Utituta, New ^och CHARLES WILLIAM WASON COLLECTION CHINA AND THE CHINESE THE GIFT OF CHARLES WILLFAM WASON CLASS OF 1876 1918 Cornell University Library G 440.B73 Sunwavs a record ol ™'"''fef,,in,HJf||i|?||ii| 3 1924 023 252 483 % Cornell University S Library The original of tliis book is in tlie Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924023252483 COMITI CARISSIMO. S/. *;/{/ cpl^^-^'^-u M^ \-|EW IN THn YDSEMITE GALLEY, (tieik'lit "f Cliff 1,500 feci.) Page 202. SUNWAYS: jl \uix^ili Iambles in 'Sany Bands. ^-C "sub fgdibusque videt nubes bt sidbra daphnis." PLYMOUTH : W. BRENDON AND SON, 26, GEORGE STREET. MDCCCLXXVIII. CONTENTS. CHAPTER I. PAGE LIVERPOOL TO NEW YORK . . ... I CHAPTER II. NEW YORK . . . . ... 9 CHAPTER in. NIAGARA AND CANADA . . ... 23 CHAPTER IV. BOSTQN, CAMBRIDGE, AND NEW YORK AGAIN . . . 40 CHAP2ER V. PHILADELPHIA, BALTIMORE, AND WASHINGTON . . 69 CHAPTER VL CINCINNATI, LOUISVILLE : FORT ANCIENT AND THE MAMMOTH CAVE . . . . ... 90 CHAPTER VII. NEW ORLEANS . . . . . . Ill CHAPTER VIII. ST. LOUIS AND CHICAGO . . . . . I20 CHAPTER IX. TEXAS . . . . ... 130 CHAPTER X. DENVER AND THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS . . . 141 CHAPTER XI. SALT LAKE CITY . . • • . . 157 VllI CONTENTS. CHAPTER XII. SAN FRANCISCO AND LOS ANGELOS CHAPTER XIJI. THE YO-SEMITtl VALLEY AND SAN FRANCISCO AGAIN CHAPTER XIV. SAN FRANCISCO TO JAPAN CHAPTER XV. YOKOHAMA AND TOKIO CHAPTER XVI. NIKKO CHAPTER XVII. K0B4 KIOTO, AND NAGASAKI . CHAPTER XVIII. SHANGHAE AND NINGPO CHAPTER XIX. HONGKONG AND CANTON CHAPTER XX. SAIGON AND SINGAPORE CHAPTER XXI. CEYLON CHAPTER XXII. THE RED SEA AND EGYPT SMYRNA AND TROY . CONSTANTINOPLE ODESSA AND MOSCOW CHAPTER XXIII. CHAPTER XXIV. CHAPTER XXV. CHAPTER XXVI. PETERSBURG AND THE BALTIC APPENDIX .... PAGE 226 281 335 354 362 368 389 413 438 457 467 485 PREFACE. HE following pages, copied with a few additions from the four little volumes which formed my journal during our tour, are neither designed to meet the public eye, nor in their present form — inter- spersed as occasionally they are with per- sonal details — are they fitted so to do. They are written for the amusement of a few friends, from whom alone an apology is needed for the space they will occupy on their shelves. The fact that they have been reduced to their present shape during the spare moments of heavier literary work, must serve as an excuse for the carelessness of their style, and for any errors they may be found to contain. The work of writing them has carried with it the unspeakable delight of recalling some of the most in- teresting moments of my life, passed in the company of a dear and constant friend. W. C. B. Laregan, 1878. SUNWAYS: ^it piletorli of ^ElamblcB in Xa^aiip J^anlis. CHAPTER I. LIVERPOOL TO NEW YORK. Should any one have the curiosity to consult the books of the Cunard Company for the year 1874, he will probably find, under date October lOth, the following entry, or some- thing to the same effect : " Consigned to the British and North American mail steamship Cuba, at Liverpool, Fleet- wood Sandeman and William C. Borlase, attended by John Hucklebridge, and several packages ; in all, twenty- nine articles — all for New York." Quite as possible is it that, should he refer to the local newspapers published on the following morning, he may there read of the great fortitude displayed by these same gentlemen on quitting their native land for an indefinite period, even when (which was the saddest thing of all) they caught the last glimpse of the tug, in which Sir T. T.'s friendly handkerchief still waved a fond adieu. An inspection of their quarters on board was scarcely calculated to restore that equanimity of a small portion of which the last sight of their friends might have been supposed to have deprived them; since it only served to reveal to them that their cabin was dark and confined (being only about six feet square, including berths), and that their fellow-passengers were, with a few B 2 RECORD OF RAMBLES. exceptions, homeward-bound Yankees of an uninteresting type. An idea, which has occurred to great minds before, and on more than one occasion during their tour subsequently sug- gested itself to them, at this moment came to their relief. They would try a new drink. (! .') Soda-water was to be had on board (alas ! not Schweppe's) ; and then they had a few bottles of Hennessy's old brandy, which, without speaking metaphorically, is known to be above the stars in excellence.. And so, as the dull evening closed in, they sat on their chairs on deck, and saw the last of Wales as she sank into the sea in the shape of Holyhead Island. A voice from behind interrupted their musings : " I guess you're going to see our country." The intonation leaving no doubt as to the interrogator's nationality, the answer was, "Yes." Then a pause. "There's a large quantity of land in America." " So we are informed." " There 's a great number of acres there ; very few acres in England. Well, I guess you'll be just about pleased with our country." Both B. and S. fervently hoped that they might be more favourably impressed with the country itself than they were with the first native who had thus struck up an acquaintance. But now, for fear the reader of this journal should be led to suppose, from the use of the third person in the previous page, that he has taken up by mistake a con- tinuation of the Commentaries of Julius Caesar, the writer begs to explain that in- future by the term " we" must be understood the two first persons in the above inventory, and by the term " I" no less an individual than his very own self. " F." in future will stand for Fleetwood, and "B." and " S." conjointly — should it be necessary to adopt such a terribly slang expression — will be restricted to their primitive sense— a " Brandy and Soda." Next morning {Oct. ii), we woke to find ourselves in LIVERPOOL TO NEW YORK. 3 Queenstown harbour, and shortly afterwards were com- fortably located in the dining-room of the Cork Yacht Club. On returning to the Cuba in the afternoon, F.'s nautical attire gained him some distinction, an old lady taking him for the skipper of the tug, and urging on him the importance of starting in good time. This was not the only occasion during our tour that F. was taken for some distinguished personage. Dinner on board proved to be at the aristocratically-unusual hour of four ; tea was at seven, and supper at nine; after which we remained on deck, leaning over the bows, watching the phosphoric light, discussing Grove's Correlation of Forces, and the relation of light and motion — the which philosophy, added to the reiterated meals on this fatal day, proved a cause over the effects of which, were I not bent on telling the whole truth, I would gladly draw a veil. In addition to this little unpleasantness, a head wind set in at night, which continued with but httle abatement all the way. Oct. 12. A gentleman having stated in the train, a few days before, that our good ship was sometimes nicknamed the " Rolling Moses," we were able to add our testimony to the correctness of his words. We accordingly breakfasted off a devilled biscuit, and subsequently " took everything quite quietly." The next day (Oct. 1 3) was much like the last. Schools of dolphins were playing round the ship ; cross seas were making her roll considerably — so much so that she ducked a boat ; and the breeze, which had been getting up all day, at night blew pretty strong. In consequence of this, when, after dressing under difficulties, we scrambled on deck the following morning {Oct. 14), the scene was not without its grandeur. Our boat, which looked large enough in calm water, was being tossed about hke a nut-shell in these great Atlantic waves ; at one time plunging through them, while they swept her deck from stem to stern ; at another poised on their tops, to be dashed down as hard as B 2 4 RECORD OF RAMBLES. possible a moment after into the green trough which was waiting to receive her some thirty or forty feet below. It was a hard time for the sailors, two of whom were washed out of the rigging, one being badly hurt. For the next few days nothing of importance happened ; the sea, which was generally smoother in the mornings, always got up at night ; the wind kept dead ahead ; and on the i6th the pleasing fact was made known, that, although we had been six days at sea, seventeen hundred miles out of the three thousand had yet to be made. Mother Carey's chickens, which flew, like little harpies, round our bows, (the English gulls had turned back through stress of weather,) and sea-weed, washed hither from the coast of Florida, formed our only diversions. On Sunday (Oct. i8) the captain read the service of the Established Church, in accordance with the company's rules. In the evening we marked the position of the constellations, and later on the moonlight effect was striking, as it must always be, when there is nil nisi pontics et aer. Oct. 19. A horrible din in the morning awoke us to the fact that we were in one of those fogs which, at this time of the year, are common on the Newfoundland banks. The signals made by these steamers consist of repetitions, at intervals, of three screeches or hoots, combining, in horrid discord, the basso of the bull, and the alto of the jackass. A more hideous noise could scarcely be devised. A side wind in the afternoon assisted us a little, and we made fourteen knots, being the greatest speed we attained on the voyage. The wind, however, got up again, and during supper a sail was carried away. This night we rolled so much that it was no easy matter to keep in our berths ; indeed, "John" was most unceremoniously ejected from his, as we heard when he appeared the following morning. If the Davenport brothers had been flying their tambourines, the confusion could not have been greater LIVERPOOL TO NEW YORK. S than that caused in our cabin by the jumble of boots, boxes, books, and hats, which fled from this side to that, as our ship struggled on through the cross swell. I may add, however, that John's accident, as above recorded, did not prevent him from treating the party assembled in the smoking- saloon to a thoroughly good joke this evening, nor from dancing a jig on the next. Until the tenth day of our voyage (Oct. 20), when the ship became a little steadier, we had seen but little of our fellow-passengers. They now turned out to be one hundred and sixty in number (the crew numbered one hundred and twenty), and amongst them were some pleasant people ; — notably, Mr. Grant, a Scotchman, going to buy land in Virginia for his son ; Mr., Mrs., and Miss Goodrich, from the neighbourhood of New York, who expressed a wish to show us the Young Ladies' College at Vassar ; Mr. and Mrs. Byam K. Stevens, of New York ; Mr. Bradford, a merchant of the same place, and a collector of armour and antiquities ; Mr. Anstis, a descendant of Anstis the Herald ; two young Jameses, going to New Orleans as engineers, who were very good in getting up a diver- sion in the shape of a comic concert in the saloon, which was most beneficial in dispelling a little of the unutterable monotony and tediousness of a voyage across the Atlantic ; Professor and Mrs. Benjamin Pierce, of Cambridge, Mass., who gave us an invitation to visit them there, of which we subsequently took advantage ; not to mention two Cana- dians named Ring, and an old lady and her son from Chipping Norton. From these and others we learnt many useful hints about the States. Mr. Bradford, especially, was very good in giving us his views on the real character of the Americans, as contrasted with the opinion of them usually carried to England by visitors like ourselves. He said that neither the press, which is a disgrace to the country, and is merely read with a smile, nor the text of 6 RECORD OF RAMBLES. the debates at Washington, which have but little influence, are at all fair or just criteria by which to judge of more than a very small proportion of the American mind, or to test the latent power of the American people. The farmers, he added, who reside outside the cities, and are seldom or never met with by travellers, are a far more important element in the country than is generally supposed. They spend their lives in the study of three things — farming, religion, and politics. They are so thoroughly alive to the bearings of the latter subject that they invariably put their candidate for election through a severe cross-examination with regard to the questions to be brought before him, and so return far superior men to those returned in the cities by that class of Americans who frequent places of resort, and who are therefore supposed by foreigners to represent the political mind of the country, more especially as they take the greatest share in the debates of Congress. Disraeli once said that these farmers were the safety of the Republic, and so, in Mr. Bradford's opinion, they are. Secondly, with regard to American exaggerations. They do not expect you to believe them ; they are merely said with that dry humour which underlies the American mind, and which stolid old John Bull is incapable of appreciating. Thus, English newspapers are continually being taken in by them. For example, it was reported in an American paper, that when Stanley met Livingstone, and told him that Horace Greeley was to be nominated for president, Livingstone replied, " Sir, you know me to be a Christian man, always very much opposed to anything like profane swearing, but I '11 just say this one word to you, and that is, that d d if I '11 believe it." By this mode of ex- pression, and by putting it into the mouth of the great African explorer at all, all the American paper intended to convey to the reader was some idea of the intense surprise with which a human being, even in the most LIVERPOOL TO NEW YORK. 7 distant land, would receive such an astounding piece of intelligence. It never intended the conversation to be considered as a fact. Nevertheless, the English press fell into the trap, and took it up. " Knowing as we do," they said, " the high moral tone of this eminent missionary, we can scarcely believe that he actually made use of the language attributed to him by the American press, and wait for further information on the subject." This is a good example of the way in which poor silly old England is apt to misinterpret the language of her too precocious child, even when it is not really meant to mislead. A Yankee, when he wants to tell you that his steam-boats draw very little water, will say, " I guess our propellers will sail in dew." This is merely his way of expressing in the superlative the extreme shallowness of the boats, and of exciting astonishment in the mind of the hearer equal to the occasion. However seriously these things are said, they are perfectly intelligible to his brother-citizens, who, for fear of betraying the weakness of risibility, receive them with equal seriousness — studying perhaps how to cap them by something in reply that is calculated to "whip creation." Thirdly, Mr. Bradford remarked that America, being only one hundred years old, has not yet emerged from her practical working phase. She has not had time nor op- portunity to cultivate those arts and sciences for the de- velopment of which a certain amount of idleness and repose is indispensable. Fourthly, he noticed the great liberality of intercourse existing between persons of dif- ferent classes* and opposite religious persuasions ; and, fifthly, he said we should find in the States little or no ill- feeling to England. This evening {Oct. 20) we had some singing in the. smoking-room. It reminded me of the old Commoner • This opinion, though holding good in some parts of the United States, we were by no means able to endorse in all. 8 RECORD OF RAMBLES. singing at Winchester; and F. remarked that we were rari nantes in gurgite, which, being freely translated, means " choice spirits sailing on ' the pond.' " This same smoking-room had, by the way, been the scene of a serious casualty a few nights before. A heavy green sea burst open the door against which F. was sitting, thereby washing him clear over some machinery in the centre of the room, and depositing him against the opposite wall, to the dis- placement of his equilibrium, and the extinction of his pipe. Oct. 21. Fine weather at last; but wind still ahead. Passed an "Anchor Line" steamer at midnight, showing lights, which the Cuba answered by sending up six or seven Roman candles. Oct. 22. We took a pilot on board at six a.m., being then three hundred miles from New York. There are four-and-twenty pilots who come out to these steamers ; and it is usual on board to get up a sweepstake on the number of the boat which is the first to reach the vessel. To such straits are the poor passengers reduced for amuse- ment during this tedious passage ; but it is a very nice thing for the winner, who thereby clears the whole or a large part of his passage-money. Oct. 23. We woke to find ourselves entering the harbour of New York, after emerging from a second fog. NEW YORK. CHAPTER II. NEW YORK. After passing some neat villa residences on the shores of the Hudson, we anchored to receive the quarantine officer opposite Fort Lafayette. Here the river opens into a magnificent harbour, where all the fleets in the world might well ride at anchor. We landed at Jersey City, and, after passing the Customs, crossed in the ferry, and going to Mr. L.'s, lunched with him at Delmonico's, "down town," and afterwards secured our rooms at the Fifth Avenue Hotel. New York proper — not including Brook- lyn and Jersey City, from which places, on either side, it is separated by water — is divided, socially speaking, into three parts. The part knowff as " down town " is equiva- lent to our " city." It is the business part, where are to be found the banks, the " City Hall " where trials take place, the principal stores, &c., sometimes located in fine new buildings, such as Morgan and Drexel's Bank, and some- times in the old houses, where formerly the most important of the early settlers resided with their families. Then there is the "Bowery," which is the Irish and German, and, generally, the least respectable quarter of the city ; and, thirdly, there is " up town," by which is signified the upper part of the Fifth Avenue, and the streets adjoining. Beyond and above this again is " Central Park," so called, not because it is, but because, in the sanguine minds of the well-wishers of the city's progress, it is to be, the centre of the town. Our first impression of New York was well summed up for us by an acquaintance — " Paris," he said, "gives us the New, and England the York" This is lO RECORD OF RAMBLES. observable wherever you turn. If the old houses took form from English models, French domestic architecture has afforded the designs for the more recent ones ; if English sempstresses dressed "Lady" Washington, Parisian modistes are responsible for the neat and elegant attire which graces Fifth Avenue to-day — their style rather toned down than exaggerated by its journey westward. Not that there is not plenty of old England yet remaining — plenty of evidence in the New Englanders themselves of whence they came, and from what class they were derived, and the date of their immigration ; plenty of words, such as "I guess," and "I reckon," used in just the sense which Shakespeare or Spenser sets upon them ; plenty of faces trimmed as we see them in the portraits of our ancestors in the reign of Charles I. ; plenty of hotel cars lumbering over the ill-paved streets, hung upon leather springs, and which retain the form, nay, the very make, of old English coaches, when coaches first had being ; plenty, in short, of quaint survivals, which prove how truly conservative the descendants of those early settlers have been, of habits of speaking and acting which now too often are the sport of ignorant denizens in that island which, for more than a hundred years, was casting her children forth. In the evening of this day (Oct. 24) we went to the Opera House, where we heard Albani, who was well received. The house is a fine one, but too white. Oct. 25. Being Sunday, we went into a Church, which proved to be a Presbyterian one. There seemed to be a great absence of Americans, but a prevalence of that canny individual— the Scotchman abroad. From a preaching- box in front of the organ, Dr. Hall gave us a sermon delivered with good manner. Then an. adaptation of their doctrine to Keble's "Sun of my soul" was sung; but the tune was sepulchral, and the poet's verses had been mutilated. NEW YORK. II Owing to the kindness of our friends, we were intro- duced to three clubs, the Union, the New York, and the Traveller's. These clubs are small compared to ours, but are exceedingly hospitable — the introducing member being expected (as in all American clubs) to present his friends to any other members who may be there. Strangers, when admitted, may dine, and make any use of the club they please, from periods of a fortnight to a month, the only exception being that, of course, they may not admit other strangers. We dined at the Brunswick Hotel, as we did not much relish the American style of dinner at the Fifth Avenue. Little dishes were the order of the day at the latter. Sometimes as many as eleven or twelve of these were shovelled down in semicircles round our plates, each containing an exceedingly small portion of meat or vegetable — the almost invariable dish being turkey and cranberry sauce. In other respects this hotel is a fine and commodious building : it fronts the Fifth Avenue at Madison Square, the place where it is crossed by the Broadway on one side, and 23rd Street on the other. The ground-plan of it is three sides of a square — the kitchens, with a stack as tall as a manufactory chimney, being in the middle. It contained, when we were there, about fifteen hundred guests, and is on the American prin- ciple of paying by the day, whether meals are taken in the house or not. The restaurant is a large circular room, with a painted ceiling, supported by white pillars, with capitals of gold, between which are mirrors. Newspapers are sold outside this room, and public drawing-rooms are on the same floor. On the ground-floor is a hall, a reading-room, and a caf^ besides a barber's shop, which in these grand hotels is generally elaborate and excellent. The basement- hall is a busy scene as soon as the Exchange "down town" is closed. New Yorkers flock thither, and the excitement over the "almighty dollar" is often kept up till a late hour. 12 RECORD OF RAMBLES. Walking up the Fifth Avenue in the afternoon, we were able to observe the handsome houses which grace its sides, and especially Stewart's, which is built of white marble. The owner of this house commenced life as a small school- master ; subsequently went into the "dry goods" or drapery business ; and has now two entire " blocks " of buildings, one "up town," and one "down town," which are the largest " stores " (j.e. shops) of the kind in America. The most beautiful building " on " Fifth Avenue, if it is ever completed as it has been begun, will be the Roman Catholic Cathedral, with the exquisitely delicate tracery of the rose window over the west door. Another feature in Fifth Avenue is as good an evidence of one of the most common evils in New York, as it is disgraceful to the citizens. Standing apart from the rest is the conspicuous house of a woman who has accumulated untold wealth by that kind of wickedness which has only too often proved a blot to the medical practice of the United States. Passing on into Central Park we found the autumn tints not yet over, although the trees themselves were planted only a few years ago. This park is no less than seven miles in cir- cumference, and is beautifully laid out with lakes and fountains, deriving their water from the city reservoirs adjoining. In places where rocks protruded through the surface, I noticed that they were grooved and striated by ice action, at a time when the Hudson river must have been the valley of a vast glacier moving eastward. As we walked back in the evening we noticed the remarkable clearness of the air, which is not impregnated, like that of London, by fogs or blacks. It is true that the streets " down town " are often narrow and dirty, but for this same reason I am told they are not unhealthy — since they are in the open air — though the smells are often most offensive. With regard to things commercial, we were not long in finding out that the great blot and stain, as NEW YORK. 13 an American gentleman confessed to us, is the fictitious value of the paper currency, and, in consequence, the equally fictitious prices of articles of trade. Until these things are put on a solid basis, there can never be confidence, and must always be that restless uncertainty which is generated by distrust, and which appears in the countenances of those who, whether in politics or commerce, find themselves alternately intriguers or dupes. We saw that things were in such a state that it was not hard to prophecy the speedy advent of large failures, and accordingly within the year we saw without surprise the collapse of one great firm dragging many a smaller house down with it in its destructive trail, while the principals, as usual, managed comfortably to feather their own nests on the eve of the disaster. Oct. 26. We drove to Fleetwood Park, to see an American chariot race ; or, in other words, a trotting match. On the way there is some nice scenery, especially where the "High Bridge" crosses the "Haarlem" river. The course is one mile, in shape an irregular circle. At its side a grand stand and club-house have been erected, the latter fre- quented by all the low sporting men of the city — butchers, prize-fighters, and the like. For some reason or other — although the racing itself is an extremely pretty sight, and one which might be supposed to be attractive to ladies — it is not patronised by the elite. The trotting is quite an American " institution," and the horses, trained for the purpose, are developing a distinct type. On a house, as we drove out of the grounds, we noticed the following not very intelligible advertisement — " Little Neck Clam Chowder," which means, that a mess of potatoes mixed with clams (a kind of mussel) found in the " Little Neck " estuary is sold there. We dined at Delmonico's, and had an opportunity of admiring the size and flavour of American oysters. If they would live in English beds. 14 RECORD OF RAMBLES. it is high time we imported some to replenish our failing stock. Oct. 27. Next morning I went down to Varick Street, where the Episcopal Church Convention was being held, in order to hear the debate on Ritualism. The church is a highly -coloured Venetian room with galleries — the apse shut off) on this occasion, by a red curtain, in front of which, on a platform, sat the President, his secretary, and the speakers. The delegates, lay and clerical, were ar- ranged in pews, each bearing the name of its occupiers' respective province. There was noticeable a decided con- trast between the quiet gravity and earnest interest with which these people approached the subject, and the hubbub and party outbursts of a Church Congress (such as that at Brighton), where I had heard the same subject discussed shortly before leaving England. The proposed canon condemning the practice was carried by a large majority, but the speeches lacked point, and were often vague. I next went to the Astor Library, consisting of two airy halls placed side by side, well arranged, and commodious for reading. There was a singular poverty of old printed books and MSS., but this want will be made up for when Mr. Lenox opens the library he is building near Central Park, for the accommodation of some of the greatest rarities Europe can produce. The fund at the Astor for the purchase of new books is not suffi- ciently large to keep up with the times, but it is hoped that the present Mr. Astor may leave some money to it. In the hall of the Fifth Avenue we were so fortunate as to meet my friend General J. Meredith Reed, U.S. Ambassador at Athens, who was very good in giving us an introduction to the leading literary club in New York — The Century, as also to several gentlemen, from whom we received the greatest kindness. We next went to call on Mr. S., at a fine 0)4 house in Lafayette Place. The floors were inlaid, NEW YORK. 15 and the stair-case might have been carved by Grinling Gibbons. It belonged to Mr. S.'s mother-in-law, a relative of the Astors, whose property in New York is very considerable. By their pictures on the walls, her four daughters must have been beautiful. The present American ladies are generally extremely pale; and when they talk fast, the sound of their voices is not musical; but their free and amiable manners make up for any trifling defect of this sort. Before we left we were induced to try some toddy, made of some special American whisky, a drink which we appreciated more, now that it was a novelty, than we did a few months later, when we were utterly tired of it. Oct. 28. There is one phase of New York society which I have not yet mentioned. It is that of the Knickerbockers, or descendants of the original Dutch settlers, and those families with whom they have intermarried. In their own eyes at least they are the aristocracy of the city ; and in the eyes of others they certainly show to advantage as gentlemen of wealth, taste, and refinement. Mr. H., on whom I called this morning, belonged to the select noblesse. I found him in his study downstairs, dressed in a manner suitable to the time of day. He is a literary man, and has travelled much ; is a zealous Protestant, and has translated Abbadie on the Chemical Change in the Eucharist, with a magniloquent preface worthy of his genius and taste, of which work he gave me a copy, beautifully printed, and bound in vellum. He is a collector of books, antiquities, and objects of vertu. His house is regardlessly fitted up ; but, like the generality of Fifth Avenue houses, is too narrow. I remained with him some time, and smoked a cigar. He told me that when in the East he had fallen in with Lady Hester Stanhope, who wished to make him her premier when she was " Queen of Jerusalem :" so anxious indeed was she to retain his services that he was obliged 1 6 RECORD OF RAMBLES. to resort to an artifice in order to obtain permission to leave her. He had known Mr. Curzon when in the Levant, and had travelled with him. With much earnestness he imparted to me many interesting facts with regard to con- temporary history, in which he has played a part ; more especially as to Mexican affairs and Romero, to whom he dedicates his book. At three p.m. he returned my call, and took me for a drive. Everyone seemed to know him : his bow was perfection. A novelist, by the way, wishing to represent the noblest character in the world, once made him the hero of his book under the name of George H. This was by way of disguise, his name being really John ; " otherwise the portrait was a correct one." F. and I dined at the Brunswick, and afterwards went to the Park Theatre, where we saw Vice-President Wilson, General Hancock, Mr. Montgomery Blair, and C. K. Garrison The want of respect and regard for what is done at Washington came out this evening in a speech put into the mouth of one of the actors. A poor fellow, being in great pecuniary difficulties, was advised to "go in for being a Congress-man." "No," he replied sorrowfully, " No. It 's true, my friend, I 've fallen very low, but have some respect for my honour ; I 've not fallen so low as that." Oct. 29. We went to see the " Century Club " in Fifteenth Street. It numbers about five hundred members, and is the centre of all the literary life there is in New York. Professor You mans called on us. He edits the Popular Science Monthly, and is a friend and admirer of Herbert Spencer and his works. Speaking of him, he said that he was much read in America amongst shopkeepers, artizans, and students generally; and that there was no man in Europe whom the people so much desired to see. Other great scientific men who had been there were quite secondary objects of admiration. "Amongst men of learn- NEW YORK. 17 ing in America Spencer's works are," said Mr. Youmans, "far better known than they are amongst a Hke class in England." " It is strange," he added, " that in the latter country a great many literary people are still in total ignorance even of his name."* The Professor is a fine specimen of a downright, honest, outspoken man, and we both liked him much. It is to be feared that his work is ruining his eyesight. In going "down town" to call on Mr. Cooke of the Tribune, and Mr. Godkin of the Nation, we passed the City Hall, an old-fashioned building ap- proached by a flight of steps, glazed with numerous small- paned windows, and having a clock tower in the middle. We dined with Mr. L. Some American young ladies were there. One, a typical one, was very pretty, with nice eyes, but her complexion white and delicate, showing that the New York season is too continuous, and lacks the run into the country which brings back the roses into English young ladies' cheeks. In striking contrast to her pale face was that of a Canadian cousin. Here we tasted, for the first time, the favourite American dish, the "Terrapin" turtle. Conversation admits of greater freedom than with us, and yet it is more genuine than is the case in France^ Oct. 30. We crossed the ferry to Brooklyn, and took a street car to the Greenwood Cemetery. The roads in this part of Brooklyn are very rough, and the car was full and jolting. We took a carriage at the gate, and drove round the cemetery. It is five or six hundred acres in extent, and contains two hundred thousand interments. All tlie principal "New Yorkers" have their vaults here. The ground is undulating, and the entrances to the vaults have the appearance of little holy wells, such as • The interest I took in finding out how far the so-called " Synthetic Philosophy " and doctrine of Evolution had spread in America caused me to make ftequent inquiries as to the extent to which Mr. Herbert Spencer's works were read. C 1 8 RECORD OF RAMBLES. there are in some parts of England. Between the groups of monuments are several lakes and fountains, and the ground is well planted. We saw the monument of the inventor of the syphon soda-water bottle, in the form of a fountain ; also Morse's, on the summit of an eminence. Another was in memory of a fireman, whose life had been lost at his post; and a fourth, a statue, had been put up by an elderly naval man seventeen years before he died. He was represented in the act of taking an observation— his helioscope in his hand. There was one to a young lady, killed in a carriage accident, which perhaps bore off the palm for beauty. We dined at the New York Club, and F. and I had a conversation on the motives which prompt the Americans to make such magnificent ceme- teries. Number one reason is that they are got up by companies, who make it a paying concern. But then, why should people put up such elaborate mausoleums ? The feeling clearly is the same as that demonstrated by our great-grandfathers, when they covered the church walls with "lying tablets" and broken pillars, and urns, and horn-blowing cupids, and had funerals with out-riders, and mutes, and waving plumes — a feeling still perpetuated by our middle classes in sanctimonious newspaper an- nouncements and large black cards ; and its appearance amongst the Americans in an exaggerated form is only another instance of how much they resemble our common ancestors, and the present middle class in England. Some- times, no doubt, it is attributable to that individualism — that desire, or rather necessity in many cases, for every one to make the most of himself, which is a natural result of a government in which there is no respect for titles ; and this phase of the question is also observable in the careful biographies kept of all distinguished men, and also perhaps in the "bragging" for which some Yankees are not unjustly blamed. But the setting up of costly mono- NEW YORK. ig ments is also to be attributed, not infrequently, we had reason to suspect,* to a latent and growing distrust in the belief in the soul's immortality, and a wish therefore, since all things are perishable, to make the record of existence as lasting as possible. This is consequent on the decay of religion, and so it has been in other ages, and among other races than our own. Every Friday evening Mr. H. gave a little ronton, to which we had a general invitation. Ices and coffee ; then cigars and excellent Scotch whisky, and the interesting conversation of all the most interesting people just then in New York ; such was the entertainment. We, being Englishmen, were made a good deal of; for, in spite of what Americans may think of us as a class, they do make a great deal of us as individuals. Among the people there were the Austrian Ambassador, the Turkish Ambassador (Aristarky Bey), Mr. Gould, a philologist, General Han- cock, famous in the old war, and now a politician, and many others. F. discoursed on things in general, while I brought back Mr. H. to his travels, and especially to Lady Hester Stanhope. When in England, he said, he had been exceedingly disgusted, and not a little nettled, at the patronizing manner in which the English branch of his family had treated him, their American cousin. Oct. 31. The Bishop of New York called on us again. He is tall and thin — exceedingly pleasant and simple- hearted in his manner — too good a man for troublous times, or rather, I should say, not sufficiently insincere to be able to cope with them. Mr. L. called for us, and drove us to Jerome Park, ten miles off. The weather, which had been intensely hot, was to-day cool and pleasant. The race-course is a singularly pretty one ; a club-house stands on a green slope on one side of it, and the grand stand on the other. Between these two buildings is the centre of the * What we saw in other parts of America served to confirm this view. C 2 20 RECORD OF RAMBLES. steeple-chase course, the rest of it stretching out on either side in the shape of a hank of cotton. For this reason, though the turns are far too sharp, the horses are never lost sight of by the spectators. A large number of ladies attended these races, and there was a marked absence of the roughs and betting men who disgrace the English turf. Aristarky Bey was there, and also Lord R., in Mr. Duncan's drag. Professor Youmans called for us at eight p.m., and took us to a meeting of the Century Club, where there is a reunion of artists and scientific men every Saturday night. The club provides a light supper, and the corner is pointed out where Thackeray used to sit. Following the key-note struck by Herbert Spencer, Mr. Youmans is opposed to giving the franchise to women. The very function of their nature must, he was of opinion, absorb all their best energy; they are physically incapable of coping with men. Speak- ing of spiritualistic seances, and of the recent articles by Wallace, the naturalist, he said that the instances cited from America, on which so much stress is laid, will not bear scrutiny. Neither Robert Dale Owen, Hare, nor Judge Edmonds are worthy of credit, when they pretend to pro- duce evidence on the subject, — a fact which every American knows very well. The history of the present spiritualistic element in America is to be traced to the supernaturalism so deeply engrafted on the minds of the people from the very commencement of their history as a nation. This supernaturalism was embedded at the root of that form of religion they originally professed ; but, when once it had been confronted by scientific education, there were many who threw off the surface dogmas, and retained only the refuse of their old belief, in the form of a vague idea of some external power. On this basis has been built up the pseudo-scientific nonsense called spiritualism, and many there are found to be, ripe and ready to be caught by it. Collectively, it has been raised to the rank of a NEW YORK. 21 definite faith, and called " the religion of the future," as we afterwards saw in California ; individually, it is a species of lunacy, called Mediomania, as we learnt from a clever little book called the Philosophy of Spiritualism, written by a certain Dr. Marvin. The Professor was loud in his praises of Mr. Spencer's philosophy; he thinks he will be appreciated in his lifetime, and that his works from the beginning show a systematic application of the principles of evolution, struck out by himself long before* Darwin. With regard to the present condition of the United States, we heard from Mr. Youmans a confirmation of our own conclusions. He always, he said, thought well of its financial management. At the time of the war he advised his friends not to sell ; stock righted itself again. But now he expects a crisis; not in the government securities, but failures of individuals. As I said before, the fictitious value of property, and the uncertain value of the paper currency, cause a want of confidence, and a consequent depreciation in the value of money. Nothing but crises can right this, and the sooner they come the better. Government is strong enough ; that will stand. The back-bone of the country will bring in their money to support it ; but certain individuals must fail. Our friend Mr. H. was there, and by his desire I introduced him to the Professor. "I know you well by reputation, sir," was the latter's opening remark. "As illustrious, I hope, and not notorious" was Mr. H.'s happy rejoinder. We were then presented to Mr. Macdonald, Secretary of the Erie Railway, and to the Professor of Greek at Columbia College, who spoke of Schliemann's Troy as a subject awakening great interest in the States ; also to Samuel Tilden, then candidate for the governor- ship of the State. He was a shrewd, discerning man, with small penetrating eyes. Altogether, we spent an evening which we shall not soon forget. Nov. I (Sunday). Mr. H. offered us his pew in Grace 22 RECORD OF RAMBLES. Church, Broadway, and as he made a point of our going there, we went. The horrid yellow windows were enough , to blind one. The service was similar to that of the Church of England, except that some verses of other psalms are inserted in the "Venite;" that several prayers were used . instead of the Litany ; and that paid musicians conducted the singing in an organ loft at the west end, the people never joining audibly. The hymn-book was one " com- manded to be used, and no other," the bishops having power to insist on uniformity. Nov. 2. We dined at Delmonico's with Mr. L. and Mr. C. The latter had been travelling in the West. He was chairman of some mining companies, and gave me a bad account of my countrymen, the Cornish, who, he said, are pig-headed, and always persist in working on their own plan. Before leaving New York I had been struck with a downrightness of character in the people we had met, together with an absence of humbug, — a wish to oblige without the least cringing, — which was refreshing. It is the result of several generations of independence. NIAGARA AND CANADA. 23 CHAPTER III. NIAGARA AND CANADA. Nov. 3. We took our places in a car for Albany, the seat of Government for the State of New York. These "drawing- room cars," of which we now had our first experience, are about 60 feet long by 10 feet wide, and contain, besides smaller compartments at the ends, a central saloon fitted up with 24 revolving velvet chairs placed in two rows. As we skirted the bank of the Hudson the river scenery was decidedly pretty, and was especially interesting where we caught sight of the "palisades," a singular geological formation, where the river cuts through beds tilted com- pletely on edge at right angles to the present water-line. For beauty of scenery. West Point, the seat of the Military Academy, excels all other spots on the Hudson, and in some respects is not unlike the Bosphorus. Arrived at Albany, we called on Chancellor Pruyn, but found him just leaving home. The town seems a remarkably dull one. It stands on a hill, and amongst some deserted squares is the State Building ; but there was nothing to tempt us in ; and the dirt and closeness of the Delavan House Hotel, the menagerie smell of the nasty nigger waiters, whom we saw here for the first time, and the still more sickening odour of the chewed tobacco which covered the floor, determined us to start again for Niagara without delay. Accordingly we got into a car, which proved a fairly comfortable one, for Rochester, stopping at Utica for supper. Great excitement prevailed in the towns through which we passed, owing to the elections. At Syracuse, where, as in many other places, the rail runs through the 24 RECORD OF RAMBLES. Streets, bonfires were burning. When at last we drew up at the "deepot " a crowd of black waiters were beating gongs to prevent us from closing our eyes to the delicate viands provided for us. The engines have cages, or cow-catchers, in front ; a deep sound is given out instead of our whistle, and a bell, like a chapel bell, is tolled by the drivers when they are crossing other lines or passing through a town. We changed our car at Rochester at lo p.m., and had a second-rate one up to Niagara, full of miners and artizans going West. Our first intimation that we were approaching the Falls was the sound of the Rapids at 1.30 a.m. the follow- ing morning {Nov. 4), and a few minutes after we found ourselves literally besieged by hotel men in the station. We went to the Spencer House, a fairly comfortable place, and the only large hotel which was open. Lulled by the cataract, we were soon asleep, having travelled from ioa.m. till 2 a.m. the following morning, only stopping one hour at Albany. After breakfast, in spite of lying carriage-drivers, who told us it was a drive of sixteen miles, we walked down the street of the little town to the bridge leading to Goat Island. Crossing this bridge, under which the river rushes rapidly, and following the road on the island through a glade, we arrived at the top of a flight of wooden steps. Going down these, we came close upon the summit of a fall — the narrowest of the ones on the American side. It was quite as high as we expected, being one hundred and sixty-four feet. Thence we passed by a bridge to Luna Island, so called from a rainbow, which we did not see. Beyond this island is the principal and widest of the American Falls. The river Niagara is separated into two streams by the Goat Island : one branch, skirting the American bank, is again divided into two by Luna Island, while the other, running down by the Canadian bank, forms the finest fall of all, known from its shape as the Horse-shoe. The river thus precipitates itself into a NIAGARA AND CANADA. 25 basin at two places, almost at right angles to each other. On the Canadian side are villas and hotels, and where the river escapes from the basin at the end opposite the Horse- shoe Fall, a handsome suspension-bridge crosses it. Passing on round Goat Island, we came to a little wooden shelter in which are dressing-rooms. In one of these we donned an oil-skin dress and lint shoes, and commenced our descent to the " Cave of the Winds," under the narrower jet of the American Fall. A cork-screw stair, fixed to a mast, and enclosed by planks, like a wooden turret, leads the tourist for about one hundred feet perpendicularly down the side of the cliff. Once at the bottom of this shaky contrivance, we walked along a rubble pathway till some wooden steps, with a railing on one side, showed the way down into an abyss of blinding mist and deafening din. Following our guide down this place for about sixty feet, we clambered along a ledge of rock which cut our feet, until we came to a place where our breath was nearly taken away. It was the bottom of the fall ; a shower-bath descended on our heads, and a pile of fallen rocks close by made us rather apprehensive that similar fragments might at any moment come down on our own pates. Here I, being first, waited for the others. The guide told us before we started, that the effect would be "like heaven and earth coming together ; '' but to us, not given to romance, it appeared nothing but a waterfall. We now passed outwards through the spray, clambering over rocks, sometimes on our bare feet, and sometimes by aid of ricketty bridges crossing ominous rapids, until we came to a place where we could look up and see the body of water which had been passing over our heads. This effect was grand and beautiful, as the sun, which had been obscured by mist, came out and shone on the top of the cascade. More planks, with shaky rails, to cross, and then we returned by an outer route to the path at the foot of the cork-screw stair. We dressed, 26 RECORD OF RAMBLES. and proceeded for three hundred or four hundred yards through the wood to a little promontory from which we could look down on the Horse-shoe Fall. The body of water passing over the centre is of unmeasured depth and is green in colour. It raised a pillar of smoke-like vapour as it struck the rocks below, which rose up in a column far above the top of the fall. Several stories are told of adventures which have taken place here. One poor young fellow made a bold attempt to cross the river immediately above the fall in a canoe. He was getting on very well, and would probably have achieved his object, when, about half way across, one of his paddles broke. Seeing that all hope was gone, he stood upright in his little vessel, and, clasping his hands over his head, was carried over and dashed to pieces. Professor Tyndall gained a great reputation in Niagara, not long since, for wading out underneath the fall to a spot where the guides would not venture, with a view, if possible, of gaining some idea of the depth of water passing over. In this, however, he could not succeed. We also heard the story of the Freemason who betrayed the secret and was thrown over, as it is told in America. It is said that his brethren invited him to a pic-nic, and when they got him to the little promontory on which we stood, they took him up, and telling him that such was the reward of his unfaithful conduct, flung him in, and subsequently screened the murder by their silence. We walked round to the other end of Goat Island, and came to the Three Sisters, as some little islands are called, studded with dark firs, and connected with each other by rustic bridges, under which the rapids pass, like the raging of a turbid sea. After this we returned to the village, passing on the way up the street a signboard with an advertisement, strange to English eyes, namely, "Wm. Samways, Justice of the Peace." We dined at 2.30, and tasted for the first time Catawba and Delaware grapes NIAGARA AND CANADA. 27 the latter resembling in flavour black currants and straw- berries combined. We took places in a drawing-room car, and arrived at Toronto at 7.30 p.m. The hotel we went to was the " Queen's," conducted on the American system, though American money is not taken here. It was a clean house, but there were black waiters, whose impudence was intolerable. Nov. 5. Toronto is a rising place perhaps, but there is ample room for improvement. We first of all tried a walk ; but the streets were ankle-deep in mud, so we took a carriage and drove to see the University. It is a good building, but the interior is cold. There is a Natural History Museum, a hall for degrees and examinations, and a library and lecture-rooms. The students are three hundred in number, forty of whom reside within the walls ; they have no religious tests, though originally, as King's College, it was a Church of England foundation. By an inscription in the hall, it appears to have been re-founded when Sir Edmund Head was governor. There is in front of the building, in the park, a monument to those of the Canadian volunteers who fell in the Fenian raid. From thence we drove to an institution of arts and education, where there is a theatre on the plan of the Sheldonian, full of busts; and in the same building were numerous copies of ancient masters, some original pictures, and copies of Egyptian art. There were also a few geological cases ; but none of these things seemed much cared for. The institution was founded by Sir William Logan. In the evening we went to the Royal Opera House, to hear " King " in Ingomar — a pretty little house, but a poor play ; so we crossed the road to another little theatre, where the comic entertainment, though less aristocratic, was more enjoyable. Nov. 6. The view of the island, from the quays on the shore of the Lake Ontario, is peculiar : it must be very flat, since all that is to be seen of it are some trees and a light- 28 RECORD OF RAMBLES. house, which appears to stand in the water. Mr. Nash, a Freemason, took us to see the lodge-rooms. The craft-lodge is eighty feet long by fifty wide ; the altar is in the centre, and there is no pedestal before the master's chair. Some one of the numerous Toronto lodges meets there every night in the week, and a dining-room is attached. Besides this, in the same building, is a Royal Arch Chapter, and a Knight- Templars' Encampment ; and in another building is a Rose Croix Chapter. The Masons in Toronto number over a thousand. A new Masonic Hall is shortly to be built, and stock raised for that purpose. Toronto, like most places, in their working phase, possesses numerous "orders," " fraternities," and " benefit societies." In Canada, however, they do not stand in the place of old faiths which have decayed, for Canadian sectarianism still shows the strength of a religious element ; but their popularity may be more safely attributed to the desire for mutual confidence, succour, and support amongst settlers in a new territory. Three of these societies hold processions, when they wear their regalia in the streets : these are the Odd Fellows, the Foresters (who have more than one million dollars invested), and the Orangemen, whose bitterness against the Roman Catholics is even more keen here than it is in Ireland, and gives rise to occasional disturbances. Seeing a large and handsome ecclesiastical edifice, not unlike a Roman Catholic Cathedral, except thut _^eurs de lis had taken the place of crosses on the roof, we went in. It was the Metropolitan Wesleyan Methodist Chapel. The church itself is really a fine hall, i lo feet long, and proportionately broad. Its length is north and south, and there are galleries all round, so arranged as in no way to hide the pulpit, which is at the north end, under a handsome but poor organ. The acoustic properties of the hall seemed excellent ; the seats are of crimson velvet, and the windows painted. The architecture is a light and airy Gothic style, and the place NIAGARA AND CANADA. 29 combines in appearance a church and a music-hall. There is a Icirge class-room at the end, and into this we went, and seated ourselves near the door to listen to the discourse of an eloquent revivalist divine, formerly a Lancashire butcher. Here is one of his "instances." "There was once, my dear, dear brethren and sisters, a very wicked mem who resided not far from me, when I lived in that great and sinful city of Man'chester, England. Now this man had in his house a number of leetel dorgs, of a sort which in the ' old country ' they call taryer dorgs. And what d' yer think he wanted with all these leetel taryer dorgs ? Why he wanted 'em because he was a very cruel man, and he used to fill baryels full of rats, and turn these leetel dorgs into the baryels with the rats, and then lay wagers on the number of rats the leetel dorgs would kill. Now one day this wicked man laid a large sum of money that one of his leetel taryer dorgs would kill a certain number of rats in a given time. But the rats were very big and strong, and the poor leetel dorg couldn't kill them all in the time, and so his master lost his money. Now when this cruel man saw that his leetel dorg had lost him his money he was very angry with him, and he took him with him one day to the Zoo-o-logical Gardens in Man'chester, and thrust him in between the bars of the lion's den and left him there, thinking the lion would come and eat him ; and the people who saw the poor leetel dorg in the den of the fierce lion thought he would have been torn in pieces. But no, my dear brethren and sisters, it was not so ! Lo and behold, the leetel taryer dog lay down between the lion's paws unharmed ; and there he remained in that lion's den for fifteen long montfis ! Now it so happened that one fine day after this that wicked master came to see the Zoo-o-logical Gardens again, and there he saw his leetel dorg still lying in the place where he put him more than a year ago ; and when he saw how the 30 RECORD OF RAMBLES. people were crowding round to see the lion and the dorg, and wondering how he got there, says he, ' that 's my dorg.' And after a bit, when he saw that the keeper was making a good deal of money by the show, he says to the show- man again, 'I tell'ee that's my dorg, and I vant him.' And what, my Christian friends, was the answer the show- man made to this wicked man } ' If you want your dorg,' says he, "you as put him in had better go in and take him out' Now, my dear children, listen to the moryal ! The believing Christian is that leetel taryer dorg lying between the paws of the lion of Judah, and it 's the devil that wants him; but if he wants him, what is it that we have to answer him ? We've just got to say to the devil what that showman said — ' If you want him just come in yourself and take him out, that 's all.' " Prayer followed the effusion of which this was a part, and the class-meeting went home, their simple fancies tickled and their hearts refreshed by the eloquence of this gentleman who, by a somewhat severe severance, one would think, from one mode of life to another, had given up slaughtering carcases for the more spiritual occupation of reviving souls. Alto- gether, it is evident that the supernatural and emotional element has a great hold on Toronto people, and this being the case, I was surprised to learn from the principal book- seller that Herbert Spencer's Sociology was having a large sale. But then most people don't half understand either what they hear or what they read, and besides this, "ex- tremes meet " in communities as much as in individuals like the preacher. This day our hotel was thrown into gloom by the death of Captain Dick, the landlord. He was an historical personage, inasmuch as he was one of the first to bring ships into the Lake of Ontario ; hence we may judge of the date of Toronto's commerce. In the evening, coming out of a play at Mrs. Morrison's Opera- house, we saw the engines going to a fire, not an infrequent NIAGARA AND CANADA. 3 1 occurrence in a place where all the pavement, and most of the suburban streets and houses are of wood. Nov. 7. Professor Goldwin Smith is here. Poor fellow, he is still wandering to and fro, seeking in vain to found a Utopian republic who will make him its president. Here, however, his attempts to stir up strife have been attended by small success. He has given offence to the Toronto papers by a speech in which he advocated " Independence." There is, it is true, a small party in Canada who wish to form a Republic, but the "lumber" (timber) trade is not what it was, and the majority are a race of people possessing little intelligence beyond their warehouses and their wharves, and yet shrewd enough to see that they cannot afford either the time or the money to take all the burden of diplomacy on themselves. A larger party there is of "Annexationists" — that is, of persons who think that a union with the United States would be more advantageous than one with Great Britain — that a colony of England is a less enviable position than a free state of the Union. America, however, does not want Canada, and would not have her as a gift. The majority, too, are in favour of preserving the ties with Great Britain, and what is seen to be a matter of advantage by business -men becomes " loyalty " in the mouths of women and children. Mr. Parkman, the historian of Canada, when I met him after- wards in Boston, gave me a very lucid reason for the attachment of the old French population to the English administration of their affairs. They are, of course, Roman Catholics. Their priests (through corporate bodies — such as colleges, monasteries, &c.) hold large and valuable lands on the banks of the St Lawrence. If they joined the union, these lands, under the law of the United States, would be taxable. Again, if the Canadians managed their own affairs, they could not afford to leave them untaxed. Under the English law alone, as church property, they pay 32 RECORD OF RAMBLES. no tax. The priests influence the people, and a doctrine of continued allegiance is what they accordingly teach. We drove out into the country up the road which is called Yonge Street, and which runs north as straight as a Roman road, for one hundred and twenty miles. The farms by the road-side are small holdings averaging from one hundred to four hundred acres ; it is mostly a grain country, but the farmers do not restrict themselves to any one object. Cows, sheep, and poultry are the stock of the smaller farms. The farm-houses are neat little villa residences built of brick, while the smaller ones, as also the barns, are of wood. The landscape was often quite English, the ground undulating, a church on the top of a hill, and a village school. In Canada, all seem to be " honourable men." We dined to- day with the Hon. B. R., at the Toronto Club, to which he kindly introduced us ; the Hon. Mr. Justice (or rather „Judge") G., and a third Hon^^'*- Mr. T. a .sportsman, came in in the evening, and sat with us over a glass of Canadian whisky, seductive stuff, which the young Canadians drink in too great quantity, and hence generally, die when fever attacks them. Nov. 8. The English Cathedral is a large building sur- rounded by galleries. Thither we went this morning. We then walked to the house of a gentleman who possessed the first brick house in Toronto, built in 1810 or thereabout, and then in the woods, but now in the middle of the city. In the course of luncheon he told us that there are no union workhouses in Canada, because all people can provide for themselves. There is no pauper difficulty known to the Legislature; all are working men; and the "lumber" mer- chants have done, and still in many instances are continuing to do, a great business : there is no characteristic crime or misdemeanour among the people. He contrasted the excel- lent administration of the Canadian courts of justice with the state of things in the Western States of the Union. NIAGARA AND CANADA. 33 For instance, not long ago, in a Kentucky court of justice, the judge, upon some real or fancied affront, fired a revolver at the counsel; another counsel returned the compliment; then the officers of the court took it up, until at last there was not a man left in court among the officials who was not either dead or wounded. Lynch law in those outlying States and further West has been very common. The reason of this is, that escape from gaol or bribing the jury or the judge is made so easy, and is a thing of such usual occurrence, that if a man has lost a horse and discovers the thief, instead of letting him go to prison he finds his only sure remedy to be to hang him on the next tree, or shoot him down. In the struggle for life among the colonists of a new country this conduct is scarcely repre- hensible, when it is considered that to deprive a man of his property is to deprive him of his means of existence. We afterwards called on Mrs. R., and found both her and her family nice homely people ; the men in business, like all Canadians, and the ladies minding their household affairs. We dined at the Rossin House. These Western Canadians, as it appeared to us on our short acquaintance with them, were an industrious, homely, kindly-disposed people, tho- roughly imbued with religious enthusiasm ; not mentally gifted beyond their requirements ; at heart much attached to England, speaking of things done there as done "at home," or "in the old country;" but, nevertheless, there was a monotony about them, and a want of enterprise in prosecuting any new undertaking, such as will keep . them above want though below greatness ; in short, they want the ingredients of a rising people. Nov. 9. This morning we employed in observing the effect of rye-whisky on the brain of a human subject, by which I mean that we stood for some hours watching a drunken fellow piling wood on his log cart and getting it upset again with the next jolt. I suppose we had not D 34 RECORD OF RAMBLES. laughed for some time, for this fellow's antics caused us immense amusement. Such are the sights of Toronto. At seven p.m. we set out in a Pullman sleeping-car for Montreal, having as fellow-passengers a Mr. L., whom we had met in the club at Toronto, and Mr. N., who after- wards sent me a few Arizona diamonds (of which I do not think much) and a fossil from Wyoming. He told me that the Americans had been playing great tricks in the Lake Superior mining country, running down mines which were really excellent. At Madoc, near Belville, a place which we passed during the night, there is a gold mine where the refuse is turned to account on the spot, being used for the production of white arsenic, Paris green, and brown pigment; so that there is absolutely no waste. After supper, at about lo o'clock, a nigger came round to make up the beds, which he did by pulling down wooden platforms from the sides of the roof of the car for the upper berths, and turning over the seats for the lower ones. Bedding is then brought from a cupboard at one end of the car or from behind the upper platforms, and curtains are attached to rods running along the centre. The lower berth has the advantage of a window, from which, at 7.30 the following morning (Nov. 10), I caught sight of the sunrise over the St. Lawrence and a rapid with a few islands near it ; the country was flat, but good agriculturally. On arriving at Montreal we went to the St. Lawrence Hall Hotel, which we found most uncomfortable. It is strange that in so large a place as Montreal there is not a better one. This discomfort was made up for in a great measure by Mr. Law, on whom we called, who introduced us to an excellent club — the St. James's. Montreal is divided into two parts ; to the east of the Roman Catholic Cathedral it is French, the names are French, and the people speak old-fashioned French; to the west of the cathedral it is English. The town is NIAGARA AND CANADA. 35 situated between the river St. Lawrence, by the side of which are the wharves, and which is crossed by a tubular bridge two miles long, and the " Mountain " or Mount Royal, a trap hill, steep and richly wooded, rising out of the liniestone. The river St. Lawrence seems either to have altered its course, or at one time to have been much wider. We noticed rolled stones, and perhaps also ice-grooved rocks, strewn all over the ancient bed. Next morning (Nov. 1 1), as we were going up to the club to breakfast, we saw a lady walking down the street, probably to do her morning's shopping, and carrying, as ladies do for safety, her well- filled purse upright in her hand. Suddenly a thief pounced out from a side street, and, jumping round at her back, made a grab at it over her shoulder ; the old lady, however, held it too tight, and he didn't succeed. She screamed ; we ran up ; and the thief bolted. We called on Dr. Oxenden, Bishop of Montreal, who kindly returned our visit at once. We drove with Mr. Law to the rapids, passing on our way the village of La Chine, opposite which, on the other bank of the river, is the Indian village of Cogginee Wogginee : the inhabitants of this are Roman Catholics. Nov. 12. We lunched with the Bishop, a kind-hearted, amiable and excellent man. Unfortunately some difference exists between him and the rector of the fine church adjoin- ing his house, as to his right to that as a cathedral. After this we went to the skating-rink, a large shed, with a floor capable of being flooded, so as to form ice in the cold weather, which was already setting in. During the time that the St. Lawrence is frozen, all the business-men in Canada get a holiday ; but the time of hardest work is just now when the accounts have to be settled up, previous to being put away till spring. Montreal is badly drained, owing to the objections made by the French portion of the population to improvement ; hence fevers and small-pox are prevalent. D 2 36 RECORD OF RAMBLES. A hideous block of building, near the rink, is a Roman Catholic Cathedral in course of erection, on the model of St. Peter's at Rome. We dined with Mr. G., who showed us the peculiar and characteristic mode in which settlers strike matches. Talking of matches, he said that Bryant's safety matches are not used there, the public having taken warning from an incident which occurred to a gentleman who once took them with him on a deer-stalking expe- dition. His servant filled his silver match-box with them. They had to camp out ; and the night being bitterly cold, the first requisite in the camp was a fire, when, lo and behold, the matches would not go off, because their own box was not there. So the poor fellow had to eat his pork raw ; and no one who knew of his sufferings ever again used Bryant and May. Nov. 13. On this and every morning we breakfasted at the St. James's Club, which we found perfect in every respect. I then went over the Geological Museum with Mr. Hoffman, who is the chemical analyst there. This collection was formed by Sir William Logan during the Survey. There were slabs of rock, and casts, showing the trails of extinct crabs of the king-crab kind. One little room was devoted to specimens of the Eozoon Canadense, (the supposed earliest form of organic life,) and which here occurs in juxta-position to serpentine. One specimen, finer than the rest, showed the Eozoon in the Laurentian limestone, abutting on the green serpentine; the speci- mens were mostly microscopic. Besides these there is a good collection of trilobites, bones from boulder-clay, and two gods, each eighteen inches long, recently brought by Mr. Richardson from Queen Charlotte's Island, carved by the natives out of hard black stone. These, in the position of the figures, huddled one on the other, reminded me strongly of the deities represented on the monoliths of Central America and Yucatan. At Mr. G.'s this after- NIAGARA AND CANADA. 37 noon we met a French-Canadian lady, Miss de R., whose parties are quite the thing ; she was vivacious and naive, full of life and fun. F. and I were called " globe-trotters " first in Montreal. At 9.30 that evening we started for Ottawa (one hundred and twelve miles), at which place (after changing at Prescott, and waiting there from 2 till 5.30 a.m.), we arrived at eight o'clock on the morning of Nov. 14. In the cars on the* American continent it is necessary to observe great caution that you get into the right one. We had an instance in point on this journey. A fellow-passenger, having first taken his seat, and deposited his cap, coat, and boots in the adjoining car, had come into our car and laid himself down to sleep. When he woke in the morning at Ottawa he found that he had arrived at his destination, but that his apparel had gone in another direction, the car having been uncoupled in the night. We called on a friend, and F. subsequently paid his respects to the Minister of Finance on the duty question. The Government buildings here, which are not quite completed, are handsome ; they consist of three blocks. The central one has a fine tower, and contains the Senate House and House of Commons, two good halls of equal size ; also picture galleries, with por- traits of Canadian worthies, and a circular library at the back. The other two blocks, which form, with this one, three sides of a square, contain the offices and committee- rooms. The whole pile occupies a site not unlike the Capitol of some old Greek town. On the south side the houses creep up the hill towards it, but on the north a steep and wooded bank slopes sheer down to the river Ottawa, which makes a bend around its base. From the summit there is a commanding view northwards, broken only by a range of fir-crowned hills and undulating country, which, from its sameness, makes people say that there is " nothing between Ottawa and the North Pole." To the west winds the river, 38 RECORD OF RAMBLES. the banks lined with "lumber" stacked in yards; and be- yond these are the Chaudiere falls, where the divided stream pours down from either side of a limestone crevice, the effect of which was very pretty when we saw it, for icicles were hanging from the rocks. Ottawa, in spite of its fine position, will never be more than a Governmental city. Although the Canadians will not own it, Mr. Parkman, who has made .the matter his special study, assured me that the " lumber " trade is falling off, in proportion as the forests, as they are cut down, recede from the river banks, and it is scarcely possible that some iron mines recently found in the neigh- bourhood can repair this loss. Meanwhile the city, if it ever is to be one, is in its infancy; the private houses and ware- houses are neither lofty nor fine, and the smaller residences are of wood. Lord Dufferin's place, as governor, lies up the river to the westward ; but the staff and other officials must have a sorry time of it in Ottawa. The choice of a capital for Canada being referred to the Queen, she chose Ottawa, it is said, for two reasons. Firstly, it is removed by distance from all harm's way on the American frontier ; and secondly, by making this choice she did not run the risk of offending the other existing cities by choosing one of them. We returned to Montreal that evening, and supped at the club. Next day (Nov. i6) was Sunday, and being tired with our journey, we devoted our time to writing up our Journal. Nov. i6 was a warm wet day. We strolled into Bleury Street, to Notman's, a photographer's, and bought some photographs ; from here we walked to the top of the " mountain," whence we had a view of the city. And a beautiful one it was, with the setting sun on the warm-looking brick houses, and white steeples dotted here and there, the two towers of Notre Dame, and the river with Its bridge beyond. There is a hollow in the top of the hill which might, perhaps, have been the crater of some- old volcano. In the woods we noticed a good many birds, NIAGARA AND CANADA. 39 such as tomtits, the American spotted woodpecker, and a kind of linnet. Nov. 17. I called again at the Geological Museum, where I met Dr. Harrington, Mr. Grant, and Mr. Weston, the latter photographer to the Survey, who were courteous and kind. They told me that Dr. Dawson is engaged on a mono- graph of the Eozoon. At 3.40 we started for Boston, rejoicing to leave our dirty hotel, and a town full of small- pox. Altogether, though we had not much to complain of in the weather, having had an Indian summer part of the time, I did not carry away a particularly favourable im- pression of Canada, either as regarded its climate, its capa- bilities, or its inhabitants. F. liked it better than I did ; but I was glad to get back to the States. 40 RECORD OF RAMBLES. CHAPTER IV. BOSTON, CAMBRIDGE, AND NEW YORK AGAIN. We played ecart^ in our car till late, and then slept till eight a.m. on the morning of Nov. i8, when we found ourselves in Boston. We went to the Parker House Hotel, conducted on the European plan, and after breakfast called on Mr. Otis — a splendid specimen of a Yankee of old French extraction, as hospitable and cheery as the day was long. Speaking of a hotel, he said, " I guess, they '11 fix you nicely," meaning, "put us up, and make us com- fortable." After we had gone through the ceremony of " having a drink," he sent for a carriage, and drove us to the Somerset Club ; on the way showing us the part of Boston which was burnt. The fire took place just in the centre of the warehouse and " store" part of the city. It covered such an extent of ground that nothing was left between Wash- ington Street (a central thoroughfare) and the shipping. Several places reminded us of old English market-towns, though the old buildings are gradually being replaced by new ones, high and elaborate in structure and style. The Government House is a fine old-fashioned place, with a gilded cupola, and stands at the corner of a large plot of ground in the middle of the city, laid out with trees and water, and forming a pleasant park for the Bostonians. Here we saw for the first time little houses fixed to the branches of the trees — the abodes of the sparrows they are trying to naturalize. Further on, on the same side of the park as is the Government House, and in a spot which reminded me much of Piccadilly near Devonshire House, is the Club. It is substantial and elegant, though the BOST©N, CAMBRIDGE, AND NEW YORK AGAIN. 4 1 rooms are not large. The dining-room is a model room for comfort. Besides it there are several morning-rooms, a billiard-room, and skittle-alley, private dining-rooms, bedrooms, &c. But what struck us more than all was that nearly half the club, entered by a different door, is appropriated to ladies. Here, if they are shopping in the city, they can have their luncheon, and see the papers ; and so good are the club rules, or rather so superior is the method and practice of society in Boston to our own, that ladies may be perfectly sure to meet none but respectable people there, and, an infringement of the laws of etiquette on the part of the members of the club in introducing any who are not received in society is a thing unheard of The lady in America is, I may add, safe from insult, walk where she will. The attention paid her reminds one of the picture we form of the days of the minuet, a hundred years ago. Under these outward conditions (for I do not mean to dive deeper into American morals) Ladies' Clubs are possible. The question for us who are thinking of starting Ladies' Clubs in London is, " Can we depend upon even such outward conditions as these.'" and the answer, I fear, is doubtful. Boston is proud of her fire department; so we went to see the engines, and the horses running into their places in the shafts at the sound of the bell. Then Mr. Otis took us to see a famous livery- stable, where the Bostonians board out their carriages and horses. By this time our friend's hospitality had caused us, under protest, to imbibe three " gin cock-tailsj" which reminds me of the Liquor Laws of Massachusetts. A few years since, the temperance party became so strong that it was able to pass a law forbidding the sale of liquor altogether. Now there is a reaction. Drinking-places are more common in the streets of Boston than in any other city in the Union ; and because the law says that drink must not be sold over the counter, it is passed under it, or customers are admitted 42 RECORD OF RAMBLES. • into a little room behind the scenes. The police have relaxed their vigilance, and under the present Democratic (i.e. Conservative) reaction the law will probably be re- pealed. It is a lesson to us that too strict a law may produce results the very opposite to those intended. Man must have a drink, and forbidden fruits are the sweetest We lunched at the club ; after which I went the round of some old booksellers' shops, and after dinner we went to the theatre to hear " Mimi." Nov. 19. This day we spent in paying some calls; first, on Mr. Alger ; secondly, on Mr. Brigham, who took us to the Historical Society, and showed us the library and museum; thirdly, to the Art Museum and Athenaeum Library. All these literary institutions bear testimony to a restless intellectual spirit perpetually seeking something to devour, but I rather question its doing much substantial work, or, as the physiologists would say, "making tissue." Nov. 20. We got into a street-car for Cambridge, which is about three miles from Boston, and alighted at Harvard Square. We walked through the college, but found no porter to show us round. The university consists of several blocks of red brick buildings, each containing under- graduates' rooms, and each block called by the name of its founder. In front of these, and facing the square, is a little red building in the style of Queen Anne's reign, formerly a chapel presented to the university by an English lady before the separation from England. Characteristically of the change of habit, it has recently been used as a chemistry class-room. The buildings connected with the university are old-fashioned, and have no pretentions to beauty. Connected with them is a white building called the College Chapel, where the service is Unitarian, and which, we were told, is also used for conferring degrees in the same manner as the Sheldonian Theatre at Oxford. The library is an ecclesiastical-looking edifice, singularly badly BOSTON, CAMBRIDGE, AND NEW YORK AGAIN. 43 adapted for the reception of books. It contains about one hundred and sixty thousand volumes. Some of the earlier ones, as Mr. Sibley the librarian, pointed out to us, were the gift of Thomas Hollis, who caused them to be curiously bound — some having an owl on the back for wisdom, or a cock for shrewdness, according to the merit and nature of the subject matter. We were not long in paying our respects to our friend on board the Cuba, Professor Benjamin Pierce, and a kinder friend or more attentive cicerone we could not have found. He is Professor of Mathematics and Astronomy, and is a noble specimen of an American literary man of the old school, with keen intelligent eyes, a most amiable expression, and long grey hair falling over his neck. He lives in one of those pretty little villas which give the city of Cambridge much the appearance of a succession of English villages, just as the older parts of Boston are like a succession of English market towns. The professor at once went with us to the museum, and presented us to Professor Anthony, the conchologist, who has just arranged a beautiful collec- tion of shells for the university, and who, at the time we went in, was engaged on a lecture on that subject We were also shown into a room which the Harvard men consider almost a sacred spot, — namely, the lecture-room of the late Professor Agassiz, whose views in opposition to Darwinism have had great weight in the university, and have done much to retard the acceptation of the evolution theory in America. It can scarcely be doubted, however, that the fervour with which he handled the controversy led him into narrow-mindedness on the other side of the question, and into making use of arguments, the logical parallels in which were questionable. We saw his great collection of fishes — a room with a gallery round it, entirely filled with bottles of specimens. We were next taken to be introduced to the President, but a sad, though not 44 RECORD OF RAMBLES. uncommon, occurrence had taken him from home. He was attending the funeral of a young student who had killed himself a few days before. The ceremony of his burial was attended by some twenty or thirty carriages, besides troops of undergraduates, who we saw returning from it at three p.m. I remarked to one of the Professors how different was the funeral of an Oxford undergraduate who had died while I was there under similar circumstances — scarcely anyone attending the funeral, and the body being thrust away as secretly as possible, as if the world was ashamed of it, at six in the morning. "Yes," he replied, "your prejudices in England sometimes amount to superstition. Here we pay these poor young fellows just as much honour as if they had died in the usual way. We consider this a definite form of mental disease, and we treat it in the same light as any other disease." In Harvard, the undergraduates and professors of the present day wear no caps or gowns. The latter did so until recent times, when Professor Pierce was one of those who, " thinking it nonsense," gave it up. The university is all one college, so that there is no rivalry between colleges as at Oxford and Cambridge. As to the coloured men who are there, Mr. Pierce gave it as his decided opinion (and in this he was supported by others), that pure negroes have not the capacities for learning which the whites possess. Some mulattoes, however, have distinguished themselves as orators, metaphysicians, &c., and of these Frederick Douglas is an example. We were so well pleased with our first day at Cambridge that we were not slow in accepting an invi- tation to go again next morning {Nov. 2i). Mr. Pierce again acted as our guide, taking us to the Peabody Museum and the " Science" and " Engineering" departments. In the former I saw Squier's collection of South American crania, and also some interesting pottery, not yet described, brought from Missouri. Some of the specimens were in the shape BOSTON, CAMBRIDGE, AND NEW YORK AGAIN. 45 of ducks ; others had their necks moulded in the shape of the human head, Hke SchUemann's "Trojan" vessels ; others were similar in form and texture to Roman and Romano- British pottery. There were also some good European collec- tions from Denmark and the Swiss Lakes, and some excellent Mexican vases in grotesque and hideous shapes. Here, how- ever, it may be observed that, even amongst some well-edu- cated Americans, there is a difficulty in making them believe that there could be any American antiquities of real interest, earlier than the date of the contact with Europe. After presenting the library with a copy of my book, we went to the Memorial Hall, recently built by private contributions in honour of those students who joined the Federal army and fell in the war. Some people do not approve of the name " Memorial Hall," as they think it will engender an element of strife in the minds of those who may hereafter come from the Southern States to Harvard. The entrance- hall in the centre of the building is surrounded by tablets to the memory of the dead, and off this opens a fine airy dining-hall, as large or larger than Christ Church Hall, Oxford, surrounded by portraits of worthies, where the students may dine economically. We walked through it to the davs, where, on grand occasions, the President and Professors dine ; and on the way had an opportunity of seeing what the dinners were like. From their quality they certainly ought to be inexpensive. Next we went to see an undergraduate's room. As a rule two men agree to take a sitting-room together, their bedrooms opening into it from either side. The set of rooms we saw were com- fortable, and much like those at Oxford. The two friends in this case had clearly different tastes. A human skull was lying on the table, and geological specimens on a bureau close by; while boating-groups, and ribbons, and young ladies' photographs adorned the walls ; and the bookcase held both Ganot's Physics and Homer's Odyssey. 46 RECORD OF RAMBLES. In this manner it often happens that "room-mates" become friends for life ; for the American is a social animal, and hates working by himself, or mooning through life alone. These friendships, however, must never be confounded with those spiritual fraternities which render life at the German universities often so unspeakably ridiculous. There is another manner in which life-long friendships are frequently formed at American universities, and that is between students who go through their class the same year. Thus they graduate at "commencement day," and equal honours bestowed, crowning, it may be supposed, an equal amount of labour gone through in an equal number of years, and tested by the same examination papers, are considered to form a tie, such as that which officers in a regiment would feel on returning together from a tedious but victorious campaign. The students are "brother-officers" and in this sense and no other are the fraternities at Harvard formed. Exercise, such as boating, is not discouraged. The pre- sidents of all the colleges in the Union met and discussed the matter, and the result was that boating was allowed. There used to be a proctorial system at Harvard, but there is none now except in name. In conversation with Mr. Pierce, he told us that he has recently been engaged in the immense and valuable coast survey, now in course of completion by the United States Government. There is just now a new proposition for carrying a canal by the Nicaragua route across the isthmus of Panama, which they want him to inspect, but he feels too old for such a work. Being, as the Harvard people perhaps rightly assert, the first mathematician of the day, and his theory on the ring of Saturn having gained him distinction as an astronomer, I ventured to ask him whether in the course of his studies he had touched on the question of the possibility of astronomy assisting the geologist in determining the date of the glacial period, as BOSTON, CAMBRIDGE, AND NEW YORK AGAIN. 47 asserted by Procter and some of our popular writers. His answer was, that as yet he thought the science of astronomy could not give the geologist any reliable assist- ance ; geology must at present be content to work for herself. He parted with us, asking us to dine with him on the Monday following, and also to accompany him to a club dinner in Boston the following Saturday, where we should probably meet Longfellow and Emerson. Nov. 22. (Sunday). The principal religious denomination in Boston is that of the Unitarians ; I accordingly wished to be present at one of their services. I made a mistake, however, in the direction, and found myself in a singular place, which proved to be an "Orthodox Church," what- ever that may mean. I found myself in a square Vene- tian room with galleries all round, and a platform and desk on it at the end. In this desk a young man with a black moustache and tie to match was conducting the service. After some prayers and hymns came the Gover- nor's Proclamation for the Thanksgiving Day on the following Thursday, and then there was read from a MS. an effusion such as is difficult to describe. The object of it seemed to be not exactly to puzzle, still less to instruct, but to astonish the audience by violent antitheses. The preacher compared persons who expected the Bible to do everything for them to those who expected to see a "locomotive climb trees;" he mentioned Eusebius, Basil, and Ambrose as men who, by their false interpreta- tions, had perverted the Scripture ; he talked wildly of cu-t, and philosophy, and literature, and finally burst out with " The Bible isn't a treatise on astronomy, nor geology, nor baptism, nor greenbacks" His descriptions were full of coined words ; he talked, for instance, of scores of " hem- cured," and all this rhodomontade perfectly nihil ad rem to his text. His hearers were not an intellectual, nor yet an ilite assembly, but seemed a mild set of people. The 48 RECORD OF RAMBLES. same afternoon we went to a second entertainment of a different sort ; this was a Spiritualistic service. It was held in a hall surrounded by pictures. At one end was a platform, in the centre of which sat a lady called Floyd, who was to officiate. On her right was an elderly man, who acted as a sort of Master of Ceremonies ; while at the further end of the dais were four musicians at a piano, who played and sang several anthems and hymns specially adapted for this faith. Mrs. Floyd was a short woman about forty ; she spoke in a sing-song dreamy tone, which was hard to understand, but by the use of which she evidently meant to represent ecstasy or inspiration ; her eyes seemed generally closed, and her hands were clasped. This extraordinary form of superstition is, according to its votaries, "an abstract from the inductive (!) evidence obtained at spiritual seances." Its votaries, who, to judge by the attendance (about forty) are not numerous in Boston (though the service is free), pretend to hold, or perhaps really believe they do hold, such close inter- course with the spirits of the dead as to be able to draw them or repel them for purposes of good or evil. They will tell you that persons of other religions, such as the Christian, are perpetually bothered by bad spirits hovering round and preying on their souls. Mrs. Floyd finished her discourse by a prayer for blessing from the "Great Mother," whoever that may be. The gentleman on her right then asked if anyone had any questions to ask, when another old fellow, evidently a devotee, got up and asked something about step-children being jealous of each other in the spirit world, and whether the spirit of a dead first-wife could do injury to the health of a living second one. To this knotty point he got no direct reply, but only a second effusion like the first. Some of the hearers sat with their eye-brows raised and their mouths open ; and if it is not irreverent to say so, they would have been interest- BOSTON, CAMBRIDGE, AND NEW YORK AGAIN. 49 ing specimens in the tanks of the Brighton Aquarium. Mrs. Floyd was handed some envelopes, which she pressed against her brow, then scribbled on, and returned to their happy owners. F. declared that he saw an accomplice under her table. In the' evening, after dining at the club, we went to a third place of worship. This time it was a Universalist Church, a fashionable ecclesiastical-looking building, with decorated windows and a spire. Inside, a nave expanded into an octagonal dome, at the further end of which was a platform, and in front of it a lofty desk, with a Bible on the top. After a duet from the musicians, the minister, Dr. Miners, a tall old man, with a black tie, ascended the rostrum ; and, spreading out his hands, invoked a blessing on all his worshipping children, and especially on the lessons they might derive from the lecture that evening. Then, after " Life is real " had been sung, he introduced Mr. Forsyth (a Scotchman), who proceeded to lecture on Buddha, and in the course of his paper stated that he so far differed from Professor Max Miiller as to consider the goal of Buddhism, Nirvana, synonymous with "complete annihilation." What lesson or consolation the "worship- ping children " were to derive from this it was rather hard to say. Then followed some more hymns, and then the minister pronounced a " Grace," with arms again uplifted. The church was pretty full, and we noticed more intelligent- looking people than at either of the other services. Most of them were young people, some of whom paid marked attention and took notes. Next morning {Nov. 23) we called on Mrs. Alger, who enlightened us on the subject of some of these heterogeneous superstitions. She said that there were two sets of Unitarians in Boston, the distinc- tion between them being that the older party, called the Orthodox, professed a belief in hell, while the newer, or the Liberal ones, did not. To the latter class most of the older E so RECORD OF RAMBLES. Harvard people belonged, while the Universalist Churches have carried ofif the less intellectual classes. Others, she said, had outstripped them all, basing all religion on natural causes. We dined at the Pierces at Cambridge, where we met the Professor's sister, and his three sons. Drs. Shaler and Asa Gray, the former a geologist who has done a good deal of work in the Kentucky districts, and the latter the well-known botanist, were also invited to meet us. The conversation was very interesting, as it turned on subjects which were special ones to those engaged in it. They com- pared the flora of America and Greenland, and Dr. Shaler mentioned the curious fact that in the days of primitive man in Kentucky there was a native traffic for a thousand miles both to the North and South. Copper came from Lake Superior, and shells from the Gulf of Mexico, as shown by recent excavations among the works of the Mound-builders. Nov. 24. We had a late breakfast at the club with Mr. Otis. A Mr. Cuninghame made the fourth, and we heard a good story or two, and drank some excellent Madeira (Gordon Duff", 1813), which ripens in a peculiar manner in this country. We heard that it is kept at the top of the houses, and that the Southern States were particularly famous for it until the war, when the old houses were plundered ; and the soldiers, getting at the cellars, drank it as if it were beer. We accompanied Mr. Otis to his house, where he showed us a quaint old picture of Boston, when there were only a few red brick houses, and a few ducks in a pond where now the park is : it had been worked by an ancestress in 1750. In the evening we went to the Howard Athenaeum Theatre. England ought to send the Americans some better actors. The piece was a comedy, and, that the lower classes still enjoy a joke at the expense of English "aristocrats," was clear from the fact that the foibles and mistakes of a " magistrate of England " BOSTON, CAMBRIDGE, AND NEW YORK AGAIN. 5 1 was the thing which brought down the house. The common people, by the way, in America do not understand being patronized. If you say, "My good fellow, which is the way .' " the man will probably be sulky, and won't answer you ; but if you say, " I want to know the way," he will tell you readily. The impudence of the waiters, and especially of the niggers, is beyond everything. I heard a gentleman, coming downstairs at the Parker House, say to one of them, " I want a buggy and a horse." " Which will you have first ?" was the ready reply. "Why both together, of course." " Oh ! you put the buggy before the horse, so I guessed you wanted that first." JVov. 25. We removed to the Revere House Hotel, where we got a good sitting-room. At the club we had the pleasure of meeting a son of Longfellow. We spent the rest of the day in hearing two lectures. The first was by a noted lady, Mrs. Julia Ward Howe, gifted, it is said, to such a great degree that she can lecture on any subject under the sun ! The room was full of ladies, not a few of whom were young and pretty. We were almost the only men there ; but girls don't titter in America, so we did not lose our composure. The subject of the paper was, " Is polite society polite }" a question which, as far as its structure is concerned, is as logically incomprehensible, until the point is seen, as is the farmer's assertion when he tells one that " pigs is pigs." The answer she gave to the question carried the requisite definition. "What is called polite," she said, " is not really so." Among other things Mrs. Howe treated with considerable satire the dress of Americans when in Europe, where they think they may do anything they please. On the whole the lecture was a neat little production of what, to judge from it, was a very ordinary feminine mind ; it was interspersed with moral precepts graphically illustrated, but it lacked method . Like the comedians we had heard the night before, this lady, E 2 52 RECORD OF RAMBLES. too, must have a hit at England. " England," she said, " is an unpolite people, cruelly divided up. With all its civiliza- tion it keeps a great amount of barbarism. When they (the English) do acknowledge a great moral principle, then we take them to our hearts." The second lecture we were taken to hear by Mr. Alger. It was given by a Mr. Mackie, on the science of " Gesture Language." After giving good illustrations of the connection between feelings and gestures, and observing that the latter radiate from the several divisions of the body, he proceeded to satirize the manner in which Shakespeare is acted, and to show how he thought he should be rendered, not so loudly as is commonly the case, but with more attention to the gestures of the face and limbs. Then we supped with the Algers, a nice homely party, consisting of the mother, two daughters, and two sons. It is usual for the eldest daughter to take the head of the table, and do the talking ; for on an American young lady coming of age she is supposed to take all household cares off her mother's shoulders. At one period during the evening Mr. Alger was absent for about five minutes, engaged, we were amused to find, in marrying a couple. Both he and his family seemed to spend their lives in the pursuit of knowledge. Nov. 26. .We heard at the club that Agassiz had left every letter he ever received, and that his son was engaged on his " Life," which would take some time, but would be a copious work, though some difficulties stood in the way of compilation. Nov. 27. We went over to Harvard, by appointment, to meet Professor Shaler at the Agassiz Museum. He intro- duced us to Dr. Hagen, an excellent man and a German, who graphically explained to us the contents of some well-arranged entomological cases. We were shown also a magnificent collection of crinoids from Burlington — the best of the sort in the world. Dr. Shaler then invited us BOSTOISr, CAMBRIDGE, AND NEW YORK AGAIN. 53 to lunch with him at his early dinner, where we had the pleasure of meeting his wife. He told us a story, which much resembled the one we heard at Toronto, of a curious scene resulting from a feud between two families, the Thompsons and the Davises, in Illinois. It occurred also in a court of justice. A Thompson in the witness-box accused a dead Davis of having been a thief, whereupon pistoling commenced. Four Thompsons and one Davis were left dead on the floor. No one else was hurt. The judge, in giving his account of the affair afterwards, said he did not so much -mind the carnage, as that somebody had used his prostrate body as a vantage ground on which to stand and fire. In Illinois there were then no police ; but pistols were the only remedies for offended honour. Dr. Shaler had been himself engaged in the war between the North and South. Speaking, of course from the Federal point of view, and of that part of the field in which he had himself been engaged, he said that the greatest difficulty which the officers experienced was to get up sufficient enmity between the contending parties. The "Johnnies," that is, the Confederates, used to be warned by the Federals when the latter were going to fire. Sometimes hostile (!) pickets were found smoking a pipe together. It is usual, we observed, for the victorious Federals to remember pleasant incidents of this sort, and to look upon the comfortable side of things ; but we heard a different tale, and saw a different sight, when we went South. In the square at Cambridge is the tree under which Washington first drew his sword when he took the com- mand of the armies. It is to be hoped that the fact that Longfellow now lives in the house which was his, may be regarded as an omen that the pen in America has taken the place of the sword. This evening I spent at Dr. Asa Gray's, at the Botanical 54 RECORD OF RAMBLES. Gardens, Cambridge. He showed me his house, which is connected with a lecture-room, a museum, a laboratory, and several conservatories filled with valuable specimens of ferns and flowers. Returning to his study we fouhd the members of the quiet scientific club, whose meeting I had been invited to attend, all arrived. They had come to hear a paper by Dr. Gray, on " Variety in species : Does it wear out ?" This was subsequently discussed biologically; and Dr. Gray seemed to lean towards evolution a little more kindly than his friends, who were of Agassiz's feather. At supper, afterwards, I sat between Dr. Gray and Mr. Eliot, the President of the University of Harvard, a gentle- manly, unassuming man, of scarcely forty. This I look back upon as one of the most pleasant gatherings during my tour. These clubs are often the result of old class- friendships, such as were mentioned just now ; this one had been in existence more than thirty years, and its members were, most of them, contemporaries of Dr. Gray. The President deplored the notion of taxing the University, which he said had recently been mooted in the Legis- lature. He thought the idea had its rise in Mr. Glad- stone's Charity speech, for which he did not thank him. By the same act, however, churches would be taxed ; and he hoped that the opposition which the measure would meet with from religionists might save the College. Our party numbered twelve or fourteen in all. Next morning (Nov. 28) we went to see some of the buildings in Boston, such as the Institute of Technology, the Public Library, and the State House. The latter contained statues, trophies, and tablets commemorative of the war with England. We dined at 2.30, by Professor Pierce's invitation, at the Parker House, with the members of the " Saturday Club." Long- fellow presided, and I had the honour of sitting on his right. The poet is a noble-looking old man, with hair as white as snow— long, yet not left to straggle down to professorial BOSTON, CAMBRIDGE, AND NEW YORK AGAIN. 55 lengths — ^his forehead scaurcely wrinkled, and his eyes tender and at the same time keen. He talked to me of Cornwall, its legends, and the survival of its language, in which he said he took an interest several years ago. Then he talked of books, and told me how, when at Florence, he had made a perfect collection of Bordonnas, hunting them up in the quaint archway bookstalls of Parma; then he spoke of Tasso and Petrarch, and added, "Do you know Mr. Hawker, of Morwenstow ? and is not your county very proud of him ; he has, in my estimation, some beautiful passages .■"' On the other side of me sat a very different person — ^short, vivacious, and quite the "' autocrat " of the dinner-table — no other than the well-known author. Dr. Oliver Wendall Holmes. He talked of folk-lore, and aston- ished me by his knowledge of the details of the subject in England. On his left again sat Mr. Adams (with whom Mr. W. E. Forster is staying), the late American Minister to the Court of St. James's. There was also present Mr. Parkman, the historian of the Colonization of the States of Canada, and of the Indian population of the West, whose sight, by a singular fatality, is failing, till, it is feared, he will be as blind as Prescott I thought him a remarkable man, plain-spoken and unbiassed, just what an historian should be. His conversation on Canada I have mentioned before. He said that only great commercial changes could make the English Canadians desirous of annexation. Mr. Dana, too, was there, the novelist, who spoke of Schliemann's Troy, and whose horror at the idea of there being a school of European scholars who call the Iliad a myth, I shall not easily forget. Carrying his faith even into the Arthurian legends, he shortly afterwards wanted to know the precise position in Cornwall of King Arthur's Camelot. Then there was Mr. Perkins, the authority on ancient arts ; and our friend Dr. Asa Gray, and an English Colonel (a hero from Ashantee), and Professor Howe, 56 RECORD OF RAMBLES. the husband of Mrs. Julia Ward Howe, whose lecture we had attended ; and, besides these, several whose names I cannot remember; but Emerson, whom I had hoped to see, was not there. The conversation became general Longfellow made me give him an account of the barrow- diggings on the Trevelgue cliffs. I remember also some very sensible remarks of Mr. Dana's, in which he justly- laughed at the idea of the English Government paying for explorations by taxes. Both F. and I spent a most pleasant afternoon. Nov. 29 (Sunday). We went in the morning to King's Chapel, the oldest church in Boston, once a rectory under the diocese of London, before the separation, but now a Unitarian church. The prayer-book used was very like that of the English Establishment. A preface stated, however, that it had received alterations in 1785, and again in 1850. The former, I suppose, were Calvinistic, such as the addi- tion to the Commandments of the New Testament amend- ments ; the latter were "orthodox" Unitarian. The church was a Venetian room, with galleries and square pews, and from over the organ the royal crown had not been re- moved. Round the walls were monuments to old English governors and Boston merchants, some in Latin. The preacher wore a black gown and bands. Altogether the place had not lost the look of an old-fashioned English town church. In the afternoon we walked out to Bunker's Hill, the scene of the defeat of the British arms. It is an eminence in Charlestown, as that side of Boston is called, surmounted by a column, very plain and ugly. A stone still marks the site of the ancient breastwork. Mr. Perkins called on us, and in the evening Professor Pierce and his son, Mr. Alger, and Mr. Otis dined with us at the Revere House. Nov. 30. At 9.30 p.m. we started "right away" for New York in a Pullman car. While in Boston we BOSTON, CAMBRIDGE, AND NEW YORK AGAIN. 5/ had been extremely well ; the air was fine, and yet not cold, and we were sorry to leave it and our kind friends there. We had some pleasant companions in the car. One of them described to us the fire in Boston, in which he had lost a warehouse. We played ecarti, which, with chess, served to pass the time when travelling by rail. At six a.m. next morning {Dec. i) we arrived at New York, and went this time to the Brevoort Hotel, where we found the rooms small, but the meals excellent, on the European plan of paying for each article singly; still, the charges were exorbitant. We called on Mr. S., who took us over the "Change," and showed us the apparatus for telegraphing the weather, the state of which is a most important con- sideration in the sale of stock. The building consists of two halls, one above the other, the upper one being the Corn Exchange. There are about three thousand members. Visitors are admitted by ticket, but may not transact business. We called on Mr. Auguste Belmont, dined at the Brevoort with Mr. Smith, and went to the Hippodrome, which is certainly a marvellous exhibition. Dec. 2. Mr. J. S. Morgan, of Morgan, Drexell, and Co., gave us several valuable introductions for the Southern States. Dec. 3. We drove " down town " again, and called on Mr. Goodall, the managing director of the Bank-Note Com- pany, who showed us over the premises, which are well worth seeing. Here are designed and engraved notes for all parts of the world — for Greece, Canada, Peru, Brazil, the United States, &c. &c. All the designs are furnished, and the engravings cut on steel by special artists and engravers on the spot. When once a steel plate is engraved the subject can be transferred to other steel plates any number of times. This is done by pressing upon the first plate a cylinder of steel of slightly softer temper; this takes up an impression in relief. A third plate is then S8 RECORD OF RAMBLES. procured of softer temper still, and upon this the cylinder is in turn pressed. This process is repeated over large surfaces of steel, and thus ten thousand notes can be struck off while in England they are doing, say, one hundred. The ornamental work is not done by hand at all. The intricate designs on the green-backs,— the ribbons and concentric patterns, — are all the work of machines, which a child might set in motion. By the complex action of innumerable wheels, a steel point of hardest temper is made to perform revolutions in endless ellipses, or again, the flat surface may be made to perform like movements under the steel point It is indeed a triumph of mechanism, nowhere to be seen in such perfection, Mr. Goodall assured us, as here. One single inventive American genius has placed it in the power of a child to perform per minute what would have taken the old monks of Ireland, working at the Keltic patterns from which these derive their origin, long lives of application, and sightless eyeballs in the end. In the lower stories of this great building girls prepare the paper, while the printing is done at the top. From the roof, which is one of the highest in New York (the Tele- graph Company, the Post-office, and the 'Equitable' being alone higher), one gets a panorama of the city. On one side lies the arm of water which separates New York from Brooklyn, and on the other, that which flows between it and Jersey City. Two towers of great height and solidity stand one on each side of the Brooklyn river, which, if the work goes on favourably (though just then it was at a stand- still), will bear a suspension-bridge, the most striking feature in New York, and " a wonder of the world." As we were passing out of Mr. Goodall's house, he showed us what he called specimens of his work. These consisted of a collec- tion of notes and stamps, the largest ever made I suppose, occupying some ten or twelve heavy folio volumes, bound in the finest morocco. Each page contained a sheet of BOSTON, CAMBRIDGE, AND NEW YORK AGAIN. 