled my stretcher with insect powder, but my
+blanket had been on the floor for one minute, and fleas rendered sleep
+impossible.  The night was very long.  The _andon_ went out, leaving a
+strong smell of rancid oil.  The primitive Japanese dog—a cream-coloured
+wolfish-looking animal, the size of a collie, very noisy and aggressive,
+but as cowardly as bullies usually are—was in great force in Fujihara,
+and the barking, growling, and quarrelling of these useless curs
+continued at intervals until daylight; and when they were not
+quarrelling, they were howling.  Torrents of rain fell, obliging me to
+move my bed from place to place to get out of the drip.  At five Ito came
+and entreated me to leave, whimpering, “I’ve had no sleep; there are
+thousands and thousands of fleas!”  He has travelled by another route to
+the Tsugaru Strait through the interior, and says that he would not have
+believed that there was such a place in Japan, and that people in
+Yokohama will not believe it when he tells them of it and of the costume
+of the women.  He is “ashamed for a foreigner to see such a place,” he
+says.  His cleverness in travelling and his singular intelligence
+surprise me daily.  He is very anxious to speak _good_ English, as
+distinguished from “common” English, and to get new words, with their
+correct pronunciation and spelling.  Each day he puts down in his
+note-book all the words that I use that he does not quite understand, and
+in the evening brings them to me and puts down their meaning and spelling
+with their Japanese equivalents.  He speaks English already far better
+than many professional interpreters, but would be more pleasing if he had
+not picked up some American vulgarisms and free-and-easy ways.  It is so
+important to me to have a good interpreter, or I should not have engaged
+so young and inexperienced a servant; but he is so clever that he is now
+able to be cook, laundryman, and general attendant, as well as courier
+and interpreter, and I think it is far easier for me than if he were an
+older man.  I am trying to manage him, because I saw that he meant to
+manage me, specially in the matter of “squeezes.”  He is intensely
+Japanese, his patriotism has all the weakness and strength of personal
+vanity, and he thinks everything inferior that is foreign.  Our manners,
+eyes, and modes of eating appear simply odious to him.  He delights in
+retailing stories of the bad manners of Englishmen, describes them as
+“roaring out _ohio_ to every one on the road,” frightening the tea-house
+nymphs, kicking or slapping their coolies, stamping over white mats in
+muddy boots, acting generally like ill-bred Satyrs, exciting an
+ill-concealed hatred in simple country districts, and bringing themselves
+and their country into contempt and ridicule. {87}  He is very anxious
+about my good behaviour, and as I am equally anxious to be courteous
+everywhere in Japanese fashion, and not to violate the general rules of
+Japanese etiquette, I take his suggestions as to what I ought to do and
+avoid in very good part, and my bows are growing more profound every day!
+The people are so kind and courteous, that it is truly brutal in
+foreigners not to be kind and courteous to them.  You will observe that I
+am entirely dependent on Ito, not only for travelling arrangements, but
+for making inquiries, gaining information, and even for companionship,
+such as it is; and our being mutually embarked on a hard and adventurous
+journey will, I hope, make us mutually kind and considerate.  Nominally,
+he is a Shintôist, which means nothing.  At Nikkô I read to him the
+earlier chapters of St. Luke, and when I came to the story of the
+Prodigal Son I was interrupted by a somewhat scornful laugh and the
+remark, “Why, all this is our Buddha over again!”
+
+To-day’s journey, though very rough, has been rather pleasant.  The rain
+moderated at noon, and I left Fujihara on foot, wearing my American
+“mountain dress” and Wellington boots,—the only costume in which ladies
+can enjoy pedestrian or pack-horse travelling in this country,—with a
+light straw mat—the waterproof of the region—hanging over my shoulders,
+and so we plodded on with two baggage horses through the ankle-deep mud,
+till the rain cleared off, the mountains looked through the mist, the
+augmented Kinugawa thundered below, and enjoyment became possible, even
+in my half-fed condition.  Eventually I mounted a pack-saddle, and we
+crossed a spur of Takadayama at a height of 2100 feet on a well-devised
+series of zigzags, eight of which in one place could be seen one below
+another.  The forest there is not so dense as usual, and the lower
+mountain slopes are sprinkled with noble Spanish chestnuts.  The descent
+was steep and slippery, the horse had tender feet, and, after stumbling
+badly, eventually came down, and I went over his head, to the great
+distress of the kindly female _mago_.  The straw shoes tied with wisps
+round the pasterns are a great nuisance.  The “shoe strings” are always
+coming untied, and the shoes only wear about two _ri_ on soft ground, and
+less than one on hard.  They keep the feet so soft and spongy that the
+horses can’t walk without them at all, and as soon as they get thin your
+horse begins to stumble, the _mago_ gets uneasy, and presently you stop;
+four shoes, which are hanging from the saddle, are soaked in water and
+are tied on with much coaxing, raising the animal fully an inch above the
+ground.  Anything more temporary and clumsy could not be devised.  The
+bridle paths are strewn with them, and the children collect them in heaps
+to decay for manure.  They cost 3 or 4 _sen_ the set, and in every
+village men spend their leisure time in making them.
+
+At the next stage, called Takahara, we got one horse for the baggage,
+crossed the river and the ravine, and by a steep climb reached a solitary
+_yadoya_ with the usual open front and _irori_, round which a number of
+people, old and young, were sitting.  When I arrived a whole bevy of
+nice-looking girls took to flight, but were soon recalled by a word from
+Ito to their elders.  Lady Parkes, on a side-saddle and in a
+riding-habit, has been taken for a man till the people saw her hair, and
+a young friend of mine, who is very pretty and has a beautiful
+complexion, when travelling lately with her husband, was supposed to be a
+man who had shaven off his beard.  I wear a hat, which is a thing only
+worn by women in the fields as a protection from sun and rain, my
+eyebrows are unshaven, and my teeth are unblackened, so these girls
+supposed me to be a foreign man.  Ito in explanation said, “They haven’t
+seen any, but everybody brings them tales how rude foreigners are to
+girls, and they are awful scared.”  There was nothing eatable but rice
+and eggs, and I ate them under the concentrated stare of eighteen pairs
+of dark eyes.  The hot springs, to which many people afflicted with sores
+resort, are by the river, at the bottom of a rude flight of steps, in an
+open shed, but I could not ascertain their temperature, as a number of
+men and women were sitting in the water.  They bathe four times a day,
+and remain for an hour at a time.
+
+We left for the five miles’ walk to Ikari in a torrent of rain by a
+newly-made path completely shut in with the cascading Kinugawa, and
+carried along sometimes low, sometimes high, on props projecting over it
+from the face of the rock.  I do not expect to see anything lovelier in
+Japan.
+
+The river, always crystal-blue or crystal-green, largely increased in
+volume by the rains, forces itself through gates of brightly-coloured
+rock, by which its progress is repeatedly arrested, and rarely lingers
+for rest in all its sparkling, rushing course.  It is walled in by high
+mountains, gloriously wooded and cleft by dark ravines, down which
+torrents were tumbling in great drifts of foam, crashing and booming,
+boom and crash multiplied by many an echo, and every ravine afforded
+glimpses far back of more mountains, clefts, and waterfalls, and such
+over-abundant vegetation that I welcomed the sight of a gray cliff or
+bare face of rock.  Along the path there were fascinating details,
+composed of the manifold greenery which revels in damp heat, ferns,
+mosses, _confervæ_, fungi, trailers, shading tiny rills which dropped
+down into grottoes feathery with the exquisite _Trichomanes radicans_, or
+drooped over the rustic path and hung into the river, and overhead the
+finely incised and almost feathery foliage of several varieties of maple
+admitted the light only as a green mist.  The spring tints have not yet
+darkened into the monotone of summer, rose azaleas still light the
+hillsides, and masses of cryptomeria give depth and shadow.  Still,
+beautiful as it all is, one sighs for something which shall satisfy one’s
+craving for startling individuality and grace of form, as in the
+coco-palm and banana of the tropics.  The featheriness of the maple, and
+the arrowy straightness and pyramidal form of the cryptomeria, please me
+better than all else; but why criticise?  Ten minutes of sunshine would
+transform the whole into fairyland.
+
+There were no houses and no people.  Leaving this beautiful river we
+crossed a spur of a hill, where all the trees were matted together by a
+very fragrant white honeysuckle, and came down upon an open valley where
+a quiet stream joins the loud-tongued Kinugawa, and another mile brought
+us to this beautifully-situated hamlet of twenty-five houses, surrounded
+by mountains, and close to a mountain stream called the Okawa.  The names
+of Japanese rivers give one very little geographical information from
+their want of continuity.  A river changes its name several times in a
+course of thirty or forty miles, according to the districts through which
+it passes.  This is my old friend the Kinugawa, up which I have been
+travelling for two days.  Want of space is a great aid to the
+picturesque.  Ikari is crowded together on a hill slope, and its short,
+primitive-looking street, with its warm browns and greys, is quite
+attractive in “the clear shining after rain.”  My halting-place is at the
+express office at the top of the hill—a place like a big barn, with
+horses at one end and a living-room at the other, and in the centre much
+produce awaiting transport, and a group of people stripping mulberry
+branches.  The nearest _daimiyô_ used to halt here on his way to Tôkiyô,
+so there are two rooms for travellers, called _daimiyôs_’ rooms, fifteen
+feet high, handsomely ceiled in dark wood, the _shôji_ of such fine work
+as to merit the name of fret-work, the _fusuma_ artistically decorated,
+the mats clean and fine, and in the alcove a sword-rack of old gold
+lacquer.  Mine is the inner room, and Ito and four travellers occupy the
+outer one.  Though very dark, it is luxury after last night.  The rest of
+the house is given up to the rearing of silk-worms.  The house-masters
+here and at Fujihara are not used to passports, and Ito, who is posing as
+a town-bred youth, has explained and copied mine, all the village men
+assembling to hear it read aloud.  He does not know the word used for
+“scientific investigation,” but, in the idea of increasing his own
+importance by exaggerating mine, I hear him telling the people that I am
+_gakusha_, _i.e._ learned!  There is no police-station here, but every
+month policemen pay domiciliary visits to these outlying _yadoyas_ and
+examine the register of visitors.
+
+This is a much neater place than the last, but the people look stupid and
+apathetic, and I wonder what they think of the men who have abolished the
+_daimiyô_ and the feudal _régime_, have raised the _eta_ to citizenship,
+and are hurrying the empire forward on the tracks of western
+civilisation!
+
+Since shingle has given place to thatch there is much to admire in the
+villages, with their steep roofs, deep eaves and balconies, the warm
+russet of roofs and walls, the quaint confusion of the farmhouses, the
+hedges of camellia and pomegranate, the bamboo clumps and persimmon
+orchards, and (in spite of dirt and bad smells) the generally satisfied
+look of the peasant proprietors.
+
+No food can be got here except rice and eggs, and I am haunted by
+memories of the fowls and fish of Nikkô, to say nothing of the “flesh
+pots” of the Legation, and
+
+    “—a sorrow’s crown of sorrow
+    Is remembering happier things!”
+
+The mercury falls to 70° at night, and I generally awake from cold at 3
+a.m., for my blankets are only summer ones, and I dare not supplement
+them with a quilt, either for sleeping on or under, because of the fleas
+which it contains.  I usually retire about 7.30, for there is almost no
+twilight, and very little inducement for sitting up by the dimness of
+candle or _andon_, and I have found these days of riding on slow,
+rolling, stumbling horses very severe, and if I were anything of a
+walker, should certainly prefer pedestrianism.
+
+                                                                  I. L. B.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER XII.
+
+
+A Fantastic Jumble—The “Quiver” of Poverty—The Water-shed—From Bad to
+Worse—The Rice Planter’s Holiday—A Diseased Crowd—Amateur Doctoring—Want
+of Cleanliness—Rapid Eating—Premature Old Age.
+
+                                                    KURUMATOGE, _June_ 30.
+
+AFTER the hard travelling of six days the rest of Sunday in a quiet place
+at a high elevation is truly delightful!  Mountains and passes, valleys
+and rice swamps, forests and rice swamps, villages and rice swamps;
+poverty, industry, dirt, ruinous temples, prostrate Buddhas, strings of
+straw-shod pack-horses; long, grey, featureless streets, and quiet,
+staring crowds, are all jumbled up fantastically in my memory.  Fine
+weather accompanied me through beautiful scenery from Ikari to Yokokawa,
+where I ate my lunch in the street to avoid the innumerable fleas of the
+tea-house, with a circle round me of nearly all the inhabitants.  At
+first the children, both old and young, were so frightened that they ran
+away, but by degrees they timidly came back, clinging to the skirts of
+their parents (skirts, in this case, being a metaphorical expression),
+running away again as often as I looked at them.  The crowd was filthy
+and squalid beyond description.  Why should the “quiver” of poverty be so
+very full? one asks as one looks at the swarms of gentle, naked,
+old-fashioned children, born to a heritage of hard toil, to be, like
+their parents, devoured by vermin, and pressed hard for taxes.  A horse
+kicked off my saddle before it was girthed, the crowd scattered right and
+left, and work, which had been suspended for two hours to stare at the
+foreigner, began again.
+
+A long ascent took us to the top of a pass 2500 feet in height, a
+projecting spur not 30 feet wide, with a grand view of mountains and
+ravines, and a maze of involved streams, which unite in a vigorous
+torrent, whose course we followed for some hours, till it expanded into a
+quiet river, lounging lazily through a rice swamp of considerable extent.
+The map is blank in this region, but I judged, as I afterwards found
+rightly, that at that pass we had crossed the water-shed, and that the
+streams thenceforward no longer fall into the Pacific, but into the Sea
+of Japan.  At Itosawa the horses produced stumbled so intolerably that I
+walked the last stage, and reached Kayashima, a miserable village of
+fifty-seven houses, so exhausted that I could not go farther, and was
+obliged to put up with worse accommodation even than at Fujihara, with
+less strength for its hardships.
+
+The _yadoya_ was simply awful.  The _daidokoro_ had a large wood fire
+burning in a trench, filling the whole place with stinging smoke, from
+which my room, which was merely screened off by some dilapidated _shôji_,
+was not exempt.  The rafters were black and shiny with soot and moisture.
+The house-master, who knelt persistently on the floor of my room till he
+was dislodged by Ito, apologised for the dirt of his house, as well he
+might.  Stifling, dark, and smoky, as my room was, I had to close the
+paper windows, owing to the crowd which assembled in the street.  There
+was neither rice nor soy, and Ito, who values his own comfort, began to
+speak to the house-master and servants loudly and roughly, and to throw
+my things about—a style of acting which I promptly terminated, for
+nothing could be more hurtful to a foreigner, or more unkind to the
+people, than for a servant to be rude and bullying; and the man was most
+polite, and never approached me but on bended knees.  When I gave him my
+passport, as the custom is, he touched his forehead with it, and then
+touched the earth with his forehead.
+
+I found nothing that I could eat except black beans and boiled cucumbers.
+The room was dark, dirty, vile, noisy, and poisoned by sewage odours, as
+rooms unfortunately are very apt to be.  At the end of the rice planting
+there is a holiday for two days, when many offerings are made to Inari,
+the god of rice farmers; and the holiday-makers kept up their revel all
+night, and drums, stationary and peripatetic, were constantly beaten in
+such a way as to prevent sleep.
+
+A little boy, the house-master’s son, was suffering from a very bad
+cough, and a few drops of chlorodyne which I gave him allayed it so
+completely that the cure was noised abroad in the earliest hours of the
+next morning, and by five o’clock nearly the whole population was
+assembled outside my room, with much whispering and shuffling of shoeless
+feet, and applications of eyes to the many holes in the paper windows.
+When I drew aside the _shôji_ I was disconcerted by the painful sight
+which presented itself, for the people were pressing one upon another,
+fathers and mothers holding naked children covered with skin-disease, or
+with scald-head, or ringworm, daughters leading mothers nearly blind, men
+exhibiting painful sores, children blinking with eyes infested by flies
+and nearly closed with ophthalmia; and all, sick and well, in truly “vile
+raiment,” lamentably dirty and swarming with vermin, the sick asking for
+medicine, and the well either bringing the sick or gratifying an
+apathetic curiosity.  Sadly I told them that I did not understand their
+manifold “diseases and torments,” and that, if I did, I had no stock of
+medicines, and that in my own country the constant washing of clothes,
+and the constant application of water to the skin, accompanied by
+friction with clean cloths, would be much relied upon by doctors for the
+cure and prevention of similar cutaneous diseases.  To pacify them I made
+some ointment of animal fat and flowers of sulphur, extracted with
+difficulty from some man’s hoard, and told them how to apply it to some
+of the worst cases.  The horse, being unused to a girth, became fidgety
+as it was being saddled, creating a _stampede_ among the crowd, and the
+_mago_ would not touch it again.  They are as much afraid of their gentle
+mares as if they were panthers.  All the children followed me for a
+considerable distance, and a good many of the adults made an excuse for
+going in the same direction.
+
+These people wear no linen, and their clothes, which are seldom washed,
+are constantly worn, night and day, as long as they will hold together.
+They seal up their houses as hermetically as they can at night, and herd
+together in numbers in one sleeping-room, with its atmosphere vitiated,
+to begin with, by charcoal and tobacco fumes, huddled up in their dirty
+garments in wadded quilts, which are kept during the day in close
+cupboards, and are seldom washed from one year’s end to another.  The
+_tatami_, beneath a tolerably fair exterior, swarm with insect life, and
+are receptacles of dust, organic matters, etc.  The hair, which is loaded
+with oil and bandoline, is dressed once a week, or less often in these
+districts, and it is unnecessary to enter into any details regarding the
+distressing results, and much besides may be left to the imagination.
+The persons of the people, especially of the children, are infested with
+vermin, and one fruitful source of skin sores is the irritation arising
+from this cause.  The floors of houses, being concealed by mats, are laid
+down carelessly with gaps between the boards, and, as the damp earth is
+only 18 inches or 2 feet below, emanations of all kinds enter the mats
+and pass into the rooms.
+
+The houses in this region (and I believe everywhere) are hermetically
+sealed at night, both in summer and winter, the _amado_, which are made
+without ventilators, literally boxing them in, so that, unless they are
+falling to pieces, which is rarely the case, none of the air vitiated by
+the breathing of many persons, by the emanations from their bodies and
+clothing, by the miasmata produced by defective domestic arrangements,
+and by the fumes from charcoal _hibachi_, can ever be renewed.  Exercise
+is seldom taken from choice, and, unless the women work in the fields,
+they hang over charcoal fumes the whole day for five months of the year,
+engaged in interminable processes of cooking, or in the attempt to get
+warm.  Much of the food of the peasantry is raw or half-raw salt fish,
+and vegetables rendered indigestible by being coarsely pickled, all
+bolted with the most marvellous rapidity, as if the one object of life
+were to rush through a meal in the shortest possible time.  The married
+women look as if they had never known youth, and their skin is apt to be
+like tanned leather.  At Kayashima I asked the house-master’s wife, who
+looked about fifty, how old she was (a polite question in Japan), and she
+replied twenty-two—one of many similar surprises.  Her boy was five years
+old, and was still unweaned.
+
+This digression disposes of one aspect of the population. {95}
+
+
+
+
+LETTER XII.—(_Concluded_.)
+
+
+A Japanese Ferry—A Corrugated Road—The Pass of Sanno—Various
+Vegetation—An Unattractive Undergrowth—Preponderance of Men.
+
+WE changed horses at Tajima, formerly a _daimiyô’s_ residence, and, for a
+Japanese town, rather picturesque.  It makes and exports clogs, coarse
+pottery, coarse lacquer, and coarse baskets.
+
+After travelling through rice-fields varying from thirty yards square to
+a quarter of an acre, with the tops of the dykes utilised by planting
+dwarf beans along them, we came to a large river, the Arakai, along whose
+affluents we had been tramping for two days, and, after passing through
+several filthy villages, thronged with filthy and industrious
+inhabitants, crossed it in a scow.  High forks planted securely in the
+bank on either side sustained a rope formed of several strands of the
+wistaria knotted together.  One man hauled on this hand over hand,
+another poled at the stern, and the rapid current did the rest.  In this
+fashion we have crossed many rivers subsequently.  Tariffs of charges are
+posted at all ferries, as well as at all bridges where charges are made,
+and a man sits in an office to receive the money.
+
+The country was really very beautiful.  The views were wider and finer
+than on the previous days, taking in great sweeps of peaked mountains,
+wooded to their summits, and from the top of the Pass of Sanno the
+clustered peaks were glorified into unearthly beauty in a golden mist of
+evening sunshine.  I slept at a house combining silk farm, post office,
+express office, and _daimiyô’s_ rooms, at the hamlet of Ouchi, prettily
+situated in a valley with mountainous surroundings, and, leaving early on
+the following morning, had a very grand ride, passing in a crateriform
+cavity the pretty little lake of Oyakê, and then ascending the
+magnificent pass of Ichikawa.  We turned off what, by ironical courtesy,
+is called the main road, upon a villainous track, consisting of a series
+of lateral corrugations, about a foot broad, with depressions between
+them more than a foot deep, formed by the invariable treading of the
+pack-horses in each other’s footsteps.  Each hole was a quagmire of
+tenacious mud, the ascent of 2400 feet was very steep, and the _mago_
+adjured the animals the whole time with _Hai_! _Hai_! _Hai_! which is
+supposed to suggest to them that extreme caution is requisite.  Their
+shoes were always coming untied, and they wore out two sets in four
+miles.  The top of the pass, like that of a great many others, is a
+narrow ridge, on the farther side of which the track dips abruptly into a
+tremendous ravine, along whose side we descended for a mile or so in
+company with a river whose reverberating thunder drowned all attempts at
+speech.  A glorious view it was, looking down between the wooded
+precipices to a rolling wooded plain, lying in depths of indigo shadow,
+bounded by ranges of wooded mountains, and overtopped by heights heavily
+splotched with snow!  The vegetation was significant of a milder climate.
+The magnolia and bamboo re-appeared, and tropical ferns mingled with the
+beautiful blue hydrangea, the yellow Japan lily, and the great blue
+campanula.  There was an ocean of trees entangled with a beautiful
+trailer (_Actinidia polygama_) with a profusion of white leaves, which,
+at a distance, look like great clusters of white blossoms.  But the rank
+undergrowth of the forests of this region is not attractive.  Many of its
+component parts deserve the name of weeds, being gawky, ragged umbels,
+coarse docks, rank nettles, and many other things which I don’t know, and
+never wish to see again.  Near the end of this descent my mare took the
+bit between her teeth and carried me at an ungainly gallop into the
+beautifully situated, precipitous village of Ichikawa, which is
+absolutely saturated with moisture by the spray of a fine waterfall which
+tumbles through the middle of it, and its trees and road-side are green
+with the _Protococcus viridis_.  The Transport Agent there was a woman.
+Women keep _yadoyas_ and shops, and cultivate farms as freely as men.
+Boards giving the number of inhabitants, male and female, and the number
+of horses and bullocks, are put up in each village, and I noticed in
+Ichikawa, as everywhere hitherto, that men preponderate. {98}
+
+                                                                  I. L. B.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER XIII.
+
+
+The Plain of Wakamatsu—Light Costume—The Takata Crowd—A Congress of
+Schoolmasters—Timidity of a Crowd—Bad Roads—Vicious Horses—Mountain
+Scenery—A Picturesque Inn—Swallowing a Fish-bone—Poverty and Suicide—An
+Inn-kitchen—England Unknown!—My Breakfast Disappears.
+
+                                                    KURUMATOGE, _June_ 30.
+
+A SHORT ride took us from Ichikawa to a plain about eleven miles broad by
+eighteen long.  The large town of Wakamatsu stands near its southern end,
+and it is sprinkled with towns and villages.  The great lake of
+Iniwashiro is not far off.  The plain is rich and fertile.  In the
+distance the steep roofs of its villages, with their groves, look very
+picturesque.  As usual not a fence or gate is to be seen, or any other
+hedge than the tall one used as a screen for the dwellings of the richer
+farmers.
+
+Bad roads and bad horses detracted from my enjoyment.  One hour of a good
+horse would have carried me across the plain; as it was, seven weary
+hours were expended upon it.  The day degenerated, and closed in still,
+hot rain; the air was stifling and electric, the saddle slipped
+constantly from being too big, the shoes were more than usually
+troublesome, the horseflies tormented, and the men and horses crawled.
+The rice-fields were undergoing a second process of puddling, and many of
+the men engaged in it wore only a hat, and a fan attached to the girdle.
+
+An avenue of cryptomeria and two handsome and somewhat gilded Buddhist
+temples denoted the approach to a place of some importance, and such
+Takata is, as being a large town with a considerable trade in silk, rope,
+and _minjin_, and the residence of one of the higher officials of the
+_ken_ or prefecture.  The street is a mile long, and every house is a
+shop.  The general aspect is mean and forlorn.  In these little-travelled
+districts, as soon as one reaches the margin of a town, the first man one
+meets turns and flies down the street, calling out the Japanese
+equivalent of “Here’s a foreigner!” and soon blind and seeing, old and
+young, clothed and naked, gather together.  At the _yadoya_ the crowd
+assembled in such force that the house-master removed me to some pretty
+rooms in a garden; but then the adults climbed on the house-roofs which
+overlooked it, and the children on a palisade at the end, which broke
+down under their weight, and admitted the whole inundation; so that I had
+to close the _shôji_, with the fatiguing consciousness during the whole
+time of nominal rest of a multitude surging outside.  Then five policemen
+in black alpaca frock-coats and white trousers invaded my precarious
+privacy, desiring to see my passport—a demand never made before except
+where I halted for the night.  In their European clothes they cannot bow
+with Japanese punctiliousness, but they were very polite, and expressed
+great annoyance at the crowd, and dispersed it; but they had hardly
+disappeared when it gathered again.  When I went out I found fully 1000
+people helping me to realise how the crowded cities of Judea sent forth
+people clothed much as these are when the Miracle-Worker from Galilee
+arrived, but not what the fatigue of the crowding and buzzing must have
+been to One who had been preaching and working during the long day.
+These Japanese crowds, however, are quiet and gentle, and never press
+rudely upon one.  I could not find it in my heart to complain of them
+except to you.  Four of the policemen returned, and escorted me to the
+outskirts of the town.  The noise made by 1000 people shuffling along in
+clogs is like the clatter of a hail-storm.
+
+After this there was a dismal tramp of five hours through rice-fields.
+The moist climate and the fatigue of this manner of travelling are
+deteriorating my health, and the pain in my spine, which has been daily
+increasing, was so severe that I could neither ride nor walk for more
+than twenty minutes at a time; and the pace was so slow that it was six
+when we reached Bangé, a commercial town of 5000 people, literally in the
+rice swamp, mean, filthy, damp, and decaying, and full of an overpowering
+stench from black, slimy ditches.  The mercury was 84°, and hot rain fell
+fast through the motionless air.  We dismounted in a shed full of bales
+of dried fish, which gave off an overpowering odour, and wet and dirty
+people crowded in to stare at the foreigner till the air seemed
+unbreathable.
+
+But there were signs of progress.  A three days’ congress of
+schoolmasters was being held; candidates for vacant situations were being
+examined; there were lengthy educational discussions going on, specially
+on the subject of the value of the Chinese classics as a part of
+education; and every inn was crowded.
+
+Bangé was malarious: there was so much malarious fever that the
+Government had sent additional medical assistance; the hills were only a
+_ri_ off, and it seemed essential to go on.  But not a horse could be got
+till 10 p.m.; the road was worse than the one I had travelled; the pain
+became more acute, and I more exhausted, and I was obliged to remain.
+Then followed a weary hour, in which the Express Agent’s five emissaries
+were searching for a room, and considerably after dark I found myself in
+a rambling old over-crowded _yadoya_, where my room was mainly built on
+piles above stagnant water, and the mosquitoes were in such swarms as to
+make the air dense, and after a feverish and miserable night I was glad
+to get up early and depart.
+
+Fully 2000 people had assembled.  After I was mounted I was on the point
+of removing my Dollond from the case, which hung on the saddle horn, when
+a regular stampede occurred, old and young running as fast as they
+possibly could, children being knocked down in the haste of their elders.
+Ito said that they thought I was taking out a pistol to frighten them,
+and I made him explain what the object really was, for they are a gentle,
+harmless people, whom one would not annoy without sincere regret.  In
+many European countries, and certainly in some parts of our own, a
+solitary lady-traveller in a foreign dress would be exposed to rudeness,
+insult, and extortion, if not to actual danger; but I have not met with a
+single instance of incivility or real overcharge, and there is no
+rudeness even about the crowding.  The _mago_ are anxious that I should
+not get wet or be frightened, and very scrupulous in seeing that all
+straps and loose things are safe at the end of the journey, and, instead
+of hanging about asking for gratuities, or stopping to drink and gossip,
+they quickly unload the horses, get a paper from the Transport Agent, and
+go home.  Only yesterday a strap was missing, and, though it was after
+dark, the man went back a _ri_ for it, and refused to take some _sen_
+which I wished to give him, saying he was responsible for delivering
+everything right at the journey’s end.  They are so kind and courteous to
+each other, which is very pleasing.  Ito is not pleasing or polite in his
+manner to me, but when he speaks to his own people he cannot free himself
+from the shackles of etiquette, and bows as profoundly and uses as many
+polite phrases as anybody else.
+
+In an hour the malarious plain was crossed, and we have been among piles
+of mountains ever since.  The infamous road was so slippery that my horse
+fell several times, and the baggage horse, with Ito upon him, rolled head
+over heels, sending his miscellaneous pack in all directions.  Good roads
+are really the most pressing need of Japan.  It would be far better if
+the Government were to enrich the country by such a remunerative outlay
+as making passable roads for the transport of goods through the interior,
+than to impoverish it by buying ironclads in England, and indulging in
+expensive western vanities.
+
+That so horrible a road should have so good a bridge as that by which we
+crossed the broad river Agano is surprising.  It consists of twelve large
+scows, each one secured to a strong cable of plaited wistari, which
+crosses the river at a great height, so as to allow of the scows and the
+plank bridge which they carry rising and falling with the twelve feet
+variation of the water.
+
+Ito’s disaster kept him back for an hour, and I sat meanwhile on a rice
+sack in the hamlet of Katakado, a collection of steep-roofed houses
+huddled together in a height above the Agano.  It was one mob of
+pack-horses, over 200 of them, biting, squealing, and kicking.  Before I
+could dismount, one vicious creature struck at me violently, but only hit
+the great wooden stirrup.  I could hardly find any place out of the range
+of hoofs or teeth.  My baggage horse showed great fury after he was
+unloaded.  He attacked people right and left with his teeth, struck out
+savagely with his fore feet, lashed out with his hind ones, and tried to
+pin his master up against a wall.
+
+Leaving this fractious scene we struck again through the mountains.
+Their ranges were interminable, and every view from every fresh ridge
+grander than the last, for we were now near the lofty range of the Aidzu
+Mountains, and the double-peaked Bandaisan, the abrupt precipices of
+Itoyasan, and the grand mass of Miyojintaké in the south-west, with their
+vast snow-fields and snow-filled ravines, were all visible at once.
+These summits of naked rock or dazzling snow, rising above the smothering
+greenery of the lower ranges into a heaven of delicious blue, gave
+exactly that individuality and emphasis which, to my thinking, Japanese
+scenery usually lacks.  Riding on first, I arrived alone at the little
+town of Nozawa, to encounter the curiosity of a crowd; and, after a rest,
+we had a very pleasant walk of three miles along the side of a ridge
+above a rapid river with fine grey cliffs on its farther side, with a
+grand view of the Aidzu giants, violet coloured in a golden sunset.
+
+At dusk we came upon the picturesque village of Nojiri, on the margin of
+a rice valley, but I shrank from spending Sunday in a hole, and, having
+spied a solitary house on the very brow of a hill 1500 feet higher, I
+dragged out the information that it was a tea-house, and came up to it.
+It took three-quarters of an hour to climb the series of precipitous
+zigzags by which this remarkable pass is surmounted; darkness came on,
+accompanied by thunder and lightning, and just as we arrived a tremendous
+zigzag of blue flame lit up the house and its interior, showing a large
+group sitting round a wood fire, and then all was thick darkness again.
+It had a most startling effect.  This house is magnificently situated,
+almost hanging over the edge of the knife-like ridge of the pass of
+Kuruma, on which it is situated.  It is the only _yadoya_ I have been at
+from which there has been any view.  The villages are nearly always in
+the valleys, and the best rooms are at the back, and have their prospects
+limited by the paling of the conventional garden.  If it were not for the
+fleas, which are here in legions, I should stay longer, for the view of
+the Aidzu snow is delicious, and, as there are only two other houses, one
+can ramble without being mobbed.
+
+In one a child two and a half years old swallowed a fish-bone last night,
+and has been suffering and crying all day, and the grief of the mother so
+won Ito’s sympathy that he took me to see her.  She had walked up and
+down with it for eighteen hours, but never thought of looking into its
+throat, and was very unwilling that I should do so.  The bone was
+visible, and easily removed with a crochet needle.  An hour later the
+mother sent a tray with a quantity of cakes and coarse confectionery upon
+it as a present, with the piece of dried seaweed which always accompanies
+a gift.  Before night seven people with sore legs applied for “advice.”
+The sores were all superficial and all alike, and their owners said that
+they had been produced by the incessant rubbing of the bites of ants.
+
+On this summer day the country looks as prosperous as it is beautiful,
+and one would not think that acute poverty could exist in the
+steep-roofed village of Nojiri, which nestles at the foot of the hill;
+but two hempen ropes dangling from a cryptomeria just below tell the sad
+tale of an elderly man who hanged himself two days ago, because he was
+too poor to provide for a large family; and the house-mistress and Ito
+tell me that when a man who has a young family gets too old or feeble for
+work he often destroys himself.
+
+My hostess is a widow with a family, a good-natured, bustling woman, with
+a great love of talk.  All day her house is open all round, having
+literally no walls.  The roof and solitary upper room are supported on
+posts, and my ladder almost touches the kitchen fire.  During the
+day-time the large matted area under the roof has no divisions, and
+groups of travellers and _magos_ lie about, for every one who has toiled
+up either side of Kurumatogé takes a cup of “tea with eating,” and the
+house-mistress is busy the whole day.  A big well is near the fire.  Of
+course there is no furniture; but a shelf runs under the roof, on which
+there is a Buddhist god-house, with two black idols in it, one of them
+being that much-worshipped divinity, Daikoku, the god of wealth.  Besides
+a rack for kitchen utensils, there is only a stand on which are six large
+brown dishes with food for sale—salt shell-fish, in a black liquid, dried
+trout impaled on sticks, sea slugs in soy, a paste made of pounded roots,
+and green cakes made of the slimy river _confervæ_, pressed and dried—all
+ill-favoured and unsavoury viands.  This afternoon a man without clothes
+was treading flour paste on a mat, a traveller in a blue silk robe was
+lying on the floor smoking, and five women in loose attire, with
+elaborate chignons and blackened teeth, were squatting round the fire.
+At the house-mistress’s request I wrote a eulogistic description of the
+view from her house, and read it in English, Ito translating it, to the
+very great satisfaction of the assemblage.  Then I was asked to write on
+four fans.  The woman has never heard of England.  It is not “a name to
+conjure with” in these wilds.  Neither has she heard of America.  She
+knows of Russia as a great power, and, of course, of China, but there her
+knowledge ends, though she has been at Tôkiyô and Kiyotô.
+
+July 1.—I was just falling asleep last night, in spite of mosquitoes and
+fleas, when I was roused by much talking and loud outcries of poultry;
+and Ito, carrying a screaming, refractory hen, and a man and woman whom
+he had with difficulty bribed to part with it, appeared by my bed.  I
+feebly said I would have it boiled for breakfast, but when Ito called me
+this morning he told me with a most rueful face that just as he was going
+to kill it it had escaped to the woods!  In order to understand my
+feelings you must have experienced what it is not to have tasted fish,
+flesh, or fowl, for ten days!  The alternative was eggs and some of the
+paste which the man was treading yesterday on the mat cut into strips and
+boiled!  It was coarse flour and buckwheat, so, you see, I have learned
+not to be particular!
+
+                                                                  I. L. B.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER XIV.
+
+
+An Infamous Road—Monotonous Greenery—Abysmal Dirt—Low Lives—The Tsugawa
+_Yadoya_—Politeness—A Shipping Port—A Barbarian Devil.
+
+                                                        TSUGAWA, _July_ 2.
+
+YESTERDAY’S journey was one of the most severe I have yet had, for in ten
+hours of hard travelling I only accomplished fifteen miles.  The road
+from Kurumatogé westwards is so infamous that the stages are sometimes
+little more than a mile.  Yet it is by it, so far at least as the Tsugawa
+river, that the produce and manufactures of the rich plain of Aidzu, with
+its numerous towns, and of a very large interior district, must find an
+outlet at Niigata.  In defiance of all modern ideas, it goes straight up
+and straight down hill, at a gradient that I should be afraid to hazard a
+guess at, and at present it is a perfect quagmire, into which great
+stones have been thrown, some of which have subsided edgewise, and others
+have disappeared altogether.  It is the very worst road I ever rode over,
+and that is saying a good deal!  Kurumatogé was the last of seventeen
+mountain-passes, over 2000 feet high, which I have crossed since leaving
+Nikkô.  Between it and Tsugawa the scenery, though on a smaller scale, is
+of much the same character as hitherto—hills wooded to their tops, cleft
+by ravines which open out occasionally to divulge more distant ranges,
+all smothered in greenery, which, when I am ill-pleased, I am inclined to
+call “rank vegetation.”  Oh that an abrupt scaur, or a strip of flaming
+desert, or something salient and brilliant, would break in, however
+discordantly, upon this monotony of green!
+
+The villages of that district must, I think, have reached the lowest
+abyss of filthiness in Hozawa and Saikaiyama.  Fowls, dogs, horses, and
+people herded together in sheds black with wood smoke, and manure heaps
+drained into the wells.  No young boy wore any clothing.  Few of the men
+wore anything but the _maro_, the women were unclothed to their waists
+and such clothing as they had was very dirty, and held together by mere
+force of habit.  The adults were covered with inflamed bites of insects,
+and the children with skin-disease.  Their houses were dirty, and, as
+they squatted on their heels, or lay face downwards, they looked little
+better than savages.  Their appearance and the want of delicacy of their
+habits are simply abominable, and in the latter respect they contrast to
+great disadvantage with several savage peoples that I have been among.
+If I had kept to Nikkô, Hakone, Miyanoshita, and similar places visited
+by foreigners with less time, I should have formed a very different
+impression.  Is their spiritual condition, I often wonder, much higher
+than their physical one?  They are courteous, kindly, industrious, and
+free from gross crimes; but, from the conversations that I have had with
+Japanese, and from much that I see, I judge that their standard of
+foundational morality is very low, and that life is neither truthful nor
+pure.
+
+I put up here at a crowded _yadoya_, where they have given me two
+cheerful rooms in the garden, away from the crowd.  Ito’s great desire on
+arriving at any place is to shut me up in my room and keep me a close
+prisoner till the start the next morning; but here I emancipated myself,
+and enjoyed myself very much sitting in the _daidokoro_.  The
+house-master is of the _samurai_, or two-sworded class, now, as such,
+extinct.  His face is longer, his lips thinner, and his nose straighter
+and more prominent than those of the lower class, and there is a
+difference in his manner and bearing.  I have had a great deal of
+interesting conversation with him.
+
+In the same open space his clerk was writing at a lacquer desk of the
+stereotyped form—a low bench with the ends rolled over—a woman was
+tailoring, coolies were washing their feet on the _itama_, and several
+more were squatting round the _irori_ smoking and drinking tea.  A coolie
+servant washed some rice for my dinner, but before doing so took off his
+clothes, and the woman who cooked it let her _kimono_ fall to her waist
+before she began to work, as is customary among respectable women.  The
+house-master’s wife and Ito talked about me unguardedly.  I asked what
+they were saying.  “She says,” said he, “that you are very polite—for a
+foreigner,” he added.  I asked what she meant, and found that it was
+because I took off my boots before I stepped on the matting, and bowed
+when they handed me the _tabako-bon_.
+
+We walked through the town to find something eatable for to-morrow’s
+river journey, but only succeeded in getting wafers made of white of egg
+and sugar, balls made of sugar and barley flour, and beans coated with
+sugar.  Thatch, with its picturesqueness, has disappeared, and the
+Tsugawa roofs are of strips of bark weighted with large stones; but, as
+the houses turn their gable ends to the street, and there is a promenade
+the whole way under the eaves, and the street turns twice at right angles
+and terminates in temple grounds on a bank above the river, it is less
+monotonous than most Japanese towns.  It is a place of 3000 people, and a
+good deal of produce is shipped from hence to Niigata by the river.
+To-day it is thronged with pack-horses.  I was much mobbed, and one child
+formed the solitary exception to the general rule of politeness by
+calling me a name equivalent to the Chinese _Fan Kwai_, “foreign;” but he
+was severely chidden, and a policeman has just called with an apology.  A
+slice of fresh salmon has been produced, and I think I never tasted
+anything so delicious.  I have finished the first part of my land
+journey, and leave for Niigata by boat to-morrow morning.
+
+                                                                  I. L. B.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER XV.
+
+
+A Hurry—The Tsugawa Packet-boat—Running the Rapids—Fantastic Scenery—The
+River-life—Vineyards—Drying Barley—Summer Silence—The Outskirts of
+Niigata—The Church Mission House.
+
+                                                        NIIGATA, _July_ 4.
+
+THE boat for Niigata was to leave at eight, but at five Ito roused me by
+saying they were going at once, as it was full, and we left in haste, the
+house-master running to the river with one of my large baskets on his
+back to “speed the parting guest.”  Two rivers unite to form a stream
+over whose beauty I would gladly have lingered, and the morning,
+singularly rich and tender in its colouring, ripened into a glorious day
+of light without glare, and heat without oppressiveness.  The “packet”
+was a stoutly-built boat, 45 feet long by 6 broad, propelled by one man
+sculling at the stern, and another pulling a short broad-bladed oar,
+which worked in a wistaria loop at the bow.  It had a croquet mallet
+handle about 18 inches long, to which the man gave a wriggling turn at
+each stroke.  Both rower and sculler stood the whole time, clad in
+umbrella hats.  The fore part and centre carried bags of rice and crates
+of pottery, and the hinder part had a thatched roof which, when we
+started, sheltered twenty-five Japanese, but we dropped them at hamlets
+on the river, and reached Niigata with only three.  I had my chair on the
+top of the cargo, and found the voyage a delightful change from the
+fatiguing crawl through quagmires at the rate of from 15 to 18 miles a
+day.  This trip is called “running the rapids of the Tsugawa,” because
+for about twelve miles the river, hemmed in by lofty cliffs, studded with
+visible and sunken rocks, making several abrupt turns and shallowing in
+many places, hurries a boat swiftly downwards; and it is said that it
+requires long practice, skill, and coolness on the part of the boatmen to
+prevent grave and frequent accidents.  But if they are rapids, they are
+on a small scale, and look anything but formidable.  With the river at
+its present height the boats run down forty-five miles in eight hours,
+charging only 30 _sen_, or 1s. 3d., but it takes from five to seven days
+to get up, and much hard work in poling and towing.
+
+The boat had a thoroughly “native” look, with its bronzed crew, thatched
+roof, and the umbrella hats of all its passengers hanging on the mast.  I
+enjoyed every hour of the day.  It was luxury to drop quietly down the
+stream, the air was delicious, and, having heard nothing of it, the
+beauty of the Tsugawa came upon me as a pleasant surprise, besides that
+every mile brought me nearer the hoped-for home letters.  Almost as soon
+as we left Tsugawa the downward passage was apparently barred by
+fantastic mountains, which just opened their rocky gates wide enough to
+let us through, and then closed again.  Pinnacles and needles of bare,
+flushed rock rose out of luxuriant vegetation—Quiraing without its
+bareness, the Rhine without its ruins, and more beautiful than both.
+There were mountains connected by ridges no broader than a horse’s back,
+others with great gray buttresses, deep chasms cleft by streams, temples
+with pagoda roofs on heights, sunny villages with deep-thatched roofs
+hidden away among blossoming trees, and through rifts in the nearer
+ranges glimpses of snowy mountains.
+
+After a rapid run of twelve miles through this enchanting scenery, the
+remaining course of the Tsugawa is that of a broad, full stream winding
+marvellously through a wooded and tolerably level country, partially
+surrounded by snowy mountains.  The river life was very pretty.  Canoes
+abounded, some loaded with vegetables, some with wheat, others with boys
+and girls returning from school.  _Sampans_ with their white puckered
+sails in flotillas of a dozen at a time crawled up the deep water, or
+were towed through the shallows by crews frolicking and shouting.  Then
+the scene changed to a broad and deep river, with a peculiar alluvial
+smell from the quantity of vegetable matter held in suspension, flowing
+calmly between densely wooded, bamboo-fringed banks, just high enough to
+conceal the surrounding country.  No houses, or nearly none, are to be
+seen, but signs of a continuity of population abound.  Every hundred
+yards almost there is a narrow path to the river through the jungle, with
+a canoe moored at its foot.  Erections like gallows, with a swinging
+bamboo, with a bucket at one end and a stone at the other, occurring
+continually, show the vicinity of households dependent upon the river for
+their water supply.  Wherever the banks admitted of it, horses were being
+washed by having water poured over their backs with a dipper, naked
+children were rolling in the mud, and cackling of poultry, human voices,
+and sounds of industry, were ever floating towards us from the dense
+greenery of the shores, making one feel without seeing that the margin
+was very populous.  Except the boatmen and myself, no one was awake
+during the hot, silent afternoon—it was dreamy and delicious.
+Occasionally, as we floated down, vineyards were visible with the vines
+trained on horizontal trellises, or bamboo rails, often forty feet long,
+nailed horizontally on cryptomeria to a height of twenty feet, on which
+small sheaves of barley were placed astride to dry till the frame was
+full.
+
+More forest, more dreams, then the forest and the abundant vegetation
+altogether disappeared, the river opened out among low lands and banks of
+shingle and sand, and by three we were on the outskirts of Niigata, whose
+low houses,—with rows of stones upon their roofs, spread over a stretch
+of sand, beyond which is a sandy roll with some clumps of firs.
+Tea-houses with many balconies studded the river-side, and
+pleasure-parties were enjoying themselves with _geishas_ and _saké_, but,
+on the whole, the water-side streets are shabby and tumble down, and the
+landward side of the great city of western Japan is certainly
+disappointing; and it was difficult to believe it a Treaty Port, for the
+sea was not in sight, and there were no consular flags flying.  We poled
+along one of the numerous canals, which are the carriage-ways for produce
+and goods, among hundreds of loaded boats, landed in the heart of the
+city, and, as the result of repeated inquiries, eventually reached the
+Church Mission House, an unshaded wooden building without verandahs,
+close to the Government Buildings, where I was most kindly welcomed by
+Mr. and Mrs. Fyson.
+
+The house is plain, simple, and inconveniently small; but doors and walls
+are great luxuries, and you cannot imagine how pleasing the ways of a
+refined European household are after the eternal babblement and indecorum
+of the Japanese.
+
+                                                                  I. L. B.
+
+                       [Picture: Buddhist Priests]
+
+
+
+ITINERARY of ROUTE from NIKKÔ to NIIGATA
+(Kinugawa Route.)
+
+
+From Tôkiyô to
+
+                  No. of houses.    _Ri_.        _Chô_.
+Nikkô                                        36
+Kohiaku                          6            2        18
+Kisagoi                         19            1        18
+Fujihara                        46            2        19
+Takahara                        15            2        10
+Ikari                           25            2
+Nakamiyo                        10            1        24
+Yokokawa                        20            2        21
+Itosawa                         38            2        34
+Kayashima                       57            1         4
+Tajima                         250            1        21
+Toyonari                       120            2        12
+Atomi                           34            1
+Ouchi                           27            2        12
+Ichikawa                         7            2        22
+Takata                         420            2        11
+Bangé                          910            3         4
+Katakado                        50            1        20
+Nosawa                         306            3        24
+Nojiri                         110            1        27
+Kurumatogé                       3                      9
+Hozawa                          20            1        14
+Torige                          21            1
+Sakaiyama                       28                     24
+Tsugawa                        615            2        18
+Niigata               50,000 souls           18
+                                      _Ri_. 101         6
+
+About 247 miles.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER XVI.
+
+
+Abominable Weather—Insect Pests—Absence of Foreign Trade—A Refractory
+River—Progress—The Japanese City—Water Highways—Niigata Gardens—Ruth
+Fyson—The Winter Climate—A Population in Wadding.
+
+                                                        NIIGATA, _July_ 9.
+
+I HAVE spent over a week in Niigata, and leave it regretfully to-morrow,
+rather for the sake of the friends I have made than for its own
+interests.  I never experienced a week of more abominable weather.  The
+sun has been seen just once, the mountains, which are thirty miles off,
+not at all.  The clouds are a brownish grey, the air moist and
+motionless, and the mercury has varied from 82° in the day to 80° at
+night.  The household is afflicted with lassitude and loss of appetite.
+Evening does not bring coolness, but myriads of flying, creeping,
+jumping, running creatures, all with power to hurt, which replace the day
+mosquitoes, villains with spotted legs, which bite and poison one without
+the warning hum.  The night mosquitoes are legion.  There are no walks
+except in the streets and the public gardens, for Niigata is built on a
+sand spit, hot and bare.  Neither can you get a view of it without
+climbing to the top of a wooden look-out.
+
+Niigata is a Treaty Port without foreign trade, and almost without
+foreign residents.  Not a foreign ship visited the port either last year
+or this.  There are only two foreign firms, and these are German, and
+only eighteen foreigners, of which number, except the missionaries,
+nearly all are in Government employment.  Its river, the Shinano, is the
+largest in Japan, and it and its affluents bring down a prodigious volume
+of water.  But Japanese rivers are much choked with sand and shingle
+washed down from the mountains.  In all that I have seen, except those
+which are physically limited by walls of hard rock, a river-bed is a
+waste of sand, boulders, and shingle, through the middle of which, among
+sand-banks and shallows, the river proper takes its devious course.  In
+the freshets, which occur to a greater or less extent every year,
+enormous volumes of water pour over these wastes, carrying sand and
+detritus down to the mouths, which are all obstructed by bars.  Of these
+rivers the Shinano, being the biggest, is the most refractory, and has
+piled up a bar at its entrance through which there is only a passage
+seven feet deep, which is perpetually shallowing.  The minds of engineers
+are much exercised upon the Shinano, and the Government is most anxious
+to deepen the channel and give Western Japan what it has not—a harbour;
+but the expense of the necessary operation is enormous, and in the
+meantime a limited ocean traffic is carried on by junks and by a few
+small Japanese steamers which call outside. {115a}  There is a British
+Vice-Consulate, but, except as a step, few would accept such a dreary
+post or outpost.
+
+But Niigata is a handsome, prosperous city of 50,000 inhabitants, the
+capital of the wealthy province of Echigo, with a population of one and a
+half millions, and is the seat of the _Kenrei_, or provincial governor,
+of the chief law courts, of fine schools, a hospital, and barracks.  It
+is curious to find in such an excluded town a school deserving the
+designation of a college, as it includes intermediate, primary, and
+normal schools, an English school with 150 pupils, organised by English
+and American teachers, an engineering school, a geological museum,
+splendidly equipped laboratories, and the newest and most approved
+scientific and educational apparatus.  The Government Buildings, which
+are grouped near Mr. Fyson’s, are of painted white wood, and are imposing
+from their size and their innumerable glass windows.  There is a large
+hospital {115b} arranged by a European doctor, with a medical school
+attached, and it, the _Kenchô_, the _Saibanchô_, or Court House, the
+schools, the barracks, and a large bank, which is rivalling them all,
+have a go-ahead, Europeanised look, bold, staring, and tasteless.  There
+are large public gardens, very well laid out, and with finely gravelled
+walks.  There are 300 street lamps, which burn the mineral oil of the
+district.
+
+Yet, because the riotous Shinano persistently bars it out from the sea,
+its natural highway, the capital of one of the richest provinces of Japan
+is “left out in the cold,” and the province itself, which yields not only
+rice, silk, tea, hemp, _ninjin_, and indigo, in large quantities, but
+gold, copper, coal, and petroleum, has to send most of its produce to
+Yedo across ranges of mountains, on the backs of pack-horses, by roads
+scarcely less infamous than the one by which I came.
+
+The Niigata of the Government, with its signs of progress in a western
+direction, is quite unattractive-looking as compared with the genuine
+Japanese Niigata, which is the neatest, cleanest, and most
+comfortable-looking town I have yet seen, and altogether free from the
+jostlement of a foreign settlement.  It is renowned for the beautiful
+tea-houses, which attract visitors from distant places, and for the
+excellence of the theatres, and is the centre of the recreation and
+pleasure of a large district.  It is so beautifully clean that, as at
+Nikkô, I should feel reluctant to walk upon its well-swept streets in
+muddy boots.  It would afford a good lesson to the Edinburgh authorities,
+for every vagrant bit of straw, stick, or paper, is at once pounced upon
+and removed, and no rubbish may stand for an instant in its streets
+except in a covered box or bucket.  It is correctly laid out in square
+divisions, formed by five streets over a mile long, crossed by very
+numerous short ones, and is intersected by canals, which are its real
+roadways.  I have not seen a pack-horse in the streets; everything comes
+in by boat, and there are few houses in the city which cannot have their
+goods delivered by canal very near to their doors.  These water-ways are
+busy all day, but in the early morning, when the boats come in loaded
+with the vegetables, without which the people could not exist for a day,
+the bustle is indescribable.  The cucumber boats just now are the great
+sight.  The canals are usually in the middle of the streets, and have
+fairly broad roadways on both sides.  They are much below the street
+level, and their nearly perpendicular banks are neatly faced with wood,
+broken at intervals by flights of stairs.  They are bordered by trees,
+among which are many weeping willows; and, as the river water runs
+through them, keeping them quite sweet, and they are crossed at short
+intervals by light bridges, they form a very attractive feature of
+Niigata.
+
+                       [Picture: Street and Canal]
+
+The houses have very steep roofs of shingle, weighted with stones, and,
+as they are of very irregular heights, and all turn the steep gables of
+the upper stories streetwards, the town has a picturesqueness very
+unusual in Japan.  The deep verandahs are connected all along the
+streets, so as to form a sheltered promenade when the snow lies deep in
+winter.  With its canals with their avenues of trees, its fine public
+gardens, and clean, picturesque streets, it is a really attractive town;
+but its improvements are recent, and were only lately completed by Mr.
+Masakata Kusumoto, now Governor of Tôkiyô.  There is no appearance of
+poverty in any part of the town, but if there be wealth, it is carefully
+concealed.  One marked feature of the city is the number of streets of
+dwelling-houses with projecting windows of wooden _slats_, through which
+the people can see without being seen, though at night, when the _andons_
+are lit, we saw, as we walked from Dr. Palm’s, that in most cases
+families were sitting round the _hibachi_ in a _déshabillé_ of the
+scantiest kind.
+
+The fronts are very narrow, and the houses extend backwards to an amazing
+length, with gardens in which flowers, shrubs, and mosquitoes are grown,
+and bridges are several times repeated, so as to give the effect of
+fairyland as you look through from the street.  The principal apartments
+in all Japanese houses are at the back, looking out on these miniature
+landscapes, for a landscape is skilfully dwarfed into a space often not
+more than 30 feet square.  A lake, a rock-work, a bridge, a stone
+lantern, and a deformed pine, are indispensable; but whenever
+circumstances and means admit of it, quaintnesses of all kinds are
+introduced.  Small pavilions, retreats for tea-making, reading, sleeping
+in quiet and coolness, fishing under cover, and drinking _saké_; bronze
+pagodas, cascades falling from the mouths of bronze dragons; rock caves,
+with gold and silver fish darting in and out; lakes with rocky islands,
+streams crossed by green bridges, just high enough to allow a rat or frog
+to pass under; lawns, and slabs of stone for crossing them in wet
+weather, grottoes, hills, valleys, groves of miniature palms, cycas, and
+bamboo; and dwarfed trees of many kinds, of purplish and dull green hues,
+are cut into startling likenesses of beasts and creeping things, or
+stretch distorted arms over tiny lakes.
+
+I have walked about a great deal in Niigata, and when with Mrs. Fyson,
+who is the only European lady here at present, and her little Ruth, a
+pretty Saxon child of three years old, we have been followed by an
+immense crowd, as the sight of this fair creature, with golden curls
+falling over her shoulders, is most fascinating.  Both men and women have
+gentle, winning ways with infants, and Ruth, instead of being afraid of
+the crowds, smiles upon them, bows in Japanese fashion, speaks to them in
+Japanese, and seems a little disposed to leave her own people altogether.
+It is most difficult to make her keep with us, and two or three times, on
+missing her and looking back, we have seen her seated, native fashion, in
+a ring in a crowd of several hundred people, receiving a homage and
+admiration from which she was most unwillingly torn.  The Japanese have a
+perfect passion for children, but it is not good for European children to
+be much with them, as they corrupt their morals, and teach them to tell
+lies.
+
+The climate of Niigata and of most of this great province contrasts
+unpleasantly with the region on the other side of the mountains, warmed
+by the gulf-stream of the North Pacific, in which the autumn and winter,
+with their still atmosphere, bracing temperature, and blue and sunny
+skies, are the most delightful seasons of the year.  Thirty-two days of
+snow-fall occur on an average.  The canals and rivers freeze, and even
+the rapid Shinano sometimes bears a horse.  In January and February the
+snow lies three or four feet deep, a veil of clouds obscures the sky,
+people inhabit their upper rooms to get any daylight, pack-horse traffic
+is suspended, pedestrians go about with difficulty in rough snow-shoes,
+and for nearly six months the coast is unsuitable for navigation, owing
+to the prevalence of strong, cold, north-west winds.  In this city people
+in wadded clothes, with only their eyes exposed, creep about under the
+verandahs.  The population huddles round _hibachis_ and shivers, for the
+mercury, which rises to 92° in summer, falls to 15° in winter.  And all
+this is in latitude 37° 55′—three degrees south of Naples!
+
+                                                                  I. L. B.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER XVII
+
+
+The Canal-side at Niigata—Awful Loneliness—Courtesy—Dr. Palm’s Tandem—A
+Noisy _Matsuri_—A Jolting Journey—The Mountain Villages—Winter
+Dismalness—An Out-of-the-world Hamlet—Crowded Dwellings—Riding a
+Cow—“Drunk and Disorderly”—An Enforced Rest—Local Discouragements—Heavy
+Loads—Absence of Beggary—Slow Travelling.
+
+                                                      ICHINONO, _July_ 12.
+
+TWO foreign ladies, two fair-haired foreign infants, a long-haired
+foreign dog, and a foreign gentleman, who, without these accompaniments,
+might have escaped notice, attracted a large but kindly crowd to the
+canal side when I left Niigata.  The natives bore away the children on
+their shoulders, the Fysons walked to the extremity of the canal to bid
+me good-bye, the _sampan_ shot out upon the broad, swirling flood of the
+Shinano, and an awful sense of loneliness fell upon me.  We crossed the
+Shinano, poled up the narrow, embanked Shinkawa, had a desperate struggle
+with the flooded Aganokawa, were much impeded by strings of nauseous
+manure-boats on the narrow, discoloured Kajikawa, wondered at the
+interminable melon and cucumber fields, and at the odd river life, and,
+after hard poling for six hours, reached Kisaki, having accomplished
+exactly ten miles.  Then three _kurumas_ with trotting runners took us
+twenty miles at the low rate of 4½ _sen_ per _ri_.  In one place a board
+closed the road, but, on representing to the chief man of the village
+that the traveller was a foreigner, he courteously allowed me to pass,
+the Express Agent having accompanied me thus far to see that I “got
+through all right.”  The road was tolerably populous throughout the day’s
+journey, and the farming villages which extended much of the way—Tsuiji,
+Kasayanagê, Mono, and Mari—were neat, and many of the farms had bamboo
+fences to screen them from the road.  It was, on the whole, a pleasant
+country, and the people, though little clothed, did not look either poor
+or very dirty.  The soil was very light and sandy.  There were, in fact,
+“pine barrens,” sandy ridges with nothing on them but spindly Scotch firs
+and fir scrub; but the sandy levels between them, being heavily manured
+and cultivated like gardens, bore splendid crops of cucumbers trained
+like peas, melons, vegetable marrow, _Arum esculentum_, sweet potatoes,
+maize, tea, tiger-lilies, beans, and onions; and extensive orchards with
+apples and pears trained laterally on trellis-work eight feet high, were
+a novelty in the landscape.
+
+Though we were all day drawing nearer to mountains wooded to their
+summits on the east, the amount of vegetation was not burdensome, the
+rice swamps were few, and the air felt drier and less relaxing.  As my
+runners were trotting merrily over one of the pine barrens, I met Dr.
+Palm returning from one of his medico-religious expeditions, with a
+tandem of two naked coolies, who were going over the ground at a great
+pace, and I wished that some of the most staid directors of the Edinburgh
+Medical Missionary Society could have the shock of seeing him!  I shall
+not see a European again for some weeks.  From Tsuiji, a very neat
+village, where we changed _kurumas_, we were jolted along over a shingly
+road to Nakajo, a considerable town just within treaty limits.  The
+Japanese doctors there, as in some other places, are Dr. Palm’s cordial
+helpers, and five or six of them, whom he regards as possessing the rare
+virtues of candour, earnestness, and single-mindedness, and who have
+studied English medical works, have clubbed together to establish a
+dispensary, and, under Dr. Palm’s instructions, are even carrying out the
+antiseptic treatment successfully, after some ludicrous failures!
+
+We dashed through Nakajo as _kuruma_-runners always dash through towns
+and villages, got out of it in a drizzle upon an avenue of firs, three or
+four deep, which extends from Nakajo to Kurokawa, and for some miles
+beyond were jolted over a damp valley on which tea and rice alternated,
+crossed two branches of the shingly Kurokawa on precarious bridges,
+rattled into the town of Kurokawa, much decorated with flags and
+lanterns, where the people were all congregated at a shrine where there
+was much drumming, and a few girls, much painted and bedizened, were
+dancing or posturing on a raised and covered platform, in honour of the
+god of the place, whose _matsuri_ or festival it was; and out again, to
+be mercilessly jolted under the firs in the twilight to a solitary house
+where the owner made some difficulty about receiving us, as his licence
+did not begin till the next day, but eventually succumbed, and gave me
+his one upstairs room, exactly five feet high, which hardly allowed of my
+standing upright with my hat on.  He then rendered it suffocating by
+closing the _amado_, for the reason often given, that if he left them
+open and the house was robbed, the police would not only blame him
+severely, but would not take any trouble to recover his property.  He had
+no rice, so I indulged in a feast of delicious cucumbers.  I never saw so
+many eaten as in that district.  Children gnaw them all day long, and
+even babies on their mothers’ backs suck them with avidity.  Just now
+they are sold for a _sen_ a dozen.
+
+It is a mistake to arrive at a _yadoya_ after dark.  Even if the best
+rooms are not full it takes fully an hour to get my food and the room
+ready, and meanwhile I cannot employ my time usefully because of the
+mosquitoes.  There was heavy rain all night, accompanied by the first
+wind that I have heard since landing; and the fitful creaking of the
+pines and the drumming from the shrine made me glad to get up at sunrise,
+or rather at daylight, for there has not been a sunrise since I came, or
+a sunset either.  That day we travelled by Sekki to Kawaguchi in
+_kurumas_, i.e. we were sometimes bumped over stones, sometimes deposited
+on the edge of a quagmire, and asked to get out; and sometimes compelled
+to walk for two or three miles at a time along the infamous bridle-track
+above the river Arai, up which two men could hardly push and haul an
+empty vehicle; and, as they often had to lift them bodily and carry them
+for some distance, I was really glad when we reached the village of
+Kawaguchi to find that they could go no farther, though, as we could only
+get one horse, I had to walk the last stage in a torrent of rain, poorly
+protected by my paper waterproof cloak.
+
+We are now in the midst of the great central chain of the Japanese
+mountains, which extends almost without a break for 900 miles, and is
+from 40 to 100 miles in width, broken up into interminable ranges
+traversable only by steep passes from 1000 to 5000 feet in height, with
+innumerable rivers, ravines, and valleys, the heights and ravines heavily
+timbered, the rivers impetuous and liable to freshets, and the valleys
+invariably terraced for rice.  It is in the valleys that the villages are
+found, and regions more isolated I have never seen, shut out by bad roads
+from the rest of Japan.  The houses are very poor, the summer costume of
+the men consists of the _maro_ only, and that of the women of trousers
+with an open shirt, and when we reached Kurosawa last night it had
+dwindled to trousers only.  There is little traffic, and very few horses
+are kept, one, two, or three constituting the live stock of a large
+village.  The shops, such as they are, contain the barest necessaries of
+life.  Millet and buckwheat rather than rice, with the universal
+_daikon_, are the staples of diet The climate is wet in summer and
+bitterly cold in winter.  Even now it is comfortless enough for the
+people to come in wet, just to warm the tips of their fingers at the
+_irori_, stifled the while with the stinging smoke, while the damp wind
+flaps the torn paper of the windows about, and damp draughts sweep the
+ashes over the _tatami_ until the house is hermetically sealed at night.
+These people never know anything of what we regard as comfort, and in the
+long winter, when the wretched bridle-tracks are blocked by snow and the
+freezing wind blows strong, and the families huddle round the smoky fire
+by the doleful glimmer of the _andon_, without work, books, or play, to
+shiver through the long evenings in chilly dreariness, and herd together
+for warmth at night like animals, their condition must be as miserable as
+anything short of grinding poverty can make it.
+
+I saw things at their worst that night as I tramped into the hamlet of
+Numa, down whose sloping street a swollen stream was running, which the
+people were banking out of their houses.  I was wet and tired, and the
+woman at the one wretched _yadoya_ met me, saying, “I’m sorry it’s very
+dirty and quite unfit for so honourable a guest;” and she was right, for
+the one room was up a ladder, the windows were in tatters, there was no
+charcoal for a _hibachi_, no eggs, and the rice was so dirty and so full
+of a small black seed as to be unfit to eat.  Worse than all, there was
+no Transport Office, the hamlet did not possess a horse, and it was only
+by sending to a farmer five miles off, and by much bargaining, that I got
+on the next morning.  In estimating the number of people in a given
+number of houses in Japan, it is usual to multiply the houses by five,
+but I had the curiosity to walk through Numa and get Ito to translate the
+tallies which hang outside all Japanese houses with the names, number,
+and sexes of their inmates, and in twenty-four houses there were 307
+people!  In some there were four families—the grand-parents, the parents,
+the eldest son with his wife and family, and a daughter or two with their
+husbands and children.  The eldest son, who inherits the house and land,
+almost invariably brings his wife to his father’s house, where she often
+becomes little better than a slave to her mother-in-law.  By rigid custom
+she literally forsakes her own kindred, and her “filial duty” is
+transferred to her husband’s mother, who often takes a dislike to her,
+and instigates her son to divorce her if she has no children.  My hostess
+had induced her son to divorce his wife, and she could give no better
+reason for it than that she was lazy.
+
+The Numa people, she said, had never seen a foreigner, so, though the
+rain still fell heavily, they were astir in the early morning.  They
+wanted to hear me speak, so I gave my orders to Ito in public.  Yesterday
+was a most toilsome day, mainly spent in stumbling up and sliding down
+the great passes of Futai, Takanasu, and Yenoiki, all among
+forest-covered mountains, deeply cleft by forest-choked ravines, with now
+and then one of the snowy peaks of Aidzu breaking the monotony of the
+ocean of green.  The horses’ shoes were tied and untied every few
+minutes, and we made just a mile an hour!  At last we were deposited in a
+most unpromising place in the hamlet of Tamagawa, and were told that a
+rice merchant, after waiting for three days, had got every horse in the
+country.  At the end of two hours’ chaffering one baggage coolie was
+produced, some of the things were put on the rice horses, and a steed
+with a pack-saddle was produced for me in the shape of a plump and pretty
+little cow, which carried me safely over the magnificent pass of Ori and
+down to the town of Okimi, among rice-fields, where, in a drowning rain,
+I was glad to get shelter with a number of coolies by a wood-fire till
+another pack-cow was produced, and we walked on through the rice-fields
+and up into the hills again to Kurosawa, where I had intended to remain;
+but there was no inn, and the farm-house where they take in travellers,
+besides being on the edge of a malarious pond, and being dark and full of
+stinging smoke, was so awfully dirty and full of living creatures, that,
+exhausted as I was, I was obliged to go on.  But it was growing dark,
+there was no Transport Office, and for the first time the people were
+very slightly extortionate, and drove Ito nearly to his wits’ end.  The
+peasants do not like to be out after dark, for they are afraid of ghosts
+and all sorts of devilments, and it was difficult to induce them to start
+so late in the evening.
+
+There was not a house clean enough to rest in, so I sat on a stone and
+thought about the people for over an hour.  Children with scald-head,
+_scabies_, and sore eyes swarmed.  Every woman carried a baby on her
+back, and every child who could stagger under one carried one too.  Not
+one woman wore anything but cotton trousers.  One woman reeled about
+“drunk and disorderly.”  Ito sat on a stone hiding his face in his hands,
+and when I asked him if he were ill, he replied in a most lamentable
+voice, “I don’t know what I am to do, I’m so ashamed for you to see such
+things!”  The boy is only eighteen, and I pitied him.  I asked him if
+women were often drunk, and he said they were in Yokohama, but they
+usually kept in their houses.  He says that when their husbands give them
+money to pay bills at the end of a month, they often spend it in _saké_,
+and that they sometimes get _saké_ in shops and have it put down as rice
+or tea.  “The old, old story!”  I looked at the dirt and barbarism, and
+asked if this were the Japan of which I had read.  Yet a woman in this
+unseemly costume firmly refused to take the 2 or 3 _sen_ which it is
+usual to leave at a place where you rest, because she said that I had had
+water and not tea, and after I had forced it on her, she returned it to
+Ito, and this redeeming incident sent me away much comforted.
+
+From Numa the distance here is only 1½ _ri_, but it is over the steep
+pass of Honoki, which is ascended and descended by hundreds of rude stone
+steps, not pleasant in the dark.  On this pass I saw birches for the
+first time; at its foot we entered Yamagata _ken_ by a good bridge, and
+shortly reached this village, in which an unpromising-looking farm-house
+is the only accommodation; but though all the rooms but two are taken up
+with silk-worms, those two are very good and look upon a miniature lake
+and rockery.  The one objection to my room is that to get either in or
+out of it I must pass through the other, which is occupied by five
+tobacco merchants who are waiting for transport, and who while away the
+time by strumming on that instrument of dismay, the _samisen_.  No horses
+or cows can be got for me, so I am spending the day quietly here, rather
+glad to rest, for I am much exhausted.  When I am suffering much from my
+spine Ito always gets into a fright and thinks I am going to die, as he
+tells me when I am better, but shows his anxiety by a short, surly
+manner, which is most disagreeable.  He thinks we shall never get through
+the interior!  Mr. Brunton’s excellent map fails in this region, so it is
+only by fixing on the well-known city of Yamagata and devising routes to
+it that we get on.  Half the evening is spent in consulting Japanese
+maps, if we can get them, and in questioning the house-master and
+Transport Agent, and any chance travellers; but the people know nothing
+beyond the distance of a few _ri_, and the agents seldom tell one
+anything beyond the next stage.  When I inquire about the “unbeaten
+tracks” that I wish to take, the answers are, “It’s an awful road through
+mountains,” or “There are many bad rivers to cross,” or “There are none
+but farmers’ houses to stop at.”  No encouragement is ever given, but we
+get on, and shall get on, I doubt not, though the hardships are not what
+I would desire in my present state of health.
+
+Very few horses are kept here.  Cows and coolies carry much of the
+merchandise, and women as well as men carry heavy loads.  A baggage
+coolie carries about 50 lbs., but here merchants carrying their own goods
+from Yamagata actually carry from 90 to 140 lbs., and even more.  It is
+sickening to meet these poor fellows struggling over the mountain-passes
+in evident distress.  Last night five of them were resting on the summit
+ridge of a pass gasping violently.  Their eyes were starting out; all
+their muscles, rendered painfully visible by their leanness, were
+quivering; rills of blood from the bite of insects, which they cannot
+drive away, were literally running all over their naked bodies, washed
+away here and there by copious perspiration.  Truly “in the sweat of
+their brows” they were eating bread and earning an honest living for
+their families!  Suffering and hard-worked as they were, they were quite
+independent.  I have not seen a beggar or beggary in this strange
+country.  The women were carrying 70 lbs.  These burden-bearers have
+their backs covered by a thick pad of plaited straw.  On this rests a
+ladder, curved up at the lower end like the runners of a sleigh.  On this
+the load is carefully packed till it extends from below the man’s waist
+to a considerable height above his head.  It is covered with waterproof
+paper, securely roped, and thatched with straw, and is supported by a
+broad padded band just below the collar bones.  Of course, as the man
+walks nearly bent double, and the position is a very painful one, he
+requires to stop and straighten himself frequently, and unless he meets
+with a bank of convenient height, he rests the bottom of his burden on a
+short, stout pole with an L-shaped top, carried for this purpose.  The
+carrying of enormous loads is quite a feature of this region, and so, I
+am sorry to say, are red stinging ants and the small gadflies which
+molest the coolies.
+
+Yesterday’s journey was 18 miles in twelve hours!  Ichinono is a nice,
+industrious hamlet, given up, like all others, to rearing silk-worms, and
+the pure white and sulphur yellow cocoons are drying on mats in the sun
+everywhere.
+
+                                                                  I. L. B.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER XVIII.
+
+
+Comely Kine—Japanese Criticism on a Foreign Usage—A Pleasant Halt—Renewed
+Courtesies—The Plain of Yonezawa—A Curious Mistake—The Mother’s
+Memorial—Arrival at Komatsu—Stately Accommodation—A Vicious Horse—An
+Asiatic Arcadia—A Fashionable Watering-place—A Belle—“Godowns.”
+
+                                                               KAMINOYAMA.
+
+A SEVERE day of mountain travelling brought us into another region.  We
+left Ichinono early on a fine morning, with three pack-cows, one of which
+I rode [and their calves], very comely kine, with small noses, short
+horns, straight spines, and deep bodies.  I thought that I might get some
+fresh milk, but the idea of anything but a calf milking a cow was so new
+to the people that there was a universal laugh, and Ito told me that they
+thought it “most disgusting,” and that the Japanese think it “most
+disgusting” in foreigners to put anything “with such a strong smell and
+taste” into their tea!  All the cows had cotton cloths, printed with blue
+dragons, suspended under their bodies to keep them from mud and insects,
+and they wear straw shoes and cords through the cartilages of their
+noses.  The day being fine, a great deal of rice and _saké_ was on the
+move, and we met hundreds of pack-cows, all of the same comely breed, in
+strings of four.
+
+We crossed the Sakuratogé, from which the view is beautiful, got horses
+at the mountain village of Shirakasawa, crossed more passes, and in the
+afternoon reached the village of Tenoko.  There, as usual, I sat under
+the verandah of the Transport Office, and waited for the one horse which
+was available.  It was a large shop, but contained not a single article
+of European make.  In the one room a group of women and children sat
+round the fire, and the agent sat as usual with a number of ledgers at a
+table a foot high, on which his grandchild was lying on a cushion.  Here
+Ito dined on seven dishes of horrors, and they brought me _saké_, tea,
+rice, and black beans.  The last are very good.  We had some talk about
+the country, and the man asked me to write his name in English
+characters, and to write my own in a book.  Meanwhile a crowd assembled,
+and the front row sat on the ground that the others might see over their
+heads.  They were dirty and pressed very close, and when the women of the
+house saw that I felt the heat they gracefully produced fans and fanned
+me for a whole hour.  On asking the charge they refused to make any, and
+would not receive anything.  They had not seen a foreigner before, they
+said, they would despise themselves for taking anything, they had my
+“honourable name” in their book.  Not only that, but they put up a parcel
+of sweetmeats, and the man wrote his name on a fan and insisted on my
+accepting it.  I was grieved to have nothing to give them but some
+English pins, but they had never seen such before, and soon circulated
+them among the crowd.  I told them truly that I should remember them as
+long as I remember Japan, and went on, much touched by their kindness.
+
+The lofty pass of Utsu, which is ascended and descended by a number of
+stone slabs, is the last of the passes of these choked-up ranges.  From
+its summit in the welcome sunlight I joyfully looked down upon the noble
+plain of Yonezawa, about 30 miles long and from 10 to 18 broad, one of
+the gardens of Japan, wooded and watered, covered with prosperous towns
+and villages, surrounded by magnificent mountains not altogether
+timbered, and bounded at its southern extremity by ranges white with snow
+even in the middle of July.
+
+In the long street of the farming village of Matsuhara a man amazed me by
+running in front of me and speaking to me, and on Ito coming up, he
+assailed him vociferously, and it turned out that he took me for an Aino,
+one of the subjugated aborigines of Yezo.  I have before now been taken
+for a Chinese!
+
+Throughout the province of Echigo I have occasionally seen a piece of
+cotton cloth suspended by its four corners from four bamboo poles just
+above a quiet stream.  Behind it there is usually a long narrow tablet,
+notched at the top, similar to those seen in cemeteries, with characters
+upon it.  Sometimes bouquets of flowers are placed in the hollow top of
+each bamboo, and usually there are characters on the cloth itself.
+Within it always lies a wooden dipper.  In coming down from Tenoko I
+passed one of these close to the road, and a Buddhist priest was at the
+time pouring a dipper full of water into it, which strained slowly
+through.  As he was going our way we joined him, and he explained its
+meaning.
+
+                    [Picture: The Flowing Invocation]
+
+According to him the tablet bears on it the _kaimiyô_, or posthumous name
+of a woman.  The flowers have the same significance as those which loving
+hands place on the graves of kindred.  If there are characters on the
+cloth, they represent the well-known invocation of the Nichiren sect,
+_Namu miô hô ren gé kiô_.  The pouring of the water into the cloth, often
+accompanied by telling the beads on a rosary, is a prayer.  The whole is
+called “The Flowing Invocation.”  I have seldom seen anything more
+plaintively affecting, for it denotes that a mother in the first joy of
+maternity has passed away to suffer (according to popular belief) in the
+Lake of Blood, one of the Buddhist hells, for a sin committed in a former
+state of being, and it appeals to every passer-by to shorten the
+penalties of a woman in anguish, for in that lake she must remain until
+the cloth is so utterly worn out that the water falls through it at once.
+
+Where the mountains come down upon the plain of Yonezawa there are
+several raised banks, and you can take one step from the hillside to a
+dead level.  The soil is dry and gravelly at the junction, ridges of
+pines appeared, and the look of the houses suggested increased
+cleanliness and comfort.  A walk of six miles took us from Tenoko to
+Komatsu, a beautifully situated town of 3000 people, with a large trade
+in cotton goods, silk, and _saké_.
+
+As I entered Komatsu the first man whom I met turned back hastily, called
+into the first house the words which mean “Quick, here’s a foreigner;”
+the three carpenters who were at work there flung down their tools and,
+without waiting to put on their _kimonos_, sped down the street calling
+out the news, so that by the time I reached the _yadoya_ a large crowd
+was pressing upon me.  The front was mean and unpromising-looking, but,
+on reaching the back by a stone bridge over a stream which ran through
+the house, I found a room 40 feet long by 15 high, entirely open along
+one side to a garden with a large fish-pond with goldfish, a pagoda,
+dwarf trees, and all the usual miniature adornments.  _Fusuma_ of
+wrinkled blue paper splashed with gold turned this “gallery” into two
+rooms; but there was no privacy, for the crowds climbed upon the roofs at
+the back, and sat there patiently until night.
+
+These were _daimiyô’s_ rooms.  The posts and ceilings were ebony and
+gold, the mats very fine, the polished alcoves decorated with inlaid
+writing-tables and sword-racks; spears nine feet long, with handles of
+lacquer inlaid with Venus’ ear, hung in the verandah, the washing bowl
+was fine inlaid black lacquer, and the rice-bowls and their covers were
+gold lacquer.
+
+In this, as in many other _yadoyas_, there were _kakémonos_ with large
+Chinese characters representing the names of the Prime Minister,
+Provincial Governor, or distinguished General, who had honoured it by
+halting there, and lines of poetry were hung up, as is usual, in the same
+fashion.  I have several times been asked to write something to be thus
+displayed.  I spent Sunday at Komatsu, but not restfully, owing to the
+nocturnal croaking of the frogs in the pond.  In it, as in most towns,
+there were shops which sell nothing but white, frothy-looking cakes,
+which are used for the goldfish which are so much prized, and three times
+daily the women and children of the household came into the garden to
+feed them.
+
+When I left Komatsu there were fully sixty people inside the house and
+1500 outside—walls, verandahs, and even roofs being packed.  From Nikkô
+to Komatsu mares had been exclusively used, but there I encountered for
+the first time the terrible Japanese pack-horse.  Two horridly
+fierce-looking creatures were at the door, with their heads tied down
+till their necks were completely arched.  When I mounted the crowd
+followed, gathering as it went, frightening the horse with the clatter of
+clogs and the sound of a multitude, till he broke his head-rope, and, the
+frightened _mago_ letting him go, he proceeded down the street mainly on
+his hind feet, squealing, and striking savagely with his fore feet, the
+crowd scattering to the right and left, till, as it surged past the
+police station, four policemen came out and arrested it; only to gather
+again, however, for there was a longer street, down which my horse
+proceeded in the same fashion, and, looking round, I saw Ito’s horse on
+his hind legs and Ito on the ground.  My beast jumped over all ditches,
+attacked all foot-passengers with his teeth, and behaved so like a wild
+animal that not all my previous acquaintance with the idiosyncrasies of
+horses enabled me to cope with him.  On reaching Akayu we found a horse
+fair, and, as all the horses had their heads tightly tied down to posts,
+they could only squeal and lash out with their hind feet, which so
+provoked our animals that the baggage horse, by a series of jerks and
+rearings, divested himself of Ito and most of the baggage, and, as I
+dismounted from mine, he stood upright, and my foot catching I fell on
+the ground, when he made several vicious dashes at me with his teeth and
+fore feet, which were happily frustrated by the dexterity of some _mago_.
+These beasts forcibly remind me of the words, “Whose mouth must be held
+with bit and bridle, lest they turn and fall upon thee.”
+
+It was a lovely summer day, though very hot, and the snowy peaks of Aidzu
+scarcely looked cool as they glittered in the sunlight.  The plain of
+Yonezawa, with the prosperous town of Yonezawa in the south, and the
+frequented watering-place of Akayu in the north, is a perfect garden of
+Eden, “tilled with a pencil instead of a plough,” growing in rich
+profusion rice, cotton, maize, tobacco, hemp, indigo, beans, egg-plants,
+walnuts, melons, cucumbers, persimmons, apricots, pomegranates; a smiling
+and plenteous land, an Asiatic Arcadia, prosperous and independent, all
+its bounteous acres belonging to those who cultivate them, who live under
+their vines, figs, and pomegranates, free from oppression—a remarkable
+spectacle under an Asiatic despotism.  Yet still Daikoku is the chief
+deity, and material good is the one object of desire.
+
+It is an enchanting region of beauty, industry, and comfort, mountain
+girdled, and watered by the bright Matsuka.  Everywhere there are
+prosperous and beautiful farming villages, with large houses with carved
+beams and ponderous tiled roofs, each standing in its own grounds, buried
+among persimmons and pomegranates, with flower-gardens under trellised
+vines, and privacy secured by high, closely-clipped screens of
+pomegranate and cryptomeria.  Besides the villages of Yoshida, Semoshima,
+Kurokawa, Takayama, and Takataki, through or near which we passed, I
+counted over fifty on the plain with their brown, sweeping barn roofs
+looking out from the woodland.  I cannot see any differences in the style
+of cultivation.  Yoshida is rich and prosperous-looking, Numa poor and
+wretched-looking; but the scanty acres of Numa, rescued from the
+mountain-sides, are as exquisitely trim and neat, as perfectly
+cultivated, and yield as abundantly of the crops which suit the climate,
+as the broad acres of the sunny plain of Yonezawa, and this is the case
+everywhere.  “The field of the sluggard” has no existence in Japan.
+
+We rode for four hours through these beautiful villages on a road four
+feet wide, and then, to my surprise, after ferrying a river, emerged at
+Tsukuno upon what appears on the map as a secondary road, but which is in
+reality a main road 25 feet wide, well kept, trenched on both sides, and
+with a line of telegraph poles along it.  It was a new world at once.
+The road for many miles was thronged with well-dressed foot-passengers,
+_kurumas_, pack-horses, and waggons either with solid wheels, or wheels
+with spokes but no tires.  It is a capital carriage-road, but without
+carriages.  In such civilised circumstances it was curious to see two or
+four brown skinned men pulling the carts, and quite often a man and his
+wife—the man unclothed, and the woman unclothed to her waist—doing the
+same.  Also it struck me as incongruous to see telegraph wires above, and
+below, men whose only clothing consisted of a sun-hat and fan; while
+children with books and slates were returning from school, conning their
+lessons.
+
+At Akayu, a town of hot sulphur springs, I hoped to sleep, but it was one
+of the noisiest places I have seen.  In the most crowded part, where four
+streets meet, there are bathing sheds, which were full of people of both
+sexes, splashing loudly, and the _yadoya_ close to it had about forty
+rooms, in nearly all of which several rheumatic people were lying on the
+mats, _samisens_ were twanging, and _kotos_ screeching, and the hubbub
+was so unbearable that I came on here, ten miles farther, by a fine new
+road, up an uninteresting strath of rice-fields and low hills, which
+opens out upon a small plain surrounded by elevated gravelly hills, on
+the slope of one of which Kaminoyama, a watering-place of over 3000
+people, is pleasantly situated.  It is keeping festival; there are
+lanterns and flags on every house, and crowds are thronging the temple
+grounds, of which there are several on the hills above.  It is a clean,
+dry place, with beautiful _yadoyas_ on the heights, and pleasant houses
+with gardens, and plenty of walks over the hills.  The people say that it
+is one of the driest places in Japan.  If it were within reach of
+foreigners, they would find it a wholesome health resort, with
+picturesque excursions in many directions.
+
+This is one of the great routes of Japanese travel, and it is interesting
+to see watering-places with their habits, amusements, and civilisation
+quite complete, but borrowing nothing from Europe.  The hot springs here
+contain iron, and are strongly impregnated with sulphuretted hydrogen.  I
+tried the temperature of three, and found them 100°, 105°, and 107°.
+They are supposed to be very valuable in rheumatism, and they attract
+visitors from great distances.  The police, who are my frequent
+informants, tell me that there are nearly 600 people now staying here for
+the benefit of the baths, of which six daily are usually taken.  I think
+that in rheumatism, as in some other maladies, the old-fashioned Japanese
+doctors pay little attention to diet and habits, and much to drugs and
+external applications.  The benefit of these and other medicinal waters
+would be much increased if vigorous friction replaced the dabbing with
+soft towels.
+
+                    [Picture: The Belle of Kaminoyama]
+
+This is a large _yadoya_, very full of strangers, and the house-mistress,
+a buxom and most prepossessing widow, has a truly exquisite hotel for
+bathers higher up the hill.  She has eleven children, two or three of
+whom are tall, handsome, and graceful girls.  One blushed deeply at my
+evident admiration, but was not displeased, and took me up the hill to
+see the temples, baths, and _yadoyas_ of this very attractive place.  I
+am much delighted with her grace and _savoir faire_.  I asked the widow
+how long she had kept the inn, and she proudly answered, “Three hundred
+years,” not an uncommon instance of the heredity of occupations.
+
+My accommodation is unique—a _kura_, or godown, in a large conventional
+garden, in which is a bath-house, which receives a hot spring at a
+temperature of 105°, in which I luxuriate.  Last night the mosquitoes
+were awful.  If the widow and her handsome girls had not fanned me
+perseveringly for an hour, I should not have been able to write a line.
+My new mosquito net succeeds admirably, and, when I am once within it, I
+rather enjoy the disappointment of the hundreds of drumming blood-thirsty
+wretches outside.
+
+The widow tells me that house-masters pay 2 _yen_ once for all for the
+sign, and an annual tax of 2 _yen_ on a first-class _yadoya_, 1 _yen_ for
+a second, and 50 cents for a third, with 5 _yen_ for the license to sell
+_saké_.
+
+These “godowns” (from the Malay word _gadong_), or fire-proof
+store-houses, are one of the most marked features of Japanese towns, both
+because they are white where all else is grey, and because they are solid
+where all else is perishable.
+
+I am lodged in the lower part, but the iron doors are open, and in their
+place at night is a paper screen.  A few things are kept in my room.  Two
+handsome shrines from which the unemotional faces of two Buddhas looked
+out all night, a fine figure of the goddess Kwan-non, and a venerable one
+of the god of longevity, suggested curious dreams.
+
+                                                                  I. L. B.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER XIX.
+
+
+Prosperity—Convict Labour—A New Bridge—Yamagata—Intoxicating
+Forgeries—The Government Buildings—Bad Manners—Snow Mountains—A Wretched
+Town.
+
+                                                      KANAYAMA, _July_ 16.
+
+THREE days of travelling on the same excellent road have brought me
+nearly 60 miles.  Yamagata _ken_ impresses me as being singularly
+prosperous, progressive, and go-ahead; the plain of Yamagata, which I
+entered soon after leaving Kaminoyama, is populous and highly cultivated,
+and the broad road, with its enormous traffic, looks wealthy and
+civilised.  It is being improved by convicts in dull red _kimonos_
+printed with Chinese characters, who correspond with our ticket-of-leave
+men, as they are working for wages in the employment of contractors and
+farmers, and are under no other restriction than that of always wearing
+the prison dress.
+
+At the Sakamoki river I was delighted to come upon the only thoroughly
+solid piece of modern Japanese work that I have met with—a remarkably
+handsome stone bridge nearly finished—the first I have seen.  I
+introduced myself to the engineer, Okuno Chiuzo, a very gentlemanly,
+agreeable Japanese, who showed me the plans, took a great deal of trouble
+to explain them, and courteously gave me tea and sweetmeats.
+
+Yamagata, a thriving town of 21,000 people and the capital of the _ken_,
+is well situated on a slight eminence, and this and the dominant position
+of the _kenchô_ at the top of the main street give it an emphasis unusual
+in Japanese towns.  The outskirts of all the cities are very mean, and
+the appearance of the lofty white buildings of the new Government Offices
+above the low grey houses was much of a surprise.  The streets of
+Yamagata are broad and clean, and it has good shops, among which are long
+rows selling nothing but ornamental iron kettles and ornamental
+brasswork.  So far in the interior I was annoyed to find several shops
+almost exclusively for the sale of villainous forgeries of European
+eatables and drinkables, specially the latter.  The Japanese, from the
+Mikado downwards, have acquired a love of foreign intoxicants, which
+would be hurtful enough to them if the intoxicants were genuine, but is
+far worse when they are compounds of vitriol, fusel oil, bad vinegar, and
+I know not what.  I saw two shops in Yamagata which sold champagne of the
+best brands, Martel’s cognac, Bass’ ale, Medoc, St. Julian, and Scotch
+whisky, at about one-fifth of their cost price—all poisonous compounds,
+the sale of which ought to be interdicted.
+
+The Government Buildings, though in the usual confectionery style, are
+improved by the addition of verandahs; and the _Kenchô_, _Saibanchô_, or
+Court House, the Normal School with advanced schools attached, and the
+police buildings, are all in keeping with the good road and obvious
+prosperity.  A large two-storied hospital, with a cupola, which will
+accommodate 150 patients, and is to be a medical school, is nearly
+finished.  It is very well arranged and ventilated.  I cannot say as much
+for the present hospital, which I went over.  At the Court House I saw
+twenty officials doing nothing, and as many policemen, all in European
+dress, to which they had added an imitation of European manners, the
+total result being unmitigated vulgarity.  They demanded my passport
+before they would tell me the population of the _ken_ and city.  Once or
+twice I have found fault with Ito’s manners, and he has asked me twice
+since if I think them like the manners of the policemen at Yamagata!
+
+North of Yamagata the plain widens, and fine longitudinal ranges capped
+with snow mountains on the one side, and broken ranges with lateral spurs
+on the other, enclose as cheerful and pleasant a region as one would wish
+to see, with many pleasant villages on the lower slopes of the hills.
+The mercury was only 70°, and the wind north, so it was an especially
+pleasant journey, though I had to go three and a half _ri_ beyond Tendo,
+a town of 5000 people, where I had intended to halt, because the only
+inns at Tendo which were not _kashitsukeya_ were so occupied with
+silk-worms that they could not receive me.
+
+The next day’s journey was still along the same fine road, through a
+succession of farming villages and towns of 1500 and 2000 people, such as
+Tochiida and Obanasawa, were frequent.  From both these there was a
+glorious view of Chôkaizan, a grand, snow-covered dome, said to be 8000
+feet high, which rises in an altogether unexpected manner from
+comparatively level country, and, as the great snow-fields of Udonosan
+are in sight at the same time, with most picturesque curtain ranges
+below, it may be considered one of the grandest views of Japan.  After
+leaving Obanasawa the road passes along a valley watered by one of the
+affluents of the Mogami, and, after crossing it by a fine wooden bridge,
+ascends a pass from which the view is most magnificent.  After a long
+ascent through a region of light, peaty soil, wooded with pine,
+cryptomeria, and scrub oak, a long descent and a fine avenue terminate in
+Shinjô, a wretched town of over 5000 people, situated in a plain of
+rice-fields.
+
+The day’s journey, of over twenty-three miles, was through villages of
+farms without _yadoyas_, and in many cases without even tea-houses.  The
+style of building has quite changed.  Wood has disappeared, and all the
+houses are now built with heavy beams and walls of laths and brown mud
+mixed with chopped straw, and very neat.  Nearly all are great oblong
+barns, turned endwise to the road, 50, 60, and even 100 feet long, with
+the end nearest the road the dwelling-house.  These farm-houses have no
+paper windows, only _amado_, with a few panes of paper at the top.  These
+are drawn back in the daytime, and, in the better class of houses,
+blinds, formed of reeds or split bamboo, are let down over the opening.
+There are no ceilings, and in many cases an unmolested rat snake lives in
+the rafters, who, when he is much gorged, occasionally falls down upon a
+mosquito net.
+
+Again I write that Shinjô is a wretched place.  It is a _daimiyô’s_ town,
+and every _daimiyô’s_ town that I have seen has an air of decay, partly
+owing to the fact that the castle is either pulled down, or has been
+allowed to fall into decay.  Shinjô has a large trade in rice, silk, and
+hemp, and ought not to be as poor as it looks.  The mosquitoes were in
+thousands, and I had to go to bed, so as to be out of their reach, before
+I had finished my wretched meal of sago and condensed milk.  There was a
+hot rain all night, my wretched room was dirty and stifling, and rats
+gnawed my boots and ran away with my cucumbers.
+
+To-day the temperature is high and the sky murky.  The good road has come
+to an end, and the old hardships have begun again.  After leaving Shinjô
+this morning we crossed over a steep ridge into a singular basin of great
+beauty, with a semicircle of pyramidal hills, rendered more striking by
+being covered to their summits with pyramidal cryptomeria, and apparently
+blocking all northward progress.  At their feet lies Kanayama in a
+romantic situation, and, though I arrived as early as noon, I am staying
+for a day or two, for my room at the Transport Office is cheerful and
+pleasant, the agent is most polite, a very rough region lies before me,
+and Ito has secured a chicken for the first time since leaving Nikkô!
+
+I find it impossible in this damp climate, and in my present poor health,
+to travel with any comfort for more than two or three days at a time, and
+it is difficult to find pretty, quiet, and wholesome places for a halt of
+two nights.  Freedom from fleas and mosquitoes one can never hope for,
+though the last vary in number, and I have found a way of “dodging” the
+first by laying down a piece of oiled paper six feet square upon the mat,
+dusting along its edges a band of Persian insect powder, and setting my
+chair in the middle.  I am then insulated, and, though myriads of fleas
+jump on the paper, the powder stupefies them, and they are easily killed.
+I have been obliged to rest here at any rate, because I have been stung
+on my left hand both by a hornet and a gadfly, and it is badly inflamed.
+In some places the hornets are in hundreds, and make the horses wild.  I
+am also suffering from inflammation produced by the bites of “horse
+ants,” which attack one in walking.  The Japanese suffer very much from
+these, and a neglected bite often produces an intractable ulcer.  Besides
+these, there is a fly, as harmless in appearance as our house-fly, which
+bites as badly as a mosquito.  These are some of the drawbacks of
+Japanese travelling in summer, but worse than these is the lack of such
+food as one can eat when one finishes a hard day’s journey without
+appetite, in an exhausting atmosphere.
+
+_July_ 18.—I have had so much pain and fever from stings and bites that
+last night I was glad to consult a Japanese doctor from Shinjô.  Ito, who
+looks twice as big as usual when he has to do any “grand” interpreting,
+and always puts on silk _hakama_ in honour of it, came in with a
+middle-aged man dressed entirely in silk, who prostrated himself three
+times on the ground, and then sat down on his heels.  Ito in many words
+explained my calamities, and Dr. Nosoki then asked to see my “honourable
+hand,” which he examined carefully, and then my “honourable foot.”  He
+felt my pulse and looked at my eyes with a magnifying glass, and with
+much sucking in of his breath—a sign of good breeding and
+politeness—informed me that I had much fever, which I knew before; then
+that I must rest, which I also knew; then he lighted his pipe and
+contemplated me.  Then he felt my pulse and looked at my eyes again, then
+felt the swelling from the hornet bite, and said it was much inflamed, of
+which I was painfully aware, and then clapped his hands three times.  At
+this signal a coolie appeared, carrying a handsome black lacquer chest
+with the same crest in gold upon it as Dr. Nosoki wore in white on his
+_haori_.  This contained a medicine chest of fine gold lacquer, fitted up
+with shelves, drawers, bottles, etc.  He compounded a lotion first, with
+which he bandaged my hand and arm rather skilfully, telling me to pour
+the lotion over the bandage at intervals till the pain abated.  The whole
+was covered with oiled paper, which answers the purpose of oiled silk.
+He then compounded a febrifuge, which, as it is purely vegetable, I have
+not hesitated to take, and told me to drink it in hot water, and to avoid
+_saké_ for a day or two!
+
+I asked him what his fee was, and, after many bows and much spluttering
+and sucking in of his breath, he asked if I should think half a _yen_ too
+much, and when I presented him with a _yen_, and told him with a good
+deal of profound bowing on my part that I was exceedingly glad to obtain
+his services, his gratitude quite abashed me by its immensity.
+
+Dr. Nosoki is one of the old-fashioned practitioners, whose medical
+knowledge has been handed down from father to son, and who holds out, as
+probably most of his patients do, against European methods and drugs.  A
+strong prejudice against surgical operations, specially amputations,
+exists throughout Japan.  With regard to the latter, people think that,
+as they came into the world complete, so they are bound to go out of it,
+and in many places a surgeon would hardly be able to buy at any price the
+privilege of cutting off an arm.
+
+Except from books these older men know nothing of the mechanism of the
+human body, as dissection is unknown to native science.  Dr. Nosoki told
+me that he relies mainly on the application of the _moxa_ and on
+acupuncture in the treatment of acute diseases, and in chronic maladies
+on friction, medicinal baths, certain animal and vegetable medicines, and
+certain kinds of food.  The use of leeches and blisters is unknown to
+him, and he regards mineral drugs with obvious suspicion.  He has heard
+of chloroform, but has never seen it used, and considers that in
+maternity it must necessarily be fatal either to mother or child.  He
+asked me (and I have twice before been asked the same question) whether
+it is not by its use that we endeavour to keep down our redundant
+population!  He has great faith in _ginseng_, and in rhinoceros horn, and
+in the powdered liver of some animal, which, from the description, I
+understood to be a tiger—all specifics of the Chinese school of
+medicines.  Dr. Nosoki showed me a small box of “unicorn’s” horn, which
+he said was worth more than its weight in gold!  As my arm improved
+coincidently with the application of his lotion, I am bound to give him
+the credit of the cure.
+
+I invited him to dinner, and two tables were produced covered with
+different dishes, of which he ate heartily, showing most singular
+dexterity with his chopsticks in removing the flesh of small, bony fish.
+It is proper to show appreciation of a repast by noisy gulpings, and much
+gurgling and drawing in of the breath.  Etiquette rigidly prescribes
+these performances, which are most distressing to a European, and my
+guest nearly upset my gravity by them.
+
+The host and the _kôchô_, or chief man of the village, paid me a formal
+visit in the evening, and Ito, _en grande tenue_, exerted himself
+immensely on the occasion.  They were much surprised at my not smoking,
+and supposed me to be under a vow!  They asked me many questions about
+our customs and Government, but frequently reverted to tobacco.
+
+                                                                  I. L. B.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER XX.
+
+
+    The Effect of a Chicken—Poor Fare—Slow Travelling—Objects of
+    Interest—_Kak’ké_—The Fatal Close—A Great Fire—Security of the
+    _Kuras_.
+
+                                                      SHINGOJI, _July_ 21.
+
+VERY early in the morning, after my long talk with the _Kôchô_ of
+Kanayama, Ito wakened me by saying, “You’ll be able for a long day’s
+journey to-day, as you had a chicken yesterday,” and under this chicken’s
+marvellous influence we got away at 6.45, only to verify the proverb,
+“The more haste the worse speed.”  Unsolicited by me the _Kôchô_ sent
+round the village to forbid the people from assembling, so I got away in
+peace with a pack-horse and one runner.  It was a terrible road, with two
+severe mountain-passes to cross, and I not only had to walk nearly the
+whole way, but to help the man with the _kuruma_ up some of the steepest
+places.  Halting at the exquisitely situated village of Nosoki, we got
+one horse, and walked by a mountain road along the head-waters of the
+Omono to Innai.  I wish I could convey to you any idea of the beauty and
+wildness of that mountain route, of the surprises on the way, of views,
+of the violent deluges of rain which turned rivulets into torrents, and
+of the hardships and difficulties of the day; the scanty fare of
+sun-dried rice dough and sour yellow rasps, and the depth of the mire
+through which we waded!  We crossed the Shione and Sakatsu passes, and in
+twelve hours accomplished fifteen miles!  Everywhere we were told that we
+should never get through the country by the way we are going.
+
+The women still wear trousers, but with a long garment tucked into them
+instead of a short one, and the men wear a cotton combination of
+breastplate and apron, either without anything else, or over their
+_kimonos_.  The descent to Innai under an avenue of cryptomeria, and the
+village itself, shut in with the rushing Omono, are very beautiful.
+
+The _yadoya_ at Innai was a remarkably cheerful one, but my room was
+entirely _fusuma_ and _shôji_, and people were peeping in the whole time.
+It is not only a foreigner and his strange ways which attract attention
+in these remote districts, but, in my case, my india-rubber bath,
+air-pillow, and, above all, my white mosquito net.  Their nets are all of
+a heavy green canvas, and they admire mine so much, that I can give no
+more acceptable present on leaving than a piece of it to twist in with
+the hair.  There were six engineers in the next room who are surveying
+the passes which I had crossed, in order to see if they could be
+tunnelled, in which case _kurumas_ might go all the way from Tôkiyô to
+Kubota on the Sea of Japan, and, with a small additional outlay, carts
+also.
+
+In the two villages of Upper and Lower Innai there has been an outbreak
+of a malady much dreaded by the Japanese, called _kak’ké_, which, in the
+last seven months, has carried off 100 persons out of a population of
+about 1500, and the local doctors have been aided by two sent from the
+Medical School at Kubota.  I don’t know a European name for it; the
+Japanese name signifies an affection of the legs.  Its first symptoms are
+a loss of strength in the legs, “looseness in the knees,” cramps in the
+calves, swelling, and numbness.  This, Dr. Anderson, who has studied
+_kak’ké_ in more than 1100 cases in Tôkiyô, calls the sub-acute form.
+The chronic is a slow, numbing, and wasting malady, which, if unchecked,
+results in death from paralysis and exhaustion in from six months to
+three years.  The third, or acute form, Dr. Anderson describes thus.
+After remarking that the grave symptoms set in quite unexpectedly, and go
+on rapidly increasing, he says:—“The patient now can lie down no longer;
+he sits up in bed and tosses restlessly from one position to another,
+and, with wrinkled brow, staring and anxious eyes, dusky skin, blue,
+parted lips, dilated nostrils, throbbing neck, and labouring chest,
+presents a picture of the most terrible distress that the worst of
+diseases can inflict.  There is no intermission even for a moment, and
+the physician, here almost powerless, can do little more than note the
+failing pulse and falling temperature, and wait for the moment when the
+brain, paralysed by the carbonised blood, shall become insensible, and
+allow the dying man to pass his last moments in merciful
+unconsciousness.” {145}
+
+The next morning, after riding nine miles through a quagmire, under grand
+avenues of cryptomeria, and noticing with regret that the telegraph poles
+ceased, we reached Yusowa, a town of 7000 people, in which, had it not
+been for provoking delays, I should have slept instead of at Innai, and
+found that a fire a few hours previously had destroyed seventy houses,
+including the _yadoya_ at which I should have lodged.  We had to wait two
+hours for horses, as all were engaged in moving property and people.  The
+ground where the houses had stood was absolutely bare of everything but
+fine black ash, among which the _kuras_ stood blackened, and, in some
+instances, slightly cracked, but in all unharmed.  Already skeletons of
+new houses were rising.  No life had been lost except that of a tipsy
+man, but I should probably have lost everything but my money.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER XX.—(_Continued_.)
+
+
+Lunch in Public—A Grotesque Accident—Police Inquiries—Man or Woman?—A
+Melancholy Stare—A Vicious Horse—An Ill-favoured Town—A Disappointment—A
+_Torii_.
+
+YUSOWA is a specially objectionable-looking place.  I took my lunch—a
+wretched meal of a tasteless white curd made from beans, with some
+condensed milk added to it—in a yard, and the people crowded in hundreds
+to the gate, and those behind, being unable to see me, got ladders and
+climbed on the adjacent roofs, where they remained till one of the roofs
+gave way with a loud crash, and precipitated about fifty men, women, and
+children into the room below, which fortunately was vacant.  Nobody
+screamed—a noteworthy fact—and the casualties were only a few bruises.
+Four policemen then appeared and demanded my passport, as if I were
+responsible for the accident, and failing, like all others, to read a
+particular word upon it, they asked me what I was travelling for, and on
+being told “to learn about the country,” they asked if I was making a
+map!  Having satisfied their curiosity they disappeared, and the crowd
+surged up again in fuller force.  The Transport Agent begged them to go
+away, but they said they might never see such a sight again!  One old
+peasant said he would go away if he were told whether “the sight” were a
+man or a woman, and, on the agent asking if that were any business of
+his, he said he should like to tell at home what he had seen, which awoke
+my sympathy at once, and I told Ito to tell them that a Japanese horse
+galloping night and day without ceasing would take 5½ weeks to reach my
+county—a statement which he is using lavishly as I go along.  These are
+such queer crowds, so silent and gaping, and they remain motionless for
+hours, the wide-awake babies on the mothers’ backs and in the fathers’
+arms never crying.  I should be glad to hear a hearty aggregate laugh,
+even if I were its object.  The great melancholy stare is depressing.
+
+The road for ten miles was thronged with country people going in to see
+the fire.  It was a good road and very pleasant country, with numerous
+road-side shrines and figures of the goddess of mercy.  I had a wicked
+horse, thoroughly vicious.  His head was doubly chained to the
+saddle-girth, but he never met man, woman, or child, without laying back
+his ears and running at them to bite them.  I was so tired and in so much
+spinal pain that I got off and walked several times, and it was most
+difficult to get on again, for as soon as I put my hand on the saddle he
+swung his hind legs round to kick me, and it required some agility to
+avoid being hurt.  Nor was this all.  The evil beast made dashes with his
+tethered head at flies, threatening to twist or demolish my foot at each,
+flung his hind legs upwards, attempted to dislodge flies on his nose with
+his hind hoof, executed capers which involved a total disappearance of
+everything in front of the saddle, squealed, stumbled, kicked his old
+shoes off, and resented the feeble attempts which the _mago_ made to
+replace them, and finally walked in to Yokote and down its long and
+dismal street mainly on his hind legs, shaking the rope out of his timid
+leader’s hand, and shaking me into a sort of aching jelly!  I used to
+think that horses were made vicious either by being teased or by violence
+in breaking; but this does not account for the malignity of the Japanese
+horses, for the people are so much afraid of them that they treat them
+with great respect: they are not beaten or kicked, are spoken to in
+soothing tones, and, on the whole, live better than their masters.
+Perhaps this is the secret of their villainy—“Jeshurun waxed fat and
+kicked.”
+
+Yokote, a town of 10,000 people, in which the best _yadoyas_ are all
+non-respectable, is an ill-favoured, ill-smelling, forlorn, dirty, damp,
+miserable place, with a large trade in cottons.  As I rode through on my
+temporary biped the people rushed out from the baths to see me, men and
+women alike without a particle of clothing.  The house-master was very
+polite, but I had a dark and dirty room, up a bamboo ladder, and it
+swarmed with fleas and mosquitoes to an exasperating extent.  On the way
+I heard that a bullock was killed every Thursday in Yokote, and had
+decided on having a broiled steak for supper and taking another with me,
+but when I arrived it was all sold, there were no eggs, and I made a
+miserable meal of rice and bean curd, feeling somewhat starved, as the
+condensed milk I bought at Yamagata had to be thrown away.  I was
+somewhat wretched from fatigue and inflamed ant bites, but in the early
+morning, hot and misty as all the mornings have been, I went to see a
+Shintô temple, or _miya_, and, though I went alone, escaped a throng.
+
+The entrance into the temple court was, as usual, by a _torii_, which
+consisted of two large posts 20 feet high, surmounted with cross beams,
+the upper one of which projects beyond the posts and frequently curves
+upwards at both ends.  The whole, as is often the case, was painted a
+dull red.  This _torii_, or “birds’ rest,” is said to be so called
+because the fowls, which were formerly offered but not sacrificed, were
+accustomed to perch upon it.  A straw rope, with straw tassels and strips
+of paper hanging from it, the special emblem of Shintô, hung across the
+gateway.  In the paved court there were several handsome granite lanterns
+on fine granite pedestals, such as are the nearly universal
+accompaniments of both Shintô and Buddhist temples.
+
+After leaving Yakote we passed through very pretty country with mountain
+views and occasional glimpses of the snowy dome of Chokaizan, crossed the
+Omono (which has burst its banks and destroyed its bridges) by two
+troublesome ferries, and arrived at Rokugo, a town of 5000 people, with
+fine temples, exceptionally mean houses, and the most aggressive crowd by
+which I have yet been asphyxiated.
+
+There, through the good offices of the police, I was enabled to attend a
+Buddhist funeral of a merchant of some wealth.  It interested me very
+much from its solemnity and decorum, and Ito’s explanations of what went
+before were remarkably distinctly given.  I went in a Japanese woman’s
+dress, borrowed at the tea-house, with a blue hood over my head, and thus
+escaped all notice, but I found the restraint of the scanty “tied
+forward” _kimono_ very tiresome.  Ito gave me many injunctions as to what
+I was to do and avoid, which I carried out faithfully, being nervously
+anxious to avoid jarring on the sensibilities of those who had kindly
+permitted a foreigner to be present.
+
+                             [Picture: Torii]
+
+The illness was a short one, and there had been no time either for
+prayers or pilgrimages on the sick man’s behalf.  When death occurs the
+body is laid with its head to the north (a position that the living
+Japanese scrupulously avoid), near a folding screen, between which and it
+a new _zen_ is placed, on which are a saucer of oil with a lighted rush,
+cakes of uncooked rice dough, and a saucer of incense sticks.  The
+priests directly after death choose the _kaimiyô_, or posthumous name,
+write it on a tablet of white wood, and seat themselves by the corpse;
+his _zen_, bowls, cups, etc., are filled with vegetable food and are
+placed by his side, the chopsticks being put on the wrong, _i.e._ the
+left, side of the _zen_.  At the end of forty-eight hours the corpse is
+arranged for the coffin by being washed with warm water, and the priest,
+while saying certain prayers, shaves the head.  In all cases, rich or
+poor, the dress is of the usual make, but of pure white linen or cotton.
+
+At Omagori, a town near Rokugo, large earthenware jars are manufactured,
+which are much used for interment by the wealthy; but in this case there
+were two square boxes, the outer one being of finely planed wood of the
+_Retinospora obtusa_.  The poor use what is called the “quick-tub,” a
+covered tub of pine hooped with bamboo.  Women are dressed for burial in
+the silk robe worn on the marriage day, _tabi_ are placed beside them or
+on their feet, and their hair usually flows loosely behind them.  The
+wealthiest people fill the coffin with vermilion and the poorest use
+chaff; but in this case I heard that only the mouth, nose, and ears were
+filled with vermilion, and that the coffin was filled up with coarse
+incense.  The body is placed within the tub or box in the usual squatting
+position.  It is impossible to understand how a human body, many hours
+after death, can be pressed into the limited space afforded by even the
+outermost of the boxes.  It has been said that the rigidity of a corpse
+is overcome by the use of a powder called _dosia_, which is sold by the
+priests; but this idea has been exploded, and the process remains
+incomprehensible.
+
+Bannerets of small size and ornamental staves were outside the house
+door.  Two men in blue dresses, with pale blue over-garments resembling
+wings received each person, two more presented a lacquered bowl of water
+and a white silk _crêpe_ towel, and then we passed into a large room,
+round which were arranged a number of very handsome folding screens, on
+which lotuses, storks, and peonies were realistically painted on a dead
+gold ground.  Near the end of the room the coffin, under a canopy of
+white silk, upon which there was a very beautiful arrangement of
+artificial white lotuses, rested upon trestles, the face of the corpse
+being turned towards the north.  Six priests, very magnificently dressed,
+sat on each side of the coffin, and two more knelt in front of a small
+temporary altar.
+
+The widow, an extremely pretty woman, squatted near the deceased, below
+the father and mother; and after her came the children, relatives, and
+friends, who sat in rows, dressed in winged garments of blue and white.
+The widow was painted white; her lips were reddened with vermilion; her
+hair was elaborately dressed and ornamented with carved shell pins; she
+wore a beautiful dress of sky-blue silk, with a _haori_ of fine white
+_crêpe_ and a scarlet _crêpe_ girdle embroidered in gold, and looked like
+a bride on her marriage day rather than a widow.  Indeed, owing to the
+beauty of the dresses and the amount of blue and white silk, the room had
+a festal rather than a funereal look.  When all the guests had arrived,
+tea and sweetmeats were passed round; incense was burned profusely;
+litanies were mumbled, and the bustle of moving to the grave began,
+during which I secured a place near the gate of the temple grounds.
+
+The procession did not contain the father or mother of the deceased, but
+I understood that the mourners who composed it were all relatives.  The
+oblong tablet with the “dead name” of the deceased was carried first by a
+priest, then the lotus blossom by another priest, then ten priests
+followed, two and two, chanting litanies from books, then came the coffin
+on a platform borne by four men and covered with white drapery, then the
+widow, and then the other relatives.  The coffin was carried into the
+temple and laid upon trestles, while incense was burned and prayers were
+said, and was then carried to a shallow grave lined with cement, and
+prayers were said by the priests until the earth was raised to the proper
+level, when all dispersed, and the widow, in her gay attire, walked home
+unattended.  There were no hired mourners or any signs of grief, but
+nothing could be more solemn, reverent, and decorous than the whole
+service.  [I have since seen many funerals, chiefly of the poor, and,
+though shorn of much of the ceremony, and with only one officiating
+priest, the decorum was always most remarkable.]  The fees to the priests
+are from 2 up to 40 or 50 _yen_.  The graveyard, which surrounds the
+temple, was extremely beautiful, and the cryptomeria specially fine.  It
+was very full of stone gravestones, and, like all Japanese cemeteries,
+exquisitely kept.  As soon as the grave was filled in, a life-size pink
+lotus plant was placed upon it, and a lacquer tray, on which were lacquer
+bowls containing tea or _saké_, beans, and sweetmeats.
+
+The temple at Rokugo was very beautiful, and, except that its ornaments
+were superior in solidity and good taste, differed little from a Romish
+church.  The low altar, on which were lilies and lighted candles, was
+draped in blue and silver, and on the high altar, draped in crimson and
+cloth of gold, there was nothing but a closed shrine, an incense-burner,
+and a vase of lotuses.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER XX.—(_Concluded_.)
+
+
+A Casual Invitation—A Ludicrous Incident—Politeness of a Policeman—A
+Comfortless Sunday—An Outrageous Irruption—A Privileged Stare.
+
+AT a wayside tea-house, soon after leaving Rokugo in _kurumas_, I met the
+same courteous and agreeable young doctor who was stationed at Innai
+during the prevalence of _kak’ke_, and he invited me to visit the
+hospital at Kubota, of which he is junior physician, and told Ito of a
+restaurant at which “foreign food” can be obtained—a pleasant prospect,
+of which he is always reminding me.
+
+Travelling along a very narrow road, I as usual first, we met a man
+leading a prisoner by a rope, followed by a policeman.  As soon as my
+runner saw the latter he fell down on his face so suddenly in the shafts
+as nearly to throw me out, at the same time trying to wriggle into a
+garment which he had carried on the crossbar, while the young men who
+were drawing the two _kurumas_ behind, crouching behind my vehicle, tried
+to scuttle into their clothes.  I never saw such a picture of abjectness
+as my man presented.  He trembled from head to foot, and illustrated that
+queer phrase often heard in Scotch Presbyterian prayers, “Lay our hands
+on our mouths and our mouths in the dust.”  He literally grovelled in the
+dust, and with every sentence that the policeman spoke raised his head a
+little, to bow it yet more deeply than before.  It was all because he had
+no clothes on.  I interceded for him as the day was very hot, and the
+policeman said he would not arrest him, as he should otherwise have done,
+because of the inconvenience that it would cause to a foreigner.  He was
+quite an elderly man, and never recovered his spirits, but, as soon as a
+turn of the road took us out of the policeman’s sight, the two younger
+men threw their clothes into the air and gambolled in the shafts,
+shrieking with laughter!
+
+On reaching Shingoji, being too tired to go farther, I was dismayed to
+find nothing but a low, dark, foul-smelling room, enclosed only by dirty
+_shôji_, in which to spend Sunday.  One side looked into a little
+mildewed court, with a slimy growth of _Protococcus viridis_, and into
+which the people of another house constantly came to stare.  The other
+side opened on the earthen passage into the street, where travellers wash
+their feet, the third into the kitchen, and the fourth into the front
+room.  Even before dark it was alive with mosquitoes, and the fleas
+hopped on the mats like sand-flies.  There were no eggs, nothing but rice
+and cucumbers.  At five on Sunday morning I saw three faces pressed
+against the outer lattice, and before evening the _shôji_ were riddled
+with finger-holes, at each of which a dark eye appeared.  There was a
+still, fine rain all day, with the mercury at 82°, and the heat,
+darkness, and smells were difficult to endure.  In the afternoon a small
+procession passed the house, consisting of a decorated palanquin, carried
+and followed by priests, with capes and stoles over crimson chasubles and
+white cassocks.  This ark, they said, contained papers inscribed with the
+names of people and the evils they feared, and the priests were carrying
+the papers to throw them into the river.
+
+I went to bed early as a refuge from mosquitoes, with the _andon_, as
+usual, dimly lighting the room, and shut my eyes.  About nine I heard a
+good deal of whispering and shuffling, which continued for some time,
+and, on looking up, saw opposite to me about 40 men, women, and children
+(Ito says 100), all staring at me, with the light upon their faces.  They
+had silently removed three of the _shôji_ next the passage!  I called Ito
+loudly, and clapped my hands, but they did not stir till he came, and
+then they fled like a flock of sheep.  I have patiently, and even
+smilingly, borne all out-of-doors crowding and curiosity, but this kind
+of intrusion is unbearable; and I sent Ito to the police station, much
+against his will, to beg the police to keep the people out of the house,
+as the house-master was unable to do so.  This morning, as I was
+finishing dressing, a policeman appeared in my room, ostensibly to
+apologise for the behaviour of the people, but in reality to have a
+privileged stare at me, and, above all, at my stretcher and mosquito net,
+from which he hardly took his eyes.  Ito says he could make a _yen_ a day
+by showing them!  The policeman said that the people had never seen a
+foreigner.
+
+                                                                  I. L. B.
+
+                  [Picture: Daikoku, the God of Wealth]
+
+
+
+
+LETTER XXI.
+
+
+The Necessity of Firmness—Perplexing Misrepresentations—Gliding with the
+Stream—Suburban Residences—The Kubota Hospital—A Formal Reception—The
+Normal School.
+
+                                                        KUBOTA, _July_ 23.
+
+I ARRIVED here on Monday afternoon by the river Omono, what would have
+been two long days’ journey by land having been easily accomplished in
+nine hours by water.  This was an instance of forming a plan wisely, and
+adhering to it resolutely!  Firmness in travelling is nowhere more
+necessary than in Japan.  I decided some time ago, from Mr. Brunton’s
+map, that the Omono must be navigable from Shingoji, and a week ago told
+Ito to inquire about it, but at each place difficulties have been
+started.  There was too much water, there was too little; there were bad
+rapids, there were shallows; it was too late in the year; all the boats
+which had started lately were lying aground; but at one of the ferries I
+saw in the distance a merchandise boat going down, and told Ito I should
+go that way and no other.  On arriving at Shingoji they said it was not
+on the Omono at all, but on a stream with some very bad rapids, in which
+boats are broken to pieces.  Lastly, they said there was no boat, but on
+my saying that I would send ten miles for one, a small, flat-bottomed
+scow was produced by the Transport Agent, into which Ito, the luggage,
+and myself accurately fitted.  Ito sententiously observed, “Not one thing
+has been told us on our journey which has turned out true!”  This is not
+an exaggeration.  The usual crowd did not assemble round the door, but
+preceded me to the river, where it covered the banks and clustered in the
+trees.  Four policemen escorted me down.  The voyage of forty-two miles
+was delightful.  The rapids were a mere ripple, the current was strong,
+one boatman almost slept upon his paddle, the other only woke to bale the
+boat when it was half-full of water, the shores were silent and pretty,
+and almost without population till we reached the large town of Araya,
+which straggles along a high bank for a considerable distance, and after
+nine peaceful hours we turned off from the main stream of the Omono just
+at the outskirts of Kubota, and poled up a narrow, green river, fringed
+by dilapidated backs of houses, boat-building yards, and rafts of timber
+on one side, and dwelling-houses, gardens, and damp greenery on the
+other.  This stream is crossed by very numerous bridges.
+
+I got a cheerful upstairs room at a most friendly _yadoya_, and my three
+days here have been fully occupied and very pleasant. “Foreign food”—a
+good beef-steak, an excellent curry, cucumbers, and foreign salt and
+mustard, were at once obtained, and I felt my “eyes lightened” after
+partaking of them.
+
+Kubota is a very attractive and purely Japanese town of 36,000 people,
+the capital of Akita _ken_.  A fine mountain, called Taiheisan, rises
+above its fertile valley, and the Omono falls into the Sea of Japan close
+to it.  It has a number of _kurumas_, but, owing to heavy sand and the
+badness of the roads, they can only go three miles in any direction.  It
+is a town of activity and brisk trade, and manufactures a silk fabric in
+stripes of blue and black, and yellow and black, much used for making
+_hakama_ and _kimonos_, a species of white silk _crêpe_ with a raised
+woof, which brings a high price in Tôkiyô shops, _fusuma_, and clogs.
+Though it is a castle town, it is free from the usual “deadly-lively”
+look, and has an air of prosperity and comfort.  Though it has few
+streets of shops, it covers a great extent of ground with streets and
+lanes of pretty, isolated dwelling-houses, surrounded by trees, gardens,
+and well-trimmed hedges, each garden entered by a substantial gateway.
+The existence of something like a middle class with home privacy and home
+life is suggested by these miles of comfortable “suburban residences.”
+Foreign influence is hardly at all felt, there is not a single foreigner
+in Government or any other employment, and even the hospital was
+organised from the beginning by Japanese doctors.
+
+This fact made me greatly desire to see it, but, on going there at the
+proper hour for visitors, I was met by the Director with courteous but
+vexatious denial.  No foreigner could see it, he said, without sending
+his passport to the Governor and getting a written order, so I complied
+with these preliminaries, and 8 a.m. of the next day was fixed for my
+visit Ito, who is lazy about interpreting for the lower orders, but
+exerts himself to the utmost on such an occasion as this, went with me,
+handsomely clothed in silk, as befitted an “Interpreter,” and surpassed
+all his former efforts.
+
+The Director and the staff of six physicians, all handsomely dressed in
+silk, met me at the top of the stairs, and conducted me to the management
+room, where six clerks were writing.  Here there was a table, solemnly
+covered with a white cloth, and four chairs, on which the Director, the
+Chief Physician, Ito, and I sat, and pipes, tea, and sweetmeats, were
+produced.  After this, accompanied by fifty medical students, whose
+intelligent looks promise well for their success, we went round the
+hospital, which is a large two-storied building in semi-European style,
+but with deep verandahs all round.  The upper floor is used for
+class-rooms, and the lower accommodates 100 patients, besides a number of
+resident students.  Ten is the largest number treated in any one room,
+and severe cases are treated in separate rooms.  Gangrene has prevailed,
+and the Chief Physician, who is at this time remodelling the hospital,
+has closed some of the wards in consequence.  There is a Lock Hospital
+under the same roof.  About fifty important operations are annually
+performed under chloroform, but the people of Akita _ken_ are very
+conservative, and object to part with their limbs and to foreign drugs.
+This conservatism diminishes the number of patients.
+
+The odour of carbolic acid pervaded the whole hospital, and there were
+spray producers enough to satisfy Mr. Lister!  At the request of Dr. K. I
+saw the dressing of some very severe wounds carefully performed with
+carbolised gauze, under spray of carbolic acid, the fingers of the
+surgeon and the instruments used being all carefully bathed in the
+disinfectant.  Dr. K. said it was difficult to teach the students the
+extreme carefulness with regard to minor details which is required in the
+antiseptic treatment, which he regards as one of the greatest discoveries
+of this century.  I was very much impressed with the fortitude shown by
+the surgical patients, who went through very severe pain without a wince
+or a moan.  Eye cases are unfortunately very numerous.  Dr. K. attributes
+their extreme prevalence to overcrowding, defective ventilation, poor
+living, and bad light.
+
+After our round we returned to the management room to find a meal laid
+out in English style—coffee in cups with handles and saucers, and plates
+with spoons.  After this pipes were again produced, and the Director and
+medical staff escorted me to the entrance, where we all bowed profoundly.
+I was delighted to see that Dr. Kayabashi, a man under thirty, and fresh
+from Tôkiyô, and all the staff and students were in the national dress,
+with the _hakama_ of rich silk.  It is a beautiful dress, and assists
+dignity as much as the ill-fitting European costume detracts from it.
+This was a very interesting visit, in spite of the difficulty of
+communication through an interpreter.
+
+The public buildings, with their fine gardens, and the broad road near
+which they stand, with its stone-faced embankments, are very striking in
+such a far-off _ken_.  Among the finest of the buildings is the Normal
+School, where I shortly afterwards presented myself, but I was not
+admitted till I had shown my passport and explained my objects in
+travelling.  These preliminaries being settled, Mr. Tomatsu Aoki, the
+Chief Director, and Mr. Shude Kane Nigishi, the principal teacher, both
+looking more like monkeys than men in their European clothes, lionised
+me.
+
+The first was most trying, for he persisted in attempting to speak
+English, of which he knows about as much as I know of Japanese, but the
+last, after some grotesque attempts, accepted Ito’s services.  The school
+is a commodious Europeanised building, three stories high, and from its
+upper balcony the view of the city, with its gray roofs and abundant
+greenery, and surrounding mountains and valleys, is very fine.  The
+equipments of the different class-rooms surprised me, especially the
+laboratory of the chemical class-room, and the truly magnificent
+illustrative apparatus in the natural science class-room.  Ganot’s
+“Physics” is the text book of that department.
+
+                                                                  I. L. B.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER XXII.
+
+
+A Silk Factory—Employment for Women—A Police Escort—The Japanese Police
+Force.
+
+                                                        KUBOTA, _July_ 23.
+
+MY next visit was to a factory of handloom silk-weavers, where 180 hands,
+half of them women, are employed.  These new industrial openings for
+respectable employment for women and girls are very important, and tend
+in the direction of a much-needed social reform.  The striped silk
+fabrics produced are entirely for home consumption.
+
+Afterwards I went into the principal street, and, after a long search
+through the shops, bought some condensed milk with the “Eagle” brand and
+the label all right, but, on opening it, found it to contain small
+pellets of a brownish, dried curd, with an unpleasant taste!  As I was
+sitting in the shop, half stifled by the crowd, the people suddenly fell
+back to a respectful distance, leaving me breathing space, and a message
+came from the chief of police to say that he was very sorry for the
+crowding, and had ordered two policemen to attend upon me for the
+remainder of my visit.  The black and yellow uniforms were most truly
+welcome, and since then I have escaped all annoyance.  On my return I
+found the card of the chief of police, who had left a message with the
+house-master apologising for the crowd by saying that foreigners very
+rarely visited Kubota, and he thought that the people had never seen a
+foreign woman.
+
+I went afterwards to the central police station to inquire about an
+inland route to Aomori, and received much courtesy, but no information.
+The police everywhere are very gentle to the people,—a few quiet words or
+a wave of the hand are sufficient, when they do not resist them.  They
+belong to the _samurai_ class, and, doubtless, their naturally superior
+position weighs with the _heimin_.  Their faces and a certain _hauteur_
+of manner show the indelible class distinction.  The entire police force
+of Japan numbers 23,300 educated men in the prime of life, and if 30 per
+cent of them do wear spectacles, it does not detract from their
+usefulness.  5600 of them are stationed at Yedo, as from thence they can
+be easily sent wherever they are wanted, 1004 at Kiyôto, and 815 at
+Osaka, and the remaining 10,000 are spread over the country.  The police
+force costs something over £400,000 annually, and certainly is very
+efficient in preserving good order.  The pay of ordinary constables
+ranges from 6 to 10 _yen_ a month.  An enormous quantity of superfluous
+writing is done by all officialdom in Japan, and one usually sees
+policemen writing.  What comes of it I don’t know.  They are mostly
+intelligent and gentlemanly-looking young men, and foreigners in the
+interior are really much indebted to them.  If I am at any time in
+difficulties I apply to them, and, though they are disposed to be
+somewhat _de haut en bas_, they are sure to help one, except about
+routes, of which they always profess ignorance.
+
+On the whole, I like Kubota better than any other Japanese town, perhaps
+because it is so completely Japanese and has no air of having seen better
+days.  I no longer care to meet Europeans—indeed I should go far out of
+my way to avoid them.  I have become quite used to Japanese life, and
+think that I learn more about it in travelling in this solitary way than
+I should otherwise.
+
+                                                                  I. L. B.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER XXIII.
+
+
+“A Plague of Immoderate Rain”—A Confidential Servant—Ito’s Diary—Ito’s
+Excellences—Ito’s Faults—Prophecy of the Future of Japan—Curious
+Queries—Superfine English—Economical Travelling—The Japanese Pack-horse
+again.
+
+                                                        KUBOTA, _July_ 24.
+
+I AM here still, not altogether because the town is fascinating, but
+because the rain is so ceaseless as to be truly “a plague of immoderate
+rain and waters.”  Travellers keep coming in with stories of the
+impassability of the roads and the carrying away of bridges.  Ito amuses
+me very much by his remarks.  He thinks that my visit to the school and
+hospital must have raised Japan in my estimation, and he is talking
+rather big.  He asked me if I noticed that all the students kept their
+mouths shut like educated men and residents of Tôkiyô, and that all
+country people keep theirs open.  I have said little about him for some
+time, but I daily feel more dependent on him, not only for all
+information, but actually for getting on.  At night he has my watch,
+passport, and half my money, and I often wonder what would become of me
+if he absconded before morning.  He is not a good boy.  He has no moral
+sense, according to our notions; he dislikes foreigners; his manner is
+often very disagreeable; and yet I doubt whether I could have obtained a
+more valuable servant and interpreter.  When we left Tôkiyô he spoke
+fairly good English, but by practice and industrious study he now speaks
+better than any official interpreter that I have seen, and his vocabulary
+is daily increasing.  He never uses a word inaccurately when he has once
+got hold of its meaning, and his memory never fails.  He keeps a diary
+both in English and Japanese, and it shows much painstaking observation.
+He reads it to me sometimes, and it is interesting to hear what a young
+man who has travelled as much as he has regards as novel in this northern
+region.  He has made a hotel book and a transport book, in which all the
+bills and receipts are written, and he daily transliterates the names of
+all places into English letters, and puts down the distances and the sums
+paid for transport and hotels on each bill.
+
+He inquires the number of houses in each place from the police or
+Transport Agent, and the special trade of each town, and notes them down
+for me.  He takes great pains to be accurate, and occasionally remarks
+about some piece of information that he is not quite certain about, “If
+it’s not true, it’s not worth having.”  He is never late, never dawdles,
+never goes out in the evening except on errands for me, never touches
+_saké_, is never disobedient, never requires to be told the same thing
+twice, is always within hearing, has a good deal of tact as to what he
+repeats, and all with an undisguised view to his own interest.  He sends
+most of his wages to his mother, who is a widow—“It’s the custom of the
+country”—and seems to spend the remainder on sweetmeats, tobacco, and the
+luxury of frequent shampooing.
+
+That he would tell a lie if it served his purpose, and would “squeeze” up
+to the limits of extortion, if he could do it unobserved, I have not the
+slightest doubt.  He seems to have but little heart, or any idea of any
+but vicious pleasures.  He has no religion of any kind; he has been too
+much with foreigners for that.  His frankness is something startling.  He
+has no idea of reticence on any subject; but probably I learn more about
+things as they really are from this very defect.  In virtue in man or
+woman, except in that of his former master, he has little, if any belief.
+He thinks that Japan is right in availing herself of the discoveries made
+by foreigners, that they have as much to learn from her, and that she
+will outstrip them in the race, because she takes all that is worth
+having, and rejects the incubus of Christianity.  Patriotism is, I think,
+his strongest feeling, and I never met with such a boastful display of
+it, except in a Scotchman or an American.  He despises the uneducated, as
+he can read and write both the syllabaries.  For foreign rank or position
+he has not an atom of reverence or value, but a great deal of both for
+Japanese officialdom.  He despises the intellects of women, but flirts in
+a town-bred fashion with the simple tea-house girls.
+
+He is anxious to speak the very best English, and to say that a word is
+slangy or common interdicts its use.  Sometimes, when the weather is fine
+and things go smoothly, he is in an excellent and communicative humour,
+and talks a good deal as we travel.  A few days ago I remarked, “What a
+beautiful day this is!” and soon after, note-book in hand, he said, “You
+say ‘a beautiful day.’  Is that better English than ‘a devilish fine
+day,’ which most foreigners say?”  I replied that it was “common,” and
+“beautiful” has been brought out frequently since.  Again, “When you ask
+a question you never say, ‘What the d—l is it?’ as other foreigners do.
+Is it proper for men to say it and not for women?”  I told him it was
+proper for neither, it was a very “common” word, and I saw that he erased
+it from his note-book.  At first he always used _fellows_ for men, as,
+“Will you have one or two _fellows_ for your _kuruma_?” “_fellows_ and
+women.”  At last he called the Chief Physician of the hospital here a
+_fellow_, on which I told him that it was slightly slangy, and at least
+“colloquial,” and for two days he has scrupulously spoken of man and men.
+To-day he brought a boy with very sore eyes to see me, on which I
+exclaimed, “Poor little fellow!” and this evening he said, “You called
+that boy a fellow, I thought it was a bad word!”  The habits of many of
+the Yokohama foreigners have helped to obliterate any distinctions
+between right and wrong, if he ever made any.  If he wishes to tell me
+that he has seen a very tipsy man, he always says he has seen “a fellow
+as drunk as an Englishman.”  At Nikkô I asked him how many legal wives a
+man could have in Japan, and he replied, “Only one lawful one, but as
+many others (_mekaké_) as he can support, just as Englishmen have.”  He
+never forgets a correction.  Till I told him it was slangy he always
+spoke of inebriated people as “tight,” and when I gave him the words
+“tipsy,” “drunk,” “intoxicated,” he asked me which one would use in
+writing good English, and since then he has always spoken of people as
+“intoxicated.”
+
+He naturally likes large towns, and tries to deter me from taking the
+“unbeaten tracks,” which I prefer—but when he finds me immovable, always
+concludes his arguments with the same formula, “Well, of course you can
+do as you like; it’s all the same to me.”  I do not think he cheats me to
+any extent.  Board, lodging, and travelling expenses for us both are
+about 6s. 6d. a day, and about 2s. 6d. when we are stationary, and this
+includes all gratuities and extras.  True, the board and lodging consist
+of tea, rice, and eggs, a copper basin of water, an _andon_ and an empty
+room, for, though there are plenty of chickens in all the villages, the
+people won’t be bribed to sell them for killing, though they would gladly
+part with them if they were to be kept to lay eggs.  Ito amuses me nearly
+every night with stories of his unsuccessful attempts to provide me with
+animal food.
+
+The travelling is the nearest approach to “a ride on a rail” that I have
+ever made.  I have now ridden, or rather sat, upon seventy-six horses,
+all horrible.  They all stumble.  The loins of some are higher than their
+shoulders, so that one slips forwards, and the back-bones of all are
+ridgy.  Their hind feet grow into points which turn up, and their hind
+legs all turn outwards, like those of a cat, from carrying heavy burdens
+at an early age.  The same thing gives them a roll in their gait, which
+is increased by their awkward shoes.  In summer they feed chiefly on
+leaves, supplemented with mashes of bruised beans, and instead of straw
+they sleep on beds of leaves.  In their stalls their heads are tied
+“where their tails should be,” and their fodder is placed not in a
+manger, but in a swinging bucket.  Those used in this part of Japan are
+worth from 15 to 30 _yen_.  I have not seen any overloading or
+ill-treatment; they are neither kicked, nor beaten, nor threatened in
+rough tones, and when they die they are decently buried, and have stones
+placed over their graves.  It might be well if the end of a worn-out
+horse were somewhat accelerated, but this is mainly a Buddhist region,
+and the aversion to taking animal life is very strong.
+
+                                                                  I. L. B.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER XXIV.
+
+
+The Symbolism of Seaweed—Afternoon Visitors—An Infant Prodigy—A Feat in
+Caligraphy—Child Worship—A Borrowed Dress—A _Trousseau_—House
+Furniture—The Marriage Ceremony.
+
+                                                        KUBOTA, _July_ 25.
+
+THE weather at last gives a hope of improvement, and I think I shall
+leave to-morrow.  I had written this sentence when Ito came in to say
+that the man in the next house would like to see my stretcher and
+mosquito net, and had sent me a bag of cakes with the usual bit of
+seaweed attached, to show that it was a present.  The Japanese believe
+themselves to be descended from a race of fishermen; they are proud of
+it, and Yebis, the god of fishermen, is one of the most popular of the
+household divinities.  The piece of seaweed sent with a present to any
+ordinary person, and the piece of dried fish-skin which accompanies a
+present to the Mikado, record the origin of the race, and at the same
+time typify the dignity of simple industry.
+
+Of course I consented to receive the visitor, and with the mercury at
+84°, five men, two boys, and five women entered my small, low room, and
+after bowing to the earth three times, sat down on the floor.  They had
+evidently come to spend the afternoon.  Trays of tea and sweetmeats were
+handed round, and a _labako-bon_ was brought in, and they all smoked, as
+I had told Ito that all usual courtesies were to be punctiliously
+performed.  They expressed their gratification at seeing so “honourable”
+a traveller.  I expressed mine at seeing so much of their “honourable”
+country.  Then we all bowed profoundly.  Then I laid Brunton’s map on the
+floor and showed them my route, showed them the Asiatic Society’s
+Transactions, and how we read from left to right, instead of from top to
+bottom, showed them my knitting, which amazed them, and my Berlin work,
+and then had nothing left.  Then they began to entertain me, and I found
+that the real object of their visit was to exhibit an “infant prodigy,” a
+boy of four, with a head shaven all but a tuft on the top, a face of
+preternatural thoughtfulness and gravity, and the self-possessed and
+dignified demeanour of an elderly man.  He was dressed in scarlet silk
+_hakama_, and a dark, striped, blue silk _kimono_, and fanned himself
+gracefully, looking at everything as intelligently and courteously as the
+others.  To talk child’s talk to him, or show him toys, or try to amuse
+him, would have been an insult.  The monster has taught himself to read
+and write, and has composed poetry.  His father says that he never plays,
+and understands everything just like a grown person.  The intention was
+that I should ask him to write, and I did so.
+
+It was a solemn performance.  A red blanket was laid in the middle of the
+floor, with a lacquer writing-box upon it.  The creature rubbed the ink
+with water on the inkstone, unrolled four rolls of paper, five feet long,
+and inscribed them with Chinese characters, nine inches long, of the most
+complicated kind, with firm and graceful curves of his brush, and with
+the ease and certainty of Giotto in turning his O.  He sealed them with
+his seal in vermilion, bowed three times, and the performance was ended.
+People get him to write _kakemonos_ and signboards for them, and he had
+earned 10 _yen_, or about £2, that day.  His father is going to travel to
+Kiyôto with him, to see if any one under fourteen can write as well.  I
+never saw such an exaggerated instance of child worship.  Father, mother,
+friends, and servants, treated him as if he were a prince.
+
+The house-master, who is a most polite man, procured me an invitation to
+the marriage of his niece, and I have just returned from it.  He has
+three “wives” himself.  One keeps a _yadoya_ in Kiyôto, another in
+Morioka, and the third and youngest is with him here.  From her limitless
+stores of apparel she chose what she considered a suitable dress for
+me—an under-dress of sage green silk _crêpe_, a _kimono_ of soft, green,
+striped silk of a darker shade, with a fold of white _crêpe_, spangled
+with gold at the neck, and a girdle of sage green corded silk, with the
+family badge here and there upon it in gold.  I went with the
+house-master, Ito, to his disgust, not being invited, and his absence was
+like the loss of one of my senses, as I could not get any explanations
+till afterwards.
+
+The ceremony did not correspond with the rules laid down for marriages in
+the books of etiquette that I have seen, but this is accounted for by the
+fact that they were for persons of the _samurai_ class, while this bride
+and bridegroom, though the children of well-to-do merchants, belong to
+the _heimin_.
+
+In this case the _trousseau_ and furniture were conveyed to the
+bridegroom’s house in the early morning, and I was allowed to go to see
+them.  There were several girdles of silk embroidered with gold, several
+pieces of brocaded silk for _kimonos_, several pieces of silk _crêpe_, a
+large number of made-up garments, a piece of white silk, six barrels of
+wine or _saké_, and seven sorts of condiments.  Jewellery is not worn by
+women in Japan.
+
+The furniture consisted of two wooden pillows, finely lacquered, one of
+them containing a drawer for ornamental hairpins, some cotton _futons_,
+two very handsome silk ones, a few silk cushions, a lacquer workbox, a
+spinning-wheel, a lacquer rice bucket and ladle, two ornamental iron
+kettles, various kitchen utensils, three bronze _hibachi_, two
+_tabako-bons_, some lacquer trays, and _zens_, china kettles, teapots,
+and cups, some lacquer rice bowls, two copper basins, a few towels, some
+bamboo switches, and an inlaid lacquer _étagère_.  As the things are all
+very handsome the parents must be well off.  The _saké_ is sent in
+accordance with rigid etiquette.
+
+The bridegroom is twenty-two, the bride seventeen, and very comely, so
+far as I could see through the paint with which she was profusely
+disfigured.  Towards evening she was carried in a _norimon_, accompanied
+by her parents and friends, to the bridegroom’s house, each member of the
+procession carrying a Chinese lantern.  When the house-master and I
+arrived the wedding party was assembled in a large room, the parents and
+friends of the bridegroom being seated on one side, and those of the
+bride on the other.  Two young girls, very beautifully dressed, brought
+in the bride, a very pleasing-looking creature dressed entirely in white
+silk, with a veil of white silk covering her from head to foot.  The
+bridegroom, who was already seated in the middle of the room near its
+upper part, did not rise to receive her, and kept his eyes fixed on the
+ground, and she sat opposite to him, but never looked up.  A low table
+was placed in front, on which there was a two-spouted kettle full of
+_saké_, some _saké_ bottles, and some cups, and on another there were
+some small figures representing a fir-tree, a plum-tree in blossom, and a
+stork standing on a tortoise, the last representing length of days, and
+the former the beauty of women and the strength of men.  Shortly a _zen_,
+loaded with eatables, was placed before each person, and the feast began,
+accompanied by the noises which signify gastronomic gratification.
+
+After this, which was only a preliminary, the two girls who brought in
+the bride handed round a tray with three cups containing _saké_, which
+each person was expected to drain till he came to the god of luck at the
+bottom.
+
+The bride and bridegroom then retired, but shortly reappeared in other
+dresses of ceremony, but the bride still wore her white silk veil, which
+one day will be her shroud.  An old gold lacquer tray was produced, with
+three _saké_ cups, which were filled by the two bridesmaids, and placed
+before the parents-in-law and the bride.  The father-in-law drank three
+cups, and handed the cup to the bride, who, after drinking two cups,
+received from her father-in-law a present in a box, drank the third cup,
+and then returned the cup to the father-in-law, who again drank three
+cups.  Rice and fish were next brought in, after which the bridegroom’s
+mother took the second cup, and filled and emptied it three times, after
+which she passed it to the bride, who drank two cups, received a present
+from her mother-in-law in a lacquer box, drank a third cup, and gave the
+cup to the elder lady, who again drank three cups.  Soup was then served,
+and then the bride drank once from the third cup, and handed it to her
+husband’s father, who drank three more cups, the bride took it again, and
+drank two, and lastly the mother-in-law drank three more cups.  Now, if
+you possess the clear-sightedness which I laboured to preserve, you will
+perceive that each of the three had inbibed nine cups of some generous
+liquor! {168}
+
+After this the two bridesmaids raised the two-spouted kettle and
+presented it to the lips of the married pair, who drank from it
+alternately, till they had exhausted its contents.  This concluding
+ceremony is said to be emblematic of the tasting together of the joys and
+sorrows of life.  And so they became man and wife till death or divorce
+parted them.
+
+This drinking of _saké_ or wine, according to prescribed usage, appeared
+to constitute the “marriage service,” to which none but relations were
+bidden.  Immediately afterwards the wedding guests arrived, and the
+evening was spent in feasting and _saké_ drinking; but the fare is
+simple, and intoxication is happily out of place at a marriage feast.
+Every detail is a matter of etiquette, and has been handed down for
+centuries.  Except for the interest of the ceremony, in that light it was
+a very dull and tedious affair, conducted in melancholy silence, and the
+young bride, with her whitened face and painted lips, looked and moved
+like an automaton.
+
+                                                                  I. L. B.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER XXV.
+
+
+A Holiday Scene—A _Matsuri_—Attractions of the Revel—_Matsuri_ Cars—Gods
+and Demons—A Possible Harbour—A Village Forge—Prosperity of _Saké_
+Brewers—A “Great Sight.”
+
+                                                     TSUGURATA, _July_ 27.
+
+THREE miles of good road thronged with half the people of Kubota on foot
+and in _kurumas_, red vans drawn by horses, pairs of policemen in
+_kurumas_, hundreds of children being carried, hundreds more on foot,
+little girls, formal and precocious looking, with hair dressed with
+scarlet _crépe_ and flowers, hobbling toilsomely along on high clogs,
+groups of men and women, never intermixing, stalls driving a “roaring
+trade” in cakes and sweetmeats, women making _mochi_ as fast as the
+buyers ate it, broad rice-fields rolling like a green sea on the right,
+an ocean of liquid turquoise on the left, the grey roofs of Kubota
+looking out from their green surroundings, Taiheisan in deepest indigo
+blocking the view to the south, a glorious day, and a summer sun
+streaming over all, made up the cheeriest and most festal scene that I
+have seen in Japan; men, women, and children, vans and _kurumas_,
+policemen and horsemen, all on their way to a mean-looking town, Minato,
+the junk port of Kubota, which was keeping _matsuri_, or festival, in
+honour of the birthday of the god Shimmai.  Towering above the low grey
+houses there were objects which at first looked like five enormous black
+fingers, then like trees with their branches wrapped in black, and
+then—comparisons ceased; they were a mystery.
+
+Dismissing the _kurumas_, which could go no farther, we dived into the
+crowd, which was wedged along a mean street, nearly a mile long—a
+miserable street of poor tea-houses and poor shop-fronts; but, in fact,
+you could hardly see the street for the people.  Paper lanterns were hung
+close together along its whole length.  There were rude scaffoldings
+supporting matted and covered platforms, on which people were drinking
+tea and _saké_ and enjoying the crowd below; monkey theatres and dog
+theatres, two mangy sheep and a lean pig attracting wondering crowds, for
+neither of these animals is known in this region of Japan; a booth in
+which a woman was having her head cut off every half-hour for 2 _sen_ a
+spectator; cars with roofs like temples, on which, with forty men at the
+ropes, dancing children of the highest class were being borne in
+procession; a theatre with an open front, on the boards of which two men
+in antique dresses, with sleeves touching the ground, were performing
+with tedious slowness a classic dance of tedious posturings, which
+consisted mainly in dexterous movements of the aforesaid sleeves, and
+occasional emphatic stampings, and utterances of the word _Nô_ in a
+hoarse howl.  It is needless to say that a foreign lady was not the least
+of the attractions of the fair.  The _cultus_ of children was in full
+force, all sorts of masks, dolls, sugar figures, toys, and sweetmeats
+were exposed for sale on mats on the ground, and found their way into the
+hands and sleeves of the children, for no Japanese parent would ever
+attend a _matsuri_ without making an offering to his child.
+
+The police told me that there were 22,000 strangers in Minato, yet for
+32,000 holiday-makers a force of twenty-five policemen was sufficient.  I
+did not see one person under the influence of _saké_ up to 3 p.m., when I
+left, nor a solitary instance of rude or improper behaviour, nor was I in
+any way rudely crowded upon, for, even where the crowd was densest, the
+people of their own accord formed a ring and left me breathing space.
+
+We went to the place where the throng was greatest, round the two great
+_matsuri_ cars, whose colossal erections we had seen far off.  These were
+structures of heavy beams, thirty feet long, with eight huge, solid
+wheels.  Upon them there were several scaffoldings with projections, like
+flat surfaces of cedar branches, and two special peaks of unequal height
+at the top, the whole being nearly fifty feet from the ground.  All these
+projections were covered with black cotton cloth, from which branches of
+pines protruded.  In the middle three small wheels, one above another,
+over which striped white cotton was rolling perpetually, represented a
+waterfall; at the bottom another arrangement of white cotton represented
+a river, and an arrangement of blue cotton, fitfully agitated by a pair
+of bellows below, represented the sea.  The whole is intended to
+represent a mountain on which the Shintô gods slew some devils, but
+anything more rude and barbarous could scarcely be seen.  On the fronts
+of each car, under a canopy, were thirty performers on thirty diabolical
+instruments, which rent the air with a truly infernal discord, and
+suggested devils rather than their conquerors.  High up on the flat
+projections there were groups of monstrous figures.  On one a giant in
+brass armour, much like the _Niô_ of temple gates, was killing a
+revolting-looking demon.  On another a _daimiyô’s_ daughter, in robes of
+cloth of gold with satin sleeves richly flowered, was playing on the
+_samisen_.  On another a hunter, thrice the size of life, was killing a
+wild horse equally magnified, whose hide was represented by the hairy
+wrappings of the leaves of the _Chamærops excelsa_.  On others
+highly-coloured gods, and devils equally hideous, were grouped
+miscellaneously.  These two cars were being drawn up and down the street
+at the rate of a mile in three hours by 200 men each, numbers of men with
+levers assisting the heavy wheels out of the mud-holes.  This _matsuri_,
+which, like an English fair, feast, or revel, has lost its original
+religious significance, goes on for three days and nights, and this was
+its third and greatest day.
+
+We left on mild-tempered horses, quite unlike the fierce fellows of
+Yamagata _ken_.  Between Minato and Kado there is a very curious lagoon
+on the left, about 17 miles long by 16 broad, connected with the sea by a
+narrow channel, guarded by two high hills called Shinzan and Honzan.  Two
+Dutch engineers are now engaged in reporting on its capacities, and if
+its outlet could be deepened without enormous cost it would give
+north-western Japan the harbour it so greatly needs.  Extensive
+rice-fields and many villages lie along the road, which is an avenue of
+deep sand and ancient pines much contorted and gnarled.  Down the pine
+avenue hundreds of people on horseback and on foot were trooping into
+Minato from all the farming villages, glad in the glorious sunshine which
+succeeded four days of rain.  There were hundreds of horses,
+wonderful-looking animals in bravery of scarlet cloth and lacquer and
+fringed nets of leather, and many straw wisps and ropes, with Gothic
+roofs for saddles, and dependent panniers on each side, carrying two
+grave and stately-looking children in each, and sometimes a father or a
+fifth child on the top of the pack-saddle.
+
+I was so far from well that I was obliged to sleep at the wretched
+village of Abukawa, in a loft alive with fleas, where the rice was too
+dirty to be eaten, and where the house-master’s wife, who sat for an hour
+on my floor, was sorely afflicted with skin disease.  The clay houses
+have disappeared and the villages are now built of wood, but Abukawa is
+an antiquated, ramshackle place, propped up with posts and slanting beams
+projecting into the roadway for the entanglement of unwary passengers.
+
+The village smith was opposite, but he was not a man of ponderous
+strength, nor were there those wondrous flights and scintillations of
+sparks which were the joy of our childhood in the Tattenhall forge.  A
+fire of powdered charcoal on the floor, always being trimmed and
+replenished by a lean and grimy satellite, a man still leaner and
+grimier, clothed in goggles and a girdle, always sitting in front of it,
+heating and hammering iron bars with his hands, with a clink which went
+on late into the night, and blowing his bellows with his toes; bars and
+pieces of rusty iron pinned on the smoky walls, and a group of idle men
+watching his skilful manipulation, were the sights of the Abukawa smithy,
+and kept me thralled in the balcony, though the whole clothesless
+population stood for the whole evening in front of the house with a
+silent, open-mouthed stare.
+
+Early in the morning the same melancholy crowd appeared in the dismal
+drizzle, which turned into a tremendous torrent, which has lasted for
+sixteen hours.  Low hills, broad rice valleys in which people are
+puddling the rice a second time to kill the weeds, bad roads, pretty
+villages, much indigo, few passengers, were the features of the day’s
+journey.  At Morioka and several other villages in this region I noticed
+that if you see one large, high, well-built house, standing in enclosed
+grounds, with a look of wealth about it, it is always that of the _saké_
+brewer.  A bush denotes the manufacture as well as the sale of _saké_,
+and these are of all sorts, from the mangy bit of fir which has seen long
+service to the vigorous truss of pine constantly renewed.  It is curious
+that this should formerly have been the sign of the sale of wine in
+England.
+
+The wind and rain were something fearful all that afternoon.  I could not
+ride, so I tramped on foot for some miles under an avenue of pines,
+through water a foot deep, and, with my paper waterproof soaked through,
+reached Toyôka half drowned and very cold, to shiver over a _hibachi_ in
+a clean loft, hung with my dripping clothes, which had to be put on wet
+the next day.   By 5 a.m. all Toyôka assembled, and while I took my
+breakfast I was not only the “cynosure” of the eyes of all the people
+outside, but of those of about forty more who were standing in the
+_doma_, looking up the ladder.  When asked to depart by the house-master,
+they said, “It’s neither fair nor neighbourly in you to keep this great
+sight to yourself, seeing that our lives may pass without again looking
+on a foreign woman;” so they were allowed to remain!
+
+                                                                  I. L. B.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER XXVI.
+
+
+The Fatigues of Travelling—Torrents and Mud—Ito’s Surliness—The Blind
+Shampooers—A Supposed Monkey Theatre—A Suspended Ferry—A Difficult
+Transit—Perils on the Yonetsurugawa—A Boatman Drowned—Nocturnal
+Disturbances—A Noisy Yadoya—Storm-bound Travellers—_Hai_!  _Hai_!—More
+Nocturnal Disturbances.
+
+                                                         ODATÉ, _July_ 29.
+
+I HAVE been suffering so much from my spine that I have been unable to
+travel more than seven or eight miles daily for several days, and even
+that with great difficulty.  I try my own saddle, then a pack-saddle,
+then walk through the mud; but I only get on because getting on is a
+necessity, and as soon as I reach the night’s halting-place I am obliged
+to lie down at once.  Only strong people should travel in northern Japan.
+The inevitable fatigue is much increased by the state of the weather, and
+doubtless my impressions of the country are affected by it also, as a
+hamlet in a quagmire in a gray mist or a soaking rain is a far less
+delectable object than the same hamlet under bright sunshine.  There has
+not been such a season for thirty years.  The rains have been tremendous.
+I have lived in soaked clothes, in spite of my rain-cloak, and have slept
+on a soaked stretcher in spite of all waterproof wrappings for several
+days, and still the weather shows no signs of improvement, and the rivers
+are so high on the northern road that I am storm-bound as well as
+pain-bound here.  Ito shows his sympathy for me by intense surliness,
+though he did say very sensibly, “I’m very sorry for you, but it’s no use
+saying so over and over again; as I can do nothing for you, you’d better
+send for the blind man!”
+
+In Japanese towns and villages you hear every evening a man (or men)
+making a low peculiar whistle as he walks along, and in large towns the
+noise is quite a nuisance.  It is made by blind men; but a blind beggar
+is never seen throughout Japan, and the blind are an independent,
+respected, and well-to-do class, carrying on the occupations of
+shampooing, money-lending, and music.
+
+                 [Picture: Myself in a Straw Rain-Cloak]
+
+We have had a very severe journey from Toyôka.  That day the rain was
+ceaseless, and in the driving mists one could see little but low hills
+looming on the horizon, pine barrens, scrub, and flooded rice-fields;
+varied by villages standing along roads which were quagmires a foot deep,
+and where the clothing was specially ragged and dirty.  Hinokiyama, a
+village of _samurai_, on a beautiful slope, was an exception, with its
+fine detached houses, pretty gardens, deep-roofed gateways, grass and
+stone-faced terraces, and look of refined, quiet comfort.  Everywhere
+there was a quantity of indigo, as is necessary, for nearly all the
+clothing of the lower classes is blue.  Near a large village we were
+riding on a causeway through the rice-fields, Ito on the pack-horse in
+front, when we met a number of children returning from school, who, on
+getting near us, turned, ran away, and even jumped into the ditches,
+screaming as they ran.  The _mago_ ran after them, caught the hindmost
+boy, and dragged him back—the boy scared and struggling, the man
+laughing.  The boy said that they thought that Ito was a monkey-player,
+_i.e._ the keeper of a monkey theatre, I a big ape, and the poles of my
+bed the scaffolding of the stage!
+
+Splashing through mire and water we found that the people of Tubiné
+wished to detain us, saying that all the ferries were stopped in
+consequence of the rise in the rivers; but I had been so often misled by
+false reports that I took fresh horses and went on by a track along a
+very pretty hillside, overlooking the Yonetsurugawa, a large and swollen
+river, which nearer the sea had spread itself over the whole country.
+Torrents of rain were still falling, and all out-of-doors industries were
+suspended.  Straw rain-cloaks hanging to dry dripped under all the eaves,
+our paper cloaks were sodden, our dripping horses steamed, and thus we
+slid down a steep descent into the hamlet of Kiriishi, thirty-one houses
+clustered under persimmon trees under a wooded hillside, all standing in
+a quagmire, and so abject and filthy that one could not ask for five
+minutes’ shelter in any one of them.  Sure enough, on the bank of the
+river, which was fully 400 yards wide, and swirling like a mill-stream
+with a suppressed roar, there was an official order prohibiting the
+crossing of man or beast, and before I had time to think the _mago_ had
+deposited the baggage on an islet in the mire and was over the crest of
+the hill.  I wished that the Government was a little less paternal.
+
+Just in the nick of time we discerned a punt drifting down the river on
+the opposite side, where it brought up, and landed a man, and Ito and two
+others yelled, howled, and waved so lustily as to attract its notice, and
+to my joy an answering yell came across the roar and rush of the river.
+The torrent was so strong that the boatmen had to pole up on that side
+for half a mile, and in about three-quarters of an hour they reached our
+side.  They were returning to Kotsunagi—the very place I wished to
+reach—but, though only 2½ miles off, the distance took nearly four hours
+of the hardest work I ever saw done by men.  Every moment I expected to
+see them rupture blood-vessels or tendons.  All their muscles quivered.
+It is a mighty river, and was from eight to twelve feet deep, and
+whirling down in muddy eddies; and often with their utmost efforts in
+poling, when it seemed as if poles or backs must break, the boat hung
+trembling and stationary for three or four minutes at a time.  After the
+slow and eventless tramp of the last few days this was an exciting
+transit.  Higher up there was a flooded wood, and, getting into this, the
+men aided themselves considerably by hauling by the trees; but when we
+got out of this, another river joined the Yonetsurugawa, which with added
+strength rushed and roared more wildly.
+
+I had long been watching a large house-boat far above us on the other
+side, which was being poled by desperate efforts by ten men.  At that
+point she must have been half a mile off, when the stream overpowered the
+crew and in no time she swung round and came drifting wildly down and
+across the river, broadside on to us.  We could not stir against the
+current, and had large trees on our immediate left, and for a moment it
+was a question whether she would not smash us to atoms.  Ito was livid
+with fear; his white, appalled face struck me as ludicrous, for I had no
+other thought than the imminent peril of the large boat with her freight
+of helpless families, when, just as she was within two feet of us, she
+struck a stem and glanced off.  Then her crew grappled a headless trunk
+and got their hawser round it, and eight of them, one behind the other,
+hung on to it, when it suddenly snapped, seven fell backwards, and the
+forward one went overboard to be no more seen.  Some house that night was
+desolate.  Reeling downwards, the big mast and spar of the ungainly craft
+caught in a tree, giving her such a check that they were able to make her
+fast.  It was a saddening incident.  I asked Ito what he felt when we
+seemed in peril, and he replied, “I thought I’d been good to my mother,
+and honest, and I hoped I should go to a good place.”
+
+The fashion of boats varies much on different rivers.  On this one there
+are two sizes.  Ours was a small one, flat-bottomed, 25 feet long by 2½
+broad, drawing 6 inches, very low in the water, and with sides slightly
+curved inwards.  The prow forms a gradual long curve from the body of the
+boat, and is very high.
+
+The mists rolled away as dusk came on, and revealed a lovely country with
+much picturesqueness of form, and near Kotsunagi the river disappears
+into a narrow gorge with steep, sentinel hills, dark with pine and
+cryptomeria.  To cross the river we had to go fully a mile above the
+point aimed at, and then a few minutes of express speed brought us to a
+landing in a deep, tough quagmire in a dark wood, through which we groped
+our lamentable way to the _yadoya_.  A heavy mist came on, and the rain
+returned in torrents; the _doma_ was ankle deep in black slush.  The
+_daidokoro_ was open to the roof, roof and rafters were black with smoke,
+and a great fire of damp wood was smoking lustily.  Round some live
+embers in the _irori_ fifteen men, women, and children were lying, doing
+nothing, by the dim light of an _andon_.  It was picturesque decidedly,
+and I was well disposed to be content when the production of some
+handsome _fusuma_ created _daimiyô’s_ rooms out of the farthest part of
+the dim and wandering space, opening upon a damp garden, into which the
+rain splashed all night.
+
+The solitary spoil of the day’s journey was a glorious lily, which I
+presented to the house-master, and in the morning it was blooming on the
+_kami-dana_ in a small vase of priceless old Satsuma china.  I was awoke
+out of a sound sleep by Ito coming in with a rumour, brought by some
+travellers, that the Prime Minister had been assassinated, and fifty
+policemen killed!  [This was probably a distorted version of the partial
+mutiny of the Imperial Guard, which I learned on landing in Yezo.]  Very
+wild political rumours are in the air in these outlandish regions, and it
+is not very wonderful that the peasantry lack confidence in the existing
+order of things after the changes of the last ten years, and the recent
+assassination of the Home Minister.  I did not believe the rumour, for
+fanaticism, even in its wildest moods, usually owes some allegiance to
+common sense; but it was disturbing, as I have naturally come to feel a
+deep interest in Japanese affairs.  A few hours later Ito again presented
+himself with a bleeding cut on his temple.  In lighting his pipe—an
+odious nocturnal practice of the Japanese—he had fallen over the edge of
+the fire-pot.  I always sleep in a Japanese _kimona_ to be ready for
+emergencies, and soon bound up his head, and slept again, to be awoke
+early by another deluge.
+
+We made an early start, but got over very little ground, owing to bad
+roads and long delays.  All day the rain came down in even torrents, the
+tracks were nearly impassable, my horse fell five times, I suffered
+severely from pain and exhaustion, and almost fell into despair about
+ever reaching the sea.  In these wild regions there are no _kago_ or
+_norimons_ to be had, and a pack-horse is the only conveyance, and
+yesterday, having abandoned my own saddle, I had the bad luck to get a
+pack-saddle with specially angular and uncompromising peaks, with a
+soaked and extremely unwashed _futon_ on the top, spars, tackle, ridges,
+and furrows of the most exasperating description, and two nooses of rope
+to hold on by as the animal slid down hill on his haunches, or let me
+almost slide over his tail as he scrambled and plunged up hill.
+
+It was pretty country, even in the downpour, when white mists parted and
+fir-crowned heights looked out for a moment, or we slid down into a deep
+glen with mossy boulders, lichen-covered stumps, ferny carpet, and damp,
+balsamy smell of pyramidal cryptomeria, and a tawny torrent dashing
+through it in gusts of passion.  Then there were low hills, much scrub,
+immense rice-fields, and violent inundations.  But it is not pleasant,
+even in the prettiest country, to cling on to a pack-saddle with a
+saturated quilt below you and the water slowly soaking down through your
+wet clothes into your boots, knowing all the time that when you halt you
+must sleep on a wet bed, and change into damp clothes, and put on the wet
+ones again the next morning.  The villages were poor, and most of the
+houses were of boards rudely nailed together for ends, and for sides
+straw rudely tied on; they had no windows, and smoke came out of every
+crack.  They were as unlike the houses which travellers see in southern
+Japan as a “black hut” in Uist is like a cottage in a trim village in
+Kent.  These peasant proprietors have much to learn of the art of living.
+At Tsuguriko, the next stage, where the Transport Office was so dirty
+that I was obliged to sit in the street in the rain, they told us that we
+could only get on a _ri_ farther, because the bridges were all carried
+away and the fords were impassable; but I engaged horses, and, by dint of
+British doggedness and the willingness of the _mago_, I got the horses
+singly and without their loads in small punts across the swollen waters
+of the Hayakuchi, the Yuwasé, and the Mochida, and finally forded three
+branches of my old friend the Yonetsurugawa, with the foam of its
+hurrying waters whitening the men’s shoulders and the horses’ packs, and
+with a hundred Japanese looking on at the “folly” of the foreigner.
+
+I like to tell you of kind people everywhere, and the two _mago_ were
+specially so, for, when they found that I was pushing on to Yezo for fear
+of being laid up in the interior wilds, they did all they could to help
+me; lifted me gently from the horse, made steps of their backs for me to
+mount, and gathered for me handfuls of red berries, which I ate out of
+politeness, though they tasted of some nauseous drug.  They suggested
+that I should stay at the picturesquely-situated old village of
+Kawaguchi, but everything about it was mildewed and green with damp, and
+the stench from the green and black ditches with which it abounded was so
+overpowering, even in passing through, that I was obliged to ride on to
+Odaté, a crowded, forlorn, half-tumbling-to-pieces town of 8000 people,
+with bark roofs held down by stones.
+
+The _yadoyas_ are crowded with storm-staid travellers, and I had a weary
+tramp from one to another, almost sinking from pain, pressed upon by an
+immense crowd, and frequently bothered by a policeman, who followed me
+from one place to the other, making wholly unrighteous demands for my
+passport at that most inopportune time.  After a long search I could get
+nothing better than this room, with _fusuma_ of tissue paper, in the
+centre of the din of the house, close to the _doma_ and _daidokoro_.
+Fifty travellers, nearly all men, are here, mostly speaking at the top of
+their voices, and in a provincial jargon which exasperates Ito.  Cooking,
+bathing, eating, and, worst of all, perpetual drawing water from a well
+with a creaking hoisting apparatus, are going on from 4.30 in the morning
+till 11.30 at night, and on both evenings noisy mirth, of alcoholic
+inspiration, and dissonant performances by _geishas_ have added to the
+din.
+
+In all places lately _Hai_, “yes,” has been pronounced _Hé_, _Chi_, _Na_,
+_Né_, to Ito’s great contempt.  It sounds like an expletive or
+interjection rather than a response, and seems used often as a sign of
+respect or attention only.  Often it is loud and shrill, then guttural,
+at times little more than a sigh.  In these _yadoyas_ every sound is
+audible, and I hear low rumbling of mingled voices, and above all the
+sharp _Hai_, _Hai_ of the tea-house girls in full chorus from every
+quarter of the house.  The habit of saying it is so strong that a man
+roused out of sleep jumps up with _Hai_, _Hai_, and often, when I speak
+to Ito in English, a stupid Hebe sitting by answers _Hai_.
+
+I don’t want to convey a false impression of the noise here.  It would be
+at least three times as great were I in equally close proximity to a
+large hotel kitchen in England, with fifty Britons only separated from me
+by paper partitions.  I had not been long in bed on Saturday night when I
+was awoke by Ito bringing in an old hen which he said he could stew till
+it was tender, and I fell asleep again with its dying squeak in my ears,
+to be awoke a second time by two policemen wanting for some occult reason
+to see my passport, and a third time by two men with lanterns scrambling
+and fumbling about the room for the strings of a mosquito net, which they
+wanted for another traveller.  These are among the ludicrous incidents of
+Japanese travelling.  About five Ito woke me by saying he was quite sure
+that the _moxa_ would be the thing to cure my spine, and, as we were
+going to stay all day, he would go and fetch an operator; but I rejected
+this as emphatically as the services of the blind man!  Yesterday a man
+came and pasted slips of paper over all the “peep holes” in the _shôji_,
+and I have been very little annoyed, even though the _yadoya_ is so
+crowded.
+
+The rain continues to come down in torrents, and rumours are hourly
+arriving of disasters to roads and bridges on the northern route.
+
+                                                                  I. L. B.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER XXVII.
+
+
+Good-tempered Intoxication—The Effect of Sunshine—A tedious
+Altercation—Evening Occupations—Noisy Talk—Social Gathering—Unfair
+Comparisons.
+
+                                                     SHIRASAWA, _July_ 29.
+
+EARLY this morning the rain-clouds rolled themselves up and disappeared,
+and the bright blue sky looked as if it had been well washed.  I had to
+wait till noon before the rivers became fordable, and my day’s journey is
+only seven miles, as it is not possible to go farther till more of the
+water runs off.  We had very limp, melancholy horses, and my _mago_ was
+half-tipsy, and sang, talked, and jumped the whole way.  _Saké_ is
+frequently taken warm, and in that state produces a very noisy but
+good-tempered intoxication.  I have seen a good many intoxicated persons,
+but never one in the least degree quarrelsome; and the effect very soon
+passes off, leaving, however, an unpleasant nausea for two or three days
+as a warning against excess.  The abominable concoctions known under the
+names of beer, wine, and brandy, produce a bad-tempered and prolonged
+intoxication, and _delirium tremens_, rarely known as a result of _saké_
+drinking, is being introduced under their baleful influence.
+
+The sun shone gloriously and brightened the hill-girdled valley in which
+Odaté stands into positive beauty, with the narrow river flinging its
+bright waters over green and red shingle, lighting it up in glints among
+the conical hills, some richly wooded with _coniferæ_, and others merely
+covered with scrub, which were tumbled about in picturesque confusion.
+When Japan gets the sunshine, its forest-covered hills and garden-like
+valleys are turned into paradise.  In a journey of 600 miles there has
+hardly been a patch of country which would not have been beautiful in
+sunlight.
+
+We crossed five severe fords with the water half-way up the horses’
+bodies, in one of which the strong current carried my _mago_ off his
+feet, and the horse towed him ashore, singing and capering, his drunken
+glee nothing abated by his cold bath.  Everything is in a state of wreck.
+Several river channels have been formed in places where there was only
+one; there is not a trace of the road for a considerable distance, not a
+bridge exists for ten miles, and a great tract of country is covered with
+boulders, uprooted trees, and logs floated from the mountain sides.
+Already, however, these industrious peasants are driving piles, carrying
+soil for embankments in creels on horses’ backs, and making ropes of
+stones to prevent a recurrence of the calamity.  About here the female
+peasants wear for field-work a dress which pleases me much by its
+suitability—light blue trousers, with a loose sack over them, confined at
+the waist by a girdle.
+
+On arriving here in much pain, and knowing that the road was not open any
+farther, I was annoyed by a long and angry conversation between the
+house-master and Ito, during which the horses were not unloaded, and the
+upshot of it was that the man declined to give me shelter, saying that
+the police had been round the week before giving notice that no foreigner
+was to be received without first communicating with the nearest police
+station, which, in this instance, is three hours off.  I said that the
+authorities of Akita _ken_ could not by any local regulations override
+the Imperial edict under which passports are issued; but he said he
+should be liable to a fine and the withdrawal of his license if he
+violated the rule.  No foreigner, he said, had ever lodged in Shirasawa,
+and I have no doubt that he added that he hoped no foreigner would ever
+seek lodgings again.  My passport was copied and sent off by special
+runner, as I should have deeply regretted bringing trouble on the poor
+man by insisting on my rights, and in much trepidation he gave me a room
+open on one side to the village, and on another to a pond, over which, as
+if to court mosquitoes, it is partially built.  I cannot think how the
+Japanese can regard a hole full of dirty water as an ornamental appendage
+to a house.
+
+My hotel expenses (including Ito’s) are less than 3s. a-day, and in
+nearly every place there has been a cordial desire that I should be
+comfortable, and, considering that I have often put up in small, rough
+hamlets off the great routes even of Japanese travel, the accommodation,
+_minus_ the fleas and the odours, has been surprisingly excellent, not to
+be equalled, I should think, in equally remote regions in any country in
+the world.
+
+This evening, here, as in thousands of other villages, the men came home
+from their work, ate their food, took their smoke, enjoyed their
+children, carried them about, watched their games, twisted straw ropes,
+made straw sandals, split bamboo, wove straw rain-coats, and spent the
+time universally in those little economical ingenuities and skilful
+adaptations which our people (the worse for them) practise perhaps less
+than any other.  There was no assembling at the _saké_ shop.  Poor though
+the homes are, the men enjoy them; the children are an attraction at any
+rate, and the brawling and disobedience which often turn our
+working-class homes into bear-gardens are unknown here, where docility
+and obedience are inculcated from the cradle as a matter of course.  The
+signs of religion become fewer as I travel north, and it appears that the
+little faith which exists consists mainly in a belief in certain charms
+and superstitions, which the priests industriously foster.
+
+A low voice is not regarded as “a most excellent thing,” in man at least,
+among the lower classes in Japan.  The people speak at the top of their
+voices, and, though most words and syllables end in vowels, the general
+effect of a conversation is like the discordant gabble of a farm-yard.
+The next room to mine is full of storm-bound travellers, and they and the
+house-master kept up what I thought was a most important argument for
+four hours at the top of their voices.  I supposed it must be on the new
+and important ordinance granting local elective assemblies, of which I
+heard at Odaté, but on inquiry found that it was possible to spend four
+mortal hours in discussing whether the day’s journey from Odaté to
+Noshiro could be made best by road or river.
+
+Japanese women have their own gatherings, where gossip and chit-chat,
+marked by a truly Oriental indecorum of speech, are the staple of talk.
+I think that in many things, specially in some which lie on the surface,
+the Japanese are greatly our superiors, but that in many others they are
+immeasurably behind us.  In living altogether among this courteous,
+industrious, and civilised people, one comes to forget that one is doing
+them a gross injustice in comparing their manners and ways with those of
+a people moulded by many centuries of Christianity.  Would to God that we
+were so Christianised that the comparison might always be favourable to
+us, which it is not!
+
+_July_ 30.—In the room on the other side of mine were two men with severe
+eye-disease, with shaven heads and long and curious rosaries, who beat
+small drums as they walked, and were on pilgrimage to the shrine of Fudo
+at Megura, near Yedo, a seated, flame-surrounded idol, with a naked sword
+in one hand and a coil of rope in the other, who has the reputation of
+giving sight to the blind.  At five this morning they began their
+devotions, which consisted in repeating with great rapidity, and in a
+high monotonous key for two hours, the invocation of the Nichiren sect of
+Buddhists, _Namu miyô hô ren ge Kiyô_, which certainly no Japanese
+understands, and on the meaning of which even the best scholars are
+divided; one having given me, “Glory to the salvation-bringing
+Scriptures;” another, “Hail, precious law and gospel of the lotus
+flower;” and a third, “Heaven and earth!  The teachings of the wonderful
+lotus flower sect.”  _Namu amidu Butsu_ occurred at intervals, and two
+drums were beaten the whole time!
+
+The rain, which began again at eleven last night, fell from five till
+eight this morning, not in drops, but in streams, and in the middle of it
+a heavy pall of blackness (said to be a total eclipse) enfolded all
+things in a lurid gloom.  Any detention is exasperating within one day of
+my journey’s end, and I hear without equanimity that there are great
+difficulties ahead, and that our getting through in three or even four
+days is doubtful.  I hope you will not be tired of the monotony of my
+letters.  Such as they are, they represent the scenes which a traveller
+would see throughout much of northern Japan, and whatever interest they
+have consists in the fact that they are a faithful representation, made
+upon the spot, of what a foreigner sees and hears in travelling through a
+large but unfrequented region.
+
+                                                                  I. L. B.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER XXVIII.
+
+
+Torrents of Rain—An unpleasant Detention—Devastations produced by
+Floods—The Yadate Pass—The Force of Water—Difficulties thicken—A
+Primitive Yadoya—The Water rises.
+
+                                      IKARIGASEKI, AOMORI KEN, _August_ 2.
+
+THE prophecies concerning difficulties are fulfilled.  For six days and
+five nights the rain has never ceased, except for a few hours at a time,
+and for the last thirteen hours, as during the eclipse at Shirasawa, it
+has been falling in such sheets as I have only seen for a few minutes at
+a time on the equator.  I have been here storm-staid for two days, with
+damp bed, damp clothes, damp everything, and boots, bag, books, are all
+green with mildew.  And still the rain falls, and roads, bridges,
+rice-fields, trees, and hillsides are being swept in a common ruin
+towards the Tsugaru Strait, so tantalisingly near; and the simple people
+are calling on the forgotten gods of the rivers and the hills, on the sun
+and moon, and all the host of heaven, to save them from this “plague of
+immoderate rain and waters.”  For myself, to be able to lie down all day
+is something, and as “the mind, when in a healthy state, reposes as
+quietly before an insurmountable difficulty as before an ascertained
+truth,” so, as I cannot get on, I have ceased to chafe, and am rather
+inclined to magnify the advantages of the detention, a necessary process,
+as you would think if you saw my surroundings!
+
+The day before yesterday, in spite of severe pain, was one of the most
+interesting of my journey.  As I learned something of the force of fire
+in Hawaii, I am learning not a little of the force of water in Japan.  We
+left Shirasawa at noon, as it looked likely to clear, taking two horses
+and three men.  It is beautiful scenery—a wild valley, upon which a
+number of lateral ridges descend, rendered strikingly picturesque by the
+dark pyramidal cryptomeria, which are truly the glory of Japan.  Five of
+the fords were deep and rapid, and the entrance on them difficult, as the
+sloping descents were all carried away, leaving steep banks, which had to
+be levelled by the mattocks of the _mago_.  Then the fords themselves
+were gone; there were shallows where there had been depths, and depths
+where there had been shallows; new channels were carved, and great beds
+of shingle had been thrown up.  Much wreckage lay about.  The road and
+its small bridges were all gone, trees torn up by the roots or snapped
+short off by being struck by heavy logs were heaped together like
+barricades, leaves and even bark being in many cases stripped completely
+off; great logs floated down the river in such numbers and with such
+force that we had to wait half an hour in one place to secure a safe
+crossing; hollows were filled with liquid mud, boulders of great size
+were piled into embankments, causing perilous alterations in the course
+of the river; a fertile valley had been utterly destroyed, and the men
+said they could hardly find their way.
+
+At the end of five miles it became impassable for horses, and, with two
+of the _mago_ carrying the baggage, we set off, wading through water and
+climbing along the side of a hill, up to our knees in soft wet soil.  The
+hillside and the road were both gone, and there were heavy landslips
+along the whole valley.  Happily there was not much of this exhausting
+work, for, just as higher and darker ranges, densely wooded with
+cryptomeria, began to close us in, we emerged upon a fine new road, broad
+enough for a carriage, which, after crossing two ravines on fine bridges,
+plunges into the depths of a magnificent forest, and then by a long
+series of fine zigzags of easy gradients ascends the pass of Yadate, on
+the top of which, in a deep sandstone cutting, is a handsome obelisk
+marking the boundary between Akita and Aomori _ken_.  This is a
+marvellous road for Japan, it is so well graded and built up, and logs
+for travellers’ rests are placed at convenient distances.  Some very
+heavy work in grading and blasting has been done upon it, but there are
+only four miles of it, with wretched bridle tracks at each end.  I left
+the others behind, and strolled on alone over the top of the pass and
+down the other side, where the road is blasted out of rock of a vivid
+pink and green colour, looking brilliant under the trickle of water.  I
+admire this pass more than anything I have seen in Japan; I even long to
+see it again, but under a bright blue sky.  It reminds me much of the
+finest part of the Brunig Pass, and something of some of the passes in
+the Rocky Mountains, but the trees are far finer than in either.  It was
+lonely, stately, dark, solemn; its huge cryptomeria, straight as masts,
+sent their tall spires far aloft in search of light; the ferns, which
+love damp and shady places, were the only undergrowth; the trees flung
+their balsamy, aromatic scent liberally upon the air, and, in the
+unlighted depths of many a ravine and hollow, clear bright torrents leapt
+and tumbled, drowning with their thundering bass the musical treble of
+the lighter streams.  Not a traveller disturbed the solitude with his
+sandalled footfall; there was neither song of bird nor hum of insect.
+
+In the midst of this sublime scenery, and at the very top of the pass,
+the rain, which had been light but steady during the whole day, began to
+come down in streams and then in sheets.  I have been so rained upon for
+weeks that at first I took little notice of it, but very soon changes
+occurred before my eyes which concentrated my attention upon it.  The
+rush of waters was heard everywhere, trees of great size slid down,
+breaking others in their fall; rocks were rent and carried away trees in
+their descent, the waters rose before our eyes; with a boom and roar as
+of an earthquake a hillside burst, and half the hill, with a noble forest
+of cryptomeria, was projected outwards, and the trees, with the land on
+which they grew, went down heads foremost, diverting a river from its
+course, and where the forest-covered hillside had been there was a great
+scar, out of which a torrent burst at high pressure, which in half an
+hour carved for itself a deep ravine, and carried into the valley below
+an avalanche of stones and sand.  Another hillside descended less
+abruptly, and its noble groves found themselves at the bottom in a
+perpendicular position, and will doubtless survive their transplantation.
+Actually, before my eyes, this fine new road was torn away by hastily
+improvised torrents, or blocked by landslips in several places, and a
+little lower, in one moment, a hundred yards of it disappeared, and with
+them a fine bridge, which was deposited aslant across the torrent lower
+down.
+
+On the descent, when things began to look very bad, and the
+mountain-sides had become cascades bringing trees, logs, and rocks down
+with them, we were fortunate enough to meet with two pack-horses whose
+leaders were ignorant of the impassability of the road to Odaté, and they
+and my coolies exchanged loads.  These were strong horses, and the _mago_
+were skilful and courageous.  They said if we hurried we could just get
+to the hamlet they had left, they thought; but while they spoke the road
+and the bridge below were carried away.  They insisted on lashing me to
+the pack-saddle.  The great stream, whose beauty I had formerly admired,
+was now a thing of dread, and had to be forded four times without fords.
+It crashed and thundered, drowning the feeble sound of human voices, the
+torrents from the heavens hissed through the forest, trees and logs came
+crashing down the hillsides, a thousand cascades added to the din, and in
+the bewilderment produced by such an unusual concatenation of sights and
+sounds we stumbled through the river, the men up to their shoulders, the
+horses up to their backs.  Again and again we crossed.  The banks being
+carried away, it was very hard to get either into or out of the water;
+the horses had to scramble or jump up places as high as their shoulders,
+all slippery and crumbling, and twice the men cut steps for them with
+axes.  The rush of the torrent at the last crossing taxed the strength of
+both men and horses, and, as I was helpless from being tied on, I confess
+that I shut my eyes!  After getting through, we came upon the lands
+belonging to this village—rice-fields with the dykes burst, and all the
+beautiful ridge and furrow cultivation of the other crops carried away.
+The waters were rising fast, the men said we must hurry; they unbound me,
+so that I might ride more comfortably, spoke to the horses, and went on
+at a run.  My horse, which had nearly worn out his shoes in the fords,
+stumbled at every step, the _mago_ gave me a noose of rope to clutch, the
+rain fell in such torrents that I speculated on the chance of being
+washed off my saddle, when suddenly I saw a shower of sparks; I felt
+unutterable things; I was choked, bruised, stifled, and presently found
+myself being hauled out of a ditch by three men, and realised that the
+horse had tumbled down in going down a steepish hill, and that I had gone
+over his head.  To climb again on the soaked _futon_ was the work of a
+moment, and, with men running and horses stumbling and splashing, we
+crossed the Hirakawa by one fine bridge, and half a mile farther
+re-crossed it on another, wishing as we did so that all Japanese bridges
+were as substantial, for they were both 100 feet long, and had central
+piers.
+
+We entered Ikarigaseki from the last bridge, a village of 800 people, on
+a narrow ledge between an abrupt hill and the Hirakawa, a most forlorn
+and tumble-down place, given up to felling timber and making shingles;
+and timber in all its forms—logs, planks, faggots, and shingles—is heaped
+and stalked about.  It looks more like a lumberer’s encampment than a
+permanent village, but it is beautifully situated, and unlike any of the
+innumerable villages that I have ever seen.
+
+The street is long and narrow, with streams in stone channels on either
+side; but these had overflowed, and men, women, and children were
+constructing square dams to keep the water, which had already reached the
+_doma_, from rising over the _tatami_.  Hardly any house has paper
+windows, and in the few which have, they are so black with smoke as to
+look worse than none.  The roofs are nearly flat, and are covered with
+shingles held on by laths and weighted with large stones.  Nearly all the
+houses look like temporary sheds, and most are as black inside as a Barra
+hut.  The walls of many are nothing but rough boards tied to the uprights
+by straw ropes.
+
+In the drowning torrent, sitting in puddles of water, and drenched to the
+skin hours before, we reached this very primitive _yadoya_, the lower
+part of which is occupied by the _daidokoro_, a party of storm-bound
+students, horses, fowls, and dogs.  My room is a wretched loft, reached
+by a ladder, with such a quagmire at its foot that I have to descend into
+it in Wellington boots.  It was dismally grotesque at first.  The torrent
+on the unceiled roof prevented Ito from hearing what I said, the bed was
+soaked, and the water, having got into my box, had dissolved the remains
+of the condensed milk, and had reduced clothes, books, and paper into a
+condition of universal stickiness.  My kimono was less wet than anything
+else, and, borrowing a sheet of oiled paper, I lay down in it, till
+roused up in half an hour by Ito shrieking above the din on the roof that
+the people thought that the bridge by which we had just entered would
+give way; and, running to the river bank, we joined a large crowd, far
+too intensely occupied by the coming disaster to take any notice of the
+first foreign lady they had ever seen.
+
+The Hirakawa, which an hour before was merely a clear, rapid mountain
+stream, about four feet deep, was then ten feet deep, they said, and
+tearing along, thick and muddy, and with a fearful roar,
+
+    “And each wave was crested with tawny foam,
+          Like the mane of a chestnut steed.”
+
+Immense logs of hewn timber, trees, roots, branches, and faggots, were
+coming down in numbers.  The abutment on this side was much undermined,
+but, except that the central pier trembled whenever a log struck it, the
+bridge itself stood firm—so firm, indeed, that two men, anxious to save
+some property on the other side, crossed it after I arrived.  Then logs
+of planed timber of large size, and joints, and much wreckage, came
+down—fully forty fine timbers, thirty feet long, for the fine bridge
+above had given way.  Most of the harvest of logs cut on the Yadate Pass
+must have been lost, for over 300 were carried down in the short time in
+which I watched the river.  This is a very heavy loss to this village,
+which lives by the timber trade.  Efforts were made at a bank higher up
+to catch them as they drifted by, but they only saved about one in
+twenty.  It was most exciting to see the grand way in which these timbers
+came down; and the moment in which they were to strike or not to strike
+the pier was one of intense suspense.  After an hour of this two superb
+logs, fully thirty feet long, came down close together, and, striking the
+central pier nearly simultaneously, it shuddered horribly, the great
+bridge parted in the middle, gave an awful groan like a living thing,
+plunged into the torrent, and re-appeared in the foam below only as
+disjointed timbers hurrying to the sea.  Not a vestige remained.  The
+bridge below was carried away in the morning, so, till the river becomes
+fordable, this little place is completely isolated.  On thirty miles of
+road, out of nineteen bridges only two remain, and the road itself is
+almost wholly carried away!
+
+
+
+
+LETTER XXVIII.—(_Continued_.)
+
+
+Scanty Resources—Japanese Children—Children’s Games—A Sagacious Example—A
+Kite Competition—Personal Privations.
+
+                                                              IKARIGASEKI.
+
+I HAVE well-nigh exhausted the resources of this place.  They are to go
+out three times a day to see how much the river has fallen; to talk with
+the house-master and _Kôchô_; to watch the children’s games and the
+making of shingles; to buy toys and sweetmeats and give them away; to
+apply zinc lotion to a number of sore eyes three times daily, under which
+treatment, during three days, there has been a wonderful amendment; to
+watch the cooking, spinning, and other domestic processes in the
+_daidokoro_; to see the horses, which are also actually in it, making
+meals of green leaves of trees instead of hay; to see the lepers, who are
+here for some waters which are supposed to arrest, if not to cure, their
+terrible malady; to lie on my stretcher and sew, and read the papers of
+the Asiatic Society, and to go over all possible routes to Aomori.  The
+people have become very friendly in consequence of the eye lotion, and
+bring many diseases for my inspection, most of which would never have
+arisen had cleanliness of clothing and person been attended to.  The
+absence of soap, the infrequency with which clothing is washed, and the
+absence of linen next the skin, cause various cutaneous diseases, which
+are aggravated by the bites and stings of insects.  Scald-head affects
+nearly half the children here.
+
+I am very fond of Japanese children.  I have never yet heard a baby cry,
+and I have never seen a child troublesome or disobedient.  Filial piety
+is the leading virtue in Japan, and unquestioning obedience is the habit
+of centuries.  The arts and threats by which English mothers cajole or
+frighten children into unwilling obedience appear unknown.  I admire the
+way in which children are taught to be independent in their amusements.
+Part of the home education is the learning of the rules of the different
+games, which are absolute, and when there is a doubt, instead of a
+quarrelsome suspension of the game, the fiat of a senior child decides
+the matter.  They play by themselves, and don’t bother adults at every
+turn.  I usually carry sweeties with me, and give them to the children,
+but not one has ever received them without first obtaining permission
+from the father or mother.  When that is gained they smile and bow
+profoundly, and hand the sweeties to those present before eating any
+themselves.  They are gentle creatures, but too formal and precocious.
+
+They have no special dress.  This is so queer that I cannot repeat it too
+often.  At three they put on the _kimono_ and girdle, which are as
+inconvenient to them as to their parents, and childish play in this garb
+is grotesque.  I have, however, never seen what we call child’s play—that
+general abandonment to miscellaneous impulses, which consists in
+struggling, slapping, rolling, jumping, kicking, shouting, laughing, and
+quarrelling!  Two fine boys are very clever in harnessing paper carts to
+the backs of beetles with gummed traces, so that eight of them draw a
+load of rice up an inclined plane.  You can imagine what the fate of such
+a load and team would be at home among a number of snatching hands.  Here
+a number of infants watch the performance with motionless interest, and
+never need the adjuration, “Don’t touch.”  In most of the houses there
+are bamboo cages for “the shrill-voiced Katydid,” and the children amuse
+themselves with feeding these vociferous grasshoppers.  The channels of
+swift water in the street turn a number of toy water-wheels, which set in
+motion most ingenious mechanical toys, of which a model of the automatic
+rice-husker is the commonest, and the boys spend much time in devising
+and watching these, which are really very fascinating.  It is the
+holidays, but “holiday tasks” are given, and in the evenings you hear the
+hum of lessons all along the street for about an hour.  The school
+examination is at the re-opening of the school after the holidays,
+instead of at the end of the session—an arrangement which shows an honest
+desire to discern the permanent gain made by the scholars.
+
+This afternoon has been fine and windy, and the boys have been flying
+kites, made of tough paper on a bamboo frame, all of a rectangular shape,
+some of them five feet square, and nearly all decorated with huge faces
+of historical heroes.  Some of them have a humming arrangement made of
+whale-bone.  There was a very interesting contest between two great
+kites, and it brought out the whole population.  The string of each kite,
+for 30 feet or more below the frame, was covered with pounded glass, made
+to adhere very closely by means of tenacious glue, and for two hours the
+kite-fighters tried to get their kites into a proper position for sawing
+the adversary’s string in two.  At last one was successful, and the
+severed kite became his property, upon which victor and vanquished
+exchanged three low bows.  Silently as the people watched and received
+the destruction of their bridge, so silently they watched this exciting
+contest.  The boys also flew their kites while walking on stilts—a most
+dexterous performance, in which few were able to take part—and then a
+larger number gave a stilt race.  The most striking out-of-door games are
+played at fixed seasons of the year, and are not to be seen now.
+
+There are twelve children in this _yadoya_, and after dark they regularly
+play at a game which Ito says “is played in the winter in every house in
+Japan.”  The children sit in a circle, and the adults look on eagerly,
+child-worship being more common in Japan than in America, and, to my
+thinking, the Japanese form is the best.
+
+From proverbial philosophy to personal privation is rather a descent, but
+owing to the many detentions on the journey my small stock of foreign
+food is exhausted, and I have been living here on rice, cucumbers, and
+salt salmon—so salt that, after being boiled in two waters, it produces a
+most distressing thirst.  Even this has failed to-day, as communication
+with the coast has been stopped for some time, and the village is
+suffering under the calamity of its stock of salt-fish being completely
+exhausted.  There are no eggs, and rice and cucumbers are very like the
+“light food” which the Israelites “loathed.”  I had an omelette one day,
+but it was much like musty leather.  The Italian minister said to me in
+Tôkiyô, “No question in Japan is so solemn as that of food,” and many
+others echoed what I thought at the time a most unworthy sentiment.  I
+recognised its truth to-day when I opened my last resort, a box of
+Brand’s meat lozenges, and found them a mass of mouldiness.  One can only
+dry clothes here by hanging them in the wood smoke, so I prefer to let
+them mildew on the walls, and have bought a straw rain-coat, which is
+more reliable than the paper waterproofs.  I hear the hum of the children
+at their lessons for the last time, for the waters are falling fast, and
+we shall leave in the morning.
+
+                                                                  I. L. B.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER XXIX.
+
+
+Hope deferred—Effects of the Flood—Activity of the Police—A Ramble in
+Disguise—The _Tanabata_ Festival—Mr. Satow’s Reputation.
+
+                                                     KUROISHI, _August_ 5.
+
+AFTER all the waters did not fall as was expected, and I had to spend a
+fourth day at Ikarigaseki.  We left early on Saturday, as we had to
+travel fifteen miles without halting.  The sun shone on all the beautiful
+country, and on all the wreck and devastation, as it often shines on the
+dimpling ocean the day after a storm.  We took four men, crossed two
+severe fords where bridges had been carried away, and where I and the
+baggage got very wet; saw great devastations and much loss of crops and
+felled timber; passed under a cliff, which for 200 feet was composed of
+fine columnar basalt in six-sided prisms, and quite suddenly emerged on a
+great plain, on which green billows of rice were rolling sunlit before a
+fresh north wind.  This plain is liberally sprinkled with wooded villages
+and surrounded by hills; one low range forming a curtain across the base
+of Iwakisan, a great snow-streaked dome, which rises to the west of the
+plain to a supposed height of 5000 feet.  The water had risen in most of
+the villages to a height of four feet, and had washed the lower part of
+the mud walls away.  The people were busy drying their _tatami_,
+_futons_, and clothing, reconstructing their dykes and small bridges, and
+fishing for the logs which were still coming down in large quantities.
+
+In one town two very shabby policemen rushed upon us, seized the bridle
+of my horse, and kept me waiting for a long time in the middle of a
+crowd, while they toilsomely _bored_ through the passport, turning it up
+and down, and holding it up to the light, as though there were some
+nefarious mystery about it.  My horse stumbled so badly that I was
+obliged to walk to save myself from another fall, and, just as my powers
+were failing, we met a _kuruma_, which by good management, such as being
+carried occasionally, brought me into Kuroishi, a neat town of 5500
+people, famous for the making of clogs and combs, where I have obtained a
+very neat, airy, upstairs room, with a good view over the surrounding
+country and of the doings of my neighbours in their back rooms and
+gardens.  Instead of getting on to Aomori I am spending three days and
+two nights here, and, as the weather has improved and my room is
+remarkably cheerful, the rest has been very pleasant.  As I have said
+before, it is difficult to get any information about anything even a few
+miles off, and even at the Post Office they cannot give any intelligence
+as to the date of the sailings of the mail steamer between Aomori, twenty
+miles off, and Hakodaté.
+
+The police were not satisfied with seeing my passport, but must also see
+me, and four of them paid me a polite but domiciliary visit the evening
+of my arrival.  That evening the sound of drumming was ceaseless, and
+soon after I was in bed Ito announced that there was something really
+worth seeing, so I went out in my _kimono_ and without my hat, and in
+this disguise altogether escaped recognition as a foreigner.  Kuroishi is
+unlighted, and I was tumbling and stumbling along in overhaste when a
+strong arm cleared the way, and the house-master appeared with a very
+pretty lantern, hanging close to the ground from a cane held in the hand.
+Thus came the phrase, “Thy word is a light unto my feet.”
+
+We soon reached a point for seeing the festival procession advance
+towards us, and it was so beautiful and picturesque that it kept me out
+for an hour.  It passes through all the streets between 7 and 10 p.m.
+each night during the first week in August, with an ark, or coffer,
+containing slips of paper, on which (as I understand) wishes are written,
+and each morning at seven this is carried to the river and the slips are
+cast upon the stream.  The procession consisted of three monster drums
+nearly the height of a man’s body, covered with horsehide, and strapped
+to the drummers, end upwards, and thirty small drums, all beaten
+rub-a-dub-dub without ceasing.  Each drum has the _tomoyé_ painted on its
+ends.  Then there were hundreds of paper lanterns carried on long poles
+of various lengths round a central lantern, 20 feet high, itself an
+oblong 6 feet long, with a front and wings, and all kinds of mythical and
+mystical creatures painted in bright colours upon it—a transparency
+rather than a lantern, in fact.  Surrounding it were hundreds of
+beautiful lanterns and transparencies of all sorts of fanciful
+shapes—fans, fishes, birds, kites, drums; the hundreds of people and
+children who followed all carried circular lanterns, and rows of lanterns
+with the _tomoyé_ on one side and two Chinese characters on the other
+hung from the eaves all along the line of the procession.  I never saw
+anything more completely like a fairy scene, the undulating waves of
+lanterns as they swayed along, the soft lights and soft tints moving
+aloft in the darkness, the lantern-bearers being in deep shadow.  This
+festival is called the _tanabata_, or _seiseki_ festival, but I am unable
+to get any information about it.  Ito says that he knows what it means,
+but is unable to explain, and adds the phrase he always uses when in
+difficulties, “Mr. Satow would be able to tell you all about it.”
+
+                                                                  I. L. B.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER XXX.
+
+
+A Lady’s Toilet—Hair-dressing—Paint and Cosmetics—Afternoon
+Visitors—Christian Converts.
+
+                                                     KUROISHI, _August_ 5.
+
+THIS is a pleasant place, and my room has many advantages besides light
+and cleanliness, as, for instance, that I overlook my neighbours and that
+I have seen a lady at her toilet preparing for a wedding!  A married girl
+knelt in front of a black lacquer toilet-box with a spray of cherry
+blossoms in gold sprawling over it, and lacquer uprights at the top,
+which supported a polished metal mirror.  Several drawers in the
+toilet-box were open, and toilet requisites in small lacquer boxes were
+lying on the floor.  A female barber stood behind the lady, combing,
+dividing, and tying her hair, which, like that of all Japanese women, was
+glossy black, but neither fine nor long.  The coiffure is an erection, a
+complete work of art.  Two divisions, three inches apart, were made along
+the top of the head, and the lock of hair between these was combed,
+stiffened with a bandoline made from the _Uvario Japonica_, raised two
+inches from the forehead, turned back, tied, and pinned to the back hair.
+The rest was combed from each side to the back, and then tied loosely
+with twine made of paper.  Several switches of false hair were then taken
+out of a long lacquer box, and, with the aid of a quantity of bandoline
+and a solid pad, the ordinary smooth chignon was produced, to which
+several loops and bows of hair were added, interwoven with a little
+dark-blue _crêpe_, spangled with gold.  A single, thick, square-sided,
+tortoiseshell pin was stuck through the whole as an ornament.
+
+The fashions of dressing the hair are fixed.  They vary with the ages of
+female children, and there is a slight difference between the _coiffure_
+of the married and unmarried.  The two partings on the top of the head
+and the chignon never vary.  The amount of stiffening used is necessary,
+as the head is never covered out of doors.  This arrangement will last in
+good order for a week or more—thanks to the wooden pillow.
+
+                        [Picture: A Lady’s Mirror]
+
+The barber’s work was only partially done when the hair was dressed, for
+every vestige of recalcitrant eyebrow was removed, and every downy hair
+which dared to display itself on the temples and neck was pulled out with
+tweezers.  This removal of all short hair has a tendency to make even the
+natural hair look like a wig.  Then the lady herself took a box of white
+powder, and laid it on her face, ears, and neck, till her skin looked
+like a mask.  With a camel’s-hair brush she then applied some mixture to
+her eyelids to make the bright eyes look brighter, the teeth were
+blackened, or rather reblackened, with a feather brush dipped in a
+solution of gall-nuts and iron-filings—a tiresome and disgusting process,
+several times repeated, and then a patch of red was placed upon the lower
+lip.  I cannot say that the effect was pleasing, but the girl thought so,
+for she turned her head so as to see the general effect in the mirror,
+smiled, and was satisfied.  The remainder of her toilet, which altogether
+took over three hours, was performed in private, and when she reappeared
+she looked as if a very unmeaning-looking wooden doll had been dressed up
+with the exquisite good taste, harmony, and quietness which characterise
+the dress of Japanese women.
+
+A most rigid social etiquette draws an impassable line of demarcation
+between the costume of the virtuous woman in every rank and that of her
+frail sister.  The humiliating truth that many of our female fashions are
+originated by those whose position we the most regret, and are then
+carefully copied by all classes of women in our country, does not obtain
+credence among Japanese women, to whom even the slightest approximation
+in the style of hair-dressing, ornament, or fashion of garments would be
+a shame.
+
+I was surprised to hear that three “Christian students” from Hirosaki
+wished to see me—three remarkably intelligent-looking, handsomely-dressed
+young men, who all spoke a little English.  One of them had the brightest
+and most intellectual face which I have seen in Japan.  They are of the
+_samurai_ class, as I should have known from the superior type of face
+and manner.  They said that they heard that an English lady was in the
+house, and asked me if I were a Christian, but apparently were not
+satisfied till, in answer to the question if I had a Bible, I was able to
+produce one.
+
+Hirosaki is a castle town of some importance, 3½ _ri_ from here, and its
+_ex-daimiyô_ supports a high-class school or college there, which has had
+two Americans successively for its headmasters.  These gentlemen must
+have been very consistent in Christian living as well as energetic in
+Christian teaching, for under their auspices thirty young men have
+embraced Christianity.  As all of these are well educated, and several
+are nearly ready to pass as teachers into Government employment, their
+acceptance of the “new way” may have an important bearing on the future
+of this region.
+
+                                                                  I. L. B.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER XXXI.
+
+
+A Travelling Curiosity—Rude Dwellings—Primitive Simplicity—The Public
+Bath-house.
+
+                                                                 KUROISHI.
+
+YESTERDAY was beautiful, and, dispensing for the first time with Ito’s
+attendance, I took a _kuruma_ for the day, and had a very pleasant
+excursion into a _cul de sac_ in the mountains.  The one drawback was the
+infamous road, which compelled me either to walk or be mercilessly
+jolted.  The runner was a nice, kind, merry creature, quite delighted,
+Ito said, to have a chance of carrying so great a sight as a foreigner
+into a district in which no foreigner has even been seen.  In the
+absolute security of Japanese travelling, which I have fully realised for
+a long time, I look back upon my fears at Kasukabé with a feeling of
+self-contempt.
+
+The scenery, which was extremely pretty, gained everything from sunlight
+and colour—wonderful shades of cobalt and indigo, green blues and blue
+greens, and flashes of white foam in unsuspected rifts.  It looked a
+simple, home-like region, a very pleasant land.
+
+We passed through several villages of farmers who live in very primitive
+habitations, built of mud, looking as if the mud had been dabbed upon the
+framework with the hands.  The walls sloped slightly inwards, the thatch
+was rude, the eaves were deep and covered all manner of lumber; there was
+a smoke-hole in a few, but the majority smoked all over like brick-kilns;
+they had no windows, and the walls and rafters were black and shiny.
+Fowls and horses live on one side of the dark interior, and the people on
+the other.  The houses were alive with unclothed children, and as I
+repassed in the evening unclothed men and women, nude to their waists,
+were sitting outside their dwellings with the small fry, clothed only in
+amulets, about them, several big yellow dogs forming part of each family
+group, and the faces of dogs, children, and people were all placidly
+contented!  These farmers owned many good horses, and their crops were
+splendid.  Probably on _matsuri_ days all appear in fine clothes taken
+from ample hoards.  They cannot be so poor, as far as the necessaries of
+life are concerned; they are only very “far back.”  They know nothing
+better, and are contented; but their houses are as bad as any that I have
+ever seen, and the simplicity of Eden is combined with an amount of dirt
+which makes me sceptical as to the performance of even weekly ablutions.
+
+                       [Picture: Akita Farm-House]
+
+Upper Nakano is very beautiful, and in the autumn, when its myriads of
+star-leaved maples are scarlet and crimson, against a dark background of
+cryptomeria, among which a great white waterfall gleams like a snow-drift
+before it leaps into the black pool below, it must be well worth a long
+journey.  I have not seen anything which has pleased me more.  There is a
+fine flight of moss-grown stone steps down to the water, a pretty bridge,
+two superb stone _torii_, some handsome stone lanterns, and then a grand
+flight of steep stone steps up a hillside dark with cryptomeria leads to
+a small Shintô shrine.  Not far off there is a sacred tree, with the
+token of love and revenge upon it.  The whole place is entrancing.
+
+Lower Nakano, which I could only reach on foot, is only interesting as
+possessing some very hot springs, which are valuable in cases of
+rheumatism and sore eyes.  It consists mainly of tea-houses and
+_yadoyas_, and seemed rather gay.  It is built round the edge of an
+oblong depression, at the bottom of which the bath-houses stand, of which
+there are four, only nominally separated, and with but two entrances,
+which open directly upon the bathers.  In the two end houses women and
+children were bathing in large tanks, and in the centre ones women and
+men were bathing together, but at opposite sides, with wooden ledges to
+sit upon all round.  I followed the _kuruma_-runner blindly to the baths,
+and when once in I had to go out at the other side, being pressed upon by
+people from behind; but the bathers were too polite to take any notice of
+my most unwilling intrusion, and the _kuruma_-runner took me in without
+the slightest sense of impropriety in so doing.  I noticed that formal
+politeness prevailed in the bath-house as elsewhere, and that dippers and
+towels were handed from one to another with profound bows.  The public
+bath-house is said to be the place in which public opinion is formed, as
+it is with us in clubs and public-houses, and that the presence of women
+prevents any dangerous or seditious consequences; but the Government is
+doing its best to prevent promiscuous bathing; and, though the reform may
+travel slowly into these remote regions, it will doubtless arrive sooner
+or later.  The public bath-house is one of the features of Japan.
+
+                                                                  I. L. B.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER XXXII.
+
+
+A Hard Day’s Journey—An Overturn—Nearing the Ocean—Joyful
+Excitement—Universal Greyness—Inopportune Policemen—A Stormy Voyage—A
+Wild Welcome—A Windy Landing—The Journey’s End.
+
+                                             HAKODATÉ, YEZO, August, 1878.
+
+THE journey from Kuroishi to Aomori, though only 22½ miles, was a
+tremendous one, owing to the state of the roads; for more rain had
+fallen, and the passage of hundreds of pack-horses heavily loaded with
+salt-fish had turned the tracks into quagmires.  At the end of the first
+stage the Transport Office declined to furnish a _kuruma_, owing to the
+state of the roads; but, as I was not well enough to ride farther, I
+bribed two men for a very moderate sum to take me to the coast; and by
+accommodating each other we got on tolerably, though I had to walk up all
+the hills and down many, to get out at every place where a little bridge
+had been carried away, that the _kuruma_ might be lifted over the gap,
+and often to walk for 200 yards at a time, because it sank up to its
+axles in the quagmire.  In spite of all precautions I was upset into a
+muddy ditch, with the _kuruma_ on the top of me; but, as my air-pillow
+fortunately fell between the wheel and me, I escaped with nothing worse
+than having my clothes soaked with water and mud, which, as I had to keep
+them on all night, might have given me cold, but did not.  We met strings
+of pack-horses the whole way, carrying salt-fish, which is taken
+throughout the interior.
+
+The mountain-ridge, which runs throughout the Main Island, becomes
+depressed in the province of Nambu, but rises again into grand, abrupt
+hills at Aomori Bay.  Between Kuroishi and Aomori, however, it is broken
+up into low ranges, scantily wooded, mainly with pine, scrub oak, and the
+dwarf bamboo.  The _Sesamum ignosco_, of which the incense-sticks are
+made, covers some hills to the exclusion of all else.  Rice grows in the
+valleys, but there is not much cultivation, and the country looks rough,
+cold, and hyperborean.
+
+The farming hamlets grew worse and worse, with houses made roughly of
+mud, with holes scratched in the side for light to get in, or for smoke
+to get out, and the walls of some were only great pieces of bark and
+bundles of straw tied to the posts with straw ropes.  The roofs were
+untidy, but this was often concealed by the profuse growth of the
+water-melons which trailed over them.  The people were very dirty, but
+there was no appearance of special poverty, and a good deal of money must
+be made on the horses and _mago_ required for the transit of fish from
+Yezo, and for rice to it.
+
+At Namioka occurred the last of the very numerous ridges we have crossed
+since leaving Nikkô at a point called Tsugarusaka, and from it looked
+over a rugged country upon a dark-grey sea, nearly landlocked by
+pine-clothed hills, of a rich purple indigo colour.  The clouds were
+drifting, the colour was intensifying, the air was fresh and cold, the
+surrounding soil was peaty, the odours of pines were balsamic, it looked,
+felt, and smelt like home; the grey sea was Aomori Bay, beyond was the
+Tsugaru Strait,—my long land-journey was done.  A traveller said a
+steamer was sailing for Yezo at night, so, in a state of joyful
+excitement, I engaged four men, and by dragging, pushing, and lifting,
+they got me into Aomori, a town of grey houses, grey roofs, and grey
+stones on roofs, built on a beach of grey sand, round a grey bay—a
+miserable-looking place, though the capital of the _ken_.
+
+It has a great export trade in cattle and rice to Yezo, besides being the
+outlet of an immense annual emigration from northern Japan to the Yezo
+fishery, and imports from Hakodaté large quantities of fish, skins, and
+foreign merchandise.  It has some trade in a pretty but not valuable
+“seaweed,” or variegated lacquer, called Aomori lacquer, but not actually
+made there, its own speciality being a sweetmeat made of beans and sugar.
+It has a deep and well-protected harbour, but no piers or conveniences
+for trade.  It has barracks and the usual Government buildings, but there
+was no time to learn anything about it,—only a short half-hour for
+getting my ticket at the _Mitsu Bishi_ office, where they demanded and
+copied my passport; for snatching a morsel of fish at a restaurant where
+“foreign food” was represented by a very dirty table-cloth; and for
+running down to the grey beach, where I was carried into a large _sampan_
+crowded with Japanese steerage passengers.
+
+The wind was rising, a considerable surf was running, the spray was
+flying over the boat, the steamer had her steam up, and was ringing and
+whistling impatiently, there was a scud of rain, and I was standing
+trying to keep my paper waterproof from being blown off, when three
+inopportune policemen jumped into the boat and demanded my passport.  For
+a moment I wished them and the passport under the waves!  The steamer is
+a little old paddle-boat of about 70 tons, with no accommodation but a
+single cabin on deck.  She was as clean and trim as a yacht, and, like a
+yacht, totally unfit for bad weather.  Her captain, engineers, and crew
+were all Japanese, and not a word of English was spoken.  My clothes were
+very wet, and the night was colder than the day had been, but the captain
+kindly covered me up with several blankets on the floor, so I did not
+suffer.  We sailed early in the evening, with a brisk northerly breeze,
+which chopped round to the south-east, and by eleven blew a gale; the sea
+ran high, the steamer laboured and shipped several heavy seas, much water
+entered the cabin, the captain came below every half-hour, tapped the
+barometer, sipped some tea, offered me a lump of sugar, and made a face
+and gesture indicative of bad weather, and we were buffeted about
+mercilessly till 4 a.m., when heavy rain came on, and the gale fell
+temporarily with it.  The boat is not fit for a night passage, and always
+lies in port when bad weather is expected; and as this was said to be the
+severest gale which has swept the Tsugaru Strait since January, the
+captain was uneasy about her, but being so, showed as much calmness as if
+he had been a Briton!
+
+The gale rose again after sunrise, and when, after doing sixty miles in
+fourteen hours, we reached the heads of Hakodaté Harbour, it was blowing
+and pouring like a bad day in Argyllshire, the spin-drift was driving
+over the bay, the Yezo mountains loomed darkly and loftily through rain
+and mist, and wind and thunder, and “noises of the northern sea,” gave me
+a wild welcome to these northern shores.  A rocky head like Gibraltar, a
+cold-blooded-looking grey town, straggling up a steep hillside, a few
+_coniferæ_, a great many grey junks, a few steamers and vessels of
+foreign rig at anchor, a number of _sampans_ riding the rough water
+easily, seen in flashes between gusts of rain and spin-drift, were all I
+saw, but somehow it all pleased me from its breezy, northern look.
+
+The steamer was not expected in the gale, so no one met me, and I went
+ashore with fifty Japanese clustered on the top of a decked _sampan_ in
+such a storm of wind and rain that it took us 1½ hours to go half a mile;
+then I waited shelterless on the windy beach till the Customs’ Officers
+were roused from their late slumbers, and then battled with the storm for
+a mile up a steep hill.  I was expected at the hospitable Consulate, but
+did not know it, and came here to the Church Mission House, to which Mr.
+and Mrs. Dening kindly invited me when I met them in Tôkiyô.  I was unfit
+to enter a civilised dwelling; my clothes, besides being soaked, were
+coated and splashed with mud up to the top of my hat; my gloves and boots
+were finished, my mud-splashed baggage was soaked with salt water; but I
+feel a somewhat legitimate triumph at having conquered all obstacles, and
+having accomplished more than I intended to accomplish when I left Yedo.
+
+How musical the clamour of the northern ocean is!  How inspiriting the
+shrieking and howling of the boisterous wind!  Even the fierce pelting of
+the rain is home-like, and the cold in which one shivers is stimulating!
+You cannot imagine the delight of being in a room with a door that will
+lock, to be in a bed instead of on a stretcher, of finding twenty-three
+letters containing good news, and of being able to read them in warmth
+and quietness under the roof of an English home!
+
+                                                                  I. L. B.
+
+
+
+ITINERARY of ROUTE from NIIGATA to AOMORI.
+
+                   No. of Houses.     _Ri_.      _Chô_.
+Kisaki                          56           4
+Tsuiji                         209           6
+Kurokawa                       215           2        12
+Hanadati                        20           2
+Kawaguchi                       27           3
+Numa                            24           1        18
+Tamagawa                        40           3
+Okuni                          210           2        11
+Kurosawa                        17           1        18
+Ichinono                        20           1        18
+Shirokasawa                     42           1        21
+Tenoko                         120           3        11
+Komatsu                        513           2        13
+Akayu                          350           4
+Kaminoyama                     650           5
+Yamagata              21,000 souls           3        19
+Tendo                        1,040           3         8
+Tateoka                        307           3        21
+Tochiida                       217           1        33
+Obanasawa                      506           1        21
+Ashizawa                        70           1        21
+Shinjô                       1,060           4         6
+Kanayama                       165           3        27
+Nosoki                          37           3         9
+Innai                          257           3        12
+Yusawa                       1,506           3        35
+Yokote                       2,070           4        27
+Rokugo                       1,062           6
+Shingoji                       209           1        28
+Kubota                36,587 souls          16
+Minato                       2,108           1        28
+Abukawa                        163           3        33
+Ichi Nichi Ichi                306           1        34
+Kado                           151           2         9
+Hinikoyama                     396           2         9
+Tsugurata                      186           1        14
+Tubiné                         153           1        18
+Kiriishi                        31           1        14
+Kotsunagi                       47           1        16
+Tsuguriko                      136           3         5
+Odaté                        1,673           4        23
+Shirasawa                       71           2        19
+Ikarigaseki                    175           4        18
+Kuroishi                     1,176           6        19
+Daishaka                        43           4
+Shinjo                          51           2        21
+Aomori                                       1        24
+                                      _Ri_ 153         9
+
+About 368 miles.
+
+This is considerably under the actual distance, as on several of the
+mountain routes the _ri_ is 56 _chô_, but in the lack of accurate
+information the _ri_ has been taken at its ordinary standard of 36 _chô_
+throughout.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER XXXIII.
+
+
+Form and Colour—A Windy Capital—Eccentricities in House Roofs.
+
+                                           HAKODATÉ, YEZO, August 13, 1878
+
+AFTER a tremendous bluster for two days the weather has become
+beautifully fine, and I find the climate here more invigorating than that
+of the main island.  It is Japan, but yet there is a difference somehow.
+When the mists lift they reveal not mountains smothered in greenery, but
+naked peaks, volcanoes only recently burnt out, with the red ash flaming
+under the noonday sun, and passing through shades of pink into violet at
+sundown.  Strips of sand border the bay, ranges of hills, with here and
+there a patch of pine or scrub, fade into the far-off blue, and the great
+cloud shadows lie upon their scored sides in indigo and purple.  Blue as
+the Adriatic are the waters of the land-locked bay, and the snowy sails
+of pale junks look whiter than snow against its intense azure.  The
+abruptness of the double peaks behind the town is softened by a belt of
+cryptomeria, the sandy strip which connects the headland with the
+mainland heightens the general resemblance of the contour of the ground
+to Gibraltar; but while one dreams of the western world a _kuruma_ passes
+one at a trot, temple drums are beaten in a manner which does not recall
+“the roll of the British drum,” a Buddhist funeral passes down the
+street, or a man-cart pulled and pushed by four yellow-skinned,
+little-clothed mannikins, creaks by, with the monotonous grunt of _Ha
+huida_.
+
+A single look at Hakodaté itself makes one feel that it is Japan all
+over.  The streets are very wide and clean, but the houses are mean and
+low.  The city looks as if it had just recovered from a conflagration.
+The houses are nothing but tinder.  The grand tile roofs of some other
+cities are not to be seen.  There is not an element of permanence in the
+wide, and windy streets.  It is an increasing and busy place; it lies for
+two miles along the shore, and has climbed the hill till it can go no
+higher; but still houses and people look poor.  It has a skeleton aspect
+too, which is partially due to the number of permanent “clothes-horses”
+on the roofs.  Stones, however, are its prominent feature.  Looking down
+upon it from above you see miles of grey boulders, and realise that every
+roof in the windy capital is “hodden doun” by a weight of paving stones.
+Nor is this all.  Some of the flatter roofs are pebbled all over like a
+courtyard, and others, such as the roof of this house, for instance, are
+covered with sod and crops of grass, the two latter arrangements being
+precautions against risks from sparks during fires.  These paving stones
+are certainly the cheapest possible mode of keeping the roofs on the
+houses in such a windy region, but they look odd.
+
+None of the streets, except one high up the hill, with a row of fine
+temples and temple grounds, call for any notice.  Nearly every house is a
+shop; most of the shops supply only the ordinary articles consumed by a
+large and poor population; either real or imitated foreign goods abound
+in Main Street, and the only novelties are the furs, skins, and horns,
+which abound in shops devoted to their sale.  I covet the great bear furs
+and the deep cream-coloured furs of Aino dogs, which are cheap as well as
+handsome.  There are many second-hand, or, as they are called, “curio”
+shops, and the cheap lacquer from Aomori is also tempting to a stranger.
+
+                                                                  I. L. B.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER XXXIV.
+
+
+Ito’s Delinquency—“Missionary Manners”—A Predicted Failure.
+
+                                                           HAKODATÉ, YEZO.
+
+I AM enjoying Hakodaté so much that, though my tour is all planned and my
+arrangements are made, I linger on from day to day.  There has been an
+unpleasant _éclaircissement_ about Ito.  You will remember that I engaged
+him without a character, and that he told both Lady Parkes and me that
+after I had done so his former master, Mr. Maries, asked him to go back
+to him, to which he had replied that he had “a contract with a lady.”
+Mr. Maries is here, and I now find that he had a contract with Ito, by
+which Ito bound himself to serve him as long as he required him, for $7 a
+month, but that, hearing that I offered $12, he ran away from him and
+entered my service with a lie!  Mr. Maries has been put to the greatest
+inconvenience by his defection, and has been hindered greatly in
+completing his botanical collection, for Ito is very clever, and he had
+not only trained him to dry plants successfully, but he could trust him
+to go away for two or three days and collect seeds.  I am very sorry
+about it.  He says that Ito was a bad boy when he came to him, but he
+thinks that he cured him of some of his faults, and that he has served me
+faithfully.  I have seen Mr. Maries at the Consul’s, and have arranged
+that, after my Yezo tour is over, Ito shall be returned to his rightful
+master, who will take him to China and Formosa for a year and a half, and
+who, I think, will look after his well-being in every way.  Dr. and Mrs.
+Hepburn, who are here, heard a bad account of the boy after I began my
+travels and were uneasy about me, but, except for this original lie, I
+have no fault to find with him, and his Shintô creed has not taught him
+any better.  When I paid him his wages this morning he asked me if I had
+any fault to find, and I told him of my objection to his manners, which
+he took in very good part and promised to amend them; “but,” he added,
+“mine are just missionary manners!”
+
+Yesterday I dined at the Consulate, to meet Count Diesbach, of the French
+Legation, Mr. Von Siebold, of the Austrian Legation, and Lieutenant
+Kreitner, of the Austrian army, who start to-morrow on an exploring
+expedition in the interior, intending to cross the sources of the rivers
+which fall into the sea on the southern coast and measure the heights of
+some of the mountains.  They are “well found” in food and claret, but
+take such a number of pack-ponies with them that I predict that they will
+fail, and that I, who have reduced my luggage to 45 lbs., will succeed!
+
+I hope to start on my long-projected tour to-morrow; I have planned it
+for myself with the confidence of an experienced traveller, and look
+forward to it with great pleasure, as a visit to the aborigines is sure
+to be full of novel and interesting experiences.  Good-bye for a long
+time.
+
+                                                                  I. L. B.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER XXXV. {216}
+
+
+A Lovely Sunset—An Official Letter—A “Front Horse”—Japanese Courtesy—The
+Steam Ferry—Coolies Abscond—A Team of Savages—A Drove of Horses—Floral
+Beauties—An Unbeaten Track—A Ghostly Dwelling—Solitude and Eeriness.
+
+                                            GINSAINOMA, YEZO, _August_ 17.
+
+I AM once again in the wilds!  I am sitting outside an upper room built
+out almost over a lonely lake, with wooded points purpling and still
+shadows deepening in the sinking sun.  A number of men are dragging down
+the nearest hillside the carcass of a bear which they have just
+despatched with spears.  There is no village, and the busy clatter of the
+_cicada_ and the rustle of the forest are the only sounds which float on
+the still evening air.  The sunset colours are pink and green; on the
+tinted water lie the waxen cups of great water-lilies, and above the
+wooded heights the pointed, craggy, and altogether naked summit of the
+volcano of Komono-taki flushes red in the sunset.  Not the least of the
+charms of the evening is that I am absolutely alone, having ridden the
+eighteen miles from Hakodaté without Ito or an attendant of any kind;
+have unsaddled my own horse, and by means of much politeness and a
+dexterous use of Japanese substantives have secured a good room and
+supper of rice, eggs, and black beans for myself and a mash of beans for
+my horse, which, as it belongs to the _Kaitakushi_, and has the dignity
+of iron shoes, is entitled to special consideration!
+
+I am not yet off the “beaten track,” but my spirits are rising with the
+fine weather, the drier atmosphere, and the freedom of Yezo.  Yezo is to
+the main island of Japan what Tipperary is to an Englishman, Barra to a
+Scotchman, “away down in Texas” to a New Yorker—in the rough, little
+known, and thinly-peopled; and people can locate all sorts of improbable
+stories here without much fear of being found out, of which the Ainos and
+the misdeeds of the ponies furnish the staple, and the queer doings of
+men and dogs, and adventures with bears, wolves, and salmon, the
+embroidery.  Nobody comes here without meeting with something queer, and
+one or two tumbles either with or from his horse.  Very little is known
+of the interior except that it is covered with forest matted together by
+lianas, and with an undergrowth of scrub bamboo impenetrable except to
+the axe, varied by swamps equally impassable, which give rise to hundreds
+of rivers well stocked with fish.  The glare of volcanoes is seen in
+different parts of the island.  The forests are the hunting-grounds of
+the Ainos, who are complete savages in everything but their disposition,
+which is said to be so gentle and harmless that I may go among them with
+perfect safety.
