W. Louis SHIPTON, 
 BUXTON. 
 
 $ 

 
 SEAS AND LANDS
 
 SEAS AND LANDS 
 
 SIR EDWIN ARNOLD, M.A., K.C.I.E., C.S.I. 
 
 AUTHOR OF "THE LIGHT OF ASIA," ETC. ETC. 
 
 WITH NUMEROUS ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 NE W IMPRESSION 
 
 LONGMANS, GREEN, AND CO. 
 
 39 PATERNOSTER ROW, LONDON 
 
 NEW YORK AND BOMBAY 
 
 1904 
 
 All rights reserved
 
 BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE. 
 
 First Edition, 8vo, September 1891, Reprinted 
 November 1891 ; Cheap Edition, crown 8vo, 
 February iSgz, Reprinted August 1892, 
 January 1894, March 1895, May 1897, 
 October 1899, March 1904, 
 
 Colonial Edition, September 1892, Reprinted 
 January 1894, March 1895, May 1897, 
 March 1904.
 
 TO MY DAUGHTER, 
 
 KATHARINE LILIAN ARNOLD, 
 
 THE DEAR COMPANION OP MY WANDERINGS, 
 
 Gbeae 
 
 ARK DEDICATED.
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 CBAl>. P40I 
 
 I. IN MID-OCEAN . PI A ..-, ,., . . ,< % % . I 
 
 IL THE GULF OF ST. LAWKKNCK . . . .,..,.- . l6 
 
 IIL MONTREAL AND TORONTO 28 
 
 IV. NIAGARA ..., . ., 4! 
 
 V. AMERICAN SOIL ... , . . . . . jg 
 
 VI. MEN AND CITIES , , . . . . 75 
 
 VII. BOSTON 90 
 
 VIIL HARVARD . . . ...... . 103 
 
 IX. OCEAN TO OCEAN Il6 
 
 X. SAN FRANCISCO 133 
 
 XI. THE PACIFIC 149 
 
 XII. JAPAN . 166 
 
 XHl. A JAPANESE CITY ........ 191 
 
 XIV. RURAL JAPAN . i 20)6 
 
 XV. TEMPLES AND SHRINES . 228 
 
 XVI. POETRY AND PLAYS ....... 242 
 
 XVII. A JAPANESE DINNER 260 
 
 XVIIL THE RANGE OF MODERN KNOWLEDGE . . . 278 
 
 XIX. SAKE AND 'JEA ... . . . . . 294 
 
 XX. AT HOME 315 
 
 XXI. NATURE AND ART . . . . . . . . 339 
 
 XXII. COURT AND COM MERCK ..... . 357 
 
 XXIII. THE JAPANESE HEARTH 375 
 
 XXIV. "KWAJl! KWAJl!" . , ... . . 391 
 XXV. DAILY LIFE . . . . . . . r . 401 
 
 XXVI. MILITANT JAPAN 412 
 
 b
 
 x CONTENTS. 
 
 OB A P. 
 
 XXVIL JAPAN AND FOREIGN POWERS 
 
 xxvm. JAPAN AND FOREIGN POWERS (continued) 
 
 XXIX. A JAPANESE EXHIBITION 
 XXX. THE JAPANESE 8HAMPOOEB . 
 XXXI. A DAY IN FLOWERLAND .... 
 XXXII. A JAPANESE HEALTH RESORT. 
 
 XXXIII. THE DAY OF THE DEAD IN JAPAN - . 
 
 XXXIV. A JAPANESE LOVE-STORY 
 
 XXXV. ASCENT OF FUJI-SAN .... 
 XXXVL IN THE JAPANESE MOUNTAINS . *"/ 
 
 XXXVII. EASTERN FORTITUDE . . . ." 
 
 XXXVIII. AN AFTERNOON WITH THE MIKADO '* 
 XXXIX. THE FIRST ASIATIC PARLIAMENT . 
 XL. HOMEWARD BOUND. 
 
 (KDEX '"''' 593
 
 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 OCR GABDEN AT AZABU . Frontispiece 
 WASHINGTON : THE CAPITOL . 59 
 WASHINGTON : THE WHITE HOUSE 65 
 PHILADELPHIA : INDEPENDENCE 
 
 HALI -79 
 
 SAN FRANCISCO . . . .135 
 THE HATOBA AND GRAND HOTEL, 
 
 YOKOHAMA . . . .167 
 
 A. GKISHA 172 
 
 \. JAPANESE LADT . . .173 
 1 COUNTRY GIUL . . . .176 
 
 THE BABY 179 
 
 FUJI-SAN . ... .181 
 A MUSUMK . . . . .183 
 THE ONE HUNDRED AND ONE STEPS 185 
 THE CASTLE MOAT, TOKIO . . 190 
 JAPANESE CHILDREN . . -195 
 THE TOKIO CAB f . 202 
 
 RICE FIELDS ..... 314 
 TEMPLES AT SHIBA . . . 221 
 THE RED BRIDGE, NIKKO . . 229 
 DANJIRO THB ACTOR . . . 247 
 THE SAMISEN . . . .253 
 AT A PRIVATE DINNER . . . 262 
 WAITING MAIDS .... 267 
 
 FAOl 
 
 DANCING GIRLS .... 269 
 AFTER THB BANQUET . . . 271 
 THE LOTUS OF BUDDHISM . . 291 
 BRINGING SAKE .... 295 
 TEA AND TOBACCO .... 305 
 TEA AND Music .... 309 
 LIGHT REFRESHMENT . . .314 
 
 COOLIES 318 
 
 MY TEAOHKR 320 
 
 MY PUPIL ... , . .321 
 THE SISTERS . . . ... 323 
 
 THE BATH-HOUSE . . . .325 
 
 THE GARDENER'S WIFE. . . 327 
 A WOMAN SLEEPING . . . 329 
 WASHING . . . .331 
 
 DANCING GIRL .... 335 
 
 JAPANESE VILLAGE . . .338 
 
 MAT-MAKING 340 
 
 A TEMPLE GATE .... 356 
 ROAD TO ODAWARA . . .361 
 THE MUSUME ("AND ON HER 
 
 HEAD," &o.) . . . .374 
 GIRL OF THE YOSHIWARA . . 377 
 AT THE YOSHIWARA . . .379 
 Lsx -SERVANTS . . . .381
 
 Xll 
 
 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 A JAPANESE LADY .... 383 
 
 THE KAGO 387 
 
 THE ADTHOB'S "ELAN" . . 390 
 
 THE DAILY " TUB " . . . 405 
 INVITATION TO THE EMPEROR'S 
 
 EVENING PABTY AT NAOOYA . 408 
 
 NAOOYA 409 
 
 IN WINTEB DRESS . . .421 
 
 A JAPANESE GARDEN . . . 466 
 
 HAK.ONE LAKE ... 481 
 
 PAGE 
 
 GRAVE OF KO-MURASAKI . . 489 
 JAPANESE Ckx>LiEs WEARING MINO 506 
 A COCNTBY WOMAN : FUEL AND 
 
 FLOWEBS . . . -523 
 A BAMBOO GROVE . . .530 
 THE JINBIKISHA .... 546 
 INVITATION TO THE EMPEROB'S 
 
 GARDEN PARTY . : . ' . 550 
 CEYLON, COLOMBO . . . . 585 
 SUEZ CANAL 589 
 
 The American views are reproduced by permission from Photographt 
 by Messrs. Frith <fc Go.
 
 SEAS AND LANDS. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 IN MID OCEAN. 
 
 SOUTH-WESTERLY squalls and blinding sheets of rain, 
 relieved occasionally by gleams of pale, unwilling 
 sunshine, were troubling the busy tide-way of the 
 Mersey when we embarked, on Thursday, August 22, 
 at Liverpool, for Quebec and Montreal. Those who 
 take this very interesting route to the American 
 Continent forego the swift passages made to New 
 York by the great racing vessels which fly across in 
 little over six days. On the other hand, the traject 
 from land to land by the St. Lawrence line occupies 
 only five days at least with anything like fair 
 weather and at its termination there is, further, the 
 delightful voyage up the great Canadian river, some 
 700 or 800 miles of quiet and picturesque navigation. 
 True, also, upon this Canadian track, should the 
 nights be dark, there is always some risk from 
 icebergs in and about Belleisle Straits, and a certain 
 amount of anxiety must haunt the captain, if, as 
 is generally the case, fogs cover the Gulf of the St. 
 
 A
 
 2 SEAS AND LANDS. 
 
 Lawrence. But during the summer and early autumn 
 months the attractions of the Dominion route 'are 
 pre-eminent, and our good ship was full to the last 
 berth with Transatlantic tourists returning from the 
 Paris Exhibition, with homeward-bound Canadians, 
 and emigrants. 
 
 On a fine and well-found steamer these last- 
 mentioned people no longer suffer as in the old bad 
 days of sailing ships. Yet they still go through 
 so much misery of all sorts that one marvels how 
 some among them ever plucked up courage for the 
 adventure. They come on board, crowded together 
 in the steam tender, like the herds of red and black 
 oxen which are seen crossing from Birkenhead to 
 Liverpool, or vice versd, in those capacious cattle- 
 boats with the bluff bows. Frightened women, 
 tearful children, and moody men nobody would 
 suppose them to be modern Pilgrim Fathers were 
 starting to fill up the waste fields of a mighty 
 empire, and to make, with luck and industry, their 
 fortunes. Nobody cheers them with music or any 
 sign of public approval and encouragement. They 
 look as melancholy and uncared-for as the doomed 
 cattle ; and might almost be going to as tragic a 
 destiny. In ancient Greece the intending colonists 
 marched down to the sea's edge with pipes and 
 dances, the " Prytanis " going proudly first with the 
 sacred fire from the municipal earth, girls bearing 
 flowers and foliage, and boys portions of the paternal 
 soil, while libations and offerings were joyously 
 made to Deities of Land and Water. No painter or
 
 IN MID OCEAN. 3 
 
 poet could elicit any gay Greek colour or grace of 
 hope and gladness out of these dejected and dis- 
 jointed groups, unless it were from the Scandi- 
 navian contingent, which seemed cleaner, brighter, 
 and more composed than the Irish, Scotch, and 
 English. These, especially the Celts, melt into 
 pathetic hopeless grief when the hour of parting 
 arrives ; and truly it was a sorrowful time for many 
 among them when, heavily as the chill showers fell, 
 there were more tears than rain-drops on their faces. 
 One knew, besides, that there was so much coming 
 for them to suffer upon the rough sea, and in the 
 unaccustomed ship-life. The Mersey was all grey 
 and white with wind-lashed waves as the anchor 
 was got up and the crew hauled in the gangway 
 away from the puffing, snorting steam tender. It 
 looked, indeed, as if evil weather was brewing for 
 us all outside the bar. War being at the moment 
 raging between Admirals Tryon and Baird, the 
 Cyclops and Gorgon, coast-defence ships, lay in 
 the river guarding the seven wealthy miles of 
 Liverpool docks from the arrogant invader, with 
 the aid of a flotilla of torpedo-boats. Even these, 
 however, were all moored high up the fairway, 
 avoiding the stress of the wet and wild south- 
 westerly gale outside. Yet it proved not nearly so 
 bad at first for the emigrants as might have been 
 expected. Down to Crosby Light the estuary was 
 sufficiently protected, and, running out for the south 
 end .of the Isle of Man and towards the north 
 passage between Ballycastle and the Mull of Cantyre,
 
 4 SEAS AND LANDS. 
 
 the wind softened a little, and the great steamer- 
 too heavy with coal and cargo to yield much to the 
 short billows made no very formidable movements. 
 Grievous, of course, was the havoc which sea-sick- 
 ness, following upon sorrow, wrought even thus upon 
 the poor emigrant families. Children were soon 
 prostrate, mothers reduced to limp maternal help- 
 lessness, and fathers sometimes not greatly better. 
 But there were no waves breaking over the vessel to 
 soak them to the skin they had all good shelter 
 from cold and spray under the after-deck, and in 
 the morning had gained a little respite from their 
 first hard sea lesson, as we threaded a passage under 
 the heights of Slieve Slaght and the basaltic crags 
 of Dunaff Head, entering Lough Swilly to pick up 
 the Londonderry mails. 
 
 " Green," truly, as any emerald, does Erin appear 
 to one who passes up this northernmost inlet of the 
 island, between Coleraine and Donegal. On the 
 western side of the lough many pretty mansions 
 and villas, all snow white, deck the verdant wood- 
 lands and hanging meadows. Inland rise the Scalp 
 Mountain and Mamore Pass on the left, and on the 
 right the Knockalla Hills, and, far off and massive, 
 the Glendowan and Derryveagh Ranges, overhang- 
 ing Mulvoy Bay and Milford, where Lord Leitrim 
 was murdered. The anchorage for mail steamers 
 is far away from Londonderry, but Lough Swilly, 
 which leads thither, naturally calls to mind the 
 famous siege of the city in 1689, when the Irish 
 army of King James, under Rosen and Hamilton,
 
 IN MID OCEAN. 5 
 
 beleaguered the place during more than one hundred 
 days, but could not force the gallant Protestant 
 garrison to succumb, although famine and pestilence 
 were their close allies, and the traitorous Lundy, who 
 was the Governor of the city, attempted to sell the 
 gates. That post, as all have read, was taken out 
 of his false hands by a renowned and valiant parson, 
 the Rev. George Walker, Rector of Donaghmore, 
 whose courage and piety preserved the faithful 
 Deny. Up these waters proceeded to her rescue 
 those stout merchantmen of Kirke's relieving fleet, 
 the Phoenix and Mountjoy, which, filled with stores, 
 broke through the chains and booms placed across 
 the Foyle, and brought comparative abundance to 
 Londonderry, and despondency, ending in despair, 
 to the besieging forces. The blockade was thus 
 triumphantly ended on July 30, 1689 ; and a volume 
 in the ship's library supplies to hand the eloquent 
 passage in which Macaulay writes of the famous 
 siege and fortunate relief. " Five generations," says 
 his History of England, "have passed away, and 
 still the wall of Londonderry is to the Protestants 
 of Ulster what the trophy of Marathon was to the 
 Athenians. A lofty pillar, rising from a bastion 
 which bore during many weeks the heaviest fire of 
 the enemy, is seen far up and down the Foyle. On 
 the summit is the statue of Walker, such as when, 
 in the last and most terrible emergency, his elo- 
 quence roused the fainting courage of his brethren. 
 In one hand he grasps a Bible ; the other, pointing 
 down the river, seems to direct the eyes of his
 
 6 SEAS AND LANDS. 
 
 famished audience to the English topmasts in the 
 distant bay. Such a monument was well deserved ; 
 yet it was scarcely needed ; for, in truth, the whole 
 city is to this day a monument of the great deliver- 
 ance. The wall is carefully preserved, nor would 
 any plea of health or convenience be held by the 
 inhabitants sufficient to justify the demolition of 
 that sacred enclosure which, in the evil time, gave 
 shelter to their race and their religion." 
 
 "The summit of the ramparts forms a pleasant walk. 
 The bastions have been turned into little gardens. 
 Here and there among the shrubs and flowers may 
 be seen the old culverins which scattered bricks cased 
 with lead among the Irish ranks. One antique gun 
 the gift of the Fishmongers of London, was dis- 
 tinguished during the 105 memorable days by the 
 loudness of its report, and still bears the name 
 of 'Roaring Meg.' The cathedral is filled with 
 relics and trophies. In the vestibule is a huge 
 shell one of many hundreds which were thrown 
 into the city. Over the altar are still seen the 
 French flagstaves taken by the garrison in a 
 desperate sally ; the white ensigns of the House 
 of Bourbon have long been dust, but their place 
 has been supplied by new banners, the work of 
 the fairest hands of Ulster. The anniversary of 
 the day on which the gates were closed, and the 
 anniversary of the day on which the siege was raised, 
 have been down to our own time celebrated by 
 salutes, processions, banquets, and sermons. Lundy 
 has been executed in effigy, and the sword said by
 
 IN MID 'OCEAN. 7 
 
 tradition to be that of Maumont has, on great 
 occasions, been carried in triumph." How is it 
 possible that a race with such memories could ever 
 allow themselves to be governed from Dublin, or 
 to take laws and to bear taxation at the hands of 
 the less industrious and less educated moiety of the 
 Irish community ? 
 
 The mails duly arrived, and were brought along- 
 side in the tossing steam-tug ; the anchor was got 
 up out of the waters rendered so illustrious by the 
 fortitude and patriotism of Ulstermen, and our good 
 ship screwed her way forth from Lough Swilly, and, 
 rounding Fanad Head, coasted for awhile along 
 by "Frenchman's Rocks," and the huge cliffs of 
 Horn Head, which tower 620 feet above the rest- 
 less surf, to the sound running between Tory Island 
 and the promontory which bears the emphatic title 
 of "The Bloody Foreland." The black rocks of 
 that evil-named cape, and the high white lighthouse 
 on the isle, which has christened a great historical 
 party, were the last landmarks for us of Ireland. 
 If it be forbidden "to speak disrespectfully of the 
 Equator," prudence must combine with politeness 
 to repress any expressions of discontent or disgust 
 at an ocean. While you are writing you are its waif 
 and stray. Otherwise it would be a positive relief 
 to the voyager imprisoned upon the dull, discon- 
 solate, and inhospitable surface of this sub- Arctic 
 sea to utter but a small part of the personal feelings 
 with which its gloomy violence and hideous lack of 
 life and colour and its bitter blasts of spiteful, icy
 
 8 SEAS AND LANDS. 
 
 wind, fill his mind. Justly did Lord Beaconsfield 
 dub it a " melancholy ocean," and ascribe to its 
 dreary contiguity most of the troubles of tearful 
 Erin. 
 
 A man must be, indeed, fond to passion of the 
 sea if he can take pleasure in passing over such 
 a cold, leaden-hued, sullen, sleepless, wild, and wind- 
 scourged expanse as stretches, screams, foams, rolls, 
 and rages round the ship where these far from un- 
 measured words are being written. If the wet and 
 chilly gale does not blow right ahead, pelting the 
 pale waves against the steamer's stem, so that her 
 whole vast weight of 5300 tons comes every minute 
 squattering down into the inky waste, churning it 
 into green and white sea- cream for furlongs, then 
 that same hard, cold wind shifts a point or two 
 northwards or southwards, so as to sweep one side 
 or the other of the deck bare of shivering and 
 staggering passengers. The inky waves dance high 
 on either side, as if to see how we like it, but 
 instantly have their crests lopped off and torn into 
 spindrift by the wind, and sent in clouds of thin 
 salt mist astern. Black are these billows, not 
 " darkly, deeply, beautifully blue," as the ocean 
 out of soundings should be ; for the steamer has 
 now gone clear of that long gradual slope of the 
 sea bottom which stretches out 230 miles from 
 Ireland, and which only falls six feet in the mile 
 throughout all the distance. She has, indeed, 
 logged nearly 1000 knots by this time, and there 
 must be two or three miles of salt water under her
 
 IN MID OCEAN. 9 
 
 keel, yet the ugly, wind-lashed, weltering North 
 Atlantic keeps its sad leaden-hued look, vainly 
 hissing and howling, as it were, at the brave pro- 
 gress of our stout steamship. Not that the weather 
 is so very particularly bad for such an ocean. 
 Our excellent captain merely enters it day after 
 day as " strong head winds and heavy sea." Old 
 hands at crossing say that the passage is, indeed, 
 rather a fair one for the latter part of August, and 
 the ship accomplishes each twenty-four hours her 
 320 miles on an average. 
 
 Christopher Columbus would never have had the 
 desire to traverse a sea like that which has wallowed 
 and spumed under us from the Bloody Foreland to 
 the present longitude, where the quartermaster is 
 dipping the thermometer overboard, to see if the 
 Polar current has yet been reached. The ocean 
 seen, and conquered for its beauty and light and 
 mystery by the grand Genoese, was that bright 
 expanse which stretches in majesty and splendour 
 from the sunny coast of Cadiz ; and carries the 
 glory of the orb "West from Numancos and 
 Bayona's hold" to the lovely Antilles and the 
 lively Caribbean main. That was the vast water 
 originally named after the golden Atlas Range, and 
 the graceful Atlantides, the immortal Ladies of the 
 Wave : not this mournful, waste, desolate, and 
 sailor-hating wilderness of wild grey crests and 
 wandering winds, which pinch and scourge the 
 faces of the poor emigrants, and freeze the warmest 
 blood, and flap spray and coal smoke into the eyes,
 
 io SEAS AND LANDS. 
 
 and make the chairs of many fair passengers dis- 
 mally vacant at table, dinner after dinner. 
 
 Our emigrants are particularly touching. The 
 men, and some of the children, have found their sea 
 legs, but many of the women still remain limp and 
 listless bundles of spray-soaked gowns and wraps, 
 cowering into the corners where the wind can perse- 
 cute them least. They will never find the heart to 
 come back over this murky waste until they have 
 made fortunes, and can take cabin berths like ladies, 
 and have beef-tea brought to them at all hours by 
 attentive stewardesses. If anything like reckless 
 terms have been employed above about the ugliness, 
 the cruelty, and the stupid sombre violence of the 
 North Atlantic, it was chiefly because of the brutal 
 and bitter way in which it has added to the sorrows 
 of these simple and honest exiles. They are of all 
 sorts and conditions as regards place of origin, and 
 will look better, no doubt, ashore, with their hair no 
 longer blown about like tow, and their hands and 
 faces, which have been unwashed for days, restored 
 to decent cleanliness. The sea has taken, for the 
 moment, all the coquetry and smartness out of even 
 the Irish lasses. One of the Swedish maidens has 
 tied her white pigtail up with a rope-yarn, the rude 
 gale having stolen her cherry-coloured ribbon. A 
 Belgian matron, too miserable to be particular, wore 
 one stocking blue and one green yesterday, and her 
 children will evidently not see soap and water until 
 the St Lawrence is reached. 
 
 Yet it was exemplary to note how the Methodists
 
 IN MID OCEAN. n 
 
 and Moravians among this suffering and self-banished 
 crowd picked up their self-respect and courage, and 
 shook off the depressing demon of mal de mer on 
 Sunday afternoon, when an improvised service of 
 hymns and prayer was held by some clergymen 
 upon the main deck. One by one, all, except the 
 most dilapidated and forlorn, drew towards the little 
 congregation, standing bareheaded under the driving 
 sea-clouds. The voice of him who read the supplica- 
 tions, and pronounced a brief discourse to his some- 
 what shattered batch of empire-builders, could hardly 
 be caught, except occasionally, in the gusts of chill 
 wind. But when an enthusiastic worshipper, with 
 an accordion, made his instrument give forth the 
 tune of "Shall we gather at the River?" all seemed 
 to know it, and struck in with a chorus as sweet as 
 it was dauntless, which fairly vanquished the unkind 
 wind and uncivil howling billows so that from end 
 to end of the great steamship one could hear the 
 voices of these men and women nay, even of the 
 children, heaped about on the tarpaulins, all raising 
 together the pious refrain of hope and faith. "Yes!" 
 rang out the chorus, " we'll gather at the River the 
 Golden River ! that flows by the Throne of God." 
 A gentle lady, leaning upon the rail overhead, and 
 watching this service of praise performed in dis- 
 regard of the elements, dropped kindly tears under 
 the stress of tender and human thoughts inspired 
 by the spectacle of adventurous hearts united 
 for one exalted moment in an ecstasy of belief. 
 Assuredly Sophocles was right when he said, "Many
 
 12 SEAS AND LANDS. 
 
 things are wonderful but none is so wonderful as 
 man." 
 
 Coming past the Bloody Foreland we were in 
 danger of being made captives of war. We were 
 chased for a time by one of the armed cruisers from 
 Admiral Baird's fleet. The pursuing vessel had very 
 much the appearance of the Calypso, and put out to 
 catch and capture us from behind Tory Island. But 
 she was a long way to leeward when she first sighted 
 the steamer ; which, albeit no racing liner, can easily 
 do her fourteen knots ; so, after an angry spurt of 
 half-an-hour, during which she could not come 
 within cannon range, as we would not heave-to, 
 and as " a stern chase is always a long chase," our 
 enemy put his helm down and let us go on our 
 watery road in peace. 
 
 Two whales, blowing afar off, diversify for an 
 hour the immense monotony of this heaving black 
 wilderness of waters, over which a chilling and 
 detestable north-westerly breeze is now fast turn- 
 ing into a positive gale. They are not quite the 
 only visible inhabitants of the dark sphere on 
 which we float, for every day we see playing round 
 the ship and skimming up and down the wave- 
 hollows, companies of lovely little terns and sea- 
 swallows, the latter no larger than thrushes. These 
 fearless people of the waste have not by any means 
 followed us from the land, living, as gulls often 
 will, on the waste thrown from the vessel. They 
 are vague and casual roamers of the ocean, who, 
 spying the great steamship from afar, have sailed
 
 IN MID OCEAN. 13 
 
 close up, to see if we are a rock or an island, and 
 will then skim away again on their own free and 
 boundless business. Yonder tiny bird with purple 
 and green plumage, his little breast and neck laced 
 with silver, is distant a thousand miles at this 
 moment from a drop of fresh water, and yet cares 
 no more for that fact than did the Irish squire 
 who "lived twelve miles from a lemon." If his 
 wings ever grow weary it is but to settle quietly 
 on the bosom of a great billow and suffer it for 
 a time to rock and roll him amid the hissing 
 spindrift, the milky flying foam, and the broken 
 sea-lace, which forms, and gleams, and disappears 
 again upon the dark slopes. When he pleases, a 
 stroke of the small red foot and a beat of the 
 wonderful wing launch him off from the jagged 
 edge of his billow, and he flits past us at 100 
 knots an hour, laughing steam and canvas to scorn, 
 and steering for some nameless crag in Labrador 
 or Fundy, or bound, it may be, homeward for 
 some island or marsh of the far-away Irish coast. 
 Marvellously expressive of power as is our untiring 
 engine, which all day and all night throbs and 
 pants and pulses in noisy rhythm under the deck, 
 what a clumsy imperfect affair it is compared to 
 the dainty plumes and delicate muscles which will 
 carry that pretty, fearless sea-swallow back to his 
 roost. 
 
 Our steamer is to make the land at Belleisle, 
 entering the Straits between Labrador and New- 
 foundland, and, after passing through these, will
 
 1 4 SEAS AND LANDS, 
 
 cross the Gulf of St. Lawrence, and thread for 700 
 or 800 miles the great river of the Dominion. This 
 land-fall and the approach by the Belleisle Straits 
 are held dangerous by all navigators because of 
 fogs and icebergs which are constantly encountered 
 there together. A vessel of the line the Montreal 
 was quite lately cast away on the rocks of the 
 Straits, and our admirable and very popular skipper, 
 Captain Lindall, will be all to-night on the bridge, 
 and all to-morrow night also, conning his ship 
 and taking heed for the 800 sleeping folk who 
 make her a small floating town. Rolling and toss- 
 ing on this gloomy, chilly, and unlovely ocean day 
 after day, there must be few amongst our company 
 who do not by this time long to see the light 
 gleaming at Belleisle icebergs or no icebergs. To- 
 morrow, if the sea-gods favour, we shall be in the 
 Gulf of St. Lawrence. 
 
 But let it not be imagined for a moment that 
 the unfriendly gales and uncomfortable rollers 
 -have suppressed the spirit of making the best 
 of things which is common to the Anglo-Saxon 
 blood, whether it flows in British or American, or 
 "Blue-Nose" veins. The North Atlantic has not 
 prevented except very occasionally our resolute 
 promenading on the deck, our concerts in the 
 saloon, our games at quoits and deck shuffle-board, 
 nor the alternating hymns and waltzes of the 
 pilgrim fathers, sisters, cousins, aunts, &c., who 
 throng the after part of the ship. And if it be 
 thought that we starve, because "the stormy winds
 
 IN MID OCEAN. 15 
 
 do blow," here is the dinner menu for one day 
 of the voyage, when it was really a hard north- 
 easter, with a driving sea, and the " fiddles " were 
 on every table : 
 
 August 24. Soups Julienne, mutton broth. Fish Cod and 
 oyster sauce. Entrees Stewed kidneys, haricot ox tail, fricassee 
 rabbit. Joints Roast beef and horse radish, roast lamb and mint 
 sauce, roast turkey and cranberry sauce, roast goose and apple 
 sauce, boiled mutton and caper sauce, boiled fowl and parsley 
 sauce. Entremets Ox tongue and vegetables. Vegetables 
 Boiled and baked potatoes, green peas, vegetable marrow. Pastry 
 Sago pudding, apple, plum, and rhubarb pies, rock cakes. 
 Dessert Plums, pears, melons, grapes, oranges. Coffee. 
 
 Some apology is, moreover, now due to the North 
 Atlantic, for, as the brave ship has drawn nearer 
 the American shores, the wild weather has greatly 
 relaxed, and the dark waves have run in pleasanter 
 measure, and with more grace of colour, under a 
 sky not wholly without patches of azure and gleam- 
 ings of sunshine ; so that society on board has 
 largely resumed its gaiety and content, and both 
 forward and aft we are all inclined to forgive the 
 " many-sounding sea." 
 
 IN MID-ATLANTIC, Aug. 26, 1889.
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 THE GULF OF ST. LAWRENCE. 
 
 "ICE on the starboard bow!" The watch on the 
 forecastle sang this out early in the day before our 
 steamer made the Belleisle Lights, and many on 
 board had then their first opportunity of beholding 
 that lovely but terrible peril of the sea a floating ice- 
 berg. This particular specimen glimmered on the 
 distant surface like a huge sea-beryl, with a pale- 
 greenish glow, and was perhaps as large as Salisbury 
 Cathedral, with five or six times as much bulk below 
 water as what was visible. Near to it floated some 
 smaller hummocks and pieces of floe the avant- 
 garde of the frosty flotilla which might now be 
 expected upon our path. Save for this danger of 
 icebergs, and of the fogs which too frequently beset 
 the entrance to the Gulf of St. Lawrence, it is per- 
 fectly evident to any competent observer that this 
 route would become not only a favourite highway 
 to the New World, but would formidably and per- 
 manently threaten the popularity of the direct roads 
 pursued by other lines. The icebergs are a great 
 drawback, and they are unfortunately most to be 
 expected in those summer months when alone the 
 
 navigation is open. The first heats of the brief but 
 
 16
 
 THE GULF OF ST. LAWRENCE. 17 
 
 hot Arctic sunshine set in rapid motion the glaciers 
 of Labrador and Greenland. 
 
 These vast storehouses of gathered and con- 
 solidated snow glide to the edge of the tremendous 
 ice-precipices of the Winter Lands, and, falling 
 over them in monstrous masses, crash into the 
 deep water with shocks which send thunder-peals 
 through the still Polar air, and perturb the ocean 
 far and near with rolling waves. Then, committed 
 by so awful a launch to the southward - going 
 L o currents, the great broken glittering mass goes 
 solemnly sailing away in the unwonted sunshine. 
 As it floats, the water, warmer than the air, melts 
 its lower portion gradually, and detached pieces also 
 fall from the visible part, until equilibrium becomes 
 destroyed, and the colossal block capsizes with a 
 second shock, startling the ocean for leagues around. 
 But a vast number of these bergs are flat, and there 
 are, besides, immense detached fields or floes which 
 carry on their surface, without upsetting, boulders of 
 rock, and mud, and detritus, scraped up by the 
 cosmic chisels of the ice, and these, it is believed by 
 many geologists, have borne from the Frozen circle, 
 and deposited on the banks of Newfoundland, the 
 vast deposits which have created those extensive 
 shallows the feeding ground of fish, and the breed- 
 ing place of mists. The loftier bergs drive slowly 
 down inside and outside the Gulf of St. Lawrence, 
 and haunt it with phantoms of destruction. 
 
 Very weird, indeed, it is to catch, in the rays 
 of the stars or new moon, or in the faint twilight 
 
 B
 
 1 8 SEAS AND LANDS. 
 
 never absent from the rim of the sea, that pallid 
 ghostly glare, as dim as a corpse-light, which draws 
 from the look-out man this sudden cry of "Ice on the 
 weather bow." The distant aspect is as though a 
 gleam of greenish phosphorescence shot, afar off, 
 from the ocean- depths ; but very soon the gaunt and 
 glittering berg displays its splintered pinnacles and 
 ledges of snow-clad crystals, and shows its fantastic 
 shape full to the mariner. The clouds take no such 
 variety of forms with which to engage the imagina- 
 tion. Sometimes it seems a sea-temple of sculptured 
 ice which floats by, all complete with dome, and 
 porch, and archways. Sometimes it is of haystack 
 outline, as if the spirits of the Pole had been 
 harvesting their glassy crop of winter. Sometimes 
 you might swear it was a full-rigged ship frozen to 
 white death, or a fortress of the impregnable north, 
 cut adrift from the Arctic ramparts. But, met with 
 in the darkness, and not, perhaps, perceived until 
 the glare of the ship's lamps is reflected back from 
 its stealthy and silent onset, what peril can be more 
 deadly ? At full speed the fated vessel dashes against 
 that brittle but ruinous mass. Her stem pierces its 
 outlying layers, only to be crumpled up against the 
 unyielding heart of the cold floating mountain. Her 
 fore-part is all crushed in, the sea fills her, and in 
 fifteen minutes there will be, perchance, nothing to 
 tell of the great and gallant vessel, except a boat 
 or two crammed with hopeless castaways and the 
 floating riff-raff of the decks and gear of the victim, 
 whose epitaph must be, "Not since heard of."
 
 THE GULF OF ST. LAWRENCE. ig 
 
 Save for this contingency of collision with ice- 
 bergs, no gateway could be nobler, no approach 
 to the American Continent more suitable and 
 attractive than that which our good ship has 
 pursued. Passing safely, and free of any serious 
 fog or ice alarm, through the narrow inlet of the 
 Belleisle Straits, the Vancouver steamed swiftly into 
 the Gulf of St. Lawrence, which expands immediately 
 into a prodigious inland sea. It is an estuary of 
 a river ; but what an estuary, and what a stream ! 
 Truly a magnificent preface to the grand volume 
 of geography which now opens to the eye and 
 mind of the voyager. Did he deem oblivious of 
 his maps that, once thus land-locked, he might 
 consider the sea section of his passage terminated ? 
 The basin of the great St. Lawrence river receives 
 him into waters so capacious that for 300 miles 
 he will hardly again espy dry land, and will not 
 see the current reveal to him both its shores until 
 at least 400 miles have been traversed. 
 
 Hour after hour day, indeed, after day we skim 
 on at full speed across the shorter but still lively 
 waves of an expanse half as big as the Mediter- 
 ranean, and although five days were sufficient to 
 take us from continent to continent, the seventh 
 day arrives before we reach Gaspe*, and see dimly 
 the coast of Nova Scotia. Further on lies, ragged 
 with pines, the long island of Anticosti, full of 
 bears, and dreaded by skippers for its dangerous 
 reefs and shoals, and only long after its desolate 
 uplands have faded away astern, does our steamer
 
 20 SEAS AND LANDS. 
 
 come in sight of the New Brunswick littoral about 
 St. Anne des Monts. We are now in the true 
 mouth of the St. Lawrence, and s*hall coast along 
 the southern lip, "keeping the land in board." 
 But the other lip is still 100 miles distant, and 
 Rimouski must be passed and the Mille Vaches 
 and Sault au Cochon breasted, before at last two 
 shores are seen to this superb and unequalled 
 channel, and we can perceive and know that every 
 wave beneath the keel of the vessel is mingled 
 with sweet water which has flowed forth from the 
 great American lakes, and dashed in glory and in 
 fury over the wild and white chasm of Niagara. 
 
 You do not know at home at all events, you 
 do not realise the magnificence of this your 
 Canadian Nile, or the imperial importance of that 
 Dominion of which it is the sustaining artery. 
 We have now steamed at full speed for nearly 
 three days up the ever-narrowing green bosom of 
 the great St. Lawrence, and are but just arrived 
 at our destination of Montreal, after nine days of 
 voyaging. And, from the moment when both banks 
 of this splendid waterway appeared together, until 
 our arrival at the head of navigation in this hand- 
 some city, there was visible on either shore an 
 almost continuous line of little white cottages 
 and humble, but evidently prosperous farmsteads, 
 making, as it were, one long water-street of the 
 river. Wherever these dwellings clustered thickly 
 a pretty church would raise its pointed spire, cased 
 in shining tin or zinc tiles, above the piles of sawn
 
 THE GULF OF ST. LAWRENCE. 21 
 
 planks, the well-filled barns, and the dark forests of 
 spruce and hemlock. 
 
 Everywhere solid tokens of well-being and social 
 tranquillity ; but everywhere, also, to the observant 
 eye, signs of priestly domination and postponement of 
 civil progress to the interests of the Altar for along 
 all this littoral, and far inland, over the provinces 
 of New Brunswick and Quebec, the country remains 
 intensely French and unchangeably Roman Catholic ; 
 and you will note that the churches and chapels, 
 the priests' houses and the convents, absorb most 
 of the peasants' money, and cause the cottages to 
 remain of one insignificant and submissive pattern. 
 
 The names of the towns, villages, and tributary 
 streams are all French ; all the Saints in the Gallic 
 Calendar seem to have contributed their holy appel- 
 lations to christen Lower Canada. Up to Quebec, 
 high uplands of rolling and folded hills, fringed with 
 the spiky firs, shut in the broad shining channel, 
 and at every five or six leagues these suddenly 
 part, and let down, between dark, forest-clad crags 
 and grey cliffs of limestone, streams which in 
 smaller countries would be a Thames, a Rhine, or 
 an Ebro, but which here count well-nigh for nothing, 
 as they pour their unregarded tribute of mountain 
 water into this stupendous outlet of the lake system 
 of North America. Only a few sails and boats are 
 encountered ; small schooners and broad timber 
 and cattle craft, propelled by huge square sails, 
 occasionally relieve the silence and comparative 
 solitude of the glorious river, and the crews of
 
 22 SEAS AND LANDS. 
 
 these, as well as the denizens of the shores, appear 
 immensely interested in the passage of our great 
 mail steamer, saluting us with shouts and waving 
 kerchiefs, and sometimes with a coup de fusil. 
 Our big steamer answers such homely welcomes 
 with a snort or two upon her unmelodious fog- 
 whistle which, let it be mentioned, was never so 
 much as once sounded on all the route across not 
 even in Belleisle Straits, where fogs are almost a 
 matter of expectation. 
 
 After the cold and tossing North Atlantic, 
 imagine how agreeable and composing is the 
 bright tranquillity of this broad and unruffled 
 current. The ladies, who were wrapped a day or 
 two ago in sombre hoods and ulsters, like grey 
 and brown chrysalids, have now emerged, like 
 brilliant butterflies, in summer toilettes. Many of 
 them are returning home from the wonders of the 
 Paris Exhibition and the delightful fatigues of an 
 European tour, and know every reach and pro- 
 montory of the great stream. "There is the best 
 river for salmon ! Yonder, at the * Pig's Jump,' 
 is the place for strawberries and bears, and over 
 those hills is the Cascapedia valley, where his Ex- 
 cellency the Governor-General goes to fish." On 
 the northern shore behind the nearer uplands 
 clothed with endless spruce, hemlock, sumach, and 
 birch runs along, with the full dignity of a moun- 
 tain range, the long ridge of the Laurentian rocks, 
 the primitive foundation-stuff of the globe, which we 
 shall not drop from view until far above Montreal.
 
 THE GULF OF ST. LAWRENCE. 23 
 
 At the island of St. Louis we are so far up 
 the stupendous river that, though the tides push 
 its current back, the water- is now almost or quite 
 fresh ; and so, gliding hour after hour along the 
 still scarcely diminished channel for ever passing 
 the little white houses, the well-stuffed barns, the 
 churches, the convents, the small jutting piers with 
 their beacons, the tiny red lightships moored in 
 midstream to guide the nocturnal voyageur, the 
 herds of grazing cattle, the green patches of 
 potatoes, rye, barley, and melons, the lumber-yards, 
 . the sawmills, the beaches covered with canoes, and 
 the groups of French-looking residents our stout 
 ship steams placidly at last along the " Island of 
 Orleans," and comes in view of the stately Citadel 
 of Quebec, with the ancient French houses at its 
 foot, and the masts of much shipping. She snorts a 
 reverence to Her Majesty's war-ship the Bellerophon, 
 lying at anchor off the Point Levi, and dips her en- 
 sign, which salute the handsome man-of-war returns, 
 for we are the mail-boat, and of high importance. 
 Then, our skilful captain brings his 5Ooo-tonner 
 alongside the new docks as softly and steadily as 
 if she were an eight-oar finishing practice, and we 
 are moored stem and stern under the "Heights of 
 Abraham." 
 
 Quebec, conquered by the military genius of 
 Wolfe in 1759, has remained unvanquished in 
 regard to her language and population. She is still 
 almost as much France as St. Malo or liouen, and 
 the first indigene whom you address in English for
 
 24 SEAS AND LANDS. 
 
 guidance will reply, "pas sais parler Anglaise" If 
 you remember, as a Briton must, the debt of Empire 
 due to the great soldier of King George, you will 
 bend earliest steps to the eminence on which frowns 
 the impregnable citadel. You will have in your 
 mind those noble lines of Cowper 
 
 " Time was when it was praise and boast enough, 
 In every clime, and travel where we might, 
 That we were born her children ; fame enough 
 To fill th' ambition of a common man, 
 That Chatham's language was his mother-tongue, 
 And "Wolfe's great name compatriot with his own." 
 
 The ancient city as a local authority justly 
 observes gives the impression as though a frag- 
 ment of the Old World had been transferred to the 
 New, and carefully hidden away in this remote 
 corner for safe keeping. Owing to the strength of 
 the defences, and the steepness of the hill, Quebec is 
 rightly called the " Gibraltar of America." Whether 
 seen from below, or when ascending the river, or 
 from the railway station or steamer-landing, the 
 view of the town and citadel is equally novel and 
 impressive. Yet how changed in all except nature, 
 since the wild woods and towering rocks were first 
 visited in 1535, by Jacques Cartier, and the founda- 
 tion of a town laid by Samuel de Champlain, in 
 1608. This was on the site of the Indian village 
 of " Stadicona," at the confluence of the St. Law- 
 rence and St. Charles rivers. Note as you climb the 
 Champlain steps the old French names on the shops, 
 the dark eyes and hair which tell of French de-
 
 THE GULF OF ST. LAWRENCE. 25 
 
 scent, and the great blocks of ice which are being 
 deposited from a cart at every door, as the milk 
 is left, or the newspaper, at home with us. The 
 Canadian summer is still fervid here, and the 
 " habitants " have caught the dangerous American 
 taste for cooled drinks. By a massive portal you 
 enter at length the fortress, leaving on one side 
 the Parliament House in Grande Allee. 
 
 Standing in any one of the river bastions, and 
 gazing over the ramparts and the glacis, your glance 
 takes in one of the noblest prospects of the globe. 
 To the right the interminable river sweeps down 
 from Ontario and Niagara. In front Point Levi 
 frames the picture with a background of woodlands 
 and buildings, and under your feet is the quaint old- 
 fashioned French town and the crowded shipping. 
 All is as tranquil as the stream itself; but to remind 
 you of old scenes of carnage, and the changed con- 
 ditions of modern warfare, the Bellerophon at this 
 moment fires a torpedo for practice, blowing some 
 500 tons of the St. Lawrence high into the air, and 
 making in the river a huge circle of mud and dying 
 fish, which goes whirling and expanding down the 
 current. The thunder of the explosion rolls back 
 from Point Levi to Cape Diamond, and dies away 
 high up among the fir- woods on the left, where 
 Wolfe, after delivering his feint attack, landed his 
 forces at night, by a flotilla of boats, and surprised 
 the unsuspecting Montcalm by appearing suddenly 
 on the plateau. The chivalrous Frenchman, instead 
 of confiding in his stone walls, came rashly forth
 
 26 SEAS AND LANDS. 
 
 to fight in the open for the possession of Canada, 
 and yonder obelisk marks the spot where Wolfe fell 
 in the instant of victory, and where Montcalm also 
 received his death-wound. It is good to find the 
 names of both heroes linked together upon the 
 memorial here, as well as lower down in the Des 
 Carrieres Street. The latter bears a nobly epigram- 
 matic inscription 
 
 MORTEM VIRTUS COMMUNEM 
 
 FAMAM HISTORIA 
 
 MONUMENTUM POSTERITAS 
 
 DEDIT 
 
 which, for the sake of all patriotic Englishwomen, 
 may be translated 
 
 Their valour gave a common fate, 
 
 Their worth a common fame ; 
 English and French, we here inscribe 
 
 In common love, each name. 
 
 They say, as the surgeon drew the fatal musket 
 ball from the wound of Wolfe, he exclaimed, " Why, 
 this is not the bullet of an enemy ! " and that the 
 gallant general answered with a faint smile on his 
 dying face gay even in extremity " Well, Doctor, 
 I don't think it could be the bullet of a friend ! " 
 Wolfe has a proud and ornate monument in West- 
 minster Abbey but here is his true mausoleum, in 
 the fair meadows and forests, the far pine-clad 
 ranges, the broad, majestic river, the peaceful, 
 prosperous Dominion, and, above it all, the flutter 
 and the glitter of that Union Jack upon the flagstaff
 
 THE GULF OF ST. LAWRENCE. 27 
 
 in the Bastion, which marks it all " British America," 
 a territory one-fifteenth of the whole earth's surface, 
 larger by one- tenth than all the United States, and 
 only smaller than all the Continent of Europe by 
 the area of Spain ; a gift to the British Empire 
 bought with most generous blood, and worth retain- 
 ing, while it is willing to be retained, with all the 
 energies and resources of that Empire. 
 
 MONTREAL, Sept. r, 1889
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 MONTREAL AND TORONTO. 
 
 IT was impressive to watch the excitement and 
 interest of our emigrants at the moment of reaching 
 the quay at Montreal. This is their port of dis- 
 embarkation, and being Sunday evening, when all 
 the population not in church and chapel was dis- 
 engaged, 
 
 "the city cast 
 Its people forth upon us." 
 
 We drew up alongside the wharf, and in close 
 proximity to Her Majesty's men-of-war Tourmaline 
 and Pylades, amid a flutter of welcoming hand- 
 kerchiefs and a forest of waving hands. Everybody 
 on board seemed indeed to have friends on shore, 
 except one humorous and lonely Irishman, who, 
 vexed to be " out in the cold " amidst such a 
 genial display of sentiment, was heard to say to 
 another Hibernian, " Dennis, honey, just go over 
 the gangway and rowl your hat round and round 
 towards me, for it's mighty quare and solithary 
 I'm seeming at this minute ! " Truly it was an 
 instant of natural emotion with all these poor people 
 to come thus to their new home, safe and sound, 
 but each with an uncut tome of life's three-volume 
 
 aft
 
 MONTREAL AND TORONTO. 29 
 
 novel before him or her, and all these new faces, new 
 places, new scenes, and new circumstances ashore 
 to encounter. Yet the glorious "elbow-room" of 
 this Dominion, its boundless fields and forests, its 
 free air and immense future capacities, made one 
 wish that they were a whole army of East-end 
 Londoners we were throwing ashore instead of a 
 mere detachment. There is room here for all who 
 will come with the will to work hard ; but those 
 most sure to succeed are immigrants knowing a 
 trade, and possessing a little capital. There are 
 no poor visible about the streets of Montreal ; a 
 beggar is an unheard-of phenomenon crackers and 
 pork, eggs and melons, fish and meal are too cheap 
 for hunger to be ever felt by anybody with a pair 
 of hands. Especially good and pleasant it was to 
 see Lady Stanley of Preston on the wharf looking 
 after the welfare of the newcomers to her husband's 
 Viceroyalty. 
 
 Another people besides beggars of whom you 
 see nothing in and about the stately and vigorous 
 city of Montreal are those Red Indians to whom 
 the land originally belonged. A little village near 
 the "Royal Mount" harbours, indeed, a remnant of 
 half-breeds, a feeble folk, living by the sale of bead- 
 work and models of bark canoes, representative, in 
 a melancholy, flickering manner, of the Algonquins 
 and Hurons and such like, who were the landed 
 proprietors hereabouts when the Kings of France 
 first cast eyes of desire upon the region. How far 
 away in date, and farther still in events, that
 
 30 SEAS AND LANDS. 
 
 historical act when, on March 7, 1604, two vessels 
 set sail from the Old World bearing Pierre de 
 Gast, the well-beloved friend of King Henry IV. of 
 France, who had by royal patent the previous year 
 granted to the Sieur des Monts all the American 
 territory between the fortieth and forty-sixth de- 
 grees of north latitude, with the royal authority 
 to colonise and govern it according to his own 
 judgment ! With the expedition came Samuel 
 Champlain, pilot, one of the earliest discoverers 
 of the country. 
 
 After an ocean voyage of two months the fleet 
 landed on the southerly side of the peninsula of 
 Nova Scotia. From this point they sailed along the 
 shore of Nova Scotia, explored the Bay of Fundy, 
 and thence proceeded to the waters of Passama- 
 quoddy, which Des Monts and his men called a 
 " sea of salt water." This was the first expedition 
 to these waters. Passing through the outer fringe 
 of islands, the ships crossed the bay, and ascended 
 the Schoodic (St. Croix) River, near the present town 
 of St. Andrews. In the same quiet and almost 
 furtive style arrived the other pioneers earlier and 
 later the Cabots and Cartiers, and the rest ; laying 
 hold gradually of this magnificent region, as the 
 "white man's foot," a plant which you see in the 
 Canadian clearings, has stolen into the flora of the 
 woods and thrust the Indian grasses aside. Yet 
 none of these original colonists could have imagined, 
 even in their wildest dreams, a city to be so large 
 and complete as Montreal, the commercial Queen of
 
 MONTREAL AND TORONTO. 31 
 
 the Dominion. Montreal is situated on an island, 
 at the confluence of the Ottawa and St. Lawrence 
 rivers, containing 197 square miles, which, from 
 its fertility, has been called the garden of Canada. 
 The St. Lawrence is i^ miles wide opposite the 
 city, and the whole river front is lined with massive 
 walls, quays, and terraces of grey limestone, which 
 is rather of a depressing colour, unless lighted up 
 by the sun. There is, however, a warm red sand- 
 stone hereabouts, largely and skilfully employed by 
 the Montreal masons, and this produces excellent 
 effects, and makes one wish Montreal had found it 
 out before, for she might have then rivalled Jeypore 
 or Futtehpore Sikri the Indian cities in richness 
 of general tint. Nevertheless, it is a really hand- 
 some and imposing capital, commanding the trade 
 of the great river, albeit 800 miles from its mouth. 
 
 Built chiefly on the level ground between Mount 
 Royal and the river, it climbs far and wide over the 
 high ground near Mount Royal, where are to be 
 found many charming private residences, and a 
 fashionable drive extending round the mountain, 
 bordered by gardens and ornamental enclosures, and 
 affording fine views in all directions. The public 
 buildings are fine, especially the church of the 
 Jesuits. The Cathedral of Notre Dame is of great 
 size, and the view from one of its towers, in which 
 hangs " Gros Bourdon," the great bell, singularly 
 extensive and interesting. It is characteristic of the 
 passion here to save time and trouble that you 
 mount to the top of the highest church- tower in
 
 32 SEAS AND LANDS. 
 
 Montreal by a lift and very convenient is the 
 innovation, if not strictly canonical. Montreal has 
 pretty public gardens, copious and pure supplies of 
 mountain water, and unlimited privileges in the 
 way of electric lighting, telephones, and telegraph 
 wires ; but these involve, unfortunately, the universal 
 presence of those odious and hideous poles which 
 rear their gaunt, rough, unpainted nakedness along 
 every street. Huge fir trunks they are, half-dressed 
 from the forest, enormously thick and tall, and in 
 Montreal, as in so many another town and city of 
 the Dominion and of the States, they spoil the most 
 charming and stately vistas. 
 
 Leaving behind in this agreeable place many new 
 and pleasant friends, we plunged deeper yet into the 
 "Queen's America" by taking train, on the Grand 
 Trunk Line, for Toronto. The voyage by river from 
 Belleisle Straits goes all the way steadily south- 
 wards, and we had now come into the last and 
 hottest days of the Canadian summer. With 85 
 degrees in the shade, and a cloudless sky overhead, 
 the broad and fair land on either side of the track 
 seemed almost to smoke with heat ; but plentiful 
 recent showers had left it green, and it was difficult 
 to realise that in a short time all that glowing 
 landscape would be covered with deep snow, the 
 forests glittering with frost-crystals, and the streams 
 locked in ice. Yet the Canadian winter is not 
 spoken of as any hardship. The snow keeps the 
 seeds and the soil warm with its white blanket ; it 
 makes roads for the lumbermen in the woods, and
 
 MONTREAL AND TORONTO. 33 
 
 for the merry sleigh-parties in the towns ; and the 
 still atmosphere, bracing and salubrious, renders not 
 only tolerable, but even positively pleasant, tempera- 
 tures so much below zero, that brandy freezes at 
 them ; and the milk, and pork, and butter are sold 
 in icy blocks, cut off with a hatchet. Now, at the 
 beginning of September, it is high summer-tide, the 
 fair Canadians go about in muslins, and the farm 
 labourers work in a thin jersey, while we must keep 
 open all the windows and doors of the Pullman car, 
 which is flying along the northern shore of Ontario, 
 to obtain air enough this sultry noon. 
 
 Suddenly transported hither, a careless observer 
 would hardly know he was not in England. The 
 population, of course, is largely British, the names 
 of the stations are occasionally very much so, for we 
 stop successively at Brighton, Whitby, Scarborough, 
 as well as at spots with Indian titles, and others 
 christened after French saints or local points of 
 interest, or bygone pioneers of civilisation. There 
 are, it is true, everywhere the " snake fences," those 
 abominations of ugliness and wasted material, which 
 wriggle and bristle all over the otherwise pretty 
 landscape, raggedly dividing the fields and spoil- 
 ing their trimness and agricultural grace. It is so 
 deplorably easy to build these straggling horrors, 
 and the stuff is so cheap, that we must expect to 
 encounter them everywhere ; but they would mar 
 the look of any country in the world, and make one 
 think with new affection of the green hedges of 
 England.
 
 34 SEAS AND LANDS. 
 
 Elsewhere it is all English enough. The wild 
 blossoming herbs, noticeable along the line, are 
 old acquaintances. We note the golden rod, the 
 cornflower, the purple thistle, the Michaelmas daisy, 
 the dragon's mouth, the dock, plantain, and other 
 familiar friends ; but no daisies and no ivy. Large 
 levels and uplands, fringed with woodlands of fir 
 and spruce, meet the eye sometimes in pasture, 
 sometimes covered with crops, just ripening, of 
 buckwheat, barley, rye, and Indian corn. Con- 
 stantly the primitive forest comes down to the 
 line, and we dash through leagues of dark, cool 
 undergrowth, amid the dense columns of pine-stems, 
 entering now and then a clearing, now and then a 
 space made black and open by reason of forest fires, 
 and then the farms, the pastures, and the barley- 
 fields once more. Almost all these fields are full of 
 the stumps of felled trees, for it has been less labour 
 to plough, sow, and reap round and round these 
 relics of the youth of the colony, than to remove 
 them ; and thus a considerable part of the region 
 wears the look of an interminable cemetery, where 
 these black and grey roots are the gravestones of the 
 ancient universal pine-woods, and of their Iroquois 
 and Huron owners. But that we may not forget 
 Ireland among these unusual impediments of agri- 
 culture, our train has just swept across the Ottawa 
 River, at the pretty station of St. Anne. This 
 locality the " Bout de 1'Isle " is much frequented 
 by Montrealists in the summer season, and possesses 
 an ancient church, revered by the Canadian boatmen
 
 MONTREAL AND TORONTO. 35 
 
 and voyageurs. The Ottawa is here crossed by a 
 fine railway bridge, and the famous rapids of St. 
 Anne are flanked by a canal. And here, of all 
 places in the world, it was that Moore wrote his 
 well-known Canadian boat-song beginning 
 
 " Faintly as tolls the evening chime, 
 Our voices keep tune, and our oars keep time. 
 Soon as the woods on the shore look dim 
 We'll sing at St. Anne's our parting hymn. 
 Row, brothers, row ; the stream runs fast, 
 The rapids are near, and the daylight's past" 
 
 It is pleasant to think that good songs live when 
 great forests vanish and races pass away. 
 
 These 300 odd miles of Canada, traversed by the 
 Grand Central Railway, are diversified, as has been 
 remarked, by rocks and streams, by lonely villages 
 and populous towns, by plains broad and open, 
 covered with crops, and tracts as wild and untouched 
 as when the red man's moccasins alone trod them. 
 The immense expanse continually astonishes, and 
 its endless abundance of rough pasture and forest. 
 And yet all this is only a fringe and fragment of the 
 vast Dominion. Our 330 miles run to-day through 
 such a region is but a kind of drive from one home- 
 stead to another. But it shows us Canada busy and 
 prosperous train after train goes past, laden with 
 lumber, grain, fruits, agricultural machinery, and 
 cattle. Especially notable is the " Hog-express," 
 laden with unhappy pigs in a state of unwieldy 
 obesity, which have now to expiate unlimited rations 
 of maize and swill in their happy Western styes, by
 
 36 SEAS AND LANDS. 
 
 this fatal journey to Montreal, or Quebec, or Halifax, 
 where they will be slaughtered and salted down. 
 One train passing us contained more than 10,000 of 
 these ill-starred animals, grunting and squeaking at 
 every blast of the steam-horn, and each new shock 
 of the buffers. The chorus of porcine protest was 
 loud and sad ; and, indeed, only a Mussulman could 
 have refrained from pitying the plaintive snouts 
 pressed close to the iron bars of the trucks for fresh 
 air, and the eloquent tails, which protruded through 
 them, and were twisted into perfect corkscrews of 
 astonishment and despair. Some of these fattened 
 hogs are shipped for England alive at the Dominion 
 ports, as it is found to be the cheapest way of 
 transporting to Great Britain the eight or ten 
 quarters of maize which each pig represents, and 
 the pork-butchers of Liverpool rather prefer to dress 
 the carcasses themselves. But large consignments of 
 the swine go over, slaughtered and salted ; and we 
 saw but would not enter those sanguinary estab- 
 lishments where a minute and a quarter of merciless 
 machinery converts hog after hog, to the number of 
 thousands in the day, from such earthly pleasures 
 as a pig can know, to the posthumous honours of 
 bacon. 
 
 Toronto sits splendidly on the western extremity 
 of her lake, which presents, even here, the unwonted 
 spectacle to the British eyes of a boundless ex- 
 panse of fresh water. Gaze as far and as steadily as 
 you will into that south-eastern horizon, and deepen 
 your search with the aid of the glass, yet no faintest
 
 MONTREAL AND TORONTO. 37 
 
 loom of land arises over the placid light grey wavelets. 
 You would have to sail seventy miles in that direc- 
 tion to reach the American shore, and one hundred 
 miles to get back into the narrows near Kingston, 
 where nestle the thousand islands with their green 
 and varied beauty. This fair, free, inland sea has, 
 no doubt, the fault of lying enclosed by a low coast, 
 so that it suggests the idea of shallowness, and lacks 
 the first element of lake scenery. But with Niagara 
 at one end of it and the Great St. Lawrence at the 
 other it can afford, like the little Sea of Galilee, which 
 is also very far from beautiful in its surroundings, 
 to go without the usual romantic accessories. Its 
 bosom is dotted with steamers, coming and going, 
 with well-built schooners, two and three-masted, as 
 well as pleasure yachts and boats of all sorts, moored 
 or moving in the city harbour, which is formed by 
 the washings from the sandstone ridges eastwards. 
 Huge red grain elevators rise on the shore, which 
 sweeps round in a flattened crescent towards the 
 mouth of the Niagara River, and that famous cleft 
 where Erie pours the waters she has received from 
 Huron, Michigan, and Superior, into Ontario. On 
 fine days the cloud formed by the spray from the 
 great cataract, and always hanging over it, can be 
 discerned from the tower of Toronto University, 
 albeit forty miles distant. 
 
 Anybody might be contented to reside in this 
 charming city, which was once called York, but has 
 now the pretty Indian word for its " married and 
 settled name." Its streets are broad, well-paved,
 
 38 SEAS AND LANDS. 
 
 and regularly laid out. The principal public and 
 private dwellings are substantially built, and de- 
 lightful villas abound in the environs. At "The 
 Grange," where this is written, the pleasant resi- 
 dence of Professor Gold win Smith, we have old 
 English lawns, and might be at Oxford. The 
 leading thoroughfares are King, Queen, and Yonge 
 Streets ; the most important building is the Uni- 
 versity, in a large park, approached by College 
 Avenue, which is over half a mile long, lined by a 
 double row of trees. The University over which 
 the learned President, Sir Daniel Wilson, did us the 
 honour to be our guide is really very imposing 
 architecturally, and well equipped for its important 
 functions. But, thus far, Canada does not seem to 
 have given birth to any unique local genius in 
 scholarship or art. She still too much imports her 
 literature and learning, albeit the land is one well 
 fitted to inspire patriotism with new poetic colours, 
 and capacity with original ideas. 
 
 The city lies between the Don and the Humber 
 rivers, and really on dirait du veau ! you would 
 think you were in an English town as you walk 
 its streets. For the matter of that, illusions are 
 easy. You may travel a little way westward, and 
 come to London itself. The Canadian London 
 stands quite properly in the county of Middlesex, 
 overlooking the valley of the Thames, and has its 
 Piccadilly, its Regent Street, its Pall Mall and 
 Westminster Bridge, as well as a Cathedral and 
 very seriously built public edifices. But, at present,
 
 MONTREAL AND TORONTO. 39 
 
 it only numbers 20,000 Londoners the rest are to 
 come when Canada has settled the two great prob- 
 lems which agitate her bosom, that of the French- 
 speaking and Jesuit-ruled population, and that of 
 the proposed commercial union with the States. 
 The only objects which strike the eye at all 
 strangely as the Englishman strolls the wide streets 
 of Toronto will be the planked side-walks, the fans 
 revolving in the confectioners' windows to keep 
 the flies away, and the eternal eyesore of those 
 huge poles for the telephonic and telegraphic wires. 
 In this bright and lively city everybody chatters all 
 day long by electric current, every respectable resi- 
 dence and shop has all the ears of Toronto open to 
 it. In the midst of a conversation at lunch you 
 start up to seek by the telephone the views of a 
 friend a mile off, and inquire if people are at home by 
 scientific whispers, before setting forth to call upon 
 them. London is an age behind her little name- 
 sake of Ontario in electrical conveniences. 
 
 Of Canadian politics nothing has been or will be 
 here said. It is an unpardonable arrogance for a 
 man to imagine that he a human bird of passage 
 however well accustomed to " bird's-eye views " 
 of public life and public problems, can pick up 
 information worth imparting upon national ques- 
 tions as he speeds through the societies of a land. 
 Perhaps the profound mystery has been privately 
 dispelled, which lurked at first in the words, read 
 in a local journal, " The East London Grits have 
 fallen back upon Mr. Smith." Perhaps an explaua-
 
 40 SEAS AND LANDS. 
 
 tion has been given secretly why the Premier of 
 a Canadian province, who as our shipmate was of 
 such admirable courtesy, intelligence, and social 
 charm, should be described in another local journal 
 as " equally impervious to considerations of public 
 and domestic morality." We may have come to 
 understand a little better than at first, the genial 
 ferocity of politics here ; and certain small mole- 
 hills which figure in them for mountains ; but the 
 broad facts are that Canada is alive, robust, and 
 loyal, and wants only plenty of English and Scotch 
 and Welsh immigrants, who will stop in the colony 
 and develop its natural resources, to settle and to 
 control the French element, and then without the 
 desperate expedient of burning down the house of 
 her commercial independence in order to roast the 
 Gallic pig she will do well enough. 
 
 TORONTO, Sept. 7, 1889.
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 NIAGARA. 
 
 BEFORE the balcony in which this is written the 
 Great Cataract of America is thundering, smoking, 
 glittering with green and white rollers and rapids, 
 hurling the waters of a whole continent in splendour 
 and speed over the sharp ledges of the long brown 
 rock by which Erie " the Broad " steps proudly 
 down to Ontario " the Beautiful." Close at hand 
 on our left not indeed farther removed than some 
 600 or 700 yards the smaller but very imposing 
 American Fall speaks with the louder voice of the 
 two, because its coiling spirals of twisted and 
 furious flood crash in full impulse of descent upon 
 the talus of massive boulders heaped up at its foot. 
 The resounding impact of water on rock, the clouds 
 of water-smoke which rise high in air while the 
 river below is churned into a whirling cream of 
 eddy and surge and backwater, unite in a com- 
 posite effect, at once magnificent and bewildering. 
 But if you listen attentively you will always hear 
 the profound diapason of the great Fall that sur- 
 named the Horseshoe sounding superbly amid the 
 loudest clamour and tumult of its sister, a deeper 
 and grander note ; and whenever for a time the
 
 42 SEAS AND LANDS. 
 
 gaze rests with inexhaustible wonder upon that 
 fierce and tumultuary American Fall, this mightier 
 and still more marvellous Horseshoe steals it away 
 again with irresistible fascination. 
 
 Full in front lies that wholly indescribable spectacle 
 at this instant Its solemn voice an octave lower 
 than the excited, leaping, almost angry cry of fervid 
 life from the lesser cataract resounds through the 
 golden summer morning air like the distant roar from 
 the streets of fifty Londons all in full activity. Far 
 away, between the dark grey trees of Goat Island 
 and the fir-woods of the Canadian shore, the Niagara 
 River is seen winding eagerly to its prodigious leap. 
 You can discern, even from this balcony, the line of 
 the first breakers, where the Niagara River feels, 
 across its whole breadth, the fateful draw of the 
 Cataracts, where its current seems suddenly to leap 
 forward, stimulated by a mad desire, a hidden spell, 
 a dreadful and irresistible doom. You can note 
 far back along the gilded surface of the upper 
 stream how these lines of dancing, tossing, eager, 
 anxious, and fate-impelled breakers and billows 
 multiply their white ranks and spread and close 
 together their leaping ridges into a wild chaos of 
 racing waves as the brink is approached. And 
 then, at the brink there is a curious pause the 
 momentary peace of the Irrevocable. Those mad 
 upper waters reaching the great leap are sud- 
 denly become all quiet, and glassy, and rounded, 
 and green as the border of a field of rye, while 
 they turn the angle of the dreadful ledge and hurl
 
 NIAGARA. 43 
 
 themselves into the snow-white gulf of noise, and 
 mist, and mystery underneath. 
 
 There is nothing more translucently green, nor 
 more perennially still and lovely, than the actual 
 hanging brow of Niagara the Greater. At her 
 awful hrink the whole architrave of the main abyss 
 gleams like a fixed and glorious work wrought in 
 polished aquamarine or emerald. This exquisitely 
 coloured cornice of the enormous waterfall this brim 
 of bright tranquillity between fervour of rush and 
 fury of plunge is its principal feature, and stamps 
 it as far more beautiful than terrible. Indeed the 
 whole spectacle of the famous cataracts is one of 
 delight and of deepest charm, not by any means of 
 horror or of awe ; since nowhere are the measureless 
 forces of Nature more tenderly revealed, more softly 
 and splendidly clad, more demurely constrained and 
 docile between its steep confines. Even the heart 
 of the abyss, in the recess of the Horseshoe, where 
 the waters of Erie and Superior clash together 
 in tremendous conflict the inner madness and 
 miracle of which no eye can see or ever will see, 
 by reason of the veils of milky spray and of the 
 rolling clouds of water-drift which for ever hide it 
 even this central solemnity and shudder-fraught 
 miracle of the monstrous uproar and glory is ren- 
 dered exquisite, reposeful, and soothing by the 
 lovely rainbows hanging over the turmoil and 
 clamour. From its crest of chrysoprase and silver, 
 indeed, to its broad foot of milky foam and of white 
 stunned waves, too broken and too dazed to begin
 
 44 SEAS AND LANDS. 
 
 at first to float away, Niagara appears not terrible, 
 but divinely and deliciously graceful, glad, and 
 lovely a specimen of the splendour and wonder 
 of water at its finest a sight to dwell and linger 
 in the mind with ineffaceable images of happy and 
 grateful thought, by no means to affect it either 
 in act of seeing, or to haunt it in future days of 
 memory, with any wild reminiscence of terror or 
 of gloom.- 
 
 It was impossible that a country like Canada, full 
 of such magnificent natural scenes and spectacles, 
 should not have inspired some of her native-born 
 children ; and it has been wrongly stated in a 
 previous communication that the " Land of the 
 Maple-Leaf" had produced no local poets. Better 
 opportunities of information and of study correct this 
 erroneous view, and the present letter shall contain 
 a brief conspectus of the indigenous poetry of the 
 Dominion, with samples enough of the Canadian 
 Muse to prove that the thunder of Niagara, the 
 softer music of the river and rapids of the upper 
 regions, and the placid ripple of the Sweet-Water 
 Seas, have found echoes in Canadian hearts. Mr. 
 Lighthall, of Montreal, says well in his " Songs of 
 the Great Dominion " " Here are voices cheerful 
 with the consciousness of young might, public 
 wealth, and heroism. Through them, taken alto- 
 gether, you may catch something of great Niagara 
 falling, of brown rivers rushing with foam, of the 
 crack of the rifle in the haunts of the moose and 
 caribou, the lament of vanishing races singing their
 
 NIAGARA. 45 
 
 death-song as they are swept on to the cataract of 
 oblivion, the rural sounds of Arcadias just rescued 
 from surrounding wildernesses by the axe, shrill 
 war-whoops of Iroquois battle, .proud traditions of 
 contests with the French and the Americans, stern 
 and sorrowful cries of valour rising to curb rebellion. 
 The tone of them is courage ; for to hunt, to fight, 
 to hew out a farm, one must be a man ! The delight 
 of a clear atmosphere runs through them too, and 
 the rejoicings of that Winter Carnival which is only 
 possible in the most athletic country in the world ; 
 with the glint of that Ice Palace of illumined pearl, 
 which makes the February pilgrimage of North 
 America." 
 
 Canadian poetry is full of the canoe, as Australian 
 verse begins and ends with the horse, or the French 
 chansons of the Lower Provinces with love. The 
 note of the paddle is constantly heard, as in this 
 verse by Mr. James D. Edgar 
 
 " A cooling plunge at the break of day, 
 
 A paddle, a row, or sail ; 
 With always a fish for a midday dish, 
 
 And plenty of Adam's ale ; 
 With rod or gun, or in hammock swung, 
 
 We glide through the pleasant days ; 
 When darkness falls on our canvas walls, 
 
 We kindle the camp-fire's blaze." 
 
 And Mr. Bliss Carman's ode to his favourite 
 canoe, " The Red Swan," is worth remembering in 
 almost every line. Here is a sample 
 
 " Through many an evening gone, 
 
 Where the roses drank the breeze,
 
 46 SEAS AND LANDS. 
 
 When the pale slow moon outshone 
 
 Through the slanting trees, 
 I have dreamed of the long Red Swan. 
 
 How I should know that one 
 
 Great stroke, and the time of the swing 
 
 Urging her on and on, 
 Spring after spring, 
 
 Lifting the long Red Swan, 
 
 Lifting the long Red Swan ! 
 
 How I should drink the foam 
 
 The far white lines from her swift 
 Keen bow, when burning to come, 
 
 With lift upon lift 
 The long Red Swan flew home ! " 
 
 But perhaps the most striking writer of Canadian 
 verse is the late brilliant Isabella Valancey Craw- 
 ford. This remarkable girl, living in the " Empire " 
 province of Ontario, early felt the influences of 
 the natural wonders around her, and had she lived 
 longer might have made a name. But in 1884 
 her modest volume came out, and the sad story 
 of unrecognised genius and death was re-enacted. 
 " Malcolm's Katie, and other Poems," almost dropped 
 stillborn from the press. Scarcely anybody noticed 
 it in Canada. It made no stir, and in little more 
 than two years the authoress died. She was a high- 
 spirited, passionate girl, and there is very little doubt 
 that the neglect her book received was the cause 
 of her death. Afterwards, as usual, a good many 
 people began to find they had overlooked work of 
 merit. Miss Crawford's verse is, in fact, exceptional. 
 Here, for example, is good writing for a settler girl 
 listening to the lumberers
 
 NIAGARA. 47 
 
 " Bite deep and wide, Axe, this tree ; 
 What doth thy bold voice promise me 1 
 
 I promise thee all joyous things, 
 That furnish forth the lives of kings 1 
 
 For ev'ry silver ringing blow, 
 Cities and palaces shall grow 1 
 
 Bite deep and wide, Axe, the tree ; 
 Tell wider prophecies to me. 
 
 When rust hath gnaw'd me deep and red, 
 A nation strong shall lift her head ! 
 
 Her crown the very Heav'ns shall smite, 
 ^Eons shall build her in their might ! 
 
 Bite deep and wide, O Axe, the tree ; 
 Bright Seer, help on thy prophecy ! " 
 
 Very good work again is seen in Miss Crawford's 
 " Malcolm's Katie." In proof, let anybody read 
 these lines, redolent of the night-waving pines 
 and the hunter's life 
 
 " My masters twain their tent-fire lit, 
 Streamed incense from the hissing cones ; 
 Large crimson flashes grew and whirl'd, 
 Thin golden nerves of sly light curl'd 
 Round the dun camp, and rose faint zones 
 Half-way about each grim bole knit, 
 Like a shy child that would bedeck 
 With its soft clasp a Brave's red neck ; 
 Yet sees the rough shield on his breast, 
 The awful plumes shake on his crest, 
 And fearful drops her timid face, 
 Nor dares complete the sweet embrace. 
 
 They hung the slaughter'd fish like 
 On saplings slim, like scimitars
 
 4 8 SEAS AND LANDS. 
 
 Bright, and ruddied from new-waged wars, 
 Blazed in the light the scaly hordes. 
 
 They piled up boughs beneath the trees 
 Of cedar-web and green fir tassel ; 
 Low did the pointed pine-tops rustle, 
 The camp-fire flush'd to the tender breeze. 
 
 The hounds laid dew-laps on the ground, 
 With needles of pine, sweet, soft, and rusty 
 Dream'd of the dead stag, stout and lusty ; 
 A bat by the red flames wove its round. 
 
 The darkness built its wigwam walls 
 Close round the camp, and at its curtain 
 Press'd shapes, thin woven and uncertain, 
 The white locks of tall waterfalls." 
 
 Moreover, to show what fine and delicate songs 
 the Canadian Sappho could indite, let this sweet 
 and almost perfect little l)Tic be rescued for general 
 admiration from the gloom of the backwoods 
 
 " Love builds on the azure sea, 
 
 And Love builds on the golden strand ; 
 And Love builds on the rose-wing' d cloud, 
 And sometimes Love builds on the land. 
 
 O if Love builds on sparkling sea, 
 And if Love builds on golden strand, 
 
 And if Love builds on rosy clouds 
 To Love, these are the solid land. 
 
 Love will build his lily walls, 
 
 And Love his pearly roof will rear 
 On cloud or land, or mist or sea ; 
 
 Love's solid land is everywhere ! " 
 
 One peculiar feature of Canadian verse, indeed, 
 is its strength in lady singers. The number who 
 have produced good, or fairly good, poetry, is headed
 
 NIAGARA. 49 
 
 by the gifted girl just cited, but Mrs. Sarah Arme 
 Curzoii writes with power and spirit. The best 
 war songs of the late half-breed rebellion were 
 written by Annie Roth well, of Kingston. " Fidelis " 
 (Agnes Maude Machar), who is frequently called 
 the first of Dominion poetesses, excels in a graceful 
 subjectivity. Then there are Kate Seymour Mac- 
 leur, authoress of " The Coming of the Princess ; " 
 "Seranus," of Toronto (Mrs. Harrison), whose 
 " Rose Latulippe " is quite charming ; Miss Pauline 
 Johnson, of Indian descent ; Miss Ardagh, Mrs. 
 Leprohon, with many others, among whom may 
 again be quoted " Fidelis," for her spirited lines 
 in answer to the Laureate, and in vindication of 
 the loyalty of Canada 
 
 CANADA TO THB LADKEATE. 
 
 " ' And that true North, whereof we lately heard 
 A strain to shame us ! Keep you to yourselves, 
 So loyal is too costly ! Friends, your love 
 Is but a burden : loose the bond aud go 
 Is this the tone of Empire?' 
 
 (Tennyson's Ode to the Queen.) 
 
 " We thank thee, Laureate, for thy kindly words 
 Spoken for us to her to whom we look 
 With loyal love, across the misty sea ; 
 Thy noble words, whose generous tone may shame 
 The cold and heartless strain that said ' Begone, 
 We want your love no longer ; all our aim 
 Is riches that your love can not increase ! ' 
 Fain would we tell them that we do not seek 
 To hang dependent, like a helpless brood 
 That, selfish, drag a weary mother down ; 
 For we have British hearts and British blood 
 That leap up, eager, when the danger calls ! 
 
 D
 
 5 o SEAS AND LANDS. 
 
 Once and again our sons have sprung to arms 
 
 To fight in Britain's quarrel not our own 
 
 And drive the covetous invader back, 
 
 Who would have let us, peaceful, keep our own, 
 
 So we had cast the British name away. 
 
 Canadian blood has dyed Canadian soil, 
 
 For Britain's honour, that we deemed our own, 
 
 Nor do we ask but for the right to keep 
 
 Unbroken, still, the cherished filial tie 
 
 That binds us to the distant sea-girt isle 
 
 Our fathers loved, and taught their sons to love, 
 
 As the dear home of freemen, brave and true, 
 
 And loving Jwnour more than ease or gold." 
 
 Next comes a whole cohort of Canadian poets 
 who sing principally of Imperial Federation, the 
 new nationality, the Indians, the Voyageurs, and 
 Habitans, settlement life, historical incidents, places, 
 and seasons. Canadian history, as all acquainted 
 with Parkman will know, teems with noble deeds 
 and great events, of which only a small part have 
 been sung. The North- West and British Columbia 
 the gold-diggings province, the salmon rivers, 
 the Douglas firs, which hide daylight at noonday 
 have yet to find their chroniclers. The poetry of 
 the Winter Carnival, splendid scenic spectacle of 
 gay Northern arts and delights, is to come also. 
 Those who have been present at the thrilling 
 spectacle of the nocturnal storming of the Ice Palace 
 in Montreal, " when the whole city, dressing itself 
 in the picturesque snow-shoe costume and arraying 
 its streets in lights and colours, rises as one man 
 in a tumultuous enthusiasm," feel that it should 
 inspire fitting verse. As for the climate of Canada, 
 winter is not perpetual, but merely, in most parts,
 
 NIAGARA. 51 
 
 somewhat long. It does not strike the inhabitants 
 as intolerably severe. It is the season of most of 
 their enjoyments ; gives them their best roads ; is 
 indispensable to some industries, such as lumber- 
 ing ; and the clear nights and diamond days are 
 sparklingly beautiful. "Furthermore, the climate 
 is not one but several. In British Columbia it is 
 so equable the whole year round that roses some- 
 times bloom out of doors in January, and the 
 cactus is a native plant. In the Niagara penin- 
 sula grapes and peaches are crops raised yearly in 
 immense quantities, and the sycamore and acacia 
 flourish. On the plains temperature grows milder 
 in proportion as you approach to the Rocky Moun- 
 tains." As Mr. William Wye Smith writes about 
 the " Canadians on the Nile " 
 
 " the East is but the West, with the sun a little hotter ; 
 And the pine becomes a palm, by the dark Egyptian water : 
 And the Nile's like many a stream we know, that fills its 
 
 brimming cup 
 
 We'll think it is the Ottawa, as we track the batteaux up ! 
 Pull, pull, pull ! as we track the batteaux up ! 
 It's easy shooting homeward, when we're at the top ! " 
 
 Sometimes the dark mysterious glades and 
 rushing, nameless streams of the Dominion have 
 inspired worthily her indigenous minstrels, as in 
 these striking verses of Mr. Wilfred Campbell on a 
 backwood channel named the " Restless River " 
 
 " Men say, at noon of day, 
 In thickets far away 
 Where skies are dim and grey,
 
 5 2 SEAS AND LANDS. 
 
 And birches stir and shiver, 
 
 That out of the gloomy air 
 
 A voice goes up in prayer 
 From the shores of the Restless Rivet 
 
 Whatever its sin hath been, 
 
 Its shores are still as green, 
 
 And over it kindly lean 
 Great forests heavenward growing ; 
 
 And its waters are as sweet, 
 
 And its tides more strong and fleet 
 Than of any river flowing. 
 
 But for all its outward mirth, 
 
 And the glow that spans its girth, 
 
 Its voices from air and earth, 
 Its walls of leaves that quiver ; 
 
 Men say an awful curse, 
 
 As dread as death, and worse, 
 Hangs over the Restless River. 
 
 And the, dreamy Indian girl 
 
 When she sees its waters curl 
 
 In many a silver whirl, 
 Hath pity on Restless River ; 
 
 For she knoweth that, long ago, 
 
 Its tides, that once were slow, 
 
 By reason of some dread woe 
 Went suddenly swift for ever : 
 
 That a dread and unknown curse, 
 
 For a sin, or something worse, 
 Was laid on the Restless River." 
 
 Sometimes it is the stateliness and splendid growth 
 of their young cities which stirs their imagination, 
 as in this sonnet by Mr. Lighthall to Montreal 
 
 " Reign on, majestic Ville-Marie ! 
 
 Spread wide thy ample robes of state ; 
 The heralds cry that thou art great, 
 And proud are thy young sons of thee.
 
 NIAGARA. 53 
 
 Mistress of half a continent, 
 
 Thou risest from thy girlhood's rest ; 
 
 We see thee conscious heave thy breast 
 And feel thy rank and thy descent, 
 Sprung of the saint and chevalier, 
 
 And with the Scarlet Tunic wed ! 
 
 Mount Eoyal's crown upon thy head ; 
 And past thy footstool, broad and clear, 
 St. Lawrence sweeping to the sea : 
 Reign on, majestic Ville-Marie ! " 
 
 Sometimes their fancy lingers over the vanished 
 tribes of the Iroquois, Algonquin, Chippewa, and 
 Sioux, whose recollection lives in the musical 
 nomenclature of Canada 
 
 " The memory of the Red Man, 
 
 It lingers like a spell 
 On many a storm-swept headland, 
 
 On many a leafy dell ; 
 Where Tusket's thousand islets, 
 
 Like emeralds, stud the deep ; 
 Where Blomidon, a sentry grim, 
 
 His endless watch doth keep. 
 
 It dwells round Catalon's blue lake, 
 
 'Mid leafy forests hid 
 Round fair Discourse, and the rushing tides 
 
 Of the turbid Pisiquid. 
 And it lends, Chebogue, a touching grace 
 
 To thy softly flowing river, 
 As we sadly think of the gentle race 
 
 That has passed away for ever." 
 
 Constantly, too, the glories of the great St. Law- 
 rence load the verse and fascinate the imagination 
 of the youthful and, so far, little-known singers of 
 the Dominion. Miss K. L. Jones has an excellent 
 ode to the mighty stream, which thus concludes
 
 54 SEAS AND LANDS. 
 
 " Stretching her arms to the world, 
 
 Glad, as a maid to her lover ; 
 Coyly, with banners unfurled, 
 
 Welcoming argosies over ; 
 Wearied, her life's journey done, 
 
 Grateful to God, the life-giver, 
 Her goal on the ocean's breast won, 
 
 Rests the great river." 
 
 And, again, speaking of the old pioneers 
 
 " He told them of the river, whose mighty current gave 
 Its freshness for three hundred leagues to ocean's briny wave; 
 He told them of the glorious scene presented to his sight, 
 What time he reared the cross and crown on Hochelaga's height : 
 And of the fortress cliff, that keeps of Canada the key ; 
 And they welcomed back Jacques Cartier from the perils of the 
 sea." 
 
 It woulu give many a hard-working head of a 
 family in England new and good ideas to read some 
 of these joyous and free Canadian songs, even when 
 they are not of the highest poetic art ; for always 
 they breathe the spirit of happy independence, and 
 of a life lived face to face with Nature, who pays 
 honest toil in this large land with almost certain 
 prosperity and comfort. " Here's the road ! " cries 
 Mr. A. M'Lachlan, under title of 
 
 ACRBS OP YOUR OWN. 
 
 " Here's the road to independence I 
 Who would bow and dance attendance 1 
 Who, with e'er a spark of pride, 
 While the bush is wild and wide, 
 Would be still a hanger-on, 
 Begging favours from a throne, 
 While beneath yon smiling sun 
 Farms, by labour, can be won 1
 
 NIAGARA. 55 
 
 Up ! be stirring, be alive, 
 Get upon a farm and thrive ! 
 He's a king upon his throne 
 Who has acres of his own ! " 
 
 Enough has now been written to prove that 
 Canada has produced agreeable and accomplished 
 singers, male and female, as well as lumber and 
 grain, cattle and canned salmon. Yet one word 
 more must be said in reference to the French por- 
 tion of the population, who have a pretty native 
 minstrelsy of their own, best studied in M. Ernest 
 Gagnon's " Chansons Populaires du Canada." But 
 here, too, information must be drawn from Mr. 
 Lighthall's excellent volume, which deals sympa- 
 thetically with the topic. The number of the little 
 French lilts floating in the air of Lower Canada 
 is incalculable. 
 
 One, almost universal, is "A la Claire Fontaine." 
 " From the little child of seven years up to the 
 man of silver hair, all the people in Canada know 
 and sing the ' Claire Fontaine.' One is not French- 
 Canadian without that." In Normandy they have 
 a similar chanson, but the air, which here is mono- 
 tonous but attractive, is different. The original 
 commences thus 
 
 " A la claire fontaine 
 M'en allant promener, 
 J'ai trouv^ 1'eau si belle 
 Que je m'y suis baigne." 
 
 Then there comes a charming little chorus 
 
 " Lui ya longtemps que je t'aime 
 Jamais je ne t'oublierai."
 
 5 6 SEAS AND LANDS. 
 
 Ma mi-e ! 
 
 'Ya longtempa que je f aime 
 Jamais je ne t'oublierai." 
 
 One verse thus addresses the nightingale 
 
 " Chante, rossignol, chante, 
 
 Toi qui as le coeur gai, 
 Tu as le coeur a rire 
 
 Moi, je l'ai-t-a pleurer. 
 Lui ya longtemps que je t'aime ; 
 Jamais je ne t'oublierai." 
 
 " C'est la Belle Franfoise" is a livelier but very 
 common Quebec song 
 
 " C'est la belle Franchise, bon gai, 
 C'est la belle Francoise, 
 Qui veut s'y marier, ma luron, lurette, 
 Qui veut s'y marier, ma luron, luxe." 
 
 The lover goes on to comfort her with a promise to 
 marry her on his return from the war, " Si j'y suis 
 respecteY' ending always with the flippant " Ma 
 luron, lurette ; ma luron, lure* I " Several belong 
 particularly to the raftsmen and lumberers of the 
 St. Lawrence and Ottawa rivers. Such is 
 
 " Via 1'bon vent, via 1'joli vent 
 Via 1'bon vent, ma mie m'appelle, 
 Via 1'bon vent, v'la 1'joli vent, 
 
 1'bon vent, ma mie m'attend." 
 
 Sung from a huge raft, with shanties on it, descend- 
 ing one of these broad open rivers, by the rough and 
 jolly crew, this has a genuine inspiration of free 
 life about it. Of a wild character, too, is " Alouette," 
 whose very beautiful air has made it a favourite
 
 NIAGARA. 57 
 
 college song. The gaiety of France marks almost 
 all of them ; and this has a touch of humour 
 
 " ' Ma mignonnette, embrassez-moi.' 
 ' Nenni, Monsieur, je n'oserais, 
 Car si mon papa le savait.' " 
 
 But who would tell her papa ? Why ! " the birds of 
 the woods " 
 
 " ' Les oiseaux parlent-ils ? ' 
 ' Us parlent franjais, latin aussi.' 
 
 ' Us parlent francais, latin aussi.' 
 ' Helas, quo le monde est malin 
 D'apprendre aux oiseaux le latin ! ' " 
 
 Lastly, here is a French chanson which prettily 
 repeats the " ' Nobody axed you, sir,' she said " 
 
 " Qui done 6tes-vous, ma charmante, 
 Pour refuser un chevalier ! 
 Quelque dame riche et puissante 1 
 Je suis la fille du meunier. 
 
 Quoi ! du meunier ! Dieu me pardonne I 
 J'en suis marri pour ton bonheur : 
 Je ne puis t'epouser, ma bonne. 
 Qui vous a demand^, seigneur 1 " 
 
 But with this enough and to spare has been 
 collected to prove that Canada is by no means 
 songless. 
 
 AT NIAGARA, Sept. 10, 1889.
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 AMERICAN SOIL. 
 
 WASHINGTON has been called, not without reason, 
 "the city of magnificent distances" for its wide, 
 well-paved, interminable vistas of stately buildings 
 and handsome residences of white and grey stone, 
 or red brick, lead the eye everywhere towards a 
 vanishing point. And America herself might well 
 be styled "The land of magnificent distances." 
 The immense network of railroads, everywhere 
 covering the States, seems almost to have abolished 
 the sense of space for this people. They fly about 
 hither and thither without regard for a few hundred 
 miles of journeying more or less, and the stranger 
 within their gates soon learns to share their in- 
 difference to extended locomotion. Moreover, the 
 system of travelling is very good and well- arranged. 
 The American passion for equality will not permit 
 our categories of first, second, and third class ; but 
 there exists on all trains a " parlour car," for which 
 a moderate excess fare is paid to a special conductor, 
 and while this is practically a first-class carriage by 
 day, at night it develops, under the skilful necro- 
 mancy of the " coloured person " charged with this 
 duty, into a series of entirely commodious sleeping
 
 AMERICAN SOIL. 61 
 
 berths, stretched in one of which the traveller 
 slumbers well enough through the dark hours. 
 If of a nervous temperament, he may shudder to 
 observe that the rails are merely fastened down 
 with staple-heads to the sleepers ; but, on the other 
 hand, these sleepers are very thickly planted in the 
 ballast, and the fish-joints are strong and good. 
 
 The American luggage system, as is generally 
 known, is perfect in its way. So soon as you 
 have " checked " your impedimenta by seeing the 
 official hitch brass tickets upon the several boxes 
 and trunks, the exact duplicates of which he hands 
 to you, all care is over. As you approach your 
 destination an " express-man," perambulating the 
 long carriage, will make note of your hotel, or 
 residence, take the brass tickets, for which he 
 hands you a receipt, and your belongings will then 
 be delivered almost as quickly as the carriage or 
 omnibus can deposit yourself. Under such arrange- 
 ments it was not fatiguing or difficult to make the 
 run from Niagara Falls to Washington, something 
 like 550 miles in distance. The first portion of 
 this journey was performed in daylight, and re- 
 vealed a district resembling the Ontario region, 
 and naturally enough, since this part of New York 
 State lies along the southern shore of the lake. 
 But you could note a difference between the 
 comparatively old settlements and the new, by 
 the absence of tree stumps from the fields, and 
 the fact that those fields were everywhere being 
 manured for the autumn and winter sowings, a
 
 62 SEAS AND LANDS. . 
 
 necessity to which Canada, with her unexhausted 
 soil, has not yet generally come. 
 
 Our train ran along the Erie Canal by Rochester, 
 famous for flour-mills and spirit-rapping ; by Canan- 
 daigua, known for its pretty lake, 16 miles in 
 length ; by Elmira, busy in manufacturing steel rails 
 and boilers for locomotives, and Troy, which hardly 
 evokes the reminiscences of its classical namesake. 
 Night fell as we entered the picturesque valley of 
 the Susquehanna River and ran down by the deep 
 Seneca Lake, and its still stream glittering under 
 an almost full moon. Harrisburg, enshrining the 
 name and memory of one John Harris, who founded 
 it in 1735, was traversed shortly after midnight, 
 and with dawn we came into a region familiarised 
 by recollections of the Secession War, for here lay 
 Hanover, with the dreadful field of Gettysburg not 
 far off, and York, reached about 6 A.M. on the 
 southern border of Pennsylvania situated upon 
 Cordorus Creek, which was occupied for some time 
 by the Confederate Army. Shortly afterwards the 
 train entered Maryland, the coloured population 
 largely increasing by this time in the villages and 
 farms on either side of the track. At Baltimore, 
 where the Patapsco River approaches Chesapeake 
 Bay, and makes the well-known port, there was a 
 stop for breakfast, and then we ran forty-four miles 
 in forty-eight minutes into the administrative capital 
 of the United States, the very handsome and agree- 
 able city of Washington. 
 
 In point of public gardens, parks, and trees,
 
 AMERICAN SOIL. 63 
 
 planted along the streets, Washington is specially 
 and nobly embellished. Planes, sycamores, limes, 
 chestnuts, and American elms, set in double rows 
 along almost every thoroughfare, give the city a 
 green and umbrageous beauty hardly seen elsewhere. 
 It seems a pity that such charming boulevards and 
 avenues should be distinguished merely by letters 
 of the alphabet, and the cross streets only numbered. 
 In regard of civic and urban nomenclature, however, 
 the American imagination appears to have recoiled 
 in despair from the task of christening towns and 
 streets, and while the latter are lettered and 
 numbered, the former either reproduce a foreign 
 title Syracuse, Utica, Ithaca, Cairo, Delhi, and 
 the like or preserve an old Indian word, or glorify 
 some otherwise forgotten citizen. Yet, already, 
 historical recollections, sombre and glorious, are 
 numerous enough about Washington to suggest 
 appellations for her spacious ways. 
 
 Take only the quarter where these lines are 
 written, that of the Arlington Hotel. We occupy 
 the apartments where Charles Sumner passed the 
 closing days of his patriotic life. Near at hand, at 
 the corner of the park, stands the little red house 
 where the assassins tried to kill Minister Seward 
 on the same night when President Lincoln was 
 done to death. Not far off is the railway station 
 in which President Garfield received a mortal 
 wound from his cruel murderer the spot is de- 
 signated by a silver star let into the floor of the 
 waiting-room and the statues of Jackson, of Farra-
 
 64 SEAS AND LANDS. 
 
 gut, and other heroes of the Republic gleam through 
 the leaves of the maple trees, and might most 
 worthily give names to the wide ways adjoining. 
 In the same vicinity is a whole group of noble 
 buildings, including the Treasury, *>the Pension 
 Office, and the War, Navy, and State Departments. 
 Far and wide over the green expanse of the city 
 tower the dome of the Capitol, and the tall obelisk 
 built up to the imperishable memory of George 
 Washington; while the "White House" where I 
 have just had the honour of a special audience 
 and a very interesting conversation with President 
 Harrison rises near the Treasury, the heart and 
 centre of the Great Commonwealth. 
 
 The simplicity of American State is well illus- 
 trated by the utter absence of any formality or 
 ceremony in and about the precincts of the official 
 abode of the President. The Executive Mansion, 
 or "White House," stands west of the splendid 
 edifice of the Treasury. It is in the Ionic style, 
 having several porticoes. The faade is 170 feet 
 long, and is occupied on the ground floor by the 
 reception and representation rooms. On the upper 
 floors are the offices and private apartments of the 
 President. Its foundation-stone was laid in 1792, 
 and the first President who tenanted it was Adams, 
 in 1800. In 1814 it was burned by the English, 
 but was rebuilt in 1818. The grounds, which are 
 laid out in gardens, occupy about seventy-five acres, 
 of which twenty are railed in as the President's 
 private demesne.
 
 AMERICAN SOIL. 67 
 
 Here, then, is the central spot of this vast 
 Republic, the very adytum of its civic life, and 
 yet no guard of honour, no sentinel, no sign of 
 special import, not even a Washington police- 
 man, marks its character, or protects the gate- 
 way. Anybody may enter; everybody who wishes 
 does enter in carriage, hack-cab, or on foot and 
 will no more be questioned in passing through 
 the gardens and mounting the marble steps than 
 if it were an American Army and Navy Store. 
 True, there is an usher, in evening dress, at the 
 door, but he seems put there merely to open and 
 shut it for the convenience of citizens, who do not 
 even take off their hats on entering unless they 
 please, and unless the weather be very sultry. 
 These, however, must at least wait for an audience 
 until the President has finished with his morning 
 council, except on certain days of the week, when 
 he descends to the corridor, and shakes hands with 
 all who like to grasp the presidential palm. This 
 corridor, which is shut off from the hall by a 
 screen of stained glass, has no exceptional grace 
 or grandeur. A score of private houses in London 
 and a hundred hotels in great cities could be named 
 which would dwarf it to insignificance. Indifferently 
 lighted, it conceals rather than reveals the portraits 
 of the bygone presidents and wives of presidents 
 suspended in gilt frames along the wall. From this 
 corridor open three principal rooms. The first is 
 the " Green Parlour," a moderate-sized apartment, 
 with green furniture and hangings, where you see
 
 68 SEAS AND LANDS. 
 
 the kindly, rugged features of Abraham Lincoln, 
 Jackson's strong countenance, and Washington's 
 well-known face among the pictures. Next to this 
 is the "Blue Parlour," an oval "piece," small, but 
 not inelegant ; and thirdly, the " Red Dining Room." 
 At the back of these is a ball or reception salon, 
 comely, but not costly, nor in the least degree 
 magnificent. Above are chambers which hold the 
 attention more. One is that in which President 
 Lincoln habitually held his councils, and from the 
 bow-window you look far away over the pretty 
 gardens and the park to the glimmering current of 
 the Potomac and the distant uplands of Virginia. 
 
