dttie 
 
 ^GNES SIMPSON 
 
QlotttcU MttiiiErBUg ffiihrarg 
 
 CHARLES WILLIAM WASON 
 
 COLLECTION 
 
 CHINA AND THE CHINESE 
 
 THE GIFT OF 
 
 CHARLES WILLIAM WASON 
 
 CLASS OF 1876 
 
 1918 
 
Cornell University Library 
 G 440.S60 
 
 Here a little and there a iittle. 
 
 3 1924 023 253 069 
 


 HERE A LITTLE 
 
 AND 
 
 THERE A LITTLE. 
 
Cornell University 
 Library 
 
 The original of tliis book is in 
 tine Cornell University Library. 
 
 There are no known copyright restrictions in 
 the United States on the use of the text. 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924023253069 
 

 
 DAIBUTSr AT KAMAKURA. 
 
HERE A LITTLE 
 
 AND 
 
 THERE A LITTLE. 
 
 BY 
 
 AGNES SIMPSON. 
 
 *' Coelum non aoimum mutant, qui trans mare curmnt." 
 
 *' The lines are fallen unto me in pleasant places." 
 
 Faalms xvi* 6. 
 
 *' It is a goodly sight to see what Heaven hath done for 
 this delicious land." 
 
 " There is a pleasure in the pathless woods, 
 There is a rapture on the lonely shore ; 
 There is society where none intrudes, 
 By the deep sea, and music in its roar ; 
 I love not man the less, but nature more." 
 
 *' "What is writ, is writ, 
 Would it were worthier." 
 
 Childe Harold's Pilgrimage. 
 
 Henry Lewis, Caxton Printing Works. 
 1894. ' ' ' 
 
a-M-H-o 
 
 S6«" 
 
 \hloiro^ 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 Time was, and not so very long ago, when a 
 journey round the World was a serious matter, and 
 those who meditated undertaking it, made their wills, 
 and generally ' Set their house in order.' But now, 
 * Nous avons change tout cela,' and ' A round the 
 World trip,' is little more formidable than a winter 
 in the Riviera or Egypt. You meet exactly the 
 same sort of people at the Hotels, our fellow 
 passengers are all of the same type, or nearly so, and 
 excepting that the climate varies from extreme cold> 
 to extreme heat, and much of the scenery is far more 
 magnificent than anything to be met with nearer 
 home, there is little to be related. 
 
 Those who may expect any startling events, 
 or thrilling adventures in the following pages, had 
 better look at the illustrations, and close the book. 
 
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 ^=5=S!^3iSi^^-"»=-,^=*!%=^£:3fe^l5iia=i.i--=.='s:^^ J 
 
 ©utnrar^ gijitnb* 
 
 Sunday, August 20th, 1893. 
 
 BiD-ATLANTIC. Very delicious for any 
 Quadruped. Very uncomfortable for 
 the Biped. A very long ' Sick List,' 
 but still a good muster for morning 
 service, especially from the lower deck, 
 which is a good thing. Most people try to behave 
 as if in Church, but the first attempt to stand at 
 ' attention,' is a dismal failure, as the «hip rolls very 
 considerably, and everyone smothers his or her 
 feelings, as he or she subsides into a sitting position 
 again, with a bump, suggestive of a blackish bruise 
 for next day. The only thing which thoroughly 
 enjoys the joke is the saloon Canary. He, swinging 
 over the centre (Captain's) table, trills out a wild and 
 jubilant song of triumphant and amused delight at 
 his own safety and his companions' discomfiture. 
 Service proceeds under diflBculties, Golden Coat 
 murmurs along with the prayers — is politely quiet 
 
during the lesson — joins with all his heart and soul 
 of music, during the singing — but, very evidently 
 objects to the sermon, for he does his little best to 
 silence the clergyman, and succeeds to such an 
 extent, that the Doctor (no doubt fearing the con- 
 sequences of convulsive smothered laughter to some 
 of his slightly recovered patients), orders his removal. 
 
 The ship is dreadfully overcrowded, and with a 
 very uninteresting and mixed lot of passengers, 
 chiefly second-rate, and resembling in manners, a 
 good many of their acquaintances at the Zoo. Tabby 
 cats and tiger cats, with different length of claws 
 and different ways of putting up their backs, the 
 would-be lion and lioness, rapid old dogs, sly old 
 dogs and slow old dogs, puppies of all sorts and 
 sizes, bears of all nationalities, and foxes, parrots, 
 jays, and magpies, chiefly female, and cuckoos who 
 take other bird's nests (i.e. chairs) without hesitation, 
 and object to being ejected, having none of their own. 
 
 Like Dr. Syntax, I am off ' In search of the 
 picturesque' and so far have not found it, but I have 
 found out what I do not like — that I am an humble 
 follower of the homely garden snail, and seem in 
 various unpleasant ways to be carrying my house on 
 my back. When I set forth on a real holiday, far 
 afield, I like to leave most of the sights and sounds 
 of home behind me. Not so the youths in the next 
 cabin, for here, the mighty Atlantic might be a 
 gigantic green meadow, so continually is cropping 
 up the everlasting ' Daisy ' till you almost imagine 
 
the ship's bells to be tricycle ones. Moreover, gambling 
 is rife and " the man that broke the bank at Monte 
 Carlo " is ever present with us — no escape from that 
 sinner and the fair Daisy — woiild that their wor- 
 rshippers on board could be gagged for the remainder 
 of the voyage. 
 
 'Tis a monotonous business, this crossing ' The 
 Herring Pond.' Since we left Moville, where we 
 took up the N. of Ireland mails, we have not seen a 
 single vessel, because we are on a track entirely of 
 our own, 'Allan' and ' Dominion' Lines, The New 
 York ' Greyhounds,' having one entirely apart from 
 this, much further South. We have seen one shoal 
 of porpoises, two spouting whales, and some flying- 
 ■fish. Beyond these ' monsters of the deep,' wehavehad 
 only 'the human form divine' and our food, to gaze 
 upon, and neither have been particularly pleasant or 
 ■palatable ; but we are half-way across, and congratu- 
 late ourselves that most of our term of purgatory is 
 over. There is barely room on deck for the numerous 
 -chairs, and not a place where one can walk. The 
 -cabins, ' state rooms,' so called in irony, are miserably 
 pokey little holes, each cabin being open — near the 
 roof — to two of its neighbours, thereby enabling you 
 to hear all the smart sayings and spicy stories, with 
 which our ' next doors ' console themselves, and, as 
 one of them is tenanted by the hero of Monte Carlo 
 ^nd the adored Daisy, from that quarter the conversa- 
 tion is edifying, exceedingly. On the other side are 
 two gentlemen, who discuss politics and books, the 
 
compilation of two coming autobiographies (that of 
 Lord T — n being one) and other topics of the day ; 
 so one tries to be dead to one conversation, and very 
 much alive to the other, a hard task and not always 
 successful, as naturally the cads make by far the 
 greater noise. 
 
 In the early morning come moans and groans 
 fi-om those weary ones, sick of existence, and living" 
 upon whatmakes them worse : brandy and champagne. 
 One, in extra misery is consoled by a chirpy friend 
 who has popped in, by a suggestion, that to ' tumble 
 out' and have a good tripe and onion breakfast, 
 would set him up ' grand.' He replies with a dismal,, 
 sigh of anguish and a request for any handy piece 
 of crockery that can contain the expression of his 
 feelings. 
 
 August 23rd. 
 Such a lovely day, but bitterly cold, and I expect, 
 soon to see icebergs, as we are coming into their 
 track, and the sudden change of atmosphere makes 
 their appearance, before long, a certainty. This 
 ' Allan ' line takes the most northerly passage, going 
 north of Newfoundland and within a short distance of 
 Labrador, coasting Anticosta and within a hundred 
 miles of ' Greenland's icy mountains.' Hearing this 
 reminds me of my earliest days in church, when the 
 only amusement I had was to watch the parson and 
 clerk in the ' Three-decker,' to my childish eyes 
 running up and down stairs, and opening doors into- 
 very small rooms, (pulpit, reading desk and clerk's 
 
stand) and which I coveted as a lovely play-place ;. 
 and then whenever this particular hymn was given 
 out, I knew my mother would put a penny into my 
 hand to drop into the plate, which / considered money 
 sunk and lost, and wished I had been the happy 
 possessor of it, the day before, when it would have 
 represented an ounce of something in the ' bull's-eye 
 line ' at the village shop. 
 
 At 2 p.m. we shall be in the Straits of Belleisle, 
 I hear this is by far the most risky passage, as the 
 fogs off Newfoundland and the icebergs coming 
 together, make it exceedingly dangerous ; but our 
 Captain is a very cautious man — still I shall be glad 
 when we are in quiet water, which we shall be soon 
 after entering the Straits. 
 
 The girls are picking up, after their four days of 
 ' I wish I were dead ' business, and flirting, music 
 and cards, are the order of the day. The saloon, after 
 dinner last evening, was quite cheery with whist 
 parties, Yankee games of all sorts, chess, &c. My 
 neighbour at meals is a Canadian, vi^ith a nice and 
 very pretty wife. He amuses me a good deal, and from 
 him I pick up much Canadian information, also slang.^ 
 He has taught me one very expressive word. If a 
 bowl of ice, or the bread or fruit, or any dish he has 
 set his affections upon disappears when he has been 
 looking another way, he calls the steward, " Steward,^ 
 someone has 'snaked' away that dish, hurry it back." 
 
 It is just noon, and we have been all the morning- 
 
in a large fleet of gigantic icebergs. On a sea of 
 deepest blue, with mirage often hanging over them, 
 they are wonderfully lovely. Many were over a mile 
 and nearly two miles long, and towered above the 
 cliffs of Anticosta and Newfoundland, taking the 
 shapes of cathedrals with spires and domes, castles, 
 forts, and sharp peaks. Anticosta looks a fearfully 
 desolate place. It is even now (August) partly 
 •covered with snow, and the coast is so rocky that any 
 -vessel wrecked there, has no chance at all. No 
 human beings can climb the cliffs, so are either 
 washed away in a storm, or — as has several times 
 happened to small numbers — they have been unable 
 to get a single mouthful of even vegetable food, and 
 have devoured one another. A terrible place. Made 
 me shudder to look at it. 
 
 We had lovely rainbow reflections in the water 
 all to-day. Between the breaking of the two waves 
 nearest the boat, opposite the sun, looking as if it was 
 20 or 3 ) feet under the water, ran along with us a 
 perfect rainbow arc, with all the colours as distinct as 
 if it were in the clouds. It was very curious and 
 "beautiful. 
 
 Thursday, August 24th. 
 
 I am rather on the growl to-day. One does so 
 enjoy quiet on board ship, and the fresh air ; but, 
 to-day there is to be a magic lantern affair, of Cana- 
 dian slides, in the large saloon, from 2.30 to 4 o'clock. 
 However, if the passengers will organize these charity 
 •affairs, I — who must go through the saloon to get on 
 
deck — shall not hesitate to do so. Again, in the 
 evening, there is to be a concert in the same saloon, 
 and my husband and I shall go in and play our game 
 of chess, for there is not room enough to swing a cat 
 in the cabins, and not even a camp stool to sit upon ; 
 fortunately, I brought a small folding one with me. 
 There is nothing but H's sofa berth as a resting place. 
 
 After all, we went in for the concert, and sat in 
 our dinner places, and I was glad of it, for anything 
 more utterly absurd I never saw or heard. A more 
 thorough illustration of a ' Mutual Admiration 
 Society ' it would be impossible to produce. The 
 music was — well, ' least said, soonest mended.' One 
 man had an excellent bass voice and sang well; the rest 
 were nowhere, but it was very trying for them all, so we 
 made every excuse. We were down in the dining 
 saloon and the amateurs up in the music saloon 
 overhead, and the only way in which the sound could 
 come to us was down a small square opening. Now, 
 singing down upon the heads of an audience must be 
 very tiresome, and the smallness of the open space 
 made it doubly so. Old Sir C — s T — r was that most 
 unnecessary thing — a chairman — and acted his part 
 as badly as possible, and the thing appeared to me to 
 have been got up solely as a small ceremonial idoli- 
 zation of him. He spoke and praised — in very flowery 
 but badly strung together language— the wretched 
 performance, and another man, who ought to have 
 been gagged, got up and eulogised Sir C — s T — r in 
 a fulsome way. I was thankful when it was over, and 
 
8 
 
 we sang ' God save the Queen,' though, to be a suit- 
 able wind-up, it ought to have been ' God save Sir 
 C — s T — r.' They did try a verse of ' He's a jolly 
 good fellow,' but it ended very tamely. The pro- 
 grammes were very nicely got up by the passengers, 
 with pen and ink sketches, and a portrait of the 
 captain at the head of the page. Two shillings was 
 charged for each, and there was a collection made at 
 the end, and over twenty pounds was made for the 
 ' Sailors' Orphan Home ' at Liverpool. There was a 
 •dance on deck afterwards, to which I did not go. 
 
 Friday, August 25th. 
 
 We came along to-day beautifully, and got into 
 •Quebec at 5.30 p.m. — a tiresome time — dinner at 
 4.30. It was said it was on account of those going 
 ashore that it was pushed on to such an uncanny 
 hour. Having lunched at one o'clock, a great number 
 of us could not think of another meal again so soon, 
 so had a biscuit or bread, and a glass of hock or a 
 lemon squash, and waited for the light supper, always 
 served at 9.30,, to which we had never yet been : 
 hardly likely with a huge dinner at six. But our 
 steward told me that more than half the passengers, 
 after this dinner, would go in for hot devilled sardines, 
 Scotch woodcock, sandwiches and bread and jam : no 
 ■wonder they were ill. 
 
 We steamed into Quebec on the Point Levis side 
 of the river, and in such a tremendous thunderstorm 
 that it was impossible to land. The lightning was 
 incessant and very close to us, and the rain fell in 
 
torrents. It was a grand storm to watch. The 
 lightning set fire to a timber (lumber) store with 
 large saw mills, &c., and acres of piled up timber, 
 about half a mile lower down on the banks of the 
 river,- and close to the Grand Trunk Railway, the 
 metals of which became so over-heated that it was 
 feared the trains would have to be stopped running. 
 The flames blazed up in great tongues of fire into the 
 dark sky, covering everything with a crimson veil, 
 through which the vivid lightning flashed about in 
 thin lines of blue and gold and white. Alas ! this 
 ■Gie threw several hundreds of hands out of work. At 
 Quebec was landed the body of a poor steerage 
 passenger — an old woman of eighty — who had died 
 of weak heart, after only an hour's illness. Her two 
 sons were to meet her. It seemed such a dreadful 
 blow to fall on them, when they came on board. 
 
 What queer ways of expressing things Yankees 
 have. I was talking, the morning before, about this 
 poor woman's death to an American lady (?) supposed 
 to be in fairly good society, and I said " I wonder how 
 they will manage, as the ship is so full that they will 
 be hardly able to give up a cabin." " Oh," said my 
 acquaintance, " no worry about fAaf ; they'll just 6ox 
 her up and put her in the hold along with the other 
 luggage." 
 
lO 
 
 ^anaba* 
 
 Montreal, Sept. ist. 
 For the last five days we have had our younges t 
 son and his wife^ from New York, staying with us, so 
 we have driven and walked and prowled about a good 
 deal. The view of the town is beautiful from ' The 
 Mountain ' — a very high hill, up which there are 
 several good walks and drives, and a long covered 
 platform at the summit, where you can lounge about 
 and, see the view, which takes in the whole town, with 
 the River St. Lawrence, and, in the distance, some 
 grand mountains, sixty and a hundred miles away, on 
 the border-land of Canada and the United States, 
 You can also see the Lachine Rapids. We drove,, 
 one day, into the cemetery, a very pretty and curious 
 one. Just at the entrance there are many lovely 
 flower beds and a pretty fountain, and there are many 
 charming drives — the different plots in it being known 
 as such-and-such ' avenues ' — Oak, Maple, Beech, 
 Thorn, Fir, Rose, &c. Thus, when you have finally 
 quitted your home in the town — it may have been 
 ' Beech Grove ' or ' Oak Wood ' — your last resting 
 place in the country will be 'Fir' or 'Maple Avenue:' 
 much nicer and more cheery than our English way of 
 doing things, where you are No. 3 or 4, plot G or H. 
 The little ' Family Garden ' graves are very quaint 
 and nice — about thirty or forty feet square — either 
 railed in and with a little gate, or, as is prettiest, a 
 
II 
 
 hedge of yew or box, as in our old English gardens, 
 often clipped turret shape ; the graves being separate, 
 with different patterns of head-stones inside — large 
 ones being for grown-up folks, and tiny ones for 
 children — the spaces between being soft turf and 
 bright flowers, with a gateway cut in the hedge, and 
 a small flight of steps leading down from it to the 
 carriage drive. The Roman Catholic portion of it is 
 very curious, but not half so nicely kept as the 
 Protestant. There are many large vaults built in the 
 hill sides — very Frenchy, like those in the cemetery 
 at Nice — but the use of them here is, that, during three 
 months (sometimes four) of the winter, no dead can 
 be buried, the snow is too deep and the ground too 
 hard. The bodies of the dead are also frozen, so 
 they are put into a cofiin with a plate of glass let in 
 over the face, for identification — called ' corpse cases,' 
 or 'caskets,' and are left in these vaults until the 
 Spring, when the ground thaws enough to admit of 
 the graves being dug. 
 
 I don't care much for Montreal as a town : it is 
 in such a state of upset and unfinish. Some of the 
 old houses and wooden ' side-walks ' are left, and are 
 picturesque ; and of modern things there are one or 
 two fine buildings, but not more, and the unfinished 
 Roman Catholic Cathedral — built in imitation of 
 St. Peter's at Rome, but only half the size — is, I think, 
 a mistake. It never does to make small copies of 
 anything so magnificent and unique as St. Peter's. 
 
 The banker of the place knows my husband, and 
 
12 
 
 his wife has called upon me, and is very nice and 
 kind. We are to dine with them this evening, to 
 meet another old friend — a great leader of society 
 here, and very clever and popular. I hear she is 
 charming and knows so many people of note worth 
 knowing, I am most anxious to see her. 
 
 The shops here are wretched. I believe Toronto 
 is quite cutting out this city. 
 
 Monday, Sept. 4th. 
 I went to the 8 o'clock service at our Cathedral 
 yesterday morning — remembering that my dear old 
 Bishop Oxenden was there for some time — a large 
 gloomy church with hideous stained windows. 
 Including myself, the congregation numbered only 
 ten people. 
 
 H's friend, the banker, Mr. T — s, came in at 
 ten o'clock, and stayed chatting until one o'clock. 
 We had the wife, with the lady we were asked there 
 to meet, in for luncheon to-day, and this luncheon 
 and the dinner on Friday were most cheery affairs. 
 Mdlle. de R — e, as I heard, knows nearly everyone 
 and everything — some of our royalties being friends 
 of hers. She is quite as clever and delightful as I 
 had been led to suppose. 
 
 We were astonished and amused this morning, 
 to see a Guards' Band plant themselves in the public 
 gardens, just under our windows, where they played 
 for half an hour, and attracted a great crowd. They 
 were on their way home, from the Chicago ' World's 
 
13 
 
 Fair.' We thought them looking very dirty, and not 
 at all what we should wish strangers to imagine to be 
 the state of our troops, but on inquiry we found that 
 they were all ' time-expired men ' on a money-making 
 tour. I saw some of them pass again, with one officer, 
 one gun and a few lancers. The officer puts up in our 
 hotel, and looks neither cleaner nor smarter than his 
 ' scratch team ' of men. They are giving ' Military 
 Tournaments ' at all the towns they pass through, as 
 most of the big local fairs are on, now. They are off, 
 in a day or two, to New York. I think it is a very 
 grave mistake to let our Colonists see such a pitiably 
 shabby turn-out, as it doesn't tend to increase their 
 respect for us, or their desire to improve the appear- 
 ance and smartness of their own troops. 
 
 September 6th. 
 To-day, we went by train to Lachine about ten 
 miles away, to go by the boat down the rapids there. 
 The most amusing part of it was the short railway 
 journey, for certainly, in a Grand Trunk Railway car 
 to Lachine, there is no separating the sheep from the 
 goats, and the cars were filled chiefly with African 
 Negroes and coloured girls — Negro and Indian — and 
 some old Iroquois squaws from a village near 
 Lachine, called Caughnawauga, still inhabited by 
 that tribe, and they make all the em broidered bark 
 ornaments, which are sold in Montreal. The coloured 
 men were very amusing. Like the English made-up 
 * Nigger,' they are ever on the grin, and two men — 
 evidently going to a wedding — looked very comical 
 
14 
 
 in black dress suits and top hats and huge buttonholes 
 of many-coloured flowers. 
 
 The • Shooting the Rapids' was a novel sensation, 
 but not so dangerous looking, as I should have 
 imagined. To anyone accustomed to a really rough 
 sea, it was not at all formidable ; but the sensation 
 was so curious — you seemed to be going along side- 
 ways, not bow first, and trying to cross a vast river^ 
 which had decided against your ever doing so, by 
 forcing you back and down, till you were quite 
 prepared to find that the boat (a large and ungainly 
 steamer) had turned completely round, with the stern 
 stream-downwards — the course you were trying to 
 take. 
 
 September 8th. 
 
 Yesterday was a thoroughly rainy day, and I did 
 not go out. A friend came in to see me, and gave me 
 her experiences of a three days' fishing expedition, 
 with her husband, to the Saguenay River, beyond 
 Quebec. When they left Quebec in the small steamer 
 which was to take them to Saguenay, a fearful storm 
 came up. The wretched tub of a boat creaked and 
 groaned, and kept almost heeling over. She had to 
 put back, and then broke away from her moorings — 
 with rotten cables. The captain had to put out again 
 into the middle of the St. Lawrence, for safety. 
 When they managed to reach the landing stage for 
 Saguenay, to join the train, they found the storm had 
 been so terrific there, that all the earth had been 
 washed away from under the rails and sleepers. 
 
15 
 
 leaving the bare skeleton of them. No train could 
 run. Helped on either side by a navvy, my friend 
 had to step from sleeper to sleeper, for a hundred 
 ya,rds or more, with a deep landslip underneath — not 
 pleasant. Then the engineer lent them a workman's 
 trolly which they had to propel with poles, and in 
 this fashion they went ten or twelve miles. They 
 were then transferred to another trolly and went 
 another twelve miles on that. The Saguenay was so 
 swollen by floods, and so muddy, that, though — 
 having managed to get there — they fished indus- 
 triously for three days, and did not catch a single 
 fish : a regular case of ' paying too dear for one's 
 whistle.' 
 
 Last evening there was a Municipal Ball in our 
 hotel, given to Captain B — y and ofGLcers of H.M.S. 
 Mohawk, which arrived two days ago. They have a 
 queer way of giving a ball here. Instead of 
 receiving the guests in the ballroom, which is on the 
 ground floor and has a separate entrance from a side 
 street, the giiests, four hundred in number, arrived at 
 the main entrance to the hotel, and were shown up 
 the marble staircase, to the corridor and suite of 
 drawing-rooms, in which all the people staying in the 
 hotel were still sitting, chatting, or reading, ourselves 
 amongst the number. It was most amusing to us. 
 Our naval officers were, as they always are, very 
 smart and clean-looking, as if they had just been 
 turned out of a naval tailor's establishment, but, alas, 
 I saw one of them in pumps. What would Sir E — d 
 
i6 
 
 C — 11 have said ? The Canadian officers were in full 
 force, and the uniforms were fairly good, but not got 
 up so well as at home. The rooms filled very 
 quickly, and at ten o'clock there was a procession 
 down to the ballroom. There were none of the 
 Montreal 'upper ten' there. I imagine the guests 
 were nearly all tradespeople, excepting the officers 
 and their female belongings, and they were very few. 
 The dresses, with one or two exceptions, were dirty, 
 abominably made, and roughly ' pitchforked ' on to 
 the bodies of their owners. As the really good 
 people get all their best dresses from Worth, or the 
 large London houses, I can only conclude that none 
 of them put in an appearance. The few I knew 
 certainly did not. This has been ' good-bye ' day, as 
 we leave to-morrow morning at 8.30 for Toronto. 
 We are exceedingly sorry to say farewell to our 
 Montreal friends. They have been truly hospitable, 
 doing everything in their power to make our stay 
 pleasant and cheery. The fortnight has flown away 
 on very rapid wings, and this hotel has been the best 
 that in all our wanderings we have ever found. 
 Nothing could have exceeded the cleanliness, com- 
 fort, luxury, and civility we have had in it, and it has 
 been amusing also. There is the same spirit of 
 loyalty in the 'Windsor' that exists all over the 
 town. I was quite delighted to see in the stained- 
 glass window at the back of the bureau, an excellent 
 likeness of our queen, and an elaborate and pretty 
 view of Windsor. 
 
17 
 
 Montreal is in a state of upset in the matters of 
 building and road-making, and is wretched to drive 
 in at present. It will be a grand town in a few years' 
 time. The worst of it all is, that, before very long, 
 there will surely be a rising up of the French 
 Canadian peasantry against the Roman Catholic 
 priests and Church. These poor people are cruelly 
 taxed, to build churches^ and keep up monasteries, 
 nunneries and schools — the church lands and 
 buildings being entirely exempt from taxation. This 
 is such an unjust and severe system, that the poor — 
 now that they are getting rather more instruction — 
 see the unfairness and meanness of it, and begin to 
 resent it, to the extent that several Roman Catholic 
 families have renounced their Church, and joined the 
 Church of England, to avoid this excessive taxation, 
 under which no man can prosper. It means ruin to 
 them and their sons after them. I was told that the 
 priests in every way, encourage quite young boys 
 and girls to marry, so that there may be a quick and 
 large increase of population, and so much more 
 taxation, and so many more Churches. 
 
 Toronto, Sept. loth. 
 The journey yesterday by C.P.R was very good. 
 Twelve hours, but we were not the least bit tired. 
 The cars are so nicely arranged, and run so easily. 
 We had a sofa and an arm chair, so could rest well, 
 and the views of lovely country, lakes, forests, small 
 settlements, and farms, gave us plenty to see and 
 interest ourselves in. 
 
i8 
 
 We were much amused at a man in our train. 
 He was a Scotchman, and by way of being a gentle- 
 man, but he was such a (to use a slang expression) 
 'bounder,' that it made one actually dislike him, 
 He was ' all over the place," bothering about his own 
 seat and another for which there appeared to be no 
 tenant, and was, in consequence, being continually 
 taken by other people, until, within two hours' run of 
 Toronto, a girl got in, whom he was evidently 
 playing the fool with. She was joined in about half- 
 an-hour by a married sister and her husband, who 
 had been in another part of the train. The sister 
 seemed to encourage the affair, but the husband 
 looked as black as thunder. 
 
 Our ancient Scotchman was a delightful illustra- 
 tion of ' No fool like an old one.' (He must have 
 been at least seventy.) The girl about twenty-four. 
 He thought it his solemn duty to be amusing, and to 
 find the whole of the conversation, so, for want of 
 better entertainment, he produced a large knapsack, 
 and proceeded to turn out the contents of it, for the 
 edification of his fair guests. He brought out of it, 
 amongst many other things, the following delicious 
 jumble : A cake of soap, which he praised above all 
 others, and said it was * quite the rage in England,' 
 a Colt's revolver, sketches of young ladies and gentle- 
 men, by ' Boz,' with which he was immensely set 
 up, as he said some very clever ' savant ' had assured 
 him that it was only just discovered that Charles 
 Dickens was the author, a box of chocolate bon-bons. 
 
19 
 
 a bowie knife, and a new combination of tooth-pick 
 and nail-file in silver, a leather belt with pockets 
 and slots for carrying money, a very elaborate em- 
 broidered night-shirt with lace frills. The apology 
 made for the' production of this was, " I thought you 
 -would like to see it, as it is a Paris one, and con- 
 sidered rather nice, and I am addicted to nice night- 
 shirts. Beautifully got up, 'aint it ? case for it too, to 
 correspond," a pair of bird's wings for a woman's hat, 
 from a bird he had shot, and which he presented to 
 his (for the time being) adored one. The latest 
 things in scents and scarf pins, a work-case, and a 
 pair of opera glasses. An odd medley to carry into 
 * the far west.' 
 
 Having repacked his treasures, he disappeared, 
 and returned with a bottle of champagne, and stood 
 ■* glasses round.' The young husband looked blacker 
 and blacker. He did'nt at all approve of this 
 frivolity, especially as the ancient one was active 
 enough to do a deal of lounging and sitting on the 
 ioor, at the feet of the ladies. I fully expect that 
 
 Mrs. newly-married, would have, perhaps, her 
 
 :first marital lecture when they reached home. 
 
 We do not think much of this Hotel, though 'tis 
 the best. It is more expensive than the ' Windsor ' at 
 Montreal, and not nearly so comfortable, or so well 
 situated. Toronto though, can beat Montreal all to 
 nothing, as to public buildings. They are grand 
 ones, and designed with a view to their style and 
 character being guides as to what they are intended 
 
20 
 
 for, and in every case they are artistic and beautifully 
 finished. No lack of appropriate carvings and 
 sculpture, they are massive and well situated, with 
 plenty of ground around them, and well laid out, 
 beautifully planted gardens. The thing which has 
 struck us most is, that outside the Town, the roads 
 were so nice in appearance. The ' side-walks ' are- 
 beautifully kept with broad bands of soft turf between 
 the wooden side-walk and the carriage road, and the 
 whole seemed to form part of the gardens, in firont 
 of the good detached houses, as there are seldom any 
 fences to the gardens, and those are full of bright 
 flowers and shrubs, the whole has a very charming 
 effect, when you see road after road of these good 
 houses, all of them well built and finished, each one 
 differing from its neighbours, with all kinds of pretty 
 conceits in the way of verandahs, towers, curiously 
 shaped windows, little cosy nooks outside bedroom 
 windows, in the shape of a square, and long balconies 
 to hold from three or four to twenty people. In the- 
 gardens — fountains, bird-cages, hanging baskets of 
 trailing plants ; up the houses and trees, masses of 
 creepers, and flowers everywhere. You wonder under 
 what happy and peaceful star the Toronto boys have 
 come into this world, that nothing is ever stolen in 
 shape of either flowers or fruit, and that — excepting 
 to conduct street traffic — you never see a policeman. 
 