+
+Kindly interest has been excited by the first foray made by a lady into
+the country of the aborigines; and Mr. Eusden, the Consul, has worked
+upon the powers that be with such good effect that the Governor has
+granted me a _shomon_, a sort of official letter or certificate, giving
+me a right to obtain horses and coolies everywhere at the Government rate
+of 6 _sen_ a _ri_, with a prior claim to accommodation at the houses kept
+up for officials on their circuits, and to help and assistance from
+officials generally; and the Governor has further telegraphed to the
+other side of Volcano Bay desiring the authorities to give me the use of
+the Government _kuruma_ as long as I need it, and to detain the steamer
+to suit my convenience!  With this document, which enables me to dispense
+with my passport, I shall find travelling very easy, and I am very
+grateful to the Consul for procuring it for me.
+
+Here, where rice and tea have to be imported, there is a uniform charge
+at the _yadoyas_ of 30 _sen_ a day, which includes three meals, whether
+you eat them or not.  Horses are abundant, but are small, and are not up
+to heavy weights.  They are entirely unshod, and, though their hoofs are
+very shallow and grow into turned-up points and other singular shapes,
+they go over rough ground with facility at a scrambling run of over four
+miles an hour following a leader called a “front horse.”  If you don’t
+get a “front horse” and try to ride in front, you find that your horse
+will not stir till he has another before him; and then you are perfectly
+helpless, as he follows the movements of his leader without any reference
+to your wishes.  There are no _mago_; a man rides the “front horse” and
+goes at whatever pace you please, or, if you get a “front horse,” you may
+go without any one.  Horses are cheap and abundant.  They drive a number
+of them down from the hills every morning into _corrals_ in the villages,
+and keep them there till they are wanted.  Because they are so cheap they
+are very badly used.  I have not seen one yet without a sore back,
+produced by the harsh pack-saddle rubbing up and down the spine, as the
+loaded animals are driven at a run.  They are mostly very poor-looking.
+
+As there was some difficulty about getting a horse for me the Consul sent
+one of the _Kaitakushi_ saddle-horses, a handsome, lazy animal, which I
+rarely succeeded in stimulating into a heavy gallop.  Leaving Ito to
+follow with the baggage, I enjoyed my solitary ride and the possibility
+of choosing my own pace very much, though the choice was only between a
+slow walk and the lumbering gallop aforesaid.
+
+I met strings of horses loaded with deer hides, and overtook other
+strings loaded with _saké_ and manufactured goods and in each case had a
+fight with my sociably inclined animal.  In two villages I was interested
+to see that the small shops contained lucifer matches, cotton umbrellas,
+boots, brushes, clocks, slates, and pencils, engravings in frames,
+kerosene lamps, {218} and red and green blankets, all but the last, which
+are unmistakable British “shoddy,” being Japanese imitations of foreign
+manufactured goods, more or less cleverly executed.  The road goes up
+hill for fifteen miles, and, after passing Nanai, a trim Europeanised
+village in the midst of fine crops, one of the places at which the
+Government is making acclimatisation and other agricultural experiments,
+it fairly enters the mountains, and from the top of a steep hill there is
+a glorious view of Hakodaté Head, looking like an island in the deep blue
+sea, and from the top of a higher hill, looking northward, a magnificent
+view of the volcano with its bare, pink summit rising above three lovely
+lakes densely wooded.  These are the flushed scaurs and outbreaks of bare
+rock for which I sighed amidst the smothering greenery of the main
+island, and the silver gleam of the lakes takes away the blindness from
+the face of nature.  It was delicious to descend to the water’s edge in
+the dewy silence amidst balsamic odours, to find not a clattering grey
+village with its monotony, but a single, irregularly-built house, with
+lovely surroundings.
+
+It is a most displeasing road for most of the way; sides with deep
+corrugations, and in the middle a high causeway of earth, whose height is
+being added to by hundreds of creels of earth brought on ponies’ backs.
+It is supposed that carriages and waggons will use this causeway, but a
+shying horse or a bad driver would overturn them.  As it is at present
+the road is only passable for pack-horses, owing to the number of broken
+bridges.  I passed strings of horses laden with _saké_ going into the
+interior.  The people of Yezo drink freely, and the poor Ainos
+outrageously.  On the road I dismounted to rest myself by walking up
+hill, and, the saddle being loosely girthed, the gear behind it dragged
+it round and under the body of the horse, and it was too heavy for me to
+lift on his back again.  When I had led him for some time two Japanese
+with a string of pack-horses loaded with deer-hides met me, and not only
+put the saddle on again, but held the stirrup while I remounted, and
+bowed politely when I went away.  Who could help liking such a courteous
+and kindly people?
+
+                                * * * * *
+
+                                              MORI, VOLCANO BAY, _Monday_.
+
+Even Ginsainoma was not Paradise after dark, and I was actually driven to
+bed early by the number of mosquitoes.  Ito is in an excellent humour on
+this tour.  Like me, he likes the freedom of the _Hokkaidô_.  He is much
+more polite and agreeable also, and very proud of the Governor’s
+_shomon_, with which he swaggers into hotels and Transport Offices.  I
+never get on so well as when he arranges for me.  Saturday was grey and
+lifeless, and the ride of seven miles here along a sandy road through
+monotonous forest and swamp, with the volcano on one side and low wooded
+hills on the other, was wearisome and fatiguing.  I saw five large snakes
+all in a heap, and a number more twisting through the grass.  There are
+no villages, but several very poor tea-houses, and on the other side of
+the road long sheds with troughs hollowed like canoes out of the trunks
+of trees, containing horse food.  Here nobody walks, and the men ride at
+a quick run, sitting on the tops of their pack-saddles with their legs
+crossed above their horses’ necks, and wearing large hats like
+coal-scuttle bonnets.  The horses are infested with ticks, hundreds upon
+one animal sometimes, and occasionally they become so mad from the
+irritation that they throw themselves suddenly on the ground, and roll
+over load and rider.  I saw this done twice.  The ticks often transfer
+themselves to the riders.
+
+Mori is a large, ramshackle village, near the southern point of Volcano
+Bay—a wild, dreary-looking place on a sandy shore, with a number of
+_jôrôyas_ and disreputable characters.  Several of the yadoyas are not
+respectable, but I rather like this one, and it has a very fine view of
+the volcano, which forms one point of the bay.  Mori has no anchorage,
+though it has an unfinished pier 345 feet long.  The steam ferry across
+the mouth of the bay is here, and there is a very difficult bridle-track
+running for nearly 100 miles round the bay besides, and a road into the
+interior.  But it is a forlorn, decayed place.  Last night the inn was
+very noisy, as some travellers in the next room to mine hired _geishas_,
+who played, sang, and danced till two in the morning, and the whole party
+imbibed _saké_ freely.  In this comparatively northern latitude the
+summer is already waning.  The seeds of the blossoms which were in their
+glory when I arrived are ripe, and here and there a tinge of yellow on a
+hillside, or a scarlet spray of maple, heralds the glories and the
+coolness of autumn.
+
+                                * * * * *
+
+                                                            YUBETS.  YEZO.
+
+A loud yell of “steamer,” coupled with the information that “she could
+not wait one minute,” broke in upon _gô_ and everything else, and in a
+broiling sun we hurried down to the pier, and with a heap of Japanese,
+who filled two _scows_, were put on board a steamer not bigger than a
+large decked steam launch, where the natives were all packed into a
+covered hole, and I was conducted with much ceremony to the forecastle, a
+place at the bow 5 feet square, full of coils of rope, shut in, and left
+to solitude and dignity, and the stare of eight eyes, which perseveringly
+glowered through the windows!  The steamer had been kept waiting for me
+on the other side for two days, to the infinite disgust of two
+foreigners, who wished to return to Hakodaté, and to mine.
+
+It was a splendid day, with foam crests on the wonderfully blue water,
+and the red ashes of the volcano, which forms the south point of the bay,
+glowed in the sunlight.  This wretched steamer, whose boilers are so
+often “sick” that she can never be relied upon, is the only means of
+reaching the new capital without taking a most difficult and circuitous
+route.  To continue the pier and put a capable good steamer on the ferry
+would be a useful expenditure of money.  The breeze was strong and in our
+favour, but even with this it took us six weary hours to steam
+twenty-five miles, and it was eight at night before we reached the
+beautiful and almost land-locked bay of Mororan, with steep, wooded
+sides, and deep water close to the shore, deep enough for the foreign
+ships of war which occasionally anchor there, much to the detriment of
+the town.  We got off in over-crowded _sampans_, and several people fell
+into the water, much to their own amusement.  The servants from the
+different _yadoyas_ go down to the jetty to “tout” for guests with large
+paper lanterns, and the effect of these, one above another, waving and
+undulating, with their soft coloured light, was as bewitching as the
+reflection of the stars in the motionless water.  Mororan is a small town
+very picturesquely situated on the steep shore of a most lovely bay, with
+another height, richly wooded, above it, with shrines approached by
+flights of stone stairs, and behind this hill there is the first Aino
+village along this coast.
+
+The long, irregular street is slightly picturesque, but I was impressed
+both with the unusual sight of loafers and with the dissolute look of the
+place, arising from the number of _jôrôyas_, and from the number of
+_yadoyas_ that are also haunts of the vicious.  I could only get a very
+small room in a very poor and dirty inn, but there were no mosquitoes,
+and I got a good meal of fish.  On sending to order horses I found that
+everything was arranged for my journey.  The Governor sent his card
+early, to know if there were anything I should like to see or do, but, as
+the morning was grey and threatening, I wished to push on, and at 9.30 I
+was in the _kuruma_ at the inn door.  I call it the _kuruma_ because it
+is the only one, and is kept by the Government for the conveyance of
+hospital patients.  I sat there uncomfortably and patiently for half an
+hour, my only amusement being the flirtations of Ito with a very pretty
+girl.  Loiterers assembled, but no one came to draw the vehicle, and by
+degrees the dismal truth leaked out that the three coolies who had been
+impressed for the occasion had all absconded, and that four policemen
+were in search of them.  I walked on in a dawdling way up the steep hill
+which leads from the town, met Mr. Akboshi, a pleasant young Japanese
+surveyor, who spoke English and stigmatised Mororan as “the worst place
+in Yezo;” and, after fuming for two hours at the waste of time, was
+overtaken by Ito with the horses, in a boiling rage.  “They’re the worst
+and wickedest coolies in all Japan,” he stammered; “two more ran away,
+and now three are coming, and have got paid for four, and the first three
+who ran away got paid, and the Express man’s so ashamed for a foreigner,
+and the Governor’s in a furious rage.”
+
+Except for the loss of time it made no difference to me, but when the
+_kuruma_ did come up the runners were three such ruffianly-looking men,
+and were dressed so wildly in bark cloth, that, in sending Ito on twelve
+miles to secure relays, I sent my money along with him.  These men,
+though there were three instead of two, never went out of a walk, and, as
+if on purpose, took the vehicle over every stone and into every rut, and
+kept up a savage chorus of “_haes-ha_, _haes-hora_” the whole time, as if
+they were pulling stone-carts.  There are really no runners out of
+Hakodaté, and the men don’t know how to pull, and hate doing it.
+
+Mororan Bay is truly beautiful from the top of the ascent.  The coast
+scenery of Japan generally is the loveliest I have ever seen, except that
+of a portion of windward Hawaii, and this yields in beauty to none.  The
+irregular grey town, with a grey temple on the height above, straggles
+round the little bay on a steep, wooded terrace; hills, densely wooded,
+and with a perfect entanglement of large-leaved trailers, descend
+abruptly to the water’s edge; the festoons of the vines are mirrored in
+the still waters; and above the dark forest, and beyond the gleaming sea,
+rises the red, peaked top of the volcano.  Then the road dips abruptly to
+sandy swellings, rising into bold headlands here and there; and for the
+first time I saw the surge of 5000 miles of unbroken ocean break upon the
+shore.  Glimpses of the Pacific, an uncultivated, swampy level quite
+uninhabited, and distant hills mainly covered with forest, made up the
+landscape till I reached Horobets, a mixed Japanese and Aino village
+built upon the sand near the sea.
+
+                 [Picture: Aino Store-House at Horobets]
+
+In these mixed villages the Ainos are compelled to live at a respectful
+distance from the Japanese, and frequently out-number them, as at
+Horobets, where there are forty-seven Aino and only eighteen Japanese
+houses.  The Aino village looks larger than it really is, because nearly
+every house has a _kura_, raised six feet from the ground by wooden
+stilts.  When I am better acquainted with the houses I shall describe
+them; at present I will only say that they do not resemble the Japanese
+houses so much as the Polynesian, as they are made of reeds very neatly
+tied upon a wooden framework.  They have small windows, and roofs of a
+very great height, and steep pitch, with the thatch in a series of very
+neat frills, and the ridge poles covered with reeds, and ornamented.  The
+coast Ainos are nearly all engaged in fishing, but at this season the men
+hunt deer in the forests.  On this coast there are several names
+compounded with _bets_ or _pets_, the Aino for a river, such as Horobets,
+Yubets, Mombets, etc.
+
+             [Picture: Aino Lodges (from a Japanese Sketch)]
+
+I found that Ito had been engaged for a whole hour in a violent
+altercation, which was caused by the Transport Agent refusing to supply
+runners for the _kuruma_, saying that no one in Horobets would draw one,
+but on my producing the _shomon_ I was at once started on my journey of
+sixteen miles with three Japanese lads, Ito riding on to Shiraôi to get
+my room ready.  I think that the Transport Offices in Yezo are in
+Government hands.  In a few minutes three Ainos ran out of a house, took
+the _kuruma_, and went the whole stage without stopping.  They took a boy
+and three saddled horses along with them to bring them back, and rode and
+hauled alternately, two youths always attached to the shafts, and a man
+pushing behind.  They were very kind, and so courteous, after a new
+fashion, that I quite forgot that I was alone among savages.  The lads
+were young and beardless, their lips were thick, and their mouths very
+wide, and I thought that they approached more nearly to the Eskimo type
+than to any other.  They had masses of soft black hair falling on each
+side of their faces.  The adult man was not a pure Aino.  His dark hair
+was not very thick, and both it and his beard had an occasional auburn
+gleam.  I think I never saw a face more completely beautiful in features
+and expression, with a lofty, sad, far-off, gentle, intellectual look,
+rather that of Sir Noël Paton’s “Christ” than of a savage.  His manner
+was most graceful, and he spoke both Aino and Japanese in the low musical
+tone which I find is a characteristic of Aino speech.  These Ainos never
+took off their clothes, but merely let them fall from one or both
+shoulders when it was very warm.
+
+The road from Horobets to Shiraôi is very solitary, with not more than
+four or five houses the whole way.  It is broad and straight, except when
+it ascends hills or turns inland to cross rivers, and is carried across a
+broad swampy level, covered with tall wild flowers, which extends from
+the high beach thrown up by the sea for two miles inland, where there is
+a lofty wall of wooded rock, and beyond this the forest-covered mountains
+of the interior.  On the top of the raised beach there were Aino hamlets,
+and occasionally a nearly overpowering stench came across the level from
+the sheds and apparatus used for extracting fish-oil.  I enjoyed the
+afternoon thoroughly.  It is so good to have got beyond the confines of
+stereotyped civilisation and the trammels of Japanese travelling to the
+solitude of nature and an atmosphere of freedom.  It was grey, with a
+hard, dark line of ocean horizon, and over the weedy level the grey road,
+with grey telegraph-poles along it, stretched wearisomely like a grey
+thread.  The breeze came up from the sea, rustled the reeds, and waved
+the tall plumes of the _Eulalia japonica_, and the thunder of the Pacific
+surges boomed through the air with its grand, deep bass.  Poetry and
+music pervaded the solitude, and my spirit was rested.
+
+Going up and then down a steep, wooded hill, the road appeared to return
+to its original state of brushwood, and the men stopped at the broken
+edge of a declivity which led down to a shingle bank and a foam-crested
+river of clear, blue-green water, strongly impregnated with sulphur from
+some medicinal springs above, with a steep bank of tangle on the opposite
+side.  This beautiful stream was crossed by two round poles, a foot
+apart, on which I attempted to walk with the help of an Aino hand; but
+the poles were very unsteady, and I doubt whether any one, even with a
+strong head, could walk on them in boots.  Then the beautiful Aino signed
+to me to come back and mount on his shoulders; but when he had got a few
+feet out the poles swayed and trembled so much that he was obliged to
+retrace his way cautiously, during which process I endured miseries from
+dizziness and fear; after which he carried me through the rushing water,
+which was up to his shoulders, and through a bit of swampy jungle, and up
+a steep bank, to the great fatigue both of body and mind, hardly
+mitigated by the enjoyment of the ludicrous in riding a savage through
+these Yezo waters.  They dexterously carried the _kuruma_ through, on the
+shoulders of four, and showed extreme anxiety that neither it nor I
+should get wet.  After this we crossed two deep, still rivers in scows,
+and far above the grey level and the grey sea the sun was setting in gold
+and vermilion-streaked green behind a glorified mountain of great height,
+at whose feet the forest-covered hills lay in purple gloom.  At dark we
+reached Shiraôi, a village of eleven Japanese houses, with a village of
+fifty-one Aino houses, near the sea.  There is a large _yadoya_ of the
+old style there; but I found that Ito had chosen a very pretty new one,
+with four stalls open to the road, in the centre one of which I found
+him, with the welcome news that a steak of fresh salmon was broiling on
+the coals; and, as the room was clean and sweet and I was very hungry, I
+enjoyed my meal by the light of a rush in a saucer of fish-oil as much as
+any part of the day.
+
+                                * * * * *
+
+                                                                 SARUFUTO.
+
+The night was too cold for sleep, and at daybreak, hearing a great din, I
+looked out, and saw a drove of fully a hundred horses all galloping down
+the road, with two Ainos on horseback, and a number of big dogs after
+them.  Hundreds of horses run nearly wild on the hills, and the Ainos,
+getting a large drove together, skilfully head them for the entrance into
+the corral, in which a selection of them is made for the day’s needs, and
+the remainder—that is, those with the deepest sores on their backs—are
+turned loose.  This dull rattle of shoeless feet is the first sound in
+the morning in these Yezo villages.  I sent Ito on early, and followed at
+nine with three Ainos.  The road is perfectly level for thirteen miles,
+through gravel flats and swamps, very monotonous, but with a wild charm
+of its own.  There were swampy lakes, with wild ducks and small white
+water-lilies, and the surrounding levels were covered with reedy grass,
+flowers, and weeds.  The early autumn has withered a great many of the
+flowers; but enough remains to show how beautiful the now russet plains
+must have been in the early summer.  A dwarf rose, of a deep crimson
+colour, with orange, medlar-shaped hips, as large as crabs, and corollas
+three inches across, is one of the features of Yezo; and besides, there
+is a large rose-red convolvulus, a blue campanula, with tiers of bells, a
+blue monkshood, the _Aconitum Japonicum_, the flaunting _Calystegia
+soldanella_, purple asters, grass of Parnassus, yellow lilies, and a
+remarkable trailer, whose delicate leafage looked quite out of place
+among its coarse surroundings, with a purplish-brown campanulate blossom,
+only remarkable for a peculiar arrangement of the pistil, green stamens,
+and a most offensive carrion-like odour, which is probably to attract to
+it a very objectionable-looking fly, for purposes of fertilisation.
+
+We overtook four Aino women, young and comely, with bare feet, striding
+firmly along; and after a good deal of laughing with the men, they took
+hold of the _kuruma_, and the whole seven raced with it at full speed for
+half a mile, shrieking with laughter.  Soon after we came upon a little
+tea-house, and the Ainos showed me a straw package, and pointed to their
+open mouths, by which I understood that they wished to stop and eat.
+Later we overtook four Japanese on horseback, and the Ainos raced with
+them for a considerable distance, the result of these spurts being that I
+reached Tomakomai at noon—a wide, dreary place, with houses roofed with
+sod, bearing luxuriant crops of weeds.  Near this place is the volcano of
+Tarumai, a calm-looking, grey cone, whose skirts are draped by tens of
+thousands of dead trees.  So calm and grey had it looked for many a year
+that people supposed it had passed into endless rest, when quite lately,
+on a sultry day, it blew off its cap and covered the whole country for
+many a mile with cinders and ashes, burning up the forest on its sides,
+adding a new covering to the Tomakomai roofs, and depositing fine ash as
+far as Cape Erimo, fifty miles off.
+
+At this place the road and telegraph wires turn inland to Satsuporo, and
+a track for horses only turns to the north-east, and straggles round the
+island for about seven hundred miles.  From Mororan to Sarufuto there are
+everywhere traces of new and old volcanic action—pumice, tufas,
+conglomerates, and occasional beds of hard basalt, all covered with
+recent pumice, which, from Shiraôi eastwards, conceals everything.  At
+Tomakomai we took horses, and, as I brought my own saddle, I have had the
+nearest approach to real riding that I have enjoyed in Japan.  The wife
+of a Satsuporo doctor was there, who was travelling for two hundred miles
+astride on a pack-saddle, with rope-loops for stirrups.  She rode well,
+and vaulted into my saddle with circus-like dexterity, and performed many
+equestrian feats upon it, telling me that she should be quite happy if
+she were possessed of it.
+
+I was happy when I left the “beaten track” to Satsuporo, and saw before
+me, stretching for I know not how far, rolling, sandy _machirs_ like
+those of the Outer Hebrides, desert-like and lonely, covered almost
+altogether with dwarf roses and campanulas, a prairie land on which you
+can make any tracks you please.  Sending the others on, I followed them
+at the Yezo _scramble_, and soon ventured on a long gallop, and revelled
+in the music of the thud of shoeless feet over the elastic soil; but I
+had not realised the peculiarities of Yezo steeds, and had forgotten to
+ask whether mine was a “front horse,” and just as we were going at full
+speed we came nearly up with the others, and my horse coming abruptly to
+a full stop, I went six feet over his head among the rose-bushes.  Ito
+looking back saw me tightening the saddle-girths, and I never divulged
+this escapade.
+
+After riding eight miles along this breezy belt, with the sea on one side
+and forests on the other, we came upon Yubets, a place which has
+fascinated me so much that I intend to return to it; but I must confess
+that its fascinations depend rather upon what it has not than upon what
+it has, and Ito says that it would kill him to spend even two days there.
+It looks like the end of all things, as if loneliness and desolation
+could go no farther.  A sandy stretch on three sides, a river arrested in
+its progress to the sea, and compelled to wander tediously in search of
+an outlet by the height and mass of the beach thrown up by the Pacific, a
+distant forest-belt rising into featureless, wooded ranges in shades of
+indigo and grey, and a never-absent consciousness of a vast ocean just
+out of sight, are the environments of two high look-outs, some sheds for
+fish-oil purposes, four or five Japanese houses, four Aino huts on the
+top of the beach across the river, and a grey barrack, consisting of a
+polished passage eighty feet long, with small rooms on either side, at
+one end a gravelled yard, with two quiet rooms opening upon it, and at
+the other an immense _daidokoro_, with dark recesses and blackened
+rafters—a haunted-looking abode.  One would suppose that there had been a
+special object in setting the houses down at weary distances from each
+other.  Few as they are, they are not all inhabited at this season, and
+all that can be seen is grey sand, sparse grass, and a few savages
+creeping about.
+
+Nothing that I have seen has made such an impression upon me as that
+ghostly, ghastly fishing-station.  In the long grey wall of the long grey
+barrack there were many dismal windows, and when we hooted for admission
+a stupid face appeared at one of them and disappeared.  Then a grey
+gateway opened, and we rode into a yard of grey gravel, with some silent
+rooms opening upon it.  The solitude of the thirty or forty rooms which
+lie between it and the kitchen, and which are now filled with nets and
+fishing-tackle, was something awful; and as the wind swept along the
+polished passage, rattling the _fusuma_ and lifting the shingles on the
+roof, and the rats careered from end to end, I went to the great black
+_daidokoro_ in search of social life, and found a few embers and an
+_andon_, and nothing else but the stupid-faced man deploring his fate,
+and two orphan boys whose lot he makes more wretched than his own.  In
+the fishing-season this barrack accommodates from 200 to 300 men.
+
+I started to the sea-shore, crossing the dreary river, and found open
+sheds much blackened, deserted huts of reeds, long sheds with a nearly
+insufferable odour from caldrons in which oil had been extracted from
+last year’s fish, two or three Aino huts, and two or three grand-looking
+Ainos, clothed in skins, striding like ghosts over the sandbanks, a
+number of wolfish dogs, some log canoes or “dug-outs,” the bones of a
+wrecked junk, a quantity of bleached drift-wood, a beach of dark-grey
+sand, and a tossing expanse of dark-grey ocean under a dull and windy
+sky.  On this part of the coast the Pacific spends its fury, and has
+raised up at a short distance above high-water mark a sandy sweep of such
+a height that when you descend its seaward slope you see nothing but the
+sea and the sky, and a grey, curving shore, covered thick for many a
+lonely mile with fantastic forms of whitened drift-wood, the shattered
+wrecks of forest-trees, which are carried down by the innumerable rivers,
+till, after tossing for weeks and months along with
+
+       “—wrecks of ships, and drifting
+             spars uplifting
+          On the desolate, rainy seas:
+    Ever drifting, drifting, drifting,
+          On the shifting
+    Currents of the restless main;”
+
+the “toiling surges” cast them on Yubets beach, and
+
+    “All have found repose again.”
+
+A grim repose!
+
+The deep boom of the surf was music, and the strange cries of sea-birds,
+and the hoarse notes of the audacious black crows, were all harmonious,
+for nature, when left to herself, never produces discords either in sound
+or colour.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER XXXV.—(_Continued_.)
+
+
+The Harmonies of Nature—A Good Horse—A Single Discord—A Forest—Aino
+Ferrymen—“_Les Puces_!  _Les Puces_!”—Baffled Explorers—Ito’s Contempt
+for Ainos—An Aino Introduction.
+
+                                                                 SARUFUTO.
+
+NO!  Nature has no discords.  This morning, to the far horizon,
+diamond-flashing blue water shimmered in perfect peace, outlined by a
+line of surf which broke lazily on a beach scarcely less snowy than
+itself.  The deep, perfect blue of the sky was only broken by a few
+radiant white clouds, whose shadows trailed slowly over the plain on
+whose broad bosom a thousand corollas, in the glory of their brief but
+passionate life, were drinking in the sunshine, wavy ranges slept in
+depths of indigo, and higher hills beyond were painted in faint blue on
+the dreamy sky.  Even the few grey houses of Yubets were spiritualised
+into harmony by a faint blue veil which was not a mist, and the loud
+croak of the loquacious and impertinent crows had a cheeriness about it,
+a hearty mockery, which I liked.
+
+Above all, I had a horse so good that he was always trying to run away,
+and galloped so lightly over the flowery grass that I rode the seventeen
+miles here with great enjoyment.  Truly a good horse, good ground to
+gallop on, and sunshine, make up the sum of enjoyable travelling.  The
+discord in the general harmony was produced by the sight of the Ainos, a
+harmless people without the instinct of progress, descending to that vast
+tomb of conquered and unknown races which has opened to receive so many
+before them.  A mounted policeman started with us from Yubets, and rode
+the whole way here, keeping exactly to my pace, but never speaking a
+word.  We forded one broad, deep river, and crossed another, partly by
+fording and partly in a scow, after which the track left the level, and,
+after passing through reedy grass as high as the horse’s ears, went for
+some miles up and down hill, through woods composed entirely of the
+_Ailanthus glandulosus_, with leaves much riddled by the mountain
+silk-worm, and a ferny undergrowth of the familiar _Pteris aquilina_.
+The deep shade and glancing lights of this open copsewood were very
+pleasant; and as the horse tripped gaily up and down the little hills,
+and the sea murmur mingled with the rustle of the breeze, and a glint of
+white surf sometimes flashed through the greenery, and dragonflies and
+butterflies in suits of crimson and black velvet crossed the path
+continually like “living flashes” of light, I was reminded somewhat,
+though faintly, of windward Hawaii.  We emerged upon an Aino hut and a
+beautiful placid river, and two Ainos ferried the four people and horses
+across in a scow, the third wading to guide the boat.  They wore no
+clothing, but only one was hairy.  They were superb-looking men, gentle,
+and extremely courteous, handing me in and out of the boat, and holding
+the stirrup while I mounted, with much natural grace.  On leaving they
+extended their arms and waved their hands inwards twice, stroking their
+grand beards afterwards, which is their usual salutation.  A short
+distance over shingle brought us to this Japanese village of sixty-three
+houses, a colonisation settlement, mainly of _samurai_ from the province
+of Sendai, who are raising very fine crops on the sandy soil.  The
+mountains, twelve miles in the interior, have a large Aino population,
+and a few Ainos live near this village and are held in great contempt by
+its inhabitants.  My room is on the village street, and, as it is too
+warm to close the _shôji_, the aborigines stand looking in at the lattice
+hour after hour.
+
+A short time ago Mr. Von Siebold and Count Diesbach galloped up on their
+return from Biratori, the Aino village to which I am going; and Count D.,
+throwing himself from his horse, rushed up to me with the exclamation,
+_Les puces_! _les puces_!  They have brought down with them the chief,
+Benri, a superb but dissipated-looking savage.  Mr. Von Siebold called on
+me this evening, and I envied him his fresh, clean clothing as much as he
+envied me my stretcher and mosquito-net.  They have suffered terribly
+from fleas, mosquitoes, and general discomfort, and are much exhausted;
+but Mr. Von S. thinks that, in spite of all, a visit to the mountain
+Ainos is worth a long journey.  As I expected, they have completely
+failed in their explorations, and have been deserted by Lieutenant
+Kreitner.  I asked Mr. Von S. to speak to Ito in Japanese about the
+importance of being kind and courteous to the Ainos whose hospitality I
+shall receive; and Ito is very indignant at this.  “Treat Ainos
+politely!” he says; “they’re just dogs, not men;” and since he has
+regaled me with all the scandal concerning them which he has been able to
+rake together in the village.
+
+We have to take not only food for both Ito and myself, but cooking
+utensils.  I have been introduced to Benri, the chief; and, though he
+does not return for a day or two, he will send a message along with us
+which will ensure me hospitality.
+
+                                                                  I. L. B.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER XXXVI.
+
+
+Savage Life—A Forest Track—Cleanly Villages—A Hospitable Reception—The
+Chief’s Mother—The Evening Meal—A Savage _Séance_—Libations to the
+Gods—Nocturnal Silence—Aino Courtesy—The Chief’s Wife.
+
+                                          AINO HUT, BIRATORI, _August_ 23.
+
+                          [Picture: Aino Houses]
+
+I AM in the lonely Aino land, and I think that the most interesting of my
+travelling experiences has been the living for three days and two nights
+in an Aino hut, and seeing and sharing the daily life of complete
+savages, who go on with their ordinary occupations just as if I were not
+among them.  I found yesterday a most fatiguing and over-exciting day, as
+everything was new and interesting, even the extracting from men who have
+few if any ideas in common with me all I could extract concerning their
+religion and customs, and that through an interpreter.  I got up at six
+this morning to write out my notes, and have been writing for five hours,
+and there is shortly the prospect of another savage _séance_.  The
+distractions, as you can imagine, are many.  At this moment a savage is
+taking a cup of _saké_ by the fire in the centre of the floor.  He
+salutes me by extending his hands and waving them towards his face, and
+then dips a rod in the _saké_, and makes six libations to the god—an
+upright piece of wood with a fringe of shavings planted in the floor of
+the room.  Then he waves the cup several times towards himself, makes
+other libations to the fire, and drinks.  Ten other men and women are
+sitting along each side of the fire-hole, the chief’s wife is cooking,
+the men are apathetically contemplating the preparation of their food;
+and the other women, who are never idle, are splitting the bark of which
+they make their clothes.  I occupy the guest seat—a raised platform at
+one end of the fire, with the skin of a black bear thrown over it.
+
+           [Picture: Ainos at Home.  (From a Japanese Sketch)]
+
+I have reserved all I have to say about the Ainos till I had been
+actually among them, and I hope you will have patience to read to the
+end.  Ito is very greedy and self-indulgent, and whimpered very much
+about coming to Biratori at all,—one would have thought he was going to
+the stake.  He actually borrowed for himself a sleeping mat and _futons_,
+and has brought a chicken, onions, potatoes, French beans, Japanese
+sauce, tea, rice, a kettle, a stew-pan, and a rice-pan, while I contented
+myself with a cold fowl and potatoes.
+
+We took three horses and a mounted Aino guide, and found a beaten track
+the whole way.  It turns into the forest at once on leaving Sarufuto, and
+goes through forest the entire distance, with an abundance of reedy grass
+higher than my hat on horseback along it, and, as it is only twelve
+inches broad and much overgrown, the horses were constantly pushing
+through leafage soaking from a night’s rain, and I was soon wet up to my
+shoulders.  The forest trees are almost solely the _Ailanthus
+glandulosus_ and the _Zelkowa keaki_, often matted together with a
+white-flowered trailer of the Hydrangea genus.  The undergrowth is simply
+hideous, consisting mainly of coarse reedy grass, monstrous docks, the
+large-leaved _Polygonum cuspidatum_, several umbelliferous plants, and a
+“ragweed” which, like most of its gawky fellows, grows from five to six
+feet high.  The forest is dark and very silent, threaded by this narrow
+path, and by others as narrow, made by the hunters in search of game.
+The “main road” sometimes plunges into deep bogs, at others is roughly
+corduroyed by the roots of trees, and frequently hangs over the edge of
+abrupt and much-worn declivities, in going up one of which the
+baggage-horse rolled down a bank fully thirty feet high, and nearly all
+the tea was lost.  At another the guide’s pack-saddle lost its balance,
+and man, horse, and saddle went over the slope, pots, pans, and packages
+flying after them.  At another time my horse sank up to his chest in a
+very bad bog, and, as he was totally unable to extricate himself, I was
+obliged to scramble upon his neck and jump to _terra firma_ over his
+ears.
+
+There is something very gloomy in the solitude of this silent land, with
+its beast-haunted forests, its great patches of pasture, the resort of
+wild animals which haunt the lower regions in search of food when the
+snow drives them down from the mountains, and its narrow track,
+indicating the single file in which the savages of the interior walk with
+their bare, noiseless feet.  Reaching the Sarufutogawa, a river with a
+treacherous bottom, in which Mr. Von Siebold and his horse came to grief,
+I hailed an Aino boy, who took me up the stream in a “dug-out,” and after
+that we passed through Biroka, Saruba, and Mina, all purely Aino
+villages, situated among small patches of millet, tobacco, and pumpkins,
+so choked with weeds that it was doubtful whether they were crops.  I was
+much surprised with the extreme neatness and cleanliness outside the
+houses; “model villages” they are in these respects, with no litter lying
+in sight anywhere, nothing indeed but dog troughs, hollowed out of logs,
+like “dug-outs,” for the numerous yellow dogs, which are a feature of
+Aino life.  There are neither puddles nor heaps, but the houses, all trim
+and in good repair, rise clean out of the sandy soil.
+
+Biratori, the largest of the Aino settlements in this region, is very
+prettily situated among forests and mountains, on rising ground, with a
+very sinuous river winding at its feet and a wooded height above.  A
+lonelier place could scarcely be found.  As we passed among the houses
+the yellow dogs barked, the women looked shy and smiled, and the men made
+their graceful salutation.  We stopped at the chief’s house, where, of
+course, we were unexpected guests; but Shinondi, his nephew, and two
+other men came out, saluted us, and with most hospitable intent helped
+Ito to unload the horses.  Indeed their eager hospitality created quite a
+commotion, one running hither and the other thither in their anxiety to
+welcome a stranger.  It is a large house, the room being 35 by 25, and
+the roof 20 feet high; but you enter by an ante-chamber, in which are
+kept the millet-mill and other articles.  There is a doorway in this, but
+the inside is pretty dark, and Shinondi, taking my hand, raised the reed
+curtain bound with hide, which concealed the entrance into the actual
+house, and, leading me into it, retired a footstep, extended his arms,
+waved his arms inwards three times, and then stroked his beard several
+times, after which he indicated by a sweep of his hand and a beautiful
+smile that the house and all it contained were mine.  An aged woman, the
+chief’s mother, who was splitting bark by the fire, waved her hands also.
+She is the queen-regnant of the house.
+
+                  [Picture: Aino Millet-Mill and Pestle]
+
+Again taking my hand, Shinondi led me to the place of honour at the head
+of the fire—a rude, movable platform six feet long by four broad, and a
+foot high, on which he laid an ornamental mat, apologising for not having
+at that moment a bearskin wherewith to cover it.  The baggage was
+speedily brought in by several willing pairs of hands; some reed mats
+fifteen feet long were laid down upon the very coarse ones which covered
+the whole floor, and when they saw Ito putting up my stretcher they hung
+a fine mat along the rough wall to conceal it, and suspended another on
+the beams of the roof for a canopy.  The alacrity and instinctive
+hospitality with which these men rushed about to make things comfortable
+were very fascinating, though comfort is a word misapplied in an Aino
+hut.  The women only did what the men told them.
+
+They offered food at once, but I told them that I had brought my own, and
+would only ask leave to cook it on their fire.  I need not have brought
+any cups, for they have many lacquer bowls, and Shinondi brought me on a
+lacquer tray a bowl full of water from one of their four wells.  They
+said that Benri, the chief, would wish me to make his house my own for as
+long as I cared to stay, and I must excuse them in all things in which
+their ways were different from my own.  Shinondi and four others in the
+village speak tolerable Japanese, and this of course is the medium of
+communication.  Ito has exerted himself nobly as an interpreter, and has
+entered into my wishes with a cordiality and intelligence which have been
+perfectly invaluable; and, though he did growl at Mr. Von Siebold’s
+injunctions regarding politeness, he has carried them out to my
+satisfaction, and even admits that the mountain Ainos are better than he
+expected; “but,” he added “they have learned their politeness from the
+Japanese!”  They have never seen a foreign woman, and only three foreign
+men, but there is neither crowding nor staring as among the Japanese,
+possibly in part from apathy and want of intelligence.  For three days
+they have kept up their graceful and kindly hospitality, going on with
+their ordinary life and occupations, and, though I have lived among them
+in this room by day and night, there has been nothing which in any way
+could offend the most fastidious sense of delicacy.
+
+They said they would leave me to eat and rest, and all retired but the
+chief’s mother, a weird, witch-like woman of eighty, with shocks of
+yellow-white hair, and a stern suspiciousness in her wrinkled face.  I
+have come to feel as if she had the evil eye, as she sits there watching,
+watching always, and for ever knotting the bark thread like one of the
+Fates, keeping a jealous watch on her son’s two wives, and on other young
+women who come in to weave—neither the dulness nor the repose of old age
+about her; and her eyes gleam with a greedy light when she sees _saké_,
+of which she drains a bowl without taking breath.  She alone is
+suspicious of strangers, and she thinks that my visit bodes no good to
+her tribe.  I see her eyes fixed upon me now, and they make me shudder.
+
+I had a good meal seated in my chair on the top of the guest-seat to
+avoid the fleas, which are truly legion.  At dusk Shinondi returned, and
+soon people began to drop in, till eighteen were assembled, including the
+sub-chief and several very grand-looking old men, with full, grey, wavy
+beards.  Age is held in much reverence, and it is etiquette for these old
+men to do honour to a guest in the chief’s absence.  As each entered he
+saluted me several times, and after sitting down turned towards me and
+saluted again, going through the same ceremony with every other person.
+They said they had come “to bid me welcome.”  They took their places in
+rigid order at each side of the fireplace, which is six feet long,
+Benri’s mother in the place of honour at the right, then Shinondi, then
+the sub-chief, and on the other side the old men.  Besides these, seven
+women sat in a row in the background splitting bark.  A large iron pan
+hung over the fire from a blackened arrangement above, and Benri’s
+principal wife cut wild roots, green beans, and seaweed, and shred dried
+fish and venison among them, adding millet, water, and some
+strong-smelling fish-oil, and set the whole on to stew for three hours,
+stirring the “mess” now and then with a wooden spoon.
+
+Several of the older people smoke, and I handed round some mild tobacco,
+which they received with waving hands.  I told them that I came from a
+land in the sea, very far away, where they saw the sun go down—so very
+far away that a horse would have to gallop day and night for five weeks
+to reach it—and that I had come a long journey to see them, and that I
+wanted to ask them many questions, so that when I went home I might tell
+my own people something about them.  Shinondi and another man, who
+understood Japanese, bowed, and (as on every occasion) translated what I
+said into Aino for the venerable group opposite.  Shinondi then said
+“that he and Shinrichi, the other Japanese speaker, would tell me all
+they knew, but they were but young men, and only knew what was told to
+them.  They would speak what they believed to be true, but the chief knew
+more than they, and when he came back he might tell me differently, and
+then I should think that they had spoken lies.”  I said that no one who
+looked into their faces could think that they ever told lies.  They were
+very much pleased, and waved their hands and stroked their beards
+repeatedly.  Before they told me anything they begged and prayed that I
+would not inform the Japanese Government that they had told me of their
+customs, or harm might come to them!
+
+For the next two hours, and for two more after supper, I asked them
+questions concerning their religion and customs, and again yesterday for
+a considerable time, and this morning, after Benri’s return, I went over
+the same subjects with him, and have also employed a considerable time in
+getting about 300 words from them, which I have spelt phonetically of
+course, and intend to go over again when I visit the coast Ainos. {241}
+
+The process was slow, as both question and answer had to pass through
+three languages.  There was a very manifest desire to tell the truth, and
+I think that their statements concerning their few and simple customs may
+be relied upon.  I shall give what they told me separately when I have
+time to write out my notes in an orderly manner.  I can only say that I
+have seldom spent a more interesting evening.
+
+About nine the stew was ready, and the women ladled it into lacquer bowls
+with wooden spoons.  The men were served first, but all ate together.
+Afterwards _saké_, their curse, was poured into lacquer bowls, and across
+each bowl a finely-carved “saké-_stick_” was laid.  These sticks are very
+highly prized.  The bowls were waved several times with an inward motion,
+then each man took his stick and, dipping it into the _saké_, made six
+libations to the fire and several to the “god”—a wooden post, with a
+quantity of spiral white shavings falling from near the top.  The Ainos
+are not affected by _saké_ nearly so easily as the Japanese.  They took
+it cold, it is true, but each drank about three times as much as would
+have made a Japanese foolish, and it had no effect upon them.  After two
+hours more talk one after another got up and went out, making profuse
+salutations to me and to the others.  My candles had been forgotten, and
+our _séance_ was held by the fitful light of the big logs on the fire,
+aided by a succession of chips of birch bark, with which a woman
+replenished a cleft stick that was stuck into the fire-hole.  I never saw
+such a strangely picturesque sight as that group of magnificent savages
+with the fitful firelight on their faces, and for adjuncts the flare of
+the torch, the strong lights, the blackness of the recesses of the room
+and of the roof, at one end of which the stars looked in, and the row of
+savage women in the background—eastern savagery and western civilisation
+met in this hut, savagery giving and civilisation receiving, the
+yellow-skinned Ito the connecting-link between the two, and the
+representative of a civilisation to which our own is but an “infant of
+days.”
+
+I found it very exciting, and when all had left crept out into the
+starlight.  The lodges were all dark and silent, and the dogs, mild like
+their masters, took no notice of me.  The only sound was the rustle of a
+light breeze through the surrounding forest.  The verse came into my
+mind, “It is not the will of your Father which is in heaven that one of
+these little ones should perish.”  Surely these simple savages are
+children, as children to be judged; may we not hope as children to be
+saved through Him who came “not to judge the world, but to save the
+world”?
+
+I crept back again and into my mosquito net, and suffered not from fleas
+or mosquitoes, but from severe cold.  Shinondi conversed with Ito for
+some time in a low musical voice, having previously asked if it would
+keep me from sleeping.  No Japanese ever intermitted his ceaseless
+chatter at any hour of the night for a similar reason.  Later, the
+chief’s principal wife, Noma, stuck a triply-cleft stick in the
+fire-hole, put a potsherd with a wick and some fish-oil upon it, and by
+the dim light of this rude lamp sewed until midnight at a garment of bark
+cloth which she was ornamenting for her lord with strips of blue cloth,
+and when I opened my eyes the next morning she was at the window sewing
+by the earliest daylight.  She is the most intelligent-looking of all the
+women, but looks sad and almost stern, and speaks seldom.  Although she
+is the principal wife of the chief she is not happy, for she is
+childless, and I thought that her sad look darkened into something evil
+as the other wife caressed a fine baby boy.  Benri seems to me something
+of a brute, and the mother-in-law obviously holds the reins of government
+pretty tight.  After sewing till midnight she swept the mats with a bunch
+of twigs, and then crept into her bed behind a hanging mat.  For a moment
+in the stillness I felt a feeling of panic, as if I were incurring a risk
+by being alone among savages, but I conquered it, and, after watching the
+fire till it went out, fell asleep till I was awoke by the severe cold of
+the next day’s dawn.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER XXXVI.—(_Continued_.)
+
+
+A Supposed Act of Worship—Parental Tenderness—Morning Visits—Wretched
+Cultivation—Honesty and Generosity—A “Dug-out”—Female Occupations—The
+Ancient Fate—A New Arrival—A Perilous Prescription—The Shrine of
+Yoshitsuné—The Chief’s Return.
+
+WHEN I crept from under my net much benumbed with cold, there were about
+eleven people in the room, who all made their graceful salutation.  It
+did not seem as if they had ever heard of washing, for, when water was
+asked for, Shinondi brought a little in a lacquer bowl, and held it while
+I bathed my face and hands, supposing the performance to be an act of
+worship!  I was about to throw some cold tea out of the window by my bed
+when he arrested me with an anxious face, and I saw, what I had not
+observed before, that there was a god at that window—a stick with
+festoons of shavings hanging from it, and beside it a dead bird.  The
+Ainos have two meals a day, and their breakfast was a repetition of the
+previous night’s supper.  We all ate together, and I gave the children
+the remains of my rice, and it was most amusing to see little creatures
+of three, four, and five years old, with no other clothing than a piece
+of pewter hanging round their necks, first formally asking leave of the
+parents before taking the rice, and then waving their hands.  The
+obedience of the children is instantaneous.  Their parents are more
+demonstrative in their affection than the Japanese are, caressing them a
+good deal, and two of the men are devoted to children who are not their
+own.  These little ones are as grave and dignified as Japanese children,
+and are very gentle.
+
+I went out soon after five, when the dew was glittering in the sunshine,
+and the mountain hollow in which Biratori stands was looking its very
+best, and the silence of the place, even though the people were all
+astir, was as impressive as that of the night before.  What a strange
+life! knowing nothing, hoping nothing, fearing a little, the need for
+clothes and food the one motive principle, _saké_ in abundance the one
+good!  How very few points of contact it is possible to have!  I was just
+thinking so when Shinondi met me, and took me to his house to see if I
+could do anything for a child sorely afflicted with skin disease, and his
+extreme tenderness for this very loathsome object made me feel that human
+affections were the same among them as with us.  He had carried it on his
+back from a village, five miles distant, that morning, in the hope that
+it might be cured.  As soon as I entered he laid a fine mat on the floor,
+and covered the guest-seat with a bearskin.  After breakfast he took me
+to the lodge of the sub-chief, the largest in the village, 45 feet
+square, and into about twenty others all constructed in the same way, but
+some of them were not more than 20 feet square.  In all I was received
+with the same courtesy, but a few of the people asked Shinondi not to
+take me into their houses, as they did not want me to see how poor they
+are.  In every house there was the low shelf with more or fewer curios
+upon it, but, besides these, none but the barest necessaries of life,
+though the skins which they sell or barter every year would enable them
+to surround themselves with comforts, were it not that their gains
+represent to them _saké_, and nothing else.  They are not nomads.  On the
+contrary, they cling tenaciously to the sites on which their fathers have
+lived and died.  But anything more deplorable than the attempts at
+cultivation which surround their lodges could not be seen.  The soil is
+little better than white sand, on which without manure they attempt to
+grow millet, which is to them in the place of rice, pumpkins, onions, and
+tobacco; but the look of their plots is as if they had been cultivated
+ten years ago, and some chance-sown grain and vegetables had come up
+among the weeds.  When nothing more will grow, they partially clear
+another bit of forest, and exhaust that in its turn.
+
+In every house the same honour was paid to a guest.  This seems a savage
+virtue which is not strong enough to survive much contact with
+civilisation.  Before I entered one lodge the woman brought several of
+the finer mats, and arranged them as a pathway for me to walk to the fire
+upon.  They will not accept anything for lodging, or for anything that
+they give, so I was anxious to help them by buying some of their
+handiwork, but found even this a difficult matter.  They were very
+anxious to give, but when I desired to buy they said they did not wish to
+part with their things.  I wanted what they had in actual use, such as a
+tobacco-box and pipe-sheath, and knives with carved handles and
+scabbards, and for three of these I offered 2½ dollars.  They said they
+did not care to sell them, but in the evening they came saying they were
+not worth more than 1 dollar 10 cents, and they would sell them for that;
+and I could not get them to take more.  They said it was “not their
+custom.”  I bought a bow and three poisoned arrows, two reed-mats, with a
+diamond pattern on them in reeds stained red, some knives with sheaths,
+and a bark cloth dress.  I tried to buy the _saké_-sticks with which they
+make libations to their gods, but they said it was “not their custom” to
+part with the _saké_-stick of any living man; however, this morning
+Shinondi has brought me, as a very valuable present, the stick of a dead
+man!  This morning the man who sold the arrows brought two new ones, to
+replace two which were imperfect.  I found them, as Mr. Von Siebold had
+done, punctiliously honest in all their transactions.  They wear very
+large earrings with hoops an inch and a half in diameter, a pair
+constituting the dowry of an Aino bride; but they would not part with
+these.
+
+A house was burned down two nights ago, and “custom” in such a case
+requires that all the men should work at rebuilding it, so in their
+absence I got two boys to take me in a “dug-out” as far as we could go up
+the Sarufutogawa—a lovely river, which winds tortuously through the
+forests and mountains in unspeakable loveliness.  I had much of the
+feeling of the ancient mariner—
+
+    “We were the first
+    Who ever burst
+          Into that silent sea.”
+
+For certainly no European had ever previously floated on the dark and
+forest-shrouded waters.  I enjoyed those hours thoroughly, for the
+silence was profound, and the faint blue of the autumn sky, and the soft
+blue veil which “spiritualised” the distances, were so exquisitely like
+the Indian summer.
+
+                       [Picture: Aino Store-House]
+
+The evening was spent like the previous one, but the hearts of the
+savages were sad, for there was no more _saké_ in Biratori, so they could
+not “drink to the god,” and the fire and the post with the shavings had
+to go without libations.  There was no more oil, so after the strangers
+retired the hut was in complete darkness.
+
+Yesterday morning we all breakfasted soon after daylight, and the
+able-bodied men went away to hunt.  Hunting and fishing are their
+occupations, and for “indoor recreation” they carve tobacco-boxes,
+knife-sheaths, _saké_-sticks, and shuttles.  It is quite unnecessary for
+them to do anything; they are quite contented to sit by the fire, and
+smoke occasionally, and eat and sleep, this apathy being varied by spasms
+of activity when there is no more dried flesh in the _kuras_, and when
+skins must be taken to Sarufuto to pay for _saké_.  The women seem never
+to have an idle moment.  They rise early to sew, weave, and split bark,
+for they not only clothe themselves and their husbands in this nearly
+indestructible cloth, but weave it for barter, and the lower class of
+Japanese are constantly to be seen wearing the product of Aino industry.
+They do all the hard work, such as drawing water, chopping wood, grinding
+millet, and cultivating the soil, after their fashion; but, to do the men
+justice, I often see them trudging along carrying one and even two
+children.  The women take the exclusive charge of the _kuras_, which are
+never entered by men.
+
+I was left for some hours alone with the women, of whom there were seven
+in the hut, with a few children.  On the one side of the fire the chief’s
+mother sat like a Fate, for ever splitting and knotting bark, and
+petrifying me by her cold, fateful eyes.  Her thick, grey hair hangs in
+shocks, the tattooing round her mouth has nearly faded, and no longer
+disguises her really handsome features.  She is dressed in a much
+ornamented bark-cloth dress, and wears two silver beads tied round her
+neck by a piece of blue cotton, in addition to very large earrings.  She
+has much sway in the house, sitting on the men’s side of the fire,
+drinking plenty of _saké_, and occasionally chiding her grandson Shinondi
+for telling me too much, saying that it will bring harm to her people.
+Though her expression is so severe and forbidding, she is certainly very
+handsome, and it is a European, not an Asiatic, beauty.
+
+The younger women were all at work; two were seated on the floor weaving
+without a loom, and the others were making and mending the bark coats
+which are worn by both sexes.  Noma, the chief’s principal wife, sat
+apart, seldom speaking.  Two of the youngest women are very pretty—as
+fair as ourselves, and their comeliness is of the rosy, peasant kind.  It
+turns out that two of them, though they would not divulge it before men,
+speak Japanese, and they prattled to Ito with great vivacity and
+merriment, the ancient Fate scowling at them the while from under her
+shaggy eyebrows.  I got a number of words from them, and they laughed
+heartily at my erroneous pronunciation.  They even asked me a number of
+questions regarding their own sex among ourselves, but few of these would
+bear repetition, and they answered a number of mine.  As the merriment
+increased the old woman looked increasingly angry and restless, and at
+last rated them sharply, as I have heard since, telling them that if they
+spoke another word she should tell their husbands that they had been
+talking to strangers.  After this not another word was spoken, and Noma,
+who is an industrious housewife, boiled some millet into a mash for a
+mid-day lunch.  During the afternoon a very handsome young Aino, with a
+washed, richly-coloured skin and fine clear eyes, came up from the coast,
+where he had been working at the fishing.  He saluted the old woman and
+Benri’s wife on entering, and presented the former with a gourd of
+_saké_, bringing a greedy light into her eyes as she took a long draught,
+after which, saluting me, he threw himself down in the place of honour by
+the fire, with the easy grace of a staghound, a savage all over.  His
+name is Pipichari, and he is the chief’s adopted son.  He had cut his
+foot badly with a root, and asked me to cure it, and I stipulated that it
+should be bathed for some time in warm water before anything more was
+done, after which I bandaged it with lint.  He said “he did not like me
+to touch his foot, it was not clean enough, my hands were too white,”
+etc.; but when I had dressed it, and the pain was much relieved, he bowed
+very low and then kissed my hand!  He was the only one among them all who
+showed the slightest curiosity regarding my things.  He looked at my
+scissors, touched my boots, and watched me, as I wrote, with the simple
+curiosity of a child.  He could speak a little Japanese, but he said he
+was “too young to tell me anything, the older men would know.”  He is a
+“total abstainer” from _saké_, and he says that there are four such
+besides himself among the large number of Ainos who are just now at the
+fishing at Mombets, and that the others keep separate from them, because
+they think that the gods will be angry with them for not drinking.
+
+Several “patients,” mostly children, were brought in during the
+afternoon.  Ito was much disgusted by my interest in these people, who,
+he repeated, “are just dogs,” referring to their legendary origin, of
+which they are not ashamed.  His assertion that they have learned
+politeness from the Japanese is simply baseless.  Their politeness,
+though of quite another and more manly stamp, is savage, not civilised.
+The men came back at dark, the meal was prepared, and we sat round the
+fire as before; but there was no _saké_, except in the possession of the
+old woman; and again the hearts of the savages were sad.  I could
+multiply instances of their politeness.  As we were talking, Pipichari,
+who is a very “untutored” savage, dropped his coat from one shoulder, and
+at once Shinondi signed to him to put it on again.  Again, a woman was
+sent to a distant village for some oil as soon as they heard that I
+usually burned a light all night.  Little acts of courtesy were
+constantly being performed; but I really appreciated nothing more than
+the quiet way in which they went on with the routine of their ordinary
+lives.
+
+During the evening a man came to ask if I would go and see a woman who
+could hardly breathe; and I found her very ill of bronchitis, accompanied
+with much fever.  She was lying in a coat of skins, tossing on the hard
+boards of her bed, with a matting-covered roll under her head, and her
+husband was trying to make her swallow some salt-fish.  I took her dry,
+hot hand—such a small hand, tattooed all over the back—and it gave me a
+strange thrill.  The room was full of people, and they all seemed very
+sorry.  A medical missionary would be of little use here; but a
+medically-trained nurse, who would give medicines and proper food, with
+proper nursing, would save many lives and much suffering.  It is of no
+use to tell these people to do anything which requires to be done more
+than once: they are just like children.  I gave her some chlorodyne,
+which she swallowed with difficulty, and left another dose ready mixed,
+to give her in a few hours; but about midnight they came to tell me that
+she was worse; and on going I found her very cold and weak, and breathing
+very hard, moving her head wearily from side to side.  I thought she
+could not live for many hours, and was much afraid that they would think
+that I had killed her.  I told them that I thought she would die; but
+they urged me to do something more for her, and as a last hope I gave her
+some brandy, with twenty-five drops of chlorodyne, and a few spoonfuls of
+very strong beef-tea.  She was unable, or more probably unwilling, to
+make the effort to swallow it, and I poured it down her throat by the
+wild glare of strips of birch bark.  An hour later they came back to tell
+me that she felt as if she were very drunk; but, going back to her house,
+I found that she was sleeping quietly, and breathing more easily; and,
+creeping back just at dawn, I found her still sleeping, and with her
+pulse stronger and calmer.  She is now decidedly better and quite
+sensible, and her husband, the sub-chief, is much delighted.  It seems so
+sad that they have nothing fit for a sick person’s food; and though I
+have made a bowl of beef-tea with the remains of my stock, it can only
+last one day.
+
+I was so tired with these nocturnal expeditions and anxieties that on
+lying down I fell asleep, and on waking found more than the usual
+assemblage in the room, and the men were obviously agog about something.
+They have a singular, and I hope an unreasonable, fear of the Japanese
+Government.  Mr. Von Siebold thinks that the officials threaten and knock
+them about; and this is possible; but I really think that the
+_Kaitaikushi_ Department means well by them, and, besides removing the
+oppressive restrictions by which, as a conquered race, they were
+fettered, treats them far more humanely and equitably than the U.S.
+Government, for instance, treats the North American Indians.  However,
+they are ignorant; and one of the men, who had been most grateful because
+I said I would get Dr. Hepburn to send some medicine for his child, came
+this morning and begged me not to do so, as, he said, “the Japanese
+Government would be angry.”  After this they again prayed me not to tell
+the Japanese Government that they had told me their customs and then they
+began to talk earnestly together.
+
+The sub-chief then spoke, and said that I had been kind to their sick
+people, and they would like to show me their temple, which had never been
+seen by any foreigner; but they were very much afraid of doing so, and
+they asked me many times “not to tell the Japanese Government that they
+showed it to me, lest some great harm should happen to them.”  The
+sub-chief put on a sleeveless Japanese war-cloak to go up, and he,
+Shinondi, Pipichari, and two others accompanied me.  It was a beautiful
+but very steep walk, or rather climb, to the top of an abrupt acclivity
+beyond the village, on which the temple or shrine stands.  It would be
+impossible to get up were it not for the remains of a wooden staircase,
+not of Aino construction.  Forest and mountain surround Biratori, and the
+only breaks in the dense greenery are glints of the shining waters of the
+Sarufutogawa, and the tawny roofs of the Aino lodges.  It is a lonely and
+a silent land, fitter for the _hiding_ place than the _dwelling_ place of
+men.
+
+When the splendid young savage, Pipichari, saw that I found it difficult
+to get up, he took my hand and helped me up, as gently as an English
+gentleman would have done; and when he saw that I had greater difficulty
+in getting down, he all but insisted on my riding down on his back, and
+certainly would have carried me had not Benri, the chief, who arrived
+while we were at the shrine, made an end of it by taking my hand and
+helping me down himself.  Their instinct of helpfulness to a foreign
+woman strikes me as so odd, because they never show any courtesy to their
+own women, whom they treat (though to a less extent than is usual among
+savages) as inferior beings.
+
+On the very edge of the cliff, at the top of the zigzag, stands a wooden
+temple or shrine, such as one sees in any grove, or on any high place on
+the main island, obviously of Japanese construction, but concerning which
+Aino tradition is silent.  No European had ever stood where I stood, and
+there was a solemnity in the knowledge.  The sub-chief drew back the
+sliding doors, and all bowed with much reverence, It was a simple shrine
+of unlacquered wood, with a broad shelf at the back, on which there was a
+small shrine containing a figure of the historical hero Yoshitsuné, in a
+suit of inlaid brass armour, some metal _gohei_, a pair of tarnished
+brass candle-sticks, and a coloured Chinese picture representing a junk.
+Here, then, I was introduced to the great god of the mountain Ainos.
+There is something very pathetic in these people keeping alive the memory
+of Yoshitsuné, not on account of his martial exploits, but simply because
+their tradition tells them that he was kind to them.  They pulled the
+bell three times to attract his attention, bowed three times, and made
+six libations of _saké_, without which ceremony he cannot be approached.
+They asked me to worship their god, but when I declined on the ground
+that I could only worship my own God, the Lord of Earth and Heaven, of
+the dead and of the living, they were too courteous to press their
+request.  As to Ito, it did not signify to him whether or not he added
+another god to his already crowded Pantheon, and he “worshipped,” i.e.
+bowed down, most willingly before the great hero of his own, the
+conquering race.
+
+While we were crowded there on the narrow ledge of the cliff, Benri, the
+chief, arrived—a square-built, broad-shouldered, elderly man, strong as
+an ox, and very handsome, but his expression is not pleasing, and his
+eyes are bloodshot with drinking.  The others saluted him very
+respectfully, but I noticed then and since that his manner is very
+arbitrary, and that a blow not infrequently follows a word.  He had sent
+a message to his people by Ito that they were not to answer any questions
+till he returned, but Ito very tactfully neither gave it nor told me of
+it, and he was displeased with the young men for having talked to me so
+much.  His mother had evidently “peached.”  I like him less than any of
+his tribe.  He has some fine qualities, truthfulness among others, but he
+has been contaminated by the four or five foreigners that he has seen,
+and is a brute and a sot.  The hearts of his people are no longer sad,
+for there is _saké_ in every house to-night.
+
+                                                                  I. L. B.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER XXXVII.
+
+
+Barrenness of Savage Life—Irreclaimable Savages—The Aino Physique—Female
+Comeliness—Torture and Ornament—Child Life—Docility and Obedience.
+
+                                              BIRATORI, YEZO, _August_ 24.
+
+I EXPECTED to have written out my notes on the Ainos in the comparative
+quiet and comfort of Sarufuto, but the delay in Benri’s return, and the
+non-arrival of the horses, have compelled me to accept Aino hospitality
+for another night, which involves living on tea and potatoes, for my
+stock of food is exhausted.  In some respects I am glad to remain longer,
+as it enables me to go over my stock of words, as well as my notes, with
+the chief, who is intelligent and it is a pleasure to find that his
+statements confirm those which have been made by the young men.  The
+glamour which at first disguises the inherent barrenness of savage life
+has had time to pass away, and I see it in all its nakedness as a life
+not much raised above the necessities of animal existence, timid,
+monotonous, barren of good, dark, dull, “without hope, and without God in
+the world;” though at its lowest and worst considerably higher and better
+than that of many other aboriginal races, and—must I say it?—considerably
+higher and better than that of thousands of the lapsed masses of our own
+great cities who are baptized into Christ’s name, and are laid at last in
+holy ground, inasmuch as the Ainos are truthful, and, on the whole,
+chaste, hospitable, honest, reverent, and kind to the aged.  Drinking,
+their great vice, is not, as among us, in antagonism to their religion,
+but is actually a part of it, and as such would be exceptionally
+difficult to eradicate.
+
+The early darkness has once again come on, and once again the elders have
+assembled round the fire in two long lines, with the younger men at the
+ends, Pipichari, who yesterday sat in the place of honour and was helped
+to food first as the newest arrival, taking his place as the youngest at
+the end of the right-hand row.  The birch-bark chips beam with fitful
+glare, the evening _saké_ bowls are filled, the fire-god and the
+garlanded god receive their libations, the ancient woman, still sitting
+like a Fate, splits bark, and the younger women knot it, and the log-fire
+lights up as magnificent a set of venerable heads as painter or sculptor
+would desire to see,—heads, full of—what?  They have no history, their
+traditions are scarcely worthy the name, they claim descent from a dog,
+their houses and persons swarm with vermin, they are sunk in the grossest
+ignorance, they have no letters or any numbers above a thousand, they are
+clothed in the bark of trees and the untanned skins of beasts, they
+worship the bear, the sun, moon, fire, water, and I know not what, they
+are uncivilisable and altogether irreclaimable savages, yet they are
+attractive, and in some ways fascinating, and I hope I shall never forget
+the music of their low, sweet voices, the soft light of their mild, brown
+eyes, and the wonderful sweetness of their smile.
+
+After the yellow skins, the stiff horse hair, the feeble eyelids, the
+elongated eyes, the sloping eyebrows, the flat noses, the sunken chests,
+the Mongolian features, the puny physique, the shaky walk of the men, the
+restricted totter of the women, and the general impression of degeneracy
+conveyed by the appearance of the Japanese, the Ainos make a very
+singular impression.  All but two or three that I have seen are the most
+ferocious-looking of savages, with a physique vigorous enough for
+carrying out the most ferocious intentions, but as soon as they speak the
+countenance brightens into a smile as gentle as that of a woman,
+something which can never be forgotten.
+
+The men are about the middle height, broad-chested, broad-shouldered,
+“thick set,” very strongly built, the arms and legs short, thick, and
+muscular, the hands and feet large.  The bodies, and specially the limbs,
+of many are covered with short bristly hair.  I have seen two boys whose
+backs are covered with fur as fine and soft as that of a cat.  The heads
+and faces are very striking.  The foreheads are very high, broad, and
+prominent, and at first sight give one the impression [Picture: Ainos of
+Yezo] of an unusual capacity for intellectual development; the ears are
+small and set low; the noses are straight but short, and broad at the
+nostrils; the mouths are wide but well formed; and the lips rarely show a
+tendency to fulness.  The neck is short, the cranium rounded, the
+cheek-bones low, and the lower part of the face is small as compared with
+the upper, the peculiarity called a “jowl” being unknown.  The eyebrows
+are full, and form a straight line nearly across the face.  The eyes are
+large, tolerably deeply set, and very beautiful, the colour a rich liquid
+brown, the expression singularly soft, and the eyelashes long, silky, and
+abundant.  The skin has the Italian olive tint, but in most cases is
+thin, and light enough to show the changes of colour in the cheek.  The
+teeth are small, regular, and very white; the incisors and “eye teeth”
+are not disproportionately large, as is usually the case among the
+Japanese; there is no tendency towards prognathism; and the fold of
+integument which conceals the upper eyelids of the Japanese is never to
+be met with.  The features, expression, and aspect, are European rather
+than Asiatic.
+
+The “ferocious savagery” of the appearance of the men is produced by a
+profusion of thick, soft, black hair, divided in the middle, and falling
+in heavy masses nearly to the shoulders.  Out of doors it is kept from
+falling over the face by a fillet round the brow.  The beards are equally
+profuse, quite magnificent, and generally wavy, and in the case of the
+old men they give a truly patriarchal and venerable aspect, in spite of
+the yellow tinge produced by smoke and want of cleanliness.  The savage
+look produced by the masses of hair and beard, and the thick eyebrows, is
+mitigated by the softness in the dreamy brown eyes, and is altogether
+obliterated by the exceeding sweetness of the smile, which belongs in
+greater or less degree to all the rougher sex.
+
+I have measured the height of thirty of the adult men of this village,
+and it ranges from 5 feet 4 inches to 5 feet 6½ inches.  The
+circumference of the heads averages 22.1 inches, and the arc, from ear to
+ear, 13 inches.  According to Mr. Davies, the average weight of the Aino
+adult masculine brain, ascertained by measurement of Aino skulls, is
+45.90 ounces avoirdupois, a brain weight said to exceed that of all the
+races, Hindoo and Mussulman, on the Indian plains, and that of the
+aboriginal races of India and Ceylon, and is only paralleled by that of
+the races of the Himalayas, the Siamese, and the Chinese Burmese.  Mr.
+Davies says, further, that it exceeds the mean brain weight of Asiatic
+races in general.  Yet with all this the Ainos are a stupid people!
+
+                       [Picture: An Aino Patriarch]
+
+Passing travellers who have seen a few of the Aino women on the road to
+Satsuporo speak of them as very ugly, but as making amends for their
+ugliness by their industry and conjugal fidelity.  Of the latter there is
+no doubt, but I am not disposed to admit the former.  The ugliness is
+certainly due to art and dirt.  The Aino women seldom exceed five feet
+and half an inch in height, but they are beautifully formed, straight,
+lithe, and well-developed, with small feet and hands, well-arched
+insteps, rounded limbs, well-developed busts, and a firm, elastic gait.
+Their heads and faces are small; but the hair, which falls in masses on
+each side of the face like that of the men, is equally redundant.  They
+have superb teeth, and display them liberally in smiling.  Their mouths
+are somewhat wide, but well formed, and they have a ruddy comeliness
+about them which is pleasing, in spite of the disfigurement of the band
+which is tattooed both above and below the mouth, and which, by being
+united at the corners, enlarges its apparent size and width.  A girl at
+Shiraôi, who, for some reason, has not been subjected to this process, is
+the most beautiful creature in features, colouring, and natural grace of
+form, that I have seen for a long time.  Their complexions are lighter
+than those of the men.  There are not many here even as dark as our
+European brunettes.  A few unite the eyebrows by a streak of tattooing,
+so as to produce a straight line.  Like the men, they cut their hair
+short for two or three inches above the nape of the neck, but instead of
+using a fillet they take two locks from the front and tie them at the
+back.
+
+They are universally tattooed, not only with the broad band above and
+below the mouth, but with a band across the knuckles, succeeded by an
+elaborate pattern on the back of the hand, and a series of bracelets
+extending to the elbow.  The process of disfigurement begins at the age
+of five, when some of the sufferers are yet unweaned.  I saw the
+operation performed on a dear little bright girl this morning.  A woman
+took a large knife with a sharp edge, and rapidly cut several horizontal
+lines on the upper lip, following closely the curve of the very pretty
+mouth, and before the slight bleeding had ceased carefully rubbed in some
+of the shiny soot which collects on the mat above the fire.  In two or
+three days the scarred lip will be washed with the decoction of the bark
+of a tree to fix the pattern, and give it that blue look which makes many
+people mistake it for a daub of paint.  A child who had this second
+process performed yesterday has her lip fearfully swollen and inflamed.
+The latest victim held her hands clasped tightly together while the cuts
+were inflicted, but never cried.  The pattern on the lips is deepened and
+widened every year up to the time of marriage, and the circles on the arm
+are extended in a similar way.  The men cannot give any reason for the
+universality of this custom.  It is an old custom, they say, and part of
+their religion, and no woman could marry without it.  Benri fancies that
+the Japanese custom of blackening the teeth is equivalent to it; but he
+is mistaken, as that ceremony usually succeeds marriage.  They begin to
+tattoo the arms when a girl is five or six, and work from the elbow
+downwards.  They expressed themselves as very much grieved and tormented
+by the recent prohibition of tattooing.  They say the gods will be angry,
+and that the women can’t marry unless they are tattooed; and they
+implored both Mr. Von Siebold and me to intercede with the Japanese
+Government on their behalf in this respect.  They are less apathetic on
+this than on any subject, and repeat frequently, “It’s a part of our
+religion.”
+
+                     [Picture: Tattooed Female Hand]
+
+The children are very pretty and attractive, and their faces give promise
+of an intelligence which is lacking in those of the adults.  They are
+much loved, and are caressing as well as caressed.  The infants of the
+mountain Ainos have seeds of millet put into their mouths as soon as they
+are born, and those of the coast Ainos a morsel of salt-fish; and
+whatever be the hour of birth, “custom” requires that they shall not be
+fed until a night has passed.  They are not weaned until they are at
+least three years old.  Boys are preferred to girls, but both are highly
+valued, and a childless wife may be divorced.
+
+Children do not receive names till they are four or five years old, and
+then the father chooses a name by which his child is afterwards known.
+Young children when they travel are either carried on their mothers’
+backs in a net, or in the back of the loose garment; but in both cases
+the weight is mainly supported by a broad band which passes round the
+woman’s forehead.  When men carry them they hold them in their arms.  The
+hair of very young children is shaven, and from about five to fifteen the
+boys wear either a large tonsure or tufts above the ears, while the girls
+are allowed to grow hair all over their heads.
+
+Implicit and prompt obedience is required from infancy; and from a very
+early age the children are utilised by being made to fetch and carry and
+go on messages.  I have seen children apparently not more than two years
+old sent for wood; and even at this age they are so thoroughly trained in
+the observances of etiquette that babies just able to walk never toddle
+into or out of this house without formal salutations to each person
+within it, the mother alone excepted.  They don’t wear any clothing till
+they are seven or eight years old, and are then dressed like their
+elders.  Their manners to their parents are very affectionate.  Even
+to-day, in the chief’s awe-inspiring presence, one dear little nude
+creature, who had been sitting quietly for two hours staring into the
+fire with her big brown eyes, rushed to meet her mother when she entered,
+and threw her arms round her, to which the woman responded by a look of
+true maternal tenderness and a kiss.  These little creatures, in the
+absolute unconsciousness of innocence, with their beautiful faces,
+olive-tinted bodies,—all the darker, sad to say, from dirt,—their perfect
+docility, and absence of prying curiosity, are very bewitching.  They all
+wear silver or pewter ornaments tied round their necks by a wisp of blue
+cotton.
+
+Apparently the ordinary infantile maladies, such as whooping-cough and
+measles, do not afflict the Ainos fatally; but the children suffer from a
+cutaneous affection, which wears off as they reach the age of ten or
+eleven years, as well as from severe toothache with their first teeth.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER XXXVII.—(_Continued_.)
+
+
+Aino Clothing—Holiday Dress—Domestic Architecture—Household Gods—Japanese
+Curios—The Necessaries of Life—Clay Soup—Arrow Poison—Arrow-Traps—Female
+Occupations—Bark Cloth—The Art of Weaving.
+
+AINO clothing, for savages, is exceptionally good.  In the winter it
+consists of one, two, or more coats of skins, with hoods of the same, to
+which the men add rude moccasins when they go out hunting.  In summer
+they wear kimonos, or loose coats, made of cloth woven from the split
+bark of a forest tree.  This is a durable and beautiful fabric in various
+shades of natural buff, and somewhat resembles what is known to fancy
+workers as “Panama canvas.”  Under this a skin or bark-cloth vest may or
+may not be worn.  The men wear these coats reaching a little below the
+knees, folded over from right to left, and confined at the waist by a
+narrow girdle of the same cloth, to which is attached a rude,
+dagger-shaped knife, with a carved and engraved wooden handle and sheath.
+Smoking is by no means a general practice; consequently the pipe and
+tobacco-box are not, as with the Japanese, a part of ordinary male
+attire.  Tightly-fitting leggings, either of bark-cloth or skin, are worn
+by both sexes, but neither shoes nor sandals.  The coat worn by the women
+reaches half-way between the knees and ankles, and is quite loose and
+without a girdle.  It is fastened the whole way up to the collar-bone;
+and not only is the Aino woman completely covered, but she will not
+change one garment for another except alone or in the dark.  Lately a
+Japanese woman at Sarufuto took an Aino woman into her house, and
+insisted on her taking a bath, which she absolutely refused to do till
+the bath-house had been made quite private by means of screens.  On the
+Japanese woman going back a little later to see what had become of her,
+she found her sitting in the water in her clothes; and on being
+remonstrated with, she said that the gods would be angry if they saw her
+without clothes!
+
+Many of the garments for holiday occasions are exceedingly handsome,
+being decorated with “geometrical” patterns, in which the “Greek fret”
+takes part, in coarse blue cotton, braided most dexterously with scarlet
+and white thread.  Some of the handsomest take half a year to make.  The
+masculine dress is completed by an apron of oblong shape decorated in the
+same elaborate manner.  These handsome savages, with their powerful
+physique, look remarkably well in their best clothes.  I have not seen a
+boy or girl above nine who is not thoroughly clothed.  The “jewels” of
+the women are large, hoop earrings of silver or pewter, with attachments
+of a classical pattern, and silver neck ornaments, and a few have brass
+bracelets soldered upon their arms.  The women have a perfect passion for
+every hue of red, and I have made friends with them by dividing among
+them a large turkey-red silk handkerchief, strips of which are already
+being utilised for the ornamenting of coats.
+
+The houses in the five villages up here are very good.  So they are at
+Horobets, but at Shiraôi, where the aborigines suffer from the close
+proximity of several grog shops, they are inferior.  They differ in many
+ways from any that I have before seen, approaching most nearly to the
+grass houses of the natives of Hawaii.  Custom does not appear to permit
+either of variety or innovations; in all the style is the same, and the
+difference consists in the size and plenishings.  The dwellings seem
+ill-fitted for a rigorous climate, but the same thing may be said of
+those of the Japanese.  In their houses, as in their faces, the Ainos are
+more European than their conquerors, as they possess doorways, windows,
+central fireplaces, like those of the Highlanders of Scotland, and raised
+sleeping-places.
+
+The usual appearance is that of a small house built on at the end of a
+larger one.  The small house is the vestibule or ante-room, and is
+entered by a low doorway screened by a heavy mat of reeds.  It contains
+the large wooden mortar and pestle with two ends, used for pounding
+millet, a wooden receptacle for millet, nets or hunting gear, and some
+bundles of reeds for repairing roof or walls.  This room never contains a
+window.  From it the large room is entered by a doorway, over which a
+heavy reed-mat, bound with hide, invariably hangs.  This room in Benri’s
+case is 35 feet long by 25 feet broad, another is 45 feet square, the
+smallest measures 20 feet by 15.  On entering, one is much impressed by
+the great height and steepness of the roof, altogether out of proportion
+to the height of the walls.
+
+The frame of the house is of posts, 4 feet 10 inches high, placed 4 feet
+apart, and sloping slightly inwards.  The height of the walls is
+apparently regulated by that of the reeds, of which only one length is
+used, and which never exceed 4 feet 10 inches.  The posts are scooped at
+the top, and heavy poles, resting on the scoops, are laid along them to
+form the top of the wall.  The posts are again connected twice by
+slighter poles tied on horizontally.  The wall is double; the outer part
+being formed of reeds tied very neatly to the framework in small, regular
+bundles, the inner layer or wall being made of reeds attached singly.
+From the top of the pole, which is secured to the top of the posts, the
+framework of the roof rises to a height of twenty-two feet, made, like
+the rest, of poles tied to a heavy and roughly-hewn ridge-beam.  At one
+end under the ridge-beam there is a large triangular aperture for the
+exit of smoke.  Two very stout, roughly-hewn beams cross the width of the
+house, resting on the posts of the wall, and on props let into the floor,
+and a number of poles are laid at the same height, by means of which a
+secondary roof formed of mats can be at once extemporised, but this is
+only used for guests.  These poles answer the same purpose as shelves.
+Very great care is bestowed upon the outside of the roof, which is a
+marvel of neatness and prettiness, and has the appearance of a series of
+frills being thatched in ridges.  The ridge-pole is very thickly covered,
+and the thatch both there and at the corners is elaborately laced with a
+pattern in strong peeled twigs.  The poles, which, for much of the room,
+run from wall to wall, compel one to stoop, to avoid fracturing one’s
+skull, and bringing down spears, bows and arrows, arrow-traps, and other
+primitive property.  The roof and rafters are black and shiny from wood
+smoke.  Immediately under them, at one end and one side, are small,
+square windows, which are closed at night by wooden shutters, which
+during the day-time hang by ropes.  Nothing is a greater insult to an
+Aino than to look in at his window.
+
+On the left of the doorway is invariably a fixed wooden platform,
+eighteen inches high, and covered with a single mat, which is the
+sleeping-place.  The pillows are small stiff bolsters, covered with
+ornamental matting.  If the family be large there are several of these
+sleeping platforms.  A pole runs horizontally at a fitting distance above
+the outside edge of each, over which mats are thrown to conceal the
+sleepers from the rest of the room.  The inside half of these mats is
+plain, but the outside, which is seen from the room, has a diamond
+pattern woven into it in dull reds and browns.  The whole floor is
+covered with a very coarse reed-mat, with interstices half an inch wide.
+The fireplace, which is six feet long, is oblong.  Above it, on a very
+black and elaborate framework, hangs a very black and shiny mat, whose
+superfluous soot forms the basis of the stain used in tattooing, and
+whose apparent purpose is to prevent the smoke ascending, and to diffuse
+it equally throughout the room.  From this framework depends the great
+cooking-pot, which plays a most important part in Aino economy.
+
+Household gods form an essential part of the furnishing of every house.
+In this one, at the left of the entrance, there are ten white wands, with
+shavings depending from the upper end, stuck in the wall; another
+projects from the window which faces the sunrise, and the great god—a
+white post, two feet high, with spirals of shavings depending from the
+top—is always planted in the floor, near the wall, on the left side,
+opposite the fire, between the platform bed of the householder and the
+low, broad shelf placed invariably on the same side, and which is a
+singular feature of all Aino houses, coast and mountain, down to the
+poorest, containing, as it does, Japanese curios, many of them very
+valuable objects of antique art, though much destroyed by damp and dust.
+They are true curiosities in the dwellings of these northern aborigines,
+and look almost solemn ranged against the wall.  In this house there are
+twenty-four lacquered urns, or tea-chests, or seats, each standing two
+feet high on four small legs, shod with engraved or filigree brass.
+Behind these are eight lacquered tubs, and a number of bowls and lacquer
+trays, and above are spears with inlaid handles, and fine Kaga and Awata
+bowls.  The lacquer is good, and several of the urns have _daimiyô’s_
+crests in gold upon them.  One urn and a large covered bowl are
+beautifully inlaid with Venus’ ear.  The great urns are to be seen in
+every house, and in addition there are suits of inlaid armour, and swords
+with inlaid hilts, engraved blades, and _répoussé_ scabbards, for which a
+collector would give almost anything.  No offers, however liberal, can
+tempt them to sell any of these antique possessions.  “They were
+presents,” they say in their low, musical voices; “they were presents
+from those who were kind to our fathers; no, we cannot sell them; they
+were presents.”  And so gold lacquer, and pearl inlaying, and gold
+niello-work, and _daimiyô’s_ crests in gold, continue to gleam in the
+smoky darkness of their huts.  Some of these things were doubtless gifts
+to their fathers when they went to pay tribute to the representative of
+the Shôgun and the Prince of Matsumæ, soon after the conquest of Yezo.
+Others were probably gifts from _samurai_, who took refuge here during
+the rebellion, and some must have been obtained by barter.  They are the
+one possession which they will not barter for _saké_, and are only parted
+with in payment of fines at the command of a chief, or as the dower of a
+girl.
+
+[Picture: Aino Gods]
+
+Except in the poorest houses, where the people can only afford to lay
+down a mat for a guest, they cover the coarse mat with fine ones on each
+side of the fire.  These mats and the bark-cloth are really their only
+manufactures.  They are made of fine reeds, with a pattern in dull reds
+or browns, and are 14 feet long by 3 feet 6 inches wide.  It takes a
+woman eight days to make one of them.  In every house there are one or
+two movable platforms 6 feet by 4 and 14 inches high, which are placed at
+the head of the fireplace, and on which guests sit and sleep on a
+bearskin or a fine mat.  In many houses there are broad seats a few
+inches high, on which the elder men sit cross-legged, as their custom is,
+not squatting Japanese fashion on the heels.  A water-tub always rests on
+a stand by the door, and the dried fish and venison or bear for daily use
+hang from the rafters, as well as a few skins.  Besides these things
+there are a few absolute necessaries,—lacquer or wooden bowls for food
+and _saké_, a chopping-board and rude chopping-knife, a cleft-stick for
+burning strips of birch-bark, a triply-cleft stick for supporting the
+potsherd in which, on rare occasions, they burn a wick with oil, the
+component parts of their rude loom, the bark of which they make their
+clothes, the reeds of which they make their mats,—and the inventory of
+the essentials of their life is nearly complete.  No iron enters into the
+construction of their houses, its place being supplied by a remarkably
+tenacious fibre.
+
+                     [Picture: Plan of an Aino House]
+
+I have before described the preparation of their food, which usually
+consists of a stew “of abominable things.”  They eat salt and fresh fish,
+dried fish, seaweed, slugs, the various vegetables which grow in the
+wilderness of tall weeds which surrounds their villages, wild roots and
+berries, fresh and dried venison and bear; their carnival consisting of
+fresh bear’s flesh and _saké_, seaweed, mushrooms, and anything they can
+get, in fact, which is not poisonous, mixing everything up together.
+They use a wooden spoon for stirring, and eat with chopsticks.  They have
+only two regular meals a day, but eat very heartily.  In addition to the
+eatables just mentioned they have a thick soup made from a putty-like
+clay which is found in one or two of the valleys.  This is boiled with
+the bulb of a wild lily, and, after much of the clay has been allowed to
+settle, the liquid, which is very thick, is poured off.  In the north, a
+valley where this earth is found is called Tsie-toi-nai, literally
+“eat-earth-valley.”
+
+The men spend the autumn, winter, and spring in hunting deer and bears.
+Part of their tribute or taxes is paid in skins, and they subsist on the
+dried meat.  Up to about this time the Ainos have obtained these beasts
+by means of poisoned arrows, arrow-traps, and pitfalls, but the Japanese
+Government has prohibited the use of poison and arrow-traps, and these
+men say that hunting is becoming extremely difficult, as the wild animals
+are driven back farther and farther into the mountains by the sound of
+the guns.  However, they add significantly, “the eyes of the Japanese
+Government are not in every place!”
+
+Their bows are only three feet long, and are made of stout saplings with
+the bark on, and there is no attempt to render them light or shapely at
+the ends.  The wood is singularly inelastic.  The arrows (of which I have
+obtained a number) are very peculiar, and are made in three pieces, the
+point consisting of a sharpened piece of bone with an elongated cavity on
+one side for the reception of the poison.  This point or head is very
+slightly fastened by a lashing of bark to a fusiform piece of bone about
+four inches long, which is in its turn lashed to a shaft about fourteen
+inches long, the other end of which is sometimes equipped with a triple
+feather and sometimes is not.
+
+The poison is placed in the elongated cavity in the head in a very soft
+state, and hardens afterwards.  In some of the arrow-heads fully half a
+teaspoonful of the paste is inserted.  From the nature of the very slight
+lashings which attach the arrow-head to the shaft, it constantly remains
+fixed in the slight wound that it makes, while the shaft falls off.
+
+Pipichari has given me a small quantity of the poisonous paste, and has
+also taken me to see the plant from the root of which it is made, the
+_Aconitum Japonicum_, a monkshood, whose tall spikes of blue flowers are
+brightening the brushwood in all directions.  The root is pounded into a
+pulp, mixed with a reddish earth like an iron ore pulverised, and again
+with animal fat, before being placed in the arrow.  It has been said that
+the poison is prepared for use by being buried in the earth, but Benri
+says that this is needless.  They claim for it that a single wound kills
+a bear in ten minutes, but that the flesh is not rendered unfit for
+eating, though they take the precaution of cutting away a considerable
+quantity of it round the wound.
+
+                       [Picture: Weaver’s Shuttle]
+
+Dr. Eldridge, formerly of Hakodaté, obtained a small quantity of the
+poison, and, after trying some experiments with it, came to the
+conclusion that it is less virulent than other poisons employed for a
+like purpose, as by the natives of Java, the Bushmen, and certain tribes
+of the Amazon and Orinoco.  The Ainos say that if a man is accidentally
+wounded by a poisoned arrow the only cure is immediate excision of the
+part.
+
+I do not wonder that the Government has prohibited arrow-traps, for they
+made locomotion unsafe, and it is still unsafe a little farther north,
+where the hunters are more out of observation than here.  The traps
+consist of a large bow with a poisoned arrow, fixed in such a way that
+when the bear walks over a cord which is attached to it he is
+simultaneously transfixed.  I have seen as many as fifty in one house.
+The simple contrivance for inflicting this silent death is most
+ingenious.
+
+The women are occupied all day, as I have before said.  They look
+cheerful, and even merry when they smile, and are not like the Japanese,
+prematurely old, partly perhaps because their houses are well ventilated,
+and the use of charcoal is unknown.  I do not think that they undergo the
+unmitigated drudgery which falls to the lot of most savage women, though
+they work hard.  The men do not like them to speak to strangers, however,
+and say that their place is to work and rear children.  They eat of the
+same food, and at the same time as the men, laugh and talk before them,
+and receive equal support and respect in old age.  They sell mats and
+bark-cloth in the piece, and made up, when they can, and their husbands
+do not take their earnings from them.  All Aino women understand the
+making of bark-cloth.  The men bring in the bark in strips, five feet
+long, having removed the outer coating.  This inner bark is easily
+separated into several thin layers, which are split into very narrow
+strips by the older women, very neatly knotted, and wound into balls
+weighing about a pound each.  No preparation of either the bark or the
+thread is required to fit it for weaving, but I observe that some of the
+women steep it in a decoction of a bark which produces a brown dye to
+deepen the buff tint.
+
+The loom is so simple that I almost fear to represent it as complicated
+by description.  It consists of a stout hook fixed in the floor, to which
+the threads of the far end of the web are secured, a cord fastening the
+near end to the waist of the worker, who supplies, by dexterous rigidity,
+the necessary tension; a frame like a comb resting on the ankles, through
+which the threads pass, a hollow roll for keeping the upper and under
+threads separate, a spatula-shaped shuttle of engraved wood, and a roller
+on which the cloth is rolled as it is made.  The length of the web is
+fifteen feet, and the width of the cloth fifteen inches.  It is woven
+with great regularity, and the knots in the thread are carefully kept on
+the under side. {271}  It is a very slow and fatiguing process, and a
+woman cannot do much more than a foot a day.  The weaver sits on the
+floor with the whole arrangement attached to her waist, and the loom, if
+such it may be called, on her ankles.  It takes long practice before she
+can supply the necessary tension by spinal rigidity.  As the work
+proceeds she drags herself almost imperceptibly nearer the hook.  In this
+house and other large ones two or three women bring in their webs in the
+morning, fix their hooks, and weave all day, while others, who have not
+equal advantages, put their hooks in the ground and weave in the
+sunshine.  The web and loom can be bundled up in two minutes, and carried
+away quite as easily as a knitted soft blanket.  It is the simplest and
+perhaps the most primitive form of hand-loom, and comb, shuttle, and
+roll, are all easily fashioned with an ordinary knife.
+
+                        [Picture: A Hiogo Buddha]
+
+
+
+
+LETTER XXXVII.—(_Continued_.)
+
+
+A Simple Nature-Worship—Aino Gods—A Festival Song—Religious
+Intoxication—Bear-Worship—The Annual Saturnalia—The Future State—Marriage
+and Divorce—Musical Instruments—Etiquette—The Chieftainship—Death and
+Burial—Old Age—Moral Qualities.
+
+THERE cannot be anything more vague and destitute of cohesion than Aino
+religious notions.  With the exception of the hill shrines of Japanese
+construction dedicated to Yoshitsuné, they have no temples, and they have
+neither priests, sacrifices, nor worship.  Apparently through all
+traditional time their _cultus_ has been the rudest and most primitive
+form of nature-worship, the attaching of a vague sacredness to trees,
+rivers, rocks, and mountains, and of vague notions of power for good or
+evil to the sea, the forest, the fire, and the sun and moon.  I cannot
+make out that they possess a trace of the deification of ancestors,
+though their rude nature worship may well have been the primitive form of
+Japanese Shintô.  The solitary exception to their adoration of animate
+and inanimate nature appears to be the reverence paid to Yoshitsuné, to
+whom they believe they are greatly indebted, and who, it is supposed by
+some, will yet interfere on their behalf. {273}  Their gods—that is, the
+outward symbols of their religion, corresponding most likely with the
+Shintô _gohei_—are wands and posts of peeled wood, whittled nearly to the
+top, from which the pendent shavings fall down in white curls.  These are
+not only set up in their houses, sometimes to the number of twenty, but
+on precipices, banks of rivers and streams, and mountain-passes, and such
+wands are thrown into the rivers as the boatmen descend rapids and
+dangerous places.  Since my baggage horse fell over an acclivity on the
+trail from Sarufuto, four such wands have been placed there.  It is
+nonsense to write of the religious ideas of a people who have none, and
+of beliefs among people who are merely adult children.  The traveller who
+formulates an Aino creed must “evolve it from his inner consciousness.”
+I have taken infinite trouble to learn from themselves what their
+religious notions are, and Shinondi tells me that they have told me all
+they know, and the whole sum is a few vague fears and hopes, and a
+suspicion that there are things outside themselves more powerful than
+themselves, whose good influences may be obtained, or whose evil
+influences may be averted, by libations of _saké_.
+
+The word worship is in itself misleading.  When I use it of these savages
+it simply means libations of _saké_, waving bowls and waving hands,
+without any spiritual act of deprecation or supplication.  In such a
+sense and such alone they worship the sun and moon (but not the stars),
+the forest, and the sea.  The wolf, the black snake, the owl, and several
+other beasts and birds have the word _kamoi_, god, attached to them, as
+the wolf is the “howling god,” the owl “the bird of the gods,” a black
+snake the “raven god;” but none of these things are now “worshipped,”
+wolf-worship having quite lately died out.  Thunder, “the voice of the
+gods,” inspires some fear.  The sun, they say, is their best god, and the
+fire their next best, obviously the divinities from whom their greatest
+benefits are received.  Some idea of gratitude pervades their rude
+notions, as in the case of the “worship” paid to Yoshitsuné, and it
+appears in one of the rude recitations chanted at the Saturnalia which in
+several places conclude the hunting and fishing seasons:—
+
+“To the sea which nourishes us, to the forest which protects us, we
+present our grateful thanks.  You are two mothers that nourish the same
+child; do not be angry if we leave one to go to the other.
+
+“The Ainos will always be the pride of the forest and of the sea.”
+
+The solitary act of sacrifice which they perform is the placing of a
+worthless, dead bird, something like a sparrow, near one of their peeled
+wands, where it is left till it reaches an advanced stage of
+putrefaction.  “To drink for the god” is the chief act of “worship,” and
+thus drunkenness and religion are inseparably connected, as the more
+_saké_ the Ainos drink the more devout they are, and the better pleased
+are the gods.  It does not appear that anything but _saké_ is of
+sufficient value to please the gods.  The libations to the fire and the
+peeled post are never omitted, and are always accompanied by the inward
+waving of the _saké_ bowls.
+
+The peculiarity which distinguishes this rude mythology is the “worship”
+of the bear, the Yezo bear being one of the finest of his species; but it
+is impossible to understand the feelings by which it is prompted, for
+they worship it after their fashion, and set up its head in their
+villages, yet they trap it, kill it, eat it, and sell its skin.  There is
+no doubt that this wild beast inspires more of the feeling which prompts
+worship than the inanimate forces of nature, and the Ainos may be
+distinguished as bear-worshippers, and their greatest religious festival
+or Saturnalia as the Festival of the Bear.  Gentle and peaceable as they
+are, they have a great admiration for fierceness and courage; and the
+bear, which is the strongest, fiercest, and most courageous animal known
+to them, has probably in all ages inspired them with veneration.  Some of
+their rude chants are in praise of the bear, and their highest eulogy on
+a man is to compare him to a bear.  Thus Shinondi said of Benri, the
+chief, “He is as strong as a bear,” and the old Fate praising Pipichari
+called him “The young bear.”
+
+In all Aino villages, specially near the chief’s house, there are several
+tall poles with the fleshless skull of a bear on the top of each, and in
+most there is also a large cage, made grid-iron fashion, of stout
+timbers, and raised two or three feet from the ground.  At the present
+time such cages contain young but well-grown bears, captured when quite
+small in the early spring.  After the capture the bear cub is introduced
+into a dwelling-house, generally that of the chief, or sub-chief, where
+it is suckled by a woman, and played with by the children, till it grows
+too big and rough for domestic ways, and is placed in a strong cage, in
+which it is fed and cared for, as I understand, till the autumn of the
+following year, when, being strong and well-grown, the Festival of the
+Bear is celebrated.  The customs of this festival vary considerably, and
+the manner of the bear’s death differs among the mountain and coast
+Ainos, but everywhere there is a general gathering of the people, and it
+is the occasion of a great feast, accompanied with much _saké_ and a
+curious dance, in which men alone take part.
+
+Yells and shouts are used to excite the bear, and when he becomes much
+agitated a chief shoots him with an arrow, inflicting a slight wound
+which maddens him, on which the bars of the cage are raised, and he
+springs forth, very furious.  At this stage the Ainos run upon him with
+various weapons, each one striving to inflict a wound, as it brings good
+luck to draw his blood.  As soon as he falls down exhausted, his head is
+cut off, and the weapons with which he has been wounded are offered to
+it, and he is asked to avenge himself upon them.  Afterwards the carcass,
+amidst a frenzied uproar, is distributed among the people, and amidst
+feasting and riot the head, placed upon a pole, is worshipped, i.e. it
+receives libations of _saké_, and the festival closes with general
+intoxication.  In some villages it is customary for the foster-mother of
+the bear to utter piercing wails while he is delivered to his murderers,
+and after he is slain to beat each one of them with a branch of a tree.
+[Afterwards at Usu, on Volcano Bay, the old men told me that at their
+festival they despatch the bear after a different manner.  On letting it
+loose from the cage two men seize it by the ears, and others
+simultaneously place a long, stout pole across the nape of its neck, upon
+which a number of Ainos mount, and after a prolonged struggle the neck is
+broken.  As the bear is seen to approach his end, they shout in chorus,
+“We kill you, O bear! come back soon into an Aino.”]  When a bear is
+trapped or wounded by an arrow, the hunters go through an apologetic or
+propitiatory ceremony.  They appear to have certain rude ideas of
+metempsychosis, as is evidenced by the Usu prayer to the bear and certain
+rude traditions; but whether these are indigenous, or have arisen by
+contact with Buddhism at a later period, it is impossible to say.
+
+They have no definite ideas concerning a future state, and the subject is
+evidently not a pleasing one to them.  Such notions as they have are few
+and confused.  Some think that the spirits of their friends go into
+wolves and snakes; others, that they wander about the forests; and they
+are much afraid of ghosts.  A few think that they go to “a good or bad
+place,” according to their deeds; but Shinondi said, and there was an
+infinite pathos in his words, “How can we know?  No one ever came back to
+tell us!”  On asking him what were bad deeds, he said, “Being bad to
+parents, stealing, and telling lies.”  The future, however, does not
+occupy any place in their thoughts, and they can hardly be said to
+believe in the immortality of the soul, though their fear of ghosts shows
+that they recognise a distinction between body and spirit.
+
+Their social customs are very simple.  Girls never marry before the age
+of seventeen, or men before twenty-one.  When a man wishes to marry he
+thinks of some particular girl, and asks the chief if he may ask for her.
+If leave is given, either through a “go-between” or personally, he asks
+her father for her, and if he consents the bridegroom gives him a
+present, usually a Japanese “curio.”  This constitutes betrothal, and the
+marriage, which immediately follows, is celebrated by carousals and the
+drinking of much _saké_.  The bride receives as her dowry her earrings
+and a highly ornamented _kimono_.  It is an essential that the husband
+provides a house to which to take his wife.  Each couple lives
+separately, and even the eldest son does not take his bride to his
+father’s house.  Polygamy is only allowed in two cases.  The chief may
+have three wives; but each must have her separate house.  Benri has two
+wives; but it appears that he took the second because the first was
+childless.  [The Usu Ainos told me that among the tribes of Volcano Bay
+polygamy is not practised, even by the chiefs.]  It is also permitted in
+the case of a childless wife; but there is no instance of it in Biratori,
+and the men say that they prefer to have one wife, as two quarrel.
+
+Widows are allowed to marry again with the chief’s consent; but among
+these mountain Ainos a woman must remain absolutely secluded within the
+house of her late husband for a period varying from six to twelve months,
+only going to the door at intervals to throw _saké_ to the right and
+left.  A man secludes himself similarly for thirty days.  [So greatly do
+the customs vary, that round Volcano Bay I found that the period of
+seclusion for a widow is only thirty days, and for a man twenty-five; but
+that after a father’s death the house in which he has lived is burned
+down after the thirty days of seclusion, and the widow and her children
+go to a friend’s house for three years, after which the house is rebuilt
+on its former site.]
+
+If a man does not like his wife, by obtaining the chief’s consent he can
+divorce her; but he must send her back to her parents with plenty of good
+clothes; but divorce is impracticable where there are children, and is
+rarely if ever practised.  Conjugal fidelity is a virtue among Aino
+women; but “custom” provides that, in case of unfaithfulness, the injured
+husband may bestow his wife upon her paramour, if he be an unmarried man;
+in which case the chief fixes the amount of damages which the paramour
+must pay; and these are usually valuable Japanese curios.
+
+The old and blind people are entirely supported by their children, and
+receive until their dying day filial reverence and obedience.
+
+If one man steals from another he must return what he has taken, and give
+the injured man a present besides, the value of which is fixed by the
+chief.
+
+Their mode of living you already know, as I have shared it, and am still
+receiving their hospitality.  “Custom” enjoins the exercise of
+hospitality on every Aino.  They receive all strangers as they received
+me, giving them of their best, placing them in the most honourable place,
+bestowing gifts upon them, and, when they depart, furnishing them with
+cakes of boiled millet.
+
+They have few amusements, except certain feasts.  Their dance, which they
+have just given in my honour, is slow and mournful, and their songs are
+chants or recitative.  They have a musical instrument, something like a
+guitar, with three, five, or six strings, which are made from sinews of
+whales cast up on the shore.  They have another, which is believed to be
+peculiar to themselves, consisting of a thin piece of wood, about five
+inches long and two and a half inches broad, with a pointed wooden
+tongue, about two lines in breadth and sixteen in length, fixed in the
+middle, and grooved on three sides.  The wood is held before the mouth,
+and the tongue is set in motion by the vibration of the breath in
+singing.  Its sound, though less penetrating, is as discordant as that of
+a Jew’s harp, which it somewhat resembles.  One of the men used it as an
+accompaniment of a song; but they are unwilling to part with them, as
+they say that it is very seldom that they can find a piece of wood which
+will bear the fine splitting necessary for the tongue.
+
+They are a most courteous people among each other.  The salutations are
+frequent—on entering a house, on leaving it, on meeting on the road, on
+receiving anything from the hand of another, and on receiving a kind or
+complimentary speech.  They do not make any acknowledgments of this kind
+to the women, however.  The common salutation consists in extending the
+hands and waving them inwards, once or oftener, and stroking the beard;
+the formal one in raising the hands with an inward curve to the level of
+the head two or three times, lowering them, and rubbing them together;
+the ceremony concluding with stroking the beard several times.  The
+latter and more formal mode of salutation is offered to the chief, and by
+the young to the old men.  The women have no “manners!”
+
+They have no “medicine men,” and, though they are aware of the existence
+of healing herbs, they do not know their special virtues or the manner of
+using them.  Dried and pounded bear’s liver is their specific, and they
+place much reliance on it in colic and other pains.  They are a healthy
+race.  In this village of 300 souls, there are no chronically ailing
+people; nothing but one case of bronchitis, and some cutaneous maladies
+among children.  Neither is there any case of deformity in this and five
+other large villages which I have visited, except that of a girl, who has
+one leg slightly shorter than the other.
+
+They ferment a kind of intoxicating liquor from the root of a tree, and
+also from their own millet and Japanese rice, but Japanese _saké_ is the
+one thing that they care about.  They spend all their gains upon it, and
+drink it in enormous quantities.  It represents to them all the good of
+which they know, or can conceive.  Beastly intoxication is the highest
+happiness to which these poor savages aspire, and the condition is
+sanctified to them under the fiction of “drinking to the gods.”  Men and
+women alike indulge in this vice.  A few, however, like Pipichari,
+abstain from it totally, taking the bowl in their hands, making the
+libations to the gods, and then passing it on.  I asked Pipichari why he
+did not take _saké_, and he replied with a truthful terseness, “Because
+it makes men like dogs.”
+
+Except the chief, who has two horses, they have no domestic animals
+except very large, yellow dogs, which are used in hunting, but are never
+admitted within the houses.
+
+The habits of the people, though by no means destitute of decency and
+propriety, are not cleanly.  The women bathe their hands once a day, but
+any other washing is unknown.  They never wash their clothes, and wear
+the same by day and night.  I am afraid to speculate on the condition of
+their wealth of coal-black hair.  They may be said to be very dirty—as
+dirty fully as masses of our people at home.  Their houses swarm with
+fleas, but they are not worse in this respect than the Japanese
+_yadoyas_.  The mountain villages have, however, the appearance of
+extreme cleanliness, being devoid of litter, heaps, puddles, and
+untidiness of all kinds, and there are no unpleasant odours inside or
+outside the houses, as they are well ventilated and smoked, and the salt
+fish and meat are kept in the godowns.  The hair and beards of the old
+men, instead of being snowy as they ought to be, are yellow from smoke
+and dirt.
+
+They have no mode of computing time, and do not know their own ages.  To
+them the past is dead, yet, like other conquered and despised races, they
+cling to the idea that in some far-off age they were a great nation.
+They have no traditions of internecine strife, and the art of war seems
+to have been lost long ago.  I asked Benri about this matter, and he says
+that formerly Ainos fought with spears and knives as well as with bows
+and arrows, but that Yoshitsuné, their hero god, forbade war for ever,
+and since then the two-edged spear, with a shaft nine feet long, has only
+been used in hunting bears.
+
+The Japanese Government, of course, exercises the same authority over the
+Ainos as over its other subjects, but probably it does not care to
+interfere in domestic or tribal matters, and within this outside limit
+despotic authority is vested in the chiefs.  The Ainos live in village
+communities, and each community has its own chief, who is its lord
+paramount.  It appears to me that this chieftainship is but an expansion
+of the paternal relation, and that all the village families are ruled as
+a unit.  Benri, in whose house I am, is the chief of Biratori, and is
+treated by all with very great deference of manner.  The office is
+nominally for life; but if a chief becomes blind, or too infirm to go
+about, he appoints a successor.  If he has a “smart” son, who he thinks
+will command the respect of the people, he appoints him; but if not, he
+chooses the most suitable man in the village.  The people are called upon
+to approve the choice, but their ratification is never refused.  The
+office is not hereditary anywhere.
+
+Benri appears to exercise the authority of a very strict father.  His
+manner to all the men is like that of a master to slaves, and they bow
+when they speak to him.  No one can marry without his approval.  If any
+one builds a house he chooses the site.  He has absolute jurisdiction in
+civil and criminal cases, unless (which is very rare) the latter should
+be of sufficient magnitude to be reported to the Imperial officials.  He
+compels restitution of stolen property, and in all cases fixes the fines
+which are to be paid by delinquents.  He also fixes the hunting
+arrangements and the festivals.  The younger men were obviously much
+afraid of incurring his anger in his absence.
+
+An eldest son does not appear to be, as among the Japanese, a privileged
+person.  He does not necessarily inherit the house and curios.  The
+latter are not divided, but go with the house to the son whom the father
+regards as being the “smartest.”  Formal adoption is practised.
+Pipichari is an adopted son, and is likely to succeed to Benri’s property
+to the exclusion of his own children.  I cannot get at the word which is
+translated “smartness,” but I understand it as meaning general capacity.
+The chief, as I have mentioned before, is allowed three wives among the
+mountain Ainos, otherwise authority seems to be his only privilege.
+
+The Ainos have a singular dread of snakes.  Even their bravest fly from
+them.  One man says that it is because they know of no cure for their
+bite; but there is something more than this, for they flee from snakes
+which they know to be harmless.
+
+They have an equal dread of their dead.  Death seems to them very
+specially “the shadow fear’d of man.”  When it comes, which it usually
+does from bronchitis in old age, the corpse is dressed in its best
+clothing, and laid upon a shelf for from one to three days.  In the case
+of a woman her ornaments are buried with her, and in that of a man his
+knife and _saké_-stick, and, if he were a smoker, his smoking apparatus.
+The corpse is sewn up with these things in a mat, and, being slung on
+poles, is carried to a solitary grave, where it is laid in a recumbent
+position.  Nothing will induce an Aino to go near a grave.  Even if a
+valuable bird or animal falls near one, he will not go to pick it up.  A
+vague dread is for ever associated with the departed, and no dream of
+Paradise ever lights for the Aino the “Stygian shades.”
+
+Benri is, for an Aino, intelligent.  Two years ago Mr. Dening of Hakodaté
+came up here and told him that there was but one God who made us all, to
+which the shrewd old man replied, “If the God who made you made us, how
+is it that you are so different—you so rich, we so poor?”  On asking him
+about the magnificent pieces of lacquer and inlaying which adorn his
+curio shelf, he said that they were his father’s, grandfather’s, and
+great-grandfather’s at least, and he thinks they were gifts from the
+_daimiyô_ of Matsumae soon after the conquest of Yezo.  He is a
+grand-looking man, in spite of the havoc wrought by his intemperate
+habits.  There is plenty of room in the house, and this morning, when I
+asked him to show me the use of the spear, he looked a truly magnificent
+savage, stepping well back with the spear in rest, and then springing
+forward for the attack, his arms and legs turning into iron, the big
+muscles standing out in knots, his frame quivering with excitement, the
+thick hair falling back in masses from his brow, and the fire of the
+chase in his eye.  I trembled for my boy, who was the object of the
+imaginary onslaught, the passion of sport was so admirably acted.
+
+As I write, seven of the older men are sitting by the fire.  Their grey
+beards fall to their waists in rippled masses, and the slight baldness of
+age not only gives them a singularly venerable appearance, but enhances
+the beauty of their lofty brows.  I took a rough sketch of one of the
+handsomest, and, showing it to him, asked if he would have it, but
+instead of being amused or pleased he showed symptoms of fear, and asked
+me to burn it, saying it would bring him bad luck and he should die.
+However, Ito pacified him, and he accepted it, after a Chinese character,
+which is understood to mean good luck, had been written upon it; but all
+the others begged me not to “make pictures” of them, except Pipichari,
+who lies at my feet like a staghound.
+
+The profusion of black hair, and a curious intensity about their eyes,
+coupled with the hairy limbs and singularly vigorous physique, give them
+a formidably savage appearance; but the smile, full of “sweetness and
+light,” in which both eyes and mouth bear part, and the low, musical
+voice, softer and sweeter than anything I have previously heard, make me
+at times forget that they are savages at all.  The venerable look of
+these old men harmonises with the singular dignity and courtesy of their
+manners, but as I look at the grand heads, and reflect that the Ainos
+have never shown any capacity, and are merely adult children, they seem
+to suggest water on the brain rather than intellect.  I am more and more
+convinced that the expression of their faces is European.  It is
+truthful, straightforward, manly, but both it and the tone of voice are
+strongly tinged with pathos.
+
+Before these elders Benri asked me, in a severe tone, if I had been
+annoyed in any way during his absence.  He feared, he said, that the
+young men and the women would crowd about me rudely.  I made a
+complimentary speech in return, and all the ancient hands were waved, and
+the venerable beards were stroked in acknowledgment.
+
+These Ainos, doubtless, stand high among uncivilised peoples.  They are,
+however, as completely irreclaimable as the wildest of nomad tribes, and
+contact with civilisation, where it exists, only debases them.  Several
+young Ainos were sent to Tôkiyô, and educated and trained in various
+ways, but as soon as they returned to Yezo they relapsed into savagery,
+retaining nothing but a knowledge of Japanese.  They are charming in many
+ways, but make one sad, too, by their stupidity, apathy, and
+hopelessness, and all the sadder that their numbers appear to be again
+increasing; and as their physique is very fine, there does not appear to
+be a prospect of the race dying out at present.
+
+They are certainly superior to many aborigines, as they have an approach
+to domestic life.  They have one word for _house_, and another for
+_home_, and one word for husband approaches very nearly to house-band.
+Truth is of value in their eyes, and this in itself raises them above
+some peoples.  Infanticide is unknown, and aged parents receive filial
+reverence, kindness, and support, while in their social and domestic
+relations there is much that is praiseworthy.
+
+I must conclude this letter abruptly, as the horses are waiting, and I
+must cross the rivers, if possible, before the bursting of an impending
+storm.
+
+                                                                  I. L. B.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER XXXVIII.
+
+
+A Parting Gift—A Delicacy—Generosity—A Seaside Village—Pipichari’s
+Advice—A Drunken Revel—Ito’s Prophecies—The _Kôchô’s_ Illness—Patent
+Medicines.
+
+                                              SARUFUTO, YEZO, _August_ 27.
+
+I LEFT the Ainos yesterday with real regret, though I must confess that
+sleeping in one’s clothes and the lack of ablutions are very fatiguing.
+Benri’s two wives spent the early morning in the laborious operation of
+grinding millet into coarse flour, and before I departed, as their custom
+is, they made a paste of it, rolled it with their unclean fingers into
+well-shaped cakes, boiled them in the unwashed pot in which they make
+their stew of “abominable things,” and presented them to me on a lacquer
+tray.  They were distressed that I did not eat their food, and a woman
+went to a village at some distance and brought me some venison fat as a
+delicacy.  All those of whom I had seen much came to wish me good-bye,
+and they brought so many presents (including a fine bearskin) that I
+should have needed an additional horse to carry them had I accepted but
+one-half.
+
+I rode twelve miles through the forest to Mombets, where I intended to
+spend Sunday, but I had the worst horse I ever rode, and we took five
+hours.  The day was dull and sad, threatening a storm, and when we got
+out of the forest, upon a sand-hill covered with oak scrub, we
+encountered a most furious wind.  Among the many views which I have seen,
+that is one to be remembered.  Below lay a bleached and bare sand-hill,
+with a few grey houses huddled in its miserable shelter, and a heaped-up
+shore of grey sand, on which a brown-grey sea was breaking with clash and
+boom in long, white, ragged lines, with all beyond a confusion of surf,
+surge, and mist, with driving brown clouds mingling sea and sky, and all
+between showing only in glimpses amidst scuds of sand.
+
+At a house in the scrub a number of men were drinking _saké_ with much
+uproar, and a superb-looking Aino came out, staggered a few yards, and
+then fell backwards among the weeds, a picture of debasement.  I forgot
+to tell you that before I left Biratori, I inveighed to the assembled
+Ainos against the practice and consequences of _saké_-drinking, and was
+met with the reply, “We must drink to the gods, or we shall die;” but
+Pipichari said, “You say that which is good; let us give _saké_ to the
+gods, but not drink it,” for which bold speech he was severely rebuked by
+Benri.
+
+Mombets is a stormily-situated and most wretched cluster of twenty-seven
+decayed houses, some of them Aino, and some Japanese.  The fish-oil and
+seaweed fishing trades are in brisk operation there now for a short time,
+and a number of Aino and Japanese strangers are employed.  The boats
+could not get out because of the surf, and there was a drunken debauch.
+The whole place smelt of _saké_.  Tipsy men were staggering about and
+falling flat on their backs, to lie there like dogs till they were
+sober,—Aino women were vainly endeavouring to drag their drunken lords
+home, and men of both races were reduced to a beastly equality.  I went
+to the _yadoya_ where I intended to spend Sunday, but, besides being very
+dirty and forlorn, it was the very centre of the _saké_ traffic, and in
+its open space there were men in all stages of riotous and stupid
+intoxication.  It was a sad scene, yet one to be matched in a hundred
+places in Scotland every Saturday afternoon.  I am told by the _Kôchô_
+here that an Aino can drink four or five times as much as a Japanese
+without being tipsy, so for each tipsy Aino there had been an outlay of
+6s. or 7s., for _saké_ is 8d. a cup here!
+
+I had some tea and eggs in the _daidokoro_, and altered my plans
+altogether on finding that if I proceeded farther round the east coast,
+as I intended, I should run the risk of several days’ detention on the
+banks of numerous “bad rivers” if rain came on, by which I should run the
+risk of breaking my promise to deliver Ito to Mr. Maries by a given day.
+I do not surrender this project, however, without an equivalent, for I
+intend to add 100 miles to my journey, by taking an almost disused track
+round Volcano Bay, and visiting the coast Ainos of a very primitive
+region.  Ito is very much opposed to this, thinking that he has made a
+sufficient sacrifice of personal comfort at Biratori, and plies me with
+stories, such as that there are “many bad rivers to cross,” that the
+track is so worn as to be impassable, that there are no _yadoyas_, and
+that at the Government offices we shall neither get rice nor eggs!  An
+old man who has turned back unable to get horses is made responsible for
+these stories.  The machinations are very amusing.  Ito was much smitten
+with the daughter of the house-master at Mororan, and left some things in
+her keeping, and the desire to see her again is at the bottom of his
+opposition to the other route.
+
+_Monday_.—The horse could not or would not carry me farther than Mombets,
+so, sending the baggage on, I walked through the oak wood, and enjoyed
+its silent solitude, in spite of the sad reflections upon the enslavement
+of the Ainos to _saké_.  I spent yesterday quietly in my old quarters,
+with a fearful storm of wind and rain outside.  Pipichari appeared at
+noon, nominally to bring news of the sick woman, who is recovering, and
+to have his nearly healed foot bandaged again, but really to bring me a
+knife sheath which he has carved for me.  He lay on the mat in the corner
+of my room most of the afternoon, and I got a great many more words from
+him.  The house-master, who is the _Kôchô_ of Sarufuto, paid me a
+courteous visit, and in the evening sent to say that he would be very
+glad of some medicine, for he was “very ill and going to have fever.”  He
+had caught a bad cold and sore throat, had bad pains in his limbs, and
+was bemoaning himself ruefully.  To pacify his wife, who was very sorry
+for him, I gave him some “Cockle’s Pills” and the trapper’s remedy of “a
+pint of hot water with a pinch of cayenne pepper,” and left him moaning
+and bundled up under a pile of _futons_, in a nearly hermetically sealed
+room, with a _hibachi_ of charcoal vitiating the air.  This morning when
+I went and inquired after him in a properly concerned tone, his wife told
+me very gleefully that he was quite well and had gone out, and had left
+25 _sen_ for some more of the medicines that I had given him, so with
+great gravity I put up some of Duncan and Flockhart’s most pungent
+cayenne pepper, and showed her how much to use.  She was not content,
+however, without some of the “Cockles,” a single box of which has
+performed six of those “miraculous cures” which rejoice the hearts and
+fill the pockets of patent medicine makers!
+
+                                                                  I. L. B.
+
+                         [Picture: The Rokkukado]
+
+
+
+
+LETTER XXXIX.
+
+
+A Welcome Gift—Recent Changes—Volcanic Phenomena—Interesting Tufa
+Cones—Semi-strangulation—A Fall into a Bear-trap—The Shiraôi
+Ainos—Horsebreaking and Cruelty.
+
+                                           OLD MORORAN, VOLCANO BAY, YEZO,
+                                                            _September_ 2.
+
+AFTER the storm of Sunday, Monday was a grey, still, tender day, and the
+ranges of wooded hills were bathed in the richest indigo colouring.  A
+canter of seventeen miles among the damask roses on a very rough horse
+only took me to Yubets, whose indescribable loneliness fascinated me into
+spending a night there again, and encountering a wild clatter of wind and
+rain; and another canter of seven miles the next morning took me to
+Tomakomai, where I rejoined my _kuruma_, and after a long delay, three
+trotting Ainos took me to Shiraôi, where the “clear shining after rain,”
+and the mountains against a lemon-coloured sky, were extremely beautiful;
+but the Pacific was as unrestful as a guilty thing, and its crash and
+clamour and the severe cold fatigued me so much that I did not pursue my
+journey the next day, and had the pleasure of a flying visit from Mr. Von
+Siebold and Count Diesbach, who bestowed a chicken upon me.
+
+I like Shiraôi very much, and if I were stronger would certainly make it
+a basis for exploring a part of the interior, in which there is much to
+reward the explorer.  Obviously the changes in this part of Yezo have
+been comparatively recent, and the energy of the force which has produced
+them is not yet extinct.  The land has gained from the sea along the
+whole of this part of the coast to the extent of two or three miles, the
+old beach with its bays and headlands being a marked feature of the
+landscape.  This new formation appears to be a vast bed of pumice,
+covered by a thin layer of vegetable mould, which cannot be more than
+fifty years old.  This pumice fell during the eruption of the volcano of
+Tarumai, which is very near Shiraôi, and is also brought down in large
+quantities from the interior hills and valleys by the numerous rivers,
+besides being washed up by the sea.  At the last eruption pumice fell
+over this region of Yezo to a medium depth of 3 feet 6 inches.  In nearly
+all the rivers good sections of the formation may be seen in their
+deeply-cleft banks, broad, light-coloured bands of pumice, with a few
+inches of rich, black, vegetable soil above, and several feet of black
+sea-sand below.  During a freshet which occurred the first night I was at
+Shiraôi, a single stream covered a piece of land with pumice to the depth
+of nine inches, being the wash from the hills of the interior, in a
+course of less than fifteen miles.
+
+Looking inland, the volcano of Tarumai, with a bare grey top and a
+blasted forest on its sides, occupies the right of the picture.  To the
+left and inland are mountains within mountains, tumbled together in most
+picturesque confusion, densely covered with forest and cleft by
+magnificent ravines, here and there opening out into narrow valleys.  The
+whole of the interior is jungle penetrable for a few miles by shallow and
+rapid rivers, and by nearly smothered trails made by the Ainos in search
+of game.  The general lie of the country made me very anxious to find out
+whether a much-broken ridge lying among the mountains is or is not a
+series of tufa cones of ancient date; and, applying for a good horse and
+Aino guide on horseback, I left Ito to amuse himself, and spent much of a
+most splendid day in investigations and in attempting to get round the
+back of the volcano and up its inland side.  There is a great deal to see
+and learn there.  Oh that I had strength!  After hours of most tedious
+and exhausting work I reached a point where there were several great
+fissures emitting smoke and steam, with occasional subterranean
+detonations.  These were on the side of a small, flank crack which was
+smoking heavily.  There was light pumice everywhere, but nothing like
+recent lava or scoriæ.  One fissure was completely lined with exquisite,
+acicular crystals of sulphur, which perished with a touch.  Lower down
+there were two hot springs with a deposit of sulphur round their margins,
+and bubbles of gas, which, from its strong, garlicky smell, I suppose to
+be sulphuretted hydrogen.  Farther progress in that direction was
+impossible without a force of pioneers.  I put my arm down several deep
+crevices which were at an altitude of only about 500 feet, and had to
+withdraw it at once, owing to the great heat, in which some beautiful
+specimens of tropical ferns were growing.  At the same height I came to a
+hot spring—hot enough to burst one of my thermometers, which was
+graduated above the boiling point of Fahrenheit; and tying up an egg in a
+pocket-handkerchief and holding it by a stick in the water, it was hard
+boiled in 8½ minutes.  The water evaporated without leaving a trace of
+deposit on the handkerchief, and there was no crust round its margin.  It
+boiled and bubbled with great force.
+
+Three hours more of exhausting toil, which almost knocked up the horses,
+brought us to the apparent ridge, and I was delighted to find that it
+consisted of a lateral range of tufa cones, which I estimate as being
+from 200 to 350, or even 400 feet high.  They are densely covered with
+trees of considerable age, and a rich deposit of mould; but their conical
+form is still admirably defined.  An hour of very severe work, and
+energetic use of the knife on the part of the Aino, took me to the top of
+one of these through a mass of entangled and gigantic vegetation, and I
+was amply repaid by finding a deep, well-defined crateriform cavity of
+great depth, with its sides richly clothed with vegetation, closely
+resembling some of the old cones in the island of Kauai.  This cone is
+partially girdled by a stream, which in one place has cut through a bank
+of both red and black volcanic ash.  All the usual phenomena of volcanic
+regions are probably to be met with north of Shiraôi, and I hope they
+will at some future time be made the object of careful investigation.
+
+In spite of the desperate and almost overwhelming fatigue, I have enjoyed
+few things more than that “exploring expedition.”  If the Japanese have
+no one to talk to they croon hideous discords to themselves, and it was a
+relief to leave Ito behind and get away with an Aino, who was at once
+silent, trustworthy, and faithful.  Two bright rivers bubbling over beds
+of red pebbles run down to Shiraôi out of the back country, and my
+directions, which were translated to the Aino, were to follow up one of
+these and go into the mountains in the direction of one I pointed out
+till I said “Shiraôi.”  It was one of those exquisite mornings which are
+seen sometimes in the Scotch Highlands before rain, with intense
+clearness and visibility, a blue atmosphere, a cloudless sky, blue
+summits, heavy dew, and glorious sunshine, and under these circumstances
+scenery beautiful in itself became entrancing.
+
+The trailers are so formidable that we had to stoop over our horses’
+necks at all times, and with pushing back branches and guarding my face
+from slaps and scratches, my thick dogskin gloves were literally frayed
+off, and some of the skin of my hands and face in addition, so that I
+returned with both bleeding and swelled.  It was on the return ride,
+fortunately, that in stooping to escape one great liana the loop of
+another grazed my nose, and, being unable to check my unbroken horse
+instantaneously, the loop caught me by the throat, nearly strangled me,
+and in less time than it takes to tell it I was drawn over the back of
+the saddle, and found myself lying on the ground, jammed between a tree
+and the hind leg of the horse, which was quietly feeding.  The Aino,
+whose face was very badly scratched, missing me, came back, said never a
+word, helped me up, brought me some water in a leaf, brought my hat, and
+we rode on again.  I was little the worse for the fall, but on borrowing
+a looking-glass I see not only scratches and abrasions all over my face,
+but a livid mark round my throat as if I had been hung!  The Aino left
+portions of his bushy locks on many of the branches.  You would have been
+amused to see me in this forest, preceded by this hairy and
+formidable-looking savage, who was dressed in a coat of skins with the
+fur outside, seated on the top of a pack-saddle covered with a deer hide,
+and with his hairy legs crossed over the horse’s neck—a fashion in which
+the Ainos ride any horses over any ground with the utmost serenity.
+
+It was a wonderful region for beauty.  I have not seen so beautiful a
+view in Japan as from the river-bed from which I had the first near view
+of the grand assemblage of tufa cones, covered with an ancient
+vegetation, backed by high mountains of volcanic origin, on whose ragged
+crests the red ash was blazing vermilion against the blue sky, with a
+foreground of bright waters flashing through a primeval forest.  The
+banks of these streams were deeply excavated by the heavy rains, and
+sometimes we had to jump three and even four feet out of the forest into
+the river, and as much up again, fording the Shiraôi river only more than
+twenty times, and often making a pathway of its treacherous bed and
+rushing waters, because the forest was impassable from the great size of
+the prostrate trees.  The horses look at these jumps, hold back, try to
+turn, and then, making up their minds, suddenly plunge down or up.  When
+the last vestige of a trail disappeared, I signed to the Aino to go on,
+and our subsequent “exploration” was all done at the rate of about a mile
+an hour.  On the openings the grass grows stiff and strong to the height
+of eight feet, with its soft reddish plumes waving in the breeze.  The
+Aino first forced his horse through it, but of course it closed again, so
+that constantly when he was close in front I was only aware of his
+proximity by the tinkling of his horse’s bells, for I saw nothing of him
+or of my own horse except the horn of my saddle.  We tumbled into holes
+often, and as easily tumbled out of them; but once we both went down in
+the most unexpected manner into what must have been an old bear-trap,
+both going over our horses’ heads, the horses and ourselves struggling
+together in a narrow space in a mist of grassy plumes, and, being unable
+to communicate with my guide, the sense of the ridiculous situation was
+so overpowering that, even in the midst of the mishap, I was exhausted
+with laughter, though not a little bruised.  It was very hard to get out
+of that pitfall, and I hope I shall never get into one again.  It is not
+the first occasion on which I have been glad that the Yezo horses are
+shoeless.  It was through this long grass that we fought our way to the
+tufa cones, with the red ragged crests against the blue sky.
+
+The scenery was magnificent, and after getting so far I longed to explore
+the sources of the rivers, but besides the many difficulties the day was
+far spent.  I was also too weak for any energetic undertaking, yet I felt
+an intuitive perception of the passion and fascination of exploring, and
+understood how people could give up their lives to it.  I turned away
+from the tufa cones and the glory of the ragged crests very sadly, to
+ride a tired horse through great difficulties; and the animal was so
+thoroughly done up that I had to walk, or rather wade, for the last hour,
+and it was nightfall when I returned, to find that Ito had packed up all
+my things, had been waiting ever since noon to start for Horobets, was
+very grumpy at having to unpack, and thoroughly disgusted when I told him
+that I was so tired and bruised that I should have to remain the next day
+to rest.  He said indignantly, “I never thought that when you’d got the
+_Kaitakushi kuruma_ you’d go off the road into those woods!”  We had seen
+some deer and many pheasants, and a successful hunter brought in a fine
+stag, so that I had venison steak for supper, and was much comforted,
+though Ito seasoned the meal with well-got-up stories of the
+impracticability of the Volcano Bay route.
+
+Shiraôi consists of a large old _Honjin_, or _yadoya_, where the
+_daimiyô_ and his train used to lodge in the old days, and about eleven
+Japanese houses, most of which are _saké_ shops—a fact which supplies an
+explanation of the squalor of the Aino village of fifty-two houses, which
+is on the shore at a respectful distance.  There is no cultivation, in
+which it is like all the fishing villages on this part of the coast, but
+fish-oil and fish-manure are made in immense quantities, and, though it
+is not the season here, the place is pervaded by “an ancient and
+fish-like smell.”
+
+The Aino houses are much smaller, poorer, and dirtier than those of
+Biratori.  I went into a number of them, and conversed with the people,
+many of whom understand Japanese.  Some of the houses looked like dens,
+and, as it was raining, husband, wife, and five or six naked children,
+all as dirty as they could be, with unkempt, elf-like locks, were huddled
+round the fires.  Still, bad as it looked and smelt, the fire was the
+hearth, and the hearth was inviolate, and each smoked and dirt-stained
+group was a family, and it was an advance upon the social life of, for
+instance, Salt Lake City.  The roofs are much flatter than those of the
+mountain Ainos, and, as there are few store-houses, quantities of fish,
+“green” skins, and venison, hang from the rafters, and the smell of these
+and the stinging of the smoke were most trying.  Few of the houses had
+any guest-seats, but in the very poorest, when I asked shelter from the
+rain, they put their best mat upon the ground, and insisted, much to my
+distress, on my walking over it in muddy boots, saying, “It is Aino
+custom.”  Ever, in those squalid homes the broad shelf, with its rows of
+Japanese curios, always has a place.  I mentioned that it is customary
+for a chief to appoint a successor when he becomes infirm, and I came
+upon a case in point, through a mistaken direction, which took us to the
+house of the former chief, with a great empty bear cage at its door.  On
+addressing him as the chief, he said, “I am old and blind, I cannot go
+out, I am of no more good,” and directed us to the house of his
+successor.  Altogether it is obvious, from many evidences in this
+village, that Japanese contiguity is hurtful, and that the Ainos have
+reaped abundantly of the disadvantages without the advantages of contact
+with Japanese civilisation.
+
+That night I saw a specimen of Japanese horse-breaking as practised in
+Yezo.  A Japanese brought into the village street a handsome, spirited
+young horse, equipped with a Japanese _demi-pique_ saddle, and a most
+cruel gag bit.  The man wore very cruel spurs, and was armed with a bit
+of stout board two feet long by six inches broad.  The horse had not been
+mounted before, and was frightened, but not the least vicious.  He was
+spurred into a gallop, and ridden at full speed up and down the street,
+turned by main force, thrown on his haunches, goaded with the spurs, and
+cowed by being mercilessly thrashed over the ears and eyes with the piece
+of board till he was blinded with blood.  Whenever he tried to stop from
+exhaustion he was spurred, jerked, and flogged, till at last, covered
+with sweat, foam, and blood, and with blood running from his mouth and
+splashing the road, he reeled, staggered, and fell, the rider dexterously
+disengaging himself.  As soon as he was able to stand, he was allowed to
+crawl into a shed, where he was kept without food till morning, when a
+child could do anything with him.  He was “broken,” effectually
+spirit-broken, useless for the rest of his life.  It was a brutal and
+brutalising exhibition, as triumphs of brute force always are.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER XXXIX.—(_Continued_.)
+
+
+The Universal Language—The Yezo Corrals—A “Typhoon Rain”—Difficult
+Tracks—An Unenviable Ride—Drying Clothes—A Woman’s Remorse.
+
+THIS morning I left early in the _kuruma_ with two kind and delightful
+savages.  The road being much broken by the rains I had to get out
+frequently, and every time I got in again they put my air-pillow behind
+me, and covered me up in a blanket; and when we got to a rough river, one
+made a step of his back by which I mounted their horse, and gave me
+nooses of rope to hold on by, and the other held my arm to keep me
+steady, and they would not let me walk up or down any of the hills.  What
+a blessing it is that, amidst the confusion of tongues, the language of
+kindness and courtesy is universally understood, and that a kindly smile
+on a savage face is as intelligible as on that of one’s own countryman!
+They had never drawn a _kuruma_, and were as pleased as children when I
+showed them how to balance the shafts.  They were not without the
+capacity to originate ideas, for, when they were tired of the frolic of
+pulling, they attached the _kuruma_ by ropes to the horse, which one of
+them rode at a “scramble,” while the other merely ran in the shafts to
+keep them level.  This is an excellent plan.
+
+Horobets is a fishing station of antique and decayed aspect, with
+eighteen Japanese and forty-seven Aino houses.  The latter are much
+larger than at Shiraôi, and their very steep roofs are beautifully
+constructed.  It was a miserable day, with fog concealing the mountains
+and lying heavily on the sea, but as no one expected rain I sent the
+_kuruma_ back to Mororan and secured horses.  On principle I always go to
+the _corral_ myself to choose animals, if possible, without sore backs,
+but the choice is often between one with a mere raw and others which have
+holes in their backs into which I could put my hand, or altogether
+uncovered spines.  The practice does no immediate good, but by showing
+the Japanese that foreign opinion condemns these cruelties an amendment
+may eventually be brought about.  At Horobets, among twenty horses, there
+was not one that I would take,—I should like to have had them all shot.
+They are cheap and abundant, and are of no account.  They drove a number
+more down from the hills, and I chose the largest and finest horse I have
+seen in Japan, with some spirit and action, but I soon found that he had
+tender feet.  We shortly left the high-road, and in torrents of rain
+turned off on “unbeaten tracks,” which led us through a very bad swamp
+and some much swollen and very rough rivers into the mountains, where we
+followed a worn-out track for eight miles.  It was literally “_foul_
+weather,” dark and still, with a brown mist, and rain falling in sheets.
+I threw my paper waterproof away as useless, my clothes were of course
+soaked, and it was with much difficulty that I kept my _shomon_ and paper
+money from being reduced to pulp.  Typhoons are not known so far north as
+Yezo, but it was what they call a “typhoon rain” without the typhoon, and
+in no time it turned the streams into torrents barely fordable, and tore
+up such of a road as there is, which at its best is a mere water-channel.
+Torrents, bringing tolerable-sized stones, tore down the track, and when
+the horses had been struck two or three times by these, it was with
+difficulty that they could be induced to face the rushing water.
+Constantly in a pass, the water had gradually cut a track several feet
+deep between steep banks, and the only possible walking place was a stony
+gash not wide enough for the two feet of a horse alongside of each other,
+down which water and stones were rushing from behind, with all manner of
+trailers matted overhead, and between avoiding being strangled and
+attempting to keep a tender-footed horse on his legs, the ride was a very
+severe one.  The poor animal fell five times from stepping on stones, and
+in one of his falls twisted my left wrist badly.  I thought of the many
+people who envied me my tour in Japan, and wondered whether they would
+envy me that ride!
+
+After this had gone on for four hours, the track, with a sudden dip over
+a hillside, came down on Old Mororan, a village of thirty Aino and nine
+Japanese houses, very unpromising-looking, although exquisitely situated
+on the rim of a lovely cove.  The Aino huts were small and poor, with an
+unusual number of bear skulls on poles, and the village consisted mainly
+of two long dilapidated buildings, in which a number of men were mending
+nets.  It looked a decaying place, of low, mean lives.  But at a
+“merchant’s” there was one delightful room with two translucent sides—one
+opening on the village, the other looking to the sea down a short, steep
+slope, on which is a quaint little garden, with dwarfed fir-trees in
+pots, a few balsams, and a red cabbage grown with much pride as a
+“foliage plant.”
+
+It is nearly midnight, but my bed and bedding are so wet that I am still
+sitting up and drying them, patch by patch, with tedious slowness, on a
+wooden frame placed over a charcoal brazier, which has given my room the
+dryness and warmth which are needed when a person has been for many hours
+in soaked clothing, and has nothing really dry to put on.  Ito bought a
+chicken for my supper, but when he was going to kill it an hour later its
+owner in much grief returned the money, saying she had brought it up and
+could not bear to see it killed.  This is a wild, outlandish place, but
+an intuition tells me that it is beautiful.  The ocean at present is
+thundering up the beach with the sullen force of a heavy ground-swell,
+and the rain is still falling in torrents.
+
+                                                                  I. L. B.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER XL.
+
+
+“More than Peace”—Geographical Difficulties—Usu-taki—Swimming the
+Osharu—A Dream of Beauty—A Sunset Effect—A Nocturnal Alarm—The Coast
+Ainos.
+
+                                               LEBUNGÉ, VOLCANO BAY, YEZO,
+                                                            _September_ 6.
+
+    “Weary wave and dying blast
+    Sob and moan along the shore,
+             All is peace at last.”
+
+AND more than peace.  It was a heavenly morning.  The deep blue sky was
+perfectly unclouded, a blue sea with diamond flash and a “many-twinkling
+smile” rippled gently on the golden sands of the lovely little bay, and
+opposite, forty miles away, the pink summit of the volcano of
+Komono-taki, forming the south-western point of Volcano Bay, rose into a
+softening veil of tender blue haze.  There was a balmy breeziness in the
+air, and tawny tints upon the hill, patches of gold in the woods, and a
+scarlet spray here and there heralded the glories of the advancing
+autumn.  As the day began, so it closed.  I should like to have detained
+each hour as it passed.  It was thorough enjoyment.  I visited a good
+many of the Mororan Ainos, saw their well-grown bear in its cage, and,
+tearing myself away with difficulty at noon, crossed a steep hill and a
+wood of scrub oak, and then followed a trail which runs on the amber
+sands close to the sea, crosses several small streams, and passes the
+lonely Aino village of Maripu, the ocean always on the left and wooded
+ranges on the right, and in front an apparent bar to farther progress in
+the volcano of Usu-taki, an imposing mountain, rising abruptly to a
+height of nearly 3000 feet, I should think.
+
+In Yezo, as on the main island, one can learn very little about any
+prospective route.  Usually when one makes an inquiry a Japanese puts on
+a stupid look, giggles, tucks his thumbs into his girdle, hitches up his
+garments, and either professes perfect ignorance or gives one some vague
+second-hand information, though it is quite possible that he may have
+been over every foot of the ground himself more than once.  Whether
+suspicion of your motives in asking, or a fear of compromising himself by
+answering, is at the bottom of this I don’t know, but it is most
+exasperating to a traveller.  In Hakodaté I failed to see Captain
+Blakiston, who has walked round the whole Yezo sea-board, and all I was
+able to learn regarding this route was that the coast was thinly peopled
+by Ainos, that there were Government horses which could be got, and that
+one could sleep where one got them; that rice and salt fish were the only
+food; that there were many “bad rivers,” and that the road went over “bad
+mountains;” that the only people who went that way were Government
+officials twice a year, that one could not get on more than four miles a
+day, that the roads over the passes were “all big stones,” etc. etc.  So
+this Usu-taki took me altogether by surprise, and for a time confounded
+all my carefully-constructed notions of locality.  I had been told that
+the one volcano in the bay was Komono-taki, near Mori, and this I
+believed to be eighty miles off, and there, confronting me, within a
+distance of two miles, was this grand, splintered, vermilion-crested
+thing, with a far nobler aspect than that of “_the_” volcano, with a
+curtain range in front, deeply scored, and slashed with ravines and
+abysses whose purple gloom was unlighted even by the noon-day sun.  One
+of the peaks was emitting black smoke from a deep crater, another steam
+and white smoke from various rents and fissures in its side—vermilion
+peaks, smoke, and steam all rising into a sky of brilliant blue, and the
+atmosphere was so clear that I saw everything that was going on there
+quite distinctly, especially when I attained an altitude exceeding that
+of the curtain range.  It was not for two days that I got a correct idea
+of its geographical situation, but I was not long in finding out that it
+was not Komono-taki!  There is much volcanic activity about it.  I saw a
+glare from it last night thirty miles away.  The Ainos said that it was
+“a god,” but did not know its name, nor did the Japanese who were living
+under its shadow.  At some distance from it in the interior rises a great
+dome-like mountain, Shiribetsan, and the whole view is grand.
+
+A little beyond Mombets flows the river Osharu, one of the largest of the
+Yezo streams.  It was much swollen by the previous day’s rain; and as the
+ferry-boat was carried away we had to swim it, and the swim seemed very
+long.  Of course, we and the baggage got very wet.  The coolness with
+which the Aino guide took to the water without giving us any notice that
+its broad, eddying flood was a swim, and not a ford, was very amusing.
+
+From the top of a steepish ascent beyond the Osharugawa there is a view
+into what looks like a very lovely lake, with wooded promontories, and
+little bays, and rocky capes in miniature, and little heights, on which
+Aino houses, with tawny roofs, are clustered; and then the track dips
+suddenly, and deposits one, not by a lake at all, but on Usu Bay, an
+inlet of the Pacific, much broken up into coves, and with a very narrow
+entrance, only obvious from a few points.  Just as the track touches the
+bay there is a road-post, with a prayer-wheel in it, and by the shore an
+upright stone of very large size, inscribed with Sanskrit characters,
+near to a stone staircase and a gateway in a massive stone-faced
+embankment, which looked much out of keeping with the general wildness of
+the place.  On a rocky promontory in a wooded cove there is a large,
+rambling house, greatly out of repair, inhabited by a Japanese man and
+his son, who are placed there to look after Government interests, exiles
+among 500 Ainos.  From among the number of rat-haunted, rambling rooms
+which had once been handsome, I chose one opening on a yard or garden
+with some distorted yews in it, but found that the great gateway and the
+_amado_ had no bolts, and that anything might be appropriated by any one
+with dishonest intentions; but the house-master and his son, who have
+lived for ten years among the Ainos, and speak their language, say that
+nothing is ever taken, and that the Ainos are thoroughly honest and
+harmless.  Without this assurance I should have been distrustful of the
+number of wide-mouthed youths who hung about, in the listlessness and
+vacuity of savagery, if not of the bearded men who sat or stood about the
+gateway with children in their arms.
+
+Usu is a dream of beauty and peace.  There is not much difference between
+the height of high and low water on this coast, and the lake-like
+illusion would have been perfect had it not been that the rocks were
+tinged with gold for a foot or so above the sea by a delicate species of
+_fucus_.  In the exquisite inlet where I spent the night, trees and
+trailers drooped into the water and were mirrored in it, their green,
+heavy shadows lying sharp against the sunset gold and pink of the rest of
+the bay; log canoes, with planks laced upon their gunwales to heighten
+them, were drawn upon a tiny beach of golden sand, and in the shadiest
+cove, moored to a tree, an antique and much-carved junk was “floating
+double.”  Wooded, rocky knolls, with Aino huts, the vermilion peaks of
+the volcano of Usu-taki redder than ever in the sinking sun, a few Ainos
+mending their nets, a few more spreading edible seaweed out to dry, a
+single canoe breaking the golden mirror of the cove by its noiseless
+motion, a few Aino loungers, with their “mild-eyed, melancholy” faces and
+quiet ways suiting the quiet evening scene, the unearthly sweetness of a
+temple bell—this was all, and yet it was the loveliest picture I have
+seen in Japan.
+
+In spite of Ito’s remonstrances and his protestations that an
+exceptionally good supper would be spoiled, I left my rat-haunted room,
+with its tarnished gilding and precarious _fusuma_, to get the last of
+the pink and lemon-coloured glory, going up the staircase in the
+stone-faced embankment, and up a broad, well-paved avenue, to a large
+temple, within whose open door I sat for some time absolutely alone, and
+in a wonderful stillness; for the sweet-toned bell which vainly chimes
+for vespers amidst this bear-worshipping population had ceased.  This
+temple was the first symptom of Japanese religion that I remember to have
+seen since leaving Hakodaté, and worshippers have long since ebbed away
+from its shady and moss-grown courts.  Yet it stands there to protest for
+the teaching of the great Hindu; and generations of Aino heathen pass
+away one after another; and still its bronze bell tolls, and its altar
+lamps are lit, and incense burns for ever before Buddha.  The characters
+on the great bell of this temple are said to be the same lines which are
+often graven on temple bells, and to possess the dignity of twenty-four
+centuries:
+
+    “All things are transient;
+    They being born must die,
+    And being born are dead;
+    And being dead are glad
+    To be at rest.”
+
+The temple is very handsome, the baldachino is superb, and the bronzes
+and brasses on the altar are specially fine.  A broad ray of sunlight
+streamed in, crossed the matted floor, and fell full upon the figure of
+Sakya-muni in his golden shrine; and just at that moment a shaven priest,
+in silk-brocaded vestments of faded green, silently passed down the
+stream of light, and lit the candles on the altar, and fresh incense
+filled the temple with a drowsy fragrance.  It was a most impressive
+picture.  His curiosity evidently shortened his devotions, and he came
+and asked me where I had been and where I was going, to which, of course,
+I replied in excellent Japanese, and then stuck fast.
+
+Along the paved avenue, besides the usual stone trough for holy water,
+there are on one side the thousand-armed Kwan-non, a very fine relief,
+and on the other a Buddha, throned on the eternal lotus blossom, with an
+iron staff, much resembling a crozier, in his hand, and that eternal
+apathy on his face which is the highest hope of those who hope at all.  I
+went through a wood, where there are some mournful groups of graves on
+the hillside, and from the temple came the sweet sound of the great
+bronze bell and the beat of the big drum, and then, more faintly, the
+sound of the little bell and drum, with which the priest accompanies his
+ceaseless repetition of a phrase in the dead tongue of a distant land.
+There is an infinite pathos about the lonely temple in its splendour, the
+absence of even possible worshippers, and the large population of Ainos,
+sunk in yet deeper superstitions than those which go to make up popular
+Buddhism.  I sat on a rock by the bay till the last pink glow faded from
+Usu-taki and the last lemon stain from the still water; and a beautiful
+crescent, which hung over the wooded hill, had set, and the heavens
+blazed with stars:
+
+    “Ten thousand stars were in the sky,
+       Ten thousand in the sea,
+    And every wave with dimpled face,
+       That leapt upon the air,
+    Had caught a star in its embrace,
+       And held it trembling there.”
+
+The loneliness of Usu Bay is something wonderful—a house full of empty
+rooms falling to decay, with only two men in it—one Japanese house among
+500 savages, yet it was the only one in which I have slept in which they
+bolted neither the _amado_ nor the gate.  During the night the _amado_
+fell out of the worn-out grooves with a crash, knocking down the _shôji_,
+which fell on me, and rousing Ito, who rushed into my room half-asleep,
+with a vague vision of blood-thirsty Ainos in his mind.  I then learned
+what I have been very stupid not to have learned before, that in these
+sliding wooden shutters there is a small door through which one person
+can creep at a time called the _jishindo_, or “earthquake door,” because
+it provides an exit during the alarm of an earthquake, in case of the
+_amado_ sticking in their grooves, or their bolts going wrong.  I believe
+that such a door exists in all Japanese houses.
+
+The next morning was as beautiful as the previous evening, rose and gold
+instead of gold and pink.  Before the sun was well up I visited a number
+of the Aino lodges, saw the bear, and the chief, who, like all the rest,
+is a monogamist, and, after breakfast, at my request, some of the old men
+came to give me such information as they had.  These venerable elders sat
+cross-legged in the verandah, the house-master’s son, who kindly acted as
+interpreter, squatting, Japanese fashion, at the side, and about thirty
+Ainos, mostly women, with infants, sitting behind.  I spent about two
+hours in going over the same ground as at Biratori, and also went over
+the words, and got some more, including some synonyms.  The _click_ of
+the _ts_ before the _ch_ at the beginning of a word is strongly marked
+among these Ainos.  Some of their customs differ slightly from those of
+their brethren of the interior, specially as to the period of seclusion
+after a death, the non-allowance of polygamy to the chief, and the manner
+of killing the bear at the annual festival.  Their ideas of
+metempsychosis are more definite, but this, I think, is to be accounted
+for by the influence and proximity of Buddhism.  They spoke of the bear
+as their chief god, and next the sun and fire.  They said that they no
+longer worship the wolf, and that though they call the volcano and many
+other things _kamoi_, or god, they do not worship them.  I ascertained
+beyond doubt that worship with them means simply making libations of
+_saké_ and “drinking to the god,” and that it is unaccompanied by
+petitions, or any vocal or mental act.
+
+These Ainos are as dark as the people of southern Spain, and very hairy.
+Their expression is earnest and pathetic, and when they smiled, as they
+did when I could not pronounce their words, their faces had a touching
+sweetness which was quite beautiful, and European, not Asiatic.  Their
+own impression is that they are now increasing in numbers after
+diminishing for many years.  I left Usu sleeping in the loveliness of an
+autumn noon with great regret.  No place that I have seen has fascinated
+me so much.
+
+                       [Picture: My Kuruma-Runner]
+
+
+
+
+LETTER XL.—(_Continued_.)
+
+
+The Sea-shore—A “Hairy Aino”—A Horse Fight—The Horses of Yezo—“Bad
+Mountains”—A Slight Accident—Magnificent Scenery—A Bleached
+Halting-Place—A Musty Room—Aino “Good-breeding.”
+
+A CHARGE of 3 _sen_ per _ri_ more for the horses for the next stage,
+because there were such “bad mountains to cross,” prepared me for what
+followed—many miles of the worst road for horses I ever saw.  I should
+not have complained if they had charged double the price.  As an almost
+certain consequence, it was one of the most picturesque routes I have
+ever travelled.  For some distance, however, it runs placidly along by
+the sea-shore, on which big, blue, foam-crested rollers were disporting
+themselves noisily, and passes through several Aino hamlets, and the Aino
+village of Abuta, with sixty houses, rather a prosperous-looking place,
+where the cultivation was considerably more careful, and the people
+possessed a number of horses.  Several of the houses were surrounded by
+bears’ skulls grinning from between the forked tops of high poles, and
+there was a well-grown bear ready for his doom and apotheosis.  In nearly
+all the houses a woman was weaving bark-cloth, with the hook which holds
+the web fixed into the ground several feet outside the house.  At a deep
+river called the Nopkobets, which emerges from the mountains close to the
+sea, we were ferried by an Aino completely covered with hair, which on
+his shoulders was wavy like that of a retriever, and rendered clothing
+quite needless either for covering or warmth.  A wavy, black beard
+rippled nearly to his waist over his furry chest, and, with his black
+locks hanging in masses over his shoulders, he would have looked a
+thorough savage had it not been for the exceeding sweetness of his smile
+and eyes.  The Volcano Bay Ainos are far more hairy than the mountain
+Ainos, but even among them it is quite common to see men not more so than
+vigorous Europeans, and I think that the hairiness of the race as a
+distinctive feature has been much exaggerated, partly by the
+smooth-skinned Japanese.
+
+The ferry scow was nearly upset by our four horses beginning to fight.
+At first one bit the shoulders of another; then the one attacked uttered
+short, sharp squeals, and returned the attack by striking with his fore
+feet, and then there was a general mêlée of striking and biting, till
+some ugly wounds were inflicted.  I have watched fights of this kind on a
+large scale every day in the _corral_.  The miseries of the Yezo horses
+are the great drawback of Yezo travelling.  They are brutally used, and
+are covered with awful wounds from being driven at a fast “scramble” with
+the rude, ungirthed pack-saddle and its heavy load rolling about on their
+backs, and they are beaten unmercifully over their eyes and ears with
+heavy sticks.  Ito has been barbarous to these gentle, little-prized
+animals ever since we came to Yezo; he has vexed me more by this than by
+anything else, especially as he never dared even to carry a switch on the
+main island, either from fear of the horses or their owners.  To-day he
+was beating the baggage horse unmercifully, when I rode back and
+interfered with some very strong language, saying, “You are a bully, and,
+like all bullies, a coward.”  Imagine my aggravation when, at our first
+halt, he brought out his note-book, as usual, and quietly asked me the
+meaning of the words “bully” and “coward.”  It was perfectly impossible
+to explain them, so I said a bully was the worst name I could call him,
+and that a coward was the meanest thing a man could be.  Then the
+provoking boy said, “Is bully a worse name than devil?”  “Yes, far
+worse,” I said, on which he seemed rather crestfallen, and he has not
+beaten his horse since, in my sight at least.
+
+The breaking-in process is simply breaking the spirit by an hour or two
+of such atrocious cruelty as I saw at Shiraôi, at the end of which the
+horse, covered with foam and blood, and bleeding from mouth and nose,
+falls down exhausted.  Being so ill used they have all kinds of tricks,
+such as lying down in fords, throwing themselves down head foremost and
+rolling over pack and rider, bucking, and resisting attempts to make them
+go otherwise than in single file.  Instead of bits they have bars of wood
+on each side of the mouth, secured by a rope round the nose and chin.
+When horses which have been broken with bits gallop they put up their
+heads till the nose is level with the ears, and it is useless to try
+either to guide or check them.  They are always wanting to join the great
+herds on the hillside or sea-shore, from which they are only driven down
+as they are needed.  In every Yezo village the first sound that one hears
+at break of day is the gallop of forty or fifty horses, pursued by an
+Aino, who has hunted them from the hills.  A horse is worth from
+twenty-eight shillings upwards.  They are very sure-footed when their
+feet are not sore, and cross a stream or chasm on a single rickety plank,
+or walk on a narrow ledge above a river or gulch without fear.  They are
+barefooted, their hoofs are very hard, and I am glad to be rid of the
+perpetual tying and untying and replacing of the straw shoes of the
+well-cared-for horses of the main island.  A man rides with them, and for
+a man and three horses the charge is only sixpence for each 2½ miles.  I
+am now making Ito ride in front of me, to make sure that he does not beat
+or otherwise misuse his beast.
+
+After crossing the Nopkobets, from which the fighting horses have led me
+to make so long a digression, we went right up into the “bad mountains,”
+and crossed the three tremendous passes of Lebungétogé.  Except by saying
+that this disused bridle-track is impassable, people have scarcely
+exaggerated its difficulties.  One horse broke down on the first pass,
+and we were long delayed by sending the Aino back for another.  Possibly
+these extraordinary passes do not exceed 1500 feet in height, but the
+track ascends them through a dense forest with most extraordinary
+abruptness, to descend as abruptly, to rise again sometimes by a series
+of nearly washed-away zigzags, at others by a straight, ladder-like
+ascent deeply channelled, the bottom of the trough being filled with
+rough stones, large and small, or with ledges of rock with an entangled
+mass of branches and trailers overhead, which render it necessary to
+stoop over the horse’s head while he is either fumbling, stumbling, or
+tumbling among the stones in a gash a foot wide, or else is awkwardly
+leaping up broken rock steps nearly the height of his chest, the whole
+performance consisting of a series of scrambling jerks at the rate of a
+mile an hour.
+
+In one of the worst places the Aino’s horse, which was just in front of
+mine, in trying to scramble up a nearly breast-high and much-worn ledge,
+fell backwards, nearly overturning my horse, the stretcher poles, which
+formed part of his pack, striking me so hard above my ankle that for some
+minutes afterwards I thought the bone was broken.  The ankle was severely
+cut and bruised, and bled a good deal, and I was knocked out of the
+saddle.  Ito’s horse fell three times, and eventually the four were roped
+together.  Such are some of the _divertissements_ of Yezo travel.
+
+Ah, but it was glorious!  The views are most magnificent.  This is really
+Paradise.  Everything is here—huge headlands magnificently timbered,
+small, deep bays into which the great green waves roll majestically,
+great, grey cliffs, too perpendicular for even the most adventurous
+trailer to find root-hold, bold bluffs and outlying stacks cedar-crested,
+glimpses of bright, blue ocean dimpling in the sunshine or tossing up
+wreaths of foam among ferns and trailers, and inland ranges of mountains
+forest-covered, with tremendous gorges between, forest filled, where
+wolf, bear, and deer make their nearly inaccessible lairs, and outlying
+battlements, and ridges of grey rock with hardly six feet of level on
+their sinuous tops, and cedars in masses giving deep shadow, and sprays
+of scarlet maple or festoons of a crimson vine lighting the gloom.  The
+inland view suggested infinity.  There seemed no limit to the
+forest-covered mountains and the unlighted ravines.  The wealth of
+vegetation was equal in luxuriance and entanglement to that of the
+tropics, primeval vegetation, on which the lumberer’s axe has never rung.
+Trees of immense height and girth, specially the beautiful _Salisburia
+adiantifolia_, with its small fan-shaped leaves, all matted together by
+riotous lianas, rise out of an impenetrable undergrowth of the dwarf,
+dark-leaved bamboo, which, dwarf as it is, attains a height of seven
+feet, and all is dark, solemn, soundless, the haunt of wild beasts, and
+of butterflies and dragonflies of the most brilliant colours.  There was
+light without heat, leaves and streams sparkled, and there was nothing of
+the half-smothered sensation which is often produced by the choking
+greenery of the main island, for frequently, far below, the Pacific
+flashed in all its sunlit beauty, and occasionally we came down
+unexpectedly on a little cove with abrupt cedar-crested headlands and
+stacks, and a heavy surf rolling in with the deep thunder music which
+alone breaks the stillness of this silent land.
+
+There was one tremendous declivity where I got off to walk, but found it
+too steep to descend on foot with comfort.  You can imagine how steep it
+was, when I tell you that the deep groove being too narrow for me to get
+to the side of my horse, I dropped down upon him from behind, between his
+tail and the saddle, and so scrambled on!
+
+The sun had set and the dew was falling heavily when the track dipped
+over the brow of a headland, becoming a waterway so steep and rough that
+I could not get down it on foot without the assistance of my hands, and
+terminating on a lonely little bay of great beauty, walled in by
+impracticable-looking headlands, which was the entrance to an equally
+impracticable-looking, densely-wooded valley running up among
+densely-wooded mountains.  There was a margin of grey sand above the sea,
+and on this the skeleton of an enormous whale was bleaching.  Two or
+three large “dug-outs,” with planks laced with stout fibre on their
+gunwales, and some bleached drift-wood lay on the beach, the foreground
+of a solitary, rambling, dilapidated grey house, bleached like all else,
+where three Japanese men with an old Aino servant live to look after
+“Government interests,” whatever these may be, and keep rooms and horses
+for Government officials—a great boon to travellers who, like me, are
+belated here.  Only one person has passed Lebungé this year, except two
+officials and a policeman.
+
+There was still a red glow on the water, and one horn of a young moon
+appeared above the wooded headland; but the loneliness and isolation are
+overpowering, and it is enough to produce madness to be shut in for ever
+with the thunder of the everlasting surf, which compels one to raise
+one’s voice in order to be heard.  In the wood, half a mile from the sea,
+there is an Aino village of thirty houses, and the appearance of a few of
+the savages gliding noiselessly over the beach in the twilight added to
+the ghastliness and loneliness of the scene.  The horses were unloaded by
+the time I arrived, and several courteous Ainos showed me to my room,
+opening on a small courtyard with a heavy gate.  The room was musty, and,
+being rarely used, swarmed with spiders.  A saucer of fish-oil and a wick
+rendered darkness visible, and showed faintly the dark, pathetic faces of
+a row of Ainos in the verandah, who retired noiselessly with their
+graceful salutation when I bade them good-night.  Food was hardly to be
+expected, yet they gave me rice, potatoes, and black beans boiled in
+equal parts of brine and syrup, which are very palatable.  The cuts and
+bruises of yesterday became so very painful with the cold of the early
+morning that I have been obliged to remain here.
+
+                                                                  I. L. B.
+
+                  [Picture: Temple Gateway at Isshinden]
+
+
+
+
+LETTER XLI.
+
+
+A Group of Fathers—The Lebungé Ainos—The _Salisburia adiantifolia_—A
+Family Group—The Missing Link—Oshamambé—Disorderly Horses—The River
+Yurapu—The Seaside—Aino Canoes—The Last Morning—Dodging Europeans.
+
+                                                 HAKODATÉ, _September_ 12.
+
+LEBUNGÉ is a most fascinating place in its awful isolation.  The
+house-master was a friendly man, and much attached to the Ainos.  If
+other officials entrusted with Aino concerns treat the Ainos as
+fraternally as those of Usu and Lebungé, there is not much to lament.
+This man also gave them a high character for honesty and harmlessness,
+and asked if they might come and see me before I left; so twenty men,
+mostly carrying very pretty children, came into the yard with the horses.
+They had never seen a foreigner, but, either from apathy or politeness,
+they neither stare nor press upon one as the Japanese do, and always make
+a courteous recognition.  The bear-skin housing of my saddle pleased them
+very much, and my boots of unblacked leather, which they compare to the
+deer-hide moccasins which they wear for winter hunting.  Their voices
+were the lowest and most musical that I have heard, incongruous sounds to
+proceed from such hairy, powerful-looking men.  Their love for their
+children was most marked.  They caressed them tenderly, and held them
+aloft for notice, and when the house-master told them how much I admired
+the brown, dark-eyed, winsome creatures, their faces lighted with
+pleasure, and they saluted me over and over again.  These, like other
+Ainos, utter a short screeching sound when they are not pleased, and then
+one recognises the savage.
+
+These Lebungé Ainos differ considerably from those of the eastern
+villages, and I have again to notice the decided sound or _click_ of the
+_ts_ at the beginning of many words.  Their skins are as swarthy as those
+of Bedaween, their foreheads comparatively low, their eyes far more
+deeply set their stature lower, their hair yet more abundant, the look of
+wistful melancholy more marked, and two, who were unclothed for hard work
+in fashioning a canoe, were almost entirely covered with short, black
+hair, specially thick on the shoulders and back, and so completely
+concealing the skin as to reconcile one to the lack of clothing.  I
+noticed an enormous breadth of chest, and a great development of the
+muscles of the arms and legs.  All these Ainos shave their hair off for
+two inches above their brows, only allowing it there to attain the length
+of an inch.  Among the well-clothed Ainos in the yard there was one
+smooth-faced, smooth-skinned, concave-chested, spindle-limbed, yellow
+Japanese, with no other clothing than the decorated bark-cloth apron
+which the Ainos wear in addition to their coats and leggings.  Escorted
+by these gentle, friendly savages, I visited their lodges, which are very
+small and poor, and in every way inferior to those of the mountain Ainos.
+The women are short and thick-set, and most uncomely.
+
+From their village I started for the longest, and by reputation the
+worst, stage of my journey, seventeen miles, the first ten of which are
+over mountains.  So solitary and disused is this track that on a four
+days’ journey we have not met a human being.  In the Lebungé valley,
+which is densely forested, and abounds with fordable streams and
+treacherous ground, I came upon a grand specimen of the _Salisburia
+adiantifolia_, which, at a height of three feet from the ground, divides
+into eight lofty stems, none of them less than 2 feet 5 inches in
+diameter.  This tree, which grows rapidly, is so well adapted to our
+climate that I wonder it has not been introduced on a large scale, as it
+may be seen by everybody in Kew Gardens.  There is another tree with
+orbicular leaves in pairs, which grows to an immense size.
+
+From this valley a worn-out, stony bridle-track ascends the western side
+of Lebungétogé, climbing through a dense forest of trees and trailers to
+a height of about 2000 feet, where, contented with its efforts, it
+reposes, and, with only slight ups and downs, continues along the top of
+a narrow ridge within the seaward mountains, between high walls of dense
+bamboo, which, for much of that day’s journey, is the undergrowth alike
+of mountain and valley, ragged peak, and rugged ravine.  The scenery was
+as magnificent as on the previous day.  A guide was absolutely needed, as
+the track ceased altogether in one place, and for some time the horses
+had to blunder their way along a bright, rushing river, swirling rapidly
+downwards, heavily bordered with bamboo, full of deep holes, and made
+difficult by trees which have fallen across it.  There Ito, whose horse
+could not keep up with the others, was lost, or rather lost himself,
+which led to a delay of two hours.  I have never seen grander forest than
+on that two days’ ride.
+
+At last the track, barely passable after its recovery, dips over a
+precipitous bluff, and descends close to the sea, which has evidently
+receded considerably.  Thence it runs for six miles on a level, sandy
+strip, covered near the sea with a dwarf bamboo about five inches high,
+and farther inland with red roses and blue campanula.
+
+At the foot of the bluff there is a ruinous Japanese house, where an Aino
+family has been placed to give shelter and rest to any who may be
+crossing the pass.  I opened my _bentô bako_ of red lacquer, and found
+that it contained some cold, waxy potatoes, on which I dined, with the
+addition of some tea, and then waited wearily for Ito, for whom the guide
+went in search.  The house and its inmates were a study.  The ceiling was
+gone, and all kinds of things, for which I could not imagine any possible
+use, hung from the blackened rafters.  Everything was broken and decayed,
+and the dirt was appalling.  A very ugly Aino woman, hardly human in her
+ugliness, was splitting bark fibre.  There were several _irori_, Japanese
+fashion, and at one of them a grand-looking old man was seated
+apathetically contemplating the boiling of a pot.  Old, and sitting among
+ruins, he represented the fate of a race which, living, has no history,
+and perishing leaves no monument.  By the other _irori_ sat, or rather
+crouched, the “MISSING LINK.”  I was startled when I first saw it.  It
+was—shall I say?—a man, and the mate, I cannot write the husband, of the
+ugly woman.  It was about fifty.  The lofty Aino brow had been made still
+loftier by shaving the head for three inches above it.  The hair hung,
+not in shocks, but in snaky wisps, mingling with a beard which was grey
+and matted.  The eyes were dark but vacant, and the face had no other
+expression than that look of apathetic melancholy which one sometimes
+sees on the faces of captive beasts.  The arms and legs were unnaturally
+long and thin, and the creature sat with the knees tucked into the
+armpits.  The limbs and body, with the exception of a patch on each side,
+were thinly covered with fine black hair, more than an inch long, which
+was slightly curly on the shoulders.  It showed no other sign of
+intelligence than that evidenced by boiling water for my tea.  When Ito
+arrived he looked at it with disgust, exclaiming, “The Ainos are just
+dogs; they had a dog for their father,” in allusion to their own legend
+of their origin.
+
+The level was pleasant after the mountains, and a canter took us
+pleasantly to Oshamambé, where we struck the old road from Mori to
+Satsuporo, and where I halted for a day to rest my spine, from which I
+was suffering much.  Oshamambé looks dismal even in the sunshine, decayed
+and dissipated, with many people lounging about in it doing nothing, with
+the dazed look which over-indulgence in _saké_ gives to the eyes.  The
+sun was scorching hot, and I was glad to find refuge from it in a crowded
+and dilapidated _yadoya_, where there were no black beans, and the use of
+eggs did not appear to be recognised.  My room was only enclosed by
+_shôji_, and there were scarcely five minutes of the day in which eyes
+were not applied to the finger-holes with which they were liberally
+riddled; and during the night one of them fell down, revealing six
+Japanese sleeping in a row, each head on a wooden pillow.
+
+The grandeur of the route ceased with the mountain-passes, but in the
+brilliant sunshine the ride from Oshamambé to Mori, which took me two
+days, was as pretty and pleasant as it could be.  At first we got on very
+slowly, as besides my four horses there were four led ones going home,
+which got up fights and entangled their ropes, and occasionally lay down
+and rolled; and besides these there were three foals following their
+mothers, and if they stayed behind the mares hung back neighing, and if
+they frolicked ahead the mares wanted to look after them, and the whole
+string showed a combined inclination to dispense with their riders and
+join the many herds of horses which we passed.  It was so tedious that,
+after enduring it for some time I got Ito’s horse and mine into a scow at
+a river of some size, and left the disorderly drove to follow at leisure.
+
+At Yurapu, where there is an Aino village of thirty houses, we saw the
+last of the aborigines, and the interest of the journey ended.  Strips of
+hard sand below high-water mark, strips of red roses, ranges of wooded
+mountains, rivers deep and shallow, a few villages of old grey houses
+amidst grey sand and bleaching driftwood, and then came the river Yurapu,
+a broad, deep stream, navigable in a canoe for fourteen miles.  The
+scenery there was truly beautiful in the late and splendid afternoon.
+The long blue waves rolled on shore, each one crested with light as it
+curled before it broke, and hurled its snowy drift for miles along the
+coast with a deep booming music.  The glorious inland view was composed
+of six ranges of forest-covered mountains, broken, chasmed, caverned, and
+dark with timber, and above them bald, grey peaks rose against a green
+sky of singular purity.  I longed to take a boat up the Yurapu, which
+penetrates by many a gorge into their solemn recesses, but had not
+strength to carry my wish.
+
+After this I exchanged the silence or low musical speech of Aino guides
+for the harsh and ceaseless clatter of Japanese.  At Yamakushinoi, a
+small hamlet on the sea-shore, where I slept, there was a sweet, quiet
+_yadoya_, delightfully situated, with a wooded cliff at the back, over
+which a crescent hung out of a pure sky; and besides, there were the more
+solid pleasures of fish, eggs, and black beans.  Thus, instead of being
+starved and finding wretched accommodation, the week I spent on Volcano
+Bay has been the best fed, as it was certainly the most comfortable, week
+of my travels in northern Japan.
+
+Another glorious day favoured my ride to Mori, but I was unfortunate in
+my horse at each stage, and the Japanese guide was grumpy and
+ill-natured—a most unusual thing.  Otoshibé and a few other small
+villages of grey houses, with “an ancient and fish-like smell,” lie along
+the coast, busy enough doubtless in the season, but now looking deserted
+and decayed, and houses are rather plentifully sprinkled along many parts
+of the shore, with a wonderful profusion of vegetables and flowers about
+them, raised from seeds liberally supplied by the _Kaitakushi_ Department
+from its Nanai experimental farm and nurseries.  For a considerable part
+of the way to Mori there is no track at all, though there is a good deal
+of travel.  One makes one’s way fatiguingly along soft sea sand or coarse
+shingle close to the sea, or absolutely in it, under cliffs of hardened
+clay or yellow conglomerate, fording many small streams, several of which
+have cut their way deeply through a stratum of black volcanic sand.  I
+have crossed about 100 rivers and streams on the Yezo coast, and all the
+larger ones are marked by a most noticeable peculiarity, i.e. that on
+nearing the sea they turn south, and run for some distance parallel with
+it, before they succeed in finding an exit through the bank of sand and
+shingle which forms the beach and blocks their progress.
+
+On the way I saw two Ainos land through the surf in a canoe, in which
+they had paddled for nearly 100 miles.  A river canoe is dug out of a
+single log, and two men can fashion one in five days; but on examining
+this one, which was twenty-five feet long, I found that it consisted of
+two halves, laced together with very strong bark fibre for their whole
+length, and with high sides also laced on.  They consider that they are
+stronger for rough sea and surf work when made in two parts.  Their
+bark-fibre rope is beautifully made, and they twist it of all sizes, from
+twine up to a nine-inch hawser.
+
+Beautiful as the blue ocean was, I had too much of it, for the horses
+were either walking in a lather of sea foam or were crowded between the
+cliff and the sea, every larger wave breaking over my foot and
+irreverently splashing my face; and the surges were so loud-tongued and
+incessant, throwing themselves on the beach with a tremendous boom, and
+drawing the shingle back with them with an equally tremendous rattle, so
+impolite and noisy, bent only on showing their strength, reckless, rude,
+self-willed, and inconsiderate!  This purposeless display of force, and
+this incessant waste of power, and the noisy self-assertion in both,
+approach vulgarity!
+
+Towards evening we crossed the last of the bridgeless rivers, and put up
+at Mori, which I left three weeks before, and I was very thankful to have
+accomplished my object without disappointment, disaster, or any
+considerable discomfort.  Had I not promised to return Ito to his master
+by a given day, I should like to spend the next six weeks in the Yezo
+wilds, for the climate is good, the scenery beautiful, and the objects of
+interest are many.
+
+Another splendid day favoured my ride from Mori to Togénoshita, where I
+remained for the night, and I had exceptionally good horses for both
+days, though the one which Ito rode, while going at a rapid “scramble,”
+threw himself down three times and rolled over to rid himself from flies.
+I had not admired the wood between Mori and Ginsainoma (the lakes) on the
+sullen, grey day on which I saw it before, but this time there was an
+abundance of light and shadow and solar glitter, and many a scarlet spray
+and crimson trailer, and many a maple flaming in the valleys, gladdened
+me with the music of colour.  From the top of the pass beyond the lakes
+there is a grand view of the volcano in all its nakedness, with its lava
+beds and fields of pumice, with the lakes of Onuma, Konuma, and
+Ginsainoma, lying in the forests at its feet, and from the top of another
+hill there is a remarkable view of windy Hakodaté, with its headland
+looking like Gibraltar.  The slopes of this hill are covered with the
+_Aconitum Japonicum_, of which the Ainos make their arrow poison.
+
+The _yadoya_ at Togénoshita was a very pleasant and friendly one, and
+when Ito woke me yesterday morning, saying, “Are you sorry that it’s the
+last morning?  I am,” I felt we had one subject in common, for I was very
+sorry to end my pleasant Yezo tour, and very sorry to part with the boy
+who had made himself more useful and invaluable even than before.  It was
+most wearisome to have Hakodaté in sight for twelve miles, so near across
+the bay, so far across the long, flat, stony strip which connects the
+headland upon which it is built with the mainland.  For about three miles
+the road is rudely macadamised, and as soon as the bare-footed horses get
+upon it they seem lame of all their legs; they hang back, stumbling,
+dragging, edging to the side, and trying to run down every opening, so
+that when we got into the interminable main street I sent Ito on to the
+Consulate for my letters, and dismounted, hoping that as it was raining I
+should not see any foreigners; but I was not so lucky, for first I met
+Mr. Dening, and then, seeing the Consul and Dr. Hepburn coming down the
+road, evidently dressed for dining in the flag-ship, and looking spruce
+and clean, I dodged up an alley to avoid them; but they saw me, and did
+not wonder that I wished to escape notice, for my old _betto’s_ hat, my
+torn green paper waterproof, and my riding-skirt and boots, were not only
+splashed but _caked_ with mud, and I had the general look of a person
+“fresh from the wilds.”
+
+                                                                  I. L. B.
+
+
+
+ITINERARY of TOUR in YEZO.
+
+
+Hakodaté to
+
+              No. of Houses.
+              Jap.      Aino.      _Ri_.    _Chô_.
+Ginsainoma           4                   7        18
+Mori               105                   4
+Mororan             57                  11
+Horobets            18         47        5         1
+Shiraôi             11         51        6        32
+Tomakomai           38                   5        21
+Yubets               7          3        3         5
+Sarufuto            63                   7         5
+Biratori                       53        5
+Mombets             27                   5         1
+
+From Horobets to
+
+               Jap.           Aino.      _Ri_.    _Chô_.
+Old Mororan                9         30        4        28
+Usu                        3         99        6         2
+Lebungé                    1         27        5        22
+Oshamambé                 56         38        6        34
+Yamakushinai              40                   4        18
+Otoshibé                  40                   2         3
+Mori                     105                   3        29
+Togénoshita               55                   6         7
+Hakodaté        37,000 souls                   3        29
+
+About 358 English miles.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER XLII.
+
+
+Pleasant Last Impressions—The Japanese Junk—Ito Disappears—My Letter of
+Thanks.
+
+                                     HAKODATÉ, YEZO, _September_ 14, 1878.
+
+THIS is my last day in Yezo, and the sun, shining brightly over the grey
+and windy capital, is touching the pink peaks of Komono-taki with a
+deeper red, and is brightening my last impressions, which, like my first,
+are very pleasant.  The bay is deep blue, flecked with violet shadows,
+and about sixty junks are floating upon it at anchor.  There are vessels
+of foreign rig too, but the wan, pale junks lying motionless, or rolling
+into the harbour under their great white sails, fascinate me as when I
+first saw them in the Gulf of Yedo.  They are antique-looking and
+picturesque, but are fitter to give interest to a picture than to battle
+with stormy seas.
+
+Most of the junks in the bay are about 120 tons burthen, 100 feet long,
+with an extreme beam, far aft, of twenty-five feet.  The bow is long, and
+curves into a lofty stem, like that of a Roman galley, finished with a
+beak head, to secure the forestay of the mast.  This beak is furnished
+with two large, goggle eyes.  The mast is a ponderous spar, fifty feet
+high, composed of pieces of pine, pegged, glued, and hooped together.  A
+heavy yard is hung amidships.  The sail is an oblong of widths of strong,
+white cotton artistically “_puckered_,” not sewn together, but laced
+vertically, leaving a decorative lacing six inches wide between each two
+widths.  Instead of reefing in a strong wind, a width is unlaced, so as
+to reduce the canvas vertically, not horizontally.  Two blue spheres
+commonly adorn the sail.  The mast is placed well abaft, and to tack or
+veer it is only necessary to reverse the sheet.  When on a wind the long
+bow and nose serve as a head-sail.  The high, square, piled-up stern,
+with its antique carving, and the sides with their lattice-work, are
+wonderful, together with the extraordinary size and projection of the
+rudder, and the length of the tiller.  The anchors are of grapnel shape,
+and the larger junks have from six to eight arranged on the fore-end,
+giving one an idea of bad holding-ground along the coast.  They really
+are much like the shape of a Chinese “small-footed” woman’s shoe, and
+look very unmanageable.  They are of unpainted wood, and have a wintry,
+ghastly look about them. {321}
+
+I have parted with Ito finally to-day, with great regret.  He has served
+me faithfully, and on most common topics I can get much more information
+through him than from any foreigner.  I miss him already, though he
+insisted on packing for me as usual, and put all my things in order.  His
+cleverness is something surprising.  He goes to a good, manly master, who
+will help him to be good and set him a virtuous example, and that is a
+satisfaction.  Before he left he wrote a letter for me to the Governor of
+Mororan, thanking him on my behalf for the use of the _kuruma_ and other
+courtesies.
+
+                                                                  I. L. B.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER XLIII.
+
+
+Pleasant Prospects—A Miserable Disappointment—Caught in a Typhoon—A Dense
+Fog—Alarmist Rumours—A Welcome at Tôkiyô—The Last of the Mutineers.
+
+                                H. B. M.’s LEGATION, YEDO, _September_ 21.
+
+A PLACID sea, which after much disturbance had sighed itself to rest, and
+a high, steady barometer promised a fifty hours’ passage to Yokohama, and
+when Dr. and Mrs. Hepburn and I left Hakodaté, by moonlight, on the night
+of the 14th, as the only passengers in the _Hiogo Maru_, Captain Moore,
+her genial, pleasant master, congratulated us on the rapid and delightful
+passage before us, and we separated at midnight with many projects for
+pleasant intercourse and occupation.
+
+But a more miserable voyage I never made, and it was not until the
+afternoon of the 17th that we crawled forth from our cabins to speak to
+each other.  On the second day out, great heat came on with suffocating
+closeness, the mercury rose to 85°, and in lat. 38° 0′ N. and long.  141°
+30′ E. we encountered a “typhoon,” otherwise a “cyclone,” otherwise a
+“revolving hurricane,” which lasted for twenty-five hours, and
+“jettisoned” the cargo.  Captain Moor has given me a very interesting
+diagram of it, showing the attempts which he made to avoid its vortex,
+through which our course would have taken us, and to keep as much outside
+it as possible.  The typhoon was succeeded by a dense fog, so that our
+fifty-hour passage became seventy-two hours, and we landed at Yokohama
+near upon midnight of the 17th, to find traces of much disaster, the
+whole low-lying country flooded, the railway between Yokohama and the
+capital impassable, great anxiety about the rice crop, the air full of
+alarmist rumours, and paper money, which was about par when I arrived in
+May, at a discount of [Picture: Entrance to Shrine of Seventh Shôgun,
+Shiba, Tôkiyô] 13 per cent!  In the early part of this year (1880) it has
+touched 42 per cent.
+
+Late in the afternoon the railroad was re-opened, and I came here with
+Mr. Wilkinson, glad to settle down to a period of rest and ease under
+this hospitable roof.  The afternoon was bright and sunny, and Tôkiyô was
+looking its best.  The long lines of _yashikis_ looked handsome, the
+castle moat was so full of the gigantic leaves of the lotus, that the
+water was hardly visible, the grass embankments of the upper moat were a
+brilliant green, the pines on their summits stood out boldly against the
+clear sky, the hill on which the Legation stands looked dry and cheerful,
+and, better than all, I had a most kindly welcome from those who have
+made this house my home in a strange land.
+
+Tôkiyô is tranquil, that is, it is disturbed only by fears for the rice
+crop, and by the fall in _satsu_.  The military mutineers have been
+tried, popular rumour says tortured, and fifty-two have been shot.  The
+summer has been the worst for some years, and now dark heat, moist heat,
+and nearly ceasless rain prevail.  People have been “rained up” in their
+summer quarters.  “Surely it will change soon,” people say, and they have
+said the same thing for three months.
+
+                                                                  I. L. B.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER XLIV.
+
+
+Fine Weather—Cremation in Japan—The Governor of Tôkiyô—An Awkward
+Question—An Insignificant Building—Economy in Funeral Expenses—Simplicity
+of the Cremation Process—The Last of Japan.
+
+                                 H. B. M.’s LEGATION, YEDO, _December_ 18.
+
+I HAVE spent the last ten days here, in settled fine weather, such as
+should have begun two months ago if the climate had behaved as it ought.
+The time has flown by in excursions, shopping, select little
+dinner-parties, farewell calls, and visits made with Mr. Chamberlain to
+the famous groves and temples of Ikegami, where the Buddhist bishop and
+priests entertained us in one of the guest-rooms, and to Enoshima and
+Kamakura, “vulgar” resorts which nothing can vulgarise so long as Fujisan
+towers above them.
+
+I will mention but one “sight,” which is so far out of the beaten track
+that it was only after prolonged inquiry that its whereabouts was
+ascertained.  Among Buddhists, specially of the Monto sect, cremation was
+largely practised till it was forbidden five years ago, as some suppose
+in deference to European prejudices.  Three years ago, however, the
+prohibition was withdrawn, and in this short space of time the number of
+bodies burned has reached nearly nine thousand annually.  Sir H. Parkes
+applied for permission for me to visit the Kirigaya ground, one of five,
+and after a few delays it was granted by the Governor of Tôkiyô at Mr.
+Mori’s request, so yesterday, attended by the Legation linguist, I
+presented myself at the fine _yashiki_ of the Tôkiyô _Fu_, and quite
+unexpectedly was admitted to an audience of the Governor.  Mr. Kusamoto
+is a well-bred gentleman, and his face expresses the energy and ability
+which he has given proof of possessing.  He wears his European clothes
+becomingly, and in attitude, as well as manner, is easy and dignified.
+After asking me a great deal about my northern tour and the Ainos, he
+expressed a wish for candid criticism; but as this in the East must not
+be taken literally, I merely ventured to say that the roads lag behind
+the progress made in other directions, upon which he entered upon
+explanations which doubtless apply to the past road-history of the
+country.  He spoke of cremation and its “necessity” in large cities, and
+terminated the interview by requesting me to dismiss my interpreter and
+_kuruma_, as he was going to send me to Meguro in his own carriage with
+one of the Government interpreters, adding very courteously that it gave
+him pleasure to show this attention to a guest of the British Minister,
+“for whose character and important services to Japan he has a high
+value.”
+
+            [Picture: Fujisan, from a Village on the Tokaido]
+
+An hour’s drive, with an extra amount of yelling from the _bettos_, took
+us to a suburb of little hills and valleys, where red camellias and
+feathery bamboo against backgrounds of cryptomeria contrast with the grey
+monotone of British winters, and, alighting at a farm road too rough for
+a carriage, we passed through fields and hedgerows to an erection which
+looks too insignificant for such solemn use.  Don’t expect any ghastly
+details.  A longish building of “wattle and dab,” much like the northern
+farmhouses, a high roof, and chimneys resembling those of the “oast
+houses” in Kent, combine with the rural surroundings to suggest “farm
+buildings” rather than the “funeral pyre,” and all that is horrible is
+left to the imagination.
+
+The end nearest the road is a little temple, much crowded with images,
+and small, red, earthenware urns and tongs for sale to the relatives of
+deceased persons, and beyond this are four rooms with earthen floors and
+mud walls; nothing noticeable about them except the height of the peaked
+roof and the dark colour of the plaster.  In the middle of the largest
+are several pairs of granite supports at equal distances from each other,
+and in the smallest there is a solitary pair.  This was literally all
+that was to be seen.  In the large room several bodies are burned at one
+time, and the charge is only one _yen_, about 3s. 8d., solitary cremation
+costing five _yen_.  Faggots are used, and 1s. worth ordinarily suffices
+to reduce a human form to ashes.  After the funeral service in the house
+the body is brought to the cremation ground, and is left in charge of the
+attendant, a melancholy, smoked-looking man, as well he may be.  The
+richer people sometimes pay priests to be present during the burning, but
+this is not usual.  There were five “quick-tubs” of pine hooped with
+bamboo in the larger room, containing the remains of coolies, and a few
+oblong pine chests in the small rooms containing those of middle-class
+people.  At 8 p.m. each “coffin” is placed on the stone trestles, the
+faggots are lighted underneath, the fires are replenished during the
+night, and by 6 a.m. that which was a human being is a small heap of
+ashes, which is placed in an urn by the relatives and is honourably
+interred.  In some cases the priests accompany the relations on this last
+mournful errand.  Thirteen bodies were burned the night before my visit,
+but there was not the slightest odour in or about the building, and the
+interpreter told me that, owing to the height of the chimneys, the people
+of the neighbourhood never experience the least annoyance, even while the
+process is going on.  The simplicity of the arrangement is very
+remarkable, and there can be no reasonable doubt that it serves the
+purpose of the innocuous and complete destruction of the corpse as well
+as any complicated apparatus (if not better), while its cheapness places
+it within the reach of the class which is most heavily burdened by
+ordinary funeral expenses. {328}  This morning the Governor sent his
+secretary to present me with a translation of an interesting account of
+the practice of cremation and its introduction into Japan.
+
+_S.S._ “_Volga_,” Christmas Eve, 1878.—The snowy dome of Fujisan
+reddening in the sunrise rose above the violet woodlands of Mississippi
+Bay as we steamed out of Yokohama Harbour on the 19th, and three days
+later I saw the last of Japan—a rugged coast, lashed by a wintry sea.
+
+                                                                  I. L. B.
+
+
+
+
+INDEX.
+
+
+ABUKAWA, 173; village forge, 173.
+
+Abuta, Aino village, 306.
+
+Adzuma bridge, 22.
+
+Agano river, 102.
+
+Aganokawa river, 120.
+
+A Hiogo Buddha, 272.
+
+Aidzu mountains, 103; plain, 106.
+
+Aino farmhouse, 204; storehouses, 223, 247; lodges, 224; chief, 233 _et
+seq._; house, 234; millet-mill and pestle, 238; patriarch, 258; gods,
+265; urns, 265, 266; house, plan of, 267.
+
+AINOS, the hairy, 225; superb-looking, 232; huts, life in, 234, 235; at
+home, 235; model villages, 237; hospitality, 237, 278; politeness, 239,
+250; witch-like woman, 239; reverence for age, 240; salutation, 240, 279;
+truthfulness, 240; chief’s wife, 242, 243; children, 244, 260; tenderness
+to a sick child, 245; occupations, 247, 248; women, 248, 258, 259;
+Pipichari, 249, 287; sick woman, 250, 251; fear of Japanese Government,
+251; shrine, 252; handsome chief, 253; qualities, 254; no history, 255;
+physique, 255; of Yezo, 256; European resemblances, 257; savage look,
+257; height, 257; tattooing, 259, 260; children, obedience of, 261;
+clothing, 262; jewellery, 263; houses, 263–265; household gods, 265;
+Japanese curios, 265, 266; mats, 268; food, 268; bows and arrows, 269;
+arrow-traps, 269, 270; weaving, 271; no religion, 273; libations, 274;
+recitation, 275; solitary act of sacrifice, 275; bear-worship, 275;
+Festival of the Bear, 275, 277; ideas of a future state, 277; social
+customs, 277, 278; marriage and divorce, 278; amusements, 279; musical
+instruments, 279; manners, 279; health, 279, 280; intoxication, 280;
+uncleanly habits, 280; office of chief, 281; eldest son, 281; dread of
+snakes, 282; fear of death, 282; appearance of old men, 283; domestic
+life, 284.
+
+Ainos, coast, 304, 305; Lebungé, 313.
+
+Akayu, 132; horse fair, 132; sulphur springs, 134; bathing sheds, 134;
+_yadoya_, 134.
+
+Akita farm-house, 204.
+
+A kuruma, 35.
+
+A lady’s mirror, 201.
+
+A Lake Biwa tea-house, 20.
+
+_Amado_, or wooden shutters, 71.
+
+_Amainu_, or heavenly dogs, 27.
+
+_Andon_, the, or native lamp, 73.
+
+Aomori Bay, 207; town, 207; lacquer, 207.
+
+Arai river, 122.
+
+Arakai river, 96; mode of crossing, 96.
+
+Araya, 156.
+
+Archery galleries at Asakusa, 29.
+
+Architecture, temple, uniformity of, 21.
+
+Arrow-traps, 269, 270.
+
+Asakusa, temple of Kwan-non at, 21; sights of, 27; its novelties, 30.
+
+Asiatic Arcadia, an, 133.
+
+Attendant at tea-house, 64.
+
+                                * * * * *
+
+BAGGAGE coolies in distress, 126.
+
+Bandaisan, the double-peaked, 103.
+
+Bangé, 100; congress of schoolmasters, 100; stampede, 101.
+
+Barbarism and ignorance, 107.
+
+Barber, female, 200.
+
+Barbers’ shops, 77.
+
+Bargaining, 77.
+
+Bear, Festival of the, 275, 277.
+
+Beggary, absence of, 127.
+
+Benri, chief of the Ainos, 233, 240, 241, 281, 283.
+
+_Bettos_, or running-grooms, 8.
+
+Binzuru, the medicine god, 26, 27.
+
+Biratori, 234; situation of, 237.
+
+Blind men in Japan, 175, 176.
+
+Boats, 178.
+
+Bone, a, extracted, 104.
+
+Booths, various, 29, 30.
+
+Boys and girls, a procession of, 68.
+
+British doggedness, 180.
+
+Buddhist priests, 112.
+
+Burial, a splendid, 54, 55.
+
+                                * * * * *
+
+CALIGRAPHY, 70.
+
+Canoes, 317.
+
+_Chaya_ and _yadoya_, distinction between, 37.
+
+_Chayas_, or tea-houses, 36, 37.
+
+Cheating a policeman, 152, 153.
+
+Children, Japanese, docility of, 75.
+
+Children’s parties, 68; names, 68, 69; games, amusing, 69; dignity and
+self-possession, 69; etiquette, 69.
+
+Chinamen in Yokohama, 15.
+
+Chlorodyne, cures effected by, 93, 94, 250, 251.
+
+Chôkaizan, snow mountain, 139, 148.
+
+Christian converts, 202.
+
+Cleanliness, want of, 94, 95.
+
+Climate of Niigata, 119.
+
+Clogs, 12.
+
+“Cockle’s Pills,” 287.
+
+_Coiffure_, 200.
+
+Coolies, baggage, 126, 127.
+
+Corrals, Yezo, 296.
+
+Country, a pretty, 180.
+
+Cow, riding a, 124.
+
+Cows, cotton cloths on, for protection, 128.
+
+Cremation, 325; building for the purpose, 327; mode of burning, 327.
+
+                                * * * * *
+
+DAIKOKU, the god of wealth, 104, 154.
+
+_Daimiyô_, or feudal princes, 13 _et seq._
+
+Dainichido, gardens of, 54.
+
+Daiya river, the, 49, 51.
+
+Dinner, Japanese etiquette at, 142.
+
+Dirt and disease, 93–95.
+
+Distinction between costume of moral and immoral women, 202.
+
+Ditty, a dismal, 67.
+
+Doctors, Japanese, prejudice against surgical operations, 141, 142.
+
+Dogs, Japanese, 86; yellow, 237.
+
+_Doma_, the, 37.
+
+Dr. Palm and his tandem, 121.
+
+Dress, female, 83, 84.
+
+                                * * * * *
+
+EARTHQUAKE, shocks of, 59; effect on priests, 59.
+
+Eden, a garden of, 133.
+
+_Élégante_, a Japanese, 31.
+
+England unknown, 105.
+
+Entrance to shrine of Seventh Shôgun, Shiba, Tôkiyô, 323.
+
+Equipments, travelling, list of, 32, 33.
+
+Etiquette, Japanese, 69.
+
+Excess of males over females, 98.
+
+Excursion, solitary, a, 203.
+
+Expedition, an, entertaining account of, 328, _note_.
+
+                                * * * * *
+
+FAIR, perpetual, 23.
+
+Farm-houses, 203, 204.
+
+Female hand, tattooed, 260.
+
+Ferry, a Japanese, 96.
+
+Festival, the Tanabata, at Kuroishi, 198, 199; of the Bear, 275.
+
+Fleas, consensus of opinion as to, 18.
+
+Flowers, art of arranging, 70.
+
+Flowers of Yezo, 227.
+
+“Flowing Invocation,” the, 130, 131.
+
+“Food Question,” the, 19.
+
+Forgeries of European eatables and drinkables, 138.
+
+“Front-horse,” a, 218, 228.
+
+Funeral, a Shôgun’s, 54, 55; Buddhist, at Rokugo, 148; the coffin or box,
+150; procession, 151.
+
+Fujihari, 85; dirt and squalor at, 86; primitive Japanese dog in, 86;
+fleas, 86.
+
+Fujisan, first view of, 2; from a village on the Tôkaidô, 326.
+
+_Fusuma_, or sliding paper panels, 38, 45.
+
+Fyson, Mrs., and Ruth, 118, 119.
+
+                                * * * * *
+
+GAMES, children’s, 69, 195.
+
+Gardens, Japanese, 118.
+
+_Geishas_, or dancing-girls, 46.
+
+Ginsainoma, Yezo, 216.
+
+God-shelf, the, 72.
+
+Gods, Aino household, 265.
+
+Guide-books, Japanese, 71.
+
+                                * * * * *
+
+HACHIISHI, its doll street, 49; specialties of its shops, 49.
+
+_Hai_, “yes,” 181.
+
+Hair-dressing, 75, 76, 201.
+
+HAKODATÉ, external aspect, 212; peculiar roofs, 213; junks, 320, 321.
+
+Hakodaté harbour, 208.
+
+Hepburn, Dr., 16, 17.
+
+_Hibachi_, or brazier, 77.
+
+Hinokiyama village, 176.
+
+Hirakawa river, 191; destruction of bridge, 192.
+
+Hirosaki, 202.
+
+Home-life in Japan, 71.
+
+Home occupations, 185.
+
+Honoki, pass of, 125.
+
+Hornets, 140.
+
+Horobets village, 223, 296.
+
+Horse, a wicked, 147.
+
+Horse-ants, 140.
+
+Horse-breaking, Japanese, 295, 307.
+
+Horse-fights, 307.
+
+Horses, treatment of, 164; in Yezo, 218; drove of, 226, 227.
+
+Hotel expenses, 184.
+
+Hot springs, 89, 290.
+
+House, a pleasant, 51.
+
+Houses, scenes in the, 74; hermetically sealed, 95; numbers in, 124.
+
+Hozawa village, 106.
+
+                                * * * * *
+
+ICHIKAWA pass, 97; glorious view, 97; village, 97; waterfall, 97.
+
+Ichinono hamlet, 127.
+
+Idyll, a Japanese, 151.
+
+Ikari, 90; the people at, 91.
+
+Ikarigaseki, 191; detention at, 193–196; occupation, 193; kite-flying,
+195; games, 195.
+
+Imaichi, 48.
+
+Inari, the god of rice-farmers, 93.
+
+Infant prodigy, an, 166.
+
+Iniwashiro lake, 99.
+
+Innai, 143; Upper and Lower, malady at, 144; description of, 144, 145.
+
+Insect pests at Niigata, 114.
+
+Invocation, the flowing, 129–131.
+
+Irimichi, 51; a “squeeze” at, 65; village of, 66; school at, 66, 67.
+
+_Irori_, the 38.
+
+Isshinden, temple gateway at, 311.
+
+_Itama_, the, 37.
+
+Ito, first impressions of, 17, 18, taking a “squeeze,” 65; personal
+vanity, 78; ashamed, 86, 125; cleverness and intelligence, 87; a zealous
+student, 87; intensely Japanese, 87; a Shintôist, 88; particularly
+described, 161; excellent memory, 161; keeps a diary, 161;
+characteristics, 162; prophecy, 162; patriotism, 162; an apt pupil, 163;
+fairly honest, 164; surliness, 175; delinquency, 214; selfishness, 236;
+smitten, 287; cruelty, 307; parting, 321.
+
+Itosawa, 93.
+
+Itoyasan precipices, 103.
+
+Iwakisan plain, 197; snow mountain, 197.
+
+Iyémitsu, temple of, at Nikkô, 58.
+
+Iyéyasu’s tomb at Nikkô, 58.
+
+                                * * * * *
+
+JAPAN, first view of, 1; Chinamen in, 15; tiling in, 60; home-life in,
+71; excess of males over females in the empire of, 98; freedom from
+insult and incivility in, 101; barbarism and ignorance in, 107; winter
+evenings in, 123; divorce in, 124; absence of mendicancy in, 127; convict
+labour in, 137; drawbacks of travelling in, 140; firmness in travelling
+necessary in, 155; police force in, and cost of, 160; blind men in, 175,
+176; effect of sunshine in, 183; evening occupations in, 185; rain in,
+187; cremation in, 325–327.
+
+JAPANESE restaurant, portable, 4; paper-money, 7; man-cart, 9; railroad
+and railway station, 10; railway cars, 11; in European dress, 11; clogs,
+12; temple architecture, uniformity of, 21; temples, 21, 55, 58, 99, 151,
+302, 303; lanterns, stone, 28; booths, 29, 30; temple grounds and archery
+galleries, 29; _éléganté_, 31; passport, 33, 34; tattooing, 34; tea, 39;
+threshing, varieties in, 44; inquisitiveness, 45; dancing-girls, 46;
+idyll, 51; masonry, 58; wood-carving, 60; watering-place, 65; school, a
+village, 66—punishments at, 67; children’s parties, 68; names, female,
+68, 69; etiquette, 69; needle-work and garments, 69; circulating
+libraries, 69, 70; games, children’s, 69, 195; children’s names, 69;
+caligraphy, 70; guide-books, 71; recreations, 71; lamp, 73; shops,
+articles sold in, 73, 74; parental love, 75; hair-dressing, 75, 76, 201;
+children, docility of, 75; barbers’ shops, 77; bargaining, 77; money,
+current, 79; female dress, 83, 84; dog, primitive, 86; rivers, change of
+names of, 90; ferry, 96; policemen, 100—vigilance of, 197, 198; mountain
+scenery, 103; gardens, 118; doctors, 121; dirt and barbarism, 123;
+houses, tables outside of, 124—numbers in, 124; baggage coolies, 126,
+127; cows, 128; criticism on a foreign usage, 128; pack-horse, 132;
+doctors and rheumatism, 135, 136—their prejudice against surgical
+operations, 141, 142; gentleman, agreeable, 137; convicts, 137; love of
+foreign intoxicants, 138; doctor, 141;—his treatment and fee, 141;
+etiquette at dinner, 142; men and women, costume of, 143; crowd,
+curiosity of, 146; treatment of the dead, 149; silk factory, 159; horses,
+treatment of, 164, 218; belief as to their descent, 165; visitors, 165;
+infant prodigy, 166; marriage, 166, 167; trousseau, 167; furniture, 167;
+marriage ceremony, 167, 169; holiday scene, 170; festivals, 171, 198,
+199, 275; gods and demons, 172; village forge, 173; travelling, fatigues
+of, of, 175—ludicrous incidents of, 182; boats, 178; kindness, 181;
+conversation, effect of, 185; home occupations, 185; devotions, 186;
+children, 193, 194; kite flying and games, 195; toilet, a lady’s, 200;
+_coiffure_, 200; hair-dressing, 200, 201; female barber, 200; lady’s
+mirror, 201; farm-houses, 203, 204; bath-houses, politeness in, 205, 218;
+imitations of foreign manufactured British goods, 218; horse-breaking,
+295, 307; road-post, 301; Paradise, 309; canoes, 317; junks, 320, 321.
+
+Jin-ri-ki-shas, 4, 5 (see _Kuruma_).
+
+_Jishindo_, or “earthquake door,” 304.
+
+Junks, 320.
+
+“John Chinaman,” 15, 16.
+
+Journey, an experimental, on horseback, 62.
+
+Juvenile belle and her costume, a, 68.
+
+                                * * * * *
+
+_Kaimiyô_, or posthumous name, 130, 149.
+
+Kaitakushi saddle-horse, 218.
+
+Kajikawa river, 120.
+
+_Kakemonos_, or wall-pictures, 46, 52.
+
+_Kak’ké_, a Japanese disease, 144, 145.
+
+_Kamidana_, the, or god-shelf, 72.
+
+Kaminoyama, 134; hot springs, 135; the belle of, 135; _yadoya_, 136;
+_kura_, or godown, 136.
+
+Kanaya, 50; his house, 51, 52; floral decorations, 52; table equipments,
+53.
+
+Kanayama, 140.
+
+Kasayanagê, farming village, 120.
+
+_Kashitsukeya_, disreputable houses, 46.
+
+Kasukabé, 39; the _yadoya_, 39; lack of privacy, 40; a night alarm, 41.
+
+Katakado hamlet, 102.
+
+Kawaguchi village, 122, 181.
+
+Kayashima, 93; discomfort, 93; a boy cured, 94; a diseased crowd, 94;
+habits and food of the natives, 94; houses hermetically sealed, 95.
+
+_Kenrei_, or provincial governor, 115.
+
+_Kimono_, the, or gown for both sexes, 43 _et seq._
+
+Kinugawa river, 84, 89; beauty of scenery on its banks, 89.
+
+Kiri Furi, the falls of, 54.
+
+Kiriishi hamlet, 177.
+
+Kisagoi, a poor place, 82.
+
+Kisaki, 120.
+
+Kite competition, 195.
+
+_Kôchô_, or chief man of the village, 143.
+
+Kohiaku, mountain farm of, 81.
+
+Komatsu, 131; spacious room and luxurious appointments, 131; frogs, 132;
+runaway pack-horse, 132.
+
+Komoni-taki volcano, 216.
+
+Kotsunagi, 177.
+
+Kubota, 155; brisk trade, 156; suburban residences, 156; hospital,
+157–158; public buildings, 158; Normal School, 158; silk factory, 159;
+police escort, 159; afternoon visitors, 165; infant prodigy, 166;
+Japanese wedding, 167–169.
+
+_Kura_, or fire-proof storehouse, 53.
+
+Kuroishi, 198; festival at, 198, 199.
+
+Kurokawa, 121; _matsuri_ at, 122.
+
+Kurosawa, poverty and dulness, 123; dirt and barbarism, 125.
+
+_Kuruma_, the, or jin-ri-ki-sha, 4, 5, 35 _et seq._
+
+Kuruma pass, 103.
+
+_Kuruma_-runners, costume of, 34.
+
+Kurumatogé, 92; inn on the hill, 103; bone extracted, 104; hostess, 104;
+the road from, infamous, 106; pass, 106.
+
+Kusamoto, Mr., 325, 326.
+
+KWAN-NON, temple of, at Asakusa, 21; perpetual fair, 23; the _Ni-ô_, 24;
+votive offerings, 25; the high altar, 25; prayers and pellets, 26;
+Binzuru, the medicine god, 26, 27; _Amainu_, or heavenly dogs, 27; stone
+lanterns, 28; revolving shrine, 28; temple grounds and archery galleries,
+29; booths, 29, 30.
+
+                                * * * * *
+
+LAGOON, curious, 172.
+
+Lake of Blood, the, 131.
+
+Lamp, Japanese, 73.
+
+Land Transport Company, or _Riku-un-kaisha_, 79.
+
+Lanterns, stone, 28.
+
+Lebungé, 310; its isolation, 312; Ainos; 312, 313.
+
+Lebungétogé passes, 308.
+
+Legation, the British, at Yedo, 13.
+
+Libraries, circulating, 69, 70.
+
+Ludicrous incident, a, 152.
+
+                                * * * * *
+
+_Mago_, the, or leader of a pack-horse, 62, 84.
+
+Maladies, repulsive, prevalence of, 76.
+
+Man-carts, two-wheeled, 8, 9.
+
+Mari, farming-village, 120.
+
+_Maro_, or loin-cloth, 46.
+
+Marriage, a Japanese, 166, 167; trousseau and furniture, 167; ceremony,
+167, 169.
+
+Masonry, Japanese, 58.
+
+Matsuhara village, mistake at, 129.
+
+Matsuka river, 133.
+
+_Matsuri_ at Minato, 171; classic dance, 171; cars, 171.
+
+Medicine god, the, at Asakusa, 26, 27.
+
+Mihashi, or Sacred Bridge, 50.
+
+_Mikoshi_, or sacred car, 24.
+
+Millet-mill and pestle, 238.
+
+Minato, the junk port of Kubota, 170; _matsuri_ at, 170, 171; sobriety
+and order, 171.
+
+Mirror, a lady’s, 201.
+
+“MISSING LINK,” the, 314.
+
+Miyojintaké, snow-fields and ravines, 103.
+
+Mogami river, 139.
+
+Mombets, 286; scenes at, 286.
+
+Money, 7; current, 79.
+
+Mono, farming village, 120.
+
+Moore, Captain, 322.
+
+Moral lesson, a, 36.
+
+Mori village, 317, 318, 220.
+
+Morioka village, 173.
+
+Mororan, 221; bay, 222.
+
+Mororan, Old, 297, 298.
+
+Mountain scenery, 103.
+
+Mud-flat or swamp of Yedo, 36.
+
+My _kuruma_-runner, 305.
+
+Myself in a straw rain-cloak, 176.
+
+                                * * * * *
+
+NAKAJO, Japanese doctors at, 121.
+
+Nakano, Lower, 205; bath-houses, 205.
+
+Nakano, Upper, 204, 205.
+
+Names, female, 68, 69.
+
+Namioka, 207.
+
+Nanai, Yezo, 218.
+
+Nantaizan mountains, 49.
+
+Needle-work, Japanese, 69.
+
+Night-alarm, a, 41.
+
+NIIGATA, landward side disappointing, 111; Church Mission House, 111,
+112; itinerary of route from Nikkô to, 113; a Treaty Port, 114; insect
+pests, 114; without foreign trade, 114; its river, 114, 115; population,
+115; hospital and schools, 115; gardens, 116; beautiful tea-houses, 116;
+cleanliness, 116; water-ways, 116; houses, 117, 118; climate, 119; to
+Aomori, itinerary of route from, 210, 211.
+
+Nikkôsan mountains, the, 80.
+
+NIKKÔ, “sunny splendour,” 54; its beauties, 54; the Red Bridge, 55; the
+Yomei Gate, 56; the mythical _Kirin_, 56; the _haiden_ or chapel, 57; the
+Shôgun’s room, 57; the Abbot’s room, 57; the great staircase, 57;
+Iyéyasu’s tomb, 58; temples of Iyémetsu, 58; gigantic _Ni-ô_, 58; Buddha,
+59; the Tennô, 59; wood-carving, 60, 61; shops, 73, 74; houses, 75; to
+Niigata, itinerary of route from, 113.
+
+_Ni-ô_, the, at Asakusa, 24.
+
+Nocturnal disturbance, a, 179.
+
+Nojiri village, 103, 104.
+
+Nopkobets river, 306.
+
+Nosoki, Dr., 141; lotion and febrifuge, 141; old-fashioned practitioner,
+142; at dinner, 142.
+
+Nosoki village, 143.
+
+Nozawa town, 103.
+
+Numa hamlet, 123; crowded dwellings, 124.
+
+                                * * * * *
+
+OBANASAWA, 139.
+
+Odaté, 181; _yadoyas_, nocturnal disturbances at, 181, 182.
+
+Okawa stream, 90.
+
+Okimi, 124.
+
+Omagori, manufacture of earthenware jars for interment, 149, 150.
+
+Omono river, 143, 148, 155, 156.
+
+Ori pass, 124.
+
+Oshamambé, 315.
+
+Osharu river, 301.
+
+Ouchi hamlet, 96.
+
+Oyakê lake, 97.
+
+                                * * * * *
+
+PACK-COWS, 124, 128.
+
+Pack-horse, the Japanese, 62, 63; a vicious, 102.
+
+Pack-saddle, description of, 62, 63.
+
+Packet-boat, “running the rapids” of Tsugawa, 109, 110.
+
+Palm, Dr., his tandem, 121.
+
+Paper-money, 7.
+
+Parental love, 75.
+
+Parkes, Sir Harry and Lady, 8.
+
+Parting, a regretful, 50.
+
+Passport, travelling, 33; regulations of, 33, 34.
+
+Peasant costume, 43.
+
+Pellets and prayers, 26.
+
+Picture and guidebooks, Japanese, 71.
+
+Pipicharo, the Aino, 249, 250, 252, 287; a “total abstainer,” 249.
+
+Poison and arrow-traps, 269.
+
+Priests, Buddhist, fees to, 151.
+
+Prospect, a painful, 19.
+
+                                * * * * *
+
+QUERIES, curious, 163.
+
+“Quiver of poverty,” the, 92.
+
+                                * * * * *
+
+RAIN-CLOAK, straw, 176.
+
+Reception, a formal, 157.
+
+Reiheishi-kaido, an “In memoriam” avenue, 48.
+
+Restaurant, portable, 4.
+
+Rice, 36.
+
+Rivers, Japanese, change of names of, 90.
+
+Road-side tea-house, 38.
+
+Rokkukado, the, 288.
+
+Rokugo, 148; Buddhist funeral at, 148; temple at, 151.
+
+                                * * * * *
+
+SAIKAIYAMA, 106.
+
+Sakamoki river, 137; handsome bridge at, 137.
+
+Sakatsu pass, 143.
+
+_Saké_, the national drink, 71, 168, 169; effects of, 71, 183; libations
+of, 274.
+
+Sakuratogé river, 128.
+
+_Salisburia adiantifolia_, 309, 313.
+
+_Samisen_, the national female instrument, 70.
+
+_Sampans_, or native boats, 3; mode of sculling, 4.
+
+Sanno pass, 96.
+
+Sarufuto, 231.
+
+Sarufutogawa river, 237, 246.
+
+Satow, Mr. Ernest, Japanese Secretary of Legation, 14; his reputation,
+199.
+
+_Satsu_, or paper money, 7.
+
+Savage life at Biratori, 234–236.
+
+School, a village, 66; lessons and punishments, 67.
+
+Science, native, dissection unknown to, 142.
+
+Scramble, a Yezo, 228.
+
+Seaweed, symbolism of, 165.
+
+Seed shop, a, 78.
+
+Servant, engaging a, 16–18.
+
+Shinagawa or Shinbashi village, 12.
+
+Shinano river, 114, 115, 120.
+
+Shingoji, 153; rude intrusion, 153.
+
+Shinjô, 139; trade, 139; discomforts, 140.
+
+Shinkawa river, 120.
+
+Shione pass, 143.
+
+Shirakasawa, mountain village, 128; graceful act at, 129.
+
+Shiraôi village, 226, 289; volcanic phenomena, 290; hot spring, 291;
+lianas, 292; beautiful scenery, 292, 293; bear-trap, 293; houses, 294.
+
+Shirawasa, 183; eclipse at, 186.
+
+Shiribetsan mountain, 301.
+
+Shoes, straw, a nuisance, 88.
+
+_Shôji_, or sliding screens, 40.
+
+Shopping, 77.
+
+Shops, Japanese, articles sold in, 73, 74.
+
+Shrine, revolving, 28.
+
+Shrines, beauty of, 60.
+
+Sight, a strange, 81.
+
+Silk factory, 159.
+
+Sir Harry’s messenger, 42.
+
+Skin-diseases, 76.
+
+Solitary ride, a, 216–219.
+
+Springs, hot, 89.
+
+“Squeeze,” a, 19, 65.
+
+Stone lanterns, 28.
+
+Storm, effects of a, 188.
+
+Straw rain-cloak, 176, 177.
+
+Straw shoes for horses, 88.
+
+Street, a clean, 49.
+
+Street and canal, 117.
+
+Sulphur spring at Yumoto, 65.
+
+Sumida river, 22.
+
+Summer and winter costume, 82.
+
+                                * * * * *
+
+TAIHEISAN mountain, 156.
+
+Tajima, 96.
+
+Takadayama mountain, 88.
+
+Takahara, 88, 89; hot springs, 89.
+
+Takata, 99; general aspect, 100; policemen at, 100.
+
+Tamagawa hamlet, 124.
+
+Tarumai volcano, 227, 228.
+
+_Tatami_, or house mats, 40.
+
+Tattooing, 34, 259, 260.
+
+Tea, Japanese, 39.
+
+_Teishi_, or landlord, 39.
+
+Temple architecture, uniformity of, 21.
+
+Tendo town, 138.
+
+Threshing, varieties in, 44.
+
+Tochigi, 45; the _yadoya_ and _shôji_, 45.
+
+Tochiida, 139.
+
+Togénoshita, 318.
+
+Toilet, a lady’s, 200; hair-dressing, 200, 201; paint and cosmetics, 201,
+202; mirror, 201.
+
+TÔKIYÔ, 10; first impressions, 12; the British Legation, 13; Kwan-non
+temple of Asakusa, 21; a perpetual fair, 23; archery galleries, 29;
+western innovations, 30; tranquillity of, 324.
+
+_Tokonoma_, or floors of polished wood, 52.
+
+Tomakomai, 227.
+
+Toné, river, 43.
+
+_Torii_, a, 149.
+
+Toyôka village, 174.
+
+Transport, prices, 79; agent, 97.
+
+Travelling equipments, 32, 33; passports, 33, 34.
+
+Travelling, slow, 143.
+
+Tsugawa river, 106; _yadoya_, 107; town, 108; packet-boat, 109; “running
+the rapids,” 109; fantastic scenery, 110; river-course, 110; river-life,
+110.
+
+Tsuguriko, 180.
+
+Tsuiji, farming village, 120, 121.
+
+Tsukuno, 134.
+
+Tufa cones, 290.
+
+“Typhoon,” a, 322.
+
+“Typhoon rain,” a, 297.
+
+                                * * * * *
+
+UDONOSAN snow-fields, 139.
+
+Universal greyness, 207; language, the, 296.
+
+Unpleasant detention, an, 187.
+
+Usu, 302; temple, 302, 303; bay, 304; Aino lodges at, 304.
+
+Usu-taki volcano, 300.
+
+Utsu pass, view from, 129.
+
+                                * * * * *
+
+VEGETATION, tropical, 85.
+
+Village life, 47.
+
+Vineyards on the Tsugawa, 111.
+
+Volcano Bay, 220.
+
+                                * * * * *
+
+WAKAMATSU, 99.
+
+Watering-place, a native, 65.
+
+Waterproof cloak, a paper, 78.
+
+Water-shed, the, 93.
+
+Welcome, a wild, 208, 209.
+
+Wilkinson, Mr., 19.
+
+Winter dismalness, 123.
+
+Women, employment for, 159.
+
+Wood-carving at Nikkö, 60.
+
+Worship, a supposed act of, 244.
+
+                                * * * * *
+
+YADATE Pass, 188, 189; the force of water, 189; landslips, 189.
+
+_Yadoya_, or hotel, 37, 39, 45, 48, 63, 65, 85, 93, 100, 101, 103, 107,
+122, 123, 131, 132, 134, 136, 144, 147, 156, 178, 179, 181, 191, 195,
+217, 220, 226, 280, 294, 315, 316, 318; taxes on, 136.
+
+Yamagata _ken_, 125; prosperous, 137; plain, 137; convict labour at, 137;
+town, 137; its streets, 137; forgeries of eatables and drinkables, 138;
+public buildings, 138; vulgarity of policemen, 138.
+
+Yamakushinoi hamlet, 316.
+
+Yedo city, 10 (_see_ Tôkiyô); gulf of, 11; plain of, 11.
+
+YEZO, 216, 217; itinerary of tour in, 319.
+
+Yokohama, 3; _sampans_, 3; portable restaurant, 4; _kurumas_, or
+jin-ri-ki-shas, 4; man-carts, 8; railway station and fares, 10, 11;
+Chinamen, 15.
+
+Yokokawa, 92; filth and squalor, 92.
+
+Yokote, 147; discomfort, 148; Shintô temple, 148; _torii_, 148.
+
+Yomei Gate, the, 56.
+
+Yonetsurugawa river, 177; exciting transit, 177, 178.
+
+Yonezawa plain, 129, 131, 133.
+
+Yoshida, 133.
+
+Yoshitsuné, shrine of, 252, 253, 273, _note_.
+
+Yubets, 228, 289; a ghostly dwelling at, 229.
+
+Yuki, her industry, 69.
+
+Yumoto village, 65; bathing sheds at, 65.
+
+Yurapu, Aino village, 316; river, 316.
+
+Yusowa, 145; fire at, 145; lunch in public, 146; accident at, 146;
+curiosity of crowd, 146.
+
+                                * * * * *
+
+_Zen_, or small table, 53.
+
+                                * * * * *
+
+          PRINTED AT THE EDINBURGH PRESS, 9 AND 11 YOUNG STREET.
+
+
+
+
+FOOTNOTES.
+
+
+{2}  This is an altogether exceptional aspect of Fujisan, under
+exceptional atmospheric conditions.  The mountain usually looks broader
+and lower, and is often compared to an inverted fan.
+
+{5}  I continue hereafter to use the Japanese word _kuruma_ instead of
+the Chinese word _Jin-ri-ki-sha_.  _Kuruma_, literally a wheel or
+vehicle, is the word commonly used by the _Jin-ri-ki-sha_ men and other
+Japanese for the “man-power-carriage,” and is certainly more euphonious.
+From _kuruma_ naturally comes _kurumaya_ for the _kuruma_ runner.
+
+{14}  Often in the later months of my residence in Japan, when I asked
+educated Japanese questions concerning their history, religions, or
+ancient customs, I was put off with the answer, “You should ask Mr.
+Satow, he could tell you.”
+
+{19}  After several months of travelling in some of the roughest parts of
+the interior, I should advise a person in average health—and none other
+should travel in Japan—not to encumber himself with tinned meats, soups,
+claret, or any eatables or drinkables, except Liebig’s extract of meat.
+
+{27}  I visited this temple alone many times afterwards, and each visit
+deepened the interest of my first impressions.  There is always enough of
+change and novelty to prevent the interest from flagging, and the mild,
+but profoundly superstitious, form of heathenism which prevails in Japan
+is nowhere better represented.
+
+{32}  The list of my equipments is given as a help to future travellers,
+especially ladies, who desire to travel long distances in the interior of
+Japan.  One wicker basket is enough, as I afterwards found.
+
+{41}  My fears, though quite natural for a lady alone, had really no
+justification.  I have since travelled 1200 miles in the interior, and in
+Yezo, with perfect safety and freedom from alarm, and I believe that
+there is no country in the world in which a lady can travel with such
+absolute security from danger and rudeness as in Japan.
+
+{46}  In my northern journey I was very frequently obliged to put up with
+rough and dirty accommodation, because the better sort of houses were of
+this class.  If there are few sights which shock the traveller, there is
+much even on the surface to indicate vices which degrade and enslave the
+manhood of Japan.
+
+{79}  I advise every traveller in the ruder regions of Japan to take a
+similar stretcher and a good mosquito net.  With these he may defy all
+ordinary discomforts.
+
+{87}  This can only be true of the behaviour of the lowest excursionists
+from the Treaty Ports.
+
+{95}  Many unpleasant details have necessarily been omitted.  If the
+reader requires any apology for those which are given here and elsewhere,
+it must be found in my desire to give such a faithful picture of peasant
+life, as I saw it in Northern Japan, as may be a contribution to the
+general sum of knowledge of the country, and, at the same time, serve to
+illustrate some of the difficulties which the Government has to encounter
+in its endeavour to raise masses of people as deficient as these are in
+some of the first requirements of civilisation.
+
+{98}  The excess of males over females in the capital is 36,000, and in
+the whole Empire nearly half a million.
+
+{115a}  By one of these, not fitted up for passengers, I have sent one of
+my baskets to Hakodaté, and by doing so have come upon one of the
+vexatious restrictions by which foreigners are harassed.  It would seem
+natural to allow a foreigner to send his personal luggage from one Treaty
+Port to another without going through a number of formalities which
+render it nearly impossible, but it was only managed by Ito sending mine
+in his own name to a Japanese at Hakodaté with whom he is slightly
+acquainted.
+
+{115b}  This hospital is large and well ventilated, but has not as yet
+succeeded in attracting many in-patients; out-patients, specially
+sufferers from ophthalmia, are very numerous.  The Japanese chief
+physician regards the great prevalence of the malady in this
+neighbourhood as the result of damp, the reflection of the sun’s rays
+from sand and snow, inadequate ventilation and charcoal fumes.
+
+{145}  _Kak’ké_, by William Anderson, F.R.C.S.  Transactions of English
+Asiatic Society of Japan, January 1878.
+
+{168}  I failed to learn what the liquor was which was drunk so freely,
+but as no unseemly effects followed its use, I think it must either have
+been light wine, or light _saké_.
+
+{216}  I venture to present this journal letter, with a few omissions,
+just as it was written, trusting that the interest which attaches to
+aboriginal races and little-visited regions will carry my readers through
+the minuteness and multiplicity of its details.
+
+{218}  The use of kerosene in matted wooden houses is a new cause of
+conflagrations.  It is not possible to say how it originated, but just
+before Christmas 1879 a fire broke out in Hakodaté, which in a few hours
+destroyed 20 streets, 2500 houses, the British Consulate, several public
+buildings, the new native Christian church, and the church Mission House,
+leaving 11,000 people homeless.
+
+{241}  I went over them with the Ainos of a remote village on Volcano
+Bay, and found the differences in pronunciation very slight, except that
+the definiteness of the sound which I have represented by Tsch was more
+strongly marked.  I afterwards went over them with Mr. Dening, and with
+Mr. Von Siebold at Tôkiyô, who have made a larger collection of words
+than I have, and it is satisfactory to find that we have represented the
+words in the main by the same letters, with the single exception that
+usually the sound represented by them by the letters _ch_ I have given as
+_Tsch_, and I venture to think that is the most correct rendering.
+
+{271}  I have not been able to obtain from any botanist the name of the
+tree from the bark of which the thread is made, but suppose it to be a
+species of _Tiliaceæ_.
+
+{273}  Yoshitsuné is the most popular hero of Japanese history, and the
+special favourite of boys.  He was the brother of Yoritomo, who was
+appointed by the Mikado in 1192 _Sei-i Tai Shôgun_ (barbarian-subjugating
+great general) for his victories, and was the first of that series of
+great Shôguns whom our European notions distorted into “Temporal
+Emperors” of Japan.  Yoshitsuné, to whom the real honour of these
+victories belonged, became the object of the jealousy and hatred of his
+brother, and was hunted from province to province, till, according to
+popular belief, he committed _hara-kiri_, after killing his wife and
+children, and his head, preserved in _saké_, was sent to his brother at
+Kamakura.  Scholars, however, are not agreed as to the manner, period, or
+scene of his death.  Many believe that he escaped to Yezo and lived among
+the Ainos for many years, dying among them at the close of the twelfth
+century.  None believe this more firmly than the Ainos themselves, who
+assert that he taught their fathers the arts of civilisation, with
+letters and numbers, and gave them righteous laws, and he is worshipped
+by many of them under a name which signifies Master of the Law.  I have
+been told by old men in Biratori, Usu, and Lebungé, that a later Japanese
+conqueror carried away the books in which the arts were written, and that
+since his time the arts themselves have been lost, and the Ainos have
+fallen into their present condition!  On asking why the Ainos do not make
+vessels of iron and clay as well as knives and spears, the invariable
+answer is, “The Japanese took away the books.”
+
+{321}  The duty paid by junks is 4s. for each twenty-five tons, by
+foreign ships of foreign shape and rig £2 for each 100 tons, and by
+steamers £3 for each 100 tons.
+
+{328}  The following very inaccurate but entertaining account of this
+expedition was given by the _Yomi-uri-Shimbun_, a daily newspaper with
+the largest, though not the most aristocratic, circulation in Tôkiyô,
+being taken in by the servants and tradespeople.  It is a literal
+translation made by Mr. Chamberlain.  “The person mentioned in our
+yesterday’s issue as ‘an English subject of the name of Bird’ is a lady
+from Scotland, a part of England.  This lady spends her time in
+travelling, leaving this year the two American continents for a passing
+visit to the Sandwich Islands, and landing in Japan early in the month of
+May.  She has toured all over the country, and even made a five months’
+stay in the Hokkaidô, investigating the local customs and productions.
+Her inspection yesterday of the cremation ground at Kirigaya is believed
+to have been prompted by a knowledge of the advantages of this method of
+disposing of the dead, and a desire to introduce the same into England(!)
+On account of this lady’s being so learned as to have published a
+quantity of books, His Excellency the Governor was pleased to see her
+yesterday, and to show her great civility, sending her to Kirigaya in his
+own carriage, a mark of attention which is said to have pleased the lady
+much(!)”
+
+
+
+
+***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK UNBEATEN TRACKS IN JAPAN***
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+<pre>
+
+The Project Gutenberg eBook, Unbeaten Tracks in Japan, by Isabella L. Bird
+
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most
+other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions 
+whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of
+the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at 
+www.gutenberg.org.  If you are not located in the United States, you'll have
+to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook.
+
+
+
+
+Title: Unbeaten Tracks in Japan
+
+
+Author: Isabella L. Bird
+
+
+
+Release Date: September 12, 2019  [eBook #2184]
+[This file was first posted on September 19, 1999]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII)
+
+
+***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK UNBEATEN TRACKS IN JAPAN***
+</pre>
+<p>Transcribed from the 1911 John Murray edition by David Price,
+email ccx074@pglaf.org.&nbsp; Second proofing by Kate
+Ruffell.</p>
+<p style="text-align: center">
+<a href="images/cover.jpg">
+<img alt=
+"Book cover"
+title=
+"Book cover"
+ src="images/cover.jpg" />
+</a></p>
+<p style="text-align: center">
+<a href="images/fpb.jpg">
+<img alt=
+"The Yomei Gate, Shrines of Nikk&ocirc;"
+title=
+"The Yomei Gate, Shrines of Nikk&ocirc;"
+ src="images/fps.jpg" />
+</a></p>
+<h2>UNBEATEN TRACKS<br />
+IN JAPAN</h2>
+<p style="text-align: center"><span class="GutSmall">AN ACCOUNT
+OF TRAVELS IN THE INTERIOR</span><br />
+<span class="GutSmall">INCLUDING VISITS TO THE ABORIGINES OF YEZO
+AND</span><br />
+<span class="GutSmall">THE SHRINE OF NIKK&Ocirc;</span></p>
+<p style="text-align: center">BY ISABELLA L. BIRD<br />
+<span class="GutSmall">AUTHOR OF &lsquo;SIX MONTHS IN THE
+SANDWICH ISLANDS&rsquo;</span><br />
+<span class="GutSmall">&lsquo;A LADY&rsquo;S LIFE IN THE ROCKY
+MOUNTAINS&rsquo;</span><br />
+<span class="GutSmall">ETC. ETC.</span></p>
+
+<div class="gapspace">&nbsp;</div>
+<p style="text-align: center"><span class="GutSmall">WITH
+ILLUSTRATIONS</span></p>
+
+<div class="gapspace">&nbsp;</div>
+<p style="text-align: center">LONDON<br />
+JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET<br />
+1911</p>
+
+<div class="gapspace">&nbsp;</div>
+<table>
+<tr>
+<td><p><a name="pagevi"></a><span class="pagenum">p.