 How often in the great and fateful war must the 
 gaze of " honest Abe " have wandered southward 
 towards Richmond, which his armies were not able 
 to reach for three long and bloody years. I seemed 
 to feel the shadow of that prodigious anxiety still 
 lingering about the beautiful prospect in all those 
 heavy masses of gloom cast on the sward by the 
 maples, and all those dark patches falling from the 
 flying clouds. Moreover, in this apartment, at this 
 very plain green table, sitting in this same old- 
 fashioned and common-looking arm-chair, the good 
 captain and leader of his people signed the memor- 
 able Proclamation which for ever broke the fetters 
 of the slave, and redeemed at one noble stroke the 
 glory of the conflict, and the much-suffering negro. 
 Crowds of the joyous, pleasant, chatty negroes are 
 passing under the historic window. Washington is 
 as full of them as a strawberry garden is of black-
 
 AMERICAN SOIL. 69 
 
 birds ; and the plain chamber seemed indeed to 
 become a temple, and its air to be full of the true 
 incense of the golden " thurifers " of liberty, when 
 one reflected upon the victory of the great and free 
 nation over its first historical danger, and upon 
 that epoch-making decree which " ransomed the 
 African." 
 
 A few steps lead from Abraham Lincoln's cus- 
 tomary council chamber to an inner official apartment, 
 where at this hour President Harrison was sitting in 
 debate with certain of his Ministers. On receiving 
 my card he did me the signal honour to receive me 
 at once in the inner Council Chamber. Rising 
 from a group of Secretaries of State, the President 
 approached with a cordial welcome to Washington 
 on his lips a courteous, kindly, shrewd, and busi- 
 ness-stamped gentleman, of middle height or less, 
 with light hair, beginning to " catch the snow," 
 simple in style as were his surroundings. After 
 some very friendly words, our dialogue took some 
 such shape as this : 
 
 " You are pleased, I hope, with the States ? " 
 
 "Who could fail to be pleased, Mr. President, 
 having eyes to see and mind to appreciate ? Any 
 reasonable Englishman must be proud and glad, I 
 think, to be able to wander over so splendid a 
 country, and never feel himself otherwise than at 
 home in this your Transatlantic England." 
 
 " We know you have always been and are a true 
 friend to America." 
 
 " I consider myself half an American. Two of
 
 70 SEAS AND LANDS. 
 
 my children bear the American names of ' Emerson ' 
 and ' Channing ; * my late wife was an American. I 
 represent in a very humble way the bond of blood 
 and language which I hope will grow ever stronger 
 and closer between the countries." 
 
 " We hope that, too, most sincerely ; and my son, 
 who has just returned from England, assures me 
 that good-will and good-wishes towards America are 
 more and more felt in England." 
 
 "I venture to say, sir, that that is so. A con- 
 stantly increasing number of Englishmen and I 
 trust and believe of Americans also ardently hope 
 that no question will ever again arise between us 
 which cannot and will not be settled by Reason and 
 by Right the only proper arbiters between two such 
 peoples." 
 
 " That ought to be so, and will be so, if we make 
 proper mutual allowances for each other. What has 
 impressed you chiefly in your journeys here ? " 
 
 " The ' magnificent distances,' Mr. President ! I 
 see a large terrestrial globe standing by your chair. 
 It makes me think rather ruefully of Dr. Oliver 
 Wendell Holmes' line, when he describes the 
 Western giant as 
 
 'Twirling the spotted globe to find us.'" 
 
 " Ah ! we do not measure Great Britain by her 
 acres ! She also is really so large that we never 
 could have remained under one Government even 
 if the War of Independence had not happened." 
 
 " Yes ! Still it is sad to think that that stupid
 
 AMERICAN SOIL. 71 
 
 affair of the Boston Tea Chests was caused by a 
 majority of a single vote in the House of Commons." 
 
 " Well, if we had remained one people geographi- 
 cally, you would have had to be governed from 
 Washington, perhaps ; since we are preponderant in 
 numbers and area." 
 
 "As to that, sir, you must put Canada and our 
 Colonies in the scale, and India. However, I hope 
 that, together, England and America will some day 
 dictate peace, in the interests of universal humanity, 
 to the world, and that the language of Shakespeare 
 will become that of the globe." 
 
 President Harrison smiled, and said gently he 
 hoped such a day would arrive ; whereupon, after 
 some further general remarks, the pleasant inter- 
 view terminated. 
 
 Yet, if the White House is modest in its own 
 character and in that also of its distinguished occu- 
 pants who address Emperors and Kings as " my 
 good friend," and are so addressed by them the 
 Capitol is grand enough even for the great Republic. 
 Among the many imposing buildings of Washington, 
 this huge edifice is the handsomest and largest in 
 the town, and, indeed, on the whole American 
 Continent. It is situated on Capitol Hill, a mile 
 from the Potomac River, and has a length over all 
 of 750 feet, with a depth of 120 feet, and wings of 
 140 feet. It covers an area of 3^ acres. The 
 materials used are light yellow stone for the centre, 
 and white marble for the wings. The buildings 
 face eastwards. In front of them stretches a wide
 
 72 SEAS AND LANDS. 
 
 space, and beyond is a well-laid-out park. The 
 structure was commenced in 1821, and the wings 
 were added to it in 1851. The corner-stone of 
 the structure was laid by Daniel Webster. It was 
 finished, inclusive of the new dome, in 1865, a ^ a 
 cost of 15,000,000 dollars. The main front is orna- 
 mented with three grand porticoes of Corinthian 
 columns. The centre is approached by a flight 
 of stairs, embellished with statues by Persico and 
 Greenough. On the esplanade towers the colossal 
 statue of Washington. The building is surmounted 
 by a lofty iron dome, on which stands a statue of 
 Liberty ; 19^ feet high. Tall marble statues are 
 to the right and left of the entrance. You enter 
 through bronze doors, evidently imitated from those 
 of Ghiberti, at Florence, into the Rotunda. These 
 doors illustrate the life of Columbus and the dis- 
 covery of America. The Rotunda is 96 feat wide 
 and 1 08 feet in height. Marble bas-reliefs over the 
 doors and paintings on the wall illustrate American 
 history. The dome rises finely above, with a painted 
 frieze and pierced clere-stories. Through the western 
 door of the Rotunda, and at the end of that corridor, 
 is the Congress Library in three large halls, all 
 thoroughly fireproof. They contain, people said, 
 above 650,000 books, pamphlets, brochures, &c. 
 The north door of the Rotunda leads into the Senate 
 House ; semicircular, commodious, practical in every 
 detail. But in the corridor is the door leading into 
 the Supreme Court, the highest tribunal in America. 
 The Chamber of the Senate is 114 feet by 82 feet,
 
 AMERICAN SOIL. 73 
 
 and 36 feet in height ; an iron roof with stained 
 lights, and galleries seating 1000 citizens. 
 
 But the Supreme Court most interests the in- 
 telligent stranger. Here is the real " omphalos " 
 of the Republic, the metacentre which keeps the 
 Ship of State balanced on a safe keel, the Power 
 which is above State-rights, Congress, Senate, and 
 all. Persons who rashly quote the federation of the 
 Sovereign States of America as a precedent for all 
 sorts of perilous experiments with older institutions 
 in other lands forget this Supreme Court, which 
 keeps the stars of the Spangled Banner together 
 by a force akin to gravitation, silent, secret, and 
 irresistible. It is easier to admire that great inven- 
 tion of the fathers of the Republic than to imitate 
 it elsewhere. Meantime, it is somewhat trying for 
 a patriotic Englishman to wander round the ample 
 floor of the Rotunda of the Washington Capitol. 
 The pictures adorning its walls recall principally 
 British disasters. Here is my Lord Cornwallis, in 
 scarlet and gold, sadly surrendering his sword ; and 
 there Commodore Perry is gaily and gallantly sinking 
 His Majesty's ships upon Lake Erie ; and elsewhere 
 you shall gaze on the untoward incidents of Ticonde- 
 roga and Lexington Ford. It cannot be denied that 
 a promenade about the halls and corridors of the 
 imposing structure, where the American eagle keeps 
 its legislative eyrie, is calculated to convey the 
 sensation known here as " twisting the tail of the 
 British Lion." 
 
 Under the auspices of General Greely, of Arctic
 
 74 SEAS AND LANDS. 
 
 fame the hero of the desperate adventure in the icy 
 North I visited what is called " the Signal Office," 
 where the meteorological work of the States is done. 
 Here supervised and harmonised by the General 
 come together those reports from all parts of the 
 Continent, which enable the "clerks of the weather," 
 employed by Brother Jonathan, to send word of those 
 storms which come only too often upon our shores 
 across the Atlantic. The system, and its equipments 
 and appliances, are creditably complete, and we were 
 able to trace the history of a storm which had just 
 ravaged the eastern seaboard, from its birthplace in 
 the West Indian islands to its howling disappear- 
 ance off Cape Cod. Telegraphic communication 
 with Bermuda is greatly needed to make the net- 
 work of " storm-catchers " complete. That effected, 
 mariners, farmers, and the world in general would 
 almost always know what kind of time was coming. 
 The institution possesses a perfect record of the 
 weather all over the continent of North America 
 during the past fifteen years. It ought to be de- 
 nominated the " Temple of the Winds." 
 
 WASHINGTON, Sept. 12, 1889.
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 MEN AND CITIES. 
 
 FROM Washington to Philadelphia is an easy run 
 through the green country drained into Chesapeake 
 Bay by many sylvan streams. Heavy rains had 
 flooded the low-lying farmsteads around Baltimore 
 and northward so that many fields of maize, 
 tomato, and melon were lying drowned in the 
 too abundant tribute of the Delaware and its 
 confluent channels. The negro population which 
 rapidly diminishes as you come north from Mary- 
 land looked positively " blue-black " in the chilly 
 weather and amongst the damp enclosures. There 
 are plenty of coloured waiters and " helps," of course, 
 at the North ; but the sun-loving Sambo is evidently 
 much depaysG there, and naturally gravitates to the 
 warmer States. 
 
 What will be the future of that vast dark alien 
 population forms one of the great puzzling problems 
 for the American Republic. From time to time 
 sanguinary collisions between blacks and whites 
 occur, and the diminishing number of half-breeds 
 proves that "miscegenation" will never prevail to 
 settle the matter. Immensely fecund among them- 
 selves, although unskilful in rearing children, the
 
 76 SEAS AND LANDS. 
 
 sons of Ham are seriously multiplying in the South, 
 where in some districts they quite swamp the white 
 vote. Will they absorb and altogether possess 
 certain regions'? Will there some day happen a 
 Black Exodus to Africa, or to Mexico, or to South 
 America ? Free as birds, lazy as pigs, joyous as 
 crickets, the negroes darken all the South with 
 their political presence, and enliven it by their 
 inborn cheerfulness. What an army another Tous- 
 saint 1'Ouverture might raise among them with 
 which to conquer an Ebony Kingdom on the Gold 
 Coast ! 
 
 Philadelphia is a truly splendid city, and covers 
 more ground than New York, Chicago, or any of its 
 greatest sisters. There are 950 miles of paved streets 
 there, the busiest and longest being " Market," up 
 and down which, while London is merely talk- 
 ing about "electric cars," those vehicles, silently 
 and safely propelled by batteries, daily carry scores 
 of thousands of citizens. Nor have we anywhere 
 in England a Town Hall nearly as magnificent as 
 the huge pile of white marble, reared in Re- 
 naissance style, which is called "The Public 
 Buildings," and glorifies the corner of Broad and 
 Market Streets. It contains the municipal offices, 
 law courts, &c., and measures 486^ feet by 470 
 feet, being almost a square, while its tower when 
 completed will be 535 feet high. It covers an 
 area of about 4^ acres, without including the court- 
 yard in the centre of 200 feet square. Girard 
 College is another magnificent building of white
 
 MEN AND CITIES. 77 
 
 marble, in the Corinthian style, imitating the Par- 
 thenon at Athens, erected out of Stephen Girard's 
 munificent gift of 2,000,000 dollars to provide 
 gratuitous instruction and support for destitute 
 orphans. Theology is rigorously excluded from 
 its lectures, and no clergyman, priest, or missionary 
 is allowed to set foot within it, according to the 
 testamentary conditions of the founder. 
 
 In Laetitia Street is Penn's cottage, built before 
 Penn's arrival in the settlement, and truly the 
 historic Quaker might be proud of the city sprung 
 up around it. In a court on the south side of 
 Chestnut Street is Carpenters' Hall, the meeting- 
 place of the first Congress of the United Colonies ; 
 but Independence Hall, between Fifth and Sixth 
 Streets, is justly considered the most interesting 
 building in Philadelphia. It has brilliant historical 
 associations, and several of the rooms contain still 
 the very furniture of the time when the Declara- 
 tion of Independence was there made. In front of 
 it stands Bailey's statue of Washington, and at the 
 back is Independence Square, laid out as a small 
 park. 
 
 All these, and many other notable sights in the 
 Pennsylvanian capital, we had the good fortune 
 to study, under the auspices, of one of the best 
 known, as he is also one of the most public- 
 spirited and liberal of Philadelphian citizens 
 Mr. G. W. Childs, proprietor of the Public Ledger, 
 a journal eminent amid its contemporaries not 
 alone for literary talent and political independence,
 
 78 SEAS AND LANDS. 
 
 but for a dignity and propriety in tone and in con- 
 tents by no means universal among the American 
 press. For twenty years the bosom friend and 
 neighbour of Ulysses S. Grant the famous soldier- 
 President of the Republic Mr. Childs enjoys an 
 influence natural to his experience, wealth, and 
 patriotism, and it was no secret that Mr. Wana- 
 maker, now the Postmaster-General in President 
 Harrison's Cabinet, and proprietor of the most 
 immense " universal providing store " even in the 
 States, owed his portfolio largely to this gentle- 
 man's recommendations. The astounding establish- 
 ment of the Minister employs 4000 hands, covers 
 1 8^ acres of ground, and is worked by the most 
 elaborate organisation. It must be almost a re- 
 laxation, indeed, after governing " Wanamaker's," 
 at Philadelphia, to take in hand the business of 
 conducting " Uncle Sam's " postal system. 
 
 Yet it was not to any superb public edifice, or to 
 any famed historical spot, or even to Wanamaker's, 
 the mighty and manifold where a whole hall, full 
 of revolving wheels and flying wires, was buzzing 
 with countless cartridges of money coming up, and 
 of endless change going down to none of these 
 were my earliest steps bent on arriving in Phila- 
 delphia, In a suburb of the city, called Camden, 
 beyond the broad Delaware, which, with the Schuyl- 
 kill, or " Hidden Stream," bathes her long wharfs, 
 resides that original and grandly gifted poet, Walt 
 Whitman, assuredly one of the chief personages of 
 American literature in his own strange and unre-
 
 PHILADELPHIA : INDEPENDENCE HALL.
 
 MEN AND CITIES. 81 
 
 strained, albeit most musical and majestic style. It 
 is held, no doubt, in some quarters an eccentricity 
 to admire Walt Whitman ; in others even an im- 
 propriety ; but it may be doubted if those who so 
 lightly dub this Tyrtaeus of America "rugged" or 
 "immoral" have really read, with close and due 
 study, his remarkable pages, or are competent to 
 judge of the finest and most daring ranges of poetic 
 art. To him who writes these words, the Poet of 
 " Drum-Taps " and of " The Voyage to India " has 
 long seemed a singer nobly and perfectly native to 
 the New World, profoundly philosophical, and one 
 to be certainly regarded with reverence and affec- 
 tion, for his humanity, his insight, his faith, his 
 courage, and the clear, sonorous, and ofttimes ex- 
 quisite melody of his rhymeless, but never un- 
 rhythmical, dithyrambs. No living singer has ever 
 composed any English lines more divinely musical 
 than those of the "Invocation," which begin, 
 " Come, lovely and soothing Death." No poet- 
 philosopher has ever proclaimed loftier veracities 
 of life and religion than could be gleaned, thickly 
 and richly, from " The Leaves of Grass ; " and, as to 
 the charge of impropriety, it is often made by people 
 who have not understood his main thesis and state- 
 ment, " I swear I am no more ashamed of the body 
 than I am ashamed of the soul." 
 
 At all events, for me Walt Whitman has long 
 appeared the embodiment of the spirit of American 
 growth and glory the natural minstrel of her 
 splendid youth the chief modern perceiver of the
 
 82 SEAS AND LANDS. 
 
 joy and gladness in existence too long forgotten or 
 forbidden ; and, of all men in Philadelphia, he it 
 was whom I most desired to see and to thank foi 
 my own share, at least, in the comfort and wisdom 
 of his verse, which, for one who can read it with 
 sympathy, has the freshness of the morning wind 
 blowing in the pines, the sweetness of the sea-air 
 tumbling the wave-crests. 
 
 You go down the long Market Street in an 
 electric car, which is driven from a wire overhead, 
 the connector-rod and the wheels emitting flashes 
 of blue fire all the way, which seem, however, to 
 do nobody any harm. These novel tramcars are 
 checked, stopped, and started again with the utmost 
 certainty by a button and a string, and the over- 
 head wire illuminates the vehicle as well as 
 drives it. 
 
 Arrived at the edge of the Delaware River by 
 the aid of this yoked and tamed lightning, a pro- 
 digious ferry-steamer receives passengers, carts, wag- 
 gons anything and everything and puffs across 
 to the other bank, amid multitudinous small and 
 large craft. Here is New Jersey, where, for a while, 
 nobody could be found who knew the habitat of 
 America's lyric veteran. But at last, an ancient 
 flyman was discovered who was acquainted with the 
 abode of " the old poet," and many a winding way 
 and devious plank-road brought us in the end to 
 an obscure street, where our modern Tyrtaeus re- 
 sided. The humble tenement which represented 
 the poet's " bower" stood between two retail stores.
 
 MEN AND CITIES. 83 
 
 and was about the most unlikely spot in the world 
 to search in for a bard. Yet a sweet-voiced woman, 
 darning stockings and swinging to and fro in a 
 rocking-chair, assured me that " Mr. Whitman " 
 was truly within, and a very handsome brown-faced 
 boy of nineteen in shirt-sleeves volunteered to call 
 him. Soon the famous dithyrambist descended 
 the stairs, clad in a light holland coat, with open 
 shirt ruffled in the neck, walking very lamely with 
 the help of a stick, but certainly one of the most 
 beautiful old men ever beheld, with his clear keen 
 eyes, sculptured profile, flowing silver hair and 
 beard, and mien of lofty content and independence. 
 In a very few minutes, I may venture to say, we 
 were like old friends. I told him how he was 
 honoured and comprehended by many and many 
 an Englishman, who knew how to distinguish great 
 work from little, in ancient or modern tongues. I 
 told him how many among us found the freedom 
 of the broad prairie and the freshness of the sea in 
 his pages, and loved them for their large humanity 
 and superb forecasts of human development. The 
 handsome youth fetched down the "Leaves of 
 Grass " from upstairs, and we read together some 
 of the lines most in mind, the book lying upon 
 the old poet's knee, his large and shapely hand 
 resting on mine. The sweet- voiced woman dropped 
 her darning needle to join in the lyrical and ami- 
 cable chat, the handsome boy lounged and listened 
 at the doorway, a big setter laid his soft muzzle on 
 the master's arm, and the afternoon grew to evening
 
 8 4 SEAS AND LANDS. 
 
 in pleasant interchange of thoughts and feelings. 
 He laughed joyously at the vastness and vitality 
 of this Republic, of which I admiringly spoke, and 
 said, " Yes, we are truly as they say West very 
 ' numerious.' ' 
 
 " But have you reverence enough among your 
 people?" I asked. "Do the American children 
 respect and obey their parents sufficiently, and are 
 the common people grateful enough to their best 
 men, their statesmen, leaders, teachers, poets, and 
 ' betters ' generally ? " 
 
 "Allons, camarade!" Walt Whitman replied; 
 " your old world has been soaked and saturated 
 in reverentiality. We are laying here in America 
 the basements and foundation rooms of a new era. 
 And we are doing it, on the whole, pretty well and 
 substantially. By-and-by, when that job is through, 
 we will look after the steeples and pinnacles." 
 
 He bade me " give his love to the boys in London," 
 such as cared for him. Some of them, he said, had 
 been " very good to him in past days, and had pulled 
 him out of a quagmire." But there was no tone of 
 complaint in his cheery manliness, and he looked 
 the picture of self-content and happy old age. In a 
 strong round hand he inscribed my name in the 
 volume we had discussed, gave me some precious 
 pictures of himself at different epochs of his life, 
 and bade me farewell with an affectionate warmth 
 which will never be forgotten. 
 
 A short run carries the wanderer northwards from 
 Philadelphia to New York ; but long before Jersey
 
 MEN AND CITIES. 85 
 
 City is reached, the lines of frame tenements abutting 
 on the woodlands and marshes tell of the proximity 
 of the great city. It is not necessary to say anything 
 about the vast, noisy, restless, stately, business Metro- 
 polis of the Republic, with which so many are 
 perfectly well acquainted. Paved everywhere with 
 cobble-stones, riddled below by tramways, and above 
 by " elevated " railways, pierced and permeated with 
 electric wires, and full all day and all night of 
 rattling, pounding, ponderous cars, waggons, and 
 cabs, New York City is the least reposeful place in 
 the world, and wants wood-pavement everywhere, if 
 sleep be necessary to human existence. The only 
 quiet spots observed in Manhattan were those about 
 the handsome and tasteful Central Park, whose green 
 knolls and shady uplands look prettily and pleasantly 
 enough upon the Hudson River gliding down from 
 West Point and the Palisades. 
 
 On one of the most commanding points of this 
 well-ordered park, whence the eye could range far 
 over the roofs and towers of the city in one direc- 
 tion, and away to the hills and the country in the 
 other, we found the grave of Ulysses Grant, under 
 the fluttering Stars and Stripes, guarded by a 
 limping veteran of the Federal Army. The chest 
 or " casket," containing the remains of the re- 
 nowned General and President foremost among 
 those who saved the Republic could be discerned 
 through the gilded bars of the little mausoleum. 
 It was nearly hidden in a mound of funeral wreaths 
 of honour, but showed the name and date of demise
 
 86 SEAS AND LANDS. 
 
 of the illustrious soldier. It is the intention of 
 the New York citizens to raise an imposing monu- 
 ment here to the immortal memory of Grant, and 
 the necessary funds have already been collected by 
 public subscription. 
 
 It was my good fortune to make at New York the 
 close acquaintance of another, and hardly less re- 
 nowned soldier of the Republic, General Sherman 
 since, alas ! dead ; nor could any conversations have 
 been more interesting than those in which he did 
 me the honour to describe and discuss, among many 
 other matters, that wonderful and memorable march 
 led by him, which pierced the Confederate States like 
 the thrust of a rapier, and helped largely to bring 
 about the collapse of "Secession." The General was 
 evidently and justly discontented with certain criti- 
 cisms which have appeared in England, from a high 
 military source, upon the conduct of the campaign. 
 "We had," he said, "to create armies before we 
 could use them in the established and scientific way, 
 and it is unfair and illogical to judge the first two 
 years of our war as if we had been commanding 
 trained and seasoned troops. In the third year we 
 had regiments to lead as good and skilled as com- 
 manding officers could ask for; and to the move- 
 ments then made, the rules of military science may 
 be properly applied." 
 
 General Sherman spoke of the quality of courage 
 in soldiers, and men generally, distinguishing it 
 impatiently from brutish and irrational recklessness. 
 " True courage," he said, " is founded on presence
 
 MEN AND CITIES. 87 
 
 of mind. The man who, in the face of imminent 
 peril, can hold up his hand, and count the fingers 
 on it quite calmly, is the brave, self-possessed, 
 serviceable individual. Moreover, true courage goes 
 with unselfishness. I have seen an officer fight on 
 unflinchingly in my presence, bleeding from many 
 wounds, of which he was disdainfully heedless, 
 and, in later life, have witnessed the same gentle- 
 man turn deadly white while he held the hand of 
 his child, that a surgeon might operate for some 
 trifling abscess." Many were the thrilling episodes 
 and adventures of the great war which fell in fas- 
 cinating recital from the lips of General Sherman, 
 but they are either recorded in the pages of his 
 autobiography, or are too long and discursive to set 
 down here. One little flash of humour is, perhaps, 
 worth preserving from all the war talk which we 
 enjoyed. 
 
 "General Thomas," said he, "junior to me in 
 rank, but senior in service, was a stern discipli- 
 narian. He had received many complaints about 
 the pilfering and plundering committed by one of 
 his brigades, and, being resolved to put this 
 offence down, he issued some very strict orders, 
 menacing with death any who should transgress. 
 The brigade in question wore for its badge an acorn, 
 in silver or gold, and the men were inordinately 
 proud of this distinctive sign. Several cases of 
 disobedience had been reported to the General, but 
 the evidence was never strong enough for decisive 
 action until one day, riding with an orderly down
 
 88 SEAS AND LANDS. 
 
 a by-lane outside the posts, Thomas came full upon 
 an Irishman, who, having laid aside his rifle, with 
 which he had killed a hog, was busily engaged in 
 skinning the animal with his sword-bayonet, so as 
 to make easy work with the bristles, &c., before 
 cooking some pork-chops. 
 
 "'Ah,' cried the General, 'you rascal! at last I 
 have caught one of you in the act. There is no 
 mistake about it this time, and I will make an 
 example of you, sir ! ' 
 
 " ' Bedad ! General, honey ! ' said the Irishman, 
 straightening himself up and coming to the salute, 
 ' it's not shootin' me that you ought to be afther, at 
 all, at all, but rewardin' me.' 
 
 " * What do you mean, sir ? ' exclaimed General 
 Thomas. 
 
 " ' Why, your honour ! ' the soldier replied, ' this 
 disperate baste here had just been disicratin' the 
 rigimental badge ; and so I was forced to despatch 
 'urn. It's 'atin the acorns that I found him at ! ' 
 Even General Thomas was obliged to laugh at this, 
 and the soldier saved his life by his wit." 
 
 General Sherman spoke with much attachment of 
 many English officers, his friends, and recalled with 
 evident pleasure the receptions he had met with in 
 English garrisons at Gibraltar, Malta, and elsewhere. 
 Albeit then verging on his seventieth year, the 
 illustrious leader appeared perfectly hale, strong, and 
 almost fit, if necessary, for another such campaign, 
 as when, at the head of that tough and fearless 
 column of Federal troops, he disappeared from
 
 MEN AND CITIES. 89 
 
 sight at Atlanta, to turn up again, irresistible and 
 victorious, under the ramparts of Savannah, which 
 fell to him without a shot, crowning the perfect 
 success of the memorable march. 
 
 NEW YORK, Sejrt. 20, 1889.
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 BOSTON. 
 
 MASSACHUSETTS, Connecticut, Vermont, and the sea- 
 board States comprising New England, well deserve 
 that name in regard of good harbours, busy coasts, 
 and beautiful inland scenery. In leaving New York 
 for Boston by what is called the " The Air-Line 
 Railway," the traveller journeys along the northern 
 shore of Long Island Sound, and passes through 
 a score of towns and " cities " with very familiar 
 names, such as Chester, Stamford, Southport, Bridge- 
 port, Milford, and New Haven. This last is an 
 important centre, full of dark-foliaged trees, which 
 have given it the title of " Elm City," and famous 
 as containing numerous educational institutions, 
 among which is Yale College, not so old as 
 Harvard and not so richly endowed, but enjoying 
 a well-merited reputation. It was founded in 1 700 
 It has over 100 professors, its students number- 
 ing over 1000. It has a School of Fine Arts, a 
 Law School, a Medical, Theological, Scientific, and 
 Academic Department ; and its buildings cover, 
 including ornamental grounds, over nine acres, 
 among the most important of them being the 
 Library, with over 140,000 volumes. Situated at
 
 BOSTON. 91 
 
 the head of New Haven Bay, the largest town in 
 Connecticut and a port of entry, New Haven is a 
 great railway centre, and has a considerable home 
 and foreign commerce, principally with the West 
 Indies. Its manufactures are in the hardware line, 
 jewellery, and indiarubber. When the railroad 
 diverges from it, we plunge into a charming country 
 on the way to Hartford and Willimantic, a country 
 resembling that around Kendal and Ambleside, with 
 folded verdant hills, pretty lakes and lakelets shut 
 within them, and streams or rivers which shine as 
 they wind under the dark fir woods, or emerge into 
 the valleys decked with maple and birch, just now 
 beginning to put on their autumn glory of burning 
 colours. As we ascend, glimpses are again obtained 
 of Long Island Sound, and of many a smart-looking 
 schooner two, three, and even four masted in the 
 construction of which American shipbuilders excel. 
 Everywhere the " golden-rod," covering the clear- 
 ings with its spikes of bright blossom ; everywhere 
 the sumach, with dark-purple seed-vessels and 
 crimson leaves ; everywhere the frame-houses, gaily 
 painted in blue and red and saffron, with " piazzas " 
 and well-filled barns ; everywhere, apparently, ac- 
 tivity and prosperity, a region this Yankee-land 
 of solid well-being. 
 
 Then we arrive at Boston " Hub of the Uni- 
 verse" most English-like of all the cities of the 
 Eastern States, and in the highest degree a plea- 
 sant, fair, cultured, and stately city. Its lower and 
 business portions, indeed, curiously resemble those
 
 92 SEAS AND LANDS. 
 
 of many a large place in its old namesake ; but the 
 suburbs are prettier, and more tastefully laid out 
 and built than almost any in England. Brookline, 
 especially, and the long vistas of villas leading to 
 Cambridge, and thence to Mt. Auburn and along the 
 Charles River, have a singular charm by reason of 
 the variety in the style of the residences half stone 
 or brick, and half wood which are planted on well- 
 kept lawns, not shut out from the public road by 
 iron railings or walls, as with us, but quite open, 
 and presenting the most charming diversity of design 
 and colouring. The passenger traffic of the city is 
 all done by cars mainly electric which hiss and 
 rattle along, always crowded, emitting as they go 
 sparks of white light from their rumbling wheels, 
 and from the conducting-rod which runs against the 
 overhead wire. For five cents you may ride any- 
 where, but there is no law against overfilling, and 
 the chances are that you will have to stand up 
 all the way. Far and wide above the great city 
 shines the gilded dome of the State House, 116 feet 
 high ; and nobody who notices its happy effect, 
 overhanging the roofs like a perpetual sun, could 
 doubt of the excellent result which would be 
 achieved if London were to cover with gold-leaf 
 the far more majestic dome of St. Paul's. " Boston 
 Common," just underneath the State House, is 
 really a fine but small park and ornamental garden, 
 upon which Beacon Street looks, with an aspect 
 irresistibly recalling the familiar front of Piccadilly 
 and the Green Park at home.
 
 BOSTON. 93 
 
 No handsomer group of buildings, hotels, and fine 
 mansions can well be seen, than where Boylston 
 Street opens out in front of the Museum of Fine 
 Arts ; and there is a graceful climbing plant the 
 Ampelopsis which drapes almost every church, 
 public edifice, and private abode with its bright 
 green trails of thick verdure changing to a rich 
 russet and purple as "the Fall" approaches. North 
 of the spacious city soars into the sky the ugly 
 granite obelisk, marking Bunker Hill, on the site 
 of the battle fought June 17, 1775, the only 
 monument, perhaps, ever raised to commemorate 
 a defeat ; for it is matter of history, as is well con- 
 ceded in Dr. Oliver W. Holmes' delightful ballad, 
 " Grandmother's Story," that the British gained 
 all the honours of the day in that memorable con- 
 flict. The most beautiful of the many cemeteries 
 round about is undoubtedly Mount Auburn, with 
 its winding walks thronged by the tombstones all 
 the pretty paths named after different flowers ; its 
 glorious views across the Charles River ; its groves 
 of stately trees and parterres of bright blossoms, kept 
 so trimly and piously as to render the spot a veri- 
 table " Garden of Death ; " its galaxy of great names 
 hallowing the air Longfellow, Story, Winthrop, 
 Adams, Channing, Margaret Fuller, Dana, &c. And 
 the most interesting, as well as, on the whole, most 
 picturesque of its suburbs, is, of course, Cambridge, 
 the home of Longfellow, Holmes, Lowell, and other 
 noted American citizens, and the seat of Harvard 
 University. It was first called Newtown, and settled
 
 94 SEAS AND LANDS. 
 
 soon after the Boston colony, but subsequently chris- 
 tened Cambridge in honour of the University in 
 England, where John Harvard, the founder of the Uni- 
 versity, and other leaders had studied. Established 
 in 1636 by Rev. John Harvard, and incorporated in 
 1650, it is the oldest and most richly endowed seat 
 of learning in America. Besides its collegiate de- 
 partment, it has departments for law, medicine, 
 science, art, and theology. It has 220 teachers, and 
 about 1400 students. The University lands com- 
 prise over sixty acres, and contain twenty or more 
 academical buildings, shaded with fine elms and 
 other trees. The noblest is Memorial Hall, in 
 recollection of the students who fell in the War of 
 Secession. It is large and well-proportioned, and 
 200 feet high. The Great Hall is its principal 
 apartment, 164 feet by 60 feet. In the vestibule 
 are the tablets of the students (136) who died for 
 their country. The Theatre holds 1300 persons. 
 The University Library, a Gothic building known as 
 Gore Hall, in form of a Latin cross, has a groined 
 roof 35 feet high, and possesses about 200,000 books, 
 while the University contains about 100,000 more 
 in other detached halls. The governing body of the 
 University consists of one president and six fellows, 
 and a board of overseers, who meet in University 
 Hall. There are forty-seven professorships. The 
 course extends over four years, and the great insti- 
 tution is ruled by a dignitary, Dr. Charles Eliot, 
 super-eminently qualified by his learning, suavity, 
 strength of character, and devotion, for the high
 
 BOSTON. 95 
 
 charge which he bears amid universal popularity 
 and esteem. 
 
 It was our privilege to become the guests of 
 President Eliot at his pleasant official abode in the 
 centre of the American Oxford, and in this way a 
 very ample and agreeable acquaintance was made 
 with Harvard men, manners, and systems. But 
 Boston and its environs contained many friends 
 beside, and connections by marriage, who had to 
 be visited ; and there was, moreover, an American 
 wedding at which we had the happiness to assist, 
 peculiar in that it was celebrated within the drawing- 
 room of the house, the very charming bride and her 
 procession of attendants passing between lines gar- 
 landed with flowers, held by little pages, to the 
 grand piano, beside which two clergymen performed 
 the brief rite. There was a festal gathering, too, of 
 " American cousins " extremely gay and cordial 
 to attend ; and one of our earliest days was devoted 
 to a visit to Oak Knoll, Danvers, the residence of 
 the esteemed poet, Whittier. 
 
 The venerable singer lives in a comfortable and 
 characteristic dwelling, surrounded by a small park, 
 left much as Nature made it, and as the pre- 
 Adamite glaciers chiselled out its dells and hil- 
 locks, which are shaded by large oak, elm, maple, 
 and magnolia trees, amid the boughs of which the 
 American robins pipe, and chipmunks and grey 
 squirrels play. Mr. Whittier is now verging upon 
 eighty years of age, but his tall, lithe figure is still 
 erect, his clear penetrating deep grey-blue eyes
 
 96 SEAS AND LANDS. 
 
 undimmed ; and albeit shy and reserved by habit, he 
 unbends sweetly and genially to accepted friends. 
 A stuffed bald-headed eagle, mounted as if grasping 
 a small star-spangled banner, testified if that were 
 necessary to his patriotism ; an old tailless sheep- 
 dog, which nestled its muzzle on the master's knee 
 while we talked, to his love of animals. His 
 conversation, which was of the Quaker fashion, full 
 of " thee's and thou's," was pointed, animated, and 
 marked by the felicity of his printed works ; nor can 
 any cultured person need to be told how classic, and 
 lucid, and happy are many of Whittier's best lines. 
 He smiled, half sadly, when I expressed the wish 
 that he could come across the Atlantic to see, under 
 the memorial window to Milton, in St. Margaret's 
 Church at Westminster, his own admirable verse 
 
 "The New World honours thee, whose lofty plea 
 For England's freedom made her own more sure. 
 Thy page, immortal as its theme, shall be 
 Their common freehold, while the worlds endure." 
 
 He dropped a bright epigram in the course of our 
 chat. I had been praising Emerson, and lamenting 
 that a great authority known to us both dissented, 
 and compared the Concord philosopher's style in 
 prose to "the shooting forth of stones from a sack." 
 "Ah! but," replied instantly the old poet, "thou 
 knowest well, friend, they are all precious stones." 
 And I was happy enough to obtain an interesting 
 avowal from his lips. He had been speaking of the 
 enduring and gloomy influence of the old-accustomed 
 Puritan doctrines upon the minds of New Englanders,
 
 BOSTON. 97 
 
 of their pernicious darkening of life and literature, 
 and how that he himself had gome under the cloud 
 of Calvinism and its terrors. " But you," I said, 
 " Sir, born in the purple of the Muses, never were, 
 and never could have been a Calvinistic Puritan." 
 " Nay, thou'rt right," he answered ; " the world was 
 much too beautiful and God far too good. I never 
 was of that mind." 
 
 I made another delightful pilgrimage this time 
 to the shrine of a life-long regard and attachment. 
 We passed a perfectly delightful day at the house 
 of Emerson, in Concord, some twenty miles from 
 Boston, entertained by Dr. Emerson, his son, who 
 closely resembles his illustrious father in lineaments, 
 and Miss Ellen Emerson, his daughter, whose sweet 
 and benign countenance still more completely per- 
 petuates the philosopher's serenity and radiant charm 
 of expression. Judge Hoar, a well-known citizen of 
 Concord, captured us for a time at the Concord 
 Station, and drove us round to see the bridge, 
 where the first musket was fired in the Revolu- 
 tionary war. Is there any spot in ancient or modern 
 lands more replete with sad, and yet lofty recollec- 
 tions, than this where 
 
 " TV embattled fanners stood, 
 And fired the shot, heard round the world." 
 
 You recall the facts ? General Gage, commanding 
 at Boston, had ordered the destruction of stores 
 and guns collected near the river by the malcontents, 
 and a column of some hundreds of British troops 
 
 o
 
 9$ SEAS AND LANDS. 
 
 marched secretly to Concord to execute the order. 
 They were met and checked at the little stream by 
 a band of American "minute-men" under Major 
 Isaac Bruddick, and, being resisted, they opened 
 fire. The shots wounded a Revolutionary or two, 
 and then Major Bruddick cried out, " Fire, in God's 
 name, fellow-soldiers!" himself discharging his piece. 
 Two British grenadiers fell to the ensuing volley, 
 and that which replied from the King's ranks killed 
 the rebel officer and one Abner Hosmer. The first 
 blood of the struggle had been fatally spilled ; the 
 sorrowful but inevitable conflict had begun, At 
 sound of those unhappy volleys the whole district 
 rose the British column was mobbed, harassed, 
 decimated with ambuscades, as it drew back towards 
 Boston, and must have been destroyed, but for Lord 
 Percy's appearance and succour with 1200 men of 
 the garrison. A bullet-hole in a neighbouring cottage 
 still shows how hot the fight was, and how well these 
 frame-buildings last. The bridge itself now presents 
 the most peaceful sylvan scene imaginable a grove 
 of elm and maple leading to the wooden arches, a 
 placid glittering rural river, and to mark its historical 
 significance only a statue and a grave. The statue, 
 by French, in bronze, spiritedly represents a Concord 
 farmer turning from his plough, flint-lock gun in 
 hand, and with eager, angry look, to the entrance of 
 the bridge. The roadside inscription runs, " Grave of 
 two British soldiers," and I bared my head in respect 
 to those honest victims of a mistaken policy, who died 
 doing their duty as much as George Washington's
 
 BOSTON. 99 
 
 "minute-men." It was good to hear that when, in 
 1875, on the centenary of that hapless April iQth, 
 America celebrated "the shot heard round the world," 
 the resting-place of our poor fellow-countrymen was 
 covered with flowers. I am proud to add that those 
 votive blooms were deposited, with the kind approval 
 of the Celebration Committee, by some English 
 workmen of the Waltham Watch Factory. If I 
 could have met these worthy fellows I would have 
 thanked them for all England. We may regret 
 Lord North's policy and the King's obstinacy, but 
 our British soldiers did their devoir, as always, in 
 that quarrel ; now, happily, hard to remember. 
 
 Hawthorne's house scene of " Mosses from an 
 Old Manse " stands nigh the bridge, and Emerson's 
 is not far away. The rooms in it are kept exactly 
 as the poet-philosopher left them. There are his 
 books, well marked ; the engraving, " Aurora of 
 Guido," given by Carlyle for a marriage present ; 
 the blotting-pad with its latest ink impressions, 
 the horsehair sofa on which he lay nigh to death, 
 the wood-pile, the trees in their branches the 
 " g av ' P^ite titmouse " he immortalised the simple 
 "homely" home, with its low-pitched farmlike 
 apartments and old-world furniture, all sacred and 
 unchanged. I traced in more than one volume of 
 his modest library the footsteps of his serene and 
 radiant mind, especially in the Indian translations. 
 I saw where he had lighted on the passage from 
 the Bhagavad-Gita, which struck him so, "When 
 the red slayer saith, I slay." At dinner it was my
 
 too SEAS AND LANDS. 
 
 distinction to conduct to the table and to sit beside 
 his venerable widow, a lady now very aged and 
 infirm, but still retaining marks of the beauty of 
 "Queenie." Mrs. Emerson walks and converses 
 with difficulty, but retains her clearness and sweet- 
 ness of mind. A bouquet of wild blossoms sug- 
 gested the question 
 
 " What flower of all the garden do you like 
 best?" 
 
 " Oh, I should be ashamed to give you any other 
 answer, Sir Edwin, except ' The rose. ' ' 
 
 "But you know that is the flower, par excellence, 
 of England?" 
 
 " Well, I do not love it a little bit the less on 
 that account." 
 
 In fact, this dear old lady was wholly delightful, 
 but did not once speak about her great husband. 
 After the repast we drove in Emerson's " carry-all " 
 through the wild pine-woods to Walden Pond, the 
 spot of all others dearest to his heart, and that 
 where he was accustomed to meditate day after day, 
 trudging the league of sandy road thither and back 
 again. Those who know Emerson's poems will 
 recall the verses 
 
 " If I could put my woods in song, 
 And tell what's there enjoyed, 
 All men would to my garden throng, 
 And leave the cities void. 
 
 My garden is a forest ledge, 
 
 Which older forests bound ; 
 The rocks slope to the blue lake edge, 
 
 Then plunge to depths profound."
 
 BOSTON. 101 
 
 It is, in truth, an unique spot, wild as when Red 
 Indians alone trod it, where the deep lakelet 
 slumbers under the boughs of beech, hemlock, and 
 " savage maple," and the solitude-loving Thoreau 
 was content to build himself a hut. We sate under 
 the white pines where Emerson was wont to pass 
 the lonely hours, and then drove the sure-footed 
 American horse up and down neck-breaking wood- 
 land alleys, over tree-stumps and hollows full of 
 wild asters and yellow "touch-me-not," to each 
 point of the sequestered pool which had been his 
 favourite haunts ; and evening came upon us before 
 we could return from the fascinating influences 
 of the place, to the little white wooden house 
 with green shutters consecrated by the genius of 
 America's chief thinker and teacher. 
 
 One other Boston pilgrimage must be mentioned. 
 On the road from Cambridge to Mount Auburn 
 stands a spacious and comfortable wooden house 
 everything almost is built from the forests in New 
 England looking over fields and gardens towards 
 Brighton, and standing in pleasant grounds. There 
 Washington lived ; and there also Longfellow, the 
 greatest of American poets, dwelt for many a year. 
 By the kind invitation of the poet's daughter the 
 " grave Alice " of his well-known line a happy 
 afternoon hour was passed reading the original MSS. 
 of " Evangeline " and other world-known works, in 
 the exquisitely neat handwriting of the author, in- 
 specting the domestic treasures of his home, the 
 pictures he loved, the pens and desk he used. Here
 
 102 SEAS AND LANDS. 
 
 was the armchair where he wrote the " Come to me, 
 O my children!" there the "Clock on the Stair" 
 which ticked the " Never ! For ever ! " His portrait, 
 on which a laurel-wreath hung, stood side by side 
 with that of Emerson; and the present gentle mistress 
 of Craigie House told us many a trait and habit of 
 her great and famous father, whose lyrics are to-day 
 on every lip. A handsome girl was among the com- 
 pany a student in the Female Annexe at Harvard 
 from South Carolina. Her father's estate, near 
 Savannah, had been desolated by Sherman's march, 
 of which we spoke. I asked, " Have you all forgiven 
 and forgotten that, and the war, down South?" 
 " We have forgiven," the Southern lady replied, 
 "but we have not forgotten." Going home we 
 crossed the bridge over the Charles River, where 
 were conceived those tender lines beginning, " I 
 stood on the bridge at midnight," and, full of 
 thoughts about the waste of warfare, and the efforts 
 of poets and philosophers to redeem and exalt, the 
 ripples of the salt water seemed to murmur 
 
 " And, for ever and for ever 
 As long as the river flows, 
 As long as life has passions, 
 As long as life has woes 
 
 The moon and her broken reflections, 
 
 And the shadows, shall appear 
 Like the symbol of love in the heavens, 
 
 And its wavering image here." 
 
 BOSTON, Sept. 25, 1889.
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 HARVARD. 
 
 AN agreeable sojourn in Boston the greater pail 
 of it passed under the hospitable roof of the Presi- 
 dent of Harvard University, Dr. Charles W. Eliot 
 enabled me to study with advantage the chief educa- 
 tional centre of the United States. A walk of two 
 miles which may be performed by the electric or 
 the horse car brings you, by busy streets first, and 
 then by pretty villas and gardens, to Harvard Square, 
 in the vicinity of which the buildings of the University 
 congregate. The principal of these, alike architec- 
 turally and in point of interest, is the Memorial Hall, 
 recently erected to commemorate the Harvard students 
 who gave their lives for their country's safety and 
 integrity in the Secession War. This structure of 
 red brick and stone, with a lofty and ornate campa- 
 nile, contains, besides a very large dining-hall and 
 a commodious Theatre for Lectures, &c., a central 
 corridor, imposingly adorned with marble, polished 
 woods, and stained glass windows, the walls of which 
 exhibit tablets bearing the names and places of death 
 of all those devoted alumni. Near and far around 
 about this stately building are scattered others, well
 
 io 4 SEAS AND LANDS. 
 
 reared in granite, masonry, or brick, dedicated to 
 Law, to Medicine, to Chemistry, Physics, Astronomy, 
 Classical Studies, Gymnastic Exercises, &c. The 
 Gymnasium is a particularly fine and well-equipped 
 erection, and is scientifically conducted with a view 
 to give Harvardians the corpus sanum which is so 
 indispensable to the mens sana. 
 
 Round about, or among these various and numerous 
 edifices of the University, the " Halls " and "Houses" 
 used by the students as residences cluster built 
 mainly of red brick, in a plain substantial style, and 
 harmonising well enough with the marble and stone- 
 work of the other structures, and the groves of elm, 
 ash, hickory, maple, and oak, everywhere liberally 
 bestowing shade and verdure to the New England 
 Academe. The President's House stands pleasantly 
 in one of the open grassy spaces characteristic of 
 Harvard, Brookline, and all the Boston suburbs, nor 
 can I forbear repeating how agreeable a sense of 
 good order and goodwill is imparted by these un- 
 fenced gardens, open to all alike, but never tres- 
 passed upon. There are no distinctive colleges in 
 Harvard, but only " Halls and Houses," which do 
 not produce any esprit de corps, as with us, as 
 they are merely large common dormitories. It is 
 a common practice for two students to occupy one 
 apartment, with two small sleeping-rooms attached, 
 or sometimes only one with two beds. The follow- 
 ing table exhibits four scales of annual expendi- 
 ture, the expenses of the long vacation not being 
 included :
 
 HARVARD. 
 
 
 Least. 
 
 Economical. 
 
 Moderate 
 
 Very 
 Liberal. 
 
 Tuition . . . . 
 
 $150 
 
 $150 
 
 $15 
 
 $150 
 
 Books and stationery . ' ' 
 
 28 
 
 35 
 
 45 
 
 61 
 
 Clothing ,' *!|'.>V -"< 
 
 70 
 
 1 2O 
 
 150 
 
 300 
 
 Room .... 
 
 22 
 
 3 
 
 IOO 
 
 175 
 
 Furniture (annual average) 
 
 10 
 
 15 
 
 25 
 
 50 
 
 Board .... 
 
 133 
 
 152 
 
 152 
 
 304 
 
 Fuel and light 
 
 II 
 
 15 
 
 3 
 
 45 
 
 Washing . . . 
 
 '5 
 
 20 
 
 40 
 
 5o 
 
 Societies and subscription to 
 
 
 
 
 
 sports (annual average) 
 
 
 
 35 
 
 50 
 
 Servant .... 
 
 
 ... 
 
 ... 
 
 25 
 
 Sundries . . _. 
 
 45 
 
 55 
 
 85 
 
 150 
 
 Total . v , . 
 
 $484 
 
 $592 
 
 $812 
 
 $1,360 
 
 Members of any department of the University can 
 board at cost by joining the association which uses 
 the great dining-hall of Memorial Hall. The cost 
 of board to the members of this association is 
 expected not to exceed $4.25 a week. It will be 
 perceived +,hat the Republic offers a high collegiate 
 education and degree for less than ^"100 per 
 annum. The " men " wear no distinctive collegiate 
 dress whatever. 
 
 Harvard College was founded in 1636, by the 
 General Court of the colony of Massachusetts Bay, 
 the vote reading as follows "The Court agree to 
 give ^400 towards a school or college, whereof 
 ^200 shall be paid the next year, and 200 when 
 the work is finished, and the next Court to appoint 
 where and what building." In the following year 
 John Harvard, a nonconforming clergyman of Eng- 
 land, died at Charlestown, leaving half of his whole 
 property and his entire library (about 300 volumes) 
 to the institution. The value of this bequest was
 
 io6 SEAS AND LANDS. 
 
 more than double the entire sum originally voted by 
 the Court, and it was resolved to open the college at 
 once, and to give it the name of Harvard. The first 
 class was formed in the same year. In 1642 the 
 Act was passed establishing the overseers of Harvard 
 College with this modest preamble " Whereas, 
 through the good hand of God upon us, there is 
 a college founded in Cambridge, in the county of 
 Middlesex, called Harvard College, for the encourage- 
 ment whereof this Court has given the sum of ^400, 
 and also the revenue of the ferry betwixt ' Charles- 
 town and Boston, and that the well ordering and 
 managing of the said college is of great concern- 
 ment." Assuredly it was of " great concernment," 
 and has grown by nobly generous donations and 
 personal devotion more than by any munificence of 
 the Government, to its present wealth and usefulness, 
 maintaining a splendid and erudite staff of sixty- six 
 learned professors, besides numerous assistant-tutors, 
 and being able to bestow on indigent but meritorious 
 scholars as much as $45,000 a year in scholarships, 
 " beneficiary funds," monitorships, and the like. A 
 "parietal committee" looks after the discipline of 
 the institution, which seems, however, to an Oxford 
 man extremely lax, there being few or no restrictions 
 as to hours, attendance at lectures or chapel, or roll- 
 call ; and a general freedom as to coming and going, 
 working or playing, which, however, appears to agree 
 with the Democratic Muses ; for no one could desire 
 to see a more gentlemanly or reasonably decorous set 
 of students. The statutes say
 
 HARVARD. jo; 
 
 The respective Faculties have authority to impose fines and 
 levy assessments for damage done to property ; to inflict, at their 
 discretion, the penalties of admonition, suspension, dismission, and 
 expulsion, and to use all other appropriate means of discipline; 
 but no student shall be separated from the University, either 
 temporarily or permanently, by a vote of less than two-thirds of 
 the members of his Faculty present and voting thereon. Sus- 
 pension is a separation from the University for a fixed period of 
 time. It may be accompanied with a requirement of residence 
 in a specified place, and of the performance of specified tasks. 
 Dismission closes a student's connection with the University, 
 without necessarily precluding his return. Expulsion is the 
 highest academic censure, and involves final separation. 
 
 Much, under such an easy regime, must obviously 
 depend upon the character of the Principal, and 
 Harvard is fortunate in possessing a head at present, 
 perfectly blending the suaviter and fortiter in his 
 just, commanding, and sympathetic sway. 
 
 The regulations of the Gymnasium are very prac- 
 tical and wise 
 
 Upon entering the University, each student is entitled to an 
 examination by the director, in which his physical proportions 
 are measured, his strength tested, his heart and lungs examined, 
 and information is solicited concerning his general health and 
 inherited tendencies. From the data thus procured, a special 
 order of appropriate exercises is made out for each student, with 
 specifications of the movements and apparatus which he may best 
 use. After working on this prescription for three or six months, 
 the student is entitled to another examination, by which the 
 results of his work are ascertained, and the director enabled to 
 make a further prescription for his individual case. 
 
 The Astronomical Observatory is most intelli- 
 gently and sedulously carried on by its gifted 
 director, Mr. Edward Pickering, under whose kind 
 guidance I inspected admirably designed apparatus
 
 io8 SEAS AND LANDS. 
 
 of registration and observation, and saw some of 
 the most interesting examples of stellar photography 
 and planet pictures. A perfect treasure-store has 
 been accumulated of the spectra of stars, &c. 
 
 The Arnold Arboretum is another special and 
 excellent department. It was founded for the 
 purpose of scientific research and experiment in 
 arboriculture, forestry, and dendrology, and as a 
 museum of trees and shrubs suited to the climate 
 of Massachusetts. The arboretum occupies a por- 
 tion of the Bussey farm in West Roxbury, 1 60 acres 
 in extent, and under a special arrangement with the 
 City of Boston is open to the public every day in 
 the year from sunrise to sunset. The living col* 
 lections are supplemented by an herbarium, museum, 
 and library. These occupy temporarily the "Dwight " 
 House, at the corner of Warren and Cottage Streets 
 in Brookline, until a suitable library and museum 
 building can be erected on the arboretum grounds. 
 There is an admirable College library where I saw 
 the original MS. of Shelley's "Ode to a Skylark" 
 managed by a devotee to his duties, Mr. Justin 
 Winsor, open for use to all the students, who may 
 have three volumes at a time for four weeks. 
 
 The most singular and characteristic feature of the 
 University is, perhaps, the arrangement under which 
 preachers and ministers of all sorts of denominations 
 take it by turns to officiate in the College chapel, or 
 sometimes officiate there simultaneously, in a way 
 which would suggest the Scotchman's definition of 
 the haggis, viz., that it was "fine confused eating."
 
 HARVARD. log 
 
 On June 14, 1886, on the unanimous recommenda- 
 tion of the preachers and the Plummer Professor, 
 the President and Fellows voted "That the statute 
 numbered 15, concerning religious services, be 
 amended by striking out the clause ' at which 
 the attendance of the students is required,' " and 
 on June 16 the Board of Overseers concurred in 
 this vote. Attendance at the religious services of 
 the University was thus, by the advice of those 
 who conduct these services, and to the satisfaction 
 of all concerned in them, made wholly voluntary. 
 Oriental languages are not neglected, and Sanskrit 
 especially is faithfully advanced by its accomplished 
 professor, Mr. Charles R. Lanman, while the name of 
 Professor Charles E. Norton, holding the chair of 
 the Fine Aits, is known to all students of aesthetic 
 literatures. Speaking of the splendid benefactions 
 by which the buildings of Harvard have been reared, 
 and its large educational staff endowed, President 
 Eliot said, last year, in an address delivered before 
 the " Phi Beta Kappa " Society 
 
 The endowment of institutions of education, including libraries 
 and museums, by private persons in the United States is a pheno- 
 menon without precedent or parallel, and is a legitimate effect of 
 democratic institutions. Under a tyranny were it that of a 
 Marcus Aurelius or an oligarchy, were it as enlightened as that 
 which now rules Germany, such a phenomenon would be simply 
 impossible. The University of Strasburg was lately established 
 by an Imperial Decree, and is chiefly maintained out of the 
 revenue of the State. Harvard University has been 250 years 
 in growing to its present stature, and is even now inferior at many 
 points to the new University of Strasburg; but Harvard is the 
 creation of thousands of persons, living and dead, rich and poor, 
 learned and simple, who have voluntarily given it their time,
 
 i io SEAS AND LANDS. 
 
 thought, or money, and lavished upon it their affection ; Stras- 
 burg exists by the mandate of the ruling few directing upon it 
 a part of the product of ordinary taxation. Like the voluntary 
 system in religion, the voluntary system in the higher education 
 buttresses democracy ; each demands from the community a large 
 outlay of intellectual activity and moral vigour. 
 
 The subjoined further remarks from the same 
 eloquent lips cannot but be read with profit, as they 
 give the views of one who is the chief scholar and 
 highest dignitary of learning in the States, upon 
 that phenomenon which every observer must note 
 the gradual uprise in America of three aristocracies, 
 those of historic descent, of culture, and of wealth. 
 In politics the successful statesman founds nothing ; 
 his gens often sinks back into the ocean of general 
 existence, like a collapsed bubble. But the names 
 of Dana, Cabot, Channing, Lothrop, Higginson, 
 Endicott, Adams, and the like k^ep in front, like 
 those of Cossus, Claudius, Appius, and Flavius in 
 ancient Rome, and education flows constantly in 
 the same channels generation after generation. The 
 President's words were 
 
 In the future there will undoubtedly be seen a great increase 
 in the number of permanent families in the United States 
 families in which honour, education, and property will be trans- 
 mitted with reasonable certainty ; and a fair beginning has already 
 been made. On the quinquennial catalogue of Harvard University 
 there are about 560 family stocks, which have been represented 
 by graduates at intervals for at least one hundred years. On 
 the Yale catalogue there are about 420 such family stocks; 
 and it is probable that all other American colleges which have 
 existed one hundred years or more show similar facts in pro- 
 portion to their age and to the number of their graduates. 
 There is nothing in American institutions to prevent this natural 
 process from extending and continuing. The college graduate
 
 HARVARD. in 
 
 who does not send his son to college is a curious exception. 
 American colleges are, indeed, chiefly recruited from the sons of 
 men who were not college-bred themselves ; for democratic society 
 is mobile, and permits young men of ability to rise easily from 
 the lower to the higher levels. But, on the other hand, nothing 
 in the constitution of society forces men down who have once 
 risen, or prevents their children and grandchildren from staying 
 on the higher level if they have the virtue in them. The interest 
 in family genealogies has much increased of late years, and 
 hundreds of thousands of persons are already recorded in printed 
 volumes which have been compiled and published by voluntary 
 contributions or by the zeal of individuals. In the Harvard 
 University Library are 415 American family genealogies, three- 
 quarters of which have been printed since 1860. Many of these 
 families might better be called clans or tribes, so numerous is their 
 membership. Thus of the Northampton Lyman family there 
 were living, when the family genealogy was published in 1872, 
 more than 4000 persons. When some American Galton desires 
 in the next century to study hereditary genius or character under 
 a democracy, he will find ready to his hand an enormous mass 
 of material. 
 
 I must quote my distinguished friend and host 
 once more upon a subject of universal interest 
 that of whether the democratic form of government 
 necessarily breeds democratic manners. Assuredly 
 an Englishman misses in the States the deferential 
 tone of old civilisations, the habitual regard of rank 
 or position, the readiness to serve. But he finds 
 as much or more goodwill, as much or more real 
 serviceableness, as much or more of frank manly 
 bonhomie, among these "nestlings of the Bird of 
 Freedom." Here is what President Eliot said on 
 the matter, and there can exist no higher authority, 
 or more equitable if patriotic judge 
 
 The highest education might exist, and yet the highest types 
 of manners might fail. Do these fail 1 On this important point
 
 iii SEAS AND LANDS. 
 
 American experience is already interesting and, I think, con- 
 elusive. Forty years ago Emerson said it was a chief felicity 
 of our country that it exceDed in women. It excels more and 
 more. Who has not seen in public and in private life American 
 women unsurpassable in grace and graciousness, in serenity and 
 dignity, and in effluent gladness and abounding courtesy ? Now, 
 the lady is the consummate fruit of human society at its best In 
 all the higher walks of American life there are men whose bearing 
 and aspect at once distinguish them as gentlemen. They have 
 personal force, magnanimity, moderation, and refinement; they 
 are quick to see and to sympathise; they are pure, brave, and 
 firm. These are also the qualities that command success, and 
 herein lies the only natural connection between the possession 
 of property and nobility of character. In a mobile or free society 
 the excellent or noble man is likely to win ease and independence, 
 but it does not follow that under any form of government the man 
 of many possessions is necessarily excellent On the evidence of 
 my reading and of my personal observation at home and abroad, 
 I fully believe that there is a larger proportion of ladies and 
 gentlemen in the United States than in any other country. This 
 proposition is, I think, true with the highest definition of the term 
 " lady " or " gentleman ; " but it is also true, if ladies and gentle- 
 men are only persons who are clean and well-dressed, who speak 
 gently and eat with their forks. It is unnecessary, however, to 
 claim any superiority for democracy in this respect ; enough that 
 the highest types of manners in men and women are produced 
 abundantly on democratic soiL 
 
 It would appear, then, from American experience that neither 
 generations of privileged ancestors, nor large inherited possessions, 
 are necessary to the making of a lady or a gentleman. What is 
 necessary ? In the first place, natural gifts. The gentleman is 
 born in a democracy, no less than in a monarchy. 
 
 It was my privilege and honour to lecture twice 
 before the University of Harvard by special invita- 
 tion ; and the extreme consideration of the audience 
 rendered easy and pleasant an otherwise formidable 
 task. The lectures were delivered in the Sander's 
 Theatre of the Memorial Hall, holding 1400, a
 
 HARVARD. 113 
 
 large portion of whom were students of Harvard. 
 In the first address I sought to expound the three 
 main philosophical ideas found in the Upanishads, 
 or religious treatises of the Vedanta ; and in the 
 second I had upon the table a printed and a manu- 
 script Sanskrit text of the colossal Epic Poem of 
 India called "The Mahahharata," of which I ex- 
 plained the leading incidents and general character, 
 reading my own translation of the concluding por- 
 tions. I only mention this to record that no one 
 could have had a more intelligent, attentive, or sym- 
 pathetic audience than the University furnished, 
 and that the success of one so ill-qualified to speak 
 upon such great topics topics, moreover, promis- 
 ing so little general attraction was a convincing 
 proof of the eagerness of these young educated 
 American gentlemen for expanded ideas. And 
 since the last periods of the second lecture em- 
 bodied ideas which I had formed as to the great 
 utility of philosophical studies and particularly 
 of Oriental metaphysics and literature for the 
 American student, I shall venture to append here 
 the peroration of that address. After terminating 
 the descriptive and recitative part of what I had 
 to say, these words were added 
 
 Since I am happy enough to find myself face to face with the 
 students of this renowned University, I would venture, not on 
 the impertinence of advice, of which I am incapable, hut on the 
 privilege of a few friendly, respectful remarks, encouraged by 
 your generous reception to-night As I have seen in Washington, 
 with great interest, the Capitol, and in it the Supreme Court which 
 is the heart of your political life, so I recognise here, in the seat 
 
 H
 
 ii 4 SEAS AND LANDS. 
 
 of learning so worthily ruled by my valued friend and gracious 
 host President Eliot, th'e intellectual centre of your vast com- 
 munity. It is not because Oxford is older than Harvard that 
 an Oxonian sees any further into the future than a Harvard man, 
 or has any right to give himself prophetic or archaeological airs, 
 It is true that my grandfather served King George before your 
 Constitution was even drawn up, and that my own particular 
 college was founded by King Alfred the Great. But we have 
 no record in our ancient seats of learning so wholly noble and so 
 unspeakably exalting as the building in which I am addressing 
 you. When first I entered it I read, with feelings of admiration, 
 and I may say of irrepressible envy, the Latin inscription over 
 its gateway, " In memoriam eorum qui his sedibus instituti mortem 
 pro patriA oppetiverunt." I have found with pride and pleasure, 
 greater than any aristocratic ties could ever give me, the names 
 of friends, and even of kindred by marriage, inscribed among 
 those illustrious dead whom Harvard offered on the shrine of 
 a pure and lofty, and a justly victorious patriotism. Passing 
 through your Memorial Hall, and reading that imperishable cata- 
 logue of youthful worthies, who suddenly learned the highest 
 lessons that life can teach at the knee of Duty, and by the light 
 of the flash of cannons fresh, moreover, from journeying through 
 your rich and fertile States I have realised, as never before, the 
 meaning of Lowell's lines, where, speaking of America, he wrote 
 
 " Binding the gold of war-dishevelled hair 
 On such sweet brows as never other bore." 
 
 At Concord Bridge I have seen the now peaceful and sylvan spot 
 where "the embattled farmers stood, And fired the shot, heard 
 round the world," and I bared my head, as much to them, as at 
 the adjacent grave of King George's soldiers, who also died for 
 duty, defending a mistaken policy. At Gettysburg I have passed 
 near the spot where the peach-trees now cover with bright con- 
 ciliating verdure the field whereon North and South met in de- 
 plorable but inevitable conflict. Yon have had by the strange 
 and stern decree of Destiny, to contend with and to vanquish 
 first your fathers, and next your brothers. I think you have 
 still one more great combat, and one more consummating victory 
 to win, which will be over yourselves ! If I were a Harvard 
 man my dream and desire would be to help to continue that 
 brilliant galaxy of intellect which glitters already with the names 
 of Longfellow, Emersou, Hawthorne, Lowell, Holmes, Whittier,
 
 HARVARD. 115 
 
 Irving, and many another such. If I were a Harvard man 1 
 would hope and strive to give to that statue of Liberty which 
 towers aloft over your New York harbour, as Pallas Athene once 
 looked majestically over Suniuni, the golden aegis of great and 
 high ideas, leavening the practical pursuits of life ; the ivory- 
 carved and chased, of an ever-aspiring Republican art and litera- 
 ture, signal alike for courage, elevation, and refinement I would 
 aspire to have America regarded abroad as large-hearted as she 
 is liberal, as equitable as she is fearless, as splendid in the service 
 of all mankind as she is strong for her own security and progress. 
 And among the minor means to this I would wish to see culti- 
 vated those fields of Eastern philosophical thought which I have 
 here so feebly and hastily traversed, as affording a sweet and 
 sovereign medicine against the fever of a too busy national life. 
 I would ask the days as they pass to bestow, as Emerson sings, 
 not merely material gifts, not alone natural development, not the 
 gross and transient boons of which you are assured wealth, 
 success, influence, comfort, and expansion (the "herbs and apples" 
 of his divine parable), but the meditations which exalt, the aims 
 which ennoble, the convictions which consecrate, the studies 
 tvhich redeem the life of man, for these are now most necessary to 
 the wide liberties of your country, and will best embellish her 
 greatness. Cultivate, therefore, I entreat, under my good friend, 
 your able and accomplished Sanskrit professor, among other studies, 
 at all events, the philosophies and literature of India ; rejecting 
 what your strong and sober sense will perceive to be useless or 
 childish in them, while some of you at least assimilate and utilise 
 the loftiest and most elevating of their conceptions. India belongs 
 to you, in the same sense in which she belongs to us, and I 
 rejoice that you are preparing to share our rights. Do you know 
 that the Mayfloioer, which brought your ancestors hither, went 
 down in Indian waters off Masulipatam ? Raise her some day 
 in fancy and freight her with a glorious new cargo of fresh inves- 
 tigations from Massachusetts Bay, wherein we shall find the Old 
 World interpreted by the New World, and American scholars 
 outdoing the best of England and Germany. If I should live 
 to see that, I should feel like Robinson Crusoe, who, shaking 
 forth a few grains from an almost empty sack upon a generous 
 and fertile soil, passed by thereafter to find upon the spot a 
 splendid and a fruitful harvest. 
 
 CHICAGO, Oct. 4, 1889.
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 OCEAN TO OCEAN. 
 
 WE have just accomplished, in five days and five 
 nights and five hours, without fatigue or discomfort 
 of any kind, the extraordinary railway journey from 
 the Atlantic to the Pacific, which so many people per- 
 form nowadays without so much as reflecting upon 
 the vast advance of civilisation and the amazing 
 human enterprise which it betokens. Between after- 
 noon tea on Thursday, October 3, and supper- time on 
 Tuesday, October 8, we have securely and pleasantly 
 travelled over 3640 miles in a continuous course, 
 passing through thirteen or fourteen of the States 
 of the Union, crossing, among many great streams 
 and rivers, the Mississippi and the Missouri, and 
 exchanging for the view across Boston harbour and 
 the Atlantic an outlook, through the Golden Gates, 
 over the Pacific Ocean. 
 
 It is not feasible to achieve this remarkable 
 transit in one and the same carnage. We travelled 
 first by the Boston and Albany Railway to Chicago ; 
 thence, after an hour's delay and transfer by omni- 
 bus, to Council Bluffs by the Chicago and North- 
 Western ; and then, crossing the Missouri to 
 Omaha, completed the journey by the Union
 
 OCEAN TO OCEAN. 117 
 
 Pacific in a three days' run. Thus there occur 
 two shifts of carriages and one -change of station 
 upon this, the most direct route ; enough to break 
 a little the monotony of the long ride and to give 
 a chance of stretching the confined limbs. But 
 for three whole days and nights we were domi- 
 ciled permanently "on board" one Pullman car, 
 the " Paraiso," in ample comfort. By day a little 
 table, fixed between the luxurious seats, enables 
 you to read, write, and study at ease. There are 
 smoking, toilet, and dining-rooms attached, and I 
 append the menu of one of our breakfasts, cooked 
 on board the train, and admirably served while the 
 carriage was going at thirty-five miles an hour. 
 
 Breakfast. Fruit, Canteloupe melons; oatmeal, coffee, English 
 breakfast tea, chocolate, dry toast, hot rolls, dipped toast, plain 
 bread, Boston brown bread toast, corn bread, griddle cakes, with 
 maple syrup, stewed oysters, raw oysters, broiled whitefish, salt 
 mackerel ; tenderloin steak, plain, mushrooms, or tomato sauce ; 
 sirloin steak, broiled ham, breakfast bacon ; mutton chops, plain, 
 or with tomato sauce : calves' liver, with bacon ; veal cutlets, 
 breaded ; sausage, fried chicken, sliced tomatoes, broiled Spanish 
 mackerel; eggs boiled, fried, scrambled; omelette, plain, with 
 parsley or jelly; potatoes fried, baked, stewed. Price 75 cents. 
 
 At night the African " porters " swiftly and in- 
 geniously let down the roof of the car, and transform 
 that and the seats below into wholly commodious 
 sleeping berths. Rocked by the slight vibration 
 of the speed, you slumber peacefully, and awake 
 to find a totally new region flying past your window. 
 Prairie-dog villages, perhaps, instead of big cities ; 
 or a desert of rolling sage-brush where yesterday 
 all was maple, maize-fields, and painted farmhouses.
 
 n8 SEAS AND LANDS. 
 
 The woods of Massachusetts, Vermont, and New 
 Hampshire had put on their full autumn glory of 
 colour as our train sped swiftly from Boston to 
 Albany. It is the sugar-maple which lends the 
 brightest hues to the extraordinary palette where- 
 with Nature decks these American groves in the 
 "Fall." There are really no names bright enough 
 for the blazing reds, the burning scarlets, the fiery 
 vermilions by which the sugar-maple suddenly 
 betakes herself to the task of lighting up the 
 forests and river banks as soon as the first frost 
 touches her scalloped leaves. But the other trees 
 and shrubs aid in the general effect with all manner 
 of startling or tender tints. The birch lends her 
 sprays of delicate pale yellow, swaying lightly above 
 a stem of silvery white, like patines of thinly beaten 
 gold ; the beech contributes a russet deepening into 
 warm brown ; the hickory a mellow brownish- 
 yellow ; the sassafras a crimson, vividly contrasting 
 with its green under leaves and purple seed spikes ; 
 the huckleberry spreads sheets of flame-coloured 
 bush all over the openings ; the butternut changes 
 its airy foliage to saffron, the elm to amber, the oak 
 to dark Vandyke brown, and the swamp-willow to 
 citron and sienna ; while minor varieties take in- 
 termediate shades and blendings, until there are 
 whole woodsides in this fair autumn time up and 
 down New England which absolutely dazzle and 
 amaze by the superlative splendour of their colour- 
 ing. And all these delicate golden and purple 
 gleams, alternating and mingling with the ambers,
 
 OCEAN TO OCEAN. 119 
 
 the russets, the burnt siennas, the deep rich browns, 
 the pale citrons, and sea-greens, and silvery whites, 
 and soft reds of the forest tribes, and sudden 
 flame-bursts of the sassafras leaves, are constantly 
 being heightened by the sugar-maple's flashes of 
 blood-red radiance, and explosions of burning 
 brilliance in masses of scarlet branches ; the 
 whole superb display of colour being harmoniously 
 backed and blended by the unchanging dark green 
 of the pines, which, in almost every sylvan scene, 
 compose the heart of these gorgeously apparelled 
 forests. 
 
 We pass Worcester, Mass., where iron and steel 
 wire is largely manufactured, prettily situated near 
 Lake Quinsigamond and Wachuset Mountain ; 
 and next Springfield, famous for the United States 
 Arsenal, and for its Hampden Park Racecourse ; 
 and so arrive, when night has fallen, amid the 
 electric lamps and steam vessels of Albany, at the 
 head of the Hudson River navigation. When 
 morning breaks we are flying hard along the south 
 shore of Lake Ontario, towards Buffalo, hardly 
 recovered yet from the demoralising effects of a 
 supper served at the station of Syracuse, where 
 only twelve minutes were allowed for six or seven 
 courses. The astounded stomach, which has to 
 undergo such an experience not the only one of 
 the kind en route takes time, even with the 
 strongest temperament, to regain its pristine equa- 
 nimity. Buffalo is a large city, and does much 
 business on these bright waters with steamers and
 
 120 SEAS AND LANDS. 
 
 schooners, besides manufacturing brass, iron, tin, 
 and copper wares. 
 
 Then we speed on to the shore of Lake Erie, 
 and skirt that magnificent inland sea, where the 
 fresh water is seen rolling shore wards in billows 
 which might do credit to the ocean itself, under 
 stress of a strong north-east wind. Approaching 
 Cleveland a melancholy incident occurs. No fence 
 shuts out the sovereign people here from the 
 track of the locomotive. It goes tearing along 
 through streets, farmsteads, fields, and crowded 
 villages, merely sounding a bell when it first starts, 
 and afterwards tootling a steam-horn fitfully when 
 it comes near a level crossing. All the crossings 
 are level, and the only precaution adopted is to erect 
 a sign-post at the spot, inscribed, "Railway track. 
 Look out for the Locomotive ! " We hear our 
 engine, which has just left a station, give a more 
 energetic blast than is usual, and then the brakes 
 are felt and speed slackens ; but, alas ! we have 
 already perceived from the windows the broken 
 body of a poor man flung to the side of the track 
 by the " cow-catcher," which has too evidently frac- 
 tured the skull and killed him, since where he falls 
 and lies a thick stream of blood trickles forth upon 
 the ballast. The train has been stopped and 
 backed, and the corpse is gathered up and placed 
 on a lorry, to be wheeled to the station just quitted. 
 On the spot where the unhappy man was tossed a 
 quantity of apples lie scattered upon the ground, 
 the contents of his bundle. Tt appears, by subse-
 
 OCEAN TO OCEAN. lal 
 
 quent information, that he was deaf and a cripple. 
 Imagine anybody out of America obliged to walk 
 with a crutch and stick choosing the track of the 
 express train for his promenade ! The engine-driver 
 states that he blew the signal loudly, but in vain ; 
 that the hapless victim was attending to another 
 train coming from the opposite direction, and that 
 the locomotive-guard, catching him behind the foot, 
 flung him backwards against the bars, " right away ; 
 so that the first thing he knew about it was to find 
 himself dead." The signs of this sorrowful, but 
 too natural and too ordinary accident, are quickly 
 cleansed from the engine-front ; the body disappears 
 to some shed to await an inquest, with the crutch 
 and the apples lying beside it on the truck, and we 
 go on our way to Chicago, while he, who was bound 
 only to the next store, has by the mysterious way- 
 bill of life suddenly taken the longest journey of 
 all. May it be well with him ! 
 
 Cleveland is now reached ; a town of much im- 
 portance, with 160,000 inhabitants, seated on Lake 
 Erie, at the mouth of the Cuyahoga River. The 
 Ohio Canal and the Petroleum Refineries have 
 mainly created its prosperity. By reason of its 
 well-shaded streets and green parks and gardens 
 it has won the name of " Forest City." Lake View 
 Cemetery here, one of those beautiful gardens of 
 the dead which are so distinctive of America, con- 
 tains the venerated remains of President Garfield, 
 the spot of whose assassination, marked by a silver 
 star, at the railway station in Washington, we had
 
 122 SEAS AND LANDS. 
 
 previously seen. Toledo, planted on the west 
 end of Lake Erie, is a good example of the rapid 
 growth of American towns. In 1850 it had only 
 3000 inhabitants, and it is now peopled by 60,000 
 souls, and ranks third after Chicago and Milwaukee 
 in the Lake grain and shipping trade. But here, 
 quitting Ohio, the train flies through the north 
 of Indiana State, crossing the lower end of that 
 vast peninsula of Michigan, which lies between the 
 lake of the same name and Lake Huron. Chicago 
 is reached late in the evening, and at this point a 
 transfer must be made across the city from the 
 "dep6t" of the Boston and Albany Railway to 
 that of the Chicago and North-Western Company. 
 Now we obtain seats and sleeping-berths which 
 will only once be changed until arrival in San 
 Francisco, and one settles down for the four nights 
 and four days which are to finish the transcon- 
 tinental journey with all the feelings of tenants 
 secure from eviction. 
 
 The glories of Chicago have been sufficiently sung 
 by others, and everybody knows what a Phoenix 
 among modern cities she is. Organised as a town 
 in 1833, and incorporated in 1837, she then had 
 4170 inhabitants, increased in 1880 to 503,304, and 
 now over 700,000. The great conflagration took 
 place in 1871, destroying 17,500 houses at a loss 
 of almost 200,000,000 dollars. In 1874 another fire 
 destroyed about 5,000,000 dollars' worth of property. 
 The new city, which rose superbly from the ashes, 
 has buildings in its business parts unsurpassed by
 
 OCEAN TO OCEAN. 123 
 
 any other of the large towns on the continent. It 
 ranks next to New York in commercial importance, 
 and in 1854 was already the largest grain shipping 
 port of the world. Its cattle, pork, and timber 
 trades stand pre-eminent over any similar market 
 in the world. Manufacturing is also very largely 
 carried on, employing above 150,000 hands in pro- 
 ductions very varied. The storage capacity for grain 
 and other produce is about 40,000,000 bushels. 
 It is the greatest railway centre on the continent, 
 having a water frontage of thirty-eight miles, taking 
 in the river and its branches. This is not includ- 
 ing the lake front, where an outer harbour is now 
 finished. 
 
 Traversing Illinois by night the Mississippi is 
 crossed, here only a little river, and one of sand- 
 banks and scant water, compared to what she is 
 destined to become when " Mighty Missouri " 
 further west has added her sister wave. Beyond 
 the Mississippi the State of Iowa stretches out to 
 view interminable fields of maize, which is now 
 chiefly standing in shocks, with pumpkins, shining 
 like helmets of gold, intermixed in the bountiful 
 crop. The channels traversed here all drain south- 
 ward to the Mississippi, and the country continues 
 rich and green by reason of their waters, while the 
 train steams forward past Boone, on the Des Moines 
 River, past Loveland, where it dips into the Missouri 
 Valley, to Council Bluffs, seat of Pottawattamise 
 County, built upon high cliffs overlooking the Mis- 
 souri Valley. Here a prodigious iron bridge, more
 
 i2 4 SEAS AND LANDS. 
 
 than a mile long, lifts the traveller across the 
 great stream to Omaha, in Nebraska State, on the 
 farther bank. Planted half on the river bed, half 
 on the lofty brows ranging along it, Omaha looks, 
 as she is, a " big place," with a thriving business. 
 We shall go on hence, all night, along the Platte 
 River, where the towns and townships still cluster 
 quite thickly as far as Grand Island. 
 
 Then the veritable prairie begins, which has for 
 some distance past been announcing its advent by 
 vast stretches of grassy plains interlocking with the 
 maize-fields and pumpkins, the clover and the beech 
 groves. All day long, this hot and blue Sunday, 
 have we steamed through the rolling hillocks and 
 widespread, sea-like levels of a measureless expanse, 
 wherein grow nothing but grasses, burned to drab 
 by the bright, rainless weather, yet maintaining, and 
 evidently even fattening, hundreds of thousands of 
 fine cattle and droves of horses. Far and near 
 roamed these beautiful oxen and shapely steeds, 
 grazing ; and apparently as much untended as the 
 bygone buffaloes, their predecessors, whose natural 
 food, the " buffalo grass," covers every hollow. Yet 
 now and again you would see emerging from some 
 dusty hillside the figure of the Cow-boy, with which 
 South Kensington made us all familiar. He would 
 suddenly appear, mounted on a wiry buck-jumper, 
 with heavy spurs and whip, controlling the herd. 
 We have by this time left behind upon the wooded 
 hills and valleys the large centres of population. 
 The latest stragglers of the many pines and maples
 
 OCEAN TO OCEAN. 125 
 
 have gradually yielded to the prairie, which will 
 show no trees, or hardly any. The knots of shops 
 and huts occurring here and there along the line 
 call themselves " cities " still, but are merely villages 
 for the ranchers to shop at, and whence they may 
 entrain their produce. A little wooden church, 
 painted red and green, with three graves only in 
 its churchyard of an acre, testifies to the newness 
 pf one settlement which we pass. At another, 
 Ogallala, a frame and wattled building, proudly 
 inscribed " Opera House," might perhaps hold one 
 hundred people. 
 
 The real and almost innumerable inhabitants of 
 the Prairie, as we now behold it, are those singular 
 creatures the prairie-dogs, to be seen in thousands 
 all through Nebraska from the windows of the 
 train. Everybody has read descriptions of these 
 odd little animals, and many, no doubt, who peruse 
 these lines have had opportunities of examining 
 them to better advantage than when natural history 
 is studied at twenty-five miles an hour. But you 
 may certainly see as many as ever you please to 
 watch in the Nebraska prairies, since the " dogs " 
 have grown entirely accustomed to the passing 
 locomotive, and regard it and the cars from their 
 " cities " with as calm a nonchalance as suburban 
 dwellers in London exhibit, smoking in their back 
 gardens. At intervals of three or four miles all 
 along the track, for as far as one hundred miles, 
 these "cities" are encountered, groups of hillocks 
 and burrows, where the light soil of the prairie has
 
 126 SEAS AND LANDS. 
 
 been scratched out, and heaped in a neat mound 
 over the excavation. On the top of this, or near at 
 hand, sit the prairie-dogs, or stand for they have a 
 rabbit-like fashion of rising upon their hindquarters 
 and folding their fore-feet, in a meditative manner, 
 across their white breasts. Their general colour is 
 sandy-brown, with a dark collar. When they run, 
 it is in a style partly resembling a dog, partly a rat, 
 and they cock aloft a short tail which they possess 
 in a most comically important way. Once or twice 
 I observed the small owl perched on a prairie-dog's 
 hillock, which is well known to be a joint tenant of 
 his burrow, together with the rattlesnake ; but no 
 specimen of the latter, of course, came under such 
 rapid observation. The wind blows all the fine dust 
 away from the stuff turned out by the "dog," 
 leaving a pile of smooth pebbles, so that he seems 
 to have taken to mining operations for gold or 
 jewels. There will be from fifty to three hundred 
 burrows in a " city," and two or three " dogs " 
 visible on or near each ; and, seeing that they are 
 generally located far from water, the prairie-dog 
 must either be indifferent to drinking, or must find 
 what moisture he needs in roots and succulent 
 stems. 
 
 Near Cheyenne we leave Nebraska, and, touching 
 a corner of Colorado, enter Wyoming, the southern 
 regions of which we traverse all Sunday night, 
 finding ourselves on Monday morning amid the wild 
 granitic mountains, called Wahsatch and Uintah. 
 These are offshoots of the Rocky Range, and gaunt
 
 OCEAN TO OCEAN. 127 
 
 avant-gardes of the desolate, arid, and yellow upland 
 basin in which lies the Great Salt Lake, now very 
 near. It seems strange that, after painfully crossing 
 the interminable plains and ranges which the " Union 
 Pacific" now so lightly traverses, Brigham Young 
 and his Mormons should have finally halted in the 
 forbidden region here reached when the green sierra 
 lay not far beyond. Grim, bare, weather-worn boulders 
 of red and drab granite of enormous size line the 
 dusky track, melancholy basins of dark ochreous 
 saL J, dotted with the everlasting " sage-brush," 
 alternate with awful crags opening into gloomy 
 canyons a land of exceeding loneliness and de- 
 pressing apparent barrenness, where a ring of stones 
 and a wooden cross now and again marks the grave 
 of some forgotten pioneer, and plentiful bleached 
 skeletons of cattle and horses show how difficult and 
 costly was the overland voyage of the old time for 
 the "prairie schooner," as the emigrant's waggon 
 was styled. 
 
 A happier record is to be observed painted on 
 the granite rocks at Summit, where "Troy Jack" 
 and "Jemmy Kidd" have inscribed their honest 
 names on the occasion, as they let us know, of 
 fixing the highest rails in this part of the over- 
 land line, and the difference between steam and 
 the ancient fashion of crossing the continent is 
 illustrated, to the honour and glory of those good 
 workers, as we run by more than one slow party of 
 settlers " on the trail." Thundering down the in- 
 clines, toiling laboriously with two engines up the
 
 178 SEAS AND LANDS. 
 
 heavy grades, the " Paraiso " as our car is named 
 rattles finally into Ogden station early on Monday 
 morning. A batch of cow-boys in the station-yard 
 shows that ranching goes on even in these seeming 
 deserts. A group of Red Indians, in parti-coloured 
 blankets, hangs disconsolately about the place the 
 first yet seen of the former owners of the land. The 
 huge hills round the hot town are smoking with 
 brushwood fires, lighted to improve the pasturage. 
 The Great Salt Lake lies near the dep6t, glittering 
 green in colour, under the strong sunlight, and 
 belted with a dazzling border of the white alkali, 
 which covers every flat and lowland in the vicinity. 
 
 Now we coast the northern shores of this Dead 
 Sea of Central North America, which recalls all 
 the features of Lake Asphaltites in Palestine. The 
 same parched red mountains are ranged around it, 
 from whose sides and from the adjoining " wadis " 
 is washed the bitter saline efflorescence which 
 glistens all over the face of the plain and girdles 
 the emerald water with a border of silver. But 
 that water is poisonous as vitriol, and the silver- 
 edged banks are fatal to all animal life. Nor can 
 there exist any more dreary little settlements than 
 these which cluster round each isolated station. 
 Skirting for some hours the shallows of the great 
 dismal sea, our train plunges into the upper portion 
 of the Utah Desert, and hence, for many hundreds of 
 miles, the track lies through a bleak, barren, mono- 
 tonous region of naked mountains and treeless, 
 hungry, stony plains, for ever glistening with the
 
 OCEAN TO OCEAN. 129 
 
 bitter alkali, for ever covered with the brittle, brist- 
 ling, dull-grey " sage-brush," unredeemed by the 
 wing of a single bird or the footmark of a solitary 
 furred creature. 
 
 All day long, and all night long, and all day 
 long again, the overland train thunders on, hurtles 
 through the canyons, and rattles over the basins of 
 this lonely land, where the pioneers of the line 
 had to wage fierce battle with the Red Indians 
 more than once in order to get their sleepers laid 
 and their rails fixed. Now and then, at the way- 
 side stations, a group of the aboriginals may be 
 observed, with gay blankets and grimy, savage 
 faces, subdued into dazed acquiescence with the 
 new order of things, which has taken from them 
 their desolate uplands and the buffalo -grazing 
 grounds below. If they wish to travel by the fire- 
 horse, which, along with the fire-water, has doomed 
 their tribes, the administration permits them to 
 squat on the tail-boards of the cars, where they 
 enjoy the dust, and jar, and smoke of forty miles 
 per hour, as a perfectly delightful luxury. Not 
 until Reno is reached, about 280 miles from San 
 Francisco, do we emerge from that awful wilder- 
 ness of Utah and Nevada, which the Union Pacific 
 has pierced, and rendered a bridge between the 
 Atlantic and Pacific. At Reno a little mountain 
 stream, the Truckee, transforms the waste into a 
 garden of green crops and poplar groves, showing 
 that nothing is needed except water to give to all 
 those silent glistening alkali flats and red naked 
 
 I
 
 i 3 o SEAS AND LANDS. 
 
 uplands the harvests of Iowa and the pastures of 
 Nebraska. One learns the immeasurable value of 
 a river in noting how the little Truckee, as far as 
 her slender stream can be spread, causes plenty to 
 spring from desolation, and the blank white wilder- 
 ness to laugh with verdure. 
 
 At this point of the prodigious journey the upper 
 peaks of the Sierra Nevada come into sight, and we 
 commence the ascent of the Californian Alps. The 
 wilderness lies, at last, behind us ; before us are 
 gigantic mountain-walls, planted thickly with pine 
 forests, rugged with hanging boulders, lined here 
 and there with long slides of timber, constructed by 
 the lumberers, in order to send down the dressed 
 trunks from the upper woods. Just beyond Truckee, 
 at an elevation of more than 5000 feet, we cross the 
 dividing line between the States of California and 
 Nevada, the latter of which, albeit larger than all 
 Ireland, contains only a population of 12,000 souls. 
 But she is rich in silver and gold mines, and in 
 unlimited possibilities, and she, moreover, runs 
 southward down from these wintry highlands, 
 where even now the snow lies thick amid the pines, 
 to the burning regions of Yucca and Yuma upon 
 the Colorado Kiver. 
 
 On the Divide, at a station named " Summit," we 
 top the snowy Sierra, and are at an elevation of 
 7400 feet. The air is rarefied, as well as severely 
 chilly, and greatcoats and shawls are worn even in 
 our well-closed car. The heavy snowstorm of last 
 night, the first of the season, has thickly loaded
 
 OCEAN TO OCEAN. 131 
 
 all the great pines with white wreaths, and given to 
 the tall peaks around a very wintry aspect. From 
 this point to the Blue Canyon below, the views are 
 magnificent, but the endless line of snow-sheds cuts 
 them off continually from the eager gaze. These 
 sheds extend for twenty-seven miles in an almost 
 unbroken series, built solidly of timber to guard the 
 trains from avalanches and drifts ; and they fre- 
 quently take fire, to the heavy loss of the company 
 and the serious delay of passengers. The track 
 boldly curving, and ascending or descending heavy 
 grades, skirts for some time a large mountain tarn, 
 called Donner Lake, from the explorer of that name, 
 who perished by its margin with all his party. 
 Enormous in girth and altitude are the firs growing 
 on the mountain-sides hereabouts, and marvellous are 
 the vistas as one glances through their huge trunks 
 and branches laced with the snow, at the deep 
 valleys lying below the track. We are two hours 
 late in our transit of 3600 miles no very serious 
 unpunctuality but the engineer is anxious to be 
 "on time" in Sacramento; and the long train, with 
 its cars each weighing twenty tons, rolls down the 
 Pacific slope at a pace to make nervous persons 
 uncomfortable. And now, as if by magic, the scene 
 changes while we rapidly drop to the sunny uplands 
 and foot-hills of Alta California. The snow dis- 
 appears, the trees multiply in variety and number, 
 wild blossoms deck the undergrowth the rich red 
 soil glows in the sunshine through the full foliage 
 we fly through lovely groves, through verdant clear-
 
 i 3 2 SEAS AND LANDS. 
 
 ings, then clusters of pretty cottages, to a region of 
 vineyards and orchards. Lower down, at Dutch 
 Flat, we come to where the gold-miners have washed 
 away a whole mountain- side with their hydraulic 
 pipes, and lower still we pass a Chinese village, and 
 rattle merrily down to the Sacramento plain, whence 
 'Frisco is distant only ninety miles. Speedily these 
 are run over, and reaching Port Costa the entire 
 train is put on board an immense ferry-steamer, and 
 we cross an inlet of the sea, for Oakland, the 
 terminus of the long line. Here another ferry- 
 steamer receives and wafts us over the Sacramento, 
 and we repair to the big Palace Hotel at San 
 Francisco, neither fatigued nor bored with the 
 traject of 3600 miles from Massachusetts Bay to the 
 Golden Gate, although our longest stop on the 
 passage has not been above seventy minutes. 
 
 SAN FRANCISCO, Oct. 9, i88q.
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 THE capital of California is like nothing else in the 
 United States. A city only forty years old, with a 
 population of nearly 360,000 souls, with rateable 
 estate valued at 1,800,000 dollars, with a vast 
 maritime commerce filling its magnificent bay ; 
 north and south of it a territory of boundless fer- 
 tility, east of it the Sierra Range, holding up to 
 the sun millions of acres of luxuriant forests, rich 
 vineyard soil, and terraces where the bounty of 
 Nature gives almost anything for the asking, to say 
 nothing of its out-turn of gold, which from 1848 to 
 1888 was worth over 1,000,000,000 dollars such is 
 San Francisco. She bears everywhere amid her 
 exuberant prosperity tokens of her rapid growth. 
 The drill-marks are not as yet worn out from her 
 granite road-stones, even in the busiest thorough- 
 fares ; the finest paved ways in her proudest streets 
 are interrupted by patches of rotten plank ; splendid 
 palaces of commerce or pleasure alternate with low 
 shanties of framework or adobe huts; and in her 
 very midst nestles the hideous and uncleanly 
 Chinese quarter, which, when really finished, she 
 
 will not tolerate. It almost takes the breath of 
 
 133
 
 i 3 4 SEAS AND LANDS. 
 
 statisticians away when they attempt to recite the 
 facts and figures of the birth and development of 
 this extraordinary capital. Its first house was 
 only built in 1835, when the place was called 
 " Yerba Buena," from a medicinal root which grows 
 wild here. At that time it transacted a poor little 
 trade with Indians in oil and hides. One day a 
 settler named Marshall found gold at Coloma, and 
 the tide of adventurers began to flow which carried 
 " 'Frisco " to the high-water mark of affluence. The 
 "rush" is long ago over; the ships which brought 
 the gold-diggers by thousands are doing duty as 
 coal hulks or flour stores ; the red wood and cedar 
 bushes have grown over the spots on the Sierra 
 where the first miners got their dust and nuggets. 
 But California has found better things than gold ol 
 silver in her soil her forests, her trade, her farms 
 and dairies, and, above all, in her delightful climate, 
 where anybody can work all the day through, from 
 one year's end to another. The gold fever has 
 abated, and left her all the healthier, with the habit, 
 however, of prodigious affluence, and a passion for 
 that solid coinage of single and double eagles, which 
 it is a pleasure to handle after the grubby one and 
 five dollar notes of the Eastern States. 
 
 The city stands on the inner slope of a singular 
 peninsula, planted between a gulf and the ocean. 
 The ground it now sits on has been pushed forward 
 into the sea (the hills at the back being steep), so 
 that there are to-day paved streets where in 1 849 large 
 ships used to ride at anchor. The business quarters

 
 SAN FRANCISCO. 137 
 
 are compactly built, and the city, as a whole, covers 
 an area of about eleven square miles. Built in the 
 shape of an amphitheatre, upon three hills, it 
 presents a striking appearance when seen from the 
 sea or bay, and is regularly laid out with broad 
 streets, vilely paved. The principal thoroughfare is 
 Market Street. Kearney and Montgomery Streets 
 are fashionable promenades, with handsome retail 
 shops. Pine and California Streets are what Wall 
 Street is to New York, or Broad Street and Lombard 
 Street to London, the chief centres for bankers, 
 brokers, and insurance companies. California Street 
 Hill is perhaps the most " genteel " portion of the 
 town. Sacramento, Dupont, Jackson, Pacific, and 
 Commercial Streets form the Chinese quarter. The 
 tramways are the urban wonder of San Francisco. 
 You can go everywhere, at all times, up and down 
 hill, landwards or seawards, without a minute's 
 delay, by the ubiquitous car not electric, as in 
 Boston, but propelled by endless wire ropes running 
 under the street cobbles. Wherever you walk the 
 rumble of the wheels and ropes under your footsteps 
 will remind you that it is San Francisco, and the 
 paving of the thoroughfares is so rough and loose 
 that driving, except on the trams, becomes a real 
 penance. Thus "all the world" throngs the cars, 
 which fly to and fro, completely replacing omnibuses, 
 which do not exist, and cabs, the hire of which, as in 
 all American cities, is prohibitively dear. 
 
 A large proportion of the people in the streets is 
 Mongolian, and after a little time you must make
 
 138 SEAS AND LANDS. 
 
 the prescribed expedition to the Chinese quarter. 
 I had the mistaken notion that the Californian 
 Canton was situated by the water's edge, and always 
 wondered why the San Franciscans could not put 
 up more patiently with what I had imagined to be 
 a sort of Flowery Land Wapping. But I wonder 
 no longer at the impatience of the San Franciscans 
 against the almond-eyed folk, nor at the occasional 
 violence of the " hoodlums ; " for the Chinese city 
 here, which I have again and again explored, is 
 a most unmitigated nuisance ' to the Californian 
 capital, and a perpetual danger to its health and 
 peace. It is lodged like a portion of another 
 planet in the very heart of the city, close to 
 Kearney Street, one of the chief business quarters, 
 and near to other great and important thorough- 
 fares, the value and salubrity of which it most 
 seriously impairs. You come upon it quite suddenly. 
 You turn abruptly from a causeway full of splendid 
 shops and handsome restaurants into narrow lanes 
 where the odd names of pig-tailed merchants alter- 
 nate in English characters with long swinging 
 tablets in blue, yellow, and vermilion, covered with 
 the Chinese inscriptions denoting their trades and 
 commodities. The sensitive nostril recognises the 
 locality before the eyes light upon it by a peculiar 
 and wholly indescribable evil odour which must for 
 ever henceforward remain associated with the thought 
 of China and the Chinese. They do not live in this 
 extraordinary quarter, but rather wallow like pigs 
 and burrow like rats. The cellars of every low and
 
 SAN FRANCISCO. 139 
 
 filthy tenement in the twenty or thirty streets in- 
 habited by them are choked with Chinese, packed 
 away at night like sardines. Yon enter any one 
 of these, and plunge down a rotten staircase into 
 a dark, narrow passage, on either side of which are 
 ranged double bunks, one above the other, like 
 those on board the most crowded emigrant ship. 
 In the passage-way some are frizzling absolutely 
 repulsive articles of diet over lamps or charcoal 
 fires : in the bunks, stretched on bits of matting, 
 others are lying asleep, or mending their unwashed 
 clothing, or smoking tobacco and opium. There 
 is no air, nor any attempt to provide it. The daily 
 and nightly arrangements of these Chinese are, in 
 truth, one long and constant contempt of every 
 accepted principle of sanitation ; yet they live and 
 thrive, and are reputed by no means especially un- 
 healthy. 
 