59 stamps or notes, and every country was represented for the sake of comparison. Dec. 4. F.went duck-shooting for a few days with a gentle- man so commonly called " the Major" that I forget his real name. I made several calls, and among them on Mrs. Vincenzo Botta, a literary lady and a friend of the Algers. Meeting our old Cuba friends, the Jameses, I walked with them to the Brevoort ; and subsequently went to one of Mr. H.'s " Friday evenings." There I met Mr. Gould ; Mr. Behring (.'), pastor of the Greek Church ; Mr. Tuttle, Bishop of Montana ; William Page (the artist) ; Mr. Winthrop ; General De Peister ; &c. &c. De Peister is a remarkable man, quick, shrewd, and penetrating. William Page is a tall and handsome old man, with grey hair and aquiline nose. Bishop Tuttle was telling us about Mor- monism and Brigham Young. He said that polygamy was only an incident in Mormonism ; that the sect could, and did, exist without it It implies no fundamental principle of their faith ; they believe fully, however, in nine- teenth century revelation. Brigham Young's great wealth is by no means realizable; it depends on his power of keeping his assumed position. On the following morning {Dec. 5) Mr. Bouton, the bookseller, offered me a place at his window in Broadway to see the funeral of Mr. Havemeyer, the mayor, who had dropped down dead a few days before. It was a good opportunity of seeing the Municipal Militia Raiments, as they marched past in slow time. The pre- vailing colours of their uniforms were light blue, light grey, and black. The Seventh Regiment seemed a par- ticularly fine one ; their uniform is light blue, turned back with scarlet ; their numbers are a thousand ; and one division (K) is composed entirely of gentlemen, its members being elected as in a club. The marching was generally unsteady, and the line not well kept. To prevent the Yankee leanness from being observed, the men, and the 6o RECORD OF RAMBLES. officers especially, pad themselves heavily over the chest, and their thin faces protruding from this bundle gives them an odd appearance. The hearse was a plain one, with oval glass sides, as is usual in America, showing the coffin inside, drawn by two horses, and accompanied by a guard of honour. Carriages followed behind, and then the Board of Aldermen walking. No flowing hat-bands were worn, only rosettes and crape on the sleeves. The effect of the solemn music, now and then suppressed for the beating of the drum alone, heard down the silent though crowded street, was good. I dined with Mr. S. and his mother, a charming old lady. Their house is the perfection of com- fort. Like many of the houses in cities, it is three rooms in depth on the ground floor, the two first being drawing-rooms, and the third the dining-room, each opening into the other by sliding doors, like panels, inlaid. We saw the system of telegraphy with which these houses are fitted. By touching one electric bell, you have in two minutes an errand boy at the door ; by touching a second, you call the police ; and by pressing a third, the firemen, with engines and hose, are on the spot in a marvellously short space of time. In case of burglars, there was also an alarum connected with every door and window in the house. I went from here to the " Century Club," which was full this evening, it being the first Saturday in the month. An art gallery for the exhibition of pictures originated the club, and this is still kept up ; but many other persons besides artists now belong to it. Professor Morse, of Salem, the zoologist, was there ; also Dr. J. S. Newberry, of Columbia College, and of the Geological Survey of Ohio ; Mr. Hamersley ; General De Peister ; Mr. Godkin, the editor of the Nation; Mr. Raffles (the statistician) ; Mr. Holt (the American editor of J. S. Mill ; Professor Botta; Professor Macready; &c. Mr. Raffles made some remarks which were inte- resting, on the curious question, "To whom do the dead BOSTON, CAMBRIDGE, AND NEW YORK AGAIN. 6 1 belong ?" In Christian Europe, he said, by old law they belonged to the Church, but in America they belong to the next of kin. Professor Newberry told me he thought there was no connection between the Mound-builders of Ohio and the Mexican architects ; the former were far the oldest. By-the-by I find myself asked on all hands what I think of America, with apologies for its being a new country, which, however, are not meant, and are only said with the view of " fishing for a compliment." I find it hard to give a categorical reply. Perhaps as a preliminary to a definition I should be tempted to express a conviction that the national prayer should be, " Preserve us from the Irish and Germans, from our legislators, and ourselves." Dec. 6 (Sunday). The J.'s lunched with me at the Brevoort ; and we had a talk about the war. They are Southerners, and went so far as to declare that the feeling against the Federals is still rankling so much in the hearts of old Confederates, that should the United States declare war against any other country they could not rely on their support, and would rue the day they ever fought the South. They complained that municipal militia regiments have not been allowed in the Southern cities since the war, so that Texans, for instance, cannot guard themselves against Mexican raids. We were afterwards able to discover that there was a basis of truth in these remarks, although being New Orleans men, and having been some time in Europe, their opinions represented the present state of things a little too fervidly. Sitting in our room this evening with the window open, I observed the curious sound of an American city. As night draws on, and other sounds are hushed, the bells of the street cars might fitly give them the name of "tinkling cities;" the monotony of this jingle being only relieved every now and then by the roar and the clanging of a fire-engine as it rushes by. Dec. 7. I read the President's message. What he there 62 RECORD OF RAMBLES. says about the unsatisfactory state of the paper currency is every word of it true. As a literary production, however, it lacked the " philosophy of style." Mr. W. lunched with me next day {Dec. 8). Both from him and others I heard that Americans are very sore at the treatment they receive in England and from Englishmen. They tell us their griefs in this respect, and mimic the coldness of our society admirably. As to myself, I like the Americans ; and all I can reply to these accusations is that Englishmen, and 'Englishwomen more particularly, behave sometimes quite as cruelly towards each other as they do to them. F. came back from his duck-shooting excursion. Tom river, where he had been, was about fifty miles along the coast from New York. He found that the method of shooting the ducks did not afford much sport ; — ^the plan being to make a large nest, in which the sportsmen sat drinking whisky to keep the cold out, waiting for ducks to come to the decoys as they floated on the water. In the evenings the party sat round a stove, playing cards, or telling ghost stories. Old Indian stone-axes are picked up on the other bank of the Tom river. At 7.30 we accompanied Mr. Goodall to a Lodge of Freemasons, called the " Howard," held in the " Temple " — a fine building, with a marble staircase, capable of accom- modating fifty lodges. The ceremony simply consisted in opening and closing the lodge, which is done in a manner different from our own, and in electing the officers. We noticed that the W.M. keeps his hat on during the greater part of the work. After labour came refreshment, in the shape of a light supper, followed by songs, recitations, and speeches. The next day (Dec. 9) Professor Youmans and Mr. Godkin of the Nation dined with us at Delmonico's, and we spent a very pleasant evening. Dec. 10, Miss De B. called and took us to see Mr. BOSTON, CAMBRIDGE, AND NEW YORK AGAIN. 63 Johnstone's gallery of pictures. He was chairman of the Jersey Railroad Company, and in common with many other wealthy Americans, had sunk a good deal of money in objects of vertu, partly perhaps with the view of turning greenbacks into something more solid. It was a beautiful specimen of an American house, the rooms not over large, but elegantly fitted up with the rare ornaments of every country. The pictures were hung in two rooms lighted from above. The first contained some fair American paintings, and among them, true to nature, an evening sky, with its soft yellow haze close to the horizon, and its black clouds above slashed with the flame-coloured streaks of the setting sun ; a dark river and woods were below. The second room contained copies of pictures by European artists — such as Holman Hunt's "Pot of Basil," &c. — reduced from the originals for Mr. Johnstone by the artists themselves. I then called on Dr. Newberry at the School of Mines, Columbia College. He showed me some specimens of rock markings in Ohio, reproduced by Mr. Monro, whom I afterwards met in Japan. The markings from Smith's Ferry, Ohio, consisted of men (drawn in circles and straight lines), animals (with long tails), and objects which might have a phallic significance. They were spread over a surface of rock six hundred feet long, by fifty to one hundred feet wide, and were only visible at low-water. Some others in Belmont county, Ohio," represented the feet of men and other animals, with marks like arrow points or feet of birds. With these were serpents, ovals with a tangent line, and concentric circles. He also showed me some pictures of massive piles of masonry — the remains of ancient cities in Arizona, with features, he said, connecting them with the old buildings of Mexico. The archaeology of the American continent is indeed looking up. The geological surveys are not overlooking the works of primitive man, and from the mass of information brought 64 RECORD OF RAMBLES. together we may hope to see some valuable memoirs on the manners and migrations of these non-historic tribes. If Mr. Bancroft, of San Francisco, finishes as he has begun, his will be a great work on this subject, and many others are following in the same track. Columbia College is furnished with excellent museums and laboratories. At Mr. L.'s this evening we had a "canvas-back" duck, beautifully fresh from his flight through the fire. This is a great American delicacy. Dec. 1 1. Professor You mans came to take us to University College to see Dr. Draper, who has just brought out his Conflict of Science and Religion, in the International Series. We found him in his bare and not odoriferous chemical lecture-room. It was with chemistry that he began, and he took, according to his own account, the first photograph of the human face, at University College. Speaking of his book, I was surprised to find that he did not seem to attach much weight to the history of the Alexandrian schools during the early centuries of the Christian era. We dined with Professor and Mrs. Vincenzo Botta. The latter is a strong advocate of women's rights, and is de- cidedly well informed. The Thoughts of M. Aurelius, she said, was her favourite book. There were two young ladies there; a Mr. Osgood, a clergyman; and another gentleman whose name we did not know. Mr. Botta went with us to one of Mr. H.'s "Friday evenings." General De Peister was there again ; also Dr. Lundy, who is writing on Monu- mental Christianity — " a student of symbols ; " and Mr. Hayward, a poet. I met here this evening a gentleman who is dabbling in mysticism, without a step to stand upon, a ring to catch, or the least atom of ballast in his composition. He was about, he said, to read Godfrey Higgins's Anacalypsis, after which I should be afraid to see him unless in a strait-waistcoat. This sort of learning is much followed in America by persons of inadequate ability BOSTON, CAMBRIDGE, AND NEW YORK AGAIN. 65 and education. It results in the production of numerous fanciful works of no value whatever, — mere museums of oddities and " mines of assertion." Dec. 12. We got up at 6.30 and proceeded by rail, a journey of three hours, to Danbury, Connecticut Here Robert Sandeman, an ancestor of F.'s, lies buried, and F. accordingly wished to see his tomb, and to hear what he could of the sect which bears his name. We found Danbury a neat and pretty little place, with a few brick houses, such as the gaol, and a hat manufactory or two; but mostly the buildings were of wood, standing in streets or avenues of trees, each house detached or semi-detached, and having its own peculiar garden pali- saded round. We first paid our respects to Mr. Tweedy, who follows the principal trade in Danbury, that of a hatter. He had been brought up a " Sandemanian," but, with others, had left that ancient faith on account of its strictness, particularly in forbidding its disciples to visit other churches. He spoke, however, in the highest terms of the old Sandemanians, who "were," he said, "honourable, good men, respected by all." Robert Sandeman, it ap- peared, had not only got into bodily trouble in politics, being a staunch Tory, but into spiritucil trouble as well, being tried for a heretic. His original church is not extant, but his tomb, with a more recent marble slab to replace the old slate, is still in the churchyard. From the slab, which is five feet high, I copied the following : HERE LIES UNTIL THE RESSURECTION («V) THE BODY OF ROBERT SANDEMAN, A NATIVE OF PERTH, NORTH BRITAIN, WHO, IN THE FACE OF CONTINUAL OPPOSITION FROM ALL SORTS OF MEN, LONG AND BOLDLY CONTENDED FOR THE ANCIENT FAITH F 66 RECORD OF RAMBLES. THAT THE BARE WORK OF JESUS CHRIST WITHOUT A DEED OR THOUGHT ON THE PART OF MAN, IS SUFFICIENT TO PRESENT THE CHIEF OF SINNERS SPOTLESS BEFORE GOD. TO DECLARE THIS BLESSED TRUTH, AS TESTIFYED IN THE HOLY SCRIPTURES, HE LEFT HIS COUNTRY, HE LEFT HIS FRIENDS, AND AFTER MUCH PATIENT SUFFERING, FINISHED HIS LABORS AT DANBURY, APRIL 2. 1 77 1. JE. S3 YEARS. Deign'd Christ to come so nigh to us. As not to count it shame To call us Brethren, should we blush {sic) At ought that bears his name ; Nay, let us boast in his reproach, And glory in his Cross ; When he appears, one smile from Him, Wwill far o'erpay our loss [sic). From this it appears that the sculptor was a man of letters, " if not," as F. remarked, "always of the right ones." With regard to the doctrine itself, all that can be said of it is that ■it hits moral responsibility on the head, just about as effect- ually as Darwin's hypothesis is said to do. We were fortu- nate in seeing the sect alive at all in Danbury, as it numbers now only twenty-seven persons in all, and even some of these are not truly attached to it, but only attend the worship. About thirteen are counted as staunch disciples, and of these only two are of the male sex. This duumw- rate are the conductors of the services, but even one of them whom we had the pleasure of meeting, was more than half an idiot. Under these circumstances the sect cannot survive long, unless the advent of the descendant of its founder may be supposed to have infused into it a new vitality, of which happy consummation of his visit we wait for the Danbury News to inform us. For the present Sandemanians a little wooden chapel has been erected on BOSTON, CAMBRIDGE, AND NEW YORK AGAIN. 6j an elevation near Maine Street, cind by its side is the dwelling of an elderly widow woman named Washburn. Here we called, but found the inmate suffering from erysipelas, so that we did not like to trouble her with many questions. We learned, however, that it was in this very wooden house that Robert Sandeman used to dine with his congregation on Sundays after service, the round table used by them being still piously preserved. There is a curious story connected with Robert Sandeman's first cousin, George Glas, who had been with him at Danbury. He, with his wife and little girl, were murdered on the high seas as they were returning to Scotland. The thirteen sailors, who were the ship's crew, and who had committed the out- rage, were so oppressed by the apparitions, they said, of the murdered family, that on arriving at Queenstown they gave themselves voluntarily up to justice, and were all hanged. We returned to New York at 4.30, and met at the Brevoort Professor Pierce's eldest son, who dined with us. Dec. 13. We went to Grace Church, where the anthem re- minded me of old Winchester; it was "the shield, the sword, and the battle." Dr. Potter preached a good sermon, the moral being a little hard on the Yankees, since it was, " So act cis never to take advantage of the weakness of others." We lunched at Mrs. Botta's. Mrs. L. was there, a person whose history singularly illustrated the cosmopolitan nature of New York society. She was a Welsh lady, who had been governess to the late king of Siam's children, and also his private secretary and confidential adviser. She had written much on religions, and calls herself a Universalist in such matters. She had translated a "hymn" from the Zend Avesta, which she gave me ; and she told me at the same time the interesting fact that every word in that book (such as " immortal cow," &c.) means more than would seem. The animals, for example, have all their mysterious or allegorical signification — such as "love," "purity," and the like. At F 2 68 RECORD OF RAMBLES. seven we were entertained at dinner at Delmonico's by our kind friend Professor Youmans, who had asked Mr. Holt, Mr. Stoddard, the poet, Mr. Godkin, of the Nation, Mr. W. Appleton, and Professor Morse to meet us. We had a merry evening, which we heartily enjoyed. Dec. 14. Being our last day in New York, we spent the morning in shopping and paying calls, and in the evening went to a dance at the L.'s. We soon became aware that the dancing is different to our own. Everything gives way to the waltz, — the Boston step as they call it, — which consists of a studied repetition of slow gliding circles with frequent reversing. Our deux temps was far too fast for them, and the ladies got giddy. The same study and precision is observed by Americans in their dances as was observed in England a century ago. The "Lancers" was much like our own ; and a Virginia reel, with which we finished up, was formed on our Sir Roger and a country dance, and the tune was like " Pop goes the weasel." Dec. 15. At five p.m. we started on the cars, arriving at Philadelphia at eight the same evening, where we went to the Continental Hotel. PHILADELPHIA, BALTIMORE, AND WASHINGTON. 69 CHAPTER V. PHILADELPHIA, BALTIMORE, AND WASHINGTON. Dec. 16. Those who are fortunate enough to have an introduction to Mr. George W. Childs, of Philadelphia, should lose no time in paying their respects to him. He is a self-made man, but singularly unassuming. As the principal person connected with the Public Ledger news- paper, he holds a post of some importance in the city, and his offices occupy perhaps the grandest edifice there. A friend of President Grant, he was able and willing to give us introductions to him ; and his hospitality and desire to put strangers in the way of seeing all that is to be seen is worthy of emulation elsewhere. His patriotism and zeal have no doubt been no small factors in the prosperity and popularity of the place where he lives. In our case he at once sent us a guide-book to Philadelphia, and an invitation to the dance of the season, to take place shortly at Mr. Drexel's. Next we called on Mr. T. and Mr. C., who put down our names for the Philadelphia Club, where we lunched. Having some inquiries to make about a family who had settled in Philadelphia, I went with F. to the Pennsylvania Historic Society, where, amongst other things, we saw the "wampum" belt given by the Indians to Penn, when they made the original treaty with him under the elm-tree at Shackermaxon, now Kensington, in 1682. It is made of clam-shell beads (which were used as money); three rivers were traced on it, cut from the blue part of the shell, the white part forming the groundwork. Worked into it in similar fashion were two figures holding hands ; the one with a hat and coat for the yo RECORD OF RAMBLES. white man, :11ie other smaller and naked for the Indian. There were also MSS. of Penn in the strong-room, pictures of old Pennsylvania worthies, and an odd trophy from England — a banister of Milton's house! Such meagre relics of the "old country'' do the Americans reverently preserve ! One of the most curious objects in this museum was the lock used in the first Bank of Genoa — an elaborate and intricate invention, which defeats any attempt at lock- picking by the impossibility of introducing any picker, unless made in exactly the same mould as the key. It is divided into four compartments, and three levers must be lifted before the bolt slips back. It cannot be blown to pieces, because it is open inside. We dined at the hotel, where we found black waiters again ; and afterwards went to a theatre in Arch Street, where we saw a fairly good piece, called Women of the Day, the scene being laid at an American watering-place. Dec. 17. Mr. Childs sent one of his staff, Mr. Leslie, to show us the city. Philadelphia is primly built, after the Quaker fashion, a sect which still retains some of its strength here. . The older houses are much alike, being of red brick, and the greater part having door-cases and steps of white marble. The streets are narrow, and are arranged, as usual, in squares or " blocks," each block having fifty or a hundred houses to a side, so that even a blind man might find his way about. Those running east and west are named respectively Market Street, Chestnut Street, Walnut Street, Spruce Street, &c &c., and run from the Delaware river on the one side to the Schuylkill on the other. The transverse streets are numbered from First Street upwards. Mr. Leslie took us first to the City Hall, an old brick building of the date of 1729. Here is the room in which the Declaration of Independence was signed, July 4th, 1776. The table on which the document lay is still there, and the walls are hung with worthies, amongst them the well-known PHILADELPHIA, BALTIMORE, AND WASHINGTON. 7 1 portrait of Benjamin Franklin. The opposite door to that of the Hall of Independence leads into a little State Museum, where there is a picture or two of Penn, and a quaint collection of the furniture and effects of the original colonists, and the asserters of Independence. Even portions of ladies' dresses are preserved ; and there is one object which no doubt will grace the Exhibition next year, for it is held in great reverence. It is no more nor less than " Lady Washington's stays." The bell, too, is preserved which rang the Proclamation, just one hundred years ago. Indeed, so much does the American mind worship these relics that it can scarcely be doubted that, had civilization dwindled away, Washington would by this time have been worshipped as a god. We made subsequently a similar remark in the case of Peter the Great at St. Petersburg. In the " cultus" paid to these men, as well as in many other respects, Russia and the United States are singularly alike. Hero worship has not given place as yet to modern progress. After seeing this interesting place we visited the Library, where there are some eighty thousand volumes of old books, some of them of great rarity, among which I found some MSS. which aided me in the enquiries I had to make. There was also a quaint old daub of the city, with its warehouses, taken from the river in 1720. Thence we went to the Mint, where we were presented to its Governor (Pollock), who had once been the Governor of the State of Pennsylvania. He was very good in taking us over the building, and pointing out the coinage of base -metal money, silver half-dollars, and gold. We had an inter- esting conversation on the educational system of the State of Pennsylvania and the Normal School, which I after- wards visited. Mr. Leslie next showed us the "Masonic Temple," to reach which we crossed the foundations of the New Public Buildings, which, when completed, will be on a gigantic scale. This "Temple" is the largest building in 72 RECORD OF RAMBLES. the world, which is solely appropriated to masonic purposes. It is a speculation of the Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania and contains nine halls or lodge-rooms, an elaborate marble stair- case, a banqueting-hall, library, and offices. Masonry, how- ever, seems, like most things in America, to be a mercenary affair, since each lodge pays no less than 250 dols. a night for accommodation. The tower alone is 230 feet in height, and the cost of the whole was a million dollars and a half. There are 40,000 masons in the State of Pennsyl- vania, and 330 lodges, sixty of which are in Philadelphia alone. Thence we proceeded to the house of Mr. Gibson, a gentleman who, having made his money at a liquor manu- factory, has turned a good deal of it into pictures. The rooms were, as usual, small but elaborate, like a doll's house^full of costly carpets, objects of vertu, inlaid antique furniture, rich cases of ivories, &c., in all directions. Some of his paintings were good, such as those by Rosa Bonheur and Jerome. At six we dined with Mr. Childs, at his house, which is also a beautiful one, at the corner of 22nd and Walnut Streets. He possesses pictures of Peabody, Longfellow, and others, painted, as he told us, expressly for himself We met at dinner Trotter and Douglas, two Englishmen, and a Mr. Hayward. The repast was most rechercJt^, worthy the hospitality of our genial host At 9.30 we started for a ball at Mr. Drexel's, who is the partner of Morgan and Drexel, the bankers at New York. When we arrived at the house we found that the rooms were not large, but excellently arranged en suite. They were furnished with taste, and it seemed as if no alteration had been made, although three hundred guests were present. Four drawing-rooms on the right of the hall opened one from the other, and above these were a pretty morning room and a little study. On the left of the hall was another little study, opening into a beautiful dining-room, surrounded by marble PHILADELPHIA, BALTIMORE, AND WASHINGTON. 73 pillars with mirrors between, supporting a painted and canopied roof. Beyond this room was a conservatory. Altogether it was an enviable house. The dancing, as at New York, was all the American glide, which we could not get on with, though obliged to confess its superiority in point of elegance and good dancing to anything one sees in England. In spite of the boasted good steering, how- ever, there were several collisions this evening. We met here some very nice people, notably Mrs. Carroll and her sister. Miss Whyte, of Baltimore. Mr. Drexel and his wife are good-natured people, and laid themselves out for the happiness of their guests with an unaffected cordiality and grace which were charming. The Baltimore people who were there were particularly agreeable. One young lady gave me her card, as is the custom ; and Mr. Carroll- Poultney and Mr. White gave us invitations to visit them. Mr. Rosengarten, of the bar of Pennsylvania, was there, as also were a Mrs. and Miss Lean, Leamington people. We walked home down Chestnut Street, and over a bridge, which we heard next morning was infested by thieves and cut-throats, such as (to judge from a recent letter in the Times *) still linger on even in so frequented a thoroughfare as the Thames Embankment. Dec. 18. Wishing to follow, as far as possible, the steps of Mr. Forster, who had just been in Philadelphia studying the educational system there, and in order to compare his views with those I might carry away, I asked Mr. Leslie to accompany me to a Normal School. A Normal School is a State-aided institution, making grants or " appropriations " to students who sign a declaration that they intend therein to fit themselves for teaching in the Common Schools of the State, and that when they graduate they mean so to teach. * From F. S., an unfortunate individual, who was attacked by brigands on the night of November 5th, but who, nevertheless, made his mark in the affray that followed. 74 RECORD OF RAMBLES. The regular charges for tuition and boarding are paid by the pupils, the appropriation money going in aid of this. It is a part and parcel of the public educational system of the State of Pennsylvania, said to be the best in the Union, though still far from perfect Besides it, there are, of course, the common State-aided schools ; and at the time we were there, eleven States had declared for the education to be compulsory. The government of a Normal School is based upon the " sense of duty, and the power of self-control " in the students themselves ; and no one will call this asser- tion in their reports a platitude, who considers how much the commonweal of the Union depends on young persons being early placed on their mettle, — made to rely, that is, upon a sense of moral rectitude in himself or herself individ- ually. The school we went to was in Seargeant Street ; it was for "young ladies" alone, and there was a similar one else- where called the High School for "young gentlemen." At Millersville the sexes study together, but not here. Besides intending teachers, I may mention that many other young ladies receive their education here, who are not State- aided. When we entered the school it was " recess time," an interval, that is, of a quarter of an hour in " sessions," so we signed our names and waited in the Principal's room. Presently he rang the bell, and a young lady appeared who was to act as our instructress and guide through the "class-rooms." The building is close, though apparently amply provided for ventilation. On the lower floor are some half-dozen class-rooms ranged on either side of a passage, and separated from each other by large glass partitional windows, which can be opened if necessary. The first we entered was a class-room of Ancient History, where a pretty girl of about nineteen or twenty was instructing her class by asking them questions on the Vandals and Visigoths, Honorius, Stilicho, and Ravenna. The pupils seemed particularly well up in this period of PHILADELPHIA, BALTIMORE, AND WASHINGTON. 7$ history (one which is so important, and yet so little known to English scholars, and to girls in especial). Each one, as she knew the answer better than her fellows, stretched up her hand in eagerness to reply. In each class-room we went through, the same ceremony was observed towards us. On entering we walked up a passage through the seats (there were some thirty or forty students in each room) to the chair on the dais occupied by the teacher : here I was presented to her by Mr. Leslie, and made her a bow, which she graciously returned, and made two young ladiesvacate their seats so that we might sit opposite the class and listen to their answers. Once our intrusion brought a rebuke on a pupil. " Where are your manners, Miss ," said the mistress, " not to rise and offer this gentleman your book.'" I particularly noticed that among the girls there was no sign of gaucherie or tittering, such as is common with the daughters of John Bull when they see two good-looking young fellows like we were invading their domains ; so that even we, with all our natural shyness, were not constrained to blush. From the Ancient History class we went to the Algebra class, and from that to the Grammar class, where the girls were parsing English poetry and defining an adverb, or a pre- position — a branch of education which always seems foolish to me, since, if a man's native tongue does not come to him naturally, he surely can only master it lamely by an artificial process. Then we came to a Geometry-room, and then to a Reading-room, where the stress laid on giving the right force to the different words in a sentence seemed to have resulted in hesitation between each word : after this to a Composition-room, where the girls were asked the diflFerence between a novel, a romance, a fiction, and a tale, and had to answer by rote, giving a set definition. The Modern History (English) class amused me much, since the teacher seemed to take the opportunity of an Englishman being present to have a hit at the House of Commons, the 16 RECORD OF RAMBLES. subject being the origin and structure of Parliament. In the Physiological-room, the tissues, veins, blood, and the human organism generally were being discussed. The subject seemed a strange one for young ladies. As a rule the answers we heard in all these class-rooms were to the point and graphic, but too often partook of parrot learning. Lastly we visited the Music-room, a nice hall for sound, where we found a master. The voices were not melodious, though training makes them accurate. I said just now that these schools are recruited from the "middle-classes^' for there certainly are classes in the United States, and in Phila- delphia especially, where class prejudice, and even the pride of ancestry, assume intolerant proportions. We went next to Mr. Rosengarten's, who kindly put me in the way of making the researches I wished about some old settlers in Philadelphia. He afterwards took us to an after- noon party at the house of Mr. Lee, an author, publisher, and collector of old works on "patristic theology." We were kindly received, and here I had the pleasure of meeting Mrs. R., a Western lady, brought up in the college at St. Louis, where she graduated in mathematics? (fnfinitessimal caladus) when only sixteen, having to com- pete (the only lady) with men upwards of twenty, only one of whom took a higher place than herself. She was pretty and unaffected, and anything but a "blue-stocking;" but — in confirmation of what Maudsley has been writing on the physical inability of women to cope with men in serious mental exercises — she confessed to me that since she left school she had scarcely known what it was to be free from headache, and owned that the serious mental strain she then underwent injured her constitution irremediably. We dined at the hotel, and then took a box at the Walnut Street Theatre, where we found it was a benefit night to o some great English star, whose name however we had never heard before. PHILADELPHIA, BALTIMORE, AND WASHINGTON. "^ Dec. 19. Mr. Leslie called for us, and we drove with him round the park, getting a good view of the city, and seeing the site of the memorial hall and the preparations for the grand centenary of the Declaration of Independence, to be held here in 1876. Having "expressed" our "baggage" to Baltimore (though it really went on to Washington, whence John had to fetch it), we set out in a car, and after passing en route the Susquehanna river and some pretty scenery, we arrived at the Mount Vernon Hotel at about three p.m. We at once went to see our old friend G., but he was gone " gunning." We then went to see Mr. White, who put our names down at the Allston Club, where we subsequently supped with him, and met a Mr. Dulaney. Dec. 20. We had soon an opportunity of proving that Baltimore is really the hospitable place it is represented to be. People, as a rule, dine early ; and this day we dined with Mr. Williams at 2.30. He brought out for us a bottle of the old Madeira for which the South was famous ; and we noticed after dinner that the old custom is adhered to of removing the cloth. Mrs. Williams and her daughters were pleasant, and quite English in their manners. Speak- ing of the old families of the Southern States, Mr. Williams told us that an old Virginian family called Harrison, who had settled here in the 17th century, had actually brought some bricks from their old English home to build into their new house in the land of their adoption. There were, he said, several houses in the South built on Elizabethan models, and dating from the days of the Civil War. It is strange to think that here and there a brick which had survived the bullets of Fairfax may have braved those of Sherman also. I even heard it maintained that the American civil war was a continuation on a larger scale of our own, two hundred years ago — the Royalist settlers still finding, after the lapse of centuries, that the inconformability of their natures was as inseparable a gulf as ever it used to be 78 RECORD OF RAMBLES. between them and what they considered the narrow-minded and tyrannical policy of their Puritan neighbours. Doubt- less in this there is a shade of truth, for reappearances of pristine character are as common in the national organism, as are recurrences to archetypal form in the development of species among individual animals and man. Baltimore, however, suffered sadly at the time, and is only just begin- ning to lift up her head again. The city is situated on the Chesapeake Bay, from which it is distant only half a mile. There is a fine column in the better part of the town, from which it is sometimes named the " Monumental City." It is built on several hills, an unusual circumstance in this part of the States. A new City-hall has been recently erected ; but the streets are badly paved. In the evening some of our friends supped with us ; and we had an opportunity of observing the impudence of the young nigger waiters, who enter into the conversation at table, and contradict people flatly without even being spoken to. Under these circumstances, it is not to be wondered at that they are occasionally kicked and whipped. The old ones, we were told, are civil to people " of good family," but (being shrewd enough to discern the difference) pay little attention to the nouveaux riches. Only a few days since, a gendeman in the Maryland Club (to which Mr. Williams had introduced us) told a young black waiter to take off his hat. The fellow replied, "Take off yours;" where- upon the gentleman knocked his hat off. The nigger struck him on the head; but some old niggers rushed in, and kicked the rascal downstairs. Such are the blessings of emancipation ! Dec, 21. Next day we paid our respects to Mrs. Charles Carroll and Miss Whyte. Mrs. Carroll is charming. She has more downright good humour about her, and more roses in her face, than New England young ladies have, though she may not think herself so clever as they. I PHILADELPHIA, BALTIMORE, AND WASHINGTON. 79 much admire the free and easy manners of American ladies. They act as if they had no apprehension of gentle- men acting otherwise than as gentlemen to them ; and indeed they need have none, for the fair sex receives the most scrupulous attention. The ladies in the Southern States are simple, cheerful, unaffected, hospitable people — much in our own old English style — a little go-a-head perhaps ; but then what a relief that is from the boredom of European society, where so much is unreal or monoto- nous. Society here has been placed on its mettle, and the result has been the developing of a high moral tone. Indeed, with such unscrupulous legislators, — men so despised as they too often are — at the head of affairs, the States must possess a very high morale in individuals outside the diplomatic circles to be able to sustain social prestige at all. For the support of this prestige the co-operation of the female sex is indispensable, and it is pleasant to see that it is rendered involuntarily. Apart from this philosophizing, F. observed that it was quite true that one "never sees an ugly girl in Baltimore." In the evening we took Mrs. Carroll and her sister to "the German," a Cotillon Club, held every Monday night. The ladies dance gracefully and well, and when they want a partner do not hesitate to ask the gentlemen to dance with them. The dancing came to a close at the primitive hour of 11.30. We met there Mr. Petre, one of the representatives of the old families of the South, who much reminded us of "a fine old English gentleman." Dec. 22. We took the 10.30 train, and in three-quarters of an hour arrived at Washington, where, at the Arlington Hotel, we found letters awaiting us. Washington is truly called, from the width of its thoroughfares, and the space between the various places of importance in it, the "City of magnificent distances." The Capitol is a handsome white 8o RECORD OF RAMBLES. pile of building, with a central dome. It stands on an elevation at the head of a grand broad street called Penn- sylvania Avenue. The hill is planted with young trees on the side next the city, and the dome may be seen from nearly every part of it. We first went into the House of Representatives, which forms the southern wing. It is a fine room, lighted from above, and having galleries and lobbies round it. The desks at which the members sit are ranged in semicircular fashion round a marble stand. Here sits the Speaker, and below him, in parson- and- clerk fashion, sits the Clerk of the House, whose business it is to read the titles of bills, orders, &c. — a task which he performs in a voice like a town-crier. Over this seat are two United States flags crossed, and an eagle between them. The business being purely formal, we went over to the Senate at the other end of the building, and here we were so fortunate as to come in for the last part of the debate on "Specie Payments," a bill which, by substituting silver for paper money, will," it is hoped, be the first step towards placing credit on a firmer basis, and abolishing the "greenbacks," which have flooded the country since the war. The objections we heard raised to the measure were merely formal, and it seems sure to pass. Whether this measure is really to do good or not, it was at all events a bold and politic action for the President to take at the moment he did, considering the strong Democratic {i.e. Conservative) reaction, which seemed to show itself in the States, contemporaneously with the Con- servative reaction in England. It put the Democratic party into a dilemma ; for, should the scheme not succeed, the difficulties would be turned over to them as soon as they came into power ; and should it prove a success, the Republicans would have the glory of having been the initiators of it. The difficulties of the Republican party, when we were in Washington, were well summed up in a PHILADELPHIA, BALTIMORE, AND WASHINGTON. 8 1 little pamphlet by a Mr. Dicey. They are, he there says ; — first, business depression ; second, Southern troubles, such as ^meutes, &c. ; third, abuse of power and peculation in the officials connected with the Government ; fourth, the fear aroused in the public mind of General Grant having^ a third term of office as President. Leaving the Senate we passed through the dome, which is well proportioned and handsome. Side by side, surrounding it, are life- sized pictures of British and Indian surrenders. Re- entering the House of Representatives, we found the scene changed. A tall and excited man was vociferating in favour of the West, from which he evidently " hailed." Soon he became personal; and another gentleman, rising with righteous indignation to the dignity of the occasion, exclaimed, "Enough of this !" — while the Speaker seemed powerless to check them, even if so disposed. We soon had had enough of this also, and returned to lunch at "Welcher's," after which we went to the Smithsonian Institute, a convenient and appropriate building for museums and lecture rooms, situated in grounds of its own, which were nicely laid out. Here Professor Baird, to whom we had an introduction, was most kind in show- ing us the extensive collection of native Indian relics. We returned to Baltimore, and went to Haverley's Darky Minstrels, and a good performance it was. We then had supper at the Maryland Club, where an inebriated ex- president of the National Bank amused us by expressing some pretty strong opinions in favour of the Specie Pay- ments Bill. Dec. 23. We lunched with Mr. B., whose wife was a native of Baltimore, naive and pretty. She has been to England, but evidently does not like it, nor can I understand how any American young ladies can. Talking of English dinner parties in the country, she quaintly said, " Only just fancy, on a winter's night, having to ride twenty miles in a G 82 RECORD OF RAMBLES. carriage, and then to be put to sit next to the parish parson !" They gave us some terrapin, excellently cooked according to a home receipt. In the evening we took some ladies to the minstrels. We had a box, and passed what we were glad to hear they considered "an elegant time ! " Next morning [Dec. 24] we again ran down to Washing- ton. The country on the way is rendered pretty by the wooden farm-houses, built in an orn/e style, which are dotted about the landscape. The name of one of the stations recalls to memory that here was fought the battle of Bladensburg. We paid several calls ; on Major Powell, on Mr. Patterson, on Senor Marescal, the Mexican Am- bassador, and on Sir Edward Thornton. At Jacksons', the Ordnance Survey photographers, in Philadelphia Avenue, F. bought five hundred photographs of American scenery, near the Yellow-stone, for one hundred dollars, the only thing we bought in America at a reasonable price. They subsequently went down in the Schilkr off the Isles of Scilly. Returning to Baltimore, we had supper at the Maryland Club ; and afterwards, over the fire, were entertained by Hoffman Gilmor with tales of his adventures in the old war, especially of the feats he performed, and the dangerous episodes he encountered during the border warfare when he was lieutenant in the famous Gilmor troop, commanded by his gallant cousin Colonel Gilmor. It was as if we had taken a jump of two hundred years into the past, and were listening to the tales of the old Cavaliers. In the Maryland Club are many men bearing still by courtesy the old military rank which they held in the war. The rank and file of the army being dispersed broadcast over the country, the officers are concentrated on the towns, and it is not uncommon to find your hotel-keeper, your lawyer, or your tradesman, a colonel, if not a general. Captain Semmes, of the Alabama, is the master of a little school. PHILADELPHIA, BALTIMORE, AND WASHINGTON. 83 Dec. 25. Being Christmas Day, we spent it very appro- priately with the Carrolls (though the Americans, by the way, do not understand a pun), and it being a custom for every house to have its Christmas-tree, we sent them some things for it. This custom is imported, not from England, but from Germany, and is comparatively a new fashion, as also is the less agreeable one of boys going about blowing horns. Large bowls of " Egg-nogg" (a composition of eggs, rum, brandy, and sugar) stand on everybody's table, and everybody is invited in to drink it. I never saw such a coterie of jolly, hospitable people anywhere as in Baltimore, where all are friends and neighbours, in the best sense of the word, and call each other by their Christian names. Mr. Maul and Mr. Fred. May came in in the afternoon, and I walked with Mr. Carroll to see at Mr. Spence's some good original pictures by early masters. Mr. Charles Carroll is a de- scendant of Barrister Carroll and the Carrolls of Carrol ton, one of the first of those old Southern families who, from the ranks of the English aristocracy, came as settlers to the Southern States. He is one of those who suffered severely in the war, but has saved enough out of the wreck of his fortune to enable him to live in ease and comfort. He is a staunch Conservative ; but, since the emancipation of the niggers, all the Southern gentlemen have turned their backs in disgust on politics, and their Conservatism is only another word for taking things easily, and letting nothing trouble them. This apathy cannot be wondered at, but it is much to be deplored, since it is possible that, were they to bestir themselves, their influence might in some degree check the continuation of the misery of the South, and infuse a better caste into the councils of their countiy. When, however, they are not speaking of the past with anger, they are speaking of the present with despondency. Next morning Mr. Carroll called for us [Dec. 26], and took us for a drive; first to see the two Roman Catholic G 2 84 RECORD OF RAMBLES. Cathedrals, and then through the Park, where there is a lake recently made by the city authorities. From an eminence in the Park there is a fine view of the surrounding country, which is undulating. The trees are finer here than any we had yet seen in the States. In this way we spent several days among these pleasant Baltimore people; going the next day [Dec. 27] to St. Paul's Church with the Carrolls, which was prettily decorated for Christmas, and was adorned with many candles in Ritualistic style; and dining at four with Mr. and Mrs. G., where, to our surprise, we found people in evening dress, a thing quite unusual to us at that time of day. We noticed what very young men are in business in Baltimore. The next day the Carrolls dined with us at the Mount Vernon Hotel, and Mr. Carroll brought with him a letter from Mr. Childs, of Philadelphia, to General Babcock, President Grant's private secretary, asking him to present us to the President. Accordingly, next morning [Dec. 29] we started once more for Washington, by the 10.15 train, on the Baltimore and Ohio railway ; and on arriving there, drove direct to the White House, or Executive Mansion, as it is called, a plain building with a portico in the centre. We were ushered into an upper room, approached through a suite of under- secretaries' rooms. There we found General Babcock — a short fellow, not at all military in his appear- ance. He was extremely cordial and pleasant to us, and, going to a door on his left, said, "Sit down, gentlemen, while I see if the President is disengaged." He returned immediately, and saying, "Will you walk in.'" we passed down two steps into another plain room, and found our- selves rather unexpectedly in the presence of the famous General Ulysses Grant. He was sitting at the end of a table with papers before him, smoking a cigar. He rose at once to receive us, and shook hands, saying, "Glad to see you, gentlemen;" and on hearing that we had come PHILADELPHIA, BALTIMORE, AND WASHINGTON. 8$ with a letter from his friend Mr. Childs, he asked us to sit down, which we did, at his side. He is short, seemingly about fifty, with dark hair, turning iron-grey, and with a red face and coarse weather-beaten complexion. His bearing was that of an old soldier, rather out of his element, we thought, at a librsiry table, and he was evidently worried (as he well might be just then) with the business papers that lay on it. We spoke to him of the current affairs of the day, and, although a little reticent, he vouchsafed a few remarks. Speaking of the riots in Louisiana, he said he did not ignore the fact that there was mischief there, but added, "there would be no danger for travellers." On the subject of the Press, he warmed up, as he said the American papers generally had made too much of the troubles at New Orleans, as had the European ones also, adding that they were merely the " organs of party, the receptacles for clamour, and the sowers of political discontent." With regard to the Specie Bill, of which F. spoke to him, he said truly, that it would pass Congress without amendments, three-fourths of the House of Representatives being Republicans, and therefore in his favour. In reply to F. he said the Government did not mean to touch the wine question ; but it appears that since that time they have done so. I remarked . that he had done our country the honour of choosing a son-in- law from it ; upon which he brightened up a little — for he is very fond of his family — as he said he expected him to arrive next month from England. In the midst of the interview he let out his cigar. We had been told before that he often did this, and that we ought to take one for him ; but, alas ! we had forgotten it We then rose and took our leave, and rejoined General Babcock, who, in case of our going to Mexico, had prepared a letter of introduction for us to the American Ambassador there. So much for "interviewing" the President of the United States. In hi^ case we cer- 86 RECORD OF RAMBLES. tainly might make the same remark as did De Tocqueville, when he said, that what struck him in America was the "equality of conditions :" there was no awe of majesty on our part ; no regal condescension on his. We went over the "White House," and found that the rooms are not large, with the exception of the chief recep- tion, or east room, where "Miss Nelly," the old servant told us, "was married, and a nice young lady she was." The other rooms are known by the colours of their drapery, as the " green-room," the " blue-room " (a beautifully pro- portioned oval room, furnished with blue and gold), &c. In one of them is a fine picture of Grant, mounted on his charger ; and in another there is one of him with his family. There are also pictures of Abraham Lincoln, Washington, Adams, and others. From the White House we went to the Treasury, a square white building adjoining, with columns in the centre. We made a detour of the several depart- ments, and then returned to the Arlington Hotel. At Riggs' Bank, whither we went with Mr. J. S. Morgan's introduction, we had an opportunity of meeting Bancroft, the historian, a fine old man, with white hair, and a slightly Jewish cast of face. He has mixed in politics in his time, and was once Secretary of the Navy. Then we went again to the Smithsonian Institute, where Professor Baird and Mr. Otis T. Mason showed me some curious Indian weapons and excellent flint arrow-heads, which in the fineness of their construction, though only a few years old perhaps, surpass any in the Old World. Some of the "skin-dressers," as they call the "celts" of a peculiar shape, have short thick handles ; others are attached to a reed. Hammers are made of water-worn stones, of considerable size and weight, with one end protruding from the enlarged ex- tremity of a handle made of ox-hide, which is firmly stitched at the side. Some instruments are of forms quite unexpiainable on any European hypothesis yet PHILADELPHIA, BALTIMORE, AND WASHINGTON. 87 advanced. They have not been able to apply the "age theory" in America, nor would it be considered "scien- tific" to attempt it We called on Professor Henry, the secretary of the Institute, with Professor Pierce's letter. He was particularly courteous, and presented us with the society's last volume of Transactions. We returned to Bciltimore in time to take the CarroUs to the opera. At the hotel we met two Englishmen — Nairne and Hems- worth. The hospitality of Baltimore has occasionally been abused by swindlers. Not long since a " gentleman," calling him- self Lord Massy, arrived at the Mount Vernon Hotel, and soon made the acquaintance of all the best people in the place. He was invited to the parties, and finally became engaged to a young lady. . He said he expected his yacht to come off in a few days, and actually took a party down to the shore, and fired two guns for her to heave in sight. Soon after he decamped, leaving his hotel bill unpaid, and his dupes to make the sad discovery that he had been valet to an Irish peer, whose signature he had forged, and whose ways he had imitated to such an extent as to be able to personate an English gentleman well enough to take in the natives of Baltimore. Perhaps the best part of the story was, that when we were there, he was said to be making money in the New England States by giving lectures on how he had succeeded in swindling the Southerners. Dec. 30. We called on the CarroUs to take our leave, and the parting was quite sad. Nairne and Hemsworth dined with us, and we spent the evening at the club, where we met our old friend the Colonel, who had broken his nose by a fall at the Club on Christmas night. It is very clear to us that the Southern people, in spite of what Mr. Forster (who only moved in diplomatic circles) has since said of them, are still smarting under the memory 88 RECORD OF RAMBLES. of their defeat. This appears more especially in their after-dinner conversation : — in vino Veritas. They take a lively interest in the Louisiana difficulties, and declare that if the North goes to war they will not help them. I asked what was the punishment in the States at the present time for duelling, supposing one man fell, and was told that the survivor would not be eligible for the Senate or House of Representatives, but would get into no further disgrace. Dec. 3 1. We sent our " heavy baggage " on to San Fran- cisco, determining to take with us only what we absolutely required. Dulaney, whom I halve mentioned before, came in. He is a rara avis in these parts, for he is at the same time a city counsellor (a local politician that is) and a good fellow, extremely hearty and .sincere. He gave us his version of the origin of the war. He said that when the new State of Nebraska was being colonized, partly from the Southern and partly from the Northern States, the difficulty arose as to what the status of the blacks should be — the Southern masters holding them as slaves, and the Northerners employing them as free men. Then again, when the time for electing a President came round, the South alienated the " Great West" from her by voting for Brecken- ridge instead of for Douglas, a Western man, for whom she had previously agreed to vote ; and with this split the North carried Lincoln. When the South had to fight, the Western States, in consequence of this, were more ready to join the Federals. In the afternoon we called on the Garretts, and on Dr. Van Bibber. Dulaney, Naime, and Hemsworth dined with us ; and at 10.30 we got ourselves settled in a Pullman car for Cincinnati, leaving Baltimore with greater regret than any city we had visited. The hospitality we received there we neither of us can forget, and we were the more sorry to go since everybody pressed us to stay over New Year's day, as that is a great day for PHILADELPHIA, BALTIMORE, AND WASHINGTON. 89 paying visits and drinking " Egg-nogg." The car proved to be so hot that we could not sleep. It was a beautiful starlight night, and I lay looking out of the window. Be- tween twelve and one we were passing a range of moun- tains, which stood out blackly against the sky, at no great distance from us. It was part of the Alleghanies, some- where about the Cumberland peeiks. 90 RECORD OF RAMBLES. CHAPTER VI. CINCINNATI, LOUISVILLE, FORT ANCIENT, AND MAMMOTH CAVE. Jan. I, 1875. The scenery on the Baltimore and Ohio rail- road is in several places striking. It was a frosty morning, and when we woke it was to see that we were on the verge of a deep valley, flanked by a hill on the opposite side, which was quite typical of American mountain land- scapes in general. Its round top was sparsely covered with pines, giving it some resemblance to a short growth of hair on a head that is getting bald. As we got further up the "Cheat" valley, the banks became steeper, and more covered with wood, and the river below was frozen. The train went along on the edge of a precipice, winding downwards to the town of Grafton, where we stopped for breakfast. We next ran through a country, interesting both for its agricultural products and for its coal mines, which latter seemed nothing more than little adits in the hill-sides, the seams being so near the surface. The farmers in Western Virginia have each a little holding of his own, of about one hundred acres more or less. They are a stalwart race, and their wives ride a-pillion as in the old English days. There are also iron mines in this country besides the coal mines ; but the coal trade is far the most important, and to it the town of Parkersburg, which we reached on the river Ohio, owes its existence and rapid rise. The next object of interest en route was the immense building, half a mile in circum- ference, which is the State Lunatic Asylum of Ohio. CINCINNATI, LOUISVILLE, ETC. 9 1 Oddly enough Athens has been the town selected for it, and thus the seat of wisdom in the Old World is that of folly in the New. In a field a mile or two beyond Chillicothe, where we stopped to dine, were three tumuli, the first I had seen of the Mound-builders' works. They were " bowl-shaped " barrows from eight to ten feet high, and a little further on was a " bell-shaped " one higher than the others, perhaps fifteen to twenty feet. They were all situated in a plain, and the three first were close together in the same field. A gentleman in the train called Shepherd gave us some gratuitous information respecting the land and immigration questions. He told us that some of the Southerners are still fain to sell their land (if they can) at any price. He knew, he said, of an estate of two hundred thousand acres in North Carolina for sale for sixty cents per acre, which would be a good investment, if only to make staves out of the timber. With regard to Ohio itself, he thinks the State is good for immigrants, but would advise labourers just now to go to Kansas. Government land in the West, he said, was obtainable for one dollar and fifty cents per acre. After a ride of twenty-two hours in the cars we arrived at Cincinnati, and went to the " Burnet House '' Hotel. Jan. 2. We called on Mr. S. and Mrs. Dexter, and found them both at home. The former was a poor man who left Cornwall twenty-seven years ago, and who has made a fortune in the shoe business. He has been alder- man of the city, is high among the Freemasons, has twice married well, and, in fact, in his own estimation and that of his fellow-citizens, is a man of some consequence. Finding I was interested in the works of the Mound- builders, of which this country is so full, he called in the afternoon, and took us to a " store " of Indian antiquities, a little booth at the corner of " Fourth Street," where I got three flint arrow-heads. In proof, however, of how much 92 RECORD OF RAMBLES. these things are sought after, the storekeeper wanted eight dels, for a Mound-builder's pipe made of clay.* Several people in Cincinnati have formed large collections of similar relics. We went to see one which had been brought together by Dr. Hill, a druggist, and were shown by his partner a really fine set of arrow-points, scrapers, chisels, knives, and "bunts" (as the blunt arrow-points are called), made of chert, flint, and rough stone, some of them of different type to any in Europe. There were also a few good stone pipes from the mounds. We were told that close to the margin of the river Ohio we might pick up any number of arrow- heads washed down from the banks. Outside the "drug- store" of Dr. Hill was a curious stone full of holes, used by the old Indians for sharpening an instrument, or perhaps for cracking nuts. Cincinnati stands on the site of an Indian town, and this very druggist's shop formed the corner of one of the ancient enclosures. The city lies between the Ohio river (spanned by a suspension-bridge) and an eminence called the " Walnut Hills," two miles to the north. It is an essen- tially commercial place in its appearance and population. To the north are the suburbs, of which Clifton and Walnut Hill are the principal : the latter contains some nicely wooded park-ground interspersed with villas, and overlooks to the westward the Spring Grove Cemetery. We dined, or rather "supped," for the supper of the good folks of Cincinnati is at six o'clock, with Mr. and Mrs. Dexter, where, for the first time, we tasted " Sparkling Catawba," the native champagne. After "supper" Mrs. Dexter sang " Angels ever bright and fair," and sang it extremely well too, and when we went away played "God save the Queen" — a tune which she, being an Englishwoman, considered * It has some hieroglyphics on it ; and is identical with several "funnels" in the so-called "Trojan" collection of Herr Schliemann. Some of the Americans call the marks on these pipes Hebrew letters, and look on them as evidence that the Red Indians are the lost ten tribes. CINCINNATI, LOUISVILLE, ETC. 93 would crack most American pianos. We then accompanied Mr. Dexter to a meeting of his committee, he having been nominated for President of the Mercantile Library. The people treat these little elections merely as matters of fun, but they, at all events, are useful in keeping things alive, and show how thoroughly imbued the American mind is with the excellence of the .system under which they are governed ; so much so indeed, that when no more serious election excitement is going on, they get up one of this sort. It shows also how much the welfare of local institu- tions, and particularly those of a literary and scientific character, are cared for by the citizens. From this meeting we went to the " Literary Club," where I met Mr. Wolf, Mr. Cox (judge of the Civil Court), and Mr. Wilby. Next morning [^an. 3] was Sunday, but people do not seem to observe it as rigidly in Cincinnati as many do in the New England States, so some of our friends breakfasted with us, and after that took me to call on Judge Cox, who has been a great " Mound-digger." He showed me two interesting specimens of the pottery from the mounds, and his collec- tion of flints, skin-dressers (as he calls the celts), and rough pointless arrows, .which latter he takes to be weapons used to stun geese on the wing. " The Judge " kindly gave me a few specimens, and told me that the interest and value of these relics had increased greatly in Ohio since a lecture he gave on the subject of them. Mr. Wilby told me the following story of him, in illustration of his geological pro- clivities: Being one day on the bench in his official capacity, and an attorney vehemently and eloquently urging upon his notice a case of unusual importance and difficulty, it was observed that the Judge was paying no attention, but that his eyes were nervously directed towards a gentleman who seemed about to leave the court. At last, when the gentle- man in question had actually reached the door, his restless- ness reached its culminating point. Regardless of aught 94 RECORD OF RAMBLES. else than that on which his mind was set, he exclaimed, " Stop the case until I can find out that gentleman's name, for he has a splendid trilobite on his watch-chain." After this visit we drove out to Gilbert Avenue, Walnut Hills, to lunch with Mr. S. at their early dinner. Here we met his wife and daughters, who were thoroughly American, one of them having graduated at the college in Cincinnati. She was well up in geology, and told me the formation on which we were, namely, Lower Silurian. We were given some native wine to taste, called " Ive's Seedling," a red wine, something like the Greek wines which we afterwards tasted in the Troad ; and " Delaware," which had the flavour of the Delaware grape. Both wines were poor, and will not keep. The class of society in which we found ourselves was one which we had not seen before, and it therefore interested us. The dinner-hour was two, and that meal consisted of the usual oyster-soup and roast turkey, boned and stuffed. The young ladies had just returned from church ; but religion hung lightly on their shoulders. With regard to what they called "the other superstition," namely, that of aristocracy, they were still more repugnant to it, declaiming with zest against English titles, English class prejudices, the status of Eng- lish servants, and the " ignorant conceits " of John Bull in general. These ideas are inculcated at school, and it is scarcely to be wondered at that they are commonly diffused among children, whose first history lesson is to learn the causes that led to the Declaration of Independence. We had a good deal of merry banter with them about English and American politics. From them we heard of the freedom allowed in this country to young people — each girl having her latch-key, and staying out as late as she pleases with her own friends; and yet I am convinced that any abuse of this licence is a thing almost unheard of. It teaches the lesson that Society is quite as likely to CINCINNATI, LOUISVILLE, ETC. 95 produce evil habits by over strictness as by openness on the part of parents. Liberty of action, in short, creates the necessity of individual responsibility. The young ladies sang us some songs ; after which Mr. S. drove us in a "buggy"' and pair, at a frightful pace — considering the hilly country and the frost — to Clifton, returning through the German quarter (for there is a large popula- tion of Germans in Cincinnati), and over the Canal, which the citizens call "the Rhine." We had supper at the Grand Hotel, where we met Mr. Dexter and Mr. Wolf. The latter told me that the West was rapidly developing " free- thought," and that the works of Spencer were already well known there. Speaking of the comparative prosperity of Western cities, he remarked that Cincinnati, which had risen gradually, was on a far more solid basis than other cities, such as Chicago, which had suddenly sprung into existence. Jan. 4. We made an early start for " Fort Ancient," one of those large entrenchments of the Mound - builders, or primitive inhabitants of these States, mentioned in Squier and Davis's work, forming the first volume of the Trans- actions of the Smithsonian Institution. The route we took was by rail (the Little Miami River line), past Blainville and Miamisburg, where Mound-builders' works also exist, to Morrow. This we found to be a primitive little town — primitive in plan and construction, though probably of quite recent growth. The railway cars run through the streets side by side with the carts and carriages, and the station or "dep6t" is simply a house on the principal, or rather on the only thoroughfare. Enquiring for an Hotel, we were surprised at the brogue with which a child asked us if we wanted to see his " paw" (papa). At last we found the " Valley House," and having still a drive of six miles before us, we asked for a conveyance, and were finally provided with a spring-waggon. There were ample 96 RECORD OF RAMBLES. apologies, because both the landlord's buggies had broken down in the ice, through being overladen at a funeral a few days before. We sat round the stove (a poor sub- stitute for the chimney-corner and log fire of an English country inn) till the waggon was ready, and then set out through a bright but bitterly cold frosty air. The roads in general were good, but not adapted for shying horses. The bridges were frail, and many of them were roofed in with wood to preserve the planks of the roadway from rotting, giving them the appearance of tubular bridges. There were downs in this part of Ohio like those of Wilt- shire, and woods like parts of Somerset, and orchards of standard peaches. The farms were larger than usual, some ranging from five hundred to a thousand acres. The blue Inverness capes worn by the farmers and their slouch hats give them a picturesque look. Seeing several woodmen, fine tall fellows, with hatchets on their shoulders, all going in one direction, we asked their business, and were told they were bound for a " chopping bee." A man who wants his wood chopped asks his neighbours and acquaintances to dinner. They come early and spend the day, and chop all his wood ; and in the evening they drink his whisky, and " have a good time." At any rate, it costs him little ; — nothing but the dinner ; and often in the case of a poor man his friends will come and do his work gratuitously, if he is sick or behind-hand with it. Leaving the road to " Lebanon " on the left, we at last arrived at a little chapel, or meeting-house, of wood, on the top of a rising ground, where three buggies and a saddle-horse, and an open grave in a churchyard close by, showed that the people were engaged in a funeral service inside the building. Descending a steep pitch covered with ice, down which our horse went by one single slide, we came in sight of the Miami River, and a turn in the road brought us in front of the covered bridge, on the other CINCINNATI, LOUISVILLE, ETC. 97 side of which stands the little cluster of houses forming the town of " Fort Ancient," a hamlet deriving its name from the hill above, on which were the mounds we intended to visit. At the little " beer saloon " we regaled our driver and ourselves with some rough whisky, and after examin- ing a small collection of flint arrow-heads, and a curious implement of soft mottled stone from the fort, we started, with a guide, for the hill. At first we followed the railway track for several hundred yards, and then, turning to the left, commenced the ascent. The fortifications, if indeed they are so, entirely encompass the summit, and consist of a series of mounds whose height depends on the nature of the ground outside. If this is precipitous, the walls are not so high ; but if it is not, a high bank is raised. Inter- nally, therefore, the ramparts vary from six to twenty-five feet Numerous glens or gullies run up into the hill, which is wooded ; but, notwithstanding all impediments, the mounds follow in zigzag fashion the general contour of the ground. The summit is divided into two level plateaux, the one forty-seven, the other fifty-four acres in extent. In the centre the hill contracts, only leaving a narrow passage between the walls leading from one enclosure to the other, and at this point two high mounds form as it were the side towers of a gateway. The smaller of the two enclosures is full of pottery and slight circular eleva- tions, supposed to be the bases of ancient " lodges," as the Indians call their huts. In the larger enclosure pottery is absent, and there are fewer traces of habitation. The whole ground plan resembles that of the figure 8. One of the most singular features about these ramparts is that their line is not continuous, but that every few yards — say from thirty to eighty — there are gaps or sally-ports, which break the continuity. This feature is particularly observable where, on one side of the larger enclosure, the lines are carried over a H 98 RECORD OF RAMBLES. piece of level ground. At this point, as it was a weak one, the ramparts are unusually high, and outside them are two mounds in which ashes have been found. On the summit of the bank we noticed a fine tall hickory tree, apparently of considerable age. The man who acted as our guide had himself assisted in digging into these ramparts. He told us that a gentleman named Hosey, by probing with an iron rod, had been able to discover where burials had taken place, which was no uncommon thing, in the thickness of the embankment Several flat stones were always laid over the interments, at a depth of about eighteen inches. Arrow-heads are common in the fields, both of flint and slate: some are serrated, and these and others show a peculiar bevelling ofi" at the left edge. Some varieties are " drills ;" others " bunts," or "scrapers ;" and besides these there are pounding-stones, sjone balls, and perforated or- naments, many of the latter being formed out of the same soft mottled stone as the implement we had seen at the beer saloon, a material which we afterwards found was common to the place, being brought there naturally in small boulders by denudation, drift, or otherwise. The hill on which Fort Ancient stands is a fine spot; the stratum is Lower Silurian, and it is full of fossils. In the mounds surrounding it, or the ramparts, as we may best call them (though their military character is yet uncertain), many skeletons have been found, and we heard of one stone pipe being dug up in a field near by, though not actually in the enclosure. The line of circumvallation is single, except in one place, on the right hand side as one passes out of the smaller enclosure through the narrow passage into the larger one, and here man has assisted nature in forming a triple row of earthworks, with gullies between, of considerable depth. This feature is not easily to be accounted for, as there is another portion of the walls far more liable to assault. In this respect Fort Ancient CINCINNATI, LOUISVILLE, ETC. 99 differs from Keltic works, such as that on the Hereford- shire Beacon, which it resembles, however, in several other respects. After exploring the place for some hours, we returned to the beer saloon, and to another necessary dose of the whisky, which, bad as it was, served to keep us from freezing. We then took the " freight train " back to Morrow, finding a comfortable seat in the conductor's van. Several people in the town of Morrow have made collections of curiosities from Fort Ancient ; among these is one belonging to a jeweller, who had some nice stone implements. We also called on Dr. Couden, whose specimens had been dug up by himself. He showed us some curious implements of various and rare shapes, made of the same stone we had noticed before, which (like the little stone axes found in Europe), seemed adapted for ornament rather than for use. He gave me some pottery from the " fort," and showed us besides a remarkable carved stone-head from Illinois, much like a piece of old Roman work. Ere we set out from the " Valley House " to see these gentlemen, we had relished a good fire, and a supper, the best our loquacious landlord could obtain for us, consisting of excellent quails. Sheets were put by the fire in the hope we might be tempted to stay the night ; but in the end we caught the 6.30 train back to Cincinnati after a long, a cold, but a most enjoy- able day. Next morning [yan. 5] a hard frost set in, quite prevent- ing any attempt on our part to dig into any works of the Mound -builders. We went with Mr. Wilby, who is a young attorney here, to see the Public Library. This insti- tution has an income of eighteen thousand dollars yearly to purchase books. We were taken in the book-lift up to the top of the building. Then we went to the museums of the Historical and Natural-History Societies, and the Mercan- tile Library. At the former we saw more relics of the H 2 lOO RECORD OF RAMBLES. Mound-builders, and among them a singular stone pipe with two faces carved on it. Many specimens were wrongly, labelled, which was a pity, as the localities where they have been found are important. Mr. Wilby presented me with two volumes of Transactions of the Geological Society of Ohio. Mr. Dexter took us to call on Mr. Knight, the British Consul, after which we went to the '"Exchange," and saw the candidates for the President's chair at the Mercantile Library formally proposed for election. As usual, we had to go through the form of introduc- tion to the principal men on 'Change, as, for instance, to the President and ex- President of the Chamber. Some pig-drovers, who had come in from the country, were fine burly fellows, good specimens of Western men, and the smiling faces of all on 'Change seemed a clear proof to us of the solidity of commerce in Cincinnati. We then went to the store of Mr. Mercer to buy some Mound-builders' relics, and afterwards to the "Grand Opera," where we heard a "Variety" performance, which was fairly good. The streets were extremely slippery; the boys make slides, and no one stops them. We both fell victims to their devices. Jan. 6. We called on Mrs. Dexter, and afterwards dined with Mr. Knight at the St. Nicholas Hotel. We had a chat on the relations between the North and South, and he said that however bad feeling there may be on the part of certain Southern gentlemen, still in time of national danger, or warfare from without, they would hold strongly together.* Some have even said that a foreign war would cement them, and be useful for this purpose, so that they might be led to forget their old troubles in the common cause. Much and severe pressure has been put on the South, but the Democrats are looked to to redress these wrongs. We * It is curious to notice tlie different opinions on this point contained in this Journal. CINCINNATI, LOUISVILLE, ETC. lOI spent such a pleasant evening that we could not get oflf until the next day [yan. 7], when we started for Louisville by the 7.30 p.m. train, arriving there at 12.30. We went to the "Gait House" Hotel. jfan. 8. Louisville, Kentucky, is a commercial town on the Ohio, and a large market for tobacco. The colour of the water here, is as muddy as at Cincinnati, and the town decidedly uninteresting. The weather was foggy, cold, and unwholesome, and we both had bad colds. In the evening the pleasant social life in the hotels was in- stanced by a harper playing while all the children in the house danced. j^an. 9. So cold was the weather that we took the advice of Colonel Johnson, the proprietor of the hotel, and re- mained two more days at Louisville, the thermometer being six degrees below zero. In spite of this we walked to the Public Library and the Museum. The latter is ill kept and badly arranged, the things being piled anyhow one on another. Among the antiquities was a large brown stone pipe from Kentucky, and, among other curiosties, a curious fungus, shaped like a little man's head, taken from the centre of a tree, and which, if genuine, was very remarkable. On a ferry-boat we noticed a singularly appropriate name, the owner being " I. Shallcross," one of an old family of that name in Kentucky. A wedding took place at our Hotel while we were there ; it had been celebrated in one of the drawing-rooms, called the "blue-room," and some six or eight young people besides the bride and bridegroom were staying on there still. yan. 10. Being blocked up in Louisville by excessive cold without, and our own colds within, we were necessarily driven in upon our own thoughts. That, from our social stand-point in England, these people of Cincinnati and Louisville belonged to the lower middle class, and were extremely unpolished, was a point on which F. and I agreed ; I02 RECORD OF RAMBLES. but as to which was the most healthy dress for humanity — this or the pompous and ignorant pretensions of too many members of our idle upper classes, was a point on which we could not agree. Having time to read the local newspapers, we could not but observe their singular gross- ness. There was not one reliable incident or one single fact on any important subject clearly stated from one end of them to the other. Besides this we noticed that the tone in which assassination was spoken of as the proper fate of unpopular men, even if simply obeying State orders (as was the case just then with General Sheridan), was most criminal. Luckily, the majority of their readers treat them as a joke, and drop them with contempt, retaining their own opinions still. The pages which are not devoted to villany are generally filled with poor jokes, too poor to be appreciated by any educated man, and yet sufficiently characteristic to stamp the editor as a pander to degraded tastes. In my original note-book at this time I find the following entry : " It is now time that I should ask myself once more what I think of the Americans, but I shall confine myself to these two cities, Cincinnati and Louisville ; for, like the Republics of ancient Greece, each city has its peculiar characteristics, and must be judged by itself To many an English gentleman there must be a degree of weariness and vexation in hearing nothing but the voices, and seeing nothing but the manners, of the lower middle classes at home. In contrast to persons of this description we, however, occasionally saw some of those bearded, gaunt, and fine-eyed Western men (whose physi- ognomy so singularly has come to resemble that of the Red Indians) with their tall wives ; but, as a rule, the population of these two cities seems not possessed of any great height, strength, or vigour ; and as to the women, they are dread- fully pale and wizened, and even when young they look like marble. People, we noticed, are apt to look cynically at CINCINNATI, LOUISVILLE, ETC. IO3 a stranger until they are introduced, but then they become pleasant and obliging enough. The shops seem to be of a second-class description, and altogether it has never been our fate to be in such an uninteresting city as Louisville. Alas ! the cold detained us here another day." [3^an. 10.] The inconvenience of this delay was in some measure compensated for by meeting a young man called Gretter, who by his interesting conversation prepared us for the state of things we should meet with in our proposed journey South. He told us of the sad troubles there in the days immediately succeeding the war. There was nothing, he said, in the way of outfit to be got, but what could be smuggled into the country. The Southern cur- rency had become of no value ; fifteen hundred Southern paper dollars had been given for a pair of boots, fifty was the price of a cigar, and his brother had papered his room with dollar bills of all values. Added to this, his own slaves had been taken away, and they were his capital. His old black nurse, who was a second mother to him (she would tell lies for her " baby," or steal for him ; she idolized him, though she hated her own children, for blacks do not care for each other) — this poor old soul he had been obliged to send to an almshouse, where she had since died. He had gone to see her shortly before she died, and she had said, " Lord, let me die, now I have seen my boy." He himself had no means to maintain her otherwise, and had gone into a merchant's house in New York as a clerk. As to blacks in general, he told us that it is their habit to idolize a thing, especially a white infant, when entrusted to their care. So much is this a trait in their character that in some of the deserted cotton plantations in the South, where they are reduced nearly to starvation, they have returned, by a singular survival in their nature, to their pristine African fetich worship, and will fall down and I04 RECORD OF RAMBLES. worship a stick or a stone which they have set up. They cannot fight with their fists, and run away at the sight of blood on themselves. Giving them the suffrage has been an absurd mistake, which the North really owns. It has been taken advantage of by the "carpet-baggers" and " scalliwaggers." The former were the adventurers from the North, who followed in the wake of the destroying army, carrying nothing with them but an empty "carpet- bag," getting the niggers to vote for them en masse, and making sufficient capital out of their official position to fill the carpet-bag to overflowing. The latter were Southerners, who turned on their country, and by similar means assisted in the work of its ruin. These rascals get themselves elected Governors of the States, and in conse- quence the Southern gentlemen have given up politics in disgust ; while by robbery, pure and simple, these pseudo-politicians have been sucking out the little life- blood which the war left. Mr. Gretter advised us, if possible, to go and hear a nigger's speech. It is, he said, a rare piece of fun. Two little stories which he told us may come in here. The first is a specimen of nigger preaching. The minister having got upon the sub- ject of lost souls, observed : " If you lose your wife, my dear brethren, you can marry again ; if you lose your babbies, you may have some more ; but if you lose your soul, why then, 'Good-bye, Jod !'" The second related to the subject on which he had been speaking ; namely, the blacks and their old masters. When the Southern war was over, the Yankees came South in large numbers to see the battle-fields, and amongst other places they stayed at the hotel at Richmond, Virginia. An old nigger waiter there thus described their treatment of him, as contrasted with that he received from Southern gentlemen : "When a Yankee gentleman comes along, he holds out his hand. Says he, ' Shake hands, Mr. Jones ; very pleased to see you, Mr. CINCINNATI, LOUISVILLE, ETC. I OS Jones. I congratulate you, Mr. Jones, on your freedom, Mr. Jones ; hope you may live many years to enjoy it, Mr. Jones.' Then he hopes that Mrs. Jones is well, and the little babbies likewise. Then he says, ' Be so kind as to bring me a cup of coffee, Mr. Jones, and just a little cold meat, Mr. Jones ;' and then he shakes hands again, and says, ' Good-bye, Mr. Jones ; hope to meet you again, sir.' But a Southern gentleman, when he comes along — ' Nigger,' says he, ' a cup of coffee and some cold meat, and be quick about it;' and when he goes away he slips a dollar into my hand.' " Jan. II. We started at 10.15 ^"i for Cave City. The line passes through some picturesquely-wooded limestone country, and, what is rarely seen on American railways in this part of the States, there are a good many viaducts and tunnels. We saw a great many buzzards flying over the com lands and forests, and arrived at our destination at two p.m. After getting something to eat, we got into the "stage" for the Mammoth Cave. The vehicle was an old tumble-down coach, of the same build as those at New York ; the sides were torn to shreds, and were flapping to-and-fro, and the mud lay caked on the wheels. It was drawn by four horses and driven by a nigger, while a second nigger was seated at his side. The frost was hard, and the roads rough, and our digestions suffered accord- ingly. The road lay through a beautiful country : in some parts there were wild, rugged slopes of broken lirnestone, with deep wooded glens below. The trees were mostly oak — some tall, but none of them large in bulk. Here and there we came upon the wooden hut of a squatter in a clearing of the forest, and, every now and then, rude hovels appeared, with the hideous faces of dirty starving niggers peeping out at the doors. Nine miles and a half, over which we took two hours and a half, brought us to the Cave Hotel. This building, being almost entirely built on the ground- I06 RECORD OF RAMBLES. floor, occupies a large space of ground. Corridors stretch out at the back, and there is besides a ball-room. In summer it is much frequented, but just now we found our- selves the only occupants, except the landlord and a servant. The coach and horses were put away for the night, and ordering supper on our return, we started with a guide and a nigger for the cave. Passing down into a wooded glen we crossed the bridge of a small mountain stream, and, turning suddenly to the right, found ourselves unexpectedly at the mouth of the Mammoth Cave. A rough pathway down the side of a pit, which is really a shrinkage in the surface where the roof of the tunnel has fallen in, brings the visitor opposite a broken natural archway of limestone, about thirty feet high. In summer this arch is clothed with ferns and flowers; and just now a little rivulet dripping over the top and forming clusters of icicles made it scarcely less pretty. This is not .really the mouth of the cave, which ex- tends half a mile further down the valley, but is only a hole formed by the collapse of a portion of the roof Entering, we halted while the guide lighted our open lamps. He then gave us each one, and stooping through a shallow passage, we were directed to make a rush for an open iron door in front ; this was to prevent the current of air issuing from the cave from putting out .the lights. The temperature of the cave is invariable, and always stands at fifty-nine. After walking a little way, the roof seemed to be rising, and when the guide had lighted a lime-light, we perceived that we were in an immense hall, called the "Rotunda," from the shape of the roof, which is a well-formed circle. This chamber is said to be a hundred feet high in the centre, and a hundred and seventy feet in diameter, and is of a clear bluish-grey limestone. To a person given to romance, it might have seemed as if thousands of little spirits were kissing their hands to him ; such was the curious chirping noise proceeding from the clusters of bats which literally CINCINNATI, LOUISVILLE, ETC. 1 07 darkened the walls. The floor of the " Rotunda " had been torn up to make saltpetre works, which were carried on here in 1811 ; two years, that is, Eifter the discovery of the cave ; and which have much disfigured the place. To give an idea of the extent of all the ramifications of this wonderful vault, I may mention that it is asserted that a person, sup- posing he never passed through the same passages twice, might walk a hundred and fifty miles under ground. There is only one entrance known — that at which we came in. There are several rivers running through the Cave, called respectively the "Styx," the "Echo," the "Mystic," and the " Roaring Rivers," besides a lake. The name " Mam- moth" Cave is applied to it, not, as I once supposed, because the bones of that animal have been found there, but simply from its size compared to other caves. Proceeding on through " Main Gallery," a passage forty to sixty feet high, and forty feet wide, we followed our guide down a crevice, and round a projection in the rock, and after passing a shaky wooden plank spanning a dark abyss, into which water was flowing, and, finally, after stooping under a succession of "low-browed rocks," we came to a perfect honeycomb of chambers, having avenues running off them in many directions. In one of these chambers we were told to look out through a window in the side, into outer darkness as it seemed, until our guide, setting fire to a lime-light torch, threw it from another aperture into the pit into which we then saw we were looking. This place was known as "Goran's Dome," and the effect was striking beyond all description. The pit was in the shape of the interior of a lantern-tower ; the bottom was one hundred feet below us, and the top was about the same distance above us, and we were hanging our heads out of a sort of rugged port-hole in the side. The opposite wall of the dome was thirty or forty feet from us, and the limestone on that side was shaped in most fantastic lo8 RECORD OF RAMBLES. forms. It had, as we saw it by the limelight, the appear- ance of a richly fringed curtain drawn from top to bottom, between massive pillars of barbaric work, while the roof above formed a beautiful little dome, the circles in whose ceiling looked blue, and yellow, and white, in the light of the descending torch. We saw other similar domes in other parts of the cave, but none so beautiful as this. Reaching " Main Gallery " again, we pursued it to a point where it turns at right angles to the left, and came upon a dismal- looking place, where were the ruins of three or four stone houses, once the homes of consumptive people ordered there for their health, but too late. Beyond these is the " Star Chamber," so called because, when the guide takes the lights away and hides them behind a rock at a little distance, the roof of the cave has the appearance of a dark- blue sky at night with the stars (formed by a ray from the lamps falling on the stalactites) twinkling through, while other parts of the roof resemble masses of white cloud. Be- fore leaving the cavewewent into another "avenue," in which are curious stalactites, in the shape of pillars of Decorated architecture, from which the place has received the name of the " chapel." Night had come on while we had been underground, and so when we emerged again from the mouth of the cave, and saw the real stars shining in the clear blue frosty sky, it reminded us of Dante's return from hell, so well portrayed by the pencil of the painter, drawn from the poet's pen. Indeed the whole place forced upon the mind the sceneiy of the Inferno, as illustrated by Gustave Dor6. After supper we talked over the formation of such a cave as this, which seems the result of successive chemical and mechanical causes. First, the disintegration or rather the decomposition of the limestone rock itself, and then the trickling of water into the hollows, till at last rivers bursting in, and not having sufficient means of exit, have, by their eddies, and whirlpools, and torrents, formed CINCINNATI, LOUISVILLE, ETC. 109 those great passages, and symmetrical domes, and rents and chasms, which, now that the waters have subsided, appear so wonderful to the visitor who can walk through the ancient subterranean channels. We were shown specimens of the white eyeless iish, and of crayfish, also colourless, found in the buried waters. We were told that fish with eyes, similar to those in the rivers above ground, have been found in the cave ; and, vice versd, that the eyeless ones have been found in the rivers, but that they are quickly devoured by the others. The country round this place is full of caves. In one of these, known as the "Skeleton Cave," Indian relics have been found, one of which, a curious glass charm made of red and white opaque glass, I took a drawing of when at Cave City. In the Mammoth Cave, however, no evidence of man has occurred, and the place does not seem to have been known until a hunter discovered it in 1809. We heard of some fine stone pipes, with representations of animals on them, having been recently found in this neighbourhood, but failed to procure any specimens. We were glad to get to bed, or rather to "lie down for a few minutes,^' wrapped in our cloaks and rugs, for the room was far too cold and draughty to allow of our remaining there longer than we needed. Next morning [^jfan. 12] we started early in the stage for Cave City. It was very wet, and our patience was sorely tried by a dirty nigger impudently attempting to ride inside with us. We started at two p.m. for New Orleans, and slept in a Pullman car. We had the car to ourselves all the way, but during the night a thief in John's car succeeded in relieving that incautious domestic of his bag. Jan. 13. Thirty-four hours from Cave City brought us to New Orleans. As we travelled South we noticed a remarkable change in the vegetation. Fan-palms or palm- ettoes took the place of the underwood ; wreaths of dusky no RECORD OF RAMBLES. moss enwrapped the trees ; and we soon exchanged the frosty air on the limestone hills for warm, damp, murky- weather amidst the forest swamps of Louisiana. As we approached the city the train went slowly, and stopped altogether at intervals, owing to the uncertain condition of the line where it is built upon the soft swamp. Arrived at New Orleans, we took up our quarters at the St. Charles' Hotel. NEW ORLEANS. 1 1 1 CHAPTER VII. NEW ORLEANS. jfan. 14. New Orleans is still a completely French town, as far as its external appearance goes. The streets are narrow, with one exception — Canal Street — which runs down to the quays and the river, and in the upper part of which is a statue to Heniy Clay. They are lined with neat flag- stone paving, and verandahs and green French shutters give a foreign air to the house fronts. We walked to the river, where we saw cotton loading. The Mississippi here is a fine broad stream, but not always, we were told, sufficiently deep, as mud-banks are apt to collect. One or two of the immense river steamers were lying at the wharf. The one over which we went, called the Great Republic, had a saloon elegantly fitted, and of the surprising length of two hundred and eighty feet. Col. V. called on us, and in the evening we went to the " Varieties Theatre." It soon became evident that we had reached New Orleans at a particularly critical time. It appeared that at the last election a principle of the Constitution had been violated by the fact that the Governor, a "carpet- bagger" called Kellogg, himself a Republican, and therefore a partizan, had taken upon himself to appoint, from amongst the members of his own party, a Board of Inspection to examine and revise the votes. This was clearly an illegal course, since the Representatives of the State Legi^ature assembled were the only persons authorised by the Con- stitution so to do. The result of the examination of votes was such as might have been expected from the manner in which the Revisers had been chosen, and although the 112 RECORD OF RAMBLES. Conservatives {i.e. the Democrats) were known to have had a considerable majority, the Board found a small majority for the Republican side. This was not the first time that this unwarrantable course had been adopted, and the Democrats determined at last to make a stand. Five Representatives who had been elected, but whose election w£is not acknow- ledged by the Board, came to the House, and the Governor, upon finding this to be the case, sent for General de Trobri- and to turn them out, which he did by force of arms. More recently a committee sent from Washington, consisting of two Republicans and one Democrat, had reported adversely to the proceedings of the Returning Board. At this time, fear lest the Democratic party should burst into the House, and turn out the Government, had caused President Grant to despatch General Sheridan to the spot, to overawe the malcontents, until proper investigations could be set on foot. This was in itself a wise and proper measure, but an ill-worded despatch from Sheridan had, just be- fore we arrived, brought down considerable odium on himself, and increased the unpopularity of Grant who sent him. The troubles which accrued in consequence of this state of things can scarcely be overestimated. In order to protect themselves from the blacks, who are stirred up against them by the "carpet-baggers" and " scalliwaggers," (on the pretence that if they, the blacks, do not reduce their old masters to subjection they will be enslaved again,) the young gentlemen of the city had arranged themselves into armed clubs, the most notorious of which was the " White League." Their excuse for carrying arms was the danger to which they were exposed from the negroes, edged on as they had been to violence, by those vultures from the North whom their votes had placed in power. So recently as the 14th of last September (1874) the two parties came into open collision. A steamer arrived with a cargo of guns NEW ORLEANS. II3 and rifles for the " White League." The military police got wind of this, and, by the Governor's order, lined the bottom of Canal street, just below the Custom House, with Catling guns to prevent the arms being brought ashore. The young men of the League divided themselves into several com- panies (for they had well drilled themselves in secret), armed themselves as best they could, charged the police, cleared the road to the river, and landed their arms and ammuni- tion in safety. In this plucky encounter Colonel Badger, on the Government side, was wounded, and it is said that a hundred men were killed in all, twenty of them being youths of good- family, members of the " White League," and the rest, on the other side, principally nigger police. The victors took possession of two Catling guns brought by the police to scour the street, and proceeded, as in the old war, to arm themselves with their victims' weapons. In addition to this they deposited a thousand rifles, landed from the steamer, in some safe place, w^ich Kellogg has since that time advertised for in vain, and has been power- less to discover. The respectable people of the city — ^that is, all the old Southern gentry there — much applauded the pluck of these young fellows ; and Mrs. S., on whom Colonel V. took us to call, was an instance of a mother who could speak with the deepest pride of a wound her son had received on that occasion. Indeed it seemed necessary for all honest men, in such a state of things; to be ready for any emergency. Colonel V. himself told us that, if necessary, he could call out a hundred men at a moment's notice, though he took no part at present. There were great hopes, he added, from the Democratic reaction ; but meanwhije the legislators would plunder what they could in the time ; and restless lawlessness was clearly written on the faces of the men who, in knots of three or four, haunted the street-comers. The niggers now, when it is too late, are banning to see their error in I 114 RECORD OF RAMBLES. trusting for deliverance to their pretended allies. What little reasoning powers their brutish brains possess must surely prove to them the present misery of their condition. Puffed up by pride for an instant, they have been cast into the gutter for ever; while their ancient masters, even if still kindly disposed towards them, after the intolerable insolence they have received at their hands, are now deprived of those means which might have contributed to alleviate their dis- tress. Some of these wretched blacks are picking, up paper in New Orleans for a living, and the journals teem with iaccounts of riots at Red River and elsewhere, the result of maddening hunger amongst them, or absolute despair. Not only did the old civil war (with the "carpet-bag" legislation for its result) depreciate commerce in New Orleans, and lay waste the cotton plantations in the district, but it has given an opening to hundreds of dens of thieves and card- sharpers, who are hand and glove with those in power. What a state of things is represented by the fact that Kellogg, the Governor of the State, lives with a professional card-sharper, whose profits he shares ! We heard of one class of swindling rife in New Orleans, which, as it is practised on foreigners, it may be inter- esting to mention for the sake of the future traveller who may visit the city. A little bustling fellow runs up against the stranger in the street : " Oh, how do you do, sir ? I am surprised to see you in New Orleans ;" and upon the Stranger looking a little taken aback at seeing a face he does not know, he continues, " Oh, I see, you don't remem- ber me. The last time we met was in London, at 's in Regent Street. My name is Welcome, but I quite forget yours." Taken off his guard, and thinking no harm can come of it, the stranger tells his name. " I 'm in a great hurry; good-bye," says the sharper. "By-the-by, what steamer did you come out in .'" Glad to get rid of the little bore, the stranger tells him the steamer's name. NEW ORLEANS. I15 and walks on. Later in the day, a gentlemanly-looking young fellow, the very reverse in appearance of the little whipper-snapper of the morning, comes up and holds out his hand. " How do you do, Mr. .? (Mentioning the right name.) I am so glad to see that you have extended your tour to New Orleans;" and upon the stranger remark- ing that he has not the honour of his acquaintance, " Oh," he replies, with an air of disappointment, " I thought you would have remembered me on board the " (mentioning the ship he came out in). Sharper No. 2 then proceeds to say that he had come to New Orleans in consequence of having just won the first prize in a State Lottery, and that he is going to a certain house to be sure that his is tha right number. The stranger perhaps incautiously accom- panies him, and finds himself in a Lottery-office. Sharper No. 2 makes out that he has to receive some change, which he will throw for, and gives the stranger two chances. On these he finds he has to stake, or his fellow-passenger may lose the whole ; upon which, out of kindness, of course, he does so, and so at last it dawns on him, to his chagrin, that he has been all along the witness to a most clever piece of acting, at no inconsiderable expense, it may be, for his seat at the play. yan. 15. We went to the State House, where the Senate and House of Representatives of the State of Louisiana were then sitting. Looking into the former we saw a nigger seated in the chair, no less a personage than Vice-Govemor Antoine. The roughs about the halls and precincts of the House were a villainous-looking set, drawn there on that occasion by a report that the Conservatives intended to make a raid on the Assembly that day. In consequence Sheridan's soldiers were posted in the rear of the building. Going into the House of Representatives, and leaning over the bar, we were cour- teously invited by the speaker to take seats near his chair. The proceedings were opened by a prayer (shall we ever I 2 H6 RECORD OF RAMBLES. forget it ?), pronounced by an old nigger. We listened for some time to the debates, most of which touched on the action of the Returning Board. The speaker himself was a Mr. Hahn, a white man ; but the majority present were coloured. Some of them continued speaking nearly all the time, rising with vociferation to "points of order" which had no point in them at all. We could not but remember what we had heard at Boston, that the blacks have not the intellectual development of other men, and are unfit to take care of their own concerns. Much less are they capable of entering into State matters where the interests of others are entrusted to their charge. Whether they thought we were laughing at them or not I do not know, but a motion was soon made that " strangers do withdraw.'' Perhaps they were ashamed of their own doings, and certainly they might well be so, for such a " bear- garden" we never saw before. It was just as if the monkeys in their cage at the Zoological Gardens had concerted together to act a farce in parody of the British House of Commons. We accordingly rose to leave, and when we went out a burly negro in the front rank, probably the leader of his party, was still roaring out his views, with the handle of a " six-shooter " visibly protruding from each of his side coat-pockets. Our kind friend Colonel V. took us to call on Major New, a lawyer of considerable practice here. He refreshed our memories as to the history of Louisiana. Originally French, it belonged for some time to the Spaniards, but was finally regained by the former, and sold by Napoleon to the United States. This accounts, he said, for the fact that the French code is the basis of the civil law here, though the English common law is the basis of the criminal. Mr. New is a clever and an interesting fellow, and was kind in putting down our names for the best club, namely, the " Boston," so called from a game of cards, much played there, which bears this name. We found NEW ORLEANS. 11/ a good many men at this club, spending their lives in play; for the rule holds here, as in other Southern cities, that the gentlemen, disgusted with politics, and stripped of their interest in the active administration of the State, have relapsed into idleness or habits of excess. In New Orleans the social extremes seem to meet. On the one hand there is a proud and reserved society, descendants (many of them) of old French families, such as used to represent the gayest circle of the gay in the Southern States, and, on the other hand, there is the greatest accumulation of blackguardism and intrigue, licentiousness and vice, which can be witnessed in any city in the world. Mr. New was a devout admirer of Herbert Spencer, a fact which shows us how this system of philosophy has advanced itself southwards. We saw General Sheridan several times ; he dined at an adjoining table to ours at the Hotel. He is a little bull-headed man, with a low forehead, and hair turning grey. yan. 1 6. F., having had a bad account from home, tele- graphed at 12 p.m. to his house in Hampshire, and received an answer at 4 p.m., in the marvellously short space of four hours. We lunched with friends at the Club, from whom we learnt many of the details I have stated above with regard to affairs in the State and City. Jan. 17. We walked out with Colonel V. up Canal Street. Being Sunday, we wished to see a nigger church, and, accordingly, at 6.30 in the evening. Major New arranged for his black servant Allan, who was a preacher, to call for us and take us to a Wesleyan church at the top of the town, to which we were forthwith conveyed in a street car. The building was a plain whitewashed room with a gallery at one end ; at the other end was the minister's platform and desk, surrounded by a railing. The minstrels occupied the gallery. When we went in they were singing. Excepting ourselves there was not 9. single white person in the church. The singing was lis RECORD OF RAMBLES. followed by a prayer, given out by our guide, who was clearly a shining light amongst them. Then came more singing ; then a sermon from an old nigger called Williams, who afterwards told me he had never been inside an Epis- copal church in his life. The subject of his discourse was Pharaoh crossing the Red Sea. He told them that if they did wrong they would all go (and here he made a hideous grimace) "down there," pointing mysteriously with his finger at the ground ; but if they did right, " they should all start fair for heaven freighted with cotton" — the nigger's ideal of real happiness being to have completed his loading work at the wharves, and then to go to sleep on the top of the cotton bales. The moral of the sermon was summed up thus : " If you put your trust in God, you 're all right ; but if you trust in yourselves, you 're sure to get whipped" He became much more vociferous towards the end, and his excited hearers frequently broke in upon him with cries of "Jeesus," Jeesus," "Here," &c. The niggers, as they got excited, strained their eyeballs and stamped their feet. Next came a hymn much to the tune of " Tramp, Tramp," and this produced a marked effect. The congregation began by marking time with their feet, and nodding their heads. Then nervous twitchings were apparent, and some of them began to work their bodies up and down : then they jumped up oif their seats, with hunched shoulders, keeping their heads down : then I saw one great girl throwing out her arms, and trying to fling herself about, while several women near her were scarcely able to hold her down by main force : then numerous minstrels in the gal- lery were seen jumping up and down with the regularity of the " Cure." Arms and legs too seemed flying in the air, regardless of owners. In one part of the room two old women, with old-fashioned "poke -bonnets" on, had turned towards each other, their bonnet fronts meeting in the middle, and were hugging each other by the arms. NEW ORLEANS. II9 and jumping up and down all the while in time to the tune, as high as the old sinews in their legs would allow. Close to us one girl almost went into a fit, and was held down by four or five neighbours. As the tune got quicker and quicker the excitement increased. After it was over there was more singing, and then a collection, each donor walking up to a table inside the railing, and depositing his paper money or nickel. This, it must be remembered, was not a Revival, much less a Camp -meeting — only a plain ordinary service ; but we could easily form an idea from it of what they must be. Such then is the Christian religion in its nigger dress, — a state of things calculated to do more harm than good, and combining in strange mixture the traits alternately of rabid and amiable lunacy. Among the congregation there were some, to judge by their gaudy ribbons and dress, who seemed pretty well to do in the world ; but perhaps this was no criterion. The men were hideously ugly ; but the women had, some of them, good figures. The little children were pretty little animals; their full, dark, earnest eyes were set like beautiful jewels in their heads, as we had a good opportunity of observing, for several of them sat close to us by the preacher's side. Next morning \Jan. 18], finding that the steamer did not start for Havana, where we meant to go, until Friday, we came to the sudden resolve, occasioned chiefly by our disgust at our surroundings at New Orleans, to start for St. Louis by the five p.m. train. We were sorry to give up Mexico ; but the steamers were very uncertain, and a fortnight more of this place, in the state it was then, would have been intolerable. Accordingly, we started once more " right away," and slept in a Pullman car. I20 RECORD OF RAMBLES. CHAPTER VIII. ST. LOUIS AND CHICAGO. Jan. 19. The country between New Orleans and St. Louis is extremely monotonous. At twelve a.m. we passed Cairo, where our sleep was disturbed by the car in which we were being lifted off its wheels and placed on others in order to suit another and narrower gauge. The next day we arrived at St. Louis, and driving across a handsome and remarkable bridge, we went to the New Lindell Hotel, where a good " clean up'' was as delightful as it was essential after the dirt and imperfect washing arrangements of the cars. The Mississippi, which we had crossed by the bridge, was frozen over to a depth of nearly two feet, so that waggons were crossing it. Having changed our apparel, we lost no time in calling on General Sherman, Com- mander-in-Chief of the United States army, at his head- quarters, which are in this city. He is famous in the history of the war for his " march to the sea," and for the way in which he managed to victual his troops while passing through the enemy's country. He is a tall elderly man, more like a practical financier and tactician than a soldier, and in this respect is just the converse of Grant. At his house we found our friend Mr. William Appleton, of New York. The General was attentive and kind to us, and introduced us to Colonel Teuttelotte, one of his Aides, in order that he might show us St. Louis. The city, the General told us, was a little larger than Chicago, and he spoke of it as a most prosperous place. " I could victual the whole of England," he said characteristically, ST. LOUIS AND CHICAGO. 