Travelling Along A Very Narrow Road, I As Usual First, We Met A Man
Leading A Prisoner By A Rope, Followed By A Policeman.
As soon as
my runner saw the latter he fell down on his face so suddenly in
the shafts
As nearly to throw me out, at the same time trying to
wriggle into a garment which he had carried on the crossbar, while
the young men who were drawing the two kurumas behind, crouching
behind my vehicle, tried to scuttle into their clothes. I never
saw such a picture of abjectness as my man presented. He trembled
from head to foot, and illustrated that queer phrase often heard in
Scotch Presbyterian prayers, "Lay our hands on our mouths and our
mouths in the dust." He literally grovelled in the dust, and with
every sentence that the policeman spoke raised his head a little,
to bow it yet more deeply than before. It was all because he had
no clothes on. I interceded for him as the day was very hot, and
the policeman said he would not arrest him, as he should otherwise
have done, because of the inconvenience that it would cause to a
foreigner. He was quite an elderly man, and never recovered his
spirits, but, as soon as a turn of the road took us out of the
policeman's sight, the two younger men threw their clothes into the
air and gambolled in the shafts, shrieking with laughter!
On reaching Shingoji, being too tired to go farther, I was dismayed
to find nothing but a low, dark, foul-smelling room, enclosed only
by dirty shoji, in which to spend Sunday. One side looked into a
little mildewed court, with a slimy growth of Protococcus viridis,
and into which the people of another house constantly came to
stare. The other side opened on the earthen passage into the
street, where travellers wash their feet, the third into the
kitchen, and the fourth into the front room. Even before dark it
was alive with mosquitoes, and the fleas hopped on the mats like
sand-flies. There were no eggs, nothing but rice and cucumbers.
At five on Sunday morning I saw three faces pressed against the
outer lattice, and before evening the shoji were riddled with
finger-holes, at each of which a dark eye appeared. There was a
still, fine rain all day, with the mercury at 82 degrees, and the
heat, darkness, and smells were difficult to endure. In the
afternoon a small procession passed the house, consisting of a
decorated palanquin, carried and followed by priests, with capes
and stoles over crimson chasubles and white cassocks. This ark,
they said, contained papers inscribed with the names of people and
the evils they feared, and the priests were carrying the papers to
throw them into the river.
I went to bed early as a refuge from mosquitoes, with the andon, as
usual, dimly lighting the room, and shut my eyes. About nine I
heard a good deal of whispering and shuffling, which continued for
some time, and, on looking up, saw opposite to me about 40 men,
women, and children (Ito says 100), all staring at me, with the
light upon their faces. They had silently removed three of the
shoji next the passage! I called Ito loudly, and clapped my hands,
but they did not stir till he came, and then they fled like a flock
of sheep. I have patiently, and even smilingly, borne all out-of-
doors crowding and curiosity, but this kind of intrusion is
unbearable; and I sent Ito to the police station, much against his
will, to beg the police to keep the people out of the house, as the
house-master was unable to do so. This morning, as I was finishing
dressing, a policeman appeared in my room, ostensibly to apologise
for the behaviour of the people, but in reality to have a
privileged stare at me, and, above all, at my stretcher and
mosquito net, from which he hardly took his eyes. Ito says he
could make a yen a day by showing them! The policeman said that
the people had never seen a foreigner.
I. L. B.
LETTER XXI
The Necessity of Firmness - Perplexing Misrepresentations - Gliding
with the Stream - Suburban Residences - The Kubota Hospital - A Formal
Reception - The Normal School.
KUBOTA, July 23.
I arrived here on Monday afternoon by the river Omono, what would
have been two long days' journey by land having been easily
accomplished in nine hours by water. This was an instance of
forming a plan wisely, and adhering to it resolutely! Firmness in
travelling is nowhere more necessary than in Japan. I decided some
time ago, from Mr. Brunton's map, that the Omono must be navigable
from Shingoji, and a week ago told Ito to inquire about it, but at
each place difficulties have been started. There was too much
water, there was too little; there were bad rapids, there were
shallows; it was too late in the year; all the boats which had
started lately were lying aground; but at one of the ferries I saw
in the distance a merchandise boat going down, and told Ito I
should go that way and no other. On arriving at Shingoji they said
it was not on the Omono at all, but on a stream with some very bad
rapids, in which boats are broken to pieces. Lastly, they said
there was no boat, but on my saying that I would send ten miles for
one, a small, flat-bottomed scow was produced by the Transport
Agent, into which Ito, the luggage, and myself accurately fitted.
Ito sententiously observed, "Not one thing has been told us on our
journey which has turned out true!" This is not an exaggeration.
The usual crowd did not assemble round the door, but preceded me to
the river, where it covered the banks and clustered in the trees.
Four policemen escorted me down.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 53 of 112
Words from 53322 to 54321
of 115002