 Thanks to the sandy soil on which San Fran- 
 cisco is built, the Chinese landlord or tenant of 
 a house in this quarter can delve as deeply as he 
 likes in the way of subterranean dens, and many of 
 these underground burrows go thirty feet into the 
 earth. Those who were smoking opium in the 
 lodging-bunks were only amateurs, taking a whiff 
 of second or third rate stuff after the day's labours. 
 The serious opium-smoker frequents establishments 
 provided for the purpose, some of which we visited. 
 Here he reclines on a mat, on an upper or lower 
 berth of the close, stifling closet, which holds, 
 perhaps, a dozen votaries of the anodyne. An
 
 I4 o SEAS AND LANDS. 
 
 attendant furnishes a little smoky oil lamp, a lychee 
 shell full of the black sticky extract, a long brass 
 pin, and a thick pipe made of bamboo, with a tiny 
 metal bowl fixed midway upon its stem. Reclining 
 with his head upon a wooden pillow, the votary, 
 who is far beyond that stage of self-consciousness 
 or self-respect which objects to being watched by 
 "foreign devils," dips the pin in the treacly-looking 
 mess, rolls it round and round into a black bead, 
 which he roasts in the smoky lamp flame till it 
 bubbles, fizzles, swells, and partially dries up. Then 
 he pushes it into the small bowl, and holding bowl 
 and charge against the lamp-wick, draws into his 
 lungs the two or three " bouche'es " of fume afforded 
 by the pillule of drug, expelling them afterwards 
 through his nostrils. At once he wipes out the 
 bowl, rolls another pill on the pin, roasts it in the 
 flame, and inhales the fumes, till you observe the 
 eyes with which he watches the process grow more 
 and more dim, and the pupils more contracted, and 
 suddenly he is motionless and lost in stupor the 
 operation is complete soul and body are away 
 together in "Poppy-Land," where for an hour or 
 two there will be no cares, no tasks, no home-sick 
 longings for distant China ; no unkind " Mellican 
 man " to make life a burden ; no life at all except 
 a heavy, vague, soft, sodden trance, traversed by 
 dreams which seem like pictures outlined in moon 
 beams upon the darkness. 
 
 There are those who think that opium keeps the 
 Chinaman from fever and pestilence in such horribly
 
 SAN FRANCISCO. 141 
 
 close lairs, and certainly his ordinary diet seems to 
 need some corrective. We explored the groceries, 
 eating-houses, and druggist shops of the region with 
 much suffering to the olfactory nerves, and total 
 loss of any appetite for lunch. Food may be simple, 
 and even coarse, without becoming repulsive, but 
 the Chinese " charcutier " aims at and attains the 
 ghastly and the grotesque in all his wares. The 
 carcases of his pigs suggest murder rather than 
 slaughter, so blood-boltered are they, if fresh so 
 mangled and glistening with red grease, if pickled. 
 The very aspect of his strings of sausage would turn 
 the stomach of a saveloy vendor in the New Cut. 
 He splits open his ducks and geese, and flattens 
 them, insides and all, into frightful, oily, black 
 trapezoids of shining leather. In one jar he keeps 
 decomposed shrimps, in another rats' tails, in a 
 third the eyes of fishes, in a fourth onions soaked 
 in treacle, while shoots of bamboo pickled in brine 
 and sea-slugs rolled in sugar occupy other recep- 
 tacles. A particular delicacy was pointed out in 
 the shape of a dozen lizards spitted together on 
 a stick, and dried in the form of mouldy grey 
 vine-leaves. The witches of Macbeth might, in 
 fact, have accumulated all the ingredients of their 
 cauldron, by one marketing, at the terrible em- 
 porium where the above articles were inspected. 
 In a Mongolian pharmacy, hard by, the materia 
 medica was even more astonishing. The chemists 
 of the Celestial Kingdom deal still in all those 
 strange, far-fetched, and, extremely nasty prepara-
 
 142 SEAS AND LANDS. 
 
 tions which physicked our Middle Ages. Among 
 the ordinary prescriptions hanging on the file of 
 this Chinese " Apothecaries' Hall " was one which, 
 being translated, ran, "Let him take, at the third 
 hour, with root of lily, dried dust of snake, bone, 
 so much, and of red pepper, and of willow shavings, 
 and the dung of bats in oil." The establishment 
 was full of slicing machines, cutting up all sorts 
 of leaves and twigs into medicinal form, and a 
 Chinaman in blue shirt and pigtail was seated on 
 a bench working with his feet an iron wheel up 
 and down a metal groove, in order to grind the 
 ingredients of pills and potions as unsavoury as 
 that mentioned. 
 
 In traversing the narrow alleys and underground 
 burrows of China Town at midnight, other and 
 less describable scenes met the eye, for morality 
 of the non-Confucian kind is simply ignored, and 
 there were whole streets of little lattice-windowed 
 tenements which would have made the Cities of 
 the Plain appear comparatively respectable. In the 
 principal theatre where we sat on the stage an 
 interminable comedy was being enacted by boy- 
 players draped as women, to the music of an orchestra 
 which spared no discord that gongs, cymbals, and 
 squeaking strings could produce. The large audience 
 of Chinamen all in the same dark blue garb and 
 packed like herrings seemed to enjoy the piece, 
 and found no incongruity, apparently, in a party of 
 strange foreigners sitting and smoking in front of 
 the footlights.
 
 SAN FRANCISCO. 143 
 
 From the theatre to the chief Chinese restaurant 
 was a natural transition, and here was seen the 
 haute cuisine of the quarter, odd compounds and 
 viands served in innumerable little bowls and dishes, 
 and all partaken of by means of chopsticks, which 
 the guests used with incredible dexterity. It 
 would be, however, a drawback to the pleasure of 
 supping with them that each man, after thrusting 
 the chopsticks into his opened mouth, inserts them 
 again in the common dish containing the ragout or 
 stew, and twiddles about the floating morsels, until 
 he has selected a tid-bit to his taste. There are 
 altogether some 40,000 of the pig-tailed people 
 dwelling thus in the very centre of San Francisco ; 
 and, albeit they are an industrious, peaceable, and 
 interesting race, their deplorable social habits, and 
 the way in which their cheap and resolute labour 
 undersells that of the native-born Californians, render 
 it certain that they must be some day or other de- 
 ported, although the decree may breed trouble with 
 the Government of the Vermilion Pencil. 
 
 One of the most usual, but also most pleasant, 
 excursions in the neighbourhood of San Francisco 
 is through the Park to Cliff House, whence I had 
 my very first gaze over the expanse of the Pacific 
 Ocean. All oceans look, of course, pretty much 
 alike yet it cannot be without emotion that one 
 sees for the first time even the verge of that vast 
 water, which washes the continents of America, 
 North and South, and of Asia, extends its pro- 
 digious volume from Pole to Pole, and contains
 
 144 SEAS AND LANDS. 
 
 all those lovely archipelagoes of the Southern Main, 
 where the climate is as perfect as the islanders are 
 charming, and where Nature on sea and land is at 
 her best. It is a great temptation to turn aside 
 southwards and visit Honolulu, only a week's 
 voyage across yonder blue waves. But our steamer, 
 the Belgic, is bound directly to Japan, and we must 
 forego the attractions of these " Edens of the purple 
 main." 
 
 The Park, created from the bare sand of the 
 peninsula overlooking "the Golden Gate," is beau- 
 tiful and green with groves of blue gum, dwarf 
 palms, aloes, cedar, pepper trees, and plentiful 
 flowering shrubs. Crowds of happy people drive, 
 ride, and walk out to the band-stand here, whence 
 you can constantly hear the barking of the seals, 
 which live upon two isolated rocks under the steep 
 shore. Hundreds of these creatures sprawl on the 
 ledges of the crags, or disport themselves in the 
 billows great monsters, some black, some grey, 
 some snowy white, safe in their sea fastness, and 
 wisely protected by the Government. There is no 
 other place on earth where the sight could be thus 
 seen of the ocean-flocks of Neptune, placidly herded 
 as if on a remote and unfrequented spot diving, 
 fishing, sporting, and basking in the mild sunshine, 
 without any fear of man. To the right opens the 
 picturesque portal of the " Golden Gate," a mile 
 wide between its posts of yellow sand, and always 
 lively with vessels going and coming. 
 
 It is the last point in our American wander-
 
 SAN FRANCISCO. 145 
 
 ings, and we shall see the shores fade behind us, 
 with regrets due to that unbounded friendliness and 
 faultless grace and goodness of which I have been 
 the unworthy object in every city and at every stage 
 of the journey. Of all this it would be improper, 
 as it is impossible, adequately to write ; suffice it 
 to observe that no language could ever express the 
 sense which overwhelms me of the generosity and 
 goodwill of Americans to one whom they have been 
 pleased to regard as a friend. In quitting the 
 continent I have published the subjoined; which is 
 at once a farewell and an aspiration : 
 
 SONNET OF ADIEU. 
 
 America ! at this, thy Golden Gate, 
 
 New-travelled from those green Atlantic coves, 
 Parting I make my reverence ! It behoves 
 
 With backward steps to quit a queen in state. 
 
 Land ! of all lands most fair, and free, and great ; 
 Land of those countless lips, wherefrom I heard 
 
 Sweet speech of Shakespeare keep it consecrate 
 For noble uses ! Land of Freedom's Bird, 
 Fearless and proud ! So make him soar, that stirred 
 
 By generous joy, all men may learn of thee 
 A larger life ; and Europe, undeterred 
 
 By ancient wrecks, dare also to be free 
 
 Body and Soul ; seeing thine Eagle gaze 
 
 Undazzled upon Freedom's Sun, full-blaze ! 
 
 Truly it is difficult to limit the excursions of 
 imagination in thinking what this splendid and 
 wonderful State of California, and the Union gene- 
 rally, may and must become in the way of material 
 development and mass of population. Look at this 
 
 K
 
 146 
 
 SEAS AND LANDS. 
 
 table, which shows the growth of the latter from the 
 Revolution until to-day : 
 
 Year. 
 
 Population. 
 
 Increase 
 in 10 years. 
 
 Negro. 
 
 Increase 
 in 10 years. 
 
 
 
 Per cent. 
 
 
 Per cent. 
 
 1790 
 
 3,929,214 
 
 ... 
 
 757,208 
 
 
 1800 
 
 5,308,483 
 
 35-1 
 
 1,002,032 
 
 32.32 
 
 l8lO 
 
 7,239,881 
 
 36.3 
 
 1,377,800 
 
 37-5 
 
 1820 
 
 9,633,822 
 
 33-1 
 
 1,771,656 
 
 28.65 
 
 1830 
 
 12,866,020 
 
 33-5 
 
 2,328,642 
 
 31.44 
 
 1840 
 
 17,069,453 
 
 32.6 
 
 2,873,648 
 
 23.40 
 
 1850 
 
 23,191,876 
 
 35-8 
 
 3,638,803 
 
 26.6 
 
 1860 
 
 3i,443,32i 
 
 35-6 
 
 4,441,830 
 
 22.1 
 
 1870 
 
 38,558,371 
 
 22.6 
 
 4,880,009 
 
 9 .8 
 
 1880 
 
 50,155,000 
 
 36.0 
 
 6,580,000 
 
 34-8 
 
 1890 
 
 67,240,000 
 
 34-o 
 
 8,000,000 
 
 21.5 
 
 
 Average 
 
 33-46 
 
 Average 
 
 26.81 
 
 The population of 1790 thus became, in 1860, 
 eight-fold, or 31,443,321, which is equivalent to 
 doubling every 23 years, and the American statis- 
 tician calculates in 1900 for 77,100,000, and in 1950 
 for 103,314,000. 
 
 He predicts in 1990 "all things being well" 
 an American people numbering 1,206,400,000, with 
 86,957,000 coloured persons, and proceeds to say 
 "Those who believe in the prospects here set forth 
 will rule their undertakings and investments in 
 the expectation that property in real estate must 
 advance in the next half century ; that commerce 
 and transportation and production must increase 
 enormously. As the discoveries and inventions of 
 science and industry make towns more and more 
 healthful, convenient, interesting, and agreeable 
 places of residence, our people will tend more
 
 SAN FRANCISCO. 147 
 
 and more toward them. Museums, libraries, public 
 halls for the education and instruction and amuse- 
 ment of the people, will be more and more 
 numerous and cheap. The streets and parks will 
 be embellished and made gay with public and 
 private buildings. Electric engines will do the 
 heavy work of the day. More time will be at the 
 disposal of men for enjoyment, as these improve- 
 ments relieve men and women from slavish toil 
 for the means of living. ... In 1990 the urban 
 population will be 240,000,000, and of these 
 New York will probably contain over 30,000,000. 
 What work for architects, contractors, builders, car- 
 penters, masons, bricklayers, plasterers, brickmakers, 
 quarriers, saw-mills, lime-kilns, sand-gatherers, roll- 
 ing-mills, structural and roofing iron in sheets and 
 beams, for tinners and roofers, and the thousand 
 other trades engaged in construction, not only of 
 the 14,000,000 new homes, but of the markets, 
 stores, warehouses, post-offices, court-houses, city- 
 halls, gaols, penitentiaries, &c., necessary in the 
 administration of an additional population equal to 
 all that exists now on the Northern Continent ! " 
 
 This is " spread-eagleism " with a vengeance ! 
 But if you only saw what millions of sunny acres 
 lie facing this Pacific sea-verge, how genial the 
 climate is and how rich the soil, you would not 
 wonder at the elated tone of Californians, nor doubt 
 that a future of splendid prosperity must await the 
 Union from the Western to the Eastern Ocean. 
 
 To-morrow we take ship for Japan, embarking on
 
 i 4 8 SEAS AND LANDS. 
 
 the Belgic, a fine steamer of 5000 tons burden, for 
 Yokohama, a voyage of about twenty days. We 
 shall have a crew of Chinese sailors, and take no 
 less than 860 Chinese passengers in the steerage, 
 who are returning, with hoarded dollars, to the 
 Flowery Land. It is but too certain that of this 
 number a proportion will die upon the passage, 
 and others will go crazy from the effects of too 
 much opium and samshoo, nor can it be pretended 
 that they are, personally, the most agreeable of 
 fellow-passengers. But when properly treated 
 Chinamen behave well enough, and our captain, 
 an Englishman, has had experience in their 
 management. We have also on board some man- 
 darins, the suite of the unsuccessful Embassy to 
 Washington, and it is darkly whispered that one 
 or two of these are already in peril of decapita- 
 tion at Pekin. They are courtly and agreeable 
 gentlemen, however, and we must try, in such sad 
 case, to render their closing days pleasant. It is 
 not everybody who could be perfectly polite and 
 chatty, as these almond-eyed diplomatists are, with 
 " something humorous but lingering " impending 
 over their red-buttoned caps all the way across the 
 rolling Pacific ! 
 
 SAN FRANCISCO, Oct. 16, 1889.
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 THE PACIFIC. 
 
 WE are two thousand miles from " anywhere," 
 steaming swiftly over a lifeless expanse of dark blue 
 waters, under a cloudless vault of palest blue sky. 
 The nearest land is the Sandwich Island group, 
 far away in the south, whence, come softly sighing 
 wafts of balmy breeze, which fill the wanderer with 
 longings to put the head of the Belgic straight on 
 for Honolulu, and to linger a season or two in the 
 delightful archipelagoes of Polynesia. But we are 
 bound right across this prodigious ocean for Yoko- 
 hama, and the cities and temples of Japan ; on, 
 perhaps, the longest voyage without stay or sight of 
 land which passenger steamers take in any part of 
 the globe. As it is the longest, so it is also the 
 loneliest. The vessels which sail these seas for the 
 lumber and grain of British Columbia, or the seals 
 and walruses of Alaska, are scattered all far away to 
 the northward along the thickening ice of Behring's 
 Straits, and athwart the stormy arch of the Aleutian 
 Islands. The San Francisco whalers, which cruise 
 for the sperm oil yielded by the " right whale," are 
 all far away to the southward among the atolls and 
 coral reefs. We have not sighted a sail unless it 
 
 149
 
 1 5 o SEAS AND LANDS. 
 
 be that of the nautilus or craft of any kind, through 
 all these 5000 or 6000 miles of solitary salt waste, 
 and shall not sight one until Satsuma Light 
 twinkles from the hills of Japan, and the Gulf of 
 Yokohama opens, with many a fishing boat and 
 skimming sampan. 
 
 What an immense isolation it is ! We are for 
 many a day as much cut off from the living world 
 in this our floating island as if we were an aste- 
 roid gliding through the blue of interstellar space. 
 The limitless, weltering, desolate, beautiful wilder- 
 ness of rolling water affords no token, except 
 our own passing shadow and the beat of our tire- 
 less screw, that man is so much as existent upon 
 the planet. The sapphire-coloured wave, cloven 
 into a sudden furrow by our swift stem, closes 
 up again astern in a milky, broadening wake, 
 which fades away among the dancing crestlets of a 
 slumbering sea, already forgetting that we have ever 
 passed. Infinite silences of Nature are before us, 
 and infinite solitudes behind, so that there are hours 
 when it feels almost too bold a thing to launch forth 
 into such measureless deserts of blue water, even 
 with so powerful and capable a ship as the Belgic. 
 What must it have seemed like to that grand old 
 navigator, Captain James Cook, and his ships' com- 
 panies, sailing these vast spaces of unknown sea 
 in the little bluff-bowed brigs Endeavour and Reso- 
 lute; yet month after month discovering fresh clusters 
 of lovely islets, unnamed archipelagoes, New Zea- 
 land, Australia a whole strange world of wonderful
 
 THE PACIFIC. 151 
 
 novelty ; or to Anson and his commodores, cruising 
 the interminable azure of these expanses in search of 
 the Spanish galleons, and slowly toiling home loaded 
 with the doubloons of his Catholic Majesty, but with 
 crews decimated by scurvy, and weather-beaten and 
 weary ? The romance of those great days is gone, but 
 with it also the hardships. We glide along over the 
 pathless Pacific in a floating caravanserai carrying 
 nearly 1000 souls, but in the utmost comfort, safety, 
 and speed, accomplishing every three days nearly 
 1000 miles of pleasant run, independent of the 
 winds which baffled those bygone mariners, so long at 
 least as the propeller beats its ceaseless stroke upon 
 the whitened waves under our stern-post. 
 
 Yet it has only been during the last few days that 
 the Pacific Ocean has justified its appellation. Our 
 first week upon its bosom was one of wild and rest- 
 less tossing and rolling for we left the Golden Gate 
 in squalls of wind and rain, which continued long 
 after it might have been expected that the influence 
 of the Alaska storm-regions would have ceased. 
 The Belgic is a very fine vessel of the White Star 
 Line, registering 5000 tons, and constructed of steel, 
 by those excellent builders, Messrs. Harland and 
 Wolff, of Belfast, to whose unfailingly faithful work 
 the voyager may always confidently trust himself. 
 Long, and relatively somewhat narrow, she has a 
 certain inclination to roll, sometimes even to a 
 moderate beam sea, but has shown herself an ad- 
 mirable sea-boat, and keeps up an average rate of 
 twelve knots without canvas. At San Francisco,
 
 152 SEAS AND LANDS. 
 
 besides ninety saloon passengers, we shipped 870 
 home-going Chinese, berthed aft, on three decks, 
 and packed one above the other in dense strata 
 of Mongolian humanity. Our commander, Captain 
 Walker, is an Englishman, and a navigator of 
 great experience ; the officers are also English, but 
 the crew to a man are Chinese, as also the stewards, 
 and all the service of the ship. I am surprised to 
 observe what capital seamen these Celestials make 
 under good and just management. Captain Walker 
 has had his company of pig-tailed sailors with him 
 in this same vessel for four years, and they know 
 their duty and perform it, in fair weather or foul, 
 with an alacrity and skill not easily to be surpassed. 
 The almond-eyed stewards are equally laudable. 
 Always cheerful, willing, and industrious, they get 
 through . their never-ending task of feeding and 
 serving us with an unchanging complacency which 
 is quite delightful ; and my particular attendant, 
 Ah-Fat, affords me special and endless amusement 
 with his views of land and sea life expressed in 
 " pidgin " English. " No makee raining, sun sine, 
 plenty muchee good walkee topside ship," is his 
 method of announcing fine weather at dawn, and 
 recommending exercise upon deck. Preparing to 
 extinguish the electric lamp, he briefly suggests, 
 " No wantchee see now ; " and when I inquire why 
 his countrymen so often come on board sick, and 
 even at point of death, Ah-Fat murmurs the ex- 
 planation, " Plenty you, perhaps, savee, but no savee 
 bottom-side Chinaman mind. My very sick, more
 
 THE PACIFIC. 153 
 
 better kill board ship than kill San Francisco. Sup- 
 pose my killed board ship, my put one piecey bokkus, 
 all nice ; go China cheap." And such is the case. 
 A consuming desire possesses the Celestial exile to 
 have his bones laid in native earth, a desire rein- 
 forced by religious doctrines and sanction. In every 
 contract for foreign service it is stipulated by the 
 Chinaman that the remains of the contracting party 
 shall be conveyed if he dies to a Chinese grave. 
 Those who depart life in California are temporarily 
 interred by their friends, but only to be exhumed 
 after a certain period and then packed up for expor- 
 tation. The Pacific steamers are quite accustomed 
 to accept and transmit these rather uncomfortable 
 freights at of course a considerable charge, but 
 generally ship them. under the entry of "fish-bones." 
 If the slant-eyed passengers are not closely looked 
 after at embarkation, they will often bring all that is 
 conveniently portable of a deceased friend or kins- 
 man on board the ship in a portmanteau or tea-chest, 
 " doing " not only the company, which is always a 
 joy to the Celestial heart, but also their social duty, 
 according to the maxims of Confucius. 
 
 The boisterous week with which our long voyage 
 opened worked, naturally, some woe aft among the 
 870 Chinamen. It was bad enough, midships, in 
 the comfortable quarters of the saloon passengers, 
 to have the great ship wallowing day by day, and 
 night after night, in the gusty trough of the ocean, 
 rolling her boats into the water, and taking the 
 spray, and even the blue seas, on board, with heavy
 
 i54 SEAS AND LANDS. 
 
 swashes, that shake the deck, and blinding blows 
 dealt at the sturdy bows of the Belgic, making her 
 long elastic fabric of thin but strong steel plating 
 quiver like the skin of a wounded sea-serpent. It 
 is bad enough, when you endeavour to dress for 
 breakfast, to be hustled suddenly into your port- 
 manteau ; and to have your brushes cast into the 
 hand-basin, and your boots into the slop-tub ; to 
 see the soup-plate sliding into your lap, despite the 
 " fiddles," at dinner-time, and to be reduced at last 
 to the mental and physical condition of a human pen- 
 dulum. Even if not a victim of sea-sickness, this 
 state of things becomes odious and humiliating for 
 the stoutest traveller when it continues throughout 
 six or seven whole days, as was our fate ; while for 
 delicate women and children, and those who suffel 
 badly from rough weather, it is about as miserable 
 an experience, even in the best arranged and most 
 commodious vessel, as travelling can well offer. But 
 even to think of the condition of our Celestial fel- 
 low-passengers during those long hours, when we 
 were all 
 
 " Rolled to larboard, rolled to starboard, in the seething of the sea," 
 
 was to be thankfully reconciled to our own lot. 
 The Belgic is so admirably managed, and the " ways 
 of the heathen Chinee " are so perfectly understood 
 and met on board such a ship, that there was 
 nothing at all absolutely insanitary in that awful 
 after-hold ; but the discomfort even for people 
 accustomed to reside in the cellars of China Town
 
 THE PACIFIC. 155 
 
 must have been sometimes perfectly grim and 
 Dantesque. The odours which ascended from the 
 hatches, roofed over from rain and spray by tar- 
 paulins, of themselves altogether forbade any per- 
 sonal exploration ; but if imagination will picture 
 800 Chinamen packed three deep in bunks, and 
 then conceive a series of close wet nights, and 
 spray-driving days, with the huge vessel bounding 
 like a porpoise, and shaking together into chaotic 
 helplessness that crowd of pig-tailed people, it may 
 partly realise the hidden picture. 
 
 In the course of those first five or six nights 
 two of the poor yellow-skinned folk gave up the 
 business and the ghost together. They had come 
 on board moribund, in the last stage of bodily 
 weakness, and one of them was discovered dead in 
 his bunk at early morning, while the demise of 
 the other was generally announced to the ship 
 one night by the howling of his immediate neigh- 
 bours. Even Chinese do not like to have a corpse 
 rolling against them with every lurch and pitch. 
 The system pursued in all these cases is uniform. 
 The company, having contracted to convey the 
 body, alive or dead, provided the necessary fee 
 be forthcoming, carries a quantity of ready-made 
 coffins. One of these is handed up from below, 
 and then the steward of the Chinese section de- 
 mands the regulation thirty dollars for embalm- 
 ing. It is seldom these are forthcoming from the 
 dead man's own pockets, or stockings, or girdle, 
 for though his comrades would not steal from an
 
 156 SEAS AND LANDS. 
 
 actually defunct person, some of them have few 
 scruples about annexing the cash of a departing 
 brother. Yet the bulk of them are fairly generous ; 
 and, a tin dish being filled with burnt sugar, into 
 which lighted joss-sticks are fixed, somebody goes 
 round with it, inviting contributions. Every well- 
 disposed Chinaman takes a pinch of the burnt sugar 
 and drops into the dish a dime, a quarter, or a half- 
 dollar, until the requisite sum is raised. Then the 
 steward, or his assistant, opens the femoral artery 
 of the deceased, and injects into the veins a strong 
 preservative solution of carbolic acid, arsenic, and 
 other chemicals. The corpse, thus pickled, is rolled 
 in canvas, placed in one of the rough coffins, corded 
 up, and lashed to the rail of the ship, with a paper 
 tacked upon it, recording, in Chinese characters, 
 the name and address of the hapless emigrant, who, 
 in place of a passenger, has become part of the 
 cargo. I have just inspected two of these sad 
 packages, securely fastened abaft. Their whilom 
 companions were sitting nonchalantly on the top 
 of them, smoking little bamboo pipes, and playing 
 dominoes. We expect, alas ! to have more demises 
 as the voyage goes on, for several of the homeward- 
 bound Celestials are very ill, albeit, fortunately, there 
 is no epidemic or any general ill-health among their 
 numbers. 
 
 Our judicious captain, wisely perceiving that the 
 northern or the central course across the Pacific 
 would only entail head winds, strong seas, and slow 
 daily runs, resolved to steer southwards to the 3ist
 
 THE PACIFIC. 157 
 
 parallel, and " pick up fair weather." This, there- 
 fore, was ordered, and the Belgic, heading steadily 
 on a south-westerly course, brought us on the 
 seventh day of the voyage into a zone of far more 
 pleasant seas and skies. Gloriously, indeed, for 
 the three succeeding days was the Pacific engaged 
 in rejustifying the appellation which had before 
 appeared so frightfully misapplied. Under the in- 
 fluence of blue weather above, and smooth water 
 below, those turbulent hours became forgotten, 
 when night after night the saloon passengers of 
 the Belgic rolled from one side to the other of theii 
 narrow berths, or by day sate in melancholy rows 
 along the deck-houses, with a life-line festooned 
 round every neck or waist to keep chair and indi- 
 vidual from sliding at each oscillation of the sea 
 into the lee-scuppers. Dawns of delicious beauty 
 were followed by noons of splendour, and by sun- 
 sets of wonderful glory of colour and cloud-shapes 
 as we ran along the soft parallel of 31.50, and so 
 touched the upper edge of the golden Otaheitan 
 zone. Far to the north, the heavens were still 
 gloomy, no doubt, and the ocean restless ; but we 
 had evaded the worst of those evil influences by 
 our southerly demarche, and the happy difference 
 was quickly visible from end to end of the good 
 ship Belgic. The feeblest " sea-legs " on board 
 became firm, chair-lashings were discarded, and 
 games of deck-cricket, of shovel-board, quoits, and 
 ring-the-pin were merrily pursued, while daring 
 proje.cts circulated among the younger ladies and
 
 158 SEAS AND LANDS. 
 
 gentlemen of dances under the new moon. Our 
 pig-tailed passengers in the after-part of the vessel 
 attributed the welcome change to the copious 
 amount of joss-papers which they had flung over- 
 board to propitiate the Goddess of Storms. When- 
 ever the wind blows very hard the Mongolian 
 voyagers believe that this deity is demanding 
 another victim from their number, and they are 
 wont to appease her wrath by casting forth in- 
 numerable square pieces of gold and silver tissue 
 paper, inscribed with prayers. Whether the god- 
 dess accepted these, or whether we had run clear 
 of the storm-zone, certainly for three whole days 
 the Bdgic bore us gaily and swiftly under skies 
 realising Lord Tennyson's idea of what the Pacific 
 should look like 
 
 " A blaze upon the waters to the East ; 
 A blaze upon the waters overhead ; 
 A blaze upon the waters to the West." 
 
 Comforted by such bright weather, the pig-tailed 
 people came out into the sun from their dark and 
 crowded bunks, and gave themselves to the delights 
 of unlimited domino-playing, with shirt-buttons for 
 counters, which they treasured in their shoes. The 
 liveliest games were played in and about the " grave- 
 yard," where the two defunct Chinamen reposed, 
 duly corded, lashed, and ticketed. But there were 
 only two dead out of nearly 900, and almost all the 
 others were well, and cheerful at the rapid and even 
 progress of the vessel. We logged a steady average
 
 THE PACIFIC. 159 
 
 of 300 miles a day, which, if not equal to Atlantic 
 runs, would still bring us to Yokohama in twenty 
 days, or thereabouts. This morning Ah-Fat has 
 more lucidly explained to me why his countrymen 
 are so desirous to have their remains conveyed to 
 China, if they cannot reach it alive. " That number 
 one piecey God-pidgin ! " he softly pointed out ; 
 " suppose wantchee go topside, after kill, then 
 wantchee family make chin-chin joss at grave. 
 Suppose no takee bones, no makee grave, no speakee 
 chin-chin joss, then not belong topside at all after 
 kill ; belong Hellee." In other words, an immense 
 value is attached by the Chinese to the prayers and 
 offices of children for parents, and of kinsmen and 
 posterity for their ancestors, and such prayers must 
 be uttered in presence of the dead man's relics, or 
 at the spot where they rest. Hence the extreme 
 anxiety of the Celestial to lay his mortal part in 
 the family soil ; nor is there anything which more 
 potently tends to hold China together in her intense 
 and exclusive nationality. 
 
 Then we had bad weather again, which the joss- 
 papers did not appear to diminish, with a tremen- 
 dous beam sea from the north-east, upon which the 
 Belgic, largely lightened of coal by her passage of 
 twelve or thirteen days, rolled recklessly and con- 
 stantly. One lurch shipped a green sea into the 
 galley and spoiled an entire dinner for the saloon. 
 Another sent all the children of which we carried 
 a large and lively consignment in one indis- 
 tinguishable heap under the table of the "Social
 
 160 SEAS AND LANDS. 
 
 Hall," mingled inextricably, for some minutes, with 
 playthings, toy-books, mothers, nurses, candy, and 
 cushions. A third lurch at night unshipped the 
 coffins wherein the dead Chinamen were making 
 silent passage, and for a time flung these grim 
 packages hither and thither about the flooded deck, 
 one of them bursting open, so that the affrighted 
 sailors had to chase and dodge the errant corpse 
 up and down the lee- scuppers, and before it was 
 repacked and re-lashed nearly lost it overboard. 
 At table the plates and dishes overleap the fences 
 of the "fiddle," soup flies about like spray, and 
 avalanches of breaking crockery add to the uproar of 
 the hissing waves and whistling wind. In the state- 
 room the articles you thought were safely fastened 
 break adrift and cruise round and round the floor 
 all night, preparing for you in the morning a 
 chaos of fruit, cigars, clean collars, and books, all 
 mashed and jammed by the heavy portmanteaus 
 which have sailed backwards and forwards through 
 the dark hours. It is not a pleasant time ; but, 
 through it all, the good ship plunges bravely 
 forward ; the imperturbable, kindly, skilful captain 
 never loses his quiet self-composure for an instant ; 
 the purser is genial, gay, resourceful, indomitably 
 attentive to his vast family; and the Chinese crew 
 do all their hard, wet work with ready alacrity, so 
 that in the very worst of it you always hear ringing 
 their not unmelodious sea-cry, " Ya-hoya-hoya-ho ! " 
 and know that it will all come right and end in 
 pleasant times again.
 
 THE PACIFIC. 161 
 
 And so it does ! Once more the Pacific slumbers, 
 and once more the delicious days return when the 
 merry group of fellow-travellers and officers, dis- 
 cussing caviare sandwiches and dry champagne in 
 the purser's cabin, or partaking tea and matchless 
 Manilla cigars in the captain's own sanctum, might 
 be yachting on the Solent for any sign that exists 
 of a boundless ocean outside, or elemental perils in 
 presence of whose anger the stout and strong Belgic 
 herself would be but as a cockle-shell. Day after 
 day the hours of gold and sapphire succeed each 
 other, heralded by a rosy dawn, and closed in by a 
 sunset of purple and amber. If the great vessel 
 still moves to the sea, it is with a grave and 
 rhythmical measure, to which everybody has grown 
 accustomed ; but, indeed, there are now long intervals 
 when she hardly curtseys at all in response to the 
 gentle swell lifting the shining faces of the long 
 sea-ridges. Everybody is grateful to Captain Walker 
 for bringing his ship into these southern latitudes, 
 even if it prolongs the voyage a little ; and, in 
 simple truth, it is not possible to praise too warmly 
 the management of the Belgic. The steamer is 
 good and strong enough for any service, and is kept 
 as neat and sweet as a first-class yacht. Her com- 
 mander, without descending to become what is called 
 a " saloon captain," is as kindly and considerate as 
 he is firm and vigilant. The directors have had the 
 wisdom to give us for purser the most important 
 officer in a passenger ship after the commander a 
 courteous gentleman, whose heart is in the work of 
 
 L
 
 1 62 SEAS AND LANDS. 
 
 making everybody comfortable, and who understands 
 and enjoys that work. Our voyage is a notable one 
 in many points. Never has a Pacific steamer carried 
 so full a list of saloon passengers, and but for 
 signally admirable management we should be much 
 inconvenienced. Mr. Magee, however, has skilfully 
 organised double tables for breakfast and dinner, 
 and his Chinese stewards do their increased duties 
 with an alacrity so unfailing that even habitual 
 grumblers are silenced. I believe this line is 
 destined to become very popular, when the example 
 of our present voyage is followed by the " Occidental 
 and Oriental Steamship Company," which is a branch 
 of the Great Southern Pacific Railway Company, 
 under the general management of a gentleman well 
 known, Mr. F. Crocker. It will be wise policy of the 
 Government to adopt this southern road definitely 
 to touch regularly at Honolulu, going and coming, 
 thus picking up Australian and Polynesian pas- 
 sengers and goods, and furnishing a regular and 
 pleasant route across the vast Pacific. I find it 
 altogether impossible to acknowledge too warmly 
 the excellence of the service, the carefulness and 
 liberality of the control, or the constant efforts on 
 the part of our captain, our purser, and " all hands," 
 to render the prodigious journey pleasant, safe, and 
 harmoniously social. 
 
 On the iSoth meridian we "hove a day over- 
 board." Monday, October 28, was for us a dies non, 
 erased wholly from our calendar in order to square 
 the ship's time with that of the sun, whose course
 
 THE PACIFIC. 163 
 
 we had been diurnally overrunning. Thus we 
 skipped gaily from Sunday to Tuesday, and all of 
 us may boast that there has been one day at least 
 in our lives upon which we neither said nor did a 
 word or act to be regretted. 0! si sic omnes! 
 Animated by the fine weather, some of our ladies, 
 on one of the lovely moonlight nights of latitude 
 31.0, dazzled us by appearing at dinner in fancy 
 dress. One wore a bewitching Japanese costume of 
 gauzy silk ; another the mantilla and skirt of a 
 Spanish senora ; a third had donned the robes of 
 a lady of the Court of Louis XIV. ; yet another was 
 powdered and' patched k la Queen Anne; and a 
 Chicago dame, comely, bright, and lively as the 
 important character demanded had formed a charm- 
 ing garb out of the ship's biggest " stars and stripes," 
 and, with the help of a diadem of pasteboard, 
 adorned with stars cut from tin-foil, and bearing the 
 word " Liberty " emblazoned in the same material 
 across her bosom, played majestically the part of 
 " Columbia." Afterwards we had dancing to a late 
 hour on deck, with singing, and all sorts of maritime 
 " high jinks ; " that wonderful engine amidships 
 beating its ceaseless measure day and night, fair 
 and foul, whether we slept or awoke, dined, danced, 
 or flirted. Once only, in the entire traject, the 
 machinery suddenly stopped ; and the effect was as 
 though an event had happened to the Universe, 
 so much had that never-pausing pulse of the ship 
 become part of our bodily sensations. There was 
 something out of order with the steam-chest, and it
 
 164 
 
 SEAS AND LANDS. 
 
 was " pretty to see " as Mr. Pepys would have put 
 it how smartly the chief engineer and his staff 
 whipped off the cover of the chest, wheeled the 
 crane over it, slung the great metallic mass into the 
 air, and put matters right so that within two hours 
 efficiency was restored, and the systole and diastole 
 of the Belgic's iron heart once again beat regularly. 
 For the use of future Pacific travellers to all whom 
 I wish as prosperous a voyage, as good a vessel, and 
 as agreeable a company of officers the log is here 
 appended : 
 
 VOYAGE NINETEENTH OF S.S. BELGIC. 
 
 SAN FRANCISCO TO YOKOHAMA. 
 
 Left Dock Oct. 17. 
 
 Oct. 
 
 Wind. 
 
 Force. 
 
 Sea. 
 
 Lat. 
 
 Long. W. 
 
 Run. 
 
 18 
 
 Variable. 
 
 3 
 
 Confused. 
 
 37-45 
 
 127.20 
 
 230 
 
 19 
 
 Variable. 
 
 5 
 
 Heavy. 
 
 37-50 
 
 I33.22 
 
 286 
 
 20 
 
 Westerly. 
 
 7 
 
 Heavy. 
 
 37-3 1 
 
 138.33 
 
 248 
 
 21 
 
 W.N.W. 
 
 7 to 3 
 
 High swell. 
 
 35-52 
 
 142.52 
 
 250 
 
 22 
 
 Westerly. 
 
 7 
 
 Heavy. 
 
 33-52 
 
 I47.56 
 
 277 
 
 23 
 
 N.N.W. 
 
 5 
 
 Strong. 
 
 32-25 
 
 15342 
 
 302 
 
 24 
 
 N. 
 
 3 
 
 Moderate. 
 
 3i-43 
 
 1 59-43 
 
 309 
 
 25 
 
 Variable. 
 
 2 
 
 Smooth. 
 
 31-27 
 
 165.36 
 
 302 
 
 26 
 
 S.S.W. 
 
 3 
 
 Smooth. 
 
 3i.i4 
 
 I7L34 
 
 306 
 
 2? 
 
 W. 
 
 4 
 
 Smooth. 
 
 3i.i4 
 
 177.22 
 
 298 
 
 
 
 
 [Day dropped.] 
 
 
 Long. E. 
 
 
 29 
 
 Variable. 
 
 5 
 
 Confused. 
 
 3'-i4 
 
 176.32 
 
 304 
 
 30 
 
 E.N.E. 
 
 7 
 
 Heavy. 
 
 3i-i4 
 
 170.44 
 
 297 
 
 3i 
 
 Variable. 
 
 4 
 
 Smooth. 
 
 31-27 
 
 164.41 
 
 310 
 
 Nov. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 I 
 
 Westerly. 
 
 2 
 
 Smooth. 
 
 32.0 
 
 I59-I7 
 
 277 
 
 2 
 
 Westerly. 
 
 3 
 
 Smooth. 
 
 32.49 
 
 153-44 
 
 287 
 
 3 
 
 N.N.W. 
 
 4 
 
 Smooth. 
 
 33-3* 
 
 148.0 
 
 292 
 
 4 
 
 N. 
 
 5 
 
 High sea. 
 
 34-0 
 
 142.40 
 
 310 
 
 Yokohama Light distant 142 miles. 
 
 And now the long voyage over this vast watery 
 wilderness, which had so many possible perils, is
 
 THE PACIFIC. 165 
 
 happily terminating ! We have sighted Cape King, 
 passed along the ten miles of intervening Japanese 
 shore, and entered the long inlet, lined with green 
 hills and little toy-box huts, which leads to Yoko- 
 hama. The waters, strangely placid after the stiff 
 nor'-wester blowing down upon us all yesterday, 
 from Jesso and Saghalien, are alive with little 
 fishing craft and vessels of all nations. It is Japan ! 
 the Land of Gentle Manners and Fantastic Arts. 
 We are going ashore ! 
 
 GULF OF YOKOHAMA, Nov. 5, 1889.
 
 CHAPTER XII 
 
 JAPAN. 
 
 ARRIVING at night in a strange country, one always 
 wonders what the daytime will disclose. It dawned 
 on a scene of singular charm and beauty. Far and 
 near, over the placid surface of " Mississippi Bay," as 
 the inlet is called upon which Yokohama stands, 
 rode at anchor a whole fleet of merchant ships of 
 large tonnage, steam and sailing, seven or eight 
 powerful men-of-war of various nationalities inter- 
 spersed among them, Her Majesty's vessels Severn 
 and Wanderer being of the number. Amidst, and 
 around, and beyond these, scores of native fishing 
 craft, with square sails of many hues, traversed the 
 bay, while hundreds of " sampans " light rowing 
 boats, constructed of broad planks of pine skimmed 
 the quiet sea, propelled after the manner of Venetian 
 gondolas, by two long stern oars, which are worked 
 under water with a sculling movement by the lively 
 little brown-skinned watermen. The white hulls 
 of the men-of-war, the black mail steamers, the 
 brown and yellow native craft with variously tinted 
 sails, the fluttering ensigns of many nations amid 
 which the Japanese flag of red and white was every- 
 \vhere conspicuous filled the fair marine picture
 
 JAPAN. 169 
 
 with bright points of colour, and beyond the 
 thickly-peopled water lay the picturesque town, 
 planted on what was once a marsh, between two 
 " bluffs," or ranges of hills, running inland. Here 
 was Japan at last, the country which surprises and 
 fascinates everybody who visits it the " Kingdome 
 of Japonia," as the old authors styled it and of 
 which good Master Will Adams, its discoverer for 
 English people, wrote " This iland of lapon is a 
 great land, and lyeth to the northwards, in the 
 lattitude of eight and fortie degrees, and it lyeth 
 east by north, and west by south or west south west, 
 two hundred and twentie English leagues. The 
 people of this iland of lapon are good of nature, 
 curteous aboue measure, and valiant in warre ; their 
 iustice is seuerely executed without any partialitie 
 vpon transgressors of the law. They are gouerned 
 in great ciuilitie. I meane, not a land better 
 gouerned in the world by ciuil policie. The 
 people be verie superstitious in their religion, and 
 are of diuers opinions." We could hardly have 
 patience enough for breakfast on board the Belgic, 
 so much did the shore and the prospect of setting 
 foot in the spacious city before our eyes excite the 
 imagination. But the Japanese authorities are 
 particular and punctilious. It was necessary to 
 get a clean bill of health, and to fulfil all for- 
 malities, after which a steam-launch conveyed us, 
 " bag and baggage," to the steps of the Custom 
 House, which we passed with little or no trouble, 
 and found ourselves with gait unsteadied by the
 
 170 SEAS AND LANDS. 
 
 ceaseless movements of the Pacific waves safe, 
 sound, and well pleased on the soil of the " Land 
 of Gentle Manners." 
 
 Everybody has read and heard so much of Japan, 
 by this time, and seen so many photographs of its 
 people and places, that it cannot seem quite so 
 novel, so astonishing to the modern traveller, as it 
 was to Will Adams and his weather-beaten crew, 
 when they came to " Nangasaque " and saw those 
 scenes which the old seaman describes so well 
 "Then wee steered north north-west, and soone 
 after came foure great fisher-boats aboord, about 
 *iue Dunnes apeece in burthen, they sailed with one 
 saile, which stood like a skiffe saile, and skuld with 
 foure oares on a side, their oares resting vpon a 
 pinne fastned on the toppe of the boats side, the 
 head of which pinne was so let into the middle part 
 of the oare that the oare did hang in his iust poize, 
 so that the labour of the rower is much lesse then 
 otherwise it must be ; yet doe they make farre 
 greater speed then our people with rowing, and 
 performe their worke standing as ours doe sitting, 
 so that they take the lesse roome." And again 
 "The king came aboord and brought foure chiefe 
 women with him. They were attired in gownes of 
 silke, clapt the one skirt ouer the other, and so girt 
 to them, barelegged, only a paire of halfe buskins 
 bound with silke reband about their instep ; their 
 haire very blacke, and very long, tyed vp in a knot 
 vpon the crowne in a comely manner : their heads 
 no where shauen as the mens were. They were
 
 JAPAN. 171 
 
 well faced, handed, and footed ; cleare skind and 
 white, but wanting colour, which they amend by 
 arte. Of stature low, but very fat ; very curteous 
 in behaiour, not ignorant of the respect to be giuen 
 vnto persons according to their fashion. The kings 
 women seemed to be somewhat bashfull, but he 
 willed them to bee frolicke. They sung diuers 
 songs, and played vpon certain instruments (whereof 
 one did much resemble our lute) being bellyed like 
 it, but longer in the necke, and fretted like ours, 
 but had only foure gut strings. Their fingring with 
 the left hand like ours, very nimbly, but the right 
 hand striketh with an iuory bone, as we vse to 
 playe vpon a citterne with a quill. They delighted 
 much with their musicke, keeping time with their 
 hands." 
 
 People talk of Japan as already half-Europeanised, 
 but within a couple of hours after our landing I had 
 seen the quaint letters of the " Ancient Mariner " 
 of Gillingham illustrated in twenty particulars, and 
 found that, like all the rest of Asia, Japan has 
 caprices of fashion, but never really changes. Even 
 here, where the Old and New Worlds throng Yoko- 
 hama Gulf with shipping, and you may hear nearly 
 every known tongue spoken upon the Bund, a walk 
 of half an hour takes you away to scenes and 
 customs which are as old as the beginning of the 
 Christian Era, and older still. Under the thickest 
 lacquer of new ways, the antique manners and 
 primitive Asiatic beliefs survive of this curious and 
 delightful people, in whose veins Mongol and Malay
 
 172 
 
 SEAS AND LANDS. 
 
 blood has mingled to form an utterly special and 
 unique race. 
 
 How is it possible to convey a tithe of .those first 
 impressions of strangeness and vivid interest with 
 which the streets of even cosmopolitan Yokohama 
 
 A GEISHA. 
 
 fill the observant new-comer? Look at these road- 
 ways, moistened with a recent shower ! Nowhere 
 else in the world would you see the mud marked 
 with such curious tracks innumerable transverse 
 lines, parallel and sharply impressed, as if a goffer-
 
 A JAPANESE LADY.
 
 JAPAN. 175 
 
 ing roll had passed everywhere along. These are 
 the footprints of the geta, the wooden clogs which 
 all Yokohama wears on wet days ; and that noise, 
 like the voices of very loud crickets, is produced 
 by the pit-a-pat of thousands of geta, on the spots 
 where the causeways are paved with stone or 
 pebbles. Plunge into the cheery, chattering, polite, 
 and friendly crowd going and coming along the 
 Benten Dori, and it is as if you were living on a 
 large painted and lacquered tea-tray, the figures of 
 which, the little gilded houses, the dwarf trees, 
 and the odd landscape, suddenly jumped up from 
 the dead plane into the living perpendicular, and 
 started into busy being. Here, too, are all the 
 pleasant little people you have known so long upon 
 fans and screens. Take the first that comes along 
 this tiny Japanese lady, whom you left, as you 
 thought, on the lid of the glove -box at home. 
 Tripping along upon her waraji, she wears that 
 kimono of puce-coloured silk with the white storks, 
 which you so well remember, the obi of amber and 
 blue satin, tied round her little body and swelling 
 into enormous puffed bows behind 
 
 " She's a little bit thick in the waist, the waist ; 
 But then she was never once laced, once laced ! " 
 
 Her snow-white socks, which only just cover the 
 little foot, are divided into a private room for the 
 great toe, and a parlour for the little toes, which 
 gives her the air of being a little pigeon with white 
 feet ; and she waddles prettily, somewhat like a
 
 i 7 6 
 
 SEAS AND LANDS 
 
 pigeon. The kimono is folded demurely across her 
 little bosom, and her long sleeves hang down from 
 the small brown wrists and arms to her knees. In 
 these receptacles she keeps sheets of soft tough 
 paper, with which she blows her small nose and 
 
 A COCJiTBY GIBL. 
 
 wipes the dust from her dainty skirts, besides 
 innumerable other articles of constant use, such 
 as her cards, her chop-sticks, perhaps her special 
 porcelain cup for tea. She has the little clear-cut 
 almond eyes which the artist so faithfully depicted,
 
 JAPAN. 177 
 
 the funny little nose " adpressus"- flattened into 
 the little rosy, laughing face, which presents a lovely 
 mouth with the whitest shining teeth, full curving 
 lips, and dimpled chin, and amber-coloured neck 
 and throat losing themselves softly in the tender 
 folds of the kimono. Her hands are small and fine, 
 the little nails veritable rose-leaves ; and in her 
 glossy hair she wears a red camellia with ever so 
 many little fantastic pins stuck up and down the 
 smooth waves of it. But there is where the artist 
 of the fan and glove-box failed. His palette had 
 not any black pigments black enough to represent 
 the night-dark depths of the tresses of the Japanese 
 girl. Those puffed and perfumed bandeaux of oiled 
 coiffure, so carefully dressed, and arranged so that 
 no single hair strays from the rigid splendour of 
 the toilette room, would make a jetty spot on the 
 heart of midnight. So black that the very highest 
 lights of it are blue-black beyond inky blackness, 
 black so that ebony would be grey beside it, the 
 glittering tenebrosity of it makes her little visage 
 and her little nape and throat emerge like dyed 
 ivory from the contrast. 
 
 Then the Kuruma-ya, the jinrikisha men ! Much 
 as you have heard and read about them, you will 
 almost die with laughter when you call one from the 
 stand where the little machines are ranged like fairy 
 hansom cabs, and start for your first ride. With a 
 hat on his shaggy head like a white washing-basin, 
 with a red or blue blanket over his shoulders, his 
 little legs tightly encased in black cloth drawers, his 
 
 II
 
 178 SEAS AND LANDS. 
 
 feet thrust into straw sandals, his name and number 
 gaily painted on his back, " San-ju-ban," or what- 
 ever else his ticket proclaims him, starts off at a 
 run with the ridiculous perambulator into which 
 you have entered, and whisks you here, there, and 
 everywhere for fifteen cents, his little hoofs twink- 
 ling between the slender shafts, bedecked with 
 bands of tin-foil. On all sides, as you walk about 
 Yokohama, the cry will be heard from the Kuruma 
 stands of " Sha, Sha!" answering to the London 
 " Keb, sir ! " and, should you have picked up a 
 little of the language, the polite phrases of the two- 
 legged steed will be a good sample of " honorific 
 Japanese." " If the honourable lord does not give 
 himself the trouble of much illustrious delay, the 
 fare will only be 20 sen. Condescend to make 
 gracious use of this worthless servant ! " Then the 
 children. 
 
 Japan is evidently a Paradise for babies and boys 
 and girls. The babies are one and all slung 
 upon the back in a deep fold of the kimono. 
 There they sleep, eat, drink, and wobble their little 
 shaven pates to and fro, with jolly little beaming 
 visages, and fat brown hands and arms. The 
 children are friends of everybody, and play ball 
 and fly kites in the most crowded thoroughfares, 
 never rebuked, never ill-treated, with grave happy 
 ways, and long flowing robes, which give a certain 
 quaint dignity to even the youngest. Coolies go 
 about carrying huge burthens on balanced bamboo 
 baskets ; fishermen hawk odd-looking piscine speci-
 
 JAPAN. 
 
 179 
 
 mens in white tubs ; the blind amma, or shampooer, 
 wanders up and down tootling a plaintive note 
 upon a double pipe of reed, to notify that he is 
 ready to knead and pummel anybody troubled with 
 rheumatism ; the isha, or physician, passes with his 
 
 THE BABY. 
 
 drug-case hitched into his waistband by an ivory 
 netske ; the miller, standing naked behind the 
 string-screen of his shop, grinds rice between two 
 stones, his brown limbs powdered with the fine 
 flour ; the bath-man lifts the blue cloth curtain
 
 i8o SEAS AND LANDS. 
 
 of his establishment, and begs you to " make 
 honourable entrance." If you do you will see all 
 sorts and conditions of men and women too 
 amicably tubbing together, and will be yourself 
 invited to disrobe and sit in a tub, which will scald 
 you, if not heedful, for the Japanese take their 
 baths at nearly the temperature which boils an egg. 
 And the little shops, and the little goods, and the 
 little, funny, impossible articles bought and sold ; 
 and the little, placid, pleasant folk laughing and 
 trotting about the ways ; and the little trees grow- 
 ing in every nook, and the little absurd cakes and 
 little morsels of food, and little cups and little 
 bowls which they use. I know I abuse this adjec- 
 tive " little," but all in Japan is* chisai, choito, except 
 the shrimps which are colossal and the sea, and 
 the mountains. 
 
 But the word "mountains" reminds me of Fuji- 
 San, and one ought to speak first of this prodigious 
 and renowned eminence, j^hich is clearly visible 
 from many spots in Yokohama. So, for the present, 
 I leave the ever-wonderful population of the Japanese 
 towns and pay tribute of distant respect to sublime 
 "Fuji." The highest mountain in Japan, it stands 
 between the provinces of Suruga and Kai. Its 
 height is variously stated at 12,234 English feet, 
 12,305 feet, and 13,287 feet. According to the 
 ancient Japanese legend, Fuji arose in a single 
 night, while the Biwa Lake, near Kioto, was formed 
 simultaneously. Eruptions are mentioned as having 
 taken place in the years 799, 864, 936, 1082, 1649,
 
 JAPAN. 183 
 
 and 1707. The last began December j6, 1707, and 
 continued till January 22, 1708. On this occasion 
 the hump called Ho-yei-zan, on the upper slope of 
 the south side of the mountain, was formed. Mount 
 Fuji stands by itself, rising with one majestic sweep 
 
 A MUSl'Mfi. 
 
 from a plain which is almost surrounded by ranges 
 of mountains. The southern side curves down to 
 the sea, its graceful line being only broken on the 
 south-east by the rugged peaks of Ashidaka-yama. 
 The ascent can be made from five different points,
 
 1 84 SEAS AND LANDS. 
 
 viz., Murayama, Suyama, Subashiri, Yoshida, and 
 Shito-ana. The slope of the mountain is richly cul- 
 tivated with rice, tea, tobacco, millet, and various 
 vegetables, and higher up the paper plant, mitsumata 
 (Edgeworthia papyrifera) abounds. Although in the 
 present day it is not necessary to obtain permission 
 before making the ascent, still a certain amount of 
 etiquette attaches itself to the formal ceremony of 
 opening the mountain on the first day of the eighth 
 moon. Our earliest glimpse of this famous volcano, 
 the finest peak of its kind in the world, was obtained 
 from the " 101 steps." At the top of these steps, 
 beyond the Creek of Yokohama, is a Tea House, 
 known to all, called " Fujiya," or the " Abode of 
 the Wistaria." We had repaired thither to drink 
 the little cups of pale yellow beverage for which 
 the Japanese have so refined a passion, and to nibble 
 the little yellow and red cakes, and smoke the little 
 brass pipes, while chatting with O Take San, the 
 agreeable Lady of the Establishment. We had 
 finished a repast, calculated to stay the appetite, 
 perhaps, of a butterfly, or a Japanese ; had heard 
 the music of the " samisen," and some less abstruse 
 melodies, among them a song composed to a Yoko- 
 hama belle by an American officer, of which here 
 are two verses 
 
 " 1 strive to make love, but in vain, in vain, 
 My language, I know, is not plain, not plain, 
 
 Whenever I try, 
 
 She says, 'Go men nasai 
 Watakshi wakarimasen-masen.' * 
 
 * " Deign honourably to excuse me, but I do not understand."
 
 THE HUNDRED AND ONE STEPS, YOKOHAMA.
 
 JAPAN. 187 
 
 She plays on the soft 'samisen,' 'saraisen,' 
 She sings me a song now and then and then, 
 
 And when I go away 
 
 She sweetly will say, 
 ' Sayonara ! ' ' Do, please, come again again.' " 
 
 Our "afternoon tea" was concluded, the shoji (a 
 screen of frame and paper) was drawn back, we 
 resumed our shoes, and with many a " O yasumi 
 nasai ! " and " Sayonara ! " proceeded to descend 
 the " 101 steps." It was nearly sunset, and lo ! 
 half-way down, in the rosy west, suddenly we spied 
 the glorious hill raising its sharply pointed cone, all 
 brilliant with snow, above the belt of light grey and 
 rosy clouds which lay along the horizon. Although 
 sixty or seventy miles distant, the giant peak stood 
 forth plain as a silhouette of silver upon the golden 
 background of the western heavens. It was good 
 to behold Fuji-San the "Lady of Mountains" so 
 soon after arrival, and no wonder could be felt, even 
 from that dim and remote vision, that the Japanese 
 revere their beautiful and isolated volcano. In- 
 numerable are the legends attaching to it. On the 
 summit dwells a deity the Guardian God of the 
 Crater who is styled " O-ana-Mochi no Mikoto," 
 the " Protector of the Great Hole." The sand 
 brought down during the daytime by the feet of 
 many pilgrims reascends of itself during the night. 
 On the fifteenth day of the sixth moon the snow all 
 disappears from the summit for twelve hours, to 
 make the visit of the goddess " Fuji-Sen-Gen " 
 perfectly convenient ; and reappears the following 
 day quite punctually. The smoke of Fuji, her
 
 X 88 SEAS AND LANDS. 
 
 snows, her green girdle of canes and vines, her 
 feet sandalled with flowers, her bosom from which 
 issue streams fertilising the plains, her perfect con- 
 tour, her majestic beauty, fill Japanese poetry with 
 passionate themes of eulogy and adoration. One 
 native bard exclaims 
 
 " What words can tell, what accents sing 
 
 Thine awful grandeur? 'Tis thy breast 
 Whence Fuzugawa's wavelets spring. 
 Where Karusana's waters rest." 
 
 Divine, truly, in majesty and grace rose the tall 
 peak, about the precise height of which in feet and 
 metres it seems almost impious to dispute, when the 
 living lovely vision of this mountain once comes in 
 sight. For days and weeks together the clouds often 
 shroud that splendid cone, and you can only know 
 where Fuji-San stands by the masses of cumuli and 
 cumulo-strati gathered about her from the Pacific 
 Ocean at her foot. All the more happy did we feel 
 to catch a glance of the Goddess on the third day of 
 our sojourn in Japan. The omen was good, and we 
 mounted our jinrikishas and trundled home through 
 the twinkling paper lanterns and busy little streets, 
 with the resolve to see Fuji presently close at hand, 
 even though the season should forbid the ascent of 
 its sublime slopes. 
 
 YOKOHAMA, Nov. 8, 1889.
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 A JAPANESE CITY. 
 
 WE are on English soil again, for a time, being the 
 happy guests of the British Minister and Mrs. Fraser, 
 at Her Britannic Majesty's Legation in Tokio, the 
 capital city of Japan, formerly known as Yecldo. 
 The run by railway from Yokohama is short but inte- 
 resting. The carriages are of the English pattern ; 
 the names of the stations are painted up in English 
 as well as in Japanese, and the eighteen miles of 
 flat country are traversed in about three-quarters of 
 an hour. In quitting Yokohama you pass under a 
 large Shinto Temple, and skirt the fishing town of 
 Kanagawa (" The Metal River "), where foreigners 
 were first settled. Then you come to Tsurumi 
 (" Place to See Storks "), surrounded by extensive 
 rice-fields, in which the people were reaping the 
 ripe stalks and hanging them in circular- shaped 
 sheaves upon the stems of the trees, so that every 
 hedge-row presented a most curious appearance with 
 these lines of swathed trunks. Tobacco grew green 
 and plentiful everywhere, with patches of onions 
 and of those gigantic radishes which the Japanese 
 so much affect. Kawasaki ("River-Bend ") is next 
 passed, where numberless cargo-boats thatched with 
 
 T 9 t
 
 1 92 SEAS AND LANDS. 
 
 mats, and gliding sampans, driven by big-handled 
 oars, testify to a lively water traffic. The boat- 
 women work and row with their babies tied upon 
 their backs, the little black round heads and doll- 
 like eyes wagging and winking behind the totally 
 unconcerned mother. Omori (" The Great Forest ") 
 succeeds, but its trees have mainly- disappeared, 
 though Kamada, close by, is famous for its plum- 
 blossoms in April. 
 
 The love of the people for flowers is one of their 
 many charming traits. We are too late, or too 
 early, for the red and white lotuses, the tree- 
 peonys, and the golden lilies, which, with the 
 jasmines and roses, embellish the spring and 
 autumn lakes and fields ; but it is the cream 
 of the season for the chief blossom of Japan, her 
 imperial symbol the chrysanthemum ; and truly 
 splendid are the displays seen of this many-hued 
 and multiform flower. Half the women wear a 
 purple or amber pompone in their hair or bosom, 
 and one of our objects in coming at once to Tokio 
 is to be present at the annual exhibition of chrysan- 
 themums, held in the Emperor's gardens. Passing 
 Ikegami ("The Upper Lake"), we next see a famous 
 temple, dedicated to the ancient Buddhist saint, 
 Nichiren, and another sacred to Daikoku, the God 
 of Wealth and Good Fortune, whose highly comic 
 picture sitting upon bags of rice which rats are 
 busily gnawing figures on all the one and five yen 
 bank-notes current in Japan. The jocund spirit 
 of the people manifests itself even in these grave
 
 A JAPANESE CITY. ig 3 
 
 matters of finance. They will not and cannot take 
 either life or religion au grand serieux. Another 
 ornamental shrine hereabouts, rich with lacquer and 
 carvings, is raised in honour of Mioken, the Pole- 
 Star. And thus our train comes to Shinagawa 
 (" River of Merchandise "), at the head of the Gulf 
 a place mainly populated by fishermen, who catch 
 and sell extraordinary quantities of odd-looking fish, 
 and of those gigantic blue shrimps already observed. 
 The line now curves round, through suburbs of the 
 metropolis, styled respectively, Mita ("The Three 
 Fields") and Shimbashi ("The New Bridge") ; and 
 then we are in the station of Tokio, a really vast 
 city, nine miles long and eight miles wide, con- 
 taining over a million inhabitants, the seat of 
 Government, as well as of the Shiro, or Castle, 
 wherein resides His Imperial Majesty the Mikado. 
 This Shiro, with its huge ramparts of cyclopean 
 masonry and wide moats full of wild fowl, banked 
 by lofty slopes of grass and rows of ancient trees, 
 is one of the perpetually striking features of Tokio. 
 While driving or riding in a jinrikisha you are 
 always entering or leaving its massive gateways, 
 guarded by neat little soldiers, and capped with 
 Chinese -looking gate -houses. The broad moats 
 swarm with fish, as well as with teal, widgeon, 
 and duck, but nobody is permitted to angle or 
 shoot there. 
 
 Tokio gives the impression of being mainly a 
 bigger Yokohama, without the beautiful sea view, 
 albeit it possesses its own maritime quarter, and is 
 
 N
 
 i 94 SEAS AND LANDS. 
 
 washed there by the head of the Gulf, into which 
 runs the River Sumida. Yet the interminable 
 thoroughfares present a far fuller stream of life, and 
 even more surprising novelties than the seaport. 
 Nothing but an instantaneous photograph, carefully 
 coloured, could impart even an idea of the pictur- 
 esque population of the Nakadori or of Ginza Street. 
 The trundling jinrikishas ; the little shock-headed 
 Japanese in dark blue coats and tight trousers ; the 
 tiny womenkind with hair banded and brushed into 
 fantastic, glossy, immovable coiffures ; the mothers 
 with the slit-eyed babies lashed upon their backs 
 so like to dolls that you almost look for the wire 
 wherewith to make them wink and squeak ; the smart 
 little soldiers in brick-red breeches ; the immacu- 
 lately gloved policemen ; the postmen in soup-plate 
 hats running along with letter-bags ; the endless 
 clatter of the innumerable wooden pattens ; the 
 shuffling of the countless waraji; the slow, shaggy 
 oxen dragging the bamboo waggons ; the pretty, 
 grave, delightful, happy children, racing along the 
 public way, with flowing sleeves, like those of a 
 Master of Arts, and flowers in their hair, or flying 
 kites of astonishing devices, or clambering about the 
 stone gods and demons of some Buddhist temple, or 
 broadly and blandly staring at the foreigner with 
 languid almond eyes and little painted mouths wide 
 open ; the fishermen, with specimens of piscine 
 natural history which make mermaids commonplace, 
 and sea-serpents appetising ; the gigantic radishes ; 
 the absurd English inscriptions on the sign-boards ;
 
 A JAPANESE CITY. 197 
 
 the funny small shops, with their hanging screens of 
 blue cloth and reeds ; the squatting shopkeepers ; 
 the cakeman with his tinkling bell ; the blind amtna 
 or shampooer ; the small black and white houses, 
 ranged in endless raws as if out of a wooden toy-box, 
 with paper fronts and sliding shoji; the tootling of 
 the tramcar horns ; the spick and span musumes 
 tripping, with shining tresses and pigeon-feet, to 
 dance or to dinner ; the startling things in toyshops, 
 and restaurants, and " butcheries " where badgers, 
 wild boars, and silver pheasants are hanging up at 
 the poulterers', beside ducks, and snipe, and hares ; 
 the great kites and noisy crows sweeping round and 
 round above the traffic of the bazaar, and at the four- 
 cross way, where a long vista opens westward, Fuji's 
 grand and perfect peak sixty miles off, towering above 
 the rosy clouds of sunset, lifting itself to our far-off 
 gaze in such majesty of form and colour as no other 
 mountain in the world possesses a sight that puts 
 on the other sights, as it were, the Creator's own 
 mark when He made this wonderful, delightful, 
 unique, and mysterious Japan. 
 
 Dark blue, dark grey, puce, purple, and black em- 
 broidered with white, are the leading colours of the 
 autumn dresses of the Japanese out of doors, so that 
 the general aspect of the moving crowd is not so 
 variegated as the throng of an Indian town presents. 
 But a happier-looking population can nowhere be 
 studied ; they go chattering and laughing along, the 
 porters singing between their balanced burdens, the 
 air all full, far or near, of pretty salutations " O
 
 198 SEAS AND LANDS. 
 
 hayo ! O hayo gozaimas ! " or "Sayonara! sayonafa !" 
 and at evening, " O yasumi nasai ! " (" Condescend 
 to take honourable repose ! "). The deep reverences 
 these little people make to each other in the street 
 are charming for grace and apparent goodwill the 
 commonest coolie bends with the air of a finished 
 teacher of deportment when he meets a friend or 
 accepts an engagement. Indoors the obeisances are 
 more lowly still. The little foreheads touch the 
 earth or the spotlessly clean mats, and the little 
 hands, almost always exquisitely formed are spread 
 out, while the kneeling musume prostrates herself 
 and musically utters the irrashai! The children in 
 the streets are for ever breaking into a dancing run 
 for pure glee of existence, clattering along in merry 
 groups upon their wooden clogs. Or else they 
 gather at street corners and play softly boisterous 
 games with each other, singing songs and beating 
 hands to the tune. I secured the words of one of 
 these, where the little brown-eyed, black-pated, Japa- 
 nese babies stood in a ring, and swung their hands 
 first outwards and then inwards, simultaneously. It 
 seems they were thus alternately imitating the open- 
 ing and the closing of flowers, expanding the circle 
 at the word " hiraita " (" opened "), and contracting it 
 at "tzubonda" ("closed"). This joyous little street 
 song, in the vernacular, was 
 
 " Hiraita ; hiraita ! 
 Nanno hana hiraita ! 
 Rcnge no hana hiraita, 
 Hiraita to omottara, mata tsubonda.
 
 A JAPANESE CITY. 199 
 
 Tsubonda; tsubonda 
 
 Nanno hana tsubonda 1 
 
 Renge no hana tsubonda 
 
 Tsubonda to omottara, mata hiraita." 
 
 Which is, being interpreted 
 
 " Opened ! opened ! 
 Which is the flower has opened ? 
 The lotus-flower has opened. 
 You thought so, but now it is shut. 
 
 Shut ! Close shut ! 
 Which is the flower that's shut ? 
 'Tis the lotus blossom that's folded. 
 You thought so, but now it expands !" 
 
 There is another graceful nursery rhyme that the 
 dark-eyed Japanese babies sing in the streets, which 
 
 goes 
 
 " ChScho ! Ch6ch6 ! 
 Na no ha ni tomare 
 Na no ha ni akitara 
 Yoshi no ha ni tomare. " 
 
 And this, again, in English as simple, is 
 
 " Butterfly, butterfly ! 
 
 Light on the rape and feed ; 
 If you are tired of honey there, 
 Fly to the flower of the reed." 
 
 But the place of places in Tokio to see the Japanese 
 small folk is Asakusa, a quarter where a kind of 
 permanent fair is established round the eminently 
 popular temple of Kin Riu Zan. In this large and 
 striking edifice is preserved a small image of the 
 Goddess Kwannon Sama, made of pure gold, which
 
 200 SEAS AND LANDS. 
 
 was hauled up in a net from the Sumida River, and 
 is too sacred ever to be publicly exhibited. The 
 shrine is naturally a favourite one with fishermen, 
 but all classes frequent it, and curious it is to stand 
 within the sanctuary and watch the naivete of the 
 worshippers. They go first to a little hut, and pay 
 an infinitesimal coin for leave to wash their hands 
 and mouths with water from a wooden ladle, for it 
 would not be right to go unpurified to pray. Then 
 they pick out the particular incarnation in the great 
 fane which suits their need, for one image is good 
 at curing stomach-aches, another at bringing fish 
 into the net, a third in making fair weather at sea, 
 and a fourth figure in wood which will accord a 
 becoming complexion if you stroke its face, has that 
 countenance now completely rubbed flat and feature- 
 less by the innumerable palms of women and girls 
 coming thither to benefit by the goddess. With 
 hands and lips washed, the votary pulls a bell-rope 
 which is to awaken the attention of the deity. 
 Then he throws a coin or two into a grated re- 
 ceptacle, joins his fingers together, breathes the 
 supplication or whispers the wish, and afterwards 
 claps his hands to let the divinity know that the 
 affair is terminated, and that others can take their 
 turn. 
 
 There is a pagoda near the temple, which is 
 approached by a stone-paved walk. On both sides 
 of this stand bright little shops for the sale of 
 toys, ornaments, &c. The huge red building at 
 the entrance contains two gods of colossal size,
 
 A JAPANESE CITY. 201 
 
 in large niches, protected by iron screens. They 
 are the tutelary guardians of the gate, and are 
 called " Ni-O " ( " Two Kings " ). One stands ready 
 to welcome those who repent of their sins and 
 determine to lead new lives ; the other is the special 
 god of children. The tame pigeons flying about 
 are held sacred ; and to give pious people an 
 opportunity to feed them, women sell peas or rice 
 in little earthenware pots. The Japanese do not 
 visit Asakusa for pious motives only, but for 
 pleasure also. Hence within the temple grounds 
 are theatres, archery galleries, tea booths, and a 
 variety exhibition of birds, beasts, and dwarfed 
 trees. A white lath and plaster model of Fuji-San 
 rises near, about no feet in height and 1000 feet 
 in circumference. Large numbers ascend to the 
 top daily, some days as many as 6000. All the 
 paved way leading to the vast painted temple is 
 full of toyshops, and all the small people of Tokio 
 seem to repair thither on foot, or rocking about upon 
 the maternal back. The clattering of the wooden 
 clogs, the blasts of tin trumpets, the flutter of flags 
 and toy balloons, the laughter, the chatter, the gossip 
 of brown matrons comparing their brown babies and 
 their home experiences, the good temper and dolce 
 far niente of Asakusa in the afternoon, are things to 
 remember. 
 
 Here, too, as in other quarters at the present 
 season, there are chrysanthemum shows, and the 
 natives will spend all spring and summer in training 
 the vines and growing the flowers for the exhibition,
 
 202 
 
 SEAS AND LANDS. 
 
 to which the visitor is charged about one cent. 
 Each show contains two or three booths, fitted up 
 with figures to illustrate some historical or tradi- 
 tional theme, and the chrysanthemum blossoms 
 have been attached so as to constitute natural robes 
 and scenic accessories. Sometimes a whole fable 
 will be thus illustrated by means of several dis- 
 tinct floral tableaux. The skill displayed by these 
 
 THE TOKIO CAB. 
 
 Japanese florists is abundantly entertaining ; but the 
 most striking objects are always those dwarfed and 
 twisted trees which they know how to produce, so 
 that, like the Chinese, they can carry about a fir or 
 thuja, or plum tree, sixty or eighty years old, in a 
 small flower-pot. This is obtained with infinite 
 patience by pinching off the rootlets week by week, 
 and nipping and training the ends of the branchlets
 
 A JAPANESE CITY. 203 
 
 till the tree is stunted into the exact likeness of a 
 giant of the forest, while it will not measure, per- 
 haps, more than twenty-four inches high. Then 
 they dot these pigmy timber trees all about a tiny 
 artificial hill, and plant all over it miniature rocks 
 and crags, and dig out fairy-like lakes, and lead 
 hither and thither absurdly pretentious little rivers, 
 which, for their bridges, cataracts, and rapids, might 
 be the Nile, the Missouri, or the Orinoco ; and near 
 at hand they rear a delicious little tea-house, and sit 
 there sipping ridiculously small doses of sake, from 
 thimble-like cups, nibbling such tiny biscuits as 
 might satisfy the appetite of a butterfly, smoking 
 microscopic pipes of brass and bamboo, which hold 
 about three whiffs, and generally thus looking upon 
 life through a reversed telescope, and making deli- 
 cate and friendly fun out of all its aspects. If 
 Buddhism had only come straight to Japan, instead 
 of dribbling thither through the mud of China and 
 the snows of Corea, this would be the kingdom where 
 its influence would show best and brightest ! 
 
 We have just shared in the honour and plea- 
 sure of a visit to the Legation, from the Countess 
 Kur6da, wife of the ex-Prime Minister of Japan, 
 a charming and accomplished native lady. Her 
 dress, except for the richness of its soft material, 
 was quiet in colour and cut, almost to Quakerism, 
 but upon her long hanging sleeves of grey were 
 embroidered in white silk the arms and badge of 
 one of the greatest Satsuma houses. She talked 
 the gentle flowing Japanese, which has no gutturals,
 
 204 SEAS AND LANDS. 
 
 no aspirates, no high or hard inflections and accents 
 (and unhappily no letter L), in the usual honoronc 
 style, depreciating herself and her belongings, and 
 exalting those whom she addressed, what she said 
 being deftly interpreted by the English lady attend- 
 ing her. Inviting us to her house, which is one 
 of the handsomest, it is said, in Tokio, she was 
 careful to declare it "a poor place, unworthy of 
 such visitors," and, in taking leave, begged "to be 
 excused for wasting, by her totally unimportant 
 speech and presence, the honourable time of her 
 dear friends." Her husband, the Count Kur6da, 
 has just yielded office to Prince Sango, of the Jiu- 
 Shiu party, the Conservatives of Japan ; and there 
 is something like a crisis, in truth, in the political 
 world of Tokio just now, saddened, as we are, by 
 the attempted assassination of one of the foremost 
 of Japanese statesmen. I am told that, with all 
 their good qualities and bonhomie, the Japanese 
 are a very capricious people to govern, easily grow- 
 ing tired of a new man or measure. An immense 
 experiment is impending at Tokio the installation 
 of the first Parliament of the country, for which 
 a brand-new Parliament House is being built in 
 one of the more open quarters of the great city. 
 Meantime, a prominent reformer, and one of the 
 authors of the New Constitution, the Count Okuma, 
 Minister for Foreign Affairs, is slowly recovering 
 from amputation of his leg, shattered by the bomb 
 of a Japanese assassin, who, after flinging the cruel 
 missile, cut his own throat on the spot, and died
 
 A JAPANESE CITY. 205 
 
 before he could be questioned. Politically, there- 
 fore, things are not too quiet in the imperial capital ; 
 and perhaps it is partly on that account that the 
 garden party in the Palace gardens, to which we 
 had the honour of an invitation, was this week de- 
 ferred. But it is to come off, people of the Court 
 say, next week, and, meantime, we shall make a 
 brief run to Nikko, to see the famous temples and 
 mountains of the north, returning to Tokio for the 
 imperial festivity and other metropolitan spectacles. 
 
 BRITISH LEGATION, TOKIO, Nov. n, 1889.
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 RURAL JAPAN. 
 
 THE Emperor being still indisposed, and the garden 
 party at the Palace, by consequence, deferred, we 
 took advantage of the interval to visit Nikko, some 
 ninety miles, or forty ri, north of Tokio. A railway 
 runs sixty or seventy miles of this distance, to a 
 place called Utsunomiya the remaining ri must be 
 traversed by jinrikisha. It is necessary to be pro- 
 vided with a passport for journeys beyond the treaty 
 limits which are very circumscribed and the first 
 policeman encountered at the railway station did 
 not fail to demand and to inspect the imposing 
 document wherewith we stood furnished. It forbade 
 us* I trust it may be added needlessly to " deface 
 the temples ; to ride on horseback to a conflagration ; 
 to trap, snare, or hunt wild animals without license ; 
 or to resist the authorities with violence in the 
 discharge of their duty." The officer at the station 
 found the perpendicular Japanese characters on the 
 document which we presented quite satisfactory, 
 and bowed to the earth in token of it. On entering 
 our railway carriage we perceived a go-zen, or tea- 
 tray, thoughtfully provided by the company. There 
 stood the boiling water, in a chased bronzed kettle, 
 
 Hi
 
 RURAL JAPAN. 207 
 
 the tiny dainty pot with green tea leaves ready for 
 infusion, and the small cups in their stand, so that, 
 free of charge, we might sip o-cha as we started. 
 
 The line passes through low-lying fields with har- 
 vests of rice, tobacco, cotton, and the huge radish, 
 dai-kon, fringed with waving thickets of bamboo, and 
 populous with villages of little huts all built upon 
 the same pattern, with fronts of framework and 
 paper, and roofs of fine shingle or thatch. Here 
 and there, near a temple, would be seen a " garden 
 of the dead" stone monuments of quaint form 
 inscribed with Japanese letters, and interspersed 
 with clumps of the red camellia or tufts of chrysan- 
 themum. Everywhere, indeed, is seen the Ki-ku 
 imperial blossom of Japan growing at the cottage 
 door, by the well, in the temple yard, beside the 
 graves, and even in the paths intersecting the rice- 
 fields. Everywhere, too, are visible the delightful 
 Japanese babies most placid and most plump of 
 all known infanthood rocking and blinking in the 
 fold of the mother's kimono, but just as frequently 
 tied on the backs of old men, boys, and little 
 maidens ; for as soon as a Japanese child can even 
 toddle about, a smaller one, who cannot yet run alone, 
 is swaddled tightly upon its shoulders. The babies 
 thus see everything, share everything, take part in 
 agriculture, kite-flying, shopping, cooking, gossiping, 
 washing, and all that goes forward and around, which 
 perhaps gives them their extraordinary gravity and 
 worldly wisdom, mingled with gladness, as soon as 
 they reach the mature age of four or five. They
 
 2 o8 SEAS AND LANDS 
 
 then bow, and say ohayho ! and carry up and down 
 another baby, and shuffle about on clogs, as if life 
 were already understood by them quite as thoroughly 
 as by their mothers, whose wooden pattens make the 
 stations echo so blithely as they enter or quit the 
 train. Round almost every country hut the yellow 
 fruit of the ka-ki, or persimmon, is hanging up to 
 dry for winter use, and the fruit itself may be seen 
 on the leafless tree, like a smooth, elongated orange. 
 On the left of the line, all the way from Tokio to 
 Utsunomiya, the beautiful head of Fuji-San per- 
 petually shows itself, at first dim, misty, and vaguely 
 gilded in the too full light of the afternoon ; then 
 majestically displaying its crown of snow high above 
 a belt of sunset clouds ; and lastly, as the evening 
 falls, and the background of the west deepens from 
 rose red and amber to grey and emerald green, 
 emerging in full outline, almost from base to 
 summit, a cone, mathematically perfect, of indigo 
 blue, dominating the whole landscape by its grace 
 and grandeur, although it is twenty leagues, as 
 the stork flies, to the foot of that stupendous 
 mountain. 
 
 We arrive in the dark at Utsunomiya, hand our 
 tickets to collectors, who bow down to the platform, 
 and our light baggage and ourselves to jinrikisha 
 men, who trundle away up an interminable street, 
 glittering with paper lanterns and the lamps of a 
 thousand little open shop-fronts. Just as we wonder 
 whether there will ever be any "other end" to 
 Utsunomiya, the Kurumas are wheeled sharply
 
 RURAL JAPAN. 209 
 
 round and brought up with a general shout of 
 arrival in front of a Japanese inn. The peculiarity 
 of such an establishment, on a first experience, is 
 that you see all of it at once, like a doll's house 
 of which the facade has been flung open. There 
 is the little passage full of waraji and clogs, by 
 which you enter between raised platforms covered 
 with mats so spotless that you would not, as you 
 must not, tread upon them except with unshod 
 feet. There is the shining ladder of dark polished 
 wood without hand-rails, by which you pass to the 
 little rooms upstairs, all visible at a glance with 
 their sliding doors and papered lattices. There is 
 the kitchen, with charcoal fire burning under the 
 rice-cauldron, and beside it a little paved way to 
 the bath-room and minor offices. . The entire per- 
 sonnel of the inn upon your first approach in- 
 cluding mistress, proprietor, and four or five female 
 "helps," with glossy hair, and short, white, cloven 
 stockings prostrates itself on the edge of the 
 matting, with hands spread, foreheads touching the 
 black lacquer border, and soft little choruses of 
 " hayo gozarimas" and " ide nasai ; " that 
 is to say, " Your honourable arrival is most wel- 
 come ! " " Please to make your honourable en- 
 trance ! " Shoes are slipped off and indoor slippers 
 offered, into which thrusting your feet, you slide 
 and glide with many a bow and "Arigato" ("Thank 
 you ") over the immaculate mats and up the shining 
 ladder to the blamelessly clean pigeon-loft assigned 
 for your use. Squares of padded cloth are placed 
 
 o
 
 2IO SEAS AND LANDS. 
 
 on the floor, and the hibachi, or " fire-box," is 
 brought in and set in the midst, with two brass 
 knitting needles whereby to stir and trim the 
 glowing charcoal. The musume, a young waiting 
 girl, next presents, always on her knees, tiny cups 
 of pale yellow tea, unsweetened and unmilked, and, 
 learning that you will partake of dinner, beats the 
 matting with her little brow, and goes to command 
 it. Various members of the household drop in 
 meanwhile to salute and inspect the visitors, and 
 presently the repast arrives. 
 
 First appears a small square table about eight 
 inches high, upon which are placed fresh cups and 
 chopsticks (hashi), the latter being cut from white 
 wood, the two sticks still joined at the end, so that 
 you may know they are fresh and unused. You 
 separate them as a hungry man takes up his knife 
 and fork, and are then ready for the "honourable 
 tray" of red or black lacquer, which is slid within 
 your reach by the kneeling and bowing musume. 
 On each of our trays was a little bowl of soup with 
 shreds of vegetables, a saucer of pickled celery and 
 radish tsukemono a minute slab of boiled trout, 
 another saucer holding shreds of cold chicken, and a 
 wooden bowl with a rather doubtful composition of 
 some sort of whey and white of egg. Between the 
 trays a large wooden tub of hot boiled rice, admir- 
 ably dressed, was set, with a fresh pot of tea. A 
 plate of cakes Jcashi also appeared, and when we 
 had asked for and obtained salt and bread articles 
 apparently not usually furnished there was quite
 
 RURAL JAPAN. in 
 
 enough to eat, and of no bad quality. The little 
 glossy-haired musume kneels all the time before 
 the guest, softly murmuring as she re-fills your 
 plate or cup, "Mo sukoshi nasai" "Condescend 
 to take a little more!" and it is part of the re- 
 fined politeness of this nation that they call hot 
 water, tea, and soup, by complimentary terms, as 
 " yu" " The honourable hot-water ; " " cha," 
 " The honourable tea ; " "0 tsuyu," " The honour- 
 able refreshing dew of soup." The hot white rice, 
 decorously poked into the mouth with the chop- 
 sticks from the edge of the lacquered basin, is the 
 real mainstay of the meal, which, being removed, 
 the tobacco-box and small bamboo pipes succeed. 
 
 By-and-by beds are prepared by drawing from a 
 hidden cupboard many quilted mats and a little 
 bolster about the size of a Bologna sausage, stuffed 
 with rice-blades. An andon, or paper lamp, is then 
 put in a corner of the room, the charcoal brazier 
 is replenished, and the household, generally, again 
 touch the soft clean mats with their foreheads, 
 murmuring "0 yasumi nasai" ("Condescend to 
 take honourable repose "). The sliding shoji are 
 pushed back, you creep between the padded quilts 
 on the floor, and before sinking to slumber observe 
 in the dim light the simplicity of your apartment. 
 It contains one Kakemono, or " hanging picture," 
 in Indian ink, one pot of chrysanthemums, an in- 
 scribed tablet in Japanese bearing the name of a 
 god, or a river, or mountain, and a tiny looking- 
 glass on a dressing-table about as large as a cigar-
 
 212 SEAS AND LANDS. 
 
 box. Now you will hear the shrill notes from the 
 street below of the pipe blown by the amma, the 
 shampooer; the light, musical laughter of the 
 mitsumes downstairs, washing up ; the tinkling 
 strings of the samisen played in one little room, 
 the monotones of a Buddhist reading his sacred 
 books in another, the barking of the village dogs, 
 the rattle of a late jinrikisha, the splash of some 
 tardy traveller boiling himself by way of refresh- 
 ment in the very hot furo-dd of the basement, 
 the noise of numerous paper shutters closing in 
 your own and adjoining abodes, and the stroke 
 of the watchman's staff as he makes his rounds. 
 Lulled more or less by these sounds, and with a 
 strange, indescribable odour about you of clean 
 matting, soy, and salted jasmine, you sink to sleep, 
 to dream, perhaps, amid the transparent walls of the 
 chamber, that you are a new hat in a bandbox, 01 
 an ivory carving wrapped up in tissue paper. 
 
 After a breakfast more substantial than the airy 
 appetites of the Japanese would demand, we depart, 
 amid a shower of sayonaras and gentle good wishes 
 for a prosperous journey, to Nikko. The distance by 
 road is twenty-five miles, which we are to accomplish 
 in four jinrikishas, one of these ever-amusing vehicles 
 containing our guide and another our baggage. We 
 have two men to each jinrikisha, one in the shafts, 
 the other pushing behind or pulling with a cord ; 
 and, small though they be, and hilly albeit the road, 
 they will run the twenty-five miles quite easily in 
 four hours. The journey gives a good insight into
 
 RURAL JAPAN. 215 
 
 Japanese rural life, since the way passes through 
 many villages, and a fairly populous country. The 
 road for four-fifths of its length is bordered on either 
 side by stately trees, principally cryptomeria, some of 
 which attain an extraordinary size, and for leagues 
 together furnish an avenue of the utmost beauty 
 and magnificence. Hundreds among these trees 
 have more than five feet diameter at a man's height, 
 and lift their dark green crowns more than a hundred 
 feet high. Every now and then a spot is reached 
 where lightning, or the tail of a typhoon, has brought 
 down one of these forest giants, hollowed to the core, 
 and it either lies from bank to bank like a massive 
 bridge, or has been partly consumed by fire and 
 sawn in fragments, so that the thoroughfare can be 
 cleared. In and about the villages a primitive but 
 very practical agriculture is being carried on. The 
 men are reaping rice, knee-deep in its wet bed ; the 
 women, old and young, are threshing out the rice- 
 bundles with curious revolving flails, or beating 
 bunches of millet and other grains on the top of 
 a web, which lets the seed fall through, and thus 
 combines threshing and winnowing. Lightly built 
 carts, drawn by ponies, led by a nose-string, convey 
 rice straw, shingles, petroleum for the household 
 lamps, and vegetables ; but much of the traffic is 
 done with pack animals. Everywhere may be seen 
 the bright, placid life, the easy manners, the quiet 
 contentment with the day, its duties and its pleasures, 
 the light yet sincere piety, the kindness to children, 
 strangers, and animals, the friendliness and tern-
 
 2I 6 SEAS AND LANDS. 
 
 perance, and the indifference to the future, which 
 mark a Buddhistic people. 
 
 At Matsumoto, and again at Imaichi, our two- 
 legged steeds pull up briskly at a roadside tea- 
 house, where we are received with the sweet 
 invariable politeness of this people, and sip little 
 cups of pale tea, and munch parti-coloured biscuits 
 under the shade of waving bamboos, or in a garden 
 of the usual fantastic design. The Japanese love 
 of flowers is as genuine as it is refined. At 
 Imaichi a small boy brings us out a pot of chrys- 
 anthemums and places it beside us, as if it were 
 in the nature of things that our rest would be 
 made better and happier by the purple and amber 
 blossoms. The little ones in the streets shout out 
 " Ohayo ! " in cheerful salutation, and the older 
 people bow gracefully. As for our human horses, 
 they seem insensible to fatigue, and trot the last 
 five miles into Nikko as freshly as at first. Starting 
 so early in the morning from Utsunomiya, we have 
 arrived in time for lunch at the hotel, and for a 
 good walk into the heart of the mountains as far as 
 Nanataki, the " Seven Cascades." All around the 
 little town, which deals principally in skins of wild 
 animals and articles turned from wood, are lofty 
 hills clothed in thick timber and full of lakes and 
 cataracts, and the air is pure and invigorating, 
 Nikko being 2000 feet above sea-level. 
 
 But what brings native and foreign people to 
 Nikko is not the grand mountain scenery surround- 
 ing it, nor its superb avenues of firs, nor any
 
 RURAL JAPAN. 217 
 
 attraction the little town can offer, but the splendid 
 temples and the royal tombs, which make it a 
 place of pilgrimage and one of the spots dearest to 
 Japanese piety and patriotism. The people have a 
 proverb, " He who has not seen Nikko knows not 
 the meaning of the word Kikko " (beautiful). You 
 find in Japan everywhere apparently two religions, 
 Shinto and Buddhism, but the two intermix almost 
 universally as much in belief as in locality. I 
 gather that every Japanese baby is placed at its 
 birth under the care of some Shinto deity, but lives 
 and dies in some Buddhist sect. Shinto is the 
 religion, so far as it is one at all, of the Court and 
 the State, but it exacts few or no observances, and 
 the moral guidance of the nation is practically com- 
 mitted so far as I can ascertain to imperfect 
 forms of Buddhism. Shinto, meaning " Way of the 
 Gods," to distinguish it from Butsu-do, the " Way of 
 Buddha," was, it seems, ancestor-worship first, and 
 afterwards nature -worship. And this has affected 
 Japanese Buddhism, for in most Japanese houses, 
 together with the Shinto shrine, there is a Buddhist 
 picture, and tablets inscribed to the memory of dead 
 members of the family, who are prayed to and have 
 the advantage of periodical offerings and burnt per- 
 fume sticks. There are Shinto priests who wear a 
 peculiar gown while officiating in the temple, and a 
 black cap with a white fillet, and you may generally 
 know a Shinto temple by the bundle of white paper 
 or calico hanging in front of its shrine, which has, 
 perhaps, a metal mirror over above it. Inside the
 
 218 SEAS AND LANDS. 
 
 sanctum an emblem of divinity is preserved, wrapped 
 in a box, which may be a sword, a stone, or a shoe, 
 but which even the chief priest scarcely ever sees. 
 The worshipper claps his hands before this, bows 
 his head, and throws a coin or two on the altar-mat, 
 but utters no audible prayer. Pure Shintoism does 
 not admit of any external decoration or images. 
 The wood of the temple, which imitates the ancient 
 Japanese hut, should be unpainted, and the roof 
 merely thatched. But the advent of Buddhism, which 
 came in from Corea and China about 600 A.D., 
 brought with it religious and secular art, which 
 Shintoism partly adopted ; and this caused the 
 Shoguns, or secular rulers, to oscillate between one 
 cult and the other, so that at Nikko as well as in 
 Shiba, the Royal Mausoleum of Tokio one finds 
 Buddhist and Shinto fanes within the same en- 
 closure, and the latter as brilliantly adorned at any 
 rate, inside as the splendid Buddhist sanctuaries 
 near at hand. There are nine times as many 
 Buddhist temples in Tokio as Shinto, and Mr. 
 Satow, C.M.G., a veiy high authority, writes that 
 " Buddhism, during the last ten years, has been 
 steadily regaining power and position ; while the 
 " Shinto religion, for the protection of which a 
 Government Department, ranking with the Council 
 of State, was thought necessary at the revolution, 
 has relapsed into its former insignificance. It is 
 still in a certain sense a national religion, since its 
 temples are maintained out of the imperial and 
 local revenues, and the attendance of the principal
 
 RURAL JAPAN. 221 
 
 officials is required by Court etiquette at certain 
 annual festivals celebrated at the Palace. But it 
 has no exclusive hold over any section of the people, 
 who adhere to it just in the same degree, and no 
 more, as has been their practice during the last 
 thousand years." 
 
 Shiba meaning " the grass-lawn " in the capital, 
 is a wonderful group of mortuary chapels and 
 temples gathered round the tombs of six of the 
 Shoguns, with those of their wives and fathers. 
 It is a maze of strange Chinese-looking edifices, 
 burning in the noonday light with gold, bright- 
 coloured carvings, fantastic arabesques, sculptured 
 eaves, painted red, and sweeping black roofs ; each 
 temple planted in a court, surrounded by stone 
 railings, and a great number of votive lanterns, 
 carved out of stone, together with objects in bronze, 
 ornamental belfries, sacred wells, and picturesque 
 gateways. All these are environed by dense groves 
 of tall, dark fir trees, and on almost every portion 
 of them is to be seen the triple Asarum leaf, the 
 crest of the great Toku-gawa family of Shoguns, 
 who were Buddhists. But, since nearly all the 
 features of Shiba are reproduced with greater splen- 
 dour at Nikko both being practically indescribable 
 without pictures a brief mention of the wonderful 
 shrines of the latter must do duty for both. 
 
 A range of imposing mountains rises round 
 Nikko, called the " Hills of the Sun's Brightness," 
 and in a hollow of one of its lower glens stand the 
 picturesque and curious structures which make the
 
 222 SEAS AND LANDS. 
 
 little town famous. They have grown up chiefly 
 to mark the resting-places of a Buddhist saint 
 named Shodo Sh6nin - and of two famous royal 
 Shoguns, lye Yasu and lye Mitsu. At the top 
 of the single street of Nikko you turn, by an 
 ancient bridge painted red, and pass through a 
 grove of cryptomerias to the gate of the Sambutsu- 
 do, or " Hall of Three Buddhas." You wiU enter 
 that presently, and see within it the colossal figures, 
 heavily gilded, and the familiar decorations of a 
 sumptuous Buddhist shrine; but you must first go 
 on to a tall granite torii or gateway, where, hard 
 by a five-storied pagoda, painted in red and green, 
 a Shinto priest gives you the paper of admission, 
 which he stamps with a vermilion seal. Armed 
 with this, you enter the " porch of the two kings," 
 and find yourself in a region of barbaric grandeur, 
 where edifice after edifice grotesquely glorified, and 
 tomb after tomb superbly but sombrely adorned, 
 at first fascinate and then bewilder the attention. 
 It is a region of fantastic architecture, gigantic 
 gateways glowing with carved work, sometimes ex- 
 quisitely beautiful or sometimes singularly hideous ; 
 of paved courts, rich with wonderful bronzes, and 
 ranges of sculptured votive lanterns ; of wide stair- 
 ways of masonry leading to black-lacquered plat- 
 forms, on which magnificent shrines stand with 
 golden walls and pillars, and roof trees and eaves, 
 blazing with red and green and blue, are cut into 
 wonderful volutes and gargoyles. Gilding and 
 carving, lacquer and enamels, the richest chasing
 
 RURAL JAPAN. 223 
 
 and the rarest sculpture, with blocks of stone 
 massive enough for the Titans, and joinery deli- 
 cate as fairy work, unite in these extraordinary 
 fanes. 
 