121 "from St. Louis alone." We wcilked down the principal street, which is Fourth Street, where the State House with its dome stands, and turning to the right crossed the frozen river, which was strewn with broken ice. From the opposite bank we had a good view of the city and its really beautiful bridge ; and in the afternoon walked up to Twenty-Eighth Street, where Mr. Donald- son Morrison lives, to whom Mr. Dulany, at Baltimore, had given us a letter. In the evening we dined at the hotel at the "mess table" with Colonels Teuttelotte and Bacon, who told us some good anecdotes of Indian war- fare. We finished the day by going with Mr. Appleton to the Theatre Comique. Jan. 21. We called on Colonel Teuttelotte. He intro- duced us to General Whittles, who showed us a first-rate specimen of a pipe made of the much-prized "red-stone," inlaid with silver and mounted on a long carved handle. After another chat with General Sherman, Colonel Teutte- lotte took us to the " Planters' House " Hotel, as we were anxious to see some Indians who were staying there, who had been travelling through the States on their return from acting as a deputation to Washington. Their griev- ances were that Mormons and miners were trespassing on their reservations, and that a neighbouring tribe had carried off some of their children, on which account they wished Congress to interfere. The children, however, did not wish to return. We found them occupying two ground -floor rooms, some lying by the fire, some on beds. Their tribe was that of the Nevajos (a Spanish name signifying "knife"), applied to a branch of the fierce Apachee race. Here then we were face to face with a few picked fellows whose fea- tures and bearing were those of the most ferocious of the Red Indian tribes. We noticed particularly their fine bronzed complexions, their aquiline noses, and the Spanish style of dress adopted in their gaiters and leggings, tight-fitting. 122 RECORD OF RAMBLES. and striped with silver buttons placed in rows. They knew also not a few Spanish words. Among their number there was only one woman, the wife of the chief. They were little inclined to speak to strangers, and conversed only among themselves. Altogether they appeared to think that their mission had not been a success, as undoubtedly it had not, and they seemed in high dudgeon at the result They carried with them blankets made by their tribe, which were also of Spanish fashion. When we asked their conductor as to their honesty, he replied that the best Indians (that is, the cleverest and strongest) have all died out, and that these have not sense to steal, or power to keep what they have stolen. Colonel Teuttelotte was incredulous about this; for he added that among the Indians generally the rights of property are but faintly recognized. General Sherman had told us also of his experience of the thievish propensities of another tribe of Indians — the Pue- blos — so-called because they live together in communities in stone houses several stories high, which are entered at the top. Bidding "Adios" to the Red-men, we drove through the city, and saw the Mercantile Library, con- taining over forty thousand volumes. Afterwards we again dined with Colonel Teuttelotte at the mess table. He very kindly brought me as a present a scalp. It was one, he said, which he had received from an agent who had bribed the taker to part with it, which he did much against his will, for scalps are a warrior's most valued posses- sion. During a war between the Ute Indians and the fierce Sioux, this scalp was cut from the head of a brave warrior of the latter tribe by the smart young Ute " buck," from whom the agent bought it. He had fixed it on to a piece of wood, on the other side of which he had devised a face by stretching buck-skin over a knob in the wood for a nose, and painting it in various colours. He had also made a loop by which he wore it suspended from his belt ST. LOUIS AND CHICAGO. 1 23 or saddle-bow. We were informed that the Indians are divided at present into three large groups, each having its peculiar portion of wild land or " reservation " allotted to it. Thus, the Sioux and the Utes are on the north ; the Choctaws and Chickasaws are in the Indian territory, properly so called, north-east of Texas ; while the Apachees are to be found in New Mexico and Arizona. It has been the scarcely covert policy of the United States in forming these divisions to place two inveterately hostile tribes side by side in their reservations, in order that they may be less dangerous to the whites, and may the more quickly exter- minate each other by internecine war — such a powerful agent can the reason of man become, in furthering that merciless Law by which the stronger survives, and "the weaker goes to the wall." The army, in the summary way in which it punishes Indian atrocities, has often found itself trammelled by the action of a "peace party" at Washington. This party is made up of several hetero- geneous elements :- first, there may be a few conscientious people who really believe the Indians may still be made something of, and advocate mild measures from charitable motives ; secondly, there are certain old women who make platform speeches about the rights and wrongs of men and brothers, making capital out of the severity of some officer in command ; thirdly, there are those commercial men who trade with the Indians for skins, blankets, &c., and who take advantage of the strength of this " peace party " to prosecute their own advantage. In consequence it so happens that to army men Indian warfare is distasteful, as not only a dangerous, but a thankless and inglorious affair in which questions of duty are argued by Govern- ment ex parte. There have been instances known where, while the United States army was fighting the Red Indians at one end of their line. United States agents have been supplying them with rifles at the other end, 124 RECORD OF RAMBLES. nominally for them to shoot game for their subsistence, and bring skins to market, but really as articles of barter, and to be used the next day against the American people. We took the night train up to Chicago, passing on the way through a fine grain country, and arriving there at 7.30 next morning. Jan. 22. We got our breakfast at the "Palmer House" — this and the "Pacific" being the two Grand Hotels for which Chicago is celebrated. Mr. Palmer, who gives his name, as the proprietor of it, to the house, married Miss Honori, whose sister married President Grant's son. Here, as usual, I paid my visit to the Public Library, with the view of ascertaining what proportion of the people cared for intellectual pursuits, and what books they read. Mr. Poole, the librarian, told me the library was a new one, by way of apology for its containing only twenty-three thousand volumes. It possessed, however, eighteen hundred subscribers. There is, he said, a great wish for learning in the country, though at present there are very few literary men. Chicago people are still in their working phase. He told us, however, that modern European philosophy was much caught up and read by the young men, and especially John S. Mill and Herbert Spencer. Of the results of the first great fire, that of 1871, which covered an area of six miles in length by a mile and a half in breadth, there are few traces left ; but of the second and more recent one, some blocks still remain to be rebuilt, especially near Hubbard Court. The ruins of three large churches were to be seen in one square alone. The prin- cipal streets of Chicago were, in my opinion, the finest specimens of city architecture we had seen in the States, and the "stores" were large and handsome. We went into two of these. One was a "book-store," second only to Appleton's, and the other a " dry goods store," second only to Stewart's, in New York. These edifices are many of ST. LOUIS AND CHICAGO. 125 them divided into flats, each flat containing a separate establishment. A water "elevator" takes one to the top, and the rate at which we rushed up and down was fairly- enough to take away our breath. The public improve- ments in Chicago are carried out on a " mammoth" scale, especially the Water Works and the tunnels under the river. The lake Michigan was frozen over nearly as far as the eye could reach, though, just on the horizon, a blue line still marked the open water. At about a mile's distance from the shore a breakwater has been built across the lake, its object being to prevent the water from rising to a dan- gerous height in consequence of a prevalence of north winds. Chicago is the emporium of all the northern and north-western trade, and the place from which provisions — pork and grain especially — are disseminated through the Southern and Eastern States. Mr. Poole took us to the Chamber of Commerce, a fine room, containing allegorical pictures of the fire, and of Plenty returning to the city. Corn, wheat, oats, pork, and provisions in general, were the objects of sale and barter. In comparing, as I was foiid of doing, the countenances of the people in the several Exchanges we visited in the States, I should say with regard to those I saw at Chicago, that, while they have none of the painful uneasiness of the New York specula- tors, nor yet the solidity of those at Cincinnati, there is yet an air of busy hopefulness about them, caused by their implicit reliance on the magnificent opportunities afforded by their city's position, which augurs well for a continuance of that public spirit which hjis dared to raise a splendid city out of a noxious swamp, and again to rebuild it within the last few years out of a heap of blackened ruins, and all this on borrowed capital — the mortgage debt being estimated at no less than 274,000,000 dols., mostly lent by millionaires in New York, or the New England States. The weather was colJ, and we both found our level on the 126 RECORD OF RAMBLES. pavement. We took the night train and slept back to St. Louis. Jan. 23. We went to the " Four Courts," but no trials of importance were going on. The inhabitants of these great commercial cities make a point of their visitors inspecting their various warehouses and factories, and we accordingly- paid a visit to Ames's pig-slaughtering establishment. The sticking process takes place at the top of the building, and the hogs are driven up inclined planes until they arrive at the uppermost pen. A steel fastening is then placed round the animal's hind leg, and he is quietly (for these pigs make scarcely any noise) slung on to a sloping iron bar, down which he slips until opposite a platform, where a man stands with a knife ready to stick him as he passes down the bar. By the position of the hog, head down- wards, the heart is thrust up between the shoulders, and the knife, by a dexterous twist, is made to pierce it, so that death is the immediate consequence. Sometimes as many as three pigs are killed in this manner in the course of one minute. The carcase is then slipped on down the bar into the scalding-trough, into which it drops, and in less than five minutes from the time it was in the pen it is out on the other side with its hair all off. It is then thrown on to a board, where it is cleaned, and then it slides down a second iron bar to a lower floor, where the back-bone is cut out. Sometimes two thousand carcasses are hanging up in this room at once, and all this is done in fifteen minutes from the time it leaves the pen. The feeling of pain is, I suppose, over when the beast drops into the water, though the lively quivering of the muscles is evident after it comes out of the trough. At all events, it is a far more humane process than that of bleeding to death, as often practised in English farm -yards. The cutting, salting, smoking, and packing-rooms are all below in the several descending stages of the building. ST. LOUIS AND CHICAGO. 1 27 Mr. Scherer brought us tickets for the Germania Club. The Germans form one- third of the population of St. Louis, and they get up entertainments at this club once a fortnight. There are over four hundred members, one in five being Americans, and the rest Germans. At 8.30 we went there to see some tableaux from Faust. They took place in a hall set apart for theatricals and dancing, in which they have erected a good stage and orchestra. Miss M. well represented Marguerite. She was a charming specimen of a Western beauty, and the tableaux without her would have been like a setting without its diamond. She was the belle of St. Louis, and indeed would be the belle of any country she graced with her presence. Were she vain, it would be dangerous to say more about her, lest these pages should ever fall into her hands. Her father and mother paid us many kind attentions while we were in St Louis. The little dance was great fun ; but it was curious to observe how the American element there held itself aristocratically aloof from the Germans, and how immeasurably superior a race the former evidently are to the latter. Jan. 24 (Sunday). We walked out for two or three miles into the country to the westward, where we came upon pleasant-looking little farms, well stocked, standing on a soil which seemed like a deep "corn-brash," and returned at 3.30 (the usual dinner hour in St. Louis) to dine at the Shermans. There we met Colonel Teuttelotte and Mrs. Sherman's two daughters — Mrs. Fitch (the wife of an officer in the American navy, and the one to whom the Khedive of Egypt soon afterwards presented a jewel of enormous value), and Miss Sherman. Mrs. Sherman's kindness quite won our hearts, and the General was unreserved and extremely agreeable. He described to us some effects of explosions which he had witnessed, and spoke of the power of dynamite with all the accuracy of a practical engineer. 128 RECORD OF RAMBLES. After dinner he showed us a valuable collection of photo- graphs taken during the war, and illustrating his " march to the sea;" that is, from Atlanta to Savannah. It was most interesting to have him to point out to us the pontoon bridges which he had himself erected, the forests with their trees shattered by cannon-balls, and the ramparts and stockades set up or occupied by his men. This march, however, as Colonel Teuttelotte told us, was a compara- tively easy affair by the side of the subsequent march to Washington, for which he got far less credit. In the former case the foragers were able to bring in plenty of provisions, although it was true that the army had cut itself off from its supplies. In the latter he was cutting his way, without means of obtaining food, through an equally hostile country. Interesting as indeed it was to us to have these extemporized works and battle-fields pointed out to us by the General himself, we could scarcely enter into the keen delight with which the soldier could look back on scenes which represented carnage and blood, — fields which had drunk the life-blood of friends as well as enemies, American citizens, and comrades of his own. Setting this one remark aside, we observed in General Sherman an honest, intrepid, practical, far-seeing man ; not popular enough to be President of the States, because so unswerving from the very letter of his duty ; a man who, were he President, would not stoop for a moment to those courses which bring on the Legislature such a share of deserved disrespect. Jan. 25. We dined at three with Colonel and Mrs. Morrison; the former reminded us of many a good old English gentleman at home, hospitable, hearty, and a perfect host in himself They are one of the old Roman Catholic families of St. Louis, and are large landed pro- prietors in Missouri. We met there Miss Morrison (who is to be married shortly), Mr. Carr and his sister, and Mr. ST. LOUIS AND CHICAGO. 129^ Scheler, not to forget Mrs. Morrison's dear little boy. The next morning [Jan. 26] we got our tickets for Austin, Texas, and called on all our kind friends to say good-bye. At nine p.m. we started on the "Iron Mountain" line, leaving at the hotel young Mr. Beverley-Robinson (son of a Toronto friend) and Mr. Scherer, both sorry to part with us; and indeed we too were equally sorry to leave St Louis. K 1 50 RECORD OF RAMBLES. CHAPTER IX. TEXAS. jfan. 27. The Iron Mountain route lies through Arkansas, or, as it is invariably pronounced, " Arkansaw " — a tract of country peopled originally, as General Sherman told us, by scapegraces flying from justice in the United States. We were all day in the car, passing, as the "conductor" told us, through eight hundred miles of uninterrupted forest. At first the trees were hickory and oak, but as we got farther south these were exchanged for firs with palmettos beneath them. We had telegraphed to Little Rock for a chess-board, and played till evening. When near Texarcana, on the borders of Texas, a storm burst on us with the most grand effects I ever witnessed. The lightning was vivid arid blue, and lighted up, almost with the continuous bright- ness of day, the long straight forest avenue through which we had come ; the wind roared, in the trees, bending and breaking them all round us, till at last the train stopped in a clgaringj fairly unable to proceed, both on account of the wind, which made the cars rock, and the fallen trees, which had to be taken off the line. Hurricanes like this have been knoWn to upset trains in this country, lifting the cars completely off their wheels, a result which, luckily for the stability of the chess-bQard, we were on this occasion spared. Jan. 28: We arrived at 2 p.m. at Houston, a town in a swampy country, almost inundated by a seven weeks' rain. The mud in the streets was up to the axles of the omnibus ; for the roads had not been made at all. The piazzas in the streets were like those of a Spanish town. There being nothing of interest in the place, we went to the TEXAS. 131 " Hutching's House " Hotel, and waited there till six p.m., when the Austin train started. When, after sleeping in the car, we woke next morning [Jaw. 29], it was to find our- selves in a much more inviting part of Texas than that we had seen before. The land was in many places well culti- vated for corn and cotton, but in the wilder tracts bunches of the "prickly pear" were still growing. As we neared the town of Austin the country became more hilly, and the river Colorado appeared, on whose banks of sand (which, by the way, would mix well with the alluvial mould of the district) the town stands. At the " Dep6t," F.'s friend C. met us. It is wonderful how a young English gentleman can have adapted him- self, as he has done, so readily to the habits, dress, and language of the fellows with whom he is thrown. He has in fact become the model of a Texan "cow-man;" wears a shot-belt and "six-shooter" (except when in the town, where they are forbidden), leather "pants," broad- brimmed hat stuck on one side, calls his meals "hashes," and rides an unfortunate horse whose spirit was broken with his lower jaw, on a high saddle with front pommel for the lasso. And yet he is still the gentleman in besiring that he was when at home. He took us to hear a debate in the State House, where the Senate was discussing a finance measure. When Texas joined the Union she kept her land, which is a source of wealth to her. She suffered much in the war, but not so much as the Southern States* We had not been long in the streets of Austin before we saw an arrest. The man who was taken was supposed to be Jim Taylor, a distinguished member of a band of thieves and villains, known as "Hardin's gang." A "six-shooter" was found on him. We went into the court at the Mayor's office to see what his trial would be like. After a few for- malities, gone through before a wicked-looking petty- officer, who called his underlings by their nicknames, K 2 132 RECORD OF RAMBLES. the hearing was adjourned. During the sitting this same officer eyed F. with some anxiety, as, in his blue serge costume and soft brown hat, pinched together into the shape of a cocked-hat and set on one side, he sat swing- ing his legs on a rickety table opposite the seat of justice, nor was it until the " Judge " had satisfied himself of his harmlessness that the business proceeded. When the court adjourned the "Judge" took an undignified "header," through the crowd, slapping on the back his friends and acquaintance among the rowdy spectators, and the prisoner among the rest. Hardin himself, to whose gang Jim Taylor was said to belong, had shot twenty-seven men with his own hand, and when a reward of four thousand dollars was offered for his apprehension, he coolly walked into the Mayor's office to inquire about it. The authorities on their part were not sufficiently strong or zealous to take him prisoner, especially as his belt on this occasion was as full of pistols and dirks as a pin-cushion with pins. If when a man is brought to trial the jury do not, by being bought over, bring in, as they usually do, a verdict of "justifiable homicide," sixty-five dols. is the regular price by which to bribe the "Judge." To guard against cattle-stealing, inspectors have been appointed to see that the " cow-men " do not drive off other brands than their own; but such officials value their lives too dearly to attempt to interfere in reality, and can be bought off for a trifling sum. Meanwhile cow-driving is getting to be a poor business ; for while farmers, Dutchmen and Germans especially, are " settling up " the country, and the laws are becoming more strict, the number of wild cattle is decreasing. The price of a yearling is about four dols. Sometimes a " cow- man" will gather an immense herd, forty thousand head say, and drive it as far as " Kansas " City, in which case he probably makes a proportionately large profit. But if he is one of the usual sort, his money will soon be lost TEXAS. 133 again at mont^, or one of the games played in the " hells " in the cities. Like Houston, Austin has piazzas in the main street ; the " store-keepers " are principally German Jews, who take advantage of the recklessness of the Texans. The streets present occasionally a busy and a picturesque scene; over the piazzas are numerous sign- boards, and under them and in the road are olive Mexicans, lounging to and fro in gaiters, blue military coats, and broad-brimmed slouch hats. Horse fairs are going on the while, and waggons drawn by oxen, and cow-men riding at a canter, add to the liveliness of the capital city of Texas, or, as we should call it, the little market town. At the top of the main street stands the State House, and at the other end runs the river Colorado. We met with a Captain and Mrs. Staniforth and their family. He is an English- man who has built a house and laid out some money in Texas, and C. has an engagement to drive some cattle for him ; but he seemed dissatisfied, and perhaps justly so, with the country he had chosen for his home, and the people he has to deal with. yan. 30. As we were going up the country with C, we spent the morning in loading our cartridges, but in the end delayed our departure. We had plenty of amusement in learning something of the mode of life of those around us, and besides this, we could revel in the lovely climate, which just now was like the end of May in England. In walk- ing to the river, we fell in with a gentleman called Williams, who told us about the advantages of Texas for European settlers. Land in Texas, on the frontier, may be bought for from fifty cents to two or three dollars per acre ; and some for the mere surveyor's expenses. Lower Texas, near Galveston, is marshy, like the swamps of Louisiana ; Central Texas is hilly, with rich alluvial valleys, a good corn and cotton country ; Northern Texas is a fine grazing district. To the extreme west it is arid and a mere wilder- 134 RECORD OF RAMBLES. ness, incapable of development, with the exception of "Young's County," stretching northwards, which is good grazing land, but too near the Indians. Along the northern frontier, on the Red River, is a line of forts, garrisoned by United States troops ; but the cow-men boast that their companies of " Rangers " do more to keep the Indians in check than the soldiers. It is pretty clear, however, that these gentlemen do as much horse-stealing in the Indian territory as their dusky enemies, when they come down in the full of the moon, can do in theirs. The whites hold together for mutual protection. The Indians who infest this country are generally thieves from among the Comanches; sometimes they come within fifty miles of Austin, and are headed by chiefs, such as "Lone Wolf," " Big Tree," or *' Satanta," whose names are the terror of every frontier child. The latter has been caught, and imprisoned for life. The quarrels among the settlers, which frequently end in murder, are of three kinds, i. Personal enmities, as against a man who is supposed to have stolen your horse or cow, or called you an opprobrious name, on which latter account some men will fight at once. 2. Jealousy and hope of advantage, as in cases where the " boss," or head-man under a cow-gatherer, shoots his master when he no longer fears him ; or where the employes shoot their " boss." A good " boss," we were told, ought to have killed several men, in order to inspire the due amount of fear and respect for his authority in those under him, with- out which the idle dogs would do nothing. If they refuse to turn out of the "ranch" in the morning, the "boss" pre- sents his pistol at them, with language to match the action. If he once allows them to get the upper hand, his work is left undone ; and when cattle are driven in, his life is in danger. 3. Random bully shooting, as when Hardin shot a nigger dead for taking his hand out of his pocket when TEXAS. 13s he told him not to do so, In a little cafe close to our hotel, a nigger was similarly shot for putting too much sugar into the coffee of one of these bravoes. This occurred during our visit. In the evening we went to the Austin Theatre^-a room over a stabls^and heard a Temperance piece! yan. 31. We started at 10 a.m. in an "ambulance," very properly so galled ab ambulando, because we had to walk nearly all the way, so great was the jolting and so indifferent the springs. We took with us plenty of ammunition, a dog, and stores pf flour for C. Crossing the Colorado, we set out westward, over a fine hilly country, rough and rocky in some places, with table lands and sheltered alluvial valleys between. C, armed with his "six-shooter," rode on as our advanced guard. The hills were steep and the roads rugged. We had a Dutch driver^ a fair type of - those dull, heavy, uninteresting people who by theif plodding ways and habits of accumulation arouse the jealousy of the idle and cowardly Texans. No one ever walks in Texas, ^nd when we attempted to do so we were told to get into the waggon for fear of scar^ ing a drove of cattle, who had never seen a man on foot. The Texan ponies are broken so as to need no holding up ; they are sure-footed and clever on the ro^d, We had not gone very far when the "ambulance" broke down, and we got on as best we could, C. rode on to prepare our host for our arrival ; and finally, after dark and frequent delays, we got into " Dripping-Springs " — ^having taken the whole day in going a distance of only some twenty -five miles. Young Wallis, the son of our host, rode out to meet us. The "ranche" where we were to spend the night consisted of two rooms, with a "gallery" or passage between them. The floors were raised above ground by a stone basement about eighteen inches high. On this the walls were raised, consisting of rough planks with cement to fill 136 RECORD OF RAMBLES. up the interstices. The roof was formed of small shingles, with chinks between admitting air to an unpleasant extent. We had a good " square-meal " of ham, coffee, and hominy, and lay down to rest in one of the rooms — F. and I sharing a bed, while C. slept on another, and our driver on the floor. The family, consisting of Mr. and Mrs. Wallis and five or six children, slept in the other room and in the passage. The kitchen was detached from the house, and a stone goat-pen completed the establishment. Wallis had been a slave-owner before the war, and a well-to-do man, tilling a large extent of land which now, he said, was lying waste. He was an intelligent fellow, and read a good deal in the evenings. After supper we smoked and sat over the wood fire in the chimney corner, which is the only stone part of the house, while Wallis dilated on his hatred of the "Yanks" — a feeling common to all Texans. He called himself a strong Conservative, and talked of the time when there would be a king in America. I suppose Texans admire despotism, because it is a system in which every ruffian can sympathize, while Republicanism based on morality is not a condition of things in which he is Ifkely to get on. We heard much of the courage of the Texan Rangers, but I believe them to be third-class Americans, many of them outcasts from society, whisky- drinkers and braggadocios, whose hard swearing is only a cloak for cowardice. Fe6. I. All the house was stirring by daybreak, and we went out shooting. I with a shot-gun, and F. and C, who knew the country, with rifles. Taking a westerly direction, after about half a mile I came to the "creek," a rapid clear stream, with precipitous banks in some places, and a gravelly bottom. Wading this, I climbed a limestone ridge (the hills in this country are all terraces of lime- stone) overgrown with bushes, and coming to the top, I made still west, taking the direction of a clearing in TEXAS. 137 the forest. I had scarcely got under cover of a glade when, at a hundred and fifty yards distance, a splendid buck came by at full speed, skirting the hill I had just crossed. I had to give up all thought of him, however; for, alas ! I had the shot-gun, and he was far out of range. Taking a north-westerly direction, up a broad green valley, full of clumps of brush-wood, I came to a second " creek " (as the streams here are called), whose sides were much steeper and more precipitous than those of the first. The view was lovely, looking down this wooded gorge, for beyond it rose a mountain more worthy of the name than any I had seen before in Texas. The sense of loneliness and freedom in this wild place was delightful. It was worth a lifetime spent in drudgery for a mo- ment such as this. Passing on to the south-west I saw two does come trotting down to water right across my path. Getting behind the stump of a fallen tree, I waited for them, but they altered their course, and although I got a shot at the foremost, the effect of which was to make her bound wounded into the air, I had no dogs with me, and did not see her again. On I went still to the south- westward, my spirits buoyant with the clearness of the air, while the ground seemed to fly under my feet, until the place of the sun made me remember that it was time to look out for the Round Mountain under which our " home in Texas '' lay. I made for it accordingly, though in a zig- zag fashion, taking as I went the best ground for sport. I noticed, to be sure, that it had only one tree on the summit, whereas my landmark had two ; but then I persuaded myself that the two had got into line. At last, after several hours' walking, I ascended a hill to look out for my landmark again. I saw a round mountain on the other side of the valley ; but it had only one tree on it, and I then saw that it was not mine that I had been making for, which I now could see clearly enough was some 138 RECORD OF RAMBLES. twelve miles away to the north-east. It was the "Lone Man" which I had reached, and its name represented not untruly my own situation. The sun was getting pretty low by this time, as I stood on th^ top of this wild hill, with rocks and brushwood round me, and the forest below traversed by deep streams. However, the chance of sleeping out among the wolveg, which were already beginning to hpwl, and which I did not then know are very rarely dangerous to man, was not iftviting, so away I went at a run, tgking objects to march on. But a straight course was no easy thing to make. The streams, which were numerous, had to be crossed in their windings several times. There was no time now to pick out a likely ford. Some had steep banks covered with brush-wood, down which it was necessary to crash, and the water in them was sometimes up to my chest, and the bottom uncertain. In one case — and it was a lovely spot had I had time to observe it — I had to make my way across the top of a heavy water-fall with a deep dark pool below, more inviting for bathers than for me just then. Added to this the forest became denser, and points for observation less frequent To make a long story short, however, I came upon the fence of a German farm, and following it round, I found a boy ploughing with oxen in a cotton- field, who put me in the right road for my destination. On arriving at the "ranche" I saw a baggage-waggon standing outside, and soldiers about, and found that Colonel Beaumont, with his wife and children, had arrived from a frontier fort en route for Austin, and were to be our fellow- lodgers for the night We had for supper the most glorious joint of beef that a hungry man ever saw, cut frojn a Texan ox killed in the country, not one of those over- driven beasts which we afterwards got in Kansas, where Texan cattle are proverbially thin, but a right royal sirloin of a noble anjmal, with fat which resembled gold TEXAS. 1 39 in colour and in goodness. The new-comers were stowed away for the night in the dining-room, Wallis declaring that he would not have us turn out for a "Yankee red- coat." He and his family occupied the passage, and we afterwards heard that he charged the Colonel pretty heavily for his board £md lodging. Feb. 2. We again went out shooting by daybreak, I this time with the rifle, and F. with the shot-gun. We saw some deer, but there was no getting near them, and I returned by the "creek," crossing it at a spot where a German had made himself a comfortable little farm-house, and had ploughed the alluvial soil for some distance around it. On the top of a rising ground near the river I found some broken flints, one of which seemed to have been artificially chipped into the shape of a "scraper." When I returned to the "ranche" I found that we were to have some more com- pany. The Colonel had departed, and the new arrivals were three cattle-buyers, very rough customers indeed, whose appearance warned us to look to our pistols. As we were getting to sleep a cold " Norther " set in, and although the day had been as hot as a June day in England, we found next morning that there was ice in the jugs of water which stood by the side of the fire-place, in which, until late, there had been a blazing fire. Such is the variableness of the climate of Texas. We heard the wolves during the night, baying round the sheep-fold close at hand. The zoology of Texas includes wolves, panthers, pole -cats, skunks, deer, turkeys, partridges, snipe, ducks, geese, vul- tures, buzzards, red birds (i.*'. cardinals), snow-birds, and turtles in the pools. Next morning \Feb. 3] we gave up the idea of going further into the country, and returned to Austin in the waggon. Captain Staniforth called on us the day after \Feb. 4], and in course of conversation told us that it would pay well to buy a tract of land west of Austin, and let it I40 RECORD OF RAMBLES. lie idle for a few years, after which it would become far more valuable. Feb. 5. Just as we were starting, a "cowman" offered me six fine beeves for my Ulster coat, and I escaped with difficulty from his importunity. To judge by this, it might pay to import such commodities into Texas. We left Austin by the 10 a.m. train. We were in the last car, and it ran off the line at Chappel Hill — a not unusual occur- rence on Texan lines of rail. The front wheels ran part way down the embankment on which we were ; but the coupling saved the car, which behaved excellently. After plunging along for sixty yards we pulled up, with no further damage than a good shaking, and the dispersion of our chessmen. John and a Bishop turned blue with fright ; but the ladies behaved well, and smiled instead of scream- ing — a characteristic which I noticed several times in American ladies when in any danger. Leaving the un- lucky car behind, we migrated into the next, and soon reached Hampstead, passing through forests literally veiled in that curious moss or lichen which we had noticed in Louisiana. At nine p.m. we exchanged our quarters for a Pullman, and took the state-room. We slept well, and the next day \Feb. 6], after passing through Upper Texas, where, near Dallas, are large dry open plains, cultivated for corn or cotton, we crossed, near Denison, the Red River into the Indian territory, having the Chickasaw tribes on the west, and the Choctaws on the east. Representatives of these nations were to be seen at the " Dep6ts." Some were dressed in blue military capes, with broad-brimmed white hats, and bright-coloured ribbons; and their "squaws" (women) had equally gaudy streamers. There is some cultivation near the line of railroad ; but the broad valleys, farther inland, skirted by the wooded limestone hills, are in the state in which nature left them. DENVER AND THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS. 14I CHAPTER X. DENVER AND THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS. Feb. 7. At two a.ni. we arrived at Parsons, Kansas, and got a bed at the Belmont House — there being no train on to Junction City, because it was Sunday. Parsons is a town of some three thousand inhabitants, in an agricultural country, extremely flat. The only mines in Kansas are a few coal-pits of no great importance. Following the example of all the good people of Parsons, we went to one of their many places of worship — a Congregational assembly. Besides this, there were Presbyterian, Metho- dist, and Roman Catholic churches. On the morning of the 8th, at 2.15 a.m., we got into the cars again; but as there was no Pullman car on the train we slept with difficulty, owing to the heat and closeness and the un- comfortable seats. At 11 we arrived at Junction City, and went to the Allen House. We noticed that the fare in these western towns and the civility of the people were both preferable to what we had experienced farther east Everything is clean, and instead of niggers, pretty Irish girls generally wait at table. Junction City is in the midst of a bare, treeless country, broken by limestone ridges and frequent undulations. The country is agricul- tural. It appears that the American Episcopal Church in these remote districts has revived the old custom of acting "miracle plays," such as might have been seen in some parts of England two centuries ago. We saw, for instance, the notice of a performance to be held in the Episcopal Church, by which it appeared that a concert for the benefit 142 RECORD OF RAMBLES. of the Sunday-school was to be followed by '"Grand- mother's Birthday,' and a Paraphrase of the Parable of the Ten Virgins, entitled, 'Behold, the Bridegroom cometh!' IN COSTUME." Unfortunately, we could not stay long enough in the place to see it We walked out on the hills towards Fort Riley, one of the old head-quarters on the Indian frontier, distant only a few miles from the village, or "City" as it is vainly termed. At six we started for Denvef, taking the state-room in a Pullman car. A "' car- woman" caused us no little annoyance on this journey. These women are thieves, and are as much to be avoided by travellers as are the gamblers and card-sharpers, against whom warning placards are affixed to the sides of the Cars. Feb. 9. Among our fellow-passengers were Mr. Henty and his wife. He was on his way to take charge of the "Terrible" Mine, near Georgetown, Colorado. By the side of the line we saw antelopes in considerable number. The plains continued to be flat for some way ; but as we got nearer Denver they became more undulating, and at last we saw, rising out of them as it seemed, the chain of tJie Rocky Mountains. It is a grand ridge, the outer, or foot-mountains looking like broken escarpments, behind which, like citadels in the midst, rise the loftier peaks, such as Pike's and Grey's, the latter to a height of 14,200 feet. Snow was lying in the gorges. There were many cattle feeding on the plains as we ran down into Denver; but we could not be sure that we saw any buffaloes. We arrived at Denver at six p.m. General Sherman had particularly advised us to see this city, though it is still in its infancy. He thinks it will some day be a great and important place. It is the seat of a good deal of mining business, and is said to be full of gambling-dens. No grand residences have as yet sprung up, though we were told that some of the most shabbily- DENVER AND THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS. 14^ dressed people were in reality itien of great Wealth, having amassed money from mines. The most pretentious houses at present are inhabited by members of the demi-monde. The mountains are, at the nearest point, some fifteen miles from the city ; but they look much nearer, and present a grand rugged line to the westward, the view of them from Denver being superior to that of tlie Alps from Berne. Of the population of the place a good many are Germans, who keep the principal stores, and, after having made their fortunes, return home. There are also some Chinese. The Ute Indians, in the summer time, encamp near enough to come into the city, and dance their war -dances in the streets. Feb. ID. We walked out to see the town. The streets are clean ; but the houses are not yet regular or continu- ous, wooden ones being interspersed with the others. The ones which run north and south are numbered, and those which run east and west are named Larimer Street, Blake Street, &c. Going into some mineralogists' "stores," we saw specimens of Rocky Mountain minerals. There were some fine crystals of smoky quartz from Pike's Peak ; iron pyrites on wood, found under peat at Happy Cafion ; fine masses of amazonite, and petrifactions from the foot-hills. We had brought no introductions with us to Denver ; but the following incident will prove how kind and sociable Americans are to strangers, and how much they endeavour to do all in their power to assist them. We had gone into a gunmaker's store to inquire about some skins, when we heard that a Ute chief was to be tried for the murder of a white man. Wishing to hear this trial, if possible, we went to the Sheriff's office, and thence to the Indian Commis- sioner's, and the Town and County Gaols. At the latter place we saw several of the friends of the prisoner. They wore gaiters, blue and red blankets of their own manufac- ture, and slouch hats of grey felt. Their faces were pleasing, 144 RECORD OF RAMBLES. though they were smeared with red paint, as if fresh from the war-path. Not being able to gain admission to the gaol, I went up to a gentleman who was himself coming out of it, and asked him if it was possible to see the prisoner. He proved to be a kind-hearted, though rather eccentric lawyer, called Judge Harrison. He was courteous in acceding to our request, and we went in with him, and saw the cells in which the prisoners were confined, which opened into a courtyard surrounded by iron bars, and the villainous -looking crowd inside, who begged for 'baccy. Not content with showing us the gaol, the Judge took us to see the principal courts, and introduced us to Judge Wells of the Supreme Court, and other dignitaries of the Bench and Bar. Thus we were at once put into communi- cation with those who could give us the best advice and assistance in our future movements, and were subsequently provided with introductions by our new friends. The Judge dined with us at Charpiau's. Feb. II. After seeing the School-house, which, as in all American cities, is one of the principal buildings of the place, we again met Judge Wells, and accompanied him to the Supreme Court, where he and Judge Belford preside. The court soon adjourned, and we went on with the Judge to call on Governor Gilpen, formerly governor of the territory of Colorado, from whom Gilpen County, in the Rocky Mountains, takes its name. He is an author on American subjects, and the proposer of a scheme for an overland route from that continent to Asia, the feasibility of which he has set forth by a calculation as to thermal lines. He had served, he said, in the army, in the old war with Mexico. He told me of the existence of old Indian habitations on the San Juan River, in South Western Colorado, where he also stated he had seen rock sculptures. From a number of the Popular Science Monthly, where some of these latter are figured, I think they are similar DENVER AND THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS. 145 to those which Professor Newbury showed me from Ohio. With regard to our movements, both our friends agreed that we ought by all means to go up into the mountains, which we accordingly settled to do. Judge Wells was anxious for us to go south to Santa Fh — the first city erected in this country by the Spaniards. The people there, he said, were primitive, yet polite and kind. They are partly Spanish. Their houses are of mud, and an old mud cathedral is now falling into ruins there. The way is by rail as far as Pueblo, and thence by stage. Colorado was, when we were there, a Territory, and not a State ; that is to say, it had not the State rights of self- control, though its inhabitants were expecting to get them soon, and its representative at Washington, though entitled to speak, was debarred from voting. All these western lands, namely — Colorado, New Mexico, Utah, Arizona, and California — belonged to Mexico, before the Mexican war, after which they were ceded to the United States. Gover- nor Gilpen called on us at the Grand Central Hotel, in order to introduce to us Colonel Hayward, who was going to Central City next morning in the same train as we were. The Colonel proved to be an extremely gentle- manly, nice fellow, and was of much assistance to us on more than one occasion when we subsequently met Feb. 12. We left at nine a.m. for "Central City." "On the cars'' with us was a singular specimen of an exaggerated Yankee, such as one sees in Punch, but he was evidently got up for effect, being a quack-doctor. At Golden we "struck" the mountains, after passing over a dry plain which seemed to dip down to their base. Here limestone ridges, abutting on the mountains (or rather, I suppose, tilted up by them), form a sort of entrenchment round the range, and coal is found in the valleys at the base. Our train wound its way into the heart of the mountains through the narrow and beautiful Canon, which receives L 146 RECORD OF RAMBLES. its name from the " Clear Creek," a torrent which rushes down the glen. On either side the rocks rise perpen- dicularly for several hundred feet, and seemed in some places to be full of mineral veins. Here and there the bed of the stream has been disturbed by "gulches," as the stream-works are called. Gold is here found not usually in nuggets, but in small flakes. The miner's work is to turn the stream, and sink either an open or a close pit to the bed-rock of the valley. He then throws up the lowest stratum into wooden troughs, in which the gold is deposited. We arrived at Black Hawk at one. It is the terminus of the railroad, and the lowest of three towns which stand one above the other on the mountain side. The next above it is Mountain City or Cornish Town, and Central City is above that again. We walked up the valley from the " depdt," and got our dinner at the " Merchants' Hotel." It was a meal such as the Cornish miners would naturally approve, and differed from the American meals in the substitution of a few good solid dishes for the multi- tude of little scraps which usually satisfy the American app^ite. There is a story of a Cornish miner who, on sitting down to his first dinner in the States, and finding some twelve or fourteen little oval dishes set before him, with a scrap of cold turkey on one, some hominy on another, some cranberry sauce on a third, some "squash" on a fourth, some " mush" on a fifth, &c. &c. ; took them for samples of the good things that were behind, and calling the waiter, pointed to one on which was a tiny morsel of beef, and said, " I '11 jist tak' some o' the like to that theere." After dinner we called at Messrs. Kipp and Buell's works, and, through the kindness of Mr. Gray, were taken over the gold-mine and crushing mills. The depth of the mine is about four hundred and fifty feet, and there are levels or adits running off the shaft at distances of about fifty feet apart. The greatest depth as DENVER AND THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS. 14;^ yet reached in the mines at Central City is only from five hundred to six hundred feet. Mr. Buell's mine, in common with all the mines here, is for gold alone. The gold is not apparent in the lode, but is contained in a base of quartz, or of iron or copper pyrites. The "crevice" con- taining the ore runs between walls of granite. This " crevice " is sometimes from twenty to eighty feet iri width, but the broader it is, the poorer is the ore. All the " ore-breakers " employed by Mr. Gray are Cornishmen ; but Irish, Americans, Germans, and Chinese, are used as fillers and surface-men. The Cornishmen are paid accord- ing to "contract," per foot or per fathom, but the miner takes the " contract " at his own risk according to the hardness of the ground. His pay averages three dollars fifty cents per diem, and, according to Mr. Gray, there is room for more Cornish emigrants at Central City. Some of the " gulch " or stream-work property is owned by these Cornishmen. They have taken it up chiefly under rights of pre-emption, each "take" being properly registered. This is held to be a valid title; but such "takes" are mostly already in private hands, and miners who now wish to acquire property of this sort must either buy it or take it on lease. A more certain title is a " United States patent." Takers formerly used often to leave their property acquired by pre-emption unworked and idle ; but there is now a law that if within a given period a certain amount of work is not done on the "take," the right may be entered upon by any one else. Mr. Gray said that the price of labour was now too high, and thus it is the labourer, and not the capitalist, who makes the fortune. In one Bank alone in Central (the First National, or Rocky Mountain Bank) the Cornishmen have already invested two hundred thousand dollars. At Messrs Buell's works all the processes from breaking the gold-ore to reducing it to a pulp, are gone through under one roof. L 2 148 RECORD OF RAMBLES. The shaft is divided into three compartments, two for cages containing the trucks (one for lowering, the other for raising), and the third for a ladder-way for the men, who descend by stages of twenty to thirty feet, or less, at a time. Sometimes the miners are let down in cage-buckets, but this is considered dangerous, and is done at their own risk. The mine pumps more than enough water to do its own work. In a room adjacent to the hoisting apparatus are the crushing machines. These are circular, and have a rotatory motion, the object of this being to polish the gold, without which it will not take the quicksilver. Having passed the stamps, the gold is caught on a copper band or bar ; and whatever of it is not so caught, runs down over an inclined plane or flat superficies also of copper. "California blankets" are then used to collect the "tailings," which may have passed over these " amalgamating tables." Next, in Freibourg-pans, the tailings are reduced to an impalpable pulp by a grinding process. Quicksilver is then introduced, and amalgamation obtained. The water is cleverly conducted through tanks and troughs for a dis- tance of four hundred feet, after which, having deposited all impurities in its course, it returns clear to the mill to do the work again. The country is rapidly being developed; for persons have come to see how to work lodes to advantage which were not profitable before. The mines at Central City were first worked in 1859. Nice little wooden shelters and drawing-houses are perched on each side of the ravine, and we saw but few signs of the destructive fire from which the town had suffered only a few months before. Mr. Gray, who gave us these particulars, is " Territorial Assayer " for the district. In the evening, Mr. Richard Pearce called on me, and proved extremely kind to us during our stay. He said that three dollars was, in his experience, the average wages on which a good Cornish miner could calculate, and that, provided good men come out, their DENVER AND THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS. I49 employment is certain. The board and lodging for a man if unmarried would average six dollars per week, but if accompanied by a wife, not more than seven or eight for the two. The American miners are shy of the Cornish, and the latter call them "Mountain men," and cannot get on with them at all. The Cornish keep up the same district feuds and cliques which divide them at home, and each clique has its own "beer saloon," according to the parish or district from which it has come. Thus there are St. Just men, St. Agnes men, Camborne men, and " Eastern " and "Western" men. They also keep up in Central City the old pastime of Cornish wrestling in a much more respectable manner than it is kept up in their native county. There are some traits in their character, however, which are by no means exemplary. For instance, they will not do their best unless they have a part and parcel in the concern allotted them — a feature which reminds us that they have always worked under what is called "tribute" at home — a system which makes them for the time being, co-adventurers as it were, in the mine. A party of six men from St Just, had taken, when I was there, the lease of an old mine, which the New Yorkers had worked in vain with Cornish labour, and had made good profits, — no less than two thousand pounds a piece during the first year. These leases are generally only granted for terms of two years, so that, in a way, they are equivalent to the Cornish " tribute " system on a larger scale. Feb. 13. We went down to Hill's Works — the Boston and Colorado Smelting Company — to see Mr. Pgarce, who has the management there, and who has introduced many new improvements in the smelting processes for both gold and silver. First of all it is necessary to extract the sulphur, for which purpose the ore is roasted in piles, and subse- quently it passes through other processes to render it more thoroughly pure. Next the ore is mixed with ISO RECORD OF RAMBLES. silicate, which, being smelted, forms together what is termed a " mat." This " mat " lies at the bottom of the furnace, and is to the slag as milk is to cream. The slag is skimmed off at one door, and the " mat " is subsequently taken out at another. The "mat" part is next crushed as fine as possible and then reduced to powder — literally, as fine as flour. Thence it is passed through heated vats, whence the silver is precipitated over copper plates. The final process is to dry this silver so precipitated, smelt it in crucibles, and pour it into bar-shaped moulds, whence it is taken out in bars as pure as the proportion of nine hundred and ninety- nine in a thousand. Such is the process of silver refining. Gold, on coming out of the smelting furnace, is all found with the malleable copper at the bottom of each block or cake as it is taken out. Like a badly-made pudding, the gold and copper fall like the plums to the bottom, and this heavy stratum is then easily separated from the dross which remains at the top — the latter being brittle, and the former tough. All that is required, therefore, is to separate the gold from the malleable copper which contains it, and this is a matter of great difificulty.. To effect it a process has been devised by Mr. Pearce, by which small- globules or tubercles are formed, by dropping the heated metal, as we supposed, into water. These are then sent to Boston, where, by acids, the gold is finally separated. The '•gulch-" or stream-gold, and the "nuggets," which are nearly pure already, and do not need such treatment, are taken to the banks, and there reduced in retorts to solid metal, specimens of which Mr. Potter showed us at the First National Bank. After dining with Mr. and Mrs. Pearce, we went into an adit or tunnel in the side of the ravine to see the under- ground workings of the " Fisk and Bob-tail Lode." A tram-road runs in to the drawing shaft, and a steam-pump is at work underground. Coming to the top of a shaft, we DENVER AND THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS. 151 went down first a wooden and then a chain ladder to a place where four Cornish miners were engaged in cutting into a wall of pyrites containing gold, which glittered re- splendently {i.e. the pyrites, for the gold is invisible) in the light of their candles. They would not at first believe that I came from their native country, until I said, " Well, comraades, y' ave pitched a braave and keenly bal, soaz ; " at which they at once changed their tone, and told me they were Camborne men, and added they wished they had been at home to take part in the recent riots. The level at which they were working was only about four hundred and fifty feet below the surface. We returned to tea with the Pearces, where we met another Cornish gentleman. Mrs. Pearce told me of an incident which befell her before she had long been enjoying mountain life. Her husband went out shooting, and there being no game about, his bag on his return contained nothing but a beautiful little animal which he had shot dead on the spot. She set to work to skin it ; but it turned out to be a skunk. She cut into the stink-bag, and the consequence was that almost every- thing in the house, including her own clothes, had to be destroyed. In the evening we adjourned to a saloon, called Terrel's, where Cornishmen, and St. Just men in particular, meet. The amusements were smoking, beer- drinking, and music. I met several fellow-countrymen who had been prompted, or compelled by various causes, to leave their native land. We spent a most pleasant evening afterwards with some of our friends, and the party was augmented by the presence of Professor Salusbuty, the most singularly entertaining specimen of "the cloth" it was ever our good fortune to come across. Later on we were joined by "Cherokee Bob," an old Indian "scout," one, that is, who in case of war, or for the sake of retaliation for private wrongs, has made it the business of his life to hunt down the Indians, and track them to their lair. Some- 152 RECORD OF RAMBLES. times the passion for wild adventure has prompted young men of good education and means to pursue this strange and fascinating life; sometimes it is a monomania, in- duced by wrongs inflicted by the Indians on some near and dear relation. Poor Bob had seen his best days, whatever his history may have been, and had taken to whisky, as most of them do. He must have been very poor, but was too proud to take money, much less would he ask for it. The government, I believe, allow him a small pension for his services ; but he was the broken- down remnant of a fine able fellow. He told us some of his adventures, which, added to the Professor's stories, passed away an evening as interesting as it was humorous. Feb. 14. We started at nine a.m. in a buggy with Mr. Salusbury, and drove up the ravine to Nevada City, the highest of the mining towns,, inhabited almost entirely by Cornish people. At the top of the hill we reached an altitude of about eleven thousand feet, Central City itself being between eight or nine thousand feet high. The air was cold, but light, pure, and delicious, and the sun shone brightly on the snow. From this point we got a graad and extensive view of the mountains, which F. said far exceeded anything he had seen in the Alps. Opposite us was the outline of Gray's Peak, though a gauzy veil of blowing snow almost enveloped its summit. Thence we descended at a rapid rate through a characteristic glen of scattered fir-trees into a valley, in which were silver mines and "gulch" workings. We stopped at the house of Mr. Dumont, and then continued our journey a little further to the "Beebee House," at Idaho, where we saw the hot springs, whose waters — an old remedy among the Indians for rheumatism and cutaneous diseeises — are still, like the Bath waters, recommended for those complaints. We took the "Stage," an old coach, drawn by six horses, up the Cafion, by Fall River, to Georgetown. The driver DENVER AND THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS. 153 was an excellent whip, conducting us safely over a rugged road, and often round great projections of rock which only allowed a hair-breadth passage. Arrived at the summit of one Canon, we crossed a narrow "divide," and then descended another deep pass to where Georgetown lay, literally embedded in mountains, whose sides, sparsely scattered with fir-trees, which, from the height, looked like grass above us, contained those famous silver mines which have been the making of the place. Not far from Georgetown is one of those "parks," or limestone plains, which form such singular features in Rocky Mountain geo- graphy, averaging two hundred miles long, full of grass and park-like verdure, and yet surrounded on all sides, and completely shut in by mountain precipices. It lies fifty miles to the west, and, like the rest, has only been used as a hunting-ground, and never settled by Europeans, per- haps owing to the difficulty of reaching it in the winter season. We went to the "Barton House" Hotel. We then called on Commodore Decatur, a quaint old Dutch- man, and now a newspaper editor. He had a collection of curiosities, and showed us some good specimens of flint and obsidian arrow-heads and borers from New Mexico; also some pieces of painted pottery, and a piece of wood carving from an old Spanish church in the same country, built, we were told, on the ruins of an Aztec temple. In his collection also were some good stone-hammers, and a pipe from Ohio, formed of the stone we had seen at Fort Ancient. We met Mr. Henty again, and a Colonel G., who told us of his mining troubles. Litigation, he said, is greatly impeding mining development in this country ; and in the absence of any means of obtaining justice, lynch- law, even involving loss of life, sometimes happens among the miners of the several nationaUties. To us there seemed a total absence of anything like principle or public feeling in Georgetown, every man 154 RECORD OF RAMBLES. making fair capital out of his neighbours' shortcomings. There is of course no respect of persons. Everyone stands or falls by his own individual capabilities. Almost all the inhabitants are emigrants from Europe, and they have a great idea of freedom of action. The Americans and their government ar? not held in any respect among them. Feb. 15. We returned to Idaho by stage, on which was Mr. Teal, whose place Mr. Henty had gone to take at the "Terrible," and also a really good specimen of a Cornish miner of a superior class, one Eddy of Gwennap. From Idaho, where we bought some minerals and a good flint implement at a little wayside " store," we went by the rail to Denver, a distance of fifty miles from Georgetown. I had almost forgotten to insert a story which I heard while here, apropos of the American custom of hanging out sign-boards from the houses and stores. It is told of a Cornish miner, who could neither read nor write. When he first came to Central City, seeing a sign-board hang- ing out over a door on which was written, according to the usual custom, "Mrs. McCarty, Midwife," he, thinking it must be a beershop, opened the door and walked in, and going to the table sat himself down and began to rap for beer. On the entrance of Mrs. M., says Zack, "I'll thank 'ee, Missus, to bring me a drap to drink;" whereupon she brought him a glass of water. "What's the maning o' that .'" said Zacky, eyeing the glass with an air of astonishment. " I do'an't waant no sich geer as that ; what I do waant is a drap o' beer." Mrs. M. explained that she did not sell beer ; whereupon Zack rose to leave ; merely observing, " Look 'ee here, Missus, ef so be as yer do'an't sell no beer, the sooner you tak' down that theere bit of a sign-boord of yours the better." We reached Denver, and dined at Charpiau's Hotel. Feb. 16. We walked about Denver, collecting flint arrow- heads in the curiosity shops. At six p.m. we started for DENVER AND THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS. 155 Cheyenne, arriving there at twelve a.m. on the morning of Feb. 17, and sleeping at the "Railroad House," where the accommodation was decidedly bad. In the cars on the way we had an opportunity of observing the great forbearance and uncomplaining nature of the Americans in cases where they are put to inconvenience by fellow-passengers and others. They will submit to any amount of Tieat in the " cars," without asking for a window to be opened (indeed, we wanted to boil them to see how much they would stand) ; or to cold, and only give a mild hint to shut the window by muffling up their necks; or to get nothing eatable for dinner, or too little, and still only look placidly disconsolate. Cheyenne is a town chiefly built of woodi and most uninviting. We were told there that there had been recently a great discovery of gold ore, a unique for- mation, at a place called " Boulder," not far from here. I bought two good flint arrow-heads from Wyoming. We started for Ogden, but as there was no room in the Pull- man car, we decided only to go as far as Laramie that day. We crossed the ridge of the Rocky Mountains at a point where a few granite tors protruded here and there from the plain. Indeed, the distant view of some peaks on the south was all that made us aware that we were crossing the range at all. Near Sherman we reached an elevation of eight thousand two hundred feet, and passed through some snow sheds, or covered passages, made of planks, to keep the line free from the drifting snow. We reached Laramie at 5.30 p.m., a town which, like Cheyenne, has been made by the Central Pacific Railroad. It contained only two brick houses, namely, the bank and the school- house : the rest of the buildings were of wood. We went to a little theatre to hear the AUeghanians, a musical troupe. Amongst the pieces they sang was one which was a fair example of American pathos, combining homely simplicity with a touch of religious sentiment. The next IS6 RECORD OF RAMBLES. morning we took a walk on the snowy hills, and after- wards helped some men to load their ice-carts on the frozen river, from which they were cutting blocks more than two feet thick. At seven p.m. \Feb. i8], we started from Laramie, and, after sleeping in the Pullman, reached Ogden at eight p.m. next day [Feb. 19], and found the train for Sak Lake City waiting our arrival. The journey had been a tedious one, owing to our not having previously booked places in a Pullman car, which should always be done, when joining the main line anywhere, as they are often fulL SALT LAKE CITY. 1 57 CHAPTER XL SALT LAKE CITY. As the traveller proceeds down the branch line connecting the Central Pacific Railroad at Ogden with the Mormon Settlement, he has the Wahsatch Mountains, covered with snow, on the one side, and the Great Salt Lake on the other. We reached our destination at about ten p.m., and went to the " Walker House." As we passed through the streets at night, I noticed the large number of gaming- houses and beer-saloons, kept open till a late hour, the great increase in the number of which Hepworth Dixon has noticed as an evil feature in the city during the last eight years. Feb. 20. Salt Lake City is a clean and well-arranged town, the principal street sloping up towards the mountains. It is quite out of reach of the lake, from which it is distant some sixteen miles, but the level of which has risen nine feet in twenty-seven years. The first colony of Mormons arrived here, under the leadership of Brigham Young, in 1847. The city is, as usual, divided into blocks. The main street is East Temple Street, and two of the blocks on either side of the upper part of it are appropriated, that on the west to the foundations of the Temple, laid in 1853, with the Tabernacle beyond, and that on the east to Brigham Young himself The Tabernacle is an oval building with a flattish domed roof It is plainly arranged inside, having a gallery round it, and a large organ at the end. The gallery is surrounded by texts and mottoes, such as, " Brigiiam our Leader," " Our martyred Prophet," 158 RECORD OF RAMBLES. " Daughters of Zion," "Mothers in Israel," and many others. We were told, but we can scarcely believe it, that the in- terior is capable of holding thirteen thousand persons. Our guide also informed us that the Mormons in the city were numbered at twenty thousand. The Tabernacle is only used in summer for service. Behind it is the " Endow- ment House." The opposite block, surrounded by a wall with numerous little buttresses resembling towers, is occu- pied by the tithing barns, and other houses of Brigham's own establishment. The main entrance to this has an eagle over the door. We entered at a small gate where horses and carriages were waiting, and where some prepossessing young ladies, grand-daughters of the " President," were standing. Affixed to the principal door was a brass-plate, on which were the words " Brigham Young," but we were summoned from this entrance to another by a man who inquired if we wanted to see the " Old Breeam." The old gentleman had, however, only just returned from a visit to the south, and w£LS receiving visits of congratulation on his improved health, so was not visible. He had then twenty-one wives, and had just completed a handsome house in the French style, immediately opposite his own gate, for Amelia, the favourite one. From the enclosure in which he lives there is an extended view southwards over the plain to the moun- tains beyond, which shut it in. His Audience Hall, in which we waited, was full of persons, come to pay tithes, which are chiefly delivered in flour, but sometimes also in oxen, provisions, and such like. The slow rate at which the building of the Temple is proceeded with is attributed to its being a good excuse for tithe -collecting. The continuance of the work, which is all done by Mormon labour only, keeps up, it is supposed, the interest in the religion. The " Gentiles " are just now gaining an ascen- dancy in trade ; and although, to counteract this, Mormon Co-operative stores have been set on foot, they generally SALT LAKE CITY. 159 prove failures, since the Mormons themselves find it cheaper to go to the Gentiles. Over a Mormon store are inscribed the words, "Holiness to the Lord. Zion's Co-operative Mercantile Institution," with the picture of an eye after the word "Lord;" or in some cases simply the letters " Z. C. M. I." The mines are seldom or never worked by the Mormons now-a-days, although there are many miners in the place. Agriculture is thought to be more conducive to the stability and plodding ways which their teachings inculcate. One of the nicest features of the City is the pretty little gardens or plots of orchard ground by which the houses are suiTounded. These are almost invariably original allotments, the property of their occupiers. In the streets we saw numerous Indians of the Goshute tribe, who, being out of food on their march, had come in to beg provisions from their friends the Mormons. Feb. 21. We walked up to a plateau in the hills at the end of East Temple Street, immediately under the " Mount Tabor " for which Brigham had formerly steered, and from thence we looked down on the city. Brigham's tithe-barns and the Tabernacle looked white in the absence of the sun, which had not yet risen, and the snowy mountains were still wrapped in clouds. Among them, to the eastward, is the pass by which the little Mormon party, only a hundred and forty-three in all — the pioneers of the exodus — first entered the plain in 1847. California, as General Sherman told us, was to have been their destination ; but the Mexican war was being waged, and United States troops had preceded them thither; so here they halted in the wilderness. They directed their march to the spot where we now stood, Brigham pretending to recognize in a little round hill the one he had seen in a dream with a flag on it It is said that when he arrived at the Tabernacle ground he stopped short, and marked out the place for the Temple of Gad. It was a view well worth seeing on this bright clear l6o RECORD OF RAMBLES. morning. Mormonism is indeed a strange phenomenon. Its wide reception may be considered in some of its aspects as a modern outcrop, in a truly singular form, of the old Puritanical spirit ; of what Southey called the Bibliolatry, or worship of the text and language of the Bible, which was characteristic of those fanatics who first set foot in the New England States. As we knew Bishop Tuttle at New York, we went to service in his "Cathedral" — a little Episcopal church, dedicated to St. Mark, in which he has his Bishop's throne. The Bishop, and a lady playing a harmonium, conducted the service ; after which a good sermon was preached. We afterwards walked with him to his house, and he spoke of his neighbours, the Mormons, as pleasant acquaintances, and good, trustworthy people. In the afternoon we went to a church of the "Latter- Day Saints " in the Fourteenth Ward. At the farther end of the room, which in the week-day is used as a school, were ranged (on the left) a harmonium, (in the centre) a daYs, and (on the right) a table with bread and water in silver chalices, cups, and baskets. Behind the platform was a picture, representing in the foreground the Ten Command- ments on the tables of stone, and mountains in the back- ground, the scene being partially screened from view by a red curtain, painted over one side of the picture. The service consisted, first, of a hymn, sung by a good chorus of young men and women ; next, of a prayer for preservation, followed by another hymn ; then a blessing of the bread by one of the " elders " who sat on the dais ; then another hymn ; then a distribution of the bread, which was not given to us, being strangers and Gentiles ; and lastly, a similar ceremony with the water. We were rather amused by one of the gentlemen praying that we might "live the full number of our days," just as if anybody could possibly live longer. After this came the sermon by an Apostle named Woodruff, who had gone to England SALT LAKE CITY. l6l some years ago as a missionary with Brigham Young. The oration was extremely fluent, and was interesting to us, since it touched on nearly every point of history and doctrine which the annals of the community afford. It showed an amazing knowledge of the Scriptures, and some acquaintance with general history. The speaker was quite a common man ; but he spoke well, and his fervour had the appearance of being unstudied. The congregation were a study in themselves. They seemed to be an unostentatious, earnest, cheerful, self-reliant sort of people, full of unmixed devotion to their religious tenets, in which they put implicit faith. In short, they are the most amiable fanatics I have ever seen. Coming out of this church we got into con- versation with Mr. J. W. Johnson, an elder, a tall, elderly man of about sixty, who must have been handsome when he was young, but whose too-radiant smile betrayed a weakness of mind compatible with the fervency of his faith, and with his amiable desire to bring others into the same happy state in which he found himself We walked with him to his house, in which dwelt his three wives, all under the same roof; but their apartments, as is usual with the Mormons, had separate front doors. He, too, had been a missionary in England. "Mormons," he said, "believe in a distinct revelation from God to Joseph Smith : there had been no revelation for eighteen hundred years. Rome had usurped Christianity; and the Church of England, Wes- leyans, Baptists, and the rest were only her daughters whom she had cut off as having betrayed her. The ten tribes had come to America, as see the Book of Mormon, and they were the Indians. This accounts for the great kind- ness shown by the Mormons to the Indian tribes ; some of whom have become Mormons themselves. The whole Mormon Church in Utah, counting the emigrants " (and I suppose the Indians too), "numbers in all a hundred and fifty thousand souls. Joseph Smith having asked God M X62 RECORD OF RAMBLES. which sect in Christendom he was to join, had a vision, in which there was revealed to him the Father pointing to the Son, and saying, ' Hear Him !'" " Polygamy belonged to the old people of God : to the Mormons it was a late revelation. Tithes were given to the Levites, and offerings to the poor, who are now supported in their own houses." When I remarked that the railway, with all the good it had done, had brought harm to the morals of the city, the answer was, "All this is in the hand of the Lordj we don't trouble ourselves about it." This, I observed, was a general answer to difficult questions ; but such a doctrine is never made an excuse for idleness or indifferentism. Work for all to do is a prominent feature in the Mormon teaching. Some work at home, while others have missions to foreign lands. Joseph Smith having received his divine appointment, had authority to " send apostles, prophets, elders, and teachers." As to polygamy, " it was an honourable result of labour that a man could maintain and educate a large number of children." As to the property of children, they think "all should be equal." Ultimately "the Lord will provide;" but the parents must make what provision they can. In the equality of mankind, "niggers are specially exempted by revelation from being priests," Wives are married to husbands, not for time, but for eternity. There is a baptism for the dead. That is to say, a man may be baptized for his father, who, dying without baptism, cannot otherwise be saved. These ceremonies take place in the " Endowment House," so called because persons are there " endowed " with " graces " such as these. For these statements we were indebted to Mr. Johnson, who called on us next morning \Feb. 22], with the books necessary to be studied by us in order to complete our conversion. Among them was the Book of Mormon— ^'e. most singular travestie of the Bible ever produced. The inspiration is SALT LAKE CITY. 1 63 singularly devoid of grammar and sense ; while the lan- guage of the books of Kings is quaintly made use of to string together a list of newly-coined names, and weave a tissue of pseudo-history. Mr. Johnson then told us that one of his wives is the sister of Mrs. Stenhouse, who, with her husband, has written two large volumes against Mormonism. He said that these volumes should be read with caution, since their authors were "traitors in the camp," rendered so by having been made sore at certain losses in which they thought Brigham might have helped them. This day we had an opportunity of seeing Brigham Young's chief counsellor — George A. Smith. He is a stout, thick-set man ; his hair is white, and he has a white beeu-d ; he was dressed in seedy black clothes, which wanted brushing, and had a black soft hat on his head. His gait was portly, and he looked much like a well-to-do shopkeeper in a very small town. We were pleased to meet Colonel Hayward again at the hotel. In the evening F. and I went to the theatre, which is one of the largest and best appointed houses in the States. It is situated in the " block " immediately below " President " Young's enclosure, and was built through his instrument- ality, one of his tenets being that innocent festivities and recreations are good for the community. The occasion of our being there was a "Fireman's ball;" and the Gentiles, not being allowed on the floor, had to pay for seats in the dress circle. The firemen, who are a volunteer corps, wore their red shirts ; and many of the ladies wore red bodices striped with black to match, and black or white skirts, the whole eflfect being decidedly good. About two hundred and fifty couples took part in the dancing. In addition to these, the galleries were filled with spectators, and the upper boxes with young ladies, amongst whom not a few were the descendants of the " President," Brigham. Colonel Hayward saw twelve of his grand-daughters standing M 2 l64 RECORD OF RAMBLES. together in one group. The dancing was excellent, and the time perfect. Everyone knew the figures, though many of them were intricate, and reminded us of those we used to see the Oxford townsmen dancing at the three- penny Oddfellows' balls in the Corn Exchange. Everyone in the hall joined in the dance, from young children of ten or twelve up to old grey-headed men. At about ten o'clock we saw all making way deferentially for a tall portly figure, who, graciously bowing right and left, crossed the part of the floor, where the stage would have been, to his box on the opposite side. This was Brigham Young himself He has a greyish beard; but his hair is not much turned, and he took advantage of his prerogative, namely, to wear his hat in company. His powers of speech are, we were told, remarkable ; he can compress into a few words all he means to say, and say it well, and to the point. This makes his conversation of considerable in- terest, and his preaching is said to be eloquent. He is now seventy-four years of age, but, except that he requires a change occasionally, he is still vigorous and well. Feb. 23. We started at seven a.m. for Alta, where the Emma mine is. Changing cars at Sandy, we proceeded by a narrower gauge up into the mountains by way of the Granite Cafion. From the station at Granite, we ascended the side of the ravine by a zigzag line to the place where the " stage " awaited us. The snow had been falling con- tinuously, and was by this time pretty deep. We found therefore that, instead of the usual coach, a sleigh, with four mules, was in readiness to take us the six or eight miles to Alta. We got into the vehicle and wrapped ourselves up as best we could, having a woman between us with a baby who had both fever and croup. Poor child, it must have died before it reached its destination ! While we waited in this strange predicament in the midst of the snow-covered ravine, trains of sleighs from the mines, bringing ore down SALT LAKE CITY. 165 the Cafion, were continually passing us. Unfortunately (or perhaps fortunately) for us one of these sleighs — ore, mules, driver, and all — rolled over a bridge just in front of us into the " creek " below. No one was hurt ; but the passage was blocked inevitably for some hours to come. Everything seemed against us. There were perils of the elements ; for we could hear the " snow-slides " as they came crashing down the mountain sides at no great distance from us ; and there were perils from thieves, who literally swarmed in these parts ; and so we came to the conclusion that the world had, for the nonce, got the better of us, and dismounting therefore from the sleigh, gave up our expedition to the Emma. We made, however, the most of our time till the train left again for Salt Lake City. We went into a little saloon kept by an Englishman, who told us that a man was boarding with him who had worked in the Emma. He was the weighing- clerk, and he took me aside to his little office, and told me several things about the Emma and the Flagstaff, the two great mines of the district. Most of the sleighs which passed that day were from the Flagstaff mine, managed and almost owned by some people called Patrick. We were told that they have been working into other property; if so, they will have to pay back a large sum of the dividends already paid. Besides numerous drovers, a man came into the little saloon and talked very big about the Emma. This fellow we both with reason suspected to be a cut-throat. He said he had been up and down the Cafion for three months ; but the landlord and the weighing-clerk said they had never seen him before. He was accompanied by a miner, and both were anxious we should go down a mine ; but if we had, either we or they would have remained below ground considerably longer than we intended, I expect. We were suspicious of everyone we met in this land of scoundrels. Altogether we spent a curious day, 1 66 RECORD OF RAMBLES. and, although we did not see the Emma mine, which indeed we should not have been able to do under any circumstances, we saw and heard as much as we could have hoped, even had we reached our destination — enough to convince us of the villany that was mixed up with that transaction. The follo\(ring is a summary of the information we ob- tained concerning the mine. From Colonel Hayward we had learnt that for some time past the Emma working has been done in secret. There was one of the " bosses," or managers, he said, who could not be trusted, and Mr. Johnson informed us incidentally, that it is the opinion in Salt Lake City that he is at the bottom of the mis- diief. Another leading ^irit in the affair is a whisky drunkard ; and besides these two bright characters, there was a third, who did us the honour of calling on us, and endeavoured in every possible manner to dissuade us from going to the mine — telling us many things which we found to be untrue. I need scarcely add, then, that the first conclusion we arrived at was that the manage- ment at that time was unsatisfactory. " It has been badly 'bossed,'" we heard on all hands. "If the shareholders intend to work the mine they must put it under proper management" From a photograph which we have brought home, it is clear how little money has been expended in surface works. As to what has been done below, there is a necessity for good timbering in consequence of cavernous working on the "pocket." The works are now entirely at a standstill. By a law of the United States, however, any man may enter on a work abandoned for six months by the previous owners, and work it for himself It might be open to unscrupulous persons, who know the circumstances, to do this. There is an absence of geological knowledge in the agents. As long as the mine was at work, the ore was of good quality and easy to work. There is a strong SALT LAKE CITY. 1 67 belief on the part of the miners who have worked there, that the mine may yet be good. It is reported, for instance, that when a fine seam, though a narrow one, was cut, the work was abandoned, and the water allowed to accumulate; but that under that water a fine "crevice" is in sight. There being no machinery but a " whim " {f.e. a wooden drawing apparatus at the surface), there would be consequently some difficulty in getting up the water. We were told^ however, on the other hand, that the mine is not a good one, but this statement was made to us by persons who appccired to be interested individuals, for they drew us aside, and gave us their special views, which always ended in advice to the shareholders to throw up the concern. On their throwing it up these men might then get it for nothing. Other persons said that the shareholders,, instead of spend- ing money in prosecuting Park, ought to spend it in sinking. It is reported also that Park is not himself unwilling that the lawsuit should go ag,ainst him, thinking that if he pays a round sum of money the shareholders will be satisfied with the result,, and will be ready to sell the mine to a party of Netherianders, who are here waiting for it The directors, one of whom at least, after he had been at Salt Lake City, bought a considerable number of shares, would then step in. In short, it would be the old game. Last of all, it is said that the best ore has never been brought to the market at all, but is deposited somewhere in or near Salt Lake City. It was hard to probe the motives of all our different informers. Some were probably speaking in Park's in- terest — some in their own • but the most reliable informjf^ tion seemed to be that of those miners who had worked there, and they, by asserting that a good seam had been found and the fact suppressed, confirmed what I had heard in England from a Cornish mlne-E^ent employed there at the time. To acquire, however, correct information, or to l68 RECORD OF RAMBLES. attain to any facts was, on the ground, next to impossible, since, if you go as a stranger, you are denied admission, and if you can get the leave of the authorities, you are obliged to accompany them or their agents, and are made to see through their spectacles. As to ourselves, every possible impediment was thrown in our way to prevent us from attempting to visit the mine, and the very fact that (contrary to the custom of the district) all persons are pre- cluded from visiting it is one proof patent of the under- hand manner in which things have been carried on. One thing seemed to us certain ; viz., that as the shareholders cannot be in a worse plight than they are, they had better hold on, and, if possible, elect a board of directors strong enough to change the management, and begin anew, ap- pointing iirst of all a geologist to inspect the works, who shall be above suspicion. An honest man must be sent from England ; for such an one will scarcely be found in Salt Lake City; and when he arrives there, he must stop his ears to all he hears. Such is all we could learn with regard to this gigantic swindle, and a pretty tale it tells of English mining enterprise five thousand miles from home. A large portion of the population of Salt Lake City is composed of scoundrels and blacklegs of every sort and kind, from English mine imposters (mostly young men) down to native thieves and card-sharpers. To show the rascality of some of the latter, and the dangers to which a traveller is exposed, I may give the following incident : We met a young fellow at the hotel who told us that he had been drugged the night before by the man at the bar, and taken to a gambling-hell, where he lost 800 dollars and his watch, without even knowing it. He was found next morning lying in the gutter outside the hotel. We thought he too was an imposter, telling us this to excite compas- sion ; but a detective whom F. employed to find his ring, which was stolen through my carelessness in leaving the SALT LAKE CITY. 1 69 bedroom door unlocked for a few minutes, confirmed his story. We returned in the evening to Salt Lake, and dined with Colonel Hayward. It is really a pleasure to turn from a population of wretches such as these to those quiet and contented fanatics, the Mormons. The next afternoon \^Feb. 24] we went to their Museum, where we found the curator, an intelligent old man. The relics of the early Mormons are scrupulously preserved, as well as articles of home manu- facture and native industry. In 1851 they were manufac- turing iron articles; working lead in 1852; porcelain in the same year; paper-making in 1854; a thousand revolvers were turned out in 1857 ; type in 1868 ; cotton was grown in 1867 ; silk in 1861, and manufactured the following year; cloth, from 1859. The first photograph was taken in 1850. They mined for lead and iron, but not for gold and silver. " It was a struggle for existence," said the old man, who, by the way, was well up in Darwinian phrases, and quite ready to confute the hypothesis by texts from the Book of Mormon. From 1849 to i860 they coined gold money. On the obverse was — "Holiness to the Lord," surrounding an eye, over which was Aaron's cap ; on the reverse—" G.S.L.C. : P.G." (Great Salt Lake City : Pure Gold). "Five Dollars. 1849." It is worthy of remark that Joseph Smith, the founder of the sect, and the " Prophet of the Nineteenth Century," was a Freemason, and master of the Lodge of Nauvoo. This lodge was cut off in consequence of innovations, involving, it is said, the name of Christ, made by Joseph Smith himself. This Masonic element, although I have not seen it alluded to before in any history of the origin and structure of the community, accounts for many of the emblems incorporated into Mormonism. A man is ini- tiated into Mormonism at the Endowment House. Having been baptized, he then has the privilege of receiving the 170 RECORD OF RAMBLES. "Endowment," and of rising, as in Masonry, to higher degrees as he increases in wisdom and merit. Brigham Young does not now encourage Freemasonry, avowedly because the Lodge at Nauvoo was cut off, but really, I suppose, because it would be an imperium. in imperio. The alphabet of the Mormon religion is called the " Deseret" Character." In i860 a coin was .struck, bearing on it "Deseret" letters. "Deseret" was the land promised in the Book of Mormon. It signifies the " land of the honey- bee." Of Mormon newspapers the Deseret News was pub- lished in 1850; an almanac in 1851 ; a comic paper, called the Keepapitchinim, was also started. Besides these things, there is a good collection of Indian relics, and the Museum also preserves the pistol given by Mr. Demming to Joseph Smith to defend himself with when the mob were breaking into his prison-cell. It is a revolver, from which four balls have been discharged. There is also' the knee-joint of one of the stone oxen which supported the font in the base- ment of the temple at Nauvoo, That Temple was built according to Masonic principles The device of the Mor- mons is "the beehive," and their m'otto, "Deseret." We heard that old Brigham has just had to> pay 12,000 dollars, with costs, in a divorce case from' Anne Eliza, wife No. 19. Feb. 25. We left Salt Lake City for Ogden at 3.30 p.m., and on arriving there found thait the train for California was four hours late. On the way up to Ogden we had a good view of the Salt Lake, which is ninety miles wide, and a hundred and fifty miles long. Later on we watched a beautiful sunset over it. We finally secured our places in a comfortable car, played ecarii, and got to bed at midnight. SAN FRANCISCO AND LOS ANGELOS. 171 CHAPTER XII. SAN FRANCISCO AND LOS ANGELOS. Feb. 26. We woke in the morning to see nothing but plains of wild lavender, intersected by rocky hills covered with snow. Passing a herd of wild cattle, the engine-driver wantonly ran into a splendid ox, who, poor beast, was lying on the track. I heard it utter a cry of pain, and the next moment saw it lying by the side unable to get up, as its hoof had nearly been severed at the fetlock. Another of the herd ran up to see what was the matter with it, and with a slight bellow looked up at the train, as much as to say, " You who call yourselves human, look at the work of pain and destruction which your civilization teaches you to commit.'' The noble animal must have died of starvation where it lay; the ready buzzards were soaring round ere we got out of sight, and it seemed to me at the moment, that his life was worth more than that of the combined Yankees in the cars put together. Skeletons of oxen killed in a similar fctshion line the track of the Central Pacific, as it passes over the plain9. At almost every station we saw Shoshone Indians, who are allowed by the company to ride to and fro for amusement on the cars. They were a ragged race ; and some of the squaws had their babes tied on to paddle-shaped wicker frames, strapped on their backs, or held on their knees. The face of one young one was completely muffled up, while another's peered out quaintly from between its mother's shoulders. The faces of the men were mostly smeared with red, and their camps and "lodges" were frequently to be seen. The stations 172 RECORD OF. RAMBLES. near Reno, Battle Mountain, and Elko, are infested by gamblers, against whom the public are warned. We saw several of these scoundrels on the platforms, and the Indians and Chinese (who were there too) had certainly the advantage in respectability of looks. The mixture of races along this route was certainly curious. There were Americans, French, Germans, English, Irish, Indians, Niggers, Chinamen, and the half-breeds probably of each and every different nationality thereby represented. During this journey we observed that American wives are thrifty people. There were several ladies in the train, travelling with their families. The meals they spread themselves ; they warmed the coffee, and did all the work with their own hands. Travelling with servants seemed to be a most unusual proceeding in this country. Feb. 27. The morning found us in the snow-sheds of the Sierra Nevada, which are here fifty-two miles in length. From these at daybreak we emerged into warm spring weather. We had passed through a wooden tunnel. It was winter — bitter, biting, white winter — ^when we went in at one end of it. It was spring, such as England feels in May, when we came out at the other. We were among deep and lovely glens, whose sides were covered with taxums and pines, and rare trees of all descriptions, such as English shrubberies can never know in their native luxuriance. The snow, which at first lay in patches, we quickly left behind. The trees on the western slope of the Sierra grow in a peculiar soil, composed originally of volcanic mud, in which pebbles of an older formation and fragments of granitic rocks are included, the mass being cemented together by silica. We were all this while looking down into the valleys, as we skirted them, from the brows of the mountain ridges on which we still were. Sometimes the view was immeasurably grand. Through a break in the range, known as " Emigrant's Gap," we caught sight SAN FRANCISCO AND LOS ANGELOS. 173 of the lower and park-like land of California, stretching in one wide plateau as far as the eye could reach; while from "Cape Horn," as the highest shelf of the mountain is called, we looked down on the American river, a swift mountain stream, casting its white waters, like a silver thread, through the richly-wooded glen, whose green patches of alluvial soil lay at a depth of no less than three thousand eight hundred feet immediately below us, as we saw it from the car. Then we descended at a rapid rate towards the plain, passing on either side the pretty white tents of mining camps, dotted about among pine clearings on the slopes of the hills, — many of them worked by Chinese, whose blue smocks contrasted effectively with the red colour of the excavations in which they dug and washed the gold. The hats on their heads were like inverted baskets, quite round, and many nearly as large as a small umbrella, with a round protuberance in the centre to hold the pigtail, which during labour is twisted into a knot on the top of the head. Water-courses to work these surface mines have been constructed along the mountain sides, and into these the streams have occasionally been turned with a heavy body of water, giving them the velocity necessary to wash down the hardly-yielding ground. As we left the mountain range behind, and swept swiftly out into the plain, we left behind us the pines, the taxums, and the curious flowering shrubs, and entered a flat country full of excellent grazing ground, much of which had been inclosed, dotted over with evergreen oaks and pretty hamlets and green sheep pastures between, reminding us strongly of an English landscape. Coming into the marshy country, we noticed the same moss hanging from the trees which we had seen in Louisiana. It must therefore be common to the North American con^ tinent in general. The Valley of Sacramento, in which we soon were, is fertile ; and here we saw,for the first time, orange 174 RECORD OF RAMBLES. trees, and gardens for early crops. The city of Sacramento possesses a handsome pile of buildings with central pillars pediment and dome, forming the capital of the State of California. We did not stop here, but passing on through a monotonous plateau, broken only at Niles, where we ran through a spur of the Sierra, we arrived at Oaklands. Thence, crossing the bay by steam-ferry, we were in San Francisco at eight p.m., and went to the Occidental Hotel. I forgot to mention that we carried with us, amongst our fellow-travellers on the cars, a "stage-thief," or highway- man, captured three days before, when, being hotly pursued, .he had the audacity to jump on to the train to avoid arrest. Feb. 28. In the hotel we met S., and walked with him towards the Cliff House. San Francisco is a lively place, finely situated on its inland bay, although the hills which surround it are covered with sand. The private houses in the suburbs are built of wood, in a French ornee style ; the use of wood being consequent on occasional and severe earthquake shocks. One of these in 1868 was particularly severe. There is an enormous hotel in course of erection in the centre of the city. It is a square building, and is the most prominent object there. It is usual for men who have made large sums of money in California — especially by mining speculations on the Comstock Lode, at Virginia City, whence they are called Comstock kings — to invest it in the erection of an hotel. This new hotel is a specula- tion of Sharon's, one of the richest of these millionaires, and two-thirds of it are already taken by private individuals as a permanent residence. People in this country live in hotels partly because they wish to avoid housekeeping — and no wonder, when Colonel Curtis told us that for his little house, containing only his wife and a few small ■children, he could not get a cook under seventy-five pounds a year. ., March I. We regained, our "baggage," which we had SAN FRANCISCO AND LOS ANGELOS. 1 75 sent on from Baltimore, and for which, having come by " express " instead of by " freight," there was no less a sum than eighty-seven dollars fifteen cents to pay. We then paid some calls ; namely, on Mr. H. H. Bancroft, the brother of the principal bookseller and publisher, and the historian of the Indians ; on Colonel Curtis, at the " army head-quarters," the Judge of the army court ; on Mr. Eugene Dewey, at the Union Club ; and on Messrs. Falkner and Davidson, Rothschild's agents. Everywhere there were signs of great opulence, both in the buildings of the city, and in the aspect of business in California Street. It is a wonderful growth for only twenty-seven years. In the evening we went to the California Theatre, and heard a minstrel performance. Next morning [March 2], hearing some really good music in the street, we looked out and saw a large funeral — the hearse having glass oval sides as usual, and the coffin wreathed with flowers. It was preceded by a band of many instruments, which turned out to be the full orchestral band of the California Theatre. The deceased was an actor in that theatre. The body had been placed on the stage, and a service, with an oration, performed over it. The companions of his former labours were now paying him their last tribute by accompanying his body to the outskirts of the city. We called on Judge M., who had a nice set of apartments in Kearney Street — and whose good lady we found at home. The " stores " in San Francisco seemed to us to contain better articles than any we had seen in the States. We lunched at the Maison Dore, an excellent cafe, which might have been in Paris. We made the acquaintance of a Mr. C. — a thoroughly typical young Scotchman. Colonel Curtis and Judge M. returned our call, and smoked a cigar with us. We hoped to meet H.M.S. Tenedos here, but she had sailed the day before our arrival. 176 RECORD OF RAMBLES. March 3. Mr. Bancroft, on whom I called again, showed me a collection of French photographs, proving the correct- ness of Mr. Catherwood's illustrations in Stephens's Central America. He also showed me Maximilian's library on Indian affairs and antiquities, which had come into his hands on the death of the Emperor. Mr. Harcourt, his assistant, and an Englishman, was extremely kind in point- ing out the varieties of the collection. F. and I set out for the " Cliff House." We walked part of the way, until an omnibus overtook us. On the way, we passed the ceme- teries, and observed that the societies of Freemasons and Oddfellows have each their peculiar burying-ground. Pretty scattered cottages, with wind-mill water tanks attached to each, were the common objects of the country. The " Cliff House," on the shores of the Pacific, is about eight miles from San Francisco, and is the principal resort in the afternoons. We sat in the verandah on the sea side of it, and watched the sea lions as they roared, and bayed, and barked, and every now and then took a plunge into the water from the group of rocks which lies just outside. The people of San Francisco are proud of these beasts, who are, as it were, the guardians of the Golden Gate, and they will not allow them to be killed. We were told that they live on these rocks, but do not frequent other parts of the coast. While we were sitting here, an Englishman, Mr. Langley, of Vancouver's Island, who was travelling in the States with his family, came up to us and claimed us as his fellow-countrymen. On the way back we had a good view of the Golden Gate, and understood the position of the city, which is really one of the finest situations in the world. March 4. H. called on us. He was a first-rate cicerone of San Francisco, and declared we must see California properly. Accordingly he at once took us for a drive with a pair of horses that "flew." The American driving, SAN FRANCISCO AND LOS ANGELOS. 177 horse-training, and appointments, especially the bar which crosses the pole in front, appear to me to be superior to our own. Through the park, which is yet in its infancy, we made our way again to the Cliff House, where we again indulged in the untiring amusement of watching the sea lions, and drinking " champagne -cocktails " in the balcony. We returned by a longer route over some high hills to the southward, from which we got a grand panoramic view of San Francisco. In H.'s estimation, California is a perfect country. " Here he had discovered," he said, " that the social problems were solved. Men and women married for only so long as they found their characters were compatible; by mutual agreement they could obtain an easy divorce. They did not trouble them- selves about any sectarian, or indeed religious matters at all, but were courteous and tolerant to those who did hold strong opinions. Family and birth are thought nothing of. They are not despised, but are ideas which do not enter people's heads. If a man behaves himself courteously and properly, and has enough to live on (which in California no one has an excuse for not having), he is accepted by the best people. The mines are the source of wealth, and of commercial rivalry in the Exchange. At one time it was said that 1 50,000,000 dollars of silver was actually in sight. It was like a chimney of silver running through the ground. This was on the Comstock. The interest on money at the bank of California was then nine per cent, on deposit (a fact which led us to predict with pretty considerable certainty the failure of last September; viz., 1875). A young man could come out and speculate, and burn his fingers, and be entrapped, and fail ; but, if he was worth anything in sense, he would gain in experience more than he lost, and would soon see his opportunity to come to the front again, and be a rich man. 'Down once' is not 'down for ever,' as is so often the case in an old country like England. A N 178 RECORD OF RAMBLES. man, when he is ' down in his luck,' may live very cheaply -^the bars, of which there are 1,500 in the city, vying with qach other in giving good ' free lunches,' which go on all day. The man who eats a free lunch pays only for what he has to drink^say one bit or two bits (10 or 20 cents), as the price of the bar is ; but then he is expected, when better times come round, to treat his friends at that same bar to unlimited drinks. Thus the visitor cannot walk a yard in the streets of San Francisco, if he has made, that is, any acquaintances there, without some friend accosting him with, ' How are you getting along ? What will you drink.?' Thereupon he turns into a bar, which is sure to be close at hand, and pronounces the words, 'Whisky straight.' The visitor walks on a little further, and then ' the call ' rests with him ; the two together then pick up a third friend, ^nd the ' calls ' become complex, until some eight or nine short drinks of various kinds have followed each other in quick succession down the throat — and all before dinner. However, no one feels the worse for it ; for the climate is pure and bright. Equality of conditions has, ©f course, been perfectly established ; and thus the man who serves you at the bar, and whose hands make the * whisk' gyrate in the foaming cocktail, may be a 'Com- stock King ' in a year's time, and drive his coach-and-four to his bank in the morning. The bars are, many of them, handsome rooms, fitted with marble, and profusely mirrored and gilded." Such, said H., was " life in San Francisco." San Francisco is a sporting place ; a good deal of racing and wrestling gqes on there. The mine-kings are generally }arge landed proprietors, investing money judiciously in land closely adjoining the city, and reaping a rich harvest by building houses and drawing the population in that direction. We observed that the Yankee twang had scarcely reached California, which, however, is by no means free from slang, a gopious sppply of native invention having SAN FRANCISCO AND LOS ANGELOS. 