ciety is more curious than the relations be-, men tubbing in public, and of other outtween master and man. The master ad-rages upon decency. Be it remembered, mits his servant (provided, of course, that however, this was in a most out-of-the-way he be of the military class) to his intimate place, and at a time of day when the good society; but the servant never assumes a woman might reasonably expect that, the liberty. He takes his place at dinner with men being all away at their work, she the utmost humility, and having done so, would be as free from the profane gaze of bears his share of the conversation, ad- mankind as Lady Godiva ought to have dressing freely not only his master, but been and was not. Her shame when she even guests of the highest rank. The saw me knew no bounds. The European master will pass his own wine-cup to his doctors of Yokohama have not been slow man, as if he were an honoured guest, and to find out the excellent properties of for a while they would appear to any one these baths, and I found established there not acquainted with the turns of a lan- for the season an Italian gentleman and guage most fertile in subtle distinctions to his wife - rather wild quarters for a dainbe upon perfectly equal terms. Yet, the tily-nurtured lady to occupy, the only thing moment the feast is over, the man retires about the place which had any affinity with the same profound obeisances and with Europe being the smell, which might marks of deference with which he entered, remind her of Aix-la-Chapelle. and immediately relapses into the servitor; nor will he in any way presume upon the familiarity, which, having lasted its hour, disappears until occasion calls it forth again. Feudalism strips service of servility, and, although the feudal system is a thing of the past, its traces must long remain.

The following morning (Oct. 13), to my great regret, I was forced to leave Miyanoshita and my good friends, with whom I had passed such a pleasant time. We parted with many expressions of mutual good-will, promising to meet soon in Yedo. This morning's walk, as far as the sulphur-springs of Ashi-no-yu, was less interesting, for the mountain, bare of trees, is covered only with a rich growth of rank grass, mixed with wild flowers. There was no shade, and the heat of the sun was overpowering, so that we were right glad when, towards mid-day, we came down upon our halting-place.

The springs are certainly very remarkable; the whole neighbourhood is full of volcanic signs, and in every direction the water wells out, charged with a rich sulphur ooze. Close by is a crater, not active, indeed, but looking, with its sides covered with brimstone and lava, as if it might break out at any time. The baths of Ashi-no-yu are in the village street, but covered over with wooden shanties, that people may bathe with decency. Just as I came in sight of the huts, a matron, carrying a child in her arms, both as naked as they were born, came out, and tripped, picking her way with her bare feet, across the street into a tea-house, where she had left her clothes. This is the only instance which I ever came across of a woman appearing naked in the street, although most travellers' books abound in stories of wo

Not far from Ashi-no-yu, on the road to Hakoné, half-hidden among the brush wood and long grass, are two remarkable monuments, shaped like the stone lanterns which the Japanese set up in their_pleasure-grounds and temple-yards. To the right of these, near at hand, is a third and lesser stone. It can hardly fail to set the traveller a-wondering when he comes upon such traces of man's work in the midst of a wilderness, and he will readily guess that they mark some famous or sacred spot. The two stones mark the graves of the brothers Soga, the heroes of one of the most celebrated stories of vendetta in Japanese history, and the third is in honour of the woman, Pora Gozen, the true love of one of them.

In the summer of the year 1193 the Shogun Yoritomo went out to hunt on the moors and waste lands about Mount Fuji, followed by the flower of the chivalry of the East, his train being swelled by a great company of camp-followers, mimes, jesters, musicians, and singing women. Among the nobles who went with him was one Kudô Sukétsuné. Now this Sukétsuné, many years before, having certain wrongs to avenge, had caused the murder of his cousin Sukéyasu, who died leaving a widow and two infant sons. Upon the death of her husband the widow wished to forsake the world, shave her head* and enter a nunnery, but her father-in-law prevented her, so she married a second time one Soga Tarô Sukénobu, who took her two sons to live with him, and adopted them as his own children, causing them at

* The nuns of Japan. like the Buddhist monks, sion, Bikuni ni Kanzashi, "To ask a nun fʊr a hairshave the whole head; hence the proverbial exprespin." equivalent to our "You cannot draw blood from a stone."