 A large yearly Fair makes the hotel and town so- 
 disagreeable, that we are off" to Niagara Falls to- 
 morrow, to escape the crowd. 
 
21 
 
 Niagara, Sept. 14th. 
 The Falls are truly lovely, and — unlike most: 
 people — /find the continual sound of them soothing,, 
 and not irritating. The whole of this river, with its 
 falls and rapids and whirlpools, is an overpoweringly 
 magnificent work of God, being, alas ! rapidly defaced 
 by that money-grubbing beast, the go-a-head factory 
 owner, I wish he would go a header into the torrent 
 he tries his best to vulgarise. Of all soul-stirring and^ 
 thrilling sights, commend me to Niagara ; and of all 
 bad hotels and rapacious proprietors, give me the 
 ' Clifton House ' and its owner — and I did not hesitate- 
 to say so, in the hearing of managers, waiters, 
 chambermaids and visitors. The bedrooms were 
 stuflEy, with the usual scents of cheese and Macassar 
 oil, took hours to air, and were very badly ftirnished. 
 There was no elevator — a spiral staircase — very bad 
 for my lame husband. The food — the worst possible 
 of its kind. I can always be happy if I get good 
 bread, butter and cheese, with drinkable light wine 
 or beer. The bread was heavy as lead ; the butter 
 rancid ; the cheese so coarse and strong that it took 
 the skin off the roof of your mouth. I almost envied 
 an unfortunate man I saw eating away at it, who, I 
 discovered, had no roof to his mouth. I wondered a 
 long time how he managed to devour it as he did, till- 
 a vision of a false palate drove away my feelings of 
 pity for him. The so-called wine was vinegar, and 
 the first bottle was quite enough to convince us of the 
 dire necessity of taking only water and coffee. The- 
 
22 
 
 menus for each meal never changed. This we dis- 
 covered at once, as they were never dated, and were 
 filthy. The waiting was almost nil. The waiter 
 would place your hot food on the table, uncovered, 
 and leave it to cool, while he very deliberately 
 washed (?) you a knife and fork. I shall never forget 
 poor H's face last evening, when — after vainly trying 
 to eat some of their poisonous concoctions — he asked 
 for a cup of tea and some buttered toast. He waited 
 for nearly a quarter of an hour, possessing in patience 
 his soul, as is his wont, when the waiter placed before 
 him a covered entree dish, on lifting the cover of 
 which, he displayed to H's astonished and delighted {T) 
 gaze, a soppy mess of soft half-toasted bread, covered 
 with melted butter — such as we use for fish sauce, or 
 vegetables. 
 
 Poor H. ! I record it as being very greatly to his 
 credit, that he used no bad language. For all this 
 luxury, we paid the modest sum of one pound per 
 head per day. Carriages $2 = 8/- an hour; 1/- to 
 walk over a bridge ; 6/- per bottle for the Vinegar, 
 and everything else at the same rate. 
 
 Dear friends who have a hankering to see 
 ' Mighty Niagara ' do so quickly, and don't stay the 
 night. One meal there is one too many. The place 
 is nearly spoilt ; soon it will be completely so. 
 Factories are springing up. The enormous water 
 power being far too tempting for Mr. Guinea- Pig. 
 The would-be modern Midas, is not (in his opinion) 
 -ass enough to let such an opportunity slip, as that of 
 
23 
 
 diverting one or more of the outer and smaller 
 cascades, into another channel than its own to work 
 his nature-destroying Mill. Confound him ! That is 
 about all a woman may say in the way of a ' good 
 swear/ but it means a much more vicious remark, and 
 I can but wish for him and his Factory, as great a 
 downfall as has the magnificent Torrent he is doing 
 his ' Darned level best ' to mutilate and vulgarise. 
 
 Good-bye Niagara — home of so much loveliness 
 and solemn grandeur — home, too, of little treasures, 
 such as humming-birds, flying grasshoppers, chip- 
 monks, with their quaint little faces, bushy tails and 
 queer chatter, and of lovely birds. Farewell Falls- 
 and Rapids ! I shall never see you any more, ex- 
 cepting in dreamland ; but you are one of the few 
 really touching and magnificent things on this lovely 
 Earth of God's. I am thankful to have seen you. 
 The soothing continuous rush of your waters, the- 
 glories of spray, and of mist, and of rainbow, will for 
 ever be a fair vision in my mind — a glorious creation 
 of the Maker of all that is good — and, in majesty, 
 power, purity and constancy, a fitting emblem of your' 
 Creator. 
 
 September 15th. 
 Back again at Toronto. Everything yet in 
 confusion, owing to the Fair, which I have not been 
 to, as — ^judging from the people in this hotel — the- 
 visitors must be a ' rowdy ' lot, and I hear it is an 
 Elysium for pickpockets. , Two detectives have been^ 
 
24 
 
 -attached to this house all the week, and three of the 
 police were in this afternoon, in addition. 
 
 I spend my lazy life in taking solitary walks, for 
 health's sake, going into the country, and eating 
 peaches. Who can resist lovely large ripe ones, at 
 -five pence a dozen ? I can't, and don't intend to try. 
 They are ' pleasant to the eye ' and to the taste, and a 
 cheap article of food, suitable, exceedingly, to hot 
 ■days and long prowls. I follow the prevailing 
 fashion, and take a bag of them into a quiet part of 
 the park, or a bench by the road-side, and ' gobble 
 'em up ' in an ogre-ish fashion. Walking doesn't 
 improve shoe-leather, and, sitting with one's feet 
 looking like those of a regular tramp, showing their 
 untidiness well up against the the cool green of the 
 grass, I hear a shrill and nasal sing-song, ' Shine, 
 shine.' This is the cry of the Canadian shoe-black, 
 and — being interpreted — means 'Black yer boots, 
 marm.' It sounds 50 quaint. 
 
 My only Toronto amusement seems to be — 
 besides walking — taking electric car rides into the 
 ■country — seven miles and more, for five cents. I 
 always get into the ' trailer,' as the second car is 
 called — an open one attached to the closed one in 
 front. ' All aboard,' shouts the conductor, and away 
 we go. Including about a dozen stoppages, the seven 
 miles are got over in twenty minutes. It is very 
 pleasant on a fine day. There are many quaint 
 -Studies of life and character to be made, and many 
 •amusing conversations to hear, and to sometimes take 
 part in. 
 
25 
 
 Shopping in Toronto is a trifle amusing. Talk 
 of 'American Independence/ indeed ; it sinks into 
 utter insignificance by the side of that of a store- 
 keeper in Toronto, I went into a small store 
 yesterday, and asked for some repairs to be made to 
 something, and the reply was, " We don't do those 
 mean things here." " But," I deferentially replied, 
 " you state, on the placards in your windows, that 
 such-and-such things can be done." " Oh, yes, I 
 guess that's all right, but it means that we sell you 
 the materials, and you've got to fix 'em, yourself — 
 see ? " I said, meekly, " Oh yes, I see, but it don't 
 suit me to do the fixin'." At another store, a woman 
 came in with a girl — a daughter, I believe — and I 
 imagine that the woman was trying to help on a 
 flirtation between the girl and one of the young sales- 
 men, for, as they came up to the counter, the girl said 
 " It's all right, he's coming." The fair-haired foolish 
 youth appeared, and the pair of charmers shook hands 
 with him, and then mater said, " Have you got any 
 nice, real gay, light-coloured stockings ; blue or green, 
 say ? " The store did not boast of possessing such 
 articles of finery, so — after many regrets and some 
 conversation — the pair departed, and I heard mamma 
 say, as they went out, " Well, you g^ot your talk, I 
 guess, and I called for what I was sure he couldn't 
 find, so it cost us nothing." 
 
 I am fond of taking home little things — from the 
 different places we visit — which are peculiar to the 
 country, and the town from which they come, so, at 
 
26 
 
 Montreal, I bought the embroidered bark of trees, 
 worked by the Indians — the Iroquois tribe. Here, in 
 Toronto — for a time — I felt at a loss, but iinally came 
 to the conclusion that the coffins (corpse-cases, as 
 they are called) are the queerest things here. How to 
 get one small enough to carry home — happy 
 thought — ask a respectable undertaker to make a 
 small model. When out driving, I had seen over a 
 shop door, ' Undertaker and practical embalmer,' so 
 I watched my opportunity (saying nothing to my 
 husband about this whimsical idea of mine) and 
 started off to the abode of the practical one. " Very 
 sorry, marm, but we've such a press of business that 
 it is impossible." He referred me to a friend, a few 
 doors off. Friend was out, but his wife came to speak 
 to me — a pretty, fair-haired woman, with an equally 
 pretty baby, a bright vision in such a gloomy apart- 
 ment, where everything suggested sorrow and death. 
 The fair-haired, white-dressed baby seemed like a 
 bright light in the darkness. " I'm afraid my man 
 won't be able to do it : it will take so much time — 
 being small — and our best ' casket hand ' is away. 
 You'd better go to the ' wholesale ' store." She gave 
 me the address, nearly two miles away. However, I 
 had made up my mind that, having accustomed 
 myself to the interior of the undertaker's shop, and 
 feeling, like 'Mrs. Mould' in 'Martin Chuzzlewit,' 
 quite cheerful at the sound of ' tapping at the hollow 
 elm tree,' I would not be foiled in my attempt to get 
 my casket. I started off, and, after a good tramp. 
 
27 
 
 found myself at the wholesale establishment. I 
 walked up some half dozen steps, to an office in the 
 dingy entrance hall, where sat a small, curly-headed 
 youth, posting up some ledgers, and I said, " Has 
 
 Mr. his store here?" "Oh yes, on the third 
 
 floor." Said I, " I can never go up, I am so tired." 
 The youth replied that he was going up in the 
 elevator, would I go with him ? " Yes, gladly." So 
 I was escorted to the ' goods ' elevator, and found 
 myself on the brink of a dark and, seemingly, bottom 
 less pit, from which came up, creaking and groaning, 
 a wooden platform, without sides or light. I shud- 
 dered for a moment, and then stepped on. On the 
 third floor, he politely opened a door, and I found 
 myself in a huge warehouse-room, full, from end to 
 end, of rough strong deal coffins, of every size, 
 reared up against each other in rows, three and four 
 deep, but all were rough cases. The dealer appeared — 
 a cheery old fellow of seventy, who had left ' the old 
 country' because, at a clerk's desk in England, he 
 could not earn enough to keep his family, so he came 
 out here and took the lowest clerk's place, grew into 
 head clerk, partner, and, finally owner, and made a 
 very good thing of it. He was, evidently, not one bit 
 influenced by his depressing surroundings, and 
 entered quite into the spirit of the thing. It amused 
 and interested him. He called his son, who was his 
 head workman, and who promised me that he would 
 do his best to make me an ' elegant model.' He was 
 faithful to his word, and up to time, and said it had 
 
28 
 
 " been a real treat to make anything so pretty and 
 dainty." It is a model to scale, of one inch to a foot, 
 and is complete in every respect — plate handles, 
 screws, lining, glass plate for the face, with carved 
 wood cover to fit over the glass — and the whole in its 
 rough deal case, which he explained the use of, as I 
 wondered if they were for distant places and going 
 by rails. He said, " Those cases are really the 
 graves. A hole is dug and the case put in, and the 
 earth filled in all round it, and then the real casket is 
 lowered into this case." 
 
 Horses are plentiful in Canada, and this accounts 
 for the almost total absence of donkeys — for I have 
 never seen one since we landed at Montreal, ex- 
 cepting, perhaps, in a mirror. The dodgy way in 
 which Canadians manage to pay calls and do shop- 
 ping, in a carriage and without a servant, is worthy 
 of imitation. Inside the carriage is carried a long 
 leather strap, eight or ten feet long, and at one end is 
 fastened a circular or square weight of six or eight ., 
 pounds, and at the other end a swivel. When the 
 driver wants to stop and get out anywhere, he fastens 
 the swivel to the side of the curb chain, or elsewhere, 
 and puts the weight down on the side-walk, or in the 
 gutter. If the horse tries to move, he feels the pull 
 at the mouth, and imagines he is quite fast. Seldom, 
 or ever, a horse will start off, dragging this weight 
 after him — only when he has been quite unusually 
 frightened. Usually, the weight is in the carriage 
 and the swivel attached to the horse, and the strap 
 
29 
 
 hangs loose in a long curve, until you imagine that a 
 rein has been dropped, and are ready to call the 
 driver's attention to it, till, on looking again, you 
 discover your mistake. 
 
 October 5th. 
 Such a lovely day for the commencement of our 
 journey to Vancouver. We are off by rail — four 
 hours to Owen Sound — to join the Lake Boat 
 Athabasca. I had not dreamed of anything half so 
 lovely as this Canadian country. I write this in the 
 train. Vast stretches of undulating land, with woods 
 beyond, all bathed in a flood of rose-tinted atmos- 
 phere, for the gorgeous autumnal colouring of the 
 trees and brushwood render the distance of this warm 
 hue, instead of the pure cobalt we see in other lands. 
 Here, gold, scarlet, copper and crimson mingle 
 together to make an almost flame-coloured land- 
 scape — little lakes and big rivers all reflecting the 
 glowing tints. The only spots of quieter colour, on 
 which the eye could rest, were the sombre firs, rising 
 up here and there above the maples, and an occasional 
 squatter's hut of wood, grown grey with age and 
 weather, others almost new, with an attempt at blue 
 or green blinds and doors. Their walls, of newly 
 peeled wood, made another pretty change in the 
 landscape, and the farm sheds, orchards, cattle and 
 children, all combine to make up a foreground and 
 distance that would have enchanted a Constable or a 
 Turner ; and Millais or Leader would find it hard to 
 choose subjects from such a multitude of charming 
 scenes. 
 
30 
 
 Boat Athabasca, Lake Superior, 
 
 Oct. 6th. 
 A very mixed and amusing cargo of passengers. 
 I use the word ' cargo,' as there is none of any other 
 kind, and, in consequence, the boat is dancing about 
 with every little wave, as if it were in ' The Bay,' or 
 off the Spanish coast. There is no distinction of 
 persons in a boat like this. It is late in the season, or 
 more people of our own class might be on board ; as 
 it is, there is one gentleman, and a man who takes 
 care to inform us all that he is one, therefore proving, 
 without further evidence, the hopelessness of his 
 trying to claim this title. He is most irrepressible. 
 On his father's side he is Scotch, on the mother's, 
 French, a queer mixture. He is as noisy as a giant 
 Buzz-fly, and quite as objectionable. There is a 
 young fellow bound for ' Frisco.' He sits opposite 
 to my husband at meals, and plays Backgammon 
 with our man-servant, most of his spare time. A 
 nice young fellow, who seems to have a fair share of 
 brains, and a contented, cheery disposition. There is 
 a Congregational Minister with a wife, and a baby 
 with whooping cough, going somewhere Winnipeg 
 way. H. and I enjoy (?) a quiet evening in his cabin, 
 trying to read, but Mrs. Minister has elected to hold 
 a concert of sacred music, she being sole soloist and 
 accompanist, and all the music (?J she is capable of, 
 is a dismal wailing out of Moody and Sankey 
 Hymns. These she has evidently been learning 
 quite recently, as also the instrument (a piano) that 
 
31 
 
 she accompanies herself upon. She plays with a 
 precision that says ' Metronome ' with every note, and 
 she sings with a strong Yankee twang, and an utter 
 absence of everything but strict time. She has a 
 sympathetic chorus of passengers, chiefly settlers, 
 and I only wish I could have become a settle-her 
 also. This performance must have been appreciated 
 by others, though I could not join in the doubtless 
 well-merited applause, as it was a regular case of 
 ' and when they came unto the end, they then began 
 again.' Two days of this is quite enough, and I am 
 very glad to leave Athabasca, and get into our 
 state-room in the train, which we do at Port 
 William. The transit from boat to train for H. was 
 comical. He fully entered into the fun of the thing 
 and the hasty arrangements made for his comfort. 
 It was impossible for him to walk over the bridge, 
 it was such a great length, and so many steps ; so 
 the man in charge of the passengers' luggage, came 
 up and suggested that H. should go in the van along 
 with the other bales of goods. The man conducts 
 H. to the far end of the shed, where his new equipage 
 awaits him, an engine and one luggage van. He has 
 a box for a seat, and away he goes, while I hasten 
 round and over the bridge, to arrange about the 
 state-room which has been sent on from Montreal. 
 H's mode of transit does not look suggestive of his 
 future occupancy of said state-room, but rather as 
 if he were a convict (he had his hair cut two days 
 ago) or a dangerous lunatic. However, we get to 
 
32 
 
 our new quarters, and try to make out that we are 
 thoroughly enjoying' ourselves. We say farewell to 
 the Lakes and their very quaint craft, especially 
 Whalebacks — the queerest things. We met four, going 
 down Lake Superior, one after another. They are 
 cargo boats, chiefly laden with grain. They hold an 
 immense cargo, and nothing is visible above water 
 but their torpedo^ or cigar shaped backs, with one 
 short funnel. We heard they were an immense 
 success. 
 
 Our ' state room ' is a gorgeous apartment, just 
 about 12 ft. by lo ft., and wh^n the double hed and 
 the single one alongside are made up for the night, 
 there is just a foot and half left between, in which to 
 do all our undressing, dressing, folding of garments, 
 etc. There is the usual washstand, with the usual 
 pump of an immense size, as compared with the 
 volume of water it condescends to present to your 
 eager gaze for the ever refreshing ' wash and brush 
 up.' Even Tommy Atkins with his limited ideas of 
 cleanliness, would feel he had been defrauded of his 
 twopence, if he had been given this very limited 
 supply of ' Adam's ale.' There are magnificent 
 lamps, but they contain the hated parafiin. However, 
 all is clean, and we must be very thankful for that, 
 and the knowledge that the small den is our own, 
 and of this fact we are constantly reminded by a 
 small mirror let into the woodwork between two of 
 the windows, which bears on its brass frame in large 
 old Roman characters ' TVVM-EST. ' This is 
 
33 
 
 translated by us in our different ways, H. maintaining 
 that it is proprietorship, while my idea is, that it is a 
 happy assurance, that in gazing in the glass we 
 really do see our own heads, for all this jerky boat 
 and train business is very apt to make us doubt if 
 the vision be true or false. If our shoulders possess 
 heads to rest upon them, and if so, if they are on the 
 right way, or like those of the Laputians, of 'Gulliver's 
 travels/ 
 
 Prairie land for very many miles, with an 
 occasional farmstead and outbuildings, with an equal 
 number of ' thriving cities of Eden,' vide ' Martin 
 Chuzzlewit.' I am now at a place called Elkhorn, 
 just twenty-four hours' run from Port William, where 
 we left the boat. Still prairie, with these dreary little 
 farms, and, occasionally, equally desolate villages of 
 seven to ten huts, and in those a single ' general store,' 
 comprising the rough and tumble things a squatter 
 may want, in the way of clothes, hardware and pro- 
 visions. Roads of black mud, inches deep, without 
 any side-walks, make up a depressing idea of the 
 joys (?) of emigration. Some few places look fairly 
 chirpy, and in these the cheerful appearance is accom- 
 plished by a virtuous struggle on the part of the 
 different householders to make their little huts as 
 smart as — or smarter than — those of their neighbours. 
 Green and orange, red and blue paint, coloured 
 blinds, &c., but never an attempt at a flower or a 
 bird-cage, or any such brighteners up of a cottage 
 home. The black peat §oil makes hideous roads, but 
 
34 
 
 it is a rich soil, and takes — it appears — little or no 
 getting into order, beyond ploughing up, draining 
 and stoning: so different to the land between Montreal 
 and Toronto, and Toronto and Owen Sound, where 
 all the timber has to be felled (where is the G.O.M. ? 
 why can't he take a fancy to settle in a Canadian 
 backwood and ruin trees, instead of England ? ) and 
 the roots burnt, before ground can be stoned and 
 ploughed, and then it is not nearly so rich as this. If 
 I had to choose, I would come far West and take the 
 richer soil. 
 
 The conductor of our train (Major P — ) for a 
 portion (600 miles) of our journey, is a pleasant man, 
 who was for some time in the Canadian cavalry. It 
 seems strange to see a man of his position in charge 
 of a train and its commissariat, but it is z, fairly good 
 thing, no doubt. But oh ! what a hard life. He goes 
 home for aboufa week, once a year. All the rest of 
 his existence is spent in the C.P.R. trains. He 
 travelled last year — backwards and forwards on this 
 line — 180,000 miles. It makes one's brain quite ache 
 to think of it. The journey from Montreal to 
 Vancouver is divided into three sections — one section 
 allotted to each man. He goes from one point to the 
 end of his section, hands over the train to the new 
 conductor, who attaches his own dining car, and goes 
 on with the train to the end of his section, where the 
 same exchange is again made. The conductor, No. i, 
 sleeps at the station at the end of his section, and 
 returns next day, and this goes on for months, and 
 
35 
 
 then the three change places. Each has his dining- 
 car, with vans for food attached, the cars being known 
 by their different names — Windsor, Balmoral and 
 Sandringham. He has no light task. He has to be 
 civil to, and keep order amongst, a very queer lot of 
 passengers, some of them often being the worst and 
 wildest set in almost all the world — utterly lawless 
 Americans, going about hatching all manner of 
 devilry, sharpers, blacklegs and blackguards of 
 every kind, from the most remote districts. There 
 seems to be no fear of the Indian tribes scattered 
 about, and often quite near to the land through which 
 the railway passes. They are pretty well kept in 
 order by the Canadian Mounted Police, who patrol the 
 country and are at all railway stations. A few 
 Indians come down to look at the train, and are very 
 picturesque. One man had evidently put on his best 
 attire. His dress consisted of an emerald green 
 blanket, a pair of dirty white trousers, and gold 
 earrings. There is not much to fear on the journey, 
 but the officials are all well armed, and there are rifles 
 and revolvers in store. 
 
 October 8th. 
 I was up this morning at six o'clock, to see the 
 first glimpse of the ' Rockies,' and was repaid. The 
 chain of magnificent snowy mountains was a lovely 
 sight, as the monsters came into view 70 or 80 miles 
 away. We have been over at least 1000 miles of 
 prairie and are still in it, but there are more signs of 
 life, settlers' huts, Indian wigwams, children and 
 
36 
 
 dogs, and immense droves of cattle. We have 
 passed the great ' Bell ' farm, so called after its 
 owner. It is worked on a gigantic scale, and is 
 entirely of grain. One stretch of wheat is four miles 
 long, to plough one furrow and back again with a 
 team of horses is a man's day's work. All the work 
 on this farm is done in a kind of military fashion, the 
 men work in companies and battalions, and with an 
 exactness representing drill. At the dinner hour a 
 flag is hoisted on the highest part of the farm 
 buildings, which can — on this perfectly level land — 
 be seen for miles. At that signal every soul on the 
 farm leaves off work and eats his meal, always taken 
 with him ; at the end of an hour down goes the flag 
 and every man recommences work. The owner has 
 an excellent house near the railway, and he has 
 housed all his men in suitable and comfortable little 
 frame cottages. They have good wages and whole- 
 some food, though not much beef or mutton, the latter 
 I should imagine never, as throughout the whole of 
 the journey I have seen nothing like a sheep, 
 excepting one pet lamb at the door of a hut, and 
 evidently not intended for the mint. 
 
 October loth. 
 All yesterday up to mid-day, we were still on the 
 prairie, but at noon commenced the ascent of the first 
 slopes of the hills at the base of the ' Rockies.' At a 
 station called Canmore, there is an open ' observation 
 car ' attached to the train in summer, and is advertised 
 to run till the 15th of October. I gotoff to make sure, 
 
37 
 
 as I mistrust all the guide books puffing up a thing 
 or place, as for instance Banff, " a charming situation. 
 Hotel first class, C.P.R., open all the year round" and 
 when we wrote for rooms for gth of October, reply 
 came, " closed for the Winter." Well, I asked at the 
 office, most politely, was the observation car being 
 attached to the train, and at which end. Reply — «' No 
 car at all." " Why not," said I, " it is timed to run 
 until the 15th." " Can't help that, there is no car." 
 Driven to despair at the thought of being shut up in 
 the roofed carriage, where it would be impossible to 
 see the peaks of the giant mountains we were to pass 
 underneath and run winding through, I said, "But 
 we have a letter from Mr. V. H., (the head of every- 
 thing, Canadian and Pacific)." " Well madam, since 
 that is so, I am really sorry, but the weather became 
 so cold, that the passengers would not go in the 
 car, and we discontinued it a fortnight ago." At last 
 came a happy thought, " I am terribly disappointed, 
 I have come all the way firom England to see these 
 mountains and passes, so as you have no car, suppose 
 you give me leave to ride on the engine ? " His face 
 was amusing. He studied my age and size, and, for 
 a moment, no longer, was inclined to believe I was 
 mad, or trying to get a rise out of him. However, I 
 looked firm, and he gave way. " I think perhaps we 
 may manage it, if you don't object to the dirt and 
 discomfort, and are not nervous." "Not one bit." 
 So we held a council of four — he, I, the conductor of 
 the train, and the driver — and it was arranged that I 
 
38 
 
 should go through all the best passes, on the engine. 
 My husband didn't quite like the idea at first, but, 
 good creature as he is, seeing how much I should 
 enjoy it, gave way. At the next station, I went 
 through the length of the train, and then got out on 
 the roadway, and scrambled up on to the engine. 
 
 When I first looked at the gigantic stride I 
 should have to make, to get up, my heart failed, but 
 ' In for a penny, in for a pound,' and, with help from 
 the driver and stoker, I was hauled in and seated on 
 a very warm and oily leather seat, right ahead, by the 
 boiler, with a clear look-out in all directions. Off we 
 went, driver and stoker being very anxious for my com- 
 fort. We slowly ascended, through more magnificent 
 scenery than I have ever dreamed of, and over an 
 equally astounding piece of engineering. To follow 
 the bend of a great river sounds easy, but when, in 
 following it, you also ascend above it, to a height of 
 from loo to 500 feet, and run all the way on a narrow 
 ledge cut in the face of the cliffs and rocks, and often 
 running over bridges so narrow and at so stupendous 
 a height, overhanging the river, that one feels one is 
 going along in an aerial machine instead of a 
 Iqcomotive-— it seems quite a different affair. After 
 gazing, till eyes and brain ache, with a mixture of awe 
 apd worship of the great mountains overhead, capped 
 with snow, and feeling a creepy fascination for the 
 terror and seeming risk of the journey (for we have 
 descended to the level again, with the aid of brakes 
 0.nd several sidings up which to run the engine, 
 
39 
 
 should she ' run away '). I alight at a station at the 
 base of the mountains we have been climbing half 
 up and, to my bewilderment, find myself the only 
 passenger. " Where is the train ? " " Coming on 
 behind in five minutes." I had actually never known 
 it, though we had detached ourselves from it miles 
 before. My eyes were too much engaged to think of 
 the train, and the engine I was on, left it at the top of 
 the gradient, to be brought on — rather, let go down — 
 by itself, witli a very strong brake engine behind. 
 
 The crossing of * the Rockies ' is very anxious 
 work, no doubt. The rule of the road is one man one 
 mile, with an overlooker for every five men and miles. 
 There are reliefs of the same number — or more — for 
 night, and, as it was a pitch dark night that we had, 
 to increase our terror, we simply crawled along. I 
 heard afterwards that a railway velocipede goes in 
 front of the train — to see that there are no landslips 
 or other obstructions on the line — with the safety and 
 danger (green and red) lights, the whole of the night. 
 We calculated that we went about 600 miles along 
 those awfiil cliffs, and I cannot describe my happiness 
 when the first peep of daylight came, and, stopping 
 at a tiny village, I heard the friendly and tuneful 
 voice of ' the early village cock.' ' Up with the 
 lark' and the cheery cock, I was dressed at six. 
 This was our last day of train. We were rather 
 weary, but the still grand scenery kept us on the 
 watch, and we were on the Fraser River, following 
 all its lovely windings and turnings. I seemed to 
 
40 
 
 have more time this day to watch my fellow- 
 passengers, and one was to my mind a beautiful 
 study of aesthetic idiocy. He was returning to 
 ' Frisco,' from Chicago, and had brought with him a 
 pair of those small lizards (chameleons) as a remem- 
 brance. He had them chained down to an old 
 cardboard letter-paper box, with tiny gold chains, 
 fastened round their necks with wee gold collars, and 
 the box appeared to me to contain a lovely jumble of 
 lizards, half-eaten grapes and dead flies — the two 
 latter items being wholesome food for the former. 
 What kind of organization the lizards possessed, in 
 his opinion, or what their education had been, I know 
 not, but he evidently gave them credit for a love of 
 music, as, when other folks were going to the luncheon 
 car, he remained behind to strum doleful melodies (?) 
 to them upon the banjo. They appeared so sleepy 
 and happy under the infliction that I could not help 
 feeling sure that this particular species of reptile was 
 afflicted (?) with deafness, and, like their rather near 
 relative, the adder, had stopped their ears, and refused 
 to listen to the twang- twang of this charmer. 
 Another ' Frisco ' passenger got out at one of the 
 stations, and brought me an offering of wild flowers 
 very nicely arranged, but I couldn't quite agree with 
 him in what he considered the chief beauty of the 
 bouquet, an enormous jet black, hairy caterpillar, 
 with which he had carefully crowned his nosegay. 
 Vancouver, October 15th. 
 We were infinitely fresher and better the evening 
 we arrived after our long journey, than we had dared 
 
41 
 
 to hope, and enjoyed our dinner and chat afterwards 
 in the drawing room, meeting pleasant people who 
 had come over with us in Parisian and who have 
 been living here for the last two or three years. Next 
 day I discovered that all was not quite satisfactory 
 as to our cabin on Empress of India for Yokohama, so 
 our friends volunteered to escort me down to the 
 ship, as seeing is believing. It is always best to 
 have a look at your quarterSj and I was very 
 thankful I did so, as, what had been represented to us 
 as "the best state cabin on the ship," was a miserably 
 poky little hole, and thoroughly uncomfortable, away 
 from everything and by no means ' the best.' Thanks 
 again to Mr. V. H's letter ; it was, exchanged at once 
 for one entirely satisfactory, and we are all right 
 now I hope. Vancouver is in a very rough state at 
 present, but it is quite astounding to find what 
 progress has been made since the great fire seven 
 years ago, when only one house escaped the flames. 
 There are two very good streets with very fair blocks 
 of shops, most of them built of stone. Several 
 hundred picturesque detached villa houses with 
 pretty balconies, all of wood, but so painted as to 
 represent stone and brick and slates and tiles. 
 Vancouver is beautifully situated. A tongue of land 
 with a background of grand pine forests, and 
 beyond those again the snowy heights of the Selkirk 
 and Otter-tail ranges. Two of the always snow-clad 
 hills being called ' The Lions' Gate,' the hills taking 
 the exact shape of two of our Trafalgar Square Lions. 
 