+vi</span><span class="smcap">First Edition</span>,</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right"><i>January</i> 1905</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p><i>Reprinted</i>,</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right"><i>June</i> 1907</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p><span class="smcap">Second Edition</span> (1/-)</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right"><i>October</i> 1911</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+</table>
+
+<div class="gapspace">&nbsp;</div>
+<p style="text-align: center"><a name="pagevii"></a><span
+class="pagenum">p. vii</span>To the Memory<br />
+OF<br />
+LADY PARKES,<br />
+<span class="GutSmall">WHOSE KINDNESS AND FRIENDSHIP</span><br />
+<span class="GutSmall">ARE AMONG</span><br />
+<span class="GutSmall">MY MOST TREASURED REMEMBRANCES OF
+JAPAN,</span><br />
+<span class="GutSmall">THIS VOLUME IS</span><br />
+<span class="GutSmall">GRATEFULLY AND REVERENTLY</span><br />
+<span class="GutSmall">DEDICATED.</span></p>
+<h2><a name="pageix"></a><span class="pagenum">p.
+ix</span>PREFACE</h2>
+<p><span class="smcap">Having</span> been recommended to leave
+home, in April 1878, in order to recruit my health by means which
+had proved serviceable before, I decided to visit Japan,
+attracted less by the reputed excellence of its climate than by
+the certainty that it possessed, in an especial degree, those
+sources of novel and sustained interest which conduce so
+essentially to the enjoyment and restoration of a solitary
+health-seeker.&nbsp; The climate disappointed me, but, though I
+found the country a study rather than a rapture, its interest
+exceeded my largest expectations.</p>
+<p>This is not a &ldquo;Book on Japan,&rdquo; but a narrative of
+travels in Japan, and an attempt to contribute something to the
+sum of knowledge of the present condition of the country, and it
+was not till I had travelled for some months in the interior of
+the main island and in Yezo that I decided that my materials were
+novel enough to render the contribution worth making.&nbsp; From
+Nikk&ocirc; northwards my route was altogether off the beaten
+track, and had never been traversed in its entirety by any
+European.&nbsp; I lived among the Japanese, and saw their mode of
+living, in regions unaffected by European contact.&nbsp; As a
+lady travelling alone, and the first European lady who had been
+seen in several districts through which my route lay, my
+experiences differed more or less widely from those of preceding
+travellers; and I am able to offer a fuller account of the
+aborigines of Yezo, obtained by actual acquaintance <a
+name="pagex"></a><span class="pagenum">p. x</span>with them, than
+has hitherto been given.&nbsp; These are my chief reasons for
+offering this volume to the public.</p>
+<p>It was with some reluctance that I decided that it should
+consist mainly of letters written on the spot to my sister and a
+circle of personal friends, for this form of publication involves
+the sacrifice of artistic arrangement and literary treatment, and
+necessitates a certain amount of egotism; but, on the other hand,
+it places the reader in the position of the traveller, and makes
+him share the vicissitudes of travel, discomfort, difficulty, and
+tedium, as well as novelty and enjoyment.&nbsp; The &ldquo;beaten
+tracks,&rdquo; with the exception of Nikk&ocirc;, have been
+dismissed in a few sentences, but where their features have
+undergone marked changes within a few years, as in the case of
+T&ocirc;kiy&ocirc; (Yedo), they have been sketched more or less
+slightly.&nbsp; Many important subjects are necessarily passed
+over.</p>
+<p>In Northern Japan, in the absence of all other sources of
+information, I had to learn everything from the people
+themselves, through an interpreter, and every fact had to be
+disinterred by careful labour from amidst a mass of
+rubbish.&nbsp; The Ainos supplied the information which is given
+concerning their customs, habits, and religion; but I had an
+opportunity of comparing my notes with some taken about the same
+time by Mr. Heinrich Von Siebold of the Austrian Legation, and of
+finding a most satisfactory agreement on all points.</p>
+<p>Some of the Letters give a less pleasing picture of the
+condition of the peasantry than the one popularly presented, and
+it is possible that some readers may wish that it had been less
+realistically painted; but as the scenes are strictly
+representative, and I neither made them nor went in search of
+them, I offer them in the interests of truth, for they illustrate
+the nature of a large portion of the material with which the
+Japanese Government has to work in building up the New
+Civilisation.</p>
+<p>Accuracy has been my first aim, but the sources of error <a
+name="pagexi"></a><span class="pagenum">p. xi</span>are many, and
+it is from those who have studied Japan the most carefully, and
+are the best acquainted with its difficulties, that I shall
+receive the most kindly allowance if, in spite of carefulness, I
+have fallen into mistakes.</p>
+<p>The Transactions of the English and German Asiatic Societies
+of Japan, and papers on special Japanese subjects, including
+&ldquo;A Budget of Japanese Notes,&rdquo; in the <i>Japan
+Mail</i> and <i>T&ocirc;kiy&ocirc; Times</i>, gave me valuable
+help; and I gratefully acknowledge the assistance afforded me in
+many ways by Sir Harry S. Parkes, K.C.B., and Mr. Satow of
+H.B.M.&rsquo;s Legation, Principal Dyer, Mr. Chamberlain of the
+Imperial Naval College, Mr. F. V. Dickins, and others, whose
+kindly interest in my work often encouraged me when I was
+disheartened by my lack of skill; but, in justice to these and
+other kind friends, I am anxious to claim and accept the fullest
+measure of personal responsibility for the opinions expressed,
+which, whether right or wrong, are wholly my own.</p>
+<p>The illustrations, with the exception of three, which are by a
+Japanese artist, have been engraved from sketches of my own or
+Japanese photographs.</p>
+<p>I am painfully conscious of the defects of this volume, but I
+venture to present it to the public in the hope that, in spite of
+its demerits, it may be accepted as an honest attempt to describe
+things as I saw them in Japan, on land journeys of more than 1400
+miles.</p>
+<p>Since the letters passed through the press, the beloved and
+only sister to whom, in the first instance, they were written, to
+whose able and careful criticism they owe much, and whose loving
+interest was the inspiration alike of my travels and of my
+narratives of them, has passed away.</p>
+<p style="text-align: right">ISABELLA L. BIRD.</p>
+<h2><a name="pagexiii"></a><span class="pagenum">p.
+xiii</span>CONTENTS.</h2>
+<table>
+<tr>
+<td colspan="2"><p style="text-align: center">LETTER I.</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p>First View of Japan&mdash;A Vision of
+Fujisan&mdash;Japanese <i>Sampans</i>&mdash;&ldquo;Pullman
+Cars&rdquo;&mdash;Undignified Locomotion&mdash;Paper
+Money&mdash;The Drawbacks of Japanese Travelling</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">Pages <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page1">1</a></span>&ndash;7</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td colspan="2"><p style="text-align: center">LETTER II.</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p>Sir Harry Parkes&mdash;An &ldquo;Ambassador&rsquo;s
+Carriage&rdquo;&mdash;Cart Coolies</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page8">8</a></span>&ndash;9</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td colspan="2"><p style="text-align: center">LETTER III.</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p>Yedo and T&ocirc;kiy&ocirc;&mdash;The Yokohama
+Railroad&mdash;The Effect of Misfits&mdash;The Plain of
+Yedo&mdash;Personal Peculiarities&mdash;First Impressions of
+T&ocirc;kiy&ocirc;&mdash;H. B. M.&rsquo;s Legation&mdash;An
+English Home</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page10">10</a></span>&ndash;14</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td colspan="2"><p style="text-align: center">LETTER IV.</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p>&ldquo;John Chinaman&rdquo;&mdash;Engaging a
+Servant&mdash;First Impressions of Ito&mdash;A Solemn
+Contract&mdash;The Food Question</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page15">15</a></span>&ndash;20</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td colspan="2"><p style="text-align: center">LETTER V.</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p>Kwan-non Temple&mdash;Uniformity of Temple
+Architecture&mdash;A <i>Kuruma</i> Expedition&mdash;A Perpetual
+Festival&mdash;The <i>Ni-&ocirc;</i>&mdash;The Limbo of
+Vanity&mdash;Heathen Prayers&mdash;Binzuru&mdash;A Group of
+Devils&mdash;Archery Galleries&mdash;New Japan&mdash;An
+<i>&Eacute;l&eacute;gante</i></p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page21">21</a></span>&ndash;31</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td colspan="2"><p style="text-align: center"><a
+name="pagexiv"></a><span class="pagenum">p. xiv</span>LETTER
+VI.</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p>Fears&mdash;Travelling
+Equipments&mdash;Passports&mdash;Coolie Costume&mdash;A Yedo
+Diorama&mdash;Rice&mdash;Fields&mdash;Tea-Houses&mdash;A
+Traveller&rsquo;s Reception&mdash;The Inn at
+Kasukab&eacute;&mdash;Lack of Privacy&mdash;A Concourse of
+Noises&mdash;A Nocturnal Alarm&mdash;A Vision of
+Policemen&mdash;A Budget from Yedo</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page32">32</a></span>&ndash;42</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td colspan="2"><p style="text-align: center">LETTER
+VI.&mdash;(<i>Continued</i>.)</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p>A Coolie falls ill&mdash;Peasant Costume&mdash;Varieties
+in Threshing&mdash;The Tochigi <i>Yadoya</i>&mdash;Farming
+Villages&mdash;A Beautiful Region&mdash;An <i>In Memoriam</i>
+Avenue&mdash;A Doll&rsquo;s Street&mdash;Nikk&ocirc;&mdash;The
+Journey&rsquo;s End&mdash;Coolie Kindliness</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page43">43</a></span>&ndash;50</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td colspan="2"><p style="text-align: center">LETTER VII.</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p>A Japanese Idyll&mdash;Musical Stillness&mdash;My
+Rooms&mdash;Floral Decorations&mdash;Kanaya and his
+Household&mdash;Table Equipments</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page51">51</a></span>&ndash;53</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td colspan="2"><p style="text-align: center">LETTER VIII</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p>The Beauties of Nikk&ocirc;&mdash;The Burial of
+Iy&eacute;yasn&mdash;The Approach to the Great Shrines&mdash;The
+Yomei Gate&mdash;Gorgeous Decorations&mdash;Simplicity of the
+Mausoleum&mdash;The Shrine of Iy&eacute;mitsu&mdash;Religious Art
+of Japan and India&mdash;An Earthquake&mdash;Beauties of
+Wood-carving</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page54">54</a></span>&ndash;61</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td colspan="2"><p style="text-align: center">LETTER IX.</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p>A Japanese Pack-Horse and Pack-Saddle&mdash;<i>Yadoya</i>
+and Attendant&mdash;A Native Watering-Place&mdash;The Sulphur
+Baths&mdash;A &ldquo;Squeeze&rdquo;</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page62">62</a></span>&ndash;65</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td colspan="2"><p style="text-align: center">LETTER X.</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p>Peaceful Monotony&mdash;A Japanese School&mdash;A Dismal
+Ditty&mdash;Punishment&mdash;A Children&rsquo;s Party&mdash;A
+Juvenile Belle&mdash;Female Names&mdash;A Juvenile
+Drama&mdash;Needlework&mdash;Caligraphy&mdash;Arranging
+Flowers&mdash;Kanaya&mdash;Daily Routine&mdash;An Evening&rsquo;s
+Entertainment&mdash;Planning Routes&mdash;The God-shelf</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page66">66</a></span>&ndash;72</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td colspan="2"><p style="text-align: center">LETTER
+X.&mdash;(<i>Continued</i>.)</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p>Darkness visible&mdash;Nikk&ocirc; Shops&mdash;Girls and
+Matrons&mdash;Night and Sleep&mdash;Parental Love&mdash;Childish
+Docility&mdash;Hair-dressing&mdash;Skin Diseases</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page73">73</a></span>&ndash;76</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td colspan="2"><p style="text-align: center"><a
+name="pagexv"></a><span class="pagenum">p. xv</span>LETTER
+X.&mdash;(<i>Completed</i>.)</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p>Shops and Shopping&mdash;The Barber&rsquo;s Shop&mdash;A
+Paper Waterproof&mdash;Ito&rsquo;s Vanity&mdash;Preparations for
+the Journey&mdash;Transport and Prices&mdash;Money and
+Measurements</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page77">77</a></span>&ndash;79</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td colspan="2"><p style="text-align: center">LETTER XI.</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p>Comfort disappears&mdash;Fine Scenery&mdash;An
+Alarm&mdash;A Farm-house&mdash;An unusual Costume&mdash;Bridling
+a Horse&mdash;Female Dress and Ugliness&mdash;Babies&mdash;My
+<i>Mago</i>&mdash;Beauties of the
+Kinugawa&mdash;Fujihara&mdash;My
+Servant&mdash;Horse-shoes&mdash;An absurd Mistake</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page80">80</a></span>&ndash;91</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td colspan="2"><p style="text-align: center">LETTER XII.</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p>A Fantastic Jumble&mdash;The &ldquo;Quiver&rdquo; of
+Poverty&mdash;The Water-shed&mdash;From Bad to Worse&mdash;The
+Rice Planter&rsquo;s Holiday&mdash;A Diseased Crowd&mdash;Amateur
+Doctoring&mdash;Want of Cleanliness&mdash;Rapid
+Eating&mdash;Premature Old Age</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page92">92</a></span>&ndash;95</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td colspan="2"><p style="text-align: center">LETTER
+XII.&mdash;(<i>Concluded</i>.)</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p>A Japanese Ferry&mdash;A Corrugated Road&mdash;The Pass of
+Sanno&mdash;Various Vegetation&mdash;An Unattractive
+Undergrowth&mdash;Preponderance of Men</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page96">96</a></span>&ndash;98</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td colspan="2"><p style="text-align: center">LETTER XIII.</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p>The Plain of Wakamatsu&mdash;Light Costume&mdash;The
+Takata Crowd&mdash;A Congress of Schoolmasters&mdash;Timidity of
+a Crowd&mdash;Bad Roads&mdash;Vicious Horses&mdash;Mountain
+Scenery&mdash;A Picturesque Inn&mdash;Swallowing a
+Fish-bone&mdash;Poverty and Suicide&mdash;An
+Inn-kitchen&mdash;England Unknown!&mdash;My Breakfast
+Disappears</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page99">99</a></span>&ndash;105</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td colspan="2"><p style="text-align: center">LETTER XIV.</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p>An Infamous Road&mdash;Monotonous Greenery&mdash;Abysmal
+Dirt&mdash;Low Lives&mdash;The Tsugawa
+<i>Yadoya</i>&mdash;Politeness&mdash;A Shipping Port&mdash;A
+&ldquo;Barbarian Devil&rdquo;</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page106">106</a></span>&ndash;108</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td colspan="2"><p style="text-align: center"><a
+name="pagexvi"></a><span class="pagenum">p. xvi</span>LETTER
+XV.</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p>A Hurry&mdash;The Tsugawa Packet-boat&mdash;Running the
+Rapids&mdash;Fantastic Scenery&mdash;The
+River-life&mdash;Vineyards&mdash;Drying Barley&mdash;Summer
+Silence&mdash;The Outskirts of Niigata&mdash;The Church Mission
+House</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page109">109</a></span>&ndash;112</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td colspan="2"><p style="text-align: center">LETTER XVI.</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p>Abominable Weather&mdash;Insect Pests&mdash;Absence of
+Foreign Trade&mdash;A Refractory River&mdash;Progress&mdash;The
+Japanese City&mdash;Water Highways&mdash;Niigata
+Gardens&mdash;Ruth Fyson&mdash;The Winter Climate&mdash;A
+Population in Wadding</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page114">114</a></span>&ndash;119</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td colspan="2"><p style="text-align: center">LETTER XVII.</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p>The Canal-side at Niigata&mdash;Awful
+Loneliness&mdash;Courtesy&mdash;Dr. Palm&rsquo;s Tandem&mdash;A
+Noisy <i>Matsuri</i>&mdash;A Jolting Journey&mdash;The Mountain
+Villages&mdash;Winter Dismalness&mdash;An Out-of-the-world
+Hamlet&mdash;Crowded Dwellings&mdash;Riding a
+Cow&mdash;&ldquo;Drunk and Disorderly&rdquo;&mdash;An Enforced
+Rest&mdash;Local Discouragements&mdash;Heavy Loads&mdash;Absence
+of Beggary&mdash;Slow Travelling</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page120">120</a></span>&ndash;127</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td colspan="2"><p style="text-align: center">LETTER XVIII.</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p>Comely Kine&mdash;Japanese Criticism on a Foreign
+Usage&mdash;A Pleasant Halt&mdash;Renewed Courtesies&mdash;The
+Plain of Yonezawa&mdash;A Curious Mistake&mdash;The
+Mother&rsquo;s Memorial&mdash;Arrival at Komatsu&mdash;Stately
+Accommodation&mdash;A Vicious Horse&mdash;An Asiatic
+Arcadia&mdash;A Fashionable Watering-place&mdash;A
+Belle&mdash;&ldquo;Godowns&rdquo;</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page128">128</a></span>&ndash;136</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td colspan="2"><p style="text-align: center">LETTER XIX.</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p>Prosperity&mdash;Convict Labour&mdash;A New
+Bridge&mdash;Yamagata&mdash;Intoxicating Forgeries&mdash;The
+Government Buildings&mdash;Bad Manners&mdash;Snow
+Mountains&mdash;A Wretched Town</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page137">137</a></span>&ndash;142</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td colspan="2"><p style="text-align: center">LETTER XX.</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p>The Effect of a Chicken&mdash;Poor Fare&mdash;Slow
+Travelling&mdash;Objects of
+Interest&mdash;<i>Kak&rsquo;k&eacute;</i>&mdash;The Fatal
+Close&mdash;A Great Fire&mdash;Security of the <i>Kuras</i></p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page143">143</a></span>&ndash;145</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td colspan="2"><p style="text-align: center"><a
+name="pagexvii"></a><span class="pagenum">p. xvii</span>LETTER
+XX.&mdash;(<i>Continued</i>.)</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p>Lunch in Public&mdash;A Grotesque Accident&mdash;Police
+Inquiries&mdash;Man or Woman?&mdash;A Melancholy Stare&mdash;A
+Vicious Horse&mdash;An Ill-favoured Town&mdash;A
+Disappointment&mdash;A <i>Torii</i></p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page146">146</a></span>&ndash;151</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td colspan="2"><p style="text-align: center">LETTER
+XX.&mdash;(<i>Concluded</i>.)</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p>A Casual Invitation&mdash;A Ludicrous
+Incident&mdash;Politeness of a Policeman&mdash;A Comfortless
+Sunday&mdash;An Outrageous Irruption&mdash;A Privileged Stare</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page152">152</a></span>&ndash;154</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td colspan="2"><p style="text-align: center">LETTER XXI.</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p>The Necessity of Firmness&mdash;Perplexing
+Misrepresentations&mdash;Gliding with the Stream&mdash;Suburban
+Residences&mdash;The Kubota Hospital&mdash;A Formal
+Reception&mdash;The Normal School</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page155">155</a></span>&ndash;158</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td colspan="2"><p style="text-align: center">LETTER XXII.</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p>A Silk Factory&mdash;Employment for Women&mdash;A Police
+Escort&mdash;The Japanese Police Force</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page159">159</a></span>&ndash;160</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td colspan="2"><p style="text-align: center">LETTER XXIII.</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p>&ldquo;A Plague of Immoderate Rain&rdquo;&mdash;A
+Confidential Servant&mdash;Ito&rsquo;s Diary&mdash;Ito&rsquo;s
+Excellences&mdash;Ito&rsquo;s Faults&mdash;A Prophecy of the
+Future of Japan&mdash;Curious Queries&mdash;Superfine
+English&mdash;Economical Travelling&mdash;The Japanese Pack-horse
+again</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page161">161</a></span>&ndash;164</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td colspan="2"><p style="text-align: center">LETTER XXIV.</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p>The Symbolism of Seaweed&mdash;Afternoon Visitors&mdash;An
+Infant Prodigy&mdash;A Feat in Caligraphy&mdash;Child
+Worship&mdash;A Borrowed Dress&mdash;A
+<i>Trousseau</i>&mdash;House Furniture&mdash;The Marriage
+Ceremony</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page165">165</a></span>&ndash;169</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td colspan="2"><p style="text-align: center">LETTER XXV.</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p>A Holiday Scene&mdash;A <i>Matsuri</i>&mdash;Attractions
+of the Revel&mdash;<i>Matsuri</i> Cars&mdash;Gods and
+Demons&mdash;A Possible Harbour&mdash;A Village
+Forge&mdash;Prosperity of <i>Sak&eacute;</i> Brewers&mdash;A
+&ldquo;Great Sight&rdquo;</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page170">170</a></span>&ndash;174</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td colspan="2"><p style="text-align: center"><a
+name="pagexviii"></a><span class="pagenum">p. xviii</span>LETTER
+XXVI.</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p>The Fatigues of Travelling&mdash;Torrents and
+Mud&mdash;Ito&rsquo;s Surliness&mdash;The Blind
+Shampooers&mdash;A Supposed Monkey Theatre&mdash;A Suspended
+Ferry&mdash;A Difficult Transit&mdash;Perils on the
+Yonetsurugawa&mdash;A Boatman Drowned&mdash;Nocturnal
+Disturbances&mdash;A Noisy <i>Yadoya</i>&mdash;Storm-bound
+Travellers&mdash;<i>Hai</i>! <i>Hai</i>!&mdash;More Nocturnal
+Disturbances</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page175">175</a></span>&ndash;182</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td colspan="2"><p style="text-align: center">LETTER XXVII.</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p>Good-tempered Intoxication&mdash;The Effect of
+Sunshine&mdash;A tedious Altercation&mdash;Evening
+Occupations&mdash;Noisy Talk&mdash;Social Gatherings&mdash;Unfair
+Comparisons</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page183">183</a></span>&ndash;186</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td colspan="2"><p style="text-align: center">LETTER XXVIII.</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p>Torrents of Rain&mdash;An unpleasant
+Detention&mdash;Devastations produced by Floods&mdash;The Yadate
+Pass&mdash;The Force of Water&mdash;Difficulties thicken&mdash;A
+Primitive <i>Yadoya</i>&mdash;The Water rises</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page187">187</a></span>&ndash;192</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td colspan="2"><p style="text-align: center">LETTER
+XXVIII.&mdash;(<i>Continued</i>.)</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p>Scanty Resources&mdash;Japanese
+Children&mdash;Children&rsquo;s Games&mdash;A Sagacious
+Example&mdash;A Kite Competition&mdash;Personal Privations</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page193">193</a></span>&ndash;196</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td colspan="2"><p style="text-align: center">LETTER XXIX.</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p>Hope deferred&mdash;Effects of the Flood&mdash;Activity of
+the Police&mdash;A Ramble in Disguise&mdash;The <i>Tanabata</i>
+Festival&mdash;Mr. Satow&rsquo;s Reputation</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page197">197</a></span>&ndash;199</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td colspan="2"><p style="text-align: center">LETTER XXX.</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p>A Lady&rsquo;s Toilet&mdash;Hair-dressing&mdash;Paint and
+Cosmetics&mdash;Afternoon Visitors&mdash;Christian Converts</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page200">200</a></span>&ndash;202</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td colspan="2"><p style="text-align: center">LETTER XXXI.</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p>A Travel Curiosity&mdash;Rude Dwellings&mdash;Primitive
+Simplicity&mdash;The Public Bath-house</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page203">203</a></span>&ndash;205</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td colspan="2"><p style="text-align: center"><a
+name="pagexix"></a><span class="pagenum">p. xix</span>LETTER
+XXXII.</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p>A Hard Day&rsquo;s Journey&mdash;An Overturn&mdash;Nearing
+the Ocean&mdash;Joyful Excitement&mdash;Universal
+Greyness&mdash;Inopportune Policemen&mdash;A Stormy
+Voyage&mdash;A Wild Welcome&mdash;A Windy Landing&mdash;The
+Journey&rsquo;s End</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page206">206</a></span>&ndash;209</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td colspan="2"><p style="text-align: center">LETTER XXXIII.</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p>Form and Colour&mdash;A Windy Capital&mdash;Eccentricities
+in House Roof</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page212">212</a></span>&ndash;213</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td colspan="2"><p style="text-align: center">LETTER XXXIV.</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p>Ito&rsquo;s Delinquency&mdash;&ldquo;Missionary
+Manners&rdquo;&mdash;A Predicted Failure</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page214">214</a></span>&ndash;215</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td colspan="2"><p style="text-align: center">LETTER XXXV.</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p>A Lovely Sunset&mdash;An Official Letter&mdash;A
+&ldquo;Front Horse&rdquo;&mdash;Japanese Courtesy&mdash;The Steam
+Ferry&mdash;Coolies Abscond&mdash;A Team of Savages&mdash;A Drove
+of Horses&mdash;Floral Beauties&mdash;An Unbeaten Track&mdash;A
+Ghostly Dwelling&mdash;Solitude and Eeriness</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page216">216</a></span>&ndash;230</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td colspan="2"><p style="text-align: center">LETTER
+XXXV.&mdash;(<i>Continued</i>.)</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p>The Harmonies of Nature&mdash;A Good Horse&mdash;A Single
+Discord&mdash;A Forest&mdash;Aino Ferrymen&mdash;&ldquo;<i>Les
+Puces</i>! <i>Les Puces</i>!&rdquo;&mdash;Baffled
+Explorers&mdash;Ito&rsquo;s Contempt for Ainos&mdash;An Aino
+Introduction</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page231">231</a></span>&ndash;233</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td colspan="2"><p style="text-align: center">LETTER XXXVI.</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p>Savage Life&mdash;A Forest Track&mdash;Cleanly
+Villages&mdash;A Hospitable Reception&mdash;The Chief&rsquo;s
+Mother&mdash;The Evening Meal&mdash;A Savage
+<i>S&eacute;ance</i>&mdash;Libations to the Gods&mdash;Nocturnal
+Silence&mdash;Aino Courtesy&mdash;The Chief&rsquo;s Wife</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page234">234</a></span>&ndash;243</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td colspan="2"><p style="text-align: center">LETTER
+XXXVI.&mdash;(<i>Continued</i>.)</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p>A Supposed Act of Worship&mdash;Parental
+Tenderness&mdash;Morning Visits.&mdash;Wretched
+Cultivation&mdash;Honesty and Generosity&mdash;A
+&ldquo;Dug-out&rdquo;&mdash;Female Occupations&mdash;The Ancient
+Fate&mdash;A New Arrival&mdash;A Perilous Prescription&mdash;The
+Shrine of Yoshitsun&eacute;&mdash;The Chief&rsquo;s Return</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page244">244</a></span>&ndash;253</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td colspan="2"><p style="text-align: center"><a
+name="pagexx"></a><span class="pagenum">p. xx</span>LETTER
+XXXVII.</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p>Barrenness of Savage Life&mdash;Irreclaimable
+Savages&mdash;The Aino Physique&mdash;Female
+Comeliness&mdash;Torture and Ornament&mdash;Child
+Life&mdash;Docility and Obedience</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page254">254</a></span>&ndash;261</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td colspan="2"><p style="text-align: center">LETTER
+XXXVII.&mdash;(<i>Continued</i>.)</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p>Aino Clothing&mdash;Holiday Dress&mdash;Domestic
+Architecture&mdash;Household Gods&mdash;Japanese Curios&mdash;The
+Necessaries of Life&mdash;Clay Soup&mdash;Arrow
+Poison&mdash;Arrow Traps&mdash;Female Occupations&mdash;Bark
+Cloth&mdash;The Art of Weaving</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page262">262</a></span>&ndash;272</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td colspan="2"><p style="text-align: center">LETTER
+XXXVII.&mdash;(<i>Continued</i>.)</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p>A Simple Nature-Worship&mdash;Aino Gods&mdash;A Festival
+Song&mdash;Religious Intoxication&mdash;Bear-Worship&mdash;The
+Annual Saturnalia&mdash;The Future State&mdash;Marriage and
+Divorce&mdash;Musical Instruments&mdash;Etiquette&mdash;The
+Chieftainship&mdash;Death and Burial&mdash;Old Age&mdash;Moral
+Qualities</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page273">273</a></span>&ndash;284</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td colspan="2"><p style="text-align: center">LETTER XXXVIII.</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p>A Parting Gift&mdash;A Delicacy&mdash;Generosity&mdash;A
+Seaside Village&mdash;Pipichari&rsquo;s Advice&mdash;A Drunken
+Revel&mdash;Ito&rsquo;s Prophecies&mdash;The
+<i>K&ocirc;ck&ocirc;&rsquo;s</i> Illness&mdash;Patent
+Medicines</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page285">285</a></span>&ndash;288</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td colspan="2"><p style="text-align: center">LETTER XXXIX.</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p>A Welcome Gift&mdash;Recent Changes&mdash;Volcanic
+Phenomena&mdash;Interesting Tufa
+Cones&mdash;Semi-strangulation&mdash;A Fall into a
+Bear-trap&mdash;The Shira&ocirc;i Ainos&mdash;Horsebreaking and
+Cruelty</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page289">289</a></span>&ndash;295</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td colspan="2"><p style="text-align: center">LETTER
+XXXIX.&mdash;(<i>Continued</i>.)</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p>The Universal Language&mdash;The Yezo
+<i>Corrals</i>&mdash;A &ldquo;Typhoon Rain&rdquo;&mdash;Difficult
+Tracks&mdash;An Unenviable Ride&mdash;Drying Clothes&mdash;A
+Woman&rsquo;s Remorse</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page296">296</a></span>&ndash;298</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td colspan="2"><p style="text-align: center">LETTER XL.</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p>&ldquo;More than Peace&rdquo;&mdash;Geographical
+Difficulties&mdash;Usu-taki&mdash;Swimming the Osharu&mdash;A
+Dream of Beauty&mdash;A Sunset Effect&mdash;A Nocturnal
+Alarm&mdash;The Coast Ainos</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page299">299</a></span>&ndash;305</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td colspan="2"><p style="text-align: center"><a
+name="pagexxi"></a><span class="pagenum">p. xxi</span>LETTER
+XL.&mdash;(<i>Continued</i>.)</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p>The Sea-shore&mdash;A &ldquo;Hairy Aino&rdquo;&mdash;A
+Horse Fight&mdash;The Horses of Yezo&mdash;&ldquo;Bad
+Mountains&rdquo;&mdash;A Slight Accident&mdash;Magnificent
+Scenery&mdash;A Bleached Halting-Place&mdash;A Musty
+Room&mdash;Aino &ldquo;Good-breeding&rdquo;</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page306">306</a></span>&ndash;311</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td colspan="2"><p style="text-align: center">LETTER XLI.</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p>A Group of Fathers&mdash;The Lebung&eacute;
+Ainos&mdash;The <i>Salisburia adiantifolia</i>&mdash;A Family
+Group&mdash;The Missing
+Link&mdash;Oshamamb&eacute;&mdash;Disorderly Horses&mdash;The
+River Yurapu&mdash;The Seaside&mdash;Aino Canoes&mdash;The Last
+Morning&mdash;Dodging Europeans</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page312">312</a></span>&ndash;319</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td colspan="2"><p style="text-align: center">LETTER XLII.</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p>Pleasant Last Impressions&mdash;The Japanese
+Junk&mdash;Ito Disappears&mdash;My Letter of Thanks</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page320">320</a></span>&ndash;321</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td colspan="2"><p style="text-align: center">LETTER XLIII.</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p>Pleasant Prospects&mdash;A Miserable
+Disappointment&mdash;Caught in a Typhoon&mdash;A Dense
+Fog&mdash;Alarmist Rumours&mdash;A Welcome at
+T&ocirc;kiy&ocirc;&mdash;The Last of the Mutineers</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page322">322</a></span>&ndash;324</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td colspan="2"><p style="text-align: center">LETTER XLIV.</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p>Fine Weather&mdash;Cremation in Japan&mdash;The Governor
+of T&ocirc;kiy&ocirc;&mdash;An Awkward Question&mdash;An
+Insignificant Building&mdash;Economy in Funeral
+Expenses&mdash;Simplicity of the Cremation Process&mdash;The Last
+of Japan</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page325">325</a></span>&ndash;328</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+</table>
+<h2><a name="pagexxiii"></a><span class="pagenum">p.
+xxiii</span>LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.</h2>
+<table>
+<tr>
+<td><p>&nbsp;</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right"><span
+class="GutSmall">PAGE</span></p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p>The Yomei Gate, Shrines of Nikk&ocirc;</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right"><i>Frontispiece</i></p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p>Fujisan</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page2">2</a></span></p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p>Travelling Restaurant</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page5">5</a></span></p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p>Japanese Man-Cart</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page9">9</a></span></p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p>A Lake Biwa Tea-House</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page20">20</a></span></p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p>Stone Lanterns</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page28">28</a></span></p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p>A Kuruma</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page35">35</a></span></p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p>Road-Side Tea-House</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page38">38</a></span></p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p>Sir Harry&rsquo;s Messenger</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page42">42</a></span></p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p>Kanaya&rsquo;s House</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page52">52</a></span></p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p>Japanese Pack-Horse</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page63">63</a></span></p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p>Attendant at Tea-House</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page64">64</a></span></p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p>Summer and Winter Costume</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page82">82</a></span></p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p>Buddhist Priests</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page112">112</a></span></p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p>Street and Canal</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page117">117</a></span></p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p>The Flowing Invocation</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page130">130</a></span></p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p>The Belle of Kaminoyama</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page135">135</a></span></p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p>Torii</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page149">149</a></span></p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p>Daikoku, the God of Wealth</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page154">154</a></span></p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p>Myself in a Straw Rain-Cloak</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page176">176</a></span></p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p>A Lady&rsquo;s Mirror</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page201">201</a></span></p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p><a name="pagexxiv"></a><span class="pagenum">p.
+xxiv</span>Akita Farm-House</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page204">204</a></span></p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p>Aino Store-House at Horobets</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page223">223</a></span></p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p>Aino Lodges.&nbsp; (<i>From a Japanese Sketch</i>)</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page224">224</a></span></p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p>Aino Houses</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page234">234</a></span></p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p>Ainos at Home.&nbsp; (<i>From a Japanese Sketch</i>)</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page235">235</a></span></p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p>Aino Millet-Mill and Pestle</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page238">238</a></span></p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p>Aino Store-House</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page247">247</a></span></p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p>Ainos of Yezo</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page256">256</a></span></p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p>An Aino Patriarch</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page258">258</a></span></p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p>Tattooed Female Hand</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page260">260</a></span></p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p>Aino Gods</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page266">266</a></span></p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p>Plan of an Aino House</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page267">267</a></span></p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p>Weaver&rsquo;s Shuttle</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page270">270</a></span></p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p>A Hiogo Buddha</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page272">272</a></span></p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p>The Rokkukado</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page288">288</a></span></p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p>My Kuruma-Runner</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page305">305</a></span></p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p>Temple Gateway at Isshinden</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page311">311</a></span></p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p>Entrance to Shrine of Seventh Sh&ocirc;gun, Shiba,
+T&ocirc;kiy&ocirc;</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page323">323</a></span></p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p>Fujisan, from a Village on the Tokaido</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page326">326</a></span></p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+</table>
+<h2><a name="page1"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 1</span>LETTER
+I.</h2>
+<p class="gutsumm">First View of Japan&mdash;A Vision of
+Fujisan&mdash;Japanese Sampans&mdash;&ldquo;Pullman
+Cars&rdquo;&mdash;Undignified Locomotion&mdash;Paper
+Money&mdash;The Drawbacks of Japanese Travelling.</p>
+<p style="text-align: right"><span class="smcap">Oriental
+Hotel</span>, <span class="smcap">Yokohama</span>,<br />
+<i>May</i> 21.</p>
+<p><span class="smcap">Eighteen</span> days of unintermitted
+rolling over &ldquo;desolate rainy seas&rdquo; brought the
+&ldquo;City of Tokio&rdquo; early yesterday morning to Cape King,
+and by noon we were steaming up the Gulf of Yedo, quite near the
+shore.&nbsp; The day was soft and grey with a little faint blue
+sky, and, though the coast of Japan is much more prepossessing
+than most coasts, there were no startling surprises either of
+colour or form.&nbsp; Broken wooded ridges, deeply cleft, rise
+from the water&rsquo;s edge, gray, deep-roofed villages cluster
+about the mouths of the ravines, and terraces of rice
+cultivation, bright with the greenness of English lawns, run up
+to a great height among dark masses of upland forest.&nbsp; The
+populousness of the coast is very impressive, and the gulf
+everywhere was equally peopled with fishing-boats, of which we
+passed not only hundreds, but thousands, in five hours.&nbsp; The
+coast and sea were pale, and the boats were pale too, their hulls
+being unpainted wood, and their sails pure white duck.&nbsp; Now
+and then a high-sterned junk drifted by like a phantom galley,
+then we slackened speed to avoid exterminating a fleet of
+triangular-looking fishing-boats with white square sails, and so
+on through the grayness and dumbness hour after hour.</p>
+<p>For long I looked in vain for Fujisan, and failed to see it,
+<a name="page2"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 2</span>though I
+heard ecstasies all over the deck, till, accidentally looking
+heavenwards instead of earthwards, I saw far above any
+possibility of height, as one would have thought, a huge,
+truncated cone of pure snow, 13,080 feet above the sea, from
+which it sweeps upwards in a glorious curve, very wan, against a
+very pale blue sky, with its base and the intervening country
+veiled in a pale grey mist. <a name="citation2"></a><a
+href="#footnote2" class="citation">[2]</a>&nbsp; It was a
+wonderful vision, and shortly, as a vision, vanished.&nbsp;
+Except the cone of Tristan d&rsquo;Acunha&mdash;also a cone of
+snow&mdash;I never saw a mountain rise in such lonely majesty,
+with nothing near or far to detract from its height and
+grandeur.&nbsp; No wonder that it is a sacred mountain, and so
+dear to the Japanese that their art is never <a
+name="page3"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 3</span>weary of
+representing it.&nbsp; It was nearly fifty miles off when we
+first saw it.</p>
+<p>The air and water were alike motionless, the mist was still
+and pale, grey clouds lay restfully on a bluish sky, the
+reflections of the white sails of the fishing-boats scarcely
+quivered; it was all so pale, wan, and ghastly, that the
+turbulence of crumpled foam which we left behind us, and our
+noisy, throbbing progress, seemed a boisterous intrusion upon
+sleeping Asia.</p>
+<p style="text-align: center">
+<a href="images/p2b.jpg">
+<img alt=
+"Fujisan"
+title=
+"Fujisan"
+ src="images/p2s.jpg" />
+</a></p>
+<p>The gulf narrowed, the forest-crested hills, the terraced
+ravines, the picturesque grey villages, the quiet beach life, and
+the pale blue masses of the mountains of the interior, became
+more visible.&nbsp; Fuji retired into the mist in which he
+enfolds his grandeur for most of the summer; we passed Reception
+Bay, Perry Island, Webster Island, Cape Saratoga, and Mississippi
+Bay&mdash;American nomenclature which perpetuates the successes
+of American diplomacy&mdash;and not far from Treaty Point came
+upon a red lightship with the words &ldquo;Treaty Point&rdquo; in
+large letters upon her.&nbsp; Outside of this no foreign vessel
+may anchor.</p>
+<p>The bustle among my fellow-passengers, many of whom were
+returning home, and all of whom expected to be met by friends,
+left me at leisure, as I looked at unattractive, unfamiliar
+Yokohama and the pale grey land stretched out before me, to
+speculate somewhat sadly on my destiny on these strange shores,
+on which I have not even an acquaintance.&nbsp; On mooring we
+were at once surrounded by crowds of native boats called by
+foreigners <i>sampans</i>, and Dr. Gulick, a near relation of my
+Hilo friends, came on board to meet his daughter, welcomed me
+cordially, and relieved me of all the trouble of
+disembarkation.&nbsp; These <i>sampans</i> are very
+clumsy-looking, but are managed with great dexterity by the
+boatmen, who gave and received any number of bumps with much good
+nature, and without any of the shouting and swearing in which
+competitive boatmen usually indulge.</p>
+<p>The partially triangular shape of these boats approaches that
+of a salmon-fisher&rsquo;s punt used on certain British
+rivers.&nbsp; Being floored gives them the appearance of being
+absolutely flat-bottomed; but, though they tilt readily, they are
+very safe, being heavily built and fitted together with singular
+precision <a name="page4"></a><span class="pagenum">p.
+4</span>with wooden bolts and a few copper cleets.&nbsp; They are
+<i>sculled</i>, not what we should call rowed, by two or four men
+with very heavy oars made of two pieces of wood working on pins
+placed on outrigger bars.&nbsp; The men scull standing and use
+the thigh as a rest for the oar.&nbsp; They all wear a single,
+wide-sleeved, scanty, blue cotton garment, not fastened or
+girdled at the waist, straw sandals, kept on by a thong passing
+between the great toe and the others, and if they wear any
+head-gear, it is only a wisp of blue cotton tied round the
+forehead.&nbsp; The one garment is only an apology for clothing,
+and displays lean concave chests and lean muscular limbs.&nbsp;
+The skin is very yellow, and often much tattooed with mythical
+beasts.&nbsp; The charge for <i>sampans</i> is fixed by tariff,
+so the traveller lands without having his temper ruffled by
+extortionate demands.</p>
+<p>The first thing that impressed me on landing was that there
+were no loafers, and that all the small, ugly, kindly-looking,
+shrivelled, bandy-legged, round-shouldered, concave-chested,
+poor-looking beings in the streets had some affairs of their own
+to mind.&nbsp; At the top of the landing-steps there was a
+portable restaurant, a neat and most compact thing, with charcoal
+stove, cooking and eating utensils complete; but it looked as if
+it were made by and for dolls, and the mannikin who kept it was
+not five feet high.&nbsp; At the custom-house we were attended to
+by minute officials in blue uniforms of European pattern and
+leather boots; very civil creatures, who opened and examined our
+trunks carefully, and strapped them up again, contrasting
+pleasingly with the insolent and rapacious officials who perform
+the same duties at New York.</p>
+<p>Outside were about fifty of the now well-known
+<i>jin-ti-ki-shas</i>, and the air was full of a buzz produced by
+the rapid reiteration of this uncouth word by fifty
+tongues.&nbsp; This conveyance, as you know, is a feature of
+Japan, growing in importance every day.&nbsp; It was only
+invented seven years ago, and already there are nearly 23,000 in
+one city, and men can make so much more by drawing them than by
+almost any kind of skilled labour, that thousands of fine young
+men desert agricultural pursuits and flock into the towns to make
+draught-animals of themselves, though it is said that the average
+duration of a man&rsquo;s life after he takes to running is only
+five years, and that the runners fall victims in large numbers to
+<a name="page5"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 5</span>aggravated
+forms of heart and lung disease.&nbsp; Over tolerably level
+ground a good runner can trot forty miles a day, at a rate of
+about four miles an hour.&nbsp; They are registered and taxed at
+8s. a year for one carrying two persons, and 4s. for one which
+carries one only, and there is a regular tariff for time and
+distance.</p>
+<p style="text-align: center">
+<a href="images/p5b.jpg">
+<img alt=
+"Travelling Restaurant"
+title=
+"Travelling Restaurant"
+ src="images/p5s.jpg" />
+</a></p>
+<p>The <i>kuruma</i>, or jin-ri-ki-sha, <a
+name="citation5"></a><a href="#footnote5"
+class="citation">[5]</a> consists of a light perambulator body,
+an adjustable hood of oiled paper, a velvet or cloth lining and
+cushion, a well for parcels under the seat, two high slim wheels,
+and a pair of shafts connected by a bar at the ends.&nbsp; The
+body is usually lacquered and decorated according to its
+owner&rsquo;s taste.&nbsp; Some show little except polished
+brass, others are altogether inlaid with shells known as
+Venus&rsquo;s ear, and <a name="page6"></a><span
+class="pagenum">p. 6</span>others are gaudily painted with
+contorted dragons, or groups of peonies, hydrangeas,
+chrysanthemums, and mythical personages.&nbsp; They cost from
+&pound;2 upwards.&nbsp; The shafts rest on the ground at a steep
+incline as you get in&mdash;it must require much practice to
+enable one to mount with ease or dignity&mdash;the runner lifts
+them up, gets into them, gives the body a good tilt backwards,
+and goes off at a smart trot.&nbsp; They are drawn by one, two,
+or three men, according to the speed desired by the
+occupants.&nbsp; When rain comes on, the man puts up the hood,
+and ties you and it closely up in a covering of oiled paper, in
+which you are invisible.&nbsp; At night, whether running or
+standing still, they carry prettily-painted circular paper
+lanterns 18 inches long.&nbsp; It is most comical to see stout,
+florid, solid-looking merchants, missionaries, male and female,
+fashionably-dressed ladies, armed with card cases, Chinese
+compradores, and Japanese peasant men and women flying along Main
+Street, which is like the decent respectable High Street of a
+dozen forgotten country towns in England, in happy
+unconsciousness of the ludicrousness of their appearance; racing,
+chasing, crossing each other, their lean, polite, pleasant
+runners in their great hats shaped like inverted bowls, their
+incomprehensible blue tights, and their short blue over-shirts
+with badges or characters in white upon them, tearing along,
+their yellow faces streaming with perspiration, laughing,
+shouting, and avoiding collisions by a mere shave.</p>
+<p>After a visit to the Consulate I entered a <i>kuruma</i> and,
+with two ladies in two more, was bowled along at a furious pace
+by a laughing little mannikin down Main Street&mdash;a narrow,
+solid, well-paved street with well-made side walks, kerb-stones,
+and gutters, with iron lamp-posts, gas-lamps, and foreign shops
+all along its length&mdash;to this quiet hotel recommended by Sir
+Wyville Thomson, which offers a refuge from the nasal twang of my
+fellow-voyagers, who have all gone to the caravanserais on the
+Bund.&nbsp; The host is a Frenchman, but he relies on a Chinaman;
+the servants are Japanese &ldquo;boys&rdquo; in Japanese clothes;
+and there is a Japanese &ldquo;groom of the chambers&rdquo; in
+faultless English costume, who perfectly appals me by the
+elaborate politeness of his manner.</p>
+<p>Almost as soon as I arrived I was obliged to go in search of
+Mr. Fraser&rsquo;s office in the settlement; I say <i>search</i>,
+for there <a name="page7"></a><span class="pagenum">p.
+7</span>are no names on the streets; where there are numbers they
+have no sequence, and I met no Europeans on foot to help me in my
+difficulty.&nbsp; Yokohama does not improve on further
+acquaintance.&nbsp; It has a dead-alive look.&nbsp; It has
+irregularity without picturesqueness, and the grey sky, grey sea,
+grey houses, and grey roofs, look harmoniously dull.&nbsp; No
+foreign money except the Mexican dollar passes in Japan, and Mr.
+Fraser&rsquo;s compradore soon metamorphosed my English gold into
+Japanese <i>satsu</i> or paper money, a bundle of yen nearly at
+par just now with the dollar, packets of 50, 20, and 10 sen
+notes, and some rouleaux of very neat copper coins.&nbsp; The
+initiated recognise the different denominations of paper money at
+a glance by their differing colours and sizes, but at present
+they are a distracting mystery to me.&nbsp; The notes are pieces
+of stiff paper with Chinese characters at the corners, near
+which, with exceptionally good eyes or a magnifying glass, one
+can discern an English word denoting the value.&nbsp; They are
+very neatly executed, and are ornamented with the chrysanthemum
+crest of the Mikado and the interlaced dragons of the Empire.</p>
+<p>I long to get away into real Japan.&nbsp; Mr. Wilkinson,
+H.B.M.&rsquo;s acting consul, called yesterday, and was extremely
+kind.&nbsp; He thinks that my plan for travelling in the interior
+is rather too ambitious, but that it is perfectly safe for a lady
+to travel alone, and agrees with everybody else in thinking that
+legions of fleas and the miserable horses are the great drawbacks
+of Japanese travelling.</p>
+<p style="text-align: right">I. L. B.</p>
+<h2><a name="page8"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 8</span>LETTER
+II.</h2>
+<p class="gutsumm">Sir Harry Parkes&mdash;An
+&ldquo;Ambassador&rsquo;s Carriage&rdquo;&mdash;Cart Coolies.</p>
+<p style="text-align: right"><span class="smcap">Yokohama</span>,
+<i>May</i> 22.</p>
+<p><span class="smcap">To-day</span> has been spent in making new
+acquaintances, instituting a search for a servant and a pony,
+receiving many offers of help, asking questions and receiving
+from different people answers which directly contradict each
+other.&nbsp; Hours are early.&nbsp; Thirteen people called on me
+before noon.&nbsp; Ladies drive themselves about the town in
+small pony carriages attended by running grooms called
+<i>bettos</i>.&nbsp; The foreign merchants keep <i>kurumas</i>
+constantly standing at their doors, finding a willing,
+intelligent coolie much more serviceable than a lazy, fractious,
+capricious Japanese pony, and even the dignity of an
+&ldquo;Ambassador Extraordinary and Minister
+Plenipotentiary&rdquo; is not above such a lowly conveyance, as I
+have seen to-day.&nbsp; My last visitors were Sir Harry and Lady
+Parkes, who brought sunshine and kindliness into the room, and
+left it behind them.&nbsp; Sir Harry is a young-looking man
+scarcely in middle life, slight, active, fair, blue-eyed, a
+thorough Saxon, with sunny hair and a sunny smile, a sunshiny
+geniality in his manner, and bearing no trace in his appearance
+of his thirty years of service in the East, his sufferings in the
+prison at Peking, and the various attempts upon his life in
+Japan.&nbsp; He and Lady Parkes were most truly kind, and
+encourage me so heartily in my largest projects for travelling in
+the interior, that I shall start as soon as I have secured a
+servant.&nbsp; When they went away they jumped into
+<i>kurumas</i>, and it was most amusing to see the representative
+of England hurried down the street in a perambulator with a
+tandem of coolies.</p>
+<p>As I look out of the window I see heavy, two-wheeled man-carts
+drawn and pushed by four men each, on which nearly all <a
+name="page9"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 9</span>goods, stones
+for building, and all else, are carried.&nbsp; The two men who
+pull press with hands and thighs against a cross-bar at the end
+of a heavy pole, and the two who push apply their shoulders to
+beams which project behind, using their thick, smoothly-shaven
+skulls as the motive power when they push their heavy loads
+uphill.&nbsp; Their cry is impressive and melancholy.&nbsp; They
+draw incredible loads, but, as if the toil which often makes
+every breath a groan or a gasp were not enough, they shout
+incessantly with a coarse, guttural grunt, something like <i>Ha
+huida</i>, <i>Ho huida</i>, <i>wa ho</i>, <i>Ha huida</i>,
+etc.</p>
+<p style="text-align: right">I. L. B.</p>
+<p style="text-align: center">
+<a href="images/p9b.jpg">
+<img alt=
+"Japanese Man-Cart"
+title=
+"Japanese Man-Cart"
+ src="images/p9s.jpg" />
+</a></p>
+<h2><a name="page10"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 10</span>LETTER
+III.</h2>
+<p class="gutsumm">Yedo and T&ocirc;kiy&ocirc;&mdash;The Yokohama
+Railroad&mdash;The Effect of Misfits&mdash;The Plain of
+Yedo&mdash;Personal Peculiarities&mdash;First Impressions of
+T&ocirc;kiy&ocirc;&mdash;H. B. M.&rsquo;s Legation&mdash;An
+English Home.</p>
+<p style="text-align: right">H.B.M.&rsquo;s <span
+class="smcap">Legation</span>, <span class="smcap">Yedo</span>,
+<i>May</i> 24.</p>
+<p>I <span class="smcap">have</span> dated my letter Yedo,
+according to the usage of the British Legation, but popularly the
+new name of T&ocirc;kiy&ocirc;, or Eastern Capital, is used,
+Kiy&ocirc;to, the Mikado&rsquo;s former residence, having
+received the name of Saiki&ocirc;, or Western Capital, though it
+has now no claim to be regarded as a capital at all.&nbsp; Yedo
+belongs to the old r&eacute;gime and the Sh&ocirc;gunate,
+T&ocirc;kiy&ocirc; to the new r&eacute;gime and the Restoration,
+with their history of ten years.&nbsp; It would seem an
+incongruity to travel to <i>Yedo</i> by railway, but quite proper
+when the destination is T&ocirc;kiy&ocirc;.</p>
+<p>The journey between the two cities is performed in an hour by
+an admirable, well-metalled, double-track railroad, 18 miles
+long, with iron bridges, neat stations, and substantial roomy
+termini, built by English engineers at a cost known only to
+Government, and opened by the Mikado in 1872.&nbsp; The Yokohama
+station is a handsome and suitable stone building, with a
+spacious approach, ticket-offices on our plan, roomy
+waiting-rooms for different classes&mdash;uncarpeted, however, in
+consideration of Japanese clogs&mdash;and supplied with the daily
+papers.&nbsp; There is a department for the weighing and
+labelling of luggage, and on the broad, covered, stone platform
+at both termini a barrier with turnstiles, through which, except
+by special favour, no ticketless person can pass.&nbsp; Except
+the ticket-clerks, who are Chinese, and the guards and
+engine-drivers, who are English, the officials are Japanese in
+European dress.&nbsp; Outside the stations, instead of cabs,
+there are <i>kurumas</i>, which carry luggage as well as
+people.&nbsp; Only luggage in the <a name="page11"></a><span
+class="pagenum">p. 11</span>hand is allowed to go free; the rest
+is weighed, numbered, and charged for, a corresponding number
+being given to its owner to present at his destination.&nbsp; The
+fares are&mdash;3d class, an <i>ichibu</i>, or about 1s.; 2d
+class, 60 <i>sen</i>, or about 2s. 4d.; and 1st class, a
+<i>yen</i>, or about 3s. 8d.&nbsp; The tickets are collected as
+the passengers pass through the barrier at the end of the
+journey.&nbsp; The English-built cars differ from ours in having
+seats along the sides, and doors opening on platforms at both
+ends.&nbsp; On the whole, the arrangements are Continental rather
+than British.&nbsp; The first-class cars are expensively fitted
+up with deeply-cushioned, red morocco seats, but carry very few
+passengers, and the comfortable seats, covered with fine matting,
+of the 2d class are very scantily occupied; but the 3d class vans
+are crowded with Japanese, who have taken to railroads as readily
+as to <i>kurumas</i>.&nbsp; This line earns about $8,000,000 a
+year.</p>
+<p>The Japanese look most diminutive in European dress.&nbsp;
+Each garment is a misfit, and exaggerates the miserable
+<i>physique</i> and the national defects of concave chests and
+bow legs.&nbsp; The lack of &ldquo;complexion&rdquo; and of hair
+upon the face makes it nearly impossible to judge of the ages of
+men.&nbsp; I supposed that all the railroad officials were
+striplings of 17 or 18, but they are men from 25 to 40 years
+old.</p>
+<p>It was a beautiful day, like an English June day, but hotter,
+and though the <i>Sakura</i> (wild cherry) and its kin, which are
+the glory of the Japanese spring, are over, everything is a
+young, fresh green yet, and in all the beauty of growth and
+luxuriance.&nbsp; The immediate neighbourhood of Yokohama is
+beautiful, with abrupt wooded hills, and small picturesque
+valleys; but after passing Kanagawa the railroad enters upon the
+immense plain of Yedo, said to be 90 miles from north to south,
+on whose northern and western boundaries faint blue mountains of
+great height hovered dreamily in the blue haze, and on whose
+eastern shore for many miles the clear blue wavelets of the Gulf
+of Yedo ripple, always as then, brightened by the white sails of
+innumerable fishing-boats.&nbsp; On this fertile and fruitful
+plain stand not only the capital, with its million of
+inhabitants, but a number of populous cities, and several hundred
+thriving agricultural villages.&nbsp; Every foot of land which
+can be seen from the railroad is cultivated by the most careful
+spade husbandry, and much of it is irrigated for rice.&nbsp;
+Streams <a name="page12"></a><span class="pagenum">p.
+12</span>abound, and villages of grey wooden houses with grey
+thatch, and grey temples with strangely curved roofs, are
+scattered thickly over the landscape.&nbsp; It is all homelike,
+liveable, and pretty, the country of an industrious people, for
+not a weed is to be seen, but no very striking features or
+peculiarities arrest one at first sight, unless it be the crowds
+everywhere.</p>
+<p>You don&rsquo;t take your ticket for T&ocirc;kiy&ocirc;, but
+for Shinagawa or Shinbashi, two of the many villages which have
+grown together into the capital.&nbsp; Yedo is hardly seen before
+Shinagawa is reached, for it has no smoke and no long chimneys;
+its temples and public buildings are seldom lofty; the former are
+often concealed among thick trees, and its ordinary houses seldom
+reach a height of 20 feet.&nbsp; On the right a blue sea with
+fortified islands upon it, wooded gardens with massive retaining
+walls, hundreds of fishing-boats lying in creeks or drawn up on
+the beach; on the left a broad road on which <i>kurumas</i> are
+hurrying both ways, rows of low, grey houses, mostly tea-houses
+and shops; and as I was asking &ldquo;Where is Yedo?&rdquo; the
+train came to rest in the terminus, the Shinbashi railroad
+station, and disgorged its 200 Japanese passengers with a
+combined clatter of 400 clogs&mdash;a new sound to me.&nbsp;
+These clogs add three inches to their height, but even with them
+few of the men attained 5 feet 7 inches, and few of the women 5
+feet 2 inches; but they look far broader in the national costume,
+which also conceals the defects of their figures.&nbsp; So lean,
+so yellow, so ugly, yet so pleasant-looking, so wanting in colour
+and effectiveness; the women so very small and tottering in their
+walk; the children so formal-looking and such dignified
+burlesques on the adults, I feel as if I had seen them all
+before, so like are they to their pictures on trays, fans, and
+tea-pots.&nbsp; The hair of the women is all drawn away from
+their faces, and is worn in chignons, and the men, when they
+don&rsquo;t shave the front of their heads and gather their back
+hair into a quaint queue drawn forward over the shaven patch,
+wear their coarse hair about three inches long in a refractory
+undivided mop.</p>
+<p>Davies, an orderly from the Legation, met me,&mdash;one of the
+escort cut down and severely wounded when Sir H. Parkes was
+attacked in the street of Kiy&ocirc;to in March 1868 on his way
+to his first audience of the Mikado.&nbsp; Hundreds of
+<i>kurumas</i>, and <a name="page13"></a><span class="pagenum">p.
+13</span>covered carts with four wheels drawn by one miserable
+horse, which are the omnibuses of certain districts of
+T&ocirc;kiy&ocirc;, were waiting outside the station, and an
+English brougham for me, with a running <i>betto</i>.&nbsp; The
+Legation stands in K&ocirc;jimachi on very elevated ground above
+the inner moat of the historic &ldquo;Castle of Yedo,&rdquo; but
+I cannot tell you anything of what I saw on my way thither,
+except that there were miles of dark, silent, barrack-like
+buildings, with highly ornamental gateways, and long rows of
+projecting windows with screens made of reeds&mdash;the feudal
+mansions of Yedo&mdash;and miles of moats with lofty grass
+embankments or walls of massive masonry 50 feet high, with
+kiosk-like towers at the corners, and curious, roofed gateways,
+and many bridges, and acres of lotus leaves.&nbsp; Turning along
+the inner moat, up a steep slope, there are, on the right, its
+deep green waters, the great grass embankment surmounted by a
+dismal wall overhung by the branches of coniferous trees which
+surrounded the palace of the Sh&ocirc;gun, and on the left sundry
+<i>yashikis</i>, as the mansions of the <i>daimiy&ocirc;</i> were
+called, now in this quarter mostly turned into hospitals,
+barracks, and Government offices.&nbsp; On a height, the most
+conspicuous of them all, is the great red gateway of the
+<i>yashiki</i>, now occupied by the French Military Mission,
+formerly the residence of Ii Kamon no Kami, one of the great
+actors in recent historic events, who was assassinated not far
+off, outside the Sakaruda gate of the castle.&nbsp; Besides
+these, barracks, parade-grounds, policemen, <i>kurumas</i>, carts
+pulled and pushed by coolies, pack-horses in straw sandals, and
+dwarfish, slatternly-looking soldiers in European dress, made up
+the T&ocirc;kiy&ocirc; that I saw between Shinbashi and the
+Legation.</p>
+<p>H.B.M.&rsquo;s Legation has a good situation near the Foreign
+Office, several of the Government departments, and the residences
+of the ministers, which are chiefly of brick in the English
+suburban villa style.&nbsp; Within the compound, with a brick
+archway with the Royal Arms upon it for an entrance, are the
+Minister&rsquo;s residence, the Chancery, two houses for the two
+English Secretaries of Legation, and quarters for the escort.</p>
+<p>It is an English house and an English home, though, with the
+exception of a venerable nurse, there are no English
+servants.&nbsp; The butler and footman are tall Chinamen, with <a
+name="page14"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 14</span>long
+pig-tails, black satin caps, and long blue robes; the cook is a
+Chinaman, and the other servants are all Japanese, including one
+female servant, a sweet, gentle, kindly girl about 4 feet 5 in
+height, the wife of the head &ldquo;housemaid.&rdquo;&nbsp; None
+of the servants speak anything but the most aggravating
+&ldquo;pidgun&rdquo; English, but their deficient speech is more
+than made up for by the intelligence and service of the orderly
+in waiting, who is rarely absent from the neighbourhood of the
+hall door, and attends to the visitors&rsquo; book and to all
+messages and notes.&nbsp; There are two real English children of
+six and seven, with great capacities for such innocent enjoyments
+as can be found within the limits of the nursery and
+garden.&nbsp; The other inmate of the house is a beautiful and
+attractive terrier called &ldquo;Rags,&rdquo; a Skye dog, who
+unbends &ldquo;in the bosom of his family,&rdquo; but ordinarily
+is as imposing in his demeanour as if he, and not his master,
+represented the dignity of the British Empire.</p>
+<p>The Japanese Secretary of Legation is Mr. Ernest Satow, whose
+reputation for scholarship, especially in the department of
+history, is said by the Japanese themselves to be the highest in
+Japan <a name="citation14"></a><a href="#footnote14"
+class="citation">[14]</a>&mdash;an honourable distinction for an
+Englishman, and won by the persevering industry of fifteen
+years.&nbsp; The scholarship connected with the British Civil
+Service is not, however, monopolised by Mr. Satow, for several
+gentlemen in the consular service, who are passing through the
+various grades of student interpreters, are distinguishing
+themselves not alone by their facility in colloquial Japanese,
+but by their researches in various departments of Japanese
+history, mythology, arch&aelig;ology, and literature.&nbsp;
+Indeed it is to their labours, and to those of a few other
+Englishmen and Germans, that the Japanese of the rising
+generation will be indebted for keeping alive not only the
+knowledge of their archaic literature, but even of the manners
+and customs of the first half of this century.</p>
+<p style="text-align: right">I. L. B.</p>
+<h2><a name="page15"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 15</span>LETTER
+IV.</h2>
+<p class="gutsumm">&ldquo;John Chinaman&rdquo;&mdash;Engaging a
+Servant&mdash;First Impressions of Ito&mdash;A Solemn
+Contract&mdash;The Food Question.</p>
+<p style="text-align: right">H.B.M.&rsquo;s <span
+class="smcap">Legation</span>, <span
+class="smcap">Yedo</span>,<br />
+<i>June</i> 7.</p>
+<p>I <span class="smcap">went</span> to Yokohama for a week to
+visit Dr. and Mrs. Hepburn on the Bluff.&nbsp; Bishop and Mrs.
+Burdon of Hong Kong were also guests, and it was very
+pleasant.</p>
+<p>One cannot be a day in Yokohama without seeing quite a
+different class of orientals from the small, thinly-dressed, and
+usually poor-looking Japanese.&nbsp; Of the 2500 Chinamen who
+reside in Japan, over 1100 are in Yokohama, and if they were
+suddenly removed, business would come to an abrupt halt.&nbsp;
+Here, as everywhere, the Chinese immigrant is making himself
+indispensable.&nbsp; He walks through the streets with his
+swinging gait and air of complete self-complacency, as though he
+belonged to the ruling race.&nbsp; He is tall and big, and his
+many garments, with a handsome brocaded robe over all, his satin
+pantaloons, of which not much is seen, tight at the ankles, and
+his high shoes, whose black satin tops are slightly turned up at
+the toes, make him look even taller and bigger than he is.&nbsp;
+His head is mostly shaven, but the hair at the back is plaited
+with a quantity of black purse twist into a queue which reaches
+to his knees, above which, set well back, he wears a stiff, black
+satin skull-cap, without which he is never seen.&nbsp; His face
+is very yellow, his long dark eyes and eyebrows slope upwards
+towards his temples, he has not the vestige of a beard, and his
+skin is shiny.&nbsp; He looks thoroughly
+&ldquo;well-to-do.&rdquo;&nbsp; He is not unpleasing-looking, but
+you feel that as a Celestial he looks down upon you.&nbsp; If you
+ask a question in a merchant&rsquo;s office, or change your gold
+into <i>satsu</i>, or take <a name="page16"></a><span
+class="pagenum">p. 16</span>your railroad or steamer ticket, or
+get change in a shop, the inevitable Chinaman appears.&nbsp; In
+the street he swings past you with a purpose in his face; as he
+flies past you in a <i>kuruma</i> he is bent on business; he is
+sober and reliable, and is content to &ldquo;squeeze&rdquo; his
+employer rather than to rob him&mdash;his one aim in life is
+money.&nbsp; For this he is industrious, faithful, self-denying;
+and he has his reward.</p>
+<p>Several of my kind new acquaintances interested themselves
+about the (to me) vital matter of a servant interpreter, and many
+Japanese came to &ldquo;see after the place.&rdquo;&nbsp; The
+speaking of intelligible English is a <i>sine qu&acirc; non</i>,
+and it was wonderful to find the few words badly pronounced and
+worse put together, which were regarded by the candidates as a
+sufficient qualification.&nbsp; Can you speak English?&nbsp;
+&ldquo;Yes.&rdquo;&nbsp; What wages do you ask?&nbsp;
+&ldquo;Twelve dollars a month.&rdquo;&nbsp; This was always said
+glibly, and in each case sounded hopeful.&nbsp; Whom have you
+lived with?&nbsp; A foreign name distorted out of all
+recognition, as was natural, was then given.&nbsp; Where have you
+travelled?&nbsp; This question usually had to be translated into
+Japanese, and the usual answer was, &ldquo;The Tokaido, the
+Nakasendo, to Kiy&ocirc;to, to Nikk&ocirc;,&rdquo; naming the
+beaten tracks of countless tourists.&nbsp; Do you know anything
+of Northern Japan and the Hokkaido?&nbsp; &ldquo;No,&rdquo; with
+a blank wondering look.&nbsp; At this stage in every case Dr.
+Hepburn compassionately stepped in as interpreter, for their
+stock of English was exhausted.&nbsp; Three were regarded as
+promising.&nbsp; One was a sprightly youth who came in a
+well-made European suit of light-coloured tweed, a laid-down
+collar, a tie with a diamond (?) pin, and a white shirt, so
+stiffly starched, that he could hardly bend low enough for a bow
+even of European profundity.&nbsp; He wore a gilt watch-chain
+with a locket, the corner of a very white cambric
+pocket-handkerchief dangled from his breast pocket, and he held a
+cane and a felt hat in his hand.&nbsp; He was a Japanese dandy of
+the first water.&nbsp; I looked at him ruefully.&nbsp; To me
+starched collars are to be an unknown luxury for the next three
+months.&nbsp; His fine foreign clothes would enhance prices
+everywhere in the interior, and besides that, I should feel a
+perpetual difficulty in asking menial services from an
+exquisite.&nbsp; I was therefore quite relieved when his English
+broke down at the second question.</p>
+<p><a name="page17"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 17</span>The
+second was a most respectable-looking man of thirty-five in a
+good Japanese dress.&nbsp; He was highly recommended, and his
+first English words were promising, but he had been cook in the
+service of a wealthy English official who travelled with a large
+retinue, and sent servants on ahead to prepare the way.&nbsp; He
+knew really only a few words of English, and his horror at
+finding that there was &ldquo;no master,&rdquo; and that there
+would be no woman-servant, was so great, that I hardly know
+whether he rejected me or I him.</p>
+<p>The third, sent by Mr. Wilkinson, wore a plain Japanese dress,
+and had a frank, intelligent face.&nbsp; Though Dr. Hepburn spoke
+with him in Japanese, he thought that he knew more English than
+the others, and that what he knew would come out when he was less
+agitated.&nbsp; He evidently understood what I said, and, though
+I had a suspicion that he would turn out to be the
+&ldquo;master,&rdquo; I thought him so prepossessing that I
+nearly engaged him on the spot.&nbsp; None of the others merit
+any remark.</p>
+<p>However, when I had nearly made up my mind in his favour, a
+creature appeared without any recommendation at all, except that
+one of Dr. Hepburn&rsquo;s servants was acquainted with
+him.&nbsp; He is only eighteen, but this is equivalent to
+twenty-three or twenty-four with us, and only 4 feet 10 inches in
+height, but, though bandy-legged, is well proportioned and
+strong-looking.&nbsp; He has a round and singularly plain face,
+good teeth, much elongated eyes, and the heavy droop of his
+eyelids almost caricatures the usual Japanese peculiarity.&nbsp;
+He is the most stupid-looking Japanese that I have seen, but,
+from a rapid, furtive glance in his eyes now and then, I think
+that the stolidity is partly assumed.&nbsp; He said that he had
+lived at the American Legation, that he had been a clerk on the
+Osaka railroad, that he had travelled through northern Japan by
+the eastern route, and in Yezo with Mr. Maries, a botanical
+collector, that he understood drying plants, that he could cook a
+little, that he could write English, that he could walk
+twenty-five miles a day, and that he thoroughly understood
+getting through the interior!&nbsp; This would-be paragon had no
+recommendations, and accounted for this by saying that they had
+been burned in a recent fire in his father&rsquo;s house.&nbsp;
+Mr. Maries was not forthcoming, and more than this, I suspected
+<a name="page18"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 18</span>and
+disliked the boy.&nbsp; However, he understood my English and I
+his, and, being very anxious to begin my travels, I engaged him
+for twelve dollars a month, and soon afterwards he came back with
+a contract, in which he declares by all that he holds most sacred
+that he will serve me faithfully for the wages agreed upon, and
+to this document he affixed his seal and I my name.&nbsp; The
+next day he asked me for a month&rsquo;s wages in advance, which
+I gave him, but Dr. H. consolingly suggested that I should never
+see him again!</p>
+<p>Ever since the solemn night when the contract was signed I
+have felt under an incubus, and since he appeared here yesterday,
+punctual to the appointed hour, I have felt as if I had a
+veritable &ldquo;old man of the sea&rdquo; upon my
+shoulders.&nbsp; He flies up stairs and along the corridors as
+noiselessly as a cat, and already knows where I keep all my
+things.&nbsp; Nothing surprises or abashes him, he bows
+profoundly to Sir Harry and Lady Parkes when he encounters them,
+but is obviously &ldquo;quite at home&rdquo; in a Legation, and
+only allowed one of the orderlies to show him how to put on a
+Mexican saddle and English bridle out of condescension to my
+wishes.&nbsp; He seems as sharp or &ldquo;smart&rdquo; as can be,
+and has already arranged for the first three days of my
+journey.&nbsp; His name is Ito, and you will doubtless hear much
+more of him, as he will be my good or evil genius for the next
+three months.</p>
+<p>As no English lady has yet travelled alone through the
+interior, my project excites a very friendly interest among my
+friends, and I receive much warning and dissuasion, and a little
+encouragement.&nbsp; The strongest, because the most intelligent,
+dissuasion comes from Dr. Hepburn, who thinks that I ought not to
+undertake the journey, and that I shall never get through to the
+Tsugaru Strait.&nbsp; If I accepted much of the advice given to
+me, as to taking tinned meats and soups, claret, and a Japanese
+maid, I should need a train of at least six pack-horses!&nbsp; As
+to fleas, there is a lamentable concensus of opinion that they
+are the curse of Japanese travelling during the summer, and some
+people recommend me to sleep in a bag drawn tightly round the
+throat, others to sprinkle my bedding freely with insect powder,
+others to smear the skin all over with carbolic oil, and some to
+make a plentiful use of dried and powdered flea-bane.&nbsp; All
+admit, however, that these <a name="page19"></a><span
+class="pagenum">p. 19</span>are but feeble palliatives.&nbsp;
+Hammocks unfortunately cannot be used in Japanese houses.</p>
+<p>The &ldquo;Food Question&rdquo; is said to be the most
+important one for all travellers, and it is discussed continually
+with startling earnestness, not alone as regards my tour.&nbsp;
+However apathetic people are on other subjects, the mere mention
+of this one rouses them into interest.&nbsp; All have suffered or
+may suffer, and every one wishes to impart his own experience or
+to learn from that of others.&nbsp; Foreign ministers,
+professors, missionaries, merchants&mdash;all discuss it with
+becoming gravity as a question of life and death, which by many
+it is supposed to be.&nbsp; The fact is that, except at a few
+hotels in popular resorts which are got up for foreigners, bread,
+butter, milk, meat, poultry, coffee, wine, and beer, are
+unattainable, that fresh fish is rare, and that unless one can
+live on rice, tea, and eggs, with the addition now and then of
+some tasteless fresh vegetables, food must be taken, as the fishy
+and vegetable abominations known as &ldquo;Japanese food&rdquo;
+can only be swallowed and digested by a few, and that after long
+practice. <a name="citation19"></a><a href="#footnote19"
+class="citation">[19]</a></p>
+<p>Another, but far inferior, difficulty on which much stress is
+laid is the practice common among native servants of getting a
+&ldquo;squeeze&rdquo; out of every money transaction on the road,
+so that the cost of travelling is often doubled, and sometimes
+trebled, according to the skill and capacity of the
+servant.&nbsp; Three gentlemen who have travelled extensively
+have given me lists of the prices which I ought to pay, varying
+in different districts, and largely increased on the beaten track
+of tourists, and Mr. Wilkinson has read these to Ito, who offered
+an occasional remonstrance.&nbsp; Mr. W. remarked after the
+conversation, which was in Japanese, that he thought I should
+have to &ldquo;look sharp after money matters&rdquo;&mdash;a
+painful prospect, as I have never been able to manage anybody in
+my life, and shall surely have no control over this clever,
+cunning Japanese youth, who on most points will be able to
+deceive me as he pleases.</p>
+<p>On returning here I found that Lady Parkes had made <a
+name="page20"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 20</span>most of the
+necessary preparations for me, and that they include two light
+baskets with covers of oiled paper, a travelling bed or
+stretcher, a folding-chair, and an india-rubber bath, all which
+she considers as necessaries for a person in feeble health on a
+journey of such long duration.&nbsp; This week has been spent in
+making acquaintances in T&ocirc;kiy&ocirc;, seeing some
+characteristic sights, and in trying to get light on my tour; but
+little seems known by foreigners of northern Japan, and a
+Government department, on being applied to, returned an
+itinerary, leaving out 140 miles of the route that I dream of
+taking, on the ground of &ldquo;insufficient information,&rdquo;
+on which Sir Harry cheerily remarked, &ldquo;You will have to get
+your information as you go along, and that will be all the more
+interesting.&rdquo;&nbsp; Ah! but how?</p>
+<p style="text-align: right">I. L. B.</p>
+<p style="text-align: center">
+<a href="images/p20b.jpg">
+<img alt=
+"A Lake Biwa Tea-House"
+title=
+"A Lake Biwa Tea-House"
+ src="images/p20s.jpg" />
+</a></p>
+<h2><a name="page21"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 21</span>LETTER
+V.</h2>
+<p class="gutsumm">Kwan-non Temple&mdash;Uniformity of Temple
+Architecture&mdash;A <i>Kuruma</i> Expedition&mdash;A Perpetual
+Festival&mdash;The Ni-&ocirc;&mdash;The Limbo of
+Vanity&mdash;Heathen Prayers&mdash;Binzuru&mdash;A Group of
+Devils&mdash;Archery Galleries&mdash;New Japan&mdash;An
+&Eacute;l&eacute;gante.</p>
+<p style="text-align: right">H.B.M.&rsquo;s <span
+class="smcap">Legation</span>, <span
+class="smcap">Yedo</span>,<br />
+<i>June</i> 9.</p>
+<p><span class="smcap">Once</span> for all I will describe a
+Buddhist temple, and it shall be the popular temple of Asakusa,
+which keeps fair and festival the whole year round, and is
+dedicated to the &ldquo;thousand-armed&rdquo; Kwan-non, the
+goddess of mercy.&nbsp; Writing generally, it may be said that in
+design, roof, and general aspect, Japanese Buddhist temples are
+all alike.&nbsp; The sacred architectural idea expresses itself
+in nearly the same form always.&nbsp; There is a single or
+double-roofed gateway, with highly-coloured figures in niches on
+either side; the paved temple-court, with more or fewer stone or
+bronze lanterns; <i>amainu</i>, or heavenly dogs, in stone on
+stone pedestals; stone sarcophagi, roofed over or not, for holy
+water; a flight of steps; a portico, continued as a verandah all
+round the temple; a roof of tremendously disproportionate size
+and weight, with a peculiar curve; a square or oblong hall
+divided by a railing from a &ldquo;chancel&rdquo; with a high and
+low altar, and a shrine containing Buddha, or the divinity to
+whom the chapel is dedicated; an incense-burner, and a few
+ecclesiastical ornaments.&nbsp; The symbols, idols, and
+adornments depend upon the sect to which the temple belongs, or
+the wealth of its votaries, or the fancy of the priests.&nbsp;
+Some temples are packed full of gods, shrines, banners, bronzes,
+brasses, tablets, and ornaments, and others, like those of the
+Monto sect, are so severely simple, that with scarcely an
+alteration they might be used for Christian worship
+to-morrow.</p>
+<p><a name="page22"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 22</span>The
+foundations consist of square stones on which the uprights
+rest.&nbsp; These are of elm, and are united at intervals by
+longitudinal pieces.&nbsp; The great size and enormous weight of
+the roofs arise from the trusses being formed of one heavy frame
+being built upon another in diminishing squares till the top is
+reached, the main beams being formed of very large timbers put on
+in their natural state.&nbsp; They are either very heavily and
+ornamentally tiled, or covered with sheet copper ornamented with
+gold, or thatched to a depth of from one to three feet, with fine
+shingles or bark.&nbsp; The casing of the walls on the outside is
+usually thick elm planking either lacquered or unpainted, and
+that of the inside is of thin, finely-planed and bevelled
+planking of the beautiful wood of the <i>Retinospora
+obtusa</i>.&nbsp; The lining of the roof is in flat panels, and
+where it is supported by pillars they are invariably circular,
+and formed of the straight, finely-grained stem of the
+<i>Retinospora obtusa</i>.&nbsp; The projecting ends of the
+roof-beams under the eaves are either elaborately carved,
+lacquered in dull red, or covered with copper, as are the joints
+of the beams.&nbsp; Very few nails are used, the timbers being
+very beautifully joined by mortices and dovetails, other methods
+of junction being unknown.</p>
+<p>Mr. Chamberlain and I went in a <i>kuruma</i> hurried along by
+three liveried coolies, through the three miles of crowded
+streets which lie between the Legation and Asakusa, once a
+village, but now incorporated with this monster city, to the
+broad street leading to the Adzuma Bridge over the Sumida river,
+one of the few stone bridges in T&ocirc;kiy&ocirc;, which
+connects east T&ocirc;kiy&ocirc;, an uninteresting region,
+containing many canals, storehouses, timber-yards, and inferior
+<i>yashikis</i>, with the rest of the city.&nbsp; This street,
+marvellously thronged with pedestrians and <i>kurumas</i>, is the
+terminus of a number of city &ldquo;stage lines,&rdquo; and
+twenty wretched-looking covered waggons, with still more wretched
+ponies, were drawn up in the middle, waiting for
+passengers.&nbsp; Just there plenty of real T&ocirc;kiy&ocirc;
+life is to be seen, for near a shrine of popular pilgrimage there
+are always numerous places of amusement, innocent and vicious,
+and the vicinity of this temple is full of restaurants,
+tea-houses, minor theatres, and the resorts of dancing and
+singing girls.</p>
+<p><a name="page23"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 23</span>A
+broad-paved avenue, only open to foot passengers, leads from this
+street to the grand entrance, a colossal two-storied
+double-roofed <i>mon</i>, or gate, painted a rich dull red.&nbsp;
+On either side of this avenue are lines of booths&mdash;which
+make a brilliant and lavish display of their
+contents&mdash;toy-shops, shops for smoking apparatus, and shops
+for the sale of ornamental hair-pins predominating.&nbsp; Nearer
+the gate are booths for the sale of rosaries for prayer, sleeve
+and bosom idols of brass and wood in small shrines, amulet bags,
+representations of the jolly-looking Daikoku, the god of wealth,
+the most popular of the household gods of Japan, shrines,
+memorial tablets, cheap <i>ex votos</i>, sacred bells,
+candlesticks, and incense-burners, and all the endless and
+various articles connected with Buddhist devotion, public and
+private.&nbsp; Every day is a festival-day at Asakusa; the temple
+is dedicated to the most popular of the great divinities; it is
+the most popular of religious resorts; and whether he be
+Buddhist, Shint&ocirc;ist, or Christian, no stranger comes to the
+capital without making a visit to its crowded courts or a
+purchase at its tempting booths.&nbsp; Not to be an exception, I
+invested in bouquets of firework flowers, fifty flowers for 2
+<i>sen</i>, or 1d., each of which, as it slowly consumes, throws
+off fiery coruscations, shaped like the most beautiful of snow
+crystals.&nbsp; I was also tempted by small boxes at 2 <i>sen</i>
+each, containing what look like little slips of withered pith,
+but which, on being dropped into water, expand into trees and
+flowers.</p>
+<p>Down a paved passage on the right there is an artificial
+river, not over clean, with a bridge formed of one curved stone,
+from which a flight of steps leads up to a small temple with a
+magnificent bronze bell.&nbsp; At the entrance several women were
+praying.&nbsp; In the same direction are two fine bronze Buddhas,
+seated figures, one with clasped hands, the other holding a
+lotus, both with &ldquo;The light of the world&rdquo; upon their
+brows.&nbsp; The grand red gateway into the actual temple courts
+has an extremely imposing effect, and besides, it is the portal
+to the first great heathen temple that I have seen, and it made
+me think of another temple whose courts were equally crowded with
+buyers and sellers, and of a &ldquo;whip of small cords&rdquo; in
+the hand of One who claimed both the temple and its courts as His
+&ldquo;Father&rsquo;s House.&rdquo;&nbsp; Not with less <a
+name="page24"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 24</span>righteous
+wrath would the gentle founder of Buddhism purify the
+unsanctified courts of Asakusa.&nbsp; Hundreds of men, women, and
+children passed to and fro through the gateway in incessant
+streams, and so they are passing through every daylight hour of
+every day in the year, thousands becoming tens of thousands on
+the great <i>matsuri</i> days, when the <i>mikoshi</i>, or sacred
+car, containing certain symbols of the god, is exhibited, and
+after sacred mimes and dances have been performed, is carried in
+a magnificent, antique procession to the shore and back
+again.&nbsp; Under the gateway on either side are the
+<i>Ni-&ocirc;</i>, or two kings, gigantic figures in flowing
+robes, one red and with an open mouth, representing the
+<i>Yo</i>, or male principle of Chinese philosophy, the other
+green and with the mouth firmly closed, representing the
+<i>In</i>, or female principle.&nbsp; They are hideous creatures,
+with protruding eyes, and faces and figures distorted and
+corrupted into a high degree of exaggerated and convulsive
+action.&nbsp; These figures guard the gates of most of the larger
+temples, and small prints of them are pasted over the doors of
+houses to protect them against burglars.&nbsp; Attached to the
+grating in front were a number of straw sandals, hung up by
+people who pray that their limbs may be as muscular as those of
+the <i>Ni-&ocirc;</i>.</p>
+<p>Passing through this gate we were in the temple court proper,
+and in front of the temple itself, a building of imposing height
+and size, of a dull red colour, with a grand roof of heavy iron
+grey tiles, with a sweeping curve which gives grace as well as
+grandeur.&nbsp; The timbers and supports are solid and of great
+size, but, in common with all Japanese temples, whether Buddhist
+or Shint&ocirc;, the edifice is entirely of wood.&nbsp; A broad
+flight of narrow, steep, brass-bound steps lead up to the porch,
+which is formed by a number of circular pillars supporting a very
+lofty roof, from which paper lanterns ten feet long are
+hanging.&nbsp; A gallery runs from this round the temple, under
+cover of the eaves.&nbsp; There is an outer temple, unmatted, and
+an inner one behind a grating, into which those who choose to pay
+for the privilege of praying in comparative privacy, or of having
+prayers said for them by the priests, can pass.</p>
+<p>In the outer temple the noise, confusion, and perpetual
+motion, are bewildering.&nbsp; Crowds on clattering clogs pass in
+<a name="page25"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 25</span>and out;
+pigeons, of which hundreds live in the porch, fly over your head,
+and the whirring of their wings mingles with the tinkling of
+bells, the beating of drums and gongs, the high-pitched drone of
+the priests, the low murmur of prayers, the rippling laughter of
+girls, the harsh voices of men, and the general buzz of a
+multitude.&nbsp; There is very much that is highly grotesque at
+first sight.&nbsp; Men squat on the floor selling amulets,
+rosaries, printed prayers, incense sticks, and other wares.&nbsp;
+<i>Ex votos</i> of all kinds hang on the wall and on the great
+round pillars.&nbsp; Many of these are rude Japanese
+pictures.&nbsp; The subject of one is the blowing-up of a steamer
+in the Sumidagawa with the loss of 100 lives, when the donor was
+saved by the grace of Kwan-non.&nbsp; Numbers of memorials are
+from people who offered up prayers here, and have been restored
+to health or wealth.&nbsp; Others are from junk men whose lives
+have been in peril.&nbsp; There are scores of men&rsquo;s queues
+and a few dusty braids of women&rsquo;s hair offered on account
+of vows or prayers, usually for sick relatives, and among them
+all, on the left hand, are a large mirror in a gaudily gilt frame
+and a framed picture of the P. M. S. <i>China</i>!&nbsp; Above
+this incongruous collection are splendid wood carvings and
+frescoes of angels, among which the pigeons find a home free from
+molestation.</p>
+<p>Near the entrance there is a superb incense-burner in the most
+massive style of the older bronzes, with a mythical beast rampant
+upon it, and in high relief round it the Japanese signs of the
+zodiac&mdash;the rat, ox, tiger, rabbit, dragon, serpent, horse,
+goat, monkey, cock, dog, and hog.&nbsp; Clouds of incense rise
+continually from the perforations round the edge, and a
+black-toothed woman who keeps it burning is perpetually receiving
+small coins from the worshippers, who then pass on to the front
+of the altar to pray.&nbsp; The high altar, and indeed all that I
+should regard as properly the temple, are protected by a screen
+of coarsely-netted iron wire.&nbsp; This holy of holies is full
+of shrines and gods, gigantic candlesticks, colossal lotuses of
+gilded silver, offerings, lamps, lacquer, litany books, gongs,
+drums, bells, and all the mysterious symbols of a faith which is
+a system of morals and metaphysics to the educated and initiated,
+and an idolatrous superstition to the masses.&nbsp; In this
+interior the light was dim, the lamps burned low, the <a
+name="page26"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 26</span>atmosphere
+was heavy with incense, and amidst its fumes shaven priests in
+chasubles and stoles moved noiselessly over the soft matting
+round the high altar on which Kwan-non is enshrined, lighting
+candles, striking bells, and murmuring prayers.&nbsp; In front of
+the screen is the treasury, a wooden chest 14 feet by 10, with a
+deep slit, into which all the worshippers cast copper coins with
+a ceaseless clinking sound.</p>
+<p>There, too, they pray, if that can be called prayer which
+frequently consists only in the repetition of an uncomprehended
+phrase in a foreign tongue, bowing the head, raising the hands
+and rubbing them, murmuring a few words, telling beads, clapping
+the hands, bowing again, and then passing out or on to another
+shrine to repeat the same form.&nbsp; Merchants in silk clothing,
+soldiers in shabby French uniforms, farmers, coolies in
+&ldquo;vile raiment,&rdquo; mothers, maidens, swells in European
+clothes, even the <i>samurai</i> policemen, bow before the
+goddess of mercy.&nbsp; Most of the prayers were offered rapidly,
+a mere momentary interlude in the gurgle of careless talk, and
+without a pretence of reverence; but some of the petitioners
+obviously brought real woes in simple &ldquo;faith.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>In one shrine there is a large idol, spotted all over with
+pellets of paper, and hundreds of these are sticking to the wire
+netting which protects him.&nbsp; A worshipper writes his
+petition on paper, or, better still, has it written for him by
+the priest, chews it to a pulp, and spits it at the
+divinity.&nbsp; If, having been well aimed, it passes through the
+wire and sticks, it is a good omen, if it lodges in the netting
+the prayer has probably been unheard.&nbsp; The <i>Ni-&ocirc;</i>
+and some of the gods outside the temple are similarly
+disfigured.&nbsp; On the left there is a shrine with a screen, to
+the bars of which innumerable prayers have been tied.&nbsp; On
+the right, accessible to all, sits Binzuru, one of Buddha&rsquo;s
+original sixteen disciples.&nbsp; His face and appearance have
+been calm and amiable, with something of the quiet dignity of an
+elderly country gentleman of the reign of George III.; but he is
+now worn and defaced, and has not much more of eyes, nose, and
+mouth than the Sphinx; and the polished, red lacquer has
+disappeared from his hands and feet, for Binzuru is a great
+medicine god, and centuries of sick people have rubbed his face
+and limbs, and then have rubbed their own.&nbsp; A young woman
+went up to <a name="page27"></a><span class="pagenum">p.
+27</span>him, rubbed the back of his neck, and then rubbed her
+own.&nbsp; Then a modest-looking girl, leading an ancient woman
+with badly inflamed eyelids and paralysed arms, rubbed his
+eyelids, and then gently stroked the closed eyelids of the
+crone.&nbsp; Then a coolie, with a swelled knee, applied himself
+vigorously to Binzuru&rsquo;s knee, and more gently to his
+own.&nbsp; Remember, this is the great temple of the populace,
+and &ldquo;not many rich, not many noble, not many mighty,&rdquo;
+enter its dim, dirty, crowded halls. <a name="citation27"></a><a
+href="#footnote27" class="citation">[27]</a></p>
+<p>But the great temple to Kwan-non is not the only sight of
+Asakusa.&nbsp; Outside it are countless shrines and temples, huge
+stone <i>Amainu</i>, or heavenly dogs, on rude blocks of stone,
+large cisterns of stone and bronze with and without canopies,
+containing water for the ablutions of the worshippers, cast iron
+<i>Amainu</i> on hewn stone pedestals&mdash;a recent
+gift&mdash;bronze and stone lanterns, a stone prayer-wheel in a
+stone post, figures of Buddha with the serene countenance of one
+who rests from his labours, stone idols, on which devotees have
+pasted slips of paper inscribed with prayers, with sticks of
+incense rising out of the ashes of hundreds of former sticks
+smouldering before them, blocks of hewn stone with Chinese and
+Sanskrit inscriptions, an eight-sided temple in which are figures
+of the &ldquo;Five Hundred Disciples&rdquo; of Buddha, a temple
+with the roof and upper part of the walls richly coloured, the
+circular Shint&ocirc; mirror in an inner shrine, a bronze
+treasury outside with a bell, which is rung to attract the
+god&rsquo;s attention, a striking, five-storied pagoda, with much
+red lacquer, and the ends of the roof-beams very boldly carved,
+its heavy eaves fringed with wind bells, and its uppermost roof
+terminating in a graceful copper spiral of great height, with the
+&ldquo;sacred pearl&rdquo; surrounded by flames for its
+finial.&nbsp; Near it, as near most temples, is an upright frame
+of plain wood with tablets, on which are inscribed the names of
+donors to the temple, and the amount of their gifts.</p>
+<p>There is a handsome stone-floored temple to the south-east of
+the main building, to which we were the sole visitors.&nbsp; <a
+name="page28"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 28</span>It is lofty
+and very richly decorated.&nbsp; In the centre is an octagonal
+revolving room, or rather shrine, of rich red lacquer most
+gorgeously ornamented.&nbsp; It rests on a frame of carved black
+lacquer, and has a lacquer gallery running round it, on which
+several richly decorated doors open.&nbsp; On the application of
+several shoulders to this gallery the shrine rotates.&nbsp; It
+is, in fact, a revolving library of the Buddhist Scriptures, and
+a single turn is equivalent to a single pious perusal of
+them.&nbsp; It is an exceedingly beautiful specimen of ancient
+decorative lacquer work.&nbsp; At the back part of the temple is
+a draped brass figure of Buddha, with one hand raised&mdash;a
+dignified piece of casting.&nbsp; All the Buddhas have Hindoo
+features, and the graceful drapery and oriental repose which have
+been imported from India contrast singularly with the grotesque
+extravagances of the indigenous Japanese conceptions.&nbsp; In
+the same temple are four monstrously extravagant figures carved
+in wood, life-size, with clawed toes on their feet, and <a
+name="page29"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 29</span>two great
+fangs in addition to the teeth in each mouth.&nbsp; The heads of
+all are surrounded with flames, and are backed by golden
+circlets.&nbsp; They are extravagantly clothed in garments which
+look as if they were agitated by a violent wind; they wear
+helmets and partial suits of armour, and hold in their right
+hands something between a monarch&rsquo;s sceptre and a
+priest&rsquo;s staff.&nbsp; They have goggle eyes and open
+mouths, and their faces are in distorted and exaggerated
+action.&nbsp; One, painted bright red, tramples on a writhing
+devil painted bright pink; another, painted emerald green,
+tramples on a sea-green devil, an indigo blue monster tramples on
+a sky-blue fiend, and a bright pink monster treads under his
+clawed feet a flesh-coloured demon.&nbsp; I cannot give you any
+idea of the hideousness of their aspect, and was much inclined to
+sympathise with the more innocent-looking fiends whom they were
+maltreating.&nbsp; They occur very frequently in Buddhist
+temples, and are said by some to be assistant-torturers to Yemma,
+the lord of hell, and are called by others &ldquo;The gods of the
+Four Quarters.&rdquo;</p>
+<p style="text-align: center">
+<a href="images/p28b.jpg">
+<img alt=
+"Stone Lanterns"
+title=
+"Stone Lanterns"
+ src="images/p28s.jpg" />
+</a></p>
+<p>The temple grounds are a most extraordinary sight.&nbsp; No
+English fair in the palmiest days of fairs ever presented such an
+array of attractions.&nbsp; Behind the temple are archery
+galleries in numbers, where girls, hardly so modest-looking as
+usual, smile and smirk, and bring straw-coloured tea in dainty
+cups, and tasteless sweetmeats on lacquer trays, and smoke their
+tiny pipes, and offer you bows of slender bamboo strips, two feet
+long, with rests for the arrows, and tiny cherry-wood arrows,
+bone-tipped, and feathered red, blue, and white, and smilingly,
+but quite unobtrusively, ask you to try your skill or luck at a
+target hanging in front of a square drum, flanked by red
+cushions.&nbsp; A click, a boom, or a hardly audible
+&ldquo;thud,&rdquo; indicate the result.&nbsp; Nearly all the
+archers were grown-up men, and many of them spend hours at a time
+in this childish sport.</p>
+<p>All over the grounds booths with the usual charcoal fire,
+copper boiler, iron kettle of curious workmanship, tiny cups,
+fragrant aroma of tea, and winsome, graceful girls, invite you to
+drink and rest, and more solid but less inviting refreshments are
+also to be had.&nbsp; Rows of pretty paper lanterns decorate all
+the stalls.&nbsp; Then there are photograph galleries, mimic
+tea-gardens, <a name="page30"></a><span class="pagenum">p.
+30</span>tableaux in which a large number of groups of life-size
+figures with appropriate scenery are put into motion by a
+creaking wheel of great size, matted lounges for rest, stands
+with saucers of rice, beans and peas for offerings to the gods,
+the pigeons, and the two sacred horses, Albino ponies, with pink
+eyes and noses, revoltingly greedy creatures, eating all day long
+and still craving for more.&nbsp; There are booths for singing
+and dancing, and under one a professional story-teller was
+reciting to a densely packed crowd one of the old, popular
+stories of crime.&nbsp; There are booths where for a few
+<i>rin</i> you may have the pleasure of feeding some very ugly
+and greedy apes, or of watching mangy monkeys which have been
+taught to prostrate themselves Japanese fashion.</p>
+<p>This letter is far too long, but to pass over Asakusa and its
+novelties when the impression of them is fresh would be to omit
+one of the most interesting sights in Japan.&nbsp; On the way
+back we passed red mail carts like those in London, a squadron of
+cavalry in European uniforms and with European saddles, and the
+carriage of the Minister of Marine, an English brougham with a
+pair of horses in English harness, and an escort of six
+troopers&mdash;a painful precaution adopted since the political
+assassination of Okubo, the Home Minister, three weeks ago.&nbsp;
+So the old and the new in this great city contrast with and
+jostle each other.&nbsp; The Mikado and his ministers, naval and
+military officers and men, the whole of the civil officials and
+the police, wear European clothes, as well as a number of
+dissipated-looking young men who aspire to represent &ldquo;young
+Japan.&rdquo;&nbsp; Carriages and houses in English style, with
+carpets, chairs, and tables, are becoming increasingly numerous,
+and the bad taste which regulates the purchase of foreign
+furnishings is as marked as the good taste which everywhere
+presides over the adornment of the houses in purely Japanese
+style.&nbsp; Happily these expensive and unbecoming innovations
+have scarcely affected female dress, and some ladies who adopted
+our fashions have given them up because of their discomfort and
+manifold difficulties and complications.</p>
+<p>The Empress on State occasions appears in scarlet satin
+<i>hakama</i>, and flowing robes, and she and the Court ladies
+invariably wear the national costume.&nbsp; I have only seen two
+<a name="page31"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 31</span>ladies in
+European dress; and this was at a dinner-party here, and they
+were the wives of Mr. Mori, the go-ahead Vice-Minister for
+Foreign Affairs, and of the Japanese Consul at Hong Kong; and
+both by long residence abroad have learned to wear it with
+ease.&nbsp; The wife of Saigo, the Minister of Education, called
+one day in an exquisite Japanese dress of dove-coloured silk
+<i>cr&ecirc;pe</i>, with a pale pink under-dress of the same
+material, which showed a little at the neck and sleeves.&nbsp;
+Her girdle was of rich dove-coloured silk, with a ghost of a pale
+pink blossom hovering upon it here and there.&nbsp; She had no
+frills or fripperies of any description, or ornaments, except a
+single pin in her chignon, and, with a sweet and charming face,
+she looked as graceful and dignified in her Japanese costume as
+she would have looked exactly the reverse in ours.&nbsp; Their
+costume has one striking advantage over ours.&nbsp; A woman is
+perfectly <i>clothed</i> if she has one garment and a girdle on,
+and perfectly <i>dressed</i> if she has two.&nbsp; There is a
+difference in features and expression&mdash;much exaggerated,
+however, by Japanese artists&mdash;between the faces of high-born
+women and those of the middle and lower classes.&nbsp; I decline
+to admire fat-faces, pug noses, thick lips, long eyes, turned up
+at the outer corners, and complexions which owe much to powder
+and paint.&nbsp; The habit of painting the lips with a
+reddish-yellow pigment, and of heavily powdering the face and
+throat with pearl powder, is a repulsive one.&nbsp; But it is
+hard to pronounce any unfavourable criticism on women who have so
+much kindly grace of manner.</p>
+<p style="text-align: right">I. L. B.</p>
+<h2><a name="page32"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 32</span>LETTER
+VI.</h2>
+<p class="gutsumm">Fears&mdash;Travelling
+Equipments&mdash;Passports&mdash;Coolie Costume&mdash;A Yedo
+Diorama&mdash;Rice-Fields&mdash;Tea-Houses&mdash;A
+Traveller&rsquo;s Reception&mdash;The Inn at
+Kasukab&eacute;&mdash;Lack of Privacy&mdash;A Concourse of
+Noises&mdash;A Nocturnal Alarm&mdash;A Vision of
+Policemen&mdash;A Budget from Yedo.</p>
+<p style="text-align: right"><span
+class="smcap">Kasukab&eacute;</span>, <i>June</i> 10.</p>
+<p><span class="smcap">From</span> the date you will see that I
+have started on my long journey, though not upon the
+&ldquo;unbeaten tracks&rdquo; which I hope to take after leaving
+Nikk&ocirc;, and my first evening alone in the midst of this
+crowded Asian life is strange, almost fearful.&nbsp; I have
+suffered from nervousness all day&mdash;the fear of being
+frightened, of being rudely mobbed, as threatened by Mr. Campbell
+of Islay, of giving offence by transgressing the rules of
+Japanese politeness&mdash;of, I know not what!&nbsp; Ito is my
+sole reliance, and he may prove a &ldquo;broken
+reed.&rdquo;&nbsp; I often wished to give up my project, but was
+ashamed of my cowardice when, on the best authority, I received
+assurances of its safety. <a name="citation32"></a><a
+href="#footnote32" class="citation">[32]</a></p>
+<p>The preparations were finished yesterday, and my outfit
+weighed 110 lbs., which, with Ito&rsquo;s weight of 90 lbs., is
+as much as can be carried by an average Japanese horse.&nbsp; My
+two painted wicker boxes lined with paper and with waterproof
+covers are convenient for the two sides of a pack-horse.&nbsp; I
+have a folding-chair&mdash;for in a Japanese house there is
+nothing but the floor to sit upon, and not even a solid wall to
+lean against&mdash;an air-pillow for <i>kuruma</i> travelling, an
+india-rubber bath, sheets, a blanket, and last, and more
+important than all else, a canvas stretcher on light poles, which
+can be put <a name="page33"></a><span class="pagenum">p.
+33</span>together in two minutes; and being 2&frac12; feet high
+is supposed to be secure from fleas.&nbsp; The &ldquo;Food
+Question&rdquo; has been solved by a modified rejection of all
+advice!&nbsp; I have only brought a small supply of
+Liebig&rsquo;s extract of meat, 4 lbs. of raisins, some
+chocolate, both for eating and drinking, and some brandy in case
+of need.&nbsp; I have my own Mexican saddle and bridle, a
+reasonable quantity of clothes, including a loose wrapper for
+wearing in the evenings, some candles, Mr. Brunton&rsquo;s large
+map of Japan, volumes of the Transactions of the English Asiatic
+Society, and Mr. Satow&rsquo;s Anglo-Japanese Dictionary.&nbsp;
+My travelling dress is a short costume of dust-coloured striped
+tweed, with strong laced boots of unblacked leather, and a
+Japanese hat, shaped like a large inverted bowl, of light bamboo
+plait, with a white cotton cover, and a very light frame inside,
+which fits round the brow and leaves a space of 1&frac12; inches
+between the hat and the head for the free circulation of
+air.&nbsp; It only weighs 2&frac12; ounces, and is infinitely to
+be preferred to a heavy pith helmet, and, light as it is, it
+protects the head so thoroughly, that, though the sun has been
+unclouded all day and the mercury at 86&deg;, no other protection
+has been necessary.&nbsp; My money is in bundles of 50
+<i>yen</i>, and 50, 20, and 10 <i>sen</i> notes, besides which I
+have some rouleaux of copper coins.&nbsp; I have a bag for my
+passport, which hangs to my waist.&nbsp; All my luggage, with the
+exception of my saddle, which I use for a footstool, goes into
+one <i>kuruma</i>, and Ito, who is limited to 12 lbs., takes his
+along with him.</p>
+<p>I have three <i>kurumas</i>, which are to go to Nikk&ocirc;,
+ninety miles, in three days, without change of runners, for about
+eleven shillings each.</p>
+<p>Passports usually define the route over which the foreigner is
+to travel, but in this case Sir H. Parkes has obtained one which
+is practically unrestricted, for it permits me to travel through
+all Japan north of T&ocirc;kiy&ocirc; and in Yezo without
+specifying any route.&nbsp; This precious document, without which
+I should be liable to be arrested and forwarded to my consul, is
+of course in Japanese, but the cover gives in English the
+regulations under which it is issued.&nbsp; A passport must be
+applied for, for reasons of &ldquo;health, botanical research, or
+scientific investigation.&rdquo;&nbsp; Its bearer must not light
+fires in <a name="page34"></a><span class="pagenum">p.
+34</span>woods, attend fires on horseback, trespass on fields,
+enclosures, or game-preserves, scribble on temples, shrines, or
+walls, drive fast on a narrow road, or disregard notices of
+&ldquo;No thoroughfare.&rdquo;&nbsp; He must &ldquo;conduct
+himself in an orderly and conciliating manner towards the
+Japanese authorities and people;&rdquo; he &ldquo;must produce
+his passport to any officials who may demand it,&rdquo; under
+pain of arrest; and while in the interior &ldquo;is forbidden to
+shoot, trade, to conclude mercantile contracts with Japanese, or
+to rent houses or rooms for a longer period than his journey
+requires.&rdquo;</p>
+<p><span class="smcap">Nikk&ocirc;</span>, <i>June</i>
+13.&mdash;This is one of the paradises of Japan!&nbsp; It is a
+proverbial saying, &ldquo;He who has not seen Nikk&ocirc; must
+not use the word kek&rsquo;ko&rdquo; (splendid, delicious,
+beautiful); but of this more hereafter.&nbsp; My attempt to write
+to you from Kasukab&eacute; failed, owing to the onslaught of an
+army of fleas, which compelled me to retreat to my stretcher, and
+the last two nights, for this and other reasons, writing has been
+out of the question.</p>
+<p>I left the Legation at 11 a.m. on Monday and reached
+Kasukab&eacute; at 5 p.m., the runners keeping up an easy trot
+the whole journey of twenty-three miles; but the halts for
+smoking and eating were frequent.</p>
+<p>These kuruma-runners wore short blue cotton drawers, girdles
+with tobacco pouch and pipe attached, short blue cotton shirts
+with wide sleeves, and open in front, reaching to their waists,
+and blue cotton handkerchiefs knotted round their heads, except
+when the sun was very hot, when they took the flat flag discs,
+two feet in diameter, which always hang behind <i>kurumas</i>,
+and are used either in sun or rain, and tied them on their
+heads.&nbsp; They wore straw sandals, which had to be replaced
+twice on the way.&nbsp; Blue and white towels hung from the
+shafts to wipe away the sweat, which ran profusely down the lean,
+brown bodies.&nbsp; The upper garment always flew behind them,
+displaying chests and backs elaborately tattooed with dragons and
+fishes.&nbsp; Tattooing has recently been prohibited; but it was
+not only a favourite adornment, but a substitute for perishable
+clothing.</p>
+<p>Most of the men of the lower classes wear their hair in a very
+ugly fashion,&mdash;the front and top of the head being shaved,
+the long hair from the back and sides being drawn up and <a
+name="page35"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 35</span>tied, then
+waxed, tied again, and cut short off, the stiff queue being
+brought forward and laid, pointing forwards, along the back part
+of the top of the head.&nbsp; This top-knot is shaped much like a
+short clay pipe.&nbsp; The shaving and dressing the hair thus
+require the skill of a professional barber.&nbsp; Formerly the
+hair was worn in this way by the <i>samurai</i>, in order that
+the helmet might fit comfortably, but it is now the style of the
+lower classes mostly and by no means invariably.</p>
+<p style="text-align: center">
+<a href="images/p35b.jpg">
+<img alt=
+"A Kuruma"
+title=
+"A Kuruma"
+ src="images/p35s.jpg" />
+</a></p>
+<p>Blithely, at a merry trot, the coolies hurried us away from
+the kindly group in the Legation porch, across the inner moat and
+along the inner drive of the castle, past gateways and retaining
+walls of Cyclopean masonry, across the second moat, along miles
+of streets of sheds and shops, all grey, thronged with
+foot-passengers and <i>kurumas</i>, with pack-horses loaded two
+or three feet above their backs, the arches of their saddles red
+and gilded lacquer, their frontlets of red leather, their
+&ldquo;shoes&rdquo; straw sandals, their heads tied tightly to
+the saddle-girth on <a name="page36"></a><span class="pagenum">p.
+36</span>either side, great white cloths figured with mythical
+beasts in blue hanging down loosely under their bodies; with
+coolies dragging heavy loads to the guttural cry of <i>Hai</i>!
+<i>huida</i>! with children whose heads were shaved in hideous
+patterns; and now and then, as if to point a moral lesson in the
+midst of the whirling diorama, a funeral passed through the
+throng, with a priest in rich robes, mumbling prayers, a covered
+barrel containing the corpse, and a train of mourners in blue
+dresses with white wings.&nbsp; Then we came to the fringe of
+Yedo, where the houses cease to be continuous, but all that day
+there was little interval between them.&nbsp; All had open
+fronts, so that the occupations of the inmates, the
+&ldquo;domestic life&rdquo; in fact, were perfectly
+visible.&nbsp; Many of these houses were road-side <i>chayas</i>,
+or tea-houses, and nearly all sold sweet-meats, dried fish,
+pickles, <i>mochi</i>, or uncooked cakes of rice dough, dried
+persimmons, rain hats, or straw shoes for man or beast.&nbsp; The
+road, though wide enough for two carriages (of which we saw
+none), was not good, and the ditches on both sides were
+frequently neither clean nor sweet.&nbsp; Must I write it?&nbsp;
+The houses were mean, poor, shabby, often even squalid, the
+smells were bad, and the people looked ugly, shabby, and poor,
+though all were working at something or other.</p>
+<p>The country is a dead level, and mainly an artificial mud flat
+or swamp, in whose fertile ooze various aquatic birds were
+wading, and in which hundreds of men and women were wading too,
+above their knees in slush; for this plain of Yedo is mainly a
+great rice-field, and this is the busy season of rice-planting;
+for here, in the sense in which we understand it, they do not
+&ldquo;cast their bread upon the waters.&rdquo;&nbsp; There are
+eight or nine leading varieties of rice grown in Japan, all of
+which, except an upland species, require mud, water, and much
+puddling and nasty work.&nbsp; Rice is the staple food and the
+wealth of Japan.&nbsp; Its revenues were estimated in rice.&nbsp;
+Rice is grown almost wherever irrigation is possible.</p>
+<p>The rice-fields are usually very small and of all
+shapes.&nbsp; A quarter of an acre is a good-sized field.&nbsp;
+The rice crop planted in June is not reaped till November, but in
+the meantime it needs to be &ldquo;puddled&rdquo; three times,
+i.e. for all the people to turn into the slush, and grub out all
+the weeds and tangled aquatic plants, which weave themselves from
+tuft to <a name="page37"></a><span class="pagenum">p.
+37</span>tuft, and puddle up the mud afresh round the
+roots.&nbsp; It grows in water till it is ripe, when the fields
+are dried off.&nbsp; An acre of the best land produces annually
+about fifty-four bushels of rice, and of the worst about
+thirty.</p>
+<p>On the plain of Yedo, besides the nearly continuous villages
+along the causewayed road, there are islands, as they may be
+called, of villages surrounded by trees, and hundreds of pleasant
+oases on which wheat ready for the sickle, onions, millet, beans,
+and peas, were flourishing.&nbsp; There were lotus ponds too, in
+which the glorious lily, <i>Nelumbo nucifera</i>, is being grown
+for the sacrilegious purpose of being eaten!&nbsp; Its splendid
+classical leaves are already a foot above the water.</p>
+<p>After running cheerily for several miles my men bowled me into
+a tea-house, where they ate and smoked while I sat in the garden,
+which consisted of baked mud, smooth stepping-stones, a little
+pond with some goldfish, a deformed pine, and a stone
+lantern.&nbsp; Observe that foreigners are wrong in calling the
+Japanese houses of entertainment indiscriminately
+&ldquo;tea-houses.&rdquo;&nbsp; A tea-house or <i>chaya</i> is a
+house at which you can obtain tea and other refreshments, rooms
+to eat them in, and attendance.&nbsp; That which to some extent
+answers to an hotel is a <i>yadoya</i>, which provides sleeping
+accommodation and food as required.&nbsp; The licenses are
+different.&nbsp; Tea-houses are of all grades, from the
+three-storied erections, gay with flags and lanterns, in the
+great cities and at places of popular resort, down to the
+road-side tea-house, as represented in the engraving, with three
+or four lounges of dark-coloured wood under its eaves, usually
+occupied by naked coolies in all attitudes of easiness and
+repose.&nbsp; The floor is raised about eighteen inches above the
+ground, and in these tea-houses is frequently a matted platform
+with a recess called the <i>doma</i>, literally
+&ldquo;earth-space,&rdquo; in the middle, round which runs a
+ledge of polished wood called the <i>itama</i>, or &ldquo;board
+space,&rdquo; on which travellers sit while they bathe their
+soiled feet with the water which is immediately brought to them;
+for neither with soiled feet nor in foreign shoes must one
+advance one step on the matted floor.&nbsp; On one side of the
+<i>doma</i> is the kitchen, with its one or two charcoal fires,
+where the coolies lounge on the mats and take their food and
+smoke, and on the other the family pursue their avocations.&nbsp;
+In almost the <a name="page38"></a><span class="pagenum">p.
+38</span>smallest tea-house there are one or two rooms at the
+back, but all the life and interest are in the open front.&nbsp;
+In the small tea-houses there is only an <i>irori</i>, a square
+hole in the floor, full of sand or white ash, on which the live
+charcoal for cooking purposes is placed, and small racks for food
+and eating utensils; but in the large ones there is a row of
+charcoal stoves, and the walls are garnished up to the roof with
+shelves, and the lacquer tables and lacquer and china ware used
+by the guests.&nbsp; The large tea-houses contain the
+possibilities for a number of rooms which can be extemporised at
+once by sliding paper panels, called <i>fusuma</i>, along grooves
+in the floor and in the ceiling or cross-beams.</p>
+<p style="text-align: center">
+<a href="images/p38b.jpg">
+<img alt=
+"Road-Side Tea-House"
+title=
+"Road-Side Tea-House"
+ src="images/p38s.jpg" />
+</a></p>
+<p>When we stopped at wayside tea-houses the runners bathed their
+feet, rinsed their mouths, and ate rice, pickles, salt fish, and
+&ldquo;broth of abominable things,&rdquo; after which they smoked
+<a name="page39"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 39</span>their tiny
+pipes, which give them three whiffs for each filling.&nbsp; As
+soon as I got out at any of these, one smiling girl brought me
+the <i>tabako-bon</i>, a square wood or lacquer tray, with a
+china or bamboo charcoal-holder and ash-pot upon it, and another
+presented me with a <i>zen</i>, a small lacquer table about six
+inches high, with a tiny teapot with a hollow handle at right
+angles with the spout, holding about an English tea-cupful, and
+two cups without handles or saucers, with a capacity of from ten
+to twenty thimblefuls each.&nbsp; The hot water is merely allowed
+to rest a minute on the tea-leaves, and the infusion is a clear
+straw-coloured liquid with a delicious aroma and flavour,
+grateful and refreshing at all times.&nbsp; If Japanese tea
+&ldquo;stands,&rdquo; it acquires a coarse bitterness and an
+unwholesome astringency.&nbsp; Milk and sugar are not used.&nbsp;
+A clean-looking wooden or lacquer pail with a lid is kept in all
+tea-houses, and though hot rice, except to order, is only ready
+three times daily, the pail always contains cold rice, and the
+coolies heat it by pouring hot tea over it.&nbsp; As you eat, a
+tea-house girl, with this pail beside her, squats on the floor in
+front of you, and fills your rice bowl till you say, &ldquo;Hold,
+enough!&rdquo;&nbsp; On this road it is expected that you leave
+three or four <i>sen</i> on the tea-tray for a rest of an hour or
+two and tea.</p>
+<p>All day we travelled through rice swamps, along a
+much-frequented road, as far as Kasukab&eacute;, a good-sized but
+miserable-looking town, with its main street like one of the
+poorest streets in T&ocirc;kiy&ocirc;, and halted for the night
+at a large <i>yadoya</i>, with downstairs and upstairs rooms,
+crowds of travellers, and many evil smells.&nbsp; On entering,
+the house-master or landlord, the <i>teishi</i>, folded his hands
+and prostrated himself, touching the floor with his forehead
+three times.&nbsp; It is a large, rambling old house, and fully
+thirty servants were bustling about in the <i>daidokoro</i>, or
+great open kitchen.&nbsp; I took a room upstairs (i.e. up a steep
+step-ladder of dark, polished wood), with a balcony under the
+deep eaves.&nbsp; The front of the house upstairs was one long
+room with only sides and a front, but it was immediately divided
+into four by drawing sliding screens or panels, covered with
+opaque wall papers, into their proper grooves.&nbsp; A back was
+also improvised, but this was formed of frames with panes of
+translucent paper, like our tissue paper, with sundry holes and
+rents.&nbsp; This <a name="page40"></a><span class="pagenum">p.
+40</span>being done, I found myself the possessor of a room about
+sixteen feet square, without hook, shelf, rail, or anything on
+which to put anything&mdash;nothing, in short, but a matted
+floor.&nbsp; Do not be misled by the use of this word
+matting.&nbsp; Japanese house-mats, <i>tatami</i>, are as neat,
+refined, and soft a covering for the floor as the finest
+Axminster carpet.&nbsp; They are 5 feet 9 inches long, 3 feet
+broad, and 2&frac12; inches thick.&nbsp; The frame is solidly
+made of coarse straw, and this is covered with very fine woven
+matting, as nearly white as possible, and each mat is usually
+bound with dark blue cloth.&nbsp; Temples and rooms are measured
+by the number of mats they contain, and rooms must be built for
+the mats, as they are never cut to the rooms.&nbsp; They are
+always level with the polished grooves or ledges which surround
+the floor.&nbsp; They are soft and elastic, and the finer
+qualities are very beautiful.&nbsp; They are as expensive as the
+best Brussels carpet, and the Japanese take great pride in them,
+and are much aggrieved by the way in which some thoughtless
+foreigners stamp over them with dirty boots.&nbsp; Unfortunately
+they harbour myriads of fleas.</p>
+<p>Outside my room an open balcony with many similiar rooms ran
+round a forlorn aggregate of dilapidated shingle roofs and
+water-butts.&nbsp; These rooms were all full.&nbsp; Ito asked me
+for instructions once for all, put up my stretcher under a large
+mosquito net of coarse green canvas with a fusty smell, filled my
+bath, brought me some tea, rice, and eggs, took my passport to be
+copied by the house-master, and departed, I know not
+whither.&nbsp; I tried to write to you, but fleas and mosquitoes
+prevented it, and besides, the <i>fusuma</i> were frequently
+noiselessly drawn apart, and several pairs of dark, elongated
+eyes surveyed me through the cracks; for there were two Japanese
+families in the room to the right, and five men in that to the
+left.&nbsp; I closed the sliding windows, with translucent paper
+for window panes, called <i>sh&ocirc;ji</i>, and went to bed, but
+the lack of privacy was fearful, and I have not yet sufficient
+trust in my fellow-creatures to be comfortable without locks,
+walls, or doors!&nbsp; Eyes were constantly applied to the sides
+of the room, a girl twice drew aside the <i>sh&ocirc;ji</i>
+between it and the corridor; a man, who I afterwards found was a
+blind man, offering his services as a shampooer, came in and said
+some (of course) unintelligible words, and the new noises were <a
+name="page41"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 41</span>perfectly
+bewildering.&nbsp; On one side a man recited Buddhist prayers in
+a high key; on the other a girl was twanging a <i>samisen</i>, a
+species of guitar; the house was full of talking and splashing,
+drums and tom-toms were beaten outside; there were street cries
+innumerable, and the whistling of the blind shampooers, and the
+resonant clap of the fire-watchman who perambulates all Japanese
+villages, and beats two pieces of wood together in token of his
+vigilance, were intolerable.&nbsp; It was a life of which I knew
+nothing, and the mystery was more alarming than attractive; my
+money was lying about, and nothing seemed easier than to slide a
+hand through the <i>fusuma</i> and appropriate it.&nbsp; Ito told
+me that the well was badly contaminated, the odours were fearful;
+illness was to be feared as well as robbery!&nbsp; So
+unreasonably I reasoned! <a name="citation41"></a><a
+href="#footnote41" class="citation">[41]</a></p>
+<p>My bed is merely a piece of canvas nailed to two wooden
+bars.&nbsp; When I lay down the canvas burst away from the lower
+row of nails with a series of cracks, and sank gradually till I
+found myself lying on a sharp-edged pole which connects the two
+pair of trestles, and the helpless victim of fleas and
+mosquitoes.&nbsp; I lay for three hours, not daring to stir lest
+I should bring the canvas altogether down, becoming more and more
+nervous every moment, and then Ito called outside the
+<i>sh&ocirc;ji</i>, &ldquo;It would be best, Miss Bird, that I
+should see you.&rdquo;&nbsp; What horror can this be? I thought,
+and was not reassured when he added, &ldquo;Here&rsquo;s a
+messenger from the Legation and two policemen want to speak to
+you.&rdquo;&nbsp; On arriving I had done the correct thing in
+giving the house-master my passport, which, according to law, he
+had copied into his book, and had sent a duplicate copy to the
+police-station, and this intrusion near midnight was as
+unaccountable as it was unwarrantable.&nbsp; Nevertheless the
+appearance of the two mannikins in European uniforms, with the
+familiar batons and bull&rsquo;s-eye lanterns, and with manners
+which were respectful without being deferential, gave me
+immediate relief.&nbsp; I should have welcomed twenty of their
+species, for their presence assured me of the fact that I am
+known and registered, and that a Government which, for <a
+name="page42"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 42</span>special
+reasons, is anxious to impress foreigners with its power and
+omniscience is responsible for my safety.</p>
+<p>While they spelt through my passport by their dim lantern I
+opened the Yedo parcel, and found that it contained a tin of
+lemon sugar, a most kind note from Sir Harry Parkes, and a packet
+of letters from you.&nbsp; While I was attempting to open the
+letters, Ito, the policemen, and the lantern glided out of my
+room, and I lay uneasily till daylight, with the letters and
+telegram, for which I had been yearning for six weeks, on my bed
+unopened!</p>
+<p>Already I can laugh at my fears and misfortunes, as I hope you
+will.&nbsp; A traveller must buy his own experience, and success
+or failure depends mainly on personal idiosyncrasies.&nbsp; Many
+matters will be remedied by experience as I go on, and I shall
+acquire the habit of feeling secure; but lack of privacy, bad
+smells, and the torments of fleas and mosquitoes are, I fear,
+irremediable evils.</p>
+<p style="text-align: right">I. L. B.</p>
+<p style="text-align: center">
+<a href="images/p42b.jpg">
+<img alt=
+"Sir Harry&rsquo;s Messenger"
+title=
+"Sir Harry&rsquo;s Messenger"
+ src="images/p42s.jpg" />
+</a></p>
+<h2><a name="page43"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 43</span>LETTER
+VI.&mdash;(<i>Continued</i>.)</h2>
+<p class="gutsumm">A Coolie falls ill&mdash;Peasant
+Costume&mdash;Varieties in Threshing&mdash;The Tochigi
+<i>yadoya</i>&mdash;Farming Villages&mdash;A Beautiful
+Region&mdash;An <i>In Memoriam</i> Avenue&mdash;A Doll&rsquo;s
+Street&mdash;Nikk&ocirc;&mdash;The Journey&rsquo;s
+End&mdash;Coolie Kindliness.</p>
+<p><span class="smcap">By</span> seven the next morning the rice
+was eaten, the room as bare as if it had never been occupied, the
+bill of 80 <i>sen</i> paid, the house-master and servants with
+many <i>sayo naras</i>, or farewells, had prostrated themselves,
+and we were away in the <i>kurumas</i> at a rapid trot.&nbsp; At
+the first halt my runner, a kindly, good-natured creature, but
+absolutely hideous, was seized with pain and vomiting, owing, he
+said, to drinking the bad water at Kasukab&eacute;, and was left
+behind.&nbsp; He pleased me much by the honest independent way in
+which he provided a substitute, strictly adhering to his bargain,
+and never asking for a gratuity on account of his illness.&nbsp;
+He had been so kind and helpful that I felt quite sad at leaving
+him there ill,&mdash;only a coolie, to be sure, only an atom
+among the 34,000,000 of the Empire, but not less precious to our
+Father in heaven than any other.&nbsp; It was a brilliant day,
+with the mercury 86&deg; in the shade, but the heat was not
+oppressive.&nbsp; At noon we reached the Ton&eacute;, and I rode
+on a coolie&rsquo;s tattooed shoulders through the shallow part,
+and then, with the <i>kurumas</i>, some ill-disposed pack-horses,
+and a number of travellers, crossed in a flat-bottomed
+boat.&nbsp; The boatmen, travellers, and cultivators, were nearly
+or altogether without clothes, but the richer farmers worked in
+the fields in curved bamboo hats as large as umbrellas,
+<i>kimonos</i> with large sleeves not girt up, and large fans
+attached to their girdles.&nbsp; Many of the travellers whom we
+met were without hats, but shielded the front of the head by
+holding a fan between it and the sun.&nbsp; Probably the
+inconvenience of the national costume for working men partly
+accounts for the <a name="page44"></a><span class="pagenum">p.
+44</span>general practice of getting rid of it.&nbsp; It is such
+a hindrance, even in walking, that most pedestrians have
+&ldquo;their loins girded up&rdquo; by taking the middle of the
+hem at the bottom of the <i>kimono</i> and tucking it under the
+girdle.&nbsp; This, in the case of many, shows woven,
+tight-fitting, elastic, white cotton pantaloons, reaching to the
+ankles.&nbsp; After ferrying another river at a village from
+which a steamer plies to T&ocirc;kiy&ocirc;, the country became
+much more pleasing, the rice-fields fewer, the trees, houses, and
+barns larger, and, in the distance, high hills loomed faintly
+through the haze.&nbsp; Much of the wheat, of which they
+don&rsquo;t make bread, but vermicelli, is already being
+carried.&nbsp; You see wheat stacks, ten feet high, moving
+slowly, and while you are wondering, you become aware of four
+feet moving below them; for all the crop is carried on
+horses&rsquo; if not on human backs.&nbsp; I went to see several
+threshing-floors,&mdash;clean, open spaces outside
+barns,&mdash;where the grain is laid on mats and threshed by two
+or four men with heavy revolving flails.&nbsp; Another method is
+for women to beat out the grain on racks of split bamboo laid
+lengthwise; and I saw yet a third practised both in the fields
+and barn-yards, in which women pass handfuls of stalks backwards
+through a sort of carding instrument with sharp iron teeth placed
+in a slanting position, which cuts off the ears, leaving the
+stalk unbruised.&nbsp; This is probably &ldquo;the sharp
+threshing instrument having teeth&rdquo; mentioned by
+Isaiah.&nbsp; The ears are then rubbed between the hands.&nbsp;
+In this region the wheat was winnowed altogether by hand, and
+after the wind had driven the chaff away, the grain was laid out
+on mats to dry.&nbsp; Sickles are not used, but the reaper takes
+a handful of stalks and cuts them off close to the ground with a
+short, straight knife, fixed at a right angle with the
+handle.&nbsp; The wheat is sown in rows with wide spaces between
+them, which are utilised for beans and other crops, and no sooner
+is it removed than <i>daikon</i> (<i>Raphanus sativus</i>),
+cucumbers, or some other vegetable, takes its place, as the land
+under careful tillage and copious manuring bears two, and even
+three, crops, in the year.&nbsp; The soil is trenched for wheat
+as for all crops except rice, not a weed is to be seen, and the
+whole country looks like a well-kept garden.&nbsp; The barns in
+this district are very handsome, and many of their grand roofs
+have that concave sweep with which we are familiar in the
+pagoda.&nbsp; <a name="page45"></a><span class="pagenum">p.
+45</span>The eaves are often eight feet deep, and the thatch
+three feet thick.&nbsp; Several of the farm-yards have handsome
+gateways like the ancient &ldquo;lychgates&rdquo; of some of our
+English churchyards much magnified.&nbsp; As animals are not used
+for milk, draught, or food, and there are no pasture lands, both
+the country and the farm-yards have a singular silence and an
+inanimate look; a mean-looking dog and a few fowls being the only
+representatives of domestic animal life.&nbsp; I long for the
+lowing of cattle and the bleating of sheep.</p>
+<p>At six we reached Tochigi, a large town, formerly the castle
+town of a <i>daimiy&ocirc;</i>.&nbsp; Its special manufacture is
+rope of many kinds, a great deal of hemp being grown in the
+neighbourhood.&nbsp; Many of the roofs are tiled, and the town
+has a more solid and handsome appearance than those that we had
+previously passed through.&nbsp; But from Kasukab&eacute; to
+Tochigi was from bad to worse.&nbsp; I nearly abandoned Japanese
+travelling altogether, and, if last night had not been a great
+improvement, I think I should have gone ignominiously back to
+T&ocirc;kiy&ocirc;.&nbsp; The <i>yadoya</i> was a very large one,
+and, as sixty guests had arrived before me, there was no choice
+of accommodation, and I had to be contented with a room enclosed
+on all sides not by <i>fusuma</i> but <i>sh&ocirc;ji</i>, and
+with barely room for my bed, bath, and chair, under a fusty green
+mosquito net which was a perfect nest of fleas.&nbsp; One side of
+the room was against a much-frequented passage, and another
+opened on a small yard upon which three opposite rooms also
+opened, crowded with some not very sober or decorous
+travellers.&nbsp; The <i>sh&ocirc;ji</i> were full of holes, and
+often at each hole I saw a human eye.&nbsp; Privacy was a luxury
+not even to be recalled.&nbsp; Besides the constant application
+of eyes to the <i>sh&ocirc;ji</i>, the servants, who were very
+noisy and rough, looked into my room constantly without any
+pretext; the host, a bright, pleasant-looking man, did the same;
+jugglers, musicians, blind shampooers, and singing girls, all
+pushed the screens aside; and I began to think that Mr. Campbell
+was right, and that a lady should not travel alone in
+Japan.&nbsp; Ito, who had the room next to mine, suggested that
+robbery was quite likely, and asked to be allowed to take charge
+of my money, but did not decamp with it during the night!&nbsp; I
+lay down on my precarious stretcher before eight, but as the
+night advanced the din of the house increased till <a
+name="page46"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 46</span>it became
+truly diabolical, and never ceased till after one.&nbsp; Drums,
+tom-toms, and cymbals were beaten; <i>kotos</i> and
+<i>samisens</i> screeched and twanged; <i>geishas</i>
+(professional women with the accomplishments of dancing, singing,
+and playing) danced,&mdash;accompanied by songs whose jerking
+discords were most laughable; story-tellers recited tales in a
+high key, and the running about and splashing close to my room
+never ceased.&nbsp; Late at night my precarious
+<i>sh&ocirc;ji</i> were accidentally thrown down, revealing a
+scene of great hilarity, in which a number of people were bathing
+and throwing water over each other.</p>
+<p>The noise of departures began at daylight, and I was glad to
+leave at seven.&nbsp; Before you go the <i>fusuma</i> are slidden
+back, and what was your room becomes part of a great, open,
+matted space&mdash;an arrangement which effectually prevents
+fustiness.&nbsp; Though the road was up a slight incline, and the
+men were too tired to trot, we made thirty miles in nine
+hours.&nbsp; The kindliness and courtesy of the coolies to me and
+to each other was a constant source of pleasure to me.&nbsp; It
+is most amusing to see the elaborate politeness of the greetings
+of men clothed only in hats and <i>maros</i>.&nbsp; The hat is
+invariably removed when they speak to each other, and three
+profound bows are never omitted.</p>
+<p>Soon after leaving the <i>yadoya</i> we passed through a wide
+street with the largest and handsomest houses I have yet seen on
+both sides.&nbsp; They were all open in front; their
+highly-polished floors and passages looked like still water; the
+<i>kakemonos</i>, or wall-pictures, on their side-walls were
+extremely beautiful; and their mats were very fine and
+white.&nbsp; There were large gardens at the back, with fountains
+and flowers, and streams, crossed by light stone bridges,
+sometimes flowed through the houses.&nbsp; From the signs I
+supposed them to be <i>yadoyas</i>, but on asking Ito why we had
+not put up at one of them, he replied that they were all
+<i>kashitsukeya</i>, or tea-houses of disreputable
+character&mdash;a very sad fact. <a name="citation46"></a><a
+href="#footnote46" class="citation">[46]</a></p>
+<p>As we journeyed the country became prettier and prettier, <a
+name="page47"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 47</span>rolling up to
+abrupt wooded hills with mountains in the clouds behind.&nbsp;
+The farming villages are comfortable and embowered in wood, and
+the richer farmers seclude their dwellings by closely-clipped
+hedges, or rather screens, two feet wide, and often twenty feet
+high.&nbsp; Tea grew near every house, and its leaves were being
+gathered and dried on mats.&nbsp; Signs of silk culture began to
+appear in shrubberies of mulberry trees, and white and sulphur
+yellow cocoons were lying in the sun along the road in flat
+trays.&nbsp; Numbers of women sat in the fronts of the houses
+weaving cotton cloth fifteen inches wide, and cotton yarn, mostly
+imported from England, was being dyed in all the
+villages&mdash;the dye used being a native indigo, the
+<i>Polygonum tinctorium</i>.&nbsp; Old women were spinning, and
+young and old usually pursued their avocations with wise-looking
+babies tucked into the backs of their dresses, and peering
+cunningly over their shoulders.&nbsp; Even little girls of seven
+and eight were playing at children&rsquo;s games with babies on
+their backs, and those who were too small to carry real ones had
+big dolls strapped on in similar fashion.&nbsp; Innumerable
+villages, crowded houses, and babies in all, give one the
+impression of a very populous country.</p>
+<p>As the day wore on in its brightness and glory the pictures
+became more varied and beautiful.&nbsp; Great snow-slashed
+mountains looked over the foothills, on whose steep sides the
+dark blue green of pine and cryptomeria was lighted up by the
+spring tints of deciduous trees.&nbsp; There were groves of
+cryptomeria on small hills crowned by Shint&ocirc; shrines,
+approached by grand flights of stone stairs.&nbsp; The red gold
+of the harvest fields contrasted with the fresh green and
+exquisite leafage of the hemp; rose and white azaleas lighted up
+the copse-woods; and when the broad road passed into the colossal
+avenue of cryptomeria which overshadows the way to the sacred
+shrines of Nikk&ocirc;, and tremulous sunbeams and shadows
+flecked the grass, I felt that Japan was beautiful, and that the
+mud flats of Yedo were only an ugly dream!</p>
+<p>Two roads lead to Nikk&ocirc;.&nbsp; I avoided the one usually
+taken by Utsunomiya, and by doing so lost the most magnificent of
+the two avenues, which extends for nearly fifty miles along the
+great highway called the Oshiu-kaido.&nbsp; Along the
+Reiheishi-kaido, the road by which I came, it extends for <a
+name="page48"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 48</span>thirty miles,
+and the two, broken frequently by villages, converge upon the
+village of Imaichi, eight miles from Nikk&ocirc;, where they
+unite, and only terminate at the entrance of the town.&nbsp; They
+are said to have been planted as an offering to the buried
+Sh&ocirc;guns by a man who was too poor to place a bronze lantern
+at their shrines.&nbsp; A grander monument could not have been
+devised, and they are probably the grandest things of their kind
+in the world.&nbsp; The avenue of the Reiheishi-kaido is a good
+carriage road with sloping banks eight feet high, covered with
+grass and ferns.&nbsp; At the top of these are the cryptomeria,
+then two grassy walks, and between these and the cultivation a
+screen of saplings and brushwood.&nbsp; A great many of the trees
+become two at four feet from the ground.&nbsp; Many of the stems
+are twenty-seven feet in girth; they do not diminish or branch
+till they have reached a height of from 50 to 60 feet, and the
+appearance of altitude is aided by the longitudinal splitting of
+the reddish coloured bark into strips about two inches
+wide.&nbsp; The trees are pyramidal, and at a little distance
+resemble cedars.&nbsp; There is a deep solemnity about this
+glorious avenue with its broad shade and dancing lights, and the
+rare glimpses of high mountains.&nbsp; Instinct alone would tell
+one that it leads to something which must be grand and beautiful
+like itself.&nbsp; It is broken occasionally by small villages
+with big bells suspended between double poles; by wayside shrines
+with offerings of rags and flowers; by stone effigies of Buddha
+and his disciples, mostly defaced or overthrown, all wearing the
+same expression of beatified rest and indifference to mundane
+affairs; and by temples of lacquered wood falling to decay, whose
+bells sent their surpassingly sweet tones far on the evening
+air.</p>
+<p>Imaichi, where the two stately aisles unite, is a long uphill
+street, with a clear mountain stream enclosed in a stone channel,
+and crossed by hewn stone slabs running down the middle.&nbsp; In
+a room built over the stream, and commanding a view up and down
+the street, two policemen sat writing.&nbsp; It looks a dull
+place without much traffic, as if oppressed by the stateliness of
+the avenues below it and the shrines above it, but it has a quiet
+<i>yadoya</i>, where I had a good night&rsquo;s rest, although my
+canvas bed was nearly on the ground.&nbsp; We left early this
+morning in drizzling rain, and went straight up hill <a
+name="page49"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 49</span>under the
+cryptomeria for eight miles.&nbsp; The vegetation is as profuse
+as one would expect in so damp and hot a summer climate, and from
+the prodigious rainfall of the mountains; every stone is covered
+with moss, and the road-sides are green with the <i>Protococcus
+viridis</i> and several species of <i>Marchantia</i>.&nbsp; We
+were among the foothills of the Nantaizan mountains at a height
+of 1000 feet, abrupt in their forms, wooded to their summits, and
+noisy with the dash and tumble of a thousand streams.&nbsp; The
+long street of Hachiishi, with its steep-roofed, deep-eaved
+houses, its warm colouring, and its steep roadway with steps at
+intervals, has a sort of Swiss picturesqueness as you enter it,
+as you must, on foot, while your <i>kurumas</i> are hauled and
+lifted up the steps; nor is the resemblance given by steep roofs,
+pines, and mountains patched with conifer&aelig;, altogether lost
+as you ascend the steep street, and see wood carvings and quaint
+baskets of wood and grass offered everywhere for sale.&nbsp; It
+is a truly dull, quaint street, and the people come out to stare
+at a foreigner as if foreigners had not become common events
+since 1870, when Sir H. and Lady Parkes, the first Europeans who
+were permitted to visit Nikk&ocirc;, took up their abode in the
+Imperial Homb&ocirc;.&nbsp; It is a doll&rsquo;s street with
+small low houses, so finely matted, so exquisitely clean, so
+finically neat, so light and delicate, that even when I entered
+them without my boots I felt like a &ldquo;bull in a china
+shop,&rdquo; as if my mere weight must smash through and
+destroy.&nbsp; The street is so painfully clean that I should no
+more think of walking over it in muddy boots than over a
+drawing-room carpet.&nbsp; It has a silent mountain look, and
+most of its shops sell specialties, lacquer work, boxes of
+sweetmeats made of black beans and sugar, all sorts of boxes,
+trays, cups, and stands, made of plain, polished wood, and more
+grotesque articles made from the roots of trees.</p>
+<p>It was not part of my plan to stay at the beautiful
+<i>yadoya</i> which receives foreigners in Hachiishi, and I sent
+Ito half a mile farther with a note in Japanese to the owner of
+the house where I now am, while I sat on a rocky eminence at the
+top of the street, unmolested by anybody, looking over to the
+solemn groves upon the mountains, where the two greatest of the
+Sh&ocirc;guns &ldquo;sleep in glory.&rdquo;&nbsp; Below, the
+rushing Daiyagawa, swollen by the night&rsquo;s rain, thundered
+through a narrow gorge.&nbsp; <a name="page50"></a><span
+class="pagenum">p. 50</span>Beyond, colossal flights of stone
+stairs stretch mysteriously away among cryptomeria groves, above
+which tower the Nikk&ocirc;san mountains.&nbsp; Just where the
+torrent finds its impetuosity checked by two stone walls, it is
+spanned by a bridge, 84 feet long by 18 wide, of dull red
+lacquer, resting on two stone piers on either side, connected by
+two transverse stone beams.&nbsp; A welcome bit of colour it is
+amidst the masses of dark greens and soft greys, though there is
+nothing imposing in its structure, and its interest consists in
+being the Mihashi, or Sacred Bridge, built in 1636, formerly open
+only to the Sh&ocirc;guns, the envoy of the Mikado, and to
+pilgrims twice a year.&nbsp; Both its gates are locked.&nbsp;
+Grand and lonely Nikk&ocirc; looks, the home of rain and
+mist.&nbsp; <i>Kuruma</i> roads end here, and if you wish to go
+any farther, you must either walk, ride, or be carried.</p>
+<p>Ito was long away, and the coolies kept addressing me in
+Japanese, which made me feel helpless and solitary, and
+eventually they shouldered my baggage, and, descending a flight
+of steps, we crossed the river by the secular bridge, and shortly
+met my host, Kanaya, a very bright, pleasant-looking man, who
+bowed nearly to the earth.&nbsp; Terraced roads in every
+direction lead through cryptomerias to the shrines; and this one
+passes many a stately enclosure, but leads away from the temples,
+and though it is the highway to Chiuzenjii, a place of popular
+pilgrimage, Yumoto, a place of popular resort, and several other
+villages, it is very rugged, and, having flights of stone steps
+at intervals, is only practicable for horses and pedestrians.</p>
+<p>At the house, with the appearance of which I was at once
+delighted, I regretfully parted with my coolies, who had served
+me kindly and faithfully.&nbsp; They had paid me many little
+attentions, such as always beating the dust out of my dress,
+inflating my air-pillow, and bringing me flowers, and were always
+grateful when I walked up hills; and just now, after going for a
+frolic to the mountains, they called to wish me good-bye,
+bringing branches of azaleas.</p>
+<p style="text-align: right">I. L. B.</p>
+<h2><a name="page51"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 51</span>LETTER
+VII.</h2>
+<p class="gutsumm">A Japanese Idyll&mdash;Musical
+Stillness&mdash;My Rooms&mdash;Floral Decorations&mdash;Kanaya
+and his Household&mdash;Table Equipments.</p>
+<p style="text-align: right"><span
+class="smcap">Kanaya&rsquo;s</span>, <span
+class="smcap">Nikk&ocirc;</span>, <i>June</i> 15.</p>
+<p>I <span class="smcap">don&rsquo;t</span> know what to write
+about my house.&nbsp; It is a Japanese idyll; there is nothing
+within or without which does not please the eye, and, after the
+din of <i>yadoyas</i>, its silence, musical with the dash of
+waters and the twitter of birds, is truly refreshing.&nbsp; It is
+a simple but irregular two-storied pavilion, standing on a
+stone-faced terrace approached by a flight of stone steps.&nbsp;
+The garden is well laid out, and, as peonies, irises, and azaleas
+are now in blossom, it is very bright.&nbsp; The mountain, with
+its lower part covered with red azaleas, rises just behind, and a
+stream which tumbles down it supplies the house with water, both
+cold and pure, and another, after forming a miniature cascade,
+passes under the house and through a fish-pond with rocky islets
+into the river below.&nbsp; The grey village of Irimichi lies on
+the other side of the road, shut in with the rushing Daiya, and
+beyond it are high, broken hills, richly wooded, and slashed with
+ravines and waterfalls.</p>
+<p>Kanaya&rsquo;s sister, a very sweet, refined-looking woman,
+met me at the door and divested me of my boots.&nbsp; The two
+verandahs are highly polished, so are the entrance and the stairs
+which lead to my room, and the mats are so fine and white that I
+almost fear to walk over them, even in my stockings.&nbsp; The
+polished stairs lead to a highly polished, broad verandah with a
+beautiful view, from which you enter one large room, which, being
+too large, was at once made into two.&nbsp; Four highly polished
+steps lead from this into an exquisite room at the back, which
+Ito occupies, and another polished staircase into the bath-house
+and garden.&nbsp; The whole front of <a name="page52"></a><span
+class="pagenum">p. 52</span>my room is composed of
+<i>sh&ocirc;ji</i>, which slide back during the day.&nbsp; The
+ceiling is of light wood crossed by bars of dark wood, and the
+posts which support it are of dark polished wood.&nbsp; The
+panels are of wrinkled sky-blue paper splashed with gold.&nbsp;
+At one end are two alcoves with floors of polished wood, called
+<i>tokonoma</i>.&nbsp; In one hangs a <i>kakemono</i>, or
+wall-picture, a painting of a blossoming branch of the cherry on
+white silk&mdash;a perfect piece of art, which in itself fills
+the room with freshness and beauty.&nbsp; The artist who painted
+it painted nothing but cherry blossoms, and fell in the
+rebellion.&nbsp; On a shelf in the other alcove is a very
+valuable cabinet with sliding doors, on which peonies are painted
+on a gold ground.&nbsp; A single spray of rose azalea in a pure
+white vase hanging on one of the polished posts, and a single
+iris in another, are the only decorations.&nbsp; The mats are
+very fine and white, but the only furniture is a folding screen
+with some suggestions of landscape in Indian <a
+name="page53"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 53</span>ink.&nbsp; I
+almost wish that the rooms were a little less exquisite, for I am
+in constant dread of spilling the ink, indenting the mats, or
+tearing the paper windows.&nbsp; Downstairs there is a room
+equally beautiful, and a large space where all the domestic
+avocations are carried on.&nbsp; There is a <i>kura</i>, or
+fire-proof storehouse, with a tiled roof, on the right of the
+house.</p>
+<p style="text-align: center">
+<a href="images/p52b.jpg">
+<img alt=
+"Kanaya&rsquo;s House"
+title=
+"Kanaya&rsquo;s House"
+ src="images/p52s.jpg" />
+</a></p>
+<p>Kanaya leads the discords at the Shint&ocirc; shrines; but his
+duties are few, and he is chiefly occupied in perpetually
+embellishing his house and garden.&nbsp; His mother, a venerable
+old lady, and his sister, the sweetest and most graceful Japanese
+woman but one that I have seen, live with him.&nbsp; She moves
+about the house like a floating fairy, and her voice has music in
+its tones.&nbsp; A half-witted servant-man and the sister&rsquo;s
+boy and girl complete the family.&nbsp; Kanaya is the chief man
+in the village, and is very intelligent and apparently well
+educated.&nbsp; He has divorced his wife, and his sister has
+practically divorced her husband.&nbsp; Of late, to help his
+income, he has let these charming rooms to foreigners who have
+brought letters to him, and he is very anxious to meet their
+views, while his good taste leads him to avoid Europeanising his
+beautiful home.</p>
+<p>Supper came up on a <i>zen</i>, or small table six inches
+high, of old gold lacquer, with the rice in a gold lacquer bowl,
+and the teapot and cup were fine Kaga porcelain.&nbsp; For my two
+rooms, with rice and tea, I pay 2s. a day.&nbsp; Ito forages for
+me, and can occasionally get chickens at 10d. each, and a dish of
+trout for 6d., and eggs are always to be had for 1d. each.&nbsp;
+It is extremely interesting to live in a private house and to see
+the externalities, at least, of domestic life in a Japanese
+middle-class home.</p>
+<p style="text-align: right">I. L. B.</p>
+<h2><a name="page54"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 54</span>LETTER
+VIII.</h2>
+<p class="gutsumm">The Beauties of Nikk&ocirc;&mdash;The Burial
+of Iy&eacute;yasu&mdash;The Approach to the Great
+Shrines&mdash;The Yomei Gate&mdash;Gorgeous
+Decorations&mdash;Simplicity of the Mausoleum&mdash;The Shrine of
+Iy&eacute;mitsu&mdash;Religious Art of Japan and India&mdash;An
+Earthquake&mdash;Beauties of Wood-carving.</p>
+<p style="text-align: right"><span
+class="smcap">Kanaya&rsquo;s</span>, <span
+class="smcap">Nikk&ocirc;</span>, <i>June</i> 21.</p>
+<p>I <span class="smcap">have</span> been at Nikk&ocirc; for nine
+days, and am therefore entitled to use the word
+&ldquo;<i>Kek&rsquo;ko</i>!&rdquo;</p>
+<p>Nikk&ocirc; means &ldquo;sunny splendour,&rdquo; and its
+beauties are celebrated in poetry and art all over Japan.&nbsp;
+Mountains for a great part of the year clothed or patched with
+snow, piled in great ranges round Nantaizan, their monarch,
+worshipped as a god; forests of magnificent timber; ravines and
+passes scarcely explored; dark green lakes sleeping in endless
+serenity; the deep abyss of K&ecirc;gon, into which the waters of
+Chiuzenjii plunge from a height of 250 feet; the bright beauty of
+the falls of Kiri Furi, the loveliness of the gardens of
+Dainichido; the sombre grandeur of the passes through which the
+Daiyagawa forces its way from the upper regions; a gorgeousness
+of azaleas and magnolias; and a luxuriousness of vegetation
+perhaps unequalled in Japan, are only a few of the attractions
+which surround the shrines of the two greatest Sh&ocirc;guns.</p>
+<p>To a glorious resting-place on the hill-slope of Hotok&eacute;
+Iwa, sacred since 767, when a Buddhist saint, called
+Sh&ocirc;d&ocirc; Sh&ocirc;nin, visited it, and declared the old
+Shint&ocirc; deity of the mountain to be only a manifestation of
+Buddha, Hidetada, the second Sh&ocirc;gun of the Tokugawa
+dynasty, conveyed the corpse of his father, Iy&eacute;yasu, in
+1617.&nbsp; It was a splendid burial.&nbsp; An Imperial envoy, a
+priest of the Mikado&rsquo;s family, court nobles from
+Kiv&ocirc;to, and hundreds of <i>daimiy&ocirc;s</i>, captains, <a
+name="page55"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 55</span>and nobles of
+inferior rank, took part in the ceremony.&nbsp; An army of
+priests in rich robes during three days intoned a sacred classic
+10,000 times, and Iy&eacute;yasu was deified by a decree of the
+Mikado under a name signifying &ldquo;light of the east, great
+incarnation of Buddha.&rdquo;&nbsp; The less important
+Sh&ocirc;guns of the line of Tokugawa are buried in Uyeno and
+Shiba, in Yedo.&nbsp; Since the restoration, and what may be
+called the disestablishment of Buddhism, the shrine of
+Iy&eacute;yasu has been shorn of all its glories of ritual and
+its magnificent Buddhist paraphernalia; the 200 priests who gave
+it splendour are scattered, and six Shint&ocirc; priests
+alternately attend upon it as much for the purpose of selling
+tickets of admission as for any priestly duties.</p>
+<p>All roads, bridges, and avenues here lead to these shrines,
+but the grand approach is by the Red Bridge, and up a broad road
+with steps at intervals and stone-faced embankments at each side,
+on the top of which are belts of cryptomeria.&nbsp; At the summit
+of this ascent is a fine granite <i>torii</i>, 27 feet 6 inches
+high, with columns 3 feet 6 inches in diameter, offered by the
+<i>daimiy&ocirc;</i> of Chikuzen in 1618 from his own
+quarries.&nbsp; After this come 118 magnificent bronze lanterns
+on massive stone pedestals, each of which is inscribed with the
+posthumous title of Iy&eacute;yasu, the name of the giver, and a
+legend of the offering&mdash;all the gifts of
+<i>daimiy&ocirc;</i>&mdash;a holy water cistern made of a solid
+block of granite, and covered by a roof resting on twenty square
+granite pillars, and a bronze bell, lantern, and candelabra of
+marvellous workmanship, offered by the kings of Corea and
+Liukiu.&nbsp; On the left is a five-storied pagoda, 104 feet
+high, richly carved in wood and as richly gilded and
+painted.&nbsp; The signs of the zodiac run round the lower
+story.</p>
+<p>The grand entrance gate is at the top of a handsome flight of
+steps forty yards from the <i>torii</i>.&nbsp; A looped white
+curtain with the Mikado&rsquo;s crest in black, hangs partially
+over the gateway, in which, beautiful as it is, one does not care
+to linger, to examine the gilded <i>amainu</i> in niches, or the
+spirited carvings of tigers under the eaves, for the view of the
+first court overwhelms one by its magnificence and beauty.&nbsp;
+The whole style of the buildings, the arrangements, the art of
+every kind, the thought which inspires the whole, are exclusively
+Japanese, <a name="page56"></a><span class="pagenum">p.
+56</span>and the glimpse from the <i>Ni-&ocirc;</i> gate is a
+revelation of a previously undreamed-of beauty, both in form and
+colour.</p>
+<p>Round the neatly pebbled court, which is enclosed by a bright
+red timber wall, are three gorgeous buildings, which contain the
+treasures of the temple, a sumptuous stable for the three sacred
+Albino horses, which are kept for the use of the god, a
+magnificent granite cistern of holy water, fed from the
+S&ocirc;mendaki cascade, and a highly decorated building, in
+which a complete collection of Buddhist Scriptures is
+deposited.&nbsp; From this a flight of steps leads into a smaller
+court containing a bell-tower &ldquo;of marvellous workmanship
+and ornamentation,&rdquo; a drum-tower, hardly less beautiful, a
+shrine, the candelabra, bell, and lantern mentioned before, and
+some very grand bronze lanterns.</p>
+<p>From this court another flight of steps ascends to the Yomei
+gate, whose splendour I contemplated day after day with
+increasing astonishment.&nbsp; The white columns which support it
+have capitals formed of great red-throated heads of the mythical
+<i>Kirin</i>.&nbsp; Above the architrave is a projecting balcony
+which runs all round the gateway with a railing carried by
+dragons&rsquo; heads.&nbsp; In the centre two white dragons fight
+eternally.&nbsp; Underneath, in high relief, there are groups of
+children playing, then a network of richly painted beams, and
+seven groups of Chinese sages.&nbsp; The high roof is supported
+by gilded dragons&rsquo; heads with crimson throats.&nbsp; In the
+interior of the gateway there are side-niches painted white,
+which are lined with gracefully designed arabesques founded on
+the <i>botan</i> or peony.&nbsp; A piazza, whose outer walls of
+twenty-one compartments are enriched with magnificent carvings of
+birds, flowers, and trees, runs right and left, and encloses on
+three of its sides another court, the fourth side of which is a
+terminal stone wall built against the side of the hill.&nbsp; On
+the right are two decorated buildings, one of which contains a
+stage for the performance of the sacred dances, and the other an
+altar for the burning of cedar wood incense.&nbsp; On the left is
+a building for the reception of the three sacred cars which were
+used during festivals.&nbsp; To pass from court to court is to
+pass from splendour to splendour; one is almost glad to feel that
+this is the last, and that the strain on one&rsquo;s capacity for
+admiration is nearly over.</p>
+<p><a name="page57"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 57</span>In the
+middle is the sacred enclosure, formed of gilded trellis-work
+with painted borders above and below, forming a square of which
+each side measures 150 feet, and which contains the <i>haiden</i>
+or chapel.&nbsp; Underneath the trellis work are groups of birds,
+with backgrounds of grass, very boldly carved in wood and richly
+gilded and painted.&nbsp; From the imposing entrance through a
+double avenue of cryptomeria, among courts, gates, temples,
+shrines, pagodas, colossal bells of bronze, and lanterns inlaid
+with gold, you pass through this final court bewildered by
+magnificence, through golden gates, into the dimness of a golden
+temple, and there is&mdash;simply a black lacquer table with a
+circular metal mirror upon it.</p>
+<p>Within is a hall finely matted, 42 feet wide by 27 from front
+to back, with lofty apartments on each side, one for the
+Sh&ocirc;gun and the other &ldquo;for his Holiness the
+Abbot.&rdquo;&nbsp; Both, of course, are empty.&nbsp; The roof of
+the hall is panelled and richly frescoed.&nbsp; The
+Sh&ocirc;gun&rsquo;s room contains some very fine <i>fusuma</i>,
+on which <i>kirin</i> (fabulous monsters) are depicted on a dead
+gold ground, and four oak panels, 8 feet by 6, finely carved,
+with the phoenix in low relief variously treated.&nbsp; In the
+Abbot&rsquo;s room there are similar panels adorned with hawks
+spiritedly executed.&nbsp; The only ecclesiastical ornament among
+the dim splendours of the chapel is the plain gold
+<i>gohei</i>.&nbsp; Steps at the back lead into a chapel paved
+with stone, with a fine panelled ceiling representing dragons on
+a dark blue ground.&nbsp; Beyond this some gilded doors lead into
+the principal chapel, containing four rooms which are not
+accessible; but if they correspond with the outside, which is of
+highly polished black lacquer relieved by gold, they must be
+severely magnificent.</p>
+<p>But not in any one of these gorgeous shrines did
+Iy&eacute;yasu decree that his dust should rest.&nbsp;
+Re-entering the last court, it is necessary to leave the
+enclosures altogether by passing through a covered gateway in the
+eastern piazza into a stone gallery, green with mosses and
+hepatic&aelig;.&nbsp; Within, wealth and art have created a
+fairyland of gold and colour; without, Nature, at her stateliest,
+has surrounded the great Sh&ocirc;gun&rsquo;s tomb with a pomp of
+mournful splendour.&nbsp; A staircase of 240 stone steps leads to
+the top of the hill, where, above and behind all the stateliness
+of the shrines raised in his honour, <a name="page58"></a><span
+class="pagenum">p. 58</span>the dust of Iy&eacute;yasu sleeps in
+an unadorned but Cyclopean tomb of stone and bronze, surmounted
+by a bronze urn.&nbsp; In front is a stone table decorated with a
+bronze incense-burner, a vase with lotus blossoms and leaves in
+brass, and a bronze stork bearing a bronze candlestick in its
+mouth.&nbsp; A lofty stone wall, surmounted by a balustrade,
+surrounds the simple but stately enclosure, and cryptomeria of
+large size growing up the back of the hill create perpetual
+twilight round it.&nbsp; Slant rays of sunshine alone pass
+through them, no flower blooms or bird sings, only silence and
+mournfulness surround the grave of the ablest and greatest man
+that Japan has produced.</p>
+<p>Impressed as I had been with the glorious workmanship in wood,
+bronze, and lacquer, I scarcely admired less the masonry of the
+vast retaining walls, the stone gallery, the staircase and its
+balustrade, all put together without mortar or cement, and so
+accurately fitted that the joints are scarcely affected by the
+rain, damp, and aggressive vegetation of 260 years.&nbsp; The
+steps of the staircase are fine monoliths, and the coping at the
+side, the massive balustrade, and the heavy rail at the top, are
+cut out of solid blocks of stone from 10 to 18 feet in
+length.&nbsp; Nor is the workmanship of the great granite cistern
+for holy water less remarkable.&nbsp; It is so carefully adjusted
+on its bed that the water brought from a neighbouring cascade
+rises and pours over each edge in such carefully equalised
+columns that, as Mr. Satow says, &ldquo;it seems to be a solid
+block of water rather than a piece of stone.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>The temples of Iy&eacute;mitsu are close to those of
+Iy&eacute;yasu, and though somewhat less magnificent are even
+more bewildering, as they are still in Buddhist hands, and are
+crowded with the gods of the Buddhist Pantheon and the splendid
+paraphernalia of Buddhist worship, in striking contrast to the
+simplicity of the lonely Shint&ocirc; mirror in the midst of the
+blaze of gold and colour.&nbsp; In the grand entrance gate are
+gigantic <i>Ni-&ocirc;</i>, the Buddhist Gog and Magog, vermilion
+coloured, and with draperies painted in imitation of flowered
+silk.&nbsp; A second pair, painted red and green, removed from
+Iy&eacute;mitsu&rsquo;s temple, are in niches within the
+gate.&nbsp; A flight of steps leads to another gate, in whose
+gorgeous niches stand hideous monsters, in human form,
+representing the gods of wind and thunder.&nbsp; Wind has crystal
+eyes and a half-jolly, half-demoniacal expression.&nbsp; He is
+painted green, and carries <a name="page59"></a><span
+class="pagenum">p. 59</span>a wind-bag on his back, a long sack
+tied at each end, with the ends brought over his shoulders and
+held in his hands.&nbsp; The god of thunder is painted red, with
+purple hair on end, and stands on clouds holding thunderbolts in
+his hand.&nbsp; More steps, and another gate containing the
+Tenn&ocirc;, or gods of the four quarters, boldly carved and in
+strong action, with long eye-teeth, and at last the principal
+temple is reached.&nbsp; An old priest who took me over it on my
+first visit, on passing the gods of wind and thunder said,
+&ldquo;We used to believe in these things, but we don&rsquo;t
+now,&rdquo; and his manner in speaking of the other deities was
+rather contemptuous.&nbsp; He requested me, however, to take off
+my hat as well as my shoes at the door of the temple.&nbsp;
+Within there was a gorgeous shrine, and when an acolyte drew
+aside the curtain of cloth of gold the interior was equally
+imposing, containing Buddha and two other figures of gilded
+brass, seated cross-legged on lotus-flowers, with rows of petals
+several times repeated, and with that look of eternal repose on
+their faces which is reproduced in the commonest road-side
+images.&nbsp; In front of the shrine several candles were
+burning, the offerings of some people who were having prayers
+said for them, and the whole was lighted by two lamps burning
+low.&nbsp; On a step of the altar a much-contorted devil was
+crouching uneasily, for he was subjugated and, by a grim irony,
+made to carry a massive incense-burner on his shoulders.&nbsp; In
+this temple there were more than a hundred idols standing in
+rows, many of them life-size, some of them trampling devils under
+their feet, but all hideous, partly from the bright greens,
+vermilions, and blues with which they are painted.&nbsp;
+Remarkable muscular development characterises all, and the
+figures or faces are all in vigorous action of some kind,
+generally grossly exaggerated.</p>
+<p>While we were crossing the court there were two shocks of
+earthquake; all the golden wind-bells which fringe the roofs rang
+softly, and a number of priests ran into the temple and beat
+various kinds of drums for the space of half an hour.&nbsp;
+Iy&eacute;mitsu&rsquo;s tomb is reached by flights of steps on
+the right of the chapel.&nbsp; It is in the same style as
+Iy&eacute;yasu&rsquo;s, but the gates in front are of bronze, and
+are inscribed with large Sanskrit characters in bright
+brass.&nbsp; One of the most beautiful of the many views is from
+the uppermost gate of the temple.&nbsp; The <a
+name="page60"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 60</span>sun shone on
+my second visit and brightened the spring tints of the trees on
+Hotok&eacute; Iwa, which was vignetted by a frame of dark
+cryptomeria.</p>
+<p>Some of the buildings are roofed with sheet-copper, but most
+of them are tiled.&nbsp; Tiling, however, has been raised almost
+to the dignity of a fine art in Japan.&nbsp; The tiles themselves
+are a coppery grey, with a suggestion of metallic lustre about
+it.&nbsp; They are slightly concave, and the joints are covered
+by others quite convex, which come down like massive tubes from
+the ridge pole, and terminate at the eaves with discs on which
+the Tokugawa badge is emblazoned in gold, as it is everywhere on
+these shrines where it would not be quite out of keeping.&nbsp;
+The roofs are so massive that they require all the strength of
+the heavy carved timbers below, and, like all else, they gleam
+with gold, or that which simulates it.</p>
+<p>The shrines are the most wonderful work of their kind in
+Japan.&nbsp; In their stately setting of cryptomeria, few of
+which are less than 20 feet in girth at 3 feet from the ground,
+they take one prisoner by their beauty, in defiance of all rules
+of western art, and compel one to acknowledge the beauty of forms
+and combinations of colour hitherto unknown, and that lacquered
+wood is capable of lending itself to the expression of a very
+high idea in art.&nbsp; Gold has been used in profusion, and
+black, dull red, and white, with a breadth and lavishness quite
+unique.&nbsp; The bronze fret-work alone is a study, and the
+wood-carving needs weeks of earnest work for the mastery of its
+ideas and details.&nbsp; One screen or railing only has sixty
+panels, each 4 feet long, carved with marvellous boldness and
+depth in open work, representing peacocks, pheasants, storks,
+lotuses, peonies, bamboos, and foliage.&nbsp; The fidelity to
+form and colour in the birds, and the reproduction of the glory
+of motion, could not be excelled.</p>
+<p>Yet the flowers please me even better.&nbsp; Truly the artist
+has revelled in his work, and has carved and painted with
+joy.&nbsp; The lotus leaf retains its dewy bloom, the peony its
+shades of creamy white, the bamboo leaf still trembles on its
+graceful stem, in contrast to the rigid needles of the pine, and
+countless corollas, in all the perfect colouring of passionate
+life, unfold themselves amidst the leafage of the gorgeous
+tracery.&nbsp; These carvings are from 10 to 15 inches deep, and
+single feathers in <a name="page61"></a><span class="pagenum">p.
+61</span>the tails of the pheasants stand out fully 6 inches in
+front of peonies nearly as deep.</p>
+<p>The details fade from my memory daily as I leave the shrines,
+and in their place are picturesque masses of black and red
+lacquer and gold, gilded doors opening without noise, halls laid
+with matting so soft that not a footfall sounds, across whose
+twilight the sunbeams fall aslant on richly arabesqued walls and
+panels carved with birds and flowers, and on ceilings panelled
+and wrought with elaborate art, of inner shrines of gold, and
+golden lilies six feet high, and curtains of gold brocade, and
+incense fumes, and colossal bells and golden ridge poles; of the
+mythical fauna, <i>kirin</i>, dragon, and <i>howo</i>, of
+elephants, apes, and tigers, strangely mingled with flowers and
+trees, and golden tracery, and diaper work on a gold ground, and
+lacquer screens, and pagodas, and groves of bronze lanterns, and
+shaven priests in gold brocade, and Shint&ocirc; attendants in
+black lacquer caps, and gleams of sunlit gold here and there, and
+simple monumental urns, and a mountain-side covered with a
+cryptomeria forest, with rose azaleas lighting up its solemn
+shade.</p>
+<p style="text-align: right">I. L. B.</p>
+<h2><a name="page62"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 62</span>LETTER
+IX.</h2>
+<p class="gutsumm">A Japanese Pack-Horse and
+Pack-Saddle&mdash;<i>Yadoya</i> and Attendant&mdash;A Native
+Watering-Place&mdash;The Sulphur Baths&mdash;A
+&ldquo;Squeeze.&rdquo;</p>
+<p style="text-align: right"><span
+class="smcap">Yashimaya</span>, <span
+class="smcap">Yumoto</span>, <span class="smcap">Nikk&ocirc;zan
+Mountains</span>,<br />
+<i>June</i> 22.</p>
+<p><span class="smcap">To-day</span> I have made an experimental
+journey on horseback, have done fifteen miles in eight hours of
+continuous travelling, and have encountered for the first time
+the Japanese pack-horse&mdash;an animal of which many unpleasing
+stories are told, and which has hitherto been as mythical to me
+as the <i>kirin</i>, or dragon.&nbsp; I have neither been kicked,
+bitten, nor pitched off, however, for mares are used exclusively
+in this district, gentle creatures about fourteen hands high,
+with weak hind-quarters, and heads nearly concealed by shaggy
+manes and forelocks.&nbsp; They are led by a rope round the nose,
+and go barefoot, except on stony ground, when the <i>mago</i>, or
+man who leads them, ties straw sandals on their feet.&nbsp; The
+pack-saddle is composed of two packs of straw eight inches thick,
+faced with red, and connected before and behind by strong oak
+arches gaily painted or lacquered.&nbsp; There is for a girth a
+rope loosely tied under the body, and the security of the load
+depends on a crupper, usually a piece of bamboo attached to the
+saddle by ropes strung with wooden counters, and another rope
+round the neck, into which you put your foot as you scramble over
+the high front upon the top of the erection.&nbsp; The load must
+be carefully balanced or it comes to grief, and the <i>mago</i>
+handles it all over first, and, if an accurate division of weight
+is impossible, adds a stone to one side or the other.&nbsp; Here,
+women who wear enormous rain hats and gird their <i>kimonos</i>
+over tight blue trousers, both load the horses and lead
+them.&nbsp; I dropped upon my loaded horse from the top of a
+wall, the ridges, bars, tags, and knotted rigging of the saddle
+<a name="page63"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 63</span>being
+smoothed over by a folded <i>futon</i>, or wadded cotton quilt,
+and I was then fourteen inches above the animal&rsquo;s back,
+with my feet hanging over his neck.&nbsp; You must balance
+yourself carefully, or you bring the whole erection over; but
+balancing soon becomes a matter of habit.&nbsp; If the horse does
+not stumble, the pack-saddle is tolerable on level ground, but
+most severe on the spine in going up hill, and so intolerable in
+going down that I was relieved when I found that I had slid over
+the horse&rsquo;s head into a mud-hole; and you are quite
+helpless, as he does not understand a bridle, if you have one,
+and blindly follows his leader, who trudges on six feet in front
+of him.</p>
+<p style="text-align: center">
+<a href="images/p63b.jpg">
+<img alt=
+"Japanese Pack-Horse"
+title=
+"Japanese Pack-Horse"
+ src="images/p63s.jpg" />
+</a></p>
+<p>The hard day&rsquo;s journey ended in an exquisite
+<i>yadoya</i>, beautiful within and without, and more fit for
+fairies than for travel-soiled mortals.&nbsp; The <i>fusuma</i>
+are light planed wood with a sweet scent, the matting nearly
+white, the balconies polished pine.&nbsp; On entering, a smiling
+girl brought me some plum-flower <a name="page64"></a><span
+class="pagenum">p. 64</span>tea with a delicate almond flavour, a
+sweetmeat made of beans and sugar, and a lacquer bowl of frozen
+snow.&nbsp; After making a difficult meal from a fowl of much
+experience, I spent the evening out of doors, as a Japanese
+watering-place is an interesting novelty.</p>
+<p style="text-align: center">
+<a href="images/p64b.jpg">
+<img alt=
+"Attendant at Tea-House"
+title=
+"Attendant at Tea-House"
+ src="images/p64s.jpg" />
+</a></p>
+<p>There is scarcely room between the lake and the mountains for
+the picturesque village with its trim neat houses, one above
+another, built of reddish cedar newly planed.&nbsp; The snow lies
+ten feet deep here in winter, and on October 10 the people wrap
+their beautiful dwellings up in coarse matting, <a
+name="page65"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 65</span>not even
+leaving the roofs uncovered, and go to the low country till May
+10, leaving one man in charge, who is relieved once a week.&nbsp;
+Were the houses mine I should be tempted to wrap them up on every
+rainy day!&nbsp; I did quite the wrong thing in riding
+here.&nbsp; It is proper to be carried up in a <i>kago</i>, or
+covered basket.</p>
+<p>The village consists of two short streets, 8 feet wide
+composed entirely of <i>yadoyas</i> of various grades, with a
+picturesquely varied frontage of deep eaves, graceful balconies,
+rows of Chinese lanterns, and open lower fronts.&nbsp; The place
+is full of people, and the four bathing-sheds were crowded.&nbsp;
+Some energetic invalids bathe twelve times a day!&nbsp; Every one
+who was walking about carried a blue towel over his arm, and the
+rails of the balconies were covered with blue towels hanging to
+dry.&nbsp; There can be very little amusement.&nbsp; The
+mountains rise at once from the village, and are so covered with
+jungle that one can only walk in the short streets or along the
+track by which I came.&nbsp; There is one covered boat for
+excursions on the lake, and a few <i>geishas</i> were playing the
+<i>samisen</i>; but, as gaming is illegal, and there is no place
+of public resort except the bathing-sheds, people must spend
+nearly all their time in bathing, sleeping, smoking, and
+eating.&nbsp; The great spring is beyond the village, in a square
+tank in a mound.&nbsp; It bubbles up with much strength, giving
+off fetid fumes.&nbsp; There are broad boards laid at intervals
+across it, and people crippled with rheumatism go and lie for
+hours upon them for the advantage of the sulphurous steam.&nbsp;
+The temperature of the spring is 130&deg; F.; but after the water
+has travelled to the village, along an open wooden pipe, it is
+only 84&deg;.&nbsp; Yumoto is over 4000 feet high, and very
+cold.</p>
+<p><span class="smcap">Irimichi</span>.&mdash;Before leaving
+Yumoto I saw the <i>modus operandi</i> of a
+&ldquo;squeeze.&rdquo;&nbsp; I asked for the bill, when, instead
+of giving it to me, the host ran upstairs and asked Ito how much
+it should be, the two dividing the overcharge.&nbsp; Your servant
+gets a &ldquo;squeeze&rdquo; on everything you buy, and on your
+hotel expenses, and, as it is managed very adroitly, and you
+cannot prevent it, it is best not to worry about it so long as it
+keeps within reasonable limits.</p>
+<p style="text-align: right">I. L. B.</p>
+<h2><a name="page66"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 66</span>LETTER
+X.</h2>
+<p class="gutsumm">Peaceful Monotony&mdash;A Japanese
+School&mdash;A Dismal Ditty&mdash;Punishment&mdash;A
+Children&rsquo;s Party&mdash;A Juvenile Belle&mdash;Female
+Names&mdash;A Juvenile
+Drama&mdash;Needlework&mdash;Calligraphy&mdash;Arranging
+Flowers&mdash;Kanaya&mdash;Daily Routine&mdash;An Evening&rsquo;s
+Entertainment&mdash;Planning Routes&mdash;The God-shelf.</p>
+<p style="text-align: right"><span class="smcap">Irimichi</span>,
+Nikk&ocirc;, <i>June</i> 23.</p>
+<p>My peacefully monotonous life here is nearly at an end.&nbsp;
+The people are so quiet and kindly, though almost too still, and
+I have learned to know something of the externals of village
+life, and have become quite fond of the place.</p>
+<p>The village of Irimichi, which epitomises for me at present
+the village life of Japan, consists of about three hundred houses
+built along three roads, across which steps in fours and threes
+are placed at intervals.&nbsp; Down the middle of each a rapid
+stream runs in a stone channel, and this gives endless amusement
+to the children, specially to the boys, who devise many ingenious
+models and mechanical toys, which are put in motion by
+water-wheels.&nbsp; But at 7 a.m. a drum beats to summon the
+children to a school whose buildings would not discredit any
+school-board at home.&nbsp; Too much Europeanised I thought it,
+and the children looked very uncomfortable sitting on high
+benches in front of desks, instead of squatting, native
+fashion.&nbsp; The school apparatus is very good, and there are
+fine maps on the walls.&nbsp; The teacher, a man about
+twenty-five, made very free use of the black-board, and
+questioned his pupils with much rapidity.&nbsp; The best answer
+moved its giver to the head of the class, as with us.&nbsp;
+Obedience is the foundation of the Japanese social order, and
+with children accustomed to unquestioning obedience at home the
+teacher has no trouble in securing quietness, attention, and
+docility.&nbsp; There was almost a painful earnestness in the
+old-fashioned <a name="page67"></a><span class="pagenum">p.
+67</span>faces which pored over the school-books; even such a
+rare event as the entrance of a foreigner failed to distract
+these childish students.&nbsp; The younger pupils were taught
+chiefly by object lessons, and the older were exercised in
+reading geographical and historical books aloud, a very high key
+being adopted, and a most disagreeable tone, both with the
+Chinese and Japanese pronunciation.&nbsp; Arithmetic and the
+elements of some of the branches of natural philosophy are also
+taught.&nbsp; The children recited a verse of poetry which I
+understood contained the whole of the simple syllabary.&nbsp; It
+has been translated thus:&mdash;</p>
+<blockquote><p>&ldquo;Colour and perfume vanish away.<br />
+What can be lasting in this world?<br />
+To-day disappears in the abyss of nothingness;<br />
+It is but the passing image of a dream, and causes only a slight
+trouble.&rdquo;</p>
+</blockquote>
+<p>It is the echo of the wearied sensualist&rsquo;s cry,
+&ldquo;Vanity of vanities, all is vanity,&rdquo; and indicates
+the singular Oriental distaste for life, but is a dismal ditty
+for young children to learn.&nbsp; The Chinese classics, formerly
+the basis of Japanese education, are now mainly taught as a
+vehicle for conveying a knowledge of the Chinese character, in
+acquiring even a moderate acquaintance with which the children
+undergo a great deal of useless toil.</p>
+<p>The penalties for bad conduct used to be a few blows with a
+switch on the front of the leg, or a slight burn with the
+<i>moxa</i> on the forefinger&mdash;still a common punishment in
+households; but I understood the teacher to say that detention in
+the school-house is the only punishment now resorted to, and he
+expressed great disapprobation of our plan of imposing an added
+task.&nbsp; When twelve o&rsquo;clock came the children marched
+in orderly fashion out of the school grounds, the boys in one
+division and the girls in another, after which they quietly
+dispersed.</p>
+<p>On going home the children dine, and in the evening in nearly
+every house you hear the monotonous hum of the preparation of
+lessons.&nbsp; After dinner they are liberated for play, but the
+girls often hang about the house with babies on their backs the
+whole afternoon nursing dolls.&nbsp; One evening <a
+name="page68"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 68</span>I met a
+procession of sixty boys and girls, all carrying white flags with
+black balls, except the leader, who carried a white flag with a
+gilded ball, and they sang, or rather howled, as they walked; but
+the other amusements have been of a most sedentary kind.&nbsp;
+The mechanical toys, worked by water-wheels in the stream, are
+most fascinating.</p>
+<p>Formal children&rsquo;s parties have been given in this house,
+for which formal invitations, in the name of the house-child, a
+girl of twelve, are sent out.&nbsp; About 3 p.m. the guests
+arrive, frequently attended by servants; and this child, Haru,
+receives them at the top of the stone steps, and conducts each
+into the reception room, where they are arranged according to
+some well-understood rules of precedence.&nbsp; Haru&rsquo;s hair
+is drawn back, raised in front, and gathered into a double loop,
+in which some scarlet <i>cr&eacute;pe</i> is twisted.&nbsp; Her
+face and throat are much whitened, the paint terminating in three
+points at the back of the neck, from which all the short hair has
+been carefully extracted with pincers.&nbsp; Her lips are
+slightly touched with red paint, and her face looks like that of
+a cheap doll.&nbsp; She wears a blue, flowered silk
+<i>kimono</i>, with sleeves touching the ground, a blue girdle
+lined with scarlet, and a fold of scarlet <i>cr&eacute;pe</i>
+lies between her painted neck and her <i>kimono</i>.&nbsp; On her
+little feet she wears white <i>tabi</i>, socks of cotton cloth,
+with a separate place for the great toe, so as to allow the
+scarlet-covered thongs of the finely lacquered clogs, which she
+puts on when she stands on the stone steps to receive her guests,
+to pass between it and the smaller toes.&nbsp; All the other
+little ladies were dressed in the same style, and all looked like
+ill-executed dolls.&nbsp; She met them with very formal but
+graceful bows.</p>
+<p>When they were all assembled, she and her very graceful
+mother, squatting before each, presented tea and sweetmeats on
+lacquer trays, and then they played at very quiet and polite
+games till dusk.&nbsp; They addressed each other by their names
+with the honorific prefix <i>O</i>, only used in the case of
+women, and the respectful affix <i>San</i>; thus Haru becomes
+O-Haru-San, which is equivalent to &ldquo;Miss.&rdquo;&nbsp; A
+mistress of a house is addressed as <i>O-Kami-San</i>, and
+<i>O-Kusuma</i>&mdash;something like &ldquo;my
+lady&rdquo;&mdash;is used to married ladies.&nbsp; Women have no
+surnames; thus you do not speak of Mrs. Saguchi, but of the <a
+name="page69"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 69</span>wife of
+Saguchi <i>San</i>; and you would address her as
+<i>O-Kusuma</i>.&nbsp; Among the children&rsquo;s names were
+<i>Haru</i>, Spring; <i>Yuki</i>, Snow; <i>Hana</i>, Blossom;
+<i>Kiku</i>, Chrysanthemum; <i>Gin</i>, Silver.</p>
+<p>One of their games was most amusing, and was played with some
+spirit and much dignity.&nbsp; It consisted in one child feigning
+sickness and another playing the doctor, and the pompousness and
+gravity of the latter, and the distress and weakness of the
+former, were most successfully imitated.&nbsp; Unfortunately the
+doctor killed his patient, who counterfeited the death-sleep very
+effectively with her whitened face; and then followed the funeral
+and the mourning.&nbsp; They dramatise thus weddings,
+dinner-parties, and many other of the events of life.&nbsp; The
+dignity and self-possession of these children are
+wonderful.&nbsp; The fact is that their initiation into all that
+is required by the rules of Japanese etiquette begins as soon as
+they can speak, so that by the time they are ten years old they
+know exactly what to do and avoid under all possible
+circumstances.&nbsp; Before they went away tea and sweetmeats
+were again handed round, and, as it is neither etiquette to
+refuse them or to leave anything behind that you have once taken,
+several of the small ladies slipped the residue into their
+capacious sleeves.&nbsp; On departing the same formal courtesies
+were used as on arriving.</p>
+<p>Yuki, Haru&rsquo;s mother, speaks, acts, and moves with a
+charming gracefulness.&nbsp; Except at night, and when friends
+drop in to afternoon tea, as they often do, she is always either
+at domestic avocations, such as cleaning, sewing, or cooking, or
+planting vegetables, or weeding them.&nbsp; All Japanese girls
+learn to sew and to make their own clothes, but there are none of
+the mysteries and difficulties which make the sewing lesson a
+thing of dread with us.&nbsp; The <i>kimono</i>, <i>haori</i>,
+and girdle, and even the long hanging sleeves, have only parallel
+seams, and these are only tacked or basted, as the garments, when
+washed, are taken to pieces, and each piece, after being very
+slightly stiffened, is stretched upon a board to dry.&nbsp; There
+is no underclothing, with its bands, frills, gussets, and
+button-holes; the poorer women wear none, and those above them
+wear, like Yuki, an under-dress of a frothy-looking silk
+<i>cr&eacute;pe</i>, as simply made as the upper one.&nbsp; There
+are circulating libraries here, as in most villages, and in the
+evening both <a name="page70"></a><span class="pagenum">p.
+70</span>Yuki and Haru read love stories, or accounts of ancient
+heroes and heroines, dressed up to suit the popular taste,
+written in the easiest possible style.&nbsp; Ito has about ten
+volumes of novels in his room, and spends half the night in
+reading them.</p>
+<p>Yuki&rsquo;s son, a lad of thirteen, often comes to my room to
+display his skill in writing the Chinese character.&nbsp; He is a
+very bright boy, and shows considerable talent for drawing.&nbsp;
+Indeed, it is only a short step from writing to drawing.&nbsp;
+Giotto&rsquo;s O hardly involved more breadth and vigour of touch
+than some of these characters.&nbsp; They are written with a
+camel&rsquo;s-hair brush dipped in Indian ink, instead of a pen,
+and this boy, with two or three vigorous touches, produces
+characters a foot long, such as are mounted and hung as tablets
+outside the different shops.&nbsp; Yuki plays the <i>samisen</i>,
+which may be regarded as the national female instrument, and Haru
+goes to a teacher daily for lessons on the same.</p>
+<p>The art of arranging flowers is taught in manuals, the study
+of which forms part of a girl&rsquo;s education, and there is
+scarcely a day in which my room is not newly decorated.&nbsp; It
+is an education to me; I am beginning to appreciate the extreme
+beauty of solitude in decoration.&nbsp; In the alcove hangs a
+<i>kakemono</i> of exquisite beauty, a single blossoming branch
+of the cherry.&nbsp; On one panel of a folding screen there is a
+single iris.&nbsp; The vases which hang so gracefully on the
+polished posts contain each a single peony, a single iris, a
+single azalea, stalk, leaves, and corolla&mdash;all displayed in
+their full beauty.&nbsp; Can anything be more grotesque and
+barbarous than our &ldquo;florists&rsquo; bouquets,&rdquo; a
+series of concentric rings of flowers of divers colours, bordered
+by maidenhair and a piece of stiff lace paper, in which stems,
+leaves, and even petals are brutally crushed, and the grace and
+individuality of each flower systematically destroyed?</p>
+<p>Kanaya is the chief man in this village, besides being the
+leader of the dissonant squeaks and discords which represent
+music at the Shint&ocirc; festivals, and in some mysterious back
+region he compounds and sells drugs.&nbsp; Since I have been here
+the beautification of his garden has been his chief object, and
+he has made a very respectable waterfall, a rushing stream, a
+small lake, a rustic bamboo bridge, and several grass banks, <a
+name="page71"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 71</span>and has
+transplanted several large trees.&nbsp; He kindly goes out with
+me a good deal, and, as he is very intelligent, and Ito is
+proving an excellent, and, I think, a faithful interpreter, I
+find it very pleasant to be here.</p>
+<p>They rise at daylight, fold up the wadded quilts or
+<i>futons</i> on and under which they have slept, and put them
+and the wooden pillows, much like stereoscopes in shape, with
+little rolls of paper or wadding on the top, into a press with a
+sliding door, sweep the mats carefully, dust all the woodwork and
+the verandahs, open the <i>amado</i>&mdash;wooden shutters which,
+by sliding in a groove along the edge of the verandah, box in the
+whole house at night, and retire into an ornamental projection in
+the day&mdash;and throw the paper windows back.&nbsp; Breakfast
+follows, then domestic avocations, dinner at one, and sewing,
+gardening, and visiting till six, when they take the evening
+meal.</p>
+<p>Visitors usually arrive soon afterwards, and stay till eleven
+or twelve.&nbsp; Japanese chess, story-telling, and the
+<i>samisen</i> fill up the early part of the evening, but later,
+an agonising performance, which they call singing, begins, which
+sounds like the very essence of heathenishness, and consists
+mainly in a prolonged vibrating &ldquo;No.&rdquo;&nbsp; As soon
+as I hear it I feel as if I were among savages.&nbsp;
+<i>Sak&eacute;</i>, or rice beer, is always passed round before
+the visitors leave, in little cups with the gods of luck at the
+bottom of them.&nbsp; <i>Sak&eacute;</i>, when heated, mounts
+readily to the head, and a single small cup excites the
+half-witted man-servant to some very foolish musical
+performances.&nbsp; I am sorry to write it, but his master and
+mistress take great pleasure in seeing him make a fool of
+himself, and Ito, who is from policy a total abstainer, goes into
+convulsions of laughter.</p>
+<p>One evening I was invited to join the family, and they
+entertained me by showing me picture and guide books.&nbsp; Most
+Japanese provinces have their guide-books, illustrated by
+wood-cuts of the most striking objects, and giving itineraries,
+names of <i>yadoyas</i>, and other local information.&nbsp; One
+volume of pictures, very finely executed on silk, was more than a
+century old.&nbsp; Old gold lacquer and china, and some pieces of
+antique embroidered silk, were also produced for my benefit, and
+some musical instruments of great beauty, said to be more than
+two centuries old.&nbsp; None of these treasures are kept in the
+house, but in the <i>kura</i>, or fireproof storehouse, close
+by.&nbsp; The rooms <a name="page72"></a><span class="pagenum">p.
+72</span>are not encumbered by ornaments; a single
+<i>kakemono</i>, or fine piece of lacquer or china, appears for a
+few days and then makes way for something else; so they have
+variety as well as simplicity, and each object is enjoyed in its
+turn without distraction.</p>
+<p>Kanaya and his sister often pay me an evening visit, and, with
+Brunton&rsquo;s map on the floor, we project astonishing routes
+to Niigata, which are usually abruptly abandoned on finding a
+mountain-chain in the way with never a road over it.&nbsp; The
+life of these people seems to pass easily enough, but Kanaya
+deplores the want of money; he would like to be rich, and intends
+to build a hotel for foreigners.</p>
+<p>The only vestige of religion in his house is the
+<i>kamidana</i>, or god-shelf, on which stands a wooden shrine
+like a Shint&ocirc; temple, which contains the memorial tablets
+to deceased relations.&nbsp; Each morning a sprig of evergreen
+and a little rice and <i>sak&eacute;</i> are placed before it,
+and every evening a lighted lamp.</p>
+<h2><a name="page73"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 73</span>LETTER
+X.&mdash;(<i>Continued</i>.)</h2>
+<p class="gutsumm">Darkness visible&mdash;Nikk&ocirc;
+Shops&mdash;Girls and Matrons&mdash;Night and
+Sleep&mdash;Parental Love&mdash;Childish
+Docility&mdash;Hair-dressing&mdash;Skin Diseases.</p>
+<p>I <span class="smcap">don&rsquo;t</span> wonder that the
+Japanese rise early, for their evenings are cheerless, owing to
+the dismal illumination.&nbsp; In this and other houses the lamp
+consists of a square or circular lacquer stand, with four
+uprights, 2&frac12; feet high, and panes of white paper.&nbsp; A
+flatted iron dish is suspended in this full of oil, with the pith
+of a rush with a weight in the centre laid across it, and one of
+the projecting ends is lighted.&nbsp; This wretched apparatus is
+called an <i>andon</i>, and round its wretched &ldquo;darkness
+visible&rdquo; the family huddles&mdash;the children to play
+games and learn lessons, and the women to sew; for the Japanese
+daylight is short and the houses are dark.&nbsp; Almost more
+deplorable is a candlestick of the same height as the
+<i>andon</i>, with a spike at the top which fits into a hole at
+the bottom of a &ldquo;farthing candle&rdquo; of vegetable wax,
+with a thick wick made of rolled paper, which requires constant
+snuffing, and, after giving for a short time a dim and jerky
+light, expires with a bad smell.&nbsp; Lamps, burning mineral
+oils, native and imported, are being manufactured on a large
+scale, but, apart from the peril connected with them, the
+carriage of oil into country districts is very expensive.&nbsp;
+No Japanese would think of sleeping without having an
+<i>andon</i> burning all night in his room.</p>
+<p>These villages are full of shops.&nbsp; There is scarcely a
+house which does not sell something.&nbsp; Where the buyers come
+from, and how a profit can be made, is a mystery.&nbsp; Many of
+the things are eatables, such as dried fishes, 1&frac12; inch
+long, impaled on sticks; cakes, sweetmeats composed of rice,
+flour, and very little sugar; circular lumps of rice dough,
+called <i>mochi</i>; roots <a name="page74"></a><span
+class="pagenum">p. 74</span>boiled in brine; a white jelly made
+from beans; and ropes, straw shoes for men and horses, straw
+cloaks, paper umbrellas, paper waterproofs, hair-pins,
+tooth-picks, tobacco pipes, paper <i>mouchoirs</i>, and numbers
+of other trifles made of bamboo, straw, grass, and wood.&nbsp;
+These goods are on stands, and in the room behind, open to the
+street, all the domestic avocations are going on, and the
+housewife is usually to be seen boiling water or sewing with a
+baby tucked into the back of her dress.&nbsp; A lucifer factory
+has recently been put up, and in many house fronts men are
+cutting up wood into lengths for matches.&nbsp; In others they
+are husking rice, a very laborious process, in which the grain is
+pounded in a mortar sunk in the floor by a flat-ended wooden
+pestle attached to a long horizontal lever, which is worked by
+the feet of a man, invariably naked, who stands at the other
+extremity.</p>
+<p>In some women are weaving, in others spinning cotton.&nbsp;
+Usually there are three or four together&mdash;the mother, the
+eldest son&rsquo;s wife, and one or two unmarried girls.&nbsp;
+The girls marry at sixteen, and shortly these comely, rosy,
+wholesome-looking creatures pass into haggard, middle-aged women
+with vacant faces, owing to the blackening of the teeth and
+removal of the eyebrows, which, if they do not follow betrothal,
+are resorted to on the birth of the first child.&nbsp; In other
+houses women are at their toilet, blackening their teeth before
+circular metal mirrors placed in folding stands on the mats, or
+performing ablutions, unclothed to the waist.&nbsp; Early the
+village is very silent, while the children are at school; their
+return enlivens it a little, but they are quiet even at play; at
+sunset the men return, and things are a little livelier; you hear
+a good deal of splashing in baths, and after that they carry
+about and play with their younger children, while the older ones
+prepare lessons for the following day by reciting them in a high,
+monotonous twang.&nbsp; At dark the paper windows are drawn, the
+<i>amado</i>, or external wooden shutters, are closed, the lamp
+is lighted before the family shrine, supper is eaten, the
+children play at quiet games round the <i>andon</i>; and about
+ten the quilts and wooden pillows are produced from the press,
+the <i>amado</i> are bolted, and the family lies down to sleep in
+one room.&nbsp; Small trays of food and the <i>tabako-bon</i> are
+always within reach of adult sleepers, and one grows quite
+accustomed to hear the <a name="page75"></a><span
+class="pagenum">p. 75</span>sound of ashes being knocked out of
+the pipe at intervals during the night.&nbsp; The children sit up
+as late as their parents, and are included in all their
+conversation.</p>
+<p>I never saw people take so much delight in their offspring,
+carrying them about, or holding their hands in walking, watching
+and entering into their games, supplying them constantly with new
+toys, taking them to picnics and festivals, never being content
+to be without them, and treating other people&rsquo;s children
+also with a suitable measure of affection and attention.&nbsp;
+Both fathers and mothers take a pride in their children.&nbsp; It
+is most amusing about six every morning to see twelve or fourteen
+men sitting on a low wall, each with a child under two years in
+his arms, fondling and playing with it, and showing off its
+physique and intelligence.&nbsp; To judge from appearances, the
+children form the chief topic at this morning gathering.&nbsp; At
+night, after the houses are shut up, looking through the long
+fringe of rope or rattan which conceals the sliding door, you see
+the father, who wears nothing but a <i>maro</i> in &ldquo;the
+bosom of his family,&rdquo; bending his ugly, kindly face over a
+gentle-looking baby, and the mother, who more often than not has
+dropped the <i>kimono</i> from her shoulders, enfolding two
+children destitute of clothing in her arms.&nbsp; For some
+reasons they prefer boys, but certainly girls are equally petted
+and loved.&nbsp; The children, though for our ideas too gentle
+and formal, are very prepossessing in looks and behaviour.&nbsp;
+They are so perfectly docile and obedient, so ready to help their
+parents, so good to the little ones, and, in the many hours which
+I have spent in watching them at play, I have never heard an
+angry word or seen a sour look or act.&nbsp; But they are little
+men and women rather than children, and their old-fashioned
+appearance is greatly aided by their dress, which, as I have
+remarked before, is the same as that of adults.</p>
+<p>There are, however, various styles of dressing the hair of
+girls, by which you can form a pretty accurate estimate of any
+girl&rsquo;s age up to her marriage, when the <i>coiffure</i>
+undergoes a definite change.&nbsp; The boys all look top-heavy
+and their heads of an abnormal size, partly from a hideous
+practice of shaving the head altogether for the first three
+years.&nbsp; After this the hair is allowed to grow in three
+tufts, one over each ear, and the other at the back of the neck;
+as often, however, a tuft is <a name="page76"></a><span
+class="pagenum">p. 76</span>grown at the top of the back of the
+head.&nbsp; At ten the crown alone is shaved and a forelock is
+worn, and at fifteen, when the boy assumes the responsibilities
+of manhood, his hair is allowed to grow like that of a man.&nbsp;
+The grave dignity of these boys, with the grotesque patterns on
+their big heads, is most amusing.</p>
+<p>Would that these much-exposed skulls were always smooth and
+clean!&nbsp; It is painful to see the prevalence of such
+repulsive maladies as <i>scabies</i>, scald-head, ringworm, sore
+eyes, and unwholesome-looking eruptions, and fully 30 per cent of
+the village people are badly seamed with smallpox.</p>
+<h2><a name="page77"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 77</span>LETTER
+X.&mdash;(<i>Completed</i>.)</h2>
+<p class="gutsumm">Shops and Shopping&mdash;The Barber&rsquo;s
+Shop&mdash;A Paper Waterproof&mdash;Ito&rsquo;s
+Vanity&mdash;Preparations for the Journey&mdash;Transport and
+Prices&mdash;Money and Measurements.</p>
+<p>I <span class="smcap">have</span> had to do a little shopping
+in Hachiishi for my journey.&nbsp; The shop-fronts, you must
+understand, are all open, and at the height of the floor, about
+two feet from the ground, there is a broad ledge of polished wood
+on which you sit down.&nbsp; A woman everlastingly boiling water
+on a bronze <i>hibachi</i>, or brazier, shifting the embers about
+deftly with brass tongs like chopsticks, and with a baby looking
+calmly over her shoulders, is the shopwoman; but she remains
+indifferent till she imagines that you have a definite purpose of
+buying, when she comes forward bowing to the ground, and I
+politely rise and bow too.&nbsp; Then I or Ito ask the price of a
+thing, and she names it, very likely asking 4s. for what ought to
+sell at 6d.&nbsp; You say 3s., she laughs and says 3s. 6d.; you
+say 2s., she laughs again and says 3s., offering you the
+<i>tabako-bon</i>.&nbsp; Eventually the matter is compromised by
+your giving her 1s., at which she appears quite delighted.&nbsp;
+With a profusion of bows and &ldquo;<i>sayo naras</i>&rdquo; on
+each side, you go away with the pleasant feeling of having given
+an industrious woman twice as much as the thing was worth to her,
+and less than what it is worth to you!</p>
+<p>There are several barbers&rsquo; shops, and the evening seems
+a very busy time with them.&nbsp; This operation partakes of the
+general want of privacy of the life of the village, and is
+performed in the raised open front of the shop.&nbsp; Soap is not
+used, and the process is a painful one.&nbsp; The victims let
+their garments fall to their waists, and each holds in his left
+hand a lacquered tray to receive the croppings.&nbsp; The ugly
+Japanese <a name="page78"></a><span class="pagenum">p.
+78</span>face at this time wears a most grotesque expression of
+stolid resignation as it is held and pulled about by the
+operator, who turns it in all directions, that he may judge of
+the effect that he is producing.&nbsp; The shaving the face till
+it is smooth and shiny, and the cutting, waxing, and tying of the
+queue with twine made of paper, are among the evening sights of
+Nikk&ocirc;.</p>
+<p>Lacquer and things curiously carved in wood are the great
+attractions of the shops, but they interest me far less than the
+objects of utility in Japanese daily life, with their ingenuity
+of contrivance and perfection of adaptation and
+workmanship.&nbsp; A seed shop, where seeds are truly idealised,
+attracts me daily.&nbsp; Thirty varieties are offered for sale,
+as various in form as they are in colour, and arranged most
+artistically on stands, while some are put up in packages
+decorated with what one may call a facsimile of the root, leaves,
+and flower, in water-colours.&nbsp; A lad usually lies on the mat
+behind executing these very creditable pictures&mdash;for such
+they are&mdash;with a few bold and apparently careless strokes
+with his brush.&nbsp; He gladly sold me a peony as a scrap for a
+screen for 3 <i>sen</i>.&nbsp; My purchases, with this exception,
+were necessaries only&mdash;a paper waterproof cloak, &ldquo;a
+circular,&rdquo; black outside and yellow inside, made of square
+sheets of oiled paper cemented together, and some large sheets of
+the same for covering my baggage; and I succeeded in getting Ito
+out of his obnoxious black wide-awake into a basin-shaped hat
+like mine, for, ugly as I think him, he has a large share of
+personal vanity, whitens his teeth, and powders his face
+carefully before a mirror, and is in great dread of
+sunburn.&nbsp; He powders his hands too, and polishes his nails,
+and never goes out without gloves.</p>
+<p>To-morrow I leave luxury behind and plunge into the interior,
+hoping to emerge somehow upon the Sea of Japan.&nbsp; No
+information can be got here except about the route to Niigata,
+which I have decided not to take, so, after much study of
+Brunton&rsquo;s map, I have fixed upon one place, and have said
+positively, &ldquo;I go to Tajima.&rdquo;&nbsp; If I reach it I
+can get farther, but all I can learn is, &ldquo;It&rsquo;s a very
+bad road, it&rsquo;s all among the mountains.&rdquo;&nbsp; Ito,
+who has a great regard for his own comforts, tries to dissuade me
+from going by saying that I shall lose mine, but, as these kind
+people have ingeniously repaired my <a name="page79"></a><span
+class="pagenum">p. 79</span>bed by doubling the canvas and lacing
+it into holes in the side poles, <a name="citation79"></a><a
+href="#footnote79" class="citation">[79]</a> and as I have lived
+for the last three days on rice, eggs, and coarse vermicelli
+about the thickness and colour of earth-worms, this prospect does
+not appal me!&nbsp; In Japan there is a Land Transport Company,
+called <i>Riku-un-kaisha</i>, with a head-office in
+T&ocirc;kiy&ocirc;, and branches in various towns and
+villages.&nbsp; It arranges for the transport of travellers and
+merchandise by pack-horses and coolies at certain fixed rates,
+and gives receipts in due form.&nbsp; It hires the horses from
+the farmers, and makes a moderate profit on each transaction, but
+saves the traveller from difficulties, delays, and
+extortions.&nbsp; The prices vary considerably in different
+districts, and are regulated by the price of forage, the state of
+the roads, and the number of hireable horses.&nbsp; For a
+<i>ri</i>, nearly 2&frac12; miles, they charge from 6 to 10
+<i>sen</i> for a horse and the man who leads it, for a
+<i>kuruma</i> with one man from 4 to 9 <i>sen</i> for the same
+distance, and for baggage coolies about the same.&nbsp; [This
+Transport Company is admirably organised.&nbsp; I employed it in
+journeys of over 1200 miles, and always found it efficient and
+reliable.]&nbsp; I intend to make use of it always, much against
+Ito&rsquo;s wishes, who reckoned on many a prospective
+&ldquo;squeeze&rdquo; in dealings with the farmers.</p>
+<p>My journey will now be entirely over &ldquo;unbeaten
+tracks,&rdquo; and will lead through what may be called
+&ldquo;Old Japan;&rdquo; and as it will be natural to use
+Japanese words for money and distances, for which there are no
+English terms, I give them here.&nbsp; A <i>yen</i> is a note
+representing a dollar, or about 3s. 7d. of our money; a
+<i>sen</i> is something less than a halfpenny; a <i>rin</i> is a
+thin round coin of iron or bronze, with a square hole in the
+middle, of which 10 make a <i>sen</i>, and 1000 a <i>yen</i>; and
+a <i>tempo</i> is a handsome oval bronze coin with a hole in the
+centre, of which 5 make 4 <i>sen</i>.&nbsp; Distances are
+measured by <i>ri</i>, <i>ch&ocirc;</i>, and <i>ken</i>.&nbsp;
+Six feet make one <i>ken</i>, sixty <i>ken</i> one
+<i>ch&ocirc;</i>, and thirty-six <i>ch&ocirc;</i> one <i>ri</i>,
+or nearly 2&frac12; English miles.&nbsp; When I write of a road I
+mean a bridle-path from four to eight feet wide, <i>kuruma</i>
+roads being specified as such.</p>
+<p style="text-align: right">I. L. B.</p>
+<h2><a name="page80"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 80</span>LETTER
+XI.</h2>
+<p class="gutsumm">Comfort disappears&mdash;Fine Scenery&mdash;An
+Alarm&mdash;A Farm-house&mdash;An unusual Costume&mdash;Bridling
+a Horse&mdash;Female Dress and Ugliness&mdash;Babies&mdash;My
+<i>Mago</i>&mdash;Beauties of the
+Kinugawa&mdash;Fujihara&mdash;My
+Servant&mdash;Horse-shoes&mdash;An absurd Mistake.</p>
+<p style="text-align: right"><span class="smcap">Fujihara</span>,
+<i>June</i> 24.</p>
+<p><span class="smcap">Ito&rsquo;s</span> informants were
+right.&nbsp; Comfort was left behind at Nikk&ocirc;!</p>
+<p>A little woman brought two depressed-looking mares at six this
+morning; my saddle and bridle were put on one, and Ito and the
+baggage on the other; my hosts and I exchanged cordial good
+wishes and obeisances, and, with the women dragging my sorry mare
+by a rope round her nose, we left the glorious shrines and solemn
+cryptomeria groves of Nikk&ocirc; behind, passed down its long,
+clean street, and where the <i>In Memoriam</i> avenue is densest
+and darkest turned off to the left by a path like the bed of a
+brook, which afterwards, as a most atrocious trail, wound about
+among the rough boulders of the Daiya, which it crosses often on
+temporary bridges of timbers covered with branches and
+soil.&nbsp; After crossing one of the low spurs of the
+Nikk&ocirc;san mountains, we wound among ravines whose steep
+sides are clothed with maple, oak, magnolia, elm, pine, and
+cryptomeria, linked together by festoons of the redundant
+<i>Wistaria chinensis</i>, and brightened by azalea and syringa
+clusters.&nbsp; Every vista was blocked by some grand mountain,
+waterfalls thundered, bright streams glanced through the trees,
+and in the glorious sunshine of June the country looked most
+beautiful.</p>
+<p>We travelled less than a <i>ri</i> an hour, as it was a mere
+flounder either among rocks or in deep mud, the woman in her
+girt-up dress and straw sandals trudging bravely along, till <a
+name="page81"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 81</span>she suddenly
+flung away the rope, cried out, and ran backwards, perfectly
+scared by a big grey snake, with red spots, much embarrassed by a
+large frog which he would not let go, though, like most of his
+kind, he was alarmed by human approach, and made desperate
+efforts to swallow his victim and wriggle into the bushes.&nbsp;
+After crawling for three hours we dismounted at the mountain farm
+of Kohiaku, on the edge of a rice valley, and the woman counted
+her packages to see that they were all right, and without waiting
+for a gratuity turned homewards with her horses.&nbsp; I pitched
+my chair in the verandah of a house near a few poor dwellings
+inhabited by peasants with large families, the house being in the
+barn-yard of a rich <i>sak&eacute;</i> maker.&nbsp; I waited an
+hour, grew famished, got some weak tea and boiled barley, waited
+another hour, and yet another, for all the horses were eating
+leaves on the mountains.&nbsp; There was a little stir.&nbsp; Men
+carried sheaves of barley home on their backs, and stacked them
+under the eaves.&nbsp; Children, with barely the rudiments of
+clothing, stood and watched me hour after hour, and adults were
+not ashamed to join the group, for they had never seen a foreign
+woman, a fork, or a spoon.&nbsp; Do you remember a sentence in
+Dr. Macgregor&rsquo;s last sermon?&nbsp; &ldquo;What strange
+sights some of you will see!&rdquo;&nbsp; Could there be a
+stranger one than a decent-looking middle-aged man lying on his
+chest in the verandah, raised on his elbows, and intently reading
+a book, clothed only in a pair of spectacles?&nbsp; Besides that
+curious piece of still life, women frequently drew water from a
+well by the primitive contrivance of a beam suspended across an
+upright, with the bucket at one end and a stone at the other.</p>
+<p>When the horses arrived the men said they could not put on the
+bridle, but, after much talk, it was managed by two of them
+violently forcing open the jaws of the animal, while a third
+seized a propitious moment for slipping the bit into her
+mouth.&nbsp; At the next change a bridle was a thing unheard of,
+and when I suggested that the creature would open her mouth
+voluntarily if the bit were pressed close to her teeth, the
+standers-by mockingly said, &ldquo;No horse ever opens his mouth
+except to eat or to bite,&rdquo; and were only convinced after I
+had put on the bridle myself.&nbsp; The new horses had a rocking
+gait like camels, and I was glad to dispense with them at <a
+name="page82"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 82</span>Kisagoi, a
+small upland hamlet, a very poor place, with poverty-stricken
+houses, children very dirty and sorely afflicted by skin
+maladies, and women with complexions and features hardened by
+severe work and much wood smoke into positive ugliness, and with
+figures anything but statuesque.</p>
+<p style="text-align: center">
+<a href="images/p82b.jpg">
+<img alt=
+"Summer and Winter Costume"
+title=
+"Summer and Winter Costume"
+ src="images/p82s.jpg" />
+</a></p>
+<p>I write the truth as I see it, and if my accounts conflict
+with those of tourists who write of the Tokaido and Nakasendo, of
+Lake Biwa and Hakone, it does not follow that either is
+inaccurate.&nbsp; But truly this is a new Japan to me, of which
+no books have given me any idea, and it is not fairyland.&nbsp;
+<a name="page83"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 83</span>The men
+may be said to wear nothing.&nbsp; Few of the women wear anything
+but a short petticoat wound tightly round them, or blue cotton
+trousers very tight in the legs and baggy at the top, with a blue
+cotton garment open to the waist tucked into the band, and a blue
+cotton handkerchief knotted round the head.&nbsp; From the dress
+no notion of the sex of the wearer could be gained, nor from the
+faces, if it were not for the shaven eyebrows and black
+teeth.&nbsp; The short petticoat is truly barbarous-looking, and
+when a woman has a nude baby on her back or in her arms, and
+stands staring vacantly at the foreigner, I can hardly believe
+myself in &ldquo;civilised&rdquo; Japan.&nbsp; A good-sized
+child, strong enough to hold up his head, sees the world right
+cheerfully looking over his mother&rsquo;s shoulders, but it is a
+constant distress to me to see small children of six and seven
+years old lugging on their backs gristly babies, whose shorn
+heads are frizzling in the sun and &ldquo;wobbling&rdquo; about
+as though they must drop off, their eyes, as nurses say,
+&ldquo;looking over their heads.&rdquo;&nbsp; A number of
+silk-worms are kept in this region, and in the open barns groups
+of men in nature&rsquo;s costume, and women unclothed to their
+waists, were busy stripping mulberry branches.&nbsp; The houses
+were all poor, and the people dirty both in their clothing and
+persons.&nbsp; Some of the younger women might possibly have been
+comely, if soap and water had been plentifully applied to their
+faces; but soap is not used, and such washing as the garments get
+is only the rubbing them a little with sand in a running
+stream.&nbsp; I will give you an amusing instance of the way in
+which one may make absurd mistakes.&nbsp; I heard many stories of
+the viciousness and aggressiveness of pack-horses, and was told
+that they were muzzled to prevent them from pasturing upon the
+haunches of their companions and making vicious snatches at
+men.&nbsp; Now, I find that the muzzle is only to prevent them
+from eating as they travel.&nbsp; Mares are used exclusively in
+this region, and they are the gentlest of their race.&nbsp; If
+you have the weight of baggage reckoned at one horse-load, though
+it should turn out that the weight is too great for a weakly
+animal, and the Transport agent distributes it among two or even
+three horses, you only pay for one; and though our
+<i>cort&egrave;ge</i> on leaving Kisagoi consisted of four small,
+shock-headed mares who <a name="page84"></a><span
+class="pagenum">p. 84</span>could hardly see through their bushy
+forelocks, with three active foals, and one woman and three girls
+to lead them, I only paid for two horses at 7 <i>sen</i> a
+<i>ri</i>.</p>
+<p>My <i>mago</i>, with her toil-hardened, thoroughly
+good-natured face rendered hideous by black teeth, wore straw
+sandals, blue cotton trousers with a vest tucked into them, as
+poor and worn as they could be, and a blue cotton towel knotted
+round her head.&nbsp; As the sky looked threatening she carried a
+straw rain-cloak, a thatch of two connected capes, one fastening
+at the neck, the other at the waist, and a flat hat of flags,
+2&frac12; feet in diameter, hung at her back like a shield.&nbsp;
+Up and down, over rocks and through deep mud, she trudged with a
+steady stride, turning her kind, ugly face at intervals to see if
+the girls were following.&nbsp; I like the firm hardy gait which
+this unbecoming costume permits better than the painful shuffle
+imposed upon the more civilised women by their tight skirts and
+high clogs.</p>
+<p>From Kohiaku the road passed through an irregular grassy
+valley between densely-wooded hills, the valley itself timbered
+with park-like clumps of pine and Spanish chestnuts; but on
+leaving Kisagoi the scenery changed.&nbsp; A steep rocky tract
+brought us to the Kinugawa, a clear rushing river, which has cut
+its way deeply through coloured rock, and is crossed at a
+considerable height by a bridge with an alarmingly steep curve,
+from which there is a fine view of high mountains, and among them
+Futarayama, to which some of the most ancient Shint&ocirc;
+legends are attached.&nbsp; We rode for some time within hearing
+of the Kinugawa, catching magnificent glimpses of it
+frequently&mdash;turbulent and locked in by walls of porphyry, or
+widening and calming and spreading its aquamarine waters over
+great slabs of pink and green rock, lighted fitfully by the sun,
+or spanned by rainbows, or pausing to rest in deep shady pools,
+but always beautiful.&nbsp; The mountains through which it forces
+its way on the other side are precipitous and wooded to their
+summits with conifer&aelig;, while the less abrupt side, along
+which the tract is carried, curves into green knolls in its lower
+slopes, sprinkled with grand Spanish chestnuts scarcely yet in
+blossom, with maples which have not yet lost the scarlet which
+they wear in spring as well as autumn, and with many flowering
+trees and shrubs which are new to me, and with an undergrowth <a
+name="page85"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 85</span>of red
+azaleas, syringa, blue hydrangea&mdash;the very blue of
+heaven&mdash;yellow raspberries, ferns, clematis, white and
+yellow lilies, blue irises, and fifty other trees and shrubs
+entangled and festooned by the wistaria, whose beautiful foliage
+is as common as is that of the bramble with us.&nbsp; The
+redundancy of the vegetation was truly tropical, and the
+brilliancy and variety of its living greens, dripping with recent
+rain, were enhanced by the slant rays of the afternoon sun.</p>
+<p>The few hamlets we passed are of farm-houses only, the
+deep-eaved roofs covering in one sweep dwelling-house, barn, and
+stable.&nbsp; In every barn unclothed people were pursuing
+various industries.&nbsp; We met strings of pack-mares, tied head
+and tail, loaded with rice and <i>sak&eacute;</i>, and men and
+women carrying large creels full of mulberry leaves.&nbsp; The
+ravine grew more and more beautiful, and an ascent through a dark
+wood of arrowy cryptomeria brought us to this village exquisitely
+situated, where a number of miniature ravines, industriously
+terraced for rice, come down upon the great chasm of the
+Kinugawa.&nbsp; Eleven hours of travelling have brought me
+eighteen miles!</p>
+<p><span class="smcap">Ikari</span>, June 25.&mdash;Fujihara has
+forty-six farm-houses and a <i>yadoya</i>&mdash;all dark, damp,
+dirty, and draughty, a combination of dwelling-house, barn, and
+stable.&nbsp; The <i>yadoya</i> consisted of a <i>daidokoro</i>,
+or open kitchen, and stable below, and a small loft above,
+capable of division, and I found on returning from a walk six
+Japanese in extreme <i>d&eacute;shabill&eacute;</i> occupying the
+part through which I had to pass.&nbsp; On this being remedied I
+sat down to write, but was soon driven upon the balcony, under
+the eaves, by myriads of fleas, which hopped out of the mats as
+sandhoppers do out of the sea sand, and even in the balcony,
+hopped over my letter.&nbsp; There were two outer walls of hairy
+mud with living creatures crawling in the cracks; cobwebs hung
+from the uncovered rafters.&nbsp; The mats were brown with age
+and dirt, the rice was musty, and only partially cleaned, the
+eggs had seen better days, and the tea was musty.</p>
+<p>I saw everything out of doors with Ito&mdash;the patient
+industry, the exquisitely situated village, the evening
+avocations, the quiet dulness&mdash;and then contemplated it all
+from my balcony and read the sentence (from a paper in the
+Transactions of the Asiatic Society) which had led me to devise
+this journey, <a name="page86"></a><span class="pagenum">p.
+86</span>&ldquo;There is a most exquisitely picturesque, but
+difficult, route up the course of the Kinugawa, which seems
+almost as unknown to Japanese as to foreigners.&rdquo;&nbsp;
+There was a pure lemon-coloured sky above, and slush a foot deep
+below.&nbsp; A road, at this time a quagmire, intersected by a
+rapid stream, crossed in many places by planks, runs through the
+village.&nbsp; This stream is at once &ldquo;lavatory&rdquo; and
+&ldquo;drinking fountain.&rdquo;&nbsp; People come back from
+their work, sit on the planks, take off their muddy clothes and
+wring them out, and bathe their feet in the current.&nbsp; On
+either side are the dwellings, in front of which are much-decayed
+manure heaps, and the women were engaged in breaking them up and
+treading them into a pulp with their bare feet.&nbsp; All wear
+the vest and trousers at their work, but only the short
+petticoats in their houses, and I saw several respectable mothers
+of families cross the road and pay visits in this garment only,
+without any sense of impropriety.&nbsp; The younger children wear
+nothing but a string and an amulet.&nbsp; The persons, clothing,
+and houses are alive with vermin, and if the word squalor can be
+applied to independent and industrious people, they were
+squalid.&nbsp; Beetles, spiders, and wood-lice held a carnival in
+my room after dark, and the presence of horses in the same house
+brought a number of horseflies.&nbsp; I sprinkled my stretcher
+with insect powder, but my blanket had been on the floor for one
+minute, and fleas rendered sleep impossible.&nbsp; The night was
+very long.&nbsp; The <i>andon</i> went out, leaving a strong
+smell of rancid oil.&nbsp; The primitive Japanese dog&mdash;a
+cream-coloured wolfish-looking animal, the size of a collie, very
+noisy and aggressive, but as cowardly as bullies usually
+are&mdash;was in great force in Fujihara, and the barking,
+growling, and quarrelling of these useless curs continued at
+intervals until daylight; and when they were not quarrelling,
+they were howling.&nbsp; Torrents of rain fell, obliging me to
+move my bed from place to place to get out of the drip.&nbsp; At
+five Ito came and entreated me to leave, whimpering,
+&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve had no sleep; there are thousands and thousands
+of fleas!&rdquo;&nbsp; He has travelled by another route to the
+Tsugaru Strait through the interior, and says that he would not
+have believed that there was such a place in Japan, and that
+people in Yokohama will not believe it when he tells them of it
+and of the costume of the women.&nbsp; He is &ldquo;ashamed for a
+foreigner <a name="page87"></a><span class="pagenum">p.
+87</span>to see such a place,&rdquo; he says.&nbsp; His
+cleverness in travelling and his singular intelligence surprise
+me daily.&nbsp; He is very anxious to speak <i>good</i> English,
+as distinguished from &ldquo;common&rdquo; English, and to get
+new words, with their correct pronunciation and spelling.&nbsp;
+Each day he puts down in his note-book all the words that I use
+that he does not quite understand, and in the evening brings them
+to me and puts down their meaning and spelling with their
+Japanese equivalents.&nbsp; He speaks English already far better
+than many professional interpreters, but would be more pleasing
+if he had not picked up some American vulgarisms and
+free-and-easy ways.&nbsp; It is so important to me to have a good
+interpreter, or I should not have engaged so young and
+inexperienced a servant; but he is so clever that he is now able
+to be cook, laundryman, and general attendant, as well as courier
+and interpreter, and I think it is far easier for me than if he
+were an older man.&nbsp; I am trying to manage him, because I saw
+that he meant to manage me, specially in the matter of
+&ldquo;squeezes.&rdquo;&nbsp; He is intensely Japanese, his
+patriotism has all the weakness and strength of personal vanity,
+and he thinks everything inferior that is foreign.&nbsp; Our
+manners, eyes, and modes of eating appear simply odious to
+him.&nbsp; He delights in retailing stories of the bad manners of
+Englishmen, describes them as &ldquo;roaring out <i>ohio</i> to
+every one on the road,&rdquo; frightening the tea-house nymphs,
+kicking or slapping their coolies, stamping over white mats in
+muddy boots, acting generally like ill-bred Satyrs, exciting an
+ill-concealed hatred in simple country districts, and bringing
+themselves and their country into contempt and ridicule. <a
+name="citation87"></a><a href="#footnote87"
+class="citation">[87]</a>&nbsp; He is very anxious about my good
+behaviour, and as I am equally anxious to be courteous everywhere
+in Japanese fashion, and not to violate the general rules of
+Japanese etiquette, I take his suggestions as to what I ought to
+do and avoid in very good part, and my bows are growing more
+profound every day!&nbsp; The people are so kind and courteous,
+that it is truly brutal in foreigners not to be kind and
+courteous to them.&nbsp; You will observe that I am entirely
+dependent on Ito, not only for travelling arrangements, but for
+making inquiries, gaining information, and even for
+companionship, such as it is; and our being mutually embarked <a
+name="page88"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 88</span>on a hard and
+adventurous journey will, I hope, make us mutually kind and
+considerate.&nbsp; Nominally, he is a Shint&ocirc;ist, which
+means nothing.&nbsp; At Nikk&ocirc; I read to him the earlier
+chapters of St. Luke, and when I came to the story of the
+Prodigal Son I was interrupted by a somewhat scornful laugh and
+the remark, &ldquo;Why, all this is our Buddha over
+again!&rdquo;</p>
+<p>To-day&rsquo;s journey, though very rough, has been rather
+pleasant.&nbsp; The rain moderated at noon, and I left Fujihara
+on foot, wearing my American &ldquo;mountain dress&rdquo; and
+Wellington boots,&mdash;the only costume in which ladies can
+enjoy pedestrian or pack-horse travelling in this
+country,&mdash;with a light straw mat&mdash;the waterproof of the
+region&mdash;hanging over my shoulders, and so we plodded on with
+two baggage horses through the ankle-deep mud, till the rain
+cleared off, the mountains looked through the mist, the augmented
+Kinugawa thundered below, and enjoyment became possible, even in
+my half-fed condition.&nbsp; Eventually I mounted a pack-saddle,
+and we crossed a spur of Takadayama at a height of 2100 feet on a
+well-devised series of zigzags, eight of which in one place could
+be seen one below another.&nbsp; The forest there is not so dense
+as usual, and the lower mountain slopes are sprinkled with noble
+Spanish chestnuts.&nbsp; The descent was steep and slippery, the
+horse had tender feet, and, after stumbling badly, eventually
+came down, and I went over his head, to the great distress of the
+kindly female <i>mago</i>.&nbsp; The straw shoes tied with wisps
+round the pasterns are a great nuisance.&nbsp; The &ldquo;shoe
+strings&rdquo; are always coming untied, and the shoes only wear
+about two <i>ri</i> on soft ground, and less than one on
+hard.&nbsp; They keep the feet so soft and spongy that the horses
+can&rsquo;t walk without them at all, and as soon as they get
+thin your horse begins to stumble, the <i>mago</i> gets uneasy,
+and presently you stop; four shoes, which are hanging from the
+saddle, are soaked in water and are tied on with much coaxing,
+raising the animal fully an inch above the ground.&nbsp; Anything
+more temporary and clumsy could not be devised.&nbsp; The bridle
+paths are strewn with them, and the children collect them in
+heaps to decay for manure.&nbsp; They cost 3 or 4 <i>sen</i> the
+set, and in every village men spend their leisure time in making
+them.</p>
+<p>At the next stage, called Takahara, we got one horse for the
+baggage, crossed the river and the ravine, and by a steep <a
+name="page89"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 89</span>climb reached
+a solitary <i>yadoya</i> with the usual open front and
+<i>irori</i>, round which a number of people, old and young, were
+sitting.&nbsp; When I arrived a whole bevy of nice-looking girls
+took to flight, but were soon recalled by a word from Ito to
+their elders.&nbsp; Lady Parkes, on a side-saddle and in a
+riding-habit, has been taken for a man till the people saw her
+hair, and a young friend of mine, who is very pretty and has a
+beautiful complexion, when travelling lately with her husband,
+was supposed to be a man who had shaven off his beard.&nbsp; I
+wear a hat, which is a thing only worn by women in the fields as
+a protection from sun and rain, my eyebrows are unshaven, and my
+teeth are unblackened, so these girls supposed me to be a foreign
+man.&nbsp; Ito in explanation said, &ldquo;They haven&rsquo;t
+seen any, but everybody brings them tales how rude foreigners are
+to girls, and they are awful scared.&rdquo;&nbsp; There was
+nothing eatable but rice and eggs, and I ate them under the
+concentrated stare of eighteen pairs of dark eyes.&nbsp; The hot
+springs, to which many people afflicted with sores resort, are by
+the river, at the bottom of a rude flight of steps, in an open
+shed, but I could not ascertain their temperature, as a number of
+men and women were sitting in the water.&nbsp; They bathe four
+times a day, and remain for an hour at a time.</p>
+<p>We left for the five miles&rsquo; walk to Ikari in a torrent
+of rain by a newly-made path completely shut in with the
+cascading Kinugawa, and carried along sometimes low, sometimes
+high, on props projecting over it from the face of the
+rock.&nbsp; I do not expect to see anything lovelier in
+Japan.</p>
+<p>The river, always crystal-blue or crystal-green, largely
+increased in volume by the rains, forces itself through gates of
+brightly-coloured rock, by which its progress is repeatedly
+arrested, and rarely lingers for rest in all its sparkling,
+rushing course.&nbsp; It is walled in by high mountains,
+gloriously wooded and cleft by dark ravines, down which torrents
+were tumbling in great drifts of foam, crashing and booming, boom
+and crash multiplied by many an echo, and every ravine afforded
+glimpses far back of more mountains, clefts, and waterfalls, and
+such over-abundant vegetation that I welcomed the sight of a gray
+cliff or bare face of rock.&nbsp; Along the path there were
+fascinating details, composed of the manifold greenery which
+revels in damp heat, ferns, mosses, <i>conferv&aelig;</i>, fungi,
+trailers, shading <a name="page90"></a><span class="pagenum">p.
