another along the Yeddo bay through fertile green
valleys and over some pretty hillocks covered with the
wild camellia, violets, and the sarsaparilla (Smilax
officinalis), a twining shrub with bright crimson
flowers.
During the few remaining days of my stay in Japan
a fire, not a t all an unusual occurrence, took place in
one of the most populated parts of the town, and it was
amusing to watch the primitive mode adopted by the
people to extinguish it, which in truth seldom happens
until an entire block is burnt out. Here their superstitious
childishness shows itself. They climb upon
the roofs of adjacent houses with large paper globes
stuck upon poles and covered with coloured designs of
dragons and the emblems of a protecting deity, in order
to propitiate the latter. Also silver balls and paper
darms were thrown upon the roofs for the same purpose.
On my last visit to the bazaars I managed to pick up
a few genuine curiosities in the hands of a dealer, who
had just returned from the capital with the spoils of a
Damio’s collection. One was a life-size white pigeon
covered with minute bits of marble admirably imitating
its plumage. This sacred symbol of purity had a
history of its own, too long to relate here ; suffice it to
say that it had been the chief ornament on the altar of
a Japanese temple for upwards of two centuries.
Another real curio was a very skilful representation of
the fanciful mermaid, which some fifty years ago
created an inexhaustible source of gossip to penny-a-
liners on both sides of the Atlantic. I think it was in
1822 when Mr. Bamum exhibited the first specimen in
America, which can still be seen at his museum at
New York.
I t would be of little or no interest to enter upon
political subjects, either external or internal, as existing
at the period of my visit to Japan, since everything
was then (in 1871) in a state of transition.
The old feudal and spy system was tottering on its
last leg, and now there is not a single institution in the
country that has not felt the rapid march of progress,
which, indeed, has been marvellous and not without
effect, even upon the hitherto exclusive system of
government of the Celestial Empire at Pekin.
AA 2