42 
 
 The timber and foliage in the valley, and on the lower 
 slopes of the mountains are grand. In the so-called 
 park, there are giant trees. The park is simply a 
 great piece of primeval forest, in which the old 
 Indian trails are yet left, and no sun has ever 
 gladdened the depths of the glades. Gigantic boles 
 of pines and firs meet your eyes on every side, so very 
 enormous, that when you are naturally tempted to 
 follow with astonished gaze, the lines of the stems 
 upwards, your head goes back and back, and you 
 feel quite dizzy, and then comes a feeling of awe at 
 the immensely tall tapering masts of trees, and, 
 feeling it quite impossible to ever get your eyes to the 
 top, you walk away many yards before you dare look 
 again. Twenty, thirty, and forty feet in circumference 
 are these giants, and one old fellow owns proudly to 
 measuring seventy-three feet, and inside him — for he 
 is hollow — a carriage and pair of horses can be 
 comfortably lodged. Few things have so impressed 
 me as these monster trees. Surely this must be the 
 very spot written about by Longfellow at the com- 
 mencement of his * Evangeline,' for here are his trees, 
 and all around them sings — and too often roars — the 
 sea. 
 
 " This is the forest primeval. The murmuring pines and the hemlocks 
 Bearded with moss and in garments green, indistind in the twilight, 
 Stand like Druids of old, with voices sad and prophetic. 
 Stand like harpers hoar, with beards that rest on their bosoms. 
 Loud, from its rocky caverns, the deep-voiced, neighbouring ocean 
 Speaks, and in accents disconsolate, answers the wail of the forest." 
 
 Here is a place for prayer — here is a scene for praise. 
 " oh, ye woods and forests, bless ye the Lord; 
 Praise Him, and magnify Him for ever." 
 
i'/ ■■■:■■ ::'fiyi,, 
 
 ■jT[».i.-i.-.^i: .-'»•. -•^ti'rajri~n:^^ia' 
 
 GIANT TREE AT VANCOUVER. 
 
43 
 
 What a contrast to another poem of his — 'The 
 Prelude.' 
 
 " Pleasant it was when the woods were green, 
 
 And winds were soft and low. 
 To lie amid some sylvan scene, 
 Where the long drooping boughs between. 
 Shadows dark and sunlight sheen. 
 
 Alternate come and go." 
 
 When I was young, ' The Prelude ' suited my heart — 
 youth, sunshine, and the murmurs of the opening of 
 spring leaves. Now that I am growing into * the sere 
 and yellow leaf,' the forest primeval, charms me far 
 more, with its tangle of underwood — like the tangle 
 of a life — and the density of the shade, and the chill 
 of the never sun-warmed paths and glades, remind 
 one of the close of earth's daylight, and the coming 
 shadows of death. 
 
 When is the Empress of India to sail ? All kinds 
 of questions are asked, and all sorts of answers 
 given — always vague. Some say noon Monday, 
 others five o'clock ; some give us till Tuesday 
 morning. We go on board at ten o'clock on Monday, 
 and settle a little in our cabin. It is a large and 
 nice one, with writing table and hanging cupboard, 
 and nice large berths — at least, so they appear at 
 first sight. There is a cheery luncheon at one o'clock, 
 many people from the hotel and other places being 
 guests of the captain, and some of the passengers. 
 No idea of sailing till five or six, so some go ashore 
 again — ithe women to do some final shopping, and the 
 men to have one more game of billiards. At five. 
 
44 
 
 back they all come, and all the friends and acquain- 
 tances, including several of our own. Now comes 
 'good-bye' in earnest, and we move slowly out into 
 a sea, opal-tinted with the evening ' after-glow,' a 
 crescent moon and a lovely evening star, both 
 smiling on us and giving a promise of a calm night 
 and fine weather ; deceitful things. 
 
 We arrive at Victoria at midnight — a disappoint- 
 ment, as we hoped to see it by daylight — but we have 
 all gone to roost, and I see only a steam-launch in the 
 darkness, as I look out of the port-hole. My berth is 
 a base deceiver — a whited sepulchre. No rest for the 
 wicked. A couple of sheaves of straw laid upon a 
 foundation of ' split sodas ' would be about as 
 comfortable. Oh, my poor dear bones ! A stormy 
 night, with prospect of bad weather. So we sail on 
 for a week, till we reach 1 80° W. latitude. 
 
 R.M.S. Empress of India, 
 
 October 24th. 
 Yesterday was Sunday, and to-day is Tuesday. 
 Rather a startling announcement, and a peculiar 
 experience. I wish we had been able to skip 
 Tuesday instead of Monday, and then my husband 
 would have lost a birthday and been able to call 
 himself a year younger than he really is. However, 
 no use trying to cheat old Time, and when I 
 acquainted him with my penny-worth of thoughts, he 
 replied, " I believe you wanted to do me out of a 
 birthday present." Anyhow, we crossed the i8oth 
 
45 
 
 parallel yesterday (Sunday) and Monday is a dies non. 
 The young ones are to have a deck dance this 
 evening, for which very dainty programmes are being 
 prepared ; the cards being beautifully hand-painted 
 in Japan, with national and ships' flags. The more 
 elaborate ones have, also, this boat most minutely 
 and delicately painted in her natural colouring. Of 
 course, these are not given away by any means, but 
 sold, and at a rather fearsome price for the pockets of 
 the impecunious young ones — a dollar, and a dollar 
 and a half each ! For a charity, of course. 
 
 Nothing very worthy of note has taken place 
 
 during our first week's voyage. There are the usual 
 
 rival beauties on board — the fair and the dark — and 
 
 they love (?) one another, as is also usual ; but their 
 
 small, mutual misunderstandings will, doubtless, soon 
 
 vanish, like the mist before the morning sun, and 
 
 they will end with becoming moderately good friends. 
 
 As things are at present, they remind me forcibly of 
 
 two small boys quarrelling as to which has the greater 
 
 number of knots of paper in the tail of his kite — said 
 
 knots representing so many small triumphs, &c. They 
 
 sometimes d — n one another with faint praise, and 
 
 when more than usually exasperated, look at each 
 
 other the daggers that each Eleanor would fain convey 
 
 to her rival— a regular case of 
 
 " As I have heard, on Afric's burning shore, 
 A hungry lion give a grievous roar ; 
 And I have heard, on Afric's burning shore, 
 Another lion give a grievous roar, 
 And the first lion thought the last a bore." 
 
46 
 
 The kindly purser came up this morning, and 
 said that, if I would permit him, he would like to 
 have a birthday cake made for H., and I said it was 
 very nice of him to think of it, and that I was sure 
 my husband would be very much pleased ; so, at. 
 four o'clock tea, appeared a gorgeous cake for H., 
 with a lovely wreath of pink and white sugar 
 chrysanthemums, with green leaves, and ' a happy 
 birthday ' in the centre — quite too lovely — and 
 everyone had a bit, and there was some left for the 
 servants. We have a great number of people on 
 board: eighty first class passengers, a good many 
 servants and children, three hundred Chinese in the 
 steerage, and the officers and crew, also the ship's 
 servants — a great number of ' boys ' — Chinese. Our 
 cabin boy's name is Ah-wah, and that of the boy Tvho 
 waits upon ourselves only, at meals, Ah-wan. 
 Ah-wah is forty five, and has a very cynical and 
 comical screw eye. He winds his pigtail gracefully 
 round his head, to be out of the way of his (house- 
 maid's) work. Ah-wan is about twenty-two, and 
 possesses a lovely tail, of great length, and divided 
 at the end into three smaller plaits, very much 
 resembling shoe-laces. He wears the usual, waiter's 
 dress — a very nice and^ clean one — consisting of a 
 light blue loose shirt, like a long night-shirt, with 
 white linen cuffs up to the elbow, unmentionables of 
 black, fitting tight to the ankles, white socks, and 
 black felt shoes, of Chinese shape and make, and his 
 thick hair is surmounted by a cap of black silk on a 
 
47 
 
 canvas frame, conical shaped, and finished on the top 
 with a tuft of black or red. He is a very nice fellow, 
 and speaks, or rather understands, English very well. 
 He always beams on me whenever I speak to him, 
 and he is most amusing in the way he notices every 
 little item in my dress, and any small changes I make 
 in it. Whether he is contrasting my mode of dress 
 with that of his female belongings, I know not, but 
 if that ts his occupation when his black orbs are 
 fixed upon me, I shall be very sorry for the future Mrs. 
 Ah-wan, for she will certainly be compelled to wear 
 European clothes. 
 
 There are several ' dead-heads ' on board, whose 
 husbands, or cousins, or uncles, belong to the 
 company, and who, being very second class — not to 
 say third — travel first, much, occasionally to the 
 discomfort of the first class passengers. Amongst 
 them are two women of about thirty years of age, 
 intensely common and ugly, and of the Salvation 
 Army type. How they come to be here, goodness 
 knows for they are Norwegians. They would be 
 harmless, but for their determination to commence 
 their conversions before landing in China — the future 
 scene of their ill-advised work. Last evening, when 
 the people were assembling on deck for the dance, 
 they were to the fore, pushing English, lowest-of-the- 
 low, tracts into the hands of all the gentlemen, who 
 wanted them and their moral sentiments about as 
 much as the sea, we were ploughing through, wanted 
 water. There was no excuse for them, for both spoke 
 
English, and, I appeal to all who read this, what 
 more ill-judged or ill-timed thing could have been 
 done by these very tactless young {?) persons ? The 
 out-of-place literature was either declined with a 
 shrug, or taken and turned into programmes. For an 
 out-and-out nuisance — in a train, or on board ship, 
 or indeed anywhere — commend me to a missionary, 
 male or female, but the latter are the most objection- 
 able. The captain and doctor are very much to the 
 fore in the dancing line, and the latter can also play 
 a little. He appears to be a thoroughly happy 
 specimen of an all-round good fellow, and during the 
 last few days, his duties and pleasures have been 
 exceedingly varied. He has attended to all the folks 
 afflicted with mal-de-mer, inspected the three hundred 
 steerage passengers daily, played cricket every 
 afternoon, done a considerable amount of chitter- 
 chatter with the ladies, given small teas in his cabin, 
 and embalmed a Chinaman who has died on board 
 and has to be conveyed to Shanghai, as the 
 Chinese believe their chances of getting to their 
 heaven to be very small if they are buried anywhere 
 but in Chinese soil ; so poor Mr. Chinaman was 
 embalmed, and put into a Chinese coffin (of which 
 there are several kept in the hold), and swung up 
 into one of the ship's boats, alongside, about ten 
 yards from where I am sitting writing this. A 
 Japanese died same day, but was buried at sea. 
 
 We go on and on, the run varying a little each 
 day — from 350 to 375 miles — and there is much small 
 
49 
 
 betting amongst the male passengers as to the exact 
 number of miles that will be posted up at noon, as 
 the result of the last 24 hours. Our voyage, of over 
 4,200 miles, will be well accomplished in exactly a 
 fortnight. But for the small amusements made 
 amongst ourselves, the voyage would be a dull one, 
 for we have not sighted any land or any vessel the 
 whole time. Only a few birds have come aboard, 
 and some have stayed with us, and others gone 
 again. This enormous expanse of water, and the 
 certain knowledge that we are — for all this time — out 
 of the track of any vessel, would be appalling, did we 
 not feel that our lives and future are all portioned out 
 for us, and that the Ruler of the waves, and of the 
 day and the night, is as near to us now as if we were 
 in our own homes, by our own firesides, and amongst 
 our home friends, of whom one thinks at such times, 
 with a ten-fold attachment and interest. I cannot 
 help thinking that, to most people so cut off from all 
 home ties, and so dependent upon the good God, who 
 is the only good ever-present, must come a feeling 
 of thankful rest, that they can do nothing for them- 
 selves, but only be at peace, and cast all care upon Him. 
 
 Oh, wilderness of water, how solemn is the song 
 Thou singest, as from shore to shore thy waves roll murmuring on. 
 Four thousand miles of ocean, without one sign of life ; 
 Thy depths are sapphire in the sun, now black with angry strife. 
 Is it a hymn thou chantest, of pleasure, hope and love. 
 To the happy hearts which quiet rest, thy crested waves above ? 
 Or, when the night-clouds gather, and the ship is tempest tost, 
 Is it a dirge — a requiem sad — for the souls of those that are lost ? 
 Multitudes rest in thy bosom deep — a few, only, float o'er thy waves, 
 God grant a safe voyage and thankful hearts, for 'tis He alone who 
 
 [saves. 
 
50 
 
 Yokohama, 
 October 29th, Sunday. 
 We have come into harbour in a lovely haze of 
 afternoon sun-set, and the crowds of small boats, the 
 several launches, and the background of larger 
 vessels and men of war, Japanese, English, American 
 and French, make up a very gay and pretty scene ; 
 but the noise is terrible. There is plenty of it in 
 our boat, for most of the passengers are going to 
 land, and the luggage is being taken out of the 
 hold — always a disturbing element — but the noise we 
 make is nil, as compared with the shouting crowd in 
 the boats. There are about a dozen of these to each 
 one of our passengers going to land, and all are 
 fighting for a chance of putting ashore something 
 or someone, be it only a hat box or handbag, so long 
 as the boat's fare can be secured. We and a few 
 others, have elected to remain on board until next 
 morning, and one good fellow — always to the fore in 
 every kindly action — has been the first to go ashore 
 and secure our rooms, along with those for his own 
 people. So we dine and sleep in peace, thanks to 
 him and our captain, who has done all in his power 
 to make us welcome for another twenty-four hours. 
 Yokohama looks well from the sea, with its funny 
 little houses and gardens, with queer stunted trees 
 all scattered about, and the tumbled state of the 
 
51 
 
 buildings, and distorted look of the trees, are very 
 suggestive of the ever ready * Tremblement de Terre.' 
 The next morning I am up early on deck, as I always 
 like the view of a port town from the boat, as we 
 never again see it from the sea, unless we start again 
 from the same place, and this is not our intention,- 
 but to work through the country down to Kobe, and- 
 take the boat from there. I am rewarded for my 
 early rising. A lovely scene is there to feast my 
 contented and happy eyes upon. The worshipped 
 mountain ' Fuji,' 70 miles distant from Yokohama,, 
 is seen at its best. The morning is wonderfully 
 clear, the sky a lovely blue. Fuji with its cap of snow,- 
 stands put at that great distance so distinctly, that 
 it seems to form the immediate background of the 
 town. Below its cap, and half way down its sides,, 
 float tiny clouds, below those, yet sometimes hidden 
 by them, lies a long chain of volcanic mountains, 
 dark shades of blue and crimson and olive, and in 
 front of these is the town, with its picturesque 
 uneven lines of buildings and foliage. Up comes a 
 fellow passenger, soon to be better known, and 
 therefore, in his case, a better liked companion, and 
 takes off his hat with silent homage to a scene so 
 lovely. The simple and graceful act speaks so welL 
 for the man, that my admiration for his character 
 commences — and well — and I have no reason to 
 doubt, but that it will grow and prosper, for he seems- 
 to be one of Nature's own gentlemen, and moulded 
 in one of her happy moods, and of excellent clay.. 
 
52 
 
 There is breakfast bell, and a strong odour of coflfee 
 and ham and eggs, to dispel any sentiment 
 3'e Fuji, and soon after the breakfast is over, we go 
 ashore to our hotel, and commence our month of 
 Japan. 
 
 Yokohama, November 12th. 
 We have now been a fortnight in Japan, and it 
 seems months ; we have done and seen so much 
 •during the time, without at all ' rushing it,' and have 
 been to two other places, Tokyo and Nikko. Japan 
 has fascinated me. I quite love the little Japs with 
 their polite little ways, and wonderful agility and 
 strength, and entire absence of rudeness or vulgarity. 
 If you speak to anyone of them in a pleasant tone of 
 voice, and with a smile, they seem as if they could 
 never stop bowing and thanking you, apparently for 
 nothing. The way in which they anticipate your 
 wishes and run to do your bidding, is quite charming. 
 A beggar is seldom or never seen, and the few 
 •children to whom I have given small coins, have 
 been quite shy about taking them, and profuse with 
 their childish thanks. Poor little mites ! they don't 
 seem to have many toys or amusements. It is very 
 funny to watch them in the streets. Square kites — 
 T-ery small inflated balls, tops of a strange make, and 
 whirligig things, made of dyed feathers — seem their 
 favourite toys; and, in particular, they have some 
 game they play with flat-painted cardboard circles. 
 These they throw down with great force, each on that 
 of his neighbour, trying to drive the other one away. 
 
53 
 
 It requires some play, as the card is thin, and that of 
 the enemy must be hit hard on the edge to make it 
 spring at all. I have seen one child, only, blessed 
 with a doll, but dolls are dear, and the middle and 
 lower class Japanese baby is very poor — in very 
 straitened circumstances indeed. This doll was 
 evidently very much thought of, and the effect it 
 produced — carried as it was — was startling and 
 laughable in the extreme. The baby's mother — very 
 tiny, and not more than fourteen years old, looking 
 quite a child herself— had her baby strapped on her 
 back, and, in like fashion, the baby had its doll on 
 its back. The trio would have been hard to beat for 
 effectiveness and pretty conceit — the doll being the 
 exact counterpart of its year-old owner, and the little 
 mother looking as proud and fond of one as 
 of the other. She had evidently been at the trouble 
 of trying to tie the same little top-knot of hair on the 
 heads of her rival beauties, and the doll's ' kimona ' 
 was of the same pattern and material as that of the 
 baby. 
 
 The children give one the idea of great want of 
 energy and brain. You never see them fighting, 
 racing, or playing at any but the most quiet games. 
 A little idle squabbling, or sleeping — like contented 
 dogs — upon the doorsteps ; but, until they are ten or 
 twelve, you never see them with a book, and after 
 that age the boys are seMom without one. In half 
 the little shops and houses, you will see one boy — or 
 more — stretched, full length, on the low-raised shop 
 
54 
 
 front — which is lounge and table and storehouse, in 
 one — poring over his book, and (this is one of the 
 greatest characteristics of the Japanese) always, even 
 when alone, reading aloud. 
 
 Dogs and cats are, evidently, pets, and all are 
 well treated. Most of them have smart collars of 
 ribbon or leather, and, to-day, I passed one dog in a 
 most elaborate coat, of gorgeous colour and pattern,, 
 and he did look such a dog fool. I laughed at the 
 sight of that dog more than I had done at anything 
 for a long time, and he looked quite annoyed^ 
 Perhaps he was going out to a party, but he was 
 quite the most sporting and dawgiest dawg I ever 
 beheld. I have seen nothing to at all come up to 
 him, in his Joseph's coat of many colours, his collar 
 of bells, and a knot of green ribbon at the tip of his 
 tail. 
 
 Street noises are very odd and quaint. The 
 whole air resounds with sounds, so strange and 
 comical, that, drowsy and monotonous as most of 
 them are, they still keep you very wide awake to 
 their perpetual din and hum. Here comes a load of 
 stone on a low larry, so heavy, that we should think 
 it cruel to send it up such a precipice of a hill with 
 even two or three horses, yet here it is with four men 
 to draw it — two to pull and two to push — and they 
 work by sides : right side, pull and push, same leg 
 and shoulder ; left side, ditto, and (though it seems 
 to me that they have hardly breath to pull, and none 
 to spare) they sing out " Ah-ee, ah-oo," which is 
 
55 
 
 ■equivalent to our ' left, right,' and so work in perfect 
 time. Almost all manual labour, in Japan, is guided 
 by voice or pipe. Weights are lifted and lowered, 
 water brought up from the welLs, grinding stones 
 turned, and bread made, wood sawn, grain threshed, 
 and scores of other kinds of work, are all done in 
 strict time, to either a sing-song of the voice — human, 
 but anything but divine — or the whistle of a small 
 tin or wood pipe. In the distance, you hear one of 
 these small, shrill pipes, coming towards you, which 
 makes you look about for some small urchin, who, in 
 this case, has not ' paid too dear for his whistle,' for 
 his instrument of oral torture is of a first-rate quality, 
 as regards sharpness and loudness of tone. The 
 musician (?) hoves in sight. To your intense surprise, 
 he is an upright, melancholy-looking man of about 
 fifty years of age, and blind — very clean in his dress. 
 Upon making inquiry, you learn that he is a masseur. 
 There are numbers of them, and one of their qualifi- 
 cations is blindness. They perambulate the streets 
 all day long, until quite late in the evening — whistling 
 for patients. 
 
 You pass little tea-houses, with a sound of 
 twanging of two and three stringed instruments, 
 with often the low, uncanny voice of a girl singing, 
 and over and above all this din, rises that of thousands 
 of wooden clogs, as they go along the streets — clack- 
 clack-clack — like mallets hitting croquet balls, or the 
 sound a ventriloquist makes when he extracts the 
 phantom cork out of the invisible bottle. 
 
56 
 
 Theatre Street, as 'tis known to the stranger, 
 and, in Japland, also to the Japs, is highly amusing. 
 It is quite full of theatres, and there are swarms of 
 people around each one as we pass, and the picture 
 placards of the plays are very funny — ten or a 
 dozen of the scenes, depicted in all their delightful 
 horrors and impossible figures and colouring. If we 
 stop our rikishas a moment to look at them, we are 
 instantly invited by the proprietor to enter, and this 
 we should do, but for the dread of what may accom- 
 pany us home, in the shape of the lower form.s of 
 animal or insect life. His invitation is most 
 impressive. He is got up in a very grotesque 
 costume, resembling, in his eyes, no doubt, a 
 grandee, but in ours that of an over-dressed mixture 
 of organ-grinder's monkey and pre-Raphaelite devil. 
 He dances towards us, with his head on one side and 
 his legs bowed out, and accompanies his pas seul with 
 bones. Seeing that we are polite but unwilling, he 
 waves his adieux and returns to his look-out position — 
 the top rail of a small ladder, reared up above the 
 the entrance to his abode of bliss and fleas, or 
 ' plasce off vagaritys,' as one rather more advanced 
 theatre was pleased to call itself. 
 
 Some of the young children — boys — are trained 
 as acrobats, but their performances are nothing out 
 of the way, and cease when they are old enough to 
 do regular work. A pair of small brothers, of about 
 five and seven years, came, sometimes, in front of the 
 hotel, and had queer head-dresses of cocks' feathers, 
 
57 
 
 and red scarves, which scarves they used, to make 
 their contortions of body look more extraordinary. 
 
 The poor little children and babies I pity the 
 most : they cannot run as they would wish, and they 
 have no idea of using their clogs in the only way / 
 should have dreamed of at that tender age — that of 
 pitching them at my adversary's head. Patter- 
 patter-patter, shuffle-shuffle-shuffle, but hardly ever a 
 good run. Even did they get rid of the clogs, there 
 are still the very tight long garments. But there are 
 some really happy gamins, and they are the dirtiest 
 and poorest, and are almost naked. Most of the 
 people are very decently clothed, and the jinrikisha 
 men are very neat — particularly those attached to 
 the hotels — and are, consequently, much less- 
 picturesque than those who retain their old costume 
 of next to nothing. I prefer to see a pair of very 
 strong, sinewy, copper-coloured legs, running in 
 front of me, to a pair of less muscular ones, clad in. 
 tight-fitting, blue unmentionables, and ditto socks. 
 How these rikisha men do run, and always eighteen- 
 or twenty miles a day, but, I fear, they pay for it — 
 many are short-lived. They will run, without a halt, 
 for miles; and, once or twice, when we have told 
 them to stop and rest — we have felt so pitiful for 
 them on a hot day — we have found it was a thing" 
 never done or thought of They would think we 
 wanted to stop at shops, and when once we did 
 manage to convince them that we wished to be 
 merciful to our beasts, a crowd gathered round us,. 
 
58 
 
 and evidently thought us a quartette of lunatics ; 
 and so little they charge, it seems wonderful that 
 they can exist. One good man will trot along with 
 you for at least three miles, and charge you twenty 
 :sen, or ten-pence, English. 
 
 After a few days, we got invitations for a ball to 
 be given at the Japanese Foreign Ministry at Tokyo, 
 
 ■ on the third of November, in honour of the Mikado's 
 birthday. Invitations have been very scarce, so we and 
 our friends who have been equally fortunate,rejoice,and 
 ^packing up our festive garments, depart on the 2nd 
 in brilliant sunshine, with a feeling in the air that we 
 are all going to enjoy ourselves. We all travel 
 -together, and, at the end of our journey, have a weird 
 -drive in the dark, to the hotel. Each of our rikisha 
 men have a lantern hung upon the handle of the 
 rikisha. We have a long drive through a part of 
 the town, and then by a moat and bank, shaded by 
 
 ■ dark, stunted trees of all sorts — Japanesey — and of 
 most gnome-like and uncanny shapes. The hotel is 
 
 large, but full, very, for to-morrow's f^tes, and we have 
 •difficulty in getting rooms, even tho' they have been 
 written for. The Japs are very small. I and my 
 husband are, well, to ' tell the truth and shame the 
 
 ;D 1,' I confess it with sorrow, not by any means 
 
 small. Our bed-room furniture admits of improve- 
 ment and enlargement. There is one bed in a recess. 
 It might hold two serene highnesses of Japs, but it 
 will not hold these two members of the Simpson 
 family, for whose well-developed bodies it has been 
 
59 
 
 reserved. "Another bed please." Where is it to 
 come from ? They don't believe one can be found 
 anywhere. At last it is put in while we are at 
 dinner. I change its position, as they have elected 
 to place it in the very centre of the room, which is so 
 suggestive of ' lying in state,' that I have it moved. 
 I sleep little in it, for the pillows have been freshly 
 stuffed with hay, and I have hazy dreams of stables and 
 horses and hay-lofts, and the thing becomes a hopeless 
 muddle and a nightmare, and rats are to the fore 
 again. Just before dinner, a gentleman (Colonel 
 R — 11) came up to us in the hall, and introduced 
 himself, saying he had been sent with tickets for us 
 for the ' swagger ' tent or stand at the Review next 
 morning, and to say that a top hat would be desirable. 
 We were very much in favour of seeing the Review, 
 but how about the hat. H. had not one with him, 
 trying to save the extra package of a hat box. Our 
 man got the address of a shop at the Bureau, and 
 went in search of the chimney-pot, and came back 
 triumphant with excellent ones, with cork lining, 
 ventilator, &c. 
 
 During the night, the rain comes down in 
 torrents, and at 7 a.m. a breathless messenger arrives. 
 " No review at all," the ground being a dismal 
 swamp. / am disappointed at not seeing the troops 
 and the Mikado. H. is doleful at having invested in 
 a hat, for which he will probably have no use till he 
 gets home, and which, at once, asserts itself as the 
 ' white elephant ' of our baggage. Having no review> 
 
6o 
 
 he and I drive round the town, and see the festive 
 dressings of the shops. The streets are gay with 
 flags and lanterns, and flowers and shrubs, and every- 
 one is in holiday costume. The good folks of Tokyo 
 are bent upon having an outing, and all the jinrikishas 
 are engaged, for it is the great chrysanthemum show. 
 H. and I pass by some charming old temples, all in a 
 row, along a lane shaded by magnificent trees — the 
 graveyards here being just outside the temples, and 
 the spaces between the buildings are all woods of 
 lovely trees, dotted in and about which, lie the grave- 
 stones and stone lanterns. I got H. to have his 
 rikisha drawn up under the moss-covered wall, and I 
 photographed him there with his Jin in the shafl;s, 
 and another fellow passing in his Jap dress and sun- 
 shade, I hope, got caught, and would make up a good 
 picture. We drove on, and came round by the 
 palace, and drew up to watch the ofiicers of State 
 and Army, going to and from the Birthday Lev6e. 
 I never saw such dismal and wretched-looking 
 equipages. Many dozens of officers were in the 
 the ordinary rikishas. There were very few carriages, 
 and those were very shabby, very badly turned out, 
 and drawn by one or, in a very few cases, two, rough 
 and tumble, badly-groomed ponies, of about 13 or 13^ 
 hands ; the servants being, some in native clothes, and 
 others, in a happy jumble of native and European 
 ones, very ridiculous to behold. 
 