 If you studied every detail of wonder, it is not 
 a day but a month which would be necessary, and 
 they would look yet more imposingly splendid but 
 for a casing of plain wood which covers their side- 
 walls. In one court rises a great tree a hundred 
 feet high, which lye-Yasu was wont to carry about 
 in his palanquin in a flower-vase. A holy cistern 
 next presents itself, where the water runs over the 
 granite so equally that it seems a solid block of the 
 element ; a bronze lamp from the King of Loo-choo 
 also claims attention, and a bell from the King of 
 Corea. Another stone staircase is ascended, and 
 you are amongst tigers, tapirs, twisted dragons, 
 and gilded demons, so lifelike as almost to alarm. 
 And then gate succeeds to gate, court to court, 
 cloister to cloister, and stairway to stairway, in 
 such lavish confusion that it is a welcome repose 
 to abstract the mind from the bewildering and 
 heathenish grandeur by slipping off the shoes and 
 entering one of the temples. The folding doors are 
 rich with lotus and peony in gold relief. Beyond 
 the black threshold stretch soft white mattings, 
 leading through an ante-chamber, under a ceiling 
 diapered with wonderful colour and carving, to an 
 altar glittering with gold and shining red-and-black 
 lacquer. The panels of what might be called the 
 nave, as well as the chancel to which it brings us,
 
 22 4 SEAS AND LANDS. 
 
 are embellished with marvellous figures in sculp- 
 tured wood and beaten gold ; and gold asarum 
 leaves, the crest of the great family whose founders 
 rest here, repeat themselves in every spot. In the 
 oratory, if it be Shinto, there hang Gohei, or 
 charms in gold paper, with a circular mirror of 
 metal, and you see the rural pilgrims prostrate 
 themselves here, wrap a coin or two in white paper, 
 reverently deposit the gift, and rise and depart with- 
 out a word. If it is Buddhist, the decorations will 
 be still more dazzling, and the treasures of the 
 oratory more numerous and elaborate, while scrolls 
 of " the Law " will be laid for reading on low stools. 
 Both and all these buildings are chapels to the 
 tombs of the saint and of the great Shoguns. 
 Weary of the overwhelming but often rude and 
 grotesque splendour, you quit the soft-matted, 
 silent, shining temple and the motionless priests, 
 and pass up moss-grown ancient stone stairways 
 and along galleries of masonry to the bell-shaped 
 tombs, surrounded by balustrades of stone, where 
 the old secular Kings of Japan sleep. In front of 
 them stand great storks in bronze, and huge incense 
 burners in the same material. All round the tombs, 
 enclosing the entire range of buildings, groves of 
 enormous trees cast their black-green shadow. The 
 mountain glen seems to embrace the shrines and 
 tombs alike, and to shut them from the glare of 
 day, with gaunt rocks and impenetrable foliage. 
 There is one spot near the gate of the mausoleum 
 of lye-Mitsu where you pass between the God of
 
 RURAL JAPAN. 225 
 
 Wind, painted green and gold, and the God of 
 Thunder, all blazing crimson, and reaching the 
 " Yaksha Gate," look out of it upon the wall of 
 dark-green verdure and the wilderness of curving 
 roofs, gilded ridge-poles, brilliant doorways, and 
 lacquer alight with gold. Here the weird and 
 strange attractions of the scene seem to be concen- 
 trated in all that nature can lend of solemnity to all 
 that superstition can devise of blended terror and 
 beauty. For there is nothing elevating, reposeful, 
 or edifying here. The Shinto has taken up with 
 splendid but painful images of ugliness and awe, 
 the Buddhism is degenerate and decorative, and the 
 mountains around, which have elsewhere so many 
 features of gracious beauty, huddle their crags 
 together round the place, and lend it nothing but 
 what it seems to ask profound shadow, sepulchral 
 gloom, and an unbroken silence. 
 
 Half dazzled, half oppressed with pacing through 
 a dozen glittering shrines and chapels, resplendent 
 hondens and haidens, superb oratories and gloomy 
 tomb-enclosures, where gorgeous details overlaid 
 and overwhelmed each other, and the mind became 
 obscured as is the eye when it gazes too long upon 
 extreme brilliancy, we resumed our shoes, and, 
 passing towards the beautiful gate, Yomei Mon, 
 saw the one graceful and charming sight of the 
 fantastic labyrinth. Close by a side building where 
 country people upon their knees were buying written 
 charms to take home for good luck or recovery from 
 illness, we came upon a pretty little open chapel
 
 22 6 SEAS AND LANDS. 
 
 marked by the Shinto gold paper shreds and mirror. 
 On its floor of spotless matting was a seated figure, 
 which might have been taken at first for the chief 
 triumph of the Shogun carvers' work, so motionless 
 was it; but in another moment you perceived this 
 was only a Japanese girl clothed in white, and 
 seated in the shrine. Our guide threw a coin into 
 the box in front of her. Upon this she rose, and, 
 with extremely becoming movements, commenced 
 the kagura, or temple dance, beating slow time to 
 her own steps with the bunch of silver bells held in 
 her right hand, and waving her fan to the same 
 cadence with her left, while performing what was a 
 most rhythmical, solemn, and striking "pas seul." 
 Her white head-dress, almost Abyssinian in style, 
 her large white sleeves and scarlet "obi," made her 
 very pictorial, and she was, besides this, so entirely 
 comely, gentle, and demure, that when she bowed 
 her head, closed her fan, and sank back again into 
 dreamy silence, I asked my interpreter what gift 
 he had made for so delightful a little ceremony, 
 and what would be its efficacy theologically. He 
 answered that the dance was supposed to "drive 
 away devils " for those who paid ; and that his offer- 
 ing, on our behalf, had been four sen, a sum equal to 
 about twopence. Shocked at this unworthy tribute 
 for certainly any demons of taste would have 
 been attracted rather than repelled by so much grace 
 and gentleness I offered the taciturn danseuse a 
 more adequate present on my own account, where- 
 upon she rose again silently and demurely as before,
 
 RURAL JAPAN. 227 
 
 and repeated the strange undulating movements, 
 the deftly-measured steps, the fan-waving, and bell- 
 ringing of the mystic dance. Her dark eyes, fair, 
 quiet face, and pious gravity were perhaps the best 
 and nicest things we saw in the renowned temple 
 grounds at Nikko ; and I, at least, shall remember 
 the slow, musical beat of her silver bells, and the 
 perfect harmony between her little feet and her 
 fluttering fan longer than the gold and red and 
 green devils whom it was her befitting duty to 
 exorcise. Even had those devils been "blue," O 
 Take San "the Hon. Miss Bamboo" might have 
 danced them all away with her debonnair simplicity 
 and youthful grace. 
 
 NIKKO, Nov. 18, 1889.
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 TEMPLES AND SHRINES. 
 
 FuJi-SAN is hidden this morning in driving clouds, 
 which deluge the roofs of Tokio with rain ; and 
 the garden party in the Palace grounds, fixed for 
 this afternoon, cannot, I fear, come off. Our tickets 
 of admission to the imperial presence, splendidly 
 emblazoned with the royal chrysanthemum, and 
 printed in golden Japanese characters, have just 
 been delivered ; but the wind is raging like a com- 
 mencing typhoon, and the Japanese abroad are, 
 for the most part, wrapped in straw coats, mino, 
 and pent-house hats, which give them the appear- 
 ance of small hayricks moving about. Everybody 
 exclaims, "Amef taksan waruif" ("Rain, very 
 bad ! "), and I shall endeavour to utilise our forced 
 leisure by describing two or three excursions made 
 in the picturesque country round about Nikko. 
 Returning from that long journey into the interior, 
 and from wandering about the hills and valleys of 
 the Nikko-zan, the strongest impression left is of 
 the invariable gentleness and courtesy of this people. 
 With the restless curiosity of our kind, we have 
 gone into temples, cemeteries, shrines, tea-houses, 
 native hotels, private residences, farmyards, rice- 
 
 Ml
 
 TEMPLES AND SHRINES. 231 
 
 mills, and bathing-places encountering nowhere 
 the smallest deviation from the soft and pleasant 
 manners already noted. It would be absurd to 
 think that the foreign element can be particularly 
 welcome in a land so intensely patriotic and pecu- 
 liar, where the best-informed stranger constantly 
 violates the proprieties of Japanese speech and 
 customs, and where the most considerate must be 
 often rather a nuisance than otherwise. But 
 whether it be due to the humanising influence of 
 Buddhism, or to the happy mixture in Japanese 
 veins of the good-humoured Mongolian blood with 
 the subtle and graceful Malay nature on all sides 
 and in all places the well-conducted traveller in 
 Japan meets with the same douceur inalterable 
 of behaviour. 
 
 As you pass through the villages lining the high 
 road, the little ones, waddling about on wooden 
 pattens, with their smaller brothers and sisters 
 strapped upon their backs, wag their shaven heads 
 and bend low shaking the baby altogether out 
 of position uttering cheerful and friendly Ohayos ! 
 The very baby, if he can say anything at all, blinks 
 with his tiny almond eyes, and nods his small 
 poll, and babbles " Hayo ! kayo ! " to the passing 
 wayfarer. At the tea-houses, when all is paid, and 
 there is nothing more to expect, the girls will offer 
 the departing guest a bunch of chrysanthemums, or 
 a red or white camellia, and to whatever expressions 
 of thanks you employ the pretty answer is, " What 
 have I done?" (" D6 itashimashita ?") If you ask
 
 e 32 SEAS AND LANDS. 
 
 the way, your guide for the time being will almost 
 rather let you take the wrong turning in a forest 
 path than walk before you. You are led into 
 awful mistakes and mutual misapprehensions by 
 the Japanese habit of never contradicting. They 
 answer " Yes " to almost everything, and the musu- 
 mes in particular softly murmur " Hi ! Hi ! Hi ! " 
 all the time you are giving orders or asking 
 questions. If they have anything to say longer 
 than a word or two off goes the hat, and the hands 
 are laid on the bended knees by the men, while 
 the women slide down upon their heels, and 
 smooth their kimono over their laps, and so con- 
 tinue the " august communication." Faces plain 
 and sad and toil-worn you may meet, and faces 
 inquisitive, indifferent, or unintelligent. But these 
 are rare even amongst the males, while among 
 the females the young have almost always bright 
 and kindly looks, and the old a sweet serenity 
 of expression, as if they were sure, as they are, 
 of respect and affection. Of course, I am merely 
 an ignorant newcomer here, and all this may be 
 as some say the lacquer laid over insincere 
 natures. Yet it presents no such aspect to my 
 eyes ; and if the merry friendliness and delightful 
 ways of the knot of children and mothers who 
 gathered around us at Utsunomiya yesterday to 
 laugh at our broken Japanese, and to divide some 
 sugar and cakes, was not sincere, it was the 
 prettiest imitation of sincerity. The light per- 
 petual laughter of the Japanese especially charms.
 
 TEMPLES AND SHRINES. 233 
 
 With the women and children it is the softest, 
 most musical " chortle " that could be heard ; and 
 even the jinrikisha men chuckle perpetually as 
 they dash you along the narrow roads, and seem 
 full of joyous badinage one with the other or with 
 the passers-by. 
 
 Dazzled with the barbaric splendour of the Nikko 
 Temples, Tosho-Gu, Diu-yu-in, Sambutsu-d6, Futa- 
 ara, and the rest, we found it pleasant to wander off 
 into some of the mountain glens which surround the 
 town and the famous shrines. One such excursion 
 on foot was to Shichi-taki ("The Seven Cascades"). 
 The path led through a village, where daikon (great 
 white radishes) were drying in the sun. Water- 
 wheels were working the rice-pestles ; women were 
 washing household utensils in the mountain-brooks ; 
 and pack-horses with straw shoes were bringing 
 wood from the hills to a sort of moor covered with 
 long dry feathery grass and thickets of occasion- 
 ally unfamiliar aspect. The northern and southern 
 floras meet in this favoured land. Oaks, laurels, 
 and conifers keep the fair empire green throughout 
 the dry and flowerless winter ; elms, beech, walnut, 
 chestnut, and birch mingle with the ever-graceful 
 bamboo, dwarf palms, and cycads. Wild plum and 
 cherry trees make the country a perfect Japanese 
 kakemono in spring ; and these well-known trees 
 have for neighbours hydrangeas, camellias, azaleas, 
 magnolias, the camphor laurel, and the tea bush. 
 Even a careless botanist might find, in lowlands 
 or highlands near the Treaty ports, such old friends
 
 234 SEAS AND LANDS. 
 
 as shepherd's purse, dandelion, monkshood, poppy, 
 celandine, violet, mallow, chickweed, plantago, 
 mistletoe, golden rod, burweed, burdock, thistle, 
 red convolvulus, dock, and herb Robert ; while if he 
 knew a little of sub-tropical vegetation he would 
 also recognise the glossy saw-edged tea-leaf, the 
 lotus (hasu), the loquat, yam, cotton, vegetable wax, 
 and varnish plant, tobacco, rice, sesamum, &c. From 
 the coppices and dried-up grasses, as we pass, spring 
 many pheasants ; a lighter-coloured and smaller bird 
 than that familiar at home, but very pretty as its 
 purple and green plumage glitters in the sunlight. 
 We see the brimstone, the white admiral, and 
 tortoiseshell butterflies, and others which are new ; 
 and crows, tits, shrikes, wagtails, owls, jays, with a 
 few finches brighter in colour than our own. The 
 prettiest of Japanese small birds is a fly-catcher, 
 coloured azure blue and emerald green, but in 
 autumn it loses the long tail feathers. Wild geese 
 fly overhead in a long wedge, and there are egrets 
 in a swamp, with snipe, and what looks like an ibis, 
 with pink legs and white feathers. The woodcock 
 sometimes showing cream-coloured plumage is 
 common in the hollows where streams run. 
 
 Along our path, from time to time, rises a little 
 Shinto shrine, distinguishable by its unpainted torii 
 or " bird-perch," which makes the gate, and by the 
 strips of zig-zag paper and rag suspended before 
 the inner recess. More frequently it is a Buddhist 
 " templette," with a whole posse of Buddhas in 
 stone grouped around some with head on hand,
 
 TEMPLES AND SHRINES. 235 
 
 reposing in the calm of Nirvana, some erect with 
 hand raised in benediction, some seated with closed 
 eyes, placid countenance, and folded knees. Near 
 these is often a little cemetery, full of wooden and 
 stone tablets bearing the name of the deceased, and 
 in front of each a flower-vase of pottery, or a little 
 vessel containing sand in which to put lighted 
 perfume sticks. One such tablet recorded so our 
 interpreter declared the living, and the after-life, 
 the name and too early demise of O-tzubaki-San, 
 " Miss Camellia." It did seem such a sad pity that 
 she could no more enjoy the clear morning air and 
 soft mountain outlines, and the berries and flowers 
 of the road to the waterfall, that we kindled a half- 
 dozen of scent sticks and set them up, burning, in 
 her little votive saucer, nay, and we even said, 
 heathenishly, a "Sayonara," as we hastened away 
 over the Japanese moorland. 
 
 Upon its face we meet many woodcutters return- 
 ing with laden ponies, their fore-feet shod with 
 grass-slippers tied on with cord. We pass a vast 
 boulder, hollowed at the top by nature or art, where 
 the rain has collected, and the wayfaring country 
 folk pause here to wash their hands before offering 
 a prayer to the adjacent shrine, calling it Ame-furo- 
 ishi, the " Kain Bathstone." At a small and solitary 
 tea-house, near the waterfall, we find an old lady of 
 seventy-eight summers, all alone in this wilderness, 
 whose four children are gone down to Nikko. She 
 bustles about, after the usual salutations, and pre- 
 pares tea, as well as pouring out a tiny cup of sake>
 
 236 SEAS AND LANDS. 
 
 the rice-spirit, which one soon learns to appreciate. 
 Always, with the tea, are provided little green and 
 red biscuits, and, if you are seriously hungry, the 
 tub of hot boiled rice. All around this mountain 
 tea-house are ranged ancient figures of Buddha, 
 upon which votaries have affixed scraps of paper 
 bearing their names, and sometimes a statement of 
 their wishes. Yet the old lady is no Buddhist, but 
 of the Shinto persuasion, so closely do the two 
 creeds dwell together. Her cottage, of framework 
 and paper, is full of the strangest mixture of religious 
 tablets, household utensils, and fruits and herbs 
 hung up to dry; and when we ask for more fuel 
 to replenish the hibachi she proudly explains that 
 she has the right to cut wood all over the hillside. 
 The cups in which she serves the tea and sake are 
 of the most delicate porcelain and of lovely form 
 and colour, and there are many things valuable, to 
 Japanese minds, in her lonely dwelling. There are 
 surely not many countries where an old lady like 
 this could live alone at such a distance from habita- 
 tions in perfect security. The " Seven Cascades," 
 just beyond her tea-house, is a picturesque cataract 
 which in England would render a district renowned 
 here it principally serves to supply the stream 
 where our hostess washes her tubs and pipkins. 
 
 Another charming walk of eight or ten miles took 
 us to Urami, a still finer waterfall, the name sig- 
 nifying " See behind," because you can pass under 
 the descending water, which shoots in a great 
 column far out from the lofty rock. Arashi-yama,
 
 TEMPLES AND SHRINES. 237 
 
 " Mountain of Typhoons," soared near at hand, 
 and sent down the stream supplying the beautiful 
 cascade. All along the moorland path, as, indeed, 
 in every road of Japan, the way was marked by 
 the cast-off waraji, the woven grass shoes, which 
 the people buy for a penny a pair, and fling aside 
 after a few days', or even hours', rough wear. Every 
 wayside shop supplies them by scores, as well as the 
 thicker and heavier articles made for horses ; and 
 when the shopkeeper has nothing better to do, he 
 weaves waraji. Uncramped by boots or shoes, the 
 Japanese foot is always shapely and free of blemish ; 
 but the cord of the grass shoe and of the clog which 
 passes between the great toe and the other toes 
 spreads them, and causes a callosity in the interval. 
 Japanese foot-gear cannot, of course, be worn with 
 an European stocking. 
 
 Yet another little excursion conducted us on foot 
 along the course of the Daiya-Gawa River which 
 runs under the red bridge of Utsunomiya to a deep 
 pool called Kamman-ga-fuchi, the "Whirlpool of 
 the Tortoise." On the road we passed a long line 
 of carts, having a red flag inscribed with Japanese 
 characters fixed upon the load of each. Our inter- 
 preter deciphered the letters as meaning " Exercise 
 honourable precaution," and looking more closely 
 we observed that the boxes were marked " Dynamit." 
 The perilous commodity was passing to the copper- 
 mines under the hill Nan-tai-zan, to be used in 
 blasting the rock ; and there was enough to produce, 
 if exploded, something far worse than the slight
 
 238 SEAS AND LANDS. 
 
 earthquake felt the night before. We were glad 
 to get the river between ourselves and this uncom- 
 fortable convoy, upon which the Japanese carters 
 were gaily riding, and smoking their little brass 
 pipes. Between a small temple and the Tortoise 
 Rock a long line of images of Amida the Amitaya, 
 or " Measureless One " of Indian Buddhism was 
 ranged. We counted 126; there may have been 
 more. Some were new, some very old all bore 
 in their sculptured features the same traditional 
 placidity of expression, the same carefully preserved 
 benignity of air, which the rudest artists of this cult 
 have known how to perpetuate in representing the 
 Buddha or his incarnations. Some charming verses, 
 sent to me by a Californian lady named Annie 
 Herbert Barker, of San Rafael, seem to express 
 the spirit which was visible in the passionless coun- 
 tenances of all these Buddhas with such felicity 
 that it might almost be thought this gifted writer 
 had herself viewed the rushing Japanese river, the 
 "Mountain of the Typhoon," all the marks and 
 memorials of earth's restless life, and amid them 
 those records in ancient stone of the unalterable 
 tranquillity, the unshaken content, the immeasurable 
 aspirations of the Buddh. Her verses run 
 
 " To hear in old words, breathing balm, 
 The secret of the Wordless Calm, 
 The equipoise of chastened will, 
 The Master's comfort, ' Peace, be still ! ' 
 
 To search tear-bordered lids between 
 Until each wandering soul, serene,
 
 TEMPLES AND SHRINES. 239 
 
 Finds in. Nirvana of the blest 
 A mother's arms, a lover's breast. 
 
 O Unseen Presence ! Constant Power ! 
 That comprehends our little hour : 
 Because Thou art, though unconfessed, 
 When Nature faints, we feel Thee Rest ! 
 
 Thy Light, which is not Sun or Star, 
 But clear as heavenly haloes are, 
 Illumes the path our feet must tread, 
 Thy pity folds us, quick and dead. 
 
 So, cradled in immensity, 
 Troubled or still my couch may be, 
 What time in tranced dusk I wait 
 The turning of the Key of Fate ! " 
 
 The wayside avenue of Buddhas showed nearly 
 every figure with prayers and wishes written on 
 slips of paper and pasted on the breast, or little 
 stones marked and laid in the lap of the " Unspeak- 
 able." These are to save small children, in the 
 other world, from the penance of piling up pebbles 
 by the bank of the " Dark River." Buddhism is 
 deeply ingrained albeit with corruptions in the 
 minds and hearts of this people. They have the 
 Goma (Sanskrit, " Homa "), and the Ingwa, or doc- 
 trines of Karma and Transmigation ; the priest's 
 scarf is Kesa (Sanskrit, " Kashaya ") ; and the Maye- 
 dachi, the image on the altar, together with the 
 altar itself, recalls with much precision Indian and 
 Singhalese models. The Rim-b6, "Wheel of the 
 Law " (Chakra in Sanskrit), is constantly carved 
 and painted. As I write these words a deputation 
 of Japanese Buddhist priests enters my room at
 
 240 SEAS AND LANDS. 
 
 the British Legation to invite me to lecture on the 
 Holy Places of the Faith to the Tokio Brethren, 
 and afterwards to dine with them more Japonico. 
 They bring with them a translation into Japanese 
 of " The Light of Asia," and are friendly, courteous 
 and accomplished gentlemen. 
 
 Last night, after the heavy rains and wild winds 
 which rendered the Mikado's garden festival im- 
 possible, another and far stronger shock of earth- 
 quake shook this city. It occurred shortly before 
 midnight, and continued for about forty seconds. 
 Lying in bed, it was easy and interesting for 
 me to note its phenomena first, the rattling of 
 things movable inside and outside the chamber; 
 then a strange distant rumbling noise, like the 
 passage of an underground train, increasing in 
 volume until the strongest shock was felt, and 
 afterwards dying away with tremors and shudders 
 of the ground ; lastly, perfect stillness, except 'for 
 the crowing of disturbed cocks and the howls of 
 surprised Tokio dogs. It imparted a feeling of 
 pleasure rather than apprehension to realise that 
 the planet itself was also quick and active, full of 
 secret developments and hidden evolutions, shaping 
 herself for later destinies with these throes and soft 
 mysterious upheavals. 
 
 " What ! alive and so bold t Earth ! " 
 
 There are two islands near the capital which are 
 held to be the very seismological focus of Japan, 
 so that earthquakes are common at Tokio, and old
 
 TEMPLES AND SHRINES, 241 
 
 hands will repose indifferently between the sheets 
 and watch the wall paper split upon the sides of 
 their chambers. This, however, is when Fuji-San 
 is shaken to her roots. Last night she did but 
 heave her mighty flanks a little, and utter the 
 sigh of a sleeping Mountain Goddess. In 1855 
 (on November 1 1 ) an earthquake here destroyed 
 100,000 lives and 14,000 dwelling-houses, it is 
 said. Decidedly one would prefer these interesting 
 phenomena on a smaller scale ! 
 
 BRITISH LEGATION, TOKIO, Nov. 20, 1889.
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 POETRY AND PLAYS. 
 
 YESTERDAY came off the long-deferred gathering in 
 the gardens of the Emperor's Palace at Asakusa, 
 in Tokio, to view the royal chrysanthemums. But 
 the occasion was shorn of part, at least, of the 
 dignity which had been foreshadowed, since neither 
 his Imperial Majesty nor the Empress appeared. 
 In Japan one does not inquire into the reasons 
 for Court vacillations of purpose one expects and 
 accepts them ; and the beautiful pleasure-grounds 
 surrounding the former residence of the Mikado 
 were thronged with the Jine fleur of the capital. 
 The Palace built mainly in the native style, with 
 sliding shoji and walls adorned with storks, wild, 
 ducks, and rain-birds has been recently abandoned 
 for the new and handsome abode situated within 
 the moat and ramparts of the " shiro." But the 
 park surrounding the Asakusa House in which the 
 present Emperor passed much of his earlier years 
 is very spacious and picturesque, with hills and 
 dales, groves of great trees and parterres of flowers, 
 bridges, tea-kiosks, and retreats embellished with 
 the dwarfed vegetation, and artificial miniature 
 landscape work, the taste for which has been
 
 POETRY AND PLAYS. 243 
 
 borrowed by Japan from China. Amidst these 
 royal pleasaunces it was agreeable enough to 
 wander, meeting many of the most distinguished 
 of Japanese ministerial and official people. But 
 an imperial edict had issued to the effect that 
 frock coats and tall silk hats must be worn, and 
 the mode for the Court ladies is still largely 
 European, so that the spectacle lost much of its 
 native charm. Nothing is more becoming to the 
 bright complexions, and graceful, petite figures of 
 Japanese ladies than their own charming kimono 
 and obi; nothing less suitable than the Parisian 
 costumes which they do not know how to select 
 or to put on. ^Ssthetically it was absolutely tragic 
 to meet a Minister of State in chimney-pot head- 
 gear, and his charming consort in an ill-fitting 
 London robe, which they would both eagerly dis- 
 card for the dress of their country at the moment 
 of reaching home. The pretty grey, and pink, and 
 purple kimono of the less fashionable belles attend- 
 ing the display were so many silent rebukes to the 
 deplorable innovation, which, happily, is not gain- 
 ing, but losing ground, even in the vicinity of 
 the Court. The chrysanthemums were various in 
 colour and form, and very magnificent, as befitted 
 those cultivated for the Emperor's own eye, in a 
 land where the kiku is the national emblem. Little 
 Japanese soldiers, in the German uniform which 
 has been adopted for the Army, as the Navy has 
 taken up with our own British man-of-war style 
 kept the gates and grounds with much military
 
 244 SEAS AND LANDS. 
 
 suavity. Discipline can neither add to nor diminish 
 the perfect politeness and self-possession of this 
 race. As our carriage drove through the outer 
 portal of the palace, its fore off-wheel caught the 
 jinrikisha of an official, and threatened, for the 
 moment, to flatten him, like one of his own kake- 
 mono, against the lacquered gate. His counte- 
 nance, however, did not betray the slightest alarm, 
 although, if the horses had not been instantly con- 
 trolled, the affair might have proved serious. To 
 our exclamation, " We beg your honourable excuse," 
 he replied with a bow, " What slight thing is this ! 
 Condescend not to take honourable notice." 
 
 Among the company moved about very imposingly 
 the Corean Ambassador and his suite, to whom 
 we had the distinction of being presented. His 
 Excellency, a grave, enlightened-looking diplomat, 
 wore the most amazing head-dress ever, perhaps, 
 invented, resembling the upper two storeys of a 
 pagoda, with a slab of green jade upon its summit, 
 and broad cheek-strings of amber beads. His 
 attendants, similarly, but less splendidly, arrayed, 
 furnished with their grey gowns and Mongol features 
 a singular group among many others. 
 
 It was by way of Corea and Northern China that 
 Buddhism and the Chinese characters came into 
 those four greater islands, which, constituting the 
 bulk of the Empire, take, with the fanciful Japanese 
 artist, the form and name of " Land of the Dragon- 
 Fly." The Loo-choo group, of course, has been 
 lately annexed to the Mikado's dominions under the
 
 POETRY AND PLAYS. 245 
 
 title of " liiu-kiu." Numberless are the legends and 
 fairy stories which the people tell of those outlying 
 southern archipelagoes, to which adventurous sam- 
 pans and ill-equipped junks must ofttimes have 
 been driven in the old days, never or hardly ever 
 to return. How full, for instance, of ancient 
 romance and Buddhistic impress is this story of 
 Urashima ! It has been translated, like many other 
 exquisite things, from Japanese folk-lore by Mr. 
 Basil Hall Chamberlain one of the most accom- 
 plished of Anglo-Japanese scholars, and the author 
 of a grammar which was my daily study on the 
 Pacific Ocean, and was so admirably compiled as to 
 prove more interesting than any romance. Says the 
 little tale which I abridge 
 
 Long ago there lived on the coast of Japan a young fisherman 
 named Urashima. One day he went out in his boat to fish, and 
 caught a big tortoise. Now, tortoises always live a thousand 
 years. So Urashima thought to himself, " A fish would do for my 
 dinner just as well as this tortoise, in fact, better. Why should I 
 prevent it from enjoying itself for another 999 years ? No, no, I 
 won't be so cruel." And with these words he threw the tortoise 
 back into the sea. Then Urishima went to sleep in his boat, and 
 as he slept there came up from beneath the waves a beautiful girl, 
 who entered the boat and said, " I am the daughter of the Sea-God, 
 and I live with my father in the Dragon Palace beyond the waves. 
 It was not a tortoise that you caught just now. It was myself. 
 My father the Sea-God had sent me to see whether you were good 
 or bad. You shall marry me, if you like, and we will live happily 
 together for a thousand years in the Dragon Palace beyond the 
 blue sea." So Urishima took one oar and the Sea-God's daughter 
 the other, and they rowed, and they came to the Dragon Palace, 
 where the Sea-God ruled as King over all the dragons, tortoises, 
 and fishes. The walls of the palace were of coral, the trees had 
 emeralds for leaves and rubies for berries, the fishes' scales were
 
 246 SEAS AND LANDS. 
 
 of silver and the dragons' lails of solid gold. And it all belonged 
 to Urashima ; so they lived happily. But one morning Urashima 
 said to his wife, " I am very happy here. Still I want to go home 
 and see my father and mother and brothers and sisters." "I am 
 very much afraid," said she. " However, if you will go, you must 
 take this box, and be very careful not to open it. If you open 
 it you will never be able to come back." Then, getting into his 
 boat, he rowed off, and at last landed on the shore of his own 
 country. But everything seemed to have changed so much in 
 those short years. Two men chanced to pass along the beach, and 
 Urashima said, " Can you tell me where Urashima's cottage is that 
 used to stand here t " " Urashima ? " said they ; " why, it was four 
 hundred years ago that he was drowned out fishing. His parents, 
 and his brothers, and their great-grandchildren are all dead long ago. 
 His cottage fell to pieces hundreds of years ago." Then Urashima 
 knew that the Sea-God's Palace beyond the waves, with its coral 
 walls and its ruby fruits and its dragons with tails of solid gold, 
 must be Fairyland, and that one day there was as long as a year 
 in this world. So in a great hurry to get back he disobeyed her 
 orders not to open the box, and out of it came a white cloud 
 which floated away over the sea. Suddenly, too, his hair grew as 
 white as snow, his face wrinkled, his breath stopped short, and ho 
 fell down dead on the beach. 
 
 Is it not clear that Urashima's adventure is the 
 echo of some old sea-story, told by the island folk, 
 of Japan boatmen blown off the coast to far-off 
 Corea or Loo-choo, returning long afterwards in 
 junk or proa, the Rip Van Winkles of a world 
 which had forgotten them? Just beyond Kana- 
 gawa, near this city, is the spot where Urashima lies 
 buried ; so it must be all true ! 
 
 For three nights past we have sate heroically on 
 our heels at Japanese theatres, witnessing the per- 
 formances which so delight the Yokohama public. 
 If you can put up with the "pins and needles" 
 which come into the hapless lower limbs of the
 
 'DANJIRO THE ACTOK
 
 POETRY AND PLAYS. 349 
 
 European after about an hour of this position upon 
 matting, there is much to interest in such places. 
 They are wholly unlike any temple of the drama at 
 home. The first odd sight is an anteroom where 
 everybody hangs up his or her clogs and waraji; 
 and just imagine six hundred pair of muddy pattens 
 on pegs ! Next is a teapot room, where scores of 
 teapots are suspended for the refreshment of the 
 audience ; since, at every pause in the performance, 
 attendants go about shouting yoroshii ka, and o cha ! 
 ocha! which is "Give your orders," and "Who 
 wishes for the honourable tea?" The pit is a 
 sloping floor covered with matting, and the gallery 
 is divided into little square pens with railing a foot 
 high, all nicely matted ; and hither if an habitue 
 you bring your cushion, your " tobacco-mono," your 
 charcoal fire, your pipe, your baby when you have 
 one and see at your ease alternately a comic piece 
 and the successive acts of some tremendous mediaeval 
 tragedy. Everybody goes about in the building as 
 he likes especially the children, who lift up the 
 curtain and survey the preparations for the next 
 scene, scamper about the stage, and play all sorts of 
 private games until the acting recommences, when 
 they are as good as gold and quiet as mice. The 
 performers come on from the " boot and shoe room," 
 along a narrow side stage ; the female parts being 
 taken by boys. The dresses are rich and the acting 
 intelligent, though extravagant accompanied almost 
 always by a wild instrumental recitative of strings 
 and drum. Changes of the mise-en-scene and the
 
 25 o SEAS AND LANDS. 
 
 general business of the stage are accomplished by 
 persons who flit on and off in black habiliments, 
 which are supposed to render them totally invisible 
 to the spectators. These are, like Japanese every- 
 where, attentive, patient, easily pleased, and imagi- 
 native to the highest degree. They are abundantly 
 content to see a forest, where two small shrubs in 
 pots are placed upon the boards ; and an impene- 
 trable wall, where a split bamboo or a couple of 
 stones have been deposited. The great character 
 of most pieces is the samurai, the two-sworded 
 swashbuckler, who comes prancing in with a terrific 
 swagger and ends by drawing his glittering blades 
 to engage in fiery combat, or to commit the hara-kiri. 
 The correct mode of performing this latter rite is by 
 a thrust as I have learned not a slash, and the 
 weapon remains in the wound, until all final dis- 
 positions have been comfortably effected. Every- 
 body smokes everywhere in a Japanese theatre, no 
 one hustles for his place, or wants more than his 
 own heels to sit upon. A policeman in uniform 
 occupies a private pen at the back, and by a lighted 
 paper lantern, reads loftily and apart the day's 
 shimbun while the entertainment proceeds. The 
 scenery is either absent, or of the simplest character. 
 The serious and lyrical pieces are given in the old 
 pure style of Japan, unmixed with the Chinese 
 words which enter so freely into modern and 
 colloquial Japanese. 
 
 This leads to some mention of Japanese poetry, 
 which has, I have ascertained, some remarkable
 
 POETRY AND PLAYS. 251 
 
 peculiarities. Japan has borrowed from abroad her 
 religion, laws, writings, her wonderful arts in em- 
 broidery, lacquer, carving, and pottery. The only 
 thing perfectly original is her classical poetry. No 
 Chinese word, as has been remarked, occurs in the 
 pure style of this, which possesses practically but 
 one metre, namely, of alternate lines of five and seven 
 syllables, with an extra line of seven syllables to 
 mark the close. For the sake of the curious in 
 these matters, here is an example, with translation, 
 as close as I can make it, after erudite help 
 
 " Utsusemishi 
 
 Kami ni taheneba, 
 Hanare-wite, 
 
 Asa nageku Kimi ; 
 Sakari-wite, 
 
 Waga kofuru Kimi 
 Tama naraba, 
 
 Te ni maki-mocliite ; 
 Kinu naraba, 
 
 Nugu toki mo naku. 
 Waga kohimu 
 
 Kimi zo kizo no yo 
 Ime ni miyetsuru." 
 
 This which is the form of all high and ancient 
 Japanese verse was written upon the death of 
 the Mikado Tenji by one of his ladies, and means, 
 in much the same measure 
 
 " Oh, unconsoled one ! 
 
 Shut from converse with above, 
 Dawn of the morning 
 
 Finds my spirit comfortless ; 
 Flight of the daytime 
 
 Sees me sighing for my Prince.
 
 a 5 2 SEAS AND LANDS, 
 
 Wert thou a jewel 
 
 On mine arm I had bound thee ', 
 
 Silk obi wert thou 
 
 Night and day, over my heart, 
 
 Thee had I folded. 
 
 Now, my lover ! my lost lord 1 
 
 Only in a dream I see thee ! 
 
 So musical is Japanese speech that this rudi- 
 mentary rhythmical form satisfies the native ear 
 to-day in a street ballad as it did the courtiers of 
 the Mikado in the seventh century. There are also 
 certain very curious adjuncts employed by the 
 Japanese muse known as " pillow- words " and 
 " pivots." To explain these would lead too far 
 into a technical subject, but they are luminously 
 expounded by Mr. B. H. Chamberlain in his 
 " Classical Poetry of the Japanese." Simplicity, 
 conservatism, and courtly polish are declared by 
 this great authority to be the characteristic features 
 of the poetry of the charming people. " Nowhere," 
 says the author, "do we come across a low word 
 or vulgar thought. Even the mention of low people 
 and things seems prohibited. Japanese verse in 
 one unchanging and natural melody dwells on the 
 simple themes common to all mankind love, hopes, 
 regrets, loyalty, old traditions, and the transitoriness 
 of human life. As in Japanese scenery we miss the 
 awe-inspiring grandeur of the Alps and the vast 
 magnificence of the wide, watered plains of the 
 American continent, but are delighted at each turn 
 by the merry plashing of a mountain torrent, the 
 quaintly painted eaves of some little temple pictur-
 
 POETRY AND PLAYS. 255- 
 
 esquely petched on a hillside amid plantations of 
 pines and cryptomerias, or by the view of fantastic 
 islets covered with bamboos and azaleas, while we 
 thread our way through the mazes of the Inland 
 Sea, so do we seem, on turning over the pages of 
 the Japanese poets, to be, as it were, transported to 
 some less substantial world, where the deeper and 
 wilder aspect of things are forgotten, and where 
 prettiness and a sort of tender grace are allowed 
 to reign supreme." Poetry having always been a 
 favourite study in Japan, there exist numerous 
 volumes of verses either written or collected by the 
 old Court nobles. Of these the most ancient is the 
 Manydshiu, or " Collection of a Myriad Leaves," 
 which dates from the eighth century. But this 
 work, notwithstanding its antiquity, is less familiar 
 than the Hiakuninshiu, or " Collection of One 
 Hundred," which includes some pieces written by 
 Emperors themselves. This was followed by almost 
 numberless minor volumes of the same kind. Verse- 
 making attained to such favour that it was a usual 
 custom for one of the nobles to invite together 
 several of his friends noted for their scholarship to 
 pass away the time in this occupation. The verses 
 were in nearly all cases in the style known as uta 
 explained above the pure Japanese ode, as opposed 
 to the shi, or Chinese poetry, introduced in later 
 years. Each uta is complete in itself, and expresses 
 one idea. The Japanese do not possess any great 
 epics or didactic poems, but their utas are often 
 inscribed on long strips of variegated paper ; and it
 
 -256 SEAS AND LANDS. 
 
 is even now a common practice, when offering a 
 present, to send with it a verse thus composed for 
 the occasion by the donor. Even down to recent 
 times, when a man had determined to commit 
 suicide, or was about to hazard his life in some 
 dangerous enterprise, it was not uncommon for him 
 to prepare and leave behind him a verse descriptive 
 of his intention and of the motive urging him to 
 the deed. Sane'tomo, the third and last Shdgun of 
 the Minamoto house, was so extravagantly fond of 
 poetry that any criminal could escape punishment 
 by offering him a well-written stanza. 
 
 I must return to this interesting subject, which 
 well deserves study, and now break off from it to 
 mention a pleasant excursion made the day before 
 yesterday to Kama-Kura and the lovely seashore 
 by the island of Enoshima, at no great distance 
 from Yokohama. Kama-Kura, which means " the 
 place where the sickle was buried," was once the 
 seat of Government of Eastern Japan ; but the 
 slight houses of this country, built of paper and 
 light pine, pass away like leaves of the forest, and 
 Kama-Kura is to-day all maple-grove and rice 
 ground, and temples, and cherry-trees. The Shinto 
 and Buddhist shrines here are beautiful and in- 
 teresting ; but the chief attraction of the neighbour- 
 hood is a gigantic figure in bronze of the Buddha, 
 which you approach by crossing the stream named 
 Nameri-gawa. There is a little story told here of 
 the Japanese nobleman, Awoto. " One evening 
 as he was going to the Palace to take his turn in
 
 POETRY AND PLAYS. 257 
 
 keeping the night-watch, he let ten cash drop out 
 of his tinder-case into the stream, and then bought 
 fifty cash worth of torches to search for the lost 
 coin. His friends having laughed at him for spend- 
 ing so much in order to recover so little, he replied, 
 with a frown, * Sirs, you are foolish and ignorant 
 of economics. You are little actuated by feelings 
 of benevolence. Had I not sought for these ten 
 cash they would have been for ever lost, sunk at 
 the bottom of the Nameri-gawa. The fifty cash 
 which I have expended on torches will remain in 
 the hands of the tradesman. Whether he has 
 them, or I, is no matter ; but not a single one of 
 these sixty has been lost, which is a clear gain 
 to the country.' " It is doubtful if this would 
 pass muster with the authorities upon Economic 
 Science. 
 
 As you approach the village of Hase from the 
 Hachiman temples, in sight of the blue, calm sea, 
 dotted with fishing-boats, the colossal bronze figure 
 of the Dai Butsu rises over the leafless plum and 
 cherry trees. The " Unspeakable " sits grandly 
 upon a vast expanded lotus blossom, 50 feet high 
 from knee to top-knot, with eyes 4 feet long, face 
 from ear to ear measuring 18 feet, and gigantic 
 folded hands, of which the thumbs have a circum- 
 ference each of 3 feet. The half-veiled eyeballs are 
 of pure gold, and the silver boss upon the forehead, 
 denoting the Buddha's wisdom, weighs 30 Ibs. avoir- 
 dupois. A broad courtyard with paved way leads 
 the votary up to the majestic and placid presence 
 
 ft
 
 258 SEAS AND LANDS. 
 
 of the " Amitabha," in front of whose folded knees 
 are placed the usual grated box for offerings, and 
 images, in gilded bronze, of lotus and rose blossoms. 
 The expression of ineffable calm upon the ancient 
 effigy well befits the tranquil scene around, the 
 sleeping ocean, the laughing, happy village groups, 
 the quiet groves of bamboo and maple, and the vast 
 expanse of fertile plain beyond the little hill, where 
 in the distance soars Fuji- San. The Lady of Moun- 
 tains to-day has laid aside her veil of clouds, but 
 appears like a silver cloud which has taken the 
 form of a sleeping snow-clad volcano. From all 
 that can be seen of the lower portions to the summit 
 slightly truncated of the superb eminence, every 
 portion is dazzling white by reason of last night's 
 snow'fall. The exquisitely symmetrical cone, ascend- 
 ing high above the upper cumuli, takes exactly their 
 argentine lustre from the strong light of the after- 
 noon, and makes the clouds seem solid by its 
 delicate aerial outlines, which are, nevertheless, 
 fixed and clear. Below us the immense bronze 
 Buddha, seven centuries old, and representing a faith 
 twenty-five centuries old, which teaches the imper- 
 manency of the visible, the eternity of the invisible. 
 Beyond us that silvery apparition of cloud and 
 mountain, where if we did not know her by daily 
 sight and admiration none could say which was 
 Fuji-San " Lady of all Hills "and which the 
 fleeting vapours of the Pacific main. It was as 
 if the Japanese landscape taught, not sadly, but 
 silently
 
 POETRY AND PLAYS. 259 
 
 " We are such stuff 
 
 As dreams are made of ; and our little lives 
 Are rounded with a sleep." 
 
 We rested to drink meditative tea at the Chaya 
 of the Hoshi-no-ido, or " Well of the Star," where 
 the fisher-girls of Enoshima, spreading the tiny 
 sea-minnows to dry in the sun, soon laughed and 
 chatted away all dull philosophies. 
 
 YOKOHAMA, Nov. 23, 1889.
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 A JAPANESE DINNER. 
 
 A BANQUET here, properly arranged, served, and 
 located, furnishes, in my humble judgment, as 
 graceful and delightful a meal as can be shared in 
 all the world ; and casts into the shade the classic 
 memories of the triclinia of ancient times, the too 
 solid and lavish dishes of Turkey and Syria, the 
 cloying sweetmeats of an Indian burra Khdna,. 
 and even in many respects the festal triumphs of 
 a Parisian or London cordon bleu. The act of 
 eating is, in truth, somewhat gross, and of the 
 animal ; albeit, decidedly necessary. Japanese taste 
 and fancy have, however, known how to elevate 
 this somewhat humiliating daily need from a pro- 
 cess of mere nourishment into a fine art and a 
 delicate divertissement, where every sense is in turn 
 softly pleased and soothed, and food and drink fall 
 in like pleasant interludes without ever assuming 
 the chief importance of the occasion. None the 
 less may you fare abundantly, luxuriously, and to 
 repletion, if you will, from the Japanese menu ; but 
 the fare is all the more agreeable and digestible 
 because you eat what you like, when you like, 
 as you like, and in what order you like during 
 three or four placid hours, converted into a dream 
 
 *6o
 
 A JAPANESE DINNER. 263 
 
 of pleasure by accomplished dancing and singing, 
 and by the most perfect and most charming service. 
 It was our good fortune lately to be invited to a 
 typical native dinner at the Japanese Club in this 
 capital, of which I will offer a sketch in the very 
 lightest outline. ' The club, situated in the heart 
 of the city, is a building entirely of the indi- 
 genous style as to design and decoration, frequented 
 chiefly by the higher officials and noblemen of 
 Tokio. Imagine, if you can, endless platforms of 
 polished wood, stairway ladders of shining cedar 
 and pine, apartment after apartment carpeted with 
 spotless matting, and walled by the delicate joinery 
 of the shoji everywhere a scrupulous neatness, 
 an exquisite elegance, a dainty aesthetic reserve ; 
 nothing too much anywhere of ornament. Except 
 the faultless carpentry of the framework and the 
 tender colour of the walls and panelled ceilings, 
 you will see only a stork or two in silk embroidery 
 here, a dream in sepia of Fuji-San there, a purple 
 chrysanthemum plant yonder, in its pot of green 
 and grey porcelain, and the snow-white floors, with 
 their little square cushions. Our dinner was one 
 of about twenty cushions, and we were received 
 at the entrance by about as many musumes 
 the servants of the establishment having their 
 okusama at their head, who, upon our approach, 
 prostrate themselves on the outer edge of the 
 matted hall, uttering musical little murmurs of wel- 
 come and honour. Our footgear is laid aside below 
 the dark polished margin of the hall, and we step
 
 264 SEAS AND LANDS. 
 
 upon the soft yielding tatamis, and are each then 
 led by the hand of some graceful, small, tripping 
 musume to the broad ladder, up which we must 
 ascend to the dining-room, enlarged for the occa- 
 sion by the simple method of running back the 
 shutters of papered framework. The guests com- 
 prise European ladies as well as gentlemen, and all 
 are in their stocking-feet, for the loveliest satin 
 slipper ever worn could not venture to pass from the 
 street pavement to these immaculate mats. While 
 you chat with friends you turn suddenly to find one 
 of the damsels in the flowered kimono, and the 
 dazzling obi, kneeling at your feet with a cup of 
 pale tea in her tiny hands. Each guest receives 
 this preliminary attention, then the square cushions 
 are ranged round three sides of the room, and we 
 tuck our legs under us those, at least, who can 
 manage it and sit on our heels, the guest of honour 
 occupying the centre position at the top. To each 
 convive then enters a pretty, bright, well-dressed 
 Japanese waitress, with hair decked "to the nines," 
 stuck full of flowers and jewelled pins, and shining 
 like polished black marble. She never speaks or 
 settles to any serious duty of the entertainment 
 without falling on her little knees, smoothing her 
 skirt over them, and knocking her nice little flat 
 nose on the floor ; and will either demurely watch 
 you use your hashi your chopsticks in respectful 
 silence, or prettily converse, and even offer her 
 advice as to the most succulent morsels of the feast, 
 and the best order in which to do them justice.
 
 A JAPANESE DINNER. 265 
 
 Before each guest is first placed a cake of sugared 
 confectionery and some gaily-coloured leaf-biscuits, 
 with a tiny transparent cup of hot tea. Then 
 comes the first "honourable table," a small lacquered 
 tray with lacquered bowls upon it, containing a 
 covered basin of tsuyu-soup the " honourable dew " 
 a little pot of soy, a gilded platter with various 
 sweet and aromatic condiments upon it, and some 
 wonderful vegetables, environing some fairy cutlets 
 of salmon. You disengage your chopsticks from 
 their silken sheath and prepare for action nor is it 
 so very difficult to wield those simple knives and 
 forks of Eastern Asia, if once the secret of the 
 guiding finger between them be learned. Otherwise 
 you will drop the very first mouthful from the soup- 
 bowl upon your shirt front, to the gentle but never 
 satirical laughter of your musume. Amid the talk 
 which buzzes around, you will have inquired of her 
 already in Japanese, "What is your honourable 
 name ? " and " How many are your honourable 
 years ? " and she will have informed you that she is 
 Hoshi, Shika, Tsubaki that is to say, " Miss 
 Star," " Miss Camellia," or " Miss Antelope " and 
 that she was eighteen years of age, or otherwise, on 
 her last birthday. Respectfully you consult Shika 
 San as to what you should do with the fragrant and 
 appetising museum of delicacies before you. She 
 counsels you to seize that tiny lump of yellow 
 condiment with your chopsticks, to drop it in the 
 soy, to stir up and flavour therewith the pink flakes 
 of salmon, and you get on very famously, watched
 
 2 66 SEAS AND LANDS. 
 
 by her almond eyes with the warmest personal 
 interest. Now and again she shuffles forward on 
 her small knees to fill your sake-cup, or to re- 
 arrange the confusion into which your little bowls 
 and platters have somehow fallen ; always with a 
 consummate grace, modesty, and good breeding. 
 And now, while you were talking with your neigh- 
 bour, she has glided off and reappeared with another 
 tray, on which is disclosed a yet more miscellaneous 
 second service. Her brown, tiny, well-formed hands 
 insinuate deftly within reach, as you kneel on your 
 cushion, numerous saucers clustered round a fresh 
 red lacquer basin of vegetable soup, wherein swim 
 unknown but attractive comestibles. The combina- 
 tions of these are startling, if you venture upon 
 questioning the delighted Shika San, but you 
 must be possessed of a courageous appetite, or you 
 will subsequently disappoint the just expectations 
 of " Miss Antelope." Here are shrimps, it seems, 
 pickled with anzu (apricots), snipe subtly laid in 
 beds of coloured rice, and kuri (chestnuts) ; wild 
 goose with radish cakes, and hare (usagi), seasoned 
 by preserved cherries, amid little squares of perfumed 
 almond paste, and biscuits of persimmon. The piece 
 de resistance is a pretty slab of fluted glass, whereon 
 repose artistic fragments of fish mostly raw so 
 grouped that the hues and outlines of the collection 
 charm like a water-colour drawing. You play with 
 your chopstick points among shreds of toko (the 
 cuttle-fish), kani (crab paste), saba and hirame, 
 resembling our mackerel and soles ; and are led by
 
 A JAPANESE DINNER. 
 
 267 
 
 the earnest advice of your kneeling musume to try, 
 perhaps, the uncooked trout yamame. With the 
 condiments her little fingers have mixed it is so good 
 that you cease presently to feel like a voracious seal, 
 and wonder if it be not wrong, after all, to boil and 
 fry anything. Environed with all these tiny dishes, 
 and lightly fluttering from one to another with no 
 bread or biscuit, it is true, but the warm, strong sak& 
 
 WAITING MAIDS. 
 
 to wash all down (for the glossy-haired musume 
 keeps a little flask at her side for your special use) 
 you are beginning at last to be conscious of having 
 dined extraordinarily well, and also, perchance, of 
 "pins and needles" in your legs. So you say Mo 
 yoroshii "It is enough!" and now the service 
 relapses a little for music and dancing. 
 
 The shoji are pushed back at the far end of the
 
 2 68 SEAS AND LANDS. 
 
 room, and three musicians are discovered playing 
 the samisen, the thirteen-stringed koto, and a kind 
 of violin. Before then 1 sit the best Geishas from 
 Ki6to, and we are pleasantly weaned from our 
 desultory dinner by a dramatic pas de deux, founded 
 on the subjoined ideas : Hidari Jingoro was one 
 of the most celebrated wood-carvers of Japan. He 
 flourished in the early part of the seventeenth cen- 
 tury Specimens of his work are to be seen in 
 the great temples at Nikko and in Ki6to. The 
 tradition represented in this dance is the Japanese 
 " Pygmalion and Galatea." Hidari Jingoro having 
 employed all the resources of his art to carve the 
 image of a Ki6to beauty to whom he is said to 
 have been attached, succeeds so admirably that, 
 one day, he suddenly finds the figure endowed with 
 life and movement. But although the girl is there 
 in the flesh, her soul is the soul of Jingoro she 
 thinks with his thoughts, and moves with his move- 
 ments. Jingoro would fain alter this, and convert 
 the wooden image into Umegaye herself as well 
 in the mind as in appearance. He considers that 
 the object upon which all the feminine instincts of 
 the fair sex are concentrated is a mirror. Accord- 
 ingly he places a mirror in the girl's hand, and she, 
 seeing her own face, immediately becomes Umegaye, 
 and ceases to be a female replica of Jingoro. De- 
 prived of the mirror, however, she loses individuality, 
 and is once more a living automaton. The little 
 musunies withdraw to the side-walls that we may 
 better watch every step. Absolutely impossible is
 
 A JAPANESE DINNER. 
 
 269 
 
 it to describe with how much eloquence of pace 
 and gesture the little girl in gold and blue dances 
 and glances round the motionless girl in gold and 
 scarlet, until she has charmed that black-eyed statue 
 into life. And then the rapture ; the illusion ; the 
 
 DANCING GIRLS. 
 
 disillusion ; the anguish of watching the imitative- 
 ness of that brown Galatea ; the joy when the 
 mirror renders her individual ; the grief when 
 without it she relapses into a living shadow of 
 her dark-skinned Pygmalion ; the artistic graces
 
 , 7 o SEAS AND LANDS. 
 
 developed and the dainty passages of emotion 
 tripped to the simple but passionate music, with 
 the gilded silken kimono floating and flutter- 
 ing about those small bare feet, those slender 
 bended knees ! The dance was a real piece of 
 choregraphic genius, and the applause sincere when 
 the sculptor and his lovely image bent themselves 
 to the earth, and demurely resumed their cushions. 
 
 Meantime, obeying Japanese etiquette, each 
 guest in turn comes to the " guest of honour," 
 asks leave to drink from his sake-cup, and obtain- 
 ing it, raises the vessel to his forehead, drinks, 
 rinses it in the water-bowl and fills it for his friend. 
 When this is done, the " guest of honour " must 
 go round and pledge his associates in the same 
 way, while the three sides of the convivial square 
 now for a time break up into chatty groups, wherein 
 the musumes mingle like living flowers scattered 
 about. But dinner is not nearly finished yet. 
 Before each cushion there is again laid a lacquered 
 tray none of the others being yet removed and 
 this contains the choicest fish which can be pro- 
 cured a whole one with his tail curled up in a 
 garland of flower-buds, together with cakes, scented 
 spice-balls, and sugar-sticks, which you are to eat 
 if you can. If not able to cope with these new 
 dainties, they will be put into pretty boxes and 
 deposited in your carriage or jinrikisha indeed, 
 it is necessary to be careful in leaving one of these 
 entertainments, or you may sit on a boiled mullet, 
 or a stuffed woodcock, or some cream-tartlets.
 
 A JAPANESE DINNER. 273 
 
 While we dally with the third service the Geishas 
 dance again and again the last performance being 
 full of comic grace. It was called the "Arashi- 
 yama." Arashi-yama is one of the most celebrated 
 spots in Ki6to. Its cherry blossoms in spring and 
 its maples in autumn attract thousands of visitors. 
 Among the cherry-trees there was a little theatre 
 called Mibu-do, where wordless plays used to be 
 acted when the flowers were in full bloom. Here 
 the Palace ladies were in the habit of coming every 
 season, and their attendants enjoyed a picnic and 
 extemporised plays for the ladies' amusement. The 
 dance represented such a picnic. During the carouse 
 a female enters, beautifully dressed, but wearing the 
 mask of " Okame " (the colloquial term for a par- 
 ticularly fat homely wench). The convives, persuaded 
 that this disguise is intended to conceal uncommon 
 charms, press her to drink ; and she, after receiving 
 their attentions, suddenly removes her mask, ex- 
 hibiting the face, not of a lovely damsel, but of the 
 veritable Okame herself, the patron goddess of plain 
 women. With wonderful spirit and charm the gay 
 little danseuses performed this comedy, ending our 
 long but never tedious dinner of five hours with a 
 special figure called Sentakuya, or the " Washer- 
 men's Trio." After this each musume led her guest 
 by the hand to the hall. Shoes were resumed, 
 carriages entered, and " honourable exits " made, 
 in a dazzling forest of lighted paper lanterns, and 
 a gentle tempest of Sayondras ("Farewell!") and 
 Mata irrashais (" Come soon again ! ") 
 
 8
 
 2 74 SEAS AND LANDS. 
 
 As for me, what the general impressions of a 
 wanderer are of this fair and friendly land may be 
 gathered most briefly from a speech drawn from me 
 at an entertainment with which I was honoured at 
 the Tokio Club, and of which, accordingly, I take 
 courage to transmit the following passages from a 
 too favourable local report 
 
 I must avow to you, gentlemen, that I was not lured hither 
 by any guide-book or volume of travel, though I have read most 
 of those published about Japan ; but by a grammar. One of your 
 most distinguished English fellow-residents here, whose literary 
 work sheds lustre on the country of his birth and the community 
 to which he belongs Professor Basil Hall Chamberlain has com- 
 piled, as you know, a Japanese manual, which came before me in 
 my editorial chair in London. I read casually in it, with much 
 sudden interest as a student of languages and as an admirer of 
 high manners, about Japanese verbs without any imperative mood, 
 Japanese interjections without abuse or anger, strong expressions 
 in Japanese free from all bitterness or blasphemy, and finally of 
 a whole Japanese syntax constructed on the refined and gentle 
 as well as eminently Christian principle of exalting another and 
 depreciating one's self. I felt I must visit a country characterised 
 by these novelties. On my voyage across the Pacific I re-perused 
 day by day that admirable grammar which, besides a perfect 
 lucidity of method, by its style beguiles study, and possesses all 
 the fascination of a romance ; but I arrived here in all the more 
 complete perception of my ignorance, because I had learned how 
 little I could learn. Yet honest ignorance without prepossessions 
 has one advantage it is, like the sensitive plate of the camera, 
 ready to receive and faithfully fix first impressions. Those are 
 the only portions of a mere wayfarer's opinions in any way worth 
 uttering or hearing, although the worth of even these is small. 
 I blush indeed if a newspaper editor of thirty years can still 
 successfully blush to speak at all of my four weeks' experience 
 of Japan in presence of those who live here, but I feel that the 
 impression will be enduring when I say that Japan astonishes, 
 absorbs, delights, fascinates, and wholly contents me. I have 
 never before visited any land where I envied so much the in- 
 habitants and the residents, I doubt not that there is here, as
 
 A JAPANESE DINNER. 275 
 
 everywhere, another side to this sunny, gay, and picturesque 
 existence which I see you all leading. Besides summer heats, 
 earthquakes, and the distance from Pall Mall, whispers come to 
 me of official dreams haunted by treaty revision, of administrative 
 caprices, of political agitations, of diplomatic rivalries, and of 
 religious discords. Yet, if Japan be not exactly a Paradise, it 
 appears to me as close an approach to Lotus-land as I shall ever 
 find. By many a pool of water-lilies in temple grounds and in 
 fairy-like gardens, amid the beautiful rural scenery of Kama-Kura 
 or Nikko ; under long avenues of majestic cryptomeria ; in weird 
 and dreamy Shinto shrines ; on the white matting of the tea- 
 houses ; in the bright bazaars ; by your sleeping lakes, and under 
 your stately mountains, I have felt farther removed than ever 
 before from the flurry and vulgarity of our European life. I have 
 repeated to myself again and again those Greek verses from the 
 Odyssey, which I may thus translate 
 
 " Whoso has tasted the honey-sweet fruit from the stem of the lotus, 
 Never once wishes to leave it, and never once seeks to go homeward : 
 There would he stay, if he could, content with the eaters of lotus, 
 Plucking and eating the lotus, forgetting that he was returning." 
 
 And that I may clear myself from seeming too fanciful, I must 
 be allowed to note, gentlemen, that you also have fallen under 
 this inevitable charm. Your houses are embellished with the 
 exquisite webs from the looms of Japan, with her delicate and 
 playful conceits in ivory and bronze, with lovely trophies of your 
 taste and of her charm in lacquer and enamel. You condescend to 
 the gay jinrikisha, and you like, as all must, the soft ways and 
 musical voices of your Japanese attendants. Best and noblest of 
 all the proofs that this fair land enchants and constrains you, 
 is the devotion to its service in public matters, in science, art, 
 journalism, literature, and philology, abundantly illustrated by the 
 many distinguished Englishmen present this evening. I am not 
 forgetting the estimable work wrought by our foreign friends in 
 most or all of these branches, when I declare that England and 
 Japan are both of them deeply indebted to the English professors, 
 teachers, engineers, editors, art lovers, and students who have 
 linked their names so closely with the great Japanese renaissance. 
 The discovery and research into Sanscrit by Anglo-Indians has 
 done more to keep England and India permanently together than 
 would another army of 100,000 men. If it might be without 
 wrong or offence to other flags I could earnestly wish tha't English
 
 27 6 SEAS AND LANDS. 
 
 might become the second language of Japan. Already I see with 
 pride that this is not impossible ; and, speaking on behalf of very 
 many at home, I respectfully thank those gentlemen whose labours 
 have bestowed upon England so large a hope. To come down 
 from great tokens to small, the inscriptions on the signboards, I 
 observe, are mainly translated into English. Sometimes these are 
 a little comic, but, passing one such the other day in a remote 
 village, when my companion smiled, I remarked that five out of 
 those funny eight words were of Sanscrit derivation, and I re- 
 flected how natural it would be that, as her religion came of old 
 to Japan from India, the guardians of India, themselves Aryan, 
 should now become foremost in developing her literature, her 
 resources, and her prosperity. I am honoured by the presence 
 here this evening of many Japanese gentlemen whom I cordially 
 thank for this proof of interest in the name and writings of one 
 whose sole real title to the favour of so many Eastern friends is 
 his earnest and abiding goodwill. I shall venture even more 
 boldly to tell them what I have dared to tell my countrymen, that 
 Professor Chamberlain's wonderful grammar in no wise misled me, 
 and that I am glad I have lived to visit their great, beautiful, and 
 friendly country. Yet what I find here more marvellous to me 
 than Fuji-San, lovelier than the embroidered and gilded silks, 
 precious beyond all the daintily carved ivories, more delicate 
 than the Cloisonne enamels, is that ceaseless grace in the popular 
 manners, that simple joy of life, that universal alacrity to please 
 and be pleased, that almost divine sweetness of disposition which, 
 I frankly believe, places Japan in these respects higher than any 
 other nation. This sounds like exaggeration, and I shall be re- 
 proached, perhaps, for praising so warmly from the depth of that 
 ignorance which my friend here, Mr. Gubbins, so well knows to 
 be fathomless, a land where the women, who seem to me almost 
 semi-angelic, enjoy by no means their proper rights, and where 
 feudal laws have still left traces much too deep. But either I 
 am an incompetent observer, or else there is to be met with, in 
 all ranks of this country, an entirely special charm of demeanour. 
 an exquisite finesse of mutual consideration, a politeness humble 
 without servility and elaborate without affectation, palpably spring- 
 ing from graceful goodwill, all which lend a finer atmosphere to 
 life, and render the courtliness of less naturally polished peoples 
 well nigh a vulgarity. Retain, I beseech you, gentlemen, this 
 national characteristic, which you did not import, and can never,
 
 A JAPANESE DINNER. 277 
 
 alas, export. Old Will Adams, the pilot of Queen Elizabeth, 
 whose name is preserved in a street in this city, and whose grave 
 is on your shores, the first Englishman that ever saw them, wrote 
 of Japan : " This countrie is gouerned with greate civilitie." So 
 it is still 1 I cannot express to you the subtle pleasure I have 
 derived from contact with your common people in cities and 
 railway stations, in villages, in tea-houses, and country roads. I 
 have nowhere passed without learning lessons of finer manners 
 than I knew before, and without being instructed in that delicacy 
 of heart which springs from true goodwill and lies above all 
 precept. How did Japan acquire this supreme social refinement ? 
 In my ignorance I attribute it to three chief causes the happy 
 mixture of blood which nature and history have blended in your 
 veins ; the settled peace of two centuries given you by your re- 
 nowned secular rulers; and the ever softening and ever human- 
 ising influence of that religion about which I at least can never 
 speak without reverence. I must, indeed, be bold to say that, 
 wherever the doctrines of the Great Teacher of India have passed, 
 they bring to the people adopting them, or partially adopting 
 them, more or less of embellishment and elevation. Nay, I believe 
 it impossible that the religious tenets of the Buddha should ever 
 enter into the life of any large body of people without stamping 
 on the national character ineffaceable marks of the placidity, the 
 kindliness, the glad beliefs, and the vast consolations embodied 
 in the faith of Sakya Muni. Nor, believe me, is it even possible, 
 in spite of the grave authorities which assert the contrary to me, 
 that Buddhism once entering a land should ever altogether and 
 finally depart from it. You will instantly think of India, and 
 remind me that the professed Buddhists there are to be numbered 
 by scores or hundreds, but I must answer that all Hindoo India 
 is Buddhist in heart and essence. The sea does not mark the 
 sand more surely with its tokens than Gautama has conquered, 
 changed, and crystallised the religious views of the Vedas and 
 Vedantas, and so far from encouraging any one to hope that 
 Buddhism will pass away from Japan, or from any other of its 
 homes, I announce my conviction that it will remain here long 
 enough to reconcile its sublime declarations with the lofty ethics 
 of Christianity and with the discoveries of Science, and will be 
 for all of you who love and serve the East, no enemy, but a potent, 
 necessary, and constant ally. 
 
 TOKIO, Dec. i, 1889.
 
 CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 THE RANGE OP MODERN KNOWLEDGE. 
 
 A REQUEST, very forcibly urged, on the part of the 
 Japanese Educational Society, the Minister of Public 
 Instruction, and some representatives of the Imperial 
 University here, overcame my hesitation, and induced 
 me yesterday to deliver the address of which I subjoin 
 a report. I give it because it embodies the ideas 
 and suggestions with which the scene and the people 
 inspired me, and that I may be better able, in a 
 subsequent chapter, to offer a description of the 
 characteristic banquet, and above all of the deeply 
 interesting and historical Cha-no-yu, or "Tea of 
 Honour," which followed the feast, and at both of 
 which I was the complimented guest. My address 
 the imperfections of which, under the circum- 
 stances of travel, I hope will be pardoned was 
 delivered in the Lecture Hall of the Imperial Uni- 
 versity, Viscount Enomoto, Minister of State fol 
 Education, presiding ; and my indulgent and intelli- 
 gent audience included, besides, the Vice-Minister 
 of Education, Mr. Tsuji Shinji, the United States 
 Minister and Admiral, many Japanese professors, 
 and Buddhist priests of the various denominations, 
 together with five or six hundred of the students
 
 THE RANGE OF MODERN KNOWLEDGE. 279 
 
 and their friends. Under the shoji of the large hall 
 stretched far and wide the immense city, covering 
 with its small black houses as large an area as 
 London. Before me sate, or knelt, the flower of 
 the Japanese youth, eager to hear ; and among 
 them, with shaven heads and lappets of gold em- 
 broidery, " the calm brethren of the yellow robe." 
 Japanese ladies, in their pretty national kimono, 
 honoured me by their presence, as well as many of 
 my countrymen and countrywomen resident here. 
 I had beside me the greatest of Japanese scholars- 
 Mr. Basil Hall Chamberlain to interpret, at the 
 close, to those who could not follow my English, 
 its general argument ; and, in brief, the occasion 
 was one which demanded better gifts than mine. 
 But to live in Japan is to love and to wish to serve 
 her gentle and interesting people ; and therefore, 
 without a single book of reference by me, and but a 
 short time to meditate my speech, I did the best I 
 could, as follows 
 
 Honoured by an invitation to address this important society, 
 my first impulse was very respectfully to decline for reasons of 
 diffidence ; and when that appeared forbidden, because of the kind 
 insistance of Mr. Chamberlain and of his Excellency the Vice- 
 Minister of Education, my wish was to find some comprehensive 
 topic easy for a scholar to handle far away from his books, and at 
 the same time not without some utility. It seemed eventually 
 that I should perhaps be least tedious if I boldly took for my 
 theme " The Range of Modern Knowledge," and endeavoured to 
 suggest in outline what is the present aspect offered by the world 
 around us to an educated European of average acquaintance with 
 literature, philosophy, art, science, and the general march of 
 Western thought. Such a topic would indeed imply arrogance 
 and sciolism if it were not selected quite unpretentiously, and
 
 i8o SEAS AND LANDS. 
 
 merely as a means of trying to represent to a Japanese audience 
 some of the grounds on which the ordinary Englishman fixes his 
 intellectual standpoints to-day, and some among the hopes, expec- 
 tations, and beliefs with which he regards the future. I shall 
 attempt, therefore, this afternoon, in the lightest possible manner, 
 without any affectation of profundity or omniscience, to draw 
 attention to a few among the landmarks which show how far our 
 common progress has gone during the great reign of Queen Vic- 
 toria, and perhaps shall speculate a little on what lies behind the 
 visible horizons of our knowledge. 
 
 Take, for example, Astronomy. How different is the concep- 
 tion to-day of an ordinarily well-informed man from that of even 
 the greatest mind in times but recently gone by ! All the religions 
 of the world, let me ask you to notice, are still in the Ptolemaic 
 stage as regards the infinite heavens surrounding us. They were 
 one and all promulgated under the pervading idea that this little 
 planet, our temporary home, was the actual centre of things, and 
 that the stars were hardly more than pretty mysterious lanterns 
 lighted to spangle our night-time. In your Japanese mythology 
 the Sun Goddess is tempted from her cave of retirement by a 
 mirror ; and in our Bible a Hebrew chieftain commands the Sun 
 to stand still in order that he may complete a sanguinary victory. 
 Your legend is possibly the less mythical of the two, for it is, 
 indeed, with a prism and with a mirror the spectroscope that 
 science has of late made the Sun emerge from mystery, and con- 
 fess the elements of its own brightness and majesty. But all the 
 religions have necessarily been pre- scientific in regard to astronomy, 
 and have thus constructed their moral and cosmical systems on 
 too slender a basis, until Galileo and Copernicus arose, and at one 
 stroke altered for us the whole aspect of the universe. We now 
 know our little earth to be, if not insignificant, still certainly, 
 amid all its shining sisters, one of the youngest, smallest, and 
 humblest. Yet, in compensation for this rebuke to our pride, and 
 to the narrowness of theological teachings, how magnificent is that 
 enlargement of our ideas of creation, now become quite common- 
 place ! The very nearest of those fixed stars, as everybody is to- 
 day aware, glitters so far away that its light occupies four years in 
 reaching us ; and our Sun, which was thought the ruler of heaven, 
 is recognised as but a lighted torch compared with Sirius or Alde- 
 baran. At the same time Newton has taught us that all the orbs, 
 great and small, in space are, and must ever be, linked together
 
 THE RANGE OF MODERN KNOWLEDGE. 281 
 
 by a subtle and perpetual bond of mutual influence. But if that 
 illustrious discoverer could have employed the spectroscope and 
 the stellar photography of our times, how vastly would even his 
 grand ideas have been elevated by a wider knowledge of the im- 
 measurable glory of the visible universe now revealed to common 
 understandings ! Not only has this marvellous instrument, the 
 spectroscope, proved to us the kindred nature of all those distant 
 spheres, and enabled us actually to measure their rate of recession 
 and approach, but the photographing-telescope may be said posi- 
 tively to blind the imagination by the splendours which it unveils 
 in the boundless range of those celestial fields of life. I lately 
 stood in the well-known observatory belonging to Harvard College, 
 Boston. One of its wonderful tubes was directed to a region of 
 the sky, seemingly and even to the most powerful glasses blank ; 
 but the sensitive plate fixed to the eyepiece announced the exist- 
 ence there of a thousand nameless and previously unseen stars ; 
 and to whatever part of the apparent darkness its finer eye con- 
 tinued to be turned, always such, and not otherwise, was the 
 superb report of countless new worlds, which it brought back from 
 those black and fathomless abysses. A new meaning is surely 
 given by these and other modern astronomical generalisations, for 
 the thoughtful man, to that divine phrase of our New Testament, 
 "In my Father's house are many mansions." There exist, indeed, 
 stars enough now within sight to provide every human soul with 
 a world apiece ; nevertheless, the greatness of man's destiny con- 
 sists, as all may at last comprehend, not in fancying himself the 
 centre of creation, but in belonging at all to so glorious and visible 
 a galaxy of life, with the invisible effulgence and the infinite possi- 
 bilities lying beyond it. 
 
 Coming down from heaven to earth, the student of the Victorian 
 Era perceives better than ever before how the forces of nature, 
 once feared and deified, have really, during all past ages, been toil- 
 ing, like faithful builders and humble masons, to finish and to 
 beautify our planet home. The very earthquakes that now and 
 again shake your city are the last fading vibrations of an original 
 and stupendous terrestrial energy which elevated our mountains 
 and depressed our valleys, and by the silent aid of the glacier, the 
 rain-cloud, the wind, and the snow, carved out the surface of the 
 earth into its present picturesque variety. We know not how long 
 this globe rolled lifeless in preparation for the ancestry of man j 
 but we know how slowly he was developed, not succeeding to his
 
 282 SEAS AND LANDS. 
 
 estate until many lowly predecessors had brought the Pleiocene 
 Age. All the best authorities now accept from Darwin that prin- 
 ciple of evolution and of natural selection which, if it shows the 
 descent of man to have flowed from no very aristocratic progenitors, 
 implies, on the other hand, a continuous and an ennobling ascent, 
 promising to lift the race, even in this sphere of things, to unknown 
 heights. Modern chemistry again has rendered plain the material 
 composition of our planet, as well as of the bodies which we in- 
 habit. To the chemist's eye, man is made up, not of " clay " or 
 "dust," as is ignorantly said, but of carbon, lime, water, phos- 
 phorus, silicon, iron, and other high forms of matter ; and all 
 this by a natural proportion so well understood that a glass case 
 at South Kensington exhibits the precise components of a human 
 body, minus its vitality. Matter, itself, though to the philosophic 
 insight the most immaterial of things, falls, for a chemist, into a 
 well-ordered catalogue of some seventy elements, the atomic bricks 
 with which Nature builds. We have even learned to take to 
 pieces, and afterwards to imitate, her building. In the laboratory 
 chemists can now combine from unexpected ingredients the once 
 mysterious alcohol and urea ; they can produce salicylic acid, the 
 bitter principle of the willow-tree, from coal-tar ; they can evolve 
 from the same once wasted commodity, not only many brilliant 
 colours, but saccharine, two hundred and fifty times sweeter 
 than any sugar ; they can oxidise glycerine by means of pow- 
 dered platinum, and so educe from it pure grape sugar ; they can 
 manufacture, as Nature herself does, the dark blue dye of indigo 
 and the ultramarine of artists; and even create minutely the 
 ruby and the diamond. There are boundaries to our constructive 
 powers, no doubt, which we shall never pass, even by the subtlest 
 methods of the alembic, since we have not at hand Nature's leisure 
 and Nature's enormous forces. But immense discoveries for use 
 and for ornament still evidently await the progressive chemist. 
 Why, for instance, should he be always less wise than the mush- 
 room, which knows how to turn the nitrogen of the atmosphere 
 into wholesome food within a night ? Up to this hour no physio- 
 logist can accurately tell you what becomes of that portion of the 
 air which we breathe ; but the lowest fungus is well aware of it, 
 and we also may some day hope to be. In a hundred directions 
 Science, like a mother with her sleeve full of gifts, beckons her 
 children onward to fresh secrets. Why is selenium so curiously 
 sensitive to light 1 Why does TO per cent, of aluminium give
 
 THE RANGE OF MODERN KNOWLEDGE. 283 
 
 to copper the strength of steel ? And when shall we find that 
 sovereign prophylactic, already half foreshadowed by the experi- 
 ments of Tyndall, Koch, and Pasteur, which is to make zymotic 
 diseases things of the past, or greatly to control and confine them ? 
 I once saw Professor Tyndall roll from hand to hand a tuft of 
 carbonic acid gas, transformed by pressure into a visible substance , 
 but perhaps the most useful of all his exquisite labours have been 
 those delicate researches into floating germs and organisms which, 
 combined with M. Pasteur's invaluable achievements, have given 
 medicine a new departure, and encouraged even the casual observer 
 to hope soon for the most fruitful results for humanity. The 
 famous Frenchman has already practically abolished the silkworm 
 disease, splenic fever, and hydrophobia ; and we seem to know, 
 or to be upon the point of knowing, through the microscope, the 
 bacillus or seed-form of cholera, of consumption, and of malaria 
 The Victorian Era has thus led us pretty confidently to trust that 
 the invasion of these evil germs into the human body will some 
 day be either completely prevented, or neutralised by an easy 
 remedy. 
 
 In Astronomy, in Geology, in Chemistry alike on which I have 
 so slightly touched, I hope we shall owe hereafter many solid 
 debts to this society and to the Imperial University of Tokio. 
 Everything comes to man from himself, by observation, by 
 devotion, and by true, slow, and humble scientific methoda 
 You cannot, gentlemen, import our civilisations; you must make 
 science Japanese by time and patience. Take the example of 
 one whose name you will know and honour, Sir John Lubbock. 
 I have the privilege of his friendship, and have watched those 
 daily researches of his by which he has thrown so much interest- 
 ing light upon the habits of ants, bees, and wasps, as well as 
 on the structural marvels of the floral and the forest world. If 
 you have read his delightful books and could afterwards see the 
 simple arrangements which have produced them, those among 
 you who are naturalists would be encouraged to attempt similar 
 great and illuminating things for us in your richly gifted Japan. 
 Wishing to find out the sense of colour, and to estimate the pre- 
 ference for different flowers displayed by bees, you see Sir John 
 sitting with watch and pencil in his garden at High Elms. On 
 the turf lie pieces of paper, all equal in size and smeared with 
 an exactly equal amount of honey, but variously tinted. In the 
 summer sunshine the bees come and go, attracted by the honey.
 
 2 8 4 SEAS AND LANDS. 
 
 Selecting their favourite hue because they take the coloured 
 papers for flowers they alight in numbers upon one of the 
 squares, leaving the others comparatively neglected, and thus in 
 a few hours we have obtained an answer from the hive itself, 
 as clear and business-like as the popular vote which you will soon 
 give for your new Imperial Parliament. Sir John showed me, 
 not long ago, the little apparatus where his ant cities are kept. 
 Tier above tier, in shallow boxes, isolated by water and closed 
 by a double lid of glass and wood, he feeds and studies there 
 the various species of that wonderful insect. He drew back the 
 wooden lid from one large ant city, which revealed to me through 
 the glass its tiny people in their daily life. There, in the central 
 cell, was the Queen, imposing, majestic, isolated ; courtier ants 
 stood round, always respectfully facing her majesty ; and attend- 
 ants brought the pupae, or ant babies, in procession before the 
 sovereign. Slave ants, dark of hue, performed in gangs the 
 hard work of the city for the lighter coloured kwazoku * and 
 shizoku of the community ; and small white wood-lice, quite 
 blind, ran about by the by-ways carefully cleaning up all dirt 
 and litter. You may think I am romancing, but far more wonder- 
 ful facts reward such an observer as Sir John Lubbock. Indi- 
 viduals in an ant city number from half a million to a million, 
 and, incredible as it may seem, they all know each other. Imagine 
 anybody recognising every single face in Tokio; but these ants, 
 whose brain is smaller than a pin's head, can surely do it! All 
 this, for which I personally answer, discloses a new sense in these 
 minute creatures ; while experiments made with the light-rays 
 lying beyond the red and violet, totally invisible to us, prove 
 clearly that many small living things are quite as perfectly aware 
 of those hidden beams as the magnetic needle is sensitive to the 
 polar current which we cannot feel. No doubt to the eye of the 
 dragon-fly, or of the Dytiscus beetle, altogether another world than 
 ours is represented by the ordinary face of Nature, near and far. 
 These facts carry the thought of the educated European as far 
 downward into the lower regions of biology as the star-photo- 
 graphs lift it upwards in the celestial regions. And everywhere 
 alike he now sees at work the same grand principle of evolution. 
 Near Sir John Lubbock's house is another one which I know, 
 lately the home of the great Darwin, whereto scientific men of 
 the future will make pious pilgrimage as to a shrine. I need not 
 
 * The dainiot, or noblemen, and the samurai, or swordsmen.
 
 THE RANGE OF MODERN KNOWLEDGE. 285 
 
 dwell upon the sublime life-work of that illustrious man. You 
 know his books, no doubt, by heart ; if not, hasten to read them 
 all, from " A Naturalist's Voyage in the Beagle " to that mar- 
 vellous volume in which he shows us how the despised earthworm 
 is one of the very best servants of mankind, and manufactures 
 for us the soil that grows our barley and our rice ; and how the 
 clover is impossible without the humble bee, with a thousand other 
 abstruse secrets of Nature. But what I would venture to observe 
 in connection with so renowned a name is that many Darwinists 
 themselves are far as yet from discerning the full purport of their 
 great master's conclusions. Evolution explains almost everything 
 except itself. Yet surely Natural Selection and the Survival 
 of the Fittest imply in the universe such an essential, and I had 
 almost said such a passionate, impulse and effort towards universal 
 amelioration that of themselves they might furnish a religion and 
 a worship. Once dismiss the idle idea that death is an evil, 
 thereby joyfully accepting Nature's law of perpetual unmaking 
 and re-making, and then realise with what love and care, through 
 what aeons of patient plotting, she must have meditated to pro- 
 duce the sting of the scorpion almost the earliest creature of the 
 rocks, yet furnishing a perfect model of the hypodermic syringe, 
 invented by us as it were only yesterday. And again, look at 
 her deep-sea fishes which, swimming in ocean darkness three 
 thousand fathoms down, have a row of lamps fitted along each 
 side to light them in pursuit of food. There is probably no human 
 invention, from the net which your Shinagawa fisherman throws, 
 to the electric lamp shining here on the Emperor's Palace, but 
 Nature worked it out beforehand for our guidance, as in the 
 spider's web and as upon the bellies of those fishes brought up 
 by the Challenger's deep-sea lines. It is here that Buddhism, 
 justly understood, touches the hand of modern science ; and, if 
 your patience permits, I will be bold enough to read from " The 
 Light of Asia " a few verses which exactly express my view 
 
 " Before beginning and without an end, 
 As space eternal, and as surety sure, 
 Is fixed a Power Divine which moves to good, 
 Only its laws endure. 
 
 This is its touch upon the blossomed rose, 
 The fashion of its hand-shaped lotus-leaves ; 
 
 In dark soil and the silence of the seeds 
 The robe of spring it weaves ;
 
 ,86 SEAS AND LANDS. 
 
 That is its painting on the glorious clouds, 
 
 And these its emeralds on the peacock's train ; 
 
 It hath its stations in the stars ; its slaves 
 In lightning, wind, and rain. 
 
 Out of the dark it wrought the heart of man, 
 Out of dull shells the pheasant's pencilled neck ; 
 
 Ever at toil it brings to loveliness 
 All ancient wrath and wreck. 
 
 It spreadeth forth for flight the eagle's wings 
 What time she beareth home her prey ; it sends 
 
 The she wolf to her cubs ; for unloved things 
 It findeth food and friends. 
 
 The ordered music of the marching orbs 
 
 It makes in viewless canopy of sky ; 
 In deep abyss of earth it hides up gold, 
 
 Sards, sapphires, lazuli. 
 
 It slayeth and it saveth, nowise moved 
 
 Except unto the working out of doom ; 
 Its threads are Love and Life ; and Death and Pain 
 
 The shuttles of its loom. 
 
 It maketh and unmaketh, mending all, 
 
 What it hath wrought is better than had been ; 
 
 Slow grows the splendid pattern that it plans 
 Its wistful hands between." 
 
 Man, more nobly designed than any of his earthly predecessors, 
 and placed at the head of the march of life, as we know it, grows 
 to his perfectness less swiftly than those collateral projects of 
 Nature. It is, meanwhile, a sufficient mark of the rudimentary con- 
 ditions under which we all yet dwell that nations speak different 
 languages and that science should to-day devote so much of her 
 labour to deadly engines of war. But he who has drawn the true 
 lessons of this Victorian Era knows well what useful virtues have 
 sprung, and still spring, from the temper of the warrior, and how 
 necessary war still is to protect peace and right. Indeed, if on a 
 former occasion I have taken leave to praise the sweetness and 
 grace of your popular manners, let me be bold now also, gentlemen 
 of Japan, to bid you preserve against the temptations that are 
 current the high courage, the dauntless patriotism, the dread of 
 disgrace, and the love of honour, of which I find in your history 
 a hundred noble examples. Bear with me while I add one word 
 about the relation which all this seems to have to your own annals.
 
 THE RANGE OF MODERN KNOWLEDGE. 287 
 
 On that previous occasion, when I had the privilege of speaking 
 to another audience of your countrymen, I dwelt upon the charms 
 of your beautiful land and the graces of its popular manners. 
 Looking at these things, not with the accustomed eye of an old 
 acquaintance, I see them in their contrast and novelty, and the 
 impression they make on me is all the more vivid. If, as a 
 stranger, I may be pardoned the impertinence of offering a defi- 
 nition, I should say that yours is a civilisation which has grown 
 up in the placid atmosphere of secluded Asiatic life, developing 
 fair features that to us, dwellers amid the clash and turmoil of 
 competing nations, present an aspect of refreshing restfulness 
 and content. We pray that you may be able to preserve those 
 features, harmonising so well with your exquisite surroundings. 
 But in the busier world of the West, from forth the keenness of 
 rival intelligences and the emulation of vying races, there has 
 been evolved another and not less valuable civilisation, one of 
 active science and of ceaseless industry. Your story during the 
 past twenty years shows that you appreciate the privilege of being 
 introduced to that foreign civilisation, and that you understand 
 the necessity of judiciously engrafting it upon your own. I have 
 ventured therefore to tell you something about its intellectual 
 side ; about the vast vistas of knowledge which it has exposed, 
 and the grand conceptions it suggests of the destiny of humanity. 
 You have now to take a high place in a busy world where this 
 civilisation of science and industry counts for almost everything 
 and the old civilisation of grace and refinement, that which here 
 "draws the last spirit of the Age of Gold," counts I grieve 
 to say for comparatively little. Do not, I beg of you, think 
 that because superficial observers like myself speak to you with 
 enthusiastic delight of your ingrained courtliness, your graceful 
 speech, and your gentle tolerance, we underrate by any such 
 praise the solid qualities which makes nations great qualities 
 which those who know you say you possess, and which, your 
 intercourse with Europe and America now gives you an oppor- 
 tunity of displaying. If you are compelled to lose something of 
 your old Japan in this crisis, the sacrifice must be regarded as 
 inevitable for the sake of the new Japan. But I cherish the hope 
 that your path of progress will never lead you entirely out of sight 
 of your own peculiar refinements, and that the primary duty of 
 national self-assertion will never finally efface that which is so 
 special and so precious in your own charming civilisation.
 
 88 SEAS AND LANDS. 
 
 And now I must speak a little of Literature, my own special 
 department, but chiefly to tell you with what reasonable belief 
 the Englishman of the Victorian Era anticipates that what he 
 fondly calls the " Queen's English " must eventually spread as 
 the accepted and common tongue over the civilised globe. I 
 put forward this opinion with some regret, as well as with a 
 natural patriotism, because I know and love the " world-books " 
 of France, Italy, and Spain, and take delight in the ancient 
 literary riches of Greece, Rome, India, Persia, and Arabia ; while 
 I cannot pretend that my mother-tongue is as musical as Cas- 
 tilian or Tuscan, as graceful as Persian, or as perfect in its 
 grammar as Sanscrit. But it is supremely wealthy in master- 
 pieces of thought, fancy, and research; it has been consecrated 
 and immortalised by the transcendent genius of Shakespeare, the 
 greatest poet the world has ever seen ; and it is the speech to-day, 
 remember, of all the powerful, intelligent, and ever-increasing 
 American people, as well as of the Central Islands and the 
 Colonies of that British Empire, the resources of which are at 
 present so vast, the strength so inexhaustible, the wealth so 
 boundless, and the national spirit so indomitable, that I should 
 not dare to speak of them as I must speak, if it were not that 
 the constant policy of England is peace, and her chief desire 
 here and everywhere to win and keep the friendship of other 
 nations. I am rejoiced, therefore, to notice how many Japanese 
 gentlemen present to-day can follow, with as much intelligence 
 as patience, my superficial observations, which I will now hasten 
 to terminate, only adding that there is no treasure-house of art, 
 science, or literature which the knowledge of the English language 
 will not unlock for you. 
 
 Why, then, have I told you, gentlemen, or endeavoured to 
 tell you, in this capital city of Japan, how an educated English- 
 man of the Victorian Age looks round the horizons of the scien- 
 tific and philosophic departments laid open to him by better 
 minds, and returns to his own studies glad of the present, and 
 confident in the future ? Why have I tried to show to you the 
 Western scholar reflecting upon that newly revealed boundless- 
 ness of the starry universe ; those subtle secrets of the microscope ; 
 the chemist's brilliant analysis of Nature's atomic architecture; 
 the electrician's magic, utilised everywhere, but nowhere as yet 
 understood ; the large generalisations of Darwin ; the settled reign 
 of order and of law, seen even among such lowly communities
 
 THE RANGE OF MODERN KNOWLEDGE. 289 
 
 as those of the ants and the bees ; and the enchanted world 
 of botany, where the flowers, for special reasons of their own, 
 put in practice a thousand exquisite stratagems in order to grow 
 yearly more beautiful? It is partly because these imperfect 
 sentences express my own established persuasion of the divine 
 purpose manifest for all of us alike in every corner of the world, 
 and partly because this fair and civilised and gentle land is 
 already in possession not only of the spirit to appreciate the pur- 
 port of such words, but has furthermore inherited special and 
 lofty ideas from the neighbouring East to which these things 
 belong, and by which they may be vastly illuminated. I have 
 often said, and I shall say again and again, that between Bud- 
 dhism and modern science there exists a close intellectual bond. 
 When Tymlall tells us of sounds we cannot hear; and Norman 
 Lockyer of colours we cannot see; when Sir William Thomson 
 and Professor Sylvester push mathematical investigation to regions 
 almost beyond the Calculus, and others, still bolder, imagine and 
 try to grapple with, though they cannot actually grasp, a space 
 of four dimensions, what is all this except the Buddhist Maya, 
 a practical recognition of the illusions of the senses 1 And when 
 Darwin shows us life passing onward and upward through a 
 series of constantly improving forms towards the Better and the 
 Best, each individual starting in new existence with the records 
 of bygone good and evil stamped deep and ineffaceably from the 
 ohl ones, what is this again but the Buddhist doctrine of Dharma 
 and of Karma ? And when the Victorian poet and preacher and 
 moralist rightly discern and worthily teach, as the last and truest 
 wisdom, that Justice, Duty, and Right control events, and that 
 the eternal Equity and Compassion of the universe overlooks and 
 forgives no wrong and no disobedience, but also neglects and 
 forgets no good deed or word or thought, what is this except the 
 teaching of the Buddha 1 Finally, if we gather up all the results 
 of modem research, and look away from the best literature to 
 the largest discovery in physics and the latest word in biology, 
 what is the conclusion the high and joyous conclusion forced 
 upon the mind, except that which renders true Buddhism so glad 
 and hopeful? Surely it is that the Descent of man from low 
 beginnings implies his Ascent to supreme and glorious develop- 
 ments ; that " the Conservation of Matter and of Energy," a fact 
 absolutely demonstrated, points to the kindred fact of the con- 
 servation and continuity of all Life, whereof matter is but the 
 
 T
 
 2 9 o SEAS AND LANDS. 
 
 apparent vehicle and expression ; that death is probably nothing 
 but a passage and a promotion ; that the destiny of man has been, 
 and must be, and will be worked out by himself under eternal 
 and benign laws which never vary and never mislead ; and that 
 for every living creature the path thus lies open, by compliance, 
 by effort, by insight, by aspiration, by goodwill, by right action, 
 and by loving service, to that which Buddhists term Nirvana, 
 and we Christians " the peace of God that passeth all under- 
 standing." 
 
 At the conclusion of my address too kindly, too 
 generously received there followed what I must 
 crave leave to quote from the local journal. "It 
 was admirably rendered into Japanese by Mr. Basil 
 Hall Chamberlain, whose wonderful command of 
 the exceedingly difficult language of the country was 
 well exemplified in his graceful and felicitous trans- 
 lation. Afterwards Mr. Tsuji read in Japanese, and 
 Professor Isawa in English, an acknowledgment of 
 the pleasure felt by the society, and the honour con- 
 ferred upon it, in receiving and hearing their guest. 
 Mr. Tsuji said that whatever successes attended the 
 society hereafter would always be associated with 
 Sir Edwin's name, and that he carried with him the 
 best wishes and most friendly regards of all the 
 members." And then ensued the Japanese banquet 
 in the " Hall of Clouds," amid the plum-trees of 
 Ueno ; a feast of four or five hours, with the sake- 
 cups going gaily round, and the little musumes, like 
 butterflies, flitting about with go-zens and samisens, 
 and after that the Cha-no-yu ! apotheosis of tea- 
 drinking a ceremony delightful, mysterious, archaic, 
 profound, which I will attempt to describe and ex-
 
 THE RANGE OF MODERN KNOWLEDGE. 293 
 
 plain hereafter ; for without such experience every 
 tea-drinker in the world remains little aware of the 
 sublimity, the antiquity, the grace, the art, and, I 
 had almost added, the religion which may attach 
 to the tea-cup. 
 
 TOKJO, JAPAN, Dec. 16, 1889.
 
 CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 SAKE AND TEA. 
 
 ARIOSTO has, in his great poem, a canto commencing 
 " Donne ! e voi ch'avete le donne in pregio" whereby 
 he begs that no lady will read the severe reflections 
 which follow upon the foibles of her sex. I, on 
 the contrary, venture most respectfully to invite 
 all ladies to read this present letter, that they 
 may know how distinguished is the origin of the 
 tea-cup and the tea-tray, what immense social and 
 historical effects their favourite beverage has pro- 
 duced, and with how much grace and ceremony 
 the simple act of tea-drinking may be, and is, in 
 this gentle land of Japan, constantly invested. For 
 my own part, a perfectly new sentiment has been 
 kindled in my breast towards the whole mystery 
 of the teapot since I had the honour of being 
 entertained at the Cha-no-yu, in the " Hall of 
 Clouds." Over the spirit of every one who arrives 
 as a stranger in Japan, whether or not, by habit or 
 by taste, a votary of the tea-leaf, a change in this 
 respect slowly and surely steals. The importance 
 and dignity of tea reveal themselves in an entirely 
 new light when he finds a whole population of some 
 forty millions concentrated, so to speak, round the
 
 BRINGING SAKE.
 
 SAKE AND TEA. 297 
 
 teapot, and all the dwelling-houses, all the habits, 
 all the tastes, the very language, the meals, the 
 diurnal duties and associations of town and country 
 folk alike, circling, as it were, about the tiny cup. 
 Insensibly you also fall into the gentle passion. 
 You learn on your road while journeying, or when 
 arriving at its end, or in entering a friend's house, 
 or while shopping in the " Ginza," to expect and to 
 accept with pleasure the proffered draught of pale 
 yellow, fragrant liquid ; which at first you only tole- 
 rate, appearing as it does without milk or sugar, 
 but afterwards begin to like, and lastly to find 
 indispensable. Insensibly the little porcelain cup 
 becomes pleasantly linked in the mind with the 
 snow-pure mats, the pretty, prostrate musumes, the 
 spotless joinery of the lowly walls, the exquisite 
 proprieties of the latticed shojis, adding to all these 
 a charm, a refinement, a delicate sobriety and dis- 
 tinguished simplicity found alike amid high and 
 low, emanating, as it were, from the inner spirit 
 of the glossy green leaf and silvery blossom of 
 the tea-plant in one word, belonging essentially 
 to and half constituting beautiful, wonderful, quiet, 
 and sweet Japan. 
 
 All this arises from the entertainment with which 
 I was honoured, as mentioned in my last chapter, 
 wherein I gave you part of my address before the 
 University, and mentioned the Japanese banquet in 
 the " Hall of Clouds " and the Cha-no-yu (or " Tea 
 of Honour") which followed it for myself and a 
 select few. Dinners in the native fashion have
 
 298 SEAS AND LANDS. 
 
 now become so familiar, by my happy fortune in 
 making friends among the native gentlemen, that I 
 am conscious of having lost those first impressions 
 which enable one to paint accurately a novel scene. 
 But I have not lost my early admiration of them, 
 and still continue to regard a well-appointed and 
 properly-served Japanese dinner as one of the most 
 elegant and agreeable, as well as satisfying, forms 
 of " dining-out " which the genius of hospitality 
 ever invented. Like the dwellings, the apartments, 
 and the appointments of Japan, one of these enter- 
 tainments closely resembles another in the methods 
 and the menus. I sate or rather kneeled lately 
 at a large banquet given by Mr. Okura, a very 
 wealthy merchant, at his country seat in Mukojima, 
 a suburb of Tokio. The ride thither took us clear 
 through the vast city into a rural quarter upon the 
 bank of the chief river. The guests, including 
 many of the present Ministers of the Emperor's 
 Cabinet, assembled first of all in a smoking pavilion, 
 overlooking the stream, richly adorned with carvings 
 and chased brass ornaments, and warmed by a huge 
 hibachi, or fire-box. Here we were served by 
 kneeling musumes with tea, vermouths, and little 
 balls of sweetened millet ; and then proceeded 
 through many passages glistening with polished 
 pine and cherrywood to the shuko-do, or dining- 
 chamber. Sitting here on little square cushions 
 every guest having his fire-box beside him a girl 
 in flowing embroidered robes and bright satin obi 
 appears before each, and places the first tray within
 
 SAKE AND TEA. 299 
 
 his reach. There will be upon it a little lacquered 
 bowl of soup, a saucer of legumes, a tiny dish of 
 cutlet, or ragout, a bowl of snowy boiled rice, a 
 sake-cup, and a pair of new chopsticks. The guest 
 of the evening gives the signal to start by begin- 
 ning to wield these latter, and then all is festivity 
 and joyous chat sans g&ne. Your pretty musume, 
 having well started you, kneels in front of your 
 tray, armed with a porcelain flask of rice-wine, 
 warmed ; and if she can help it she will not allow 
 your little red saucer to remain unbrimmed. 
 
