Page:Brinkley - Japan - Volume 4.djvu/190

 rately constructed of costly materials, and two, called kago, being much simpler. All were carried on men's shoulders, and the bearers were trained to walk so that the motion of the legs did not communicate itself to the upper part of the body. The commonest form of kago, which served for long-distance journeys, was constructed entirely of bamboo and borne by a special class of coolies to whom, in consideration of their vagabond and lawless habits, people gave the name kumosuke (cloud-fellows). These men showed wonderful powers of endurance. The pressure of the angular kago-pole on their bare shoulders seemed to cause them no inconvenience, and they would easily walk twenty or thirty miles daily carrying between two of them a kago and its inmate. Their feats in that respect do not apparently bear comparison with those of the modern jinrikisha coolie, who will run from fifty to eighty miles in twenty-four hours without exhibiting any distress. But kago-bearing was far more arduous than jinrikisha-pulling, for in the former case the whole weight of the rider and of the vehicle had to be supported by the bearers, whereas in the latter it rests on the wheels. In either case, however, the performances of these men are quite beyond the capacity of the meat-eating Occidental. The question of diet, indeed, seems to be vital. , an eminent physician, whose authority on such matters is conclusive, says that rice is specially adapted to