 Some of our party elect to go to the chrysanthe- 
 mum show in the afternoon, so away we start, with 
 
6i 
 
 tandem jins to each rikisha, for the place, or fair, is 
 five miles away, and the day is a hot one. It is a very 
 gay and amusing sight. I have seen nothing at all 
 like it since I was at Sweet Waters, near Constanti- 
 nople, when the people were all holiday-making and 
 hoping to see the Sultan, who never appeared. The 
 narrow streets, for three miles, are alive with 
 smart and happy people going to see the show. 
 Those going out, are eating fruit and sweetmeats as 
 a good start for the day's pleasure. Their returning 
 fellow-townsmen have their hands filled with pots of 
 chrysanthemums bought at the show, for a sen or 
 two, and toys for their children, air-balls and 
 "whirl-a-gigs of feathers, and imitation birds and 
 insects, and the ever popular humming top or kite. 
 There are double rikishas drawn by one man, 
 and in these will be two women, side by side, with 
 their respective babies, or two men, scholarly-looking 
 creatures, Japanese in their costume from toe to 
 throat, but with a crowning glory of a European hat, 
 and always spectacles. They are very absurd-looking 
 fellows. One old gentleman has been over-come by 
 the heat of the day and bustle of the crowd, combined 
 with whatever he may have imbibed, and is 
 hopelessly asleep in his rikisha, with his bald head 
 hanging over one -side of it, and his bare arms 
 tenderly embracing a large pot of pink chrysan- 
 themums, the tints of which are quite thrown into the 
 shade by the crimson hue of his nose. Soon we got 
 into very narrow lanes, so narrow, that the going 
 
62 
 
 and returning crowds can scarcely pass one another, 
 and at last we come to the show. There are stalls of 
 all kinds down the steep descent to the level piece of 
 ground, in which are erected the wood and canvas 
 sheds, which hold the most extraordinary works of 
 floral art that are to be seen in the vrorld. Each of 
 these barn-like edifices, are open along the whole 
 length of the show, facing the public, who are 
 admitted by wooden stiles or bars, on payment of 
 about two sens, (one penny). They have a raised 
 stage, upon which is grouped some scene from 
 Japanese history, or modern life. All the figures are 
 life size, and (with exception of face, hands, and 
 occasionally feet, which are of wax or plaster) are 
 composed entirely of flowers and leaves, of every size 
 and colour. The embroidery and lace of the dress 
 trimmings being most beautifully and delicatelycopied, 
 and the various colours and shades arranged with 
 exquisite taste. Here is a lady in a flowing habit, 
 riding a white horse through a grotto, with a fountain 
 in the background. The habit seems to have caught 
 the breeze, and flows back in delightfully arranged 
 ' shaded folds.' It is of an elaborate embroidered 
 pattern of wee purple flowers, on a ground-work of 
 moss and leaves, and edged with tiny golden 
 blossoms to represent gold lace. She has a jewelled 
 crown on her head, and all the harness, &c., is 
 worked out in suitable flowers. Next we have a ship 
 at sea, in a storm. The ship is made of golden 
 flowers and brown leaves, the sails are white 
 
63 
 
 chrysanthemums, and the cordage of the most tiny 
 brown leaves. The waves are of many shades of 
 pale green leaves, with foamy crests of tiny white 
 and palest yellow blooms. The pirate owners of 
 the vessel are in many attitudes of supplication and 
 terror, and as many different garments of a flowery 
 nature and pattern. There was a vivid flash of 
 lightning, made by an arrangement of split bamboo, 
 covered with scarlet berries. Then there was a 
 Temple, with an imitation of the great Diabutsu at 
 Kioto. A fourth had a girl being dressed for her 
 wedding, with a face peeping at her through a 
 window. A fifth, a battle between two bands of 
 robbers, in a grove of real trees. A sixth, ' The 
 happy dispatch.' The victim in this case being a 
 woman, which made it all the more ghastly. She 
 was sitting on the ground with the fatal short sword, 
 the blade of which she held with a cloth wound round 
 it, pointing towards herself, and she was in white, 
 with an awful look on her face, and just on the point 
 of fainting. The executioner stood behind, with a 
 huge long sword, uplifted, ready to take off her head, 
 if she was'nt ' up to time ' in destroying herself. The 
 Japanese love merriment amongst themselves, but 
 never reproduce it in music or dancing or acting or, 
 hardly ever, in paintings. We were very tired after 
 all the crowd and the long rikisha rides, but after a 
 rest and dinner, were quite brisk for the ball. We 
 went at 9 o'clock, so as to be ready to receive the 
 Royalties, who came shortly afterwards. It was a 
 
64 
 
 great crush. The opening Royal and Diplomatic 
 Quadrille, was very amusing to watch. The Japanese 
 are most particular to do all their steps correctly, and 
 the dance was gone through with the greatest 
 precision. The princes and princesses, alas ! all wore 
 European dress, the former covered with orders, the 
 latter with diamonds and pearls. I saw no coloured 
 jewels. The princesses danced well and gracefully, but 
 were exceedingly plain and had bad figures, as 
 contrasted with women of other nations there, and the 
 men were positively ugly, one particularly so, for he 
 had tried to cultivate whiskers — almost an im- 
 possibility amongst the Japanese — and the result wa.s 
 hideous and ludicrous. About two dozen long 
 straight hairs on either cheek, like the moulting 
 remains of a very ancient black-lead brush. Dancing 
 was general after this, but the ladies of the royal 
 party danced no more, but sat and watched the 
 others. The men danced a little, but badly. The 
 programme contained only ten dances, and those 
 were strictly adhered to. They were divided into 
 two parts, with an interval for refreshments. I never 
 saw more elaborate, effective, or beautiful illumina- 
 tions, than those in the gardens and on the fa9ade of 
 the house ; coloured electric lights, Japanese lanterns 
 and garlands of flowers, and inside, fountains and 
 banks of sweet scented shrubs and flowers. There were 
 a good number of native dresses, but those wearing 
 them, naturally did not attempt to dance, and crowded 
 together in one corner of the room. All was ended at 
 about one o'clock, but we had crept away before that. 
 
65 
 
 November 7th. 
 Yesterday we came back to Yokohama, from 
 Nikko, where we went on 4th from Tokyo. No one 
 who has not seen Nikko, can have the smallest idea 
 of its charms of scenery and out-of-the-worldism. I 
 am so very glad that I have been there. It is a place 
 which takes you entirely out of yourself, and all you 
 have been doing, or are going to do. 
 
 We arrived after dusk, and went, in the usual 
 rikishas, up a long and rather steep street — the only 
 one in Nikko, at the top of which we turned off sharply 
 to our hotel, ' Kanaya.' I never went up a steeper 
 pitch than that bit from the main road to the hotel. 
 It seemed almost too steep to walk up, but I preferred, 
 afterwards, to do that, to being taken up in a rikisha. 
 How the men ever get you there, is a marvel to me, 
 but they do, and the sensation is most unpleasant. 
 You feel that the man who draws you must go down 
 on his, face, and then away backwards would you go, 
 to the foot of the first incline, and over it, an3rwhere. 
 In any casej that short journey would — in all human 
 probability — end in your being the unconscious 
 possessor of a broken neck. Oh, how bitterly cold, 
 in November, is Nikko. You are up in cloudland, 
 amongst the tops of the mountains, against the sides 
 of which, you see the clouds flitting all day. Our 
 bedrooms feel like refrigerators, and the brazier of 
 charcoal, brought in by a laughing girl, seems only to 
 add to the chill feeling, as it draws the damp out of 
 the walls. The windows are Japanese imitation of 
 
66 
 
 French ones — with very thin glass, badly fitting, and 
 without any fastenings. We have a wash, and go 
 down to dinner, which is an excellent one — hot and 
 well cooked — and two little Japanese girls wait upon 
 us, in such a cheery, pleasant way, that it seems to 
 me that they enjoy the fun as much as any of us. 
 The room is of course uncarpeted, as are all rooms 
 in Japan. The tables are pretty with flowers and 
 clean plate and linen, and, in the corners of the room 
 are arranged — as only Japanese can arrange them — 
 huge vases full of great branches of crimson maple, 
 and of gold, white and crimson chrysanthemums. 
 The beds are fearful, and so chilly, that my teeth 
 rattle in a fearsome way nearly all night. The 
 morning is misty — a Scotch drizzle — but as we are so 
 high up, I have hopes of its clearing, which it does 
 soon after breakfast, and we set off, some on foot, and 
 the lazy ones in rikishas, down to the river below, 
 which we cross on a wooden bridge, close to the 
 celebrated Red Lacquer one, which is looking lovely 
 this morning, with its lines of gilding shining in the 
 sunlight, and set off to perfection with its back- 
 ground of many tinted trees. Up we climb over 
 rough broad steps, under an avenue of cryptomerias, 
 with their gigantic boles and towering heights, to the 
 magnificent Temple of Jeyasu. It is a most beautiful 
 group of buildings, aud its surroundings are so fine, 
 that it at once strikes me as being one of the 
 grandest things I have ever seen. 
 
 In the first court on the left, stands an immensely 
 
c 
 
 < 
 
 < 
 
 
67 
 
 tall pagoda, five stories high) painted in vivid 
 colours, which have now toned down to a perfectly- 
 harmonious whole. It is over a hundred feet high, 
 and dates from 1650. There is a shrine in the lower 
 part, open to the side, looking into the court, and you 
 go up to it by four or five stone steps. Inside, on the 
 floor, which is covered with matting, lie heaps of 
 small twists of paper, which contain money offerings, 
 and coins also lie there scattered about. Again we 
 ascend another flight of steps, a long and steep one, 
 and come into a second court with buildings on all 
 sides, the famous temple being in the centre, seen 
 through an arch, and up yet another flight of steps. 
 In a building on the left of this second court, is kept 
 the sacred pony, a fat, well-groomed fourteen hands 
 cob, a skew-ball. A very old little woman in a very 
 quaint dress, sits by its side, and for each small coin 
 received, gives the pony a small saucerful of beans. 
 No wonder he is fat. Her dress consists of a white 
 cotton handkerchief tied over her head, a short blue 
 blouse coming half way between hip and knee, tied 
 round the waist with a thick piece of rope, which she 
 uses to lead the pony with, blue trowsers fastened at 
 the knee with leather straps, with thick white 
 leggings and socks in one, and straw sandals. The 
 pony is ridden out every day by the Priest for two 
 hours, and once a year by the High Priest, over the 
 sacred Red Lacquer Bridge, which, on all other 
 occasions is closed. On one side of the building in 
 which the pony lives, and facing the temple, is a 
 
68 
 
 wonderful bit of coloured carving, representing three 
 monkeys, typical of India, China, and Japan. One 
 has his hands over his mouth, the second over his 
 ears, and the third over his eyes, and the saying with 
 them runs, ' Say nothing evil, hear nothing evil, see 
 nothing evil.' On the opposite side of this court is a 
 small temple with a stage, covered with fine white 
 grass matting, and behind this stage which is the 
 only part of this temple visible to the public, lives 
 the Sacred Dancing Girl. She will come and dance 
 for you for a sen or two (pence). She is dressed in 
 white and scarlet, and carries a fan in one hand and 
 an ivory stick with clusters of tiny silver bells on it 
 in the other. She advances, kneels down, places her 
 head on the ground, and then gets up and moves 
 round in a series of slow graceful movements, with 
 nothing resembling dancing about it ; again 
 prostrates herself and vanishes inside the screen. I 
 expect she stays there only until she shows signs of 
 age, say until she is twenty, not longer, and is then 
 succeeded by another of twelve or thirteen. What 
 becomes of her is not known. She is supposed to be 
 consecrated to the service of Buddha, so very likely 
 would not be let out again into the world ; but 
 Japanese morals are so very loose and easy, that she 
 might, if set at liberty, lead any life she pleased. 
 The temple itself is a wonderful work of artistic 
 ornamentation, and inside is gorgeous, with inlaid 
 work, fine carving and paintings. Of course we had 
 to take off our shoes and put on white linen ones, 
 
o 
 
 I- 
 < 
 
 > 
 o 
 
 W 
 
69 
 
 before passing in. The walls and ceilings are a mass 
 of gold, silver, and enamel, shining like jewels. One 
 ceiling has dozens of dragons on it, of which fine 
 inlaid work no two are exactly alike. The work in 
 these chambers is like a very fine old illuminated 
 missal ; so fine, so elaborate, and so rich, that the 
 eye is quite dazzled with it, and one cannot in the 
 time given, take in a twentieth part of its intricate 
 loveliness. In the centre, and in the front of the altar, 
 is a small square space, enclosed by a richly carved 
 railing, inside which, is reared up just such ti whisk 
 of white horse's tail, as is used abroad to drive away 
 flies. Here its use is a very different one. The 
 Priest at stated times of the year, stands there, and 
 all the people about the country who have any illness 
 or disease, assemble in the court, and one by one 
 come into the temple, and kneeling -down before the 
 Priest, he waves the horse's tail over their heads, and 
 they are supposed to be cured. Doctors seem quite at 
 a discount up there, but you see many in the towns, 
 and very queer looking personages they are, with 
 long black gowns, and round, deep wicker baskets 
 over their heads, coming right down to their shoulders, 
 so that you cannot see their faces at all, but they can 
 just see through the closely woven wicker. Behind 
 this temple is a very long flight of narrow steps, 
 which leads to the tomb. There are nearly 200 of 
 these steps, and the tomb stands at the top. It is 
 made of a mixture of gold and bronze, and the shape 
 of a pagoda. On an altar of stone in front, is a huge 
 
70 
 
 bronze stork, an incense-burner, and the sacred 
 Lotus of the same metal. The steps are moss-grown 
 and lovely, with the delicate ferns peeping out. Huge 
 cryptomerias guard each side, and under their 
 branches, between their gigantic boles, the sunlight 
 pours a flood of golden light upon the steps and the 
 tomb. Such shades of pale green, moss green, gold 
 and bronze, and background of blue and purple 
 distance, can be seen nowhere else, I do believe. 
 
 In the afternoon, we start off in rikishas, with 
 two men each, and go, for five miles, up the roughest 
 and most narrow of roads, to some very beautiful 
 waterfalls, up in the mountain heights. After the 
 ride, we have still to walk some distance, as it is not 
 possible to get the rikishas up to within about half a 
 mile of the falls. Where we get out and begin to 
 walk, there is a little tea-house, with a very delightful 
 little covered arbour, on a plateau overhanging the 
 mountain stream, which is tearing and foaming over 
 the rocks below, having just come from its tremendous 
 fall, a few hundred yards above. Here the people 
 prepare tea for us, to be consumed on our return. 
 The first fall comes down amongst stones and shrubs, 
 in a broad sheet of foam, resembling lace, and is very 
 lovely; but the second is the more magnificent, 
 coming over a place it has hollowed out for itself, 
 like a half cup, a crescent, and falling straight over 
 to a very great depth. You can walk under this fall, 
 as you do at Niagara. The path leads you under- 
 neath it, close to the top, and just at this place is a 
 
stone Buddha — or God of the Falls — set up by the 
 side of the path, and for whose quaint and worn face, 
 the fall makes a thick veil of foam and spray. It is 
 all very out-of-the-world and nice. We retrace our 
 steps for the inevitable tea and cakes — less prosaic, 
 though, up here — than in mOst places. The little 
 cakes are a trial. They are made of flour and water 
 and sugar — nothing else, and are about the size of 
 the top of a small tea-cup, and thin, and they are of 
 every colour, even blue. I decline blue cakes, always. 
 They must be coloured with either indigo or powder 
 blue. The green, pink and yellow ones are quite 
 harmless, owing their frivolous dresses to our old 
 friends — spinach, beet and saffron — but I mistrust the 
 blue fellow and will have none of him. The shed is 
 hung all round with what appears to us to be small 
 banners, but arej in reality, advertisements. We buy 
 some, for the sake of their quaint appearance, and 
 our host is quite ready to sell them for a few sens 
 each, knowing that he will have others for nothing. 
 They are of a coarse linen material, about twenty 
 inches long and ten wide, and are printed with letters 
 and patterns in coarse colours. Mine — I am made 
 to understand — is of a dancing girl at Tokyo. 
 
 The scenery, during the whole of this afternoon's 
 expedition, has been so very lovely that we are sad 
 at leaving it, but it will be getting quite dark before 
 we reach the hotel. Never were there more beautiful 
 mountains — delicate, yet richest,' colouring — and the 
 river is a grand one, and full of fine salmon, and 
 
72 
 
 the cryptomeria trees (called by a lady, not of our 
 party, but of another, now ' lost to sight, to memory 
 dear (?)' 'those lovely kleptomania trees') and bamboos 
 are most wonderful. There is a double avenue of the 
 former, leading from Nikko village towards, and near 
 the old Tokyo road, which is twenty-one miles in 
 length, and these trees are all perfect, and giants. It 
 is a grand sight. I believe there is no avenue like it 
 in the world, for length and grandeur. 
 
 Our dinner party is again a merry one, and the 
 beds are now aired. Alas ! that we should have 
 aired them, for we are all showing symptoms of bad 
 colds. Next morning, the more active members of 
 our party take rough mountain ponies, and ride up 
 to see a wonderful lake, far up in the tops of the 
 mountains. We, alas ! cannot do this, as I am too 
 old, and my husband too lame. So we and one other 
 lady, elect to remain behind, take a rikislTa drive in 
 the morning, and return to Yokohama in the after- 
 noon, the others following next day. We go to see 
 the hundred Buddhas, which sit, mossy and green 
 with age, by the side of the rushing river, over which 
 they have kept guard so many hundreds of years. 
 It is a lovely spot, and the stone images have kept 
 their clear cut shapes wonderfully well. The different 
 expressions of the faces are so easy still to trace. 
 There are no two alike. They vary in size, too. 
 Pilgrims come here from all parts of the country, and 
 leave their prayers^ with their favorite Buddha, I 
 could not imagine at first what the curious white 
 
o 
 
 < 
 
 < 
 X 
 
 a 
 a 
 
 Q 
 
73 
 
 patches could be, but, on coming closer, I found the 
 Buddhas half covered with tiny bits of paper, about 
 the size of a gentleman's visiting card. The pilgrims 
 leave these with their names written upon them. 
 They lick them and stick them on. In temples, or the 
 entrances to them, where the figures are in niches, or 
 cages, closed with bars or wire work, these ' visiting 
 cards ' are changed into little pellets, rolled up very 
 like huge pills, and evidently stuck together with 
 some kind of glue; the pilgrims shoot them in 
 through the wires, at the Buddhas. If the pill sticks, 
 it is very fortunate, if not, 'tis equally unlucky. 
 These old Buddhas are most interesting. Their 
 solemn quiet faces in this lovely and lonely valley, 
 with the river rushing at their feet, their gaze rivetted 
 on their great temple opposite, on the hill, over- 
 shadowed by the ancient towering cryptomerias, and 
 their folded hands filled with tiny pebbles by the 
 pilgrims, touched me with infinite sadness, to think 
 that so many lives had passed away in the weary 
 worship of their moss-covered stony forms, perhaps 
 in vain ; yet who can tell ? The Buddhists are very 
 strict and religious, according to their lights, and very 
 observant of any special rules. On the other hand, 
 they leave all real praying to the Priests, and seldom 
 enter a temple. 
 
 The afternoon of this day, we return to Yoko- 
 hama, and the next afternoon we go up ' The Bluff,' to 
 the public gardens and tennis courts. On this hill 
 are all the better class of houses — where the English 
 
74 
 
 residents live — and they are excellent houses in out- 
 ward appearance, and have very pretty gardens. 
 
 Our next rikisha drive is to a place about three 
 miles off, called ' Mississippi Bay.' How it gets its 
 name, I know not. 'Tis very pretty, and as you go to 
 it, out of the town, you have a charming view of 
 Fuji. Returning, you pass through a small hamlet — 
 the houses so picturesque, with the ridge on the roofs 
 of a bright green plant, like the leaves of an Iris, the 
 growing of which, on all the cottage houses, I never 
 could understand, but was told that it is grown to 
 make the oil which the Japanese girls use for their 
 hair, and they consider it has some wonderful 
 properties when grown on the house tops. This 
 hamlet is at the foot of a lovely chain of hills, and in 
 front is a long stretch of rice fields. The men, 
 women and children are all hard at work in these, and 
 very trying work it must be. Rice is grown in a 
 swamp. If a natural one cannot be found, an artificial 
 one is made, and the water is usually up to the ankles. 
 I expected there would be a fearful quantity of fever 
 and ague, rheumatism and early death, hovering over 
 these rose-covered, creeper-hung cottages, and I shud- 
 dered to think of the suffering to which all the poor 
 folks must be heirs. I have since heard that I was 
 mistaken in this — the rice-growing apparently having 
 properties which are antagonistic to malaria. 
 
 Heaven only knows how these people live — 
 manage to keep body and soul together. The very 
 poorest classes, in Yokohama and other towns, live on 
 
95 
 
 about three-fourths of an English half-penny a day. 
 Think of that, rich and well-to-do people, less than two 
 farthings a day, seldom more than sixpence a week. 
 For this sum, they get one large, or two small, bowls 
 of millet : it is cheaper than rice. This, flavoured 
 with fish skins, onion outside parings, thrown away, 
 or orange peel picked up anywhere, is all they have 
 for the twenty-four hours, week by week, year after 
 year. Surely, there is some compensation somewhere 
 hereafter, for such dire poverty, such utter want of 
 everything to make life worth living, and yet I never 
 saw a more contented, cheerful race. 
 
 The Yokohama races are on, this week, for three 
 days, and on the first of them, the Mikado goes in state, 
 and as he drives past our hotel, we hope to have a 
 good sight of him. No such luck. After an hour of 
 waiting, the road along the sea front, known as 
 'The Bund,' patrolled by police, not to keep any 
 crowd in order, for there is none, not thirty people, 
 but to see that no one looks down upon his sacred 
 majesty from any upstairs window or wall top. {He 
 objects to being looked down upon, as much as the 
 Sultan of Turkey objects to being looked at through 
 an opera glass.) We hear a cry, he is close at hand, 
 and all the ships in harbour just opposite — and they 
 are many — commence to salute. The hills all round 
 echo the noise, which is pretty loud. There are 
 many men-of-war, English, American, French, and 
 the Japanese fleet.- He comes along with an escort 
 of lancers, two carriages (open) filled with ministers 
 
76 
 
 and court officials, but his gracious (?) majesty drives 
 in a closed carriage, and deliberately turns his back 
 upon the respectful group assembled to greet him. 
 One of his wives is with him, and another lady with 
 a child. Very difficult to account for the presence of 
 the young one, as all royal babies are taken away 
 from the mother, the moment they are born, and 
 placed in an establishment of their own, with their 
 separate households, and they pay only ceremonious 
 visits to the mother, and she to them, for the 
 remainder of their lives. The ' turn out ' of His 
 Imperial Highness, as he likes to be called, is the 
 very shabbiest I have ever seen. The carriages are 
 old, ugly, and dingy; the horses poor and badly 
 groomed. The liveries of the servants and uniform 
 of the troops, untidy. The whole strikes one as being 
 very dirty, and more the sort of thing that a circus 
 would turn out, than the pick of men and horses of 
 a Sacred Imperial Mikado, The next day we go 
 an hour by train, and another half hour by rikisha, 
 to see the big Buddha at Kamakura. It is most 
 impressive, the more so, from being out of doors, and 
 not shut up in a temple. The figure is grand, the 
 size enormous ; the face is in rather calm and 
 disdainful repose, with a look of quiet contempt upon 
 it. It is like, and yet quite unlike, the Sphinx. The 
 Sphinx looks up, the Buddha, down, but both have 
 the far away gaze, which sets one off wondering as 
 to what were the minds of the men who designed 
 them, what were the real lives of the men they are 
 
77 
 
 intended to represent, and what people and scenes 
 have they looked upon, during the hundreds of years 
 of their almost solitary grandeur. This Buddha, 
 alas ! saw one very sad one, some years ago, when 
 two of our English ofi&cers going to see it, from 
 Yokohama, where they were stationed, were cruelly 
 murdered, stabbed in the back, for the sake of the 
 small amount of money they were supposed to have 
 had with them. 
 
 On our return to the little station, we found 
 we had at least three quarters of an hour to 
 spare, so my husband elected to remain there, while I 
 and Dr. G — wandered round the village. It was 
 pretty enough. The usual swarms of children came 
 out after us, and went shambling down the road, in a 
 line of dirty, astonished atoms — noisy, too — and 
 making ugly faces at us, but they were fairly friendly. 
 We had heard, all the time, a curious humming sound, 
 a sort of ' dot and go one ' on a muffled drum, and 
 soon found out what it was — priests at prayer, in a 
 large and very old temple. Lights were burning, and, 
 on coming close up to the doors, we could hear the 
 monotonous thud-thud of the drum, and the low, 
 wailing chant of the men — now low as the humming 
 of bees, and then rising up into a shrill howl, or 
 scream. This seems to go on everlastingly ; 'tis as 
 regular as machinery. The people are out in the 
 swamps, cultivating rice, and— as I have before said — 
 the priests are, at one and the same time, praying for, 
 and forgiving them their sins. In the garden where 
 
78 
 
 the great ' Daibutsu ' sits, are the remains of the 
 temple which once covered it. The lower part of 
 each of the old stone columns lie scattered about all 
 over the grounds, in happy confusion, forming little 
 stands or tables, over and about which, lovely 
 creepers and ferns peep out, lizards play about, and 
 butterflies and dragon flies and birds have their 
 homes. There is a pond, with gold-fish in it. Some 
 of these stones form stepping-stones to the opposite 
 bank, their fluted columns looking lovely, no doubt, 
 when the pond is clear, but to-day it is muddy, and 
 not 'a thing of joy' to anyone or anything, unless it 
 be the fish, to whom it means grubs, that have been 
 washed down from the trees by the rain. The foun- 
 dation stones remain in their old places, and show 
 the boundary and plan of what must have been a 
 truly magnificent temple, a fitting home to have 
 sheltered the great idol, but no amount of gilding or 
 masonry could make it half so solemn and grand as 
 does Mother Earth, with her restful face, in a happy 
 valley, hemmed in with the loveliest trees, flowers, 
 ferns and shrubs, and these, backed by the wooded 
 autumnal-tinted hills, and in the distance the sound 
 of the sea — that treacherous sea — which, sending 
 inland an enormous tidal wave, overwhelmed the 
 temple and destroyed it utterly, but unharmed the 
 presiding deity, who made a happy exchange of his 
 incense-filled, fish-scented palace, for the fragrant 
 odours of the firs and myrtles, and the blue of the 
 dome of earth's sky. 
 
79 
 
 Shizuoka, Nov. 15th. 
 We have had a very temper-trying journey. We 
 were told, at Yokohama, that there would be no 
 change of carriage for over five hours, and, as 
 some friends were leaving the train after one hour, 
 we elected to lunch just after their departure. No 
 sooner had we opened our baskets, and set to work 
 upon the multifarious contents stowed away therein, 
 than we were politely informed that we must change 
 carriages. Oh ! the confusion which reigned for 
 some minutes. The truth was that we were now to 
 commence a very long pull up a very steep hill, and 
 they attached a second engine, and took off half the 
 carriages. The only first class one remaining on, 
 was a very considerable caution. It was a long, 
 narrow compartment, and already had for occupants 
 two families of three each ; father, mother, and baby. 
 One being that of a Ja'panese nobleman. Anything 
 less aristocratic I have never seen. There were, in 
 addition to these, two Englishmen, evidently 
 commercial travellers, a Jap officer, looking very 
 dirty, and half wrapped up in an ordinary white 
 blanket. He very much amused my husband, by 
 wearing spurs, short trousers, but no straps. The 
 effect was peculiar. There were six of our party, so 
 it was somewhat of a crowd, and we were separated 
 from each other. Soon we came very near to the 
 base of Fugi, and the views of it, for over an hour, 
 were most beautiful. It looked so lovely with its cap 
 of snow, tinged with gold, soon to turn rosy, ' and 
 
8o 
 
 standing sharply out against a clear sky of greyish 
 blue, with a necklace of golden clouds flitting around 
 it, about two thirds up. The snow shading off into 
 dark purple, and that again — lower down — warming 
 up into a reddish brown and orange, and this, taking — 
 lower down still — shades of dark green, till the 
 foreground comes in of golden grain, wheat and rice. 
 The sun is sinking fast. The shadows deepen, but 
 Fuji grows brighter. The little clouds dance around 
 her face, and then fly away flushed and rosy, 
 whispering to each other, ' We have kissed good- 
 night to our goddess, and she has shone upon Us and 
 blessed us, and given us new life and the colouring 
 of her own radiant blushes.' 
 