1 79 supplied that want. We dined with Colonel C, who was a Bostonian, and who naturally is a great contrast to the San Francisco people, whose ways he and his wife by no means appreciate. In the evening Mr. Clark joined us. March 5. H. took us to the Stock Board, where mine shares on the Comstock were selling. There was some excitement, and a good deal of hustling and gesticulating over one or two of the favourites, such as the " Ophir," and the " California." Thence we walked to Telegraph Hill, the 'ancient' quarter (having been built in 1856), where, on one side, the bay is seen stretching away far as eye can reach, with fortified islands in the midst and Oakland lying on the further shore ; and on the other the city and the Golden Gate, a strait one mile in width, with the Pacific Ocean beyond. We could not help being again impressed with the magnificent situation of the place. Returning, we walked through " China Town," where thirty thousand Chinese are located in the midst of the American and European population. These people live just as they would in their own country. They have their temples and theatres, and their low underground holes where they are huddled together; their opium dens, and their shops, whose various articles of trade are advertized on placards in their own language. We then lunched at the Maison Dor^ j and .after a game of chess at the Mercantile Library, " drew " the restaurants and " free- lunch" establishments, which are well worth seeing, and. "quite an institution." March 6. Mr. M. called on us with H., to drive us to the races at Golden Gate Park. We started accordingly with a " spanking team " (the reader must excuse Calif ornjaisms) in a double buggy or " rockaway," Mr. M., who was a noted whip, taking the reins. He drove well to the course. I never witnessed such trotting. The day was beautiful, and we seemed to fly. The race-ground is nicely situated. N 2 l8o RECORD OF RAMBLES. Opposite to the grand stand is a level valley, beyond which rises the "Lone Mountain" peak, with a plain wooden cross on its summit, and cemeteries climbing up its sides. The races were trotting matches over a mile course. This style of racing is in great favour at San Francisco, and is more fashionably patronized than is the case at New York. The prize-days are every Saturday. We were introduced to several gentlemen, and among them to a man who offered to accompany us in an excursion round the bay. We should come to delightful spots, he said, where we should say, "Here I must stop, and never leave it." We soon were deposited in a spot more unsought for than de- lightful, which it was rather lucky we did manage to leave at all. To Mr. M.'s driving, he being an American, and by reputation a good driver, we had implicitly trusted our valuable lives. Coming out of the park, however, he put his horses first to a hand gallop, and then (in spite of warning notices) to a full gallop. There weis no doubt about it this time ; we flew ! The population first pro- tested ; secondly, scattered. The park-keeper, fearful for his gate, opened it. We rushed through. We rounded a corner safely. Then came a gentle descent of about a hundred and fifty yards. At increased speed we rushed down it. Then came another corner; this time a right aogle. Round it went the horses ; we did not. Over went the rockaway, and the wheels, rejoicing in the pace, continued to work the air in useless rotations since the carriage was bottom upwards. H. fell on his head from the back seat, and was badly cut and bruised. F., from the front seat, was deposited at no great distance. Our driver found himself lying on his back, and, as he after- wards remarked, " Things looked rather blue ! " he waking to consciousness to find himself engaged in contemplating the azure vault of heaven. As to me, I never was an acrobat ; but on this occasion I involuntarily became one. SAN FRANCISCO AND LOS ANGELOS. l8l and, after turning several summersaults in the air, raised myself unscathed from the gutter. Luckily the horses were "Friscans," and so they spilt us opposite a beer-saloon, where our wounds were quickly washed, and where a mounted policeman, overtaking us, considered it his duty to take Mr. M. in custody for furious driving, for which, however, he was by no means responsible. This thrilling adventure was duly recorded in the pages of the Alta California, and the other daily papers, next morning. We dined with Mr. Dewey at the Union Club. He is a gentlemanly and agreeable fellow, and had invited some friends to meet us. After dinner we went to see a wrest- ling match in a densely-crowded hall. The combatants were respectively a Dutchman and a Frenchman. They wrestled on a carpeted stage, and neither had fair play. We sat up talking over our escape, and woke next morning [March 7] rather more stiff and sore than we expected. We were glad of a day's rest, both in order to sit with H., who was badly hurt, and to put into shape some of our stray ideas on the subject of San Francisco, which the upset had naturally scattered. In this prodigy of the West, as San Fraticisco may well be called, I was continually having before my eyes what I had always imagined the cities of the Roman Empire must have been in the luxurious days which marked the period of the decline. The contrast in one way was great j for tkey were growing old in years before they reached their period of glory, while San Fremcisco was still in her infancy; but this fact gave an additional interest to the comparison, since it gave rise to speculations on the possible development in store for a city which seemed to have commenced its existence at the point where the old- world cities expired. The resemblances were in their nature sometimes general, sometimes special. I noticed, for example, a State pride in the hearts of Californians 1 82 RECORD OF RAMBLES. which called to mind that of the Roman for his country. " The love of Californians for their country" {j..e. the United States), says Rae, "has been absorbed in a singular and exceptional affection for their State." The importance of the American or the European in a land where he can employ, for menial purposes, the cheap labour of the Chinese, is very marked ; and the likeness to the Roman cities is therefore increased by setting the Chinese in place of the slaves, which the noble Roman employed. Where there is a serving population of a different race, the value of the employing race is proportionately increased in their own estimation. They become "lords of creation," and "worth their weight in gold." They need never descend to take a menial part. Again, in the luxuriousness of her mode of life, San Francisco, a city not yet out of her teens, so far rivals her contemporaries in Europe and America that we have to see^k further back in history for her equal. "The enjoyment of life," says Hittel, "is a prominent pur- pose of Californian society." People spend their money as it comes, troubling themselves little about accumulating it. The rich collect articles of vertu, pictures and bronzes 6spfecially, from Europe, just as the Romans did when Greece gave them the supply.- "Live for to-day" is the motto of the Californian poet, as it was of Horace. In the absence of a sufficieirt number of the female sex, a large strip of the city of San Francisco is inhabited by thriving and even wealthy members of the demi-monde, who specu- Date in the Stock Board tike the rest of the people. Races are the order of the day, which, even in detail, resemble those which graced the forum of an Italian city, or the hippodrome of Constantinople. Again, nothing is more observable in San Francisco than the decay of an ancient religion. In the place of Christianity the San Franciscan raises up Spiritualism on the one hand, and Freemasonry or some other secret order on the other, in order to supply SAN FRANCISCO AND LOS ANGELOS. 183 the cravings of the human nature for something external to pin faith on, or for some artificial bond to bind the community together for mutual good-fellowship, and sup- port Nowhere is the decline of the Christian religion seen more than in the purely civil nature of the marriage tie, and in the absence of a belief in immortality, demon- strated by the grandeur of the obsequies, the orations, the flowers, the civil rites, and, after that, the costly mausoleums, which are considered due to the dead. At so early an age has San Francisco reached Comte's second epoch — the metaphysical ; and in the scientific education which is heard of everywhere, there is proof of her rapid tendency towards materialism. All these phases^ however, are gone through without the least strife, jewsj Buddhists, Catholics, Protestants, and Spiritualists, all live and do business together iri the utmost good faith; The press is not open to religious animosities, and " under such circumstances religious bigotry cannot thrive." The hospi- tality to strangers is great ; and in point of courtesy, I think, the people of California excel those of the North- eastern States. The city of San Francisco is eminently cosmopolitan ; and it is probable that the perfect equality of conditions in which all the several nationalities (except the Chinese) have found themselves has tended in the direction of refinement of character. It is true that the speculative element, which has its place iri the restless life of the San Franciscan, whether it be in his intellectual or monetary pursuits, is dangerous to the symftietrical develop- ment of human nature. An easy Way of taking things makes its ill effects the less apparent; but still it makes the well-wisher of the infant tremble for the future of the full-grown mam Magnificent as is her position, grand her buildings, and her sources of wealth undoubted, San Francisco must remember that her birth was an anomaly, and that there is no precedent for her future greatness. 184 RECORD OF RAMBLES. • She is the first colony which modern civilization has sent out. She possesses intellect and wealth ; and first among her good qualities is that national pride which, if it did so much for the Old World, may still do something for the New, and this perhaps is her surest anchor of hope. March 8. I took the ferry-boat, and crossed the bay to Oakland, an extremely pretty town, whose streets are shaded by overarching avenues. From this place I drove five miles into the country to the State University, passing a richly-cultivated district, with fertile soil of a dark colour, bordering on' the bay. The climate was warmer than at San Francisco. Although so early in the year, the trees were in full leaf; larks were singing; and the grass was unusually green. The wild flowers were, many of them, ■w^ell known to English gardens, especially a little red flo\^er, and the yellow eschscholtzias. Curious little horse- cars, on a Single tram-way, fun to and fro from Oakland to the University. The birildings of the latter consist of two large blocks,- standing on the rising ground, which slopes up to the foot-hills. They have a background of dark firs, and the frontage commands a view over the flat sea-board to" the bay and the Golden Gate. The University build- ings are decidedly handsome edifices when seen from a distance. On the way I passed the ruins of a lofty and extensive structure,' which, standing among the hills, might have passed in Europe for a deserted feudal fortress. It Was the shell of a deaf and dumb asylum,- not long since burnt d6wn. Among the clumps of trees, and buried in the pretty little dells aeaf the University, are the resi- dences of the professors, and of some of the students, though many of them have their quarters in Oakland. Professor Youmans had given me a letter of introduction to Dr. Joseph Leconte. I found him in his lecture-room, engaged on a botanical lecture. The two large buildings I had seen on the way were occupied entirely by lecture-rooms. These SAN FRANCISCO AND LOS ANGELOS. 185 apartments were airy, and in their appointments surpassed any I had seen in the States. There are two hundred and fifty students, of whom thirty are young ladies. Their courses of instruction might be gathered from the labels on the doors ; e.g. " Greek," " Logic," " Rhetoric," " Geology," &c. I found the Doctor an interesting man. Talking of San Franciscd, he confirmed my notion that the odd phe- nomenon of Spiritualism there was the necessary craving after some religion displayed by any people who have given up their accustomed faith. I was anxious to know how the evolution philosophy had been received here. He told me that Herbert Spencer is much read among the students. His own opinion is that Darwin is in the main right j nevertheless, that the theory of evolution (though it ought to be, generally speaking, received) contains many gaps. Darwin had "struck" a few of the causes ; but there were besides many others to be accounted for, of which we were yet in ignorance. For instance, there are frequent breaks and cataclysms in development ; the process is not always so slow and regular. He instanced the two great and unaccountable "jumps" which take place in the develop- ment of the human embryo'. I returned to Oakland, and at 4.30 p.m. was in San Francisco again. March 9. F. bought a quaint collection of painted Alaskan gods at the "City Bank Saloon," which we subsequently packed and sent off home on board a sailing vessel, the Respigadera, insuring them for 75 dollars. The collection contained several big wooden gods, a little hairy god, a toucan and other animals intertwined in a way that reminded me of the figures on the monoliths in Stephens's work on Central America, a rude native representation (to please the Jesuits) of the Holy Trinity, besides boats, weapons belonging to Captain Jack, the Modock chief (whom our friend Colonel Curtis had condemned to be hanged, on account of his having killed a United- States 1 86 RECORD OF RAMBLES. general, and for several other atrocities), a wooden cup from Central America, a little stone pipe and arrow-heads, and a stone pestle and mortar, said to have been found in dibris a hundred and fifty feet below the surface. Alto- gether they formed a good collection of native manu-' factures, and had been brought to the saloon for sale by the original collector. In the window, in order to attract attention, they were labelled, " Gods taken in the Ashantee war;" but the delusion was not kept up inside Ihe shop. It was merely an American exaggeration, calculated to excite curiosity, and bring people in to look at them, and to have "a drink" at the bar ; and, as an artifice, the pro- prietor assured us the plan had succeeded admirably. The collection may now be seen in one of the cases in the Museum of Ethnology, at 103, Victoria Street, West-' minster, to which F. has presented it. We heard that speculations on the " Ophir " {i.e. a mine sett on the Great Comstock) had of late been done on a gigantic scale. It is no wonder that people, who are gain- ing or losing at the rate the San Franciscans are, should think nothing of a dollar or two. A "bit"* (i.e. 12}4 cents) is beneath consideration. Miners come down from Vir- ginia city and run through large sums in luxurious living and in buying stocks. As a rule, the " Bears rua through them ;" but sometimes they make a fortune. We walked out on the hills, and saw some of the large wooden houses of the millionaires. In one of the streets we met a house on wheels, in act of transportation to a fresh locality. In the evening we went to the " California " Theatre, and heard Miss Clara Morris in Jane Shore. Both now and on a subsequent occasion we thought her acting good. From a little open box on the right hand side of the dress- circle, we had a good view of the house, which displayed * A value without a corresponding coin: old customers pay ten cents to each "bit," but strangers twenty cents. SAN FRANCISCO AND LOS ANGELOS. 1 87 more taste in its decoration and appointments than any of the New York houses. The pieces, too, were well put on, and the stage furniture and scenery were costly and excel- lent. The drop-curtain was a fairly correct painting of the Yo-semit^ Valley. The audience was large and appreciative. In California they seem to know what good acting is, and must have it. Amongst the audience were some really handsome women, several of Spanish type, and the men were, many of them, respectable-looking fellows. It is said that native-born Californians are developing a type quite distinct from that found in Massachusetts, and the Eastern States. Certainly the style of the performance we saw on this occasion exceeded anything we had seen before, in the way of theatres and theatre-goers, since we crossed the Atlantic. March 10. Mr. Harcourt, Mr. Bancroft's assistant, showed me a singular clay mask from an ancient Central American city. Next day \March 1 1] we went to Messrs. Davidson's Bank, to make arrangements for shipping the "gods." Mr." Johnson gave us a letter to the ship-rft aster, and we walked to the wharf. On our way, at a little saloon, we made the acquaintance of Jacko, a dear bird of the mina kind (from Singapore). His Califomian language was exyere told to hold on by our eyelids, and there was good reason to do so ; for we took a sjidden plurjge into the deep bed of a streai]^, and were up the opposite baijk again before we kne,w where we were, one of the horses falliiig at the bottom, and Frank literally puUing him up by main forcg. We then passed through a narrow artificial gorge, thp San Fernjindp pass, after which we sang §ongs, to beguile the night, as we swept on at a brigk pace thr.qugh the cpuntry, dotted \yith wood, which intervened between us and the broad plgjfli which we reached early next morning \Marck 19]. We heaid reports of co^l arid also of cinnabar being ftjund near San Femandp. As we proceededj the country became more interesting ; the plains alt|2rnated >iyith pretty d.ells ; and to a naturalist, the varied fauna would have been quite a study. Near Gormon, ^hej-e we §tppped for dinner, and where a curious formation of rock giyes fhe mountain side the appearance of having been quarried, we saw numerous eagles and pelicans — the latter flying in lines O 2 196 RECORD OF RAMBLES. and circles, forming and reforming, going through, in fact, evolutions like soldiers. We also saw one of those rare and curious long-tailed birds called "road-runners." The old stage had nine inside and four out. At Gormon we changed drivers, and a surly fellow took Frank's place. As we passed down the mountain passes from Gormon, the scenery be- came quite like a park. One of the valleys, full of oak and greensward, had a lovely little lake at the further end. The rate we went down some of the steep parts of the road, the angles we rounded when our leaders were out of sight, the torrerjt-beds we plunged into and out of again like lightning ori the other side, were enough to take away one's breath ; and it was not pleasant to know that the pace was necessitated by the fact that the American foot-break was broken, and would not act. We arrived at the finest prospect when near Fort Tejon. The sides of the ravine were orange with eschscholtzias, mixed with the paler yellow of some other little flower. Through the narrow mouth of the gprge, as we turned a corner, there burst pn our sight a view which it is impossible to forget. I said, "What a sky!" But it was no sky, although it looked like one of those streaked leaden effects when the sun goes down in haze. It was the plain of Central California, and the streaks of colour in it were the wild flowers^-blue lupins, red orchids, and yellow flowers— which cover it in spring like th^e richest Turkey carpet. Near the centre of the expanse, like a bright spot of the purest bljie, seen through a transparent mist, lay the lake of Kern; while the snowy peaks of Mount Whitney, a hundred and fifty miles away, resting on the horizon, looked like the white clouds which bound the landscape on a bright blue supmer's day. Sweeping down the mountain slope, we were soon at Hudson's, a little wayside inn, where we were to sleep the night, and where S. ^as to remain on account of some business with his agent about sheep farming. Close to the YO-SEMITE VALLEY AND SAN FRANCISCO AGAIN. 197 house was a "corral," or circular pen into which horses are driven. The people at the little inn were free and easy in their manners, both to themselves and to us. We sat out- side the door in the evening, talking over the adventures of Vasquez, a Mexican highwayman, who had recently infested this neighbourhood, and who had just been hanged at San Jos6. The rest of his band were still loose, and vowed vengeance. There are grizzlies to be found not far from here in the hills. Their skins in Los Angelos were worth from ten to fifteen dollars a piece ; but it is a poor skin, and worthless as a fur. March 20. We sat on the warm sand waiting for the staga At two p.m. it arrived, and we started for Bakersfield. Our route lay over the arid alkali plain (which occupies the middle of California), over the surface of which whirlwinds of white sand were passing like pillars of smoke ; some small, but others from sixty to a hundred feet in height; We saw some Turkey buzzards, and passed a troop of Mexican "greasers" on horseback, whose appearance caused us to look to our revolvers. We were in Bakersfield at seven p.m., and started thence for Merced in a sleeping-car at 11.40, arriving there at eight the next morning [March 21]. F. made a contract with Washburn, a stable-man, for a spring-waggon and team of four horses for the Yo-Semit^,- the price being 70 dollars a head, exclusive of hotel bills. Accordingly, at io.30 all was ready to start. The country we passed through was well cultivated for grain.- On one side of the road, where the land had been ploughed to the depth of eight inches, the corn was already looking well, though the harvest is not ready till the end of June or July. Beyond this came a grazing country for sheep; but the hills looked bare and parched. At two p.m. we arrived at Homitos, a mining town, and then we struck into the " foot-hills," with their brushwood dells full of quails and the "poison-oak," a low plant with red leaves, the very 198 . RECORD OF RAMBLES. smell of which, when the wind passes over it, is enough to Cause nausea in some people, and much more so the touch, tphich is rdnk poison. We had a terrible shaking in the waggon. Our team for some part of the way consisted of five horses, three, abreast in front, an arrangement which is certainly effective. When six horses are driven two abreast, a second pole is Used, attached by a ring to the end of the first pole. The rocks we passed by the road side, where cut- tings made them visible, seemed to be altered slate traversed by quartz veins^ and there. was a red volfcainic soil above them. Both "shaft" atnd "placer" mining ai'e practised in these hills, the Isltter being chiefly done by the Chinese. At &30 p;m. vire were forty miles from Merced; The straggling ffines showed us that we were approachirig the vegetation of the highef mountain range, and soon after we entered the onee prosperous mining town of Mariposa. I say " once firospetous," for the miners have alnidst deserted this district for the more brilliant and enticing prospects of the Com- Stock and Virginia city. Part of the toijim destroyed by fire has never been rebuilt. March 22. We. left Mariposa at 7.30 a.m. (I am particular ds to time for the guidance of fiitilre travellers), and had a long shaky up-hill drive to Clarke's, where we arrived at £30^ though the distance was only twerity-sik miles. As we wound dp the moilntains,- the pines became taller, and were iritefmirigled with the red fir {Abies Douglasii), and occasionally the red wood {Sequoia sempervirenif. Perhaps the commonest shrub of ally or rather tree, for it ^reads to a considerable size,- was the manzanita, with its round smooth leaves and red stem, splitting the granite rocks in two where it grew in at crevice, dr else clinging tightly to their bare faice. We passed a mule grinding corn, and two old Digger Indians, the niost depratved and sense- less-looking creatures we had seen among the savages of America. It is strange that they should.have been suffered YO-SEMITE VALLEY AND SAN FRANCISCO AGAIN. 1 99 by the stronger tribes to inhabit the most fertile and pleasant portion of the whole continent From the summit of the mountain, just before we reached Clarke's, we got a mag- nificent view over the fir-forest of the wooded foot-hills, and. far beyond, of the plain from which we had risen, as it stretched away to the rich valleys and the coast Sierra. We were in a grand old forest, which had suffered much from the ravages of wild fires, some trees being completely blackened, and few free from any trace of burning. Many of the trees were upwards of two hundred and fifty feet high. Clarke's and Moore's hotel is a series of long, flaty white, wooden buildings, enclosed in a railing, and backed by tall pines. Here we dined, and had for company ari old German Count and three Philadelphians, who were out companions next day. March 23. At seven a.m. we were in our saddles, and ready to start for the " Big Trees," in the Marip/osa grove,- six miles off. We rode in a line along the horse trail, and saw some deer, which one of the natives of Philadelphia attempted to stalk with a pea-rifle. The forest was grand with its sugar-pines, and pitch-pines, arid firs, arid cedars, all of immense proportions. Every now and then we had a plunge through a gully in which the snow was still lying. F. was mounted on a gigantic horse, and looked like a knight of old on his " tall, tall steed," though his hat partook of the species worn by "Friars of Orders grey," and his blue coat threw in a spiee of the British tar. Each of the " Big Trees " has a label attached to it, on which is printed the silly name by which it is known. Thus the first we came to was the " Fallen Monarch," which has lain pros- trate time out of mind; The " Grizzly Giadt," which we next arrived at, is the biggest of them all. Their tops are all gone, as if broken off by wind or snow when the tree was beginning to fail from age; The uppermost branches, as at present seen, look barked and dead; As these trees 200 RECORD OF RAMBLES. even now reach a height of some two hundred and fifty feet, they must, when perfect, have been three hundred feet high or more. The crowns of their roots stand above ground some ten feet, a circumstance that seems to imply that denudation on the hill side, where they stand, has gone on to that depth since the young tree first sprouted. The diameter of these root-crowns, which is generally given as that of the tree, is not a fair measurement of the trunk. The roots are shallow, which fact, together with the denuding causes, accounts for the number that have fallen; Mr. Brooks, of San Francisco; afterwards told us that on one tree, which •vtras sawn down in the Calaveras grove, four sets of quad- rilles could be danced at once. It was the bark of this one v^hich was sent to England for the Crystal Palace. The Grizzly Giant is about twenty-nine feet in average diameter, riot counting the root-crown^ where it is thirty-three, and it is ninety-seven feet in girth. The bark is sometimes as much as twenty-two inches thick; and so fibrous as to be serviceable for pincushions. We saw in a watery spot a little grove of some ten or a dozen young "big trees." The examples of ones of medium size are, or seemed to us tb be; very rare. Out guide told us that he diel know of dne or two ; but at all events there are not many, and we did not see one; It is difficult to account for this. Some suppose that the large ones are the sole survivors of a comparatively recent fire which cleared out the entire forest. To us it seemed that changes of climate in long ages might possibly account for the fact ; and if soj this is only an evidence of immense age in the old ones. The presence of the grove of young ones would then point to the return of climatal influences favourable to the growth of the tree in this particular spot. Mr. Brooks afterwards told us that on the one cut down in the Calaveras grove he had counted some thousands of rings of annual growth. We rode round the groves, seeing some thirty or forty of these trees in all. YO-SEMITE VALLEY AND SAN FRANCISCO AGAIN. 201 and got back to Clarke's by mid-day. The right name of the " Big Tree," botanically speaking, is Sequoia gigantea. Sequoia was the name given in 1850, by Endlicher, to a division of the Taxodiums, which includes the " Red- woods." It was Lindley who in 1853 attempted to make for the " Big Tree " a separate genus, calling it Wellingtonia gigantea. The differences, however, are not considered generic, and the Sequoia gigantea is the name it usually bears, to distinguish it from the Sequoia semper- virens," or "Common Red-wood." In the afternoon we went down to the "Greek," which ran close to the hotel, and picked up on the sand several obsidian chips, flakes and arrow- points. Mr. Moore gave us two arrows, tipped with obsidian, made by Captain Goochitty, as the old Digger Indian was called who first conducted the whites into the ancient stronghold of his tribe, the Valley of the Great Grizzly Bear, or, as it is called in their native language, the Yo- Semit^. The obsidian for these flakes is obtained at Lake Mono; on the other side of the mountains, seventy miles away. The arrow-points do not seem to differ from those of Arizona, and it is possible that a trade in them was carried on southwards. March 24. We started at 7.30 for a ride of twenty-four miles (nine along the new road and then over the horse trail) to the Yo-Semit^ Valley. Our guide's name was T. H. Tremea; my horse was "Jersey," and F.'s "Buffalo Bill." After passing some steep places, which the horses climbed like cats, we stopped for lunch at a stream. At the nearer end of the great valley is a cliff" called " Inspiration Point." We tried to reach this, but the snow was too deep on the hill-side. We waded, however, to a place where there was a grand view of the valley, and then prudently retraced our steps. The valley itself is a gorge in the mountains, in the shape of a grave, eight miles long by a mile to a mile and a half wide. As we descended into it, by a steep 202 RECORD OF RAMBLES. and rugged path covered with loose stones, the walls of the great cleft rose perpendicularly on either side. El Capitan, a sheer wall of whitened granite, juts out like a headland on the left, while an equally lofty, but not quite so precipitous pile — the Cathedral Rock, with its two spires^ — is on the right. Any names, however, applied to these rocks by way of simile, fall so far short of the reality as to be absurd. Behind the Cathedral Rock, but before it is reached, is the Bridal Veil Fall, nine hundred feet high, so called from the fact that the wind often expands, it like at veil; Its waters were descending like a repetition of rockets; arid seVen streams took their sources at its base. After the rough riding we had had,, the gallop up to it over the green-sward was delightful. Opposite the "Bridatl Veil" is a slender fall, the highest of all the waterfalls, called the "Virgin's. Tear." AH the cascades find their way to the Merced River^ which runs through- the glen. Pines and firs on the summit and side, of El Capitan look less and less, according to the height at which they are, until at the highest point they seem like brushw-ood, though really as tall as any below, that is,, upwards of two hundred feet. Further up the valley on the left are rocks called the " Three Brothers," and beyond them again is. the Yo-Semit^ Fall, descending from the top of the cliff by three le^s to the vale below. Like the. " Bridal Veil," this fall is often the spott of the winds : it- takes its first leap of one thousand six hundred feet at one bound, though it is a river of some fifty feet wide, and of considerable depth where it passes over the precipice at the top. As it falls it becomes little else than spray, and when the weather is frosty it forms a conical pile of ice below, on which the spray descending looks like snow. It was thus at the time when we saw it. The second part of the fall is a cascade of about two hundred feet, and then (the waters having had time to accumulate once more), it takes YO-SEMITE VALLEY AND SAN FRANCISCO AGAIN. 203 one final jump of six hundred feet to the bottom of the valley. Thus the entire drop is no less than two thousand . four hundred feet. Opposite this is the Sentinel Rock, a thin single spire, and under it is Leidig's Hotel, at which, being the only one open, we stayed. There are several other larger hotels further down the valley, kept by per- sons who decoy San Francisco people to the spot by exaggerating the facilities of getting there; though a good road has now been opened all the way into the valley. With these people we had nothing to do, as we came on our own account in our own conveyaneey and we found our little hotel all we could desire. Perhaps the grandest part of the valley is the " Half Dome," which is further down on the same side as the " Sentinel." " Si parva licet componere magnis" this cliff reminds one of the paddle-box of a steamer; it is a rounded granite bossy or mountain, cut right in two down the middle. The entire height is about five thousand feet, in round numbers a mile. From the top downwards, two thousand feet of it is a sheer precipice, and the remaining three thousand feet slope to the valley at an angle which renders the eliff as nearly perpendicular as possible. Here, as in the case of all the other cliffs in the valley, the talus or detritus at the base is scarcely anything, considering their prodigious height. Tremea, our guide, told us that the well-known Lady Avonmore met with an accident in a snow storm in reaching this valley some three years .since. She lost her way, and dismounting to find it, fell over a precipice of one hundred feet, and passed the night in a hollow tree, where next morning she was found almost dead. As old Tremea was an cu-rant hypocrite, and as a consequence did not strictly adhere to the truth, I will not vouch for the story. We slept well in spite of the fear of a snow-storm, which never came after alk 204 RECORD OF RAMBLES. March 25. At nine a.m. on a lovely naorning we com- menced our journey back to Clarke's. Crossing one of the "divides," we saw in the snow the track of a young bear, most likely a grizzly. A long gallop round the new road brought us to a place where a Chinese woman had been murdered the week before. The authorities had been searching for the body, but it had not been found. We arrived at the hotel (Clarke's) at six, and went down to the "Creek" with Mr. Moore, who showed us where the chips of obsidian were to be found. The Digger Indians come and encamp here every summer. On the surface of a large flat rock were numerous holes, or artificial rock -basins, averaging six inches in diameter by about the same in depth. These were made by pounding acorns with a round stone or boulder. Round the rock branches of trees had been set up for sun-shades to protect the pri- mitive millers while at work. We saw near the same place a rude timber fence in the shape of a circle, where a "pow-wow" was held last summer on the occasion of the death of a squaw. The ceremony lasted for six nights, and consisted of wailings and dancings, after the manner of an Irish death-wake. The Indians yell and black their faces. A little nearer the stream stood a hut, looking like a mound of earth, with a narrow trench round it It had been made by, first of all, digging a round hole in the ground of the required diameter, and then bringing poles and slices of bark to meet in the middle, where there was a support of two poles, and a third laid across them. The whole was then covered in with earth. It was twelve feet in diameter, rather more oval than round, and high enough to stand upright in. The doorway was well constructed of two wooden jambs and a lintel, and was about three and a half feet high. Outside this lay a heap of ashes, and the river ran some twenty yards off. The object of this place is the same as that of a Turkish bath. It is YO-SEMITE VALLEY AND SAN FRANCISCO AGAIN. 20S called a " sweat-house." The Indians shut themselves tightly in, light a fire in the centre, and dance round it. They do not mind the smoke ; and when they have got themselves into a proper perspiration, they open the door suddenly, spring out, and plunge headlong into a deep pool in the river. They do this before setting out on hunting excursions, since, while it keeps them from being detected by the smell of their bodies, it gives elasticity to their muscles. The operation is repeated several times. It is a custom all along the western coast, from Alaska on the north down to the old Aztec civilisations of Mexico on the south, where it becaipe a religious observance, and fine buildings were erected for the performapce of it as a sacred rite. The Califomian Indian js called the "Di^er," from the fact that he digs the root on which he sometimes feeds; but when hard pressed he will eat worms aijd lizards, not to niention lice out of his neighboyr's head,. Forpierly he went about almost naked ; but now he has blankets and dresses. On the banks of the "creeks" or rivers there are shell mounds, sometinies as much as three hundred yards in length, where the tribe take? up its abodf in sumiper, in consequence of a plentiful supply of clams. In these mounds flint in^trupients are found. March 26>. We left Clarke's at 10.30 for Mariposa, stop- ping op the way at Cold Springs, where Mr. apd Mrs. Conway, English pettier?, gave us an excellent luncheon of ham and eggs, in their clean little repting-house. Conway had three boys — intelligent, mannerly little fellows. The manners of the lyhole fairiily were easy and nice ; and the education of the children, even in high-class subjects, such as geology, was surprising, considering that they were running about without even shoes or stockings on their feet. One of the boys conducted us tp the log hut of the Indian chief Bullock, on a hill near by. Beside it was the 206 RECORD Of RAMBLES. old native " lodge," made df bark strips, brought to a point at the top. The old mode of building is fast going out among the Diggers, and is being superseded by the white jnan's mode. The bark lodge was tumbling to pieces, while the cottage in which the chief lived had even the architectural refinement of a chimney of stone and earth. The mud for this chimney had been dug out of the ground by an old squaw with her own hands ; for the squaws are the "hewers of wood, and drawers of water," and general slaves. The young " bucks " were out squirrel- hunting ; and three squaws in the rear of the cottage were making acorn flouj-. One was shelling the acorns with her teeth, and laying them on a blanket in the sun to dry; another was pounding- them in holes on a granite rock, with a long, rough, round-ended granite stpne ; while the third was separating the ^est floiir from the rest by tossing it cleverly in a flat target-shaped basket. These and other baskets the Indian m^Jses most skilfully; some have patterns on thepi, as dots and cheyrons, in darker grass than the rest ; the §hape^ are vari/ed and graceful ; and most of them j^re intended to hold water. In fact these are used instead of pottery, and I did ppt see any approach to earthenware ampng their household goods. They are really an .excellent manufacture, and their makers know it ; for they set gf eat store by thepi, and would not sell us one at any price. On looking into the p^hin I saw evidences of civilization ii) ^. gpod pair of boots and a rifle, the property, and I suppose the regalia, of the first young buck in the tribe — Bullopk's son and heir. The rifle they now use for large game, sujch as deer, yirhile the obsidiem- pointed arrows are still in use for small birds. They are a timid people, as we had occasion to observe when we frightened one poor old f^ellow out of a covered wooden bridge, from which he fled headlong, bow, arrows, and all, on the approach of our carriage two days before. Oh YO-SEMITE VALLEY AND SAN FRANCISCO AGAIN. 207 the floor of the cabin lay the poor old chief, who had met with an accident to his leg, broken it possibly. No surgical aid had been called in, nor could any be. got. He had thought himself dying, and in truly patriarchal style had gathered his whole tribe around him, and given them his last directions. The poor old hunter looked up at us sadly, but said nothing ; two of his squaws, or wives, were waiting on him. One wife had died not long before, and her body, as is the custom, had been buried in a box. Sometimes they adopt this method of burial, and some- times the body is burned. There were numerous obsidian flakes on the sides of the rising ground on which this settlement was situated. We were told that these Indians make a sort of cider from the manzanita berry. The jolting of the waggon was such that we preferred walking the last three miles to Mariposa. At this place we found a party of ^ev^n Chicago tourists on their way up to the valley. Hearing some music, we went into a parlour in the inn, where we found the landlord's children singing at the piano, •" Mpllie Darling," " Old black Joe," and all the newest minstrel airs. The family were, in this instance, Germans ; but here we had another proof of how well children are being educated, even in the wilder parts of Califonjia, and how nice and genuine these scattered country §ettler§ are. During our walk into the town, we had seen soptie extremely beautiful ferns and flowers. It is curious to see how alike in many respects, and yet how differei^t ii> others, are the natural produc- tions of this country, .as cpmpared with England. Next morning [March 27] we left Mariposa at eight a.m. ; and the freedom of Californians went, we thought, a little too far, when it induced some half dozen people, and among them the inevitable baby, to use our private team as the •public "stage," and proceed with us, unasked, to Merced. We arrived at Hornitos at 12.30, where I unexpectedly met 208 RECORD OF RAMBLES. an old Winchester friend, who had been sheep-farming out here, and who came on with us to Merced. We reached that place at five p.m., and in -the evening attended a Spanish fandangle, or dancing party, an entertainment more amusing than refined. March 28. We started in the train at eight a.m., arriving at Lathrop at eleven. Here we had to wait; and as it was Easter-day, and a service was about to be held in a schoolroom opposite the station, we "joined the crowd." At the door stood a^coUection of buggies and saddle- horses, which had brought in the farmers from the ranches round. An honest and worthy old fellow conducted the service, consisting pf an .extempore prayer and a sermon, the whole being interspersed with hymns. The preacher gave oijt the hymn as follows : " Now / should like for ee to sing the hymn upon page 202 ; but if so be, brethren, that you desire to sing any other one, why, you can do so." This, we thought, evinced a spirit of toleration, which might be imitated to advantage nearer home. Over his head one single injunction, written in large letters, had takcQ the place pf the jyhole Old Testament Decade. It was, " Gentlemen are requested not to spit upon the floor." At three we left Lathrop in the Central Pacific for San Francisco, where we arrived at eight. We at once went to see p., and sat up with him till late, enjoying, as usual, the bepefit pf his interesting conversation. Speaking of the courtesy of Americans, and Californians especially, he said that there was a bad side as well as a good one to this apparently amiable trait. In mapy persons it might be regarded purely as a matter of business on their part so that if you are a stranger, particularly atj Englishman, and have money, you may be sure they are "going for you " all the time ; that is, me^n to do you, jf they can. March 29. We went to a Japanese "store,"' where F. invested largely in broijz^s. Amongst the ones he got YO-SEMITE VALLEY AND SAN FRANCISCO AGAIN. 209 was a stork on a tortoise, which had on it an inscription making it five hundred years old. He also bought an ivory skeleton ; and I got an ivory figure of a man with a sword on an elephant, and a modern bronze armless figure standing on a toad. We thought this shop a better one than any we saw afterwards in Japan itself. We called on Mr. Bancroft, who took us to call on Mr. Brooks of the Japanese C6nsulate, who in turn introduced us to the Japanese Consul. Mr. Brooks's attention to us knew no bounds. He took us to the Academy of Sciences, whose museum, characteristically of San Francisco, is an abandoned church. The collection was an interesting one, and among the rest were some Northern Indian mummies, buried in a con- tracted posture, and stuffed with preservatives, but in bad condition. There were also stone mortars of the Indians, and pestles like stone clubs, similar to some iq Schlie- mann's collection. Mr. Brooks then showed us a Chinese Temple or '• Joss House." His knowledge of the details of the character and religion of this people made all he showed us and told us of the Chinese extremely interesting. Going down a narrow alley, we came to the front of a large building with a balcony, decorated with coloured paper Chinese lamps. The interior of this edifice was used, we ' were told, as a kind of club. Below stairs, it was a sick- house or hospital, and at the back was a little room in which the priests were generally to be found opium- smoking. We found two of them reclining, one on each side of a board or tray laid out with all the necessaries, such as a "pipe," "spatula" (a pointed instrument for frying the opium, and spreading it), " lamp," &c. They were at first unwilling to smoke — to "dissipate," as they called it ; but at last one consented to do so. "A smoke" consists of filling the pipe three times ; each filling affords the material for three whiffs, which being inhaled into the lungs, and some passed out at the nose, exhausts the 2IO RECORD OF RAMBLES. amount spread. After this it is necessary to lie down, as giddiness supervenes, and finally sleep. The priests were not annoyed at our intrusion into their " sanctum," and gave us cigars. Their chins and heads presented a rather rough SppearanpCj in consequence of their not being allowed to shave until a certain time after the death of the Emperor of China, which Imd not yet elapsed. The room used for jthe "Joss House" is jn the upper part of the building. It ■is rich in red and gold, and gorgeous hangings, and vases of the sacred flower phrysanthenjym, and beautifully-carved sandalwood. Around the walls, and above, depending from the roof, are tablets commemorative each of some fellow-countryman, who, haying done well in California, Jias r^tur^ed to his native !aad, leaving his name behind Jiim there, an4 the fact recorded that he kept the laws fsiithfully. No regular service is performed here ; it is sjmply a house of prayer. A carpet is spread before the puter high altar ; and jyhen the peopk pray, they hold two sticks in their hands, or rather in each hand the half of a rounded piece of wood split in two. Thesg they drop on the carpej; at the conclusion of Jhe prayer ; and according as they fall, so, as they belieye, is the result of their peti- tion ; either it will he granted, or it will not, or it jyill be partly granted, Wh^n both pieces fall on their fl^t side, it is bad ; when hpth fall on their round side, it is pretty good ; but it is hsst of all when one f^Us in one position, and the other in the other. There is another mode of divination ?vhich Mr, Propks was permitted to show us. Close to the outer altar (which, covered >yith varied objects like g. conjuror's table, stands in front of the jnncr altar) is a table with a lid. This lid being repioved dispUys a surface of fine white flour, or sand. This surface is flrst of all made perfectly smooth, and then, with his eyes shut, the priest moves an instrument over it, like a planehette toard. YO-SEMITE VALLEY AND SAN FRANCISCO AGAIN. 211 which is found to write the words of fate. This front altar was covered with ornaments and images, incense -boxes, and candles in red and gold papers. F. touched a horse to see what it was made of, but was reprimanded by a Chinaman, who seemed to fear the consequences of so pro- fane an act. We walked through the narrow passage in front of the inner altar; two tumblers of water hung suspended one on either side above us, and a red lamp was burning in the centre. On a shelf of the altar immediately in front of the image are three little cups of tea, which are renewed every morning. Behind these, appearing in awful majesty between darkness and light, and red and gold, with the r.ed lamp illuminating his already scarlet physiognomy, sits Khan, a bearded image, of the Tartar type, dressed in red. In little side chambers on either side of the altar are placed (in th^t on the left) a basin and towel for priestly purification, and (in that on the right) a drum and a bell to summon a spirit when he is wanted. Down the sides of the room are black carved chairs, arranged like stalls in a cathedral, and behind each seat a wooden pike or halbert is placed, to frighten away by the sight of these preparations the evil spirits from the church militant. All these arrangenjents give the place thg appear- ance of a Knight Teniplars' Encampment, the aspect of which added to that of a Roman Catholic Church would give a fair idea of the Temple. Prayers are printed on small strips of red paper, and stuck up for some time on a board near the door. Thus, if a Chinawoman wants a baby, or any other real or imaginary blessing, up goes her prayer. Fire is the means of communication with heaven, and therefore the priest finally commits all these prayers to a bronze furnace, handsomely moulded, which stands just outside the door, and in which the papers are consumed. Similarly, if persons wish to send a horse, or a house, or any other commodity to the dead, or to the spirits, they cut them- P 2 212 RECORD OF RAMBLES. out in paper, or rather buy them ready made at little shops, generally near by the Temple, and burn them. The Chinese deity, as represented to us by Mr. Brooks, is a mere vapoury abstraction. They call it Fung Shuy, meaning literally, " wind and water." The nearest approach to it, they say, which can he experienced by man, is that influence which comes over a man when in the early morning he is stand- ing on a hill-side, and the cool moist air breathes refreshingly apross his brow, and he is sensible of what now-a-days is called a "cosmic emotion," indescribable in words. Throw- ing the romance out of this description, there remains the fact that th.e ultimate idea represented by such a worship as this is purely Pantheistic. We went to the steamer in which we were going to sail for Japan, the CUj of Tokio, and took our cabin, Mr. Brooks having introduced us to the agent. H. and M. dined with us at the Maison Dorfe; and afterwards, wishing to complete our visit to "China Town," we went together to the Chinese theatre. The performance, part of a lengthy piece (for some of these plays last from four in Jhe afternoon till four a.m. the n£xt morning), was excessively curious. The orchestral band, con- sisting of gongs, cymbals, sticks, and flutes, occupied the centre of the stage behind the actors. The dresses were gorgeous, but the drift of the plot was rather beyond our comprehension. A few sentences would be said in a shrill voice, and then the cymbals would dash in with the wildest of dins. Then three majestic personages came in and took their seats, and seemingly pronounced judgment. Then they would run about the stage with birches; and finally, a most tremendous swell, dressed in gorgeous array, and wearing the mask of a clown or a devil (it was uncertain which), was laid down on his face, and soundly bastinadoed. Then t^o chairs were set on two tables, and a board stretched across from one to the YO-SEMITE VALLEY AND SAN FRANCISCO AGAIN. 213 other to make a bridge, and two performers, a lady on one side and a gentleman on the other, climbed on to the top, and proceeded to walk carefully across, the gentleman for effect's sake making a false step and falling in the middle. Recovering himself, he led the lady across the bridge, the scene reminding one strongly of the picture on the "willow- pattern" plate. After this there seemed to be an interlude, during which there was some really good tumbling, each performer taking a double bound and shooting over tables, chairs, and whatever came in his way. The noise during the time we were there was deafening. Of the audience, the Chinese ladies occupied a separate gallery to the left of the stage, and the remainder of the house was crowded with deeply-interested Chinamen, who had doubtless been there from the commencement, and who would stay, most of them, till the end. Tired of the noise, we left the theatre, and strolled through the streets of China Town, whose darkness is here and there relieved by the front of a restaurant hung with paper lanterns of all colours, red and yellow predominating. Some of the streets and lanes are narrow, and there are slums full of gambling dens, where the dirty and debauched inmates, looking out through square holes cut in the doors, invite the passer-by to join their squalid crew. From haunts of Oriental vice and misery, we crossed to Dupont Street, which, running nearly from one end of San Francisco to the other, has centred in itself all the immorality which Europe and America have been able to decant into the city. Persons, however, who do not seek out these notorious quarters may walk by night or day in the city without fearing any such annoy- ance as is common in London, and in this respect the policy of recognizing the necessity of the evil, but rigidly prescribing its topographical limits, asserts itself as far the best which modern society can adopt. March 30. We went shopping. I got some photographs 214 RECORD OF, RAMBLES. of the Yo-Semit^ Valley at Watkins's, 26, Montgomery Street ; from thence we went to the Japanese store, and invested in some copper enamel vases from Nagasaki. We dined at the Union Club with H. ; after which I accompanied Mr. Brooks to his room in the Grand Hotel, where he wished to show me his books. He is a Bostonian, and a believer, strange to say, in Spiritualism. We had an interesting talk on the subject of the Chinese. He told me that to acquire their written language is a vast effort of raefflfory ; the scholar is supposed to know aw ramense number of ideographic signs. A common Chinese labourer knows about three hwntlredi; people in ordinary society about three thousand ; but a scholar knows thirty thousand, and there are fifty-five thousand in all to be learned. A man's position in society, the respect he gains from, his' fellow-men, and, above all, his chance of holding governmental appointments, depend uptjn his knowledge of these signs— a knowle(%e, moreover, which is tested by strict (though often unfair) examinations. Chinese society stands therefore on a literary base. The Japanese have,, it is true, a separate alphabet of their own ; but this is only used on ordinary occasions, and by women and. children. The medium of communication used by Kterary men in Japan — as in their histories' and ofl&cial com- munications — is the Chinese character, which is to them what Lratin was to England in the middle ages^. The Chinese, as rs well known^ have the bodies of their dead carried back to their native land, and' the traffic is so large m these com- modities as to be a source of considerable profit to the stean*-ship companies.- The reason why they wish their bones to be scraped and carried home is a religious one, and dates back to a period before Buddha or Confucius, to the ancestral worship which underlies all their superstition. It is to prevent the loss of a link in the spirit chain. It is their custom to bury in long rows. One man, Choy Chew YO-SEMITE VALLEY AND SAN FRANCISCO AGAIN. 21$ (the surname comes first in China), has no less than one hundred and eighty-seven ancestors all buried in a line. It is their belief that they receive, while alive, a direct benefit from this fact. The ancestral spirits, they think, are ever at their beck and call, ready to aid them ; and the longer pedigree a man can show, the stronger he is sup- posed to be, supposing that all have been buried in the line. He commands consideration accordingly. Should, however,, one single body have been lost, the spirit chain is from that time, or until the loss is repaired, broken. If, for example, a man's grandfather be lost at sea, he woXiM' only receive the benefit of his father's spirit. Thus they believe in the direct guardianship of their anc-estors. Not long since, the Emperor of China proclaimed a special day for the lost spirits, when they could return for the nonce to visit their descendants (such was his power as head of church and state), and all China rejoiced accordingly. It is singular to find a large set of persons in California returning to a superstition (spiritualism) so nearly akin to that of their neighbours from the opposite shores of the Pacific. China is, I hear, governed in reality by a bureau- cracy — the Emperor not materially interfering, or rather, his tutors taking good care that he shall not be a man of suffi- cient culture to attempt to interfere. On several occasions serious outbreaks have taken place in California, owing to the jealousy felt by the European or American settlers for their Chinese neighbours. There is some reason for this. It is true the Chinese are extremely useful as labourers, and that they are willing to do the drudgery which the others scorn; but it is equally true that they do great harm to California. They send home all the money they make in the mines; they buy their scanty food from Chinese companies, and so spend nothing in the country; their presence tends to cheapen labour, and thus it assists in the formation of a millionaire class, who; at the expense 2l6 RECORD OF RAMBLES. of others, may one day become a monopoly dangerous to society ; and, finally, as we have seen, having drained the land as much as lay in them while alive, they do not even let their bodies remain to fertilize the country which has been their prey. In many respects, especially in their thrifty ways and penurious habits of accumulation, they must produce the same effect on California that the Germans do in other parts of the United States, or even far worse results. March 31. California Street to-day presented a curious and characteristic scene. At the corner, opposite the "Union Club,'' I saw a great crowd, and, approaching closer, I saw that it was Hammond, the revivalist, speak- ing from a cart, alternately scaring his hearers with the terrors of hellj and entreating them to be converted. Just a little further down the street was another man, on a tub, impressing on his crowd that there was no soul and no hell. He said that Genesis was a polytheistic composi- tion ; for it was Elohim, the gods, who made the world. He was finally suppressed by a third man, with an ad- vertising-cart of "I XL (I excel) Bitters," who drew up at his sidOj between himself and his hearers.' The people thought it a good joke, and their want of anger showed their indifference. At the time when these scenes were being enacted in the thoroughfare, a rampant fight was going on, close by, in the Stock Board, over the Comstock shares. The streets of San Francisco contain frequently very absurd advertisements. One saloon is called the "Extenuate," which word is written, "X10U8;" and I heard of a " square meal," that is, " a good dinner," being posted thus, " Q meal," over an eating-house. Talking of the want of principle displayed by the whole of society in this new city, whether in business matters or politics, in law, or in the domestic circle, H. told us that it is a well-known fact that in California "every man has his YO-SEMITE VALLEY AND SAN FRANCISCO AGAIN. 2\^ price," — that is to say, his honour and his good faith are marketable commodities, capable of being bought and sold. After dinner we went to the Union Hall, which was crowded for Hammond's Revival, which has been going on for weeks. The stage was occupied by a large number of converts and singers, and the singing was certainly good, and calculated to impress. A minister of religion, it did not seem to matter of what denomination he might be, gave out a prayer; next a feeble young convert gave his experiences; and then Hammond preached on the Penitent Thief. His acting was bad, and his gesticulation and intonation not at all impressive. F., H., and I were sitting together, but when the sermon was over, and the "Inquiry meeting" began, we separated, each one of us putting himself next to a vacant chair for the purpose of getting somebody to come and talk to us. A mild young gentleman first came and sat by me, and asked me if I was a Christian ; but he was rather daft, and I was glad to get rid of him. Then a young lady with pretty blue eyes and a nice cheerful ex- pression took his place, and asked me, " How is it with you.'" She knew that flattery is the key to the heart of the ruder sex, so she complimented me on having behaved better than my two companions. " I was sorry," she said, "to see you sitting next to those two wicked men who were laughing all the time." I felt pleased ; and was sorry to see that so amiable and prepossessing a creature should be a fanatic; so I responded in a like tone. I told her that my acquaintance with character left no doubt on my mind that she was a person of intelligence and judgment ; and then, in answer to her question what I thought of these meetings, I proceeded to show her that the power of this man Hammond's preaching was merely a mesmeric influence, which, when added to terrorism, ruined the minds of weaker men and women. She was nearly brought over to my view, but her will came to her rescue ; she gave me up 2l8 RECORD OF RAMBLES. as a bad job, and rose to go elsewhere, saying with a sigh, "I will send my husband to you." To this, however, I objected ; for I had observed the cold grey eyes of the gentleman in question fixed on me before, and he was a bigger man than myself So she told me she should pray for me, all the way acrosis the Pacific, though we should never meet again. I bowed alrid expressed my obligations. Speaking seriously, however, these revivals cannot do good to the Ga;use of religion of any sort. The prose- lytizing takes place by the infusion of the fear of hell. This is done by vociferation, gesticulation, and an attempt (but a vulgar one) at eloquence. Meanwhile the blas- phemies and the ribald songs which fill the saloons of San Francisco receive fodder from the parody on Christianity performed in the Union Hall. Spiritualistic meetings and trance seances were going on in a street near by. An i.ifant community, whose head is turned by money, and only imperfectly educated, is a fair field for imposition, and religious impostors in San Francisco certainly play a profitable part. Having seen a Revival, the next day [April i] being, dedicated to fools, we thought we could not spend it better than by attending a Conference of Spiritualists, which was going on in Dashaway Hall. The occasion of the Con- ference was the twenty-seventh anniversary of the " Origin of their Faith," which began with the "Rochester Rappings" in 1847. The room was decorated with an arch over the date, wreathed with flowers. The faces of the people were a curious study. The women were pale-faced beings, with straining eyes, hair cut short, and often prematurely turning grey, and sight which required spectacles. The men, some of them, looked like half- scared proselytes; others wore their uncombed hair stretching over their coat collars in tangled and dirty lengths. They had indeed all the external appearance of lunatics — fit occupants for an asylum ; and it A DAY WITH THE MEDIUMS. 219 cannot be doubted that those amongst them who are not imposters are really such, though whether (as Dr. Marvin says in his little book, The Philosophy of Spiritualism) the phase of the disease is so definite as to be distin- guished by the separate title of " Mediomania," which he gives to it, may perhaps be doubtful. They seemed to have had a difference of opinion as to whether they should form into a band or Church, or whether they should con- tinue to be individual in their belief. They profess to rest their doctrine on a scientific base ; and perhaps the oddest point of all in their dreamy harangues was a proposition to send a challenge to Hammond, the revivalist, to a public contest in words. Behind the speakers were a number of badly-drawn pictures, said to be the work of persons under some spirit's influence. The following is a newspaper cutting, coittainiflg a characteristic, if not a very compli- mentary account of the meeting at which we were present. As a specimen of Californian journalism alone, it may not be out of place :— A SaV With the mediums. CELEBKATION BV the spiritualists of SAN FRANCISCO. Apiml xst, 1875. The Twenty-ieventh Anniversary of the Advent of Modem Spiritualism — A Renidrkable Gathering in Dashaulay Hall — Sepulchral Orations by Ethe- real Males and FeMales. The Spiritualists of San Francisco" and the adjoining cities are en- gaged in a two-days' celebration of the twenty-seventh anniversary of the origin of their faith, which began with the Rochester rappings in 1847. Except for their thoughtful remembrance of it, the world at large would scarcely have eared to recall the occurrence. The com- memoration exercises began yesterday at Dashaway Hall, which was about half filled forenoon and afternoon, with those whose eyes are dim with constantly looking beyond the veil. The faces and make-up of the audience were an interesting study. There was a general pallor of countenance, as if too intimate communication with ghostly beings 220 RECORD OF RAMBLES. had caused a reflex of their deathly facial whiteness. Long hair was not common among the males ; but there were a few startling evidences of this capillary idiosyncrasy. The ladies' apparel presented greater variety. There were ancient dames got up in the Lady Gay Spanker style, and younger ones looking as if fresh from the hands of a stylish modiste, and there were robes of Quaker drab, dresses of sUk and cotton, plumes of many gay colours, all illustrating that fantastic inde- pendence which is seen wherever Spiritualism asserts its power. ALL PHASES OF SPIRITUAL BELIEF Were represented. There were the latitudinarious free-lovers, who gathered around the Standard of Victoria WoodhuU last summer ; the Aristotelian devotees of the Lyceum of Self-Culture, and a flood of lecturers, a freshet of trance speakers, and a perfect deluge of dreamy- looking mediums. The platform was liberally decked with flowers — there being conspicuous the caUa lily, with its white, spiritual lips ; the early roses, with their celestial sunset hues ; the ivy, with its eternal greenness ; and all the puny annuals that have dared thus far this chilly spring to lift their infantile hea:ds above the sod. From among this mass of loveliness peered a number of cold gray landscapes and portraits, said to have been painted by Straight, a spirit artist of Chicago, and to be for sale to any one who wanted them. Among them was a blooming and unspiritual likeness of a young gentleman in blue necktie and brown spring overcoat, painted in that style of florid art with which Chinese portrait-painters have made us painfully familiar. The forenoon session began at eleven o'clock, by the election of L. B. Hopkins as President, and Mrs. McKinley and Colonel Rensom as Vice-Presidents. The time, until the noon recess, was occupied with short addresses by J. L. York, of San Jose, and Mrs. C. Fannie Allyn, both well-known apostles of ghostly doctrine. The afternoon session began at two o'clock, and speeches and poems rapidly alternated until the next recess at five p.m. The music, vocal and instrumental, was furnished by Mrs. Morgan, and helped per- ceptibly to enliven the exercises. THE POET OF THE DAY. Jesse H. Butler, a local poet of abbreviated reputation, read a poem from a copy of his own published works in blue and gold, brought for this purpose. He perplexed the faithful by announcing that he was hovering in doubt between two gems of equal beauty and merit. One of these children of his brain was born on the same day with a child of Mrs. McKinley, now in the spirit world ; and another, entitled " You and I," was subsequently written. Which should he read ? " The fiirst," said Mrs. McKinley. A DAY WITH THE MEDIUMS. 221 Others called for the other, and the knotty point had to be resolved by a vote, which decided that the audience preferred the intellectual delight of listening to the "You and I." The poem was received with applause. Its want of distinctive colouring prevents the reporter from transferring any of its peculiarities to the journalistic canvas. A SEPULCHRAL ADDRESS. Dr. Joscelyn, a venerable trance-speaker, having a general resem- blance to the poet Bryant, and not being entirely unlike the demi-god Silenus, succeeded to the vacant platform. His dress was of sombre black. After closing his eyes and making a few mystic passes with his right dexter across his vast expanse of spiritual forehead, he announced in sepulchral tones that Spiritualists were standing on an apex. Twenty-seven years ago Spiritualism, a very tiny babe, came into the world, the Fox sisters playing the part of "Sairey Gamp" at its accouchement. Then Dr. Joscelyn, who seemed also to have assisted in a medical way at this ghostly lying-in, described how the fairy bells tinkled, the sunshine snjiiled, the zephyrs sighed, and nature kicked up a mighty bobbery over the event. Then the child travelled up the slope, and is now a vigorous man ; is fighting all kinds of moral, religious, and legal despotism ; and i? bound to triumph. T-e-r-e-w-t-h wiU reign at last^ and all things will be jolly in the spiritual loveliness of this culmination. A portion of this rhapsody was in extreinely lame verse. While delivering it the speaker went through various spasmodic movements with his head. A SERIES OF ELECTRIC JERKS, Originating ijear the base of the brain, gradually extending down- wards, seizing in turn the long arms of the medium, then his hips, and so on to the knees, until his action was like that of a Persian dervish, or a converted African in the first fresh dawn of his fervid relig[ious experience. DR. DEAN CLARK. Next canje 4iminutive IJr. Dean Clark, of San Francisco (doctors seeming to abound — to be spiritually as well as anatomically inclined). He wore a green boutonniere, which, on his gloomy clothing, looked like a little emerald isle j^ the midst of a great black sea. The profile of Dr. Clark would not have dishonoured a Roman coin about the time of Vespasian. He had a practical Ipok that did not suggest wayward wanderings into the illusive paths of Spiritualism. He apologised for his want of oratorical preparation, and his apology was accepted. Spiritualism had grown from a very, very tiny acorn. But the world had been reyolutiopized by smaller things. Everything has felt the shock, said Dr. Clark grandly. We have felt the influx of that power. Man now stands in the dignity of his manhood, and woman 222 RECORD OF RAMBLES. in the dignity of her womanhood, coequal in the great movements of the age. But all things are badly managed. Science is out of joint. Men's powers are misdirected. But the world is coming bravely out of the turmoil. That is what is meant by the religious awakening we see on every hand in Europe and in this country. Christ needed his Judas ; Abr.?di?Ln> Lincoln his Jeff. Davis ; even a Hammond is neces- sary to show the folly of superstition. The end of all this wiU be that the chains which the despots of thought are forging for others will be finally used to manacle their own spiritual limbs. VOLUNTARY ADDRESSES. The twenty^njinjjte speeches being over, voluntary addresses not to exceed ten minutes were callpd for. In response to the appeal, Mrs. McKinley, who was dressed in her usjjal elegant style, floated down from hgr pfifieial perch with the ease and grace pf a church spire dislodged by an eafihq\}ake. After due preparation she entered upon one of her characteristic harangues, smoothly delivered, but as utterly barren of meaning as a CaU* editorial or an ^Aa* brevity. She extolled the gf egj; occgsjpn, and appealed for unity, which was cool ^nd refresh- ing, considering that she is a njedjun), and the lady mediums of San Frai)ci.§co are so bitterly at loggerheads that their fenjjpine claws can scarcgly be kept off of one another's chignons when they meet by chance or by moonlight alone. Fixing her eyes upon a l3.dd^r in the gallery at the further e.t>d pf the hall, by which the garret is reached through a trap door, and assuming ^n in$pi;:ed look, as if she saw angelic spirits in extremely thin clothing descejjiding on it hand over hand, she explained that she saw a bright, spiritual band, whP^ she described in detail, and whose commonplace words of encourage- ment she repeated for the benefit of her auditory, With another high-sounding appeal for unity of spirit and moyem^i^, sjje turned her back upon the meeting, and re-assumgd hejr chajr of ?tate, A POETICAL APPEAL FOR TRUTH. Mrs. Dr. Joscelyn made a poetical appeal for ter-uth, jyhich, to phrase the criticism mildly, lacked originality, and was recited — to quote the divine Shakespeare in base connection^-" Ijkp the butter- woman's rank to market." Mrs. Cummings, trance medjum, ascended the plajtform. Her hat was tall, and as gaudy with flowers as Tamalpais in Springtime, and her undisciplined hair trailed backwards from under it like the chaparral down a hillside. Her profile was like that of a Roman matron. Her address consisted of the usual farrago from the spirit world, and sadly lacked variety, that spice of literature as well as of life. A Mr. Logan, definitively known as the brother pf Mrs. F. A. Logan, ♦ Riv^l newspapers jn Sm Fr3,ncisco. A DAY WITH THE MEDIUMS. 2^3 the medium, recited a poem elucidating the mysterious connection between the soul and the body. Of this poor case and shroud of mortality he said — The body is only the modem tepement. And can never be rendered permanent. The following tribute to the soul is delicate. Though it is beyond the appreciation of our spiritual part in this world, its merits may stand out in bolder relief in the pext. Your beating heart is your best friendj With God o'erhead, and heaven before you, Let holy impulses reassure you ; For as infinite as the eternities that roll Ate tihe possibilities of your soul. All intelligent persons after reading this wjll poncur with Macaulay in the opinion that a touch of lunacy is necessary to the making of every great poet. A §HOT FOR HAMMOND. Dr. SwaJHj who began his ibrief imp.rovi?aj;ion with the announce- ment that he was not a very ardent spiritualist any way, continued to drop a feyir gr9.ins of common-sense along his rhetorical path. All religions, fee said, were suited to the age in which they were believed. Spiritualjispj he dj,d nojt consider a finaljty. Hammond js a big baby [great applause], and it is that which puts him en rapport with the babies whom he converts. [Renewed cheers.] Jesse JButJer, .eq.ually great and happy — not to say grand and felicitoivs=^ii) prose and poetry, made a noble effort in behalf of spirit- ualism. HJ5 personal appearance strongly resembles Tilton, and his poetry i_5 loipkpd upon hy himself as scarcely inferior. He said that " to be or nof Jo be was the question." It was just as weU to consider the future ^% the past. They might as well retrospect a little about the comjng ye^r. They ojight to think of adyersity, and disunion, and aU thaf sorj of ithing. They had enpugh of thpm in the ranks. Nothing cg.n be done by diversity. Why weren't the spiritual halls as full as the chjjrches? They had some orators to whom Dr. Stone could not hold a candle, eloquent men of the Demosthenian stripe, who could take their auditors by the ears apd lead them forward to beautiful thoughts and noble septimeuts. But you can't get a baker's dozen to come and hear thenj, because the spiritualists are divided up between twenty or Jhifty mediums. [Applause.] THE RED FJUAO. After a few more Irisji bulls, in the Jjest style of Sir Boyle Roche, Mr. Butler generously yiejded the floor to a successor. This was Mr. Hardcastle, a gentleman i.n gray, who seenjed fo be just out of the 224 RECORD OF RAMBLES. Australian bush. What made people inharmonious was the want of bread and an empty stomach, not the lack of spiritual pabulum. There was too much land in mortmain, too many large estates of twenty thousand or thirty thousand acres each, held by wealthy Cali- fornians. The President's gavel fell, cutting off remorselessly the eloquent Australian in the middle of Lucky Baldwin's new ranche at Los Angelos. A man named Henly, known as the Dublin shoemaker, whose head was exaggerated in the region of philoprogenitiveness, like the small end of a gull's egg, asserted his right to attend the seances of the mediums, if he chose, rather than to listen to the platitudes of the lecturers. He thought a man had a right to worship a dozen gods if he chose. Horace Watson, whose verbal aspirations were sadly misplaced, after the style of uneducated Londoners, went for Hammond and the churches with a rough energy that was entertaining. He said that once entering a fashionable church he was invited out with the follow- ing Cockney formula, " Come hout 'ere, you haint wanted." Still he advised forbearance toward the erring churphes, and said, in referring to the schism in spiritual ranks, that the twenty-seventh anniversary could not better be celebrated than by uniting, whether it was done in the style of the 'ammond meetings, or in some other way. THE DIGNITY OF MATTER. Dr. Horace Matthews, whose long dark hair suggested Indian extraction, but whose broad speech showed that he was a Scotchman, discoursed in the Highland dialect on the dignity of matter. He seemed to have gone daft on the atoms of Epicurus and the ascending scale of Darwinism. " You caunt create something out of nawthing ;" which assertion evoked wild applause. Continuing his deification of matter, he asserted that his ancestors knew "nawthing aboot physiology or psychology." Sad ignorance ! Furthermore, that "reincarnation was the greatest and grandest of mysteries.'' From such lofty themes as these, he dropped plump down to the closing announcement that " Spiritualists have a hard row to hoe in this city." THE EVENING MEETING Was brightened by an address from Professor Chaney, whose sera- phic disposition is well and favourably known. For the benefit of the audience he looked down the " vister" of his own checkered past. He told how he had nearly butted his brains out by running so much against public opinion ; how he had been cast into the deepest dungeon of Ludlow Street jail ; how he had edited a score or more of newspapers ; how his style was so rich and racy, so keen and spicy A DAY WITH THE MEDIUMS. 22$ that precocious literary children cried after his writings. He cut and slashed at religion in his usual coarse style. He was obstinate, he said ; he knew it ; you could not drive him, but you could coax him to do things which his reason might condemn. Mrs. Dralce, of Chicago, nee Duck, a Hard Shell Baptist by birth and education, next described her driftings from the faith. Mrs. Flora W. Chaney, wife of the professor, a lady who, we grieve to say, is no longer young, approached the reporters with angry words of warning. She turned upon them a vixenish face — alas ! no longer handsome — and shook in their faces an ungloved hand, not too -white nor too symmetrical, and insinuated that they had better write good reports. The newspapers of San Francisco were, she said, a disgrace to journalism, and she scorned to make a. distinction between them. They were as bad as they could be. The evening's exercises ended with a circle of seventeen mediums, the strongest mediumistic battery ever formed on this coast, and one to which the united batteries of the Western Union Telegraph were weak. It was not successful as regarded manifestations, because, as the husband of one of the mediums afterwards informed the reporter, the mediums all hated one another, and would "rather be licked" than have to sit side by side. The exercises of the anniversary will be renewed to-day, and concluded this evening. Such is an account of the meeting from the daily paper. The Chronicle, I think ; and with it I may not inappropriately close our experiences of San Francisco, a city whose popu- lation has certainly developed the most singular incubus on modern civilization which the world can show. 226 RECORD OF RAMBLES. CHAPTER XIV. SAN FRANCISCO TO JAPAN. April I. It was the City of Tokio's first voyage, and in many respects a splendid vessel she was, next in size, we were told, to the Great Eastern. Two faults she had, however. Her decks showed that they had been put together with second-hand material, and her screw-shaft was not a good one. The captain, whose name was Maury, was a good officer and a good fellow — none the less so for being a little reticent and reserved. To have the charge of a ship such as this is a heavy responsibility, and he clearly was never for a moment unmindful of this fact. His wife was with him on board — a nice ladylike person, whose influence contributed not a little to the propriety and comfort of the society in the "social hall," as the grand drawing-room on deck, with its velvet cushions, its library of well-bound books, and its excellent piano, was usually called. Everything seemed to augur well for the voyage; and we soon forgot the regret with which we looked for the last time on the coast of California in the pleasant acquaintances we made on board. First and foremost amongst these I must mention Mr. Aubrey Harcourt, who, like ourselves, was bent on seeing as much of people and places as he conveniently could during a ramble of Ten Months from Home. To such genial company as his we were not long in joining ourselves ; and the natural vivacity of his disposi- SAN FRANCISCO TO JAPAN. 22/ tion was most potent in dispelling some of the monotony of the three weeks' voyage, and in making the subsequent excursions which we took together in Japan all the more enjoyable. Mr. Brooks, of the Japanese consulate in San Francisco, had introduced us to two native young gentle- men of the smmirai, or esquire class, who were on their way home to assist in some government department, after having received a fitting education in the States. They were pleasant and communicative ; and before losing sight of them on leaving Japan, we had completely formed their friendship. Their names were Jenske Yamamoto and Giro Yamaoka. As usual, there was a very considerable number of Chinese on board, many of them well-to-do men, going home with their hard-won store of gold. No sooner had we got outside the "Golden Gate" than we noticed a number of square pieces of paper, each having a small portion of gold or silver foil attached to its centre, which the head-wind was blowing aft. These were propiti- atory offerings to the "god who presides over ships;" and the Chinese devotees, who were devoutly engaged in sending them overboard at the bows, with sundry prayers and invo- cations, had attached to each the more or the less precious metal, according as their respective means would allow. So fcu: from their reaching the deity, the greater portion were consigned to the pocket-books of the saloon passengers. Curiously enough, though we had so many living China- men on board, we had only one dead one, although some- times several hundred corpses are carried home in a single voyage, the deportation of embalmed Chinamen forming no small item in the profit-sheet of this line of steamers. These bodies are not carried home to be made into soap, as was once the vulgar superstition amongst Europeans, but to be buried in the ancestral line, a single broken link in which is supposed to deprive the living descendant of the support of his forefathers. It was during this voyage Q 2 228 RECORD OF RAMBLES. that we first met with Chinese servants, domestic service being an occupation for which they are eminently qualified by their cleanly appearance, by the readiness with which they imitate the ways of others, and by their quickness and silence in waiting at table. Two of these individuals who served at our table, called respectively Ah Kee and Ah Mun, caused us much merriment. Not understanding a word of English, some twenty or thirty of them were, nevertheless, presided over by a nigger, who knew not a word of Chinese, but by dint of frantic gesticulations and hideous grimaces, drilled them to their work. At signal number one, they all marched out of the dining- saloon in single file ; at signal number two, they returned, each holding a plate, and took up their positions by the sides of the tables they had to serve; at signal number three, they all brought down their burdens upon the tables, with a precision which would have done credit to a company of rifles firing a volley. April 2. The sea, which had been rough the day before, was exceedingly calm and smooth, and we all agreed that the Pacific was worthy of its name. The motion was a great contrast to that in the Atlantic, and consisted in a succession of long sweeps or glides through the water. We became acquainted with other fellow- passengers (there were sixty saloon passengers in all) ; namely. Dr. and Mrs. Coles, Philadelphia people, going to the government hospital at Yokohama ; Captain MacNair, of the Kearsage; Mr. Smith, a remarkably festive fellow, and a thorough Yankee ; Miss Randolph, a clever and interesting young lady; Mr. Fisher and Miss Cornwall, whom I couple together because they have turned the' acquaintance they first made on board our good ship to good account by lately getting married ; Mr. Oxenham, Dr. Stirling, Mr. and Mrs. Pye, and M. Chevalier, a German, who entertained us in the evenings by playing really good SAN FRANCISCO TO JAPAN. 229 music in the saloon. As the ladies were in part Americans and in part English, I had an opportunity of contrasting their manners in society. In the former I had frequently the chance of conversing with an unaffected, intelligent, and genuine lady, who came bluntly out with all she thought, and had a kind word for everyone, without any of the stiff, coy, pouting airs assumed by Englishwomen, when they are not sure of the birth, parentage, and education of those to whom they deign to speak. In America, as on the Continent, the object of society seems to be to set people at ease, and produce sociability. In England it seems to be the rather to perpetuate a stereotyped estrangement. American young ladies have all their swing before they are married ; after marriage they settle down quietly. The treatment of children, too, is different from that in England. From almost infancy they dine with the family, are taken into the confidence of their parents, and even consulted on matters of moment. In this way they are supposed to arrive at habits of discretion. April 3. The interesting conversation of our two Japanese friends prepared us for what we were to see in Japan in much the same way as that of Mr. Bradford had done, when we were crossing the Atlantic, with regard to the United States. On the subject of the history and religion of their country, they seemed never tired of giving us all the information in their power. The strange revolution of 1 868, and its still stranger results ; the overthrow of the power of the Shogiinate by the descendant of a line of emperors who, although never relinquishing the supreme authority they derived in virtue of their heavenly ancestors, had never- theless waived all claim to temporal sovereignty for a period of six hundred years ; the one fell swoop by which the aristocracy was demolished, and the Buddhist religion disestablished and disendowed ; the growing ideas of par- liamentary government — all these were subjects on which 230 RECORD OF RAMBLES. they seemed to love to enlighten us, and to awaken in us a spirit of curiosity to see and know something more of the wondrous land towards which our sails were spread. What they told us of the present state of religion amongst the upper classes seemed specially worth recording. "We," they said, "have no religion, and can scarcely remember the time when we had. It was ancestors we believed in, if we believed in anything, the first of whom came down from heaven. As to the material forms of our gods and figures of Buddha, we have long since paid no heed to them. When boys, we have stolen relics, and painted the gods in the temples. A friend of ours once went to a priest, and devoutly asked for a ' life-saving card.' On the priest giving it to him, he tied it to^ the tail of a dog ; and having shot the dog dead, presented this proof of its inefficacy to the priest, who was accordingly very angry. When boys get educated they break off the heads of the gods. The girls and old women are the chief believers now. Our sisters are pained when we argue about these things ; so, for fear of hurting their feelings, we are silent." They added that, with regard to themselves, they had adopted no new belief in the foreign lands where they had been. Amongst the passengers there were three American ladies, going out as missionaries — two to China, and one to Japan. They were wizened, sad-looking people, who, no doubt, imagine they do a great deal of good, but often do incalculable harm. It is well known that a Chinese Pro- testant convert is to be avoided as the most unscrupulous rogue in the country side ; besides which, the system which these mission-women pursue of taking little girls away from their homes for the purpose of conversion has been a fruitful source of international complications, which before now have ended in bloodshed. From the 4th to the 12th the days were dull and SAN FRANCISCO TO JAPAN. 23 1 monotonous, and we occasionally encountered heavy seaS, flooding the promenade between the saloons, and keeping the ladies below. The ship took to rolling, and at last most unceremoniously dislodged an indefatigable pianist from his perch on the music-stool, precipitating him headlong amongst the velvet chairs at the further side of the saloon. The appearance of a whale one afternoon created a slight diversion ; as also did the myriads of little jelly-fishes, with their purple bodies and their white transparent sails, as they floated across our course, like so many nautili made of glass. In one respect there is no greater autocrat in the world than the captain of a Pacific Ocean steamer. He has power to regulate at his pleasure the very computation of time itself On Monday evening, the i2tk, there appeared in his own handwriting on the notice-board the following startling edict : " To-morrow will be Wednesday, the \^th;" and, sure enough, when to-morrow did come, so it was. We had skipped over a whole day, and yet it did not make our passage one whit the shorter. Of course, this gave rise to interminable discussion, in which the few were trying their best to explain the phenomenon, and the many were pretending to understand it, though they really never did so at all. From the 14th to the 20th we had lovely warm weather, varied at intervals by squalls and thunder, which occa- sionally were bad enough to send Harcourt and myself below from a high, cool, and airy position we had dis- covered for ourselves over the " Social Hall." And here it may well be asked, " What did we all do with ourselves to make the time pass during the long three weeks which are so briefly skimmed over in this chapter.?" Of course, it was an excellent opportunity for reading, and each of us must have mastered the contents of at least one pon- derous standard work. But then reading brings after it 232 RECORD OF RAMBLES. reactionary effects. The book will fall after a while from the student's hand, and his spirit will rise to deeds of desperation. What then did we do when this happened to us ? Why, first of all, we all of us had Bass's beer for dinner; and when the bottles were marines, we used to drill them up and down the table. This was splendid fun, and created so much noise that it ruffled the serenity of the captain's table. Then there was a great hutch of carrots on deck; and so it was that one night, when the passengers retired to bed, lo and behold ! each one had a carrot in their berth. This also created much mirth, and not a little vexation of spirit likewise. Then there was a dance every now and then in the saloon, and a game of deck-skittles for such as liked to play ; and so the days went and came until, on Wednesday, the 21st, all eyes were eagerly scanning the western horizon, for we knew that we were nearing Japan. Of all the calm days we had had upon the voyage, the calmest was the last. It reminded us of one of those American stories which Mr. Otis used to tell us in all seriousness at Boston. " On one occasion," he said, " when I was crossing the Pacific Ocean, the captain, who was a particular friend of mine, and I, happened to be leaning over the bows ; and all of a sudden it occurred to us that the water was so blue, and the heaven above was so serene, and there being no differ- ence in appearance between the one and the other, that we couldn't be in the ocean at all. It made us fairly scared ; for it seemed as if somehow or other we 'd managed to get ourselves launched into the azure vault of the ethereal firmament. So, to be certain all was straight, I persuaded the captain to chuck a stone in, just to see if we were in the sea at all. Now that 's what you '11 find the Pacific Ocean is like." One tale leads to another ; and while on the subject of American stories, and before we say good-bye to the country which is so prolific of SAN FRANCISCO TO JAPAN. 233 them, I may be permitted to narrate an incident which occurred in the basement of the Fifth Avenue Hotel, New York, as it was told to us on board the City of Tokio. A Yankee having been informed that a gentleman present had called him a liar, walked up to him, and taxed him with so doing. " Well, stranger," was the reply, " although it 's not true that I impugned your veracity to such an extent as that, I '11 tell you what I would say with regard to your character in that respect ; and that just amounts to this, that if I were to see Ananias and Sapphira walking down Broadway, and you in the middle between them, I should judge that you three were a nice comfortable little family party." It was about noon when we sighted land, and found that we were only twenty miles out of our course to the north- ward of the point we had been making for; namely, the entrance to the Bay of Yedo. This showed marvellously good reckoning, after a run of three weeks' duration without a single landmark to guide us all the way. We accordingly stood to the southward, and rounded " King's Point," where the serrated volcanic hills form a background to a series of rice paddies, arranged in terraces, and bright just then with the emerald-green of the sprouting crop. Unfortunately, the head of Fusi-yama — that famous mountain which native artists are never weary of painting — was veiled in mist. Lovely weather, however, continued as we passed up the Bay, until we came in sight of Yokohama itself, when the sea suddenly became dark and ruffled, and a lurid gloaming haze settled itself on the land. Such is one of the signs (accompanied by a ringing in the ears) by which the natives tell you they can forecast an earthquake. Long before we anchored, a fleet of little boats came out to meet us. The first to arrive was a " sampan," propelled by men standing up and using with great dexterity a curious kind of paddle in the shape of two oars fixed together. Having pictured 234 RECORD OF RAMBLES. to myself the Japanese as a race of small men, I was surprised to see these seafaring people such tall, muscular, hardy-looking fellows. Their legs and feet were bare, and some of them wore a loose blue robe, which gave them quite a Roman air. Their hair was dressed differently to that of the Chinese, being brought together in a knot at the crown. The first sight of a junk, which we passed at her moorings, brought forcibly to my mind the pictures of our own mediaeval ships, such as those on the nobles of Edward III. The sails were, in many cases, made of bamboo. Several of our own men-of-war were in harbour, and amongst them we were delighted to find H.M.S. Chal- lenger, which had put in for repairs, after a few weeks' dredging in the Southern Pacific. Seeing some of our friends getting into a boat, which from its appearance was better than the others, I followed their example, breaking in the cabin-roof in my too precipitate descent upon that delicate fabric. What was my chagrin at finding that it was not one of those for hire, but was the property of a private individual, Mr. Wylie, who, nevertheless, sufficiently forgave my carelessness to land me in safety at the Custom- house. As we stepped on shore the smart shock of an earthquake was felt, showing that the tokens of its coming had on this occasion proved correct. Such was the rude welcome with which the Land of the Rising Sun received us on our first approach to its once inhospitable shores. YOKOHAMA AND TOKIO. 235 CHAPTER XIV. YOKOHAMA AND TOKIO. There is a common saying in the East, expressive of the way in which John Bull carries his customs with him, that if three Englishmen were wrecked on a desert island, one would set up a race-course ; another would get up a cricket match ; and the third would edit a newspaper. Yokohama is no exception to this rule ; in fact, Mr. Smith — Public- Spirit-Smith, as he is called — the able managing director of the Grand Hotel, has performed the two first of these feats himself^ much to the delight of his numerous fellow-country- men. The appearance of the town from the sea is thoroughly European; the native quarter lying some little distance from it. An esplanade, containing the two principal hotels, the club-house, &c., faces the water. In the rear of this, in what was qnce a swamp, are the shopping streets ; that is, for European goods. The residents take up their abode for the most part on the summit of a hill to the east of the town. The first object which strikes the stranger as he lands is the "jin-riksha," or, literally, "man-carriage," and the first indi- vidual who is likely to address him is the man who draws it. It can only be described as a cross between an American buggy and a perambulator, having two light wheels, a single seat set far back, and shafts in which the human horse runs. The natives take credit to themselves for the invention of this commodious and convenient vehicle, and the hideous devils, reminding one of the gods of Alaska, .painted on the panel at the back, might seem to have warranted that 236 RECORD OF RAMBLES. conclusion, had we not been informed that it was a French resident who first hit upon the idea. That the invention was a great boon to the country, giving, as it has done, employment to many thousand hands, at a time when something for idle hands to do was much required, cannot be doubted. In Tokio alone the number of these little vehicles was computed at twenty-five thousand. The drivers, or rather the horses, are active, cheery fellows, generally trotting at a quiet steady pace, but sometimes running races with each other, and hallooing to the foot-passengers to make way for them at a pitch of their voice which makes the thoroughfares ring again. In cases where the country to be traversed is hilly, a second man is engaged to push behind ; and when a long journey is contemplated, two leaders are attached by ropes, one to each point of the shafts, the other end of each rope passing over or round the leader's shoulders. The buoyancy of spirit and childish delight evinced by some of them when harnessed thus can only be compared to that of frisky colts or children playing at horses. Sometimes they will run a distance of forty miles in a day. In wet weather they are dressed in coats made of strips of bamboo ; while in summer the only semblance of apparel consists in a profusion of tattoo. The light blue breeches, worn for the sake of decorum in the towns and cities, together with their antics, and the style of dressing their hair, gave to some of them a Mephistophelian aspect, which was ludicrous. We took up our quarters at the Grand Hotel, of which we can never speak too highly, and next morning (April 22nd) drove out in (our new toys) the jin-rikshas to inspect the town. It is surrounded by an artificial moat or ditch, cut originally by the old Japanese government, for the purpose of confining the European merchants and settlers within the narrowest possible limits, in accordance with the policy they had long pursued with regard to the YOKOHAMA AND TOKIO. 237 Dutch at Decima. Such a system of strict surveillance, however, soon broke down before the pressure of European civilization ; and foreigners are now permitted to wander, even without a passport, for a distance of several miles outside the prescribed boundaries. Curio Street is generally the first point for which visitors to Yokohama make, and thither we accordingly went. As the name implies, this street is the mart for curiosities of all kinds, from the richest silk embroidery and lacquer work down to second-hand trifles, valuable only to those who are afflicted with anti- quarian proclivities. The pretty open-fronted or trellised houses, with their overhanging gable roofs and cylindrical tiles ; the shopmen in their loose blue robes, or the shop- women in their many-coloured attire ; the array of beautiful articles, arranged in such profusion that there is scarcely standing-room within ; and the motley crowd of open- mouthed gazers without, all go to form a picture as hetero- geneous as it is unique. In one house you see an artist seated, engaged in painting, on a screen or a lamp, a hideous demon or a beautiful young lady. The next may be a bazaar for bronzes and brass work, with lanterns of elegant design — the spoil of some Buddhist temple — suspended from the beams, and vases of every shape and make and size upon the floors and shelves. Incense-burners in the forms of horsemen, or of Chinese (Taouist) saints riding on fabulous animals ; storks standing on tortoises, some formed to hold a candle ; dishes of copper enamel — such are the objects which make up this store. Then may come a silk warehouse, which often excels the others in the fact that it has an upper room, whither you are conducted by the obsequious showman, who unfolds for your inspection most exquisite specimens of embroidery, fitted for screens or cushions, rich with birds and flowers, in colours that would dazzle were they not so tastefully arranged. Next a sword-maker's establishment tempts you in, where suits 238 RECORD OF RAMBLES. of armour hang around the walls, mostly formed of chain- work, like that of our own middle ages, interlaced with plaited silk. Crested helmets, of many curious shapes, accompany the armour ; and instruments of martial music, drums, gongs, and trumpets, are piled together in heaps in the comers. But it is not on his swords, in thdr beautifully lacquered sheaths, and with their blades of finely-tempered steel, that the master of this house prides himself now with the pride of former years. Alas! for him, he will tell you, his art, the most highly honoured in all Japan, is fast dying out, for want of a sufficient demand. In old days every gentleman carried a sword ; and all in the higher classes, from the emperor downwards, two. The forging of the sword was considered in the light of a religious ceremony, and the swordsmith always donned a suit of special court garments for the occasion. So proud was a good workman of his work that he invariably en- graved his name on that part of the steel which passes up through the handle. How in these days he must loathe, in his heart of hearts, the enervating effect produced on his rulers by the policy of peace they have adopted, in accord- ance with customs foreign to their own ! Not the least curious of the shops in Curio Street are the booksellers', on account of the wonderful cheapness of native-printed literature. Pictorial descriptions of Tokio and Yokohama, illustrated works on history or fiction, from the wars of Yoritomo to the native version of Puss in Boots, such is the style of thing which commands the greatest sale. But literature of a much severer type is also to be had. I was shown a Japanese translation of a German book on trigonometry ; and I purchased for less than half- a -crown no:less important a work than the Ko-ji-ki ; or. Annals of Ancient Affairs, the book of all others most esteemed among the Japanese, as con- taining the record of those oral traditions handed on from YOKOHAMA AND TOKIO. 239 mythological times, which embody their orthodox views on cosmogony in general and their own origin in particular. The copy in question was in four volumes, the text being accompanied by a short commentary by Tada. The author was one Yasumaro, and the date of his work is placed by the chroniclers in the year A,D. 711, in the reign of the emperor (Dairi or Micado) Gamin Tenno. To show the reverence with which it is regarded, I may mention that another commentary on it exists, written by Moto-ori, and contained in no less than one hundred volumes. The people hold it to be a work divinely inspired, only in the sense that the memory of the author was superhumanly good ; and thus it can scarcely be called a sacred book. It teaches history — not morals. First of all, it says, there was chads; then a separation took place into light particles and heavy particles ; and the light or clear particles, going upwards, went to form the heavens; and the heavy or dense particles, going downwards, went to form the earth. Upon this earth so formed, the one only god descended. Then he produced from himself a demi-god to form the world, with its islands, and demi-gods, and several other things. Then three gods descended ; and they, too, took part in creation. Last of all came several others, and amongst them were Nangi and Nami, the parents of all things. Great as the muddle and confusion is in this opening chapter of the Ko-j'i-ki, it is none the less interesting to find that it is identical (indeed in some parts it is word for word the same) with the ancient cosmogony of China, to which the name of Confucian is given, and which appears in the the oldest and most mystical of the classics, The Yih King. Nangi and Nami are Yang and Yin, and, according to Canon McClatchie, the god thus duplicating or triplicating himself in order to do the work of creation, in accordance with the ruling of the only immaterial thing there is, namely. Fate or Destiny, is the same as the Shang Ti of the ancient 240 RECORD OF RAMBLES. books of China* It is, we were told by Mr. Yamamoto, the priests of the Shinto religion — that is to say, the old form of worship restored to supremacy on the restoration of the Micado — who hold the Ko-ji-ki in special reverence. The reason of this is that the family of the Micado himself is said to trace its origin up to Tensio-dai-sin, herself the personification and goddess of the sun, and a prominent character in the old mythology. After this digression suggested by the book-shop I must linger a little longer in Curio Street, in order not to pass by unnoticed the porcelain shops, with their lofty vases of blue and white, or of black, and red, and gold, which are, perhaps, the most beautiful feature of the whole. Far less gorgeous, but to me of far greater interest, were those in which the little ivory nitskis, or pendant buttons for the tobacco-pouch, were to be obtained. The greater portion of them were modern, and made, probably by thousands, to meet the foreign demand ; but some few old ones could still be picked up here and there, although the fabulous prices which these now fetch in England proves that they must be nearly all gone by this time. The subjects represented were some- times drawn from the every-day occurrences of life, such as a child with a mask, a man beating a drum, a policeman collaring a vagabond who is carrying off a teapot; some- times they were taken from the national mythology — a pig-headed octopus dragging a maiden under water in its arms; twin gods, one with long arms and the other with long legs, arranged in most clever attitudes ; or hero demi- gods riding on fabulous beasts, or struggling with dragons. Some, again, by their hideousness, reminded us of the figures in Queen Elizabeth's prayer-book — skeletons lead- * My ignorance of Asiatic languages forbids me to follow Canon McCIatchie in his interesting comparison of the attributes of Shang Ti, and those of Baal and Jupiter. YOKOHAMA AND TOKIO. 24I ing little girls by the hand, or skulls with snakes coiled through them, the latter engaged in devouring toads. Lastly, many of those which showed the rarest art were lacking in propriety. All, however, of these older ones, were exquisitely finished, and were far more original and heterogeneous in their designs than any Chinese ivories I have ever seen. In many cases, too, the expres- sions which the artist had imparted to the faces were irresistibly comic. But, as a rule, we found in Curio Street what indeed is true of the East in general, that all that was worth buying has been carried away to Europe or America long ago, and that there is literally nothing left to buy. The only exception to this rule, as far. as regarded ourselves, was in the case of a large picture of the death of Buddha, which we bought, not in Curio Street, but of a German dealer, and which has since been exhibited by me at the Bethnal Green Museum. An opportunity of describing it will occur as we proceed. During this morning's drive we received our first lesson in Japanese, which proved to be a soft and beautiful language. On entering a shop we were hailed by an obsequious bow, and the word ohiyo, "how do you do.'" On leaving it the bow was repeated, with the word seianara, " good-bye." The small coins, with which we proceeded to trafiSc, were called boos; — itsi boo being "one boo." Paper money is much in vogue, and there is also a gold currency in "yens" or dollars. On the obverse of these is the Emperor's crest, or badge, an open chrysanthemum, with a device on either side, and in the middle the risen sun. In the centre of the reverse is a dragon device, with the words, " Japan," the year of the reign, and the value of the piece, surrounding it. The old oblong gold coinage is quite out of date, and is now scarce. The manner of conducting business was the following : as soon as we had fixed on anything we wanted, we pointed to it and then to ourselves. Then we R 242 RECORD OF RAMBLES. held a coin or coins in our hand, and pointed to them and then to the shopkeeper. If he nodded his head in token that he would not accept it, we straightway put on a digni- fied air and walked down the street. It was not unlikely that, ere we had reached a second shop of a similar kind, we should receive a tap on the arm, and the object would be held out to us, with a request for the amount we had 'oififefed in return. One Japanese sentence, of which we soon got thoroughly tired, was the cry of "Anata tempo" " sir (give me), a halfpenny," with which in some parts the little beggar boys pursue a foreigner much in the same way as Oxford cads used to" call after one, "Sir, give oi a tizzy," a more extortionate and less euphonious demand. The Japanese spoken-language is not difficult to acquire ; but it is far otherwise with the written-language. In the third century the ponderous system of the Chinese ideograms was introduced into Japan, and made use of arbitrarily to express ideas in the country which had adopted them. Thus, although a Chinaman cannot understand a Japanese when he speaks, he can at once understand his meaning when he commits his words to paper. There are at the same time two other systems of writing in use in Japan — the Katakana and the Hira-gana— the former placed by the side of the Chinese to express its sound or meaning, the 'latter a running or short-hand ; but since all the communi- cations of functionaries are written in the Chinese cha- 4-acter, a knowledge of that is indispensable to the student, and makes his task in learning the language a very serious undertaking. On leaving Curio Street, a turn of the road brought us in view of the grandest object in all Japan. The veil of mist which had wrapt it for days had fallen from the sides of Fusi-yama, and the exquisite snowy cone of the holy mountain stood out in perfect beauty, like a white- robed lady standing on the plain — no foot-hills in view to YOKOHAMA ANB TOKIO. 243 dwarf her stature, and backed by the hazy blue of a most transparent sky. Of all the mountains in the world, I do not believe that there is anywhere one so striking as this, or more calculated to inspire in the beholder with greater intensity the feeling that has been termed "cosmic emotion." Once a volcano, pouring forth lava froni the crater on it? summit, and thereby terrifying the inhabitants into the belief that ten thousand devils were contained within ; now, resting calmly from all its fearful labours, surmounted for the greater part of the year with its cool -cap of snow, the venerated resort of pilgrims to the shrines on the peak and at its side, it is adored for its serenity and loveliness ; and its shape, moulded in metal or delineated by the artist's penci-l, is transmitted to the peoples of far distant lands, who, thoug:b they may never hope to see it, still can recognise the forrn at least of graceful Fusi-yama, the -mouintain of Japan, as it rises seemingly, though not really, direct from the plain to an elevation of upwards of fourteen thousand feet. One of the most characteristic features in Japan is the tea-houses, or light -refreshment stalls. They generally occupy some prettily- situated spot in the suburbs of a town, and are attended by girls, whose neat dresses, merry laugh, and artless ways would gain them double-first prizes in an English " barmaid-show." To one of these, on the top of a steep hill, we not infrequently repaired to take our afternoon siesta. A long flight of steps led up to it ; but the view from the house, when we reached it, repaid us for our trouble. Ocha Nippon cassy-. — "Tea and Japaii cakes" — was all we had to say; and then, taking off our boots, we sat on the matted floor, listening to the music (.