straw, and is supported by a broad padded band just below the
collar bones. Of course, as the man walks nearly bent double, and
the position is a very painful one, he requires to stop and
straighten himself frequently, and unless he meets with a bank of
convenient height, he rests the bottom of his burden on a short,
stout pole with an L-shaped top, carried for this purpose. The
carrying of enormous loads is quite a feature of this region, and
so, I am sorry to say, are red stinging ants and the small gadflies
which molest the coolies.

Yesterday's journey was 18 miles in twelve hours! Ichinono is a
nice, industrious hamlet, given up, like all others, to rearing
silk-worms, and the pure white and sulphur yellow cocoons are
drying on mats in the sun everywhere.

I. L. B.



LETTER XVIII



Comely Kine--Japanese Criticism on a Foreign Usage--A Pleasant
Halt--Renewed Courtesies--The Plain of Yonezawa--A Curious Mistake-
-The Mother's Memorial--Arrival at Komatsu--Stately Accommodation--
A Vicious Horse--An Asiatic Arcadia--A Fashionable Watering-place--
A Belle--"Godowns."

KAMINOYAMA.