 My fortunate cushion was placed between the 
 American Minister's and that of Count Saigon, the 
 President of the Imperial Marine Department, whose 
 brother headed the Satsuma rebellion many years 
 ago and lost his head. The Count was loyal, and 
 has risen to high office a frank, hearty, English- 
 looking statesman, whose merry conversation made 
 one often neglect the choice dishes which followed 
 the first service in lavish variety. At perhaps the 
 third tray when the second soup and the thin 
 slices of raw fish, the daikon and the vermicelli with 
 almonds, have appeared, and many a cup of sake 
 has warmed the "honourable insides" of the con- 
 vives the sound is heard, behind the screen at 
 the end of the room, of the samisen and the koto, 
 and, being pushed back, it reveals the musicians 
 and the dancers. These last the Geishas wear 
 always very gay apparel, and are extremely well 
 trained in their graceful odori. But you would 
 be wrong to think that any Japanese woman may
 
 300 SEAS AND LANDS. 
 
 put on the splendid and showy kimonos borne by 
 the Maiko. There is a very strict social rule in 
 Japan that after the twenty-first year of her age 
 a girl must no longer don bright colours ; she then 
 assumes the sober tints of grey, dark-blue, dove- 
 colour, and brown ; so that, practically, only the 
 quite young female people assume the gorgeous 
 garments in question. When the Geishas have 
 finished one or two well-known dances, and have 
 been applauded with words of approval and clapping 
 of hands, one comes back to the little trays, now 
 encircling each guest as boats surround a ship in 
 harbour, and plays again with the chopsticks among 
 the entremets, the cakes, the candied fruits, and 
 perfumed "kickshaws" which complete the service. 
 Or one lights a cigarette, or kiseru; or rises from 
 his cushion to go, first to the host, and afterwards 
 to every well-known friend in the circle, kneel- 
 ing down before him, and saying, Ippai Kudasai, 
 " Permit me to drink with you in my own cup." 
 The person thus invited rinses his sake-cup in 
 the hot- water bowl, and hands it to you; you raise 
 it to your forehead, and presenting it to the musume 
 to be filled, quaff it, rinse it anew, and hand it 
 to your friend, who lifts it to his head, has it re- 
 plenished, and drinks, bowing low, adding such a 
 sentence as me ni kakaru kara taksan o tanoshimi 
 gozaimas i.e., " I am very happy to have hung in 
 your honourable eyes." By this time the conversa- 
 tion has grown animated ; the companions of the 
 banquet are gathered in friendly groups; the gaily-
 
 SAKE AND TEA. 301 
 
 clad musumes flit about with vases of rice-wine, 
 or converse lightly and prettily with the guests, 
 who may offer them a cup of sake, and flirt a 
 little. If you have known how to select the most 
 satisfactory dishes, and have not made the mistake 
 of swallowing whole what looked like a sugared 
 chestnut, and turned out, too late, to be a lump of 
 fiery mustard, cayenne, and soy, the entertainment 
 has abundantly satisfied the appetite, besides grati- 
 fying the sight, the hearing, and the spirit generally. 
 When, amid a buzz of joyous farewell talk, your 
 musume wraps you in your fur coat, and, while 
 you slip again into your shoes on the threshold, 
 knocks her pretty brow upon the matting, mur- 
 muring, Sayonaraf mata o ide nasare ("Good-bye! 
 be pleased to come again"), you enter your jinri- 
 kisha and roll off through the streets glittering with 
 paper lanterns and lively with thousands of clattering 
 feet, repeating to yourself, "Fate cannot harm me. 
 I have dined to-day ! " 
 
 Such was, in slightest outline, our dinner at 
 Mukojima, where I left the Minister of Marine 
 deep in a gay discussion with two Geishas and a 
 musume, as to the proper words of a celebrated 
 song. The banquet at the " Hall of Clouds " being 
 in connection with the University, and largely 
 attended by imperial professors, wore somewhat 
 graver aspects, and there were present, besides, 
 some distinguished Buddhist abbots, as well as the 
 youthful head of one of their sects. The chief 
 priest, by the way, though he went through the
 
 3 o2 SEAS AND LANDS. 
 
 friendly ceremony of drinking from my cup, raised 
 it simply to his forehead ; either he did not touch 
 what the Buddha forbade, or would not let me 
 see him do it. There were also no dancing and 
 no music, for the Cha-no-yu was to follow, and 
 nothing in the least frivolous must mingle with 
 that. Duly, when the dinner was finished, the 
 chief guests, six or seven in number out of the 
 forty or fifty present, repaired to the little room 
 set apart for the ceremony. Approaching its 
 entrance we all washed our hands with water 
 from a small wooden ladle, out of a white wooden 
 tub. Above the door were written characters which 
 meant " Hospitality, courtesy, purity, tranquillity ! " 
 We passed into a tiny apartment, of spotless ap- 
 pearance, provided with mats, cushions, an antique 
 tea equipage, a- glowing hearth sunk in the floor, 
 and one hanging picture, very old, which we were 
 directed to admire and criticise. Our places are 
 prescribed round the floor, with careful politeness, 
 by the aged servitor. Sitting thus quietly but 
 gaily in the little snow-clean alcove, the talk turns 
 upon the origin of the Cha-no-yu, and what it 
 has done, not only for Japanese art, manners, and 
 national life, but, if anybody reflects rightly, for the 
 whole civilised world. It is really to Buddhism 
 that civilisation owes the tea-leaf, and its immense 
 place at the present day in the affections and the 
 commerce of mankind. The plant is indigenous 
 to Japan, but the " calm brethren of the yellow 
 robe" brought with them into Japan, along with
 
 SAKE AND TEA. 303 
 
 their gentle religion, the art of using it. Up to 
 the time of our Wars of the Roses tea in Japan 
 was still so rare that soldiers received small pots 
 of it as gifts of honour, and infused it in special 
 feasts among their friends as a precious beverage. 
 
 The great Regent Yoshi-tsune', retiring from 
 power, personally established its universal use in 
 Japan, and indirectly gave, by his far-off foresight 
 and refined taste, five o'clock tea to the Duchess 
 in Belgravia ; and also to the student, the washer- 
 woman, and the sempstress " the cup that cheers." 
 He and his friend Shuko, a Buddhist priest, in- 
 vented the tea pavilion, and drew up the first rules 
 of the Cha-no-yu. But though these great minds 
 so early popularised tea-drinking in Japan, and 
 doubtless intended to simplify it, the fashion long 
 remained aristocratic. The nobles were wont to 
 sit over their tea-cups gambling for gilded armour, 
 and even for precious sword-blades, which the 
 winner would often lightly give away to the pretty 
 flowery - robed Geishas, who danced, sang, and 
 waited for them. It was reserved for the low-born 
 but powerful and accomplished Taikoon, Hiddyoshi, 
 " the Augustus of Japanese History," to stamp the 
 cult of the tea-leaf with that enduring grace, sim- 
 plicity, and charm which have made tea-drinking 
 the central act of Japanese life, and even built all 
 their houses and apartments on the same undeviat- 
 ing pattern. Hideyoshi had for his Meccenas Sen- 
 no-rikiu, another Buddhist priest, and the two 
 together reformed the Cha-Seki by making it before
 
 3 o 4 SEAS AND LANDS. 
 
 all things intensely simple. Ostentation was ostra- 
 cised. 
 
 The four great qualities which the SeiJcasha 
 the Tea-Drinker was to celebrate and cultivate 
 over the sacred cup were hospitality, courtesy, 
 purity, and tranquillity. The apartment must be 
 plain, but elegant, with spotless mats and simple 
 joinery; the utensils must be uncostly, but ex- 
 quisite in shape and fitness. Temperance must 
 be absolute ; if food and wine mingled with the 
 little feast nobody must exceed one bowl of rice 
 and three saucers of sake. Nor was it solely for 
 love of grace and the four chief virtues of the 
 tea-room, Ka-kei-sei-jaku, that the famous Taikoon 
 inaugurated the cult of the tea-leaf. His great 
 mind saw that if he could give Japan a national 
 and tranquil habit, easy of practice for the poor 
 and attractive to the rich, he would do much to 
 sheathe the sword and humanise his people ; and 
 so it has turned out. Never, in truth, had a 
 statesman's subtle device such grand success. The 
 tea- cup, as I have said, is to-day the central fact 
 of this fair and gentle land. It decides the 
 architecture, binds together the societies, refreshes 
 the fatigue, and rewards the day's work of high 
 and low in Japan. The perspiring jinrikisha man 
 is satisfied with the warm infusion ; the Minister 
 and the Mikado himself are only happy when the 
 " honourable tea " exhales its delicate fragrance 
 from the hands of the kneeling musume. And 
 there are little gracious ceremonies even about the
 
 SAKE AND TEA. 307 
 
 most ordinary tea-drinking in humblest houses, 
 which everywhere elevate it above a mere beve- 
 rage. Good manners in Japan prescribe a sort 
 of soft solemnity whenever the little cup is being 
 filled, and no hut is so lowly but its kettle, its 
 teapot, and its tea equipage display something 
 about them of distinction, taste, and the love of 
 a chaste and perfect art. 
 
 But the Cha-no-yu, as Hiddyoshi and Sen-no- 
 rikiu settled it for ever, carries these ceremonials 
 to a grave perfection. To be quite orthodox the 
 tea-room must be very small, one of but four and 
 a half mats, roofed if possible with a single finely 
 grained plank, or else thatched with bamboo grass. 
 The few honoured guests should be called to the 
 pavilion by wooden clappers, washing their hands 
 first in pure water. No discontented person must 
 be present, nor any scandal, or flattery, or unkind 
 words be heard. The host himself should mend the 
 fire, light the incense, brush the mats, fill the white- 
 pine ewer, and lay the ladle of red-pine ; as well as 
 see that the single picture is hung and the single 
 flower-pot fairly set in its place. The tea should 
 be of the finest green powder, from a beautiful but 
 common little jar ; placed in a cup of ancient design 
 holding, perhaps, half a pint. The " honourable " 
 hot water is poured upon it, and then stirred in with 
 a small bamboo whisk, which article itself, like the 
 tiny spoon of the same material used for taking out 
 the tea powder, must be of a certain form, and, if 
 possible, ancient, and famous for its artistic origin.
 
 3 o8 SEAS AND LANDS. 
 
 Even about the boiling of the water there is 
 orthodox tradition, there is solemnity, I had almost 
 said there is religion. The sumi in the brazier must 
 be piled up in the outline of a glowing Fuji- San. 
 The kettle of beaten iron must have no touch of 
 modern vulgarity in its shape, the water must be 
 drawn from the purest source, and at the moment 
 of use in the third state of boiling. The first state 
 is known by its low murmuring, and the appear- 
 ance on the surface of the large slow bubbles dis- 
 tinguished as " fish eyes," gyo-moku ; the second 
 is when steam comes with quickly rising foam ; the 
 third is when the steam disappears in a tranquil, 
 steady simmer, and the fluid is now " honourable 
 old hot water." This is the propitious moment for 
 the admixture, which being compounded appears 
 in the guise of a light-green frothy compound, deli- 
 cately fragrant and invigoratingly hot, contained 
 in the antique cup, which, neatly folded in a fair 
 cloth, should be handed now to the principal guest. 
 Drinking reverently from it, he should tenderly 
 wipe the rim at the spot where he has quaffed, but 
 the next guest must drink at the very same place, 
 for such is the "Kiss of brotherhood," in harmony 
 with the friendly inspirations of this ceremony. 
 The last guest must be heedful to drain the bowl 
 to its dregs ; then he passes it round to be exa- 
 mined, criticised, and made the subject of pleasant 
 talk about the old days, the canons of true art in 
 pottery, or any other topic lightly arising from the 
 graceful moment, as the tender fragrance of the tea-
 
 SAKE AND TEA. 311 
 
 leaf wafts itself about the air of the little spotless 
 chamber and among the kneeling, happy, tranquil 
 companions of the occasion. 
 
 At a glance it will be seen how imperiously these 
 elegant ceremonies, once established and received, 
 have dictated to Japan the pure simplicity of her 
 ceramic and metal work, and how they have passed 
 down into all ranks of the people, constituting a 
 standard of sweet and simple manners and of 
 high-bred tastes which they were quicker to accept 
 than any other nation. Perhaps nowhere except 
 in Japan would it have been possible even for the 
 great Hideyoshi and the astute Sen-no-rikiu to have 
 indoctrinated a whole people with so pure and re- 
 fined a passion. But the commonest Japanese have 
 this charming tendency to a delicate sobriety of 
 appetite and taste ; they love the touch of art which 
 elevates, the glimpse of grace which dignifies. 
 They have the nature rather of birds or butterflies 
 than of ordin'ary human beings, and when you send 
 out to your Kurumaya a cup of tea and a saucer 
 of boiled rice, and hear afterwards his grateful 
 words, you wonder whether he is of the same race 
 as that which you left quaffing half-and-half and 
 eating rump- steaks on the banks of the Thames. 
 Of course the austere etiquette of the Cha-no-yu 
 is special ; but its spirit, as the central ceremony of 
 tea-drinking, has palpably passed through all Japan, 
 where everything begins and ends with the tetsubin 
 and the tea-cup. Nor is it too much to declare 
 that to Buddhism, which brought in her religious
 
 312 SEAS AND LANDS. 
 
 ideas and the tea-leaf, and to Hiddyoshi, who taught 
 her how to honour, enjoy, and infuse it, is due much, 
 if not most, of the existing aspect of social and civic 
 Japan. 
 
 TOKIO, JAPAN, Dec. 19,
 
 LIGHT REFRESHMENT.
 
 CHAPTER XX. 
 
 AT HOME. 
 
 IF some of those countless friends at home, of 
 whom the Christmas season brings such warm re- 
 membrances, could be transported hither on the 
 magic carpet of Asiatic fiction it would puzzle them 
 at first to know to what land they had been conveyed. 
 This drawing-room where I write, with walls of gilt 
 paper and soft Oriental carpets, easy-chairs in cosy 
 corners, and the numberless little signs of feminine 
 taste and decoration imparted by a lady's hand, might 
 make the house seem at first like some Indian bun- 
 galow. But in the middle of the apartment rises a 
 pillar of dark cherry-wood, erected there just as it 
 was felled, except for a little polish and some care- 
 less chisel marks, supporting a ceiling of unpainted 
 joinery, delicately finished, but left, in the original 
 beauty of the fir-wood. Moreover, two of the four 
 walls of the pretty and pleasant room are composed 
 of framed glass through which one looks over a 
 charming garden, where artificial mounds, tiny 
 pools, and winding pathways are overhung by the 
 bamboo and the palm, which might appear Indian 
 enough, but for being interspersed with camellias, 
 camphor-laurels, and pine-trees. India, therefore,
 
 316 SEAS AND LANDS. 
 
 it could not be ; but yet if, still uncertain and 
 puzzled, the imaginary friend should proceed to 
 lightly clap together his hands (our way of bell- 
 ringing here), the mystery would be quickly solved, 
 for the gilded shoji would promptly roll back from 
 one or other of the corners of the chamber, and O 
 Tori San, plumpest and most cheerful of Japanese 
 waiting-maids, would appear to the summons upon 
 her little hands and knees, probably also on her 
 nose, with shining black marble hair, comely 
 girdled kimono, little pigeon feet in cloven white 
 socks, and that ejaculatory Hi! hi! with which 
 she always announces obedience to the behests of 
 her young mistress. Furthermore the shoji, rolling 
 aside, would disclose vistas within of white matted 
 floors, latticed screens covered with transparent 
 paper, polished dark passages which no boot or 
 shoe profanes, and dusky servants flitting about 
 in wide-sleeved dresses, besides jinrikishas standing 
 at the door, and clogs and waraji lying on the door- 
 step ; in fact, the usual aspect and features of a real 
 Japanese domicile. 
 
 In truth, we are housed and very pleasantly 
 housed for some time to come as what may be 
 called honorary citizens of this vast capital of 
 Japan. Not that you would ever dream, looking 
 through the latticed sides of the dwelling upon 
 the garden, that the residence stood almost in the 
 very centre of an enormous city. Tokio is so full 
 of green spaces, gardens, and hills, that only in 
 certain quarters do you see close-packed and densely-
 
 AT HOME. 317 
 
 populated streets and lanes. Upon the eminence of 
 Imai-ch6, where our abode is situated, the air is 
 fresh and smokeless as in the farthest country, and 
 the view extends, over groups of black and white 
 shops and dwellings, to many acclivities, verdant and 
 pleasant like this, and crowned, as this is, with 
 agreeable villas and lightly framed buildings sur- 
 rounded with groves and pleasure-grounds. A run 
 in the house-jinrikisha will take you very quickly 
 into the midst of long streets and lanes swarming 
 with the picturesque population, and we are, indeed, 
 " near everything," without any of the drawbacks of 
 a capital. At night the neighbourhood is as quiet 
 as the street of a rural village, the only sounds 
 heard being the amma's cry passing the gate, and 
 the echo of the watchman's wooden clappers. The 
 atmosphere is always pure and clear, albeit a million 
 and a quarter of Japanese live between our bamboo 
 thickets and the sea's edge, for there are no chimneys 
 the houses burn no fuel except the cleanly char- 
 coal ; and Fuji-San, the queen of mountains, though 
 she is distant some sixty-five miles, for this reason 
 daily lifts her snowy peak to our view in the west- 
 ward region. It is now midwinter in Japan, and 
 not the season of flowers moreover, a nightly frost 
 binds the little lotus-pool in the garden with thick 
 ice. Yet we have hardy roses and camellias blossom- 
 ing round us, and the rich variety of evergreens, 
 mingling with the acclimatised cycads and bamboo, 
 furnishes perpetual verdure. In the spring we shall 
 be embosomed in the pink ajid white blossoms of
 
 3 i8 SEAS AND LANDS. 
 
 the plum and cherry trees, which just now are 
 bare. 
 
 At our garden gate stands a Shinto temple, 
 especially famous for the splendour of its double 
 cherry blooms, the absence of which is now supplied 
 by wreaths of dried leaves and festoons of white 
 paper suspended on the red torii, or portals, of the 
 silent shrine. If you wish to plunge into the busy 
 
 bright life of the city it is but to descend the hill, to 
 pass the jinrikisha stand and the old Daimio's dwell- 
 ing, and then to turn a corner by the massive fortress 
 wall, and you will be among the odd little shops, the 
 clattering pattens, the mothers and sisters with the 
 babies on their backs, the children kite-flying, the 
 traders sitting over their glowing charcoal braziers ; 
 the hawkers of fish, dried radish, cakes, persimmons,
 
 AT HOME. 319 
 
 toys, pipes, kites, and flags ; the coolies with their 
 balanced loads ; the blind old samisen players ; the 
 Buddhist priests ; the pretty musumes with hair 
 like black marble and pigeon feet ; the imperturb- 
 able slit-eyed babies ; the acquaintances meeting in 
 the street and profusely bowing and saluting; the 
 Japanese officers riding along, each with his betto, 
 or groom ; the flower pedlars ; the bullock-men ; 
 the bird-dealers ; the tea-houses, the little funny 
 house fronts, and opened interiors ; the bath-rooms, 
 the temples, the stone-yards, the basket-works, the 
 gliding rice-boats, tout le tremblement, in fact, of the 
 wonderful and ever-interesting capital city of Japan. 
 To be .permitted thus to reside in the Japanese 
 metropolis is not very readily granted to a foreigner 
 who has no official or diplomatic status. My prede- 
 cessor in the tenancy was in Government employ, 
 and so much goodwill has been shown to me by 
 high Japanese dignitaries that no difficulty was 
 apprehended in the temporary succession. But the 
 Foreign Office at Tokio is precise and logical, and 
 could not consequently accept the theory of a guest 
 who paid rent. I was therefore finally and obligingly 
 appointed tutor en titre to the amiable family of 
 my landlord, who lives close by, and that office I 
 have the honour to occupy at present upon a 
 salary which would be nominal if it did not include 
 the pleasure of hearing my accomplished pupils 
 often play upon the samisen and the koto. Upon 
 this basis we have established excellent relations, 
 and O Fuku San, with her charming sister, has just
 
 3 20 
 
 SEAS AND LANDS. 
 
 now called round to bring my daughter some hagoita 
 battledore and shuttlecocks now all the fashion. 
 And if the stipend of this new appointment is 
 nil, so, too, are its responsibilities. I revise the 
 
 MY TEACH LR. 
 
 MSS. of a Japanese history in its English trans- 
 lation for Chief-Inspector Asso, and he kindly 
 polishes up my Japanese ; so that we give just a 
 little touch of actuality to the status which enables
 
 AT HOME. 
 
 321 
 
 me to be domiciled temporarily as a citizen of 
 Tokio. Even the Bishop of Japan, a dignified 
 and popular neighbour in my quarter, resides there 
 only as a schoolmaster, not as a Christian prelate. 
 The difficulties which have arisen about treaty 
 
 revision very far as yet from being settled render 
 the Japanese Government, it would appear, more 
 particular than ever. 
 
 For our household staff we have a cook, with his 
 wife and girl-baby, a gardener, a jinrikisha-puller,
 
 322 SEAS AND LANDS. 
 
 or kuruma-ya, the Japanese maid, and my *>wn man, 
 Mano, with his wife. The cook, named Nakashima 
 Yasuzo, dresses in the conventional white for his 
 official duties, but takes orders on his knees and 
 forehead in a dark-blue dress covered all over with 
 red-and-white dragons. He is very skilful and 
 inventive, and can serve up as good a dinner as 
 anybody needs. His accounts, presented in the 
 Japanese kata-kana rather puzzling to his young 
 English mistress are cast up upon the native 
 soroban, or abacus, which is in universal use, and 
 seems never to mislead. It is especially in dressing 
 fish the favourite Japanese food that Nakashima 
 is ingenious, and, indeed, almost exhaustless ; but 
 he can achieve almost anything in either European 
 or native style. 
 
 The kuruma-ya, or jinrikisha man, is styled 
 Watanabe Shuzo, and lives always at call to 
 trundle one or other of us from end to end of 
 the city with his tireless quick trot and twink- 
 ling little legs. He has just brought in the special 
 suit of clothes presented to him for the New 
 Year, of dark blue linsey, with white discs and 
 flying storks all over it, and upon the back, 
 between the shoulder-blades, a large letter " A " 
 embroidered, the initial of his owner's name. It 
 is pleasant to possess, and thus perpetually to 
 command, a two-legged steed of this sort, who 
 never shies, nor bolts, nor stumbles, and will go 
 as readily fifty miles as five. The gardener, Suzuhi 
 Kanzo, is a small and silent Japanese, irresistibly
 
 AT HOME. 
 
 3*3 
 
 recalling the " Ace of Spades "of " Alice in Won- 
 derland," as he flits about with a little hoe, a little 
 pair of shears, and a little broom, amid his plants 
 
 THE SISTEBS. 
 
 and flowers, or carries water to the bath-room, 
 which latter is a very simple and peculiar apart- 
 ment in the Japanese manner, with huge wooden
 
 324 SEAS AND LANDS. 
 
 tubs of "honourable hot water," and a grated 
 floor. Among the many nice characteristics of 
 the Japanese is their love of perpetual bathing. 
 Everybody who has not private conveniences for 
 this purpose goes daily to a public bath furo-do 
 and parboils himself or herself in water of a 
 temperature beyond the endurance of any European 
 skin. They are in consequence the cleanest of 
 people, but make no more of stripping to bathe 
 in common than we of taking off our gloves. 
 
 Yoshida Tori, my daughter's maid, deserves a 
 paragraph to herself. Plump, rosy-cheeked, and 
 always smiling, she is a personification of the sweet 
 temper of all Japanese damsels and of the population 
 generally. The daughter of a samurai, or well-born 
 swordsman, she has learned admirable manners, and 
 has evidently been well educated ; but performs, all 
 the same, her household duties as if they were a 
 source of positive delight. In bringing a message, 
 receiving an order, offering tea or cakes, or doing 
 anything which is not absolutely instantaneous, she 
 always goes down on her little knees, and often also 
 upon her little nose, and never permits her master or 
 mistress to enter or quit the house without hastening 
 outside to kneel and bend low upon the doorstep. 
 Twice a week somebody, with the necessary artistic 
 skill, comes to dress her black marble hair with 
 camellia oil, inserting in its glossy masses coloured 
 puffs of silk and wool, and Jcanzashis, or ornamental 
 pins. These pins are a great article of trade in 
 every bazaar, designed in all sorts of shapes and
 
 AT HOME. 
 
 3*7 
 
 patterns, and with the gayest imaginable ornamenta- 
 tion ; but the favourite mode is a hairpin of gold 
 and coral, or one imitating a spray of cherry-blossom. 
 When O Tori San has been properly coiffee, with a 
 representation of Mount Fuji rising in a peak from 
 
 THE GARDENER'S WIFE. 
 
 her small brow, and enormous shining puffs con- 
 structed behind and before, she must sleep, like all 
 the rest of her sex here, with her head upon a 
 makura. This is the tiny wooden pillow, in outline
 
 32 8 SEAS AND LANDS. 
 
 something like an anvil, having rolls of paper on the 
 upper hollow, and two little drawers below, where 
 the kanzashis are deposited every night. Upon this 
 apparently most uncomfortable prop all feminine 
 Japan reposes its head, or neck, at sleeping time ; for 
 the ordinary pillow or bolster would make a complete 
 wreck of those shining puffs and peaks and well- 
 oiled bandeaux. In the morning, while dusting and 
 sweeping, O Tori San covers the elaborate structures 
 of her hair with a blue and white handkerchief, 
 which is also of universal use in Japan, the women 
 spreading it over their heads like a cap or bonnet, 
 the men twisting and knotting it round their shocks 
 of black bristling hair. Wonderful to behold, more- 
 over, are the obi which our Japanese Abigail puts 
 on from day to day ; gay and glittering folds of 
 liveliest hue, so arranged as to hang upon the small 
 of her back, like a valise, or writing case, made of 
 gold and flowers. When suddenly summoned by 
 clapping of hands, O Tori San, in whatever part of 
 the house, utters a loud and ready " Hai ! " and after- 
 wards, while receiving the order, ejaculates in quick 
 succession a series of he ! he I he ! he's ! concluding 
 with a deep obeisance, and the word Kashkomarim- 
 ashta, "I have assented." She is fond of gliding 
 into the drawing-room, and silently sitting there 
 for the sake of company, for in this gentle land 
 the distance is not great between servants and 
 masters. 
 
 Last night, while reading by lamplight, the 
 distant rumble of an earthquake was heard by
 
 AT HOME. 329 
 
 us ; and before the strange deep noise had well 
 gathered up into the now too well-known thunder 
 and rattle of the dread jishin, the little Japanese maid 
 had precipitated herself through the skoji, and was 
 on her knees at the feet of her young mistress. 
 "The more you know of earthquakes," she after- 
 wards said, " the less you like to be alone in one." 
 
 A WOMAN SLEEPING. 
 
 O Tori San, amid other duties, is, indeed, one of my 
 teachers in Japanese, and whenever I come to a 
 general sentence in the reading-book it is " Andne ! " 
 " The plum-blossoms of Ueno were beautiful last 
 year; did you go to see them?" whereupon she says, 
 "He! miemasen" ("I did not see"); and a more 
 or less lively exercise in irregular Japanese gerunds
 
 330 SEAS AND LANDS. 
 
 and participles ensues. The colloquial tongue can- 
 not be called difficult to acquire, when once a 
 sufficient vocabulary has been mastered, but the 
 modes of thought with the Japanese are different 
 from ours, and great care is necessary to avoid 
 blunders in the established etiquette of using 
 honorific words to others and depreciatory expres- 
 sions as regards yourself. To command a correct 
 and refined speech and to know the kata-kana and 
 "grass writing" of Japanese would naturally be a 
 work of years instead of months. 
 
 Amid these pleasant and placid domesticities, in 
 the bright comfort of our Japanese home, we live, 
 for the time being, as happily as can be imagined. 
 At seven A.M. O Tori San pushes back the shoji 
 from the room, where I sleep on the floor under 
 padded quilts, called futons, and, letting in the 
 splendid sunshine of the Japan morning, ejaculates 
 " Ohayo ! " and slides my gozen, the early breakfast- 
 tray, to my side. Then she shuffles about, attend- 
 ing to the bath and toilette of her young mistress, 
 and bringing in the fire-boxes, while the " Ace of 
 Spades" fetches water, the Kuruma man cleans his 
 jinrikisha, the cook buys the provisions for the day, 
 the cook's wife plays with her baby or her samisen, 
 and Mano and his wife polish, and dust, and sweep. 
 On New Year's Day we must not have any cleaning 
 or dusting; it would brush away the good luck of 
 the coming year, in honour of which great festival 
 our gates, like those of every house, hut, and shop 
 in Tokio, are at present decorated with Japanese
 
 AT HOME. 333 
 
 national flags and the Kadomatsu. There are 
 erections of pine, bamboo, and sprays of evergreen 
 put up on either side of the gate or door, adorned 
 with oranges, flowers, festoons of rope and paper, 
 and sometimes with dried boiled crayfish. All these 
 things are emblematic of luck and goodwill, and 
 everybody must also eat mochi rice or bean cake 
 at this important era, and say, Mazu akete mashite, 
 o medetd gozaimas, "At this opening year, I wish 
 you happiness." 
 
 If you can stand a little bit of Japanese poetry, 
 here is one of the verses they sing about the fir- 
 bushes and decorations 
 
 " Kadomatsu wa 
 Meido no tabi no 
 Ichi-ri zuka ; 
 Medetd mo ari, 
 Medet6 mo naahi ; " 
 
 which may be closely interpreted 
 
 " The gateway-pines we plant 
 Are milestones of Life's road, 
 Marking the stages passed ; 
 And glad the way for some, 
 And sad for some the way ! " 
 
 Presents of love, goodwill, and compliment fly about 
 in every direction. They must be tied up in a par- 
 ticular manner, with certain kinds of string, and 
 bearing little paper symbols called noshi. Anything 
 will do ! we are a simple people in Tokio. Miss 
 Asso, in exchange for a box of bonbons, has, as 
 before remarked, just brought us some battledores
 
 334 SEAS AND LANDS. 
 
 and shuttlecocks. Half the city is playing with 
 these as the latest fashion, or flying kites. Dried 
 salmon are in especial favour as presents. 
 
 I feel how utterly indescribable it all is, even 
 while trying to describe this unique, unparalleled, 
 unspoiled, astonishing, fascinating, sweet-tempered 
 Japan. After two months spent in their midst, I 
 have to repeat what I ventured to say after two 
 weeks, that nowhere, for the lover of good manners, 
 is there a country so reposeful, so refreshing, so full 
 of antique grace, and soft, fair courtesies as this 
 " Land of the Rising Sun." Only go among them 
 with goodwill and sympathy, and whatever your 
 blunders of deportment and language you will 
 meet here from all ranks of the people a refine- 
 ment of politeness and a charm of intercourse no- 
 where else experienced. I declare I have as yet 
 never seen or heard a Japanese woman do or say 
 anything which fell short of such a high standard 
 of propriety, consideration, and savoir faire as 
 would be expected from a perfect English lady. 
 If you think that is merely my ignorance or preci- 
 pitancy, let me add that I am ubiquitous, and know 
 by this time something of all classes of native 
 society, and can still decisively recommend Japan 
 to any public man weary with the fuss and flurry 
 of Western life as the softest tonic, the surest 
 restorative, the kindest and brightest panacea for 
 too much thought and too long toil. There is not 
 a man, woman, or child within sight who ever heard 
 of the Irish question think only of that! They
 
 AT HO"ME. 
 
 335 
 
 do not know, or care to know, whence I came, and 
 cannot even pronounce my name, because there is 
 an "L" in it. But because I like them they like 
 me, and there are twenty delightful places where 
 
 DANOINO G1BL. 
 
 I can any day repair at any hour, sit on the soft 
 white floor, sip tea, smoke, listen to the samisen, 
 and hear my broken Japanese put right from the 
 gentlest and kindest of lips and amongst ever-
 
 336 SEAS AND LANDS. 
 
 radiant faces. All which, I believe, is called by 
 some the " heathenish East." 
 
 We assisted a night or two ago at a charming 
 entertainment, where Japanese and European chil- 
 dren were mingled in a fancy-dress dance. The 
 little native maids, in brilliant-coloured kimono 
 and dazzling obi, demurely danced Japanese and 
 Western measures with tiny lads, dressed as 
 daimios and samurais, carrying two swords and 
 grandly apparelled with shoulder-pieces and satin 
 trousers. After the children retired the older ones 
 played at being young, and I saw the German 
 Minister slap his Excellency of the Austrian Empire 
 at the game of " Ring and Rope " with an energy 
 which nothing but abandoned festivity could save 
 from becoming an immediate casus belli, while one 
 Plenipotentiary was obliged to call aloud to his 
 consort, "De la moderation, Madame!" So there 
 is something, as will be seen, for all moods in 
 Tokio. 
 
 But best of all it is when you are tired of 
 walking up and down the quiet garden, under the 
 bamboos and camellias and are even satisfied with 
 gazing on snow-silvered Fuji- San to stroll down 
 the streets, sparkling with painted lanterns, and 
 casting off your shoes at the spotless threshold of 
 the little house you know in Mikawa Daimachi, 
 to sit on the soft white tatamis, amid a gentle 
 shower of musical salutations, " Ohayos," and " Y6 
 o ide nasai-mashtas," and drinking the fragrant tea 
 and lighting the tiny kiseru, to listen to the songs
 
 AT HOME. 
 
 337 
 
 of the " Dragon king's daughter," and to dream 
 you are Urashima, who discovered the Fortunate 
 Islands, and stayed there happily for a thousand 
 years. On the wall will hang some picture of the 
 life or teachings of the Buddha, whose compas- 
 sionate peace has passed into the spirit of the 
 land. The clean and shapely brown feet of laugh- 
 ing musumtis patter on the floor in willing ser- 
 vice like the coming and going of birds. -We fry 
 slices of mochi upon the brazier, and sip, in bright 
 sobriety, the pale yellow tea. A spray of scarlet 
 winter berries, and the last of the yellow chrys- 
 anthemums, suspended in a bamboo joint, give a 
 point of lively colour to the apartment, which is 
 so commodious because it has no doors, and so 
 neat and spotless because we do not make streets 
 of our houses like you at home. When the 
 samisen is not tinkling the sound of light laughter 
 makes sufficient music, for we are kokoro yasui, 
 "heart-easy," and life is never very serious in 
 Japan. Listen a little to the gay, fragmentary 
 love song O Tatsu San is murmuring to the strings 
 which she strikes with the ivory bachi 
 
 " Shote wa jodan 
 Nakagora giri de 
 Ima ja tagai no 
 Jitsu to jitsu." 
 
 Is it something real in her own little existence 
 which rende.rs her brown eyes so soft and expressive 
 as she thus sings?
 
 338 SEAS AND LANDS. 
 
 " First 'twas all a jest, 
 
 Then 'twas daily duty ; 
 Now 'tis at its best, 
 
 True faith, homely beauty 
 Both quite love-possessed." 
 
 Was there really ever an " Irish question," you 
 ask yourself, and did we strive ardently against 
 the great Mr. Gladstone upon it? How vain 
 and tedious it all appears now, contrasted with 
 this placid Japanese insouciance ! M ata utatte 
 kudasai ! " One more little song, O Tatsu San, 
 and replenish the ' honourable tea ! " At such 
 moments the weary politician might be tempted 
 to say, " Better twenty years of Asia than a cycle 
 of the West ! " 
 
 TOKIO, Dec. 29, 1889. 
 
 JAPANESE VILLAGE.
 
 CHAPTER XXI. 
 
 NATURE AND ART. 
 
 O TORI SAN, plumpest and most cheerful of waiting 
 maids, has just brought in and presented, upon her 
 knees and nose, copies of a Japanese art journal 
 sent me by its editor. This brings to mind that I 
 have had no time as yet to write on the large and 
 attractive subject of Japanese art, hitherto but little 
 understood, notwithstanding the rich collections of 
 bronzes, ivories, porcelain, lacquer-work, carvings, 
 arabesques, embroidery, painted screens, and pictures, 
 which have been many times gathered in London. 
 Japan is, in one sense, a land peopled by artists. 
 Everybody here, from the highest to the lowest, has 
 some trace, at least, of that aesthetic comprehension, 
 indescribable but instinctive, which makes an art- 
 lover feel at a glance the supreme excellence of the 
 Elgin Marbles, the consummate beauty of the Par- 
 thenon, the grace of Raphael, the strength of Michael 
 Angelo, the sweetness of Beethoven's "Adelaida," 
 the divine tenderness of Chopin's Funeral March. 
 That sort of faculty is, in a certain degree, innate 
 in the Japanese, though their schools and their 
 canons of art differ so widely from those of the 
 West. 
 
 339
 
 340 
 
 SEAS AND LANDS. 
 
 Nothing is ugly in the very humblest Japanese 
 home. From the rice-tub to the hairpins, all 
 domestic and personal articles are more or less 
 beautiful and becoming. The Government, shar- 
 ing the national passion for beauty in nature 
 and art, plants seats just at those spots of its 
 public gardens and highways where the view is 
 perfect of Fuji-San or of the sea, or of some 
 
 MAT-MAKING. 
 
 range of wooded hills ; and 
 the by-roads to find official 
 where to stop for the best 
 find the most lovely clump 
 blossom. In the same spirit 
 artisan, when their wife sets 
 
 it is common along 
 notices telling you 
 
 prospect, or how to 
 of plum or cherry 
 
 the peasant and the 
 
 a flowering plant on
 
 NATURE AND ART. 341 
 
 the Tansu, looks upon it almost in the light of a 
 good meal, and might grudge money for fish or 
 rice, rather than for that. A corresponding artistic 
 genius runs through all their crafts, making their 
 commonest domestic joinery almost like jeweller's 
 work for finish, their mat-making as delicate as 
 silk-weaving, their tubs and pails and buckets as 
 exquisite in design and completeness as ivory work. 
 And the strange thing is that they have the two 
 styles rarely found combined, one of which is char- 
 acterised by this same exquisite finish, while the 
 other is that swift, suggestive impressionism so con- 
 stantly seen in their ordinary drawings and designs. 
 Where they will complete a thing, nothing can be 
 completer ; the microscope itself could find no flaw 
 in the patient, faithful article turned out. When, 
 again, they merely desire to arouse the imagination, 
 one sweep of the brush, one turn of the dexterous 
 wrist, and they have indicated twenty leagues of 
 blue distance, or limned a bird's wing in the very act 
 of beating. This latter manner, also, characterises 
 their national poetry. Bear with one little scrap of 
 it, in order to realise how the Japanese Muse can 
 trust the quick fancies of her children in the domain 
 of song. A Japanese girl, going to her well in the 
 morning, finds that a convolvulus during the night 
 has twined its crimson and purple bells and green 
 tendrils round the pail. It is too beautiful to 
 disturb ! She abandons the bucket to the fragrant 
 invader, and goes next door to fill her domestic 
 utensils. Out of this simple incident comes a
 
 342 SEAS AND LANDS. 
 
 famous song, done in three lines and five words. 
 
 These are 
 
 " Asagao 
 Tsurube torarete 
 Morai midzu." 
 
 The literal translation of which is 
 
 " Convolvulus 
 Bucket taking, 
 I borrow water." 
 
 And every Japanese ear understands, and every 
 Japanese mind can delight in, the photographic 
 brevity with which the scene and the thought are 
 thus flashed, as it were, into the music and into 
 the heart. But, to convey these to a Western ear 
 and understanding, it would be needful to expand 
 the Japanese poem into at least as many words as 
 the following 
 
 "The 'Morning-glory' 
 Her leaves and bells has bound 
 My bucket-handle round. 
 I could not break the bands 
 Of those soft hands. 
 The bucket and the well to her I left : 
 Lend me some water, for I come bereft" 
 
 And so must all the finer and subtler specimens 
 of Japanese art outside as well as inside its 
 classical poetry be, as it were, translated and 
 expanded for the general Western comprehension. 
 On the screen in my bedroom are two turtles 
 swimming in the sea, wrought upon the flimsiest 
 of paper, with certainly not more than three brushes 
 full of Indian ink. The first brush swept in the
 
 AND ART. 343 
 
 forms of the reptiles, and the vague veil of the sea- 
 wave half covering them. The second delineated, 
 by soft half-tints, the mail-plates of their carapaces, 
 their bending flappers, their horny-plated heads, 
 and shadowed bellies. The third, charged with 
 the last and darkest wash, gave, by instantaneous 
 touches, life and motion to the creatures, made the 
 water seem to follow their gliding shells, and the 
 fins appear to fold as their stroke is finished 
 effected, in a word, just enough for the imagination 
 to complete the irresistible suggestion so that there 
 is a picture in it, perpetually delightful, which per- 
 haps occupied three minutes at most of the artist's 
 time. 
 
 In this kind of triumph the Japanese designer 
 reigns supreme ; but, beyond the familiar region 
 of leaves, flowers, birds, and creatures which have 
 no particular individuality, and which may be there- 
 fore freely generalised, he seems not to perceive, 
 or not to value, the primary element of beauty. 
 As regards the human form, he shows himself in- 
 deed insensible to the real canons of art, albeit this 
 is not for lack of power and observation ; for the 
 statues and figures wrought in wood, and coloured 
 to the life, which I have seen here in the Art School 
 of the University, and also at Yokohama in Mr. 
 Deakin's very rich emporium, are of a finish and 
 force positively without parallel in their kind. It 
 is life itself which the Japanese wood-carver there 
 elicits from his blocks of beech or pine, and they 
 carry out the exactness of the representation, which
 
 3 44 SEAS AND LANDS. 
 
 is often of life-size, to a single hair and to a wander- 
 ing blue vein one might almost say to the very 
 pores of the skin. Nor does it matter, to their 
 patient hand and eye, what is the material in which 
 they work. In our sitting-room here, at my side, 
 is a black panel of cherry-tree with a figure upon it, 
 in ivory, of a cock a niwatori, or "garden-bird," 
 as the Japanese call the domestic fowl. The artist 
 evidently had picked up a disregarded thin slice of 
 a tusk, the remnant of some manufactory of knife- 
 handles or hair-brushes, and had asked himself what 
 could be made of it. He saw, in its oval form, the 
 possible delineation of a cock resting on one leg, 
 with his head drawn back into his feathers. He 
 has realised this vision perfectly, cutting, chiselling, 
 scratching his ivory plaque into such admirable 
 veracity of outline, and such precise truth of texture, 
 that the hackles, the wing-primaries, the wattle, the 
 beak and claws, the eyes, the comb, the soft feathers 
 of the tarsi, and the waving plumes of the tail have 
 all of them the appearance of nature itself although 
 the plate of ivory was not bigger than the top of a 
 hat, to begin with. Yet, either because the type 
 of Japanese feminine beauty is petite and little 
 varied, or because its really gracious and refined 
 points have never been studied artistically, or 
 have been studiously despised and disregarded, no 
 Japanese painter or carver can make half as pretty 
 and graceful a female face and figure as he, or any- 
 body, may see in a day's walk about Tokio or 
 Kioto. This may be partly due to the only half-
 
 NATURE AND ART. 34S 
 
 concealed subordination and disesteem in which 
 the sex is here held, speaking nationally. Nobody 
 is, indeed, ever brutal to a woman in Japan, as 
 in Europe. She has nowhere and never to fear 
 cruelty, violence, or even harsh words. But her 
 status is traditionally inferior, and she lives a semi- 
 slave in too many cases vastly superior though she 
 is in physical and mental type to the masculine por- 
 tion of the population ; and, all things considered, 
 perhaps naturally the most refined, the most gentle, 
 the best-mannered, the most modest, and most self- 
 respecting woman, after her own fashion, in the 
 whole world ; and, in a placid and unemotional 
 way, the most grateful for deference and attention, 
 and the most attached and faithful in return for 
 affection. Strange, in truth, it must seem that 
 this graceful and fairy-like fellow-countrywoman has 
 never inspired Japanese artists with the ideal of 
 human beauty latent in her special charms. They 
 can see beauty, too, everywhere else. Round this 
 house run broad unpainted planks of fir, fixed to 
 strengthen the outside amemados, or rain-shutters. 
 To give them ornament and lightness, the builder 
 has set a craftsman to cut stencilled ducks and 
 pheasants out of the blank face of the wood. Nor 
 is it possible to exaggerate the skill and spirit with 
 which he has put his fret-saw into the plank, and 
 by a cut or two here and there, through which the 
 external light passes, created the most fantastic and 
 amusing groups of wild-fowl in flight, or gulls and 
 terns floating upon water, or of pheasants and other
 
 346 SEAS AND LANDS. 
 
 birds passing through the air. Who else could thus 
 saw a hole in a fir-slab which should look so like 
 the outline in silver of a wild goose on the wing, 
 that a sportsman might almost swear to the breed 
 and the colour? 
 
 With regard to the wonderful lacquer-work in 
 which Japan stands unrivalled, an American chemist 
 Mr. Hitchcock has recently explained the pro- 
 cess, after close study : 
 
 " Lacquer comes from a tree called Rhus Vernicifera, which 
 grows throughout the main island of Japan, but principally around 
 Kioto. The juice, from which lacquer is obtained, exudes from 
 cuts in the bark, and is collected from May to October. It issues 
 slowly, and is collected with a pointed instrument, and transferred 
 to a wooden vessel. A dozen trees are cut in several places in 
 rapid succession, and the juice gathered from time to time. During 
 the season each tree is requisitioned about twenty times. As 
 the sap first exudes it is a greyish, thick or viscous fluid, which 
 quickly turns to yellow, and afterwards to black, when it comes in 
 contact with the air. It is strained through a cotton cloth to free 
 it from wood and dirt, after being thoroughly stirred to render it 
 of uniform consistency. A portion of the raw lacquer is then 
 poured into a large circular vessel, and vigorously stirred with a 
 long-handled implement for five or six hours, while the heat of a 
 small charcoal furnace is thrown on the surface to evaporate the 
 water. During the stirring certain ingredients are added. Iron 
 produces the fine black lustre; in Tokio a soluble salt of iron 
 being employed for this purpose, in Osaka iron dust. The lacquer 
 is then poured into a vessel to settle, and is afterwards drawn off. 
 The wood used is a variety of fir, known as Mnoki. For common 
 work it is covered with paper, but in better qualities the wood 
 itself is the surface, being first carefully smoothed and all joints 
 filled up with the raw lacquer mixed with rice paste, which soon 
 hardens so that it can scarcely be marked with a knife. The 
 whole is then covered with a mixture of inferior lacquer, and 
 coarse, gritty powder, and left a few days to dry, after which it is 
 placed in a moist atmosphere to harden. A hard, tenacious surface 
 is thus obtained for the next coat. The next process is to covet
 
 NATURE AND ART. 347 
 
 the wood with two even layers of lacquer mixed with a fine ochre 
 powder, so as to get a perfect smooth-grained surface for the sub- 
 sequent work. This is rubbed down with a stone, and the parts 
 which are not to receive any decoration are ready for the finishing 
 applications of the lacquer. The other portions are covered with 
 two coats of black lacquer ; the first, applied with a broad brush, 
 dries with a brilliant, reflecting surface ; when this is quite hard 
 the second coat is applied, and on this the designs are impressed. 
 In Wakasa ware there is no painting or drawing ; the white decora- 
 tion is made by scattering egg-shell powder skilfully by hand here 
 and there, and other designs are produced by pressing various 
 leaves on the surface. To get the surface completely smooth again 
 is the next operation, and then a transparent lacquer, coloured 
 yellow, is applied with the object of furnishing a yellow ground 
 for the gold which is to be laid on. This is covered by successive 
 coats of the same lacquer until a smooth surface is again obtained, 
 beneath which are the gold and decorations. Lacquer gives a 
 much harder surface to wood than the best varnish, and is not 
 brittle. It takes a polish lustrous as marble, and lasting for 
 centuries ; it is proof against boiling water, alcohol, and would 
 probably make the very best coating for the bottoms of sea-going 
 vessels, if the process could be cheaply applied. The objection is 
 the danger of lacquer-poisoning from the fresh material, which is 
 justly dreaded by the Japanese." 
 
 I should be inclined to declare the supremacy 
 of Japanese art most assured in wood, ivory, and 
 panel carving. Certainly there is nothing known 
 to me in Europe, from the masterpieces of Grin- 
 ling Gibbons down to the best things in modern 
 churches and mansions, to come near what superior 
 Japanese workmen can achieve. Their ivory Net- 
 sukis are well enough known, but you must still 
 come to Japan to see the best and finest. These 
 little articles cut out of any scrap of elephant 
 tusk on hand are used as toggles or studs where- 
 with to suspend from the girdle the purse, the
 
 34 8 SEAS AND LANDS. 
 
 tobacco-pipe, or the doctor's case of medicines. 
 With incredible patience, with instinctive skill, 
 and nicest observation of Nature, the craftsman 
 not only produces by manual use of the file, 
 graver, and drill, the perfect if grotesque object 
 intended, and finishes it off in all its hidden 
 corners, with a scrupulous conscientiousness, but 
 obtains also by dexterous superficial lines and 
 marks, the exact texture of the skin, or hair, or 
 feather to be indicated. 
 
 One of the larger specimens recently shown to me 
 represented a bag of rice with two or three dozen 
 rats in and upon it. Every rat was as individual in 
 character, position, and action, as if a special portrait 
 had been taken of him ; and the web of the bag, 
 the glistening grains of rice, and the sleek fur of 
 the rodents could not have been better expressed in 
 painting. Again, at the Art School of the University 
 I spent a morning lately in one of the rooms, where 
 twenty or thirty advanced students were carving for 
 practice, and for the purposes of a lecture, upon slabs 
 of simple white fir-wood. In no other part of the 
 world could such natural dexterity, precise observa- 
 tion, and consummate command of the chisel have 
 been witnessed. Seated on the ground, and using 
 no mallet, but merely driving with hand and palm 
 sharp-edged gravers and gouges, these men seemed 
 to treat the wood as if it were clay. Under their 
 touch delicate and delicious pictures arose, in low 
 relief, of bamboo sprays, of the rising moon, of 
 flights of wild-fowl over lakes and rice-fields, of
 
 NATURE AND ART. 349 
 
 blossoming plum-groves, and cherry-gardens, and 
 lotus-pools, and of Fuji-San soaring, beautiful and 
 majestic, from her girdle of clouds. And these 
 marvellous specimens were being executed in the 
 commonest material, and merely as a kind of college 
 exercise ! 
 
 To see the very choicest and rarest of such 
 examples of the wonderful art-crafts of Japan, one 
 must live in the country and inspect not only the 
 articles shown in the best curio shops, but the 
 private heirlooms in the houses of the nobles, and 
 the treasures of the temples. For the passing 
 traveller who wishes to carry off with him trophies 
 of his stay in Japan, there is an admirable and 
 well-known art store on the Bund at Yokohama. 
 Whoever will pay the necessary price for really 
 good things, chosen by the experience and judg 
 ment acquired during many years, will find them 
 in this collection, which has no rival anywhere in 
 this country. It employs directly many of the best 
 native artists, and has agents always travelling in 
 out of the way places, where relics of the highest 
 ancient art may still be picked up. There is, conse- 
 quently, no better spot where a knowledge of the 
 range and variety of Japanese art old and new 
 may be so soon and pleasantly acquired. Practi- 
 cally, everything is to be found there, from the 
 rare and precious real Satsuma the delight of 
 connoisseurs to Awata and all the other marks, 
 some of it ancient, and some, even more beautiful, 
 of modern work, to the delicious little sword-hilts
 
 35 o SEAS AND LANDS. 
 
 and scabbard-plates, where whole legends are de- 
 picted in delicate gold upon bronze, rendered even 
 more precious than gold, by deft artistry. The 
 tourist or collector will see there, without any 
 trouble, matchless Cloisonne work by that prince of 
 designers, Namikawa of Tokio, whose tender grey 
 and rose-hued tints prove him a master of . the 
 science of colour, and by other makers hardly 
 inferior, who know how to employ to the utmost 
 advantage the newly invented and dazzling gold- 
 stone, producing with it and the rest of their rich 
 palette effects superior almost to jewellery or to 
 Jeypore enamel. I was shown last week at Messrs. 
 Deakin's house two spherical vases of Cloisonne, 
 made to the order of Count dei Bardi, of Venice. 
 The Count had given 1000 guineas for the pair, and 
 they were worth it ; for never, I think, did human 
 hand create objects of such quiet, but satisfying 
 beauty, of such marvellous finesse of toil, yet pro- 
 ducing such broad and splendid and harmonious 
 results. Each of these exquisite vessels presented 
 a perfect feast of colour from surfaces finished in 
 every point like the petal of a lily leaf, but full 
 of a thousand different and delicate creations of 
 fancy, and of alternately bold and tender contrasts 
 of tint. 
 
 The whole process of Cloisonne work may be 
 studied on the premises, and not until the patient, 
 skilful artist has been observed at his labours is it 
 possible to realise the vast amount of faithful mani- 
 pulation entailed in the creation of these lovely pieces-
 
 NATURE AND ART. 
 
 35* 
 
 First, there comes the difficult task of beating out the 
 copper sheets to the required form for the founda- 
 tion. Next the artist has to trace on its face the 
 intricate design of flower, bird, or landscape ; then 
 the piece is passed on to another department, where 
 for weeks, months, or years supple fingers are en- 
 gaged in fixing over the sketched design the minute 
 bits of wire that go to make the metallic partitions 
 for the reception of the enamels, and not until it 
 has been "filled" five times, and has entered the 
 kiln as often, does the article reach the polisher, 
 and from his hands pass to the showroom. Speci- 
 mens of Cloisonne work, forty, fifty, or sixty years 
 old, tell how great has been Japan's advance of late 
 in this section of her art industry. Then the 
 finished article was dull, leaden in colouring, in- 
 distinct in design ; now it is bright, chaste, and 
 supremely beautiful. At the art store on the Bund 
 of Yokohama you will see and covet ivory carvings 
 of ancient or modern imagination, lacquered work 
 in red and black, glorious inlaid panels in gold 
 and silver and mother-of-pearl, antique and recent 
 weapons and utensils, bronzes ranging in value 
 from fifty cents to five thousand dollars, magnificent 
 cabinets, boxes, and tables enriched with fantastic 
 designs in gold and powdered egg-shell these and 
 countless other treasures attract the attention. 
 
 I was shown a folding screen, destined, like the 
 lovely vases, for Italy, on which five special crafts- 
 men had laboured incessantly during six years, 
 using up, not only all that time and all their skill,
 
 352 SEAS AND LANDS. 
 
 but nearly six thousand dollars' worth, besides, of 
 gold, silver, pearl, shell, ivory, jewels, and the finest 
 lacquer. It portrayed how Yamatodake tempted 
 the dragon to drink sake, and how he killed the 
 great beast in order that he might himself win the 
 lovely daughter of the Sun-Goddess in marriage ; 
 and it was altogether such a magnificent work 
 as could in no other country save Japan be seen 
 or produced. Then there are to be studied and 
 admired dazzling brocades and silken kakemono; 
 strange old temple lamps which have lighted the 
 devotions of numberless dead generations of Bud- 
 dhists ; bronze shrines, and bronze Dai-Butsus. 
 among the last of which I saw an image presented 
 by the Shogun Yoritomo to the Riu Shogi Temple 
 in commemoration of his victory over Hidekesa. 
 At this really wonderful emporium one may 
 examine, as nowhere else, the Tsuba or sword- 
 guards, the Fuchi- Kashira or scabbard ornaments, 
 splendid and precious sword-blades, Kiserus, pipes 
 in gold and silver which have soothed the lips of 
 old feudalistic lords and ladies, vases of rock-crystal 
 and jade, marvels of cutting ; and quaint-looking 
 dragons, in silver, bronze, and ivory, with scales 
 that bend, movable jaws, and jewelled eyes. I 
 lately examined a piece of wood-carving, of abso- 
 lutely matchless excellence in spirit and execu- 
 tion, representing two life-sized wrestlers struggling 
 in the ring the whole work cut and coloured to 
 nature, every muscle and every vein delineated, every 
 tendon and ligament anatomically perfect, a triumph
 
 NATURE AND ART. 353 
 
 of faithful study and minute observation. " Such 
 cunning those that live on high have given to the 
 Jap ! " You will see this astonishing achievement 
 of wood-carving in London, I think. Before it 
 quitted the emporium it drew a constant crowd, and 
 the sea-front of the premises had to be curtained 
 off at last. During the display a rather amusing 
 incident occurred. A policeman informed the pro- 
 prietor that, if he intended to continue the wrestling 
 on his premises, it was necessary that he should 
 engage a posse of policemen to restrain the crowd. 
 He was invited into the store, and melted into 
 official smiles when he saw that the wrestlers were 
 carvings in wood. He muttered naruhodo, and left. 
 Briefly, there is no place in Japan to be so decisively 
 recommended to the student of Japanese art with 
 limited time at his disposal as the collection to 
 which I am referring on the Bund at Yokohama, 
 especially if he has taken the "curio fever," a 
 dangerous malady, too well known to globe-trotters 
 visiting Japan. It has been rightly written 
 
 " You don't ' shop ' in this country. Shopping implies premedi- 
 tation, and premeditation is in vain in Japan. If you know what 
 you want your knowledge is set aside in a moment, in the twink- 
 ling of an eye, and your purchases gratify anticipations that you 
 never had, to be paradoxical. And you never fully know the joy 
 of buying until you buy in Japan. Life condenses itself into one 
 long desire, keener and more intense than any want you ever had 
 before the desire of paying and possessing. The loftiest aims 
 are swallowed up in this ; the sternest scientist, or political econo- 
 mist, or social theorist that was ever set ashore at Yokohama 
 straightway loses life's chief end among the curios, and it is at 
 least six weeks before he finds it again. And as to the ordinary 
 
 Z
 
 354 SEAS AND LANDS. 
 
 individual, without the guidance of superior aims, time is no more 
 for him, nor things temporal ; he is lost in contemplation of the 
 ancient and the beautiful in tlie art of Nippon, and though he sell 
 his boots and pawn his grandfather's watch he will carry it off 
 with him to the extent of his uttermost farthing." 
 
 I have mentioned before that this is to be a most 
 important spring-time for our capital. His Excel- 
 lency the British Minister having just notified the 
 Government that their Royal Highnesses the Duke 
 and Duchess of Connaught are expected to arrive 
 in Japan shortly, arrangements for their reception 
 are in progress. The Enryokwan Palace will be 
 placed at their disposal. Furthermore, the official 
 notices are out regulating the first elections to the 
 new Parliament, which will meet at the end of May. 
 This and the working of the new constitution is a 
 tremendous experiment for Japan, and one which 
 may not be initiated without some trouble. But 
 I, for one, have faith in the future of this fair and 
 friendly Empire. 
 
 IMAI-OHO, Jan. 20, 1890.
 
 A TEMPLE GATE.
 
 CHAPTER XXII. 
 
 COURT AND COMMERCE. 
 
 As one learns more and more of the language, and 
 so approaches a little nearer to the thoughts and 
 hearts of this people, he becomes aware that almost 
 all the books previously perused about Japan were 
 in a great degree superficial, and that he is in a 
 new world, life in which is almost as strange and 
 different as would be existence in the moon. The 
 very plum-trees are peculiar. They have learnt 
 some floral secret by which their blossoms entirely 
 disregard the sharp frosts of the January nights, so 
 as to appear in sudden and splendid beauty with 
 these first days of February. Not only in our own 
 garden, but on every lane and hillside, this great 
 green city has suddenly become lovely with silver 
 and crimson plum-flowers covering the heretofore 
 bare branches of the trees, and filling the prospect 
 with grace and the atmosphere with fragrance. 
 One spot in the city, at Kameido, is now, or will 
 soon be, a special resort, because of the Gwa-Rio- 
 Bai or " sleeping-dragon plum-trees," which are to 
 be seen in a large orchard near at hand. There 
 500 ancient trees covered with flowers have been 
 trained to creep along the ground, forming thickets 
 
 357
 
 358 SEAS AND LANDS. 
 
 of delicious bloom ; while stanzas of poetry in 
 praise of their perfume and glory are cut upon the 
 stone pillars round about, or written upon slips of 
 gold paper. At the gate are sold boxes of dried 
 and salted plums, called ume-boshi. And the 
 pleasant people are, like their pretty plum-trees, 
 perpetually disclosing ways and habits wholly 
 different from those of the West. With other 
 moralities, other virtues, other failings, other ob- 
 jects of effort and avoidance, other estimates of 
 good and evil, other notions of life and love and 
 death from those which are part of our being, they 
 are a race alone and uncomprehended. One would 
 almost say that the land and the trees and the 
 people were made for each other they are all 
 so unique, unexpected, and original. The passion 
 of the commonest citizens and peasants for the 
 jewellery which Nature now hangs for them upon 
 the hillsides and gardens is but one among their 
 distinguishing characteristics. Everybody has a 
 little dwarf plum-tree, covered with white or rosy 
 blossoms, honoured like a household god, in his 
 hut or shop ; and flower-barrows everywhere per- 
 ambulate the city, drawn by humble professors of 
 floral aesthetics, who make a fine art of dressing 
 and disposing their beautiful wares. 
 
 But I must leave the absorbing topic of Japanese 
 thoughts and ways for a future occasion in order to 
 speak of two or three important social functions at 
 which we have lately assisted in the capital. Count 
 Yamagata, the present Prime Minister and head of
 
 COURT AND COMMERCE. 359 
 
 the Government, gave last week a magnificent ball, 
 in the public building known as the "Hall of the 
 Cry of the Stag." The occasion was favourable to 
 study a fashionable function of the " Upper Ten " in 
 Tokio, for the Count had invited more than 1200 
 guests, of whom about seventy or eighty were 
 Europeans. Outside the building all was gay and 
 bright with innumerable crimson lanterns swinging 
 in festoons from tree to tree and along the walls 
 and gateways. Endless strings of jinrikishas dash 
 up the broad paths and deliver their consignments 
 of ladies in ball costume and dazzlingly decorated 
 Japanese officers at the entrance ; for the "kuruma" 
 is almost the universal vehicle, and comparatively 
 few carriages frequent the narrow streets of the 
 capital. 
 
 Nobody could outdo the Japanese in the adorn- 
 ment of interior and exterior with foliage and 
 flowers, and we pass through a forest of palm and 
 bamboo and fir branches to the broad staircase, at 
 the head of which the Count-Premier, glittering with 
 all the orders known to the Empire, stands with his 
 Countess, in European robe of white satin and gold, 
 to receive the guests. The almost general adoption 
 of Western modes makes the ballroom less striking 
 to a European eye than the picturesque grounds, 
 where the crowds of jinrikishas and cream-coloured 
 Chinese ponies so little resemble anything in Eng- 
 land. Dancing goes on with spirit, always after the 
 Continental fashion, and the Japanese take part in 
 lancers and mazurkas with very great solemnity
 
 360 SEAS AND LANDS. 
 
 the officers especially performing every figure as 
 carefully as though it were some military manoeuvre. 
 They wear the insignia of the " Rising Sun " in rose 
 and white, the Chrysanthemum in yellow, and the 
 " Coast Defence " in green, making a brave show 
 but, alas ! if only the Japanese ladies understood 
 how far more graceful their petite forms would look 
 in their own native dress ! The few kimono worn 
 in the brilliant throng by Japanese dames and 
 damsels, too patriotic or sensible to mask their 
 graces in Western skirts and bodices, serve to show 
 what a mistake it has been to decree this change in 
 national habits, which, however, does not descend 
 very deep. In the streets the national garb is still 
 practically universal, and even these Court ladies, 
 when they get home, will hasten to throw aside 
 their importations from Paris and London, to gird 
 their own soft and sober silks and crapes round 
 their slender waists with the bright obi, and to 
 remove from their cramped little feet the pointed 
 satin shoes. Almost all the Ministers of State were 
 present at this entertainment, as well as two or 
 three of the Imperial Princes, and of course the 
 ladies and gentlemen of the various legations. At 
 a second grand ball given by Count Saigon, the 
 Minister of Marine, at his yashiki in Nagata Ch6, 
 a similar spectacle was presented ; but one wondered 
 whether the Japanese really enjoyed the foreign style 
 of entertainment as much as their own graceful and 
 easy banquets, where the dancing is Oriental and sake 
 cups replace the sparkling goblets of champagne.
 
 COURT. AND COMMERCE. 363 
 
 Count Ito, one of the most famous of modern 
 Japanese statesmen, was not present on either of 
 these great occasions, being in Opposition, and 
 absent at his country seat near Odawara, a little 
 town on the sea-shore close to the foot of Fuji-San. 
 I received, however, the honour of a special invita- 
 tion to visit the author of the new Japanese Consti- 
 tution, and went down to Odawara a few days ago 
 to dine with the chief founder of modern Japan. 
 Count Ito's country house stands on the sea-shore 
 under the great volcanic hills of which Fuji -San is 
 the queen, and there was only a large bamboo cage 
 or aviary of storks between our dining-room and 
 the wavelets of the sleeping Pacific. We passed a 
 memorable afternoon, made short by pleasant con- 
 versation about European and native statesmen and 
 the past and future of Japan, the amiable Countess 
 presiding at the table set after the European fashion 
 having near her her little son and daughter. But 
 behind all these quiet present times and scenes in 
 Japanese political life is a dark bygone background 
 of stormy days and stirring deeds, which lends to 
 the present generation of Japanese statesmen a 
 curious interest. To take, for example, merely 
 those three Ministers whose names I have just 
 mentioned. Count Yamagata, the President of the 
 Cabinet a fine, tall, soldierly man, of high-bred 
 look and bearing, as becomes a nobleman of his 
 origin held a command in the army of the Mikado, 
 which at last overthrew the Shogunate, and laid the 
 foundation, of that great Restoration in which the
 
 364 SEAS AND LANDS. 
 
 present system is built. We should have to go 
 back to the Duke of Wellington to find a statesman 
 in our own records who has thus mingled war with 
 civil affairs in the experiences of a short quarter of 
 a century. 
 
 Then, again, as to Count Saigon, the Japanese 
 First Lord of the Admiralty in the present Ad- 
 ministration. He, too, took part in the fierce 
 strife which arose between the partisans of the 
 Shogun and the loyalists who were for re-establish- 
 ing the ancient regime, and in that contest it was 
 his ill-fate to be forced to encounter his own dearly 
 loved brother, who had taken up arms on the other 
 side. The rebels, or Shogunites, were defeated, and 
 the head of his brother was brought, neatly washed 
 and packed in a silk bag, as a present of honour, 
 joy, and victory. Imagine such a recollection for 
 Lord George Hamilton or Mr. W. H. Smith. Lastly, 
 I spoke of my visit to Count Ito, and mentioned 
 how I sate at table with the ex-Premier and his 
 wife and children. The Countess quiet, gentle, 
 motherly, and wearing spectacles, carving the tai 
 and the kamo with such a matronly serenity had 
 yet a history of romance and devotion which could 
 make the wildest fictionist's fortune. Long ago, in 
 those dark and bloody days when the Minister was 
 her lover, and a fugitive from his enemies, there 
 came a time when they had tracked him to her 
 house, and had chosen a band of soshis to assassinate 
 him. The noise of their clogs and the rattling of 
 their scabbards were heard ; and the Count, trapped
 
 COURT AND COMMERCE. 3 t>s 
 
 like the royal stag in his mountain pleasaunce, drew 
 his Bizen blade and prepared to die, as a Japanese 
 lord should, amid a circle of dead foes. But while 
 he murmured " Sayonara ! " and knitted his fingers 
 round the sharkskin hilt of his sword, that brave 
 lady, whose guest I was, whispered, "Do not die; 
 there is a hope still," upon which she removed the 
 hibachi, or fire-box, over which they were sitting, 
 and, lifting up the matting and the planks beneath, 
 induced her lover to conceal himself in the hollow 
 space which exists under the floor of all Japanese 
 houses. The murderers broke into the room, a 
 ferocious band, just as the fire-box had been re- 
 placed, and the Countess had assumed a position of 
 nonchalance. They demanded their victim ; and 
 when she protested against their intrusion, and bade 
 them search if they wanted Ito, the wretches dragged 
 her about the apartment by her long, beautiful black 
 hair now touched with silver and grievously mal- 
 treated her, but could not shake her resolute fidelity. 
 Thanks to this, Count Ito, the hero of many another 
 strange adventure, escaped from the chief peril of 
 his career, and has lived to give his country a new 
 Constitution and to be one of the foremost and 
 best-reputed statesmen of modern Japan. 
 
 But I must break off from politics and other 
 topics of pressing interest, to draw the attention of 
 your public and of European exhibitors generally 
 to a forthcoming occasion, not sufficiently estimated, 
 as I believe, by men of business in England and 
 elsewhere, as regards its possibilities for increasing
 
 366 SEAS AND LANDS. 
 
 the trade between your capital and ours. Japan 
 is about to hold a great national exhibition in 
 Tokio, by far the largest and boldest of its kind 
 ever contemplated here, and all the provinces will, 
 for months after the inauguration, send the inhabi- 
 tants of the Empire in flocks to see the exhibits. 
 Now Japan has a population equal to that of 
 France, with incalculable powers of development 
 and inexhaustible natural resources, so that I think 
 I can do no better service, in the conclusion of this 
 letter, than to derive from an authoritative source 
 the fullest particulars available about this notable 
 undertaking, in the desire that your merchants and 
 exporters may be enabled to take part in good time 
 in what ought to prove the opening of a new epoch 
 of commerce and exchange between Japan and the 
 West. 
 
 Here, then, are the particulars, which I take from 
 the best quarter open to me. Five years ago the 
 Japanese Government announced that a national 
 industrial exhibition should be held in Tokio in 
 1890. Two similar exhibitions had already taken 
 place the first in 1877, and the second in 1881 
 and their success, from a financial point of view, 
 had seemed sufficient to justify a renewal of the 
 experiment at regular intervals. But after the 
 Exhibition of 1881 the authorities hesitated. The 
 problem to be dealt with was not purely industrial 
 and commercial ; it was also artistic ; and in Japan's 
 economical outlook art occupies a prominent place. 
 It has long come to be recognised by her leading
 
 COURT AND COMMERCE. 367 
 
 men, that to attract the world's custom, her best 
 resource lies in her art. Tea, silk, rice, may stand 
 at the head of her staples of export, but not to these 
 is due the magnetic attraction which she exercises 
 upon Western peoples or the place she has won in 
 their esteem. The true secret of the interest she 
 excites must be sought in the unique artistic capa- 
 cities with which Nature has dowered her inhabi- 
 tants. A nation of artists, their admirable instinct, 
 by centuries of exercise amidst highly favourable 
 conditions, has found expression even in their phy- 
 sical versatility. The commonest carpenter plies 
 his adze with hands that can guide the sculptor's 
 chisel, and the hewer of stone will at any moment 
 exchange his mallet for the brush of the decorative 
 designer. ' In the application of these gifts to her 
 manufactures, Japan sees her highest hope of wealth 
 and distinction. But for a time the successful em- 
 ployment of her unique talents was interrupted by 
 a special influence. After the centralisation of the 
 Government, in 1867, the leisurely independence 
 and easily earned competence of feudal days became 
 things of the past. Until that time artists, secured 
 against "chilling poverty" by the munificent pat- 
 ronage of feudal barons, worked for the sake of 
 their art, not for the sake of what it might bring 
 them. Time and money scarcely concerned them ; 
 at whatever cost of either, their object was achieved, 
 and achievement sufficed. But when feudalism fell 
 these favourable conditions disappeared altogether. 
 The feudal barons, divested of their revenues and
 
 368 SEAS AND LANDS. 
 
 authority, had to turn from patronising art to the 
 humbler occupation of making both ends meet, and 
 the newly established Government found its time 
 and resources entirely monopolised by affairs of 
 State. So it fell out that nothing but the foreign 
 market stood between the Japanese artist and star- 
 vation. Stern necessity bade him adapt his work 
 to Western taste not Western taste as expressed 
 in the then nascent revolt against an era of tawdri- 
 ness and vulgarity, but Western taste as inter- 
 preted by the commercial traveller, the merchant 
 skipper, and the shopkeeper. If under such cir- 
 cumstances he consented to a temporary sacrifice 
 of his better instincts, some excuse may be found 
 for him in the fact that the nation's mood for 
 the moment was to sit at the feet of the new 
 and marvellous West in everything. When states- 
 men were borrowing their politics and jurisprudence 
 from abroad, students their science and philosophy, 
 manufacturers their capital and machinery, it did 
 not, perhaps, appear incongruous or improper that 
 artists should derive standards of taste from the 
 same source. 
 
 Many penitential years must elapse before the 
 false impression this period produced in Europe 
 and America can be effaced, and before its evil 
 effects on the Japanese themselves can be entirely 
 corrected. The dark age culminated in 1881, 
 and its worst fruits were exposed to public gaze 
 at the exhibition in that year. Everyday folks, 
 indeed, did not bestow much thought on the
 
 COURT AND COMMERCE. 369 
 
 matter. Men came and went, carelessly admiring 
 the motley host of ornamental objects collected 
 within the building in Uyeno Park, and thinking 
 little of the disquieting augury that was to be drawn 
 from such a meretricious profusion of decorative 
 gaud, such glaring untruthfulness to the canons of 
 true and pure Japanese art. Happily, however, 
 there were some who realised the sadness of seeing 
 a nation break away from all that is beautiful in 
 its traditions, and some, also, who understood that 
 the path upon which Japan had then entered could 
 lead only to decay and disgrace. A reaction speedily 
 set in. Few at first, but resolute and confident, 
 the reformers set themselves to recall Japan to her 
 proper senses. They did not find her bigoted in 
 error. Her artists were willing enough to be led 
 back into the paths from which they had strayed 
 reluctantly, and the powerful aid of the Government 
 was not wanting to foster the Renaissance. Of the 
 measures adopted it will be sufficient to say that 
 periodical exhibitions on a small scale, under the 
 auspices of art associations, industrial societies, and 
 local governments, played an important part. By 
 their aid standards were re-established and popu- 
 larised, and a genuine perception of the nature and 
 importance of the problem to be grappled with was 
 disseminated among the people. The results will 
 be seen at the exhibition of the present year. It 
 would be too much to assert that Japan can then 
 completely re-establish her individuality : some traces 
 of the evil leaven must naturally be still apparent. 
 
 2 A
 
 37 o SEAS AND LANDS. 
 
 But there can be no question that we are about to 
 witness an unprecedented display of beautiful and 
 characteristic works of national art. If some speci- 
 mens unworthy of the revival figure among the ex- 
 hibits, their presence will be more than compensated 
 for by the companionship of nobler specimens illus- 
 trating the remarkable progress made by Japanese 
 art industry during the past seven or eight years. 
 The enameller, the embroiderer, the potter, the 
 worker in wood and metal, the lacquerer, and the 
 weaver will all demonstrate that if in some direc- 
 tions they cannot yet rival the technical skill of 
 their ancestors, in others they can and do surpass 
 it. The exhibition is to be inaugurated on April 
 ist, and will probably remain open for six months, 
 though at present July .3ist is spoken of as the 
 closing day. For five years the people have been 
 preparing ; and the authorities, on their side, sensible 
 that a great effort is to be made by the nation, are 
 acting up to the occasion. The appropriation from 
 the Treasury on account of the first exhibition was 
 $100,000; that for the second, $180,000; whereas 
 for the third half a million has been set aside. The 
 buildings cover an area of eight acres, and to pass 
 in front of each stall only once the visitor will have 
 to walk sixteen miles. No needless expense has 
 been incurred in connection with the edifice. It is 
 a plain wooden structure, spacious and conveniently 
 planned, but neither attractive nor imposing. It 
 stands, however, in a park of exquisite natural 
 beauty, and during the three weeks immediately
 
 COURT AND COMMERCE. 371 
 
 following its opening the whole neighbourhood will 
 be alight with the glory of the cherry blossoms. 
 Already space has been demanded for 160,000 ex- 
 hibits more than twice the total number displayed 
 at the exhibition of 1881 and among them are 
 many masterpieces, such as a generation produces 
 only once in its lifetime, and such as can only be 
 seen at all in a country where the skilled work of 
 a highly gifted art artisan commands less than the 
 wage of a London dock labourer. In addition to 
 the exhibition proper, a commanding attraction is 
 promised in the shape of a museum of ancient art 
 objects. These will be displayed in a separate 
 building, permanently devoted to such purposes, 
 which stands within a furlong of the main edifice. 
 Choice specimens from the imperial collection are 
 to constitute the nucleus of this museum, and the 
 boundless treasures of private collections will also 
 be freely placed at the disposal of the committee. 
 The Government have decided to issue 1000 compli- 
 mentary tickets to persons of note in Europe and 
 America, as well as in Japan. These tickets will 
 not only secure free admission to the exhibition, but 
 will also entitle their holders to special facilities 
 of travel by railway and steamer within Japanese 
 territory. Accommodation in Tokio will also be 
 ample, for a large new hotel is just approaching 
 completion. Centrally situated, it contains sixty 
 suites of rooms, and will have a cuisine and cellar 
 of the best. Japan, always an enchanting bourne 
 for the tourist, offers temptations this year that
 
 37 2 SEAS AND LANDS. 
 
 should attract every lover of art and of its best 
 products, while it cannot but prove a remarkable 
 opportunity for those interested in the intercourse 
 between Japan and England to initiate new mutual 
 wants and to prepare to supply them. 
 
 AZABU, TOKJO, Feb. 4, 1890.
 
 THE MUSUME, 
 "AND ON HER HEAD A HOOD OF BLUE.
 
 CHAPTER XXII 1. 
 
 THE JAPANESE HEARTH. 
 
 I DO not remember that anybody has ever yet, in 
 describing Japan, done any sort of sufficient justice 
 to the immense and important part borne by the 
 hibachi in the domestic life of this people. Tourists, 
 travellers, and correspondents casually, indeed, men- 
 tion the article, as something special to Japan, 
 but forget to say how the entire existence of the 
 Japanese centres in this very peculiar little insti- 
 tution. The hibachi is a fire-box, of which the 
 simplest form is that of a square, or circular, or 
 oblong receptacle of wood lined with sheet-copper. 
 Into this a quantity of lime-dust, or sifted ashes, 
 is put, and on the top of that a little pile of 
 lighted charcoal, which burns slowly and steadily 
 upon the fine ashes, giving out heat, but not a 
 vestige of smoke. This is the primitive and 
 plainest form of the "fire-box," such as will be 
 seen in use for common purposes, at railway 
 stations, in Kuruma-sheds, in wayside tea-houses 
 and restaurants, and in unpretentious shops. But 
 Japanese skill and taste love to lavish themselves 
 on this central piece of domestic furniture, and 
 you see hibachis, accordingly, of all forms and 
 
 375
 
 37 6 SEAS AND LANDS. 
 
 materials. Some are made of hammered copper, 
 or brass, or iron, with patterns delicately and 
 beautifully beaten out of the burnished metal. 
 Some I have seen in great houses contrived from 
 the root of a vast tree, the gnarled and knotted 
 timber being laboriously hollowed out and lined 
 with copper, and the exterior carefully polished 
 to bring forth the beauty of the grain. These 
 fantastic " fire-boxes " are in much vogue for 
 country villas and smoking-rooms. The hibachi 
 for daily home service must be useful before all 
 things, and the general shape of it is, as I have 
 said, that of an oblong box, about two feet in 
 length by fourteen inches broad and a foot deep. 
 Two-thirds of the length of this structure is 
 occupied by the fire-box proper, lined with metal, 
 and laid with carefully sifted ashes, upon which 
 glows the little nest of red swmt-sticks. Upon 
 the top of that will be placed a four-legged frame 
 of iron, which supports the bronze kettle, the 
 teapot, and, at need, a small gridiron of wire, or 
 a glazed frying-pan in which fish are stewed or 
 fried, or else the earthen dish whereupon the 
 inmates roast their bean -cakes, or the slices of 
 daikon. The remainder of the hibachi is made 
 up of clever little drawers, and unsuspected com- 
 partments, where the lady of the house whose 
 special possession the "fire-box" is keeps a 
 world of things which profit by being dry, her 
 biscuits, her paper for accounts, needles and thread, 
 kanzdshis, combs, tea, chop- sticks, and what not.
 
 THE JAPANESE HEARTH. 
 
 377 
 
 Thus this piece of furniture is at one and the 
 same moment the household hearth, the larder, 
 the work-box, the writing-case, the toilette-stand, 
 the kitchen, and the natural centre for the family 
 
 GIRL OF THE Y08HIWAUA, 
 
 of conversation, employment, and needlework. But 
 it may combine these with ever so much beauty 
 and richness of external decoration, and it is
 
 378 SEAS AND LANDS. 
 
 common to see the hibachi built of very beautiful 
 striped and variegated woods, its drawers and com- 
 partments delicately adorned with chased handles 
 and plaques of silvered or bronzed metal, while 
 neat little mats of plaited grass or embroidered 
 velvet are laid upon the highly honourable part 
 where the teapot of porcelain and the pretty small 
 painted tea-cups usually stand. Sometimes a table 
 for writing and working is ingeniously blended 
 with the other conveniences, and there is one 
 special form of hibachi, used for imparting heat 
 in cold weather, which is closed in with a lattice 
 of light woodwork all round. You . can cover 
 this over with futdns, or bed-rugs, and warm the 
 hands and feet in the confined glow, or, on frosty 
 nights, you can put it boldly and bodily under the 
 bed-clothes, and derive from it all the advantage 
 of a permanent warming-pan. Then there is the 
 tobacco-mono, another special form of the hibachi, 
 but entirely devoted to the eternal kiseru, the 
 small pipe of brass and bamboo in which the 
 Japanese perpetually indulge. This is a kind of 
 smaller fire-box, with a bed of ashes for the ever- 
 glowing charcoal, a couple of drawers for the 
 delicately cut fragrant tobacco, and a little com- 
 partment where the brass and silver tipped pipes 
 repose while not in use. There is a cover, with 
 an opening, for the charcoal, and a handle by 
 which the tobacco-mono is carried about ; for it 
 accompanies the owner everywhere to bed, to 
 breakfast, to dinner on all occasions ; and next
 
 THE JAPANESE HEARTH. 
 
 379 
 
 to the sliding of the shfy'i, the most universal 
 sound heard, perhaps, in Japan, is the tapping of 
 the little kiseru on the edge of the tobacco-box, 
 when, for the hundredth time during the day, the 
 little pipe has been filled, and lighted, and the 
 
 AT THE Y08HIWAKA. 
 
 one full puff " ippuku" taken, which satisfies 
 the refined and delicate desires of the Nippon 
 smoker. 
 
 You must realise then, or try to realise, the
 
 380 SEAS AND LANDS. 
 
 prodigious import and positive universality of the 
 domestic "fire-box" in Japan. There must exist at 
 least as many as the inhabitants of the country 
 that is to say, about 40,000,000. Every shop has 
 one in front of its shelves and bales, and every tea- 
 house or hotel keeps them by scores, because the 
 first thing brought to a traveller, or customer, on 
 arrival, is the hibachi, either to warm him, or to 
 furnish a chronic light for his pipe, or simply from 
 habit and hospitality. The tradesman and those 
 who come to buy at his shop gather over the bronze 
 fire-box to discuss prices ; and at a dinner party a 
 hibachi is placed between every pair of guests. In 
 the interior of an ordinary Japanese home, however, 
 one sees the national institution in its simplest use. 
 There it stands, always lighted, at least during the 
 autumn and winter months, and in its copper re- 
 ceptacle the bed of ashes, and the glowing nest of 
 genial fire. It is good to see with what dainty care 
 the Japanese dame will pick up, stick by stick, and 
 fragment by fragment, the precious pieces of char- 
 coal which have fallen from off the central fire ! 
 With what delicate skill she builds a little dome 
 or peak over the tiny crater of the domestic volcano, 
 arranging and distributing ! With what silent in- 
 terest everybody watches her purse up her lips, and 
 gently but persistently blow upon the sleeping fire, 
 till the scarlet life of it creeps from the central 
 spark into every grey and black bit of the heap, and 
 the hibachi is once more in high activity ! Then 
 the hands of the household meet over the kindly
 
 THE JAPANESE HEARTH. 381 
 
 warmth, for this is the only " hearth " of the domi- 
 cile, and when the palms and wrists are warm all 
 the body will be comfortable. There are little square 
 cushions laid all round the fire-box, and upon this 
 we kneel and chat. You must drop nothing into 
 that sacred centre in the way of cigar-ends, stumps 
 of matches, or cigarette-paper ; it is the Vestal Fire, 
 not to be violated by disrespectful fuel. But you 
 
 INN-SERVANTS. 
 
 may put the tetsubin on it, and boil the " honourable 
 hot water," or fry peas over it, or cook little fishes, 
 or stew slices of orange and persimmon, and in fact 
 treat it as a supplementary kitchen to the larger 
 and permanent hearth established in the daidokoro. 
 Every now and then the mistress of the house, who 
 has the seat of honour before it, controlling the
 
 382 SEAS AND LANDS. 
 
 supply of sumi and the brass hashi, with which the 
 fire-box is tended, will delicately and economically 
 pick out with them, from the small basket at her 
 side, a nodule or two more of the charcoal, and 
 place these on the sinking fire, treating her sumi- 
 hako, or charcoal- store, as elegantly and sparingly 
 as a London lady would the sugar-basin. 
 
 Confess that it is a mark of the refined national life 
 of this people, that they have thus for their family 
 hearth-stove a pretty piece of cabinet-work lined with 
 copper, and for their coal-cellar a tiny flower-basket 
 filled with a handful of clean and picked charcoal ! 
 You might place the entire affair on the toilette 
 table of a duchess, and not spoil or soil one lappet 
 of her laces, or leave one speck of dust upon her 
 mirrors and her dressing-bags. Japan in her social 
 aspects is already, in truth, half understood when 
 the universal use and the graceful utility of the 
 hibachi have thoroughly become comprehended. 
 
 One happy consequence of this omnipresent 
 employment of charcoal for domestic and culinary 
 purposes is that Japanese cities, villages, and 
 abodes are perfectly free from smoke. The clear 
 air is always unpolluted by those clouds of defacing 
 and degrading black smuts which blot out our 
 rare sunshine in London, and help to create its 
 horrible fogs. There is no doubt a peril of a 
 special kind in the fire-box. If not supplied from 
 the kitchen hearth with glowing coals already past 
 their first firing, there will be a constant efflux of 
 carbonic acid gas into the room, which will kill
 
 THE JAPANESE HEARTH. 383 
 
 you, subtly and slowly, as certaiuly as an over- 
 dose of opium. In European apartments this 
 would prove a very serious danger, but the shdji 
 and sliding doors of wood let in so many little 
 sources of ventilation and the rats, moreover, 
 
 A JAPANESE LADY. 
 
 take care to gnaw so many holes in the paper of 
 the mado that the fatal gas becomes dispelled 
 or diluted as fast as it is created. Nevertheless 
 accidents occur, especially in bath-rooms where
 
 384 SEAS AND LANDS. 
 
 the fune, or great tub, is heated by a large mass 
 of raw charcoal, and there was a case a week ago 
 in Yokohama of a sea-captain found dead in the 
 furo-do of his hotel. The Japanese are too wise 
 to sleep with a large hibachi in their apartments. 
 They know well that the deadly gas, being heavy, 
 sinks to the bottom of the room, where their futdns 
 are spread upon the mats ; and they either put the 
 fire-box outside, or are careful to see that it has 
 " honourable mature charcoal " burning low in it. 
 
 I imagine that the use of sumi, so cleanly and so 
 elegant, is of comparatively modern date in Japan. 
 In old days it seems that the people burned wood, 
 and perhaps even coal, just as they got both from 
 their forests and mines. Lately I came upon a 
 legend in Japanese history concerning the very 
 ancient Mikado Nintoku, which appears to con- 
 firm and illustrate this, and since I was sufficiently 
 struck by the anecdote to put it into verse, I will 
 conclude these superficial remarks upon the family 
 fires of Japanese domiciles by appending the little 
 story 
 
 THE EMPEROR'S BREAKFAST. 
 
 Fifteen centuries ago 
 Emperor Nintok of Japan 
 Walked upon his roof at daybreak, 
 Watching if the toils began 
 Well, to gild the cedar frieze 
 Of his palace galleries ; 
 Well, to nail the silver plates 
 On his inner palace gates ; 
 For the Queen would have it so 
 Fifteen hundred years ago !
 
 THE JAPANESE HEARTH. 385 
 
 Walking on his roof, he spied 
 
 Streets and lanes and quarters teeming ; 
 
 Saw his city spreading wide. 
 
 Ah ! but mean and sad of seeming 
 
 Show those lowly wooden huts 
 
 Underneath the King's house gleaming ; 
 
 Though each humble wicket shuts 
 
 One world out and one world in, 
 
 That so great and this so .small. 
 
 Yet, to the poor hearts within, 
 
 The little world their all in all ! 
 
 Just then the waiting-maids bore through 
 
 The breakfast of King Nintoku. 
 
 Quoth the Emperor gazing round 
 
 " Wherefore, when my meats abound, 
 
 See I not much smoke arise 
 
 From these huts beneath mine eyes 1 
 
 Chimneys jut into the air, 
 
 Yet no chimney-reek is there 
 
 Telling that the household pot 
 
 Bubbles glad with gohan * hot. 
 
 Gild me no more galleries, 
 
 If my people pay the gold! 
 
 Let my gates unplated go, 
 
 If the silver leaves them cold ! 
 
 This city of all tax I ease 
 
 For three years 1 We decree it so ! 
 
 From all huts there shall be smoke ! " 
 
 Thus the Emperor Nintok spoke. 
 
 Sped three years. Upon his roof 
 The Monarch paced again. Aloof 
 His Empress hung, ill-pleased to see 
 The snows drip through her gallery, 
 The gates agape with cracks, and grey 
 For wear and weather : " Consort ! say 
 If so the Emperor of Japan 
 Should lodge, like some vile peasant man, 
 Whose thatch leaks for a load of straw ? " 
 " Princess august, what recks a flaw," 
 
 * Boiled rioe. 
 
 2 B
 
 386 SEAS AND LANDS. 
 
 Nintok replied, " in gate or wall, 
 When, far and wide, those chimneys all 
 Fling their blue house-flags to the sky, 
 Where the gods count them 1 ? Thou and I 
 Take part in all the poor folks' health 
 The people's weal makes princes' wealth ! " 
 
 There is yet another form of the hibachi, in the 
 guise of a little portable fire-box, called the kwairo, 
 which is made of tin, in the shape of a curved cigar 
 case, with a little sliding lid ; the tin is perforated 
 with small holes, and then covered with a coat 
 of muslin. Small sticks of powdered charcoal are 
 furnished with the kivairo, and you light one of 
 these, pop it in the case, close the lid, and wrap the 
 little fire-box in a cloth or handkerchief. The thin 
 muslin cover admits the air, while it prevents the 
 dust of the charcoal from escaping, and, with one 
 of these little inventions thrust into the bosom or 
 the sleeve, the coldest journey by kuruma or railway 
 will be stripped of its terrors. 
 
 The regulations have been published for the first 
 elections in Japan of the new House of Represen- 
 tatives, and it may be interesting to many in Eng- 
 land to note the commencement of the youngest 
 Parliamentary system in the world. The Empire is 
 divided into cities, fu, and prefectures, ken, on the 
 principle of equal representation, as far as possible, 
 for equal numbers of the population. The three 
 chief cities return 29 members out of a total of 
 300, Tokio having the lion's share (12), and Osaka 
 coming next with 10. Of the 42 prefectures by 
 which the remaining 271 members are returned, the
 
 THE JAPANESE HEARTH. 
 
 387 
 
 most largely represented are Niigata (13), Hyogo 
 (12), Aichi (n), Hiroshima (10), and Fukuoka (9), 
 while those returning the smallest number namely, 
 three each are Miyaski, Tottori, and Yamanashi. 
 The qualifications for electors are that they must 
 be Japanese subjects, and have attained the full age 
 of twenty-five years before the day of voting, which 
 is settled for July i ; also that they must have fixed 
 
 THK KAQO. 
 
 their permanent residence in the city or prefecture, 
 and actually resided there for not less than one year 
 previous to the date of drawing up the electoral list. 
 That date being April i, whereas the election day 
 is July i, the residence qualification really extends 
 to a period of fifteen months. The property qualifi- 
 cation is high. An elector must have property in
 
 3 88 SEAS AND LANDS. 
 
 land, or an income accruing from other sources so 
 large as to involve a payment of direct national 
 taxes to the extent of fifteen yen yearly. When 
 the Law of Election was promulgated, some dis- 
 cussion arose as to the interpretation of the term 
 " direct national taxes," but all doubt is removed 
 by the supplementary ordinance, where land-tax and 
 income-tax are alone recognised. It thus appears 
 that to exercise the franchise a man must possess 
 either land of the taxable value of 600 yen, or an 
 income of 1000 yen annually; and, further, that 
 in the case of land he must have been paying such 
 a tax for a full period of one year, and in the case 
 of income for a full period of three years, before 
 the day on which the electoral roll is made up. 
 
 You will see that the suffrage in Japan is even 
 more limited than that under Servius Tullius, and 
 that all your bygone struggles about compound 
 householders, lodgers, and the residuum, have still 
 to come. Nor do the Japanese intend to tolerate 
 disturbance, irregularity, or any pretence at secret 
 voting. In the first place, admission to the voting 
 booth will only be permitted to holders of entrance 
 tickets. On these entrance tickets, which are to 
 be distributed to the electors at least five days 
 before the time of voting, the name of the elector 
 and his number on the electoral list will be in- 
 scribed, and the ticket must be handed by the 
 elector to the doorkeeper of the voting booth at 
 the moment of admission. Should the place be 
 inconveniently crowded, the electors will receive 
 tickets regulating the order in which they are to
 
 THE JAPANESE HEARTH, 389 
 
 vote. Each elector, after having gained admittance 
 to the booth by means of a ticket, gives his name 
 to the presiding official, the Headman of the district, 
 with whom are associated not fewer than two, and 
 not more than five, witnesses, nominated by the 
 Headman three days previously. The Headman, 
 having compared the name with the electoral list, 
 hands a voting paper to the elector, who is required 
 to inscribe thereon the name of the person he votes 
 for, together with his own name and residence, and 
 to affix his stamp. The voting paper is then placed 
 in the ballot-box, a receptacle having two lids, each 
 fitted with a different key, one key being in the 
 custody of the Headman, the other in that of the 
 witnesses. The polling being over, the ballot-box 
 is shut, and on the next day is forwarded, in charge 
 of one or more witnesses, to the district office of the 
 place of polling. There it is opened by the chairman 
 of election, with whom is associated a committee 
 of not fewer than three and not more than seven, 
 chosen from among the witnesses assembling from 
 the different voting places. It is evident that each 
 elector's manner of voting will be virtually public 
 property, since his name and the way in which he 
 cast his vote will be known not only to the Headmen 
 of districts, but also to the committees of electors. 
 
 However, there is nothing like beginning quietly, 
 and the substantial landowners and moneyed men, 
 who alone will be entitled to vote, may be trusted, 
 I think, to return a Japanese House of Commons, 
 which, during its four years of session, will be 
 reasonable and moderate. Foreigners and priests
 
 39 o SEAS AND LANDS. 
 
 are specially excluded from becoming candidates, 
 but the Buddhists of all sects are now engaged 
 in making a vigorous, yet, as I expect, a perfectly 
 vain protest against this exclusion. 
 
 You will observe that every elector is required 
 to stamp his voting paper with his own seal. That 
 is how everybody signs receipts and such like docu- 
 ments in this country, where each person carries a 
 delicately cut ivory signet in a little box of the 
 same material, which also contains a small recep- 
 tacle filled with moist vermilion. You lift the little 
 seal, engraved with Japanese characters, from its 
 place, touch it with the vermilion, and impress upon 
 paper or parchment the flower, the leaf, the name, 
 the Nippon or Chinese symbol, or the little pro- 
 verb which is your characteristic mark. Mine 
 bears the maxim in the vernacular, " Wataru sekai 
 ni oni wa nashi," which being interpreted is, " In 
 going round the world you will not meet one devil." 
 Such has been my own experience, for everywhere 
 on this globe there are kindness, goodwill, and 
 fellowship to be found by him who brings the same 
 commodities in exchange. 
 
 AZABU, TOKIO, Feb. 17, 1890. 
 
 THB AUTHOR'S "UAH."'
 
 CHAPTER XXIV. 
 
 " KWAJI ! KWAJI ! " 
 
 WE have assisted lately with great concern, if 
 with much interest at two extensive conflagrations 
 in this city. Almost all the houses in Tokio are 
 built of wood. Far and wide, from any of the many 
 eminences of the capital, you may see interminable 
 streets, lanes, and crowded blocks, stretching away 
 in one direction towards the sea, in another towards 
 the hills, all alike roofed with black and white tiles, 
 all alike or at least ninety-five out of the hundred- 
 put together with posts, and beams, and joists, and 
 frames of the universal white pine. In consequence 
 of this style of architecture, Tokio, like all othei 
 towns and cities of Japan, is extremely inflammable, 
 and from time to time a conflagration breaks out in 
 some densely-populated centre, and sweeps away the 
 little dwellings by the score and the hundred, some- 
 times even by the thousand. The fear of this hangs 
 perpetually over all our chds, or districts. Every- 
 where you see rising high in the air the double 
 ladder, on the top of which a fireman is perched, 
 with his legs over the cross-beam, and by his side 
 suspended a large bronze bell, which he strikes with 
 a hammer when the fatal glare of flame and the 
 
 391
 
 392 SEAS AND LANDS. 
 
 rolling volumes of smoke announce the reappear- 
 ance of the enemy. You can tell by the number of 
 strokes on the bell which is the quarter attacked, 
 if you only know how the chds are numbered, 
 for the Hansh6, or fire-gong, strikes the figure in 
 separate and solemn beats. If it be a case of prooci- 
 mus Ucalegon of next-door neighbours, so to speak 
 standing in danger, there will be much commotion 
 in the. district ; but the announcement of a distant 
 blaze attracts little notice. Sometimes, however, 
 especially at night, the lurid reflection from the sky, 
 and the dark clouds of smoke obscuring moon and 
 stars, denote a really serious conflagration, and then 
 a great many of us I mean of my fellow-citizens 
 in Tokio flock and scurry to the spot, anxious to 
 see, and, if it may be, perhaps to help. 
 
