Page:ONCE A WEEK JUL TO DEC 1860.pdf/392

 384 



switch tail was encased in a blue silk bag reaching nearly to the ground; whilst, instead of the shoes being of ordinary straw, they were made of cotton and silk interwoven. Not being either a noble or a prince, we are more modest in our show; but the profusion of ornaments and metal even on our steed’s saddle, stirrups, and headstall, are only to be equalled by the excessive discomfort, indeed pain, of riding far, except in armour, upon such mediæval saddlery. It is time, however, to start; our norimas or palanquins follow ready for use when the sun is higher; the stout porters shoulder the luggage; and away we go. Our attendants, porters, and others in the hostelry, had been most careful to appear in their liveries, consisting of simple blue cotton shirt and trousers, on which a crest or design was stamped here and there; but on the road it was amusing to see how they stripped to their work, and tucked up their trews, showing more flesh than even Lord Lovaine would be inclined to admit in the Royal Academy, much less on a highway. As everybody in Japan appeared to be too well bred to notice what we might have otherwise considered indelicate, we held our peace; yet the contrast between the nigh naked porters and some of the well-dressed, luxuriously equipped parties met on the road was very strange. The Japanese noble or gentleman represented the height of refinement; but his porter or retainer struck one as the embodiment of sensual life—rough, coarse, careless, and fearless. They were well cared for, so far as food went, and that seemed everything to them. I could not help wondering whether our English serfs, or even the retainers of feudal times, were any better. I strongly suspect not. England of the Tudors must have been very like the Japan of to-day. The coarse animal enjoyments of the lower classes in Japan are favourite subjects for the pencils of their artists, some of whom appear to desire to correct the vice by broad exaggerations and Punch-like sketches. Take, for instance, the one (page 387) which is wittily entitled “How Soldiers are fed in Nipon!” Were ever soldiers so fattened up, ever so well entertained? Sigh, ye Guardsmen! Your labours consist of something more than merely preparing your mess, devouring it, and then sitting down to digest it, whilst fanning to cool yourselves. And whatever may have been the experiences of the European soldier or sailor as to the rapid expansion of his body under the effects of good food after short rations, we do not remember to have heard of anything, either in poetry, prose, or illustration, similar to the scene pourtrayed opposite of the Japanese troops arming, after a sojourn in some Capua of rice, fish, and sakee.

On the other hand, if we turn from these coarse, gross retainers, to the children, whether boys or girls, who are playing by the roadside in the villages, we are struck with their beauty, independence, and the care evidently bestowed upon them. The majority have not, it is true, much clothing to boast of, but they evidently, as they play round the strangers, know that no one will hurt them. We are told that the numerous charms hung about them are to ward off the “evil eye”—rather a necessary precaution, when we see the little innocents in close contact with vice in its most rampant form, or such a scene as that before us.

Under a porch, and in an angle by the side of their house, a man and his wife are enjoying a tub of warm water in the open air. He is seated on the rim of the tub with his legs in the water; his wife, a fine buxom young woman, is busy with a bundle of flax, instead of a sponge, rubbing down his back: both are just as they came into the world, and evidently as indifferent to their neighbours as their neighbours are to