At The First Halt My Runner, A Kindly, Good-Natured
Creature, But Absolutely Hideous, Was Seized With Pain And
Vomiting, Owing, He Said, To Drinking The Bad Water At Kasukabe,
And Was Left Behind.
He pleased me much by the honest independent
way in which he provided a substitute, strictly adhering to his
Bargain, and never asking for a gratuity on account of his illness.
He had been so kind and helpful that I felt quite sad at leaving
him there ill, - only a coolie, to be sure, only an atom among the
34,000,000 of the Empire, but not less precious to our Father in
heaven than any other. It was a brilliant day, with the mercury 86
degrees in the shade, but the heat was not oppressive. At noon we
reached the Tone, and I rode on a coolie's tattooed shoulders
through the shallow part, and then, with the kurumas, some ill-
disposed pack-horses, and a number of travellers, crossed in a
flat-bottomed boat. The boatmen, travellers, and cultivators, were
nearly or altogether without clothes, but the richer farmers worked
in the fields in curved bamboo hats as large as umbrellas, kimonos
with large sleeves not girt up, and large fans attached to their
girdles. Many of the travellers whom we met were without hats, but
shielded the front of the head by holding a fan between it and the
sun. Probably the inconvenience of the national costume for
working men partly accounts for the general practice of getting rid
of it.
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