+90</span>tiny rills which dropped down into grottoes feathery
+with the exquisite <i>Trichomanes radicans</i>, or drooped over
+the rustic path and hung into the river, and overhead the finely
+incised and almost feathery foliage of several varieties of maple
+admitted the light only as a green mist.&nbsp; The spring tints
+have not yet darkened into the monotone of summer, rose azaleas
+still light the hillsides, and masses of cryptomeria give depth
+and shadow.&nbsp; Still, beautiful as it all is, one sighs for
+something which shall satisfy one&rsquo;s craving for startling
+individuality and grace of form, as in the coco-palm and banana
+of the tropics.&nbsp; The featheriness of the maple, and the
+arrowy straightness and pyramidal form of the cryptomeria, please
+me better than all else; but why criticise?&nbsp; Ten minutes of
+sunshine would transform the whole into fairyland.</p>
+<p>There were no houses and no people.&nbsp; Leaving this
+beautiful river we crossed a spur of a hill, where all the trees
+were matted together by a very fragrant white honeysuckle, and
+came down upon an open valley where a quiet stream joins the
+loud-tongued Kinugawa, and another mile brought us to this
+beautifully-situated hamlet of twenty-five houses, surrounded by
+mountains, and close to a mountain stream called the Okawa.&nbsp;
+The names of Japanese rivers give one very little geographical
+information from their want of continuity.&nbsp; A river changes
+its name several times in a course of thirty or forty miles,
+according to the districts through which it passes.&nbsp; This is
+my old friend the Kinugawa, up which I have been travelling for
+two days.&nbsp; Want of space is a great aid to the
+picturesque.&nbsp; Ikari is crowded together on a hill slope, and
+its short, primitive-looking street, with its warm browns and
+greys, is quite attractive in &ldquo;the clear shining after
+rain.&rdquo;&nbsp; My halting-place is at the express office at
+the top of the hill&mdash;a place like a big barn, with horses at
+one end and a living-room at the other, and in the centre much
+produce awaiting transport, and a group of people stripping
+mulberry branches.&nbsp; The nearest <i>daimiy&ocirc;</i> used to
+halt here on his way to T&ocirc;kiy&ocirc;, so there are two
+rooms for travellers, called <i>daimiy&ocirc;s</i>&rsquo; rooms,
+fifteen feet high, handsomely ceiled in dark wood, the
+<i>sh&ocirc;ji</i> of such fine work as to merit the name of
+fret-work, the <i>fusuma</i> artistically decorated, the mats
+clean and fine, and in the alcove a sword-rack of old gold
+lacquer.&nbsp; Mine is the inner <a name="page91"></a><span
+class="pagenum">p. 91</span>room, and Ito and four travellers
+occupy the outer one.&nbsp; Though very dark, it is luxury after
+last night.&nbsp; The rest of the house is given up to the
+rearing of silk-worms.&nbsp; The house-masters here and at
+Fujihara are not used to passports, and Ito, who is posing as a
+town-bred youth, has explained and copied mine, all the village
+men assembling to hear it read aloud.&nbsp; He does not know the
+word used for &ldquo;scientific investigation,&rdquo; but, in the
+idea of increasing his own importance by exaggerating mine, I
+hear him telling the people that I am <i>gakusha</i>, <i>i.e.</i>
+learned!&nbsp; There is no police-station here, but every month
+policemen pay domiciliary visits to these outlying <i>yadoyas</i>
+and examine the register of visitors.</p>
+<p>This is a much neater place than the last, but the people look
+stupid and apathetic, and I wonder what they think of the men who
+have abolished the <i>daimiy&ocirc;</i> and the feudal
+<i>r&eacute;gime</i>, have raised the <i>eta</i> to citizenship,
+and are hurrying the empire forward on the tracks of western
+civilisation!</p>
+<p>Since shingle has given place to thatch there is much to
+admire in the villages, with their steep roofs, deep eaves and
+balconies, the warm russet of roofs and walls, the quaint
+confusion of the farmhouses, the hedges of camellia and
+pomegranate, the bamboo clumps and persimmon orchards, and (in
+spite of dirt and bad smells) the generally satisfied look of the
+peasant proprietors.</p>
+<p>No food can be got here except rice and eggs, and I am haunted
+by memories of the fowls and fish of Nikk&ocirc;, to say nothing
+of the &ldquo;flesh pots&rdquo; of the Legation, and</p>
+<blockquote><p>&ldquo;&mdash;a sorrow&rsquo;s crown of sorrow<br
+/>
+Is remembering happier things!&rdquo;</p>
+</blockquote>
+<p>The mercury falls to 70&deg; at night, and I generally awake
+from cold at 3 a.m., for my blankets are only summer ones, and I
+dare not supplement them with a quilt, either for sleeping on or
+under, because of the fleas which it contains.&nbsp; I usually
+retire about 7.30, for there is almost no twilight, and very
+little inducement for sitting up by the dimness of candle or
+<i>andon</i>, and I have found these days of riding on slow,
+rolling, stumbling horses very severe, and if I were anything of
+a walker, should certainly prefer pedestrianism.</p>
+<p style="text-align: right">I. L. B.</p>
+<h2><a name="page92"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 92</span>LETTER
+XII.</h2>
+<p class="gutsumm">A Fantastic Jumble&mdash;The
+&ldquo;Quiver&rdquo; of Poverty&mdash;The Water-shed&mdash;From
+Bad to Worse&mdash;The Rice Planter&rsquo;s Holiday&mdash;A
+Diseased Crowd&mdash;Amateur Doctoring&mdash;Want of
+Cleanliness&mdash;Rapid Eating&mdash;Premature Old Age.</p>
+<p style="text-align: right"><span
+class="smcap">Kurumatoge</span>, <i>June</i> 30.</p>
+<p><span class="smcap">After</span> the hard travelling of six
+days the rest of Sunday in a quiet place at a high elevation is
+truly delightful!&nbsp; Mountains and passes, valleys and rice
+swamps, forests and rice swamps, villages and rice swamps;
+poverty, industry, dirt, ruinous temples, prostrate Buddhas,
+strings of straw-shod pack-horses; long, grey, featureless
+streets, and quiet, staring crowds, are all jumbled up
+fantastically in my memory.&nbsp; Fine weather accompanied me
+through beautiful scenery from Ikari to Yokokawa, where I ate my
+lunch in the street to avoid the innumerable fleas of the
+tea-house, with a circle round me of nearly all the
+inhabitants.&nbsp; At first the children, both old and young,
+were so frightened that they ran away, but by degrees they
+timidly came back, clinging to the skirts of their parents
+(skirts, in this case, being a metaphorical expression), running
+away again as often as I looked at them.&nbsp; The crowd was
+filthy and squalid beyond description.&nbsp; Why should the
+&ldquo;quiver&rdquo; of poverty be so very full? one asks as one
+looks at the swarms of gentle, naked, old-fashioned children,
+born to a heritage of hard toil, to be, like their parents,
+devoured by vermin, and pressed hard for taxes.&nbsp; A horse
+kicked off my saddle before it was girthed, the crowd scattered
+right and left, and work, which had been suspended for two hours
+to stare at the foreigner, began again.</p>
+<p>A long ascent took us to the top of a pass 2500 feet in
+height, a projecting spur not 30 feet wide, with a grand view of
+mountains and ravines, and a maze of involved streams, which
+unite in a vigorous torrent, whose course we followed <a
+name="page93"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 93</span>for some
+hours, till it expanded into a quiet river, lounging lazily
+through a rice swamp of considerable extent.&nbsp; The map is
+blank in this region, but I judged, as I afterwards found
+rightly, that at that pass we had crossed the water-shed, and
+that the streams thenceforward no longer fall into the Pacific,
+but into the Sea of Japan.&nbsp; At Itosawa the horses produced
+stumbled so intolerably that I walked the last stage, and reached
+Kayashima, a miserable village of fifty-seven houses, so
+exhausted that I could not go farther, and was obliged to put up
+with worse accommodation even than at Fujihara, with less
+strength for its hardships.</p>
+<p>The <i>yadoya</i> was simply awful.&nbsp; The <i>daidokoro</i>
+had a large wood fire burning in a trench, filling the whole
+place with stinging smoke, from which my room, which was merely
+screened off by some dilapidated <i>sh&ocirc;ji</i>, was not
+exempt.&nbsp; The rafters were black and shiny with soot and
+moisture.&nbsp; The house-master, who knelt persistently on the
+floor of my room till he was dislodged by Ito, apologised for the
+dirt of his house, as well he might.&nbsp; Stifling, dark, and
+smoky, as my room was, I had to close the paper windows, owing to
+the crowd which assembled in the street.&nbsp; There was neither
+rice nor soy, and Ito, who values his own comfort, began to speak
+to the house-master and servants loudly and roughly, and to throw
+my things about&mdash;a style of acting which I promptly
+terminated, for nothing could be more hurtful to a foreigner, or
+more unkind to the people, than for a servant to be rude and
+bullying; and the man was most polite, and never approached me
+but on bended knees.&nbsp; When I gave him my passport, as the
+custom is, he touched his forehead with it, and then touched the
+earth with his forehead.</p>
+<p>I found nothing that I could eat except black beans and boiled
+cucumbers.&nbsp; The room was dark, dirty, vile, noisy, and
+poisoned by sewage odours, as rooms unfortunately are very apt to
+be.&nbsp; At the end of the rice planting there is a holiday for
+two days, when many offerings are made to Inari, the god of rice
+farmers; and the holiday-makers kept up their revel all night,
+and drums, stationary and peripatetic, were constantly beaten in
+such a way as to prevent sleep.</p>
+<p>A little boy, the house-master&rsquo;s son, was suffering from
+a very bad cough, and a few drops of chlorodyne which I gave <a
+name="page94"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 94</span>him allayed
+it so completely that the cure was noised abroad in the earliest
+hours of the next morning, and by five o&rsquo;clock nearly the
+whole population was assembled outside my room, with much
+whispering and shuffling of shoeless feet, and applications of
+eyes to the many holes in the paper windows.&nbsp; When I drew
+aside the <i>sh&ocirc;ji</i> I was disconcerted by the painful
+sight which presented itself, for the people were pressing one
+upon another, fathers and mothers holding naked children covered
+with skin-disease, or with scald-head, or ringworm, daughters
+leading mothers nearly blind, men exhibiting painful sores,
+children blinking with eyes infested by flies and nearly closed
+with ophthalmia; and all, sick and well, in truly &ldquo;vile
+raiment,&rdquo; lamentably dirty and swarming with vermin, the
+sick asking for medicine, and the well either bringing the sick
+or gratifying an apathetic curiosity.&nbsp; Sadly I told them
+that I did not understand their manifold &ldquo;diseases and
+torments,&rdquo; and that, if I did, I had no stock of medicines,
+and that in my own country the constant washing of clothes, and
+the constant application of water to the skin, accompanied by
+friction with clean cloths, would be much relied upon by doctors
+for the cure and prevention of similar cutaneous diseases.&nbsp;
+To pacify them I made some ointment of animal fat and flowers of
+sulphur, extracted with difficulty from some man&rsquo;s hoard,
+and told them how to apply it to some of the worst cases.&nbsp;
+The horse, being unused to a girth, became fidgety as it was
+being saddled, creating a <i>stampede</i> among the crowd, and
+the <i>mago</i> would not touch it again.&nbsp; They are as much
+afraid of their gentle mares as if they were panthers.&nbsp; All
+the children followed me for a considerable distance, and a good
+many of the adults made an excuse for going in the same
+direction.</p>
+<p>These people wear no linen, and their clothes, which are
+seldom washed, are constantly worn, night and day, as long as
+they will hold together.&nbsp; They seal up their houses as
+hermetically as they can at night, and herd together in numbers
+in one sleeping-room, with its atmosphere vitiated, to begin
+with, by charcoal and tobacco fumes, huddled up in their dirty
+garments in wadded quilts, which are kept during the day in close
+cupboards, and are seldom washed from one year&rsquo;s end to
+another.&nbsp; The <i>tatami</i>, beneath a tolerably fair
+exterior, swarm with insect life, and are receptacles of dust,
+organic <a name="page95"></a><span class="pagenum">p.
+95</span>matters, etc.&nbsp; The hair, which is loaded with oil
+and bandoline, is dressed once a week, or less often in these
+districts, and it is unnecessary to enter into any details
+regarding the distressing results, and much besides may be left
+to the imagination.&nbsp; The persons of the people, especially
+of the children, are infested with vermin, and one fruitful
+source of skin sores is the irritation arising from this
+cause.&nbsp; The floors of houses, being concealed by mats, are
+laid down carelessly with gaps between the boards, and, as the
+damp earth is only 18 inches or 2 feet below, emanations of all
+kinds enter the mats and pass into the rooms.</p>
+<p>The houses in this region (and I believe everywhere) are
+hermetically sealed at night, both in summer and winter, the
+<i>amado</i>, which are made without ventilators, literally
+boxing them in, so that, unless they are falling to pieces, which
+is rarely the case, none of the air vitiated by the breathing of
+many persons, by the emanations from their bodies and clothing,
+by the miasmata produced by defective domestic arrangements, and
+by the fumes from charcoal <i>hibachi</i>, can ever be
+renewed.&nbsp; Exercise is seldom taken from choice, and, unless
+the women work in the fields, they hang over charcoal fumes the
+whole day for five months of the year, engaged in interminable
+processes of cooking, or in the attempt to get warm.&nbsp; Much
+of the food of the peasantry is raw or half-raw salt fish, and
+vegetables rendered indigestible by being coarsely pickled, all
+bolted with the most marvellous rapidity, as if the one object of
+life were to rush through a meal in the shortest possible
+time.&nbsp; The married women look as if they had never known
+youth, and their skin is apt to be like tanned leather.&nbsp; At
+Kayashima I asked the house-master&rsquo;s wife, who looked about
+fifty, how old she was (a polite question in Japan), and she
+replied twenty-two&mdash;one of many similar surprises.&nbsp; Her
+boy was five years old, and was still unweaned.</p>
+<p>This digression disposes of one aspect of the population. <a
+name="citation95"></a><a href="#footnote95"
+class="citation">[95]</a></p>
+<h2><a name="page96"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 96</span>LETTER
+XII.&mdash;(<i>Concluded</i>.)</h2>
+<p class="gutsumm">A Japanese Ferry&mdash;A Corrugated
+Road&mdash;The Pass of Sanno&mdash;Various Vegetation&mdash;An
+Unattractive Undergrowth&mdash;Preponderance of Men.</p>
+<p><span class="smcap">We</span> changed horses at Tajima,
+formerly a <i>daimiy&ocirc;&rsquo;s</i> residence, and, for a
+Japanese town, rather picturesque.&nbsp; It makes and exports
+clogs, coarse pottery, coarse lacquer, and coarse baskets.</p>
+<p>After travelling through rice-fields varying from thirty yards
+square to a quarter of an acre, with the tops of the dykes
+utilised by planting dwarf beans along them, we came to a large
+river, the Arakai, along whose affluents we had been tramping for
+two days, and, after passing through several filthy villages,
+thronged with filthy and industrious inhabitants, crossed it in a
+scow.&nbsp; High forks planted securely in the bank on either
+side sustained a rope formed of several strands of the wistaria
+knotted together.&nbsp; One man hauled on this hand over hand,
+another poled at the stern, and the rapid current did the
+rest.&nbsp; In this fashion we have crossed many rivers
+subsequently.&nbsp; Tariffs of charges are posted at all ferries,
+as well as at all bridges where charges are made, and a man sits
+in an office to receive the money.</p>
+<p>The country was really very beautiful.&nbsp; The views were
+wider and finer than on the previous days, taking in great sweeps
+of peaked mountains, wooded to their summits, and from the top of
+the Pass of Sanno the clustered peaks were glorified into
+unearthly beauty in a golden mist of evening sunshine.&nbsp; I
+slept at a house combining silk farm, post office, express
+office, and <i>daimiy&ocirc;&rsquo;s</i> rooms, at the hamlet of
+Ouchi, prettily situated in a valley with mountainous
+surroundings, <a name="page97"></a><span class="pagenum">p.
+97</span>and, leaving early on the following morning, had a very
+grand ride, passing in a crateriform cavity the pretty little
+lake of Oyak&ecirc;, and then ascending the magnificent pass of
+Ichikawa.&nbsp; We turned off what, by ironical courtesy, is
+called the main road, upon a villainous track, consisting of a
+series of lateral corrugations, about a foot broad, with
+depressions between them more than a foot deep, formed by the
+invariable treading of the pack-horses in each other&rsquo;s
+footsteps.&nbsp; Each hole was a quagmire of tenacious mud, the
+ascent of 2400 feet was very steep, and the <i>mago</i> adjured
+the animals the whole time with <i>Hai</i>! <i>Hai</i>!
+<i>Hai</i>! which is supposed to suggest to them that extreme
+caution is requisite.&nbsp; Their shoes were always coming
+untied, and they wore out two sets in four miles.&nbsp; The top
+of the pass, like that of a great many others, is a narrow ridge,
+on the farther side of which the track dips abruptly into a
+tremendous ravine, along whose side we descended for a mile or so
+in company with a river whose reverberating thunder drowned all
+attempts at speech.&nbsp; A glorious view it was, looking down
+between the wooded precipices to a rolling wooded plain, lying in
+depths of indigo shadow, bounded by ranges of wooded mountains,
+and overtopped by heights heavily splotched with snow!&nbsp; The
+vegetation was significant of a milder climate.&nbsp; The
+magnolia and bamboo re-appeared, and tropical ferns mingled with
+the beautiful blue hydrangea, the yellow Japan lily, and the
+great blue campanula.&nbsp; There was an ocean of trees entangled
+with a beautiful trailer (<i>Actinidia polygama</i>) with a
+profusion of white leaves, which, at a distance, look like great
+clusters of white blossoms.&nbsp; But the rank undergrowth of the
+forests of this region is not attractive.&nbsp; Many of its
+component parts deserve the name of weeds, being gawky, ragged
+umbels, coarse docks, rank nettles, and many other things which I
+don&rsquo;t know, and never wish to see again.&nbsp; Near the end
+of this descent my mare took the bit between her teeth and
+carried me at an ungainly gallop into the beautifully situated,
+precipitous village of Ichikawa, which is absolutely saturated
+with moisture by the spray of a fine waterfall which tumbles
+through the middle of it, and its trees and road-side are green
+with the <i>Protococcus viridis</i>.&nbsp; The Transport Agent
+there was a woman.&nbsp; Women keep <i>yadoyas</i> and shops, and
+cultivate farms as freely as men.&nbsp; Boards <a
+name="page98"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 98</span>giving the
+number of inhabitants, male and female, and the number of horses
+and bullocks, are put up in each village, and I noticed in
+Ichikawa, as everywhere hitherto, that men preponderate. <a
+name="citation98"></a><a href="#footnote98"
+class="citation">[98]</a></p>
+<p style="text-align: right">I. L. B.</p>
+<h2><a name="page99"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 99</span>LETTER
+XIII.</h2>
+<p class="gutsumm">The Plain of Wakamatsu&mdash;Light
+Costume&mdash;The Takata Crowd&mdash;A Congress of
+Schoolmasters&mdash;Timidity of a Crowd&mdash;Bad
+Roads&mdash;Vicious Horses&mdash;Mountain Scenery&mdash;A
+Picturesque Inn&mdash;Swallowing a Fish-bone&mdash;Poverty and
+Suicide&mdash;An Inn-kitchen&mdash;England Unknown!&mdash;My
+Breakfast Disappears.</p>
+<p style="text-align: right"><span
+class="smcap">Kurumatoge</span>, <i>June</i> 30.</p>
+<p>A <span class="smcap">short</span> ride took us from Ichikawa
+to a plain about eleven miles broad by eighteen long.&nbsp; The
+large town of Wakamatsu stands near its southern end, and it is
+sprinkled with towns and villages.&nbsp; The great lake of
+Iniwashiro is not far off.&nbsp; The plain is rich and
+fertile.&nbsp; In the distance the steep roofs of its villages,
+with their groves, look very picturesque.&nbsp; As usual not a
+fence or gate is to be seen, or any other hedge than the tall one
+used as a screen for the dwellings of the richer farmers.</p>
+<p>Bad roads and bad horses detracted from my enjoyment.&nbsp;
+One hour of a good horse would have carried me across the plain;
+as it was, seven weary hours were expended upon it.&nbsp; The day
+degenerated, and closed in still, hot rain; the air was stifling
+and electric, the saddle slipped constantly from being too big,
+the shoes were more than usually troublesome, the horseflies
+tormented, and the men and horses crawled.&nbsp; The rice-fields
+were undergoing a second process of puddling, and many of the men
+engaged in it wore only a hat, and a fan attached to the
+girdle.</p>
+<p>An avenue of cryptomeria and two handsome and somewhat gilded
+Buddhist temples denoted the approach to a place of some
+importance, and such Takata is, as being a large town with a
+considerable trade in silk, rope, and <i>minjin</i>, and the
+residence of one of the higher officials of the <i>ken</i> or
+prefecture.&nbsp; The street is a mile long, and every house is a
+shop.&nbsp; The <a name="page100"></a><span class="pagenum">p.
+100</span>general aspect is mean and forlorn.&nbsp; In these
+little-travelled districts, as soon as one reaches the margin of
+a town, the first man one meets turns and flies down the street,
+calling out the Japanese equivalent of &ldquo;Here&rsquo;s a
+foreigner!&rdquo; and soon blind and seeing, old and young,
+clothed and naked, gather together.&nbsp; At the <i>yadoya</i>
+the crowd assembled in such force that the house-master removed
+me to some pretty rooms in a garden; but then the adults climbed
+on the house-roofs which overlooked it, and the children on a
+palisade at the end, which broke down under their weight, and
+admitted the whole inundation; so that I had to close the
+<i>sh&ocirc;ji</i>, with the fatiguing consciousness during the
+whole time of nominal rest of a multitude surging outside.&nbsp;
+Then five policemen in black alpaca frock-coats and white
+trousers invaded my precarious privacy, desiring to see my
+passport&mdash;a demand never made before except where I halted
+for the night.&nbsp; In their European clothes they cannot bow
+with Japanese punctiliousness, but they were very polite, and
+expressed great annoyance at the crowd, and dispersed it; but
+they had hardly disappeared when it gathered again.&nbsp; When I
+went out I found fully 1000 people helping me to realise how the
+crowded cities of Judea sent forth people clothed much as these
+are when the Miracle-Worker from Galilee arrived, but not what
+the fatigue of the crowding and buzzing must have been to One who
+had been preaching and working during the long day.&nbsp; These
+Japanese crowds, however, are quiet and gentle, and never press
+rudely upon one.&nbsp; I could not find it in my heart to
+complain of them except to you.&nbsp; Four of the policemen
+returned, and escorted me to the outskirts of the town.&nbsp; The
+noise made by 1000 people shuffling along in clogs is like the
+clatter of a hail-storm.</p>
+<p>After this there was a dismal tramp of five hours through
+rice-fields.&nbsp; The moist climate and the fatigue of this
+manner of travelling are deteriorating my health, and the pain in
+my spine, which has been daily increasing, was so severe that I
+could neither ride nor walk for more than twenty minutes at a
+time; and the pace was so slow that it was six when we reached
+Bang&eacute;, a commercial town of 5000 people, literally in the
+rice swamp, mean, filthy, damp, and decaying, and full of an
+overpowering stench from black, slimy ditches.&nbsp; The <a
+name="page101"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 101</span>mercury was
+84&deg;, and hot rain fell fast through the motionless air.&nbsp;
+We dismounted in a shed full of bales of dried fish, which gave
+off an overpowering odour, and wet and dirty people crowded in to
+stare at the foreigner till the air seemed unbreathable.</p>
+<p>But there were signs of progress.&nbsp; A three days&rsquo;
+congress of schoolmasters was being held; candidates for vacant
+situations were being examined; there were lengthy educational
+discussions going on, specially on the subject of the value of
+the Chinese classics as a part of education; and every inn was
+crowded.</p>
+<p>Bang&eacute; was malarious: there was so much malarious fever
+that the Government had sent additional medical assistance; the
+hills were only a <i>ri</i> off, and it seemed essential to go
+on.&nbsp; But not a horse could be got till 10 p.m.; the road was
+worse than the one I had travelled; the pain became more acute,
+and I more exhausted, and I was obliged to remain.&nbsp; Then
+followed a weary hour, in which the Express Agent&rsquo;s five
+emissaries were searching for a room, and considerably after dark
+I found myself in a rambling old over-crowded <i>yadoya</i>,
+where my room was mainly built on piles above stagnant water, and
+the mosquitoes were in such swarms as to make the air dense, and
+after a feverish and miserable night I was glad to get up early
+and depart.</p>
+<p>Fully 2000 people had assembled.&nbsp; After I was mounted I
+was on the point of removing my Dollond from the case, which hung
+on the saddle horn, when a regular stampede occurred, old and
+young running as fast as they possibly could, children being
+knocked down in the haste of their elders.&nbsp; Ito said that
+they thought I was taking out a pistol to frighten them, and I
+made him explain what the object really was, for they are a
+gentle, harmless people, whom one would not annoy without sincere
+regret.&nbsp; In many European countries, and certainly in some
+parts of our own, a solitary lady-traveller in a foreign dress
+would be exposed to rudeness, insult, and extortion, if not to
+actual danger; but I have not met with a single instance of
+incivility or real overcharge, and there is no rudeness even
+about the crowding.&nbsp; The <i>mago</i> are anxious that I
+should not get wet or be frightened, and very scrupulous in
+seeing that all straps and loose things are safe at the end of <a
+name="page102"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 102</span>the
+journey, and, instead of hanging about asking for gratuities, or
+stopping to drink and gossip, they quickly unload the horses, get
+a paper from the Transport Agent, and go home.&nbsp; Only
+yesterday a strap was missing, and, though it was after dark, the
+man went back a <i>ri</i> for it, and refused to take some
+<i>sen</i> which I wished to give him, saying he was responsible
+for delivering everything right at the journey&rsquo;s end.&nbsp;
+They are so kind and courteous to each other, which is very
+pleasing.&nbsp; Ito is not pleasing or polite in his manner to
+me, but when he speaks to his own people he cannot free himself
+from the shackles of etiquette, and bows as profoundly and uses
+as many polite phrases as anybody else.</p>
+<p>In an hour the malarious plain was crossed, and we have been
+among piles of mountains ever since.&nbsp; The infamous road was
+so slippery that my horse fell several times, and the baggage
+horse, with Ito upon him, rolled head over heels, sending his
+miscellaneous pack in all directions.&nbsp; Good roads are really
+the most pressing need of Japan.&nbsp; It would be far better if
+the Government were to enrich the country by such a remunerative
+outlay as making passable roads for the transport of goods
+through the interior, than to impoverish it by buying ironclads
+in England, and indulging in expensive western vanities.</p>
+<p>That so horrible a road should have so good a bridge as that
+by which we crossed the broad river Agano is surprising.&nbsp; It
+consists of twelve large scows, each one secured to a strong
+cable of plaited wistari, which crosses the river at a great
+height, so as to allow of the scows and the plank bridge which
+they carry rising and falling with the twelve feet variation of
+the water.</p>
+<p>Ito&rsquo;s disaster kept him back for an hour, and I sat
+meanwhile on a rice sack in the hamlet of Katakado, a collection
+of steep-roofed houses huddled together in a height above the
+Agano.&nbsp; It was one mob of pack-horses, over 200 of them,
+biting, squealing, and kicking.&nbsp; Before I could dismount,
+one vicious creature struck at me violently, but only hit the
+great wooden stirrup.&nbsp; I could hardly find any place out of
+the range of hoofs or teeth.&nbsp; My baggage horse showed great
+fury after he was unloaded.&nbsp; He attacked people right and
+left with his teeth, struck out savagely with his fore feet,
+lashed <a name="page103"></a><span class="pagenum">p.
+103</span>out with his hind ones, and tried to pin his master up
+against a wall.</p>
+<p>Leaving this fractious scene we struck again through the
+mountains.&nbsp; Their ranges were interminable, and every view
+from every fresh ridge grander than the last, for we were now
+near the lofty range of the Aidzu Mountains, and the
+double-peaked Bandaisan, the abrupt precipices of Itoyasan, and
+the grand mass of Miyojintak&eacute; in the south-west, with
+their vast snow-fields and snow-filled ravines, were all visible
+at once.&nbsp; These summits of naked rock or dazzling snow,
+rising above the smothering greenery of the lower ranges into a
+heaven of delicious blue, gave exactly that individuality and
+emphasis which, to my thinking, Japanese scenery usually
+lacks.&nbsp; Riding on first, I arrived alone at the little town
+of Nozawa, to encounter the curiosity of a crowd; and, after a
+rest, we had a very pleasant walk of three miles along the side
+of a ridge above a rapid river with fine grey cliffs on its
+farther side, with a grand view of the Aidzu giants, violet
+coloured in a golden sunset.</p>
+<p>At dusk we came upon the picturesque village of Nojiri, on the
+margin of a rice valley, but I shrank from spending Sunday in a
+hole, and, having spied a solitary house on the very brow of a
+hill 1500 feet higher, I dragged out the information that it was
+a tea-house, and came up to it.&nbsp; It took three-quarters of
+an hour to climb the series of precipitous zigzags by which this
+remarkable pass is surmounted; darkness came on, accompanied by
+thunder and lightning, and just as we arrived a tremendous zigzag
+of blue flame lit up the house and its interior, showing a large
+group sitting round a wood fire, and then all was thick darkness
+again.&nbsp; It had a most startling effect.&nbsp; This house is
+magnificently situated, almost hanging over the edge of the
+knife-like ridge of the pass of Kuruma, on which it is
+situated.&nbsp; It is the only <i>yadoya</i> I have been at from
+which there has been any view.&nbsp; The villages are nearly
+always in the valleys, and the best rooms are at the back, and
+have their prospects limited by the paling of the conventional
+garden.&nbsp; If it were not for the fleas, which are here in
+legions, I should stay longer, for the view of the Aidzu snow is
+delicious, and, as there are only two other houses, one can
+ramble without being mobbed.</p>
+<p>In one a child two and a half years old swallowed a fish-bone
+<a name="page104"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 104</span>last
+night, and has been suffering and crying all day, and the grief
+of the mother so won Ito&rsquo;s sympathy that he took me to see
+her.&nbsp; She had walked up and down with it for eighteen hours,
+but never thought of looking into its throat, and was very
+unwilling that I should do so.&nbsp; The bone was visible, and
+easily removed with a crochet needle.&nbsp; An hour later the
+mother sent a tray with a quantity of cakes and coarse
+confectionery upon it as a present, with the piece of dried
+seaweed which always accompanies a gift.&nbsp; Before night seven
+people with sore legs applied for &ldquo;advice.&rdquo;&nbsp; The
+sores were all superficial and all alike, and their owners said
+that they had been produced by the incessant rubbing of the bites
+of ants.</p>
+<p>On this summer day the country looks as prosperous as it is
+beautiful, and one would not think that acute poverty could exist
+in the steep-roofed village of Nojiri, which nestles at the foot
+of the hill; but two hempen ropes dangling from a cryptomeria
+just below tell the sad tale of an elderly man who hanged himself
+two days ago, because he was too poor to provide for a large
+family; and the house-mistress and Ito tell me that when a man
+who has a young family gets too old or feeble for work he often
+destroys himself.</p>
+<p>My hostess is a widow with a family, a good-natured, bustling
+woman, with a great love of talk.&nbsp; All day her house is open
+all round, having literally no walls.&nbsp; The roof and solitary
+upper room are supported on posts, and my ladder almost touches
+the kitchen fire.&nbsp; During the day-time the large matted area
+under the roof has no divisions, and groups of travellers and
+<i>magos</i> lie about, for every one who has toiled up either
+side of Kurumatog&eacute; takes a cup of &ldquo;tea with
+eating,&rdquo; and the house-mistress is busy the whole
+day.&nbsp; A big well is near the fire.&nbsp; Of course there is
+no furniture; but a shelf runs under the roof, on which there is
+a Buddhist god-house, with two black idols in it, one of them
+being that much-worshipped divinity, Daikoku, the god of
+wealth.&nbsp; Besides a rack for kitchen utensils, there is only
+a stand on which are six large brown dishes with food for
+sale&mdash;salt shell-fish, in a black liquid, dried trout
+impaled on sticks, sea slugs in soy, a paste made of pounded
+roots, and green cakes made of the slimy river
+<i>conferv&aelig;</i>, pressed and dried&mdash;all ill-favoured
+and unsavoury viands.&nbsp; This afternoon a man without clothes
+was <a name="page105"></a><span class="pagenum">p.
+105</span>treading flour paste on a mat, a traveller in a blue
+silk robe was lying on the floor smoking, and five women in loose
+attire, with elaborate chignons and blackened teeth, were
+squatting round the fire.&nbsp; At the house-mistress&rsquo;s
+request I wrote a eulogistic description of the view from her
+house, and read it in English, Ito translating it, to the very
+great satisfaction of the assemblage.&nbsp; Then I was asked to
+write on four fans.&nbsp; The woman has never heard of
+England.&nbsp; It is not &ldquo;a name to conjure with&rdquo; in
+these wilds.&nbsp; Neither has she heard of America.&nbsp; She
+knows of Russia as a great power, and, of course, of China, but
+there her knowledge ends, though she has been at
+T&ocirc;kiy&ocirc; and Kiyot&ocirc;.</p>
+<p>July 1.&mdash;I was just falling asleep last night, in spite
+of mosquitoes and fleas, when I was roused by much talking and
+loud outcries of poultry; and Ito, carrying a screaming,
+refractory hen, and a man and woman whom he had with difficulty
+bribed to part with it, appeared by my bed.&nbsp; I feebly said I
+would have it boiled for breakfast, but when Ito called me this
+morning he told me with a most rueful face that just as he was
+going to kill it it had escaped to the woods!&nbsp; In order to
+understand my feelings you must have experienced what it is not
+to have tasted fish, flesh, or fowl, for ten days!&nbsp; The
+alternative was eggs and some of the paste which the man was
+treading yesterday on the mat cut into strips and boiled!&nbsp;
+It was coarse flour and buckwheat, so, you see, I have learned
+not to be particular!</p>
+<p style="text-align: right">I. L. B.</p>
+<h2><a name="page106"></a><span class="pagenum">p.
+106</span>LETTER XIV.</h2>
+<p class="gutsumm">An Infamous Road&mdash;Monotonous
+Greenery&mdash;Abysmal Dirt&mdash;Low Lives&mdash;The Tsugawa
+<i>Yadoya</i>&mdash;Politeness&mdash;A Shipping Port&mdash;A
+Barbarian Devil.</p>
+<p style="text-align: right"><span class="smcap">Tsugawa</span>,
+<i>July</i> 2.</p>
+<p><span class="smcap">Yesterday&rsquo;s</span> journey was one
+of the most severe I have yet had, for in ten hours of hard
+travelling I only accomplished fifteen miles.&nbsp; The road from
+Kurumatog&eacute; westwards is so infamous that the stages are
+sometimes little more than a mile.&nbsp; Yet it is by it, so far
+at least as the Tsugawa river, that the produce and manufactures
+of the rich plain of Aidzu, with its numerous towns, and of a
+very large interior district, must find an outlet at
+Niigata.&nbsp; In defiance of all modern ideas, it goes straight
+up and straight down hill, at a gradient that I should be afraid
+to hazard a guess at, and at present it is a perfect quagmire,
+into which great stones have been thrown, some of which have
+subsided edgewise, and others have disappeared altogether.&nbsp;
+It is the very worst road I ever rode over, and that is saying a
+good deal!&nbsp; Kurumatog&eacute; was the last of seventeen
+mountain-passes, over 2000 feet high, which I have crossed since
+leaving Nikk&ocirc;.&nbsp; Between it and Tsugawa the scenery,
+though on a smaller scale, is of much the same character as
+hitherto&mdash;hills wooded to their tops, cleft by ravines which
+open out occasionally to divulge more distant ranges, all
+smothered in greenery, which, when I am ill-pleased, I am
+inclined to call &ldquo;rank vegetation.&rdquo;&nbsp; Oh that an
+abrupt scaur, or a strip of flaming desert, or something salient
+and brilliant, would break in, however discordantly, upon this
+monotony of green!</p>
+<p>The villages of that district must, I think, have reached the
+lowest abyss of filthiness in Hozawa and Saikaiyama.&nbsp; Fowls,
+dogs, horses, and people herded together in sheds black <a
+name="page107"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 107</span>with wood
+smoke, and manure heaps drained into the wells.&nbsp; No young
+boy wore any clothing.&nbsp; Few of the men wore anything but the
+<i>maro</i>, the women were unclothed to their waists and such
+clothing as they had was very dirty, and held together by mere
+force of habit.&nbsp; The adults were covered with inflamed bites
+of insects, and the children with skin-disease.&nbsp; Their
+houses were dirty, and, as they squatted on their heels, or lay
+face downwards, they looked little better than savages.&nbsp;
+Their appearance and the want of delicacy of their habits are
+simply abominable, and in the latter respect they contrast to
+great disadvantage with several savage peoples that I have been
+among.&nbsp; If I had kept to Nikk&ocirc;, Hakone, Miyanoshita,
+and similar places visited by foreigners with less time, I should
+have formed a very different impression.&nbsp; Is their spiritual
+condition, I often wonder, much higher than their physical
+one?&nbsp; They are courteous, kindly, industrious, and free from
+gross crimes; but, from the conversations that I have had with
+Japanese, and from much that I see, I judge that their standard
+of foundational morality is very low, and that life is neither
+truthful nor pure.</p>
+<p>I put up here at a crowded <i>yadoya</i>, where they have
+given me two cheerful rooms in the garden, away from the
+crowd.&nbsp; Ito&rsquo;s great desire on arriving at any place is
+to shut me up in my room and keep me a close prisoner till the
+start the next morning; but here I emancipated myself, and
+enjoyed myself very much sitting in the <i>daidokoro</i>.&nbsp;
+The house-master is of the <i>samurai</i>, or two-sworded class,
+now, as such, extinct.&nbsp; His face is longer, his lips
+thinner, and his nose straighter and more prominent than those of
+the lower class, and there is a difference in his manner and
+bearing.&nbsp; I have had a great deal of interesting
+conversation with him.</p>
+<p>In the same open space his clerk was writing at a lacquer desk
+of the stereotyped form&mdash;a low bench with the ends rolled
+over&mdash;a woman was tailoring, coolies were washing their feet
+on the <i>itama</i>, and several more were squatting round the
+<i>irori</i> smoking and drinking tea.&nbsp; A coolie servant
+washed some rice for my dinner, but before doing so took off his
+clothes, and the woman who cooked it let her <i>kimono</i> fall
+to her waist before she began to work, as is customary among
+respectable women.&nbsp; The house-master&rsquo;s wife and Ito
+talked <a name="page108"></a><span class="pagenum">p.
+108</span>about me unguardedly.&nbsp; I asked what they were
+saying.&nbsp; &ldquo;She says,&rdquo; said he, &ldquo;that you
+are very polite&mdash;for a foreigner,&rdquo; he added.&nbsp; I
+asked what she meant, and found that it was because I took off my
+boots before I stepped on the matting, and bowed when they handed
+me the <i>tabako-bon</i>.</p>
+<p>We walked through the town to find something eatable for
+to-morrow&rsquo;s river journey, but only succeeded in getting
+wafers made of white of egg and sugar, balls made of sugar and
+barley flour, and beans coated with sugar.&nbsp; Thatch, with its
+picturesqueness, has disappeared, and the Tsugawa roofs are of
+strips of bark weighted with large stones; but, as the houses
+turn their gable ends to the street, and there is a promenade the
+whole way under the eaves, and the street turns twice at right
+angles and terminates in temple grounds on a bank above the
+river, it is less monotonous than most Japanese towns.&nbsp; It
+is a place of 3000 people, and a good deal of produce is shipped
+from hence to Niigata by the river.&nbsp; To-day it is thronged
+with pack-horses.&nbsp; I was much mobbed, and one child formed
+the solitary exception to the general rule of politeness by
+calling me a name equivalent to the Chinese <i>Fan Kwai</i>,
+&ldquo;foreign;&rdquo; but he was severely chidden, and a
+policeman has just called with an apology.&nbsp; A slice of fresh
+salmon has been produced, and I think I never tasted anything so
+delicious.&nbsp; I have finished the first part of my land
+journey, and leave for Niigata by boat to-morrow morning.</p>
+<p style="text-align: right">I. L. B.</p>
+<h2><a name="page109"></a><span class="pagenum">p.
+109</span>LETTER XV.</h2>
+<p class="gutsumm">A Hurry&mdash;The Tsugawa
+Packet-boat&mdash;Running the Rapids&mdash;Fantastic
+Scenery&mdash;The River-life&mdash;Vineyards&mdash;Drying
+Barley&mdash;Summer Silence&mdash;The Outskirts of
+Niigata&mdash;The Church Mission House.</p>
+<p style="text-align: right"><span class="smcap">Niigata</span>,
+<i>July</i> 4.</p>
+<p><span class="smcap">The</span> boat for Niigata was to leave
+at eight, but at five Ito roused me by saying they were going at
+once, as it was full, and we left in haste, the house-master
+running to the river with one of my large baskets on his back to
+&ldquo;speed the parting guest.&rdquo;&nbsp; Two rivers unite to
+form a stream over whose beauty I would gladly have lingered, and
+the morning, singularly rich and tender in its colouring, ripened
+into a glorious day of light without glare, and heat without
+oppressiveness.&nbsp; The &ldquo;packet&rdquo; was a
+stoutly-built boat, 45 feet long by 6 broad, propelled by one man
+sculling at the stern, and another pulling a short broad-bladed
+oar, which worked in a wistaria loop at the bow.&nbsp; It had a
+croquet mallet handle about 18 inches long, to which the man gave
+a wriggling turn at each stroke.&nbsp; Both rower and sculler
+stood the whole time, clad in umbrella hats.&nbsp; The fore part
+and centre carried bags of rice and crates of pottery, and the
+hinder part had a thatched roof which, when we started, sheltered
+twenty-five Japanese, but we dropped them at hamlets on the
+river, and reached Niigata with only three.&nbsp; I had my chair
+on the top of the cargo, and found the voyage a delightful change
+from the fatiguing crawl through quagmires at the rate of from 15
+to 18 miles a day.&nbsp; This trip is called &ldquo;running the
+rapids of the Tsugawa,&rdquo; because for about twelve miles the
+river, hemmed in by lofty cliffs, studded with visible and sunken
+rocks, making several abrupt turns and shallowing in many places,
+hurries a boat swiftly downwards; and it is <a
+name="page110"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 110</span>said that
+it requires long practice, skill, and coolness on the part of the
+boatmen to prevent grave and frequent accidents.&nbsp; But if
+they are rapids, they are on a small scale, and look anything but
+formidable.&nbsp; With the river at its present height the boats
+run down forty-five miles in eight hours, charging only 30
+<i>sen</i>, or 1s. 3d., but it takes from five to seven days to
+get up, and much hard work in poling and towing.</p>
+<p>The boat had a thoroughly &ldquo;native&rdquo; look, with its
+bronzed crew, thatched roof, and the umbrella hats of all its
+passengers hanging on the mast.&nbsp; I enjoyed every hour of the
+day.&nbsp; It was luxury to drop quietly down the stream, the air
+was delicious, and, having heard nothing of it, the beauty of the
+Tsugawa came upon me as a pleasant surprise, besides that every
+mile brought me nearer the hoped-for home letters.&nbsp; Almost
+as soon as we left Tsugawa the downward passage was apparently
+barred by fantastic mountains, which just opened their rocky
+gates wide enough to let us through, and then closed again.&nbsp;
+Pinnacles and needles of bare, flushed rock rose out of luxuriant
+vegetation&mdash;Quiraing without its bareness, the Rhine without
+its ruins, and more beautiful than both.&nbsp; There were
+mountains connected by ridges no broader than a horse&rsquo;s
+back, others with great gray buttresses, deep chasms cleft by
+streams, temples with pagoda roofs on heights, sunny villages
+with deep-thatched roofs hidden away among blossoming trees, and
+through rifts in the nearer ranges glimpses of snowy
+mountains.</p>
+<p>After a rapid run of twelve miles through this enchanting
+scenery, the remaining course of the Tsugawa is that of a broad,
+full stream winding marvellously through a wooded and tolerably
+level country, partially surrounded by snowy mountains.&nbsp; The
+river life was very pretty.&nbsp; Canoes abounded, some loaded
+with vegetables, some with wheat, others with boys and girls
+returning from school.&nbsp; <i>Sampans</i> with their white
+puckered sails in flotillas of a dozen at a time crawled up the
+deep water, or were towed through the shallows by crews
+frolicking and shouting.&nbsp; Then the scene changed to a broad
+and deep river, with a peculiar alluvial smell from the quantity
+of vegetable matter held in suspension, flowing calmly between
+densely wooded, bamboo-fringed banks, just high enough to conceal
+the surrounding country.&nbsp; No houses, or <a
+name="page111"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 111</span>nearly
+none, are to be seen, but signs of a continuity of population
+abound.&nbsp; Every hundred yards almost there is a narrow path
+to the river through the jungle, with a canoe moored at its
+foot.&nbsp; Erections like gallows, with a swinging bamboo, with
+a bucket at one end and a stone at the other, occurring
+continually, show the vicinity of households dependent upon the
+river for their water supply.&nbsp; Wherever the banks admitted
+of it, horses were being washed by having water poured over their
+backs with a dipper, naked children were rolling in the mud, and
+cackling of poultry, human voices, and sounds of industry, were
+ever floating towards us from the dense greenery of the shores,
+making one feel without seeing that the margin was very
+populous.&nbsp; Except the boatmen and myself, no one was awake
+during the hot, silent afternoon&mdash;it was dreamy and
+delicious.&nbsp; Occasionally, as we floated down, vineyards were
+visible with the vines trained on horizontal trellises, or bamboo
+rails, often forty feet long, nailed horizontally on cryptomeria
+to a height of twenty feet, on which small sheaves of barley were
+placed astride to dry till the frame was full.</p>
+<p>More forest, more dreams, then the forest and the abundant
+vegetation altogether disappeared, the river opened out among low
+lands and banks of shingle and sand, and by three we were on the
+outskirts of Niigata, whose low houses,&mdash;with rows of stones
+upon their roofs, spread over a stretch of sand, beyond which is
+a sandy roll with some clumps of firs.&nbsp; Tea-houses with many
+balconies studded the river-side, and pleasure-parties were
+enjoying themselves with <i>geishas</i> and <i>sak&eacute;</i>,
+but, on the whole, the water-side streets are shabby and tumble
+down, and the landward side of the great city of western Japan is
+certainly disappointing; and it was difficult to believe it a
+Treaty Port, for the sea was not in sight, and there were no
+consular flags flying.&nbsp; We poled along one of the numerous
+canals, which are the carriage-ways for produce and goods, among
+hundreds of loaded boats, landed in the heart of the city, and,
+as the result of repeated inquiries, eventually reached the
+Church Mission House, an unshaded wooden building without
+verandahs, close to the Government Buildings, where I was most
+kindly welcomed by Mr. and Mrs. Fyson.</p>
+<p><a name="page112"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 112</span>The
+house is plain, simple, and inconveniently small; but doors and
+walls are great luxuries, and you cannot imagine how pleasing the
+ways of a refined European household are after the eternal
+babblement and indecorum of the Japanese.</p>
+<p style="text-align: right">I. L. B.</p>
+<p style="text-align: center">
+<a href="images/p112b.jpg">
+<img alt=
+"Buddhist Priests"
+title=
+"Buddhist Priests"
+ src="images/p112s.jpg" />
+</a></p>
+<h3><a name="page113"></a><span class="pagenum">p.
+113</span><span class="smcap">Itinerary</span> of <span
+class="smcap">Route</span> from <span
+class="smcap">Nikk&ocirc;</span> to <span
+class="smcap">Niigata</span><br />
+(Kinugawa Route.)</h3>
+<p>From T&ocirc;kiy&ocirc; to</p>
+<table>
+<tr>
+<td><p>&nbsp;</p>
+</td>
+<td><p>No. of houses.</p>
+</td>
+<td><p><i>Ri</i>.</p>
+</td>
+<td><p><i>Ch&ocirc;</i>.</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p>Nikk&ocirc;</p>
+</td>
+<td><p>&nbsp;</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">36</p>
+</td>
+<td><p>&nbsp;</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p>Kohiaku</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">6</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">2</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">18</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p>Kisagoi</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">19</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">1</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">18</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p>Fujihara</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">46</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">2</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">19</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p>Takahara</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">15</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">2</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">10</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p>Ikari</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">25</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">2</p>
+</td>
+<td><p>&nbsp;</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p>Nakamiyo</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">10</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">1</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">24</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p>Yokokawa</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">20</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">2</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">21</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p>Itosawa</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">38</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">2</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">34</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p>Kayashima</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">57</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">1</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">4</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p>Tajima</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">250</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">1</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">21</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p>Toyonari</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">120</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">2</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">12</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p>Atomi</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">34</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">1</p>
+</td>
+<td><p>&nbsp;</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p>Ouchi</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">27</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">2</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">12</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p>Ichikawa</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">7</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">2</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">22</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p>Takata</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">420</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">2</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">11</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p>Bang&eacute;</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">910</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">3</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">4</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p>Katakado</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">50</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">1</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">20</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p>Nosawa</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">306</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">3</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">24</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p>Nojiri</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">110</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">1</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">27</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p>Kurumatog&eacute;</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">3</p>
+</td>
+<td><p>&nbsp;</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">9</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p>Hozawa</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">20</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">1</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">14</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p>Torige</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">21</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">1</p>
+</td>
+<td><p>&nbsp;</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p>Sakaiyama</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">28</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">&nbsp;</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">24</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p>Tsugawa</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">615</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">2</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">18</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p>Niigata</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">50,000 souls</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">18</p>
+</td>
+<td><p>&nbsp;</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p>&nbsp;</p>
+</td>
+<td><p>&nbsp;</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right"><i>Ri</i>. 101</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">6</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+</table>
+<p>About 247 miles.</p>
+<h2><a name="page114"></a><span class="pagenum">p.
+114</span>LETTER XVI.</h2>
+<p class="gutsumm">Abominable Weather&mdash;Insect
+Pests&mdash;Absence of Foreign Trade&mdash;A Refractory
+River&mdash;Progress&mdash;The Japanese City&mdash;Water
+Highways&mdash;Niigata Gardens&mdash;Ruth Fyson&mdash;The Winter
+Climate&mdash;A Population in Wadding.</p>
+<p style="text-align: right"><span class="smcap">Niigata</span>,
+<i>July</i> 9.</p>
+<p>I <span class="smcap">have</span> spent over a week in
+Niigata, and leave it regretfully to-morrow, rather for the sake
+of the friends I have made than for its own interests.&nbsp; I
+never experienced a week of more abominable weather.&nbsp; The
+sun has been seen just once, the mountains, which are thirty
+miles off, not at all.&nbsp; The clouds are a brownish grey, the
+air moist and motionless, and the mercury has varied from 82&deg;
+in the day to 80&deg; at night.&nbsp; The household is afflicted
+with lassitude and loss of appetite.&nbsp; Evening does not bring
+coolness, but myriads of flying, creeping, jumping, running
+creatures, all with power to hurt, which replace the day
+mosquitoes, villains with spotted legs, which bite and poison one
+without the warning hum.&nbsp; The night mosquitoes are
+legion.&nbsp; There are no walks except in the streets and the
+public gardens, for Niigata is built on a sand spit, hot and
+bare.&nbsp; Neither can you get a view of it without climbing to
+the top of a wooden look-out.</p>
+<p>Niigata is a Treaty Port without foreign trade, and almost
+without foreign residents.&nbsp; Not a foreign ship visited the
+port either last year or this.&nbsp; There are only two foreign
+firms, and these are German, and only eighteen foreigners, of
+which number, except the missionaries, nearly all are in
+Government employment.&nbsp; Its river, the Shinano, is the
+largest in Japan, and it and its affluents bring down a
+prodigious volume of water.&nbsp; But Japanese rivers are much
+choked with sand and shingle washed down from the
+mountains.&nbsp; In all that I have seen, except those which are
+physically limited by walls of hard <a name="page115"></a><span
+class="pagenum">p. 115</span>rock, a river-bed is a waste of
+sand, boulders, and shingle, through the middle of which, among
+sand-banks and shallows, the river proper takes its devious
+course.&nbsp; In the freshets, which occur to a greater or less
+extent every year, enormous volumes of water pour over these
+wastes, carrying sand and detritus down to the mouths, which are
+all obstructed by bars.&nbsp; Of these rivers the Shinano, being
+the biggest, is the most refractory, and has piled up a bar at
+its entrance through which there is only a passage seven feet
+deep, which is perpetually shallowing.&nbsp; The minds of
+engineers are much exercised upon the Shinano, and the Government
+is most anxious to deepen the channel and give Western Japan what
+it has not&mdash;a harbour; but the expense of the necessary
+operation is enormous, and in the meantime a limited ocean
+traffic is carried on by junks and by a few small Japanese
+steamers which call outside. <a name="citation115a"></a><a
+href="#footnote115a" class="citation">[115a]</a>&nbsp; There is a
+British Vice-Consulate, but, except as a step, few would accept
+such a dreary post or outpost.</p>
+<p>But Niigata is a handsome, prosperous city of 50,000
+inhabitants, the capital of the wealthy province of Echigo, with
+a population of one and a half millions, and is the seat of the
+<i>Kenrei</i>, or provincial governor, of the chief law courts,
+of fine schools, a hospital, and barracks.&nbsp; It is curious to
+find in such an excluded town a school deserving the designation
+of a college, as it includes intermediate, primary, and normal
+schools, an English school with 150 pupils, organised by English
+and American teachers, an engineering school, a geological
+museum, splendidly equipped laboratories, and the newest and most
+approved scientific and educational apparatus.&nbsp; The
+Government Buildings, which are grouped near Mr. Fyson&rsquo;s,
+are of painted white wood, and are imposing from their size and
+their innumerable glass windows.&nbsp; There is a large hospital
+<a name="citation115b"></a><a href="#footnote115b"
+class="citation">[115b]</a> arranged by a European doctor, with a
+medical <a name="page116"></a><span class="pagenum">p.
+116</span>school attached, and it, the <i>Kench&ocirc;</i>, the
+<i>Saibanch&ocirc;</i>, or Court House, the schools, the
+barracks, and a large bank, which is rivalling them all, have a
+go-ahead, Europeanised look, bold, staring, and tasteless.&nbsp;
+There are large public gardens, very well laid out, and with
+finely gravelled walks.&nbsp; There are 300 street lamps, which
+burn the mineral oil of the district.</p>
+<p>Yet, because the riotous Shinano persistently bars it out from
+the sea, its natural highway, the capital of one of the richest
+provinces of Japan is &ldquo;left out in the cold,&rdquo; and the
+province itself, which yields not only rice, silk, tea, hemp,
+<i>ninjin</i>, and indigo, in large quantities, but gold, copper,
+coal, and petroleum, has to send most of its produce to Yedo
+across ranges of mountains, on the backs of pack-horses, by roads
+scarcely less infamous than the one by which I came.</p>
+<p>The Niigata of the Government, with its signs of progress in a
+western direction, is quite unattractive-looking as compared with
+the genuine Japanese Niigata, which is the neatest, cleanest, and
+most comfortable-looking town I have yet seen, and altogether
+free from the jostlement of a foreign settlement.&nbsp; It is
+renowned for the beautiful tea-houses, which attract visitors
+from distant places, and for the excellence of the theatres, and
+is the centre of the recreation and pleasure of a large
+district.&nbsp; It is so beautifully clean that, as at
+Nikk&ocirc;, I should feel reluctant to walk upon its well-swept
+streets in muddy boots.&nbsp; It would afford a good lesson to
+the Edinburgh authorities, for every vagrant bit of straw, stick,
+or paper, is at once pounced upon and removed, and no rubbish may
+stand for an instant in its streets except in a covered box or
+bucket.&nbsp; It is correctly laid out in square divisions,
+formed by five streets over a mile long, crossed by very numerous
+short ones, and is intersected by canals, which are its real
+roadways.&nbsp; I have not seen a pack-horse in the streets;
+everything comes in by boat, and there are few houses in the city
+which cannot have their goods delivered by canal very near to
+their doors.&nbsp; These water-ways are busy all day, but in the
+early morning, when the boats come in loaded with the vegetables,
+without which the people could not exist for a day, the bustle is
+indescribable.&nbsp; The cucumber boats just now are the great
+sight.&nbsp; The canals are <a name="page117"></a><span
+class="pagenum">p. 117</span>usually in the middle of the
+streets, and have fairly broad roadways on both sides.&nbsp; They
+are much below the street level, and their nearly perpendicular
+banks are neatly faced with wood, broken at intervals by flights
+of stairs.&nbsp; They are bordered by trees, among which are many
+weeping willows; and, as the river water runs through them,
+keeping them quite sweet, and they are crossed at short intervals
+by light bridges, they form a very attractive feature of
+Niigata.</p>
+<p style="text-align: center">
+<a href="images/p117b.jpg">
+<img alt=
+"Street and Canal"
+title=
+"Street and Canal"
+ src="images/p117s.jpg" />
+</a></p>
+<p>The houses have very steep roofs of shingle, weighted with
+stones, and, as they are of very irregular heights, and all turn
+the steep gables of the upper stories streetwards, the town has a
+picturesqueness very unusual in Japan.&nbsp; The deep verandahs
+are connected all along the streets, so as to form a sheltered
+promenade when the snow lies deep in winter.&nbsp; With its
+canals with their avenues of trees, its fine public gardens, and
+clean, picturesque streets, it is a really attractive town; but
+its improvements are recent, and were only lately completed by <a
+name="page118"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 118</span>Mr.
+Masakata Kusumoto, now Governor of T&ocirc;kiy&ocirc;.&nbsp;
+There is no appearance of poverty in any part of the town, but if
+there be wealth, it is carefully concealed.&nbsp; One marked
+feature of the city is the number of streets of dwelling-houses
+with projecting windows of wooden <i>slats</i>, through which the
+people can see without being seen, though at night, when the
+<i>andons</i> are lit, we saw, as we walked from Dr.
+Palm&rsquo;s, that in most cases families were sitting round the
+<i>hibachi</i> in a <i>d&eacute;shabill&eacute;</i> of the
+scantiest kind.</p>
+<p>The fronts are very narrow, and the houses extend backwards to
+an amazing length, with gardens in which flowers, shrubs, and
+mosquitoes are grown, and bridges are several times repeated, so
+as to give the effect of fairyland as you look through from the
+street.&nbsp; The principal apartments in all Japanese houses are
+at the back, looking out on these miniature landscapes, for a
+landscape is skilfully dwarfed into a space often not more than
+30 feet square.&nbsp; A lake, a rock-work, a bridge, a stone
+lantern, and a deformed pine, are indispensable; but whenever
+circumstances and means admit of it, quaintnesses of all kinds
+are introduced.&nbsp; Small pavilions, retreats for tea-making,
+reading, sleeping in quiet and coolness, fishing under cover, and
+drinking <i>sak&eacute;</i>; bronze pagodas, cascades falling
+from the mouths of bronze dragons; rock caves, with gold and
+silver fish darting in and out; lakes with rocky islands, streams
+crossed by green bridges, just high enough to allow a rat or frog
+to pass under; lawns, and slabs of stone for crossing them in wet
+weather, grottoes, hills, valleys, groves of miniature palms,
+cycas, and bamboo; and dwarfed trees of many kinds, of purplish
+and dull green hues, are cut into startling likenesses of beasts
+and creeping things, or stretch distorted arms over tiny
+lakes.</p>
+<p>I have walked about a great deal in Niigata, and when with
+Mrs. Fyson, who is the only European lady here at present, and
+her little Ruth, a pretty Saxon child of three years old, we have
+been followed by an immense crowd, as the sight of this fair
+creature, with golden curls falling over her shoulders, is most
+fascinating.&nbsp; Both men and women have gentle, winning ways
+with infants, and Ruth, instead of being afraid of the crowds,
+smiles upon them, bows in Japanese fashion, speaks to them in
+Japanese, and seems a little disposed to leave her <a
+name="page119"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 119</span>own people
+altogether.&nbsp; It is most difficult to make her keep with us,
+and two or three times, on missing her and looking back, we have
+seen her seated, native fashion, in a ring in a crowd of several
+hundred people, receiving a homage and admiration from which she
+was most unwillingly torn.&nbsp; The Japanese have a perfect
+passion for children, but it is not good for European children to
+be much with them, as they corrupt their morals, and teach them
+to tell lies.</p>
+<p>The climate of Niigata and of most of this great province
+contrasts unpleasantly with the region on the other side of the
+mountains, warmed by the gulf-stream of the North Pacific, in
+which the autumn and winter, with their still atmosphere, bracing
+temperature, and blue and sunny skies, are the most delightful
+seasons of the year.&nbsp; Thirty-two days of snow-fall occur on
+an average.&nbsp; The canals and rivers freeze, and even the
+rapid Shinano sometimes bears a horse.&nbsp; In January and
+February the snow lies three or four feet deep, a veil of clouds
+obscures the sky, people inhabit their upper rooms to get any
+daylight, pack-horse traffic is suspended, pedestrians go about
+with difficulty in rough snow-shoes, and for nearly six months
+the coast is unsuitable for navigation, owing to the prevalence
+of strong, cold, north-west winds.&nbsp; In this city people in
+wadded clothes, with only their eyes exposed, creep about under
+the verandahs.&nbsp; The population huddles round <i>hibachis</i>
+and shivers, for the mercury, which rises to 92&deg; in summer,
+falls to 15&deg; in winter.&nbsp; And all this is in latitude
+37&deg; 55&prime;&mdash;three degrees south of Naples!</p>
+<p style="text-align: right">I. L. B.</p>
+<h2><a name="page120"></a><span class="pagenum">p.
+120</span>LETTER XVII</h2>
+<p class="gutsumm">The Canal-side at Niigata&mdash;Awful
+Loneliness&mdash;Courtesy&mdash;Dr. Palm&rsquo;s Tandem&mdash;A
+Noisy <i>Matsuri</i>&mdash;A Jolting Journey&mdash;The Mountain
+Villages&mdash;Winter Dismalness&mdash;An Out-of-the-world
+Hamlet&mdash;Crowded Dwellings&mdash;Riding a
+Cow&mdash;&ldquo;Drunk and Disorderly&rdquo;&mdash;An Enforced
+Rest&mdash;Local Discouragements&mdash;Heavy Loads&mdash;Absence
+of Beggary&mdash;Slow Travelling.</p>
+<p style="text-align: right"><span class="smcap">Ichinono</span>,
+<i>July</i> 12.</p>
+<p><span class="smcap">Two</span> foreign ladies, two fair-haired
+foreign infants, a long-haired foreign dog, and a foreign
+gentleman, who, without these accompaniments, might have escaped
+notice, attracted a large but kindly crowd to the canal side when
+I left Niigata.&nbsp; The natives bore away the children on their
+shoulders, the Fysons walked to the extremity of the canal to bid
+me good-bye, the <i>sampan</i> shot out upon the broad, swirling
+flood of the Shinano, and an awful sense of loneliness fell upon
+me.&nbsp; We crossed the Shinano, poled up the narrow, embanked
+Shinkawa, had a desperate struggle with the flooded Aganokawa,
+were much impeded by strings of nauseous manure-boats on the
+narrow, discoloured Kajikawa, wondered at the interminable melon
+and cucumber fields, and at the odd river life, and, after hard
+poling for six hours, reached Kisaki, having accomplished exactly
+ten miles.&nbsp; Then three <i>kurumas</i> with trotting runners
+took us twenty miles at the low rate of 4&frac12; <i>sen</i> per
+<i>ri</i>.&nbsp; In one place a board closed the road, but, on
+representing to the chief man of the village that the traveller
+was a foreigner, he courteously allowed me to pass, the Express
+Agent having accompanied me thus far to see that I &ldquo;got
+through all right.&rdquo;&nbsp; The road was tolerably populous
+throughout the day&rsquo;s journey, and the farming villages
+which extended much of the way&mdash;Tsuiji, Kasayanag&ecirc;,
+Mono, and Mari&mdash;were neat, and many of the farms had bamboo
+fences to screen them from the road.&nbsp; <a
+name="page121"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 121</span>It was, on
+the whole, a pleasant country, and the people, though little
+clothed, did not look either poor or very dirty.&nbsp; The soil
+was very light and sandy.&nbsp; There were, in fact, &ldquo;pine
+barrens,&rdquo; sandy ridges with nothing on them but spindly
+Scotch firs and fir scrub; but the sandy levels between them,
+being heavily manured and cultivated like gardens, bore splendid
+crops of cucumbers trained like peas, melons, vegetable marrow,
+<i>Arum esculentum</i>, sweet potatoes, maize, tea, tiger-lilies,
+beans, and onions; and extensive orchards with apples and pears
+trained laterally on trellis-work eight feet high, were a novelty
+in the landscape.</p>
+<p>Though we were all day drawing nearer to mountains wooded to
+their summits on the east, the amount of vegetation was not
+burdensome, the rice swamps were few, and the air felt drier and
+less relaxing.&nbsp; As my runners were trotting merrily over one
+of the pine barrens, I met Dr. Palm returning from one of his
+medico-religious expeditions, with a tandem of two naked coolies,
+who were going over the ground at a great pace, and I wished that
+some of the most staid directors of the Edinburgh Medical
+Missionary Society could have the shock of seeing him!&nbsp; I
+shall not see a European again for some weeks.&nbsp; From Tsuiji,
+a very neat village, where we changed <i>kurumas</i>, we were
+jolted along over a shingly road to Nakajo, a considerable town
+just within treaty limits.&nbsp; The Japanese doctors there, as
+in some other places, are Dr. Palm&rsquo;s cordial helpers, and
+five or six of them, whom he regards as possessing the rare
+virtues of candour, earnestness, and single-mindedness, and who
+have studied English medical works, have clubbed together to
+establish a dispensary, and, under Dr. Palm&rsquo;s instructions,
+are even carrying out the antiseptic treatment successfully,
+after some ludicrous failures!</p>
+<p>We dashed through Nakajo as <i>kuruma</i>-runners always dash
+through towns and villages, got out of it in a drizzle upon an
+avenue of firs, three or four deep, which extends from Nakajo to
+Kurokawa, and for some miles beyond were jolted over a damp
+valley on which tea and rice alternated, crossed two branches of
+the shingly Kurokawa on precarious bridges, rattled into the town
+of Kurokawa, much decorated with flags and lanterns, where the
+people were all congregated at a shrine where there was much
+drumming, and a few girls, much <a name="page122"></a><span
+class="pagenum">p. 122</span>painted and bedizened, were dancing
+or posturing on a raised and covered platform, in honour of the
+god of the place, whose <i>matsuri</i> or festival it was; and
+out again, to be mercilessly jolted under the firs in the
+twilight to a solitary house where the owner made some difficulty
+about receiving us, as his licence did not begin till the next
+day, but eventually succumbed, and gave me his one upstairs room,
+exactly five feet high, which hardly allowed of my standing
+upright with my hat on.&nbsp; He then rendered it suffocating by
+closing the <i>amado</i>, for the reason often given, that if he
+left them open and the house was robbed, the police would not
+only blame him severely, but would not take any trouble to
+recover his property.&nbsp; He had no rice, so I indulged in a
+feast of delicious cucumbers.&nbsp; I never saw so many eaten as
+in that district.&nbsp; Children gnaw them all day long, and even
+babies on their mothers&rsquo; backs suck them with
+avidity.&nbsp; Just now they are sold for a <i>sen</i> a
+dozen.</p>
+<p>It is a mistake to arrive at a <i>yadoya</i> after dark.&nbsp;
+Even if the best rooms are not full it takes fully an hour to get
+my food and the room ready, and meanwhile I cannot employ my time
+usefully because of the mosquitoes.&nbsp; There was heavy rain
+all night, accompanied by the first wind that I have heard since
+landing; and the fitful creaking of the pines and the drumming
+from the shrine made me glad to get up at sunrise, or rather at
+daylight, for there has not been a sunrise since I came, or a
+sunset either.&nbsp; That day we travelled by Sekki to Kawaguchi
+in <i>kurumas</i>, i.e. we were sometimes bumped over stones,
+sometimes deposited on the edge of a quagmire, and asked to get
+out; and sometimes compelled to walk for two or three miles at a
+time along the infamous bridle-track above the river Arai, up
+which two men could hardly push and haul an empty vehicle; and,
+as they often had to lift them bodily and carry them for some
+distance, I was really glad when we reached the village of
+Kawaguchi to find that they could go no farther, though, as we
+could only get one horse, I had to walk the last stage in a
+torrent of rain, poorly protected by my paper waterproof
+cloak.</p>
+<p>We are now in the midst of the great central chain of the
+Japanese mountains, which extends almost without a break for 900
+miles, and is from 40 to 100 miles in width, broken up <a
+name="page123"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 123</span>into
+interminable ranges traversable only by steep passes from 1000 to
+5000 feet in height, with innumerable rivers, ravines, and
+valleys, the heights and ravines heavily timbered, the rivers
+impetuous and liable to freshets, and the valleys invariably
+terraced for rice.&nbsp; It is in the valleys that the villages
+are found, and regions more isolated I have never seen, shut out
+by bad roads from the rest of Japan.&nbsp; The houses are very
+poor, the summer costume of the men consists of the <i>maro</i>
+only, and that of the women of trousers with an open shirt, and
+when we reached Kurosawa last night it had dwindled to trousers
+only.&nbsp; There is little traffic, and very few horses are
+kept, one, two, or three constituting the live stock of a large
+village.&nbsp; The shops, such as they are, contain the barest
+necessaries of life.&nbsp; Millet and buckwheat rather than rice,
+with the universal <i>daikon</i>, are the staples of diet The
+climate is wet in summer and bitterly cold in winter.&nbsp; Even
+now it is comfortless enough for the people to come in wet, just
+to warm the tips of their fingers at the <i>irori</i>, stifled
+the while with the stinging smoke, while the damp wind flaps the
+torn paper of the windows about, and damp draughts sweep the
+ashes over the <i>tatami</i> until the house is hermetically
+sealed at night.&nbsp; These people never know anything of what
+we regard as comfort, and in the long winter, when the wretched
+bridle-tracks are blocked by snow and the freezing wind blows
+strong, and the families huddle round the smoky fire by the
+doleful glimmer of the <i>andon</i>, without work, books, or
+play, to shiver through the long evenings in chilly dreariness,
+and herd together for warmth at night like animals, their
+condition must be as miserable as anything short of grinding
+poverty can make it.</p>
+<p>I saw things at their worst that night as I tramped into the
+hamlet of Numa, down whose sloping street a swollen stream was
+running, which the people were banking out of their houses.&nbsp;
+I was wet and tired, and the woman at the one wretched
+<i>yadoya</i> met me, saying, &ldquo;I&rsquo;m sorry it&rsquo;s
+very dirty and quite unfit for so honourable a guest;&rdquo; and
+she was right, for the one room was up a ladder, the windows were
+in tatters, there was no charcoal for a <i>hibachi</i>, no eggs,
+and the rice was so dirty and so full of a small black seed as to
+be unfit to eat.&nbsp; Worse than all, there was no Transport
+Office, the hamlet did <a name="page124"></a><span
+class="pagenum">p. 124</span>not possess a horse, and it was only
+by sending to a farmer five miles off, and by much bargaining,
+that I got on the next morning.&nbsp; In estimating the number of
+people in a given number of houses in Japan, it is usual to
+multiply the houses by five, but I had the curiosity to walk
+through Numa and get Ito to translate the tallies which hang
+outside all Japanese houses with the names, number, and sexes of
+their inmates, and in twenty-four houses there were 307
+people!&nbsp; In some there were four families&mdash;the
+grand-parents, the parents, the eldest son with his wife and
+family, and a daughter or two with their husbands and
+children.&nbsp; The eldest son, who inherits the house and land,
+almost invariably brings his wife to his father&rsquo;s house,
+where she often becomes little better than a slave to her
+mother-in-law.&nbsp; By rigid custom she literally forsakes her
+own kindred, and her &ldquo;filial duty&rdquo; is transferred to
+her husband&rsquo;s mother, who often takes a dislike to her, and
+instigates her son to divorce her if she has no children.&nbsp;
+My hostess had induced her son to divorce his wife, and she could
+give no better reason for it than that she was lazy.</p>
+<p>The Numa people, she said, had never seen a foreigner, so,
+though the rain still fell heavily, they were astir in the early
+morning.&nbsp; They wanted to hear me speak, so I gave my orders
+to Ito in public.&nbsp; Yesterday was a most toilsome day, mainly
+spent in stumbling up and sliding down the great passes of Futai,
+Takanasu, and Yenoiki, all among forest-covered mountains, deeply
+cleft by forest-choked ravines, with now and then one of the
+snowy peaks of Aidzu breaking the monotony of the ocean of
+green.&nbsp; The horses&rsquo; shoes were tied and untied every
+few minutes, and we made just a mile an hour!&nbsp; At last we
+were deposited in a most unpromising place in the hamlet of
+Tamagawa, and were told that a rice merchant, after waiting for
+three days, had got every horse in the country.&nbsp; At the end
+of two hours&rsquo; chaffering one baggage coolie was produced,
+some of the things were put on the rice horses, and a steed with
+a pack-saddle was produced for me in the shape of a plump and
+pretty little cow, which carried me safely over the magnificent
+pass of Ori and down to the town of Okimi, among rice-fields,
+where, in a drowning rain, I was glad to get shelter with a
+number of coolies by a wood-fire till another pack-cow was
+produced, and we walked on through <a name="page125"></a><span
+class="pagenum">p. 125</span>the rice-fields and up into the
+hills again to Kurosawa, where I had intended to remain; but
+there was no inn, and the farm-house where they take in
+travellers, besides being on the edge of a malarious pond, and
+being dark and full of stinging smoke, was so awfully dirty and
+full of living creatures, that, exhausted as I was, I was obliged
+to go on.&nbsp; But it was growing dark, there was no Transport
+Office, and for the first time the people were very slightly
+extortionate, and drove Ito nearly to his wits&rsquo; end.&nbsp;
+The peasants do not like to be out after dark, for they are
+afraid of ghosts and all sorts of devilments, and it was
+difficult to induce them to start so late in the evening.</p>
+<p>There was not a house clean enough to rest in, so I sat on a
+stone and thought about the people for over an hour.&nbsp;
+Children with scald-head, <i>scabies</i>, and sore eyes
+swarmed.&nbsp; Every woman carried a baby on her back, and every
+child who could stagger under one carried one too.&nbsp; Not one
+woman wore anything but cotton trousers.&nbsp; One woman reeled
+about &ldquo;drunk and disorderly.&rdquo;&nbsp; Ito sat on a
+stone hiding his face in his hands, and when I asked him if he
+were ill, he replied in a most lamentable voice, &ldquo;I
+don&rsquo;t know what I am to do, I&rsquo;m so ashamed for you to
+see such things!&rdquo;&nbsp; The boy is only eighteen, and I
+pitied him.&nbsp; I asked him if women were often drunk, and he
+said they were in Yokohama, but they usually kept in their
+houses.&nbsp; He says that when their husbands give them money to
+pay bills at the end of a month, they often spend it in
+<i>sak&eacute;</i>, and that they sometimes get
+<i>sak&eacute;</i> in shops and have it put down as rice or
+tea.&nbsp; &ldquo;The old, old story!&rdquo;&nbsp; I looked at
+the dirt and barbarism, and asked if this were the Japan of which
+I had read.&nbsp; Yet a woman in this unseemly costume firmly
+refused to take the 2 or 3 <i>sen</i> which it is usual to leave
+at a place where you rest, because she said that I had had water
+and not tea, and after I had forced it on her, she returned it to
+Ito, and this redeeming incident sent me away much comforted.</p>
+<p>From Numa the distance here is only 1&frac12; <i>ri</i>, but
+it is over the steep pass of Honoki, which is ascended and
+descended by hundreds of rude stone steps, not pleasant in the
+dark.&nbsp; On this pass I saw birches for the first time; at its
+foot we entered Yamagata <i>ken</i> by a good bridge, and shortly
+reached <a name="page126"></a><span class="pagenum">p.
+126</span>this village, in which an unpromising-looking
+farm-house is the only accommodation; but though all the rooms
+but two are taken up with silk-worms, those two are very good and
+look upon a miniature lake and rockery.&nbsp; The one objection
+to my room is that to get either in or out of it I must pass
+through the other, which is occupied by five tobacco merchants
+who are waiting for transport, and who while away the time by
+strumming on that instrument of dismay, the <i>samisen</i>.&nbsp;
+No horses or cows can be got for me, so I am spending the day
+quietly here, rather glad to rest, for I am much exhausted.&nbsp;
+When I am suffering much from my spine Ito always gets into a
+fright and thinks I am going to die, as he tells me when I am
+better, but shows his anxiety by a short, surly manner, which is
+most disagreeable.&nbsp; He thinks we shall never get through the
+interior!&nbsp; Mr. Brunton&rsquo;s excellent map fails in this
+region, so it is only by fixing on the well-known city of
+Yamagata and devising routes to it that we get on.&nbsp; Half the
+evening is spent in consulting Japanese maps, if we can get them,
+and in questioning the house-master and Transport Agent, and any
+chance travellers; but the people know nothing beyond the
+distance of a few <i>ri</i>, and the agents seldom tell one
+anything beyond the next stage.&nbsp; When I inquire about the
+&ldquo;unbeaten tracks&rdquo; that I wish to take, the answers
+are, &ldquo;It&rsquo;s an awful road through mountains,&rdquo; or
+&ldquo;There are many bad rivers to cross,&rdquo; or &ldquo;There
+are none but farmers&rsquo; houses to stop at.&rdquo;&nbsp; No
+encouragement is ever given, but we get on, and shall get on, I
+doubt not, though the hardships are not what I would desire in my
+present state of health.</p>
+<p>Very few horses are kept here.&nbsp; Cows and coolies carry
+much of the merchandise, and women as well as men carry heavy
+loads.&nbsp; A baggage coolie carries about 50 lbs., but here
+merchants carrying their own goods from Yamagata actually carry
+from 90 to 140 lbs., and even more.&nbsp; It is sickening to meet
+these poor fellows struggling over the mountain-passes in evident
+distress.&nbsp; Last night five of them were resting on the
+summit ridge of a pass gasping violently.&nbsp; Their eyes were
+starting out; all their muscles, rendered painfully visible by
+their leanness, were quivering; rills of blood from the bite of
+insects, which they cannot drive away, <a
+name="page127"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 127</span>were
+literally running all over their naked bodies, washed away here
+and there by copious perspiration.&nbsp; Truly &ldquo;in the
+sweat of their brows&rdquo; they were eating bread and earning an
+honest living for their families!&nbsp; Suffering and hard-worked
+as they were, they were quite independent.&nbsp; I have not seen
+a beggar or beggary in this strange country.&nbsp; The women were
+carrying 70 lbs.&nbsp; These burden-bearers have their backs
+covered by a thick pad of plaited straw.&nbsp; On this rests a
+ladder, curved up at the lower end like the runners of a
+sleigh.&nbsp; On this the load is carefully packed till it
+extends from below the man&rsquo;s waist to a considerable height
+above his head.&nbsp; It is covered with waterproof paper,
+securely roped, and thatched with straw, and is supported by a
+broad padded band just below the collar bones.&nbsp; Of course,
+as the man walks nearly bent double, and the position is a very
+painful one, he requires to stop and straighten himself
+frequently, and unless he meets with a bank of convenient height,
+he rests the bottom of his burden on a short, stout pole with an
+L-shaped top, carried for this purpose.&nbsp; The carrying of
+enormous loads is quite a feature of this region, and so, I am
+sorry to say, are red stinging ants and the small gadflies which
+molest the coolies.</p>
+<p>Yesterday&rsquo;s journey was 18 miles in twelve hours!&nbsp;
+Ichinono is a nice, industrious hamlet, given up, like all
+others, to rearing silk-worms, and the pure white and sulphur
+yellow cocoons are drying on mats in the sun everywhere.</p>
+<p style="text-align: right">I. L. B.</p>
+<h2><a name="page128"></a><span class="pagenum">p.
+128</span>LETTER XVIII.</h2>
+<p class="gutsumm">Comely Kine&mdash;Japanese Criticism on a
+Foreign Usage&mdash;A Pleasant Halt&mdash;Renewed
+Courtesies&mdash;The Plain of Yonezawa&mdash;A Curious
+Mistake&mdash;The Mother&rsquo;s Memorial&mdash;Arrival at
+Komatsu&mdash;Stately Accommodation&mdash;A Vicious
+Horse&mdash;An Asiatic Arcadia&mdash;A Fashionable
+Watering-place&mdash;A Belle&mdash;&ldquo;Godowns.&rdquo;</p>
+<p style="text-align: right"><span
+class="smcap">Kaminoyama</span>.</p>
+<p>A <span class="smcap">severe</span> day of mountain travelling
+brought us into another region.&nbsp; We left Ichinono early on a
+fine morning, with three pack-cows, one of which I rode [and
+their calves], very comely kine, with small noses, short horns,
+straight spines, and deep bodies.&nbsp; I thought that I might
+get some fresh milk, but the idea of anything but a calf milking
+a cow was so new to the people that there was a universal laugh,
+and Ito told me that they thought it &ldquo;most
+disgusting,&rdquo; and that the Japanese think it &ldquo;most
+disgusting&rdquo; in foreigners to put anything &ldquo;with such
+a strong smell and taste&rdquo; into their tea!&nbsp; All the
+cows had cotton cloths, printed with blue dragons, suspended
+under their bodies to keep them from mud and insects, and they
+wear straw shoes and cords through the cartilages of their
+noses.&nbsp; The day being fine, a great deal of rice and
+<i>sak&eacute;</i> was on the move, and we met hundreds of
+pack-cows, all of the same comely breed, in strings of four.</p>
+<p>We crossed the Sakuratog&eacute;, from which the view is
+beautiful, got horses at the mountain village of Shirakasawa,
+crossed more passes, and in the afternoon reached the village of
+Tenoko.&nbsp; There, as usual, I sat under the verandah of the
+Transport Office, and waited for the one horse which was
+available.&nbsp; It was a large shop, but contained not a single
+article of European make.&nbsp; In the one room a group of women
+and children sat round the fire, and the agent sat as <a
+name="page129"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 129</span>usual with
+a number of ledgers at a table a foot high, on which his
+grandchild was lying on a cushion.&nbsp; Here Ito dined on seven
+dishes of horrors, and they brought me <i>sak&eacute;</i>, tea,
+rice, and black beans.&nbsp; The last are very good.&nbsp; We had
+some talk about the country, and the man asked me to write his
+name in English characters, and to write my own in a book.&nbsp;
+Meanwhile a crowd assembled, and the front row sat on the ground
+that the others might see over their heads.&nbsp; They were dirty
+and pressed very close, and when the women of the house saw that
+I felt the heat they gracefully produced fans and fanned me for a
+whole hour.&nbsp; On asking the charge they refused to make any,
+and would not receive anything.&nbsp; They had not seen a
+foreigner before, they said, they would despise themselves for
+taking anything, they had my &ldquo;honourable name&rdquo; in
+their book.&nbsp; Not only that, but they put up a parcel of
+sweetmeats, and the man wrote his name on a fan and insisted on
+my accepting it.&nbsp; I was grieved to have nothing to give them
+but some English pins, but they had never seen such before, and
+soon circulated them among the crowd.&nbsp; I told them truly
+that I should remember them as long as I remember Japan, and went
+on, much touched by their kindness.</p>
+<p>The lofty pass of Utsu, which is ascended and descended by a
+number of stone slabs, is the last of the passes of these
+choked-up ranges.&nbsp; From its summit in the welcome sunlight I
+joyfully looked down upon the noble plain of Yonezawa, about 30
+miles long and from 10 to 18 broad, one of the gardens of Japan,
+wooded and watered, covered with prosperous towns and villages,
+surrounded by magnificent mountains not altogether timbered, and
+bounded at its southern extremity by ranges white with snow even
+in the middle of July.</p>
+<p>In the long street of the farming village of Matsuhara a man
+amazed me by running in front of me and speaking to me, and on
+Ito coming up, he assailed him vociferously, and it turned out
+that he took me for an Aino, one of the subjugated aborigines of
+Yezo.&nbsp; I have before now been taken for a Chinese!</p>
+<p>Throughout the province of Echigo I have occasionally seen a
+piece of cotton cloth suspended by its four corners from four
+bamboo poles just above a quiet stream.&nbsp; Behind <a
+name="page130"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 130</span>it there is
+usually a long narrow tablet, notched at the top, similar to
+those seen in cemeteries, with characters upon it.&nbsp;
+Sometimes bouquets of flowers are placed in the hollow top of
+each bamboo, and usually there are characters on the cloth
+itself.&nbsp; Within it always lies a wooden dipper.&nbsp; In
+coming down from Tenoko I passed one of these close to the road,
+and a Buddhist priest was at the time pouring a dipper full of
+water into it, which strained slowly through.&nbsp; As he was
+going our way we joined him, and he explained its meaning.</p>
+<p style="text-align: center">
+<a href="images/p130b.jpg">
+<img alt=
+"The Flowing Invocation"
+title=
+"The Flowing Invocation"
+ src="images/p130s.jpg" />
+</a></p>
+<p>According to him the tablet bears on it the
+<i>kaimiy&ocirc;</i>, or posthumous name of a woman.&nbsp; The
+flowers have the same significance as those which loving hands
+place on the graves <a name="page131"></a><span
+class="pagenum">p. 131</span>of kindred.&nbsp; If there are
+characters on the cloth, they represent the well-known invocation
+of the Nichiren sect, <i>Namu mi&ocirc; h&ocirc; ren g&eacute;
+ki&ocirc;</i>.&nbsp; The pouring of the water into the cloth,
+often accompanied by telling the beads on a rosary, is a
+prayer.&nbsp; The whole is called &ldquo;The Flowing
+Invocation.&rdquo;&nbsp; I have seldom seen anything more
+plaintively affecting, for it denotes that a mother in the first
+joy of maternity has passed away to suffer (according to popular
+belief) in the Lake of Blood, one of the Buddhist hells, for a
+sin committed in a former state of being, and it appeals to every
+passer-by to shorten the penalties of a woman in anguish, for in
+that lake she must remain until the cloth is so utterly worn out
+that the water falls through it at once.</p>
+<p>Where the mountains come down upon the plain of Yonezawa there
+are several raised banks, and you can take one step from the
+hillside to a dead level.&nbsp; The soil is dry and gravelly at
+the junction, ridges of pines appeared, and the look of the
+houses suggested increased cleanliness and comfort.&nbsp; A walk
+of six miles took us from Tenoko to Komatsu, a beautifully
+situated town of 3000 people, with a large trade in cotton goods,
+silk, and <i>sak&eacute;</i>.</p>
+<p>As I entered Komatsu the first man whom I met turned back
+hastily, called into the first house the words which mean
+&ldquo;Quick, here&rsquo;s a foreigner;&rdquo; the three
+carpenters who were at work there flung down their tools and,
+without waiting to put on their <i>kimonos</i>, sped down the
+street calling out the news, so that by the time I reached the
+<i>yadoya</i> a large crowd was pressing upon me.&nbsp; The front
+was mean and unpromising-looking, but, on reaching the back by a
+stone bridge over a stream which ran through the house, I found a
+room 40 feet long by 15 high, entirely open along one side to a
+garden with a large fish-pond with goldfish, a pagoda, dwarf
+trees, and all the usual miniature adornments.&nbsp;
+<i>Fusuma</i> of wrinkled blue paper splashed with gold turned
+this &ldquo;gallery&rdquo; into two rooms; but there was no
+privacy, for the crowds climbed upon the roofs at the back, and
+sat there patiently until night.</p>
+<p>These were <i>daimiy&ocirc;&rsquo;s</i> rooms.&nbsp; The posts
+and ceilings were ebony and gold, the mats very fine, the
+polished alcoves decorated with inlaid writing-tables and
+sword-racks; spears nine feet long, with handles of lacquer
+inlaid with Venus&rsquo; ear, <a name="page132"></a><span
+class="pagenum">p. 132</span>hung in the verandah, the washing
+bowl was fine inlaid black lacquer, and the rice-bowls and their
+covers were gold lacquer.</p>
+<p>In this, as in many other <i>yadoyas</i>, there were
+<i>kak&eacute;monos</i> with large Chinese characters
+representing the names of the Prime Minister, Provincial
+Governor, or distinguished General, who had honoured it by
+halting there, and lines of poetry were hung up, as is usual, in
+the same fashion.&nbsp; I have several times been asked to write
+something to be thus displayed.&nbsp; I spent Sunday at Komatsu,
+but not restfully, owing to the nocturnal croaking of the frogs
+in the pond.&nbsp; In it, as in most towns, there were shops
+which sell nothing but white, frothy-looking cakes, which are
+used for the goldfish which are so much prized, and three times
+daily the women and children of the household came into the
+garden to feed them.</p>
+<p>When I left Komatsu there were fully sixty people inside the
+house and 1500 outside&mdash;walls, verandahs, and even roofs
+being packed.&nbsp; From Nikk&ocirc; to Komatsu mares had been
+exclusively used, but there I encountered for the first time the
+terrible Japanese pack-horse.&nbsp; Two horridly fierce-looking
+creatures were at the door, with their heads tied down till their
+necks were completely arched.&nbsp; When I mounted the crowd
+followed, gathering as it went, frightening the horse with the
+clatter of clogs and the sound of a multitude, till he broke his
+head-rope, and, the frightened <i>mago</i> letting him go, he
+proceeded down the street mainly on his hind feet, squealing, and
+striking savagely with his fore feet, the crowd scattering to the
+right and left, till, as it surged past the police station, four
+policemen came out and arrested it; only to gather again,
+however, for there was a longer street, down which my horse
+proceeded in the same fashion, and, looking round, I saw
+Ito&rsquo;s horse on his hind legs and Ito on the ground.&nbsp;
+My beast jumped over all ditches, attacked all foot-passengers
+with his teeth, and behaved so like a wild animal that not all my
+previous acquaintance with the idiosyncrasies of horses enabled
+me to cope with him.&nbsp; On reaching Akayu we found a horse
+fair, and, as all the horses had their heads tightly tied down to
+posts, they could only squeal and lash out with their hind feet,
+which so provoked our animals that the baggage horse, by a series
+of jerks and rearings, divested himself of Ito and most of the
+baggage, and, as I dismounted <a name="page133"></a><span
+class="pagenum">p. 133</span>from mine, he stood upright, and my
+foot catching I fell on the ground, when he made several vicious
+dashes at me with his teeth and fore feet, which were happily
+frustrated by the dexterity of some <i>mago</i>.&nbsp; These
+beasts forcibly remind me of the words, &ldquo;Whose mouth must
+be held with bit and bridle, lest they turn and fall upon
+thee.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>It was a lovely summer day, though very hot, and the snowy
+peaks of Aidzu scarcely looked cool as they glittered in the
+sunlight.&nbsp; The plain of Yonezawa, with the prosperous town
+of Yonezawa in the south, and the frequented watering-place of
+Akayu in the north, is a perfect garden of Eden, &ldquo;tilled
+with a pencil instead of a plough,&rdquo; growing in rich
+profusion rice, cotton, maize, tobacco, hemp, indigo, beans,
+egg-plants, walnuts, melons, cucumbers, persimmons, apricots,
+pomegranates; a smiling and plenteous land, an Asiatic Arcadia,
+prosperous and independent, all its bounteous acres belonging to
+those who cultivate them, who live under their vines, figs, and
+pomegranates, free from oppression&mdash;a remarkable spectacle
+under an Asiatic despotism.&nbsp; Yet still Daikoku is the chief
+deity, and material good is the one object of desire.</p>
+<p>It is an enchanting region of beauty, industry, and comfort,
+mountain girdled, and watered by the bright Matsuka.&nbsp;
+Everywhere there are prosperous and beautiful farming villages,
+with large houses with carved beams and ponderous tiled roofs,
+each standing in its own grounds, buried among persimmons and
+pomegranates, with flower-gardens under trellised vines, and
+privacy secured by high, closely-clipped screens of pomegranate
+and cryptomeria.&nbsp; Besides the villages of Yoshida,
+Semoshima, Kurokawa, Takayama, and Takataki, through or near
+which we passed, I counted over fifty on the plain with their
+brown, sweeping barn roofs looking out from the woodland.&nbsp; I
+cannot see any differences in the style of cultivation.&nbsp;
+Yoshida is rich and prosperous-looking, Numa poor and
+wretched-looking; but the scanty acres of Numa, rescued from the
+mountain-sides, are as exquisitely trim and neat, as perfectly
+cultivated, and yield as abundantly of the crops which suit the
+climate, as the broad acres of the sunny plain of Yonezawa, and
+this is the case everywhere.&nbsp; &ldquo;The field of the
+sluggard&rdquo; has no existence in Japan.</p>
+<p><a name="page134"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 134</span>We
+rode for four hours through these beautiful villages on a road
+four feet wide, and then, to my surprise, after ferrying a river,
+emerged at Tsukuno upon what appears on the map as a secondary
+road, but which is in reality a main road 25 feet wide, well
+kept, trenched on both sides, and with a line of telegraph poles
+along it.&nbsp; It was a new world at once.&nbsp; The road for
+many miles was thronged with well-dressed foot-passengers,
+<i>kurumas</i>, pack-horses, and waggons either with solid
+wheels, or wheels with spokes but no tires.&nbsp; It is a capital
+carriage-road, but without carriages.&nbsp; In such civilised
+circumstances it was curious to see two or four brown skinned men
+pulling the carts, and quite often a man and his wife&mdash;the
+man unclothed, and the woman unclothed to her waist&mdash;doing
+the same.&nbsp; Also it struck me as incongruous to see telegraph
+wires above, and below, men whose only clothing consisted of a
+sun-hat and fan; while children with books and slates were
+returning from school, conning their lessons.</p>
+<p>At Akayu, a town of hot sulphur springs, I hoped to sleep, but
+it was one of the noisiest places I have seen.&nbsp; In the most
+crowded part, where four streets meet, there are bathing sheds,
+which were full of people of both sexes, splashing loudly, and
+the <i>yadoya</i> close to it had about forty rooms, in nearly
+all of which several rheumatic people were lying on the mats,
+<i>samisens</i> were twanging, and <i>kotos</i> screeching, and
+the hubbub was so unbearable that I came on here, ten miles
+farther, by a fine new road, up an uninteresting strath of
+rice-fields and low hills, which opens out upon a small plain
+surrounded by elevated gravelly hills, on the slope of one of
+which Kaminoyama, a watering-place of over 3000 people, is
+pleasantly situated.&nbsp; It is keeping festival; there are
+lanterns and flags on every house, and crowds are thronging the
+temple grounds, of which there are several on the hills
+above.&nbsp; It is a clean, dry place, with beautiful
+<i>yadoyas</i> on the heights, and pleasant houses with gardens,
+and plenty of walks over the hills.&nbsp; The people say that it
+is one of the driest places in Japan.&nbsp; If it were within
+reach of foreigners, they would find it a wholesome health
+resort, with picturesque excursions in many directions.</p>
+<p>This is one of the great routes of Japanese travel, and it is
+interesting to see watering-places with their habits, amusements,
+<a name="page135"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 135</span>and
+civilisation quite complete, but borrowing nothing from
+Europe.&nbsp; The hot springs here contain iron, and are strongly
+impregnated with sulphuretted hydrogen.&nbsp; I tried the
+temperature of three, and found them 100&deg;, 105&deg;, and
+107&deg;.&nbsp; They are supposed to be very valuable in
+rheumatism, and they attract visitors from great distances.&nbsp;
+The police, who are my frequent informants, tell me that there
+are nearly 600 people now staying here for the benefit of the
+baths, of which six daily are usually taken.&nbsp; I think that
+in rheumatism, as in some other maladies, the old-fashioned
+Japanese doctors pay <a name="page136"></a><span
+class="pagenum">p. 136</span>little attention to diet and habits,
+and much to drugs and external applications.&nbsp; The benefit of
+these and other medicinal waters would be much increased if
+vigorous friction replaced the dabbing with soft towels.</p>
+<p style="text-align: center">
+<a href="images/p135b.jpg">
+<img alt=
+"The Belle of Kaminoyama"
+title=
+"The Belle of Kaminoyama"
+ src="images/p135s.jpg" />
+</a></p>
+<p>This is a large <i>yadoya</i>, very full of strangers, and the
+house-mistress, a buxom and most prepossessing widow, has a truly
+exquisite hotel for bathers higher up the hill.&nbsp; She has
+eleven children, two or three of whom are tall, handsome, and
+graceful girls.&nbsp; One blushed deeply at my evident
+admiration, but was not displeased, and took me up the hill to
+see the temples, baths, and <i>yadoyas</i> of this very
+attractive place.&nbsp; I am much delighted with her grace and
+<i>savoir faire</i>.&nbsp; I asked the widow how long she had
+kept the inn, and she proudly answered, &ldquo;Three hundred
+years,&rdquo; not an uncommon instance of the heredity of
+occupations.</p>
+<p>My accommodation is unique&mdash;a <i>kura</i>, or godown, in
+a large conventional garden, in which is a bath-house, which
+receives a hot spring at a temperature of 105&deg;, in which I
+luxuriate.&nbsp; Last night the mosquitoes were awful.&nbsp; If
+the widow and her handsome girls had not fanned me perseveringly
+for an hour, I should not have been able to write a line.&nbsp;
+My new mosquito net succeeds admirably, and, when I am once
+within it, I rather enjoy the disappointment of the hundreds of
+drumming blood-thirsty wretches outside.</p>
+<p>The widow tells me that house-masters pay 2 <i>yen</i> once
+for all for the sign, and an annual tax of 2 <i>yen</i> on a
+first-class <i>yadoya</i>, 1 <i>yen</i> for a second, and 50
+cents for a third, with 5 <i>yen</i> for the license to sell
+<i>sak&eacute;</i>.</p>
+<p>These &ldquo;godowns&rdquo; (from the Malay word
+<i>gadong</i>), or fire-proof store-houses, are one of the most
+marked features of Japanese towns, both because they are white
+where all else is grey, and because they are solid where all else
+is perishable.</p>
+<p>I am lodged in the lower part, but the iron doors are open,
+and in their place at night is a paper screen.&nbsp; A few things
+are kept in my room.&nbsp; Two handsome shrines from which the
+unemotional faces of two Buddhas looked out all night, a fine
+figure of the goddess Kwan-non, and a venerable one of the god of
+longevity, suggested curious dreams.</p>
+<p style="text-align: right">I. L. B.</p>
+<h2><a name="page137"></a><span class="pagenum">p.
+137</span>LETTER XIX.</h2>
+<p class="gutsumm">Prosperity&mdash;Convict Labour&mdash;A New
+Bridge&mdash;Yamagata&mdash;Intoxicating Forgeries&mdash;The
+Government Buildings&mdash;Bad Manners&mdash;Snow
+Mountains&mdash;A Wretched Town.</p>
+<p style="text-align: right"><span class="smcap">Kanayama</span>,
+<i>July</i> 16.</p>
+<p><span class="smcap">Three</span> days of travelling on the
+same excellent road have brought me nearly 60 miles.&nbsp;
+Yamagata <i>ken</i> impresses me as being singularly prosperous,
+progressive, and go-ahead; the plain of Yamagata, which I entered
+soon after leaving Kaminoyama, is populous and highly cultivated,
+and the broad road, with its enormous traffic, looks wealthy and
+civilised.&nbsp; It is being improved by convicts in dull red
+<i>kimonos</i> printed with Chinese characters, who correspond
+with our ticket-of-leave men, as they are working for wages in
+the employment of contractors and farmers, and are under no other
+restriction than that of always wearing the prison dress.</p>
+<p>At the Sakamoki river I was delighted to come upon the only
+thoroughly solid piece of modern Japanese work that I have met
+with&mdash;a remarkably handsome stone bridge nearly
+finished&mdash;the first I have seen.&nbsp; I introduced myself
+to the engineer, Okuno Chiuzo, a very gentlemanly, agreeable
+Japanese, who showed me the plans, took a great deal of trouble
+to explain them, and courteously gave me tea and sweetmeats.</p>
+<p>Yamagata, a thriving town of 21,000 people and the capital of
+the <i>ken</i>, is well situated on a slight eminence, and this
+and the dominant position of the <i>kench&ocirc;</i> at the top
+of the main street give it an emphasis unusual in Japanese
+towns.&nbsp; The outskirts of all the cities are very mean, and
+the appearance of the lofty white buildings of the new Government
+Offices above the low grey houses was much of a surprise.&nbsp;
+The streets of Yamagata are broad and clean, and it has good
+shops, among which are long rows selling nothing but ornamental
+iron kettles <a name="page138"></a><span class="pagenum">p.
+138</span>and ornamental brasswork.&nbsp; So far in the interior
+I was annoyed to find several shops almost exclusively for the
+sale of villainous forgeries of European eatables and drinkables,
+specially the latter.&nbsp; The Japanese, from the Mikado
+downwards, have acquired a love of foreign intoxicants, which
+would be hurtful enough to them if the intoxicants were genuine,
+but is far worse when they are compounds of vitriol, fusel oil,
+bad vinegar, and I know not what.&nbsp; I saw two shops in
+Yamagata which sold champagne of the best brands, Martel&rsquo;s
+cognac, Bass&rsquo; ale, Medoc, St. Julian, and Scotch whisky, at
+about one-fifth of their cost price&mdash;all poisonous
+compounds, the sale of which ought to be interdicted.</p>
+<p>The Government Buildings, though in the usual confectionery
+style, are improved by the addition of verandahs; and the
+<i>Kench&ocirc;</i>, <i>Saibanch&ocirc;</i>, or Court House, the
+Normal School with advanced schools attached, and the police
+buildings, are all in keeping with the good road and obvious
+prosperity.&nbsp; A large two-storied hospital, with a cupola,
+which will accommodate 150 patients, and is to be a medical
+school, is nearly finished.&nbsp; It is very well arranged and
+ventilated.&nbsp; I cannot say as much for the present hospital,
+which I went over.&nbsp; At the Court House I saw twenty
+officials doing nothing, and as many policemen, all in European
+dress, to which they had added an imitation of European manners,
+the total result being unmitigated vulgarity.&nbsp; They demanded
+my passport before they would tell me the population of the
+<i>ken</i> and city.&nbsp; Once or twice I have found fault with
+Ito&rsquo;s manners, and he has asked me twice since if I think
+them like the manners of the policemen at Yamagata!</p>
+<p>North of Yamagata the plain widens, and fine longitudinal
+ranges capped with snow mountains on the one side, and broken
+ranges with lateral spurs on the other, enclose as cheerful and
+pleasant a region as one would wish to see, with many pleasant
+villages on the lower slopes of the hills.&nbsp; The mercury was
+only 70&deg;, and the wind north, so it was an especially
+pleasant journey, though I had to go three and a half <i>ri</i>
+beyond Tendo, a town of 5000 people, where I had intended to
+halt, because the only inns at Tendo which were not
+<i>kashitsukeya</i> were so occupied with silk-worms that they
+could not receive me.</p>
+<p><a name="page139"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 139</span>The
+next day&rsquo;s journey was still along the same fine road,
+through a succession of farming villages and towns of 1500 and
+2000 people, such as Tochiida and Obanasawa, were frequent.&nbsp;
+From both these there was a glorious view of Ch&ocirc;kaizan, a
+grand, snow-covered dome, said to be 8000 feet high, which rises
+in an altogether unexpected manner from comparatively level
+country, and, as the great snow-fields of Udonosan are in sight
+at the same time, with most picturesque curtain ranges below, it
+may be considered one of the grandest views of Japan.&nbsp; After
+leaving Obanasawa the road passes along a valley watered by one
+of the affluents of the Mogami, and, after crossing it by a fine
+wooden bridge, ascends a pass from which the view is most
+magnificent.&nbsp; After a long ascent through a region of light,
+peaty soil, wooded with pine, cryptomeria, and scrub oak, a long
+descent and a fine avenue terminate in Shinj&ocirc;, a wretched
+town of over 5000 people, situated in a plain of rice-fields.</p>
+<p>The day&rsquo;s journey, of over twenty-three miles, was
+through villages of farms without <i>yadoyas</i>, and in many
+cases without even tea-houses.&nbsp; The style of building has
+quite changed.&nbsp; Wood has disappeared, and all the houses are
+now built with heavy beams and walls of laths and brown mud mixed
+with chopped straw, and very neat.&nbsp; Nearly all are great
+oblong barns, turned endwise to the road, 50, 60, and even 100
+feet long, with the end nearest the road the
+dwelling-house.&nbsp; These farm-houses have no paper windows,
+only <i>amado</i>, with a few panes of paper at the top.&nbsp;
+These are drawn back in the daytime, and, in the better class of
+houses, blinds, formed of reeds or split bamboo, are let down
+over the opening.&nbsp; There are no ceilings, and in many cases
+an unmolested rat snake lives in the rafters, who, when he is
+much gorged, occasionally falls down upon a mosquito net.</p>
+<p>Again I write that Shinj&ocirc; is a wretched place.&nbsp; It
+is a <i>daimiy&ocirc;&rsquo;s</i> town, and every
+<i>daimiy&ocirc;&rsquo;s</i> town that I have seen has an air of
+decay, partly owing to the fact that the castle is either pulled
+down, or has been allowed to fall into decay.&nbsp; Shinj&ocirc;
+has a large trade in rice, silk, and hemp, and ought not to be as
+poor as it looks.&nbsp; The mosquitoes were in thousands, and I
+had to go to bed, so as to be out of their reach, before I had
+finished my wretched meal of sago and <a name="page140"></a><span
+class="pagenum">p. 140</span>condensed milk.&nbsp; There was a
+hot rain all night, my wretched room was dirty and stifling, and
+rats gnawed my boots and ran away with my cucumbers.</p>
+<p>To-day the temperature is high and the sky murky.&nbsp; The
+good road has come to an end, and the old hardships have begun
+again.&nbsp; After leaving Shinj&ocirc; this morning we crossed
+over a steep ridge into a singular basin of great beauty, with a
+semicircle of pyramidal hills, rendered more striking by being
+covered to their summits with pyramidal cryptomeria, and
+apparently blocking all northward progress.&nbsp; At their feet
+lies Kanayama in a romantic situation, and, though I arrived as
+early as noon, I am staying for a day or two, for my room at the
+Transport Office is cheerful and pleasant, the agent is most
+polite, a very rough region lies before me, and Ito has secured a
+chicken for the first time since leaving Nikk&ocirc;!</p>
+<p>I find it impossible in this damp climate, and in my present
+poor health, to travel with any comfort for more than two or
+three days at a time, and it is difficult to find pretty, quiet,
+and wholesome places for a halt of two nights.&nbsp; Freedom from
+fleas and mosquitoes one can never hope for, though the last vary
+in number, and I have found a way of &ldquo;dodging&rdquo; the
+first by laying down a piece of oiled paper six feet square upon
+the mat, dusting along its edges a band of Persian insect powder,
+and setting my chair in the middle.&nbsp; I am then insulated,
+and, though myriads of fleas jump on the paper, the powder
+stupefies them, and they are easily killed.&nbsp; I have been
+obliged to rest here at any rate, because I have been stung on my
+left hand both by a hornet and a gadfly, and it is badly
+inflamed.&nbsp; In some places the hornets are in hundreds, and
+make the horses wild.&nbsp; I am also suffering from inflammation
+produced by the bites of &ldquo;horse ants,&rdquo; which attack
+one in walking.&nbsp; The Japanese suffer very much from these,
+and a neglected bite often produces an intractable ulcer.&nbsp;
+Besides these, there is a fly, as harmless in appearance as our
+house-fly, which bites as badly as a mosquito.&nbsp; These are
+some of the drawbacks of Japanese travelling in summer, but worse
+than these is the lack of such food as one can eat when one
+finishes a hard day&rsquo;s journey without appetite, in an
+exhausting atmosphere.</p>
+<p><i>July</i> 18.&mdash;I have had so much pain and fever from
+stings <a name="page141"></a><span class="pagenum">p.
+141</span>and bites that last night I was glad to consult a
+Japanese doctor from Shinj&ocirc;.&nbsp; Ito, who looks twice as
+big as usual when he has to do any &ldquo;grand&rdquo;
+interpreting, and always puts on silk <i>hakama</i> in honour of
+it, came in with a middle-aged man dressed entirely in silk, who
+prostrated himself three times on the ground, and then sat down
+on his heels.&nbsp; Ito in many words explained my calamities,
+and Dr. Nosoki then asked to see my &ldquo;honourable
+hand,&rdquo; which he examined carefully, and then my
+&ldquo;honourable foot.&rdquo;&nbsp; He felt my pulse and looked
+at my eyes with a magnifying glass, and with much sucking in of
+his breath&mdash;a sign of good breeding and
+politeness&mdash;informed me that I had much fever, which I knew
+before; then that I must rest, which I also knew; then he lighted
+his pipe and contemplated me.&nbsp; Then he felt my pulse and
+looked at my eyes again, then felt the swelling from the hornet
+bite, and said it was much inflamed, of which I was painfully
+aware, and then clapped his hands three times.&nbsp; At this
+signal a coolie appeared, carrying a handsome black lacquer chest
+with the same crest in gold upon it as Dr. Nosoki wore in white
+on his <i>haori</i>.&nbsp; This contained a medicine chest of
+fine gold lacquer, fitted up with shelves, drawers, bottles,
+etc.&nbsp; He compounded a lotion first, with which he bandaged
+my hand and arm rather skilfully, telling me to pour the lotion
+over the bandage at intervals till the pain abated.&nbsp; The
+whole was covered with oiled paper, which answers the purpose of
+oiled silk.&nbsp; He then compounded a febrifuge, which, as it is
+purely vegetable, I have not hesitated to take, and told me to
+drink it in hot water, and to avoid <i>sak&eacute;</i> for a day
+or two!</p>
+<p>I asked him what his fee was, and, after many bows and much
+spluttering and sucking in of his breath, he asked if I should
+think half a <i>yen</i> too much, and when I presented him with a
+<i>yen</i>, and told him with a good deal of profound bowing on
+my part that I was exceedingly glad to obtain his services, his
+gratitude quite abashed me by its immensity.</p>
+<p>Dr. Nosoki is one of the old-fashioned practitioners, whose
+medical knowledge has been handed down from father to son, and
+who holds out, as probably most of his patients do, against
+European methods and drugs.&nbsp; A strong prejudice against
+surgical operations, specially amputations, exists throughout
+Japan.&nbsp; With regard to the latter, people think that, as
+they <a name="page142"></a><span class="pagenum">p.
+142</span>came into the world complete, so they are bound to go
+out of it, and in many places a surgeon would hardly be able to
+buy at any price the privilege of cutting off an arm.</p>
+<p>Except from books these older men know nothing of the
+mechanism of the human body, as dissection is unknown to native
+science.&nbsp; Dr. Nosoki told me that he relies mainly on the
+application of the <i>moxa</i> and on acupuncture in the
+treatment of acute diseases, and in chronic maladies on friction,
+medicinal baths, certain animal and vegetable medicines, and
+certain kinds of food.&nbsp; The use of leeches and blisters is
+unknown to him, and he regards mineral drugs with obvious
+suspicion.&nbsp; He has heard of chloroform, but has never seen
+it used, and considers that in maternity it must necessarily be
+fatal either to mother or child.&nbsp; He asked me (and I have
+twice before been asked the same question) whether it is not by
+its use that we endeavour to keep down our redundant
+population!&nbsp; He has great faith in <i>ginseng</i>, and in
+rhinoceros horn, and in the powdered liver of some animal, which,
+from the description, I understood to be a tiger&mdash;all
+specifics of the Chinese school of medicines.&nbsp; Dr. Nosoki
+showed me a small box of &ldquo;unicorn&rsquo;s&rdquo; horn,
+which he said was worth more than its weight in gold!&nbsp; As my
+arm improved coincidently with the application of his lotion, I
+am bound to give him the credit of the cure.</p>
+<p>I invited him to dinner, and two tables were produced covered
+with different dishes, of which he ate heartily, showing most
+singular dexterity with his chopsticks in removing the flesh of
+small, bony fish.&nbsp; It is proper to show appreciation of a
+repast by noisy gulpings, and much gurgling and drawing in of the
+breath.&nbsp; Etiquette rigidly prescribes these performances,
+which are most distressing to a European, and my guest nearly
+upset my gravity by them.</p>
+<p>The host and the <i>k&ocirc;ch&ocirc;</i>, or chief man of the
+village, paid me a formal visit in the evening, and Ito, <i>en
+grande tenue</i>, exerted himself immensely on the
+occasion.&nbsp; They were much surprised at my not smoking, and
+supposed me to be under a vow!&nbsp; They asked me many questions
+about our customs and Government, but frequently reverted to
+tobacco.</p>
+<p style="text-align: right">I. L. B.</p>
+<h2><a name="page143"></a><span class="pagenum">p.
+143</span>LETTER XX.</h2>
+<blockquote><p>The Effect of a Chicken&mdash;Poor Fare&mdash;Slow
+Travelling&mdash;Objects of
+Interest&mdash;<i>Kak&rsquo;k&eacute;</i>&mdash;The Fatal
+Close&mdash;A Great Fire&mdash;Security of the <i>Kuras</i>.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<p style="text-align: right"><span class="smcap">Shingoji</span>,
+<i>July</i> 21.</p>
+<p><span class="smcap">Very</span> early in the morning, after my
+long talk with the <i>K&ocirc;ch&ocirc;</i> of Kanayama, Ito
+wakened me by saying, &ldquo;You&rsquo;ll be able for a long
+day&rsquo;s journey to-day, as you had a chicken
+yesterday,&rdquo; and under this chicken&rsquo;s marvellous
+influence we got away at 6.45, only to verify the proverb,
+&ldquo;The more haste the worse speed.&rdquo;&nbsp; Unsolicited
+by me the <i>K&ocirc;ch&ocirc;</i> sent round the village to
+forbid the people from assembling, so I got away in peace with a
+pack-horse and one runner.&nbsp; It was a terrible road, with two
+severe mountain-passes to cross, and I not only had to walk
+nearly the whole way, but to help the man with the <i>kuruma</i>
+up some of the steepest places.&nbsp; Halting at the exquisitely
+situated village of Nosoki, we got one horse, and walked by a
+mountain road along the head-waters of the Omono to Innai.&nbsp;
+I wish I could convey to you any idea of the beauty and wildness
+of that mountain route, of the surprises on the way, of views, of
+the violent deluges of rain which turned rivulets into torrents,
+and of the hardships and difficulties of the day; the scanty fare
+of sun-dried rice dough and sour yellow rasps, and the depth of
+the mire through which we waded!&nbsp; We crossed the Shione and
+Sakatsu passes, and in twelve hours accomplished fifteen
+miles!&nbsp; Everywhere we were told that we should never get
+through the country by the way we are going.</p>
+<p>The women still wear trousers, but with a long garment tucked
+into them instead of a short one, and the men wear a cotton
+combination of breastplate and apron, either without anything
+else, or over their <i>kimonos</i>.&nbsp; The descent to Innai <a
+name="page144"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 144</span>under an
+avenue of cryptomeria, and the village itself, shut in with the
+rushing Omono, are very beautiful.</p>
+<p>The <i>yadoya</i> at Innai was a remarkably cheerful one, but
+my room was entirely <i>fusuma</i> and <i>sh&ocirc;ji</i>, and
+people were peeping in the whole time.&nbsp; It is not only a
+foreigner and his strange ways which attract attention in these
+remote districts, but, in my case, my india-rubber bath,
+air-pillow, and, above all, my white mosquito net.&nbsp; Their
+nets are all of a heavy green canvas, and they admire mine so
+much, that I can give no more acceptable present on leaving than
+a piece of it to twist in with the hair.&nbsp; There were six
+engineers in the next room who are surveying the passes which I
+had crossed, in order to see if they could be tunnelled, in which
+case <i>kurumas</i> might go all the way from T&ocirc;kiy&ocirc;
+to Kubota on the Sea of Japan, and, with a small additional
+outlay, carts also.</p>
+<p>In the two villages of Upper and Lower Innai there has been an
+outbreak of a malady much dreaded by the Japanese, called
+<i>kak&rsquo;k&eacute;</i>, which, in the last seven months, has
+carried off 100 persons out of a population of about 1500, and
+the local doctors have been aided by two sent from the Medical
+School at Kubota.&nbsp; I don&rsquo;t know a European name for
+it; the Japanese name signifies an affection of the legs.&nbsp;
+Its first symptoms are a loss of strength in the legs,
+&ldquo;looseness in the knees,&rdquo; cramps in the calves,
+swelling, and numbness.&nbsp; This, Dr. Anderson, who has studied
+<i>kak&rsquo;k&eacute;</i> in more than 1100 cases in
+T&ocirc;kiy&ocirc;, calls the sub-acute form.&nbsp; The chronic
+is a slow, numbing, and wasting malady, which, if unchecked,
+results in death from paralysis and exhaustion in from six months
+to three years.&nbsp; The third, or acute form, Dr. Anderson
+describes thus.&nbsp; After remarking that the grave symptoms set
+in quite unexpectedly, and go on rapidly increasing, he
+says:&mdash;&ldquo;The patient now can lie down no longer; he
+sits up in bed and tosses restlessly from one position to
+another, and, with wrinkled brow, staring and anxious eyes, dusky
+skin, blue, parted lips, dilated nostrils, throbbing neck, and
+labouring chest, presents a picture of the most terrible distress
+that the worst of diseases can inflict.&nbsp; There is no
+intermission even for a moment, and the physician, here almost
+powerless, can do little more than note the failing pulse and
+falling temperature, and wait for the <a name="page145"></a><span
+class="pagenum">p. 145</span>moment when the brain, paralysed by
+the carbonised blood, shall become insensible, and allow the
+dying man to pass his last moments in merciful
+unconsciousness.&rdquo; <a name="citation145"></a><a
+href="#footnote145" class="citation">[145]</a></p>
+<p>The next morning, after riding nine miles through a quagmire,
+under grand avenues of cryptomeria, and noticing with regret that
+the telegraph poles ceased, we reached Yusowa, a town of 7000
+people, in which, had it not been for provoking delays, I should
+have slept instead of at Innai, and found that a fire a few hours
+previously had destroyed seventy houses, including the
+<i>yadoya</i> at which I should have lodged.&nbsp; We had to wait
+two hours for horses, as all were engaged in moving property and
+people.&nbsp; The ground where the houses had stood was
+absolutely bare of everything but fine black ash, among which the
+<i>kuras</i> stood blackened, and, in some instances, slightly
+cracked, but in all unharmed.&nbsp; Already skeletons of new
+houses were rising.&nbsp; No life had been lost except that of a
+tipsy man, but I should probably have lost everything but my
+money.</p>
+<h2><a name="page146"></a><span class="pagenum">p.
+146</span>LETTER XX.&mdash;(<i>Continued</i>.)</h2>
+<p class="gutsumm">Lunch in Public&mdash;A Grotesque
+Accident&mdash;Police Inquiries&mdash;Man or Woman?&mdash;A
+Melancholy Stare&mdash;A Vicious Horse&mdash;An Ill-favoured
+Town&mdash;A Disappointment&mdash;A <i>Torii</i>.</p>
+<p><span class="smcap">Yusowa</span> is a specially
+objectionable-looking place.&nbsp; I took my lunch&mdash;a
+wretched meal of a tasteless white curd made from beans, with
+some condensed milk added to it&mdash;in a yard, and the people
+crowded in hundreds to the gate, and those behind, being unable
+to see me, got ladders and climbed on the adjacent roofs, where
+they remained till one of the roofs gave way with a loud crash,
+and precipitated about fifty men, women, and children into the
+room below, which fortunately was vacant.&nbsp; Nobody
+screamed&mdash;a noteworthy fact&mdash;and the casualties were
+only a few bruises.&nbsp; Four policemen then appeared and
+demanded my passport, as if I were responsible for the accident,
+and failing, like all others, to read a particular word upon it,
+they asked me what I was travelling for, and on being told
+&ldquo;to learn about the country,&rdquo; they asked if I was
+making a map!&nbsp; Having satisfied their curiosity they
+disappeared, and the crowd surged up again in fuller force.&nbsp;
+The Transport Agent begged them to go away, but they said they
+might never see such a sight again!&nbsp; One old peasant said he
+would go away if he were told whether &ldquo;the sight&rdquo;
+were a man or a woman, and, on the agent asking if that were any
+business of his, he said he should like to tell at home what he
+had seen, which awoke my sympathy at once, and I told Ito to tell
+them that a Japanese horse galloping night and day without
+ceasing would take 5&frac12; weeks to reach my county&mdash;a
+statement which he is using lavishly as I go along.&nbsp; These
+are such queer crowds, so silent and gaping, and they remain
+motionless for hours, the wide-awake babies on the <a
+name="page147"></a><span class="pagenum">p.
+147</span>mothers&rsquo; backs and in the fathers&rsquo; arms
+never crying.&nbsp; I should be glad to hear a hearty aggregate
+laugh, even if I were its object.&nbsp; The great melancholy
+stare is depressing.</p>
+<p>The road for ten miles was thronged with country people going
+in to see the fire.&nbsp; It was a good road and very pleasant
+country, with numerous road-side shrines and figures of the
+goddess of mercy.&nbsp; I had a wicked horse, thoroughly
+vicious.&nbsp; His head was doubly chained to the saddle-girth,
+but he never met man, woman, or child, without laying back his
+ears and running at them to bite them.&nbsp; I was so tired and
+in so much spinal pain that I got off and walked several times,
+and it was most difficult to get on again, for as soon as I put
+my hand on the saddle he swung his hind legs round to kick me,
+and it required some agility to avoid being hurt.&nbsp; Nor was
+this all.&nbsp; The evil beast made dashes with his tethered head
+at flies, threatening to twist or demolish my foot at each, flung
+his hind legs upwards, attempted to dislodge flies on his nose
+with his hind hoof, executed capers which involved a total
+disappearance of everything in front of the saddle, squealed,
+stumbled, kicked his old shoes off, and resented the feeble
+attempts which the <i>mago</i> made to replace them, and finally
+walked in to Yokote and down its long and dismal street mainly on
+his hind legs, shaking the rope out of his timid leader&rsquo;s
+hand, and shaking me into a sort of aching jelly!&nbsp; I used to
+think that horses were made vicious either by being teased or by
+violence in breaking; but this does not account for the malignity
+of the Japanese horses, for the people are so much afraid of them
+that they treat them with great respect: they are not beaten or
+kicked, are spoken to in soothing tones, and, on the whole, live
+better than their masters.&nbsp; Perhaps this is the secret of
+their villainy&mdash;&ldquo;Jeshurun waxed fat and
+kicked.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>Yokote, a town of 10,000 people, in which the best
+<i>yadoyas</i> are all non-respectable, is an ill-favoured,
+ill-smelling, forlorn, dirty, damp, miserable place, with a large
+trade in cottons.&nbsp; As I rode through on my temporary biped
+the people rushed out from the baths to see me, men and women
+alike without a particle of clothing.&nbsp; The house-master was
+very polite, but I had a dark and dirty room, up a bamboo ladder,
+and it swarmed with fleas and mosquitoes to an exasperating
+extent.&nbsp; <a name="page148"></a><span class="pagenum">p.
+148</span>On the way I heard that a bullock was killed every
+Thursday in Yokote, and had decided on having a broiled steak for
+supper and taking another with me, but when I arrived it was all
+sold, there were no eggs, and I made a miserable meal of rice and
+bean curd, feeling somewhat starved, as the condensed milk I
+bought at Yamagata had to be thrown away.&nbsp; I was somewhat
+wretched from fatigue and inflamed ant bites, but in the early
+morning, hot and misty as all the mornings have been, I went to
+see a Shint&ocirc; temple, or <i>miya</i>, and, though I went
+alone, escaped a throng.</p>
+<p>The entrance into the temple court was, as usual, by a
+<i>torii</i>, which consisted of two large posts 20 feet high,
+surmounted with cross beams, the upper one of which projects
+beyond the posts and frequently curves upwards at both
+ends.&nbsp; The whole, as is often the case, was painted a dull
+red.&nbsp; This <i>torii</i>, or &ldquo;birds&rsquo; rest,&rdquo;
+is said to be so called because the fowls, which were formerly
+offered but not sacrificed, were accustomed to perch upon
+it.&nbsp; A straw rope, with straw tassels and strips of paper
+hanging from it, the special emblem of Shint&ocirc;, hung across
+the gateway.&nbsp; In the paved court there were several handsome
+granite lanterns on fine granite pedestals, such as are the
+nearly universal accompaniments of both Shint&ocirc; and Buddhist
+temples.</p>
+<p>After leaving Yakote we passed through very pretty country
+with mountain views and occasional glimpses of the snowy dome of
+Chokaizan, crossed the Omono (which has burst its banks and
+destroyed its bridges) by two troublesome ferries, and arrived at
+Rokugo, a town of 5000 people, with fine temples, exceptionally
+mean houses, and the most aggressive crowd by which I have yet
+been asphyxiated.</p>
+<p>There, through the good offices of the police, I was enabled
+to attend a Buddhist funeral of a merchant of some wealth.&nbsp;
+It interested me very much from its solemnity and decorum, and
+Ito&rsquo;s explanations of what went before were remarkably
+distinctly given.&nbsp; I went in a Japanese woman&rsquo;s dress,
+borrowed at the tea-house, with a blue hood over my head, and
+thus escaped all notice, but I found the restraint of the scanty
+&ldquo;tied forward&rdquo; <i>kimono</i> very tiresome.&nbsp; Ito
+gave me many injunctions as to what I was to do and avoid, which
+I carried out faithfully, being nervously anxious to avoid
+jarring on the <a name="page149"></a><span class="pagenum">p.
+149</span>sensibilities of those who had kindly permitted a
+foreigner to be present.</p>
+<p style="text-align: center">
+<a href="images/p149b.jpg">
+<img alt=
+"Torii"
+title=
+"Torii"
+ src="images/p149s.jpg" />
+</a></p>
+<p>The illness was a short one, and there had been no time either
+for prayers or pilgrimages on the sick man&rsquo;s behalf.&nbsp;
+When death occurs the body is laid with its head to the north (a
+position that the living Japanese scrupulously avoid), near a
+folding screen, between which and it a new <i>zen</i> is placed,
+on which are a saucer of oil with a lighted rush, cakes of
+uncooked rice dough, and a saucer of incense sticks.&nbsp; The
+priests directly after death choose the <i>kaimiy&ocirc;</i>, or
+posthumous name, write it on a tablet of white wood, and seat
+themselves by the corpse; his <i>zen</i>, bowls, cups, etc., are
+filled with vegetable food and are placed by his side, the
+chopsticks being put on the wrong, <i>i.e.</i> the left, side of
+the <i>zen</i>.&nbsp; At the end of forty-eight hours the corpse
+is arranged for the coffin by being washed with warm water, and
+the priest, while saying certain prayers, shaves the head.&nbsp;
+In all cases, rich or poor, the dress is of the usual make, but
+of pure white linen or cotton.</p>
+<p>At Omagori, a town near Rokugo, large earthenware jars <a
+name="page150"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 150</span>are
+manufactured, which are much used for interment by the wealthy;
+but in this case there were two square boxes, the outer one being
+of finely planed wood of the <i>Retinospora obtusa</i>.&nbsp; The
+poor use what is called the &ldquo;quick-tub,&rdquo; a covered
+tub of pine hooped with bamboo.&nbsp; Women are dressed for
+burial in the silk robe worn on the marriage day, <i>tabi</i> are
+placed beside them or on their feet, and their hair usually flows
+loosely behind them.&nbsp; The wealthiest people fill the coffin
+with vermilion and the poorest use chaff; but in this case I
+heard that only the mouth, nose, and ears were filled with
+vermilion, and that the coffin was filled up with coarse
+incense.&nbsp; The body is placed within the tub or box in the
+usual squatting position.&nbsp; It is impossible to understand
+how a human body, many hours after death, can be pressed into the
+limited space afforded by even the outermost of the boxes.&nbsp;
+It has been said that the rigidity of a corpse is overcome by the
+use of a powder called <i>dosia</i>, which is sold by the
+priests; but this idea has been exploded, and the process remains
+incomprehensible.</p>
+<p>Bannerets of small size and ornamental staves were outside the
+house door.&nbsp; Two men in blue dresses, with pale blue
+over-garments resembling wings received each person, two more
+presented a lacquered bowl of water and a white silk
+<i>cr&ecirc;pe</i> towel, and then we passed into a large room,
+round which were arranged a number of very handsome folding
+screens, on which lotuses, storks, and peonies were realistically
+painted on a dead gold ground.&nbsp; Near the end of the room the
+coffin, under a canopy of white silk, upon which there was a very
+beautiful arrangement of artificial white lotuses, rested upon
+trestles, the face of the corpse being turned towards the
+north.&nbsp; Six priests, very magnificently dressed, sat on each
+side of the coffin, and two more knelt in front of a small
+temporary altar.</p>
+<p>The widow, an extremely pretty woman, squatted near the
+deceased, below the father and mother; and after her came the
+children, relatives, and friends, who sat in rows, dressed in
+winged garments of blue and white.&nbsp; The widow was painted
+white; her lips were reddened with vermilion; her hair was
+elaborately dressed and ornamented with carved shell pins; she
+wore a beautiful dress of sky-blue silk, with a <i>haori</i> of
+fine white <i>cr&ecirc;pe</i> and a scarlet <i>cr&ecirc;pe</i>
+girdle embroidered in gold, and looked like a bride on her
+marriage day rather than a widow.&nbsp; <a
+name="page151"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 151</span>Indeed,
+owing to the beauty of the dresses and the amount of blue and
+white silk, the room had a festal rather than a funereal
+look.&nbsp; When all the guests had arrived, tea and sweetmeats
+were passed round; incense was burned profusely; litanies were
+mumbled, and the bustle of moving to the grave began, during
+which I secured a place near the gate of the temple grounds.</p>
+<p>The procession did not contain the father or mother of the
+deceased, but I understood that the mourners who composed it were
+all relatives.&nbsp; The oblong tablet with the &ldquo;dead
+name&rdquo; of the deceased was carried first by a priest, then
+the lotus blossom by another priest, then ten priests followed,
+two and two, chanting litanies from books, then came the coffin
+on a platform borne by four men and covered with white drapery,
+then the widow, and then the other relatives.&nbsp; The coffin
+was carried into the temple and laid upon trestles, while incense
+was burned and prayers were said, and was then carried to a
+shallow grave lined with cement, and prayers were said by the
+priests until the earth was raised to the proper level, when all
+dispersed, and the widow, in her gay attire, walked home
+unattended.&nbsp; There were no hired mourners or any signs of
+grief, but nothing could be more solemn, reverent, and decorous
+than the whole service.&nbsp; [I have since seen many funerals,
+chiefly of the poor, and, though shorn of much of the ceremony,
+and with only one officiating priest, the decorum was always most
+remarkable.]&nbsp; The fees to the priests are from 2 up to 40 or
+50 <i>yen</i>.&nbsp; The graveyard, which surrounds the temple,
+was extremely beautiful, and the cryptomeria specially
+fine.&nbsp; It was very full of stone gravestones, and, like all
+Japanese cemeteries, exquisitely kept.&nbsp; As soon as the grave
+was filled in, a life-size pink lotus plant was placed upon it,
+and a lacquer tray, on which were lacquer bowls containing tea or
+<i>sak&eacute;</i>, beans, and sweetmeats.</p>
+<p>The temple at Rokugo was very beautiful, and, except that its
+ornaments were superior in solidity and good taste, differed
+little from a Romish church.&nbsp; The low altar, on which were
+lilies and lighted candles, was draped in blue and silver, and on
+the high altar, draped in crimson and cloth of gold, there was
+nothing but a closed shrine, an incense-burner, and a vase of
+lotuses.</p>
+<h2><a name="page152"></a><span class="pagenum">p.
+152</span>LETTER XX.&mdash;(<i>Concluded</i>.)</h2>
+<p class="gutsumm">A Casual Invitation&mdash;A Ludicrous
+Incident&mdash;Politeness of a Policeman&mdash;A Comfortless
+Sunday&mdash;An Outrageous Irruption&mdash;A Privileged
+Stare.</p>
+<p><span class="smcap">At</span> a wayside tea-house, soon after
+leaving Rokugo in <i>kurumas</i>, I met the same courteous and
+agreeable young doctor who was stationed at Innai during the
+prevalence of <i>kak&rsquo;ke</i>, and he invited me to visit the
+hospital at Kubota, of which he is junior physician, and told Ito
+of a restaurant at which &ldquo;foreign food&rdquo; can be
+obtained&mdash;a pleasant prospect, of which he is always
+reminding me.</p>
+<p>Travelling along a very narrow road, I as usual first, we met
+a man leading a prisoner by a rope, followed by a
+policeman.&nbsp; As soon as my runner saw the latter he fell down
+on his face so suddenly in the shafts as nearly to throw me out,
+at the same time trying to wriggle into a garment which he had
+carried on the crossbar, while the young men who were drawing the
+two <i>kurumas</i> behind, crouching behind my vehicle, tried to
+scuttle into their clothes.&nbsp; I never saw such a picture of
+abjectness as my man presented.&nbsp; He trembled from head to
+foot, and illustrated that queer phrase often heard in Scotch
+Presbyterian prayers, &ldquo;Lay our hands on our mouths and our
+mouths in the dust.&rdquo;&nbsp; He literally grovelled in the
+dust, and with every sentence that the policeman spoke raised his
+head a little, to bow it yet more deeply than before.&nbsp; It
+was all because he had no clothes on.&nbsp; I interceded for him
+as the day was very hot, and the policeman said he would not
+arrest him, as he should otherwise have done, because of the
+inconvenience that it would cause to a foreigner.&nbsp; He was
+quite an elderly man, and never recovered his spirits, but, as
+soon as a turn of the road took us out of the policeman&rsquo;s
+sight, the two <a name="page153"></a><span class="pagenum">p.
+153</span>younger men threw their clothes into the air and
+gambolled in the shafts, shrieking with laughter!</p>
+<p>On reaching Shingoji, being too tired to go farther, I was
+dismayed to find nothing but a low, dark, foul-smelling room,
+enclosed only by dirty <i>sh&ocirc;ji</i>, in which to spend
+Sunday.&nbsp; One side looked into a little mildewed court, with
+a slimy growth of <i>Protococcus viridis</i>, and into which the
+people of another house constantly came to stare.&nbsp; The other
+side opened on the earthen passage into the street, where
+travellers wash their feet, the third into the kitchen, and the
+fourth into the front room.&nbsp; Even before dark it was alive
+with mosquitoes, and the fleas hopped on the mats like
+sand-flies.&nbsp; There were no eggs, nothing but rice and
+cucumbers.&nbsp; At five on Sunday morning I saw three faces
+pressed against the outer lattice, and before evening the
+<i>sh&ocirc;ji</i> were riddled with finger-holes, at each of
+which a dark eye appeared.&nbsp; There was a still, fine rain all
+day, with the mercury at 82&deg;, and the heat, darkness, and
+smells were difficult to endure.&nbsp; In the afternoon a small
+procession passed the house, consisting of a decorated palanquin,
+carried and followed by priests, with capes and stoles over
+crimson chasubles and white cassocks.&nbsp; This ark, they said,
+contained papers inscribed with the names of people and the evils
+they feared, and the priests were carrying the papers to throw
+them into the river.</p>
+<p>I went to bed early as a refuge from mosquitoes, with the
+<i>andon</i>, as usual, dimly lighting the room, and shut my
+eyes.&nbsp; About nine I heard a good deal of whispering and
+shuffling, which continued for some time, and, on looking up, saw
+opposite to me about 40 men, women, and children (Ito says 100),
+all staring at me, with the light upon their faces.&nbsp; They
+had silently removed three of the <i>sh&ocirc;ji</i> next the
+passage!&nbsp; I called Ito loudly, and clapped my hands, but
+they did not stir till he came, and then they fled like a flock
+of sheep.&nbsp; I have patiently, and even smilingly, borne all
+out-of-doors crowding and curiosity, but this kind of intrusion
+is unbearable; and I sent Ito to the police station, much against
+his will, to beg the police to keep the people out of the house,
+as the house-master was unable to do so.&nbsp; This morning, as I
+was finishing dressing, a policeman appeared in my room,
+ostensibly to apologise for the behaviour of the people, but in
+reality to have <a name="page154"></a><span class="pagenum">p.
+154</span>a privileged stare at me, and, above all, at my
+stretcher and mosquito net, from which he hardly took his
+eyes.&nbsp; Ito says he could make a <i>yen</i> a day by showing
+them!&nbsp; The policeman said that the people had never seen a
+foreigner.</p>
+<p style="text-align: right">I. L. B.</p>
+<p style="text-align: center">
+<a href="images/p154b.jpg">
+<img alt=
+"Daikoku, the God of Wealth"
+title=
+"Daikoku, the God of Wealth"
+ src="images/p154s.jpg" />
+</a></p>
+<h2><a name="page155"></a><span class="pagenum">p.
+155</span>LETTER XXI.</h2>
+<p class="gutsumm">The Necessity of Firmness&mdash;Perplexing
+Misrepresentations&mdash;Gliding with the Stream&mdash;Suburban
+Residences&mdash;The Kubota Hospital&mdash;A Formal
+Reception&mdash;The Normal School.</p>
+<p style="text-align: right"><span class="smcap">Kubota</span>,
+<i>July</i> 23.</p>
+<p>I <span class="smcap">arrived</span> here on Monday afternoon
+by the river Omono, what would have been two long days&rsquo;
+journey by land having been easily accomplished in nine hours by
+water.&nbsp; This was an instance of forming a plan wisely, and
+adhering to it resolutely!&nbsp; Firmness in travelling is
+nowhere more necessary than in Japan.&nbsp; I decided some time
+ago, from Mr. Brunton&rsquo;s map, that the Omono must be
+navigable from Shingoji, and a week ago told Ito to inquire about
+it, but at each place difficulties have been started.&nbsp; There
+was too much water, there was too little; there were bad rapids,
+there were shallows; it was too late in the year; all the boats
+which had started lately were lying aground; but at one of the
+ferries I saw in the distance a merchandise boat going down, and
+told Ito I should go that way and no other.&nbsp; On arriving at
+Shingoji they said it was not on the Omono at all, but on a
+stream with some very bad rapids, in which boats are broken to
+pieces.&nbsp; Lastly, they said there was no boat, but on my
+saying that I would send ten miles for one, a small,
+flat-bottomed scow was produced by the Transport Agent, into
+which Ito, the luggage, and myself accurately fitted.&nbsp; Ito
+sententiously observed, &ldquo;Not one thing has been told us on
+our journey which has turned out true!&rdquo;&nbsp; This is not
+an exaggeration.&nbsp; The usual crowd did not assemble round the
+door, but preceded me to the river, where it covered the banks
+and clustered in the trees.&nbsp; Four policemen escorted me
+down.&nbsp; The voyage of forty-two miles was delightful.&nbsp;
+The <a name="page156"></a><span class="pagenum">p.
+156</span>rapids were a mere ripple, the current was strong, one
+boatman almost slept upon his paddle, the other only woke to bale
+the boat when it was half-full of water, the shores were silent
+and pretty, and almost without population till we reached the
+large town of Araya, which straggles along a high bank for a
+considerable distance, and after nine peaceful hours we turned
+off from the main stream of the Omono just at the outskirts of
+Kubota, and poled up a narrow, green river, fringed by
+dilapidated backs of houses, boat-building yards, and rafts of
+timber on one side, and dwelling-houses, gardens, and damp
+greenery on the other.&nbsp; This stream is crossed by very
+numerous bridges.</p>
+<p>I got a cheerful upstairs room at a most friendly
+<i>yadoya</i>, and my three days here have been fully occupied
+and very pleasant. &ldquo;Foreign food&rdquo;&mdash;a good
+beef-steak, an excellent curry, cucumbers, and foreign salt and
+mustard, were at once obtained, and I felt my &ldquo;eyes
+lightened&rdquo; after partaking of them.</p>
+<p>Kubota is a very attractive and purely Japanese town of 36,000
+people, the capital of Akita <i>ken</i>.&nbsp; A fine mountain,
+called Taiheisan, rises above its fertile valley, and the Omono
+falls into the Sea of Japan close to it.&nbsp; It has a number of
+<i>kurumas</i>, but, owing to heavy sand and the badness of the
+roads, they can only go three miles in any direction.&nbsp; It is
+a town of activity and brisk trade, and manufactures a silk
+fabric in stripes of blue and black, and yellow and black, much
+used for making <i>hakama</i> and <i>kimonos</i>, a species of
+white silk <i>cr&ecirc;pe</i> with a raised woof, which brings a
+high price in T&ocirc;kiy&ocirc; shops, <i>fusuma</i>, and
+clogs.&nbsp; Though it is a castle town, it is free from the
+usual &ldquo;deadly-lively&rdquo; look, and has an air of
+prosperity and comfort.&nbsp; Though it has few streets of shops,
+it covers a great extent of ground with streets and lanes of
+pretty, isolated dwelling-houses, surrounded by trees, gardens,
+and well-trimmed hedges, each garden entered by a substantial
+gateway.&nbsp; The existence of something like a middle class
+with home privacy and home life is suggested by these miles of
+comfortable &ldquo;suburban residences.&rdquo;&nbsp; Foreign
+influence is hardly at all felt, there is not a single foreigner
+in Government or any other employment, and even the hospital was
+organised from the beginning by Japanese doctors.</p>
+<p><a name="page157"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 157</span>This
+fact made me greatly desire to see it, but, on going there at the
+proper hour for visitors, I was met by the Director with
+courteous but vexatious denial.&nbsp; No foreigner could see it,
+he said, without sending his passport to the Governor and getting
+a written order, so I complied with these preliminaries, and 8
+a.m. of the next day was fixed for my visit Ito, who is lazy
+about interpreting for the lower orders, but exerts himself to
+the utmost on such an occasion as this, went with me, handsomely
+clothed in silk, as befitted an &ldquo;Interpreter,&rdquo; and
+surpassed all his former efforts.</p>
+<p>The Director and the staff of six physicians, all handsomely
+dressed in silk, met me at the top of the stairs, and conducted
+me to the management room, where six clerks were writing.&nbsp;
+Here there was a table, solemnly covered with a white cloth, and
+four chairs, on which the Director, the Chief Physician, Ito, and
+I sat, and pipes, tea, and sweetmeats, were produced.&nbsp; After
+this, accompanied by fifty medical students, whose intelligent
+looks promise well for their success, we went round the hospital,
+which is a large two-storied building in semi-European style, but
+with deep verandahs all round.&nbsp; The upper floor is used for
+class-rooms, and the lower accommodates 100 patients, besides a
+number of resident students.&nbsp; Ten is the largest number
+treated in any one room, and severe cases are treated in separate
+rooms.&nbsp; Gangrene has prevailed, and the Chief Physician, who
+is at this time remodelling the hospital, has closed some of the
+wards in consequence.&nbsp; There is a Lock Hospital under the
+same roof.&nbsp; About fifty important operations are annually
+performed under chloroform, but the people of Akita <i>ken</i>
+are very conservative, and object to part with their limbs and to
+foreign drugs.&nbsp; This conservatism diminishes the number of
+patients.</p>
+<p>The odour of carbolic acid pervaded the whole hospital, and
+there were spray producers enough to satisfy Mr. Lister!&nbsp; At
+the request of Dr. K. I saw the dressing of some very severe
+wounds carefully performed with carbolised gauze, under spray of
+carbolic acid, the fingers of the surgeon and the instruments
+used being all carefully bathed in the disinfectant.&nbsp; Dr. K.
+said it was difficult to teach the students the extreme
+carefulness with regard to minor details which is required in the
+antiseptic treatment, which he regards as one <a
+name="page158"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 158</span>of the
+greatest discoveries of this century.&nbsp; I was very much
+impressed with the fortitude shown by the surgical patients, who
+went through very severe pain without a wince or a moan.&nbsp;
+Eye cases are unfortunately very numerous.&nbsp; Dr. K.
+attributes their extreme prevalence to overcrowding, defective
+ventilation, poor living, and bad light.</p>
+<p>After our round we returned to the management room to find a
+meal laid out in English style&mdash;coffee in cups with handles
+and saucers, and plates with spoons.&nbsp; After this pipes were
+again produced, and the Director and medical staff escorted me to
+the entrance, where we all bowed profoundly.&nbsp; I was
+delighted to see that Dr. Kayabashi, a man under thirty, and
+fresh from T&ocirc;kiy&ocirc;, and all the staff and students
+were in the national dress, with the <i>hakama</i> of rich
+silk.&nbsp; It is a beautiful dress, and assists dignity as much
+as the ill-fitting European costume detracts from it.&nbsp; This
+was a very interesting visit, in spite of the difficulty of
+communication through an interpreter.</p>
+<p>The public buildings, with their fine gardens, and the broad
+road near which they stand, with its stone-faced embankments, are
+very striking in such a far-off <i>ken</i>.&nbsp; Among the
+finest of the buildings is the Normal School, where I shortly
+afterwards presented myself, but I was not admitted till I had
+shown my passport and explained my objects in travelling.&nbsp;
+These preliminaries being settled, Mr. Tomatsu Aoki, the Chief
+Director, and Mr. Shude Kane Nigishi, the principal teacher, both
+looking more like monkeys than men in their European clothes,
+lionised me.</p>
+<p>The first was most trying, for he persisted in attempting to
+speak English, of which he knows about as much as I know of
+Japanese, but the last, after some grotesque attempts, accepted
+Ito&rsquo;s services.&nbsp; The school is a commodious
+Europeanised building, three stories high, and from its upper
+balcony the view of the city, with its gray roofs and abundant
+greenery, and surrounding mountains and valleys, is very
+fine.&nbsp; The equipments of the different class-rooms surprised
+me, especially the laboratory of the chemical class-room, and the
+truly magnificent illustrative apparatus in the natural science
+class-room.&nbsp; Ganot&rsquo;s &ldquo;Physics&rdquo; is the text
+book of that department.</p>
+<p style="text-align: right">I. L. B.</p>
+<h2><a name="page159"></a><span class="pagenum">p.
+159</span>LETTER XXII.</h2>
+<p class="gutsumm">A Silk Factory&mdash;Employment for
+Women&mdash;A Police Escort&mdash;The Japanese Police Force.</p>
+<p style="text-align: right"><span class="smcap">Kubota</span>,
+<i>July</i> 23.</p>
+<p><span class="smcap">My</span> next visit was to a factory of
+handloom silk-weavers, where 180 hands, half of them women, are
+employed.&nbsp; These new industrial openings for respectable
+employment for women and girls are very important, and tend in
+the direction of a much-needed social reform.&nbsp; The striped
+silk fabrics produced are entirely for home consumption.</p>
+<p>Afterwards I went into the principal street, and, after a long
+search through the shops, bought some condensed milk with the
+&ldquo;Eagle&rdquo; brand and the label all right, but, on
+opening it, found it to contain small pellets of a brownish,
+dried curd, with an unpleasant taste!&nbsp; As I was sitting in
+the shop, half stifled by the crowd, the people suddenly fell
+back to a respectful distance, leaving me breathing space, and a
+message came from the chief of police to say that he was very
+sorry for the crowding, and had ordered two policemen to attend
+upon me for the remainder of my visit.&nbsp; The black and yellow
+uniforms were most truly welcome, and since then I have escaped
+all annoyance.&nbsp; On my return I found the card of the chief
+of police, who had left a message with the house-master
+apologising for the crowd by saying that foreigners very rarely
+visited Kubota, and he thought that the people had never seen a
+foreign woman.</p>
+<p>I went afterwards to the central police station to inquire
+about an inland route to Aomori, and received much courtesy, but
+no information.&nbsp; The police everywhere are very gentle to
+the people,&mdash;a few quiet words or a wave of the hand are
+sufficient, when they do not resist them.&nbsp; They belong to
+the <a name="page160"></a><span class="pagenum">p.
+160</span><i>samurai</i> class, and, doubtless, their naturally
+superior position weighs with the <i>heimin</i>.&nbsp; Their
+faces and a certain <i>hauteur</i> of manner show the indelible
+class distinction.&nbsp; The entire police force of Japan numbers
+23,300 educated men in the prime of life, and if 30 per cent of
+them do wear spectacles, it does not detract from their
+usefulness.&nbsp; 5600 of them are stationed at Yedo, as from
+thence they can be easily sent wherever they are wanted, 1004 at
+Kiy&ocirc;to, and 815 at Osaka, and the remaining 10,000 are
+spread over the country.&nbsp; The police force costs something
+over &pound;400,000 annually, and certainly is very efficient in
+preserving good order.&nbsp; The pay of ordinary constables
+ranges from 6 to 10 <i>yen</i> a month.&nbsp; An enormous
+quantity of superfluous writing is done by all officialdom in
+Japan, and one usually sees policemen writing.&nbsp; What comes
+of it I don&rsquo;t know.&nbsp; They are mostly intelligent and
+gentlemanly-looking young men, and foreigners in the interior are
+really much indebted to them.&nbsp; If I am at any time in
+difficulties I apply to them, and, though they are disposed to be
+somewhat <i>de haut en bas</i>, they are sure to help one, except
+about routes, of which they always profess ignorance.</p>
+<p>On the whole, I like Kubota better than any other Japanese
+town, perhaps because it is so completely Japanese and has no air
+of having seen better days.&nbsp; I no longer care to meet
+Europeans&mdash;indeed I should go far out of my way to avoid
+them.&nbsp; I have become quite used to Japanese life, and think
+that I learn more about it in travelling in this solitary way
+than I should otherwise.</p>
+<p style="text-align: right">I. L. B.</p>
+<h2><a name="page161"></a><span class="pagenum">p.
+161</span>LETTER XXIII.</h2>
+<p class="gutsumm">&ldquo;A Plague of Immoderate
+Rain&rdquo;&mdash;A Confidential Servant&mdash;Ito&rsquo;s
+Diary&mdash;Ito&rsquo;s Excellences&mdash;Ito&rsquo;s
+Faults&mdash;Prophecy of the Future of Japan&mdash;Curious
+Queries&mdash;Superfine English&mdash;Economical
+Travelling&mdash;The Japanese Pack-horse again.</p>
+<p style="text-align: right"><span class="smcap">Kubota</span>,
+<i>July</i> 24.</p>
+<p>I <span class="smcap">am</span> here still, not altogether
+because the town is fascinating, but because the rain is so
+ceaseless as to be truly &ldquo;a plague of immoderate rain and
+waters.&rdquo;&nbsp; Travellers keep coming in with stories of
+the impassability of the roads and the carrying away of
+bridges.&nbsp; Ito amuses me very much by his remarks.&nbsp; He
+thinks that my visit to the school and hospital must have raised
+Japan in my estimation, and he is talking rather big.&nbsp; He
+asked me if I noticed that all the students kept their mouths
+shut like educated men and residents of T&ocirc;kiy&ocirc;, and
+that all country people keep theirs open.&nbsp; I have said
+little about him for some time, but I daily feel more dependent
+on him, not only for all information, but actually for getting
+on.&nbsp; At night he has my watch, passport, and half my money,
+and I often wonder what would become of me if he absconded before
+morning.&nbsp; He is not a good boy.&nbsp; He has no moral sense,
+according to our notions; he dislikes foreigners; his manner is
+often very disagreeable; and yet I doubt whether I could have
+obtained a more valuable servant and interpreter.&nbsp; When we
+left T&ocirc;kiy&ocirc; he spoke fairly good English, but by
+practice and industrious study he now speaks better than any
+official interpreter that I have seen, and his vocabulary is
+daily increasing.&nbsp; He never uses a word inaccurately when he
+has once got hold of its meaning, and his memory never
+fails.&nbsp; He keeps a diary both in English and Japanese, and
+it shows much painstaking observation.&nbsp; He reads it to me
+sometimes, <a name="page162"></a><span class="pagenum">p.
+162</span>and it is interesting to hear what a young man who has
+travelled as much as he has regards as novel in this northern
+region.&nbsp; He has made a hotel book and a transport book, in
+which all the bills and receipts are written, and he daily
+transliterates the names of all places into English letters, and
+puts down the distances and the sums paid for transport and
+hotels on each bill.</p>
+<p>He inquires the number of houses in each place from the police
+or Transport Agent, and the special trade of each town, and notes
+them down for me.&nbsp; He takes great pains to be accurate, and
+occasionally remarks about some piece of information that he is
+not quite certain about, &ldquo;If it&rsquo;s not true,
+it&rsquo;s not worth having.&rdquo;&nbsp; He is never late, never
+dawdles, never goes out in the evening except on errands for me,
+never touches <i>sak&eacute;</i>, is never disobedient, never
+requires to be told the same thing twice, is always within
+hearing, has a good deal of tact as to what he repeats, and all
+with an undisguised view to his own interest.&nbsp; He sends most
+of his wages to his mother, who is a
+widow&mdash;&ldquo;It&rsquo;s the custom of the
+country&rdquo;&mdash;and seems to spend the remainder on
+sweetmeats, tobacco, and the luxury of frequent shampooing.</p>
+<p>That he would tell a lie if it served his purpose, and would
+&ldquo;squeeze&rdquo; up to the limits of extortion, if he could
+do it unobserved, I have not the slightest doubt.&nbsp; He seems
+to have but little heart, or any idea of any but vicious
+pleasures.&nbsp; He has no religion of any kind; he has been too
+much with foreigners for that.&nbsp; His frankness is something
+startling.&nbsp; He has no idea of reticence on any subject; but
+probably I learn more about things as they really are from this
+very defect.&nbsp; In virtue in man or woman, except in that of
+his former master, he has little, if any belief.&nbsp; He thinks
+that Japan is right in availing herself of the discoveries made
+by foreigners, that they have as much to learn from her, and that
+she will outstrip them in the race, because she takes all that is
+worth having, and rejects the incubus of Christianity.&nbsp;
+Patriotism is, I think, his strongest feeling, and I never met
+with such a boastful display of it, except in a Scotchman or an
+American.&nbsp; He despises the uneducated, as he can read and
+write both the syllabaries.&nbsp; For foreign rank or position he
+has not an atom of reverence or value, but a great deal of both
+for Japanese <a name="page163"></a><span class="pagenum">p.
+163</span>officialdom.&nbsp; He despises the intellects of women,
+but flirts in a town-bred fashion with the simple tea-house
+girls.</p>
+<p>He is anxious to speak the very best English, and to say that
+a word is slangy or common interdicts its use.&nbsp; Sometimes,
+when the weather is fine and things go smoothly, he is in an
+excellent and communicative humour, and talks a good deal as we
+travel.&nbsp; A few days ago I remarked, &ldquo;What a beautiful
+day this is!&rdquo; and soon after, note-book in hand, he said,
+&ldquo;You say &lsquo;a beautiful day.&rsquo;&nbsp; Is that
+better English than &lsquo;a devilish fine day,&rsquo; which most
+foreigners say?&rdquo;&nbsp; I replied that it was
+&ldquo;common,&rdquo; and &ldquo;beautiful&rdquo; has been
+brought out frequently since.&nbsp; Again, &ldquo;When you ask a
+question you never say, &lsquo;What the d&mdash;l is it?&rsquo;
+as other foreigners do.&nbsp; Is it proper for men to say it and
+not for women?&rdquo;&nbsp; I told him it was proper for neither,
+it was a very &ldquo;common&rdquo; word, and I saw that he erased
+it from his note-book.&nbsp; At first he always used
+<i>fellows</i> for men, as, &ldquo;Will you have one or two
+<i>fellows</i> for your <i>kuruma</i>?&rdquo;
+&ldquo;<i>fellows</i> and women.&rdquo;&nbsp; At last he called
+the Chief Physician of the hospital here a <i>fellow</i>, on
+which I told him that it was slightly slangy, and at least
+&ldquo;colloquial,&rdquo; and for two days he has scrupulously
+spoken of man and men.&nbsp; To-day he brought a boy with very
+sore eyes to see me, on which I exclaimed, &ldquo;Poor little
+fellow!&rdquo; and this evening he said, &ldquo;You called that
+boy a fellow, I thought it was a bad word!&rdquo;&nbsp; The
+habits of many of the Yokohama foreigners have helped to
+obliterate any distinctions between right and wrong, if he ever
+made any.&nbsp; If he wishes to tell me that he has seen a very
+tipsy man, he always says he has seen &ldquo;a fellow as drunk as
+an Englishman.&rdquo;&nbsp; At Nikk&ocirc; I asked him how many
+legal wives a man could have in Japan, and he replied,
+&ldquo;Only one lawful one, but as many others
+(<i>mekak&eacute;</i>) as he can support, just as Englishmen
+have.&rdquo;&nbsp; He never forgets a correction.&nbsp; Till I
+told him it was slangy he always spoke of inebriated people as
+&ldquo;tight,&rdquo; and when I gave him the words
+&ldquo;tipsy,&rdquo; &ldquo;drunk,&rdquo;
+&ldquo;intoxicated,&rdquo; he asked me which one would use in
+writing good English, and since then he has always spoken of
+people as &ldquo;intoxicated.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>He naturally likes large towns, and tries to deter me from
+taking the &ldquo;unbeaten tracks,&rdquo; which I
+prefer&mdash;but when he finds me immovable, always concludes his
+arguments with the <a name="page164"></a><span class="pagenum">p.
+164</span>same formula, &ldquo;Well, of course you can do as you
+like; it&rsquo;s all the same to me.&rdquo;&nbsp; I do not think
+he cheats me to any extent.&nbsp; Board, lodging, and travelling
+expenses for us both are about 6s. 6d. a day, and about 2s. 6d.
+when we are stationary, and this includes all gratuities and
+extras.&nbsp; True, the board and lodging consist of tea, rice,
+and eggs, a copper basin of water, an <i>andon</i> and an empty
+room, for, though there are plenty of chickens in all the
+villages, the people won&rsquo;t be bribed to sell them for
+killing, though they would gladly part with them if they were to
+be kept to lay eggs.&nbsp; Ito amuses me nearly every night with
+stories of his unsuccessful attempts to provide me with animal
+food.</p>
+<p>The travelling is the nearest approach to &ldquo;a ride on a
+rail&rdquo; that I have ever made.&nbsp; I have now ridden, or
+rather sat, upon seventy-six horses, all horrible.&nbsp; They all
+stumble.&nbsp; The loins of some are higher than their shoulders,
+so that one slips forwards, and the back-bones of all are
+ridgy.&nbsp; Their hind feet grow into points which turn up, and
+their hind legs all turn outwards, like those of a cat, from
+carrying heavy burdens at an early age.&nbsp; The same thing
+gives them a roll in their gait, which is increased by their
+awkward shoes.&nbsp; In summer they feed chiefly on leaves,
+supplemented with mashes of bruised beans, and instead of straw
+they sleep on beds of leaves.&nbsp; In their stalls their heads
+are tied &ldquo;where their tails should be,&rdquo; and their
+fodder is placed not in a manger, but in a swinging bucket.&nbsp;
+Those used in this part of Japan are worth from 15 to 30
+<i>yen</i>.&nbsp; I have not seen any overloading or
+ill-treatment; they are neither kicked, nor beaten, nor
+threatened in rough tones, and when they die they are decently
+buried, and have stones placed over their graves.&nbsp; It might
+be well if the end of a worn-out horse were somewhat accelerated,
+but this is mainly a Buddhist region, and the aversion to taking
+animal life is very strong.</p>
+<p style="text-align: right">I. L. B.</p>
+<h2><a name="page165"></a><span class="pagenum">p.
+165</span>LETTER XXIV.</h2>
+<p class="gutsumm">The Symbolism of Seaweed&mdash;Afternoon
+Visitors&mdash;An Infant Prodigy&mdash;A Feat in
+Caligraphy&mdash;Child Worship&mdash;A Borrowed Dress&mdash;A
+<i>Trousseau</i>&mdash;House Furniture&mdash;The Marriage
+Ceremony.</p>
+<p style="text-align: right"><span class="smcap">Kubota</span>,
+<i>July</i> 25.</p>
+<p><span class="smcap">The</span> weather at last gives a hope of
+improvement, and I think I shall leave to-morrow.&nbsp; I had
+written this sentence when Ito came in to say that the man in the
+next house would like to see my stretcher and mosquito net, and
+had sent me a bag of cakes with the usual bit of seaweed
+attached, to show that it was a present.&nbsp; The Japanese
+believe themselves to be descended from a race of fishermen; they
+are proud of it, and Yebis, the god of fishermen, is one of the
+most popular of the household divinities.&nbsp; The piece of
+seaweed sent with a present to any ordinary person, and the piece
+of dried fish-skin which accompanies a present to the Mikado,
+record the origin of the race, and at the same time typify the
+dignity of simple industry.</p>
+<p>Of course I consented to receive the visitor, and with the
+mercury at 84&deg;, five men, two boys, and five women entered my
+small, low room, and after bowing to the earth three times, sat
+down on the floor.&nbsp; They had evidently come to spend the
+afternoon.&nbsp; Trays of tea and sweetmeats were handed round,
+and a <i>labako-bon</i> was brought in, and they all smoked, as I
+had told Ito that all usual courtesies were to be punctiliously
+performed.&nbsp; They expressed their gratification at seeing so
+&ldquo;honourable&rdquo; a traveller.&nbsp; I expressed mine at
+seeing so much of their &ldquo;honourable&rdquo; country.&nbsp;
+Then we all bowed profoundly.&nbsp; Then I laid Brunton&rsquo;s
+map on the floor and showed them my route, showed them the
+Asiatic Society&rsquo;s Transactions, and how we read from left
+to right, instead of <a name="page166"></a><span
+class="pagenum">p. 166</span>from top to bottom, showed them my
+knitting, which amazed them, and my Berlin work, and then had
+nothing left.&nbsp; Then they began to entertain me, and I found
+that the real object of their visit was to exhibit an
+&ldquo;infant prodigy,&rdquo; a boy of four, with a head shaven
+all but a tuft on the top, a face of preternatural thoughtfulness
+and gravity, and the self-possessed and dignified demeanour of an
+elderly man.&nbsp; He was dressed in scarlet silk <i>hakama</i>,
+and a dark, striped, blue silk <i>kimono</i>, and fanned himself
+gracefully, looking at everything as intelligently and
+courteously as the others.&nbsp; To talk child&rsquo;s talk to
+him, or show him toys, or try to amuse him, would have been an
+insult.&nbsp; The monster has taught himself to read and write,
+and has composed poetry.&nbsp; His father says that he never
+plays, and understands everything just like a grown person.&nbsp;
+The intention was that I should ask him to write, and I did
+so.</p>
+<p>It was a solemn performance.&nbsp; A red blanket was laid in
+the middle of the floor, with a lacquer writing-box upon
+it.&nbsp; The creature rubbed the ink with water on the inkstone,
+unrolled four rolls of paper, five feet long, and inscribed them
+with Chinese characters, nine inches long, of the most
+complicated kind, with firm and graceful curves of his brush, and
+with the ease and certainty of Giotto in turning his O.&nbsp; He
+sealed them with his seal in vermilion, bowed three times, and
+the performance was ended.&nbsp; People get him to write
+<i>kakemonos</i> and signboards for them, and he had earned 10
+<i>yen</i>, or about &pound;2, that day.&nbsp; His father is
+going to travel to Kiy&ocirc;to with him, to see if any one under
+fourteen can write as well.&nbsp; I never saw such an exaggerated
+instance of child worship.&nbsp; Father, mother, friends, and
+servants, treated him as if he were a prince.</p>
+<p>The house-master, who is a most polite man, procured me an
+invitation to the marriage of his niece, and I have just returned
+from it.&nbsp; He has three &ldquo;wives&rdquo; himself.&nbsp;
+One keeps a <i>yadoya</i> in Kiy&ocirc;to, another in Morioka,
+and the third and youngest is with him here.&nbsp; From her
+limitless stores of apparel she chose what she considered a
+suitable dress for me&mdash;an under-dress of sage green silk
+<i>cr&ecirc;pe</i>, a <i>kimono</i> of soft, green, striped silk
+of a darker shade, with a fold of white <i>cr&ecirc;pe</i>,
+spangled with gold at the neck, and a girdle of sage green corded
+silk, with the family badge here and there <a
+name="page167"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 167</span>upon it in
+gold.&nbsp; I went with the house-master, Ito, to his disgust,
+not being invited, and his absence was like the loss of one of my
+senses, as I could not get any explanations till afterwards.</p>
+<p>The ceremony did not correspond with the rules laid down for
+marriages in the books of etiquette that I have seen, but this is
+accounted for by the fact that they were for persons of the
+<i>samurai</i> class, while this bride and bridegroom, though the
+children of well-to-do merchants, belong to the
+<i>heimin</i>.</p>
+<p>In this case the <i>trousseau</i> and furniture were conveyed
+to the bridegroom&rsquo;s house in the early morning, and I was
+allowed to go to see them.&nbsp; There were several girdles of
+silk embroidered with gold, several pieces of brocaded silk for
+<i>kimonos</i>, several pieces of silk <i>cr&ecirc;pe</i>, a
+large number of made-up garments, a piece of white silk, six
+barrels of wine or <i>sak&eacute;</i>, and seven sorts of
+condiments.&nbsp; Jewellery is not worn by women in Japan.</p>
+<p>The furniture consisted of two wooden pillows, finely
+lacquered, one of them containing a drawer for ornamental
+hairpins, some cotton <i>futons</i>, two very handsome silk ones,
+a few silk cushions, a lacquer workbox, a spinning-wheel, a
+lacquer rice bucket and ladle, two ornamental iron kettles,
+various kitchen utensils, three bronze <i>hibachi</i>, two
+<i>tabako-bons</i>, some lacquer trays, and <i>zens</i>, china
+kettles, teapots, and cups, some lacquer rice bowls, two copper
+basins, a few towels, some bamboo switches, and an inlaid lacquer
+<i>&eacute;tag&egrave;re</i>.&nbsp; As the things are all very
+handsome the parents must be well off.&nbsp; The
+<i>sak&eacute;</i> is sent in accordance with rigid
+etiquette.</p>
+<p>The bridegroom is twenty-two, the bride seventeen, and very
+comely, so far as I could see through the paint with which she
+was profusely disfigured.&nbsp; Towards evening she was carried
+in a <i>norimon</i>, accompanied by her parents and friends, to
+the bridegroom&rsquo;s house, each member of the procession
+carrying a Chinese lantern.&nbsp; When the house-master and I
+arrived the wedding party was assembled in a large room, the
+parents and friends of the bridegroom being seated on one side,
+and those of the bride on the other.&nbsp; Two young girls, very
+beautifully dressed, brought in the bride, a very
+pleasing-looking creature dressed entirely in white silk, with a
+veil of white silk covering her from head to foot.&nbsp; The
+bridegroom, who was already seated in the middle of the room near
+its upper part, did not <a name="page168"></a><span
+class="pagenum">p. 168</span>rise to receive her, and kept his
+eyes fixed on the ground, and she sat opposite to him, but never
+looked up.&nbsp; A low table was placed in front, on which there
+was a two-spouted kettle full of <i>sak&eacute;</i>, some
+<i>sak&eacute;</i> bottles, and some cups, and on another there
+were some small figures representing a fir-tree, a plum-tree in
+blossom, and a stork standing on a tortoise, the last
+representing length of days, and the former the beauty of women
+and the strength of men.&nbsp; Shortly a <i>zen</i>, loaded with
+eatables, was placed before each person, and the feast began,
+accompanied by the noises which signify gastronomic
+gratification.</p>
+<p>After this, which was only a preliminary, the two girls who
+brought in the bride handed round a tray with three cups
+containing <i>sak&eacute;</i>, which each person was expected to
+drain till he came to the god of luck at the bottom.</p>
+<p>The bride and bridegroom then retired, but shortly reappeared
+in other dresses of ceremony, but the bride still wore her white
+silk veil, which one day will be her shroud.&nbsp; An old gold
+lacquer tray was produced, with three <i>sak&eacute;</i> cups,
+which were filled by the two bridesmaids, and placed before the
+parents-in-law and the bride.&nbsp; The father-in-law drank three
+cups, and handed the cup to the bride, who, after drinking two
+cups, received from her father-in-law a present in a box, drank
+the third cup, and then returned the cup to the father-in-law,
+who again drank three cups.&nbsp; Rice and fish were next brought
+in, after which the bridegroom&rsquo;s mother took the second
+cup, and filled and emptied it three times, after which she
+passed it to the bride, who drank two cups, received a present
+from her mother-in-law in a lacquer box, drank a third cup, and
+gave the cup to the elder lady, who again drank three cups.&nbsp;
+Soup was then served, and then the bride drank once from the
+third cup, and handed it to her husband&rsquo;s father, who drank
+three more cups, the bride took it again, and drank two, and
+lastly the mother-in-law drank three more cups.&nbsp; Now, if you
+possess the clear-sightedness which I laboured to preserve, you
+will perceive that each of the three had inbibed nine cups of
+some generous liquor! <a name="citation168"></a><a
+href="#footnote168" class="citation">[168]</a></p>
+<p>After this the two bridesmaids raised the two-spouted <a
+name="page169"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 169</span>kettle and
+presented it to the lips of the married pair, who drank from it
+alternately, till they had exhausted its contents.&nbsp; This
+concluding ceremony is said to be emblematic of the tasting
+together of the joys and sorrows of life.&nbsp; And so they
+became man and wife till death or divorce parted them.</p>
+<p>This drinking of <i>sak&eacute;</i> or wine, according to
+prescribed usage, appeared to constitute the &ldquo;marriage
+service,&rdquo; to which none but relations were bidden.&nbsp;
+Immediately afterwards the wedding guests arrived, and the
+evening was spent in feasting and <i>sak&eacute;</i> drinking;
+but the fare is simple, and intoxication is happily out of place
+at a marriage feast.&nbsp; Every detail is a matter of etiquette,
+and has been handed down for centuries.&nbsp; Except for the
+interest of the ceremony, in that light it was a very dull and
+tedious affair, conducted in melancholy silence, and the young
+bride, with her whitened face and painted lips, looked and moved
+like an automaton.</p>
+<p style="text-align: right">I. L. B.</p>
+<h2><a name="page170"></a><span class="pagenum">p.
+170</span>LETTER XXV.</h2>
+<p class="gutsumm">A Holiday Scene&mdash;A
+<i>Matsuri</i>&mdash;Attractions of the
+Revel&mdash;<i>Matsuri</i> Cars&mdash;Gods and Demons&mdash;A
+Possible Harbour&mdash;A Village Forge&mdash;Prosperity of
+<i>Sak&eacute;</i> Brewers&mdash;A &ldquo;Great Sight.&rdquo;</p>
+<p style="text-align: right"><span
+class="smcap">Tsugurata</span>, <i>July</i> 27.</p>
+<p><span class="smcap">Three</span> miles of good road thronged
+with half the people of Kubota on foot and in <i>kurumas</i>, red
+vans drawn by horses, pairs of policemen in <i>kurumas</i>,
+hundreds of children being carried, hundreds more on foot, little
+girls, formal and precocious looking, with hair dressed with
+scarlet <i>cr&eacute;pe</i> and flowers, hobbling toilsomely
+along on high clogs, groups of men and women, never intermixing,
+stalls driving a &ldquo;roaring trade&rdquo; in cakes and
+sweetmeats, women making <i>mochi</i> as fast as the buyers ate
+it, broad rice-fields rolling like a green sea on the right, an
+ocean of liquid turquoise on the left, the grey roofs of Kubota
+looking out from their green surroundings, Taiheisan in deepest
+indigo blocking the view to the south, a glorious day, and a
+summer sun streaming over all, made up the cheeriest and most
+festal scene that I have seen in Japan; men, women, and children,
+vans and <i>kurumas</i>, policemen and horsemen, all on their way
+to a mean-looking town, Minato, the junk port of Kubota, which
+was keeping <i>matsuri</i>, or festival, in honour of the
+birthday of the god Shimmai.&nbsp; Towering above the low grey
+houses there were objects which at first looked like five
+enormous black fingers, then like trees with their branches
+wrapped in black, and then&mdash;comparisons ceased; they were a
+mystery.</p>
+<p>Dismissing the <i>kurumas</i>, which could go no farther, we
+dived into the crowd, which was wedged along a mean street,
+nearly a mile long&mdash;a miserable street of poor tea-houses
+and poor shop-fronts; but, in fact, you could hardly see the
+street <a name="page171"></a><span class="pagenum">p.
+171</span>for the people.&nbsp; Paper lanterns were hung close
+together along its whole length.&nbsp; There were rude
+scaffoldings supporting matted and covered platforms, on which
+people were drinking tea and <i>sak&eacute;</i> and enjoying the
+crowd below; monkey theatres and dog theatres, two mangy sheep
+and a lean pig attracting wondering crowds, for neither of these
+animals is known in this region of Japan; a booth in which a
+woman was having her head cut off every half-hour for 2
+<i>sen</i> a spectator; cars with roofs like temples, on which,
+with forty men at the ropes, dancing children of the highest
+class were being borne in procession; a theatre with an open
+front, on the boards of which two men in antique dresses, with
+sleeves touching the ground, were performing with tedious
+slowness a classic dance of tedious posturings, which consisted
+mainly in dexterous movements of the aforesaid sleeves, and
+occasional emphatic stampings, and utterances of the word
+<i>N&ocirc;</i> in a hoarse howl.&nbsp; It is needless to say
+that a foreign lady was not the least of the attractions of the
+fair.&nbsp; The <i>cultus</i> of children was in full force, all
+sorts of masks, dolls, sugar figures, toys, and sweetmeats were
+exposed for sale on mats on the ground, and found their way into
+the hands and sleeves of the children, for no Japanese parent
+would ever attend a <i>matsuri</i> without making an offering to
+his child.</p>
+<p>The police told me that there were 22,000 strangers in Minato,
+yet for 32,000 holiday-makers a force of twenty-five policemen
+was sufficient.&nbsp; I did not see one person under the
+influence of <i>sak&eacute;</i> up to 3 p.m., when I left, nor a
+solitary instance of rude or improper behaviour, nor was I in any
+way rudely crowded upon, for, even where the crowd was densest,
+the people of their own accord formed a ring and left me
+breathing space.</p>
+<p>We went to the place where the throng was greatest, round the
+two great <i>matsuri</i> cars, whose colossal erections we had
+seen far off.&nbsp; These were structures of heavy beams, thirty
+feet long, with eight huge, solid wheels.&nbsp; Upon them there
+were several scaffoldings with projections, like flat surfaces of
+cedar branches, and two special peaks of unequal height at the
+top, the whole being nearly fifty feet from the ground.&nbsp; All
+these projections were covered with black cotton cloth, from
+which branches of pines protruded.&nbsp; In the middle three
+small <a name="page172"></a><span class="pagenum">p.
+172</span>wheels, one above another, over which striped white
+cotton was rolling perpetually, represented a waterfall; at the
+bottom another arrangement of white cotton represented a river,
+and an arrangement of blue cotton, fitfully agitated by a pair of
+bellows below, represented the sea.&nbsp; The whole is intended
+to represent a mountain on which the Shint&ocirc; gods slew some
+devils, but anything more rude and barbarous could scarcely be
+seen.&nbsp; On the fronts of each car, under a canopy, were
+thirty performers on thirty diabolical instruments, which rent
+the air with a truly infernal discord, and suggested devils
+rather than their conquerors.&nbsp; High up on the flat
+projections there were groups of monstrous figures.&nbsp; On one
+a giant in brass armour, much like the <i>Ni&ocirc;</i> of temple
+gates, was killing a revolting-looking demon.&nbsp; On another a
+<i>daimiy&ocirc;&rsquo;s</i> daughter, in robes of cloth of gold
+with satin sleeves richly flowered, was playing on the
+<i>samisen</i>.&nbsp; On another a hunter, thrice the size of
+life, was killing a wild horse equally magnified, whose hide was
+represented by the hairy wrappings of the leaves of the
+<i>Cham&aelig;rops excelsa</i>.&nbsp; On others highly-coloured
+gods, and devils equally hideous, were grouped
+miscellaneously.&nbsp; These two cars were being drawn up and
+down the street at the rate of a mile in three hours by 200 men
+each, numbers of men with levers assisting the heavy wheels out
+of the mud-holes.&nbsp; This <i>matsuri</i>, which, like an
+English fair, feast, or revel, has lost its original religious
+significance, goes on for three days and nights, and this was its
+third and greatest day.</p>
+<p>We left on mild-tempered horses, quite unlike the fierce
+fellows of Yamagata <i>ken</i>.&nbsp; Between Minato and Kado
+there is a very curious lagoon on the left, about 17 miles long
+by 16 broad, connected with the sea by a narrow channel, guarded
+by two high hills called Shinzan and Honzan.&nbsp; Two Dutch
+engineers are now engaged in reporting on its capacities, and if
+its outlet could be deepened without enormous cost it would give
+north-western Japan the harbour it so greatly needs.&nbsp;
+Extensive rice-fields and many villages lie along the road, which
+is an avenue of deep sand and ancient pines much contorted and
+gnarled.&nbsp; Down the pine avenue hundreds of people on
+horseback and on foot were trooping into Minato from all the
+farming villages, glad in the glorious sunshine which succeeded
+four days of rain.&nbsp; There were hundreds of <a
+name="page173"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 173</span>horses,
+wonderful-looking animals in bravery of scarlet cloth and lacquer
+and fringed nets of leather, and many straw wisps and ropes, with
+Gothic roofs for saddles, and dependent panniers on each side,
+carrying two grave and stately-looking children in each, and
+sometimes a father or a fifth child on the top of the
+pack-saddle.</p>
+<p>I was so far from well that I was obliged to sleep at the
+wretched village of Abukawa, in a loft alive with fleas, where
+the rice was too dirty to be eaten, and where the
+house-master&rsquo;s wife, who sat for an hour on my floor, was
+sorely afflicted with skin disease.&nbsp; The clay houses have
+disappeared and the villages are now built of wood, but Abukawa
+is an antiquated, ramshackle place, propped up with posts and
+slanting beams projecting into the roadway for the entanglement
+of unwary passengers.</p>
+<p>The village smith was opposite, but he was not a man of
+ponderous strength, nor were there those wondrous flights and
+scintillations of sparks which were the joy of our childhood in
+the Tattenhall forge.&nbsp; A fire of powdered charcoal on the
+floor, always being trimmed and replenished by a lean and grimy
+satellite, a man still leaner and grimier, clothed in goggles and
+a girdle, always sitting in front of it, heating and hammering
+iron bars with his hands, with a clink which went on late into
+the night, and blowing his bellows with his toes; bars and pieces
+of rusty iron pinned on the smoky walls, and a group of idle men
+watching his skilful manipulation, were the sights of the Abukawa
+smithy, and kept me thralled in the balcony, though the whole
+clothesless population stood for the whole evening in front of
+the house with a silent, open-mouthed stare.</p>
+<p>Early in the morning the same melancholy crowd appeared in the
+dismal drizzle, which turned into a tremendous torrent, which has
+lasted for sixteen hours.&nbsp; Low hills, broad rice valleys in
+which people are puddling the rice a second time to kill the
+weeds, bad roads, pretty villages, much indigo, few passengers,
+were the features of the day&rsquo;s journey.&nbsp; At Morioka
+and several other villages in this region I noticed that if you
+see one large, high, well-built house, standing in enclosed
+grounds, with a look of wealth about it, it is always that of the
+<i>sak&eacute;</i> brewer.&nbsp; A bush denotes the manufacture
+as <a name="page174"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 174</span>well
+as the sale of <i>sak&eacute;</i>, and these are of all sorts,
+from the mangy bit of fir which has seen long service to the
+vigorous truss of pine constantly renewed.&nbsp; It is curious
+that this should formerly have been the sign of the sale of wine
+in England.</p>
+<p>The wind and rain were something fearful all that
+afternoon.&nbsp; I could not ride, so I tramped on foot for some
+miles under an avenue of pines, through water a foot deep, and,
+with my paper waterproof soaked through, reached Toy&ocirc;ka
+half drowned and very cold, to shiver over a <i>hibachi</i> in a
+clean loft, hung with my dripping clothes, which had to be put on
+wet the next day.&nbsp;&nbsp; By 5 a.m. all Toy&ocirc;ka
+assembled, and while I took my breakfast I was not only the
+&ldquo;cynosure&rdquo; of the eyes of all the people outside, but
+of those of about forty more who were standing in the
+<i>doma</i>, looking up the ladder.&nbsp; When asked to depart by
+the house-master, they said, &ldquo;It&rsquo;s neither fair nor
+neighbourly in you to keep this great sight to yourself, seeing
+that our lives may pass without again looking on a foreign
+woman;&rdquo; so they were allowed to remain!</p>
+<p style="text-align: right">I. L. B.</p>
+<h2><a name="page175"></a><span class="pagenum">p.
+175</span>LETTER XXVI.</h2>
+<p class="gutsumm">The Fatigues of Travelling&mdash;Torrents and
+Mud&mdash;Ito&rsquo;s Surliness&mdash;The Blind
+Shampooers&mdash;A Supposed Monkey Theatre&mdash;A Suspended
+Ferry&mdash;A Difficult Transit&mdash;Perils on the
+Yonetsurugawa&mdash;A Boatman Drowned&mdash;Nocturnal
+Disturbances&mdash;A Noisy Yadoya&mdash;Storm-bound
+Travellers&mdash;<i>Hai</i>!&nbsp; <i>Hai</i>!&mdash;More
+Nocturnal Disturbances.</p>
+<p style="text-align: right"><span
+class="smcap">Odat&eacute;</span>, <i>July</i> 29.</p>
+<p>I <span class="smcap">have</span> been suffering so much from
+my spine that I have been unable to travel more than seven or
+eight miles daily for several days, and even that with great
+difficulty.&nbsp; I try my own saddle, then a pack-saddle, then
+walk through the mud; but I only get on because getting on is a
+necessity, and as soon as I reach the night&rsquo;s halting-place
+I am obliged to lie down at once.&nbsp; Only strong people should
+travel in northern Japan.&nbsp; The inevitable fatigue is much
+increased by the state of the weather, and doubtless my
+impressions of the country are affected by it also, as a hamlet
+in a quagmire in a gray mist or a soaking rain is a far less
+delectable object than the same hamlet under bright
+sunshine.&nbsp; There has not been such a season for thirty
+years.&nbsp; The rains have been tremendous.&nbsp; I have lived
+in soaked clothes, in spite of my rain-cloak, and have slept on a
+soaked stretcher in spite of all waterproof wrappings for several
+days, and still the weather shows no signs of improvement, and
+the rivers are so high on the northern road that I am storm-bound
+as well as pain-bound here.&nbsp; Ito shows his sympathy for me
+by intense surliness, though he did say very sensibly,
+&ldquo;I&rsquo;m very sorry for you, but it&rsquo;s no use saying
+so over and over again; as I can do nothing for you, you&rsquo;d
+better send for the blind man!&rdquo;</p>
+<p>In Japanese towns and villages you hear every evening a man
+(or men) making a low peculiar whistle as he walks along, and in
+large towns the noise is quite a nuisance.&nbsp; It is made <a
+name="page176"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 176</span>by blind
+men; but a blind beggar is never seen throughout Japan, and the
+blind are an independent, respected, and well-to-do class,
+carrying on the occupations of shampooing, money-lending, and
+music.</p>
+<p style="text-align: center">
+<a href="images/p176b.jpg">
+<img alt=
+"Myself in a Straw Rain-Cloak"
+title=
+"Myself in a Straw Rain-Cloak"
+ src="images/p176s.jpg" />
+</a></p>
+<p>We have had a very severe journey from Toy&ocirc;ka.&nbsp;
+That day the rain was ceaseless, and in the driving mists one
+could see little but low hills looming on the horizon, pine
+barrens, scrub, and flooded rice-fields; varied by villages
+standing along roads which were quagmires a foot deep, and where
+the clothing was specially ragged and dirty.&nbsp; Hinokiyama, a
+village of <i>samurai</i>, on a beautiful slope, was an
+exception, with its fine detached houses, pretty gardens,
+deep-roofed gateways, grass and stone-faced terraces, and look of
+refined, quiet comfort.&nbsp; Everywhere there was a quantity of
+indigo, as is necessary, for nearly all the clothing of the lower
+classes is blue.&nbsp; Near a large village we were riding on a
+causeway through the rice-fields, Ito on the pack-horse in front,
+when we met a number of children returning from school, who, on
+getting near us, turned, ran away, and even jumped into the
+ditches, screaming as they ran.&nbsp; The <i>mago</i> ran after
+them, caught the hindmost boy, and dragged him back&mdash;the boy
+scared and struggling, the man laughing.&nbsp; The boy said that
+they thought that Ito was a monkey-player, <i>i.e.</i> the keeper
+of a monkey theatre, I a big ape, and the poles of my bed the
+scaffolding of the stage!</p>
+<p>Splashing through mire and water we found that the people of
+Tubin&eacute; wished to detain us, saying that all the ferries
+were <a name="page177"></a><span class="pagenum">p.
+177</span>stopped in consequence of the rise in the rivers; but I
+had been so often misled by false reports that I took fresh
+horses and went on by a track along a very pretty hillside,
+overlooking the Yonetsurugawa, a large and swollen river, which
+nearer the sea had spread itself over the whole country.&nbsp;
+Torrents of rain were still falling, and all out-of-doors
+industries were suspended.&nbsp; Straw rain-cloaks hanging to dry
+dripped under all the eaves, our paper cloaks were sodden, our
+dripping horses steamed, and thus we slid down a steep descent
+into the hamlet of Kiriishi, thirty-one houses clustered under
+persimmon trees under a wooded hillside, all standing in a
+quagmire, and so abject and filthy that one could not ask for
+five minutes&rsquo; shelter in any one of them.&nbsp; Sure
+enough, on the bank of the river, which was fully 400 yards wide,
+and swirling like a mill-stream with a suppressed roar, there was
+an official order prohibiting the crossing of man or beast, and
+before I had time to think the <i>mago</i> had deposited the
+baggage on an islet in the mire and was over the crest of the
+hill.&nbsp; I wished that the Government was a little less
+paternal.</p>
+<p>Just in the nick of time we discerned a punt drifting down the
+river on the opposite side, where it brought up, and landed a
+man, and Ito and two others yelled, howled, and waved so lustily
+as to attract its notice, and to my joy an answering yell came
+across the roar and rush of the river.&nbsp; The torrent was so
+strong that the boatmen had to pole up on that side for half a
+mile, and in about three-quarters of an hour they reached our
+side.&nbsp; They were returning to Kotsunagi&mdash;the very place
+I wished to reach&mdash;but, though only 2&frac12; miles off, the
+distance took nearly four hours of the hardest work I ever saw
+done by men.&nbsp; Every moment I expected to see them rupture
+blood-vessels or tendons.&nbsp; All their muscles quivered.&nbsp;
+It is a mighty river, and was from eight to twelve feet deep, and
+whirling down in muddy eddies; and often with their utmost
+efforts in poling, when it seemed as if poles or backs must
+break, the boat hung trembling and stationary for three or four
+minutes at a time.&nbsp; After the slow and eventless tramp of
+the last few days this was an exciting transit.&nbsp; Higher up
+there was a flooded wood, and, getting into this, the men aided
+themselves considerably by hauling by the trees; but when we got
+out of <a name="page178"></a><span class="pagenum">p.
+178</span>this, another river joined the Yonetsurugawa, which
+with added strength rushed and roared more wildly.</p>
+<p>I had long been watching a large house-boat far above us on
+the other side, which was being poled by desperate efforts by ten
+men.&nbsp; At that point she must have been half a mile off, when
+the stream overpowered the crew and in no time she swung round
+and came drifting wildly down and across the river, broadside on
+to us.&nbsp; We could not stir against the current, and had large
+trees on our immediate left, and for a moment it was a question
+whether she would not smash us to atoms.&nbsp; Ito was livid with
+fear; his white, appalled face struck me as ludicrous, for I had
+no other thought than the imminent peril of the large boat with
+her freight of helpless families, when, just as she was within
+two feet of us, she struck a stem and glanced off.&nbsp; Then her
+crew grappled a headless trunk and got their hawser round it, and
+eight of them, one behind the other, hung on to it, when it
+suddenly snapped, seven fell backwards, and the forward one went
+overboard to be no more seen.&nbsp; Some house that night was
+desolate.&nbsp; Reeling downwards, the big mast and spar of the
+ungainly craft caught in a tree, giving her such a check that
+they were able to make her fast.&nbsp; It was a saddening
+incident.&nbsp; I asked Ito what he felt when we seemed in peril,
+and he replied, &ldquo;I thought I&rsquo;d been good to my
+mother, and honest, and I hoped I should go to a good
+place.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>The fashion of boats varies much on different rivers.&nbsp; On
+this one there are two sizes.&nbsp; Ours was a small one,
+flat-bottomed, 25 feet long by 2&frac12; broad, drawing 6 inches,
+very low in the water, and with sides slightly curved
+inwards.&nbsp; The prow forms a gradual long curve from the body
+of the boat, and is very high.</p>
+<p>The mists rolled away as dusk came on, and revealed a lovely
+country with much picturesqueness of form, and near Kotsunagi the
+river disappears into a narrow gorge with steep, sentinel hills,
+dark with pine and cryptomeria.&nbsp; To cross the river we had
+to go fully a mile above the point aimed at, and then a few
+minutes of express speed brought us to a landing in a deep, tough
+quagmire in a dark wood, through which we groped our lamentable
+way to the <i>yadoya</i>.&nbsp; A heavy mist came on, and the
+rain returned in torrents; the <i>doma</i> was ankle <a
+name="page179"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 179</span>deep in
+black slush.&nbsp; The <i>daidokoro</i> was open to the roof,
+roof and rafters were black with smoke, and a great fire of damp
+wood was smoking lustily.&nbsp; Round some live embers in the
+<i>irori</i> fifteen men, women, and children were lying, doing
+nothing, by the dim light of an <i>andon</i>.&nbsp; It was
+picturesque decidedly, and I was well disposed to be content when
+the production of some handsome <i>fusuma</i> created
+<i>daimiy&ocirc;&rsquo;s</i> rooms out of the farthest part of
+the dim and wandering space, opening upon a damp garden, into
+which the rain splashed all night.</p>
+<p>The solitary spoil of the day&rsquo;s journey was a glorious
+lily, which I presented to the house-master, and in the morning
+it was blooming on the <i>kami-dana</i> in a small vase of
+priceless old Satsuma china.&nbsp; I was awoke out of a sound
+sleep by Ito coming in with a rumour, brought by some travellers,
+that the Prime Minister had been assassinated, and fifty
+policemen killed!&nbsp; [This was probably a distorted version of
+the partial mutiny of the Imperial Guard, which I learned on
+landing in Yezo.]&nbsp; Very wild political rumours are in the
+air in these outlandish regions, and it is not very wonderful
+that the peasantry lack confidence in the existing order of
+things after the changes of the last ten years, and the recent
+assassination of the Home Minister.&nbsp; I did not believe the
+rumour, for fanaticism, even in its wildest moods, usually owes
+some allegiance to common sense; but it was disturbing, as I have
+naturally come to feel a deep interest in Japanese affairs.&nbsp;
+A few hours later Ito again presented himself with a bleeding cut
+on his temple.&nbsp; In lighting his pipe&mdash;an odious
+nocturnal practice of the Japanese&mdash;he had fallen over the
+edge of the fire-pot.&nbsp; I always sleep in a Japanese
+<i>kimona</i> to be ready for emergencies, and soon bound up his
+head, and slept again, to be awoke early by another deluge.</p>
+<p>We made an early start, but got over very little ground, owing
+to bad roads and long delays.&nbsp; All day the rain came down in
+even torrents, the tracks were nearly impassable, my horse fell
+five times, I suffered severely from pain and exhaustion, and
+almost fell into despair about ever reaching the sea.&nbsp; In
+these wild regions there are no <i>kago</i> or <i>norimons</i> to
+be had, and a pack-horse is the only conveyance, and yesterday,
+having abandoned my own saddle, I had the bad <a
+name="page180"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 180</span>luck to get
+a pack-saddle with specially angular and uncompromising peaks,
+with a soaked and extremely unwashed <i>futon</i> on the top,
+spars, tackle, ridges, and furrows of the most exasperating
+description, and two nooses of rope to hold on by as the animal
+slid down hill on his haunches, or let me almost slide over his
+tail as he scrambled and plunged up hill.</p>
+<p>It was pretty country, even in the downpour, when white mists
+parted and fir-crowned heights looked out for a moment, or we
+slid down into a deep glen with mossy boulders, lichen-covered
+stumps, ferny carpet, and damp, balsamy smell of pyramidal
+cryptomeria, and a tawny torrent dashing through it in gusts of
+passion.&nbsp; Then there were low hills, much scrub, immense
+rice-fields, and violent inundations.&nbsp; But it is not
+pleasant, even in the prettiest country, to cling on to a
+pack-saddle with a saturated quilt below you and the water slowly
+soaking down through your wet clothes into your boots, knowing
+all the time that when you halt you must sleep on a wet bed, and
+change into damp clothes, and put on the wet ones again the next
+morning.&nbsp; The villages were poor, and most of the houses
+were of boards rudely nailed together for ends, and for sides
+straw rudely tied on; they had no windows, and smoke came out of
+every crack.&nbsp; They were as unlike the houses which
+travellers see in southern Japan as a &ldquo;black hut&rdquo; in
+Uist is like a cottage in a trim village in Kent.&nbsp; These
+peasant proprietors have much to learn of the art of
+living.&nbsp; At Tsuguriko, the next stage, where the Transport
+Office was so dirty that I was obliged to sit in the street in
+the rain, they told us that we could only get on a <i>ri</i>
+farther, because the bridges were all carried away and the fords
+were impassable; but I engaged horses, and, by dint of British
+doggedness and the willingness of the <i>mago</i>, I got the
+horses singly and without their loads in small punts across the
+swollen waters of the Hayakuchi, the Yuwas&eacute;, and the
+Mochida, and finally forded three branches of my old friend the
+Yonetsurugawa, with the foam of its hurrying waters whitening the
+men&rsquo;s shoulders and the horses&rsquo; packs, and with a
+hundred Japanese looking on at the &ldquo;folly&rdquo; of the
+foreigner.</p>
+<p>I like to tell you of kind people everywhere, and the two
+<i>mago</i> were specially so, for, when they found that I was
+pushing on to Yezo for fear of being laid up in the interior
+wilds, they <a name="page181"></a><span class="pagenum">p.
+181</span>did all they could to help me; lifted me gently from
+the horse, made steps of their backs for me to mount, and
+gathered for me handfuls of red berries, which I ate out of
+politeness, though they tasted of some nauseous drug.&nbsp; They
+suggested that I should stay at the picturesquely-situated old
+village of Kawaguchi, but everything about it was mildewed and
+green with damp, and the stench from the green and black ditches
+with which it abounded was so overpowering, even in passing
+through, that I was obliged to ride on to Odat&eacute;, a
+crowded, forlorn, half-tumbling-to-pieces town of 8000 people,
+with bark roofs held down by stones.</p>
+<p>The <i>yadoyas</i> are crowded with storm-staid travellers,
+and I had a weary tramp from one to another, almost sinking from
+pain, pressed upon by an immense crowd, and frequently bothered
+by a policeman, who followed me from one place to the other,
+making wholly unrighteous demands for my passport at that most
+inopportune time.&nbsp; After a long search I could get nothing
+better than this room, with <i>fusuma</i> of tissue paper, in the
+centre of the din of the house, close to the <i>doma</i> and
+<i>daidokoro</i>.&nbsp; Fifty travellers, nearly all men, are
+here, mostly speaking at the top of their voices, and in a
+provincial jargon which exasperates Ito.&nbsp; Cooking, bathing,
+eating, and, worst of all, perpetual drawing water from a well
+with a creaking hoisting apparatus, are going on from 4.30 in the
+morning till 11.30 at night, and on both evenings noisy mirth, of
+alcoholic inspiration, and dissonant performances by
+<i>geishas</i> have added to the din.</p>
+<p>In all places lately <i>Hai</i>, &ldquo;yes,&rdquo; has been
+pronounced <i>H&eacute;</i>, <i>Chi</i>, <i>Na</i>,
+<i>N&eacute;</i>, to Ito&rsquo;s great contempt.&nbsp; It sounds
+like an expletive or interjection rather than a response, and
+seems used often as a sign of respect or attention only.&nbsp;
+Often it is loud and shrill, then guttural, at times little more
+than a sigh.&nbsp; In these <i>yadoyas</i> every sound is
+audible, and I hear low rumbling of mingled voices, and above all
+the sharp <i>Hai</i>, <i>Hai</i> of the tea-house girls in full
+chorus from every quarter of the house.&nbsp; The habit of saying
+it is so strong that a man roused out of sleep jumps up with
+<i>Hai</i>, <i>Hai</i>, and often, when I speak to Ito in
+English, a stupid Hebe sitting by answers <i>Hai</i>.</p>
+<p>I don&rsquo;t want to convey a false impression of the noise
+here.&nbsp; It would be at least three times as great were I in
+equally <a name="page182"></a><span class="pagenum">p.
+182</span>close proximity to a large hotel kitchen in England,
+with fifty Britons only separated from me by paper
+partitions.&nbsp; I had not been long in bed on Saturday night
+when I was awoke by Ito bringing in an old hen which he said he
+could stew till it was tender, and I fell asleep again with its
+dying squeak in my ears, to be awoke a second time by two
+policemen wanting for some occult reason to see my passport, and
+a third time by two men with lanterns scrambling and fumbling
+about the room for the strings of a mosquito net, which they
+wanted for another traveller.&nbsp; These are among the ludicrous
+incidents of Japanese travelling.&nbsp; About five Ito woke me by
+saying he was quite sure that the <i>moxa</i> would be the thing
+to cure my spine, and, as we were going to stay all day, he would
+go and fetch an operator; but I rejected this as emphatically as
+the services of the blind man!&nbsp; Yesterday a man came and
+pasted slips of paper over all the &ldquo;peep holes&rdquo; in
+the <i>sh&ocirc;ji</i>, and I have been very little annoyed, even
+though the <i>yadoya</i> is so crowded.</p>
+<p>The rain continues to come down in torrents, and rumours are
+hourly arriving of disasters to roads and bridges on the northern
+route.</p>
+<p style="text-align: right">I. L. B.</p>
+<h2><a name="page183"></a><span class="pagenum">p.
+183</span>LETTER XXVII.</h2>
+<p class="gutsumm">Good-tempered Intoxication&mdash;The Effect of
+Sunshine&mdash;A tedious Altercation&mdash;Evening
+Occupations&mdash;Noisy Talk&mdash;Social Gathering&mdash;Unfair
+Comparisons.</p>
+<p style="text-align: right"><span
+class="smcap">Shirasawa</span>, <i>July</i> 29.</p>
+<p><span class="smcap">Early</span> this morning the rain-clouds
+rolled themselves up and disappeared, and the bright blue sky
+looked as if it had been well washed.&nbsp; I had to wait till
+noon before the rivers became fordable, and my day&rsquo;s
+journey is only seven miles, as it is not possible to go farther
+till more of the water runs off.&nbsp; We had very limp,
+melancholy horses, and my <i>mago</i> was half-tipsy, and sang,
+talked, and jumped the whole way.&nbsp; <i>Sak&eacute;</i> is
+frequently taken warm, and in that state produces a very noisy
+but good-tempered intoxication.&nbsp; I have seen a good many
+intoxicated persons, but never one in the least degree
+quarrelsome; and the effect very soon passes off, leaving,
+however, an unpleasant nausea for two or three days as a warning
+against excess.&nbsp; The abominable concoctions known under the
+names of beer, wine, and brandy, produce a bad-tempered and
+prolonged intoxication, and <i>delirium tremens</i>, rarely known
+as a result of <i>sak&eacute;</i> drinking, is being introduced
+under their baleful influence.</p>
+<p>The sun shone gloriously and brightened the hill-girdled
+valley in which Odat&eacute; stands into positive beauty, with
+the narrow river flinging its bright waters over green and red
+shingle, lighting it up in glints among the conical hills, some
+richly wooded with <i>conifer&aelig;</i>, and others merely
+covered with scrub, which were tumbled about in picturesque
+confusion.&nbsp; When Japan gets the sunshine, its forest-covered
+hills and garden-like valleys are turned into paradise.&nbsp; In
+a journey of 600 miles there has hardly been a patch of country
+which would not have been beautiful in sunlight.</p>
+<p><a name="page184"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 184</span>We
+crossed five severe fords with the water half-way up the
+horses&rsquo; bodies, in one of which the strong current carried
+my <i>mago</i> off his feet, and the horse towed him ashore,
+singing and capering, his drunken glee nothing abated by his cold
+bath.&nbsp; Everything is in a state of wreck.&nbsp; Several
+river channels have been formed in places where there was only
+one; there is not a trace of the road for a considerable
+distance, not a bridge exists for ten miles, and a great tract of
+country is covered with boulders, uprooted trees, and logs
+floated from the mountain sides.&nbsp; Already, however, these
+industrious peasants are driving piles, carrying soil for
+embankments in creels on horses&rsquo; backs, and making ropes of
+stones to prevent a recurrence of the calamity.&nbsp; About here
+the female peasants wear for field-work a dress which pleases me
+much by its suitability&mdash;light blue trousers, with a loose
+sack over them, confined at the waist by a girdle.</p>
+<p>On arriving here in much pain, and knowing that the road was
+not open any farther, I was annoyed by a long and angry
+conversation between the house-master and Ito, during which the
+horses were not unloaded, and the upshot of it was that the man
+declined to give me shelter, saying that the police had been
+round the week before giving notice that no foreigner was to be
+received without first communicating with the nearest police
+station, which, in this instance, is three hours off.&nbsp; I
+said that the authorities of Akita <i>ken</i> could not by any
+local regulations override the Imperial edict under which
+passports are issued; but he said he should be liable to a fine
+and the withdrawal of his license if he violated the rule.&nbsp;
+No foreigner, he said, had ever lodged in Shirasawa, and I have
+no doubt that he added that he hoped no foreigner would ever seek
+lodgings again.&nbsp; My passport was copied and sent off by
+special runner, as I should have deeply regretted bringing
+trouble on the poor man by insisting on my rights, and in much
+trepidation he gave me a room open on one side to the village,
+and on another to a pond, over which, as if to court mosquitoes,
+it is partially built.&nbsp; I cannot think how the Japanese can
+regard a hole full of dirty water as an ornamental appendage to a
+house.</p>
+<p>My hotel expenses (including Ito&rsquo;s) are less than 3s.
+a-day, and in nearly every place there has been a cordial desire
+that <a name="page185"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 185</span>I
+should be comfortable, and, considering that I have often put up
+in small, rough hamlets off the great routes even of Japanese
+travel, the accommodation, <i>minus</i> the fleas and the odours,
+has been surprisingly excellent, not to be equalled, I should
+think, in equally remote regions in any country in the world.</p>
+<p>This evening, here, as in thousands of other villages, the men
+came home from their work, ate their food, took their smoke,
+enjoyed their children, carried them about, watched their games,
+twisted straw ropes, made straw sandals, split bamboo, wove straw
+rain-coats, and spent the time universally in those little
+economical ingenuities and skilful adaptations which our people
+(the worse for them) practise perhaps less than any other.&nbsp;
+There was no assembling at the <i>sak&eacute;</i> shop.&nbsp;
+Poor though the homes are, the men enjoy them; the children are
+an attraction at any rate, and the brawling and disobedience
+which often turn our working-class homes into bear-gardens are
+unknown here, where docility and obedience are inculcated from
+the cradle as a matter of course.&nbsp; The signs of religion
+become fewer as I travel north, and it appears that the little
+faith which exists consists mainly in a belief in certain charms
+and superstitions, which the priests industriously foster.</p>
+<p>A low voice is not regarded as &ldquo;a most excellent
+thing,&rdquo; in man at least, among the lower classes in
+Japan.&nbsp; The people speak at the top of their voices, and,
+though most words and syllables end in vowels, the general effect
+of a conversation is like the discordant gabble of a
+farm-yard.&nbsp; The next room to mine is full of storm-bound
+travellers, and they and the house-master kept up what I thought
+was a most important argument for four hours at the top of their
+voices.&nbsp; I supposed it must be on the new and important
+ordinance granting local elective assemblies, of which I heard at
+Odat&eacute;, but on inquiry found that it was possible to spend
+four mortal hours in discussing whether the day&rsquo;s journey
+from Odat&eacute; to Noshiro could be made best by road or
+river.</p>
+<p>Japanese women have their own gatherings, where gossip and
+chit-chat, marked by a truly Oriental indecorum of speech, are
+the staple of talk.&nbsp; I think that in many things, specially
+in some which lie on the surface, the Japanese are greatly our
+superiors, but that in many others they are immeasurably behind
+us.&nbsp; In living altogether among this courteous, industrious,
+<a name="page186"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 186</span>and
+civilised people, one comes to forget that one is doing them a
+gross injustice in comparing their manners and ways with those of
+a people moulded by many centuries of Christianity.&nbsp; Would
+to God that we were so Christianised that the comparison might
+always be favourable to us, which it is not!</p>
+<p><i>July</i> 30.&mdash;In the room on the other side of mine
+were two men with severe eye-disease, with shaven heads and long
+and curious rosaries, who beat small drums as they walked, and
+were on pilgrimage to the shrine of Fudo at Megura, near Yedo, a
+seated, flame-surrounded idol, with a naked sword in one hand and
+a coil of rope in the other, who has the reputation of giving
+sight to the blind.&nbsp; At five this morning they began their
+devotions, which consisted in repeating with great rapidity, and
+in a high monotonous key for two hours, the invocation of the
+Nichiren sect of Buddhists, <i>Namu miy&ocirc; h&ocirc; ren ge
+Kiy&ocirc;</i>, which certainly no Japanese understands, and on
+the meaning of which even the best scholars are divided; one
+having given me, &ldquo;Glory to the salvation-bringing
+Scriptures;&rdquo; another, &ldquo;Hail, precious law and gospel
+of the lotus flower;&rdquo; and a third, &ldquo;Heaven and
+earth!&nbsp; The teachings of the wonderful lotus flower
+sect.&rdquo;&nbsp; <i>Namu amidu Butsu</i> occurred at intervals,
+and two drums were beaten the whole time!</p>
+<p>The rain, which began again at eleven last night, fell from
+five till eight this morning, not in drops, but in streams, and
+in the middle of it a heavy pall of blackness (said to be a total
+eclipse) enfolded all things in a lurid gloom.&nbsp; Any
+detention is exasperating within one day of my journey&rsquo;s
+end, and I hear without equanimity that there are great
+difficulties ahead, and that our getting through in three or even
+four days is doubtful.&nbsp; I hope you will not be tired of the
+monotony of my letters.&nbsp; Such as they are, they represent
+the scenes which a traveller would see throughout much of
+northern Japan, and whatever interest they have consists in the
+fact that they are a faithful representation, made upon the spot,
+of what a foreigner sees and hears in travelling through a large
+but unfrequented region.</p>
+<p style="text-align: right">I. L. B.</p>
+<h2><a name="page187"></a><span class="pagenum">p.
+187</span>LETTER XXVIII.</h2>
+<p class="gutsumm">Torrents of Rain&mdash;An unpleasant
+Detention&mdash;Devastations produced by Floods&mdash;The Yadate
+Pass&mdash;The Force of Water&mdash;Difficulties thicken&mdash;A
+Primitive Yadoya&mdash;The Water rises.</p>
+<p style="text-align: right"><span
+class="smcap">Ikarigaseki</span>, <span class="smcap">Aomori
+Ken</span>, <i>August</i> 2.</p>
+<p><span class="smcap">The</span> prophecies concerning
+difficulties are fulfilled.&nbsp; For six days and five nights
+the rain has never ceased, except for a few hours at a time, and
+for the last thirteen hours, as during the eclipse at Shirasawa,
+it has been falling in such sheets as I have only seen for a few
+minutes at a time on the equator.&nbsp; I have been here
+storm-staid for two days, with damp bed, damp clothes, damp
+everything, and boots, bag, books, are all green with
+mildew.&nbsp; And still the rain falls, and roads, bridges,
+rice-fields, trees, and hillsides are being swept in a common
+ruin towards the Tsugaru Strait, so tantalisingly near; and the
+simple people are calling on the forgotten gods of the rivers and
+the hills, on the sun and moon, and all the host of heaven, to
+save them from this &ldquo;plague of immoderate rain and
+waters.&rdquo;&nbsp; For myself, to be able to lie down all day
+is something, and as &ldquo;the mind, when in a healthy state,
+reposes as quietly before an insurmountable difficulty as before
+an ascertained truth,&rdquo; so, as I cannot get on, I have
+ceased to chafe, and am rather inclined to magnify the advantages
+of the detention, a necessary process, as you would think if you
+saw my surroundings!</p>
+<p>The day before yesterday, in spite of severe pain, was one of
+the most interesting of my journey.&nbsp; As I learned something
+of the force of fire in Hawaii, I am learning not a little of the
+force of water in Japan.&nbsp; We left Shirasawa at noon, as it
+looked likely to clear, taking two horses and three men.&nbsp; It
+is beautiful scenery&mdash;a wild valley, upon which a number of
+lateral ridges descend, rendered strikingly picturesque by <a
+name="page188"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 188</span>the dark
+pyramidal cryptomeria, which are truly the glory of Japan.&nbsp;
+Five of the fords were deep and rapid, and the entrance on them
+difficult, as the sloping descents were all carried away, leaving
+steep banks, which had to be levelled by the mattocks of the
+<i>mago</i>.&nbsp; Then the fords themselves were gone; there
+were shallows where there had been depths, and depths where there
+had been shallows; new channels were carved, and great beds of
+shingle had been thrown up.&nbsp; Much wreckage lay about.&nbsp;
+The road and its small bridges were all gone, trees torn up by
+the roots or snapped short off by being struck by heavy logs were
+heaped together like barricades, leaves and even bark being in
+many cases stripped completely off; great logs floated down the
+river in such numbers and with such force that we had to wait
+half an hour in one place to secure a safe crossing; hollows were
+filled with liquid mud, boulders of great size were piled into
+embankments, causing perilous alterations in the course of the
+river; a fertile valley had been utterly destroyed, and the men
+said they could hardly find their way.</p>
+<p>At the end of five miles it became impassable for horses, and,
+with two of the <i>mago</i> carrying the baggage, we set off,
+wading through water and climbing along the side of a hill, up to
+our knees in soft wet soil.&nbsp; The hillside and the road were
+both gone, and there were heavy landslips along the whole
+valley.&nbsp; Happily there was not much of this exhausting work,
+for, just as higher and darker ranges, densely wooded with
+cryptomeria, began to close us in, we emerged upon a fine new
+road, broad enough for a carriage, which, after crossing two
+ravines on fine bridges, plunges into the depths of a magnificent
+forest, and then by a long series of fine zigzags of easy
+gradients ascends the pass of Yadate, on the top of which, in a
+deep sandstone cutting, is a handsome obelisk marking the
+boundary between Akita and Aomori <i>ken</i>.&nbsp; This is a
+marvellous road for Japan, it is so well graded and built up, and
+logs for travellers&rsquo; rests are placed at convenient
+distances.&nbsp; Some very heavy work in grading and blasting has
+been done upon it, but there are only four miles of it, with
+wretched bridle tracks at each end.&nbsp; I left the others
+behind, and strolled on alone over the top of the pass and down
+the other side, where the road is blasted out of rock of a vivid
+<a name="page189"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 189</span>pink and
+green colour, looking brilliant under the trickle of water.&nbsp;
+I admire this pass more than anything I have seen in Japan; I
+even long to see it again, but under a bright blue sky.&nbsp; It
+reminds me much of the finest part of the Brunig Pass, and
+something of some of the passes in the Rocky Mountains, but the
+trees are far finer than in either.&nbsp; It was lonely, stately,
+dark, solemn; its huge cryptomeria, straight as masts, sent their
+tall spires far aloft in search of light; the ferns, which love
+damp and shady places, were the only undergrowth; the trees flung
+their balsamy, aromatic scent liberally upon the air, and, in the
+unlighted depths of many a ravine and hollow, clear bright
+torrents leapt and tumbled, drowning with their thundering bass
+the musical treble of the lighter streams.&nbsp; Not a traveller
+disturbed the solitude with his sandalled footfall; there was
+neither song of bird nor hum of insect.</p>
+<p>In the midst of this sublime scenery, and at the very top of
+the pass, the rain, which had been light but steady during the
+whole day, began to come down in streams and then in
+sheets.&nbsp; I have been so rained upon for weeks that at first
+I took little notice of it, but very soon changes occurred before
+my eyes which concentrated my attention upon it.&nbsp; The rush
+of waters was heard everywhere, trees of great size slid down,
+breaking others in their fall; rocks were rent and carried away
+trees in their descent, the waters rose before our eyes; with a
+boom and roar as of an earthquake a hillside burst, and half the
+hill, with a noble forest of cryptomeria, was projected outwards,
+and the trees, with the land on which they grew, went down heads
+foremost, diverting a river from its course, and where the
+forest-covered hillside had been there was a great scar, out of
+which a torrent burst at high pressure, which in half an hour
+carved for itself a deep ravine, and carried into the valley
+below an avalanche of stones and sand.&nbsp; Another hillside
+descended less abruptly, and its noble groves found themselves at
+the bottom in a perpendicular position, and will doubtless
+survive their transplantation.&nbsp; Actually, before my eyes,
+this fine new road was torn away by hastily improvised torrents,
+or blocked by landslips in several places, and a little lower, in
+one moment, a hundred yards of it disappeared, and with them a
+fine bridge, which was deposited aslant across the torrent lower
+down.</p>
+<p><a name="page190"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 190</span>On
+the descent, when things began to look very bad, and the
+mountain-sides had become cascades bringing trees, logs, and
+rocks down with them, we were fortunate enough to meet with two
+pack-horses whose leaders were ignorant of the impassability of
+the road to Odat&eacute;, and they and my coolies exchanged
+loads.&nbsp; These were strong horses, and the <i>mago</i> were
+skilful and courageous.&nbsp; They said if we hurried we could
+just get to the hamlet they had left, they thought; but while
+they spoke the road and the bridge below were carried away.&nbsp;
+They insisted on lashing me to the pack-saddle.&nbsp; The great
+stream, whose beauty I had formerly admired, was now a thing of
+dread, and had to be forded four times without fords.&nbsp; It
+crashed and thundered, drowning the feeble sound of human voices,
+the torrents from the heavens hissed through the forest, trees
+and logs came crashing down the hillsides, a thousand cascades
+added to the din, and in the bewilderment produced by such an
+unusual concatenation of sights and sounds we stumbled through
+the river, the men up to their shoulders, the horses up to their
+backs.&nbsp; Again and again we crossed.&nbsp; The banks being
+carried away, it was very hard to get either into or out of the
+water; the horses had to scramble or jump up places as high as
+their shoulders, all slippery and crumbling, and twice the men
+cut steps for them with axes.&nbsp; The rush of the torrent at
+the last crossing taxed the strength of both men and horses, and,
+as I was helpless from being tied on, I confess that I shut my
+eyes!&nbsp; After getting through, we came upon the lands
+belonging to this village&mdash;rice-fields with the dykes burst,
+and all the beautiful ridge and furrow cultivation of the other
+crops carried away.&nbsp; The waters were rising fast, the men
+said we must hurry; they unbound me, so that I might ride more
+comfortably, spoke to the horses, and went on at a run.&nbsp; My
+horse, which had nearly worn out his shoes in the fords, stumbled
+at every step, the <i>mago</i> gave me a noose of rope to clutch,
+the rain fell in such torrents that I speculated on the chance of
+being washed off my saddle, when suddenly I saw a shower of
+sparks; I felt unutterable things; I was choked, bruised,
+stifled, and presently found myself being hauled out of a ditch
+by three men, and realised that the horse had tumbled down in
+going down a steepish hill, and that I had gone over his
+head.&nbsp; To climb <a name="page191"></a><span
+class="pagenum">p. 191</span>again on the soaked <i>futon</i> was
+the work of a moment, and, with men running and horses stumbling
+and splashing, we crossed the Hirakawa by one fine bridge, and
+half a mile farther re-crossed it on another, wishing as we did
+so that all Japanese bridges were as substantial, for they were
+both 100 feet long, and had central piers.</p>
+<p>We entered Ikarigaseki from the last bridge, a village of 800
+people, on a narrow ledge between an abrupt hill and the
+Hirakawa, a most forlorn and tumble-down place, given up to
+felling timber and making shingles; and timber in all its
+forms&mdash;logs, planks, faggots, and shingles&mdash;is heaped
+and stalked about.&nbsp; It looks more like a lumberer&rsquo;s
+encampment than a permanent village, but it is beautifully
+situated, and unlike any of the innumerable villages that I have
+ever seen.</p>
+<p>The street is long and narrow, with streams in stone channels
+on either side; but these had overflowed, and men, women, and
+children were constructing square dams to keep the water, which
+had already reached the <i>doma</i>, from rising over the
+<i>tatami</i>.&nbsp; Hardly any house has paper windows, and in
+the few which have, they are so black with smoke as to look worse
+than none.&nbsp; The roofs are nearly flat, and are covered with
+shingles held on by laths and weighted with large stones.&nbsp;
+Nearly all the houses look like temporary sheds, and most are as
+black inside as a Barra hut.&nbsp; The walls of many are nothing
+but rough boards tied to the uprights by straw ropes.</p>
+<p>In the drowning torrent, sitting in puddles of water, and
+drenched to the skin hours before, we reached this very primitive
+<i>yadoya</i>, the lower part of which is occupied by the
+<i>daidokoro</i>, a party of storm-bound students, horses, fowls,
+and dogs.&nbsp; My room is a wretched loft, reached by a ladder,
+with such a quagmire at its foot that I have to descend into it
+in Wellington boots.&nbsp; It was dismally grotesque at
+first.&nbsp; The torrent on the unceiled roof prevented Ito from
+hearing what I said, the bed was soaked, and the water, having
+got into my box, had dissolved the remains of the condensed milk,
+and had reduced clothes, books, and paper into a condition of
+universal stickiness.&nbsp; My kimono was less wet than anything
+else, and, borrowing a sheet of oiled paper, I lay down in it,
+till roused up in half an hour by Ito shrieking above the din on
+the roof <a name="page192"></a><span class="pagenum">p.
+192</span>that the people thought that the bridge by which we had
+just entered would give way; and, running to the river bank, we
+joined a large crowd, far too intensely occupied by the coming
+disaster to take any notice of the first foreign lady they had
+ever seen.</p>
+<p>The Hirakawa, which an hour before was merely a clear, rapid
+mountain stream, about four feet deep, was then ten feet deep,
+they said, and tearing along, thick and muddy, and with a fearful
+roar,</p>
+<blockquote><p>&ldquo;And each wave was crested with tawny
+foam,<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Like the mane of a chestnut
+steed.&rdquo;</p>
+</blockquote>
+<p>Immense logs of hewn timber, trees, roots, branches, and
+faggots, were coming down in numbers.&nbsp; The abutment on this
+side was much undermined, but, except that the central pier
+trembled whenever a log struck it, the bridge itself stood
+firm&mdash;so firm, indeed, that two men, anxious to save some
+property on the other side, crossed it after I arrived.&nbsp;
+Then logs of planed timber of large size, and joints, and much
+wreckage, came down&mdash;fully forty fine timbers, thirty feet
+long, for the fine bridge above had given way.&nbsp; Most of the
+harvest of logs cut on the Yadate Pass must have been lost, for
+over 300 were carried down in the short time in which I watched
+the river.&nbsp; This is a very heavy loss to this village, which
+lives by the timber trade.&nbsp; Efforts were made at a bank
+higher up to catch them as they drifted by, but they only saved
+about one in twenty.&nbsp; It was most exciting to see the grand
+way in which these timbers came down; and the moment in which
+they were to strike or not to strike the pier was one of intense
+suspense.&nbsp; After an hour of this two superb logs, fully
+thirty feet long, came down close together, and, striking the
+central pier nearly simultaneously, it shuddered horribly, the
+great bridge parted in the middle, gave an awful groan like a
+living thing, plunged into the torrent, and re-appeared in the
+foam below only as disjointed timbers hurrying to the sea.&nbsp;
+Not a vestige remained.&nbsp; The bridge below was carried away
+in the morning, so, till the river becomes fordable, this little
+place is completely isolated.&nbsp; On thirty miles of road, out
+of nineteen bridges only two remain, and the road itself is
+almost wholly carried away!</p>
+<h2><a name="page193"></a><span class="pagenum">p.
+193</span>LETTER XXVIII.&mdash;(<i>Continued</i>.)</h2>
+<p class="gutsumm">Scanty Resources&mdash;Japanese
+Children&mdash;Children&rsquo;s Games&mdash;A Sagacious
+Example&mdash;A Kite Competition&mdash;Personal Privations.</p>
+<p style="text-align: right"><span
+class="smcap">Ikarigaseki</span>.</p>
+<p>I <span class="smcap">have</span> well-nigh exhausted the
+resources of this place.&nbsp; They are to go out three times a
+day to see how much the river has fallen; to talk with the
+house-master and <i>K&ocirc;ch&ocirc;</i>; to watch the
+children&rsquo;s games and the making of shingles; to buy toys
+and sweetmeats and give them away; to apply zinc lotion to a
+number of sore eyes three times daily, under which treatment,
+during three days, there has been a wonderful amendment; to watch
+the cooking, spinning, and other domestic processes in the
+<i>daidokoro</i>; to see the horses, which are also actually in
+it, making meals of green leaves of trees instead of hay; to see
+the lepers, who are here for some waters which are supposed to
+arrest, if not to cure, their terrible malady; to lie on my
+stretcher and sew, and read the papers of the Asiatic Society,
+and to go over all possible routes to Aomori.&nbsp; The people
+have become very friendly in consequence of the eye lotion, and
+bring many diseases for my inspection, most of which would never
+have arisen had cleanliness of clothing and person been attended
+to.&nbsp; The absence of soap, the infrequency with which
+clothing is washed, and the absence of linen next the skin, cause
+various cutaneous diseases, which are aggravated by the bites and
+stings of insects.&nbsp; Scald-head affects nearly half the
+children here.</p>
+<p>I am very fond of Japanese children.&nbsp; I have never yet
+heard a baby cry, and I have never seen a child troublesome or
+disobedient.&nbsp; Filial piety is the leading virtue in Japan,
+and unquestioning obedience is the habit of centuries.&nbsp; The
+arts and threats by which English mothers cajole or frighten <a
+name="page194"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 194</span>children
+into unwilling obedience appear unknown.&nbsp; I admire the way
+in which children are taught to be independent in their
+amusements.&nbsp; Part of the home education is the learning of
+the rules of the different games, which are absolute, and when
+there is a doubt, instead of a quarrelsome suspension of the
+game, the fiat of a senior child decides the matter.&nbsp; They
+play by themselves, and don&rsquo;t bother adults at every
+turn.&nbsp; I usually carry sweeties with me, and give them to
+the children, but not one has ever received them without first
+obtaining permission from the father or mother.&nbsp; When that
+is gained they smile and bow profoundly, and hand the sweeties to
+those present before eating any themselves.&nbsp; They are gentle
+creatures, but too formal and precocious.</p>
+<p>They have no special dress.&nbsp; This is so queer that I
+cannot repeat it too often.&nbsp; At three they put on the
+<i>kimono</i> and girdle, which are as inconvenient to them as to
+their parents, and childish play in this garb is grotesque.&nbsp;
+I have, however, never seen what we call child&rsquo;s
+play&mdash;that general abandonment to miscellaneous impulses,
+which consists in struggling, slapping, rolling, jumping,
+kicking, shouting, laughing, and quarrelling!&nbsp; Two fine boys
+are very clever in harnessing paper carts to the backs of beetles
+with gummed traces, so that eight of them draw a load of rice up
+an inclined plane.&nbsp; You can imagine what the fate of such a
+load and team would be at home among a number of snatching
+hands.&nbsp; Here a number of infants watch the performance with
+motionless interest, and never need the adjuration,
+&ldquo;Don&rsquo;t touch.&rdquo;&nbsp; In most of the houses
+there are bamboo cages for &ldquo;the shrill-voiced
+Katydid,&rdquo; and the children amuse themselves with feeding
+these vociferous grasshoppers.&nbsp; The channels of swift water
+in the street turn a number of toy water-wheels, which set in
+motion most ingenious mechanical toys, of which a model of the
+automatic rice-husker is the commonest, and the boys spend much
+time in devising and watching these, which are really very
+fascinating.&nbsp; It is the holidays, but &ldquo;holiday
+tasks&rdquo; are given, and in the evenings you hear the hum of
+lessons all along the street for about an hour.&nbsp; The school
+examination is at the re-opening of the school after the
+holidays, instead of at the end of the session&mdash;an
+arrangement which shows an honest desire to discern the permanent
+gain made by the scholars.</p>
+<p><a name="page195"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 195</span>This
+afternoon has been fine and windy, and the boys have been flying
+kites, made of tough paper on a bamboo frame, all of a
+rectangular shape, some of them five feet square, and nearly all
+decorated with huge faces of historical heroes.&nbsp; Some of
+them have a humming arrangement made of whale-bone.&nbsp; There
+was a very interesting contest between two great kites, and it
+brought out the whole population.&nbsp; The string of each kite,
+for 30 feet or more below the frame, was covered with pounded
+glass, made to adhere very closely by means of tenacious glue,
+and for two hours the kite-fighters tried to get their kites into
+a proper position for sawing the adversary&rsquo;s string in
+two.&nbsp; At last one was successful, and the severed kite
+became his property, upon which victor and vanquished exchanged
+three low bows.&nbsp; Silently as the people watched and received
+the destruction of their bridge, so silently they watched this
+exciting contest.&nbsp; The boys also flew their kites while
+walking on stilts&mdash;a most dexterous performance, in which
+few were able to take part&mdash;and then a larger number gave a
+stilt race.&nbsp; The most striking out-of-door games are played
+at fixed seasons of the year, and are not to be seen now.</p>
+<p>There are twelve children in this <i>yadoya</i>, and after
+dark they regularly play at a game which Ito says &ldquo;is
+played in the winter in every house in Japan.&rdquo;&nbsp; The
+children sit in a circle, and the adults look on eagerly,
+child-worship being more common in Japan than in America, and, to
+my thinking, the Japanese form is the best.</p>
+<p>From proverbial philosophy to personal privation is rather a
+descent, but owing to the many detentions on the journey my small
+stock of foreign food is exhausted, and I have been living here
+on rice, cucumbers, and salt salmon&mdash;so salt that, after
+being boiled in two waters, it produces a most distressing
+thirst.&nbsp; Even this has failed to-day, as communication with
+the coast has been stopped for some time, and the village is
+suffering under the calamity of its stock of salt-fish being
+completely exhausted.&nbsp; There are no eggs, and rice and
+cucumbers are very like the &ldquo;light food&rdquo; which the
+Israelites &ldquo;loathed.&rdquo;&nbsp; I had an omelette one
+day, but it was much like musty leather.&nbsp; The Italian
+minister said to me in T&ocirc;kiy&ocirc;, &ldquo;No question in
+Japan is so solemn as that of food,&rdquo; and <a
+name="page196"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 196</span>many others
+echoed what I thought at the time a most unworthy
+sentiment.&nbsp; I recognised its truth to-day when I opened my
+last resort, a box of Brand&rsquo;s meat lozenges, and found them
+a mass of mouldiness.&nbsp; One can only dry clothes here by
+hanging them in the wood smoke, so I prefer to let them mildew on
+the walls, and have bought a straw rain-coat, which is more
+reliable than the paper waterproofs.&nbsp; I hear the hum of the
+children at their lessons for the last time, for the waters are
+falling fast, and we shall leave in the morning.</p>
+<p style="text-align: right">I. L. B.</p>
+<h2><a name="page197"></a><span class="pagenum">p.
+197</span>LETTER XXIX.</h2>
+<p class="gutsumm">Hope deferred&mdash;Effects of the
+Flood&mdash;Activity of the Police&mdash;A Ramble in
+Disguise&mdash;The <i>Tanabata</i> Festival&mdash;Mr.