 The first of the two fires broke out in Akasaka, 
 a neighbouring quarter, and when we arrived on the 
 spot the flames were raging over the only portion 
 of the large block of dwellings which they had not 
 yet devoured. A high wind had been blowing, and 
 the little hand-engines of the Japanese could do 
 next to nothing against the fierce wall of fire which 
 swept through and over the small, fragile abodes. 
 On the alarm being given, the soldiers belonging 
 to the Imperial Guard march to the spot, and there 
 is a rush on the part of the various fire brigades, 
 each of them under different management. These 
 carry flags, with badges and various devices inscribed 
 upon them, as well as curiously-shaped posts of 
 painted wood, and the object is to get to the scene
 
 "KWAJI/ KWAJI/'* 393 
 
 of action earliest, and to plant the company's banner 
 as far forward as possible upon some house-roof, so 
 as to establish credit and rights of priority. But, of 
 course, the small machines which they carry cannot 
 budge from the well which supplies them with water, 
 nor can the hand-levers, however willingly worked, 
 propel the fluid very far through the hose. In conse- 
 quence, the gallant Japanese firemen have generally 
 to wait for the flames to come to them, and then 
 they squirt vigorously upon them for awhile, mostly 
 in vain, until, to save their engine and themselves, 
 they must retreat, scorched and blackened. There 
 is no lack of courage and devotion in these good 
 fellows. Clad in suits of thick quilted cotton, with 
 hoods or helmets of the same dark blue and white 
 material, you see them affront the flames, like veri- 
 table salamanders, and the great black holes burned 
 in their haori show palpably enough that they have 
 not spared for exertion. A Japanese house, how- 
 ever, is as inflammable as a kitchen fire laid for 
 lighting. The paper shoji, the rain-shutters (mado), 
 and the thin partition walls, are all as dry as tinder, 
 with the perpetual inside warmth of the hibachi ; and 
 once kindled, the little residence becomes a bonfire 
 in five minutes. On the other hand, they are very 
 easily pulled down, and the efforts of the firemen 
 are generally directed towards thus making a vacant 
 space in front of the flames. The self-possession of 
 the residents is remarkable, and due, no doubt, to 
 the fact that few or none of them own the dwellings 
 which they inhabit. As soon as they have removed
 
 394 SEAS AND LANDS. 
 
 their few belongings, they seem rather to enjoy the 
 spectacle of the scarlet tongues licking up a large 
 part of their city, and the black smoke making great 
 strange clouds in the sky. But then comes for some 
 of them a " bad quarter of an hour," when the con- 
 flagration rolls near, and the sparks begin to lodge 
 and crackle all over their roofs and doors. The fire- 
 men naturally want to pull the place down to the 
 ground, and the tenants as naturally wish to wait, 
 hoping that a gust of wind from a different quarter, 
 or a heavy fall of rain, may spare their abode. Hereon 
 ensues a very animated discussion in the midst of 
 the wild scene, which generally ends by firemen, 
 tenants, and all around chopping and tearing at the 
 little domicile, until it comes toppling to the earth 
 in a dusty ruin of beams, tiles, planks, and framing. 
 When this devastation has continued for about 
 an hour, the sides of the neighbouring streets will 
 be lined thick and deep with the humble properties 
 salvaged from the flames. They are all of the same 
 order, and of an almost pathetic simplicity. The gar- 
 ments of the household are the chief objects of 
 anxiety. These particularly the kimono, obi, and 
 eri-maki of the women and children are always 
 kept very carefully in the tansti, or chests of drawers, 
 which the Japanese so highly prize. They are an 
 extremely tidy people, and fold, brush, and put away 
 their cherished dresses with a neatness which would 
 charm and teach even an English country lady. At 
 the first real alarm the tansti are locked and carried 
 outside, either to the house of the nearest friend
 
 "KWAJI/ KWAJI/" 395 
 
 who is in a safer position, or to the side of the road, 
 where the mother or grandmother is placed in charge, 
 and, with the babies of the establishment around her 
 also very promptly and tenderly salvaged calmly 
 smokes her pipe, lighted from some convenient burn- 
 ing fragment of a neighbour's abode. Next to their 
 wardrobes, the desire is to save the mats (tatami), 
 which are easily taken up and removed, and, after 
 this, the sliding shutters of frame and paper, the 
 hibachi and the Buddha pictures, and the dressing 
 and sewing boxes will be hurriedly caught up and 
 added to the family ruins stacked beside the gutter. 
 In the middle of the conflagration, or of the charred 
 ruins it has caused, stand up the few stone or brick- 
 built "go-downs" of the locality, like islands in a 
 fiery sea. A good number of small valuables will 
 have been deposited in these by neighbours, and 
 there is in many houses a little receptacle, either 
 underground or made of masonry, where anything 
 particularly precious can be stored. But really no- 
 body in the quarter seemed to own anything that 
 could be called precious, and I doubt if a London 
 marine-store keeper would have given half a sove- 
 reign for any single pile of household goods which 
 we saw. The scene at such a fire is indescribable, 
 unless you know the population and the picturesque 
 byways of a Japanese city. The bustling little 
 firemen in their quilted coats, the waving flags, the 
 little noisy but ineffective engines whisking about 
 on hand-carts or on the shoulders of coolies, the 
 stream of people carrying out boxes and mats, and
 
 39 6 SEAS AND LANDS. 
 
 the counter-stream jostling along to see or to assist, 
 the self-important police and soldiers, the placid 
 amusement of the citizens, till their own time comes ; 
 the odd things that turn up from the houses, the 
 air thick with a black snow of paper shoji burn- 
 ing ; the chatter, the clatter, the universal good-will, 
 but equally universal indiscipline and laissez faire, 
 make a Tokio fire something to see and remember. 
 Happily, not many lives are ever lost. Upper stories 
 are rare, and there are few places in a Japanese 
 dwelling where you might not make an extemporary 
 door with a strong push of the shoulder or a pocket- 
 knife. 
 
 The second of the two large conflagrations took 
 place at Dobocho Mita, in the Shiba district, near 
 our hill, and destroyed, before it burnt itself out, 
 nearly 1000 dwellings. It was curious in going 
 afterwards over the space thus cleared to note how 
 completely a whole Japanese street will disappear. 
 The houses, containing no brick or metal work, burn 
 completely away, except the charred debris which 
 the tiles extinguish and partly save when they come 
 down with a crash at last. Amid the ruins there 
 will be little or nothing to show they were human 
 habitations, except a broken sake bottle or two and 
 a singed broom. Yet the great heat of the flames 
 as they sweep over is shown by the clay under the 
 floors burnt into red-brick stuff. No sooner are the 
 flames extinguished than the energetic and light- 
 hearted Japanese stick up a paper tablet to notify 
 to whom the dwelling belonged, and go to work to
 
 "KWAJI! KWAJIS" 397 
 
 set it up again. They do this with such rapidity 
 that instances have been known of dwellings re- 
 erected on the ruins, which have been consumed 
 by the same conflagration suddenly taking a new 
 turn. The neighbourly kindness and the strong 
 bond between relatives and friends which distin- 
 guish the Japanese people, come out well on these 
 occasions. The three or four thousand persons sud- 
 denly evicted by this second fire had all, some- 
 how, found temporary shelter . on the same night, 
 although the Shiba schoolroom in Shimoricho had 
 to be thrown open for the reception of some of the 
 sufferers. A public-spirited citizen, Mr. Makino of 
 Kami Nibancho, generously gave six houses rent 
 free for thirty days to others ; and almost by that 
 time no doubt the quarter will be nearly rebuilt 
 with new dwellings, destined like most of the 
 houses in Tokio, for want of good fire-engines and 
 broader streets to a repetition of the same fate. 
 
 Education in Japan is plentiful, good, and cheap. 
 I lately visited a large and excellent school here, 
 containing a thousand pupils, with English and 
 Japanese professors, privately managed, where the 
 students paid only one yen per month, that is to 
 say, about 35. ^d., for as much learning of various 
 sorts as they could imbibe. A second school which 
 we inspected, under the direction of a Canadian 
 mission, was devoted to young Japanese ladies of 
 the upper and professional classes, who, it seems, 
 will go anywhere to be instructed, regardless of 
 religious denomination. It was good to see in one
 
 39 8 SEAS AND LANDS. 
 
 large hall about 200 of these pretty, demure, gentle 
 Nippon girls, all working hard at learning English, 
 and many of them fairly proficient in it. The little 
 ones, to the number of twenty or thirty, sang us 
 some charming songs, and went through some 
 graceful calisthenic exercises with Indian clubs ; 
 and certain of the older maidens played to us on 
 the piano, and recited passages of English poetry. 
 In return for this I was called upon to make them 
 a little speech, and, knowing this beforehand, I had 
 the boldness to string together a few sentences in 
 Japanese, the English of which I first pronounced, 
 and then, not without an occasional little soft 
 ripple of laughter from the pleasant audience at 
 my blunders, this bit of broken Japanese, which 
 may at least tell you what the difficult language 
 looks like and sounds like : 
 
 "Nihon bakari, hoka no kuni wa nai to iu koto 
 nareba go chumon-dori ! Hoka no kuni ga takusan 
 atte wa, so wa ikazu. Mina kuni uchi Eikok-kuni 
 gakumon wa, chikara wa, hon wa, uta wa, hito wa 
 ichiban. Koko kara mini, kuni-ezu no ue ni, chisai 
 gozarimas. Shikashi Eikok-kuni honto ni ichiban 
 okina gozarimas ; sore kara, Eikok no kotoba no 
 benkyo yoroshii ! Nihonjin ni wa eigo wo takusan 
 hito wakarimas onna kodomo de mo, ima mimas 
 takusan gozarimas ! Eikok-kuni no kotoba wa taihen 
 irikunda mono de gozaimas domo! taiso muzukashii. 
 Shikashi shidai ni o yomi ni hana, ga saki, mi ga 
 nari, kwairaku no shurui ga oku mo okiku mo naru 
 wakari kitte iru te shite mireba. Iro iro nani-ka
 
 "KWAJIf KWAJI/" 399 
 
 no sewa ga yaketari, samazama no tsurai koto ni tabi- 
 tabi, attari shite. Aa ! Kurushii ! Kurushii ! Jitsu 
 ni, kono yo ga iya ni natta to toki-doki omou 
 koto, mo arimashita ga. Sono toki ni eikok no 
 gakumon no o wakari tanoshimi ka, kane ka, 
 kusuri ka, shindai ka mo shiranai." 
 
 All this in my English address would be : 
 ' If only Japan existed if there were no other 
 countries except Japan then, indeed, you could all 
 do as you pleased. But there are so many other 
 countries which you must learn about, so that this 
 is out of the question. Of all those countries there 
 is none so famous or so interesting as England, 
 whether for learning, for power, for books, for 
 poetry, or for renowned men. To look upon her 
 from this place, to study her on the map, she, no 
 doubt, seems small, but in reality she is the largest 
 empire in all the world. Therefore to study her 
 language is excellent. Among the people of Japan 
 there are many who understand English, and, as I 
 am glad to see to-day, many also of Japanese young 
 ladies. The grammar of English is, I fear, sadly 
 difficult ; grievously embarrassing, indeed. But at 
 the last its study produces flowers, produces fruit, 
 produces all kinds of pleasures and advantages. It is 
 too certain that in life every sort of trouble must be 
 expected, when oftentimes, without a resource, one 
 would have to say that life was not worth living. 
 At such times, among other solaces, to know English 
 may prove such joy, such wealth, such remedy, such 
 a possession as I know not how to describe."
 
 400 SEAS AND LANDS. 
 
 Our English colony here, and the Europeans 
 generally, are much excited by the approaching 
 visit of their Royal Highnesses the Duke and 
 Duchess of Connaught, who are expected to come 
 to Japan early in April. They will be lodged at 
 the British Legation, which, we have happy reason 
 to know, is a very commodious and agreeable place, 
 and in their short but welcome sojourn they will 
 doubtless see enough of Japan to make them wish 
 for a longer stay. Their Royal Highnesses will be 
 fortunate in arriving just at the time when the 
 blossoms of the cherry-trees the great sight of 
 Japan begin to show their beauty at Uyeno, where 
 also a great National and Metropolitan Exhibition is 
 about to open. 
 
 AZABU, TOKIO, March 7, 1890.
 
 CHAPTER XXV. 
 
 DAILY LIFE. 
 
 DAILY life with a Japanese family of the middle 
 classes is a very different existence from any led 
 in the West, and in many respects somewhat 
 peculiar and interesting. I will try to tell you 
 how they pass the twenty-four hours, as far as 
 indoor matters go. A sense of emptiness and 
 insufficiency would be felt by the Western house- 
 wife in passing through the six or eight little 
 apartments constituting a Japanese domicile. The 
 snow-pure mattings would please her, and the 
 scrupulous cleanlines? of the woodwork and of 
 the inner shoji, prettily covered as these are with 
 silver or gold stamped paper. And she would 
 like the neat little daidokord, or kitchen, with 
 its low stove and quaint brass and copper nabes 
 hung in a shining row. But where are the beds, 
 she would ask, and the furniture? and the stores? 
 and the clothes ? and the household linen ? As 
 for the bedding, it consists of large quilted rugs 
 of cotton, which are rolled up every morning and 
 put into the todana, those concealed cupboards 
 behind the shoji. In the same place, or some odd 
 corners, will stand the tansu, chests of drawers,
 
 402 SEAS AND LANDS. 
 
 which the Japanese carpenters are very skilful in 
 making, and in which the bright and pretty kimono, 
 the obi, the hizamaki, and other articles of dress 
 are very neatly laid away. There will be, more- 
 over, in the apartment the indispensable hibachi 
 fire-box and near at hand a little glass cup- 
 board to hold tea-cups and tea, with, perhaps, a 
 nuimono, i.e., work-box, a little dressing-case with 
 a mirror on the top, and the omnipresent apparatus 
 of wood and copper which holds the tobacco, the 
 pipes, and the ever-lighted charcoal. Household 
 linen hardly exists. The Japanese use no sheets 
 or tablecloths ; for towels they have little squares 
 of blue and white cotton ; for dusters the feather 
 or paper brush ; and for handkerchiefs, napkins, 
 &c., rolls of whitey-brown paper. As for stores, 
 the bazaars near at hand supply them freshly with 
 daily necessities, and they keep very little in the 
 larder except some slices of daikon, some rice, and 
 sweet biscuits. The man in blue, with the copper- 
 bound tubs, is always passing their door, calling 
 aloud " Honourable live fish ! " Eggs are cheap 
 and plentiful ; bread is never used ; and the musume 
 easily brings home, in a folded bamboo or rape leaf, 
 whatever else is needed for the day. Rice is the 
 mainstay, and a huge quantity of it is always kept 
 ready boiled, needing only to be warmed up or 
 mixed with hot tea. 
 
 It is bed- time. The inmates have played many 
 games at hana with little coloured cards, or on the 
 " go " board, struggling to make rows of five with
 
 DAILY LIFE. 
 
 4o 3 
 
 black or white counters ; or, if there be children, 
 some graceful and charming game, like "the fox 
 trap," Kitsune make, or the "blind devil." The 
 samisen has twangled to many a tender or merry 
 song, and some one at last says "nemui" "I am 
 sleepy." Then the futons are brought out and laid 
 down on the mats two to lie upon, and two for 
 cover; and the small pillows, makura, of polished 
 wood with rolls of paper on the top, are placed at 
 the head of the simple couch, along with the tobacco- 
 mono and the lamp. A Japanese lady makes a very 
 swift and easy toilette de nuit. It is not necessary 
 for her even to retire for this purpose. Selecting 
 from the tanzu a gaily coloured jiban of scarlet or 
 yellow or crimson cotton, and a night kimono of 
 cotton or silken cr^pe, she turns to the wall, throws 
 these over her shoulders, loosens her obi, and lets 
 fall her garments of the day, substituting those of 
 the night with an incredible and extremely modest 
 dexterity. She binds the pretty cotton raiment 
 loosely round her loins with a soft silken girdle, 
 and is then ready for bed, pillowing her glossy little 
 head, with its elaborate structure of coils, and tufts, 
 and silken cushions, on the makura. The house is 
 fastened up with wooden bolts, or tiny pins of iron, 
 which would make a London burglar smile ; and, 
 truth to tell, housebreaking is not very uncommon 
 in Tokio, where it is always too possible, especially 
 now that rice is so dear, to wake up and find some 
 scoundrel with a sharp sword in his hand, and his 
 head wrapped in a cloth, who wants, and means to
 
 404 SEAS AND LANDS. 
 
 have, the loose cash in the house. But there is, at 
 all events, the protection of the momban, or night 
 watchman, who wakes you up perpetually to let 
 you know the hour, by beating two slabs of wood 
 together ; and the danger of fire is far greater than 
 that of the robbers, the dorobo. The Japanese are 
 fine sleepers, and the house will probably be peaceful 
 enough till the cocks in the morning crow in un- 
 welcome chorus, roku-ji-han, roku-ji-han, " half-past 
 six o'clock." 
 
 The first thing a Japanese dame does upon waking 
 is to reach out for the tobacco-mono, to fill the little 
 brass pipe, to light, and smoke it. The women do 
 this almost as much as the men. Then the Japanese 
 lady rises, detaches from her arm the ude-mamori a 
 little black velvet band, filled with musk, which she 
 always wears draws on the white socks, her tabi, 
 and repairs to the bath-room, where she brushes her 
 teeth with the yoji, scrapes her tongue with its 
 flexible handle, scrubs her little face with a small, 
 soft brush, dipped in perfumed face powder, smooths 
 into proper place the rebellious jet-black hairs which 
 have strayed during the night from her shining 
 coiffure, and lightly touches her lower lip with a 
 little rouge from the benizara. Then she changes 
 her night garments for those of the day, a some- 
 what elaborate process. First goes on the imoji, a 
 square of cotton cloth, folded round the waist ; then 
 the day jiban, very splendid and many-coloured, 
 of which, however, glimpses will only be casually 
 caught when the wind blows aside the two or
 
 DAILY LIFE, 405 
 
 three outer kimono. These, in their turn, follow, 
 and are each folded over the bosom, from left to 
 right. Upon the outer kimono she ties, low down, 
 a girdle of soft silk cr^pe, taking what the sailors 
 call " a round turn " higher up on the waist with 
 the same piece of silk. This holds the garments 
 all in place ; but over it, and partly concealing it, 
 
 THE DAILY "TUB." 
 
 is now adjusted the obi proper a broad belt of 
 black or coloured satin, eight feet long which, 
 after being carefully doubled and wound round the 
 middle of the body, is brought up at the back, 
 through itself, so as to hang in a loop down to 
 the hollow of the knees. Next, an elastic string 
 obi-dome is passed through the loop, and lifting 
 it up, and being fastened in front,' the satin band
 
 406 SEAS AND LANDS. 
 
 forms the broad lappet behind so distinctive of 
 Japanese dress, and in front a most convenient re- 
 ceptacle in the hollow of this girdle for the purse, 
 tobacco-pouch, watch, &c. 
 
 The serious business of ablution is performed with 
 many, of course, at the daily public baths. While 
 the lady of the house has thus been provisionally 
 adorning herself, and dabbling her small hands in 
 a copper dish of hot water, like a goldfinch at its 
 morning dip, the musume has dusted the whole 
 house with a paper flipper, so that not a speck of 
 dirt is to be seen ; has lit the charcoal ; has set 
 the hibachi ; has placed on it the chased bronze 
 kettle, the porcelain teapot, and the pretty painted 
 cups ; has infused the tea ; has warmed the rice ; 
 has toasted the mochi, and perhaps fried a slice or 
 two of tai, or shake, or hobo, which are very much 
 like our bass, salmon, and gurnard. The Japanese 
 take two solid meals only in the day, nibbling more 
 or less between whiles at cake, sweetmeats, and fruit 
 or nuts. If they are going to the theatre they will 
 start now to make a whole day of it. Indoors the 
 principal occupations of the morning will be endless 
 needlework, strumming of the samisen, with calls 
 and chats from neighbours, when the etiquette 
 observed is wonderful to see and hear. You must 
 know these established forms by heart to be in the 
 mode. With forehead on the mats the incomer 
 says, " Domo," " I was extremely rude to you on 
 the last happy occasion of our meeting." "Oh no ! " 
 replies the hostess ; "it was I who was awfully
 
 DAILY LIFE. 407 
 
 ill- mannered ; pray excuse me." This really means 
 nothing, as Japanese are never impolite, but is a 
 regular formula. Then, lifting up her nose a little, 
 but still on hands and knees, the visitor says 
 "Thus again to Jiang in your honourable eyes is 
 immense delight." She goes on : " Sendatte go chizo 
 ni narimashita arigato moshimas" which is to 
 say, referring to some cup of tea or fish sandwich, 
 partaken together, " I thank you for the exquisite 
 feast lately shared in your honourable society." The 
 hostess, raising in turn her face from between her 
 hands, ejaculates, "Do itashimashita ? " "What is 
 it I have done? For the various favours of your 
 honourable assistance, 'tis I who should thank you." 
 After this, the tea will be offered, and the ladies 
 settle down on the little square cushions to rapid 
 and rejoicing chatter in their own musical Japanese. 
 The gentlemen of the house have gone off to busi- 
 ness, or politics, or pleasure, as the case may be, 
 but will return to the evening meal, when the mats 
 will be covered with little red boxes of hot food, 
 sent in from the neighbouring yadoya, or cooked 
 at home. A little hot sak& and any amount of hot 
 tea washes down the strange-looking comestibles, 
 and the repast is always crowned with the go-han, 
 the great white tub of steaming rice. 
 
 In the afternoon they go out for a little walk or 
 some shopping in the Ginza, or to the Kwankoban, 
 or ride in kurumas, two at a time, to see if the 
 cherry-blossoms are coming out at Uyeno, or to 
 visit far-away relations. Or it is, perhaps, an
 
 408 
 
 SEAS AND LANDS. 
 
 ennichi i.e., festival of some popular Buddhist 
 deity, and there will be a little trip to the temple, 
 
 ne 
 
 ft] fir 
 -t 
 
 * * 
 
 if f3 
 
 lift 
 
 # -c 
 a )h 
 ft ^* 
 
 PJ, 
 
 t 
 
 r 
 
 
 
 INVITATION TO THE EMPEROR'S EVENING PARTY AT NAGOTA. 
 
 to pull the twisted rope which calls the attention
 
 DAILY LIFE. 
 
 409 
 
 of Heaven, to say the little silent prayer, and to 
 buy at the booths round the shrine a new hairpin, 
 a picture of Buddha on gilt paper, or some toys for 
 the children. Life, as you will see, is not looked 
 upon in a very serious light by my charming fellow- 
 citizens hereabout. I sometimes, indeed, think they 
 must all have been birds in a previous existence 
 they have the same delightful way of doing nothing 
 
 very busily, chirping through the days of existence, 
 preening their bright feathers, pecking for ever at 
 some tiny foolish food, and loving so intensely sing- 
 ing, and sunshine, and the blossoms. When they fall 
 ill the first thing they do is to swallow, in warm 
 water, a small picture of Buddha on soft paper. 
 If this fails to effect a cure as will occasionally
 
 4 io SEAS AND LANDS. 
 
 happen the Issha San arrives the native physi- 
 cian and kneels by the side of the futdns. He 
 feels the small brown wrist, listens to the little 
 troubled Asiatic heart, and prescribes something 
 that Western science has taught him is better than 
 Buddha for the stomach-ache. The healthy blood 
 and cheerful nature of Japanese patients greatly 
 assist his prescription, and the sufferer is either very 
 soon well again, or by-and-by is gone, by way of 
 the burning ground, to be a Hotoke Sama, a freed 
 spirit lighted by the Kadobi, the death-lamp, 
 which shows the way leading towards th.e next 
 world, into a better and happier country than even 
 graceful and glad Japan. 
 
 I have just received an invitation from the Em- 
 peror's Master of the Household to the grand 
 review of the fleet and army at Nagoya, at the end 
 of this month. I am to have a horse, quarters, 
 and the honour of presentation to His Imperial 
 Majesty, and to see the fighting forces of Japan 
 gloriously arrayed. The two contending armies 
 in the approaching manoeuvres are to be divided 
 as follows : The eastern or defending force will 
 consist of about 16,000 soldiers, 500 officers, and 
 forty-eight guns. The western or attacking force 
 will have an equal number of officers, guns, and men. 
 The 3rd and 4th regiments of infantry and detach- 
 ments of cavalry and artillery of the Imperial Body- 
 guard will act as auxiliaries. Lieutenant-General 
 Viscount Takeshima commands the defending and 
 Lieutenant-General Kurokawa the attacking force.
 
 DAILY LIFE. 411 
 
 The defending force will be assisted by the men-of- 
 war Kongo, Chikushi, Tenryo, Maya, and Ho-sho-, 
 and the attacking force by the Naniwa, Takachiho, 
 Fuse, Musashi, Katsuragi, and Yamato. Rear- 
 Admiral Fukushima will command the former, and 
 Rear- Admiral Inoue the latter. The programme of 
 the Emperor's movements will be as follows : On 
 the 28th inst. he will leave the capital ; on the 2gth 
 he will be at Nagoya inspecting the arrangements 
 there ; and the next day he will proceed to the port 
 of Handa on the Chita peninsula to witness a naval 
 engagement, returning to Nagoya the following day 
 (the 3ist). April ist and 2nd will be spent in watch- 
 ing engagements on land. The attacking force will 
 attempt a landing at Handa, which will be defended 
 by the opposite force. There will be a two days' 
 engagement on sea and also on land, resulting in 
 the repulse of the defending army and the landing 
 of the assailants. The ist Brigade of the Imperial 
 Bodyguard leaves the capital on the i8th inst., and 
 will travel by forced marches to Nagoya, covering 
 about six ri per day. The journey will thus occupy 
 about thirteen days. The two days' engagement on 
 land on April ist and 2nd is expected to take place 
 about Goyu and Narumi. 
 
 A.ZABU, TOKIO, JAPAN, March 18, 1890.
 
 CHAPTER XXVI. 
 
 MILITANT JAPAN. 
 
 I HAVE just returned to my Japanese hotel from the 
 battlefield near Otaka, where the troops of all arms 
 of His Imperial Majesty the Emperor of Japan have 
 to-day fought a brilliant engagement, happily as 
 bloodless as it was picturesque, interesting, and 
 instructive. I mentioned in a previous letter that 
 I had received the honour of an invitation to attend 
 these manoeuvres of the imperial forces at Nagoya. 
 The navy as well as the army was to join in 
 them, and they were to be more complete and 
 important than anything of the kind heretofore 
 displayed in Japan. Of the naval portion of the 
 fighting I can tell you nothing except from hearsay, 
 for the action by sea was terminated before our 
 large party of ministers, diplomatists, officers of 
 State, and two or three specially-invited foreigners, 
 arrived at the scene of combat. There were, how- 
 ever, not less than fifteen men-of-war of various 
 types engaged, besides numerous gunboats and 
 torpedo-boats ; and I was informed that the opera- 
 tion of covering the landing of a large body 
 of troops was admirably managed. An excellent 
 authority here, Captain Ingles, R.N., who is high
 
 MILITANT JAPAN. 413 
 
 in the service of the Japanese Admiralty, and an 
 officer of our own navy, assured me on the field of 
 battle to-day that he hardly knew how to find any 
 fault at all with the Japanese officers and crews of 
 His Majesty's fleet. He described to me an opera- 
 tion effected by the captain of the ironclad on board 
 of which he sailed, who, on receiving a sudden 
 signal, slipped and buoyed his anchor, and got 
 under weigh within ten minutes, afterwards bring- 
 ing his ship back, and picking up the buoy again 
 in the dark by very dexterous navigation. He 
 declared the thing could not have been performed 
 more handsomely in a Queen's ship. The Japanese 
 bluejackets dress and look very much like British 
 men-of-warsmen, tanned brown by the sun. They 
 have adopted our naval uniform and system in 
 every point, and possessing great aptitude for the 
 sea, as is shown by the skill of the sampanmen, and 
 the hardihood of the coast fishermen, they make 
 Captain Ingles said really first-rate seamen. With 
 the patience of Asiatic blood, they have none of 
 its languor. They are alert, intelligent, brave, and 
 docile to manage beyond the experience of perhaps 
 any other flag upon the ocean. Punishment is 
 hardly known in the Emperor's warships, being 
 so seldom necessary ; and if the Government of 
 Japan would do as much for the navy as for the 
 army, and strive in every way to develop its strength 
 and popularity, Japan might become, I believe, the 
 England of the Pacific, and make the white flag with 
 the crimson sun upon it pre-eminent in these seas.
 
 4I4 SEAS AND LANDS. 
 
 But our business was not " on the great waters," 
 and the fleet had had its innings, and was peaceably 
 moored in the bay when our long train steamed into 
 Nagoya Station, after a journey of 200 miles from 
 the capital. Nagoya is a large and well-looking 
 city of about 125,000 inhabitants, planted in a plain 
 on the south-western coast ; at this season coloured 
 all green with the barley, and golden with the 
 blossom of the rape. Its streets are wide and well 
 kept, and were gay with triumphal arches, made of 
 fir and bamboo and paper peony flowers, and also 
 with flags and lanterns. Its principal building is the 
 Shiro, or castle, and the Honganji Temple, contain- 
 ing something which is both a temple and a palace, 
 where the Mikado was quartered. The castle is 
 fortified by ancient walls of massive masonry, and 
 is extremely pictorial in general effect. The high 
 stone walls, built in the style termed by the Romans 
 opus incertum, are topped with white tower houses 
 of Chinese fashion, and in the centre rises a five- 
 storeyed pagoda-like edifice, surmounted by two 
 famous dolphins made of plates of gold, which 
 glitter bravely in the sunshine. One of these fish 
 has had extraordinary adventures, having been sent 
 to the Vienna Exhibition, and then sunk at sea in 
 returning on board the Messageries steamer Nil. It 
 was got up again, however, and brought home to its 
 proper place, to the great delight of Nagoya. That 
 city was all ablaze with excitement and loyalty when 
 I arrived. Every house, without exception, had dis- 
 played the white flag with the red sun, on a golden-
 
 MILITANT JAPAN. 415 
 
 tipped bamboo, and a paper lantern, of the same 
 national colours. This unity of decoration painted 
 the town all white and red, and produced a charm- 
 ing effect. Quarters were difficult to obtain, but 
 by the courtesy of the Minister of the Household, 
 Mr. Nagasaki, and the kind offices of my friend, 
 Mr. Yamada, I was well lodged, and, having had 
 a coloured scarf bound round my right arm, I 
 wandered everywhere at pleasure, and had ample 
 opportunities of observing everything. 
 
 The first day of the manoeuvres passed near 
 Karya, and I will not dwell upon them, the interest 
 consisting chiefly in military technics. All trains 
 being full, we returned across country in our jin- 
 rikishas, passing through an interesting region of 
 sandhills and rice-fields, and leaving the two armies 
 moving to meet each other on the next day at a 
 point about seven miles from Nagoya. Thither we 
 repaired early on the following morning, along a 
 road presenting all the appearance of active war. 
 Trains of Chinese ponies, with ammunition and 
 provisions, spades and pickaxes, stretchers and 
 medical stores, filed along. Every now and then 
 the way was blocked by detachments of infantry 
 marching at quick step to the battlefield. Then 
 we would overtake batteries of light or heavy 
 artillery rumbling along into action. There was 
 very little cavalry, the country not being adapted 
 for that arm, but the infantry and artillery engaged 
 amounted altogether to nearly 30,000. Threading 
 our way through the martial throng, we reached at
 
 4 i 6 SEAS AND LANDS. 
 
 last a village, where we dismounted and took a 
 wooded path leading into the hills. At this moment 
 the roar of cannon and the crackle of musketry 
 announced the scene of action to be near, and we 
 came upon two companies lying concealed in the 
 thick underwood. A little farther and we emerged 
 upon the brow of a hill, where the picture of mimic 
 warfare suddenly developed itself. A long sand- 
 stone ridge, some two or three hundred feet above 
 the valleys and the rice-fields beneath, was faced 
 by a corresponding and almost parallel ridge, the 
 latter being held by the hostile army. Ours, with 
 which was His Majesty, distinguished by white 
 covers upon all the soldiers' caps, occupied the range 
 nearest to Nagoya, and we had already brought up 
 to the rim of the hill three batteries of mountain 
 guns, which kept up a constant fire on the enemy's 
 pieces, and on such masses of his infantry as could 
 be seen or guessed at in the close bush opposite. 
 Our artillerymen were serving their little guns with 
 admirable regularity. Near and far amid the dwarf 
 trees lay hidden large bodies of our men, and it was 
 interesting to notice how very few could be dis- 
 cerned out of the considerable number of troops 
 upon the field. Behind the shelter of the hill the 
 artillery horses, with the chargers of the staff and 
 the ponies of the ambulance, were picketed, and 
 under its brow the two war-horses of the Emperor 
 were being walked about covered with cloths of 
 green satin, emblazoned with the gold chrysan- 
 themum. His Majesty himself, the Mikado, stood
 
 MILITANT JAPAN. 417 
 
 amid the cannon smoke, with a brilliant staff around 
 him, wearing a military cap and coat, and buckskin 
 breeches, with high boots. He was the umpire and 
 final arbiter of the day, and as I stood near him I 
 was impressed by the high intelligence of his counte- 
 nance and the close attention which he displayed. 
 The foreign ministers, in full uniform, and wearing 
 their orders, added to the brilliance of the warlike 
 spectacle, which could not have had a more pictur- 
 esque mise-en-scene. The sandhills on which we 
 stood, covered with dwarf fir-trees, were coloured 
 almost as purple as the Scotch moors in autumn by 
 the purple blossoms of the Tsutsuji, or wild azalea, 
 the green and purple being further diversified by 
 the dark blue uniforms with red or yellow facings 
 of the imperial troops. 
 
 We have been hammering away for two hours 
 with the little seven-pounder Krupps, till they 
 are too hot to touch ; our skirmishers have pushed 
 forward far down the hill, almost to the edge of 
 the rice-fields and to the road skirting them. A 
 mile away on the right flank our batteries have 
 either silenced the enemy, or he is preparing some 
 new and daring combination. This proves to be 
 the case, for, on a sudden, the thickets opposite 
 send forth a large body of infantry, who begin 
 to cross the rice-fields at a run, with a view of 
 driving in our skirmishers, and perhaps storming 
 our ridge. The spectacle is curious. A rice-field 
 region looks like an interminable chess-board, 
 the squares being the rice-plots, full of mud and 
 
 2 D
 
 4 r8 SEAS AND LANDS. 
 
 water, and the dividing lines the tiny, raised path- 
 ways, which shut the water in and give access 
 to the crops. Along these countless lines, darting 
 hither and thither like knights on the chess-board, 
 come the enemy's soldiers. At the first sight of 
 them our heavy batteries of Krupp twelve-pounders 
 are brought up at a gallop to silence the reopen- 
 ing guns of the foe, while our troops from the 
 rear hasten to line every yard of the ridge, and 
 a lively fire from thousands of rifles is answered 
 by shots and volleys from the hitherto concealed 
 enemy. 
 
 If it had been real warfare I do not think a 
 third of this attacking force could have crossed 
 the rice-fields alive. Bullets and grape had ful] 
 time, I thought, at a range of less than a mile, 
 to bag them like so many wisps of snipe. But 
 as it is they swarm across ; they line the far 
 side of the road ; they drive in our foremost 
 skirmishers ; they even begin to climb stealthily 
 up our hill, while the bronze Krupp guns, now 
 almost red-hot, are jumping with incessant rounds, 
 and their roar, along with the crackle of the 
 musketry, makes the stallions behind the brow 
 wild with excitement. At this juncture, when 
 some of the enemy have come into our cannon- 
 smoke, and the valley is nearly hidden in its 
 volumes, the Emperor utters a command. The 
 little pennon of scarlet silk with the gold sun 
 upon it, carried wherever he moves, is waved as 
 a signal, and the bugles all along our line blow
 
 MILITANT JAPAN. 419 
 
 the familiar notes of the " Cease firing." In an 
 instant war is changed by magic into peace, the 
 thick smoke rolls .away from the purple azaleas, 
 the Krupps cool down, the dust-covered artillery- 
 men take breath, and return their spare cartridges 
 to the field magazine ; and when we see the 
 Imperial attendants spreading a blue satin cloth, 
 with gold chrysanthemums worked on it, over 
 some limber chests, and setting out the Emperor's 
 bento, or lunch, we all imitate the Eoyal example, 
 and proceed to open those neat little boxes in 
 which the Japanese pack up a cold repast, break- 
 ing the lids up into chopsticks. 
 
 We afterwards effected a masterly retreat along 
 the Nagoya road, lost in a cavalcade of staff, horse, 
 and artillery, and overtaking many regiments, already 
 marching to Nagoya for the review of the next day. 
 I do not pretend to military knowledge, but I have 
 seen almost all existing armies, and am quite sure 
 that better judges than myself would pronounce the 
 Japanese soldiers to be excellent material. Every- 
 thing about them looked business-like, soldierly, and 
 substantial. Their arms were in good order ; their 
 bearing alert, eager, and intelligent ; and, although 
 on foot for two days together, with much marching, 
 I noticed only two or three fall out from fatigue. 
 Their officers wisely allow them to exchange, when 
 they like, their heavy regimental boots for the easy 
 waraji or sandal, and in consequence there are no 
 sore feet. Their uniform is of the German type, 
 chiefly dark blue, with dust-coloured gaiters, and I
 
 420 SEAS AND LANDS. 
 
 should think that English general fortunate who, in 
 an Asiatic war, could have the assistance of thirty 
 thousand of such men as I saw on the hills of 
 Otaka. 
 
 Next morning we repaired, in the frock-coats and 
 tall hats which it is Japanese etiquette to wear, 
 to the parade-ground of the Castle, and there 
 standing or mounted round the Emperor we saw 
 some fifteen or twenty regiments march past the 
 master of these legions and of the fair and pros- 
 perous empire of Japan. As each body of men 
 came to the scarlet and gold pennon carried by a 
 mounted officer at His Majesty's side, they presented 
 arms, and the officers raised their sword-hilts to 
 their foreheads. Some regiments carried colours 
 torn to tatters by hostile bullets in the war of the 
 Rebellion, and these the Emperor always specially 
 saluted. The marching was very good, the lines 
 well dressed. You could, indeed, have rolled a 
 cricket-ball between the files of almost every com- 
 pany. Then the troops drew up in a long front, 
 along which the Mikado rode, with his staff, and 
 we all raced home to our hotels troops, sightseers, 
 diplomatists, and guns, mingled in a dusty, good- 
 tempered column through dense crowds of loyal, 
 sweet-mannered, and orderly Japanese people, and 
 under the bright sunlight of a perfect Japanese 
 spring day. 
 
 In the evening there was a grand reception at the 
 Hangonji Temple, inside the castle, to which I had 
 the honour of being invited. Everybody wore full
 
 MILITANT JAPAN. 
 
 421 
 
 uniform or Court dress, and the concourse in the 
 vast hall, with its plain wooden pillars, each of them 
 as big as the main-mast of an old three-decker, was 
 very splendid. No ladies were present, and the 
 
 IN W1NTKK DRK8S. 
 
 Empress herself had stayed behind in Tokio. The 
 Japanese orders of the Rising Sun, the Chrysanthe- 
 mum, and the Sacred Treasure, glittered upon many
 
 42 a SEAS AND LANDS. 
 
 breasts well known in modern Japanese history. 
 The Mikado himself presently came among us, 
 wearing the great gold star of the Rising Sun 
 upon a general's uniform, but soon led the way to 
 another hall, where supper, in the Japanese fashion, 
 had been prepared for three thousand. His Majesty 
 himself supped on a raised platform with a special 
 party, and with this brilliant entertainment the 
 great military pageant of Nagoya may be said to 
 have closed. 
 
 Returning by the long train journey, I enjoyed 
 at the station of Suzukawa a sublime spectacle. 
 The little town stands at the very point where the 
 long foot of Fuji-San slopes into the sea, and I 
 saw that divinely perfect mountain, from base to 
 glorious summit, bathed in burning sunshine, and 
 clearly defined in every inch of her 14,000 feet of 
 elevation. Snow lay thick and dazzling more than 
 half-way down the majestic cone, and at about the 
 snow-line a girdle of golden and rosy clouds belted 
 the Queen of Mountains on her seaward side. Below 
 the cloudy zone were vast sloping grey moors, and 
 lower still a region of green forest, bringing the 
 eye beneath to where, upon her gigantic flanks, an 
 indefatigable agriculture covered her knees and feet 
 with fertility. For a whole hour, as we skirted 
 the splendid eminence and caught new views of 
 her beauty, new colours and shadows on her snows, 
 her clouds, her crags, and her forests, I could not 
 take my eyes from the peerless mountain, by which 
 we had passed without so much as a glimpse of her
 
 MILITANT JAPAN. 423 
 
 majesty, in the rain and mist of the journey down 
 to Nagoya. 
 
 Their Royal Highnesses the Duke and Duchess 
 of Connaught will arrive in Yokohama on Tuesday 
 next. The British Legation here has been prepared 
 for their temporary abode in Tokio. They will visit 
 Nikko and Kioto, and see Fuji-San. 
 
 NAGOYA, April 2, 1890.
 
 CHAPTER XXVII. 
 
 JAPAN AND FOREIGN POWERS. 
 
 I ASK permission to be serious, and even dull, 
 in both this and the next communication, in order 
 to speak about a subject of vital import to Japan, 
 and, indeed, of international interest that of Treaty 
 Revision. But let me first mention that their Royal 
 Highnesses the Duke and Duchess of Connaught 
 have left us to-day, after a stay in Japan, which I 
 have the best warrant for saying has been full of 
 very pleasant experiences. The weather, unhappily, 
 has shown itself singularly disloyal and inhospitable. 
 Only two fine days of the real Japanese pattern have 
 smiled upon the Royal visitors ; but they were not 
 to be daunted by this, and have managed to see*a 
 great deal of the capital and its neighbourhood, as 
 well as of the people and their customs. They have 
 sailed up the Inland Sea, viewing its unparalleled 
 combinations of islands and waters ; they have stayed 
 at Kobe, Kyoto, and Kamakura ; they have inspected 
 the colossal Buddha at Daibutsu, and dined d la 
 Japonaise, on the mats ; wandered through the Great 
 National Exhibition at Uyeno ; studied the splendid 
 temples at Nikko and Shiba ; and, of course, made 
 innumerable purchases in the ever-fascinating silk
 
 JAPAN AND FOREIGN POWERS. 425 
 
 and curio shops. Yesterday the Emperor returned 
 from Kobe in good time to receive the illustrious 
 guests of his country, first in audience at the Palace, 
 and next at dinner ; and this morning His Imperial 
 Majesty returned, in state, the visit of their Royal 
 Highnesses ; who are at present embarking upon the 
 Abyssinia, of the Canadian Pacific Line, for Van- 
 couver and the journey, through the Dominion, 
 homewards. I have not mentioned, of course, half 
 the functions and ceremonies which have attended 
 the sojourn of their Royal Highnesses in Japan, all 
 of which their inexhaustible geniality and grace have 
 made so successful ; but it is worth while to remark 
 that, in spite of the sadly cloudy and unpropitious 
 weather, the Duchess of Connaught obtained one 
 perfect view of Fuji-San. Her Royal Highness told 
 me that, at the station of Gotemba, which is upon 
 the very base of the matchless mountain, the clouds 
 lifted for a little while and revealed the vision which 
 I lately had the honour of describing to you of this 
 glorious eminence once a terrible volcano, and now 
 the loveliest and most verdant as well as the shape- 
 liest of all the hills of earth bathed in sunlight and 
 radiant with beauty, from her feet, slippered in the 
 gold and green of the spring crops, to her waist girt 
 with the gold and rosy clouds, and head crowned with 
 shining snows. 
 
 And now for this great and serious matter of 
 Treaty Revision ! No Oriental country ever suddenly 
 attracted so much attention in the West as Japan. 
 Her fine arts first brought her into special notice.
 
 426 SEAS AND LANDS. 
 
 The rich field she offered at a moment when Europe 
 stood in urgent need of new inspiration, is still only 
 partially explored, yet the Occident has already 
 derived from it a wealth of fresh motives and 
 invigorating suggestions. Folks in the West, how- 
 ever, have not yet drawn from Japanese art the in- 
 ferences it properly suggests. They cannot choose 
 but be charmed by it ; they accept its lessons with 
 gratitude, and frankly acknowledge the debt they 
 owe it ; but of the nation that gave it to them 
 they think little. Politically speaking, Japan is 
 just as far from Europe as she was twenty-five 
 years ago. The impression created by her two 
 centuries of seclusion has not been effaced, and 
 very few people recognise that no longer of her 
 own choice, but on account of Western prejudice 
 and indifference, she is forbidden to emerge com- 
 pletely from the state of isolation which the West 
 itself forced her to abandon in 1858. It is a curious 
 chapter of history, this signal reversal of the posi- 
 tions occupied by Japan and her mentors. The 
 inherent right of every nation to regulate for itself 
 the nature and extent of its intercourse with other 
 states was denied to Japan thirty-three years ago. 
 She was told that the first principles of civilisation 
 and of the federation of humanity were outraged by 
 the selfish assertion of any such right. She was 
 taught that material prosperity is the only genuine 
 basis of international consideration ; that commerce 
 is the parent of prosperity, and that to be successful 
 commerce must be unrestricted. In obedience to
 
 JAPAN AND FOREIGN POWERS. 427 
 
 these doctrines, supported, as they were, by a 
 menace of force majeure, she hesitatingly opened 
 a few of her ports, and suffered her subjects to 
 commence a partial trade with the outer world. 
 But when, by-and-by, she would fain have com- 
 pleted the work would fain have thrown open 
 every part of her empire, and removed all obstacles 
 from the path of commerce Western Governments 
 told her that they did not consider her qualified for 
 equal intercourse, and that the moral and liberal 
 principles which they had preached for the purpose 
 of breaking down her seclusion could not possibly 
 be suffered to have any inconvenient application 
 to their own conduct. It was a surprise to Japan. 
 She did not immediately realise what it signified, 
 but when she came to understand the inequality 
 of Western justice in international matters, and to 
 perceive that there was to be one law for her, and 
 another and an entirely different one for her treaty 
 friends, she began to lose something of her con- 
 fidence in Occidental morality, and to look with 
 doubting eyes on its representatives. 
 
 It may seem strange to speak of Japan's confi- 
 dence in Western nations, but history shows that her 
 original instincts were all in favour of foreign inter- 
 course. When the Portuguese first came to her 
 shores in 1545 they received kindly welcome, and 
 no obstacles were placed in the way of their com- 
 merce. The Dutch had a similar experience in 
 1 600, and thirteen years later, the first English ships 
 arriving, Japan readily signed a treaty granting to
 
 428 SEAS AND LANDS. 
 
 the subjects of Great Britain perpetual license to 
 trade and reside in every part of the empire. The 
 causes that converted this amicable mood into one 
 of distrust and dislike were chiefly religious. The 
 Portuguese Jesuits, who pioneered Christianity, and 
 who carried its precepts of peace and benevolence 
 into their practice, might have happily continued 
 their successful labours had they not been followed 
 by Dominicans and Franciscans, who quarrelled with 
 each other and with the Jesuits, making Japan for 
 the first time acquainted with the bitterness of sec- 
 tarian strife. Winning converts and wealth, the 
 foreign priests began to exercise the cruel intoler- 
 ance of mediaeval Europe. Japanese dignitaries 
 were insulted, Buddhist temples burned, and pro- 
 pagandism by persecution became the order of the 
 hour. Meanwhile, the avarice and extortion of the 
 Portuguese traders disgusted Japanese officials, and 
 prepared them to believe the false representations 
 of the Dutch, who declared that territorial aggran- 
 disement was the real aim of the Portuguese, and 
 that their religious propagandism was in truth a 
 political campaign. Never before harassed by the 
 clash of militant creeds, the Japanese were pre- 
 pared to extend to foreign faiths the tolerance that 
 marked their attitude towards Buddhism, and the 
 attitude of the numerous sects of Buddhism towards 
 each other. Nobunaga, the secular ruler of Japan, 
 replying to remonstrances prompted by the first 
 symptoms of Christian egotism, said that if Japan 
 could tolerate thirty-five sects of Buddhism she
 
 JAPAN AND FOREIGN POWERS. 429 
 
 might easily bear with a thirty-sixth in the shape of 
 Christianity. When, however, torture, ruin, blood- 
 shed, and rebellion began to dog the footsteps of 
 the Christian propagandists, and when the political 
 designs attributed to them by the Dutch received 
 confirmation in their conduct and demeanour, the 
 Japanese resolved to expel them from the land. It 
 was then that a patriotic aversion to all foreigners 
 grew up, and, being transmitted from father to son 
 as a sacred precept, found expression in the fierce 
 outbursts of murderous opposition which disfigured 
 the early days of renewed foreign intercourse thirty 
 years ago. In the eyes of the Japanese Samurai 
 every Occidental was a Bateren (Padre), an in- 
 triguer against the independence of the " country of 
 the gods." 
 
 From the moment, however, that this error came 
 to be recognised as it was fully recognised by the 
 remarkable men who planned the overthrow of 
 feudalism, and have since directed Japan's destinies 
 from that moment Japan, laying aside her tem- 
 porary dislike, reverted to the trustful and hospitable 
 mood of the sixteenth century. Welcoming foreign 
 intercourse, she welcomed also foreign civilisation. 
 A period of wonderful progress ensued. In the short 
 space of twenty years new and enlightened criminal 
 codes were enacted ; the methods of judicial pro- 
 cedure were entirely changed ; thoroughly efficient 
 systems of police, of posts, of telegraphs, and of 
 national education were organised ; an army and a 
 navy modelled after Western patterns were formed ;
 
 43 o SEAS AND LANDS. 
 
 the finances of the Empire were placed on a sound 
 basis ; railways, roads, and harbours were con- 
 structed ; an efficient mercantile marine sprang into 
 existence ; the jail system was radically improved ; 
 an extensive scheme of local government was put 
 into operation ; a competitive civil service was 
 organised ; the whole fiscal system was revised ; an 
 influential and widely read newspaper press grew 
 up with extraordinary rapidity ; the people were en- 
 franchised, and government by parliament was sub- 
 stituted for monarchical absolutism. So swift were 
 the phases of this kaleidoscopic scene that foreign 
 observers sometimes doubted its sincerity. Japan, 
 they said, was hiding her old self under a veneer 
 which would certainly be torn off by-and-by. They 
 forgot that the genius of the Japanese people is 
 essentially eclectic ; that in former ages they had not 
 hesitated to borrow, even from the comparatively 
 puny kingdom of Korea, whatever elements of a 
 better civilisation that country had to offer ; that 
 they had laid Chinese civilisation under contribu- 
 tions almost as great as those they were now levying 
 on the civilisation of the West ; that in every case 
 they had shown themselves free from fickleness or 
 lightness of purpose, and that whenever a good system 
 was imported it had taken strong root in Japanese 
 soil, its growth improving largely under Japanese 
 culture, and changing only so far as was necessary 
 to adapt it to a Japanese environment. There was 
 nothing in the nation's ancient history to suggest a 
 danger of superficiality in such matters, and there
 
 JAPAN AND FOREIGN POWERS. 431 
 
 has been nothing in the story of the past twenty 
 years to cast doubt on the stability of the wonderful 
 progress they have witnessed. By the many writers 
 who have spoken in admiring terms of that progress, 
 the title to international consideration which it gives 
 Japan has been unanimously admitted. Yet neither 
 for the sake of her frank adoption of Western 
 civilisation, nor yet in consistent deference to the 
 principle which they formerly compelled her to 
 obey, will Western Powers consent to admit her to 
 equal intercourse with themselves. Neither because 
 she has proved herself worthy of trust by twenty 
 years of persistent effort, nor yet because they 
 have no more right to condemn her to a state of 
 semi-isolation than they had to drag her out of 
 complete isolation in 1858, will the Governments 
 of Europe agree to her proposals for unrestricted 
 intercourse. An impediment, which, though once 
 considerable, has now been reduced to utterly in- 
 significant dimensions, blocks the way. When a 
 covenant was made opening a few ports to foreign 
 vessels, and sanctioning foreign trade within the 
 narrow limits of a few settlements, it was agreed, 
 as became such a system of partial intercourse, 
 that the persons of foreigners should be entirely 
 withdrawn from the processes of Japanese courts, 
 and that in their civil dealings with Japanese they 
 should have equal recourse to their own and to 
 Japanese tribunals. This is the so-called " extra- 
 territorial system." It substitutes consular juris- 
 diction for Japanese in respect of criminal law,
 
 43 2 SEAS AND LANDS. 
 
 and to that extent deprives Japan of one of the 
 most* important sovereign rights of an independent 
 state, judicial autonomy. Under no circumstances 
 a sound system, it has led in Japan's case to many 
 flagrant anomalies and abuses, which have been 
 too often exposed and discussed to need detailed 
 reference here. No one has ever thought of deny- 
 ing, however, that before Japan's laws were revised 
 and her system of police and prisons reformed, 
 she could not reasonably ask to be entrusted 
 with criminal jurisdiction over foreigners. On the 
 other hand, no one pretends that until she is 
 entrusted with such jurisdiction she can possibly 
 allow foreigners to trade, travel, and reside where- 
 ever they please in her territories. Even though 
 Western States were willing to establish a com- 
 plete network of Consular Courts at all the prin- 
 cipal towns throughout the empire, the problem 
 would be as far as ever from solution ; for it is 
 obvious that no self-respecting nation could brook 
 the idea of sixteen foreign Powers setting up tri- 
 bunals for themselves, and independently adminis- 
 tering their own laws everywhere within its borders. 
 Foreign Powers, however, have not the smallest 
 intention of incurring any such expense for the 
 sake of the handful of their countrymen residing 
 in Japan. Indeed, not many of them have prac- 
 tically acknowledged that in exempting their sub- 
 jects or citizens from Japanese jurisdiction, they 
 were morally bound to provide an efficient substi- 
 tute for that jurisdiction. The fingers of one hand
 
 JAPAN AND FOREIGN POWERS. 433 
 
 suffice to count the States which have established 
 in the settlements properly equipped courts presided 
 over by duly qualified law officers. To open the 
 country, then, under existing judicial conditions, 
 would be to admit into the interior a number 
 of strangers acknowledging no obligation towards 
 Japanese laws, and released from the effective con- 
 trol of their own ; while, in the event of civil 
 disputes, a Japanese suitor might have to carry 
 his case and his witnesses several hundred miles 
 in order to reach a foreign consular court in the 
 nearest settlement. Thus the complete opening of 
 the country, the removal of all restrictions upon 
 foreign trade, travel, and residence, depends entirely 
 upon the willingness of Western Powers to entrust 
 the persons and properties of their subjects to 
 Japanese jurisdiction. 
 
 YOKOHAMA, JAPAN, May 10, 1890. 
 
 2 B
 
 CHAPTER XXVIII. 
 
 JAPAN AND FOEEIGN POWERS Continued. 
 
 FOR nineteen years this question of Japan's relations 
 with foreign nations has agitated the minds of the 
 people : for ten it has been the theme of direct 
 negotiation between the Governments of Japan and 
 the Treaty Powers. The treaties concluded in 1858 
 became subject to revision in 1872 ; but Japan was 
 not then prepared to propose a practical scheme of 
 revision. She was just in the throes of abolishing 
 feudalism, and had not yet found leisure to re- 
 organise her courts or recast her laws. The recovery 
 of her tariff autonomy, however, she had an indis- 
 putable title to demand. Fixed on a nominal basis 
 of 5 per cent., ad valorem, the rates really levied on 
 her foreign trade did not amount to more than an 
 average of 3! per cent., and the country was sadly in 
 need of funds to carry out the numerous reforms it 
 had undertaken. But proposals for tariff revision 
 were invariably met with a demand for the opening 
 of new ports or some other extension of commercial 
 privileges, whereas Japan was resolutely determined 
 not to suffer the system of consular jurisdiction 
 to be pushed beyond the limits of the settlements 
 already fixed by treaty. She was, therefore, cut off
 
 JAPAN AND FOREIGN POWERS. ' 435 
 
 from a source of revenue upon which every in- 
 dependent State has an inalienable right to draw. 
 Nay, more ; though she spent millions of dollars on 
 the lighting and buoying of her coasts, she was not 
 permitted to levy a cent of tonnage dues on the 
 ships profiting by these improvements, for in every- 
 thing affecting foreigners the unanimous consent of 
 the sixteen Treaty Powers was an essential pre- 
 liminary, and to obtain that consent proved a 
 hopeless task. Perhaps this tariff question, reacting 
 as it did upon the problem of internal taxation, 
 helped as much as anything else to concentrate the 
 nation's attention on its humiliating plight. The 
 vernacular press, a rapidly developing power, dwelt 
 strongly on the country's deprivation of its sove- 
 reign rights, and criticised the Government's incompe- 
 tence to recover them ; while the local foreign press 
 retorted in terms of contemptuous intolerance, em- 
 bittering the situation and deepening the nation's 
 sense of injustice by intemperate and scurrilous 
 utterances. Little by little there grew up in the 
 Japanese mind a conviction that the international 
 dealings of Western Powers were governed chiefly 
 by the dictates of Might, and that Right might go 
 a-begging unless it had strength to assert itself. 
 Yet the people preserved their temper wonderfully. 
 Many a time was it remarked that a European 
 nation subjected to similar treatment would have 
 lost patience in a few months, whereas the Japanese 
 maintained, year after year, an invariably friendly 
 and considerate mien. Their confidence in foreigners
 
 436 SEAS AND LANDS. 
 
 did, indeed, gradually evaporate ; and this, sup- 
 plemented by a morbidly excited anxiety to assert 
 the independence so persistently withheld from 
 them, affected their treatment of their foreign 
 employe's, and sometimes betrayed them into pre- 
 mature essays that did not always end happily. Yet 
 on the whole they showed singularly few symptoms 
 of the umbrage steadily growing in their breasts. 
 Things stood thus when, in 1882, Count Inouye, 
 Minister of State for Foreign Affairs and Japanese Re- 
 presentative at the Treaty Revision Conference, then 
 sitting in Tokio, laid before the Foreign Delegates 
 a scheme pointing to the complete opening of the 
 Empire, provided that foreigners residing or trading 
 within its territories should be bound by Japanese 
 laws and subject to Japanese tribunals. Already 
 criminal laws of undoubted excellence were in force, 
 and with respect to civil laws, Japan was ready to 
 promise that the codes then in course of compilation 
 should be completed and translated into at least one 
 foreign language before the date fixed for the re- 
 vised treaties to go into operation. Further, she 
 would undertake to employ in the capacity of 
 judges such a number of competent foreign legal 
 experts that in every case where a foreigner was 
 concerned these judges should be in a majority. 
 British influence was then paramount in Japan, 
 and Sir Harry Parkes represented it. A man 
 universally beloved and respected, Sir Harry had 
 done much to enhance his country's prestige in 
 the Orient ; but having been an eye-witness of all
 
 JAPAN AND FOREIGN POWERS. 437 
 
 the changes undergone by Japan during and since 
 the fall of feudalism, familiarity had rendered him 
 unconscious of their magnitude. Just as persons 
 of mature years often remain children in the estima- 
 tion of those who have watched their daily growth, 
 so the new Japan remained always a child in the 
 view of Sir Harry Parkes, who had assisted at its 
 birth and helped to nurse it. No scheme of treaty 
 revision recognising Japan's competence to resume 
 her judicial and tariff autonomy could seem any- 
 thing but premature to him. He might have 
 strengthened and confirmed Great Britain's leader- 
 ship in Japan by taking a sympathetic course ; but 
 his conservatism was unbending, and Japan, hope- 
 less of obtaining the assistance which she would 
 have valued most, threw herself into the arms of 
 Germany. In 1884, Sir Francis Plunkett replaced 
 Sir Harry Parkes at the Court of Japan, and the 
 negotiations were continued, Germany and England 
 acting in apparent concert, but always to the 
 former's advantage. Volumes might be written 
 describing the wonderful labyrinth of proposals 
 and counter proposals advanced by the sixteen 
 delegates ; the perpetual struggles of certain repre- 
 sentatives to assert their influence, of others to save 
 themselves from effacement ; the hopeless entangle- 
 ment of impracticable conditions that grew out of 
 the foreign negotiators' timidity and distrust, and 
 the petty difficulties that blocked the path to any- 
 thing like a broad, statesmanlike solution. Finally, 
 in 1887, Japan discovered that she should be
 
 438 SEAS AND LANDS. 
 
 obliged to pledge herself not only to frame codes 
 of a certain character, but also to submit them, as 
 well as every subsequent amendment of them, 
 virtually for the approval of foreign Powers ; that 
 for the sake of a few hundred possible foreign 
 suitors, she should have to appoint a greater 
 number of foreign judges than those constituting 
 the whole English bench ; that these judges would 
 be removable by the decision of their own col- 
 leagues alone ; that each nationality looked forward 
 to a voice in their appointment ; and that the whole 
 scheme had been contorted into something which 
 would substitute political bias for the administration 
 of justice, and expose Japan to humiliation less 
 bearable because more deliberate than that she 
 already suffered. Amid a storm of popular excite- 
 ment, she drew back from such a ruinous bargain, 
 and the negotiations were suspended, not to be re- 
 opened until 1889, when a greatly modified scheme, 
 proposed by Count Okuma, was accepted promptly 
 by the United States of America, by Germany, and 
 by Russia. 
 
 The long-deferred end seemed now in sight. The 
 guarantees required of Japan had been reduced to 
 comparatively insignificant dimensions. They were 
 represented by an engagement, first, that her revised 
 codes should be promulgated, and translated into 
 English two years before the abolition of consular 
 jurisdiction ; secondly, that in the Supreme Court 
 judges of foreign origin should sit in a majority 
 whenever a case affecting foreigners came up for
 
 JAPAN AND FOREIGN POWERS. 439 
 
 hearing. Acceptance of these terms meant the 
 opening of the whole country to foreign trade, 
 travel, and residence. Hitherto Japan had nego- 
 tiated with the sixteen Treaty States en masse, a 
 proceeding which, after fifteen years of essay, had 
 amply proved its own hopelessness. She now 
 approached the Great Powers separately but simul- 
 taneously, and, as we have said, the United States, 
 Germany, and Russia quickly concluded treaties 
 with her. But England hesitated. Partly because 
 international courtesy forbade her to hastily desert 
 a combination of which she had been the original 
 promoter as well as the head ; partly because she 
 valued the union for the sake of the bloodless results 
 formerly achieved by its display of irresistible force, 
 her first impulse was to endeavour to re-cement it. 
 In this she failed. Failure ought, indeed, to have 
 been anticipated, for careful observers had discovered, 
 years before, that Great Britain's treaty colleagues, 
 while willing enough to profit by the convenience 
 of association with her, had not hesitated, as was 
 natural, to place upon her the odium of responsi- 
 bility, and to claim for themselves the credit of more 
 liberal sentiments. It was only necessary that one 
 should break away from the union, the rest were sure 
 to follow. America took the first step, Germany 
 the second, Russia the third, and France would even 
 have preceded Germany had her official routine 
 permitted equal speed. Thus the solidarity of great 
 Powers was reduced to England, Austria, and Italy. 
 Yet even if England had stood alone she could have
 
 440 SEAS AND LANDS. 
 
 effectually blocked the way, not simply because the 
 magnitude of her interests gave weight to her opposi- 
 tion, but also because every month passing without 
 a settlement brought new complications for the 
 Japanese Government. This latter fact depends on 
 two reasons, which it is essential to understand fully. 
 The first is that, comparatively easy as were the 
 guarantees offered by Japan, one of them had 
 excited public discontent, and was day by day evok- 
 ing bitterer denunciation. The Constitution promul- 
 gated in the spring of 1889 contained a clause which 
 the people interpreted as conferring on Japanese 
 subjects an exclusive right of property in Japanese 
 civil and military offices. Therefore to appoint 
 aliens to Japanese judgeships would, it was claimed, 
 violate the letter of the Constitution, and to make 
 alienage a condition essential to eligibility would 
 unquestionably violate its spirit. So vehement did 
 the opposition ultimately become that the Govern- 
 ment could not have adhered to this part of the 
 programme. To do so would have been not merely 
 to defy public opinion, but also to take the un- 
 statesmanlike course of opening the countiy to 
 foreign intercourse under a system unpopular from 
 the outset. The second reason which rendered the 
 delay fatal to success on the proposed lines, was the 
 imminence of parliamentary institutions. The Con- 
 stitution, while reserving the treaty-making power 
 to the Emperor, made the Diet's consent essential 
 to every exercise of legislative authority. The date 
 fixed for the meeting of the first Diet was November
 
 JAPAN AND FOREIGN POWERS. 441 
 
 1890. Unless, therefore, all the treaties could be 
 concluded, ratified, and put into operation before 
 that date, the Government would be obliged to have 
 recourse to the Diet for assistance in carrying out 
 their judicial provisions, and it was quite plain from 
 the temper of the people that the Diet could never 
 be induced to assist in setting up special courts of 
 the kind contemplated. In short, the Bureaucratic 
 Administration of 1889 dared not pledge itself to 
 anything conditional on the consent and co-operation 
 of the Constitutional Administration of 1890. It 
 was thus that England's delay interposed an effectual 
 barrier by, on the one hand, allowing time for the senti- 
 mental opposition of the Japanese nation to mature, 
 and, on the other, fatally shortening the period 
 available to the Government for independent action. 
 Once more, then, in the fall of last year, the 
 negotiations had to be suspended. The Japanese 
 Minister for Foreign Affairs resigned. Crippled for 
 life by the attack of one of those fanatics incidental 
 to seasons of keen popular excitement, he carried 
 into his retirement the credit of having, by a dis- 
 play of consummate ability and courage, brought his 
 country within sight of her much-desired goal. Thus 
 two of Japan's greatest statesmen, Count Inouye and 
 Count Okuma, had been sacrificed at the shrine of 
 this apparently easy problem how to remove from 
 Japan the stigma of semi-isolation ; how to complete 
 the freedom of her foreign intercourse. Who could 
 be induced to step into the breach where two such 
 experts had fallen ?
 
 442 SEAS AND LANDS. 
 
 A short interval of rest ensued. During four 
 years Japanese legislators had been elaborating a 
 scheme for reorganising the law courts ; during four 
 times that period they had been engaged drafting 
 civil and commercial codes, based on the principles 
 of Western jurisprudence. Both of these measures 
 were now consummated. The scheme of reorganised 
 courts was promulgated in February ; the new codes 
 were issued in March. Thus, of the two guarantees 
 forming the basis of the suspended negotiations one, 
 and that by far the more important, was effectually 
 satisfied ; Japan possessed a good system of civil 
 and commercial law, an English version of which 
 might be procured by any one. But the other pro- 
 posed guarantee, namely, the appointment of judges 
 of foreign origin in the Supreme Court, must evi- 
 dently be abandoned altogether. It is almost in- 
 credible that any importance should ever have been 
 attached to this guarantee. For, in the first place, 
 since appeals are carried to the Supreme Court only 
 on questions of law, not on questions of fact, a 
 foreign suitor could not hope to reach that court 
 except under rare circumstances ; in the second 
 place, it may be doubted whether much confidence 
 would be placed in judges thus employed ; and, in 
 the third, to the majority of foreign suitors these 
 judges must of necessity be just as alien as their 
 Japanese colleagues. It was natural that England, 
 eminently practical as she is, shpuld have hesitated 
 to sign any covenant embodying such a shadowy 
 condition ; and, as for the Japanese Government, it
 
 JAPAN AND FOREIGN POWERS. 443 
 
 then learned beyond doubt that no guarantee of the 
 kind would be tolerated by the nation. 
 
 By slow and painful degrees, therefore, the situa- 
 tion had been simplified until nothing more is 
 needed than a trifling exercise of liberal statesman- 
 ship. Will Great Britain take the final step? Her 
 waiting policy has made her mistress of the situation 
 once more. In the days of Sir Harry Parkes, and 
 again in the days of Sir Francis Plunkett, she might 
 have earned Japan's perpetual gratitude by practi- 
 cally acknowledging that a country which had sacri- 
 ficed so much in the cause of progress deserved some 
 measure of trust and recognition. But she suffered 
 both opportunities to pass unutilised, so that in 
 1887 no Power was less respected in proportion to 
 its strength, or less considered in proportion to its 
 interests. Now, however, fortune has placed the 
 ball for the third time at her feet. The Japanese 
 Government returns to her, fully persuaded that, 
 benevolent as may be the intentions of other States, 
 it rests with her alone to solve the problem. Lord 
 Salisbury has to decide whether Japan shall be con- 
 demned to another period of semi-isolation and corre- 
 sponding humiliation, whether her growing ill-feeling 
 against foreign arbitrariness shall be suffered to 
 develop, to the detriment of her civilisation, and to 
 the inconvenience to use no stronger term of his 
 countrymen residing within her borders, or whether 
 all sense of injury shall be removed by treating her 
 as an equal, and allowing her to throw open her 
 whole territories to the commerce of the world. It
 
 444 SEAS AND LANDS. 
 
 is not a trivial consideration, that of Japan's foreign 
 commerce. In ten years its volume has more than 
 doubled, growing from $60,000,000 in 1879, to 
 $136,000,000 in 1889, and of the latter total nearly 
 one half fell to Great Britain's share alone. This 
 remarkable development has taken place in the 
 teeth of unfavourable conditions. Confined to the 
 narrow limits of the Treaty Ports, and forbidden by 
 law to form partnerships with Japanese, the foreign 
 merchants have been gradually environed by a ring 
 of native monopolists, who absorb the lion's share 
 of the profits and effectually prevent free competi- 
 tion. Only by shrewd, hard toil have British traders 
 managed to hold their own, and it is natural that, 
 on their side also, there should have grown out 
 of such unsatisfactory conditions a feeling of dis- 
 content and distrust. Being imbued, too, with the 
 Occidental's wonted love of his own laws and his 
 own nation's judicial methods, they shrink from the 
 experiment of submitting to Japanese laws and 
 Japanese tribunals. But, however respectable this 
 instinct may be, its indulgence cannot be perpetual. 
 All that foreigners can reasonably expect to find in 
 Japan is a sound system of intelligible laws and a 
 fairly competent judiciary. Both these conditions 
 are already satisfied the former actually, the latter 
 inferentially. We can never fully gauge the com- 
 petence of Japanese judges until we test it practi- 
 cally in their courts. What we know is that, for 
 the past twenty years, numbers of Japanese have 
 been receiving legal education at well-equipped
 
 JAPAN AND FOREIGN POWERS. 445 
 
 schools and colleges in Japan, and at similar institu- 
 tions in Europe and America ; that these men are 
 now sitting on the Japanese Bench ; and that when- 
 ever they have been required as they are required 
 under the extra-territorial system to adjudicate 
 civil cases in which foreigners are plaintiffs and 
 their own people defendants, they have shown 
 themselves intelligent and impartial, though the 
 imperfections of their country's legal procedure 
 have often involved miscarriages of justice. The 
 laws, in short, not the judges administering them, 
 have proved unsatisfactory, and since the former are 
 now thoroughly amended there are no reasonable 
 grounds for refusing to trust the latter. If England, 
 by an act of liberal and in no sense hazardous 
 statesmanship, helps Japan at this eleventh hour 
 to recover her judicial and tariff autonomy, and to 
 enter the comity of Western nations on equal terms, 
 the consequences will be invaluable to British pres- 
 tige and British influence. If, on the other hand, 
 England again hesitates, not only will Japan's feeling 
 of mortification be intensified into strong resentment, 
 but the chances of a friendly understanding will pro- 
 bably be destroyed. For should this question pass 
 into the hands of the Diet, as it must do unless 
 disposed of before November, there is only too much 
 reason to fear that patient and conciliatory methods 
 having been found fruitless, recourse will be had 
 to the policy of retaliation. By putting an end 
 to the system of passports, and thus confining aliens 
 strictly within treaty limits ; by closing her internal
 
 446 SEAS AND LANDS. 
 
 posts against foreign correspondence ; by confining 
 the use of her railways and coasting steamers to 
 her own subjects ; and by other methods equally 
 embarrassing, Japan might exercise pressure scarcely 
 tolerable and certain to engender much ill-will. 
 Thus far no disposition of the kind has been shown, 
 but the action of the people's representatives may be 
 very different from that of the prudent and liberal 
 statesmen who now direct affairs. It is not too 
 much to say, therefore, that upon England's decision 
 at this crisis depend at once the re-establishment 
 of her own influence and popularity in Japan and 
 the future character of foreign relations with the 
 only nation in the Orient which has shown itself 
 possessed of the true instinct of civilised progress. 
 
 YOKOHAMA, JAPAN, May 10, 1890.
 
 CHAPTER XXIX. 
 
 A JAPANESE EXHIBITION. 
 
 OUR great National Exhibition is now in full glory, 
 visited every day by many thousands of the town 
 and country people of Japan ; and it presents un- 
 doubtedly, even apart from its local and picturesque 
 aspect, many most interesting, artistic, and industrial 
 features. Its buildings are situated at Uyeno, a 
 large wooded park, on rising ground in the north- 
 west quarter of the city, as well known to Tokioites 
 as Hyde Park to Londoners. It is a spot full of 
 stirring historical memories for Japan. The great 
 Shogun lyemitsu erected there in 1625 one of the 
 finest Buddhist temples of the land, which he sur- 
 rounded with numerous smaller but splendid shrines, 
 intended to render this north-west quarter of the 
 city, which is the specially unlucky point, more 
 favourably regarded by the gods. A son of the 
 reigning Emperor was always high priest of this 
 temple, being kept as a convenient person to raise 
 to the throne if the Mikado's party at Ky6to proved 
 troublesome or obstinate. In the last great struggle, 
 which upset the Shogunate, and gave back to the 
 Mikado his Imperial power as well as his dignity, 
 the High Priest of Uyeno, Prince Kita Shira Kawa,
 
 448 SEAS AND LANDS. 
 
 was actually declared Emperor, and carried to Aidzu, 
 but was afterwards pardoned by the present Mikado, 
 and sent to Germany to study, and is now living 
 in peaceful simplicity near Shidzuoka. At the foot 
 of the leafy hill is a triple bridge, very famous in 
 Japanese story, and then you pass a temple to the 
 Thousand-handed goddess Kwannon, while on the 
 left is the shallow lake called Shinobazu No Ike, 
 which will be covered with lotus flowers in the 
 autumn, and is surrounded with temples and tea- 
 houses. Under the trees may be seen an enormous 
 bronze Buddha, twenty-two feet high, and an old 
 black gateway pierced full of bullet-holes in the 
 great battle of 1868. Long avenues of stone 
 lanterns are here, and a temple to the memory of 
 the Shogun lye Yasu, in which hang pictures of 
 the San-jiu-rok-Rasen, or " six-and-thirty immortal 
 poets." It is saddening to reflect that you do not 
 know, and that I have now forgotten, the names of 
 this three dozen of deathless bards. 
 
 In the early spring-time all this fair and famous 
 green eminence was covered with the tinted snow 
 of innumerable cherry trees, so that you walked in 
 the lanes and avenues of Uyeno under a canopy 
 of tenderly-tinted blossoms, filling the air with a 
 fragrance as delicate as their own delicious colour, 
 and for a time transforming the hill into one inter- 
 lacing mass of roseate glory. Then came heavy 
 rains and harsh winds, which tore the dainty trees 
 to pieces at the moment when the city was pre- 
 paring to take its yearly delight in the great festival
 
 A JAPANESE EXHIBITION. 449 
 
 of Spring. It was a sad disappointment and a 
 serious blow, not only to the pleasure-lovers, but 
 to all the tea-house people and kuruma men, who 
 at the season of the cherry blossoms reap a rich 
 harvest. True, there was one wonderful day, spite 
 of the evil weather, when the wind filled the air 
 with fluttering flakes of pearly white and rose-red 
 leaflets, leaving still on the trees a thick soft roof 
 of lovely blossoms, but carpeting the ground sole- 
 deep with the delicate new downfall of the ruined 
 buds and blossoms. Then the trees gave it all up 
 for the current year, and took to mere foliage, which 
 is now very rich and massive, rounding off" the dark 
 green columns of the cryptomerias, and the light 
 green feathers of the bamboo, with this wide-spread- 
 ing spring verdure of the plums and cherries, through 
 high banks of which you approach the now flourish- 
 ing and popular Exhibition. 
 
 It is a constant dash up and down the hilly road, 
 to the entrance, of jinrikishas, a constant stream 
 up and down on the side walks of town and country 
 people. Here, indeed, you see all Japan the 
 farmers' wives with blue handkerchiefs upon their 
 black hair, and gaiters of grey silk upon their 
 " honourable legs ; " the farmers in blue coats, 
 covered with wild devices in white or red, leading 
 those children who can walk, while the mothers 
 patiently carry, or publicly suckle, the little ones. 
 Students in square caps and red stockings mingle 
 with soldiers in cherry coloured breeches; sailors 
 clad & la blue-jacket, but with their ship's name in 
 
 2 F
 
 45 SEAS AND LANDS. 
 
 Chinese letters on their cap; geishas in gold and 
 scarlet, sky-blue and orange, brilliant as butterflies ; 
 demure musumes, dressed more soberly, but still 
 very superbly, with dove-coloured or gold-striped 
 kimono, obi of rich-flowered silk, and snow-white 
 cloven socks, each attended by a maid and carrying 
 an umbrella ; children dressed like tiger-moths in 
 all the colours of the rainbow ; immeasurably old 
 women and old men hobbling to see the latest glories 
 of Nippon ; policemen, with swords and spectacles, 
 looking half professor, half soldier; shrill vendors 
 of Japanese newspapers and plans of the Exhibition, 
 with high scarlet caps ; sleek, bald-headed, Buddhist 
 priests ; black and white robed Shinto monks and 
 abbots ; in fact, " the world and his wife " of Japan 
 are there. You take your tickets if you do not 
 carry a complimentary admission card covered with 
 gold chrysanthemums at a little shed outside the 
 gate, where the highest price is but fifteen sen on 
 Sundays, and you get in on Saturdays for three sen, 
 about i^d. 
 
 The buildings sheltering the Exhibition are of no 
 architectural pretension, being, indeed, mere sheds 
 run up, of planks and paper, to house the varied 
 and, in many cases, very precious things inside. To 
 attempt anything like an enumeration of these is, 
 of course, not my purpose ; indeed, only to walk 
 through all the halls and passages once would give 
 you, it is said, a tramp of fourteen or fifteen miles. 
 For there is something of everything here, and it is 
 a thousand pities, in truth, that Japan did not better
 
 A JAPANESE EXHIBITION. 451 
 
 understand how to bring over in good time those 
 representative Europeans who would have seen what 
 wonderful things she can make, and would have 
 known how to develop from them new opportunities 
 of commerce. The porcelain, of course, is in many 
 respects marvellous, although for the most part 
 modern. The Japanese potters are to-day working 
 with high intelligence to recover the best secrets 
 of the old days, and though they have not yet quite 
 achieved the splendid colours of the sang de baeuf, 
 and of the dragon's heart, or that wonderful Chinese 
 black which has green and gold in its gloom, yet 
 they have mastered a pale blue under the glaze, 
 \vhich is as lovely as the old azure ever was, and 
 there are treasures here in the way of cups and 
 teapots quite worthy of the land where the tea-leaf 
 might be a national symbol. Of course, there are 
 splendid things also in the line of red and black 
 lacquer, powdered with gold and inlaid with mother- 
 of-pearl and ivory ; amazing screens, embroidered, 
 inlaid, and lacquered; delicate gilded shrines; bronzes 
 of fantastic and fearless design ; carved ivories ; and 
 the richest possible specimens of embossed brocades, 
 with silks and satins, crapes and cottons, woven and 
 dyed with a fancy at once daring and inexhaustible. 
 But in the industrial department what strikes the 
 foreigner most, I think, is the matchless skill of the 
 Japanese in turnery and joinery. There are here 
 ranges after ranges of cabinets and writing-tables, 
 &c., which might have been put together by the 
 carpenters of Queen Mab, so fine and exquisite is
 
 452 SEAS AND LANDS. 
 
 the fashioning of them, while yet they are solid 
 enough for the hardest service. No strange timber 
 grows in any forest, no out-of-the-way product is 
 found in the earth or sea, which the Japanese 
 craftsman will not press into use, making the tout 
 ensemble a museum of materials. Yet the plainest 
 things please most the hibachi or fire-boxes, so 
 neat and convenient, with their central copper re- 
 ceptacle for the lighted charcoal, and little drawers 
 and unexpected nests and compartments everywhere ; 
 the tansu and todana, full of the most ingenious 
 contrivances, all made of wood, and put together 
 with amazing exactitude. One would think, indeed, 
 that the Japanese joiner worked with a micrometer, 
 so perfect is the article ; but it is rather his wonder- 
 ful finger and thumb and true eye which produce 
 these faultless specimens of simple construction. 
 
 The art department has its own interest, but chiefly 
 of a prospective character. In drawing and painting 
 Japan is at present half unconsciously going through 
 a transition stage. She has observed, and silently 
 adopted, the methods of the Western schools in 
 colour, perspective, and even treatment ; nor will it 
 be long before you see in the West oil pictures from 
 Japanese easels, which you will hardly distinguish 
 from second-rate works of French, English, or 
 German ateliers. I think they will especially excel 
 in landscape and architectural painting. But there 
 is one picture here by a well-known artist which 
 marks plainly the epoch of change. It represents 
 the Goddess of Mercy riding on the back of a dragoD
 
 A JAPANESE EXHIBITION. 453 
 
 through the foam and fury of a stormy sea, the sub- 
 ject being intensely Japanese, while the treatment 
 is almost grotesquely and pathetically European. 
 There are not wanting majesty and sublimity in the 
 goddess ; her robes are swept back against her limbs 
 and breasts by the fierce wind, which drives together 
 behind her the seething crests of the sea ; while 
 tongues of fire issue from the mouth and scales of 
 the dragon, whose vast length coils hideously to 
 leeward, green and gold in the ruffle of the sea's 
 green and white. But the great beast, in coming 
 down from the old conventional " Ryo " to the 
 natural and paintable, has parted with all his 
 traditional terror, and is, especially about the head 
 and horns, a very poor, plain, impossible "worm," 
 hardly so imposing as the Griffin at Temple Bar. 
 What is most remarkable is the artist's earnest 
 effort to make it a European picture in drawing and 
 handling, and in the texture and general style. 
 
 Near at hand hang many similar examples, showing 
 rather the desire to "Westernise" Japanese painting 
 than the power at present to accomplish this. It is 
 much to be wished at such a juncture that the best 
 of the young Japanese artists could go over to the 
 studios of the leading French and English painters 
 in order to understand better than they do to-day 
 the true principles of our modern schools. 
 
 There are one or two little statuettes here, in 
 wood, bronze, and unglazed porcelain, which show 
 that though sculpture as an art cannot be said to 
 exist yet in Japan, it might soon and successfully
 
 454 SEAS AND LANDS. 
 
 arise. 1 noticed especially a dancing-girl deliciously 
 done in bisque, and a figure in pear- wood of a jochu 
 or servant-maid, who drowned herself in a well, 
 having been scolded for losing a plate. Her ghost 
 is rising from the water with soaked garments and 
 with long hair matted by water upon the sad, 
 suffering face, while she counts on her fingers the 
 platters which were the cause of her suicide. The 
 modeller who did this could do greater things. The 
 agricultural and fishery sections are also full of 
 interest. Indeed, the Japanese have little to learn 
 in the science of farming ; their rice and barley 
 fields are models of intelligent culture, and their 
 implements in the highest degree ingenious, cheap, 
 and serviceable. Tobacco, tea, rice, and silk form, 
 of course, the principal exhibits. Of coffee they 
 know nothing, and as for fish, wherever they swim 
 the Japanese can catch them, and the demand is 
 always equal to the supply, for the population really 
 subsists upon fish and rice. 
 
 At this season there are floating from bamboo 
 poles in front of half the houses in Tokio huge fish 
 made of paper, and brilliantly coloured in purple, 
 scarlet, and blue. These are to celebrate the number 
 of male children in the household, and you can tell 
 how many boys the family boasts by counting the 
 big and little fish, puffed out by the wind, and 
 glittering in the sunshine under a big gilded globe 
 of basket-work. The fish represented is the Koi, 
 which is regarded by the Japanese as a type of 
 courage, perseverance, and fortitude. I asked a
 
 A JAPANESE EXHIBITION. 455 
 
 Japanese mother why this particular fish was 
 hoisted, and she gave me these two reasons : " The 
 koi," she said, "if he is placed alive on a dish, 
 and cut while living into twenty slices, will not 
 move or betray any pain, and even when red pepper 
 is placed upon his eye, under these cruel circum- 
 stances condescends to give only one slight move- 
 ment while expiring." She also said that when 
 the koi ascends the streams in the autumn, nothing 
 daunts him in the way of rapids and waterfalls, and 
 it is in order to encourage Japanese lads to be as 
 patient and courageous as the koi, that these fish 
 standards are yearly floated. 
 
 Within the Exhibition you can only get tea and 
 cakes, and you must not smoke, except outside the 
 buildings. Consequently there is a great rush on 
 emerging for the regular restaurants and large tea- 
 houses which throng all round the hill of Uyeno, 
 and even upon its summit, under the great crypto- 
 merias ; and very pleasant it is, after dazzling the 
 eyes with the sight of the beautiful Cloisonne* ware 
 and glittering Kaga porcelains, the lovely silk 
 kimono with landscapes and ducks and storks 
 woven into them, and all the wonders of the show, 
 to drop your shoes and pass into the spotless little 
 apartment of some tea-house looking over the city, 
 and there dine a la Japonaise, in Japanese society, 
 looking over the vast city in which the lights begin 
 to twinkle. The bill of fare is bright in gold 
 Chinese letters on black lacquer. You choose your 
 dishes do not forget to let "roast eels on rice"
 
 456 SEAS AND LANDS. 
 
 figure among them the irresistible unagimeshi 
 and soon the sake-cup, hot and fragrant, goes 
 round, the little lacquered dishes surround you, 
 the musumes kneel and chatter, your Japanese 
 friends discuss the wonders of the show, daintily 
 you ply your chop-sticks amid boiled fish and 
 delicate slices of raw fish, the kinto, or chestnut 
 paste, the salted plums, and pickled peaches, the 
 prawns on cream, and the bean-cakes. Everybody 
 drinks with everybody else, and pretty faces flush a 
 little with the rice-wine, which loosens the tongue 
 and animates the Tokio talk, till the gozen comes, 
 the smoking rice-bowl and the tea, and all the city 
 lamps are lighted. It is time to go ! the kurumas 
 are called, the paper lanterns kindled, and in a light 
 and laughing storm of " mata irrashais," " Come 
 soon again," we quit the Exhibition. 
 
 AZABU, May 19, 1890
 
 CHAPTER XXX. 
 
 THE JAPANESE SHAMPOOER. 
 
 ONE of the most ordinary figures in the Japanese 
 streets and lanes is the Amma-San, or shampooer. 
 By daytime you will see him wending his slow way 
 for he is quite blind through the throng, guiding 
 himself and warning others to keep clear of him, by 
 the bamboo staff which he carries, and with which 
 he constantly touches the ground a little in advance 
 of his footsteps. By night you hear rather than see 
 him, tootling a melancholy note, something like the 
 cry of a plover, upon a little reed flute, which he 
 bears with him. As mentioned above he is blind, 
 and his profession, as one who practises the scien- 
 tific "massage," is the great resource of blind men 
 and women in Japan, who would otherwise prove 
 a burden on their families, but are here a source of 
 support, very often, indeed, amassing wealth, and 
 adding the profession of money-lending to their 
 original vocation. The blind shampooer would not 
 be possible where wheel-traffic existed. His plain- 
 tive cry would be drowned in the uproar of hoofs 
 and wheels, and he himself would be run over a 
 hundred times. But in Tokio there is nothing for 
 him to fear except the jinrikishas, which make no 
 
 457
 
 458 SEAS AND LANDS. 
 
 noise, and which scrupulously avoid colliding with 
 children and the Amma-San. He himself has the 
 quick faculty which the blind display of seeming to 
 see with their ears, and walks without hesitation or 
 danger in the quarter with which he is familiar. In 
 dress and aspect there is nothing to distinguish him 
 except his hands ; but these, it will generally be ob- 
 served, are kept very clean and soft, and his whole 
 appearance is usually neat and respectable. 
 
 It will probably not be long during a sojourn in 
 Japan before, either for curiosity or actual necessity, 
 you invoke the aid of the Amma-San. There are a 
 good many changes in the Japanese climate, and a 
 great many draughts in Japanese houses, and some 
 day or other what your attendants call " your honour- 
 able limbs " get a touch of stiffness or pain, which 
 will be best removed, they tell you, by the well- 
 established Japanese remedy of the human hand. 
 Accordingly a messenger is despatched to stop a 
 passing Amma-San, or to send for one of good 
 credit residing in the neighbourhood. I myself, 
 having contracted a passing twinge of rheumatism, 
 made very successful experiment in this way, not 
 long ago. But I would not engage a male sham- 
 pooer, and I rather wonder that any person of taste 
 allows a man to pummel and knead him when there 
 are plenty of middle-aged, blind, cleanly, and respect- 
 able women ammas who have softer hands, gentler 
 ways, and are altogether more agreeable as practi- 
 tioners. Accordingly I sent for a skilful lady, named 
 O Kiku San, which means, of course, " Madame
 
 THE JAPANESE SHAMPOOEK, 459 
 
 Chrysanthemum," albeit an extremely different person 
 from the ill-rewarded, but wonderfully well described, 
 heroine of M. Pierre Loti's book. O Kiku San, 
 being introduced to my bedroom, and kneeling 
 down by my side, for I always sleep on the floor 
 in Japan, made the usual graceful salutations, which 
 by this time are so familiar to our ears. With fore- 
 head on the mats she murmurs, " As to the evening." 
 I respond, " As to the evening ; you are welcome." 
 On learning the seat of the malady she begins her 
 treatment, after I have mentioned that she shall 
 receive twice the usual rate of pay that she may 
 work with a better will. You are not inclined to 
 believe, of course, very much at first in the effi- 
 cacy of those small taps from the finger-ends which 
 commence proceedings. But very soon, when your 
 quiet, sightless physician has gained a fair idea, 
 by your exclamations of pain and impatience, where 
 the trouble is really lodged, it is astonishing how 
 you begin to take interest in the operation and to 
 become soothed by it. 
 
 The Moxa is another method of treatment highly 
 popular in Japan, although the European is not very 
 likely to often avail himself of it. This word, as 
 meaning the actual cautery, is familiar to English 
 medicine, but has been derived, though few people 
 know it, directly from the Japanese. The real 
 word is Mogusa, a contraction of Moe-JRusa, which 
 means the " burning herb," because the leaves of 
 an Artemisia (what we call the "Mugwort") are 
 employed in the operation. Dried fragments of
 
 460 SEAS AND LANDS. 
 
 this are rolled into a cone, stuck upon the body 
 in the place affected, set fire to, and then allowed 
 to burn down to the skin like a pastille. This is 
 considered extremely efficacious for all sorts of ills, 
 including fainting fits, nose-bleeding, and even the 
 pains of child-birth, as well as rheumatism, lumbago, 
 &c. You will often see a double row of little scars 
 up and down the spine of your jinrikisha-mwOi, or 
 decorating the back of his thighs and calves, and 
 Mr. Chamberlain tells a story of a child who, having 
 set a house on fire, and become thereby liable to the 
 old severe law of the Empire, which condemned a 
 person guilty of arson to be himself burnt alive, 
 was taken to the place of execution, but let off 
 with an unusually severe and solemn dose of the 
 mogusa. 
 
 There is a third very popular and rather painful 
 treatment adopted by the Japanese, known to us 
 as acu-puncture, and to the Japanese by the word 
 shin-jutsu. This has been practised in Japan ever 
 since the history of the Empire began, and is much 
 believed in as a stimulant and counter-irritant. Dr. 
 Whitney, in his notes on medicine in Japan, de- 
 scribes it as follows : "As practised by the acu- 
 puncturists, the operation consists in perforating 
 the skin and underlying tissues, to a depth, as a 
 rule, not exceeding one-half to three-quarters of an 
 inch, with fine needles of gold, silver, or steel. The 
 form and construction of these needles vary; but, 
 generally speaking, they are several inches long, 
 and of an average diameter of one forty-eighth of
 
 THE JAPANESE SHAMPOOER. 461 
 
 an inch. Each needle is usually fastened into a 
 handle, which is spirally grooved from end to end. 
 To perform the operation the handle of the needle 
 is held lightly between the thumb and first finger 
 of the left hand, the point, resting upon the spot 
 to be punctured. A slight blow is then given upon 
 the head of the instrument with a small mallet, held 
 in the right hand, and the needle is gently twisted 
 until its point has penetrated to the desired depth, 
 where it is left for a few seconds, and then slowly 
 withdrawn, and the skin in the vicinity of the 
 puncture rubbed for a few moments. The number 
 of perforations range from one to twenty, and they 
 are usually made in the skin of the abdomen, 
 although other portions of the body are not unfre- 
 quently punctured." 
 
 The Japanese suffer from many special diseases 
 due to a too exclusive diet on fish and rice, and to 
 the want of exercise especially from indigestion ; 
 but they escape a great many by their exquisite 
 personal cleanliness. The "tub" is more of an 
 institution in Japan than in England itself, and even 
 as far back as the beginning of Japanese history we 
 find the god Izanagi bathing himself every morning. 
 Every fairly large house in Tokio has its own bath- 
 room ; but besides this there are no less than 800 
 baths in the city of Tokio, where 300,000 persons 
 bathe daily at a cost per head of one sen three rin, 
 or about a halfpenny. A reduction of three rin is 
 made for children. They take their baths at a very 
 high temperature about no degrees Fahrenheit
 
 462 SEAS AND LANDS. 
 
 and come out of them as red as lobsters ; but there 
 appears to be no fear whatever of catching cold. 
 Thus, though the Japanese wear no underlinen, 
 except the loin-cloth, fundoshi, of the men, and the 
 koshi make and imogi of the women, a Japanese 
 crowd is the sweetest and least objectionable in the 
 world ; indeed, the natural odour of the people is 
 not unlike that of the leaf of the lemon geranium. 
 They have an especial passion for the hot mineral 
 springs with which the country abounds, and at some 
 places, such as Kawanaka, in the province of Jonshu, 
 there are bathers who will stay in the water for a 
 whole week at a time, with a stone in their laps to 
 keep them from floating in their sleep ! 
 
 One curious but imaginary malady in this country 
 not the less real on account of its being fanciful 
 quite commonly seen in the hospitals, especially 
 among women of the lower classes, is kitsune-isuki, 
 or " possession by foxes." The fox is the magic 
 beast par excellence of the land, and an hysterical 
 woman will often believe that she is inhabited by a 
 demon beast of this description. The idea is that 
 the fox enters the body through the breast, by the 
 eyes, or even between the finger-nails and the flesh, 
 and resides there, the person possessed knowing 
 what the fox inside says and thinks, and even main- 
 taining long conversations with him, the fox speak- 
 ing in a different voice from her own. The priests 
 of the Nicheren sects of Buddhists are very success- 
 ful expellers of foxes. The fox inside, being seri- 
 ously adjured by prayers and spells, mentions what
 
 THE JAPANESE SHAMPOOER. 463 
 
 cakes and other offerings he will accept to quit his 
 victim ; and these having been duly laid on the altar 
 of the temple, the fox generally takes himself 
 " honourably " off, and the patient recovers. 
 
 But as a matter of fact Japan has accepted 
 modern and scientific medicine, and many of the 
 native Japanese practitioners are accomplished and 
 successful gentlemen, employing all modern methods 
 and resources. In one native household where I 
 have the privilege of entry a lady of the family lay 
 very unwell, with a sort of hysterical indigestion. 
 Her people had administered in vain a large selection 
 of popular Japanese nostrums, many of them very 
 nasty, and none, in this case at least, at all efficacious. 
 The young lady herself, as a last and sovereign 
 resort, called for and swallowed a small picture of 
 Buddha on a piece of soft paper, about as large as 
 a postage stamp. She was a little vexed because I, 
 with all my natural respect for the great promulgator 
 of the "Light of Asia," was disinclined to believe 
 that the sacred engraving of the Tatha-gata could 
 do her the slightest good. Severe spasms of pain, 
 with constant sleeplessness, pointed to the necessity 
 of a little hypodermic injection of morphia, which 
 I advised, and the Isha-san was accordingly sent for, 
 and told to bring the syringe. A Japanese girl is 
 too much accustomed from youth to the moxa and 
 the needle to mind the little steel point. The 
 doctor came, and, before kneeling at the side of 
 the patient, sipped his cup of tea, and made the 
 usual necessary remarks about the " honourable
 
 464 SEAS AND LANDS. 
 
 weather" and our " honourable healths." He took 
 the same view as I about the hysterical pains and 
 the insomnia, whereupon the silken sleeve of the 
 kimono was rolled back, the shapely brown arm was 
 bared, and with a little exclamation from the gentle 
 sufferer of "Ah! setsunai! setsunai!" the divine 
 anodyne was injected. Then the soft black eyes 
 were soon closed in prolonged slumber, the pains 
 disappeared by the next morning, and O Haru San 
 was playing the samisen when I called again, in her 
 perfect health and spirits. 
 
 AZABU, June 10, 1890.
 
 2 C
 
 CHAPTER XXXI. 
 