■') produced by an old lady in an inner apartment, who varied at pleasure the order in which she struck with a plectrum the three strings of a national instrument called the samiseng. In the midst of a lawn, surrounded by shrubs, stood a little shrine, within a stone's-throw of the tea-house. It was R 2 244 RECORD OF RAMBLES. about the size of a sentry-box, and was approached by three stone steps. Thither we once watched a poor half- naked pilgrim cautiously making his way. On reaching it he ascended the steps, bowing his head the while, and dropped a few Chinese cash into the money-box, pulling at the same time a bell -rope, that the spirit might hear his prayer. Then timidly, lest his act of devotion should excite attention, he slunk away. On enquiring what became of the cash thus given to the god, I was informed that it was a small source of revenue to the tea-house people, at whose expense the shrine had been erected. We called on a Japanese official called Tahiiaka, to whom we brought an introduction, but did not find that his desire to oblige us in any respect was at all equal to the obsequious courtesy with which he received us. This is a trait in official character which I do not mean to say is peculiar to the Japanese. One evening, whilst in Yokohama, we formed a party of seven, consisting of F. and myself, Harcourt and his friend Fitzgerald, Dr. Stirling, and Messrs. Hart and Home, to go to the native theatre. It was a quaint wooden building. The stage was at each end connected with a platform, which ran all round the central area or pit, and on this, as well as on the stage itself, the actors occasionally disported themselves. The audience squatted on mats. At first the ticket -collector seemed inclined to overcharge us ; but on the happy thought occurring to Harcourt of mentioning the magic word " Micado" he took us for ambassadors at least, left our box, if the narrow rickety platform we had secured could be so called, and presently brought us oranges and pipe- lights gratis. The stench of the place was fearful, and it required no little presence of mind to remain there at all. The performance appeared to have arrived at a point when a succession of trial-scenes was necessary. The plot YOKOHAMA AND TOKIO. 24S resembled, in respect of its horrible dilemmas, a play of Sophocles; and the fact that only two or at most three actors took part in the conversations at once, and that a chorus behind the scenes supplied the necessary explana- tions and the emotions proper to the several occasions, made the comparison with the Greek drama the more complete. Two judges, in the costume of the daimios or feudal lords, were seated on a daifs, and (except when one of them delivered a long oration) maintained a digni- fied silence. A man, with his wife and child, was brought before them. The man was tried for his life, and con- demned ; but, by the judgment of the court, the woman had it in her power to save her husband by killing her child. She took up a weapon to do so ; but the mother's love was too strong, and, in sentences of anguish so pathetic that it moved the audience to tears, and in which there clearly were touches of real beauty, she threw the weapon from her, and her husband was accordingly handed over to the torturers. On the top of a square block, about two feet high, was placed a serrated instrument, like a large curry-comb, points upwards. On this he was made to kneel ; while a pole, attached at one end to an upright stanchion, and weighted at the other end with a ponderous stone, was placed across his legs above the knees. To make the infliction the more galling, his child was then slung to the pole, while the two judges came and pressed the doubly-weighted end down, at the same time beating alter- nately the father and the child with sticks. Three stringed instruments and a drum on the right of the stage kept up the while an appropriately doleful tune. The finale we did not wait to see. It used formerly to be a rule in Japanese play-acting — now, I beheve, broken through — that no females ever appeared on the stage, their parts being performed by men. The ladies confined themselves to music and dancing, occasionally performing the latter feat 246 RECORD OF RAMBLES. Upon their heads, as in the pictures of Herodias's daughter in early mediaeval MSS. Near the theatre is the Oshiwara, or courtezans' quarter, an institution which — attached as it is to every Japanese city — has for the last six hundred years been the source of an immense revenue to the imperial exchequer, since every occupant of the houses pays a tax^ In some cities the inmates of these houses, arrayed in splendid costume, are to be seen in the evening by the passer-by seated in rows, as motionless as statues, in the front room of the house, a perforated screen being all that separates them from the street. There is not much 'disgfaGe attached to becoming a resident in the Oshiwara, and an honourable marriage is often the result. On Tuesday, April the 27th, in spite of most unpro- pitious weather; we^that is F., Dr. Stirling, Fitzgerald, Mr. Slade, myself, and an interpreter — started in six jin-rikshas, with three men attached to each, in all twenty-four persons, for the statue of Daibuts, or the Great Buddha, near Kama- kura. The country through which we passed was a lovely one. A narrow trackway, raised between the rice-paddies, led us by a tortuous course through alluvial valleys, green and bright with the springing crops. Every now and then we dived into the hills, whose sprouting foliage was over- topped by dark pines and camellias. Here and there a clump of these same dark pines in the valley below, raised on a grassy mound, with a plain wooden gateway, or torii, and a thatched roof peeping out from the heart of the grove, marked the whereabouts of a Shinto shrine. By the road side, too, little rural images of the gods were very common. Some were set up in holes in the ground, some under the roots of trees, some were by themselves, some in rows ; sometimes it was a Buddha, sometimes a "Japanese god," with a tuft on his head, and three little figures below him ; sometimes he was surrounded by pebbles, thrown so as to Ibdge on the ledge under him, and in one instance YOKOHAMA AND TOKIO. 247 he (a Buddha) had been adorned with a necklace. All were carved in stone, and were in general from three to four feet in height. The hamlets and homesteads would each have made a charming picture — one in especial, with a small -leaved magnolia, as large as a full-grown ever- green oak, spreading over it. In the centre of the thatch of the high-pitched roof grew, as is usual, a tuft or ridge of blue iris, and the garden round the house was pink with azalias in bloom. Of the inhabitants, some were lazily- reclining on their mats, others literally wallowing in the mire of a new-made paddy plot. The hills over which we passed could be seen at once, from their "hog's-back" appearance, to be of volcanic origin ; and it is owing to the denudation of the old volcanic mud from their sides that the valleys have their deep rich soil. The red, grey, and yellow earth which composes the surface of these hills is most prolific in ferns of all varieties — one, which looked like a large-leaved maidenhair, being conspicuously elegant. The roads we traversed were clearly made only for hand -carriages or pack-ponies. They were often narrow, and the bridges too precarious even for the light jin-riksha wheels. At a half-way house we stopped to have some tea ; and after passing over the crest of another range of hills, arrived at Kamakura, a town consisting at present of only one poor narrow street, but marking the site of what was once the most famous city in all Japan. We were told of caverns existing in the adjacent hills, connected in some strange way with the ancient inhabitants, but now used as receptacles for manure. A stone lantern, of most rude and primitive form, stood by the road side as we entered the village, the portion of it which had been hollowed out for the reception of the taper, having, as usual, the moon image (a crescent) carved on one side, and the sun image (a circular hole) on the other, for the escape of the light. A little further on, a fine old avenue of pines 248 RECORD OF RAMBLES. led up to the stone steps and ruined gateway of a temple long since deserted. All things pointed to the presence of desolation ; but whether brought about by a tidal wave two hundred years ago, as tradition says, or by the fire and sword of civil commotion, as history seems to warrant, or simply by the abandonment of the city for a better site, we could not satisfactorily make out. One thing is certain, that the temples with their attendant toriis, and the stone foundations of the ancient houses and palaces, are all that have survived the wreck. The history of this ancient city is soon told. At the latter end of the twelfth century it was the seat of the government of Yoritomo, the first Sh6gun, or generalissimo who ventured to take the temporal power out of the hands of the effeminate Dairi, or Micado, and his equally effete court at Kioto. In spite of having been undoubtedly burnt in 1333, the city seems to have remained the head- quarters of the Shogflnate until Yedo was founded by ly^yasu, first of the Tokugawa line, at the close of the sixteenth century. The most famous of the temples which still remain is that of Hachiman, the god of war, the precincts of which we entered down a flagstone pathway under an avenue of rich foliage. The first object pointed out to us was a grave, consisting of an oblong area sur- rounded by stones set on edge. A heap of small stones was piled up within the enclosure, and certain indications led us to suppose the original worship was Phallic. There was a curious legend with regard to this grave, which our interpreter explained to us from the mouth of an old woman who stood by. "A poor lady," she said, "was buried here six hundred and seventeen years ago (she was very positive in her date), and her infant's body being reduced to ashes, a shrine was set up in its honour close by." To this shrine we accordingly paid a visit. It proved to be an empty, dilapidated wooden building, with a roof like that YOKOHAMA AND TOKIO. 249 of a pagoda. We bought two native maps of the vicinity from the old woman, and ascended seventy-five broad stone steps to the terrace in front of the temple. The situation was a fine one — looking seaward from the brow of a steep and wooded ascent over the plateau of Kamakura, in which lay the ruins of the ancient city. On a platform near the top of the steps, which by the way are the most prominent and lasting feature in Japanese temples, were two rude stones, surrounded by a railing of the same material, on one of which we were told a king had sat, so that thence- forward it was sacred. We entered the temple under a handsomely-carved gateway, having on either side a gigantic and hideous figure of one of the two warrior kings, or Nio, who always stand sentinels at the temple gates, and answer to the Gog and Magog at 'Guildhall.'* The shrine, or temple itself, is surrounded by a courtyard, which possessed a peculiar interest from the fact that curious and valuable antique treasures were said to be contained there, which had only of late been opened to the gaze of strangers. Passing round to the left, an old priest first of all respect- fully offered us a cup of tea, and then proceeded to show us, in the next compartment to his own, a collection of funeral carriages, resembling elaborate mediaeval reliquaries. They were intended to be carried on poles like sedan chairs, and were presented to the temple by one of the Micados. It was usual for the corpse to be pressed together into the smallest possible compass in a little box, for the reception of which there was a door at the end of each carriage. Over each door was a carving in miniature of one of those singular gateways, or toriis, of which we must presently speak. A priest selling safety-papers — preservatives, that is, against disease or sudden death — occupied the next compartment. Next, in the corner * A comparison might also be drawn between these figures guarding their terraced temples, and a similar arrangement in Central America. 250 RECORD OF RAMBLES. facing us, was the effigy of a monster — ^half a lady, half a serpent — who wore on her head a similar ornament to that on the funeral carriages. Further along the piazza the priests unveiled for our inspection sundry helmets, swords, wearing apparel, and horse trappings belonging, they said, to ancient kings, and especially to Yoritomo. In reply to every question as to age, we were invariably told "they are six or seven hundred years old." At last we came to a perfect little museum of such things — a really handsome silver-mounted sword, a helmet with a dragon front, the same which some great victor wore on the day of his triumph, a piece of a robe seven hundred years old, and which from its condition might well have been so — such were the choice relics, from which, to their honour be it said, no offer of money on our part would tempt the priests to part. From this temple there is a road, or rather a causeway of stone, running in a straight line direct for the sea-shore — some two miles distant. To our left, as we passed down it, a spot was pointed out to us as the ruin of Yoritomo's g palace ; while to the right the fields were strewn with mounds and fragments of carved stone-work — the remains of the religious edifices of the ancient city. The avenue was spanned at intervals by toriis, the largest of which, built of granite, cannot have been less than twenty-five or thirty feet in height. At its foot two Englishmen were some time since cruelly assassinated. A torii may be said to be the most common object in Japan. It is formed either of stone, wood, or bronze, and varies in height from six to thirty feet. It consists of a horizontal piece or lintel, the ends of which curve upwards, like the prow of a boat, supported on two props or jambs, which are not perpendicular, but incline inwards to receive the lintel. These side-posts are perforated at a short dis- tance below the lintel, and a straight piece is thrust through them, parallel to the lintel, in such a manner that either ANCIENT BRONZE JAPANESE MIRROR. (Back View.) Page 328. TORII AT KAMAKURA. Page 250. '""H|||il!Hlli,iii,t(iHiii|lii|il|i(liiiliiii" TOMB OF THE SHOGUN AT ZOJOGI. Page 262. YOKOHAMA AND TOKIO. 251 end protrudes beyond the post. They are now exclusively connected with temples, and are usually presented as offer- ings at the shrine, or in honour of some person deceased. At one small shrine, near the Tokio railroad, I counted no less than thirty of these archways, spanning a semicircular raised pathway leading to the building. They were made of wood, and painted red. The natives persist in saying that they specially belong to shrines of the Shinto worship, and that where an admixture of Buddhism has crept in, they are differentiated by bearing a tablet, with the name of some god (generally Amita Buddha) written thereon. Not infrequently they are used to hang offerings of paper, straw, or hair upon, thus serving the same purpose as certain frames erected by the Kamscadals and the northern islanders. Their origin is wrapped in obscurity; but the Japanese, who have a playful story to account for every- thing, tell the following tale of how they came to be used : "All that is connected with the Shinto religion," they say, "is derived from the simple manners and customs of our ancestors, which it is our duty to perpetuate. Now, when the country of Japan was being colonized by them for the first time, it was found to be one vast forest. As the settlers scattered themselves through this forest, it soon became difficult for travellers to find the whereabouts of a human habitation. So when a man built a house, and made a path to it, he broke down a branch of a tree at the entrance of the path, and, stretching it across the road, rested it on a bough on the opposite side ; and in this way travellers knew where to find shelter and hospitality. Now when the country came to be thickly populated, this was no longer necessary ; so the custom was preserved in the case of the temples and shrines alone, in order that pilgrims might never mistake their way to the object of their devotion," This account is ingenious, but of little value. The torii has its affinities in the Widow Gates of 252 RECORD OF RAMBLES. China, and the splendid portals of the Sanchi Topes. It has been suggested to me that the curve in the lintel may have the same origin as that in the roofs of the pagodas, and may be intended to represent the lowest portion of the spheres of heaven — that outer segment of the circles beyond which man's ken can pierce no further, though his aspirations may rise with the sense of his oneness with the universe itself, till, stretching out his arms curved upwards, he may say, in the words of Confucius, "My penetration rises high. There is no man that knows me ; but there is heaven ; that knows me." In Japan the torii appears in connection with death and the spirits of the dead. We have seen it on the funeral carriages ; and we may see the same curved design carried out in every lamp presented as a memorial of dead ancestors, and even on the mausoleums of the Sh6guns at Z6j6gi. Toys are made in this form for children to play with ; and wherever one turns the head, a torii in some shape or another is sure to be in view. The similarity between it and the Chinese ideogram tien or heaven, though perhaps accidental, is nevertheless remarkable. Leaving the main avenue, we struck across the open ground to a village ; and passing this, soon came in sight of the curly head of Daibuts, as he sits in silent majesty in his sheltered nook among the hills. A spot better fitted for the domicile of the personification of Repose could not have been found. The little glen in which it is, is truly meditationi sacrum. Camellia groves, which cluster round the image, hide his countenance from view until the visitor enters the sanctum itself It is then that he sees the mar- marvellous serenity of the features, indicating the state of divine contemplation (of dewpia, in fact) which the holy teacher is supposed to have attained while yet on earth. If any adverse criticism could be passed upon it as a work of art, it is that there is a slightly pouting ex- YOKOHAMA AND TOKIO. 253 pression about the mouth, caused by the natural thickness of the lips. I have since seen a face so singularly like it that I cannot forbear mentioning the occasion. It was when I crawled to the edge of the great tomb recently excavated near the pyramid of Cheops, and saw the Arabs remove the sand from the face of the marble figure which forms the cover of a sarcophagus below. Both F. and I instantly exclaimed in one breath when we saw it, "Why, there is Daibuts again." As the features are certainly not Japanese, it may well be asked whence comes this great similitude. I verily believe it is no mere coincidence, but is a problem which ethnologists and ex- plorers are beginning to see their way to explain. There is a curious tradition current among the natives that this same Daibuts, or Great Buddha, was a foreigner, who, on landing from a wreck near the spot where his image stands, prophesied rain to the parched inhabitants. If there is anything in the legend, it has probably transferred the name of Sakya Buddha, whose image this undoubtedly is, to one of the early missionaries who brought his religion to Japan in the middle of the sixth century. The entrance to the precinct is a very simple one — a stone platform, on either side of which stands a conical stone two feet in height, with a plain low torii spanning the path. A little farther on is a porch of the lich-gate type, common to Japanese temples, over the door of which the name of Daibuts is inscribed. A flagstone pavement leads up to a few stone steps, and on either side is a bronze tablet in the shape of a scroll, bearing an inscription in ancient characters. A third similar tablet rests against the stone basement of the image, and an incense burner and two bronze lotus plants are also arranged before it. The statue is forty-four feet high ; eighty-seven feet in girth ; the length of the face is eight and half feet ; that of each almond eye three and a half feet ; that of the ear six feet ; and the width of the 254 RECORD OF RAMBLES. mouth three feet. The whole is formed of bronze plates, averaging from ten inches to two feet thick ; and whether regarded in its design and construction, or in its erection, the whole is a masterpiece of art and engineering skill. Within the figure is a little temple, full of gilded shrines and images. The weight of the central portion is seen from the inside to be supported internally by a stone post, bearing on its face the inscription in Chinese, " Lord, have mercy upon us," and on its sides the names of the sub- scribers to its erection. Two windows in the back give light to this inner chamber. It is said — and I think with great probability — ^that a wooden temple, long since burnt down, once covered the statue. On our emerging from the interior, an amusing incident occurred. The old priest who had acted as showman manifested great anxiety that we should accompany him to his own peculiar temple close at hand, which he repre- sented to us, through our smiling interpreter, as much more interesting, if not actually more sacred, than any- thing we had yet seen. On reaching it, we found indeed a figure of Buddha ; but ranged in a line in front of him, not incense burners or holy books, but a plentiful supply of genuine Bass's bottled ale, trade-mark and all. This it was the priest's business to sell at about one shilling per bottle, and we did not fail to drink his health, coupled with the name of the presiding Buddha. We now returned to the village' "tea-house" for our midday meal, or "tiffin," as it is called in the East. The lady of the house^ who waited on us, was a married woman, as we knew by the fact that she blackened her teeth. The powder used is, I believe, composed of iron fihngs. The name she gave it was ohaguro. It is not a permanent stain, and requires renewing at intervals. It is a hideous custom, and is rapidly dying out. To make the most of my time while the men were getting ready to start, I ran up a flight of YOKOHAMA AND TOKIO. 255 steps to a temple at the head of the village. This stone staircase was at first straight, but then took a semicircular bend to the right, in the form of a reaping-hook, an arrangement which I noticed was not unusual, though I could get no explanation of the reason. The priests were very obliging. They first of all showed me a gilded image in the outer hall, and admonished me good-humouredly for venturing to draw aside the curtains from a hideous god in a corner. Then they took me behind the high altar, and I found myself in a lofty dark room, lighted by one candle, which revealed the skirts of a gigantic gilded statue, looming up into the darkness of the roof One of the priests now attached two lamps to ropes, and quickly slung them up aloft, till they rested one on either side of the face. The statue seemed to be about thirty-five feet high; but there Wcis nothing remarkable about it except its size. We were to return to Yokohama through a town called Fugisawa, and thither we now set out. On approaching a house by the roadside, we noticed a considerable excite- ment amongst our coolies, who began shouting and whooping, and finally dashed past the house in fine style. A lady in gorgeous apparel stood on the threshold — one of the richest and most famous of Japanese courtezans ; but whether the display on the part of our men was prompted by a wish to do her honour or in ridicule, I could not discover. At Fugisawa we found an American waggon and three waiting for us, and were soon on the Tokaido — the old royal "road to the Eastern sea." It proved to be in shocking condition, owing to the wet It was not straight for any long distance together, but was a winding avenue, with tall dark pines overhanging it all the way to Kanagawa. Picturesque villages, with their iris-crowned roofs, were passed every now and then, each one having at its entrance a covered frame, surrounded by a 256 RECORD OF RAMBLES. railing, to which were affixed the latest public proclama- tions. Arrived at Kanagawa, some of us left the uncom- fortable waggon to walk home ; but losing our way, we had once more to resort to jin-rikshas, in which we arrived at the hotel in time for dinner, after a continuously- wet, but most interesting and enjoyable day. Another excursion which F. and I took a few days later was to Enoshima. We started in a nice little carriage and pair, driven by a Chinaman ; while a handsome little fellow, a native " betto " or horse boy, called Ni Dama, ran on in front. On reaching Fugisawa, we left the Tokaido, and turning down a street under a bronze torii, soon arrived at the village of Katdse. Here we alighted to walk to Enos- hima, a steep rocky island, having a little town at its foot, and joined to the mainland by a causeway of sand, never covered by the sea except when a prevailing wind has been setting in-shore for some weeks. On the beach there were numerous fishermen mending their nets, which we noticed were weighted with little cylinders of baked clay. The island gate was another large bronze torii ; and the street into which we passed under it was a perfect picture. It was narrow and extremely steep, decorated with a profusion of coloured lamps and flags. These latter are presented to the tea-houses by pilgrims paying a passing visit to the temples, and to the famous cave of the goddess Benten, to whom the island is dedicated. The flags often bear the name of the head of the company to which the pilgrim belongs, and they indicate to the next comers that their chief has sanctioned their use, and that they will find a comfortable resting-place there. Thus the flags became advertisements to the tea-houses. Japanese companies, we were told, are managed better than those in China ; and no European may hire a servant from one of them without the permission of the manager, whose business it is to make full enquiries as to what sort of master he will make. ' YOKOHAMA AND TOKIO. 257 The poor pilgrims, of whom there happened to be a great number at Enoshima on the day in question, are generally small farmers, who once a year devote several months to making a tour of the temples within a certain circuit, never passing a shrine on the way without going up to it, offering a prayer, hanging a small piece of paper before it, and dropping a Chinese cash into the money-box, in the manner we had seen in Yokohama. The smell of fish in the lower part of the village soon drove us higher up the street, where there are shops for shells and marine curiosities of all sorts ; prominent among them being the rare sponge, hyalonema mirabilis, or " wonderful glass thread." One end of this is much like our own common sponge, but the middle part is a substance resembling bark, out of which grow a number of brush-like white fibres, exactly similar to threads of blown glass. Like other silicates, these threads are secretions from sea-water. More steps to mount leading to shrines and tea-houses and monumental stones given by pilgrims to the goddess in memory of their visit, and then we descended on the other side of the island, and walking round the foot of the cliffs (which appeared to be sandstone, traversed by trap or lava dikes) came to a gully, forming the entrance to a cavern, where youthful divers were offering for a small consideration to perform wondrous feats in the deep water off the rocks. Clambering along a narrow ledge by the aid of a hand- rail, we reached the cave, and saw at the farther end a little Shinto shrine, the lacquer on which reflected back the light like silver. Two boughs of trees with the leaves on, and a third crossing them, formed an extemporised torii, from which were hung the usual shreds of paper. Candles of bamboo were lighted near the shrine, which made the effect all the prettier; and a long passage leading into the heart of the rock behind it, was also illuminated in like fashion. The goddess Benten is a marine deity, a s 258 RECORD OF RAMBLES. mermaid in fact, and her worship is very popular among the Japanese of the sea-coast. I was able to procure a native engraving which, though devoid of perspective, fairly represents the island. We returned to Katas^ by another route, through a wood of tall pines. In some places the ferns, and especially the osmunda regalis, were unusually fine. At Katas6 there is a Buddhist, or rather a mixed Shinto and Buddhist temple, where service was going on when we reached it at four p.m. The attendance of worshippers was small ; but those who were there were most devout, and, in spite of our arrival on the scene, kept their attention riveted on what they were about. They continued to repeat a monotonous sing-song, at the end of which they prostrated themselves. At intervals they seemed to pray, looking upwards, and rubbing little strings of wooden beads between their palms. The sound of their chanting resembled that made by children in an English village school when practising Gregorians through their noses. It seemed to be a repetition of "Yang, yang, yaw-aw- aw ; " though I believe the real words were " Namu, nammiyo, Amida Butsu," " Hail, all hail, Amida Buddha,"a deity, I may add, unknown to the pure Buddhism of the south, but the most exalted of all the members of the northern Pantheon. This temple, we were told, was dedicated to Ososomon, who- ever he may have been. Just below it are several shrines cut in the rock, and amongst them a " fox shrine," two sacred stone foxes being seated one on either side of the entrance. I could not help thinking that this deity would feel himself far more at home were his shrine to be set up in the park of some of our friends in England. The ma or foxes are the only evil spirits known to the Japanese, and their wor- ship is connected with that of Inari Sama, or the rice god. Above the temple were hanging gardens, with fountains and bronze ewers ; and above these again, on the brow of the hill, was a resting-place, commanding an exquisite view YOKOHAMA AND TOKIO. 259 of the bay below, with Enoshima standing out in its centre. Far away, by the lake of Hakoni, were some hills, over which towered the hazy outline of the ever-changing Fusi-yama. At Katasd I noticed for the first time the great tameness of birds, due, perhaps, to the precept of Buddha, which forbids the wilful injury of any living creature. Pigeons were flying in and round the temple, feeding on the rice offered by the worshippers. Swallows made their nests on little platforms, made specially for them in the eaves of the tea- house where we stopped, and so low down that we had to stoop on entering the house for fear of disturbing them. While waiting for our conveyance we noticed also the use of bamboo for stockades, and of paper for windows, and the high wooden clog shoes which sounded on the pave- ment like an army of frogs croaking. A pack-horse, too, passed us, positively weighed down by two immense fish, slung pannier-fashion on his back. I have purposely departed from the order in which the foregoing excursions were made, that I might throw together into one focus our frequent trips to Tokio (Yedo), distant from Yokohama only about seventeen miles. On Monday, April 26th, we first took the train for that city. The line of railroad runs through a level country, often a swamp, in which men may be seen working knee-deep in mud, engaged in securing irrigation for their rice plots, en- closures which in shape and size have much the appearance of oyster-beds. Near Kawasaki the scene is varied by a tract of garden-ground, where the pear-trees are trained over trellises of bamboo. On nearing the city the road- stead comes in sight, where ships of the Imperial navy usually lie at anchor. Inside this again, and in such shallow water that no ships of any size can get near them, are a number of island forts, utterly useless for the defence of the capital. The general appearance of Tokio is disappointing to the visitor, who has pictured to himself S 2 26o RECORD OF RAMBLES. lofty temples, and pagodas, and palaces, with gilded roofs, such as the old Dutch authors describe. There are a few pagodas here and there, but these are of no great height. Not only does the city occupy an extensive flat, but the houses themselves are low, with the exception of "the go-downs," or fire-proof storehouses for valuables, which are raised one story above the rest, and whose iron bars and massive shutters give them the aspect of prisons. The roofs, however, are extremely picturesque. Some are thatched, but mostly they are formed of tiles, often grey with wear — every tile in the outer row bearing a stamp or badge. Many of the houses have wooden bars in front, so that they look like cages. The larger mansions, which . before the revolution belonged to the old feudal lords, or Daimios, are now set apart for barracks or government offices. They each consist of a quadrangle, entered through a massive carved doorway under a porch. In old days the master of the house always entered by a smaller side-door ; the grand one being set apart for the Emperor, who, when he wished to diminish the riches of a dangerous noble, used to send to tell him he was coming to dinner. It was then that the state-door was used, and the cost of the banquet has often been known to ruin the host. Owing to the frequent earth- quakes, the basements only of the houses in Tokio are of stone, and these are fitted together polygonally. About one- eighth of the whole city is occupied by rivers, canals, and ditches. In the centre stands the shiro, or castle, encircled by a moat drawn in a serpentine form round it, and said to be nine miles in length. The embankment inside is planted with trees, and rises from a splendid piece of polygonal masonry, really Cyclopean, and forming an admirable breastwork for fortification. Watch-towers are disposed at intervals along the rampart, from which the generals used to superintend the disposition of their armies. On our arrival the first point for which we made was YOKOHAMA AND TOKIO. 261 Z6j6gi, more commonly known, from the quarter of the city in which it is situated, as Shiba. It is one of the three grand burying-places of the ShogAns ; the others being Uyeno, (also in Tokio) and Nikko. The grounds of Z6j6gi have only been open to foreigners during the last few years. After traversing an intricate maze of streets, our coolies finally pulled us up, or rather let us down, in front of a tall coloured gateway, reminding us forcibly of a gigantic and elaborate old English lich-gate. Unfortunately the great temple had been recently burnt down, and a square plot filled with ruins, immediately fronting the gate as we entered, marked where it lately stood. Taking a path to the right, we came to a massive plain wooden doorway, where an old priest awaited us. We had no interpreter with us, but luckily F. had in his pocket a small phrase-book, with the aid of which he was making great progress in the language. Taking it out he found what he wanted, and was able to say in excellent Japanese, " Can we go in there .'" The old man instantly ran round, drew the heavy bolts, and opened the door, and we found ourselves in a spacious court-yard, strewn with pebbles, between two battalions of stone lanterns — two hundred in all. These were the gifts of those vassals of the Shogun, known as the Fudai Daimios. On a certain night in the year, we were told, all these lamps were lighted, and the spirits of those ancestors who they were supposed to represent, returned to feast and revel with their living descendants. A richly-carved and canopied gateway, covered with figures of birds, and flowers, and dragons, surmounted a flight of steps leading into a second court above. In this court were ranged a series of bronze lanterns, much more costly than the stone ones, each seven or eight feet high, the gift of the higher order of Daimios, called Kokushiu. On one side of this court was a stone ewer for ablutions ; and on the other a tall red structure made of wood, containing a big bronze bell. 262 RECORD OF RAMBLES. Yet another portal, more elaborate than the last, sur- mounting another flight of steps, was opened to receive us, the carving on the panels of which was in fine preservation, and wonderfully high relief. Having divested ourselves, in obedience to the priest, of our shoes, we were ushered up into the shrine of the spirit — the sanctum sanctorum of the place. This consisted of three apartments. The outer one was handsomely panelled, each panel containing a different subject. The roof too was tastefully decorated, and banners or streamers depended from it. The second chamber is a passage-room to the third and innermost one, which rises from it by three steps of black polished marble, the edges of which were horribly sharp to the feet. At the end of this last room were three shrines, splendidly lacquered and gilded, with a bar drawn across them to prevent spolia- tion. These are reliquaries in which are preserved the posthumous titles of the deceased. The actual tomb is still further up the hill, in the rear of the shrine. It is a bronze mausoleum, having a roof like that of the pagoda, the lower portion being in the shape of a perpendicular cylinder. The ornament at the top is the same as that used in Mohammedan countries, and notably on the tombs of the Mamelukes in Cairo. A bronze plate, on which is the ever-recurring badge of the Shogun — the three marsh- mallow leaves — forms the door of the recess in which the body lies compressed, unless, as is often the case, it is buried below. Lastly, a stone railing surrounds the whole. Two other similar tombs in stone are close by, and numer- ous others of less note. The priest who had acted as our guide was a true type of his order. His shaven head, his loose yellow robe, the string of beads which he devoutly clutched, his own obeisance at the sacred spots, his wish to produce a like reverence in us — all, one would have thought, would have betokened a good and holy man. But we soon came to the conclusion that all this show of YOKOHAMA AND TOKIO. 263 religion was only a veil for extortion. For every new shrine he showed us (and he did show us some twenty or thirty) he wanted a quarter dollar, and finished up by demanding a similar sum before he would unbar the several gates to let us out. Happily we were too many for him, and the old rogue was foiled of his prey. Formerly two thousand four hundred priests, of all grades and orders, were con- nected with these grand temples. Now only some dozen or two half-starved creatures wander through the woods from shrine to shrine, picking up a scanty subsistence from pilgrims or foreign visitors. There is another portion of Z6j6gi perhaps even better worth seeing than that I have described. It is entered by another "lich gate," at the further end of the grounds. Here a rough untended path- way, winding upwards through camellia groves, like the desolate park-ground round some old English country mansion, brings the pilgrim to a dark pine forest on the hill top, in the midst of which he finds to his surprise, fast crumbling into ruin, the gorgeous spirit-temple of Hidetada, one of the most noted of the Shoguns. Once fondly cared for, but now long left to nature's gardener, it is sad to see the hand of ruin here at work. Almost, I would say, " Let this people return to their superstitions again, rather than so much that is good and beautiful vanish away." It hcis not been the desire to obliterate superstition which has brought this change about ; if so, it would have been more bearable. It was merely a change of dynasty. All that the Shoguns loved, must perish, and their name be blotted out, when the Micado gained the day ; and since th^ were the supporters of Buddhism, that faith must die the death ; and since they were the patrons of art, art too, so far as it carried their memory with it, must be no more seen. Besides, the new state religion is cheap, but the old one was expensive; therefore economists decree its downfall, and disendowed and disestablished it has been. Since such 264 RECORD OF RAMBLES. are the motives of those that might preserve it, we may well shed a tear over the fate of Z6j6gi. It is absurd for the government of Japan to open Science and Art Museums, and court the influx of Western civilization, when all the while "the beam in their own eye" prevents them from realizing the worth of the mouldering treasures here and at Nikko. To return to the shrine of Hidetada. It is a tall octagonal building, surrounded by a palisade of stone, and approached by a few steps. An outer building there is, through which in days gone by pilgrims were permitted to catch a glimpse of the interior. Within the railing are two conical black stones, on one of which is carved a trinity of deities, and on the other the entrance of Buddha into Nirvana, the subject treated in a similar fashion to that in a picture we shall describe at Kioto. The latter stone was called by the priests "Nehan," signifying, " There is nothing ; " and an inscription on it showed that it had been carved two hundred and forty years ago, twelve years, that is, after Hidetada's death, and about half a century, it is said, after the sacred site for these temples had been removed to Shiba from its old situation, where the Shiro or Castle now stands. Inside the shrine is a monumental urn, most richly lacquered, standing on a stone pedestal. It is nothing more than a cenotaph, the body being interred below. It contains, how- ever, a small stone on which the deceased Emperor's name is inscribed. Behind it is placed a box with a handle, always kept ready at hand to carry off the precious relic in case of fire. Amongst the camellias at the foot of the hill we next sought the shrine of Hidetada's wife, a building peculiarly ornate, because, so runs the story, she dying first, her husband himself superintended its erection. Her tomb, together with those of four of her daughters, is outside the shrine. The external wood carving under the eaves was remarkably good, and consisted, as usual, of YOKOHAMA AND TOKIO. 265 dragons, storks, and foliage. Its interior was remarkable for the height of the columns supporting the roof, which, together with the darkness of the place and the arrange- ment of the ornamental work, gave it an air of barbaric splendour. A crowd of pilgrims bowed me in, after I had removed my shoes ; and I noticed that few, if any, of the sacred vessels had been removed. Indeed, so sacred was this shrine considered before the Revolution of 1868 that none but dukes might enter the first court, none but princes the second, and none but the Shogun himself, once a year, the third ; yet through them all we now might pass unchecked and unmolested. Amongst the other places in Z6j6gi which merit a remark was a shrine containing the bronzes and ornaments saved from the fire of the great temple, but into which we were only permitted to peep through wooden bars. In front of this was a pond, crossed by a bridge as round as those depicted on the willow-pattern plates. It was astonishing with what ease the Japanese, in their clogs, walked over these bridges. For my part, I had to take a run in order to reach the centre of the span, and then make the descent on the further side in an ignominious sedentary posture. The pond was filled with sacred gold and silver fish, for which it is the custom of the pilgrims to buy cakes from a young girl who dwells by the water's edge. Upon the cake being thrown in, the girl claps her hands, and a fish rises and devours it. In one of the courts was an enormous bronze bell, which had lost its bell-tower; and over the gate by which we went out hung a Chinese paper-lamp, at least ten feet in height. In quitting Z6j6gi, I may say. that I fear the detail with which I find myself describing these temples may prove as fatiguing to my readers as the " insatiable thirst*" for them which caused me never to miss seeing one during my travels, if I could possibly reach it, proved to my companions. But my excuse for dwelling on * See Ten Months from Home. 266 RECORD OF RAMBLES, them in the case of Japan is, I think, a valid one. In no other Eastern country, up to the time of the civil war of 1868, was the Buddhist ritual, mixed though it was with ancestor- worship, carried out with greater spirit than in Japan. We were there at a time when the memory of the past was still fresh ; when the temples were open to foreigners ; and when too they had not had time to decay, as they must do ere long for want of renewal. When all these things shall have passed away, as very soon they will, then the record of the traveller who went about, note-book in hand, at the time when we did, will be of value to the student of history and religion. After one of the mornings spent at Z6j6gi, we drove to a hill called Atago Yama, commanding a panoramic view of the whole city and the bay of Yedo beyond. There are numerous tea-houses on the top, where the native gentle- men listlessly dream the afternoons away. The ascent to these is by a long flight of stone steps, having a sort of loop-line in the centre, branching off from the main flight, but joining it again- at the top. The design of this, we were told, was that men and women should not ascend by the same road. Considerable amusement was occasioned on this day, owing to our utter inability to make ourselves understood at a "Nippon chou-chou" house, or native restaurant, to which we went to get something to eat. Leaving our shoes at the foot of the stairs, we were shown into an upper room. Mats were spread for us to sit upon, and we were left to await the result. After the exercise of some patience, the meal arrived : first a minute portion of raw fish, next soup in lacquer bowls, made of prawns, ceps, and the balance uncertain ; then eggs ; then more fish, and hard unleavened cakes. Bass's beer was to be had, a beverage much in vogue among the Japanese ; and we then tasted the native drink, seki, for the first time. It was served in tiny cups of egg-shell china, and tasted like YOKOHAMA AND TOKIO. 267 warm vermuth. The young ladies who served us seemed keenly alive to a joke, and could not repress their merriment at the clumsy use we made of the chop- sticks. They were never rude, however, and on taking our leave, they touched the floor with their foreheads, in token of respect. We now went to Asakusa, "the most popular and celebrated temple" in Tokio, and perhaps in all Japan. The worship there is of the mixed kind, partly Buddhist and partly the hero worship of ancestors, together with that of demons and demi-gods of all descriptions. The whole scene is more like a gay fair-day, when all the country comes to the town to hold a revel, than any- thing else. We passed through a bazaar of little shops, full of toys, and trinkets, and masks, on our way up to the great gate -house of the temple. Every face — and the place was crowded — wore a merry expression, as if all had come there to keep holiday. The two great kings, or Nio, which stand on each side of the gate in their respective cages, are unusually large and hideous at Asakusa. Their bodies were bespattered with paper pellets, which devotees spit through the bars. If they stick, the omen is a good one ; if not, ill luck may be the result. Flocks of sacred pigeons are kept here, which it is the pious duty of the worshippers to feed with rice from little pots, purchased at stalls kept for that purpose. Kwanwon,or Kuannon, is the presiding deity at Asakusa, and in honour of this god a sacred white pony has his stable hard by. A massive bronze incense-burner stands at the top of the temple steps. To the right of this is an image of Biuzuru, a disciple of Buddha, which believers have rubbed on the face and stomach to cure pains in the corresponding parts of their own bodies, till those portions in the god are worn quite concave and shiny. 268 RECORD OF RAMBLES. The walls and roof around are covered with pictures and emblems. A large mirror of European make is hung up on one side. The inner portion or chancel of this temple is screened from the rest by a gauzy veil or network, within which the priests appear burning incense, chanting their invocations, always in the minor key, or pursuing the other minutiae of their office, such as lighting and extinguishing tapers, arrayed the while in the vestments appropriate to the several orders to which they belong. The outward ceremony is so like that performed in a Roman Catholic church, that one could scarcely have believed that the Jesuits had not here left a trace of their former influence behind them, if they themselves had not noticed the resemblance on their first arrival, and spoken of it as "diabolo csmulante Christum" Outside the screen is the alms-box, and in front of this kneel the devotees, some of whom seemed to be worshipping with unfeigned faith. I especially noticed a young girl, who, regardless of the busy hum around her, was clasping her hands between her prayers, apparently in an agony of supplication. Kuannon is the god (or goddess, for there is a male and female deity) of Mercy, and is often represented with numerous arms. At the back of the temple amuse- ments were going on — shooting- booths, menageries, and peep-shows. The most childish things delight this child- ish people. There are also some famous mud figures, weird and ugly, representing the miracles of Kuannon. From Asakfisa we went to the pleasure-grounds of Muko- jima, where the road is lined with cherry-trees, which unfortu- nately had passed their bloom. The gardens are laid out with the usual native taste; — rock- work, rude inscribed mono- liths, and neat little shrines, like summer-houses, meeting the eye at every turn. We next went to a place revered by every true Japanese who prizes his honour more than his life, the Tombs of the Forty-seven Ronins. These persons YOKOHAMA AND TOKIO. 269 are renowned for having, one and all, cut themselves in sunder, in obedience to the punishment known as seppuku, or vulgarly harakiri; — their reason for doing so being that they had formed a conspiracy, and had avenged their master's death by the assassination of his murderer. The tombs we found in the corner of a cemetery, a plain row of sculptured stones ; and near them was a well, in which their heads are said to have been washed after having been severed, as was the custom, from their bodies. In the same precinct was a temple in which a full service was being held, which gave us additional material for comparison with the ritual of unreformed Christendom. The whole interior was dimmed by the incense which rose from the brasier. Here, as at Asakfisa, a veil separated the inner chamber from the rest of the building ; devotees were pros- trating themselves before it ; candles, arranged in pyra- midal form, were burning on either side the altar, which was covered with brass candlesticks, and decorated with flowers — a mirror (eight inches in diameter) forming the central object. A priest was mumbling, I had almost said, "the Mass," while others moved to and fro lighting the candles, and having their strings of beads in their hands. Lastly, as if to make the resemblance complete, one priest near the door was selling dispensations, written on slips of paper, together with trumpery pictures of divinities, sur- rounded by halos of fire or glory. Such ceremonies as these may well have astonished Francis Xavier. Is there a definite connection between the Christian ritual and the northern Buddhist one .'' or are they the independent out- growth of the temperament of devotion .' The true answer seems in this case to lie between the two. Pilgrimages to and from India, China, Persia, and the West formed the connection in the ages previous to Christianity. For the developments we must look to the characteristics of the several peoples themselves. 2/0 RECORD OF RAMBLES. In the northern part of the city are the temples and mausoleums of Uyeno, where the six last Shogftns lie buried. As at Z6j6gi, the tombs are placed on the side of a wooded hill. A broad street brought us up to the entrance. Uyeno is famous for having been the forlorn hope of the late Shogun, when he made his final stand against the troops of the Micado in 1868. The plain black gate through which we passed showed signs of the affray, since it was riddled by bullet-holes, fired from a cannon stationed on the top of a neighbouring tea-house. The position was a poor one ; the gate was soon taken by storm ; and the ruins of a great temple in the midst of the grounds showed the devastation wrought on the building in which a part of the vanquished army took refuge. A pretty sight is the terrace at Uyeno, with its numerous tea- houses, eachr presided over by a bevy of maidens, in their neat dresses of red and blue, who clap their hands as an invitation to enter and partake of refreshment. I noticed that the tiles in the ruined temple here bore the Micado's badge, and was told that it was here that a relation of his — who was the high priest of all Japan — ^had had his resi- dence during the later days of the Shogunate, being kept, I suppose, by the temporal emperor as a sort of hostage for the good behaviour of the spiritual sovereign at Kioto. Near the ruins is a truncated pyramid of stone, about twenty-five feet in height, with a flight of steps leading to the top. Our guide informed us that it had been used as a place of execution ; but it may only have been the base- ment of some wooden structure — a bell-tower perhaps — destroyed by fire. Whatever it was, its likeness to the teocallis of Mexico and Central America was remarkable. In the woods in rear of the ruins are distinct traces of the double line of ramparts of some ancient fortification. In the centre of a dark glade are the tombs of the six Shoguns. They are similar to those at Z6j6gi, except YOKOHAMA AND TOKIO. 27 1 that there are no shrines adjacent. A well-kept modem cemetery — ^which would be a pattern to many an English churchyard — is to be found at no great distance. The graves are hedged round with stone coping or trellis-work ; but the areas inclosed are flat. The monuments are of varied design, figures of Buddha being not uncommon. Some are inscribed in the Chinese seal character. There is a handsome five-storied pagoda in the middle. The grand old trees which, though it is so near the city, give to Uyeno the cool shadows of the forest, have made this vicinity a favourite one with the citizens, and neat suburban residences are growing up round it In the garden of one of these I saw a large black butterfly, whose sable plumage shone with the lustre of a raven's wing. There are several shrines in Uyeno, and notably a very handsome one to lyeyasu, who is buried, however, not here, but at Nikko. In another building is a moulder- ing figure of Buddha, made of bronze plates, and stuffed with mud. In front of him a sparrow was eating the food set for the god. Our friends, Mr. Yamamoto and Mr. Yamaoka, were so kind on one occasion as to invite us to partake with them of what in America would be called a Japanese "square meal" at a noted restaurant or hotel in the Asakusa quarter of Tokio, known as Nakamuraya, or " the house of a thousand mats " — the size of a house being gauged by the number of mats, each six feet by three, which can "be spread over the surface of its floors. The reptist was, it must be admitted, if taken as a whole, more curious than palatable. We began with tea and cakes ; then followed soup in lacquer bowls, which, by the way, are intended to hold hot things. Next came raw fish, as clear and delicate as crystal, served on a row of little glass bars. Joined together with silk, and garnished with flowers. The flakes, when once we could adjust them between the points of the chop- 2/2 RECORD OF RAMBLES. sticks, and dip them in this manner into a little pot of soy, were not so bad after all. Then we had lobster ; then a bird, cooked in the feathers on chestnuts ; then boiled fish ; then a basin of eels, quail, and batter mixed up to- gether, which was delicious. This course was followed by- sweets of various kinds, washed down by warm seki, taken at intervals, and cups of tea. I rather relished my dinner ; but — different people have different opinions — F. did not. Our friends taught us how to drink with them in Japanese fashion. A bowl of water is placed between the parties. One of them then passes his little empty cup through the water, and setting it in front of his friend, fills it with seki. The other then returns the compliment with his own cup in similar fashion. Oddly enough, this seki, which seemed to us most mild and harmless stuff, soon makes the natives intoxicated. Intent, on describing our menu, I had almost forgotten to mention that we experienced an earthquake between the courses. It was accompanied by a heavy rumbling sound, during which the floor visibly oscil- lated, and the corners of the room, together with the doors and windows, though dovetailed, creaked with the strain. Later in the day we had the return shock. The sky was lurid, and there was a thunder-storm. After dinner our friends played two native games for our amusement. The first was called "Go," meaning " Five,'' and is very popular. It consists of a board arranged in i8 x i8 oblong compart- ments. It is played with bone counters, black and white, and the object is to get five in a row on the angles, or to prevent your adversary from doing so. Another game on the same board is to hem in your adversary by getting four of your men round one of his. The second game, " Shogi," or Japanese chess, is very curious, since it differs essentially from our own. The board is a square, con- taining 9x9 compartments. The pieces are arranged in three rows ; and when you take a piece from your enemy. YOKOHAMA AND TOKIO. 273 you can turn him upside down, and use him as one of your own men. A plan of the board will give a better idea of the game than any description.* ,^ U, V ,u, ,^^ u U g li. V, KJ U U \J l) i; ^] ' 1 u '/S\ A 'ffi' & III 1' /H (Sl A u ^ ' k -. ,1^ a' (i\ v»v M' ■A' 'M' ^ (i\ In the afterri oon, i n spit e of h eavy 1 ■ain, -w re wer it in ji] rikshas to Go Hiyako Rakan, or the temple of the five hundred gods, far out in the unimproved suburbs of the city. Here, much to their surprise, our Japanese friends found that the principal building had either fallen or been taken down since they had last visited it a few years since — a good illustration of how rapidly these temples are passing away, never again to be set up. The structure that remains is in a rickety condition, and there appeared to be no priests to look after it. A great concourse of gods were there, all huddled together in a very confined space. In the middle was Buddha himself, seated on a pile of rocks. On his * See note in Appendix on the names of the pieces and their moves. 274 RECORD OF RAMBLES. right was Kasha, the collector of his teachings ; and on his left, Anan, equally famous for his memory. Beneath this group was a white elephant, a lion, and a three-eyed dog. In one corner sat Ima, lord of hell ; and the whole area was surrounded by an endless multitude of gilded wooden figures of disciples seated, three rows deep, around the walls. It was a strange weird sight, this mouldering ruin, with its stiff stark occupants, and we were glad to get back as quickly as possible to the warmth of more civilized quarters. , Once or twice after this we went to Tokio, on one occasion to visit the shops and the museum ; and on another to dine with Dr. Antisell, an American gentleman, the head of the chemical department under the Japanese government. The Tori and the Gin-za are the two best shopping streets. Some of the vases and bronze articles in the bazaars here were handsome ; but the prices the dealers want for these things are far greater than what they would fetch if sold in London. The number of photographers' shops struck us as remarkable. Upon the discovery of the process, the Japanese at once turned their attention to it, and their natural vanity has brought a rich harvest to their numerous native photographic artists. One of these, Uchida, produces pictures of Japanese scenery which equal those of the European artists settled in the country. The Imperial Museum, called Hakurankei, is arranged in one of the houses which belonged to the Daimios. It contains a fairly good collection of stuffed animals and birds, and, in the antiquarian department, a few of those flint arrow- heads and stone implements which have always been re- garded with so much reverence by the Shinto or Kami priests.* Some paintings of horsemen, of great age and drawn on .skins, were interesting from the likeness they bore to the figures in the Bayeaux tapestry. * For a detailed account of these and other Japanese antiquities, see my little work, Niphon atid its Antiquities. YOKOHAMA AND TOKIO. 27 S At Dr. Antisell's I spent a most pleasant evening, meet- ing there also Mr. Munroe, an accomplished geologist, and Mr. Joudan. The former told me that the stone of which the houses at Yokohama are built is a volcanic tufa, but that it had been broken up and redeposited, which accounted for the presence of organic remains, a difficulty I had not been able to solve. I had some further conversa- tion on the origin of the Japanese and their character, which was of interest. The northern island of Yesso is peopled by a rude race called Ainos, an ethnological link along the island chain of the Curiles and Krafto, with the ancient inhabitants of the Kamschatka promontory. Formerly these people occupied the northern half of the island of Niphon, till they were conquered by the forces of Zinmu coming from Kiushiu. But whence the followers of this general came, before they arrived in Kiushiu, it is hard to say. Whether there was an admixture of Polynesian blood in their veins, or whether the continent of Asia alone is responsible for their presence, as it is for so much of their religion and so many of their manners and customs, is a point not yet settled among ethnologists. The stone arrow-heads, and comma-shaped ornaments called Magatamas, are wor- shipped, because they belonged to ancestors ; and there is the same l^end with regard to the former being "thunder- bolts," which is found throughout north-western Europe. The Ainos themselves are a hirsute race, and in this respect differ from the smooth-faced effeminate Japanese ; but they are, genercJly speaking, mild and peaceable. They worship the bear; and some of their religious rites have much in common with the Shinto, or Kami (spirit) worship in Japan. As to the character of the Japanese at present, they are, in our point of view, a childish race. This, perhaps, is partly to be accounted for by their position as islanders, and consequent complete isolation until recently from the world and its ways. They are like children brought up by parents T 2 276 RECORD OF RAMBLES. at home. More particularly is this seen amongst the lower classes, whose meriy laugh, and pleasant, innocent, lovable ways — though sometimes amounting to intrusiveness — one cannot fail to like. Amongst the upper classes, however, who have come in contact with foreigners and their deceits, a reaction from this childishness, aroused by an interference of which, like spoiled children, they were always jealous, has produced an external show of great urbanity, behind which is almost invariably concealed an unwillingness to expand, or to commit themselves, mingled perhaps with a little fear and dislike of that superiority in the new-comers which in their hearts they must acknowledge. The system of universal espionage practised amongst themselves has made them suspicious of outsiders, and cautious towards each other. There is, too, at the root of their character, a great deal of apathy and listlessness ; and though they have caught greedily at the idea of copying European progress, and though the government is sending young men to re- ceive education abroad, it is doubtful whether they will be found in the end to have sufficient spirit to bring anything to perfection. They are not alive to the fact that much more than can be attained by the imitative faculty alone is needed to insure real progress. Progress is a growth, and is not like a sack into which an indi- vidual or a nation can expect to jump all at once. The government of the Shoguns, wrapped up in its cloud of superstition, supporting and embellishing a grand re- ligious ceremonial, clothed in a gorgeous dress indicative of barbaric mysticism and exclusiveness, abhorred foreigniers, and a policy of progress ; and in this feeling it was upheld by all those princes and feudal chiefs, of whom the old prince of Satsuma is a living example. The government of the Micado, on the other hand, though a sovereignty revived from far older times, does not represent the con- servative ideas which were once expected from it, but hcis YOKOHAMA AND TOKIO. 277 taken away the immense revenues derived by the hierarchy from their lands, and curbed the power of those nobles who were opposed to opening the country to foreigners. It remains to be seen how far the people will acquiesce in a result so unexpected. As a rule, the Japanese are ex- tremely quick at understanding a new thing. This I observed particularly in the case of children. They take keen interest in anything that strikes them. They can adapt foreign inventions to their own requirements, and even improve upon them. Like children, however, they are apt to weary of what they take in hand before their knowledge of it is perfect, or, more commonly, to think they know how to do a thing before they really do. As an instance of what I mean, a story is told which is much to the point. When the Queen presented the Emperor with a steamboat, a staff of engineers accompanied her, in order to teach the natives how she was to be worked. After a few trips they were convinced they knew all about it, and so, leaving their instructors on shore, they steamed out into the Bay of Yedo by themselves. They knew, it was true, how to set her machinery going ; but there was no one on board who remembered how to stop her. What would have become of them none can tell, had not the happy thought occurred to somebody to go round and round in a circle until the steam was exhausted, or until they could be relieved from shore. Great reforms, too, in some departments of the government are necessary. The administration of justice is a crying disgrace; and yet they wish to make foreigners amenable to it. If you see a man steal a thing, and report him to the police, and he denies it, he is let off, because his word is as good as yours, although the article may be found on him. A criminal is never punished for his crime until he has confessed ; so when the judge is convinced that he has got the right man, he has him tortured because he won't confess, and until he 278 RECORD OF RAMBLES. does SO. Then he is punished either by crucifixion, being tied to a cross and transfixed with spears, or else by de- capitation. We were told, on the highest authority, by a gentleman connected with the management of British interests in Japan, that, living near a magistrate's oflfice, he was frequently kept awake at night by the screams of wretches undergoing torture. May 2. F. gave a dinner party at the Grand Hotel, Yokohama. Speeches followed, Mr. Yamamoto propos- ing, most neatly and appropriately, the health of Queen Victoria. Captain Shafto followed with that of his Imperial Majesty the Micado, Harcourt leading a chorus of " For he 's a jolly good fellow," which the Japanese took in very good part. I fear there are very few people less free to lead a "jolly" life than the poor Micado, since, until within the last few years, when he has adopted the European dress, he was considered so holy that he might not even touch the ground with his feet. Nevertheless, the chorus came in "excellently well." Next morning \May 3] I took a walk with Yamamoto to Ici-yama, where there is a place for gymnastic exercises, and also numerous Shinto shrines, in which divine service, such as it is, is performed twice a day. At some of these shrines bottles of wine had been offered, in addition to countless strips of paper and wisps of straw, which, by the way, my informant told me, were in memory of the materials used by their ancestors for their doors and windows. Another was a fox shrine (the foxes, though devils, carry prayer-m"essages to the god), full of models of little foxes. Then there was a neat little shrine, with a mirror in it, which was a sailors' shrine. All these were carefully tended, and their woodwork looked as clean as if they were scrubbed every day. Each one had its bell to call the attendant spirit. This evidently repre- sents the present religion of the lower classes — nothing more nor less than fetichism. It is not held to be pure YOKOHAMA AND TOKIO. 279 Shintoism ; but each one makes for himself a httle worship of his own. Three massive blocks of granite had been transported to this place as offerings — all, as a placard told us, at the cost of one individual. One block formed a bridge twenty-three feet long; and another had hollow basins at the top, worn by the action of water. On the 5 th of May we accepted a kind invitation from Lieutenants Carpenter and Balfour to go on board the Challenger, which was shortly to leave for Kob^. They showed us some most interesting photographs, taken by their special photographer, amongst which I remember one of the albatrosses seated on their nests in Maguelan Island ; one of Tristan d'Acunha; and one of a little desert island from which they had rescued an unhappy Dutch- man. Their museum was filled with curiosities of all kinds, amongst which were some spears from the Admiralty Islands, with obsidian heads seven inches in length. Of course, we were shown some of the mud from the deep- sea dredgings, but had no time to examine it with the microscope. There were specimens of marine life in abundance from lesser depths, notably lots of young lobsters. The cruise up to this point had added upwards of three thousand new forms of marine organic life to the ones already known. We were also shown the instruments for bringing up water from any given depth, and the thermometer for discovering the temperature at the same, which seemed even more ingenious than those for bringing mud or water from the bottom. One of the brass water- tubes, which had accidentally been sent down without any air in it, had, when at a depth of three hundred fathoms, been completely flattened by the pressure of the water. It was squeezed together as a card-board box would have been if squeezed by the hand. We also saw the' dredges and the india-rubber pipes by which to save the strain on the line. Next day \May 6] some of the officers dined with 28o RECORD OF RAMBLES. US at the Grand Hotel, and Lieutenant Channer kindly gave me, for my museum, an obsidian spear-head, knife, and dagger from the Admiralty Islands, together with various other "curios" collected during the voyage. Having determined on making an excursion to Nikko, we spent all the next day (the 7th) in preparations. NIKKO. 281 CHAPTER XVI. NIKKO. I HAVE said that Japan is a land of loveliness, both in nature and art. What it possesses of the former it owes to its climate, and its rich volcanic soil. What it possesses of the latter, it is scarcely too much to say that it owes to the Shogiins. The beauties of Z6j6gi and Uyeno I have endeavoured to portray ; but no account of the magnificence and good taste displayed by the early members of the Tokugawa line would be complete without a notice of the shrines of Nikko, the resting-place of ly^yasu, who died in 1 61 6, and of his grandson ly^mitsu. If, when writing of Japan in general, Mr. Oliphant found it necessary to say that it was " difficult, in attempting to convey his first impressions of that country, to avoid pre- senting a too highly-coloured picture to the mind of the reader," I may naturally suppose that it will be a much more difficult task to avoid an error of this kind when I am describing that spot of all others to which the Japanese themselves, in common with every traveller who visits the islands, accord the palm for beauty. " Never say ' kikko' " {j,.e. "the beautiful"), runs the native proverb, "till you've seen Nikko." The range of the Nikkosan mountains lies some ninety miles N.N.E. of Tokio, and thither we de- termined, if possible, to proceed. There were a few difficulties in the way of our doing so. First of all, pass- ports were necessary — granted only to invalids, on the ground of benefit to be derived from the mountain air, or 282 RECORD OF RAMBLES. to persons pursuing scientific investigations. In the next place, carriages were indispensable, since we were obliged to carry our food with us, and a four-wheeled conveyance had only once passed along the road before, on the occasion of a journey recently undertaken by Sir Harry Parkes, It was doubtful, therefore, whether the state of the roads would permit of our getting there at all. However, preliminaries were at last arranged, and two changes of horses, besides three pack-horses laden with provisions, having been sent on, we left Tokio Station, in three carriages, at 9.30 a.iii., on the morning of the 8th of May. Our road was the Oshiu Kaido, which passes out of the city by the Nihon-bashi bridge. It' was here that two Englishmen were some time since killed by natives, under circumstances which are variously narrated. It was the season of a festival in Tokio, and paper fishes, inflated by the wind, were flying from poles or flagstaff's attached to many of the houses. The custom was, we were informed, specially observed in those domestic circles in which a son had been born during the past year. Passing Senji, a suburb of Tokio, and Takenotsu and Soga, villages consisting each of one long street, and situated in a flat country, richly irrigated for rice and barley crops, we reached the somewhat larger hamlet of Koshigaya in good time for a midday meal. Our party consisted of Mr. Yamamoto, Harcourt, Fitz- gerald, F., and myself; Sutherland, a stable-keeper; two " bettoes," or horse-coolies ; and the indefatigable See See, Fitzgerald's Chinese servant. 'We had provided ourselves with native bamboo hats before starting, made in such fashion that while they shelter the head from sun or rain, they allow the draught to pass freely over it. On the whole, they were not unbecoming ; but the odd appearance we must have presented did not produce the same effiect on the inhabitants which the dress of the Chinese boy did, who came in for a large share of observation and ridicule, not NIKKO. 283 unmixed with some of the odium, which the Japanese generally display towards the Chinese race. At a stall by the roadside we bought some thin rice cakes ; but they were salt and nasty. Beyond Koshigaya the flat delta country became picturesque, owing to the high hedges and bamboo enclosures which shut in the residences of the more wealthy farmers, whose taste for the cultivation of roses was dis- played in the neat and pretty gardens within. The height of our vehicle gave us the opportunity of peeping over these screens ; and in one of these gardens, standing on the threshold of her house, we saw a really tall and handsome native young lady, very different in style and deportment to the ordinary " mooshmee," or serving-girl who presides at the tea-houses. Young ladies of the higher class are kept in seclusion ; but the sight of our cavalcade made her curiosity rise to tiptoe, and she smiled a merry smile, as she returned the first and last bow we shall ever be likely to give her. In several of the rice-fields we noticed figures of birds made of mud, in accordance, I suppose, with some superstition. So well were they done that we took them at first for partridges. In one place we saw two men transferring water from a dike to a paddy-field by means of a bucket swung between them. The rapidity and dexterity with which they did their work was marvellous, and the bucket was of a make specially adapted for the purpose. Some of the houses were used as rice-mills, and in these a naked man would be seen pounding rice in a foot-mill, perspiring profusely all the while with the ex- cessive labour. At three p.m. we reached Kasukabe, our first change. Leaving it in twenty minutes, Sugito was entered at four, and Satt^ in less than half an hour. From this place to the ferry at Kurihashi, where we arrived at 5.15, the road ran along the top of an embankment, raised to preserve it in case of floods. Here the broad and rapid stream of 284 RECORD OF RAMBLES. the Ton^gawa had to be crossed. It is very deep in the middle, and was swollen by recent rains. An hour was occupied in getting all our equipages embarked on the largest ferry-punt, and not a little amusement was caused during the process ; but it was not without a feeling of relief that we saw them reach the opposite shore in safety. Nakata was the name of the village at which we landed ; and starting thence at 6.20 we reached Koga, our first night's resting-place, in half an hour, having travelled along the Oshiu Kaido, a distance of forty miles. In the street of this place, as we entered it, we passed a funeral. A procession of men and women were walking, two and two, from a temple at one end of the town, where a little service had been performed, to the cemetery at the other. Two men carried a pole between them on their shoulders, from which hung a square box about eighteen inches long, covered with a white cloth, and which contained the com- pressed body of the deceased. Koga had been, prior to the Revolution, a Daimio's town, and, with what light was still left, Yamamoto and I walked out to see what re- mained of the ancient castle. The ruins lay just outside the town. A deep moat was flanked by a steep earthwork, apparently some forty feet in height. A causeway crossed the moat to what had been the principal entrance. Passing over this and through the rampart we came into a small courtyard, having a wall of considerable strength facing us, evidently for the defence of the outer gateway. The road turned sharp to the right, and then to the left ; and we then found ourselves in a space covered in all directions with piles of ruins. On the left once stood a building of con- siderable size, which the people of the place told us had been the hall. It is the customary plan in all fortifications of this description in Japan for the inner and strongest part, or citadel, to be enclosed by several concentric walls and ditches. Thus we crossed a second moat and embankment NIKKO. 285 by a path which brought us up into a second and stronger position than the last ; and how naany more we should have had to pass before reaching the innermost ring I do not know. But darkness came on, and we were prevented from penetrating further. If we may believe the account of a native of Koga, we had still a very considerable distance to go inside the walls before we could have reached the ruins of the Daimio's residence. The circuit of some of these fortresses is known to be of immense extent. The power of the old feudal lords and their command of labour may be judged from the number of soldiers it must have required to defend such a castle as this when once reared. In this instance the fortress had been formed in a flat country, and derived no addi- tional strength from its natural position. At this place (Koga) we had our iirst experience of a native country inn. Compared to others we met with subsequently, it certainly was not a comfortable one. Besides having to lie on the floor, wrapped up in such rugs and coats as we had brought ourselves, we had more companions than we wanted ; and in addition to this, to drive all hope of sleep afar, no sooner had the nightly howling of innumerable dogs died hoarsely away, than an equally numerous choir of cocks, all in the best of voice, took up the chorus till the sun was up. I amused myself throughout a great part of the night in watching, through a chink in the screen which separated our apartment from the next, an old gentleman being shampooed for rheumatism. The operator burnished him from head to foot by rubbing in some greasy substance, frequently making passes and gesticulations like a mes- merist, while he kept up a buzzing sound like that made by grooms when using the curry-comb. Some of the Japanese wayside hotels, in towns of the size of Koga, are fairly comfortable places, for the same reason that old- fashioned inns are so in England. In the days when the 286 RECORD OF RAMBLES. Daimios made their annual or biennial journeys to Yedo, these were the places where they put up. Their retainers not infrequently numbered several hundreds; and although the Daimio himself carried his provisions with him, still the entertainment of so many guests must have made the innkeeper's an important, if not a prosperous, business. May 9. We left Koga at 6.40 a.m., and in an hour reached Mameda. It was, we were told, the festival of Buddha's birthday, which accounted for the people all along the road being dressed in their holiday attire. At Mamela we passed a " thanksgiving party," on their way to a temple. It was headed by the priest, who walked under a canopy of red and gold. No grown-up people took part in the procession ; but a train of children followed, bearing flowers. Europeans, and especially "carriage people," being a very unusual sight along this route, we frequently,' on this day, were able to sympathize with the Shah when he said, during his visit to London, that he had seen enough of crowds. The villages we passed were certainly very pretty; bunches of flowers were commonly hung up in front of the houses, or stuck into the neat thatch. Caged birds were suspended here and there, and especially in the proximity of temples — ^the object in keeping them being to sell them to those who wished to do an act acceptable to the god or to Buddha ; namely, to let them regain their liberty. My Japanese friend was very kind in pointing out to me the meaning of any strange object we passed. Here and there was a " road god," consisting of a rough stone fixed upright into another as its socket ; here was a " horseman's god," at whose feet whosoever worshipped would become a good rider; there was a torii bearing an inscription to the effect that the pathway through the glade led to the shrine of a warrior's spirit. The frequent occurrence of mounds, or barrows, by the roadside, is attributed to various causes. Where there are two of these, one on either side, they usually mark the NIKKO. 287 boundary of a village or small township, as two pieces of walling do in the case of larger towns. When there is a larger one by itself it may mark the boundary of a province. There is, however, a third sort, the origin of which is as fol- lows : It used to be the custom for farmers residing near the great thoroughfares to stop travellers, for the purpose of hearing the news and (as Mr. Yamamoto expressed it) "having some chaff with them." The messengers of the Sh6gun, however, were not permitted to suffer such interrup- tion, and were under orders to kill any that stopped them. Bloody deeds, in consequence of this, frequently took place ; and where any one of their number had been slain, his fellow-villagers raised on that very spot a mound to his memory. Such is the tradition, as it was told to me. We arrived at Oyama at 8.10 a.m., at Shinden at 8.55, and at Koganei at 9.5.* At Koganei, Yamamoto and myself occupied the few minutes we had to spare in visiting the school. Characteristically of the recent changes, the room in which it was held had been a Buddhist temple, completely divested of all its former images and furniture. The school was conducted on a system laid down by the government, but was supported mainly, if not entirely, by the voluntary contributions of the townspeople. When we entered, about a hundred children were seated on the floor of a fine lofty room, each one with a low stool or table before him, on which he was just then doing sums with the figures used by ourselves. The teacher explained to us that the course of study comprised the geography of Japan, and of that province in particular, writing and reading in Japanese, and arithmetic. If the Education Department at Tokio carries out the plan of adapting the Buddhist temples to its use, it will not only save immeasurably in cost of building, and turn to some use structures which * I mention the time in case this volume should fall into the hands of any intending traveller. 288 RECORD OF RAMBLES. must otherwise fall into decay, but it will possess the finest and healthiest schoolrooms of any nation in the world. Before returning to the carriages I bought a few children's plaster toys, one of which was a little model torii, and another a tumbling image of Dorima, a famous Buddhist reformer. Three-quarters of an hour's drive brought us to Ishibashi, and another hour to Suzumenomiya, where we lunched and changed horses. In a recess or cupboard in the living-room of the inn were the memorial tablets to the landlord's ancestors, preserved, as in the Chinese temples, with all the reverence and respect of household gods. Utsunomiya, a larger town than any other on the road, is a quarter of an hour's drive from the last-named place, and we reached it at noon. It was the scene of an important battle during the war of 1 868. Soldiers are quartered there ; and some of them (rough-looking fellows in uniform) were parading the streets, or brawling at the tea-houses over their seki. Like Koga, this was formerly a Daimio's town. Nakatokujiro was reached at 1.50, and Kamitokujiro at 2.5, beyond which place the road became rough and heavy. I have mentioned that all the grand highways of Japan are avenues. The Oshiu Kaido is no exception to this rule. From the ferry at Kurihashi to the point at which we had now arrived, the trees which overarched the road had hitherto been pines or gaunt old firs. From Kamitokujiro, however, to Nikko, a distance often miles, these less graceful trees gave place to the Cryptomeria Japonica alone, the elegance of whose tufted foliage exceeds anything in arboriculture I have ever seen elsewhere. The trees are planted in four rows, the central space being the widest, like the nave and aisles of a cathedral. The straightness of the timber, and the dark foliage above, make the simile still more apt ; while the roots of these grand old giants — upwards, perhaps, of two hundred years old — are often so closely locked one within the other that they have literally NIKKO. 289 grown together, and in some places form a wall of wood on either side of the road — as many as seven trunks some- times springing from what is to all appearance only a single root-crown. In this last ten miles of avenue alone there cannot be less than eighty thousand of these trees, through the occasional gaps in which, as we approached our destination, the beautiful volcanic range of the Nik- kosan, surmounted by the snowy cone of Chiuenzi, often comes in view. It was in honour of the Sh6gun's annual visit to the tombs of his ancestors that these trees were planted, and their venerable grandeur certainly inspires the traveller with the conviction that they must lead to something calculated to repay the pilgrim for his toil. A stream of water runs on each side of the central roadway, which, however, despite this drainage, is exceedingly heavy travelling. Near Osawa we noticed a group of wretched- looking . creatures, squatting under the trees of one of the side avenues, and apparently avoiding the gaze of passers-by. Their countenances had a swinish look, and in their exceedingly low type of features they reminded us of the Digger Indians of the Sierra Nevada. We were informed that they were Etas or Yedas — a name which cannot fail to call to mind a class of people in many respects answering to them — the Veddahs of Ceylon. They are the representatives of the lowest class in Japan, living on roots and insects, and their only occupations are those of skin -dressing, or assisting at crucifixions. They are despised and loathed by all, and formerly it was allowable for any man to kill them at his pleasure. It is said that gentlemen wearing swords used occasionally to try the temper of the steel on their bodies, as they still do on those of any unfortunate dog who may happen to lie in their way in the streets. Whether this group were Etas or not, they certainly appeared very brutish, and I should take them to be the survivors of some primitive U ago RECORD OF RAMBLES. race of the lowest type. Speaking of classes, Mr. Yamamoto told me that there is reason to believe that "caste" anciently- existed in Japan. Nothing of the sort is recognized now, although it is true that the son generally follows his father's trade, and that this continues from generation to generation ; but it is customary, not obligatory, and is by no means a usage always adhered to. At the head of society, next to the divine Micado, come the Daimios, of whom originally, before he usurped the sovereignty, the Shdgun, or " barbarian -quelling generalissimo," as his full title makes him, was the chief. Their power in their respective provinces was so great that the early Jesuit missionaries call them "kings." Under them, next in order, came the Samurai, or "gentleman" class, subdivided into several orders, ex-officio or by courtesy. They were vassals of the Daimios, and in the latter days of the Shogunate became turbulent and dangerous members of society. Their former importance was owing, perhaps, in part to the power they in many cases possessed of settling ques- tions arising amongst the lower classes, in the capacity of recognized arbitrators. Next to the Samurai, in the descending scale, comes the Ckonin, or shopkeeper, class, who, together with the Samurai, have certain public rights as regards local matters. They can meet, for example, in assemblies, and register their disapproval of some act of government, as far as it affects their own immediate neigh- bourhood or township. This vote of disapproval is trans- mitted to the government, and often used formerly to be acted on. Coolies hold the lowest rank in the Chonin class. While speaking of the shopkeeper class, I may mention that in Japan, as in Europe, certain shops have their signs, which are visible in the streets of every town and village. Thus poles, with hats upon them, designate the hatters' ; pictures of fans, mirrors, &c., show that the toilet-table may there be replenished ; a ball of dried cryptomeria NIKKO. 291 leaves (at Osawa) signified a seki-house ; and the model of a huge sweetmeat means a refreshment-stall, or a tea-house. The larger towns and cities are presided over by a mayor, called the vogiu; while the villages and small townships have each their presiding magistrate. The kendri is a civil arbitrator in these latter places, and the saibansha is a travelling justice of the peace. But we must regain our road from which we have diverged. Near the spot where the Etas were squatting, was a little ancestal shrine literally covered (as were also the trees and shrubs around) with strips of cloth, or paper, hung there in honour of the spirit* Pictures of gods and ancestral tablets adorned the tiny edifice. Other simple Shinto shrines in the same vicinity were filled with Phallic images — dozens of small ones, the gifts of devotees, surrounding the central and larger one, which was generally roughly carved in stone or wood. We reached Osawa at 3.30; but here the road became so bad that we exchanged our vehicles for jin-rikshas, and in these proceeded to Imaichi (5.15), where a second cryptomeria avenue joins the main road. This was the route taken by the envoy of the Micado when he came, every year in the fifth month, to pay a ceremonial visit, in his master's name, to the tombs of the Sh6guns. From here an uphill run of an hour and twenty minutes brought us to the end of the avenue, and to the street, with a deep drain in the centre, which forms the village of Hachiishi, the terminus of our journey. The house at which we were to take up our quarters was the residence of the mayor, Suzuki Kisokiro, It was situated at the head of the village. Being absent himself, his secretary * A precisely similar custom obtains amongst the Yezeedees of the Armenian mountains, one of the singular proofs of the unity of primitive superstitions throughout the great Orient. See Badger's Nestorians, vol. i., p. 99. A similar practice also exists in the case of some of the " holy wells " of Ireland, Scotland, and Cornwall. U 2 292 RECORD OF RAMBLES. did the honours, approaching us on his knees, with his head bent to the ground, and drawing a long hissing breath between each sentence he uttered. Fortunately for us the establishment had recently been rebuilt after a fire, so that we found it clean and comfortable. There was a court- yard, containing a trim little garden, with rpckwork, pollard trees, and small artificial ponds, into which bronze storks were gazing at bronze toads sitting on the brink. We occupied the end of the house nearest the river. The stream, as it now roared down from the mountains behind, did not occupy one-sixth of the broad bed of boulders which are covered by the torrent on the occasion of a flood. Our bedding on this night was truly Japanese in its singu- larity. For each guest a hard mattress had been spread on the floor, and by its side was placed what looked like a heavy stuffed dressing-gown. These garments — for such they were — ^were made of blue and red silk, and filled with down. By putting them on we literally put on our beds, so that when we lay down on the hard mattresses the couch, nevertheless, seemed both soft and warm, as was also the covering which fitted closely round us. Early next morning {May lotk) we were up and about, anxious to see the beauties which the shades of the previous night had concealed. At the foot of the hill on which the temples stand, and close to our hospice, rushes the swift mountain torrent Daiagawa, fresh from the waterfalls which leap forth from the sides of the sacred Chiuenzi above, and from the lake which sleeps near its summit. Surpassing in beauty any scenery I have ever witnessed before or since was this glen, as we saw it then in the early morning light, with the white foam pouring over huge grey granite boul- ders, and the pink azalia underwood clothing the volcanic peaks beyond. Above, the hazy yellow sky just changing into blue ; below, the roseate hue of the hillsides, dotted here and there with dark fir clumps, amongst which, at intervals, NIKKO. 293 peeped out a scarlet torii, or a thatched roof, denoting the presence of some spirit shrine. The Daiagawa is spanned by two bridges — the one for ordinary traffic — the other (the Mihashi, or " holy bridge ") opened twice a year, and then to pilgrims only. The granite piers on which this latter is supported are as gaunt and massive as the " trilithons " of Stonehenge, and would closely resemble them were it not that, as in the case of the toriis, they are strengthened by second transverse pieces, transfixing the jambs.* The bridge itself is painted vermilion, and clamped and other- wise ornamented with bronze. There are gates at either end. The date of its erection was 1636. There is a legend which relates that when the Buddhist saint, Sh6d6 Sh6nin, arrived at this spot in the year "j^y, he found the stream so swollen that he could not cross it, whereupon, at his prayer to " the gods and Buddha," two green and red snakes were cast over the chasm, upon which, when grass had grown up miraculously upon their backs as a token of the security of the structure, the saint and his followers crossed.f The sanctity of Nikko dates from this event, and the shrine of the dragons or serpents is still an object of veneration at the further end of the bridge. The ordinary bridge crossed, a hill rises on the opposite side enveloped in cryptomerias, through which a broad flight of stone steps, curving up- wards into the shadow of the forest, and covered with moss and lichen, leads by a winding route to terraces and courtyards lined with temples, each more elaborate than the last, till the spot is reached on the summit selected for the tomb. These terraces are arranged in zigzag fashion, being levelled out of the slope of the hill, and faced externally with uncemented polygonal masonry. At the top of the first flight of steps are the ruins of domestic * The jambs are twenty-four feet high. t See Mr. Satov/s excellent Guide to Nikko, published at the yapan iira«7 Office, Yokohama. 1875. 294 RECORD OF RAMBLES. buildings, once the residences of monks or priests, attend- ants on the temple. Turning to the left at this point, one long terrace is seen to skirt the hill, at the further end of which, and at right angles to it, commences the main avenue, which runs direct to the temple gate. This is a fine broad roadway, having a wall surmounted by a bank, planted with trees, on either side. It is spoiled, however, by the singular arrangement of a drain, or watercourse, in the centre. The enclosure on the left hand side is called the Hombd, where the Micado's younger brother, the high priest at Nikko, used to reside. In 1871 it was burnt down, and the government was, when we were there, building on its site a plain residence for the Shinto high priest. In their raid against the Shogunate, and its attendant Buddhism, the government, says Mr. Satow, burnt many other buildings, including temples, at Nikko. In a plot of ground adjoin- ing, near a little red temple in honour of Daishi, a large bronze lantern, about forty feet in height, called the Sorinto, was being erected, having been removed thither from another part of the precincts. The wall on the other side of the avenue contained, we were told, the ruins of the palace of the Shdgun, occupied by him or his envoy on the occasion of their annual visit. The avenue itself is composed of a succession of broad stairs or platforms, at the top of which stands a handsome granite torii, nearly thirty feet high, " the gift," says Mr. Satow, " of the Prince of Chikuzen, from his quarries, in the year 1618." Within a stone's-throw of this is another offering from a wealthy Daimio to the shrine of his master — a five-storied pagoda, round the lower part of which are carved the Japanese signs of the zodiac. Opposite to this, in an outer court, are some refreshment-stalls for the pilgrims ; and behind them, in a densely-wooded enclosure, is a red bell-tower, whose occupant, a deep-toned bell, sounds forth at inter- vals, as if in mockery at the desolation of those once NIKKO. 29S crowded courts, in which it was his place to bid the many thousand worshippers assemble. Perhaps the most striking features at Nikko, and those on which the greatest amount of art has been expended, are the gateways which lead from court to court. The first of these, to which the pilgrim ascends after passing the great torii, is called the Nidmon, from the two hideous figures before noticed. The place of these monsters has in this instance been taken by the two equally hideous Amainu, or sacred dogs, which formerly sat within the portal. Inside this gate is a broad courtyard of con- siderable length, gravelled with pebbles and paved in the centre, running at right angles to the direction of the avenue, and thus forming a second platform or terr^ice, levelled out of the hill. It is surrounded by buildings, three of which on the upper side are used as receptacles for the utensils, vestments, and scriptures necessary for the Buddhist ritual. The copy of the scriptures contained in one of them was said to be two hundred and fifty years old, and to be sealed up by the high priest, who alone may un- lock the doors. The buildings themselves are painted red, and under the gables of one of them are some excellent carvings of elephants, the work of a famous carver, whose name, Hidari Jingord, is deservedly recorded. Opposite to them are other buildings, such as a stable for a sacred pony, surmounted by caricatures of the monks, depicted as monkeys, which reminded us forcibly of the carvings on Miserere seats belonging to our own late middle ages. The duties of the sacred order are summed up in the popular estimation by the words, " Don't hear," " Don't say," " Don't see ;" and by the Japanese equivalent for these words the carvings in question are known. * As is usual in Buddhist * There is a pun attached to the words, just as a rebus on a motto or name is frequently seen in old English churches, or in " canting*' coats of arms. 296 RECORD OF RAMBLES. temples everywhere, Nikko has its sacred tree, an immense Podocarpus macrophylla, surrounded by a stone railing. A stone ewer, On-chodzu-ya, under an elegant canopy, clamped with engraved bronze, occupies the corner of this same court, and, like the torii and pagoda, was the gift of a noble Daimio. At this point the ascent makes a bend at right angles, and again faces the hill ; and it is here that the finest group of shrines first opens on the view. In the foreground stands a torii, ornamented with the three marsh- mallow leaves, the badge of the Shogun. Immediately behind it is a raised courtyard, shut off by a stone balus- trade, and approached by a flight of steps. This terrace contains several objects worthy of mention. Besides the usual drum and bell towers, of great height and symmetry, and a temple (now closed) to Yakushi Njori, the Buddhist .iEsculapius, there is a bronze lantern, of European design, presented by the king of Namban (Corea.'); a bronze cande- labrum, from the king of Liukiu ; and another, surmounted by a cross, presented by the Dutch in 1636, when Caron mentions the "extraordinary great edifice and building at Niako, which is to be the burial-place of the emperor's father, in whose temple the great copper crown which the East India Company gave his majesty last year is hung up." The donors were not permitted to penetrate so holy a precinct, or they would have seen that it was not " hung up," but put to stand on the ground. All of these are clearly, as Mr. Satow says, "the spoil of some Roman Catholic Church in the Netherlands," probably bought for a song by the merchants, who thought that they would be equally appropriate, and much more advantageously disposed of, if transferred to the heathen temples of the furthest Orient. The bronze lanterns here, as at Z6j6gi, found their appropriate place in this enclosure, as the stone ones did in that below. Flanking this court is a lon^faqade, containing what is unquestionably the finest wood-carving NIICKO. 297 in Nikko. It is divided into compartments, each one filled with a choice subject of birds or flowers so exquisitely treated, and coloured with so much delicacy and taste, that it is hard to realize that they are of native workmanship, until we remember that Europe at that time possessed nothing to compare with them. Harder still it is to believe that one gazes at them in no palace or exhibition of fine arts, but in the midst of a damp, dark forest, with no roof to shelter them, and, worse than all, no pious hands to save them from decay. Ducks just alighting on the water, pheasants rising through the underwood, peacocks with their tails spread, groups of many-coloured flowers, such are the subjects of these panels. In the centre of the fagade is the Yomei gate, leading to the courtyai'd next above, and which I cannot describe better than in the words of Mr. Satow. It is, he says, "a marvel of work- manship. The keyaki columns which support it are painted white, as well as the interior of the side niches, which are lined with arabesque of graceful design, founded upon the botan flower. The capitals of the columns are formed by the heads of the fabulous animal called kirhi. Above the architrave projects a balcony, which runs all round the structure, the railing being carried by dragons' heads, with two white dragons fighting in the central space. Under- neath is a row of groups of children playing, and other subjects, nine on each face. Below, again, are a curious network of beams, and seven groups of Chinese sages. The roof is supported by gilt dragons' heads, with gaping crimson throats, and from the top a gilt dragon's head looks down on the spectator.'' The engraved brass-work, too, on this gateway, representing the fabulous " hodo," the phoenix of Japan, together with a variety of patterns formed on flowers, is specially worthy of remark. In the days of the temple's prosperity, all the carved work which was painted received a fresh coat every twenty years at the 298 RECORD OF RAMBLES. hands of the first artists of the day. At present the almost valueless cash offered by the pilgrims is all the support the temple receives, and that goes to save from starvation the few solitary priests who act as showmen. The court into which the Yomei gate leads was the scene of the sacred rites performed by the priests on the two annual festivals — the 1st of June and the 17th of September. It was in one of the buildings in this court that the kagura (literally, "please god "), or religious dance, was performed ; and it was in the cloister, or piazza surrounding it, that the litanies were chanted, while a profusion of incense went up through the forest to heaven. Here, too, is the last and uppermost en- closure, or Tanagachi, and within it the Haiden, or spirit chapel, entered through a gateway called the Karamon. Though not so elaborate as the Yomei, this gate is of equally rich design, being composed of inlaid Chinese woods, and was probably the more costly of the two. The chapel — into which, until recently, no Japanese but the priest might enter — is remarkable for its ceiling, which is divided into a hundred panels, each panel containing a golden dragon on a blue ground, and each dragon represented, it is said, in a different attitude. The poetry inscribed on thirty-six paint- ings, which at present adorn the walls, is a monument to the literary attainments of the Micado's court, being in the handwriting of the emperor Gomizo Tenno. At either end of the apartment is a waiting-room, the walls of which are adorned with eagles and phoenixes, the one for the Shdgun, the other for the "lord-abbot." The sanctum sanctorum is reached by descending a step into a small apartment opposite the entrance. Two doorways open into it, one on either side of a plain lacquered table, on which is placed a pot of sakaki* hung with strips of paper, a mirror, and * A plant said to have been used by the ancient inhabitants to keep off bugs. From our experience of the inns, we often wished the present Japanese would resort to it again. NIKKO. 299 a gohei. The arrangement of the inner chamber is the same as at Z6j6gi. Four richly-lacquered doors are closed across the further side of the apartment, behind which are deposited the posthumous titles of the deceased. The Buddhist furniture of this chapel, which in magnificence was, without doubt, in keeping with the rest, has been expelled from the shrine, and a gohei (which Mr. Satow religiously believed to be " gold," but which one of us, by sacrilegiously jumping over the rails and pinching, while the priest's back was turned, found to be merely gilded paper) is all that now supplies its place. On coming out of the chapel we seated ourselves on the steps and watched the pilgrims as they rang the jingling bell outside the hall, or clapped their hands — poor crea- tures — for the spirit to appear, or threw their cash into the money-chest, which done, a priest presented them with a slip of paper, on which was written a word or two in Chinese cha- racters, as a keepsake in memory of their visit. The actual burial place of ly^yasu himself is situated on the summit of the hill, far above the shrine of his spirit. Passing out of the enclosure by a door on the eastern side, over which is the figure of a cat,* we reached the tomb by a flight of two hundred and eleven steps, winding upwards through the cool dark forest. The stotie balustrade of these steps is formed so substantially that, in every case, five pillars, together with the coping and the base, have been hewn out of one single block of granite. The tomb itself is in every respect like that I have described at Z6j6gi. Before it is a low altar-table of stone, bearing an inscription, commencing " Presented to the mountain of Nikko," &c. Several hand- some bronze articles are placed upon or beside it, amongst them a capacious incense-burner, a flower-vase with the * It is called Nemuri no neko, or the "sleeping cat," and is the work of Hidari Jingoro. It contains, no doubt, a pun on the word "Nikko," in neko = a cat. 300 RECORD OF RAMBLES. lotus, and a stork bearing a candlestick. The whole is surrounded by a stone railing, the gateway in which is of cast bronze. Outside there is a platform containing holes or sockets, intended for banners on ceremonial occasions. We now returned to the outer gate or Nidmon, and followed a pathway leading to the western side of the hill, on which are several groups of sacred edifices. The first pointed out to us was the Sambutsu Do, a large structure, now shut up, but said to be filled with Buddhist images, ready for removal or destruction. Another, a little further on, is sacred to "one of the three original Gongen of Nikko," who seem to have been deified mortals, worshipped in Japan long prior to the Buddhist encroachment in the sixth cen- tury. The three Buddhist deities of the Northern or Chinese Pantheon, who are regarded as their equivalents, are Amida Buddha and the two Kwanwons. The Riobu sect, who mingled Shinto and Buddhist deities and rites, worshipped the same trio under the names of "Daikoku ten, Benten, and Bishamon ten." All this, however, is very abstruse and mythological, and it will be better to confine ourselves to a description of the shrine, and what we heard of its presiding genius loci. It is specially dedicated to Oonamuji- no-micoto, the first of the mystic trio, whose statue is said to be kept in a closed shrine in the building. The temple is divided into two parts. The front is emptied of all, save its drapery and the usual sakaki plant with paper- hangings, while the inner chamber or stage has its mirror and gohei — the former outside, the later inside, a gauzy screen or blind. Of the hero-deity, whose house this is, Mr. Yamamoto supplied me with the following curious legend, which I have not seen elsewhere recorded. He was, he said, the chief of the old inhabitants, who many centuries ago surrendered to the present Japanese. When conquered, he acted as a guide to the visitors, and hence he is the same as Kosin, the " road-god." His descendants NIKKO. 301 live in caves and tents, and have not the same usages as the Japanese. They hunt with arrows, poisoned with a poison which they keep a secret among themselves. That by these people were intended the Ainos was clear, when my inforftiant added that they were still to be found in the island of Yesso, whence some of them had recently been brought to Tokio to be educated. I can scarcely believe that some kernel of history does not lie within the shell of this tradition, and that possibly it may point to the fact that when the Ainos,* who anciently inhabited the island of Niphon, were conquered, some of them, who were not driven across the channel, may have been employed to make the roads, and to do other gigantic work, for which slave labour would be required. The name given to Oonamuji-no-micoto by the Buddhists was Shingu Gongen. Upon a bronze torii leading to this Gongen shrine, and also in and about the shrine itself, was a badge altogether different from that on those dedicated to the Shoguns. It consisted of a circle, the whole figure of which was taken up by three pear, or rather comma-shaped com- partments, alluding possibly to the triple nature of the Gongen. t Throughout China and Japan a circle divided into two compartments on this principle is the ordinary representation of the Dual, or the Yang and Yin of the ancient Cosmic philosophy, and a kind of little ornament frequently found in Japanese temples, and called a Maga- tama (of which we shall speak presently), seems to represent a single portion when separated from the rest. On the op- posite side of the road to the Shingu Gongen stand two buildings, called the Hokke Do and the Joio Do. In the latter are deposited the bones of Yoritomo, the first Sh6gun, * For other native traditions of the Ainos, see my Niphon and its Antiquities, t The likeness between this pattern and one found on ancient Irish crosses is very remarkable. 