shops bearing the appearance of large bathing-machines
The town is here intersected by canals and bridges;
and beyond, the ground undulates, covered with
verdure, where the 1'icher classes have their residences
surrounded by woods and gardens.’ Having completed
this general survey, let us now watch the traffic
on the bridge. Opposite to me a juggler has placed his
table covered to the ground with a crimson cloth,
behind which he plies his trade with many a jest to
a few old women and one or two grinning youngsters,
for it is early yet, and the Yeddo School Board is
evidently quite as exacting as similar institutions
at home. Presently I am rudely pushed aside by
a couple of porters pulling with all their might at a
two-wheeled cart laden with cases/and packages, no one
much larger than a bonnet-box, most ingeniously piled
up, and pushed from behind by another fellow, reversing
the action as they descend on the other side of the
bridge. The wheels of this simple machine are of a
most ponderous description, and people are wise in
giving it a wide berth. The men and women passing
up and down in a continual stream, seem to be in
no hurry ; some dressed in rich silks, others barely
having any covering ; porters carrying articles of food
balanced from their shoulders on bamboo sticks; two
men in blouses, evidently overweighted by an enormous
fish carried between them,—a shark apparently. Presently
there advances a wheelbarrow bearing a young
woman, preventing her charms being injured by
holding up a large paper umbrella,— horses are not
used in Japan for drawing vehicles, hence men perform
that task. Some of these conveyances are more
elaborate than others, and take various shapes;
then there is the norimon of the nobles and the kango
of the gentiles,—the latter made of bamboo, barely
large enough to hold a grown-up person, even in the
position of his knees touching the chin; whilst the
former, already likened to a toy-house, about four feet
square, is handsomely lacquered and gilded, and
provided with cushions and rich silk curtains ; both
are carried suspended from a strong pole. Here comes
a man with an enormous mask representing a dragon’s
head,—a favourite design,—and distributing printed
papers announcing the arrival of a quack, whose marvellous
filters promise instant relief to the heart-sick
as well as to the leper ; behind him hobbles a matron,
with her two blooming charges on high wooden clogs,
trying to catch one of these papers as they are flying
about; there creeps a priest with shaven crown
enveloped in dirty folds, which make it difficult to
discover whether yellow or grey, Buddhist or Sintist;
and many other curious sights, doomed to disappear