 A DAY IN FLOWERLAND. 
 
 MY Japanese fellow-citizens love dearly a day in 
 the country. They would make the fortune of ex- 
 cursion trains and of holiday contractors, if such 
 things were established here. They seize every 
 opportunity to go for little expeditions to temples, 
 shrines, and famous points of view ; but, most of 
 all, Flora, Goddess of Spring, helps them, by pro- 
 viding month after month, and indeed almost week 
 by week, some new national flower, coming suddenly 
 into blossom. Thus even our own little garden has 
 marked the progress of the year by a pretty natural 
 calendar of blooms. We had, first of all, the autumn 
 and winter chrysanthemums kiku; then, almost in 
 the middle of the frost, the camellia, tsubaki, came 
 out, with rose-coloured or rosy-white flowers. The 
 single variety of this beautiful plant, however, is 
 not very popular with the Japanese, because the red 
 blossoms fall off entire, and painfully remind people 
 here of amputated heads. Before the winter was 
 gone the early plum and cherry whitened our hill- 
 sides with the fragrant snow of their blossoms ; but 
 the weather was very cruel, and swept away, with 
 rain and wind, the best glory of that wonderful 
 
 467
 
 468 SEAS AND LANDS. 
 
 display. The tree-peony (botan) and the lovely 
 scarlet leaves of the budding maples carried us 
 through April into May, for the Japanese, be it 
 understood, include all brightly- coloured leaves 
 under the general name of " flowers " (hana). The 
 first week in May was everywhere embellished with 
 the lilac-and-white clusters of the wistaria ; we our- 
 selves boasted the possession of a bower which for 
 a whole week was roofed thick with the delicate 
 racemes of this beautiful climber, shutting the sun 
 out by a screen of 'soft colour and fragrance, and 
 constantly musical with countless bees. About the 
 same time the azaleas lighted with all sorts of hues 
 our own garden and those around us, as well as 
 the country generally. We had here in Azabu, 
 encircling our little artificial lake, a score of azalea 
 bushes, which burst suddenly into masses of blood- 
 red bloom, as if they had been flames lighted round 
 the water. I have not mentioned the ilexes, with 
 wax-white flowers ; the purple and white magnolias, 
 the Cleyera, sacred to the sun-goddess ; the red 
 berries of the aucuba ( the Japanese name from 
 which you take that is Awoki ba ! ) ; the yellow 
 valerium, which the Japanese call Nina meshi 
 " court lady's dress " ; the Asarum, which has given 
 its leaf as a badge to the great Tokugawa Shoguns ; 
 and all the beautiful lilies of the country now coming 
 into season, many of them being quite peculiar to 
 Japan. I am ashamed to say that we have been 
 eating lately at every Japanese lunch or dinner 
 boiled bulbs of the lily. They are uncommonly
 
 A DAY IN FLOWERLAND. 469 
 
 nice, and far superior in flavour and delicacy to 
 any artichoke ; but it is a very serious thing for 
 the sincere lover of flowers to trifle with his chop- 
 sticks over the soft, sweet flakes of a root which 
 would have produced the beautiful rose-hued blooms 
 of the Lilium japonicum, the glorious petals of the 
 Lilium Auratum, the deep orange splendours of the 
 Lilium elegans, or the gold cup, jewelled with agate 
 spots, of the hirado yuri. If there be such a crime 
 as floricide we have all been guilty of it latterly. 
 
 Now it is the time for the irises, which suddenly 
 come into full glory in many a pool and swamp near 
 the capital, and furnish excuses for innumerable 
 outings. Among many spots where the beautiful 
 sweet flag can be seen in all her splendour, there is 
 one in particular, called Hori-kiri, which is a very 
 popular resort. I repaired thither yesterday, with 
 three or four Japanese friends, on a lovely day of 
 our early summer, and a little sketch of those " eight 
 hours by the river-side" may serve to convey a 
 general idea of a Nippon holiday. 
 
 We were economical, and Hori-kiri was afar off, 
 so it was determined to proceed thither by easy and 
 inexpensive stages. We walk accordingly down 
 from Azabu through the Kuboi-cho to Shim-bashi. 
 The streets are brighter than usual, because the 
 people, if they wear anything at all, have donned 
 their light summer kimono. The women especially, 
 in bright, gay-coloured garments of cotton and crelpe, 
 tied with an obi of glancing silk, look as cool and 
 fresh as ice-creams. Many Kori-midzu shops have
 
 470 SEAS AND LANDS. 
 
 been newly opened establishments where they grate 
 up ice into a tumbler and sell it for a farthing ; and 
 such is the national simplicity and sobriety of taste 
 that nobody wants any flavour or liquor put into this 
 refreshment. The fan shops, scarcely to be seen in 
 the winter, have now burst forth like butterflies into 
 many-tinted glory, and everybody carries a fan, the 
 women the unfolding uchiwa, the men the ogi, which 
 folds. The roads are full of lively-coloured paper 
 umbrellas, but the great fashion now with Japanese 
 ladies is to carry a European parasol or sunshade of 
 the gingham type. Everybody waters the road before 
 his door with a little wooden scoop, and coming 
 round a corner abruptly some of us receive a slight 
 unintended sprinkling. Overwhelmed with regret 
 and self-blame, and devoured with remorse is the 
 akindo the merchant ; he brings clean paper to 
 dry our skirts, and calls himself bad names in gentle 
 Japanese ; but we console him by saying, " O tagai 
 de gozarimas" "It is the honourable mutuality" 
 in other words, " It was our fault as much as yours." 
 So we part friends. Thejinrikisha-men have stripped 
 as much as the law allows them for their trying work, 
 and disclose the most extraordinary patterns tattooed 
 on their brown flesh. One who presses us very 
 much to ride might almost have been styled the 
 " Illustrated Tokio News ; " he had upon his person 
 so many dragons, stars, incidents of his own and of 
 the national history, and other devices. 
 
 At the Shimbashi end of the Ginza, the chief 
 street of Tokio, our party of five mount the tram-
 
 A DAY IN FLOWERLAND. 4 ?i 
 
 car, which will take us for something very small to 
 Asakusa. A Buddhist priest and six or eight of the 
 common people also enter. All but the priest begin 
 to smoke little brass or silver pipes, and the con- 
 ductor, who wears a basin hat and red stockings, 
 supplies us all round with a light. The conversa- 
 tion turns upon the terribly high price of rice 
 kome which is thirteen yen the koku at present, 
 instead of being but seven or eight, as in ordinary 
 times. The consequence is very serious distress 
 among the poor, until the new rice, which is now 
 covering the country with green, comes into the 
 market. The European residents, led by the Arch- 
 deacon of Tokio, are doing what they can to assist 
 their indigent neighbours, and I am myself to give 
 a reading in the "Hall of the Cry of the Stag," 
 which may, I trust, help to fill some rice-pots in our 
 quarter. 
 
 After a long ride down the Ginza and over 
 Nihombashi, or " Japan bridge," from which ancient 
 structure all the roads to the empire are measured, 
 we descend near the great temple of Asakusa, since 
 our ladies have a purchase or two to make, and a 
 prayer to offer at the famous shrine. We walk up 
 through the long row of booths leading to the temple 
 steps, and under the great gate guarded by the two 
 red wooden giants. On the left is the shrine of Jizo, 
 the helper of those in trouble, of travellers, and 
 pregnant women ; together with some prayer-wheels 
 and places where you buy grain for the innumerable 
 sacred pigeons, and salt and incense for offerings.
 
 472 SEAS AND LANDS. 
 
 Near at hand is a stall where expectant mothers 
 may purchase tickets to tell them whether a child 
 about to be born will be a boy or girl. On the right 
 a great red five-storeyed pagoda soars aloft sacred 
 to the "five Buddhas of contemplation," and there 
 is a rinzo, or revolving library, where for eight rin 
 you may twist round all the 6771 volumes of the 
 Buddhist scriptures. Do not say you have no desire 
 to make all this literature revolve ! Get some one 
 to read you the ticket over the door, which says, " So 
 numerous are the holy books that no one can read 
 them all through, but equal to his merit who has 
 read them is that of him who causes them here to 
 turn three times on the stone lotus. He will have 
 long years and happiness, and will escape many 
 disasters of life." Near at hand is a little shrine, 
 where you can learn your fortune in a peculiar way. 
 You write your desire on a slip of paper, attach it to 
 the wire grating, and then pull off and read any one 
 of the numerous slips which votaries before you have 
 affixed there. You find your answer in the phrase- 
 ology of that. It is a religious variant of the game 
 of " cross questions and crooked answers." Ascend- 
 ing the temple-steps, my Japanese friends pull the 
 rope which summons the attention of Heaven, and 
 make their brief supplications. Then we turn down 
 a by-street towards the great iron bridge which 
 crosses the Sumida river, and on our way join in the 
 hunt of a brown weasel, the itachi, who gets his 
 living in Tokio by hirqself chasing rats. The broad 
 liver, which runs through the city into the Gulf of
 
 
 A DAY IN FLOWERLAND. 473 
 
 Yeddo, is lively with innumerable rice-boats and 
 small junks, drifting with square sails before the 
 wind. At the foot of the bridge there is a jin- 
 rikisha stand, and the kuruma men, guessing our 
 business, say, "Sh6bu?" "Are you going to the 
 irises?" Then ensue solemn negotiations, for the 
 Japanese count their sen and make contracts when 
 they ride ; but everything being amicably concluded, 
 we mount, and are bowled away down the cherry- 
 tree avenue of Mukojima, extending for a mile and a 
 half along the river bank. In the season of flowers 
 this avenue is an interminable vista of silver and 
 roseate beauty, and for days together the entire road 
 is carpeted with the pink snow of the dropping 
 blossoms. Now it is merely green and shady, lined 
 with many tea-sheds and villas, having at the end of 
 it the little temple of Mmewaka, the child of a noble 
 house, who died on this spot, carried off by a slave 
 merchant. His mother seeking him found the 
 villagers burying his body here, but he appeared to 
 her under the form of a weeping willow tree, which 
 still grows in the place, and if it rains on March 15, 
 his memorial day, the folks call the rain-drops from 
 the tree " Mmewaka's tears." 
 
 We turn presently from the river bank, wheeling 
 along narrow paths between rice fields and marshy 
 farms, where the young rice plants are growing 
 green in the water, and great bushes of hydrangea, 
 with pale blue blossoms, beautify the ride. Clumps 
 of irises shoot up in many little private gardens, 
 but the sight of sights is reserved for the moment
 
 474 SEAS AND LANDS. 
 
 when our Icurumas wheel sharply round under the 
 gateway of an enclosure and draw up, among a 
 great many other similar vehicles, in front of a 
 Japanese inn overlooking grounds of two or three 
 acres in extent. These grounds are diversified in 
 the usual style by little hillocks and clumps of 
 dwarf trees, amid which are perched several small 
 supplementary buildings, where visitors may rest and 
 take refreshment. One of these is allotted to our 
 party. We remove our shoes, ascend the stone 
 steps, and, seated on the mats while tea is being 
 brought and preparations are being made for our 
 meal, survey the scene of beauty under our eyes. 
 Two large pools of water are full of the sweetflag, 
 Acorus Calamus, blossoming in full perfection, and 
 with a range of colours between snowy white and 
 white touched with rose and lilac, through every 
 tint of royal purple, rich blues, mauve, madder, 
 lilac, magenta, and pink, to an almost black violet. 
 Here and there are blooms of deep gold, belonging 
 to a kindred species, the general effect being in a 
 lavish degree lovely and bewitching ; and we sit 
 on the mats more absorbed in contemplation of 
 the beautiful Ayame than busy with our chopsticks 
 or the little cups of fish soup, stewed lily roots, 
 rice, and sake with which we are quickly sur- 
 rounded. The individual blossoms are magnificent 
 in size and glorious in. colour. We hold a long 
 discussion as to which must be called the most 
 lovely, and finish by adjudging the palm to the 
 pearl-white flag with the golden heart and streaks
 
 A DAY IN FLOWERLAND. 475 
 
 of pale blue. No wonder that the Japanese call 
 their daughters by the name of this fair national 
 flower, " O Ayame San." When we have paid our 
 kanjd, and rise to leave, they bring us a bundle of 
 iris buds, cut with long stalks, and rolled up neatly 
 in matting, to put in water on our return, as well 
 as a fan for each individual, with an iris flower 
 painted on it, and the name " Hori-Kiri," which 
 after all only means the place of " ditch cutting." 
 Our kurumas are wheeled up, we trundle back in 
 the cool evening to Azuma Bridge, and thence make 
 our way, a little tired and hot, but very well pleased, 
 to the shades of Azabu. 
 
 A z ABU, June 20, 1890.
 
 CHAPTER XXXII. 
 
 A JAPANESE HEALTH RESOKT. 
 
 ABOUT fifty miles away from Yokohama, along the 
 sea-shore, and then by a sharp turn into the high- 
 lands which are grouped around Fuji-San, lies em- 
 bosomed the lovely and salubrious Japanese health 
 resort, whence I am writing this. Fifteen hundred 
 feet above the Pacific and the hot plains, we have 
 escaped hither, for a time, shunning the now some- 
 what sultry weather of the capital and its ubiquitous 
 mosquitoes, which are more bloodthirsty and importu- 
 nate in Tokio than anywhere. The Ka, bred in the 
 rice-fields and ditches of Nippon, is truly a most 
 relentless and insatiable little pest, against which 
 natives and foreigners equally defend themselves 
 with kaya or nets of green muslin, made either 
 large enough to cover a European four-poster, or 
 small enough to place over a sleeping baby. At 
 this season of the year you may indeed see hundreds 
 of tiny brown Japanese infants sleeping, stark naked, 
 beneath what looks like a green meat-safe, where 
 the flies and mosquitoes cannot get at them. Not 
 only the babies, moreover, but their fathers, mothers, 
 " sisters, cousins, and aunts," and the Japanese world 
 
 in general, largely discard clothing as the July heats 
 
 476
 
 A JAPANESE HEALTH RESORT. 477 
 
 come on ; and, in the country especially, one sees at 
 this time more of the people in a very literal sense 
 than during the cooler weather. One result is to 
 disclose the really splendid illustrations with which 
 a great many of the men are adorned by the tattooer. 
 The jinrikisha, pullers in particular are ofttimes gor- 
 geously pictorial from nape to heel, and you may 
 study for an hour the volutes, arabesques, flowers, 
 gods, dragons, and poetical inscriptions on the back 
 of your coolie as you bowl along, without exhausting 
 the wealth of design and colouring upon the saffron 
 surface of his skin. 
 
 The journey hither from Yokohama leads by rail- 
 way through interminable rice fields lying between 
 the hills and the sea, all the square patches now 
 " green as grass " with the sprouting roots of the 
 ine. Last year Inar6, the deity of the rice plant 
 who has the fox for his attendant gave Japan a 
 bad harvest, and the poor are greatly suffering in 
 consequence. But this year all looks well for a 
 bumper crop, and the purple and silver of the iris 
 and lily clumps everywhere at present blossoming 
 fringe verdant squares of exuberant promised 
 plenty, where the great dragon-flies buzz, and the 
 frogs croak all day long. A run of two hours brings 
 you past Kamakura, the region of the old glories 
 of the warlike house which ruled Japan from 
 1192 A.D. to the middle of the fifteenth century 
 past Enoshima, the ever-beautiful " Isle of Dragons," 
 to Kodzu, where you take a tramcar, and bump 
 through the town of Odawara to Yumoto village,
 
 478 SEAS AND LANDS. 
 
 whence the ascent to Miyanoshita commences. The 
 ladies and the luggage ride up the three miles of 
 hilly road in kuruma drawn by two men, ni-mm-biki. 
 The gentlemen, glad of a little rural walk after the 
 hot streets of Tokio, breast the ascent on foot. We 
 reach Miyanoshita just as the lights begin to twinkle 
 in the windows of the two hotels which receive the 
 innumerable visitors to this green and pleasant glen. 
 A hot spring, slightly mineral, has created Miyano- 
 shita, affording perpetual and pleasant bathing ; and 
 the air, whether it breathes from the sea below or 
 from the thickly-wooded hills above, is always fresh 
 and pleasant. 
 
 To inhale that air, and to bathe in the soft waters 
 heated for you in the subterranean furnaces, is the 
 main business of life in this hill village. The only 
 industry of the place, apart from guides, tea-houses, 
 and waiting musumes, is the manufacture of all 
 kinds of small articles from the wood of the various 
 timber trees growing on the hills around. Some of 
 these are of incredible ingenuity in construction and 
 neatness of finish, making the most elaborate work 
 of Tunbridge Wells utterly commonplace. Many 
 of the woods employed, such as the camphor, the 
 ivy, the kaki, kari, and sendan, are of great 
 beauty, and there seems to be almost nothing that 
 a Japan turner cannot produce from them. He 
 sells you, for a few sen, a box of ivy wood delicately 
 grained and polished, containing a dozen lovely 
 little saucers of the same material ; or a lunch-box 
 which folds into next to nothing until you want
 
 A JAPANESE HEALTH RESORT. 479 
 
 it, and then expands into a complete and hand- 
 some table service. Sellers of photographs are also 
 numerous, and softly importunate, for the Japanese 
 have become very skilful with the camera. When 
 you have purchased all the photographs and wooden 
 nicknacks which you desire, the next thing is to 
 organise excursions into the wild and beautiful 
 wilderness of mountains everywhere surrounding 
 you. These must be performed either on foot or 
 in chairs lashed on bamboo poles, and carried upon 
 the shoulders of four of the sturdy hill-men of the 
 district. The paths are very steep and narrow, and 
 the foothold often merely the loose stones of a 
 mountain stream. Yet the sturdy Ninsoku trudge 
 along, up hill and down dale, in their sandals of 
 rope, apparently insensible to fatigue, or sufficiently 
 refreshed from time to time by a cup of pale tea 
 and a sugar biscuit, and willingly accepting fifty 
 sen, or about eighteenpence, for a tremendous day's 
 work. With a thin blue calico coat, a blue hand- 
 kerchief tied round the close-cropped head, and 
 their small brass tobacco pipes stuck in their girdles, 
 they chatter gaily as they trot along under the 
 bamboo poles, shifting these every now and then 
 from shoulder to shoulder with a little harmonious 
 murmur of " Go-issho," which means " at the same 
 honourable time," i.e., " all together, boys." Arrived 
 at the tea-house, they patiently pick from their legs 
 the leeches which have fastened there in the wet 
 and narrow forest paths, wipe the profuse perspira- 
 tion from their brown necks, smoke a pipe or two,
 
 480 SEAS AND LANDS. 
 
 and slowly sip a cup of the " honourable hot tea," 
 and are then ready to trudge on again for another ri 
 under their heavy burdens. 
 
 Charming and instructive beyond description are 
 some of the expeditions which may thus be under- 
 taken from Miyanoshita as a centre, the hills con- 
 taining all sorts of natural wonders, as well as being 
 of wonderful beauty in regard of scenery. We made 
 two out of many favourite explorations yesterday and 
 the day before ; on the first occasion to the mountain 
 lake of Hakone, on the second to no less formidably- 
 named a spot than "the Great Hell" O Jigoku. 
 The general character of the country being the same, 
 I will make one description serve for the impressions 
 of the two journeys. 
 
 The Hakone mountains are for the most part 
 intensely green in aspect, " darkly, deeply, beauti- 
 fully green " of a green to make an artist despair, 
 it is so magnificently monotonous, and beyond imita- 
 tion by the palette. This results principally from 
 the long bamboo grass everywhere growing over 
 the highland country, which, though it rises to the 
 height of eight or ten feet, presents the appearance 
 of an unbroken verdant mantle of herbage rolling 
 in light waves before the wind. The trees chiefly 
 beech, fir of various kinds, and oak grow at one 
 time sparsely, at another in extensive groves, from 
 the jungle of the dwarf bamboo ; intermixed with 
 which are a few inconspicuous wild flowers white 
 andromedas and spiraeas, yellow lilies, wild hy- 
 drangea, dog roses, and the Canterbury bell. Little
 
 A JAPANESE HEALTH RESORT. 
 
 481 
 
 or no animal life is to be seen ; the cover seems 
 too dense for four-footed creatures, but on the less 
 wooded mountains the fox and badger exist, and 
 there are deer, wild boar, and monkeys of a single 
 species, to be found not far off. A lark almost 
 exactly identical with the English species sings 
 the familiar carol as we pass, and an oriole, which 
 flutes very sweetly, is seen and heard ; but the 
 
 HAKONE LAKE. 
 
 general silence of the mountains is remarkable and 
 almost unbroken, except by the noise of streams 
 everywhere descending. Some of these smoke in 
 the cool hillside air, and discolour the stones with 
 sulphurous or mineral deposits, notably at Ko-ji- 
 go-ku, near to Ashi-no-yu, where some of us en- 
 joyed the luxury of hot sulphur baths, and found 
 
 2 H
 
 482 SEAS AND LANDS. 
 
 them immensely refreshing in the middle of a long 
 walk. The central spot, however, for witnessing 
 this kind of phenomenon is at the " Great Hell " 
 itself, near to the pass of O Tomi Toge, from which 
 a glorious view is obtained of the ever wonderful 
 Fuji-San. There was nothing to indicate that we 
 were approaching a spot to justify the name given 
 to this place, except the sudden appearance of many 
 large dead trees, which had been killed by the fatal 
 breath emanating from the solfataras near. The 
 hillside at large spreads on either hand as fair and 
 green as before, with waving bamboo grass and 
 silvery flowers of the deutzia, and white bells of 
 the Japan anemone. The earliest intimation was 
 by the nostrils, which become abruptly aware of 
 odours distinctly infernal ; and on reaching a solitary 
 farmhouse you come in sight of a torrent, running 
 over black and speckled rocks, on a bed yellow as 
 the rind of an orange. The ladies must now leave 
 their chairs and toil by a steep ascent round a 
 shoulder of the valley, from which issues this 
 Japanese Styx ; and by a perilous and broken path, 
 winding now through the thickets, now along the 
 brink of a crumbling precipice, we come suddenly 
 in sight of a gully, destitute of every shred of 
 vegetation, and hideous with all the Cocytian colours 
 associated with flame and smoke, death and desola- 
 tion, ruin and ravage. It is a corner of the world 
 abandoned to despair a mountain heart on fire 
 which one beholds ; a nook of nature whence every- 
 thing lovely and living has been banished to give
 
 A JAPANESE HEALTH RESORT. 483 
 
 vent to the secret forces of the under world. The 
 earth all around is poisoned and parti-coloured with 
 livid blotches and gangrenes ; the rocks are crusted 
 with a leprous tetter; pimples and ulcers of purple 
 and black and yellow break out from the level 
 spaces. Some of these are alive with an evil 
 activity, and hiss and fume and bubble, emitting 
 jets of fat yellow and green smoke, with now and 
 then a crackling noise when the crust sinks in, to 
 open by-and-by at another black and yellow gash 
 in the diseased ground. It is not safe even to 
 stand near the melancholy amphitheatre where reek 
 these caldrons of Acheron. To pass along the black 
 edge of the stream itself and into this ghastly corry 
 would be rash in the extreme, for no one knows 
 where the surface may not yield, and suddenly 
 plunge the foot or limb into a bath of boiling 
 sulphur. A lady of our acquaintance was severely 
 burned here some time ago, and a Russian officer 
 lost his life in the treacherous morass of flame. 
 
 I am requested by an amiable and charming young 
 lady of our party to inscribe upon her bamboo staff 
 the Japanese name of the place which she will 
 certainly never visit again together with some suit- 
 able record. Sitting out of reach of the winds from 
 Hades, under a great cryptomeria, blasted by its 
 neighbourhood, I carve on the Japanese alpenstock 
 a verse which she means to preserve : 
 
 " Staff, which to Jig6ku went, 
 
 Good news to Sinners tell ; 
 
 Demons may cliinb to Paradise, 
 
 Now Angels walk to Hell."
 
 484 SEAS AND LANDS. 
 
 And yet, just over the ridge, spreads a scene as 
 beautiful as that just quitted is forbidding. On the 
 slopes of the O Tomi Pass box-trees and the milky- 
 blossomed asemi, with the pines and bamboos, the 
 azaleas and lilies, make the mountain fair and glad 
 again ; and Fuji-San is seen towering up in perfect 
 beauty at the end of the vast valley. The snow is 
 almost all gone from the Lady of Mountains. Just 
 here and there are visible, if I may quote my own 
 new poem, the " Light of the World " : 
 
 " Dark hollows where sad winter hides away 
 From summer, with the snows still in her lap." 
 
 By another path the matchless mount may be seen 
 looking down upon the deep waters of Hakone a 
 great lake of unknown depth, and perpetual coldness, 
 lying two thousand feet above the sea. Hakone 
 Lake has for its Japanese name Yoshi-no-Midzu- 
 Umi, or the " water of the reeds," and is a very 
 beautiful highland sea, the abode, it is said, of 
 supernatural beings, till a Buddhist priest penetrated 
 these recesses and gave to the world knowledge and 
 possession of lovely and cool Hakone. We drink 
 to the pious memory of Mangwan Sh6nin as we sit 
 in the upper gallery of the tea-house looking over 
 the rolling blue wavelets of the lake. Close by 
 Japanese woodmen are cutting fir trees into thin 
 boards, to make ori, the boxes in which sweetmeats 
 and cakes are presented. We return in drenching 
 rain, but well rewarded for this and for all our 
 exertions by the splendid scenery and the countless
 
 A JAPANESE HEALTH RESORT 485 
 
 objects of interest on the road. Perhaps it would 
 not have rained if we had remembered to put some 
 stones in the lap of the great rock image of Jizo, 
 whom we passed in accomplishing the ascent. He 
 is the god of travellers and the protector of children, 
 and the correct thing is to pay him the little atten- 
 tion alluded to. As we wend homewards through 
 the picturesque village of Kiga, we stop to look 
 again at the wonderful fish in the gardens of a tea- 
 house near at hand. Swimming about in a pool 
 under a little waterfall there are exhibited some 
 hundreds of variegated carp the Japanese Koi 
 which are of every imaginable brilliancy of colour 
 purple, russet, citron, saffron, orange, rose-red, gold, 
 and silver. They are tamer than any pigeons, and 
 come voraciously to the bank to be fed, scrambling 
 for slices of bean-cake, and putting their gold and 
 brown noses high out of the water in their struggles 
 to secure the morsel. When a piece of cake falls 
 on the dry rock, near the water, they try to throw 
 themselves on shore, and even use their fins for 
 legs in their eagerness to obtain the prize. The 
 fish in the opening story of the "Arabian Nights," 
 who were coloured blue, yellow, white, and red, and 
 who talked in the frying-pan, could not have been 
 more marvellous in hue, and certainly not more 
 intelligent. 
 
 MlYANOSHlTA, JAPAN, July I, lS<)O.
 
 CHAPTER XXXIII. 
 
 THE DAY OF THE DEAD IN JAPAN. 
 
 TO-DAY and to-morrow we celebrate in Tokio, 
 and all over Dai Nippon, the Bon Matsuri, or 
 "Festival of the Dead." It is the Japanese Jour 
 des Morts, and for many evenings past the Ginza 
 and other principal streets have been filled with 
 little stalls planted on the side of the pavement, 
 where they sell the articles most in vogue for the 
 due observance of this national occasion. The 
 leading idea is that the Dead or a vast number 
 of them come back to this life during the forty- 
 eight hours about to elapse. And, truly, it is just 
 the season when, if you had lived your life in 
 Japan, you would like to return and see the fair 
 and quiet country once again. Summer has come 
 upon us in all its golden glory ; the land is bathed 
 day after day, and from dawn until dusk, in a 
 flood of brilliant- sunshine, which is melting the 
 last streaks of snow from the brow of Fuji-San, 
 and making the trees and the crops burst into such 
 vividness of growth that the islands are one green 
 garden. Out of doors work is half suspended, 
 or conducted only by kuruma-men and coolies, 
 
 stripped to the skin. In the bazaars, the shops 
 
 486
 
 THE DAY OF THE DEAD IN JAPAN. 487 
 
 which attract most custom are those where they 
 sell kuri-mizu, tumblers of ice ground into flakes 
 upon a steel plane. None but the lightest garments 
 are worn by the most prudish and particular, the 
 children go frankly bare, and in the house a kimono 
 of figured-cotton or gauze, drawn round the loins 
 with a wisp of gay silk, is about all which the 
 Japanese dames and damsels put on. Shoji and 
 amado being taken down, every house is as open 
 as a box, with only a bottom and a top ; and the 
 breeze, if there be any, plays freely and welcomely 
 through back and front. The crows seem to gasp 
 at noon in the hot air, in which large and splendid 
 butterflies and blue-bodied dragon-flies disport by 
 myriads, while for flowers we have all sorts of lilies, 
 some late irises, phlox, pomegranate, and the open- 
 ing blossoms of the lotus, which is grown everywhere 
 for food, as well as beauty. Persons of leisure are 
 mostly gone into the hills, where it is cool to Ikao, 
 Nikko, Miyanoshita, Hakone, and such like places 
 of refuge ; all the more hastily because the cholera 
 is very severely epidemic at Nagasaki, and is pretty 
 sure to come here sooner or later. But we like 
 Tokio, and have grown attached to the life of our 
 quarter ; and, not being afraid either of the heat or 
 the cholera, are waiting for the last white patch of 
 snow to disappear from the summit of Fuji-San, 
 when we hope to be among the first of the pilgrims 
 who will ascend her stately sides, and get our clothes 
 stamped with the coveted mark of those who have 
 touched the crown of the Queen of Mountains.
 
 4 88 SEAS AND LANDS. 
 
 At such a time, I say, it is very natural that de- 
 ceased persons of taste and patriotism should desire 
 to revisit Japan, especially since, being disembodied, 
 it is indifferent to them that the thermometer stands 
 at 94 Fahrenheit. The common opinion, conse- 
 crated by ages of simple faith, is that they do return 
 at this season in every year, and must be received 
 and entertained with becoming empressement. For 
 this cause the little stalls have swarmed along the 
 side-walks, loaded with thin canes of the bamboo 
 and osier, bundles of flowers and leaves, bunches of 
 refuse hemp, cucumbers, egg-plant fruit, and lanterns 
 of square shape, white and coloured. All these 
 which the people buy by myriads are symbolical in 
 the approaching solemnities if anything can be 
 called solemn connected with religion in Japan. 
 The attitude of this people towards the supernatural 
 has been described as a mixture of " fear and fun " 
 I should rather call it one of "politeness towards 
 possibilities." When I asked a very intelligent 
 Japanese lady, who was investing in articles for 
 the Bon Matsuri, whether she really believed in 
 Emma San, the Judge of men in Hades, and in 
 the return of departed spirits to their houses, she 
 said, " You have told me before that Emma San 
 is only the Indian Yama, the Regent of the Dead, 
 introduced into Japan ; and as for the departed, 
 who are still so dear to us, I believe they come 
 back kokoro no naka ni (into the middle of our 
 hearts), but not taku no naka ni (into the midst of 
 our houses). Yet it is right to do what all the neigh-
 
 THE DAY OF THE DEAD IN JAPAN. 489 
 
 hours do, and to be kind to the dead if they should 
 come; therefore I shall light my lanterns and go 
 to say my prayers at Shiba." Undoubtedly the 
 common folk have a sincere belief in the old fables, 
 and quite think that Shodzaka no Baba, the hag 
 of hell, waits on the brink of the Japanese Styx to 
 strip newly-arrived souls of their earthly coverings. 
 
 :; , 
 
 
 
 OUAVB OF KO-MTTRABAKI. 
 
 So, as a matter of faith, or of habit, everybody takes 
 part in the Bon Matsuri, and is now engaged in 
 lighting up the cemeteries, and putting white or 
 coloured lanterns in the doorways or mado of the 
 houses. The white lanterns are to guide home souls 
 of friends recently deceased ; the coloured lanterns 
 are for the assistance of spirits less newly departed.
 
 490 SEAS AND LANDS. 
 
 The common idea is that the disembodied anima has 
 to make a journey of 3,600,000,000 ri to the other 
 world, and as a ri equals i\ miles, this is a very 
 considerable distance to travel. Accordingly, on 
 arrival, the souls shall find bunches of tow burning 
 and lights kindled at their well-known door, and 
 little trays of egg-plant fruit and rice and cucum- 
 ber within, and their tombstones also illuminated, 
 in case they wish to see whether the tobd were all 
 duly placed, and the headstone set up lovingly and 
 faithfully with their Kaimio name upon it, for it 
 is the custom here to give the dead a new title, 
 Kurina generally very poetical and compli- 
 mentary. By the seaside, as at Nagasaki where 
 now, alas ! people are dying fifty a day of cholera 
 they build little boats of the canes and reeds, and 
 launch them loaded with rice, egg-fruit, and cucum- 
 ber, and the souls embark, on their return journey, 
 upon these. Here we do it on the Sumida river, 
 and when the little lamp goes out, by wind or 
 immersion, the Sayonara is pronounced, and the 
 friendly spirit has reached its destination. The 
 canes of hemp employed are termed ogara, the 
 kindly dismissal of the shadowy visitors okuri- 
 dashi, the fires lighted at the door mukaibi. 
 
 If it were true, it would be an interesting anni- 
 versary indeed, an English poet has written some 
 lines which suit well the Bon Matsuri: 
 
 " I heard the dogs bark in the midst of the Night, 
 And went to the window to see the sight ; 
 All the Dead that ever I knew 
 Coining, one by one and two by two."
 
 THE DAY OF THE DEAD IN JAPAN. 491 
 
 I do not gather that the Japanese common people 
 have the least fear of their revenants. Rather the 
 contrary ! The grace of their life extends to the 
 unknown and unknowable, and their fancies on this 
 head are all pretty and tender. If one of the great 
 black-and-crimson or green-and-silver butterflies 
 comes into a house to-day, sugar is set for it " it is 
 certainly the soul of ojtsan or obdaan, of grandpapa 
 or grandmamma ! " The Chinese have the same idea 
 and the same festival, and both came, probably, from 
 India, where the Sraddha the celebration of the 
 Death-day is a most established ceremony. In the 
 Sanskrit Mahdbhdrata occurs a splendid passage, 
 where, after the great battle, all the slain warriors 
 come up out of the river and hold a night-long feast 
 with the victors and survivors, departing again when 
 the " wolf s-tail" comes into the sky and the jungle- 
 cocks crow. The soft and pleasant temper of Japan 
 has given graces to the old superstitions. They 
 worship and celebrate, but seem to say and think 
 with Shelley : 
 
 " It is a pleasant creed, and yet 
 Modest, if one considers it ; 
 To think that Death itself must be, 
 Like all things else, a mockery." 
 
 My charming neighbour, the daughter of our land- 
 lord, O Fuku San "the Honourable Miss Good 
 Fortune" has just called in to give me fresh and 
 more accurate particulars about the Jour des 
 Moris. She says parents and ancestors are wor- 
 shipped during three days, at this time. Shrines of
 
 492 SEAS AND LANDS. 
 
 Buddha are carefully cleansed, and all things apper- 
 taining to them put in order. The little red earthen- 
 ware pans, everywhere sold and bought, are to hold 
 the oil and wick for the Death Lamps. The bundles 
 of grass are styled kusaichi. The 1 5th (that is to-day) 
 bears the title of Chugen, the day of good and 
 blessing. No fish is eaten now, and ogara, the 
 stripped hemp-stalks, and hemp refuse, will again 
 be burned to-night. The i6th (to-morrow) is called 
 Sai-nichi. Servants and apprentices get leave of 
 absence and gifts of money, and put on new dresses 
 to visit friends and parents, which is termed Yadori. 
 On that last day of the "Feast of Lanterns," for 
 such it may be called, offerings are made to Emma- 
 San, the dread Deity of the Under- world, and prayer? 
 uttered for the dead and living. 
 
 AZABU, July 15, 1890.
 
 CHAPTER XXXIV. 
 
 A JAPANESE LOVE-STORY. 
 
 A LOVE-STOKY will outlive the memory of long wars 
 and great princes. There exists a proof of this 
 in a little village, which I recently visited, not far 
 from Tokio. The village is named Meguro, and lies 
 about three miles from the capital (rather over a ri), 
 amid bamboo groves and clumps of wild camellias, 
 on the banks of a stream called the Furu Kawa, 
 which runs into the Sumida. Here lie buried, near 
 the temple of Fud6-Sama, Shirai Gompachi and 
 Ko-Murasaki, his beautiful mistress. And although 
 it is 230 years since these lovers were laid there 
 together under the bamboos, their memory remains 
 still as green as the leaves that flutter above them. 
 Everybody, hereabouts, knows their story ; every one 
 can relate it to you with the minutest particulars ; 
 every one, sooner or later, repairs to their grave to 
 burn a stick of incense there, and afterwards to sit 
 in the tea-house by the pool of white lotus and feed 
 the tame carp with pink and green biscuits, while 
 meditating, each in his own way, upon what 
 Shakespeare says : 
 
 " Golden boys and girls all must 
 Consign to this, and come to dust." 
 
 493
 
 494 SEAS AND LANDS. 
 
 Since, moreover, the tale illustrates bygone Japanese 
 manners, and the place itself is pretty enough to 
 deserve description, I will briefly recount the more 
 or less moving narrative of the loves of Gompachi 
 and Ko-Murasaki, the meaning of this name being 
 " Little Wild Indigo." 
 
 My Japanese friends and I took the wrong road 
 with our kurumas, and, thanks to this happy mis- 
 take, meandered on wheels for half the sunny after- 
 noon through a country wonderfully rustic, consider- 
 ing that Tokio was so near at hand. The rice-fields 
 stretched out on all sides, bright with the young 
 crop, over which were flitting great dragon-flies, 
 blue and bronze, and butterflies as big as bats, with 
 black velvet and crimson, or brown and amber, or 
 saffron and scarlet wings. On the drier ground, 
 interminable rows of the egg-plant, nasubi, hung 
 heavy with the black-purple fruit, now everywhere 
 in use as a vegetable ; and clumps of hydrangea, 
 with pale blue clustering blossoms, grew beside 
 the little huts of wood, paper, and thatch, where 
 the Japanese babies, glad of the summer heat, 
 played stark naked, while their " sisters, cousins, 
 and aunts," in clothing almost as simple, did the 
 small daily duties of the homestead. Every now 
 and then, at the foot of a wooded slope, you would 
 see the red torii of a shrine raised to Inari-Sama, 
 the deity of farming, who has the fox for his badge, 
 and gives or withholds bumper crops. On the 
 banks' and fences not many wild flowers are observed 
 blooming, but you do notice two or three lilies
 
 A JAPANESE LOVE-STORY. 495 
 
 among them a Crown Imperial late irises, a small 
 white umbellifer, like our meadow-sweet, and the 
 pretty sprays of the lithospermum, after which "Little 
 Wild Indigo" was named. You would very much 
 miss the birds, which render an English country 
 lane so vocal. The Japanese woods sadly lack 
 feathered musicians, but in the open districts our 
 own lark, hibari, may be heard, and there is a little 
 songster, the Cettria cantans, which is called by 
 what I must think is an extravagant compliment 
 "the nightingale of Nippon." Presently we plunge 
 into a bamboo thicket, where the long green canes 
 and arrow-headed foliage make the road by their 
 flickering shadows a mosaic of black and gold ; and 
 so we come into the right path, at the entrance of 
 the village of Meguro, where stands an old Shinto 
 fane surrounded by tall, dark, cryptomeria trees. 
 This is a favourite place with jealous women who 
 wish to turn the hearts of indifferent lovers. The 
 Japanese day is divided into twelve periods, named 
 after the rat, ox, tiger, and hare ; the dragon, horse, 
 snake, and ram ; and the ape, cock, hog, and fox. 
 In the watch of the ox ushi-no-toki that is to say, 
 about three in the morning, the wronged damsel 
 goes, in a white kimono, with a candle lighted in a 
 fillet on her head and with a mirror bound round 
 her neck, carrying a little straw figure representing 
 her wayward lover, which she nails to one of the 
 great trees, praying to the genius of the place to 
 turn his unkind heart or punish him with sickness. 
 Further on, another little temple is seen in a grove
 
 496 SEAS AND LANDS. 
 
 that of Yaku-Shi ; and as the image here came to 
 shore riding on a cuttle-fish, nobody who resorts to 
 it is allowed to use the Ika for food. It must be 
 observed, however, that to abstain from cuttle-fish 
 would not be considered any severe hardship by 
 those Europeans who have tried to eat it. 
 
 Now we turn between two tea-houses, where the 
 musumes, in hospitable chorus, beseech us to enter as 
 soon as we have made our "honourable supplications," 
 and t\\Q jinrikisha rolls into the paved court of the 
 celebrated temple of Fudo-Sama. At the bottom of 
 the stone stairway, leading to the chief shrine, are 
 to be seen chapels, in the Japanese style, containing 
 effigies of Em-ma, the judge of the wicked, who is 
 really the Indian god Yama, regent of the dead, 
 imported with Buddhism ; and of Shodzuka-No-Baba, 
 the old hag who waits on the banks of the river 
 dividing this world from the next, and strips little 
 children of their earthly clothing there, setting them 
 afterwards to pick up stones if their friends in this 
 life have not previously filled the lap of Jiz6 with 
 pebbles to propitiate her. At the left of the steps 
 sparkles a pool of clear water, fed by a small water- 
 fall, flowing through the mouth of a brass dragon. 
 When we approached a penitent sinner was stand- 
 ing under this heavy jet of water, receiving it on his 
 head, and praying hard all the time with clasped 
 palms. This is called the Sui-Giyo, or " water-cure " 
 for sin, and is considered highly efficacious, as well 
 as rather pleasant in summer. Another penitent 
 was doing the Hiyakudo, or " hundred-turn walk,"
 
 A JAPANESE LOVE-STORY. 497 
 
 passing backwards and forwards between two points, 
 and repeating a prayer at each run, the tally of 
 which he kept by depositing on a stone at every 
 round a twisted straw. If you do not feel wicked 
 or warm enough to go through either of these lustral 
 performances, you can get quit of quite a number of 
 peccadilloes by buying outside the temple some small 
 birds, fish, or tortoises, and setting them free into 
 the woods or the water, in honour of the compassion 
 of the Lord Buddha. We mount the stone steps 
 and reach the shrine, painted bright red and roofed 
 with copper, containing some very curious images 
 and treasures, and among them a particularly strange 
 bronze figure of a dragon coiled round a sword, 
 supposed to symbolise the two principles of life. 
 In front of the altar are suspended gongs, which you 
 sound by banging them with a twisted red and 
 white rope. I take off my hat while my companions 
 vigorously invoke the Deity, repeat their light- 
 hearted prayers, and afterwards clap their little hands 
 together, to let heaven know that its attention is 
 no longer requested for the present. 
 
 Then we descend the steps, call at one of the tea- 
 houses for the key to the lovers' grave, and, guided 
 by two or three laughing musumes, find our way 
 to a door in a wooden fence leading into an old 
 bury ing-ground. Here, under a tiny pent-house of 
 weather-worn boards,* are two moss-covered stones, 
 projecting from the damp earth, with two little 
 cisterns of stone in front of them, one containing 
 
 * Vide p. 489. 
 
 2 1
 
 49 8 SEAS AND LANDS. 
 
 rain-water and the other sand and ashes. The 
 musumes have brought with them a bundle of senko, 
 which we stick up in the sand and light. The fra- 
 grant blue smoke of the incense curls among the 
 bamboo stems and leaves, and diffuses agreeable 
 wafts, while somebody reads to us what is written 
 on the stones, and on the sotoba, or wooden tablets 
 planted in the ground round the grave. "This is 
 the tomb of the Shiyoku," it says. The Shiyoku 
 were fabulous birds, which always flew with their 
 near wings joined together, and became the emblem 
 of love and fidelity. Another stone says : "In the 
 old days his beauty Was like that of the cherry 
 flower, and she looked upon it with a love like 
 that of the sunshine. These two birds have died 
 in their too-short flight ; the cherry blossoms have 
 perished without fruit ! " 
 
 The story is admirably, though briefly recounted 
 in Mitford's "Tales of Old Japan." But I received 
 some curious additions from my companions, and 
 from the local guardians of the spot. Shirai 
 Gompachi was a young Japanese gentleman, a two- 
 sworded Samurai, in the train of a Daimio of Inaba, 
 who, by the age of eighteen, had become widely 
 known in his own province for great personal beauty 
 and courage, and perfect skill in the use of the 
 sword. Those were the days when the sword was 
 the "life and soul of the Samurai." The sword- 
 makers were honoured beyond all craftsmen ; they 
 forged their blades amid solemn ceremonies ; and, 
 to mount and ornament them, the best workmen
 
 A JAPANESE LOVE-STORY. 499 
 
 lavished all that art could command. Noblemen 
 would give a whole estate to buy a famous weapon, 
 the edge of which should be so keen that a lotus- 
 stalk descending a stream against it would be cut 
 in twain, while it would not turn or notch if you 
 clove an iron spear-handle with it. The etiquette 
 of the sword governed all Japanese society. Once 
 drawn, it must never be sheathed until reddened 
 by blood, and must never be unsheathed in the 
 precincts of the palace. Young Gompachi, on a 
 certain unlucky day, quarrelled with a companion, 
 and drawing his sword upon him in the court, 
 fought with and killed him. For this he had to 
 fly to Yeddo, then but a small city, and to hide in 
 its suburbs. It was a wild time everywhere, and he 
 put up one night in an inn where a gang of robbers 
 lived, some six or seven, who could not see his 
 richly-ornamented sword and dirk without coveting 
 them, and also concluding that the owner must 
 have plenty of gold coins in his girdle. As little 
 could the musum'e of the house, a singularly lovely 
 girl, wait upon the handsome young stranger with- 
 out interest. In the dead of the night, Gompachi 
 was sleeping soundly after his long flight, when he 
 was lightly touched by some hand, and, starting up, 
 saw the musume kneeling by the side of his futon. 
 He had not noticed before how beautiful she was, 
 this damsel of fifteen years, which in Japan is 
 maturity. " Damattef do not speak," she said, "I 
 crave your honourable pardon for arousing you ; but 
 you must know this is a den of dreadful robbers,
 
 500 SEAS AND LANDS. 
 
 who last year carried me off from my father's house 
 ill Mikawa, under the hill of Azabu. To-night they 
 will murder you to get your sword, and clothes, and 
 money. You seem to be as brave as you are hand- 
 some. If you are really skilful with the sword, 
 prepare yourself, and I will try to help you ; and 
 if you can get away safely take me with you, for 
 I love you, and am risking my life to tell you all 
 this." Gompachi answered, " Greatly I thank you, 
 O Ko-Murasaki San ! but I will not have you hazard 
 one hair of your beautiful head for my sake. Steal 
 out of the house and wait in the shadow of the 
 bamboos for me. As soon as I have tied up my 
 sleeves and fastened back my hair, I will come to 
 you, and if any seek to stay me I will kill them." 
 
 Accordingly she went out, and while Gompachi 
 was putting on his day dress the thieves stealthily 
 entered by another door, with drawn swords, but 
 were disconcerted to find the young Samurai leap 
 upon them, his long sword in one hand, and in the 
 other the Ai-Kuchi, the dirk, to guard and to 
 despatch. Two of the knaves he instantly cut down, 
 slashed the arm from another, and from another the 
 leg, so that the survivors, being terrified, made way 
 for him, and then, calmly wiping his Katana with 
 white paper before sheathing it, he came to where 
 " Little Wild Indigo " waited trembling for him in 
 the bamboos. Reassuring her, he conducted her 
 to Mikawa, to her father's house, where they over- 
 whelmed him with thanks, and would have kept 
 him as a son of the establishment, but that he said
 
 A JAPANESE LOVE-STORY. 501 
 
 a Samurai must live by his sword, and so he would 
 go to take service with some lord. He promised, 
 however, to the weeping girl that he would soon 
 return ; and receiving as a friendly present two 
 hundred ounces of silver, he started forth again on 
 his wanderings. ; 
 
 He had been absent about a year, experiencing 
 all sorts of adventures, till he fell into the society 
 of a wardsman of Jeddo, named Ch6bei, who 
 helped him to lead, I am sorry to say, the usual 
 reckless life of his time and age. In those days 
 letters were seldom written, news was scant, and he 
 neither heard nor, it seems, tried very much to hear 
 from Ko-Murasaki. But one night at dinner, talk 
 arose at Ch6bei's house of a very beautiful Geisha 
 who was newly come to the Yoshiwara, and whose 
 dancing and singing made the sign of the "Three 
 Sea Coasts," where she was an inmate, famous. 
 Gompachi repaired to the " Three Sea Coasts," and 
 saw there sitting among the immoral sisterhood 
 his Ko-Murasaki, the "Little Wild Indigo" of 
 Mikawa, In deep distress she told him that 
 overwhelming calamity had fallen upon her house- 
 hold ; that her parents became poverty-stricken, 
 and in danger of starvation ; that not hearing from 
 him, or seeing him, or meeting him, she had been 
 obliged to submit to the fate of many and many a 
 Japanese maiden, and sell herself, for the sake of 
 her father and mother, to the Master of the Yoshi- 
 wara. " But now," she said, "that I have seen you 
 once more, you, who are so strong and brave, will
 
 5 o2 SEAS AND LANDS. 
 
 help me ; do not desert me again." The beauty of 
 the girl filled his heart full as before, and he gave 
 up everything to visit her daily. But at the Yoshi- 
 wara money must be spent, and being a Rdnin, 
 without any means, Gompachi soon came to the 
 bottom of his wits and his purse, and was driven 
 at last to crime, by love and poverty combined. 
 For Ko-Murasaki's sake though she herself did 
 not know it he betook himself to robbery and 
 murder. His heart grew blacker and blacker by 
 these concealed wickednesses. Just as he had 
 amassed, however, gold enough by his robberies to 
 buy Ko-Murasaki's liberty, the authorities, who 
 were aware of his deeds, laid hands upon him. He 
 was proved guilty of murder and plunder, and be- 
 headed on the execution ground. Ch6bei, the 
 wardsman, claimed his body and head, and buried 
 them in the grounds of the rural Temple, at 
 Meguro, and Ko-Murasaki first knew of the event 
 by hearing the people in the Yoshiwara talk of the 
 handsome young Samurai, who, for his heinous 
 crimes, had been forbidden the privilege of his rank 
 to commit the hara-kiri; but was despatched like 
 a common malefactor. The same night she fled 
 from the "Three Sea Coasts," walked all the way 
 swift-footed to Meguro, and threw herself on the 
 newly-made grave of her lover, whose sins she 
 seems too easily to have forgiven, committed for 
 her sake. In the morning the priests of the temple 
 found the dead body of the lovely girl, lying with 
 pierced throat, by the stone. They placed her side
 
 A JAPANESE LOVE-STORY. 503 
 
 by side with Gompachi, in the same earth, and, 
 with all their faults, the loving fidelity of "Little 
 Wild Indigo" and the desperate devotion of her 
 guilty, but brave and handsome Samurai, have, it 
 seems, consecrated the place, so that it is the chief 
 attraction of Meguro. As usual in all such Japanese 
 stories, the woman comes out best. It was certainly 
 for the sake of Ko-Murasaki, and not at all for 
 Gompachi's, that I myself paid for the incense 
 sticks. To make even of her an ideal heroine the 
 Western mind would have, no doubt, a good deal to 
 excuse ; yet it is characteristic of the Japanese way 
 of thinking on these subjects that Ko-Murasaki is 
 praised upon her tombstone for her misao that is 
 to say, her feminine virtue. As we sat afterwards 
 in the tea-house watching the white lotuses close up 
 one by one as the sun disappeared, and drinking 
 tea perfumed with the salted blossoms of the cherry, 
 I inquired how the priests could possibly eulogise 
 a girl who, whatever her difficulties and distresses, 
 had notoriously taken service in the Yoshiwara. 
 The answer was, in Japanese, Karada de nema 
 shita, Kokoro no naka de nemasen deshita, which 
 means " That she sinned not with the will of her 
 heart." And this appeared to be quite the accepted 
 view of those present. 
 
 AZABU, August 1890.
 
 CHAPTER XXXV 
 
 ASCENT OF FUJI-SAN. 
 
 I HAVE just made, in the company of Captain 
 John Ingles, R.N., Naval Adviser to the Imperial 
 Government of this country, and a young Japanese 
 gentleman Mr. Asso a very fortunate and delight- 
 ful ascent of Fuji-San, the famous mountain. You 
 would not wonder, residing here, that everybody in 
 Japan talks about Fuji, and thinks about her ; paints 
 her on fans, and limns her with gold on lacquer ; 
 carves her on temple-gates and house-fronts, and 
 draws her for curtains of shops, and signboards of 
 inns, rest-houses, and public institutions. Living 
 in Tokio, or Yokohama, or anywhere along this 
 Tokaido the Southern road of Japan you would 
 soon perceive how the great volcano dominates every 
 landscape, asserts perpetually her sovereignty over 
 all other hills and mountains, and becomes, in reality 
 as well as imagination, an indispensable element in 
 the national scenery. Far away at sea, when ap- 
 proaching Japan, if the weather be clear, long before 
 the faintest blue line of coast is discernible from the 
 deck, there is seen hanging in the air a dim white 
 symmetrical cone, too constant for a cloud, which is 
 Fuji-San. After you have landed and taken up youi 
 
 504
 
 ASCENT OF FUyi-SAN. 507 
 
 residence at Yokohama, Tokio, or any point of the 
 south-eastern littoral, -you will be always seeing 
 Fuji-Yama from some garden nook, some tea-house 
 gallery, some grove of cryptomerias, or thicket of 
 bamboo, or even from the railway-carriage window. 
 In the spring and autumn, as frequently as not, she 
 will, indeed, be shrouded in the dense masses of 
 white or grey cumulus which her crest collects, and 
 seems to create, from the mists of the Pacific. But 
 during summer, when the snows are all melted from 
 the vast cone, and again in winter, when she is 
 covered with snow half way down her colossal sides, 
 but the air is clear, the superb mountain stands forth, 
 dawn after dawn, and evening after evening like 
 no other eminence in the world for beauty, majesty, 
 and perfectness of outline. There are loftier peaks, 
 of course, for Fuji-San is not much lower than 
 Mont Blanc, but there is none not even Etna 
 which rises so proudly, alone, isolated, distinct, 
 from the very brink of the sea with nothing to 
 hide or diminish the dignity of the splendid and 
 immense curves sweeping up from where the broad 
 foot rests, planted on the Suruga Gulf, to where 
 the imperial head soars, lifted high above the clouds 
 into the blue of the firmament. By many and 
 many a picture or photograph you must know well 
 those almost perfectly matched flanks, that massive 
 base, the towering lines of that mighty cone, slightly 
 truncated and dentated at the summit. But no 
 picture gives, and no artist could ever reproduce, the 
 variety and charm of the aspects which Fuji-San
 
 5 o8 SEAS AND LANDS. 
 
 puts on from day to day and hour to hour under the 
 differing influences of air and weather. Sometimes 
 it is as a white cloud that you see her, among the 
 white clouds, changeless among the changeful shapes 
 from which she emerges. Sometimes there will 
 break forth, high above all clouds, a patch of deep 
 grey against the blue, the broad head of Fuji. 
 Sometimes you will only know where she sits by 
 the immense collection of cirrus and cirro-cumulus 
 there alone gathered in the sky ; and sometimes 
 principally at dawn and nightfall she will suddenly 
 manifest herself, from her foot, jewelled with rich 
 harvests, to her brow, bare and lonely as a desert 
 all violet against the gold of the setting sun, or else 
 all gold and green against the rose and silver of the 
 daybreak. 
 
 Fuji-San, even among her loftiest sisters, is a 
 giantess, nearer, by the best calculation, to 13,000 
 than 1 2,000 feet of elevation. The legend is that 
 she rose in a single night, at about the date of 
 Alexander the Great ; and it is not impossible. In 
 806 A.D. a temple was established on the mountain 
 to the honour of the beautiful Goddess Ko-nohana- 
 saku-ya-Hime, though there is also a special deity 
 of the eminence styled, " O-ana-mochi-no-Mikoto," 
 which means " Possessor of the Great Hole or 
 Crater." As late as the fourteenth century Fuji was 
 constantly smoking, and fire is spoken of with the 
 eruptions, the last of which took place in December 
 1707, and continued for nearly forty days. The 
 Ho-yei-san, or hump on the south face, was pro-
 
 ASCENT OF FUJI-SAN. 509 
 
 bably then formed. In this, her final outbreak, 
 Fuji covered Tokio itself, sixty miles away, with 
 six inches of ash, and sent rivers of lava far and 
 wide. Since then she has slept, and only one little 
 spot underneath the Kwan-nom-Gatake, on the lip 
 of the crater, where steam exhales, and the red 
 pumice-cracks are hot, shows that the heart of this 
 huge volcano yet glows, and that she is capable of de- 
 stroying again her own beauty and the forests and rich 
 regions of fertility which clothe her knees and feet. 
 
 It is a circuit of 1 20 miles to go all round the base 
 of Fuji-San. If you could cut a tunnel through her, 
 from Yoshiwara to Kawaguchi, it would be forty 
 miles long. Generally speaking, the lower portion 
 of the mountain is cultivated to a height of 1500 
 feet, and it is a whole province which thus climbs 
 round her. From the border of the farms there 
 begins a rough and wild, but flowery moorland, 
 which stretches round the hill to an elevation of 
 4000 feet, where the thick forest-belt commences. 
 This girdles the volcano up to 7000 feet on the 
 Subashiri side and 8000 on the Murayama face, but 
 is lower to the eastward. Above the forest extends 
 a narrow zone of thicket and bush, chiefly dwarfed 
 larch, juniper, and a vaccinium; after which comes 
 the bare, burnt, and terribly majestic peak itself, 
 where the only living thing is a little yellow lichen 
 which grows in the fissures of the lava blocks, for 
 no eagle or hawk ventures so high, and the boldest 
 or most bewildered butterfly will not be seen above 
 the bushes half-way down.
 
 5 io SEAS AND LANDS. 
 
 The best indeed, the only time for the ascent 
 of the mountain is between July 15 and September 5. 
 During this brief season the snow will be melted from 
 the cone, the huts upon the path will be opened for 
 pilgrims, and there will be only the danger of getting 
 caught by a typhoon, or reaching the summit to find 
 it swathed day after day in clouds, and no view 
 obtainable. Our party of three started for the ascent 
 on August 25, taking that one of the many roads by 
 which Fuji is approached that goes by Subashiri. 
 Such an expedition may be divided into a series 
 of stages. You have first to approach the foot of 
 the mountain by train or otherwise, then to ride 
 through the long slope of cultivated region, then, 
 abandoning horses or vehicles, to traverse on foot 
 the sharper slopes of the forest belt. At the con- 
 fines of this you will reach the first station, called 
 Sho, or Go; for Japanese fancy has likened the 
 mountain to a heap of dry rice, and the stations 
 are named by rice-measure. From the first station 
 to the ninth, whatever road you take, all will be 
 hard, hot, continuous climbing. You must go by 
 narrow, bad paths, such as a goat might make, in 
 loose volcanic dust, gritty pumice, or over the 
 sharp edges of lava dykes, which cut boots and 
 sandals to shreds. Fuji-San can be easily conquered 
 by any robust person in good condition, with plenty 
 of time and perseverance ; but I would not, after my 
 experience, readily take a lady up. Ladies have 
 ascended, for the restriction no longer exists which 
 forbade the sacred mountain to women. But a
 
 ASCENT OF FUyi-SAN. 511 
 
 sprained ankle or a breakdown of ai;y sort, between 
 the fourth station and the top, especially if the 
 weather were bad, would create a most embarrassing 
 position. 
 
 To ourselves the Queen of mountains was divinely 
 favourable in point of weather and every other 
 respect Taking train from Tokio to Gotemba, a 
 station at the mountain's foot, we engaged "two- 
 men rikisha " to Subashiri ; rolling along a rough 
 but pretty country road, lined with pine and bamboo, 
 and rice fields where the early crop was already in 
 ear. Silk is a great product of the region, and piles 
 of cocoons lay in the sunshine, while the winding- 
 reel everywhere buzzed inside the cottages. From 
 time to time Fuji would reveal portions of her 
 mighty outline, but she was mainly shrouded till we 
 reached Subashiri, and put up at a native inn called 
 Yone-Yana. It is the custom with pilgrims to 
 present the flags of their sect which they bring to 
 the innkeepers, who suspend them on strings, the 
 consequence being that the little town fluttered 
 with pennons of all colours from end to end of the 
 long street, terminating and overhanging which you 
 saw Fuji-San gigantic, beautiful, terrible clearly 
 and cloudlessly shown from head to foot, promising us 
 a good reward for our climb of the morrow. In the 
 inn at night all the talk is about the volcano, the 
 state of the path, the chances of fine weather, and 
 so forth. We order three horses and six ninsoku, 
 or " leg-men," to carry the indispensable blankets 
 and provisions. They are to be ready at four o'clock
 
 512 SEAS AND LANDS. 
 
 in the morning, and we turn in early to get as much 
 sleep as possible. 
 
 At daybreak the horses arc brought, and the six 
 coolies, two by two, bind upon their backs the 
 futons and the food. We start, a long procession, 
 through a broad avenue in the forest, riding for five 
 miles, under a lovely dawn, the sun shining gloriously 
 on the forehead of Fuji, who seems farther off and 
 more immensely lofty the nearer we approach. The 
 woodland is full of wild strawberries and flowers ; 
 including tiger-lilies, clematis, Canterbury bells, 
 and the blue hotari-no-hana, or fire-fly blossom. At 
 6.3 A.M. we reach Uma-Gayeshi, or "turn-the-horses 
 back," and hence to the mountain top there is 
 nothing for it but to walk every step of the long, 
 steep, and difficult path. Two of the men with the 
 lightest loads lead the way along the narrow path, in 
 a wood so thick that we shall not see Fuji again till 
 we have passed through it It takes us every now and 
 then through the gates and precincts of little Shinto 
 temples, where the priests offer us tea or mountain 
 water. In one of these, at Ko-mitake, we are in- 
 vited to ring the brass gong in order that the deity 
 may make our limbs strong for the task before us. 
 And this is solemnly done by all hands, the ninsoku 
 slapping their brown thighs piously after sounding 
 the bell. Presently the forest clears away ; we are 
 in sunlight again, well upon the lower slopes of 
 Fuji ; but the opening is due to an awful pheno- 
 menon. In the early part of the year an avalanche 
 had descended down the valley which we are climb-
 
 ASCENT OF FUJI-SAN. 513 
 
 ing. In a single night Fuji will often collect 
 millions of tons of snow upon her cone, and then 
 will let it slip next day, as a lady puts off her bonnet 
 de nuit. One of these great snow slides has rolled 
 down our valley and crushed perfectly flat every 
 shrub and sapling and tree, on a track half a mile 
 wide right through the forest. The stoutest pines 
 and beeches, the sturdiest larches and oaks, are 
 broken short off at the root and pressed close to the 
 earth, just as when a heavy roller goes over long 
 grass. One look at this is enough to explain why it 
 is not prudent to ascend Fuji when the snow lies 
 upon her sides. 
 
 Up those sides we must now steadily trudge by a 
 path which begins unpromisingly enough, and grows 
 constantly ruder and harder. It is not so bad among 
 the dwarf alder bushes, where grows the curious 
 and very rare glabra, called by the Japanese 
 Niku, the root of which is sovereign for wounds and 
 bruises. But it is quite bad enough long before we 
 reach Shi-go-me, at 9.30 A.M., where we are to 
 breakfast. This is Station No. 4, a rude hut built of 
 black and red lava blocks, and standing at an eleva- 
 tion of 8420 feet. You will see how we have been 
 ascending. The stage on horseback from Subashiri 
 lifted us 2000 feet ; to the temple with the bell we 
 made another 2000 feet of altitude ; and now, at 
 Shi-go-me, we are 2000 feet higher still. A vast 
 stratum of clouds hides at present the lower world ; 
 but it breaks away in places to let us see and 
 admire a lovely lake shaped like the new moon, 
 
 2 K
 
 5*4 
 
 SEAS AND LANDS. 
 
 and called Mikazuki, shining in the hills near 
 Yoshida. It is already welcome enough to halt 
 and shake the sharp ashes from our boots, while we 
 drink Liebig essence in hot water and eat tinned 
 meats with an appetite sharpened by the already 
 keen air. But we have a great height yet to climb 
 to No. 6 Station, where we shall lunch, and the 
 path henceforward is of two kinds both abomin- 
 able. Either you zigzag to and fro in the loose 
 black and red ashes, too steep and slippery to climb 
 directly ; or you pick your way over the rugged 
 slag and clinkers of a lava dyke, which is like 
 ascending a shattered flight of steps or climbing 
 the face of a furnace bank. Every fifteen minutes 
 one or other of the strong mountaineers accompany- 
 ing us cries out, " O yasumi ! " and we all sink 
 gladly on the nearest block, breathing quick and 
 hard, the air being now so rarefied that it seems 
 impossible to get enough into the lungs. 
 
 After each rest, of a minute or two, we plod on 
 towards the little black lava hut marked by flutter- 
 ing red and white flags, which is our next goal ; 
 and truly very far off, and very high up, and very 
 hard to reach each in turn seems to be. Yet one 
 by one, keeping steadily at work, we attain to 
 stations "four and a half," "five," "five and a half" 
 (Gogo, go, Shaku), and then at last to No. 6 (Roku- 
 go-Me), where we stand 10,000 feet above the sea. 
 A halt is called in the little hut for "tiffin" and 
 pipes, and we are joined by a party of pilgrims 
 dressed all in white, with huge white soup-plate
 
 ASCENT OF FUyi-SAN. 515 
 
 hats, who, like ourselves, are glad enough of a little 
 rest and a whiff or two of the kiseru. Presently 
 we start again up this tremendous cone, which seems 
 to soar higher and higher in the blue the harder 
 we toil to conquer it. Nevertheless, early in the 
 afternoon we do reach Station No. 8, where we shall 
 pass the night, more than 1 1 ,000 feet above sea level. 
 Not only is the air very rarefied, but also very cold. 
 There lies a large patch of snow in a hollow of the 
 cone close by, and the water freezes where it drips 
 from the kitchen. All vegetation has vanished, 
 even the polygonum, and we are glad to unpack 
 our blankets and lie under them round the hibachi, 
 while such a meal as the mountain hut can furnish 
 is being prepared. It consists of little else than 
 small salted fish fried upon rice, but we supplement 
 it with tinned provisions, and wash it down with 
 weak whisky and water. To realise the sleep which 
 ensues after pipes and Japanese chat you must have 
 been yourself climbing from daybreak till four in the 
 afternoon. The shortest time in which the ascent 
 has been made is six hours and a half. We, taking 
 it more easily, made no attempt to beat the record, 
 and stopped frequently to botanise, geologise, &c. 
 The rarefaction of the air gave our Japanese com- 
 panion, Takeji San, a slight headache, which soon 
 passed as the circulation became accustomed to the 
 atmosphere ; but Captain Ingles and I, being, I 
 suppose, both in excellent health and strength, 
 experienced no inconvenience worth mentioning. 
 At half-past four next morning, while I was
 
 516 SEAS AND LANDS. 
 
 dreaming under my thick coverings, a hand touched 
 me and a voice said softly, " Danna Sama, hi no 
 de ! " " Master, here is the sun ! " The shoji at my 
 feet were thrown open. I looked out, almost as you 
 might from the moon, over a prodigious abyss of 
 space, beyond which the eastern rim of all the 
 world seemed to be on fire with flaming light. A 
 belt of splendid rose and gold illumined all the 
 horizon, darting long spears of glory into the dark 
 sky overhead, gilding the tops of a thousand hills, 
 scattered over the purple plains below, and casting 
 on the unbroken background of clouds beyond an 
 enormous shadow of Fuji. The spectacle was of 
 unparalleled splendour, recalling Lord Tennyson's 
 
 line 
 
 " And, in the East, 
 God made Himself an awful Rose of Dawn." 
 
 Moment by moment it grew more wonderful in 
 loveliness of colour and brilliant birth of day ; and 
 then, suddenly, just when the sun rolled into sight 
 an orb of gleaming gold, flooding the world beneath 
 with almost insufferable radiance a vast mass of 
 dense white clouds swept before the north wind 
 over the view, completely blotting out the sun, the 
 belt of rose and gold, the lighted mountains and 
 plains, and the lower regions of Fuji-San. It was 
 day again, but misty, white, and doubtful ; and when 
 we started to climb the last two stages of the cone 
 the flags of the stations were invisible, and we could 
 not know whether we should find the summit clear, 
 or wrapped in enveloping clouds.
 
 ASCENT OF FUyi-SAN. 517 
 
 All was to be fortunate, however, on this happy 
 day ; and after a hard clambering of the remaining 
 2000 feet we planted our staffs victoriously on the 
 level ground of the crater's lip, and gazed north, south, 
 east, and west through clear and cloudless atmos- 
 phere over a prodigious prospect, whose diameter 
 could not be less than 300 miles. It was one of 
 the few days when O-ana-mochi, the Lord of the 
 Great Hole, was wholly propitious ! Behind the 
 long row of little black huts, standing on the edge 
 of the mountain, gaped that awful, deadly Cup of 
 the Volcano an immense pit half a mile wide and 
 six or seven hundred feet deep, its sides black, 
 yellow, red, white, and grey, with the varying hues 
 of the lava and scoriae. In one spot, where a per- 
 petual shadow lay, from the ridge-peaks of Ken-ga- 
 mine and the Shaka-no-wari-ishi, or " Cleft Rock of 
 Buddha," gleamed a large patch of unmelted snow, 
 and there was dust-covered snow at the bottom of 
 the crater. We skirted part of the crater, passed 
 by the dangerous path which is styled " Oya-shirazu, 
 Ko-shirazu," "The place where you must forget 
 parents and children, to take care of yourself ; " saw 
 the issue of the Kim-mei-sai, or " Golden famous 
 water," and of the Gim-mei-sai, or " Silver famous 
 water," and came back to breakfast at our hut 
 silent with the delight and glory, the beauty and 
 terror of the scene. Enormous flocks of fleecy 
 clouds and cloudlets wandered in the lower air, 
 many thousand feet beneath, but nowhere concealed 
 the lakes, peaks, rivers, towns, villages, valleys, sea-
 
 5i8 SEAS AND LANDS. 
 
 coasts, islands, and distant provinces spreading out 
 all round. Imagine the prospect obtainable at 
 13,000 feet of elevation through the silvery aii of 
 Japan on a summer's morning with not a cloud, 
 except shifting, thin, and transitory ones, to veil 
 the view! I had promised a Japanese lady, with 
 whose friendship I am honoured, to carry her staff 
 up and down Fuji, and to write her a letter in verse 
 from its summit ; and I will venture to quote from 
 this letter, which I composed, wrapped in rugs and 
 coats, on the mats of the hut at the top, while our 
 rice was being cooked, since it records the actual 
 impressions of the hour : 
 
 "SUMMIT OF FDJI-YAMA, August 26, 1890 
 
 " On the top of Fuji-San 
 Now we lie ; and half Japan, 
 Like a map immense, unrolled. 
 Spreads beneath us, green and gold. 
 Southwards pale and bright the Sea 
 Shines, from distant Misaki 
 Round Atami's broken coast, 
 Till its silvery gleam is lost, 
 Mingled with the silvery sky, 
 Far away towards Narumi. 
 Northwards, yonder blink of blue 
 Over Mina and Bi-shiu 
 (Say the guides) is Biwa Lake 
 Forty ri removed to take 
 The stork's road, through the sapphire air : 
 Now, if I had his painted pair 
 Of wings, T would this moment lend 
 Those strong plumes to my absent Friend, 
 That she might come without one soil 
 Of dust on fabi, or long toil 
 Of weary walking up this steep, 
 To gaze o'er the Pacific deep,
 
 ASCENT OF FUJI-SAN. 519 
 
 Fuji's vast sides, a Mountain-world 
 With, halfway down, the soft clouds curled 
 Around her waist, an obi fair, 
 Scarlet and gold, like what you wear ! 
 
 The Rivers, running far below, 
 As white threads on a green cloth show ; 
 The towns are tiny purple spots, 
 The villages small greyish dots. 
 Over the tallest mountains round 
 We look from Fuji's monstrous mound, 
 And see clear past them, just as you 
 Spy Mita plain from Azabu. 
 O-Yama to a molehill shrinks ! 
 Bakai-Zan, now, one hardly thinks 
 As high as Kompira, that hill 
 You climbed, with such good grace and will, 
 At Ikao, in the pelting rain ; 
 We see those Ikao ranges plain, 
 Beyond Ko-shiu, and, near to view, 
 Karuizawa's green tops, too. 
 What sunny hours, what pleasant times, 
 We had there in our strolls and climbs ! 
 I like the Mountains of Japan 
 Best, at your side, O Yoshi San ! 
 
 " Gotemba to Subashiri 
 The road was rough, yet fair to see ; 
 Red lilies glittered in the grass, 
 And rice waved green as we did pass 
 Nigher to this majestic Hill, 
 Which grander grew, and statelier still 
 In ever-changing cloudy dress 
 As we drew close : her loveliness 
 Most perfect, when, at sunset-time, 
 The mists rolled from this brow sublime 
 And showed o'erhanging the long street 
 Alive with many a pilgrim's feet, 
 And fluttering with ten thousand flags 
 Proud Fuji to her topmost crags,
 
 5 2o SEAS AND LANDS. 
 
 Purple against the amber sky, 
 
 A Queen ! A World ! A Mystery ! 
 
 While yet we paced the forest road, 
 Where dark woods make a garment broad 
 For Fuji's knees, and dappled shade 
 Upon the crumbling pumice played, 
 I wished you nigh, that you might share 
 The sweetness of the morning's air, 
 The glory of the sunrise, now 
 Crowning with gold great Fuji's brow. 
 But where the avalanches tear 
 The flank of the red mountain bare, 
 And we to climb this peak began 
 'Mid rocks and dust, O Yoshi San ! 
 At each hard step I did rejoice 
 Not there to hear your lightsome voice, 
 Not there to see your zori tread 
 The way which, ever overhead, 
 % Zigzagged the shoulder of the crag, 
 All shifting lava-ash and slag. 
 Glad were we, as each point we gain, 
 To know you safe in the warm plain ! 
 
 Clambering from " Station Nine's " bleak rock, 
 
 We reached the " Cup " at eight o'clock, 
 
 Where I pen this, to keep my word, 
 
 And show that, wholly undeterred 
 
 By cold, and high up in the sky, 
 
 My thoughts back to my best friends fly 
 
 Down from the top of green Japan, 
 
 To chat with you, O Yoshi San ! 
 
 To say, " Ohayo ! " thus to you, 
 
 Through thirty ri of sundering Blue '" 
 
 We made a long march of it that day of delight ; 
 for, besides finishing the assault of the mountain 
 from the Eighth Station to the top and walking about 
 the crater's rim, we had to get all the way back on 
 foot to Uma-gayeshi, where our horses would be
 
 ASCENT OF FUyi-SAN. 521 
 
 waiting. But down-hill and up-hill are different 
 things, and though it is extremely uncomfortable 
 work, ploughing ankle-deep in lava-dust on the de- 
 scending paths, which go more directly than the 
 ascending, still we made good time, and reached 
 Ichi-go-Me, the lowest hut, by 1.30 P.M. A steep 
 descent in loose slag is perhaps worse than a steep 
 climb over lava-dykes, but does not last so long, 
 and certainly there is nothing in the feat of crown- 
 ing Fuji-San of which a reasonably vigorous man 
 has any reason to be proud. It is easy enough with 
 perseverance and good wind and legs ; but I would 
 never advise ladies to essay it, nor men not in 
 good condition. Thirteen thousand feet of altitude 
 naturally imply some sturdy exertion, and neither I 
 nor my companions would deny that the mats of the 
 inn at Subashiri seemed wonderfully soft and wel- 
 come when we threw ourselves upon them at dinner- 
 time that Wednesday evening. At the temple with 
 the bell we were duly stamped shirts, sticks, and 
 clothing with the sacred mark of the Mountain, 
 and having made the hearts of our faithful and 
 patient ninsoku glad with extra pay, turned our 
 backs on the great extinct volcano, whose crest, 
 glowing again in the morning sunlight, had no 
 longer any secrets for Captain Ingles, or Takaji San, 
 or myself. 
 
 AZABU, August 30, 1890.
 
 .CHAPTER XXXVI. 
 
 IN THE JAPANESE MOUNTAINS. 
 
 JAPAN is a land of mountains, and the Japanese pas- 
 sionately admire, and vastly delight in, the beautiful 
 highlands which diversify their Empire. Twelve- 
 thirteenths of its surface are indeed totally withdrawn 
 from cultivation, either by the broken character of 
 the country or the prevalence on the uplands and 
 ranges of dense undergrowth of bamboo-grass and 
 wild thicket, which nothing can clear away. Except 
 in small patches, therefore, where circumstances are 
 favourable to an energetic agriculture, the Japanese 
 regard and employ their mountains chiefly as delights 
 to the eye and pleasant refuges from the sultry 
 weather which is now bathing the plains in a burn- 
 ing, oppressive atmosphere. The sea coasts at this 
 season are as hot as the inland plains, or hotter, and 
 there is thus an almost universal exodus of people 
 from the cities, towns, and villages to the innumer- 
 able places of retreat perched amid the green and 
 lovely hills of Nippon. The fashion among the 
 middle and lower classes of the people is to go as 
 pilgrims. Dressed in a white haori, white drawers, 
 and white leggings that colour betokening peni- 
 tence for past sins, and a resolution, more or less
 
 A COUNTRY WOMAN. FUEL AND FLOWERS,
 
 IN THE JAPANESE MOUNTAINS. 525 
 
 earnest, to turn over a new leaf of the book of life 
 the citizen starts forth with a coloured flag, a staff, 
 a small satchel, and a straw hat, marked with the 
 symbol of his sect, for some favoured spot, high 
 among the hills, where he can unite a little devotion 
 with a great deal of pure, cool air, delightful scenery, 
 and constant bathing. He needs not to carry, and 
 he does not carry, any luggage. His bare feet want 
 no newly-washed tabi. At every yadoya he will 
 be supplied with a clean kimono for his bath and 
 dinner, with futons to sleep upon, and with the 
 simple food, supplemented by the eternal gozen (the 
 tub of boiled rice), which is all he needs, for an 
 extremely small sum per diem. Europeans are 
 naturally, and not improperly, overcharged at such 
 resorts, since they prove ofttimes difficult guests ; but 
 we a party of six have lately paid a bill at the 
 native inn of this place for four days' board and 
 lodging, together with washing and plenty of fresh 
 milk, which did but amount to eleven yen, or about 
 thirty-four shillings. With such cheap and plea- 
 sant arrangements everywhere existing, the Japanese 
 people move about their beautiful land in great 
 numbers during the summer and early autumn, 
 mostly on foot. They are in truth a nation of 
 pedestrians, at least as regards the lower classes, 
 and shuffle along with their wooden clogs or grass 
 sandals over an astonishing deal of ground. Many 
 railway lines run along the coasts or through the 
 lowlands, carrying passengers easily and quickly, if 
 not with very great comfort, in the crowded third-
 
 526 SEAS AND LANDS 
 
 class carriages, to the foot of many a splendid range 
 of mountains. Then it is but to mount with a stout 
 step to some village nestled three or four thousand 
 feet above the rice fields, where heat and mosquitoes 
 are left behind, and the boundless verdure of the 
 rolling hills, rich with a hundred flowers, restores 
 mind and body. 
 
 Above all, your Japanese loves those spots in the 
 mountains where a hot spring issues from the rocks 
 and can be utilised for baths more or less medicinal. 
 Ikao, whither we have lately repaired, is a good 
 specimen of such a place. From a lovely glen in 
 the cleft of a ridge there issues here a thin but 
 strong stream of warm water, so impregnated with 
 sulphides of iron and soda that it colours all its 
 channel a bright golden-yellow, as it bubbles and 
 smokes downwards to lose itself in the larger 
 torrents. Such a gift from the subterranean world 
 and such gifts abound almost always creates in 
 Japan a town or village for its due enjoyment. Ikao 
 climbs up the mountain alongside its precious rillet 
 of the " O Yu " in a street of stone stairs more 
 precipitous and picturesque than any in Malta ; and 
 all the inns and most of the houses lead a private 
 trickle of the hot spring through bamboo pipes into 
 a bath-house, where, three or four times a day, 
 visitors or residents sit up to their necks in the 
 soft embrace of the liquid heated for them in the 
 underground furnaces of our Planet. There is much 
 simplicity and very little concealment about the 
 system of these Japanese spas. The business of
 
 IN THE JAPANESE MOUNTAINS. 527 
 
 the place is to bathe, and, with or without garments, 
 everybody is always bathing, as always the golden 
 water is bubbling down from the dark rocks which 
 are overshadowed with all kinds of strange trees, 
 and clad with ferns, squills, wild clematis, and the 
 Canterbury bell, called here " chochin no hctna" 
 the lantern-flower. 
 
 Our party of six, including the two Japanese 
 ladies, mounted to Ikao by a long string of jin- 
 rikishas, each drawn by two men. The ascent 
 occupies four hours, and the kurumayas stop twice 
 or thrice to refresh. Sharply the little vehicles 
 wheel round at the front of the chaya ; the musumes 
 raise a chorus of irrashais ; the travellers dismount 
 and sip tea or barley-water ; the rikisha-men wring 
 the perspiration from their headcloths and coats, 
 wash down their tattooed bodies with cold water, 
 rinse out their mouths, eat a bowl of rice soaked 
 with hot tea, and are ready again for a long spell of 
 uphill work. In the heart of the hills kurumas 
 cannot pass, and you must tramp afoot to the many 
 lovely spots of interest, or ride in the kago, a con- 
 trivance of luxurious ease for the native, but of 
 swiftly-increasing torture to the foreigner. It is 
 like the lid of a big basket suspended on a stout 
 bamboo, and you must sit on your feet, or cross them 
 against the slings of the kago either position 
 speedily resolving itself for the inexperienced into 
 something between paralysis and the rack. For the 
 most part, therefore, during the many and delightful 
 excursions made from Ikao as a centre our kagos
 
 528 SEAS AND LANDS. 
 
 followed us empty, for even our fair Japanese com- 
 panions proved excellent pedestrians, and tripped 
 and glittered through the winding woods and over 
 the wild moorlands, clad every day in some new 
 and bright kimono, which made them look like 
 butterflies or birds. Thus, taking each day our 
 ample tiffin to enjoy in some lovely sylvan recess, 
 some ancient temple, or by the music and coolness 
 of some lonely cascade, we visited Benten-no-taki, 
 the waterfall of the Goddess of Mercy ; Kompira 
 Yama, the Hill of the Gods, whence half Japan 
 seemed to stretch out, green and tranquil, at our 
 happy feet ; Mizu-sawa, where we lunched at the 
 foot of the altar of Buddha, under carvings of scarlet 
 and gold, and diapered ceilings, and tall black 
 waving cryptomerias, in a spot so solemn and beau- 
 tiful that the Gods might have joined our repast ; 
 Yumoto, the Glen of the Spring, greener and more 
 gloriously decked with ferns and wild flowers than 
 any Devonshire or Scottish coombe or corrie ; and, 
 best and most beautiful of all, Haruna, the " Village 
 of the Gods," hard to be reached, but worth all the 
 fatigue of a long and steep tramp. 
 
 One of the very fairest spots I have seen on this 
 earth lies midway between Ikao and Haruna. It is 
 a wooded ridge, commanding on either side a view 
 of vast expanse and supreme beauty. To the left 
 opens the verdant Haruna vale, the narrow path 
 winding down into a wilderness of dark majestic 
 forests, flowery hill-sides, fantastic rocks, and foam- 
 ing torrents ; to the right a lovely lake sleeps in the
 
 2 L
 
 IN THE JAPANESE MOUNTAINS. 531 
 
 green basin which was once a crater, surrounded by 
 hills of wild and wonderful shapes, and moorlands 
 painted with stretches of white, and red, and yellow 
 blossoms, and patches of black, and purple, and 
 saffron soil. The profusion of lilies growing on these 
 level spaces was truly astonishing. We plunged 
 through the bamboo-grass and reeds, gathering 
 indiscriminately the blood-red tiger-lily, the white 
 lily, the crown-imperial, the golden lily peculiar 
 to Japan and now and again superb sticks of the 
 Lilium auratum, the great cream-coloured bloom, 
 spangled with gold, and silver, and purple, the 
 fragrance of which is as delicious as its grace of 
 shape and hue is perfect. Our ladies came down 
 the last of the hills homeward bearing not merely 
 bouquets, but sheaves of the floral plunder. It was 
 like a procession from a picture of Cimabue, Giotto, 
 or Fra Angelico ; and I think if their descended 
 angels had to choose an earthly dress, the bright 
 and graceful kimono and obi of O Fuku San and 
 O Yoshi San would have surely appeared as near 
 to the charm of a Celestial toilette as earthly fabrics 
 and fashions can well go ! And, after such a long, 
 hard tramp over the mountains, who can exaggerate 
 the delights of the Japanese bath? It is the first 
 thing we all think of, and say, Yu ni iketai "I 
 wish to go into the honourable hot water ! " Dis- 
 carding all garments but the loose, comfortable 
 kimono, and even forgetting to inquire if dinner be 
 ready, we troop down to the bathing-house. There a 
 row of little chambers contain each an oblong tank,
 
 532 SEAS AND LANDS. 
 
 level with the sloping floor, into which, through 
 bamboo pipes, the hot mineral stream jets. Its tem- 
 perature is about no degrees, but you may modify 
 this with buckets of cold water, placed at hand. 
 The soft caress of the subterranean lymph seems in 
 a moment to dissipate all bodily fatigue. Up to 
 your chin in the subtly-medicated tide, you meditate 
 placidly on the adventures of the day, the varied 
 pictures of the hills, the moorland gilded with the 
 yellow lilies, the chatter of the walk, half English, 
 half Japanese. It is useless to dress in the hot little 
 furo-do. Every pore of the body is open, and towels 
 are of no avail. Wrapped again in the kimono, you 
 emerge into the open air, without the smallest fear 
 of catching cold, and wonder no longer that the 
 whole place exists solely for the joy of dabbling 
 perpetually in the delicious volcanic rivulet. 
 
 The drawback of these delectable Japanese moun- 
 tains is their lack of animal life. Hardly a bird 
 or beast will be seen or heard, and Nature appears 
 depopulated. Upon all the long walk to and 
 from Haruna I did but see, apart from the crows 
 and high-flying birds, one brown snake and one lark. 
 One hears occasionally the uguisu, called by flattery 
 the "Japan nightingale" known to science as the 
 Cettria cantans but its notes, though sweet, are 
 not sustained. There are bears, foxes, badgers, and 
 even deer in the Haruna jungles, and in bygone 
 days there were plenty of monkeys, but none are 
 seen now. Possibly the dense clothing of the hills, 
 which are swathed from base to summit in tussock
 
 IN THE JAPANESE MOUNTAINS. 533 
 
 grass and dwarf bamboo, forbids the prevalence of 
 small life. On the other hand, butterflies are 
 numerous and splendid, a great black species, large 
 as a bat, with bronze and green reflections, an amber 
 and brown variety, a saffron and red, a green and 
 gold swallow-tail, and abundance of brimstones, 
 peacocks, purple Emperors, and red Admirals. But, 
 as a rule, these fair vistas are desolate of that wild 
 life which adds so much to the charm of other 
 Highlands. 
 
 From Ikao we descended the mountain slopes in 
 a long line of jinrikishas, the men stripping to the 
 hot work, and disclosing wonderful patterns of blue 
 and red tattooing upon their brown, perspiring 
 bodies. All along the foot of these hills lies the 
 region of silk. Every field is full of dwarf mulberry 
 trees, and every cottage hums with the silk winding 
 wheel, while piles of white cocoons are spread out 
 in the sun to dry. Next to rice the silk crop of 
 Japan is of chief importance, and it was curious 
 to reflect how the fine threads which the country 
 mother was winding, her baby at her breast, and 
 her pipe in her mouth, would glisten and " frou 
 frou " in Paris or London, or New York the robe 
 of some proud beauty who never heard of Ikao or 
 Idzuka. On the road I saw the loveliest lily ever 
 beheld large blossoms of the purest rose-colour, 
 with white and crimson spangles on each petal. 
 The lotus was also flowering in many places, being 
 cultivated for food, its bloom very stately in size 
 and shape, and of pure white or pink. At Idzuka
 
 534 SEAS AND LANDS. 
 
 the train receives us, and carries us round the 
 range as far as Yokogawa, whence we ascend the 
 mountains again to Karuizawa, nearly 4000 feet 
 above the hot and steaming plains. This station, 
 very popular in the summer with foreigners and 
 Japanese alike, sits high in the clouds upon a 
 curious table-land, surrounded by picturesque hills. 
 One crag, called the Cathedral Rock, really re- 
 sembles very closely the Cathedral of Durham, and 
 near it rises Asama Yama, with steep red sides and 
 smoking apex a still active volcano, and one which 
 everybody ascends. The signs of its activity are 
 everywhere ; all the ground is covered with pumice 
 and ash, and if a cutting be made you can see how, 
 at intervals measured by centuries, the " Hill of the 
 Morning Fires " has covered all the region with 
 black death and desolation, over which Nature and 
 Time have slowly spread a growing mantle of life 
 and verdure, to be again and again obliterated by an 
 eruption. A delightful excursion made here on foot 
 was to Kosei, the glen in the hills where a thin 
 sulphuretted stream issues from the dark crags. 
 There was a bathing-house and little yadoya there, 
 but too remote to be prosperous, and the aruji, the 
 proprietor, offered us the whole establishment at a 
 low price. The hill-sides were covered with wild 
 raspberries of a delicate flavour, and blue and white 
 with the campanula and clematis. We came down 
 again to the railway, and so to Tokio, in heavy rain, 
 and by a bad and broken road but a kuruma can 
 pass almost anywhere, and I am quite sure immense
 
 IN THE JAPANESE MOUNTAINS. 535 
 
 use might be made of them in war. If I were a 
 general conducting an Indian campaign, I would try 
 to have two or three thousand jinrikishas over from 
 Japan. There is nothing they could not do in 
 the way of transport, wherever two men can walk 
 abreast, and where there exists any sort of path ; 
 and they can pull 200 Ibs. weight for forty or fifty 
 miles, on a little rice and hot tea laughing and 
 chattering all the while. 
 
 KARUIZAWA, July 28,
 
 CHAPTER XXXVII. 
 
 EASTERN FORTITUDE. 
 
 " KORERA-BYO," as the Japanese style the Asiatic 
 cholera, has severely visited the Southern littoral 
 of this Empire during the present hot season. We 
 have been losing, even in our lightly-visited capital, 
 sixty to eighty citizens a day by the pest ; but 
 Tokio has not suffered nearly so much as Nagasaki 
 and Osaka. Up to Saturday last the complete re- 
 turns for the whole country were 21,116 cases, and 
 13,141 deaths; and in Tokio the figures given 
 yesterday were, from Saturday noon to Monday 
 noon, 93 cases and 60 deaths. You will observe 
 how very heavy is the proportion of fatal results 
 everywhere ; nor do I find by the closest inquiry 
 that any of the devoted medical men, native and 
 foreign, who are combating this scourge have hit 
 upon any successful new treatment, or confirmed 
 the utility of the old-established remedies. When 
 the attack has advanced to a certain stage it is a 
 question of good nursing and of natural forces. 
 But even among those who escape the direct assault 
 of the deadly enemy, multitudes succumb to the 
 fevers and internal mischiefs which follow a bad 
 
 bout of the spasms, and ultimately collapse, so that 
 
 536
 
 EASTERN FORTITUDE. 537 
 
 the percentage of deaths is really very sad, and I 
 dare not believe that twenty out of a hundred of 
 the victims of the pest carry their lives safely out 
 of the peril. 
 
 I dwell upon the dismal topic only because the 
 system pursued by the Japanese authorities is very 
 intelligent, courageous, and thorough ; and well 
 deserves attention. Cholera does not appear to be 
 endemic in Japan, as in India and other countries ; 
 but comes over here every year, more or less, from 
 infected Eastern ports. This season it was China 
 which exported the plague to us. A steamer came 
 in from Shanghai with undetected cases on board ; 
 they landed at Nagasaki, and very soon afterwards 
 the disease began to spread, chiefly in the quarter 
 of the city originally attacked. It is a long way 
 from Nagasaki to Tokio probably 600 miles; but 
 there runs a railway for 330 miles of the distance, 
 and it is always pretty certain that the cholera 
 will make its march over the intervening space in 
 about one month. Nagasaki was isolated, as far as 
 was possible. Ships coming thence to Yokohama 
 had to go into the quarantine ground, and railway 
 trains were inspected and disinfected, often at con- 
 siderable inconvenience to the passengers. During 
 the summer-time there is an universal exodus of 
 foreigners to the hills. The Legations close, and 
 the diplomats flock to Ikao, Nikko, Karuizawa, 
 Miyanoshita, or elsewhere ; schools and colleges are 
 shut ; and public officials get their annual holiday. 
 All these eminent and important persons naturally
 
 538 SEAS AND LANDS. 
 
 hoped that the cholera would not come to Tokio 
 and Yokohama, or would have cleared out in a be- 
 coming manner before they must return to duty and 
 the lower world. Those among us who stuck to the 
 great city, willing to take our chances with its 
 kindly, bright, industrious, and patient population, 
 issued decrees to the cook-house to boil the water 
 and the milk, and see that the fish was fresh and 
 the rice sweet. Cholera was sure to come, and did 
 very soon arrive, in its usual mysterious fashion. 
 
 There was a Turkish frigate in the Bay of Yoko- 
 hama called the Ertogroul. She had brought over 
 to Japan the Grand Star of the Medjidieh for the 
 Emperor of Japan ; and Osman Pasha, the Admiral 
 in command, a most accomplished and charming 
 gentleman, had been received with high honours 
 at the Shiro, and was already very popular in our 
 society. I was one day on board his ship, in company 
 with the United States Admiral, and while drinking 
 the superb coffee and delicate rose-water sherbet 
 which the Pasha's hospitality proffered, noticed a 
 verse in Arabic from the " Sura of the Kingdom " 
 to the effect that " Whom He will He slayeth, and 
 whom He will He doth save alive." Next day the 
 verse found grim illustration. The Ertogroul got 
 first one case of cholera, then seven, then sixteen ; 
 and had to go out to sea to drop overboard in deep 
 water those " who had attained the mercy of Allah." 
 Then Yokohama caught it badly, and Tokio began 
 to suffer, ever since when we have had a steady 
 record of attacks and deaths, a true and severe
 
 EASTERN FORTITUDE. 539 
 
 visitation of the hateful malady, which, speaking as 
 an outsider, and from Indian experience, would surely 
 have swelled to something terrible but for the per- 
 fectly cool, fearless, practical, and enlightened way 
 in which the Japanese authorities do battle with the 
 dreaded foe. 
 
 Their central idea is to isolate every case as it 
 occurs, and, the police being pretty well omnipotent, 
 this is not so difficult here as it would prove else- 
 where. At the approach of the enemy the executive 
 and civil authorities laid their heads together, got 
 hospitals ready, appointed medical and administra- 
 tive staffs, decided on the methods to be adopted as 
 to disinfectants, conveyance of patients, isolation of 
 relatives and houses, and disposal of corpses, and 
 then issued clear instructions in every ken and cho. 
 When the foe was upon us they made an excellent 
 beginning by severely punishing two medical men 
 who concealed cases of cholera. Rich and poor 
 people alike naturally hate to be " spotted," cut 
 off, carried to the hospital, and buried with scanty 
 ceremony after demise ; so the rich will pay for 
 concealment and the poor will implore it. Our 
 Tokio municipality nipped that in the bud by 
 swingeing penalties on the unfaithful practitioners, 
 and long terms of imprisonment ; after which the 
 danger rather was that zealous doctors would call 
 every casual stomach-ache resulting from too much 
 boiled lotus-stem or unboiled fish " cholera." For, 
 once declared, a policeman in blue or green spec- 
 tacles and a sword comes to the door, makes solemn
 
 540 SEAS AND LANDS. 
 
 notes of all particulars, orders the kago, and off the 
 patient must go to the sheds, where seventy die out 
 of the hundred ; unless the domestic arrangements 
 are such that there can be surety of isolation, under 
 strict surveillance. Now, the hospital is naturally 
 dreaded. Many Japanese women, and even men 
 with their sensitive natures die actually and posi- 
 tively from the depressing fact of heing there good 
 as the treatment is, kindly and brave the nursing, 
 and fearless and devoted the medical assistance. In 
 consequence, the poor people will not proclaim to 
 the doctors the beginning of their attack. They 
 allow the insidious preliminary symptoms to go on, 
 hoping to pull through. It is to this, I think, that 
 the excessive mortality revealed in our present re- 
 turns must be attributed ; to the delay in confessing 
 to an attack, universally practised by the poor, which 
 gives medical science too little opportunity of action. 
 The type of cholera commonest among us is not the 
 worst, or else the cholera hospitals seem especially 
 quiet and painless, because of the extreme gentle- 
 ness and resignation of the Japanese character. 
 You would not know if you passed through the 
 day's quota of cases that seventy per cent, of those 
 amiable, placid, suffering people are already as 
 good as dead ; and in the convalescent ward you 
 would hardly believe that the smiling, grateful, con- 
 tented, but sadly worn and tortured faces have come 
 out of the Valley of the Shadow I gathered that 
 everything had been tried. Hypodermic injection of 
 morphia is useful at the beginning, and afterwards
 
 EASTERN FORTITUDE. 541 
 
 good nursing, chafing, chloroform, if the heart will 
 bear it. As much drink as they like, contrary to 
 the old treatment. At best a sad place, the cholera 
 hospital is rendered noble and tolerable only by the 
 high courage of the nurses and doctors, the helpful- 
 ness of man to man under darkest circumstances, 
 and the pretty self-respecting way in which my 
 Japanese fellow-citizens men, women, and children 
 know how to die. 
 