302 RECORD OF RAMBLES. whose city, as we have seen, was Kamakura. His temple was the only one from which the Buddhist paraphernalia had not been removed, and in which the ritual of- that religion was still being carried on. I could only attribute this to the fact that — not being of the Tokugawa dynasty — his shrine would not have fallen under the Micado's curse. Besides images of gods and ceremonial utensils, the priests possessed some books, amongst which were two volumes of moral lectures, and one illustrated by engravings, supposed to instruct the priest how to place his hands when engaged in special portions of the service. On all four sides of the hall blinds were hung up to keep out the light. Tapers were burning round the reliquary, which was in the shape of a small pagoda, placed on a piece of furniture resem- bling a four-post bed. Three gilded images were seated before it, and there was an altar-table, on which lay the books above-mentioned, in front of a figure of Buddha. On my trying to purchase the pictorial Directorium, an amusing scene occurred. I offered the priest a dollar for it, which I placed on the palm of my hand. At first he shook his head, and grinned incredulously; but finding I was in earnest, the poor fellow became frantic with excitement. He sorely wanted the dollar, but he dared not part with the book; for, as he explained to Fitz- gerald's Chinese servant, there was a "Number one big Joss-pidjin man" {j.e. a greater priest than himself) behind the scenes, who would whip him if he sold it. In the end he got the dollar for his honesty ; and I did not get the book. In the Hokk^ Do there was nothing extraordinary to be seen, so crossing a little dell, and climbing a long flight of rugged, shattered steps, we made for the closed shrine of Ten-kai Dais6-jo, from which a few still more ruinous steps brought us to the tombs of those ancient hereditary high priests of Nikko, who were of the lineage of the Micado. NIKKO. 303 Their simple moss-clad monuments, surrounded by a shattered stone railing, showed that the Sh6guns had paid them little heed, and formed a striking contrast to the pretentious mausoleums of the usurping line, which glittered in splendour close by. Their turn, however, had come at last, and the scene might well form a theme for reflection on the vicissitudes of human fortune. We now ascended the long flight of steps leading to the shrine of lydmitsu, grandson of ly^yasu. The first gateway contains the two original figures of the Nio, brought from the entrance to ly^yasu's court. This is called the Nitenmon. Uncouth images adorn both the outer and inner niches. Those within represent the god of wind with his sack, and the god of thunder with his drum. Another flight of steps leads up to the Yashamon gate, inside which are the usual drum and bell towers, and the Haiden, or chapel. Internally, it is so similar to that already described that further details need not be given ; but externally, the splendidly lacquered and gilded gates at the sides and back are well worth a walk round the corridor. Some priests in yellow clothing and shaven heads were exceedingly obsequious in their wish to procure "cash." Two days after we had made this detour of the principal temples I again crossed the bridge, and took a lower route skirting the eastern side of the hill. The first object of interest was the Hongu, sacred to the third person in the Gongen trinity — a son of Oonamuji-no-micoto. By the side of this temple, which had not been despoiled (and which was in reality one to Kwanwon), a number of priests were engaged in their devotions, while a gigantic model of a pipe — as much larger than the real article as was the great" Regent Street cigar — was suspended to the outer wall. From this place I walked on past the ruined foundations of Buddhist monasteries, till I found myself opposite the little shrine called the San-no-miya. It is much frequented 304 RECORD OF RAMBLES. by women, who believe that by offering a model of the par- ticular chessman known as the " fragrant chariot," they will have a safe confinement. The little building is perfectly covered with hundreds of these singular gifts, averaging in height from three inches to a foot. On the side of the piece is inscribed the name of the suppliant ; and on the back is her prayer, written in the Katagana or native hand. There is a red building near the San-no-miya, and another further on having a black cage in front. On looking through the bars of the latter I perceived some awful figures elaborately painted. There are rough and ruinous tombs at the back of these shrines, one to the memory of the reputed founder of Nikko — Shodo Shonin ; and three others to that of a like number of his disciples. There was another small shrine close by, containing a gilded image of Buddha. Minute bundles of faggots had been presented at this by the woodmen who were engaged in felling timber just then in that part of the forest. The strength of some of the coolies engaged in this work was wonderful. I saw one man carry- ing on his shoulder a fir pole more than thirty feet long, which, without its bark, measured six and a half inches in diameter at the larger end. The next object reached was the little stone shrine of a poet who lived at the close of the ninth century. The torii in front of it bore a badge; viz., five circles ranged around a central, one. On a rock behind, the same figure was repeated, only that the central circle contained a Sanskrit letter. Near this stands a rude con- secrated monolith, twelve feet high, fragments from which have been broken off and carried away to effect cures. A stone a little further on marks the grave of lyeyasu's favourite war horse, and near it is a grove of gigantic cryptomerias, many of which were being felled, and under their shade was a cool and sparkling waterfall. Opposite to the peaceful water, and as " motionless " as his name implies, sits Fudo Sama, a mild-visaged figure of Buddha, NIKKO. 305 in bronze,* almost enveloped in a pile of stones heaped round him by the pious pilgrims. In horrid contrast, at his side is a hideous coloured image in stone of some war-god, an iron sword in one hand, a wreath in the other, and one corner of his mouth drawn down in the shape of a triangle, giving him a ferocious expression. At the top of a flight of steps near the waterfall are some priests' houses, outside one of which hangs another enormous opium pipe, larger than the one at the Hongu. Beyond this is a torii leading to a shrine, and behind it is a black building enclosing an iron sarcophagus. Here also are two stone enclosures, in the first of which were two prodigious cryptomerias, lying prostrate, while in the second three equally large ones were still standing erect These are sacred to the triple Gongen of Nikko, to the second person of which, Tajorihimd, or the female Kwanwon, the adjacent temple is dedicated. May II. We started at seven a.m. on foot for the moun- tain and lake of Chiuenzi. Having now passed out of the land where jin-rikshas were available, the primitive style of carriage, a canyo, had to be adopted to convey the pro- visions. It is not unlike a sedan-chair, since it consists of a small canopied seat, with oil-skin curtains, necessary in case of cold or wet, slung from a heavy pole which two bearers carry on the shoulders. Should the occupant be a European, he will probably find the squatting position unbearable, and will be willing to walk any distance rather than submit to such torture. Each bearer carries in his hand a thick staff, on which, at intervals of fifty or sixty yards, he halts to rest ' his burthen for a breathing space. Our route lay still along the Oshiu Kaido. At the first village we passed was a native rice mill, of primitive and interesting construction, called a zigara. A running stream, conducted through a trough or launder, fills a box fixed to the top of a beam. * See Mitford, p. 3a X 306 RECORD OF RAMBLES. This, upsetting the equilibrium, lifts the other end to which is attached a rude pounder, which, when the water leaves the trough, falling into a bowl of rice, answers the purpose of a pestle and mortar admirably. Thus, while the stream is running, perpetual motion is brought about. Rengi was the next village we passed, so called from a rude but sacred block of stone, supposed to resemble a "leaf" — a relic, it itiay be, of primitive stone worship. Then, diverging from the road, we descended by a narrow pathway to the river's brink, and came quite suddenly upon the lovely little precinct of Dainichi (= the great Sun). Thick dwarfed hedges surround a small pond, in which a natural spring wells up. One little island in its midst contains a miniature shrine of Benzaiten, or Benten, here worshipped as the goddess of beauty. There is a stone too on which a poet wrote some verses, and a plentiful supply of stone Buddhas and lanterns. A tea-house for pilgrims stands hard by, and a temple containing a circular mirror, emblem of the Sun who dwells there. The river rushes close beside, and altogether the spot presents the appearance of a perfect little paradise. The road, as we proceeded onwards, was here and there spanned by a straw rope, supposed to guard the wayfarer against infectious diseases. Soon we reached the temple of the thousand-handed Kwanwon, or Kuannon, where the priest sold me a picture of this strange " god of mercy." Twelve decapitated stone Buddhas sat in a row by the side of the temple, two heads from which, lying by their side, Harcourt and I carried away. Here we left the main road, and struck across a cultivated valley to the foot of the mountains, passing Kio-taki-mura — "Kio waterfall village." We now crossed the bed of the Daiagawa, full of rugged rocks and rounded boulders, with traces of landslips on the banks. Screened from the torrent's violence by a bend in its course, though actually in the river-bed, stand the few houses which form the hamlet of Magaeshi, a most NIKKO. 307 appropriate name, since it signifies that horses can go no further. A breakwater had been thrown out just above the village, and close to it was a shrine set up in memory of the preservation of the houses from a recent flood. At the tea-house of this place we tried hard, but vainly, to accustom ourselves to the native fare, consisting of melon, sea-weed, flour sops, little sweet potatoes, and rice cakes. Continuing our march up stream, we crossed several frail wooden bridges over foaming rapids, and noticed the tokens left here and there by pilgrims, a common one being one big boulder set up upon three smaller stones in the fashion of a dolmen. We now began to ascend the mountain by an almost continuous flight of wooden steps. As at Mount Athos, no woman, in the days of the strict sanctity of Chiuenzi, might proceed beyond a certain limit; and we soon reached the little black resting-house at which they used to turn back. The ascent next crossed a narrow hogsback range between two deep valleys, into each of which a waterfall descended from the summit of the opposite cliffs. That on the right, the Kagen-no-taki,* is peculiar for its grace and beauty. Beyond and above this is a platform and a tea-house, where pilgrims buy relics of the Holy Mountain, in the shape of teapot stands, made from the tsugi tree. A rest- house, with a roof over the path, and seats at the side, marks the summit of the pass. Here we met a poor old woman, bowed down with age, panting as she trudged along, her brave spirit buoyed up by a resolution which might have done credit to her younger days. She had come, all alone, for a hundred miles or more, to see the Holy Lake, and to leave a lock of her hair at the entrance gateway of the Holy Mountain. Her vow was accomplished, and she was returning ; in her hands she clasped a token of its fulfilment ; and her face was lighted up with an ex- pression of triumph and of joy which marked the reedization * Mr. Satow calls it Hanya-no-taki. X 2 308 RECORD or RAMBLES. of hope long stifled, and was perhaps, in reality, the sign of a new lease of life. A wooded pathway soon brought us to the lake, a sheet of water about eight miles long by two miles broad. It has an island in it, and on this a shrine; while the hills which rise on the further side are picturesque, though not striking in point of height, for we were among the mountain tops. The village of Chiuenzi, consisting of one long, narrow street, and only fully inhabited once a year when the pilgrims come in greatest numbers, is situated close to its brink, and at the foot of the mountain of Nan- taisan, which rises immediately in its rear. The path to its summit, about six miles distant, is under a torii, on which are suspended numerous offerings of human hair. At the end of the village is the original temple (so we were informed) of the Gongen of Nikko. The three gods are worshipped respectively at their three separate shrines, called the Shingu, the Niotaichugu, and the Hongu ; and I observed the same badge affixed to their precincts here as at Nikko. This beautiful lake, sleeping amidst the mountain peaks at an elevation of nearly four thousand feet, certainly repaid us for our long walk. As we were subsequently making our descent we passed a horse carrying a heavy load, and on inquiry were told that it was gunpowder. The Sh6gun had stored a quantity of ammunition near the lake of Chiuenzi, which the present government had lately discovered, and was then removing. May 12. At 3.45 a.m., Yamamoto and I started in canyos for the copper mines at Ashio. The dawning of a Japanese morning is always beautiful ; but I do not remember seeing it on any occasion to greater perfection than on this day. The soft hazy light which hung around the hills made them look like piles of delicate dusky moss. Again our route lay on the Oshiu Kaido, past the temple of Kwanwon, and over a steep mountain pass, or " divide," as it would have been called in America. As the day NIKKO. 309 advanced, a singular sound, like a hunter's horn, awoke the forest to life, which I was afterwards told was the note of a native species of dove, or "hatto." The ferns too were in profusion, and, no doubt, had I been a botanist, I might have found rare specimens in a region so seldom trodden by a traveller's foot. With the sun, out came butter- flies of varied and gorgeous plumage, nearly all unknown to me before ; and among the birds, a little black pair, with a bar of gold along their backs, especially attracted my notice. My posture in the canyo becoming unbearable, I got out, and walked with Yamamoto — whether most to the surprise or delight of our bearers, I do not know. Some rude stone monuments which we passed turned our conversation to the subject of Japanese antiquities, and my friend told me that near his home, in the province of Boushiu, old graves are discovered, surrounded and covered in by stones in the manner of boxes, and that these contain skeletons, small bronze mirrors, with handles at the back (not the same as those in use now, which have the handle pro- truding from the side), earthenware vases, generally standing on three legs, and little precious stones in the shape of a crescent, or rather a large comma. These latter are called magatamas, and occur mostly in threes or fives. They are held sacred in the eight Shinto temples, and there is one shrine which possesses no less than 33,333 of them. I have previously stated my opinion that these ornaments were in some mystical way connected with the symbolism representing the Yang and Yin. Stone coffins, said my friend, were also found in the same district, contain- ing red oxide of mercury. His father, he said, was an antiquary, and possessed a large collection obtained from the stone graves. In the dark forest at the head of the pass we were now traversing the solitude was intense. We here noticed stakes driven into the ground, between which, in windy weather, 3IO RECORD OF RAMBLES. nets are spread to catch small birds, which, passing in flights through the pass, are driven into them, and caught The country people in this vicinity were very primitive. Many of them wore a kind of epaulet, made of vine- bark, to ease the shoulder from the galling of the burdens they carried. Mostly they were woodmen. Some had built themselves stone huts, covered in with turf ; in other cases, the houses, like those of the Swiss, had heavy stones on the roof to save them from the wind. When within a few miles of Ashio, we passed through a narrow cutting on the brow of the hill, and came unexpectedly upon a view of surpassing beauty. Before us, and far beneath, was the valley in which the town lies, spread out like a garden, full of rice-fields, and thatched homesteads, and mulberry-trees for the silk-worms, and, in short, every sign of that rural happiness which a fruitful soil, with industry, can give. Our pathway down into the valley lay along the top of a descending mountain spur, from which here and there the rock protruded in grey masses ; while its steep sides were resplendent with azalias of every colour, interspersed with clumps of dark and lofty firs. On either hand, but far below, rushed a turbid river, now white with foam, now sleeping in a calm green pool. At the end of this tongue of land, where the cliff was precipitous, these rival rivers met ; and here, at a great height above the water, they were spanned by a rustic bridge, which proved dis- agreeably tremulous, as our weight passed over it. We soon after arrived at the village, where we stopped at a linen-draper's shop, the "tea-house" having been lately destroyed by fire. Here we were shown the native grain called " hi6," which, though the dearer commodity, the in- habitants use instead of wheat Leaving our coolies and canyos, we set out on foot for the glen in which the mines are situated. The smelting-works, since they lay nearest the village, were the first to be in- NIKKO. 311 spected. In the first place, the ore is roasted in small round furnaces, each provided with a vent-hole at the bottom for air. In charging the furnace, wood and charcoal form the lowest layer ; then comes the ore, and the top is covered in with rubbish, such as old mats and shoes. In the second place, the roasted ore passes through a blast furnace, worked by bellows, conveying the air by an air-duct into a pit. The top of this pit is tightly packed with stiff clay, except at the side opposite the air-duct, where there is a pile of charcoal, upon which the copper is thrown, and melts and trickles through into the pit. The result is the formation of thinnish plates of copper of a greyish colour, which are easily separated from the slag, the latter having in many cases to undergo the process again. The third process is performed in a similar furnace to the second, except that instead of the pit the metal is run into moulds, producing ingots or slabs, each measuring seventeen inches long by five broad, and an inch and three-quarters deep, stamped with the word Ashio in Chinese characters. There is yet another process by which the finest copper of all is produced. The smelted metal, while still red-hot, is dropped through water (placed for that purpose in pits sunk in the floor) into trays beneath. The bottom of each tray is a closely-woven sieve, through which the water escapes, while the meshes detain the copper, and slightly expand with the weight. The consequence is that thin blocks are produced, each eight inches by six, flat at the top, but convex on the under side. The ore which was then being smelted re- turned 20^ per cent, of pure metal. A slab, after refining, is said to be worth four or five dollars at the smelting- house. The miner's pay is half a bu per diem, which, considering that four bus go to the dollar, is exceedingly small. The land on which the mine is situated belongs to the government ; but the ore was the property, we were told, of one Sneda, a resident in Tokio, said to be enor- 312 RECORD OF RAMBLES. mously wealthy, and who probably holds a lease of the mineral rights. The foreman of the works, who gave us this information, was called away by the sound of the dinner -drum, and we proceeded to explore the upper portion of the glen. We had not gone far before we reached a miners' shrine, approached under several toriis, and dedicated to the "Dosan-" or " Copper-Gongen." It was a Shinto shrine, plain and unadorned. The gokd on the altar-table was formed of copper plates, and it was touching to observe the numerous miniature slabs of that metal which the devotion of the miners had consecrated there. • Clambering over some rocks by the side of a waterfall, we were able to observe the geological formation of this part of the valley. What the rock actually was I do not know ; but the strata were highly tilted, and had a cherty appearance, to which the miner who accompanied us per- sisted in giving the native name for " flint." We next came to the breaking floors, where an old woman was engaged in pounding the ore with an iron hammer, seven inches long, having a bell-shaped nozzle, and fitted into a short handle. In a large flat bowl, floating in a vat close by, she washed the ore when crushed sufficiently small. We now approached a wooden building, where our guide told us it was necessary to get permission to proceed further. Some half-dozen clerks came forward, and were profuse in their bows to Mr. Yamamoto ; but I noticed that they withheld any similar manifestation towards myself. In the countenance of the chief spokesman, who I suppose was the secretary, I noticed the only real expression of dislike towards foreigners which I had yet witnessed in Japan. From his look and gesture, I thought that all chance of seeing the mine was at an end, and the more so as an angry altercation ensued between him and my friend. I afterwards heard that he tried to prevent us from passing, on the pretence that the head agent was at the NIKKO. 313 village of Ashio. Yamamoto got over the difficulty in a manner characteristically Japanese. He told the surly official that, while he sent for the requisite permission, we would stroll on up the glen, and call for it on our return. Accordingly we went on our way, round winding ledges of rock, till we had nearly reached the summit of the hills. Here we found the mines themselves. The operations are conducted by adit levels driven into the sides of the hill on the course of the vein, or lode, which is held to be a good one if it is a foot wide. No pumping apparatus is used ; but when water comes in so as to impede the work, another adit is driven at once to the nearest surface, or " grass," as the Cornish would call it, by means of which it may find escape. Besides these adit workings, there are a few perpendicular shafts, in which are ladders and platforms, at intervals of from nine to twelve feet apart. Our guide, who, like all the rest of the miners we saw, was a quiet, steady fellow, and extremely civil and obliging, told us that only one hundred hands are now employed on the mine, though formerly there was double that number. The ore is chiefly yellow copper, and is diminishing in value. For boring purposes, formerly chisels and hammers were alone employed, and lines of holes made for splitting ; but recently powder has been introduced. The ore is carried down the mountain in sacks, a protection for the back and shoulders of the porters being made from the grape vine. For lighting the miner at his work, bamboo sticks, two feet long, and stuck in clay, are used. Thirty of these last for four hours, the period, that is, during which one man works underground at a time. Like the Cornish miners, these men form corps, four men to a corps, so that they may relieve one another at intervals during the day. The mine, which is properly called " Ashio dosan," " the Ashio copper mine," has produced in its time about ;£'8o,ooo by sale of copper. 314 RECORD OF RAMBLES. We returned to Nikko the same evening at 10.30 p.m., after a journey of eight hours, very stiff indeed from the effect of our cramped conveyances. During the latter part of the way the darkness was so great that we were obliged to carry Chinese lanterns attached to the canyos. We found the rest of the party had been out on a sporting expedition. A rumour had gained credence that a young bear was to be seen at a neighbouring village. In quest of adventure they had started in search, and, not finding it at the first village, had pushed on to a second, and so on to several, until at last they reached the place of its confine- ment. Boxed up in a cramped cage, they indeed found an animal something of the requisite colour ; but oh, imagine their chagrin ! there had been some misapprehension in language ! The beast was a badger, not a bear at all. How- ever, come what will, the true sportsman always cries " Vive k sport ;" and we found them in excellent spirits, with an unusually good appetite for supper. The next morning the mayor's secretary brought in the bill, far longer than his arm, and with his head bowed down on the floor, and making the usual hissing sound between his teeth, presented it for payment. Starting at 8.30 in pelting rain, we reached Koga that night, and Tokio the next. We were just in time to see the French admiral escorted by a Japanese guard of honour to the railway station — his native escort wearing broad-brimmed hats, and having their horses' tails tied up in bags of sky-blue silk. We reached Yokohama in time for dinner, and the next day {May i6iA) rested ourselves, and wrote up our journals, preparatory to sailing on the 19th. KOBE, KIOTO, AND NAGASAKI. 315 CHAPTER XVII. KOBE, KIOTO, AND NAGASAKI. May 19. We sailed on board the Japanese steamer Ckih-li at seven p.m. for Kob6. Having been built for a Chinese river boat, she was scarcely fit for the sea ; and owing to something wrong in the engine-room, we had to put in to a little harbour for the night, where we still found ourselves next morning. The next evening \May 20], fearing a storm, we had similarly to lie to at Smidzu. At noon on the 2 1st, we passed the island of Oshima, behind which there is a neat and pretty little harbour. Numerous junks were moored along the coast, belonging to the villagers inhabiting the creeks, and flying-fish were darting to and fro, like silver dragon-flies, in the sunlight. Our captain (Drummond) was an intelligent fellow, and a pleasant companion. He told us what excellent native maps the Japanese make of their roadsteads and harbours, as well as of the inland country. Speaking of the furore they had just then for collecting roses, he told us an amusing anecdote about a similar one they had a few years since for collecting rabbits. They would give, he said, hundreds of dollars for a single pair of a rare or fashionable sort or colour. The importation of them became quite a trade. One man, having lost a valuable pair, spent such a large sum of money in buying a second to replace them, that he was compelled to sell his daughter in order to complete the purchase money. When this latter pair soon after died also, he committed suicide by harakiri, that is, he cut 3l6 RECORD OF RAMBLES. himself asunder. We made an acquaintance on board the Chih-li, which it may be worth while to mention. The opposite cabin to ours was occupied by no less important a personage than Hana Zono, who, from what we could learn, was the High Priest at Kioto, and a blood relation (uncle, I believe) of the Micado. He appeared an active man for his age, which might have been seventy. His head was entirely bald, and shaven over the ears, in conformity with the custom of the priesthood, and sometimes of old men who are not priests. He was clearly one of the old school, who have not followed the court in the adoption of a Euro- pean dress, since his robes consisted of a green flowered- silk petticoat, under a surplice of thin black gauzy silk, over which again he wore a stole. Two gentlemen of the Samurai class were in attendance on him, who were always careful to bow down when passing his cabin door. We were amused at their luggage, which consisted of two miniature portmanteaus, bran-new, and made of carpet, but scarcely capacious enough to contain more than a brush and comb. He took his meals in his own cabin, and our acquaintance with him commenced by Harcourt sending him, with a polite message, a glass of sherry. This he readily accepted, and, in true Oriental fashion, sent in return a box of sweetmeats, followed by his own fan. To each of us also he gave a fan, and exchanged pipes with Harcourt, by which the old fellow certainly got the best of the bargain, though his attempt to smoke it nearly made him sick. Finding he was willing to fraternize with us, Harcourt and I prepared a small entertainment for him, to which we sent him an invitation. A rug was spread for him at one end of the saloon, on which he seated himself, his attendants standing behind, and forming a group of which I would fain possess a picture. We in the meantime divested ourselves of our coats, and pro- ceeded to act the fool, performing tricks and feats of KOBE, KIOTO, AND NAGASAKI. 317 agility, and finishing up by a fight with rusty cutlasses belonging to the ship. We had a goodly audience; in fact, all on board assembled to see the fun. The " Miya," as they called him, himself was highly pleased, as were also his attendants, who had been likewise helping them- selves to sherry. As mementos of the event, Hana Zono presented us each with an elegant little toothpick-case, which we, mistaking for a badge of honour, respectively pinned to our coats, causing thereby a roar of laughter from the elated Japanese. At midnight we arrived at Kob6, but did not land until the following morning [May 21], when we went at once to make the acquaintance of Mrs. Green, the good English landlady of the Hiogo Hotel. Thence I went to our Consul's to obtain a passport for Kioto, and started for Osaka, en route for that place, by a mid-day train, on a railway (the second in Japan) which had only recently been opened for traffic. The line runs between the sea and a high range of hills for a distance of ten or twelve miles, over a sandy country dotted here and there with tufts of green, until it reaches the alluvial plateau in which is the town of Osaka. On reaching the station, I lost no time in hiring a jin-riksha, such as I have described before, with two leaders attached to the points of the shafts, while a third coolie ran between them. The brisk pace at which we started, and which, with a few intervals for rest, was kept up all the way, soon brought us out of the town, and over a picturesque old bridge near the castle. At first the path lay through rice and corn fields, until we gained the top of an embankment, carried along the river side. Upon this had been planted an avenue, and towns were passed in rapid succession, at several of which my passport was demanded. On this road, as on that to Nikko, I was struck with the neat and simple inventions for irrigating the land. Not only were there sluices to turn the river 31 8 RECORD OF RAMBLES. watgr into the adjacent fields when required, but in cases where the latter were higher than the water line, large wheels had been erected. These, being partially under water, were turned by the stream, and, lifting the water in bamboo canes on the one side, discharged it again on the other into a trough, which carried it over the land. Passing the " divide" in the hills, through which the river finds its way, and a small castle or watch-tower, built in the pagoda style — the key, no doubt, to this important strategical posi- tion — I entered a large inland basin or plateau. Here we had to cross the river in a ferry, and then the route lay through a swamp, filled with wild fowl of all descriptions. Here I came in sight of the pagodas of Kioto, the ancient Miako, the ancestral seat of the Micados, and accounted the most holy city in Japan. Soon I entered the long suburb of Fushimi, a street full of toy-shops, and made my last halt at a tea-house, where, unfortunately for him, one of my coolies accepted my invitation, and took a glass of sherry after his run. At a furious pace we started down hill into the city, the coolies holloaiiag to passengers to make way. So overcome with excitement was the leader, who had im- bibed the sherry, that at a turn of the road he bonneted a native policeman. In spite of my remonstrances, the poor fellow was followed to the house at which I put up in the precincts of the Gihon temple, and was carried off thence, I fear, to be bambooed. After dinner I joined a party of Japanese who were feasting in an adjoining apartment, and who invited me to take part in a forfeit game, which consisted in clapping hands in a particular order. Finding that their native beverage, seki, was getting the better of them, I thought it as well to retire, and accordingly asked my way to the theatre. It was not far off, and I soon found myself in a crowded room, with a stage running round three sides. On the right sat twelve female musicians, who played what I suppose they would have KOBE, KIOTO, AND NAGASAKI. 319 called an overture. All that I can say of it is that it was just a little more musical than bagpipes. On the left and at the end of the room there were curtains, which being raised, there appeared twelve more young ladies, even more gorgeously arrayed than the others, each bearing an exquisite bouquet of flowers. Keeping time to the music, they went through a series of graceful attitudes, dancing alternately at the side and at the end of the house. Not a word was uttered from first to last, and the splendour of the robes appeared the most striking feature in the per- formance. Red Chinese lamps suspended round the room added not a little to the general effect. In the eyes of the natives, the Kioto girls are said to bear off the palm for beauty; but I cannot say that a foreigner would detect any very marked difference in tlieir type of face from that observable in those further north. May 22. At the Gosho, or old palace of the Micado, where until recently none but the Kuges, or high officers of the court, might enter, the National Exhibition of Arts and Sciences was being held. The grounds around the Miya, or royal dwelling, had been tastefully laid out with ponds and little rustic bridges, but had been recently much neglected. A portion of them was now devoted to the display of natural curiosities, botanical especially, in houses near the largest pond. I specially noticed that storks were walking about unmolested, and perfectly tame, and it struck me that perhaps it is due in some measure to the kindness shown by the Japanese to dumb creatures, that their artists are able to depict them with so much life and truth. The building, which was surrounded by these gardens, differed little in design from a temple, except that the interior was divided into chambers by richly-painted screens. A broad gravelled courtyard separates this enclosure from that containing the principal palaces and the audience-hall. Entering the latter under the largest " lich gate " I had yet 320 RECORD OF RAMBLES. seen, I found myself still in an outer court. A second gate- way opened into a yard in which, under a canopy, stood two state chariots, each on two wheels six feet six inches high. In every respect the pair were perfectly similar ; each was a little room on wheels ; they were entered at the back, and blinds could be drawn down over the sides. Each one had shafts, but the draught animals were men, not horses ; the whole carriage was richly lacquered, and the corners were of brass. The chrysanthemum flower, the badge of the Micado, was as plentifully made use of in ornamental work at Kioto as that of the Shogun had been at Tokio. Beyond the carriages there was a spacious piazza, painted white, with red pillars. It was a square of about a hundred yards across, and was entered by gates on three sides. The fourth side was occupied by the state reception-hall, with a canopied throne in the midst; the whole structure being remarkable for its bare walls and absence of decoration. There is a courtyard in the rear of this throne-room, in the centre of which, under. a canopy, is a gilded "dragon-fish." In the cloisters of this, and of other quadrangles behind it, the Exhibition was being held. It appeared to be managed much on the same principle as that at, South Kensington, there being both articles on loan, and specimens of modern fabrics which could be purchased of the maker. Amongst the objects in the loan collection were the jewels, weapons, and furniture of the Micado and his ancestors ; and amongst the articles on sale, bronzes, porcelain, enamels, and all kinds of objects of use and beauty, from agri- cultural implements to hair-pins and toys. The native manufactures were specially interesting, and the processes of silk-dressing were in full operation. It was the fashion, I found, to ascribe most of these inventions to the Chinese, and indeed any fine old pieces of ornamental work, such as painting or enamel, were generally, and probably with truth, described as having been brought from that country. KOBE, KIOTO, AND NAGASAKI. 32 1 It can scarcely be doubted, as Klaproth says, "que les aborigines {i.e. the Japanese) ont 6t€ civilisis par des colonies de cette nation" (meaning China). Mr. Taniguchi, one of the Committee, who kindly acted as my inter- preter, showed me an interesting case labelled "Japanese antiquities." Amongst them were some good specimens of stone " skin dressers," and with them a stone spear-head about five inches in length. There was also a collec- tion of tnagatamas, together with jade ornaments, and divided rings in gold and bronze. But the object which caught my eye at once amongst a set of antique bronze circular mirrors, &c., was a bronze leaf-shaped spear-head, thirty inches long, and four inches broad at the widest point. It was precisely similar to those discovered in the Irish bogs and other parts of Europe, though I was assured it was discovered in yapan itself. The love of its owner for collecting "curios" prevented my being able to purchase it, though I offered a long price. I did succeed, however, in buying a remarkable sword made from the snout of some kind of large sword-fish. It had been gold lacquered, and bore an inscription, which stated that it had belonged to an ancient warrior of Pekkang. The sheath was the most singular part of it, since it had been decorated by figures cut out in the skin of the fish from whose snout the blade had been made; and where there was not room for the representa- tion of the whole fish, a portion had been cut off and placed below. I should say it must be of northern origin, perhaps made by the fishermen of Krafto or the Kuriles. One of the most remarkable things in the Exhibition is a picture of Sakya (Buddha) in Nirvana, which appears to be the same as that described by M. Humbert as the sacred picture in the temple of Tao-fuk-si at Kioto, which was only shown to the faithful once a year. The native name for it is the Nehan-zao, and a copy of it, sculptured in miniature, has already been mentioned as existing at the shrine of Hide- y 322 RECORD OF RAMBLES. tada at Z6j6gi. At Yokohama I was fortunate enough to obtain a full-sized painting of the same subject, torn by a priest from the walls of a temple in Tokio. The one in the Exhibition had been brought from India, according to a native tradition, two thousand years ^o, a legend which truly traces the source to which all Buddhism naturally owes its origin. The artist's name, however, is recorded, and is not Indian. It is Teo den-zu; but when he lived I have not been able to ascertain — probably early in the seventeenth century. The painting is on silk, greatly faded and tattered, and is about nine feet broad by some fifteen feet in height. In the centre, in gigantic form, and clothed in the raiment of a priest, Sakya reposes on a decorated altar-tomb, under the shade of eight trees, four with yellow leaves and four with green. His head rests on the lotus, and around him is gathered the whole creation, absorbed in the deepest woe. Over him bend his disciples, Kasyapa, the favourite one, occupying his place at his master's feet ; while in the rear of them again crowd all the genii of the Buddhist Piantheon, from the Bosats in female form, " brought thither by the wailing of men," to the two vermilion sentinels of the celestial gates. One horrible green monster, the Ashu-ra-woo, is depicted with three heads ; another with eight arms ; several with three eyes; one for his helmet has an elephant's head; two are surmounted by dragons ; and one of the heavenly physicians, Yakushi, iEsculapius-like, has donned the cock. Just in front of the altar-tomb a priest has fainted, while two others are pouring water on his face. On one side of the picture are pariahs and beggars, and in the middle, with the face of a woman and the feathers of a bird, stands Kaljoo-hin-ya, conductress of the choirs of heaven. The whole foreground is occupied by birds and beasts, whose grief is admirably exhibited in their attitudes and expression. Some are fabulous, such as the kirin and the dragon ; and prominent KOBE, KIOTO, AND NAGASAKI. 323 among the rest are the signs of the zodiac, and those creatures which denote each of the twelve hours into which the Japanese day is divided. The white elephant, shrivelled with anguish, holds in his trunk a lotus flower, and is remarkable for having claws and a large oval eye, clearly showing that the artist had never seen the animaL From the welkin above, "the heavenly parents," as Von Siebold calls them in his description of the picture — ^though they really represent Miya, the mother of Buddha, and the disciple Aniruddha — are descending, attended by hand- maidens, beewing fans or sunshades. In the background, the waves of the sea are furiously agitated ; and the sun, which the Japanese invariably depict as red, has turned white with grief in the midst of heaven. Before quitting the Exhibition, it may be as well to mention one or two facts connected with the ancient palace in which it is held, and the city of Kioto itself. Previous to the great conflagration of 1653, the Daidairi, or great imperial palace, as it was then called, embraced within its walls not only the houses of the Emperor and the nobles, but of the common people also, and was thus considered as the city itself. In 1653, however, the greater portion of it was destroyed, and as the Shog^ns could not be prevailed on to rebuild it, the Shodairi, or small palace, was all that was left for the Micado, and with this his successors have since had to be content. The river on which the present city stjmds is the Yodo-gawa, identified by the astrologers, when the site of the city was chosen, with the western constella- tion of the Dragon, the mountains in the rear being held to represent the three other celestial bodies ; namely, the Tiger, the Serpent and Tortoise, and the Bird. Here, then, -the royal residence was established in the year 794, in the reign of the Micado Kwan-mu-tenno, and it has since been the scene of almost continuous feud and intrigue, generally ending in murder or incendiarism. At one time it was said V 2 324 RECORD OF RAMBLES. to have contained no less than two million inhabitants : the Shinto temples (or Miyas) numbered one hundred, and the priests three times that number. Here too Buddhism had proclaimed its supremacy, even in the hotbed of the earlier faith, by counting at one time no less than two hundred and fifty temples (or teras), served by the almost incredible number of fifteen thousand priests. A little guide-book, printed at Kobi, which is responsible for this latter state- ment, adds, that at the same time there were seven thousand five hundred dancing-girls and courtesans living in different parts of the city, besides a vegetating incubus of two thou- sand beggars. "The articles of trade in Kioto are em- broidered stuffs, dolls, and porcelain." Later in the day I visited the famous Buddhist temple and monastery of Chooin, which stands on the side of the richly-wooded hill of Maruyama. Its founder was one Yenko Daishi, who owed his supernatural birth, in the twelfth century, to his mother having swallowed a razor. The temple is remarkable for possessing the largest gate and bell (with one other of equal size at Nara) in Japan. The former, called the Sammon, is a hundred and fifty feet high, and from the balcony surrounding the upper portion of it a good panoramic view of the city is obtained. A native guide-book — well worth buying for the sake of its engravings — by K. Yamamoto, records the tradition that, like the carvings at Nikko, the edifices at Chooin were the work of the great carpenter Hidari Jingoro. Leaving the temple on the left, a flight of steps scales the side of Maruyama. Ascending these I reached a building, in which was hung the great bell. It is said to be eighteen feet in height, and is eight feet ten inches in diameter, the metal itself being ten inches thick. The shape is that commonly used in China, and it contains no clapper. The temples generally in Kioto certainly strike the traveller as being more ancient than those in the north ; but considering the KOBE, KIOTO, AND NAGASAKI. 325 frequent fires to which the city has been subjected, I should be inclined to doubt whether any of the wooden structures can really date back more than two or three centuries. The want of decoration, in Buddhist and Shinto shrines alike, is in striking contrast with the embellishments lavished on those under the immediate influence of the Shogfin. The Gihon temple occupies the first place in the eyes of the Shinto worshippers at Kioto, as that of Chooin does in those of the Buddhists. Thither I went on my return. The founder in this case was the Micado Sheiwa Tenno, who reigned in the ninth century ; but it has since been destroyed by fire and earthquake, and many times rebuilt At the tea-houses in the precincts the Dutch merchants used to be lodged when they came to have audience mth the Micado, and bring him their presents. On these occasions their abject slavish homage sometimes brought degradation on them, and the wily old traders were actually made to dance for the gratification of the ladies of the court. The temple is dedicated to Godsu Tenno, who on one occasion, at the entreaty of his worshippers, stayed a plague in the city, in memory of which an annual feast is celebrated. On New Year's eve there is another festival, when the priests distribute fire to light the hearths for the morrow, one of the Shinto precq)ts being " to perpetuate a pure flame." I removed this evening to Jeutei's Hotel, on the hill above the temple, where I found some of the officers of the Challenger. I at once renewed my acquaintance with them, and we spent a pleasant evening, Mr. Taiguchi joining me at dinner. Merf 23. Lord George Campbell (whose acquaintance I did not make, but who has since published an account of his travels), and another of the Challenger party, started for the old Buddhist town of Nara, where there is a gigantic image of " Daibuts," while the two Buchanans, Maclear, and I started in jin-rikshas for Fushimi, where we embarked oji 326 RECORD OF RAMBLES. the river at 8.30 in a covered punt for Osaka, reaching our destination, after a quiet drowsy morning, at two p.m. On landing, I drove at once to the Shiro or Castle, but en- countered an unexpected obstacle to gaining admission. A deep and broad moat was crossed by a causeway and bridge, at the further end of which my jin-riksha stopped, according to regulation. I dismounted, and walked up to the gateway, on either side of which stood a native soldier on guard. On my approaching, they motioned me to stand, and on my still proceeding, dropped their bayonets across my path. Seeing that the least hesitation or want of assurance would debar me from seeing the interior, I drew myself up to my full height, and looking down at them haughtily (for they were puny little fellows), began to raise my hand, as if to return their expected salute. Upon this — having been drilled, as I expected, in a European school, perhaps by an English drill instructor — they brought their arms, like magic, to " the shoulder," and one of them escorted me to the guard-house on the right, inside the gate. I had now effected my entrance ; but how to account for my presence was the next thing. Luckily the young officer in charge was not a scholar, and turned my Kioto passport, which I presented to him with an air of nonchalance, round and round, evidently unable to understand its exact purport, and (as well he might) how it could be used to gain me admittance there. However, he conducted me himself politely to the second strong gate, which formed the entrance to an inner circle of fortification. After an animated discussion with another young officer there, I was passed over a dry moat, up into yet a third and inner stronghold, where finally my passport was sent in to the office of the Governor's secretary. This official soon came out himself, and smiling, told me, as he handed me back the pass, that it had nothing whatever to do with my seeing the Castle ; but since I had already KOBE, KIOTO, AND NAGASAKI. 327 seen so much, he would himself show me the rest. My feigned concern at my mistake did not deceive him. He was a good fellow, and seemed to enjoy the joke as much as I did. All that remained to be reached was the highest point of the citadel, which consisted of a pile of masonry, approached by a flight of steps, from which a fine view is gained of the town and fortifications immediately below. I now saw that each corner of the outer rampart supported a tower, several storeys in height, similar to those of the Shiro at Tokio. The barracks of the soldiers were also pointed out, as was the execution ground. It is clear that the race of ly^yasu was not unmindful of the military prestige of the former Shoguns. To the efforts of the masons and quarrymen of the first part of the seventeenth century the marvellous fortress in which I now was owed its rise. Tradition relates that each Daimio in the district, having to contribute his share to the work, vied with the others as to whose retainers should drag the largest stone to the hill-top, and set it in its place in these cyclopean walls. Of the dozen largest of these stones, the one which faces the visitor, as he enters the outer gate, is no less than tliirty-three feet long by fifteen feet high, and is sunk into the wall to the depth of eight or nine feet at least. As in the case of the mounds at Koga, the testimony of these rocks to the amount of manual labour which a single individual could at that time set in motion needs no comment The fortification is built in triple concentric circles of polygonal masonry, surrounded by a magnificent moat, and could easily be defended against modem artillery. The position, when Kioto was the capital, was one of vital importance, since it was the key to the approach from the sea to that city. On my way to the hotel (also kept by Jeutei), I found a really good "curio" shop, in which I purchased an antique bronze bell, ornamented with the key pattern so common in early mediaeval designs in Europe, and also 328 RECORD OF RAMBLES. a mirror, on which were embossed some human heads, dragons, and zodiacal signs, similar to those mirrors de- scribed to me by Mr. Yamamoto as occurring in primitive graves. At dinner I was joined by Mr. Moseley, from the Challenger, who was deeply interested in the religious antiquities of the country, and was pursuing researches in that direction. Finally, I reached Kob6 by train at eight p.m. May 24. On my return I found the rest of our party — for I had gone by myself to Kioto — full of the wonderful escape of F. and Harcourt from shipwreck in the road- stead. It appeared that, being invited to lunch on board the Challenger, they had engaged a "sampan" — a small native craft — to take them there. This, to use their own words, they undertook to "boss" themselves, unmindful of the fact that the bewildered crew understood neither the English language, nor the tactics of British seamanship. The sail became unmanageable, and they were driven hither and thither, till they attracted the notice of the watch on the Challenger, who reported a " boat in distress." Ultimately, however, they got alongside without mishap, and were rewarded by the good appetite for luncheon which the lateness of their arrival had induced. This day being the Queen's birthday, F. got his gun and fired a salute of twenty-one guns — with pauses when the muzzle was too hot to proceed — out of a side window of the hotel, much to the terror of an old lady residing next door. Neither of the British men-of-war lying in the offing took the hint. The Challenger, however, was too purely scientific a ship to carry guns, much less to be allowed to waste ammunition merely for the sake of making a noise, when the object was a sentimental one such as this. After lunching on board, we accompanied the officers on shore to the dedication festival of a temple on a neighbouring hill in rear of the town. The High Priest, at whose special KOBE, KIOTO, AND NAGASAKI. 329 invitation our party went, was, like the old priest on board our steamer, a Miya — one, that is, of the royal and sacred family. His name was Musegama, and his brother Honganji was, we were informed. Chief Priest of Japan. It was owing to his munificence that this new Shinto temple was to be erected, and the square level plot marked out for it was profusely decorated with flags and streamers. The scene was like a little carnival. Proces- sions, following each other at intervals, approached the hill. First came a long line of young girls, walking two and two, except in a few instances, where one solitary beauty marched in state alone, while a coolie, fantastically dressed and making grimaces, danced behind her, holding the while a sunshade over her head. All were gorgeously dressed in red and gold. Their faces were painted, their hair transfiixed with forests of elaborate hair-pins, and many had glass chaplets or tiaras on their heads. These were courtezans, who, by a strange rule of Shintoism, invariably accompany religious processions, especially, as M. Humbert records, that of the Sannoo. This pro- cession carried with it the representation of a bell de- signed for the temple, prettily decorated with garlands of flowers. A second procession, composed of " merchants' daughters," in like manner accompanied a well-carved Shinto shrine, in which a man concealed was beating a drum. Before and behind it men were dancing, or rather throwing themselves into endless contortions, their apparel being as invisible as was David's on a corresponding occasion. Jugglers in white and yellow, and buffoons, brought up the rear. In a house at the top of the hill, the High Priest received us cordially ; but to our surprise, unlike our friend Hana Zono, he was clearly one of the reformed school; for instead of his sacer- dotal robes, he wore the plain dark "cut-away coat" and the round low hat of the European gentleman in morning 330 RECORD OF RAMBLES. costume. The governor of Osaka, too, was there. He had walked from the station, a proceeding which a few years since would have been looked on as worse than infra dig. A repast was set out for our entertainment, in which the usual raw fish played a, prominent part. Luckily there were oranges and seki, so that we had not the necessity of appearing rude by declining to eat. The High Priest's daughter, whose refined and unaffected manners, and deli- cate grace, betokened her the little lady that she was, did the honours. Her dress was the ordinary native costume of dull blue silk, with a red girdle wrapped round the waist. Her hair was carefully, but not gaudily, dressed ; and though her stature was diminutive, her face was decidedly pretty. We were now ushered with some ceremony into the temporary hall, where the dedication festivities were to take place. Seats, or rather places, were assigned us at the upper end of a long room, on the right and left of the High Priest, whose position in the centre was immediately under a screen which concealed a Shinto shrine. The lower portion of the hall, which was thronged, was now cleared for dancing. The dancers separated themselves into two ranks, which approached each other and retired as the music proceeded, the dancing being far less stiff and formal than that which I had seen at Kioto. Jesters at intervals replaced the dancers, who played £mtics and made jokes; and as most of them were grotesquely masked, the whole scene resembled a masquerade. The festivities, we were told, lasted some days. After a while we took our leave, and on the way home had an opjportunity of observing how the comic vein in the Japanese character is extended to satire of a political type. The dislike of China and the Chinese was just thien uppermost in the popular mind, and thus we saw displayed on a wall a picture of a puny Japanese tugging at a cord, the other end of which was tied round the neck of a bulky China- KOBE, KIOTO, AND NAGASAKI. 331 man, while over it was written " Small, but strong." We afterwards walked to a pretty waterfall among the hills, and then returned to the hotel, where we had a parting dinner with our friends from the Challenger, from whom we were very sorry to part. The Mosquito, gunboat, gave a ball this evening, and a pyrotechnic display, which some of our party endeavoured to imitate by taking some gun- powder into the saloon of the Golden Age and making extemporised rockets, which they let off from the paddle- box. The ladies, however, who had gone to bed, expressing themselves aggrieved by frequent audible sighs at the noise occasioned during this operation, and also by the smell of the powder, not a little of which, exploding in the saloon, found its way into their cabins, it was found necessary to desist from further manifestations of loyalty. The black looks of an Anglo -Chinese consul and his ladies next morning showed that the culprits had been detected through the ventilation holes, and the good - natured American captain went so far as to insinuate that " some young fellows had been trying to set his ship on fire." Soon after four o'clock the next morning {May 25) we got under weigh, and entered the northern passage of the " Inland Sea," the beauty of the scenery in which has not, and indeed cannot have been, exaggerated. The islands are mostly conical, having fishing villages at their feet, whose inhabitants seem for the most part to live in the junks, which float by thousands in the bays. Com and rice are grown in every available spot in terraces and plots levelled in the hillsides, while dark foliage clings round the sharply-peaked summits which rise above them, Every little rock hcis its cluster of trees, while the water which laves its feet is of the purest and most liquid green, and in the depths below appear jelly-fishes and seaweed in exquisite variety of colour and form. Early the following morning (May 26) we passed Simon- 332 RECORD OF RAMBLES. osaki, a long town, built of wood, and stretching along the shore. It was here that the British fleet silenced the Japanese forts in 1864, and (it is said by the natives, but for our honour we will hope untruly) burnt the town and killed the innocent townspeople. If so, it but shared the fate of Kagoshima the year before, where all the mercantile part of the town was consumed, while the official part remained unhurt. At the latter place, nevertheless, it is a matter of question, considering the casualties which occurred, whether the natives are not right in their statement that our ships actually suffered defeat At four p.m. we reached the lovely harbour of N^asaki, dotted with richly-wooded islands, several of which are fortified. As we had not much time to spare, we went on shore at once, drove through the town to Decima, the old Dutch quarter, or rather prison, which is separated from the shore by an artificial canal, dined at the Occidental Hotel, and slept at "Smith's," where I met Mr. Major, a Chinese scholar, Mr. Prior, and some of the officers of the American man-of-war, well known to " Britishers," the Kearsage, which was lying in the harbour.* May 27. I called on the officers of the Kearsage, who were very kind ; they seemed to take a special delight in showing me an iron plate in the funnel of the frigate, which had been repaired, and through which they said a shot from the Alabama had passed. They thought that the compensation money paid by Great Britain was sufficient to repair the dam£^e done. No one, I believe, was more surprised than the Americans themselves at our handing over such a monstrous sum. We then went ashore again, and visited the porcelain shops, where there were some * There is a singular dance kept up in Nagasaki, ostensibly intro- duced for the diversion of foreigners, but which I have reason to think owes its origin to an ancient Phallic form of worship prevalent in Japan. KOBE, KIOTO, AND NAGASAKI. 333 handsome articles, but made too much in accordance with foreign requirements to give scope to the development of native taste and design. I bought some little household shrines, like triptychs, each containing an Image of a deity cai-ved in wood, much in the style of Swiss workmanship. They are encased in lacquer, and the fastenings of the doors are engraved brass. The shopman entreated me not to let them be seen by the natives, as he ought not to have sold them to a foreigner. I also bought a copper enamel candlestick, with a central pin on which to fix the candle ; in form precisely the same as that used in England in the fifteenth century. We next ascended a high flight of steps to the temple of Dai-jokomats, from which there is a magnificent view of the town and harbour, and the sur- rounding country. One island was pointed out to us as that on which a number of native Christians had been massacred, in the days, I suppose, of the immediate successors of ly^yasu, when the religion was stamped out under circum- stances of barbarity too revolting to record. At the head of the first flight of steps was a tea-house, and a shooting- alley for archers, and then a terrace, with an avenue of new lanterns. On the left was a very curious old lantern, formed of rude stones, with the usual ewer and canopy at its side. The shrine was a plain one, of wood stained red. On the inside of the roof at the entrance there had been painted a huge fantastic bird. On a terrace behind stood a little wooden shrine, surrounded by a stone balustrade. At 3.30 on the morning of the 28th we left the shores of Japan, a country which will ever live in my memory as the " Hesperides " of our tour. Singular in interest, exquisite in beauty, may those islands long continue to resist the baneful and debasing efliects which foreign influences will inevitably, it is to be feared, bring on them in the end. Take from the Japanese their originality, and substitute for 334 RECORD OF RAMBLES. it modes of life and thought, and a governmental mechan- ism foreign to their growth, and, taken collectively, the nation will be reduced to the condition of a "galvanized frog." The experiment, wherever it has been tried in the East, from the Japanese Parliament to a like assembly recently created in Turkey, has hitherto met with, and can only meet with, this one and the same result. SHAXGHAE AND NINGPO. 335 CHAPTER XVIII. SHANGHAE AND NINGPO. May 30. After all the beauties of Japan the Chinese coast looks sadly uninviting. The town of Shanghae itself, built along the banks of the Yellow River, is a long stra^ling place, divided, according to its inhabitants, into four quarters — the American, the British, the French, and the native. The latter lies farthest up the stream, a perfect forest of junk masts marking its situation. Our steamer landed us at the American pier, and we proceeded to an hotel called the Astor House. The first thing for an Englishman to do on landing at an Efistem port is to seek out some friend who will put down his name for the club, and this was at once accomplished for us by our kind friend Mr. Slade, whose acquaintance, made in Japan, we were charmed to renew. The club in Shanghae is a remarkably good one, as, owing to the hospitality of friends, we had frequent opportunities of proving. In the afternoon we drove out to a refreshment and pleasure ground, lying in the delta of the Yankste, a few miles from the town, passing on the way through a rich alluvial plateau, traversed by dikes, and in which water-buffaloes were ploughing. What particularly strikes the stranger in China is the enormous number of graves, of all ages, shapes, and sizes, scattered broadcast over the fields, so as to have become apparently a positive impediment to agriculture Some were marked by a monolith ; some by 336 RECORD OF RAMBLES. a mound, or a chain of mounds, peaked or bowl-shaped, their centres (as was seen in cases where they were dilapi- dated) arched over with rough bricks or stone ; some were built up with masonry, quadrated, and their roofs either formed by a single flat stone, or slanting from a ridge-way, like an ordinary house roof; others again had a conical protuberance rising from the centre of their flat roofs, like small dagobas in India, or like the cap-like finish of a Mussulman's tomb in Turkey. In cases where families have died out, their graves are no longer cared for. They fall to ruin ; but even in these cases it would still be an act of gross want of respect to ancestors to remove them. In making a road, not long since, the French did actually cart away some of these graves, and the result was a dis- turbance which it was found difficult to quell, culminating in an attack made by the natives on the French quarter at Shanghae. May 31. We accepted an invitation to taste tea at one of the English warehouses. Tea-tasting is a quality which some young men develop to such a wonderful degree that they are sent to Shanghae for that special purpose. From what occurred to F. and myself on this occasion, I think we should take time to acquire it. Three samples having been boiled, an equal number of little cups were placed before us, and we were asked to select the best. We both of us pronounced the worst to be the best, and the operation was again repeated with a like result. The fact is that good tea is so utterly unknown in England that the one we chose came nearest to what we should have considered as good tea at home. Russia imports the best tea, and in that country we afterwards recognized the same as what we were now informed was the best quality. When boiled and drained, the tea-leaf of the first quality has a delicate ochreous yellow colour. There is a softness and freshness about the appearance of the young shoots which SHANGHAE AND NINGPO. 337 is easily distinguishable from the dark brown colour of the coarser and older ieaves. Stalks ought never to be found in tea. Ffom a friend who was growing tea in Ceylon I afterwards learned some particulars as to the quality of the respective leaves, which is determined by their place on the stem, indicative of the year of growth. The uppermost and youngest shoot is called the Pico. The tops of these tender leaves roll off into small balls, which are named Gunpowder Tea. This is too strong to drink by itself, and so it is often used to mix in small quan- tities with rubbish in the English market ; and adulterated tea, having the right flavour, but often full of stalks, is the result. The next leaf, as we proceed down the stem, is the Souchong, and the one below that the Congo.* In China the Bohea leaf, next below the Congo, and even sometimes the inferior Bohea also are gathered, and these, the worst quality of all, actually gave the name to the beverage as it was known to and enjoyed by our grandmothers. In the office of the warehouse we were introduced to that civil and plausible, though by no means trustworthy individual, the native Chinese tea-merchant. It is he who buys the tea in the inland districts from the producers, whose farms are generally small. He is thus a middle-man in the trade, and his profits are in proportion to the gullibility of the European tea-tasters on the rivers and the coast. His character, for slyness and grasping, rivals that of any Jewish money-lender in the West End, and his person displays the happy rotundity of Friar Tuck. His eye is as brimful of cunning as his pocket is of gold. On all * Tea-planting in Ceylon being as yet only an experiment, and the growers wishing to keep up the quality in order to set it well on foot, only these three leaves, I was then informed, were picked in that island. It is Assam tea which is grown in Ceylon. Where we see advertisements of tea, as, for instance, " Assam Pico Congo," it means that the plant is that grown in Assam, and that the Pico and Congo (first and third) leaves are mixed in its composition. Z 338 RECORD OF RAMBLES. hands we heard that the British trade in Shanghae is on the wane. The merchants indeed try to keep up, by their show of hospitality, the prestige which their houses gained in this respect when vast fortunes were being made in days not long gone by ; but the Germans, who live much more cheaply, are the only foreigners who are really doing any profitable business at all, and Chinese merchants are gradually taking the traffic into their own hands by trading from non-treaty ports, and are thus edging the distasteful strangers off their shores. Two days of Shanghae were quite enough, and I was not sorry to find myself at five p.m. on board the Hupeh, the rather unpropitious name of a steamer which plied between that place and Ningpo, a distance of a hundred and fifty miles, whither I wished to go, in order to proceed inland on a visit to the famous Buddhist monastery of Teen-Dong. The vessel belonged to a Chinese company, but was under the command of an American captain, a rough-and-ready fellow, full of the freshness of his native land, and who enlivened the evening, as we sat together in his cabin, by many a good Yankee tale. In serious moments he became the philosopher, displaying considerable know- ledge of history, and a keen observation of character. He had been saved from adopting the materialistic view, he said, by certain spiritualist experiences which he detailed to me. He carried in his cabin, in case of pirates, a good supply of rifles of various makes, and with these we had some practice. The simplicity of the Remington makes it a very valuable weapon for these vessels to carry, as the hands on board are few, and it requires little labour to clean. June I. At eight o'clock this morning we arrived at Ningpo. I noticed on the banks of the river, as we neared the citj', numerous conical buildings, with mud bases and thatched roofs. They were receptacles for ice, kept there SHANGHAE AND NINGPO. 339 for the preservation of fish. The water was covered with junks and smaller boats, each one having a pair of very knowing-looking eyes, painted one on either side the bow. Having paid my respects to Mr. Bowers, an English merchant, living near the landing-place, who received me most hospitably, I went to the shop of Sung Sing Gung, an eminent carver in wood, an art for which Ningpo is famous. He was preparing some exquisite frames and other furni- ture for the Exhibition at Philadelphia. After inspecting his shop, in spite of pouring rain, I hired a sedan chair, borne on two bamboo poles, and was carried over the bridge from the European quarter into the native city. Just below this bridge a fleet of Mandarin war-junks was lying at anchor, formidable-looking vessels, perfectly bristling with cannon of various and antique makes. Amongst them lay the Admiral's junk, a little more European in its aspect than the rest. It was hinted to me that piratical expedi- tions occasionally formed part of the service for which these ships were equipped. Through narrow paved alleys, under the beetling city walls, in and out round dismal corners, occasionally splashing into a puddle, or stumbling into an open drain, or sliding on the greasy pavement, my bearers took me at a trot into the heart of this primitive and filthy place. Sometimes we passed beneath a low rounded archway in the walls, like the gates of old English towns, dividing one quarter of the city from another, the object of the walls being, not so much for protection against human foes, as against the worst foe of all to the citizens — fire. The Governor, or Toutai, who, as my Chinese servant expressed it, was " too much old to do Mandarin pidjin " any longer, was about to leave, and his soldiers were assembling to see him off. Their uniform was black, with red devices stitched upon it, and they carried quaint old matchlocks, flags, and spears. In the side of one of the bare fire -walls was a small z 2 340 RECORD OF RAMBLES. wooden-barred door, at which my bearers set me down, and on entering it I found myself in the priest's chamber of the principal temple in Ningpo ; namely, the Fokin. This temple looked very small after those we had seen in Japan. It consisted of two courtyards, leading the one into the other in front of the principal hall. In the centre of the outer court was an oblong fishpond, spanned by a stone bridge. A passage, with a roof supported on pillars like a cloister, ran all round the court, and at each end sat a hideous coloured figure, moulded in plaster, in a cage or shrine. Over the entrance from this into the second court was an apartment adorned on the sides and top with finely- carved and richly-painted groups of figures. This second court was also surrounded by a cloister. In the middle of the area stood a handsome bronze lantern, with a large brazier before it, and a small one in the rear ; while on either side sat a fierce-looking monster, half lion half dog, answering to the sacred beasts which always guard Buddhist temples, whether in Ceylon or Japan. A faqade of richly-carved stone pillars — the finest feature of the temple — formed a portico to the hall, in which was placed an altar in front of the figure of the god, the arrangement being similar to that in the Chinese "Joss House" at San Francisco. At the side of the hall was the priest's room, and a passage led from it into a little courtyard in the rear, in front of a second hall of gloomy appearance and much smaller dimensions than the other. This contained a black tablet inscribed with golden letters. Before the tablet a hassock was set, which was the only furniture of the apartment. The temple was a Buddhist one, but this ancestral tablet might, in accordance with Chinese custom, have been set here in honour of the founder ; since, as Mr. Williams remarks, " the hold which the Buddhists have upon the mass of the Chinese consists far more in the position they occupy in relation to the rites performed in honour of the dead than SHANGHAE AND NINGPO. 34 1 in their temples and tenets." Starting again with my " boy," Hee Yu, I passed through the chief streets of the city, which, though exceedingly narrow and ill -paved, were rendered unspeakably picturesque by the red and black signboards which hung on either side, or across them, bearing the name of the shopkeeper, of the wares he sold, or else a Confucian text enjoining honesty and fair dealing. Many were shops for ornaments of stone or jade, but none of the objects on sale seemed to be of any great rarity. At last we reached another temple, sacred this time, so Hee Yu said, to a "Number One Joss." In the courtyard beggars were sitting, and in the hall was a central image, on each side of which stood three tall figures in black, with caps like birettas on their heads, each reverently intent on a bamboo slip which he held in his hand, and on which a moral precept was sup- posed to be written. Near this temple I saw for the first time an example of those curious erections so common in China, and known as "Widow gates." It was a stone structure, placed by the road side, some twenty feet in height, covered with carved figures in high relief There were three entrances through it, one central and two side ones, and over the central one was a second lintel remind- ing me of the toriis in Japan. It seemed to lead nowhere, and was set up, so I was informed, in honour of a virtuous widow who had kept the ancient precepts by refusing to take a second husband. Ningpo is famous for the antiquity of its pagodas. I went to see one, six-sided and seven- storied, from which the balconies had long since fallen, leaving it a ruined pillar of brick, something in shape like an Irish round tower, a hundred and thirty feet in height, and having a hundred and fifty-five steps reaching to the top. The thickness of the walls was about six feet, and the windows and doors in them had jambs sloping inwards, and heads in the Indian Saracenic style. It was said to 342 RECORD OF RAMBLES. be between one thousand and two thousand years old. In their origin pagodas were, according to Edkins, the tombs of Buddhist priests ; subsequently they were used as " re- positories for relics of Buddha and other venerated persons.'' They are now erected in the vicinity of temples, as offerings made by rich men in honour of the faith. Returning to the quay I found my steamer just about to depart on its return voyage, and I went on board, at the captain's re- quest, to take a glass of wine with the Toutai, or Governor, who was to be his passenger. The old gentleman was extremely polite, apparently much better educated, and certainly far less assuming, than Japanese gentlemen of the same class. Nevertheless, he had a cunning look in the corner of his eye, and had probably well filled his pocket during his term of office. He was plainly dressed himself, but his wife, who was with him, had an elaborate head-dress of pearls and other precious stones, which fastened her hair back into two flat circular protuberances or wings, known as the Ningpo knot. Each of the principal cities of China has its own peculiar idiosyncrasy in respect of these knots or twists, with which the ladies adorn them- selves. All that can be said of the Ningpo twist is that it was more becoming than the contemporary chignon as worn in Europe: The Toutai' s wife was certainly pretty ; her form was graceful, and her dress becoming ; but the smallness of her feet showed that the horrible custom of mutilation had been carried in her case to the most ap- proved aristocratic extremity. Bidding adieu to the captain and his guests, I sought Mr. Bowers, and requested the loan of his boat to take me to Teen Dong, as I had intended to perform the canal journey by night. The floods were out, however, and the coolies said the boat would not pass the bridges, so I accepted his kind invitation to dine and sleep, and prepared for a start the next morning. June 2. At three a.m., all being ready to start, I set SHANGHAE AND NINGPO. 343 out with my China boy to walk to the landing-place on the other side of the native city. The filth and squalor through which we passed as we neared the wharf was horrible indeed. In one place prisoners were chained, who had passed the night in the mire of the road outside the gaol. The hideous grimaces that some of them made proved that their mind had succumbed to the treatment. Under low archways, as we neared the wharf, the bodies of emaciated beggars were lying, some asleep, but some dead, awaiting removal when the day dawned. As we turned our lantern on these sights I never shall forget the horror of the scene. Human beings they were in name, but not the lowest of the brute creation could be reduced to such a loathsome state. I suppose foreigners with philanthropic ideas seldom tramp the slums of Ningpo at three in the morning. At the wharf side the daily supply of fish was just coming in. The manners of Billingsgate are common to all peoples nations and languages engaged in the finny trade, and as China is no exception, it was not until after considerable jostling and much complimentary repartee, which induced my boat-coolies to lay about them roundly with their cudgels, that we reached our boat. The punt, for such it was, was a covered one, about thirty feet long, and provided with a sliding or removable bamboo roofing. Under this my table and stool were placed, while a couch of rugs was spread in the centre. Upon this I took my morning sleep, maskez (that is, in pidjin English, " notwithstanding ") the vermin, which were peculiarly fat and well-liking, and of uncanny forms unknown to me before. In dreams I have since recalled these horrid beasts to mind, especially one about half an inch in length, its body of a dark brown colour, as round as a pig ready for market, and having a pointed protuberance at its nether end, which wagged up and down in joyful welcome at the arrival of a stranger on board. 344 RECORD OF RAMBLES. While waiting to start, I had an opportunity of observing the natural cruelty of the Chinese character. On a little island of reeds, just large enough for him to take his stand upon, was a tall man, whose diabolical features were grin- ning with delight as he watched the struggles of a wretched fish, which he had hooked by the beautiful red dorsal fin, and was bobbing in and out the water to protract its torment as long as possible. It was like a cat playing with a maimed mouse, and was equally characteristic. I do think the low-bred Chinese, in spite of all their cunning, which passes for cleverness, are at heart the most de- spicable race of cold-blooded savages that can be found on earth. We did not actually start until six a.m., and at 7.30 I was awoke to my breakfast consisting of eggs, toast, and tea, which Hee Yu had provided, together with every other delicacy that Ningpo could supply. His cooking establishment, furnished with a stone charcoal burner, he set up in the bows ; while the boatmen, three in number, cooked their unsavoury chou-chou aft, so that the smell might not offend me. Never until then, when I found myself reclining in this little canopied barge, had I realized what the repose of the life of an Oriental magnate really must be. True it was that my China boy was my sole attendant, but I saw that he made my every movement his study to such a degree that my very wishes were forestalled. Meals were prepared at intervals of a few hours apart, in case I should be hungry, and the distress he manifested if I refused to eat caused me to humour him to more than re- pletion. My couch of rugs was readjusted according as the sun fell on the bamboo awning, and this again was shifted perpetually. As we paddled noiselessly, dreamily, along, the landscape, the people, with their manners and customs, arts and industry, as well as the natural history of the district, all passed like a panorama before me. Here and there a " Widow gate," sometimes with a grave behind it. SHANGHAE AND NINGPO. 345 recalling the elaborate portals of the Sanchd Topes ; here and there the image of a horse; here and there a stone bridge, with its perfectly semicircular key-stone arch, and the neat though mortarless masonry of its polygonal walling; here and there a long village street stretching beside the water's edge, where the tiled and gabled house- tops were surmounted by dragons or by groups of coloured figures in bright medallions ; here and there a squadron of well-drilled ducks marching in files and divisions to and fro the water ; here and there the horrid baying of the dogs, and the still more horrid-looking inhabitants, half naked from their wallowings in the rice paddies, grinning and dis- porting themselves on the margin of the canal, — such were the sights and sounds that met us at every turn. On we went, past thousands and thousands of graves, which stud the country like the stars in the firmament, till Hee Yu pointed out to me some long, large buildings, which he de- scribed as the "homes" of the rice-planters. At one of the bridges, owing to the floods, we had to disembark in order to get the barge through, and here I noticed a little shrine, with a "joss" inside a cage, like those in Japan, and over it a similar device to those I had ob- served in the Gongen shrines at Nikko. I was told it was a village god. At this place also, and facing the canal, was a temple, entered under a decorated porch through a gate surmounted by coloured statuettes. At the side of this gate was a shop, where paper boats, lanterns, &c. were sold to worshippers, to be burnt in the brazier, and thus despatched to the spirits. Through the shop (for we were not allowed to enter the gate) we passed by a side-door into the courtyard. Opposite the gate was a chamber, open' in front, containing, on ascending tiers, some hundreds of black tablets, standing erect, and inscribed with golden characters. Two candlesticks were set in front of them, as well as sticks of sandal-wood for burning incense 346 RECORD OF RAMBLES. in the brazier. These completed the furniture of this funereal or ancestral temple, for such it was. The respect for dead ancestors, implied in these abodes erected for their spirits, is one of the principal duties to be performed by that man who truly puts in practice the Confucian doctrine of " Filial piety." In the fields around this place I noticed water- melons growing abundantly. Soon after we had re-em- barked, the rain-clouds, which had been hanging over the distant landscape, suddenly lifted, and I saw to my delight that we were slowly nearing a beautiful mountain range, the highest peak of which, immediately before us, was called the Ling Fiing. The sight of this was a great relief after the flats of Shanghae, where the bridges are the only hills for miles around. As the canal approached the foot-hills two pagodas came in sight, placed on the summit of a dark wooded hill. Nearer still was a waterfall ; and on a rocky peninsula jutting into the stream was a cemetery, full of dilapidated thatched graves, long uncared for, and in which in some instances the skeletons were actually visible. I noticed a large dusky bird of the stork tribe, a crow with a broad white ring round its neck, and an eagle, all so close to the bank that they were within shot of my revolver. I greatly frightened my boatmen by firing at them, and their appeals at last made me desist from so doing. I afterwards learned the cause of their fear. It appears that idle fellows are often lying asleep in the meadows, or are prompted by curiosity to conceal them- selves in order to watch a boat when passing. English sportsmen have occEisionally hit them by accident, — a deed which is never forgiven. Should the sufferer die, the avengers of blood will, if possible, kill the aggressor ; but should the latter escape, the next European who presents himself in that district is liable to be murdered in his place — " a life for a life " being the popular motto with regard to foreigners, totally irrespective of the individual. SHANGHAE AND NINGPO. 347 We were now entering a beautiful valley or " divide," at the head of which an ancient pagoda marked our route to the monastery. At noon we landed at a little village, which, in respect of the rudeness of its buildings and its stony situation, might have been in Ireland. I soon found myself hoisted into a conveyance, consisting of two bam- boo poles with a seat and a foot bar slung between them, on my way up a paved road leading through the glen. An incident, however, occurred before we left the village which gave me a very practical illustration of the feeling of the rural population towards foreigners. A group of little ragamuffins, after calling me a " foreign devil," which did not hurt me, began to pelt me with mud, which did. Resenting this, I took up a stone to return the compliment, when I found my arm arrested by my servant, who, with violent gesticulations, made me thoroughly understand that if I threw stones at the small boys, the " big boys," that is, their fathers, would come and stone me, perhaps to death. Accordingly I retired from the conflict, or rather was borne away from the gratification of future victory and the danger of possible defeat on my return. As we stopped at a "Rest-house" at the head of the path for refresh- ment, I walked aside into the forest to examine the old pagoda I had seen from the valley below. It was in ruins, and, like that at Ningpo, the balconies had fallen from it. The plants, however, with which they had been adorned had survived them, and hung in exquisite festoons from the crumbling masonry of the pillar, giving it a most picturesque appearance. From its base I gained a lovely view of the valley into which we were about to descend. The sides were clothed with dark green foliage, while goats and cattle grazed on the lawns below, and the alluvial plot at the bottom wcis emerald green with the fresh growth of rice. A steep paved way soon brought us to a second lodge-gate or resting-place, and then we 348 RECORD OF RAMBLES. entered a long straggling village, full of gambling dens ; the place being notoriously a resort of evil-doers. In one house a large crowd was gathered, and the weird sounds of a death-wake were heard from within. The people of this place scarcely deigned to look at our party, and when they did so, it was with looks of scorn and hate. Presently the scene changed for the better. Our route lay through an avenue of lofty and luxuriant pines, which with a serpentine course wound up into the forest on the mountain side. We were clearly approaching our destination ; for several other resting-places for pilgrims were passed, and in little archways or niches, hollowed out in the trunks of the largest trees, were statuettes, or rather painted dolls, set there as presiding genii to court the pilgrim's salutation, just as one sees the Virgin Mary or other saints set up in Christian lands for a similar purpose. Next we heard the sound of rushing water, and crossing a stone bridge, under which a mountain torrent made a water -fall, entered a walled enclosure, in which was a large artificial fish-pond, well stocked with "whales," as my China boy informed me. As in the case of Western monasteries and mediaeval mansions, a fish-pond was almost always at hand near a Buddhist retreat of this kind, and the grand old trees that shadowed it above, and the ancient walls and arches of the building, which we now first caught sight of, brought us back to similar scenes in an English landscape. Some tall lamps, carved in a red stone, and a model of a pagoda, stood by the side of the pond, skirting which we went up a flight of broad stone steps, and knocked for admittance at the gate of the sanctuary. The monastic building, which stretched away on either side, was very plain, and externally was painted red. The arches of the doors and windows were rounded, and the walls themselves were very thick. The priests seemed pleased to welcome me, and in this respect their SHANGHAE AND NINGPO. 349 manners were in contrast with those of the villagers in the vale below. The entrance gate was that also of a temple, which contained two large central gilded figures, standing back to back, the one placed so as to face those who came in by the front door, the other those who came in at the back. Two immense statues stood on either side the chamber, and on the floor were rows of hassocks. Numerous priests, or rather monks, were loitering about, one of whom offered to be my guide. In plan the monastery was quadrangular ; but as it was built into the side of a hill, the inner portions were higher than the outer. The background of forest towering over the buildings was of the richest foliage, and a mountain torrent had excavated a deep ravine at the side, on the edge of which the walls in that direction stood. In the middle of the central court was the principal temple, and in it three more statues, also gilded, and adorned with rings of glory round their heads. They represented, I believe, Buddha (the middle figure), with Buddha past and Buddha to come, one on either side. Two other statues in front of these were perhaps the disciples Ananda and Kasyapa. Other disciples were ranged in rows on the right and left. Behind this temple was a flight of steps leading to another terrace, on which stood a plain building, containing a dais with a chair and desk, where, we were informed, the Superior or Abbot of the monastery took his seat when the monks made their recitations. It was here also that, as a pedagogue, the same dignitary sat in judg- ment upon refractory monks, who, if found guilty, were laid on the floor and bambooed. On the left hand side of the court in front of this chamber, as one ascends the hill, and under the cloisters, which run along the sides of the quadrangle, is the Refectory. It is a large room, laid out with tables and benches, and a seat and desk for the reader, who during meals has to read passages from the Buddhist scriptures. The kitchen adjoins it at the 3 so RECORD OF RAMBLES. back, fitted, amongst other culinary requisites, with a huge bronze rice-boiler, nine feet in diameter by four and a half feet deep, provided with furnaces to match. In the wall is a niche, such as covers the piscina in mediaeval Euro- pean churches. As the monks go in to their meals in the Refectory, it is usual for them to strike a large object of bronze, in the shape of a double fish-hook, which hangs over the door. As they leave the hall by another door, they similarly strike the model of a fish in wood hung up there for that purpose. Behind the cloisters on the side opposite the Refectory were small temples or shrines, and numerous little courtyards, one containing a tall pagoda. In one little shrine was an image of Kwanwon, the god of mercy ; in another was an inscribed stone, held specially sacred, and said to be inscribed with some ancient history. It is of black marble, and a second portion of it is preserved in a second shrine at the back. It is surmounted by a fragment of white marble, on which is sculptured a pair of dragons, each from opposite sides opening their mouths to devour the mundane egg in the centre. This egg is represented as an oblate spheroid, having concentric circles round the taper- ing end. In the wooden bell-tower is a fine bronze bell, in which offerings of human hair are suspended. Here, and here only, the monks ask for an offering, and we accordingly dropped some cash into a box set for the pur- pose. In one of the halls, which I believe was the library, tables were set for meditation and private devotion, and some of these had books on them ; but they were not old enough to be curious. Adjoining it were the dormi- tories, consisting of dark unwholesome-looking stalls, in which some of the idle monks were lying asleep. In this monastery there are a hundred and fifty- six monks in all. Once a year they have a grand day. All the country side is gathered together, and they eat and drink and SHANGHAE AND NINGPO. 35 I sleep under the shelter of their expansive and hospitable roof. Their undress, in which I saw them, is grey ; but a yellow robe is their proper costume when engaged in performing a function. They all carry rosaries, the beads of which they did not appear to me to count. They rather clutch them nervously in their fingers, and seem to twist and squeeze them for the sake of inducing a state of mesmeric excitement bordering on ecstasy. Their mode of life has produced in some the mild expression indicative of idiotcy. As in Western monachism, there are several grades amongst them. Some are supposed to be readers ; others work in the garden ; others cook ; and some were weeding the courts. Fasting is enjoined on them, and they are not allowed to marry. I persuaded one of them to give me his own rosary, the wooden beads in which he had polished with his own fingers. The delight with which he received a silver dollar in return showed that money was not often seen at Teen Dong. At my watch and seal the poor creatures were never tired of looking in awe and amazement. The monastery is said to be five hundred years old, and to have been founded by one Nishing. I noticed amongst other things tin lanterns of considerable size, and the use of tin in general in this place. Hundreds of pert little birds of the jackdaw type were flying about, amusing themselves by mocking the monks, much in the style of their cousin at Rheims. I was very sorry when the time came to start, and when I heard, growing fainter in the distance, the rushing of the mountain stream, mingled with the evening chant of the monks breaking in upon the otherwise perfect soUtude of their upland forest home. My return journey to Ningpo was performed, for the greater part of the way, in darkness. Night had come on, and the portion of the boat beneath the awning in which I sat looked like a little tunnel, lighted up by the red Chinese lamp suspended in the middle. The coolies kept up a 352 RECORD OF RAMBLES. bright charcoal fire at the stern, and a second lamp, hung out at the bows, gave notice of our approach to other travellers out late on the water-way. All at once I noticed a stir amongst the boatmen ; they were plying their paddles more quickly than before, and straining their eyes towards a spot in the opposite bank, where I could plainly see a boat putting off. After a chase of a few minutes' duration, this boat, which was punted by three or four evil-looking fellows, carrying no light, drew up to within a yard or two of our stern. I had heard of canal robbers, and perceiving that my men were giving in, and already holding a parley with the new-comers, I thought it as well to take action of some sort. In spite, therefore, of my servant Hee Yu, who was wild with alarm, I took my revolver, and going on deck at the bows, stood leaning over the awning, with the muzzle pointed in the direction of the boat. Not many more words passed ; my coolies pointed me out to our pursuers, who no sooner saw me than they shoved off again into the darkness in our rear. It was nearly midnight when we reached Ningpo, but the city was by no means at rest. At the wharf the fishermen were still quarreling ; guards were parading the streets ; and the watchmen were going their rounds, playing a rude march, beating time with sticks, or adding at intervals a rap on a gong. The junks were sounding their night-watches on similar instruments. A Chinese city at night presents a bright and noisy scene ; and considering the immense numbers of lanterns and charcoal fires that are burning at once, it is not wonderful that conflagrations are so common. The sights and sounds in the narrow thoroughfares reminded me of the night- markets in the neighbourhood of "Seven Dials." At four o'clock the following afternoon {June 3), after paying my respects to our Consul, Mr. Forrest, I sailed again on the Hupeh, with my good friend the Captain, on our return voyage. The run down the river was very enjoyable. At SHANGHAE AND NINGPO. 353 its mouth lies a town, with a background of hills, one of which is peculiar for its conical form ; while on another, more precipitous than the rest, stands a fortification, which combines in one a castle and a Buddhist monastery. We were back at Shanghae in time for the early meal (or tiffin) next morning {June 4), after a trip which afforded me great interest, and gave me an opportunity of seeing some- thing of the interior of the country. June 5. Having seen Harcourt off on board the Golden Age for Japan, we drove out to see a fine pagoda, nine stories in height, recently erected in the suburbs of Shang- hae. Flowers had not yet had time to trail over the balconies ; but swinging to and fro in the wind were the little bells that depended from them, whose tinkling, so say the priests, is the tribute of praise from inanimate nature to Buddha. From this place we went to the native hall of justice, and saw the wretched prisoners confined at the Mix Court, one of whom near the entrance, cooped up in a cage, had the "cangue" on. His head was, in fact, placed in the stocks ; but I cannot say that the torture struck me as so very severe. Our kind friends invited us to a farewell dinner at the club ; and we sailed the next morning {Sunday, June 6) on board the Messageries steamer Djemna, for Hongkong. 2 A 354 RECORD OF RAMBLES. CHAPTER XIX. HONGKONG AND CANTON. The Djemna was a finely-appointed vessel, and the " state- room " on deck, which we secured, was the perfection of comfort. No sooner had we got outside the river than a storm came on from the southward — the outskirts, as we afterwards heard, of a small typhoon. A choppy sea con- tinued through the next day, and fogs succeeded each other, through which occasionally we could observe that we were passing islands along the coast. On June the 8th we ex- perienced a hot south wind blowing up through the Straits of Formosa, in which we then were, opposite Foochow and Amoy. Storms of rain and squally weather continued through the following day, and after a very monotonous voyage, we were glad, on the morning of the loth, to find ourselves abreast of the shelving rocks and islands which break the shore line just north of Hongkong. Passing through a narrow strait we were soon in the land-locked roadstead which fronts the town, and which in the previous September had been visited by one of the most fearful typhoons ever known on the Chinese coast. Of seventeen war -vessels then lying in the harbour, not one was at her anchorage the following morning ; the wreck of the quays and wharfs had not yet been cleared away ; and the long granite blocks of the sea wall were in some places standing erect like a row of posts along the water's edge. The destruction of the native population who live in their boats HONGKONG AND CANTON. 3JS had been meanwhile incalculable. The storm, pent in by the surrounding land, had raged in the basin with a fury- unsurpassed in the memory of the oldest sailor. Hongkong itself is picturesquely situated on the slope of a mountainous island, whose peaks tower above it, and whose bare sides form a contrast to the foliage which is dotted among the white buildings of the town. The sea frontage has a Portuguese appearance, the arches of the cellars forming the bases of the buildings. Behind these the narrow streets in terraces creep up the hill, mostly planted with trees on either side. Some nice residential houses are scattered in the environs. Representatives of various nationalities are to be seen in the streets, and amongst them the calm-visaged Parsees, whose neat attire, consisting of white duck trousers, spotless boots, dark tunics, and flame-shaped hats, is in keeping with the spirit, if not with all the practices, of their Purist faith. Many of them have made large fortunes as merchants; though in common with foreign traders in general, they are gradually losing their hold on China, In the evening we started on a river-steamer for Canton, having as a fellow- passenger Sir Brooke Robertson, the English Consul at that place. June II. After a nine hours' run we arrived at Canton at three a.m. At the entrance of the river stands the little settlement of Whampoa ; and further up, on the left-hand side, are two handsome nine-storied pagodas, one called the " Whampoa," and the other the " Far off," pagoda. The actual towers of these structures were painted white, and the balconies dark, and from them, as usual, plants trailed down at random. As at Tokio so at Canton, the first thing which strikes the visitor on approaching the city is the number of high stone buildings or "go downs," where brokers and others keep their valuables secure from fire and ihieves. The river was thronged with boats moored 2 A 2 3S6 RECORD OF RAMBLES. to the bank and to each other, on which a considerable proportion of the inhabitants reside. Pleasure barges, known as " flower boats," continually moved past us ; and in some cases their interiors presented picturesque scenes of lazy, listless, Oriental life. When we had obtained a native guide we went on shore, and made, in the first instance, for the reclaimed swamp which has been allotted as a reservation to Europeans. Here we heard for the first time the native cicada, or grasshopper, an insect about two inches long, which, perched on a banyan tree, was making a loud striating sound with his wings, enough to drive all sleep away at night. We next hired three chairs for ourselves and the guide, each borne by three coolies, in which we were carried across a bridge into the native city. Silk shops and ivory shops redolent of sandal wood (when that perfume was not overpowered by foul odours) ; confectioners' shops ; furniture bazaars ; apothecaries' stores; stalls filled with ornaments of jade or silver, or where "joss-papers" to be offered to the gods, were to be had, specially attracted our attention. There was a sameness, however, about the art displayed in all the articles offered for sale, and an evident wholesale manufac- ture of them for the European market, which disappointed us after what we had seen in Japan. The two things which struck me most of all were the foot-rings of silver, made like small torques, and the arm-rings of imitation jade, worn by the boat-women, which we found in one shop, and secondly a "wedding-chair" which we saw in another. The latter was about ten feet in height, ornamented in blue and gold, and perfectly covered all over with dolls, or images, dressed in the feathers of the kingfisher. It was a most elaborate piece of work, and was let out on hire for weddings ; the price, had we felt inclined to carry it home, being no less than four hundred dollars. From the shopping- streets our guide conducted us to the temple of the Five HONGKONG AND CANTON. 357 Genii, one which I believe belongs, properly speaking, to the Tauist sect. Facing the gate, a dragon, surrounded by clouds, was depicted on the wall, by way of denoting the presence of a temple, just as a large red sun denotes an official residence or government oflSce, and as a pair of tall banner stands, with cross bars, denote either one or the other. The five genii were supposed to be five shepherds, who were turned into stone, and until lately there were shown in this temple five shapeless masses of rock, as a proof of the truth of the story. In front of the temple was an ancient and massive stone gateway, the portal of which was of considerable height, surmounted by a bell tower. On looking up we saw that the bell was broken ; its destruction having been brought about by a cannon ball from an English gunboat at the time of the. siege of Canton. The inhabitants looked on the event as the fulfilment of a prophecy that when that bell should speak it would be an evil day for Canton. Probably a worse day never dawned, not for Canton alone, but for China in general, than that on which British traders first estab- lished themselves upon her shores, and forced on her that baneful traffic in opium, of which her rulers were wise enough to foresee the terrific results for their unprotected people, and to endeavour to guard them against. Figures of Tauist deities, perhaps of the genii themselves, occupied the upper temple ; and on the right hand side of the principal courtyard was a little side court, in the centre of which was a square pit. On looking down into this we saw a bare rock in which was a shapeless cavity, said to be the footprint of Buddha. It was typical of the manner in which the Chinese now neglect their temples that this footprint was full of stagnant water, while the building itself was falling to pieces, and grass grew in the courts. The next object to which we were conducted was the clepsydra, or water-clock, and to reach it we had to mount 358 RECORD OF RAMBLES. some steps to the top of one of the city gates, where a structure has been erected for it. We noticed that there were in this place two gates of massive stonework placed side by side, and on asking the reason we were informed that on one occasion two kings of equal rank being about to enter the city at the same time, they could not determine which should pass in first, so they remained outside until two gates were made, and then they entered at the same time. Would it not save our hostesses at home much nervousness and perplexity were a similar arrangement to be made with respect to English dining-room doors? The clock itself is an unwieldy invention not remarkable for any great display of genius. It consists of four (there used to be eight) bronze vats or vases placed one above another on ascending plat- forms. It requires refilling once a day. The water drips down from one vase to another, and a register finally marks the time in the lowest vase of all. At intervals the time registered is shown on a board hung out over the gate, and a man is present who sells " time-sticks," to which a sort of semi-religious veneration seems to be attached. In the year 1355 the older vases were destroyed, but in such veneration was the clock held, that even as late as i860 the present ones were made by order of the Governor. From thence we went to the Imperial Temple, to which once in every year a Mandarin repairs to perform in high state, as proxy for the Emperor, those ceremonies which are especially due to the spirits of ancestors, and (occupying, as he does, the central position in the worship) to the Spirit of Heaven, namely Shang Te, whose descendant the Emperor is. How mean these ceremonies must be, as at present practised, was shown by a tinsel ornament kept in a corner, and said to be used on the occasion. The temple had much the appearance of a barn, and to compare it to those of Japan would be some- thing like comparing a white- washed conventicle to a HONGKONG AND CANTON. , 359 Gothic church. On the roof were depicted dingy dragons, and a gaudy altar of red and gold occupied the central space, behind which rose a throne, on which was a tablet under a canopy. A triple stone gateway, guarded by the sacred dogs, formed the entrance to the outer court ; but grass was growing both in this and in the second, which fronted the temple. Hence we were conveyed to the Examination Hall, containing upwards of 8650 cells, in which the students write their exercises at the triennial examinations, though only three hundred degrees are given at a time. The passing of these examinations is the qualification for official positions throughout China. Each student must be proficient in the ancient classics as collected and annotated by Confucius ; but such a mental incubus is the useless mass of learning thus committed to memory that the study of it may be regarded as quite as great an impediment to the cultivation of the mind of the Chinese people, as are the graves of their ancestors to the cultiva- tion of their soil. Making a circuit of the city walls, which are twenty-five feet high and built of brick on a basement of stone, we passed out through one of the gates, and were finally set down at the entrance of a strange enclosure, called " The City of the Dead." It was a weird spot indeed. The precinct, surrounded by a high wall, was completely over- shadowed by trees, which appeared never to have been thinned, and grew with the wildness of untended nature. A dark pool lay beneath their shadow, and round it hundreds of birds of the stork tribe flapped their lazy wings, living unmolested in this hallowed spot. By the side of the pond was a paved way covered with moss leading to a series of courtyards, or streets of the dead. Opening into these were chambers in which the dead bodies were preserved of such strangers as having died in Canton, but belonging to other provinces, were awaiting 360 ^ RECORD OF RAMBLES. removal at the hands of those relations whose " filial piety" should prompt them to have them finally buried in the unbroken ancestral line. By the fi-eshness of the garnishing in some chambers not a few of the bodies had clearly been but recently brought here, but as a rule they were moulder- ing ruins, showing that the descendants had either died out, or were too poor or too callous to pay for removal. In each case there was an outer and an inner room, with a screen of separation between them. In the former were placed the offerings to the dead, such as paper ornaments, incense sticks, and dolls (that is, servants to wait on the deceased) — all to be burnt when the day for removal arrived ; in the latter a plain solid coffin of wood con- tained the embalmed body, by the side of which, in the case of wealthy people, candles were kept burning, while tablets were placed around recording their names and virtues. Re-entering the city we were conducted to the Temple of Horrors, which, like that of Asakusa at Tokio, was evidently a very popular one, since crowds of dirty people thronged it, and booths for a fair were set up round the court The " horrors " consisted of representations in life- sized wax figures of trial scenes and punishments, sup- posed to .be enacted in the various compartments or circles into which hell is divided. Ideas of this sort are clearly traceable to early Indian influence, and a Buddhist temple occupied a place in the same enclosure. We were glad to exchange this loathsome place for the fresh air on the heights to the north of the city, whither our guide conducted us to visit the " Five-storied Pagoda." A long flight of steps brought us to a spot where we could look down into a valley immediately within the walls in which lay the powder manufactory and the barracks of the Tatar troops. The pagoda itself, which stands on the walls at the summit of the ridge, is not like the ordinary pagodas HONGKONG AND CANTON. 