+Satow&rsquo;s Reputation.</p>
+<p style="text-align: right"><span class="smcap">Kuroishi</span>,
+<i>August</i> 5.</p>
+<p><span class="smcap">After</span> all the waters did not fall
+as was expected, and I had to spend a fourth day at
+Ikarigaseki.&nbsp; We left early on Saturday, as we had to travel
+fifteen miles without halting.&nbsp; The sun shone on all the
+beautiful country, and on all the wreck and devastation, as it
+often shines on the dimpling ocean the day after a storm.&nbsp;
+We took four men, crossed two severe fords where bridges had been
+carried away, and where I and the baggage got very wet; saw great
+devastations and much loss of crops and felled timber; passed
+under a cliff, which for 200 feet was composed of fine columnar
+basalt in six-sided prisms, and quite suddenly emerged on a great
+plain, on which green billows of rice were rolling sunlit before
+a fresh north wind.&nbsp; This plain is liberally sprinkled with
+wooded villages and surrounded by hills; one low range forming a
+curtain across the base of Iwakisan, a great snow-streaked dome,
+which rises to the west of the plain to a supposed height of 5000
+feet.&nbsp; The water had risen in most of the villages to a
+height of four feet, and had washed the lower part of the mud
+walls away.&nbsp; The people were busy drying their
+<i>tatami</i>, <i>futons</i>, and clothing, reconstructing their
+dykes and small bridges, and fishing for the logs which were
+still coming down in large quantities.</p>
+<p>In one town two very shabby policemen rushed upon us, seized
+the bridle of my horse, and kept me waiting for a long time in
+the middle of a crowd, while they toilsomely <i>bored</i> through
+the passport, turning it up and down, and holding it <a
+name="page198"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 198</span>up to the
+light, as though there were some nefarious mystery about
+it.&nbsp; My horse stumbled so badly that I was obliged to walk
+to save myself from another fall, and, just as my powers were
+failing, we met a <i>kuruma</i>, which by good management, such
+as being carried occasionally, brought me into Kuroishi, a neat
+town of 5500 people, famous for the making of clogs and combs,
+where I have obtained a very neat, airy, upstairs room, with a
+good view over the surrounding country and of the doings of my
+neighbours in their back rooms and gardens.&nbsp; Instead of
+getting on to Aomori I am spending three days and two nights
+here, and, as the weather has improved and my room is remarkably
+cheerful, the rest has been very pleasant.&nbsp; As I have said
+before, it is difficult to get any information about anything
+even a few miles off, and even at the Post Office they cannot
+give any intelligence as to the date of the sailings of the mail
+steamer between Aomori, twenty miles off, and
+Hakodat&eacute;.</p>
+<p>The police were not satisfied with seeing my passport, but
+must also see me, and four of them paid me a polite but
+domiciliary visit the evening of my arrival.&nbsp; That evening
+the sound of drumming was ceaseless, and soon after I was in bed
+Ito announced that there was something really worth seeing, so I
+went out in my <i>kimono</i> and without my hat, and in this
+disguise altogether escaped recognition as a foreigner.&nbsp;
+Kuroishi is unlighted, and I was tumbling and stumbling along in
+overhaste when a strong arm cleared the way, and the house-master
+appeared with a very pretty lantern, hanging close to the ground
+from a cane held in the hand.&nbsp; Thus came the phrase,
+&ldquo;Thy word is a light unto my feet.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>We soon reached a point for seeing the festival procession
+advance towards us, and it was so beautiful and picturesque that
+it kept me out for an hour.&nbsp; It passes through all the
+streets between 7 and 10 p.m. each night during the first week in
+August, with an ark, or coffer, containing slips of paper, on
+which (as I understand) wishes are written, and each morning at
+seven this is carried to the river and the slips are cast upon
+the stream.&nbsp; The procession consisted of three monster drums
+nearly the height of a man&rsquo;s body, covered with horsehide,
+and strapped to the drummers, end upwards, and thirty small
+drums, all beaten rub-a-dub-dub without <a
+name="page199"></a><span class="pagenum">p.
+199</span>ceasing.&nbsp; Each drum has the <i>tomoy&eacute;</i>
+painted on its ends.&nbsp; Then there were hundreds of paper
+lanterns carried on long poles of various lengths round a central
+lantern, 20 feet high, itself an oblong 6 feet long, with a front
+and wings, and all kinds of mythical and mystical creatures
+painted in bright colours upon it&mdash;a transparency rather
+than a lantern, in fact.&nbsp; Surrounding it were hundreds of
+beautiful lanterns and transparencies of all sorts of fanciful
+shapes&mdash;fans, fishes, birds, kites, drums; the hundreds of
+people and children who followed all carried circular lanterns,
+and rows of lanterns with the <i>tomoy&eacute;</i> on one side
+and two Chinese characters on the other hung from the eaves all
+along the line of the procession.&nbsp; I never saw anything more
+completely like a fairy scene, the undulating waves of lanterns
+as they swayed along, the soft lights and soft tints moving aloft
+in the darkness, the lantern-bearers being in deep shadow.&nbsp;
+This festival is called the <i>tanabata</i>, or <i>seiseki</i>
+festival, but I am unable to get any information about it.&nbsp;
+Ito says that he knows what it means, but is unable to explain,
+and adds the phrase he always uses when in difficulties,
+&ldquo;Mr. Satow would be able to tell you all about
+it.&rdquo;</p>
+<p style="text-align: right">I. L. B.</p>
+<h2><a name="page200"></a><span class="pagenum">p.
+200</span>LETTER XXX.</h2>
+<p class="gutsumm">A Lady&rsquo;s
+Toilet&mdash;Hair-dressing&mdash;Paint and
+Cosmetics&mdash;Afternoon Visitors&mdash;Christian Converts.</p>
+<p style="text-align: right"><span class="smcap">Kuroishi</span>,
+<i>August</i> 5.</p>
+<p><span class="smcap">This</span> is a pleasant place, and my
+room has many advantages besides light and cleanliness, as, for
+instance, that I overlook my neighbours and that I have seen a
+lady at her toilet preparing for a wedding!&nbsp; A married girl
+knelt in front of a black lacquer toilet-box with a spray of
+cherry blossoms in gold sprawling over it, and lacquer uprights
+at the top, which supported a polished metal mirror.&nbsp;
+Several drawers in the toilet-box were open, and toilet
+requisites in small lacquer boxes were lying on the floor.&nbsp;
+A female barber stood behind the lady, combing, dividing, and
+tying her hair, which, like that of all Japanese women, was
+glossy black, but neither fine nor long.&nbsp; The coiffure is an
+erection, a complete work of art.&nbsp; Two divisions, three
+inches apart, were made along the top of the head, and the lock
+of hair between these was combed, stiffened with a bandoline made
+from the <i>Uvario Japonica</i>, raised two inches from the
+forehead, turned back, tied, and pinned to the back hair.&nbsp;
+The rest was combed from each side to the back, and then tied
+loosely with twine made of paper.&nbsp; Several switches of false
+hair were then taken out of a long lacquer box, and, with the aid
+of a quantity of bandoline and a solid pad, the ordinary smooth
+chignon was produced, to which several loops and bows of hair
+were added, interwoven with a little dark-blue
+<i>cr&ecirc;pe</i>, spangled with gold.&nbsp; A single, thick,
+square-sided, tortoiseshell pin was stuck through the whole as an
+ornament.</p>
+<p>The fashions of dressing the hair are fixed.&nbsp; They vary
+with the ages of female children, and there is a slight
+difference <a name="page201"></a><span class="pagenum">p.
+201</span>between the <i>coiffure</i> of the married and
+unmarried.&nbsp; The two partings on the top of the head and the
+chignon never vary.&nbsp; The amount of stiffening used is
+necessary, as the head is never covered out of doors.&nbsp; This
+arrangement will last in good order for a week or
+more&mdash;thanks to the wooden pillow.</p>
+<p style="text-align: center">
+<a href="images/p201b.jpg">
+<img alt=
+"A Lady&rsquo;s Mirror"
+title=
+"A Lady&rsquo;s Mirror"
+ src="images/p201s.jpg" />
+</a></p>
+<p>The barber&rsquo;s work was only partially done when the hair
+was dressed, for every vestige of recalcitrant eyebrow was
+removed, and every downy hair which dared to display itself on
+the temples and neck was pulled out with tweezers.&nbsp; This
+removal of all short hair has a tendency to make even the natural
+hair look like a wig.&nbsp; Then the lady herself took a box of
+white powder, and laid it on her face, ears, and neck, till her
+skin looked like a mask.&nbsp; With a camel&rsquo;s-hair brush
+she then applied some mixture to her eyelids to make the bright
+eyes look brighter, the teeth were blackened, or rather
+reblackened, with a feather brush dipped in a solution of
+gall-nuts <a name="page202"></a><span class="pagenum">p.
+202</span>and iron-filings&mdash;a tiresome and disgusting
+process, several times repeated, and then a patch of red was
+placed upon the lower lip.&nbsp; I cannot say that the effect was
+pleasing, but the girl thought so, for she turned her head so as
+to see the general effect in the mirror, smiled, and was
+satisfied.&nbsp; The remainder of her toilet, which altogether
+took over three hours, was performed in private, and when she
+reappeared she looked as if a very unmeaning-looking wooden doll
+had been dressed up with the exquisite good taste, harmony, and
+quietness which characterise the dress of Japanese women.</p>
+<p>A most rigid social etiquette draws an impassable line of
+demarcation between the costume of the virtuous woman in every
+rank and that of her frail sister.&nbsp; The humiliating truth
+that many of our female fashions are originated by those whose
+position we the most regret, and are then carefully copied by all
+classes of women in our country, does not obtain credence among
+Japanese women, to whom even the slightest approximation in the
+style of hair-dressing, ornament, or fashion of garments would be
+a shame.</p>
+<p>I was surprised to hear that three &ldquo;Christian
+students&rdquo; from Hirosaki wished to see me&mdash;three
+remarkably intelligent-looking, handsomely-dressed young men, who
+all spoke a little English.&nbsp; One of them had the brightest
+and most intellectual face which I have seen in Japan.&nbsp; They
+are of the <i>samurai</i> class, as I should have known from the
+superior type of face and manner.&nbsp; They said that they heard
+that an English lady was in the house, and asked me if I were a
+Christian, but apparently were not satisfied till, in answer to
+the question if I had a Bible, I was able to produce one.</p>
+<p>Hirosaki is a castle town of some importance, 3&frac12;
+<i>ri</i> from here, and its <i>ex-daimiy&ocirc;</i> supports a
+high-class school or college there, which has had two Americans
+successively for its headmasters.&nbsp; These gentlemen must have
+been very consistent in Christian living as well as energetic in
+Christian teaching, for under their auspices thirty young men
+have embraced Christianity.&nbsp; As all of these are well
+educated, and several are nearly ready to pass as teachers into
+Government employment, their acceptance of the &ldquo;new
+way&rdquo; may have an important bearing on the future of this
+region.</p>
+<p style="text-align: right">I. L. B.</p>
+<h2><a name="page203"></a><span class="pagenum">p.
+203</span>LETTER XXXI.</h2>
+<p class="gutsumm">A Travelling Curiosity&mdash;Rude
+Dwellings&mdash;Primitive Simplicity&mdash;The Public
+Bath-house.</p>
+<p style="text-align: right"><span
+class="smcap">Kuroishi</span>.</p>
+<p><span class="smcap">Yesterday</span> was beautiful, and,
+dispensing for the first time with Ito&rsquo;s attendance, I took
+a <i>kuruma</i> for the day, and had a very pleasant excursion
+into a <i>cul de sac</i> in the mountains.&nbsp; The one drawback
+was the infamous road, which compelled me either to walk or be
+mercilessly jolted.&nbsp; The runner was a nice, kind, merry
+creature, quite delighted, Ito said, to have a chance of carrying
+so great a sight as a foreigner into a district in which no
+foreigner has even been seen.&nbsp; In the absolute security of
+Japanese travelling, which I have fully realised for a long time,
+I look back upon my fears at Kasukab&eacute; with a feeling of
+self-contempt.</p>
+<p>The scenery, which was extremely pretty, gained everything
+from sunlight and colour&mdash;wonderful shades of cobalt and
+indigo, green blues and blue greens, and flashes of white foam in
+unsuspected rifts.&nbsp; It looked a simple, home-like region, a
+very pleasant land.</p>
+<p>We passed through several villages of farmers who live in very
+primitive habitations, built of mud, looking as if the mud had
+been dabbed upon the framework with the hands.&nbsp; The walls
+sloped slightly inwards, the thatch was rude, the eaves were deep
+and covered all manner of lumber; there was a smoke-hole in a
+few, but the majority smoked all over like brick-kilns; they had
+no windows, and the walls and rafters were black and shiny.&nbsp;
+Fowls and horses live on one side of the dark interior, and the
+people on the other.&nbsp; The houses were alive with unclothed
+children, and as I repassed in the evening unclothed men and
+women, nude to their waists, were <a name="page204"></a><span
+class="pagenum">p. 204</span>sitting outside their dwellings with
+the small fry, clothed only in amulets, about them, several big
+yellow dogs forming part of each family group, and the faces of
+dogs, children, and people were all placidly contented!&nbsp;
+These farmers owned many good horses, and their crops were
+splendid.&nbsp; Probably on <i>matsuri</i> days all appear in
+fine clothes taken from ample hoards.&nbsp; They cannot be so
+poor, as far as the necessaries of life are concerned; they are
+only very &ldquo;far back.&rdquo;&nbsp; They know nothing better,
+and are contented; but their houses are as bad as any that I have
+ever seen, and the simplicity of Eden is combined with an amount
+of dirt which makes me sceptical as to the performance of even
+weekly ablutions.</p>
+<p style="text-align: center">
+<a href="images/p204b.jpg">
+<img alt=
+"Akita Farm-House"
+title=
+"Akita Farm-House"
+ src="images/p204s.jpg" />
+</a></p>
+<p>Upper Nakano is very beautiful, and in the autumn, when its
+myriads of star-leaved maples are scarlet and crimson, against a
+dark background of cryptomeria, among which a <a
+name="page205"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 205</span>great white
+waterfall gleams like a snow-drift before it leaps into the black
+pool below, it must be well worth a long journey.&nbsp; I have
+not seen anything which has pleased me more.&nbsp; There is a
+fine flight of moss-grown stone steps down to the water, a pretty
+bridge, two superb stone <i>torii</i>, some handsome stone
+lanterns, and then a grand flight of steep stone steps up a
+hillside dark with cryptomeria leads to a small Shint&ocirc;
+shrine.&nbsp; Not far off there is a sacred tree, with the token
+of love and revenge upon it.&nbsp; The whole place is
+entrancing.</p>
+<p>Lower Nakano, which I could only reach on foot, is only
+interesting as possessing some very hot springs, which are
+valuable in cases of rheumatism and sore eyes.&nbsp; It consists
+mainly of tea-houses and <i>yadoyas</i>, and seemed rather
+gay.&nbsp; It is built round the edge of an oblong depression, at
+the bottom of which the bath-houses stand, of which there are
+four, only nominally separated, and with but two entrances, which
+open directly upon the bathers.&nbsp; In the two end houses women
+and children were bathing in large tanks, and in the centre ones
+women and men were bathing together, but at opposite sides, with
+wooden ledges to sit upon all round.&nbsp; I followed the
+<i>kuruma</i>-runner blindly to the baths, and when once in I had
+to go out at the other side, being pressed upon by people from
+behind; but the bathers were too polite to take any notice of my
+most unwilling intrusion, and the <i>kuruma</i>-runner took me in
+without the slightest sense of impropriety in so doing.&nbsp; I
+noticed that formal politeness prevailed in the bath-house as
+elsewhere, and that dippers and towels were handed from one to
+another with profound bows.&nbsp; The public bath-house is said
+to be the place in which public opinion is formed, as it is with
+us in clubs and public-houses, and that the presence of women
+prevents any dangerous or seditious consequences; but the
+Government is doing its best to prevent promiscuous bathing; and,
+though the reform may travel slowly into these remote regions, it
+will doubtless arrive sooner or later.&nbsp; The public
+bath-house is one of the features of Japan.</p>
+<p style="text-align: right">I. L. B.</p>
+<h2><a name="page206"></a><span class="pagenum">p.
+206</span>LETTER XXXII.</h2>
+<p class="gutsumm">A Hard Day&rsquo;s Journey&mdash;An
+Overturn&mdash;Nearing the Ocean&mdash;Joyful
+Excitement&mdash;Universal Greyness&mdash;Inopportune
+Policemen&mdash;A Stormy Voyage&mdash;A Wild Welcome&mdash;A
+Windy Landing&mdash;The Journey&rsquo;s End.</p>
+<p style="text-align: right"><span
+class="smcap">Hakodat&eacute;</span>, <span
+class="smcap">Yezo</span>, August, 1878.</p>
+<p><span class="smcap">The</span> journey from Kuroishi to
+Aomori, though only 22&frac12; miles, was a tremendous one, owing
+to the state of the roads; for more rain had fallen, and the
+passage of hundreds of pack-horses heavily loaded with salt-fish
+had turned the tracks into quagmires.&nbsp; At the end of the
+first stage the Transport Office declined to furnish a
+<i>kuruma</i>, owing to the state of the roads; but, as I was not
+well enough to ride farther, I bribed two men for a very moderate
+sum to take me to the coast; and by accommodating each other we
+got on tolerably, though I had to walk up all the hills and down
+many, to get out at every place where a little bridge had been
+carried away, that the <i>kuruma</i> might be lifted over the
+gap, and often to walk for 200 yards at a time, because it sank
+up to its axles in the quagmire.&nbsp; In spite of all
+precautions I was upset into a muddy ditch, with the
+<i>kuruma</i> on the top of me; but, as my air-pillow fortunately
+fell between the wheel and me, I escaped with nothing worse than
+having my clothes soaked with water and mud, which, as I had to
+keep them on all night, might have given me cold, but did
+not.&nbsp; We met strings of pack-horses the whole way, carrying
+salt-fish, which is taken throughout the interior.</p>
+<p>The mountain-ridge, which runs throughout the Main Island,
+becomes depressed in the province of Nambu, but rises again into
+grand, abrupt hills at Aomori Bay.&nbsp; Between Kuroishi and
+Aomori, however, it is broken up into low ranges, scantily
+wooded, mainly with pine, scrub oak, and the dwarf <a
+name="page207"></a><span class="pagenum">p.
+207</span>bamboo.&nbsp; The <i>Sesamum ignosco</i>, of which the
+incense-sticks are made, covers some hills to the exclusion of
+all else.&nbsp; Rice grows in the valleys, but there is not much
+cultivation, and the country looks rough, cold, and
+hyperborean.</p>
+<p>The farming hamlets grew worse and worse, with houses made
+roughly of mud, with holes scratched in the side for light to get
+in, or for smoke to get out, and the walls of some were only
+great pieces of bark and bundles of straw tied to the posts with
+straw ropes.&nbsp; The roofs were untidy, but this was often
+concealed by the profuse growth of the water-melons which trailed
+over them.&nbsp; The people were very dirty, but there was no
+appearance of special poverty, and a good deal of money must be
+made on the horses and <i>mago</i> required for the transit of
+fish from Yezo, and for rice to it.</p>
+<p>At Namioka occurred the last of the very numerous ridges we
+have crossed since leaving Nikk&ocirc; at a point called
+Tsugarusaka, and from it looked over a rugged country upon a
+dark-grey sea, nearly landlocked by pine-clothed hills, of a rich
+purple indigo colour.&nbsp; The clouds were drifting, the colour
+was intensifying, the air was fresh and cold, the surrounding
+soil was peaty, the odours of pines were balsamic, it looked,
+felt, and smelt like home; the grey sea was Aomori Bay, beyond
+was the Tsugaru Strait,&mdash;my long land-journey was
+done.&nbsp; A traveller said a steamer was sailing for Yezo at
+night, so, in a state of joyful excitement, I engaged four men,
+and by dragging, pushing, and lifting, they got me into Aomori, a
+town of grey houses, grey roofs, and grey stones on roofs, built
+on a beach of grey sand, round a grey bay&mdash;a
+miserable-looking place, though the capital of the
+<i>ken</i>.</p>
+<p>It has a great export trade in cattle and rice to Yezo,
+besides being the outlet of an immense annual emigration from
+northern Japan to the Yezo fishery, and imports from
+Hakodat&eacute; large quantities of fish, skins, and foreign
+merchandise.&nbsp; It has some trade in a pretty but not valuable
+&ldquo;seaweed,&rdquo; or variegated lacquer, called Aomori
+lacquer, but not actually made there, its own speciality being a
+sweetmeat made of beans and sugar.&nbsp; It has a deep and
+well-protected harbour, but no piers or conveniences for
+trade.&nbsp; It has barracks and the usual Government buildings,
+but there was no time to learn anything about it,&mdash;only a
+short half-hour for getting my <a name="page208"></a><span
+class="pagenum">p. 208</span>ticket at the <i>Mitsu Bishi</i>
+office, where they demanded and copied my passport; for snatching
+a morsel of fish at a restaurant where &ldquo;foreign food&rdquo;
+was represented by a very dirty table-cloth; and for running down
+to the grey beach, where I was carried into a large <i>sampan</i>
+crowded with Japanese steerage passengers.</p>
+<p>The wind was rising, a considerable surf was running, the
+spray was flying over the boat, the steamer had her steam up, and
+was ringing and whistling impatiently, there was a scud of rain,
+and I was standing trying to keep my paper waterproof from being
+blown off, when three inopportune policemen jumped into the boat
+and demanded my passport.&nbsp; For a moment I wished them and
+the passport under the waves!&nbsp; The steamer is a little old
+paddle-boat of about 70 tons, with no accommodation but a single
+cabin on deck.&nbsp; She was as clean and trim as a yacht, and,
+like a yacht, totally unfit for bad weather.&nbsp; Her captain,
+engineers, and crew were all Japanese, and not a word of English
+was spoken.&nbsp; My clothes were very wet, and the night was
+colder than the day had been, but the captain kindly covered me
+up with several blankets on the floor, so I did not suffer.&nbsp;
+We sailed early in the evening, with a brisk northerly breeze,
+which chopped round to the south-east, and by eleven blew a gale;
+the sea ran high, the steamer laboured and shipped several heavy
+seas, much water entered the cabin, the captain came below every
+half-hour, tapped the barometer, sipped some tea, offered me a
+lump of sugar, and made a face and gesture indicative of bad
+weather, and we were buffeted about mercilessly till 4 a.m., when
+heavy rain came on, and the gale fell temporarily with it.&nbsp;
+The boat is not fit for a night passage, and always lies in port
+when bad weather is expected; and as this was said to be the
+severest gale which has swept the Tsugaru Strait since January,
+the captain was uneasy about her, but being so, showed as much
+calmness as if he had been a Briton!</p>
+<p>The gale rose again after sunrise, and when, after doing sixty
+miles in fourteen hours, we reached the heads of Hakodat&eacute;
+Harbour, it was blowing and pouring like a bad day in
+Argyllshire, the spin-drift was driving over the bay, the Yezo
+mountains loomed darkly and loftily through rain and mist, and
+wind and thunder, and &ldquo;noises of the northern sea,&rdquo;
+gave <a name="page209"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 209</span>me
+a wild welcome to these northern shores.&nbsp; A rocky head like
+Gibraltar, a cold-blooded-looking grey town, straggling up a
+steep hillside, a few <i>conifer&aelig;</i>, a great many grey
+junks, a few steamers and vessels of foreign rig at anchor, a
+number of <i>sampans</i> riding the rough water easily, seen in
+flashes between gusts of rain and spin-drift, were all I saw, but
+somehow it all pleased me from its breezy, northern look.</p>
+<p>The steamer was not expected in the gale, so no one met me,
+and I went ashore with fifty Japanese clustered on the top of a
+decked <i>sampan</i> in such a storm of wind and rain that it
+took us 1&frac12; hours to go half a mile; then I waited
+shelterless on the windy beach till the Customs&rsquo; Officers
+were roused from their late slumbers, and then battled with the
+storm for a mile up a steep hill.&nbsp; I was expected at the
+hospitable Consulate, but did not know it, and came here to the
+Church Mission House, to which Mr. and Mrs. Dening kindly invited
+me when I met them in T&ocirc;kiy&ocirc;.&nbsp; I was unfit to
+enter a civilised dwelling; my clothes, besides being soaked,
+were coated and splashed with mud up to the top of my hat; my
+gloves and boots were finished, my mud-splashed baggage was
+soaked with salt water; but I feel a somewhat legitimate triumph
+at having conquered all obstacles, and having accomplished more
+than I intended to accomplish when I left Yedo.</p>
+<p>How musical the clamour of the northern ocean is!&nbsp; How
+inspiriting the shrieking and howling of the boisterous
+wind!&nbsp; Even the fierce pelting of the rain is home-like, and
+the cold in which one shivers is stimulating!&nbsp; You cannot
+imagine the delight of being in a room with a door that will
+lock, to be in a bed instead of on a stretcher, of finding
+twenty-three letters containing good news, and of being able to
+read them in warmth and quietness under the roof of an English
+home!</p>
+<p style="text-align: right">I. L. B.</p>
+<h3><a name="page210"></a><span class="pagenum">p.
+210</span><span class="smcap">Itinerary</span> of <span
+class="smcap">Route</span> from <span
+class="smcap">Niigata</span> to <span
+class="smcap">Aomori.</span></h3>
+<table>
+<tr>
+<td><p>&nbsp;</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: center">No. of Houses.</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: center"><i>Ri</i>.</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: center"><i>Ch&ocirc;</i>.</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p>Kisaki</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">56</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">4</p>
+</td>
+<td><p>&nbsp;</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p>Tsuiji</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">209</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">6</p>
+</td>
+<td><p>&nbsp;</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p>Kurokawa</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">215</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">2</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">12</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p>Hanadati</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">20</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">2</p>
+</td>
+<td><p>&nbsp;</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p>Kawaguchi</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">27</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">3</p>
+</td>
+<td><p>&nbsp;</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p>Numa</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">24</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">1</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">18</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p>Tamagawa</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">40</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">3</p>
+</td>
+<td><p>&nbsp;</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p>Okuni</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">210</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">2</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">11</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p>Kurosawa</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">17</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">1</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">18</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p>Ichinono</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">20</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">1</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">18</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p>Shirokasawa</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">42</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">1</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">21</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p>Tenoko</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">120</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">3</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">11</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p>Komatsu</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">513</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">2</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">13</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p>Akayu</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">350</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">4</p>
+</td>
+<td><p>&nbsp;</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p>Kaminoyama</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">650</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">5</p>
+</td>
+<td><p>&nbsp;</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p>Yamagata</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">21,000 souls</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">3</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">19</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p>Tendo</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">1,040</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">3</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">8</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p>Tateoka</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">307</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">3</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">21</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p>Tochiida</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">217</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">1</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">33</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p>Obanasawa</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">506</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">1</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">21</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p>Ashizawa</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">70</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">1</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">21</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p>Shinj&ocirc;</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">1,060</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">4</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">6</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p>Kanayama</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">165</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">3</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">27</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p>Nosoki</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">37</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">3</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">9</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p>Innai</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">257</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">3</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">12</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p>Yusawa</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">1,506</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">3</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">35</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p>Yokote</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">2,070</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">4</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">27</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p>Rokugo</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">1,062</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">6</p>
+</td>
+<td><p>&nbsp;</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p>Shingoji</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">209</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">1</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">28</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p>Kubota</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">36,587 souls</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">16</p>
+</td>
+<td><p>&nbsp;</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p>Minato</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">2,108</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">1</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">28</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p><a name="page211"></a><span class="pagenum">p.
+211</span>Abukawa</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">163</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">3</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">33</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p>Ichi Nichi Ichi</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">306</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">1</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">34</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p>Kado</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">151</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">2</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">9</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p>Hinikoyama</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">396</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">2</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">9</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p>Tsugurata</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">186</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">1</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">14</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p>Tubin&eacute;</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">153</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">1</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">18</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p>Kiriishi</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">31</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">1</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">14</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p>Kotsunagi</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">47</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">1</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">16</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p>Tsuguriko</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">136</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">3</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">5</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p>Odat&eacute;</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">1,673</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">4</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">23</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p>Shirasawa</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">71</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">2</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">19</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p>Ikarigaseki</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">175</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">4</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">18</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p>Kuroishi</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">1,176</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">6</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">19</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p>Daishaka</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">43</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">4</p>
+</td>
+<td><p>&nbsp;</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p>Shinjo</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">51</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">2</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">21</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p>Aomori</p>
+</td>
+<td><p>&nbsp;</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">1</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">24</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p>&nbsp;</p>
+</td>
+<td><p>&nbsp;</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right"><i>Ri</i> 153</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">9</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+</table>
+<p>About 368 miles.</p>
+<p>This is considerably under the actual distance, as on several
+of the mountain routes the <i>ri</i> is 56 <i>ch&ocirc;</i>, but
+in the lack of accurate information the <i>ri</i> has been taken
+at its ordinary standard of 36 <i>ch&ocirc;</i> throughout.</p>
+<h2><a name="page212"></a><span class="pagenum">p.
+212</span>LETTER XXXIII.</h2>
+<p class="gutsumm">Form and Colour&mdash;A Windy
+Capital&mdash;Eccentricities in House Roofs.</p>
+<p style="text-align: right"><span
+class="smcap">Hakodat&eacute;</span>, <span
+class="smcap">Yezo</span>, August 13, 1878</p>
+<p><span class="smcap">After</span> a tremendous bluster for two
+days the weather has become beautifully fine, and I find the
+climate here more invigorating than that of the main
+island.&nbsp; It is Japan, but yet there is a difference
+somehow.&nbsp; When the mists lift they reveal not mountains
+smothered in greenery, but naked peaks, volcanoes only recently
+burnt out, with the red ash flaming under the noonday sun, and
+passing through shades of pink into violet at sundown.&nbsp;
+Strips of sand border the bay, ranges of hills, with here and
+there a patch of pine or scrub, fade into the far-off blue, and
+the great cloud shadows lie upon their scored sides in indigo and
+purple.&nbsp; Blue as the Adriatic are the waters of the
+land-locked bay, and the snowy sails of pale junks look whiter
+than snow against its intense azure.&nbsp; The abruptness of the
+double peaks behind the town is softened by a belt of
+cryptomeria, the sandy strip which connects the headland with the
+mainland heightens the general resemblance of the contour of the
+ground to Gibraltar; but while one dreams of the western world a
+<i>kuruma</i> passes one at a trot, temple drums are beaten in a
+manner which does not recall &ldquo;the roll of the British
+drum,&rdquo; a Buddhist funeral passes down the street, or a
+man-cart pulled and pushed by four yellow-skinned, little-clothed
+mannikins, creaks by, with the monotonous grunt of <i>Ha
+huida</i>.</p>
+<p>A single look at Hakodat&eacute; itself makes one feel that it
+is Japan all over.&nbsp; The streets are very wide and clean, but
+the houses are mean and low.&nbsp; The city looks as if it had
+just recovered from a conflagration.&nbsp; The houses are nothing
+but <a name="page213"></a><span class="pagenum">p.
+213</span>tinder.&nbsp; The grand tile roofs of some other cities
+are not to be seen.&nbsp; There is not an element of permanence
+in the wide, and windy streets.&nbsp; It is an increasing and
+busy place; it lies for two miles along the shore, and has
+climbed the hill till it can go no higher; but still houses and
+people look poor.&nbsp; It has a skeleton aspect too, which is
+partially due to the number of permanent
+&ldquo;clothes-horses&rdquo; on the roofs.&nbsp; Stones, however,
+are its prominent feature.&nbsp; Looking down upon it from above
+you see miles of grey boulders, and realise that every roof in
+the windy capital is &ldquo;hodden doun&rdquo; by a weight of
+paving stones.&nbsp; Nor is this all.&nbsp; Some of the flatter
+roofs are pebbled all over like a courtyard, and others, such as
+the roof of this house, for instance, are covered with sod and
+crops of grass, the two latter arrangements being precautions
+against risks from sparks during fires.&nbsp; These paving stones
+are certainly the cheapest possible mode of keeping the roofs on
+the houses in such a windy region, but they look odd.</p>
+<p>None of the streets, except one high up the hill, with a row
+of fine temples and temple grounds, call for any notice.&nbsp;
+Nearly every house is a shop; most of the shops supply only the
+ordinary articles consumed by a large and poor population; either
+real or imitated foreign goods abound in Main Street, and the
+only novelties are the furs, skins, and horns, which abound in
+shops devoted to their sale.&nbsp; I covet the great bear furs
+and the deep cream-coloured furs of Aino dogs, which are cheap as
+well as handsome.&nbsp; There are many second-hand, or, as they
+are called, &ldquo;curio&rdquo; shops, and the cheap lacquer from
+Aomori is also tempting to a stranger.</p>
+<p style="text-align: right">I. L. B.</p>
+<h2><a name="page214"></a><span class="pagenum">p.
+214</span>LETTER XXXIV.</h2>
+<p class="gutsumm">Ito&rsquo;s
+Delinquency&mdash;&ldquo;Missionary Manners&rdquo;&mdash;A
+Predicted Failure.</p>
+<p style="text-align: right"><span
+class="smcap">Hakodat&eacute;</span>, <span
+class="smcap">Yezo</span>.</p>
+<p>I <span class="smcap">am</span> enjoying Hakodat&eacute; so
+much that, though my tour is all planned and my arrangements are
+made, I linger on from day to day.&nbsp; There has been an
+unpleasant <i>&eacute;claircissement</i> about Ito.&nbsp; You
+will remember that I engaged him without a character, and that he
+told both Lady Parkes and me that after I had done so his former
+master, Mr. Maries, asked him to go back to him, to which he had
+replied that he had &ldquo;a contract with a lady.&rdquo;&nbsp;
+Mr. Maries is here, and I now find that he had a contract with
+Ito, by which Ito bound himself to serve him as long as he
+required him, for $7 a month, but that, hearing that I offered
+$12, he ran away from him and entered my service with a
+lie!&nbsp; Mr. Maries has been put to the greatest inconvenience
+by his defection, and has been hindered greatly in completing his
+botanical collection, for Ito is very clever, and he had not only
+trained him to dry plants successfully, but he could trust him to
+go away for two or three days and collect seeds.&nbsp; I am very
+sorry about it.&nbsp; He says that Ito was a bad boy when he came
+to him, but he thinks that he cured him of some of his faults,
+and that he has served me faithfully.&nbsp; I have seen Mr.
+Maries at the Consul&rsquo;s, and have arranged that, after my
+Yezo tour is over, Ito shall be returned to his rightful master,
+who will take him to China and Formosa for a year and a half, and
+who, I think, will look after his well-being in every way.&nbsp;
+Dr. and Mrs. Hepburn, who are here, heard a bad account of the
+boy after I began my travels and were uneasy about me, but,
+except for this original lie, I have no fault to find with him,
+and his Shint&ocirc; creed has not <a name="page215"></a><span
+class="pagenum">p. 215</span>taught him any better.&nbsp; When I
+paid him his wages this morning he asked me if I had any fault to
+find, and I told him of my objection to his manners, which he
+took in very good part and promised to amend them;
+&ldquo;but,&rdquo; he added, &ldquo;mine are just missionary
+manners!&rdquo;</p>
+<p>Yesterday I dined at the Consulate, to meet Count Diesbach, of
+the French Legation, Mr. Von Siebold, of the Austrian Legation,
+and Lieutenant Kreitner, of the Austrian army, who start
+to-morrow on an exploring expedition in the interior, intending
+to cross the sources of the rivers which fall into the sea on the
+southern coast and measure the heights of some of the
+mountains.&nbsp; They are &ldquo;well found&rdquo; in food and
+claret, but take such a number of pack-ponies with them that I
+predict that they will fail, and that I, who have reduced my
+luggage to 45 lbs., will succeed!</p>
+<p>I hope to start on my long-projected tour to-morrow; I have
+planned it for myself with the confidence of an experienced
+traveller, and look forward to it with great pleasure, as a visit
+to the aborigines is sure to be full of novel and interesting
+experiences.&nbsp; Good-bye for a long time.</p>
+<p style="text-align: right">I. L. B.</p>
+<h2><a name="page216"></a><span class="pagenum">p.
+216</span>LETTER XXXV. <a name="citation216"></a><a
+href="#footnote216" class="citation">[216]</a></h2>
+<p class="gutsumm">A Lovely Sunset&mdash;An Official
+Letter&mdash;A &ldquo;Front Horse&rdquo;&mdash;Japanese
+Courtesy&mdash;The Steam Ferry&mdash;Coolies Abscond&mdash;A Team
+of Savages&mdash;A Drove of Horses&mdash;Floral Beauties&mdash;An
+Unbeaten Track&mdash;A Ghostly Dwelling&mdash;Solitude and
+Eeriness.</p>
+<p style="text-align: right"><span
+class="smcap">Ginsainoma</span>, <span class="smcap">Yezo</span>,
+<i>August</i> 17.</p>
+<p>I <span class="smcap">am</span> once again in the wilds!&nbsp;
+I am sitting outside an upper room built out almost over a lonely
+lake, with wooded points purpling and still shadows deepening in
+the sinking sun.&nbsp; A number of men are dragging down the
+nearest hillside the carcass of a bear which they have just
+despatched with spears.&nbsp; There is no village, and the busy
+clatter of the <i>cicada</i> and the rustle of the forest are the
+only sounds which float on the still evening air.&nbsp; The
+sunset colours are pink and green; on the tinted water lie the
+waxen cups of great water-lilies, and above the wooded heights
+the pointed, craggy, and altogether naked summit of the volcano
+of Komono-taki flushes red in the sunset.&nbsp; Not the least of
+the charms of the evening is that I am absolutely alone, having
+ridden the eighteen miles from Hakodat&eacute; without Ito or an
+attendant of any kind; have unsaddled my own horse, and by means
+of much politeness and a dexterous use of Japanese substantives
+have secured a good room and supper of rice, eggs, and black
+beans for myself and a mash of beans for my horse, which, as it
+belongs to the <i>Kaitakushi</i>, and has the dignity of iron
+shoes, is entitled to special consideration!</p>
+<p>I am not yet off the &ldquo;beaten track,&rdquo; but my
+spirits are rising with the fine weather, the drier atmosphere,
+and the freedom of Yezo.&nbsp; Yezo is to the main island of
+Japan what <a name="page217"></a><span class="pagenum">p.
+217</span>Tipperary is to an Englishman, Barra to a Scotchman,
+&ldquo;away down in Texas&rdquo; to a New Yorker&mdash;in the
+rough, little known, and thinly-peopled; and people can locate
+all sorts of improbable stories here without much fear of being
+found out, of which the Ainos and the misdeeds of the ponies
+furnish the staple, and the queer doings of men and dogs, and
+adventures with bears, wolves, and salmon, the embroidery.&nbsp;
+Nobody comes here without meeting with something queer, and one
+or two tumbles either with or from his horse.&nbsp; Very little
+is known of the interior except that it is covered with forest
+matted together by lianas, and with an undergrowth of scrub
+bamboo impenetrable except to the axe, varied by swamps equally
+impassable, which give rise to hundreds of rivers well stocked
+with fish.&nbsp; The glare of volcanoes is seen in different
+parts of the island.&nbsp; The forests are the hunting-grounds of
+the Ainos, who are complete savages in everything but their
+disposition, which is said to be so gentle and harmless that I
+may go among them with perfect safety.</p>
+<p>Kindly interest has been excited by the first foray made by a
+lady into the country of the aborigines; and Mr. Eusden, the
+Consul, has worked upon the powers that be with such good effect
+that the Governor has granted me a <i>shomon</i>, a sort of
+official letter or certificate, giving me a right to obtain
+horses and coolies everywhere at the Government rate of 6
+<i>sen</i> a <i>ri</i>, with a prior claim to accommodation at
+the houses kept up for officials on their circuits, and to help
+and assistance from officials generally; and the Governor has
+further telegraphed to the other side of Volcano Bay desiring the
+authorities to give me the use of the Government <i>kuruma</i> as
+long as I need it, and to detain the steamer to suit my
+convenience!&nbsp; With this document, which enables me to
+dispense with my passport, I shall find travelling very easy, and
+I am very grateful to the Consul for procuring it for me.</p>
+<p>Here, where rice and tea have to be imported, there is a
+uniform charge at the <i>yadoyas</i> of 30 <i>sen</i> a day,
+which includes three meals, whether you eat them or not.&nbsp;
+Horses are abundant, but are small, and are not up to heavy
+weights.&nbsp; They are entirely unshod, and, though their hoofs
+are very shallow and grow into turned-up points and other
+singular shapes, they go over rough ground with facility at a
+scrambling <a name="page218"></a><span class="pagenum">p.
+218</span>run of over four miles an hour following a leader
+called a &ldquo;front horse.&rdquo;&nbsp; If you don&rsquo;t get
+a &ldquo;front horse&rdquo; and try to ride in front, you find
+that your horse will not stir till he has another before him; and
+then you are perfectly helpless, as he follows the movements of
+his leader without any reference to your wishes.&nbsp; There are
+no <i>mago</i>; a man rides the &ldquo;front horse&rdquo; and
+goes at whatever pace you please, or, if you get a &ldquo;front
+horse,&rdquo; you may go without any one.&nbsp; Horses are cheap
+and abundant.&nbsp; They drive a number of them down from the
+hills every morning into <i>corrals</i> in the villages, and keep
+them there till they are wanted.&nbsp; Because they are so cheap
+they are very badly used.&nbsp; I have not seen one yet without a
+sore back, produced by the harsh pack-saddle rubbing up and down
+the spine, as the loaded animals are driven at a run.&nbsp; They
+are mostly very poor-looking.</p>
+<p>As there was some difficulty about getting a horse for me the
+Consul sent one of the <i>Kaitakushi</i> saddle-horses, a
+handsome, lazy animal, which I rarely succeeded in stimulating
+into a heavy gallop.&nbsp; Leaving Ito to follow with the
+baggage, I enjoyed my solitary ride and the possibility of
+choosing my own pace very much, though the choice was only
+between a slow walk and the lumbering gallop aforesaid.</p>
+<p>I met strings of horses loaded with deer hides, and overtook
+other strings loaded with <i>sak&eacute;</i> and manufactured
+goods and in each case had a fight with my sociably inclined
+animal.&nbsp; In two villages I was interested to see that the
+small shops contained lucifer matches, cotton umbrellas, boots,
+brushes, clocks, slates, and pencils, engravings in frames,
+kerosene lamps, <a name="citation218"></a><a href="#footnote218"
+class="citation">[218]</a> and red and green blankets, all but
+the last, which are unmistakable British &ldquo;shoddy,&rdquo;
+being Japanese imitations of foreign manufactured goods, more or
+less cleverly executed.&nbsp; The road goes up hill for fifteen
+miles, and, after passing Nanai, a trim Europeanised village in
+the midst of fine crops, one of the places at which the
+Government is making acclimatisation and other agricultural
+experiments, it fairly enters <a name="page219"></a><span
+class="pagenum">p. 219</span>the mountains, and from the top of a
+steep hill there is a glorious view of Hakodat&eacute; Head,
+looking like an island in the deep blue sea, and from the top of
+a higher hill, looking northward, a magnificent view of the
+volcano with its bare, pink summit rising above three lovely
+lakes densely wooded.&nbsp; These are the flushed scaurs and
+outbreaks of bare rock for which I sighed amidst the smothering
+greenery of the main island, and the silver gleam of the lakes
+takes away the blindness from the face of nature.&nbsp; It was
+delicious to descend to the water&rsquo;s edge in the dewy
+silence amidst balsamic odours, to find not a clattering grey
+village with its monotony, but a single, irregularly-built house,
+with lovely surroundings.</p>
+<p>It is a most displeasing road for most of the way; sides with
+deep corrugations, and in the middle a high causeway of earth,
+whose height is being added to by hundreds of creels of earth
+brought on ponies&rsquo; backs.&nbsp; It is supposed that
+carriages and waggons will use this causeway, but a shying horse
+or a bad driver would overturn them.&nbsp; As it is at present
+the road is only passable for pack-horses, owing to the number of
+broken bridges.&nbsp; I passed strings of horses laden with
+<i>sak&eacute;</i> going into the interior.&nbsp; The people of
+Yezo drink freely, and the poor Ainos outrageously.&nbsp; On the
+road I dismounted to rest myself by walking up hill, and, the
+saddle being loosely girthed, the gear behind it dragged it round
+and under the body of the horse, and it was too heavy for me to
+lift on his back again.&nbsp; When I had led him for some time
+two Japanese with a string of pack-horses loaded with deer-hides
+met me, and not only put the saddle on again, but held the
+stirrup while I remounted, and bowed politely when I went
+away.&nbsp; Who could help liking such a courteous and kindly
+people?</p>
+
+<div class="gapspace">&nbsp;</div>
+<p style="text-align: right"><span class="smcap">Mori</span>,
+<span class="smcap">Volcano Bay</span>, <i>Monday</i>.</p>
+<p>Even Ginsainoma was not Paradise after dark, and I was
+actually driven to bed early by the number of mosquitoes.&nbsp;
+Ito is in an excellent humour on this tour.&nbsp; Like me, he
+likes the freedom of the <i>Hokkaid&ocirc;</i>.&nbsp; He is much
+more polite and agreeable also, and very proud of the
+Governor&rsquo;s <i>shomon</i>, with which he swaggers into
+hotels and Transport Offices.&nbsp; I never get on so well as
+when he arranges for me.&nbsp; Saturday <a
+name="page220"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 220</span>was grey
+and lifeless, and the ride of seven miles here along a sandy road
+through monotonous forest and swamp, with the volcano on one side
+and low wooded hills on the other, was wearisome and
+fatiguing.&nbsp; I saw five large snakes all in a heap, and a
+number more twisting through the grass.&nbsp; There are no
+villages, but several very poor tea-houses, and on the other side
+of the road long sheds with troughs hollowed like canoes out of
+the trunks of trees, containing horse food.&nbsp; Here nobody
+walks, and the men ride at a quick run, sitting on the tops of
+their pack-saddles with their legs crossed above their
+horses&rsquo; necks, and wearing large hats like coal-scuttle
+bonnets.&nbsp; The horses are infested with ticks, hundreds upon
+one animal sometimes, and occasionally they become so mad from
+the irritation that they throw themselves suddenly on the ground,
+and roll over load and rider.&nbsp; I saw this done twice.&nbsp;
+The ticks often transfer themselves to the riders.</p>
+<p>Mori is a large, ramshackle village, near the southern point
+of Volcano Bay&mdash;a wild, dreary-looking place on a sandy
+shore, with a number of <i>j&ocirc;r&ocirc;yas</i> and
+disreputable characters.&nbsp; Several of the yadoyas are not
+respectable, but I rather like this one, and it has a very fine
+view of the volcano, which forms one point of the bay.&nbsp; Mori
+has no anchorage, though it has an unfinished pier 345 feet
+long.&nbsp; The steam ferry across the mouth of the bay is here,
+and there is a very difficult bridle-track running for nearly 100
+miles round the bay besides, and a road into the interior.&nbsp;
+But it is a forlorn, decayed place.&nbsp; Last night the inn was
+very noisy, as some travellers in the next room to mine hired
+<i>geishas</i>, who played, sang, and danced till two in the
+morning, and the whole party imbibed <i>sak&eacute;</i>
+freely.&nbsp; In this comparatively northern latitude the summer
+is already waning.&nbsp; The seeds of the blossoms which were in
+their glory when I arrived are ripe, and here and there a tinge
+of yellow on a hillside, or a scarlet spray of maple, heralds the
+glories and the coolness of autumn.</p>
+
+<div class="gapspace">&nbsp;</div>
+<p style="text-align: right"><span
+class="smcap">Yubets</span>.&nbsp; <span
+class="smcap">Yezo</span>.</p>
+<p>A loud yell of &ldquo;steamer,&rdquo; coupled with the
+information that &ldquo;she could not wait one minute,&rdquo;
+broke in upon <i>g&ocirc;</i> and everything else, and in a
+broiling sun we hurried down to the pier, and with a heap of
+Japanese, who filled two <i>scows</i>, were <a
+name="page221"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 221</span>put on
+board a steamer not bigger than a large decked steam launch,
+where the natives were all packed into a covered hole, and I was
+conducted with much ceremony to the forecastle, a place at the
+bow 5 feet square, full of coils of rope, shut in, and left to
+solitude and dignity, and the stare of eight eyes, which
+perseveringly glowered through the windows!&nbsp; The steamer had
+been kept waiting for me on the other side for two days, to the
+infinite disgust of two foreigners, who wished to return to
+Hakodat&eacute;, and to mine.</p>
+<p>It was a splendid day, with foam crests on the wonderfully
+blue water, and the red ashes of the volcano, which forms the
+south point of the bay, glowed in the sunlight.&nbsp; This
+wretched steamer, whose boilers are so often &ldquo;sick&rdquo;
+that she can never be relied upon, is the only means of reaching
+the new capital without taking a most difficult and circuitous
+route.&nbsp; To continue the pier and put a capable good steamer
+on the ferry would be a useful expenditure of money.&nbsp; The
+breeze was strong and in our favour, but even with this it took
+us six weary hours to steam twenty-five miles, and it was eight
+at night before we reached the beautiful and almost land-locked
+bay of Mororan, with steep, wooded sides, and deep water close to
+the shore, deep enough for the foreign ships of war which
+occasionally anchor there, much to the detriment of the
+town.&nbsp; We got off in over-crowded <i>sampans</i>, and
+several people fell into the water, much to their own
+amusement.&nbsp; The servants from the different <i>yadoyas</i>
+go down to the jetty to &ldquo;tout&rdquo; for guests with large
+paper lanterns, and the effect of these, one above another,
+waving and undulating, with their soft coloured light, was as
+bewitching as the reflection of the stars in the motionless
+water.&nbsp; Mororan is a small town very picturesquely situated
+on the steep shore of a most lovely bay, with another height,
+richly wooded, above it, with shrines approached by flights of
+stone stairs, and behind this hill there is the first Aino
+village along this coast.</p>
+<p>The long, irregular street is slightly picturesque, but I was
+impressed both with the unusual sight of loafers and with the
+dissolute look of the place, arising from the number of
+<i>j&ocirc;r&ocirc;yas</i>, and from the number of <i>yadoyas</i>
+that are also haunts of the vicious.&nbsp; I could only get a
+very small room in a very poor and dirty inn, but there were no
+mosquitoes, and I got a good <a name="page222"></a><span
+class="pagenum">p. 222</span>meal of fish.&nbsp; On sending to
+order horses I found that everything was arranged for my
+journey.&nbsp; The Governor sent his card early, to know if there
+were anything I should like to see or do, but, as the morning was
+grey and threatening, I wished to push on, and at 9.30 I was in
+the <i>kuruma</i> at the inn door.&nbsp; I call it the
+<i>kuruma</i> because it is the only one, and is kept by the
+Government for the conveyance of hospital patients.&nbsp; I sat
+there uncomfortably and patiently for half an hour, my only
+amusement being the flirtations of Ito with a very pretty
+girl.&nbsp; Loiterers assembled, but no one came to draw the
+vehicle, and by degrees the dismal truth leaked out that the
+three coolies who had been impressed for the occasion had all
+absconded, and that four policemen were in search of them.&nbsp;
+I walked on in a dawdling way up the steep hill which leads from
+the town, met Mr. Akboshi, a pleasant young Japanese surveyor,
+who spoke English and stigmatised Mororan as &ldquo;the worst
+place in Yezo;&rdquo; and, after fuming for two hours at the
+waste of time, was overtaken by Ito with the horses, in a boiling
+rage.&nbsp; &ldquo;They&rsquo;re the worst and wickedest coolies
+in all Japan,&rdquo; he stammered; &ldquo;two more ran away, and
+now three are coming, and have got paid for four, and the first
+three who ran away got paid, and the Express man&rsquo;s so
+ashamed for a foreigner, and the Governor&rsquo;s in a furious
+rage.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>Except for the loss of time it made no difference to me, but
+when the <i>kuruma</i> did come up the runners were three such
+ruffianly-looking men, and were dressed so wildly in bark cloth,
+that, in sending Ito on twelve miles to secure relays, I sent my
+money along with him.&nbsp; These men, though there were three
+instead of two, never went out of a walk, and, as if on purpose,
+took the vehicle over every stone and into every rut, and kept up
+a savage chorus of &ldquo;<i>haes-ha</i>, <i>haes-hora</i>&rdquo;
+the whole time, as if they were pulling stone-carts.&nbsp; There
+are really no runners out of Hakodat&eacute;, and the men
+don&rsquo;t know how to pull, and hate doing it.</p>
+<p>Mororan Bay is truly beautiful from the top of the
+ascent.&nbsp; The coast scenery of Japan generally is the
+loveliest I have ever seen, except that of a portion of windward
+Hawaii, and this yields in beauty to none.&nbsp; The irregular
+grey town, with a grey temple on the height above, straggles
+round the little bay on a steep, wooded terrace; hills, densely
+wooded, and with a <a name="page223"></a><span class="pagenum">p.
+223</span>perfect entanglement of large-leaved trailers, descend
+abruptly to the water&rsquo;s edge; the festoons of the vines are
+mirrored in the still waters; and above the dark forest, and
+beyond the gleaming sea, rises the red, peaked top of the
+volcano.&nbsp; Then the road dips abruptly to sandy swellings,
+rising into bold headlands here and there; and for the first time
+I saw the surge of 5000 miles of unbroken ocean break upon the
+shore.&nbsp; Glimpses of the Pacific, an uncultivated, swampy
+level quite uninhabited, and distant hills mainly covered with
+forest, made up the landscape till I reached Horobets, a mixed
+Japanese and Aino village built upon the sand near the sea.</p>
+<p style="text-align: center">
+<a href="images/p223b.jpg">
+<img alt=
+"Aino Store-House at Horobets"
+title=
+"Aino Store-House at Horobets"
+ src="images/p223s.jpg" />
+</a></p>
+<p>In these mixed villages the Ainos are compelled to live at a
+respectful distance from the Japanese, and frequently out-number
+them, as at Horobets, where there are forty-seven Aino and only
+eighteen Japanese houses.&nbsp; The Aino village looks larger
+than it really is, because nearly every house has a <i>kura</i>,
+raised six feet from the ground by wooden stilts.&nbsp; When I am
+better acquainted with the houses I shall describe them; at
+present I will only say that they do not resemble the Japanese
+houses so much as the Polynesian, as they are made of reeds very
+neatly tied upon a wooden framework.&nbsp; They have small
+windows, and roofs of a very great height, and steep pitch, with
+the thatch in a series of very neat frills, and the ridge <a
+name="page224"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 224</span>poles
+covered with reeds, and ornamented.&nbsp; The coast Ainos are
+nearly all engaged in fishing, but at this season the men hunt
+deer in the forests.&nbsp; On this coast there are several names
+compounded with <i>bets</i> or <i>pets</i>, the Aino for a river,
+such as Horobets, Yubets, Mombets, etc.</p>
+<p style="text-align: center">
+<a href="images/p224b.jpg">
+<img alt=
+"Aino Lodges (from a Japanese Sketch)"
+title=
+"Aino Lodges (from a Japanese Sketch)"
+ src="images/p224s.jpg" />
+</a></p>
+<p>I found that Ito had been engaged for a whole hour in a
+violent altercation, which was caused by the Transport Agent
+refusing to supply runners for the <i>kuruma</i>, saying that no
+one in Horobets would draw one, but on my producing the
+<i>shomon</i> I was at once started on my journey of sixteen
+miles with three Japanese lads, Ito riding on to Shira&ocirc;i to
+get my room ready.&nbsp; I think that the Transport Offices in
+Yezo are in Government hands.&nbsp; In a few minutes three Ainos
+ran out of a house, took the <i>kuruma</i>, and went the whole
+stage without stopping.&nbsp; They took a boy and three saddled
+horses along with them to bring them back, and rode and hauled
+alternately, two youths always attached to the shafts, and a man
+pushing behind.&nbsp; <a name="page225"></a><span
+class="pagenum">p. 225</span>They were very kind, and so
+courteous, after a new fashion, that I quite forgot that I was
+alone among savages.&nbsp; The lads were young and beardless,
+their lips were thick, and their mouths very wide, and I thought
+that they approached more nearly to the Eskimo type than to any
+other.&nbsp; They had masses of soft black hair falling on each
+side of their faces.&nbsp; The adult man was not a pure
+Aino.&nbsp; His dark hair was not very thick, and both it and his
+beard had an occasional auburn gleam.&nbsp; I think I never saw a
+face more completely beautiful in features and expression, with a
+lofty, sad, far-off, gentle, intellectual look, rather that of
+Sir No&euml;l Paton&rsquo;s &ldquo;Christ&rdquo; than of a
+savage.&nbsp; His manner was most graceful, and he spoke both
+Aino and Japanese in the low musical tone which I find is a
+characteristic of Aino speech.&nbsp; These Ainos never took off
+their clothes, but merely let them fall from one or both
+shoulders when it was very warm.</p>
+<p>The road from Horobets to Shira&ocirc;i is very solitary, with
+not more than four or five houses the whole way.&nbsp; It is
+broad and straight, except when it ascends hills or turns inland
+to cross rivers, and is carried across a broad swampy level,
+covered with tall wild flowers, which extends from the high beach
+thrown up by the sea for two miles inland, where there is a lofty
+wall of wooded rock, and beyond this the forest-covered mountains
+of the interior.&nbsp; On the top of the raised beach there were
+Aino hamlets, and occasionally a nearly overpowering stench came
+across the level from the sheds and apparatus used for extracting
+fish-oil.&nbsp; I enjoyed the afternoon thoroughly.&nbsp; It is
+so good to have got beyond the confines of stereotyped
+civilisation and the trammels of Japanese travelling to the
+solitude of nature and an atmosphere of freedom.&nbsp; It was
+grey, with a hard, dark line of ocean horizon, and over the weedy
+level the grey road, with grey telegraph-poles along it,
+stretched wearisomely like a grey thread.&nbsp; The breeze came
+up from the sea, rustled the reeds, and waved the tall plumes of
+the <i>Eulalia japonica</i>, and the thunder of the Pacific
+surges boomed through the air with its grand, deep bass.&nbsp;
+Poetry and music pervaded the solitude, and my spirit was
+rested.</p>
+<p>Going up and then down a steep, wooded hill, the road appeared
+to return to its original state of brushwood, and the <a
+name="page226"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 226</span>men stopped
+at the broken edge of a declivity which led down to a shingle
+bank and a foam-crested river of clear, blue-green water,
+strongly impregnated with sulphur from some medicinal springs
+above, with a steep bank of tangle on the opposite side.&nbsp;
+This beautiful stream was crossed by two round poles, a foot
+apart, on which I attempted to walk with the help of an Aino
+hand; but the poles were very unsteady, and I doubt whether any
+one, even with a strong head, could walk on them in boots.&nbsp;
+Then the beautiful Aino signed to me to come back and mount on
+his shoulders; but when he had got a few feet out the poles
+swayed and trembled so much that he was obliged to retrace his
+way cautiously, during which process I endured miseries from
+dizziness and fear; after which he carried me through the rushing
+water, which was up to his shoulders, and through a bit of swampy
+jungle, and up a steep bank, to the great fatigue both of body
+and mind, hardly mitigated by the enjoyment of the ludicrous in
+riding a savage through these Yezo waters.&nbsp; They dexterously
+carried the <i>kuruma</i> through, on the shoulders of four, and
+showed extreme anxiety that neither it nor I should get
+wet.&nbsp; After this we crossed two deep, still rivers in scows,
+and far above the grey level and the grey sea the sun was setting
+in gold and vermilion-streaked green behind a glorified mountain
+of great height, at whose feet the forest-covered hills lay in
+purple gloom.&nbsp; At dark we reached Shira&ocirc;i, a village
+of eleven Japanese houses, with a village of fifty-one Aino
+houses, near the sea.&nbsp; There is a large <i>yadoya</i> of the
+old style there; but I found that Ito had chosen a very pretty
+new one, with four stalls open to the road, in the centre one of
+which I found him, with the welcome news that a steak of fresh
+salmon was broiling on the coals; and, as the room was clean and
+sweet and I was very hungry, I enjoyed my meal by the light of a
+rush in a saucer of fish-oil as much as any part of the day.</p>
+
+<div class="gapspace">&nbsp;</div>
+<p style="text-align: right"><span
+class="smcap">Sarufuto</span>.</p>
+<p>The night was too cold for sleep, and at daybreak, hearing a
+great din, I looked out, and saw a drove of fully a hundred
+horses all galloping down the road, with two Ainos on horseback,
+and a number of big dogs after them.&nbsp; Hundreds of <a
+name="page227"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 227</span>horses run
+nearly wild on the hills, and the Ainos, getting a large drove
+together, skilfully head them for the entrance into the corral,
+in which a selection of them is made for the day&rsquo;s needs,
+and the remainder&mdash;that is, those with the deepest sores on
+their backs&mdash;are turned loose.&nbsp; This dull rattle of
+shoeless feet is the first sound in the morning in these Yezo
+villages.&nbsp; I sent Ito on early, and followed at nine with
+three Ainos.&nbsp; The road is perfectly level for thirteen
+miles, through gravel flats and swamps, very monotonous, but with
+a wild charm of its own.&nbsp; There were swampy lakes, with wild
+ducks and small white water-lilies, and the surrounding levels
+were covered with reedy grass, flowers, and weeds.&nbsp; The
+early autumn has withered a great many of the flowers; but enough
+remains to show how beautiful the now russet plains must have
+been in the early summer.&nbsp; A dwarf rose, of a deep crimson
+colour, with orange, medlar-shaped hips, as large as crabs, and
+corollas three inches across, is one of the features of Yezo; and
+besides, there is a large rose-red convolvulus, a blue campanula,
+with tiers of bells, a blue monkshood, the <i>Aconitum
+Japonicum</i>, the flaunting <i>Calystegia soldanella</i>, purple
+asters, grass of Parnassus, yellow lilies, and a remarkable
+trailer, whose delicate leafage looked quite out of place among
+its coarse surroundings, with a purplish-brown campanulate
+blossom, only remarkable for a peculiar arrangement of the
+pistil, green stamens, and a most offensive carrion-like odour,
+which is probably to attract to it a very objectionable-looking
+fly, for purposes of fertilisation.</p>
+<p>We overtook four Aino women, young and comely, with bare feet,
+striding firmly along; and after a good deal of laughing with the
+men, they took hold of the <i>kuruma</i>, and the whole seven
+raced with it at full speed for half a mile, shrieking with
+laughter.&nbsp; Soon after we came upon a little tea-house, and
+the Ainos showed me a straw package, and pointed to their open
+mouths, by which I understood that they wished to stop and
+eat.&nbsp; Later we overtook four Japanese on horseback, and the
+Ainos raced with them for a considerable distance, the result of
+these spurts being that I reached Tomakomai at noon&mdash;a wide,
+dreary place, with houses roofed with sod, bearing luxuriant
+crops of weeds.&nbsp; Near this place is the volcano of Tarumai,
+a calm-looking, grey cone, whose skirts are draped <a
+name="page228"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 228</span>by tens of
+thousands of dead trees.&nbsp; So calm and grey had it looked for
+many a year that people supposed it had passed into endless rest,
+when quite lately, on a sultry day, it blew off its cap and
+covered the whole country for many a mile with cinders and ashes,
+burning up the forest on its sides, adding a new covering to the
+Tomakomai roofs, and depositing fine ash as far as Cape Erimo,
+fifty miles off.</p>
+<p>At this place the road and telegraph wires turn inland to
+Satsuporo, and a track for horses only turns to the north-east,
+and straggles round the island for about seven hundred
+miles.&nbsp; From Mororan to Sarufuto there are everywhere traces
+of new and old volcanic action&mdash;pumice, tufas,
+conglomerates, and occasional beds of hard basalt, all covered
+with recent pumice, which, from Shira&ocirc;i eastwards, conceals
+everything.&nbsp; At Tomakomai we took horses, and, as I brought
+my own saddle, I have had the nearest approach to real riding
+that I have enjoyed in Japan.&nbsp; The wife of a Satsuporo
+doctor was there, who was travelling for two hundred miles
+astride on a pack-saddle, with rope-loops for stirrups.&nbsp; She
+rode well, and vaulted into my saddle with circus-like dexterity,
+and performed many equestrian feats upon it, telling me that she
+should be quite happy if she were possessed of it.</p>
+<p>I was happy when I left the &ldquo;beaten track&rdquo; to
+Satsuporo, and saw before me, stretching for I know not how far,
+rolling, sandy <i>machirs</i> like those of the Outer Hebrides,
+desert-like and lonely, covered almost altogether with dwarf
+roses and campanulas, a prairie land on which you can make any
+tracks you please.&nbsp; Sending the others on, I followed them
+at the Yezo <i>scramble</i>, and soon ventured on a long gallop,
+and revelled in the music of the thud of shoeless feet over the
+elastic soil; but I had not realised the peculiarities of Yezo
+steeds, and had forgotten to ask whether mine was a &ldquo;front
+horse,&rdquo; and just as we were going at full speed we came
+nearly up with the others, and my horse coming abruptly to a full
+stop, I went six feet over his head among the rose-bushes.&nbsp;
+Ito looking back saw me tightening the saddle-girths, and I never
+divulged this escapade.</p>
+<p>After riding eight miles along this breezy belt, with the sea
+on one side and forests on the other, we came upon Yubets, a
+place which has fascinated me so much that I intend <a
+name="page229"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 229</span>to return
+to it; but I must confess that its fascinations depend rather
+upon what it has not than upon what it has, and Ito says that it
+would kill him to spend even two days there.&nbsp; It looks like
+the end of all things, as if loneliness and desolation could go
+no farther.&nbsp; A sandy stretch on three sides, a river
+arrested in its progress to the sea, and compelled to wander
+tediously in search of an outlet by the height and mass of the
+beach thrown up by the Pacific, a distant forest-belt rising into
+featureless, wooded ranges in shades of indigo and grey, and a
+never-absent consciousness of a vast ocean just out of sight, are
+the environments of two high look-outs, some sheds for fish-oil
+purposes, four or five Japanese houses, four Aino huts on the top
+of the beach across the river, and a grey barrack, consisting of
+a polished passage eighty feet long, with small rooms on either
+side, at one end a gravelled yard, with two quiet rooms opening
+upon it, and at the other an immense <i>daidokoro</i>, with dark
+recesses and blackened rafters&mdash;a haunted-looking
+abode.&nbsp; One would suppose that there had been a special
+object in setting the houses down at weary distances from each
+other.&nbsp; Few as they are, they are not all inhabited at this
+season, and all that can be seen is grey sand, sparse grass, and
+a few savages creeping about.</p>
+<p>Nothing that I have seen has made such an impression upon me
+as that ghostly, ghastly fishing-station.&nbsp; In the long grey
+wall of the long grey barrack there were many dismal windows, and
+when we hooted for admission a stupid face appeared at one of
+them and disappeared.&nbsp; Then a grey gateway opened, and we
+rode into a yard of grey gravel, with some silent rooms opening
+upon it.&nbsp; The solitude of the thirty or forty rooms which
+lie between it and the kitchen, and which are now filled with
+nets and fishing-tackle, was something awful; and as the wind
+swept along the polished passage, rattling the <i>fusuma</i> and
+lifting the shingles on the roof, and the rats careered from end
+to end, I went to the great black <i>daidokoro</i> in search of
+social life, and found a few embers and an <i>andon</i>, and
+nothing else but the stupid-faced man deploring his fate, and two
+orphan boys whose lot he makes more wretched than his own.&nbsp;
+In the fishing-season this barrack accommodates from 200 to 300
+men.</p>
+<p>I started to the sea-shore, crossing the dreary river, and <a
+name="page230"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 230</span>found open
+sheds much blackened, deserted huts of reeds, long sheds with a
+nearly insufferable odour from caldrons in which oil had been
+extracted from last year&rsquo;s fish, two or three Aino huts,
+and two or three grand-looking Ainos, clothed in skins, striding
+like ghosts over the sandbanks, a number of wolfish dogs, some
+log canoes or &ldquo;dug-outs,&rdquo; the bones of a wrecked
+junk, a quantity of bleached drift-wood, a beach of dark-grey
+sand, and a tossing expanse of dark-grey ocean under a dull and
+windy sky.&nbsp; On this part of the coast the Pacific spends its
+fury, and has raised up at a short distance above high-water mark
+a sandy sweep of such a height that when you descend its seaward
+slope you see nothing but the sea and the sky, and a grey,
+curving shore, covered thick for many a lonely mile with
+fantastic forms of whitened drift-wood, the shattered wrecks of
+forest-trees, which are carried down by the innumerable rivers,
+till, after tossing for weeks and months along with</p>
+<blockquote><p>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&ldquo;&mdash;wrecks of ships,
+and drifting<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; spars
+uplifting<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; On the desolate, rainy seas:<br />
+Ever drifting, drifting, drifting,<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; On the shifting<br />
+Currents of the restless main;&rdquo;</p>
+</blockquote>
+<p>the &ldquo;toiling surges&rdquo; cast them on Yubets beach,
+and</p>
+<blockquote><p>&ldquo;All have found repose again.&rdquo;</p>
+</blockquote>
+<p>A grim repose!</p>
+<p>The deep boom of the surf was music, and the strange cries of
+sea-birds, and the hoarse notes of the audacious black crows,
+were all harmonious, for nature, when left to herself, never
+produces discords either in sound or colour.</p>
+<h2><a name="page231"></a><span class="pagenum">p.
+231</span>LETTER XXXV.&mdash;(<i>Continued</i>.)</h2>
+<p class="gutsumm">The Harmonies of Nature&mdash;A Good
+Horse&mdash;A Single Discord&mdash;A Forest&mdash;Aino
+Ferrymen&mdash;&ldquo;<i>Les Puces</i>!&nbsp; <i>Les
+Puces</i>!&rdquo;&mdash;Baffled Explorers&mdash;Ito&rsquo;s
+Contempt for Ainos&mdash;An Aino Introduction.</p>
+<p style="text-align: right"><span
+class="smcap">Sarufuto</span>.</p>
+<p><span class="smcap">No</span>!&nbsp; Nature has no
+discords.&nbsp; This morning, to the far horizon,
+diamond-flashing blue water shimmered in perfect peace, outlined
+by a line of surf which broke lazily on a beach scarcely less
+snowy than itself.&nbsp; The deep, perfect blue of the sky was
+only broken by a few radiant white clouds, whose shadows trailed
+slowly over the plain on whose broad bosom a thousand corollas,
+in the glory of their brief but passionate life, were drinking in
+the sunshine, wavy ranges slept in depths of indigo, and higher
+hills beyond were painted in faint blue on the dreamy sky.&nbsp;
+Even the few grey houses of Yubets were spiritualised into
+harmony by a faint blue veil which was not a mist, and the loud
+croak of the loquacious and impertinent crows had a cheeriness
+about it, a hearty mockery, which I liked.</p>
+<p>Above all, I had a horse so good that he was always trying to
+run away, and galloped so lightly over the flowery grass that I
+rode the seventeen miles here with great enjoyment.&nbsp; Truly a
+good horse, good ground to gallop on, and sunshine, make up the
+sum of enjoyable travelling.&nbsp; The discord in the general
+harmony was produced by the sight of the Ainos, a harmless people
+without the instinct of progress, descending to that vast tomb of
+conquered and unknown races which has opened to receive so many
+before them.&nbsp; A mounted policeman started with us from
+Yubets, and rode the whole way here, keeping exactly to my pace,
+but never speaking a word.&nbsp; We forded one broad, deep river,
+and crossed another, partly by fording <a
+name="page232"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 232</span>and partly
+in a scow, after which the track left the level, and, after
+passing through reedy grass as high as the horse&rsquo;s ears,
+went for some miles up and down hill, through woods composed
+entirely of the <i>Ailanthus glandulosus</i>, with leaves much
+riddled by the mountain silk-worm, and a ferny undergrowth of the
+familiar <i>Pteris aquilina</i>.&nbsp; The deep shade and
+glancing lights of this open copsewood were very pleasant; and as
+the horse tripped gaily up and down the little hills, and the sea
+murmur mingled with the rustle of the breeze, and a glint of
+white surf sometimes flashed through the greenery, and
+dragonflies and butterflies in suits of crimson and black velvet
+crossed the path continually like &ldquo;living flashes&rdquo; of
+light, I was reminded somewhat, though faintly, of windward
+Hawaii.&nbsp; We emerged upon an Aino hut and a beautiful placid
+river, and two Ainos ferried the four people and horses across in
+a scow, the third wading to guide the boat.&nbsp; They wore no
+clothing, but only one was hairy.&nbsp; They were superb-looking
+men, gentle, and extremely courteous, handing me in and out of
+the boat, and holding the stirrup while I mounted, with much
+natural grace.&nbsp; On leaving they extended their arms and
+waved their hands inwards twice, stroking their grand beards
+afterwards, which is their usual salutation.&nbsp; A short
+distance over shingle brought us to this Japanese village of
+sixty-three houses, a colonisation settlement, mainly of
+<i>samurai</i> from the province of Sendai, who are raising very
+fine crops on the sandy soil.&nbsp; The mountains, twelve miles
+in the interior, have a large Aino population, and a few Ainos
+live near this village and are held in great contempt by its
+inhabitants.&nbsp; My room is on the village street, and, as it
+is too warm to close the <i>sh&ocirc;ji</i>, the aborigines stand
+looking in at the lattice hour after hour.</p>
+<p>A short time ago Mr. Von Siebold and Count Diesbach galloped
+up on their return from Biratori, the Aino village to which I am
+going; and Count D., throwing himself from his horse, rushed up
+to me with the exclamation, <i>Les puces</i>! <i>les
+puces</i>!&nbsp; They have brought down with them the chief,
+Benri, a superb but dissipated-looking savage.&nbsp; Mr. Von
+Siebold called on me this evening, and I envied him his fresh,
+clean clothing as much as he envied me my stretcher and
+mosquito-net.&nbsp; They have suffered terribly from fleas,
+mosquitoes, and <a name="page233"></a><span class="pagenum">p.
+233</span>general discomfort, and are much exhausted; but Mr. Von
+S. thinks that, in spite of all, a visit to the mountain Ainos is
+worth a long journey.&nbsp; As I expected, they have completely
+failed in their explorations, and have been deserted by
+Lieutenant Kreitner.&nbsp; I asked Mr. Von S. to speak to Ito in
+Japanese about the importance of being kind and courteous to the
+Ainos whose hospitality I shall receive; and Ito is very
+indignant at this.&nbsp; &ldquo;Treat Ainos politely!&rdquo; he
+says; &ldquo;they&rsquo;re just dogs, not men;&rdquo; and since
+he has regaled me with all the scandal concerning them which he
+has been able to rake together in the village.</p>
+<p>We have to take not only food for both Ito and myself, but
+cooking utensils.&nbsp; I have been introduced to Benri, the
+chief; and, though he does not return for a day or two, he will
+send a message along with us which will ensure me
+hospitality.</p>
+<p style="text-align: right">I. L. B.</p>
+<h2><a name="page234"></a><span class="pagenum">p.
+234</span>LETTER XXXVI.</h2>
+<p class="gutsumm">Savage Life&mdash;A Forest Track&mdash;Cleanly
+Villages&mdash;A Hospitable Reception&mdash;The Chief&rsquo;s
+Mother&mdash;The Evening Meal&mdash;A Savage
+<i>S&eacute;ance</i>&mdash;Libations to the Gods&mdash;Nocturnal
+Silence&mdash;Aino Courtesy&mdash;The Chief&rsquo;s Wife.</p>
+<p style="text-align: right"><span class="smcap">Aino Hut</span>,
+<span class="smcap">Biratori</span>, <i>August</i> 23.</p>
+<p style="text-align: center">
+<a href="images/p234b.jpg">
+<img alt=
+"Aino Houses"
+title=
+"Aino Houses"
+ src="images/p234s.jpg" />
+</a></p>
+<p>I <span class="smcap">am</span> in the lonely Aino land, and I
+think that the most interesting of my travelling experiences has
+been the living for three days and two nights in an Aino hut, and
+seeing and sharing the daily life of complete savages, who go on
+with their ordinary occupations just as if I were not among
+them.&nbsp; <a name="page235"></a><span class="pagenum">p.
+235</span>I found yesterday a most fatiguing and over-exciting
+day, as everything was new and interesting, even the extracting
+from men who have few if any ideas in common with me all I could
+extract concerning their religion and customs, and that through
+an interpreter.&nbsp; I got up at six this morning to write out
+my notes, and have been writing for five hours, and there is
+shortly the prospect of another savage
+<i>s&eacute;ance</i>.&nbsp; The distractions, as you can imagine,
+are many.&nbsp; At this moment a savage is taking a cup of
+<i>sak&eacute;</i> by the fire in the centre of the floor.&nbsp;
+He salutes me by extending his hands and waving them towards his
+face, and then dips a rod in the <i>sak&eacute;</i>, and makes
+six libations to the god&mdash;an upright piece of wood with a
+fringe of shavings planted in the floor of the room.&nbsp; Then
+he waves the cup several times towards himself, makes other <a
+name="page236"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 236</span>libations
+to the fire, and drinks.&nbsp; Ten other men and women are
+sitting along each side of the fire-hole, the chief&rsquo;s wife
+is cooking, the men are apathetically contemplating the
+preparation of their food; and the other women, who are never
+idle, are splitting the bark of which they make their
+clothes.&nbsp; I occupy the guest seat&mdash;a raised platform at
+one end of the fire, with the skin of a black bear thrown over
+it.</p>
+<p style="text-align: center">
+<a href="images/p235b.jpg">
+<img alt=
+"Ainos at Home.  (From a Japanese Sketch)"
+title=
+"Ainos at Home.  (From a Japanese Sketch)"
+ src="images/p235s.jpg" />
+</a></p>
+<p>I have reserved all I have to say about the Ainos till I had
+been actually among them, and I hope you will have patience to
+read to the end.&nbsp; Ito is very greedy and self-indulgent, and
+whimpered very much about coming to Biratori at all,&mdash;one
+would have thought he was going to the stake.&nbsp; He actually
+borrowed for himself a sleeping mat and <i>futons</i>, and has
+brought a chicken, onions, potatoes, French beans, Japanese
+sauce, tea, rice, a kettle, a stew-pan, and a rice-pan, while I
+contented myself with a cold fowl and potatoes.</p>
+<p>We took three horses and a mounted Aino guide, and found a
+beaten track the whole way.&nbsp; It turns into the forest at
+once on leaving Sarufuto, and goes through forest the entire
+distance, with an abundance of reedy grass higher than my hat on
+horseback along it, and, as it is only twelve inches broad and
+much overgrown, the horses were constantly pushing through
+leafage soaking from a night&rsquo;s rain, and I was soon wet up
+to my shoulders.&nbsp; The forest trees are almost solely the
+<i>Ailanthus glandulosus</i> and the <i>Zelkowa keaki</i>, often
+matted together with a white-flowered trailer of the Hydrangea
+genus.&nbsp; The undergrowth is simply hideous, consisting mainly
+of coarse reedy grass, monstrous docks, the large-leaved
+<i>Polygonum cuspidatum</i>, several umbelliferous plants, and a
+&ldquo;ragweed&rdquo; which, like most of its gawky fellows,
+grows from five to six feet high.&nbsp; The forest is dark and
+very silent, threaded by this narrow path, and by others as
+narrow, made by the hunters in search of game.&nbsp; The
+&ldquo;main road&rdquo; sometimes plunges into deep bogs, at
+others is roughly corduroyed by the roots of trees, and
+frequently hangs over the edge of abrupt and much-worn
+declivities, in going up one of which the baggage-horse rolled
+down a bank fully thirty feet high, and nearly all the tea was
+lost.&nbsp; At another the guide&rsquo;s pack-saddle lost its
+balance, and man, horse, and saddle went over the slope, pots,
+pans, and packages flying after them.&nbsp; At another time my
+horse <a name="page237"></a><span class="pagenum">p.
+237</span>sank up to his chest in a very bad bog, and, as he was
+totally unable to extricate himself, I was obliged to scramble
+upon his neck and jump to <i>terra firma</i> over his ears.</p>
+<p>There is something very gloomy in the solitude of this silent
+land, with its beast-haunted forests, its great patches of
+pasture, the resort of wild animals which haunt the lower regions
+in search of food when the snow drives them down from the
+mountains, and its narrow track, indicating the single file in
+which the savages of the interior walk with their bare, noiseless
+feet.&nbsp; Reaching the Sarufutogawa, a river with a treacherous
+bottom, in which Mr. Von Siebold and his horse came to grief, I
+hailed an Aino boy, who took me up the stream in a
+&ldquo;dug-out,&rdquo; and after that we passed through Biroka,
+Saruba, and Mina, all purely Aino villages, situated among small
+patches of millet, tobacco, and pumpkins, so choked with weeds
+that it was doubtful whether they were crops.&nbsp; I was much
+surprised with the extreme neatness and cleanliness outside the
+houses; &ldquo;model villages&rdquo; they are in these respects,
+with no litter lying in sight anywhere, nothing indeed but dog
+troughs, hollowed out of logs, like &ldquo;dug-outs,&rdquo; for
+the numerous yellow dogs, which are a feature of Aino life.&nbsp;
+There are neither puddles nor heaps, but the houses, all trim and
+in good repair, rise clean out of the sandy soil.</p>
+<p>Biratori, the largest of the Aino settlements in this region,
+is very prettily situated among forests and mountains, on rising
+ground, with a very sinuous river winding at its feet and a
+wooded height above.&nbsp; A lonelier place could scarcely be
+found.&nbsp; As we passed among the houses the yellow dogs
+barked, the women looked shy and smiled, and the men made their
+graceful salutation.&nbsp; We stopped at the chief&rsquo;s house,
+where, of course, we were unexpected guests; but Shinondi, his
+nephew, and two other men came out, saluted us, and with most
+hospitable intent helped Ito to unload the horses.&nbsp; Indeed
+their eager hospitality created quite a commotion, one running
+hither and the other thither in their anxiety to welcome a
+stranger.&nbsp; It is a large house, the room being 35 by 25, and
+the roof 20 feet high; but you enter by an ante-chamber, in which
+are kept the millet-mill and other articles.&nbsp; There is a
+doorway in this, but the inside is pretty dark, and Shinondi,
+taking my hand, raised the reed curtain bound with hide, <a
+name="page238"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 238</span>which
+concealed the entrance into the actual house, and, leading me
+into it, retired a footstep, extended his arms, waved his arms
+inwards three times, and then stroked his beard several times,
+after which he indicated by a sweep of his hand and a beautiful
+smile that the house and all it contained were mine.&nbsp; An
+aged woman, the chief&rsquo;s mother, who was splitting bark by
+the fire, waved her hands also.&nbsp; She is the queen-regnant of
+the house.</p>
+<p style="text-align: center">
+<a href="images/p238b.jpg">
+<img alt=
+"Aino Millet-Mill and Pestle"
+title=
+"Aino Millet-Mill and Pestle"
+ src="images/p238s.jpg" />
+</a></p>
+<p>Again taking my hand, Shinondi led me to the place of honour
+at the head of the fire&mdash;a rude, movable platform six feet
+long by four broad, and a foot high, on which he laid an
+ornamental mat, apologising for not having at that moment a
+bearskin wherewith to cover it.&nbsp; The baggage was speedily
+brought in by several willing pairs of hands; some reed mats
+fifteen feet long were laid down upon the very coarse ones which
+covered the whole floor, and when they saw Ito putting up my
+stretcher they hung a fine mat along the rough wall to conceal
+it, and suspended another on the beams of the roof for a
+canopy.&nbsp; The alacrity and instinctive hospitality with which
+these men rushed about to make things comfortable <a
+name="page239"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 239</span>were very
+fascinating, though comfort is a word misapplied in an Aino
+hut.&nbsp; The women only did what the men told them.</p>
+<p>They offered food at once, but I told them that I had brought
+my own, and would only ask leave to cook it on their fire.&nbsp;
+I need not have brought any cups, for they have many lacquer
+bowls, and Shinondi brought me on a lacquer tray a bowl full of
+water from one of their four wells.&nbsp; They said that Benri,
+the chief, would wish me to make his house my own for as long as
+I cared to stay, and I must excuse them in all things in which
+their ways were different from my own.&nbsp; Shinondi and four
+others in the village speak tolerable Japanese, and this of
+course is the medium of communication.&nbsp; Ito has exerted
+himself nobly as an interpreter, and has entered into my wishes
+with a cordiality and intelligence which have been perfectly
+invaluable; and, though he did growl at Mr. Von Siebold&rsquo;s
+injunctions regarding politeness, he has carried them out to my
+satisfaction, and even admits that the mountain Ainos are better
+than he expected; &ldquo;but,&rdquo; he added &ldquo;they have
+learned their politeness from the Japanese!&rdquo;&nbsp; They
+have never seen a foreign woman, and only three foreign men, but
+there is neither crowding nor staring as among the Japanese,
+possibly in part from apathy and want of intelligence.&nbsp; For
+three days they have kept up their graceful and kindly
+hospitality, going on with their ordinary life and occupations,
+and, though I have lived among them in this room by day and
+night, there has been nothing which in any way could offend the
+most fastidious sense of delicacy.</p>
+<p>They said they would leave me to eat and rest, and all retired
+but the chief&rsquo;s mother, a weird, witch-like woman of
+eighty, with shocks of yellow-white hair, and a stern
+suspiciousness in her wrinkled face.&nbsp; I have come to feel as
+if she had the evil eye, as she sits there watching, watching
+always, and for ever knotting the bark thread like one of the
+Fates, keeping a jealous watch on her son&rsquo;s two wives, and
+on other young women who come in to weave&mdash;neither the
+dulness nor the repose of old age about her; and her eyes gleam
+with a greedy light when she sees <i>sak&eacute;</i>, of which
+she drains a bowl without taking breath.&nbsp; She alone is
+suspicious of strangers, and she thinks that my visit bodes no
+good to her tribe.&nbsp; I <a name="page240"></a><span
+class="pagenum">p. 240</span>see her eyes fixed upon me now, and
+they make me shudder.</p>
+<p>I had a good meal seated in my chair on the top of the
+guest-seat to avoid the fleas, which are truly legion.&nbsp; At
+dusk Shinondi returned, and soon people began to drop in, till
+eighteen were assembled, including the sub-chief and several very
+grand-looking old men, with full, grey, wavy beards.&nbsp; Age is
+held in much reverence, and it is etiquette for these old men to
+do honour to a guest in the chief&rsquo;s absence.&nbsp; As each
+entered he saluted me several times, and after sitting down
+turned towards me and saluted again, going through the same
+ceremony with every other person.&nbsp; They said they had come
+&ldquo;to bid me welcome.&rdquo;&nbsp; They took their places in
+rigid order at each side of the fireplace, which is six feet
+long, Benri&rsquo;s mother in the place of honour at the right,
+then Shinondi, then the sub-chief, and on the other side the old
+men.&nbsp; Besides these, seven women sat in a row in the
+background splitting bark.&nbsp; A large iron pan hung over the
+fire from a blackened arrangement above, and Benri&rsquo;s
+principal wife cut wild roots, green beans, and seaweed, and
+shred dried fish and venison among them, adding millet, water,
+and some strong-smelling fish-oil, and set the whole on to stew
+for three hours, stirring the &ldquo;mess&rdquo; now and then
+with a wooden spoon.</p>
+<p>Several of the older people smoke, and I handed round some
+mild tobacco, which they received with waving hands.&nbsp; I told
+them that I came from a land in the sea, very far away, where
+they saw the sun go down&mdash;so very far away that a horse
+would have to gallop day and night for five weeks to reach
+it&mdash;and that I had come a long journey to see them, and that
+I wanted to ask them many questions, so that when I went home I
+might tell my own people something about them.&nbsp; Shinondi and
+another man, who understood Japanese, bowed, and (as on every
+occasion) translated what I said into Aino for the venerable
+group opposite.&nbsp; Shinondi then said &ldquo;that he and
+Shinrichi, the other Japanese speaker, would tell me all they
+knew, but they were but young men, and only knew what was told to
+them.&nbsp; They would speak what they believed to be true, but
+the chief knew more than they, and when he came back he might
+tell me differently, and then I should think that they had spoken
+lies.&rdquo;&nbsp; I said that no one who <a
+name="page241"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 241</span>looked into
+their faces could think that they ever told lies.&nbsp; They were
+very much pleased, and waved their hands and stroked their beards
+repeatedly.&nbsp; Before they told me anything they begged and
+prayed that I would not inform the Japanese Government that they
+had told me of their customs, or harm might come to them!</p>
+<p>For the next two hours, and for two more after supper, I asked
+them questions concerning their religion and customs, and again
+yesterday for a considerable time, and this morning, after
+Benri&rsquo;s return, I went over the same subjects with him, and
+have also employed a considerable time in getting about 300 words
+from them, which I have spelt phonetically of course, and intend
+to go over again when I visit the coast Ainos. <a
+name="citation241"></a><a href="#footnote241"
+class="citation">[241]</a></p>
+<p>The process was slow, as both question and answer had to pass
+through three languages.&nbsp; There was a very manifest desire
+to tell the truth, and I think that their statements concerning
+their few and simple customs may be relied upon.&nbsp; I shall
+give what they told me separately when I have time to write out
+my notes in an orderly manner.&nbsp; I can only say that I have
+seldom spent a more interesting evening.</p>
+<p>About nine the stew was ready, and the women ladled it into
+lacquer bowls with wooden spoons.&nbsp; The men were served
+first, but all ate together.&nbsp; Afterwards <i>sak&eacute;</i>,
+their curse, was poured into lacquer bowls, and across each bowl
+a finely-carved &ldquo;sak&eacute;-<i>stick</i>&rdquo; was
+laid.&nbsp; These sticks are very highly prized.&nbsp; The bowls
+were waved several times with an inward motion, then each man
+took his stick and, dipping it into the <i>sak&eacute;</i>, made
+six libations to the fire and several to the
+&ldquo;god&rdquo;&mdash;a wooden post, with a quantity of spiral
+white shavings falling from near the top.&nbsp; The Ainos are not
+affected by <i>sak&eacute;</i> nearly so easily as the
+Japanese.&nbsp; They took it cold, it is true, but each drank
+about three times as much as would have made a <a
+name="page242"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 242</span>Japanese
+foolish, and it had no effect upon them.&nbsp; After two hours
+more talk one after another got up and went out, making profuse
+salutations to me and to the others.&nbsp; My candles had been
+forgotten, and our <i>s&eacute;ance</i> was held by the fitful
+light of the big logs on the fire, aided by a succession of chips
+of birch bark, with which a woman replenished a cleft stick that
+was stuck into the fire-hole.&nbsp; I never saw such a strangely
+picturesque sight as that group of magnificent savages with the
+fitful firelight on their faces, and for adjuncts the flare of
+the torch, the strong lights, the blackness of the recesses of
+the room and of the roof, at one end of which the stars looked
+in, and the row of savage women in the background&mdash;eastern
+savagery and western civilisation met in this hut, savagery
+giving and civilisation receiving, the yellow-skinned Ito the
+connecting-link between the two, and the representative of a
+civilisation to which our own is but an &ldquo;infant of
+days.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>I found it very exciting, and when all had left crept out into
+the starlight.&nbsp; The lodges were all dark and silent, and the
+dogs, mild like their masters, took no notice of me.&nbsp; The
+only sound was the rustle of a light breeze through the
+surrounding forest.&nbsp; The verse came into my mind, &ldquo;It
+is not the will of your Father which is in heaven that one of
+these little ones should perish.&rdquo;&nbsp; Surely these simple
+savages are children, as children to be judged; may we not hope
+as children to be saved through Him who came &ldquo;not to judge
+the world, but to save the world&rdquo;?</p>
+<p>I crept back again and into my mosquito net, and suffered not
+from fleas or mosquitoes, but from severe cold.&nbsp; Shinondi
+conversed with Ito for some time in a low musical voice, having
+previously asked if it would keep me from sleeping.&nbsp; No
+Japanese ever intermitted his ceaseless chatter at any hour of
+the night for a similar reason.&nbsp; Later, the chief&rsquo;s
+principal wife, Noma, stuck a triply-cleft stick in the
+fire-hole, put a potsherd with a wick and some fish-oil upon it,
+and by the dim light of this rude lamp sewed until midnight at a
+garment of bark cloth which she was ornamenting for her lord with
+strips of blue cloth, and when I opened my eyes the next morning
+she was at the window sewing by the earliest daylight.&nbsp; She
+is the most intelligent-looking of all the women, but looks sad
+and almost stern, and speaks seldom.&nbsp; Although <a
+name="page243"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 243</span>she is the
+principal wife of the chief she is not happy, for she is
+childless, and I thought that her sad look darkened into
+something evil as the other wife caressed a fine baby boy.&nbsp;
+Benri seems to me something of a brute, and the mother-in-law
+obviously holds the reins of government pretty tight.&nbsp; After
+sewing till midnight she swept the mats with a bunch of twigs,
+and then crept into her bed behind a hanging mat.&nbsp; For a
+moment in the stillness I felt a feeling of panic, as if I were
+incurring a risk by being alone among savages, but I conquered
+it, and, after watching the fire till it went out, fell asleep
+till I was awoke by the severe cold of the next day&rsquo;s
+dawn.</p>
+<h2><a name="page244"></a><span class="pagenum">p.
+244</span>LETTER XXXVI.&mdash;(<i>Continued</i>.)</h2>
+<p class="gutsumm">A Supposed Act of Worship&mdash;Parental
+Tenderness&mdash;Morning Visits&mdash;Wretched
+Cultivation&mdash;Honesty and Generosity&mdash;A
+&ldquo;Dug-out&rdquo;&mdash;Female Occupations&mdash;The Ancient
+Fate&mdash;A New Arrival&mdash;A Perilous Prescription&mdash;The
+Shrine of Yoshitsun&eacute;&mdash;The Chief&rsquo;s Return.</p>
+<p><span class="smcap">When</span> I crept from under my net much
+benumbed with cold, there were about eleven people in the room,
+who all made their graceful salutation.&nbsp; It did not seem as
+if they had ever heard of washing, for, when water was asked for,
+Shinondi brought a little in a lacquer bowl, and held it while I
+bathed my face and hands, supposing the performance to be an act
+of worship!&nbsp; I was about to throw some cold tea out of the
+window by my bed when he arrested me with an anxious face, and I
+saw, what I had not observed before, that there was a god at that
+window&mdash;a stick with festoons of shavings hanging from it,
+and beside it a dead bird.&nbsp; The Ainos have two meals a day,
+and their breakfast was a repetition of the previous
+night&rsquo;s supper.&nbsp; We all ate together, and I gave the
+children the remains of my rice, and it was most amusing to see
+little creatures of three, four, and five years old, with no
+other clothing than a piece of pewter hanging round their necks,
+first formally asking leave of the parents before taking the
+rice, and then waving their hands.&nbsp; The obedience of the
+children is instantaneous.&nbsp; Their parents are more
+demonstrative in their affection than the Japanese are, caressing
+them a good deal, and two of the men are devoted to children who
+are not their own.&nbsp; These little ones are as grave and
+dignified as Japanese children, and are very gentle.</p>
+<p>I went out soon after five, when the dew was glittering in the
+sunshine, and the mountain hollow in which Biratori stands was
+looking its very best, and the silence of the place, even <a
+name="page245"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 245</span>though the
+people were all astir, was as impressive as that of the night
+before.&nbsp; What a strange life! knowing nothing, hoping
+nothing, fearing a little, the need for clothes and food the one
+motive principle, <i>sak&eacute;</i> in abundance the one
+good!&nbsp; How very few points of contact it is possible to
+have!&nbsp; I was just thinking so when Shinondi met me, and took
+me to his house to see if I could do anything for a child sorely
+afflicted with skin disease, and his extreme tenderness for this
+very loathsome object made me feel that human affections were the
+same among them as with us.&nbsp; He had carried it on his back
+from a village, five miles distant, that morning, in the hope
+that it might be cured.&nbsp; As soon as I entered he laid a fine
+mat on the floor, and covered the guest-seat with a
+bearskin.&nbsp; After breakfast he took me to the lodge of the
+sub-chief, the largest in the village, 45 feet square, and into
+about twenty others all constructed in the same way, but some of
+them were not more than 20 feet square.&nbsp; In all I was
+received with the same courtesy, but a few of the people asked
+Shinondi not to take me into their houses, as they did not want
+me to see how poor they are.&nbsp; In every house there was the
+low shelf with more or fewer curios upon it, but, besides these,
+none but the barest necessaries of life, though the skins which
+they sell or barter every year would enable them to surround
+themselves with comforts, were it not that their gains represent
+to them <i>sak&eacute;</i>, and nothing else.&nbsp; They are not
+nomads.&nbsp; On the contrary, they cling tenaciously to the
+sites on which their fathers have lived and died.&nbsp; But
+anything more deplorable than the attempts at cultivation which
+surround their lodges could not be seen.&nbsp; The soil is little
+better than white sand, on which without manure they attempt to
+grow millet, which is to them in the place of rice, pumpkins,
+onions, and tobacco; but the look of their plots is as if they
+had been cultivated ten years ago, and some chance-sown grain and
+vegetables had come up among the weeds.&nbsp; When nothing more
+will grow, they partially clear another bit of forest, and
+exhaust that in its turn.</p>
+<p>In every house the same honour was paid to a guest.&nbsp; This
+seems a savage virtue which is not strong enough to survive much
+contact with civilisation.&nbsp; Before I entered one lodge the
+woman brought several of the finer mats, and arranged <a
+name="page246"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 246</span>them as a
+pathway for me to walk to the fire upon.&nbsp; They will not
+accept anything for lodging, or for anything that they give, so I
+was anxious to help them by buying some of their handiwork, but
+found even this a difficult matter.&nbsp; They were very anxious
+to give, but when I desired to buy they said they did not wish to
+part with their things.&nbsp; I wanted what they had in actual
+use, such as a tobacco-box and pipe-sheath, and knives with
+carved handles and scabbards, and for three of these I offered
+2&frac12; dollars.&nbsp; They said they did not care to sell
+them, but in the evening they came saying they were not worth
+more than 1 dollar 10 cents, and they would sell them for that;
+and I could not get them to take more.&nbsp; They said it was
+&ldquo;not their custom.&rdquo;&nbsp; I bought a bow and three
+poisoned arrows, two reed-mats, with a diamond pattern on them in
+reeds stained red, some knives with sheaths, and a bark cloth
+dress.&nbsp; I tried to buy the <i>sak&eacute;</i>-sticks with
+which they make libations to their gods, but they said it was
+&ldquo;not their custom&rdquo; to part with the
+<i>sak&eacute;</i>-stick of any living man; however, this morning
+Shinondi has brought me, as a very valuable present, the stick of
+a dead man!&nbsp; This morning the man who sold the arrows
+brought two new ones, to replace two which were imperfect.&nbsp;
+I found them, as Mr. Von Siebold had done, punctiliously honest
+in all their transactions.&nbsp; They wear very large earrings
+with hoops an inch and a half in diameter, a pair constituting
+the dowry of an Aino bride; but they would not part with
+these.</p>
+<p>A house was burned down two nights ago, and
+&ldquo;custom&rdquo; in such a case requires that all the men
+should work at rebuilding it, so in their absence I got two boys
+to take me in a &ldquo;dug-out&rdquo; as far as we could go up
+the Sarufutogawa&mdash;a lovely river, which winds tortuously
+through the forests and mountains in unspeakable
+loveliness.&nbsp; I had much of the feeling of the ancient
+mariner&mdash;</p>
+<blockquote><p>&ldquo;We were the first<br />
+Who ever burst<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Into that silent sea.&rdquo;</p>
+</blockquote>
+<p>For certainly no European had ever previously floated on the
+dark and forest-shrouded waters.&nbsp; I enjoyed those hours
+thoroughly, for the silence was profound, and the faint blue <a
+name="page247"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 247</span>of the
+autumn sky, and the soft blue veil which
+&ldquo;spiritualised&rdquo; the distances, were so exquisitely
+like the Indian summer.</p>
+<p style="text-align: center">
+<a href="images/p247b.jpg">
+<img alt=
+"Aino Store-House"
+title=
+"Aino Store-House"
+ src="images/p247s.jpg" />
+</a></p>
+<p>The evening was spent like the previous one, but the hearts of
+the savages were sad, for there was no more <i>sak&eacute;</i> in
+Biratori, so they could not &ldquo;drink to the god,&rdquo; and
+the fire and the post with the shavings had to go without
+libations.&nbsp; There was no more oil, so after the strangers
+retired the hut was in complete darkness.</p>
+<p>Yesterday morning we all breakfasted soon after daylight, and
+the able-bodied men went away to hunt.&nbsp; Hunting and fishing
+are their occupations, and for &ldquo;indoor recreation&rdquo;
+they <a name="page248"></a><span class="pagenum">p.
+248</span>carve tobacco-boxes, knife-sheaths,
+<i>sak&eacute;</i>-sticks, and shuttles.&nbsp; It is quite
+unnecessary for them to do anything; they are quite contented to
+sit by the fire, and smoke occasionally, and eat and sleep, this
+apathy being varied by spasms of activity when there is no more
+dried flesh in the <i>kuras</i>, and when skins must be taken to
+Sarufuto to pay for <i>sak&eacute;</i>.&nbsp; The women seem
+never to have an idle moment.&nbsp; They rise early to sew,
+weave, and split bark, for they not only clothe themselves and
+their husbands in this nearly indestructible cloth, but weave it
+for barter, and the lower class of Japanese are constantly to be
+seen wearing the product of Aino industry.&nbsp; They do all the
+hard work, such as drawing water, chopping wood, grinding millet,
+and cultivating the soil, after their fashion; but, to do the men
+justice, I often see them trudging along carrying one and even
+two children.&nbsp; The women take the exclusive charge of the
+<i>kuras</i>, which are never entered by men.</p>
+<p>I was left for some hours alone with the women, of whom there
+were seven in the hut, with a few children.&nbsp; On the one side
+of the fire the chief&rsquo;s mother sat like a Fate, for ever
+splitting and knotting bark, and petrifying me by her cold,
+fateful eyes.&nbsp; Her thick, grey hair hangs in shocks, the
+tattooing round her mouth has nearly faded, and no longer
+disguises her really handsome features.&nbsp; She is dressed in a
+much ornamented bark-cloth dress, and wears two silver beads tied
+round her neck by a piece of blue cotton, in addition to very
+large earrings.&nbsp; She has much sway in the house, sitting on
+the men&rsquo;s side of the fire, drinking plenty of
+<i>sak&eacute;</i>, and occasionally chiding her grandson
+Shinondi for telling me too much, saying that it will bring harm
+to her people.&nbsp; Though her expression is so severe and
+forbidding, she is certainly very handsome, and it is a European,
+not an Asiatic, beauty.</p>
+<p>The younger women were all at work; two were seated on the
+floor weaving without a loom, and the others were making and
+mending the bark coats which are worn by both sexes.&nbsp; Noma,
+the chief&rsquo;s principal wife, sat apart, seldom
+speaking.&nbsp; Two of the youngest women are very
+pretty&mdash;as fair as ourselves, and their comeliness is of the
+rosy, peasant kind.&nbsp; It turns out that two of them, though
+they would not divulge it before men, speak Japanese, and they
+prattled to Ito with great vivacity and merriment, the ancient
+Fate <a name="page249"></a><span class="pagenum">p.
+249</span>scowling at them the while from under her shaggy
+eyebrows.&nbsp; I got a number of words from them, and they
+laughed heartily at my erroneous pronunciation.&nbsp; They even
+asked me a number of questions regarding their own sex among
+ourselves, but few of these would bear repetition, and they
+answered a number of mine.&nbsp; As the merriment increased the
+old woman looked increasingly angry and restless, and at last
+rated them sharply, as I have heard since, telling them that if
+they spoke another word she should tell their husbands that they
+had been talking to strangers.&nbsp; After this not another word
+was spoken, and Noma, who is an industrious housewife, boiled
+some millet into a mash for a mid-day lunch.&nbsp; During the
+afternoon a very handsome young Aino, with a washed,
+richly-coloured skin and fine clear eyes, came up from the coast,
+where he had been working at the fishing.&nbsp; He saluted the
+old woman and Benri&rsquo;s wife on entering, and presented the
+former with a gourd of <i>sak&eacute;</i>, bringing a greedy
+light into her eyes as she took a long draught, after which,
+saluting me, he threw himself down in the place of honour by the
+fire, with the easy grace of a staghound, a savage all
+over.&nbsp; His name is Pipichari, and he is the chief&rsquo;s
+adopted son.&nbsp; He had cut his foot badly with a root, and
+asked me to cure it, and I stipulated that it should be bathed
+for some time in warm water before anything more was done, after
+which I bandaged it with lint.&nbsp; He said &ldquo;he did not
+like me to touch his foot, it was not clean enough, my hands were
+too white,&rdquo; etc.; but when I had dressed it, and the pain
+was much relieved, he bowed very low and then kissed my
+hand!&nbsp; He was the only one among them all who showed the
+slightest curiosity regarding my things.&nbsp; He looked at my
+scissors, touched my boots, and watched me, as I wrote, with the
+simple curiosity of a child.&nbsp; He could speak a little
+Japanese, but he said he was &ldquo;too young to tell me
+anything, the older men would know.&rdquo;&nbsp; He is a
+&ldquo;total abstainer&rdquo; from <i>sak&eacute;</i>, and he
+says that there are four such besides himself among the large
+number of Ainos who are just now at the fishing at Mombets, and
+that the others keep separate from them, because they think that
+the gods will be angry with them for not drinking.</p>
+<p>Several &ldquo;patients,&rdquo; mostly children, were brought
+in during the afternoon.&nbsp; Ito was much disgusted by my
+interest in <a name="page250"></a><span class="pagenum">p.
+250</span>these people, who, he repeated, &ldquo;are just
+dogs,&rdquo; referring to their legendary origin, of which they
+are not ashamed.&nbsp; His assertion that they have learned
+politeness from the Japanese is simply baseless.&nbsp; Their
+politeness, though of quite another and more manly stamp, is
+savage, not civilised.&nbsp; The men came back at dark, the meal
+was prepared, and we sat round the fire as before; but there was
+no <i>sak&eacute;</i>, except in the possession of the old woman;
+and again the hearts of the savages were sad.&nbsp; I could
+multiply instances of their politeness.&nbsp; As we were talking,
+Pipichari, who is a very &ldquo;untutored&rdquo; savage, dropped
+his coat from one shoulder, and at once Shinondi signed to him to
+put it on again.&nbsp; Again, a woman was sent to a distant
+village for some oil as soon as they heard that I usually burned
+a light all night.&nbsp; Little acts of courtesy were constantly
+being performed; but I really appreciated nothing more than the
+quiet way in which they went on with the routine of their
+ordinary lives.</p>
+<p>During the evening a man came to ask if I would go and see a
+woman who could hardly breathe; and I found her very ill of
+bronchitis, accompanied with much fever.&nbsp; She was lying in a
+coat of skins, tossing on the hard boards of her bed, with a
+matting-covered roll under her head, and her husband was trying
+to make her swallow some salt-fish.&nbsp; I took her dry, hot
+hand&mdash;such a small hand, tattooed all over the
+back&mdash;and it gave me a strange thrill.&nbsp; The room was
+full of people, and they all seemed very sorry.&nbsp; A medical
+missionary would be of little use here; but a medically-trained
+nurse, who would give medicines and proper food, with proper
+nursing, would save many lives and much suffering.&nbsp; It is of
+no use to tell these people to do anything which requires to be
+done more than once: they are just like children.&nbsp; I gave
+her some chlorodyne, which she swallowed with difficulty, and
+left another dose ready mixed, to give her in a few hours; but
+about midnight they came to tell me that she was worse; and on
+going I found her very cold and weak, and breathing very hard,
+moving her head wearily from side to side.&nbsp; I thought she
+could not live for many hours, and was much afraid that they
+would think that I had killed her.&nbsp; I told them that I
+thought she would die; but they urged me to do something more for
+her, and as a last hope I gave her some brandy, <a
+name="page251"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 251</span>with
+twenty-five drops of chlorodyne, and a few spoonfuls of very
+strong beef-tea.&nbsp; She was unable, or more probably
+unwilling, to make the effort to swallow it, and I poured it down
+her throat by the wild glare of strips of birch bark.&nbsp; An
+hour later they came back to tell me that she felt as if she were
+very drunk; but, going back to her house, I found that she was
+sleeping quietly, and breathing more easily; and, creeping back
+just at dawn, I found her still sleeping, and with her pulse
+stronger and calmer.&nbsp; She is now decidedly better and quite
+sensible, and her husband, the sub-chief, is much
+delighted.&nbsp; It seems so sad that they have nothing fit for a
+sick person&rsquo;s food; and though I have made a bowl of
+beef-tea with the remains of my stock, it can only last one
+day.</p>
+<p>I was so tired with these nocturnal expeditions and anxieties
+that on lying down I fell asleep, and on waking found more than
+the usual assemblage in the room, and the men were obviously agog
+about something.&nbsp; They have a singular, and I hope an
+unreasonable, fear of the Japanese Government.&nbsp; Mr. Von
+Siebold thinks that the officials threaten and knock them about;
+and this is possible; but I really think that the
+<i>Kaitaikushi</i> Department means well by them, and, besides
+removing the oppressive restrictions by which, as a conquered
+race, they were fettered, treats them far more humanely and
+equitably than the U.S. Government, for instance, treats the
+North American Indians.&nbsp; However, they are ignorant; and one
+of the men, who had been most grateful because I said I would get
+Dr. Hepburn to send some medicine for his child, came this
+morning and begged me not to do so, as, he said, &ldquo;the
+Japanese Government would be angry.&rdquo;&nbsp; After this they
+again prayed me not to tell the Japanese Government that they had
+told me their customs and then they began to talk earnestly
+together.</p>
+<p>The sub-chief then spoke, and said that I had been kind to
+their sick people, and they would like to show me their temple,
+which had never been seen by any foreigner; but they were very
+much afraid of doing so, and they asked me many times &ldquo;not
+to tell the Japanese Government that they showed it to me, lest
+some great harm should happen to them.&rdquo;&nbsp; The sub-chief
+put on a sleeveless Japanese war-cloak to go up, and he,
+Shinondi, Pipichari, and two others accompanied me.&nbsp; <a
+name="page252"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 252</span>It was a
+beautiful but very steep walk, or rather climb, to the top of an
+abrupt acclivity beyond the village, on which the temple or
+shrine stands.&nbsp; It would be impossible to get up were it not
+for the remains of a wooden staircase, not of Aino
+construction.&nbsp; Forest and mountain surround Biratori, and
+the only breaks in the dense greenery are glints of the shining
+waters of the Sarufutogawa, and the tawny roofs of the Aino
+lodges.&nbsp; It is a lonely and a silent land, fitter for the
+<i>hiding</i> place than the <i>dwelling</i> place of men.</p>
+<p>When the splendid young savage, Pipichari, saw that I found it
+difficult to get up, he took my hand and helped me up, as gently
+as an English gentleman would have done; and when he saw that I
+had greater difficulty in getting down, he all but insisted on my
+riding down on his back, and certainly would have carried me had
+not Benri, the chief, who arrived while we were at the shrine,
+made an end of it by taking my hand and helping me down
+himself.&nbsp; Their instinct of helpfulness to a foreign woman
+strikes me as so odd, because they never show any courtesy to
+their own women, whom they treat (though to a less extent than is
+usual among savages) as inferior beings.</p>
+<p>On the very edge of the cliff, at the top of the zigzag,
+stands a wooden temple or shrine, such as one sees in any grove,
+or on any high place on the main island, obviously of Japanese
+construction, but concerning which Aino tradition is
+silent.&nbsp; No European had ever stood where I stood, and there
+was a solemnity in the knowledge.&nbsp; The sub-chief drew back
+the sliding doors, and all bowed with much reverence, It was a
+simple shrine of unlacquered wood, with a broad shelf at the
+back, on which there was a small shrine containing a figure of
+the historical hero Yoshitsun&eacute;, in a suit of inlaid brass
+armour, some metal <i>gohei</i>, a pair of tarnished brass
+candle-sticks, and a coloured Chinese picture representing a
+junk.&nbsp; Here, then, I was introduced to the great god of the
+mountain Ainos.&nbsp; There is something very pathetic in these
+people keeping alive the memory of Yoshitsun&eacute;, not on
+account of his martial exploits, but simply because their
+tradition tells them that he was kind to them.&nbsp; They pulled
+the bell three times to attract his attention, bowed three times,
+and made six libations of <i>sak&eacute;</i>, without which
+ceremony he cannot be <a name="page253"></a><span
+class="pagenum">p. 253</span>approached.&nbsp; They asked me to
+worship their god, but when I declined on the ground that I could
+only worship my own God, the Lord of Earth and Heaven, of the
+dead and of the living, they were too courteous to press their
+request.&nbsp; As to Ito, it did not signify to him whether or
+not he added another god to his already crowded Pantheon, and he
+&ldquo;worshipped,&rdquo; i.e. bowed down, most willingly before
+the great hero of his own, the conquering race.</p>
+<p>While we were crowded there on the narrow ledge of the cliff,
+Benri, the chief, arrived&mdash;a square-built, broad-shouldered,
+elderly man, strong as an ox, and very handsome, but his
+expression is not pleasing, and his eyes are bloodshot with
+drinking.&nbsp; The others saluted him very respectfully, but I
+noticed then and since that his manner is very arbitrary, and
+that a blow not infrequently follows a word.&nbsp; He had sent a
+message to his people by Ito that they were not to answer any
+questions till he returned, but Ito very tactfully neither gave
+it nor told me of it, and he was displeased with the young men
+for having talked to me so much.&nbsp; His mother had evidently
+&ldquo;peached.&rdquo;&nbsp; I like him less than any of his
+tribe.&nbsp; He has some fine qualities, truthfulness among
+others, but he has been contaminated by the four or five
+foreigners that he has seen, and is a brute and a sot.&nbsp; The
+hearts of his people are no longer sad, for there is
+<i>sak&eacute;</i> in every house to-night.</p>
+<p style="text-align: right">I. L. B.</p>
+<h2><a name="page254"></a><span class="pagenum">p.
+254</span>LETTER XXXVII.</h2>
+<p class="gutsumm">Barrenness of Savage Life&mdash;Irreclaimable
+Savages&mdash;The Aino Physique&mdash;Female
+Comeliness&mdash;Torture and Ornament&mdash;Child
+Life&mdash;Docility and Obedience.</p>
+<p style="text-align: right"><span class="smcap">Biratori</span>,
+<span class="smcap">Yezo</span>, <i>August</i> 24.</p>
+<p>I <span class="smcap">expected</span> to have written out my
+notes on the Ainos in the comparative quiet and comfort of
+Sarufuto, but the delay in Benri&rsquo;s return, and the
+non-arrival of the horses, have compelled me to accept Aino
+hospitality for another night, which involves living on tea and
+potatoes, for my stock of food is exhausted.&nbsp; In some
+respects I am glad to remain longer, as it enables me to go over
+my stock of words, as well as my notes, with the chief, who is
+intelligent and it is a pleasure to find that his statements
+confirm those which have been made by the young men.&nbsp; The
+glamour which at first disguises the inherent barrenness of
+savage life has had time to pass away, and I see it in all its
+nakedness as a life not much raised above the necessities of
+animal existence, timid, monotonous, barren of good, dark, dull,
+&ldquo;without hope, and without God in the world;&rdquo; though
+at its lowest and worst considerably higher and better than that
+of many other aboriginal races, and&mdash;must I say
+it?&mdash;considerably higher and better than that of thousands
+of the lapsed masses of our own great cities who are baptized
+into Christ&rsquo;s name, and are laid at last in holy ground,
+inasmuch as the Ainos are truthful, and, on the whole, chaste,
+hospitable, honest, reverent, and kind to the aged.&nbsp;
+Drinking, their great vice, is not, as among us, in antagonism to
+their religion, but is actually a part of it, and as such would
+be exceptionally difficult to eradicate.</p>
+<p>The early darkness has once again come on, and once again the
+elders have assembled round the fire in two long <a
+name="page255"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 255</span>lines, with
+the younger men at the ends, Pipichari, who yesterday sat in the
+place of honour and was helped to food first as the newest
+arrival, taking his place as the youngest at the end of the
+right-hand row.&nbsp; The birch-bark chips beam with fitful
+glare, the evening <i>sak&eacute;</i> bowls are filled, the
+fire-god and the garlanded god receive their libations, the
+ancient woman, still sitting like a Fate, splits bark, and the
+younger women knot it, and the log-fire lights up as magnificent
+a set of venerable heads as painter or sculptor would desire to
+see,&mdash;heads, full of&mdash;what?&nbsp; They have no history,
+their traditions are scarcely worthy the name, they claim descent
+from a dog, their houses and persons swarm with vermin, they are
+sunk in the grossest ignorance, they have no letters or any
+numbers above a thousand, they are clothed in the bark of trees
+and the untanned skins of beasts, they worship the bear, the sun,
+moon, fire, water, and I know not what, they are uncivilisable
+and altogether irreclaimable savages, yet they are attractive,
+and in some ways fascinating, and I hope I shall never forget the
+music of their low, sweet voices, the soft light of their mild,
+brown eyes, and the wonderful sweetness of their smile.</p>
+<p>After the yellow skins, the stiff horse hair, the feeble
+eyelids, the elongated eyes, the sloping eyebrows, the flat
+noses, the sunken chests, the Mongolian features, the puny
+physique, the shaky walk of the men, the restricted totter of the
+women, and the general impression of degeneracy conveyed by the
+appearance of the Japanese, the Ainos make a very singular
+impression.&nbsp; All but two or three that I have seen are the
+most ferocious-looking of savages, with a physique vigorous
+enough for carrying out the most ferocious intentions, but as
+soon as they speak the countenance brightens into a smile as
+gentle as that of a woman, something which can never be
+forgotten.</p>
+<p>The men are about the middle height, broad-chested,
+broad-shouldered, &ldquo;thick set,&rdquo; very strongly built,
+the arms and legs short, thick, and muscular, the hands and feet
+large.&nbsp; The bodies, and specially the limbs, of many are
+covered with short bristly hair.&nbsp; I have seen two boys whose
+backs are covered with fur as fine and soft as that of a
+cat.&nbsp; The heads and faces are very striking.&nbsp; The
+foreheads are very high, broad, and prominent, and at first sight
+give one the impression <a name="page256"></a><span
+class="pagenum">p. 256</span>
+<a href="images/p256b.jpg">
+<img class='clearcenter' alt=
+"Ainos of Yezo"
+title=
+"Ainos of Yezo"
+ src="images/p256s.jpg" />
+</a><a name="page257"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 257</span>of
+an unusual capacity for intellectual development; the ears are
+small and set low; the noses are straight but short, and broad at
+the nostrils; the mouths are wide but well formed; and the lips
+rarely show a tendency to fulness.&nbsp; The neck is short, the
+cranium rounded, the cheek-bones low, and the lower part of the
+face is small as compared with the upper, the peculiarity called
+a &ldquo;jowl&rdquo; being unknown.&nbsp; The eyebrows are full,
+and form a straight line nearly across the face.&nbsp; The eyes
+are large, tolerably deeply set, and very beautiful, the colour a
+rich liquid brown, the expression singularly soft, and the
+eyelashes long, silky, and abundant.&nbsp; The skin has the
+Italian olive tint, but in most cases is thin, and light enough
+to show the changes of colour in the cheek.&nbsp; The teeth are
+small, regular, and very white; the incisors and &ldquo;eye
+teeth&rdquo; are not disproportionately large, as is usually the
+case among the Japanese; there is no tendency towards
+prognathism; and the fold of integument which conceals the upper
+eyelids of the Japanese is never to be met with.&nbsp; The
+features, expression, and aspect, are European rather than
+Asiatic.</p>
+<p>The &ldquo;ferocious savagery&rdquo; of the appearance of the
+men is produced by a profusion of thick, soft, black hair,
+divided in the middle, and falling in heavy masses nearly to the
+shoulders.&nbsp; Out of doors it is kept from falling over the
+face by a fillet round the brow.&nbsp; The beards are equally
+profuse, quite magnificent, and generally wavy, and in the case
+of the old men they give a truly patriarchal and venerable
+aspect, in spite of the yellow tinge produced by smoke and want
+of cleanliness.&nbsp; The savage look produced by the masses of
+hair and beard, and the thick eyebrows, is mitigated by the
+softness in the dreamy brown eyes, and is altogether obliterated
+by the exceeding sweetness of the smile, which belongs in greater
+or less degree to all the rougher sex.</p>
+<p>I have measured the height of thirty of the adult men of this
+village, and it ranges from 5 feet 4 inches to 5 feet 6&frac12;
+inches.&nbsp; The circumference of the heads averages 22.1
+inches, and the arc, from ear to ear, 13 inches.&nbsp; According
+to Mr. Davies, the average weight of the Aino adult masculine
+brain, ascertained by measurement of Aino skulls, is 45.90 ounces
+avoirdupois, a brain weight said to exceed that of all the races,
+Hindoo and Mussulman, on the Indian plains, and that of <a
+name="page258"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 258</span>the
+aboriginal races of India and Ceylon, and is only paralleled by
+that of the races of the Himalayas, the Siamese, and the Chinese
+Burmese.&nbsp; Mr. Davies says, further, that it exceeds the mean
+brain weight of Asiatic races in general.&nbsp; Yet with all this
+the Ainos are a stupid people!</p>
+<p style="text-align: center">
+<a href="images/p258b.jpg">
+<img alt=
+"An Aino Patriarch"
+title=
+"An Aino Patriarch"
+ src="images/p258s.jpg" />
+</a></p>
+<p>Passing travellers who have seen a few of the Aino women on
+the road to Satsuporo speak of them as very ugly, but as making
+amends for their ugliness by their industry and conjugal
+fidelity.&nbsp; Of the latter there is no doubt, but I am not <a
+name="page259"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 259</span>disposed to
+admit the former.&nbsp; The ugliness is certainly due to art and
+dirt.&nbsp; The Aino women seldom exceed five feet and half an
+inch in height, but they are beautifully formed, straight, lithe,
+and well-developed, with small feet and hands, well-arched
+insteps, rounded limbs, well-developed busts, and a firm, elastic
+gait.&nbsp; Their heads and faces are small; but the hair, which
+falls in masses on each side of the face like that of the men, is
+equally redundant.&nbsp; They have superb teeth, and display them
+liberally in smiling.&nbsp; Their mouths are somewhat wide, but
+well formed, and they have a ruddy comeliness about them which is
+pleasing, in spite of the disfigurement of the band which is
+tattooed both above and below the mouth, and which, by being
+united at the corners, enlarges its apparent size and
+width.&nbsp; A girl at Shira&ocirc;i, who, for some reason, has
+not been subjected to this process, is the most beautiful
+creature in features, colouring, and natural grace of form, that
+I have seen for a long time.&nbsp; Their complexions are lighter
+than those of the men.&nbsp; There are not many here even as dark
+as our European brunettes.&nbsp; A few unite the eyebrows by a
+streak of tattooing, so as to produce a straight line.&nbsp; Like
+the men, they cut their hair short for two or three inches above
+the nape of the neck, but instead of using a fillet they take two
+locks from the front and tie them at the back.</p>
+<p>They are universally tattooed, not only with the broad band
+above and below the mouth, but with a band across the knuckles,
+succeeded by an elaborate pattern on the back of the hand, and a
+series of bracelets extending to the elbow.&nbsp; The process of
+disfigurement begins at the age of five, when some of the
+sufferers are yet unweaned.&nbsp; I saw the operation performed
+on a dear little bright girl this morning.&nbsp; A woman took a
+large knife with a sharp edge, and rapidly cut several horizontal
+lines on the upper lip, following closely the curve of the very
+pretty mouth, and before the slight bleeding had ceased carefully
+rubbed in some of the shiny soot which collects on the mat above
+the fire.&nbsp; In two or three days the scarred lip will be
+washed with the decoction of the bark of a tree to fix the
+pattern, and give it that blue look which makes many people
+mistake it for a daub of paint.&nbsp; A child who had this second
+process performed yesterday has her lip fearfully swollen and
+inflamed.&nbsp; The latest victim held her <a
+name="page260"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 260</span>hands
+clasped tightly together while the cuts were inflicted, but never
+cried.&nbsp; The pattern on the lips is deepened and widened
+every year up to the time of marriage, and the circles on the arm
+are extended in a similar way.&nbsp; The men cannot give any
+reason for the universality of this custom.&nbsp; It is an old
+custom, they say, and part of their religion, and no woman could
+marry without it.&nbsp; Benri fancies that the Japanese custom of
+blackening the teeth is equivalent to it; but he is mistaken, as
+that ceremony usually succeeds marriage.&nbsp; They begin to
+tattoo the arms when a girl is five or six, and work from the
+elbow downwards.&nbsp; They expressed themselves as very much
+grieved and tormented by the recent prohibition of
+tattooing.&nbsp; They say the gods will be angry, and that the
+women can&rsquo;t marry unless they are tattooed; and they
+implored both Mr. Von Siebold and me to intercede with the
+Japanese Government on their behalf in this respect.&nbsp; They
+are less apathetic on this than on any subject, and repeat
+frequently, &ldquo;It&rsquo;s a part of our religion.&rdquo;</p>
+<p style="text-align: center">
+<a href="images/p260b.jpg">
+<img alt=
+"Tattooed Female Hand"
+title=
+"Tattooed Female Hand"
+ src="images/p260s.jpg" />
+</a></p>
+<p>The children are very pretty and attractive, and their faces
+give promise of an intelligence which is lacking in those of the
+adults.&nbsp; They are much loved, and are caressing as well as
+caressed.&nbsp; The infants of the mountain Ainos have seeds of
+millet put into their mouths as soon as they are born, and those
+of the coast Ainos a morsel of salt-fish; and whatever be the
+hour of birth, &ldquo;custom&rdquo; requires that they shall not
+be fed until a night has passed.&nbsp; They are not weaned until
+they are at least three years old.&nbsp; Boys are preferred to
+girls, but both are highly valued, and a childless wife may be
+divorced.</p>
+<p>Children do not receive names till they are four or five years
+<a name="page261"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 261</span>old, and
+then the father chooses a name by which his child is afterwards
+known.&nbsp; Young children when they travel are either carried
+on their mothers&rsquo; backs in a net, or in the back of the
+loose garment; but in both cases the weight is mainly supported
+by a broad band which passes round the woman&rsquo;s
+forehead.&nbsp; When men carry them they hold them in their
+arms.&nbsp; The hair of very young children is shaven, and from
+about five to fifteen the boys wear either a large tonsure or
+tufts above the ears, while the girls are allowed to grow hair
+all over their heads.</p>
+<p>Implicit and prompt obedience is required from infancy; and
+from a very early age the children are utilised by being made to
+fetch and carry and go on messages.&nbsp; I have seen children
+apparently not more than two years old sent for wood; and even at
+this age they are so thoroughly trained in the observances of
+etiquette that babies just able to walk never toddle into or out
+of this house without formal salutations to each person within
+it, the mother alone excepted.&nbsp; They don&rsquo;t wear any
+clothing till they are seven or eight years old, and are then
+dressed like their elders.&nbsp; Their manners to their parents
+are very affectionate.&nbsp; Even to-day, in the chief&rsquo;s
+awe-inspiring presence, one dear little nude creature, who had
+been sitting quietly for two hours staring into the fire with her
+big brown eyes, rushed to meet her mother when she entered, and
+threw her arms round her, to which the woman responded by a look
+of true maternal tenderness and a kiss.&nbsp; These little
+creatures, in the absolute unconsciousness of innocence, with
+their beautiful faces, olive-tinted bodies,&mdash;all the darker,
+sad to say, from dirt,&mdash;their perfect docility, and absence
+of prying curiosity, are very bewitching.&nbsp; They all wear
+silver or pewter ornaments tied round their necks by a wisp of
+blue cotton.</p>
+<p>Apparently the ordinary infantile maladies, such as
+whooping-cough and measles, do not afflict the Ainos fatally; but
+the children suffer from a cutaneous affection, which wears off
+as they reach the age of ten or eleven years, as well as from
+severe toothache with their first teeth.</p>
+<h2><a name="page262"></a><span class="pagenum">p.
+262</span>LETTER XXXVII.&mdash;(<i>Continued</i>.)</h2>
+<p class="gutsumm">Aino Clothing&mdash;Holiday
+Dress&mdash;Domestic Architecture&mdash;Household
+Gods&mdash;Japanese Curios&mdash;The Necessaries of
+Life&mdash;Clay Soup&mdash;Arrow
+Poison&mdash;Arrow-Traps&mdash;Female Occupations&mdash;Bark
+Cloth&mdash;The Art of Weaving.</p>
+<p><span class="smcap">Aino</span> clothing, for savages, is
+exceptionally good.&nbsp; In the winter it consists of one, two,
+or more coats of skins, with hoods of the same, to which the men
+add rude moccasins when they go out hunting.&nbsp; In summer they
+wear kimonos, or loose coats, made of cloth woven from the split
+bark of a forest tree.&nbsp; This is a durable and beautiful
+fabric in various shades of natural buff, and somewhat resembles
+what is known to fancy workers as &ldquo;Panama
+canvas.&rdquo;&nbsp; Under this a skin or bark-cloth vest may or
+may not be worn.&nbsp; The men wear these coats reaching a little
+below the knees, folded over from right to left, and confined at
+the waist by a narrow girdle of the same cloth, to which is
+attached a rude, dagger-shaped knife, with a carved and engraved
+wooden handle and sheath.&nbsp; Smoking is by no means a general
+practice; consequently the pipe and tobacco-box are not, as with
+the Japanese, a part of ordinary male attire.&nbsp;
+Tightly-fitting leggings, either of bark-cloth or skin, are worn
+by both sexes, but neither shoes nor sandals.&nbsp; The coat worn
+by the women reaches half-way between the knees and ankles, and
+is quite loose and without a girdle.&nbsp; It is fastened the
+whole way up to the collar-bone; and not only is the Aino woman
+completely covered, but she will not change one garment for
+another except alone or in the dark.&nbsp; Lately a Japanese
+woman at Sarufuto took an Aino woman into her house, and insisted
+on her taking a bath, which she absolutely refused to do till the
+bath-house had been made quite private by means of screens.&nbsp;
+On the Japanese <a name="page263"></a><span class="pagenum">p.
+263</span>woman going back a little later to see what had become
+of her, she found her sitting in the water in her clothes; and on
+being remonstrated with, she said that the gods would be angry if
+they saw her without clothes!</p>
+<p>Many of the garments for holiday occasions are exceedingly
+handsome, being decorated with &ldquo;geometrical&rdquo;
+patterns, in which the &ldquo;Greek fret&rdquo; takes part, in
+coarse blue cotton, braided most dexterously with scarlet and
+white thread.&nbsp; Some of the handsomest take half a year to
+make.&nbsp; The masculine dress is completed by an apron of
+oblong shape decorated in the same elaborate manner.&nbsp; These
+handsome savages, with their powerful physique, look remarkably
+well in their best clothes.&nbsp; I have not seen a boy or girl
+above nine who is not thoroughly clothed.&nbsp; The
+&ldquo;jewels&rdquo; of the women are large, hoop earrings of
+silver or pewter, with attachments of a classical pattern, and
+silver neck ornaments, and a few have brass bracelets soldered
+upon their arms.&nbsp; The women have a perfect passion for every
+hue of red, and I have made friends with them by dividing among
+them a large turkey-red silk handkerchief, strips of which are
+already being utilised for the ornamenting of coats.</p>
+<p>The houses in the five villages up here are very good.&nbsp;
+So they are at Horobets, but at Shira&ocirc;i, where the
+aborigines suffer from the close proximity of several grog shops,
+they are inferior.&nbsp; They differ in many ways from any that I
+have before seen, approaching most nearly to the grass houses of
+the natives of Hawaii.&nbsp; Custom does not appear to permit
+either of variety or innovations; in all the style is the same,
+and the difference consists in the size and plenishings.&nbsp;
+The dwellings seem ill-fitted for a rigorous climate, but the
+same thing may be said of those of the Japanese.&nbsp; In their
+houses, as in their faces, the Ainos are more European than their
+conquerors, as they possess doorways, windows, central
+fireplaces, like those of the Highlanders of Scotland, and raised
+sleeping-places.</p>
+<p>The usual appearance is that of a small house built on at the
+end of a larger one.&nbsp; The small house is the vestibule or
+ante-room, and is entered by a low doorway screened by a heavy
+mat of reeds.&nbsp; It contains the large wooden mortar and
+pestle with two ends, used for pounding millet, a wooden
+receptacle <a name="page264"></a><span class="pagenum">p.
+264</span>for millet, nets or hunting gear, and some bundles of
+reeds for repairing roof or walls.&nbsp; This room never contains
+a window.&nbsp; From it the large room is entered by a doorway,
+over which a heavy reed-mat, bound with hide, invariably
+hangs.&nbsp; This room in Benri&rsquo;s case is 35 feet long by
+25 feet broad, another is 45 feet square, the smallest measures
+20 feet by 15.&nbsp; On entering, one is much impressed by the
+great height and steepness of the roof, altogether out of
+proportion to the height of the walls.</p>
+<p>The frame of the house is of posts, 4 feet 10 inches high,
+placed 4 feet apart, and sloping slightly inwards.&nbsp; The
+height of the walls is apparently regulated by that of the reeds,
+of which only one length is used, and which never exceed 4 feet
+10 inches.&nbsp; The posts are scooped at the top, and heavy
+poles, resting on the scoops, are laid along them to form the top
+of the wall.&nbsp; The posts are again connected twice by
+slighter poles tied on horizontally.&nbsp; The wall is double;
+the outer part being formed of reeds tied very neatly to the
+framework in small, regular bundles, the inner layer or wall
+being made of reeds attached singly.&nbsp; From the top of the
+pole, which is secured to the top of the posts, the framework of
+the roof rises to a height of twenty-two feet, made, like the
+rest, of poles tied to a heavy and roughly-hewn ridge-beam.&nbsp;
+At one end under the ridge-beam there is a large triangular
+aperture for the exit of smoke.&nbsp; Two very stout,
+roughly-hewn beams cross the width of the house, resting on the
+posts of the wall, and on props let into the floor, and a number
+of poles are laid at the same height, by means of which a
+secondary roof formed of mats can be at once extemporised, but
+this is only used for guests.&nbsp; These poles answer the same
+purpose as shelves.&nbsp; Very great care is bestowed upon the
+outside of the roof, which is a marvel of neatness and
+prettiness, and has the appearance of a series of frills being
+thatched in ridges.&nbsp; The ridge-pole is very thickly covered,
+and the thatch both there and at the corners is elaborately laced
+with a pattern in strong peeled twigs.&nbsp; The poles, which,
+for much of the room, run from wall to wall, compel one to stoop,
+to avoid fracturing one&rsquo;s skull, and bringing down spears,
+bows and arrows, arrow-traps, and other primitive property.&nbsp;
+The roof and rafters are black and shiny from wood smoke.&nbsp;
+Immediately under them, at one <a name="page265"></a><span
+class="pagenum">p. 265</span>end and one side, are small, square
+windows, which are closed at night by wooden shutters, which
+during the day-time hang by ropes.&nbsp; Nothing is a greater
+insult to an Aino than to look in at his window.</p>
+<p>On the left of the doorway is invariably a fixed wooden
+platform, eighteen inches high, and covered with a single mat,
+which is the sleeping-place.&nbsp; The pillows are small stiff
+bolsters, covered with ornamental matting.&nbsp; If the family be
+large there are several of these sleeping platforms.&nbsp; A pole
+runs horizontally at a fitting distance above the outside edge of
+each, over which mats are thrown to conceal the sleepers from the
+rest of the room.&nbsp; The inside half of these mats is plain,
+but the outside, which is seen from the room, has a diamond
+pattern woven into it in dull reds and browns.&nbsp; The whole
+floor is covered with a very coarse reed-mat, with interstices
+half an inch wide.&nbsp; The fireplace, which is six feet long,
+is oblong.&nbsp; Above it, on a very black and elaborate
+framework, hangs a very black and shiny mat, whose superfluous
+soot forms the basis of the stain used in tattooing, and whose
+apparent purpose is to prevent the smoke ascending, and to
+diffuse it equally throughout the room.&nbsp; From this framework
+depends the great cooking-pot, which plays a most important part
+in Aino economy.</p>
+<p>Household gods form an essential part of the furnishing of
+every house.&nbsp; In this one, at the left of the entrance,
+there are ten white wands, with shavings depending from the upper
+end, stuck in the wall; another projects from the window which
+faces the sunrise, and the great god&mdash;a white post, two feet
+high, with spirals of shavings depending from the top&mdash;is
+always planted in the floor, near the wall, on the left side,
+opposite the fire, between the platform bed of the householder
+and the low, broad shelf placed invariably on the same side, and
+which is a singular feature of all Aino houses, coast and
+mountain, down to the poorest, containing, as it does, Japanese
+curios, many of them very valuable objects of antique art, though
+much destroyed by damp and dust.&nbsp; They are true curiosities
+in the dwellings of these northern aborigines, and look almost
+solemn ranged against the wall.&nbsp; In this house there are
+twenty-four lacquered urns, or tea-chests, or seats, each
+standing two feet high on four small legs, shod with engraved <a
+name="page266"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 266</span>or filigree
+brass.&nbsp; Behind these are eight lacquered tubs, and a number
+of bowls and lacquer trays, and above are spears with inlaid
+handles, and fine Kaga and Awata bowls.&nbsp; The lacquer is
+good, and several of the urns have <i>daimiy&ocirc;&rsquo;s</i>
+crests in gold upon them.&nbsp; One urn and a large covered bowl
+are beautifully inlaid with Venus&rsquo; ear.&nbsp; The great
+urns are to be seen in every house, and in addition there are
+suits of inlaid armour, and swords with inlaid hilts, engraved
+blades, and <i>r&eacute;pouss&eacute;</i> scabbards, for which a
+collector would give almost anything.&nbsp; No offers, however
+liberal, can tempt them to sell any of these antique
+possessions.&nbsp; &ldquo;They were presents,&rdquo; they say in
+their low, musical voices; &ldquo;they were presents from those
+who were kind to our fathers; no, we cannot sell them; they were
+presents.&rdquo;&nbsp; And so gold lacquer, and pearl inlaying,
+and gold niello-work, and <i>daimiy&ocirc;&rsquo;s</i> crests in
+gold, continue to gleam in the smoky darkness of their
+huts.&nbsp; Some of these <a name="page267"></a><span
+class="pagenum">p. 267</span>things were doubtless gifts to their
+fathers when they went to pay tribute to the representative of
+the Sh&ocirc;gun and the Prince of Matsum&aelig;, soon after the
+conquest of Yezo.&nbsp; Others were probably gifts from
+<i>samurai</i>, who took refuge here during the rebellion, and
+some must have been obtained by barter.&nbsp; They are the one
+possession which they will not barter for <i>sak&eacute;</i>, and
+are only parted with in payment of fines at the command of a
+chief, or as the dower of a girl.</p>
+<p>
+<a href="images/p266b.jpg">
+<img alt=
+"Aino Gods"
+title=
+"Aino Gods"
+ src="images/p266s.jpg" />
+</a></p>
+<p><a name="page268"></a><span class="pagenum">p.
+268</span>Except in the poorest houses, where the people can only
+afford to lay down a mat for a guest, they cover the coarse mat
+with fine ones on each side of the fire.&nbsp; These mats and the
+bark-cloth are really their only manufactures.&nbsp; They are
+made of fine reeds, with a pattern in dull reds or browns, and
+are 14 feet long by 3 feet 6 inches wide.&nbsp; It takes a woman
+eight days to make one of them.&nbsp; In every house there are
+one or two movable platforms 6 feet by 4 and 14 inches high,
+which are placed at the head of the fireplace, and on which
+guests sit and sleep on a bearskin or a fine mat.&nbsp; In many
+houses there are broad seats a few inches high, on which the
+elder men sit cross-legged, as their custom is, not squatting
+Japanese fashion on the heels.&nbsp; A water-tub always rests on
+a stand by the door, and the dried fish and venison or bear for
+daily use hang from the rafters, as well as a few skins.&nbsp;
+Besides these things there are a few absolute
+necessaries,&mdash;lacquer or wooden bowls for food and
+<i>sak&eacute;</i>, a chopping-board and rude chopping-knife, a
+cleft-stick for burning strips of birch-bark, a triply-cleft
+stick for supporting the potsherd in which, on rare occasions,
+they burn a wick with oil, the component parts of their rude
+loom, the bark of which they make their clothes, the reeds of
+which they make their mats,&mdash;and the inventory of the
+essentials of their life is nearly complete.&nbsp; No iron enters
+into the construction of their houses, its place being supplied
+by a remarkably tenacious fibre.</p>
+<p style="text-align: center">
+<a href="images/p267b.jpg">
+<img alt=
+"Plan of an Aino House"
+title=
+"Plan of an Aino House"
+ src="images/p267s.jpg" />
+</a></p>
+<p>I have before described the preparation of their food, which
+usually consists of a stew &ldquo;of abominable
+things.&rdquo;&nbsp; They eat salt and fresh fish, dried fish,
+seaweed, slugs, the various vegetables which grow in the
+wilderness of tall weeds which surrounds their villages, wild
+roots and berries, fresh and dried venison and bear; their
+carnival consisting of fresh bear&rsquo;s flesh and
+<i>sak&eacute;</i>, seaweed, mushrooms, and anything they can
+get, in fact, which is not poisonous, mixing everything up
+together.&nbsp; They use a wooden spoon for stirring, and eat
+with chopsticks.&nbsp; They have only two regular meals a day,
+but eat very heartily.&nbsp; In addition to the eatables just
+mentioned they have a thick soup made from a putty-like clay
+which is found in one or two of the valleys.&nbsp; This is boiled
+with the bulb of a wild lily, and, after much of the clay has
+been allowed to settle, the liquid, which is very thick, is
+poured off.&nbsp; In the north, a <a name="page269"></a><span
+class="pagenum">p. 269</span>valley where this earth is found is
+called Tsie-toi-nai, literally
+&ldquo;eat-earth-valley.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>The men spend the autumn, winter, and spring in hunting deer
+and bears.&nbsp; Part of their tribute or taxes is paid in skins,
+and they subsist on the dried meat.&nbsp; Up to about this time
+the Ainos have obtained these beasts by means of poisoned arrows,
+arrow-traps, and pitfalls, but the Japanese Government has
+prohibited the use of poison and arrow-traps, and these men say
+that hunting is becoming extremely difficult, as the wild animals
+are driven back farther and farther into the mountains by the
+sound of the guns.&nbsp; However, they add significantly,
+&ldquo;the eyes of the Japanese Government are not in every
+place!&rdquo;</p>
+<p>Their bows are only three feet long, and are made of stout
+saplings with the bark on, and there is no attempt to render them
+light or shapely at the ends.&nbsp; The wood is singularly
+inelastic.&nbsp; The arrows (of which I have obtained a number)
+are very peculiar, and are made in three pieces, the point
+consisting of a sharpened piece of bone with an elongated cavity
+on one side for the reception of the poison.&nbsp; This point or
+head is very slightly fastened by a lashing of bark to a fusiform
+piece of bone about four inches long, which is in its turn lashed
+to a shaft about fourteen inches long, the other end of which is
+sometimes equipped with a triple feather and sometimes is
+not.</p>
+<p>The poison is placed in the elongated cavity in the head in a
+very soft state, and hardens afterwards.&nbsp; In some of the
+arrow-heads fully half a teaspoonful of the paste is
+inserted.&nbsp; From the nature of the very slight lashings which
+attach the arrow-head to the shaft, it constantly remains fixed
+in the slight wound that it makes, while the shaft falls off.</p>
+<p>Pipichari has given me a small quantity of the poisonous
+paste, and has also taken me to see the plant from the root of
+which it is made, the <i>Aconitum Japonicum</i>, a monkshood,
+whose tall spikes of blue flowers are brightening the brushwood
+in all directions.&nbsp; The root is pounded into a pulp, mixed
+with a reddish earth like an iron ore pulverised, and again with
+animal fat, before being placed in the arrow.&nbsp; It has been
+said that the poison is prepared for use by being buried in the
+earth, but Benri says that this is needless.&nbsp; They claim for
+it <a name="page270"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 270</span>that
+a single wound kills a bear in ten minutes, but that the flesh is
+not rendered unfit for eating, though they take the precaution of
+cutting away a considerable quantity of it round the wound.</p>
+<p style="text-align: center">
+<a href="images/p270b.jpg">
+<img alt=
+"Weaver&rsquo;s Shuttle"
+title=
+"Weaver&rsquo;s Shuttle"
+ src="images/p270s.jpg" />
+</a></p>
+<p>Dr. Eldridge, formerly of Hakodat&eacute;, obtained a small
+quantity of the poison, and, after trying some experiments with
+it, came to the conclusion that it is less virulent than other
+poisons employed for a like purpose, as by the natives of Java,
+the Bushmen, and certain tribes of the Amazon and Orinoco.&nbsp;
+The Ainos say that if a man is accidentally wounded by a poisoned
+arrow the only cure is immediate excision of the part.</p>
+<p>I do not wonder that the Government has prohibited
+arrow-traps, for they made locomotion unsafe, and it is still
+unsafe a little farther north, where the hunters are more out of
+observation than here.&nbsp; The traps consist of a large bow
+with a poisoned arrow, fixed in such a way that when the bear
+walks over a cord which is attached to it he is simultaneously
+transfixed.&nbsp; I have seen as many as fifty in one
+house.&nbsp; The simple contrivance for inflicting this silent
+death is most ingenious.</p>
+<p>The women are occupied all day, as I have before said.&nbsp;
+They look cheerful, and even merry when they smile, and are not
+like the Japanese, prematurely old, partly perhaps because their
+houses are well ventilated, and the use of charcoal is
+unknown.&nbsp; I do not think that they undergo the unmitigated
+drudgery which falls to the lot of most savage women, though they
+work hard.&nbsp; The men do not like them to speak to strangers,
+however, and say that their place is to work and <a
+name="page271"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 271</span>rear
+children.&nbsp; They eat of the same food, and at the same time
+as the men, laugh and talk before them, and receive equal support
+and respect in old age.&nbsp; They sell mats and bark-cloth in
+the piece, and made up, when they can, and their husbands do not
+take their earnings from them.&nbsp; All Aino women understand
+the making of bark-cloth.&nbsp; The men bring in the bark in
+strips, five feet long, having removed the outer coating.&nbsp;
+This inner bark is easily separated into several thin layers,
+which are split into very narrow strips by the older women, very
+neatly knotted, and wound into balls weighing about a pound
+each.&nbsp; No preparation of either the bark or the thread is
+required to fit it for weaving, but I observe that some of the
+women steep it in a decoction of a bark which produces a brown
+dye to deepen the buff tint.</p>
+<p>The loom is so simple that I almost fear to represent it as
+complicated by description.&nbsp; It consists of a stout hook
+fixed in the floor, to which the threads of the far end of the
+web are secured, a cord fastening the near end to the waist of
+the worker, who supplies, by dexterous rigidity, the necessary
+tension; a frame like a comb resting on the ankles, through which
+the threads pass, a hollow roll for keeping the upper and under
+threads separate, a spatula-shaped shuttle of engraved wood, and
+a roller on which the cloth is rolled as it is made.&nbsp; The
+length of the web is fifteen feet, and the width of the cloth
+fifteen inches.&nbsp; It is woven with great regularity, and the
+knots in the thread are carefully kept on the under side. <a
+name="citation271"></a><a href="#footnote271"
+class="citation">[271]</a>&nbsp; It is a very slow and fatiguing
+process, and a woman cannot do much more than a foot a day.&nbsp;
+The weaver sits on the floor with the whole arrangement attached
+to her waist, and the loom, if such it may be called, on her
+ankles.&nbsp; It takes long practice before she can supply the
+necessary tension by spinal rigidity.&nbsp; As the work proceeds
+she drags herself almost imperceptibly nearer the hook.&nbsp; In
+this house and other large ones two or three women bring in their
+webs in the morning, fix their hooks, and weave all day, while
+others, who have not equal advantages, put their hooks in the
+ground and weave in the sunshine.&nbsp; The web and loom can be
+bundled up in two <a name="page272"></a><span class="pagenum">p.
+272</span>minutes, and carried away quite as easily as a knitted
+soft blanket.&nbsp; It is the simplest and perhaps the most
+primitive form of hand-loom, and comb, shuttle, and roll, are all
+easily fashioned with an ordinary knife.</p>
+<p style="text-align: center">
+<a href="images/p272b.jpg">
+<img alt=
+"A Hiogo Buddha"
+title=
+"A Hiogo Buddha"
+ src="images/p272s.jpg" />
+</a></p>
+<h2><a name="page273"></a><span class="pagenum">p.
+273</span>LETTER XXXVII.&mdash;(<i>Continued</i>.)</h2>
+<p class="gutsumm">A Simple Nature-Worship&mdash;Aino
+Gods&mdash;A Festival Song&mdash;Religious
+Intoxication&mdash;Bear-Worship&mdash;The Annual
+Saturnalia&mdash;The Future State&mdash;Marriage and
+Divorce&mdash;Musical Instruments&mdash;Etiquette&mdash;The
+Chieftainship&mdash;Death and Burial&mdash;Old Age&mdash;Moral
+Qualities.</p>
+<p><span class="smcap">There</span> cannot be anything more vague
+and destitute of cohesion than Aino religious notions.&nbsp; With
+the exception of the hill shrines of Japanese construction
+dedicated to Yoshitsun&eacute;, they have no temples, and they
+have neither priests, sacrifices, nor worship.&nbsp; Apparently
+through all traditional time their <i>cultus</i> has been the
+rudest and most primitive form of nature-worship, the attaching
+of a vague sacredness to trees, rivers, rocks, and mountains, and
+of vague notions of power for good or evil to the sea, the
+forest, the fire, and the sun and moon.&nbsp; I cannot make out
+that they possess a trace of the deification of ancestors, though
+their rude nature worship may well have been the primitive form
+of Japanese Shint&ocirc;.&nbsp; The solitary exception to their
+adoration of animate and inanimate nature appears to be the
+reverence paid to Yoshitsun&eacute;, to whom they believe they
+are greatly indebted, and who, it is supposed by some, will yet
+interfere on their behalf. <a name="citation273"></a><a
+href="#footnote273" class="citation">[273]</a>&nbsp; Their
+gods&mdash;that is, the outward symbols of their <a
+name="page274"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 274</span>religion,
+corresponding most likely with the Shint&ocirc;
+<i>gohei</i>&mdash;are wands and posts of peeled wood, whittled
+nearly to the top, from which the pendent shavings fall down in
+white curls.&nbsp; These are not only set up in their houses,
+sometimes to the number of twenty, but on precipices, banks of
+rivers and streams, and mountain-passes, and such wands are
+thrown into the rivers as the boatmen descend rapids and
+dangerous places.&nbsp; Since my baggage horse fell over an
+acclivity on the trail from Sarufuto, four such wands have been
+placed there.&nbsp; It is nonsense to write of the religious
+ideas of a people who have none, and of beliefs among people who
+are merely adult children.&nbsp; The traveller who formulates an
+Aino creed must &ldquo;evolve it from his inner
+consciousness.&rdquo;&nbsp; I have taken infinite trouble to
+learn from themselves what their religious notions are, and
+Shinondi tells me that they have told me all they know, and the
+whole sum is a few vague fears and hopes, and a suspicion that
+there are things outside themselves more powerful than
+themselves, whose good influences may be obtained, or whose evil
+influences may be averted, by libations of
+<i>sak&eacute;</i>.</p>
+<p>The word worship is in itself misleading.&nbsp; When I use it
+of these savages it simply means libations of <i>sak&eacute;</i>,
+waving bowls and waving hands, without any spiritual act of
+deprecation or supplication.&nbsp; In such a sense and such alone
+they worship the sun and moon (but not the stars), the forest,
+and the sea.&nbsp; The wolf, the black snake, the owl, and
+several other beasts and birds have the word <i>kamoi</i>, god,
+attached to them, as the wolf is the &ldquo;howling god,&rdquo;
+the owl &ldquo;the bird of the gods,&rdquo; a black snake the
+&ldquo;raven god;&rdquo; but none of these things are now
+&ldquo;worshipped,&rdquo; wolf-worship having quite lately died
+out.&nbsp; Thunder, &ldquo;the voice of the gods,&rdquo; inspires
+some fear.&nbsp; The sun, they say, is their best god, and the
+fire their next best, obviously the divinities from whom their
+greatest <a name="page275"></a><span class="pagenum">p.
+275</span>benefits are received.&nbsp; Some idea of gratitude
+pervades their rude notions, as in the case of the
+&ldquo;worship&rdquo; paid to Yoshitsun&eacute;, and it appears
+in one of the rude recitations chanted at the Saturnalia which in
+several places conclude the hunting and fishing
+seasons:&mdash;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;To the sea which nourishes us, to the forest which
+protects us, we present our grateful thanks.&nbsp; You are two
+mothers that nourish the same child; do not be angry if we leave
+one to go to the other.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;The Ainos will always be the pride of the forest and of
+the sea.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>The solitary act of sacrifice which they perform is the
+placing of a worthless, dead bird, something like a sparrow, near
+one of their peeled wands, where it is left till it reaches an
+advanced stage of putrefaction.&nbsp; &ldquo;To drink for the
+god&rdquo; is the chief act of &ldquo;worship,&rdquo; and thus
+drunkenness and religion are inseparably connected, as the more
+<i>sak&eacute;</i> the Ainos drink the more devout they are, and
+the better pleased are the gods.&nbsp; It does not appear that
+anything but <i>sak&eacute;</i> is of sufficient value to please
+the gods.&nbsp; The libations to the fire and the peeled post are
+never omitted, and are always accompanied by the inward waving of
+the <i>sak&eacute;</i> bowls.</p>
+<p>The peculiarity which distinguishes this rude mythology is the
+&ldquo;worship&rdquo; of the bear, the Yezo bear being one of the
+finest of his species; but it is impossible to understand the
+feelings by which it is prompted, for they worship it after their
+fashion, and set up its head in their villages, yet they trap it,
+kill it, eat it, and sell its skin.&nbsp; There is no doubt that
+this wild beast inspires more of the feeling which prompts
+worship than the inanimate forces of nature, and the Ainos may be
+distinguished as bear-worshippers, and their greatest religious
+festival or Saturnalia as the Festival of the Bear.&nbsp; Gentle
+and peaceable as they are, they have a great admiration for
+fierceness and courage; and the bear, which is the strongest,
+fiercest, and most courageous animal known to them, has probably
+in all ages inspired them with veneration.&nbsp; Some of their
+rude chants are in praise of the bear, and their highest eulogy
+on a man is to compare him to a bear.&nbsp; Thus Shinondi said of
+Benri, the chief, &ldquo;He is as strong as a bear,&rdquo; and
+the old Fate praising Pipichari called him &ldquo;The young
+bear.&rdquo;</p>
+<p><a name="page276"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 276</span>In
+all Aino villages, specially near the chief&rsquo;s house, there
+are several tall poles with the fleshless skull of a bear on the
+top of each, and in most there is also a large cage, made
+grid-iron fashion, of stout timbers, and raised two or three feet
+from the ground.&nbsp; At the present time such cages contain
+young but well-grown bears, captured when quite small in the
+early spring.&nbsp; After the capture the bear cub is introduced
+into a dwelling-house, generally that of the chief, or sub-chief,
+where it is suckled by a woman, and played with by the children,
+till it grows too big and rough for domestic ways, and is placed
+in a strong cage, in which it is fed and cared for, as I
+understand, till the autumn of the following year, when, being
+strong and well-grown, the Festival of the Bear is
+celebrated.&nbsp; The customs of this festival vary considerably,
+and the manner of the bear&rsquo;s death differs among the
+mountain and coast Ainos, but everywhere there is a general
+gathering of the people, and it is the occasion of a great feast,
+accompanied with much <i>sak&eacute;</i> and a curious dance, in
+which men alone take part.</p>
+<p>Yells and shouts are used to excite the bear, and when he
+becomes much agitated a chief shoots him with an arrow,
+inflicting a slight wound which maddens him, on which the bars of
+the cage are raised, and he springs forth, very furious.&nbsp; At
+this stage the Ainos run upon him with various weapons, each one
+striving to inflict a wound, as it brings good luck to draw his
+blood.&nbsp; As soon as he falls down exhausted, his head is cut
+off, and the weapons with which he has been wounded are offered
+to it, and he is asked to avenge himself upon them.&nbsp;
+Afterwards the carcass, amidst a frenzied uproar, is distributed
+among the people, and amidst feasting and riot the head, placed
+upon a pole, is worshipped, i.e. it receives libations of
+<i>sak&eacute;</i>, and the festival closes with general
+intoxication.&nbsp; In some villages it is customary for the
+foster-mother of the bear to utter piercing wails while he is
+delivered to his murderers, and after he is slain to beat each
+one of them with a branch of a tree.&nbsp; [Afterwards at Usu, on
+Volcano Bay, the old men told me that at their festival they
+despatch the bear after a different manner.&nbsp; On letting it
+loose from the cage two men seize it by the ears, and others
+simultaneously place a long, stout pole across the nape of its
+neck, upon which a <a name="page277"></a><span class="pagenum">p.
+277</span>number of Ainos mount, and after a prolonged struggle
+the neck is broken.&nbsp; As the bear is seen to approach his
+end, they shout in chorus, &ldquo;We kill you, O bear! come back
+soon into an Aino.&rdquo;]&nbsp; When a bear is trapped or
+wounded by an arrow, the hunters go through an apologetic or
+propitiatory ceremony.&nbsp; They appear to have certain rude
+ideas of metempsychosis, as is evidenced by the Usu prayer to the
+bear and certain rude traditions; but whether these are
+indigenous, or have arisen by contact with Buddhism at a later
+period, it is impossible to say.</p>
+<p>They have no definite ideas concerning a future state, and the
+subject is evidently not a pleasing one to them.&nbsp; Such
+notions as they have are few and confused.&nbsp; Some think that
+the spirits of their friends go into wolves and snakes; others,
+that they wander about the forests; and they are much afraid of
+ghosts.&nbsp; A few think that they go to &ldquo;a good or bad
+place,&rdquo; according to their deeds; but Shinondi said, and
+there was an infinite pathos in his words, &ldquo;How can we
+know?&nbsp; No one ever came back to tell us!&rdquo;&nbsp; On
+asking him what were bad deeds, he said, &ldquo;Being bad to
+parents, stealing, and telling lies.&rdquo;&nbsp; The future,
+however, does not occupy any place in their thoughts, and they
+can hardly be said to believe in the immortality of the soul,
+though their fear of ghosts shows that they recognise a
+distinction between body and spirit.</p>
+<p>Their social customs are very simple.&nbsp; Girls never marry
+before the age of seventeen, or men before twenty-one.&nbsp; When
+a man wishes to marry he thinks of some particular girl, and asks
+the chief if he may ask for her.&nbsp; If leave is given, either
+through a &ldquo;go-between&rdquo; or personally, he asks her
+father for her, and if he consents the bridegroom gives him a
+present, usually a Japanese &ldquo;curio.&rdquo;&nbsp; This
+constitutes betrothal, and the marriage, which immediately
+follows, is celebrated by carousals and the drinking of much
+<i>sak&eacute;</i>.&nbsp; The bride receives as her dowry her
+earrings and a highly ornamented <i>kimono</i>.&nbsp; It is an
+essential that the husband provides a house to which to take his
+wife.&nbsp; Each couple lives separately, and even the eldest son
+does not take his bride to his father&rsquo;s house.&nbsp;
+Polygamy is only allowed in two cases.&nbsp; The chief may have
+three wives; but each must have her separate house.&nbsp; Benri
+<a name="page278"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 278</span>has two
+wives; but it appears that he took the second because the first
+was childless.&nbsp; [The Usu Ainos told me that among the tribes
+of Volcano Bay polygamy is not practised, even by the
+chiefs.]&nbsp; It is also permitted in the case of a childless
+wife; but there is no instance of it in Biratori, and the men say
+that they prefer to have one wife, as two quarrel.</p>
+<p>Widows are allowed to marry again with the chief&rsquo;s
+consent; but among these mountain Ainos a woman must remain
+absolutely secluded within the house of her late husband for a
+period varying from six to twelve months, only going to the door
+at intervals to throw <i>sak&eacute;</i> to the right and
+left.&nbsp; A man secludes himself similarly for thirty
+days.&nbsp; [So greatly do the customs vary, that round Volcano
+Bay I found that the period of seclusion for a widow is only
+thirty days, and for a man twenty-five; but that after a
+father&rsquo;s death the house in which he has lived is burned
+down after the thirty days of seclusion, and the widow and her
+children go to a friend&rsquo;s house for three years, after
+which the house is rebuilt on its former site.]</p>
+<p>If a man does not like his wife, by obtaining the
+chief&rsquo;s consent he can divorce her; but he must send her
+back to her parents with plenty of good clothes; but divorce is
+impracticable where there are children, and is rarely if ever
+practised.&nbsp; Conjugal fidelity is a virtue among Aino women;
+but &ldquo;custom&rdquo; provides that, in case of
+unfaithfulness, the injured husband may bestow his wife upon her
+paramour, if he be an unmarried man; in which case the chief
+fixes the amount of damages which the paramour must pay; and
+these are usually valuable Japanese curios.</p>
+<p>The old and blind people are entirely supported by their
+children, and receive until their dying day filial reverence and
+obedience.</p>
+<p>If one man steals from another he must return what he has
+taken, and give the injured man a present besides, the value of
+which is fixed by the chief.</p>
+<p>Their mode of living you already know, as I have shared it,
+and am still receiving their hospitality.&nbsp;
+&ldquo;Custom&rdquo; enjoins the exercise of hospitality on every
+Aino.&nbsp; They receive all strangers as they received me,
+giving them of their best, placing them in the most honourable
+place, bestowing gifts upon them, <a name="page279"></a><span
+class="pagenum">p. 279</span>and, when they depart, furnishing
+them with cakes of boiled millet.</p>
+<p>They have few amusements, except certain feasts.&nbsp; Their
+dance, which they have just given in my honour, is slow and
+mournful, and their songs are chants or recitative.&nbsp; They
+have a musical instrument, something like a guitar, with three,
+five, or six strings, which are made from sinews of whales cast
+up on the shore.&nbsp; They have another, which is believed to be
+peculiar to themselves, consisting of a thin piece of wood, about
+five inches long and two and a half inches broad, with a pointed
+wooden tongue, about two lines in breadth and sixteen in length,
+fixed in the middle, and grooved on three sides.&nbsp; The wood
+is held before the mouth, and the tongue is set in motion by the
+vibration of the breath in singing.&nbsp; Its sound, though less
+penetrating, is as discordant as that of a Jew&rsquo;s harp,
+which it somewhat resembles.&nbsp; One of the men used it as an
+accompaniment of a song; but they are unwilling to part with
+them, as they say that it is very seldom that they can find a
+piece of wood which will bear the fine splitting necessary for
+the tongue.</p>
+<p>They are a most courteous people among each other.&nbsp; The
+salutations are frequent&mdash;on entering a house, on leaving
+it, on meeting on the road, on receiving anything from the hand
+of another, and on receiving a kind or complimentary
+speech.&nbsp; They do not make any acknowledgments of this kind
+to the women, however.&nbsp; The common salutation consists in
+extending the hands and waving them inwards, once or oftener, and
+stroking the beard; the formal one in raising the hands with an
+inward curve to the level of the head two or three times,
+lowering them, and rubbing them together; the ceremony concluding
+with stroking the beard several times.&nbsp; The latter and more
+formal mode of salutation is offered to the chief, and by the
+young to the old men.&nbsp; The women have no
+&ldquo;manners!&rdquo;</p>
+<p>They have no &ldquo;medicine men,&rdquo; and, though they are
+aware of the existence of healing herbs, they do not know their
+special virtues or the manner of using them.&nbsp; Dried and
+pounded bear&rsquo;s liver is their specific, and they place much
+reliance on it in colic and other pains.&nbsp; They are a healthy
+race.&nbsp; In this village of 300 souls, there are no
+chronically <a name="page280"></a><span class="pagenum">p.
+280</span>ailing people; nothing but one case of bronchitis, and
+some cutaneous maladies among children.&nbsp; Neither is there
+any case of deformity in this and five other large villages which
+I have visited, except that of a girl, who has one leg slightly
+shorter than the other.</p>
+<p>They ferment a kind of intoxicating liquor from the root of a
+tree, and also from their own millet and Japanese rice, but
+Japanese <i>sak&eacute;</i> is the one thing that they care
+about.&nbsp; They spend all their gains upon it, and drink it in
+enormous quantities.&nbsp; It represents to them all the good of
+which they know, or can conceive.&nbsp; Beastly intoxication is
+the highest happiness to which these poor savages aspire, and the
+condition is sanctified to them under the fiction of
+&ldquo;drinking to the gods.&rdquo;&nbsp; Men and women alike
+indulge in this vice.&nbsp; A few, however, like Pipichari,
+abstain from it totally, taking the bowl in their hands, making
+the libations to the gods, and then passing it on.&nbsp; I asked
+Pipichari why he did not take <i>sak&eacute;</i>, and he replied
+with a truthful terseness, &ldquo;Because it makes men like
+dogs.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>Except the chief, who has two horses, they have no domestic
+animals except very large, yellow dogs, which are used in
+hunting, but are never admitted within the houses.</p>
+<p>The habits of the people, though by no means destitute of
+decency and propriety, are not cleanly.&nbsp; The women bathe
+their hands once a day, but any other washing is unknown.&nbsp;
+They never wash their clothes, and wear the same by day and
+night.&nbsp; I am afraid to speculate on the condition of their
+wealth of coal-black hair.&nbsp; They may be said to be very
+dirty&mdash;as dirty fully as masses of our people at home.&nbsp;
+Their houses swarm with fleas, but they are not worse in this
+respect than the Japanese <i>yadoyas</i>.&nbsp; The mountain
+villages have, however, the appearance of extreme cleanliness,
+being devoid of litter, heaps, puddles, and untidiness of all
+kinds, and there are no unpleasant odours inside or outside the
+houses, as they are well ventilated and smoked, and the salt fish
+and meat are kept in the godowns.&nbsp; The hair and beards of
+the old men, instead of being snowy as they ought to be, are
+yellow from smoke and dirt.</p>
+<p>They have no mode of computing time, and do not know their own
+ages.&nbsp; To them the past is dead, yet, like other <a
+name="page281"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 281</span>conquered
+and despised races, they cling to the idea that in some far-off
+age they were a great nation.&nbsp; They have no traditions of
+internecine strife, and the art of war seems to have been lost
+long ago.&nbsp; I asked Benri about this matter, and he says that
+formerly Ainos fought with spears and knives as well as with bows
+and arrows, but that Yoshitsun&eacute;, their hero god, forbade
+war for ever, and since then the two-edged spear, with a shaft
+nine feet long, has only been used in hunting bears.</p>
+<p>The Japanese Government, of course, exercises the same
+authority over the Ainos as over its other subjects, but probably
+it does not care to interfere in domestic or tribal matters, and
+within this outside limit despotic authority is vested in the
+chiefs.&nbsp; The Ainos live in village communities, and each
+community has its own chief, who is its lord paramount.&nbsp; It
+appears to me that this chieftainship is but an expansion of the
+paternal relation, and that all the village families are ruled as
+a unit.&nbsp; Benri, in whose house I am, is the chief of
+Biratori, and is treated by all with very great deference of
+manner.&nbsp; The office is nominally for life; but if a chief
+becomes blind, or too infirm to go about, he appoints a
+successor.&nbsp; If he has a &ldquo;smart&rdquo; son, who he
+thinks will command the respect of the people, he appoints him;
+but if not, he chooses the most suitable man in the
+village.&nbsp; The people are called upon to approve the choice,
+but their ratification is never refused.&nbsp; The office is not
+hereditary anywhere.</p>
+<p>Benri appears to exercise the authority of a very strict
+father.&nbsp; His manner to all the men is like that of a master
+to slaves, and they bow when they speak to him.&nbsp; No one can
+marry without his approval.&nbsp; If any one builds a house he
+chooses the site.&nbsp; He has absolute jurisdiction in civil and
+criminal cases, unless (which is very rare) the latter should be
+of sufficient magnitude to be reported to the Imperial
+officials.&nbsp; He compels restitution of stolen property, and
+in all cases fixes the fines which are to be paid by
+delinquents.&nbsp; He also fixes the hunting arrangements and the
+festivals.&nbsp; The younger men were obviously much afraid of
+incurring his anger in his absence.</p>
+<p>An eldest son does not appear to be, as among the Japanese, a
+privileged person.&nbsp; He does not necessarily inherit the
+house <a name="page282"></a><span class="pagenum">p.
+282</span>and curios.&nbsp; The latter are not divided, but go
+with the house to the son whom the father regards as being the
+&ldquo;smartest.&rdquo;&nbsp; Formal adoption is practised.&nbsp;
+Pipichari is an adopted son, and is likely to succeed to
+Benri&rsquo;s property to the exclusion of his own
+children.&nbsp; I cannot get at the word which is translated
+&ldquo;smartness,&rdquo; but I understand it as meaning general
+capacity.&nbsp; The chief, as I have mentioned before, is allowed
+three wives among the mountain Ainos, otherwise authority seems
+to be his only privilege.</p>
+<p>The Ainos have a singular dread of snakes.&nbsp; Even their
+bravest fly from them.&nbsp; One man says that it is because they
+know of no cure for their bite; but there is something more than
+this, for they flee from snakes which they know to be
+harmless.</p>
+<p>They have an equal dread of their dead.&nbsp; Death seems to
+them very specially &ldquo;the shadow fear&rsquo;d of
+man.&rdquo;&nbsp; When it comes, which it usually does from
+bronchitis in old age, the corpse is dressed in its best
+clothing, and laid upon a shelf for from one to three days.&nbsp;
+In the case of a woman her ornaments are buried with her, and in
+that of a man his knife and <i>sak&eacute;</i>-stick, and, if he
+were a smoker, his smoking apparatus.&nbsp; The corpse is sewn up
+with these things in a mat, and, being slung on poles, is carried
+to a solitary grave, where it is laid in a recumbent
+position.&nbsp; Nothing will induce an Aino to go near a
+grave.&nbsp; Even if a valuable bird or animal falls near one, he
+will not go to pick it up.&nbsp; A vague dread is for ever
+associated with the departed, and no dream of Paradise ever
+lights for the Aino the &ldquo;Stygian shades.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>Benri is, for an Aino, intelligent.&nbsp; Two years ago Mr.
+Dening of Hakodat&eacute; came up here and told him that there
+was but one God who made us all, to which the shrewd old man
+replied, &ldquo;If the God who made you made us, how is it that
+you are so different&mdash;you so rich, we so poor?&rdquo;&nbsp;
+On asking him about the magnificent pieces of lacquer and
+inlaying which adorn his curio shelf, he said that they were his
+father&rsquo;s, grandfather&rsquo;s, and
+great-grandfather&rsquo;s at least, and he thinks they were gifts
+from the <i>daimiy&ocirc;</i> of Matsumae soon after the conquest
+of Yezo.&nbsp; He is a grand-looking man, in spite of the havoc
+wrought by his intemperate habits.&nbsp; There is plenty of room
+in the house, and this morning, when I asked him to <a
+name="page283"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 283</span>show me the
+use of the spear, he looked a truly magnificent savage, stepping
+well back with the spear in rest, and then springing forward for
+the attack, his arms and legs turning into iron, the big muscles
+standing out in knots, his frame quivering with excitement, the
+thick hair falling back in masses from his brow, and the fire of
+the chase in his eye.&nbsp; I trembled for my boy, who was the
+object of the imaginary onslaught, the passion of sport was so
+admirably acted.</p>
+<p>As I write, seven of the older men are sitting by the
+fire.&nbsp; Their grey beards fall to their waists in rippled
+masses, and the slight baldness of age not only gives them a
+singularly venerable appearance, but enhances the beauty of their
+lofty brows.&nbsp; I took a rough sketch of one of the
+handsomest, and, showing it to him, asked if he would have it,
+but instead of being amused or pleased he showed symptoms of
+fear, and asked me to burn it, saying it would bring him bad luck
+and he should die.&nbsp; However, Ito pacified him, and he
+accepted it, after a Chinese character, which is understood to
+mean good luck, had been written upon it; but all the others
+begged me not to &ldquo;make pictures&rdquo; of them, except
+Pipichari, who lies at my feet like a staghound.</p>
+<p>The profusion of black hair, and a curious intensity about
+their eyes, coupled with the hairy limbs and singularly vigorous
+physique, give them a formidably savage appearance; but the
+smile, full of &ldquo;sweetness and light,&rdquo; in which both
+eyes and mouth bear part, and the low, musical voice, softer and
+sweeter than anything I have previously heard, make me at times
+forget that they are savages at all.&nbsp; The venerable look of
+these old men harmonises with the singular dignity and courtesy
+of their manners, but as I look at the grand heads, and reflect
+that the Ainos have never shown any capacity, and are merely
+adult children, they seem to suggest water on the brain rather
+than intellect.&nbsp; I am more and more convinced that the
+expression of their faces is European.&nbsp; It is truthful,
+straightforward, manly, but both it and the tone of voice are
+strongly tinged with pathos.</p>
+<p>Before these elders Benri asked me, in a severe tone, if I had
+been annoyed in any way during his absence.&nbsp; He feared, he
+said, that the young men and the women would crowd about me
+rudely.&nbsp; I made a complimentary speech in return, and <a
+name="page284"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 284</span>all the
+ancient hands were waved, and the venerable beards were stroked
+in acknowledgment.</p>
+<p>These Ainos, doubtless, stand high among uncivilised
+peoples.&nbsp; They are, however, as completely irreclaimable as
+the wildest of nomad tribes, and contact with civilisation, where
+it exists, only debases them.&nbsp; Several young Ainos were sent
+to T&ocirc;kiy&ocirc;, and educated and trained in various ways,
+but as soon as they returned to Yezo they relapsed into savagery,
+retaining nothing but a knowledge of Japanese.&nbsp; They are
+charming in many ways, but make one sad, too, by their stupidity,
+apathy, and hopelessness, and all the sadder that their numbers
+appear to be again increasing; and as their physique is very
+fine, there does not appear to be a prospect of the race dying
+out at present.</p>
+<p>They are certainly superior to many aborigines, as they have
+an approach to domestic life.&nbsp; They have one word for
+<i>house</i>, and another for <i>home</i>, and one word for
+husband approaches very nearly to house-band.&nbsp; Truth is of
+value in their eyes, and this in itself raises them above some
+peoples.&nbsp; Infanticide is unknown, and aged parents receive
+filial reverence, kindness, and support, while in their social
+and domestic relations there is much that is praiseworthy.</p>
+<p>I must conclude this letter abruptly, as the horses are
+waiting, and I must cross the rivers, if possible, before the
+bursting of an impending storm.</p>
+<p style="text-align: right">I. L. B.</p>
+<h2><a name="page285"></a><span class="pagenum">p.
+285</span>LETTER XXXVIII.</h2>
+<p class="gutsumm">A Parting Gift&mdash;A
+Delicacy&mdash;Generosity&mdash;A Seaside
+Village&mdash;Pipichari&rsquo;s Advice&mdash;A Drunken
+Revel&mdash;Ito&rsquo;s Prophecies&mdash;The
+<i>K&ocirc;ch&ocirc;&rsquo;s</i> Illness&mdash;Patent
+Medicines.</p>
+<p style="text-align: right"><span class="smcap">Sarufuto</span>,
+<span class="smcap">Yezo</span>, <i>August</i> 27.</p>
+<p>I <span class="smcap">left</span> the Ainos yesterday with
+real regret, though I must confess that sleeping in one&rsquo;s
+clothes and the lack of ablutions are very fatiguing.&nbsp;
+Benri&rsquo;s two wives spent the early morning in the laborious
+operation of grinding millet into coarse flour, and before I
+departed, as their custom is, they made a paste of it, rolled it
+with their unclean fingers into well-shaped cakes, boiled them in
+the unwashed pot in which they make their stew of
+&ldquo;abominable things,&rdquo; and presented them to me on a
+lacquer tray.&nbsp; They were distressed that I did not eat their
+food, and a woman went to a village at some distance and brought
+me some venison fat as a delicacy.&nbsp; All those of whom I had
+seen much came to wish me good-bye, and they brought so many
+presents (including a fine bearskin) that I should have needed an
+additional horse to carry them had I accepted but one-half.</p>
+<p>I rode twelve miles through the forest to Mombets, where I
+intended to spend Sunday, but I had the worst horse I ever rode,
+and we took five hours.&nbsp; The day was dull and sad,
+threatening a storm, and when we got out of the forest, upon a
+sand-hill covered with oak scrub, we encountered a most furious
+wind.&nbsp; Among the many views which I have seen, that is one
+to be remembered.&nbsp; Below lay a bleached and bare sand-hill,
+with a few grey houses huddled in its miserable shelter, and a
+heaped-up shore of grey sand, on which a brown-grey sea was
+breaking with clash and boom in long, white, ragged lines, with
+all beyond a confusion of surf, surge, <a
+name="page286"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 286</span>and mist,
+with driving brown clouds mingling sea and sky, and all between
+showing only in glimpses amidst scuds of sand.</p>
+<p>At a house in the scrub a number of men were drinking
+<i>sak&eacute;</i> with much uproar, and a superb-looking Aino
+came out, staggered a few yards, and then fell backwards among
+the weeds, a picture of debasement.&nbsp; I forgot to tell you
+that before I left Biratori, I inveighed to the assembled Ainos
+against the practice and consequences of
+<i>sak&eacute;</i>-drinking, and was met with the reply,
+&ldquo;We must drink to the gods, or we shall die;&rdquo; but
+Pipichari said, &ldquo;You say that which is good; let us give
+<i>sak&eacute;</i> to the gods, but not drink it,&rdquo; for
+which bold speech he was severely rebuked by Benri.</p>
+<p>Mombets is a stormily-situated and most wretched cluster of
+twenty-seven decayed houses, some of them Aino, and some
+Japanese.&nbsp; The fish-oil and seaweed fishing trades are in
+brisk operation there now for a short time, and a number of Aino
+and Japanese strangers are employed.&nbsp; The boats could not
+get out because of the surf, and there was a drunken
+debauch.&nbsp; The whole place smelt of <i>sak&eacute;</i>.&nbsp;
+Tipsy men were staggering about and falling flat on their backs,
+to lie there like dogs till they were sober,&mdash;Aino women
+were vainly endeavouring to drag their drunken lords home, and
+men of both races were reduced to a beastly equality.&nbsp; I
+went to the <i>yadoya</i> where I intended to spend Sunday, but,
+besides being very dirty and forlorn, it was the very centre of
+the <i>sak&eacute;</i> traffic, and in its open space there were
+men in all stages of riotous and stupid intoxication.&nbsp; It
+was a sad scene, yet one to be matched in a hundred places in
+Scotland every Saturday afternoon.&nbsp; I am told by the
+<i>K&ocirc;ch&ocirc;</i> here that an Aino can drink four or five
+times as much as a Japanese without being tipsy, so for each
+tipsy Aino there had been an outlay of 6s. or 7s., for
+<i>sak&eacute;</i> is 8d. a cup here!</p>
+<p>I had some tea and eggs in the <i>daidokoro</i>, and altered
+my plans altogether on finding that if I proceeded farther round
+the east coast, as I intended, I should run the risk of several
+days&rsquo; detention on the banks of numerous &ldquo;bad
+rivers&rdquo; if rain came on, by which I should run the risk of
+breaking my promise to deliver Ito to Mr. Maries by a given
+day.&nbsp; I do not surrender this project, however, without an
+equivalent, for <a name="page287"></a><span class="pagenum">p.
+287</span>I intend to add 100 miles to my journey, by taking an
+almost disused track round Volcano Bay, and visiting the coast
+Ainos of a very primitive region.&nbsp; Ito is very much opposed
+to this, thinking that he has made a sufficient sacrifice of
+personal comfort at Biratori, and plies me with stories, such as
+that there are &ldquo;many bad rivers to cross,&rdquo; that the
+track is so worn as to be impassable, that there are no
+<i>yadoyas</i>, and that at the Government offices we shall
+neither get rice nor eggs!&nbsp; An old man who has turned back
+unable to get horses is made responsible for these stories.&nbsp;
+The machinations are very amusing.&nbsp; Ito was much smitten
+with the daughter of the house-master at Mororan, and left some
+things in her keeping, and the desire to see her again is at the
+bottom of his opposition to the other route.</p>
+<p><i>Monday</i>.&mdash;The horse could not or would not carry me
+farther than Mombets, so, sending the baggage on, I walked
+through the oak wood, and enjoyed its silent solitude, in spite
+of the sad reflections upon the enslavement of the Ainos to
+<i>sak&eacute;</i>.&nbsp; I spent yesterday quietly in my old
+quarters, with a fearful storm of wind and rain outside.&nbsp;
+Pipichari appeared at noon, nominally to bring news of the sick
+woman, who is recovering, and to have his nearly healed foot
+bandaged again, but really to bring me a knife sheath which he
+has carved for me.&nbsp; He lay on the mat in the corner of my
+room most of the afternoon, and I got a great many more words
+from him.&nbsp; The house-master, who is the
+<i>K&ocirc;ch&ocirc;</i> of Sarufuto, paid me a courteous visit,
+and in the evening sent to say that he would be very glad of some
+medicine, for he was &ldquo;very ill and going to have
+fever.&rdquo;&nbsp; He had caught a bad cold and sore throat, had
+bad pains in his limbs, and was bemoaning himself ruefully.&nbsp;
+To pacify his wife, who was very sorry for him, I gave him some
+&ldquo;Cockle&rsquo;s Pills&rdquo; and the trapper&rsquo;s remedy
+of &ldquo;a pint of hot water with a pinch of cayenne
+pepper,&rdquo; and left him moaning and bundled up under a pile
+of <i>futons</i>, in a nearly hermetically sealed room, with a
+<i>hibachi</i> of charcoal vitiating the air.&nbsp; This morning
+when I went and inquired after him in a properly concerned tone,
+his wife told me very gleefully that he was quite well and had
+gone out, and had left 25 <i>sen</i> for some more of the
+medicines that I had given him, so with great gravity I put up
+some of Duncan <a name="page288"></a><span class="pagenum">p.
+288</span>and Flockhart&rsquo;s most pungent cayenne pepper, and
+showed her how much to use.&nbsp; She was not content, however,
+without some of the &ldquo;Cockles,&rdquo; a single box of which
+has performed six of those &ldquo;miraculous cures&rdquo; which
+rejoice the hearts and fill the pockets of patent medicine
+makers!</p>
+<p style="text-align: right">I. L. B.</p>
+<p style="text-align: center">
+<a href="images/p288b.jpg">
+<img alt=
+"The Rokkukado"
+title=
+"The Rokkukado"
+ src="images/p288s.jpg" />
+</a></p>
+<h2><a name="page289"></a><span class="pagenum">p.
+289</span>LETTER XXXIX.</h2>
+<p class="gutsumm">A Welcome Gift&mdash;Recent
+Changes&mdash;Volcanic Phenomena&mdash;Interesting Tufa
+Cones&mdash;Semi-strangulation&mdash;A Fall into a
+Bear-trap&mdash;The Shira&ocirc;i Ainos&mdash;Horsebreaking and
+Cruelty.</p>
+<p style="text-align: right"><span class="smcap">Old
+Mororan</span>, <span class="smcap">Volcano Bay</span>, <span
+class="smcap">Yezo</span>,<br />
+<i>September</i> 2.</p>
+<p><span class="smcap">After</span> the storm of Sunday, Monday
+was a grey, still, tender day, and the ranges of wooded hills
+were bathed in the richest indigo colouring.&nbsp; A canter of
+seventeen miles among the damask roses on a very rough horse only
+took me to Yubets, whose indescribable loneliness fascinated me
+into spending a night there again, and encountering a wild
+clatter of wind and rain; and another canter of seven miles the
+next morning took me to Tomakomai, where I rejoined my
+<i>kuruma</i>, and after a long delay, three trotting Ainos took
+me to Shira&ocirc;i, where the &ldquo;clear shining after
+rain,&rdquo; and the mountains against a lemon-coloured sky, were
+extremely beautiful; but the Pacific was as unrestful as a guilty
+thing, and its crash and clamour and the severe cold fatigued me
+so much that I did not pursue my journey the next day, and had
+the pleasure of a flying visit from Mr. Von Siebold and Count
+Diesbach, who bestowed a chicken upon me.</p>
+<p>I like Shira&ocirc;i very much, and if I were stronger would
+certainly make it a basis for exploring a part of the interior,
+in which there is much to reward the explorer.&nbsp; Obviously
+the changes in this part of Yezo have been comparatively recent,
+and the energy of the force which has produced them is not yet
+extinct.&nbsp; The land has gained from the sea along the whole
+of this part of the coast to the extent of two or three miles,
+the old beach with its bays and headlands being a marked feature
+of the landscape.&nbsp; This new formation appears <a
+name="page290"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 290</span>to be a
+vast bed of pumice, covered by a thin layer of vegetable mould,
+which cannot be more than fifty years old.&nbsp; This pumice fell
+during the eruption of the volcano of Tarumai, which is very near
+Shira&ocirc;i, and is also brought down in large quantities from
+the interior hills and valleys by the numerous rivers, besides
+being washed up by the sea.&nbsp; At the last eruption pumice
+fell over this region of Yezo to a medium depth of 3 feet 6
+inches.&nbsp; In nearly all the rivers good sections of the
+formation may be seen in their deeply-cleft banks, broad,
+light-coloured bands of pumice, with a few inches of rich, black,
+vegetable soil above, and several feet of black sea-sand
+below.&nbsp; During a freshet which occurred the first night I
+was at Shira&ocirc;i, a single stream covered a piece of land
+with pumice to the depth of nine inches, being the wash from the
+hills of the interior, in a course of less than fifteen
+miles.</p>
+<p>Looking inland, the volcano of Tarumai, with a bare grey top
+and a blasted forest on its sides, occupies the right of the
+picture.&nbsp; To the left and inland are mountains within
+mountains, tumbled together in most picturesque confusion,
+densely covered with forest and cleft by magnificent ravines,
+here and there opening out into narrow valleys.&nbsp; The whole
+of the interior is jungle penetrable for a few miles by shallow
+and rapid rivers, and by nearly smothered trails made by the
+Ainos in search of game.&nbsp; The general lie of the country
+made me very anxious to find out whether a much-broken ridge
+lying among the mountains is or is not a series of tufa cones of
+ancient date; and, applying for a good horse and Aino guide on
+horseback, I left Ito to amuse himself, and spent much of a most
+splendid day in investigations and in attempting to get round the
+back of the volcano and up its inland side.&nbsp; There is a
+great deal to see and learn there.&nbsp; Oh that I had
+strength!&nbsp; After hours of most tedious and exhausting work I
+reached a point where there were several great fissures emitting
+smoke and steam, with occasional subterranean detonations.&nbsp;
+These were on the side of a small, flank crack which was smoking
+heavily.&nbsp; There was light pumice everywhere, but nothing
+like recent lava or scori&aelig;.&nbsp; One fissure was
+completely lined with exquisite, acicular crystals of sulphur,
+which perished with a touch.&nbsp; Lower down there were two hot
+springs with a deposit of sulphur round their margins, and
+bubbles of gas, <a name="page291"></a><span class="pagenum">p.
+291</span>which, from its strong, garlicky smell, I suppose to be
+sulphuretted hydrogen.&nbsp; Farther progress in that direction
+was impossible without a force of pioneers.&nbsp; I put my arm
+down several deep crevices which were at an altitude of only
+about 500 feet, and had to withdraw it at once, owing to the
+great heat, in which some beautiful specimens of tropical ferns
+were growing.&nbsp; At the same height I came to a hot
+spring&mdash;hot enough to burst one of my thermometers, which
+was graduated above the boiling point of Fahrenheit; and tying up
+an egg in a pocket-handkerchief and holding it by a stick in the
+water, it was hard boiled in 8&frac12; minutes.&nbsp; The water
+evaporated without leaving a trace of deposit on the
+handkerchief, and there was no crust round its margin.&nbsp; It
+boiled and bubbled with great force.</p>
+<p>Three hours more of exhausting toil, which almost knocked up
+the horses, brought us to the apparent ridge, and I was delighted
+to find that it consisted of a lateral range of tufa cones, which
+I estimate as being from 200 to 350, or even 400 feet high.&nbsp;
+They are densely covered with trees of considerable age, and a
+rich deposit of mould; but their conical form is still admirably
+defined.&nbsp; An hour of very severe work, and energetic use of
+the knife on the part of the Aino, took me to the top of one of
+these through a mass of entangled and gigantic vegetation, and I
+was amply repaid by finding a deep, well-defined crateriform
+cavity of great depth, with its sides richly clothed with
+vegetation, closely resembling some of the old cones in the
+island of Kauai.&nbsp; This cone is partially girdled by a
+stream, which in one place has cut through a bank of both red and
+black volcanic ash.&nbsp; All the usual phenomena of volcanic
+regions are probably to be met with north of Shira&ocirc;i, and I
+hope they will at some future time be made the object of careful
+investigation.</p>
+<p>In spite of the desperate and almost overwhelming fatigue, I
+have enjoyed few things more than that &ldquo;exploring
+expedition.&rdquo;&nbsp; If the Japanese have no one to talk to
+they croon hideous discords to themselves, and it was a relief to
+leave Ito behind and get away with an Aino, who was at once
+silent, trustworthy, and faithful.&nbsp; Two bright rivers
+bubbling over beds of red pebbles run down to Shira&ocirc;i out
+of the back country, and my directions, which were translated to
+the Aino, <a name="page292"></a><span class="pagenum">p.
+292</span>were to follow up one of these and go into the
+mountains in the direction of one I pointed out till I said
+&ldquo;Shira&ocirc;i.&rdquo;&nbsp; It was one of those exquisite
+mornings which are seen sometimes in the Scotch Highlands before
+rain, with intense clearness and visibility, a blue atmosphere, a
+cloudless sky, blue summits, heavy dew, and glorious sunshine,
+and under these circumstances scenery beautiful in itself became
+entrancing.</p>
+<p>The trailers are so formidable that we had to stoop over our
+horses&rsquo; necks at all times, and with pushing back branches
+and guarding my face from slaps and scratches, my thick dogskin
+gloves were literally frayed off, and some of the skin of my
+hands and face in addition, so that I returned with both bleeding
+and swelled.&nbsp; It was on the return ride, fortunately, that
+in stooping to escape one great liana the loop of another grazed
+my nose, and, being unable to check my unbroken horse
+instantaneously, the loop caught me by the throat, nearly
+strangled me, and in less time than it takes to tell it I was
+drawn over the back of the saddle, and found myself lying on the
+ground, jammed between a tree and the hind leg of the horse,
+which was quietly feeding.&nbsp; The Aino, whose face was very
+badly scratched, missing me, came back, said never a word, helped
+me up, brought me some water in a leaf, brought my hat, and we
+rode on again.&nbsp; I was little the worse for the fall, but on
+borrowing a looking-glass I see not only scratches and abrasions
+all over my face, but a livid mark round my throat as if I had
+been hung!&nbsp; The Aino left portions of his bushy locks on
+many of the branches.&nbsp; You would have been amused to see me
+in this forest, preceded by this hairy and formidable-looking
+savage, who was dressed in a coat of skins with the fur outside,
+seated on the top of a pack-saddle covered with a deer hide, and
+with his hairy legs crossed over the horse&rsquo;s neck&mdash;a
+fashion in which the Ainos ride any horses over any ground with
+the utmost serenity.</p>
+<p>It was a wonderful region for beauty.&nbsp; I have not seen so
+beautiful a view in Japan as from the river-bed from which I had
+the first near view of the grand assemblage of tufa cones,
+covered with an ancient vegetation, backed by high mountains of
+volcanic origin, on whose ragged crests the red ash was blazing
+vermilion against the blue sky, with a foreground of bright
+waters flashing through a primeval forest.&nbsp; The <a
+name="page293"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 293</span>banks of
+these streams were deeply excavated by the heavy rains, and
+sometimes we had to jump three and even four feet out of the
+forest into the river, and as much up again, fording the
+Shira&ocirc;i river only more than twenty times, and often making
+a pathway of its treacherous bed and rushing waters, because the
+forest was impassable from the great size of the prostrate
+trees.&nbsp; The horses look at these jumps, hold back, try to
+turn, and then, making up their minds, suddenly plunge down or
+up.&nbsp; When the last vestige of a trail disappeared, I signed
+to the Aino to go on, and our subsequent
+&ldquo;exploration&rdquo; was all done at the rate of about a
+mile an hour.&nbsp; On the openings the grass grows stiff and
+strong to the height of eight feet, with its soft reddish plumes
+waving in the breeze.&nbsp; The Aino first forced his horse
+through it, but of course it closed again, so that constantly
+when he was close in front I was only aware of his proximity by
+the tinkling of his horse&rsquo;s bells, for I saw nothing of him
+or of my own horse except the horn of my saddle.&nbsp; We tumbled
+into holes often, and as easily tumbled out of them; but once we
+both went down in the most unexpected manner into what must have
+been an old bear-trap, both going over our horses&rsquo; heads,
+the horses and ourselves struggling together in a narrow space in
+a mist of grassy plumes, and, being unable to communicate with my
+guide, the sense of the ridiculous situation was so overpowering
+that, even in the midst of the mishap, I was exhausted with
+laughter, though not a little bruised.&nbsp; It was very hard to
+get out of that pitfall, and I hope I shall never get into one
+again.&nbsp; It is not the first occasion on which I have been
+glad that the Yezo horses are shoeless.&nbsp; It was through this
+long grass that we fought our way to the tufa cones, with the red
+ragged crests against the blue sky.</p>
+<p>The scenery was magnificent, and after getting so far I longed
+to explore the sources of the rivers, but besides the many
+difficulties the day was far spent.&nbsp; I was also too weak for
+any energetic undertaking, yet I felt an intuitive perception of
+the passion and fascination of exploring, and understood how
+people could give up their lives to it.&nbsp; I turned away from
+the tufa cones and the glory of the ragged crests very sadly, to
+ride a tired horse through great difficulties; and the animal was
+so thoroughly done up that I had to walk, or rather <a
+name="page294"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 294</span>wade, for
+the last hour, and it was nightfall when I returned, to find that
+Ito had packed up all my things, had been waiting ever since noon
+to start for Horobets, was very grumpy at having to unpack, and
+thoroughly disgusted when I told him that I was so tired and
+bruised that I should have to remain the next day to rest.&nbsp;
+He said indignantly, &ldquo;I never thought that when you&rsquo;d
+got the <i>Kaitakushi kuruma</i> you&rsquo;d go off the road into
+those woods!&rdquo;&nbsp; We had seen some deer and many
+pheasants, and a successful hunter brought in a fine stag, so
+that I had venison steak for supper, and was much comforted,
+though Ito seasoned the meal with well-got-up stories of the
+impracticability of the Volcano Bay route.</p>
+<p>Shira&ocirc;i consists of a large old <i>Honjin</i>, or
+<i>yadoya</i>, where the <i>daimiy&ocirc;</i> and his train used
+to lodge in the old days, and about eleven Japanese houses, most
+of which are <i>sak&eacute;</i> shops&mdash;a fact which supplies
+an explanation of the squalor of the Aino village of fifty-two
+houses, which is on the shore at a respectful distance.&nbsp;
+There is no cultivation, in which it is like all the fishing
+villages on this part of the coast, but fish-oil and fish-manure
+are made in immense quantities, and, though it is not the season
+here, the place is pervaded by &ldquo;an ancient and fish-like
+smell.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>The Aino houses are much smaller, poorer, and dirtier than
+those of Biratori.&nbsp; I went into a number of them, and
+conversed with the people, many of whom understand
+Japanese.&nbsp; Some of the houses looked like dens, and, as it
+was raining, husband, wife, and five or six naked children, all
+as dirty as they could be, with unkempt, elf-like locks, were
+huddled round the fires.&nbsp; Still, bad as it looked and smelt,
+the fire was the hearth, and the hearth was inviolate, and each
+smoked and dirt-stained group was a family, and it was an advance
+upon the social life of, for instance, Salt Lake City.&nbsp; The
+roofs are much flatter than those of the mountain Ainos, and, as
+there are few store-houses, quantities of fish,
+&ldquo;green&rdquo; skins, and venison, hang from the rafters,
+and the smell of these and the stinging of the smoke were most
+trying.&nbsp; Few of the houses had any guest-seats, but in the
+very poorest, when I asked shelter from the rain, they put their
+best mat upon the ground, and insisted, much to my distress, on
+my walking over it in muddy boots, saying, &ldquo;It is Aino
+custom.&rdquo;&nbsp; Ever, <a name="page295"></a><span
+class="pagenum">p. 295</span>in those squalid homes the broad
+shelf, with its rows of Japanese curios, always has a
+place.&nbsp; I mentioned that it is customary for a chief to
+appoint a successor when he becomes infirm, and I came upon a
+case in point, through a mistaken direction, which took us to the
+house of the former chief, with a great empty bear cage at its
+door.&nbsp; On addressing him as the chief, he said, &ldquo;I am
+old and blind, I cannot go out, I am of no more good,&rdquo; and
+directed us to the house of his successor.&nbsp; Altogether it is
+obvious, from many evidences in this village, that Japanese
+contiguity is hurtful, and that the Ainos have reaped abundantly
+of the disadvantages without the advantages of contact with
+Japanese civilisation.</p>
+<p>That night I saw a specimen of Japanese horse-breaking as
+practised in Yezo.&nbsp; A Japanese brought into the village
+street a handsome, spirited young horse, equipped with a Japanese
+<i>demi-pique</i> saddle, and a most cruel gag bit.&nbsp; The man
+wore very cruel spurs, and was armed with a bit of stout board
+two feet long by six inches broad.&nbsp; The horse had not been
+mounted before, and was frightened, but not the least
+vicious.&nbsp; He was spurred into a gallop, and ridden at full
+speed up and down the street, turned by main force, thrown on his
+haunches, goaded with the spurs, and cowed by being mercilessly
+thrashed over the ears and eyes with the piece of board till he
+was blinded with blood.&nbsp; Whenever he tried to stop from
+exhaustion he was spurred, jerked, and flogged, till at last,
+covered with sweat, foam, and blood, and with blood running from
+his mouth and splashing the road, he reeled, staggered, and fell,
+the rider dexterously disengaging himself.&nbsp; As soon as he
+was able to stand, he was allowed to crawl into a shed, where he
+was kept without food till morning, when a child could do
+anything with him.&nbsp; He was &ldquo;broken,&rdquo; effectually
+spirit-broken, useless for the rest of his life.&nbsp; It was a
+brutal and brutalising exhibition, as triumphs of brute force
+always are.</p>
+<h2><a name="page296"></a><span class="pagenum">p.
+296</span>LETTER XXXIX.&mdash;(<i>Continued</i>.)</h2>
+<p class="gutsumm">The Universal Language&mdash;The Yezo
+Corrals&mdash;A &ldquo;Typhoon Rain&rdquo;&mdash;Difficult
+Tracks&mdash;An Unenviable Ride&mdash;Drying Clothes&mdash;A
+Woman&rsquo;s Remorse.</p>
+<p><span class="smcap">This</span> morning I left early in the
+<i>kuruma</i> with two kind and delightful savages.&nbsp; The
+road being much broken by the rains I had to get out frequently,
+and every time I got in again they put my air-pillow behind me,
+and covered me up in a blanket; and when we got to a rough river,
+one made a step of his back by which I mounted their horse, and
+gave me nooses of rope to hold on by, and the other held my arm
+to keep me steady, and they would not let me walk up or down any
+of the hills.&nbsp; What a blessing it is that, amidst the
+confusion of tongues, the language of kindness and courtesy is
+universally understood, and that a kindly smile on a savage face
+is as intelligible as on that of one&rsquo;s own
+countryman!&nbsp; They had never drawn a <i>kuruma</i>, and were
+as pleased as children when I showed them how to balance the
+shafts.&nbsp; They were not without the capacity to originate
+ideas, for, when they were tired of the frolic of pulling, they
+attached the <i>kuruma</i> by ropes to the horse, which one of
+them rode at a &ldquo;scramble,&rdquo; while the other merely ran
+in the shafts to keep them level.&nbsp; This is an excellent
+plan.</p>
+<p>Horobets is a fishing station of antique and decayed aspect,
+with eighteen Japanese and forty-seven Aino houses.&nbsp; The
+latter are much larger than at Shira&ocirc;i, and their very
+steep roofs are beautifully constructed.&nbsp; It was a miserable
+day, with fog concealing the mountains and lying heavily on the
+sea, but as no one expected rain I sent the <i>kuruma</i> back to
+Mororan and secured horses.&nbsp; On principle I always go to the
+<i>corral</i> myself to choose animals, if possible, without sore
+backs, but the choice is often between one with a mere raw <a
+name="page297"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 297</span>and others
+which have holes in their backs into which I could put my hand,
+or altogether uncovered spines.&nbsp; The practice does no
+immediate good, but by showing the Japanese that foreign opinion
+condemns these cruelties an amendment may eventually be brought
+about.&nbsp; At Horobets, among twenty horses, there was not one
+that I would take,&mdash;I should like to have had them all
+shot.&nbsp; They are cheap and abundant, and are of no
+account.&nbsp; They drove a number more down from the hills, and
+I chose the largest and finest horse I have seen in Japan, with
+some spirit and action, but I soon found that he had tender
+feet.&nbsp; We shortly left the high-road, and in torrents of
+rain turned off on &ldquo;unbeaten tracks,&rdquo; which led us
+through a very bad swamp and some much swollen and very rough
+rivers into the mountains, where we followed a worn-out track for
+eight miles.&nbsp; It was literally &ldquo;<i>foul</i>
+weather,&rdquo; dark and still, with a brown mist, and rain
+falling in sheets.&nbsp; I threw my paper waterproof away as
+useless, my clothes were of course soaked, and it was with much
+difficulty that I kept my <i>shomon</i> and paper money from
+being reduced to pulp.&nbsp; Typhoons are not known so far north
+as Yezo, but it was what they call a &ldquo;typhoon rain&rdquo;
+without the typhoon, and in no time it turned the streams into
+torrents barely fordable, and tore up such of a road as there is,
+which at its best is a mere water-channel.&nbsp; Torrents,
+bringing tolerable-sized stones, tore down the track, and when
+the horses had been struck two or three times by these, it was
+with difficulty that they could be induced to face the rushing
+water.&nbsp; Constantly in a pass, the water had gradually cut a
+track several feet deep between steep banks, and the only
+possible walking place was a stony gash not wide enough for the
+two feet of a horse alongside of each other, down which water and
+stones were rushing from behind, with all manner of trailers
+matted overhead, and between avoiding being strangled and
+attempting to keep a tender-footed horse on his legs, the ride
+was a very severe one.&nbsp; The poor animal fell five times from
+stepping on stones, and in one of his falls twisted my left wrist
+badly.&nbsp; I thought of the many people who envied me my tour
+in Japan, and wondered whether they would envy me that ride!</p>
+<p>After this had gone on for four hours, the track, with a
+sudden dip over a hillside, came down on Old Mororan, a <a
+name="page298"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 298</span>village of
+thirty Aino and nine Japanese houses, very unpromising-looking,
+although exquisitely situated on the rim of a lovely cove.&nbsp;
+The Aino huts were small and poor, with an unusual number of bear
+skulls on poles, and the village consisted mainly of two long
+dilapidated buildings, in which a number of men were mending
+nets.&nbsp; It looked a decaying place, of low, mean lives.&nbsp;
+But at a &ldquo;merchant&rsquo;s&rdquo; there was one delightful
+room with two translucent sides&mdash;one opening on the village,
+the other looking to the sea down a short, steep slope, on which
+is a quaint little garden, with dwarfed fir-trees in pots, a few
+balsams, and a red cabbage grown with much pride as a
+&ldquo;foliage plant.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>It is nearly midnight, but my bed and bedding are so wet that
+I am still sitting up and drying them, patch by patch, with
+tedious slowness, on a wooden frame placed over a charcoal
+brazier, which has given my room the dryness and warmth which are
+needed when a person has been for many hours in soaked clothing,
+and has nothing really dry to put on.&nbsp; Ito bought a chicken
+for my supper, but when he was going to kill it an hour later its
+owner in much grief returned the money, saying she had brought it
+up and could not bear to see it killed.&nbsp; This is a wild,
+outlandish place, but an intuition tells me that it is
+beautiful.&nbsp; The ocean at present is thundering up the beach
+with the sullen force of a heavy ground-swell, and the rain is
+still falling in torrents.</p>
+<p style="text-align: right">I. L. B.</p>
+<h2><a name="page299"></a><span class="pagenum">p.
+299</span>LETTER XL.</h2>
+<p class="gutsumm">&ldquo;More than
+Peace&rdquo;&mdash;Geographical
+Difficulties&mdash;Usu-taki&mdash;Swimming the Osharu&mdash;A
+Dream of Beauty&mdash;A Sunset Effect&mdash;A Nocturnal
+Alarm&mdash;The Coast Ainos.</p>
+<p style="text-align: right"><span
+class="smcap">Lebung&eacute;</span>, <span class="smcap">Volcano
+Bay</span>, <span class="smcap">Yezo</span>,<br />
+<i>September</i> 6.</p>
+<blockquote><p>&ldquo;Weary wave and dying blast<br />
+Sob and moan along the shore,<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; All is peace at
+last.&rdquo;</p>
+</blockquote>
+<p><span class="smcap">And</span> more than peace.&nbsp; It was a
+heavenly morning.&nbsp; The deep blue sky was perfectly
+unclouded, a blue sea with diamond flash and a
+&ldquo;many-twinkling smile&rdquo; rippled gently on the golden
+sands of the lovely little bay, and opposite, forty miles away,
+the pink summit of the volcano of Komono-taki, forming the
+south-western point of Volcano Bay, rose into a softening veil of
+tender blue haze.&nbsp; There was a balmy breeziness in the air,
+and tawny tints upon the hill, patches of gold in the woods, and
+a scarlet spray here and there heralded the glories of the
+advancing autumn.&nbsp; As the day began, so it closed.&nbsp; I
+should like to have detained each hour as it passed.&nbsp; It was
+thorough enjoyment.&nbsp; I visited a good many of the Mororan
+Ainos, saw their well-grown bear in its cage, and, tearing myself
+away with difficulty at noon, crossed a steep hill and a wood of
+scrub oak, and then followed a trail which runs on the amber
+sands close to the sea, crosses several small streams, and passes
+the lonely Aino village of Maripu, the ocean always on the left
+and wooded ranges on the right, and in front an apparent bar to
+farther progress in the volcano of Usu-taki, an imposing
+mountain, rising abruptly to a height of nearly 3000 feet, I
+should think.</p>
+<p>In Yezo, as on the main island, one can learn very little
+about any prospective route.&nbsp; Usually when one makes an <a
+name="page300"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 300</span>inquiry a
+Japanese puts on a stupid look, giggles, tucks his thumbs into
+his girdle, hitches up his garments, and either professes perfect
+ignorance or gives one some vague second-hand information, though
+it is quite possible that he may have been over every foot of the
+ground himself more than once.&nbsp; Whether suspicion of your
+motives in asking, or a fear of compromising himself by
+answering, is at the bottom of this I don&rsquo;t know, but it is
+most exasperating to a traveller.&nbsp; In Hakodat&eacute; I
+failed to see Captain Blakiston, who has walked round the whole
+Yezo sea-board, and all I was able to learn regarding this route
+was that the coast was thinly peopled by Ainos, that there were
+Government horses which could be got, and that one could sleep
+where one got them; that rice and salt fish were the only food;
+that there were many &ldquo;bad rivers,&rdquo; and that the road
+went over &ldquo;bad mountains;&rdquo; that the only people who
+went that way were Government officials twice a year, that one
+could not get on more than four miles a day, that the roads over
+the passes were &ldquo;all big stones,&rdquo; etc. etc.&nbsp; So
+this Usu-taki took me altogether by surprise, and for a time
+confounded all my carefully-constructed notions of
+locality.&nbsp; I had been told that the one volcano in the bay
+was Komono-taki, near Mori, and this I believed to be eighty
+miles off, and there, confronting me, within a distance of two
+miles, was this grand, splintered, vermilion-crested thing, with
+a far nobler aspect than that of &ldquo;<i>the</i>&rdquo;
+volcano, with a curtain range in front, deeply scored, and
+slashed with ravines and abysses whose purple gloom was unlighted
+even by the noon-day sun.&nbsp; One of the peaks was emitting
+black smoke from a deep crater, another steam and white smoke
+from various rents and fissures in its side&mdash;vermilion
+peaks, smoke, and steam all rising into a sky of brilliant blue,
+and the atmosphere was so clear that I saw everything that was
+going on there quite distinctly, especially when I attained an
+altitude exceeding that of the curtain range.&nbsp; It was not
+for two days that I got a correct idea of its geographical
+situation, but I was not long in finding out that it was not
+Komono-taki!&nbsp; There is much volcanic activity about
+it.&nbsp; I saw a glare from it last night thirty miles
+away.&nbsp; The Ainos said that it was &ldquo;a god,&rdquo; but
+did not know its name, nor did the Japanese who were living under
+its shadow.&nbsp; At some distance from it in <a
+name="page301"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 301</span>the
+interior rises a great dome-like mountain, Shiribetsan, and the
+whole view is grand.</p>
+<p>A little beyond Mombets flows the river Osharu, one of the
+largest of the Yezo streams.&nbsp; It was much swollen by the
+previous day&rsquo;s rain; and as the ferry-boat was carried away
+we had to swim it, and the swim seemed very long.&nbsp; Of
+course, we and the baggage got very wet.&nbsp; The coolness with
+which the Aino guide took to the water without giving us any
+notice that its broad, eddying flood was a swim, and not a ford,
+was very amusing.</p>
+<p>From the top of a steepish ascent beyond the Osharugawa there
+is a view into what looks like a very lovely lake, with wooded
+promontories, and little bays, and rocky capes in miniature, and
+little heights, on which Aino houses, with tawny roofs, are
+clustered; and then the track dips suddenly, and deposits one,
+not by a lake at all, but on Usu Bay, an inlet of the Pacific,
+much broken up into coves, and with a very narrow entrance, only
+obvious from a few points.&nbsp; Just as the track touches the
+bay there is a road-post, with a prayer-wheel in it, and by the
+shore an upright stone of very large size, inscribed with
+Sanskrit characters, near to a stone staircase and a gateway in a
+massive stone-faced embankment, which looked much out of keeping
+with the general wildness of the place.&nbsp; On a rocky
+promontory in a wooded cove there is a large, rambling house,
+greatly out of repair, inhabited by a Japanese man and his son,
+who are placed there to look after Government interests, exiles
+among 500 Ainos.&nbsp; From among the number of rat-haunted,
+rambling rooms which had once been handsome, I chose one opening
+on a yard or garden with some distorted yews in it, but found
+that the great gateway and the <i>amado</i> had no bolts, and
+that anything might be appropriated by any one with dishonest
+intentions; but the house-master and his son, who have lived for
+ten years among the Ainos, and speak their language, say that
+nothing is ever taken, and that the Ainos are thoroughly honest
+and harmless.&nbsp; Without this assurance I should have been
+distrustful of the number of wide-mouthed youths who hung about,
+in the listlessness and vacuity of savagery, if not of the
+bearded men who sat or stood about the gateway with children in
+their arms.</p>
+<p><a name="page302"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 302</span>Usu
+is a dream of beauty and peace.&nbsp; There is not much
+difference between the height of high and low water on this
+coast, and the lake-like illusion would have been perfect had it
+not been that the rocks were tinged with gold for a foot or so
+above the sea by a delicate species of <i>fucus</i>.&nbsp; In the
+exquisite inlet where I spent the night, trees and trailers
+drooped into the water and were mirrored in it, their green,
+heavy shadows lying sharp against the sunset gold and pink of the
+rest of the bay; log canoes, with planks laced upon their
+gunwales to heighten them, were drawn upon a tiny beach of golden
+sand, and in the shadiest cove, moored to a tree, an antique and
+much-carved junk was &ldquo;floating double.&rdquo;&nbsp; Wooded,
+rocky knolls, with Aino huts, the vermilion peaks of the volcano
+of Usu-taki redder than ever in the sinking sun, a few Ainos
+mending their nets, a few more spreading edible seaweed out to
+dry, a single canoe breaking the golden mirror of the cove by its
+noiseless motion, a few Aino loungers, with their
+&ldquo;mild-eyed, melancholy&rdquo; faces and quiet ways suiting
+the quiet evening scene, the unearthly sweetness of a temple
+bell&mdash;this was all, and yet it was the loveliest picture I
+have seen in Japan.</p>
+<p>In spite of Ito&rsquo;s remonstrances and his protestations
+that an exceptionally good supper would be spoiled, I left my
+rat-haunted room, with its tarnished gilding and precarious
+<i>fusuma</i>, to get the last of the pink and lemon-coloured
+glory, going up the staircase in the stone-faced embankment, and
+up a broad, well-paved avenue, to a large temple, within whose
+open door I sat for some time absolutely alone, and in a
+wonderful stillness; for the sweet-toned bell which vainly chimes
+for vespers amidst this bear-worshipping population had
+ceased.&nbsp; This temple was the first symptom of Japanese
+religion that I remember to have seen since leaving
+Hakodat&eacute;, and worshippers have long since ebbed away from
+its shady and moss-grown courts.&nbsp; Yet it stands there to
+protest for the teaching of the great Hindu; and generations of
+Aino heathen pass away one after another; and still its bronze
+bell tolls, and its altar lamps are lit, and incense burns for
+ever before Buddha.&nbsp; The characters on the great bell of
+this temple are said to be the same lines which are often graven
+on temple bells, and to possess the dignity of twenty-four
+centuries:</p>
+<blockquote><p><a name="page303"></a><span class="pagenum">p.
+303</span>&ldquo;All things are transient;<br />
+They being born must die,<br />
+And being born are dead;<br />
+And being dead are glad<br />
+To be at rest.&rdquo;</p>
+</blockquote>
+<p>The temple is very handsome, the baldachino is superb, and the
+bronzes and brasses on the altar are specially fine.&nbsp; A
+broad ray of sunlight streamed in, crossed the matted floor, and
+fell full upon the figure of Sakya-muni in his golden shrine; and
+just at that moment a shaven priest, in silk-brocaded vestments
+of faded green, silently passed down the stream of light, and lit
+the candles on the altar, and fresh incense filled the temple
+with a drowsy fragrance.&nbsp; It was a most impressive
+picture.&nbsp; His curiosity evidently shortened his devotions,
+and he came and asked me where I had been and where I was going,
+to which, of course, I replied in excellent Japanese, and then
+stuck fast.</p>
+<p>Along the paved avenue, besides the usual stone trough for
+holy water, there are on one side the thousand-armed Kwan-non, a
+very fine relief, and on the other a Buddha, throned on the
+eternal lotus blossom, with an iron staff, much resembling a
+crozier, in his hand, and that eternal apathy on his face which
+is the highest hope of those who hope at all.&nbsp; I went
+through a wood, where there are some mournful groups of graves on
+the hillside, and from the temple came the sweet sound of the
+great bronze bell and the beat of the big drum, and then, more
+faintly, the sound of the little bell and drum, with which the
+priest accompanies his ceaseless repetition of a phrase in the
+dead tongue of a distant land.&nbsp; There is an infinite pathos
+about the lonely temple in its splendour, the absence of even
+possible worshippers, and the large population of Ainos, sunk in
+yet deeper superstitions than those which go to make up popular
+Buddhism.&nbsp; I sat on a rock by the bay till the last pink
+glow faded from Usu-taki and the last lemon stain from the still
+water; and a beautiful crescent, which hung over the wooded hill,
+had set, and the heavens blazed with stars:</p>
+<blockquote><p>&ldquo;Ten thousand stars were in the sky,<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp; Ten thousand in the sea,<br />
+And every wave with dimpled face,<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp; That leapt upon the air,<br />
+<a name="page304"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 304</span>Had
+caught a star in its embrace,<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp; And held it trembling there.&rdquo;</p>
+</blockquote>
+<p>The loneliness of Usu Bay is something wonderful&mdash;a house
+full of empty rooms falling to decay, with only two men in
+it&mdash;one Japanese house among 500 savages, yet it was the
+only one in which I have slept in which they bolted neither the
+<i>amado</i> nor the gate.&nbsp; During the night the
+<i>amado</i> fell out of the worn-out grooves with a crash,
+knocking down the <i>sh&ocirc;ji</i>, which fell on me, and
+rousing Ito, who rushed into my room half-asleep, with a vague
+vision of blood-thirsty Ainos in his mind.&nbsp; I then learned
+what I have been very stupid not to have learned before, that in
+these sliding wooden shutters there is a small door through which
+one person can creep at a time called the <i>jishindo</i>, or
+&ldquo;earthquake door,&rdquo; because it provides an exit during
+the alarm of an earthquake, in case of the <i>amado</i> sticking
+in their grooves, or their bolts going wrong.&nbsp; I believe
+that such a door exists in all Japanese houses.</p>
+<p>The next morning was as beautiful as the previous evening,
+rose and gold instead of gold and pink.&nbsp; Before the sun was
+well up I visited a number of the Aino lodges, saw the bear, and
+the chief, who, like all the rest, is a monogamist, and, after
+breakfast, at my request, some of the old men came to give me
+such information as they had.&nbsp; These venerable elders sat
+cross-legged in the verandah, the house-master&rsquo;s son, who
+kindly acted as interpreter, squatting, Japanese fashion, at the
+side, and about thirty Ainos, mostly women, with infants, sitting
+behind.&nbsp; I spent about two hours in going over the same
+ground as at Biratori, and also went over the words, and got some
+more, including some synonyms.&nbsp; The <i>click</i> of the
+<i>ts</i> before the <i>ch</i> at the beginning of a word is
+strongly marked among these Ainos.&nbsp; Some of their customs
+differ slightly from those of their brethren of the interior,
+specially as to the period of seclusion after a death, the
+non-allowance of polygamy to the chief, and the manner of killing
+the bear at the annual festival.&nbsp; Their ideas of
+metempsychosis are more definite, but this, I think, is to be
+accounted for by the influence and proximity of Buddhism.&nbsp;
+They spoke of the bear as their chief god, and next the sun and
+fire.&nbsp; They said that they no longer worship the wolf, and
+that though they call the volcano and many other things
+<i>kamoi</i>, or god, they do <a name="page305"></a><span
+class="pagenum">p. 305</span>not worship them.&nbsp; I
+ascertained beyond doubt that worship with them means simply
+making libations of <i>sak&eacute;</i> and &ldquo;drinking to the
+god,&rdquo; and that it is unaccompanied by petitions, or any
+vocal or mental act.</p>
+<p>These Ainos are as dark as the people of southern Spain, and
+very hairy.&nbsp; Their expression is earnest and pathetic, and
+when they smiled, as they did when I could not pronounce their
+words, their faces had a touching sweetness which was quite
+beautiful, and European, not Asiatic.&nbsp; Their own impression
+is that they are now increasing in numbers after diminishing for
+many years.&nbsp; I left Usu sleeping in the loveliness of an
+autumn noon with great regret.&nbsp; No place that I have seen
+has fascinated me so much.</p>
+<p style="text-align: center">
+<a href="images/p305b.jpg">
+<img alt=
+"My Kuruma-Runner"
+title=
+"My Kuruma-Runner"
+ src="images/p305s.jpg" />
+</a></p>
+<h2><a name="page306"></a><span class="pagenum">p.
+306</span>LETTER XL.&mdash;(<i>Continued</i>.)</h2>
+<p class="gutsumm">The Sea-shore&mdash;A &ldquo;Hairy
+Aino&rdquo;&mdash;A Horse Fight&mdash;The Horses of
+Yezo&mdash;&ldquo;Bad Mountains&rdquo;&mdash;A Slight
+Accident&mdash;Magnificent Scenery&mdash;A Bleached
+Halting-Place&mdash;A Musty Room&mdash;Aino
+&ldquo;Good-breeding.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>A <span class="smcap">charge</span> of 3 <i>sen</i> per
+<i>ri</i> more for the horses for the next stage, because there
+were such &ldquo;bad mountains to cross,&rdquo; prepared me for
+what followed&mdash;many miles of the worst road for horses I
+ever saw.&nbsp; I should not have complained if they had charged
+double the price.&nbsp; As an almost certain consequence, it was
+one of the most picturesque routes I have ever travelled.&nbsp;
+For some distance, however, it runs placidly along by the
+sea-shore, on which big, blue, foam-crested rollers were
+disporting themselves noisily, and passes through several Aino
+hamlets, and the Aino village of Abuta, with sixty houses, rather
+a prosperous-looking place, where the cultivation was
+considerably more careful, and the people possessed a number of
+horses.&nbsp; Several of the houses were surrounded by
+bears&rsquo; skulls grinning from between the forked tops of high
+poles, and there was a well-grown bear ready for his doom and
+apotheosis.&nbsp; In nearly all the houses a woman was weaving
+bark-cloth, with the hook which holds the web fixed into the
+ground several feet outside the house.&nbsp; At a deep river
+called the Nopkobets, which emerges from the mountains close to
+the sea, we were ferried by an Aino completely covered with hair,
+which on his shoulders was wavy like that of a retriever, and
+rendered clothing quite needless either for covering or
+warmth.&nbsp; A wavy, black beard rippled nearly to his waist
+over his furry chest, and, with his black locks hanging in masses
+over his shoulders, he would have looked a thorough savage had it
+not been for the exceeding sweetness of his smile and eyes.&nbsp;
+The Volcano Bay Ainos are far more hairy than the mountain <a
+name="page307"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 307</span>Ainos, but
+even among them it is quite common to see men not more so than
+vigorous Europeans, and I think that the hairiness of the race as
+a distinctive feature has been much exaggerated, partly by the
+smooth-skinned Japanese.</p>
+<p>The ferry scow was nearly upset by our four horses beginning
+to fight.&nbsp; At first one bit the shoulders of another; then
+the one attacked uttered short, sharp squeals, and returned the
+attack by striking with his fore feet, and then there was a
+general m&ecirc;l&eacute;e of striking and biting, till some ugly
+wounds were inflicted.&nbsp; I have watched fights of this kind
+on a large scale every day in the <i>corral</i>.&nbsp; The
+miseries of the Yezo horses are the great drawback of Yezo
+travelling.&nbsp; They are brutally used, and are covered with
+awful wounds from being driven at a fast &ldquo;scramble&rdquo;
+with the rude, ungirthed pack-saddle and its heavy load rolling
+about on their backs, and they are beaten unmercifully over their
+eyes and ears with heavy sticks.&nbsp; Ito has been barbarous to
+these gentle, little-prized animals ever since we came to Yezo;
+he has vexed me more by this than by anything else, especially as
+he never dared even to carry a switch on the main island, either
+from fear of the horses or their owners.&nbsp; To-day he was
+beating the baggage horse unmercifully, when I rode back and
+interfered with some very strong language, saying, &ldquo;You are
+a bully, and, like all bullies, a coward.&rdquo;&nbsp; Imagine my
+aggravation when, at our first halt, he brought out his
+note-book, as usual, and quietly asked me the meaning of the
+words &ldquo;bully&rdquo; and &ldquo;coward.&rdquo;&nbsp; It was
+perfectly impossible to explain them, so I said a bully was the
+worst name I could call him, and that a coward was the meanest
+thing a man could be.&nbsp; Then the provoking boy said,
+&ldquo;Is bully a worse name than devil?&rdquo;&nbsp; &ldquo;Yes,
+far worse,&rdquo; I said, on which he seemed rather crestfallen,
+and he has not beaten his horse since, in my sight at least.</p>
+<p>The breaking-in process is simply breaking the spirit by an
+hour or two of such atrocious cruelty as I saw at Shira&ocirc;i,
+at the end of which the horse, covered with foam and blood, and
+bleeding from mouth and nose, falls down exhausted.&nbsp; Being
+so ill used they have all kinds of tricks, such as lying down in
+fords, throwing themselves down head foremost and rolling over
+pack and rider, bucking, and resisting attempts to make them go
+otherwise than in single file.&nbsp; Instead of bits they <a
+name="page308"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 308</span>have bars
+of wood on each side of the mouth, secured by a rope round the
+nose and chin.&nbsp; When horses which have been broken with bits
+gallop they put up their heads till the nose is level with the
+ears, and it is useless to try either to guide or check
+them.&nbsp; They are always wanting to join the great herds on
+the hillside or sea-shore, from which they are only driven down
+as they are needed.&nbsp; In every Yezo village the first sound
+that one hears at break of day is the gallop of forty or fifty
+horses, pursued by an Aino, who has hunted them from the
+hills.&nbsp; A horse is worth from twenty-eight shillings
+upwards.&nbsp; They are very sure-footed when their feet are not
+sore, and cross a stream or chasm on a single rickety plank, or
+walk on a narrow ledge above a river or gulch without fear.&nbsp;
+They are barefooted, their hoofs are very hard, and I am glad to
+be rid of the perpetual tying and untying and replacing of the
+straw shoes of the well-cared-for horses of the main
+island.&nbsp; A man rides with them, and for a man and three
+horses the charge is only sixpence for each 2&frac12;
+miles.&nbsp; I am now making Ito ride in front of me, to make
+sure that he does not beat or otherwise misuse his beast.</p>
+<p>After crossing the Nopkobets, from which the fighting horses
+have led me to make so long a digression, we went right up into
+the &ldquo;bad mountains,&rdquo; and crossed the three tremendous
+passes of Lebung&eacute;tog&eacute;.&nbsp; Except by saying that
+this disused bridle-track is impassable, people have scarcely
+exaggerated its difficulties.&nbsp; One horse broke down on the
+first pass, and we were long delayed by sending the Aino back for
+another.&nbsp; Possibly these extraordinary passes do not exceed
+1500 feet in height, but the track ascends them through a dense
+forest with most extraordinary abruptness, to descend as
+abruptly, to rise again sometimes by a series of nearly
+washed-away zigzags, at others by a straight, ladder-like ascent
+deeply channelled, the bottom of the trough being filled with
+rough stones, large and small, or with ledges of rock with an
+entangled mass of branches and trailers overhead, which render it
+necessary to stoop over the horse&rsquo;s head while he is either
+fumbling, stumbling, or tumbling among the stones in a gash a
+foot wide, or else is awkwardly leaping up broken rock steps
+nearly the height of his chest, the whole performance consisting
+of a series of scrambling jerks at the rate of a mile an
+hour.</p>
+<p><a name="page309"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 309</span>In
+one of the worst places the Aino&rsquo;s horse, which was just in
+front of mine, in trying to scramble up a nearly breast-high and
+much-worn ledge, fell backwards, nearly overturning my horse, the
+stretcher poles, which formed part of his pack, striking me so
+hard above my ankle that for some minutes afterwards I thought
+the bone was broken.&nbsp; The ankle was severely cut and
+bruised, and bled a good deal, and I was knocked out of the
+saddle.&nbsp; Ito&rsquo;s horse fell three times, and eventually
+the four were roped together.&nbsp; Such are some of the
+<i>divertissements</i> of Yezo travel.</p>
+<p>Ah, but it was glorious!&nbsp; The views are most
+magnificent.&nbsp; This is really Paradise.&nbsp; Everything is
+here&mdash;huge headlands magnificently timbered, small, deep
+bays into which the great green waves roll majestically, great,
+grey cliffs, too perpendicular for even the most adventurous
+trailer to find root-hold, bold bluffs and outlying stacks
+cedar-crested, glimpses of bright, blue ocean dimpling in the
+sunshine or tossing up wreaths of foam among ferns and trailers,
+and inland ranges of mountains forest-covered, with tremendous
+gorges between, forest filled, where wolf, bear, and deer make
+their nearly inaccessible lairs, and outlying battlements, and
+ridges of grey rock with hardly six feet of level on their
+sinuous tops, and cedars in masses giving deep shadow, and sprays
+of scarlet maple or festoons of a crimson vine lighting the
+gloom.&nbsp; The inland view suggested infinity.&nbsp; There
+seemed no limit to the forest-covered mountains and the unlighted
+ravines.&nbsp; The wealth of vegetation was equal in luxuriance
+and entanglement to that of the tropics, primeval vegetation, on
+which the lumberer&rsquo;s axe has never rung.&nbsp; Trees of
+immense height and girth, specially the beautiful <i>Salisburia
+adiantifolia</i>, with its small fan-shaped leaves, all matted
+together by riotous lianas, rise out of an impenetrable
+undergrowth of the dwarf, dark-leaved bamboo, which, dwarf as it
+is, attains a height of seven feet, and all is dark, solemn,
+soundless, the haunt of wild beasts, and of butterflies and
+dragonflies of the most brilliant colours.&nbsp; There was light
+without heat, leaves and streams sparkled, and there was nothing
+of the half-smothered sensation which is often produced by the
+choking greenery of the main island, for frequently, far below,
+the Pacific flashed in all its sunlit beauty, and occasionally we
+came down unexpectedly <a name="page310"></a><span
+class="pagenum">p. 310</span>on a little cove with abrupt
+cedar-crested headlands and stacks, and a heavy surf rolling in
+with the deep thunder music which alone breaks the stillness of
+this silent land.</p>
+<p>There was one tremendous declivity where I got off to walk,
+but found it too steep to descend on foot with comfort.&nbsp; You
+can imagine how steep it was, when I tell you that the deep
+groove being too narrow for me to get to the side of my horse, I
+dropped down upon him from behind, between his tail and the
+saddle, and so scrambled on!</p>
+<p>The sun had set and the dew was falling heavily when the track
+dipped over the brow of a headland, becoming a waterway so steep
+and rough that I could not get down it on foot without the
+assistance of my hands, and terminating on a lonely little bay of
+great beauty, walled in by impracticable-looking headlands, which
+was the entrance to an equally impracticable-looking,
+densely-wooded valley running up among densely-wooded
+mountains.&nbsp; There was a margin of grey sand above the sea,
+and on this the skeleton of an enormous whale was
+bleaching.&nbsp; Two or three large &ldquo;dug-outs,&rdquo; with
+planks laced with stout fibre on their gunwales, and some
+bleached drift-wood lay on the beach, the foreground of a
+solitary, rambling, dilapidated grey house, bleached like all
+else, where three Japanese men with an old Aino servant live to
+look after &ldquo;Government interests,&rdquo; whatever these may
+be, and keep rooms and horses for Government officials&mdash;a
+great boon to travellers who, like me, are belated here.&nbsp;
+Only one person has passed Lebung&eacute; this year, except two
+officials and a policeman.</p>
+<p>There was still a red glow on the water, and one horn of a
+young moon appeared above the wooded headland; but the loneliness
+and isolation are overpowering, and it is enough to produce
+madness to be shut in for ever with the thunder of the
+everlasting surf, which compels one to raise one&rsquo;s voice in
+order to be heard.&nbsp; In the wood, half a mile from the sea,
+there is an Aino village of thirty houses, and the appearance of
+a few of the savages gliding noiselessly over the beach in the
+twilight added to the ghastliness and loneliness of the
+scene.&nbsp; The horses were unloaded by the time I arrived, and
+several courteous Ainos showed me to my room, opening on a small
+courtyard with a heavy gate.&nbsp; The room was musty, and, <a
+name="page311"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 311</span>being
+rarely used, swarmed with spiders.&nbsp; A saucer of fish-oil and
+a wick rendered darkness visible, and showed faintly the dark,
+pathetic faces of a row of Ainos in the verandah, who retired
+noiselessly with their graceful salutation when I bade them
+good-night.&nbsp; Food was hardly to be expected, yet they gave
+me rice, potatoes, and black beans boiled in equal parts of brine
+and syrup, which are very palatable.&nbsp; The cuts and bruises
+of yesterday became so very painful with the cold of the early
+morning that I have been obliged to remain here.</p>
+<p style="text-align: right">I. L. B.</p>
+<p style="text-align: center">
+<a href="images/p311b.jpg">
+<img alt=
+"Temple Gateway at Isshinden"
+title=
+"Temple Gateway at Isshinden"
+ src="images/p311s.jpg" />
+</a></p>
+<h2><a name="page312"></a><span class="pagenum">p.
