. The mikado's empire. display a vulgar familiarity with the stranger. Too close contactwith hostlers, drivers, and the common sort of residents in Japan has 360 THE MIKADOS EMPIRE. made these, doubtless once modest and polite females, a pack of impu-dent wantons. I am not charmed by the too-willing charmers, and, declining theever-proffered cup of tea, make my way down to the river, passingfour toll-men, who squat on their knees at the receipt of custom, pil-ing on upright skewers the square-holed oval and round coins whichthe travelers deposit. At the rivers edge, a flat-bottomed boat, crowd
. The mikado's empire. display a vulgar familiarity with the stranger. Too close contactwith hostlers, drivers, and the common sort of residents in Japan has 360 THE MIKADOS EMPIRE. made these, doubtless once modest and polite females, a pack of impu-dent wantons. I am not charmed by the too-willing charmers, and, declining theever-proffered cup of tea, make my way down to the river, passingfour toll-men, who squat on their knees at the receipt of custom, pil-ing on upright skewers the square-holed oval and round coins whichthe travelers deposit. At the rivers edge, a flat-bottomed boat, crowd-ed with people of every class, with a horse or two on board, is cominghitherward, and one is just ready to push off. A few strokes of thepole, and we are over. The Japanese have used this river for centu-ries, and have never yet built a bridge.* The company in the boat issometimes rather mixed. It has not escaped Hokusais pencil, whomade an album of Tokaido sketches. He has jotted down at the side ,^|4k,.i*8ifc**-- -. CrossiDg the Rokugo River at Kawasaki. (Hokusai.) of his sketch the two characters signifying Kawasaki (river-point),which all travelers to Tokio know full well. Strange to say, the sameriver in Japan often has many local names. A Japanese geographyrarely thinks it necessary to describe a river from source to people hereabouts call this river the Rokugo, and the foreigners,who are quite sure to get Japanese names upside down, have corrupt-ed it into Logo.^ or, with apparent impiety. Logos. The stage not being over yet, I go into a straw hut, in which a firewarms twenty-four feet shod with rice-straw sandals, and the smokeof which inflames twenty-four eyes belonging to half that number ofsuch specimens of humanity as constitute the bulk of Japans popula-tion, and whom foreigners called coolies. Two arms, two legs, a * An iron bridge now (1877) spans the stream. A RIDE OX THE TOKALDO. 361 head, and trunk, when added together in an Asiatic country, do notp
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Keywords: ., bookauthorgriffisw, bookcentury1800, bookdecade1890, bookyear1894