36 1 in form. It is a large oblong building, containing five halls or roomy apartments one above the other. It ap- pears Jaetter fitted for a military than a religious purpose, and accordingly, during the British occupation of Canton, a detachment of troops was quartered here. It was in fact a watch-tower and barrack in one, and reminded us of the towers of the generals on the castle wall at Tokio. It is said to have been built in the fourteenth century, "in obedience to the suggestion of a soothsayer, who recom- mended the erection of a vast pile of masonry at the extreme north of the city as a ' palladium ' against the evil influences which are supposed to flow from that quarter." From the top there is a fine view to the northward as far as the "White Cloud" mountains. The plain just out- side the walls is studded over with graves of a peculiar form, different from those near Shanghae. A piece of masonry in the form of a horseshoe occupies the central space. In the middle of this area is a rude block of stone, against which, and facing outwards, an inscribed tablet is set up. A stone rail on either side completes the ends of the horseshoe; and lastly, a mound is raised as a back- ground for the whole, unless, as is often the case, the structure is built into the side of a hill. To the south- ward a splendid view is gained of the city and the river beyond. We now began to retrace our steps, passing under a massive archway, in which was a gate made of bands of iron and clasped with thousands of nails, and proceeding thence through the Tatar quarter, where the streets are broader and cleaner than is the case in the Cantonese districts. The only object worth mentioning on our way was the Flowery Pagoda, a very handsome building, then under repair. It was nine stories in height, and a winding stone staircase led to the top. At six p.m. we sailed for Hongkong. 362 RECORD OF RAMBLES. CHAPTER XX. SAIGON AND SINGAPORE. June 12. At midday, with weather warm and lovely, we were again on board the Djemna, and steaming southwards down the Chinese coast. The following day the heat decidedly increased, and we experienced for the first time . the delights of " prickly heat " — a sort of nettle-rash — the bane of healthy people who first visit the tropics, and which makes the suiferer almost tear himself to pieces with irritation. Luckily, a Chinese tailor had with great skill rigged us out in white duck suits, the exact copies of the clothes we sent him for patterns, so that, what with the luxury of our deck cabin, the awning on deck, the light and cool French meals, and the books we had brought with us, we were able to make ourselves as comfortable as the state of our bodies would permit. June 14. The evening of this day closed in with a sunset which once seen was never to be forgotten. Dense murky clouds of sharpest outline were brooding on the land which had come in sight, while the dull grey colour of the water looked cool and refreshing after an intensely hot day. Be- hind these clouds lay the setting sun, fringing their edges with a warm gold light, and showing islands below, steeped in the haze of an ethereal sky. Then the light assumed a blood-red colour, and jets as of feathered fork-lightning were scattered across the clouds. Next, as if it had been in a transformation scene, the dark mass shaped itself into the SAIGON AND SINGAPORE. 363 wall of a city, all ablaze within, beleagured it might be, and vomiting balls of fire upon its enemies without. Then it lay like a lake of glittering blood, with one long black island stretched across it, seen through twin mountain peaks black as Erebus. Lastly, all the terror and the splendour of the picture gave place once more to the cool grey light of evening, and night settled down on the waters, chilling the fancy, and leaving memory to treasure the moment that had past. Such sunsets are not uncommon on this coast. What wonder, thought I, with Buckle, that the denizens of such a clime have a hell in their mythology. The next day {June 15) was beautifully calm and clear, and we were able to coast along at no great distance from the shore, which here presented a white appearance, with ever and anon a line of yellow sand-hills and grey moun- tain peaks behind. The change of scenery later in the day showed that we were approaching the tropics. The sandy flats began to clothe themselves with a dark green under- growth, the forerunner of the "jungle," and interspersed amongst them were densely-wooded hills. At nine p.m. we passed the lighthouse of S. Jacques, and anchored for the night. When we awoke next morning, it was to find to our surprise that we had the "jungle" on either side of us, almost within a stone's throw, and that we were running up a river to the French Settlement of Saigon, in Cochin China. The country about us seemed quite flat as far as the eye could reach. The vegetation was tropical — palms, fan palms, an infinite variety of flowering shrubs, and trees loaded with yellow fruit met us at every turn of the winding river. Large grey monkeys disported themselves in the trees that hung over the bank, and chuckled with delight at the risk they ran of tumbling in. Of the alligators and tigers which are said to infest the river and the jungle we saw none ; and at ten o'clock we were moored close to the side of the gar- den of the " Messageries" at Saigon, where the river, though 364 RECORD OF RAMBLES. scarcely wide enough for two ships to pass, is extremely deep. In its general aspect the place was like a country- town in France; but the French are poor colonists, and the trade in rice is neither large nor thriving. The huts of the natives, who seemed to be mongrel Chinese, were constructed of palm-leaves or split bamboo. Some of their inmates were better looking than the rest, with olive complexions, gay dresses, and turbans on their heads. None except Chinese immigrants wore the pigtail. As at Ningpo, the boats on the river were each provided with a pair of eyes painted on the bows, and of monstrous proportions. This custom seems common to all the peoples of northern and eastern Asia. On landing, we found Saigon a very second-rate place, though, owing to convict labour, the roads and avenues around it have been well laid out. A Botanical Garden is the principal feature, and to this we drove in a singular little square cab, passing a large Christian monastery on the way. The plants were certainly wonderful. Immense ferns coiled themselves round the trees; butterflies of gorgeous hues darted about; and there were aviaries filled with rare and exquisite birds. Here for the first time we tasted the mango and, better still, the mangostine, a most delicious fruit, whose centre is sweet and cool as ice ; while the external red pulp is good in cases of fever. Avery severe thunder-storm drove us back to our ship, and we sailed next morning at 10.30. On our passage down the stream a sad accident happened, of which our bungling French steering was unquestionably the cause. At a bend of the river we ran into a British bark, which was anchored there, tore one of our boats adrift and smashed it in pieces, and, what was worse, cut with our bowsprit the mate of the bark out of the rigging of his vessel, precipitating him on to the deck, and killing him on the spot. No sooner had we got to sea than a booby- bird alighted on the stern, and allowed SAIGON AND SINGAPORE. 365 itself to be caught by the sailors. The poor silly thing was, as usual, the harbinger of a storm, which soon set in, and turned out to be a stiff breeze in the monsoon, which just now was setting from the southward across the Gulf of Siam in which we were. During the next two days the air was filled with electric storms, alternating with beautiful rainbow effects. On the 19th we were in the " Straits," with land on either side ; and in the evening we landed at the wharf where steamers touch, at a distance of three miles from the town of Singapore. On driving into the town we found the European quarter neatly laid out, and well planted with trees. Amongst the inhabitants the Chinese seemed to occupy a prominent position, some of them haying become very rich. Besides these we saw native Malays, Burmese, Sipahis, British soldiers, and a motley collection of second-rate specimens of Germans, French, Italians, Greeks, Spaniards, Russians, Dutch, and Portuguese. The houses of the natives are thatched with leaves, and their sides, where they are enclosed at all, are of the same material. The number of pine-apples we saw in these dwellings led us to suppose them to be the principal food of the people. Very picturesque were the yokes of cattle, harnessed to two- wheeled waggons, driven by olive turbaned natives girt with white sashes. The ordinary streets in the native quarter had nothing to recommend them. The houses, which were of stone, had wide open fronts, and the articles offered for sale were often second-hand European goods. A temple gate, surmounted by a stone pagoda, attracted my attention, and we stopped there. The precinct con- sisted of a courtyard, in the centre of which three aisles were in course of construction. The arches were low, and built of brick-work of Indian Saracenic design. Through the middle one we passed to the temple itself, a low stone building, entered under a massive arch, under which was a 366 RECORD OF RAMBLES. square-headed door studded with iron. In front of this door was a piazza, the walls of which at either end were decorated with grotesque and hideous fresco paintings. A single step led down into this fagade; but the priest would not permit us to enter. Within the shrine the figure of the god was seated, and in front of him was an altar. Away to the right was a similarly- constructed edifice, containing many other gods, made of painted wood, with aquiline noses, and jet-black eyes, hair, and beards. In a shed on the left was a car (we were told) for Juggernauth, or Jagemath, and another for the other gods, great unwieldy vehicles, carrying cages surmounted by canopies ornamented with dragons and figures of angels. In a cloister running along one side of the precinct were several shrines, and amongst them one to a female divinity, holding an infant in two of her many hands.- The temple, although in some particulars it conformed to Buddhist usages, was, I believe, a Brahman one, more especially as the attendant priest had no special mark of office, but was a more than half naked Malay. He gave us each a handful of white flowers to offer to the god. The Botanical Gardens at Singapore, as at Saigon, are the most beautiful feature of the place. They are kept in perfect order, and the tropical plants they contain are remarkable for their growth and beauty. Returning to the ship, we spent the evening in watching some young natives diving for cash, which we threw over- board into the water, and which they caught before they reached the bottom. They paddled about in little canoes scooped out of the trunks of trees, which they propelled with great swiftness and agility by means of a single leaf- shaped paddle. Two boys were in each, who, when the canoes filled with water kicked it out with their feet. Some- times they dived under the ship, and came up on the opposite side. Larger boats also came off to us, filled with corals, nautili, shells, and sponges of all colours and kinds. SAIGON AND SINGAPORE. 367 We parted here with our friend Mr. Chevalier, with whom we had travelled for long periods together; but we took in in return some interesting passengers. Amongst them was a Spanish Archbishop, going home from his see, I believe, to receive a Cardinal's hat. His .appearance was venerable, but his ostentation unbearable, seen as it was in his pompous gait, supercilious expression, and weighty gold watch chain. But priests — and I here use that word in a sense in which it is only too well understood — ^have a family likeness all the world over, and what with his two attendants in livery, who occasionally knelt before him, and the tout ensemble, he recalled forcibly to our minds our old friend the Miya at Kobe, though I must confess I much preferred the genial manners of the latter. Besides the Archbishop, we had an Italian opera company on board, and also some Australians ; that is, men of English descent who had been born in the colonies. They were exaggerated Britishers, as if John Bull was not big enough and talkative enough already. They were, however, good-'iiatured cheery fellows, and were bold enough to talk French to the waiters with the English pronunciation of the vowels. A young Swiss gentleman completed the list of our -special ac- quaintances. On June 21st we sailed, and the next day were passing Sumatra, with the monsoon setting heavily against us. A beautifully wooded promontory, with cocoa- nut palms growing down to the water's edge, and a light- house on the extreme point, was the last land we sighted ere we passed out into the Bay of Bengal. The sea was rough ; but the phosphoric light in the waves looked like myriads of stars hurrying past us "tangled in a silver skein." 368 RECORD OF RAMBLES. CHAPTER XXI. CEYLON. During the three next days nothing of importance occurred to break the monotony of a rather stormy passage; but on the fourth {June 26) breakers were again in sight, and we were called on deck to see the line of cocoa-nut palms, which seemed to stand in the water, so low is the coast line of the island of Ceylon. We were soon inside the little harbour of Point de Galle, though I cannot say comfortably located there; for no sooner had we dropped anchor than the swell caused the vessel to roll more violently than we had known her to do before. Strange-looking boats, called curra-marangs, with bottoms made of hide, and with a parallel piece of wood floating by the side of each and attached to it by cross-pieces, came alongside to take us ashore. The town was origin- ally a Dutch settlement, and is accordingly surrounded by strong fortifications, with massive gateways, and curious little turrets for sentinels at the angles of the walls. On one house I noticed the date " 1680," and there is a church in which are monuments to the Dutch commanders, covered with elaborate devices, mottoes, and coats of arms. The traders of these old days intermingled largely with the native population, and the result of their intermarriages has pro- duced a race — many of them persons of no inconsiderable rank and fortune — known as the Burgher class. From the English they are still inclined to hold haughtily aloof. CEYLON. 369 Without the walls of this settlement is the native town, and near it a large Roman Catholic Cathedral. At the hotel we found numerous merchants, Singalese and Arabian, who were really troublesome in their importunity to sell us rubies, cat's-eyes, moon-stones, amethysts, or pearls. The inhabitants of Ceylon are either Singalese, who are Budd- hists; or Tamils, who are natives of the Malabar coast, and belong to the Brahman or Hindu religion ; or Moors or Arabs, who are, of course, Mohammedans. The several nationalities are distinguished by their head -gear, the Arab traders wearing a conical cap ; the Singalese, a semi- circular comb ; and the Tamil, a turban wrapped round the head. Both Tamils and Singalese wear skirts, and it is sometimes hard to distinguish at first a man from a woman. The two peoples do not intermarry. Besides these races, there is a low-class community dwelling amongst them — perhaps the remnant of a debased race allied to the islanders of the south — called the Veddahs. The houses of the common people are built of. cakes of dried red earth, which they cut into blocks about twice the size of a brick. Their roofs are of leaves, though the better sort are tiled. The wealthier classes have verandahs round their dwellings supported by pillars, or else a central court. Five miles from Galle is a place called Wak Walfe, to which, since it was the only place of resort, we repaired in the afternoon. It consists of a garden and a " Rest-house" on the bank of a stream, where we saw growing side by side the cinnamon, the jak-fruit, the toddy palm, the citronella-oil grass, the areca-nut palm — with which the natives stain their teeth^ the palmyra, the cocoa-nut, the pine-apple, and the coffee plant, besides flowers of rare beauty. The natives cleverly constructed, for our edification, figures of birds out of grass and leaves. I noticed that their pottery was remarkable, being very similar, both in shape and texture and colour, to Romano-British ware. 2 B 37° RECORD OF RAMBLES. June 27. F. and I drove out to visit the temples in the neighbourhood of Galle. If Buddhism was becoming ex- tinct in Japan and China, here it was, at all events, in full life, although in a different, that is to say, in its Southern phase. In the words of a native authority whom we met, " ChristianitJ^'Tiad only served to give a spurt to it." The first temple we reached was situated in the palm-woods, about a mile from the native town. As we neared it we observed that poles were stuck up by the road side, with strings stretched between them, from which pieces of grass were hanging down all along the line. This indicated that it was a festival day, and that a procession was to pass that way. On turning into the path which led directly to the temple, one of those sickening sights met our eyes, to which the residents in Ceylon must sooner or later get habituated. It was a row of horribly diseased human beings, sitting for alms by the wayside. In a climate so hot as Ceylon, scrofulous diseases play havoc with human subjects in a way that is happily unknown in Europe. In many cases I have seen a hand held out for alms, when, on looking at the face, I have seen that not a feature remained. The first building we reached was a spacious hall, lighted on each side by eight windows, with a door in the centre. The walls were made of dried earth, and above this basement the roof rose by tiers to a considerable height, thatched in with leaves, and ceiled within with canvas. As we entered, the royal arms of England, with the appropriate motto, Dieu et mon droit (since Buddhism may be as truly said to be established by our Government in Ceylon as is Christianity in England), to our surprise stared us in the face, and we perceived that the place was a sort of orna- mental bazaar for the purpose of raising money for the temple, in connection with a festival of eight days' duration, which, we learned, had begun on this very day. In the centre was a sort of open throne-room for the high priest, CEYLON. 371 tastefully adorned with ribbons and flowers. On stands around were figures of animals, imitation fruit, and odd European china ornaments, such as :are found on cottage mantelpieces at home ; while the walls were hung with trumpery pictures, amongst which were framed advertise- ments of beer and biscuits. The floor of the hall, where it was not taken up by these things, was strewn with mats, on which groups of sick or lazy people were lying. From this curious and lively scene we passed under a corridor, where there were refreshment stalls, into the temple itself. It was an octagonal structure, surmounted by a white cupola in the form of a bell, a usual feature in these Buddhist temples. The place seemed new, and I believe that it was now being dedicated for the first time. Within there was a passage round the centre, and on the outer walls of this were a series of very mediaeval-looking paint- ings, divided into subjects, which a priest, who was going the round, explained to a most attentive audience. The central pillar contained eight compartments, or niches, in each of which was a figure larger than life. Offerings of rice had been placed in front of every one. Immediately outside was a second and smaller shrine, in which was a newly-painted figure of Buddha, seated, with rice set before him. From the appearance of the decorations in the first edifice it struck me as quite possible that the revival of mediaeval art in English decoration had been imported into Ceylon, and made use of here either by a European artist or a native designer to adorn a Buddhist temple on which it was clear no cost had been spared. If I was right in this surmise, the fact is an extremely curious one. On reaching the turn in the road, we were so fortunate as to fall in with the procession which was wending its way to the temple. First came the band, composed of drum- mers and blowers on wooden horns, which emitted a sound not unlike the bagpipes; next came flags; then a long 2 B 2 372 RECORD OF RAMBLES. train of people carrying rice, and holding over themselves a strip of. calico many yards in length which served as an awning ; then followed two masks, dressed in white, with tassels of blue and red, and high and gaudy mock helmets on their heads, playing instruments. These were followed by a picturesque group, dancing and waving handkerchiefs, and occasionally turning and bowing to the principal object in the procession, which came next after them, and consisted of a car of green and gold, with a top which revolved as it passed along. The body of the car was an octagonal chamber on wheels, and in it sat a ring of eight priests, all dressed in yellow robes. The chief and oldest of them sat in front; and behind him, in the centre, was an alabaster figure of Buddha. After the car came a mixed multitude, amongst which were bevies of damsels dressed in white, and wearing the most elaborate but tawdry necklaces. We drove through the palm groves to the temple from which this procession had started. The entrance to it, off the main road, was marked by a temporary gateway, about thirty feet high, made of bamboo poles, crossing each other and hung with grass. A steep winding footpath led to the summit of a hill, from which Tve gained a fine view over the jungle, with the sea beyond. There were two buildings at the top. One of these answered to the Bazaar in the last; instead, however, of toys and oddities, it was hung with real fruit. Under the decorated canopy in the centre sat two young priests in front of a table, and other empty seats were ranged around. The floor was strewn with mats, on which people were sitting, and a covered way led from it to the temple itself In the outer chamber of this temple sat a painted Buddha, with a square veil hanging before him, and another and smaller seated figure occupied the opppsite place in the same apartment. Behind this was a second chamber, in the darkness of which we could dimly perceive a monstrous CEYLON. 373 image, lying prostrate. The face was veiled, as were also the hand and foot. It lay on its right side, and was thirty feet long. This is the posture in which Buddha is usually represented in Ceylon ; and it may possibly account for the erroneous Japanese tradition, that it was in this island that he died, or rather entered Nirvana. This temple, like the other, seemed new, and perhaps the two places were connected, being the joint foundations of some Buddhist Croesus. The festival was very like that observed in old English "harvest-homes," and gave convincing proof of the vitality and popularity of the religion. At six the next morning {June 28) we started in the rickety mail coach for Colombo, a distance of seventy-two miles. As fellow-passengers we had a Dutchman, and Sir Mooto Coomera Swamey ; the latter going to prepare his house at Colombo for the reception of his English wife, whom he had left at the hotel at Galle. By birth he is a Tamil, and his class is indicated by the first word in his name. He told me some interesting facts with regard to Buddhism, and especially that amongst their priests are some unquestionably learned men. Their study is Pall, the extinct language of their scriptures. Every five miles we changed horses, all of which, without exception, ap- peared to be habitual jibbers. We seldom got away from a station without the application of the ear-wrench, an implement of torture consisting of a loop at the end of a stick. When we did start we went at full gallop over the road, our wheels sometimes coming into dangerous proximity with the soft ground at the side. We skirted the coast nearly all the way, the flat palm-forest scenery being very monotonous. At Bentotte we stopped for luncheon, and at 4,30 p.m. we arrived at Colombo and went to the Galle -Face Hotel, so called because it is situated at one end of a large oval promenade, or race- course, of that name. On the lower side of this is the 374 RECORD OF RAMBLES. beach, with the tremendous surf of the Indian Ocean ceaselessly breaking on it. On the upper side is the club- house, a delightfully comfortable resort for Englishmen, and of which we made good use. June 29. We walked into the town, situated at the further end of the Galle Face, and formerly fortified. After this we called on General Street, Commander-in- Chief of the English forces in Ceylon, and were most kindly received both by him and his A.D.C., Captain Matthews, the General coming to see us the same evening, accompanied by his little daughter, whose perfect grace of manner, considering how young she was, as the mistress of her father's house, won the hearts of all who saw her. Later on we dined with our kind friends the Ns. Their house, which was far enough out in the suburbs to be called in the country, was the very picture of what a bungalow may be made when the presence of a wife brings with it all the taste and all the care and comfort of a model English home. A lovely lake lay close at hand ; and what would not an English horticulturist have given for the marvellous plants which grew in the garden ! But then the heat, which poured in through the verandah, and the mosquitos, and the occasional cobra, which found its way under the sofa cushions, all these were serious drawbacks to the enjoyment of a spot which otherwise might have been called perfect. It is with infinite sorrow that I have to add that our kind hostess, whose amiability and natural talent had already won for her during her short stay in Ceylon the respect and love of the various elements which compose Colombo society, is no more. It is to large- heartedness such as hers that we must look, if anything in the future is to be done to bring about an understanding, and to lessen the unpleasant feeling which now exists, between the English residents and the native classes. Un- fortunately it is a quality generally lost sight of in an CEYLON. 375 unhappy narrow-mindedness on the part of the ladies' derived from home rules of etiquette. June 30. I went over the coffee works of Mr. Sabonidiere. The coffee is first of all spread on large flat drying-courts until it is crisp ; since when tough it is useless. It then goes through a sizing process in revolving cylinders, pierced with smaller holes at one end than the other, so that in passing through the coffee falls into three divisions or boxes according to size. Next it goes through a picking process, performed in long galleries by native women. Lastly, it is put into casks for exportation. Some which we tasted was not unlike corn ; it was of a greenish colour, and the smell was like that of green peas. We drove in the afternoon to Kelaney, a temple in the woods, about six miles out of the town, crossing a river on the way by a bridge of boats. The situation of the temple is very picturesque. A flight of steps leads up to a triple gateway, inside which is a small irregular court. From this another flight brought us up to a porch, inside which was a large oblong courtyard, con- taining two structures — the temple and a dagoba. A priest opened a small door of the temple and admitted us into a hall about forty feet long, in which were paintings, and a figure in relief on the wall, with lions on either side of him. Adjoining this chamber, as at Galle, was a second, in which was a glazed partition, or long glass-case. Inside this was a prostrate figure of Buddha, about thirty-three feet long. Near his head was a sitting image, and at his feet stood two gigantic figures, looking like warriors. Round the walls were numerous paintings of disciples, represented with a great sameness, and each bearing a lotus. Before the prostrate figure were tables covered with offerings of rice, and there were numerous small images kept in cases. The dagoba was the first we had seen. It was a dome- shaped structure, rising from a stand or basement to the height of about fifty feet. It was covered with plaster, 376 RECORD OF RAMBLES. and built of brick within. A pointed ornament sur- mounted it. On one side, and near the base, stood a stone canopy, divided into three compartments, containing a table covered with offerings. General Cunningham, in his work on the " Bhilsa Topes," has divided structures of the dagoba kind into three classes — dedicatory, funereal, and memorial. In the case of this one it is probable that it was simply raised over a supposed hair or other relic of some holy Buddhist saint. In the same court was a modern ewer and water-tap, a lamp, a cloister hung with tawdry flags, a bell tower, and two wooden cages containing fountains in the shape of candlesticks, each cage having on its roof a brass cock with a lizard in its mouth. In a small court adjoining was, as is usual in the Buddhist temples of Ceylon, a sacred tree, whose roots were surrounded by a wall. In front was a little porch with tables for offerings, and near it was a large empty hall used on occasions of ceremony. July I. We amused ourselves by watching a juggler charming a young cobra, which he kept coiled up in a basket. The beauty of the expanded hood when the beast raised himself to make his dart was striking ; and we did not wonder that the natives have made this snake an object of their worship, though the superstition which prevents them from killing it is unaccountable. The common snakes of Ceylon, which one hears rattling about the roofs at night after rats, are harmless. In paying some visits we were greatly amused at the conventionalities of English society in Ceylon. At a party the ladies have to await the exit of the senior lady present before leaving the room, and the punctilio arising from this is simply ridiculous. Going to church regularly is also a sine qua non of moving in '" good society." July 2. We left Colombo by the two o'clock train for Kandy, the governor; Mr. Gregory, being in an adjoining CEYLON. 377 carriage. He is said to be liberally minded in matters that require improvement, and had all the appearance of a pattern English M.P., ever ready to address his constituents. After crossing the jungle flats which skirt the island, the line of rail passes up through tunnels in the rocks, and round curving platforms and ledges, into the central mountain fastness of Ceylon. The views gained at intervals are wide and beautiful, and the rocky hills protrude from the forest in grotesque shapes. These natural ramparts once passed, Kandy, the capital, lies amongst the hills of the interior, on the side of a lovely artificial lake made by the ancient kings. The town is small, but clean, and there are pretty winding walks in the hill-sides around, where the tiled roofs or verandahs of the bungalows are seen peeping out from plantations of coffee or palms. By the side of the lake is a long grass-plot, at one end of which is the Queen's Hotel (to which we went), and at the other the temple of the Delada Da, flanked by its picturesque octagon tower. At the same end of the promenade is the burial-place of the kings, and behind it the residence of the Governor. The ancient palace of these kings is the house now occupied by the government agent, Mr. Parsons, on whom we called next day (^uly 3). From his present drawing-room (a chamber decorated with geese and lions moulded in clay), the native Queen used to survey the games in the court below. The sun and moon are also represented there, in allusion to the king being the son of the former, and brother of the latter. The temple of the Delada Da joined the palace as a sort of "chapel royal." Behind it is the old hall or court-house, in which state assemblies were held, a building supported on fine old carved pillars. By the side of the lake is a house from which His Majesty used to fish, and in the centre of it is a little artificial island, to which he used to retire with the ladies of his harem. The so-called tooth of Buddha itself, for which the temple is famous, is a piece 378 RECORD OF RAMBLES. of ivoiy (probably a boar's tusk), some three inches long. It is kept in the inmost and handsomest of three bell- shaped shrines, fitted one over the other, richly jewelled, and the outermost one festooned with flowers. The room in which it is kept is an upper chamber, twenty-four feet long by twelve feet wide, in a building placed in the centre of a quadrangle or cloister of the temple. The room beneath it is provided with gateways on three sides, narrow, and handsomely carved. The room in which the shrine is is filled with the heavy perfume of the flowers which pilgrims are perpetually bringing and laying on the table before it. The reliquary is seen through three gilded arches, behind which is a wooden railing in front of the treasure, and against this, when we were there, had been placed a single tallow candle to give light to the shrine. The keys of the three shrines which cover the tooth are kept respectively by three high priests, who are also the principals of the three sacerdotal and collegiate estab- lishments in the vicinity of Kandy. The pilgrims, who thronged the temple, seemed full of devotion, clasping flowers in their upraised hands, or kneeling with faces buried in their palms. Often in the hollow of their hands they carried a flower to a neighbouring shrine, reached along a piazza in the quadrangle of the temple, and in which was an ime^e of Buddha, in pure rock crystal, nine inches high, preserved in a case made of ivory, gold, and silver. This is all the ceremonial of the Buddhist religion observed by the people in Ceylon, as regards per- sonal devotion. At the entrance gate of the temple, as we passed out across the ancient moat, musicians were playing. Amongst the native aristocracy of Ceylon the caste prejudices are kept up with the utmost strictness. The priests will bow to no one, not even to a prince. There is an old lady still living who claims to be the lineal descendant of the person who brought the famous Bo-tree, CEYLON. 379 now at Anarayahpoora, from India, nearly two thousand years ago. Before shaking hands with an English lady, she is always careful to inquire her caste, although, as a rule, the whole English community is regarded by the Singalese as external to and independent of any caste at all. In other parts of the town there are Brahman temples belonging to the Tamil population. One which we visited was small, and had a poverty-stricken aspect. We were allowed to proceed no further than the entrance ; but the building externally was cruciform, and the roof richly ornamented with terra -cotta figures, the most ordinary representations being three-headed gods and peacocks. In a cage in the court a wooden peacock was kept, and by the stench of decayed vegetable matter around, food seemed to be offered to it every day. On the walls of the court and the temple porch were hideous frescoes of deities, and in the penetralia, so I was informed, were indecent representations, which used to be exhibited once in every year, until the Government saw fit to order the destruction of some of the worst. Since that time strict secrecy hcis been observed in all these temples for the sake of the preservation of similar ones. I noticed stone jets of water in the outer wall proceeding from the innermost shrine. The priest who guarded the door was, with the exception of a girdle, perfectly naked. From this place we drove about a mile and a half to a Buddhist temple, "cut out of rock," we were told. Our way lay through the woods, and the site had been well chosen on an elevation commanding an undulating prospect. The shrine, which had nearly the same dimensions as that of the Dalada Da, was built against a slightly overhanging block of gneiss rock, which rose to some height behind it. An inscription on this rock commemorated the founder — a lord or "judge" of the district. The effect, inside the narrow 380 RECORD OF RAMBLES. door, was different to that in the other temples, and decidedly imposing. Tawdry curtains hung from the centre of the - roof to the floor. Behind these, with a flower -strewn table in front of him, stood a figure of Buddha, in the attitude of the lawgiver, eighteen feet high. The image was covered with a thick coating of bright paint, and some of the extremities were of plaster ; but the main body of the image was clearly, as the priest assured us, hewn out of the rock behind. All round the walls, in five lines or bands, were frescoes illustrating the life of Buddha, and above these a series of painted panels, each containing a disciple. Near by was a Bo-tree, and a dagoba containing, we were told, a drop of Buddha's blood. The old priest who acted as our guide was unusually intelligent, and was accompanied by a group of pretty little grand- children. From the hotel, in the evening, we saw a Brahman procession, consisting of pilgrims, starting for Katr^ramme, a distance of eighty miles. This strange excursion takes place once a year, and is termed the veloo. Formerly the numbers who joined in it were counted by the thousand ; but the government, finding that it conduced to the spread of cholera, have now limited the assembly to two hundred. The greater portion of the crowd appeared to be intoxicated. They were dancing wildly, and waving handkerchiefs to the sound of horns. Over the sacred things which they carried with them wrapped in linen and decorated with flowers, they held canopies or umbrellas. It is curious to notice that in some parts of the island the Roman Catholics, finding pilgrimages so popular, have turned them to the account of their own religion. It is said that the king of Siam, not long since, offered no less than one million and a half sterling for the Dalada Da, or sacred tooth, hoping by its means to improve his country by attracting more pilgrims to it. July 4. We spent this day most pleasantly in a visit to CEYLON. 38 1 Peridimia, the botanical garden, or rather park, in which Dr. Thwaytes has his pretty bungalow in the very midst of his favourite pursuits. Amongst the plants which we admired the most were the exquisite blue creepers, which hung in festoons from the summits of the highest forest trees ; the . travellers' palm, filled as it is with water to quench thirst in the desert ; the ferns ; and the chandelier tree, with the poisonous juice of which the natives used to put out their captives' eyes. The most astonishing things, however, in Ceylon, are perhaps the stick and leaf insects, which are so similar to these objects that it is positively impossible to detect them without a most close inspection. We lunched with Mr. Parsons, where we met the clergyman of Kandy, Mr. Balfour. July 5. We started at 5.30 a.m. on a two days' drive into the interior, to visit the temple at Dambool. Descending the northern escarpment of the mountains, through scenery which was characteristic and beautiful, we reached Matella at eight, and the " Rest House " at Nalanda at 10.30. These " Rest Houses " are plain buildings in which travel- lers can obtain a night's lodging, and food such as fowls and curry, at fixed charges. They are a great convenience, and are under government supervision. The scenes by the roadside were often instructive pictures of native life. Tamil women were picking stones ; their noses, ears, arms, fingers, and toes, covered with silver rings and bracelets, which set off their dusky limbs, and formed the staple of their worldly possessions. Pilgrims, with ashes smeared across their foreheads, often passed us. Once we met a postman on foot, and running, provided with a bell, which hung beside him, and a handspike, in case of wild beasts, since, as our driver informed us, "sometimes tiger walkee on the road, sometimes elephant." The tigers, however, of Ceylon are the cheetahs, and do not attack unless pro- voked, and the elephants generally keep to the jungle. In S82 RECORD OF RAMBLES. some places the sides of the road were lined with the mounds niade by the white ants, in shape as conical as sugar-loaves, and occasionally seven or eight feet high. They are as hard as brick, and are perforated with funnel- shaped holes. Cameleons abounded on them, basking in the sun. We arrived at Dambool at two p.m., and found the Rest House, which was empty and damp, infested by a plague of frogs, hundreds of which we were obliged to squash before we could lie down to rest, and even when we did so for a few minutes the survivors occasionally took a hop on to our faces. The rock in which is the cave-temple is a large "boss" of gneiss, standing out like an island in the midst of the ocean of jungle around. From the summit, when we reached it, we saw several similar protrusions further to the north, and amongst them the rock of Sigiri, four hundred feet in height, inaccessible, except, as legend says, on one occasion to a parricide, who fortified himself there with a band of followers. When, by a rude path, we had scaled the face of the rock for about a quarter of a mile, we came to a flight of steps leading up to a higher platform. Crossing this to the further side of the hill we arrived at the gate-house of the temple, a building about forty feet long, having a narrow doorway in the middle. Inside this was a plain unadorned portico, famous for being the place in which, during the last ^meute against the English, a native king— subsequently captured and shot — had been crowned by the high priest. A narrow court- yard or terrace, from nine to fourteen paces broad and a hundred and forty feet long, had been levelled out of the hill in front of the mass of overhanging rock which forms the roof of the temple itself The mouth of the cavern has been walled up, so as to form the front wall of the temple within. The interior is divided into several apart- ments. The one nearest the gate is very small, and is entered by a little low arched doorway, under which is an CEYLON. 383 inscription carved on the face of the rock. Passing this we reached a platform under the shadow of the "low- browed rock," and into which the doors of the temple open. In the first chamber the priests pointed out a re- clining figure of Buddha, fifty- two feet long (his head resting on a pillow, and not on his hand, as in Siam), said to be nine hundred years old, and to be carved out of the rock itself. Some curtains hung in front of him ; the folds of his dress were ribbed and wrapped tightly round him, and some small brciss images had been placed by his side. On the edge of the terrace opposite to this temple was the usual Bo-tree, surrounded by a wall, and having a stone table for offerings set before it. For the rest of the length of the terrace, a raised colonnade, supported on pillars and covered by a roof which jutted out from the face of the rock, had been constructed in front of the temple. At the extreme end of this stood a little dagoba, and on the walls around it were some neatly-executed specimens of fresco painting. The first door in the colonnade opened into the largest of the caves. The unhewn rock, elaborately painted with figures of disciples in red and yellow, formed the roof, and stretched at length along the innermost wall lay a second prostrate Buddha. In one corner was a figure, also of Buddha, in a sitting posture, with little brass images before him. I asked the priest to give me one, but he replied that his own death would be the penalty of such a sacrilege. By the side of this latter, under a curtain, stood a Buddha, with his hand upraised in the posture of the law- giver;* so that here we had, in one temple, all the three forms in which he is represented in Ceylon. Numerous other seated figuresf were placed in the body of the hall. The priests indeed were at that moment engaged in con- * His hand is raised, and his finger and thumb joined, or nearly so. t In meditation during life : distinguished from the prostrate ones which represent him in Nirvana. 384 RECORD OF RAMBLES. structing a new one. They were making it of clay, or rather of lumps of mud, which pilgrims were bringing from the valley below. In the case of one half-finished figure the clay had cracked. The cracks had been filled up with fresh clay, and so the face was widened and its expression altered. Otherwise they are all exactly alike, and are sub- sequently gilded. In this same temple, besides the Buddhas were the figures of two kings, and behind them were some frescoes which seemed specially interesting. They represented three warriors of dark complexion, wearing silver bracelets on their arms and wrists. Each held a lotus aloft in his right hand, and a sort of cornucopia in his left. Each wore on his head a helmet encircled by a crown, much like a mitre, and they were girt with tiger skins. The paintings on one portion of the roof represented the history of these " ancient kings." A little rill, oozing through a crevice in the rock, dripped from the centre of the cave into a tank set to catch the holy water. Beside this temple were three other similar halls adjoining it, and each more or less like the others. In some cases the heads of the images were encircled by an ornament, forming a halo or canopy, in imitation of the hood of the cobra, only that the snake was triple-headed. The elaborate doorcase of the fourth hall was supported by two figures, one on either side, and above them in the centre was this same ornament of the cobra's hood. Some other little caves at the end of the rock were used by the monks for cooking and other domestic purposes. On leaving the temple and looking back at the long mass of gneiss which so curiously over- hung it, it struck us that its form, not unlike that of a prostrate giant, had possibly given rise to the sanctity of the place, and its dedication to the prostrate Buddha. July 6. The report of cholera on the road prevented us from pursuing our journey, as we had intended, to Anara- yahpoora, so, returning to Kandy, we spent the evening with CEYLON. 38s our friend Mr. D6 Sarem, and the next morning accom- panied him to one of the Buddhist collegiate establish- ments on the side of the lake. This one was specially de- voted to the training of young priests, who, when they walk abroad, may never look more than ten yards in front of them, and then only on the ground. The importance of the native priesthood in Ceylon may be judged by the fact that the Buddhist Church holds, in this central province alone, land to the value of more than ;^i2,cxx) a year. Some time since there was a schism amongst these priests. Some of them, not being able to obtain ordination in Ceylon, went to Siam, where they received the rite. Those thus ordained wear the yellow robe over both shoulders, while the true Singalese only wear it over one. No women were permitted to enter the precincts of this college. In the centre was a hall where the Bonna or Scripture is read. One priest recites it in Pali, and then another explains it in Singalese. Thus Pali, as the sacred language, stands in precisely the same relation to the language of the people as Latin did to the European languages in the middle ages. In a cupboard at the end of the hall was a sitting figure of Buddha, before which fresh flowers were placed every day. The pillars of this apartment were characteristic of an early type of Buddhist architecture, the points of the leaves of which their capitals were formed being deflected. Outside the building a row of stones were set up, carved in the form of lotus blooms. In a cloister running round the enclosure the students reside, and in one of the rooms in this, on a little narrow and cramped couch, lay the aged High Priest, one of the three keepers of the keys of the sacred tooth, in a dying state. In another chamber sat one of the tutors, a well-educated man, engaged in writing with his "stele" or pen, a pointed instrument with which he made incisions in the palm leaf, and then rubbed in a preparation of lamp- 2 C 386 RECORD OF RAMBLES. black. It is thus that the Buddhist MSS. are written. He was kind enough to procure for our inspection several books written on palm-leaf strips, some enclosed in hand- some metallic covers, others painted, and a few of the best having a piece of crystal or a trinket attached to them. They were Commentaries on the Scriptures, all in the Pali language, but written in the characters of Ceylon, Siam, and Burmah. In reading them the priest adopted a curious sing-song style, like that we had heard in Japan. In the college grounds we saw a specimen of the "Shoe-black" tree, so-called because its red flower will, so they say, black a boot. On our return Mr. De Sarem showed us some nice specimens of the Singalese art of inlaying in silver. Native ladies carry little silver boxes on a chatelaine, con- taining the betel leaf, the areca nut, a pointed instrument for extracting it, and an ear-pick, all in one. They some- times wear as much as two thousand pounds' worth of jewellery in the rough stones. At noon, in spite of over- powering heat, we set out for a friend's bungalow in the Doomera valley, at a place called Mahabere Tenne, about thirteen miles from Kandy. We crossed a ferry and entered a picturesque and hilly district, most of the coffee plantations lying on high ground. The Doomera valley itself yields two crops a year. The bungalow was the very picture of a residence where a man with the tastes of Virgil might make himself at home in a foreign land. It was situated on the summit of a grassy slope, with a terrace in front of the verandah, looking out over the valley to the distant hills, while the pulping works and drying yards belonging to the farm lay close at hand, but hidden by the brow of the hill. The plantations themselves stretched far away behind the house. In walking with our friend over the estate, we saw not only coffee, but ebony, sapan, and tama- rind trees, and were also induced to eat a jak fruit, a sort of rough apology for a pine-apple. In appearance it is CEYLON. 387 not unlike the bread-fruit, and it hangs from the tree by a little shoot from the trunk. The farm was managed with the most military precision. We woke in the morning to the sound of the tomtoms calling to work, and at night a horn sounded the watches. All the employes were Tamils. The men get 8d. per diem, the women 6d. ; and they can live on los., or at most 15s. per month. In recent years Tamils have been brought over from Malabar by the requirements of English employers. In their contracts, however, they usually stipulate to be allowed to visit their native country once in every year, in order to be present at certain religious usages. In ancient times the ancestors of this people invaded Ceylon, and at one period there were actually Tamil kings on the throne. They are very cleanly in their habits, and much of their spare time seems spent in bathing. Their mode of washing clothes, however, which I once had occasion to notice, was certainly not inviting. They first of all rinsed them in a muddy ditch, and then beat them dry on a flat stone, a process fatal to buttons. The hospitality of the Englishman's bungalow is proverbial ; and to live on a main route through the country must put that virtue to a severe test. In the afternoon our host received an intimation that guests were expected in the evening ; and a large party accordingly arrived, including the sisters and nephews of the planter, as well as himself. Sitting in the verandah, which was covered with exquisite creepers, in the cool of that short Indian evening, was delicious. At about nine o'clock, however, all true planters retire to bed; they are up at four the next morning; at six a.m. they have tea ; break- fast is at ten, tiffin at two, and dinner at seven. In the cool of the morning and evening they go the round of their farms. Such is the planter's day. July 8. Early in the morning we were on our road back to Kandy, whence, having said "good-bye" to our kind 2 C 2 388 RECORD OF RAMBLES. friend Mr. Parsons, we started for Colombo which we reached in the evening. The next day was spent with the Ns., whose attention to us we shall never forget. On the evening of the loth we started on the coach for Galle, where, dusty, shaken, and tired, we arrived the following morning. THE RED SEA AND EGYPT. 389 CHAPTER XXII. THE RED SEA AND EGYPT. July 12. We sailed on board the Messageries steamer Tigre for Aden. The vessel was an old one, and we greatly missed the comforts of the Djemna. Amongst our fellow-passengers were Mr. and Mrs. Armstrong, Mr. Featherstonehaugh, Mr. Mac-Call Smith, all from Ceylon ; Mr. Clark, who had travelled much in India ; and a large number of Dutch from Java, many of them officers re- turning home invalided from the protracted war they have been waging with the Sultan of Achin, and since his death, with his representatives. The climate has, however, been fighting against the Dutch, and the advances they are making on their enemies' country, though sure, are slow. It appears that the natives accuse the English of a breach of faith in this matter. By an old treaty, to which England and the Sultan of Achin were parties, it was stipulated that the Dutch were not to extend their territories in the East. In spite of this, however, the Dutch picked a quarrel with the natives, and are trying to possess them- selves of their country. The Sultan, in begging help from England, naturally took his stand on the ground of the old treaty, which, however, had in the interim been abandoned by the English on the cession to them by the Dutch of certain possessions on the Gold Coast. The ground taken by the Sultan was that, although a party to the treaty, he had not been consulted prior to its abandonment ; and if 39° RECORD OF RAMBLES. this be true he certainly had good reason to apply to England for help and redress. From an Irish missionary, who had been in the Deccan, I learnt some particulars with regard to the antiquities of that district which were interesting. He told me that in various places he had met with towers, some of them as high as two hundred feet, having rounded tops, and just like the " Round Towers" of his own country. The natives, he added, knew absolutely nothing about them. On the coast of the Karnatak, near Pondicherry, was the image of a bull, hewn out of a rock. A passage was cut in the figure, to pass through which was regarded as a most sacred ceremony for the pilgrims who flocked to the place. Holes in the interior were cut to receive their bodies, and in these they laid themselves down for days together, and during the performance of the penance it was the pious duty of others to feed them. Another passenger gave me a very gloomy account of the state and prospects of India. He had been engaged, he said, in engineering work in the Cooloo valley, in the country of the snows, on the northern and north-eastern frontier land. Here he frequently came in contact with Russian camps, nominally pitched there for purposes of hunting. They were not exactly military outposts, but they were clearly sent there to explore, and he added that the Russian Government had a far better survey of those districts than the English had. With regard to internal affairs in India, he said that it is a very significant fact that the natives, in proportion to their education and to their in- creasing acquaintance with European modes of doing busi- ness, are rapidly taking.matters into their own hands. This is seen by the fact that small English tradesmen are gradually being supplanted by native dealers, with whom other natives prefer to deal, and who can afford, owing to their economical way of living, to undersell the foreigners. Looking at THE RED SEA AND EGYPT. 39 1 things, of course, solely from the British point of view, he was of opinion that there had been too much legislation in favour of the native lower classes in India generally. " The servant," he said, "had too ready a remedy against the master who licked him." " These people were too much in their infancy to be treated as men when they mixed with Europeans." To me it appeared, from all he said on this subject, that there is a growing alarm on the part of Europeans in proportion to the development of native capacity. He added that the land question was becoming a great difficulty, and went so far as to predict a second emeute in the next ten years ; a rising, he said, which, if it did take place, would be marked by much fewer atrocities, but by a much more deep-rooted intention, and a much greater determination and pertinacity than was shown in the last. July 1 3. Owing to the monsoon we were obliged to take a very southerly route, and next day came in sight of an island which must have been one of the Maldives. The weather was fair, and cooler as we neared the Equator, but there was a long and steady roll owing to cross seas from the southward. On Sunday, the i8th, the weather became rougher, and we were reminded thereby that we were entering that part of the Indian Ocean, south-east of Cape Guadafui, known to mariners as " the boiling kettle." On the 20th, the coast of the island of Socotra was in sight. The cliffs were high and rugged, and behind them several conical peaks shot up into the sky. During the run of two thousand four hundred miles we had several times stopped in mid ocean to " key- up;'' but on the morning of the 22nd we stopped for a very different reeison, — namely, because we did not know where we were. Soon, however, we sighted the bold pro- montory of Guadafui, and the rocks outside it ; and thence the run up to Aden was smooth and pleasant. " Steamer 392 RECORD OF RAMBLES. Point," where the ships touch, is four miles distant from the town itself. It consists of a little semicircle of shops and hotels facing the Strait, and lying immediately beneath a chain of rugged and bare hills which look as if they had been scorched up, as indeed they really have. Crowds of little swarthy fellows came round the ship, deafening us with their clamour of " I dive, how much you give .' " Some of the niggers, who came, as we were informed, from Madagascar, had very peculiar hair. It was long, coarse, frizzled, and of a tawny colour, which contrasted curiously with their dark skins. With the exception of a girdle they were naked, and on their temples or round their necks many of them wore two large pieces of amber strung on a leathern thong. Our deck was soon crowded with officious Arab merchants selling white ostrich feathers for about three rupees apiece. At the hotel at " Steamer Point " we noticed a number of Arab boys who get their living by fanning the .guests with little wicker flags. As the sun was setting the parade-ground presented a curious and impressing sight. For the Mohammedans it was the hour of devotion, and accordingly we saw two lines of Arabs, principally of the lower class, about sixty men in all, drawn up with their faces turned towards the sea. They were alter- nately bending very low, so that their heads touched the ground, bowing, and then standing erect. Once a sound as of a loud full-toned "Amen" broke from them, and they fell on their faces to the earth. I suppose it was the name of Allah. They were worshipping towards Mecca, as is their custom, at sundown. How different was this mode of worship to that of the Buddhists we had seen in Japan and Ceylon ! No idol stood in front ; no tawdry flowers were offered at a shrine ; no gay canopies were flaunted over a proud priest ; all that was before them was the bright yellow haze of an oriental evening sky. July 23. We sailed at nine a.m., and fortunately for us THE RED SEA AND EGYPT. 393 there was a breeze ahead. Sighting Perim Lighthouse, we passed through the Straits of Bab-el-Mandeb at ten. The channel is narrow, say three or four miles wide. On the African side the coast is low, that on the Arabian high. A good story is told about an island which we passed in this strait. Up to within a comparatively recent date it had never been appropriated by any nation. It was in fact " no man's land." The French Government, hearing this, gave secret instructions to their Admiral to go and place a flag upon it and claim it for France. He accord- ingly sailed into the Red Sea for this purpose. The English governor at Aden, however, having a hint of some- thing of the kind, and seeing the French fleet passing, sent to invite the Admiral to dinner, and, during the time expended in the repast, despatched a boat with a union- jack to be placed on the island in question. After dinner the Frenchmen proceeded ^merrily on their mission, when, . to their surprise, on reaching the island, they saw the British flag flying, and found they had been forestalled. July 24. The passage through the Red Sea is dangerous on account of shoals, so that at night we anchored, with the African coast in sight. In mid-channel were three curiously-shaped islands, quite barren, with table-land at the top, their sides being precipitous faces of smooth rock. The next day we were out of sight of land, and, the breeze abating, the heat became intense, the thermometer standing at 92 deg. under the awning on deck. In the evening we were abreast of the mountains of Nubia, whose outline was rendered doubly grand by the blood-red haze of a lurid sunset behind them. Here the same thought struck me as when watching the worshippers at Aden ; namely, that the monotheism of the inhabitants is fully in keeping with the natural phenomena of the land in which they dwell. Here were no wave-washed caves sheltered by groves and mur- muring with trickling water, no retreats for Fancy to people 394 RECORD OF RAMBLES. with nymphs and satyrs, no green paddy-fields for tutelar deities to preside over ; but man was face to face, with the blazing boundless expanse into which he saw the sun sink down, and out of which he saw it rise again, with a regularity that made him feel the unity and immutability of Nature's law, and with an effect of gorgeous light which made him tremble at the splendour and majesty of the sole object of his adoration — the one, the glorious God. July 27. Such an evening was followed by a morning scarcely less beautiful, the rosy rays of sunrise being steeped in water of the purest blue. At an early hour we sighted a lighthouse, and passed two curious rocks, called "The Brothers," whose sides had been eaten out by the sea. Near these we saw a quantity of that peculiar red scum, from which, some say, the Mare Rubrum derives its name. It was either on this day or on the morning of the next that those of us who were belQw in the saloon were sud- denly summoned on deck by the loud ringing of a bell to hear the following announcement, which was made in a loud voice by one of the French officers, who had mounted on a coil of rope for the purpose : " This," he said, " ladies and gentlemen, is the place where the children of Israel crossed." As we entered the Gulf of Suez the sea was calmer than I have ever seen it before or since. In perfect stillness it lay as if oppressed by the heat, its surface here and there showing a ripple as a shoal of little fish fled from a porpoise. Here and there, too, a couple of dark objects, side by side, showed where a shark rested, with his nose and dorsal fin above water ; but as a rule the surface had much the appearance of silk, which parted into folds as the bows of our ship pressed through it. Three miles from Suez we came to an anchor in sight of the poles which mark the entrance of the canal, and between which a dredging-machine was at work. The boat in which we THE RED SEA AND EGYPT. 39S were pulled to the Custom-house was rowed by Arabs, who rose from their seats at every stroke. In the channel were curious-looking cages, which we heard were bathing- places so constructed that no sharks can get in, although they have the tantalization of observing through the bars the delicate human morsels inside. After passing in zig- zag fashion through the shallows we landed close to the Suez Hotel, and then began such a scene as it is im- possible to describe. The coolies in their struggle for our baggage began cudgelling each other soundly about the heads and bodies, and yet at the end nobody seemed one bit the worse. The hotel to which we went had been built, we were told, by a Pasha for the benefit of the English, and it was a fairly comfortable place. July 29. At eight a.m. we left Suez by the train for Cciiro, and followed the course of the canal as far as Ismailia, a thoroughly French town, whose appearance makes one at once appreciate the immense influence that people has had in making Egypt what she is. Here we passed our good ship, as she steamed slowly through the narrow ditch, seeming, from a distance, like a thing magically propelled through the desert of sand. Leaving Ismailia we reached the Junction for Cairo at 1.30; after which the plain through which we were running became more fertile. For the greater part of the way the railroad runs by the side of the narrow canal which ex- tends from Ismailia to Cairo, and which, sending out off- shoots into the plain, Has irrigated the surrounding country as far as the eye can reach. Every now and then good garden grounds appeared, and the use of water buffaloes, as well as the clever appliances for irrigation, reminded us of scenes much farther east. Peaches, gourds, melons, and the fruit of the prickly pear were sold at the stations, while, corn-fields and groves of the date palm increased in number as we advanced. The dwellings of 396 RECORD OF RAMBLES. the natives consisted of squarely-built chambers of dried mud, or rather of light brown earthy bricks, all clustered together in a manner resembling that adopted by the Moquis Indians of America. Some few huts were made of planks brought together in a point at the top. A few of the more important settlements looked like miniature fortified cities. The outer walls were plainly built; but there was generally a round-headed Moorish gateway. The whole arrangement looked like an accumulation of cubes of different sizes, surmounted by a minaret, and flanked in many cases by a row of contiguous pepper-box- like structures. At last, as the evening came on, the city of Cairo came in view, lying, as it seemed, beneath us in the heart of a plain enclosed by a range of rocky hills. The principal feature of the place is the rock which forms the citadel, surmounted by the new grand mosque and its conspicuous minarets. That which struck us most of ail, however, was the modern aspect of the town when we reached it, and had been driven to our hotel — the " Grand New" — situated in a square which would do credit to a French city, containing as it does, the Opera-house on one side, and a delightfully cool public garden in the centre, in which is a little Italian theatre. The next day we spent in paying calls on those to whom we had introductions, amongst whom we cannot fail to record our thanks to Mr. Rogers, late the English consul, and to Mr. Raphael Borj, the then vice-consul, for the facilities they placed in our way for seeing all we wished. At the hotel we had the good fortune to make the ficquaintance of Mr. Chancellor Martin, one of those American officers who are now serving in the Egyptian army. July 31. We rose at 2.30 a.m. to commence the longest day we had experienced during our travels. At three we left in a carriage for the Pyramids, taking with us a Grasco- THE RED SEA AND EGYPT. 397 Turkish guide. The Cheops group lies at a distance of about nine miles from the city. A fine bridge spans the river, and there is a good road lined with acacia trees nearly all the way. On the further side of the river is the palace of the Khedive, a spacious modem building. His harem Consists of upwards of two hundred inmates, thirty-five of whom are wives chosen from the best society. Besides this large establishment he has a menagerie of wild beasts, in which he takes a special interest. Of late he has been expending enormous sums of money in erecting palaces for each of his sons, as well as for his mother a Circassian by birth. They are square piles of buildings enclosed in high walls, and not unlike barracks. The road to the Pyramids passes over the rich delta land of the Nile, just then awaiting the autumnal inundation. This particular part of it was the scene of one of Napoleon's battles. The pyramid of Cheops is placed, not as is generally supposed, in the centre of a sandy plain, but on the summit of a Jimestone ridge of no inconsiderable elevation. Close to its base, and giving an idea of the vast proportions of the whole, the Khedive, with more than questionable taste, con- structed a house for the reception of Napoleon III. The wearing of the limestone gives to the pyramid a bright and new appearance. The total height to the apex, as will be re- membered, is four hundred and eighty feet, and the length of the base on each side seven hundred feet. The ascent is effected at one of the corners ; but, in spite of the violent solicitations of the Arabs, who almost dragged us to the place, we declined to go up. Gentlemen, we were told, were much more lazy than ladies. "English ladies" (among whom Americans are of course included) " always went to the top." What with the rough handling of the Arabs and the ruggedness of the ascent, it must be a most unfeminine proceeding. I made up my mind, however, to penetrate to the centre, and (sending for the Sheyk) engaged three 39^ RECORD OF RAMBLES. sturdy Arabs for that purpose. Immediately over the low entrance, which leads down into the bowels of this gigantic tomb, a rude and massive arch has been constructed for the purpose of protecting the passage from the weight of the superincumbent masonry. This arch, which is embedded in the mass, is formed in the simplest possible manner hy two diagonal istones resting against each other at their upper ends. The descent is rendered slippery by constant use, though rough holes for the feet have been cut in the rocks. Entering the passage, I found myself at first obliged to stoop painfully, and then to crawl on hands and knees for some thirty yards, at the end of which I could again stand upright By the torchlight I could then see a rock in front of me, up the side of which the Arabs dragged me until I found myself in a second passage. The roof then sud- derilyrose until it became lost in darkness above, and by .the chillness of the air and the echo of bur voices I perceived .that we were in a vast artificial gully or fissure, the floor of which was an inclined plane leading straight to the heart of the pyramid. Along a narrow ledge in the side-wall the Arabs proceeded to conduct me, although not without some trepidation on my part, since it was barely wide enough for my feet, and I could not tell the depth of the pit, which was enveloped in darkness below. I afterwards came to the conclusion that this part of the proceedings, was ohly a trick on the part of my guides to make the ascent seem as perilous as possible. The pit as it appeared, when lighted up, was only about four feet deep, and communicated with a passage leading into a sepulchral chamber. The floor of the main ascent was traversed throughout its length by two massive lines of stones, used apparently as rails up which to drag the sarcophagus to the central chamber. The roof was formed in the same manner as the arch I had observed before. In one place in the sides of the passage I noticed oblong holes, as if some partition or gateway had THE RED SEA AND EGYPT, 399 once been thrown across ; and at the summit of the in- clined plane was a perpendicular wall, in which appeared six square holes, the entrances to sepulchral chambers placed one above the other. The lowest one of these was the passage to the central chamber, and over the entrance to it was a large stone grooved as if once connected with machinery for raising weights. Groping through the narrow passage, the foremost Arab suddenly sprang forward with a shout, and by the torchlight I saw that we had reached our destination. The chamber was twelve paces and a half long by six paces broad, and was said to be fifteen feet high. It was formed of a beautiful red granite brought from the first Cataract, and differing entirely from the limestone which composes the outer portion of the pyramid. The roof consisted of ten horizontal slabs. In the further end of the chamber stood an empty marble sarcophagus. Mindful of the description in Moore's Epicurean, and wishing to produce an effect in keeping with so weird a place, I made the Arabs discharge some blue linie-lights which we had brought with us. A strange scene it was as the light fell on the tomb of him for whom all this prodigious labour had been expended, for whom ten thousand slaves must have toiled their lives away on this imperishable monument to human tyranny — that tomb that now lay shattered and empty; and as my eyes turned from this to the grave countenances of the swarthy Arabians .who stood with folded arms awaiting the order to return, the whole formed the subject for a picture well worthy of the painter's skill. Emerging once more into the light of day we walked round to the back of the hill, where are two other pyramids of a smaller size, one of which has clearly been covered with plaster, as probably was that of Cheops also. The view of the country on the side remote from Cairo was very different to what we had seen before. A few palm 400 RECORD OF RAMBLES. trees grew in the valley below; but the general appearance was that of a sandy desert, broken here and there by rugged limestone tors and ridges, on one of which stood a second group of pyramids, eleven in all, known as the Pyramids- bf Sakara. On this side of the hill are three objects of interest, locally known as "the Tomb," the "Sphinx," and "the Temples." The "Tomb" has only recently been fully explored. As at present seen, it consists of an immense square pit, hewn out of the solid rock, like a sunken tower. In the sides of it are holes for sarcophagi, some of which are still in their places. While we were leaning over the edge, an Arab climbed down the side, and, by scraping away the sand below, revealed the form and face of a figure in dark porphyry. The breast was, as usual, covered with hieroglyphics ; and the face, as I have remarked before, reminded us at once of that of Buddha at Kamakura. On lower ground, not far from the " Tomb," is the Sphinx, a battered and worn head and shoulders in limestone, with the body stretching out behind. Nature and the Persians have vied in its destruction ; but at best it can never have been a very fine work of art. The rock out of which it is cut is, geologically speaking, in situ; and the stratifica- tion of the limestone would alone have been sufficient to destroy the face, as indeed it has done, had it not been originally covered, as (like the Pyramids) it probably was, witk plaster. Close to the Sphinx are the so-called "Temples," which we approached down a curved incline, the tops of the columns in them being about on a level with the present surface of the sand surrounding. The entrance gateway was a trilithon, of massive proportions. Within this was an arcade, and on either side were smaller passages leading into rooms said to have contained sar- cophagi. The principal court in the temple was divided lengthways into two parts by a row of columns made of the same red granite as we had seen in the inmost chamber of THE RED SEA AND EGYPT. 401 the pyramid, brought also from the neighbourhood of the First Cataract. The walls were composed of large blocks of the same material finely fitted together. Several other chambers opened out of this hall, and the shattered figure of some sort of animal lay on the alabaster floor. The sun beginning to get unpleasantly warm we began to retrace our steps, noticing, as we descendied the hill, the Sheyk's village, and near it a quarry, from which the limestone for the gigantic structure is said to have been derived. The causeway is also shown up which probably the marble blocks were drawn after they had been floated down the Nile on rafts. Unquestionably the pyramid of Cheops, if we look upon it in the aggregate as the result of human labour, is the greatest wonder of the world. To me, on this cursory examination, it appeared to be the work of several ages ; — that is to say, the inner chamber seemed to be the centre of an older structure, while a subsequent centre had been obtained for a later interment by adding to the sides, and carrying them up to a new apex. This question has, however, been so fully discussed elsewhere that I shall only record my passing impression. The one overpowering thought which the contemplation of the great pyramid stirred within me was the unspeakable degradation of the lower classes of which it is the monument. Six million tons is its estimated weight; and, as Buckle truly says, " no wealth, however great, no expenditure, however lavish, could meet the expense which would have been incurred if it had been the work of free men, who received for their labour a fair and honest reward." The lesson which its existence has been silently teaching has not been thrown away, and, looking at the progress of mankind, and the prospects of humanity at large, it is not difficult to predict that it will still be rearing its head above the plain just as it does now, when the barbarous superstition of tyranny shall everywhere be a thing of the past. 2 D 402 RECORD OF RAMBLES. On our way back we paid a visit to the National Museum of Antiquities, and were struck with the value and beauty of the collection, and the great care bestowed upon it. Specially striking were the figures of the god Apis in black marble, and the marvellous preservation of the painted sculptures from the tombs of the more ancient dynasties. Amongst the latter is the wooden statue of a man, about four feet high, found near the Sakara pyramids. The eyes still retain a slight remnant of darkening colour, and the whole is so lifelike as to make the visitor start. The figure is in the act of stepping forward ; and if it is true that it is as old as the fourth dynasty (Joseph having be- longed to the seventeenth), it is clear that Egyptian art, so homogeneous afterwards, went through a heterogeneous stage at a very early period. The Museum also contained numerous chippings of flint, a phenomenon I had also noticed round the base of the great pyramid. By ten a.m. we were back at our hotel, and ready to start again for a walk in those picturesque streets of the old town, with their protruding balconies, unequally - built houses, brightly-dressed wayfarers, and richly-caparisoned donkeys, which are so well known on the walls of picture galleries at home. In the course of the day came an order for us to go the round of the mosques. We accordingly set out with a guide for that of the Sultan Hassan, imme- diately under the capitol. This mosque is built purely in accordance with the Egyptian plan ; that is to say, it is not, as the Turkish mosques are, a copy of Santa Sophia^ In common with some of the larger mosques, it is endowed ; but, as a rule, such structures are built by the liberality of the reigning prince, or of some wealthy individual, and as he or his family die out or become impoverished, so their foundations fall into decay. The mosque of Hassan is said to be the oldest in Cairo. It is a lofty and massive building, but externally it is very plain. A flight of steps at the THE RED SEA AND EGYPT, 403 side next the road leads up to a high arched gateway on which were traces of carving and colour. A zigzag passage within brought us, through that part of the building which is always devoted to the reception of strangers, to the gate of the middle court, a spacious quadrangle paved with marble arranged in mosaic patterns and open to the sky. Here a bar stopped our way, until two dirty little children had tied rags or straw slippers over our boots ; after which we were allowed to enter. There were two transepts in the court, making the interior cruciform in shape, and lofty pointed arches spanned each transept. Small shabby wooden lamps were suspended round the walls, and in the centre of the court was what had once been a really handsome canopy, covering a cistern placed there for the ablutions of worshippers. The roof of this canopy had been decorated with enamels or mosaics, executed in a costly style, but, in common with the rest of the edifice, they had been allowed to go to ruin. In each of the transepts was a dafs overspread with matting, where persons were engaged in prayer. The portion which answered to the chancel contained in the centre a wooden desk, at which the Koran was read, and on the right of the little semicircular apse, or niche, which is always supposed to point towards Mecca, was a flight of steps leading up to a sort of pulpit in the wall, where on high occasions the chief priest officiates. The apse was formed of marble brought from Mecca, and on the mat which covered its floor was traced the figure of an acute angle, with a plumb- line and cube depending from its apex as if masonically to prove its correctness. Passing through a door on the right of this apse we found ourselves in a chamber, or "lady chapel," behind it. In the centre of this was an enclosure surrounded by wooden rails, which was pointed out to us as Sultan Hassan's tomb. Inside the rails was a plain monument of white marble, and at one end of it an 2 D 2 404 RECORD OF RAMBLES. inscription. Some branches of a shrub — I believe it was acacia — were laid on the face of the tomb. There was another small .apse in the wall of this chamber surmounted by a circular window. The outer wall still bore the marks of the cannonade brought to bear on it by the first Napoleon. On the side of the street opposite this mosque was a new one in course of erection; the expense being borne by the Khedive's mother. This lady, indeed, seems to deserve the name of a public benefactress to the city, since it is to her that several handsome buildings at the corners of the streets are ascribed, consisting of drinking-fountains on the ground-floor, and schools above ; literally, we might say, "fountains of knowledge" for the people. The Mohammedan priests whom we saw in the mosques and elsewhere were only distinguished from the rest of the community by a peculiar fashion of rolling their turbans. From the mosque of Hassan we drove up into the citadel, fortified by massive masonry, but a great part of which is modern. A dreadful din proceeding from two companies of soldiers learning the bugle-calls made us aware of the presence of the military. The Citadel Mosque, which crowns the hill, is an exact model of Santa Sophia on a smaller scale. "The outer court is paved with marble ; the arcade round it is of alabaster, and an elaborate fountain in the centre is of the same material brought from the First Cataract. The interior of the building is seventy feet in length. It is hung with a thousand and one glass lamps and chandeliers, and carpeted with a rich Turkey carpet. On the right of the entrance is the tomb of the founder, enclosed by elaborately-decorated gates, through which the sarcophagus can be seen, draped in red, and with the robe and helmet of the deceased hanging over it. Over the door of the mosque is the " ladies' gallery," and a passage screened by trellis-work leads from it to the balcony set apart for the Khedive's harem. On the left of the apse THE RED SEA AND EGYPT. 405 is the royal praying -place, and opposite, as is the usual arrangement, a steep and narrow flight of steps leads up to that of the chief priest. The roof appeared to be hand- somely painted, although our guide insisted that it was formed of mosaic. The best alabaster has been reserved for the apse, which is surrounded by beautifully clouded slabs. Externally s. fagade runs round the building, from which we gained a fine view of the city with the endless minarets below, and the Nile and the pyramids beyond. The pur- pose of minarets (of which there are four in connection with this great mosque) is that the priest may go up into them at sunset to let worshippers know that the hour of prayer has arrived. It was from the terrace on the edge of the cliff just outside this mosque that at the time of the massacre of the Mamelukes one of their number leaped on horseback, fully equipped, into the quarry below. His horse was killed ; but he, by little short of a miracle, escaped with his life. Another object of interest in the citadel of Cairo is " Joseph's Well," said, though I do not believe it, to be a hundred and forty fathoms in depth. It was close to the city wall, and on looking down into its wide and open mouth we could see the tall dark archway which covered the lower pumping apparatus; for the drawing process is effected by a succession of lifts. Ropes carried round wheels draw after them earthen pitchers, which discharge water into troughs, from which it is again conveyed in like fashion to a higher level. The evening we spent in the cool gardens opposite our hotel, and the shade of their trees was delightful after our long day's work. August I. The tombs of the Mamelukes lie without the city, and to reach them we had to pass through a vast ne- necropolis of meaner sepulchres. Some of the earlier speci- mens of these domed mausoleums were interesting from an architectural point of view. They were good examples of the early solid unadorned Moorish style, which occupies the 406 RECORD OF RAMBLES. same position with respect to the Alhambra that Gothic architecture does to the Floreated and Decorated develop- ments in the rest of Europe. The building which contains the greatest number of tombs consists of a cluster of four or five domes. The floor of the interior was spread with Turkey carpets, and there was a large attendance of the "guardians of the tombs," — paid officials who reside on the spot in charge of the mausoleum. Several devotees were also present, kneeling on the floor, telling their beads (which all carried), or reciting a whispered prayer. The sarcophagi themselves were all very much alike. Each consisted of a block of marble supported on a plinth, and surmounted by a head and foot-stone. On the top of the head-stone is carved the Mameluke's cap, and on the sides of the tomb itself inscriptions in gold letters on a blue ground, recounting the prowess of the dece^ed, are cut. The Khedive's present father and a favourite wife are both buried here, and near by is the mausoleum of the hero who leaped from the citadel. The minaret which stands at the side of these tombs is likewise surmounted by the image of the cap, an ornament which reminded me of the form of the stones sometimes seen on the tops of ancient Irish crosses. Taking with me our dragoman Demetrio Caiopulo and a policeman in military uniform, I now set out with a special order for what may be called the University of Cairo, the great and famous mosque of El Azur. Here all those who aspire to the office of the Mahommedan priesthood receive their education in the Koran. The gate-house was a high building, richly carved and painted. From the porter's lodge, on the left, emerged the porter, evidently a most important personage, dressed in white, with the addi- tion of a new rose-coloured silk cloak over his shoulders, and a white turban. He was clearly unwilling to admit strangers, but the Pasha's order left him no course but to THE RED SEA AND EGYPT. 407 comply. Preparatory to entering, however, our shoes were at once covered with sHppers made of matting. When the policeman proceeded to put them on also, "Why," said the porter, " do you require to put on these things, instead of baring your feet like a true Mohammedan.'"' "I am no longer a Mohammedan," he answered readily, and with a scornful smile, " now that I'm a soldier." Oh, soldiers of the Prophet, thought I, how are ye fallen from your faith ! It is the same story everywhere : religion is at a discount in the camp. By the side of the lodge was a narrow flight of corkscrew stairs, leading to an apartment over the gate, in which the youngest children were being instructed in the rudiments of reading and writing. With a singular sense of appropriateness, the infant school was placed thus at the portal of this great seat of knowledge. When I went in the aged preceptor had a little circle around him. Their slates were of tinned iron, and they wrote with ink, and those that were reading — since the words were from the Koran — were bowing their little bodies backwards and forwards, as is always the custom of the priests. In the quadrangle of the mosque elder students were seated on their mats, lazily musing or preparing their exercises. On one side of the court were the baths and lavatories, and on the other the dormitories, where a few of the students reside, though the greater number lodge out in the city. The principal hall of the mosque, which faces the gate, is a large but not a lofty room, the roof supported by low arches said to be Ptole- maic, and to have been brought from Memphis. There were two raised platforms, the one in the centre to be occupied by the Chief Priest on the annual "Procession day," the other a reading-desk for the public exposition of the Koran. All round the walls were ranged the chests containing the books belonging to the several divisions of Egypt from which the students came. There are some hundreds of students in all divided into five classes. 408 RECORD OF RAMBLES. according to proficiency. The fifth and highest class was engaged in a reading lesson to which we listened. The see-sawing motion of their bodies was in keeping with the sing-song tone of voice they assumed. Both customs appear equally hypocritical, but are in such general use that they cannot be said to be so in reality in dll cases. The red and white stripes which adorn this mosque belong to the days when the Mamelukes had charge of it. Carved on the wall were several emblems common to Moham- medans and Christians alike, and amongst them that of the two triangles, surrounded by a circle. When I re- marked that this was frequently seen in Christian churches, my guide, a student in the mosque, met me with the reply (a strange one for him to make), " Yes ; that is because the Mohammedans come from the Christians." Of the three quarters into which Cairo is divided — the Arabian, the European, and the Coptic — I specially wished to see the latter, and accordingly set out for the Coptic church. Threading our way through some narrow streets inhabited by Coptic Christians, we arrived at a gateway inside which was a square of neat buildings in the European style. On one side was the church, on the other the Patriarch's house, and at the end, so my dragoman assured me, was the " harem" of the priests, who are permitted to marry, though the Patriarch himself is not. On reaching the door of the church and asking for admittance, I received a message from the Patriarch asking me to come to his house and take coffee first. His apartments were on the upper floor, wTiere he TBceived me in a large reception-room surrounded by European chairs, and after giving me the usual salutation, that is to say, after touching his forehead and his mouth, beckoned me to a seat. He was a handsome man of about forty-five ; his face intelligent and lit up by an amiable expression. His dress was simply a black silk gown, and on his head was a black turban of peculiar make and form. THE RED SEA AND EGYPT. 409 Several black Abyssinian servants waited upon him, and when he found that I knew no Arabic he sent for a boy — • one of the cleverest, brightest, and most intelligent fellows I have ever seen — who spoke English perfectly, and standing before us acted as interpreter. The salutation this boy gave to the Patriarch on entering and leaving the room was characteristic. The latter held out his hand, which the boy pressed to his forehead and then kissed, bowing low all the while. Our conversation turned first on India and the Coptic Christians there ; and then he spoke of the visit paid by his brother, the Patriarch of Antioch, to England, and told me to tell Queen Victoria how much obliged he was by her attention to him on that occasion. Then servants brought us beautiful glass tumblers full of a sweet rose-coloured beverage, which they presented with a napkin. Next coffee was served, excellently dressed, in little cups like egg-cups with gilt stands. Lastly followed cigars. Then he directed the boy to open what seemed to be a cupboard at the end of the room, and inside appeared a life-sized and most elabo- rate illuminated painting of the late Patriarch, so over- laid with gold as to do away with all perspective. The subject of the picture had founded this church only twelve years before. He was represented with a floreated cross in his right hand, and his robe of gold was adorned with two rows of Apostles, six in each, embroidered on it in place of a stole. Besides this picture the Patriarch possesses a copy of the Gospels in Coptic said to be eight hundred years old. After thanking him for his kind attention, and receiving the good man's blessing, I accom- panied the boy to the church. He informed me that in many things the Coptic church has dropped its old observances and followed the Greek mode, and that amongst the rest it was not now necessary to remove my shoes before entering the church. At the west end of the 4IO RECORD OF RAMBLES. building was a covered sink, in which, at certain seasons, the priest washes the feet of the congregation. Seats were arranged in the area as in European churches, but high up on the north side over the door was a gallery for the women, who are separated from the men as in the mosques. There were two carved thrones for the Patriarch besides the pulpit and a lectern, on which latter lay a copy of the Gospels in Coptic, with marginal notes in Arabic. The letters were red and black, not unlike the style of early printing in Europe. A wooden scireen separated the church from the portion behind, and a curtain of yellow silk was hung across the entrance. On one side of the front of the screen was an illuminated figure of the Virgin ; and oppo- site to it one of St. Mark wearing a crown and clad in gorgeous robes of gold. When the curtain was drawn aside I saw into the "Temple," as the boy termed the inner chamber. It was simply the apse or Bema of the Greek Church, and at the further end was a simple painting of the Virgin and Child. Seeing that the boy was munch- ing a cake, I inquired what it was, and found it to be the sacramental bread, of which he went and fetched me another specimen. It was round, and measured about four inches in diameter. In the centre was a cruciform device, and round the edge in Coptic was the inscription, " Holy, Almighty ; Holy, Eternal ; Holy, God." By the six o'clock train in the evening we left Cairo for Alexandria. Near a place where we stopped for dinner great preparations were being made for an Arab fair, at which it is said all sorts of wild orgies take place, the survivals of an ancient religious festival, and where the dancing and revelry are kept up for many days together. At 10.30 p.m. we arrived at Alexandria, and went to the Hotel d'Abbat. August 2.. To anyone who has formed an ideal picture of Alexandria from the pages of her ancient history, the THE RED SEA AND EGYPT. 41 1 town, as it is seen at present, is unspeakably disappointing. Some say that portions of the old walls can be made out ; but even Caesar's camp has lately been removed. The population of the place is, as it ever used to be, a mixture of all peoples, nations, and languages ; but in this one fact alone it recalls to us the past. It is true, in a sense, that it is still the meeting-ground of East and' West ; but it is not philosophy which is debated in the streets. Greeks are here still, but they are cunning cut-throats ; Orientals and Jews, but they are wily merchants ; while the low Arab importunes for "bakshish" and the oily Turk apes in his casino the fops of Italy and France. Of all this motley crew, perhaps, after all, the poor Arabs have most claim to our regard. The kindness of heart they display amongst themselves, and the attachment they form to foreigners whom they really know, are qualities which the passing traveller does not realize that they possess. To him they are importunate freebooters ; he feels that he is their prey; and so he is. They consider him fair spoil ; and to " play the traveller" on a man is a proverbial expression amongst themselves, meaning "to worry." Their mode of teasing, which, by the way, they consider great fun, is to surround a person of the John Bull type, pretend not to understand, his remonstrances, and call out for " bakshish" i.e. money, at the top of their voices till he is nearly distracted. On one of the evenings we were in Alexandria we saw an Arab wedding procession. It was preceded by a band of music, and followed by rings of boys dancing and carrying, candles fixed in bouquets of flowers. Taking a carriage, we drove first of all to the so-called " Pompey's Pillar," a really magnificent monolith, of dark red marble, at least a hundred feet in height, standing on a base consisting of a single block of granite, and dating back to the days, not of Pompey, but of Diocletian. On the same sandy eminence, at no great distance from the column, are a 412 RECORD OF RAMBLES. series of catacombs, some of which .have been explored. From this place we passed along the bank of the Marounda canal, on which is situated the Khedive's residence when in Alexandria, and the beautiful gardens attached to it. His house is decorated in the height of French fashion, and one room which I saw was gorgeous with mirrors and gilding. Altogether it is plain that the present royal expenditure is enormous. There is a saying that every palm tree in Egypt is taxed, and if their ruler himself does not re- trench national bankruptcy must be the result The sea coast at Alexandria is rapidly being worn away by the action of the waves, which not only carry down with them modern structures built too near the edge, but also expose to view here and there the strata of earlier ages. In a yard close to the edge of the crumbling cliff stands Cleopatra's Needle, and near by lies its prostrate sister, soon to be removed to England. The hieroglyphics on that which is still standing are plainly visible on the side next the sea, but the back has been much weathered.. It seems to me a great mistake to separate these columns. They are always found in pairs ; and their proper position was one on either side of the paved way or avenue which led up to the gate of the ancient temples. To anyone who remembers this fact, the appearance of one by itself in the park or public square of a European city is meaningless. It is an instance, however, that that which has a purpose in one period of human history is turned into a senseless ornament in another. SMYRNA AND TROY. 413 CHAPTER XXIII. SMYRNA AND TROY. August 3. We sailed at four p.m. on board the Austrian Lloyd's steamer Achille, and after passing the long strip of land known to the ancients as the Pharos, and threading our way through the shallow and winding channel which forms the entrance to the harbour of Alexandria, we entered the dark blue waters of the Levant, encountering a head wind, which rather retarded our course. The ship was well appointed, and our fellow-passengers formed a most instruc- tive study. The captain was an Italian, as were the other officers, with the exception of the doctor, who was a German. Then there was an officer in the Turkish army, Muzzi Bey, and an Arab merchant, who mixed little with the other passengers. A large portion of the deck was railed off for the accommodation of the women, who for the most part belonged to the harem of an aged pasha also on board. These poor creatures were never allowed to quit their pad- dock, and actually remained there all night, the weather being what it might. Their fate seemed to be rather that of beasts than of human beings. One amongst them was pointed out to me as a Circassian, who, having obtained her release from an Egyptian harem and possessing a little money, was on her way to Constantinople to sell herself again, her price being a hundred and fifty Napoleons. Another notable passenger was the Greek Archbishop of Alexandria, accompanied by his Archdeacon, who acted as 414 RECORD OF RAMBLES. his secretary, but was treated as a servant, and only allowed a second-class ticket. The Archbishop's dress consisted of a black satin gown, over a black silk skirt, with full trousers of rose-coloured silk. The Archdeacon was similarly attired, except that his gown was of silk instead of satin, and his trousers purple. His master had a gloomy, taciturn expression ; his eyes were large and dark ; and he wore his long black hair in a knot behind. Both ecclesiastics wore hats of a slightly different form from those of the Greek priests I have seen elsewhere. In their straight sides and overlapping tops they were counterparts of the chimneys of English railway carriages. With the Archdeacon I was able to maintain a conversation in a rather singular manner ; namely, by writing down what I wanted to say in ancient Greek. When I attempted to pronounce it he could not understand a word ; but when I wrote it down he was often able, from his knowledge of modern Greek, not only to - 'comprehend it himself, but to satisfy me with his answers. How utterly different the pronunciation is may be instanced , by the fact that the word which we call Chios is " Sheou " in the mouth of the Greeks of to-day. By nightfall on the 4th we had crossed the open sea, and were in sight of some of the islands of the Archipelago. First came Sia, then Karpasu, and Rhodes, the former a long hilly island, which looked bare and barren in the distance, though I believe it contains numerous inhabitants. There is a great sameness about all these islands, owing to their yellow sandy exterior dotted over with plots of dark green olives. The clouds, as we passed them, resting on their hill-tops, gave them the appearance of being white with snow. On the 6th we were running alongside of Chios, of whose precipitous coast and bare crumbling hills we had a very good view. Doubling a cape we had a very near escape of running down a sailing-vessel, which passed within a stone's-throw. We passed several long villages, the cubical outlines of SMYRNA AND TROY. 415 the houses in which alone distinguished them from the surrounding soil. Then a square massive building, looking like a fortress, and placed on a hill, reminded us that we were amongst the monasteries of the Levant. Passing a lighthouse and a little ancient watch-tower, like a Scotch " burg," we presently entered the snug little bay in which stands the town of Chios. A patch of dark vegetation skirted the shore, and scattered amongst it were some neat suburban villas. We anchored .for half an hour abreast of this quaint little place, while natives brought off to us preserves for sale. Crossing the mouth of the harbour were the ruins of a wall built by the Genoese, and one side of the ancient harbour gate still reared its head above water. On this wall a ship in full sail had just gone aground ; yet the lazy Chians, expecting that they would get no remuneration for lending their aid to get her off, were lying along the shore smoking their pipes as if nothing was the matter. Towards evening we were in the Gulf of Smyrna, and soon after found ourselves at anchor op- posite that picturesque but not odoriferous town. Going on shore we walked through the streets, every other house in which seemed to be a cafe of some sort, where men were drinking absinth. The demoralization displayed here, and in fact in all these little island towns, can never be remedied as long as they remain under Turkish rule. Next morning (Aug. 7) we called on Mr. Spiegelthal, who some time since explored the tomb of Alyattes fof Baron von Humboldt. His collection of antiquities found in Asia Minor is both valuable and interesting. Speaking of the castle which crowns the hill in the rear of the town of Smyrna, he said that some portions of the front were supposed to have been built by Alexander the Great. It is an immense pile of building, and from the seaside is a fine feature of the place. Mr. Joly, our English consul, had provided us with a cavash or escort, who wore an 41 6 RECORD OF RAMBLES. elaborate inlaid scimitar in addition to a waistband stuck full of dirks and pistols. We were informed that, owing to banditti, it was not safe to venture far out of the town. On our return to our ship we found some new arrivals on board ; namely, an American resident at Beyrout, whose wife was a most beautiful Arabian girl ; a second old military pasha, with the members of his harem ; and an Armenian old lady going with her family to Constantinople, probably on account of the famine in her own country. She did not veil her face, but wore on her head a black silk hood ; the bodice of her dress was ornamented with bands of gold lace ; and on her arms were two magnificent solid gold bracelets, each about six inches long, embossed, the one with characters, the other with roses, of precisely similar workmanship to those on a bracelet found in Cyprus by General Cesnola,* and of great antiquity. They were open on one side to receive the arm, and were held in their place by a plain circle of gold passed round them. The soldiers' farewell to their old pasha on leaving the command he had held at Smyrna was quite touching. I thought they would never have finished kissing his hand. I had some interesting conversation with the American gentle- man on the subject of Jerusalem, which we had abandoned the idea of visiting, owing to the quarantine regulations then in operation in the Levant. He said we had nothing to regret in not having been there. The place was ex- tremely filthy, and were it not for the visits of the pilgrims, principally from Russia, there would be no trade there to keep it alive at all. The Russian war with Turkey in 1855 was in great part due, as he reminded us, to the prevention of this pilgrimage by the Turkish authorities. With regard to recent excavations, he said that Lieutenant Warren, after digging through debris sixty feet deep, had found stones about the size of those outside the great * Cesnola's Cyprus, p. 311. SMYRNA AND TROY. 417 pyramid, put together with the same masonic marks which joiners in the same country use at the present time. August 8. Rounding the cape and fort of Baba,we came in sight of Tenedos, a sterile island, where there is a harbour, a" little modern fort, a town of about sixty houses, and a row of eight windmills on the hill behind. We now coasted along the flat shores of the Troad, passing the site of Alexandria Troas, and many a mound or barrow raised along the shore. "To glean the relics of exhausted Troy"* — such, in the words of Pope, was the object we had in view when our steamer stopped to land us opposite the bright line of consular mansions which forms the sea-face of the town of the Dardanelles. I say "bright," for, in addition to its whiteness, the day was fine, and it was Sunday, and every flag of every nation there represented was fluttering gaily in the breeze. Stepping on shore, however, the pretty illusion was at once dispelled, and we saw that the fair front only hid from view the usual medley of shipping agencies, restaurants, and thievish-looking dens which constitute a seaport town of Asia Minor. Nevertheless — leaving out of the question that the Hellespont Hotel has infinitely more inhabitants in its upper stories than is reconcilable with the fastidious ideal of a good night's rest — the Dardanelles seems really a cleanlier little town than many others on that coast, and the numerous shops for jugs of a peculiar green glaze give it an air of industry, if not of art, unusual at least in a Grseco-Turkish town. Going at once to the house of our consul, Mr. Malins, whose kind attention to travellers smoothes for them the way over the few difiiculties to be encountered at the Dardanelles, we * The substance of this portion of the chapter was read by the author before the Royal Institution of Cornwall at the Annual Meeting of the Society, November 19, 1S77, and subsequently published in Fraser's Magazine, from which it is reprinted with the Editor's permission. 2 E 41 8 RECORD OF RAMBLES. informed him of our intention of riding next morning to " Troy." With much courtesy, he at once obtained for us the necessary " firman," and also a " cavash," or escort in the shape of a military policeman. At first sight, the idea of having an escort appeared highly agreeable, if not complimentary on the part of the authorities, and we ventured to ask whether there were brigands in the foot- hills of Ida, or whether it was to the gratitude and respect felt by the Turk towards a British subject that we must attribute this little attention. We were informed in reply that, from the Turkish point of view, the possible tendencies to brigandage lay in ourselves ; and that, so far from his presence being intended as a delicate compliment, to watch over the personal safety of the tourist, this armed and mounted officer accompanied him — more especially if ruins were the object of his visit — to protect the country against any disposition he might have to an aristocratic form of lunacy not unknown amongst ourselves at home. . Even the country people, jealous enough of foreign intrusion before, had been aroused to aid the government in preventing strangers without passports from approaching Hissarlik, and, shortly before our arrival, a yachting party, who had landed at Besika Bay with the innocent object of "doing Troy," had been compelled by villagers to return to their boat. But what, it will be asked, is the reason of all this suspicion and strict surveillance f Unfortunately, as it seems, for future explorers, recent experience has indelibly impressed on the minds of the Turkish authorities — prone enough to suspicion already — the notion that the savants of civilised Christendom have a way of removing surreptitiously such articles of value as they may be lucky :enough to unearth, without much regard to Mohammedan superstitions on the subject of "treasure-trove." The question which lies under this ; namely, the alleged de- portation of " Priam's Treasure " to Athens contrary to the SMYRNA AND TROY. 419 terms of an agreement entered into by Herr Schliemann with the Minister of Public Instruction at the Porte, was brought before the English public three years ago in a letter to the Atkenceum* from the pen of a certain M. Comnos. In justice to this gentleman, whose letter was characterised by the editor of Tray and its Remains as " an effusion of spite from a Greek who envies a German his discoveries on Greek ground," I am bound to state that the account of these proceedings, as narrated to us by several independent parties in Asia Minor, was substantially the same as that told by him. As M. Comnos quotes chapter and verse of the transaction, and mentions the names of all parties concerned, it will be well for those who take an interest in each step of the process by which " Troy was found " to read his letter for themselves. It is, however, in order to call attention to Herr Schliemann's answer to that letter that I am making this digression. It was con- tained in the Academy, -f and was couched in terms which, if ever they reached the ears of the Turkish authorities, were amply sufficient to make them redouble the vigi- lance of their espionnage, and increase their mistrust in the case of every European archaeologist who might in future visit their shores. As a plea to justify the practice of breaking agreements and carrying off "the lion's share," Herr Schliemann urges that he is only copying the example set him by "all the great English, French, German, and American archaeologists who have ever made archaeological researches in Turkey," and he goes on boldly to aver that although each and all of them, in order to obtain their " firman," have signed an agreement to give up one-half of what they may discover, "none of them have ever thought of fulfilling this co?ivention."X Had this extraordinary state- ment indeed been true, had the name of archaeology in Europe been capable of being compromised by such an * August 8, 1874. t November 7, 1874. % The italics are mine. 2 E 2 420 RECORD OF RAMBLES. estimate of its honour as this, such facts would have been more than enough to justify a Government less susceptible than the Turkish, not only in sending police to guard its property, but in barring every means of ingress to its ancient cities. Happily, however, for the good name of those who have been and still are labouring in the extensive field of Turkish territory — amongst whom I can number friends not.a few — such a charge bears on its face its own denial, and the Turks themselves, in their regard for truth, would not have ventured for one moment to make it. The reason they assigned for the measures of strict precaution adopted at Hissarlik when I was there in 1875 was the suspicion with which they, rightly or wrongly, regarded the conduct of Herr Schliemann himself, conduct which he himself attempts to justify by compromising the reputation of every archaeologist who has ever worked on Turkish soil. So much for our finding ourselves under police supervision. August 9. By seven o'clock on the morning after our arrival at the Dardanelles, we were already in our saddles and riding westward, or rather, south-westward, along the level shore, with the white cliffs of Europe glittering in the morning sun on the opposite side of the narrow strait. Before us rode the " cavash" in charge of our little party, equipped in European military style, with only the addition of a Turk's cap. Then came we, and lastly the horse-boy, singing, hallooing, or cracking his thong at intervals. Our horses were worse than indifferent, and we agreed that the approach to the arx alta was, perhaps, effected quite as comfortably inside the wooden beast, as of old, as outside the living one of to-day. For the first few miles we passed over an uneven sandy tract, with melons trailing here and there, and sloes, veronicas, and junipers as we neared the hills. Every now and then eagles, vultures, and ravens — preserved, as in American forests, as scavengers of the SMYRNA AND TROY. 421 country round — rose close beside us, and swooped away towards the higher ground. The only man we met upon the road, besides some drovers with their tinkling camel trains, was the stout burly Greek who was to act as our guide — none other than Herr Schliemann's foreman of the works — "his constant attendant," as he calls him, "cook and paymaster,"* the faithful Nicholas Zaphyros, of Renkoi, whose honesty has gained him special mention in his master's work. As he rode towards us down the bank of a rivulet, this fellow was quite a picture in himself. His bulky form poised jauntily on a pile of rugs and skins on the back of a pony, whose poor knees trembled as it jogged along, his honest and intelligent face, his slouched hat, open tunic, and crimson waistband, and lastly, his knife at his belt, and his rusty pistols at his saddle-bow, all proclaimed him the very type of a well-to-do lazy Trojan of the year of grace 1^75. The services of this indispensable gentleman being secured, and his person added to our party, we continued our march, passing the picturesque English hospital of the old Crimean war-time, and ascending a thickly-wooded hill, from which we gained a fine view seawards, down a valley of brushwood, of Imbros and "high Samothraki." On the hillside close. at hand lay the village of Renkoi, a group of quaint square houses, which we presently entered down an avenue of oaks. Here we stopped to breakfast, that meal consisting of eggs, melons, and native wine, taken at what, in countries farther east, we should have called the "rest-house" of the place. Hither the village doctor came — a Greek from Corfu, who, having lived under the British flag, thought it his duty to pay us his respects, to help us with our bottle, treat us to a second, and last but not least, to hear the latest news. Putting nationalities aside, thought we, how like was this little scene to those we picture at the wayside * Troy andJts Remains, p. 357. 