+312</span>LETTER XLI.</h2>
+<p class="gutsumm">A Group of Fathers&mdash;The Lebung&eacute;
+Ainos&mdash;The <i>Salisburia adiantifolia</i>&mdash;A Family
+Group&mdash;The Missing
+Link&mdash;Oshamamb&eacute;&mdash;Disorderly Horses&mdash;The
+River Yurapu&mdash;The Seaside&mdash;Aino Canoes&mdash;The Last
+Morning&mdash;Dodging Europeans.</p>
+<p style="text-align: right"><span
+class="smcap">Hakodat&eacute;</span>, <i>September</i> 12.</p>
+<p><span class="smcap">Lebung&eacute;</span> is a most
+fascinating place in its awful isolation.&nbsp; The house-master
+was a friendly man, and much attached to the Ainos.&nbsp; If
+other officials entrusted with Aino concerns treat the Ainos as
+fraternally as those of Usu and Lebung&eacute;, there is not much
+to lament.&nbsp; This man also gave them a high character for
+honesty and harmlessness, and asked if they might come and see me
+before I left; so twenty men, mostly carrying very pretty
+children, came into the yard with the horses.&nbsp; They had
+never seen a foreigner, but, either from apathy or politeness,
+they neither stare nor press upon one as the Japanese do, and
+always make a courteous recognition.&nbsp; The bear-skin housing
+of my saddle pleased them very much, and my boots of unblacked
+leather, which they compare to the deer-hide moccasins which they
+wear for winter hunting.&nbsp; Their voices were the lowest and
+most musical that I have heard, incongruous sounds to proceed
+from such hairy, powerful-looking men.&nbsp; Their love for their
+children was most marked.&nbsp; They caressed them tenderly, and
+held them aloft for notice, and when the house-master told them
+how much I admired the brown, dark-eyed, winsome creatures, their
+faces lighted with pleasure, and they saluted me over and over
+again.&nbsp; These, like other Ainos, utter a short screeching
+sound when they are not pleased, and then one recognises the
+savage.</p>
+<p>These Lebung&eacute; Ainos differ considerably from those of
+the <a name="page313"></a><span class="pagenum">p.
+313</span>eastern villages, and I have again to notice the
+decided sound or <i>click</i> of the <i>ts</i> at the beginning
+of many words.&nbsp; Their skins are as swarthy as those of
+Bedaween, their foreheads comparatively low, their eyes far more
+deeply set their stature lower, their hair yet more abundant, the
+look of wistful melancholy more marked, and two, who were
+unclothed for hard work in fashioning a canoe, were almost
+entirely covered with short, black hair, specially thick on the
+shoulders and back, and so completely concealing the skin as to
+reconcile one to the lack of clothing.&nbsp; I noticed an
+enormous breadth of chest, and a great development of the muscles
+of the arms and legs.&nbsp; All these Ainos shave their hair off
+for two inches above their brows, only allowing it there to
+attain the length of an inch.&nbsp; Among the well-clothed Ainos
+in the yard there was one smooth-faced, smooth-skinned,
+concave-chested, spindle-limbed, yellow Japanese, with no other
+clothing than the decorated bark-cloth apron which the Ainos wear
+in addition to their coats and leggings.&nbsp; Escorted by these
+gentle, friendly savages, I visited their lodges, which are very
+small and poor, and in every way inferior to those of the
+mountain Ainos.&nbsp; The women are short and thick-set, and most
+uncomely.</p>
+<p>From their village I started for the longest, and by
+reputation the worst, stage of my journey, seventeen miles, the
+first ten of which are over mountains.&nbsp; So solitary and
+disused is this track that on a four days&rsquo; journey we have
+not met a human being.&nbsp; In the Lebung&eacute; valley, which
+is densely forested, and abounds with fordable streams and
+treacherous ground, I came upon a grand specimen of the
+<i>Salisburia adiantifolia</i>, which, at a height of three feet
+from the ground, divides into eight lofty stems, none of them
+less than 2 feet 5 inches in diameter.&nbsp; This tree, which
+grows rapidly, is so well adapted to our climate that I wonder it
+has not been introduced on a large scale, as it may be seen by
+everybody in Kew Gardens.&nbsp; There is another tree with
+orbicular leaves in pairs, which grows to an immense size.</p>
+<p>From this valley a worn-out, stony bridle-track ascends the
+western side of Lebung&eacute;tog&eacute;, climbing through a
+dense forest of trees and trailers to a height of about 2000
+feet, where, contented with its efforts, it reposes, and, with
+only slight ups and <a name="page314"></a><span
+class="pagenum">p. 314</span>downs, continues along the top of a
+narrow ridge within the seaward mountains, between high walls of
+dense bamboo, which, for much of that day&rsquo;s journey, is the
+undergrowth alike of mountain and valley, ragged peak, and rugged
+ravine.&nbsp; The scenery was as magnificent as on the previous
+day.&nbsp; A guide was absolutely needed, as the track ceased
+altogether in one place, and for some time the horses had to
+blunder their way along a bright, rushing river, swirling rapidly
+downwards, heavily bordered with bamboo, full of deep holes, and
+made difficult by trees which have fallen across it.&nbsp; There
+Ito, whose horse could not keep up with the others, was lost, or
+rather lost himself, which led to a delay of two hours.&nbsp; I
+have never seen grander forest than on that two days&rsquo;
+ride.</p>
+<p>At last the track, barely passable after its recovery, dips
+over a precipitous bluff, and descends close to the sea, which
+has evidently receded considerably.&nbsp; Thence it runs for six
+miles on a level, sandy strip, covered near the sea with a dwarf
+bamboo about five inches high, and farther inland with red roses
+and blue campanula.</p>
+<p>At the foot of the bluff there is a ruinous Japanese house,
+where an Aino family has been placed to give shelter and rest to
+any who may be crossing the pass.&nbsp; I opened my
+<i>bent&ocirc; bako</i> of red lacquer, and found that it
+contained some cold, waxy potatoes, on which I dined, with the
+addition of some tea, and then waited wearily for Ito, for whom
+the guide went in search.&nbsp; The house and its inmates were a
+study.&nbsp; The ceiling was gone, and all kinds of things, for
+which I could not imagine any possible use, hung from the
+blackened rafters.&nbsp; Everything was broken and decayed, and
+the dirt was appalling.&nbsp; A very ugly Aino woman, hardly
+human in her ugliness, was splitting bark fibre.&nbsp; There were
+several <i>irori</i>, Japanese fashion, and at one of them a
+grand-looking old man was seated apathetically contemplating the
+boiling of a pot.&nbsp; Old, and sitting among ruins, he
+represented the fate of a race which, living, has no history, and
+perishing leaves no monument.&nbsp; By the other <i>irori</i>
+sat, or rather crouched, the &ldquo;<span class="smcap">Missing
+Link</span>.&rdquo;&nbsp; I was startled when I first saw
+it.&nbsp; It was&mdash;shall I say?&mdash;a man, and the mate, I
+cannot write the husband, of the ugly woman.&nbsp; It was about
+fifty.&nbsp; The lofty Aino brow had been made still loftier by
+shaving the head for three inches above it.&nbsp; The hair hung,
+<a name="page315"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 315</span>not in
+shocks, but in snaky wisps, mingling with a beard which was grey
+and matted.&nbsp; The eyes were dark but vacant, and the face had
+no other expression than that look of apathetic melancholy which
+one sometimes sees on the faces of captive beasts.&nbsp; The arms
+and legs were unnaturally long and thin, and the creature sat
+with the knees tucked into the armpits.&nbsp; The limbs and body,
+with the exception of a patch on each side, were thinly covered
+with fine black hair, more than an inch long, which was slightly
+curly on the shoulders.&nbsp; It showed no other sign of
+intelligence than that evidenced by boiling water for my
+tea.&nbsp; When Ito arrived he looked at it with disgust,
+exclaiming, &ldquo;The Ainos are just dogs; they had a dog for
+their father,&rdquo; in allusion to their own legend of their
+origin.</p>
+<p>The level was pleasant after the mountains, and a canter took
+us pleasantly to Oshamamb&eacute;, where we struck the old road
+from Mori to Satsuporo, and where I halted for a day to rest my
+spine, from which I was suffering much.&nbsp; Oshamamb&eacute;
+looks dismal even in the sunshine, decayed and dissipated, with
+many people lounging about in it doing nothing, with the dazed
+look which over-indulgence in <i>sak&eacute;</i> gives to the
+eyes.&nbsp; The sun was scorching hot, and I was glad to find
+refuge from it in a crowded and dilapidated <i>yadoya</i>, where
+there were no black beans, and the use of eggs did not appear to
+be recognised.&nbsp; My room was only enclosed by
+<i>sh&ocirc;ji</i>, and there were scarcely five minutes of the
+day in which eyes were not applied to the finger-holes with which
+they were liberally riddled; and during the night one of them
+fell down, revealing six Japanese sleeping in a row, each head on
+a wooden pillow.</p>
+<p>The grandeur of the route ceased with the mountain-passes, but
+in the brilliant sunshine the ride from Oshamamb&eacute; to Mori,
+which took me two days, was as pretty and pleasant as it could
+be.&nbsp; At first we got on very slowly, as besides my four
+horses there were four led ones going home, which got up fights
+and entangled their ropes, and occasionally lay down and rolled;
+and besides these there were three foals following their mothers,
+and if they stayed behind the mares hung back neighing, and if
+they frolicked ahead the mares wanted to look after them, and the
+whole string showed a combined inclination to dispense with their
+riders and join the many herds <a name="page316"></a><span
+class="pagenum">p. 316</span>of horses which we passed.&nbsp; It
+was so tedious that, after enduring it for some time I got
+Ito&rsquo;s horse and mine into a scow at a river of some size,
+and left the disorderly drove to follow at leisure.</p>
+<p>At Yurapu, where there is an Aino village of thirty houses, we
+saw the last of the aborigines, and the interest of the journey
+ended.&nbsp; Strips of hard sand below high-water mark, strips of
+red roses, ranges of wooded mountains, rivers deep and shallow, a
+few villages of old grey houses amidst grey sand and bleaching
+driftwood, and then came the river Yurapu, a broad, deep stream,
+navigable in a canoe for fourteen miles.&nbsp; The scenery there
+was truly beautiful in the late and splendid afternoon.&nbsp; The
+long blue waves rolled on shore, each one crested with light as
+it curled before it broke, and hurled its snowy drift for miles
+along the coast with a deep booming music.&nbsp; The glorious
+inland view was composed of six ranges of forest-covered
+mountains, broken, chasmed, caverned, and dark with timber, and
+above them bald, grey peaks rose against a green sky of singular
+purity.&nbsp; I longed to take a boat up the Yurapu, which
+penetrates by many a gorge into their solemn recesses, but had
+not strength to carry my wish.</p>
+<p>After this I exchanged the silence or low musical speech of
+Aino guides for the harsh and ceaseless clatter of
+Japanese.&nbsp; At Yamakushinoi, a small hamlet on the sea-shore,
+where I slept, there was a sweet, quiet <i>yadoya</i>,
+delightfully situated, with a wooded cliff at the back, over
+which a crescent hung out of a pure sky; and besides, there were
+the more solid pleasures of fish, eggs, and black beans.&nbsp;
+Thus, instead of being starved and finding wretched
+accommodation, the week I spent on Volcano Bay has been the best
+fed, as it was certainly the most comfortable, week of my travels
+in northern Japan.</p>
+<p>Another glorious day favoured my ride to Mori, but I was
+unfortunate in my horse at each stage, and the Japanese guide was
+grumpy and ill-natured&mdash;a most unusual thing.&nbsp;
+Otoshib&eacute; and a few other small villages of grey houses,
+with &ldquo;an ancient and fish-like smell,&rdquo; lie along the
+coast, busy enough doubtless in the season, but now looking
+deserted and decayed, and houses are rather plentifully sprinkled
+along many parts of the shore, with a wonderful profusion of
+vegetables and flowers <a name="page317"></a><span
+class="pagenum">p. 317</span>about them, raised from seeds
+liberally supplied by the <i>Kaitakushi</i> Department from its
+Nanai experimental farm and nurseries.&nbsp; For a considerable
+part of the way to Mori there is no track at all, though there is
+a good deal of travel.&nbsp; One makes one&rsquo;s way
+fatiguingly along soft sea sand or coarse shingle close to the
+sea, or absolutely in it, under cliffs of hardened clay or yellow
+conglomerate, fording many small streams, several of which have
+cut their way deeply through a stratum of black volcanic
+sand.&nbsp; I have crossed about 100 rivers and streams on the
+Yezo coast, and all the larger ones are marked by a most
+noticeable peculiarity, i.e. that on nearing the sea they turn
+south, and run for some distance parallel with it, before they
+succeed in finding an exit through the bank of sand and shingle
+which forms the beach and blocks their progress.</p>
+<p>On the way I saw two Ainos land through the surf in a canoe,
+in which they had paddled for nearly 100 miles.&nbsp; A river
+canoe is dug out of a single log, and two men can fashion one in
+five days; but on examining this one, which was twenty-five feet
+long, I found that it consisted of two halves, laced together
+with very strong bark fibre for their whole length, and with high
+sides also laced on.&nbsp; They consider that they are stronger
+for rough sea and surf work when made in two parts.&nbsp; Their
+bark-fibre rope is beautifully made, and they twist it of all
+sizes, from twine up to a nine-inch hawser.</p>
+<p>Beautiful as the blue ocean was, I had too much of it, for the
+horses were either walking in a lather of sea foam or were
+crowded between the cliff and the sea, every larger wave breaking
+over my foot and irreverently splashing my face; and the surges
+were so loud-tongued and incessant, throwing themselves on the
+beach with a tremendous boom, and drawing the shingle back with
+them with an equally tremendous rattle, so impolite and noisy,
+bent only on showing their strength, reckless, rude, self-willed,
+and inconsiderate!&nbsp; This purposeless display of force, and
+this incessant waste of power, and the noisy self-assertion in
+both, approach vulgarity!</p>
+<p>Towards evening we crossed the last of the bridgeless rivers,
+and put up at Mori, which I left three weeks before, and I was
+very thankful to have accomplished my object without
+disappointment, disaster, or any considerable discomfort.&nbsp;
+Had <a name="page318"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 318</span>I
+not promised to return Ito to his master by a given day, I should
+like to spend the next six weeks in the Yezo wilds, for the
+climate is good, the scenery beautiful, and the objects of
+interest are many.</p>
+<p>Another splendid day favoured my ride from Mori to
+Tog&eacute;noshita, where I remained for the night, and I had
+exceptionally good horses for both days, though the one which Ito
+rode, while going at a rapid &ldquo;scramble,&rdquo; threw
+himself down three times and rolled over to rid himself from
+flies.&nbsp; I had not admired the wood between Mori and
+Ginsainoma (the lakes) on the sullen, grey day on which I saw it
+before, but this time there was an abundance of light and shadow
+and solar glitter, and many a scarlet spray and crimson trailer,
+and many a maple flaming in the valleys, gladdened me with the
+music of colour.&nbsp; From the top of the pass beyond the lakes
+there is a grand view of the volcano in all its nakedness, with
+its lava beds and fields of pumice, with the lakes of Onuma,
+Konuma, and Ginsainoma, lying in the forests at its feet, and
+from the top of another hill there is a remarkable view of windy
+Hakodat&eacute;, with its headland looking like Gibraltar.&nbsp;
+The slopes of this hill are covered with the <i>Aconitum
+Japonicum</i>, of which the Ainos make their arrow poison.</p>
+<p>The <i>yadoya</i> at Tog&eacute;noshita was a very pleasant
+and friendly one, and when Ito woke me yesterday morning, saying,
+&ldquo;Are you sorry that it&rsquo;s the last morning?&nbsp; I
+am,&rdquo; I felt we had one subject in common, for I was very
+sorry to end my pleasant Yezo tour, and very sorry to part with
+the boy who had made himself more useful and invaluable even than
+before.&nbsp; It was most wearisome to have Hakodat&eacute; in
+sight for twelve miles, so near across the bay, so far across the
+long, flat, stony strip which connects the headland upon which it
+is built with the mainland.&nbsp; For about three miles the road
+is rudely macadamised, and as soon as the bare-footed horses get
+upon it they seem lame of all their legs; they hang back,
+stumbling, dragging, edging to the side, and trying to run down
+every opening, so that when we got into the interminable main
+street I sent Ito on to the Consulate for my letters, and
+dismounted, hoping that as it was raining I should not see any
+foreigners; but I was not so lucky, for first I met Mr. Dening,
+and then, seeing the Consul and Dr. Hepburn coming down the road,
+<a name="page319"></a><span class="pagenum">p.
+319</span>evidently dressed for dining in the flag-ship, and
+looking spruce and clean, I dodged up an alley to avoid them; but
+they saw me, and did not wonder that I wished to escape notice,
+for my old <i>betto&rsquo;s</i> hat, my torn green paper
+waterproof, and my riding-skirt and boots, were not only splashed
+but <i>caked</i> with mud, and I had the general look of a person
+&ldquo;fresh from the wilds.&rdquo;</p>
+<p style="text-align: right">I. L. B.</p>
+<h3><span class="smcap">Itinerary</span> of <span
+class="smcap">Tour</span> in <span
+class="smcap">Yezo</span>.</h3>
+<p>Hakodat&eacute; to</p>
+<table>
+<tr>
+<td><p>&nbsp;</p>
+</td>
+<td colspan="2"><p>No. of Houses.</p>
+</td>
+<td><p>&nbsp;</p>
+</td>
+<td><p>&nbsp;</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p>&nbsp;</p>
+</td>
+<td><p>Jap.</p>
+</td>
+<td><p>Aino.</p>
+</td>
+<td><p><i>Ri</i>.</p>
+</td>
+<td><p><i>Ch&ocirc;</i>.</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p>Ginsainoma</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">4</p>
+</td>
+<td><p>&nbsp;</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">7</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">18</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p>Mori</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">105</p>
+</td>
+<td><p>&nbsp;</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">4</p>
+</td>
+<td><p>&nbsp;</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p>Mororan</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">57</p>
+</td>
+<td><p>&nbsp;</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">11</p>
+</td>
+<td><p>&nbsp;</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p>Horobets</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">18</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">47</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">5</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">1</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p>Shira&ocirc;i</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">11</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">51</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">6</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">32</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p>Tomakomai</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">38</p>
+</td>
+<td><p>&nbsp;</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">5</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">21</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p>Yubets</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">7</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">3</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">3</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">5</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p>Sarufuto</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">63</p>
+</td>
+<td><p>&nbsp;</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">7</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">5</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p>Biratori</p>
+</td>
+<td><p>&nbsp;</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">53</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">5</p>
+</td>
+<td><p>&nbsp;</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p>Mombets</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">27</p>
+</td>
+<td><p>&nbsp;</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">5</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">1</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+</table>
+<p>From Horobets to</p>
+<table>
+<tr>
+<td><p>&nbsp;</p>
+</td>
+<td><p>Jap.</p>
+</td>
+<td><p>Aino.</p>
+</td>
+<td><p><i>Ri</i>.</p>
+</td>
+<td><p><i>Ch&ocirc;</i>.</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p>Old Mororan</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">9</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">30</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">4</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">28</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p>Usu</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">3</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">99</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">6</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">2</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p>Lebung&eacute;</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">1</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">27</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">5</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">22</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p>Oshamamb&eacute;</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">56</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">38</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">6</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">34</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p>Yamakushinai</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">40</p>
+</td>
+<td><p>&nbsp;</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">4</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">18</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p>Otoshib&eacute;</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">40</p>
+</td>
+<td><p>&nbsp;</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">2</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">3</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p>Mori</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">105</p>
+</td>
+<td><p>&nbsp;</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">3</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">29</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p>Tog&eacute;noshita</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">55</p>
+</td>
+<td><p>&nbsp;</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">6</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">7</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><p>Hakodat&eacute;</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">37,000 souls</p>
+</td>
+<td><p>&nbsp;</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">3</p>
+</td>
+<td><p style="text-align: right">29</p>
+</td>
+</tr>
+</table>
+<p>About 358 English miles.</p>
+<h2><a name="page320"></a><span class="pagenum">p.
+320</span>LETTER XLII.</h2>
+<p class="gutsumm">Pleasant Last Impressions&mdash;The Japanese
+Junk&mdash;Ito Disappears&mdash;My Letter of Thanks.</p>
+<p style="text-align: right"><span
+class="smcap">Hakodat&eacute;</span>, <span
+class="smcap">Yezo</span>, <i>September</i> 14, 1878.</p>
+<p><span class="smcap">This</span> is my last day in Yezo, and
+the sun, shining brightly over the grey and windy capital, is
+touching the pink peaks of Komono-taki with a deeper red, and is
+brightening my last impressions, which, like my first, are very
+pleasant.&nbsp; The bay is deep blue, flecked with violet
+shadows, and about sixty junks are floating upon it at
+anchor.&nbsp; There are vessels of foreign rig too, but the wan,
+pale junks lying motionless, or rolling into the harbour under
+their great white sails, fascinate me as when I first saw them in
+the Gulf of Yedo.&nbsp; They are antique-looking and picturesque,
+but are fitter to give interest to a picture than to battle with
+stormy seas.</p>
+<p>Most of the junks in the bay are about 120 tons burthen, 100
+feet long, with an extreme beam, far aft, of twenty-five
+feet.&nbsp; The bow is long, and curves into a lofty stem, like
+that of a Roman galley, finished with a beak head, to secure the
+forestay of the mast.&nbsp; This beak is furnished with two
+large, goggle eyes.&nbsp; The mast is a ponderous spar, fifty
+feet <a name="page321"></a><span class="pagenum">p.
+321</span>high, composed of pieces of pine, pegged, glued, and
+hooped together.&nbsp; A heavy yard is hung amidships.&nbsp; The
+sail is an oblong of widths of strong, white cotton artistically
+&ldquo;<i>puckered</i>,&rdquo; not sewn together, but laced
+vertically, leaving a decorative lacing six inches wide between
+each two widths.&nbsp; Instead of reefing in a strong wind, a
+width is unlaced, so as to reduce the canvas vertically, not
+horizontally.&nbsp; Two blue spheres commonly adorn the
+sail.&nbsp; The mast is placed well abaft, and to tack or veer it
+is only necessary to reverse the sheet.&nbsp; When on a wind the
+long bow and nose serve as a head-sail.&nbsp; The high, square,
+piled-up stern, with its antique carving, and the sides with
+their lattice-work, are wonderful, together with the
+extraordinary size and projection of the rudder, and the length
+of the tiller.&nbsp; The anchors are of grapnel shape, and the
+larger junks have from six to eight arranged on the fore-end,
+giving one an idea of bad holding-ground along the coast.&nbsp;
+They really are much like the shape of a Chinese
+&ldquo;small-footed&rdquo; woman&rsquo;s shoe, and look very
+unmanageable.&nbsp; They are of unpainted wood, and have a
+wintry, ghastly look about them. <a name="citation321"></a><a
+href="#footnote321" class="citation">[321]</a></p>
+<p>I have parted with Ito finally to-day, with great
+regret.&nbsp; He has served me faithfully, and on most common
+topics I can get much more information through him than from any
+foreigner.&nbsp; I miss him already, though he insisted on
+packing for me as usual, and put all my things in order.&nbsp;
+His cleverness is something surprising.&nbsp; He goes to a good,
+manly master, who will help him to be good and set him a virtuous
+example, and that is a satisfaction.&nbsp; Before he left he
+wrote a letter for me to the Governor of Mororan, thanking him on
+my behalf for the use of the <i>kuruma</i> and other
+courtesies.</p>
+<p style="text-align: right">I. L. B.</p>
+<h2><a name="page322"></a><span class="pagenum">p.
+322</span>LETTER XLIII.</h2>
+<p class="gutsumm">Pleasant Prospects&mdash;A Miserable
+Disappointment&mdash;Caught in a Typhoon&mdash;A Dense
+Fog&mdash;Alarmist Rumours&mdash;A Welcome at
+T&ocirc;kiy&ocirc;&mdash;The Last of the Mutineers.</p>
+<p style="text-align: right">H. B. M.&rsquo;s <span
+class="smcap">Legation</span>, <span class="smcap">Yedo</span>,
+<i>September</i> 21.</p>
+<p>A <span class="smcap">placid</span> sea, which after much
+disturbance had sighed itself to rest, and a high, steady
+barometer promised a fifty hours&rsquo; passage to Yokohama, and
+when Dr. and Mrs. Hepburn and I left Hakodat&eacute;, by
+moonlight, on the night of the 14th, as the only passengers in
+the <i>Hiogo Maru</i>, Captain Moore, her genial, pleasant
+master, congratulated us on the rapid and delightful passage
+before us, and we separated at midnight with many projects for
+pleasant intercourse and occupation.</p>
+<p>But a more miserable voyage I never made, and it was not until
+the afternoon of the 17th that we crawled forth from our cabins
+to speak to each other.&nbsp; On the second day out, great heat
+came on with suffocating closeness, the mercury rose to 85&deg;,
+and in lat. 38&deg; 0&prime; N. and long.&nbsp; 141&deg;
+30&prime; E. we encountered a &ldquo;typhoon,&rdquo; otherwise a
+&ldquo;cyclone,&rdquo; otherwise a &ldquo;revolving
+hurricane,&rdquo; which lasted for twenty-five hours, and
+&ldquo;jettisoned&rdquo; the cargo.&nbsp; Captain Moor has given
+me a very interesting diagram of it, showing the attempts which
+he made to avoid its vortex, through which our course would have
+taken us, and to keep as much outside it as possible.&nbsp; The
+typhoon was succeeded by a dense fog, so that our fifty-hour
+passage became seventy-two hours, and we landed at Yokohama near
+upon midnight of the 17th, to find traces of much disaster, the
+whole low-lying country flooded, the railway between Yokohama and
+the capital impassable, great anxiety about the rice crop, the
+air full of alarmist rumours, and paper money, which was about
+par when I arrived in May, at a discount of <a
+name="page323"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 323</span>
+<a href="images/p323b.jpg">
+<img class='clearcenter' alt=
+"Entrance to Shrine of Seventh Sh&ocirc;gun, Shiba,
+T&ocirc;kiy&ocirc;"
+title=
+"Entrance to Shrine of Seventh Sh&ocirc;gun, Shiba,
+T&ocirc;kiy&ocirc;"
+ src="images/p323s.jpg" />
+</a><a name="page324"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 324</span>13
+per cent!&nbsp; In the early part of this year (1880) it has
+touched 42 per cent.</p>
+<p>Late in the afternoon the railroad was re-opened, and I came
+here with Mr. Wilkinson, glad to settle down to a period of rest
+and ease under this hospitable roof.&nbsp; The afternoon was
+bright and sunny, and T&ocirc;kiy&ocirc; was looking its
+best.&nbsp; The long lines of <i>yashikis</i> looked handsome,
+the castle moat was so full of the gigantic leaves of the lotus,
+that the water was hardly visible, the grass embankments of the
+upper moat were a brilliant green, the pines on their summits
+stood out boldly against the clear sky, the hill on which the
+Legation stands looked dry and cheerful, and, better than all, I
+had a most kindly welcome from those who have made this house my
+home in a strange land.</p>
+<p>T&ocirc;kiy&ocirc; is tranquil, that is, it is disturbed only
+by fears for the rice crop, and by the fall in
+<i>satsu</i>.&nbsp; The military mutineers have been tried,
+popular rumour says tortured, and fifty-two have been shot.&nbsp;
+The summer has been the worst for some years, and now dark heat,
+moist heat, and nearly ceasless rain prevail.&nbsp; People have
+been &ldquo;rained up&rdquo; in their summer quarters.&nbsp;
+&ldquo;Surely it will change soon,&rdquo; people say, and they
+have said the same thing for three months.</p>
+<p style="text-align: right">I. L. B.</p>
+<h2><a name="page325"></a><span class="pagenum">p.
+325</span>LETTER XLIV.</h2>
+<p class="gutsumm">Fine Weather&mdash;Cremation in
+Japan&mdash;The Governor of T&ocirc;kiy&ocirc;&mdash;An Awkward
+Question&mdash;An Insignificant Building&mdash;Economy in Funeral
+Expenses&mdash;Simplicity of the Cremation Process&mdash;The Last
+of Japan.</p>
+<p style="text-align: right">H. B. M.&rsquo;s <span
+class="smcap">Legation</span>, <span class="smcap">Yedo</span>,
+<i>December</i> 18.</p>
+<p>I <span class="smcap">have</span> spent the last ten days
+here, in settled fine weather, such as should have begun two
+months ago if the climate had behaved as it ought.&nbsp; The time
+has flown by in excursions, shopping, select little
+dinner-parties, farewell calls, and visits made with Mr.
+Chamberlain to the famous groves and temples of Ikegami, where
+the Buddhist bishop and priests entertained us in one of the
+guest-rooms, and to Enoshima and Kamakura, &ldquo;vulgar&rdquo;
+resorts which nothing can vulgarise so long as Fujisan towers
+above them.</p>
+<p>I will mention but one &ldquo;sight,&rdquo; which is so far
+out of the beaten track that it was only after prolonged inquiry
+that its whereabouts was ascertained.&nbsp; Among Buddhists,
+specially of the Monto sect, cremation was largely practised till
+it was forbidden five years ago, as some suppose in deference to
+European prejudices.&nbsp; Three years ago, however, the
+prohibition was withdrawn, and in this short space of time the
+number of bodies burned has reached nearly nine thousand
+annually.&nbsp; Sir H. Parkes applied for permission for me to
+visit the Kirigaya ground, one of five, and after a few delays it
+was granted by the Governor of T&ocirc;kiy&ocirc; at Mr.
+Mori&rsquo;s request, so yesterday, attended by the Legation
+linguist, I presented myself at the fine <i>yashiki</i> of the
+T&ocirc;kiy&ocirc; <i>Fu</i>, and quite unexpectedly was admitted
+to an audience of the Governor.&nbsp; Mr. Kusamoto is a well-bred
+gentleman, and his face expresses the energy and ability which he
+has given proof of possessing.&nbsp; He wears his European
+clothes becomingly, and <a name="page326"></a><span
+class="pagenum">p. 326</span>in attitude, as well as manner, is
+easy and dignified.&nbsp; After asking me a great deal about my
+northern tour and the Ainos, he expressed a wish for candid
+criticism; but as this in the East must not be taken literally, I
+merely ventured to say that the roads lag behind the progress
+made in other directions, upon which he entered upon explanations
+which doubtless apply to the past road-history of the
+country.&nbsp; He spoke of cremation and its
+&ldquo;necessity&rdquo; in large cities, and terminated the
+interview by requesting me to dismiss my interpreter and
+<i>kuruma</i>, as he was going to send me to Meguro in his own
+carriage with one of the Government interpreters, adding very
+courteously that it gave him pleasure to show this attention to a
+guest of the British Minister, &ldquo;for whose character and
+important services to Japan he has a high value.&rdquo;</p>
+<p style="text-align: center">
+<a href="images/p326b.jpg">
+<img alt=
+"Fujisan, from a Village on the Tokaido"
+title=
+"Fujisan, from a Village on the Tokaido"
+ src="images/p326s.jpg" />
+</a></p>
+<p>An hour&rsquo;s drive, with an extra amount of yelling from
+the <a name="page327"></a><span class="pagenum">p.
+327</span><i>bettos</i>, took us to a suburb of little hills and
+valleys, where red camellias and feathery bamboo against
+backgrounds of cryptomeria contrast with the grey monotone of
+British winters, and, alighting at a farm road too rough for a
+carriage, we passed through fields and hedgerows to an erection
+which looks too insignificant for such solemn use.&nbsp;
+Don&rsquo;t expect any ghastly details.&nbsp; A longish building
+of &ldquo;wattle and dab,&rdquo; much like the northern
+farmhouses, a high roof, and chimneys resembling those of the
+&ldquo;oast houses&rdquo; in Kent, combine with the rural
+surroundings to suggest &ldquo;farm buildings&rdquo; rather than
+the &ldquo;funeral pyre,&rdquo; and all that is horrible is left
+to the imagination.</p>
+<p>The end nearest the road is a little temple, much crowded with
+images, and small, red, earthenware urns and tongs for sale to
+the relatives of deceased persons, and beyond this are four rooms
+with earthen floors and mud walls; nothing noticeable about them
+except the height of the peaked roof and the dark colour of the
+plaster.&nbsp; In the middle of the largest are several pairs of
+granite supports at equal distances from each other, and in the
+smallest there is a solitary pair.&nbsp; This was literally all
+that was to be seen.&nbsp; In the large room several bodies are
+burned at one time, and the charge is only one <i>yen</i>, about
+3s. 8d., solitary cremation costing five <i>yen</i>.&nbsp;
+Faggots are used, and 1s. worth ordinarily suffices to reduce a
+human form to ashes.&nbsp; After the funeral service in the house
+the body is brought to the cremation ground, and is left in
+charge of the attendant, a melancholy, smoked-looking man, as
+well he may be.&nbsp; The richer people sometimes pay priests to
+be present during the burning, but this is not usual.&nbsp; There
+were five &ldquo;quick-tubs&rdquo; of pine hooped with bamboo in
+the larger room, containing the remains of coolies, and a few
+oblong pine chests in the small rooms containing those of
+middle-class people.&nbsp; At 8 p.m. each &ldquo;coffin&rdquo; is
+placed on the stone trestles, the faggots are lighted underneath,
+the fires are replenished during the night, and by 6 a.m. that
+which was a human being is a small heap of ashes, which is placed
+in an urn by the relatives and is honourably interred.&nbsp; In
+some cases the priests accompany the relations on this last
+mournful errand.&nbsp; Thirteen bodies were burned the night
+before my visit, but there was not the slightest odour in or <a
+name="page328"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 328</span>about the
+building, and the interpreter told me that, owing to the height
+of the chimneys, the people of the neighbourhood never experience
+the least annoyance, even while the process is going on.&nbsp;
+The simplicity of the arrangement is very remarkable, and there
+can be no reasonable doubt that it serves the purpose of the
+innocuous and complete destruction of the corpse as well as any
+complicated apparatus (if not better), while its cheapness places
+it within the reach of the class which is most heavily burdened
+by ordinary funeral expenses. <a name="citation328"></a><a
+href="#footnote328" class="citation">[328]</a>&nbsp; This morning
+the Governor sent his secretary to present me with a translation
+of an interesting account of the practice of cremation and its
+introduction into Japan.</p>
+<p><i>S.S.</i> &ldquo;<i>Volga</i>,&rdquo; Christmas Eve,
+1878.&mdash;The snowy dome of Fujisan reddening in the sunrise
+rose above the violet woodlands of Mississippi Bay as we steamed
+out of Yokohama Harbour on the 19th, and three days later I saw
+the last of Japan&mdash;a rugged coast, lashed by a wintry
+sea.</p>
+<p style="text-align: right">I. L. B.</p>
+<h2><a name="page329"></a><span class="pagenum">p.
+329</span>INDEX.</h2>
+<p><span class="smcap">Abukawa</span>, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page173">173</a></span>; village
+forge, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page173">173</a></span>.</p>
+<p>Abuta, Aino village, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page306">306</a></span>.</p>
+<p>Adzuma bridge, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page22">22</a></span>.</p>
+<p>Agano river, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page102">102</a></span>.</p>
+<p>Aganokawa river, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page120">120</a></span>.</p>
+<p>A Hiogo Buddha, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page272">272</a></span>.</p>
+<p>Aidzu mountains, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page103">103</a></span>; plain, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page106">106</a></span>.</p>
+<p>Aino farmhouse, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page204">204</a></span>; storehouses, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page223">223</a></span>, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page247">247</a></span>; lodges,
+<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page224">224</a></span>;
+chief, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page233">233</a></span> <i>et seq.</i>; house, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page234">234</a></span>;
+millet-mill and pestle, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page238">238</a></span>; patriarch, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page258">258</a></span>; gods,
+<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page265">265</a></span>;
+urns, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page265">265</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page266">266</a></span>; house, plan of, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page267">267</a></span>.</p>
+<p><span class="smcap">Ainos</span>, the hairy, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page225">225</a></span>;
+superb-looking, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page232">232</a></span>; huts, life in, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page234">234</a></span>, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page235">235</a></span>; at home,
+<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page235">235</a></span>;
+model villages, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page237">237</a></span>; hospitality, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page237">237</a></span>, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page278">278</a></span>;
+politeness, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page239">239</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page250">250</a></span>; witch-like woman, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page239">239</a></span>; reverence
+for age, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page240">240</a></span>; salutation, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page240">240</a></span>, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page279">279</a></span>;
+truthfulness, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page240">240</a></span>; chief&rsquo;s wife, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page242">242</a></span>, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page243">243</a></span>; children,
+<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page244">244</a></span>,
+<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page260">260</a></span>;
+tenderness to a sick child, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page245">245</a></span>; occupations, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page247">247</a></span>, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page248">248</a></span>; women,
+<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page248">248</a></span>,
+<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page258">258</a></span>,
+<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page259">259</a></span>;
+Pipichari, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page249">249</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page287">287</a></span>; sick woman, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page250">250</a></span>, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page251">251</a></span>; fear of
+Japanese Government, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page251">251</a></span>; shrine, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page252">252</a></span>; handsome
+chief, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page253">253</a></span>; qualities, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page254">254</a></span>; no
+history, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page255">255</a></span>; physique, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page255">255</a></span>; of Yezo,
+<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page256">256</a></span>;
+European resemblances, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page257">257</a></span>; savage look, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page257">257</a></span>; height,
+<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page257">257</a></span>;
+tattooing, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page259">259</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page260">260</a></span>; children, obedience of, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page261">261</a></span>; clothing,
+<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page262">262</a></span>;
+jewellery, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page263">263</a></span>; houses, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page263">263</a></span>&ndash;265;
+household gods, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page265">265</a></span>; Japanese curios, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page265">265</a></span>, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page266">266</a></span>; mats,
+<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page268">268</a></span>;
+food, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page268">268</a></span>; bows and arrows, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page269">269</a></span>;
+arrow-traps, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page269">269</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page270">270</a></span>; weaving, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page271">271</a></span>; no
+religion, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page273">273</a></span>; libations, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page274">274</a></span>;
+recitation, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page275">275</a></span>; solitary act of sacrifice, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page275">275</a></span>;
+bear-worship, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page275">275</a></span>; Festival of the Bear, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page275">275</a></span>, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page277">277</a></span>; ideas of a
+future state, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page277">277</a></span>; social customs, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page277">277</a></span>, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page278">278</a></span>; marriage
+and divorce, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page278">278</a></span>; amusements, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page279">279</a></span>; musical
+instruments, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page279">279</a></span>; manners, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page279">279</a></span>; health,
+<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page279">279</a></span>,
+<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page280">280</a></span>;
+intoxication, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page280">280</a></span>; uncleanly habits, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page280">280</a></span>; office of
+chief, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page281">281</a></span>; eldest son, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page281">281</a></span>; dread of
+snakes, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page282">282</a></span>; fear of death, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page282">282</a></span>; appearance
+of old men, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page283">283</a></span>; domestic life, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page284">284</a></span>.</p>
+<p>Ainos, coast, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page304">304</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page305">305</a></span>; Lebung&eacute;, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page313">313</a></span>.</p>
+<p>Akayu, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page132">132</a></span>; horse fair, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page132">132</a></span>; sulphur
+springs, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page134">134</a></span>; bathing sheds, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page134">134</a></span>;
+<i>yadoya</i>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page134">134</a></span>.</p>
+<p>Akita farm-house, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page204">204</a></span>.</p>
+<p>A kuruma, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page35">35</a></span>.</p>
+<p>A lady&rsquo;s mirror, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page201">201</a></span>.</p>
+<p>A Lake Biwa tea-house, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page20">20</a></span>.</p>
+<p><i>Amado</i>, or wooden shutters, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page71">71</a></span>.</p>
+<p><i>Amainu</i>, or heavenly dogs, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page27">27</a></span>.</p>
+<p><i>Andon</i>, the, or native lamp, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page73">73</a></span>.</p>
+<p>Aomori Bay, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page207">207</a></span>; town, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page207">207</a></span>; lacquer,
+<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page207">207</a></span>.</p>
+<p>Arai river, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page122">122</a></span>.</p>
+<p>Arakai river, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page96">96</a></span>; mode of crossing, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page96">96</a></span>.</p>
+<p>Araya, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page156">156</a></span>.</p>
+<p><a name="page330"></a><span class="pagenum">p.
+330</span>Archery galleries at Asakusa, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page29">29</a></span>.</p>
+<p>Architecture, temple, uniformity of, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page21">21</a></span>.</p>
+<p>Arrow-traps, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page269">269</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page270">270</a></span>.</p>
+<p>Asakusa, temple of Kwan-non at, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page21">21</a></span>; sights of, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page27">27</a></span>; its
+novelties, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page30">30</a></span>.</p>
+<p>Asiatic Arcadia, an, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page133">133</a></span>.</p>
+<p>Attendant at tea-house, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page64">64</a></span>.</p>
+
+<div class="gapspace">&nbsp;</div>
+<p><span class="smcap">Baggage</span> coolies in distress, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page126">126</a></span>.</p>
+<p>Bandaisan, the double-peaked, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page103">103</a></span>.</p>
+<p>Bang&eacute;, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page100">100</a></span>; congress of schoolmasters, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page100">100</a></span>; stampede,
+<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page101">101</a></span>.</p>
+<p>Barbarism and ignorance, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page107">107</a></span>.</p>
+<p>Barber, female, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page200">200</a></span>.</p>
+<p>Barbers&rsquo; shops, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page77">77</a></span>.</p>
+<p>Bargaining, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page77">77</a></span>.</p>
+<p>Bear, Festival of the, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page275">275</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page277">277</a></span>.</p>
+<p>Beggary, absence of, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page127">127</a></span>.</p>
+<p>Benri, chief of the Ainos, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page233">233</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page240">240</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page241">241</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page281">281</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page283">283</a></span>.</p>
+<p><i>Bettos</i>, or running-grooms, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page8">8</a></span>.</p>
+<p>Binzuru, the medicine god, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page26">26</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page27">27</a></span>.</p>
+<p>Biratori, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page234">234</a></span>; situation of, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page237">237</a></span>.</p>
+<p>Blind men in Japan, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page175">175</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page176">176</a></span>.</p>
+<p>Boats, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page178">178</a></span>.</p>
+<p>Bone, a, extracted, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page104">104</a></span>.</p>
+<p>Booths, various, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page29">29</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page30">30</a></span>.</p>
+<p>Boys and girls, a procession of, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page68">68</a></span>.</p>
+<p>British doggedness, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page180">180</a></span>.</p>
+<p>Buddhist priests, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page112">112</a></span>.</p>
+<p>Burial, a splendid, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page54">54</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page55">55</a></span>.</p>
+
+<div class="gapspace">&nbsp;</div>
+<p><span class="smcap">Caligraphy</span>, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page70">70</a></span>.</p>
+<p>Canoes, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page317">317</a></span>.</p>
+<p><i>Chaya</i> and <i>yadoya</i>, distinction between, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page37">37</a></span>.</p>
+<p><i>Chayas</i>, or tea-houses, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page36">36</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page37">37</a></span>.</p>
+<p>Cheating a policeman, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page152">152</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page153">153</a></span>.</p>
+<p>Children, Japanese, docility of, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page75">75</a></span>.</p>
+<p>Children&rsquo;s parties, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page68">68</a></span>; names, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page68">68</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page69">69</a></span>; games, amusing, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page69">69</a></span>; dignity and
+self-possession, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page69">69</a></span>; etiquette, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page69">69</a></span>.</p>
+<p>Chinamen in Yokohama, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page15">15</a></span>.</p>
+<p>Chlorodyne, cures effected by, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page93">93</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page94">94</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page250">250</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page251">251</a></span>.</p>
+<p>Ch&ocirc;kaizan, snow mountain, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page139">139</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page148">148</a></span>.</p>
+<p>Christian converts, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page202">202</a></span>.</p>
+<p>Cleanliness, want of, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page94">94</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page95">95</a></span>.</p>
+<p>Climate of Niigata, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page119">119</a></span>.</p>
+<p>Clogs, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page12">12</a></span>.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Cockle&rsquo;s Pills,&rdquo; <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page287">287</a></span>.</p>
+<p><i>Coiffure</i>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page200">200</a></span>.</p>
+<p>Coolies, baggage, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page126">126</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page127">127</a></span>.</p>
+<p>Corrals, Yezo, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page296">296</a></span>.</p>
+<p>Country, a pretty, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page180">180</a></span>.</p>
+<p>Cow, riding a, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page124">124</a></span>.</p>
+<p>Cows, cotton cloths on, for protection, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page128">128</a></span>.</p>
+<p>Cremation, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page325">325</a></span>; building for the purpose, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page327">327</a></span>; mode of
+burning, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page327">327</a></span>.</p>
+
+<div class="gapspace">&nbsp;</div>
+<p><span class="smcap">Daikoku</span>, the god of wealth, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page104">104</a></span>, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page154">154</a></span>.</p>
+<p><i>Daimiy&ocirc;</i>, or feudal princes, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page13">13</a></span> <i>et
+seq.</i></p>
+<p>Dainichido, gardens of, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page54">54</a></span>.</p>
+<p>Daiya river, the, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page49">49</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page51">51</a></span>.</p>
+<p>Dinner, Japanese etiquette at, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page142">142</a></span>.</p>
+<p>Dirt and disease, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page93">93</a></span>&ndash;95.</p>
+<p>Distinction between costume of moral and immoral women, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page202">202</a></span>.</p>
+<p>Ditty, a dismal, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page67">67</a></span>.</p>
+<p>Doctors, Japanese, prejudice against surgical operations,
+<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page141">141</a></span>,
+<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page142">142</a></span>.</p>
+<p>Dogs, Japanese, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page86">86</a></span>; yellow, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page237">237</a></span>.</p>
+<p><i>Doma</i>, the, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page37">37</a></span>.</p>
+<p>Dr. Palm and his tandem, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page121">121</a></span>.</p>
+<p>Dress, female, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page83">83</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page84">84</a></span>.</p>
+
+<div class="gapspace">&nbsp;</div>
+<p><span class="smcap">Earthquake</span>, shocks of, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page59">59</a></span>; effect on
+priests, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page59">59</a></span>.</p>
+<p>Eden, a garden of, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page133">133</a></span>.</p>
+<p><i>&Eacute;l&eacute;gante</i>, a Japanese, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page31">31</a></span>.</p>
+<p>England unknown, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page105">105</a></span>.</p>
+<p>Entrance to shrine of Seventh Sh&ocirc;gun, Shiba,
+T&ocirc;kiy&ocirc;, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page323">323</a></span>.</p>
+<p>Equipments, travelling, list of, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page32">32</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page33">33</a></span>.</p>
+<p>Etiquette, Japanese, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page69">69</a></span>.</p>
+<p>Excess of males over females, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page98">98</a></span>.</p>
+<p>Excursion, solitary, a, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page203">203</a></span>.</p>
+<p>Expedition, an, entertaining account of, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page328">328</a></span>,
+<i>note</i>.</p>
+
+<div class="gapspace">&nbsp;</div>
+<p><span class="smcap">Fair</span>, perpetual, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page23">23</a></span>.</p>
+<p>Farm-houses, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page203">203</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page204">204</a></span>.</p>
+<p>Female hand, tattooed, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page260">260</a></span>.</p>
+<p>Ferry, a Japanese, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page96">96</a></span>.</p>
+<p>Festival, the Tanabata, at Kuroishi, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page198">198</a></span>, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page199">199</a></span>; of the
+Bear, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page275">275</a></span>.</p>
+<p>Fleas, consensus of opinion as to, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page18">18</a></span>.</p>
+<p>Flowers, art of arranging, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page70">70</a></span>.</p>
+<p>Flowers of Yezo, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page227">227</a></span>.</p>
+<p><a name="page331"></a><span class="pagenum">p.
+331</span>&ldquo;Flowing Invocation,&rdquo; the, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page130">130</a></span>, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page131">131</a></span>.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Food Question,&rdquo; the, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page19">19</a></span>.</p>
+<p>Forgeries of European eatables and drinkables, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page138">138</a></span>.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Front-horse,&rdquo; a, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page218">218</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page228">228</a></span>.</p>
+<p>Funeral, a Sh&ocirc;gun&rsquo;s, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page54">54</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page55">55</a></span>; Buddhist, at Rokugo, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page148">148</a></span>; the coffin
+or box, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page150">150</a></span>; procession, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page151">151</a></span>.</p>
+<p>Fujihari, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page85">85</a></span>; dirt and squalor at, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page86">86</a></span>; primitive
+Japanese dog in, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page86">86</a></span>; fleas, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page86">86</a></span>.</p>
+<p>Fujisan, first view of, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page2">2</a></span>; from a village on the
+T&ocirc;kaid&ocirc;, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page326">326</a></span>.</p>
+<p><i>Fusuma</i>, or sliding paper panels, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page38">38</a></span>, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page45">45</a></span>.</p>
+<p>Fyson, Mrs., and Ruth, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page118">118</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page119">119</a></span>.</p>
+
+<div class="gapspace">&nbsp;</div>
+<p><span class="smcap">Games</span>, children&rsquo;s, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page69">69</a></span>, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page195">195</a></span>.</p>
+<p>Gardens, Japanese, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page118">118</a></span>.</p>
+<p><i>Geishas</i>, or dancing-girls, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page46">46</a></span>.</p>
+<p>Ginsainoma, Yezo, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page216">216</a></span>.</p>
+<p>God-shelf, the, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page72">72</a></span>.</p>
+<p>Gods, Aino household, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page265">265</a></span>.</p>
+<p>Guide-books, Japanese, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page71">71</a></span>.</p>
+
+<div class="gapspace">&nbsp;</div>
+<p><span class="smcap">Hachiishi</span>, its doll street, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page49">49</a></span>; specialties
+of its shops, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page49">49</a></span>.</p>
+<p><i>Hai</i>, &ldquo;yes,&rdquo; <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page181">181</a></span>.</p>
+<p>Hair-dressing, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page75">75</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page76">76</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page201">201</a></span>.</p>
+<p><span class="smcap">Hakodat&eacute;</span>, external aspect,
+<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page212">212</a></span>;
+peculiar roofs, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page213">213</a></span>; junks, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page320">320</a></span>, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page321">321</a></span>.</p>
+<p>Hakodat&eacute; harbour, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page208">208</a></span>.</p>
+<p>Hepburn, Dr., <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page16">16</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page17">17</a></span>.</p>
+<p><i>Hibachi</i>, or brazier, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page77">77</a></span>.</p>
+<p>Hinokiyama village, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page176">176</a></span>.</p>
+<p>Hirakawa river, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page191">191</a></span>; destruction of bridge, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page192">192</a></span>.</p>
+<p>Hirosaki, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page202">202</a></span>.</p>
+<p>Home-life in Japan, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page71">71</a></span>.</p>
+<p>Home occupations, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page185">185</a></span>.</p>
+<p>Honoki, pass of, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page125">125</a></span>.</p>
+<p>Hornets, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page140">140</a></span>.</p>
+<p>Horobets village, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page223">223</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page296">296</a></span>.</p>
+<p>Horse, a wicked, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page147">147</a></span>.</p>
+<p>Horse-ants, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page140">140</a></span>.</p>
+<p>Horse-breaking, Japanese, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page295">295</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page307">307</a></span>.</p>
+<p>Horse-fights, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page307">307</a></span>.</p>
+<p>Horses, treatment of, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page164">164</a></span>; in Yezo, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page218">218</a></span>; drove of,
+<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page226">226</a></span>,
+<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page227">227</a></span>.</p>
+<p>Hotel expenses, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page184">184</a></span>.</p>
+<p>Hot springs, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page89">89</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page290">290</a></span>.</p>
+<p>House, a pleasant, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page51">51</a></span>.</p>
+<p>Houses, scenes in the, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page74">74</a></span>; hermetically sealed, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page95">95</a></span>; numbers in,
+<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page124">124</a></span>.</p>
+<p>Hozawa village, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page106">106</a></span>.</p>
+
+<div class="gapspace">&nbsp;</div>
+<p><span class="smcap">Ichikawa</span> pass, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page97">97</a></span>; glorious
+view, <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page97">97</a></span>;
+village, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page97">97</a></span>; waterfall, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page97">97</a></span>.</p>
+<p>Ichinono hamlet, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page127">127</a></span>.</p>
+<p>Idyll, a Japanese, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page151">151</a></span>.</p>
+<p>Ikari, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page90">90</a></span>; the people at, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page91">91</a></span>.</p>
+<p>Ikarigaseki, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page191">191</a></span>; detention at, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page193">193</a></span>&ndash;196;
+occupation, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page193">193</a></span>; kite-flying, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page195">195</a></span>; games,
+<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page195">195</a></span>.</p>
+<p>Imaichi, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page48">48</a></span>.</p>
+<p>Inari, the god of rice-farmers, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page93">93</a></span>.</p>
+<p>Infant prodigy, an, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page166">166</a></span>.</p>
+<p>Iniwashiro lake, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page99">99</a></span>.</p>
+<p>Innai, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page143">143</a></span>; Upper and Lower, malady at, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page144">144</a></span>;
+description of, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page144">144</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page145">145</a></span>.</p>
+<p>Insect pests at Niigata, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page114">114</a></span>.</p>
+<p>Invocation, the flowing, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page129">129</a></span>&ndash;131.</p>
+<p>Irimichi, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page51">51</a></span>; a &ldquo;squeeze&rdquo; at, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page65">65</a></span>; village of,
+<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page66">66</a></span>; school
+at, <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page66">66</a></span>,
+<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page67">67</a></span>.</p>
+<p><i>Irori</i>, the <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page38">38</a></span>.</p>
+<p>Isshinden, temple gateway at, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page311">311</a></span>.</p>
+<p><i>Itama</i>, the, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page37">37</a></span>.</p>
+<p>Ito, first impressions of, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page17">17</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page18">18</a></span>, taking a &ldquo;squeeze,&rdquo;
+<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page65">65</a></span>;
+personal vanity, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page78">78</a></span>; ashamed, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page86">86</a></span>, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page125">125</a></span>; cleverness
+and intelligence, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page87">87</a></span>; a zealous student, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page87">87</a></span>; intensely
+Japanese, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page87">87</a></span>; a Shint&ocirc;ist, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page88">88</a></span>; particularly
+described, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page161">161</a></span>; excellent memory, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page161">161</a></span>; keeps a
+diary, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page161">161</a></span>; characteristics, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page162">162</a></span>; prophecy,
+<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page162">162</a></span>;
+patriotism, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page162">162</a></span>; an apt pupil, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page163">163</a></span>; fairly
+honest, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page164">164</a></span>; surliness, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page175">175</a></span>;
+delinquency, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page214">214</a></span>; selfishness, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page236">236</a></span>; smitten,
+<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page287">287</a></span>;
+cruelty, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page307">307</a></span>; parting, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page321">321</a></span>.</p>
+<p>Itosawa, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page93">93</a></span>.</p>
+<p>Itoyasan precipices, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page103">103</a></span>.</p>
+<p>Iwakisan plain, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page197">197</a></span>; snow mountain, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page197">197</a></span>.</p>
+<p>Iy&eacute;mitsu, temple of, at Nikk&ocirc;, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page58">58</a></span>.</p>
+<p>Iy&eacute;yasu&rsquo;s tomb at Nikk&ocirc;, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page58">58</a></span>.</p>
+
+<div class="gapspace">&nbsp;</div>
+<p><span class="smcap">Japan</span>, first view of, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page1">1</a></span>; Chinamen in,
+<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page15">15</a></span>; tiling
+in, <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page60">60</a></span>;
+home-life <a name="page332"></a><span class="pagenum">p.
+332</span>in, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page71">71</a></span>; excess of males over females in the
+empire of, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page98">98</a></span>; freedom from insult and incivility
+in, <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page101">101</a></span>;
+barbarism and ignorance in, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page107">107</a></span>; winter evenings in, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page123">123</a></span>; divorce
+in, <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page124">124</a></span>;
+absence of mendicancy in, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page127">127</a></span>; convict labour in, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page137">137</a></span>; drawbacks
+of travelling in, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page140">140</a></span>; firmness in travelling necessary
+in, <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page155">155</a></span>;
+police force in, and cost of, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page160">160</a></span>; blind men in, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page175">175</a></span>, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page176">176</a></span>; effect of
+sunshine in, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page183">183</a></span>; evening occupations in, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page185">185</a></span>; rain in,
+<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page187">187</a></span>;
+cremation in, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page325">325</a></span>&ndash;327.</p>
+<p><span class="smcap">Japanese</span> restaurant, portable,
+<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page4">4</a></span>;
+paper-money, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page7">7</a></span>; man-cart, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page9">9</a></span>; railroad and
+railway station, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page10">10</a></span>; railway cars, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page11">11</a></span>; in European
+dress, <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page11">11</a></span>;
+clogs, <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page12">12</a></span>;
+temple architecture, uniformity of, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page21">21</a></span>; temples, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page21">21</a></span>, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page55">55</a></span>, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page58">58</a></span>, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page99">99</a></span>, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page151">151</a></span>, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page302">302</a></span>, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page303">303</a></span>; lanterns,
+stone, <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page28">28</a></span>;
+booths, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page29">29</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page30">30</a></span>; temple grounds and archery
+galleries, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page29">29</a></span>;
+<i>&eacute;l&eacute;gant&eacute;</i>, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page31">31</a></span>; passport,
+<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page33">33</a></span>, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page34">34</a></span>; tattooing,
+<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page34">34</a></span>; tea,
+<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page39">39</a></span>;
+threshing, varieties in, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page44">44</a></span>; inquisitiveness, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page45">45</a></span>;
+dancing-girls, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page46">46</a></span>; idyll, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page51">51</a></span>; masonry, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page58">58</a></span>;
+wood-carving, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page60">60</a></span>; watering-place, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page65">65</a></span>; school, a
+village, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page66">66</a></span>&mdash;punishments at, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page67">67</a></span>;
+children&rsquo;s parties, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page68">68</a></span>; names, female, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page68">68</a></span>, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page69">69</a></span>; etiquette,
+<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page69">69</a></span>;
+needle-work and garments, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page69">69</a></span>; circulating libraries, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page69">69</a></span>, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page70">70</a></span>; games,
+children&rsquo;s, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page69">69</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page195">195</a></span>; children&rsquo;s names, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page69">69</a></span>; caligraphy,
+<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page70">70</a></span>;
+guide-books, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page71">71</a></span>; recreations, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page71">71</a></span>; lamp, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page73">73</a></span>; shops,
+articles sold in, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page73">73</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page74">74</a></span>; parental love, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page75">75</a></span>;
+hair-dressing, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page75">75</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page76">76</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page201">201</a></span>; children, docility of, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page75">75</a></span>;
+barbers&rsquo; shops, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page77">77</a></span>; bargaining, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page77">77</a></span>; money,
+current, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page79">79</a></span>; female dress, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page83">83</a></span>, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page84">84</a></span>; dog,
+primitive, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page86">86</a></span>; rivers, change of names of, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page90">90</a></span>; ferry, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page96">96</a></span>; policemen,
+<span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page100">100</a></span>&mdash;vigilance of, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page197">197</a></span>, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page198">198</a></span>; mountain
+scenery, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page103">103</a></span>; gardens, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page118">118</a></span>; doctors,
+<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page121">121</a></span>; dirt
+and barbarism, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page123">123</a></span>; houses, tables outside of, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page124">124</a></span>&mdash;numbers in, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page124">124</a></span>; baggage
+coolies, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page126">126</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page127">127</a></span>; cows, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page128">128</a></span>; criticism
+on a foreign usage, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page128">128</a></span>; pack-horse, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page132">132</a></span>; doctors
+and rheumatism, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page135">135</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page136">136</a></span>&mdash;their prejudice against
+surgical operations, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page141">141</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page142">142</a></span>; gentleman, agreeable, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page137">137</a></span>; convicts,
+<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page137">137</a></span>; love
+of foreign intoxicants, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page138">138</a></span>; doctor, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page141">141</a></span>;&mdash;his
+treatment and fee, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page141">141</a></span>; etiquette at dinner, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page142">142</a></span>; men and
+women, costume of, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page143">143</a></span>; crowd, curiosity of, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page146">146</a></span>; treatment
+of the dead, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page149">149</a></span>; silk factory, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page159">159</a></span>; horses,
+treatment of, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page164">164</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page218">218</a></span>; belief as to their descent, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page165">165</a></span>; visitors,
+<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page165">165</a></span>;
+infant prodigy, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page166">166</a></span>; marriage, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page166">166</a></span>, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page167">167</a></span>; trousseau,
+<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page167">167</a></span>;
+furniture, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page167">167</a></span>; marriage ceremony, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page167">167</a></span>, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page169">169</a></span>; holiday
+scene, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page170">170</a></span>; festivals, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page171">171</a></span>, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page198">198</a></span>, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page199">199</a></span>, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page275">275</a></span>; gods and
+demons, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page172">172</a></span>; village forge, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page173">173</a></span>;
+travelling, fatigues of, of, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page175">175</a></span>&mdash;ludicrous incidents of,
+<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page182">182</a></span>;
+boats, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page178">178</a></span>; kindness, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page181">181</a></span>;
+conversation, effect of, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page185">185</a></span>; home occupations, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page185">185</a></span>; devotions,
+<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page186">186</a></span>;
+children, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page193">193</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page194">194</a></span>; kite flying and games, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page195">195</a></span>; toilet, a
+lady&rsquo;s, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page200">200</a></span>; <i>coiffure</i>, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page200">200</a></span>;
+hair-dressing, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page200">200</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page201">201</a></span>; female barber, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page200">200</a></span>;
+lady&rsquo;s mirror, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page201">201</a></span>; farm-houses, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page203">203</a></span>, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page204">204</a></span>;
+bath-houses, politeness in, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page205">205</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page218">218</a></span>; imitations of foreign
+manufactured British goods, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page218">218</a></span>; horse-breaking, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page295">295</a></span>, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page307">307</a></span>; road-post,
+<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page301">301</a></span>;
+Paradise, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page309">309</a></span>; canoes, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page317">317</a></span>; junks,
+<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page320">320</a></span>,
+<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page321">321</a></span>.</p>
+<p>Jin-ri-ki-shas, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page4">4</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page5">5</a></span> (see <i>Kuruma</i>).</p>
+<p><i>Jishindo</i>, or &ldquo;earthquake door,&rdquo; <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page304">304</a></span>.</p>
+<p>Junks, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page320">320</a></span>.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;John Chinaman,&rdquo; <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page15">15</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page16">16</a></span>.</p>
+<p>Journey, an experimental, on horseback, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page62">62</a></span>.</p>
+<p>Juvenile belle and her costume, a, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page68">68</a></span>.</p>
+
+<div class="gapspace">&nbsp;</div>
+<p><i>Kaimiy&ocirc;</i>, or posthumous name, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page130">130</a></span>, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page149">149</a></span>.</p>
+<p>Kaitakushi saddle-horse, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page218">218</a></span>.</p>
+<p>Kajikawa river, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page120">120</a></span>.</p>
+<p><i>Kakemonos</i>, or wall-pictures, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page46">46</a></span>, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page52">52</a></span>.</p>
+<p><i>Kak&rsquo;k&eacute;</i>, a Japanese disease, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page144">144</a></span>, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page145">145</a></span>.</p>
+<p><a name="page333"></a><span class="pagenum">p.
+333</span><i>Kamidana</i>, the, or god-shelf, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page72">72</a></span>.</p>
+<p>Kaminoyama, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page134">134</a></span>; hot springs, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page135">135</a></span>; the belle
+of, <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page135">135</a></span>;
+<i>yadoya</i>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page136">136</a></span>; <i>kura</i>, or godown, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page136">136</a></span>.</p>
+<p>Kanaya, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page50">50</a></span>; his house, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page51">51</a></span>, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page52">52</a></span>; floral
+decorations, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page52">52</a></span>; table equipments, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page53">53</a></span>.</p>
+<p>Kanayama, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page140">140</a></span>.</p>
+<p>Kasayanag&ecirc;, farming village, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page120">120</a></span>.</p>
+<p><i>Kashitsukeya</i>, disreputable houses, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page46">46</a></span>.</p>
+<p>Kasukab&eacute;, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page39">39</a></span>; the <i>yadoya</i>, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page39">39</a></span>; lack of
+privacy, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page40">40</a></span>; a night alarm, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page41">41</a></span>.</p>
+<p>Katakado hamlet, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page102">102</a></span>.</p>
+<p>Kawaguchi village, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page122">122</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page181">181</a></span>.</p>
+<p>Kayashima, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page93">93</a></span>; discomfort, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page93">93</a></span>; a boy cured,
+<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page94">94</a></span>; a
+diseased crowd, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page94">94</a></span>; habits and food of the natives,
+<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page94">94</a></span>; houses
+hermetically sealed, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page95">95</a></span>.</p>
+<p><i>Kenrei</i>, or provincial governor, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page115">115</a></span>.</p>
+<p><i>Kimono</i>, the, or gown for both sexes, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page43">43</a></span> <i>et
+seq.</i></p>
+<p>Kinugawa river, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page84">84</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page89">89</a></span>; beauty of scenery on its banks,
+<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page89">89</a></span>.</p>
+<p>Kiri Furi, the falls of, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page54">54</a></span>.</p>
+<p>Kiriishi hamlet, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page177">177</a></span>.</p>
+<p>Kisagoi, a poor place, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page82">82</a></span>.</p>
+<p>Kisaki, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page120">120</a></span>.</p>
+<p>Kite competition, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page195">195</a></span>.</p>
+<p><i>K&ocirc;ch&ocirc;</i>, or chief man of the village, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page143">143</a></span>.</p>
+<p>Kohiaku, mountain farm of, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page81">81</a></span>.</p>
+<p>Komatsu, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page131">131</a></span>; spacious room and luxurious
+appointments, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page131">131</a></span>; frogs, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page132">132</a></span>; runaway
+pack-horse, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page132">132</a></span>.</p>
+<p>Komoni-taki volcano, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page216">216</a></span>.</p>
+<p>Kotsunagi, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page177">177</a></span>.</p>
+<p>Kubota, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page155">155</a></span>; brisk trade, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page156">156</a></span>; suburban
+residences, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page156">156</a></span>; hospital, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page157">157</a></span>&ndash;158;
+public buildings, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page158">158</a></span>; Normal School, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page158">158</a></span>; silk
+factory, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page159">159</a></span>; police escort, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page159">159</a></span>; afternoon
+visitors, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page165">165</a></span>; infant prodigy, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page166">166</a></span>; Japanese
+wedding, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page167">167</a></span>&ndash;169.</p>
+<p><i>Kura</i>, or fire-proof storehouse, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page53">53</a></span>.</p>
+<p>Kuroishi, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page198">198</a></span>; festival at, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page198">198</a></span>, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page199">199</a></span>.</p>
+<p>Kurokawa, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page121">121</a></span>; <i>matsuri</i> at, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page122">122</a></span>.</p>
+<p>Kurosawa, poverty and dulness, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page123">123</a></span>; dirt and barbarism, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page125">125</a></span>.</p>
+<p><i>Kuruma</i>, the, or jin-ri-ki-sha, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page4">4</a></span>, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page5">5</a></span>, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page35">35</a></span> <i>et
+seq.</i></p>
+<p>Kuruma pass, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page103">103</a></span>.</p>
+<p><i>Kuruma</i>-runners, costume of, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page34">34</a></span>.</p>
+<p>Kurumatog&eacute;, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page92">92</a></span>; inn on the hill, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page103">103</a></span>; bone
+extracted, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page104">104</a></span>; hostess, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page104">104</a></span>; the road
+from, infamous, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page106">106</a></span>; pass, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page106">106</a></span>.</p>
+<p>Kusamoto, Mr., <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page325">325</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page326">326</a></span>.</p>
+<p><span class="smcap">Kwan-non</span>, temple of, at Asakusa,
+<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page21">21</a></span>;
+perpetual fair, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page23">23</a></span>; the <i>Ni-&ocirc;</i>, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page24">24</a></span>; votive
+offerings, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page25">25</a></span>; the high altar, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page25">25</a></span>; prayers and
+pellets, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page26">26</a></span>; Binzuru, the medicine god, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page26">26</a></span>, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page27">27</a></span>;
+<i>Amainu</i>, or heavenly dogs, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page27">27</a></span>; stone lanterns, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page28">28</a></span>; revolving
+shrine, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page28">28</a></span>; temple grounds and archery
+galleries, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page29">29</a></span>; booths, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page29">29</a></span>, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page30">30</a></span>.</p>
+
+<div class="gapspace">&nbsp;</div>
+<p><span class="smcap">Lagoon</span>, curious, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page172">172</a></span>.</p>
+<p>Lake of Blood, the, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page131">131</a></span>.</p>
+<p>Lamp, Japanese, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page73">73</a></span>.</p>
+<p>Land Transport Company, or <i>Riku-un-kaisha</i>, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page79">79</a></span>.</p>
+<p>Lanterns, stone, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page28">28</a></span>.</p>
+<p>Lebung&eacute;, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page310">310</a></span>; its isolation, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page312">312</a></span>; Ainos;
+<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page312">312</a></span>,
+<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page313">313</a></span>.</p>
+<p>Lebung&eacute;tog&eacute; passes, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page308">308</a></span>.</p>
+<p>Legation, the British, at Yedo, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page13">13</a></span>.</p>
+<p>Libraries, circulating, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page69">69</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page70">70</a></span>.</p>
+<p>Ludicrous incident, a, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page152">152</a></span>.</p>
+
+<div class="gapspace">&nbsp;</div>
+<p><i>Mago</i>, the, or leader of a pack-horse, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page62">62</a></span>, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page84">84</a></span>.</p>
+<p>Maladies, repulsive, prevalence of, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page76">76</a></span>.</p>
+<p>Man-carts, two-wheeled, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page8">8</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page9">9</a></span>.</p>
+<p>Mari, farming-village, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page120">120</a></span>.</p>
+<p><i>Maro</i>, or loin-cloth, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page46">46</a></span>.</p>
+<p>Marriage, a Japanese, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page166">166</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page167">167</a></span>; trousseau and furniture, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page167">167</a></span>; ceremony,
+<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page167">167</a></span>,
+<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page169">169</a></span>.</p>
+<p>Masonry, Japanese, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page58">58</a></span>.</p>
+<p>Matsuhara village, mistake at, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page129">129</a></span>.</p>
+<p>Matsuka river, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page133">133</a></span>.</p>
+<p><i>Matsuri</i> at Minato, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page171">171</a></span>; classic dance, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page171">171</a></span>; cars,
+<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page171">171</a></span>.</p>
+<p>Medicine god, the, at Asakusa, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page26">26</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page27">27</a></span>.</p>
+<p>Mihashi, or Sacred Bridge, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page50">50</a></span>.</p>
+<p><i>Mikoshi</i>, or sacred car, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page24">24</a></span>.</p>
+<p>Millet-mill and pestle, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page238">238</a></span>.</p>
+<p>Minato, the junk port of Kubota, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page170">170</a></span>; <i>matsuri</i> at, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page170">170</a></span>, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page171">171</a></span>; sobriety
+and order, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page171">171</a></span>.</p>
+<p>Mirror, a lady&rsquo;s, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page201">201</a></span>.</p>
+<p><a name="page334"></a><span class="pagenum">p.
+334</span>&ldquo;<span class="smcap">Missing link</span>,&rdquo;
+the, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page314">314</a></span>.</p>
+<p>Miyojintak&eacute;, snow-fields and ravines, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page103">103</a></span>.</p>
+<p>Mogami river, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page139">139</a></span>.</p>
+<p>Mombets, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page286">286</a></span>; scenes at, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page286">286</a></span>.</p>
+<p>Money, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page7">7</a></span>; current, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page79">79</a></span>.</p>
+<p>Mono, farming village, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page120">120</a></span>.</p>
+<p>Moore, Captain, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page322">322</a></span>.</p>
+<p>Moral lesson, a, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page36">36</a></span>.</p>
+<p>Mori village, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page317">317</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page318">318</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page220">220</a></span>.</p>
+<p>Morioka village, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page173">173</a></span>.</p>
+<p>Mororan, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page221">221</a></span>; bay, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page222">222</a></span>.</p>
+<p>Mororan, Old, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page297">297</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page298">298</a></span>.</p>
+<p>Mountain scenery, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page103">103</a></span>.</p>
+<p>Mud-flat or swamp of Yedo, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page36">36</a></span>.</p>
+<p>My <i>kuruma</i>-runner, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page305">305</a></span>.</p>
+<p>Myself in a straw rain-cloak, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page176">176</a></span>.</p>
+
+<div class="gapspace">&nbsp;</div>
+<p><span class="smcap">Nakajo</span>, Japanese doctors at, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page121">121</a></span>.</p>
+<p>Nakano, Lower, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page205">205</a></span>; bath-houses, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page205">205</a></span>.</p>
+<p>Nakano, Upper, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page204">204</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page205">205</a></span>.</p>
+<p>Names, female, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page68">68</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page69">69</a></span>.</p>
+<p>Namioka, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page207">207</a></span>.</p>
+<p>Nanai, Yezo, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page218">218</a></span>.</p>
+<p>Nantaizan mountains, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page49">49</a></span>.</p>
+<p>Needle-work, Japanese, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page69">69</a></span>.</p>
+<p>Night-alarm, a, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page41">41</a></span>.</p>
+<p><span class="smcap">Niigata</span>, landward side
+disappointing, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page111">111</a></span>; Church Mission House, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page111">111</a></span>, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page112">112</a></span>; itinerary
+of route from Nikk&ocirc; to, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page113">113</a></span>; a Treaty Port, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page114">114</a></span>; insect
+pests, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page114">114</a></span>; without foreign trade, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page114">114</a></span>; its river,
+<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page114">114</a></span>,
+<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page115">115</a></span>;
+population, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page115">115</a></span>; hospital and schools, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page115">115</a></span>; gardens,
+<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page116">116</a></span>;
+beautiful tea-houses, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page116">116</a></span>; cleanliness, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page116">116</a></span>;
+water-ways, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page116">116</a></span>; houses, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page117">117</a></span>, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page118">118</a></span>; climate,
+<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page119">119</a></span>; to
+Aomori, itinerary of route from, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page210">210</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page211">211</a></span>.</p>
+<p>Nikk&ocirc;san mountains, the, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page80">80</a></span>.</p>
+<p><span class="smcap">Nikk&ocirc;</span>, &ldquo;sunny
+splendour,&rdquo; <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page54">54</a></span>; its beauties, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page54">54</a></span>; the Red
+Bridge, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page55">55</a></span>; the Yomei Gate, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page56">56</a></span>; the mythical
+<i>Kirin</i>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page56">56</a></span>; the <i>haiden</i> or chapel, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page57">57</a></span>; the
+Sh&ocirc;gun&rsquo;s room, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page57">57</a></span>; the Abbot&rsquo;s room, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page57">57</a></span>; the great
+staircase, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page57">57</a></span>; Iy&eacute;yasu&rsquo;s tomb, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page58">58</a></span>; temples of
+Iy&eacute;metsu, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page58">58</a></span>; gigantic <i>Ni-&ocirc;</i>, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page58">58</a></span>; Buddha,
+<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page59">59</a></span>; the
+Tenn&ocirc;, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page59">59</a></span>; wood-carving, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page60">60</a></span>, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page61">61</a></span>; shops, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page73">73</a></span>, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page74">74</a></span>; houses,
+<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page75">75</a></span>; to
+Niigata, itinerary of route from, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page113">113</a></span>.</p>
+<p><i>Ni-&ocirc;</i>, the, at Asakusa, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page24">24</a></span>.</p>
+<p>Nocturnal disturbance, a, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page179">179</a></span>.</p>
+<p>Nojiri village, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page103">103</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page104">104</a></span>.</p>
+<p>Nopkobets river, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page306">306</a></span>.</p>
+<p>Nosoki, Dr., <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page141">141</a></span>; lotion and febrifuge, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page141">141</a></span>;
+old-fashioned practitioner, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page142">142</a></span>; at dinner, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page142">142</a></span>.</p>
+<p>Nosoki village, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page143">143</a></span>.</p>
+<p>Nozawa town, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page103">103</a></span>.</p>
+<p>Numa hamlet, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page123">123</a></span>; crowded dwellings, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page124">124</a></span>.</p>
+
+<div class="gapspace">&nbsp;</div>
+<p><span class="smcap">Obanasawa</span>, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page139">139</a></span>.</p>
+<p>Odat&eacute;, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page181">181</a></span>; <i>yadoyas</i>, nocturnal
+disturbances at, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page181">181</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page182">182</a></span>.</p>
+<p>Okawa stream, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page90">90</a></span>.</p>
+<p>Okimi, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page124">124</a></span>.</p>
+<p>Omagori, manufacture of earthenware jars for interment, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page149">149</a></span>, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page150">150</a></span>.</p>
+<p>Omono river, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page143">143</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page148">148</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page155">155</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page156">156</a></span>.</p>
+<p>Ori pass, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page124">124</a></span>.</p>
+<p>Oshamamb&eacute;, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page315">315</a></span>.</p>
+<p>Osharu river, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page301">301</a></span>.</p>
+<p>Ouchi hamlet, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page96">96</a></span>.</p>
+<p>Oyak&ecirc; lake, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page97">97</a></span>.</p>
+
+<div class="gapspace">&nbsp;</div>
+<p><span class="smcap">Pack-cows</span>, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page124">124</a></span>, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page128">128</a></span>.</p>
+<p>Pack-horse, the Japanese, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page62">62</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page63">63</a></span>; a vicious, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page102">102</a></span>.</p>
+<p>Pack-saddle, description of, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page62">62</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page63">63</a></span>.</p>
+<p>Packet-boat, &ldquo;running the rapids&rdquo; of Tsugawa,
+<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page109">109</a></span>,
+<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page110">110</a></span>.</p>
+<p>Palm, Dr., his tandem, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page121">121</a></span>.</p>
+<p>Paper-money, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page7">7</a></span>.</p>
+<p>Parental love, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page75">75</a></span>.</p>
+<p>Parkes, Sir Harry and Lady, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page8">8</a></span>.</p>
+<p>Parting, a regretful, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page50">50</a></span>.</p>
+<p>Passport, travelling, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page33">33</a></span>; regulations of, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page33">33</a></span>, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page34">34</a></span>.</p>
+<p>Peasant costume, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page43">43</a></span>.</p>
+<p>Pellets and prayers, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page26">26</a></span>.</p>
+<p>Picture and guidebooks, Japanese, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page71">71</a></span>.</p>
+<p>Pipicharo, the Aino, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page249">249</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page250">250</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page252">252</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page287">287</a></span>; a &ldquo;total abstainer,&rdquo;
+<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page249">249</a></span>.</p>
+<p>Poison and arrow-traps, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page269">269</a></span>.</p>
+<p>Priests, Buddhist, fees to, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page151">151</a></span>.</p>
+<p>Prospect, a painful, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page19">19</a></span>.</p>
+
+<div class="gapspace">&nbsp;</div>
+<p><span class="smcap">Queries</span>, curious, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page163">163</a></span>.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Quiver of poverty,&rdquo; the, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page92">92</a></span>.</p>
+
+<div class="gapspace">&nbsp;</div>
+<p><a name="page335"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 335</span><span
+class="smcap">Rain-cloak</span>, straw, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page176">176</a></span>.</p>
+<p>Reception, a formal, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page157">157</a></span>.</p>
+<p>Reiheishi-kaido, an &ldquo;In memoriam&rdquo; avenue, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page48">48</a></span>.</p>
+<p>Restaurant, portable, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page4">4</a></span>.</p>
+<p>Rice, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page36">36</a></span>.</p>
+<p>Rivers, Japanese, change of names of, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page90">90</a></span>.</p>
+<p>Road-side tea-house, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page38">38</a></span>.</p>
+<p>Rokkukado, the, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page288">288</a></span>.</p>
+<p>Rokugo, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page148">148</a></span>; Buddhist funeral at, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page148">148</a></span>; temple at,
+<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page151">151</a></span>.</p>
+
+<div class="gapspace">&nbsp;</div>
+<p><span class="smcap">Saikaiyama</span>, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page106">106</a></span>.</p>
+<p>Sakamoki river, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page137">137</a></span>; handsome bridge at, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page137">137</a></span>.</p>
+<p>Sakatsu pass, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page143">143</a></span>.</p>
+<p><i>Sak&eacute;</i>, the national drink, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page71">71</a></span>, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page168">168</a></span>, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page169">169</a></span>; effects
+of, <span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page71">71</a></span>,
+<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page183">183</a></span>;
+libations of, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page274">274</a></span>.</p>
+<p>Sakuratog&eacute; river, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page128">128</a></span>.</p>
+<p><i>Salisburia adiantifolia</i>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page309">309</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page313">313</a></span>.</p>
+<p><i>Samisen</i>, the national female instrument, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page70">70</a></span>.</p>
+<p><i>Sampans</i>, or native boats, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page3">3</a></span>; mode of sculling, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page4">4</a></span>.</p>
+<p>Sanno pass, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page96">96</a></span>.</p>
+<p>Sarufuto, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page231">231</a></span>.</p>
+<p>Sarufutogawa river, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page237">237</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page246">246</a></span>.</p>
+<p>Satow, Mr. Ernest, Japanese Secretary of Legation, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page14">14</a></span>; his
+reputation, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page199">199</a></span>.</p>
+<p><i>Satsu</i>, or paper money, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page7">7</a></span>.</p>
+<p>Savage life at Biratori, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page234">234</a></span>&ndash;236.</p>
+<p>School, a village, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page66">66</a></span>; lessons and punishments, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page67">67</a></span>.</p>
+<p>Science, native, dissection unknown to, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page142">142</a></span>.</p>
+<p>Scramble, a Yezo, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page228">228</a></span>.</p>
+<p>Seaweed, symbolism of, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page165">165</a></span>.</p>
+<p>Seed shop, a, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page78">78</a></span>.</p>
+<p>Servant, engaging a, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page16">16</a></span>&ndash;18.</p>
+<p>Shinagawa or Shinbashi village, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page12">12</a></span>.</p>
+<p>Shinano river, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page114">114</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page115">115</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page120">120</a></span>.</p>
+<p>Shingoji, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page153">153</a></span>; rude intrusion, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page153">153</a></span>.</p>
+<p>Shinj&ocirc;, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page139">139</a></span>; trade, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page139">139</a></span>;
+discomforts, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page140">140</a></span>.</p>
+<p>Shinkawa river, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page120">120</a></span>.</p>
+<p>Shione pass, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page143">143</a></span>.</p>
+<p>Shirakasawa, mountain village, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page128">128</a></span>; graceful act at, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page129">129</a></span>.</p>
+<p>Shira&ocirc;i village, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page226">226</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page289">289</a></span>; volcanic phenomena, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page290">290</a></span>; hot
+spring, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page291">291</a></span>; lianas, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page292">292</a></span>; beautiful
+scenery, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page292">292</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page293">293</a></span>; bear-trap, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page293">293</a></span>; houses,
+<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page294">294</a></span>.</p>
+<p>Shirawasa, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page183">183</a></span>; eclipse at, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page186">186</a></span>.</p>
+<p>Shiribetsan mountain, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page301">301</a></span>.</p>
+<p>Shoes, straw, a nuisance, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page88">88</a></span>.</p>
+<p><i>Sh&ocirc;ji</i>, or sliding screens, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page40">40</a></span>.</p>
+<p>Shopping, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page77">77</a></span>.</p>
+<p>Shops, Japanese, articles sold in, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page73">73</a></span>, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page74">74</a></span>.</p>
+<p>Shrine, revolving, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page28">28</a></span>.</p>
+<p>Shrines, beauty of, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page60">60</a></span>.</p>
+<p>Sight, a strange, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page81">81</a></span>.</p>
+<p>Silk factory, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page159">159</a></span>.</p>
+<p>Sir Harry&rsquo;s messenger, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page42">42</a></span>.</p>
+<p>Skin-diseases, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page76">76</a></span>.</p>
+<p>Solitary ride, a, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page216">216</a></span>&ndash;219.</p>
+<p>Springs, hot, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page89">89</a></span>.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Squeeze,&rdquo; a, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page19">19</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page65">65</a></span>.</p>
+<p>Stone lanterns, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page28">28</a></span>.</p>
+<p>Storm, effects of a, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page188">188</a></span>.</p>
+<p>Straw rain-cloak, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page176">176</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page177">177</a></span>.</p>
+<p>Straw shoes for horses, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page88">88</a></span>.</p>
+<p>Street, a clean, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page49">49</a></span>.</p>
+<p>Street and canal, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page117">117</a></span>.</p>
+<p>Sulphur spring at Yumoto, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page65">65</a></span>.</p>
+<p>Sumida river, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page22">22</a></span>.</p>
+<p>Summer and winter costume, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page82">82</a></span>.</p>
+
+<div class="gapspace">&nbsp;</div>
+<p><span class="smcap">Taiheisan</span> mountain, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page156">156</a></span>.</p>
+<p>Tajima, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page96">96</a></span>.</p>
+<p>Takadayama mountain, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page88">88</a></span>.</p>
+<p>Takahara, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page88">88</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page89">89</a></span>; hot springs, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page89">89</a></span>.</p>
+<p>Takata, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page99">99</a></span>; general aspect, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page100">100</a></span>; policemen
+at, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page100">100</a></span>.</p>
+<p>Tamagawa hamlet, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page124">124</a></span>.</p>
+<p>Tarumai volcano, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page227">227</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page228">228</a></span>.</p>
+<p><i>Tatami</i>, or house mats, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page40">40</a></span>.</p>
+<p>Tattooing, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page34">34</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page259">259</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page260">260</a></span>.</p>
+<p>Tea, Japanese, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page39">39</a></span>.</p>
+<p><i>Teishi</i>, or landlord, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page39">39</a></span>.</p>
+<p>Temple architecture, uniformity of, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page21">21</a></span>.</p>
+<p>Tendo town, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page138">138</a></span>.</p>
+<p>Threshing, varieties in, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page44">44</a></span>.</p>
+<p>Tochigi, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page45">45</a></span>; the <i>yadoya</i> and
+<i>sh&ocirc;ji</i>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page45">45</a></span>.</p>
+<p>Tochiida, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page139">139</a></span>.</p>
+<p>Tog&eacute;noshita, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page318">318</a></span>.</p>
+<p>Toilet, a lady&rsquo;s, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page200">200</a></span>; hair-dressing, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page200">200</a></span>, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page201">201</a></span>; paint and
+cosmetics, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page201">201</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page202">202</a></span>; mirror, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page201">201</a></span>.</p>
+<p><a name="page336"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 336</span><span
+class="smcap">T&ocirc;kiy&ocirc;</span>, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page10">10</a></span>; first
+impressions, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page12">12</a></span>; the British Legation, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page13">13</a></span>; Kwan-non
+temple of Asakusa, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page21">21</a></span>; a perpetual fair, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page23">23</a></span>; archery
+galleries, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page29">29</a></span>; western innovations, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page30">30</a></span>; tranquillity
+of, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page324">324</a></span>.</p>
+<p><i>Tokonoma</i>, or floors of polished wood, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page52">52</a></span>.</p>
+<p>Tomakomai, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page227">227</a></span>.</p>
+<p>Ton&eacute;, river, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page43">43</a></span>.</p>
+<p><i>Torii</i>, a, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page149">149</a></span>.</p>
+<p>Toy&ocirc;ka village, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page174">174</a></span>.</p>
+<p>Transport, prices, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page79">79</a></span>; agent, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page97">97</a></span>.</p>
+<p>Travelling equipments, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page32">32</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page33">33</a></span>; passports, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page33">33</a></span>, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page34">34</a></span>.</p>
+<p>Travelling, slow, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page143">143</a></span>.</p>
+<p>Tsugawa river, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page106">106</a></span>; <i>yadoya</i>, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page107">107</a></span>; town,
+<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page108">108</a></span>;
+packet-boat, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page109">109</a></span>; &ldquo;running the rapids,&rdquo;
+<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page109">109</a></span>;
+fantastic scenery, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page110">110</a></span>; river-course, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page110">110</a></span>;
+river-life, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page110">110</a></span>.</p>
+<p>Tsuguriko, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page180">180</a></span>.</p>
+<p>Tsuiji, farming village, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page120">120</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page121">121</a></span>.</p>
+<p>Tsukuno, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page134">134</a></span>.</p>
+<p>Tufa cones, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page290">290</a></span>.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Typhoon,&rdquo; a, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page322">322</a></span>.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Typhoon rain,&rdquo; a, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page297">297</a></span>.</p>
+
+<div class="gapspace">&nbsp;</div>
+<p><span class="smcap">Udonosan</span> snow-fields, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page139">139</a></span>.</p>
+<p>Universal greyness, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page207">207</a></span>; language, the, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page296">296</a></span>.</p>
+<p>Unpleasant detention, an, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page187">187</a></span>.</p>
+<p>Usu, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page302">302</a></span>; temple, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page302">302</a></span>, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page303">303</a></span>; bay, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page304">304</a></span>; Aino
+lodges at, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page304">304</a></span>.</p>
+<p>Usu-taki volcano, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page300">300</a></span>.</p>
+<p>Utsu pass, view from, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page129">129</a></span>.</p>
+
+<div class="gapspace">&nbsp;</div>
+<p><span class="smcap">Vegetation</span>, tropical, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page85">85</a></span>.</p>
+<p>Village life, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page47">47</a></span>.</p>
+<p>Vineyards on the Tsugawa, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page111">111</a></span>.</p>
+<p>Volcano Bay, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page220">220</a></span>.</p>
+
+<div class="gapspace">&nbsp;</div>
+<p><span class="smcap">Wakamatsu</span>, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page99">99</a></span>.</p>
+<p>Watering-place, a native, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page65">65</a></span>.</p>
+<p>Waterproof cloak, a paper, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page78">78</a></span>.</p>
+<p>Water-shed, the, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page93">93</a></span>.</p>
+<p>Welcome, a wild, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page208">208</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page209">209</a></span>.</p>
+<p>Wilkinson, Mr., <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page19">19</a></span>.</p>
+<p>Winter dismalness, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page123">123</a></span>.</p>
+<p>Women, employment for, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page159">159</a></span>.</p>
+<p>Wood-carving at Nikk&ouml;, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page60">60</a></span>.</p>
+<p>Worship, a supposed act of, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page244">244</a></span>.</p>
+
+<div class="gapspace">&nbsp;</div>
+<p><span class="smcap">Yadate</span> Pass, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page188">188</a></span>, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page189">189</a></span>; the force
+of water, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page189">189</a></span>; landslips, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page189">189</a></span>.</p>
+<p><i>Yadoya</i>, or hotel, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page37">37</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page39">39</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page45">45</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page48">48</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page63">63</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page65">65</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page85">85</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page93">93</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page100">100</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page101">101</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page103">103</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page107">107</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page122">122</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page123">123</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page131">131</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page132">132</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page134">134</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page136">136</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page144">144</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page147">147</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page156">156</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page178">178</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page179">179</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page181">181</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page191">191</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page195">195</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page217">217</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page220">220</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page226">226</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page280">280</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page294">294</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page315">315</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page316">316</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page318">318</a></span>; taxes on, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page136">136</a></span>.</p>
+<p>Yamagata <i>ken</i>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page125">125</a></span>; prosperous, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page137">137</a></span>; plain,
+<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page137">137</a></span>;
+convict labour at, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page137">137</a></span>; town, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page137">137</a></span>; its
+streets, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page137">137</a></span>; forgeries of eatables and
+drinkables, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page138">138</a></span>; public buildings, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page138">138</a></span>; vulgarity
+of policemen, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page138">138</a></span>.</p>
+<p>Yamakushinoi hamlet, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page316">316</a></span>.</p>
+<p>Yedo city, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page10">10</a></span> (<i>see</i> T&ocirc;kiy&ocirc;);
+gulf of, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page11">11</a></span>; plain of, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page11">11</a></span>.</p>
+<p><span class="smcap">Yezo</span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page216">216</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page217">217</a></span>; itinerary of tour in, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page319">319</a></span>.</p>
+<p>Yokohama, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page3">3</a></span>; <i>sampans</i>, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page3">3</a></span>; portable
+restaurant, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page4">4</a></span>; <i>kurumas</i>, or jin-ri-ki-shas,
+<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page4">4</a></span>;
+man-carts, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page8">8</a></span>; railway station and fares, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page10">10</a></span>, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page11">11</a></span>; Chinamen,
+<span class="indexpageno"><a href="#page15">15</a></span>.</p>
+<p>Yokokawa, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page92">92</a></span>; filth and squalor, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page92">92</a></span>.</p>
+<p>Yokote, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page147">147</a></span>; discomfort, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page148">148</a></span>;
+Shint&ocirc; temple, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page148">148</a></span>; <i>torii</i>, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page148">148</a></span>.</p>
+<p>Yomei Gate, the, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page56">56</a></span>.</p>
+<p>Yonetsurugawa river, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page177">177</a></span>; exciting transit, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page177">177</a></span>, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page178">178</a></span>.</p>
+<p>Yonezawa plain, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page129">129</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page131">131</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page133">133</a></span>.</p>
+<p>Yoshida, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page133">133</a></span>.</p>
+<p>Yoshitsun&eacute;, shrine of, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page252">252</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page253">253</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page273">273</a></span>, <i>note</i>.</p>
+<p>Yubets, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page228">228</a></span>, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page289">289</a></span>; a ghostly dwelling at, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page229">229</a></span>.</p>
+<p>Yuki, her industry, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page69">69</a></span>.</p>
+<p>Yumoto village, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page65">65</a></span>; bathing sheds at, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page65">65</a></span>.</p>
+<p>Yurapu, Aino village, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page316">316</a></span>; river, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page316">316</a></span>.</p>
+<p>Yusowa, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page145">145</a></span>; fire at, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page145">145</a></span>; lunch in
+public, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page146">146</a></span>; accident at, <span
+class="indexpageno"><a href="#page146">146</a></span>; curiosity
+of crowd, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page146">146</a></span>.</p>
+
+<div class="gapspace">&nbsp;</div>
+<p><i>Zen</i>, or small table, <span class="indexpageno"><a
+href="#page53">53</a></span>.</p>
+
+<div class="gapshortline">&nbsp;</div>
+<p style="text-align: center"><span class="GutSmall">PRINTED AT
+THE EDINBURGH PRESS, 9 AND 11 YOUNG STREET.</span></p>
+<h2>FOOTNOTES.</h2>
+<p><a name="footnote2"></a><a href="#citation2"
+class="footnote">[2]</a>&nbsp; This is an altogether exceptional
+aspect of Fujisan, under exceptional atmospheric
+conditions.&nbsp; The mountain usually looks broader and lower,
+and is often compared to an inverted fan.</p>
+<p><a name="footnote5"></a><a href="#citation5"
+class="footnote">[5]</a>&nbsp; I continue hereafter to use the
+Japanese word <i>kuruma</i> instead of the Chinese word
+<i>Jin-ri-ki-sha</i>.&nbsp; <i>Kuruma</i>, literally a wheel or
+vehicle, is the word commonly used by the <i>Jin-ri-ki-sha</i>
+men and other Japanese for the &ldquo;man-power-carriage,&rdquo;
+and is certainly more euphonious.&nbsp; From <i>kuruma</i>
+naturally comes <i>kurumaya</i> for the <i>kuruma</i> runner.</p>
+<p><a name="footnote14"></a><a href="#citation14"
+class="footnote">[14]</a>&nbsp; Often in the later months of my
+residence in Japan, when I asked educated Japanese questions
+concerning their history, religions, or ancient customs, I was
+put off with the answer, &ldquo;You should ask Mr. Satow, he
+could tell you.&rdquo;</p>
+<p><a name="footnote19"></a><a href="#citation19"
+class="footnote">[19]</a>&nbsp; After several months of
+travelling in some of the roughest parts of the interior, I
+should advise a person in average health&mdash;and none other
+should travel in Japan&mdash;not to encumber himself with tinned
+meats, soups, claret, or any eatables or drinkables, except
+Liebig&rsquo;s extract of meat.</p>
+<p><a name="footnote27"></a><a href="#citation27"
+class="footnote">[27]</a>&nbsp; I visited this temple alone many
+times afterwards, and each visit deepened the interest of my
+first impressions.&nbsp; There is always enough of change and
+novelty to prevent the interest from flagging, and the mild, but
+profoundly superstitious, form of heathenism which prevails in
+Japan is nowhere better represented.</p>
+<p><a name="footnote32"></a><a href="#citation32"
+class="footnote">[32]</a>&nbsp; The list of my equipments is
+given as a help to future travellers, especially ladies, who
+desire to travel long distances in the interior of Japan.&nbsp;
+One wicker basket is enough, as I afterwards found.</p>
+<p><a name="footnote41"></a><a href="#citation41"
+class="footnote">[41]</a>&nbsp; My fears, though quite natural
+for a lady alone, had really no justification.&nbsp; I have since
+travelled 1200 miles in the interior, and in Yezo, with perfect
+safety and freedom from alarm, and I believe that there is no
+country in the world in which a lady can travel with such
+absolute security from danger and rudeness as in Japan.</p>
+<p><a name="footnote46"></a><a href="#citation46"
+class="footnote">[46]</a>&nbsp; In my northern journey I was very
+frequently obliged to put up with rough and dirty accommodation,
+because the better sort of houses were of this class.&nbsp; If
+there are few sights which shock the traveller, there is much
+even on the surface to indicate vices which degrade and enslave
+the manhood of Japan.</p>
+<p><a name="footnote79"></a><a href="#citation79"
+class="footnote">[79]</a>&nbsp; I advise every traveller in the
+ruder regions of Japan to take a similar stretcher and a good
+mosquito net.&nbsp; With these he may defy all ordinary
+discomforts.</p>
+<p><a name="footnote87"></a><a href="#citation87"
+class="footnote">[87]</a>&nbsp; This can only be true of the
+behaviour of the lowest excursionists from the Treaty Ports.</p>
+<p><a name="footnote95"></a><a href="#citation95"
+class="footnote">[95]</a>&nbsp; Many unpleasant details have
+necessarily been omitted.&nbsp; If the reader requires any
+apology for those which are given here and elsewhere, it must be
+found in my desire to give such a faithful picture of peasant
+life, as I saw it in Northern Japan, as may be a contribution to
+the general sum of knowledge of the country, and, at the same
+time, serve to illustrate some of the difficulties which the
+Government has to encounter in its endeavour to raise masses of
+people as deficient as these are in some of the first
+requirements of civilisation.</p>
+<p><a name="footnote98"></a><a href="#citation98"
+class="footnote">[98]</a>&nbsp; The excess of males over females
+in the capital is 36,000, and in the whole Empire nearly half a
+million.</p>
+<p><a name="footnote115a"></a><a href="#citation115a"
+class="footnote">[115a]</a>&nbsp; By one of these, not fitted up
+for passengers, I have sent one of my baskets to Hakodat&eacute;,
+and by doing so have come upon one of the vexatious restrictions
+by which foreigners are harassed.&nbsp; It would seem natural to
+allow a foreigner to send his personal luggage from one Treaty
+Port to another without going through a number of formalities
+which render it nearly impossible, but it was only managed by Ito
+sending mine in his own name to a Japanese at Hakodat&eacute;
+with whom he is slightly acquainted.</p>
+<p><a name="footnote115b"></a><a href="#citation115b"
+class="footnote">[115b]</a>&nbsp; This hospital is large and well
+ventilated, but has not as yet succeeded in attracting many
+in-patients; out-patients, specially sufferers from ophthalmia,
+are very numerous.&nbsp; The Japanese chief physician regards the
+great prevalence of the malady in this neighbourhood as the
+result of damp, the reflection of the sun&rsquo;s rays from sand
+and snow, inadequate ventilation and charcoal fumes.</p>
+<p><a name="footnote145"></a><a href="#citation145"
+class="footnote">[145]</a>&nbsp; <i>Kak&rsquo;k&eacute;</i>, by
+William Anderson, F.R.C.S.&nbsp; Transactions of English Asiatic
+Society of Japan, January 1878.</p>
+<p><a name="footnote168"></a><a href="#citation168"
+class="footnote">[168]</a>&nbsp; I failed to learn what the
+liquor was which was drunk so freely, but as no unseemly effects
+followed its use, I think it must either have been light wine, or
+light <i>sak&eacute;</i>.</p>
+<p><a name="footnote216"></a><a href="#citation216"
+class="footnote">[216]</a>&nbsp; I venture to present this
+journal letter, with a few omissions, just as it was written,
+trusting that the interest which attaches to aboriginal races and
+little-visited regions will carry my readers through the
+minuteness and multiplicity of its details.</p>
+<p><a name="footnote218"></a><a href="#citation218"
+class="footnote">[218]</a>&nbsp; The use of kerosene in matted
+wooden houses is a new cause of conflagrations.&nbsp; It is not
+possible to say how it originated, but just before Christmas 1879
+a fire broke out in Hakodat&eacute;, which in a few hours
+destroyed 20 streets, 2500 houses, the British Consulate, several
+public buildings, the new native Christian church, and the church
+Mission House, leaving 11,000 people homeless.</p>
+<p><a name="footnote241"></a><a href="#citation241"
+class="footnote">[241]</a>&nbsp; I went over them with the Ainos
+of a remote village on Volcano Bay, and found the differences in
+pronunciation very slight, except that the definiteness of the
+sound which I have represented by Tsch was more strongly
+marked.&nbsp; I afterwards went over them with Mr. Dening, and
+with Mr. Von Siebold at T&ocirc;kiy&ocirc;, who have made a
+larger collection of words than I have, and it is satisfactory to
+find that we have represented the words in the main by the same
+letters, with the single exception that usually the sound
+represented by them by the letters <i>ch</i> I have given as
+<i>Tsch</i>, and I venture to think that is the most correct
+rendering.</p>
+<p><a name="footnote271"></a><a href="#citation271"
+class="footnote">[271]</a>&nbsp; I have not been able to obtain
+from any botanist the name of the tree from the bark of which the
+thread is made, but suppose it to be a species of
+<i>Tiliace&aelig;</i>.</p>
+<p><a name="footnote273"></a><a href="#citation273"
+class="footnote">[273]</a>&nbsp; Yoshitsun&eacute; is the most
+popular hero of Japanese history, and the special favourite of
+boys.&nbsp; He was the brother of Yoritomo, who was appointed by
+the Mikado in 1192 <i>Sei-i Tai Sh&ocirc;gun</i>
+(barbarian-subjugating great general) for his victories, and was
+the first of that series of great Sh&ocirc;guns whom our European
+notions distorted into &ldquo;Temporal Emperors&rdquo; of
+Japan.&nbsp; Yoshitsun&eacute;, to whom the real honour of these
+victories belonged, became the object of the jealousy and hatred
+of his brother, and was hunted from province to province, till,
+according to popular belief, he committed <i>hara-kiri</i>, after
+killing his wife and children, and his head, preserved in
+<i>sak&eacute;</i>, was sent to his brother at Kamakura.&nbsp;
+Scholars, however, are not agreed as to the manner, period, or
+scene of his death.&nbsp; Many believe that he escaped to Yezo
+and lived among the Ainos for many years, dying among them at the
+close of the twelfth century.&nbsp; None believe this more firmly
+than the Ainos themselves, who assert that he taught their
+fathers the arts of civilisation, with letters and numbers, and
+gave them righteous laws, and he is worshipped by many of them
+under a name which signifies Master of the Law.&nbsp; I have been
+told by old men in Biratori, Usu, and Lebung&eacute;, that a
+later Japanese conqueror carried away the books in which the arts
+were written, and that since his time the arts themselves have
+been lost, and the Ainos have fallen into their present
+condition!&nbsp; On asking why the Ainos do not make vessels of
+iron and clay as well as knives and spears, the invariable answer
+is, &ldquo;The Japanese took away the books.&rdquo;</p>
+<p><a name="footnote321"></a><a href="#citation321"
+class="footnote">[321]</a>&nbsp; The duty paid by junks is 4s.
+for each twenty-five tons, by foreign ships of foreign shape and
+rig &pound;2 for each 100 tons, and by steamers &pound;3 for each
+100 tons.</p>
+<p><a name="footnote328"></a><a href="#citation328"
+class="footnote">[328]</a>&nbsp; The following very inaccurate
+but entertaining account of this expedition was given by the
+<i>Yomi-uri-Shimbun</i>, a daily newspaper with the largest,
+though not the most aristocratic, circulation in
+T&ocirc;kiy&ocirc;, being taken in by the servants and
+tradespeople.&nbsp; It is a literal translation made by Mr.
+Chamberlain.&nbsp; &ldquo;The person mentioned in our
+yesterday&rsquo;s issue as &lsquo;an English subject of the name
+of Bird&rsquo; is a lady from Scotland, a part of England.&nbsp;
+This lady spends her time in travelling, leaving this year the
+two American continents for a passing visit to the Sandwich
+Islands, and landing in Japan early in the month of May.&nbsp;
+She has toured all over the country, and even made a five
+months&rsquo; stay in the Hokkaid&ocirc;, investigating the local
+customs and productions.&nbsp; Her inspection yesterday of the
+cremation ground at Kirigaya is believed to have been prompted by
+a knowledge of the advantages of this method of disposing of the
+dead, and a desire to introduce the same into England(!)&nbsp; On
+account of this lady&rsquo;s being so learned as to have
+published a quantity of books, His Excellency the Governor was
+pleased to see her yesterday, and to show her great civility,
+sending her to Kirigaya in his own carriage, a mark of attention
+which is said to have pleased the lady much(!)&rdquo;</p>
+<p>***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK UNBEATEN TRACKS IN JAPAN***</p>
+<pre>
+
+
+***** This file should be named 2184-h.htm or 2184-h.zip******
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+</html>
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+The Project Gutenberg Etext of Unbeaten Tracks in Japan, by Bird
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+Unbeaten Tracks in Japan
+
+by Isabella L. Bird
+
+May, 2000 [Etext #2184]
+
+
+The Project Gutenberg Etext of Unbeaten Tracks in Japan, by Bird
+******This file should be named utrkj10.txt or utrkj10.zip******
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+
+UNBEATEN TRACKS IN JAPAN
+AN ACCOUNT OF TRAVELS IN THE INTERIOR
+INCLUDING VISITS TO THE ABORIGINES OF YEZO AND
+THE SHRINE OF NIKKO BY ISABELLA L. BIRD
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE
+
+
+
+Having been recommended to leave home, in April 1878, in order to
+recruit my health by means which had proved serviceable before, I
+decided to visit Japan, attracted less by the reputed excellence of
+its climate than by the certainty that it possessed, in an especial
+degree, those sources of novel and sustained interest which conduce
+so essentially to the enjoyment and restoration of a solitary
+health-seeker.  The climate disappointed me, but, though I found
+the country a study rather than a rapture, its interest exceeded my
+largest expectations.
+
+This is not a "Book on Japan," but a narrative of travels in Japan,
+and an attempt to contribute something to the sum of knowledge of
+the present condition of the country, and it was not till I had
+travelled for some months in the interior of the main island and in
+Yezo that I decided that my materials were novel enough to render
+the contribution worth making.  From Nikko northwards my route was
+altogether off the beaten track, and had never been traversed in
+its entirety by any European.  I lived among the Japanese, and saw
+their mode of living, in regions unaffected by European contact.
+As a lady travelling alone, and the first European lady who had
+been seen in several districts through which my route lay, my
+experiences differed more or less widely from those of preceding
+travellers; and I am able to offer a fuller account of the
+aborigines of Yezo, obtained by actual acquaintance with them, than
+has hitherto been given.  These are my chief reasons for offering
+this volume to the public.
+
+It was with some reluctance that I decided that it should consist
+mainly of letters written on the spot to my sister and a circle of
+personal friends, for this form of publication involves the
+sacrifice of artistic arrangement and literary treatment, and
+necessitates a certain amount of egotism; but, on the other hand,
+it places the reader in the position of the traveller, and makes
+him share the vicissitudes of travel, discomfort, difficulty, and
+tedium, as well as novelty and enjoyment.  The "beaten tracks,"
+with the exception of Nikko, have been dismissed in a few
+sentences, but where their features have undergone marked changes
+within a few years, as in the case of Tokiyo (Yedo), they have been
+sketched more or less slightly.  Many important subjects are
+necessarily passed over.
+
+In Northern Japan, in the absence of all other sources of
+information, I had to learn everything from the people themselves,
+through an interpreter, and every fact had to be disinterred by
+careful labour from amidst a mass of rubbish.  The Ainos supplied
+the information which is given concerning their customs, habits,
+and religion; but I had an opportunity of comparing my notes with
+some taken about the same time by Mr. Heinrich Von Siebold of the
+Austrian Legation, and of finding a most satisfactory agreement on
+all points.
+
+Some of the Letters give a less pleasing picture of the condition
+of the peasantry than the one popularly presented, and it is
+possible that some readers may wish that it had been less
+realistically painted; but as the scenes are strictly
+representative, and I neither made them nor went in search of them,
+I offer them in the interests of truth, for they illustrate the
+nature of a large portion of the material with which the Japanese
+Government has to work in building up the New Civilisation.
+
+Accuracy has been my first aim, but the sources of error are many,
+and it is from those who have studied Japan the most carefully, and
+are the best acquainted with its difficulties, that I shall receive
+the most kindly allowance if, in spite of carefulness, I have
+fallen into mistakes.
+
+The Transactions of the English and German Asiatic Societies of
+Japan, and papers on special Japanese subjects, including "A Budget
+of Japanese Notes," in the Japan Mail and Tokiyo Times, gave me
+valuable help; and I gratefully acknowledge the assistance afforded
+me in many ways by Sir Harry S. Parkes, K.C.B., and Mr. Satow of
+H.B.M.'s Legation, Principal Dyer, Mr. Chamberlain of the Imperial
+Naval College, Mr. F. V. Dickins, and others, whose kindly interest
+in my work often encouraged me when I was disheartened by my lack
+of skill; but, in justice to these and other kind friends, I am
+anxious to claim and accept the fullest measure of personal
+responsibility for the opinions expressed, which, whether right or
+wrong, are wholly my own.
+
+The illustrations, with the exception of three, which are by a
+Japanese artist, have been engraved from sketches of my own or
+Japanese photographs.
+
+I am painfully conscious of the defects of this volume, but I
+venture to present it to the public in the hope that, in spite of
+its demerits, it may be accepted as an honest attempt to describe
+things as I saw them in Japan, on land journeys of more than 1400
+miles.
+
+Since the letters passed through the press, the beloved and only
+sister to whom, in the first instance, they were written, to whose
+able and careful criticism they owe much, and whose loving interest
+was the inspiration alike of my travels and of my narratives of
+them, has passed away.
+
+ISABELLA L. BIRD.
+
+
+
+LETTER I
+
+
+
+First View of Japan--A Vision of Fujisan--Japanese Sampans--
+"Pullman Cars"--Undignified Locomotion--Paper Money--The Drawbacks
+of Japanese Travelling.
+
+ORIENTAL HOTEL, YOKOHAMA,
+May 21.
+
+Eighteen days of unintermitted rolling over "desolate rainy seas"
+brought the "City of Tokio" early yesterday morning to Cape King,
+and by noon we were steaming up the Gulf of Yedo, quite near the
+shore.  The day was soft and grey with a little faint blue sky,
+and, though the coast of Japan is much more prepossessing than most
+coasts, there were no startling surprises either of colour or form.
+Broken wooded ridges, deeply cleft, rise from the water's edge,
+gray, deep-roofed villages cluster about the mouths of the ravines,
+and terraces of rice cultivation, bright with the greenness of
+English lawns, run up to a great height among dark masses of upland
+forest.  The populousness of the coast is very impressive, and the
+gulf everywhere was equally peopled with fishing-boats, of which we
+passed not only hundreds, but thousands, in five hours.  The coast
+and sea were pale, and the boats were pale too, their hulls being
+unpainted wood, and their sails pure white duck.  Now and then a
+high-sterned junk drifted by like a phantom galley, then we
+slackened speed to avoid exterminating a fleet of triangular-
+looking fishing-boats with white square sails, and so on through
+the grayness and dumbness hour after hour.
+
+For long I looked in vain for Fujisan, and failed to see it, though
+I heard ecstasies all over the deck, till, accidentally looking
+heavenwards instead of earthwards, I saw far above any possibility
+of height, as one would have thought, a huge, truncated cone of
+pure snow, 13,080 feet above the sea, from which it sweeps upwards
+in a glorious curve, very wan, against a very pale blue sky, with
+its base and the intervening country veiled in a pale grey mist.
+{1}  It was a wonderful vision, and shortly, as a vision, vanished.
+Except the cone of Tristan d'Acunha--also a cone of snow--I never
+saw a mountain rise in such lonely majesty, with nothing near or
+far to detract from its height and grandeur.  No wonder that it is
+a sacred mountain, and so dear to the Japanese that their art is
+never weary of representing it.  It was nearly fifty miles off when
+we first saw it.
+
+The air and water were alike motionless, the mist was still and
+pale, grey clouds lay restfully on a bluish sky, the reflections of
+the white sails of the fishing-boats scarcely quivered; it was all
+so pale, wan, and ghastly, that the turbulence of crumpled foam
+which we left behind us, and our noisy, throbbing progress, seemed
+a boisterous intrusion upon sleeping Asia.
+
+The gulf narrowed, the forest-crested hills, the terraced ravines,
+the picturesque grey villages, the quiet beach life, and the pale
+blue masses of the mountains of the interior, became more visible.
+Fuji retired into the mist in which he enfolds his grandeur for
+most of the summer; we passed Reception Bay, Perry Island, Webster
+Island, Cape Saratoga, and Mississippi Bay--American nomenclature
+which perpetuates the successes of American diplomacy--and not far
+from Treaty Point came upon a red lightship with the words "Treaty
+Point" in large letters upon her.  Outside of this no foreign
+vessel may anchor.
+
+The bustle among my fellow-passengers, many of whom were returning
+home, and all of whom expected to be met by friends, left me at
+leisure, as I looked at unattractive, unfamiliar Yokohama and the
+pale grey land stretched out before me, to speculate somewhat sadly
+on my destiny on these strange shores, on which I have not even an
+acquaintance.  On mooring we were at once surrounded by crowds of
+native boats called by foreigners sampans, and Dr. Gulick, a near
+relation of my Hilo friends, came on board to meet his daughter,
+welcomed me cordially, and relieved me of all the trouble of
+disembarkation.  These sampans are very clumsy-looking, but are
+managed with great dexterity by the boatmen, who gave and received
+any number of bumps with much good nature, and without any of the
+shouting and swearing in which competitive boatmen usually indulge.
+
+The partially triangular shape of these boats approaches that of a
+salmon-fisher's punt used on certain British rivers.  Being floored
+gives them the appearance of being absolutely flat-bottomed; but,
+though they tilt readily, they are very safe, being heavily built
+and fitted together with singular precision with wooden bolts and a
+few copper cleets.  They are SCULLED, not what we should call
+rowed, by two or four men with very heavy oars made of two pieces
+of wood working on pins placed on outrigger bars.  The men scull
+standing and use the thigh as a rest for the oar.  They all wear a
+single, wide-sleeved, scanty, blue cotton garment, not fastened or
+girdled at the waist, straw sandals, kept on by a thong passing
+between the great toe and the others, and if they wear any head-
+gear, it is only a wisp of blue cotton tied round the forehead.
+The one garment is only an apology for clothing, and displays lean
+concave chests and lean muscular limbs.  The skin is very yellow,
+and often much tattooed with mythical beasts.  The charge for
+sampans is fixed by tariff, so the traveller lands without having
+his temper ruffled by extortionate demands.
+
+The first thing that impressed me on landing was that there were no
+loafers, and that all the small, ugly, kindly-looking, shrivelled,
+bandy-legged, round-shouldered, concave-chested, poor-looking
+beings in the streets had some affairs of their own to mind.  At
+the top of the landing-steps there was a portable restaurant, a
+neat and most compact thing, with charcoal stove, cooking and
+eating utensils complete; but it looked as if it were made by and
+for dolls, and the mannikin who kept it was not five feet high.  At
+the custom-house we were attended to by minute officials in blue
+uniforms of European pattern and leather boots; very civil
+creatures, who opened and examined our trunks carefully, and
+strapped them up again, contrasting pleasingly with the insolent
+and rapacious officials who perform the same duties at New York.
+
+Outside were about fifty of the now well-known jin-ti-ki-shas, and
+the air was full of a buzz produced by the rapid reiteration of
+this uncouth word by fifty tongues.  This conveyance, as you know,
+is a feature of Japan, growing in importance every day.  It was
+only invented seven years ago, and already there are nearly 23,000
+in one city, and men can make so much more by drawing them than by
+almost any kind of skilled labour, that thousands of fine young men
+desert agricultural pursuits and flock into the towns to make
+draught-animals of themselves, though it is said that the average
+duration of a man's life after he takes to running is only five
+years, and that the runners fall victims in large numbers to
+aggravated forms of heart and lung disease.  Over tolerably level
+ground a good runner can trot forty miles a day, at a rate of about
+four miles an hour.  They are registered and taxed at 8s. a year
+for one carrying two persons, and 4s. for one which carries one
+only, and there is a regular tariff for time and distance.
+
+The kuruma, or jin-ri-ki-sha, {2} consists of a light perambulator
+body, an adjustable hood of oiled paper, a velvet or cloth lining
+and cushion, a well for parcels under the seat, two high slim
+wheels, and a pair of shafts connected by a bar at the ends.  The
+body is usually lacquered and decorated according to its owner's
+taste.  Some show little except polished brass, others are
+altogether inlaid with shells known as Venus's ear, and others are
+gaudily painted with contorted dragons, or groups of peonies,
+hydrangeas, chrysanthemums, and mythical personages.  They cost
+from 2 pounds upwards.  The shafts rest on the ground at a steep
+incline as you get in--it must require much practice to enable one
+to mount with ease or dignity--the runner lifts them up, gets into
+them, gives the body a good tilt backwards, and goes off at a smart
+trot.  They are drawn by one, two, or three men, according to the
+speed desired by the occupants.  When rain comes on, the man puts
+up the hood, and ties you and it closely up in a covering of oiled
+paper, in which you are invisible.  At night, whether running or
+standing still, they carry prettily-painted circular paper lanterns
+18 inches long.  It is most comical to see stout, florid, solid-
+looking merchants, missionaries, male and female, fashionably-
+dressed ladies, armed with card cases, Chinese compradores, and
+Japanese peasant men and women flying along Main Street, which is
+like the decent respectable High Street of a dozen forgotten
+country towns in England, in happy unconsciousness of the
+ludicrousness of their appearance; racing, chasing, crossing each
+other, their lean, polite, pleasant runners in their great hats
+shaped like inverted bowls, their incomprehensible blue tights, and
+their short blue over-shirts with badges or characters in white
+upon them, tearing along, their yellow faces streaming with
+perspiration, laughing, shouting, and avoiding collisions by a mere
+shave.
+
+After a visit to the Consulate I entered a kuruma and, with two
+ladies in two more, was bowled along at a furious pace by a
+laughing little mannikin down Main Street--a narrow, solid, well-
+paved street with well-made side walks, kerb-stones, and gutters,
+with iron lamp-posts, gas-lamps, and foreign shops all along its
+length--to this quiet hotel recommended by Sir Wyville Thomson,
+which offers a refuge from the nasal twang of my fellow-voyagers,
+who have all gone to the caravanserais on the Bund.  The host is a
+Frenchman, but he relies on a Chinaman; the servants are Japanese
+"boys" in Japanese clothes; and there is a Japanese "groom of the
+chambers" in faultless English costume, who perfectly appals me by
+the elaborate politeness of his manner.
+
+Almost as soon as I arrived I was obliged to go in search of Mr.
+Fraser's office in the settlement; I say SEARCH, for there are no
+names on the streets; where there are numbers they have no
+sequence, and I met no Europeans on foot to help me in my
+difficulty.  Yokohama does not improve on further acquaintance.  It
+has a dead-alive look.  It has irregularity without
+picturesqueness, and the grey sky, grey sea, grey houses, and grey
+roofs, look harmoniously dull.  No foreign money except the Mexican
+dollar passes in Japan, and Mr. Fraser's compradore soon
+metamorphosed my English gold into Japanese satsu or paper money, a
+bundle of yen nearly at par just now with the dollar, packets of
+50, 20, and 10 sen notes, and some rouleaux of very neat copper
+coins.  The initiated recognise the different denominations of
+paper money at a glance by their differing colours and sizes, but
+at present they are a distracting mystery to me.  The notes are
+pieces of stiff paper with Chinese characters at the corners, near
+which, with exceptionally good eyes or a magnifying glass, one can
+discern an English word denoting the value.  They are very neatly
+executed, and are ornamented with the chrysanthemum crest of the
+Mikado and the interlaced dragons of the Empire.
+
+I long to get away into real Japan.  Mr. Wilkinson, H.B.M.'s acting
+consul, called yesterday, and was extremely kind.  He thinks that
+my plan for travelling in the interior is rather too ambitious, but
+that it is perfectly safe for a lady to travel alone, and agrees
+with everybody else in thinking that legions of fleas and the
+miserable horses are the great drawbacks of Japanese travelling.
+
+I. L. B.
+
+
+
+LETTER II
+
+
+
+Sir Harry Parkes--An "Ambassador's Carriage"--Cart Coolies.
+
+YOKOHAMA, May 22.
+
+To-day has been spent in making new acquaintances, instituting a
+search for a servant and a pony, receiving many offers of help,
+asking questions and receiving from different people answers which
+directly contradict each other.  Hours are early.  Thirteen people
+called on me before noon.  Ladies drive themselves about the town
+in small pony carriages attended by running grooms called bettos.
+The foreign merchants keep kurumas constantly standing at their
+doors, finding a willing, intelligent coolie much more serviceable
+than a lazy, fractious, capricious Japanese pony, and even the
+dignity of an "Ambassador Extraordinary and Minister
+Plenipotentiary" is not above such a lowly conveyance, as I have
+seen to-day.  My last visitors were Sir Harry and Lady Parkes, who
+brought sunshine and kindliness into the room, and left it behind
+them.  Sir Harry is a young-looking man scarcely in middle life,
+slight, active, fair, blue-eyed, a thorough Saxon, with sunny hair
+and a sunny smile, a sunshiny geniality in his manner, and bearing
+no trace in his appearance of his thirty years of service in the
+East, his sufferings in the prison at Peking, and the various
+attempts upon his life in Japan.  He and Lady Parkes were most
+truly kind, and encourage me so heartily in my largest projects for
+travelling in the interior, that I shall start as soon as I have
+secured a servant.  When they went away they jumped into kurumas,
+and it was most amusing to see the representative of England
+hurried down the street in a perambulator with a tandem of coolies.
+
+As I look out of the window I see heavy, two-wheeled man-carts
+drawn and pushed by four men each, on which nearly all goods,
+stones for building, and all else, are carried.  The two men who
+pull press with hands and thighs against a cross-bar at the end of
+a heavy pole, and the two who push apply their shoulders to beams
+which project behind, using their thick, smoothly-shaven skulls as
+the motive power when they push their heavy loads uphill.  Their
+cry is impressive and melancholy.  They draw incredible loads, but,
+as if the toil which often makes every breath a groan or a gasp
+were not enough, they shout incessantly with a coarse, guttural
+grunt, something like Ha huida, Ho huida, wa ho, Ha huida, etc.
+
+I. L. B.
+
+
+
+LETTER III
+
+
+
+Yedo and Tokiyo--The Yokohama Railroad--The Effect of Misfits--The
+Plain of Yedo--Personal Peculiarities--First Impressions of Tokiyo-
+-H. B. M.'s Legation--An English Home.
+
+H.B.M.'s LEGATION, YEDO, May 24.
+
+I have dated my letter Yedo, according to the usage of the British
+Legation, but popularly the new name of Tokiyo, or Eastern Capital,
+is used, Kiyoto, the Mikado's former residence, having received the
+name of Saikio, or Western Capital, though it has now no claim to
+be regarded as a capital at all.  Yedo belongs to the old regime
+and the Shogunate, Tokiyo to the new regime and the Restoration,
+with their history of ten years.  It would seem an incongruity to
+travel to Yedo by railway, but quite proper when the destination is
+Tokiyo.
+
+The journey between the two cities is performed in an hour by an
+admirable, well-metalled, double-track railroad, 18 miles long,
+with iron bridges, neat stations, and substantial roomy termini,
+built by English engineers at a cost known only to Government, and
+opened by the Mikado in 1872.  The Yokohama station is a handsome
+and suitable stone building, with a spacious approach, ticket-
+offices on our plan, roomy waiting-rooms for different classes--
+uncarpeted, however, in consideration of Japanese clogs--and
+supplied with the daily papers.  There is a department for the
+weighing and labelling of luggage, and on the broad, covered, stone
+platform at both termini a barrier with turnstiles, through which,
+except by special favour, no ticketless person can pass.  Except
+the ticket-clerks, who are Chinese, and the guards and engine-
+drivers, who are English, the officials are Japanese in European
+dress.  Outside the stations, instead of cabs, there are kurumas,
+which carry luggage as well as people.  Only luggage in the hand is
+allowed to go free; the rest is weighed, numbered, and charged for,
+a corresponding number being given to its owner to present at his
+destination.  The fares are--3d class, an ichibu, or about 1s.; 2d
+class, 60 sen, or about 2s. 4d.; and 1st class, a yen, or about 3s.
+8d.  The tickets are collected as the passengers pass through the
+barrier at the end of the journey.  The English-built cars differ
+from ours in having seats along the sides, and doors opening on
+platforms at both ends.  On the whole, the arrangements are
+Continental rather than British.  The first-class cars are
+expensively fitted up with deeply-cushioned, red morocco seats, but
+carry very few passengers, and the comfortable seats, covered with
+fine matting, of the 2d class are very scantily occupied; but the
+3d class vans are crowded with Japanese, who have taken to
+railroads as readily as to kurumas.  This line earns about
+$8,000,000 a year.
+
+The Japanese look most diminutive in European dress.  Each garment
+is a misfit, and exaggerates the miserable physique and the
+national defects of concave chests and bow legs.  The lack of
+"complexion" and of hair upon the face makes it nearly impossible
+to judge of the ages of men.  I supposed that all the railroad
+officials were striplings of 17 or 18, but they are men from 25 to
+40 years old.
+
+It was a beautiful day, like an English June day, but hotter, and
+though the Sakura (wild cherry) and its kin, which are the glory of
+the Japanese spring, are over, everything is a young, fresh green
+yet, and in all the beauty of growth and luxuriance.  The immediate
+neighbourhood of Yokohama is beautiful, with abrupt wooded hills,
+and small picturesque valleys; but after passing Kanagawa the
+railroad enters upon the immense plain of Yedo, said to be 90 miles
+from north to south, on whose northern and western boundaries faint
+blue mountains of great height hovered dreamily in the blue haze,
+and on whose eastern shore for many miles the clear blue wavelets
+of the Gulf of Yedo ripple, always as then, brightened by the white
+sails of innumerable fishing-boats.  On this fertile and fruitful
+plain stand not only the capital, with its million of inhabitants,
+but a number of populous cities, and several hundred thriving
+agricultural villages.  Every foot of land which can be seen from
+the railroad is cultivated by the most careful spade husbandry, and
+much of it is irrigated for rice.  Streams abound, and villages of
+grey wooden houses with grey thatch, and grey temples with
+strangely curved roofs, are scattered thickly over the landscape.
+It is all homelike, liveable, and pretty, the country of an
+industrious people, for not a weed is to be seen, but no very
+striking features or peculiarities arrest one at first sight,
+unless it be the crowds everywhere.
+
+You don't take your ticket for Tokiyo, but for Shinagawa or
+Shinbashi, two of the many villages which have grown together into
+the capital.  Yedo is hardly seen before Shinagawa is reached, for
+it has no smoke and no long chimneys; its temples and public
+buildings are seldom lofty; the former are often concealed among
+thick trees, and its ordinary houses seldom reach a height of 20
+feet.  On the right a blue sea with fortified islands upon it,
+wooded gardens with massive retaining walls, hundreds of fishing-
+boats lying in creeks or drawn up on the beach; on the left a broad
+road on which kurumas are hurrying both ways, rows of low, grey
+houses, mostly tea-houses and shops; and as I was asking "Where is
+Yedo?" the train came to rest in the terminus, the Shinbashi
+railroad station, and disgorged its 200 Japanese passengers with a
+combined clatter of 400 clogs--a new sound to me.  These clogs add
+three inches to their height, but even with them few of the men
+attained 5 feet 7 inches, and few of the women 5 feet 2 inches; but
+they look far broader in the national costume, which also conceals
+the defects of their figures.  So lean, so yellow, so ugly, yet so
+pleasant-looking, so wanting in colour and effectiveness; the women
+so very small and tottering in their walk; the children so formal-
+looking and such dignified burlesques on the adults, I feel as if I
+had seen them all before, so like are they to their pictures on
+trays, fans, and tea-pots.  The hair of the women is all drawn away
+from their faces, and is worn in chignons, and the men, when they
+don't shave the front of their heads and gather their back hair
+into a quaint queue drawn forward over the shaven patch, wear their
+coarse hair about three inches long in a refractory undivided mop.
+
+Davies, an orderly from the Legation, met me,--one of the escort
+cut down and severely wounded when Sir H. Parkes was attacked in
+the street of Kiyoto in March 1868 on his way to his first audience
+of the Mikado.  Hundreds of kurumas, and covered carts with four
+wheels drawn by one miserable horse, which are the omnibuses of
+certain districts of Tokiyo, were waiting outside the station, and
+an English brougham for me, with a running betto.  The Legation
+stands in Kojimachi on very elevated ground above the inner moat of
+the historic "Castle of Yedo," but I cannot tell you anything of
+what I saw on my way thither, except that there were miles of dark,
+silent, barrack-like buildings, with highly ornamental gateways,
+and long rows of projecting windows with screens made of reeds--the
+feudal mansions of Yedo--and miles of moats with lofty grass
+embankments or walls of massive masonry 50 feet high, with kiosk-
+like towers at the corners, and curious, roofed gateways, and many
+bridges, and acres of lotus leaves.  Turning along the inner moat,
+up a steep slope, there are, on the right, its deep green waters,
+the great grass embankment surmounted by a dismal wall overhung by
+the branches of coniferous trees which surrounded the palace of the
+Shogun, and on the left sundry yashikis, as the mansions of the
+daimiyo were called, now in this quarter mostly turned into
+hospitals, barracks, and Government offices.  On a height, the most
+conspicuous of them all, is the great red gateway of the yashiki,
+now occupied by the French Military Mission, formerly the residence
+of Ii Kamon no Kami, one of the great actors in recent historic
+events, who was assassinated not far off, outside the Sakaruda gate
+of the castle.  Besides these, barracks, parade-grounds, policemen,
+kurumas, carts pulled and pushed by coolies, pack-horses in straw
+sandals, and dwarfish, slatternly-looking soldiers in European
+dress, made up the Tokiyo that I saw between Shinbashi and the
+Legation.
+
+H.B.M.'s Legation has a good situation near the Foreign Office,
+several of the Government departments, and the residences of the
+ministers, which are chiefly of brick in the English suburban villa
+style.  Within the compound, with a brick archway with the Royal
+Arms upon it for an entrance, are the Minister's residence, the
+Chancery, two houses for the two English Secretaries of Legation,
+and quarters for the escort.
+
+It is an English house and an English home, though, with the
+exception of a venerable nurse, there are no English servants.  The
+butler and footman are tall Chinamen, with long pig-tails, black
+satin caps, and long blue robes; the cook is a Chinaman, and the
+other servants are all Japanese, including one female servant, a
+sweet, gentle, kindly girl about 4 feet 5 in height, the wife of
+the head "housemaid."  None of the servants speak anything but the
+most aggravating "pidgun" English, but their deficient speech is
+more than made up for by the intelligence and service of the
+orderly in waiting, who is rarely absent from the neighbourhood of
+the hall door, and attends to the visitors' book and to all
+messages and notes.  There are two real English children of six and
+seven, with great capacities for such innocent enjoyments as can be
+found within the limits of the nursery and garden.  The other
+inmate of the house is a beautiful and attractive terrier called
+"Rags," a Skye dog, who unbends "in the bosom of his family," but
+ordinarily is as imposing in his demeanour as if he, and not his
+master, represented the dignity of the British Empire.
+
+The Japanese Secretary of Legation is Mr. Ernest Satow, whose
+reputation for scholarship, especially in the department of
+history, is said by the Japanese themselves to be the highest in
+Japan {3}--an honourable distinction for an Englishman, and won by
+the persevering industry of fifteen years.  The scholarship
+connected with the British Civil Service is not, however,
+monopolised by Mr. Satow, for several gentlemen in the consular
+service, who are passing through the various grades of student
+interpreters, are distinguishing themselves not alone by their
+facility in colloquial Japanese, but by their researches in various
+departments of Japanese history, mythology, archaeology, and
+literature.  Indeed it is to their labours, and to those of a few
+other Englishmen and Germans, that the Japanese of the rising
+generation will be indebted for keeping alive not only the
+knowledge of their archaic literature, but even of the manners and
+customs of the first half of this century.
+
+I. L. B.
+
+
+
+LETTER IV
+
+
+
+"John Chinaman"--Engaging a Servant--First Impressions of Ito--A
+Solemn Contract--The Food Question.
+
+H.B.M.'s LEGATION, YEDO,
+June 7.
+
+I went to Yokohama for a week to visit Dr. and Mrs. Hepburn on the
+Bluff.  Bishop and Mrs. Burdon of Hong Kong were also guests, and
+it was very pleasant.
+
+One cannot be a day in Yokohama without seeing quite a different
+class of orientals from the small, thinly-dressed, and usually
+poor-looking Japanese.  Of the 2500 Chinamen who reside in Japan,
+over 1100 are in Yokohama, and if they were suddenly removed,
+business would come to an abrupt halt.  Here, as everywhere, the
+Chinese immigrant is making himself indispensable.  He walks
+through the streets with his swinging gait and air of complete
+self-complacency, as though he belonged to the ruling race.  He is
+tall and big, and his many garments, with a handsome brocaded robe
+over all, his satin pantaloons, of which not much is seen, tight at
+the ankles, and his high shoes, whose black satin tops are slightly
+turned up at the toes, make him look even taller and bigger than he
+is.  His head is mostly shaven, but the hair at the back is plaited
+with a quantity of black purse twist into a queue which reaches to
+his knees, above which, set well back, he wears a stiff, black
+satin skull-cap, without which he is never seen.  His face is very
+yellow, his long dark eyes and eyebrows slope upwards towards his
+temples, he has not the vestige of a beard, and his skin is shiny.
+He looks thoroughly "well-to-do."  He is not unpleasing-looking,
+but you feel that as a Celestial he looks down upon you.  If you
+ask a question in a merchant's office, or change your gold into
+satsu, or take your railroad or steamer ticket, or get change in a
+shop, the inevitable Chinaman appears.  In the street he swings
+past you with a purpose in his face; as he flies past you in a
+kuruma he is bent on business; he is sober and reliable, and is
+content to "squeeze" his employer rather than to rob him--his one
+aim in life is money.  For this he is industrious, faithful, self-
+denying; and he has his reward.
+
+Several of my kind new acquaintances interested themselves about
+the (to me) vital matter of a servant interpreter, and many
+Japanese came to "see after the place."  The speaking of
+intelligible English is a sine qua non, and it was wonderful to
+find the few words badly pronounced and worse put together, which
+were regarded by the candidates as a sufficient qualification.  Can
+you speak English?  "Yes."  What wages do you ask?  "Twelve dollars
+a month."  This was always said glibly, and in each case sounded
+hopeful.  Whom have you lived with?  A foreign name distorted out
+of all recognition, as was natural, was then given.  Where have you
+travelled?  This question usually had to be translated into
+Japanese, and the usual answer was, "The Tokaido, the Nakasendo, to
+Kiyoto, to Nikko," naming the beaten tracks of countless tourists.
+Do you know anything of Northern Japan and the Hokkaido?  "No,"
+with a blank wondering look.  At this stage in every case Dr.
+Hepburn compassionately stepped in as interpreter, for their stock
+of English was exhausted.  Three were regarded as promising.  One
+was a sprightly youth who came in a well-made European suit of
+light-coloured tweed, a laid-down collar, a tie with a diamond (?)
+pin, and a white shirt, so stiffly starched, that he could hardly
+bend low enough for a bow even of European profundity.  He wore a
+gilt watch-chain with a locket, the corner of a very white cambric
+pocket-handkerchief dangled from his breast pocket, and he held a
+cane and a felt hat in his hand.  He was a Japanese dandy of the
+first water.  I looked at him ruefully.  To me starched collars are
+to be an unknown luxury for the next three months.  His fine
+foreign clothes would enhance prices everywhere in the interior,
+and besides that, I should feel a perpetual difficulty in asking
+menial services from an exquisite.  I was therefore quite relieved
+when his English broke down at the second question.
+
+The second was a most respectable-looking man of thirty-five in a
+good Japanese dress.  He was highly recommended, and his first
+English words were promising, but he had been cook in the service
+of a wealthy English official who travelled with a large retinue,
+and sent servants on ahead to prepare the way.  He knew really only
+a few words of English, and his horror at finding that there was
+"no master," and that there would be no woman-servant, was so
+great, that I hardly know whether he rejected me or I him.
+
+The third, sent by Mr. Wilkinson, wore a plain Japanese dress, and
+had a frank, intelligent face.  Though Dr. Hepburn spoke with him
+in Japanese, he thought that he knew more English than the others,
+and that what he knew would come out when he was less agitated.  He
+evidently understood what I said, and, though I had a suspicion
+that he would turn out to be the "master," I thought him so
+prepossessing that I nearly engaged him on the spot.  None of the
+others merit any remark.
+
+However, when I had nearly made up my mind in his favour, a
+creature appeared without any recommendation at all, except that
+one of Dr. Hepburn's servants was acquainted with him.  He is only
+eighteen, but this is equivalent to twenty-three or twenty-four
+with us, and only 4 feet 10 inches in height, but, though bandy-
+legged, is well proportioned and strong-looking.  He has a round
+and singularly plain face, good teeth, much elongated eyes, and the
+heavy droop of his eyelids almost caricatures the usual Japanese
+peculiarity.  He is the most stupid-looking Japanese that I have
+seen, but, from a rapid, furtive glance in his eyes now and then, I
+think that the stolidity is partly assumed.  He said that he had
+lived at the American Legation, that he had been a clerk on the
+Osaka railroad, that he had travelled through northern Japan by the
+eastern route, and in Yezo with Mr. Maries, a botanical collector,
+that he understood drying plants, that he could cook a little, that
+he could write English, that he could walk twenty-five miles a day,
+and that he thoroughly understood getting through the interior!
+This would-be paragon had no recommendations, and accounted for
+this by saying that they had been burned in a recent fire in his
+father's house.  Mr. Maries was not forthcoming, and more than
+this, I suspected and disliked the boy.  However, he understood my
+English and I his, and, being very anxious to begin my travels, I
+engaged him for twelve dollars a month, and soon afterwards he came
+back with a contract, in which he declares by all that he holds
+most sacred that he will serve me faithfully for the wages agreed
+upon, and to this document he affixed his seal and I my name.  The
+next day he asked me for a month's wages in advance, which I gave
+him, but Dr. H. consolingly suggested that I should never see him
+again!
+
+Ever since the solemn night when the contract was signed I have
+felt under an incubus, and since he appeared here yesterday,
+punctual to the appointed hour, I have felt as if I had a veritable
+"old man of the sea" upon my shoulders.  He flies up stairs and
+along the corridors as noiselessly as a cat, and already knows
+where I keep all my things.  Nothing surprises or abashes him, he
+bows profoundly to Sir Harry and Lady Parkes when he encounters
+them, but is obviously "quite at home" in a Legation, and only
+allowed one of the orderlies to show him how to put on a Mexican
+saddle and English bridle out of condescension to my wishes.  He
+seems as sharp or "smart" as can be, and has already arranged for
+the first three days of my journey.  His name is Ito, and you will
+doubtless hear much more of him, as he will be my good or evil
+genius for the next three months.
+
+As no English lady has yet travelled alone through the interior, my
+project excites a very friendly interest among my friends, and I
+receive much warning and dissuasion, and a little encouragement.
+The strongest, because the most intelligent, dissuasion comes from
+Dr. Hepburn, who thinks that I ought not to undertake the journey,
+and that I shall never get through to the Tsugaru Strait.  If I
+accepted much of the advice given to me, as to taking tinned meats
+and soups, claret, and a Japanese maid, I should need a train of at
+least six pack-horses!  As to fleas, there is a lamentable
+concensus of opinion that they are the curse of Japanese travelling
+during the summer, and some people recommend me to sleep in a bag
+drawn tightly round the throat, others to sprinkle my bedding
+freely with insect powder, others to smear the skin all over with
+carbolic oil, and some to make a plentiful use of dried and
+powdered flea-bane.  All admit, however, that these are but feeble
+palliatives.  Hammocks unfortunately cannot be used in Japanese
+houses.
+
+The "Food Question" is said to be the most important one for all
+travellers, and it is discussed continually with startling
+earnestness, not alone as regards my tour.  However apathetic
+people are on other subjects, the mere mention of this one rouses
+them into interest.  All have suffered or may suffer, and every one
+wishes to impart his own experience or to learn from that of
+others.  Foreign ministers, professors, missionaries, merchants--
+all discuss it with becoming gravity as a question of life and
+death, which by many it is supposed to be.  The fact is that,
+except at a few hotels in popular resorts which are got up for
+foreigners, bread, butter, milk, meat, poultry, coffee, wine, and
+beer, are unattainable, that fresh fish is rare, and that unless
+one can live on rice, tea, and eggs, with the addition now and then
+of some tasteless fresh vegetables, food must be taken, as the
+fishy and vegetable abominations known as "Japanese food" can only
+be swallowed and digested by a few, and that after long practice.
+{4}
+
+Another, but far inferior, difficulty on which much stress is laid
+is the practice common among native servants of getting a "squeeze"
+out of every money transaction on the road, so that the cost of
+travelling is often doubled, and sometimes trebled, according to
+the skill and capacity of the servant.  Three gentlemen who have
+travelled extensively have given me lists of the prices which I
+ought to pay, varying in different districts, and largely increased
+on the beaten track of tourists, and Mr. Wilkinson has read these
+to Ito, who offered an occasional remonstrance.  Mr. W. remarked
+after the conversation, which was in Japanese, that he thought I
+should have to "look sharp after money matters"--a painful
+prospect, as I have never been able to manage anybody in my life,
+and shall surely have no control over this clever, cunning Japanese
+youth, who on most points will be able to deceive me as he pleases.
+
+On returning here I found that Lady Parkes had made most of the
+necessary preparations for me, and that they include two light
+baskets with covers of oiled paper, a travelling bed or stretcher,
+a folding-chair, and an india-rubber bath, all which she considers
+as necessaries for a person in feeble health on a journey of such
+long duration.  This week has been spent in making acquaintances in
+Tokiyo, seeing some characteristic sights, and in trying to get
+light on my tour; but little seems known by foreigners of northern
+Japan, and a Government department, on being applied to, returned
+an itinerary, leaving out 140 miles of the route that I dream of
+taking, on the ground of "insufficient information," on which Sir
+Harry cheerily remarked, "You will have to get your information as
+you go along, and that will be all the more interesting."  Ah! but
+how?  I. L. B.
+
+
+
+LETTER V
+
+
+
+Kwan-non Temple--Uniformity of Temple Architecture--A Kuruma
+Expedition--A Perpetual Festival--The Ni-o--The Limbo of Vanity--
+Heathen Prayers--Binzuru--A Group of Devils--Archery Galleries--New
+Japan--An Elegante.
+
+H.B.M.'s LEGATION, YEDO,
+June 9.
+
+Once for all I will describe a Buddhist temple, and it shall be the
+popular temple of Asakusa, which keeps fair and festival the whole
+year round, and is dedicated to the "thousand-armed" Kwan-non, the
+goddess of mercy.  Writing generally, it may be said that in
+design, roof, and general aspect, Japanese Buddhist temples are all
+alike.  The sacred architectural idea expresses itself in nearly
+the same form always.  There is a single or double-roofed gateway,
+with highly-coloured figures in niches on either side; the paved
+temple-court, with more or fewer stone or bronze lanterns; amainu,
+or heavenly dogs, in stone on stone pedestals; stone sarcophagi,
+roofed over or not, for holy water; a flight of steps; a portico,
+continued as a verandah all round the temple; a roof of
+tremendously disproportionate size and weight, with a peculiar
+curve; a square or oblong hall divided by a railing from a
+"chancel" with a high and low altar, and a shrine containing
+Buddha, or the divinity to whom the chapel is dedicated; an
+incense-burner, and a few ecclesiastical ornaments.  The symbols,
+idols, and adornments depend upon the sect to which the temple
+belongs, or the wealth of its votaries, or the fancy of the
+priests.  Some temples are packed full of gods, shrines, banners,
+bronzes, brasses, tablets, and ornaments, and others, like those of
+the Monto sect, are so severely simple, that with scarcely an
+alteration they might be used for Christian worship to-morrow.
+
+The foundations consist of square stones on which the uprights
+rest.  These are of elm, and are united at intervals by
+longitudinal pieces.  The great size and enormous weight of the
+roofs arise from the trusses being formed of one heavy frame being
+built upon another in diminishing squares till the top is reached,
+the main beams being formed of very large timbers put on in their
+natural state.  They are either very heavily and ornamentally
+tiled, or covered with sheet copper ornamented with gold, or
+thatched to a depth of from one to three feet, with fine shingles
+or bark.  The casing of the walls on the outside is usually thick
+elm planking either lacquered or unpainted, and that of the inside
+is of thin, finely-planed and bevelled planking of the beautiful
+wood of the Retinospora obtusa.  The lining of the roof is in flat
+panels, and where it is supported by pillars they are invariably
+circular, and formed of the straight, finely-grained stem of the
+Retinospora obtusa.  The projecting ends of the roof-beams under
+the eaves are either elaborately carved, lacquered in dull red, or
+covered with copper, as are the joints of the beams.  Very few
+nails are used, the timbers being very beautifully joined by
+mortices and dovetails, other methods of junction being unknown.
+
+Mr. Chamberlain and I went in a kuruma hurried along by three
+liveried coolies, through the three miles of crowded streets which
+lie between the Legation and Asakusa, once a village, but now
+incorporated with this monster city, to the broad street leading to
+the Adzuma Bridge over the Sumida river, one of the few stone
+bridges in Tokiyo, which connects east Tokiyo, an uninteresting
+region, containing many canals, storehouses, timber-yards, and
+inferior yashikis, with the rest of the city.  This street,
+marvellously thronged with pedestrians and kurumas, is the terminus
+of a number of city "stage lines," and twenty wretched-looking
+covered waggons, with still more wretched ponies, were drawn up in
+the middle, waiting for passengers.  Just there plenty of real
+Tokiyo life is to be seen, for near a shrine of popular pilgrimage
+there are always numerous places of amusement, innocent and
+vicious, and the vicinity of this temple is full of restaurants,
+tea-houses, minor theatres, and the resorts of dancing and singing
+girls.
+
+A broad-paved avenue, only open to foot passengers, leads from this
+street to the grand entrance, a colossal two-storied double-roofed
+mon, or gate, painted a rich dull red.  On either side of this
+avenue are lines of booths--which make a brilliant and lavish
+display of their contents--toy-shops, shops for smoking apparatus,
+and shops for the sale of ornamental hair-pins predominating.
+Nearer the gate are booths for the sale of rosaries for prayer,
+sleeve and bosom idols of brass and wood in small shrines, amulet
+bags, representations of the jolly-looking Daikoku, the god of
+wealth, the most popular of the household gods of Japan, shrines,
+memorial tablets, cheap ex votos, sacred bells, candlesticks, and
+incense-burners, and all the endless and various articles connected
+with Buddhist devotion, public and private.  Every day is a
+festival-day at Asakusa; the temple is dedicated to the most
+popular of the great divinities; it is the most popular of
+religious resorts; and whether he be Buddhist, Shintoist, or
+Christian, no stranger comes to the capital without making a visit
+to its crowded courts or a purchase at its tempting booths.  Not to
+be an exception, I invested in bouquets of firework flowers, fifty
+flowers for 2 sen, or 1d., each of which, as it slowly consumes,
+throws off fiery coruscations, shaped like the most beautiful of
+snow crystals.  I was also tempted by small boxes at 2 sen each,
+containing what look like little slips of withered pith, but which,
+on being dropped into water, expand into trees and flowers.
+
+Down a paved passage on the right there is an artificial river, not
+over clean, with a bridge formed of one curved stone, from which a
+flight of steps leads up to a small temple with a magnificent
+bronze bell.  At the entrance several women were praying.  In the
+same direction are two fine bronze Buddhas, seated figures, one
+with clasped hands, the other holding a lotus, both with "The light
+of the world" upon their brows.  The grand red gateway into the
+actual temple courts has an extremely imposing effect, and besides,
+it is the portal to the first great heathen temple that I have
+seen, and it made me think of another temple whose courts were
+equally crowded with buyers and sellers, and of a "whip of small
+cords" in the hand of One who claimed both the temple and its
+courts as His "Father's House."  Not with less righteous wrath
+would the gentle founder of Buddhism purify the unsanctified courts
+of Asakusa.  Hundreds of men, women, and children passed to and fro
+through the gateway in incessant streams, and so they are passing
+through every daylight hour of every day in the year, thousands
+becoming tens of thousands on the great matsuri days, when the
+mikoshi, or sacred car, containing certain symbols of the god, is
+exhibited, and after sacred mimes and dances have been performed,
+is carried in a magnificent, antique procession to the shore and
+back again.  Under the gateway on either side are the Ni-o, or two
+kings, gigantic figures in flowing robes, one red and with an open
+mouth, representing the Yo, or male principle of Chinese
+philosophy, the other green and with the mouth firmly closed,
+representing the In, or female principle.  They are hideous
+creatures, with protruding eyes, and faces and figures distorted
+and corrupted into a high degree of exaggerated and convulsive
+action.  These figures guard the gates of most of the larger
+temples, and small prints of them are pasted over the doors of
+houses to protect them against burglars.  Attached to the grating
+in front were a number of straw sandals, hung up by people who pray
+that their limbs may be as muscular as those of the Ni-o.
+
+Passing through this gate we were in the temple court proper, and
+in front of the temple itself, a building of imposing height and
+size, of a dull red colour, with a grand roof of heavy iron grey
+tiles, with a sweeping curve which gives grace as well as grandeur.
+The timbers and supports are solid and of great size, but, in
+common with all Japanese temples, whether Buddhist or Shinto, the
+edifice is entirely of wood.  A broad flight of narrow, steep,
+brass-bound steps lead up to the porch, which is formed by a number
+of circular pillars supporting a very lofty roof, from which paper
+lanterns ten feet long are hanging.  A gallery runs from this round
+the temple, under cover of the eaves.  There is an outer temple,
+unmatted, and an inner one behind a grating, into which those who
+choose to pay for the privilege of praying in comparative privacy,
+or of having prayers said for them by the priests, can pass.
+
+In the outer temple the noise, confusion, and perpetual motion, are
+bewildering.  Crowds on clattering clogs pass in and out; pigeons,
+of which hundreds live in the porch, fly over your head, and the
+whirring of their wings mingles with the tinkling of bells, the
+beating of drums and gongs, the high-pitched drone of the priests,
+the low murmur of prayers, the rippling laughter of girls, the
+harsh voices of men, and the general buzz of a multitude.  There is
+very much that is highly grotesque at first sight.  Men squat on
+the floor selling amulets, rosaries, printed prayers, incense
+sticks, and other wares.  Ex votos of all kinds hang on the wall
+and on the great round pillars.  Many of these are rude Japanese
+pictures.  The subject of one is the blowing-up of a steamer in the
+Sumidagawa with the loss of 100 lives, when the donor was saved by
+the grace of Kwan-non.  Numbers of memorials are from people who
+offered up prayers here, and have been restored to health or
+wealth.  Others are from junk men whose lives have been in peril.
+There are scores of men's queues and a few dusty braids of women's
+hair offered on account of vows or prayers, usually for sick
+relatives, and among them all, on the left hand, are a large mirror
+in a gaudily gilt frame and a framed picture of the P. M. S. China!
+Above this incongruous collection are splendid wood carvings and
+frescoes of angels, among which the pigeons find a home free from
+molestation.
+
+Near the entrance there is a superb incense-burner in the most
+massive style of the older bronzes, with a mythical beast rampant
+upon it, and in high relief round it the Japanese signs of the
+zodiac--the rat, ox, tiger, rabbit, dragon, serpent, horse, goat,
+monkey, cock, dog, and hog.  Clouds of incense rise continually
+from the perforations round the edge, and a black-toothed woman who
+keeps it burning is perpetually receiving small coins from the
+worshippers, who then pass on to the front of the altar to pray.
+The high altar, and indeed all that I should regard as properly the
+temple, are protected by a screen of coarsely-netted iron wire.
+This holy of holies is full of shrines and gods, gigantic
+candlesticks, colossal lotuses of gilded silver, offerings, lamps,
+lacquer, litany books, gongs, drums, bells, and all the mysterious
+symbols of a faith which is a system of morals and metaphysics to
+the educated and initiated, and an idolatrous superstition to the
+masses.  In this interior the light was dim, the lamps burned low,
+the atmosphere was heavy with incense, and amidst its fumes shaven
+priests in chasubles and stoles moved noiselessly over the soft
+matting round the high altar on which Kwan-non is enshrined,
+lighting candles, striking bells, and murmuring prayers.  In front
+of the screen is the treasury, a wooden chest 14 feet by 10, with a
+deep slit, into which all the worshippers cast copper coins with a
+ceaseless clinking sound.
+
+There, too, they pray, if that can be called prayer which
+frequently consists only in the repetition of an uncomprehended
+phrase in a foreign tongue, bowing the head, raising the hands and
+rubbing them, murmuring a few words, telling beads, clapping the
+hands, bowing again, and then passing out or on to another shrine
+to repeat the same form.  Merchants in silk clothing, soldiers in
+shabby French uniforms, farmers, coolies in "vile raiment,"
+mothers, maidens, swells in European clothes, even the samurai
+policemen, bow before the goddess of mercy.  Most of the prayers
+were offered rapidly, a mere momentary interlude in the gurgle of
+careless talk, and without a pretence of reverence; but some of the
+petitioners obviously brought real woes in simple "faith."
+
+In one shrine there is a large idol, spotted all over with pellets
+of paper, and hundreds of these are sticking to the wire netting
+which protects him.  A worshipper writes his petition on paper, or,
+better still, has it written for him by the priest, chews it to a
+pulp, and spits it at the divinity.  If, having been well aimed, it
+passes through the wire and sticks, it is a good omen, if it lodges
+in the netting the prayer has probably been unheard.  The Ni-o and
+some of the gods outside the temple are similarly disfigured.  On
+the left there is a shrine with a screen, to the bars of which
+innumerable prayers have been tied.  On the right, accessible to
+all, sits Binzuru, one of Buddha's original sixteen disciples.  His
+face and appearance have been calm and amiable, with something of
+the quiet dignity of an elderly country gentleman of the reign of
+George III.; but he is now worn and defaced, and has not much more
+of eyes, nose, and mouth than the Sphinx; and the polished, red
+lacquer has disappeared from his hands and feet, for Binzuru is a
+great medicine god, and centuries of sick people have rubbed his
+face and limbs, and then have rubbed their own.  A young woman went
+up to him, rubbed the back of his neck, and then rubbed her own.
+Then a modest-looking girl, leading an ancient woman with badly
+inflamed eyelids and paralysed arms, rubbed his eyelids, and then
+gently stroked the closed eyelids of the crone.  Then a coolie,
+with a swelled knee, applied himself vigorously to Binzuru's knee,
+and more gently to his own.  Remember, this is the great temple of
+the populace, and "not many rich, not many noble, not many mighty,"
+enter its dim, dirty, crowded halls. {5}
+
+But the great temple to Kwan-non is not the only sight of Asakusa.
+Outside it are countless shrines and temples, huge stone Amainu, or
+heavenly dogs, on rude blocks of stone, large cisterns of stone and
+bronze with and without canopies, containing water for the
+ablutions of the worshippers, cast iron Amainu on hewn stone
+pedestals--a recent gift--bronze and stone lanterns, a stone
+prayer-wheel in a stone post, figures of Buddha with the serene
+countenance of one who rests from his labours, stone idols, on
+which devotees have pasted slips of paper inscribed with prayers,
+with sticks of incense rising out of the ashes of hundreds of
+former sticks smouldering before them, blocks of hewn stone with
+Chinese and Sanskrit inscriptions, an eight-sided temple in which
+are figures of the "Five Hundred Disciples" of Buddha, a temple
+with the roof and upper part of the walls richly coloured, the
+circular Shinto mirror in an inner shrine, a bronze treasury
+outside with a bell, which is rung to attract the god's attention,
+a striking, five-storied pagoda, with much red lacquer, and the
+ends of the roof-beams very boldly carved, its heavy eaves fringed
+with wind bells, and its uppermost roof terminating in a graceful
+copper spiral of great height, with the "sacred pearl" surrounded
+by flames for its finial.  Near it, as near most temples, is an
+upright frame of plain wood with tablets, on which are inscribed
+the names of donors to the temple, and the amount of their gifts.
+
+There is a handsome stone-floored temple to the south-east of the
+main building, to which we were the sole visitors.  It is lofty and
+very richly decorated.  In the centre is an octagonal revolving
+room, or rather shrine, of rich red lacquer most gorgeously
+ornamented.  It rests on a frame of carved black lacquer, and has a
+lacquer gallery running round it, on which several richly decorated
+doors open.  On the application of several shoulders to this
+gallery the shrine rotates.  It is, in fact, a revolving library of
+the Buddhist Scriptures, and a single turn is equivalent to a
+single pious perusal of them.  It is an exceedingly beautiful
+specimen of ancient decorative lacquer work.  At the back part of
+the temple is a draped brass figure of Buddha, with one hand
+raised--a dignified piece of casting.  All the Buddhas have Hindoo
+features, and the graceful drapery and oriental repose which have
+been imported from India contrast singularly with the grotesque
+extravagances of the indigenous Japanese conceptions.  In the same
+temple are four monstrously extravagant figures carved in wood,
+life-size, with clawed toes on their feet, and two great fangs in
+addition to the teeth in each mouth.  The heads of all are
+surrounded with flames, and are backed by golden circlets.  They
+are extravagantly clothed in garments which look as if they were
+agitated by a violent wind; they wear helmets and partial suits of
+armour, and hold in their right hands something between a monarch's
+sceptre and a priest's staff.  They have goggle eyes and open
+mouths, and their faces are in distorted and exaggerated action.
+One, painted bright red, tramples on a writhing devil painted
+bright pink; another, painted emerald green, tramples on a sea-
+green devil, an indigo blue monster tramples on a sky-blue fiend,
+and a bright pink monster treads under his clawed feet a flesh-
+coloured demon.  I cannot give you any idea of the hideousness of
+their aspect, and was much inclined to sympathise with the more
+innocent-looking fiends whom they were maltreating.  They occur
+very frequently in Buddhist temples, and are said by some to be
+assistant-torturers to Yemma, the lord of hell, and are called by
+others "The gods of the Four Quarters."
+
+The temple grounds are a most extraordinary sight.  No English fair
+in the palmiest days of fairs ever presented such an array of
+attractions.  Behind the temple are archery galleries in numbers,
+where girls, hardly so modest-looking as usual, smile and smirk,
+and bring straw-coloured tea in dainty cups, and tasteless
+sweetmeats on lacquer trays, and smoke their tiny pipes, and offer
+you bows of slender bamboo strips, two feet long, with rests for
+the arrows, and tiny cherry-wood arrows, bone-tipped, and feathered
+red, blue, and white, and smilingly, but quite unobtrusively, ask
+you to try your skill or luck at a target hanging in front of a
+square drum, flanked by red cushions.  A click, a boom, or a hardly
+audible "thud," indicate the result.  Nearly all the archers were
+grown-up men, and many of them spend hours at a time in this
+childish sport.
+
+All over the grounds booths with the usual charcoal fire, copper
+boiler, iron kettle of curious workmanship, tiny cups, fragrant
+aroma of tea, and winsome, graceful girls, invite you to drink and
+rest, and more solid but less inviting refreshments are also to be
+had.  Rows of pretty paper lanterns decorate all the stalls.  Then
+there are photograph galleries, mimic tea-gardens, tableaux in
+which a large number of groups of life-size figures with
+appropriate scenery are put into motion by a creaking wheel of
+great size, matted lounges for rest, stands with saucers of rice,
+beans and peas for offerings to the gods, the pigeons, and the two
+sacred horses, Albino ponies, with pink eyes and noses, revoltingly
+greedy creatures, eating all day long and still craving for more.
+There are booths for singing and dancing, and under one a
+professional story-teller was reciting to a densely packed crowd
+one of the old, popular stories of crime.  There are booths where
+for a few rin you may have the pleasure of feeding some very ugly
+and greedy apes, or of watching mangy monkeys which have been
+taught to prostrate themselves Japanese fashion.
+
+This letter is far too long, but to pass over Asakusa and its
+novelties when the impression of them is fresh would be to omit one
+of the most interesting sights in Japan.  On the way back we passed
+red mail carts like those in London, a squadron of cavalry in
+European uniforms and with European saddles, and the carriage of
+the Minister of Marine, an English brougham with a pair of horses
+in English harness, and an escort of six troopers--a painful
+precaution adopted since the political assassination of Okubo, the
+Home Minister, three weeks ago.  So the old and the new in this
+great city contrast with and jostle each other.  The Mikado and his
+ministers, naval and military officers and men, the whole of the
+civil officials and the police, wear European clothes, as well as a
+number of dissipated-looking young men who aspire to represent
+"young Japan."  Carriages and houses in English style, with
+carpets, chairs, and tables, are becoming increasingly numerous,
+and the bad taste which regulates the purchase of foreign
+furnishings is as marked as the good taste which everywhere
+presides over the adornment of the houses in purely Japanese style.
+Happily these expensive and unbecoming innovations have scarcely
+affected female dress, and some ladies who adopted our fashions
+have given them up because of their discomfort and manifold
+difficulties and complications.
+
+The Empress on State occasions appears in scarlet satin hakama, and
+flowing robes, and she and the Court ladies invariably wear the
+national costume.  I have only seen two ladies in European dress;
+and this was at a dinner-party here, and they were the wives of Mr.
+Mori, the go-ahead Vice-Minister for Foreign Affairs, and of the
+Japanese Consul at Hong Kong; and both by long residence abroad
+have learned to wear it with ease.  The wife of Saigo, the Minister
+of Education, called one day in an exquisite Japanese dress of
+dove-coloured silk crepe, with a pale pink under-dress of the same
+material, which showed a little at the neck and sleeves.  Her
+girdle was of rich dove-coloured silk, with a ghost of a pale pink
+blossom hovering upon it here and there.  She had no frills or
+fripperies of any description, or ornaments, except a single pin in
+her chignon, and, with a sweet and charming face, she looked as
+graceful and dignified in her Japanese costume as she would have
+looked exactly the reverse in ours.  Their costume has one striking
+advantage over ours.  A woman is perfectly CLOTHED if she has one
+garment and a girdle on, and perfectly DRESSED if she has two.
+There is a difference in features and expression--much exaggerated,
+however, by Japanese artists--between the faces of high-born women
+and those of the middle and lower classes.  I decline to admire
+fat-faces, pug noses, thick lips, long eyes, turned up at the outer
+corners, and complexions which owe much to powder and paint.  The
+habit of painting the lips with a reddish-yellow pigment, and of
+heavily powdering the face and throat with pearl powder, is a
+repulsive one.  But it is hard to pronounce any unfavourable
+criticism on women who have so much kindly grace of manner.  I. L.
+B.
+
+
+
+LETTER VI
+
+
+
+Fears--Travelling Equipments--Passports--Coolie Costume--A Yedo
+Diorama--Rice-Fields--Tea-Houses--A Traveller's Reception--The Inn
+at Kasukabe--Lack of Privacy--A Concourse of Noises--A Nocturnal
+Alarm--A Vision of Policemen--A Budget from Yedo.
+
+KASUKABE, June 10.
+
+From the date you will see that I have started on my long journey,
+though not upon the "unbeaten tracks" which I hope to take after
+leaving Nikko, and my first evening alone in the midst of this
+crowded Asian life is strange, almost fearful.  I have suffered
+from nervousness all day--the fear of being frightened, of being
+rudely mobbed, as threatened by Mr. Campbell of Islay, of giving
+offence by transgressing the rules of Japanese politeness--of, I
+know not what!  Ito is my sole reliance, and he may prove a "broken
+reed."  I often wished to give up my project, but was ashamed of my
+cowardice when, on the best authority, I received assurances of its
+safety. {6}
+
+The preparations were finished yesterday, and my outfit weighed 110
+lbs., which, with Ito's weight of 90 lbs., is as much as can be
+carried by an average Japanese horse.  My two painted wicker boxes
+lined with paper and with waterproof covers are convenient for the
+two sides of a pack-horse.  I have a folding-chair--for in a
+Japanese house there is nothing but the floor to sit upon, and not
+even a solid wall to lean against--an air-pillow for kuruma
+travelling, an india-rubber bath, sheets, a blanket, and last, and
+more important than all else, a canvas stretcher on light poles,
+which can be put together in two minutes; and being 2.5 feet high
+is supposed to be secure from fleas.  The "Food Question" has been
+solved by a modified rejection of all advice!  I have only brought
+a small supply of Liebig's extract of meat, 4 lbs. of raisins, some
+chocolate, both for eating and drinking, and some brandy in case of
+need.  I have my own Mexican saddle and bridle, a reasonable
+quantity of clothes, including a loose wrapper for wearing in the
+evenings, some candles, Mr. Brunton's large map of Japan, volumes
+of the Transactions of the English Asiatic Society, and Mr. Satow's
+Anglo-Japanese Dictionary.  My travelling dress is a short costume
+of dust-coloured striped tweed, with strong laced boots of
+unblacked leather, and a Japanese hat, shaped like a large inverted
+bowl, of light bamboo plait, with a white cotton cover, and a very
+light frame inside, which fits round the brow and leaves a space of
+1.5 inches between the hat and the head for the free circulation of
+air.  It only weighs 2.5 ounces, and is infinitely to be preferred
+to a heavy pith helmet, and, light as it is, it protects the head
+so thoroughly, that, though the sun has been unclouded all day and
+the mercury at 86 degrees, no other protection has been necessary.
+My money is in bundles of 50 yen, and 50, 20, and 10 sen notes,
+besides which I have some rouleaux of copper coins.  I have a bag
+for my passport, which hangs to my waist.  All my luggage, with the
+exception of my saddle, which I use for a footstool, goes into one
+kuruma, and Ito, who is limited to 12 lbs., takes his along with
+him.
+
+I have three kurumas, which are to go to Nikko, ninety miles, in
+three days, without change of runners, for about eleven shillings
+each.
+
+Passports usually define the route over which the foreigner is to
+travel, but in this case Sir H. Parkes has obtained one which is
+practically unrestricted, for it permits me to travel through all
+Japan north of Tokiyo and in Yezo without specifying any route.
+This precious document, without which I should be liable to be
+arrested and forwarded to my consul, is of course in Japanese, but
+the cover gives in English the regulations under which it is
+issued.  A passport must be applied for, for reasons of "health,
+botanical research, or scientific investigation."  Its bearer must
+not light fires in woods, attend fires on horseback, trespass on
+fields, enclosures, or game-preserves, scribble on temples,
+shrines, or walls, drive fast on a narrow road, or disregard
+notices of "No thoroughfare."  He must "conduct himself in an
+orderly and conciliating manner towards the Japanese authorities
+and people;" he "must produce his passport to any officials who may
+demand it," under pain of arrest; and while in the interior "is
+forbidden to shoot, trade, to conclude mercantile contracts with
+Japanese, or to rent houses or rooms for a longer period than his
+journey requires."
+
+NIKKO, June 13.--This is one of the paradises of Japan!  It is a
+proverbial saying, "He who has not seen Nikko must not use the word
+kek'ko" (splendid, delicious, beautiful); but of this more
+hereafter.  My attempt to write to you from Kasukabe failed, owing
+to the onslaught of an army of fleas, which compelled me to retreat
+to my stretcher, and the last two nights, for this and other
+reasons, writing has been out of the question.
+
+I left the Legation at 11 am. on Monday and reached Kasukabe at 5
+p.m., the runners keeping up an easy trot the whole journey of
+twenty-three miles; but the halts for smoking and eating were
+frequent.
+
+These kuruma-runners wore short blue cotton drawers, girdles with
+tobacco pouch and pipe attached, short blue cotton shirts with wide
+sleeves, and open in front, reaching to their waists, and blue
+cotton handkerchiefs knotted round their heads, except when the sun
+was very hot, when they took the flat flag discs, two feet in
+diameter, which always hang behind kurumas, and are used either in
+sun or rain, and tied them on their heads.  They wore straw
+sandals, which had to be replaced twice on the way.  Blue and white
+towels hung from the shafts to wipe away the sweat, which ran
+profusely down the lean, brown bodies.  The upper garment always
+flew behind them, displaying chests and backs elaborately tattooed
+with dragons and fishes.  Tattooing has recently been prohibited;
+but it was not only a favourite adornment, but a substitute for
+perishable clothing.
+
+Most of the men of the lower classes wear their hair in a very ugly
+fashion,--the front and top of the head being shaved, the long hair
+from the back and sides being drawn up and tied, then waxed, tied
+again, and cut short off, the stiff queue being brought forward and
+laid, pointing forwards, along the back part of the top of the
+head.  This top-knot is shaped much like a short clay pipe.  The
+shaving and dressing the hair thus require the skill of a
+professional barber.  Formerly the hair was worn in this way by the
+samurai, in order that the helmet might fit comfortably, but it is
+now the style of the lower classes mostly and by no means
+invariably.
+
+Blithely, at a merry trot, the coolies hurried us away from the
+kindly group in the Legation porch, across the inner moat and along
+the inner drive of the castle, past gateways and retaining walls of
+Cyclopean masonry, across the second moat, along miles of streets
+of sheds and shops, all grey, thronged with foot-passengers and
+kurumas, with pack-horses loaded two or three feet above their
+backs, the arches of their saddles red and gilded lacquer, their
+frontlets of red leather, their "shoes" straw sandals, their heads
+tied tightly to the saddle-girth on either side, great white cloths
+figured with mythical beasts in blue hanging down loosely under
+their bodies; with coolies dragging heavy loads to the guttural cry
+of Hai! huida! with children whose heads were shaved in hideous
+patterns; and now and then, as if to point a moral lesson in the
+midst of the whirling diorama, a funeral passed through the throng,
+with a priest in rich robes, mumbling prayers, a covered barrel
+containing the corpse, and a train of mourners in blue dresses with
+white wings.  Then we came to the fringe of Yedo, where the houses
+cease to be continuous, but all that day there was little interval
+between them.  All had open fronts, so that the occupations of the
+inmates, the "domestic life" in fact, were perfectly visible.  Many
+of these houses were roadside chayas, or tea-houses, and nearly all
+sold sweet-meats, dried fish, pickles, mochi, or uncooked cakes of
+rice dough, dried persimmons, rain hats, or straw shoes for man or
+beast.  The road, though wide enough for two carriages (of which we
+saw none), was not good, and the ditches on both sides were
+frequently neither clean nor sweet.  Must I write it?  The houses
+were mean, poor, shabby, often even squalid, the smells were bad,
+and the people looked ugly, shabby, and poor, though all were
+working at something or other.
+
+The country is a dead level, and mainly an artificial mud flat or
+swamp, in whose fertile ooze various aquatic birds were wading, and
+in which hundreds of men and women were wading too, above their
+knees in slush; for this plain of Yedo is mainly a great rice-
+field, and this is the busy season of rice-planting; for here, in
+the sense in which we understand it, they do not "cast their bread
+upon the waters."  There are eight or nine leading varieties of
+rice grown in Japan, all of which, except an upland species,
+require mud, water, and much puddling and nasty work.  Rice is the
+staple food and the wealth of Japan.  Its revenues were estimated
+in rice.  Rice is grown almost wherever irrigation is possible.
+
+The rice-fields are usually very small and of all shapes.  A
+quarter of an acre is a good-sized field.  The rice crop planted in
+June is not reaped till November, but in the meantime it needs to
+be "puddled" three times, i.e. for all the people to turn into the
+slush, and grub out all the weeds and tangled aquatic plants, which
+weave themselves from tuft to tuft, and puddle up the mud afresh
+round the roots.  It grows in water till it is ripe, when the
+fields are dried off.  An acre of the best land produces annually
+about fifty-four bushels of rice, and of the worst about thirty.
+
+On the plain of Yedo, besides the nearly continuous villages along
+the causewayed road, there are islands, as they may be called, of
+villages surrounded by trees, and hundreds of pleasant oases on
+which wheat ready for the sickle, onions, millet, beans, and peas,
+were flourishing.  There were lotus ponds too, in which the
+glorious lily, Nelumbo nucifera, is being grown for the
+sacrilegious purpose of being eaten!  Its splendid classical leaves
+are already a foot above the water.
+
+After running cheerily for several miles my men bowled me into a
+tea-house, where they ate and smoked while I sat in the garden,
+which consisted of baked mud, smooth stepping-stones, a little pond
+with some goldfish, a deformed pine, and a stone lantern.  Observe
+that foreigners are wrong in calling the Japanese houses of
+entertainment indiscriminately "tea-houses."  A tea-house or chaya
+is a house at which you can obtain tea and other refreshments,
+rooms to eat them in, and attendance.  That which to some extent
+answers to an hotel is a yadoya, which provides sleeping
+accommodation and food as required.  The licenses are different.
+Tea-houses are of all grades, from the three-storied erections, gay
+with flags and lanterns, in the great cities and at places of
+popular resort, down to the road-side tea-house, as represented in
+the engraving, with three or four lounges of dark-coloured wood
+under its eaves, usually occupied by naked coolies in all attitudes
+of easiness and repose.  The floor is raised about eighteen inches
+above the ground, and in these tea-houses is frequently a matted
+platform with a recess called the doma, literally "earth-space," in
+the middle, round which runs a ledge of polished wood called the
+itama, or "board space," on which travellers sit while they bathe
+their soiled feet with the water which is immediately brought to
+them; for neither with soiled feet nor in foreign shoes must one
+advance one step on the matted floor.  On one side of the doma is
+the kitchen, with its one or two charcoal fires, where the coolies
+lounge on the mats and take their food and smoke, and on the other
+the family pursue their avocations.  In almost the smallest tea-
+house there are one or two rooms at the back, but all the life and
+interest are in the open front.  In the small tea-houses there is
+only an irori, a square hole in the floor, full of sand or white
+ash, on which the live charcoal for cooking purposes is placed, and
+small racks for food and eating utensils; but in the large ones
+there is a row of charcoal stoves, and the walls are garnished up
+to the roof with shelves, and the lacquer tables and lacquer and
+china ware used by the guests.  The large tea-houses contain the
+possibilities for a number of rooms which can be extemporised at
+once by sliding paper panels, called fusuma, along grooves in the
+floor and in the ceiling or cross-beams.
+
+When we stopped at wayside tea-houses the runners bathed their
+feet, rinsed their mouths, and ate rice, pickles, salt fish, and
+"broth of abominable things," after which they smoked their tiny
+pipes, which give them three whiffs for each filling.  As soon as I
+got out at any of these, one smiling girl brought me the tabako-
+bon, a square wood or lacquer tray, with a china or bamboo
+charcoal-holder and ash-pot upon it, and another presented me with
+a zen, a small lacquer table about six inches high, with a tiny
+teapot with a hollow handle at right angles with the spout, holding
+about an English tea-cupful, and two cups without handles or
+saucers, with a capacity of from ten to twenty thimblefuls each.
+The hot water is merely allowed to rest a minute on the tea-leaves,
+and the infusion is a clear straw-coloured liquid with a delicious
+aroma and flavour, grateful and refreshing at all times.  If
+Japanese tea "stands," it acquires a coarse bitterness and an
+unwholesome astringency.  Milk and sugar are not used.  A clean-
+looking wooden or lacquer pail with a lid is kept in all tea-
+houses, and though hot rice, except to order, is only ready three
+times daily, the pail always contains cold rice, and the coolies
+heat it by pouring hot tea over it.  As you eat, a tea-house girl,
+with this pail beside her, squats on the floor in front of you, and
+fills your rice bowl till you say, "Hold, enough!"  On this road it
+is expected that you leave three or four sen on the tea-tray for a
+rest of an hour or two and tea.
+
+All day we travelled through rice swamps, along a much-frequented
+road, as far as Kasukabe, a good-sized but miserable-looking town,
+with its main street like one of the poorest streets in Tokiyo, and
+halted for the night at a large yadoya, with downstairs and
+upstairs rooms, crowds of travellers, and many evil smells.  On
+entering, the house-master or landlord, the teishi, folded his
+hands and prostrated himself, touching the floor with his forehead
+three times.  It is a large, rambling old house, and fully thirty
+servants were bustling about in the daidokoro, or great open
+kitchen.  I took a room upstairs (i.e. up a steep step-ladder of
+dark, polished wood), with a balcony under the deep eaves.  The
+front of the house upstairs was one long room with only sides and a
+front, but it was immediately divided into four by drawing sliding
+screens or panels, covered with opaque wall papers, into their
+proper grooves.  A back was also improvised, but this was formed of
+frames with panes of translucent paper, like our tissue paper, with
+sundry holes and rents.  This being done, I found myself the
+possessor of a room about sixteen feet square, without hook, shelf,
+rail, or anything on which to put anything--nothing, in short, but
+a matted floor.  Do not be misled by the use of this word matting.
+Japanese house-mats, tatami, are as neat, refined, and soft a
+covering for the floor as the finest Axminster carpet.  They are 5
+feet 9 inches long, 3 feet broad, and 2.5 inches thick.  The frame
+is solidly made of coarse straw, and this is covered with very fine
+woven matting, as nearly white as possible, and each mat is usually
+bound with dark blue cloth.  Temples and rooms are measured by the
+number of mats they contain, and rooms must be built for the mats,
+as they are never cut to the rooms.  They are always level with the
+polished grooves or ledges which surround the floor.  They are soft
+and elastic, and the finer qualities are very beautiful.  They are
+as expensive as the best Brussels carpet, and the Japanese take
+great pride in them, and are much aggrieved by the way in which
+some thoughtless foreigners stamp over them with dirty boots.
+Unfortunately they harbour myriads of fleas.
+
+Outside my room an open balcony with many similiar rooms ran round
+a forlorn aggregate of dilapidated shingle roofs and water-butts.
+These rooms were all full.  Ito asked me for instructions once for
+all, put up my stretcher under a large mosquito net of coarse green
+canvas with a fusty smell, filled my bath, brought me some tea,
+rice, and eggs, took my passport to be copied by the house-master,
+and departed, I know not whither.  I tried to write to you, but
+fleas and mosquitoes prevented it, and besides, the fusuma were
+frequently noiselessly drawn apart, and several pairs of dark,
+elongated eyes surveyed me through the cracks; for there were two
+Japanese families in the room to the right, and five men in that to
+the left.  I closed the sliding windows, with translucent paper for
+window panes, called shoji, and went to bed, but the lack of
+privacy was fearful, and I have not yet sufficient trust in my
+fellow-creatures to be comfortable without locks, walls, or doors!
+Eyes were constantly applied to the sides of the room, a girl twice
+drew aside the shoji between it and the corridor; a man, who I
+afterwards found was a blind man, offering his services as a
+shampooer, came in and said some (of course) unintelligible words,
+and the new noises were perfectly bewildering.  On one side a man
+recited Buddhist prayers in a high key; on the other a girl was
+twanging a samisen, a species of guitar; the house was full of
+talking and splashing, drums and tom-toms were beaten outside;
+there were street cries innumerable, and the whistling of the blind
+shampooers, and the resonant clap of the fire-watchman who
+perambulates all Japanese villages, and beats two pieces of wood
+together in token of his vigilance, were intolerable.  It was a
+life of which I knew nothing, and the mystery was more alarming
+than attractive; my money was lying about, and nothing seemed
+easier than to slide a hand through the fusuma and appropriate it.
+Ito told me that the well was badly contaminated, the odours were
+fearful; illness was to be feared as well as robbery!  So
+unreasonably I reasoned! {7}
+
+My bed is merely a piece of canvas nailed to two wooden bars.  When
+I lay down the canvas burst away from the lower row of nails with a
+series of cracks, and sank gradually till I found myself lying on a
+sharp-edged pole which connects the two pair of trestles, and the
+helpless victim of fleas and mosquitoes.  I lay for three hours,
+not daring to stir lest I should bring the canvas altogether down,
+becoming more and more nervous every moment, and then Ito called
+outside the shoji, "It would be best, Miss Bird, that I should see
+you."  What horror can this be? I thought, and was not reassured
+when he added, "Here's a messenger from the Legation and two
+policemen want to speak to you."  On arriving I had done the
+correct thing in giving the house-master my passport, which,
+according to law, he had copied into his book, and had sent a
+duplicate copy to the police-station, and this intrusion near
+midnight was as unaccountable as it was unwarrantable.
+Nevertheless the appearance of the two mannikins in European
+uniforms, with the familiar batons and bull's-eye lanterns, and
+with manners which were respectful without being deferential, gave
+me immediate relief.  I should have welcomed twenty of their
+species, for their presence assured me of the fact that I am known
+and registered, and that a Government which, for special reasons,
+is anxious to impress foreigners with its power and omniscience is
+responsible for my safety.
+
+While they spelt through my passport by their dim lantern I opened
+the Yedo parcel, and found that it contained a tin of lemon sugar,
+a most kind note from Sir Harry Parkes, and a packet of letters
+from you.  While I was attempting to open the letters, Ito, the
+policemen, and the lantern glided out of my room, and I lay
+uneasily till daylight, with the letters and telegram, for which I
+had been yearning for six weeks, on my bed unopened!
+
+Already I can laugh at my fears and misfortunes, as I hope you
+will.  A traveller must buy his own experience, and success or
+failure depends mainly on personal idiosyncrasies.  Many matters
+will be remedied by experience as I go on, and I shall acquire the
+habit of feeling secure; but lack of privacy, bad smells, and the
+torments of fleas and mosquitoes are, I fear, irremediable evils.
+I. L. B.
+
+
+
+LETTER VI--(Continued)
+
+
+
+A Coolie falls ill--Peasant Costume--Varieties in Threshing--The
+Tochigi yadoya--Farming Villages--A Beautiful Region--An In
+Memoriam Avenue--A Doll's Street--Nikko--The Journey's End--Coolie
+Kindliness.
+
+By seven the next morning the rice was eaten, the room as bare as
+if it had never been occupied, the bill of 80 sen paid, the house-
+master and servants with many sayo naras, or farewells, had
+prostrated themselves, and we were away in the kurumas at a rapid
+trot.  At the first halt my runner, a kindly, good-natured
+creature, but absolutely hideous, was seized with pain and
+vomiting, owing, he said, to drinking the bad water at Kasukabe,
+and was left behind.  He pleased me much by the honest independent
+way in which he provided a substitute, strictly adhering to his
+bargain, and never asking for a gratuity on account of his illness.
+He had been so kind and helpful that I felt quite sad at leaving
+him there ill,--only a coolie, to be sure, only an atom among the
+34,000,000 of the Empire, but not less precious to our Father in
+heaven than any other.  It was a brilliant day, with the mercury 86
+degrees in the shade, but the heat was not oppressive.  At noon we
+reached the Tone, and I rode on a coolie's tattooed shoulders
+through the shallow part, and then, with the kurumas, some ill-
+disposed pack-horses, and a number of travellers, crossed in a
+flat-bottomed boat.  The boatmen, travellers, and cultivators, were
+nearly or altogether without clothes, but the richer farmers worked
+in the fields in curved bamboo hats as large as umbrellas, kimonos
+with large sleeves not girt up, and large fans attached to their
+girdles.  Many of the travellers whom we met were without hats, but
+shielded the front of the head by holding a fan between it and the
+sun.  Probably the inconvenience of the national costume for
+working men partly accounts for the general practice of getting rid
+of it.  It is such a hindrance, even in walking, that most
+pedestrians have "their loins girded up" by taking the middle of
+the hem at the bottom of the kimono and tucking it under the
+girdle.  This, in the case of many, shows woven, tight-fitting,
+elastic, white cotton pantaloons, reaching to the ankles.  After
+ferrying another river at a village from which a steamer plies to
+Tokiyo, the country became much more pleasing, the rice-fields
+fewer, the trees, houses, and barns larger, and, in the distance,
+high hills loomed faintly through the haze.  Much of the wheat, of
+which they don't make bread, but vermicelli, is already being
+carried.  You see wheat stacks, ten feet high, moving slowly, and
+while you are wondering, you become aware of four feet moving below
+them; for all the crop is carried on horses' if not on human backs.
+I went to see several threshing-floors,--clean, open spaces outside
+barns,--where the grain is laid on mats and threshed by two or four
+men with heavy revolving flails.  Another method is for women to
+beat out the grain on racks of split bamboo laid lengthwise; and I
+saw yet a third practised both in the fields and barn-yards, in
+which women pass handfuls of stalks backwards through a sort of
+carding instrument with sharp iron teeth placed in a slanting
+position, which cuts off the ears, leaving the stalk unbruised.
+This is probably "the sharp threshing instrument having teeth"
+mentioned by Isaiah.  The ears are then rubbed between the hands.
+In this region the wheat was winnowed altogether by hand, and after
+the wind had driven the chaff away, the grain was laid out on mats
+to dry.  Sickles are not used, but the reaper takes a handful of
+stalks and cuts them off close to the ground with a short, straight
+knife, fixed at a right angle with the handle.  The wheat is sown
+in rows with wide spaces between them, which are utilised for beans
+and other crops, and no sooner is it removed than daikon (Raphanus
+sativus), cucumbers, or some other vegetable, takes its place, as
+the land under careful tillage and copious manuring bears two, and
+even three, crops, in the year.  The soil is trenched for wheat as
+for all crops except rice, not a weed is to be seen, and the whole
+country looks like a well-kept garden.  The barns in this district
+are very handsome, and many of their grand roofs have that concave
+sweep with which we are familiar in the pagoda.  The eaves are
+often eight feet deep, and the thatch three feet thick.  Several of
+the farm-yards have handsome gateways like the ancient "lychgates"
+of some of our English churchyards much magnified.  As animals are
+not used for milk, draught, or food, and there are no pasture
+lands, both the country and the farm-yards have a singular silence
+and an inanimate look; a mean-looking dog and a few fowls being the
+only representatives of domestic animal life.  I long for the
+lowing of cattle and the bleating of sheep.
+
+At six we reached Tochigi, a large town, formerly the castle town
+of a daimiyo.  Its special manufacture is rope of many kinds, a
+great deal of hemp being grown in the neighbourhood.  Many of the
+roofs are tiled, and the town has a more solid and handsome
+appearance than those that we had previously passed through.  But
+from Kasukabe to Tochigi was from bad to worse.  I nearly abandoned
+Japanese travelling altogether, and, if last night had not been a
+great improvement, I think I should have gone ignominiously back to
+Tokiyo.  The yadoya was a very large one, and, as sixty guests had
+arrived before me, there was no choice of accommodation, and I had
+to be contented with a room enclosed on all sides not by fusuma but
+shoji, and with barely room for my bed, bath, and chair, under a
+fusty green mosquito net which was a perfect nest of fleas.  One
+side of the room was against a much-frequented passage, and another
+opened on a small yard upon which three opposite rooms also opened,
+crowded with some not very sober or decorous travellers.  The shoji
+were full of holes, and often at each hole I saw a human eye.
+Privacy was a luxury not even to be recalled.  Besides the constant
+application of eyes to the shoji, the servants, who were very noisy
+and rough, looked into my room constantly without any pretext; the
+host, a bright, pleasant-looking man, did the same; jugglers,
+musicians, blind shampooers, and singing girls, all pushed the
+screens aside; and I began to think that Mr. Campbell was right,
+and that a lady should not travel alone in Japan.  Ito, who had the
+room next to mine, suggested that robbery was quite likely, and
+asked to be allowed to take charge of my money, but did not decamp
+with it during the night!  I lay down on my precarious stretcher
+before eight, but as the night advanced the din of the house
+increased till it became truly diabolical, and never ceased till
+after one.  Drums, tom-toms, and cymbals were beaten; kotos and
+samisens screeched and twanged; geishas (professional women with
+the accomplishments of dancing, singing, and playing) danced,--
+accompanied by songs whose jerking discords were most laughable;
+story-tellers recited tales in a high key, and the running about
+and splashing close to my room never ceased.  Late at night my
+precarious shoji were accidentally thrown down, revealing a scene
+of great hilarity, in which a number of people were bathing and
+throwing water over each other.
+
+The noise of departures began at daylight, and I was glad to leave
+at seven.  Before you go the fusuma are slidden back, and what was
+your room becomes part of a great, open, matted space--an
+arrangement which effectually prevents fustiness.  Though the road
+was up a slight incline, and the men were too tired to trot, we
+made thirty miles in nine hours.  The kindliness and courtesy of
+the coolies to me and to each other was a constant source of
+pleasure to me.  It is most amusing to see the elaborate politeness
+of the greetings of men clothed only in hats and maros.  The hat is
+invariably removed when they speak to each other, and three
+profound bows are never omitted.
+
+Soon after leaving the yadoya we passed through a wide street with
+the largest and handsomest houses I have yet seen on both sides.
+They were all open in front; their highly-polished floors and
+passages looked like still water; the kakemonos, or wall-pictures,
+on their side-walls were extremely beautiful; and their mats were
+very fine and white.  There were large gardens at the back, with
+fountains and flowers, and streams, crossed by light stone bridges,
+sometimes flowed through the houses.  From the signs I supposed
+them to be yadoyas, but on asking Ito why we had not put up at one
+of them, he replied that they were all kashitsukeya, or tea-houses
+of disreputable character--a very sad fact. {8}
+
+As we journeyed the country became prettier and prettier, rolling
+up to abrupt wooded hills with mountains in the clouds behind.  The
+farming villages are comfortable and embowered in wood, and the
+richer farmers seclude their dwellings by closely-clipped hedges,
+or rather screens, two feet wide, and often twenty feet high.  Tea
+grew near every house, and its leaves were being gathered and dried
+on mats.  Signs of silk culture began to appear in shrubberies of
+mulberry trees, and white and sulphur yellow cocoons were lying in
+the sun along the road in flat trays.  Numbers of women sat in the
+fronts of the houses weaving cotton cloth fifteen inches wide, and
+cotton yarn, mostly imported from England, was being dyed in all
+the villages--the dye used being a native indigo, the Polygonum
+tinctorium.  Old women were spinning, and young and old usually
+pursued their avocations with wise-looking babies tucked into the
+backs of their dresses, and peering cunningly over their shoulders.
+Even little girls of seven and eight were playing at children's
+games with babies on their backs, and those who were too small to
+carry real ones had big dolls strapped on in similar fashion.
+Innumerable villages, crowded houses, and babies in all, give one
+the impression of a very populous country.
+
+As the day wore on in its brightness and glory the pictures became
+more varied and beautiful.  Great snow-slashed mountains looked
+over the foothills, on whose steep sides the dark blue green of
+pine and cryptomeria was lighted up by the spring tints of
+deciduous trees.  There were groves of cryptomeria on small hills
+crowned by Shinto shrines, approached by grand flights of stone
+stairs.  The red gold of the harvest fields contrasted with the
+fresh green and exquisite leafage of the hemp; rose and white
+azaleas lighted up the copse-woods; and when the broad road passed
+into the colossal avenue of cryptomeria which overshadows the way
+to the sacred shrines of Nikko, and tremulous sunbeams and shadows
+flecked the grass, I felt that Japan was beautiful, and that the
+mud flats of Yedo were only an ugly dream!
+
+Two roads lead to Nikko.  I avoided the one usually taken by
+Utsunomiya, and by doing so lost the most magnificent of the two
+avenues, which extends for nearly fifty miles along the great
+highway called the Oshiu-kaido.  Along the Reiheishi-kaido, the
+road by which I came, it extends for thirty miles, and the two,
+broken frequently by villages, converge upon the village of
+Imaichi, eight miles from Nikko, where they unite, and only
+terminate at the entrance of the town.  They are said to have been
+planted as an offering to the buried Shoguns by a man who was too
+poor to place a bronze lantern at their shrines.  A grander
+monument could not have been devised, and they are probably the
+grandest things of their kind in the world.  The avenue of the
+Reiheishi-kaido is a good carriage road with sloping banks eight
+feet high, covered with grass and ferns.  At the top of these are
+the cryptomeria, then two grassy walks, and between these and the
+cultivation a screen of saplings and brushwood.  A great many of
+the trees become two at four feet from the ground.  Many of the
+stems are twenty-seven feet in girth; they do not diminish or
+branch till they have reached a height of from 50 to 60 feet, and
+the appearance of altitude is aided by the longitudinal splitting
+of the reddish coloured bark into strips about two inches wide.
+The trees are pyramidal, and at a little distance resemble cedars.
+There is a deep solemnity about this glorious avenue with its broad
+shade and dancing lights, and the rare glimpses of high mountains.
+Instinct alone would tell one that it leads to something which must
+be grand and beautiful like itself.  It is broken occasionally by
+small villages with big bells suspended between double poles; by
+wayside shrines with offerings of rags and flowers; by stone
+effigies of Buddha and his disciples, mostly defaced or overthrown,
+all wearing the same expression of beatified rest and indifference
+to mundane affairs; and by temples of lacquered wood falling to
+decay, whose bells sent their surpassingly sweet tones far on the
+evening air.
+
+Imaichi, where the two stately aisles unite, is a long uphill
+street, with a clear mountain stream enclosed in a stone channel,
+and crossed by hewn stone slabs running down the middle.  In a room
+built over the stream, and commanding a view up and down the
+street, two policemen sat writing.  It looks a dull place without
+much traffic, as if oppressed by the stateliness of the avenues
+below it and the shrines above it, but it has a quiet yadoya, where
+I had a good night's rest, although my canvas bed was nearly on the
+ground.  We left early this morning in drizzling rain, and went
+straight up hill under the cryptomeria for eight miles.  The
+vegetation is as profuse as one would expect in so damp and hot a
+summer climate, and from the prodigious rainfall of the mountains;
+every stone is covered with moss, and the road-sides are green with
+the Protococcus viridis and several species of Marchantia.  We were
+among the foothills of the Nantaizan mountains at a height of 1000
+feet, abrupt in their forms, wooded to their summits, and noisy
+with the dash and tumble of a thousand streams.  The long street of
+Hachiishi, with its steep-roofed, deep-eaved houses, its warm
+colouring, and its steep roadway with steps at intervals, has a
+sort of Swiss picturesqueness as you enter it, as you must, on
+foot, while your kurumas are hauled and lifted up the steps; nor is
+the resemblance given by steep roofs, pines, and mountains patched
+with coniferae, altogether lost as you ascend the steep street, and
+see wood carvings and quaint baskets of wood and grass offered
+everywhere for sale.  It is a truly dull, quaint street, and the
+people come out to stare at a foreigner as if foreigners had not
+become common events since 1870, when Sir H. and Lady Parkes, the
+first Europeans who were permitted to visit Nikko, took up their
+abode in the Imperial Hombo.  It is a doll's street with small low
+houses, so finely matted, so exquisitely clean, so finically neat,
+so light and delicate, that even when I entered them without my
+boots I felt like a "bull in a china shop," as if my mere weight
+must smash through and destroy.  The street is so painfully clean
+that I should no more think of walking over it in muddy boots than
+over a drawing-room carpet.  It has a silent mountain look, and
+most of its shops sell specialties, lacquer work, boxes of
+sweetmeats made of black beans and sugar, all sorts of boxes,
+trays, cups, and stands, made of plain, polished wood, and more
+grotesque articles made from the roots of trees.
+
+It was not part of my plan to stay at the beautiful yadoya which
+receives foreigners in Hachiishi, and I sent Ito half a mile
+farther with a note in Japanese to the owner of the house where I
+now am, while I sat on a rocky eminence at the top of the street,
+unmolested by anybody, looking over to the solemn groves upon the
+mountains, where the two greatest of the Shoguns "sleep in glory."
+Below, the rushing Daiyagawa, swollen by the night's rain,
+thundered through a narrow gorge.  Beyond, colossal flights of
+stone stairs stretch mysteriously away among cryptomeria groves,
+above which tower the Nikkosan mountains.  Just where the torrent
+finds its impetuosity checked by two stone walls, it is spanned by
+a bridge, 84 feet long by 18 wide, of dull red lacquer, resting on
+two stone piers on either side, connected by two transverse stone
+beams.  A welcome bit of colour it is amidst the masses of dark
+greens and soft greys, though there is nothing imposing in its
+structure, and its interest consists in being the Mihashi, or
+Sacred Bridge, built in 1636, formerly open only to the Shoguns,
+the envoy of the Mikado, and to pilgrims twice a year.  Both its
+gates are locked.  Grand and lonely Nikko looks, the home of rain
+and mist.  Kuruma roads end here, and if you wish to go any
+farther, you must either walk, ride, or be carried.
+
+Ito was long away, and the coolies kept addressing me in Japanese,
+which made me feel helpless and solitary, and eventually they
+shouldered my baggage, and, descending a flight of steps, we
+crossed the river by the secular bridge, and shortly met my host,
+Kanaya, a very bright, pleasant-looking man, who bowed nearly to
+the earth.  Terraced roads in every direction lead through
+cryptomerias to the shrines; and this one passes many a stately
+enclosure, but leads away from the temples, and though it is the
+highway to Chiuzenjii, a place of popular pilgrimage, Yumoto, a
+place of popular resort, and several other villages, it is very
+rugged, and, having flights of stone steps at intervals, is only
+practicable for horses and pedestrians.
+
+At the house, with the appearance of which I was at once delighted,
+I regretfully parted with my coolies, who had served me kindly and
+faithfully.  They had paid me many little attentions, such as
+always beating the dust out of my dress, inflating my air-pillow,
+and bringing me flowers, and were always grateful when I walked up
+hills; and just now, after going for a frolic to the mountains,
+they called to wish me good-bye, bringing branches of azaleas.  I.
+L. B.
+
+
+
+LETTER VII
+
+
+
+A Japanese Idyll--Musical Stillness  -My Rooms--Floral Decorations-
+-Kanaya and his Household--Table Equipments.
+
+KANAYA'S, NIKKO, June 15.
+
+I don't know what to write about my house.  It is a Japanese idyll;
+there is nothing within or without which does not please the eye,
+and, after the din of yadoyas, its silence, musical with the dash
+of waters and the twitter of birds, is truly refreshing.  It is a
+simple but irregular two-storied pavilion, standing on a stone-
+faced terrace approached by a flight of stone steps.  The garden is
+well laid out, and, as peonies, irises, and azaleas are now in
+blossom, it is very bright.  The mountain, with its lower part
+covered with red azaleas, rises just behind, and a stream which
+tumbles down it supplies the house with water, both cold and pure,
+and another, after forming a miniature cascade, passes under the
+house and through a fish-pond with rocky islets into the river
+below.  The grey village of Irimichi lies on the other side of the
+road, shut in with the rushing Daiya, and beyond it are high,
+broken hills, richly wooded, and slashed with ravines and
+waterfalls.
+
+Kanaya's sister, a very sweet, refined-looking woman, met me at the
+door and divested me of my boots.  The two verandahs are highly
+polished, so are the entrance and the stairs which lead to my room,
+and the mats are so fine and white that I almost fear to walk over
+them, even in my stockings.  The polished stairs lead to a highly
+polished, broad verandah with a beautiful view, from which you
+enter one large room, which, being too large, was at once made into
+two.  Four highly polished steps lead from this into an exquisite
+room at the back, which Ito occupies, and another polished
+staircase into the bath-house and garden.  The whole front of my
+room is composed of shoji, which slide back during the day.  The
+ceiling is of light wood crossed by bars of dark wood, and the
+posts which support it are of dark polished wood.  The panels are
+of wrinkled sky-blue paper splashed with gold.  At one end are two
+alcoves with floors of polished wood, called tokonoma.  In one
+hangs a kakemono, or wall-picture, a painting of a blossoming
+branch of the cherry on white silk--a perfect piece of art, which
+in itself fills the room with freshness and beauty.  The artist who
+painted it painted nothing but cherry blossoms, and fell in the
+rebellion.  On a shelf in the other alcove is a very valuable
+cabinet with sliding doors, on which peonies are painted on a gold
+ground.  A single spray of rose azalea in a pure white vase hanging
+on one of the polished posts, and a single iris in another, are the
+only decorations.  The mats are very fine and white, but the only
+furniture is a folding screen with some suggestions of landscape in
+Indian ink.  I almost wish that the rooms were a little less
+exquisite, for I am in constant dread of spilling the ink,
+indenting the mats, or tearing the paper windows.  Downstairs there
+is a room equally beautiful, and a large space where all the
+domestic avocations are carried on.  There is a kura, or fire-proof
+storehouse, with a tiled roof, on the right of the house.
+
+Kanaya leads the discords at the Shinto shrines; but his duties are
+few, and he is chiefly occupied in perpetually embellishing his
+house and garden.  His mother, a venerable old lady, and his
+sister, the sweetest and most graceful Japanese woman but one that
+I have seen, live with him.  She moves about the house like a
+floating fairy, and her voice has music in its tones.  A half-
+witted servant-man and the sister's boy and girl complete the
+family.  Kanaya is the chief man in the village, and is very
+intelligent and apparently well educated.  He has divorced his
+wife, and his sister has practically divorced her husband.  Of
+late, to help his income, he has let these charming rooms to
+foreigners who have brought letters to him, and he is very anxious
+to meet their views, while his good taste leads him to avoid
+Europeanising his beautiful home.
+
+Supper came up on a zen, or small table six inches high, of old
+gold lacquer, with the rice in a gold lacquer bowl, and the teapot
+and cup were fine Kaga porcelain.  For my two rooms, with rice and
+tea, I pay 2s. a day.  Ito forages for me, and can occasionally get
+chickens at 10d. each, and a dish of trout for 6d., and eggs are
+always to be had for 1d. each.  It is extremely interesting to live
+in a private house and to see the externalities, at least, of
+domestic life in a Japanese middle-class home.  I. L. B.
+
+
+
+LETTER VIII
+
+
+
+The Beauties of Nikko--The Burial of Iyeyasu--The Approach to the
+Great Shrines--The Yomei Gate--Gorgeous Decorations--Simplicity of
+the Mausoleum--The Shrine of Iyemitsu--Religious Art of Japan and
+India--An Earthquake--Beauties of Wood-carving.
+
+KANAYA'S, NIKKO, June 21.
+
+I have been at Nikko for nine days, and am therefore entitled to
+use the word "Kek'ko!"
+
+Nikko means "sunny splendour," and its beauties are celebrated in
+poetry and art all over Japan.  Mountains for a great part of the
+year clothed or patched with snow, piled in great ranges round
+Nantaizan, their monarch, worshipped as a god; forests of
+magnificent timber; ravines and passes scarcely explored; dark
+green lakes sleeping in endless serenity; the deep abyss of Kegon,
+into which the waters of Chiuzenjii plunge from a height of 250
+feet; the bright beauty of the falls of Kiri Furi, the loveliness
+of the gardens of Dainichido; the sombre grandeur of the passes
+through which the Daiyagawa forces its way from the upper regions;
+a gorgeousness of azaleas and magnolias; and a luxuriousness of
+vegetation perhaps unequalled in Japan, are only a few of the
+attractions which surround the shrines of the two greatest Shoguns.
+
+To a glorious resting-place on the hill-slope of Hotoke Iwa, sacred
+since 767, when a Buddhist saint, called Shodo Shonin, visited it,
+and declared the old Shinto deity of the mountain to be only a
+manifestation of Buddha, Hidetada, the second Shogun of the
+Tokugawa dynasty, conveyed the corpse of his father, Iyeyasu, in
+1617.  It was a splendid burial.  An Imperial envoy, a priest of
+the Mikado's family, court nobles from Kivoto, and hundreds of
+daimiyos, captains, and nobles of inferior rank, took part in the
+ceremony.  An army of priests in rich robes during three days
+intoned a sacred classic 10,000 times, and Iyeyasu was deified by a
+decree of the Mikado under a name signifying "light of the east,
+great incarnation of Buddha."  The less important Shoguns of the
+line of Tokugawa are buried in Uyeno and Shiba, in Yedo.  Since the
+restoration, and what may be called the disestablishment of
+Buddhism, the shrine of Iyeyasu has been shorn of all its glories
+of ritual and its magnificent Buddhist paraphernalia; the 200
+priests who gave it splendour are scattered, and six Shinto priests
+alternately attend upon it as much for the purpose of selling
+tickets of admission as for any priestly duties.
+
+All roads, bridges, and avenues here lead to these shrines, but the
+grand approach is by the Red Bridge, and up a broad road with steps
+at intervals and stone-faced embankments at each side, on the top
+of which are belts of cryptomeria.  At the summit of this ascent is
+a fine granite torii, 27 feet 6 inches high, with columns 3 feet 6
+inches in diameter, offered by the daimiyo of Chikuzen in 1618 from
+his own quarries.  After this come 118 magnificent bronze lanterns
+on massive stone pedestals, each of which is inscribed with the
+posthumous title of Iyeyasu, the name of the giver, and a legend of
+the offering--all the gifts of daimiyo--a holy water cistern made
+of a solid block of granite, and covered by a roof resting on
+twenty square granite pillars, and a bronze bell, lantern, and
+candelabra of marvellous workmanship, offered by the kings of Corea
+and Liukiu.  On the left is a five-storied pagoda, 104 feet high,
+richly carved in wood and as richly gilded and painted.  The signs
+of the zodiac run round the lower story.
+
+The grand entrance gate is at the top of a handsome flight of steps
+forty yards from the torii.  A looped white curtain with the
+Mikado's crest in black, hangs partially over the gateway, in
+which, beautiful as it is, one does not care to linger, to examine
+the gilded amainu in niches, or the spirited carvings of tigers
+under the eaves, for the view of the first court overwhelms one by
+its magnificence and beauty.  The whole style of the buildings, the
+arrangements, the art of every kind, the thought which inspires the
+whole, are exclusively Japanese, and the glimpse from the Ni-o gate
+is a revelation of a previously undreamed-of beauty, both in form
+and colour.
+
+Round the neatly pebbled court, which is enclosed by a bright red
+timber wall, are three gorgeous buildings, which contain the
+treasures of the temple, a sumptuous stable for the three sacred
+Albino horses, which are kept for the use of the god, a magnificent
+granite cistern of holy water, fed from the Somendaki cascade, and
+a highly decorated building, in which a complete collection of
+Buddhist Scriptures is deposited.  From this a flight of steps
+leads into a smaller court containing a bell-tower "of marvellous
+workmanship and ornamentation," a drum-tower, hardly less
+beautiful, a shrine, the candelabra, bell, and lantern mentioned
+before, and some very grand bronze lanterns.
+
+From this court another flight of steps ascends to the Yomei gate,
+whose splendour I contemplated day after day with increasing
+astonishment.  The white columns which support it have capitals
+formed of great red-throated heads of the mythical Kirin.  Above
+the architrave is a projecting balcony which runs all round the
+gateway with a railing carried by dragons' heads.  In the centre
+two white dragons fight eternally.  Underneath, in high relief,
+there are groups of children playing, then a network of richly
+painted beams, and seven groups of Chinese sages.  The high roof is
+supported by gilded dragons' heads with crimson throats.  In the
+interior of the gateway there are side-niches painted white, which
+are lined with gracefully designed arabesques founded on the botan
+or peony.  A piazza, whose outer walls of twenty-one compartments
+are enriched with magnificent carvings of birds, flowers, and
+trees, runs right and left, and encloses on three of its sides
+another court, the fourth side of which is a terminal stone wall
+built against the side of the hill.  On the right are two decorated
+buildings, one of which contains a stage for the performance of the
+sacred dances, and the other an altar for the burning of cedar wood
+incense.  On the left is a building for the reception of the three
+sacred cars which were used during festivals.  To pass from court
+to court is to pass from splendour to splendour; one is almost glad
+to feel that this is the last, and that the strain on one's
+capacity for admiration is nearly over.
+
+In the middle is the sacred enclosure, formed of gilded trellis-
+work with painted borders above and below, forming a square of
+which each side measures 150 feet, and which contains the haiden or
+chapel.  Underneath the trellis work are groups of birds, with
+backgrounds of grass, very boldly carved in wood and richly gilded
+and painted.  From the imposing entrance through a double avenue of
+cryptomeria, among courts, gates, temples, shrines, pagodas,
+colossal bells of bronze, and lanterns inlaid with gold, you pass
+through this final court bewildered by magnificence, through golden
+gates, into the dimness of a golden temple, and there is--simply a
+black lacquer table with a circular metal mirror upon it.
+
+Within is a hall finely matted, 42 feet wide by 27 from front to
+back, with lofty apartments on each side, one for the Shogun and
+the other "for his Holiness the Abbot."  Both, of course, are
+empty.  The roof of the hall is panelled and richly frescoed.  The
+Shogun's room contains some very fine fusuma, on which kirin
+(fabulous monsters) are depicted on a dead gold ground, and four
+oak panels, 8 feet by 6, finely carved, with the phoenix in low
+relief variously treated.  In the Abbot's room there are similar
+panels adorned with hawks spiritedly executed.  The only
+ecclesiastical ornament among the dim splendours of the chapel is
+the plain gold gohei.  Steps at the back lead into a chapel paved
+with stone, with a fine panelled ceiling representing dragons on a
+dark blue ground.  Beyond this some gilded doors lead into the
+principal chapel, containing four rooms which are not accessible;
+but if they correspond with the outside, which is of highly
+polished black lacquer relieved by gold, they must be severely
+magnificent.
+
+But not in any one of these gorgeous shrines did Iyeyasu decree
+that his dust should rest.  Re-entering the last court, it is
+necessary to leave the enclosures altogether by passing through a
+covered gateway in the eastern piazza into a stone gallery, green
+with mosses and hepaticae.  Within, wealth and art have created a
+fairyland of gold and colour; without, Nature, at her stateliest,
+has surrounded the great Shogun's tomb with a pomp of mournful
+splendour.  A staircase of 240 stone steps leads to the top of the
+hill, where, above and behind all the stateliness of the shrines
+raised in his honour, the dust of Iyeyasu sleeps in an unadorned
+but Cyclopean tomb of stone and bronze, surmounted by a bronze urn.
+In front is a stone table decorated with a bronze incense-burner, a
+vase with lotus blossoms and leaves in brass, and a bronze stork
+bearing a bronze candlestick in its mouth.  A lofty stone wall,
+surmounted by a balustrade, surrounds the simple but stately
+enclosure, and cryptomeria of large size growing up the back of the
+hill create perpetual twilight round it.  Slant rays of sunshine
+alone pass through them, no flower blooms or bird sings, only
+silence and mournfulness surround the grave of the ablest and
+greatest man that Japan has produced.
+
+Impressed as I had been with the glorious workmanship in wood,
+bronze, and lacquer, I scarcely admired less the masonry of the
+vast retaining walls, the stone gallery, the staircase and its
+balustrade, all put together without mortar or cement, and so
+accurately fitted that the joints are scarcely affected by the
+rain, damp, and aggressive vegetation of 260 years.  The steps of
+the staircase are fine monoliths, and the coping at the side, the
+massive balustrade, and the heavy rail at the top, are cut out of
+solid blocks of stone from 10 to 18 feet in length.  Nor is the
+workmanship of the great granite cistern for holy water less
+remarkable.  It is so carefully adjusted on its bed that the water
+brought from a neighbouring cascade rises and pours over each edge
+in such carefully equalised columns that, as Mr. Satow says, "it
+seems to be a solid block of water rather than a piece of stone."
+
+The temples of Iyemitsu are close to those of Iyeyasu, and though
+somewhat less magnificent are even more bewildering, as they are
+still in Buddhist hands, and are crowded with the gods of the
+Buddhist Pantheon and the splendid paraphernalia of Buddhist
+worship, in striking contrast to the simplicity of the lonely
+Shinto mirror in the midst of the blaze of gold and colour.  In the
+grand entrance gate are gigantic Ni-o, the Buddhist Gog and Magog,
+vermilion coloured, and with draperies painted in imitation of
+flowered silk.  A second pair, painted red and green, removed from
+Iyemitsu's temple, are in niches within the gate.  A flight of
+steps leads to another gate, in whose gorgeous niches stand hideous
+monsters, in human form, representing the gods of wind and thunder.
+Wind has crystal eyes and a half-jolly, half-demoniacal expression.
+He is painted green, and carries a wind-bag on his back, a long
+sack tied at each end, with the ends brought over his shoulders and
+held in his hands.  The god of thunder is painted red, with purple
+hair on end, and stands on clouds holding thunderbolts in his hand.
+More steps, and another gate containing the Tenno, or gods of the
+four quarters, boldly carved and in strong action, with long eye-
+teeth, and at last the principal temple is reached.  An old priest
+who took me over it on my first visit, on passing the gods of wind
+and thunder said, "We used to believe in these things, but we don't
+now," and his manner in speaking of the other deities was rather
+contemptuous.  He requested me, however, to take off my hat as well
+as my shoes at the door of the temple.  Within there was a gorgeous
+shrine, and when an acolyte drew aside the curtain of cloth of gold
+the interior was equally imposing, containing Buddha and two other
+figures of gilded brass, seated cross-legged on lotus-flowers, with
+rows of petals several times repeated, and with that look of
+eternal repose on their faces which is reproduced in the commonest
+road-side images.  In front of the shrine several candles were
+burning, the offerings of some people who were having prayers said
+for them, and the whole was lighted by two lamps burning low.  On a
+step of the altar a much-contorted devil was crouching uneasily,
+for he was subjugated and, by a grim irony, made to carry a massive
+incense-burner on his shoulders.  In this temple there were more
+than a hundred idols standing in rows, many of them life-size, some
+of them trampling devils under their feet, but all hideous, partly
+from the bright greens, vermilions, and blues with which they are
+painted.  Remarkable muscular development characterises all, and
+the figures or faces are all in vigorous action of some kind,
+generally grossly exaggerated.
+
+While we were crossing the court there were two shocks of
+earthquake; all the golden wind-bells which fringe the roofs rang
+softly, and a number of priests ran into the temple and beat
+various kinds of drums for the space of half an hour.  Iyemitsu's
+tomb is reached by flights of steps on the right of the chapel.  It
+is in the same style as Iyeyasu's, but the gates in front are of
+bronze, and are inscribed with large Sanskrit characters in bright
+brass.  One of the most beautiful of the many views is from the
+uppermost gate of the temple.  The sun shone on my second visit and
+brightened the spring tints of the trees on Hotoke Iwa, which was
+vignetted by a frame of dark cryptomeria.
+
+Some of the buildings are roofed with sheet-copper, but most of
+them are tiled.  Tiling, however, has been raised almost to the
+dignity of a fine art in Japan.  The tiles themselves are a coppery
+grey, with a suggestion of metallic lustre about it.  They are
+slightly concave, and the joints are covered by others quite
+convex, which come down like massive tubes from the ridge pole, and
+terminate at the eaves with discs on which the Tokugawa badge is
+emblazoned in gold, as it is everywhere on these shrines where it
+would not be quite out of keeping.  The roofs are so massive that
+they require all the strength of the heavy carved timbers below,
+and, like all else, they gleam with gold, or that which simulates
+it.
+
+The shrines are the most wonderful work of their kind in Japan.  In
+their stately setting of cryptomeria, few of which are less than 20
+feet in girth at 3 feet from the ground, they take one prisoner by
+their beauty, in defiance of all rules of western art, and compel
+one to acknowledge the beauty of forms and combinations of colour
+hitherto unknown, and that lacquered wood is capable of lending
+itself to the expression of a very high idea in art.  Gold has been
+used in profusion, and black, dull red, and white, with a breadth
+and lavishness quite unique.  The bronze fret-work alone is a
+study, and the wood-carving needs weeks of earnest work for the
+mastery of its ideas and details.  One screen or railing only has
+sixty panels, each 4 feet long, carved with marvellous boldness and
+depth in open work, representing peacocks, pheasants, storks,
+lotuses, peonies, bamboos, and foliage.  The fidelity to form and
+colour in the birds, and the reproduction of the glory of motion,
+could not be excelled.
+
+Yet the flowers please me even better.  Truly the artist has
+revelled in his work, and has carved and painted with joy.  The
+lotus leaf retains its dewy bloom, the peony its shades of creamy
+white, the bamboo leaf still trembles on its graceful stem, in
+contrast to the rigid needles of the pine, and countless corollas,
+in all the perfect colouring of passionate life, unfold themselves
+amidst the leafage of the gorgeous tracery.  These carvings are
+from 10 to 15 inches deep, and single feathers in the tails of the
+pheasants stand out fully 6 inches in front of peonies nearly as
+deep.
+
+The details fade from my memory daily as I leave the shrines, and
+in their place are picturesque masses of black and red lacquer and
+gold, gilded doors opening without noise, halls laid with matting
+so soft that not a footfall sounds, across whose twilight the
+sunbeams fall aslant on richly arabesqued walls and panels carved
+with birds and flowers, and on ceilings panelled and wrought with
+elaborate art, of inner shrines of gold, and golden lilies six feet
+high, and curtains of gold brocade, and incense fumes, and colossal
+bells and golden ridge poles; of the mythical fauna, kirin, dragon,
+and howo, of elephants, apes, and tigers, strangely mingled with
+flowers and trees, and golden tracery, and diaper work on a gold
+ground, and lacquer screens, and pagodas, and groves of bronze
+lanterns, and shaven priests in gold brocade, and Shinto attendants
+in black lacquer caps, and gleams of sunlit gold here and there,
+and simple monumental urns, and a mountain-side covered with a
+cryptomeria forest, with rose azaleas lighting up its solemn shade.
+I. L. B.
+
+
+
+LETTER IX
+
+
+
+A Japanese Pack-Horse and Pack-Saddle--Yadoya and Attendant--A
+Native Watering-Place--The Sulphur Baths--A "Squeeze."
+
+YASHIMAYA, YUMOTO, NIKKOZAN MOUNTAINS,
+June 22.
+
+To-day I have made an experimental journey on horseback, have done
+fifteen miles in eight hours of continuous travelling, and have
+encountered for the first time the Japanese pack-horse--an animal
+of which many unpleasing stories are told, and which has hitherto
+been as mythical to me as the kirin, or dragon.  I have neither
+been kicked, bitten, nor pitched off, however, for mares are used
+exclusively in this district, gentle creatures about fourteen hands
+high, with weak hind-quarters, and heads nearly concealed by shaggy
+manes and forelocks.  They are led by a rope round the nose, and go
+barefoot, except on stony ground, when the mago, or man who leads
+them, ties straw sandals on their feet.  The pack-saddle is
+composed of two packs of straw eight inches thick, faced with red,
+and connected before and behind by strong oak arches gaily painted
+or lacquered.  There is for a girth a rope loosely tied under the
+body, and the security of the load depends on a crupper, usually a
+piece of bamboo attached to the saddle by ropes strung with wooden
+counters, and another rope round the neck, into which you put your
+foot as you scramble over the high front upon the top of the
+erection.  The load must be carefully balanced or it comes to
+grief, and the mago handles it all over first, and, if an accurate
+division of weight is impossible, adds a stone to one side or the
+other.  Here, women who wear enormous rain hats and gird their
+kimonos over tight blue trousers, both load the horses and lead
+them.  I dropped upon my loaded horse from the top of a wall, the
+ridges, bars, tags, and knotted rigging of the saddle being
+smoothed over by a folded futon, or wadded cotton quilt, and I was
+then fourteen inches above the animal's back, with my feet hanging
+over his neck.  You must balance yourself carefully, or you bring
+the whole erection over; but balancing soon becomes a matter of
+habit.  If the horse does not stumble, the pack-saddle is tolerable
+on level ground, but most severe on the spine in going up hill, and
+so intolerable in going down that I was relieved when I found that
+I had slid over the horse's head into a mud-hole; and you are quite
+helpless, as he does not understand a bridle, if you have one, and
+blindly follows his leader, who trudges on six feet in front of
+him.
+
+The hard day's journey ended in an exquisite yadoya, beautiful
+within and without, and more fit for fairies than for travel-soiled
+mortals.  The fusuma are light planed wood with a sweet scent, the
+matting nearly white, the balconies polished pine.  On entering, a
+smiling girl brought me some plum-flower tea with a delicate almond
+flavour, a sweetmeat made of beans and sugar, and a lacquer bowl of
+frozen snow.  After making a difficult meal from a fowl of much
+experience, I spent the evening out of doors, as a Japanese
+watering-place is an interesting novelty.
+
+There is scarcely room between the lake and the mountains for the
+picturesque village with its trim neat houses, one above another,
+built of reddish cedar newly planed.  The snow lies ten feet deep
+here in winter, and on October 10 the people wrap their beautiful
+dwellings up in coarse matting, not even leaving the roofs
+uncovered, and go to the low country till May 10, leaving one man
+in charge, who is relieved once a week.  Were the houses mine I
+should be tempted to wrap them up on every rainy day!  I did quite
+the wrong thing in riding here.  It is proper to be carried up in a
+kago, or covered basket.
+
+The village consists of two short streets, 8 feet wide composed
+entirely of yadoyas of various grades, with a picturesquely varied
+frontage of deep eaves, graceful balconies, rows of Chinese
+lanterns, and open lower fronts.  The place is full of people, and
+the four bathing-sheds were crowded.  Some energetic invalids bathe
+twelve times a day!  Every one who was walking about carried a blue
+towel over his arm, and the rails of the balconies were covered
+with blue towels hanging to dry.  There can be very little
+amusement.  The mountains rise at once from the village, and are so
+covered with jungle that one can only walk in the short streets or
+along the track by which I came.  There is one covered boat for
+excursions on the lake, and a few geishas were playing the samisen;
+but, as gaming is illegal, and there is no place of public resort
+except the bathing-sheds, people must spend nearly all their time
+in bathing, sleeping, smoking, and eating.  The great spring is
+beyond the village, in a square tank in a mound.  It bubbles up
+with much strength, giving off fetid fumes.  There are broad boards
+laid at intervals across it, and people crippled with rheumatism go
+and lie for hours upon them for the advantage of the sulphurous
+steam.  The temperature of the spring is 130 degrees F.; but after
+the water has travelled to the village, along an open wooden pipe,
+it is only 84 degrees.  Yumoto is over 4000 feet high, and very
+cold.