 At six o'clock we arrive at our halting place, 
 ' Shizuoka,' such a quaint hole-and-corner place it 
 seems to be, judging from the one hotel, half European, 
 half Japanese. We had telegraphed for seven rooms, 
 and the whole of the European part of the house, 
 boasts of only four. There are, naturally, more, on 
 the Jap side, and into these our servants have to go, 
 and we all flock in to see what kind of quarters they 
 have, and two of us are envious ; I for one, for the 
 rooms are so dainty and pretty, the walls are light 
 frames of wood, filled in with squares of white 
 paper — oiled — and with sliding doors of the same. 
 The bedding is on the floor, and is snowy white and 
 clean, with a down quilt of a pretty coloured pattern. 
 The dressing table is a combination of that, and wash- 
 stand, and is charmingly arranged, with its polished 
 
8i 
 
 brass wash-bowl, a china vase of freshly gathered 
 flowers, a mirror hung against the wall, and a large 
 brass jug of water. There are drawbacks though, in 
 the sliding doors, without a suspicion of a fastening, 
 and the total absence of chairs or any furniture hut 
 the washstand. Moreover every sound can be heard 
 all over the house, for imagine to yourself only paper 
 walls. We have dinner in a cheery small room, one 
 end of which has a screen across it, to make a second 
 room for the servants. Everything is clean and nice, 
 and we see some bottles of beer on a side table, and 
 are thankful, little expecting mine host has a celler 
 of very excellent and old wine, but we risk the 
 question as to the possibility of their possessing a 
 bottle, and the reply is the bringing of at least half-a- 
 dozen samples, amongst which are excellent claret, 
 hock and sherry, whiskey and brandy. Having 
 divided the party of six into four beds, and feeling 
 terribly selfish at having the whole of one assigned 
 to me, we go to bed, but not to sleep, so far as I am 
 concerned. Rats are swarming all over the place, 
 and scampering over and under the roof, which, in 
 these thin frame houses, means the feeling that a 
 dozen are in your room, and their friends outside 
 by the score, waiting to burst in upon you at any 
 time. One sinner sits gazing down upon me through 
 a grating in a corner of the ceiling, and I see his 
 wicked beady black eyes blinking at me with delight, 
 no doubt at the fun he is having at my discomforture ; 
 needless to say I don't sleep much. The next 
 
82 
 
 morning we go for the usual prowl round the 
 town — and have the usual — more than usual, following 
 of dirty children, with more children strapped to their 
 backs, and lazy, inquisitive women, and a few old 
 ' dodderers ' without occupation. On to see the walls 
 of an old castle, with a filthy moat, and then returning 
 to the hotel, we pay our bill, get into rikishas, and 
 drive up to the station, to catch the train on to 
 Nagoya, Hotel living in the smaller towns of Japan 
 is not expensive. We were a party of six and two 
 servants. We had dinner, breakfast, and an excellent 
 luncheon to take in the train, and the whole bill, 
 including wine, was $20, or ;^2 7 s for the whole 
 party. I do so wish that English hotel keepers 
 would take a leaf out of the books of these eastern 
 ones, as to luncheons packed for a journey. Every- 
 thing of the kind in Great Britain is inexpressibly 
 nasty. Here, for each person, there is a little 
 square — or rather longer than square — box, always 
 new, with a lid, inside which you will find the 
 wing or leg, or breast of a fowl, slice of ham, and of 
 bologna-sausage, ox tongue andfoie-gras and lettuce, 
 a tiny box of pepper, another of salt, a third of 
 mustard ; a separate packet of slices of bread, and 
 another of little tarts and sweet cakes ; persimmons, 
 oranges and apples, and a pint of claret, or an equally 
 good red wine, Zinfandal. There is only one objection 
 to these dainty luncheons, you are apt to be tempted 
 to eat too much. With each basket is one of the 
 pretty, soft Japanese paper d'oyleys, with prettily 
 
83 
 
 coloured borders and corners. English landlords ! 
 please make a note of this, and if your stupid heads 
 are capable of taking it in, act upon it, do ! Rice 
 fields are on either side for a long time, the women 
 hard at work, as usual, with their short blue blouses, 
 blue cotton drawers, coming only to above the knee, 
 and bare legs ; a handkerchief tied over their heads, 
 and a rope round their waists, bent nearly double 
 with the weight of the loads of rice they carry on 
 their backs. We arrive at Nagoya in the evening, 
 which is cold and damp. It is a long drive to 
 the hotel, and when we get there, it is a very dreary 
 spot. We pull up in a very narrow alley, and 
 hammer for a long time at closed gates, which are 
 opened at last by a couple of girls, and we find 
 ourselves in an old yard. A few orange trees and 
 some chrysanthemums are growing there, and there 
 is a fine old stone lantern, covered with green and 
 golden moss, and this takes the place usually 
 occupied in other countries by the sun-dial or 
 fountain. The hotel is in two parts again, on opposite 
 sides of the court-yard. We go to our side, where 
 there are just five bed-rooms ; one too few, so our 
 man sleeps with the guide^travelling with our 
 friends — in the Japanese quarter. There are two 
 rooms on the ground floor, and these we have. Our 
 friends vanish up the usual steep stable ladder 
 (called by courtesy, staircase) to the others. They 
 mount in safety, but I tremble for the fate of the box 
 of one of them. It is so huge and so weighty, that 
 
84 
 
 though four strong men are pressed into the service, 
 it is hauled up with difficulty, and being there I 
 tremble again, not this time for the box, but for my 
 husband, over whose room it rests, wondering if the 
 frail floor will bear its unusually heavy burden, or, 
 collapse in the night, and ' bring down the house,' in 
 a non-theatrical manner — but a volcanic one — in 
 which case the house will have been destroyed twice, 
 in less than three years, as t'is not so long as that 
 since an earthquake rattled down the whole of the 
 building we are inhabiting. So frail is this structure 
 (as most Japanese houses are), that I overhear 
 in the morning, my husband in the next room, 
 carrying on a lively chatter with the Dr. and another 
 friend overhead, which amusement they can easily 
 indulge in, without in the least raising their voices, 
 and I hear every word on both sides. There is much 
 laughing, chiefly in reference to the bath's, which, I 
 confess are unique. They are large wooden ones — 
 tubs — one is round, the other oval, and the way in 
 which they have been arranged is delightfully 
 simple ; they have been placed on some rough stones 
 in the yard in the rear of the ground-floor rooms, and 
 then a rough plank wall has been erected round 
 them, and a plank floor has been carried from the 
 door to the bath, on the level of half its height, so 
 that to step into your bath is tolerably easy, but to 
 get out again is quite another thing. This shed is 
 roofed in with bamboo, and there is a window of 
 squares of coloured glass, blue, red, yellow, green. 
 
85 
 
 The tub stands simply upon the ground in the yard, 
 and most probably until lately, was considered all 
 that could be desired, until 'those stupidly decent 
 foreigners ' suggested amendments in the matter of 
 fence and roof and door, but, having conceded all 
 these inovations — to them — so unnecessary, Japanese 
 patience was worn out, and would not run to lock or 
 bolt, so, ' Cui Bono,' almost, is any door at all. Our 
 meals were served in a tiny room, on the Japanese 
 side of the house, and were very cheery little feasts, 
 a most dainty looking table, thanks to the guide, 
 Shimidzu, who had arranged flat floral decorations 
 on it. Red and gold maple leaves, with a circle of 
 large chrysanthemums in the centre. The usual 
 paper walls made it cold, but there were large bronze 
 braziers of charcoal, and all was bright and clean. 
 Two little Jap girls waited on us and were very 
 merry, trying hard to speak a little English, and we 
 struggling very imperfectly with our Japanese. 
 
 Next morning, we start off very early, for there 
 is no advantage to be gained by staying in Nagoya. 
 Our only object was to break the journey. The usual 
 procession of rikishas and luggage, and the gaping 
 crowd at the station. We are most thankful that we 
 have not stayed for a later train, as no sooner are we 
 off, than it becomes most bitterly cold, and down falls 
 a heavy snow-storm. The tops of the hills, through 
 which we are passing, are covered with it. The trees 
 are lovely — all in full leaf, and all half covered with 
 snow-flakes. The scarlet maples are particularly 
 
S6 
 
 beautiful — these showing their scarlet coats, with 
 silver trimmings, against the very dark green of the 
 firs. Nothing to warm the carriages, and the chill is 
 most trying, coming, as it has done, quickly on the 
 top of very hot weather. At last, someone suggests 
 an early fall-to upon the luncheon baskets, as a 
 possible means of creating warmth, and we dive into 
 the baskets, to find that — on this occasion only, as is 
 usually the case when things are more than usually 
 wanted — the wine and beer have been omitted. 
 However, at the next station, we manage to get some 
 of the latter. It gets a little warmer as we go down 
 hill, but we arrive at Kyoto in sleet and cold, and 
 have a very long drive to the hotel, in the most 
 uncomfortable rikishas we have yet met with. The 
 house is fairly good, but I and my husband, wanting 
 ground floor rooms, have to wait over an hour before 
 we can have one arranged. It has been a kind of 
 office, and is quite destitute of furniture, excepting a 
 large table and one or two chairs. The ' boys ' work 
 with a will, and soon it is transformed into a fairly 
 comfortable bed and sitting-room. Two beds, writing 
 table and another, screens, a sofa, easy chair, etc., 
 and — best of all — a good fire. The windows don't 
 shut well, and have no curtains, but these are defects 
 soon to be remedied. 
 
 Nov. 1 8th. 
 I like Kyoto immensely, and the country about it 
 is beautiful. It lies in a great cup, with the mountains 
 all around it, and seen (as it has shown itself each day 
 
o 
 
 E-i 
 O 
 
 3 
 
 W 
 05 
 
87 
 
 of our stay) at its best, with clear atmosphere, sun- 
 shine, with occasional shadows across the hills, and 
 all the lovely hues of those varied hills — deep blue, 
 crimson, and every shade of pink, gold and green ; 
 it is an earthly Paradise, as to form, colour and 
 delicious air. In the town, these odours of ' Japan, 
 the Garden of Flowers,' do not find their way, but the 
 everlasting scents of aromatic woods and tobacco and 
 opium, the smoke from the little street cooking stoves, 
 and, above all, the smell of the messes cooking upon 
 those stoves, and the dried fish in the shops, fill the 
 place, and make it very evil to a nasal organ un- 
 usually sensitive, as mine is. There is an immense 
 amount of shopping going on amongst my lady 
 friends, in which employment I am a drone in the 
 hive — my purse being infinitely more limited than 
 theirs. However, they frequent the silk and em- 
 broidery stores, while all / have to lavish, goes upon 
 small ivories and metal work and photographs, but 
 we make up metry parties for both shopping and 
 sight-seeing. 
 
 Last evening was one of the most amusing and 
 interesting I have ever spent. After an early and 
 necessary 6 o'clock hotel dinner, A. party of ten — I 
 being one — went at 8 o'clock, to one of the large tea 
 houses, where notice had been given of our intention 
 to dine. We went along gaily, a lovely night, and 
 the houses and shops looking so bright and gay, with 
 their coloured lamps and lanterns. We crossed a 
 bridge at the rear of our hotel, looking very pretty in 
 
the moonlight, with the hundreds of reflected lights 
 from the overhanging shops and houses. On arriving 
 at the tea house, we were met at the door by 'mine 
 host,' and were invited to sit down in the entrance, 
 and put on large white linen shoes over our own. 
 This accomplished, we stepped up on the platform 
 we had been sitting upon, and went, single file, up 
 two flights of stairs, (stable ladders) highly polished 
 and without rails, and found ourselves in a long, low, 
 room, running the whole length of the house, with a 
 balcony over-hanging the stream. The floor was 
 covered with the finest white matting, glittering like 
 silver in the candle-light; round half of it, were 
 arranged our seats, and ten others, which were soft, 
 flat cushions, about two inches thick, and twenty 
 square, upon which you were supposed to kneel, or 
 sit on your heels. I and one other lady, were, shortly 
 after our arrival upon this festive scene, allowed 
 chairs ; she being afflicted with rheumatism, and I 
 with stoutness. The rest knelt or lay down. In 
 front of each guest was placed his or her dinner, on 
 a tiny table of polished black wood, about a foot high, 
 with a small raised edge, to prevent the dishes 
 slipping off. Square tables with carved legs and 
 without a cloth. The dishes, five or six on each 
 table, were of the queerest description, and I dreaded 
 what was to come, when, for courtesy's sake, we 
 should be obliged to taste at least, two or three. 
 They looked dainty enough, but oh, the odour ! With 
 each dish (it being a ' swagger ' dinner) was a new 
 
89 
 
 pair of wood chopsticks, which I became quite an 
 adept in the use of, before the meal was at an end. 
 At one corner of the table, was a tiny cup for tea, and 
 opposite to it a similar one for sat^, the rice spirit, 
 taken hot like tea. On one side of the table, stood a 
 copper brazier of hot wood ash, with its iron chop- 
 sticks for mending it, and in front of each table 
 and beyond it, a basket of most lovely and tastefully 
 arranged sweetmeats of every shape and size. Fruits, 
 flowers and vegetables in their natural colours, 
 chestnuts, spring onions, radishes, nuts, beans, 
 pomegranate flowers, single camelias, with green 
 vine, and red and orange maple leaves, so natural, 
 that 'twas difficult to believe that they were all made 
 of paste and sugar, and ready and good to eat. 
 
 We all seated ourselves, with the six little 
 dancing girls, hired for our amusement, placed 
 between each two guests ; this arrangement being 
 one of great mutual satisfaction, for it gave us time 
 and opportunity to look at their funny little ways and 
 very picturesque dress, while they, on their part, 
 were equally amused with our (to them) gigantic 
 stature and extraordinary garments. They have no 
 idea of being anything but most polite, and so do 
 they seem to us, as what — in any other human being 
 I have ever met — would appear to be insulting, is, in 
 their case, an act of friendly acquaintance. They 
 took our hands, inspected our rings, and tried to take 
 them ofi", but only to laugh, in the most hearty and 
 babyish manner, at their unsightly size on their tiny. 
 
and really beautiful hands : I doubt if any one of 
 them could have worn gloves over 4 or 45. The jet 
 fringe, on one dress, caused immense excitement, as. 
 did, also, a diamond brooch I wore. I was quite glad 
 that I had put it on, when dressing, it seemed to give 
 so much pleasure ; and so did some pretty roses in the 
 hat of the owner of the jet, and the sparkling pin 
 which fastened her hat, went the round of all the 
 girls. The funniest thing of all, was to witness the 
 nonchalance with which they made up their faces, 
 ready for their turn of dancing, when it came. 
 
 Each small damsel was arrayed in a kimona of 
 gorgeous material and pattern, with the broad hem, at 
 the bottom of the skirt, made stiff, yet soft, with a 
 roll of wadding. The hair was most elaborately 
 dressed and oiled, till it shone like polished ebony 
 (by-the-bye, this wonderful hair — in almost every 
 case— is mostly false : I have seen whole head-dresses 
 of it in the barbers' shops), with a coral or silver 
 comb and a knot of flowers on one side, and a large 
 pin on the other, of a fiat, circular shape, in gilt 
 metal, with one half of it hung round with deep 
 hanging spikes, about two inches long. This pin 
 seems to be a sort of badge amongst the dancing 
 girls, for all of them wore it. 
 
 After we were supposed to have satisfied our 
 hunger, the dancing (?) commenced, and anything 
 more grotesque, I never beheld. The attitudes are, 
 in every respect, as stiff as those represented on old 
 china and lacquer-ware of our grandmothers' time : 
 
9t 
 
 the tiny hands always in the stiifest position, and 
 the body either serpentine in its attitude, or moving 
 by jerks and starts ; the head turning from side to 
 side, like that of a mechanical figure ; the eyes im- 
 movable and dull ; the gestures always of disdain, 
 reproach, or bewilderment — never of affection, grief, 
 or pleased astonishment. A fan, or a Japanese 
 parasol, or sometimes both, are occasionally used, 
 and, in the last dance but one, grotesque masks, of 
 deadly white, with puckered-up mouths, exactly like 
 the ancient cherub on the tombstone, blowing his 
 little trumpet. At the end of each dance (?) the 
 dancer, or dancers, prostrate themselves on the floor, 
 with their heads towards the audience. There was 
 an interlude of music alone, which I could have 
 gladly dispensed with : one lengthy instrument, like 
 an overgrown violin laid on its back on the floor, with 
 its neck five times as long as its body, and two drums, 
 beaten with ordinary wooden sticks, held chop-stick 
 fashion. Two more of the girls had instruments of 
 wood, like children's drums, tucked under their 
 kimona sleeves, and another wooden torture, held in 
 the hand on the same side, shaped like a huge hour- 
 glass. From these they got sounds of sixths from 
 the wood, beating them alternately with^ the palm of 
 the hand. The remaining members of the orchestra 
 had a thing like a huge piccolo. The tuning up was 
 so pains-taking and pain-giving, and so lengthy, that 
 I nearly fainted when the result burst upon my music- 
 loving ear. No wonder there are no cows in this 
 
92 
 
 place : Japanese music has killed them all off. They 
 could no more survive those tunes, than did their old 
 relative, of ancient history. I have ceased to com- 
 plain of the butter and milk since last evening : those 
 necessary products must be attributed to goats. 
 
 I saw to-day a patient ox, with his head so 
 tightly tied up to the door post of a tea house, that I 
 felt it horribly cruel to prevent him from even lower- 
 ing his poor head to its natural level, but there was 
 music within, and a possibility of madness without, 
 (his eye had a paralysed and wild expression) and I 
 ceased to wonder at his owner's caution. After the 
 feast was over, the everlasting photographer was at 
 hand, and we were arranged for a ' flash-light ' 
 photograph. I had not been prepared for this, so 
 naturally objected, and the back of my head is all I 
 have treated the photographer to. Many hand- 
 shakings and ' sayo-nara," (good-bye) is said to all, 
 with the numerous low bows, with the hands on the 
 knees, and the body bent nearly double. Back again 
 into the rikishas and through the still busy and 
 lighted streets, to the hotel, and to bed, for 'tis late. 
 A three hours full of amusement, and cheery good 
 temper, and very pleasant to think of afterwards. I 
 ought not to tell tales out of school, but I saw one 
 usually staid and elderly member of our party, 
 weighing one of the smallest dancers in his arms, 
 baby fashion, laid across them. They are absurdly 
 tiny for sixteen years — the usual age — but she had 
 given him a lead, as she had objected to the paleness 
 
93 
 
 of his colour, during the dancing, and had quietly 
 brought out her • make-up ' box, and proceeded to 
 rouge and powder him up to her standard of beauty. 
 The girls carry these little boxes in their kimona 
 belts, and constantly use them ; they contain rouge, 
 powder, and a piece of red wax for the lips. I met 
 two of them to-day, and they recognized me, and we 
 did many bows again. There are magnificent 
 temples at Kioto, but the most curious as to its 
 surroundings, is the ' Fox Temple.' I am so sorry that 
 I did not see it, I did not know of it until too late. 
 Some friends who went to see it, told me what a 
 peculiar one it is. The reason it is called ' Fox,' is 
 that the presiding Buddha is supposed to be a patron 
 of foxes, and, whenever a man or a woman wants to 
 have some favor granted by the reigning god, he 
 takes a white china fox of the largest size he or she 
 can afford, (these can be bought in the shops, of every 
 size, from one the length of a finger, to those almost 
 life size) and prays with it in the temple, and then 
 deposits it in some favoured spot in the grounds, 
 where he leaves it until the time arrives- for his 
 request to be granted or otherwise. If he is the 
 happy recipient of what he has prayed for, he makes 
 a household god of his fox, bringing it home in 
 triumph, and making a shrine for it. If he is 
 disappointed, he breaks it in pieces and throws it away. 
 We went to a temple where there is another large 
 Buddha, but in the temple this time. It is not nearly 
 so handsome as the Kamakura one ; a wooden stair- 
 case runs up one side of it, and round the back, to let 
 
94 
 
 you get into the head, and then goes down the other 
 side, an arrangement exactly like that of the * Scala 
 Sancta' at Rome. Little queer framed portraits 
 of innumerable Buddhas, line the sides of these 
 stair-cases, and very curious old figures sit on either 
 side of the monster, ' Daibutsu.' There is a small 
 altar in front, on which was an offering of the dried 
 fish skins they are so fond of. It looks like dried 
 pieces of our long ribbon seaweed, but of a steel 
 colour, and is tied up in bundles about two feet long, 
 and a yard in circumference, just like a bundle of 
 firewood. • Just outside the temple, there were three 
 large monkeys and a little dog. The small bow-wow 
 had been taught to beg for himself and the monkeys. 
 There is a very large and magnificent temple, not yet 
 finished, close to the railway station, which shows 
 that Buddhism is not likely to die out just yet. 
 Indeed there are many new, as well as old temples, 
 in every place we have been to, and, in the country 
 through which the railway runs, you may count the 
 little ones by scores, up in the plantations on the 
 hill sides. 
 
 There is a funeral coming along the street, and 
 we wait to see it pass. The procession is a long one, 
 and is going to a cemetery some distance out of the 
 town, where the bodies are cremated. Cremation is 
 largely on the increase in Japan. First come friends 
 carrying flowers. These are beautiful, spiral-shaped 
 bouquets, three, four, and five feet in height, and are 
 stuck into pieces of green bamboo, and tied with 
 
many-coloured ribbons. Next, come three small 
 coloured wooden carts, on four wheels, about four 
 feet long and three wide. They are open at the sides 
 excepting ornamental railings, and the spokes of the 
 wheels are also very much carved — one is painted red, 
 a second yellow, the third blue. Two of these are 
 filled with flowering plants, and the third holds a 
 large wire cage, filled with doves. These last are 
 offerings to Buddha, and are supposed to be the good 
 spirits of the dead, and are let loose in the temple 
 during the service. Now comes the coffin — a small 
 sedan chair of unstained and unpainted white wood, 
 with the little white paper windows on either side and 
 in front. It is carried on the shoulders of four men, 
 one in advance of the other — behind and in front — as, 
 unlike the old English chair, it has only one pole, 
 which passes over the roof. Four more bearers 
 follow, to relieve the others. The priests come last, 
 three in number ; one in robes of many colours and 
 much gold lace and embroidery, and a fair sprinkling 
 of jewels, with a curiously shaped half cap, half 
 mitre, on his head ; number two is in robes of sky 
 blue silk, with head clean shaven ; the last is robed 
 entirely in soft, white silk. He is a young fellow, 
 with a pleasant face. His picturesque and silvery 
 raiment, with its graceful folds, suits him admirably, 
 and his bright, black eyes look all the larger and 
 brighter for the absence of hair. The priests have 
 each an umbrella bearer. These umbrellas are of 
 very large size, sufiiciently so as to admit of four 
 
96 
 
 people walking under them. They are of bright 
 scarlet silk, and have deep fringes and long handles. 
 Lastly comes a priest in black, carrying a casket of 
 black and gold, which he holds on outstretched hands, 
 level with his face, which must be most fatiguing. A 
 small crowd of relatives and friends, and the usual 
 curiously minded folks bring up the rear. The 
 people who are buried, have the same coffins, be 
 they interred or cremated, 'tis always in this sitting 
 posture. 
 
 One day, we drive out to a very charming old 
 place in the country, built and arranged by a shogan 
 of former times, who turned monk, and isolated 
 himself in this delightful retreat. It is a beautiful 
 old garden, planted with all kinds of rare shrubs, and 
 some particularly scarce maples, of a kind bearing 
 very small leaves, and of the most wonderfully vivid 
 tints of scarlet and crimson. There is a large fish- 
 pond, with numbers of gold-fish in it of great size, as, 
 being considered sacred, they are never destroyed, 
 and are regularly fed. The paths are moss-grown, 
 and one, with a flight of steps, leads up to a small 
 temple and shrine. Jutting out into the pond and 
 overhanging it, is a grand old pagoda, with one large 
 hall on the first tier, and a beautiful view of the 
 country for many miles round, from the top. In this 
 garden, grows the celebrated ' Junk Tree.' It is a 
 tree of the lignum-vitae kind, and has been trained to 
 represent a junk. There is the shape of the boat from 
 stem to stern, with sails and mast, most curious. No 
 
97 
 
 carriage, or animal, of any kind, is ever allowed in 
 this sacred ground, but the guide of our friends says 
 to himself, and swears he is right, that shogan and 
 general are one and the same thing, and succeeds in 
 convincing the caretakers of this and other royal 
 grounds and palaces, that my husband is a very high 
 and mighty shogan indeed, and so gets permission 
 for his rikisha and sticks, where none are allowed. 
 In this character he is considered almost sacred. 
 Between ourselves, he doesn't quite look the part, in 
 a low white hat, arid a dust coat. However, here, 
 even his wheels may not deface the smoothness of the 
 paths, so six of the Jins carry him and his rikisha 
 about, much to his and our amusement ; otherwise 
 he would be like the Peri, at the gate of this Japanese 
 paradise, and left standing or rather sitting there 
 disconsolate. 
 
 On the way to this place, I make the discovery 
 that the Japanese children have commenced to beg. 
 For a long time I think it is some mystic sign that 
 they make at us, a sort of ' evil-eye ' business, but my 
 Jin, who speaks a word or two of English, enlightens 
 me. Their idea of begging is very original. They 
 hold the first finger and thumb together, forming the 
 circle that we teach babies to ' peep ' through, but, 
 with master and miss Jap, it pieans the shape of the 
 copper coin they would fain extract from your pocket. 
 It is preferable to the eternal howl of ' Backsheesh,' 
 of the young Arab and Egyptian, but alas ! it shows 
 that with civilization comes the curse of pauperism 
 
98 
 
 and importunity. We have been to see the palace, 
 and another day to the royal gardens. The latter 
 are no gardens at all, but simply patches of ground 
 for growing the commonest vegetables, and some 
 plots of rice, and higher up, a fish-pond and look-out 
 pagoda. Going home along the banks of the dried- 
 up river, ('tis quite astonishing what a number of 
 huge river beds there are in Japan, with immensely 
 long bridges over them, and about a thimbleful of 
 water) there was the queerest smell of iron and fish 
 combined, and we found it came from large drying 
 grounds in the bed of the river, where scores of 
 people were employed in drying fine seaweed, which, 
 when ground up in a mill, is very much used by the 
 Japanese for flavouring cakes and vegetables. They 
 certainly have the most fishy tastes. I will say for 
 them, that their lobsters and prawns are excellent, 
 the latter very large. Writing of lobster, reminds 
 
 me of a tale our captain of the P. and O. (R a), 
 
 told me, of a small passenger of his, an Australian 
 girl, whom we met afterwards, on the way to see the 
 Kamakura, ' Daibutsu,' and whose old womanly 
 sharpness amused me greatly. There was lobster for 
 tifiin one day on board, and Miss Olive had a half- 
 tail, which she was hacking away at, getting it out in 
 small bits, when the captain said, " See Miss Olive, 
 if you put the fork underneath it, you can raise it all 
 out at once," and her reply was — well — fairly cute 
 for a girl of nine, " Right you are captain, I've 
 always heard that two heads were better than one. 
 
. 99 
 
 even if they are sheep's heads ! " This same young 
 lady informed me that she had no patience with 
 English children, they thought so much of dolls and 
 such nonsense, and read such unintellectual books, 
 and actually thought that Australian girls were black, 
 and were quite surprised to find that her sister, when 
 she went to an English school, was white. Woe is 
 me. There will soon be an extermination of the 
 genus child, if this is to go on. 
 
 The cutting of the hair of the Jap children has 
 vastly entertained me. I don't know if family 
 badges are worn on the crown, or if 'tis only the 
 frivolous idea of the barber, cruelly worked out for 
 his amusement, and to the destruction of the chil- 
 dren's appearance. At first sight, to a stranger, it 
 suggests all that is filthy and loathsome, and, of 
 course, living — as they do — upon rice and fish, the 
 poor little mites have small chance of escaping 
 scrofula and other hideous diseases, and sores of 
 every description are rife amongst them. Still the 
 spectacle of every head being patchy and shaven is 
 too dreadful, but about a third of these are victims to 
 fashion. A child will have the centre of its head 
 shaved to about the size of a five-shilling piece, and 
 then it is shaved up from the neck, till all the hair 
 that is left is a small fringe, of equal length all round, 
 suggesting that a piece of black, hairy mat has had 
 a hole cut in the middle, and been stuck on a per- 
 fectly bald head. Another has the patch on the 
 crown cut in the shape of a diamond ; another like a 
 
lOO 
 
 heart ; and one still more curious I saw, cut like an 
 eye, with a very tiny tuft left in the centre, to represent 
 the iris. Most of them, alas ! have their small pates 
 completely shaved, and patches, of the size of a six- 
 pence or shilling, of white powder, or paint, all over 
 them, and these I should be very loath to enquire 
 too curiously about. The worst of shopping is, that 
 these poor, lost little mortals crowd about you, with 
 their dreadful diseases, till 'tis almost a miracle that 
 you ever leave the place in a fairly healthy condition. 
 There is no fresh meat for them : mutton is unknown, 
 and the beef comes from Shanghai. You never see 
 any cattle but oxen, used for drawing carts and 
 timber, and all the milk I have seen at hotels has 
 been in old spirit bottles. Where it comes from, and 
 how it is made, is a mystery to me, and I don't care 
 to ask. 
 
 Old spirit bottles seem to be much thought of in 
 Japan. At that most delightfully comical hotel at 
 Nagoya, my carafe for water was an old whisky 
 bottle, with the label still on it. When in these far- 
 away countries, one can more easily realize how, 
 when, and where, our great contractors for food and 
 drink make their money, which, in its turn, makes 
 them— alas ! for it — baronets, and even peers, of poor 
 old England. They make most enormous profits in 
 these far-off lands and our colonies ; give — out of 
 their huge fortunes — a few thousands to build a 
 museum, or give a public park; and beer, jams, 
 pickles, &c., are the very simple and non-heroic 
 
lOI 
 
 means, by which the tradesman mounts into the 
 ' Hupper Suckles.' I always feel so inclined to 
 quote as the result of all this, a tiny sarcasm of 
 ' Ingoldsby.' 
 
 " A friend (?) I met, some half hour since, ' Good-morrow, Jack; quoth 1, 
 The new made knight, like any prince, frowned, nodded, and passed by ; 
 When up came Jim, ' Sir John, yourslave,' 'Ah,James,we dine at eight, 
 Fail not.' (Low bows the supple knave) ' don't make my lady wait, 
 The king can do no wrong? ' ' As I'm a sinner. 
 He's spoilt an honest tradesman, and my dinner.' " 
 
 From Kyoto, we journey on to Kobe, and, 
 though we seemed to have taken the whole hotel at 
 our guide's suggestion, we find ourselves almost up a 
 tree as to rooms, but we settle at last, being more of 
 a mutual accommodation than admiration society, and 
 the end is peace for a time. 
 
 We had not much to rivet our attention en route, 
 but I was interested in the dress of two men of the 
 upper class Japanese, who were in the carriage with 
 us. Their garments were of the same pattern as 
 those of their less well-to-do neighbours, but of far 
 better material. The fine blue lined upper tunic, was 
 of a fibre more like silk than linen, so was the under 
 dress of a darker shade. The stockings (digital so 
 far as the great toe was concerned) were of the 
 whitest sateen, with sandals of fine cork, with scarlet 
 braid laces. They wore long beards of their iron 
 grey hair, each hair having evidently been taken care 
 of, and stiffened out, and carefully arranged. In 
 supremely delicious contradiction to this male 
 adornment, was the arrangement of the coiffure, 
 which consisted of a very considerable amount of long 
 
I02 
 
 hair, twisted up on the top of the head, and run 
 through with a small dagger pin, and a coral or 
 turquoise ornament. This unhappy combination, 
 suggested, either that the individual was a woman, 
 who had the misfortune to be the possessor of a large 
 beard, or a man, frivolous enough to have invested 
 some of his capital in false hair. They were odd 
 creatures. 
 
