appoints a day, and according to the exigencies
of the case, before his family or his assembled
connexions, ceremoniously cuts open his own
belly at a solemn dinner. Dying in this way,
he is said to have died in the course of nature;
dying before shame came to him, he is said
to have died undisgraced, and so has saved
his family from that participation in his fall,
which otherwise was imminent. Now we
must leave this house, in which we have spent
perhaps a little too much time: yet in the
whole time we did not once hear the squalling
of a baby, though a baby was there certainly.
If this should meet the eye of Mr. Meek, he
is informed that in Japan, children, until they
are three years old, are not allowed to wear
anything tight about their persons.

Now we are once more in the streets of
Nagasaki, and observe, that for a gentleman
to turn his back upon a friend, is true politeness,
in this most original of lands. It signifies
that he who so turns is unworthy to behold
the face, &c. A bridal procession passes us;
the bride in her long white veil. There is a
touch of poetry connected with that veil; it
literally is the shroud in which she will be
buried.

We are out of town now, and delighting in
the open country. Exquisite views of hill,
and dale, and wood, and water, tempt the
sight. Rice fields, of course, we pass; rice is
a staple article of diet to the Japanese, as to
so many other millions of the human race.
It is the vegetable food that finds its way into
more mouths than any other. There is
wheat, also, in Japan, used chiefly for making
cakes and soy; barley for feeding cattle. The
cattle being used as beasts of draught and
burden, it is thought improper to kill them,
or to deprive the young calves of their milk;
the Japanese, therefore, refrain from milk
and beef. They eat great quantities of fish,
poultry, and venison. In the country
gardens we see quinces, pears, plums, cherries,
peaches, oranges, and citrons too; bean-fields
abound, and farms, of which the hedges are
all tea. Where soil and climate favour, many
a hill side, in Japan, is cultivated as a tea
plantation; but beyond this, the tea plant is
used by the farmers generally as a hedge,
from which they gather their own leaves, and
dry tea for home use, just as our farmers
brew their own October beer. Now we are
flitting under cedar groves, now under firs,
now under mulberry plantations for the silk-
worm; every good point in the landscape is
occupied by a temple, which is composed of
one large edifice and many little ones, the
little ones are used by pleasure parties. There
is a snake, and there you see in the tree a
long-tailed monkey (Inuus speciosus); there is
no other kind of monkey in these islands, and
the snakes are all of species found nowhere
else. The tree frog and the eatable frog live
in the north of Nippon. Here we have
squirrels. There are no lions and tigers;
there is not a single animal of the cat tribe
known upon these islands; you can meet
with nothing worse than a wild boar. Great
pains are taken to destroy the foxes. Here
are pheasants without game-laws, and the
peacock yonder looks as if he felt himself at
home. Several palanquins have passed us on
the road, varying much in shape and minor
details. The shape of the palanquin, the
length of the poles, their position, the way in
which they are held, and the number of
holders, all are fixed so as to accord precisely
with the rank of the good gentleman inside.
The number of attendants in the train, even
of an inconsiderable man, is startling; and as
for a prince, he might be setting out to
conquer China. The roads are good, and
there is no lack of horsemen, but we have not
seen draught carriages; perhaps these hills
are an impediment to travelling by such
conveyance; roads over hills and mountains
being simply flights of steps.

Hollo! What couple scampers by in such
a hurry? 'Tis the post; the greatest princes
must put by their etiquette, and get out of
its way. One man runs with the letters, and
another keeps pace with him to supply his
place in case of illness or accident; if both
posts fail, the nearest man, whatever be his
dignity, must do their work for them. These
posts are never horsed; but each pair, at the
conclusion of a stage, finds the next couple
waiting to catch the important bundle thrown
to them, and set off instantly, before the spent
runners have reached the spot where they
may halt and get their wind again. Goods
are conveyed on pack-horses or oxen over
land; but water transit by lakes, rivers, or
canals, is much more common. The roads
are well swept, for the farmers on each
side diligently scrape up all manure; and
as men with brooms clear the way before a
traveller of rank, the highway is kept in a
very neat condition. Men selling straw clouts
for travellers, and straw shoes for the horses,
which require, of course, frequent renewal,
pick up a living by the roadside, and we pass
them frequently. Observe that mighty
camphor-tree, which every traveller has mentioned.
To Kaempfer it was venerable for its age in
the year 1691; still it is healthy, and so large
that fifteen men can stand within its hollow.
Hot springs, of course, we pass in a volcanic
country. There is a coal-mine also here,
though charcoal is the fuel usually burned.

We have now crossed Kiusiu, and reached
the seaport of Kokura, where we find our
Phantom Ship in readiness to take us through
a sea covered with islets, to the large island
of Nippon. We shall disembark, and travel
very rapidly through Ohosaka to Miyako,
where the divine Mikado holds his court.
We pass some strange-looking men covered
with matting, each of whom has in his hand
a long wooden spoon. The spoon is their
cockle-shell, for they are pilgrims travelling
in the most pious form, as beggars, to the
shrine of their own goddess. This pilgrimage