the search resulting in a green paper visor much too small, that sat
on askew just far enough not to hide the light. The Japanese called
it a hat, without the least intention of humor.

By the light thus given the room stood revealed, an eyrie, encased on
all sides except the one of approach by shoji only. Into these had
been let a belt of glass eighteen inches wide all the way round the
room, at the height at which a person sitting on the mats could see
out. It is much the fashion now thus to graft a Western window upon
a Far-Eastern wall. The idea is ingenious and economical, and has but
two drawbacks,--that you feel excessively indoors if you stand up,
and strangely out-of-doors if you sit down.

I pushed the panels apart, and stepped out upon the narrow balcony.
Below me lay the street, the lanterns of the passers-by flitting like
fireflies through the dark; and from it stole up to me the hum of
pleasure life, a perfume of sound, strangely distinct in the still
night air.

Accredited pilgrim though one be not, to pass by so famous a shrine
as Zenkoji without the tribute of a thought were to be more or less
than human, even though one have paid his devoirs before. Sought
every year by thousands from all parts of Japan, it serves but to
make the pilgrimage seem finer that the bourne itself should not be
fine. Large and curious architecturally for its roof, the temple is
otherwise a very ordinary structure, more than ordinarily besoiled.
There is nothing rich about it; not much that is imposing. Yet in
spite of poverty and dirt it speaks with a certain grandeur to the
heart. True shrine, whose odor of sanctity is as widespread as the
breeze that wanders through its open portals, and which comes so near