 Kobe is nice — very nice — and the hotel is won- 
 derfully comfortable, considering what a small town 
 it is, compared with Yokohama and Kyoto. It is 
 charmingly situated, with its amphitheatre of 
 hills, much like Kyoto, but smaller, and nearer to the 
 town, and the blue bay adds to its scenic beauty. We 
 took rikishas and drove out into the town, to a temple 
 in the heart of it, to see another large ' Daibutsu,' and 
 one we thought almost as fine as that at Kamakura. 
 It faces you as you go in at the temple gates, and is 
 in the open court. It sits on a huge piece of rough 
 rock, and has a circle of smaller ones round it, and 
 on either side of it stands a golden-bronze flowering 
 lotus, the leaves and flowers of which are beautifully 
 modelled, and old lamps burn below these. This 
 court-yard is much more interesting and pretty than 
 most of them are. It has old-fashioned priests' 
 houses, and a well, in it ; and palm trees, ferns and 
 flowers, are plentiful. Going there, we crossed a 
 bridge, one of many, over the perfectly dry bed of 
 what is often a very large, and even dangerous, river ; 
 at least, so 'tis said, but I own I could hardly believe 
 
I03 
 
 it. A rushing torrent of water, of that volume and 
 width, would surely leave a bed of pebbles worn bare 
 by the stream, but not even any markings were there, 
 to show there had been any current or eddies. The 
 boys were at play in it, and it appeared to be a 
 perfectly smooth bed of fine yellow sand. 
 
 Reverting to the Buddha for a moment, I must 
 say, I think it has a more refined cast of features, and 
 a less severe expression than that of the Kamakura 
 one. It has thinner lips, which have a smile upon 
 them, and this is also seen in brow and eyes — in- 
 finitely less sad and solemn than its relation. It is 
 of the same lovely green bronze. 
 
 Leaving this temple, we go past many others, 
 some distance up the hills, to see another : a Chinese 
 one this time — new — not yet finished, so far as some 
 of the priests' houses are concerned, and a college for 
 boys. The temple is most curious, and a. very 
 gorgeous piece of colouring as a whole, and the 
 detail is very elaborate. Canopy carvings of dead 
 gold, hang about like lace curtains, and, catching the 
 lights from some, too coarse, stained glass in the roof, 
 take lovely shades. The green glass gives the gold 
 a flickering tint of green bronze ; the crimson touches 
 it with the flame of an autumn setting sun ; while the 
 blue gives it the shade of a peacock's tail. There is a 
 quantity of red lacquer about, and ebony, in elaborate 
 open carving. The chairs — of which two rows stand 
 side by side, from the altar down half-way through 
 the temple, facing each other — are of ebony, with 
 
I04 
 
 crimson velvet seats, with heavy gold fringe. These 
 are the chairs of the priests ; no one else sits. The 
 arrangements inside the altar are most peculiar. The 
 god is a golden creature, half lion, half dragon : the 
 head of the former, and tail of the latter. It is about 
 two feet high, raised up on a carved and gilded stand, 
 and, on either side of it, on the same table, are 
 curiously carved beasts, of impossible kinds. Over 
 it hang crimson lamps, filled with scented oil. Many 
 of these lamps hang from the ceiling, inside the 
 altar rails. Just inside, on either side, stand the 
 very queerest decorations I have ever beheld. They 
 are conical in shape, and arranged like a Christmas 
 tree, composed entirely of small toys, all taking the 
 prevailing tints of red and gold. There are the 
 fronts of temples and houses, about six inches square, 
 little dolls, dressed to represent the different grades 
 of priests, and models of things used in the temple 
 services, and tiny, hideously grotesque gods — all 
 these mixed up in a cone about six feet high, with 
 artificial flowers and wax fruit. Such a medley of 
 magnificence and trash, I have never seen anywhere 
 else. On the right side of the railed-in sacred place, 
 was a carved ebony table, forming two trays, and 
 having rings at either end, to pass a bamboo through, 
 for carryihg. On the upper tray lay a pig, of about 
 six stone. He had been cooked whole, and glazed 
 over, with a brown glaze. He lay on his stomach, 
 with his head between his fore trotters ; his hind ones 
 were stretched out behind, with his tail curled very 
 
»05 
 
 elaborately, and tied with * celestial ' blue ribbon. 
 The tray underneath was filled with all sorts of con- 
 diments, to be eaten with him, and sweetmeats and 
 cakes. To balance him, on the opposite side, was an 
 antelope, also cooked and browned. His horns were 
 stuck in his head, and his tail had been re-attached 
 to the body, without having been skinned. It had a 
 silk embroidered cloth over its back, and the tray 
 underneath it was filled — like that under the pig — 
 with suitable accompaniments of sauces and sweets. 
 These were offerings to the priests. We were invited 
 to see the High Priest's house, joined on to the 
 temple, and it was almost as beautiful and as rich in 
 decoration, and had lots of lovely flowers about, 
 and a glass-covered court, with a fountain, and 
 quantities of plants and flowering shrubs. 
 
 At noon next day, November 28th, we sailed fi-om 
 Kobe, in P. and O. boat, Verona, a small boat, but a 
 very comfortable one, blessed with a most cheery 
 captain, and pleasant set of ofiicers. We had half-a- 
 dozen firiends for luncheon, before we started, and the 
 cook had done his best to make everything very 
 tasty and pretty, and we said very chirpy farewells. 
 We have a very quiet night, and very early next 
 morning, I am up on deck, to see the most lovely 
 part of that beautiful thing, the Inland sea. Well, it 
 M beautifiil. Islands are dotted about, with the most 
 charming tints upon them ; purple, blue, red, and 
 every shade of green and grey, and the water is opal, 
 reflecting faintly all this colouring, and the blue of 
 
io6 
 
 the sky. We come into Nagasaki at four o'clock the 
 following morning, having feasted our eyes on the 
 loveliness of this sea, all the previous day. 
 
 oh, sweet Inland sea, 
 A fair vision of thee. 
 Fill both heart and brain, 
 When old age creeps on. 
 And voyages are done. 
 In my mind 'twill remain. 
 Fair queen of the foam 
 Aphrodite ; the home 
 Of all, dearest to thee. 
 Must be thou. Inland Sea. 
 
 Everyone wants to go ashore, to see the quaint 
 
 place, so, after tiffin, I and two friends, Mrs. H n 
 
 and Miss B r, get into one of the always perilous 
 
 sanpans, and after landing, take rikishas, and go 
 
 tortoiseshell and photograph hunting, and I get one 
 
 more bit of Satsmua, which I spy out in a dark 
 
 corner of a small shop. We steam out again at four 
 
 o'clock, and remain on deck, until 'tis too cold to 
 
 make it longer pleasant or safe, but the narrow 
 
 channel is so perfectly beautiful, that one can hardly 
 
 tear oneself away. Little creeks run in from the sea, 
 
 up which lie nests of fishing huts, and sanpans, and 
 
 junks, on the latter of which live whole families ; they 
 
 have never known any other home. Grass, wild 
 
 flowers, and lovely trees, cover the banks of these 
 
 charming hamlets, and they would be small paradises, 
 
 were they only cleaner. As they are, I much fear 
 
 that distance leads all the enchantment to the view, 
 
 and the balmy zephyrs, which blow 'twixt them and 
 
 me, complete the charm ; but, lessen the distance, and 
 
107 
 
 banish the zephyrs, and I fear the disenchantment 
 would be complete. I was very disappointed with 
 Nagasaki itself. I had been led to believe that it 
 was perfect, and it is not at all out-of-the-way pretty. 
 The opinion of one friend, taken with Pierre Loti's 
 ' Madame Chrysanth^me,' made me expect great 
 things; and I had seen in Japan, several places, 
 infinitely prettier. Our voyage continued smoothly 
 and pleasantly, with the exception of a party of about 
 
 fourteen Yankees, personally condticted by G e. 
 
 They were as they would say, ' all over the place,' as 
 second class Americans always are, with the 
 twangiest of voices.and most noisy of laughs, and a 
 knock-em-down manner, intensely annoying to a 
 restful spirit. II Signor Condottore had evidently 
 been *on sale,' and the fortunate (?) bidder is the 
 'gushing gfurl' of the party. The ancient ship's 
 piano is never at peace, and her mandolin and his 
 violin appear, and they both sing, and which is most 
 out of tune, they, or their numerous instruments, 'tis 
 difficult to say. Anyhow, if * music hath charms to 
 soothe the savage breast,' it also, like * much learning, 
 doth make men mad.' The captain can stand it no 
 longer, and, under the subtle guise of flattery, stops 
 a little of it. Looking up to the conductor, he says, 
 very graciously, " I believe you are somewhat of a 
 musician ?" Reply comes, in delightfully drawling, 
 flattered tones, " WeU-^ah— ya-as— a little." "I 
 think it must have been you that I heard playing 
 early this morning." "Now let me think, was I 
 
io8 
 
 playing, or was I not— deaw me — ya-s — I really 
 believe I was." " Well, sir, don't you think it rather 
 early, and inconsiderate to disturb your fellow- 
 passengers at 7 o'clock ? " Confusion of the musical 
 one. 
 
 Nagasaki is a coaling station, and it is interesting 
 to watch the coaling here, for it is done in such a 
 wonderfully quick way. The workers are all young 
 girls, and the way in which they set about their 
 business is novel — long strings of them, stretching 
 all the way from the coal bunks, down sloping com- 
 panion ways to the barges, and down into them, to 
 the level of the coal. They stand close enough to 
 each other to admit of the baskets being easily passed 
 from one to the other, the length of the chain. The 
 coal is what we should call ' dust,' but is quite clean, 
 and excellent engine coal. In this primitive, but 
 most effectual and methodical manner, is the ship 
 coaled, in an astonishingly short time. The girls are 
 just decently clothed, and are very active. If one 
 'falls out,' she is replaced, in an instant, by her 
 lowest neighbour, and another link is added to the 
 chain, from the depths of their barge, so that, each 
 going at once a place in advance, not a moment is 
 lost. 
 
 The night before we get into Hong Kong is a 
 lovely one. We turn in though, at lo o'clock, as we 
 are told we ought to be on deck at 6 a.m., to see a 
 very magnificent narrow channel, which lasts for only 
 twenty minutes, before entering the long harboiir ; 
 
tOQ 
 
 but I am up and dressed long before that, as, at 
 4 o'clock, I feel a sudden reversing of the screw, and, 
 immediately after, hear loud cries and yells from some 
 other boat. I imagine all sorts of things but the 
 correct one at first, for one has heard of so many dis- 
 agreeables in these China Seas, and pirates are always 
 about, and the prize they ' go for ' is always a P. and 
 O. boat, as they carry the richest cargo, and much 
 specie — the cargo being usually bales of silk, and 
 great quantities of block tin. The shouts continue, 
 but there are no shots. I think — well — as we ought 
 to be up in two hours — as well dress now. I go to the 
 port-hole and look out, and see several junks and 
 coloured lights. Crowds of men are in them, so I 
 commence my toilette. Presently, I hear the voice of 
 one of our ship's officers, just under my port-hole, call 
 out, in reply to something shouted to him by the 
 captain, " A large fishing junk, sir," so my fantastic 
 idea of pirates vanished, and I know we have run 
 into something : I am on deck very soon. 
 
 All this time, we have been laying to. It is 
 blowing hard, and the life-boat has just gone off to 
 the damaged" junk, to take off the crew. The wrecked 
 fishing boat lies some two hundred yards astern. The 
 whole of the raised part of her at the stern, which is 
 the living place of the family, has been completely 
 cut off. How its occupants have escaped is a marvel. 
 It is a nasty choppy sea, and they are transferred 
 from their wretched dwelling-place, to the life-boat, 
 with very considerable difficulty, not to say danger. 
 
no 
 
 At last they are all in, father, mother, four children 
 and seven men, and they are hauled up, boat and all, 
 to the deck, and sent to the bows to have food and 
 dry clothes. They don't seem to care much, or to be 
 at all thankful for their escape. It is believed the 
 accident (?) may have been planned out. It is pretty- 
 well understood that a Japanese or Chinese — more 
 particularly the latter — care little or nothing for life, 
 and when a junk gets worn out, the owners will risk 
 existence, for the chance of getting damages from a 
 foreigner, sufficient to give a new junk, and pay the 
 lawyer for his suit. They have a happy-go-lucky 
 way of going about in pairs, number one having 
 lights, and number two economising, by carrying 
 none, and depending upon his companion and guide. 
 Number one crossed our bows with lights, so, having 
 seen her pass safely, and the morning being very 
 dark, no one expected the existence of number two, 
 when crash we go into the parsimonious pest. They 
 look stupidly contented after some hot breakfast, no 
 doubt discuss with pleasurable interest, how much 
 they will be able to claim in damages, by unlimited 
 judicious lying, and then play some game. One 
 ceases to be very compassionate for them (though 
 we get up a subscription) when one knows what 
 rogues they are. When a Chinese is condemned to 
 death, he can escape the punishment, if he can find a 
 substitute. This he has very little difficulty in doing, 
 as many men of the lower class, will accept the 
 situation for a sum of money, sufficiently large to 
 
Ill 
 
 enable them to have a two or three days drunken 
 spree, before they lose the heads, of which the brains 
 have been muddled away. 
 
 We are sorry to leave our steamer, and should be 
 more so, did we only know to what a wretched hotel 
 we are going. Our room is very large and clean, and 
 has a broad balcony over the sea, with four large 
 windows opening on to it, but it is on the third floor, 
 and the ' elevator ' is a very rotten concern. The 
 food is bad, the attendance worse, the plate and 
 glass, dirty. We don't like ourselves one bit. 
 However, 'tis only for three days, and then we are off 
 again to Singapore; from Singapore to Pen an g, and 
 from there to Colombo. The instant we land, there 
 is the usual P. and O. oflBce to have to go to, for 
 cabins for our next passage, and the bank to find out, 
 for money ; so a rikisha drive round the town is all 
 we accomplish the first day. 
 
 It is a curious and filthy place, very. The houses 
 in the narrow streets are very picturesque and 
 beautifiil in colouring. I have never seen Spain, but 
 I imagine that these Hong-Kong streets must very 
 greatly resemble some of those in the very old 
 Spanish towns. They have so much colour about 
 them, and the old over-hanging roofs, and the 
 curious black, red, gold, green, and blue signs, 
 swinging from all the storys, and the quaint way of 
 separating your balcony from that of your neighbour, 
 and which the Londoners have copied in iron, but 
 which here, and in Japan, is made of bamboos, cut to 
 
tt2 
 
 sharp spikes, and arranged like the spokes of half 
 a wheel, which has lost its tyre. Garments of all 
 hues hang out of the windows, drying slowly, for no 
 sun ever shines in these streets, and they are so 
 steep, that the houses seem to almost stand upon one 
 another, and end in a lovely sunlit view of the ' Peak,' 
 looking all the brighter for the gloom of the narrow 
 thoroughfares. In short, 'tis a beautiful place for 
 colour, one to gladden the gaze of any artist. Soon 
 your eyes revert to things more on their level and 
 below it, and these are not so pleasing. 
 
 Here we are, going slowly along a street, running 
 through the part of the town on a level with, and 
 near to, the harbour. Just look, with me, at some of 
 the shops. Here is one, the inside of which is as dark 
 as Erebus, and, in the uncertain light, you see figures 
 flitting about, entirely naked, saving a loin cloth. The 
 perspiration is running from their heads to their 
 shoulders, and from there to the waist, till you wonder 
 if, after a few days of this heat, anything is left of 
 them, but bones. One or two come to the front, and 
 place piles of unknown and horrible-looking food on 
 the board. This is a cook-shop. Wouldn't you like 
 a dinner of their preparing? There are dreadful- 
 looking little strings, of some bits of black-looking 
 meat, interspersed with lumps of unwholesome fat. 
 Goodness knows what they, and most of the other 
 Chinese delicacies are composed of. The upper part 
 of this open shop is hung with ducks and fowls, split 
 open and dried, looking so grotesque, without attempt 
 
"3 
 
 at trussing, suspended like spread eagles in miniature, 
 without feathers, and with the halves of the head on 
 either side. Ho ! ho ! my enemy ; good day to you, 
 Mr. Rat, since you are here, with such a goodly 
 number of your tribe, both fresh and kippered, I shall 
 have less dread of you and your brethren disturbing 
 my rest at night, or my eyes during the day, by seeing 
 you thrown out in the street and run over — you are 
 much too precious, and make a most delectable stew, 
 with onions and oranges : so Johnny Chinaman 
 thinks. But, alas ! alas ! your fate is shared by poor 
 Master Puppy and Miss Puss. Nothing escapes 
 Johnny. ' Go to pot,' is his motto, concerning every 
 living thing. 'Tis a wonder that even the dragon-flies 
 and butterflies escape his rapacious maw, and one 
 thinks of ' Alice, through the looking-glass,' and her 
 ' Aged Man.' 
 
 " He said, ' I search for butter-flies 
 
 That dwell amongst the wheat ; 
 I make them into mutton pies, 
 
 And sell them in the street.' " 
 
 The next house is a barber's. He is very busy 
 shaving his clients. He has plenty of work, but he 
 doesn't trouble his head to get anyone to assist him in 
 attending to those of his customers'. They quitely 
 wait their turn, smoking their pipes, Chatting, and 
 examining each other's pates — finding a happy 
 hunting ground in most of them — a quiet, harmless, 
 afternoon's amusement. 
 
 Pass on to number three. It is a blacksmith's. 
 On the board, in front, sit the workmen who want the 
 
114 
 
 most light for their work. In the back-ground, you 
 see machinery-wheels, and leather bands are whirling 
 round and round, and the usual monotonous sing-song 
 is a fitting accompaniment. A child stands by, his 
 eyes fixed in wonder, at the awful things that are 
 turning and twisting about over his head, like demons, 
 in the semi-darkness. He carries a cat in his arms — 
 a pet. How long he will have the companionship of 
 his pussy, is doubtful. If he lets his fascinated gaze 
 rest long on the revolving circles, his feline bundle 
 will be snatched from him, and he will be desolate, 
 and someone else, the fortunate possessor of a 
 savoury stew, or pie. 
 
 Here is a shop for necklaces, and the blue 
 stained bone earrings, which almost all the women 
 wear, and bangles for the babies, common clocks, &c. 
 Then comes a basket store ; baskets of all kinds, 
 sizes, and colours, from the tiny and elegant one to 
 hold sweetmeats, to those, an own cousin of which, I 
 met, being bowled along the street, like a cart-wheel, 
 and as large in circumference. Baskets are the only 
 things used for carrying everything required by the 
 dwellers up on the ^ Peak,' and the houses there are 
 many, and barracks, also. The road up is winding, 
 long, and very steep, and every thing must he carried, so 
 there is a great demand for baskets — the greater 
 number of them being used for coal, charcoal, and 
 vegetables. 
 
 Oh ! that Peak. How lovely it is. We go up to 
 it in good time next morning, and find the whole 
 
"5 
 
 thing both curious and beautiful. We take chairs t<3 
 the little railway, up which, on a gradient of i in 
 2 or 3, we ascend. It is rather frightful, and takes 
 some minutes, ten at least, as there are two stations 
 on the line, small platforms, with shelters to hold a 
 few people. As we go up, we notice chiefly the 
 extraordinary effect, that our leaning position gives 
 to the houses on either side of us. It appears as if» 
 since we started a moment -ago, there had been 
 a violent earthquake, and that we alone had been left 
 ' in statu quo,' churches and every kind of building 
 seem to be toppling over. When we reach the top 
 and turn to look back at the town lying far below us, 
 we are really well repaid for the wretched sensation 
 we experienced in coming up. I have been up the 
 Rigi, and other such railways, but never up anything 
 so tremendously steep as this is. The houses below 
 look as if they could not possibly be inhabited by any- 
 thing larger than the vermin by which they are 
 infested. The ships are small matches, with needles 
 stuck in them as masts. We see range after range of 
 mountains in China, which cannot be seen from the 
 town. We set off in chairs with three coolies to each, 
 to make the tour of the summit, and from this dizzy 
 height, on which every gust of warm wind which 
 blows makes me shudder to think, that if any extra 
 strong blast came, it might hurl us, chairs, coolies, 
 and all, down the cliffs. We have views so grand 
 and beautiful, that in this case, seeing only pan be 
 believing. Dotted about on tiny plateaux, partly 
 
ii6 
 
 natural, partly artificial, rest pretty villas, with tiny 
 l^impossible to cultivate) gardens, charming places for 
 spring and summer, too bleak in winter, as there are 
 no trees on these barren hills. Here and there you 
 will see curious white rings of stones on the mountain 
 sides. Inside the ring of stones the turf is dark 
 again, and in the centre a small oval of white stones. 
 These are Chinese graves, most of them very old. 
 They lie far apart, and there are not very many. In 
 old days the Chinese were very much given to con- 
 sulting Astrologers as to the place of their burial, 
 believing that under their particular star, they would 
 have a much happier hereafter, if entombed in some 
 special spot. The Astrologers often picked out some 
 place on these wild and rugged hill sides. So there 
 they lie, in a solitude they imagined impossible to be 
 disturbed, but I fear a day will come, when buildings 
 will be universal all around their final resting places, 
 for it is the most desirable place in hot weather, and 
 if this is the case, the loveliness of the ' Peak ' will go. 
 
 Along winding walks we are carried, meeting 
 coolies taking other people to and from other houses 
 and the little station. Boys, with skins the colour of 
 H chestnut just dropped out of its outer coat, with 
 great broad-rimmed hats of coarse grass, as large as 
 sunshades, and for which they are intended, are 
 carrying baskets of coke and vegetables. As to the 
 remainder of their garments, hare reference only is 
 necessary : a more minute description would ne- 
 cessitate a power of invention approaching that of 
 
"7 
 
 Ananias. Fishing- villages rest at the foot of the 
 mountain, at the opposite side of which lies Hong 
 Kong. The boats — 'junks' — coming in and out of 
 the bay, look like tiny brown moths. The sea is as 
 blue as an Italian summer sky, and, in contrast to it, 
 a tiny lake nestles close by, in so deep a hole, that it 
 reflects only the surrounding hills, and is as green 
 and clear as an emerald. The hills are grey and red 
 granite, and many of them take a shade of lavender, 
 the colour of a Neapolitan violet, and this is owing 
 to the quantities of convolvuli, which cover great 
 tracts of ground, and is of a totally different shade to 
 any of our English ones. Butterflies of many colours 
 are flitting about, the small blue ones, and crimson, 
 and large sulphur ones, great brown fellows, larger 
 than any I have ever seen, and some quite black, but 
 taking a blue glaze in the sunlight. Scarlet, and 
 blue and green dragon-flies are with them, and in- 
 numerable grasshoppers are about, chirping in their 
 loudest tones, all reminding me of a favourite book 
 of my youth, ' The Butterflies' Ball and the Grass- 
 hoppers' Feast,' and I quite expect to see the lady 
 grasshoppers in short red and blue petticoats, and 
 the gentlemen in short cloaks of the same colours, and 
 one with a top hat in his hand, and a cane. We 
 descend to earth again, which, being interpreted, 
 means, we go down to Hong Kong in the car. 
 
 Our next ride is to the cemetery, through the 
 ' happy valley,' — a very lovely one — and, though I 
 have seen many beautiful ones, never one to at all 
 
ii8 
 
 equal this. We go through a bit of the old town, 
 and past the government house and race course. 
 The cemetery is walled round with a turreted wall of 
 sixteen or eighteen feet high, and it is Moorish in 
 both design and colour, taking a hue of pink. Inside, 
 it is a veritable ' God's acre.' There are winding 
 walks, with rustic foot bridges over a mountain 
 stream, which rushes down, a foaming torrent of 
 clear, brown water. Even though the weather is 
 intensely hot and dry, palms and every tropical tree 
 that can be grown in China, are here. Rare ferns and 
 moss fringe and carpet every place, and along the 
 paths are borders of bright flowers. Masses of roses 
 and of white church lilies, orange turncaps, and 
 single and double camelias, and the most perfect of 
 pointcettias, both scarlet and white. The former grow 
 here the height of 12 and even 15 feet, and as for the 
 blooms, I measured one across with my hand, the 
 span of it from thumb to little finger, and it measured 
 to quite three spans. This was no one specially 
 selected flower, but chosen at hap-hazard from a 
 plant bearing twenty or more. The ground was 
 sweet with violets. By the brook- course, in the sides 
 of little hills, under palms and rose trees, lie the 
 simple graves, marked by small obelisks, headstones 
 and crosses, in grey granite and white marble. 
 Arches of creepers throw their cool shadows across 
 the walks, and a fountain throws up a great jet of 
 clear water, the plashing refreshing sound of which 
 rivals that of its neighbour, the brook. The place is 
 
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119 
 
 so peaceful, so entirely lonely. This spot beloved of 
 God and of Mother Earth. I feel at one and the 
 same time, very happy, to see so fair a garden of the 
 dead, and very sad to think, that under all these 
 mounds, lie so many gallant, useful lives, cut off in 
 the prime of youth and success, by the fatal ' yellow 
 jack' and cholera and typhoid. So many have said 
 farewell to life and friends, at ages between twenty 
 and thirty, when all the world was before them, and 
 brain and heart would be filled with ambition and 
 love, all that made the life worth living, so suddenly 
 snatched away, and then I think how thankfiil I 
 ought to be, roaming about in, this far from home, 
 resting-place, that I have no grave to search for and 
 sorrow over : and I feel with pain, that there are many 
 grieving hearts in old England, that would give much 
 to be in my place, to look at, and stamp upon their 
 memories, the fair last sleeping places of those whose 
 deaths have made their own lives so desolate, but, 
 'tis happiness to remember that : — 
 
 God keeps His own — the quiet dead, 
 Wherever they may be — 
 
 At home, abroad, in Earth's calm breast. 
 Or 'neath the mighty sea. 
 
 That ' Dobie ' has never brought home the 
 washing, and in half an hour we have to go to our 
 boat, for we are off to-day to Ceylon, stopping for a 
 few hours at Singapore, and again at Penang. A 
 prolonged push at the electric bell, and an anxious 
 face a moment afterwards, at the door. The finger 
 which presses the bell, and that dismal face, are 
 
I20 
 
 mine. "Boy, boy." " Yes, Missie." "You no bring 
 wash this minute, no get money present at all : go I" 
 Exit boy, more quickly than bpfore. " Missie, him 
 all done, but put hot iron on him, straighten him, 
 twenty minutes." "You bring wash, no wait make 
 straight," and I shake my fist at him. At last he 
 (the wash) arrives, just in time to accompany us to 
 the boat, Ravenna. She looks nice, and joy (soon to 
 be turned into mourning, at Singapore), we have two 
 cabins. Things go on swimmingly. The captain 
 is exceedingly nice, and we have fellow-passengers 
 who have been with us on our previous boat, Verona, 
 and whom we like very much. Alas ! the ' personally 
 conducted ' are again to the fore, and again the ship's 
 piano undergoes an unusual amount of wear and 
 tear, grievous to hear. Why is it that all second-rate 
 people are so noisy and self-assertive ? 
 
 Sunday, Dec. 20th. 
 We have been at Singapore and Penang, and I 
 have been ashore at both places. Singapore is very 
 beautiful, as to country and vegetation, but it is not 
 much of a place, though I expect it would improve on 
 acquaintance, and we could not judge during the 
 short time we had in port. The getting in of coal 
 and cargo amused me greatly the first day, for I was 
 too tired to leave the ship with any pleasure. The 
 morning commenced very early for me, for I was on 
 deck at 5 o'clock, to have my only good chance of 
 seeing the Southern Cross, which rises so late as to 
 give only a faint vision of it, if it chances to be a 
 
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 clear sky. Daylight was fast coming-, with feathery 
 clouds of rose and gold flitting over the sky, and the 
 cross was rapidly fading, still I could see it plainly, 
 though of course shorn of very much of its glory, but 
 I saw it and was satisfied. I returned to dress, and 
 came up again to see the entrance to Singapore, 
 which is well worth getting up for. The cliffs and 
 sand are deep red, and the tropical plants against 
 this, growing down close to the water's edge, make it 
 lovely. Isolated rocks rise up out of the sea, and on 
 the cliifs of these, and on the main land, pretty gar- 
 dens and summer houses abound. It is one of the 
 most beautiful harbour entrances I have yet seen. 
 We steamed up to a wharf, which stood alone, three 
 miles from the town . Down to the landing stage 
 sloped a steep hill, which was green, t6 our eyes, with 
 greenhouse and conservatory plants, and these were 
 surmounted by most beautiful fan-palms and flam- 
 boyas, with their wealth of scarlet flowers. Two 
 pretty houses with verandas covered with creepers, 
 and with bird cages hanging in them, stood close to 
 the wharf, and are tenanted by the P. & O. Pilot 
 and the Wharfinger. The town looks nice, and 
 the out-^kirts of it are something quite new to us, and 
 the colouring of the skins of the Malays, who are the 
 workers in the place, is magnificent. A shade Or two 
 warmer than brown bronze, and as highly polished 
 as an old mahogany table. Its true colour and tone 
 are exactly that of glazed chocolate in the cake. The 
 way in which they carry themselves is grand. The 
 
tzi. 
 
 grace, strength atid suppleness, I have never seen 
 equalled. Their faces are most intelligent, and they 
 have splendid eyes. Their dress is a turban of white 
 green, red, or yellow. Their one garment is of the 
 same warm colouring, generally in great contrast to 
 the turban, and is either nothing but a loin cloth, or 
 one piece of thin linen or muslin, brought round the 
 body, and rolled over at the waist to keep it in place. 
 Very few drapers shops to be found in this part of the 
 world. One store in each town sufl&ces for the wants 
 of the European population, and the natives would 
 infinitely prefer no clothes at all. Just before 
 steaming out, we had the pleasure of the experience 
 of half an hour's tropical rain, and I never saw such 
 a deluge. It came down in a blinding sheet of water 
 and carried everything before it. No wonder things 
 grow as if by magic, with these heavy storms, followed 
 by an almost unendurably hot sun. The public 
 gardens here are very fine indeed, beautifully kept. 
 
