the village, who had dressed themselves in a kind of uniform tunic of scanty dimensions, were whooping and leaping about the road, and the female part of the community were standing around, clapping their hands and singing out "Omoshiro!" to signify their joyfulness.

I made my way past with the assistance of one of the village elders, who cuffed and implored and objurgated the noisy crew, and reached home, to find that the priests next door were having a "good time" over a feast of all manner of delicacies, from turnip-tops to cuttlefish, washed down with saké. As soon as they sighted me strolling in the garden, they haled me in with hospitable violence, and in a quarter of an hour made me quite ill with their cuttlefish and pickles, so that I was glad to retire; and having left my pipe on the edge of the verandah, it was returned to me by a trio of acolytes, whom in revenge I made ill with some Scotch whiskey.

Just as I was recovering sufficiently to sit down to dinner, a hideous row outside made me at first suppose that a general massacre had commenced; but on going out to see, I found it was only the ark being taken home to the shrine, more lop-sided than ever, and sometimes borne on the shoulders of the coolies, at other times in the ditch with a heap of them on top of it. But the women-folk were still crying "Omoshiro" and clapping their hands indefatigably, so I supposed it to be all right and went back to my modest fare; and I conclude the deity reached home ultimately, and was tucked up by his ministers. The "kago" bearers were very prayerful-kneed next day.

A still more solemn function took place a few days afterwards, being no less than the removal, with due reverence, of the remains of a bygone Mikado from their resting-place in the province of Kaga, to Kiyōto, where the tombs of his kind are mostly to be found; the route being through Tsuruga and Hikida, and thence along the western shores of the lake. James sent me word that he had been requested to stop at home, as it was supposed that the sight of foreigners about the route would not be altogether proper; but I went over early to Hikida and joined him.

Just as I arrived, an attempt was being made to close up our office windows looking on the street; but this was successfully resisted. Shortly before the procession was due the head-man of the village called, and remarked that the floor of our room, elevated some eighteen inches above the road, was too high a place for any one to occupy with decency. This was explained to us by the interpreter, who said that all Japanese were ordered to kneel down, or rather squat, with their hands on the ground, on each side of the road as the procession passed. We were disposed to scoff, but better counsels prevailed, and as the head of the procession entered the village we relieved the anxiety of the head-man, which I believe was genuine on our behalf, by stepping forth from the window into the road; so that our feet at least were no higher than other people's, with which concession to popular prejudice they had to be satisfied.

First came a gang of coolies, sweeping away the last impurities from the road, which had the day before been mended and strewn with clean sand, and kept clear of

traffic from the evening. Then came an advanced guard of about a score of soldiers in heavy marching order; and then the head-man of the village in ceremonial garments, over all the "kami-shimo" (a sort of stiff linen puzzle of skirts and shoulder-wings, which we thought derived its name, equivalent to “tops and bottoms," from the uniformity of its appearance whether put on rightly, or upside down, or wrong side before), and two swords of course. Then followed our friend the Governor of Tsuruga, with some of his aides; then more soldiers; and then about sixty coolies, in new loin-cloths and head-wrappers, bearing the sacred casket. This was a large chest, about ten feet long by four wide and two deep, of what material was not apparent, for it was concealed in a green cloth bearing the Imperial crest (the crysanthemum) in yellow. The chest in its cover was. lashed to the under side of a stiff fir-pole of a whole tree, quite fifty feet long. In front and behind the casket were cross-pieceś, at either end of which were smaller cross-pieces, put a little on the slant so that each end of these subsidiary pieces could be conveniently borne by two coolies with a small yoke between them, forty-eight carriers in all, and twelve men to change about in turns, the relieved man trotting along light for a few yards at a time before going in at a fresh place. The whole sixty were uttering the guttural cadence, without which it is well known that no progress can be made by a Japanese porter under a load.

Behind the casket came about half a dozen awful swells-"kugé," or court nobles, we were told they weremarching solemnly along, in flowing silks, green, yellow,

or purple, each ornamented atop with a peculiar chimneycowl-shaped cap of black lacquered pasteboard. Then more soldiers; and then a number of little boys, some in tall hats, dress coats, and white neckties and gloves, and some in gold-braided caps, and frogs and buttons, being the civil and military officers of the party, all in jinrikishas and talking at the tops of their voices.

As the casket approached the spot where we stood, our little interpreter, who had stood irresolute while all around us squatted down and bowed their heads, whispered confidentially, "I must obey the law of my country," and down he went too. James and I were guilty of the bad taste of standing up, which was, I suppose, set down to the score of our ignorance, and were above a little relieved as the procession passed by without any notice being taken of us. As the last little boy in a tall hat disappeared into the court of the "honjin," we sat down to our table and resumed work on our plans and sections, and saw no more of the affair.

In this month of May we did at last get the means of making ourselves somewhat comfortable in our quarters. Tom, like a wise man, had, in view of his special responsibilities, ordered some furniture from Tōkiyō, which arrived about the same time as the Kobe supply; but all the same he had subsequently to pay his share of the demand made upon us by the department, as from the beginning of the year, an arrangement which commended itself to the wisdom of our superiors as being likely to please the Japanese authorities; and I am sure I hope some one was pleased

in the matter. We were in the course of events convinced that those responsible for railway interests in Japan entertained the hope, that if some small economies were effected in the survey accounts, the government would be encouraged to expend several millions in railway enterprise; but somehow the connection between the two financial operations was not satisfactorily established, and the petty policy by which we suffered did not achieve success.

Graver differences afterwards became added to the original dispute, but I do not propose to weary any reader by enlarging upon this side of our experiences. It has happened to me, on my way to middle age, to meet at one time or another with a great variety of men with grievances, who were very jolly fellows so long as they could be induced to forget them, but intolerable bores otherwise; and so in preparing this narrative I have carefully confided to a quire of black-edged paper the materials for a chapter on the management and direction of the Railway Department of Japan, just as Mr. Dick separated his views about Charles the First from his other writings, upon good cause shown and I propose to omit the said chapter carefully from this otherwise veracious work.

The suspicion with which we were officially regarded had, however, some ludicrous developments during our early times up country. Before leaving Kobe I had arranged with the obliging honorary secretary of the club that we should have some reading out of the library of that noble institution; and soon after arriving in the district a box was prepared, with lock and key, for the