the same time to take his patronymic of | mo, between whom and their own grandSoga. Happy as they were in their new father there had been a deadly feud. home, the two boys never forgot the death | Now was their best chance of success, so, of their father nor the debt of revenge brandishing their bloody swords, they which they owed to his murderer: when rushed into his tent with a loud shout. at play in their earliest childhood they The guards who watched over the Shogun would make figures to represent Sukétsuné did battle with them; but so desperately that they might have the pleasure of tor- did they fight, that they cut down, as it is turing and destroying him in effigy, nor said, more than fifty men before Sukénari, would they listen to the prayers and re- being tired, was slain, and the younger remonstrances of their mother, who in de- brother, Tokimuné, was pinioned by a spair sent the younger brother, Soga page, disguised as a woman, who sprang Tokimuné, to the temple at Hakoné, that upon him from behind. he might be brought up for the priesthood. But it was all of no avail, for the lad never for a moment relaxed his purpose, and at last, when he grew up and it became time for him to enter the priesthood, he fled secretly from the temple and took refuge with the Lord of Odawara, who, taking compassion upon his orphan state, gave him shelter, and allowed him free access to his stronghold.

The hunting expedition of the Shogun Yoritomo was the opportunity which the brothers chose for wreaking their vengeance on the murderer of Sukétsuné.

On the 28th day of the fifth month there arose a great storm of wind and rain, and at night, there being neither moonlight nor starlight, the hunting camp was shrouded in thick darkness. In the dead of the night they sought the place where their enemy lay, but he had changed his abode, and their plan would have miscarried had they not received aid from a woman. This was a beautiful girl, called Tora Gozen, the inmate of a pleasure-house at Oiso, in the province of Sagami, and the sweetheart of the elder brother, Sukénari. When the two were in despair at not finding Sukétsuné, and were debating what they should do, she came forth and pointed out to them the place to which he had removed, and they, overjoyed, hurried to the spot where Sukétsuné lay fast asleep. Sukénari stood at his pillow, and Tokimuné, the younger brother, took his place behind him. Then Sukénari kicked aside the pillow, and shouted with a loud voice, crying, "Here stand I Soga Sukénari, the avenger of my murdered father!" Sukétsuné, aroused by the cry, jumped up and tried to defend himself with his dirk, which lay by his couch; but the two brothers fell upon him with their swords and slew him.

Having now satisfied their revenge they had no further wish left in the world, so they determined to risk their lives in an attempt to slay my lord the Shogun Yorito

The following morning Tokimuné was brought before the Shogun, who examined him in person, saying: "Wherefore dost thou disturb my camp ?"

"You were my grandfather's enemy," answered Tokimuné, unabashed; "and Sukétsuné was my father's murderer, so I hated you because you loved him."

The Shogun was pleased with the youth's bold speech, and wished to spare his life, but Inubô Maru, the son of Sukétsuné, prayed that his father's murder might not be left unavenged; so Tokimuné was put to death, being at the time twenty years of age.

Now when Tora Gozen heard that Sukénari, the man whom she loved, was dead, she vowed a vow of chastity, and went to the temple at Hakoné, and became a nun at the age of nineteen. When she was quite an old woman of seventy-one summers, she started on a pilgrimage to a temple at Kumano, in Kishiu, but she died by the road, and it is said that the clothes she wore and the things she carried with her on the journey are still preserved as sacred relics at a temple called Jinguji.

The piety of the brothers Soga in avenging their murdered father earned for them a rich meed of praise from every true and loyal warrior; and even Yoritomo, who had so narrowly escaped from falling a victim to their rage, approved what they had done, and caused their swords to be laid up in the temple at Gongen, at Hakoné, where they have been carefully preserved by generation after generation of priests. Their names live in history, and are treasured in the heart of every Samurai.