 Penang is much the same class of town, but I 
 had not time to see much of it. The morning was so 
 oppressive — 95° in shade. I went ashore and tried to 
 find some of the celebrated ' Penang Lawyers ' 
 (canes) but failed. I hear there are none to be had : 
 they all go to Singapore or Colombo. I got back to 
 the boat by 10 o'clock, and at noon we were off. 
 
 Dec. 19th. 
 I have been on deck at 7.30, being tired of so 
 many trying, hot nights, through which we could 
 only be quite still, and melt. 'Twas like living in a 
 
i23 
 
 luke-warm Turkish bath. To turn is misery, and you 
 find yourself almost glued to the clothes. Your 
 sleeping garment, and the one sheet, which you are 
 always wishing elsewhere, have twisted themselves 
 about you, till you awake from a night-mare of 
 strait-jackets, to find yourself partaking of the 
 nature of a chrysalis, and you make weary and in- 
 effectual attempts to get out of your shell, which the 
 salt air has made so sticky. 
 
 I have my first view of Ceylon. It shows 
 faintly against the horizon, some forty or fifty miles 
 away, and I almost fancy I can scent the ' spicy 
 breezes,' and soon shall do, as the wind sets straight 
 from it to us, and the cinnamon can really often be 
 scented from a distance of twenty miles, but about 
 this there is an old tale, that when a ship carried the 
 dealers and traders to Colombo, and it was desirable 
 to impress them with an idea of the strength of the 
 spices, some very powerful cinnamon oil — kept for the 
 purpose — was put on the sails. When I have had 
 this experience, I shall believe a little in the Mission 
 hymn, 'From Greenland's icy mountains,' portions of 
 which I have yet to believe in. The ' icy mountains ' 
 I have no doubt about, considering the size of the 
 icebergs that were drifted down from Anticosta. 
 ' India's coral strand ' is a pretty fiction : coral 
 doesn't grow on strands, anywhere, and if ' Afric's 
 sunny fountains ' roll down only * golden sand,' I am 
 sorry for the inhabitants of those arid wastes, if 
 springs of such a kind are all they have with which 
 
t24 
 
 to quench their frequent thirst, for this is the only 
 construction possible to put upon this line. I wish 
 someone would compile a book of hymns of a 
 reasonable and rational character, and suited to 
 minds not quite idiotic. It makes me both sad and 
 savage to have to listen to, and occasionally help to 
 sing, the dreadful rubbish which comprises the far 
 greater part of any of our hymn books. Many 
 people may find fault with me for this, but I consider 
 'tis a poor compliment to the modern brain and 
 intelligence, to give, as portions of a devotional 
 service, the pitiful nonsense to which we are often 
 compelled to listen. I will instance only one more of 
 many, that might-be-grand hymn, 'The spacious 
 firmament on high.' It ought to be a soul-stirring 
 and magnificent paean of praise, but alas ! it really is 
 a gigantic and almost ludicrous mistake, in these 
 days of more certain knowledge. How beautiful is 
 the description of sun and moon, planets and stars, 
 but what an ending ! 
 
 " What, tho' in solemn silence all 
 Move round this dark terrestrial ball." 
 
 I need say no more; others are equally silly, sense 
 giving way to sentimental rhyme. 
 
 Dec. 2oth. 
 We are in harbour at Colombo, and the sea is a 
 rough one, and I am wondering — even now — how we 
 shall land, but I have no idea how the water will lash 
 itself up by the time we are ready to do so. My 
 cousin is here to meet us, with a Government boat. 
 
125 
 
 He comes on board, and eats with us the very 
 indifferent dinner, to which the ship's cook has con- 
 demned those passengers who are tiresome enough 
 to sleep on board. After the festive (?) spread is 
 over, we prepare to go ashore. Now comes the ' tug 
 of war ' — will the waves beat us, or shall we conquer 
 the waves. The large boat waiting for us, is tossing 
 up and down like a cork. My husband is lame. It 
 is all very well to sing ' A life on the ocean wave/ as 
 some jovial soul is doing in the steward's pantry, but 
 how to escape a ducking, perhaps a drowning, from 
 that merry ocean wave, is our present anxiety, and 
 life on it, for the time being, becomes a burden, and 
 seems to be trembling in the balance. Even the 
 captain says he rather dreads the business for my 
 husband, and suggests our staying on board till the 
 morning. These monsoons get up at three or four in 
 the afternoon, and blow a gale, but 'tis calm in the 
 morning. At last we make a start, and my remem- 
 brance of the affair is dim. I have a confused idea of 
 seeing half the baggage — including my husband — 
 chucked into the boat, and then of following it and 
 him, feeling very much as if an earthquake was on, 
 and was rather too knock-about to please me. ' Head 
 over heels,' 'heels over head,' like the old baby 
 rhyme, I find my way on someone's toes, into some- 
 one's arms, and, finally, into the stern of the boat. 
 Following me, come two ladies, who have difficulty in 
 getting ashore, and to whom my cousin kindly offers 
 seats in the boat. We are thankful when we land 
 
126 
 
 safely, and I should imagine he is the most so of any 
 of us, for I have an idea that what with helping my 
 husband down the gangway, and all of us into the 
 boat, he must have more small bruises about him 
 than can quite add to his happiness. We are soon 
 off and away in delicious evening air — through a 
 charming country though 'tis too dark to see much 
 of its afterwards well known loveliness — to our hosts 
 house two miles inland. 
 
 What a pleasant place is bed, after so much 
 fatigue on so hot a day. I forget all about the 
 certainty of mosquitos, and possibilities of rats, 
 spiders, etc., and sleep well. 
 
 As the days go by, passed so happily in this 
 charming place, where every wish is anticipated, and 
 where the charms of a new country are in the balance 
 with the remembrance of the old one, and old friends 
 and homes. I grow to love Colombo. Everything 
 has a charm for me — the magnificient trees, palms, 
 ferns, flowers and aromatic shrubs. The bits of 
 jungle left yet unspoilt, scarlet hybiscus — single and 
 double — golden alamanda, orange lilies, purple 
 wisteria, convolvuli of every colour, pointcettia scarlet 
 and white, and countless other flowers peculiar to 
 this Garden of Eden, of every colour and shade, 
 delight my eyes and fill the air with perfume, almost 
 too sweet. Above them, showing every leaf against 
 the purest of blue skies, tower palms of all kinds, the 
 gorgeous flaming flamboya, giant bamboos and the 
 iron trees, which I have not had the good fortune to 
 
127 
 
 see in flower, but which our host says are very beauti- 
 ful : a lovely shade of green, with flowers of bright 
 scarlet tipped with white. The natives live in 
 miserable little huts, than which I have never seen 
 any more wretched. However, this is accounted for, 
 when I hear that these dens are only used as sort of 
 store-houses, to cook in sometimes, even culinary 
 duties are usually open air ones. 
 
 The people live by day and sleep by night outside 
 their abodes of darkness. Their clothing is very 
 slight, one piece of material wrapped round the body. 
 The better class sometimes wear a second piece 
 thrown across the chest over one arm, and under the 
 other. They wash at the nearest pump or pond, 
 usually walking under the one, and into the other, in 
 the garment they have on, letting it dry on their 
 backs as they walk away, which in this hot air it does 
 directly. They always wear very gaudy colours, 
 and white, with heaps of silver bangles and nose 
 ornaments, &c. The little children, up to four or five 
 years, wear no clothes, only bangles and a metal band 
 round the loins, with occasionally a metal fringe or 
 medallion hanging in front, but more firequently with- 
 out. These small black, or rather chocolate coloured, 
 mortals, amuse me so much, and they are such really 
 lovely little things, if only their brains would grow, 
 and their small bodies remain * in statu quo/ there 
 would be great temptation to kidnap one or more. 
 They are such good babies too, you never hear any 
 weeping or wailing, and cuff's and kicks seem 
 
128 
 
 unknown gymnastics. In response to your smile they 
 give you one back, showing a mouthful of pearly 
 white teeth, and a gleam of a pair of the most lovely 
 laughing black eyes. The mothers always carry them 
 astride on one hip, and they look so quaint and 
 cunning. 
 
 This is a warm place and no mistake. A damp 
 heat of 83° in the coolest and most shaded rooms, and 
 anything up to 110° in the sun, and it is 'Xmas ! ! ! 
 We get into all the draughts we can, and imbibe as 
 few as possible. The more iced drinks you indulge 
 in the more thirsty you get, and alcoholic beverages 
 are to be almost entirely avoided, lime squashes, and 
 crushed ice and fruit syrups are best. Every bed- 
 room has its own bathroom, and mine is the greatest 
 delight and luxury. A huge one with steps to it, and 
 into it I plunge, with intense satisfaction twice, some- 
 times three times daily. Our days fly by in delicious 
 laziness. We drive before luncheon, and again from 
 five till half past six. The evening drives are 
 charming. The equal days and nights here, so close 
 to the Equator, combined with the intense heat, 
 make it impossible to believe 'tis mid-winter. It is 
 light from six to six, but dark at once, after sunset. 
 Our drives take us by lovely places, along shady 
 roads where there are many good houses, with gar- 
 dens round them filled with flowering trees, and 
 plants, and creepers. Then you will come to a piece 
 of water, where there will be numbers of people 
 bathing. Women and children in one place, men 
 

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and their cattle in another. Splash go the children, 
 headlong, like a lot of young frogs, and quite as 
 accustomed to the water. The favourite way of 
 bathing for the women, is to walk into the water, up 
 to the waist or chest, and then fill a large earthen- 
 ware, or brass jar, and holding it up with both arms, 
 pour it over the head. 
 
 They will remain in the perfectly warm water, 
 
 bathing, and playing with the children, for over an 
 
 hour, and several times a day. In the dim light, just 
 
 after sunset, you will pass a cluster of tiny native 
 
 shops, where there is much excitement going on with 
 
 the buying and selling of things, with which to 
 
 concoct the coming supper. You never see meai in 
 
 these shops ; the natives hardly ever touch it. 
 
 Fish is their strongest article of food. They live 
 
 chiefly upon different kinds of bread cakes, and sweets 
 
 made of various sorts of grain, and dried fruits, 
 
 flowers, spices, and fish ; out of these they make an 
 
 infinite variety of very savoury and tasty messes. 
 
 There are cocoa-nuts, bread-fruit, papaus, mangoes, 
 
 and many other fruits, and lots of roots and edible 
 
 fungi. Also an immense variety of seeds, of which 
 
 those of the pods of one of the Hybiscus plants is in 
 
 great request. I ate some served as a savoury, on 
 
 toast, and it was good. To flavour with, there 
 
 are, growing, fresh nutmegs, with their inner 
 
 coats of bright red mace. All kinds of peppers 
 
 and cinnamon and bay leaves on the bushes, 
 
 green cloves, and the ever ready onion and leek. 
 
130 
 
 A domesticated kid supplies the milk, and most 
 natives have a few hens, for eggs. I don't believe 
 they ever eat them themselves, they keep them until 
 they lay no longer, and then send them to market* 
 or sell them to their richer neighbours, who, find 
 them, well, much like stringy shoe leather, boiled to 
 a pulp. My husband has an old pair of Russia 
 leather deck shoes, which, if nicely prepared, would 
 — I would guarantee — turn out quite as palatable, 
 you would only think that a little caviare had been 
 used as flavouring. The shops are lighted early, dusk 
 comes suddenly, tiny black things race across the 
 road at the imminent risk of their lives, for the roads 
 are terra-cotta colour, and some of the babies are 
 only two or three shades darker. They scuffle away 
 much as hens do from under the horses hoofs, and I 
 mentally bless (?) the little imps for giving me such 
 frequent frights. An old oil lamp is generally 
 the only light, in one of these tiny shops, 
 and it is placed on the board in the window, in the 
 situation best calculated to show off to advantage the 
 chief attraction of the stock-in-trade. In this way, 
 the sellers of brass household pans, and lamps of that 
 and tin, the dealers in silver bangles, necklets and 
 combs, and the different native drinks, make the 
 bravest show — particularly the drinks. These are of 
 every imaginable colour, and in clear white bottles, 
 and the light behind them makes a brilliant mass of 
 scintillating light — a very exaggerated edition, in- 
 finitely prettier, of our chemists' windows. These 
 
131 
 
 bottles — quarts and pints — are arranged with won- 
 derful eye for blending and contrasting colour, and 
 look more like a quantity of fairy lamps, than of 
 bottles of drinks. These — with very few exceptions — 
 are non-alcoholic. Away from these we drive along 
 towards our present home. Fire-flies are flitting all 
 about the trees and hedges. A flying fox, or fox-bat, 
 sails slowly across the road, in search of the best 
 fruit-garden he can find, for he eats nothing else but 
 fruit, and always takes the choicest, having I believe, 
 for his family motto, ' The best is good enough for me.' 
 The chipmonks chatter in the trees arching overhead, 
 grasshoppers chirp in the grass, and my pet enemy, 
 the ' scissor grinder,' is grinding away at his ever- 
 lasting wheel, pressing a very rusty blade upon it. 
 This fellow keeps me awake at night. His is the 
 most irritating noise, until you get quite hardened to 
 it, and he is only a very moderate-sized beetle, about 
 two inches long : yet another illustration of how the 
 smallest things of life are its greatest annoyances. 
 For aches and pains, give me teeth and corns ; for 
 irritation, fleas, midges and eye-flies ; for weariful 
 noise, the hit-hit-hit of a rope against a flagstaff on 
 a windy night, the trumpeting of a mosquito you 
 can't catch, a big buz-fly on a hot afternoon when you 
 long to sleep, and my new acquaintance, the scissor- 
 grinder, on a hot moonlight night, when the windows 
 must he open. 
 
 On Sunday, we go to Mt. Lavinia for luncheon — 
 a large hotel, seven miles outside Colombo, on Galle 
 
132 
 
 Face, and overhanging the sea at a very breezy and 
 lovely spot. All along the line are groves of cocoa- 
 nut palms, and very nice houses, with grounds down 
 to the railway and sea. Some rocks near, form a 
 breakwater for some fishing-boats, chiefly ' catamar- 
 ans,' the Cingalese fishing craft, a nasty narrow 
 dangerous looking thing, hollowed out of a tree bole, 
 and having attached on one side a sort of balance, 
 consisting of a long heavy log of wood fastened at 
 each end to the boat, by long pieces of bamboo bent 
 in a curve. I am quite certain now, that the old 
 term ' catamaran,' as applied to narrow-minded, 
 vicious old women, was derived from these boats. 
 They are mean, narrow, vicious, and very hard to sit 
 upon. The fashionable world of Colombo frequents 
 Mt. Lavinia for these Sunday luncheons. The host 
 always prepares a very good one, with all the luxuries 
 in season, and this was no exception. We enjoyed 
 it thoroughly, and returned at four o'clock. 
 
 Nkw Year's Day, 1894. 
 We are in the train, returning to Colombo, 
 after three most delightful days at Kandy. To-day 
 is Monday, and we came up to Kandy on Friday. 
 Our thoughtful host sent a carriage up for us, and we 
 have had most lovely drives, the best being after he 
 joined us yesterday. Our journeys by rail, have 
 been so beautiful. After leaving Colombo, you come 
 into a most delightful bit of low country, full of 
 paddy (rice) fields. 
 
133 
 
 The great river we have crossed, and which is 
 such a perfect picture of Eastern loveliness, with its 
 banks shaded with palms and ferns, horse's tail trees 
 and scarlet ilamboya, its quiet pools here and there, 
 reflecting the beauties of trees and flowers, of pampas 
 grass and slowly sailing white storks, of which 
 numbers are here — waters all these fields, which are 
 of the most tender and lovely green. Soon we are 
 going up great inclines, and the country is lying 
 beneath us, in seemingly never-ending undulations 
 of rice fields, cocoa nut groves, native huts and tea 
 plantations, and beyond these the jungle, backed by 
 mountains most beautiful and bold in outline. Two 
 struck me at once as being such as one never forgets 
 the shape of, and would swear to anywhere, one rises 
 straight up in the centre of a circle of humble and 
 admiring friends, king of his company, crowned with 
 a rock which takes the shape of a very high ruined 
 castle, very like Drachenfels, on the Rhine. The 
 other is even higher, the highest and grandest, you 
 can see. It is a most curious mass of rock, and looks 
 exactly like what one would imagine the Ark to 
 have been, when .stranded high and dry on ' Ararat.' 
 Others say 'tis like a huge book, laid carelessly down, 
 with the back of the binding uppermost, and the 
 sides put at an acute angle. But I prefer my idea of 
 the Ark, and if my sister were only to see that 
 rock, I am sure she would be wanting to make 
 straight for it, to ascertain if it were not 
 really the remains of Noah's handiwork. Her 
 
134 
 
 argument as a child always was, that if there 
 had been an ark big enough to hold all that lived in 
 it, it must have been left somewhere. I looked at this 
 through her specs, and believed in the ' Ark.' It is 
 really a most stupendous rock, and exceedingly 
 difficult to ascend, and the Sacred Tooth of Buddha 
 was kept in a temple on the summit of it, before it 
 was taken to that at Kandy, where it now reposes. 
 Over 2,000 feet we mount, before reaching Kandy, 
 and the whole country is magnificient. We have 
 seen no animals of the jungle : they would not show 
 in day-light, but elephants frequently cross the line 
 at night. The hills are covered with most thriving 
 tea plantations. Every suitable site is being taken 
 up with them, and they seem to be doing very well 
 indeed, as successors to the ill-fated coffee. Pigs are 
 very destructive about here in the paddy fields and 
 tea plantations, and I was told of a very ingenious 
 contrivance for frightening them off. Of course, the 
 paddy fields are watered by mountain streams. The 
 'fields' are raised tiers of ground, each plot being 
 fenced round with a low bank of the soil and sods, so 
 as to form a sort of shallow tank, and so allow the 
 stream to flow over the whole of one plot, before 
 being admitted to the next below it, and so on, from 
 the top of these plots, to the lowest in the valley. 
 The ' pig scares ' are pieces of bamboo, pushed 
 through these low banks at intervals, and so 
 arranged, that when the water comes into them, 
 at a certain point, they over-balance and tip 
 
135 
 
 over, on to a stone in the next plot, where they 
 empty themselves and right themselves again ready 
 for the next in-flow of water. The noise they make, 
 when they strike the stone, is quite sufficient to drive 
 off and keep at bay the troublesome pigs, and I 
 heard that the noise on a still night, was quite a din, 
 echoing as it would from hill to hill. 
 
 The afternoon of the day we arrive, we drive 
 three miles, to the celebrated Paradynya Gardens — 
 not flower gardens — though many flowers are there, 
 but containing the rarest and most beautiful of trees. 
 I am not a botanist, and cannot remember many of 
 them, excepting as I saw them. At the entrance, are 
 some world-renowned india-rubber trees, of which, 
 the roots above ground are the most wonderful 
 things. Inside, as you drive along, you see nutmeg 
 trees, nutmegs in their peach-shaped husks, and, 
 within those, the nuts themselves, with their mace 
 overcoats ; green cloves lie thickly on the ground, 
 dropping from the feathery-leaved tree on which they 
 grow. Then comes a plot of a plant, looking like a 
 bed of iris bulbs, without flowers, and this is the 
 strong-scented leaf from which comes the oil which 
 is so much used in the making of perfumes, and 
 which is so rare, and, fortunately, so very strong, that 
 a drop is sufficient to scent a gallon of perfume. 
 Here is a cluster of the giant bamboo, the pieces 
 (fan-shape) which it throws off from each new shoot, 
 lying under it, and one of which I beg, and find 
 impossible to convey home without a special case, so 
 
136 
 
 have to leave it. It is the shape and size of an extra 
 large summer fire-screen, and the consistency of thin 
 deal. It carries a fine natural polish, washes beau- 
 tifully, with a brush and soap and water. Close by 
 is a ' deadly upas ' tree, with the gum of which the 
 natives poisoned their spears and arrows. Golden 
 and scarlet creepers, covering large trees filled with 
 sweet white blooms, make a gorgeous combination 
 of colour. Tuberoses and gardenias grow along the 
 paths, and the grass is full of the sensitive plant. 
 There is an orchid-house, with specimens of choicest 
 plants, and a house where is kept a collection of 
 Cingalese timber — a duplicate of that sent to the 
 English Exhibition, along with that sent from the 
 Straits Settlements — curious birds' nests, including 
 the edible ones, so much thought of in Hong Kong, 
 and the very curious inner bark, or webbing, of some 
 tree which weaves its own coat, as it grows — a most 
 industrious tailor. This can be detached from the 
 tree, when felled, in an unbroken piece (circular), like 
 a woven garment, of very fine fibre. The great river 
 winds along by the side of these gardens, and adds 
 another beauty to its magnificence. 
 
 Next morning we drive about the tiny town and 
 look at the people. Life here is .such a curious 
 mixture of purely native customs and dress, and 
 European life. I admire most, the dresses of the 
 Buddhist Priests, there are numbers of them here, 
 and the temple is the most magnificent, in its ancient 
 way, that is known, and contains priceless shrines, 
 
Q 
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 O 
 W 
 
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137 
 
 the most gorgeous of which holds the sacred tooth of 
 Buddha. There are very many priests attached to 
 this temple, they all dress alike, in robes of gold 
 coloured silk, woven straight from the silk-worm, 
 and thrown gracefully and carelessly about them, 
 this is their only garment. The head is shaven, the 
 arms and legs bare. These robes of natural coloured 
 silk, are usually the gifts of the little hamlets where 
 the priests have been born, and it is thought a great 
 honour to be able, and allowed, to supply this piece of 
 lovely material. We who see only silk mixed with 
 cotton, or other fibre, and * dressed ' with some 
 process, can have no idea until we see it, of the 
 lovely hue and glistening texture of this silk. The 
 little boys who serve in the temple, and follow the 
 priests when they walk out, are dressed in thin white 
 muslin. Both silk and muslin are beautiful, in 
 contrast to the deep chocolate toned skins of the 
 men and boys. 
 
 This temple is close to the King's Old Palace 
 and the audience chamber. The former is a long low 
 white building with the usual royal roof These are 
 a special feature of Ceylon, and are very fine at 
 Kandy. The so called ' broken roof,' its shape is 
 peculiar, it has a sharp pitch for the upper half, and 
 the lower half has a much more gradual slope, and 
 they are always finished at the end and highest 
 points with a gold ornament — partly crown — partly 
 flower in pattern. The audience chamber is a long 
 building, standing alone in the court, opposite the 
 
138 
 
 Palace. It is open at all four sides, and consists of 
 a concrete floor, and the roof, supported by wooden 
 pillars of a most beautiful kind. The carving of 
 these is as fine as fine lace, and very deeply cut, 
 ' block carving.' It is used now as a court house, 
 and sliding, light Venetians have been added to the 
 upper end of it. It is one large long room with a 
 smaller one raised a step above the other, and this 
 smaller one, or rather the end of the long hall, was 
 the King's raised dais. Close to these buildings are 
 the Government House, the hotel and the English 
 Church. The noise from the temple tom-toms and 
 musical instruments, is rather troublesome to the 
 hotel visitors. The din — for that is the only term I 
 can apply to it — commences as early as four and five 
 o'clock in the morning, and lasts — with very 
 occasional intervals — till nine at night. 
 
 The evening of the day after we arrived, I went 
 up to the temple a little before six, hoping to see 
 some of the service and the flower offerings and 
 shrines. It was just beginning to get dusk, and was 
 a very good time to go, as it all looked so much more 
 impressive by the light of the old oil lamps : very 
 dim light inside, and nearly dark in the courts. It 
 was rather too soon to see the offerings and shrines, 
 so I went with an old priest, up to the library in the 
 dome of the building, where all the sacred books are 
 kept, which they showed to me. Then we went into 
 the balcony, which runs round the library, outside, 
 and from which there is a lovely view of town, 
 
»30 
 
 Country and lake. TJiis lake is close to the temple, 
 and the old Palace of the Queen, which stands on 
 piles in the water, is now the English library, club, 
 and reading rooms — a most picturesque spot. I stood 
 and talked a long time with the old priest, who took 
 me round, and who understood and spoke English 
 fairly well. He said what a good thing British rule 
 had been for the cduntry, and what advantages it had 
 brought them — in trade, law, well-made roads, better 
 drainage, absence of barbarous customs, and decrease 
 of crime, and he made special mention that their 
 religious observances had been respected, saying, 
 that to have enforced another religion upon them 
 would have entailed all kinds of misery and blood- 
 shed. I don't believe 'tis of any use trying to 
 missionize Japan, China, or Ceylon : the people 
 won't have it, and if they appear to accept either the 
 Protestant or Roman Catholic Faith, so soon as their 
 would-be converter leaves or dies, they go back to 
 their own. For a dozen converts made, a thousand 
 children are born and brought up in their own Faith. 
 Quite right to ' preach the Gospel to every creature,' 
 but the world will have to be millions of years older 
 before Christianity becomes universal, if, indeed, it 
 ever can, and this must be left to the only Power 
 which is able to deal with so gigantic a problem. 
 
 At last, we decend a flight of very steep stone 
 steps, and regain the court-yard, now crowded with 
 native people. Between the great stone pillars 
 stand rough tables, on which are arranged dozens 
 
140 
 
 and dozens of floral offerings, ready to be sold to 
 crowds of worshippers, flocking in. These flowers are 
 cut short, and arranged in patterns, on circular 
 wooden boards, about the size of the outer rim of a 
 soup plate, and reminded me of very unusually 
 gorgeous fruit tarts — a sort of ball-supper afiair. 
 These are really most beautifully arranged, and the 
 flowers are 'things of beauty, and a joy for ever' ; but 
 their over-powering odour, combined with the 
 strongly incense-scented oil in the lamps, give me a 
 headache and feeling of suffocation. I think, seeing 
 one European woman alone in the midst of such a 
 crowd of themselves, must induce them to imagine 
 they have made a convert, for I am pressed on all 
 sides to possess myself of a ' tartlet.' Declined with 
 thanks A small naked urchin of about eight, thinks 
 that tumbling will be more to my taste, and proceeds 
 to execute a number of * wheels,' and then walks on 
 his hands, with his toes in the air, and the creature 
 looks the most diabolically wicked imp, you ever set 
 eyes upon. No attempt has he at clothes ,; a brass 
 band round his hips, with a square inch of fringe to 
 it. His bare feet have been trampling over half- 
 withered (cast aside for fresh ones) flowers (crimson) 
 flamboya and hybiscus, lying outside in the courts, 
 and they look as if he had been walking in blood. 
 In front of the big shrine a heap of people wait, and 
 pass up and down the steps depositing their flowers 
 upon the upper one, prostrated with head on floor as 
 they place the off'ering. Large bronze dragons, about 
 
141 
 
 three feet high, stand on either side at the foot of the 
 five or six steps, with lighted candles stuck in holes 
 at the top of the head. 
 
 At last, the doors are opened, and we pass in — I 
 and my attendant Priest — followed by all the natives 
 who can squeeze through. The Shrine of the Tooth is 
 a tiny dark den, of about twelve feet square. The 
 shrine and its surroundings take up nearly the whole 
 of the space. There is room for only eight, or ten 
 people at most, to stand up in it at one time. It is a 
 wonderful piece of work, about four feet high, and of 
 solid gold, pagoda shape, crusted over with most 
 gorgeous gems — emeralds, sapphires, amethysts, 
 diamonds, rubies, pearls, and the largest cat's-eye 
 known, each and all so large and so superb, that 'tis 
 difiicult to believe them genuine. Inside this, rests 
 the precious Tooth, shown only to Buddhist princes 
 and priests, and (very occasionally) to crowned heads, 
 but it was seen by a very great personage — known to 
 the Cingalese as ' the great white Queen's big boy.' 
 The only way to obtain permission is, from the 
 highest Buddhist priest, and the highest Cingalese 
 noble, and, after that you have to wait about six 
 months more, before you may be granted a sight of 
 it, and then, with so much state and ceremony, that 
 you are fain to wish yourself anywhere else, and find 
 your purse to be fairly emptied of all its contents. It 
 is a little irritating, and decidedly low in tone, to 
 find in each ' shrine room,' plates (presented by 
 people who ought to know better) presented to you, 
 
142 
 
 with " Present to the shrine, pies," and after being 
 conducted round the whole place, to find yourself 
 escorted to the door by a crowd of golden-clad 
 ' angels,' all whispering in your unwilling ear, 
 " Present for me, pies." 
 
 The Tooth is taken round the town once a year, 
 in a magnificent procession, in its shrine, on the back 
 of a royal elephant. This is the great F^te, and in the 
 evening, the town and lake, temple and palace, are 
 gorgeous with coloured lamps. The old walls have 
 been built in times gone by (and with excellent taste 
 and judgment ; the new ones are exact copies of the 
 ol(P) of a very curious shape and pattern, resembling 
 lace work — the fine interstices in each block of stone 
 being specially made to hold these lamps. The 
 place must be a blaze of coloured lights, and I heard 
 it was about the most imposing spectacle in the 
 world — a ' large order,' but I quite believe it. 
 Imagine to yourself the whole thing, if you can ; 
 the illuminations reflected in the lovely lake, not 
 only the lamps in the walls, but those on the temples 
 and the houses ; the torches of the bearers in the 
 procession; the white, golden and scarlet robes of 
 the priests ; the jewels on the trappings of the 
 elephants ; the shrine, glittering with its gems and 
 gold ; the smoke of the torches, throwing a veil of 
 soft colour over all ; the dusky, yet shiny, skins of 
 the natives ; the dancing, shouts, and cries, echoed 
 from the hills : a fairy vision, a thing, even if seen, 
 to be hardly realized. 
 
< 
 
 
143 
 
 On the morning of New Year's Eve (it was 
 Sunday) I went to the seven o'clock service at the 
 English Church. It seemed so strange to be going 
 out at Christmas time, at that hour, in broiling 
 sunshine, in the thinnest of raiment, a white hat, and 
 armed with a large white umbrella. The church is 
 large, and is a succession of open arches, with a 
 clock tower and bell. Birds and butterflies were in 
 it, flying about, and the whole air was sweet with the 
 white blooms of a forest tree, outside. The Christmas 
 decorations were still there, renovated of course, and 
 all of what would be, with us, hot-house flowers, 
 suggesting an English summer-day wedding. 
 