+
+IRIMICHI.--Before leaving Yumoto I saw the modus operandi of a
+"squeeze."  I asked for the bill, when, instead of giving it to me,
+the host ran upstairs and asked Ito how much it should be, the two
+dividing the overcharge.  Your servant gets a "squeeze" on
+everything you buy, and on your hotel expenses, and, as it is
+managed very adroitly, and you cannot prevent it, it is best not to
+worry about it so long as it keeps within reasonable limits.  I. L.
+B.
+
+
+
+LETTER X
+
+
+
+Peaceful Monotony--A Japanese School--A Dismal Ditty--Punishment--A
+Children's Party--A Juvenile Belle--Female Names--A Juvenile Drama-
+-Needlework--Calligraphy--Arranging Flowers--Kanaya--Daily Routine-
+-An Evening's Entertainment--Planning Routes--The God-shelf.
+
+IRIMICHI, Nikko, June 23.
+
+My peacefully monotonous life here is nearly at an end.  The people
+are so quiet and kindly, though almost too still, and I have
+learned to know something of the externals of village life, and
+have become quite fond of the place.
+
+The village of Irimichi, which epitomises for me at present the
+village life of Japan, consists of about three hundred houses built
+along three roads, across which steps in fours and threes are
+placed at intervals.  Down the middle of each a rapid stream runs
+in a stone channel, and this gives endless amusement to the
+children, specially to the boys, who devise many ingenious models
+and mechanical toys, which are put in motion by water-wheels.  But
+at 7 a.m. a drum beats to summon the children to a school whose
+buildings would not discredit any school-board at home.  Too much
+Europeanised I thought it, and the children looked very
+uncomfortable sitting on high benches in front of desks, instead of
+squatting, native fashion.  The school apparatus is very good, and
+there are fine maps on the walls.  The teacher, a man about twenty-
+five, made very free use of the black-board, and questioned his
+pupils with much rapidity.  The best answer moved its giver to the
+head of the class, as with us.  Obedience is the foundation of the
+Japanese social order, and with children accustomed to
+unquestioning obedience at home the teacher has no trouble in
+securing quietness, attention, and docility.  There was almost a
+painful earnestness in the old-fashioned faces which pored over the
+school-books; even such a rare event as the entrance of a foreigner
+failed to distract these childish students.  The younger pupils
+were taught chiefly by object lessons, and the older were exercised
+in reading geographical and historical books aloud, a very high key
+being adopted, and a most disagreeable tone, both with the Chinese
+and Japanese pronunciation.  Arithmetic and the elements of some of
+the branches of natural philosophy are also taught.  The children
+recited a verse of poetry which I understood contained the whole of
+the simple syllabary.  It has been translated thus:-
+
+
+"Colour and perfume vanish away.
+What can be lasting in this world?
+To-day disappears in the abyss of nothingness;
+It is but the passing image of a dream, and causes only a slight
+trouble."
+
+
+It is the echo of the wearied sensualist's cry, "Vanity of
+vanities, all is vanity," and indicates the singular Oriental
+distaste for life, but is a dismal ditty for young children to
+learn.  The Chinese classics, formerly the basis of Japanese
+education, are now mainly taught as a vehicle for conveying a
+knowledge of the Chinese character, in acquiring even a moderate
+acquaintance with which the children undergo a great deal of
+useless toil.
+
+The penalties for bad conduct used to be a few blows with a switch
+on the front of the leg, or a slight burn with the moxa on the
+forefinger--still a common punishment in households; but I
+understood the teacher to say that detention in the school-house is
+the only punishment now resorted to, and he expressed great
+disapprobation of our plan of imposing an added task.  When twelve
+o'clock came the children marched in orderly fashion out of the
+school grounds, the boys in one division and the girls in another,
+after which they quietly dispersed.
+
+On going home the children dine, and in the evening in nearly every
+house you hear the monotonous hum of the preparation of lessons.
+After dinner they are liberated for play, but the girls often hang
+about the house with babies on their backs the whole afternoon
+nursing dolls.  One evening I met a procession of sixty boys and
+girls, all carrying white flags with black balls, except the
+leader, who carried a white flag with a gilded ball, and they sang,
+or rather howled, as they walked; but the other amusements have
+been of a most sedentary kind.  The mechanical toys, worked by
+water-wheels in the stream, are most fascinating.
+
+Formal children's parties have been given in this house, for which
+formal invitations, in the name of the house-child, a girl of
+twelve, are sent out.  About 3 p.m. the guests arrive, frequently
+attended by servants; and this child, Haru, receives them at the
+top of the stone steps, and conducts each into the reception room,
+where they are arranged according to some well-understood rules of
+precedence.  Haru's hair is drawn back, raised in front, and
+gathered into a double loop, in which some scarlet crepe is
+twisted.  Her face and throat are much whitened, the paint
+terminating in three points at the back of the neck, from which all
+the short hair has been carefully extracted with pincers.  Her lips
+are slightly touched with red paint, and her face looks like that
+of a cheap doll.  She wears a blue, flowered silk kimono, with
+sleeves touching the ground, a blue girdle lined with scarlet, and
+a fold of scarlet crepe lies between her painted neck and her
+kimono.  On her little feet she wears white tabi, socks of cotton
+cloth, with a separate place for the great toe, so as to allow the
+scarlet-covered thongs of the finely lacquered clogs, which she
+puts on when she stands on the stone steps to receive her guests,
+to pass between it and the smaller toes.  All the other little
+ladies were dressed in the same style, and all looked like ill-
+executed dolls.  She met them with very formal but graceful bows.
+
+When they were all assembled, she and her very graceful mother,
+squatting before each, presented tea and sweetmeats on lacquer
+trays, and then they played at very quiet and polite games till
+dusk.  They addressed each other by their names with the honorific
+prefix O, only used in the case of women, and the respectful affix
+San; thus Haru becomes O-Haru-San, which is equivalent to "Miss."
+A mistress of a house is addressed as O-Kami-San, and O-Kusuma--
+something like "my lady"--is used to married ladies.  Women have no
+surnames; thus you do not speak of Mrs. Saguchi, but of the wife of
+Saguchi San; and you would address her as O-Kusuma.  Among the
+children's names were Haru, Spring; Yuki, Snow; Hana, Blossom;
+Kiku, Chrysanthemum; Gin, Silver.
+
+One of their games was most amusing, and was played with some
+spirit and much dignity.  It consisted in one child feigning
+sickness and another playing the doctor, and the pompousness and
+gravity of the latter, and the distress and weakness of the former,
+were most successfully imitated.  Unfortunately the doctor killed
+his patient, who counterfeited the death-sleep very effectively
+with her whitened face; and then followed the funeral and the
+mourning.  They dramatise thus weddings, dinner-parties, and many
+other of the events of life.  The dignity and self-possession of
+these children are wonderful.  The fact is that their initiation
+into all that is required by the rules of Japanese etiquette begins
+as soon as they can speak, so that by the time they are ten years
+old they know exactly what to do and avoid under all possible
+circumstances.  Before they went away tea and sweetmeats were again
+handed round, and, as it is neither etiquette to refuse them or to
+leave anything behind that you have once taken, several of the
+small ladies slipped the residue into their capacious sleeves.  On
+departing the same formal courtesies were used as on arriving.
+
+Yuki, Haru's mother, speaks, acts, and moves with a charming
+gracefulness.  Except at night, and when friends drop in to
+afternoon tea, as they often do, she is always either at domestic
+avocations, such as cleaning, sewing, or cooking, or planting
+vegetables, or weeding them.  All Japanese girls learn to sew and
+to make their own clothes, but there are none of the mysteries and
+difficulties which make the sewing lesson a thing of dread with us.
+The kimono, haori, and girdle, and even the long hanging sleeves,
+have only parallel seams, and these are only tacked or basted, as
+the garments, when washed, are taken to pieces, and each piece,
+after being very slightly stiffened, is stretched upon a board to
+dry.  There is no underclothing, with its bands, frills, gussets,
+and button-holes; the poorer women wear none, and those above them
+wear, like Yuki, an under-dress of a frothy-looking silk crepe, as
+simply made as the upper one.  There are circulating libraries
+here, as in most villages, and in the evening both Yuki and Haru
+read love stories, or accounts of ancient heroes and heroines,
+dressed up to suit the popular taste, written in the easiest
+possible style.  Ito has about ten volumes of novels in his room,
+and spends half the night in reading them.
+
+Yuki's son, a lad of thirteen, often comes to my room to display
+his skill in writing the Chinese character.  He is a very bright
+boy, and shows considerable talent for drawing.  Indeed, it is only
+a short step from writing to drawing.  Giotto's O hardly involved
+more breadth and vigour of touch than some of these characters.
+They are written with a camel's-hair brush dipped in Indian ink,
+instead of a pen, and this boy, with two or three vigorous touches,
+produces characters a foot long, such as are mounted and hung as
+tablets outside the different shops.  Yuki plays the samisen, which
+may be regarded as the national female instrument, and Haru goes to
+a teacher daily for lessons on the same.
+
+The art of arranging flowers is taught in manuals, the study of
+which forms part of a girl's education, and there is scarcely a day
+in which my room is not newly decorated.  It is an education to me;
+I am beginning to appreciate the extreme beauty of solitude in
+decoration.  In the alcove hangs a kakemono of exquisite beauty, a
+single blossoming branch of the cherry.  On one panel of a folding
+screen there is a single iris.  The vases which hang so gracefully
+on the polished posts contain each a single peony, a single iris, a
+single azalea, stalk, leaves, and corolla--all displayed in their
+full beauty.  Can anything be more grotesque and barbarous than our
+"florists' bouquets," a series of concentric rings of flowers of
+divers colours, bordered by maidenhair and a piece of stiff lace
+paper, in which stems, leaves, and even petals are brutally
+crushed, and the grace and individuality of each flower
+systematically destroyed?
+
+Kanaya is the chief man in this village, besides being the leader
+of the dissonant squeaks and discords which represent music at the
+Shinto festivals, and in some mysterious back region he compounds
+and sells drugs.  Since I have been here the beautification of his
+garden has been his chief object, and he has made a very
+respectable waterfall, a rushing stream, a small lake, a rustic
+bamboo bridge, and several grass banks, and has transplanted
+several large trees.  He kindly goes out with me a good deal, and,
+as he is very intelligent, and Ito is proving an excellent, and, I
+think, a faithful interpreter, I find it very pleasant to be here.
+
+They rise at daylight, fold up the wadded quilts or futons on and
+under which they have slept, and put them and the wooden pillows,
+much like stereoscopes in shape, with little rolls of paper or
+wadding on the top, into a press with a sliding door, sweep the
+mats carefully, dust all the woodwork and the verandahs, open the
+amado--wooden shutters which, by sliding in a groove along the edge
+of the verandah, box in the whole house at night, and retire into
+an ornamental projection in the day--and throw the paper windows
+back.  Breakfast follows, then domestic avocations, dinner at one,
+and sewing, gardening, and visiting till six, when they take the
+evening meal.
+
+Visitors usually arrive soon afterwards, and stay till eleven or
+twelve.  Japanese chess, story-telling, and the samisen fill up the
+early part of the evening, but later, an agonising performance,
+which they call singing, begins, which sounds like the very essence
+of heathenishness, and consists mainly in a prolonged vibrating
+"No."  As soon as I hear it I feel as if I were among savages.
+Sake, or rice beer, is always passed round before the visitors
+leave, in little cups with the gods of luck at the bottom of them.
+Sake, when heated, mounts readily to the head, and a single small
+cup excites the half-witted man-servant to some very foolish
+musical performances.  I am sorry to write it, but his master and
+mistress take great pleasure in seeing him make a fool of himself,
+and Ito, who is from policy a total abstainer, goes into
+convulsions of laughter.
+
+One evening I was invited to join the family, and they entertained
+me by showing me picture and guide books.  Most Japanese provinces
+have their guide-books, illustrated by wood-cuts of the most
+striking objects, and giving itineraries, names of yadoyas, and
+other local information.  One volume of pictures, very finely
+executed on silk, was more than a century old.  Old gold lacquer
+and china, and some pieces of antique embroidered silk, were also
+produced for my benefit, and some musical instruments of great
+beauty, said to be more than two centuries old.  None of these
+treasures are kept in the house, but in the kura, or fireproof
+storehouse, close by.  The rooms are not encumbered by ornaments; a
+single kakemono, or fine piece of lacquer or china, appears for a
+few days and then makes way for something else; so they have
+variety as well as simplicity, and each object is enjoyed in its
+turn without distraction.
+
+Kanaya and his sister often pay me an evening visit, and, with
+Brunton's map on the floor, we project astonishing routes to
+Niigata, which are usually abruptly abandoned on finding a
+mountain-chain in the way with never a road over it.  The life of
+these people seems to pass easily enough, but Kanaya deplores the
+want of money; he would like to be rich, and intends to build a
+hotel for foreigners.
+
+The only vestige of religion in his house is the kamidana, or god-
+shelf, on which stands a wooden shrine like a Shinto temple, which
+contains the memorial tablets to deceased relations.  Each morning
+a sprig of evergreen and a little rice and sake are placed before
+it, and every evening a lighted lamp.
+
+
+
+LETTER X--(Continued)
+
+
+
+Darkness visible--Nikko Shops--Girls and Matrons--Night and Sleep--
+Parental Love--Childish Docility--Hair-dressing--Skin Diseases.
+
+I don't wonder that the Japanese rise early, for their evenings are
+cheerless, owing to the dismal illumination.  In this and other
+houses the lamp consists of a square or circular lacquer stand,
+with four uprights, 2.5 feet high, and panes of white paper.  A
+flatted iron dish is suspended in this full of oil, with the pith
+of a rush with a weight in the centre laid across it, and one of
+the projecting ends is lighted.  This wretched apparatus is called
+an andon, and round its wretched "darkness visible" the family
+huddles--the children to play games and learn lessons, and the
+women to sew; for the Japanese daylight is short and the houses are
+dark.  Almost more deplorable is a candlestick of the same height
+as the andon, with a spike at the top which fits into a hole at the
+bottom of a "farthing candle" of vegetable wax, with a thick wick
+made of rolled paper, which requires constant snuffing, and, after
+giving for a short time a dim and jerky light, expires with a bad
+smell.  Lamps, burning mineral oils, native and imported, are being
+manufactured on a large scale, but, apart from the peril connected
+with them, the carriage of oil into country districts is very
+expensive.  No Japanese would think of sleeping without having an
+andon burning all night in his room.
+
+These villages are full of shops.  There is scarcely a house which
+does not sell something.  Where the buyers come from, and how a
+profit can be made, is a mystery.  Many of the things are eatables,
+such as dried fishes, 1.5 inch long, impaled on sticks; cakes,
+sweetmeats composed of rice, flour, and very little sugar; circular
+lumps of rice dough, called mochi; roots boiled in brine; a white
+jelly made from beans; and ropes, straw shoes for men and horses,
+straw cloaks, paper umbrellas, paper waterproofs, hair-pins, tooth-
+picks, tobacco pipes, paper mouchoirs, and numbers of other trifles
+made of bamboo, straw, grass, and wood.  These goods are on stands,
+and in the room behind, open to the street, all the domestic
+avocations are going on, and the housewife is usually to be seen
+boiling water or sewing with a baby tucked into the back of her
+dress.  A lucifer factory has recently been put up, and in many
+house fronts men are cutting up wood into lengths for matches.  In
+others they are husking rice, a very laborious process, in which
+the grain is pounded in a mortar sunk in the floor by a flat-ended
+wooden pestle attached to a long horizontal lever, which is worked
+by the feet of a man, invariably naked, who stands at the other
+extremity.
+
+In some women are weaving, in others spinning cotton.  Usually
+there are three or four together--the mother, the eldest son's
+wife, and one or two unmarried girls.  The girls marry at sixteen,
+and shortly these comely, rosy, wholesome-looking creatures pass
+into haggard, middle-aged women with vacant faces, owing to the
+blackening of the teeth and removal of the eyebrows, which, if they
+do not follow betrothal, are resorted to on the birth of the first
+child.  In other houses women are at their toilet, blackening their
+teeth before circular metal mirrors placed in folding stands on the
+mats, or performing ablutions, unclothed to the waist.  Early the
+village is very silent, while the children are at school; their
+return enlivens it a little, but they are quiet even at play; at
+sunset the men return, and things are a little livelier; you hear a
+good deal of splashing in baths, and after that they carry about
+and play with their younger children, while the older ones prepare
+lessons for the following day by reciting them in a high,
+monotonous twang.  At dark the paper windows are drawn, the amado,
+or external wooden shutters, are closed, the lamp is lighted before
+the family shrine, supper is eaten, the children play at quiet
+games round the andon; and about ten the quilts and wooden pillows
+are produced from the press, the amado are bolted, and the family
+lies down to sleep in one room.  Small trays of food and the
+tabako-bon are always within reach of adult sleepers, and one grows
+quite accustomed to hear the sound of ashes being knocked out of
+the pipe at intervals during the night.  The children sit up as
+late as their parents, and are included in all their conversation.
+
+I never saw people take so much delight in their offspring,
+carrying them about, or holding their hands in walking, watching
+and entering into their games, supplying them constantly with new
+toys, taking them to picnics and festivals, never being content to
+be without them, and treating other people's children also with a
+suitable measure of affection and attention.  Both fathers and
+mothers take a pride in their children.  It is most amusing about
+six every morning to see twelve or fourteen men sitting on a low
+wall, each with a child under two years in his arms, fondling and
+playing with it, and showing off its physique and intelligence.  To
+judge from appearances, the children form the chief topic at this
+morning gathering.  At night, after the houses are shut up, looking
+through the long fringe of rope or rattan which conceals the
+sliding door, you see the father, who wears nothing but a maro in
+"the bosom of his family," bending his ugly, kindly face over a
+gentle-looking baby, and the mother, who more often than not has
+dropped the kimono from her shoulders, enfolding two children
+destitute of clothing in her arms.  For some reasons they prefer
+boys, but certainly girls are equally petted and loved.  The
+children, though for our ideas too gentle and formal, are very
+prepossessing in looks and behaviour.  They are so perfectly docile
+and obedient, so ready to help their parents, so good to the little
+ones, and, in the many hours which I have spent in watching them at
+play, I have never heard an angry word or seen a sour look or act.
+But they are little men and women rather than children, and their
+old-fashioned appearance is greatly aided by their dress, which, as
+I have remarked before, is the same as that of adults.
+
+There are, however, various styles of dressing the hair of girls,
+by which you can form a pretty accurate estimate of any girl's age
+up to her marriage, when the coiffure undergoes a definite change.
+The boys all look top-heavy and their heads of an abnormal size,
+partly from a hideous practice of shaving the head altogether for
+the first three years.  After this the hair is allowed to grow in
+three tufts, one over each ear, and the other at the back of the
+neck; as often, however, a tuft is grown at the top of the back of
+the head.  At ten the crown alone is shaved and a forelock is worn,
+and at fifteen, when the boy assumes the responsibilities of
+manhood, his hair is allowed to grow like that of a man.  The grave
+dignity of these boys, with the grotesque patterns on their big
+heads, is most amusing.
+
+Would that these much-exposed skulls were always smooth and clean!
+It is painful to see the prevalence of such repulsive maladies as
+scabies, scald-head, ringworm, sore eyes, and unwholesome-looking
+eruptions, and fully 30 per cent of the village people are badly
+seamed with smallpox.
+
+
+
+LETTER X--(Completed)
+
+
+
+Shops and Shopping--The Barber's Shop--A Paper Waterproof--Ito's
+Vanity--Preparations for the Journey--Transport and Prices--Money
+and Measurements.
+
+I have had to do a little shopping in Hachiishi for my journey.
+The shop-fronts, you must understand, are all open, and at the
+height of the floor, about two feet from the ground, there is a
+broad ledge of polished wood on which you sit down.  A woman
+everlastingly boiling water on a bronze hibachi, or brazier,
+shifting the embers about deftly with brass tongs like chopsticks,
+and with a baby looking calmly over her shoulders, is the
+shopwoman; but she remains indifferent till she imagines that you
+have a definite purpose of buying, when she comes forward bowing to
+the ground, and I politely rise and bow too.  Then I or Ito ask the
+price of a thing, and she names it, very likely asking 4s. for what
+ought to sell at 6d.  You say 3s., she laughs and says 3s. 6d.; you
+say 2s., she laughs again and says 3s., offering you the tabako-
+bon.  Eventually the matter is compromised by your giving her 1s.,
+at which she appears quite delighted.  With a profusion of bows and
+"sayo naras" on each side, you go away with the pleasant feeling of
+having given an industrious woman twice as much as the thing was
+worth to her, and less than what it is worth to you!
+
+There are several barbers' shops, and the evening seems a very busy
+time with them.  This operation partakes of the general want of
+privacy of the life of the village, and is performed in the raised
+open front of the shop.  Soap is not used, and the process is a
+painful one.  The victims let their garments fall to their waists,
+and each holds in his left hand a lacquered tray to receive the
+croppings.  The ugly Japanese face at this time wears a most
+grotesque expression of stolid resignation as it is held and pulled
+about by the operator, who turns it in all directions, that he may
+judge of the effect that he is producing.  The shaving the face
+till it is smooth and shiny, and the cutting, waxing, and tying of
+the queue with twine made of paper, are among the evening sights of
+Nikko.
+
+Lacquer and things curiously carved in wood are the great
+attractions of the shops, but they interest me far less than the
+objects of utility in Japanese daily life, with their ingenuity of
+contrivance and perfection of adaptation and workmanship.  A seed
+shop, where seeds are truly idealised, attracts me daily.  Thirty
+varieties are offered for sale, as various in form as they are in
+colour, and arranged most artistically on stands, while some are
+put up in packages decorated with what one may call a facsimile of
+the root, leaves, and flower, in water-colours.  A lad usually lies
+on the mat behind executing these very creditable pictures--for
+such they are--with a few bold and apparently careless strokes with
+his brush.  He gladly sold me a peony as a scrap for a screen for 3
+sen.  My purchases, with this exception, were necessaries only--a
+paper waterproof cloak, "a circular," black outside and yellow
+inside, made of square sheets of oiled paper cemented together, and
+some large sheets of the same for covering my baggage; and I
+succeeded in getting Ito out of his obnoxious black wide-awake into
+a basin-shaped hat like mine, for, ugly as I think him, he has a
+large share of personal vanity, whitens his teeth, and powders his
+face carefully before a mirror, and is in great dread of sunburn.
+He powders his hands too, and polishes his nails, and never goes
+out without gloves.
+
+To-morrow I leave luxury behind and plunge into the interior,
+hoping to emerge somehow upon the Sea of Japan.  No information can
+be got here except about the route to Niigata, which I have decided
+not to take, so, after much study of Brunton's map, I have fixed
+upon one place, and have said positively, "I go to Tajima."  If I
+reach it I can get farther, but all I can learn is, "It's a very
+bad road, it's all among the mountains."  Ito, who has a great
+regard for his own comforts, tries to dissuade me from going by
+saying that I shall lose mine, but, as these kind people have
+ingeniously repaired my bed by doubling the canvas and lacing it
+into holes in the side poles, {9} and as I have lived for the last
+three days on rice, eggs, and coarse vermicelli about the thickness
+and colour of earth-worms, this prospect does not appal me!  In
+Japan there is a Land Transport Company, called Riku-un-kaisha,
+with a head-office in Tokiyo, and branches in various towns and
+villages.  It arranges for the transport of travellers and
+merchandise by pack-horses and coolies at certain fixed rates, and
+gives receipts in due form.  It hires the horses from the farmers,
+and makes a moderate profit on each transaction, but saves the
+traveller from difficulties, delays, and extortions.  The prices
+vary considerably in different districts, and are regulated by the
+price of forage, the state of the roads, and the number of hireable
+horses.  For a ri, nearly 2.5 miles, they charge from 6 to 10 sen
+for a horse and the man who leads it, for a kuruma with one man
+from 4 to 9 sen for the same distance, and for baggage coolies
+about the same.  [This Transport Company is admirably organised.  I
+employed it in journeys of over 1200 miles, and always found it
+efficient and reliable.]  I intend to make use of it always, much
+against Ito's wishes, who reckoned on many a prospective "squeeze"
+in dealings with the farmers.
+
+My journey will now be entirely over "unbeaten tracks," and will
+lead through what may be called "Old Japan;" and as it will be
+natural to use Japanese words for money and distances, for which
+there are no English terms, I give them here.  A yen is a note
+representing a dollar, or about 3s. 7d. of our money; a sen is
+something less than a halfpenny; a rin is a thin round coin of iron
+or bronze, with a square hole in the middle, of which 10 make a
+sen, and 1000 a yen; and a tempo is a handsome oval bronze coin
+with a hole in the centre, of which 5 make 4 sen.  Distances are
+measured by ri, cho, and ken.  Six feet make one ken, sixty ken one
+cho, and thirty-six cho one ri, or nearly 2.5 English miles.  When
+I write of a road I mean a bridle-path from four to eight feet
+wide, kuruma roads being specified as such.  I. L. B.
+
+
+
+LETTER XI
+
+
+
+Comfort disappears--Fine Scenery--An Alarm--A Farm-house--An
+unusual Costume--Bridling a Horse--Female Dress and Ugliness--
+Babies--My Mago--Beauties of the Kinugawa--Fujihara--My Servant--
+Horse-shoes--An absurd Mistake.
+
+FUJIHARA, June 24.
+
+Ito's informants were right.  Comfort was left behind at Nikko!
+
+A little woman brought two depressed-looking mares at six this
+morning; my saddle and bridle were put on one, and Ito and the
+baggage on the other; my hosts and I exchanged cordial good wishes
+and obeisances, and, with the women dragging my sorry mare by a
+rope round her nose, we left the glorious shrines and solemn
+cryptomeria groves of Nikko behind, passed down its long, clean
+street, and where the In Memoriam avenue is densest and darkest
+turned off to the left by a path like the bed of a brook, which
+afterwards, as a most atrocious trail, wound about among the rough
+boulders of the Daiya, which it crosses often on temporary bridges
+of timbers covered with branches and soil.  After crossing one of
+the low spurs of the Nikkosan mountains, we wound among ravines
+whose steep sides are clothed with maple, oak, magnolia, elm, pine,
+and cryptomeria, linked together by festoons of the redundant
+Wistaria chinensis, and brightened by azalea and syringa clusters.
+Every vista was blocked by some grand mountain, waterfalls
+thundered, bright streams glanced through the trees, and in the
+glorious sunshine of June the country looked most beautiful.
+
+We travelled less than a ri an hour, as it was a mere flounder
+either among rocks or in deep mud, the woman in her girt-up dress
+and straw sandals trudging bravely along, till she suddenly flung
+away the rope, cried out, and ran backwards, perfectly scared by a
+big grey snake, with red spots, much embarrassed by a large frog
+which he would not let go, though, like most of his kind, he was
+alarmed by human approach, and made desperate efforts to swallow
+his victim and wriggle into the bushes.  After crawling for three
+hours we dismounted at the mountain farm of Kohiaku, on the edge of
+a rice valley, and the woman counted her packages to see that they
+were all right, and without waiting for a gratuity turned homewards
+with her horses.  I pitched my chair in the verandah of a house
+near a few poor dwellings inhabited by peasants with large
+families, the house being in the barn-yard of a rich sake maker.  I
+waited an hour, grew famished, got some weak tea and boiled barley,
+waited another hour, and yet another, for all the horses were
+eating leaves on the mountains.  There was a little stir.  Men
+carried sheaves of barley home on their backs, and stacked them
+under the eaves.  Children, with barely the rudiments of clothing,
+stood and watched me hour after hour, and adults were not ashamed
+to join the group, for they had never seen a foreign woman, a fork,
+or a spoon.  Do you remember a sentence in Dr. Macgregor's last
+sermon?  "What strange sights some of you will see!"  Could there
+be a stranger one than a decent-looking middle-aged man lying on
+his chest in the verandah, raised on his elbows, and intently
+reading a book, clothed only in a pair of spectacles?  Besides that
+curious piece of still life, women frequently drew water from a
+well by the primitive contrivance of a beam suspended across an
+upright, with the bucket at one end and a stone at the other.
+
+When the horses arrived the men said they could not put on the
+bridle, but, after much talk, it was managed by two of them
+violently forcing open the jaws of the animal, while a third seized
+a propitious moment for slipping the bit into her mouth.  At the
+next change a bridle was a thing unheard of, and when I suggested
+that the creature would open her mouth voluntarily if the bit were
+pressed close to her teeth, the standers-by mockingly said, "No
+horse ever opens his mouth except to eat or to bite," and were only
+convinced after I had put on the bridle myself.  The new horses had
+a rocking gait like camels, and I was glad to dispense with them at
+Kisagoi, a small upland hamlet, a very poor place, with poverty-
+stricken houses, children very dirty and sorely afflicted by skin
+maladies, and women with complexions and features hardened by
+severe work and much wood smoke into positive ugliness, and with
+figures anything but statuesque.
+
+I write the truth as I see it, and if my accounts conflict with
+those of tourists who write of the Tokaido and Nakasendo, of Lake
+Biwa and Hakone, it does not follow that either is inaccurate.  But
+truly this is a new Japan to me, of which no books have given me
+any idea, and it is not fairyland.  The men may be said to wear
+nothing.  Few of the women wear anything but a short petticoat
+wound tightly round them, or blue cotton trousers very tight in the
+legs and baggy at the top, with a blue cotton garment open to the
+waist tucked into the band, and a blue cotton handkerchief knotted
+round the head.  From the dress no notion of the sex of the wearer
+could be gained, nor from the faces, if it were not for the shaven
+eyebrows and black teeth.  The short petticoat is truly barbarous-
+looking, and when a woman has a nude baby on her back or in her
+arms, and stands staring vacantly at the foreigner, I can hardly
+believe myself in "civilised" Japan.  A good-sized child, strong
+enough to hold up his head, sees the world right cheerfully looking
+over his mother's shoulders, but it is a constant distress to me to
+see small children of six and seven years old lugging on their
+backs gristly babies, whose shorn heads are frizzling in the sun
+and "wobbling" about as though they must drop off, their eyes, as
+nurses say, "looking over their heads."  A number of silk-worms are
+kept in this region, and in the open barns groups of men in
+nature's costume, and women unclothed to their waists, were busy
+stripping mulberry branches.  The houses were all poor, and the
+people dirty both in their clothing and persons.  Some of the
+younger women might possibly have been comely, if soap and water
+had been plentifully applied to their faces; but soap is not used,
+and such washing as the garments get is only the rubbing them a
+little with sand in a running stream.  I will give you an amusing
+instance of the way in which one may make absurd mistakes.  I heard
+many stories of the viciousness and aggressiveness of pack-horses,
+and was told that they were muzzled to prevent them from pasturing
+upon the haunches of their companions and making vicious snatches
+at men.  Now, I find that the muzzle is only to prevent them from
+eating as they travel.  Mares are used exclusively in this region,
+and they are the gentlest of their race.  If you have the weight of
+baggage reckoned at one horse-load, though it should turn out that
+the weight is too great for a weakly animal, and the Transport
+agent distributes it among two or even three horses, you only pay
+for one; and though our cortege on leaving Kisagoi consisted of
+four small, shock-headed mares who could hardly see through their
+bushy forelocks, with three active foals, and one woman and three
+girls to lead them, I only paid for two horses at 7 sen a ri.
+
+My mago, with her toil-hardened, thoroughly good-natured face
+rendered hideous by black teeth, wore straw sandals, blue cotton
+trousers with a vest tucked into them, as poor and worn as they
+could be, and a blue cotton towel knotted round her head.  As the
+sky looked threatening she carried a straw rain-cloak, a thatch of
+two connected capes, one fastening at the neck, the other at the
+waist, and a flat hat of flags, 2.5 feet in diameter, hung at her
+back like a shield.  Up and down, over rocks and through deep mud,
+she trudged with a steady stride, turning her kind, ugly face at
+intervals to see if the girls were following.  I like the firm
+hardy gait which this unbecoming costume permits better than the
+painful shuffle imposed upon the more civilised women by their
+tight skirts and high clogs.
+
+From Kohiaku the road passed through an irregular grassy valley
+between densely-wooded hills, the valley itself timbered with park-
+like clumps of pine and Spanish chestnuts; but on leaving Kisagoi
+the scenery changed.  A steep rocky tract brought us to the
+Kinugawa, a clear rushing river, which has cut its way deeply
+through coloured rock, and is crossed at a considerable height by a
+bridge with an alarmingly steep curve, from which there is a fine
+view of high mountains, and among them Futarayama, to which some of
+the most ancient Shinto legends are attached.  We rode for some
+time within hearing of the Kinugawa, catching magnificent glimpses
+of it frequently--turbulent and locked in by walls of porphyry, or
+widening and calming and spreading its aquamarine waters over great
+slabs of pink and green rock, lighted fitfully by the sun, or
+spanned by rainbows, or pausing to rest in deep shady pools, but
+always beautiful.  The mountains through which it forces its way on
+the other side are precipitous and wooded to their summits with
+coniferae, while the less abrupt side, along which the tract is
+carried, curves into green knolls in its lower slopes, sprinkled
+with grand Spanish chestnuts scarcely yet in blossom, with maples
+which have not yet lost the scarlet which they wear in spring as
+well as autumn, and with many flowering trees and shrubs which are
+new to me, and with an undergrowth of red azaleas, syringa, blue
+hydrangea--the very blue of heaven--yellow raspberries, ferns,
+clematis, white and yellow lilies, blue irises, and fifty other
+trees and shrubs entangled and festooned by the wistaria, whose
+beautiful foliage is as common as is that of the bramble with us.
+The redundancy of the vegetation was truly tropical, and the
+brilliancy and variety of its living greens, dripping with recent
+rain, were enhanced by the slant rays of the afternoon sun.
+
+The few hamlets we passed are of farm-houses only, the deep-eaved
+roofs covering in one sweep dwelling-house, barn, and stable.  In
+every barn unclothed people were pursuing various industries.  We
+met strings of pack-mares, tied head and tail, loaded with rice and
+sake, and men and women carrying large creels full of mulberry
+leaves.  The ravine grew more and more beautiful, and an ascent
+through a dark wood of arrowy cryptomeria brought us to this
+village exquisitely situated, where a number of miniature ravines,
+industriously terraced for rice, come down upon the great chasm of
+the Kinugawa.  Eleven hours of travelling have brought me eighteen
+miles!
+
+IKARI, June 25.--Fujihara has forty-six farm-houses and a yadoya--
+all dark, damp, dirty, and draughty, a combination of dwelling-
+house, barn, and stable.  The yadoya consisted of a daidokoro, or
+open kitchen, and stable below, and a small loft above, capable of
+division, and I found on returning from a walk six Japanese in
+extreme deshabille occupying the part through which I had to pass.
+On this being remedied I sat down to write, but was soon driven
+upon the balcony, under the eaves, by myriads of fleas, which
+hopped out of the mats as sandhoppers do out of the sea sand, and
+even in the balcony, hopped over my letter.  There were two outer
+walls of hairy mud with living creatures crawling in the cracks;
+cobwebs hung from the uncovered rafters.  The mats were brown with
+age and dirt, the rice was musty, and only partially cleaned, the
+eggs had seen better days, and the tea was musty.
+
+I saw everything out of doors with Ito--the patient industry, the
+exquisitely situated village, the evening avocations, the quiet
+dulness--and then contemplated it all from my balcony and read the
+sentence (from a paper in the Transactions of the Asiatic Society)
+which had led me to devise this journey, "There is a most
+exquisitely picturesque, but difficult, route up the course of the
+Kinugawa, which seems almost as unknown to Japanese as to
+foreigners."  There was a pure lemon-coloured sky above, and slush
+a foot deep below.  A road, at this time a quagmire, intersected by
+a rapid stream, crossed in many places by planks, runs through the
+village.  This stream is at once "lavatory" and "drinking
+fountain."  People come back from their work, sit on the planks,
+take off their muddy clothes and wring them out, and bathe their
+feet in the current.  On either side are the dwellings, in front of
+which are much-decayed manure heaps, and the women were engaged in
+breaking them up and treading them into a pulp with their bare
+feet.  All wear the vest and trousers at their work, but only the
+short petticoats in their houses, and I saw several respectable
+mothers of families cross the road and pay visits in this garment
+only, without any sense of impropriety.  The younger children wear
+nothing but a string and an amulet.  The persons, clothing, and
+houses are alive with vermin, and if the word squalor can be
+applied to independent and industrious people, they were squalid.
+Beetles, spiders, and wood-lice held a carnival in my room after
+dark, and the presence of horses in the same house brought a number
+of horseflies.  I sprinkled my stretcher with insect powder, but my
+blanket had been on the floor for one minute, and fleas rendered
+sleep impossible.  The night was very long.  The andon went out,
+leaving a strong smell of rancid oil.  The primitive Japanese dog--
+a cream-coloured wolfish-looking animal, the size of a collie, very
+noisy and aggressive, but as cowardly as bullies usually are--was
+in great force in Fujihara, and the barking, growling, and
+quarrelling of these useless curs continued at intervals until
+daylight; and when they were not quarrelling, they were howling.
+Torrents of rain fell, obliging me to move my bed from place to
+place to get out of the drip.  At five Ito came and entreated me to
+leave, whimpering, "I've had no sleep; there are thousands and
+thousands of fleas!"  He has travelled by another route to the
+Tsugaru Strait through the interior, and says that he would not
+have believed that there was such a place in Japan, and that people
+in Yokohama will not believe it when he tells them of it and of the
+costume of the women.  He is "ashamed for a foreigner to see such a
+place," he says.  His cleverness in travelling and his singular
+intelligence surprise me daily.  He is very anxious to speak GOOD
+English, as distinguished from "common" English, and to get new
+words, with their correct pronunciation and spelling.  Each day he
+puts down in his note-book all the words that I use that he does
+not quite understand, and in the evening brings them to me and puts
+down their meaning and spelling with their Japanese equivalents.
+He speaks English already far better than many professional
+interpreters, but would be more pleasing if he had not picked up
+some American vulgarisms and free-and-easy ways.  It is so
+important to me to have a good interpreter, or I should not have
+engaged so young and inexperienced a servant; but he is so clever
+that he is now able to be cook, laundryman, and general attendant,
+as well as courier and interpreter, and I think it is far easier
+for me than if he were an older man.  I am trying to manage him,
+because I saw that he meant to manage me, specially in the matter
+of "squeezes."  He is intensely Japanese, his patriotism has all
+the weakness and strength of personal vanity, and he thinks
+everything inferior that is foreign.  Our manners, eyes, and modes
+of eating appear simply odious to him.  He delights in retailing
+stories of the bad manners of Englishmen, describes them as
+"roaring out ohio to every one on the road," frightening the tea-
+house nymphs, kicking or slapping their coolies, stamping over
+white mats in muddy boots, acting generally like ill-bred Satyrs,
+exciting an ill-concealed hatred in simple country districts, and
+bringing themselves and their country into contempt and ridicule.
+{10}  He is very anxious about my good behaviour, and as I am
+equally anxious to be courteous everywhere in Japanese fashion, and
+not to violate the general rules of Japanese etiquette, I take his
+suggestions as to what I ought to do and avoid in very good part,
+and my bows are growing more profound every day!  The people are so
+kind and courteous, that it is truly brutal in foreigners not to be
+kind and courteous to them.  You will observe that I am entirely
+dependent on Ito, not only for travelling arrangements, but for
+making inquiries, gaining information, and even for companionship,
+such as it is; and our being mutually embarked on a hard and
+adventurous journey will, I hope, make us mutually kind and
+considerate.  Nominally, he is a Shintoist, which means nothing.
+At Nikko I read to him the earlier chapters of St. Luke, and when I
+came to the story of the Prodigal Son I was interrupted by a
+somewhat scornful laugh and the remark, "Why, all this is our
+Buddha over again!"
+
+To-day's journey, though very rough, has been rather pleasant.  The
+rain moderated at noon, and I left Fujihara on foot, wearing my
+American "mountain dress" and Wellington boots,--the only costume
+in which ladies can enjoy pedestrian or pack-horse travelling in
+this country,--with a light straw mat--the waterproof of the
+region--hanging over my shoulders, and so we plodded on with two
+baggage horses through the ankle-deep mud, till the rain cleared
+off, the mountains looked through the mist, the augmented Kinugawa
+thundered below, and enjoyment became possible, even in my half-fed
+condition.  Eventually I mounted a pack-saddle, and we crossed a
+spur of Takadayama at a height of 2100 feet on a well-devised
+series of zigzags, eight of which in one place could be seen one
+below another.  The forest there is not so dense as usual, and the
+lower mountain slopes are sprinkled with noble Spanish chestnuts.
+The descent was steep and slippery, the horse had tender feet, and,
+after stumbling badly, eventually came down, and I went over his
+head, to the great distress of the kindly female mago.  The straw
+shoes tied with wisps round the pasterns are a great nuisance.  The
+"shoe strings" are always coming untied, and the shoes only wear
+about two ri on soft ground, and less than one on hard.  They keep
+the feet so soft and spongy that the horses can't walk without them
+at all, and as soon as they get thin your horse begins to stumble,
+the mago gets uneasy, and presently you stop; four shoes, which are
+hanging from the saddle, are soaked in water and are tied on with
+much coaxing, raising the animal fully an inch above the ground.
+Anything more temporary and clumsy could not be devised.  The
+bridle paths are strewn with them, and the children collect them in
+heaps to decay for manure.  They cost 3 or 4 sen the set, and in
+every village men spend their leisure time in making them.
+
+At the next stage, called Takahara, we got one horse for the
+baggage, crossed the river and the ravine, and by a steep climb
+reached a solitary yadoya with the usual open front and irori,
+round which a number of people, old and young, were sitting.  When
+I arrived a whole bevy of nice-looking girls took to flight, but
+were soon recalled by a word from Ito to their elders.  Lady
+Parkes, on a side-saddle and in a riding-habit, has been taken for
+a man till the people saw her hair, and a young friend of mine, who
+is very pretty and has a beautiful complexion, when travelling
+lately with her husband, was supposed to be a man who had shaven
+off his beard.  I wear a hat, which is a thing only worn by women
+in the fields as a protection from sun and rain, my eyebrows are
+unshaven, and my teeth are unblackened, so these girls supposed me
+to be a foreign man.  Ito in explanation said, "They haven't seen
+any, but everybody brings them tales how rude foreigners are to
+girls, and they are awful scared."  There was nothing eatable but
+rice and eggs, and I ate them under the concentrated stare of
+eighteen pairs of dark eyes.  The hot springs, to which many people
+afflicted with sores resort, are by the river, at the bottom of a
+rude flight of steps, in an open shed, but I could not ascertain
+their temperature, as a number of men and women were sitting in the
+water.  They bathe four times a day, and remain for an hour at a
+time.
+
+We left for the five miles' walk to Ikari in a torrent of rain by a
+newly-made path completely shut in with the cascading Kinugawa, and
+carried along sometimes low, sometimes high, on props projecting
+over it from the face of the rock.  I do not expect to see anything
+lovelier in Japan.
+
+The river, always crystal-blue or crystal-green, largely increased
+in volume by the rains, forces itself through gates of brightly-
+coloured rock, by which its progress is repeatedly arrested, and
+rarely lingers for rest in all its sparkling, rushing course.  It
+is walled in by high mountains, gloriously wooded and cleft by dark
+ravines, down which torrents were tumbling in great drifts of foam,
+crashing and booming, boom and crash multiplied by many an echo,
+and every ravine afforded glimpses far back of more mountains,
+clefts, and waterfalls, and such over-abundant vegetation that I
+welcomed the sight of a gray cliff or bare face of rock.  Along the
+path there were fascinating details, composed of the manifold
+greenery which revels in damp heat, ferns, mosses, confervae,
+fungi, trailers, shading tiny rills which dropped down into
+grottoes feathery with the exquisite Trichomanes radicans, or
+drooped over the rustic path and hung into the river, and overhead
+the finely incised and almost feathery foliage of several varieties
+of maple admitted the light only as a green mist.  The spring tints
+have not yet darkened into the monotone of summer, rose azaleas
+still light the hillsides, and masses of cryptomeria give depth and
+shadow.  Still, beautiful as it all is, one sighs for something
+which shall satisfy one's craving for startling individuality and
+grace of form, as in the coco-palm and banana of the tropics.  The
+featheriness of the maple, and the arrowy straightness and
+pyramidal form of the cryptomeria, please me better than all else;
+but why criticise?  Ten minutes of sunshine would transform the
+whole into fairyland.
+
+There were no houses and no people.  Leaving this beautiful river
+we crossed a spur of a hill, where all the trees were matted
+together by a very fragrant white honeysuckle, and came down upon
+an open valley where a quiet stream joins the loud-tongued
+Kinugawa, and another mile brought us to this beautifully-situated
+hamlet of twenty-five houses, surrounded by mountains, and close to
+a mountain stream called the Okawa.  The names of Japanese rivers
+give one very little geographical information from their want of
+continuity.  A river changes its name several times in a course of
+thirty or forty miles, according to the districts through which it
+passes.  This is my old friend the Kinugawa, up which I have been
+travelling for two days.  Want of space is a great aid to the
+picturesque.  Ikari is crowded together on a hill slope, and its
+short, primitive-looking street, with its warm browns and greys, is
+quite attractive in "the clear shining after rain."  My halting-
+place is at the express office at the top of the hill--a place like
+a big barn, with horses at one end and a living-room at the other,
+and in the centre much produce awaiting transport, and a group of
+people stripping mulberry branches.  The nearest daimiyo used to
+halt here on his way to Tokiyo, so there are two rooms for
+travellers, called daimiyos' rooms, fifteen feet high, handsomely
+ceiled in dark wood, the shoji of such fine work as to merit the
+name of fret-work, the fusuma artistically decorated, the mats
+clean and fine, and in the alcove a sword-rack of old gold lacquer.
+Mine is the inner room, and Ito and four travellers occupy the
+outer one.  Though very dark, it is luxury after last night.  The
+rest of the house is given up to the rearing of silk-worms.  The
+house-masters here and at Fujihara are not used to passports, and
+Ito, who is posing as a town-bred youth, has explained and copied
+mine, all the village men assembling to hear it read aloud.  He
+does not know the word used for "scientific investigation," but, in
+the idea of increasing his own importance by exaggerating mine, I
+hear him telling the people that I am gakusha, i.e. learned!  There
+is no police-station here, but every month policemen pay
+domiciliary visits to these outlying yadoyas and examine the
+register of visitors.
+
+This is a much neater place than the last, but the people look
+stupid and apathetic, and I wonder what they think of the men who
+have abolished the daimiyo and the feudal regime, have raised the
+eta to citizenship, and are hurrying the empire forward on the
+tracks of western civilisation!
+
+Since shingle has given place to thatch there is much to admire in
+the villages, with their steep roofs, deep eaves and balconies, the
+warm russet of roofs and walls, the quaint confusion of the
+farmhouses, the hedges of camellia and pomegranate, the bamboo
+clumps and persimmon orchards, and (in spite of dirt and bad
+smells) the generally satisfied look of the peasant proprietors.
+
+No food can be got here except rice and eggs, and I am haunted by
+memories of the fowls and fish of Nikko, to say nothing of the
+"flesh pots" of the Legation, and
+
+
+"--a sorrow's crown of sorrow
+Is remembering happier things!"
+
+
+The mercury falls to 70 degrees at night, and I generally awake
+from cold at 3 a.m., for my blankets are only summer ones, and I
+dare not supplement them with a quilt, either for sleeping on or
+under, because of the fleas which it contains.  I usually retire
+about 7.30, for there is almost no twilight, and very little
+inducement for sitting up by the dimness of candle or andon, and I
+have found these days of riding on slow, rolling, stumbling horses
+very severe, and if I were anything of a walker, should certainly
+prefer pedestrianism.  I. L. B.
+
+
+
+LETTER XII
+
+
+
+A Fantastic Jumble--The "Quiver" of Poverty--The Water-shed--From
+Bad to Worse--The Rice Planter's Holiday--A Diseased Crowd--Amateur
+Doctoring--Want of Cleanliness--Rapid Eating--Premature Old Age.
+
+KURUMATOGE, June 30.
+
+After the hard travelling of six days the rest of Sunday in a quiet
+place at a high elevation is truly delightful!  Mountains and
+passes, valleys and rice swamps, forests and rice swamps, villages
+and rice swamps; poverty, industry, dirt, ruinous temples,
+prostrate Buddhas, strings of straw-shod pack-horses; long, grey,
+featureless streets, and quiet, staring crowds, are all jumbled up
+fantastically in my memory.  Fine weather accompanied me through
+beautiful scenery from Ikari to Yokokawa, where I ate my lunch in
+the street to avoid the innumerable fleas of the tea-house, with a
+circle round me of nearly all the inhabitants.  At first the
+children, both old and young, were so frightened that they ran
+away, but by degrees they timidly came back, clinging to the skirts
+of their parents (skirts, in this case, being a metaphorical
+expression), running away again as often as I looked at them.  The
+crowd was filthy and squalid beyond description.  Why should the
+"quiver" of poverty be so very full? one asks as one looks at the
+swarms of gentle, naked, old-fashioned children, born to a heritage
+of hard toil, to be, like their parents, devoured by vermin, and
+pressed hard for taxes.  A horse kicked off my saddle before it was
+girthed, the crowd scattered right and left, and work, which had
+been suspended for two hours to stare at the foreigner, began
+again.
+
+A long ascent took us to the top of a pass 2500 feet in height, a
+projecting spur not 30 feet wide, with a grand view of mountains
+and ravines, and a maze of involved streams, which unite in a
+vigorous torrent, whose course we followed for some hours, till it
+expanded into a quiet river, lounging lazily through a rice swamp
+of considerable extent.  The map is blank in this region, but I
+judged, as I afterwards found rightly, that at that pass we had
+crossed the water-shed, and that the streams thenceforward no
+longer fall into the Pacific, but into the Sea of Japan.  At
+Itosawa the horses produced stumbled so intolerably that I walked
+the last stage, and reached Kayashima, a miserable village of
+fifty-seven houses, so exhausted that I could not go farther, and
+was obliged to put up with worse accommodation even than at
+Fujihara, with less strength for its hardships.
+
+The yadoya was simply awful.  The daidokoro had a large wood fire
+burning in a trench, filling the whole place with stinging smoke,
+from which my room, which was merely screened off by some
+dilapidated shoji, was not exempt.  The rafters were black and
+shiny with soot and moisture.  The house-master, who knelt
+persistently on the floor of my room till he was dislodged by Ito,
+apologised for the dirt of his house, as well he might.  Stifling,
+dark, and smoky, as my room was, I had to close the paper windows,
+owing to the crowd which assembled in the street.  There was
+neither rice nor soy, and Ito, who values his own comfort, began to
+speak to the house-master and servants loudly and roughly, and to
+throw my things about--a style of acting which I promptly
+terminated, for nothing could be more hurtful to a foreigner, or
+more unkind to the people, than for a servant to be rude and
+bullying; and the man was most polite, and never approached me but
+on bended knees.  When I gave him my passport, as the custom is, he
+touched his forehead with it, and then touched the earth with his
+forehead.
+
+I found nothing that I could eat except black beans and boiled
+cucumbers.  The room was dark, dirty, vile, noisy, and poisoned by
+sewage odours, as rooms unfortunately are very apt to be.  At the
+end of the rice planting there is a holiday for two days, when many
+offerings are made to Inari, the god of rice farmers; and the
+holiday-makers kept up their revel all night, and drums, stationary
+and peripatetic, were constantly beaten in such a way as to prevent
+sleep.
+
+A little boy, the house-master's son, was suffering from a very bad
+cough, and a few drops of chlorodyne which I gave him allayed it so
+completely that the cure was noised abroad in the earliest hours of
+the next morning, and by five o'clock nearly the whole population
+was assembled outside my room, with much whispering and shuffling
+of shoeless feet, and applications of eyes to the many holes in the
+paper windows.  When I drew aside the shoji I was disconcerted by
+the painful sight which presented itself, for the people were
+pressing one upon another, fathers and mothers holding naked
+children covered with skin-disease, or with scald-head, or
+ringworm, daughters leading mothers nearly blind, men exhibiting
+painful sores, children blinking with eyes infested by flies and
+nearly closed with ophthalmia; and all, sick and well, in truly
+"vile raiment," lamentably dirty and swarming with vermin, the sick
+asking for medicine, and the well either bringing the sick or
+gratifying an apathetic curiosity.  Sadly I told them that I did
+not understand their manifold "diseases and torments," and that, if
+I did, I had no stock of medicines, and that in my own country the
+constant washing of clothes, and the constant application of water
+to the skin, accompanied by friction with clean cloths, would be
+much relied upon by doctors for the cure and prevention of similar
+cutaneous diseases.  To pacify them I made some ointment of animal
+fat and flowers of sulphur, extracted with difficulty from some
+man's hoard, and told them how to apply it to some of the worst
+cases.  The horse, being unused to a girth, became fidgety as it
+was being saddled, creating a STAMPEDE among the crowd, and the
+mago would not touch it again.  They are as much afraid of their
+gentle mares as if they were panthers.  All the children followed
+me for a considerable distance, and a good many of the adults made
+an excuse for going in the same direction.
+
+These people wear no linen, and their clothes, which are seldom
+washed, are constantly worn, night and day, as long as they will
+hold together.  They seal up their houses as hermetically as they
+can at night, and herd together in numbers in one sleeping-room,
+with its atmosphere vitiated, to begin with, by charcoal and
+tobacco fumes, huddled up in their dirty garments in wadded quilts,
+which are kept during the day in close cupboards, and are seldom
+washed from one year's end to another.  The tatami, beneath a
+tolerably fair exterior, swarm with insect life, and are
+receptacles of dust, organic matters, etc.  The hair, which is
+loaded with oil and bandoline, is dressed once a week, or less
+often in these districts, and it is unnecessary to enter into any
+details regarding the distressing results, and much besides may be
+left to the imagination.  The persons of the people, especially of
+the children, are infested with vermin, and one fruitful source of
+skin sores is the irritation arising from this cause.  The floors
+of houses, being concealed by mats, are laid down carelessly with
+gaps between the boards, and, as the damp earth is only 18 inches
+or 2 feet below, emanations of all kinds enter the mats and pass
+into the rooms.
+
+The houses in this region (and I believe everywhere) are
+hermetically sealed at night, both in summer and winter, the amado,
+which are made without ventilators, literally boxing them in, so
+that, unless they are falling to pieces, which is rarely the case,
+none of the air vitiated by the breathing of many persons, by the
+emanations from their bodies and clothing, by the miasmata produced
+by defective domestic arrangements, and by the fumes from charcoal
+hibachi, can ever be renewed.  Exercise is seldom taken from
+choice, and, unless the women work in the fields, they hang over
+charcoal fumes the whole day for five months of the year, engaged
+in interminable processes of cooking, or in the attempt to get
+warm.  Much of the food of the peasantry is raw or half-raw salt
+fish, and vegetables rendered indigestible by being coarsely
+pickled, all bolted with the most marvellous rapidity, as if the
+one object of life were to rush through a meal in the shortest
+possible time.  The married women look as if they had never known
+youth, and their skin is apt to be like tanned leather.  At
+Kayashima I asked the house-master's wife, who looked about fifty,
+how old she was (a polite question in Japan), and she replied
+twenty-two--one of many similar surprises.  Her boy was five years
+old, and was still unweaned.
+
+This digression disposes of one aspect of the population. {11}
+
+
+
+LETTER XII--(Concluded)
+
+
+
+A Japanese Ferry--A Corrugated Road--The Pass of Sanno--Various
+Vegetation--An Unattractive Undergrowth--Preponderance of Men.
+
+We changed horses at Tajima, formerly a daimiyo's residence, and,
+for a Japanese town, rather picturesque.  It makes and exports
+clogs, coarse pottery, coarse lacquer, and coarse baskets.
+
+After travelling through rice-fields varying from thirty yards
+square to a quarter of an acre, with the tops of the dykes utilised
+by planting dwarf beans along them, we came to a large river, the
+Arakai, along whose affluents we had been tramping for two days,
+and, after passing through several filthy villages, thronged with
+filthy and industrious inhabitants, crossed it in a scow.  High
+forks planted securely in the bank on either side sustained a rope
+formed of several strands of the wistaria knotted together.  One
+man hauled on this hand over hand, another poled at the stern, and
+the rapid current did the rest.  In this fashion we have crossed
+many rivers subsequently.  Tariffs of charges are posted at all
+ferries, as well as at all bridges where charges are made, and a
+man sits in an office to receive the money.
+
+The country was really very beautiful.  The views were wider and
+finer than on the previous days, taking in great sweeps of peaked
+mountains, wooded to their summits, and from the top of the Pass of
+Sanno the clustered peaks were glorified into unearthly beauty in a
+golden mist of evening sunshine.  I slept at a house combining silk
+farm, post office, express office, and daimiyo's rooms, at the
+hamlet of Ouchi, prettily situated in a valley with mountainous
+surroundings, and, leaving early on the following morning, had a
+very grand ride, passing in a crateriform cavity the pretty little
+lake of Oyake, and then ascending the magnificent pass of Ichikawa.
+We turned off what, by ironical courtesy, is called the main road,
+upon a villainous track, consisting of a series of lateral
+corrugations, about a foot broad, with depressions between them
+more than a foot deep, formed by the invariable treading of the
+pack-horses in each other's footsteps.  Each hole was a quagmire of
+tenacious mud, the ascent of 2400 feet was very steep, and the mago
+adjured the animals the whole time with Hai! Hai! Hai! which is
+supposed to suggest to them that extreme caution is requisite.
+Their shoes were always coming untied, and they wore out two sets
+in four miles.  The top of the pass, like that of a great many
+others, is a narrow ridge, on the farther side of which the track
+dips abruptly into a tremendous ravine, along whose side we
+descended for a mile or so in company with a river whose
+reverberating thunder drowned all attempts at speech.  A glorious
+view it was, looking down between the wooded precipices to a
+rolling wooded plain, lying in depths of indigo shadow, bounded by
+ranges of wooded mountains, and overtopped by heights heavily
+splotched with snow!  The vegetation was significant of a milder
+climate.  The magnolia and bamboo re-appeared, and tropical ferns
+mingled with the beautiful blue hydrangea, the yellow Japan lily,
+and the great blue campanula.  There was an ocean of trees
+entangled with a beautiful trailer (Actinidia polygama) with a
+profusion of white leaves, which, at a distance, look like great
+clusters of white blossoms.  But the rank undergrowth of the
+forests of this region is not attractive.  Many of its component
+parts deserve the name of weeds, being gawky, ragged umbels, coarse
+docks, rank nettles, and many other things which I don't know, and
+never wish to see again.  Near the end of this descent my mare took
+the bit between her teeth and carried me at an ungainly gallop into
+the beautifully situated, precipitous village of Ichikawa, which is
+absolutely saturated with moisture by the spray of a fine waterfall
+which tumbles through the middle of it, and its trees and road-side
+are green with the Protococcus viridis.  The Transport Agent there
+was a woman.  Women keep yadoyas and shops, and cultivate farms as
+freely as men.  Boards giving the number of inhabitants, male and
+female, and the number of horses and bullocks, are put up in each
+village, and I noticed in Ichikawa, as everywhere hitherto, that
+men preponderate. {12}  I. L. B.
+
+
+
+LETTER XIII
+
+
+
+The Plain of Wakamatsu--Light Costume--The Takata Crowd--A Congress
+of Schoolmasters--Timidity of a Crowd--Bad Roads--Vicious Horses--
+Mountain Scenery--A Picturesque Inn--Swallowing a Fish-bone--
+Poverty and Suicide--An Inn-kitchen--England Unknown!--My Breakfast
+Disappears.
+
+KURUMATOGE, June 30.
+
+A short ride took us from Ichikawa to a plain about eleven miles
+broad by eighteen long.  The large town of Wakamatsu stands near
+its southern end, and it is sprinkled with towns and villages.  The
+great lake of Iniwashiro is not far off.  The plain is rich and
+fertile.  In the distance the steep roofs of its villages, with
+their groves, look very picturesque.  As usual not a fence or gate
+is to be seen, or any other hedge than the tall one used as a
+screen for the dwellings of the richer farmers.
+
+Bad roads and bad horses detracted from my enjoyment.  One hour of
+a good horse would have carried me across the plain; as it was,
+seven weary hours were expended upon it.  The day degenerated, and
+closed in still, hot rain; the air was stifling and electric, the
+saddle slipped constantly from being too big, the shoes were more
+than usually troublesome, the horseflies tormented, and the men and
+horses crawled.  The rice-fields were undergoing a second process
+of puddling, and many of the men engaged in it wore only a hat, and
+a fan attached to the girdle.
+
+An avenue of cryptomeria and two handsome and somewhat gilded
+Buddhist temples denoted the approach to a place of some
+importance, and such Takata is, as being a large town with a
+considerable trade in silk, rope, and minjin, and the residence of
+one of the higher officials of the ken or prefecture.  The street
+is a mile long, and every house is a shop.  The general aspect is
+mean and forlorn.  In these little-travelled districts, as soon as
+one reaches the margin of a town, the first man one meets turns and
+flies down the street, calling out the Japanese equivalent of
+"Here's a foreigner!" and soon blind and seeing, old and young,
+clothed and naked, gather together.  At the yadoya the crowd
+assembled in such force that the house-master removed me to some
+pretty rooms in a garden; but then the adults climbed on the house-
+roofs which overlooked it, and the children on a palisade at the
+end, which broke down under their weight, and admitted the whole
+inundation; so that I had to close the shoji, with the fatiguing
+consciousness during the whole time of nominal rest of a multitude
+surging outside.  Then five policemen in black alpaca frock-coats
+and white trousers invaded my precarious privacy, desiring to see
+my passport--a demand never made before except where I halted for
+the night.  In their European clothes they cannot bow with Japanese
+punctiliousness, but they were very polite, and expressed great
+annoyance at the crowd, and dispersed it; but they had hardly
+disappeared when it gathered again.  When I went out I found fully
+1000 people helping me to realise how the crowded cities of Judea
+sent forth people clothed much as these are when the Miracle-Worker
+from Galilee arrived, but not what the fatigue of the crowding and
+buzzing must have been to One who had been preaching and working
+during the long day.  These Japanese crowds, however, are quiet and
+gentle, and never press rudely upon one.  I could not find it in my
+heart to complain of them except to you.  Four of the policemen
+returned, and escorted me to the outskirts of the town.  The noise
+made by 1000 people shuffling along in clogs is like the clatter of
+a hail-storm.
+
+After this there was a dismal tramp of five hours through rice-
+fields.  The moist climate and the fatigue of this manner of
+travelling are deteriorating my health, and the pain in my spine,
+which has been daily increasing, was so severe that I could neither
+ride nor walk for more than twenty minutes at a time; and the pace
+was so slow that it was six when we reached Bange, a commercial
+town of 5000 people, literally in the rice swamp, mean, filthy,
+damp, and decaying, and full of an overpowering stench from black,
+slimy ditches.  The mercury was 84 degrees, and hot rain fell fast
+through the motionless air.  We dismounted in a shed full of bales
+of dried fish, which gave off an overpowering odour, and wet and
+dirty people crowded in to stare at the foreigner till the air
+seemed unbreathable.
+
+But there were signs of progress.  A three days' congress of
+schoolmasters was being held; candidates for vacant situations were
+being examined; there were lengthy educational discussions going
+on, specially on the subject of the value of the Chinese classics
+as a part of education; and every inn was crowded.
+
+Bange was malarious:  there was so much malarious fever that the
+Government had sent additional medical assistance; the hills were
+only a ri off, and it seemed essential to go on.  But not a horse
+could be got till 10 p.m.; the road was worse than the one I had
+travelled; the pain became more acute, and I more exhausted, and I
+was obliged to remain.  Then followed a weary hour, in which the
+Express Agent's five emissaries were searching for a room, and
+considerably after dark I found myself in a rambling old over-
+crowded yadoya, where my room was mainly built on piles above
+stagnant water, and the mosquitoes were in such swarms as to make
+the air dense, and after a feverish and miserable night I was glad
+to get up early and depart.
+
+Fully 2000 people had assembled.  After I was mounted I was on the
+point of removing my Dollond from the case, which hung on the
+saddle horn, when a regular stampede occurred, old and young
+running as fast as they possibly could, children being knocked down
+in the haste of their elders.  Ito said that they thought I was
+taking out a pistol to frighten them, and I made him explain what
+the object really was, for they are a gentle, harmless people, whom
+one would not annoy without sincere regret.  In many European
+countries, and certainly in some parts of our own, a solitary lady-
+traveller in a foreign dress would be exposed to rudeness, insult,
+and extortion, if not to actual danger; but I have not met with a
+single instance of incivility or real overcharge, and there is no
+rudeness even about the crowding.  The mago are anxious that I
+should not get wet or be frightened, and very scrupulous in seeing
+that all straps and loose things are safe at the end of the
+journey, and, instead of hanging about asking for gratuities, or
+stopping to drink and gossip, they quickly unload the horses, get a
+paper from the Transport Agent, and go home.  Only yesterday a
+strap was missing, and, though it was after dark, the man went back
+a ri for it, and refused to take some sen which I wished to give
+him, saying he was responsible for delivering everything right at
+the journey's end.  They are so kind and courteous to each other,
+which is very pleasing.  Ito is not pleasing or polite in his
+manner to me, but when he speaks to his own people he cannot free
+himself from the shackles of etiquette, and bows as profoundly and
+uses as many polite phrases as anybody else.
+
+In an hour the malarious plain was crossed, and we have been among
+piles of mountains ever since.  The infamous road was so slippery
+that my horse fell several times, and the baggage horse, with Ito
+upon him, rolled head over heels, sending his miscellaneous pack in
+all directions.  Good roads are really the most pressing need of
+Japan.  It would be far better if the Government were to enrich the
+country by such a remunerative outlay as making passable roads for
+the transport of goods through the interior, than to impoverish it
+by buying ironclads in England, and indulging in expensive western
+vanities.
+
+That so horrible a road should have so good a bridge as that by
+which we crossed the broad river Agano is surprising.  It consists
+of twelve large scows, each one secured to a strong cable of
+plaited wistari, which crosses the river at a great height, so as
+to allow of the scows and the plank bridge which they carry rising
+and falling with the twelve feet variation of the water.
+
+Ito's disaster kept him back for an hour, and I sat meanwhile on a
+rice sack in the hamlet of Katakado, a collection of steep-roofed
+houses huddled together in a height above the Agano.  It was one
+mob of pack-horses, over 200 of them, biting, squealing, and
+kicking.  Before I could dismount, one vicious creature struck at
+me violently, but only hit the great wooden stirrup.  I could
+hardly find any place out of the range of hoofs or teeth.  My
+baggage horse showed great fury after he was unloaded.  He attacked
+people right and left with his teeth, struck out savagely with his
+fore feet, lashed out with his hind ones, and tried to pin his
+master up against a wall.
+
+Leaving this fractious scene we struck again through the mountains.
+Their ranges were interminable, and every view from every fresh
+ridge grander than the last, for we were now near the lofty range
+of the Aidzu Mountains, and the double-peaked Bandaisan, the abrupt
+precipices of Itoyasan, and the grand mass of Miyojintake in the
+south-west, with their vast snow-fields and snow-filled ravines,
+were all visible at once.  These summits of naked rock or dazzling
+snow, rising above the smothering greenery of the lower ranges into
+a heaven of delicious blue, gave exactly that individuality and
+emphasis which, to my thinking, Japanese scenery usually lacks.
+Riding on first, I arrived alone at the little town of Nozawa, to
+encounter the curiosity of a crowd; and, after a rest, we had a
+very pleasant walk of three miles along the side of a ridge above a
+rapid river with fine grey cliffs on its farther side, with a grand
+view of the Aidzu giants, violet coloured in a golden sunset.
+
+At dusk we came upon the picturesque village of Nojiri, on the
+margin of a rice valley, but I shrank from spending Sunday in a
+hole, and, having spied a solitary house on the very brow of a hill
+1500 feet higher, I dragged out the information that it was a tea-
+house, and came up to it.  It took three-quarters of an hour to
+climb the series of precipitous zigzags by which this remarkable
+pass is surmounted; darkness came on, accompanied by thunder and
+lightning, and just as we arrived a tremendous zigzag of blue flame
+lit up the house and its interior, showing a large group sitting
+round a wood fire, and then all was thick darkness again.  It had a
+most startling effect.  This house is magnificently situated,
+almost hanging over the edge of the knife-like ridge of the pass of
+Kuruma, on which it is situated.  It is the only yadoya I have been
+at from which there has been any view.  The villages are nearly
+always in the valleys, and the best rooms are at the back, and have
+their prospects limited by the paling of the conventional garden.
+If it were not for the fleas, which are here in legions, I should
+stay longer, for the view of the Aidzu snow is delicious, and, as
+there are only two other houses, one can ramble without being
+mobbed.
+
+In one a child two and a half years old swallowed a fish-bone last
+night, and has been suffering and crying all day, and the grief of
+the mother so won Ito's sympathy that he took me to see her.  She
+had walked up and down with it for eighteen hours, but never
+thought of looking into its throat, and was very unwilling that I
+should do so.  The bone was visible, and easily removed with a
+crochet needle.  An hour later the mother sent a tray with a
+quantity of cakes and coarse confectionery upon it as a present,
+with the piece of dried seaweed which always accompanies a gift.
+Before night seven people with sore legs applied for "advice."  The
+sores were all superficial and all alike, and their owners said
+that they had been produced by the incessant rubbing of the bites
+of ants.
+
+On this summer day the country looks as prosperous as it is
+beautiful, and one would not think that acute poverty could exist
+in the steep-roofed village of Nojiri, which nestles at the foot of
+the hill; but two hempen ropes dangling from a cryptomeria just
+below tell the sad tale of an elderly man who hanged himself two
+days ago, because he was too poor to provide for a large family;
+and the house-mistress and Ito tell me that when a man who has a
+young family gets too old or feeble for work he often destroys
+himself.
+
+My hostess is a widow with a family, a good-natured, bustling
+woman, with a great love of talk.  All day her house is open all
+round, having literally no walls.  The roof and solitary upper room
+are supported on posts, and my ladder almost touches the kitchen
+fire.  During the day-time the large matted area under the roof has
+no divisions, and groups of travellers and magos lie about, for
+every one who has toiled up either side of Kurumatoge takes a cup
+of "tea with eating," and the house-mistress is busy the whole day.
+A big well is near the fire.  Of course there is no furniture; but
+a shelf runs under the roof, on which there is a Buddhist god-
+house, with two black idols in it, one of them being that much-
+worshipped divinity, Daikoku, the god of wealth.  Besides a rack
+for kitchen utensils, there is only a stand on which are six large
+brown dishes with food for sale--salt shell-fish, in a black
+liquid, dried trout impaled on sticks, sea slugs in soy, a paste
+made of pounded roots, and green cakes made of the slimy river
+confervae, pressed and dried--all ill-favoured and unsavoury
+viands.  This afternoon a man without clothes was treading flour
+paste on a mat, a traveller in a blue silk robe was lying on the
+floor smoking, and five women in loose attire, with elaborate
+chignons and blackened teeth, were squatting round the fire.  At
+the house-mistress's request I wrote a eulogistic description of
+the view from her house, and read it in English, Ito translating
+it, to the very great satisfaction of the assemblage.  Then I was
+asked to write on four fans.  The woman has never heard of England.
+It is not "a name to conjure with" in these wilds.  Neither has she
+heard of America.  She knows of Russia as a great power, and, of
+course, of China, but there her knowledge ends, though she has been
+at Tokiyo and Kiyoto.
+
+July 1.--I was just falling asleep last night, in spite of
+mosquitoes and fleas, when I was roused by much talking and loud
+outcries of poultry; and Ito, carrying a screaming, refractory hen,
+and a man and woman whom he had with difficulty bribed to part with
+it, appeared by my bed.  I feebly said I would have it boiled for
+breakfast, but when Ito called me this morning he told me with a
+most rueful face that just as he was going to kill it it had
+escaped to the woods!  In order to understand my feelings you must
+have experienced what it is not to have tasted fish, flesh, or
+fowl, for ten days!  The alternative was eggs and some of the paste
+which the man was treading yesterday on the mat cut into strips and
+boiled!  It was coarse flour and buckwheat, so, you see, I have
+learned not to be particular!
+
+I. L. B.
+
+
+
+LETTER XIV
+
+
+
+An Infamous Road--Monotonous Greenery--Abysmal Dirt--Low Lives--The
+Tsugawa Yadoya--Politeness--A Shipping Port--A Barbarian Devil.
+
+TSUGAWA, July 2.
+
+Yesterday's journey was one of the most severe I have yet had, for
+in ten hours of hard travelling I only accomplished fifteen miles.
+The road from Kurumatoge westwards is so infamous that the stages
+are sometimes little more than a mile.  Yet it is by it, so far at
+least as the Tsugawa river, that the produce and manufactures of
+the rich plain of Aidzu, with its numerous towns, and of a very
+large interior district, must find an outlet at Niigata.  In
+defiance of all modern ideas, it goes straight up and straight down
+hill, at a gradient that I should be afraid to hazard a guess at,
+and at present it is a perfect quagmire, into which great stones
+have been thrown, some of which have subsided edgewise, and others
+have disappeared altogether.  It is the very worst road I ever rode
+over, and that is saying a good deal!  Kurumatoge was the last of
+seventeen mountain-passes, over 2000 feet high, which I have
+crossed since leaving Nikko.  Between it and Tsugawa the scenery,
+though on a smaller scale, is of much the same character as
+hitherto--hills wooded to their tops, cleft by ravines which open
+out occasionally to divulge more distant ranges, all smothered in
+greenery, which, when I am ill-pleased, I am inclined to call "rank
+vegetation."  Oh that an abrupt scaur, or a strip of flaming
+desert, or something salient and brilliant, would break in, however
+discordantly, upon this monotony of green!
+
+The villages of that district must, I think, have reached the
+lowest abyss of filthiness in Hozawa and Saikaiyama.  Fowls, dogs,
+horses, and people herded together in sheds black with wood smoke,
+and manure heaps drained into the wells.  No young boy wore any
+clothing.  Few of the men wore anything but the maro, the women
+were unclothed to their waists and such clothing as they had was
+very dirty, and held together by mere force of habit.  The adults
+were covered with inflamed bites of insects, and the children with
+skin-disease.  Their houses were dirty, and, as they squatted on
+their heels, or lay face downwards, they looked little better than
+savages.  Their appearance and the want of delicacy of their habits
+are simply abominable, and in the latter respect they contrast to
+great disadvantage with several savage peoples that I have been
+among.  If I had kept to Nikko, Hakone, Miyanoshita, and similar
+places visited by foreigners with less time, I should have formed a
+very different impression.  Is their spiritual condition, I often
+wonder, much higher than their physical one?  They are courteous,
+kindly, industrious, and free from gross crimes; but, from the
+conversations that I have had with Japanese, and from much that I
+see, I judge that their standard of foundational morality is very
+low, and that life is neither truthful nor pure.
+
+I put up here at a crowded yadoya, where they have given me two
+cheerful rooms in the garden, away from the crowd.  Ito's great
+desire on arriving at any place is to shut me up in my room and
+keep me a close prisoner till the start the next morning; but here
+I emancipated myself, and enjoyed myself very much sitting in the
+daidokoro.  The house-master is of the samurai, or two-sworded
+class, now, as such, extinct.  His face is longer, his lips
+thinner, and his nose straighter and more prominent than those of
+the lower class, and there is a difference in his manner and
+bearing.  I have had a great deal of interesting conversation with
+him.
+
+In the same open space his clerk was writing at a lacquer desk of
+the stereotyped form--a low bench with the ends rolled over--a
+woman was tailoring, coolies were washing their feet on the itama,
+and several more were squatting round the irori smoking and
+drinking tea.  A coolie servant washed some rice for my dinner, but
+before doing so took off his clothes, and the woman who cooked it
+let her kimono fall to her waist before she began to work, as is
+customary among respectable women.  The house-master's wife and Ito
+talked about me unguardedly.  I asked what they were saying.  "She
+says," said he, "that you are very polite--for a foreigner," he
+added.  I asked what she meant, and found that it was because I
+took off my boots before I stepped on the matting, and bowed when
+they handed me the tabako-bon.
+
+We walked through the town to find something eatable for to-
+morrow's river journey, but only succeeded in getting wafers made
+of white of egg and sugar, balls made of sugar and barley flour,
+and beans coated with sugar.  Thatch, with its picturesqueness, has
+disappeared, and the Tsugawa roofs are of strips of bark weighted
+with large stones; but, as the houses turn their gable ends to the
+street, and there is a promenade the whole way under the eaves, and
+the street turns twice at right angles and terminates in temple
+grounds on a bank above the river, it is less monotonous than most
+Japanese towns.  It is a place of 3000 people, and a good deal of
+produce is shipped from hence to Niigata by the river.  To-day it
+is thronged with pack-horses.  I was much mobbed, and one child
+formed the solitary exception to the general rule of politeness by
+calling me a name equivalent to the Chinese Fan Kwai, "foreign;"
+but he was severely chidden, and a policeman has just called with
+an apology.  A slice of fresh salmon has been produced, and I think
+I never tasted anything so delicious.  I have finished the first
+part of my land journey, and leave for Niigata by boat to-morrow
+morning.
+
+I. L. B.
+
+
+
+LETTER XV
+
+
+
+A Hurry--The Tsugawa Packet-boat--Running the Rapids--Fantastic
+Scenery--The River-life--Vineyards--Drying Barley--Summer Silence--
+The Outskirts of Niigata--The Church Mission House.
+
+NIIGATA, July 4.
+
+The boat for Niigata was to leave at eight, but at five Ito roused
+me by saying they were going at once, as it was full, and we left
+in haste, the house-master running to the river with one of my
+large baskets on his back to "speed the parting guest."  Two rivers
+unite to form a stream over whose beauty I would gladly have
+lingered, and the morning, singularly rich and tender in its
+colouring, ripened into a glorious day of light without glare, and
+heat without oppressiveness.  The "packet" was a stoutly-built
+boat, 45 feet long by 6 broad, propelled by one man sculling at the
+stern, and another pulling a short broad-bladed oar, which worked
+in a wistaria loop at the bow.  It had a croquet mallet handle
+about 18 inches long, to which the man gave a wriggling turn at
+each stroke.  Both rower and sculler stood the whole time, clad in
+umbrella hats.  The fore part and centre carried bags of rice and
+crates of pottery, and the hinder part had a thatched roof which,
+when we started, sheltered twenty-five Japanese, but we dropped
+them at hamlets on the river, and reached Niigata with only three.
+I had my chair on the top of the cargo, and found the voyage a
+delightful change from the fatiguing crawl through quagmires at the
+rate of from 15 to 18 miles a day.  This trip is called "running
+the rapids of the Tsugawa," because for about twelve miles the
+river, hemmed in by lofty cliffs, studded with visible and sunken
+rocks, making several abrupt turns and shallowing in many places,
+hurries a boat swiftly downwards; and it is said that it requires
+long practice, skill, and coolness on the part of the boatmen to
+prevent grave and frequent accidents.  But if they are rapids, they
+are on a small scale, and look anything but formidable.  With the
+river at its present height the boats run down forty-five miles in
+eight hours, charging only 30 sen, or 1s. 3d., but it takes from
+five to seven days to get up, and much hard work in poling and
+towing.
+
+The boat had a thoroughly "native" look, with its bronzed crew,
+thatched roof, and the umbrella hats of all its passengers hanging
+on the mast.  I enjoyed every hour of the day.  It was luxury to
+drop quietly down the stream, the air was delicious, and, having
+heard nothing of it, the beauty of the Tsugawa came upon me as a
+pleasant surprise, besides that every mile brought me nearer the
+hoped-for home letters.  Almost as soon as we left Tsugawa the
+downward passage was apparently barred by fantastic mountains,
+which just opened their rocky gates wide enough to let us through,
+and then closed again.  Pinnacles and needles of bare, flushed rock
+rose out of luxuriant vegetation--Quiraing without its bareness,
+the Rhine without its ruins, and more beautiful than both.  There
+were mountains connected by ridges no broader than a horse's back,
+others with great gray buttresses, deep chasms cleft by streams,
+temples with pagoda roofs on heights, sunny villages with deep-
+thatched roofs hidden away among blossoming trees, and through
+rifts in the nearer ranges glimpses of snowy mountains.
+
+After a rapid run of twelve miles through this enchanting scenery,
+the remaining course of the Tsugawa is that of a broad, full stream
+winding marvellously through a wooded and tolerably level country,
+partially surrounded by snowy mountains.  The river life was very
+pretty.  Canoes abounded, some loaded with vegetables, some with
+wheat, others with boys and girls returning from school.  Sampans
+with their white puckered sails in flotillas of a dozen at a time
+crawled up the deep water, or were towed through the shallows by
+crews frolicking and shouting.  Then the scene changed to a broad
+and deep river, with a peculiar alluvial smell from the quantity of
+vegetable matter held in suspension, flowing calmly between densely
+wooded, bamboo-fringed banks, just high enough to conceal the
+surrounding country.  No houses, or nearly none, are to be seen,
+but signs of a continuity of population abound.  Every hundred
+yards almost there is a narrow path to the river through the
+jungle, with a canoe moored at its foot.  Erections like gallows,
+with a swinging bamboo, with a bucket at one end and a stone at the
+other, occurring continually, show the vicinity of households
+dependent upon the river for their water supply.  Wherever the
+banks admitted of it, horses were being washed by having water
+poured over their backs with a dipper, naked children were rolling
+in the mud, and cackling of poultry, human voices, and sounds of
+industry, were ever floating towards us from the dense greenery of
+the shores, making one feel without seeing that the margin was very
+populous.  Except the boatmen and myself, no one was awake during
+the hot, silent afternoon--it was dreamy and delicious.
+Occasionally, as we floated down, vineyards were visible with the
+vines trained on horizontal trellises, or bamboo rails, often forty
+feet long, nailed horizontally on cryptomeria to a height of twenty
+feet, on which small sheaves of barley were placed astride to dry
+till the frame was full
+
+More forest, more dreams, then the forest and the abundant
+vegetation altogether disappeared, the river opened out among low
+lands and banks of shingle and sand, and by three we were on the
+outskirts of Niigata, whose low houses,--with rows of stones upon
+their roofs, spread over a stretch of sand, beyond which is a sandy
+roll with some clumps of firs.  Tea-houses with many balconies
+studded the river-side, and pleasure-parties were enjoying
+themselves with geishas and sake, but, on the whole, the water-side
+streets are shabby and tumble down, and the landward side of the
+great city of western Japan is certainly disappointing; and it was
+difficult to believe it a Treaty Port, for the sea was not in
+sight, and there were no consular flags flying.  We poled along one
+of the numerous canals, which are the carriage-ways for produce and
+goods, among hundreds of loaded boats, landed in the heart of the
+city, and, as the result of repeated inquiries, eventually reached
+the Church Mission House, an unshaded wooden building without
+verandahs, close to the Government Buildings, where I was most
+kindly welcomed by Mr. and Mrs. Fyson.
+
+The house is plain, simple, and inconveniently small; but doors and
+walls are great luxuries, and you cannot imagine how pleasing the
+ways of a refined European household are after the eternal
+babblement and indecorum of the Japanese.
+
+
+ITINERARY OF ROUTE FROM NIKKO TO NIIGATA
+
+(Kinugawa Route.)
+
+From Tokiyo to
+
+               No. of houses.     Ri.      Cho
+Nikko                             36
+Kohiaku              6             2        18
+Kisagoi             19             1        18
+Fujihara            46             2        19
+Takahara            15             2        10
+Ikari               25             2
+Nakamiyo            10             1        24
+Yokokawa            2O             2        21
+Itosawa             38             2        34
+Kayashima           57             1         4
+Tajima             25O             1        21
+Toyonari           120             2        12
+Atomi               34             1
+Ouchi               27             2        12
+Ichikawa             7             2        22
+Takata             42O             2        11
+Bange              910             3         4
+Katakado            50             1        20
+Nosawa             306             3        24
+Nojiri             110             1        27
+Kurumatoge           3                       9
+Hozawa              20             1        14
+Torige              21             1
+Sakaiyama           28                      24
+Tsugawa            615             2        18
+Niigata         50,000 souls      18
+                             Ri. 101         6
+About 247 miles.
+
+
+
+LETTER XVI
+
+
+
+Abominable Weather--Insect Pests--Absence of Foreign Trade--A
+Refractory River--Progress--The Japanese City--Water Highways--
+Niigata Gardens--Ruth Fyson--The Winter Climate--A Population in
+Wadding.
+
+NIIGATA, July 9.
+
+I have spent over a week in Niigata, and leave it regretfully to-
+morrow, rather for the sake of the friends I have made than for its
+own interests.  I never experienced a week of more abominable
+weather.  The sun has been seen just once, the mountains, which are
+thirty miles off, not at all.  The clouds are a brownish grey, the
+air moist and motionless, and the mercury has varied from 82
+degrees in the day to 80 degrees at night.  The household is
+afflicted with lassitude and loss of appetite.  Evening does not
+bring coolness, but myriads of flying, creeping, jumping, running
+creatures, all with power to hurt, which replace the day
+mosquitoes, villains with spotted legs, which bite and poison one
+without the warning hum.  The night mosquitoes are legion.  There
+are no walks except in the streets and the public gardens, for
+Niigata is built on a sand spit, hot and bare.  Neither can you get
+a view of it without climbing to the top of a wooden look-out.
+
+Niigata is a Treaty Port without foreign trade, and almost without
+foreign residents.  Not a foreign ship visited the port either last
+year or this.  There are only two foreign firms, and these are
+German, and only eighteen foreigners, of which number, except the
+missionaries, nearly all are in Government employment.  Its river,
+the Shinano, is the largest in Japan, and it and its affluents
+bring down a prodigious volume of water.  But Japanese rivers are
+much choked with sand and shingle washed down from the mountains.
+In all that I have seen, except those which are physically limited
+by walls of hard rock, a river-bed is a waste of sand, boulders,
+and shingle, through the middle of which, among sand-banks and
+shallows, the river proper takes its devious course.  In the
+freshets, which occur to a greater or less extent every year,
+enormous volumes of water pour over these wastes, carrying sand and
+detritus down to the mouths, which are all obstructed by bars.  Of
+these rivers the Shinano, being the biggest, is the most
+refractory, and has piled up a bar at its entrance through which
+there is only a passage seven feet deep, which is perpetually
+shallowing.  The minds of engineers are much exercised upon the
+Shinano, and the Government is most anxious to deepen the channel
+and give Western Japan what it has not--a harbour; but the expense
+of the necessary operation is enormous, and in the meantime a
+limited ocean traffic is carried on by junks and by a few small
+Japanese steamers which call outside. {13}  There is a British
+Vice-Consulate, but, except as a step, few would accept such a
+dreary post or outpost.
+
+But Niigata is a handsome, prosperous city of 50,000 inhabitants,
+the capital of the wealthy province of Echigo, with a population of
+one and a half millions, and is the seat of the Kenrei, or
+provincial governor, of the chief law courts, of fine schools, a
+hospital, and barracks.  It is curious to find in such an excluded
+town a school deserving the designation of a college, as it
+includes intermediate, primary, and normal schools, an English
+school with 150 pupils, organised by English and American teachers,
+an engineering school, a geological museum, splendidly equipped
+laboratories, and the newest and most approved scientific and
+educational apparatus.  The Government Buildings, which are grouped
+near Mr. Fyson's, are of painted white wood, and are imposing from
+their size and their innumerable glass windows.  There is a large
+hospital {14} arranged by a European doctor, with a medical school
+attached, and it, the Kencho, the Saibancho, or Court House, the
+schools, the barracks, and a large bank, which is rivalling them
+all, have a go-ahead, Europeanised look, bold, staring, and
+tasteless.  There are large public gardens, very well laid out, and
+with finely gravelled walks.  There are 300 street lamps, which
+burn the mineral oil of the district.
+
+Yet, because the riotous Shinano persistently bars it out from the
+sea, its natural highway, the capital of one of the richest
+provinces of Japan is "left out in the cold," and the province
+itself, which yields not only rice, silk, tea, hemp, ninjin, and
+indigo, in large quantities, but gold, copper, coal, and petroleum,
+has to send most of its produce to Yedo across ranges of mountains,
+on the backs of pack-horses, by roads scarcely less infamous than
+the one by which I came.
+
+The Niigata of the Government, with its signs of progress in a
+western direction, is quite unattractive-looking as compared with
+the genuine Japanese Niigata, which is the neatest, cleanest, and
+most comfortable-looking town I have yet seen, and altogether free
+from the jostlement of a foreign settlement.  It is renowned for
+the beautiful tea-houses, which attract visitors from distant
+places, and for the excellence of the theatres, and is the centre
+of the recreation and pleasure of a large district.  It is so
+beautifully clean that, as at Nikko, I should feel reluctant to
+walk upon its well-swept streets in muddy boots.  It would afford a
+good lesson to the Edinburgh authorities, for every vagrant bit of
+straw, stick, or paper, is at once pounced upon and removed, and no
+rubbish may stand for an instant in its streets except in a covered
+box or bucket.  It is correctly laid out in square divisions,
+formed by five streets over a mile long, crossed by very numerous
+short ones, and is intersected by canals, which are its real
+roadways.  I have not seen a pack-horse in the streets; everything
+comes in by boat, and there are few houses in the city which cannot
+have their goods delivered by canal very near to their doors.
+These water-ways are busy all day, but in the early morning, when
+the boats come in loaded with the vegetables, without which the
+people could not exist for a day, the bustle is indescribable.  The
+cucumber boats just now are the great sight.  The canals are
+usually in the middle of the streets, and have fairly broad
+roadways on both sides.  They are much below the street level, and
+their nearly perpendicular banks are neatly faced with wood, broken
+at intervals by flights of stairs.  They are bordered by trees,
+among which are many weeping willows; and, as the river water runs
+through them, keeping them quite sweet, and they are crossed at
+short intervals by light bridges, they form a very attractive
+feature of Niigata.
+
+The houses have very steep roofs of shingle, weighted with stones,
+and, as they are of very irregular heights, and all turn the steep
+gables of the upper stories streetwards, the town has a
+picturesqueness very unusual in Japan.  The deep verandahs are
+connected all along the streets, so as to form a sheltered
+promenade when the snow lies deep in winter.  With its canals with
+their avenues of trees, its fine public gardens, and clean,
+picturesque streets, it is a really attractive town; but its
+improvements are recent, and were only lately completed by Mr.
+Masakata Kusumoto, now Governor of Tokiyo.  There is no appearance
+of poverty in any part of the town, but if there be wealth, it is
+carefully concealed.  One marked feature of the city is the number
+of streets of dwelling-houses with projecting windows of wooden
+slats, through which the people can see without being seen, though
+at night, when the andons are lit, we saw, as we walked from Dr.
+Palm's, that in most cases families were sitting round the hibachi
+in a deshabille of the scantiest kind.
+
+The fronts are very narrow, and the houses extend backwards to an
+amazing length, with gardens in which flowers, shrubs, and
+mosquitoes are grown, and bridges are several times repeated, so as
+to give the effect of fairyland as you look through from the
+street.  The principal apartments in all Japanese houses are at the
+back, looking out on these miniature landscapes, for a landscape is
+skilfully dwarfed into a space often not more than 30 feet square.
+A lake, a rock-work, a bridge, a stone lantern, and a deformed
+pine, are indispensable; but whenever circumstances and means admit
+of it, quaintnesses of all kinds are introduced.  Small pavilions,
+retreats for tea-making, reading, sleeping in quiet and coolness,
+fishing under cover, and drinking sake; bronze pagodas, cascades
+falling from the mouths of bronze dragons; rock caves, with gold
+and silver fish darting in and out; lakes with rocky islands,
+streams crossed by green bridges, just high enough to allow a rat
+or frog to pass under; lawns, and slabs of stone for crossing them
+in wet weather, grottoes, hills, valleys, groves of miniature
+palms, cycas, and bamboo; and dwarfed trees of many kinds, of
+purplish and dull green hues, are cut into startling likenesses of
+beasts and creeping things, or stretch distorted arms over tiny
+lakes.
+
+I have walked about a great deal in Niigata, and when with Mrs.
+Fyson, who is the only European lady here at present, and her
+little Ruth, a pretty Saxon child of three years old, we have been
+followed by an immense crowd, as the sight of this fair creature,
+with golden curls falling over her shoulders, is most fascinating.
+Both men and women have gentle, winning ways with infants, and
+Ruth, instead of being afraid of the crowds, smiles upon them, bows
+in Japanese fashion, speaks to them in Japanese, and seems a little
+disposed to leave her own people altogether.  It is most difficult
+to make her keep with us, and two or three times, on missing her
+and looking back, we have seen her seated, native fashion, in a
+ring in a crowd of several hundred people, receiving a homage and
+admiration from which she was most unwillingly torn.  The Japanese
+have a perfect passion for children, but it is not good for
+European children to be much with them, as they corrupt their
+morals, and teach them to tell lies.
+
+The climate of Niigata and of most of this great province contrasts
+unpleasantly with the region on the other side of the mountains,
+warmed by the gulf-stream of the North Pacific, in which the autumn
+and winter, with their still atmosphere, bracing temperature, and
+blue and sunny skies, are the most delightful seasons of the year.
+Thirty-two days of snow-fall occur on an average.  The canals and
+rivers freeze, and even the rapid Shinano sometimes bears a horse.
+In January and February the snow lies three or four feet deep, a
+veil of clouds obscures the sky, people inhabit their upper rooms
+to get any daylight, pack-horse traffic is suspended, pedestrians
+go about with difficulty in rough snow-shoes, and for nearly six
+months the coast is unsuitable for navigation, owing to the
+prevalence of strong, cold, north-west winds.  In this city people
+in wadded clothes, with only their eyes exposed, creep about under
+the verandahs.  The population huddles round hibachis and shivers,
+for the mercury, which rises to 92 degrees in summer, falls to 15
+degrees in winter.  And all this is in latitude 37 degrees 55'--
+three degrees south of Naples!  I. L. B.
+
+
+
+LETTER XVII
+
+
+
+The Canal-side at Niigata--Awful Loneliness--Courtesy--Dr. Palm's
+Tandem--A Noisy Matsuri--A Jolting Journey--The Mountain Villages--
+Winter Dismalness--An Out-of-the-world Hamlet--Crowded Dwellings--
+Riding a Cow--"Drunk and Disorderly"--An Enforced Rest--Local
+Discouragements--Heavy Loads--Absence of Beggary--Slow Travelling.
+
+ICHINONO, July 12.
+
+Two foreign ladies, two fair-haired foreign infants, a long-haired
+foreign dog, and a foreign gentleman, who, without these
+accompaniments, might have escaped notice, attracted a large but
+kindly crowd to the canal side when I left Niigata.  The natives
+bore away the children on their shoulders, the Fysons walked to the
+extremity of the canal to bid me good-bye, the sampan shot out upon
+the broad, swirling flood of the Shinano, and an awful sense of
+loneliness fell upon me.  We crossed the Shinano, poled up the
+narrow, embanked Shinkawa, had a desperate struggle with the
+flooded Aganokawa, were much impeded by strings of nauseous manure-
+boats on the narrow, discoloured Kajikawa, wondered at the
+interminable melon and cucumber fields, and at the odd river life,
+and, after hard poling for six hours, reached Kisaki, having
+accomplished exactly ten miles.  Then three kurumas with trotting
+runners took us twenty miles at the low rate of 4.5 sen per ri.  In
+one place a board closed the road, but, on representing to the
+chief man of the village that the traveller was a foreigner, he
+courteously allowed me to pass, the Express Agent having
+accompanied me thus far to see that I "got through all right."  The
+road was tolerably populous throughout the day's journey, and the
+farming villages which extended much of the way--Tsuiji,
+Kasayanage, Mono, and Mari--were neat, and many of the farms had
+bamboo fences to screen them from the road.  It was, on the whole,
+a pleasant country, and the people, though little clothed, did not
+look either poor or very dirty.  The soil was very light and sandy.
+There were, in fact, "pine barrens," sandy ridges with nothing on
+them but spindly Scotch firs and fir scrub; but the sandy levels
+between them, being heavily manured and cultivated like gardens,
+bore splendid crops of cucumbers trained like peas, melons,
+vegetable marrow, Arum esculentum, sweet potatoes, maize, tea,
+tiger-lilies, beans, and onions; and extensive orchards with apples
+and pears trained laterally on trellis-work eight feet high, were a
+novelty in the landscape.
+
+Though we were all day drawing nearer to mountains wooded to their
+summits on the east, the amount of vegetation was not burdensome,
+the rice swamps were few, and the air felt drier and less relaxing.
+As my runners were trotting merrily over one of the pine barrens, I
+met Dr. Palm returning from one of his medico-religious
+expeditions, with a tandem of two naked coolies, who were going
+over the ground at a great pace, and I wished that some of the most
+staid directors of the Edinburgh Medical Missionary Society could
+have the shock of seeing him!  I shall not see a European again for
+some weeks.  From Tsuiji, a very neat village, where we changed
+kurumas, we were jolted along over a shingly road to Nakajo, a
+considerable town just within treaty limits.  The Japanese doctors
+there, as in some other places, are Dr. Palm's cordial helpers, and
+five or six of them, whom he regards as possessing the rare virtues
+of candour, earnestness, and single-mindedness, and who have
+studied English medical works, have clubbed together to establish a
+dispensary, and, under Dr. Palm's instructions, are even carrying
+out the antiseptic treatment successfully, after some ludicrous
+failures!
+
+We dashed through Nakajo as kuruma-runners always dash through
+towns and villages, got out of it in a drizzle upon an avenue of
+firs, three or four deep, which extends from Nakajo to Kurokawa,
+and for some miles beyond were jolted over a damp valley on which
+tea and rice alternated, crossed two branches of the shingly
+Kurokawa on precarious bridges, rattled into the town of Kurokawa,
+much decorated with flags and lanterns, where the people were all
+congregated at a shrine where there was much drumming, and a few
+girls, much painted and bedizened, were dancing or posturing on a
+raised and covered platform, in honour of the god of the place,
+whose matsuri or festival it was; and out again, to be mercilessly
+jolted under the firs in the twilight to a solitary house where the
+owner made some difficulty about receiving us, as his licence did
+not begin till the next day, but eventually succumbed, and gave me
+his one upstairs room, exactly five feet high, which hardly allowed
+of my standing upright with my hat on.  He then rendered it
+suffocating by closing the amado, for the reason often given, that
+if he left them open and the house was robbed, the police would not
+only blame him severely, but would not take any trouble to recover
+his property.  He had no rice, so I indulged in a feast of
+delicious cucumbers.  I never saw so many eaten as in that
+district.  Children gnaw them all day long, and even babies on
+their mothers' backs suck them with avidity.  Just now they are
+sold for a sen a dozen.
+
+It is a mistake to arrive at a yadoya after dark.  Even if the best
+rooms are not full it takes fully an hour to get my food and the
+room ready, and meanwhile I cannot employ my time usefully because
+of the mosquitoes.  There was heavy rain all night, accompanied by
+the first wind that I have heard since landing; and the fitful
+creaking of the pines and the drumming from the shrine made me glad
+to get up at sunrise, or rather at daylight, for there has not been
+a sunrise since I came, or a sunset either.  That day we travelled
+by Sekki to Kawaguchi in kurumas, i.e. we were sometimes bumped
+over stones, sometimes deposited on the edge of a quagmire, and
+asked to get out; and sometimes compelled to walk for two or three
+miles at a time along the infamous bridle-track above the river
+Arai, up which two men could hardly push and haul an empty vehicle;
+and, as they often had to lift them bodily and carry them for some
+distance, I was really glad when we reached the village of
+Kawaguchi to find that they could go no farther, though, as we
+could only get one horse, I had to walk the last stage in a torrent
+of rain, poorly protected by my paper waterproof cloak.
+
+We are now in the midst of the great central chain of the Japanese
+mountains, which extends almost without a break for 900 miles, and
+is from 40 to 100 miles in width, broken up into interminable
+ranges traversable only by steep passes from 1000 to 5000 feet in
+height, with innumerable rivers, ravines, and valleys, the heights
+and ravines heavily timbered, the rivers impetuous and liable to
+freshets, and the valleys invariably terraced for rice.  It is in
+the valleys that the villages are found, and regions more isolated
+I have never seen, shut out by bad roads from the rest of Japan.
+The houses are very poor, the summer costume of the men consists of
+the maro only, and that of the women of trousers with an open
+shirt, and when we reached Kurosawa last night it had dwindled to
+trousers only.  There is little traffic, and very few horses are
+kept, one, two, or three constituting the live stock of a large
+village.  The shops, such as they are, contain the barest
+necessaries of life.  Millet and buckwheat rather than rice, with
+the universal daikon, are the staples of diet The climate is wet in
+summer and bitterly cold in winter.  Even now it is comfortless
+enough for the people to come in wet, just to warm the tips of
+their fingers at the irori, stifled the while with the stinging
+smoke, while the damp wind flaps the torn paper of the windows
+about, and damp draughts sweep the ashes over the tatami until the
+house is hermetically sealed at night.  These people never know
+anything of what we regard as comfort, and in the long winter, when
+the wretched bridle-tracks are blocked by snow and the freezing
+wind blows strong, and the families huddle round the smoky fire by
+the doleful glimmer of the andon, without work, books, or play, to
+shiver through the long evenings in chilly dreariness, and herd
+together for warmth at night like animals, their condition must be
+as miserable as anything short of grinding poverty can make it.
+
+I saw things at their worst that night as I tramped into the hamlet
+of Numa, down whose sloping street a swollen stream was running,
+which the people were banking out of their houses.  I was wet and
+tired, and the woman at the one wretched yadoya met me, saying,
+"I'm sorry it's very dirty and quite unfit for so honourable a
+guest;" and she was right, for the one room was up a ladder, the
+windows were in tatters, there was no charcoal for a hibachi, no
+eggs, and the rice was so dirty and so full of a small black seed
+as to be unfit to eat.  Worse than all, there was no Transport
+Office, the hamlet did not possess a horse, and it was only by
+sending to a farmer five miles off, and by much bargaining, that I
+got on the next morning.  In estimating the number of people in a
+given number of houses in Japan, it is usual to multiply the houses
+by five, but I had the curiosity to walk through Numa and get Ito
+to translate the tallies which hang outside all Japanese houses
+with the names, number, and sexes of their inmates, and in twenty-
+four houses there were 307 people!  In some there were four
+families--the grand-parents, the parents, the eldest son with his
+wife and family, and a daughter or two with their husbands and
+children.  The eldest son, who inherits the house and land, almost
+invariably brings his wife to his father's house, where she often
+becomes little better than a slave to her mother-in-law.  By rigid
+custom she literally forsakes her own kindred, and her "filial
+duty" is transferred to her husband's mother, who often takes a
+dislike to her, and instigates her son to divorce her if she has no
+children.  My hostess had induced her son to divorce his wife, and
+she could give no better reason for it than that she was lazy.
+
+The Numa people, she said, had never seen a foreigner, so, though
+the rain still fell heavily, they were astir in the early morning.
+They wanted to hear me speak, so I gave my orders to Ito in public.
+Yesterday was a most toilsome day, mainly spent in stumbling up and
+sliding down the great passes of Futai, Takanasu, and Yenoiki, all
+among forest-covered mountains, deeply cleft by forest-choked
+ravines, with now and then one of the snowy peaks of Aidzu breaking
+the monotony of the ocean of green.  The horses' shoes were tied
+and untied every few minutes, and we made just a mile an hour!  At
+last we were deposited in a most unpromising place in the hamlet of
+Tamagawa, and were told that a rice merchant, after waiting for
+three days, had got every horse in the country.  At the end of two
+hours' chaffering one baggage coolie was produced, some of the
+things were put on the rice horses, and a steed with a pack-saddle
+was produced for me in the shape of a plump and pretty little cow,
+which carried me safely over the magnificent pass of Ori and down
+to the town of Okimi, among rice-fields, where, in a drowning rain,
+I was glad to get shelter with a number of coolies by a wood-fire
+till another pack-cow was produced, and we walked on through the
+rice-fields and up into the hills again to Kurosawa, where I had
+intended to remain; but there was no inn, and the farm-house where
+they take in travellers, besides being on the edge of a malarious
+pond, and being dark and full of stinging smoke, was so awfully
+dirty and full of living creatures, that, exhausted as I was, I was
+obliged to go on.  But it was growing dark, there was no Transport
+Office, and for the first time the people were very slightly
+extortionate, and drove Ito nearly to his wits' end.  The peasants
+do not like to be out after dark, for they are afraid of ghosts and
+all sorts of devilments, and it was difficult to induce them to
+start so late in the evening.
+
+There was not a house clean enough to rest in, so I sat on a stone
+and thought about the people for over an hour.  Children with
+scald-head, scabies, and sore eyes swarmed.  Every woman carried a
+baby on her back, and every child who could stagger under one
+carried one too.  Not one woman wore anything but cotton trousers.
+One woman reeled about "drunk and disorderly."  Ito sat on a stone
+hiding his face in his hands, and when I asked him if he were ill,
+he replied in a most lamentable voice, "I don't know what I am to
+do, I'm so ashamed for you to see such things!"  The boy is only
+eighteen, and I pitied him.  I asked him if women were often drunk,
+and he said they were in Yokohama, but they usually kept in their
+houses.  He says that when their husbands give them money to pay
+bills at the end of a month, they often spend it in sake, and that
+they sometimes get sake in shops and have it put down as rice or
+tea.  "The old, old story!"  I looked at the dirt and barbarism,
+and asked if this were the Japan of which I had read.  Yet a woman
+in this unseemly costume firmly refused to take the 2 or 3 sen
+which it is usual to leave at a place where you rest, because she
+said that I had had water and not tea, and after I had forced it on
+her, she returned it to Ito, and this redeeming incident sent me
+away much comforted.
+
+From Numa the distance here is only 1.5 ri, but it is over the
+steep pass of Honoki, which is ascended and descended by hundreds
+of rude stone steps, not pleasant in the dark.  On this pass I saw
+birches for the first time; at its foot we entered Yamagata ken by
+a good bridge, and shortly reached this village, in which an
+unpromising-looking farm-house is the only accommodation; but
+though all the rooms but two are taken up with silk-worms, those
+two are very good and look upon a miniature lake and rockery.  The
+one objection to my room is that to get either in or out of it I
+must pass through the other, which is occupied by five tobacco
+merchants who are waiting for transport, and who while away the
+time by strumming on that instrument of dismay, the samisen.  No
+horses or cows can be got for me, so I am spending the day quietly
+here, rather glad to rest, for I am much exhausted.  When I am
+suffering much from my spine Ito always gets into a fright and
+thinks I am going to die, as he tells me when I am better, but
+shows his anxiety by a short, surly manner, which is most
+disagreeable.  He thinks we shall never get through the interior!
+Mr. Brunton's excellent map fails in this region, so it is only by
+fixing on the well-known city of Yamagata and devising routes to it
+that we get on.  Half the evening is spent in consulting Japanese
+maps, if we can get them, and in questioning the house-master and
+Transport Agent, and any chance travellers; but the people know
+nothing beyond the distance of a few ri, and the agents seldom tell
+one anything beyond the next stage.  When I inquire about the
+"unbeaten tracks" that I wish to take, the answers are, "It's an
+awful road through mountains," or "There are many bad rivers to
+cross," or "There are none but farmers' houses to stop at."  No
+encouragement is ever given, but we get on, and shall get on, I
+doubt not, though the hardships are not what I would desire in my
+present state of health.
+
+Very few horses are kept here.  Cows and coolies carry much of the
+merchandise, and women as well as men carry heavy loads.  A baggage
+coolie carries about 50 lbs., but here merchants carrying their own
+goods from Yamagata actually carry from 90 to 140 lbs., and even
+more.  It is sickening to meet these poor fellows struggling over
+the mountain-passes in evident distress.  Last night five of them
+were resting on the summit ridge of a pass gasping violently.
+Their eyes were starting out; all their muscles, rendered painfully
+visible by their leanness, were quivering; rills of blood from the
+bite of insects, which they cannot drive away, were literally
+running all over their naked bodies, washed away here and there by
+copious perspiration.  Truly "in the sweat of their brows" they
+were eating bread and earning an honest living for their families!
+Suffering and hard-worked as they were, they were quite
+independent.  I have not seen a beggar or beggary in this strange
+country.  The women were carrying 70 lbs.  These burden-bearers
+have their backs covered by a thick pad of plaited straw.  On this
+rests a ladder, curved up at the lower end like the runners of a
+sleigh.  On this the load is carefully packed till it extends from
+below the man's waist to a considerable height above his head.  It
+is covered with waterproof paper, securely roped, and thatched with
+straw, and is supported by a broad padded band just below the
+collar bones.  Of course, as the man walks nearly bent double, and
+the position is a very painful one, he requires to stop and
+straighten himself frequently, and unless he meets with a bank of
+convenient height, he rests the bottom of his burden on a short,
+stout pole with an L-shaped top, carried for this purpose.  The
+carrying of enormous loads is quite a feature of this region, and
+so, I am sorry to say, are red stinging ants and the small gadflies
+which molest the coolies.
+
+Yesterday's journey was 18 miles in twelve hours!  Ichinono is a
+nice, industrious hamlet, given up, like all others, to rearing
+silk-worms, and the pure white and sulphur yellow cocoons are
+drying on mats in the sun everywhere.
+
+I. L. B.
+
+
+
+LETTER XVIII
+
+
+
+Comely Kine--Japanese Criticism on a Foreign Usage--A Pleasant
+Halt--Renewed Courtesies--The Plain of Yonezawa--A Curious Mistake-
+-The Mother's Memorial--Arrival at Komatsu--Stately Accommodation--
+A Vicious Horse--An Asiatic Arcadia--A Fashionable Watering-place--
+A Belle--"Godowns."
+
+KAMINOYAMA.
+
+A severe day of mountain travelling brought us into another region.
+We left Ichinono early on a fine morning, with three pack-cows, one
+of which I rode [and their calves], very comely kine, with small
+noses, short horns, straight spines, and deep bodies.  I thought
+that I might get some fresh milk, but the idea of anything but a
+calf milking a cow was so new to the people that there was a
+universal laugh, and Ito told me that they thought it "most
+disgusting," and that the Japanese think it "most disgusting" in
+foreigners to put anything "with such a strong smell and taste"
+into their tea!  All the cows had cotton cloths, printed with blue
+dragons, suspended under their bodies to keep them from mud and
+insects, and they wear straw shoes and cords through the cartilages
+of their noses.  The day being fine, a great deal of rice and sake
+was on the move, and we met hundreds of pack-cows, all of the same
+comely breed, in strings of four.
+
+We crossed the Sakuratoge, from which the view is beautiful, got
+horses at the mountain village of Shirakasawa, crossed more passes,
+and in the afternoon reached the village of Tenoko.  There, as
+usual, I sat under the verandah of the Transport Office, and waited
+for the one horse which was available.  It was a large shop, but
+contained not a single article of European make.  In the one room a
+group of women and children sat round the fire, and the agent sat
+as usual with a number of ledgers at a table a foot high, on which
+his grandchild was lying on a cushion.  Here Ito dined on seven
+dishes of horrors, and they brought me sake, tea, rice, and black
+beans.  The last are very good.  We had some talk about the
+country, and the man asked me to write his name in English
+characters, and to write my own in a book.  Meanwhile a crowd
+assembled, and the front row sat on the ground that the others
+might see over their heads.  They were dirty and pressed very
+close, and when the women of the house saw that I felt the heat
+they gracefully produced fans and fanned me for a whole hour.  On
+asking the charge they refused to make any, and would not receive
+anything.  They had not seen a foreigner before, they said, they
+would despise themselves for taking anything, they had my
+"honourable name" in their book.  Not only that, but they put up a
+parcel of sweetmeats, and the man wrote his name on a fan and
+insisted on my accepting it.  I was grieved to have nothing to give
+them but some English pins, but they had never seen such before,
+and soon circulated them among the crowd.  I told them truly that I
+should remember them as long as I remember Japan, and went on, much
+touched by their kindness.
+
+The lofty pass of Utsu, which is ascended and descended by a number
+of stone slabs, is the last of the passes of these choked-up
+ranges.  From its summit in the welcome sunlight I joyfully looked
+down upon the noble plain of Yonezawa, about 30 miles long and from
+10 to 18 broad, one of the gardens of Japan, wooded and watered,
+covered with prosperous towns and villages, surrounded by
+magnificent mountains not altogether timbered, and bounded at its
+southern extremity by ranges white with snow even in the middle of
+July.
+
+In the long street of the farming village of Matsuhara a man amazed
+me by running in front of me and speaking to me, and on Ito coming
+up, he assailed him vociferously, and it turned out that he took me
+for an Aino, one of the subjugated aborigines of Yezo.  I have
+before now been taken for a Chinese!
+
+Throughout the province of Echigo I have occasionally seen a piece
+of cotton cloth suspended by its four corners from four bamboo
+poles just above a quiet stream.  Behind it there is usually a long
+narrow tablet, notched at the top, similar to those seen in
+cemeteries, with characters upon it.  Sometimes bouquets of flowers
+are placed in the hollow top of each bamboo, and usually there are
+characters on the cloth itself.  Within it always lies a wooden
+dipper.  In coming down from Tenoko I passed one of these close to
+the road, and a Buddhist priest was at the time pouring a dipper
+full of water into it, which strained slowly through.  As he was
+going our way we joined him, and he explained its meaning.
+
+According to him the tablet bears on it the kaimiyo, or posthumous
+name of a woman.  The flowers have the same significance as those
+which loving hands place on the graves of kindred.  If there are
+characters on the cloth, they represent the well-known invocation
+of the Nichiren sect, Namu mio ho ren ge kio.  The pouring of the
+water into the cloth, often accompanied by telling the beads on a
+rosary, is a prayer.  The whole is called "The Flowing Invocation."
+I have seldom seen anything more plaintively affecting, for it
+denotes that a mother in the first joy of maternity has passed away
+to suffer (according to popular belief) in the Lake of Blood, one
+of the Buddhist hells, for a sin committed in a former state of
+being, and it appeals to every passer-by to shorten the penalties
+of a woman in anguish, for in that lake she must remain until the
+cloth is so utterly worn out that the water falls through it at
+once.
+
+Where the mountains come down upon the plain of Yonezawa there are
+several raised banks, and you can take one step from the hillside
+to a dead level.  The soil is dry and gravelly at the junction,
+ridges of pines appeared, and the look of the houses suggested
+increased cleanliness and comfort.  A walk of six miles took us
+from Tenoko to Komatsu, a beautifully situated town of 3000 people,
+with a large trade in cotton goods, silk, and sake.
+
+As I entered Komatsu the first man whom I met turned back hastily,
+called into the first house the words which mean "Quick, here's a
+foreigner;" the three carpenters who were at work there flung down
+their tools and, without waiting to put on their kimonos, sped down
+the street calling out the news, so that by the time I reached the
+yadoya a large crowd was pressing upon me.  The front was mean and
+unpromising-looking, but, on reaching the back by a stone bridge
+over a stream which ran through the house, I found a room 40 feet
+long by 15 high, entirely open along one side to a garden with a
+large fish-pond with goldfish, a pagoda, dwarf trees, and all the
+usual miniature adornments.  Fusuma of wrinkled blue paper splashed
+with gold turned this "gallery" into two rooms; but there was no
+privacy, for the crowds climbed upon the roofs at the back, and sat
+there patiently until night.
+
+These were daimiyo's rooms.  The posts and ceilings were ebony and
+gold, the mats very fine, the polished alcoves decorated with
+inlaid writing-tables and sword-racks; spears nine feet long, with
+handles of lacquer inlaid with Venus' ear, hung in the verandah,
+the washing bowl was fine inlaid black lacquer, and the rice-bowls
+and their covers were gold lacquer.
+
+In this, as in many other yadoyas, there were kakemonos with large
+Chinese characters representing the names of the Prime Minister,
+Provincial Governor, or distinguished General, who had honoured it
+by halting there, and lines of poetry were hung up, as is usual, in
+the same fashion.  I have several times been asked to write
+something to be thus displayed.  I spent Sunday at Komatsu, but not
+restfully, owing to the nocturnal croaking of the frogs in the
+pond.  In it, as in most towns, there were shops which sell nothing
+but white, frothy-looking cakes, which are used for the goldfish
+which are so much prized, and three times daily the women and
+children of the household came into the garden to feed them.
+
+When I left Komatsu there were fully sixty people inside the house
+and 1500 outside--walls, verandahs, and even roofs being packed.
+From Nikko to Komatsu mares had been exclusively used, but there I
+encountered for the first time the terrible Japanese pack-horse.
+Two horridly fierce-looking creatures were at the door, with their
+heads tied down till their necks were completely arched.  When I
+mounted the crowd followed, gathering as it went, frightening the
+horse with the clatter of clogs and the sound of a multitude, till
+he broke his head-rope, and, the frightened mago letting him go, he
+proceeded down the street mainly on his hind feet, squealing, and
+striking savagely with his fore feet, the crowd scattering to the
+right and left, till, as it surged past the police station, four
+policemen came out and arrested it; only to gather again, however,
+for there was a longer street, down which my horse proceeded in the
+same fashion, and, looking round, I saw Ito's horse on his hind
+legs and Ito on the ground.  My beast jumped over all ditches,
+attacked all foot-passengers with his teeth, and behaved so like a
+wild animal that not all my previous acquaintance with the
+idiosyncrasies of horses enabled me to cope with him.  On reaching
+Akayu we found a horse fair, and, as all the horses had their heads
+tightly tied down to posts, they could only squeal and lash out
+with their hind feet, which so provoked our animals that the
+baggage horse, by a series of jerks and rearings, divested himself
+of Ito and most of the baggage, and, as I dismounted from mine, he
+stood upright, and my foot catching I fell on the ground, when he
+made several vicious dashes at me with his teeth and fore feet,
+which were happily frustrated by the dexterity of some mago.  These
+beasts forcibly remind me of the words, "Whose mouth must be held
+with bit and bridle, lest they turn and fall upon thee."
+
+It was a lovely summer day, though very hot, and the snowy peaks of
+Aidzu scarcely looked cool as they glittered in the sunlight.  The
+plain of Yonezawa, with the prosperous town of Yonezawa in the
+south, and the frequented watering-place of Akayu in the north, is
+a perfect garden of Eden, "tilled with a pencil instead of a
+plough," growing in rich profusion rice, cotton, maize, tobacco,
+hemp, indigo, beans, egg-plants, walnuts, melons, cucumbers,
+persimmons, apricots, pomegranates; a smiling and plenteous land,
+an Asiatic Arcadia, prosperous and independent, all its bounteous
+acres belonging to those who cultivate them, who live under their
+vines, figs, and pomegranates, free from oppression--a remarkable
+spectacle under an Asiatic despotism.  Yet still Daikoku is the
+chief deity, and material good is the one object of desire.
+
+It is an enchanting region of beauty, industry, and comfort,
+mountain girdled, and watered by the bright Matsuka.  Everywhere
+there are prosperous and beautiful farming villages, with large
+houses with carved beams and ponderous tiled roofs, each standing
+in its own grounds, buried among persimmons and pomegranates, with
+flower-gardens under trellised vines, and privacy secured by high,
+closely-clipped screens of pomegranate and cryptomeria.  Besides
+the villages of Yoshida, Semoshima, Kurokawa, Takayama, and
+Takataki, through or near which we passed, I counted over fifty on
+the plain with their brown, sweeping barn roofs looking out from
+the woodland.  I cannot see any differences in the style of
+cultivation.  Yoshida is rich and prosperous-looking, Numa poor and
+wretched-looking; but the scanty acres of Numa, rescued from the
+mountain-sides, are as exquisitely trim and neat, as perfectly
+cultivated, and yield as abundantly of the crops which suit the
+climate, as the broad acres of the sunny plain of Yonezawa, and
+this is the case everywhere.  "The field of the sluggard" has no
+existence in Japan.
+
+We rode for four hours through these beautiful villages on a road
+four feet wide, and then, to my surprise, after ferrying a river,
+emerged at Tsukuno upon what appears on the map as a secondary
+road, but which is in reality a main road 25 feet wide, well kept,
+trenched on both sides, and with a line of telegraph poles along
+it.  It was a new world at once.  The road for many miles was
+thronged with well-dressed foot-passengers, kurumas, pack-horses,
+and waggons either with solid wheels, or wheels with spokes but no
+tires.  It is a capital carriage-road, but without carriages.  In
+such civilised circumstances it was curious to see two or four
+brown skinned men pulling the carts, and quite often a man and his
+wife--the man unclothed, and the woman unclothed to her waist--
+doing the same.  Also it struck me as incongruous to see telegraph
+wires above, and below, men whose only clothing consisted of a sun-
+hat and fan; while children with books and slates were returning
+from school, conning their lessons.
+
+At Akayu, a town of hot sulphur springs, I hoped to sleep, but it
+was one of the noisiest places I have seen.  In the most crowded
+part, where four streets meet, there are bathing sheds, which were
+full of people of both sexes, splashing loudly, and the yadoya
+close to it had about forty rooms, in nearly all of which several
+rheumatic people were lying on the mats, samisens were twanging,
+and kotos screeching, and the hubbub was so unbearable that I came
+on here, ten miles farther, by a fine new road, up an uninteresting
+strath of rice-fields and low hills, which opens out upon a small
+plain surrounded by elevated gravelly hills, on the slope of one of
+which Kaminoyama, a watering-place of over 3000 people, is
+pleasantly situated.  It is keeping festival; there are lanterns
+and flags on every house, and crowds are thronging the temple
+grounds, of which there are several on the hills above.  It is a
+clean, dry place, with beautiful yadoyas on the heights, and
+pleasant houses with gardens, and plenty of walks over the hills.
+The people say that it is one of the driest places in Japan.  If it
+were within reach of foreigners, they would find it a wholesome
+health resort, with picturesque excursions in many directions.
+
+This is one of the great routes of Japanese travel, and it is
+interesting to see watering-places with their habits, amusements,
+and civilisation quite complete, but borrowing nothing from Europe.
+The hot springs here contain iron, and are strongly impregnated
+with sulphuretted hydrogen.  I tried the temperature of three, and
+found them 100 degrees, 105 degrees, and 107 degrees.  They are
+supposed to be very valuable in rheumatism, and they attract
+visitors from great distances.  The police, who are my frequent
+informants, tell me that there are nearly 600 people now staying
+here for the benefit of the baths, of which six daily are usually
+taken.  I think that in rheumatism, as in some other maladies, the
+old-fashioned Japanese doctors pay little attention to diet and
+habits, and much to drugs and external applications.  The benefit
+of these and other medicinal waters would be much increased if
+vigorous friction replaced the dabbing with soft towels.
+
+This is a large yadoya, very full of strangers, and the house-
+mistress, a buxom and most prepossessing widow, has a truly
+exquisite hotel for bathers higher up the hill.  She has eleven
+children, two or three of whom are tall, handsome, and graceful
+girls.  One blushed deeply at my evident admiration, but was not
+displeased, and took me up the hill to see the temples, baths, and
+yadoyas of this very attractive place.  I am much delighted with
+her grace and savoir faire.  I asked the widow how long she had
+kept the inn, and she proudly answered, "Three hundred years," not
+an uncommon instance of the heredity of occupations.
+
+My accommodation is unique--a kura, or godown, in a large
+conventional garden, in which is a bath-house, which receives a hot
+spring at a temperature of 105 degrees, in which I luxuriate.  Last
+night the mosquitoes were awful.  If the widow and her handsome
+girls had not fanned me perseveringly for an hour, I should not
+have been able to write a line.  My new mosquito net succeeds
+admirably, and, when I am once within it, I rather enjoy the
+disappointment of the hundreds of drumming blood-thirsty wretches
+outside.
+
+The widow tells me that house-masters pay 2 yen once for all for
+the sign, and an annual tax of 2 yen on a first-class yadoya, 1 yen
+for a second, and 50 cents for a third, with 5 yen for the license
+to sell sake.
+
+These "godowns" (from the Malay word gadong), or fire-proof store-
+houses, are one of the most marked features of Japanese towns, both
+because they are white where all else is grey, and because they are
+solid where all else is perishable.
+
+I am lodged in the lower part, but the iron doors are open, and in
+their place at night is a paper screen.  A few things are kept in
+my room.  Two handsome shrines from which the unemotional faces of
+two Buddhas looked out all night, a fine figure of the goddess
+Kwan-non, and a venerable one of the god of longevity, suggested
+curious dreams.
+
+I. L. B.
+
+
+
+LETTER XIX
+
+
+
+Prosperity--Convict Labour--A New Bridge--Yamagata--Intoxicating
+Forgeries--The Government Buildings--Bad Manners--Snow Mountains--A
+Wretched Town.
+
+KANAYAMA, July 16.
+
+Three days of travelling on the same excellent road have brought me
+nearly 60 miles.  Yamagata ken impresses me as being singularly
+prosperous, progressive, and go-ahead; the plain of Yamagata, which
+I entered soon after leaving Kaminoyama, is populous and highly
+cultivated, and the broad road, with its enormous traffic, looks
+wealthy and civilised.  It is being improved by convicts in dull
+red kimonos printed with Chinese characters, who correspond with
+our ticket-of-leave men, as they are working for wages in the
+employment of contractors and farmers, and are under no other
+restriction than that of always wearing the prison dress.
+
+At the Sakamoki river I was delighted to come upon the only
+thoroughly solid piece of modern Japanese work that I have met
+with--a remarkably handsome stone bridge nearly finished--the first
+I have seen.  I introduced myself to the engineer, Okuno Chiuzo, a
+very gentlemanly, agreeable Japanese, who showed me the plans, took
+a great deal of trouble to explain them, and courteously gave me
+tea and sweetmeats.
+
+Yamagata, a thriving town of 21,000 people and the capital of the
+ken, is well situated on a slight eminence, and this and the
+dominant position of the kencho at the top of the main street give
+it an emphasis unusual in Japanese towns.  The outskirts of all the
+cities are very mean, and the appearance of the lofty white
+buildings of the new Government Offices above the low grey houses
+was much of a surprise.  The streets of Yamagata are broad and
+clean, and it has good shops, among which are long rows selling
+nothing but ornamental iron kettles and ornamental brasswork.  So
+far in the interior I was annoyed to find several shops almost
+exclusively for the sale of villainous forgeries of European
+eatables and drinkables, specially the latter.  The Japanese, from
+the Mikado downwards, have acquired a love of foreign intoxicants,
+which would be hurtful enough to them if the intoxicants were
+genuine, but is far worse when they are compounds of vitriol, fusel
+oil, bad vinegar, and I know not what.  I saw two shops in Yamagata
+which sold champagne of the best brands, Martel's cognac, Bass'
+ale, Medoc, St. Julian, and Scotch whisky, at about one-fifth of
+their cost price--all poisonous compounds, the sale of which ought
+to be interdicted.
+
+The Government Buildings, though in the usual confectionery style,
+are improved by the addition of verandahs; and the Kencho,
+Saibancho, or Court House, the Normal School with advanced schools
+attached, and the police buildings, are all in keeping with the
+good road and obvious prosperity.  A large two-storied hospital,
+with a cupola, which will accommodate 150 patients, and is to be a
+medical school, is nearly finished.  It is very well arranged and
+ventilated.  I cannot say as much for the present hospital, which I
+went over.  At the Court House I saw twenty officials doing
+nothing, and as many policemen, all in European dress, to which
+they had added an imitation of European manners, the total result
+being unmitigated vulgarity.  They demanded my passport before they
+would tell me the population of the ken and city.  Once or twice I
+have found fault with Ito's manners, and he has asked me twice
+since if I think them like the manners of the policemen at
+Yamagata!
+
+North of Yamagata the plain widens, and fine longitudinal ranges
+capped with snow mountains on the one side, and broken ranges with
+lateral spurs on the other, enclose as cheerful and pleasant a
+region as one would wish to see, with many pleasant villages on the
+lower slopes of the hills.  The mercury was only 70 degrees, and
+the wind north, so it was an especially pleasant journey, though I
+had to go three and a half ri beyond Tendo, a town of 5000 people,
+where I had intended to halt, because the only inns at Tendo which
+were not kashitsukeya were so occupied with silk-worms that they
+could not receive me.
+
+The next day's journey was still along the same fine road, through
+a succession of farming villages and towns of 1500 and 2000 people,
+such as Tochiida and Obanasawa, were frequent.  From both these
+there was a glorious view of Chokaizan, a grand, snow-covered dome,
+said to be 8000 feet high, which rises in an altogether unexpected
+manner from comparatively level country, and, as the great snow-
+fields of Udonosan are in sight at the same time, with most
+picturesque curtain ranges below, it may be considered one of the
+grandest views of Japan.  After leaving Obanasawa the road passes
+along a valley watered by one of the affluents of the Mogami, and,
+after crossing it by a fine wooden bridge, ascends a pass from
+which the view is most magnificent.  After a long ascent through a
+region of light, peaty soil, wooded with pine, cryptomeria, and
+scrub oak, a long descent and a fine avenue terminate in Shinjo, a
+wretched town of over 5000 people, situated in a plain of rice-
+fields.
+
+The day's journey, of over twenty-three miles, was through villages
+of farms without yadoyas, and in many cases without even tea-
+houses.  The style of building has quite changed.  Wood has
+disappeared, and all the houses are now built with heavy beams and
+walls of laths and brown mud mixed with chopped straw, and very
+neat.  Nearly all are great oblong barns, turned endwise to the
+road, 50, 60, and even 100 feet long, with the end nearest the road
+the dwelling-house.  These farm-houses have no paper windows, only
+amado, with a few panes of paper at the top.  These are drawn back
+in the daytime, and, in the better class of houses, blinds, formed
+of reeds or split bamboo, are let down over the opening.  There are
+no ceilings, and in many cases an unmolested rat snake lives in the
+rafters, who, when he is much gorged, occasionally falls down upon
+a mosquito net.
+
+Again I write that Shinjo is a wretched place.  It is a daimiyo's
+town, and every daimiyo's town that I have seen has an air of
+decay, partly owing to the fact that the castle is either pulled
+down, or has been allowed to fall into decay.  Shinjo has a large
+trade in rice, silk, and hemp, and ought not to be as poor as it
+looks.  The mosquitoes were in thousands, and I had to go to bed,
+so as to be out of their reach, before I had finished my wretched
+meal of sago and condensed milk.  There was a hot rain all night,
+my wretched room was dirty and stifling, and rats gnawed my boots
+and ran away with my cucumbers.
+
+To-day the temperature is high and the sky murky.  The good road
+has come to an end, and the old hardships have begun again.  After
+leaving Shinjo this morning we crossed over a steep ridge into a
+singular basin of great beauty, with a semicircle of pyramidal
+hills, rendered more striking by being covered to their summits
+with pyramidal cryptomeria, and apparently blocking all northward
+progress.  At their feet lies Kanayama in a romantic situation,
+and, though I arrived as early as noon, I am staying for a day or
+two, for my room at the Transport Office is cheerful and pleasant,
+the agent is most polite, a very rough region lies before me, and
+Ito has secured a chicken for the first time since leaving Nikko!
+
+I find it impossible in this damp climate, and in my present poor
+health, to travel with any comfort for more than two or three days
+at a time, and it is difficult to find pretty, quiet, and wholesome
+places for a halt of two nights.  Freedom from fleas and mosquitoes
+one can never hope for, though the last vary in number, and I have
+found a way of "dodging" the first by laying down a piece of oiled
+paper six feet square upon the mat, dusting along its edges a band
+of Persian insect powder, and setting my chair in the middle.  I am
+then insulated, and, though myriads of fleas jump on the paper, the
+powder stupefies them, and they are easily killed.  I have been
+obliged to rest here at any rate, because I have been stung on my
+left hand both by a hornet and a gadfly, and it is badly inflamed.
+In some places the hornets are in hundreds, and make the horses
+wild.  I am also suffering from inflammation produced by the bites
+of "horse ants," which attack one in walking.  The Japanese suffer
+very much from these, and a neglected bite often produces an
+intractable ulcer.  Besides these, there is a fly, as harmless in
+appearance as our house-fly, which bites as badly as a mosquito.
+These are some of the drawbacks of Japanese travelling in summer,
+but worse than these is the lack of such food as one can eat when
+one finishes a hard day's journey without appetite, in an
+exhausting atmosphere.
+
+July 18.--I have had so much pain and fever from stings and bites
+that last night I was glad to consult a Japanese doctor from
+Shinjo.  Ito, who looks twice as big as usual when he has to do any
+"grand" interpreting, and always puts on silk hakama in honour of
+it, came in with a middle-aged man dressed entirely in silk, who
+prostrated himself three times on the ground, and then sat down on
+his heels.  Ito in many words explained my calamities, and Dr.
+Nosoki then asked to see my "honourable hand," which he examined
+carefully, and then my "honourable foot."  He felt my pulse and
+looked at my eyes with a magnifying glass, and with much sucking in
+of his breath--a sign of good breeding and politeness--informed me
+that I had much fever, which I knew before; then that I must rest,
+which I also knew; then he lighted his pipe and contemplated me.
+Then he felt my pulse and looked at my eyes again, then felt the
+swelling from the hornet bite, and said it was much inflamed, of
+which I was painfully aware, and then clapped his hands three
+times.  At this signal a coolie appeared, carrying a handsome black
+lacquer chest with the same crest in gold upon it as Dr. Nosoki
+wore in white on his haori.  This contained a medicine chest of
+fine gold lacquer, fitted up with shelves, drawers, bottles, etc.
+He compounded a lotion first, with which he bandaged my hand and
+arm rather skilfully, telling me to pour the lotion over the
+bandage at intervals till the pain abated.  The whole was covered
+with oiled paper, which answers the purpose of oiled silk.  He then
+compounded a febrifuge, which, as it is purely vegetable, I have
+not hesitated to take, and told me to drink it in hot water, and to
+avoid sake for a day or two!
+
+I asked him what his fee was, and, after many bows and much
+spluttering and sucking in of his breath, he asked if I should
+think half a yen too much, and when I presented him with a yen, and
+told him with a good deal of profound bowing on my part that I was
+exceedingly glad to obtain his services, his gratitude quite
+abashed me by its immensity.
+
+Dr. Nosoki is one of the old-fashioned practitioners, whose medical
+knowledge has been handed down from father to son, and who holds
+out, as probably most of his patients do, against European methods
+and drugs.  A strong prejudice against surgical operations,
+specially amputations, exists throughout Japan.  With regard to the
+latter, people think that, as they came into the world complete, so
+they are bound to go out of it, and in many places a surgeon would
+hardly be able to buy at any price the privilege of cutting off an
+arm.
+
+Except from books these older men know nothing of the mechanism of
+the human body, as dissection is unknown to native science.  Dr.
+Nosoki told me that he relies mainly on the application of the moxa
+and on acupuncture in the treatment of acute diseases, and in
+chronic maladies on friction, medicinal baths, certain animal and
+vegetable medicines, and certain kinds of food.  The use of leeches
+and blisters is unknown to him, and he regards mineral drugs with
+obvious suspicion.  He has heard of chloroform, but has never seen
+it used, and considers that in maternity it must necessarily be
+fatal either to mother or child.  He asked me (and I have twice
+before been asked the same question) whether it is not by its use
+that we endeavour to keep down our redundant population!  He has
+great faith in ginseng, and in rhinoceros horn, and in the powdered
+liver of some animal, which, from the description, I understood to
+be a tiger--all specifics of the Chinese school of medicines.  Dr.
+Nosoki showed me a small box of "unicorn's" horn, which he said was
+worth more than its weight in gold!  As my arm improved
+coincidently with the application of his lotion, I am bound to give
+him the credit of the cure.
+
+I invited him to dinner, and two tables were produced covered with
+different dishes, of which he ate heartily, showing most singular
+dexterity with his chopsticks in removing the flesh of small, bony
+fish.  It is proper to show appreciation of a repast by noisy
+gulpings, and much gurgling and drawing in of the breath.
+Etiquette rigidly prescribes these performances, which are most
+distressing to a European, and my guest nearly upset my gravity by
+them.
+
+The host and the kocho, or chief man of the village, paid me a
+formal visit in the evening, and Ito, en grande tenue, exerted
+himself immensely on the occasion.  They were much surprised at my
+not smoking, and supposed me to be under a vow!  They asked me many
+questions about our customs and Government, but frequently reverted
+to tobacco.
+
+I. L. B.
+
+
+
+LETTER XX
+
+
+
+The Effect of a Chicken--Poor Fare--Slow Travelling--Objects of
+Interest--Kak'ke--The Fatal Close--A Great Fire--Security of the
+Kuras.
+
+SHINGOJI, July 21.
+
+Very early in the morning, after my long talk with the Kocho of
+Kanayama, Ito wakened me by saying, "You'll be able for a long
+day's journey to-day, as you had a chicken yesterday," and under
+this chicken's marvellous influence we got away at 6.45, only to
+verify the proverb, "The more haste the worse speed."  Unsolicited
+by me the Kocho sent round the village to forbid the people from
+assembling, so I got away in peace with a pack-horse and one
+runner.  It was a terrible road, with two severe mountain-passes to
+cross, and I not only had to walk nearly the whole way, but to help
+the man with the kuruma up some of the steepest places.  Halting at
+the exquisitely situated village of Nosoki, we got one horse, and
+walked by a mountain road along the head-waters of the Omono to
+Innai.  I wish I could convey to you any idea of the beauty and
+wildness of that mountain route, of the surprises on the way, of
+views, of the violent deluges of rain which turned rivulets into
+torrents, and of the hardships and difficulties of the day; the
+scanty fare of sun-dried rice dough and sour yellow rasps, and the
+depth of the mire through which we waded!  We crossed the Shione
+and Sakatsu passes, and in twelve hours accomplished fifteen miles!
+Everywhere we were told that we should never get through the
+country by the way we are going.
+
+The women still wear trousers, but with a long garment tucked into
+them instead of a short one, and the men wear a cotton combination
+of breastplate and apron, either without anything else, or over
+their kimonos.  The descent to Innai under an avenue of
+cryptomeria, and the village itself, shut in with the rushing
+Omono, are very beautiful.
+
+The yadoya at Innai was a remarkably cheerful one, but my room was
+entirely fusuma and shoji, and people were peeping in the whole
+time.  It is not only a foreigner and his strange ways which
+attract attention in these remote districts, but, in my case, my
+india-rubber bath, air-pillow, and, above all, my white mosquito
+net.  Their nets are all of a heavy green canvas, and they admire
+mine so much, that I can give no more acceptable present on leaving
+than a piece of it to twist in with the hair.  There were six
+engineers in the next room who are surveying the passes which I had
+crossed, in order to see if they could be tunnelled, in which case
+kurumas might go all the way from Tokiyo to Kubota on the Sea of
+Japan, and, with a small additional outlay, carts also.
+
+In the two villages of Upper and Lower Innai there has been an
+outbreak of a malady much dreaded by the Japanese, called kak'ke,
+which, in the last seven months, has carried off 100 persons out of
+a population of about 1500, and the local doctors have been aided
+by two sent from the Medical School at Kubota.  I don't know a
+European name for it; the Japanese name signifies an affection of
+the legs.  Its first symptoms are a loss of strength in the legs,
+"looseness in the knees," cramps in the calves, swelling, and
+numbness.  This, Dr. Anderson, who has studied kak'ke in more than
+1100 cases in Tokiyo, calls the sub-acute form.  The chronic is a
+slow, numbing, and wasting malady, which, if unchecked, results in
+death from paralysis and exhaustion in from six months to three
+years.  The third, or acute form, Dr. Anderson describes thus.
+After remarking that the grave symptoms set in quite unexpectedly,
+and go on rapidly increasing, he says:- "The patient now can lie
+down no longer; he sits up in bed and tosses restlessly from one
+position to another, and, with wrinkled brow, staring and anxious
+eyes, dusky skin, blue, parted lips, dilated nostrils, throbbing
+neck, and labouring chest, presents a picture of the most terrible
+distress that the worst of diseases can inflict.  There is no
+intermission even for a moment, and the physician, here almost
+powerless, can do little more than note the failing pulse and
+falling temperature, and wait for the moment when the brain,
+paralysed by the carbonised blood, shall become insensible, and
+allow the dying man to pass his last moments in merciful
+unconsciousness." {15}
+
+The next morning, after riding nine miles through a quagmire, under
+grand avenues of cryptomeria, and noticing with regret that the
+telegraph poles ceased, we reached Yusowa, a town of 7000 people,
+in which, had it not been for provoking delays, I should have slept
+instead of at Innai, and found that a fire a few hours previously
+had destroyed seventy houses, including the yadoya at which I
+should have lodged.  We had to wait two hours for horses, as all
+were engaged in moving property and people.  The ground where the
+houses had stood was absolutely bare of everything but fine black
+ash, among which the kuras stood blackened, and, in some instances,
+slightly cracked, but in all unharmed.  Already skeletons of new
+houses were rising.  No life had been lost except that of a tipsy
+man, but I should probably have lost everything but my money.
+
+
+
+LETTER XX--(Continued)
+
+
+
+Lunch in Public--A Grotesque Accident--Police Inquiries--Man or
+Woman?--A Melancholy Stare--A Vicious Horse--An Ill-favoured Town--
+A Disappointment--A Torii.
+
+Yusowa is a specially objectionable-looking place.  I took my
+lunch--a wretched meal of a tasteless white curd made from beans,
+with some condensed milk added to it--in a yard, and the people
+crowded in hundreds to the gate, and those behind, being unable to
+see me, got ladders and climbed on the adjacent roofs, where they
+remained till one of the roofs gave way with a loud crash, and
+precipitated about fifty men, women, and children into the room
+below, which fortunately was vacant.  Nobody screamed--a noteworthy
+fact--and the casualties were only a few bruises.  Four policemen
+then appeared and demanded my passport, as if I were responsible
+for the accident, and failing, like all others, to read a
+particular word upon it, they asked me what I was travelling for,
+and on being told "to learn about the country," they asked if I was
+making a map!  Having satisfied their curiosity they disappeared,
+and the crowd surged up again in fuller force.  The Transport Agent
+begged them to go away, but they said they might never see such a
+sight again!  One old peasant said he would go away if he were told
+whether "the sight" were a man or a woman, and, on the agent asking
+if that were any business of his, he said he should like to tell at
+home what he had seen, which awoke my sympathy at once, and I told
+Ito to tell them that a Japanese horse galloping night and day
+without ceasing would take 5.5 weeks to reach my county--a
+statement which he is using lavishly as I go along.  These are such
+queer crowds, so silent and gaping, and they remain motionless for
+hours, the wide-awake babies on the mothers' backs and in the
+fathers' arms never crying.  I should be glad to hear a hearty
+aggregate laugh, even if I were its object.  The great melancholy
+stare is depressing.
+
+The road for ten miles was thronged with country people going in to
+see the fire.  It was a good road and very pleasant country, with
+numerous road-side shrines and figures of the goddess of mercy.  I
+had a wicked horse, thoroughly vicious.  His head was doubly
+chained to the saddle-girth, but he never met man, woman, or child,
+without laying back his ears and running at them to bite them.  I
+was so tired and in so much spinal pain that I got off and walked
+several times, and it was most difficult to get on again, for as
+soon as I put my hand on the saddle he swung his hind legs round to
+kick me, and it required some agility to avoid being hurt.  Nor was
+this all.  The evil beast made dashes with his tethered head at
+flies, threatening to twist or demolish my foot at each, flung his
+hind legs upwards, attempted to dislodge flies on his nose with his
+hind hoof, executed capers which involved a total disappearance of
+everything in front of the saddle, squealed, stumbled, kicked his
+old shoes off, and resented the feeble attempts which the mago made
+to replace them, and finally walked in to Yokote and down its long
+and dismal street mainly on his hind legs, shaking the rope out of
+his timid leader's hand, and shaking me into a sort of aching
+jelly!  I used to think that horses were made vicious either by
+being teased or by violence in breaking; but this does not account
+for the malignity of the Japanese horses, for the people are so
+much afraid of them that they treat them with great respect:  they
+are not beaten or kicked, are spoken to in soothing tones, and, on
+the whole, live better than their masters.  Perhaps this is the
+secret of their villainy--"Jeshurun waxed fat and kicked."
+
+Yokote, a town of 10,000 people, in which the best yadoyas are all
+non-respectable, is an ill-favoured, ill-smelling, forlorn, dirty,
+damp, miserable place, with a large trade in cottons.  As I rode
+through on my temporary biped the people rushed out from the baths
+to see me, men and women alike without a particle of clothing.  The
+house-master was very polite, but I had a dark and dirty room, up a
+bamboo ladder, and it swarmed with fleas and mosquitoes to an
+exasperating extent.  On the way I heard that a bullock was killed
+every Thursday in Yokote, and had decided on having a broiled steak
+for supper and taking another with me, but when I arrived it was
+all sold, there were no eggs, and I made a miserable meal of rice
+and bean curd, feeling somewhat starved, as the condensed milk I
+bought at Yamagata had to be thrown away.  I was somewhat wretched
+from fatigue and inflamed ant bites, but in the early morning, hot
+and misty as all the mornings have been, I went to see a Shinto
+temple, or miya, and, though I went alone, escaped a throng.
+
+The entrance into the temple court was, as usual, by a torii, which
+consisted of two large posts 20 feet high, surmounted with cross
+beams, the upper one of which projects beyond the posts and
+frequently curves upwards at both ends.  The whole, as is often the
+case, was painted a dull red.  This torii, or "birds' rest," is
+said to be so called because the fowls, which were formerly offered
+but not sacrificed, were accustomed to perch upon it.  A straw
+rope, with straw tassels and strips of paper hanging from it, the
+special emblem of Shinto, hung across the gateway.  In the paved
+court there were several handsome granite lanterns on fine granite
+pedestals, such as are the nearly universal accompaniments of both
+Shinto and Buddhist temples.
+
+After leaving Yakote we passed through very pretty country with
+mountain views and occasional glimpses of the snowy dome of
+Chokaizan, crossed the Omono (which has burst its banks and
+destroyed its bridges) by two troublesome ferries, and arrived at
+Rokugo, a town of 5000 people, with fine temples, exceptionally
+mean houses, and the most aggressive crowd by which I have yet been
+asphyxiated.
+
+There, through the good offices of the police, I was enabled to
+attend a Buddhist funeral of a merchant of some wealth.  It
+interested me very much from its solemnity and decorum, and Ito's
+explanations of what went before were remarkably distinctly given.
+I went in a Japanese woman's dress, borrowed at the tea-house, with
+a blue hood over my head, and thus escaped all notice, but I found
+the restraint of the scanty "tied forward" kimono very tiresome.
+Ito gave me many injunctions as to what I was to do and avoid,
+which I carried out faithfully, being nervously anxious to avoid
+jarring on the sensibilities of those who had kindly permitted a
+foreigner to be present.
+
+The illness was a short one, and there had been no time either for
+prayers or pilgrimages on the sick man's behalf.  When death occurs
+the body is laid with its head to the north (a position that the
+living Japanese scrupulously avoid), near a folding screen, between
+which and it a new zen is placed, on which are a saucer of oil with
+a lighted rush, cakes of uncooked rice dough, and a saucer of
+incense sticks.  The priests directly after death choose the
+kaimiyo, or posthumous name, write it on a tablet of white wood,
+and seat themselves by the corpse; his zen, bowls, cups, etc., are
+filled with vegetable food and are placed by his side, the
+chopsticks being put on the wrong, i.e. the left, side of the zen.
+At the end of forty-eight hours the corpse is arranged for the
+coffin by being washed with warm water, and the priest, while
+saying certain prayers, shaves the head.  In all cases, rich or
+poor, the dress is of the usual make, but of pure white linen or
+cotton.
+
+At Omagori, a town near Rokugo, large earthenware jars are
+manufactured, which are much used for interment by the wealthy; but
+in this case there were two square boxes, the outer one being of
+finely planed wood of the Retinospora obtusa.  The poor use what is
+called the "quick-tub," a covered tub of pine hooped with bamboo.
+Women are dressed for burial in the silk robe worn on the marriage
+day, tabi are placed beside them or on their feet, and their hair
+usually flows loosely behind them.  The wealthiest people fill the
+coffin with vermilion and the poorest use chaff; but in this case I
+heard that only the mouth, nose, and ears were filled with
+vermilion, and that the coffin was filled up with coarse incense.
+The body is placed within the tub or box in the usual squatting
+position.  It is impossible to understand how a human body, many
+hours after death, can be pressed into the limited space afforded
+by even the outermost of the boxes.  It has been said that the
+rigidity of a corpse is overcome by the use of a powder called
+dosia, which is sold by the priests; but this idea has been
+exploded, and the process remains incomprehensible.
+
+Bannerets of small size and ornamental staves were outside the
+house door.  Two men in blue dresses, with pale blue over-garments
+resembling wings received each person, two more presented a
+lacquered bowl of water and a white silk crepe towel, and then we
+passed into a large room, round which were arranged a number of
+very handsome folding screens, on which lotuses, storks, and
+peonies were realistically painted on a dead gold ground.  Near the
+end of the room the coffin, under a canopy of white silk, upon
+which there was a very beautiful arrangement of artificial white
+lotuses, rested upon trestles, the face of the corpse being turned
+towards the north.  Six priests, very magnificently dressed, sat on
+each side of the coffin, and two more knelt in front of a small
+temporary altar.
+
+The widow, an extremely pretty woman, squatted near the deceased,
+below the father and mother; and after her came the children,
+relatives, and friends, who sat in rows, dressed in winged garments
+of blue and white.  The widow was painted white; her lips were
+reddened with vermilion; her hair was elaborately dressed and
+ornamented with carved shell pins; she wore a beautiful dress of
+sky-blue silk, with a haori of fine white crepe and a scarlet crepe
+girdle embroidered in gold, and looked like a bride on her marriage
+day rather than a widow.
+
+Indeed, owing to the beauty of the dresses and the amount of blue
+and white silk, the room had a festal rather than a funereal look.
+When all the guests had arrived, tea and sweetmeats were passed
+round; incense was burned profusely; litanies were mumbled, and the
+bustle of moving to the grave began, during which I secured a place
+near the gate of the temple grounds.
+
+The procession did not contain the father or mother of the
+deceased, but I understood that the mourners who composed it were
+all relatives.  The oblong tablet with the "dead name" of the
+deceased was carried first by a priest, then the lotus blossom by
+another priest, then ten priests followed, two and two, chanting
+litanies from books, then came the coffin on a platform borne by
+four men and covered with white drapery, then the widow, and then
+the other relatives.  The coffin was carried into the temple and
+laid upon trestles, while incense was burned and prayers were said,
+and was then carried to a shallow grave lined with cement, and
+prayers were said by the priests until the earth was raised to the
+proper level, when all dispersed, and the widow, in her gay attire,
+walked home unattended.  There were no hired mourners or any signs
+of grief, but nothing could be more solemn, reverent, and decorous
+than the whole service.  [I have since seen many funerals, chiefly
+of the poor, and, though shorn of much of the ceremony, and with
+only one officiating priest, the decorum was always most
+remarkable.]  The fees to the priests are from 2 up to 40 or 50
+yen.  The graveyard, which surrounds the temple, was extremely
+beautiful, and the cryptomeria specially fine.  It was very full of
+stone gravestones, and, like all Japanese cemeteries, exquisitely
+kept.  As soon as the grave was filled in, a life-size pink lotus
+plant was placed upon it, and a lacquer tray, on which were lacquer
+bowls containing tea or sake, beans, and sweetmeats.
+
+The temple at Rokugo was very beautiful, and, except that its
+ornaments were superior in solidity and good taste, differed little
+from a Romish church.  The low altar, on which were lilies and
+lighted candles, was draped in blue and silver, and on the high
+altar, draped in crimson and cloth of gold, there was nothing but a
+closed shrine, an incense-burner, and a vase of lotuses.
+
+
+
+LETTER XX--(Concluded)
+
+
+
+A Casual Invitation--A Ludicrous Incident--Politeness of a
+Policeman--A Comfortless Sunday--An Outrageous Irruption--A
+Privileged Stare.
+
+At a wayside tea-house, soon after leaving Rokugo in kurumas, I met
+the same courteous and agreeable young doctor who was stationed at
+Innai during the prevalence of kak'ke, and he invited me to visit
+the hospital at Kubota, of which he is junior physician, and told
+Ito of a restaurant at which "foreign food" can be obtained--a
+pleasant prospect, of which he is always reminding me.
+
+Travelling along a very narrow road, I as usual first, we met a man
+leading a prisoner by a rope, followed by a policeman.  As soon as
+my runner saw the latter he fell down on his face so suddenly in
+the shafts as nearly to throw me out, at the same time trying to
+wriggle into a garment which he had carried on the crossbar, while
+the young men who were drawing the two kurumas behind, crouching
+behind my vehicle, tried to scuttle into their clothes.  I never
+saw such a picture of abjectness as my man presented.  He trembled
+from head to foot, and illustrated that queer phrase often heard in
+Scotch Presbyterian prayers, "Lay our hands on our mouths and our
+mouths in the dust."  He literally grovelled in the dust, and with
+every sentence that the policeman spoke raised his head a little,
+to bow it yet more deeply than before.  It was all because he had
+no clothes on.  I interceded for him as the day was very hot, and
+the policeman said he would not arrest him, as he should otherwise
+have done, because of the inconvenience that it would cause to a
+foreigner.  He was quite an elderly man, and never recovered his
+spirits, but, as soon as a turn of the road took us out of the
+policeman's sight, the two younger men threw their clothes into the
+air and gambolled in the shafts, shrieking with laughter!
+
+On reaching Shingoji, being too tired to go farther, I was dismayed
+to find nothing but a low, dark, foul-smelling room, enclosed only
+by dirty shoji, in which to spend Sunday.  One side looked into a
+little mildewed court, with a slimy growth of Protococcus viridis,
+and into which the people of another house constantly came to
+stare.  The other side opened on the earthen passage into the
+street, where travellers wash their feet, the third into the
+kitchen, and the fourth into the front room.  Even before dark it
+was alive with mosquitoes, and the fleas hopped on the mats like
+sand-flies.  There were no eggs, nothing but rice and cucumbers.
+At five on Sunday morning I saw three faces pressed against the
+outer lattice, and before evening the shoji were riddled with
+finger-holes, at each of which a dark eye appeared.  There was a
+still, fine rain all day, with the mercury at 82 degrees, and the
+heat, darkness, and smells were difficult to endure.  In the
+afternoon a small procession passed the house, consisting of a
+decorated palanquin, carried and followed by priests, with capes
+and stoles over crimson chasubles and white cassocks.  This ark,
+they said, contained papers inscribed with the names of people and
+the evils they feared, and the priests were carrying the papers to
+throw them into the river.
+
+I went to bed early as a refuge from mosquitoes, with the andon, as
+usual, dimly lighting the room, and shut my eyes.  About nine I
+heard a good deal of whispering and shuffling, which continued for
+some time, and, on looking up, saw opposite to me about 40 men,
+women, and children (Ito says 100), all staring at me, with the
+light upon their faces.  They had silently removed three of the
+shoji next the passage!  I called Ito loudly, and clapped my hands,
+but they did not stir till he came, and then they fled like a flock
+of sheep.  I have patiently, and even smilingly, borne all out-of-
+doors crowding and curiosity, but this kind of intrusion is
+unbearable; and I sent Ito to the police station, much against his
+will, to beg the police to keep the people out of the house, as the
+house-master was unable to do so.  This morning, as I was finishing
+dressing, a policeman appeared in my room, ostensibly to apologise
+for the behaviour of the people, but in reality to have a
+privileged stare at me, and, above all, at my stretcher and
+mosquito net, from which he hardly took his eyes.  Ito says he
+could make a yen a day by showing them!  The policeman said that
+the people had never seen a foreigner.
+
+I. L. B.
+
+
+
+LETTER XXI
+
+
+
+The Necessity of Firmness--Perplexing Misrepresentations--Gliding
+with the Stream--Suburban Residences--The Kubota Hospital--A Formal
+Reception--The Normal School.
+
+KUBOTA, July 23.
+
+I arrived here on Monday afternoon by the river Omono, what would
+have been two long days' journey by land having been easily
+accomplished in nine hours by water.  This was an instance of
+forming a plan wisely, and adhering to it resolutely!  Firmness in
+travelling is nowhere more necessary than in Japan.  I decided some
+time ago, from Mr. Brunton's map, that the Omono must be navigable
+from Shingoji, and a week ago told Ito to inquire about it, but at
+each place difficulties have been started.  There was too much
+water, there was too little; there were bad rapids, there were
+shallows; it was too late in the year; all the boats which had
+started lately were lying aground; but at one of the ferries I saw
+in the distance a merchandise boat going down, and told Ito I
+should go that way and no other.  On arriving at Shingoji they said
+it was not on the Omono at all, but on a stream with some very bad
+rapids, in which boats are broken to pieces.  Lastly, they said
+there was no boat, but on my saying that I would send ten miles for
+one, a small, flat-bottomed scow was produced by the Transport
+Agent, into which Ito, the luggage, and myself accurately fitted.
+Ito sententiously observed, "Not one thing has been told us on our
+journey which has turned out true!"  This is not an exaggeration.
+The usual crowd did not assemble round the door, but preceded me to
+the river, where it covered the banks and clustered in the trees.
+Four policemen escorted me down.  The voyage of forty-two miles was
+delightful.  The rapids were a mere ripple, the current was strong,
+one boatman almost slept upon his paddle, the other only woke to
+bale the boat when it was half-full of water, the shores were
+silent and pretty, and almost without population till we reached
+the large town of Araya, which straggles along a high bank for a
+considerable distance, and after nine peaceful hours we turned off
+from the main stream of the Omono just at the outskirts of Kubota,
+and poled up a narrow, green river, fringed by dilapidated backs of
+houses, boat-building yards, and rafts of timber on one side, and
+dwelling-houses, gardens, and damp greenery on the other.  This
+stream is crossed by very numerous bridges.
+
+I got a cheerful upstairs room at a most friendly yadoya, and my
+three days here have been fully occupied and very pleasant.
+"Foreign food"--a good beef-steak, an excellent curry, cucumbers,
+and foreign salt and mustard, were at once obtained, and I felt my
+"eyes lightened" after partaking of them.
+
+Kubota is a very attractive and purely Japanese town of 36,000
+people, the capital of Akita ken.  A fine mountain, called
+Taiheisan, rises above its fertile valley, and the Omono falls into
+the Sea of Japan close to it.  It has a number of kurumas, but,
+owing to heavy sand and the badness of the roads, they can only go
+three miles in any direction.  It is a town of activity and brisk
+trade, and manufactures a silk fabric in stripes of blue and black,
+and yellow and black, much used for making hakama and kimonos, a
+species of white silk crepe with a raised woof, which brings a high
+price in Tokiyo shops, fusuma, and clogs.  Though it is a castle
+town, it is free from the usual "deadly-lively" look, and has an
+air of prosperity and comfort.  Though it has few streets of shops,
+it covers a great extent of ground with streets and lanes of
+pretty, isolated dwelling-houses, surrounded by trees, gardens, and
+well-trimmed hedges, each garden entered by a substantial gateway.
+The existence of something like a middle class with home privacy
+and home life is suggested by these miles of comfortable "suburban
+residences."  Foreign influence is hardly at all felt, there is not
+a single foreigner in Government or any other employment, and even
+the hospital was organised from the beginning by Japanese doctors.
+
+This fact made me greatly desire to see it, but, on going there at
+the proper hour for visitors, I was met by the Director with
+courteous but vexatious denial.  No foreigner could see it, he
+said, without sending his passport to the Governor and getting a
+written order, so I complied with these preliminaries, and 8 a.m.
+of the next day was fixed for my visit Ito, who is lazy about
+interpreting for the lower orders, but exerts himself to the utmost
+on such an occasion as this, went with me, handsomely clothed in
+silk, as befitted an "Interpreter," and surpassed all his former
+efforts.
+
+The Director and the staff of six physicians, all handsomely
+dressed in silk, met me at the top of the stairs, and conducted me
+to the management room, where six clerks were writing.  Here there
+was a table, solemnly covered with a white cloth, and four chairs,
+on which the Director, the Chief Physician, Ito, and I sat, and
+pipes, tea, and sweetmeats, were produced.  After this, accompanied
+by fifty medical students, whose intelligent looks promise well for
+their success, we went round the hospital, which is a large two-
+storied building in semi-European style, but with deep verandahs
+all round.  The upper floor is used for class-rooms, and the lower
+accommodates 100 patients, besides a number of resident students.
+Ten is the largest number treated in any one room, and severe cases
+are treated in separate rooms.  Gangrene has prevailed, and the
+Chief Physician, who is at this time remodelling the hospital, has
+closed some of the wards in consequence.  There is a Lock Hospital
+under the same roof.  About fifty important operations are annually
+performed under chloroform, but the people of Akita ken are very
+conservative, and object to part with their limbs and to foreign
+drugs.  This conservatism diminishes the number of patients.
+
+The odour of carbolic acid pervaded the whole hospital, and there
+were spray producers enough to satisfy Mr. Lister!  At the request
+of Dr. K. I saw the dressing of some very severe wounds carefully
+performed with carbolised gauze, under spray of carbolic acid, the
+fingers of the surgeon and the instruments used being all carefully
+bathed in the disinfectant.  Dr. K. said it was difficult to teach
+the students the extreme carefulness with regard to minor details
+which is required in the antiseptic treatment, which he regards as
+one of the greatest discoveries of this century.  I was very much
+impressed with the fortitude shown by the surgical patients, who
+went through very severe pain without a wince or a moan.  Eye cases
+are unfortunately very numerous.  Dr. K. attributes their extreme
+prevalence to overcrowding, defective ventilation, poor living, and
+bad light.
+
+After our round we returned to the management room to find a meal
+laid out in English style--coffee in cups with handles and saucers,
+and plates with spoons.  After this pipes were again produced, and
+the Director and medical staff escorted me to the entrance, where
+we all bowed profoundly.  I was delighted to see that Dr.
+Kayabashi, a man under thirty, and fresh from Tokiyo, and all the
+staff and students were in the national dress, with the hakama of
+rich silk.  It is a beautiful dress, and assists dignity as much as
+the ill-fitting European costume detracts from it.  This was a very
+interesting visit, in spite of the difficulty of communication
+through an interpreter.
+
+The public buildings, with their fine gardens, and the broad road
+near which they stand, with its stone-faced embankments, are very
+striking in such a far-off ken.  Among the finest of the buildings
+is the Normal School, where I shortly afterwards presented myself,
+but I was not admitted till I had shown my passport and explained
+my objects in travelling.  These preliminaries being settled, Mr.
+Tomatsu Aoki, the Chief Director, and Mr. Shude Kane Nigishi, the
+principal teacher, both looking more like monkeys than men in their
+European clothes, lionised me.
+
+The first was most trying, for he persisted in attempting to speak
+English, of which he knows about as much as I know of Japanese, but
+the last, after some grotesque attempts, accepted Ito's services.
+The school is a commodious Europeanised building, three stories
+high, and from its upper balcony the view of the city, with its
+gray roofs and abundant greenery, and surrounding mountains and
+valleys, is very fine.  The equipments of the different class-rooms
+surprised me, especially the laboratory of the chemical class-room,
+and the truly magnificent illustrative apparatus in the natural
+science class-room.  Ganot's "Physics" is the text book of that
+department.
+
+I. L. B.
+
+
+
+LETTER XXII
+
+
+
+A Silk Factory--Employment for Women--A Police Escort--The Japanese
+Police Force.
+
+KUBOTA, July 23.
+
+My next visit was to a factory of handloom silk-weavers, where 180
+hands, half of them women, are employed.  These new industrial
+openings for respectable employment for women and girls are very
+important, and tend in the direction of a much-needed social
+reform.  The striped silk fabrics produced are entirely for home
+consumption.
+
+Afterwards I went into the principal street, and, after a long
+search through the shops, bought some condensed milk with the
+"Eagle" brand and the label all right, but, on opening it, found it
+to contain small pellets of a brownish, dried curd, with an
+unpleasant taste!  As I was sitting in the shop, half stifled by
+the crowd, the people suddenly fell back to a respectful distance,
+leaving me breathing space, and a message came from the chief of
+police to say that he was very sorry for the crowding, and had
+ordered two policemen to attend upon me for the remainder of my
+visit.  The black and yellow uniforms were most truly welcome, and
+since then I have escaped all annoyance.  On my return I found the
+card of the chief of police, who had left a message with the house-
+master apologising for the crowd by saying that foreigners very
+rarely visited Kubota, and he thought that the people had never
+seen a foreign woman.
+
+I went afterwards to the central police station to inquire about an
+inland route to Aomori, and received much courtesy, but no
+information.  The police everywhere are very gentle to the people,-
+-a few quiet words or a wave of the hand are sufficient, when they
+do not resist them.  They belong to the samurai class, and,
+doubtless, their naturally superior position weighs with the
+heimin.  Their faces and a certain hauteur of manner show the
+indelible class distinction.  The entire police force of Japan
+numbers 23,300 educated men in the prime of life, and if 30 per
+cent of them do wear spectacles, it does not detract from their
+usefulness.  5600 of them are stationed at Yedo, as from thence
+they can be easily sent wherever they are wanted, 1004 at Kiyoto,
+and 815 at Osaka, and the remaining 10,000 are spread over the
+country.  The police force costs something over 400,000 pounds
+annually, and certainly is very efficient in preserving good order.
+The pay of ordinary constables ranges from 6 to 10 yen a month.  An
+enormous quantity of superfluous writing is done by all officialdom
+in Japan, and one usually sees policemen writing.  What comes of it
+I don't know.  They are mostly intelligent and gentlemanly-looking
+young men, and foreigners in the interior are really much indebted
+to them.  If I am at any time in difficulties I apply to them, and,
+though they are disposed to be somewhat de haut en bas, they are
+sure to help one, except about routes, of which they always profess
+ignorance.
+
+On the whole, I like Kubota better than any other Japanese town,
+perhaps because it is so completely Japanese and has no air of
+having seen better days.  I no longer care to meet Europeans--
+indeed I should go far out of my way to avoid them.  I have become
+quite used to Japanese life, and think that I learn more about it
+in travelling in this solitary way than I should otherwise.  I. L.
+B.
+
+
+
+LETTER XXIII
+
+
+
+"A Plague of Immoderate Rain"--A Confidential Servant--Ito's Diary-
+-Ito's Excellences--Ito's Faults--Prophecy of the Future of Japan--
+Curious Queries--Superfine English--Economical Travelling--The
+Japanese Pack-horse again.
+
+KUBOTA, July 24.
+
+I am here still, not altogether because the town is fascinating,
+but because the rain is so ceaseless as to be truly "a plague of
+immoderate rain and waters."  Travellers keep coming in with
+stories of the impassability of the roads and the carrying away of
+bridges.  Ito amuses me very much by his remarks.  He thinks that
+my visit to the school and hospital must have raised Japan in my
+estimation, and he is talking rather big.  He asked me if I noticed
+that all the students kept their mouths shut like educated men and
+residents of Tokiyo, and that all country people keep theirs open.
+I have said little about him for some time, but I daily feel more
+dependent on him, not only for all information, but actually for
+getting on.  At night he has my watch, passport, and half my money,
+and I often wonder what would become of me if he absconded before
+morning.  He is not a good boy.  He has no moral sense, according
+to our notions; he dislikes foreigners; his manner is often very
+disagreeable; and yet I doubt whether I could have obtained a more
+valuable servant and interpreter.  When we left Tokiyo he spoke
+fairly good English, but by practice and industrious study he now
+speaks better than any official interpreter that I have seen, and
+his vocabulary is daily increasing.  He never uses a word
+inaccurately when he has once got hold of its meaning, and his
+memory never fails.  He keeps a diary both in English and Japanese,
+and it shows much painstaking observation.  He reads it to me
+sometimes, and it is interesting to hear what a young man who has
+travelled as much as he has regards as novel in this northern
+region.  He has made a hotel book and a transport book, in which
+all the bills and receipts are written, and he daily transliterates
+the names of all places into English letters, and puts down the
+distances and the sums paid for transport and hotels on each bill.
+
+He inquires the number of houses in each place from the police or
+Transport Agent, and the special trade of each town, and notes them
+down for me.  He takes great pains to be accurate, and occasionally
+remarks about some piece of information that he is not quite
+certain about, "If it's not true, it's not worth having."  He is
+never late, never dawdles, never goes out in the evening except on
+errands for me, never touches sake, is never disobedient, never
+requires to be told the same thing twice, is always within hearing,
+has a good deal of tact as to what he repeats, and all with an
+undisguised view to his own interest.  He sends most of his wages
+to his mother, who is a widow--"It's the custom of the country"--
+and seems to spend the remainder on sweetmeats, tobacco, and the
+luxury of frequent shampooing.
+
+That he would tell a lie if it served his purpose, and would
+"squeeze" up to the limits of extortion, if he could do it
+unobserved, I have not the slightest doubt.  He seems to have but
+little heart, or any idea of any but vicious pleasures.  He has no
+religion of any kind; he has been too much with foreigners for
+that.  His frankness is something startling.  He has no idea of
+reticence on any subject; but probably I learn more about things as
+they really are from this very defect.  In virtue in man or woman,
+except in that of his former master, he has little, if any belief.
+He thinks that Japan is right in availing herself of the
+discoveries made by foreigners, that they have as much to learn
+from her, and that she will outstrip them in the race, because she
+takes all that is worth having, and rejects the incubus of
+Christianity.  Patriotism is, I think, his strongest feeling, and I
+never met with such a boastful display of it, except in a Scotchman
+or an American.  He despises the uneducated, as he can read and
+write both the syllabaries.  For foreign rank or position he has
+not an atom of reverence or value, but a great deal of both for
+Japanese officialdom.  He despises the intellects of women, but
+flirts in a town-bred fashion with the simple tea-house girls.
+
+He is anxious to speak the very best English, and to say that a
+word is slangy or common interdicts its use.  Sometimes, when the
+weather is fine and things go smoothly, he is in an excellent and
+communicative humour, and talks a good deal as we travel.  A few
+days ago I remarked, "What a beautiful day this is!" and soon
+after, note-book in hand, he said, "You say 'a beautiful day.'  Is
+that better English than 'a devilish fine day,' which most
+foreigners say?"  I replied that it was "common," and "beautiful"
+has been brought out frequently since.  Again, "When you ask a
+question you never say, 'What the d-l is it?' as other foreigners
+do.  Is it proper for men to say it and not for women?"  I told him
+it was proper for neither, it was a very "common" word, and I saw
+that he erased it from his note-book.  At first he always used
+fellows for men, as, "Will you have one or two FELLOWS for your
+kuruma?" "FELLOWS and women."  At last he called the Chief
+Physician of the hospital here a FELLOW, on which I told him that
+it was slightly slangy, and at least "colloquial," and for two days
+he has scrupulously spoken of man and men.  To-day he brought a boy
+with very sore eyes to see me, on which I exclaimed, "Poor little
+fellow!" and this evening he said, "You called that boy a fellow, I
+thought it was a bad word!"  The habits of many of the Yokohama
+foreigners have helped to obliterate any distinctions between right
+and wrong, if he ever made any.  If he wishes to tell me that he
+has seen a very tipsy man, he always says he has seen "a fellow as
+drunk as an Englishman."  At Nikko I asked him how many legal wives
+a man could have in Japan, and he replied, "Only one lawful one,
+but as many others (mekake) as he can support, just as Englishmen
+have."  He never forgets a correction.  Till I told him it was
+slangy he always spoke of inebriated people as "tight," and when I
+gave him the words "tipsy," "drunk," "intoxicated," he asked me
+which one would use in writing good English, and since then he has
+always spoken of people as "intoxicated."
+
+He naturally likes large towns, and tries to deter me from taking
+the "unbeaten tracks," which I prefer--but when he finds me
+immovable, always concludes his arguments with the same formula,
+"Well, of course you can do as you like; it's all the same to me."
+I do not think he cheats me to any extent.  Board, lodging, and
+travelling expenses for us both are about 6s. 6d. a day, and about
+2s. 6d. when we are stationary, and this includes all gratuities
+and extras.  True, the board and lodging consist of tea, rice, and
+eggs, a copper basin of water, an andon and an empty room, for,
+though there are plenty of chickens in all the villages, the people
+won't be bribed to sell them for killing, though they would gladly
+part with them if they were to be kept to lay eggs.  Ito amuses me
+nearly every night with stories of his unsuccessful attempts to
+provide me with animal food.
+
+The travelling is the nearest approach to "a ride on a rail" that I
+have ever made.  I have now ridden, or rather sat, upon seventy-six
+horses, all horrible.  They all stumble.  The loins of some are
+higher than their shoulders, so that one slips forwards, and the
+back-bones of all are ridgy.  Their hind feet grow into points
+which turn up, and their hind legs all turn outwards, like those of
+a cat, from carrying heavy burdens at an early age.  The same thing
+gives them a roll in their gait, which is increased by their
+awkward shoes.  In summer they feed chiefly on leaves, supplemented
+with mashes of bruised beans, and instead of straw they sleep on
+beds of leaves.  In their stalls their heads are tied "where their
+tails should be," and their fodder is placed not in a manger, but
+in a swinging bucket.  Those used in this part of Japan are worth
+from 15 to 30 yen.  I have not seen any overloading or ill-
+treatment; they are neither kicked, nor beaten, nor threatened in
+rough tones, and when they die they are decently buried, and have
+stones placed over their graves.  It might be well if the end of a
+worn-out horse were somewhat accelerated, but this is mainly a
+Buddhist region, and the aversion to taking animal life is very
+strong.  I. L. B.
+
+
+
+LETTER XXIV
+
+
+
+The Symbolism of Seaweed--Afternoon Visitors--An Infant Prodigy--A
+Feat in Caligraphy--Child Worship--A Borrowed Dress--A Trousseau--
+House Furniture--The Marriage Ceremony.
+
+KUBOTA, July 25.
+
+The weather at last gives a hope of improvement, and I think I
+shall leave to-morrow.  I had written this sentence when Ito came
+in to say that the man in the next house would like to see my
+stretcher and mosquito net, and had sent me a bag of cakes with the
+usual bit of seaweed attached, to show that it was a present.  The
+Japanese believe themselves to be descended from a race of
+fishermen; they are proud of it, and Yebis, the god of fishermen,
+is one of the most popular of the household divinities.  The piece
+of seaweed sent with a present to any ordinary person, and the
+piece of dried fish-skin which accompanies a present to the Mikado,
+record the origin of the race, and at the same time typify the
+dignity of simple industry.
+
+Of course I consented to receive the visitor, and with the mercury
+at 84 degrees, five men, two boys, and five women entered my small,
+low room, and after bowing to the earth three times, sat down on
+the floor.  They had evidently come to spend the afternoon.  Trays
+of tea and sweetmeats were handed round, and a labako-bon was
+brought in, and they all smoked, as I had told Ito that all usual
+courtesies were to be punctiliously performed.  They expressed
+their gratification at seeing so "honourable" a traveller.  I
+expressed mine at seeing so much of their "honourable" country.
+Then we all bowed profoundly.  Then I laid Brunton's map on the
+floor and showed them my route, showed them the Asiatic Society's
+Transactions, and how we read from left to right, instead of from
+top to bottom, showed them my knitting, which amazed them, and my
+Berlin work, and then had nothing left.  Then they began to
+entertain me, and I found that the real object of their visit was
+to exhibit an "infant prodigy," a boy of four, with a head shaven
+all but a tuft on the top, a face of preternatural thoughtfulness
+and gravity, and the self-possessed and dignified demeanour of an
+elderly man.  He was dressed in scarlet silk hakama, and a dark,
+striped, blue silk kimono, and fanned himself gracefully, looking
+at everything as intelligently and courteously as the others.  To
+talk child's talk to him, or show him toys, or try to amuse him,
+would have been an insult.  The monster has taught himself to read
+and write, and has composed poetry.  His father says that he never
+plays, and understands everything just like a grown person.  The
+intention was that I should ask him to write, and I did so.
+
+It was a solemn performance.  A red blanket was laid in the middle
+of the floor, with a lacquer writing-box upon it.  The creature
+rubbed the ink with water on the inkstone, unrolled four rolls of
+paper, five feet long, and inscribed them with Chinese characters,
+nine inches long, of the most complicated kind, with firm and
+graceful curves of his brush, and with the ease and certainty of
+Giotto in turning his O.  He sealed them with his seal in
+vermilion, bowed three times, and the performance was ended.
+People get him to write kakemonos and signboards for them, and he
+had earned 10 yen, or about 2 pounds, that day.  His father is
+going to travel to Kiyoto with him, to see if any one under
+fourteen can write as well.  I never saw such an exaggerated
+instance of child worship.  Father, mother, friends, and servants,
+treated him as if he were a prince.
+
+The house-master, who is a most polite man, procured me an
+invitation to the marriage of his niece, and I have just returned
+from it.  He has three "wives" himself.  One keeps a yadoya in
+Kiyoto, another in Morioka, and the third and youngest is with him
+here.  From her limitless stores of apparel she chose what she
+considered a suitable dress for me--an under-dress of sage green
+silk crepe, a kimono of soft, green, striped silk of a darker
+shade, with a fold of white crepe, spangled with gold at the neck,
+and a girdle of sage green corded silk, with the family badge here
+and there upon it in gold.  I went with the house-master, Ito, to
+his disgust, not being invited, and his absence was like the loss
+of one of my senses, as I could not get any explanations till
+afterwards.
+
+The ceremony did not correspond with the rules laid down for
+marriages in the books of etiquette that I have seen, but this is
+accounted for by the fact that they were for persons of the samurai
+class, while this bride and bridegroom, though the children of
+well-to-do merchants, belong to the heimin.
+
+In this case the trousseau and furniture were conveyed to the
+bridegroom's house in the early morning, and I was allowed to go to
+see them.  There were several girdles of silk embroidered with
+gold, several pieces of brocaded silk for kimonos, several pieces
+of silk crepe, a large number of made-up garments, a piece of white
+silk, six barrels of wine or sake, and seven sorts of condiments.
+Jewellery is not worn by women in Japan.
+
+The furniture consisted of two wooden pillows, finely lacquered,
+one of them containing a drawer for ornamental hairpins, some
+cotton futons, two very handsome silk ones, a few silk cushions, a
+lacquer workbox, a spinning-wheel, a lacquer rice bucket and ladle,
+two ornamental iron kettles, various kitchen utensils, three bronze
+hibachi, two tabako-bons, some lacquer trays, and zens, china
+kettles, teapots, and cups, some lacquer rice bowls, two copper
+basins, a few towels, some bamboo switches, and an inlaid lacquer
+etagere.  As the things are all very handsome the parents must be
+well off.  The sake is sent in accordance with rigid etiquette.
+
+The bridegroom is twenty-two, the bride seventeen, and very comely,
+so far as I could see through the paint with which she was
+profusely disfigured.  Towards evening she was carried in a
+norimon, accompanied by her parents and friends, to the
+bridegroom's house, each member of the procession carrying a
+Chinese lantern.  When the house-master and I arrived the wedding
+party was assembled in a large room, the parents and friends of the
+bridegroom being seated on one side, and those of the bride on the
+other.  Two young girls, very beautifully dressed, brought in the
+bride, a very pleasing-looking creature dressed entirely in white
+silk, with a veil of white silk covering her from head to foot.
+The bridegroom, who was already seated in the middle of the room
+near its upper part, did not rise to receive her, and kept his eyes
+fixed on the ground, and she sat opposite to him, but never looked
+up.  A low table was placed in front, on which there was a two-
+spouted kettle full of sake, some sake bottles, and some cups, and
+on another there were some small figures representing a fir-tree, a
+plum-tree in blossom, and a stork standing on a tortoise, the last
+representing length of days, and the former the beauty of women and
+the strength of men.  Shortly a zen, loaded with eatables, was
+placed before each person, and the feast began, accompanied by the
+noises which signify gastronomic gratification.
+
+After this, which was only a preliminary, the two girls who brought
+in the bride handed round a tray with three cups containing sake,
+which each person was expected to drain till he came to the god of
+luck at the bottom.
+
+The bride and bridegroom then retired, but shortly reappeared in
+other dresses of ceremony, but the bride still wore her white silk
+veil, which one day will be her shroud.  An old gold lacquer tray
+was produced, with three sake cups, which were filled by the two
+bridesmaids, and placed before the parents-in-law and the bride.
+The father-in-law drank three cups, and handed the cup to the
+bride, who, after drinking two cups, received from her father-in-
+law a present in a box, drank the third cup, and then returned the
+cup to the father-in-law, who again drank three cups.  Rice and
+fish were next brought in, after which the bridegroom's mother took
+the second cup, and filled and emptied it three times, after which
+she passed it to the bride, who drank two cups, received a present
+from her mother-in-law in a lacquer box, drank a third cup, and
+gave the cup to the elder lady, who again drank three cups.  Soup
+was then served, and then the bride drank once from the third cup,
+and handed it to her husband's father, who drank three more cups,
+the bride took it again, and drank two, and lastly the mother-in-
+law drank three more cups.  Now, if you possess the clear-
+sightedness which I laboured to preserve, you will perceive that
+each of the three had inbibed nine cups of some generous liquor!
+{16}
+
+After this the two bridesmaids raised the two-spouted kettle and
+presented it to the lips of the married pair, who drank from it
+alternately, till they had exhausted its contents.  This concluding
+ceremony is said to be emblematic of the tasting together of the
+joys and sorrows of life.  And so they became man and wife till
+death or divorce parted them.
+
+This drinking of sake or wine, according to prescribed usage,
+appeared to constitute the "marriage service," to which none but
+relations were bidden.  Immediately afterwards the wedding guests
+arrived, and the evening was spent in feasting and sake drinking;
+but the fare is simple, and intoxication is happily out of place at
+a marriage feast.  Every detail is a matter of etiquette, and has
+been handed down for centuries.  Except for the interest of the
+ceremony, in that light it was a very dull and tedious affair,
+conducted in melancholy silence, and the young bride, with her
+whitened face and painted lips, looked and moved like an automaton.
+I. L. B.
+
+
+
+LETTER XXV
+
+
+
+A Holiday Scene--A Matsuri--Attractions of the Revel--Matsuri Cars-
+-Gods and Demons--A Possible Harbour--A Village Forge--Prosperity
+of Sake Brewers--A "Great Sight."
+
+TSUGURATA, July 27.
+
+Three miles of good road thronged with half the people of Kubota on
+foot and in kurumas, red vans drawn by horses, pairs of policemen
+in kurumas, hundreds of children being carried, hundreds more on
+foot, little girls, formal and precocious looking, with hair
+dressed with scarlet crepe and flowers, hobbling toilsomely along
+on high clogs, groups of men and women, never intermixing, stalls
+driving a "roaring trade" in cakes and sweetmeats, women making
+mochi as fast as the buyers ate it, broad rice-fields rolling like
+a green sea on the right, an ocean of liquid turquoise on the left,
+the grey roofs of Kubota looking out from their green surroundings,
+Taiheisan in deepest indigo blocking the view to the south, a
+glorious day, and a summer sun streaming over all, made up the
+cheeriest and most festal scene that I have seen in Japan; men,
+women, and children, vans and kurumas, policemen and horsemen, all
+on their way to a mean-looking town, Minato, the junk port of
+Kubota, which was keeping matsuri, or festival, in honour of the
+birthday of the god Shimmai.  Towering above the low grey houses
+there were objects which at first looked like five enormous black
+fingers, then like trees with their branches wrapped in black, and
+then--comparisons ceased; they were a mystery.
+
+Dismissing the kurumas, which could go no farther, we dived into
+the crowd, which was wedged along a mean street, nearly a mile
+long--a miserable street of poor tea-houses and poor shop-fronts;
+but, in fact, you could hardly see the street for the people.
+Paper lanterns were hung close together along its whole length.
+There were rude scaffoldings supporting matted and covered
+platforms, on which people were drinking tea and sake and enjoying
+the crowd below; monkey theatres and dog theatres, two mangy sheep
+and a lean pig attracting wondering crowds, for neither of these
+animals is known in this region of Japan; a booth in which a woman
+was having her head cut off every half-hour for 2 sen a spectator;
+cars with roofs like temples, on which, with forty men at the
+ropes, dancing children of the highest class were being borne in
+procession; a theatre with an open front, on the boards of which
+two men in antique dresses, with sleeves touching the ground, were
+performing with tedious slowness a classic dance of tedious
+posturings, which consisted mainly in dexterous movements of the
+aforesaid sleeves, and occasional emphatic stampings, and
+utterances of the word No in a hoarse howl.  It is needless to say
+that a foreign lady was not the least of the attractions of the
+fair.  The cultus of children was in full force, all sorts of
+masks, dolls, sugar figures, toys, and sweetmeats were exposed for
+sale on mats on the ground, and found their way into the hands and
+sleeves of the children, for no Japanese parent would ever attend a
+matsuri without making an offering to his child.
+
+The police told me that there were 22,000 strangers in Minato, yet
+for 32,000 holiday-makers a force of twenty-five policemen was
+sufficient.  I did not see one person under the influence of sake
+up to 3 p.m., when I left, nor a solitary instance of rude or
+improper behaviour, nor was I in any way rudely crowded upon, for,
+even where the crowd was densest, the people of their own accord
+formed a ring and left me breathing space.
+
+We went to the place where the throng was greatest, round the two
+great matsuri cars, whose colossal erections we had seen far off.
+These were structures of heavy beams, thirty feet long, with eight
+huge, solid wheels.  Upon them there were several scaffoldings with
+projections, like flat surfaces of cedar branches, and two special
+peaks of unequal height at the top, the whole being nearly fifty
+feet from the ground.  All these projections were covered with
+black cotton cloth, from which branches of pines protruded.  In the
+middle three small wheels, one above another, over which striped
+white cotton was rolling perpetually, represented a waterfall; at
+the bottom another arrangement of white cotton represented a river,
+and an arrangement of blue cotton, fitfully agitated by a pair of
+bellows below, represented the sea.  The whole is intended to
+represent a mountain on which the Shinto gods slew some devils, but
+anything more rude and barbarous could scarcely be seen.  On the
+fronts of each car, under a canopy, were thirty performers on
+thirty diabolical instruments, which rent the air with a truly
+infernal discord, and suggested devils rather than their
+conquerors.  High up on the flat projections there were groups of
+monstrous figures.  On one a giant in brass armour, much like the
+Nio of temple gates, was killing a revolting-looking demon.  On
+another a daimiyo's daughter, in robes of cloth of gold with satin
+sleeves richly flowered, was playing on the samisen.  On another a
+hunter, thrice the size of life, was killing a wild horse equally
+magnified, whose hide was represented by the hairy wrappings of the
+leaves of the Chamaerops excelsa.  On others highly-coloured gods,
+and devils equally hideous, were grouped miscellaneously.  These
+two cars were being drawn up and down the street at the rate of a
+mile in three hours by 200 men each, numbers of men with levers
+assisting the heavy wheels out of the mud-holes.  This matsuri,
+which, like an English fair, feast, or revel, has lost its original
+religious significance, goes on for three days and nights, and this
+was its third and greatest day.
+
+We left on mild-tempered horses, quite unlike the fierce fellows of
+Yamagata ken.  Between Minato and Kado there is a very curious
+lagoon on the left, about 17 miles long by 16 broad, connected with
+the sea by a narrow channel, guarded by two high hills called
+Shinzan and Honzan.  Two Dutch engineers are now engaged in
+reporting on its capacities, and if its outlet could be deepened
+without enormous cost it would give north-western Japan the harbour
+it so greatly needs.  Extensive rice-fields and many villages lie
+along the road, which is an avenue of deep sand and ancient pines
+much contorted and gnarled.  Down the pine avenue hundreds of
+people on horseback and on foot were trooping into Minato from all
+the farming villages, glad in the glorious sunshine which succeeded
+four days of rain.  There were hundreds of horses, wonderful-
+looking animals in bravery of scarlet cloth and lacquer and fringed
+nets of leather, and many straw wisps and ropes, with Gothic roofs
+for saddles, and dependent panniers on each side, carrying two
+grave and stately-looking children in each, and sometimes a father
+or a fifth child on the top of the pack-saddle.
+
+I was so far from well that I was obliged to sleep at the wretched
+village of Abukawa, in a loft alive with fleas, where the rice was
+too dirty to be eaten, and where the house-master's wife, who sat
+for an hour on my floor, was sorely afflicted with skin disease.
+The clay houses have disappeared and the villages are now built of
+wood, but Abukawa is an antiquated, ramshackle place, propped up
+with posts and slanting beams projecting into the roadway for the
+entanglement of unwary passengers.
+
+The village smith was opposite, but he was not a man of ponderous
+strength, nor were there those wondrous flights and scintillations
+of sparks which were the joy of our childhood in the Tattenhall
+forge.  A fire of powdered charcoal on the floor, always being
+trimmed and replenished by a lean and grimy satellite, a man still
+leaner and grimier, clothed in goggles and a girdle, always sitting
+in front of it, heating and hammering iron bars with his hands,
+with a clink which went on late into the night, and blowing his
+bellows with his toes; bars and pieces of rusty iron pinned on the
+smoky walls, and a group of idle men watching his skilful
+manipulation, were the sights of the Abukawa smithy, and kept me
+thralled in the balcony, though the whole clothesless population
+stood for the whole evening in front of the house with a silent,
+open-mouthed stare.
+
+Early in the morning the same melancholy crowd appeared in the
+dismal drizzle, which turned into a tremendous torrent, which has
+lasted for sixteen hours.  Low hills, broad rice valleys in which
+people are puddling the rice a second time to kill the weeds, bad
+roads, pretty villages, much indigo, few passengers, were the
+features of the day's journey.  At Morioka and several other
+villages in this region I noticed that if you see one large, high,
+well-built house, standing in enclosed grounds, with a look of
+wealth about it, it is always that of the sake brewer.  A bush
+denotes the manufacture as well as the sale of sake, and these are
+of all sorts, from the mangy bit of fir which has seen long service
+to the vigorous truss of pine constantly renewed.  It is curious
+that this should formerly have been the sign of the sale of wine in
+England.
+
+The wind and rain were something fearful all that afternoon.  I
+could not ride, so I tramped on foot for some miles under an avenue
+of pines, through water a foot deep, and, with my paper waterproof
+soaked through, reached Toyoka half drowned and very cold, to
+shiver over a hibachi in a clean loft, hung with my dripping
+clothes, which had to be put on wet the next day.   By 5 a.m. all
+Toyoka assembled, and while I took my breakfast I was not only the
+"cynosure" of the eyes of all the people outside, but of those of
+about forty more who were standing in the doma, looking up the
+ladder.  When asked to depart by the house-master, they said, "It's
+neither fair nor neighbourly in you to keep this great sight to
+yourself, seeing that our lives may pass without again looking on a
+foreign woman;" so they were allowed to remain!  I. L. B.
+
+
+
+LETTER XXVI
+
+
+
+The Fatigues of Travelling--Torrents and Mud--Ito's Surliness--The
+Blind Shampooers--A Supposed Monkey Theatre--A Suspended Ferry--A
+Difficult Transit--Perils on the Yonetsurugawa--A Boatman Drowned--
+Nocturnal Disturbances--A Noisy Yadoya--Storm-bound Travellers--
+Hai!  Hai!--More Nocturnal Disturbances
+
+ODATE, July 29.
+
+I have been suffering so much from my spine that I have been unable
+to travel more than seven or eight miles daily for several days,
+and even that with great difficulty.  I try my own saddle, then a
+pack-saddle, then walk through the mud; but I only get on because
+getting on is a necessity, and as soon as I reach the night's
+halting-place I am obliged to lie down at once.  Only strong people
+should travel in northern Japan.  The inevitable fatigue is much
+increased by the state of the weather, and doubtless my impressions
+of the country are affected by it also, as a hamlet in a quagmire
+in a gray mist or a soaking rain is a far less delectable object
+than the same hamlet under bright sunshine.  There has not been
+such a season for thirty years.  The rains have been tremendous.  I
+have lived in soaked clothes, in spite of my rain-cloak, and have
+slept on a soaked stretcher in spite of all waterproof wrappings
+for several days, and still the weather shows no signs of
+improvement, and the rivers are so high on the northern road that I
+am storm-bound as well as pain-bound here.  Ito shows his sympathy
+for me by intense surliness, though he did say very sensibly, "I'm
+very sorry for you, but it's no use saying so over and over again;
+as I can do nothing for you, you'd better send for the blind man!"
+
+In Japanese towns and villages you hear every evening a man (or
+men) making a low peculiar whistle as he walks along, and in large
+towns the noise is quite a nuisance.  It is made by blind men; but
+a blind beggar is never seen throughout Japan, and the blind are an
+independent, respected, and well-to-do class, carrying on the
+occupations of shampooing, money-lending, and music.
+
+We have had a very severe journey from Toyoka.  That day the rain
+was ceaseless, and in the driving mists one could see little but
+low hills looming on the horizon, pine barrens, scrub, and flooded
+rice-fields; varied by villages standing along roads which were
+quagmires a foot deep, and where the clothing was specially ragged
+and dirty.  Hinokiyama, a village of samurai, on a beautiful slope,
+was an exception, with its fine detached houses, pretty gardens,
+deep-roofed gateways, grass and stone-faced terraces, and look of
+refined, quiet comfort.  Everywhere there was a quantity of indigo,
+as is necessary, for nearly all the clothing of the lower classes
+is blue.  Near a large village we were riding on a causeway through
+the rice-fields, Ito on the pack-horse in front, when we met a
+number of children returning from school, who, on getting near us,
+turned, ran away, and even jumped into the ditches, screaming as
+they ran.  The mago ran after them, caught the hindmost boy, and
+dragged him back--the boy scared and struggling, the man laughing.
+The boy said that they thought that Ito was a monkey-player, i.e.
+the keeper of a monkey theatre, I a big ape, and the poles of my
+bed the scaffolding of the stage!
+
+Splashing through mire and water we found that the people of Tubine
+wished to detain us, saying that all the ferries were stopped in
+consequence of the rise in the rivers; but I had been so often
+misled by false reports that I took fresh horses and went on by a
+track along a very pretty hillside, overlooking the Yonetsurugawa,
+a large and swollen river, which nearer the sea had spread itself
+over the whole country.  Torrents of rain were still falling, and
+all out-of-doors industries were suspended.  Straw rain-cloaks
+hanging to dry dripped under all the eaves, our paper cloaks were
+sodden, our dripping horses steamed, and thus we slid down a steep
+descent into the hamlet of Kiriishi, thirty-one houses clustered
+under persimmon trees under a wooded hillside, all standing in a
+quagmire, and so abject and filthy that one could not ask for five
+minutes' shelter in any one of them.  Sure enough, on the bank of
+the river, which was fully 400 yards wide, and swirling like a
+mill-stream with a suppressed roar, there was an official order
+prohibiting the crossing of man or beast, and before I had time to
+think the mago had deposited the baggage on an islet in the mire
+and was over the crest of the hill.  I wished that the Government
+was a little less paternal.
+
+Just in the nick of time we discerned a punt drifting down the
+river on the opposite side, where it brought up, and landed a man,
+and Ito and two others yelled, howled, and waved so lustily as to
+attract its notice, and to my joy an answering yell came across the
+roar and rush of the river.  The torrent was so strong that the
+boatmen had to pole up on that side for half a mile, and in about
+three-quarters of an hour they reached our side.  They were
+returning to Kotsunagi--the very place I wished to reach--but,
+though only 2.5 miles off, the distance took nearly four hours of
+the hardest work I ever saw done by men.  Every moment I expected
+to see them rupture blood-vessels or tendons.  All their muscles
+quivered.  It is a mighty river, and was from eight to twelve feet
+deep, and whirling down in muddy eddies; and often with their
+utmost efforts in poling, when it seemed as if poles or backs must
+break, the boat hung trembling and stationary for three or four
+minutes at a time.  After the slow and eventless tramp of the last
+few days this was an exciting transit.  Higher up there was a
+flooded wood, and, getting into this, the men aided themselves
+considerably by hauling by the trees; but when we got out of this,
+another river joined the Yonetsurugawa, which with added strength
+rushed and roared more wildly.
+
+I had long been watching a large house-boat far above us on the
+other side, which was being poled by desperate efforts by ten men.
+At that point she must have been half a mile off, when the stream
+overpowered the crew and in no time she swung round and came
+drifting wildly down and across the river, broadside on to us.  We
+could not stir against the current, and had large trees on our
+immediate left, and for a moment it was a question whether she
+would not smash us to atoms.  Ito was livid with fear; his white,
+appalled face struck me as ludicrous, for I had no other thought
+than the imminent peril of the large boat with her freight of
+helpless families, when, just as she was within two feet of us, she
+struck a stem and glanced off.  Then her crew grappled a headless
+trunk and got their hawser round it, and eight of them, one behind
+the other, hung on to it, when it suddenly snapped, seven fell
+backwards, and the forward one went overboard to be no more seen.
+Some house that night was desolate.  Reeling downwards, the big
+mast and spar of the ungainly craft caught in a tree, giving her
+such a check that they were able to make her fast.  It was a
+saddening incident.  I asked Ito what he felt when we seemed in
+peril, and he replied, "I thought I'd been good to my mother, and
+honest, and I hoped I should go to a good place."
+
+The fashion of boats varies much on different rivers.  On this one
+there are two sizes.  Ours was a small one, flat-bottomed, 25 feet
+long by 2.5 broad, drawing 6 inches, very low in the water, and
+with sides slightly curved inwards.  The prow forms a gradual long
+curve from the body of the boat, and is very high.
+
+The mists rolled away as dusk came on, and revealed a lovely
+country with much picturesqueness of form, and near Kotsunagi the
+river disappears into a narrow gorge with steep, sentinel hills,
+dark with pine and cryptomeria.  To cross the river we had to go
+fully a mile above the point aimed at, and then a few minutes of
+express speed brought us to a landing in a deep, tough quagmire in
+a dark wood, through which we groped our lamentable way to the
+yadoya.  A heavy mist came on, and the rain returned in torrents;
+the doma was ankle deep in black slush.  The daidokoro was open to
+the roof, roof and rafters were black with smoke, and a great fire
+of damp wood was smoking lustily.  Round some live embers in the
+irori fifteen men, women, and children were lying, doing nothing,
+by the dim light of an andon.  It was picturesque decidedly, and I
+was well disposed to be content when the production of some
+handsome fusuma created daimiyo's rooms out of the farthest part of
+the dim and wandering space, opening upon a damp garden, into which
+the rain splashed all night.
+
+The solitary spoil of the day's journey was a glorious lily, which
+I presented to the house-master, and in the morning it was blooming
+on the kami-dana in a small vase of priceless old Satsuma china.  I
+was awoke out of a sound sleep by Ito coming in with a rumour,
+brought by some travellers, that the Prime Minister had been
+assassinated, and fifty policemen killed!  [This was probably a
+distorted version of the partial mutiny of the Imperial Guard,
+which I learned on landing in Yezo.]  Very wild political rumours
+are in the air in these outlandish regions, and it is not very
+wonderful that the peasantry lack confidence in the existing order
+of things after the changes of the last ten years, and the recent
+assassination of the Home Minister.  I did not believe the rumour,
+for fanaticism, even in its wildest moods, usually owes some
+allegiance to common sense; but it was disturbing, as I have
+naturally come to feel a deep interest in Japanese affairs.  A few
+hours later Ito again presented himself with a bleeding cut on his
+temple.  In lighting his pipe--an odious nocturnal practice of the
+Japanese--he had fallen over the edge of the fire-pot.  I always
+sleep in a Japanese kimona to be ready for emergencies, and soon
+bound up his head, and slept again, to be awoke early by another
+deluge.
+
+We made an early start, but got over very little ground, owing to
+bad roads and long delays.  All day the rain came down in even
+torrents, the tracks were nearly impassable, my horse fell five
+times, I suffered severely from pain and exhaustion, and almost
+fell into despair about ever reaching the sea.  In these wild
+regions there are no kago or norimons to be had, and a pack-horse
+is the only conveyance, and yesterday, having abandoned my own
+saddle, I had the bad luck to get a pack-saddle with specially
+angular and uncompromising peaks, with a soaked and extremely
+unwashed futon on the top, spars, tackle, ridges, and furrows of
+the most exasperating description, and two nooses of rope to hold
+on by as the animal slid down hill on his haunches, or let me
+almost slide over his tail as he scrambled and plunged up hill.
+
+It was pretty country, even in the downpour, when white mists
+parted and fir-crowned heights looked out for a moment, or we slid
+down into a deep glen with mossy boulders, lichen-covered stumps,
+ferny carpet, and damp, balsamy smell of pyramidal cryptomeria, and
+a tawny torrent dashing through it in gusts of passion.  Then there
+were low hills, much scrub, immense rice-fields, and violent
+inundations.  But it is not pleasant, even in the prettiest
+country, to cling on to a pack-saddle with a saturated quilt below
+you and the water slowly soaking down through your wet clothes into
+your boots, knowing all the time that when you halt you must sleep
+on a wet bed, and change into damp clothes, and put on the wet ones
+again the next morning.  The villages were poor, and most of the
+houses were of boards rudely nailed together for ends, and for
+sides straw rudely tied on; they had no windows, and smoke came out
+of every crack.  They were as unlike the houses which travellers
+see in southern Japan as a "black hut" in Uist is like a cottage in
+a trim village in Kent.  These peasant proprietors have much to
+learn of the art of living.  At Tsuguriko, the next stage, where
+the Transport Office was so dirty that I was obliged to sit in the
+street in the rain, they told us that we could only get on a ri
+farther, because the bridges were all carried away and the fords
+were impassable; but I engaged horses, and, by dint of British
+doggedness and the willingness of the mago, I got the horses singly
+and without their loads in small punts across the swollen waters of
+the Hayakuchi, the Yuwase, and the Mochida, and finally forded
+three branches of my old friend the Yonetsurugawa, with the foam of
+its hurrying waters whitening the men's shoulders and the horses'
+packs, and with a hundred Japanese looking on at the "folly" of the
+foreigner.
+
+I like to tell you of kind people everywhere, and the two mago were
+specially so, for, when they found that I was pushing on to Yezo
+for fear of being laid up in the interior wilds, they did all they
+could to help me; lifted me gently from the horse, made steps of
+their backs for me to mount, and gathered for me handfuls of red
+berries, which I ate out of politeness, though they tasted of some
+nauseous drug.  They suggested that I should stay at the
+picturesquely-situated old village of Kawaguchi, but everything
+about it was mildewed and green with damp, and the stench from the
+green and black ditches with which it abounded was so overpowering,
+even in passing through, that I was obliged to ride on to Odate, a
+crowded, forlorn, half-tumbling-to-pieces town of 8000 people, with
+bark roofs held down by stones.
+
+The yadoyas are crowded with storm-staid travellers, and I had a
+weary tramp from one to another, almost sinking from pain, pressed
+upon by an immense crowd, and frequently bothered by a policeman,
+who followed me from one place to the other, making wholly
+unrighteous demands for my passport at that most inopportune time.
+After a long search I could get nothing better than this room, with
+fusuma of tissue paper, in the centre of the din of the house,
+close to the doma and daidokoro.  Fifty travellers, nearly all men,
+are here, mostly speaking at the top of their voices, and in a
+provincial jargon which exasperates Ito.  Cooking, bathing, eating,
+and, worst of all, perpetual drawing water from a well with a
+creaking hoisting apparatus, are going on from 4.30 in the morning
+till 11.30 at night, and on both evenings noisy mirth, of alcoholic
+inspiration, and dissonant performances by geishas have added to
+the dim
+
+In all places lately Hai, "yes," has been pronounced He, Chi, Na,
+Ne, to Ito's great contempt.  It sounds like an expletive or
+interjection rather than a response, and seems used often as a sign
+of respect or attention only.  Often it is loud and shrill, then
+guttural, at times little more than a sigh.  In these yadoyas every
+sound is audible, and I hear low rumbling of mingled voices, and
+above all the sharp Hai, Hai of the tea-house girls in full chorus
+from every quarter of the house.  The habit of saying it is so
+strong that a man roused out of sleep jumps up with Hai, Hai, and
+often, when I speak to Ito in English, a stupid Hebe sitting by
+answers Hai.
+
+I don't want to convey a false impression of the noise here.  It
+would be at least three times as great were I in equally close
+proximity to a large hotel kitchen in England, with fifty Britons
+only separated from me by paper partitions.  I had not been long in
+bed on Saturday night when I was awoke by Ito bringing in an old
+hen which he said he could stew till it was tender, and I fell
+asleep again with its dying squeak in my ears, to be awoke a second
+time by two policemen wanting for some occult reason to see my
+passport, and a third time by two men with lanterns scrambling and
+fumbling about the room for the strings of a mosquito net, which
+they wanted for another traveller.  These are among the ludicrous
+incidents of Japanese travelling.  About five Ito woke me by saying
+he was quite sure that the moxa would be the thing to cure my
+spine, and, as we were going to stay all day, he would go and fetch
+an operator; but I rejected this as emphatically as the services of
+the blind man!  Yesterday a man came and pasted slips of paper over
+all the "peep holes" in the shoji, and I have been very little
+annoyed, even though the yadoya is so crowded.
+
+The rain continues to come down in torrents, and rumours are hourly
+arriving of disasters to roads and bridges on the northern route.
+I. L. B.
+
+
+
+LETTER XXVII
+
+
+
+Good-tempered Intoxication--The Effect of Sunshine--A tedious
+Altercation--Evening Occupations--Noisy Talk--Social Gathering--
+Unfair Comparisons.
+
+SHIRASAWA, July 29.
+
+Early this morning the rain-clouds rolled themselves up and
+disappeared, and the bright blue sky looked as if it had been well
+washed.  I had to wait till noon before the rivers became fordable,
+and my day's journey is only seven miles, as it is not possible to
+go farther till more of the water runs off.  We had very limp,
+melancholy horses, and my mago was half-tipsy, and sang, talked,
+and jumped the whole way.  Sake is frequently taken warm, and in
+that state produces a very noisy but good-tempered intoxication.  I
+have seen a good many intoxicated persons, but never one in the
+least degree quarrelsome; and the effect very soon passes off,
+leaving, however, an unpleasant nausea for two or three days as a
+warning against excess.  The abominable concoctions known under the
+names of beer, wine, and brandy, produce a bad-tempered and
+prolonged intoxication, and delirium tremens, rarely known as a
+result of sake drinking, is being introduced under their baleful
+influence.
+
+The sun shone gloriously and brightened the hill-girdled valley in
+which Odate stands into positive beauty, with the narrow river
+flinging its bright waters over green and red shingle, lighting it
+up in glints among the conical hills, some richly wooded with
+coniferae, and others merely covered with scrub, which were tumbled
+about in picturesque confusion.  When Japan gets the sunshine, its
+forest-covered hills and garden-like valleys are turned into
+paradise.  In a journey of 600 miles there has hardly been a patch
+of country which would not have been beautiful in sunlight.
+
+We crossed five severe fords with the water half-way up the horses'
+bodies, in one of which the strong current carried my mago off his
+feet, and the horse towed him ashore, singing and capering, his
+drunken glee nothing abated by his cold bath.  Everything is in a
+state of wreck.  Several river channels have been formed in places
+where there was only one; there is not a trace of the road for a
+considerable distance, not a bridge exists for ten miles, and a
+great tract of country is covered with boulders, uprooted trees,
+and logs floated from the mountain sides.  Already, however, these
+industrious peasants are driving piles, carrying soil for
+embankments in creels on horses' backs, and making ropes of stones
+to prevent a recurrence of the calamity.  About here the female
+peasants wear for field-work a dress which pleases me much by its
+suitability--light blue trousers, with a loose sack over them,
+confined at the waist by a girdle.
+
+On arriving here in much pain, and knowing that the road was not
+open any farther, I was annoyed by a long and angry conversation
+between the house-master and Ito, during which the horses were not
+unloaded, and the upshot of it was that the man declined to give me
+shelter, saying that the police had been round the week before
+giving notice that no foreigner was to be received without first
+communicating with the nearest police station, which, in this
+instance, is three hours off.  I said that the authorities of Akita
+ken could not by any local regulations override the Imperial edict
+under which passports are issued; but he said he should be liable
+to a fine and the withdrawal of his license if he violated the
+rule.  No foreigner, he said, had ever lodged in Shirasawa, and I
+have no doubt that he added that he hoped no foreigner would ever
+seek lodgings again.  My passport was copied and sent off by
+special runner, as I should have deeply regretted bringing trouble
+on the poor man by insisting on my rights, and in much trepidation
+he gave me a room open on one side to the village, and on another
+to a pond, over which, as if to court mosquitoes, it is partially
+built.  I cannot think how the Japanese can regard a hole full of
+dirty water as an ornamental appendage to a house.
+
+My hotel expenses (including Ito's) are less than 3s. a-day, and in
+nearly every place there has been a cordial desire that I should be
+comfortable, and, considering that I have often put up in small,
+rough hamlets off the great routes even of Japanese travel, the
+accommodation, minus the fleas and the odours, has been
+surprisingly excellent, not to be equalled, I should think, in
+equally remote regions in any country in the world.
+
+This evening, here, as in thousands of other villages, the men came
+home from their work, ate their food, took their smoke, enjoyed
+their children, carried them about, watched their games, twisted
+straw ropes, made straw sandals, split bamboo, wove straw rain-
+coats, and spent the time universally in those little economical
+ingenuities and skilful adaptations which our people (the worse for
+them) practise perhaps less than any other.  There was no
+assembling at the sake shop.  Poor though the homes are, the men
+enjoy them; the children are an attraction at any rate, and the
+brawling and disobedience which often turn our working-class homes
+into bear-gardens are unknown here, where docility and obedience
+are inculcated from the cradle as a matter of course.  The signs of
+religion become fewer as I travel north, and it appears that the
+little faith which exists consists mainly in a belief in certain
+charms and superstitions, which the priests industriously foster.
+
+A low voice is not regarded as "a most excellent thing," in man at
+least, among the lower classes in Japan.  The people speak at the
+top of their voices, and, though most words and syllables end in
+vowels, the general effect of a conversation is like the discordant
+gabble of a farm-yard.  The next room to mine is full of stormbound
+travellers, and they and the house-master kept up what I thought
+was a most important argument for four hours at the top of their
+voices.  I supposed it must be on the new and important ordinance
+granting local elective assemblies, of which I heard at Odate, but
+on inquiry found that it was possible to spend four mortal hours in
+discussing whether the day's journey from Odate to Noshiro could be
+made best by road or river.
+
+Japanese women have their own gatherings, where gossip and chit-
+chat, marked by a truly Oriental indecorum of speech, are the
+staple of talk.  I think that in many things, specially in some
+which lie on the surface, the Japanese are greatly our superiors,
+but that in many others they are immeasurably behind us.  In living
+altogether among this courteous, industrious, and civilised people,
+one comes to forget that one is doing them a gross injustice in
+comparing their manners and ways with those of a people moulded by
+many centuries of Christianity.  Would to God that we were so
+Christianised that the comparison might always be favourable to us,
+which it is not!
+
+July 30.--In the room on the other side of mine were two men with
+severe eye-disease, with shaven heads and long and curious
+rosaries, who beat small drums as they walked, and were on
+pilgrimage to the shrine of Fudo at Megura, near Yedo, a seated,
+flame-surrounded idol, with a naked sword in one hand and a coil of
+rope in the other, who has the reputation of giving sight to the
+blind.  At five this morning they began their devotions, which
+consisted in repeating with great rapidity, and in a high
+monotonous key for two hours, the invocation of the Nichiren sect
+of Buddhists, Namu miyo ho ren ge Kiyo, which certainly no Japanese
+understands, and on the meaning of which even the best scholars are
+divided; one having given me, "Glory to the salvation-bringing
+Scriptures;" another, "Hail, precious law and gospel of the lotus
+flower;" and a third, "Heaven and earth!  The teachings of the
+wonderful lotus flower sect."  Namu amidu Butsu occurred at
+intervals, and two drums were beaten the whole time!
+
+The rain, which began again at eleven last night, fell from five
+till eight this morning, not in drops, but in streams, and in the
+middle of it a heavy pall of blackness (said to be a total eclipse)
+enfolded all things in a lurid gloom.  Any detention is
+exasperating within one day of my journey's end, and I hear without
+equanimity that there are great difficulties ahead, and that our
+getting through in three or even four days is doubtful.  I hope you
+will not be tired of the monotony of my letters.  Such as they are,
+they represent the scenes which a traveller would see throughout
+much of northern Japan, and whatever interest they have consists in
+the fact that they are a faithful representation, made upon the
+spot, of what a foreigner sees and hears in travelling through a
+large but unfrequented region.  I. L. B.
+
+
+
+LETTER XXVIII
+
+
+
+Torrents of Rain--An unpleasant Detention--Devastations produced by
+Floods--The Yadate Pass--The Force of Water--Difficulties thicken--
+A Primitive Yadoya--The Water rises.
+
+IKARIGASEKI, AOMORI KEN, August 2.
+
+The prophecies concerning difficulties are fulfilled.  For six days
+and five nights the rain has never ceased, except for a few hours
+at a time, and for the last thirteen hours, as during the eclipse
+at Shirasawa, it has been falling in such sheets as I have only
+seen for a few minutes at a time on the equator.  I have been here
+storm-staid for two days, with damp bed, damp clothes, damp
+everything, and boots, bag, books, are all green with mildew.  And
+still the rain falls, and roads, bridges, rice-fields, trees, and
+hillsides are being swept in a common ruin towards the Tsugaru
+Strait, so tantalisingly near; and the simple people are calling on
+the forgotten gods of the rivers and the hills, on the sun and
+moon, and all the host of heaven, to save them from this "plague of
+immoderate rain and waters."  For myself, to be able to lie down
+all day is something, and as "the mind, when in a healthy state,
+reposes as quietly before an insurmountable difficulty as before an
+ascertained truth," so, as I cannot get on, I have ceased to chafe,
+and am rather inclined to magnify the advantages of the detention,
+a necessary process, as you would think if you saw my surroundings!
+
+The day before yesterday, in spite of severe pain, was one of the
+most interesting of my journey.  As I learned something of the
+force of fire in Hawaii, I am learning not a little of the force of
+water in Japan.  We left Shirasawa at noon, as it looked likely to
+clear, taking two horses and three men.  It is beautiful scenery--a
+wild valley, upon which a number of lateral ridges descend,
+rendered strikingly picturesque by the dark pyramidal cryptomeria,
+which are truly the glory of Japan.  Five of the fords were deep
+and rapid, and the entrance on them difficult, as the sloping
+descents were all carried away, leaving steep banks, which had to
+be levelled by the mattocks of the mago.  Then the fords themselves
+were gone; there were shallows where there had been depths, and
+depths where there had been shallows; new channels were carved, and
+great beds of shingle had been thrown up.  Much wreckage lay about.
+The road and its small bridges were all gone, trees torn up by the
+roots or snapped short off by being struck by heavy logs were
+heaped together like barricades, leaves and even bark being in many
+cases stripped completely off; great logs floated down the river in
+such numbers and with such force that we had to wait half an hour
+in one place to secure a safe crossing; hollows were filled with
+liquid mud, boulders of great size were piled into embankments,
+causing perilous alterations in the course of the river; a fertile
+valley had been utterly destroyed, and the men said they could
+hardly find their way.
+
+At the end of five miles it became impassable for horses, and, with
+two of the mago carrying the baggage, we set off, wading through
+water and climbing along the side of a hill, up to our knees in
+soft wet soil.  The hillside and the road were both gone, and there
+were heavy landslips along the whole valley.  Happily there was not
+much of this exhausting work, for, just as higher and darker
+ranges, densely wooded with cryptomeria, began to close us in, we
+emerged upon a fine new road, broad enough for a carriage, which,
+after crossing two ravines on fine bridges, plunges into the depths
+of a magnificent forest, and then by a long series of fine zigzags
+of easy gradients ascends the pass of Yadate, on the top of which,
+in a deep sandstone cutting, is a handsome obelisk marking the
+boundary between Akita and Aomori ken.  This is a marvellous road
+for Japan, it is so well graded and built up, and logs for
+travellers' rests are placed at convenient distances.  Some very
+heavy work in grading and blasting has been done upon it, but there
+are only four miles of it, with wretched bridle tracks at each end.
+I left the others behind, and strolled on alone over the top of the
+pass and down the other side, where the road is blasted out of rock
+of a vivid pink and green colour, looking brilliant under the
+trickle of water.  I admire this pass more than anything I have
+seen in Japan; I even long to see it again, but under a bright blue
+sky.  It reminds me much of the finest part of the Brunig Pass, and
+something of some of the passes in the Rocky Mountains, but the
+trees are far finer than in either.  It was lonely, stately, dark,
+solemn; its huge cryptomeria, straight as masts, sent their tall
+spires far aloft in search of light; the ferns, which love damp and
+shady places, were the only undergrowth; the trees flung their
+balsamy, aromatic scent liberally upon the air, and, in the
+unlighted depths of many a ravine and hollow, clear bright torrents
+leapt and tumbled, drowning with their thundering bass the musical
+treble of the lighter streams.  Not a traveller disturbed the
+solitude with his sandalled footfall; there was neither song of
+bird nor hum of insect.
+
+In the midst of this sublime scenery, and at the very top of the
+pass, the rain, which had been light but steady during the whole
+day, began to come down in streams and then in sheets.  I have been
+so rained upon for weeks that at first I took little notice of it,
+but very soon changes occurred before my eyes which concentrated my
+attention upon it.  The rush of waters was heard everywhere, trees
+of great size slid down, breaking others in their fall; rocks were
+rent and carried away trees in their descent, the waters rose
+before our eyes; with a boom and roar as of an earthquake a
+hillside burst, and half the hill, with a noble forest of
+cryptomeria, was projected outwards, and the trees, with the land
+on which they grew, went down heads foremost, diverting a river
+from its course, and where the forest-covered hillside had been
+there was a great scar, out of which a torrent burst at high
+pressure, which in half an hour carved for itself a deep ravine,
+and carried into the valley below an avalanche of stones and sand.
+Another hillside descended less abruptly, and its noble groves
+found themselves at the bottom in a perpendicular position, and
+will doubtless survive their transplantation.  Actually, before my
+eyes, this fine new road was torn away by hastily improvised
+torrents, or blocked by landslips in several places, and a little
+lower, in one moment, a hundred yards of it disappeared, and with
+them a fine bridge, which was deposited aslant across the torrent
+lower down.
+
+On the descent, when things began to look very bad, and the
+mountain-sides had become cascades bringing trees, logs, and rocks
+down with them, we were fortunate enough to meet with two pack-
+horses whose leaders were ignorant of the impassability of the road
+to Odate, and they and my coolies exchanged loads.  These were
+strong horses, and the mago were skilful and courageous.  They said
+if we hurried we could just get to the hamlet they had left, they
+thought; but while they spoke the road and the bridge below were
+carried away.  They insisted on lashing me to the pack-saddle.  The
+great stream, whose beauty I had formerly admired, was now a thing
+of dread, and had to be forded four times without fords.  It
+crashed and thundered, drowning the feeble sound of human voices,
+the torrents from the heavens hissed through the forest, trees and
+logs came crashing down the hillsides, a thousand cascades added to
+the din, and in the bewilderment produced by such an unusual
+concatenation of sights and sounds we stumbled through the river,
+the men up to their shoulders, the horses up to their backs.  Again
+and again we crossed.  The banks being carried away, it was very
+hard to get either into or out of the water; the horses had to
+scramble or jump up places as high as their shoulders, all slippery
+and crumbling, and twice the men cut steps for them with axes.  The
+rush of the torrent at the last crossing taxed the strength of both
+men and horses, and, as I was helpless from being tied on, I
+confess that I shut my eyes!  After getting through, we came upon
+the lands belonging to this village--rice-fields with the dykes
+burst, and all the beautiful ridge and furrow cultivation of the
+other crops carried away.  The waters were rising fast, the men
+said we must hurry; they unbound me, so that I might ride more
+comfortably, spoke to the horses, and went on at a run.  My horse,
+which had nearly worn out his shoes in the fords, stumbled at every
+step, the mago gave me a noose of rope to clutch, the rain fell in
+such torrents that I speculated on the chance of being washed off
+my saddle, when suddenly I saw a shower of sparks; I felt
+unutterable things; I was choked, bruised, stifled, and presently
+found myself being hauled out of a ditch by three men, and realised
+that the horse had tumbled down in going down a steepish hill, and
+that I had gone over his head.  To climb again on the soaked futon
+was the work of a moment, and, with men running and horses
+stumbling and splashing, we crossed the Hirakawa by one fine
+bridge, and half a mile farther re-crossed it on another, wishing
+as we did so that all Japanese bridges were as substantial, for
+they were both 100 feet long, and had central piers.
+
+We entered Ikarigaseki from the last bridge, a village of 800
+people, on a narrow ledge between an abrupt hill and the Hirakawa,
+a most forlorn and tumble-down place, given up to felling timber
+and making shingles; and timber in all its forms--logs, planks,
+faggots, and shingles--is heaped and stalked about.  It looks more
+like a lumberer's encampment than a permanent village, but it is
+beautifully situated, and unlike any of the innumerable villages
+that I have ever seen.
+
+The street is long and narrow, with streams in stone channels on
+either side; but these had overflowed, and men, women, and children
+were constructing square dams to keep the water, which had already
+reached the doma, from rising over the tatami.  Hardly any house
+has paper windows, and in the few which have, they are so black
+with smoke as to look worse than none.  The roofs are nearly flat,
+and are covered with shingles held on by laths and weighted with
+large stones.  Nearly all the houses look like temporary sheds, and
+most are as black inside as a Barra hut.  The walls of many are
+nothing but rough boards tied to the uprights by straw ropes.
+
+In the drowning torrent, sitting in puddles of water, and drenched
+to the skin hours before, we reached this very primitive yadoya,
+the lower part of which is occupied by the daidokoro, a party of
+storm-bound students, horses, fowls, and dogs.  My room is a
+wretched loft, reached by a ladder, with such a quagmire at its
+foot that I have to descend into it in Wellington boots.  It was
+dismally grotesque at first.  The torrent on the unceiled roof
+prevented Ito from hearing what I said, the bed was soaked, and the
+water, having got into my box, had dissolved the remains of the
+condensed milk, and had reduced clothes, books, and paper into a
+condition of universal stickiness.  My kimono was less wet than
+anything else, and, borrowing a sheet of oiled paper, I lay down in
+it, till roused up in half an hour by Ito shrieking above the din
+on the roof that the people thought that the bridge by which we had
+just entered would give way; and, running to the river bank, we
+joined a large crowd, far too intensely occupied by the coming
+disaster to take any notice of the first foreign lady they had ever
+seen.
+
+The Hirakawa, which an hour before was merely a clear, rapid
+mountain stream, about four feet deep, was then ten feet deep, they
+said, and tearing along, thick and muddy, and with a fearful roar,
+
+
+"And each wave was crested with tawny foam,
+Like the mane of a chestnut steed."
+
+
+Immense logs of hewn timber, trees, roots, branches, and faggots,
+were coming down in numbers.  The abutment on this side was much
+undermined, but, except that the central pier trembled whenever a
+log struck it, the bridge itself stood firm--so firm, indeed, that
+two men, anxious to save some property on the other side, crossed
+it after I arrived.  Then logs of planed timber of large size, and
+joints, and much wreckage, came down--fully forty fine timbers,
+thirty feet long, for the fine bridge above had given way.  Most of
+the harvest of logs cut on the Yadate Pass must have been lost, for
+over 300 were carried down in the short time in which I watched the
+river.  This is a very heavy loss to this village, which lives by
+the timber trade.  Efforts were made at a bank higher up to catch
+them as they drifted by, but they only saved about one in twenty.
+It was most exciting to see the grand way in which these timbers
+came down; and the moment in which they were to strike or not to
+strike the pier was one of intense suspense.  After an hour of this
+two superb logs, fully thirty feet long, came down close together,
+and, striking the central pier nearly simultaneously, it shuddered
+horribly, the great bridge parted in the middle, gave an awful
+groan like a living thing, plunged into the torrent, and re-
+appeared in the foam below only as disjointed timbers hurrying to
+the sea.  Not a vestige remained.  The bridge below was carried
+away in the morning, so, till the river becomes fordable, this
+little place is completely isolated.  On thirty miles of road, out
+of nineteen bridges only two remain, and the road itself is almost
+wholly carried away!
+
+
+
+LETTER XXVIII--(Continued)
+
+
+
+Scanty Resources--Japanese Children--Children's Games--A Sagacious
+Example--A Kite Competition--Personal Privations.
+
+IKARIGASEKI.
+
+I have well-nigh exhausted the resources of this place.  They are
+to go out three times a day to see how much the river has fallen;
+to talk with the house-master and Kocho; to watch the children's
+games and the making of shingles; to buy toys and sweetmeats and
+give them away; to apply zinc lotion to a number of sore eyes three
+times daily, under which treatment, during three days, there has
+been a wonderful amendment; to watch the cooking, spinning, and
+other domestic processes in the daidokoro; to see the horses, which
+are also actually in it, making meals of green leaves of trees
+instead of hay; to see the lepers, who are here for some waters
+which are supposed to arrest, if not to cure, their terrible
+malady; to lie on my stretcher and sew, and read the papers of the
+Asiatic Society, and to go over all possible routes to Aomori.  The
+people have become very friendly in consequence of the eye lotion,
+and bring many diseases for my inspection, most of which would
+never have arisen had cleanliness of clothing and person been
+attended to.  The absence of soap, the infrequency with which
+clothing is washed, and the absence of linen next the skin, cause
+various cutaneous diseases, which are aggravated by the bites and
+stings of insects.  Scald-head affects nearly half the children
+here.
+
+I am very fond of Japanese children.  I have never yet heard a baby
+cry, and I have never seen a child troublesome or disobedient.
+Filial piety is the leading virtue in Japan, and unquestioning
+obedience is the habit of centuries.  The arts and threats by which
+English mothers cajole or frighten children into unwilling
+obedience appear unknown.  I admire the way in which children are
+taught to be independent in their amusements.  Part of the home
+education is the learning of the rules of the different games,
+which are absolute, and when there is a doubt, instead of a
+quarrelsome suspension of the game, the fiat of a senior child
+decides the matter.  They play by themselves, and don't bother
+adults at every turn.  I usually carry sweeties with me, and give
+them to the children, but not one has ever received them without
+first obtaining permission from the father or mother.  When that is
+gained they smile and bow profoundly, and hand the sweeties to
+those present before eating any themselves.  They are gentle
+creatures, but too formal and precocious.