Near the graves of the two brothers is a figure of the Buddhist god Jizô Sama, graven in the solid rock, as some say by Nature herself; by others believed to have been miraculously wrought in a single night by Kôbôdaishi, a priest who lived in the ninth century, and who is famous as the inventor of the syllabary known as the I-ro-ha, in which he assimilated the

letters of the Japanese language to the Bonji or Pali characters used in the Budhist classics. The image is rude enough, but it is greatly venerated by the simple mountaineers.

innkeepers to drive a thriving trade; but until the year of grace 1838 it had also a great political significance as the barrier of the Tycoon's territory, which no man could pass without a passport - death by It was yet early in the afternoon when crucifixion being the penalty of an attempt we came upon the blue waters of the to escape by any mountain-path. At the Hakoné lake, lying like a sapphire mirror entrance to the town was a guard-house, among the bills, unruffled by the gentlest strongly manned, flanked by a formidable semblance of a breeze. It would be stand of arms, holding spears and hooks strange, indeed, if so romantic a locality and the other paraphernalia of Japanese were to lack the ornament of some old- police, on passing which every person, world legend. There is a tale told of a cer- save those of the very highest rank, were tain terrible dragon with nine heads, that required to dismount and do obeisance to used to dwell in the lake, and troubled the the representatives of Tycoonal power. people by raising great storms of wind The guard-house is swept away now, toand wave, in the midst of which he gether with the other encumbrances and would appear, and carry off little children annoyances of the obsolete Government, for his food. But at last, in the eighth and men may come and go as they list. century, a certain holy priest, named Man- It is more convenient, to be sure; but gan, who was renowned for his piety, ex- there was a quaintness and picturesqueorcised the dragon, and by the aid of mag-ness about the old customs which the trayic arts tied him to a tree, which is still believed to be visible at the bottom of the lake, punishing the monster until it craved pardon for its misdeeds. When the fame of this exploit reached the emperor's ears, he summoned the priest Mangan to Kiôto, but the good man died by the way, and entered peace at a place called Yanagôri, in the province of Mikawa; so his pupils brought his remains, and burried them at the temple of Gongen, at Hakoné. Every year, during the night of the twelfth day of the sixth month, the eve of the great feast of the temple, the people still come to the lake, and make offerings of food to propitiate the dragon.

ellers who follow in our steps will miss.
Now, even the old costume of the country
is slowly but surely disappearing; and
when the railroad shall be an accomplished
fact, travelling in Japan will have lost its
charm. Four years ago we were still in
the middle-ages; we have leapt at a bound
into the nineteenth century
out of po-
etry into plain, useful prose.

I had no time to stop at Hakoné, to my great regret; for I should not soon have grown weary of looking out upon the lake washing the grand dark hills above which Mount Fuji raised its brilliant cone of white snow, and there are many nooks and hidden places. among the Of course we went and visited the Temple mountains celebrated in history, in poetry of Gongen, that ancient fane, the dwelling- and in fairy tales. Down the mountainplace of many holy men during the dark pass we sped, each step revealing some new ages, including Kôbôdaishi, Jikakudaishi, beauty: now a natural rockery; now some and others, and were shown the swords of old gnarled stem of cryptomeria or Scotch the Soga brothers, and the dirk with which fir; now a thicket of flame-coloured matheir enemy tried in vain to ward off their ples. It was getting late; and travellers, blows, with other curiosities. The posi- whether upward or downward-bound, were tion of the shrine, surrounded by lofty hurrying to reach their resting-place. cryptomerias and looking down upon the Even the coolies, heavily-weighted beasts lake, is most beautiful; but the buildings of burden, were putting on an exta spurt, were greatly damaged in the war which the tension of the muscles in their marvelended in the ruin of the lords of Odawara, lously-developed legs showing what hard and have never been restored to their former splendour. At the foot of the temple we took boat, aud so came to the little town of Hakoné.

work they were doing. The shadows had lengthened and lengthened until they had passed away altogether (for we were now on the eastern side of the range) by the Situated at the very top of a mountain- time we reached IIata, our half way-house, pass, some three thousand feet or more a village of hostelries, at the doors of which above the sea-level, Hakoné must- until attractive little damsels, attired in their the completion of the railroad which is to smartest garb, were standing and keeping unite the two capitals, Yeddo and Ki-up a continual shout of O hairi nasare! Ö yôto always be a resting-place of some tomari nasare!" Pray come in! pray rest little importance, and allow a number of here!" Resisting the invitation of who

knows how many decoy-ducks, I entered Sama's head-quarters when he attacked

But the other answered, "If it had been cold enough to make him sleep, how was it We knew this Uncle Rollin very well by that on awaking his limbs were not frost-reputation. My mother often talked of bitten?" However, they gave him medi- him. He had brought her up, acted like cine, which did him good, and he got quite a father to her, and during her schoolwell again.