 During the present visitation, and under this 
 Japanese system, we see curious sights. A small 
 ring of people will be collected round a poor fellow 
 lying on the ground, who has been attacked. Inside 
 the ring the policeman, in white clothes, his sword 
 under his arm, note-book in hand, and spectacles on 
 his nose, takes down with unbroken calm the neces- 
 sary particulars demanded by Government. Not 
 until all is known about name, residence, business, 
 and relatives, will the people with the stretcher be 
 allowed to convey the patient away, and where he 
 lay on the ground a pail of whitewash will be 
 directly spilled and spread. An American doctor of 
 my acquaintance, seeing a poor fellow on the road 
 in this plight, had ample time to ride home, fetch 
 restoratives and medicines, and return to the spot 
 before the police-officer had completed the elaborate 
 particulars which he was entering in hiragana upon 
 his note-book. At another time, in passing down 
 Kyobashi, or threading the back lanes of Kojimachi, 
 your jinrikisha-ma,n will give a sudden little nervous 
 twist of the shafts to the kuruma, which you per-
 
 542 SEAS AND LANDS. 
 
 ceive has been done in order to avoid that one 
 little tenement in the street with the shoji and 
 mado all flung wide open. The grim and dismal 
 visitant, the " Korera-byo," has made his call there, 
 though why he should come to the basket-maker's 
 midway between the toy-shop and the bakehouse, 
 where they make the little green and purple cakes, 
 is a mystery not to be solved. You look right 
 through the house, for everything has been thrown 
 open to the winds and rains of heaven. Mats, 
 walls, and shutters have been plentifully and uncom- 
 fortably lime-washed, and in their ruined and deso- 
 late home are patiently seated a woman and baby 
 and a small boy who must not emerge till their 
 quarantine is complete. Outside the house a little 
 square space of ground is also lime-washed, in the 
 midst of which sits the inevitable policeman in white 
 uniform with sword and blue spectacles, leaning back 
 in his chair and reading the " Nichi Nichi Shimbun " 
 or the " Yugata." Anybody wishing to enter the 
 premises would be accosted, and repulsed by him 
 with extreme politeness, and, if politeness failed, 
 with the edge or point of the big sword laid across 
 his knees. Japanese methods admit no interference 
 or nonsense of any kind ; and I believe it is entirely 
 due to this rigid system that the cholera has passed 
 from individual to individual without any great 
 leaps and bounds, and that the daily returns are 
 now happily declining. Moreover, the hot weather 
 is coming to an end. Constant and heavy showers 
 of rain have flushed all the open drains and ditches ;
 
 EASTERN FORTITUDE. 543 
 
 rice is cheaper, and the rice-fields promise splendidly ; 
 so that, if no recrudescence of the dreadful plague 
 should befall us, it looks as if Japan may be quit 
 this year of the penalty of her neighbourhood to 
 China with a death-tribute of not more than 20,000 
 lives. But among them what patient, hard-working 
 fathers, what gentle wives and mothers, what pretty 
 little children ! How long will science allow the 
 cholera-bacillus to kill us in this stupid and unlovely 
 manner ? 
 
 I may add that the custom of perpetual tea- 
 drinking greatly helps the Japanese in such a season 
 as this. When they are thirsty they go to the tea- 
 pot, and the boiled water makes them pretty safe 
 against the perils of the neighbouring well. There 
 is beside a general and widespread intelligence as 
 to the advantage of boiling water and milk, and 
 dipping vegetables and fruit in boiling water, though 
 I am afraid a large majority believes still more 
 implicitly in the virtue of the bit of paper with a 
 charm in Chinese which they buy from the priest 
 at the temple, or in the occasional swallowing of 
 a small picture of the Buddha upon tissue paper. 
 As usual, the worst ravages of the malady have 
 been among the poor and ill-fed, and the pest has 
 thus far almost entirely spared resident Europeans. 
 Another point in favour of the Japanese is their 
 natural freedom from panic. Fear, in any form, is 
 not a vice of this high-tempered and admirable 
 population, whose religion has never taught them 
 to dread the inevitable. At no time has there been
 
 544 SEAS AND LANDS. 
 
 the slightest difficulty in procuring nurses, bearers, 
 and people to disinfect and carry away corpses ; in 
 fact, the service seems rather popular. I think I 
 have never seen a severe and cruel visitation of 
 cholera met with a finer equanimity among a poor 
 community, or a greater intelligence and bettei 
 resolution on the part of a Government. 
 
 AZABU, Sept. 17, 1890.
 
 CHAPTER XXXVIII. 
 
 AN AFTERNOON WITH THE MIKADO. 
 
 THE year in this our Japanese capital brings round 
 no anniversary more notable or more eagerly expected 
 by the " Upper Ten " of Tokio than the Garden 
 Party of the Emperor, which is held on or about 
 the 1 2th of every November, in the spacious 
 demesnes of one of the Royal Palaces at Asakusa. 
 His Majesty does not often appear in public, for the 
 traditions of the old days when the Mikado lived as 
 invisible and almost as much venerated as a god, 
 are still strong, although Japan is by this time in 
 her twenty-fourth year of Meiji, the Great Restora- 
 tion. It is, indeed, nearly a quarter of a century 
 since Jishin, the " political earthquake," broke 
 up the foundations of society in Dai Nippon, 
 abolished the Shogunate, gave back to the throne 
 of Japan reality and majesty, and transformed the 
 nation, almost by magic, from an Asiatic oligarchy 
 to a Power modelled on the latest European systems. 
 The Emperor represents, and is contemporaneous 
 with, this immense and unprecedented revolution ; 
 but, resolutely and loyally as he accepts and per- 
 forms all his imperial and constitutional duties, the 
 influence of the vast, the almost interminable and 
 
 547
 
 54 8 SEAS AND LANDS. 
 
 immemorial past of his dynasty is naturally strong 
 upon him, and he passes most of his days in the 
 stately seclusion of his palace gardens at Nagata-Ch6, 
 or some other imperial abode. All the more eagerly 
 is any occasion welcomed, such as the annual 
 garden party, when he mixes quite freely with a 
 large concourse of his devoted subjects, together 
 with the diplomats and representative ladies and 
 gentlemen of the foreign community in Tokio and 
 Yokohama. It is the Festival of the Chrysanthemum 
 which brings with it so happy an innovation, for at 
 this time of year the flower par excellence of Japan, 
 the national Kiku, is everywhere in glowing and 
 glorious bloom, and the ostensible reason for the 
 gathering in the Asakusa Palace Gardens is there- 
 fore to view the innumerable and splendid specimens 
 of this special plant of Nippon which the skilful 
 gardeners of the Court have reared during the 
 year past. Everywhere are now chrysanthemum 
 shows and chrysanthemum parties, and while private 
 gardens are embellished with choice displays in all 
 sorts of colours, the hillsides and lanes are also full 
 of the more modest and quiet wild blooms of the 
 same imperial plant, which grows everywhere, and 
 is everywhere, even in the simplest specimens, bright 
 and pretty. In one quarter of the capital may, 
 indeed, be seen at present an exhibition of all the 
 principal events in Japanese history and mythology 
 worked out in chrysanthemums of every imaginable 
 hue. The plants are made to grow to the shape 
 of the figures to be represented, and then nicely
 
 AN AFTERNOON WITH THE MIKADO. 549 
 
 trimmed, so as to let the flowers compose almost 
 entirely the colours and outlines of the costume. A 
 suitable mask is added, with foot-gear, arms, equip- 
 ments, and accessories ; and thousands of citizens 
 flock forth to study the pages of their national 
 annals and religious traditions done thus to the 
 vegetable life in the national blossom. 
 
 Of course, the Imperial gardeners showed samples 
 of the Kiku, which were well worth the study and 
 admiration of all florists and botanists, if attention 
 could have been devoted to them. There is nothing 
 to be seen at your own Temple Gardens, or at any 
 other centre of the cultivation of the " golden- 
 bloom " in England, to compare with the really 
 marvellous developments of the Kiku, under Japa* 
 nese hands. Ranging through an endless number 
 of colours, and displaying all forms and fashions of 
 structure, the beautiful plant shows in one place a 
 cluster of close and compact stars of varying hues, 
 in all the tones and tints of white, yellow, russet, 
 amber, purple, and cream ; and in another fantastic 
 and dishevelled yet wildly symmetrical blooms, the 
 petals flung abroad from the corolla in beautiful 
 profusion of scattered loveliness and glory ; some as 
 if of shot-silk or satin ; some revealing a sober lining 
 splendidly contrasted with the brilliant upper sur- 
 face ; some in tangled delicacies of one and the same 
 rich tint the sum-total of their blossoms proudly 
 recorded on wooden tablets, which also bear the 
 highly fanciful and poetical titles allotted to their 
 productions by the Imperial uekeya. " Fountain of
 
 55 
 
 SEAS AND LANDS. 
 
 milk," "White bird of the moonlight," "Golden 
 glory of the hill," " Star of six hundred rays," 
 " Nightingale's delight," " Rising Sun," " Splendour 
 of Japan," "Queen's fingers," "Golden Throne- 
 studs," " Stork's crest," and " Winglet of wild duck " 
 were among these imaginative appellations ; but the 
 graceful and nodding beauties which bore them 
 had to put up with much neglect on this occasion, 
 
 INVITATION TO THE EMPEROR'S GARDEN PARTY. 
 
 because, if as it presently turned out Majesty kept 
 its word, and put in an appearance, everybody must 
 be on the spot at the moment of the Royal approach. 
 Accordingly we are all grouped together, with our 
 backs to the beauties of the parterre, in a mass of 
 some five or six hundred people who have been
 
 AN AFTERNOON WITH THE MIKADO. 551 
 
 honoured with the great square cards of invitation 
 to this high function. The Royal card, printed in 
 gold, enjoins all alike to wear frock-coats ("frokko 
 cotto ") and silk hats ; and thus we all look more 
 or less alike diplomats, generals, naval officers, 
 ministers, and private persons diversified only by 
 the Gorman officials in long robes of white, and 
 Puritan hats with amber strings, and the ever grace- 
 ful costume of some Japanese ladies present, who 
 have proved faithful even against Court fashion 
 to kimono and obi. The scene is a vast garden, so 
 full of winding walks, hillocks covered with large 
 trees and thickets of bamboo, pools, bridges, little 
 temples, and cascades, that you might believe your- 
 self deep in the Japanese country, instead of being 
 in the heart of this great city with its thirteen 
 hundred thousand inhabitants. The throng of polite 
 and fashionable folk, which has broken up into 
 knots, conversing in Japanese and almost all the 
 other known tongues, suddenly falls to " Attention," 
 for the strains of the National Anthem of Dai Nippon 
 sounds from the gaily-garbed band. " The Emperor 
 is Coming ! " The Ministers of the Cabinet and the 
 foreign representatives take up a more or less orderly 
 position to the right ; others arrange themselves on 
 the left-hand side. We make a long and wide lane 
 for the Imperial party, which now draws nigh, 
 walking from a kiosk in the gardens to the refresh- 
 ment tents beyond the flower-sheds. 
 
 His Imperial Majesty comes first, and all alone ! 
 I have often seen him, and always find the same
 
 552 SEAS AND LANDS. 
 
 difficulty in analysing my own impressions, or 
 conveying them, as to that impassive, reserved, 
 changeless, dark, far-removed countenance. I have 
 seen it all day long in the smoke of the mimic 
 battles at Nagoya, and all night long in the festal 
 halls at the Shiro, and at receptions and Court 
 ceremonies ; but I never witnessed the slightest 
 alteration of its fixed immobile features. Only a 
 flatterer could call the proud cold face handsome, 
 and only an enemy or a soshi would, I think, style 
 its austere constraint and lofty discontent ill-looking. 
 It is a typical Japanese man's face, in many points. 
 You shall see a thousand such in a week's travelling 
 hereabouts, but this one stands apart in character 
 as in elevation, touched in its most ordinary lines 
 and lineaments with an almost marble reticence and 
 an ironclad refusal to be common, even if Nature has 
 stamped it common, in so much that the slightest 
 bend of the brow in salutation appears to be the 
 result of a superhuman effort of reluctant wilL One 
 would say this is a Mikado of the past, who is 
 obliged to belong to and to bow before the too- 
 prevailing present, but who nevertheless keeps his 
 secret soul apart in the stern and great society of 
 his ancestors, and " with the far-off company of 
 antique Shinto gods." He walks between us alone ; 
 his arm too sacred, too separate, to be taken in 
 public even by the Empress, who comes behind, a 
 small, exquisitely-graceful lady dressed in a mauve 
 satin toilette of Parisian style and mauve bonnet, 
 with parasol to match, all borne with the utmost
 
 AN AFTERNOON WITH THE MIKADO. 553 
 
 charm and becomingness. Behind her Imperial 
 Majesty, also passing singly, a bevy of ladies of the 
 Court, all but one in European dress ; and following 
 the ladies, the gentlemen of the palace, in black 
 frock-coats and tall hats. His Majesty wears the un- 
 dress uniform of a general cherry-coloured trousers 
 and black frogged coat braided with gold lace, and 
 on the small, close-cut brows a kepi of scarlet with 
 gold band. His bow, in recognition of all our bare 
 and bended heads, is the slightest possible inclination 
 which rigid muscles can make, yet withal accom- 
 panied by a glance, kindly, benign, and full of evident 
 goodwill, for his lips almost smile, his eyes are alert 
 and lighted, his air is, one might almost dare to say, 
 genial ; and these nods of the Japanese Jove must be 
 measured by loyalty with a micrometer. Moreover, 
 when we pass into the refreshment tent, and the 
 Emperor and Empress take their seats, the etiquette 
 observed around is by no means stiff. We may 
 approach the royal table and speak with friends 
 there sitting close to the Majesty of Japan ; nay, 
 when champagne has been quaffed and mayonnaise 
 of lobster or chicken tasted, the Emperor endures 
 very humanly to have personage after personage 
 presented to him, and addresses to some of them 
 to the writer of these notes among many that were 
 more worthy some gracious and friendly words in 
 the soft Japanese, which he always speaks. The 
 ladies of the Court and the gentlemen mingle mean- 
 while with the throng, and chat, sans ceremonie, 
 with friends therein. We enjoy the honour of
 
 554 SEAS AND LANDS. 
 
 acquaintance with one of the ladies in waiting, 
 who tells us pleasing stories of the goodness and 
 grace of her Imperial Majesty ; and when we regret 
 that Japanese dress seems discarded, invites us to 
 come and inspect the splendid kimono, obi, and 
 kanzashi which the palace wardrobes contain. Soon 
 the procession of departure is re-formed, and the 
 Imperial party returns, the Empress again follow- 
 ing the Emperor, while the plaintive strains of the 
 National Hymn are once more heard, and we saunter 
 out of the palace gardens, between files of bowing 
 servitors and police, into a great crowd of Japanese 
 citizens eagerly waiting at the guarded gates to 
 catch but a glimpse of the gold chrysanthemums on 
 the panels of the carnage which conveys their well- 
 beloved and deeply-venerated Sovereign Lord. 
 
 The Potentate with whom we have thus passed 
 so easy and informal an afternoon in the groves of 
 Asakusa first of his line visible to ordinary eyes in 
 such a manner is named Mutsuhito, and was born 
 at the ancient capital of Kyoto on Nov. 3, 1852 
 being, therefore, thirty-nine years old. He is the 
 second son of the late Emperor Komei and of the 
 Empress Fujiwara Asako. He succeeded to the 
 throne in February 1866, but was not crowned until 
 October 12, 1868, after the troublous times of the 
 Great Revolution, which he now represents, had 
 quieted down. The gracious lady his consort, in 
 the mauve robe from Paris, with the black hair 
 banded so demurely over her small dark forehead, is 
 Haruko, Empress of Japan, third daughter of Ichijo
 
 AN AFTERNOON WITH THE MIKADO. 555 
 
 Tadaka, a noble of the first rank. Her Imperial 
 Majesty was born on May 28, 1850, and is therefore 
 slightly older than her august spouse. The one 
 and only babe whom she bore to Mutsuhito a 
 prince died before he had well drawn breath ; 
 but His Majesty, following the custom of his 
 ancestors, has fairly assured the succession with 
 children born to him by the various Princesses who 
 also share his royal affections. The Prince Yoshihito, 
 son of the Lady Yanagiwara, is thus heir-apparent, 
 and has for half-sisters the Princess Shigeko, daughter 
 of the Lady Ume-no-Miya, and the Princess Fusako, 
 baby-child of the Lady Sono. Deprived thus far of 
 the glory of seeing her own offspring inheritor of the 
 antique splendours of the Mikadoship, Her Majesty 
 the Empress relaxes nothing of her devotion to her 
 lord and to his land and subjects. A true Japa- 
 nese woman in that almost divine self-abnegation, 
 patience, and dutifulness which are the common 
 qualities of the gentle daughters of the land, she is 
 a veritable Mother of her Nation, never wearied of 
 good works, and foremost in encouraging all wise 
 social reforms. Her hand as well as that of the 
 Emperor is always stretched forth to help in 
 times of calamity, or famine, or pestilence, such as 
 Japan has unhappily passed through of late. Small 
 in stature, even for a Japanese woman, she contrasts 
 all the more strongly with her Imperial husband, 
 who is taller than the majority of his lieges. He 
 has had the genius, or good fortune, to know how 
 to reconcile in his person the old times and the
 
 556 SEAS AND LANDS. 
 
 new, preserving with high propriety the reserve 
 and distance of his ancestral prototypes who, even 
 while they were the puppets of the Shogunate, 
 ranked well-nigh as gods in the estimation of the 
 Japanese people but accepting and faithfully dis- 
 charging the duties of a constitutional monarch, and 
 taking an active and intelligent part in the affairs 
 of his empire, particularly in all that relates to the 
 army and navy. His Majesty is full of trust in the 
 future greatness of Japan, and proud of her ancient 
 glories. Some Japanese gentlemen of high family 
 brought lately to my house in Azabu a long scroll 
 of silk and birdskin, whereon was painted the 
 invasion of Japan by Kublai Khan. The scroll 
 measured more than 50 feet in length, and was 
 mounted richly with gold and crystals. Documents 
 accompanying it, and the antique lettering of the 
 pictures, confirmed the statement that it had reposed 
 in the keeping of the same family since 1 280 A.D., 
 the date of its execution the invasion having taken 
 place in 1259 A.D. Nothing could be more interest- 
 ing than thus to study an almost contemporaneous 
 illustration of the " Armada " of Japanese annals, 
 when the theretofore invincible Kublai flung on the 
 coasts of Dai Nippon an armed host of 1 50,000 men 
 in innumerable ships and boats, only to see them 
 shattered by the brave Japanese soldiers and scattered 
 by tempests, hundreds of his warriors being captured 
 and beheaded on the slopes of Fuji-San. The 
 scroll represented all this stirring story in vivid 
 colours, and with singular precision and beauty of
 
 AN AFTERNOON WITH THE MIKADO. 557 
 
 detail. The owners needed money, and offered me 
 the treasure at my own price, but I told them it was 
 the counterpart of our own Bayeux tapestry, and 
 ought never to leave the country. I sent them, 
 therefore, to the Palace with a recommendatory 
 letter to the Secretary of the Emperor, and as soon 
 as His Majesty inspected the ancient and deeply 
 interesting monument, he ordered that it should be 
 carefully kept, along with a silken banner of the 
 Tartar Admiral accompanying it, Jin the Royal 
 Archives ; and gave a handsome price to the de- 
 lighted owners. 
 
 TOKIO, November 14, 1890.
 
 CHAPTER XXXIX. 
 
 THE FIRST ASIATIC PARLIAMENT. 
 
 I HAVE just returned from witnessing the most 
 interesting and important spectacle in the modern 
 history of Japan. I have seen the birth of a new 
 Parliament, the only assembly of the kind known 
 to the Continent of Asia, modelled upon European 
 systems, traditions, and precedents, and meeting for 
 its very first visible embodiment, with all constitu- 
 tional forms and ceremonies, under the imperial 
 patronage and presence of the Mikado, lately a 
 sovereign so removed from mortal sight and spheres 
 as to be almost regarded as a deity, but to-day 
 viewed discharging the duties of a Constitutional 
 Monarch, with his Peers, his faithful Commons, 
 and his Ministers of State around him. Conceive 
 the prodigious import of such an event ! However 
 it may develop, and whatever may be the results 
 to Dai Nippon and to Asia at large from this 
 stupendous innovation, it is at least to the immortal 
 glory of Japan that she of all Oriental nations has 
 been the earliest to range herself under the banner 
 of organised freedom, of public liberty, and legisla- 
 tion guaranteed by free institutions. Great Britain 
 
 especially, " the august Mother of Parliaments," 
 
 558
 
 THE FIRST ASIATIC PARLIAMENT. 559 
 
 cannot but look with glad and friendly eyes on 
 this, the latest and most earnest of her imitators, 
 for which reason I will describe at some length 
 and with minuteness how the First Parliament of 
 the Empire of Japan was to-day opened by His 
 Majesty the Emperor in person, before the two 
 Houses, and in presence of all the great officers of 
 State, the Court dignitaries, the foreign diplomats, 
 and the few unofficial foreigners privileged to behold 
 the novel and profoundly interesting ceremony. 
 
 This immense event has not come at a bound, 
 for then we might justly regard it as precipitate 
 and doomed to failure. The Government and the 
 nation have been educating themselves up to so 
 high a point of progress ever since the opening of 
 the Meiji era, a quarter of a century ago. Then 
 the power of the Shogunate fell ; authority was 
 stripped from those proud and despotic lords who 
 had kept the Mikado in seclusion like a gilded 
 idol. The Emperor of Japan resumed the active, 
 as well as sacred, authority descended from a long 
 line of ancestors, but filched from them and him 
 by splendid usurpers of the pattern of those buried 
 like kings in Shiba and Nikko. The last of the 
 Shoguns resigned in 1867, and the first attempt 
 at a General Council was made, after the imperial 
 oath of 1868, that Japan should have representative 
 institutions, by calling together three Samurai from 
 each clan. They met at Ki6to under the name of 
 Gi In, or Parliament, and afterwards in Tokio with 
 the appellation of Shiugi In, or Assembly of Com-
 
 560 SEAS AND LANDS. 
 
 moners ; but accomplished nothing, and, indeed, 
 had not in them any spirit of reform. For example, 
 they rejected the proposals to abolish hara-kiri and 
 the carrying of swords in public, by 200 to 9 and 
 by 2 1 3 votes to i respectively. And now both are 
 abolished. The Shiugi In was quietly dissolved, 
 and its place taken in 1871 by the Sa In, or Senate, 
 whose members were appointed by the Prime 
 Minister. This was, of course, not representation 
 at all, nor was the later body of 1875, the Genro In, 
 much of an advance upon the first Senate in that 
 or any other respect ; but the Chihokwan Kwaiji, 
 or ''Assembly of Local Officials," marked a clear 
 advance. 
 
 The Kwaiji met in July 1875, a t the Hongwanji 
 (a temple), and was hailed as a decisive token that 
 the promise of 1868 was in process of fulfilment. 
 It consisted, of course, of appointed officials only, 
 but the Government treated it as the mouthpiece of 
 the people, and undoubtedly regarded the method 
 of selection of its members as only temporary. An 
 imperial speech opened the session, and the able 
 Kido (the " brain and pen " of the Restoration) was 
 appointed Gi-cho (President). There were seventy 
 delegates, who were either governors or their deputies. 
 Yet the results of this first session were not at all 
 promising. The Assembly occupied most of its 
 time in discussing a system of roads and bridges 
 laid before it by the Government. The meetings 
 were not opened to the public or to the press, 
 and the publication of the debates by the Govern-
 
 THE FIRST ASIATIC PARLIAMENT. 561 
 
 merit did not mitigate the general dissatisfaction 
 which this caused. The Assembly itself showed a 
 conservatism which did not tend to commend it to 
 the people. At the same time its influence was 
 weakened by contrast with the action of some of 
 the citizens of local prominence, who had been 
 brought up to Tokio by the governors to assist with 
 their advice. These met, and drew up a memorial 
 asking for an Assembly founded on popular election. 
 Finally, on October 12, 1881, came the well-known 
 decree establishing a Parliament in 1890. 
 
 These few particulars of modern Japanese annals 
 are adduced that it may be seen how the nation 
 has come, step by step, if rapidly, to its present 
 advanced ideas of legislative institutions. Even now 
 there is a Parliament but no House of Parliament, 
 in the architectural sense ; for the ceremony of to- 
 day was held in an entirely provisional building, of 
 no external pretensions, and fitted up, interiorly, to 
 be useful rather than ornamental. Originally the 
 Government contemplated the erection of some- 
 what ambitious structures for the Diet. This project, 
 however, was dismissed, lack of time and desire to 
 economise influencing the Government to give the 
 legislators only a temporary home. The sum set 
 aside for the work, $80,000, necessitated that the 
 structure should be of wood, and explains the in- 
 ornate nature of the edifice standing on what was 
 the Hibiya Parade Ground. The estimate was later 
 on trebled, this being rendered necessary by repeated 
 changes of plans and additions, the upshot appearing 
 
 2 N
 
 562 SEAS AND LANDS. 
 
 in a plain substantial edifice, by which a good be- 
 ginning may be made. The tickets for admission 
 to its gateways on this momentous day were eagerly 
 desired, but very sparsely given. It was a new and 
 last proof of the consideration which I have per- 
 sonally met with from all quarters in Japan, that 
 I should have been allotted, without expecting the 
 favour, a very good seat in the gallery of the central 
 hall. 
 
 Under the clear pale sky of the Japanese autumnal 
 day cold, but brisk and invigorating Tokio had 
 turned out in its tens of thousands to see the 
 Emperor pass to the Hall of Legislation, to declare 
 the first Parliament opened, and so make good the 
 imperial oath taken twenty-one years ago, and since 
 twice renewed. The entire city had been decorated 
 for this great day, after the Japanese manner, with 
 interminable lines of the national banner (a red sun 
 on a white ground) and lines as interminable of 
 paper lanterns, also red and white. Dense throngs 
 of citizens, with their wives and children, filled 
 each side of the streets through which the imperial 
 carriages would pass, and blocked even the side 
 thoroughfares, to watch the magnates and officials 
 proceed to meet his Imperial Majesty ; for every 
 road and alley was gay with nodding plumes and 
 glittering decorations of the Shinnin, Chokunin, 
 and Sonin, dashing along en grande tenue to the 
 point of interest. Troops in brand-new uniforms 
 kept the passage clear, or marched along to their 
 stations with blasts of bugles to keep time, for the
 
 THE FIRST ASIATIC PARLIAMENT. 563 
 
 Japanese regiments do not seem to use the drum. 
 The crowds were alert, excited, and sympathetic, 
 but orderly and gentle-tempered, although two rather 
 serious encounters took place with the police, one 
 at the gates of the Russian Legation, and one in 
 the field set apart for jinrikishas. Of course this 
 last-named vehicle was everywhere in requisition, 
 bowling along with two kurumaya ni-nim-biki 
 and every carriage and horse in the capital had 
 also been brought out. But the immediate pre- 
 cincts of the Legislative Palace were sternly kept 
 secluded. At certain bridges and approaches the 
 policemen in blue spectacles with their swords 
 rigorously kept back all not provided with the 
 necessary papers and tickets, and for the most part 
 the uplifting of the steel scabbard across the path 
 of every onrush was quite enough to stay any over- 
 eager sightseers. In one of the very few street 
 brawls occurring in Tokio, we saw the other day 
 two ninsoku fighting with bale-hooks, blood stream- 
 ing from the terrible wounds inflicted. Presently 
 one turned and fled, pursued with murderous intent 
 by his antagonist; but a small policeman inter- 
 vened, held his sword across the breast of the 
 infuriated coolie, who instantly began to bow, and 
 hiss, and pant out explanatory courtesies, begging 
 permission to annihilate his foe, but instantly cool- 
 ing down when the little officer, with equal or 
 greater politeness, insisted upon objecting to homi- 
 cide, under any circumstances. This kindly, peace- 
 ful, well-behaved crowd has lost the summer colour,
 
 564 SEAS AND LANDS. 
 
 which made the city so gay. It is almost as sombre 
 and sober as a London mob, in the fuyu no Kimono, 
 the " garments of winter ; " but the faces are alight 
 with pleasure and pride they understand the Tenshi 
 Sama does a grand thing for Dai Nippon to-day. 
 They have put a coping-stone on the swiftly-raised 
 edifice of their new civilisation ; they, too, like the 
 Western nations, will possess a Parliament, a Con- 
 stitution, debates, reports, divisions, ministries, tout 
 le tremblement of high politics. Alas ! these things 
 mean trouble as well as progress. I sigh as I re- 
 flect that they will come some day to their Reform 
 Bills, their compound householder, their lodger fran- 
 chise, and election addresses ; and have, perhaps, 
 their Irish Question and their all-night sittings ! 
 
 My two rikisha-men wheel me, with a superb final 
 effort, to the great entrance, which is carpeted with 
 crimson, and thronged with gorgeous official per- 
 sonages, dressed, as it seems, principally in cloth 
 of gold and golden chrysanthemums. These, how- 
 ever, are merely the chief attendants of the legis- 
 lative precincts. It is but to cast the gaze round to 
 observe dignitaries of the State, Shinnin, Chokunin, 
 and Sonin, veteran officers of the army and navy, 
 and Court employe's, arrayed even more magnificently 
 than these guardians of the halls and passages of 
 Parliament. At the portal I meet my excellent 
 friend Yamada San, Secretary to the Imperial House- 
 hold, whose companionship removes any difficulties 
 as to the proper staircase and the allotted seat. 
 Amid a throng of gay uniforms and dazzling decora-
 
 THE FIRST ASIATIC PARLIAMENT. 565 
 
 tions, settling into their places like butterflies in a 
 flower-garden, we reach the Central Hall, and find 
 a kind of opera-box immediately to the left of the 
 throne and raised above it. The usher mentions 
 that it is a little against etiquette to sit higher than 
 the Emperor but, shigata go, nai, " it cannot be 
 helped" and it will be becoming if we keep some- 
 what in the background and abstain from using 
 opera-glasses. The hall is ample and commodious, 
 having a spacious, if plain, interior, painted white, 
 grey, and gold, with a gallery of handsome boxes 
 running round the back, and, below, an amphitheatre 
 containing six kusabi gata, or wedge-shaped sections 
 of seats, each section having forty seats and desks. 
 These confront a raised platform, approached by two 
 stairways on either side of a semicircular rostrum ; 
 and behind this rises the throne, a golden chair 
 placed on a dais, carpeted with grey and gold, the 
 throne being canopied with heavy hangings of crim- 
 son brocaded silk ornamented with chrysanthemums. 
 The members' seats are of dark wood, upholstered 
 in black leather, but for to-day both Houses will 
 be present here, the Peers upon the right side of the 
 throne, the Commons on the left. Crowning its 
 gold and crimson canopy is a representation of the 
 ancient head-dress of State of the Mikados some- 
 thing resembling a Phrygian cap ; and green silk 
 cords mark off a space on either hand, where 
 presently the Ministers and Court officials will re- 
 spectively take their stand. The central area of the 
 Hall is quite empty as yet, but the gallery-boxes
 
 566 SEAS AND LANDS. 
 
 are filled, or filling, with such a blaze of gold coats, 
 epaulettes, burnished swords, and decorations that 
 the glories of the Parliament Ushers in embroidered 
 blue coats, red breeches, silk stockings, and gold 
 chrysanthemum badges become paled. Two of these 
 approach the vacant throne with low bows, and 
 place on each side of it a pot of lighted senko, or 
 incense sticks, that the nose of Majesty may be 
 soothed. The King of the Loo-Choo Islands enters 
 now and surveys the scene. What one instantly 
 misses is the presence of the fair sex. Not a woman, 
 of high or low degree, is to be seen about the pre- 
 mises ; even the chairs in the box of the Empress are 
 unused, and an unfortunate American literary lady, 
 tvho came all the way from New York to report the 
 event, has been denied so much as an approach to the 
 precincts. In this respect the first Parliament of Japan 
 must be pronounced sadly uncivilised ; in all others 
 there is nothing to be found fault with in the aspect 
 of the Hall, while his Imperial Majesty is awaited. 
 From its roof hangs an imposing chandelier, gilded 
 and coloured, with a galaxy of electric lamps ; and 
 the terra-cotta walls, the rich grey and gold carpets, 
 the pure white galleries, panels, and arches, with the 
 splendid hue of the silk- draped throne, make up a 
 most pictorial scene, enriched by the brilliant audi- 
 ence of diplomats, army and navy officers, courtiers, 
 and great officials eagerly expecting the entrance of 
 the Son of Heaven and his newly enrolled councillors. 
 They come ! There is heard outside a fanfare of 
 military music, just as the clock strikes eleven, and
 
 THE FIRST ASIATIC PARLIAMENT. 567 
 
 when this is ended the band in the Parliament court- 
 yard strikes up the plaintive strains of the National 
 Anthem of Japan. The Emperor has reached the 
 building, and reposes awhile in the State apartment 
 19 tsubo large while the Peers and Commons 
 enter and take their places. The Peers of L)ai 
 Nippon are led to their seats by Count Ito, all wear- 
 ing their coats of honour deep blue, heavily em- 
 broidered with gold and with the imperial Kiku. 
 It is an effect as of the plumage of pheasants, or a 
 great jeweller's display of gold and diamonds on 
 dark velvet, when these Japanese marquises, counts, 
 and viscounts settle into their side of the amphi- 
 theatre. Then follow the faithful Commons, all to 
 a man in evening costume of the strictest propriety, 
 with tall silk or opera hats. These are marshalled 
 to their places by Mr. Nakashima, the freshly-elected 
 Speaker of the Lower House, a gentleman of dis- 
 tinguished appearance and bearing, who takes his 
 stand below the platform in front of the Commons, 
 as Count Ito posts himself in front of the Japanese 
 Lords. 
 
 But the Lord High Chamberlain, the Marquis 
 Tokudaija, has by this time informed his Imperial 
 Majesty that all is ready ; and, conducted by that 
 great official and the other Court dignitaries, the 
 Mikado enters through the right door of the elevated 
 platform. At his side, but a little behind, walk the 
 Princes of the Blood Prince Komatsu wearing his 
 Grand Cross of the Bath and immediately before 
 His Majesty paces a grandee carrying a copy of the
 
 5 68 SEAS AND LANDS. 
 
 Constitution, wrapped up in green silk powdered 
 with gold chrysanthemums. The Ministers have 
 taken their places on the left of the throne there 
 is Yamagata the soldierly ; Count Saigo, best of 
 kindly hosts and companions ; Viscount Aoki, a 
 statesman of the first ability and resource ; Mr. Mutsu, 
 of the Department of Commerce, with many others 
 whom it is a delight as well as a distinction to num- 
 ber as friends. To the right of his Imperial Majesty 
 stand the great officers of State, and at this juncture, 
 as the Emperor halts before the throne, all the 
 assembly bow profoundly. Ito and Nakashima keep 
 their places at the head of the two wedge-shaped 
 phalanxes of gold and black. The Ministers, the 
 naval and military officers, every person present, is 
 reverentially attentive it is the moment of the Birth 
 of the First Asiatic Parliament ! Count Yamagata 
 hands to the Mikado, with deep obeisance, the speech, 
 written in Hiragana ; and, with clear, decisive tones 
 not free, however, from the half sing-song of all 
 Japanese readers, the Sovereign of Dai-Nippon de- 
 livers the epoch-making sentences of which here is a 
 translation : 
 
 We hereby notify to the members of the House of Peers and 
 of the House of Representatives that the leading features of the 
 various systems of domestic Government We have promoted 
 during the twenty years since Our ascension to the Throne are 
 now almost completed. We earnestly pray that We, aided by 
 the virtue inherited from the Imperial Founder of Our House, 
 and from Our other Imperial Ancestors, and with your co-opera- 
 tion, may unite the past, brighten the future, garner the excellent 
 fruits to be yielded by the Constitution, and thereby continue to 
 augment the glory of Our Empire, and to display the admirable,
 
 THE FIRST ASIATIC PARLIAMENT. 569 
 
 loyal, and brave character of Our subjects both at home and 
 abroad. 
 
 From an early period it has been Our aim to promote amity 
 with all nations, to widen the range of Our foreign commerce, to 
 strengthen the national power ; and it has fortunately happened 
 that Our intercourse and intimacy with the Treaty Powers have 
 continually increased. With regard to the Army and Navy, it is 
 Our aim, with the lapse of years, to secure their perfection, in 
 order that peace at home and with foreign countries may be main- 
 tained. As to the Budget and the various draft laws for the 24th 
 year of Meiji, We order that the Ministers of State shall submit 
 these for the discussion of the Diet. We anticipate that you will 
 impartially and prudently discuss and support these intentions, 
 and that you will set a worthy precedent for the future. 
 
 The Emperor is dressed in the uniform of a 
 Generalissimo of the army, and wears the broad 
 red Dai-gusho ribbon of the Order of the Rising 
 Sun as his principal decoration. Tall, in com- 
 parison with most of his subjects, having strongly- 
 marked features, watchful dark eyes, a slight beard 
 and moustache, and manners at once gracious yet im- 
 perturbably reserved, the Mikado looks as different 
 from the pictures of his Imperial Ancestors as the 
 spirit governing the proceedings of to-day differs 
 from the ancient Japanese notions. But truly here, 
 if ever anywhere in the world, 
 
 The old order changeth, giving place to new. 
 
 Observe among these gilded Peers one near to 
 Count Ito, wearing his black hair tied with white 
 string into a top-knot, after the antique fashion of 
 the Daimio and Samurai. At the end of the same 
 bench sits his elder brother bald, or else he, too, 
 would wear the maqe, for that is Shimazu Saburo,
 
 570 SEAS AND LANDS. 
 
 of the proud Satsuma clan ; and it was a retainer 
 of that powerful house who cut down Mr. Richard- 
 son and his English friends at Kanagawa, because 
 they dared to cross the pathway of a Japanese 
 Prince. Now all that is left of those turbulent 
 times is Shimazu's top-knot ! It is another Japan 
 you behold, with everything changed except its 
 population and their delightful old-world ways. The 
 hundred and one guns thundering without as Count 
 Ito receives the speech from the Mikado, and retires 
 to his place with it are fired over the grave of 
 Dai-Nippon. A new Japan is definitely born con- 
 stitutional, progressive, energetic, resourceful, sure 
 to become great, and perhaps destined to become 
 almost again as happy as she was of yore. Let, 
 the Nations of the West receive and welcome as 
 she deserves this immeasurably ancient Empire, 
 which thus renews her youth in the fountain of 
 constitutional liberties and institutions. With one 
 slight inclination of his august head, the Mikado 
 saluted the vast assembly bending low before him ; 
 and Japan had entered on the list of lands governed 
 by an electoral regime, as his Imperial Majesty 
 passed through a guard of Lancers to his equipage. 
 
 TORIO, Nov. 29, 1890.
 
 CHARTER XL. 
 
 HOMEWARD BOUND. 
 
 THIS good ship Verona, Captain Seymour, was to 
 have started for Nagasaki and Hong Kong to-morrow, 
 January 1 3 ; but " the unexpected " has occurred. 
 News suddenly reached Kobe that Her Majesty's 
 gunboat Pigmy had gone ashore, and badly, in the 
 northern channel of the inland sea ; consequently 
 a request had been telegraphed to Mr. Rickett, the 
 ever-courteous agent of the great company at Yoko- 
 hama who happened to be in Hiogo on extra duty 
 that the Verona would expedite her departure in 
 order to help the little man-of-war. Accordingly, 
 word was circulated that the steamship would set 
 forth a day before her time, and it was "pretty to 
 see " with what alacrity the ship's company hurried 
 their cargo on board in order to get quickly to the 
 scene of disaster. At half-past five, on a dark and 
 windy evening, the Verona's screw began to revolve, 
 and we threaded all night long the mazy archipelagoes 
 of the inland sea. A chain of five great 1'and-locked 
 waters compose this curious and beautiful ocean 
 passage. They are named Nadas, and there follow, 
 counting from east to west, the Isumi, the Harima, 
 the Biugo, the lyo, and the Suwo Nada. The chart
 
 572 SEAS AND LANDS. 
 
 would give an inexperienced eye the idea of pro- 
 digiously difficult navigation, but the few existing 
 lights are all leading, and the water is everywhere 
 deep, while our skilful captain knew his way per- 
 fectly, by reason of long habitude in these seas. All 
 night, therefore, the Verona went at good speed on 
 her errand of help, and, slacking a little at daybreak 
 for the narrow places, about half-past six we made 
 out the Pigmy, lying at anchor comfortably enough 
 off the little port of Onomichi. She had gone badly 
 upon the tail-end of an island, at high water too ; 
 but having taken 150 tons of stores and ballast out, 
 the little man-of-war had lifted herself off, and was 
 not seriously damaged. We sent boats to her, and 
 Captain Hewitt came on board of us, but only to say 
 that she had no need of assistance, and would proceed 
 alone to Nagasaki, to dock, as soon as she should 
 have cleared away a wire hawser which was fouling 
 her propeller. 
 
 With a whole day gained, therefore, the Verona 
 saluted the discomfited ship-of-war, and steamed 
 cheerily onward, through the ever varying scenery 
 of the "Nadas." Innumerable islands and islets 
 rise on all sides from the green and glassy waters 
 of the inland sea ; sometimes bare, broken, and 
 precipitous, sometimes clad with forests of fir, and 
 with bamboo-grass, from their sandy sea-rims to 
 their serrated crests. Innumerable towns and 
 villages nestle amid their sunny nooks, or in the 
 valleys of the mainland ; and uncounted junks, 
 fishing-boats, and sampans dot the surface of the
 
 HOMEWARD BOUND. 573 
 
 placid sea. The islands take all kinds of shapes, 
 appearing now like castles, or fortresses ; now like 
 full-rigged, black-sailed vessels, and then again like 
 vast green velvet cushions laid on a carpet of 
 emerald silk shot with purple. It is an exaggera- 
 tion, no doubt, to call this chain of salt-water lakes 
 " the most beautiful sea in all the world," as some 
 guide-books do. The ^Egean is far lovelier, and so 
 is the western coast of Scotland in summer but, 
 when the sun shines, as it did with us, very fair 
 indeed are the landscapes and seascapes of the 
 "Nadas," and I rejoice to have had my hours of 
 parting from Japan and Japanese friends rendered 
 less melancholy by the grace and gaiety of the last 
 pictures we shall see of the kindly and pleasant land. 
 In the Straits of Shimonoseki through which, 
 by the bye, old Will Adams, of Gillingham, first 
 found his way to the country of the Mikado the 
 Verona dropped her anchor for two or three hours. 
 This was to let the hot current of the " Kurosiwa " 
 spend itself, for the flood runs at seven knots 
 through these narrows, and makes navigation some- 
 what perilous. Steaming out into the Yellow Sea 
 we found a biting north-wester blowing, with fre- 
 quent snowstorms ; and a somewhat lively move- 
 ment of the vessel ensued ; but we ran all the 
 more speedily down the coast, and entered the 
 picturesque inlet of Nagasaki at 8.30 A.M. of 
 Wednesday, January 14. This town lately so 
 badly scourged by cholera looks the very last 
 place in the East for such a visitation, standing
 
 574 SEAS AND LANDS. 
 
 as it does amid high hills, which ought to afford 
 a pure water supply, and sanitated by perpetual 
 sea-breezes. Yet every year, or nearly so, the 
 cholera comes over in a Chinese craft from neigh- 
 bouring Shanghai, and decimates these clean and 
 temperate Japanese. The strong and handsome 
 Russian flagship, Admiral Nachimoff, was lying at 
 anchor near us, as well as the Verona's own sister, 
 the Ancona the pair of them together performing 
 the passenger and mail service between Hong Kong 
 and Yokohama, with such admirable regularity, 
 moreover, that one of our officers declared the two 
 steamers "knew their own way." The harbour is 
 land-locked by lofty hills, which were powdered 
 with snow ; and snow or hail fell constantly all the 
 time we lay coaling and getting in cargo. 
 
 At 5 P.M. of the 1 4th the Verona started for the 
 run of four days which separates Nagasaki from 
 Hong Kong, the most easterly possession of Her 
 Majesty. At 9 P.M. she steamed into the heart of a 
 black and sudden north-westerly gale, savagely blow- 
 ing down from the Gulf of Pekin, and heaping upon 
 us, as soon as the ship was clear of Me-Sima the 
 "Asses' Ears" all the weight of water of the cold 
 and vast Yellow Sea. A landsman's estimate of 
 a storm is always justly discredited, but Captain 
 Seymour, our very experienced commander, after- 
 wards declared that he had encountered no fiercer 
 wind or more furious seas since 1886. The wind 
 blew, indeed, all night long with a force reaching 
 the hurricane standard, and the waves grew rapidly
 
 HOMEWARD BOUND. 575 
 
 into such masses of towering weight and speed that 
 the loss of boats and gear was threatened, and the 
 Verona had to be hove-to for six hours. Below was 
 witnessed the usual scene of comic misery every- 
 thing adrift in the cabins ; slippers, books, and 
 water-cans chasing each other round and round, 
 portmanteaus colliding with hat-boxes, stewards 
 staggering about in the saloon with soup in cups, 
 dinner a gymnastic exercise to preserve equilibrium 
 and keep the food on the plates, ladies helplessly 
 succumbing, men grumbling or silent. On deck the 
 green seas time after time fell thundering on sky- 
 lights and hatches, pouring in cascades from the 
 bridges and houses, smashing the bulwarks and boat 
 fenders, and sweeping everything movable into the 
 scuppers. In a less well-found or well-handled vessel 
 there would have been real peril in this tempest ; 
 but Captain Seymour knew his ship, and fought 
 the hurricane with consummate skill and success. 
 Lying iii my berth that wild night, I amused myself 
 by verifying an old theory that the Greek phrase, 
 trikdma kakou, does not mean the "third wave of 
 evil," as many great scholars have rendered it, but 
 "the threefold wave of evil." Mr. Swinburne him- 
 self makes the general mistake when he writes of 
 
 one 
 
 " Who comes in sight of the third great wave, 
 Which never a swimmer can cross or climb." 
 
 Watch in hand, I timed, for a long while, swinging 
 to and fro in my berth, the huge beam seas which 
 rolled our boats into the water ; and observation
 
 576 SEAS AND LANDS. 
 
 proved, as I well knew before, that at periodical 
 intervals there come, in a storm on the ocean, alto- 
 gether, three high dominant billows, the middle one 
 the worst, which are plainly to be distinguished from 
 the minor rollers, and which do all the real mischief 
 to a labouring ship. Comparing notes afterwards 
 with our commander, he assured me that this was 
 certainly true, and that practical navigators look for 
 these recurrent tri-kumata, or " triple surges of 
 evil," just about three times in each hour of any 
 heavy gale. 
 
 At last, on Thursday morning, after having the 
 lifeboat damaged and the fore-topsail tattered to 
 shreds in the gaskets, we could hold our course 
 again ; and steamed, through a still turbulent sea, 
 for " Turnabout," at the western entrance of the 
 Formosa Channel. This was reached on Friday 
 morning, and we ran down between the mainland of 
 China and the great island of Formosa in gradually 
 softening weather, until the snowstorms and the 
 tempests were fairly left astern. Under the glad- 
 dening sky countless fishing-boats had put out along 
 the yellow and rocky shores with mat-sails and 
 painted prows, and were busy on the dancing, but 
 no longer dangerous waters. The air grew balmy, 
 the sun glittered on the lace-work of the waves, 
 which yesterday was all blinding sea-spume and 
 spin-drift ; the good ship resumed her trim appear- 
 ance, the ladies pale, but reassured crept out 
 again on deck. Saturday, January 17, was a wholly 
 delightful day, and to-morrow (Sunday) we shall
 
 HOMEWARD BOUND. 577 
 
 thread the Lymoon Pass and anchor in Hong Kong 
 harbour. 
 
 It was Sunday afternoon, however, before we 
 were moored in the safe and picturesque haven 
 which lies between the island of Hong Kong and 
 the mainland of China, having steamed down the 
 coast past Chapel Rock, the Lammacks, and that 
 curious crag named " Piedra Bianca," which rises 
 solitary out of the open sea to a height of 150 
 feet, and looks, afar off, just like a junk under full 
 sail. There is, indeed, a story of a British captain 
 who took it for a full-rigged vessel, and, being on 
 the starboard tack, would not give way until he 
 was almost upon it. The entrance to Hong Kong 
 Harbour, between the yellow and green hills, is 
 very striking ; and the anchorage under the terraced 
 streets of Victoria and the lofty Peak affords .one of 
 the most busy and thronged spectacles of commerce 
 in all the Eastern seas. The city itself is almost 
 as much British as Chinese, but the .pig-tailed 
 people crowd its well-built streets, and in the back 
 regions have altogether their own life and ways, 
 kept sternly in order by the stalwart, bearded Sikh 
 policemen, in red turbans. Parsees and Bohra mer- 
 chants from Bombay ; Malays, Klings, and Lascars ; 
 sailors of every flag and from every imaginable 
 region, mingle with the motley local populace upon 
 the quays and streets. A Babel of tongues announces 
 this for what it is one of the central emporia of 
 the Eastern world ; and pleasant enough, as well as 
 amusing, is Hong Kong at the present season with 
 
 * 20
 
 578 SEAS AND LANDS. 
 
 its variegated population and splendid natural sur- 
 roundings. In summer it grows intolerably hot, 
 lying in so deep a granite oven under the over- 
 hanging Peak of 1600 feet altitude. But in what 
 is called the " winter " here weather resembling 
 our mid-June the air is clear, cool, and sunny, and 
 the Botanical Gardens are to-day in full floral 
 beauty. Wandering there we see the trees and 
 blossoms of all parts of the earth, assembled like 
 its people. I notice the " silky oaks " of Australia, 
 and the candle-berry tree aleurites triloba of 
 Madagascar, side by side with the coral bush from 
 Brazil, coffee shrubs in full bloom from Ceylon, 
 fan-palms, and date-palms, mango-trees, and the 
 beautiful bougainvilliers which make Bombay so 
 splendid in the cold weather. Moreover, there is 
 a more diverse and populous bird-life in these 
 gardens to be seen in one morning than dear but 
 desolate Japan can show in a week, and from end 
 to end of a whole province. In the aviaries are 
 gold and silver pheasants, the bleeding-breasted 
 pigeon, and doves of all sorts, while the thickets 
 of spiraea, terminalia, crotons, and tea bushes are 
 full of China starlings, magpies, tits, finches, rice- 
 birds, white linnets, and the China robin a hand- 
 some fellow, with a white bar across his wings. 
 Above the well-kept gardens an extraordinary little 
 railway carries people to the top of the peak. The 
 ascent is steeper than the roof of a house, and the 
 climb one of 1500 feet perhaps a mile or so in 
 distance ; but by means of a steel rope, which
 
 HOMEWARD BOUND. 579 
 
 lowers one carriage while it hoists the other, you 
 go gaily and safely up a slope where a cat would 
 slip, and passing two little stations, the " Church," 
 and the " Tennis ground," arrive at the upper shed, 
 where the machinery works. Thence to the hotel, on 
 the summit, and the various residential refuges, where 
 Hong Kongers keep cool in the fierce summer, is a 
 short walk ; while below you, on one side, stretches 
 the illimitable North Pacific, beyond a long outlying 
 chain of islands ; on the other lies the large and 
 busy harbour crowded with shipping, and the pros- 
 perous city of Victoria. She is celebrating to-day 
 her Jubilee, the fiftieth birthday of the colony, and 
 good reason indeed has Britain to be proud of this 
 her farthest-removed Eastern daughter, who in half 
 a century has grown to a population of 200,000 
 souls, a shipping entry of 6,000,000 tons, and an 
 export trade of ^40,000,000 annually. 
 
 Peaceful, however, and prosperous as it all is, 
 where fifty years ago piracy and barbarism pre- 
 vailed, the old Mongolian savagery and crime are 
 still latent, and break out sometimes. There lies 
 in sight of our hotel a well-built merchant steamer, 
 the Namoa, trading to Formosa. Only a fortnight 
 ago she put out with 250 Chinese passengers on 
 board, her captain little dreaming that fifty of them, 
 coming on board so meekly with their tickets and 
 bundles, were desperate ruffians, armed with pistols, 
 knives, and stink-pots. At tiffin, on the first day 
 of the voyage, these scoundrels suddenly rose, shot 
 dead a sea- sick passenger who was giving the alarm,
 
 58o SEAS AND LANDS. 
 
 as well as the captain on his bridge ; barricaded all 
 the honest Chinamen into one part of the ship, and 
 the passengers, officers, and crew into the other ; and 
 then looted the vessel from stem to stern, appro- 
 priating 25,000 dollars and all portable valuables. 
 These they took off into a couple of junks waiting 
 close by, and left the plundered steamer to creep 
 back again to Hong Kong, with her dead men and 
 her rifled hold. The blood and bullet-marks were 
 still visible when I went on board. Her Majesty's 
 ship Linnet was sent out after the pirates, who were 
 certainly Hong Kong men, but thus far none have 
 been captured. They are probably, to-day, counting 
 and chinking their " Mexicans " placidly in some of 
 the "hongs" at hand. The bland and pigtailed 
 A-foo, in blue gown and embroidered shoes, who 
 points out the ship to you, may, perhaps, know all 
 about the plot and the plunder. The Pekin, which 
 takes us forward from Hong Kong, has for a pas- 
 senger the chief engineer of the Namoa. One of 
 the pirates put a pistol to his heart and pulled the 
 trigger. He struck the barrel up, and the bullet cut 
 off his moustache and eyebrow a narrow shave ! 
 
 On January 22 we steamed out of Hong Kong in 
 the Peninsular and Oriental steamship Pekin, a fine 
 vessel of the old comfortable type, with cabins on 
 deck, of about 4000 tons, Captain Harris command- 
 ing. The course goes west of south between the 
 Cochin-China Coast and the Paracels, that perilous 
 group of islets and reefs, which, lying in the mid- 
 path of all the typhoons, has wrecked many and
 
 HOMEWARD SOUND. 581 
 
 many a stormed-tossed ship. Possibly enough Her 
 Majesty's ship Wasp was lost there. Fishing-junks, 
 always in couples, dot the deep-blue sea, and the 
 flying-fish now appears, starting up from the furrows 
 of the ocean as quails do from the rice-fields. 
 Some leap on board, and I preserve their alar fins, 
 which are real membranous wings, and perform true 
 flight. 
 
 During three warm and pleasant, though cloudy, 
 days, the Pekin traversed the dark-blue waters of 
 the China Sea, with the north-east monsoon blowing 
 so steadily astern that throughout this interval we 
 never shifted a brace or started a single inch in 
 any sheet of the square sails. Thus, although the 
 engines were going easily, and the ship was only 
 burning forty-eight tons of coal a day, the north- 
 easter and a southerly current made our diurnal run 
 good. We sighted the Cochin China coast at Cape 
 Varela, and scarcely lost sight of it again until the 
 light on Cape Padaran, established by the French, 
 twinkled over the midnight waves. A full moon 
 made the darkness silvery, and here in the very 
 pathway and breeding-place of typhoons we had as 
 comfortable a passage as could be wished. They 
 mostly start somewhere about the Philippine Islands, 
 whirl their wild course up the Gulf of Tonquin, and 
 then deflect to ravage Formosa, the waters of the 
 Yellow Sea, and the coasts of Japan. The season 
 for them is from August, or even July, to October. 
 As we approach nearer the equator, and pass the 
 curious "Shoe Rock" and the mouths of the Cam-
 
 582 SEAS AND LANDS. 
 
 bodia River, the air grows very sensibly warmer, and 
 the north-east monsoon blows itself gradually out. 
 A superb sunset delights all eyes on the evening 
 of January 24, the day dying away in glory unspeak- 
 able at the far end of the Gulf of Siam, and the 
 last of the strong winter wind, now become mild 
 and balmy, wafting us over the latest ripples of the 
 China swell. Amcenitas versus fecit, of which these 
 are two : 
 
 " Tangled and torn, the white sea-laces 
 
 Broider the breast of the Indian deep ; 
 Lifted aloft, the strong screw races, 
 
 To slacken and grind in the waves that leap ; 
 The great sails strain ; the broad bows shiver 
 
 To green and silver the purple sea ; 
 And, forth from the sunset, a dancing River 
 
 Flows, broken gold, where our ship goes free. 
 
 Too free ! too fast ! "With memories laden, 
 
 I gaze to the Northward, where lies Japan. 
 You are there so far ! friend, teacher, and maiden ! 
 
 Haru and Mina and Yoshi San ! 
 You are under that sky by the storm-wind shaken, 
 
 A thousand ri, as the sea-gull flies ; 
 As if it were Death, not Time, had taken 
 
 Our eyes away from your gentle eyes." 
 
 We made the outlying islands which announce the 
 Straits of Singapore on the morning of January 26, 
 and steaming past the town and the roadstead, 
 shining and calm, full of shipping, threaded a narrow 
 passage of exquisite beauty, we moored at the 
 Peninsular and Oriental wharf, amid hills covered 
 with palm groves, thickets of the flowering scarlet
 
 HOMEWARD BOUND. 583 
 
 hibiscus, and Malay villages built on piles. Singa- 
 pore basks amid an almost eternal sunshine, tempered 
 by daily equatorial rainstorms a bright and busy 
 city, planted on sheltered seas, and embosomed in 
 the richest verdure. About half the population 
 seems to consist of Chinese, who almost monopolise 
 trade and business. The city and country roads are 
 excellent, the red soil binding into broad and level 
 ways, along which jinrikishas, and gharries drawn 
 by sturdy little Pegu ponies, whirl you gaily along. 
 Our first visit was to the Botanical Gardens, which 
 are even more beautiful in aspect than those of 
 Peradenia at Candy, and nearly as rich in sylvan and 
 floral wealth. The Director and a friend, who occupy 
 separate houses in the heart of these enchanting 
 gardens, seemed to be living in a perfect botanical 
 paradise. Conspicuous among a hundred notable 
 trees around, were the " Traveller's Palm," which 
 grows so gracefully in the form of a vast widespread 
 fan, and has its stem full of sweet water ; and the 
 mangosteen, on the exquisite fruit of which we 
 breakfasted next day. From the gardens I drove to 
 the house of the Dutch Consul-General, Mr. Lavino ; 
 and there found, just starting for China and Japan, 
 my old friend, Lord Connemara, the most energetic, 
 successful, and popular governor Madras has ever 
 known. We talked together about India so long 
 that the night had fallen before I could get away, 
 and fireflies and tropical lightning guided my dog- 
 cart home along the dark green lanes of Singapore. 
 At the Director's house we played with some curi-
 
 584 SEAS AND LANDS. 
 
 ous domestic pets, among them a binturong and a 
 " wah-wah " monkey. This last was a delightful 
 little creature, with very long silky arms and soft 
 melancholy eyes. It frequents the Malay forests, 
 and utters its plaintive cry of "wah-wah" in a 
 sad scale of ascending notes. Trim and neat as 
 the Singapore Gardens were, and populous as the 
 adjoining city is, the Director could point to a 
 neighbouring hill where there is always to be found 
 a pair of tigers ; and these beasts often swim over 
 the Straits from the adjacent island and pick up a 
 China or Malay man in the woods. 
 
 At Singapore we took on board for Colombo and 
 India a very distinguished friend, Admiral Sir Nowell 
 Salmon, V.C., returning with his family and suite 
 from the command of Her Majesty's China squadron. 
 The good ship PeTdn now steamed pleasantly forward 
 through the lovely Straits of Malacca. They were 
 hot, of course, but the tropical glow seemed welcome 
 after the snowstorms of Nagasaki and the incle- 
 mencies of the Yellow Sea. Past "pulo" after 
 " pulo " as these fair islets are called of delicious, 
 glittering beauty, fringed with palms, and rising 
 from a sea of silver and green, the Pekin leisurely 
 sped ; for you must enter Penang roadstead in day- 
 light, and we had time to spare. The town of 
 Penang has little to offer to the notice of the passing 
 traveller except a waterfall, which is too often, as 
 now, destitute of water, and the usual mixed popu- 
 lation of Malays, Klings, and Chinese found all 
 along the Peninsula. Its naturally charming aspect
 
 HOMEWARD BOUND. 587 
 
 is spoiled by a hideous pile of Government offices, 
 erected by an Engineer officer, who, it is to be hoped, 
 was a better soldier than architect. At Penang our 
 stay was limited, but proved longer than usual on 
 account of a lighter-boat, full of tin ingots, which 
 got aground in coming off to us. On January 30, 
 at 2 P.M., we started again and threaded a labyrinth 
 of fishing-stakes, junks, and proas on our way to go 
 by Acheen Head across the bottom of the Bay of 
 Bengal to Colombo. It is a run of four days and 
 a half, during which you sight the grand " Golden 
 Mountain " of Sumatra, and discern very plainly the 
 rich shores and outlying groups of that splendid 
 island. The " Golden Mountain " rises a little way 
 inland, to the height of 7, 800 feet, and is so symme- 
 trical in outline as almost to recall the stately per- 
 fection of Fuji-San. It was interesting to coast 
 along the green rolling hills of Sumatra, and to see 
 the Dutch blockading ships sullenly patrolling those 
 beautiful shores, which they cannot occupy. For 
 eighteen weary years Mynheer has been waging a 
 hopeless war against the Achinese, which never 
 would have commenced if Mr. Gladstone had not 
 injudiciously abandoned the Sultan to the Dutch- 
 men one of the many mistakes of his Colonial 
 policy. They have lost thousands of lives and spent 
 unnumbered guelders fighting the climate and the 
 Sumatran Muslims ; and at the end of it all, are 
 penned up to-day in Acheen, potted by lurking 
 Malay sharpshooters whenever they stray beyond 
 their fortified posts. The very lighthouse on Acheen
 
 5 S8 SEAS AND LANDS. 
 
 Head has to be guarded by a bomb-proof block- 
 house, where twelve soldiers are always kept ; and 
 every night at sundown boats are manned and sent 
 round and inside the bays and inlets to keep out 
 contraband muskets and munitions. But the natives 
 have learned how to manufacture guns and gun- 
 powder for themselves, and would probably drive 
 out the Dutch eventually, except that the blockade 
 keeps them from selling their pepper ; and being 
 thus terribly short of cash, they may have at last to 
 yield, or to take entirely to their hills. It is this 
 for which the Hollanders are now waiting so I was 
 told by a Dutch captain of one of their men-of-war, 
 who sailed with us from Singapore to Colombo ; 
 but such a policy of lingering and phlegmatic hos- 
 tility paralyses the trade and prosperity of the 
 splendid Sumatran peninsula, and it is a pity for 
 everybody concerned that the Achinese cannot do 
 what they ardently desire, by placing themselves 
 under the protection of the British flag, due 
 arrangements being made to soothe the pride of the 
 retiring Power. 
 
 The Pekin took her time in crossing the bottom 
 of the Bay of Bengal, for she had a day in hand, 
 and did not wish to enter Colombo Harbour in the 
 dark. At Colombo we personally finished our cir- 
 cumnavigation of the globe, having previously visited 
 Ceylon from the side of India. The wonderful leafy 
 lanes, and dark interminable groves of palm, which 
 make the environs of Colombo one vast magnificent 
 hot-house, were, therefore, not new to our none the
 
 HOMEWARD BOUND. 591 
 
 less delighted eyes. Ceylon is, in truth, an earthly 
 heaven for botanists ; for fruit, for flowers, and 
 above all, for glorious and beautiful tropical trees. 
 A drive of seven miles which we took to an ancient 
 Buddhist temple showed on the way nearly every 
 known specimen of equatorial vegetation, and it 
 was especially good to see how the cultivation of 
 the bread-fruit tree is increasing. Good, also, to 
 see with what irrepressible energy British soldiers 
 were playing football on the maidan with the ther- 
 mometer at 87. 
 
 From Colombo our sea-road to Aden, Port Said, 
 and Marseilles is too well known and too often 
 traversed to call for extended remarks. In my 
 " India Revisited " I have myself described the 
 voyage homewards over the Arabian Sea. We 
 passed, on board the Peninsular and Oriental 
 steamer Ravenna into which vessel we shifted at 
 Colombo between the Maldives and Laccadives, 
 guided by the excellent light on Minekoi Island ; 
 and after six days' further steaming over peaceful 
 seas, made our way between Cape Guardafui and 
 the Island of Socotra to brown, bare, and burning 
 Aden. 
 
 ADEN, February 13, 1891. 
 
 It is from this Arabian cinder-hole, so ugly and 
 so useful, that I despatch to you this last of my 
 desultory letters. What remains of our journey 
 homeward by the Red Sea, the Canal, and Mar- 
 seilles is all well known, and there hangs above
 
 592 SEAS AND LANDS. 
 
 us a horrible chance, moreover, that we may be 
 quarantined for a fortnight in Egypt, on account 
 of the small-pox which was raging in Colombo 
 when we left. It only remains to remark that no 
 sea-voyage can well be more interesting or more 
 health-giving than this which the steamships of 
 the great Peninsular and Oriental Company render 
 so easy and so pleasant. Thanks to its excellent 
 arrangements, we have sailed over ten thousand 
 miles of changeful ocean through seven great seas 
 and four straits without a moment's apprehension 
 or difficulty ; finding always the most courteous and 
 skilful officers, admirable accommodation, a bounti- 
 ful table, and the best of good casual company. 
 To be under the flag of the " Unofficial Fleet " of 
 the British Empire for such the Peninsular and 
 Oriental may be styled seems, indeed, always to 
 me to be already half at home. Yet, after steaming 
 round the entire coast-line of the Continent of Asia, 
 from Japan to Syria, one longs for dry land at last, 
 and I shall be glad very glad to tread again the 
 familiar pavements of Fleet Street.
 
 INDEX. 
 
 ABACUS, the, 322 
 
 Achinese, the, their desire to be 
 
 placed under the British flag, 591 
 Adams, President, 64 
 Adams, Will, 169, 170 ; his visit to 
 
 Japan, 573 
 Aden, 592 
 
 Admiral Nachimoff, the flagship, 574 
 Ah-Fat, Chinese attendant, 152, 
 
 159 
 
 Alaska, 149, 151 
 
 America, cars in, 58, 59, 82 ; demo- 
 cracy in, in, 112; sonnet of 
 adieu to, 145; trees in, 118, 119; 
 women in, 112 
 
 Amida, images of, 238 
 
 Ancona, the, 574 
 
 Anson, 151 
 
 Anticosti, island of, its dangers, 19 
 
 Ants, 284, 289 
 
 Arashi-yama, the mountain, 236, 
 237 ; its cherry blossoms, 273 
 
 Ardagh, Miss, poetess, 49 
 
 Asakusa, 201 ; Emperor's palace at, 
 242 ; gathering at palace, 242, 
 
 243. 244 
 
 Asarum, the, leaf, 221, 224 
 Astronomy, 280, 281, 283, 288 
 Atlantic, the North, 7-9, 10, 12, 14; 
 
 birds of, 12, 13, 15 
 Awoto, story of, 256, 257 
 
 BARKER, Annie Herbert, poetess, 
 238 
 
 Bees, 282, 295 
 
 Bdyic, the steamship, 147, 149, 151, 
 !54 I57i 159-161, 164, 169; Dies 
 non on board of, 162 
 
 Belleisle Straits, dangers of naviga- 
 tion of, 14, 22 
 
 Biwa Lake, 180 
 j Boston, 91 ; its buildings, 93 ; cars, 
 
 92 ; chief cemetery, 93 ; climbing 
 
 plant, 93 ; parks, 92 ; State- house, 
 
 92 ; suburbs, 92, 93 
 Bloody Foreland, the, 7, 9, 12 
 British Columbia, climate of, 51 
 Bruddick, Major Isaac, 98 
 Buddha, effigy of, near Hase, 257 
 Buddhism, 203, 285, 289, 302, 311 ; 
 
 influence of, 231 ; its doctrine, 289 
 Buddhism, Japanese, 217; compared 
 
 with Shintoism, 218; its advent, 
 
 218 ; its hold of the people, 289 
 Buddhist priests, 239, 240 ; tern- 
 
 plette, 234, 235 
 Buffalo, 119, 1 20 
 Bunker Hill, its monument, 93 
 Butsu-do, meaning of, 217 
 
 CABOT, no 
 California, Alta. 131 
 
 population of, 146 
 
 Cambridge, 93 
 
 Canada, capital of, 38 ; climate of, 
 
 32, 50 ; French poets of, 55, 57 ; 
 
 history of, 50 ; hogs of, 35, 36 ; 
 
 literature of, 38 ; her poetry, 44- 
 
 46, 48-51, 57; her problems, 39; 
 
 her requirements, 40 
 Cartier, Jacques, visit to Quebec, 
 
 24 
 
 Cataracts, the, 42 
 Ceylon, 591 ; British soldiers in, 591 
 Chamberlain, Mr. B. H., on Japanese 
 
 poetry, 252 ; his knowledge of 
 
 Japanese language, 290 ; a story 
 
 of, 460 
 
 ' Cham plain, Samuel de, 24, 30 
 C banning, 119 
 
 593 2 P
 
 594 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Cha-no-yu, the, 302, 303, 307, 311 
 Cha-Sehi, the, 303 
 Chemistry, 282, 283, 288 
 Chicago, 122 ; as a railway centre, 
 
 123 ; conflagration in, 122 ; its 
 
 commerce, 123 
 Childs, Mr. G. W., journalist, 77, 
 
 /8 
 Chinamen, home-going, 152; dead, 
 
 how shipped home, 153, 155, 156, 
 
 164 ; discomforts of home-going, 
 
 153-155; as fellow - passengers, 
 
 148; as sailors, 152; their desire 
 
 to be buried at home, 1 53 ; reasons 
 
 for this, 1 59 
 China Town, 154 
 Chopsticks, 143, 210; how to use, 
 
 265 
 Chrysanthemums, 192, 201, 202, 
 
 211, 216, 228, 231, 242, 243; 
 
 festival of the, 548-550 
 Cleveland, 120; its gardens, 121; 
 
 its population, 121; Garfield's 
 
 burial-place in, 121 
 Cliff House, 143 
 Colleges, American, 1 1 1 
 Colombo, 591 
 Commerce, 426, 427 
 Concord, 97, 98 
 
 Bridge, 114 
 
 Confucius, 153 
 
 Connaught, Duke and Duchess of, 
 
 in Japan, 400, 423-425 
 Connemara, Lord, Governor of 
 
 Madras, 584 
 
 Cook, Captain James, 150 
 Corean ambassador, 244 
 Craigie House, 102 
 Crawford, Isabella Valancey, 46- 
 
 48 
 
 Crocker, Mr. F., 162 
 Curzon, Mrs, Sarah Anne, 49 
 
 DAIKOKU, picture of, 192 ; temple 
 
 to, 192 
 
 Dai-Nippon, grave of, 570 
 Daiya-Gawa river, 237 
 Dana, no 
 Darwin, his books, 285 ; his home, 
 
 284 ; his principle of evolution, 
 
 282, 289 
 Deakin, Mr., his emporium, 243 
 
 Donner Lake, 131 ; firs near, 131 
 Dynamite, transit of, 237, 238 
 
 EARTHQUAKES, in Japan, 238, 240 ; 
 loss of life by, 241 ; what they 
 have done, 281 
 
 Education in Japan, 397 
 
 Eliot, Dr. Charles, 94, 95, 103, in, 
 114 
 
 Emerson, 97, 100, 101, 112; Carlyle's 
 present to, 99 ; his books, 99 ; his 
 daughter, 97 ; his haunts, 101 ; his 
 house, 99 ; his son, 97 ; his teach- 
 ing, 115 ; his widow, 100 
 
 Emigrants, Methodist and Moravian. 
 10, n; to Canada, 2 ; miseries 
 of, 2-4, 9, 10 
 
 England, address on, 399 
 
 FIDELIS, see Machar 
 
 Fire-box, see Hibachi 
 
 Fish, paper, 454 
 
 Fuji-San, 427 ; earthquakes caused 
 by, 241 ; government pride in, 340 ; 
 in sunshine, 422, 425 ; its ascent, 
 183, 184, 504, 510, 515; its beauty, 
 187, 1 88, 197 ; its circumference, 
 509 ; its cone, 208, 258 ; cultiva- 
 tion on, 509 ; its eruptions, 1 82 ; 
 its last eruption, 508 ; its height, 
 182, 1 88, 507, 508 ; its hump, 182 ; 
 its products, 183 ; its situation, 
 182, 183; legends attaching to, 
 182, 187, 508 ; model of, 201 ; 
 poem on, 518-520; slaughter of 
 soldiers on, 556 ; snow upon, 513 ; 
 sunrise on, 516 ; view of, 482, 484 
 
 Fuji-Sen-Gen, the goddess, 187, 188 
 
 Fujiya, celebrated tea-house, 184 
 
 GAQNON, M. Ernest, poet, 55 
 
 Garfield, see Cleveland 
 
 Gast, Pierre de, 30 
 
 Geishas, the, 299, 300, 303 
 
 Gettysburg, 114 
 
 Gladstone, Mr., a mistake of, 588 
 
 Goddess of storms, 158 
 
 Golden Gate, .the, 144, 145 
 
 Gompachi and Ko-Murasaki, loves 
 
 of, 494, 498 
 Grant, Ulysses S., 78; his grave, 
 
 85
 
 INDEX. 
 
 595 
 
 Great Hell, the, its deadly influ- 
 ence, 482, 483 ; volcano of, 482 
 Greely, General, 73, 74 
 
 HAKONE, Lake of, 480, 484 ; moun- 
 tains of, 480 
 
 Hall of Three Buddhas, tee Sambut- 
 sudo 
 
 Hamilton, Lord George, 364 
 
 Harland & Wolff as shipbuilders, 
 
 IS' 
 
 Harris, Captain, of the Pekvn, 581 
 John, founder of city, 63 
 
 Harrison, Mrs., 49 
 
 President, 69, 70, 71 
 
 Haruna, Lake, 528 ; vale, 528 ; vil- 
 lage, 528 
 
 Harvard, its arboretum, 108 ; its 
 observatory, 107, 108 
 
 Rev. John, 94 ; his bequest, 
 
 105 ; his library, 105 ; his place of 
 death, 105 
 
 - University, 93, 94, 103, 105, 
 1 06 ; colleges in, 104 ; expenses in, 
 105 ; its academic buildings, 94 ; 
 its gymnasium, 104, 107; its lands, 
 94 ; its library, 94, 108 ; its me- 
 morial hall, 94, 1 14 ; its statutes, 
 107, 109 ; its students, 94, 106 ; its 
 teachers, 94 ; its teaching, 109 ; 
 its wealth, 106 
 
 Hasbi, tee Chopsticks 
 
 Hawthorne, house of, 99 
 
 I liakuninshiu, volume of poetry, 255 
 
 Hibachi, the, importance of, 375-386 
 
 Hidari Jingoro, his wonderful carved 
 image, 268 
 
 Hideyoshi, Taikoon, 303, 304, 311, 
 312 
 
 Hitchcock, Mr., 346 
 
 Hoar, Judge, 97 
 
 Hong Kong, 577 ; bird life in, 578, 
 579 ; its peak, 579 ; its trees, 578 ; 
 pirates in, 580 ; population of, 579 
 
 Honolulu, 162 
 
 Horseshoe, the, 41, 43 
 
 Ho-yei-yan, hump of Fuji-San, 180 
 
 IKAO, ascent of, 527 ; spring of, 528 
 Imai-chd, 317 
 
 Inare, deity of the rice plant, 477 
 Inari-Sama, the deity, 494 
 
 India, literature of, 115 
 
 Ingles, Captain, RN., 412, 413, 515, 
 
 521 
 
 Inouye, Count, sacrifice of, 441 
 Iowa, State of, 123 
 Ito, Count, 570 ; his house, 363 ; 
 
 founder of modern Japan, 363, 
 
 364, 365 
 Countess, 364, 365 
 
 JAPAN, 165 
 
 ablution in, 406 
 
 a dinner in, 263 ; guests at, 264 
 
 afternoon in, 417 
 
 agriculture in, 215 
 
 arrival of Dutch in, 427 
 
 arrival of Portuguese in, 427 
 
 art in, 339, 367 
 
 art store in, 349, 351, 352, 353 
 
 as a place of rest, 334 
 
 as England's equal, 443 
 
 arrival of English ships in, 427 
 
 babies in, 178, 192, 194, 207, 217, 
 
 231 
 
 ball in, 359, 360 
 
 baneful influence of Portuguese 
 Jesuits in, 428, 429 
 
 bank-notes, 192 
 
 bathing in, 180, 212, 323, 324, 462, 
 527, 531 
 
 bathman in, 179 
 
 bathrooms in, 461 
 
 baths in, 461-463, 532 
 
 bedtime in, 402 
 
 bell-ringing in, 316 
 
 birds in, 234, 495 
 
 Bishop of, 321 
 
 bluejackets of, 413, 449 
 
 British influence in, 436, 445 
 
 British influence, by whom repre- 
 sented, 436, 437 
 
 British traders in, ^/)/| 
 
 Buddhism in, 217 ; entrance of, 
 
 244 
 butterflies in, 533 ; superstition 
 
 about, 491 
 buying in, 353 
 cakes in, 180, 203 
 children in, 194, 198, 199, 207, 231, 
 
 232 
 
 children in, precocity of, 207, 208 
 children in, where to be seen, 199
 
 596 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 JAPAN 
 
 cholera in, 536-544, 574 
 cholera in, mortality from, 543 
 civilisation in, 287, 446 
 civil laws, 436 
 climate of, 458 
 Cloisonne" work in, 350, 35 1 
 consular jurisdiction in, 434 
 cook in, 322 
 cooks' dress in, 321, 322 
 coolies in, 1 78 
 country girl in, 176, 177 
 court dress in, 243 
 criminal laws in, 436 
 cups in, 1 80. 203 
 dancers in, 268, 269, 270, 273, 
 
 299 
 
 dancing in, 359, 360 
 dark age in, 368 
 day in, 495 
 
 dinner in, 260, 266, 297, 301 
 discoverer of, 169 
 diseases of, 461, 462, 463 
 drawing-room in, 315 
 dressing in, 404, 405 
 eating in, 260 
 education in, 397-399 
 Emperor of, see Mikado 
 esteem of women in, 344, 345 
 etiquette in, 270, 239, 406, 407, 420 
 Exhibition in, 366, 368, 369, 370, 
 
 371, 400, 447 
 exports of, 367 
 fancy-dress dance in, 335 
 fans in, 470 
 farming in, 454 
 Festival of the Dead in, 486 
 feudalism in, 367, 368 
 fish in, 485 
 
 fishermen in, 178, 194 
 fishing in, 454 
 florists in, 202, 203 
 flowers in, 192, 467-475, 494, 495 
 folding screen in, 351, 352 
 games in, 333, 336, 402, 403 
 gardener in, 322 
 girls' dress in, 300 
 government in, 443 
 hair- dressing in, 264 
 hair of women in, 177, 194 
 head-dress in, 328 
 her boats, 159 
 
 JAPAN 
 
 her Constitution, 440 
 
 her fishing craft, 166 
 
 her flag, 166 
 
 her foreign commerce, 443, 444 
 
 her foreign merchants, 444 
 
 her negotiations, 439 
 
 her passports, 206, 445 
 
 her political relationship, 426 
 
 sailors of, 170 
 
 supreme court of, 442 
 
 holy books in, 472 
 
 home in, 330, 428 
 
 houses in, 197, 317 
 
 ice beverage in, 487 
 
 inn in, 209 ; bedroom in, 21 1 ; beds 
 in, 211 ; customs, 209, 211; en- 
 tertainment in, 210, 211 
 
 invasion of, annals of, 556, 557 
 
 ivory-work in, 347, 348 
 
 joiner in, 452 
 
 judges in, 444, 445 
 
 lacquer-work in, 346 
 
 lady of, 175, 176 
 
 lady's pillow in, 327 
 
 language in, 203, 204, 330 
 
 lanterns in, used for dead, 489, 490 
 
 laughter in, 232, 233 
 
 law of election in, 387, 388, 389, 
 390 
 
 laws in, 433 
 
 legends of, 245, 246, 268, 384, 455, 
 473, 488, 489, 496 
 
 life in, 337, 408, 409 
 
 love-song of, 337 
 
 manners in, 307 
 
 mat-making in, 341 
 
 maturity in, 499 
 
 meals in, 406, 407 
 
 medicine in, 409 
 
 medicines used in, 459-464 
 
 men's dress in, 194 
 
 men-of-war at, 166 
 
 metropolis of, 318 
 
 mineral springs in, 462, 478, 481, 
 482, 526, 534 
 
 miller in, 179 
 
 morning in, 406 
 
 museums of, 197, 232, 264 
 
 mythology of, 280 
 
 new Parliament in, 354, 386, 558, 
 561 ; central hall for, 574
 
 INDEX. 
 
 597 
 
 JAPAN 
 oxen in, 194 
 painting in, 452 
 physician in, 1 78, 409 
 photography in, 479 
 pin trade in, 324 
 poetry in, 250, 252, 255, 333, 341, 
 
 342 
 
 poetry, specimen of, 251 
 
 poets of, 255 
 
 policemen in, 194, 450 
 
 population of, 366, 379 
 
 porcelain in, 433 
 
 postmen in, 194 
 
 potters in, 451 
 
 presents in, 333 
 
 priests of, 450 
 
 reception in, 420, 421, 422 
 
 religions of, 217 
 
 review of forces in, 410-423 
 
 rising in, 404 
 
 roads in, 236 
 
 sculpture in, 453, 454 
 
 shampooerin, 178, 179, 212, 457 
 
 Shinto priests in, 217 
 
 Shinto temple in, 217, 218, 234 
 
 shopping in, 353 
 
 shops in, 180, 197, 318 
 
 shrimps in, 180 
 
 shutters in, 212 
 
 sin cures in, 496, 497 
 
 sleeping in, 476 
 
 smoking in, 203, 379 
 
 soldiers in, 194, 419 ; their uni- 
 form, 419, 449, 450 
 
 songs of, children's, 198, 199 
 
 special picture in, 452, 453 
 
 spirit of her people, 192, 193, 197, 
 204 
 
 summer in, 486, 487 
 
 tattooing in, 470, 477 
 
 tea in, 294, 295 
 
 tea-drinking in, 184, 203, 294, 297, 
 
 33. 37, 308 
 tea-making in, 307, 308 
 theatres in, 246, 249, 250 
 the fox in, 462, 463 
 the Great National Exhibition in, 
 
 447 ; admission to it, 450 
 the supernatural, how regarded in, 
 
 488 
 the tariff question, 434, 435 
 
 JAPAN 
 
 treaty with Great Britain, 428 
 
 trees in, 215, 233, 239, 357 
 
 vases of Cloisonn^ in, 350 
 
 vegetation in, 215, 234, 317, 318 
 
 vehicles in, 177, 178 
 
 vehicle- pullers in, 177 
 
 viands in, 270, 402, 456 
 
 women in, 334, 345 
 
 wood of, 478 
 
 wood-carving in, 352 ; where may 
 be seen, 353 
 
 bridge, tee Nihombashi 
 
 the Empress of, her appear- 
 ance, her birth, her child, her 
 qualities, 555 
 Japanese, the, as a race. 358 
 
 as pedestrians, 525 
 
 character of, 333 
 
 dress of, 197 
 
 feet of, 237 
 
 manners of, 178, 205, 206, 244, 334 
 
 speech of, 252, 330 
 
 temper of, 435, 436, 446 
 
 their joiner- work, 45 1 , 452 
 
 their love of flowers, 192, 217 
 
 the stability of, 430 
 
 the turnery of, 451, 452 
 
 their under- linen, 461 
 Jersey, 85 ; its park, 85 ; its pave- 
 ment, 85 
 
 Jinrikisha, 171, 178, 535 
 Jinrikisha men, 171, 178, 233; speed 
 
 of, 212, 216 ; scars on, 460 ; 
 
 strength of, 535 
 Jizo, the god, 485 
 Johnson, Miss Pauline, poetess, 49 
 Jones, Miss K. L., poetess, 53 
 Joss-papers, 158, 159 
 
 KA-KI, fruit of, 208 
 
 Kamada, its plum-blossoms, 192 
 
 Kama-Kura, 256 ; its Buddha figure, 
 
 256 ; its Buddhist shrines, 256 ; 
 
 its Shinto shrines, 256 
 Kagura, the, dance, 226, 227 
 Earuizawa, summer resort in Japan, 
 
 534 
 
 Ei-ku, the imperial blossom, 207 
 Kimono, the, 175 ; the use of, 178 
 Ein Riu Yan, temple of, 199 ; wor- 
 ship in, 200 ; its gods, 200, 201 ;
 
 59 8 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 gold image in, 199 ; grounds 
 within, 20 1 ; pilgrims to, 200 
 
 Kioto, tee Arashi-yama 
 
 Kiss of brotherhood, 308 
 
 Knowledge, lecture on modern, 279 
 
 Koi, the, fish, 454, 455 ; legend of, 
 
 455 
 
 Kosei, its mineral spring, 534 
 Kuroda, Count, 204 
 
 Countess, 203 ; dress of, 203 
 
 Kurosiwa, the, 573 ; its speed, 573 
 Kuruma, the, vehicle, 177, 178; 
 
 value of, 534 
 
 Kuruma-yu, see Jinrikisha 
 Kwannon Sama, goddess, image of, 
 
 199 
 
 LANMAN, Mr. Charles B., 108 
 
 La vino, Mr., Consul in Singapore, 
 
 584 
 
 Leprohon, Mrs., poetess, 49 
 Liberty, statue of, 115 
 Lighthall, Mr., poet, 52 
 Literature, English, 288 
 Liverpool docks, 3 
 Loch Swilly, 4 
 
 Lockyer, Norman, on colours, 289 
 Londonderry, wall of, 5 ; siege of, 
 
 4 ; Macaulay's account of the 
 
 siege, 5, 6 
 Longfellow, his arm-chair, 102 ; his 
 
 daughter, 101 ; his poems, 101, 102 ; 
 
 his portrait, 102 ; dwelling of, 101 
 Lubbock, Sir John, 283 ; his ant- 
 house, 284 ; his researches, 283 ; 
 
 on bees, 283 
 Lundy, 6 
 
 MACHAR, Agnes Maude, Canadian, 
 
 poetess, 49 
 Macleur, Kate Seymour, Canadian 
 
 poetess, 49 
 Magee, Mr., purser of the Belgic, 
 
 163 
 
 Mah&bharata, passage in the, 491 
 Makura, the, 327 
 Man, his growth, 286 
 Manydshin, poetic work, 255 
 Matter, as resolved by the chemist, 
 
 282 
 
 Maumont, sword of, 7 
 Mayflower, the, 115 
 
 M'Lachlan, poet, 54 
 
 Men, American, 112 
 
 Mikado, the, 547 ; as a monarch, 
 555) 556 ; description of, 552 ; 
 etiquette attending, 553 ; his 
 birth, 554; his bow, 553; dress 
 of > 553i 5 6 9 5 his name, 554 ; his 
 troops, 562, 563 ; succession to 
 throne of, 554 
 
 Mikado Nintoku, legend about, 384 
 
 Mioken, shrine to, 193 
 
 Mississippi, the, 123 
 
 Miyanoshita as a centre for explora- 
 tions, 480 ; as a glen, 478 ; as a 
 village, 478 ; its hot spring, 478 ; 
 its industry, 478 ; its surrounding 
 mountains, 479 ; sturdiness of its 
 citizens, 479 
 
 Mongolian voyagers, 155 ; their 
 domino-playing, 158 
 
 Monkey, the, of Malay forests, 584 
 
 Montreal, 20, 28-40; its elbow-room, 
 29 ; its food supply, 29 ; its gar- 
 dens, 32 ; Bed Indians in, 29 ; its 
 telegraph poles, 32 
 
 Moore, his boat-song, 35 
 
 Mosquitoes in Tokio, 476 ; nets for, 
 476 
 
 Moxa, the, treatment, 459 
 
 Mugwort, 459, 460 
 
 Mukdjima, the cherry-tree avenue, 
 
 473 
 Musumes, 336 ; duties of, 406 
 
 NADAS, the, its chain of waters, 571, 
 573 ; landscapes and seascapes of, 
 
 573 
 
 Nagasaki, 574 
 Nagoya, 414 ; its castle, 414 ; its 
 
 inhabitants, 414 ; its streets, 414 
 Namikawa of Tokio, 350 
 Nangasaque, 1 70 
 Nebraska, 124, 126 
 Negro, the, population in America, 
 
 75.76 
 
 Nevada, her mines, 130 
 
 New Brunswick, its catholicity, 2 1 ; 
 
 New Haven, 90 ; its commerce, gr ; 
 its institutions, 90 ; its manufac- 
 tures, 91 ; its situation, 91 ; its 
 trees, 90 
 
 Newton, his teaching, 280
 
 INDEX. 
 
 599 
 
 Niagara, 41 
 
 Nichiren, St., temple to, 192 
 Nihombashi as a road centre, 47 1 
 Nikko, 205, 206, 212 ; its height, 216 ; 
 
 its produce, 216 ; its temples and 
 
 tombs, 217, 218, 221, 222, 223, 233 ; 
 
 country round, 228 ; mountains 
 
 round, 221 ; proverb of, 217 ; why 
 
 famed, 221, 222, 223 
 Ninsoku, the sturdiness of, 497, 498 
 Nippon, 450 ; holiday at, 469 ; the 
 
 hills of, 522 
 Nobunaga on Christianity in Japan, 
 
 428 
 Norton, Professor Charles E., 108 
 
 FUKU SAN, 319 ; on the Jour det 
 
 Marts, 491 
 
 O Jigoku, tee Great Hell 
 Okuma, Count, 204 ; his scheme, 
 
 438 ; the sacrifice of, 441 
 Okura, Mr., banquet by, 298, 299 
 Omaha, 124 
 O Take San, 184, 227 
 
 PACIFIC Ocean, the, 143, 149 
 Parkes, Sir Harry, in Japan, 436, 
 
 437 ; reference to, 443 
 Pekin, the steamship, 581 
 Penang, 587 ; its aspect, 587 ; its 
 
 waterfall, 587 
 Penn, cottage of, 77 
 Percy, Lord, 99 
 Persimmon, see Ka-ki 
 Philadelphia, 76 ; Girard College in, 
 
 76, 77 ; its town-hall, 76 
 Pickering, Edward, 107 
 Pigmy, the, warship, 571, 572 
 Plunkett, Sir Francis, in Japan, 437 ; 
 
 reference to, 443 
 Prairie, the, 124, 125 ; its dogs, 125, 
 
 126 ; owls in, 126 
 Pullman cars, 117 
 
 QUEBEC, her catholicity, 21 ; her 
 founder, 24 ; her language, 23 ; 
 her site, 24 ; her streams, 21 ; her 
 title, 24 
 
 RANCHING, 128 
 
 Red Indians, 29, 128, 129 
 
 Ueao, 129 
 
 Rice, 533 
 
 Rice, cultivation of, 215 ; high price 
 
 of, 471 
 
 Rice-god, see Inard 
 Rice-wine, 456 
 "Richardson, Mr., fate of, 570 
 Roaring Meg, the gun, 6 
 Robinson Crusoe, 115 
 Rothwell, Annie, Canadian poetess, 
 
 49 
 
 SAIGON, Count, 299, 360, 364 
 Sake, 304 ; meaning of, 236 
 Salisbury, Lord, his responsibility, 
 
 443 
 Salmon, Admiral Sir No well, V.C., 
 
 384 
 
 Salt Lake, 127, 128 
 
 Samisen, the, 184, 212 
 
 Sambutsudo, 222-227 
 
 Sandwich Islands, 148 
 
 Sanetomo, lover of poetry, 257 
 
 San Francisco, 132, 133; discovery 
 of gold at, 134 ; its birth, 134 ; its 
 cars, 137 ; its first trade, 134; its 
 people, 137; its soil, 139; its 
 streets, 137 ; opium-smoking in, 
 139, 140 
 
 San Francisco, China city in, 138; 
 apothecary shops in, 141, 142 ; 
 food in, 141 ; habits of Chinese 
 in, 139 ; morality in, 142 ; popula- 
 tion of, 143 ; smoking in, 139, 140; 
 theatre of, 142 
 
 Sanskrit, 109, 113 
 
 Satow, Mr. C. M. G., on Buddhism, 
 218, 221 
 
 Science, beckoning onwards, 282 
 
 Seikasha, the, 304 
 
 Sen-no-rikiu, 265, 311 
 
 Seranus, see Harrison 
 
 Seymour, Captain, of the Verona, 
 
 57L 575 
 
 Shelley, MS. of, 108 
 Sherman, General, quotations from, 
 
 86-89 
 
 Shiba, 218, 221 
 Shichi-taki Cascades, its mountain 
 
 tea-house, 233, 236 
 Shimonoseki, Straits of, 573 
 Shinagawa, 192 ; her fishermen, 
 
 192
 
 6oo 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Shinto, meaning of, 217; the reli- 
 gion of the State, 217 ; charms, 
 224, 226 
 
 Shiyoku, tomb of the, 498 
 
 Shogunites, defeat of, 364 
 
 Shogun, the, Sanetomo, his love of 
 poetry, 385 
 
 Shoguns, the, 218; crest of, 221, 
 224 ; full of, 559, 560 ; tombs of, 
 221, 224 
 
 Shoji, the, 187 
 
 Shako, 303 
 
 Signal office, the meteorological, 
 
 74 
 
 Silk, 511, 533 
 Singapore, 583 ; its botanic gardens, 
 
 583 ; its population, 583 
 Smith, Mr. William Wye, poet, 51 
 Smith, Professor Gold win, 38 
 Snow-sheds, 131 
 
 Spectroscope, the power of the, 281 
 Siadicona, the village of, 24 
 Statesmen, American and Roman, 
 
 no 
 
 Stanley, Lady, 29 
 Steamships, the P. and O., 592 
 Steps, hundred and one, 184, 187 
 St. Lawrence, the, 19, 26, 31 ; Gulf 
 of the, difficulties of navigating, 
 i, 1 6 ; its icebergs, 16-18 
 St. Louis, 23 
 
 Store, largest in the States, 78 
 Straits of Malacca, 584, 587 
 Sugar-maple, 118 
 Sui-Giyo, sin water-cure, 496 
 Sumatra, its Golden Mountain, 587 ; 
 height of, 587 ; symmetry of, 587 
 Sumi, the, 308 
 Sun, the, compared with Sirius, 
 
 280 
 
 Swinburne, Mr., his mistake, 576 
 Sylvester, Professor, his investiga- 
 tions, 289 
 
 TEA, 303 
 
 Tea-leaf, the, 302, 312 
 Tea-pavilion, 303 
 Tea-plant, the, 302 
 Thomas, General, 87, 88 
 Thomson, Sir William, his investi- 
 gations, 289 
 Tobacco, 183, 191 
 
 Tokio, 191, 316, 319; amusements 
 in, 336 ; baths in, 461 ; castle, 
 193; Club, speech at the, 274, 
 275-277 ; conflagrations in, 391- 
 397 ; covered with volcanic ash, 
 509 ; earthquakes at, 240 ; Exhi- 
 bition in, 249 ; housebreaking in, 
 403 ; mosquitoes in, 476 ; new 
 hotel in, 371 ; Parliament-house 
 in, 204 ; population of, 193, 284 ; 
 size of, 193 ; streets of, 194 ; 
 temples in, 218 
 
 Toronto, 32 ; atmosphere of, 33 ; 
 boat-song of, 35 ; fields, 34 ; popn 
 lation of, 33 ; situation of, 36, 
 38 ; snake-fences in, 33 ; streets 
 of 37, 3 8 39 5 wild plants in, 34 ; 
 University, 38 
 
 Toronto, Lake of, 36, 37 
 
 Tori Yoshida, 324, 328 
 
 Treaty revision, its international 
 interest, 424, 425 
 
 Truckee, the, 129 
 
 Tsuji, Mr., remarks of, 290 
 
 Tsurumi, its rice-fields, 191 ; reap- 
 ing of the same, 191 ; its radish- 
 fields, 191 
 
 Tub, the, as a bath, 461 
 
 Tyndall, Professor, his experiments 
 283 ; on sounds, 289 
 
 Typhoons, breeding-place of, 582 ; 
 season of, 582 
 
 UBAMI, the waterfall, 236, 237 
 Urashima, 245 ; his burial-place, 246 
 Utah desert, 128, 129 
 Utsunomiya, 208 ; inn at, 209-212 ; 
 
 the pool, 237 
 Uyeno Park, its historical memories, 
 
 447, 448 ; its temple, 447 
 
 VERONA, the, 571, 573, 575 
 Voyage, longest, without sighting 
 land, 149, 150 
 
 WALDEN Pond, 100, 101 
 
 Walker, Captain, of the Edgic, 152, 
 160, 161 
 
 Walker, Rev. George, his valour, 5 ; 
 statue of, 5 
 
 Wanamaker, Mr., Postmaster -Gene- 
 ral, 78
 
 INDEX. 
 
 601 
 
 Washington, 58 ; its memories of 
 Sunnier, Seward, Lincoln, Gar 
 field, Jackson, and Farragut, 63 
 
 Washington, the White House, 64 73 
 
 Washington, dwelling of, 101 ; 
 statue of, 72, 77 
 
 Watanabe Shuzo, 322 ; his dress, 
 322 ; his duty, 322 
 
 Webster, Daniel, 72 
 
 Wellington, Duke of, 364 
 
 Whitman, Walt, poet, 78, 81, 82-84 ', 
 his dwelling, 82 
 
 Whitney, Dr., on acu - puncture, 
 460 
 
 Whittier, Mr., poet, 95-97 
 
 Winsor, Mr. Justin, 108 
 
 Wolfe, Quebec conquered by, 23, 
 25 ; bis death, 26 ; his monu- 
 ment, 26 
 
 YAKU-SHI, temple of, 496 
 
 Yale College, 90 
 
 Yamagata, Count, 358, 363 
 
 Yeddo, tee Tokio 
 
 Yokohama, 172, 178 ; clogs worn in 
 
 175; her roadways, 172 
 Yomei Mon, the gate, 225 
 Yoshi-tsune*, Regent, 303 
 
 THE END. 
 
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