+
+They have no special dress.  This is so queer that I cannot repeat
+it too often.  At three they put on the kimono and girdle, which
+are as inconvenient to them as to their parents, and childish play
+in this garb is grotesque.  I have, however, never seen what we
+call child's play--that general abandonment to miscellaneous
+impulses, which consists in struggling, slapping, rolling, jumping,
+kicking, shouting, laughing, and quarrelling!  Two fine boys are
+very clever in harnessing paper carts to the backs of beetles with
+gummed traces, so that eight of them draw a load of rice up an
+inclined plane.  You can imagine what the fate of such a load and
+team would be at home among a number of snatching hands.  Here a
+number of infants watch the performance with motionless interest,
+and never need the adjuration, "Don't touch."  In most of the
+houses there are bamboo cages for "the shrill-voiced Katydid," and
+the children amuse themselves with feeding these vociferous
+grasshoppers.  The channels of swift water in the street turn a
+number of toy water-wheels, which set in motion most ingenious
+mechanical toys, of which a model of the automatic rice-husker is
+the commonest, and the boys spend much time in devising and
+watching these, which are really very fascinating.  It is the
+holidays, but "holiday tasks" are given, and in the evenings you
+hear the hum of lessons all along the street for about an hour.
+The school examination is at the re-opening of the school after the
+holidays, instead of at the end of the session--an arrangement
+which shows an honest desire to discern the permanent gain made by
+the scholars.
+
+This afternoon has been fine and windy, and the boys have been
+flying kites, made of tough paper on a bamboo frame, all of a
+rectangular shape, some of them five feet square, and nearly all
+decorated with huge faces of historical heroes.  Some of them have
+a humming arrangement made of whale-bone.  There was a very
+interesting contest between two great kites, and it brought out the
+whole population.  The string of each kite, for 30 feet or more
+below the frame, was covered with pounded glass, made to adhere
+very closely by means of tenacious glue, and for two hours the
+kite-fighters tried to get their kites into a proper position for
+sawing the adversary's string in two.  At last one was successful,
+and the severed kite became his property, upon which victor and
+vanquished exchanged three low bows.  Silently as the people
+watched and received the destruction of their bridge, so silently
+they watched this exciting contest.  The boys also flew their kites
+while walking on stilts--a most dexterous performance, in which few
+were able to take part--and then a larger number gave a stilt race.
+The most striking out-of-door games are played at fixed seasons of
+the year, and are not to be seen now.
+
+There are twelve children in this yadoya, and after dark they
+regularly play at a game which Ito says "is played in the winter in
+every house in Japan."  The children sit in a circle, and the
+adults look on eagerly, child-worship being more common in Japan
+than in America, and, to my thinking, the Japanese form is the
+best.
+
+From proverbial philosophy to personal privation is rather a
+descent, but owing to the many detentions on the journey my small
+stock of foreign food is exhausted, and I have been living here on
+rice, cucumbers, and salt salmon--so salt that, after being boiled
+in two waters, it produces a most distressing thirst.  Even this
+has failed to-day, as communication with the coast has been stopped
+for some time, and the village is suffering under the calamity of
+its stock of salt-fish being completely exhausted.  There are no
+eggs, and rice and cucumbers are very like the "light food" which
+the Israelites "loathed."  I had an omelette one day, but it was
+much like musty leather.  The Italian minister said to me in
+Tokiyo, "No question in Japan is so solemn as that of food," and
+many others echoed what I thought at the time a most unworthy
+sentiment.  I recognised its truth to-day when I opened my last
+resort, a box of Brand's meat lozenges, and found them a mass of
+mouldiness.  One can only dry clothes here by hanging them in the
+wood smoke, so I prefer to let them mildew on the walls, and have
+bought a straw rain-coat, which is more reliable than the paper
+waterproofs.  I hear the hum of the children at their lessons for
+the last time, for the waters are falling fast, and we shall leave
+in the morning.
+
+I. L. B.
+
+
+
+LETTER XXIX
+
+
+
+Hope deferred--Effects of the Flood--Activity of the Police--A
+Ramble in Disguise--The Tanabata Festival--Mr. Satow's Reputation.
+
+KUROISHI, August 5.
+
+After all the waters did not fall as was expected, and I had to
+spend a fourth day at Ikarigaseki.  We left early on Saturday, as
+we had to travel fifteen miles without halting.  The sun shone on
+all the beautiful country, and on all the wreck and devastation, as
+it often shines on the dimpling ocean the day after a storm.  We
+took four men, crossed two severe fords where bridges had been
+carried away, and where I and the baggage got very wet; saw great
+devastations and much loss of crops and felled timber; passed under
+a cliff, which for 200 feet was composed of fine columnar basalt in
+six-sided prisms, and quite suddenly emerged on a great plain, on
+which green billows of rice were rolling sunlit before a fresh
+north wind.  This plain is liberally sprinkled with wooded villages
+and surrounded by hills; one low range forming a curtain across the
+base of Iwakisan, a great snow-streaked dome, which rises to the
+west of the plain to a supposed height of 5000 feet.  The water had
+risen in most of the villages to a height of four feet, and had
+washed the lower part of the mud walls away.  The people were busy
+drying their tatami, futons, and clothing, reconstructing their
+dykes and small bridges, and fishing for the logs which were still
+coming down in large quantities.
+
+In one town two very shabby policemen rushed upon us, seized the
+bridle of my horse, and kept me waiting for a long time in the
+middle of a crowd, while they toilsomely bored through the
+passport, turning it up and down, and holding it up to the light,
+as though there were some nefarious mystery about it.  My horse
+stumbled so badly that I was obliged to walk to save myself from
+another fall, and, just as my powers were failing, we met a kuruma,
+which by good management, such as being carried occasionally,
+brought me into Kuroishi, a neat town of 5500 people, famous for
+the making of clogs and combs, where I have obtained a very neat,
+airy, upstairs room, with a good view over the surrounding country
+and of the doings of my neighbours in their back rooms and gardens.
+Instead of getting on to Aomori I am spending three days and two
+nights here, and, as the weather has improved and my room is
+remarkably cheerful, the rest has been very pleasant.  As I have
+said before, it is difficult to get any information about anything
+even a few miles off, and even at the Post Office they cannot give
+any intelligence as to the date of the sailings of the mail steamer
+between Aomori, twenty miles off, and Hakodate.
+
+The police were not satisfied with seeing my passport, but must
+also see me, and four of them paid me a polite but domiciliary
+visit the evening of my arrival.  That evening the sound of
+drumming was ceaseless, and soon after I was in bed Ito announced
+that there was something really worth seeing, so I went out in my
+kimono and without my hat, and in this disguise altogether escaped
+recognition as a foreigner.  Kuroishi is unlighted, and I was
+tumbling and stumbling along in overhaste when a strong arm cleared
+the way, and the house-master appeared with a very pretty lantern,
+hanging close to the ground from a cane held in the hand.  Thus
+came the phrase, "Thy word is a light unto my feet."
+
+We soon reached a point for seeing the festival procession advance
+towards us, and it was so beautiful and picturesque that it kept me
+out for an hour.  It passes through all the streets between 7 and
+10 p.m. each night during the first week in August, with an ark, or
+coffer, containing slips of paper, on which (as I understand)
+wishes are written, and each morning at seven this is carried to
+the river and the slips are cast upon the stream.  The procession
+consisted of three monster drums nearly the height of a man's body,
+covered with horsehide, and strapped to the drummers, end upwards,
+and thirty small drums, all beaten rub-a-dub-dub without ceasing.
+Each drum has the tomoye painted on its ends.  Then there were
+hundreds of paper lanterns carried on long poles of various lengths
+round a central lantern, 20 feet high, itself an oblong 6 feet
+long, with a front and wings, and all kinds of mythical and
+mystical creatures painted in bright colours upon it--a
+transparency rather than a lantern, in fact.  Surrounding it were
+hundreds of beautiful lanterns and transparencies of all sorts of
+fanciful shapes--fans, fishes, birds, kites, drums; the hundreds of
+people and children who followed all carried circular lanterns, and
+rows of lanterns with the tomoye on one side and two Chinese
+characters on the other hung from the eaves all along the line of
+the procession.  I never saw anything more completely like a fairy
+scene, the undulating waves of lanterns as they swayed along, the
+soft lights and soft tints moving aloft in the darkness, the
+lantern-bearers being in deep shadow.  This festival is called the
+tanabata, or seiseki festival, but I am unable to get any
+information about it.  Ito says that he knows what it means, but is
+unable to explain, and adds the phrase he always uses when in
+difficulties, "Mr. Satow would be able to tell you all about it."
+I. L. B.
+
+
+
+LETTER XXX
+
+
+
+A Lady's Toilet--Hair-dressing--Paint and Cosmetics--Afternoon
+Visitors--Christian Converts.
+
+KUROISHI, August 5.
+
+This is a pleasant place, and my room has many advantages besides
+light and cleanliness, as, for instance, that I overlook my
+neighbours and that I have seen a lady at her toilet preparing for
+a wedding!  A married girl knelt in front of a black lacquer
+toilet-box with a spray of cherry blossoms in gold sprawling over
+it, and lacquer uprights at the top, which supported a polished
+metal mirror.  Several drawers in the toilet-box were open, and
+toilet requisites in small lacquer boxes were lying on the floor.
+A female barber stood behind the lady, combing, dividing, and tying
+her hair, which, like that of all Japanese women, was glossy black,
+but neither fine nor long.  The coiffure is an erection, a complete
+work of art.  Two divisions, three inches apart, were made along
+the top of the head, and the lock of hair between these was combed,
+stiffened with a bandoline made from the Uvario Japonica, raised
+two inches from the forehead, turned back, tied, and pinned to the
+back hair.  The rest was combed from each side to the back, and
+then tied loosely with twine made of paper.  Several switches of
+false hair were then taken out of a long lacquer box, and, with the
+aid of a quantity of bandoline and a solid pad, the ordinary smooth
+chignon was produced, to which several loops and bows of hair were
+added, interwoven with a little dark-blue crepe, spangled with
+gold.  A single, thick, square-sided, tortoiseshell pin was stuck
+through the whole as an ornament.
+
+The fashions of dressing the hair are fixed.  They vary with the
+ages of female children, and there is a slight difference between
+the coiffure of the married and unmarried.  The two partings on the
+top of the head and the chignon never vary.  The amount of
+stiffening used is necessary, as the head is never covered out of
+doors.  This arrangement will last in good order for a week or
+more--thanks to the wooden pillow.
+
+The barber's work was only partially done when the hair was
+dressed, for every vestige of recalcitrant eyebrow was removed, and
+every downy hair which dared to display itself on the temples and
+neck was pulled out with tweezers.  This removal of all short hair
+has a tendency to make even the natural hair look like a wig.  Then
+the lady herself took a box of white powder, and laid it on her
+face, ears, and neck, till her skin looked like a mask.  With a
+camel's-hair brush she then applied some mixture to her eyelids to
+make the bright eyes look brighter, the teeth were blackened, or
+rather reblackened, with a feather brush dipped in a solution of
+gall-nuts and iron-filings--a tiresome and disgusting process,
+several times repeated, and then a patch of red was placed upon the
+lower lip.  I cannot say that the effect was pleasing, but the girl
+thought so, for she turned her head so as to see the general effect
+in the mirror, smiled, and was satisfied.  The remainder of her
+toilet, which altogether took over three hours, was performed in
+private, and when she reappeared she looked as if a very unmeaning-
+looking wooden doll had been dressed up with the exquisite good
+taste, harmony, and quietness which characterise the dress of
+Japanese women.
+
+A most rigid social etiquette draws an impassable line of
+demarcation between the costume of the virtuous woman in every rank
+and that of her frail sister.  The humiliating truth that many of
+our female fashions are originated by those whose position we the
+most regret, and are then carefully copied by all classes of women
+in our country, does not obtain credence among Japanese women, to
+whom even the slightest approximation in the style of hair-
+dressing, ornament, or fashion of garments would be a shame.
+
+I was surprised to hear that three "Christian students" from
+Hirosaki wished to see me--three remarkably intelligent-looking,
+handsomely-dressed young men, who all spoke a little English.  One
+of them had the brightest and most intellectual face which I have
+seen in Japan.  They are of the samurai class, as I should have
+known from the superior type of face and manner.  They said that
+they heard that an English lady was in the house, and asked me if I
+were a Christian, but apparently were not satisfied till, in answer
+to the question if I had a Bible, I was able to produce one.
+
+Hirosaki is a castle town of some importance, 3.5 ri from here, and
+its ex-daimiyo supports a high-class school or college there, which
+has had two Americans successively for its headmasters.  These
+gentlemen must have been very consistent in Christian living as
+well as energetic in Christian teaching, for under their auspices
+thirty young men have embraced Christianity.  As all of these are
+well educated, and several are nearly ready to pass as teachers
+into Government employment, their acceptance of the "new way" may
+have an important bearing on the future of this region.
+
+I. L. B.
+
+
+
+LETTER XXXI
+
+
+
+A Travelling Curiosity--Rude Dwellings--Primitive Simplicity--The
+Public Bath-house.
+
+KUROISHI.
+
+Yesterday was beautiful, and, dispensing for the first time with
+Ito's attendance, I took a kuruma for the day, and had a very
+pleasant excursion into a cul de sac in the mountains.  The one
+drawback was the infamous road, which compelled me either to walk
+or be mercilessly jolted.  The runner was a nice, kind, merry
+creature, quite delighted, Ito said, to have a chance of carrying
+so great a sight as a foreigner into a district in which no
+foreigner has even been seen.  In the absolute security of Japanese
+travelling, which I have fully realised for a long time, I look
+back upon my fears at Kasukabe with a feeling of self-contempt.
+
+The scenery, which was extremely pretty, gained everything from
+sunlight and colour--wonderful shades of cobalt and indigo, green
+blues and blue greens, and flashes of white foam in unsuspected
+rifts.  It looked a simple, home-like region, a very pleasant land.
+
+We passed through several villages of farmers who live in very
+primitive habitations, built of mud, looking as if the mud had been
+dabbed upon the framework with the hands.  The walls sloped
+slightly inwards, the thatch was rude, the eaves were deep and
+covered all manner of lumber; there was a smoke-hole in a few, but
+the majority smoked all over like brick-kilns; they had no windows,
+and the walls and rafters were black and shiny.  Fowls and horses
+live on one side of the dark interior, and the people on the other.
+The houses were alive with unclothed children, and as I repassed in
+the evening unclothed men and women, nude to their waists, were
+sitting outside their dwellings with the small fry, clothed only in
+amulets, about them, several big yellow dogs forming part of each
+family group, and the faces of dogs, children, and people were all
+placidly contented!  These farmers owned many good horses, and
+their crops were splendid.  Probably on matsuri days all appear in
+fine clothes taken from ample hoards.  They cannot be so poor, as
+far as the necessaries of life are concerned; they are only very
+"far back."  They know nothing better, and are contented; but their
+houses are as bad as any that I have ever seen, and the simplicity
+of Eden is combined with an amount of dirt which makes me sceptical
+as to the performance of even weekly ablutions.
+
+Upper Nakano is very beautiful, and in the autumn, when its myriads
+of star-leaved maples are scarlet and crimson, against a dark
+background of cryptomeria, among which a great white waterfall
+gleams like a snow-drift before it leaps into the black pool below,
+it must be well worth a long journey.  I have not seen anything
+which has pleased me more.  There is a fine flight of moss-grown
+stone steps down to the water, a pretty bridge, two superb stone
+torii, some handsome stone lanterns, and then a grand flight of
+steep stone steps up a hill-side dark with cryptomeria leads to a
+small Shinto shrine.  Not far off there is a sacred tree, with the
+token of love and revenge upon it.  The whole place is entrancing.
+
+Lower Nakano, which I could only reach on foot, is only interesting
+as possessing some very hot springs, which are valuable in cases of
+rheumatism and sore eyes.  It consists mainly of tea-houses and
+yadoyas, and seemed rather gay.  It is built round the edge of an
+oblong depression, at the bottom of which the bath-houses stand, of
+which there are four, only nominally separated, and with but two
+entrances, which open directly upon the bathers.  In the two end
+houses women and children were bathing in large tanks, and in the
+centre ones women and men were bathing together, but at opposite
+sides, with wooden ledges to sit upon all round.  I followed the
+kuruma-runner blindly to the baths, and when once in I had to go
+out at the other side, being pressed upon by people from behind;
+but the bathers were too polite to take any notice of my most
+unwilling intrusion, and the kuruma-runner took me in without the
+slightest sense of impropriety in so doing.  I noticed that formal
+politeness prevailed in the bath-house as elsewhere, and that
+dippers and towels were handed from one to another with profound
+bows.  The public bath-house is said to be the place in which
+public opinion is formed, as it is with us in clubs and public-
+houses, and that the presence of women prevents any dangerous or
+seditious consequences; but the Government is doing its best to
+prevent promiscuous bathing; and, though the reform may travel
+slowly into these remote regions, it will doubtless arrive sooner
+or later.  The public bath-house is one of the features of Japan.
+
+I. L. B.
+
+
+
+LETTER XXXII
+
+
+
+A Hard Day's Journey--An Overturn--Nearing the Ocean--Joyful
+Excitement--Universal Greyness--Inopportune Policemen--A Stormy
+Voyage--A Wild Welcome--A Windy Landing--The Journey's End.
+
+HAKODATE, YEZO, August, 1878.
+
+The journey from Kuroishi to Aomori, though only 22.5 miles, was a
+tremendous one, owing to the state of the roads; for more rain had
+fallen, and the passage of hundreds of pack-horses heavily loaded
+with salt-fish had turned the tracks into quagmires.  At the end of
+the first stage the Transport Office declined to furnish a kuruma,
+owing to the state of the roads; but, as I was not well enough to
+ride farther, I bribed two men for a very moderate sum to take me
+to the coast; and by accommodating each other we got on tolerably,
+though I had to walk up all the hills and down many, to get out at
+every place where a little bridge had been carried away, that the
+kuruma might be lifted over the gap, and often to walk for 200
+yards at a time, because it sank up to its axles in the quagmire.
+In spite of all precautions I was upset into a muddy ditch, with
+the kuruma on the top of me; but, as my air-pillow fortunately fell
+between the wheel and me, I escaped with nothing worse than having
+my clothes soaked with water and mud, which, as I had to keep them
+on all night, might have given me cold, but did not.  We met
+strings of pack-horses the whole way, carrying salt-fish, which is
+taken throughout the interior.
+
+The mountain-ridge, which runs throughout the Main Island, becomes
+depressed in the province of Nambu, but rises again into grand,
+abrupt hills at Aomori Bay.  Between Kuroishi and Aomori, however,
+it is broken up into low ranges, scantily wooded, mainly with pine,
+scrub oak, and the dwarf bamboo.  The Sesamum ignosco, of which the
+incense-sticks are made, covers some hills to the exclusion of all
+else.  Rice grows in the valleys, but there is not much
+cultivation, and the country looks rough, cold, and hyperborean.
+
+The farming hamlets grew worse and worse, with houses made roughly
+of mud, with holes scratched in the side for light to get in, or
+for smoke to get out, and the walls of some were only great pieces
+of bark and bundles of straw tied to the posts with straw ropes.
+The roofs were untidy, but this was often concealed by the profuse
+growth of the water-melons which trailed over them.  The people
+were very dirty, but there was no appearance of special poverty,
+and a good deal of money must be made on the horses and mago
+required for the transit of fish from Yezo, and for rice to it.
+
+At Namioka occurred the last of the very numerous ridges we have
+crossed since leaving Nikko at a point called Tsugarusaka, and from
+it looked over a rugged country upon a dark-grey sea, nearly
+landlocked by pine-clothed hills, of a rich purple indigo colour.
+The clouds were drifting, the colour was intensifying, the air was
+fresh and cold, the surrounding soil was peaty, the odours of pines
+were balsamic, it looked, felt, and smelt like home; the grey sea
+was Aomori Bay, beyond was the Tsugaru Strait,--my long land-
+journey was done.  A traveller said a steamer was sailing for Yezo
+at night, so, in a state of joyful excitement, I engaged four men,
+and by dragging, pushing, and lifting, they got me into Aomori, a
+town of grey houses, grey roofs, and grey stones on roofs, built on
+a beach of grey sand, round a grey bay--a miserable-looking place,
+though the capital of the ken.
+
+It has a great export trade in cattle and rice to Yezo, besides
+being the outlet of an immense annual emigration from northern
+Japan to the Yezo fishery, and imports from Hakodate large
+quantities of fish, skins, and foreign merchandise.  It has some
+trade in a pretty but not valuable "seaweed," or variegated
+lacquer, called Aomori lacquer, but not actually made there, its
+own speciality being a sweetmeat made of beans and sugar.  It has a
+deep and well-protected harbour, but no piers or conveniences for
+trade.  It has barracks and the usual Government buildings, but
+there was no time to learn anything about it,--only a short half-
+hour for getting my ticket at the Mitsu Bishi office, where they
+demanded and copied my passport; for snatching a morsel of fish at
+a restaurant where "foreign food" was represented by a very dirty
+table-cloth; and for running down to the grey beach, where I was
+carried into a large sampan crowded with Japanese steerage
+passengers.
+
+The wind was rising, a considerable surf was running, the spray was
+flying over the boat, the steamer had her steam up, and was ringing
+and whistling impatiently, there was a scud of rain, and I was
+standing trying to keep my paper waterproof from being blown off,
+when three inopportune policemen jumped into the boat and demanded
+my passport.  For a moment I wished them and the passport under the
+waves!  The steamer is a little old paddle-boat of about 70 tons,
+with no accommodation but a single cabin on deck.  She was as clean
+and trim as a yacht, and, like a yacht, totally unfit for bad
+weather.  Her captain, engineers, and crew were all Japanese, and
+not a word of English was spoken.  My clothes were very wet, and
+the night was colder than the day had been, but the captain kindly
+covered me up with several blankets on the floor, so I did not
+suffer.  We sailed early in the evening, with a brisk northerly
+breeze, which chopped round to the south-east, and by eleven blew a
+gale; the sea ran high, the steamer laboured and shipped several
+heavy seas, much water entered the cabin, the captain came below
+every half-hour, tapped the barometer, sipped some tea, offered me
+a lump of sugar, and made a face and gesture indicative of bad
+weather, and we were buffeted about mercilessly till 4 a.m., when
+heavy rain came on, and the gale fell temporarily with it.  The
+boat is not fit for a night passage, and always lies in port when
+bad weather is expected; and as this was said to be the severest
+gale which has swept the Tsugaru Strait since January, the captain
+was uneasy about her, but being so, showed as much calmness as if
+he had been a Briton!
+
+The gale rose again after sunrise, and when, after doing sixty
+miles in fourteen hours, we reached the heads of Hakodate Harbour,
+it was blowing and pouring like a bad day in Argyllshire, the spin-
+drift was driving over the bay, the Yezo mountains loomed darkly
+and loftily through rain and mist, and wind and thunder, and
+"noises of the northern sea," gave me a wild welcome to these
+northern shores.  A rocky head like Gibraltar, a cold-blooded-
+looking grey town, straggling up a steep hillside, a few coniferae,
+a great many grey junks, a few steamers and vessels of foreign rig
+at anchor, a number of sampans riding the rough water easily, seen
+in flashes between gusts of rain and spin-drift, were all I saw,
+but somehow it all pleased me from its breezy, northern look.
+
+The steamer was not expected in the gale, so no one met me, and I
+went ashore with fifty Japanese clustered on the top of a decked
+sampan in such a storm of wind and rain that it took us 1.5 hours
+to go half a mile; then I waited shelterless on the windy beach
+till the Customs' Officers were roused from their late slumbers,
+and then battled with the storm for a mile up a steep hill.  I was
+expected at the hospitable Consulate, but did not know it, and came
+here to the Church Mission House, to which Mr. and Mrs. Dening
+kindly invited me when I met them in Tokiyo.  I was unfit to enter
+a civilised dwelling; my clothes, besides being soaked, were coated
+and splashed with mud up to the top of my hat; my gloves and boots
+were finished, my mud-splashed baggage was soaked with salt water;
+but I feel a somewhat legitimate triumph at having conquered all
+obstacles, and having accomplished more than I intended to
+accomplish when I left Yedo.
+
+How musical the clamour of the northern ocean is!  How inspiriting
+the shrieking and howling of the boisterous wind!  Even the fierce
+pelting of the rain is home-like, and the cold in which one shivers
+is stimulating!  You cannot imagine the delight of being in a room
+with a door that will lock, to be in a bed instead of on a
+stretcher, of finding twenty-three letters containing good news,
+and of being able to read them in warmth and quietness under the
+roof of an English home!
+
+I. L. B.
+
+
+
+ITINERARY OF ROUTE FROM NIIGATA TO AOMORI
+
+
+
+                 No. of Houses.  Ri.     Cho.
+
+Kisaki                 56          4
+Tsuiji                209          6
+Kurokawa              215          2      12
+Hanadati               2O          2
+Kawaguchi              27          3
+Numa                   24          1      18
+Tamagawa               40          3
+Okuni                 210          2      11
+Kurosawa               17          1      18
+Ichinono               2O          1      18
+Shirokasawa            42          1      21
+Tenoko                120          3      11
+Komatsu               513          2      13
+Akayu                 350          4
+Kaminoyama            650          5
+Yamagata           21,O00 souls    3      19
+Tendo               1,040          3       8
+Tateoka               307          3      21
+Tochiida              217          1      33
+Obanasawa             506          1      21
+Ashizawa               70          1      21
+Shinjo              1,060          4       6
+Kanayama              165          3      27
+Nosoki                 37          3       9
+Innai                 257          3      12
+Yusawa              1,506          3      35
+Yokote              2,070          4      27
+Rokugo              1,062          6
+Shingoji              209          1      28
+Kubota             36,587 souls   16
+Minato              2,108          1      28
+Carry forward                    107      21
+
+                  No. of Houses   Ri.   Cho.
+Brought forward       107                 21
+Abukawa               163          3      33
+Ichi Nichi Ichi       306          1      34
+Kado                  151          2       9
+Hinikoyama            396          2       9
+Tsugurata             186          1      14
+Tubine                153          1      18
+Kiriishi               31          1      14
+Kotsunagi              47          1      16
+Tsuguriko             136          3       5
+Odate               1,673          4      23
+Shirasawa              71          2      19
+Ikarigaseki           175          4      18
+Kuroishi            1,176          6      19
+Daishaka               43          4
+Shinjo                 51          2      21
+Aomori                  1                 24
+                        Ri       153       9
+About 368 miles.
+
+This is considerably under the actual distance, as on several of
+the mountain routes the ri is 56 cho, but in the lack of accurate
+information the ri has been taken at its ordinary standard of 36
+cho throughout.
+
+
+
+LETTER XXXIII
+
+
+
+Form and Colour--A Windy Capital--Eccentricities in House Roofs.
+
+HAKODATE, YEZO, August 13, 1878
+
+After a tremendous bluster for two days the weather has become
+beautifully fine, and I find the climate here more invigorating
+than that of the main island.  It is Japan, but yet there is a
+difference somehow.  When the mists lift they reveal not mountains
+smothered in greenery, but naked peaks, volcanoes only recently
+burnt out, with the red ash flaming under the noonday sun, and
+passing through shades of pink into violet at sundown.  Strips of
+sand border the bay, ranges of hills, with here and there a patch
+of pine or scrub, fade into the far-off blue, and the great cloud
+shadows lie upon their scored sides in indigo and purple.  Blue as
+the Adriatic are the waters of the land-locked bay, and the snowy
+sails of pale junks look whiter than snow against its intense
+azure.  The abruptness of the double peaks behind the town is
+softened by a belt of cryptomeria, the sandy strip which connects
+the headland with the mainland heightens the general resemblance of
+the contour of the ground to Gibraltar; but while one dreams of the
+western world a kuruma passes one at a trot, temple drums are
+beaten in a manner which does not recall "the roll of the British
+drum," a Buddhist funeral passes down the street, or a man-cart
+pulled and pushed by four yellow-skinned, little-clothed mannikins,
+creaks by, with the monotonous grunt of Ha huida.
+
+A single look at Hakodate itself makes one feel that it is Japan
+all over.  The streets are very wide and clean, but the houses are
+mean and low.  The city looks as if it had just recovered from a
+conflagration.  The houses are nothing but tinder.  The grand tile
+roofs of some other cities are not to be seen.  There is not an
+element of permanence in the wide, and windy streets.  It is an
+increasing and busy place; it lies for two miles along the shore,
+and has climbed the hill till it can go no higher; but still houses
+and people look poor.  It has a skeleton aspect too, which is
+partially due to the number of permanent "clothes-horses" on the
+roofs.  Stones, however, are its prominent feature.  Looking down
+upon it from above you see miles of grey boulders, and realise that
+every roof in the windy capital is "hodden doun" by a weight of
+paving stones.  Nor is this all.  Some of the flatter roofs are
+pebbled all over like a courtyard, and others, such as the roof of
+this house, for instance, are covered with sod and crops of grass,
+the two latter arrangements being precautions against risks from
+sparks during fires.  These paving stones are certainly the
+cheapest possible mode of keeping the roofs on the houses in such a
+windy region, but they look odd.
+
+None of the streets, except one high up the hill, with a row of
+fine temples and temple grounds, call for any notice.  Nearly every
+house is a shop; most of the shops supply only the ordinary
+articles consumed by a large and poor population; either real or
+imitated foreign goods abound in Main Street, and the only
+novelties are the furs, skins, and horns, which abound in shops
+devoted to their sale.  I covet the great bear furs and the deep
+cream-coloured furs of Aino dogs, which are cheap as well as
+handsome.  There are many second-hand, or, as they are called,
+"curio" shops, and the cheap lacquer from Aomori is also tempting
+to a stranger.
+
+I. L. B.
+
+
+
+LETTER XXXIV
+
+
+
+Ito's Delinquency--"Missionary Manners"--A Predicted Failure.
+
+HAKODATE, YEZO.
+
+I am enjoying Hakodate so much that, though my tour is all planned
+and my arrangements are made, I linger on from day to day.  There
+has been an unpleasant eclaircissement about Ito.  You will
+remember that I engaged him without a character, and that he told
+both Lady Parkes and me that after I had done so his former master,
+Mr. Maries, asked him to go back to him, to which he had replied
+that he had "a contract with a lady."  Mr. Maries is here, and I
+now find that he had a contract with Ito, by which Ito bound
+himself to serve him as long as he required him, for $7 a month,
+but that, hearing that I offered $12, he ran away from him and
+entered my service with a lie!  Mr. Maries has been put to the
+greatest inconvenience by his defection, and has been hindered
+greatly in completing his botanical collection, for Ito is very
+clever, and he had not only trained him to dry plants successfully,
+but he could trust him to go away for two or three days and collect
+seeds.  I am very sorry about it.  He says that Ito was a bad boy
+when he came to him, but he thinks that he cured him of some of his
+faults, and that he has served me faithfully.  I have seen Mr.
+Maries at the Consul's, and have arranged that, after my Yezo tour
+is over, Ito shall be returned to his rightful master, who will
+take him to China and Formosa for a year and a half, and who, I
+think, will look after his well-being in every way.  Dr. and Mrs.
+Hepburn, who are here, heard a bad account of the boy after I began
+my travels and were uneasy about me, but, except for this original
+lie, I have no fault to find with him, and his Shinto creed has not
+taught him any better.  When I paid him his wages this morning he
+asked me if I had any fault to find, and I told him of my objection
+to his manners, which he took in very good part and promised to
+amend them; "but," he added, "mine are just missionary manners!"
+
+Yesterday I dined at the Consulate, to meet Count Diesbach, of the
+French Legation, Mr. Von Siebold, of the Austrian Legation, and
+Lieutenant Kreitner, of the Austrian army, who start to-morrow on
+an exploring expedition in the interior, intending to cross the
+sources of the rivers which fall into the sea on the southern coast
+and measure the heights of some of the mountains.  They are "well
+found" in food and claret, but take such a number of pack-ponies
+with them that I predict that they will fail, and that I, who have
+reduced my luggage to 45 lbs., will succeed!
+
+I hope to start on my long-projected tour to-morrow; I have planned
+it for myself with the confidence of an experienced traveller, and
+look forward to it with great pleasure, as a visit to the
+aborigines is sure to be full of novel and interesting experiences.
+Good-bye for a long time.  I. L. B.
+
+
+
+LETTER XXXV {17}
+
+
+
+A Lovely Sunset--An Official Letter--A "Front Horse"--Japanese
+Courtesy--The Steam Ferry--Coolies Abscond--A Team of Savages--A
+Drove of Horses--Floral Beauties--An Unbeaten Track--A Ghostly
+Dwelling--Solitude and Eeriness.
+
+GINSAINOMA, YEZO, August 17.
+
+I am once again in the wilds!  I am sitting outside an upper room
+built out almost over a lonely lake, with wooded points purpling
+and still shadows deepening in the sinking sun.  A number of men
+are dragging down the nearest hillside the carcass of a bear which
+they have just despatched with spears.  There is no village, and
+the busy clatter of the cicada and the rustle of the forest are the
+only sounds which float on the still evening air.  The sunset
+colours are pink and green; on the tinted water lie the waxen cups
+of great water-lilies, and above the wooded heights the pointed,
+craggy, and altogether naked summit of the volcano of Komono-taki
+flushes red in the sunset.  Not the least of the charms of the
+evening is that I am absolutely alone, having ridden the eighteen
+miles from Hakodate without Ito or an attendant of any kind; have
+unsaddled my own horse, and by means of much politeness and a
+dexterous use of Japanese substantives have secured a good room and
+supper of rice, eggs, and black beans for myself and a mash of
+beans for my horse, which, as it belongs to the Kaitakushi, and has
+the dignity of iron shoes, is entitled to special consideration!
+
+I am not yet off the "beaten track," but my spirits are rising with
+the fine weather, the drier atmosphere, and the freedom of Yezo.
+Yezo is to the main island of Japan what Tipperary is to an
+Englishman, Barra to a Scotchman, "away down in Texas" to a New
+Yorker--in the rough, little known, and thinly-peopled; and people
+can locate all sorts of improbable stories here without much fear
+of being found out, of which the Ainos and the misdeeds of the
+ponies furnish the staple, and the queer doings of men and dogs,
+and adventures with bears, wolves, and salmon, the embroidery.
+Nobody comes here without meeting with something queer, and one or
+two tumbles either with or from his horse.  Very little is known of
+the interior except that it is covered with forest matted together
+by lianas, and with an undergrowth of scrub bamboo impenetrable
+except to the axe, varied by swamps equally impassable, which give
+rise to hundreds of rivers well stocked with fish.  The glare of
+volcanoes is seen in different parts of the island.  The forests
+are the hunting-grounds of the Ainos, who are complete savages in
+everything but their disposition, which is said to be so gentle and
+harmless that I may go among them with perfect safety.
+
+Kindly interest has been excited by the first foray made by a lady
+into the country of the aborigines; and Mr. Eusden, the Consul, has
+worked upon the powers that be with such good effect that the
+Governor has granted me a shomon, a sort of official letter or
+certificate, giving me a right to obtain horses and coolies
+everywhere at the Government rate of 6 sen a ri, with a prior claim
+to accommodation at the houses kept up for officials on their
+circuits, and to help and assistance from officials generally; and
+the Governor has further telegraphed to the other side of Volcano
+Bay desiring the authorities to give me the use of the Government
+kuruma as long as I need it, and to detain the steamer to suit my
+convenience!  With this document, which enables me to dispense with
+my passport, I shall find travelling very easy, and I am very
+grateful to the Consul for procuring it for me.
+
+Here, where rice and tea have to be imported, there is a uniform
+charge at the yadoyas of 30 sen a day, which includes three meals,
+whether you eat them or not.  Horses are abundant, but are small,
+and are not up to heavy weights.  They are entirely unshod, and,
+though their hoofs are very shallow and grow into turned-up points
+and other singular shapes, they go over rough ground with facility
+at a scrambling run of over four miles an hour following a leader
+called a "front horse."  If you don't get a "front horse" and try
+to ride in front, you find that your horse will not stir till he
+has another before him; and then you are perfectly helpless, as he
+follows the movements of his leader without any reference to your
+wishes.  There are no mago; a man rides the "front horse" and goes
+at whatever pace you please, or, if you get a "front horse," you
+may go without any one.  Horses are cheap and abundant.  They drive
+a number of them down from the hills every morning into corrals in
+the villages, and keep them there till they are wanted.  Because
+they are so cheap they are very badly used.  I have not seen one
+yet without a sore back, produced by the harsh pack-saddle rubbing
+up and down the spine, as the loaded animals are driven at a run.
+They are mostly very poor-looking.
+
+As there was some difficulty about getting a horse for me the
+Consul sent one of the Kaitakushi saddle-horses, a handsome, lazy
+animal, which I rarely succeeded in stimulating into a heavy
+gallop.  Leaving Ito to follow with the baggage, I enjoyed my
+solitary ride and the possibility of choosing my own pace very
+much, though the choice was only between a slow walk and the
+lumbering gallop aforesaid.
+
+I met strings of horses loaded with deer hides, and overtook other
+strings loaded with sake and manufactured goods and in each case
+had a fight with my sociably inclined animal.  In two villages I
+was interested to see that the small shops contained lucifer
+matches, cotton umbrellas, boots, brushes, clocks, slates, and
+pencils, engravings in frames, kerosene lamps, {18} and red and
+green blankets, all but the last, which are unmistakable British
+"shoddy," being Japanese imitations of foreign manufactured goods,
+more or less cleverly executed.  The road goes up hill for fifteen
+miles, and, after passing Nanai, a trim Europeanised village in the
+midst of fine crops, one of the places at which the Government is
+making acclimatisation and other agricultural experiments, it
+fairly enters the mountains, and from the top of a steep hill there
+is a glorious view of Hakodate Head, looking like an island in the
+deep blue sea, and from the top of a higher hill, looking
+northward, a magnificent view of the volcano with its bare, pink
+summit rising above three lovely lakes densely wooded.  These are
+the flushed scaurs and outbreaks of bare rock for which I sighed
+amidst the smothering greenery of the main island, and the silver
+gleam of the lakes takes away the blindness from the face of
+nature.  It was delicious to descend to the water's edge in the
+dewy silence amidst balsamic odours, to find not a clattering grey
+village with its monotony, but a single, irregularly-built house,
+with lovely surroundings.
+
+It is a most displeasing road for most of the way; sides with deep
+corrugations, and in the middle a high causeway of earth, whose
+height is being added to by hundreds of creels of earth brought on
+ponies' backs.  It is supposed that carriages and waggons will use
+this causeway, but a shying horse or a bad driver would overturn
+them.  As it is at present the road is only passable for pack-
+horses, owing to the number of broken bridges.  I passed strings of
+horses laden with sake going into the interior.  The people of Yezo
+drink freely, and the poor Ainos outrageously.  On the road I
+dismounted to rest myself by walking up hill, and, the saddle being
+loosely girthed, the gear behind it dragged it round and under the
+body of the horse, and it was too heavy for me to lift on his back
+again.  When I had led him for some time two Japanese with a string
+of pack-horses loaded with deer-hides met me, and not only put the
+saddle on again, but held the stirrup while I remounted, and bowed
+politely when I went away.  Who could help liking such a courteous
+and kindly people?
+
+MORI, VOLCANO BAY, Monday.
+
+Even Ginsainoma was not Paradise after dark, and I was actually
+driven to bed early by the number of mosquitoes.  Ito is in an
+excellent humour on this tour.  Like me, he likes the freedom of
+the Hokkaido.  He is much more polite and agreeable also, and very
+proud of the Governor's shomon, with which he swaggers into hotels
+and Transport Offices.  I never get on so well as when he arranges
+for me.  Saturday was grey and lifeless, and the ride of seven
+miles here along a sandy road through monotonous forest and swamp,
+with the volcano on one side and low wooded hills on the other, was
+wearisome and fatiguing.  I saw five large snakes all in a heap,
+and a number more twisting through the grass.  There are no
+villages, but several very poor tea-houses, and on the other side
+of the road long sheds with troughs hollowed like canoes out of the
+trunks of trees, containing horse food.  Here nobody walks, and the
+men ride at a quick run, sitting on the tops of their pack-saddles
+with their legs crossed above their horses' necks, and wearing
+large hats like coal-scuttle bonnets.  The horses are infested with
+ticks, hundreds upon one animal sometimes, and occasionally they
+become so mad from the irritation that they throw themselves
+suddenly on the ground, and roll over load and rider.  I saw this
+done twice.  The ticks often transfer themselves to the riders.
+
+Mori is a large, ramshackle village, near the southern point of
+Volcano Bay--a wild, dreary-looking place on a sandy shore, with a
+number of joroyas and disreputable characters.  Several of the
+yadoyas are not respectable, but I rather like this one, and it has
+a very fine view of the volcano, which forms one point of the bay.
+Mori has no anchorage, though it has an unfinished pier 345 feet
+long.  The steam ferry across the mouth of the bay is here, and
+there is a very difficult bridle-track running for nearly 100 miles
+round the bay besides, and a road into the interior.  But it is a
+forlorn, decayed place.  Last night the inn was very noisy, as some
+travellers in the next room to mine hired geishas, who played,
+sang, and danced till two in the morning, and the whole party
+imbibed sake freely.  In this comparatively northern latitude the
+summer is already waning.  The seeds of the blossoms which were in
+their glory when I arrived are ripe, and here and there a tinge of
+yellow on a hillside, or a scarlet spray of maple, heralds the
+glories and the coolness of autumn.
+
+YUBETS.  YEZO.
+
+A loud yell of "steamer," coupled with the information that "she
+could not wait one minute," broke in upon go and everything else,
+and in a broiling sun we hurried down to the pier, and with a heap
+of Japanese, who filled two scows, were put on board a steamer not
+bigger than a large decked steam launch, where the natives were all
+packed into a covered hole, and I was conducted with much ceremony
+to the forecastle, a place at the bow 5 feet square, full of coils
+of rope, shut in, and left to solitude and dignity, and the stare
+of eight eyes, which perseveringly glowered through the windows!
+The steamer had been kept waiting for me on the other side for two
+days, to the infinite disgust of two foreigners, who wished to
+return to Hakodate, and to mine.
+
+It was a splendid day, with foam crests on the wonderfully blue
+water, and the red ashes of the volcano, which forms the south
+point of the bay, glowed in the sunlight.  This wretched steamer,
+whose boilers are so often "sick" that she can never be relied
+upon, is the only means of reaching the new capital without taking
+a most difficult and circuitous route.  To continue the pier and
+put a capable good steamer on the ferry would be a useful
+expenditure of money.  The breeze was strong and in our favour, but
+even with this it took us six weary hours to steam twenty-five
+miles, and it was eight at night before we reached the beautiful
+and almost land-locked bay of Mororan, with steep, wooded sides,
+and deep water close to the shore, deep enough for the foreign
+ships of war which occasionally anchor there, much to the detriment
+of the town.  We got off in over-crowded sampans, and several
+people fell into the water, much to their own amusement.  The
+servants from the different yadoyas go down to the jetty to "tout"
+for guests with large paper lanterns, and the effect of these, one
+above another, waving and undulating, with their soft coloured
+light, was as bewitching as the reflection of the stars in the
+motionless water.  Mororan is a small town very picturesquely
+situated on the steep shore of a most lovely bay, with another
+height, richly wooded, above it, with shrines approached by flights
+of stone stairs, and behind this hill there is the first Aino
+village along this coast.
+
+The long, irregular street is slightly picturesque, but I was
+impressed both with the unusual sight of loafers and with the
+dissolute look of the place, arising from the number of joroyas,
+and from the number of yadoyas that are also haunts of the vicious.
+I could only get a very small room in a very poor and dirty inn,
+but there were no mosquitoes, and I got a good meal of fish.  On
+sending to order horses I found that everything was arranged for my
+journey.  The Governor sent his card early, to know if there were
+anything I should like to see or do, but, as the morning was grey
+and threatening, I wished to push on, and at 9.30 I was in the
+kuruma at the inn door.  I call it the kuruma because it is the
+only one, and is kept by the Government for the conveyance of
+hospital patients.  I sat there uncomfortably and patiently for
+half an hour, my only amusement being the flirtations of Ito with a
+very pretty girl.  Loiterers assembled, but no one came to draw the
+vehicle, and by degrees the dismal truth leaked out that the three
+coolies who had been impressed for the occasion had all absconded,
+and that four policemen were in search of them.  I walked on in a
+dawdling way up the steep hill which leads from the town, met Mr.
+Akboshi, a pleasant young Japanese surveyor, who spoke English and
+stigmatised Mororan as "the worst place in Yezo;" and, after fuming
+for two hours at the waste of time, was overtaken by Ito with the
+horses, in a boiling rage.  "They're the worst and wickedest
+coolies in all Japan," he stammered; "two more ran away, and now
+three are coming, and have got paid for four, and the first three
+who ran away got paid, and the Express man's so ashamed for a
+foreigner, and the Governor's in a furious rage."
+
+Except for the loss of time it made no difference to me, but when
+the kuruma did come up the runners were three such ruffianly-
+looking men, and were dressed so wildly in bark cloth, that, in
+sending Ito on twelve miles to secure relays, I sent my money along
+with him.  These men, though there were three instead of two, never
+went out of a walk, and, as if on purpose, took the vehicle over
+every stone and into every rut, and kept up a savage chorus of
+"haes-ha, haes-hora" the whole time, as if they were pulling stone-
+carts.  There are really no runners out of Hakodate, and the men
+don't know how to pull, and hate doing it.
+
+Mororan Bay is truly beautiful from the top of the ascent.  The
+coast scenery of Japan generally is the loveliest I have ever seen,
+except that of a portion of windward Hawaii, and this yields in
+beauty to none.  The irregular grey town, with a grey temple on the
+height above, straggles round the little bay on a steep, wooded
+terrace; hills, densely wooded, and with a perfect entanglement of
+large-leaved trailers, descend abruptly to the water's edge; the
+festoons of the vines are mirrored in the still waters; and above
+the dark forest, and beyond the gleaming sea, rises the red, peaked
+top of the volcano.  Then the road dips abruptly to sandy
+swellings, rising into bold headlands here and there; and for the
+first time I saw the surge of 5000 miles of unbroken ocean break
+upon the shore.  Glimpses of the Pacific, an uncultivated, swampy
+level quite uninhabited, and distant hills mainly covered with
+forest, made up the landscape till I reached Horobets, a mixed
+Japanese and Aino village built upon the sand near the sea.
+
+In these mixed villages the Ainos are compelled to live at a
+respectful distance from the Japanese, and frequently out-number
+them, as at Horobets, where there are forty-seven Aino and only
+eighteen Japanese houses.  The Aino village looks larger than it
+really is, because nearly every house has a kura, raised six feet
+from the ground by wooden stilts.  When I am better acquainted with
+the houses I shall describe them; at present I will only say that
+they do not resemble the Japanese houses so much as the Polynesian,
+as they are made of reeds very neatly tied upon a wooden framework.
+They have small windows, and roofs of a very great height, and
+steep pitch, with the thatch in a series of very neat frills, and
+the ridge poles covered with reeds, and ornamented.  The coast
+Ainos are nearly all engaged in fishing, but at this season the men
+hunt deer in the forests.  On this coast there are several names
+compounded with bets or pets, the Aino for a river, such as
+Horobets, Yubets, Mombets, etc.
+
+I found that Ito had been engaged for a whole hour in a violent
+altercation, which was caused by the Transport Agent refusing to
+supply runners for the kuruma, saying that no one in Horobets would
+draw one, but on my producing the shomon I was at once started on
+my journey of sixteen miles with three Japanese lads, Ito riding on
+to Shiraoi to get my room ready.  I think that the Transport
+Offices in Yezo are in Government hands.  In a few minutes three
+Ainos ran out of a house, took the kuruma, and went the whole stage
+without stopping.  They took a boy and three saddled horses along
+with them to bring them back, and rode and hauled alternately, two
+youths always attached to the shafts, and a man pushing behind.
+They were very kind, and so courteous, after a new fashion, that I
+quite forgot that I was alone among savages.  The lads were young
+and beardless, their lips were thick, and their mouths very wide,
+and I thought that they approached more nearly to the Eskimo type
+than to any other.  They had masses of soft black hair falling on
+each side of their faces.  The adult man was not a pure Aino.  His
+dark hair was not very thick, and both it and his beard had an
+occasional auburn gleam.  I think I never saw a face more
+completely beautiful in features and expression, with a lofty, sad,
+far-off, gentle, intellectual look, rather that of Sir Noel Paton's
+"Christ" than of a savage.  His manner was most graceful, and he
+spoke both Aino and Japanese in the low musical tone which I find
+is a characteristic of Aino speech.  These Ainos never took off
+their clothes, but merely let them fall from one or both shoulders
+when it was very warm.
+
+The road from Horobets to Shiraoi is very solitary, with not more
+than four or five houses the whole way.  It is broad and straight,
+except when it ascends hills or turns inland to cross rivers, and
+is carried across a broad swampy level, covered with tall wild
+flowers, which extends from the high beach thrown up by the sea for
+two miles inland, where there is a lofty wall of wooded rock, and
+beyond this the forest-covered mountains of the interior.  On the
+top of the raised beach there were Aino hamlets, and occasionally a
+nearly overpowering stench came across the level from the sheds and
+apparatus used for extracting fish-oil.  I enjoyed the afternoon
+thoroughly.  It is so good to have got beyond the confines of
+stereotyped civilisation and the trammels of Japanese travelling to
+the solitude of nature and an atmosphere of freedom.  It was grey,
+with a hard, dark line of ocean horizon, and over the weedy level
+the grey road, with grey telegraph-poles along it, stretched
+wearisomely like a grey thread.  The breeze came up from the sea,
+rustled the reeds, and waved the tall plumes of the Eulalia
+japonica, and the thunder of the Pacific surges boomed through the
+air with its grand, deep bass.  Poetry and music pervaded the
+solitude, and my spirit was rested.
+
+Going up and then down a steep, wooded hill, the road appeared to
+return to its original state of brushwood, and the men stopped at
+the broken edge of a declivity which led down to a shingle bank and
+a foam-crested river of clear, blue-green water, strongly
+impregnated with sulphur from some medicinal springs above, with a
+steep bank of tangle on the opposite side.  This beautiful stream
+was crossed by two round poles, a foot apart, on which I attempted
+to walk with the help of an Aino hand; but the poles were very
+unsteady, and I doubt whether any one, even with a strong head,
+could walk on them in boots.  Then the beautiful Aino signed to me
+to come back and mount on his shoulders; but when he had got a few
+feet out the poles swayed and trembled so much that he was obliged
+to retrace his way cautiously, during which process I endured
+miseries from dizziness and fear; after which he carried me through
+the rushing water, which was up to his shoulders, and through a bit
+of swampy jungle, and up a steep bank, to the great fatigue both of
+body and mind, hardly mitigated by the enjoyment of the ludicrous
+in riding a savage through these Yezo waters.  They dexterously
+carried the kuruma through, on the shoulders of four, and showed
+extreme anxiety that neither it nor I should get wet.  After this
+we crossed two deep, still rivers in scows, and far above the grey
+level and the grey sea the sun was setting in gold and vermilion-
+streaked green behind a glorified mountain of great height, at
+whose feet the forest-covered hills lay in purple gloom.  At dark
+we reached Shiraoi, a village of eleven Japanese houses, with a
+village of fifty-one Aino houses, near the sea.  There is a large
+yadoya of the old style there; but I found that Ito had chosen a
+very pretty new one, with four stalls open to the road, in the
+centre one of which I found him, with the welcome news that a steak
+of fresh salmon was broiling on the coals; and, as the room was
+clean and sweet and I was very hungry, I enjoyed my meal by the
+light of a rush in a saucer of fish-oil as much as any part of the
+day.
+
+SARUFUTO.
+
+The night was too cold for sleep, and at daybreak, hearing a great
+din, I looked out, and saw a drove of fully a hundred horses all
+galloping down the road, with two Ainos on horse-back, and a number
+of big dogs after them.  Hundreds of horses run nearly wild on the
+hills, and the Ainos, getting a large drove together, skilfully
+head them for the entrance into the corral, in which a selection of
+them is made for the day's needs, and the remainder--that is, those
+with the deepest sores on their backs--are turned loose.  This dull
+rattle of shoeless feet is the first sound in the morning in these
+Yezo villages.  I sent Ito on early, and followed at nine with
+three Ainos.  The road is perfectly level for thirteen miles,
+through gravel flats and swamps, very monotonous, but with a wild
+charm of its own.  There were swampy lakes, with wild ducks and
+small white water-lilies, and the surrounding levels were covered
+with reedy grass, flowers, and weeds.  The early autumn has
+withered a great many of the flowers; but enough remains to show
+how beautiful the now russet plains must have been in the early
+summer.  A dwarf rose, of a deep crimson colour, with orange,
+medlar-shaped hips, as large as crabs, and corollas three inches
+across, is one of the features of Yezo; and besides, there is a
+large rose-red convolvulus, a blue campanula, with tiers of bells,
+a blue monkshood, the Aconitum Japonicum, the flaunting Calystegia
+soldanella, purple asters, grass of Parnassus, yellow lilies, and a
+remarkable trailer, whose delicate leafage looked quite out of
+place among its coarse surroundings, with a purplish-brown
+campanulate blossom, only remarkable for a peculiar arrangement of
+the pistil, green stamens, and a most offensive carrion-like odour,
+which is probably to attract to it a very objectionable-looking
+fly, for purposes of fertilisation.
+
+We overtook four Aino women, young and comely, with bare feet,
+striding firmly along; and after a good deal of laughing with the
+men, they took hold of the kuruma, and the whole seven raced with
+it at full speed for half a mile, shrieking with laughter.  Soon
+after we came upon a little tea-house, and the Ainos showed me a
+straw package, and pointed to their open mouths, by which I
+understood that they wished to stop and eat.  Later we overtook
+four Japanese on horseback, and the Ainos raced with them for a
+considerable distance, the result of these spurts being that I
+reached Tomakomai at noon--a wide, dreary place, with houses roofed
+with sod, bearing luxuriant crops of weeds.  Near this place is the
+volcano of Tarumai, a calm-looking, grey cone, whose skirts are
+draped by tens of thousands of dead trees.  So calm and grey had it
+looked for many a year that people supposed it had passed into
+endless rest, when quite lately, on a sultry day, it blew off its
+cap and covered the whole country for many a mile with cinders and
+ashes, burning up the forest on its sides, adding a new covering to
+the Tomakomai roofs, and depositing fine ash as far as Cape Erimo,
+fifty miles off.
+
+At this place the road and telegraph wires turn inland to
+Satsuporo, and a track for horses only turns to the north-east, and
+straggles round the island for about seven hundred miles.  From
+Mororan to Sarufuto there are everywhere traces of new and old
+volcanic action--pumice, tufas, conglomerates, and occasional beds
+of hard basalt, all covered with recent pumice, which, from Shiraoi
+eastwards, conceals everything.  At Tomakomai we took horses, and,
+as I brought my own saddle, I have had the nearest approach to real
+riding that I have enjoyed in Japan.  The wife of a Satsuporo
+doctor was there, who was travelling for two hundred miles astride
+on a pack-saddle, with rope-loops for stirrups.  She rode well, and
+vaulted into my saddle with circus-like dexterity, and performed
+many equestrian feats upon it, telling me that she should be quite
+happy if she were possessed of it.
+
+I was happy when I left the "beaten track" to Satsuporo, and saw
+before me, stretching for I know not how far, rolling, sandy
+machirs like those of the Outer Hebrides, desert-like and lonely,
+covered almost altogether with dwarf roses and campanulas, a
+prairie land on which you can make any tracks you please.  Sending
+the others on, I followed them at the Yezo scramble, and soon
+ventured on a long gallop, and revelled in the music of the thud of
+shoeless feet over the elastic soil; but I had not realised the
+peculiarities of Yezo steeds, and had forgotten to ask whether mine
+was a "front horse," and just as we were going at full speed we
+came nearly up with the others, and my horse coming abruptly to a
+full stop, I went six feet over his head among the rose-bushes.
+Ito looking back saw me tightening the saddle-girths, and I never
+divulged this escapade.
+
+After riding eight miles along this breezy belt, with the sea on
+one side and forests on the other, we came upon Yubets, a place
+which has fascinated me so much that I intend to return to it; but
+I must confess that its fascinations depend rather upon what it has
+not than upon what it has, and Ito says that it would kill him to
+spend even two days there.  It looks like the end of all things, as
+if loneliness and desolation could go no farther.  A sandy stretch
+on three sides, a river arrested in its progress to the sea, and
+compelled to wander tediously in search of an outlet by the height
+and mass of the beach thrown up by the Pacific, a distant forest-
+belt rising into featureless, wooded ranges in shades of indigo and
+grey, and a never-absent consciousness of a vast ocean just out of
+sight, are the environments of two high look-outs, some sheds for
+fish-oil purposes, four or five Japanese houses, four Aino huts on
+the top of the beach across the river, and a grey barrack,
+consisting of a polished passage eighty feet long, with small rooms
+on either side, at one end a gravelled yard, with two quiet rooms
+opening upon it, and at the other an immense daidokoro, with dark
+recesses and blackened rafters--a haunted-looking abode.  One would
+suppose that there had been a special object in setting the houses
+down at weary distances from each other.  Few as they are, they are
+not all inhabited at this season, and all that can be seen is grey
+sand, sparse grass, and a few savages creeping about.
+
+Nothing that I have seen has made such an impression upon me as
+that ghostly, ghastly fishing-station.  In the long grey wall of
+the long grey barrack there were many dismal windows, and when we
+hooted for admission a stupid face appeared at one of them and
+disappeared.  Then a grey gateway opened, and we rode into a yard
+of grey gravel, with some silent rooms opening upon it.  The
+solitude of the thirty or forty rooms which lie between it and the
+kitchen, and which are now filled with nets and fishing-tackle, was
+something awful; and as the wind swept along the polished passage,
+rattling the fusuma and lifting the shingles on the roof, and the
+rats careered from end to end, I went to the great black daidokoro
+in search of social life, and found a few embers and an andon, and
+nothing else but the stupid-faced man deploring his fate, and two
+orphan boys whose lot he makes more wretched than his own.  In the
+fishing-season this barrack accommodates from 200 to 300 men.
+
+I started to the sea-shore, crossing the dreary river, and found
+open sheds much blackened, deserted huts of reeds, long sheds with
+a nearly insufferable odour from caldrons in which oil had been
+extracted from last year's fish, two or three Aino huts, and two or
+three grand-looking Ainos, clothed in skins, striding like ghosts
+over the sandbanks, a number of wolfish dogs, some log canoes or
+"dug-outs," the bones of a wrecked junk, a quantity of bleached
+drift-wood, a beach of dark-grey sand, and a tossing expanse of
+dark-grey ocean under a dull and windy sky.  On this part of the
+coast the Pacific spends its fury, and has raised up at a short
+distance above high-water mark a sandy sweep of such a height that
+when you descend its seaward slope you see nothing but the sea and
+the sky, and a grey, curving shore, covered thick for many a lonely
+mile with fantastic forms of whitened drift-wood, the shattered
+wrecks of forest-trees, which are carried down by the innumerable
+rivers, till, after tossing for weeks and months along with
+
+
+"--wrecks of ships, and drifting
+spars uplifting
+On the desolate, rainy seas:
+Ever drifting, drifting, drifting,
+On the shifting
+Currents of the restless main;"
+
+
+the "toiling surges" cast them on Yubets beach, and
+
+
+"All have found repose again."
+
+
+A grim repose!
+
+The deep boom of the surf was music, and the strange cries of sea-
+birds, and the hoarse notes of the audacious black crows, were all
+harmonious, for nature, when left to herself, never produces
+discords either in sound or colour.
+
+
+
+LETTER XXXV--(Continued)
+
+
+
+The Harmonies of Nature--A Good Horse--A Single Discord--A Forest--
+Aino Ferrymen--"Les Puces!  Les Puces!"--Baffled Explorers--Ito's
+Contempt for Ainos--An Aino Introduction.
+
+SARUFUTO.
+
+No!  Nature has no discords.  This morning, to the far horizon,
+diamond-flashing blue water shimmered in perfect peace, outlined by
+a line of surf which broke lazily on a beach scarcely less snowy
+than itself.  The deep, perfect blue of the sky was only broken by
+a few radiant white clouds, whose shadows trailed slowly over the
+plain on whose broad bosom a thousand corollas, in the glory of
+their brief but passionate life, were drinking in the sunshine,
+wavy ranges slept in depths of indigo, and higher hills beyond were
+painted in faint blue on the dreamy sky.  Even the few grey houses
+of Yubets were spiritualised into harmony by a faint blue veil
+which was not a mist, and the loud croak of the loquacious and
+impertinent crows had a cheeriness about it, a hearty mockery,
+which I liked.
+
+Above all, I had a horse so good that he was always trying to run
+away, and galloped so lightly over the flowery grass that I rode
+the seventeen miles here with great enjoyment.  Truly a good horse,
+good ground to gallop on, and sunshine, make up the sum of
+enjoyable travelling.  The discord in the general harmony was
+produced by the sight of the Ainos, a harmless people without the
+instinct of progress, descending to that vast tomb of conquered and
+unknown races which has opened to receive so many before them.  A
+mounted policeman started with us from Yubets, and rode the whole
+way here, keeping exactly to my pace, but never speaking a word.
+We forded one broad, deep river, and crossed another, partly by
+fording and partly in a scow, after which the track left the level,
+and, after passing through reedy grass as high as the horse's ears,
+went for some miles up and down hill, through woods composed
+entirely of the Ailanthus glandulosus, with leaves much riddled by
+the mountain silk-worm, and a ferny undergrowth of the familiar
+Pteris aquilina.  The deep shade and glancing lights of this open
+copsewood were very pleasant; and as the horse tripped gaily up and
+down the little hills, and the sea murmur mingled with the rustle
+of the breeze, and a glint of white surf sometimes flashed through
+the greenery, and dragonflies and butterflies in suits of crimson
+and black velvet crossed the path continually like "living flashes"
+of light, I was reminded somewhat, though faintly, of windward
+Hawaii.  We emerged upon an Aino hut and a beautiful placid river,
+and two Ainos ferried the four people and horses across in a scow,
+the third wading to guide the boat.  They wore no clothing, but
+only one was hairy.  They were superb-looking men, gentle, and
+extremely courteous, handing me in and out of the boat, and holding
+the stirrup while I mounted, with much natural grace.  On leaving
+they extended their arms and waved their hands inwards twice,
+stroking their grand beards afterwards, which is their usual
+salutation.  A short distance over shingle brought us to this
+Japanese village of sixty-three houses, a colonisation settlement,
+mainly of samurai from the province of Sendai, who are raising very
+fine crops on the sandy soil.  The mountains, twelve miles in the
+interior, have a large Aino population, and a few Ainos live near
+this village and are held in great contempt by its inhabitants.  My
+room is on the village street, and, as it is too warm to close the
+shoji, the aborigines stand looking in at the lattice hour after
+hour.
+
+A short time ago Mr. Von Siebold and Count Diesbach galloped up on
+their return from Biratori, the Aino village to which I am going;
+and Count D., throwing himself from his horse, rushed up to me with
+the exclamation, Les puces! les puces!  They have brought down with
+them the chief, Benri, a superb but dissipated-looking savage.  Mr.
+Von Siebold called on me this evening, and I envied him his fresh,
+clean clothing as much as he envied me my stretcher and mosquito-
+net.  They have suffered terribly from fleas, mosquitoes, and
+general discomfort, and are much exhausted; but Mr. Von S. thinks
+that, in spite of all, a visit to the mountain Ainos is worth a
+long journey.  As I expected, they have completely failed in their
+explorations, and have been deserted by Lieutenant Kreitner.  I
+asked Mr. Von S. to speak to Ito in Japanese about the importance
+of being kind and courteous to the Ainos whose hospitality I shall
+receive; and Ito is very indignant at this.  "Treat Ainos
+politely!" he says; "they're just dogs, not men;" and since he has
+regaled me with all the scandal concerning them which he has been
+able to rake together in the village.
+
+We have to take not only food for both Ito and myself, but cooking
+utensils.  I have been introduced to Benri, the chief; and, though
+he does not return for a day or two, he will send a message along
+with us which will ensure me hospitality.
+
+I. L. B.
+
+
+
+LETTER XXXVI
+
+
+
+Savage Life--A Forest Track--Cleanly Villages--A Hospitable
+Reception--The Chief's Mother--The Evening Meal--A Savage Seance--
+Libations to the Gods--Nocturnal Silence--Aino Courtesy--The
+Chief's Wife.
+
+AINO HUT, BIRATORI, August 23.
+
+I am in the lonely Aino land, and I think that the most interesting
+of my travelling experiences has been the living for three days and
+two nights in an Aino hut, and seeing and sharing the daily life of
+complete savages, who go on with their ordinary occupations just as
+if I were not among them.  I found yesterday a most fatiguing and
+over-exciting day, as everything was new and interesting, even the
+extracting from men who have few if any ideas in common with me all
+I could extract concerning their religion and customs, and that
+through an interpreter.  I got up at six this morning to write out
+my notes, and have been writing for five hours, and there is
+shortly the prospect of another savage seance.  The distractions,
+as you can imagine, are many.  At this moment a savage is taking a
+cup of sake by the fire in the centre of the floor.  He salutes me
+by extending his hands and waving them towards his face, and then
+dips a rod in the sake, and makes six libations to the god--an
+upright piece of wood with a fringe of shavings planted in the
+floor of the room.  Then he waves the cup several times towards
+himself, makes other libations to the fire, and drinks.  Ten other
+men and women are sitting along each side of the fire-hole, the
+chief's wife is cooking, the men are apathetically contemplating
+the preparation of their food; and the other women, who are never
+idle, are splitting the bark of which they make their clothes.  I
+occupy the guest seat--a raised platform at one end of the fire,
+with the skin of a black bear thrown over it.
+
+I have reserved all I have to say about the Ainos till I had been
+actually among them, and I hope you will have patience to read to
+the end.  Ito is very greedy and self-indulgent, and whimpered very
+much about coming to Biratori at all,--one would have thought he
+was going to the stake.  He actually borrowed for himself a
+sleeping mat and futons, and has brought a chicken, onions,
+potatoes, French beans, Japanese sauce, tea, rice, a kettle, a
+stew-pan, and a rice-pan, while I contented myself with a cold fowl
+and potatoes.
+
+We took three horses and a mounted Aino guide, and found a beaten
+track the whole way.  It turns into the forest at once on leaving
+Sarufuto, and goes through forest the entire distance, with an
+abundance of reedy grass higher than my hat on horseback along it,
+and, as it is only twelve inches broad and much overgrown, the
+horses were constantly pushing through leafage soaking from a
+night's rain, and I was soon wet up to my shoulders.  The forest
+trees are almost solely the Ailanthus glandulosus and the Zelkowa
+keaki, often matted together with a white-flowered trailer of the
+Hydrangea genus.  The undergrowth is simply hideous, consisting
+mainly of coarse reedy grass, monstrous docks, the large-leaved
+Polygonum cuspidatum, several umbelliferous plants, and a "ragweed"
+which, like most of its gawky fellows, grows from five to six feet
+high.  The forest is dark and very silent, threaded by this narrow
+path, and by others as narrow, made by the hunters in search of
+game.  The "main road" sometimes plunges into deep bogs, at others
+is roughly corduroyed by the roots of trees, and frequently hangs
+over the edge of abrupt and much-worn declivities, in going up one
+of which the baggage-horse rolled down a bank fully thirty feet
+high, and nearly all the tea was lost.  At another the guide's
+pack-saddle lost its balance, and man, horse, and saddle went over
+the slope, pots, pans, and packages flying after them.  At another
+time my horse sank up to his chest in a very bad bog, and, as he
+was totally unable to extricate himself, I was obliged to scramble
+upon his neck and jump to terra firma over his ears.
+
+There is something very gloomy in the solitude of this silent land,
+with its beast-haunted forests, its great patches of pasture, the
+resort of wild animals which haunt the lower regions in search of
+food when the snow drives them down from the mountains, and its
+narrow track, indicating the single file in which the savages of
+the interior walk with their bare, noiseless feet.  Reaching the
+Sarufutogawa, a river with a treacherous bottom, in which Mr. Von
+Siebold and his horse came to grief, I hailed an Aino boy, who took
+me up the stream in a "dug-out," and after that we passed through
+Biroka, Saruba, and Mina, all purely Aino villages, situated among
+small patches of millet, tobacco, and pumpkins, so choked with
+weeds that it was doubtful whether they were crops.  I was much
+surprised with the extreme neatness and cleanliness outside the
+houses; "model villages" they are in these respects, with no litter
+lying in sight anywhere, nothing indeed but dog troughs, hollowed
+out of logs, like "dug-outs," for the numerous yellow dogs, which
+are a feature of Aino life.  There are neither puddles nor heaps,
+but the houses, all trim and in good repair, rise clean out of the
+sandy soil.
+
+Biratori, the largest of the Aino settlements in this region, is
+very prettily situated among forests and mountains, on rising
+ground, with a very sinuous river winding at its feet and a wooded
+height above.  A lonelier place could scarcely be found.  As we
+passed among the houses the yellow dogs barked, the women looked
+shy and smiled, and the men made their graceful salutation.  We
+stopped at the chief's house, where, of course, we were unexpected
+guests; but Shinondi, his nephew, and two other men came out,
+saluted us, and with most hospitable intent helped Ito to unload
+the horses.  Indeed their eager hospitality created quite a
+commotion, one running hither and the other thither in their
+anxiety to welcome a stranger.  It is a large house, the room being
+35 by 25, and the roof 20 feet high; but you enter by an ante-
+chamber, in which are kept the millet-mill and other articles.
+There is a doorway in this, but the inside is pretty dark, and
+Shinondi, taking my hand, raised the reed curtain bound with hide,
+which concealed the entrance into the actual house, and, leading me
+into it, retired a footstep, extended his arms, waved his arms
+inwards three times, and then stroked his beard several times,
+after which he indicated by a sweep of his hand and a beautiful
+smile that the house and all it contained were mine.  An aged
+woman, the chief's mother, who was splitting bark by the fire,
+waved her hands also.  She is the queen-regnant of the house.
+
+Again taking my hand, Shinondi led me to the place of honour at the
+head of the fire--a rude, movable platform six feet long by four
+broad, and a foot high, on which he laid an ornamental mat,
+apologising for not having at that moment a bearskin wherewith to
+cover it.  The baggage was speedily brought in by several willing
+pairs of hands; some reed mats fifteen feet long were laid down
+upon the very coarse ones which covered the whole floor, and when
+they saw Ito putting up my stretcher they hung a fine mat along the
+rough wall to conceal it, and suspended another on the beams of the
+roof for a canopy.  The alacrity and instinctive hospitality with
+which these men rushed about to make things comfortable were very
+fascinating, though comfort is a word misapplied in an Aino hut.
+The women only did what the men told them.
+
+They offered food at once, but I told them that I had brought my
+own, and would only ask leave to cook it on their fire.  I need not
+have brought any cups, for they have many lacquer bowls, and
+Shinondi brought me on a lacquer tray a bowl full of water from one
+of their four wells.  They said that Benri, the chief, would wish
+me to make his house my own for as long as I cared to stay, and I
+must excuse them in all things in which their ways were different
+from my own.  Shinondi and four others in the village speak
+tolerable Japanese, and this of course is the medium of
+communication.  Ito has exerted himself nobly as an interpreter,
+and has entered into my wishes with a cordiality and intelligence
+which have been perfectly invaluable; and, though he did growl at
+Mr. Von Siebold's injunctions regarding politeness, he has carried
+them out to my satisfaction, and even admits that the mountain
+Ainos are better than he expected; "but," he added "they have
+learned their politeness from the Japanese!"  They have never seen
+a foreign woman, and only three foreign men, but there is neither
+crowding nor staring as among the Japanese, possibly in part from
+apathy and want of intelligence.  For three days they have kept up
+their graceful and kindly hospitality, going on with their ordinary
+life and occupations, and, though I have lived among them in this
+room by day and night, there has been nothing which in any way
+could offend the most fastidious sense of delicacy.
+
+They said they would leave me to eat and rest, and all retired but
+the chief's mother, a weird, witch-like woman of eighty, with
+shocks of yellow-white hair, and a stern suspiciousness in her
+wrinkled face.  I have come to feel as if she had the evil eye, as
+she sits there watching, watching always, and for ever knotting the
+bark thread like one of the Fates, keeping a jealous watch on her
+son's two wives, and on other young women who come in to weave--
+neither the dulness nor the repose of old age about her; and her
+eyes gleam with a greedy light when she sees sake, of which she
+drains a bowl without taking breath.  She alone is suspicious of
+strangers, and she thinks that my visit bodes no good to her tribe.
+I see her eyes fixed upon me now, and they make me shudder.
+
+I had a good meal seated in my chair on the top of the guest-seat
+to avoid the fleas, which are truly legion.  At dusk Shinondi
+returned, and soon people began to drop in, till eighteen were
+assembled, including the sub-chief and several very grand-looking
+old men, with full, grey, wavy beards.  Age is held in much
+reverence, and it is etiquette for these old men to do honour to a
+guest in the chief's absence.  As each entered he saluted me
+several times, and after sitting down turned towards me and saluted
+again, going through the same ceremony with every other person.
+They said they had come "to bid me welcome."  They took their
+places in rigid order at each side of the fireplace, which is six
+feet long, Benri's mother in the place of honour at the right, then
+Shinondi, then the sub-chief, and on the other side the old men.
+Besides these, seven women sat in a row in the background splitting
+bark.  A large iron pan hung over the fire from a blackened
+arrangement above, and Benri's principal wife cut wild roots, green
+beans, and seaweed, and shred dried fish and venison among them,
+adding millet, water, and some strong-smelling fish-oil, and set
+the whole on to stew for three hours, stirring the "mess" now and
+then with a wooden spoon.
+
+Several of the older people smoke, and I handed round some mild
+tobacco, which they received with waving hands.  I told them that I
+came from a land in the sea, very far away, where they saw the sun
+go down--so very far away that a horse would have to gallop day and
+night for five weeks to reach it--and that I had come a long
+journey to see them, and that I wanted to ask them many questions,
+so that when I went home I might tell my own people something about
+them.  Shinondi and another man, who understood Japanese, bowed,
+and (as on every occasion) translated what I said into Aino for the
+venerable group opposite.  Shinondi then said "that he and
+Shinrichi, the other Japanese speaker, would tell me all they knew,
+but they were but young men, and only knew what was told to them.
+They would speak what they believed to be true, but the chief knew
+more than they, and when he came back he might tell me differently,
+and then I should think that they had spoken lies."  I said that no
+one who looked into their faces could think that they ever told
+lies.  They were very much pleased, and waved their hands and
+stroked their beards repeatedly.  Before they told me anything they
+begged and prayed that I would not inform the Japanese Government
+that they had told me of their customs, or harm might come to them!
+
+For the next two hours, and for two more after supper, I asked them
+questions concerning their religion and customs, and again
+yesterday for a considerable time, and this morning, after Benri's
+return, I went over the same subjects with him, and have also
+employed a considerable time in getting about 300 words from them,
+which I have spelt phonetically of course, and intend to go over
+again when I visit the coast Ainos. {19}
+
+The process was slow, as both question and answer had to pass
+through three languages.  There was a very manifest desire to tell
+the truth, and I think that their statements concerning their few
+and simple customs may be relied upon.  I shall give what they told
+me separately when I have time to write out my notes in an orderly
+manner.  I can only say that I have seldom spent a more interesting
+evening.
+
+About nine the stew was ready, and the women ladled it into lacquer
+bowls with wooden spoons.  The men were served first, but all ate
+together.  Afterwards sake, their curse, was poured into lacquer
+bowls, and across each bowl a finely-carved "sake-stick" was laid.
+These sticks are very highly prized.  The bowls were waved several
+times with an inward motion, then each man took his stick and,
+dipping it into the sake, made six libations to the fire and
+several to the "god"--a wooden post, with a quantity of spiral
+white shavings falling from near the top.  The Ainos are not
+affected by sake nearly so easily as the Japanese.  They took it
+cold, it is true, but each drank about three times as much as would
+have made a Japanese foolish, and it had no effect upon them.
+After two hours more talk one after another got up and went out,
+making profuse salutations to me and to the others.  My candles had
+been forgotten, and our seance was held by the fitful light of the
+big logs on the fire, aided by a succession of chips of birch bark,
+with which a woman replenished a cleft stick that was stuck into
+the fire-hole.  I never saw such a strangely picturesque sight as
+that group of magnificent savages with the fitful firelight on
+their faces, and for adjuncts the flare of the torch, the strong
+lights, the blackness of the recesses of the room and of the roof,
+at one end of which the stars looked in, and the row of savage
+women in the background--eastern savagery and western civilisation
+met in this hut, savagery giving and civilisation receiving, the
+yellow-skinned Ito the connecting-link between the two, and the
+representative of a civilisation to which our own is but an "infant
+of days."
+
+I found it very exciting, and when all had left crept out into the
+starlight.  The lodges were all dark and silent, and the dogs, mild
+like their masters, took no notice of me.  The only sound was the
+rustle of a light breeze through the surrounding forest.  The verse
+came into my mind, "It is not the will of your Father which is in
+heaven that one of these little ones should perish."  Surely these
+simple savages are children, as children to be judged; may we not
+hope as children to be saved through Him who came "not to judge the
+world, but to save the world"?
+
+I crept back again and into my mosquito net, and suffered not from
+fleas or mosquitoes, but from severe cold.  Shinondi conversed with
+Ito for some time in a low musical voice, having previously asked
+if it would keep me from sleeping.  No Japanese ever intermitted
+his ceaseless chatter at any hour of the night for a similar
+reason.  Later, the chief's principal wife, Noma, stuck a triply-
+cleft stick in the fire-hole, put a potsherd with a wick and some
+fish-oil upon it, and by the dim light of this rude lamp sewed
+until midnight at a garment of bark cloth which she was ornamenting
+for her lord with strips of blue cloth, and when I opened my eyes
+the next morning she was at the window sewing by the earliest
+daylight.  She is the most intelligent-looking of all the women,
+but looks sad and almost stern, and speaks seldom.  Although she is
+the principal wife of the chief she is not happy, for she is
+childless, and I thought that her sad look darkened into something
+evil as the other wife caressed a fine baby boy.  Benri seems to me
+something of a brute, and the mother-in-law obviously holds the
+reins of government pretty tight.  After sewing till midnight she
+swept the mats with a bunch of twigs, and then crept into her bed
+behind a hanging mat.  For a moment in the stillness I felt a
+feeling of panic, as if I were incurring a risk by being alone
+among savages, but I conquered it, and, after watching the fire
+till it went out, fell asleep till I was awoke by the severe cold
+of the next day's dawn.
+
+
+
+LETTER XXXVI--(Continued)
+
+
+
+A Supposed Act of Worship--Parental Tenderness--Morning Visits--
+Wretched Cultivation--Honesty and Generosity--A "Dug-out"--Female
+Occupations--The Ancient Fate--A New Arrival--A Perilous
+Prescription--The Shrine of Yoshitsune--The Chief's Return.
+
+When I crept from under my net much benumbed with cold, there were
+about eleven people in the room, who all made their graceful
+salutation.  It did not seem as if they had ever heard of washing,
+for, when water was asked for, Shinondi brought a little in a
+lacquer bowl, and held it while I bathed my face and hands,
+supposing the performance to be an act of worship!  I was about to
+throw some cold tea out of the window by my bed when he arrested me
+with an anxious face, and I saw, what I had not observed before,
+that there was a god at that window--a stick with festoons of
+shavings hanging from it, and beside it a dead bird.  The Ainos
+have two meals a day, and their breakfast was a repetition of the
+previous night's supper.  We all ate together, and I gave the
+children the remains of my rice, and it was most amusing to see
+little creatures of three, four, and five years old, with no other
+clothing than a piece of pewter hanging round their necks, first
+formally asking leave of the parents before taking the rice, and
+then waving their hands.  The obedience of the children is
+instantaneous.  Their parents are more demonstrative in their
+affection than the Japanese are, caressing them a good deal, and
+two of the men are devoted to children who are not their own.
+These little ones are as grave and dignified as Japanese children,
+and are very gentle.
+
+I went out soon after five, when the dew was glittering in the
+sunshine, and the mountain hollow in which Biratori stands was
+looking its very best, and the silence of the place, even though
+the people were all astir, was as impressive as that of the night
+before.  What a strange life! knowing nothing, hoping nothing,
+fearing a little, the need for clothes and food the one motive
+principle, sake in abundance the one good!  How very few points of
+contact it is possible to have!  I was just thinking so when
+Shinondi met me, and took me to his house to see if I could do
+anything for a child sorely afflicted with skin disease, and his
+extreme tenderness for this very loathsome object made me feel that
+human affections were the same among them as with us.  He had
+carried it on his back from a village, five miles distant, that
+morning, in the hope that it might be cured.  As soon as I entered
+he laid a fine mat on the floor, and covered the guest-seat with a
+bearskin.  After breakfast he took me to the lodge of the sub-
+chief, the largest in the village, 45 feet square, and into about
+twenty others all constructed in the same way, but some of them
+were not more than 20 feet square.  In all I was received with the
+same courtesy, but a few of the people asked Shinondi not to take
+me into their houses, as they did not want me to see how poor they
+are.  In every house there was the low shelf with more or fewer
+curios upon it, but, besides these, none but the barest necessaries
+of life, though the skins which they sell or barter every year
+would enable them to surround themselves with comforts, were it not
+that their gains represent to them sake, and nothing else.  They
+are not nomads.  On the contrary, they cling tenaciously to the
+sites on which their fathers have lived and died.  But anything
+more deplorable than the attempts at cultivation which surround
+their lodges could not be seen.  The soil is little better than
+white sand, on which without manure they attempt to grow millet,
+which is to them in the place of rice, pumpkins, onions, and
+tobacco; but the look of their plots is as if they had been
+cultivated ten years ago, and some chance-sown grain and vegetables
+had come up among the weeds.  When nothing more will grow, they
+partially clear another bit of forest, and exhaust that in its
+turn.
+
+In every house the same honour was paid to a guest.  This seems a
+savage virtue which is not strong enough to survive much contact
+with civilisation.  Before I entered one lodge the woman brought
+several of the finer mats, and arranged them as a pathway for me to
+walk to the fire upon.  They will not accept anything for lodging,
+or for anything that they give, so I was anxious to help them by
+buying some of their handiwork, but found even this a difficult
+matter.  They were very anxious to give, but when I desired to buy
+they said they did not wish to part with their things.  I wanted
+what they had in actual use, such as a tobacco-box and pipe-sheath,
+and knives with carved handles and scabbards, and for three of
+these I offered 2.5 dollars.  They said they did not care to sell
+them, but in the evening they came saying they were not worth more
+than 1 dollar 10 cents, and they would sell them for that; and I
+could not get them to take more.  They said it was "not their
+custom."  I bought a bow and three poisoned arrows, two reed-mats,
+with a diamond pattern on them in reeds stained red, some knives
+with sheaths, and a bark cloth dress.  I tried to buy the sake-
+sticks with which they make libations to their gods, but they said
+it was "not their custom" to part with the sake-stick of any living
+man; however, this morning Shinondi has brought me, as a very
+valuable present, the stick of a dead man!  This morning the man
+who sold the arrows brought two new ones, to replace two which were
+imperfect.  I found them, as Mr. Von Siebold had done,
+punctiliously honest in all their transactions.  They wear very
+large earrings with hoops an inch and a half in diameter, a pair
+constituting the dowry of an Aino bride; but they would not part
+with these.
+
+A house was burned down two nights ago, and "custom" in such a case
+requires that all the men should work at rebuilding it, so in their
+absence I got two boys to take me in a "dug-out" as far as we could
+go up the Sarufutogawa--a lovely river, which winds tortuously
+through the forests and mountains in unspeakable loveliness.  I had
+much of the feeling of the ancient mariner -
+
+
+"We were the first
+Who ever burst
+Into that silent sea."
+
+
+For certainly no European had ever previously floated on the dark
+and forest-shrouded waters.  I enjoyed those hours thoroughly, for
+the silence was profound, and the faint blue of the autumn sky, and
+the soft blue veil which "spiritualised" the distances, were so
+exquisitely like the Indian summer.
+
+The evening was spent like the previous one, but the hearts of the
+savages were sad, for there was no more sake in Biratori, so they
+could not "drink to the god," and the fire and the post with the
+shavings had to go without libations.  There was no more oil, so
+after the strangers retired the hut was in complete darkness.
+
+Yesterday morning we all breakfasted soon after daylight, and the
+able-bodied men went away to hunt.  Hunting and fishing are their
+occupations, and for "indoor recreation" they carve tobacco-boxes,
+knife-sheaths, sake-sticks, and shuttles.  It is quite unnecessary
+for them to do anything; they are quite contented to sit by the
+fire, and smoke occasionally, and eat and sleep, this apathy being
+varied by spasms of activity when there is no more dried flesh in
+the kuras, and when skins must be taken to Sarufuto to pay for
+sake.  The women seem never to have an idle moment.  They rise
+early to sew, weave, and split bark, for they not only clothe
+themselves and their husbands in this nearly indestructible cloth,
+but weave it for barter, and the lower class of Japanese are
+constantly to be seen wearing the product of Aino industry.  They
+do all the hard work, such as drawing water, chopping wood,
+grinding millet, and cultivating the soil, after their fashion;
+but, to do the men justice, I often see them trudging along
+carrying one and even two children.  The women take the exclusive
+charge of the kuras, which are never entered by men.
+
+I was left for some hours alone with the women, of whom there were
+seven in the hut, with a few children.  On the one side of the fire
+the chief's mother sat like a Fate, for ever splitting and knotting
+bark, and petrifying me by her cold, fateful eyes.  Her thick, grey
+hair hangs in shocks, the tattooing round her mouth has nearly
+faded, and no longer disguises her really handsome features.  She
+is dressed in a much ornamented bark-cloth dress, and wears two
+silver beads tied round her neck by a piece of blue cotton, in
+addition to very large earrings.  She has much sway in the house,
+sitting on the men's side of the fire, drinking plenty of sake, and
+occasionally chiding her grandson Shinondi for telling me too much,
+saying that it will bring harm to her people.  Though her
+expression is so severe and forbidding, she is certainly very
+handsome, and it is a European, not an Asiatic, beauty.
+
+The younger women were all at work; two were seated on the floor
+weaving without a loom, and the others were making and mending the
+bark coats which are worn by both sexes.  Noma, the chief's
+principal wife, sat apart, seldom speaking.  Two of the youngest
+women are very pretty--as fair as ourselves, and their comeliness
+is of the rosy, peasant kind.  It turns out that two of them,
+though they would not divulge it before men, speak Japanese, and
+they prattled to Ito with great vivacity and merriment, the ancient
+Fate scowling at them the while from under her shaggy eyebrows.  I
+got a number of words from them, and they laughed heartily at my
+erroneous pronunciation.  They even asked me a number of questions
+regarding their own sex among ourselves, but few of these would
+bear repetition, and they answered a number of mine.  As the
+merriment increased the old woman looked increasingly angry and
+restless, and at last rated them sharply, as I have heard since,
+telling them that if they spoke another word she should tell their
+husbands that they had been talking to strangers.  After this not
+another word was spoken, and Noma, who is an industrious housewife,
+boiled some millet into a mash for a mid-day lunch.  During the
+afternoon a very handsome young Aino, with a washed, richly-
+coloured skin and fine clear eyes, came up from the coast, where he
+had been working at the fishing.  He saluted the old woman and
+Benri's wife on entering, and presented the former with a gourd of
+sake, bringing a greedy light into her eyes as she took a long
+draught, after which, saluting me, he threw himself down in the
+place of honour by the fire, with the easy grace of a staghound, a
+savage all over.  His name is Pipichari, and he is the chief's
+adopted son.  He had cut his foot badly with a root, and asked me
+to cure it, and I stipulated that it should be bathed for some time
+in warm water before anything more was done, after which I bandaged
+it with lint.  He said "he did not like me to touch his foot, it
+was not clean enough, my hands were too white," etc.; but when I
+had dressed it, and the pain was much relieved, he bowed very low
+and then kissed my hand!  He was the only one among them all who
+showed the slightest curiosity regarding my things.  He looked at
+my scissors, touched my boots, and watched me, as I wrote, with the
+simple curiosity of a child.  He could speak a little Japanese, but
+he said he was "too young to tell me anything, the older men would
+know."  He is a "total abstainer" from sake, and he says that there
+are four such besides himself among the large number of Ainos who
+are just now at the fishing at Mombets, and that the others keep
+separate from them, because they think that the gods will be angry
+with them for not drinking.
+
+Several "patients," mostly children, were brought in during the
+afternoon.  Ito was much disgusted by my interest in these people,
+who, he repeated, "are just dogs," referring to their legendary
+origin, of which they are not ashamed.  His assertion that they
+have learned politeness from the Japanese is simply baseless.
+Their politeness, though of quite another and more manly stamp, is
+savage, not civilised.  The men came back at dark, the meal was
+prepared, and we sat round the fire as before; but there was no
+sake, except in the possession of the old woman; and again the
+hearts of the savages were sad.  I could multiply instances of
+their politeness.  As we were talking, Pipichari, who is a very
+"untutored" savage, dropped his coat from one shoulder, and at once
+Shinondi signed to him to put it on again.  Again, a woman was sent
+to a distant village for some oil as soon as they heard that I
+usually burned a light all night.  Little acts of courtesy were
+constantly being performed; but I really appreciated nothing more
+than the quiet way in which they went on with the routine of their
+ordinary lives.
+
+During the evening a man came to ask if I would go and see a woman
+who could hardly breathe; and I found her very ill of bronchitis,
+accompanied with much fever.  She was lying in a coat of skins,
+tossing on the hard boards of her bed, with a matting-covered roll
+under her head, and her husband was trying to make her swallow some
+salt-fish.  I took her dry, hot hand--such a small hand, tattooed
+all over the back--and it gave me a strange thrill.  The room was
+full of people, and they all seemed very sorry.  A medical
+missionary would be of little use here; but a medically-trained
+nurse, who would give medicines and proper food, with proper
+nursing, would save many lives and much suffering.  It is of no use
+to tell these people to do anything which requires to be done more
+than once:  they are just like children.  I gave her some
+chlorodyne, which she swallowed with difficulty, and left another
+dose ready mixed, to give her in a few hours; but about midnight
+they came to tell me that she was worse; and on going I found her
+very cold and weak, and breathing very hard, moving her head
+wearily from side to side.  I thought she could not live for many
+hours, and was much afraid that they would think that I had killed
+her.  I told them that I thought she would die; but they urged me
+to do something more for her, and as a last hope I gave her some
+brandy, with twenty-five drops of chlorodyne, and a few spoonfuls
+of very strong beef-tea.  She was unable, or more probably
+unwilling, to make the effort to swallow it, and I poured it down
+her throat by the wild glare of strips of birch bark.  An hour
+later they came back to tell me that she felt as if she were very
+drunk; but, going back to her house, I found that she was sleeping
+quietly, and breathing more easily; and, creeping back just at
+dawn, I found her still sleeping, and with her pulse stronger and
+calmer.  She is now decidedly better and quite sensible, and her
+husband, the sub-chief, is much delighted.  It seems so sad that
+they have nothing fit for a sick person's food; and though I have
+made a bowl of beef-tea with the remains of my stock, it can only
+last one day.
+
+I was so tired with these nocturnal expeditions and anxieties that
+on lying down I fell asleep, and on waking found more than the
+usual assemblage in the room, and the men were obviously agog about
+something.  They have a singular, and I hope an unreasonable, fear
+of the Japanese Government.  Mr. Von Siebold thinks that the
+officials threaten and knock them about; and this is possible; but
+I really think that the Kaitaikushi Department means well by them,
+and, besides removing the oppressive restrictions by which, as a
+conquered race, they were fettered, treats them far more humanely
+and equitably than the U.S. Government, for instance, treats the
+North American Indians.  However, they are ignorant; and one of the
+men, who had been most grateful because I said I would get Dr.
+Hepburn to send some medicine for his child, came this morning and
+begged me not to do so, as, he said, "the Japanese Government would
+be angry."  After this they again prayed me not to tell the
+Japanese Government that they had told me their customs and then
+they began to talk earnestly together.
+
+The sub-chief then spoke, and said that I had been kind to their
+sick people, and they would like to show me their temple, which had
+never been seen by any foreigner; but they were very much afraid of
+doing so, and they asked me many times "not to tell the Japanese
+Government that they showed it to me, lest some great harm should
+happen to them."  The sub-chief put on a sleeveless Japanese war-
+cloak to go up, and he, Shinondi, Pipichari, and two others
+accompanied me.  It was a beautiful but very steep walk, or rather
+climb, to the top of an abrupt acclivity beyond the village, on
+which the temple or shrine stands.  It would be impossible to get
+up were it not for the remains of a wooden staircase, not of Aino
+construction.  Forest and mountain surround Biratori, and the only
+breaks in the dense greenery are glints of the shining waters of
+the Sarufutogawa, and the tawny roofs of the Aino lodges.  It is a
+lonely and a silent land, fitter for the HIDING place than the
+DWELLING place of men.
+
+When the splendid young savage, Pipichari, saw that I found it
+difficult to get up, he took my hand and helped me up, as gently as
+an English gentleman would have done; and when he saw that I had
+greater difficulty in getting down, he all but insisted on my
+riding down on his back, and certainly would have carried me had
+not Benri, the chief, who arrived while we were at the shrine, made
+an end of it by taking my hand and helping me down himself.  Their
+instinct of helpfulness to a foreign woman strikes me as so odd,
+because they never show any courtesy to their own women, whom they
+treat (though to a less extent than is usual among savages) as
+inferior beings.
+
+On the very edge of the cliff, at the top of the zigzag, stands a
+wooden temple or shrine, such as one sees in any grove, or on any
+high place on the main island, obviously of Japanese construction,
+but concerning which Aino tradition is silent.  No European had
+ever stood where I stood, and there was a solemnity in the
+knowledge.  The sub-chief drew back the sliding doors, and all
+bowed with much reverence, It was a simple shrine of unlacquered
+wood, with a broad shelf at the back, on which there was a small
+shrine containing a figure of the historical hero Yoshitsune, in a
+suit of inlaid brass armour, some metal gohei, a pair of tarnished
+brass candle-sticks, and a coloured Chinese picture representing a
+junk.  Here, then, I was introduced to the great god of the
+mountain Ainos.  There is something very pathetic in these people
+keeping alive the memory of Yoshitsune, not on account of his
+martial exploits, but simply because their tradition tells them
+that he was kind to them.  They pulled the bell three times to
+attract his attention, bowed three times, and made six libations of
+sake, without which ceremony he cannot be approached.  They asked
+me to worship their god, but when I declined on the ground that I
+could only worship my own God, the Lord of Earth and Heaven, of the
+dead and of the living, they were too courteous to press their
+request.  As to Ito, it did not signify to him whether or not he
+added another god to his already crowded Pantheon, and he
+"worshipped," i.e. bowed down, most willingly before the great hero
+of his own, the conquering race.
+
+While we were crowded there on the narrow ledge of the cliff,
+Benri, the chief, arrived--a square-built, broad-shouldered,
+elderly man, strong as an ox, and very handsome, but his expression
+is not pleasing, and his eyes are bloodshot with drinking.  The
+others saluted him very respectfully, but I noticed then and since
+that his manner is very arbitrary, and that a blow not infrequently
+follows a word.  He had sent a message to his people by Ito that
+they were not to answer any questions till he returned, but Ito
+very tactfully neither gave it nor told me of it, and he was
+displeased with the young men for having talked to me so much.  His
+mother had evidently "peached."  I like him less than any of his
+tribe.  He has some fine qualities, truthfulness among others, but
+he has been contaminated by the four or five foreigners that he has
+seen, and is a brute and a sot.  The hearts of his people are no
+longer sad, for there is sake in every house to-night.
+
+I. L. B.
+
+
+
+LETTER XXXVII
+
+
+
+Barrenness of Savage Life--Irreclaimable Savages--The Aino
+Physique--Female Comeliness- Torture and Ornament--Child Life--
+Docility and Obedience.
+
+BIRATORI, YEZO, August 24.
+
+I expected to have written out my notes on the Ainos in the
+comparative quiet and comfort of Sarufuto, but the delay in Benri's
+return, and the non-arrival of the horses, have compelled me to
+accept Aino hospitality for another night, which involves living on
+tea and potatoes, for my stock of food is exhausted.  In some
+respects I am glad to remain longer, as it enables me to go over my
+stock of words, as well as my notes, with the chief, who is
+intelligent and it is a pleasure to find that his statements
+confirm those which have been made by the young men.  The glamour
+which at first disguises the inherent barrenness of savage life has
+had time to pass away, and I see it in all its nakedness as a life
+not much raised above the necessities of animal existence, timid,
+monotonous, barren of good, dark, dull, "without hope, and without
+God in the world;" though at its lowest and worst considerably
+higher and better than that of many other aboriginal races, and--
+must I say it?--considerably higher and better than that of
+thousands of the lapsed masses of our own great cities who are
+baptized into Christ's name, and are laid at last in holy ground,
+inasmuch as the Ainos are truthful, and, on the whole, chaste,
+hospitable, honest, reverent, and kind to the aged.  Drinking,
+their great vice, is not, as among us, in antagonism to their
+religion, but is actually a part of it, and as such would be
+exceptionally difficult to eradicate.
+
+The early darkness has once again come on, and once again the
+elders have assembled round the fire in two long lines, with the
+younger men at the ends, Pipichari, who yesterday sat in the place
+of honour and was helped to food first as the newest arrival,
+taking his place as the youngest at the end of the right-hand row.
+The birch-bark chips beam with fitful glare, the evening sake bowls
+are filled, the fire-god and the garlanded god receive their
+libations, the ancient woman, still sitting like a Fate, splits
+bark, and the younger women knot it, and the log-fire lights up as
+magnificent a set of venerable heads as painter or sculptor would
+desire to see,--heads, full of--what?  They have no history, their
+traditions are scarcely worthy the name, they claim descent from a
+dog, their houses and persons swarm with vermin, they are sunk in
+the grossest ignorance, they have no letters or any numbers above a
+thousand, they are clothed in the bark of trees and the untanned
+skins of beasts, they worship the bear, the sun, moon, fire, water,
+and I know not what, they are uncivilisable and altogether
+irreclaimable savages, yet they are attractive, and in some ways
+fascinating, and I hope I shall never forget the music of their
+low, sweet voices, the soft light of their mild, brown eyes, and
+the wonderful sweetness of their smile.
+
+After the yellow skins, the stiff horse hair, the feeble eyelids,
+the elongated eyes, the sloping eyebrows, the flat noses, the
+sunken chests, the Mongolian features, the puny physique, the shaky
+walk of the men, the restricted totter of the women, and the
+general impression of degeneracy conveyed by the appearance of the
+Japanese, the Ainos make a very singular impression.  All but two
+or three that I have seen are the most ferocious-looking of
+savages, with a physique vigorous enough for carrying out the most
+ferocious intentions, but as soon as they speak the countenance
+brightens into a smile as gentle as that of a woman, something
+which can never be forgotten.
+
+The men are about the middle height, broad-chested, broad-
+shouldered, "thick set," very strongly built, the arms and legs
+short, thick, and muscular, the hands and feet large.  The bodies,
+and specially the limbs, of many are covered with short bristly
+hair.  I have seen two boys whose backs are covered with fur as
+fine and soft as that of a cat.  The heads and faces are very
+striking.  The foreheads are very high, broad, and prominent, and
+at first sight give one the impression of an unusual capacity for
+intellectual development; the ears are small and set low; the noses
+are straight but short, and broad at the nostrils; the mouths are
+wide but well formed; and the lips rarely show a tendency to
+fulness.  The neck is short, the cranium rounded, the cheek-bones
+low, and the lower part of the face is small as compared with the
+upper, the peculiarity called a "jowl" being unknown.  The eyebrows
+are full, and form a straight line nearly across the face.  The
+eyes are large, tolerably deeply set, and very beautiful, the
+colour a rich liquid brown, the expression singularly soft, and the
+eyelashes long, silky, and abundant.  The skin has the Italian
+olive tint, but in most cases is thin, and light enough to show the
+changes of colour in the cheek.  The teeth are small, regular, and
+very white; the incisors and "eye teeth" are not disproportionately
+large, as is usually the case among the Japanese; there is no
+tendency towards prognathism; and the fold of integument which
+conceals the upper eyelids of the Japanese is never to be met with.
+The features, expression, and aspect, are European rather than
+Asiatic.
+
+The "ferocious savagery" of the appearance of the men is produced
+by a profusion of thick, soft, black hair, divided in the middle,
+and falling in heavy masses nearly to the shoulders.  Out of doors
+it is kept from falling over the face by a fillet round the brow.
+The beards are equally profuse, quite magnificent, and generally
+wavy, and in the case of the old men they give a truly patriarchal
+and venerable aspect, in spite of the yellow tinge produced by
+smoke and want of cleanliness.  The savage look produced by the
+masses of hair and beard, and the thick eyebrows, is mitigated by
+the softness in the dreamy brown eyes, and is altogether
+obliterated by the exceeding sweetness of the smile, which belongs
+in greater or less degree to all the rougher sex.
+
+I have measured the height of thirty of the adult men of this
+village, and it ranges from 5 feet 4 inches to 5 feet 6.5 inches.
+The circumference of the heads averages 22.1 inches, and the arc,
+from ear to ear, 13 inches.  According to Mr. Davies, the average
+weight of the Aino adult masculine brain, ascertained by
+measurement of Aino skulls, is 45.90 ounces avoirdupois, a brain
+weight said to exceed that of all the races, Hindoo and Mussulman,
+on the Indian plains, and that of the aboriginal races of India and
+Ceylon, and is only paralleled by that of the races of the
+Himalayas, the Siamese, and the Chinese Burmese.  Mr. Davies says,
+further, that it exceeds the mean brain weight of Asiatic races in
+general.  Yet with all this the Ainos are a stupid people!
+
+Passing travellers who have seen a few of the Aino women on the
+road to Satsuporo speak of them as very ugly, but as making amends
+for their ugliness by their industry and conjugal fidelity.  Of the
+latter there is no doubt, but I am not disposed to admit the
+former.  The ugliness is certainly due to art and dirt.  The Aino
+women seldom exceed five feet and half an inch in height, but they
+are beautifully formed, straight, lithe, and well-developed, with
+small feet and hands, well-arched insteps, rounded limbs, well-
+developed busts, and a firm, elastic gait.  Their heads and faces
+are small; but the hair, which falls in masses on each side of the
+face like that of the men, is equally redundant.  They have superb
+teeth, and display them liberally in smiling.  Their mouths are
+somewhat wide, but well formed, and they have a ruddy comeliness
+about them which is pleasing, in spite of the disfigurement of the
+band which is tattooed both above and below the mouth, and which,
+by being united at the corners, enlarges its apparent size and
+width.  A girl at Shiraoi, who, for some reason, has not been
+subjected to this process, is the most beautiful creature in
+features, colouring, and natural grace of form, that I have seen
+for a long time.  Their complexions are lighter than those of the
+men.  There are not many here even as dark as our European
+brunettes.  A few unite the eyebrows by a streak of tattooing, so
+as to produce a straight line.  Like the men, they cut their hair
+short for two or three inches above the nape of the neck, but
+instead of using a fillet they take two locks from the front and
+tie them at the back.
+
+They are universally tattooed, not only with the broad band above
+and below the mouth, but with a band across the knuckles, succeeded
+by an elaborate pattern on the back of the hand, and a series of
+bracelets extending to the elbow.  The process of disfigurement
+begins at the age of five, when some of the sufferers are yet
+unweaned.  I saw the operation performed on a dear little bright
+girl this morning.  A woman took a large knife with a sharp edge,
+and rapidly cut several horizontal lines on the upper lip,
+following closely the curve of the very pretty mouth, and before
+the slight bleeding had ceased carefully rubbed in some of the
+shiny soot which collects on the mat above the fire.  In two or
+three days the scarred lip will be washed with the decoction of the
+bark of a tree to fix the pattern, and give it that blue look which
+makes many people mistake it for a daub of paint.  A child who had
+this second process performed yesterday has her lip fearfully
+swollen and inflamed.  The latest victim held her hands clasped
+tightly together while the cuts were inflicted, but never cried.
+The pattern on the lips is deepened and widened every year up to
+the time of marriage, and the circles on the arm are extended in a
+similar way.  The men cannot give any reason for the universality
+of this custom.  It is an old custom, they say, and part of their
+religion, and no woman could marry without it.  Benri fancies that
+the Japanese custom of blackening the teeth is equivalent to it;
+but he is mistaken, as that ceremony usually succeeds marriage.
+They begin to tattoo the arms when a girl is five or six, and work
+from the elbow downwards.  They expressed themselves as very much
+grieved and tormented by the recent prohibition of tattooing.  They
+say the gods will be angry, and that the women can't marry unless
+they are tattooed; and they implored both Mr. Von Siebold and me to
+intercede with the Japanese Government on their behalf in this
+respect.  They are less apathetic on this than on any subject, and
+repeat frequently, "It's a part of our religion."
+
+The children are very pretty and attractive, and their faces give
+promise of an intelligence which is lacking in those of the adults.
+They are much loved, and are caressing as well as caressed.  The
+infants of the mountain Ainos have seeds of millet put into their
+mouths as soon as they are born, and those of the coast Ainos a
+morsel of salt-fish; and whatever be the hour of birth, "custom"
+requires that they shall not be fed until a night has passed.  They
+are not weaned until they are at least three years old.  Boys are
+preferred to girls, but both are highly valued, and a childless
+wife may be divorced.
+
+Children do not receive names till they are four or five years old,
+and then the father chooses a name by which his child is afterwards
+known.  Young children when they travel are either carried on their
+mothers' backs in a net, or in the back of the loose garment; but
+in both cases the weight is mainly supported by a broad band which
+passes round the woman's forehead.  When men carry them they hold
+them in their arms.  The hair of very young children is shaven, and
+from about five to fifteen the boys wear either a large tonsure or
+tufts above the ears, while the girls are allowed to grow hair all
+over their heads.
+
+Implicit and prompt obedience is required from infancy; and from a
+very early age the children are utilised by being made to fetch and
+carry and go on messages.  I have seen children apparently not more
+than two years old sent for wood; and even at this age they are so
+thoroughly trained in the observances of etiquette that babies just
+able to walk never toddle into or out of this house without formal
+salutations to each person within it, the mother alone excepted.
+They don't wear any clothing till they are seven or eight years
+old, and are then dressed like their elders.  Their manners to
+their parents are very affectionate.  Even to-day, in the chief's
+awe-inspiring presence, one dear little nude creature, who had been
+sitting quietly for two hours staring into the fire with her big
+brown eyes, rushed to meet her mother when she entered, and threw
+her arms round her, to which the woman responded by a look of true
+maternal tenderness and a kiss.  These little creatures, in the
+absolute unconsciousness of innocence, with their beautiful faces,
+olive-tinted bodies,--all the darker, sad to say, from dirt,--their
+perfect docility, and absence of prying curiosity, are very
+bewitching.  They all wear silver or pewter ornaments tied round
+their necks by a wisp of blue cotton.
+
+Apparently the ordinary infantile maladies, such as whooping-cough
+and measles, do not afflict the Ainos fatally; but the children
+suffer from a cutaneous affection, which wears off as they reach
+the age of ten or eleven years, as well as from severe toothache
+with their first teeth.
+
+
+
+LETTER XXXVII--(Continued)
+
+
+
+Aino Clothing--Holiday Dress--Domestic Architecture--Household
+Gods--Japanese Curios--The Necessaries of Life--Clay Soup--Arrow
+Poison--Arrow-Traps--Female Occupations--Bark Cloth--The Art of
+Weaving.
+
+Aino clothing, for savages, is exceptionally good.  In the winter
+it consists of one, two, or more coats of skins, with hoods of the
+same, to which the men add rude moccasins when they go out hunting.
+In summer they wear kimonos, or loose coats, made of cloth woven
+from the split bark of a forest tree.  This is a durable and
+beautiful fabric in various shades of natural buff, and somewhat
+resembles what is known to fancy workers as "Panama canvas."  Under
+this a skin or bark-cloth vest may or may not be worn.  The men
+wear these coats reaching a little below the knees, folded over
+from right to left, and confined at the waist by a narrow girdle of
+the same cloth, to which is attached a rude, dagger-shaped knife,
+with a carved and engraved wooden handle and sheath.  Smoking is by
+no means a general practice; consequently the pipe and tobacco-box
+are not, as with the Japanese, a part of ordinary male attire.
+Tightly-fitting leggings, either of bark-cloth or skin, are worn by
+both sexes, but neither shoes nor sandals.  The coat worn by the
+women reaches half-way between the knees and ankles, and is quite
+loose and without a girdle.  It is fastened the whole way up to the
+collar-bone; and not only is the Aino woman completely covered, but
+she will not change one garment for another except alone or in the
+dark.  Lately a Japanese woman at Sarufuto took an Aino woman into
+her house, and insisted on her taking a bath, which she absolutely
+refused to do till the bath-house had been made quite private by
+means of screens.  On the Japanese woman going back a little later
+to see what had become of her, she found her sitting in the water
+in her clothes; and on being remonstrated with, she said that the
+gods would be angry if they saw her without clothes!
+
+Many of the garments for holiday occasions are exceedingly
+handsome, being decorated with "geometrical" patterns, in which the
+"Greek fret" takes part, in coarse blue cotton, braided most
+dexterously with scarlet and white thread.  Some of the handsomest
+take half a year to make.  The masculine dress is completed by an
+apron of oblong shape decorated in the same elaborate manner.
+These handsome savages, with their powerful physique, look
+remarkably well in their best clothes.  I have not seen a boy or
+girl above nine who is not thoroughly clothed.  The "jewels" of the
+women are large, hoop earrings of silver or pewter, with
+attachments of a classical pattern, and silver neck ornaments, and
+a few have brass bracelets soldered upon their arms.  The women
+have a perfect passion for every hue of red, and I have made
+friends with them by dividing among them a large turkey-red silk
+handkerchief, strips of which are already being utilised for the
+ornamenting of coats.
+
+The houses in the five villages up here are very good.  So they are
+at Horobets, but at Shiraoi, where the aborigines suffer from the
+close proximity of several grog shops, they are inferior.  They
+differ in many ways from any that I have before seen, approaching
+most nearly to the grass houses of the natives of Hawaii.  Custom
+does not appear to permit either of variety or innovations; in all
+the style is the same, and the difference consists in the size and
+plenishings.  The dwellings seem ill-fitted for a rigorous climate,
+but the same thing may be said of those of the Japanese.  In their
+houses, as in their faces, the Ainos are more European than their
+conquerors, as they possess doorways, windows, central fireplaces,
+like those of the Highlanders of Scotland, and raised sleeping-
+places.
+
+The usual appearance is that of a small house built on at the end
+of a larger one.  The small house is the vestibule or ante-room,
+and is entered by a low doorway screened by a heavy mat of reeds.
+It contains the large wooden mortar and pestle with two ends, used
+for pounding millet, a wooden receptacle for millet, nets or
+hunting gear, and some bundles of reeds for repairing roof or
+walls.  This room never contains a window.  From it the large room
+is entered by a doorway, over which a heavy reed-mat, bound with
+hide, invariably hangs.  This room in Benri's case is 35 feet long
+by 25 feet broad, another is 45 feet square, the smallest measures
+20 feet by 15.  On entering, one is much impressed by the great
+height and steepness of the roof, altogether out of proportion to
+the height of the walls.
+
+The frame of the house is of posts, 4 feet 10 inches high, placed 4
+feet apart, and sloping slightly inwards.  The height of the walls
+is apparently regulated by that of the reeds, of which only one
+length is used, and which never exceed 4 feet 10 inches.  The posts
+are scooped at the top, and heavy poles, resting on the scoops, are
+laid along them to form the top of the wall.  The posts are again
+connected twice by slighter poles tied on horizontally.  The wall
+is double; the outer part being formed of reeds tied very neatly to
+the framework in small, regular bundles, the inner layer or wall
+being made of reeds attached singly.  From the top of the pole,
+which is secured to the top of the posts, the framework of the roof
+rises to a height of twenty-two feet, made, like the rest, of poles
+tied to a heavy and roughly-hewn ridge-beam.  At one end under the
+ridge-beam there is a large triangular aperture for the exit of
+smoke.  Two very stout, roughly-hewn beams cross the width of the
+house, resting on the posts of the wall, and on props let into the
+floor, and a number of poles are laid at the same height, by means
+of which a secondary roof formed of mats can be at once
+extemporised, but this is only used for guests.  These poles answer
+the same purpose as shelves.  Very great care is bestowed upon the
+outside of the roof, which is a marvel of neatness and prettiness,
+and has the appearance of a series of frills being thatched in
+ridges.  The ridge-pole is very thickly covered, and the thatch
+both there and at the corners is elaborately laced with a pattern
+in strong peeled twigs.  The poles, which, for much of the room,
+run from wall to wall, compel one to stoop, to avoid fracturing
+one's skull, and bringing down spears, bows and arrows, arrow-
+traps, and other primitive property.  The roof and rafters are
+black and shiny from wood smoke.  Immediately under them, at one
+end and one side, are small, square windows, which are closed at
+night by wooden shutters, which during the day-time hang by ropes.
+Nothing is a greater insult to an Aino than to look in at his
+window.
+
+On the left of the doorway is invariably a fixed wooden platform,
+eighteen inches high, and covered with a single mat, which is the
+sleeping-place.  The pillows are small stiff bolsters, covered with
+ornamental matting.  If the family be large there are several of
+these sleeping platforms.  A pole runs horizontally at a fitting
+distance above the outside edge of each, over which mats are thrown
+to conceal the sleepers from the rest of the room.  The inside half
+of these mats is plain, but the outside, which is seen from the
+room, has a diamond pattern woven into it in dull reds and browns.
+The whole floor is covered with a very coarse reed-mat, with
+interstices half an inch wide.  The fireplace, which is six feet
+long, is oblong.  Above it, on a very black and elaborate
+framework, hangs a very black and shiny mat, whose superfluous soot
+forms the basis of the stain used in tattooing, and whose apparent
+purpose is to prevent the smoke ascending, and to diffuse it
+equally throughout the room.  From this framework depends the great
+cooking-pot, which plays a most important part in Aino economy.
+
+Household gods form an essential part of the furnishing of every
+house.  In this one, at the left of the entrance, there are ten
+white wands, with shavings depending from the upper end, stuck in
+the wall; another projects from the window which faces the sunrise,
+and the great god--a white post, two feet high, with spirals of
+shavings depending from the top--is always planted in the floor,
+near the wall, on the left side, opposite the fire, between the
+platform bed of the householder and the low, broad shelf placed
+invariably on the same side, and which is a singular feature of all
+Aino houses, coast and mountain, down to the poorest, containing,
+as it does, Japanese curios, many of them very valuable objects of
+antique art, though much destroyed by damp and dust.  They are true
+curiosities in the dwellings of these northern aborigines, and look
+almost solemn ranged against the wall.  In this house there are
+twenty-four lacquered urns, or tea-chests, or seats, each standing
+two feet high on four small legs, shod with engraved or filigree
+brass.  Behind these are eight lacquered tubs, and a number of
+bowls and lacquer trays, and above are spears with inlaid handles,
+and fine Kaga and Awata bowls.  The lacquer is good, and several of
+the urns have daimiyo's crests in gold upon them.  One urn and a
+large covered bowl are beautifully inlaid with Venus' ear.  The
+great urns are to be seen in every house, and in addition there are
+suits of inlaid armour, and swords with inlaid hilts, engraved
+blades, and repousse scabbards, for which a collector would give
+almost anything.  No offers, however liberal, can tempt them to
+sell any of these antique possessions.  "They were presents," they
+say in their low, musical voices; "they were presents from those
+who were kind to our fathers; no, we cannot sell them; they were
+presents."  And so gold lacquer, and pearl inlaying, and gold
+niello-work, and daimiyo's crests in gold, continue to gleam in the
+smoky darkness of their huts.  Some of these things were doubtless
+gifts to their fathers when they went to pay tribute to the
+representative of the Shogun and the Prince of Matsumae, soon after
+the conquest of Yezo.  Others were probably gifts from samurai, who
+took refuge here during the rebellion, and some must have been
+obtained by barter.  They are the one possession which they will
+not barter for sake, and are only parted with in payment of fines
+at the command of a chief, or as the dower of a girl.
+
+Except in the poorest houses, where the people can only afford to
+lay down a mat for a guest, they cover the coarse mat with fine
+ones on each side of the fire.  These mats and the bark-cloth are
+really their only manufactures.  They are made of fine reeds, with
+a pattern in dull reds or browns, and are 14 feet long by 3 feet 6
+inches wide.  It takes a woman eight days to make one of them.  In
+every house there are one or two movable platforms 6 feet by 4 and
+14 inches high, which are placed at the head of the fireplace, and
+on which guests sit and sleep on a bearskin or a fine mat.  In many
+houses there are broad seats a few inches high, on which the elder
+men sit cross-legged, as their custom is, not squatting Japanese
+fashion on the heels.  A water-tub always rests on a stand by the
+door, and the dried fish and venison or bear for daily use hang
+from the rafters, as well as a few skins.  Besides these things
+there are a few absolute necessaries,--lacquer or wooden bowls for
+food and sake, a chopping-board and rude chopping-knife, a cleft-
+stick for burning strips of birch-bark, a triply-cleft stick for
+supporting the potsherd in which, on rare occasions, they burn a
+wick with oil, the component parts of their rude loom, the bark of
+which they make their clothes, the reeds of which they make their
+mats,--and the inventory of the essentials of their life is nearly
+complete.  No iron enters into the construction of their houses,
+its place being supplied by a remarkably tenacious fibre.
+
+I have before described the preparation of their food, which
+usually consists of a stew "of abominable things."  They eat salt
+and fresh fish, dried fish, seaweed, slugs, the various vegetables
+which grow in the wilderness of tall weeds which surrounds their
+villages, wild roots and berries, fresh and dried venison and bear;
+their carnival consisting of fresh bear's flesh and sake, seaweed,
+mushrooms, and anything they can get, in fact, which is not
+poisonous, mixing everything up together.  They use a wooden spoon
+for stirring, and eat with chopsticks.  They have only two regular
+meals a day, but eat very heartily.  In addition to the eatables
+just mentioned they have a thick soup made from a putty-like clay
+which is found in one or two of the valleys.  This is boiled with
+the bulb of a wild lily, and, after much of the clay has been
+allowed to settle, the liquid, which is very thick, is poured off.
+In the north, a valley where this earth is found is called Tsie-
+toi-nai, literally "eat-earth-valley."
+
+The men spend the autumn, winter, and spring in hunting deer and
+bears.  Part of their tribute or taxes is paid in skins, and they
+subsist on the dried meat.  Up to about this time the Ainos have
+obtained these beasts by means of poisoned arrows, arrow-traps, and
+pitfalls, but the Japanese Government has prohibited the use of
+poison and arrow-traps, and these men say that hunting is becoming
+extremely difficult, as the wild animals are driven back farther
+and farther into the mountains by the sound of the guns.  However,
+they add significantly, "the eyes of the Japanese Government are
+not in every place!"
+
+Their bows are only three feet long, and are made of stout saplings
+with the bark on, and there is no attempt to render them light or
+shapely at the ends.  The wood is singularly inelastic.  The arrows
+(of which I have obtained a number) are very peculiar, and are made
+in three pieces, the point consisting of a sharpened piece of bone
+with an elongated cavity on one side for the reception of the
+poison.  This point or head is very slightly fastened by a lashing
+of bark to a fusiform piece of bone about four inches long, which
+is in its turn lashed to a shaft about fourteen inches long, the
+other end of which is sometimes equipped with a triple feather and
+sometimes is not.
+
+The poison is placed in the elongated cavity in the head in a very
+soft state, and hardens afterwards.  In some of the arrow-heads
+fully half a teaspoonful of the paste is inserted.  From the nature
+of the very slight lashings which attach the arrow-head to the
+shaft, it constantly remains fixed in the slight wound that it
+makes, while the shaft falls off.
+
+Pipichari has given me a small quantity of the poisonous paste, and
+has also taken me to see the plant from the root of which it is
+made, the Aconitum Japonicum, a monkshood, whose tall spikes of
+blue flowers are brightening the brushwood in all directions.  The
+root is pounded into a pulp, mixed with a reddish earth like an
+iron ore pulverised, and again with animal fat, before being placed
+in the arrow.  It has been said that the poison is prepared for use
+by being buried in the earth, but Benri says that this is needless.
+They claim for it that a single wound kills a bear in ten minutes,
+but that the flesh is not rendered unfit for eating, though they
+take the precaution of cutting away a considerable quantity of it
+round the wound.
+
+Dr. Eldridge, formerly of Hakodate, obtained a small quantity of
+the poison, and, after trying some experiments with it, came to the
+conclusion that it is less virulent than other poisons employed for
+a like purpose, as by the natives of Java, the Bushmen, and certain
+tribes of the Amazon and Orinoco.  The Ainos say that if a man is
+accidentally wounded by a poisoned arrow the only cure is immediate
+excision of the part.
+
+I do not wonder that the Government has prohibited arrow-traps, for
+they made locomotion unsafe, and it is still unsafe a little
+farther north, where the hunters are more out of observation than
+here.  The traps consist of a large bow with a poisoned arrow,
+fixed in such a way that when the bear walks over a cord which is
+attached to it he is simultaneously transfixed.  I have seen as
+many as fifty in one house.  The simple contrivance for inflicting
+this silent death is most ingenious.
+
+The women are occupied all day, as I have before said.  They look
+cheerful, and even merry when they smile, and are not like the
+Japanese, prematurely old, partly perhaps because their houses are
+well ventilated, and the use of charcoal is unknown.  I do not
+think that they undergo the unmitigated drudgery which falls to the
+lot of most savage women, though they work hard.  The men do not
+like them to speak to strangers, however, and say that their place
+is to work and rear children.  They eat of the same food, and at
+the same time as the men, laugh and talk before them, and receive
+equal support and respect in old age.  They sell mats and bark-
+cloth in the piece, and made up, when they can, and their husbands
+do not take their earnings from them.  All Aino women understand
+the making of bark-cloth.  The men bring in the bark in strips,
+five feet long, having removed the outer coating.  This inner bark
+is easily separated into several thin layers, which are split into
+very narrow strips by the older women, very neatly knotted, and
+wound into balls weighing about a pound each.  No preparation of
+either the bark or the thread is required to fit it for weaving,
+but I observe that some of the women steep it in a decoction of a
+bark which produces a brown dye to deepen the buff tint.
+
+The loom is so simple that I almost fear to represent it as
+complicated by description.  It consists of a stout hook fixed in
+the floor, to which the threads of the far end of the web are
+secured, a cord fastening the near end to the waist of the worker,
+who supplies, by dexterous rigidity, the necessary tension; a frame
+like a comb resting on the ankles, through which the threads pass,
+a hollow roll for keeping the upper and under threads separate, a
+spatula-shaped shuttle of engraved wood, and a roller on which the
+cloth is rolled as it is made.  The length of the web is fifteen
+feet, and the width of the cloth fifteen inches.  It is woven with
+great regularity, and the knots in the thread are carefully kept on
+the under side. {20}  It is a very slow and fatiguing process, and
+a woman cannot do much more than a foot a day.  The weaver sits on
+the floor with the whole arrangement attached to her waist, and the
+loom, if such it may be called, on her ankles.  It takes long
+practice before she can supply the necessary tension by spinal
+rigidity.  As the work proceeds she drags herself almost
+imperceptibly nearer the hook.  In this house and other large ones
+two or three women bring in their webs in the morning, fix their
+hooks, and weave all day, while others, who have not equal
+advantages, put their hooks in the ground and weave in the
+sunshine.  The web and loom can be bundled up in two minutes, and
+carried away quite as easily as a knitted soft blanket.  It is the
+simplest and perhaps the most primitive form of hand-loom, and
+comb, shuttle, and roll, are all easily fashioned with an ordinary
+knife.
+
+
+
+LETTER XXXVII--(Continued)
+
+
+
+A Simple Nature-Worship--Aino Gods--A Festival Song--Religious
+Intoxication--Bear-Worship--The Annual Saturnalia--The Future
+State--Marriage and Divorce--Musical Instruments--Etiquette--The
+Chieftainship--Death and Burial--Old Age--Moral Qualities.
+
+There cannot be anything more vague and destitute of cohesion than
+Aino religious notions.  With the exception of the hill shrines of
+Japanese construction dedicated to Yoshitsune, they have no
+temples, and they have neither priests, sacrifices, nor worship.
+Apparently through all traditional time their cultus has been the
+rudest and most primitive form of nature-worship, the attaching of
+a vague sacredness to trees, rivers, rocks, and mountains, and of
+vague notions of power for good or evil to the sea, the forest, the
+fire, and the sun and moon.  I cannot make out that they possess a
+trace of the deification of ancestors, though their rude nature
+worship may well have been the primitive form of Japanese Shinto.
+The solitary exception to their adoration of animate and inanimate
+nature appears to be the reverence paid to Yoshitsune, to whom they
+believe they are greatly indebted, and who, it is supposed by some,
+will yet interfere on their behalf. {21}  Their gods--that is, the
+outward symbols of their religion, corresponding most likely with
+the Shinto gohei--are wands and posts of peeled wood, whittled
+nearly to the top, from which the pendent shavings fall down in
+white curls.  These are not only set up in their houses, sometimes
+to the number of twenty, but on precipices, banks of rivers and
+streams, and mountain-passes, and such wands are thrown into the
+rivers as the boatmen descend rapids and dangerous places.  Since
+my baggage horse fell over an acclivity on the trail from Sarufuto,
+four such wands have been placed there.  It is nonsense to write of
+the religious ideas of a people who have none, and of beliefs among
+people who are merely adult children.  The traveller who formulates
+an Aino creed must "evolve it from his inner consciousness."  I
+have taken infinite trouble to learn from themselves what their
+religious notions are, and Shinondi tells me that they have told me
+all they know, and the whole sum is a few vague fears and hopes,
+and a suspicion that there are things outside themselves more
+powerful than themselves, whose good influences may be obtained, or
+whose evil influences may be averted, by libations of sake.
+
+The word worship is in itself misleading.  When I use it of these
+savages it simply means libations of sake, waving bowls and waving
+hands, without any spiritual act of deprecation or supplication.
+In such a sense and such alone they worship the sun and moon (but
+not the stars), the forest, and the sea.  The wolf, the black
+snake, the owl, and several other beasts and birds have the word
+kamoi, god, attached to them, as the wolf is the "howling god," the
+owl "the bird of the gods," a black snake the "raven god;" but none
+of these things are now "worshipped," wolf-worship having quite
+lately died out.  Thunder, "the voice of the gods," inspires some
+fear.  The sun, they say, is their best god, and the fire their
+next best, obviously the divinities from whom their greatest
+benefits are received.  Some idea of gratitude pervades their rude
+notions, as in the case of the "worship" paid to Yoshitsune, and it
+appears in one of the rude recitations chanted at the Saturnalia
+which in several places conclude the hunting and fishing seasons:-
+
+"To the sea which nourishes us, to the forest which protects us, we
+present our grateful thanks.  You are two mothers that nourish the
+same child; do not be angry if we leave one to go to the other.
+
+"The Ainos will always be the pride of the forest and of the sea."
+
+The solitary act of sacrifice which they perform is the placing of
+a worthless, dead bird, something like a sparrow, near one of their
+peeled wands, where it is left till it reaches an advanced stage of
+putrefaction.  "To drink for the god" is the chief act of
+"worship," and thus drunkenness and religion are inseparably
+connected, as the more sake the Ainos drink the more devout they
+are, and the better pleased are the gods.  It does not appear that
+anything but sake is of sufficient value to please the gods.  The
+libations to the fire and the peeled post are never omitted, and
+are always accompanied by the inward waving of the sake bowls.
+
+The peculiarity which distinguishes this rude mythology is the
+"worship" of the bear, the Yezo bear being one of the finest of his
+species; but it is impossible to understand the feelings by which
+it is prompted, for they worship it after their fashion, and set up
+its head in their villages, yet they trap it, kill it, eat it, and
+sell its skin.  There is no doubt that this wild beast inspires
+more of the feeling which prompts worship than the inanimate forces
+of nature, and the Ainos may be distinguished as bear-worshippers,
+and their greatest religious festival or Saturnalia as the Festival
+of the Bear.  Gentle and peaceable as they are, they have a great
+admiration for fierceness and courage; and the bear, which is the
+strongest, fiercest, and most courageous animal known to them, has
+probably in all ages inspired them with veneration.  Some of their
+rude chants are in praise of the bear, and their highest eulogy on
+a man is to compare him to a bear.  Thus Shinondi said of Benri,
+the chief, "He is as strong as a bear," and the old Fate praising
+Pipichari called him "The young bear."
+
+In all Aino villages, specially near the chief's house, there are
+several tall poles with the fleshless skull of a bear on the top of
+each, and in most there is also a large cage, made grid-iron
+fashion, of stout timbers, and raised two or three feet from the
+ground.  At the present time such cages contain young but well-
+grown bears, captured when quite small in the early spring.  After
+the capture the bear cub is introduced into a dwelling-house,
+generally that of the chief, or sub-chief, where it is suckled by a
+woman, and played with by the children, till it grows too big and
+rough for domestic ways, and is placed in a strong cage, in which
+it is fed and cared for, as I understand, till the autumn of the
+following year, when, being strong and well-grown, the Festival of
+the Bear is celebrated.  The customs of this festival vary
+considerably, and the manner of the bear's death differs among the
+mountain and coast Ainos, but everywhere there is a general
+gathering of the people, and it is the occasion of a great feast,
+accompanied with much sake and a curious dance, in which men alone
+take part.
+
+Yells and shouts are used to excite the bear, and when he becomes
+much agitated a chief shoots him with an arrow, inflicting a slight
+wound which maddens him, on which the bars of the cage are raised,
+and he springs forth, very furious.  At this stage the Ainos run
+upon him with various weapons, each one striving to inflict a
+wound, as it brings good luck to draw his blood.  As soon as he
+falls down exhausted, his head is cut off, and the weapons with
+which he has been wounded are offered to it, and he is asked to
+avenge himself upon them.  Afterwards the carcass, amidst a
+frenzied uproar, is distributed among the people, and amidst
+feasting and riot the head, placed upon a pole, is worshipped, i.e.
+it receives libations of sake, and the festival closes with general
+intoxication.  In some villages it is customary for the foster-
+mother of the bear to utter piercing wails while he is delivered to
+his murderers, and after he is slain to beat each one of them with
+a branch of a tree.  [Afterwards at Usu, on Volcano Bay, the old
+men told me that at their festival they despatch the bear after a
+different manner.  On letting it loose from the cage two men seize
+it by the ears, and others simultaneously place a long, stout pole
+across the nape of its neck, upon which a number of Ainos mount,
+and after a prolonged struggle the neck is broken.  As the bear is
+seen to approach his end, they shout in chorus, "We kill you, O
+bear! come back soon into an Aino."]  When a bear is trapped or
+wounded by an arrow, the hunters go through an apologetic or
+propitiatory ceremony.  They appear to have certain rude ideas of
+metempsychosis, as is evidenced by the Usu prayer to the bear and
+certain rude traditions; but whether these are indigenous, or have
+arisen by contact with Buddhism at a later period, it is impossible
+to say.
+
+They have no definite ideas concerning a future state, and the
+subject is evidently not a pleasing one to them.  Such notions as
+they have are few and confused.  Some think that the spirits of
+their friends go into wolves and snakes; others, that they wander
+about the forests; and they are much afraid of ghosts.  A few think
+that they go to "a good or bad place," according to their deeds;
+but Shinondi said, and there was an infinite pathos in his words,
+"How can we know?  No one ever came back to tell us!"  On asking
+him what were bad deeds, he said, "Being bad to parents, stealing,
+and telling lies."  The future, however, does not occupy any place
+in their thoughts, and they can hardly be said to believe in the
+immortality of the soul, though their fear of ghosts shows that
+they recognise a distinction between body and spirit.
+
+Their social customs are very simple.  Girls never marry before the
+age of seventeen, or men before twenty-one.  When a man wishes to
+marry he thinks of some particular girl, and asks the chief if he
+may ask for her.  If leave is given, either through a "go-between"
+or personally, he asks her father for her, and if he consents the
+bridegroom gives him a present, usually a Japanese "curio."  This
+constitutes betrothal, and the marriage, which immediately follows,
+is celebrated by carousals and the drinking of much sake.  The
+bride receives as her dowry her earrings and a highly ornamented
+kimono.  It is an essential that the husband provides a house to
+which to take his wife.  Each couple lives separately, and even the
+eldest son does not take his bride to his father's house.  Polygamy
+is only allowed in two cases.  The chief may have three wives; but
+each must have her separate house.  Benri has two wives; but it
+appears that he took the second because the first was childless.
+[The Usu Ainos told me that among the tribes of Volcano Bay
+polygamy is not practised, even by the chiefs.]  It is also
+permitted in the case of a childless wife; but there is no instance
+of it in Biratori, and the men say that they prefer to have one
+wife, as two quarrel.
+
+Widows are allowed to marry again with the chief's consent; but
+among these mountain Ainos a woman must remain absolutely secluded
+within the house of her late husband for a period varying from six
+to twelve months, only going to the door at intervals to throw sake
+to the right and left.  A man secludes himself similarly for thirty
+days.  [So greatly do the customs vary, that round Volcano Bay I
+found that the period of seclusion for a widow is only thirty days,
+and for a man twenty-five; but that after a father's death the
+house in which he has lived is burned down after the thirty days of
+seclusion, and the widow and her children go to a friend's house
+for three years, after which the house is rebuilt on its former
+site.]
+
+If a man does not like his wife, by obtaining the chief's consent
+he can divorce her; but he must send her back to her parents with
+plenty of good clothes; but divorce is impracticable where there
+are children, and is rarely if ever practised.  Conjugal fidelity
+is a virtue among Aino women; but "custom" provides that, in case
+of unfaithfulness, the injured husband may bestow his wife upon her
+paramour, if he be an unmarried man; in which case the chief fixes
+the amount of damages which the paramour must pay; and these are
+usually valuable Japanese curios.
+
+The old and blind people are entirely supported by their children,
+and receive until their dying day filial reverence and obedience.
+
+If one man steals from another he must return what he has taken,
+and give the injured man a present besides, the value of which is
+fixed by the chief.
+
+Their mode of living you already know, as I have shared it, and am
+still receiving their hospitality.  "Custom" enjoins the exercise
+of hospitality on every Aino.  They receive all strangers as they
+received me, giving them of their best, placing them in the most
+honourable place, bestowing gifts upon them, and, when they depart,
+furnishing them with cakes of boiled millet.
+
+They have few amusements, except certain feasts.  Their dance,
+which they have just given in my honour, is slow and mournful, and
+their songs are chants or recitative.  They have a musical
+instrument, something like a guitar, with three, five, or six
+strings, which are made from sinews of whales cast up on the shore.
+They have another, which is believed to be peculiar to themselves,
+consisting of a thin piece of wood, about five inches long and two
+and a half inches broad, with a pointed wooden tongue, about two
+lines in breadth and sixteen in length, fixed in the middle, and
+grooved on three sides.  The wood is held before the mouth, and the
+tongue is set in motion by the vibration of the breath in singing.
+Its sound, though less penetrating, is as discordant as that of a
+Jew's harp, which it somewhat resembles.  One of the men used it as
+an accompaniment of a song; but they are unwilling to part with
+them, as they say that it is very seldom that they can find a piece
+of wood which will bear the fine splitting necessary for the
+tongue.
+
+They are a most courteous people among each other.  The salutations
+are frequent--on entering a house, on leaving it, on meeting on the
+road, on receiving anything from the hand of another, and on
+receiving a kind or complimentary speech.  They do not make any
+acknowledgments of this kind to the women, however.  The common
+salutation consists in extending the hands and waving them inwards,
+once or oftener, and stroking the beard; the formal one in raising
+the hands with an inward curve to the level of the head two or
+three times, lowering them, and rubbing them together; the ceremony
+concluding with stroking the beard several times.  The latter and
+more formal mode of salutation is offered to the chief, and by the
+young to the old men.  The women have no "manners!"
+
+They have no "medicine men," and, though they are aware of the
+existence of healing herbs, they do not know their special virtues
+or the manner of using them.  Dried and pounded bear's liver is
+their specific, and they place much reliance on it in colic and
+other pains.  They are a healthy race.  In this village of 300
+souls, there are no chronically ailing people; nothing but one case
+of bronchitis, and some cutaneous maladies among children.  Neither
+is there any case of deformity in this and five other large
+villages which I have visited, except that of a girl, who has one
+leg slightly shorter than the other.
+
+They ferment a kind of intoxicating liquor from the root of a tree,
+and also from their own millet and Japanese rice, but Japanese sake
+is the one thing that they care about.  They spend all their gains
+upon it, and drink it in enormous quantities.  It represents to
+them all the good of which they know, or can conceive.  Beastly
+intoxication is the highest happiness to which these poor savages
+aspire, and the condition is sanctified to them under the fiction
+of "drinking to the gods."  Men and women alike indulge in this
+vice.  A few, however, like Pipichari, abstain from it totally,
+taking the bowl in their hands, making the libations to the gods,
+and then passing it on.  I asked Pipichari why he did not take
+sake, and he replied with a truthful terseness, "Because it makes
+men like dogs."
+
+Except the chief, who has two horses, they have no domestic animals
+except very large, yellow dogs, which are used in hunting, but are
+never admitted within the houses.
+
+The habits of the people, though by no means destitute of decency
+and propriety, are not cleanly.  The women bathe their hands once a
+day, but any other washing is unknown.  They never wash their
+clothes, and wear the same by day and night.  I am afraid to
+speculate on the condition of their wealth of coal-black hair.
+They may be said to be very dirty--as dirty fully as masses of our
+people at home.  Their houses swarm with fleas, but they are not
+worse in this respect than the Japanese yadoyas.  The mountain
+villages have, however, the appearance of extreme cleanliness,
+being devoid of litter, heaps, puddles, and untidiness of all
+kinds, and there are no unpleasant odours inside or outside the
+houses, as they are well ventilated and smoked, and the salt fish
+and meat are kept in the godowns.  The hair and beards of the old
+men, instead of being snowy as they ought to be, are yellow from
+smoke and dirt.
+
+They have no mode of computing time, and do not know their own
+ages.  To them the past is dead, yet, like other conquered and
+despised races, they cling to the idea that in some far-off age
+they were a great nation.  They have no traditions of internecine
+strife, and the art of war seems to have been lost long ago.  I
+asked Benri about this matter, and he says that formerly Ainos
+fought with spears and knives as well as with bows and arrows, but
+that Yoshitsune, their hero god, forbade war for ever, and since
+then the two-edged spear, with a shaft nine feet long, has only
+been used in hunting bears.
+
+The Japanese Government, of course, exercises the same authority
+over the Ainos as over its other subjects, but probably it does not
+care to interfere in domestic or tribal matters, and within this
+outside limit despotic authority is vested in the chiefs.  The
+Ainos live in village communities, and each community has its own
+chief, who is its lord paramount.  It appears to me that this
+chieftainship is but an expansion of the paternal relation, and
+that all the village families are ruled as a unit.  Benri, in whose
+house I am, is the chief of Biratori, and is treated by all with
+very great deference of manner.  The office is nominally for life;
+but if a chief becomes blind, or too infirm to go about, he
+appoints a successor.  If he has a "smart" son, who he thinks will
+command the respect of the people, he appoints him; but if not, he
+chooses the most suitable man in the village.  The people are
+called upon to approve the choice, but their ratification is never
+refused.  The office is not hereditary anywhere.
+
+Benri appears to exercise the authority of a very strict father.
+His manner to all the men is like that of a master to slaves, and
+they bow when they speak to him.  No one can marry without his
+approval.  If any one builds a house he chooses the site.  He has
+absolute jurisdiction in civil and criminal cases, unless (which is
+very rare) the latter should be of sufficient magnitude to be
+reported to the Imperial officials.  He compels restitution of
+stolen property, and in all cases fixes the fines which are to be
+paid by delinquents.  He also fixes the hunting arrangements and
+the festivals.  The younger men were obviously much afraid of
+incurring his anger in his absence.
+
+An eldest son does not appear to be, as among the Japanese, a
+privileged person.  He does not necessarily inherit the house and
+curios.  The latter are not divided, but go with the house to the
+son whom the father regards as being the "smartest."  Formal
+adoption is practised.  Pipichari is an adopted son, and is likely
+to succeed to Benri's property to the exclusion of his own
+children.  I cannot get at the word which is translated
+"smartness," but I understand it as meaning general capacity.  The
+chief, as I have mentioned before, is allowed three wives among the
+mountain Ainos, otherwise authority seems to be his only privilege.
+
+The Ainos have a singular dread of snakes.  Even their bravest fly
+from them.  One man says that it is because they know of no cure
+for their bite; but there is something more than this, for they
+flee from snakes which they know to be harmless.
+
+They have an equal dread of their dead.  Death seems to them very
+specially "the shadow fear'd of man."  When it comes, which it
+usually does from bronchitis in old age, the corpse is dressed in
+its best clothing, and laid upon a shelf for from one to three
+days.  In the case of a woman her ornaments are buried with her,
+and in that of a man his knife and sake-stick, and, if he were a
+smoker, his smoking apparatus.  The corpse is sewn up with these
+things in a mat, and, being slung on poles, is carried to a
+solitary grave, where it is laid in a recumbent position.  Nothing
+will induce an Aino to go near a grave.  Even if a valuable bird or
+animal falls near one, he will not go to pick it up.  A vague dread
+is for ever associated with the departed, and no dream of Paradise
+ever lights for the Aino the "Stygian shades."
+
+Benri is, for an Aino, intelligent.  Two years ago Mr. Dening of
+Hakodate came up here and told him that there was but one God who
+made us all, to which the shrewd old man replied, "If the God who
+made you made us, how is it that you are so different--you so rich,
+we so poor?"  On asking him about the magnificent pieces of lacquer
+and inlaying which adorn his curio shelf, he said that they were
+his father's, grandfather's, and great-grandfather's at least, and
+he thinks they were gifts from the daimiyo of Matsumae soon after
+the conquest of Yezo.  He is a grand-looking man, in spite of the
+havoc wrought by his intemperate habits.  There is plenty of room
+in the house, and this morning, when I asked him to show me the use
+of the spear, he looked a truly magnificent savage, stepping well
+back with the spear in rest, and then springing forward for the
+attack, his arms and legs turning into iron, the big muscles
+standing out in knots, his frame quivering with excitement, the
+thick hair falling back in masses from his brow, and the fire of
+the chase in his eye.  I trembled for my boy, who was the object of
+the imaginary onslaught, the passion of sport was so admirably
+acted.
+
+As I write, seven of the older men are sitting by the fire.  Their
+grey beards fall to their waists in rippled masses, and the slight
+baldness of age not only gives them a singularly venerable
+appearance, but enhances the beauty of their lofty brows.  I took a
+rough sketch of one of the handsomest, and, showing it to him,
+asked if he would have it, but instead of being amused or pleased
+he showed symptoms of fear, and asked me to burn it, saying it
+would bring him bad luck and he should die.  However, Ito pacified
+him, and he accepted it, after a Chinese character, which is
+understood to mean good luck, had been written upon it; but all the
+others begged me not to "make pictures" of them, except Pipichari,
+who lies at my feet like a staghound.
+
+The profusion of black hair, and a curious intensity about their
+eyes, coupled with the hairy limbs and singularly vigorous
+physique, give them a formidably savage appearance; but the smile,
+full of "sweetness and light," in which both eyes and mouth bear
+part, and the low, musical voice, softer and sweeter than anything
+I have previously heard, make me at times forget that they are
+savages at all.  The venerable look of these old men harmonises
+with the singular dignity and courtesy of their manners, but as I
+look at the grand heads, and reflect that the Ainos have never
+shown any capacity, and are merely adult children, they seem to
+suggest water on the brain rather than intellect.  I am more and
+more convinced that the expression of their faces is European.  It
+is truthful, straightforward, manly, but both it and the tone of
+voice are strongly tinged with pathos.
+
+Before these elders Benri asked me, in a severe tone, if I had been
+annoyed in any way during his absence.  He feared, he said, that
+the young men and the women would crowd about me rudely.  I made a
+complimentary speech in return, and all the ancient hands were
+waved, and the venerable beards were stroked in acknowledgment.
+
+These Ainos, doubtless, stand high among uncivilised peoples.  They
+are, however, as completely irreclaimable as the wildest of nomad
+tribes, and contact with civilisation, where it exists, only
+debases them.  Several young Ainos were sent to Tokiyo, and
+educated and trained in various ways, but as soon as they returned
+to Yezo they relapsed into savagery, retaining nothing but a
+knowledge of Japanese.  They are charming in many ways, but make
+one sad, too, by their stupidity, apathy, and hopelessness, and all
+the sadder that their numbers appear to be again increasing; and as
+their physique is very fine, there does not appear to be a prospect
+of the race dying out at present.
+
+They are certainly superior to many aborigines, as they have an
+approach to domestic life.  They have one word for HOUSE, and
+another for HOME, and one word for husband approaches very nearly
+to house-band.  Truth is of value in their eyes, and this in itself
+raises them above some peoples.  Infanticide is unknown, and aged
+parents receive filial reverence, kindness, and support, while in
+their social and domestic relations there is much that is
+praiseworthy.
+
+I must conclude this letter abruptly, as the horses are waiting,
+and I must cross the rivers, if possible, before the bursting of an
+impending storm.  I. L. B.
+
+
+
+LETTER XXXVIII
+
+
+
+A Parting Gift--A Delicacy--Generosity--A Seaside Village--
+Pipichari's Advice--A Drunken Revel--Ito's Prophecies--The Kocho's
+Illness--Patent Medicines.
+
+SARUFUTO, YEZO, August 27.
+
+I left the Ainos yesterday with real regret, though I must confess
+that sleeping in one's clothes and the lack of ablutions are very
+fatiguing.  Benri's two wives spent the early morning in the
+laborious operation of grinding millet into coarse flour, and
+before I departed, as their custom is, they made a paste of it,
+rolled it with their unclean fingers into well-shaped cakes, boiled
+them in the unwashed pot in which they make their stew of
+"abominable things," and presented them to me on a lacquer tray.
+They were distressed that I did not eat their food, and a woman
+went to a village at some distance and brought me some venison fat
+as a delicacy.  All those of whom I had seen much came to wish me
+good-bye, and they brought so many presents (including a fine
+bearskin) that I should have needed an additional horse to carry
+them had I accepted but one-half.
+
+I rode twelve miles through the forest to Mombets, where I intended
+to spend Sunday, but I had the worst horse I ever rode, and we took
+five hours.  The day was dull and sad, threatening a storm, and
+when we got out of the forest, upon a sand-hill covered with oak
+scrub, we encountered a most furious wind.  Among the many views
+which I have seen, that is one to be remembered.  Below lay a
+bleached and bare sand-hill, with a few grey houses huddled in its
+miserable shelter, and a heaped-up shore of grey sand, on which a
+brown-grey sea was breaking with clash and boom in long, white,
+ragged lines, with all beyond a confusion of surf, surge, and mist,
+with driving brown clouds mingling sea and sky, and all between
+showing only in glimpses amidst scuds of sand.
+
+At a house in the scrub a number of men were drinking sake with
+much uproar, and a superb-looking Aino came out, staggered a few
+yards, and then fell backwards among the weeds, a picture of
+debasement.  I forgot to tell you that before I left Biratori, I
+inveighed to the assembled Ainos against the practice and
+consequences of sake-drinking, and was met with the reply, "We must
+drink to the gods, or we shall die;" but Pipichari said, "You say
+that which is good; let us give sake to the gods, but not drink
+it," for which bold speech he was severely rebuked by Benri.
+
+Mombets is a stormily-situated and most wretched cluster of twenty-
+seven decayed houses, some of them Aino, and some Japanese.  The
+fish-oil and seaweed fishing trades are in brisk operation there
+now for a short time, and a number of Aino and Japanese strangers
+are employed.  The boats could not get out because of the surf, and
+there was a drunken debauch.  The whole place smelt of sake.  Tipsy
+men were staggering about and falling flat on their backs, to lie
+there like dogs till they were sober,--Aino women were vainly
+endeavouring to drag their drunken lords home, and men of both
+races were reduced to a beastly equality.  I went to the yadoya
+where I intended to spend Sunday, but, besides being very dirty and
+forlorn, it was the very centre of the sake traffic, and in its
+open space there were men in all stages of riotous and stupid
+intoxication.  It was a sad scene, yet one to be matched in a
+hundred places in Scotland every Saturday afternoon.  I am told by
+the Kocho here that an Aino can drink four or five times as much as
+a Japanese without being tipsy, so for each tipsy Aino there had
+been an outlay of 6s. or 7s., for sake is 8d. a cup here!
+
+I had some tea and eggs in the daidokoro, and altered my plans
+altogether on finding that if I proceeded farther round the east
+coast, as I intended, I should run the risk of several days'
+detention on the banks of numerous "bad rivers" if rain came on, by
+which I should run the risk of breaking my promise to deliver Ito
+to Mr. Maries by a given day.  I do not surrender this project,
+however, without an equivalent, for I intend to add 100 miles to my
+journey, by taking an almost disused track round Volcano Bay, and
+visiting the coast Ainos of a very primitive region.  Ito is very
+much opposed to this, thinking that he has made a sufficient
+sacrifice of personal comfort at Biratori, and plies me with
+stories, such as that there are "many bad rivers to cross," that
+the track is so worn as to be impassable, that there are no
+yadoyas, and that at the Government offices we shall neither get
+rice nor eggs!  An old man who has turned back unable to get horses
+is made responsible for these stories.  The machinations are very
+amusing.  Ito was much smitten with the daughter of the house-
+master at Mororan, and left some things in her keeping, and the
+desire to see her again is at the bottom of his opposition to the
+other route.
+
+Monday.--The horse could not or would not carry me farther than
+Mombets, so, sending the baggage on, I walked through the oak wood,
+and enjoyed its silent solitude, in spite of the sad reflections
+upon the enslavement of the Ainos to sake.  I spent yesterday
+quietly in my old quarters, with a fearful storm of wind and rain
+outside.  Pipichari appeared at noon, nominally to bring news of
+the sick woman, who is recovering, and to have his nearly healed
+foot bandaged again, but really to bring me a knife sheath which he
+has carved for me.  He lay on the mat in the corner of my room most
+of the afternoon, and I got a great many more words from him.  The
+house-master, who is the Kocho of Sarufuto, paid me a courteous
+visit, and in the evening sent to say that he would be very glad of
+some medicine, for he was "very ill and going to have fever."  He
+had caught a bad cold and sore throat, had bad pains in his limbs,
+and was bemoaning himself ruefully.  To pacify his wife, who was
+very sorry for him, I gave him some "Cockle's Pills" and the
+trapper's remedy of "a pint of hot water with a pinch of cayenne
+pepper," and left him moaning and bundled up under a pile of
+futons, in a nearly hermetically sealed room, with a hibachi of
+charcoal vitiating the air.  This morning when I went and inquired
+after him in a properly concerned tone, his wife told me very
+gleefully that he was quite well and had gone out, and had left 25
+sen for some more of the medicines that I had given him, so with
+great gravity I put up some of Duncan and Flockhart's most pungent
+cayenne pepper, and showed her how much to use.  She was not
+content, however, without some of the "Cockles," a single box of
+which has performed six of those "miraculous cures" which rejoice
+the hearts and fill the pockets of patent medicine makers!
+
+I. L. B.
+
+
+
+LETTER XXXIX
+
+
+
+A Welcome Gift--Recent Changes--Volcanic Phenomena--Interesting
+Tufa Cones--Semi-strangulation--A Fall into a Bear-trap--The
+Shiraoi Ainos--Horsebreaking and Cruelty.
+
+OLD MORORAN, VOLCANO BAY, YEZO,
+September 2.
+
+After the storm of Sunday, Monday was a grey, still, tender day,
+and the ranges of wooded hills were bathed in the richest indigo
+colouring.  A canter of seventeen miles among the damask roses on a
+very rough horse only took me to Yubets, whose indescribable
+loneliness fascinated me into spending a night there again, and
+encountering a wild clatter of wind and rain; and another canter of
+seven miles the next morning took me to Tomakomai, where I rejoined
+my kuruma, and after a long delay, three trotting Ainos took me to
+Shiraoi, where the "clear shining after rain," and the mountains
+against a lemon-coloured sky, were extremely beautiful; but the
+Pacific was as unrestful as a guilty thing, and its crash and
+clamour and the severe cold fatigued me so much that I did not
+pursue my journey the next day, and had the pleasure of a flying
+visit from Mr. Von Siebold and Count Diesbach, who bestowed a
+chicken upon me.
+
+I like Shiraoi very much, and if I were stronger would certainly
+make it a basis for exploring a part of the interior, in which
+there is much to reward the explorer.  Obviously the changes in
+this part of Yezo have been comparatively recent, and the energy of
+the force which has produced them is not yet extinct.  The land has
+gained from the sea along the whole of this part of the coast to
+the extent of two or three miles, the old beach with its bays and
+headlands being a marked feature of the landscape.  This new
+formation appears to be a vast bed of pumice, covered by a thin
+layer of vegetable mould, which cannot be more than fifty years
+old.  This pumice fell during the eruption of the volcano of
+Tarumai, which is very near Shiraoi, and is also brought down in
+large quantities from the interior hills and valleys by the
+numerous rivers, besides being washed up by the sea.  At the last
+eruption pumice fell over this region of Yezo to a medium depth of
+3 feet 6 inches.  In nearly all the rivers good sections of the
+formation may be seen in their deeply-cleft banks, broad, light-
+coloured bands of pumice, with a few inches of rich, black,
+vegetable soil above, and several feet of black sea-sand below.
+During a freshet which occurred the first night I was at Shiraoi, a
+single stream covered a piece of land with pumice to the depth of
+nine inches, being the wash from the hills of the interior, in a
+course of less than fifteen miles.
+
+Looking inland, the volcano of Tarumai, with a bare grey top and a
+blasted forest on its sides, occupies the right of the picture.  To
+the left and inland are mountains within mountains, tumbled
+together in most picturesque confusion, densely covered with forest
+and cleft by magnificent ravines, here and there opening out into
+narrow valleys.  The whole of the interior is jungle penetrable for
+a few miles by shallow and rapid rivers, and by nearly smothered
+trails made by the Ainos in search of game.  The general lie of the
+country made me very anxious to find out whether a much-broken
+ridge lying among the mountains is or is not a series of tufa cones
+of ancient date; and, applying for a good horse and Aino guide on
+horseback, I left Ito to amuse himself, and spent much of a most
+splendid day in investigations and in attempting to get round the
+back of the volcano and up its inland side.  There is a great deal
+to see and learn there.  Oh that I had strength!  After hours of
+most tedious and exhausting work I reached a point where there were
+several great fissures emitting smoke and steam, with occasional
+subterranean detonations.  These were on the side of a small, flank
+crack which was smoking heavily.  There was light pumice
+everywhere, but nothing like recent lava or scoriae.  One fissure
+was completely lined with exquisite, acicular crystals of sulphur,
+which perished with a touch.  Lower down there were two hot springs
+with a deposit of sulphur round their margins, and bubbles of gas,
+which, from its strong, garlicky smell, I suppose to be
+sulphuretted hydrogen.  Farther progress in that direction was
+impossible without a force of pioneers.  I put my arm down several
+deep crevices which were at an altitude of only about 500 feet, and
+had to withdraw it at once, owing to the great heat, in which some
+beautiful specimens of tropical ferns were growing.  At the same
+height I came to a hot spring--hot enough to burst one of my
+thermometers, which was graduated above the boiling point of
+Fahrenheit; and tying up an egg in a pocket-handkerchief and
+holding it by a stick in the water, it was hard boiled in 8.5
+minutes.  The water evaporated without leaving a trace of deposit
+on the handkerchief, and there was no crust round its margin.  It
+boiled and bubbled with great force.
+
+Three hours more of exhausting toil, which almost knocked up the
+horses, brought us to the apparent ridge, and I was delighted to
+find that it consisted of a lateral range of tufa cones, which I
+estimate as being from 200 to 350, or even 400 feet high.  They are
+densely covered with trees of considerable age, and a rich deposit
+of mould; but their conical form is still admirably defined.  An
+hour of very severe work, and energetic use of the knife on the
+part of the Aino, took me to the top of one of these through a mass
+of entangled and gigantic vegetation, and I was amply repaid by
+finding a deep, well-defined crateriform cavity of great depth,
+with its sides richly clothed with vegetation, closely resembling
+some of the old cones in the island of Kauai.  This cone is
+partially girdled by a stream, which in one place has cut through a
+bank of both red and black volcanic ash.  All the usual phenomena
+of volcanic regions are probably to be met with north of Shiraoi,
+and I hope they will at some future time be made the object of
+careful investigation.
+
+In spite of the desperate and almost overwhelming fatigue, I have
+enjoyed few things more than that "exploring expedition."  If the
+Japanese have no one to talk to they croon hideous discords to
+themselves, and it was a relief to leave Ito behind and get away
+with an Aino, who was at once silent, trustworthy, and faithful.
+Two bright rivers bubbling over beds of red pebbles run down to
+Shiraoi out of the back country, and my directions, which were
+translated to the Aino, were to follow up one of these and go into
+the mountains in the direction of one I pointed out till I said
+"Shiraoi."  It was one of those exquisite mornings which are seen
+sometimes in the Scotch Highlands before rain, with intense
+clearness and visibility, a blue atmosphere, a cloudless sky, blue
+summits, heavy dew, and glorious sunshine, and under these
+circumstances scenery beautiful in itself became entrancing.
+
+The trailers are so formidable that we had to stoop over our
+horses' necks at all times, and with pushing back branches and
+guarding my face from slaps and scratches, my thick dogskin gloves
+were literally frayed off, and some of the skin of my hands and
+face in addition, so that I returned with both bleeding and
+swelled.  It was on the return ride, fortunately, that in stooping
+to escape one great liana the loop of another grazed my nose, and,
+being unable to check my unbroken horse instantaneously, the loop
+caught me by the throat, nearly strangled me, and in less time than
+it takes to tell it I was drawn over the back of the saddle, and
+found myself lying on the ground, jammed between a tree and the
+hind leg of the horse, which was quietly feeding.  The Aino, whose
+face was very badly scratched, missing me, came back, said never a
+word, helped me up, brought me some water in a leaf, brought my
+hat, and we rode on again.  I was little the worse for the fall,
+but on borrowing a looking-glass I see not only scratches and
+abrasions all over my face, but a livid mark round my throat as if
+I had been hung!  The Aino left portions of his bushy locks on many
+of the branches.  You would have been amused to see me in this
+forest, preceded by this hairy and formidable-looking savage, who
+was dressed in a coat of skins with the fur outside, seated on the
+top of a pack-saddle covered with a deer hide, and with his hairy
+legs crossed over the horse's neck--a fashion in which the Ainos
+ride any horses over any ground with the utmost serenity.
+
+It was a wonderful region for beauty.  I have not seen so beautiful
+a view in Japan as from the river-bed from which I had the first
+near view of the grand assemblage of tufa cones, covered with an
+ancient vegetation, backed by high mountains of volcanic origin, on
+whose ragged crests the red ash was blazing vermilion against the
+blue sky, with a foreground of bright waters flashing through a
+primeval forest.  The banks of these streams were deeply excavated
+by the heavy rains, and sometimes we had to jump three and even
+four feet out of the forest into the river, and as much up again,
+fording the Shiraoi river only more than twenty times, and often
+making a pathway of its treacherous bed and rushing waters, because
+the forest was impassable from the great size of the prostrate
+trees.  The horses look at these jumps, hold back, try to turn, and
+then, making up their minds, suddenly plunge down or up.  When the
+last vestige of a trail disappeared, I signed to the Aino to go on,
+and our subsequent "exploration" was all done at the rate of about
+a mile an hour.  On the openings the grass grows stiff and strong
+to the height of eight feet, with its soft reddish plumes waving in
+the breeze.  The Aino first forced his horse through it, but of
+course it closed again, so that constantly when he was close in
+front I was only aware of his proximity by the tinkling of his
+horse's bells, for I saw nothing of him or of my own horse except
+the horn of my saddle.  We tumbled into holes often, and as easily
+tumbled out of them; but once we both went down in the most
+unexpected manner into what must have been an old bear-trap, both
+going over our horses' heads, the horses and ourselves struggling
+together in a narrow space in a mist of grassy plumes, and, being
+unable to communicate with my guide, the sense of the ridiculous
+situation was so overpowering that, even in the midst of the
+mishap, I was exhausted with laughter, though not a little bruised.
+It was very hard to get out of that pitfall, and I hope I shall
+never get into one again.  It is not the first occasion on which I
+have been glad that the Yezo horses are shoeless.  It was through
+this long grass that we fought our way to the tufa cones, with the
+red ragged crests against the blue sky.
+
+The scenery was magnificent, and after getting so far I longed to
+explore the sources of the rivers, but besides the many
+difficulties the day was far spent.  I was also too weak for any
+energetic undertaking, yet I felt an intuitive perception of the
+passion and fascination of exploring, and understood how people
+could give up their lives to it.  I turned away from the tufa cones
+and the glory of the ragged crests very sadly, to ride a tired
+horse through great difficulties; and the animal was so thoroughly
+done up that I had to walk, or rather wade, for the last hour, and
+it was nightfall when I returned, to find that Ito had packed up
+all my things, had been waiting ever since noon to start for
+Horobets, was very grumpy at having to unpack, and thoroughly
+disgusted when I told him that I was so tired and bruised that I
+should have to remain the next day to rest.  He said indignantly,
+"I never thought that when you'd got the Kaitakushi kuruma you'd go
+off the road into those woods!"  We had seen some deer and many
+pheasants, and a successful hunter brought in a fine stag, so that
+I had venison steak for supper, and was much comforted, though Ito
+seasoned the meal with well-got-up stories of the impracticability
+of the Volcano Bay route.
+
+Shiraoi consists of a large old Honjin, or yadoya, where the
+daimiyo and his train used to lodge in the old days, and about
+eleven Japanese houses, most of which are sake shops--a fact which
+supplies an explanation of the squalor of the Aino village of
+fifty-two houses, which is on the shore at a respectful distance.
+There is no cultivation, in which it is like all the fishing
+villages on this part of the coast, but fish-oil and fish-manure
+are made in immense quantities, and, though it is not the season
+here, the place is pervaded by "an ancient and fish-like smell."
+
+The Aino houses are much smaller, poorer, and dirtier than those of
+Biratori.  I went into a number of them, and conversed with the
+people, many of whom understand Japanese.  Some of the houses
+looked like dens, and, as it was raining, husband, wife, and five
+or six naked children, all as dirty as they could be, with unkempt,
+elf-like locks, were huddled round the fires.  Still, bad as it
+looked and smelt, the fire was the hearth, and the hearth was
+inviolate, and each smoked and dirt-stained group was a family, and
+it was an advance upon the social life of, for instance, Salt Lake
+City.  The roofs are much flatter than those of the mountain Ainos,
+and, as there are few store-houses, quantities of fish, "green"
+skins, and venison, hang from the rafters, and the smell of these
+and the stinging of the smoke were most trying.  Few of the houses
+had any guest-seats, but in the very poorest, when I asked shelter
+from the rain, they put their best mat upon the ground, and
+insisted, much to my distress, on my walking over it in muddy
+boots, saying, "It is Aino custom."  Ever, in those squalid homes
+the broad shelf, with its rows of Japanese curios, always has a
+place.  I mentioned that it is customary for a chief to appoint a
+successor when he becomes infirm, and I came upon a case in point,
+through a mistaken direction, which took us to the house of the
+former chief, with a great empty bear cage at its door.  On
+addressing him as the chief, he said, "I am old and blind, I cannot
+go out, I am of no more good," and directed us to the house of his
+successor.  Altogether it is obvious, from many evidences in this
+village, that Japanese contiguity is hurtful, and that the Ainos
+have reaped abundantly of the disadvantages without the advantages
+of contact with Japanese civilisation.
+
+That night I saw a specimen of Japanese horse-breaking as practised
+in Yezo.  A Japanese brought into the village street a handsome,
+spirited young horse, equipped with a Japanese demi-pique saddle,
+and a most cruel gag bit.  The man wore very cruel spurs, and was
+armed with a bit of stout board two feet long by six inches broad.
+The horse had not been mounted before, and was frightened, but not
+the least vicious.  He was spurred into a gallop, and ridden at
+full speed up and down the street, turned by main force, thrown on
+his haunches, goaded with the spurs, and cowed by being mercilessly
+thrashed over the ears and eyes with the piece of board till he was
+blinded with blood.  Whenever he tried to stop from exhaustion he
+was spurred, jerked, and flogged, till at last, covered with sweat,
+foam, and blood, and with blood running from his mouth and
+splashing the road, he reeled, staggered, and fell, the rider
+dexterously disengaging himself.  As soon as he was able to stand,
+he was allowed to crawl into a shed, where he was kept without food
+till morning, when a child could do anything with him.  He was
+"broken," effectually spirit-broken, useless for the rest of his
+life.  It was a brutal and brutalising exhibition, as triumphs of
+brute force always are.
+
+
+
+LETTER XXXIX--(Continued)
+
+
+
+The Universal Language--The Yezo Corrals--A "Typhoon Rain"--
+Difficult Tracks--An Unenviable Ride--Drying Clothes--A Woman's
+Remorse.
+
+This morning I left early in the kuruma with two kind and
+delightful savages.  The road being much broken by the rains I had
+to get out frequently, and every time I got in again they put my
+air-pillow behind me, and covered me up in a blanket; and when we
+got to a rough river, one made a step of his back by which I
+mounted their horse, and gave me nooses of rope to hold on by, and
+the other held my arm to keep me steady, and they would not let me
+walk up or down any of the hills.  What a blessing it is that,
+amidst the confusion of tongues, the language of kindness and
+courtesy is universally understood, and that a kindly smile on a
+savage face is as intelligible as on that of one's own countryman!
+They had never drawn a kuruma, and were as pleased as children when
+I showed them how to balance the shafts.  They were not without the
+capacity to originate ideas, for, when they were tired of the
+frolic of pulling, they attached the kuruma by ropes to the horse,
+which one of them rode at a "scramble," while the other merely ran
+in the shafts to keep them level.  This is an excellent plan.
+
+Horobets is a fishing station of antique and decayed aspect, with
+eighteen Japanese and forty-seven Aino houses.  The latter are much
+larger than at Shiraoi, and their very steep roofs are beautifully
+constructed.  It was a miserable day, with fog concealing the
+mountains and lying heavily on the sea, but as no one expected rain
+I sent the kuruma back to Mororan and secured horses.  On principle
+I always go to the corral myself to choose animals, if possible,
+without sore backs, but the choice is often between one with a mere
+raw and others which have holes in their backs into which I could
+put my hand, or altogether uncovered spines.  The practice does no
+immediate good, but by showing the Japanese that foreign opinion
+condemns these cruelties an amendment may eventually be brought
+about.  At Horobets, among twenty horses, there was not one that I
+would take,--I should like to have had them all shot.  They are
+cheap and abundant, and are of no account.  They drove a number
+more down from the hills, and I chose the largest and finest horse
+I have seen in Japan, with some spirit and action, but I soon found
+that he had tender feet.  We shortly left the high-road, and in
+torrents of rain turned off on "unbeaten tracks," which led us
+through a very bad swamp and some much swollen and very rough
+rivers into the mountains, where we followed a worn-out track for
+eight miles.  It was literally "FOUL weather," dark and still, with
+a brown mist, and rain falling in sheets.  I threw my paper
+waterproof away as useless, my clothes were of course soaked, and
+it was with much difficulty that I kept my shomon and paper money
+from being reduced to pulp.  Typhoons are not known so far north as
+Yezo, but it was what they call a "typhoon rain" without the
+typhoon, and in no time it turned the streams into torrents barely
+fordable, and tore up such of a road as there is, which at its best
+is a mere water-channel.  Torrents, bringing tolerable-sized
+stones, tore down the track, and when the horses had been struck
+two or three times by these, it was with difficulty that they could
+be induced to face the rushing water.  Constantly in a pass, the
+water had gradually cut a track several feet deep between steep
+banks, and the only possible walking place was a stony gash not
+wide enough for the two feet of a horse alongside of each other,
+down which water and stones were rushing from behind, with all
+manner of trailers matted overhead, and between avoiding being
+strangled and attempting to keep a tender-footed horse on his legs,
+the ride was a very severe one.  The poor animal fell five times
+from stepping on stones, and in one of his falls twisted my left
+wrist badly.  I thought of the many people who envied me my tour in
+Japan, and wondered whether they would envy me that ride!
+
+After this had gone on for four hours, the track, with a sudden dip
+over a hillside, came down on Old Mororan, a village of thirty Aino
+and nine Japanese houses, very unpromising-looking, although
+exquisitely situated on the rim of a lovely cove.  The Aino huts
+were small and poor, with an unusual number of bear skulls on
+poles, and the village consisted mainly of two long dilapidated
+buildings, in which a number of men were mending nets.  It looked a
+decaying place, of low, mean lives.  But at a "merchant's" there
+was one delightful room with two translucent sides--one opening on
+the village, the other looking to the sea down a short, steep
+slope, on which is a quaint little garden, with dwarfed fir-trees
+in pots, a few balsams, and a red cabbage grown with much pride as
+a "foliage plant."
+
+It is nearly midnight, but my bed and bedding are so wet that I am
+still sitting up and drying them, patch by patch, with tedious
+slowness, on a wooden frame placed over a charcoal brazier, which
+has given my room the dryness and warmth which are needed when a
+person has been for many hours in soaked clothing, and has nothing
+really dry to put on.  Ito bought a chicken for my supper, but when
+he was going to kill it an hour later its owner in much grief
+returned the money, saying she had brought it up and could not bear
+to see it killed.  This is a wild, outlandish place, but an
+intuition tells me that it is beautiful.  The ocean at present is
+thundering up the beach with the sullen force of a heavy ground-
+swell, and the rain is still falling in torrents.
+
+I. L. B.
+
+
+
+LETTER XL
+
+
+
+"More than Peace"--Geographical Difficulties--Usu-taki--Swimming
+the Osharu--A Dream of Beauty--A Sunset Effect--A Nocturnal Alarm--
+The Coast Ainos.
+
+LEBUNGE, VOLCANO BAY, YEZO,
+September 6.
+
+"Weary wave and dying blast
+Sob and moan along the shore,
+All is peace at last."
+
+And more than peace.  It was a heavenly morning.  The deep blue sky
+was perfectly unclouded, a blue sea with diamond flash and a "many-
+twinkling smile" rippled gently on the golden sands of the lovely
+little bay, and opposite, forty miles away, the pink summit of the
+volcano of Komono-taki, forming the south-western point of Volcano
+Bay, rose into a softening veil of tender blue haze.  There was a
+balmy breeziness in the air, and tawny tints upon the hill, patches
+of gold in the woods, and a scarlet spray here and there heralded
+the glories of the advancing autumn.  As the day began, so it
+closed.  I should like to have detained each hour as it passed.  It
+was thorough enjoyment.  I visited a good many of the Mororan
+Ainos, saw their well-grown bear in its cage, and, tearing myself
+away with difficulty at noon, crossed a steep hill and a wood of
+scrub oak, and then followed a trail which runs on the amber sands
+close to the sea, crosses several small streams, and passes the
+lonely Aino village of Maripu, the ocean always on the left and
+wooded ranges on the right, and in front an apparent bar to farther
+progress in the volcano of Usu-taki, an imposing mountain, rising
+abruptly to a height of nearly 3000 feet, I should think.
+
+In Yezo, as on the main island, one can learn very little about any
+prospective route.  Usually when one makes an inquiry a Japanese
+puts on a stupid look, giggles, tucks his thumbs into his girdle,
+hitches up his garments, and either professes perfect ignorance or
+gives one some vague second-hand information, though it is quite
+possible that he may have been over every foot of the ground
+himself more than once.  Whether suspicion of your motives in
+asking, or a fear of compromising himself by answering, is at the
+bottom of this I don't know, but it is most exasperating to a
+traveller.  In Hakodate I failed to see Captain Blakiston, who has
+walked round the whole Yezo sea-board, and all I was able to learn
+regarding this route was that the coast was thinly peopled by
+Ainos, that there were Government horses which could be got, and
+that one could sleep where one got them; that rice and salt fish
+were the only food; that there were many "bad rivers," and that the
+road went over "bad mountains;" that the only people who went that
+way were Government officials twice a year, that one could not get
+on more than four miles a day, that the roads over the passes were
+"all big stones," etc. etc.  So this Usu-taki took me altogether by
+surprise, and for a time confounded all my carefully-constructed
+notions of locality.  I had been told that the one volcano in the
+bay was Komono-taki, near Mori, and this I believed to be eighty
+miles off, and there, confronting me, within a distance of two
+miles, was this grand, splintered, vermilion-crested thing, with a
+far nobler aspect than that of "THE" volcano, with a curtain range
+in front, deeply scored, and slashed with ravines and abysses whose
+purple gloom was unlighted even by the noon-day sun.  One of the
+peaks was emitting black smoke from a deep crater, another steam
+and white smoke from various rents and fissures in its side--
+vermilion peaks, smoke, and steam all rising into a sky of
+brilliant blue, and the atmosphere was so clear that I saw
+everything that was going on there quite distinctly, especially
+when I attained an altitude exceeding that of the curtain range.
+It was not for two days that I got a correct idea of its
+geographical situation, but I was not long in finding out that it
+was not Komono-taki!  There is much volcanic activity about it.  I
+saw a glare from it last night thirty miles away.  The Ainos said
+that it was "a god," but did not know its name, nor did the
+Japanese who were living under its shadow.  At some distance from
+it in the interior rises a great dome-like mountain, Shiribetsan,
+and the whole view is grand.
+
+A little beyond Mombets flows the river Osharu, one of the largest
+of the Yezo streams.  It was much swollen by the previous day's
+rain; and as the ferry-boat was carried away we had to swim it, and
+the swim seemed very long.  Of course, we and the baggage got very
+wet.  The coolness with which the Aino guide took to the water
+without giving us any notice that its broad, eddying flood was a
+swim, and not a ford, was very amusing.
+
+From the top of a steepish ascent beyond the Osharugawa there is a
+view into what looks like a very lovely lake, with wooded
+promontories, and little bays, and rocky capes in miniature, and
+little heights, on which Aino houses, with tawny roofs, are
+clustered; and then the track dips suddenly, and deposits one, not
+by a lake at all, but on Usu Bay, an inlet of the Pacific, much
+broken up into coves, and with a very narrow entrance, only obvious
+from a few points.  Just as the track touches the bay there is a
+road-post, with a prayer-wheel in it, and by the shore an upright
+stone of very large size, inscribed with Sanskrit characters, near
+to a stone staircase and a gateway in a massive stone-faced
+embankment, which looked much out of keeping with the general
+wildness of the place.  On a rocky promontory in a wooded cove
+there is a large, rambling house, greatly out of repair, inhabited
+by a Japanese man and his son, who are placed there to look after
+Government interests, exiles among 500 Ainos.  From among the
+number of rat-haunted, rambling rooms which had once been handsome,
+I chose one opening on a yard or garden with some distorted yews in
+it, but found that the great gateway and the amado had no bolts,
+and that anything might be appropriated by any one with dishonest
+intentions; but the house-master and his son, who have lived for
+ten years among the Ainos, and speak their language, say that
+nothing is ever taken, and that the Ainos are thoroughly honest and
+harmless.  Without this assurance I should have been distrustful of
+the number of wide-mouthed youths who hung about, in the
+listlessness and vacuity of savagery, if not of the bearded men who
+sat or stood about the gateway with children in their arms.
+
+Usu is a dream of beauty and peace.  There is not much difference
+between the height of high and low water on this coast, and the
+lake-like illusion would have been perfect had it not been that the
+rocks were tinged with gold for a foot or so above the sea by a
+delicate species of fucus.  In the exquisite inlet where I spent
+the night, trees and trailers drooped into the water and were
+mirrored in it, their green, heavy shadows lying sharp against the
+sunset gold and pink of the rest of the bay; log canoes, with
+planks laced upon their gunwales to heighten them, were drawn upon
+a tiny beach of golden sand, and in the shadiest cove, moored to a
+tree, an antique and much-carved junk was "floating double."
+Wooded, rocky knolls, with Aino huts, the vermilion peaks of the
+volcano of Usu-taki redder than ever in the sinking sun, a few
+Ainos mending their nets, a few more spreading edible seaweed out
+to dry, a single canoe breaking the golden mirror of the cove by
+its noiseless motion, a few Aino loungers, with their "mild-eyed,
+melancholy" faces and quiet ways suiting the quiet evening scene,
+the unearthly sweetness of a temple bell--this was all, and yet it
+was the loveliest picture I have seen in Japan.
+
+In spite of Ito's remonstrances and his protestations that an
+exceptionally good supper would be spoiled, I left my rat-haunted
+room, with its tarnished gilding and precarious fusuma, to get the
+last of the pink and lemon-coloured glory, going up the staircase
+in the stone-faced embankment, and up a broad, well-paved avenue,
+to a large temple, within whose open door I sat for some time
+absolutely alone, and in a wonderful stillness; for the sweet-toned
+bell which vainly chimes for vespers amidst this bear-worshipping
+population had ceased.  This temple was the first symptom of
+Japanese religion that I remember to have seen since leaving
+Hakodate, and worshippers have long since ebbed away from its shady
+and moss-grown courts.  Yet it stands there to protest for the
+teaching of the great Hindu; and generations of Aino heathen pass
+away one after another; and still its bronze bell tolls, and its
+altar lamps are lit, and incense burns for ever before Buddha.  The
+characters on the great bell of this temple are said to be the same
+lines which are often graven on temple bells, and to possess the
+dignity of twenty-four centuries:
+
+
+"All things are transient;
+They being born must die,
+And being born are dead;
+And being dead are glad
+To be at rest."
+
+
+The temple is very handsome, the baldachino is superb, and the
+bronzes and brasses on the altar are specially fine.  A broad ray
+of sunlight streamed in, crossed the matted floor, and fell full
+upon the figure of Sakya-muni in his golden shrine; and just at
+that moment a shaven priest, in silk-brocaded vestments of faded
+green, silently passed down the stream of light, and lit the
+candles on the altar, and fresh incense filled the temple with a
+drowsy fragrance.  It was a most impressive picture.  His curiosity
+evidently shortened his devotions, and he came and asked me where I
+had been and where I was going, to which, of course, I replied in
+excellent Japanese, and then stuck fast.
+
+Along the paved avenue, besides the usual stone trough for holy
+water, there are on one side the thousand-armed Kwan-non, a very
+fine relief, and on the other a Buddha, throned on the eternal
+lotus blossom, with an iron staff, much resembling a crozier, in
+his hand, and that eternal apathy on his face which is the highest
+hope of those who hope at all.  I went through a wood, where there
+are some mournful groups of graves on the hillside, and from the
+temple came the sweet sound of the great bronze bell and the beat
+of the big drum, and then, more faintly, the sound of the little
+bell and drum, with which the priest accompanies his ceaseless
+repetition of a phrase in the dead tongue of a distant land.  There
+is an infinite pathos about the lonely temple in its splendour, the
+absence of even possible worshippers, and the large population of
+Ainos, sunk in yet deeper superstitions than those which go to make
+up popular Buddhism.  I sat on a rock by the bay till the last pink
+glow faded from Usu-taki and the last lemon stain from the still
+water; and a beautiful crescent, which hung over the wooded hill,
+had set, and the heavens blazed with stars:
+
+
+"Ten thousand stars were in the sky,
+Ten thousand in the sea,
+And every wave with dimpled face,
+That leapt upon the air,
+Had caught a star in its embrace,
+And held it trembling there."
+
+
+The loneliness of Usu Bay is something wonderful--a house full of
+empty rooms falling to decay, with only two men in it--one Japanese
+house among 500 savages, yet it was the only one in which I have
+slept in which they bolted neither the amado nor the gate.  During
+the night the amado fell out of the worn-out grooves with a crash,
+knocking down the shoji, which fell on me, and rousing Ito, who
+rushed into my room half-asleep, with a vague vision of blood-
+thirsty Ainos in his mind.  I then learned what I have been very
+stupid not to have learned before, that in these sliding wooden
+shutters there is a small door through which one person can creep
+at a time called the jishindo, or "earthquake door," because it
+provides an exit during the alarm of an earthquake, in case of the
+amado sticking in their grooves, or their bolts going wrong.  I
+believe that such a door exists in all Japanese houses.
+
+The next morning was as beautiful as the previous evening, rose and
+gold instead of gold and pink.  Before the sun was well up I
+visited a number of the Aino lodges, saw the bear, and the chief,
+who, like all the rest, is a monogamist, and, after breakfast, at
+my request, some of the old men came to give me such information as
+they had.  These venerable elders sat cross-legged in the verandah,
+the house-master's son, who kindly acted as interpreter, squatting,
+Japanese fashion, at the side, and about thirty Ainos, mostly
+women, with infants, sitting behind.  I spent about two hours in
+going over the same ground as at Biratori, and also went over the
+words, and got some more, including some synonyms.  The click of
+the ts before the ch at the beginning of a word is strongly marked
+among these Ainos.  Some of their customs differ slightly from
+those of their brethren of the interior, specially as to the period
+of seclusion after a death, the non-allowance of polygamy to the
+chief, and the manner of killing the bear at the annual festival.
+Their ideas of metempsychosis are more definite, but this, I think,
+is to be accounted for by the influence and proximity of Buddhism.
+They spoke of the bear as their chief god, and next the sun and
+fire.  They said that they no longer worship the wolf, and that
+though they call the volcano and many other things kamoi, or god,
+they do not worship them.  I ascertained beyond doubt that worship
+with them means simply making libations of sake and "drinking to
+the god," and that it is unaccompanied by petitions, or any vocal
+or mental act.
+
+These Ainos are as dark as the people of southern Spain, and very
+hairy.  Their expression is earnest and pathetic, and when they
+smiled, as they did when I could not pronounce their words, their
+faces had a touching sweetness which was quite beautiful, and
+European, not Asiatic.  Their own impression is that they are now
+increasing in numbers after diminishing for many years.  I left Usu
+sleeping in the loveliness of an autumn noon with great regret.  No
+place that I have seen has fascinated me so much.
+
+
+
+LETTER XL--(Continued)
+
+
+
+The Sea-shore--A "Hairy Aino"--A Horse Fight--The Horses of Yezo--
+"Bad Mountains"--A Slight Accident--Magnificent Scenery--A Bleached
+Halting-Place--A Musty Room--Aino "Good-breeding."
+
+A charge of 3 sen per ri more for the horses for the next stage,
+because there were such "bad mountains to cross," prepared me for
+what followed--many miles of the worst road for horses I ever saw.
+I should not have complained if they had charged double the price.
+As an almost certain consequence, it was one of the most
+picturesque routes I have ever travelled.  For some distance,
+however, it runs placidly along by the sea-shore, on which big,
+blue, foam-crested rollers were disporting themselves noisily, and
+passes through several Aino hamlets, and the Aino village of Abuta,
+with sixty houses, rather a prosperous-looking place, where the
+cultivation was considerably more careful, and the people possessed
+a number of horses.  Several of the houses were surrounded by
+bears' skulls grinning from between the forked tops of high poles,
+and there was a well-grown bear ready for his doom and apotheosis.
+In nearly all the houses a woman was weaving bark-cloth, with the
+hook which holds the web fixed into the ground several feet outside
+the house.  At a deep river called the Nopkobets, which emerges
+from the mountains close to the sea, we were ferried by an Aino
+completely covered with hair, which on his shoulders was wavy like
+that of a retriever, and rendered clothing quite needless either
+for covering or warmth.  A wavy, black beard rippled nearly to his
+waist over his furry chest, and, with his black locks hanging in
+masses over his shoulders, he would have looked a thorough savage
+had it not been for the exceeding sweetness of his smile and eyes.
+The Volcano Bay Ainos are far more hairy than the mountain Ainos,
+but even among them it is quite common to see men not more so than
+vigorous Europeans, and I think that the hairiness of the race as a
+distinctive feature has been much exaggerated, partly by the
+smooth-skinned Japanese.
+
+The ferry scow was nearly upset by our four horses beginning to
+fight.  At first one bit the shoulders of another; then the one
+attacked uttered short, sharp squeals, and returned the attack by
+striking with his fore feet, and then there was a general melee of
+striking and biting, till some ugly wounds were inflicted.  I have
+watched fights of this kind on a large scale every day in the
+corral.  The miseries of the Yezo horses are the great drawback of
+Yezo travelling.  They are brutally used, and are covered with
+awful wounds from being driven at a fast "scramble" with the rude,
+ungirthed pack-saddle and its heavy load rolling about on their
+backs, and they are beaten unmercifully over their eyes and ears
+with heavy sticks.  Ito has been barbarous to these gentle, little-
+prized animals ever since we came to Yezo; he has vexed me more by
+this than by anything else, especially as he never dared even to
+carry a switch on the main island, either from fear of the horses
+or their owners.  To-day he was beating the baggage horse
+unmercifully, when I rode back and interfered with some very strong
+language, saying, "You are a bully, and, like all bullies, a
+coward."  Imagine my aggravation when, at our first halt, he
+brought out his note-book, as usual, and quietly asked me the
+meaning of the words "bully" and "coward."  It was perfectly
+impossible to explain them, so I said a bully was the worst name I
+could call him, and that a coward was the meanest thing a man could
+be.  Then the provoking boy said, "Is bully a worse name than
+devil?"  "Yes, far worse," I said, on which he seemed rather
+crestfallen, and he has not beaten his horse since, in my sight at
+least
+
+The breaking-in process is simply breaking the spirit by an hour or
+two of such atrocious cruelty as I saw at Shiraoi, at the end of
+which the horse, covered with foam and blood, and bleeding from
+mouth and nose, falls down exhausted.  Being so ill used they have
+all kinds of tricks, such as lying down in fords, throwing
+themselves down head foremost and rolling over pack and rider,
+bucking, and resisting attempts to make them go otherwise than in
+single file.  Instead of bits they have bars of wood on each side
+of the mouth, secured by a rope round the nose and chin.  When
+horses which have been broken with bits gallop they put up their
+heads till the nose is level with the ears, and it is useless to
+try either to guide or check them.  They are always wanting to join
+the great herds on the hillside or sea-shore, from which they are
+only driven down as they are needed.  In every Yezo village the
+first sound that one hears at break of day is the gallop of forty
+or fifty horses, pursued by an Aino, who has hunted them from the
+hills.  A horse is worth from twenty-eight shillings upwards.  They
+are very sure-footed when their feet are not sore, and cross a
+stream or chasm on a single rickety plank, or walk on a narrow
+ledge above a river or gulch without fear.  They are barefooted,
+their hoofs are very hard, and I am glad to be rid of the perpetual
+tying and untying and replacing of the straw shoes of the well-
+cared-for horses of the main island.  A man rides with them, and
+for a man and three horses the charge is only sixpence for each 2.5
+miles.  I am now making Ito ride in front of me, to make sure that
+he does not beat or otherwise misuse his beast.
+
+After crossing the Nopkobets, from which the fighting horses have
+led me to make so long a digression, we went right up into the "bad
+mountains," and crossed the three tremendous passes of Lebungetoge.
+Except by saying that this disused bridle-track is impassable,
+people have scarcely exaggerated its difficulties.  One horse broke
+down on the first pass, and we were long delayed by sending the
+Aino back for another.  Possibly these extraordinary passes do not
+exceed 1500 feet in height, but the track ascends them through a
+dense forest with most extraordinary abruptness, to descend as
+abruptly, to rise again sometimes by a series of nearly washed-away
+zigzags, at others by a straight, ladder-like ascent deeply
+channelled, the bottom of the trough being filled with rough
+stones, large and small, or with ledges of rock with an entangled
+mass of branches and trailers overhead, which render it necessary
+to stoop over the horse's head while he is either fumbling,
+stumbling, or tumbling among the stones in a gash a foot wide, or
+else is awkwardly leaping up broken rock steps nearly the height of
+his chest, the whole performance consisting of a series of
+scrambling jerks at the rate of a mile an hour.
+
+In one of the worst places the Aino's horse, which was just in
+front of mine, in trying to scramble up a nearly breast-high and
+much-worn ledge, fell backwards, nearly overturning my horse, the
+stretcher poles, which formed part of his pack, striking me so hard
+above my ankle that for some minutes afterwards I thought the bone
+was broken.  The ankle was severely cut and bruised, and bled a
+good deal, and I was knocked out of the saddle.  Ito's horse fell
+three times, and eventually the four were roped together.  Such are
+some of the divertissements of Yezo travel.
+
+Ah, but it was glorious!  The views are most magnificent.  This is
+really Paradise.  Everything is here--huge headlands magnificently
+timbered, small, deep bays into which the great green waves roll
+majestically, great, grey cliffs, too perpendicular for even the
+most adventurous trailer to find root-hold, bold bluffs and
+outlying stacks cedar-crested, glimpses of bright, blue ocean
+dimpling in the sunshine or tossing up wreaths of foam among ferns
+and trailers, and inland ranges of mountains forest-covered, with
+tremendous gorges between, forest filled, where wolf, bear, and
+deer make their nearly inaccessible lairs, and outlying
+battlements, and ridges of grey rock with hardly six feet of level
+on their sinuous tops, and cedars in masses giving deep shadow, and
+sprays of scarlet maple or festoons of a crimson vine lighting the
+gloom.  The inland view suggested infinity.  There seemed no limit
+to the forest-covered mountains and the unlighted ravines.  The
+wealth of vegetation was equal in luxuriance and entanglement to
+that of the tropics, primeval vegetation, on which the lumberer's
+axe has never rung.  Trees of immense height and girth, specially
+the beautiful Salisburia adiantifolia, with its small fan-shaped
+leaves, all matted together by riotous lianas, rise out of an
+impenetrable undergrowth of the dwarf, dark-leaved bamboo, which,
+dwarf as it is, attains a height of seven feet, and all is dark,
+solemn, soundless, the haunt of wild beasts, and of butterflies and
+dragonflies of the most brilliant colours.  There was light without
+heat, leaves and streams sparkled, and there was nothing of the
+half-smothered sensation which is often produced by the choking
+greenery of the main island, for frequently, far below, the Pacific
+flashed in all its sunlit beauty, and occasionally we came down
+unexpectedly on a little cove with abrupt cedar-crested headlands
+and stacks, and a heavy surf rolling in with the deep thunder music
+which alone breaks the stillness of this silent land.
+
+There was one tremendous declivity where I got off to walk, but
+found it too steep to descend on foot with comfort.  You can
+imagine how steep it was, when I tell you that the deep groove
+being too narrow for me to get to the side of my horse, I dropped
+down upon him from behind, between his tail and the saddle, and so
+scrambled on!
+
+The sun had set and the dew was falling heavily when the track
+dipped over the brow of a headland, becoming a waterway so steep
+and rough that I could not get down it on foot without the
+assistance of my hands, and terminating on a lonely little bay of
+great beauty, walled in by impracticable-looking headlands, which
+was the entrance to an equally impracticable-looking, densely-
+wooded valley running up among densely-wooded mountains.  There was
+a margin of grey sand above the sea, and on this the skeleton of an
+enormous whale was bleaching.  Two or three large "dug-outs," with
+planks laced with stout fibre on their gunwales, and some bleached
+drift-wood lay on the beach, the foreground of a solitary,
+rambling, dilapidated grey house, bleached like all else, where
+three Japanese men with an old Aino servant live to look after
+"Government interests," whatever these may be, and keep rooms and
+horses for Government officials--a great boon to travellers who,
+like me, are belated here.  Only one person has passed Lebunge this
+year, except two officials and a policeman.
+
+There was still a red glow on the water, and one horn of a young
+moon appeared above the wooded headland; but the loneliness and
+isolation are overpowering, and it is enough to produce madness to
+be shut in for ever with the thunder of the everlasting surf, which
+compels one to raise one's voice in order to be heard.  In the
+wood, half a mile from the sea, there is an Aino village of thirty
+houses, and the appearance of a few of the savages gliding
+noiselessly over the beach in the twilight added to the ghastliness
+and loneliness of the scene.  The horses were unloaded by the time
+I arrived, and several courteous Ainos showed me to my room,
+opening on a small courtyard with a heavy gate.  The room was
+musty, and, being rarely used, swarmed with spiders.  A saucer of
+fish-oil and a wick rendered darkness visible, and showed faintly
+the dark, pathetic faces of a row of Ainos in the verandah, who
+retired noiselessly with their graceful salutation when I bade them
+good-night.  Food was hardly to be expected, yet they gave me rice,
+potatoes, and black beans boiled in equal parts of brine and syrup,
+which are very palatable.  The cuts and bruises of yesterday became
+so very painful with the cold of the early morning that I have been
+obliged to remain here.
+
+I. L. B.
+
+
+
+LETTER XLI
+
+
+
+A Group of Fathers--The Lebunge Ainos--The Salisburia adiantifolia-
+-A Family Group--The Missing Link--Oshamambe--Disorderly Horses--
+The River Yurapu--The Seaside--Aino Canoes--The Last Morning--
+Dodging Europeans.
+
+HAKODATE, September 12.
+
+Lebunge is a most fascinating place in its awful isolation.  The
+house-master was a friendly man, and much attached to the Ainos.
+If other officials entrusted with Aino concerns treat the Ainos as
+fraternally as those of Usu and Lebunge, there is not much to
+lament.  This man also gave them a high character for honesty and
+harmlessness, and asked if they might come and see me before I
+left; so twenty men, mostly carrying very pretty children, came
+into the yard with the horses.  They had never seen a foreigner,
+but, either from apathy or politeness, they neither stare nor press
+upon one as the Japanese do, and always make a courteous
+recognition.  The bear-skin housing of my saddle pleased them very
+much, and my boots of unblacked leather, which they compare to the
+deer-hide moccasins which they wear for winter hunting.  Their
+voices were the lowest and most musical that I have heard,
+incongruous sounds to proceed from such hairy, powerful-looking
+men.  Their love for their children was most marked.  They caressed
+them tenderly, and held them aloft for notice, and when the house-
+master told them how much I admired the brown, dark-eyed, winsome
+creatures, their faces lighted with pleasure, and they saluted me
+over and over again.  These, like other Ainos, utter a short
+screeching sound when they are not pleased, and then one recognises
+the savage.
+
+These Lebunge Ainos differ considerably from those of the eastern
+villages, and I have again to notice the decided sound or click of
+the ts at the beginning of many words.  Their skins are as swarthy
+as those of Bedaween, their foreheads comparatively low, their eyes
+far more deeply set their stature lower, their hair yet more
+abundant, the look of wistful melancholy more marked, and two, who
+were unclothed for hard work in fashioning a canoe, were almost
+entirely covered with short, black hair, specially thick on the
+shoulders and back, and so completely concealing the skin as to
+reconcile one to the lack of clothing.  I noticed an enormous
+breadth of chest, and a great development of the muscles of the
+arms and legs.  All these Ainos shave their hair off for two inches
+above their brows, only allowing it there to attain the length of
+an inch.  Among the well-clothed Ainos in the yard there was one
+smooth-faced, smooth-skinned, concave-chested, spindle-limbed,
+yellow Japanese, with no other clothing than the decorated bark-
+cloth apron which the Ainos wear in addition to their coats and
+leggings.  Escorted by these gentle, friendly savages, I visited
+their lodges, which are very small and poor, and in every way
+inferior to those of the mountain Ainos.  The women are short and
+thick-set, and most uncomely.
+
+From their village I started for the longest, and by reputation the
+worst, stage of my journey, seventeen miles, the first ten of which
+are over mountains.  So solitary and disused is this track that on
+a four days' journey we have not met a human being.  In the Lebunge
+valley, which is densely forested, and abounds with fordable
+streams and treacherous ground, I came upon a grand specimen of the
+Salisburia adiantifolia, which, at a height of three feet from the
+ground, divides into eight lofty stems, none of them less than 2
+feet 5 inches in diameter.  This tree, which grows rapidly, is so
+well adapted to our climate that I wonder it has not been
+introduced on a large scale, as it may be seen by everybody in Kew
+Gardens.  There is another tree with orbicular leaves in pairs,
+which grows to an immense size.
+
+From this valley a worn-out, stony bridle-track ascends the western
+side of Lebungetoge, climbing through a dense forest of trees and
+trailers to a height of about 2000 feet, where, contented with its
+efforts, it reposes, and, with only slight ups and downs, continues
+along the top of a narrow ridge within the seaward mountains,
+between high walls of dense bamboo, which, for much of that day's
+journey, is the undergrowth alike of mountain and valley, ragged
+peak, and rugged ravine.  The scenery was as magnificent as on the
+previous day.  A guide was absolutely needed, as the track ceased
+altogether in one place, and for some time the horses had to
+blunder their way along a bright, rushing river, swirling rapidly
+downwards, heavily bordered with bamboo, full of deep holes, and
+made difficult by trees which have fallen across it.  There Ito,
+whose horse could not keep up with the others, was lost, or rather
+lost himself, which led to a delay of two hours.  I have never seen
+grander forest than on that two days' ride.
+
+At last the track, barely passable after its recovery, dips over a
+precipitous bluff, and descends close to the sea, which has
+evidently receded considerably.  Thence it runs for six miles on a
+level, sandy strip, covered near the sea with a dwarf bamboo about
+five inches high, and farther inland with red roses and blue
+campanula.
+
+At the foot of the bluff there is a ruinous Japanese house, where
+an Aino family has been placed to give shelter and rest to any who
+may be crossing the pass.  I opened my bento bako of red lacquer,
+and found that it contained some cold, waxy potatoes, on which I
+dined, with the addition of some tea, and then waited wearily for
+Ito, for whom the guide went in search.  The house and its inmates
+were a study.  The ceiling was gone, and all kinds of things, for
+which I could not imagine any possible use, hung from the blackened
+rafters.  Everything was broken and decayed, and the dirt was
+appalling.  A very ugly Aino woman, hardly human in her ugliness,
+was splitting bark fibre.  There were several irori, Japanese
+fashion, and at one of them a grand-looking old man was seated
+apathetically contemplating the boiling of a pot.  Old, and sitting
+among ruins, he represented the fate of a race which, living, has
+no history, and perishing leaves no monument.  By the other irori
+sat, or rather crouched, the "MISSING LINK."  I was startled when I
+first saw it.  It was--shall I say?--a man, and the mate, I cannot
+write the husband, of the ugly woman.  It was about fifty.  The
+lofty Aino brow had been made still loftier by shaving the head for
+three inches above it.  The hair hung, not in shocks, but in snaky
+wisps, mingling with a beard which was grey and matted.  The eyes
+were dark but vacant, and the face had no other expression than
+that look of apathetic melancholy which one sometimes sees on the
+faces of captive beasts.  The arms and legs were unnaturally long
+and thin, and the creature sat with the knees tucked into the
+armpits.  The limbs and body, with the exception of a patch on each
+side, were thinly covered with fine black hair, more than an inch
+long, which was slightly curly on the shoulders.  It showed no
+other sign of intelligence than that evidenced by boiling water for
+my tea.  When Ito arrived he looked at it with disgust, exclaiming,
+"The Ainos are just dogs; they had a dog for their father," in
+allusion to their own legend of their origin.
+
+The level was pleasant after the mountains, and a canter took us
+pleasantly to Oshamambe, where we struck the old road from Mori to
+Satsuporo, and where I halted for a day to rest my spine, from
+which I was suffering much.  Oshamambe looks dismal even in the
+sunshine, decayed and dissipated, with many people lounging about
+in it doing nothing, with the dazed look which over-indulgence in
+sake gives to the eyes.  The sun was scorching hot, and I was glad
+to find refuge from it in a crowded and dilapidated yadoya, where
+there were no black beans, and the use of eggs did not appear to be
+recognised.  My room was only enclosed by shoji, and there were
+scarcely five minutes of the day in which eyes were not applied to
+the finger-holes with which they were liberally riddled; and during
+the night one of them fell down, revealing six Japanese sleeping in
+a row, each head on a wooden pillow.
+
+The grandeur of the route ceased with the mountain-passes, but in
+the brilliant sunshine the ride from Oshamambe to Mori, which took
+me two days, was as pretty and pleasant as it could be.  At first
+we got on very slowly, as besides my four horses there were four
+led ones going home, which got up fights and entangled their ropes,
+and occasionally lay down and rolled; and besides these there were
+three foals following their mothers, and if they stayed behind the
+mares hung back neighing, and if they frolicked ahead the mares
+wanted to look after them, and the whole string showed a combined
+inclination to dispense with their riders and join the many herds
+of horses which we passed.  It was so tedious that, after enduring
+it for some time I got Ito's horse and mine into a scow at a river
+of some size, and left the disorderly drove to follow at leisure.
+
+At Yurapu, where there is an Aino village of thirty houses, we saw
+the last of the aborigines, and the interest of the journey ended.
+Strips of hard sand below high-water mark, strips of red roses,
+ranges of wooded mountains, rivers deep and shallow, a few villages
+of old grey houses amidst grey sand and bleaching driftwood, and
+then came the river Yurapu, a broad, deep stream, navigable in a
+canoe for fourteen miles.  The scenery there was truly beautiful in
+the late and splendid afternoon.  The long blue waves rolled on
+shore, each one crested with light as it curled before it broke,
+and hurled its snowy drift for miles along the coast with a deep
+booming music.  The glorious inland view was composed of six ranges
+of forest-covered mountains, broken, chasmed, caverned, and dark
+with timber, and above them bald, grey peaks rose against a green
+sky of singular purity.  I longed to take a boat up the Yurapu,
+which penetrates by many a gorge into their solemn recesses, but
+had not strength to carry my wish.
+
+After this I exchanged the silence or low musical speech of Aino
+guides for the harsh and ceaseless clatter of Japanese.  At
+Yamakushinoi, a small hamlet on the sea-shore, where I slept, there
+was a sweet, quiet yadoya, delightfully situated, with a wooded
+cliff at the back, over which a crescent hung out of a pure sky;
+and besides, there were the more solid pleasures of fish, eggs, and
+black beans.  Thus, instead of being starved and finding wretched
+accommodation, the week I spent on Volcano Bay has been the best
+fed, as it was certainly the most comfortable, week of my travels
+in northern Japan.
+
+Another glorious day favoured my ride to Mori, but I was
+unfortunate in my horse at each stage, and the Japanese guide was
+grumpy and ill-natured--a most unusual thing.  Otoshibe and a few
+other small villages of grey houses, with "an ancient and fish-like
+smell," lie along the coast, busy enough doubtless in the season,
+but now looking deserted and decayed, and houses are rather
+plentifully sprinkled along many parts of the shore, with a
+wonderful profusion of vegetables and flowers about them, raised
+from seeds liberally supplied by the Kaitakushi Department from its
+Nanai experimental farm and nurseries.  For a considerable part of
+the way to Mori there is no track at all, though there is a good
+deal of travel.  One makes one's way fatiguingly along soft sea
+sand or coarse shingle close to the sea, or absolutely in it, under
+cliffs of hardened clay or yellow conglomerate, fording many small
+streams, several of which have cut their way deeply through a
+stratum of black volcanic sand.  I have crossed about 100 rivers
+and streams on the Yezo coast, and all the larger ones are marked
+by a most noticeable peculiarity, i.e. that on nearing the sea they
+turn south, and run for some distance parallel with it, before they
+succeed in finding an exit through the bank of sand and shingle
+which forms the beach and blocks their progress.
+
+On the way I saw two Ainos land through the surf in a canoe, in
+which they had paddled for nearly 100 miles.  A river canoe is dug
+out of a single log, and two men can fashion one in five days; but
+on examining this one, which was twenty-five feet long, I found
+that it consisted of two halves, laced together with very strong
+bark fibre for their whole length, and with high sides also laced
+on.  They consider that they are stronger for rough sea and surf
+work when made in two parts.  Their bark-fibre rope is beautifully
+made, and they twist it of all sizes, from twine up to a nine-inch
+hawser.
+
+Beautiful as the blue ocean was, I had too much of it, for the
+horses were either walking in a lather of sea foam or were crowded
+between the cliff and the sea, every larger wave breaking over my
+foot and irreverently splashing my face; and the surges were so
+loud-tongued and incessant, throwing themselves on the beach with a
+tremendous boom, and drawing the shingle back with them with an
+equally tremendous rattle, so impolite and noisy, bent only on
+showing their strength, reckless, rude, self-willed, and
+inconsiderate!  This purposeless display of force, and this
+incessant waste of power, and the noisy self-assertion in both,
+approach vulgarity!
+
+Towards evening we crossed the last of the bridgeless rivers, and
+put up at Mori, which I left three weeks before, and I was very
+thankful to have accomplished my object without disappointment,
+disaster, or any considerable discomfort.  Had I not promised to
+return Ito to his master by a given day, I should like to spend the
+next six weeks in the Yezo wilds, for the climate is good, the
+scenery beautiful, and the objects of interest are many.
+
+Another splendid day favoured my ride from Mori to Togenoshita,
+where I remained for the night, and I had exceptionally good horses
+for both days, though the one which Ito rode, while going at a
+rapid "scramble," threw himself down three times and rolled over to
+rid himself from flies.  I had not admired the wood between Mori
+and Ginsainoma (the lakes) on the sullen, grey day on which I saw
+it before, but this time there was an abundance of light and shadow
+and solar glitter, and many a scarlet spray and crimson trailer,
+and many a maple flaming in the valleys, gladdened me with the
+music of colour.  From the top of the pass beyond the lakes there
+is a grand view of the volcano in all its nakedness, with its lava
+beds and fields of pumice, with the lakes of Onuma, Konuma, and
+Ginsainoma, lying in the forests at its feet, and from the top of
+another hill there is a remarkable view of windy Hakodate, with its
+headland looking like Gibraltar.  The slopes of this hill are
+covered with the Aconitum Japonicum, of which the Ainos make their
+arrow poison.
+
+The yadoya at Togenoshita was a very pleasant and friendly one, and
+when Ito woke me yesterday morning, saying, "Are you sorry that
+it's the last morning?  I am," I felt we had one subject in common,
+for I was very sorry to end my pleasant Yezo tour, and very sorry
+to part with the boy who had made himself more useful and
+invaluable even than before.  It was most wearisome to have
+Hakodate in sight for twelve miles, so near across the bay, so far
+across the long, flat, stony strip which connects the headland upon
+which it is built with the mainland.  For about three miles the
+road is rudely macadamised, and as soon as the bare-footed horses
+get upon it they seem lame of all their legs; they hang back,
+stumbling, dragging, edging to the side, and trying to run down
+every opening, so that when we got into the interminable main
+street I sent Ito on to the Consulate for my letters, and
+dismounted, hoping that as it was raining I should not see any
+foreigners; but I was not so lucky, for first I met Mr. Dening, and
+then, seeing the Consul and Dr. Hepburn coming down the road,
+evidently dressed for dining in the flag-ship, and looking spruce
+and clean, I dodged up an alley to avoid them; but they saw me, and
+did not wonder that I wished to escape notice, for my old betto's
+hat, my torn green paper waterproof, and my riding-skirt and boots,
+were not only splashed but CAKED with mud, and I had the general
+look of a person "fresh from the wilds."  I. L. B.
+
+
+
+ITINERARY OF TOUR IN YEZO.
+
+Hakodate to
+
+                No. of Houses.
+                Jap.     Aino.       Ri.     Cho.
+
+Ginsainoma       4                    7       18
+Mori           105                    4
+Mororan         57                   11
+Horobets        18          47        5        1
+Shiraoi         11          51        6       32
+Tomakomai       38                    5       21
+Yubets           7           3        3        5
+Sarufuto        63                    7        5
+Biratori                    53        5
+Mombets         27                    5        1
+
+From Horobets to
+
+                Jap.     Aino.       Ri.     Cho.
+Old Mororan      9          30        4       28
+Usu              3          99        6        2
+Lebunge          1          27        5       22
+Oshamambe       56          38        6       34
+Yamakushinai    40                    4       18
+Otoshibe        40                    2        3
+Mori           105                    3       29
+Togenoshita     55                    6        7
+Hakodate    37,000 souls              3       29
+
+About 358 English miles.
+
+
+
+LETTER XLII
+
+
+
+Pleasant Last Impressions--The Japanese Junk--Ito Disappears--My
+Letter of Thanks.
+
+HAKODATE, YEZO, September 14, 1878.
+
+This is my last day in Yezo, and the sun, shining brightly over the
+grey and windy capital, is touching the pink peaks of Komono-taki
+with a deeper red, and is brightening my last impressions, which,
+like my first, are very pleasant.  The bay is deep blue, flecked
+with violet shadows, and about sixty junks are floating upon it at
+anchor.  There are vessels of foreign rig too, but the wan, pale
+junks lying motionless, or rolling into the harbour under their
+great white sails, fascinate me as when I first saw them in the
+Gulf of Yedo.  They are antique-looking and picturesque, but are
+fitter to give interest to a picture than to battle with stormy
+seas.
+
+Most of the junks in the bay are about 120 tons burthen, 100 feet
+long, with an extreme beam, far aft, of twenty-five feet.  The bow
+is long, and curves into a lofty stem, like that of a Roman galley,
+finished with a beak head, to secure the forestay of the mast.
+This beak is furnished with two large, goggle eyes.  The mast is a
+ponderous spar, fifty feet high, composed of pieces of pine,
+pegged, glued, and hooped together.  A heavy yard is hung
+amidships.  The sail is an oblong of widths of strong, white cotton
+artistically "PUCKERED," not sewn together, but laced vertically,
+leaving a decorative lacing six inches wide between each two
+widths.  Instead of reefing in a strong wind, a width is unlaced,
+so as to reduce the canvas vertically, not horizontally.  Two blue
+spheres commonly adorn the sail.  The mast is placed well abaft,
+and to tack or veer it is only necessary to reverse the sheet.
+When on a wind the long bow and nose serve as a head-sail.  The
+high, square, piled-up stern, with its antique carving, and the
+sides with their lattice-work, are wonderful, together with the
+extraordinary size and projection of the rudder, and the length of
+the tiller.  The anchors are of grapnel shape, and the larger junks
+have from six to eight arranged on the fore-end, giving one an idea
+of bad holding-ground along the coast.  They really are much like
+the shape of a Chinese "small-footed" woman's shoe, and look very
+unmanageable.  They are of unpainted wood, and have a wintry,
+ghastly look about them. {22}
+
+I have parted with Ito finally to-day, with great regret.  He has
+served me faithfully, and on most common topics I can get much more
+information through him than from any foreigner.  I miss him
+already, though he insisted on packing for me as usual, and put all
+my things in order.  His cleverness is something surprising.  He
+goes to a good, manly master, who will help him to be good and set
+him a virtuous example, and that is a satisfaction.  Before he left
+he wrote a letter for me to the Governor of Mororan, thanking him
+on my behalf for the use of the kuruma and other courtesies.
+
+I. L. B.
+
+
+
+LETTER XLIII
+
+
+
+Pleasant Prospects--A Miserable Disappointment--Caught in a
+Typhoon--A Dense Fog--Alarmist Rumours--A Welcome at Tokiyo--The
+Last of the Mutineers.
+
+H. B. M.'s LEGATION, YEDO, September 21.
+
+A placid sea, which after much disturbance had sighed itself to
+rest, and a high, steady barometer promised a fifty hours' passage
+to Yokohama, and when Dr. and Mrs. Hepburn and I left Hakodate, by
+moonlight, on the night of the 14th, as the only passengers in the
+Hiogo Maru, Captain Moore, her genial, pleasant master,
+congratulated us on the rapid and delightful passage before us, and
+we separated at midnight with many projects for pleasant
+intercourse and occupation.
+
+But a more miserable voyage I never made, and it was not until the
+afternoon of the 17th that we crawled forth from our cabins to
+speak to each other.  On the second day out, great heat came on
+with suffocating closeness, the mercury rose to 85 degrees, and in
+lat. 38 degrees 0' N. and long.  141 degrees 30' E. we encountered
+a "typhoon," otherwise a "cyclone," otherwise a "revolving
+hurricane," which lasted for twenty-five hours, and "jettisoned"
+the cargo.  Captain Moor has given me a very interesting diagram of
+it, showing the attempts which he made to avoid its vortex, through
+which our course would have taken us, and to keep as much outside
+it as possible.  The typhoon was succeeded by a dense fog, so that
+our fifty-hour passage became seventy-two hours, and we landed at
+Yokohama near upon midnight of the 17th, to find traces of much
+disaster, the whole low-lying country flooded, the railway between
+Yokohama and the capital impassable, great anxiety about the rice
+crop, the air full of alarmist rumours, and paper money, which was
+about par when I arrived in May, at a discount of 13 per cent!  In
+the early part of this year (1880) it has touched 42 per cent.
+
+Late in the afternoon the railroad was re-opened, and I came here
+with Mr. Wilkinson, glad to settle down to a period of rest and
+ease under this hospitable roof.  The afternoon was bright and
+sunny, and Tokiyo was looking its best.  The long lines of yashikis
+looked handsome, the castle moat was so full of the gigantic leaves
+of the lotus, that the water was hardly visible, the grass
+embankments of the upper moat were a brilliant green, the pines on
+their summits stood out boldly against the clear sky, the hill on
+which the Legation stands looked dry and cheerful, and, better than
+all, I had a most kindly welcome from those who have made this
+house my home in a strange land.
+
+Tokiyo is tranquil, that is, it is disturbed only by fears for the
+rice crop, and by the fall in satsu.  The military mutineers have
+been tried, popular rumour says tortured, and fifty-two have been
+shot.  The summer has been the worst for some years, and now dark
+heat, moist heat, and nearly ceasless rain prevail.  People have
+been "rained up" in their summer quarters.  "Surely it will change
+soon," people say, and they have said the same thing for three
+months.
+
+I. L. B.
+
+
+
+LETTER XLIV
+
+
+
+Fine Weather--Cremation in Japan--The Governor of Tokiyo--An
+Awkward Question--An Insignificant Building--Economy in Funeral
+Expenses--Simplicity of the Cremation Process--The Last of Japan.
+
+H. B. M.'s LEGATION, YEDO, December 18.
+
+I have spent the last ten days here, in settled fine weather, such
+as should have begun two months ago if the climate had behaved as
+it ought.  The time has flown by in excursions, shopping, select
+little dinner-parties, farewell calls, and visits made with Mr.
+Chamberlain to the famous groves and temples of Ikegami, where the
+Buddhist bishop and priests entertained us in one of the guest-
+rooms, and to Enoshima and Kamakura, "vulgar" resorts which nothing
+can vulgarise so long as Fujisan towers above them.
+
+I will mention but one "sight," which is so far out of the beaten
+track that it was only after prolonged inquiry that its whereabouts
+was ascertained.  Among Buddhists, specially of the Monto sect,
+cremation was largely practised till it was forbidden five years
+ago, as some suppose in deference to European prejudices.  Three
+years ago, however, the prohibition was withdrawn, and in this
+short space of time the number of bodies burned has reached nearly
+nine thousand annually.  Sir H. Parkes applied for permission for
+me to visit the Kirigaya ground, one of five, and after a few
+delays it was granted by the Governor of Tokiyo at Mr. Mori's
+request, so yesterday, attended by the Legation linguist, I
+presented myself at the fine yashiki of the Tokiyo Fu, and quite
+unexpectedly was admitted to an audience of the Governor.  Mr.
+Kusamoto is a well-bred gentleman, and his face expresses the
+energy and ability which he has given proof of possessing.  He
+wears his European clothes becomingly, and in attitude, as well as
+manner, is easy and dignified.  After asking me a great deal about
+my northern tour and the Ainos, he expressed a wish for candid
+criticism; but as this in the East must not be taken literally, I
+merely ventured to say that the roads lag behind the progress made
+in other directions, upon which he entered upon explanations which
+doubtless apply to the past road-history of the country.  He spoke
+of cremation and its "necessity" in large cities, and terminated
+the interview by requesting me to dismiss my interpreter and
+kuruma, as he was going to send me to Meguro in his own carriage
+with one of the Government interpreters, adding very courteously
+that it gave him pleasure to show this attention to a guest of the
+British Minister, "for whose character and important services to
+Japan he has a high value."
+
+An hour's drive, with an extra amount of yelling from the bettos,
+took us to a suburb of little hills and valleys, where red
+camellias and feathery bamboo against backgrounds of cryptomeria
+contrast with the grey monotone of British winters, and, alighting
+at a farm road too rough for a carriage, we passed through fields
+and hedgerows to an erection which looks too insignificant for such
+solemn use.  Don't expect any ghastly details.  A longish building
+of "wattle and dab," much like the northern farmhouses, a high
+roof, and chimneys resembling those of the "oast houses" in Kent,
+combine with the rural surroundings to suggest "farm buildings"
+rather than the "funeral pyre," and all that is horrible is left to
+the imagination.
+
+The end nearest the road is a little temple, much crowded with
+images, and small, red, earthenware urns and tongs for sale to the
+relatives of deceased persons, and beyond this are four rooms with
+earthen floors and mud walls; nothing noticeable about them except
+the height of the peaked roof and the dark colour of the plaster.
+In the middle of the largest are several pairs of granite supports
+at equal distances from each other, and in the smallest there is a
+solitary pair.  This was literally all that was to be seen.  In the
+large room several bodies are burned at one time, and the charge is
+only one yen, about 3s. 8d., solitary cremation costing five yen.
+Faggots are used, and 1s. worth ordinarily suffices to reduce a
+human form to ashes.  After the funeral service in the house the
+body is brought to the cremation ground, and is left in charge of
+the attendant, a melancholy, smoked-looking man, as well he may be.
+The richer people sometimes pay priests to be present during the
+burning, but this is not usual.  There were five "quick-tubs" of
+pine hooped with bamboo in the larger room, containing the remains
+of coolies, and a few oblong pine chests in the small rooms
+containing those of middle-class people.  At 8 p.m. each "coffin"
+is placed on the stone trestles, the faggots are lighted
+underneath, the fires are replenished during the night, and by 6
+a.m. that which was a human being is a small heap of ashes, which
+is placed in an urn by the relatives and is honourably interred.
+In some cases the priests accompany the relations on this last
+mournful errand.  Thirteen bodies were burned the night before my
+visit, but there was not the slightest odour in or about the
+building, and the interpreter told me that, owing to the height of
+the chimneys, the people of the neighbourhood never experience the
+least annoyance, even while the process is going on.  The
+simplicity of the arrangement is very remarkable, and there can be
+no reasonable doubt that it serves the purpose of the innocuous and
+complete destruction of the corpse as well as any complicated
+apparatus (if not better), while its cheapness places it within the
+reach of the class which is most heavily burdened by ordinary
+funeral expenses. {23}  This morning the Governor sent his
+secretary to present me with a translation of an interesting
+account of the practice of cremation and its introduction into
+Japan.
+
+SS. "Volga," Christmas Eve, 1878.--The snowy dome of Fujisan
+reddening in the sunrise rose above the violet woodlands of
+Mississippi Bay as we steamed out of Yokohama Harbour on the 19th,
+and three days later I saw the last of Japan--a rugged coast,
+lashed by a wintry sea.
+
+I. L. B.
+
+
+
+Footnotes:
+
+
+{1}  This is an altogether exceptional aspect of Fujisan, under
+exceptional atmospheric conditions.  The mountain usually looks
+broader and lower, and is often compared to an inverted fan.
+
+{2}  I continue hereafter to use the Japanese word kuruma instead
+of the Chinese word Jin-ri-ki-sha.  Kuruma, literally a wheel or
+vehicle, is the word commonly used by the Jin-ri-ki-sha men and
+other Japanese for the "man-power-carriage," and is certainly more
+euphonious.  From kuruma naturally comes kurumaya for the kuruma
+runner.
+
+{3}  Often in the later months of my residence in Japan, when I
+asked educated Japanese questions concerning their history,
+religions, or ancient customs, I was put off with the answer, "You
+should ask Mr. Satow, he could tell you."
+
+{4}  After several months of travelling in some of the roughest
+parts of the interior, I should advise a person in average health--
+and none other should travel in Japan--not to encumber himself with
+tinned meats, soups, claret, or any eatables or drinkables, except
+Liebig's extract of meat.
+
+{5}  I visited this temple alone many times afterwards, and each
+visit deepened the interest of my first impressions.  There is
+always enough of change and novelty to prevent the interest from
+flagging, and the mild, but profoundly superstitious, form of
+heathenism which prevails in Japan is nowhere better represented.
+
+{6}  The list of my equipments is given as a help to future
+travellers, especially ladies, who desire to travel long distances
+in the interior of Japan.  One wicker basket is enough, as I
+afterwards found.
+
+{7}  My fears, though quite natural for a lady alone, had really no
+justification.  I have since travelled 1200 miles in the interior,
+and in Yezo, with perfect safety and freedom from alarm, and I
+believe that there is no country in the world in which a lady can
+travel with such absolute security from danger and rudeness as in
+Japan.
+
+{8}  In my northern journey I was very frequently obliged to put up
+with rough and dirty accommodation, because the better sort of
+houses were of this class.  If there are few sights which shock the
+traveller, there is much even on the surface to indicate vices
+which degrade and enslave the manhood of Japan.
+
+{9}  I advise every traveller in the ruder regions of Japan to take
+a similar stretcher and a good mosquito net.  With these he may
+defy all ordinary discomforts.
+
+{10}  This can only be true of the behaviour of the lowest
+excursionists from the Treaty Ports.
+
+{11}  Many unpleasant details have necessarily been omitted.  If
+the reader requires any apology for those which are given here and
+elsewhere, it must be found in my desire to give such a faithful
+picture of peasant life, as I saw it in Northern Japan, as may be a
+contribution to the general sum of knowledge of the country, and,
+at the same time, serve to illustrate some of the difficulties
+which the Government has to encounter in its endeavour to raise
+masses of people as deficient as these are in some of the first
+requirements of civilisation.
+
+{12}  The excess of males over females in the capital is 36,000,
+and in the whole Empire nearly half a million.
+
+{13}  By one of these, not fitted up for passengers, I have sent
+one of my baskets to Hakodate, and by doing so have come upon one
+of the vexatious restrictions by which foreigners are harassed.  It
+would seem natural to allow a foreigner to send his personal
+luggage from one Treaty Port to another without going through a
+number of formalities which render it nearly impossible, but it was
+only managed by Ito sending mine in his own name to a Japanese at
+Hakodate with whom he is slightly acquainted.
+
+{14}  This hospital is large and well ventilated, but has not as
+yet succeeded in attracting many in-patients; out-patients,
+specially sufferers from ophthalmia, are very numerous.  The
+Japanese chief physician regards the great prevalence of the malady
+in this neighbourhood as the result of damp, the reflection of the
+sun's rays from sand and snow, inadequate ventilation and charcoal
+fumes.
+
+{15}  Kak'ke, by William Anderson, F.R.C.S.  Transactions of
+English Asiatic Society of Japan, January 1878.
+
+{16}  I failed to learn what the liquor was which was drunk so
+freely, but as no unseemly effects followed its use, I think it
+must either have been light wine, or light sake.
+
+{17}  I venture to present this journal letter, with a few
+omissions, just as it was written, trusting that the interest which
+attaches to aboriginal races and little-visited regions will carry
+my readers through the minuteness and multiplicity of its details.
+
+{18}  The use of kerosene in matted wooden houses is a new cause of
+conflagrations.  It is not possible to say how it originated, but
+just before Christmas 1879 a fire broke out in Hakodate, which in a
+few hours destroyed 20 streets, 2500 houses, the British Consulate,
+several public buildings, the new native Christian church, and the
+church Mission House, leaving 11,000 people homeless.
+
+{19}  I went over them with the Ainos of a remote village on
+Volcano Bay, and found the differences in pronunciation very
+slight, except that the definiteness of the sound which I have
+represented by Tsch was more strongly marked.  I afterwards went
+over them with Mr. Dening, and with Mr. Von Siebold at Tokiyo, who
+have made a larger collection of words than I have, and it is
+satisfactory to find that we have represented the words in the main
+by the same letters, with the single exception that usually the
+sound represented by them by the letters ch I have given as Tsch,
+and I venture to think that is the most correct rendering.
+
+{20}  I have not been able to obtain from any botanist the name of
+the tree from the bark of which the thread is made, but suppose it
+to be a species of Tiliaceae.
+
+{21}  Yoshitsune is the most popular hero of Japanese history, and
+the special favourite of boys.  He was the brother of Yoritomo, who
+was appointed by the Mikado in 1192 Sei-i Tai Shogun (barbarian-
+subjugating great general) for his victories, and was the first of
+that series of great Shoguns whom our European notions distorted
+into "Temporal Emperors" of Japan.  Yoshitsune, to whom the real
+honour of these victories belonged, became the object of the
+jealousy and hatred of his brother, and was hunted from province to
+province, till, according to popular belief, he committed hara-
+kiri, after killing his wife and children, and his head, preserved
+in sake, was sent to his brother at Kamakura.  Scholars, however,
+are not agreed as to the manner, period, or scene of his death.
+Many believe that he escaped to Yezo and lived among the Ainos for
+many years, dying among them at the close of the twelfth century.
+None believe this more firmly than the Ainos themselves, who assert
+that he taught their fathers the arts of civilisation, with letters
+and numbers, and gave them righteous laws, and he is worshipped by
+many of them under a name which signifies Master of the Law.  I
+have been told by old men in Biratori, Usu, and Lebunge, that a
+later Japanese conqueror carried away the books in which the arts
+were written, and that since his time the arts themselves have been
+lost, and the Ainos have fallen into their present condition!  On
+asking why the Ainos do not make vessels of iron and clay as well
+as knives and spears, the invariable answer is, "The Japanese took
+away the books."
+
+{22}  The duty paid by junks is 4s. for each twenty-five tons, by
+foreign ships of foreign shape and rig 2 pounds for each 100 tons,
+and by steamers 3 pounds for each 100 tons.
+
+{23}  The following very inaccurate but entertaining account of
+this expedition was given by the Yomi-uri-Shimbun, a daily
+newspaper with the largest, though not the most aristocratic,
+circulation in Tokiyo, being taken in by the servants and
+tradespeople.  It is a literal translation made by Mr. Chamberlain.
+"The person mentioned in our yesterday's issue as 'an English
+subject of the name of Bird' is a lady from Scotland, a part of
+England.  This lady spends her time in travelling, leaving this
+year the two American continents for a passing visit to the
+Sandwich Islands, and landing in Japan early in the month of May.
+She has toured all over the country, and even made a five months'
+stay in the Hokkaido, investigating the local customs and
+productions.  Her inspection yesterday of the cremation ground at
+Kirigaya is believed to have been prompted by a knowledge of the
+advantages of this method of disposing of the dead, and a desire to
+introduce the same into England(!)  On account of this lady's being
+so learned as to have published a quantity of books, His Excellency
+the Governor was pleased to see her yesterday, and to show her
+great civility, sending her to Kirigaya in his own carriage, a mark
+of attention which is said to have pleased the lady much(!)"
+
+
+
+
+
+End of The Project Gutenberg Etext of Unbeaten Tracks in Japan, by Bird
+
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