This Is A Very Heavy Loss To This Village, Which Lives By
The Timber Trade.
Efforts were made at a bank higher up to catch
them as they drifted by, but they only saved
About one in twenty.
It was most exciting to see the grand way in which these timbers
came down; and the moment in which they were to strike or not to
strike the pier was one of intense suspense. After an hour of this
two superb logs, fully thirty feet long, came down close together,
and, striking the central pier nearly simultaneously, it shuddered
horribly, the great bridge parted in the middle, gave an awful
groan like a living thing, plunged into the torrent, and re-
appeared in the foam below only as disjointed timbers hurrying to
the sea. Not a vestige remained. The bridge below was carried
away in the morning, so, till the river becomes fordable, this
little place is completely isolated. On thirty miles of road, out
of nineteen bridges only two remain, and the road itself is almost
wholly carried away!
LETTER XXVIII - (Continued)
Scanty Resources - Japanese Children - Children's Games - A Sagacious
Example - A Kite Competition - Personal Privations.
IKARIGASEKI.
I have well-nigh exhausted the resources of this place. They are
to go out three times a day to see how much the river has fallen;
to talk with the house-master and Kocho; to watch the children's
games and the making of shingles; to buy toys and sweetmeats and
give them away; to apply zinc lotion to a number of sore eyes three
times daily, under which treatment, during three days, there has
been a wonderful amendment; to watch the cooking, spinning, and
other domestic processes in the daidokoro; to see the horses, which
are also actually in it, making meals of green leaves of trees
instead of hay; to see the lepers, who are here for some waters
which are supposed to arrest, if not to cure, their terrible
malady; to lie on my stretcher and sew, and read the papers of the
Asiatic Society, and to go over all possible routes to Aomori. The
people have become very friendly in consequence of the eye lotion,
and bring many diseases for my inspection, most of which would
never have arisen had cleanliness of clothing and person been
attended to. The absence of soap, the infrequency with which
clothing is washed, and the absence of linen next the skin, cause
various cutaneous diseases, which are aggravated by the bites and
stings of insects. Scald-head affects nearly half the children
here.
I am very fond of Japanese children. I have never yet heard a baby
cry, and I have never seen a child troublesome or disobedient.
Filial piety is the leading virtue in Japan, and unquestioning
obedience is the habit of centuries. The arts and threats by which
English mothers cajole or frighten children into unwilling
obedience appear unknown. I admire the way in which children are
taught to be independent in their amusements. Part of the home
education is the learning of the rules of the different games,
which are absolute, and when there is a doubt, instead of a
quarrelsome suspension of the game, the fiat of a senior child
decides the matter. They play by themselves, and don't bother
adults at every turn. I usually carry sweeties with me, and give
them to the children, but not one has ever received them without
first obtaining permission from the father or mother. When that is
gained they smile and bow profoundly, and hand the sweeties to
those present before eating any themselves. They are gentle
creatures, but too formal and precocious.
They have no special dress. This is so queer that I cannot repeat
it too often. At three they put on the kimono and girdle, which
are as inconvenient to them as to their parents, and childish play
in this garb is grotesque. I have, however, never seen what we
call child's play - that general abandonment to miscellaneous
impulses, which consists in struggling, slapping, rolling, jumping,
kicking, shouting, laughing, and quarrelling! Two fine boys are
very clever in harnessing paper carts to the backs of beetles with
gummed traces, so that eight of them draw a load of rice up an
inclined plane. You can imagine what the fate of such a load and
team would be at home among a number of snatching hands. Here a
number of infants watch the performance with motionless interest,
and never need the adjuration, "Don't touch." In most of the
houses there are bamboo cages for "the shrill-voiced Katydid," and
the children amuse themselves with feeding these vociferous
grasshoppers. The channels of swift water in the street turn a
number of toy water-wheels, which set in motion most ingenious
mechanical toys, of which a model of the automatic rice-husker is
the commonest, and the boys spend much time in devising and
watching these, which are really very fascinating. It is the
holidays, but "holiday tasks" are given, and in the evenings you
hear the hum of lessons all along the street for about an hour.
The school examination is at the re-opening of the school after the
holidays, instead of at the end of the session - an arrangement
which shows an honest desire to discern the permanent gain made by
the scholars.
This afternoon has been fine and windy, and the boys have been
flying kites, made of tough paper on a bamboo frame, all of a
rectangular shape, some of them five feet square, and nearly all
decorated with huge faces of historical heroes. Some of them have
a humming arrangement made of whale-bone. There was a very
interesting contest between two great kites, and it brought out the
whole population. The string of each kite, for 30 feet or more
below the frame, was covered with pounded glass, made to adhere
very closely by means of tenacious glue, and for two hours the
kite-fighters tried to get their kites into a proper position for
sawing the adversary's string in two.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 67 of 112
Words from 67887 to 68903
of 115002