 Writing of weddings, reminds me, that the 
 greatest sign of a wedding in Ceylon, consists in the 
 painting of the outside of the house. We saw one, 
 in a wild bit of plantation, about four miles outside 
 Colombo. The door-posts of the hut were most 
 elaborately painted in all kinds of colours and 
 patterns. 
 
 There are excellent lawn-tennis courts, at the far 
 end of the lake at Kandy, and these were crowded on 
 Saturday afternoon, with Europeans and natives. I 
 was very much amused to see a tandem going gaily 
 along to the courts, the wheeler and leader, being 
 very well matched, and beautifully groomed bullocks, 
 of whom their owner was justly proud. They went 
 swinging along in first rate style, and a small native 
 dressed in white and gold, ' tuned up ' on the horn. 
 
144 
 
 My cousin told me, that there had been immense 
 rivalry and fun, one season. A man went there, 
 intending to ' swell it ' over everyone, and make a 
 great sensation, and he took a coach up. Some wag 
 of an inhabitant said nothing, but bided his time, and 
 on the grand occasion, when my lord of the coach 
 thought he should attract all the attention, his sly 
 enemy suddenly appeared on the scene, driving six 
 bullocks, with the usual coach and horn, a party of 
 friends, and a lovely lady on the box seat. Needless 
 to say, he carried off the palm as to the smartness 
 and originality of his ' turn-out.' 
 
 The bathing place at Kandy is by far the 
 prettiest that I have ever seen. At the lower end of 
 the lake the water runs under the roadway, and firom 
 there, down a steep incline, over flat rough stones, in 
 a narrow gully of about thirty feet wide, flanked on 
 one side by a high bank, and on the other by a very 
 high old wall of huge stones, mossgrown, with lovely 
 ferns growing out of their worn crevices. This slope 
 ends in a flight of deep steps, down which the clear 
 water jumps, forming a foaming cascade, and finds 
 itself, after its final plunge, in a deepish pool below. 
 
 On these steps, the bathers sit and kneel, and 
 let the sparkling torrent pass over and about them. 
 It is a splendid natural bath, and so very pretty. On 
 the bank side, grow tall trees, giant bamboos, and 
 flowering shrubs, and from here the men (and women 
 too) take 'headers' into the pool below, and here 
 they dry such part of their clothing as they think 
 
H5 
 
 best to keep on for bathing, but the undressing and 
 dressing again are about as rapid and simple 
 processes as I have ever beheld. Down below the 
 pool, some hundred yards, the women wash their 
 household iron pots and bits of crockery, and I saw 
 no more cheery, colour-giving sight, combined with 
 happy mixture of sun and shadow, than this bathing 
 hole on a sunny morning and again on a hot, hazy, 
 afternoon, during the whole of my wanderings. 
 
 Next morning we have our farewell drive before 
 returning to Colombo, and by far the most lovely I 
 have ever had in the whole of my life. Winding up 
 the hills, from the lake, the road leads up and up 
 through trees and shrubs, so grand that we are lost 
 in wonder and feel that this must surely be the 
 ' promised land.' At every few yards I learn some- 
 thing new about the uses and beauties of all that 
 surrounds us, for our host is our guide, and seems to 
 have learnt everything about the botany of the 
 country. Here and there, the carriage is stopped, 
 for us to see — through gaps in the trees — glimpses 
 of the far-stretching, beautiful landscape. The 
 river winds along under our feet ; miles away lie 
 vast jungles and great hills, and beyond these, as far 
 as the eye can see, chain after chain of mountains, 
 taking the grandest and most fantastic shapes. I must 
 confess the last and most magnificent panorama — 
 from the highest point — was not seen with my 
 usually clear vision, for my eyes were full of tears 
 and my voice was mute. Heaven, when we reach it, 
 
t46 
 
 may be more lovely, but for the present t am 
 satisfied, and it is quite as much as I can bear, to 
 gaze upon something so much more lovely — I feel — 
 than I deserve : a scene which, to my happy eyes, is 
 fresh from, and blessed by its Creator, and has a 
 glamour around it, as if 'the Spirit of God' moved 
 over it, as our old Bible history tells us it did ' over 
 the face of the waters.' I hold my breath, with a 
 choking sob, fearing to make a fool of myself, and 
 feel as if I should not wonder at seeing anything in 
 this 'plain of heaven,' with its 'everlasting hills,' 
 and then as is "so often the case — more particularly 
 this holiday — do I long, oh! so much, that others 
 whom I love, could share with me the sight of this 
 soul-stirring, heart-filling grandeur. 
 
 • On our way down the hill we passed above the 
 house and grounds where Arabi Pasha now resides, 
 and I must say, for our credit, that he seems to be 
 uncommonly comfortably housed and provided for. 
 
 In three hours more, we are in the train descending 
 again to Colombo, and I bless my thoughtful cousin, 
 who has had a compartment reserved for us, and thus 
 enables me to see happily all the beauties of the 
 return journey, and to escape from all the bustle and 
 talk, which would now really distress me, though my 
 husband is fond of comparing me, for chattering, to 
 Mr. Smallweed's 'Brimstone magpie,' i^ide 'Bleak 
 House '). The good folks here are so familiar with 
 the beauties around them, that they cease to care for 
 them. The old copy book saying, ' Familiarity 
 
P5 
 
 s 
 
 
 
147 
 
 breeds contempt,' applies to them very nicely. I am 
 glad to have none of them. Every fibre of my heart 
 is turned to praise ; I feel wrapped about in a golden 
 haze of dreamland and thanksgiving; my heart 
 seems bursting with happiness,; tinged with sadness, 
 which is the greatest . happiness of all, and I wish for 
 nothing but quiet, as I take in — with eager and 
 lingering gaze — every charm of form and colour, 
 knowing that I shall never see the places again, and 
 that it must be impossible to find any more perfectly 
 beautiful, or more unspoilt by the hand of man. 
 
 Next morning, we have everything to make a 
 drive perfect, so we take it^ through a hitherto un- 
 explored, and most amusing district. We go, at 
 first, along shady lanes, where the sunlight peeps 
 through, with hot gleams, between the branches of 
 cocoa-nut and other palms ; then a sudden turn 
 brings us to a street of shops, of the oddest kind. It 
 is a very narrow street, and the shops are immensely 
 funny. Lamps and copper cooking vessels, in one, 
 over which an old and solemn-looking monkey is 
 keeping guard. There he sits, arranging his toilette — 
 suppose we say — and jabbering at the . passers by. 
 Next door is devoted to every kind. of dried fish, with 
 the attendant trays of seeds and herbs. Toys, pipeSj 
 tobacco, china and ornaments fill the third ; vegetables 
 and fruit, a fourth. The fifth seems to be given up to 
 the teaching of the very young idea — an infant school, 
 without the lessons. A dozen babies are sprawling 
 on the ground, in their ' native nothingness,' while 
 
148 
 
 one young girl looks after the little lot, and also 
 after a pan of something savoury, cooking over the 
 fire, doubtless intended for the mid-day meal of these 
 black cherubs. In such-like amusing confusion, the 
 shops run on for a quarter of a mile, and then we 
 come to an open space, with a fountain, and some 
 better-class private houses. 
 
 Round the fountain sil numbers of people, many 
 with things for sale; many more, simply idling, 
 looking at one another's clothes and heads, very 
 much following the example of the monkey in charge 
 at the shop just passed. Let us hope that the older 
 members of society, thus happily employed, are 
 either brother and sister, or husband and wife, as it 
 is a most novel idea, but perfectly true, that this is 
 considered to be the greatest possible mark of affection 
 that a man or woman can show to one of the 
 opposite sex, and, if a married man or woman 
 chances to be caught, indulging in this friendly act 
 with other than the wife or husband, the proving of 
 it is the most convincing proof of infidelity and is all 
 that is necessary to procure a divorce. 
 
 Away past the fountain, and again to shady 
 lanes and fields of grass. This grass is grown for 
 fodder, and it seems very coarse to us but it is very 
 succulent, growing in this damp heat and so near to 
 the great river, which, at a sudden turn of the road, 
 comes into view ; and along the banks of which we 
 drive some distance. It is of great width, and the 
 native cargo boats lie in a long row moored to the 
 
149 
 
 bank. Palms of all kinds, with undergrowth of river 
 reeds, and bushes full of flowers, reflect their beauties 
 in the stiller parts of the clear water. People are 
 busy with their cargoes, or sleeping after the fatigues 
 of rowing. 
 
 Passing the river, we drive through a very large 
 grove of cocoa-nut palms, and in it, are widely 
 scattered huts, one roof covering a walled-in room, 
 and the other half, open for sleeping purposes. 
 Several litters of wee pigs are running about, and the 
 copper colo|ired mites of children are playing with, 
 and chasing them. Soon we come to a fishing 
 village, which is really the most interesting part of 
 ^Colombo. The huts are so peculiar, and the dresses 
 of their owners also. 
 
 Down again to the town, passing two very fine 
 churches, both Roman Catholic ones. This faith 
 will flourish in a country where colour and brightness 
 will have more powerful attractions than anything 
 else. Where the money comes from, beats me, 
 excepting that one knows the R.C. nobility are 
 daily growing poorer and poorer. It is all rather 
 sad, for the population around these churches 
 appears to be the most impoverished, the worst, and 
 the most grimy in every sense of the word. 
 
 Leaving these churches, we come to the washed- 
 away sea wall promenade, soon to be restored. A 
 new breakwater is to be made, and an Admiralty 
 House built on a very good site overlooking the 
 
ISO 
 
 whole harbour. The only inhabitant of that land, at 
 present, so far as / saw, was the most gigantic 
 tortoise known. It was crawling about in the field, 
 close to the road, and looked like a piece of rock. It 
 is of almost unknown age, and larger than any in the 
 museum. 
 
 Coming through the town, we pass through a 
 street full of temples. They are on either side, and 
 all are beautiful — some exceedingly so — with gor- 
 geous bits of colouring and carving, and are of great 
 antiquity. Alas ! there was no getting inside them 
 for me. They are not places where a woman of our 
 nationality can be admitted, unless she is one of the 
 very objectionably determined females, who will never 
 take No ! for an answer, and who delight in boasting 
 that they have done and seen what they ought not to 
 have done or looked at. What would have met your 
 gaze under the guise of Religion, would probably be 
 most revolting to a decent mind, and I believe the 
 buildings are really unbearable, as to smell, etc., — oil, 
 fish, and other accumulated dirt of centuries, not 
 wholesome and not safe, so I had to ' heave a sigh, 
 and pass them by.' 
 
 Shopping is amusing at Colombo and Kandy, 
 and is conducted entirely on the bargaining, bullying 
 and bantering system. The following is a very quiet 
 specimen of the lively dispute, which is, to the native, 
 the best and most refreshing part of the ' deal.' I 
 want unset moonstones, and go in search thereof, 
 with a friend, to a well-known dealer. " Well, Silva, 
 
151 
 
 how much for that stone ? " (a small one) " I ten 
 rupee want for him." " Ten rupees ! you mean two." 
 " Ten is too small, too little ; he cost me all that to 
 get and polish." " Well, two rupees is my price ; 
 take it, or leave it." " Well, I let you have him, eight 
 and a half." " Far too much ; I will stretch a point 
 and give you three, but not one cent more. Now look 
 here, Silva, you know 'tis all humbug, you scoundrel ; 
 what I offer you is more than its worth." "Very 
 sorry : no sell, no deal." " All right," and you walk 
 towards the door. " Missie, missie, give four rupee 
 and you have him." " Done." You both clap hands 
 to show the bargain is concluded. He pushes the 
 stone towards you with his dusky paw, and you take 
 it up with yours, and give him the money, which he 
 reverentially kisses, and you know 'tis a fairly fair 
 bargain on both sides, and that he is satisfied is 
 evident, as he is possessed with a frantic desire to sell 
 you more, and follows you to the carriage with his 
 hands full of stones, and his mouth full of thanks for 
 present, and hopes for future favours, and his eyes 
 lighted up with a gleam of satisfaction, to think that, 
 very probably, to-morrow may see you again in his 
 den fighting over another stone. 
 
 The pleasure of bargaining is more to him than 
 the value of the stone, and you may often get a good 
 thing for very little, and yet he will worry for an 
 hour over something not worth a twentieth part the 
 value of what you have got from him at a wonderfully 
 low figure. 
 
'52 
 
 To-night we are to have a ' Devil Dance ' by 
 torch-light, in the garden, and the fernery is to be 
 arranged for us eight or ten spectators. I am asked 
 to invite, if I wish, half-a-dozen of our recent 
 travelling companions who are at an hotel in the 
 town, as this is the sight of the place. At nine 
 o'clock they arrive, and the dance commences. It is 
 such a weird and devilish arrangement, that my 
 cousin has begged me to warn the ladies not to come 
 if they are nervous or inclined to be hysterical, 
 particularly as on the last occasion that he had one, 
 one of the guests, a man, turned tail, and fled into 
 the house, saying it was too horrible and unearthly 
 for anything, and he could stand it no longer. 
 
 These men will not be persuaded to dance, 
 excepting for the killing or curing of some patient 
 given up by the doctors. It must produce the desired 
 effect. If a sick person wants rousing up, it will 
 assuredly do that, and, if he or she are very near the 
 end of their days, it will effectually prevent their ever 
 living to see another. 
 
 We had only a very dim light in the fernery, 
 which was a large square cool hall, with a fountain 
 in the centre, and open arches round three of the 
 sides. Here were chairs for the ladies, and rugs 
 spread on the steps, leading down to the level of the 
 grass (set apart for the dancers and musicians) on 
 which the gentlemen sat. The musicians were in a 
 semi-circle, at the back of the space reserved for the 
 dancers. Only tomtoms were used, but there were at 
 
»53 
 
 least seven or eight of different kinds, and the noise 
 all throughout, was incessant and terrific. You 
 could not hear yourself speak, or hold any converse 
 with your neighbour. Inside the crescent of tomtoms 
 stood the torch-holders, and two men holding deep 
 oval baskets, filled with what looked like ordinary 
 sand, but which was a special preparation of their 
 own : of sand, sulphur, and some explosive oils. 
 
 The first dancer appeared, rushing in from 
 behind some trees and shrubs. He was in a 
 sleeveless, legless costume of white and scarlet, and 
 had a queer arrangement of stiff white muslin, in a 
 shape like a fly's wings on his head ; one on either 
 side, at the back of each ear, and a third down the 
 centre of the back of the head. The face was covered 
 with a white plaster mask, to represent a devil's 
 head with horns, and he carried a lighted torch in 
 each hand. He commenced a wild savage dance, 
 descriptive to -my mind of the ' kill or cure ' devil : 
 just the antipodes of the old ' St. George and 
 dragon ' arrangement, where a very melancholy boy 
 usually comes in, and without moving a muscle, and 
 in a dismal monotone, announces: — 
 
 " I am the doftor come from Spain, 
 To bring the dead to life again." 
 
 this doctor utters no sound, but performs a series of 
 almost impossible gymnastics. 
 
 His long ' turn ' about over, his companion 
 enters and takes up the dance, and is followed by 
 No. I again, dressed as a water devil. He has river 
 
154 
 
 weeds hanging from his head, neck, and waist, and 
 his mask is that of a gigantic green frog. He hops 
 in frog fashion. There are movable mouth and eyes 
 to the mask, and he manages to pant exactly like a 
 frog, and is altogether a hideous and fearsome sight, 
 squatted just at our feet, gasping, and rolling his eyes. 
 
 Next time the two come together as jungle devils, 
 with a mixture of dead wood and leaves on their 
 heads, and fringes of leaves round the waist — very 
 suggestive of the 'fig leaves' of the 'Garden of 
 Eden.' The dancing is wonderful. 
 
 Finally, the pair come on a^- devils indeed : 
 horns, etc., and with six torches each — two carried 
 crossways in the mouth, two stuck in the back of the 
 neck, and one in either hand. At every term, as 
 they pass the men holding the baskets, they take a 
 handful of the explosive sand, and throw it so that 
 it must ignite at one or other of the torches they 
 carry, so they are constantly completely enveloped in 
 flames and smoke. They arrange this in a wonderful 
 manner, so as to make the flames appear to come out 
 of their mouths and eyes. Over this last ' flare up ' 
 they howl and yell like demons, and whirl round and 
 round, till they make you feel quite dizzy. 
 
 The dance is over. The dancers have been rather 
 mute as to conversation, though we should not under- 
 stand it, but my cousin says that the last time he had 
 them, one of them, in a moment of great excitement, 
 asked him if he could not get them ' a nice fresh 
 
155 
 
 corpse out of the cemetery ' : a very fortunate thing 
 that he and his do not have these wild desires in 
 their saner moments, as it might prove the cause of, 
 to say the least, t-rifling unpleasantness. 
 
 My cousin was right in saying that this was not 
 a thing to miss seeing. The background of tropical 
 trees, the natives with their chocolate-coloured skins 
 lighted up by the torches, the madness of the dance, 
 the hideous noise of the tomtoms and human yells, 
 and the scared notes of chipmonks, lizards and frogs, 
 driven from their night's rest by this unearthly din, 
 made up a series of sights and sounds never to be 
 forgotten. 
 
 January 3rd. 
 
 We have had our last shopping morning, and I 
 am the richer by some lovely jewels that my husband 
 has given me, and a stone my cousin would have me 
 take, to be set as a ring. We have also had our last 
 drive in the gloaming, along Galle Face, the 
 fashionable drive by the sea wall or shore. The 
 evening is lovely ; it has been intensely hot, and the 
 sunset over the sea is gorgeous. The flaming colour 
 throws its radiance over everthing on shore. The 
 red sandstone roads are brightest crimson. The 
 palms show up against a sky of clearest, deepest 
 blue. Oh ! believe me, no-one who has not seen for 
 themselves, can, in the very least, realize the 
 fascinating magnificence of these eastern sunsets. 
 The soft warm air gives you such a feeling of repose 
 
156 
 
 after the heat of the day. The hues of the sky fill 
 you with happy amazement, and you fix your eyes 
 upon their changing beauties, with strained gaze, 
 fearing to lose one single gradation, however slight, 
 of the exquisite tints. 
 
 Away from the shore, you pass one of the lakes. 
 It is just light enough for you to see reflected in it, 
 the lovely growth of trees which edge its banks. One 
 flamboya tree is so full of blooms, that their scarlet 
 colour reflects as would crimson lamps, while many 
 lights in houses, make their score of rippling lines of 
 gold. Oh ! this is a lovely place, this Ceylon. I am 
 old now, and it is a far off" paradise, but I should like 
 to spend every winter here, so long as strength 
 would last, until I reach that other paradise, if I may 
 ever hope to do so. 
 
 January 4th. 
 
 Goodbye ! goodbye ! Ceylon, where I have been 
 so strangely happy, so taken out of myself, and seen 
 and learnt so much. In future days, my mind and 
 heart will be very often travelling back to all your 
 lovely haunts, so full of strangest and most beautiful 
 things. I fear it is ' goodbye,' I would it were only 
 au revoir. 
 
157 
 
 The Oce/zna waits in harbour, and we have to go 
 in her, and bustle and confusion reign till we are off. 
 One thing is a comfort, thanks to our host, I have 
 had an introduction to the captain, and an excellent 
 fellow he is. 
 
 From Colombo to Aden we steam happily 
 enough, and though we have parted at Colombo from 
 many friends, going (as we once thought of doing) 
 through India, we have still three pleasant com- 
 panions left, and soon make a few more. The boat 
 goes so easily, that it is more like living in an hotel. 
 The nights are warm and lovely, and whist on deck, 
 and music in the music saloon, make the evenings 
 pass very rapidly. 
 
 At Aden we have the usual " dive, dive," and 
 " buy, buy," and then peace again through the Red 
 Sea ; the only thing to note there being the beautiful 
 sunsets. At Suez we see nothing. We go in and 
 out again in a couple of hours of the night. 
 
 Alas ! at Ismailia we lose our particular chums ot 
 the last three voyages and * greet ' over it, and wish, 
 too late, that we also were bound for Cairo, where we 
 passed such a happy time two years ago. We watch * 
 the departing launch with longing eyes, until she 
 pulls up at the old, well-remembered landing-stage. 
 We say both " How d'ye do ? " and « Good-bye " to 
 
158 
 
 the Hotel Victoria (almost hidden in the trees) and to 
 the station, which remind us of our delightful and 
 amusing Egyptian tour, and then, with a sigh, 
 continue on our way. 
 
 The canal is nice again, hot much to do or see, 
 but one morning when I am rather early on deck, I 
 behold Mr. Jackal creeping along by the side of the 
 canal, dodging behind the hillocks of sand, skulking 
 home (wherever that may be) after his night's raid. 
 How sly and utterly depraved he looks. 
 
 Three hours later we have to pull up and anchor. 
 A large steamer is on a sand bank, right in the only 
 track we can take, and a tug has to be sent for, from 
 one end of the canal or the other, to get her off. 
 Fortunately, we are near Port Said, and she keeps us 
 only four hours. Port Said is reached at ii p.m., 
 and we (poor innocents) have elected to roost, others 
 keeping awake to go ashore. 
 
 The shops in the principal street are kept open, 
 expressly for the midnight visitors from big boats, 
 and I believe it is quite a thing to see, for the shops 
 are full of lovely silks, etc. Ah me ! would that / 
 had gone ashore— better for my purse perhaps that I 
 did not — but oh ! the wear and tear for my poor brain 
 that night. COALING.— Everyone who has been a 
 voyage of any length knows what that means, but 
 few have been treated to the full delights of it as I 
 was. My "husband and I had separate cabins next to 
 each other. He usually sleeps like one of the 
 
159 
 
 notorious seven, and he said it was as if some enemy 
 had taken possession of the ship, and the men were 
 trying to hammer in the deck over our heads. 
 Imagine then my feelings, when the coal shoot came 
 actually down through my cabin. When first I 
 entered it, and indeed up to the time of coaling, I 
 thought to myself, " What a lovely cabin, none of 
 your nasty square things, but a bit off here, and a 
 piece added on there; quite a pretty informally 
 arranged room." That ' hit off ' was the coal shoot. 
 Down it came all the night, tons and tons of coal, 
 each bucket sounding like a clap of thunder, and 
 behaving with even greater cruelty, for the vibration 
 shook the whole cabin, and made your spring mattress 
 nearly spring you out of your berth. The only way 
 to live through it was (happy thought, for there were 
 plenty of pillows for the three berths) to put a pillow 
 on either side of your head, and lie on your back. 
 It deadened the sound, but it couldn't do away with 
 the • pea on a drum ' business of every shoot. Eels 
 in frying-pans were not in it. 
 
 In the morning I had the satisfaction (?) of hearing 
 that those who went ashore, had thoroughly enjoyed 
 their small hours of shopping, bought many lovely 
 things, and missed the torments of coaling. 
 
 Brindisi is a failure, so far as enjoyment is con- 
 cerned. We arrive at 8 p.m. A lovely night, but it 
 is not possible for me to land and go into the town 
 alone, and there are no people to whom I care to 
 ' tack on,' or who would care to have me, so I watch 
 
i6o 
 
 the unshipping of the mails — a curious sight. The 
 bags are never-ending. Van after van drives up, 
 four or five at a time waiting for their loads. Then 
 the musicians (?) come alongside — as of old — and 
 play popular tunes, and boys caper about and sing — 
 or rather, yell— discordant attempts at English songs, 
 along with their everlasting two or three Italian 
 ditties, known so sadly too well at home, on street 
 organs. 
 
 Slowly the passengers return on board, having 
 gathered all the home news that they can — in the 
 reading-room of the P. and O. Go's offices — and 
 their letters have been brought on board. Alas ! we 
 are letterless ; a sad mistake to have made, and we 
 are a warning to all good folks going that way — never 
 have letters sent ' poste restante ' to Brindisi ; always 
 send them to the P. and O. Co. Our's went to the 
 Post Office, which had closed at 7 p.m.., and was not open 
 when we left in the morning. Put not your trust in 
 Post Offices which refuse to hand you out your letters 
 from 7 p.m. to 7 a.m. ; though our man (without whom 
 I don't know how we should get along) went twice to 
 the offices to try to rescue them. 
 
 Gaily along to Malta, where we get out and have 
 a drive, and meet some people from home, who have 
 come out to escape the East winds, and who give us 
 the latest news of our Portsmouth and Southsea 
 friends. 
 
 A dance on deck, the night before arriving at 
 * Gib ' — ancient though I be — I rather enjoyed it. Very 
 
i6i 
 
 little time indeed at ' Gib,' and soon after leaving 
 that haven of refuge, the pitch and toss business 
 commences — Oceana plunges and kicks like an un- 
 broken colt. It is after dinner, the first evening, that 
 people begin to understand that they are_ in a ship, 
 and not an hotel. We go up to the music saloon, and 
 my husband and I settle to our game of chess. That 
 is soon discarded, as, in spite of the men being 
 pegged ones, they are flying in all directions. 
 The next business is to try to arrange that we be 
 not sent flying after the men. Other men (living ones) 
 arrive upon the scene ; they come as far as the doors, 
 and some, to avoid an undignified entrance, prop 
 themselves up against the wall, others stand 
 trembling on the threshold, and elect at last, to cross 
 the room. Away they shoot, like stones from a 
 catapult, doing their little best, very unsuccessfully, 
 to avoid falling into the arms of someone sitting 
 opposite. Very soon the place is cleared. The old 
 ones can't either stand or sit (excepting the latter on 
 the floor), a foolish and frivolous-looking attitude to 
 say the least, and the younger ones are mostly ill. 
 We struggle into our berths, and have for two days 
 and nights, about as uncomfortable a time of it as 
 can well be imagined. Tons of water are shipped 
 continually, and streams come down the windsails, 
 deluging the passages to the cabins. Most of the 
 people are ill : those, who came on at ' Gib,' dismally 
 so. Not any ' up channel ' for me. I commence to 
 pack, so as to land at Plymouth. How on earth I 
 
1 62 
 
 get the things into the trunks I hardly know, but I 
 do know, that though I take off my shoes and ' hang 
 on ' with my feet, Lascar fashion, I can hardly work 
 it, and the trunks slide about as if on wheels. What 
 joy to see the Eddystone Light, what extra joy to see 
 the tug, which comes to take us ashore, though 'tis 
 9 p.m., and the night is dark and bitterly cold, 'tis 
 better than the prospect of (as 'tis understood there 
 may be) two whole days more, before the steamer is 
 docked. 
 
 Never mind, Madam Oceana, I don't much grudge 
 you your escapade of the last two days, for you have 
 broken us no bones, and you were in the happiest of 
 moods before you fell in with that turbulent knock- 
 em-down fellow, 'Atlantic,' and you were really 
 obliged to be a trifle nasty over settling your little (?) 
 differences. 
 
 I am home once more. My ' Lares and Penates 
 are all about me. Everything and everyone looks 
 and says " Welcome." Globe trotting is good, and 
 one feels ever so much better in many ways for it. It 
 gives you much to think of, to remember, and to 
 delight in, and it makes one appreciate the comforts 
 and happiness of home. 
 
 All the same, I very much fear that I am bitten 
 with the ' currente per mare et terram ' mania, and, 
 like our old friend, ' Oliver Twist,-' I am quite ready 
 to ask for ' more,' which is sad, for I love my home 
 ties, so my affections are rent in twain, and the war 
 
1 63 
 
 wages between two formidable foes — the fascinating 
 perils and charms of sea and land, and the comfortable 
 repose of ' hearth and home.' It somehow seems a 
 trifle stupid— if health and funds will ' run to it '—not 
 to see as much of our small world, as we can, while 
 here, as it may be that we may, in a future state, be 
 permitted to go to and see others, and it will be 
 pleasant to ' compare notes ' : as to the notion that 
 even yet exists, that we are the only favoured planet, 
 so far as population is concerned ; / have (ever since 
 I knew anything of astronomy) quite banished such 
 an unwarrantable idea. 
 
 Other globes have the cheering rays of good old 
 Sol — have moons — and best of all have atmospheres. 
 These blessings were not given for no use. Never. 
 My one great pleasure — until I took these journeys — 
 was to think : ' Well, I can't see all these beautiful 
 things during my life, but, may be after I am what 
 our world calls ' Dead,' I may see not only all the 
 loveliness of this globe, but that of the others made 
 by the same Mighty Hand.' We have made many 
 acquaintances in our wanderings, a very good 
 percentage of which ripen into friendships. 
 
 The more one travels the smaller the world 
 grows. The links are so many, that the chain soon 
 encircles the globe. As to the interest that some 
 years of knocking about gives to the reading of books 
 of travel and research, and the daily events 
 mentioned in the papers, 'tis wonderful; but every- 
 one knows this. A ship is lost ; you know almost 
 
164 
 
 the exact place where she either sank or run ashore. 
 A theatre is burnt down ; you can picture to yourself 
 the whole scene. There is a royal wedding ; you 
 have seen the town and the palace, and very likely 
 the future home of the young couple. A village is 
 swept away by an avalanche; you know the site, and 
 so on and so on ; and you pile up ancient with modern 
 history, until your brain is full of great events, and 
 quaint books and sayings, and absurd tales and 
 jokes, a happy medley to keep you amused in every 
 spare moment. 
 
 " Where there's a will, there's a way " 
 
 I've often heard good folks say, 
 
 And I'm well aware, my friend, 
 " 'Tis never too late to mend." 
 
 Some say, " Why wander to see 
 
 These terras incognitse ? ' ' 
 
 But my view of life is this — 
 
 That is, " Nothing comes amiss," 
 
 Also that " Knowledge is power," 
 
 So go — gain some every hour ■ 
 
 From the book of Mother Earth, 
 
 From all that owes her birth. 
 
 Then, if eyes wax dim with age, 
 
 And see naught of the printed page. 
 
 Thy mind will a volume be. 
 
 Of all that is sweet to thee. 
 
 LEWIS. PHIN-reR. PORTSMOUTH 
 
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