For a moment in the stillness I felt a
feeling of panic, as if I were incurring a risk by being alone
among savages, but I conquered it, and, after watching the fire
till it went out, fell asleep till I was awoke by the severe cold
of the next day's dawn.
LETTER XXXVI - (Continued)
A Supposed Act of Worship - Parental Tenderness - Morning Visits -
Wretched Cultivation - Honesty and Generosity - A "Dug-out" - Female
Occupations - The Ancient Fate - A New Arrival - A Perilous
Prescription - The Shrine of Yoshitsune - The Chief's Return.
When I crept from under my net much benumbed with cold, there were
about eleven people in the room, who all made their graceful
salutation. It did not seem as if they had ever heard of washing,
for, when water was asked for, Shinondi brought a little in a
lacquer bowl, and held it while I bathed my face and hands,
supposing the performance to be an act of worship! I was about to
throw some cold tea out of the window by my bed when he arrested me
with an anxious face, and I saw, what I had not observed before,
that there was a god at that window - a stick with festoons of
shavings hanging from it, and beside it a dead bird.