422 RECORD OF RAMBLES. inns of England centuries ago. We had been frequently struck with the same thought when in the interior of Japan. English travellers, I suppose, in semi-civilised lands, can never fail to be reminded of the ideals they have formed of their own Middle Ages. The doctor, too, was a local anti- quary, and showed us a coin from his collection, found, he said, at Alexandria Troas, and by which he set great store. As we left the village, and crossed the brow of the hill on which it stands, the object of our morning's ride first opened on our view. Before us lay the veritable " Plain of Troy;" and, passing down its centre, like a spur of the distant mountain range behind, we could plainly see the limestone ridge on whose western extremity, or "boss," lies Hissarlik — the Ilium Novum of the Grecian colonists, and the reputed site of that ancient town — no matter how insignificant it may have been, which the poet chose to immortalise. If our conception of " a plain" lies somewhere between Salisbury Plain and the plains of North-Western America, then certainly the " Plain of Troy" will scarcely come under that denomination at all. On the north and west it is bounded respectively by the Hellespont and the ^lEgean ; on the south by the mountain spurs, much more lofty than Hissarlik, amongst which lies the old reputed site of the city, — Bunarbashi ; and on the east by two fertile valleys, full of corn and vines, which, watered respectively by the Dombrek and the Mendere, run up into the hills from either, side of the ridge of Hissarlik, till they are lost at last in the foot-hills of the distant range to the south of which lies " many-fountained Ida." A narrow strip of slightly elevated ground, on which are several tumuli, running along the western shore from the Bay of Besika to Sigeum, separates the marshy flats in front of Hissarlik from the sea. Through these flats the Mendere takes a SMYRNA AND TROY. 423 devious course, and this portion of the map seems to represent, more correctly speaking, the actual "Plain of Troy." On looking down from the hills above Renkoi over the scenery I have here described, one thing seems to strike the traveller at once, and that is, that " if this be indeed the Plain of Troy at all, Troy must have been situated at the summit of Hissarlik." Such was the opinion of Maclaren and Eckenbrecker, as also of Mr. Frank Calvert, whose relatives are part owners of the site. It was at the instance of the latter that Herr Schliemann was induced to adopt this view, and, as he tells us, to set about "digging away a hill at his own cost."* A nicely wooded road soon brought us down into the valley of the Dombrek, which, if Hissarlik be Troy, and if Homer troubled himself at all about geographical correct- ness, must be identified with the Simois. It was harvest- time, and we had opportunities of noticing the native methods of saving the grain; and, amongst others, the mode of threshing, with boards stuck full of flints on the under side, and drawn along the ground in a circular area by oxen — the driver, the while, standing on the upper side of the frame to guide his team, and give weight to the machine. Similar implements were noticed by Sir John. Lubbock several years ago, and one of them was brought home and deposited by him in the Christy Museum. On approaching the hill, the most prominent object (since it stands on the very top) is the house of Herr Schliemann ; and on climbing up to it the prospect well repays the trouble: On the one hand, it overlooks every part of the excavations, and on the other it commands a truly beautiful * Since Herr Schliemann has denied that it was Mr. Calvert who indicated to him Hissarlik as the site of Troy, the reader is referred to a communication made by Mr. Calvert to the Levant Herald, Sept. 8th, 1875, wherein Herr Schliemann's own letters are brought forward as convincing proofs that it was so. 424 RECORD OF RAMBLES. panoramic view of the whole district, literally, bristling with objects of the deepest interest. To the east, the mountains ; to the south, Bunarbashi, and the surrounding hills ; to the west, Alexandria Troas, Sigeum, and many a barrow, or " tep6," bearing some old heroic name from the days of Patroclus to those of St. Demetrius ; to the north, Rhetseum, and the fabled site of the Grecian camp ; over the line of blue water, Gallipoli, Imbros, and Ida in Samo- thraki ; westward again, Tenedos ; while the whole plain beneath is strewn with groups of ruins — each one marking the site of some ancient Troad town. Turning our eyes inwards from the lovely distant prospect, and looking down into the cutting containing the dwellings and walls which Herr Schliemann has succeeded in denuding of their envelope of primeval rubbish, both F. and I have, since reading his article, been fully able to enter into Mr. Simpson's feelings, expressed in the July number ol Eraser* when he speaks of an irresistible inclination to regard the whole thing as a joke. The feelings with which we regard any object or locality of which we have previously raised up an ideal in our own minds, must necessarily be cast down or elated in proportion as that object exceeds or falls short of that ideal standard. The different impressions made on the minds of tiavellers by their first sight of Jerusalem may instance what I mean. For myself, on beholding for the first time objects which I had read of in Herr Schliemann's book, as "Ilium's Great Tower," "Priam's Palace," "the grandest building in Troy," "splendid ruins," &c., &c., I did not feel altogether disappointed ; I felt (what travellers so often feel that the feeling becomes normal with them) that I had been taken in — taken in this time by the natural interpretation which I had put, and which all Europe naturally has put, upon the words and phrases used by the excavator to describe what he has done. * Fraser, July, 1877. SMYRNA AND TROY. 425 My own old ideal was, after all, not upset. I had never for an instant dreamed that Troy had ever existed any- where in all the size and splendour of the poet's rich fancy, any more than I had supposed that Arthur's Camelot was all that it has been described to be. A small walled town — it mattered not how primitive its construction ; a brave little army well officered — it mattered not its numerical strength ; an equally gallant force to attack it ; an amount of patience almost superhuman, and a woman at the bottom of the mischief; such simple facts as these were quite enough, in my view, to form the basis of the Iliad. Given the rich pure light of a genius like Homer ; given also the magnifying-glass by which the forefathers of a race are seen as giants, or heroes, or gods, and a very small historic basis is ground enough to work on. The less he describes of realities present before him, the greater is the honour due to that imaginative faculty which goes so far to make the poet. Such, then, was my own idea of Homer, and I give it merely because it accounts for my lack of disap- pointment at the absence of lofty towers and halls of polished stone in Troy. Not that, with my present know- ledge, I am here prepared to contend, from a comparison of the Iliad with the great Indian epics, the MahibhSrata, or the Rimayana, that the scene of action need be sought for far back in the cradle-land of that mythology which Greece, in common with India, derived in virtue of her Aryan descent. Sufficient it would be for me to accept the tradition that the Troad was indeed the battle-ground, and that Ilium Novum stood on the real site of the ancient fortress of Priam. Now, in spite of all the gilding with which Herr Schlie- mann, in the exuberance of his almost poetic imagination, has overlaid his discoveries, the fact is still clear and un- questioned, that at the depth of two strata, some forty feet perhaps, under the ruins of the Ilium Novum of the time 426 RECORD OF RAMBLES. of Lysimachus, he has unearthed upon the hill of Hissarlik a portion of the wall, or rampart, of an exceedingly primi- tive fort, more ancient, it may well be, than an)^hing yet brought to light in the Troad. For this we owe him a debt of gratitude. It is of excesavely mean construction, and differs (as Mr. SimjMon has truly pointed out) in essen- tial details from that kind of masonry known to antiquaries jn Greece as " cyclopean." Still, for all that, it might have been the very wall defended by Priam. If so, the " King of Men" at Mycenae had the advantage of better masons ; for the walling which Herr Schliemann has since discovered there, and has attributed to Agamemnon, is reported by those who have visited it to be of undoubtedly true " cyclo- pean " structure. All that I can say on this point then is, that at the depth of some sixty feet below the surface of the hill at Hissarlik a primitive fort has been discovered, and that that fort is on the site which the most ancient histories and traditions have agreed in assigning to Troy. We proceeded to examine the ruins in detail. Our guide, Nicholas, first of all conducted us to a plateau — apparently artificially levelled — on the eastern side of the ridge or knoll on the summit of which stood the city of Ilium Novum. Here we tethered our horses, and began our descent by the main pjissage into the heart of the excavations. Grouped together at the entrance stood several sections of the fluted white marble columns of a temple disinterred from the uppermost stratum, or that of the Grecian colony of the time of Lysimachus. We were informed by several persons, including Nicholas, that so intent was the explorer on finding the older Troy, and that alone, that he did not care to find columns, such as these, or even bas-reliefs, but had many of them buried under the mounds of rubbish, and others knocked to pieces. A few of the more intrinsically valuable ones at last he saved, and fortunately amongst them the splendid bas-relief of the SMYRNA AND TROY. 427 chariot of Phoebus. Some portions, too, of the closely-fitting masonry of the walls of Ilium Novum are spared — from all which discoveries it may be judged to have been a, town of considerable wealth and no little artistic beauty. The prodigious amount of dibris which Herr Schliemann has succeeded in displacing during the course of his work, goes to form terraces or embankments round the sides of the hill, and the cost of labour to the employer must have been great. Passing down the trench, we made directly for the lowest portion of the ruins, which consists kA the rampart or wall I have already mentioned. This rests, externally at least, upon the natural soil. Where it has been excavated, it averages some fifteen to twenty feet in height, and it is thirty feet broad at the top. For a considerable distance along the south-west side of the main excavation it has been uncovered to its base, and is seen to be composed of uncemented limestones, neither remarkable for size nor closely fitted. The outer face has a slight batter, the lower layers of stone protruding beyond the upper, in the fashion of little ledges or steps, an inch or two in width. On the top, at the broadest point, is a long depression, ten feet in width, which would seem to have been a chamber of some sort not yet fully explored.* There is no appearance of the wall having been higher here than at any other point — indeed, I think there are indications that the present surface represents the original top of the rampart — nor, in my opinion, could the masonry of this portion have ever admitted of a weighty superstructure. Yet this is the place which Herr Schliemann has arbitrarily styled " the Great Tower of Ilium." The representation of it in Troy * This depression Herr Schliemann calls in his plan, and perhaps rightly, "trenches for the protection of archers." This view is only reconcilable with the fact that the wall was a rampart no higher than it is at present, and not a tower at this point — " a ramp," in fact, as Mr. Simpson calls it. 428 RECORD OF RAMBLES. and its Remains* gives it the appearance of at least three times its real height, besides being otherwise incorrect. Following the wall northward from this point, we came to what had clearly been the entrance to this primitive fortress, consisting of a passage eighteen feet wide, in which lay numerous flagstones, which, from their position, were once part of a pavement or steps. Four buttresses, two on either side, projected into this passage, and the side walls were about three feet and a half in height The structure of this gateway was a little more massive than the rest of the wall, and reminded me somewhat of the rude masonry known to us as "Ancient British," such as I have on several occasions exhumed in connection with the "castles," and " hut-clusters " found on Cornish moors. This, then, Herr Schliemann marks in his plan as al liKuiai irvXai, " the Scaean gate." Passing up through it, we found our progress blocked by the continuous side wall of a line of miserable hovels drawn at right angles across our path. The only picture in Troy and its Remains which gives at all an adequate idea of the relative position of the Scaean gate to these "hovels," is that which fronts p. 321, and in this their front is correctly shown to be an unbroken wall. They — that is, the " hovels " — clearly belong to a period altogether later than the wall or rampart and its gate. Apart from the fact that dwellings of similar construction were removed from the top of the wall itself, there was at least one such dwelling when we were there, on the further side of the spot called the " Tower of Ilium," actually standing in situ upon it. These structures belong to what I have ventured to term, in speaking of the place, "the hovel period of Hissarlik," represented by a stratum intermediate between the ruins of Ilium Novum and the lowest wall. As they present no signs of doors or windows, they were entered, perhaps, like those of the Moquis Indians of Arizona — * Plate viii. p. 200. SMYRNA AND TROY. 429 from the top. Their walls, constructed in the rudest possible manner, of dried mud, shells, and small stones, with slightly larger stones as- a basement,* are from eighteen inches to two feet thick, and their interiors are mostly divided into two or three compartments, each compartment about nine feet long by six feet broad. Yet such we are to believe were the- chambers of the sons and daughters of Priam ! The height of culture attained by their inhabitants is attested by the stone implements, mullers, bones, and pebbles which are found in the stratum in which they occur. It is not impossible that in these traces of a wave of barbarism overspreading this part of Asia Minor at a very early period, we may have evidence of the temporary settlement in the Troad of some hovel- building Scythian tribe, carried southwards during an invasion, such as that mentioned by Herodotus* as having occurred in the sixth or seventh century B.C. That this "hut town" was not a small one appears from the fact that in other parts of the hill, where the excavations have reached a sufficient depth, similar structures have been brought to light. Yet that portion of these wretched hovels, which, as I have described, block up the " Scaean gate," that is, the entrance to Priam's city, are, we are informed by the excavator, with an ipse dixit quite inadmissible in any scientific research, neither more nor less than the veritable palace of Priam himself. It ap- * If I understand aright Herr Schliemann's answer to Mr. Simpson, which was contained in a singular letter to the Times, he would have us believe that this basement (only some two feet high) represents the ruins of Priam's Palace, and that the superstructure is later. Two facts, however, make this theory as untenable as the other. First, in common with the upper portion of the structures, this basement is continuous across the "Scsean gate;'' second, if a previous building had been raised on this base, it would have been of equally narrow proportions with those subsequently raised on it. The fact seems to be clear that a stone foundation was laid for the mud-brick walls to rest on. t Bk. i. ch. 104. ... 430 RECORD OF RAMBLES. pears, moreover, that he has actually applied the term " splendid " to the ruins of these holes, which a Digger Indian in the Californian mountains could scarcely be induced to inhabit. In addition to this it must here be noticed that, in his plan, Herr Schliemann places a par- tition open at each end, which in reality is barely three feet wide, between two of the hovels. While, however, he tacitly presumes that his readers will be satisfied that such was the approach to Troy — his Homeric Troy, that is — with all its beautiful palaces and lofty towers, he does not anywhere give the respective levels of the floor of that would-be passage, and of the pavement of the gate- way, nor does he insert in his plan the fact that the side wall of the hovels is continuous from its very foundation * upwards across not only the outer gateway, but the mouth of this," partition itself,f both which facts are fatal to the supposition that this was ever the means of ingress from the broad gateway without to the "hovel town" with its "Trojan houses," as he calls them, within. The most casual observer can see for himself at a glance that such an entrance could not have served the purposes of the meanest village. About twenty yards N.W. of the Scaean gate is the point where the so-called treasure of Priam was found, but the details of that discovery, as related by Nicholas Zaphyros, were so utterly different to Herr Schliemann's own account, that I find any attempt to reconcile them out of the question. To take an. instance of discrepancy, in which I am able to verify the truth of Nicholas's account, Herr Schliemann states that, upon making the. discovery, * This is a very important fact, since it shows, as before stated, that not even the basement of the hovels can have been contemporaneous with the Gate. See Herr SchUemann's answer to Mr. Simpson in the Times. t See the picture fronting page 321 in Troy and its Remains, where no brealt in the wall is to be seen. SMYRNA AND TROY. 4Ji he sent all his workmen to dinner, and dug out the articles himself; adding, "It would have been impossible for me to have removed the treasure without the help of my dear wife, who stood by me ready to pack the things which I cut out in her shawl, and carry them away." Nicholas, on the other hand, told me that he had assisted in digging out the things, and in taking them to the house. On my asking what part Madame Schliemann took, he replied, " She was not here ; she was at Athens at the time ;" and on subsequent inquiry this was confirmed at the Darda- nelles. I should still have thought there must have been some mistake, were it not that I know on the best authority that Herr Schliemann has himself owned in conversation with a gentleman holding a high and responsible position in European archaeological circles, and who permits me, if necessary, to use his name, that his wife was not really there, but that he brought in her name to give her a zest for archaeology. This little piece of embellishment is in every way unlucky, since Madame Schliemann was held to be a most important witness of the great discovery— in fact, her presence was the only corroboration of it until Nicholas Zaphyros affirmed to me that he was there. He, Nicholas, remembered that there was a large quantity of bronze articles, but his memory was hazy as to the rest of the treasure. He persisted in stating that it lay not "on" as stated by Herr Schliemann,* but close to the outer side of the wall ; that there were no signs whatever of its having been compacted into a chest, but, on the contrary, that it was contained in a little place built round with stones, and having flat stones to cover it ; and lastly, that the key, reported as foundf " close by the side of the articles," came from the stratum of the time of Lysimachus (to which it much more properly belongs), at a distance of some two hundred yards from the spot. The man's statements on * Troy and its Remains, p. 332; t lb. p. 333. 432 RECORD OF RAMBLES. these points were direct and graphic, and I think it right to record them. The evidence of conflagration, especially near the spot where the treasure is said to have been found, was very marked, and a stratum of burnt earth and ashes forms a distinct band throughout the trench. Of the ruins of the Grecian colony I have already spoken. A great part of it has been destroyed in digging the present cuttings. Portions of well-fitted walls ; columns of a fine temple of Apollo or Minerva; bas-reliefs and inscriptions — identifying the site with that of Ilium Novum, — such have been the objects which have rewarded the labours of Mr. Frank Calvert and Herr Schliematln in passing through them Still the object of their researches (as of our visit) was Homer's Troy — if indeed it was there — and Homer^s Troy alone. " To glean its relics " has fallen to the lot of an enthusiast, who admits that his enthusiasm "borders on fanaticism." It is unfortunate for the interests of archae- ology that it has been so. Possessed with the one prede- termined notion that Troy was there, and that find it he must,* we have only to read his book to see that every fresh turn of the shovel sent new theories rushing through his brain : contradictions have had to be reconciled, no matter at what expense : f Priam has to be housed in a dark and dingy hovel, with a gate to his city which the position of his own habitation rendered it impossible for the citizens to make use of; and finally the symbol of the goddess Athena has been discovered in the rude imitation of two eyes and a nose, with, often, a still ruder mouth, on pottery, which deserves the rather to be regarded by students of Aryan mythology as the ancestor of our "Toby Fillpot" mugs. * See Mr. Calvert's letter to the Athenaum, Nov. 7, 1874. t See Mr. Calvert's letter to the Athenaum, Nov. 7 and 14, 1874. SMYRNA AND TROY. 433 August 10. Although, as I have said before, we could not but feel convinced that if Troy was to be looked for at all in the Troad, Hissarlik must have been its site, we determined to devote a day to the examination of the other reputed site, Bunarbashi, and in order to do this we accepted Mr. Calvert's kind invitation to occupy his empty house at Thymbria ; a spot where we could truly enjoy the delights of a summer evening, as we sat in the cool balcony reading Pope's Iliad, which we discovered in a bookshelf. Bunarbashi is situated some five miles or so, as the crow flies, south of Hissarlik, and the ride thither, and the view from its summit — apart from the antiquarian interest of the place — amply repaid us for our second day's work. On our way down to the banks of the Scamander {j..e. if Hissarlik be Troy) we passed through fields of vines, and sugar, and tobacco — the latter apparently grown in considerable quantity. Herds of cattle and horses grazing on the uplands, flocks of sheep and goats, women singing at their harvest work, quaint old-world waggons, whose creaking could be heard afar, such were the sights and sounds which added life to a scene of rural beauty such as, once seen, can never be forgotten. From the appearance of the river-bed, when we reached it, it is plain that the Mendere, or Scamander, often shifts its course. Just then it was low, and tortoises were basking on the gravelly strand, or huddling together in their nests in the bushes on the bank. A quaint story was told us of an American lady, the sister of the governor of a Western state, whose acquaintance we had made in his native country, who, when she arrived at the banks of the Scamander, was so en- chanted by the sight of that ancient river, that she insisted on immediately bathing in its waters. Her Turkish escorts — good Mohammedans as they were — thought she was mad, and quickly took to their heels; but the ladyinsisted on carry- ing out her resolve, and, divesting herself of her apparel, 2 F 434 RECORD OF RAMBLES. plunged into the sacred flood. Were its waters ever so honoured before ? Not far from the farm of Thymbria we passed one of those "tep6s," or tumuli, so common in the Troad. It rises to a height of forty or fifty feet from the level of the plain below, and has been opened by Mr. Frank Calvert, to whom, more than to any other resident in the district, the thanks of antiquaries are due for the light which his researches have thrown on the whereabouts of the ancient towns, and the structure and contents of the tumuli. At the depth of about ten feet he discovered the natural soil, showing that the mound, in this instance, had been heaped up on a previously existing knoll. In the centre, as usual, a large deposit of ashes and burnt bones was brought to light, together with shells and flints, such as those from the "hovel" stratum at Hissarlik. In "tep^s" of this kind a circle of stones generally encloses the deposit of ashes. Riding hence to the top of Mount Deddh, we noticed two oval, or rather oblong, stone enclosures, the object of which we could not divine. We now began the ascent of Bunarbashi — rough, stony, and steep towards the plain, but absolutely precipitous on the farther side, where it descends sheer down to the river, which winds round its base, some hundreds of feet below, in the form of a horse- shoe. The position is undoubtedly a fine and a strong one, and so high that, as seen from its summit, the hill of Hissarlik seems dwarfed into the plain. On arriving at the edge of the first and largest plateau of the hill, a large stone cairn strikes the eye, placed like a distant outpost to the fortified citadel above. Farther on is a second barrow, formed of stones and earth, which, like the former, has been opened without success. Five or six hundred yards beyond this second mound, two lines of stones may be observed crossing the neck of the promontory in the manner of "the cliff castles" SMYRNA AND TROY. 435 known to British archaeologists. Inside these lines the land rises rapidly to the base of a high mound, a hundred and thirty paces in length, likewise stretching across the hill, its western extremity being sufficiently protected by its proximity to the edge of a steep declivity, and its eastern end curving round so as to enclose the arx alta which lies within. On excavation by Herr Schliemann, Mr. Calvert, and others, this mound has been found to contain a well-built city wall. The greater portion of it is as late as the age of the Grecian colonists ; but at the western extremity I noticed a piece of corner-work, more massive than the rest, which might veritably pass for Cyclopean, and (as if all styles of building were here to be represented) a third piece again which bore great resem- blance to the mode of building by receding layers noticeable in the lowest wall at Hissarlik. The wall is built in zigzag fashion with frequent angles, and immediately inside it, near the centre, are the remains of a few dwellings of the Greek period built with strong cement. The principal entrance was to the westward of the centre ; but a little narrow arched gateway, now fallen in, was also pointed out to us at a point farther east. So precipitous are the cliffs, to the southward that no wall is there necessary. The length of the interior of the citadel from the wall to the cliff is a hundred and twenty paces, and the breadth about the same. There are no mounds within the enclosure as at Hissarlik, and the foundations of the walls and houses rest on the natural soil, thus precluding all hope of further discovery. This is indeed one of the principal reasons for abandoning all idea of Bunarbashi having been Troy, added to which, from the discovery of numerous coins at this site, and for other reasons, Mr. Frank Calvert considers that it may be identified with the site of Gergis. The view from the citadel is one of surpassing grandeur. The barren mountain-sides to the southward, sparsely mottled with 2 F 2 436 RECORD OF RAMBLES. the olive green of a dwarf species of oak ; the clear dark river far below winding past a bright oasis snugly sheltered in a little creek or bight, then lost behind the next pro- truding hill — such is the contrast to the plain we had just left which the short ride to the heights of Bunarbashi affords. Our ride back to the Dardanelles was without incident. On our arrival we found an invitation awaiting us to a party, which ended in a most delightful little dance, and at which all the European society of the Dardanelles was present. Beauty was indeed so conspicuously represented, that we found no difficulty in coming to the conclusion that there were still Heros on this classic shore worthy of the prowess of some modern Leander. The next morning found us on board the Messageries steamer Copernic, bound for Constantinople, with leisure to think over what we had seen and heard during the last few days. Having seen Hissarlik, I left the shores of the Troad oppressed with the conviction that the public had not been put into possession of the real state of things with result to the excavations recently made there. Call it enthusiasm — call it exaggeration — call it what we will — the published works and letters of Herr Schliemann are calculated to convey an impression totally out of accordance with what any person of ordinary intelligence can see for himself by the most cursory inspection. Had it been a matter of slight moment to the historian, or to the student of comparative mythology, I would fain have let the subject rest But it is not. Never since tlie study of archaeology had its birth in the mind of old Herodotus has a question of such vital importance come before the public as that which was raised on the day when the Allgemeine Zeitung contained the announcement that Herr Schliemann had found the Palace of Priam. What he then called the "Palace of Priam" is not the same as that which he calls the " Palace of Priam" SMYRNA AND TROY. 437 now* It proved to be a building of too late a date ; so he went back to find another structure that might better serve his purpose, and he found it. Will this second dis- covery share a like fate with the first .' Most assuredly it will, as soon as ever it falls under the eye of fair modern criticism. Let me add, however, that whoever wishes to see the ruins as they are, should lose no time about it. The material of the "hovel" walls is such that, year by year, as winter rains wash into them, they will grow less and less ; the stones of the Scaean gate may be removed for building purposes ; the mounds of debris, with their per- pendicular sides, may even fall and cover the whole, and then the "confusion" of the subject will become "worse confounded." It was for this reason that — following as I did so closely in the wake of the explorer — I made it my business to inspect these ruins with all the care I could, and to gather up every tittle of evidence from the mouths of those in whose memory the work was still fresh, or who had actually assisted in it, little expecting to find so much that was perplexing and contradictory. * See Athenaum, Nov. 7th, 1874. 438 RECORD OF RAMBLES. CHAPTER XXIV. CONSTANTINOPLE. August 12. At noon we left the Dardanelles on board the steamer Copemic for Constantinople. After a run of about three miles we passed the spot where Byron swam across the strait — a feat which has frequently been performed since, and is one of no difficulty to a good swimmer. The shores on either side were far from picturesque ; low, bare, and yellow, here and there mottled with a short scrubby vegetation. On a point which jutted out into the strait from the Asiatic side was a Turkish fort, which, if adequately armed, ought alone to command the passage. At 3. 1 5 we passed a town on the port side, and then the channel began to open out into the Sea of Marmora. August 13. At seven the next morning we were in sight of Constantinople, having Prince's Island on the other side. The outline of the city as approached from the sea is singular. The shores lie low, and, to a mind not given to romance, the great mosques with their minarets look not unlike a line of snails with horns erect following one another along the coast. As we drew nearer, a Genoese castle came in sight, and then the ruinous walls of the ancient city — those self-same walls which made so gallant a resistance when guarding the last remnant of Rome's empire in the Ecist. Drawing nearer still, the effect of the morning sun as it fell on the domes and pinnacles was extremely grand. As we entered the Bosphorus we had CONSTANTINOPLE. 439 on our right the hilly ground of Scutari, with its burying- ground and the immense barracks and hospitals erected for the accommodation of troops during our sad Crimean affair. On the other side, on the promontory of Stam- boul, we were passing under the walls of the veritable palace of Constantine, within which the site of the royal gardens is still marked by the presence of trees and shrubs. Our course lay up the Golden Horn — golden no more, since steamboats ply up and down it, and shroud in smoke what would otherwise be a truly splendid prospect of mosque rising over mosque. We landed at a wharf in Galata, the old Genoese quarter, above which a tall watch-tower still attests the former presence of that merchant community. In no place we visited had we so much trouble with the Customs as at Constantinople, owing entirely to the poor pay and want of organization amongst the officials, who, unless they receive a heavy bribe, will positively do nothing except doggedly detain property. One Turkish official actually had an empty chair placed close beside that on which he him- self was sitting, in order that persons wishing to get their luggage through might come and sit down and slip money into his hand. As for ourselves we preferred going to our consul, and getting him to send his own armed cavash to demand our things, which he immediately did, and that successfully. It was the first example we had had of Turkish officialism, and we did not allow the wily individual to get the better of us. Taking the chemin-de-fer to Pera, we were soon shot up the inclined plane through a tunnel to the European quarter of that name, situated on the top of the hill above Galata, and opposite Stamboul. The best street in Constantinople is the Grande Rue de Pera ; but bad is the best. It is very narrow, shockingly paved, and the houses every here and there project into it at right angles ; while the nuisance of the street criers, who bawl into the ear of the passer-by, the ragged beggars who swarm round 440 RECORD OF RAMBLES. the stranger, and the dogs who keep up their baying through the livelong night, show that the idea of order in municipal government has not yet found its way into the minds of those in authority. Having secured apartments at the Hotel Byzance (or rather at the house used as such, for the hotel had just been burnt down), we called on Mr. Hoylander and Mr. Wrench, from both of whom we received much attention, and who put down our names for a most com- fortable European club in the Rue de Pera, at which we lived during our stay. Later in the day we took a trip by steamer up the Bosphorus to a pleasure-ground called the "Sweet Waters," a favourite resort of Turks and Euro- peans alike on hot afternoons. From the water we had a good view of the Sultan's palace, consisting of two large square modern buildings, around which a double cordon of Turkish ironclads had been drawn. On the Asiatic side, opposite the palace, and close to the water's edge, lay the Jews' quarter; and further along the bank were several pretty little suburban places, where the boat stopped to land passengers. Several palaces of state officers and houses of the wealthier classes lay at no great distance from the shore, while in some cases the front doors opened on to the water, and the upper windows or balconies overhung the waves. The casements of the harems gave them a very picturesque appearance ; they were in fact just the very places for the performance of moonlight serenades. The landing-place at Candele is specially pretty from the fact that it has a good background of wood. On the European side of the Bosphorus, just oppo- site the place where we disembarked, stands a romantic Genoese castle. The walls enclose a portion of the hill, and the towers which rise from them are round and cas- tellated. The whole is falling into ruins, and the plants which cling around it add to the beauty of a spot which is indeed unsurpassed on the Rhine. In hideous contrast CONSTANTINOPLE. 44 1 to this, a modern American college stands on the top of the hill. The " Sweet Waters," so called from a stream in the valley behind, consisted of a long strip of greensward, with trees extending to the shore. A fountain, a little mosque, and some broken shafts of columns, added an artificial charm to a place already richly endowed by nature. Coffee, ices, and sherbet were supplied under the shade of a spreading tree. The Turkish ladies, in their gauzy veils — for vanity has triumphed over the stricter Mohammedan rule — and many-coloured silks, sat in groups on the grass, or round the gnarled root-crowns of the trees. The men were mostly in uniform ; some were equestrians, and others came in carriages. The evening was cool and pleasant, and a gorgeous sunset awaited us on our return down the Bosphorus. August 14. Our dragoman, Nicholas Baktcheli, having procured for us, on the consul's order, the necessary firman to see Stamboul, we set out for " Constantinople proper." The wooden bridge over which we crossed the Golden Horn is a noted resort of thieves, and, police being rarely to be found, caution is required for self-protection. Passing through a gateway, which is the veritable "Porte" and across a square in front of the Ministerial Offices, we reached an oblong plot, used as a drill-ground, and con- taining some, fine old trees. At one end of this was the gateway of the " Palace of Constantine," and at the other the "Church of St. Irene." In front of the latter, frag- ments of carving of various ages, Byzantine and Roman (of the time of Hadrian), lay neglected on the ground. Prominent amongst them, and prostrated at the door of the ancient Christian church, lay a gigantic statue of Jupiter Ammon, recently brought from Crete, with many other antiquities, the spoils of the Candian war. The figure was holding in his hands an animal, head downwards. At the place in the stone, however, where 442 RECORD OF RAMBLES. the head of this creature should have been, a large square hole had been cut. The curls on the head of Jupiter were twisted into knots like those of Buddha in Ceylon. It was indeed a grand old work of art. Through a steep paved decline, whose roof was arched and whose sides were decorated with ancient Turkish armour, we entered the Church of St. Irene, a building older than that of St. Sophia. The interior of the edifice was used as an armoury, and perfectly bristled with bayonets, stands filled with them being ranged across the aisles and in the apse ; while the front of the galleries, the balustrades on the stairs, and every available corner, were covered with casques, breast-plates, or rifles. The church is remarkable for its solidity and fine proportions. It consists of a nave, ter- minating in an apse, with a small aisle on either side in the fashion of a perfect basilica. The arches are massive, and in the centre of the nave, on either side, are marble pillars, surmounted by delicate capitals, supporting the galleries which in old times were appropriated to the women. At the west end, when we had mounted to a second gal- lery, a spot in the floor was pointed out to us as the grave of St. John Chrysostom. It was a singular place for a tomb, and the stone which covered it bore the simplest possible ornament ; namely, two circles in compartments. In front of the apse was a fountain, with a tap for drinking. The roof of this portion of the church has retained its gilding, and the Greek cross in mosaic, having survived the Moslem conquest, looks down triumphantly on the im- potence of those who now bear the arms which desecrate the once hallowed ground. In the interior of the dome, near the top, is a gallery. Round the back of the apse a passage has been carried in the thickness of the wall, and over the triumphal arch is an inscription in Greek letters. Near the west door two cannons have been placed, the trophies of old Turkish victories, on one of which I read CONSTANTINOPLE. 443 the words " Rudolphus rex," &c. &c., with the date i S92. Outside the door is a small paved court-yard, in which stand two sarcophagi in red granite, both belonging to Christian times, and one bearing the emblematic device, or " labarum," of Constantine enclosed by a circle. By the side of tJiese stand a medley of antiquities in stone — Greek statues from Crete, Roman bas-reliefs, Byzantine grave-slabs, figures of priests in canonicals ; and, of later date still, as if to make us bear in mind how recent an historical event was the Turkish encroachment in Europe, lay specimens of late mediaeval heraldic devices, such as would adorn an old English mansion — these, however, all turned upside down. On each side of the court was a museum. One of these was full of pottery from Crete, con- sisting of vases shaped like animals, or with several necks, or with handles for suspension, together with miniature objects, such as earthenware spindle-whorls, and tiny jugs, in red and yellow ware, adorned in many cases with the chevron pattern. The other contained a collection of old guns, pikes, swords, bells, and drums, the former said to have been used by the defenders of the city during the Turkish siege, and many of the latter having contributed no doubt to the horrid din made before the walls by the barbarous Turks themselves. There was in this collection an antique knife, which drew our attention from the fact that it had been found in Russia during the Crimean war by a British officer, who had purchased it for ;£^i5o for the purpose of presenting it to this museum. The handle was formed of two pieces of bone, formerly studded with diamonds of great value, which the Turkish authorities, in their gratitude for the present, had caused to be picked out and sold. From the Church of St. Irene we went to that of St. Sophia, now used as a mosque. We entered, after the usual difficulty with the doorkeeper, and were conducted up a 444 RECORD OF RAMBLES. passage paved with stone, which serves instead of steps as the mode of access to the upper portion of the building. On reaching the galleries, we looked down into the church, which struck me as unquestionably the finest interior I had ever seen. In ground-plan it is nearly square, being two hundred and sixty-nine feet long and two hundred and forty- three feet broad. On the destruction of an older building the present church was founded by Justinian, so that it is not the actual building in which Chrysostom preached. The entire roof, including the dome, was ori- ginally covered with mosaic, the greater part of which still remains, though coated over with Turkish paint, and though, which is worse still, the Mohammedan priests are continually knocking it off in order to sell to visitors. We were informed that it is chiefly at night that these despoilers ply their trade ; and to such an extent is it carried on that, during the hour or two we spent there, we saw several pans full of freshly-broken fragments being taken to the cistern in the body of the church for the purpose of being cleansed for sale. The villains who thus destroy their own temple go unchecked by the authorities, and pretend that the mosaic falls down of itself, in which case they boast that they fill up the gaps with plaster. The arrangement of the central area is that of an ordinary mosque. There is the private prayer-room for the Sultan and for the chief priest, and a small apse inside the large one indicating the direction of Mecca. The church being built east and west, in accordance with Christian custom, but Mecca lying to the south of east, and all Mahom- medans praying in the direction of it, it naturally follows that this little apse is not in the centre of the east end ; and also that the mats which cover the floor are air set diagonally across the area, a circumstance which produces a curious and unsymmetrical effect. The upper portions of the church have been hideously defaced by monstrous CONSTANTINOPLE. 445 texts from the Koran painted on circular frames in green and gold, and bearing much the same relation to this church as hatchments do to our old English buildings. Bending forward over the church, the hands raised in the attitude of blessing, there was originally a figure of Christ in mosaic. This, as well as the rest, has been daubed over by Turkish painters ; but, curiously enough, within the last few years, that portion of the mosaic which formed the figure (prob- ably, being thickly gilt, it was heavier than the rest) has fallen forward a little, so that the form can be seen. In other places heads of the Apostles are similarly visible. The door through which the Turks rushed in, when the Christians had fled into the building to seek the protection which, even in their last extremity, they expected to receive from the Angel, is still shown as that at the south-east end. On the horrors of that hour this is no place to dwell. Suffice it to say that the sight of the interior of Santa Sophia and the remembrance of the history of that scene can never fail to rouse in any breast, where a spark of chivalry is left, feelings of the deepest indignation against the Europe of that day, which could afford to sit by and look on while the remnants — however debased they may have been — of their kindred in the East were being murdered and ravished by that same vile mongrel race who, in their despicable modes of government, have shown that their characters are still unaltered since the day when— barbarians that they were — their tribe was pressing westward, with the blighting effect of the locust, just four hundred years ago. Near this door is a marble panel inserted in the side of a pillar, about which there is a curious tradition. It is said to be the entrance to a crypt beneath the floor of the church, where the treasure of the Christians lies still con- cealed, and with it the skeleton of a bishop or priest who fled for refuge there, but who together with the hoard will remain immured until the Turks are again driven out of. 446 RECORD OF RAMBLES. Constantinople — a consummation much to be wished, and which (but for England) would already have been brought about. On the north side of the church stood a kind of pulpit, or little gallery, for preaching. It was reached by a ladder, and from it a Moslem priest was expounding to a few poor miserable women the duty of monogamy and the blessings which that system would bring. To this the hearers often sighed out a response, prompted doubt- less by sad experiences of their own. Friday is the day on which the Sultan comes here to pray, and on that occasion no women are admitted. The iinest part of Santa Sophia is the east end of the south gallery, known as the "chamber of Constantine,'' said to have been the portion allotted to himself and the members of his household, or " harem," as the guide perhaps not incorrectly called it. The columns were of green jasper, said to have been brought from the temple of Diana at Ephesus. Their capitals were of white alabaster, carved most delicately with leaves and flowers, and each bearing in the centre a circle in which was a monogram of the words Christ or Basileus. At the end of this gallery is a column very much out of its perpendicular, owing to a shrinkage in the foundation. In the floor is a stone with the plain inscription, " Henricos Dandolo." In other parts of the church are porphyry columns, said to have come from the temple of the Sun at Rome, and over the western door is a square niche which contained at one time the crown of St. Sophia. Crosses had been almost invariably knocked to pieces, only their shafts remaining. The brazen gates at the principal or south-western entrance were of massive worknianship and intricate design, and were pecu- liarly handsome. The four minarets which rise from the four corners of the building were the work of Selim II., who reigned in A.D. 1566. From the great church we made our way to one of the CONSTANTINOPLE. 447 chief sights of the city, — namely, the Bazaars ; passing on our route one of the many so-called "columns of Theodosius." It was a weather-worn pillar of red coloured stone, raised upon a basement, and wreathed with a laurel wreath carved on its surface. The streets in the neighbourhood of the Bazaars were in a horribly filthy condition. These quaint shops themselves, which are all arched over, occupy a very considerable space of ground. First we went through the "velloni," or skin bazaars; next through the linen-drapery establishments; then we came to the most curious of all, the stalls for the sale of ancient articles and bijouterie. Here, piled up all around in such confusion that choice was impossible, were old swords, scimitars, dirks, and pistols, whose handles were inlaid with silver. There was a great abundance of coins. Elaborate slippers and gold-laced coats filled another counter close by. Then came stores full of Armenian work, some of it of great age, consisting of boxes of open brass- work or of silver- gilt, decorated with quaint animals and serpents, just such figures as were being copied in Europe during the earlier middle ages. Once, and once only, I saw a few articles of Candian pottery offered for sale ; but these, like all the rest, were fabulously dear, and as we had no time for bargaining, we did not buy. August 15. This morning we again crossed the water to Stamboul for the purpose of seeing the palace, which we had been obliged to omit on the previous day. Before we entered the gateway, a stone was pointed out to us — seemingly the base of a broken column — where the Janis- saries were beheaded by the Sultan Mahommed ; after which their heads were washed in a fountain (like those of the Forty Renins in Japan), and then stuck up over the gate (like those of the traitors at Temple Bar). The gate-house itself is an old building, flanked by towers with pointed 448 RECORD OF RAMBLES. roofs. Within, it is hung with armour in the manner of an old English hall. Passing through it, we found ourselves in a courtyard, traversed by an avenue of cypresses. On the left was a building, in the gate of which sat a number of eunuchs* in conversation with females belonging to the establishment, which was the harem belonging to the Sultan's brother. On the right of us was a corridor, and behind it rose the chimneys of what is still known as the "Janissaries' Kitchen." Entering a second gateway, in front of which the Sultan's throne is sometimes set on state occasions, we saw a building standing by itself, which our guide assured us was the only portion remaining of a palace of Theodosius. When the Sultan occupies, as he sometimes does, the apartment within, his throne is placed in the centre of a jewelled canopy, having much the ap- pearance of a four-post bed. His minister awaits his orders outside, and a messenger passes between them. It is just possible that in these observances the Turkish sovereigns perpetuate the customs of the Christian emperors in whose houses they have ensconced themselves. Behind this chamber of state was another detached building, known as the " Library." Thence, through a neat and pretty garden, we passed to a marble terrace commanding a view of the Golden Horn. There was a pond on the terrace, and a building with double casements and an overlapping roof, which was pointed out to us as the special "sanctum" of the Turkish religion. None but pure Turks (and to find a pure Turk in the nineteenth century would be a matter of difficulty), we were informed, might enter its holy precincts. As we looked up the Horn from the balcony * In order to preserve the harem system, no fewer than five hundred boys, in the city of Constantinople alone, are annually subjected to this barbalbus mutilation. It would be well for those, who for selfish and political reasons would bolster up the Turkish empire in Europe, to take this one fact into consideration. CONSTANTINOPLE. 449 of the terrace, our guide pointed out to us the little mosque, some distance off upon its shores, where the Sultan is crowned. He rides thither in state, and is then interrogated by the Chief Priest as to whether he will " be kind to the poor." He makes the fitting reply, and is then conducted to the mosque of Suliman, where he per- forms his devotions, and is thereafter Sultan of Turkey. On the same terrace is the kiosk of the Sultan Murad, octagonal in form, with a balcony round it looking down into a little garden below. Couches were ranged round the interior, on which in ancient days the Sultan could recline while he watched his mutton or other food being dressed at the fire opposite — a precaution necessary to prevent his being poisoned. The walls and doors of this chamber, which was elegant and comfortable, were inlaid with tortoiseshell and mother-of-pearl. Crossing the courtyard again, we were now shown the house in which the imperial jewels are kept. Some of them are (or rather were at the time we saw them) very magnificent. Fronting the door was the throne and footstool, formed of a groundwork of green enamel, inlaid with pearls and rubies, and the whole clamped together with gold. All round the room were cases faced with plate-glass, in which were thousands of precious stones, such as rubies, diamonds, amethysts, &c., all in the rough, and heaped eigainst the glass, like coffee or raisins in a grocer's window. Here too were exhibited the state robes of early Sultans, " rough with gold," and having little mountains of rubies and emeralds sticking out from their surface. In an upper room were weapons, such as guns, and swords with their sword-belts, inlaid with tortoiseshell and mother-of-pearl, or covered with richly-chased gold. Many of the swords which displayed the best workmanship were said to have belonged to the Christians during the siege. In especial there was a two- handed sword, some six feet in length, with a cruciform 2 G 45 O RECORD OF RAMBLES. hilt, said to have belonged to a Christian warrior. The trappings and bells of a camel, thick with jewels and gold, together with a richly jewelled belt, had belonged to the Sultan Suliman, rightly named the "Magnificent." His sword had been taken away, and was said to be in the keep- ing of the Sultan. It contained, so our guide informed us, a diamond " as big as the top of a thumb." From the jewel- room we were conducted down some steps, and along a line of official chambers to a suite of rooms furnished in the modern Venetian style, occupied, I suppose, by the Sultan, when — which is very seldom — ^he resides in this ancient palace. From a balcony outside we looked down on the Bosphorus, over a garden plot in which stood a column, called by the name of Theodosius, and once surmounted by the figure of a three-headed snake. We were informed that in one portion of this garden stood the actual palace of Constantine, which the present Sultan (Abdul Aziz), with a spirit like that of Nero, and much to the vexation of many people, caused to be burnt to the ground, in one of his mad freaks, only a few years ago. On all hands he was reported to be quite beside himself, utterly unfit to transact business, and causing his ministers endless anxiety and trouble. By way of imitating the stupid side of European civilization, he had made his two sons, at the respective ages of eleven and twelve, the one Generalissimo of the Army, and the other the Lord High Admiral of the Fleet. From the palace we drove across to the Hippodrome on the farther side of Stamboul — an oblong space of ground which, in name only, recalls the splendour of the days when the strifes of the Circus were revived here by the Blue and Green Factions. Three columns are still standing in the centre. The first is an obelisk of red stone, very like Cleopatra's needle, covered with hieroglyphics, and said to have been brought from Egypt by Theodosius. It is CONSTANTINOPLE. 45 1 supported on four bronze feet, resting on a pedestal com- memorative of a victory, the scenes carved on it being in the style of the decadence of classical sculpture. Near this — and rising out of a pit, which shows how the ground has accumulated round it — is a second pedestal, supporting a bronze serpent, from which the head has been knocked off. Between this and the obelisk there once stood, so our guide informed us, a statue of Christ, about which he had heard a story that a priest had carried it to Russia. The third column in the Hippodrome was of considerable height, but poorly built of square stones. It bore an inscription, said to be as old as the time of Constantine the Great. At the end of the Hippodrome is a sort of museum con- taining a collection of figures (a Turkish Madame Tussaud's in fact), said to represent the Janissaries. Many of them were arranged in groups, and their dresses were interesting illustrations of Turkish attire. Some figures of boys in attendance on a Sultan wore on their heads caps of a crescent shape. One ferocious-looking fellow held in his hand the self-same sword, according to the showman, with which he had slain two hundred and fifty Christians. We were next driven through the Turkish quarter to the walls of the ancient city. Mainly owing to earthquakes, but partly also we may suppose to the Turkish bombardment, their towers and battlements are in a cracked and ruinous condition, while the masonry itself presents internal evi- dence of having been put together at various periods, and often in a very hurried fashion. At one of the gates we passed out, and drove along between the moat and an immense Turkish cemetery on the other side. From the road we gained an excellent idea of the extent and plan of the old fortifications. The walls appeared to be triple. The inner one, which was the highest, was surmounted, at intervals of about eighty yards, by square towers. From the second and lower 2 G 2 452 RECORD OF RAMBLES. wall round towers rose every here and there. Outside there was a lower wall again, and beyond it the moat. The masonry was composed of small pieces of limestone, often mixed with brick, and strongly cemented together. In many cases, to add power of resistance to the whole, brick arches had been built into the mass, if they were not por- tions of previously existing chambers in the wall. All this part where the main strength lay was on hilly ground ; but we now began to descend into the valley, and as we did so the rnoat became less marked, and the walls higher and not so thick. It was clear that here lay the vulnerable point for the Turkish artillery, and we were not long in seeing that they had found it so. Suddenly the line of the ramparts was broken. For the length of several hundred yards a pile of limestone debris, as white and fresh-looking as if it had been thrown there but yesterday, was all that remained of the triple wall. It was the breach the Turks had made on that fearful day, the 29th of May, 1453, when the news went forth throughout Europe that an Asiatic horde was in possession of her finest city, and that the Cross for which the Crusaders had fought had been shattered by the Crescent of the Prophet. A terrible breach, indeed, it was. Pieces of masonry had been blown away in masses like those which may be seen on the sides of the hill at Corfe Castle in Dorsetshire. Meanwhile another entrance had been effected through the gate by which we had driven out, and the two attacking parties meeting opposite an intermediate gate, opened that also for the admission of the cannon. The com- bined force then marched upon the spot where Constantine was making his final stand, the selfsame site now occu- pied by the mosque of the Sultan Mohammed, which we visited on our way home. It was here that the last Christian Emperor was cut down, his last word being, as rendered in TwxYx^, Meffermidan — "You have killed me. CONSTANTINOPLE. 453 Not far from the walls on the northern side of the city, in a dirty little courtyard, stands one of the most in- teresting objects in Constantinople — the little mosque of Kachira Jami (or Jamissi). It was formerly a Christian church, called Mone t^s Koras — literally, the " church " or "mansion of the Virgin." Just now it was under repairs, which a Greek, who professed to be the architect, told me were being conducted at the expense of the Turkish government. The date of some parts of the building was; he said, as early as the ninth century ; but the mosaics, for which it is chiefly famous, are as late as 1070. The dedication of it was to " St. Mary of Victory." It owes its preservation to the circumstance that after the siege it was the only Christian church the Greeks were permitted to retain for the performance of their worship. Upon the discovery, howeverj of plots amongst them, it was taken from them, and has been a mosque ever since ; but by this time the rancour which caused the destruction of the Christian decorations had in some degree died out in the Turks, who therefore left the mosaics untouched. On the door being opened by a son of the priest, who was also the owner of the mosque, we found ourselves in the portico, a narrow chamber about sixty-six feet in length. From the remnants of the mosaics in this portion, we could see that they represented scenes in the life of Christ — such as the Circumcision and others — and that, though now much- injured by wet, they had formerly covered the entire roof and the interior of the arches which formed it. When, however, we had crossed this outer chamber, and qn enter- ing a second similar one, had looked up to the roof, we were completely taken by surprise at the treat that had awaited us in the exquisite delicacy and rich colour of the mosaics there. The little domes at each end were divided into sixteen compartments. The circular centres in each had, in that on the north, the " Virgin and Child," and in 454 RECORD OF RAMBLES. that on the south, a vignette of Christ. The compartments contained figures of Old Testament worthies, such as Shem, Ham, Japhet, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and the Prophets. Every available space was taken up by some subject, de- lineated in such a manner as to suit the position. Amongst those which struck me as particularly beautiful were a large representation of Christ and his mother, the Annun- ciation, the raising of Jairus's daughter, the cleansing of the lepers, and the calling of the several disciples. The face of Christ was always full of earnestness and expression, and his hair was invariably depicted as of a light auburn colour. I do not think that there are any mosaics in Europe finer than those in this little church. Trees, houses, rich canopies, furniture, and peacocks were introduced into the pictures with no bad idea of perspective ; but the soft- ness of the shading, the richness of colour, where bright colours were required, and the grace of the execution, could not be surpassed. It is a great pity that the Turks are attempting the restoration of this church. Much of the mosaic has already fallen away from the walls,, and much more is ready to fall. Modern despoilers have had a hand in the work. Our' guide actually boasted to us, while he pointed to an empty spot on the wall, that he had himself cut out and carried away the subject that had been there, urged thereto by the promise of reward from a German baron to whom he was acting as cicerone. In the body of the mosque itself there is nothing remarkable. Marble slabs cover the walls, and the large central dome has been daubed over with flowers. No doubt this, like the rest, was once covered with mosaic, even richer than that in the porticos without. That the interior of the dome was devoted to illustrating the central doctrines of the Christian faith I think the more probable, because in a sort of transept on the south side, now in a ruinous state, there is another dome, smaller than the central one, but larger than those CONSTANTINOPLE. 45 S containing the figures from the Old Testament, in which are fragments of mosaic which show that its compartments were occupied by figures of the Twelve Apostles. This southern transept is a curious feature of the church. From the appearance of some capitals of arches in the western end, as well as an interesting three-light window in the south wall, it is possibly older than the rest, and may even be the remnant of the more ancient church, which, as tradi- dition says, dates back to a period older than St. Sophia. In this chamber there remained a piece of carved work in stone, consisting* of an elaborate arch, with a medallion of Christ in the centre, and of an apostle on either side. On the north side of the little building, in a position correspond- ing to that of the transept, was a passage communicating with some vestries or rooms for the priests, and between the church itself and the south transept were some small dark chambers in the thickness of the wall, which might have been used either for prayer or confession, or in which the church plate and valuables might have been stored. At the south- west corner was a minaret, doubtless of later date, though a portion of the basement on which it stood appeared to be early, and might have supported a tower of some sort On our way back we passed the so-called "Palace of Belisarius," a building typical of the later Greek style, placed in a commanding position on the walls. After this our way lay through the" Greek quarter, filled with quaint old houses, whose upper stories, built out on brackets, protruded into the street, and in the windows of which frequently appeared the pretty faces of the daughters of the house. In passing through this Greek quarter we were often amused at finding those very same Greek capital letters which we used to regard with so much awe at school turned to account to indicate the trade of a shop- man, or a restaurant, where coffee and billiards were ad- vertised in the words, KA*ENEION KAI BIAAIAPAO. 4S6 RECORD OF RAMBLES. August i6. It is impossible for the visitor, no matter how short his stay may have been, to quit Constantinople without thinking anew for himself the thought which has so often found expression before — "What might not this city have been, had her fate been other than it has ? " With a natural beauty of climate and situation, and a romance of history stretching back to the time when it was from hence that civilization went forth to the Western World ; with a position for commerce, joining East with West, which might have made her the mart of the earth, her sovereignty during the last thirteen centuries has, nevertheless, been shared between two of the most base and incapable tyrannies mankind has ever seen. But bad as the Christian Emperors were — and their degradation was in truth as low as well could be — even the atrocities of their weak and effeminate rule did not stand in such marked contrast to the civilization of the Europe of their day as does that of their successors to the Europe of the present day. Alas that the foul blot still remains in the map, and that the dream of Cobden is as far from realization as ever ! What indeed would have been the result had this spot been vacant ground when the British emigrants first set sail for America, and had they settled here.' In place of the foul bazaars and filthy streets a noble city, filled with "the busy traders of a free state;" in place of "the firman of a ferocious Sultan armed with death to the trembling slave,'' railways and newspapers " stimulating the enterprise and exciting the patriotism of an enlightened people ; " in place of harems on the shore, libraries, museums, and saloons where the scholars and artists of the world might learn to know each other better ! ODESSA AND MOSCOW. 457 CHAPTER XXV. ODESSA AND MOSCOW. At three p.m. {August i6) we sailed for Odessa on board a Russian steamer The Constantine. After the point opposite the " Sweet Waters," the Bosphorus becomes less beautiful. We passed the house where the English Ambassador re- sides, and by six o'clock we were well out in the Black Sea, which, after the blue of the Mediterranean, looked the colour of indigo. The straits of the Bosphorus seemed extremely narrow as we looked back on them, and the hills round the entrance were bare and brown. The weather was stormy, and the wind ahead ; and as the ship was empty, we had a rough night of heav)^ pitching. The only fellow-passengers with whom we got into con- versation were a Russian merchant, who spoke English perfectly, and a Greek gentleman named Zassiade. In the evening of the next day {August 17) we were in sight of the lighthouse on " Serpent's Island," and the day after came in view of the Russian coast, rounded a headland, and entered the bay in which lies Odessa. Two Russian gunboats were lying in the offing. The town itself was clearly an increasing place, and we passed a new pier in course of erection. Before landing we were detained upwards of two hours by the punctilio — not, however, uncombined with courtesy — of the Russian Custom-house officials. At last they allowed us to land, and we proceeded to the Hotel du Nord. For a seaport town Odessa is well 458 RECORD OF RAMBLES. laid out. Close to the sea are the dockyards and arsenals, and above these is a high promenade ground, not unlike the Hoe at Plymouth, on which in the afternoon the band plays. The houses seemed to be arranged in much the same fashion as American "blocks." Here for the first time we saw the curious cloaks, waistbands, and hats of the lower and middle classes in Russia, and the shaky vehicles, in which one horse works in the shafts, with a sort of hoop or wooden arch over his head, while the other draws from the point of the bar. At nine the same even- ing we set out on our long railway journey to Moscow in a carriage which, though not so comfortable as a Pullman car, was still preferable to an English first-class. August 19. When we woke next morning we were passing through a flat corn country, where we noticed that the threshing was performed as at home with a flail. We changed carriages at a place called Sminka, and arrived at Kiev the same evening. Both at this place, and throughout the Russian part of our "Rambles," we were specially delighted with the railway arrangements. Plenty of time is allowed at the stations appointed for meals for making a good dinner, and the refreshment - room looks as if it was set out for a feast. On the arrival of the train a bell is rung, or rather jingled, and then made to strike one ; after a due interval it is sounded a second time, and then strikes two ; lastly, after a very short space, it is rung for the last time, striking three ; and then, when a whistle has been blown from the engine, and a trumpet sounded by the man at the signal-post in front, the train is off. The ordinary Russian dinner, as served at the stations, consists in the first place of a glass of spirit ; after which comes caviare ; then a thin soup with curds and onions ; then sausage rolls ; and the rest much the same as in England. The drink is Crimean wine, white or red ; pure, light, cool, and refreshing. ODESSA AND MOSCOW. 459 August 20. Having made a considerable bend to the westward in our course, the next town of considerable size we arrived at was Kursk, which, like Kiev and most of the places in southern Russia, was seated on the summit of a steep hill rising out of the surrounding flat. The domes and cupolas of these " cities set on hills " made them striking objects for many miles around. We were still in a corn country, and the rustic inhabitants as we caught glimpses of them at the stations were often most singular studies. Rough-looking country priests — whose long dresses and black hair, escaping from under their broad slouched hats, gave them all the air of wild fanatics ; — ^women with black shawls drawn over their heads ; ladies with cigars in their mouths ; policemen and officials in military uniform made up together a crowd that to us was something quite new. As we passed along we saw something of the country in which these people lived. There were fields of flax, and groves of birch and oak. The dwellings of the rustics were thatched nearly down to the ground. Others were formed by digging a pit and throwing out the earth into a little circular bank round its margin, and covering in the roof with planks or trunks of trees resting against each other in the middle, and covered with a coating of mud. Foundations of similar dwellings, from which the roofs had been removed, and forming areas of about twelve feet by nine, were common along the route, and especially near the banks of the streams. One thing that struck us especially was the great number of churches, and their proximity to each other. None seemed to be of any very great age ; all were well kept up, and most of them were built on one model. At the east end was an apse, then came a dome rising above a Greek portico on either side, while at the west end was a turret for a bell, or sometimes two. The buildings were painted white, with green roofs ; except in ,a few rare instances where the dome was gilded. 460 RECORD OF RAMBLES. The immense tracts of corn land we had passed over since leaving Odessa gave us some idea of the extent of the traffic from that port. One of the first things that occurred to us in passing through Russia and in meeting its people for the first time was the resemblance which exists between this country and America ; and a better acquaintance with it only served to impress this likeness upon us still more strongly. In some matters, such for instance as discipline and police organization, America has certainly much that might be copied from Russia with advantage. We arrived at Moscow at 2.30 p.m., and went to the Hotel Billo, after a continuous railway journey of sixty-five hours. In the cool of the evening I walked with Mr. Genth to the Kremlin, and we entered one of the churches in which service was being performed. A dense throng of worship- pers filled the place. A cloud of incense which made the air stifling, the effect of the richly-painted pillars, the silver- gilt adornments of the screen, and the robes of the priests as seen through the fumes, together with the music of the chant, rendered me so oblivious to the world without that I lost my sketch-book, in which unhappily I had deposited a hundred-rouble note. In Moscow there are at the present moment no less than four hundred churches, and the attachment of the inhabitants to their faith may fairly be said to amount in some cases to blind superstition. When, for instance, not so long ago, a big bell cast for one of the Kremlin churches was found to be incapable of sound- ing properly, it was banished to Siberia. The people do not understand a word of the Greek in which the services are rendered. The priests are obliged to marry one wife, but in case of her death they may not take a second. The greater part of the country priests are devoid of education, and given to drink ; and yet their example is no detriment to the cause of the religion which they profess. That is a matter far too deeply rooted in the hearts of their congre- ODESSA AND MOSCOW. 46 1 gations for that. If we were to compare the state of re- ligion among the rural population in Western Europe to that of the same class in Russia, it might be said that while in the latter the priest is often, in the popular estimation, superior to the religion, in Russia the religion is superior to the priest. Added to this the moral influence which has found its way into the village communities is some- thing independent altogether of what has been learned from the priest. Supposing one of their number to get very drunk, the villagers take the law into their own hands, and give him next morning a public walloping. That drink, however, is the crying evil of the nation Is perhaps implied by the fact that one-third of the Imperial revenue of Russia is derived from import duties on wine, spirits, and beer. On entering and leaving the Kremlin we had to go through the ceremony of taking off our hats to the figure of the Virgin which stands over the great gate, and at the sight of which all the lower orders kneel and cross them- selves. As we were returning to the hotel we passed a carriage with four horses, the coachman being bareheaded, and a picture occupying the inside. On asking the meaning of this, and also of all passers-by taking off their hats to it, I was told that it was a famous picture of the Virgin on its way to the bedside of some sick person whom, after a due remuneration to the priests, it was supposed to heal. In such request was it that a substitute for it had been executed, and this copy was sent to patients at a reduced rate on occasions when the real one was out on duty. August 22. Moscow is the centre of industry in the Russian empire. The city itself is built in concentric circles, of which the Kremlin is the inner one. Outside this again is the old city, enclosed by a wall, and outside that are the boulevards. The wall which surrounds the Kremlin contains some good specimens of Muscovite architecture. Within this rise the domes and cupolas of 462 RECORD OF RAMBLES. the churches, most of them covered with hammered plates of burnished brass, and all surmounted by crosses, which differ from those in the West in having a diagonal trans- verse piece near the foot of the shaft to represent the place of the feet. Of the Kremlin churches, that in which the Czar is crowned is the most famous. Its area is not large, but it is very lofty. The interiors of the domes and the rest of the roof, supported by massive pillars, were covered with rich illuminations, as were also the pillars themselves. The Iconostasis, or screen, which separates the Bema or apse from the rest of the church, was literally sheathed in silver-gilt, from which figures stood forth in relief Ranged round the walls were shrines, some of them of solid silver, and above these were sacred pictures, the face, hands, and feet of which alone were visible, the rest being hidden in a case of silver -gilt, raised in relief to represent the figure within. The face in each was en- circled by a golden glory. In a second church, which, like the first, contained some valuable pictures, and was sheathed in bright metal, there stood against the north and south walls two rows of coffins, over which red velvet covers had been thrown. These contained the remains of saints, exhibited on special occasions for the faithful to kiss. One picture, which was hung against the side of a pillar, appeared to be a favourite object of devotion. Numerous persons were ascending the steps in front of it in order to imprint a kiss on those portions of the figure, such as the hands and feet, which were not covered with silver, dropping at the same time a coin into a money-box close at hand. While we were in this church the service commenced. Incense was used freely. The priest, with his back to the people, was standing in front of the gilded doors of the screen, through the open work in which lights were dimly visible, and figures moving about within. The robe of the officiating priest ODESSA AND MOSCOW. 463 was of sky-blue silk, embroidered with silver crosses, and the sleeves were tight-fitting, like those of the Russian peasants. At one period of the service he crossed two similarly ornamented bands over his back, the congre- gation crossing themselves all the time. The singing was very beautiful, the choir standing on the Soleas, or raised step in front of the screen. On first entering one of these Kremlin churches, I was at once struck between the similarity which I saw there, both in ceremonial and in decoration, to what we had left behind in the Buddhist temples of the East. Round the walls, just as in Ceylon, were the square panels, each containing a picture of a disciple; while above them were portrayed the miracles and principal incidents in the life of the founder of the religion. At the sides of the church, just as in Japan, were the separate shrines of popular saints, where persons were touching the picture or the reliquary, and giving their donation at the same time ; then there were the beads, and the incense, and the sanctum sanctorum dimly seen through the open work of the screen ; then there were the stalls, at which candles were sold, just as in China, to be used as offerings at the shrine of some peculiarly favourite saint; and lastly, there were the pigeons feeding in the courtyards, preserved from harm as long as they dwelt in the holy precincts. As I looked on, I said to myself, "This is surely Buddhism sheathed in gilt." Whence is the likeness ? Is it to be looked for in the great fact of the unity of the East, and in the actual connection which has ever undoubtedly existed between the customs of Asia and those of Europe } is it to be looked for, that is, in the Eastern ingredients of Russian society ? Or is it, on the other hand, due to the instinct of religion, assuming from different starting-points the same outward form and garb > August 23. We walked to the Church of St. Basil, just outside the Kremlin, passing on the way several street 464 RECORD OF RAMBLES. shrines, dedicated to some saint, and at which the passers- by are supposed to cross themselves, and deposit a piece of money as an alms to the priest. The Church of St. Basil is a most original structure. Externally it looks like a cruet- stand, consisting as it does of a central steeple, surrounded by eight others, all of different shapes, heights, and sizes. The whole of these have been picked out with colours; red, green, and yellow predominating, and outside and in alike the walls are covered with pictures of flowers. A portico containing a flight of steps leads up to the shrines, of which there are nine, one in each of the octagonal spires. Each shrine is divided into two parts by an Iconostasis, covered with pictures, as usual sheathed in metal. The central and largest chamber is dedicated to the Trinity, which is represented by a painting of two figures seated on a hemisphere, with a dove between them. This singular church was built, so it is said, by John the Cruel, in the sixteenth century, over the relics, not of the great St. Basil, but of a fanatic of that name, whose tomb, containing his fetters, is beneath the building. In a courtyard in the Kremlin are two monstrous objects, which would not be worth mentioning, were it not for the proof they afford of the way in which the Russians have been in the habit of wasting their money. These are the "big bell" and the "big gun." The former is sixteen feet high, and its size and weight may be imagined from the fact that the piece which is broken out of the side, and which lies beside it on the ground, measured two feet in thickness. A second "big bell" is hung in a tower close by, and is sounded every Easter morning. A number of smaller bells are hung around; but the peculiarity of the bell- towers is, that the staircase occupies the centre of the structure, while the bells hang round outside it. From the terrace of the Kremlin the view of the city is very fine, extending as it does over a sea of domes and cupolas, ODESSA AND MOSCOW. 465 whose brazen plates, when we were there, were flashing back the evening sun. In the evening I dined with a Russian gentleman at the "Hermitage" restaurant — a favourite resort of the gourmands of Moscow. We had a short conversation on Russian things in general. Trade, he said, was just then very good. Germans and French have set on numerous manufactures with English capital, although by degrees the Russians themselves are getting jealous of foreign monopolies, and are taking their business into their own hands. In the eyes of Russians, England is a miraculous island — a sort of floating money-bag ; and although they affect to despise the English army, and aver that the navy, though infinitely superior to any other, would be of little value in turning the scale in the wars of the future, they admit that the Englishman's power of lasting, owing to the depth of his pocket, might in the end prevail. They are always balancing the probabilities of a future struggle with us, and delight to say, when we speak of our army, " Pardon me, sir, but your whole standing army in Europe is only equal to the garrison of the forts at Petersburg." There is one trait in the Russian character, which the candid even amongst themselves admit to be a serious fault ; — they are always volunteering to do some- thing for you, but never really dream of fulfilling their promise until hard pressed to do so. It is a striking fact, that in some districts the wolves are actually gaining on the population. They come into the villages near Moscow, and carry off" children while the parents are out working in the fields. They have actually been seen in the streets of Petersburg itself The Emperor keeps a special breed of dogs for hunting them ; but in spite of the rewards offered for their destruction, it is estimated that there are in all no less than seventy million wolves in Russia. Speaking of the customs of the village communities, which have since been so admirably 2 H 466 RECORD OF RAMBLES. described in Mr. Wallace's work on Russia, my friend told me of a curious religious custom in vogue amongst them on the day of the ripening of the first corn out of which their coarse brown bread is made. The villagers hold an outdoor service in their village. They bring out of their churches their "images" or icons; that is to say, pictures fixed like stiff banners on poles. These they place in a circle round the appointed spot, which is then held sacred, and a service held within it, the special object of their prayers being that there may be no more hail. August 25. I went the round of the Bazaars. The curiosity- shops contained some things of considerable interest. Amongst these I was shown an antique Russian dagger, the handle inlaid with silver, and intertwined with two serpents coiling round it. One ivory-hilted sword had a little dirk in the side, as is the case in Japan. The best thing perhaps was a case of sixteen Limoges enamels, representing subjects in the life of Christ There was also a fine collection of silver twisted torques, rings, armlets, and Mohammedan coins found in southern Russia, — evi- dences of an ancient commercial route between Scandi- navia and the East. All these articles, however, were priced far higher than they would have been had they been sold in London. At 8.30 p.m. we took the train for Petersburg, and were able to make ourselves very comfortable for the night on the inclined chairs of the carriages, which formed the best sleeping accommodation we had met with anywhere. The country we passed through was flat and wooded, and the line as straight as an arrow, so made by the Emperor's command. At twelve o'clock next day we arrived at our destination, where Mr. Hoffman met us at the station, and conducted us to the Hotel Demouth. PETERSBURG AND THE BALTIC. 467 CHAPTER XXVI. PETERSBURG AND THE BALTIC. In many respects the city of Petersburg reminded us of New York. The streets are broad, and the houses, especially the palaces of the nobles, are spacious and handsome. The winter palace of the Czar is on the Neva, and in front of it there is a handsome semicircular court- yard, with a column in the centre, and a magnificent triumphal arch surmounted by a chariot of bronze at the entrance. August 27. The new church of St. Isaac is by far the greatest ornament of the city. The cost of its erection, from first to last, has been fabulous ; and it is said of the late Emperor Nicholas that it annoyed him much to see money being expended in this way which would actually have sufficed, he said, to construct a railway from Odessa to Moscow. The cause of the expense has been the diffi- culty of getting a proper foundation for the building in the soft oozy ground which composes the delta or marsh on which the city is built. It has therefore been neces- sary to build out long buttresses of masonry under the houses of the surrounding square, and notwithstanding that this has been done, fears are still entertained for its safety. The red marble steps and pillars at the entrance are of immense proportions, and the dome is gilded exter- temally. All parts of the Empire have contributed to beautify the interior. Ten veneered malachite pillars, 2 H 2 468 RECORD OF RAMBLES. with illuminated pictures of saints between them, form the screen. On either side of the golden gates which lead into the Bema is a pillar of lapis lazuli, of the purest and most precious blue. Inside these gates, when they were opened, nothing appeared but a plain figure of the cross, and above it a painted window containing a figure of Christ — the only poor feature in a building otherwise perfectly splendid. When we entered, a festival to the Virgin was in course of celebration, and the crowd was con- sequently very great. Soldiers in uniform ; market-women, and beggars ; the high and the low, the rich and the poor, were all worshipping together ; some of them kneeling with their foreheads touching the ground, others devoutly kissing the hands and feet of pictures like those we had seen at Moscow. Near one large pillar at the west end, with some dozens of candles burning brightly round her, stood a beautiful young girl, dressed as if for a ball, in rose-coloured silk, with a sash round her waist, and lace lappets on her shoulders. Her head was bare — probably as a sign of her contrition, for I was assured that she was doing penance, urged thereto by the counsels of the priests. Indeed so callous had she become to any feeling of shame for her fault, whatever it may have been, that she rather seemed to court than to avoid the interested glances of the crowd that surrounded her. I was told that she had already stood there for some days, and that the time of her penance had still several days to run. Poor victim of priestcraft and superstition, she was to pass out again into the world with a sin, which might have been for charity's sake forgotten, and for which she deserved rather pity than rebuke, blazoned to the world, while her person was known to all who had visited the church. The music which accompanied the service was exquisitely soft and beautiful. The choir who occupied the Soleas, or dais in front of the screen, were all pro- PETERSBURG AND THE BALTIC. 469 fessional singers. They were dressed all alike, in dark blue, with golden sashes crossed upon their backs. Pre- sently a procession entered composed of priests with long white beards, one of them repeating the processional service, and bearing what I suppose were the Eucharistic elements in his hands under a silver shrine. His dress, like that of the other priests, seemed to be one mass of gold and silver braid. Incense was then copiously used ; a sweet-toned bell sounded in concert with the music ; the golden gates were opened, and the officiating priest passed in. In the decoration of the inside of the church a quantity of gold is used for the arches of the dome, but as a rule the pictures are painted on a sombre ground, gilding being only made use of as a framework to them. Among the luxuries of the Hotel Demouth was a fish- pond in the centre of the quadrangle, from which the sturgeon or sterlet is taken alive and cooked for the table. The caviare, as freshly extracted from the former, is a very different thing from what it appears when preserved and sent abroad. It is eaten warm from the fish, and consists of little dark globules of spawn floating about in a whitish milky base. The sterlet is, like the lamprey, a cartilaginous fish of great delicacy, and commanding a high price. Of these two dainties, which he served for dinner, the old French cook was specially proud. In the evening we sat out in the verandah that runs round the central court of the hotel, and soon found ourselves in very pleasant conversation with a party of Russian officers. It is quite clear that the restrictions placed upon talking politics and court scandals have only in- creased the delight of so doing. In this reign, to be sure, there is rather more toleration than in the last. Under the Emperor Nicholas politics was a verj' dangerous sub- ject indeed. Spies went about everywhere. The father, it was said, was not even sure of his son. At present, 470 RECORD OF RAMBLES. however, the only danger lies in speaking disrespectfully of the Imperial family ; and this appears to be incurred on all hands, and ad libitum, amongst German residents in particular. On all sides we heard of the Czar's great affection for his daughter, for whom he was about to build a palace opposite his own. Speaking of the Russian army, we were told that at present it numbers one million seven hundred thousand men ; but that, if the present regulation as to serving, which has been borrowed from the German system, be continued, in three years' time it would number not less than three millions. Meanwhile, in order to avoid military service, emigration on a considerable scale has been going on in Southern Russia among German settlers, and in Eastern Russia among some of those Asiatic tribes who have crossed the border into the Czar's dominions. One of the greatest difficulties Russia has to face is to be found in the fact that as yet she has no middle class out of whom to make officers of the army or masters of schools. To meet this, large numbers of Germans have been employed. To German influence is to be attributed those Socialist emeutes which, by the manner in which they are reported in foreign journals, would seem to be shaking the empire to its foundation, the truth being that they are merely the results of education, at a high pressure, being brought suddenly to bear upon a whole nation of previously ignorant and superstitious rustics, apt to jump to first principles with all the ardour which they once devoted to religion. A rising of this sort which took place while we were there was confined to a few beardless artisans, who rushed unarmed into the market-place of their native town, cried out for freedom, and were quietly sent off to spend the winter in Siberia. In connection with the emancipation of the serfs, which has been the great act of the present Emperor's reign, it is noticeable that the first step towards it was taken by his father PETERSBURG AND THE BALTIC. 47 1 Nicholas, when he forbade their owners to put them to death. Still, however, the barbarous system continued ; still the possession of the serfs passed with the land, and gamblers (gambling is a prevailing vice in Russia) played for them when all else was gone ; still the ownet could marry the daughters to whom he chose, and even assert his own prior claim to the girl's affections. For the uprooting of such a system as this; for thus lifting his unwieldy Empire out of the slough of barbarism, it is to the present Czar that the thanks of the world are due. To the nobles the blow has been a severe one ; how severe was proved to us by the complaints of such merchants and tradesmen as deal in the mere luxuries of life. August 28. Mr. Hoffman, whose kind attention to me enabled me to see Petersburg under the best auspices, took me this morning to the famous equestrian statue in bronze, in which the figure is represented as seated on a horse which is plunging forward from a rock. A Russian officer had told me a good tale of this statue at the expense of a couple of British naval officers. Having seen pictures of the statue, but not knowing where to find it, they wished to enquire their way. Their ignorance of the language, however, prevented them from doing so, until one of them hit on a happy plan. Squatting down on his haunches on the pavement, with his hands in the attitude of prancing, he made his brother - officer sit astride his back, brandishing the while his sword in the air. An amiable native, comprehending at once his meaning, promptly showed them the way. We next went to the " Hermitage," as the Museum and Picture Gallery adjoining the Winter Palace is called. There are a few fine originals ; but for the most part the paintings are copies of great masters. The Russian Gallery, however, was peculiarly characteristic. Like the nation itself, the pictures were, generally speaking, of 472 RECORD OF RAMBLES. immense size. There was a roughness, too, of manner about them which was characteristic of the barbarous dress which it is just now engaged in shaking off. Many, however, were vigorous and powerful, and their style augured well for future development. One part of the " Hermitage" was the Palace of Peter the Great, whose furniture and curiosities, and especially his ivories, in which he took special delight, are preserved in a long old- fashioned gallery with as much care and devotion as is bestowed on those of Washington at Philadelphia. He is said to have been nearly seven feet in height, and his stick, which was shown to us, seemed to warrant the statement. He must have been a sturdy old barbarian, and his carriage, like a throne set on wheels, reminded us forcibly of that well- worn vehicle on which the ancient classical heroes are so often depicted in sculpture. From the old palace we went to the new, and inspected the Czar's regalia and diamonds. The private Imperial chapel contains a collection of curious antiques, and ancient books belonging to the Greek Church, In a glass case, immediately in front of the gate in the Iconostasis is a picture of the Virgin set in diamonds, which a member of the royal family not long since incon- tinently carried off, when he was in want of ready money, but which he not only had to restore, but for the offence has been held in close keeping at Kiev ever since. With it in the same case was a bit of the true cross, and the hands of John the Baptist and Mary Magdalene, horribly black and parched, but retaining their skin. The apartments of the palace assigned to the Duke and Duchess of Edinburgh, in the corner of the building overlooking the river and the New Quay, are all that can be desired — the very picture of comfort, and exquisitely furnished. The principal re- ception-room is called the Malachite-room, and is fitted with pillars and vases veneered with that stone. It is the curious custom of the palace for the members of the Imperial PETERSBURG AND THE BALTIC. 473 family to have separate dining-rooms, to which they invite their friends to dinner independently of each other. Ele- gant lifts lined with crimson satin damask raise the guests from the dining-rooms below to the drawing-rooms above. Peter the Great's throne-room is square, and of no great size ; but some of the reception and ball rooms are of fine proportions, quite suited to the requirements of a court. In the Czar's private apartments, where he spends much of his time alone, are some valuable mosaics. Adjoining this part of the palace is the private Picture Gallery, containing representations of all the great battles in which Russian troops have been victorious. Catherine's battle-grounds and Napoleon's retreat are the favourite. subjects. One victory alone is claimed during the Crimean war. It is that of Balaclava ; which, though really a Russian victory, inas- much as it was a defeat for England, seldom strikes us in that light. As it is portrayed it is indeed a triumph of British courage. In the foreground is a Russian battery, with a gun loaded, and which an artilleryman is just in the act of discharging. Not twenty yards from the mouth of this gun is a heap of British horsemen lying tumbled to- gether, while a few survivors are still pressing forward, and one brave fellow, the central figure, with sword uplifted, is riding straight over the pile and on to the cannon's mouth. August 29. Taking a river steamer we dropped down the river to " Peterhoff," or the Summer Palace of the Czar, as it is called in contradistinction to the Winter Palace in the city. Mr. Voight's carriage met us at the landing-place, and a pair of splendid black Russian horses quickly carried us through the park and up to the curious little palace of Peter the Great, where the band was playing, and all seemed en fite. The simple little house in which this great man loved best to spend his time was all on one floor, and consisted of a central hall surrounded by Dutch paintings between panels of dark oak, a kitchen 474 RECORD OF RAMBLES. adjoining it where he cooked liis own food, his bedroom, and several Httle reception-rooms ; all as plain and rustic as they could possibly be, just like an old farm-house and nothing more. A corridor projected from the building on either side the entrance, thus making it a three-sided house. The left wing, called the Palace of Catherine, contained several good reception-rooms, and a quantity of very fine old Bow and Chelsea china, representing figures of Eastern potentates on horseback, and other like' subjects, made for the Turks and captured from them. The right wing was occupied by bath-rooms. The principal palace was a large building placed on high ground on the upper side of the park, from many places in which a glimpse could be caught of it through well-arranged vistas. In front of it are fountains placed in lines, and superior in height and beauty even to those at Versailles. We next drove round the back of the palace to a pretty little lake, with an island in it, called Olga's Island, after a princess said to have lived there. From here we drove to Mr. Voight's house, where we were invited to dine. It was situated close to the bank of the Neva, and full in view of Cronstadt, and the Finnish coast beyond. The island forts, of which Fort Constantine is the most conspicuous, are twenty miles below Petersburg, and form a formidable cordon around the river's mouth. They are much increased in strength since the Crimean war, and a famous Russian engineer has expressed his opinion, that had the British fleet attacked them at that time they would have fared badly. As it was all the damage our ships did was to throw a few shells on shore, which may have injured a house or two. At dinner we adopted the Germano-Russian fashion of touching glasses all round, and shaking hands with our host and hostess. We did not do what true Russians do, however — kiss the hand of the lady of the house after dinner, who in return kisses her guest's cheek. PETERSBURG AND THE BALTIC. 475 August 30. Next morning we went to the Museum of Anatomy and Natural History, an institution which is becoming more important in proportion to the growing interest in scientific research. Here it is that the skeleton mammoth is kept which Baron Maydell brought from Siberia in 1871, and on the feet of which the yellowish- brown hair (like flax), some two or three inches in length, is still preserved, which shows that the animal possessed a shaggy coat. August 31. A heavy discharge of artillery at 3.15 a.m. woke us to enquire the cause, which turned out to be simply a confinement in the Imperial family. A grandson had been born to the Czar ; and according to the Times of a few days later, a telegram had accordingly been despatched to Berlin, the place of his nativity, gazetting the young gentleman a general in the Russian army, and colonel of a crack regiment. The Berlin correspondent, we noticed, did not think it worth while to add that "circumstances over which he had no control prevented the youthful warrior- from taking the field at once." September i. Of the following week, which we spent in Petersburg, there is little to say, except that we spent it in enjoying the hospitality of our friends. One evening we spent at the house of Mr. Baird on th'e Neva, and another day was occupied in paying calls — a matter of no little difficulty, since the houses are without numbers. The only plan was to call a droshky, and upon about twenty of these little conveyances making a dash for the hotel door at once, and thereby locking their wheels in inextricable confusion, carefully selecting that man who could prove to the satisfaction of the manager of the hotel that he really knew where Mr. So-and-so lived. Added to the difficulty of the houses having no numbers, the servants themselves often do not know the surnames of their masters. Nomen- clature is precisely in the same state in Russia as it used to 476 RECORD OF RAMBLES. be in Wales, when a man was known simply as John ap Thomas. For instance, a gentleman called Paul, who had had a father called Alexis, would only be known by his servant as Alexowich, or at most as Paul Alexowich. One morning we employed in driving round "the islands," on one of which the old and original city of Peter the Great was built, and where his wooden church still remains. Others are occu- pied by summer residences of the nobles and rich merchants of Petersburg, and one belongs to the Czar himself, on which is a palace embowered in woods. To this island the citizens flock on summer evenings to see the sun set over Cronstadt. Another evening we devoted to the gardens, to hear the gipsies sing. There are many thousands of these people in Russia, who get their living by their musical powers. Their dresses were bright and pretty, and their voices melodious. On the afternoon of the 7th we got on board the tug which was to take us to the steamer Dagmar, in which we had taken our passage to Stockholm. On taking a retrospect of our short experience of Russia, two things struck us very forcibly. In the first place, as I have said before, the resemblance between it and America; that is, in its modern progressive and society phase. In the second, the resemblance between it and the Oriental nations, in its ancient or ethnological phase. In the extent of its country, for instance ; in the new growth of its civilization ; in the seeming eccentricities or exuberances of the social life in the cities ; in the hospitable and unaffected manners of its people; Russia came very close indeed to what we had seen in America. On the other hand, in a certain Tatar type of face often met with throughout the country ; in certain domestic customs and habits of every-day life; in the ceremonial of' its religion ; and in the blind submission to the sovereign power; it seemed to be formed in an Oriental mould. To the Oriental mode of thought observed in Russia, as much as to the tact of her individual statesmen. PETERSBURG AND THE BALTIC. 477 may be ascribed in general that difficulty in understanding her which more Western politicians so often feel. Turk and Russian alike derive, in virtue of their Eastern descent, a tardiness in determining on any definite line of action until they see their way thoroughly clear. Both alike prefer to wait, in order that before acting they may be fully acquainted with what others are about; and to this cause, in some measure, is due what seems to us to be their want of persistence in performing obligations. In dealing with a mind so slow and stolid as the Eastern mind, it is no wonder that the impulsive Kelt and the theorizing Teuton alike find themselves sometimes at fault. September 8. At noon we passed the narrow channel, guarded by forts, which opens into the harbour of the Finnish town of Helsingfors. The country about it re- minded us of Canada; the country houses were built of timber; and the creeks, which ran far up into the land, were richly wooded with pine. At the hotel (Societehus) we met the Count Alexandre von Stalkenberg, a young Russian gentleman, who, as usual, spoke English like a native, and whose yacht, the Lolo, was flying English colours. After spending the afternoon with him on board we returned to our steamer to find a great accession to the number of our fellow-passengers. Next morning {Sept. 9) -we were shaping our course rapidly through a chain of rocky islands, covered with Scotch firs, larch, spruce, and aspens. Such scenery — combining as it did that of the American lakes and of the inland sea in Japan — was a pleasant surprise, and the autunm tints and fine weather added to the charm. Many of these little islands are frequented by smugglers. The rocks of which they were formed were qilite smooth -backed, and grooved by ice action. After winding in and out through intricate channels, and passing several ruined forts on the more prominent islands, at five p.m. we found ourselves in a beautiful marine 478 RECORD OF RAMBLES. lake, and very cleverly backing water up the narrow channel which leads to the neat little town of Abo. On a tongue of land, as we neared it, stood what is now the town prison, but which was once the castle in which King Eric was confined. Two massive circular towers stood one on either side of a low arched gateway. The castle itself was a high oblong building, with a tower at each end. It was raised on an elevation, artificially formed by trenching down the natural rock. The church at Abo is said to be the oldest in the country. The interior is narrow and lofty, and some pillars which had survived a fire which once destroyed the building were of a very early Scandinavian type. September lo. We sailed at four in the morning, con- tinuing our course, as before, through a chain of islands, until we arrived at noon at Oland. Here we had just sufficient time to go on shore for a walk. Immense masses of granite, rounded and grooved, protruded themselves through the soil. The country was wooded with spruce firs, amongst the clearings in which were pretty rustic cottages, all built of timber on basements of stone. Just opposite the landing-place was a sort of sentry-box, con- taining a wooden figure of a preacher in gown and bands, and in which was a slit for money, and a reference to 2 Cor. ix. 7-9. Passing out into the Gulf of Bothnia, we had scarcely lost sight of the last of the islands on the shores of Finland, when we sighted the bare rocks which skirt the Swedish coast. We soon entered the arm of the gulf at the upper end of which lies Stockholm. Villa residences of the Swedish nobles appeared amongst the woodlands that covered the banks ; a large gaol-like- fortification stood out in the midst of the water ; and then Stockholm itself came in sight, with the palace on one side of the water, and the hotels and museum on the other. The simplicity and honesty of the Swedish people, and the reasonable prices of the necessaries of life, was in great contrast to the PETERSBURG AND THE BALTIC. 479 customs of the countries from which we had come. The two principal hotels — the Grand and the Rygsberg — belong to the same proprietor. At the former we slept, and at the latter we took our meals. In the evening we sat out in the public gardens, and enjoyed some really good music. September 11. The whole of this day I spent in the Museum ; an institution which does credit to the energy and perseverance of the Swedish antiquaries. The collec- tion of stone implements was extremely good, but what specially interested me was the proof that the finds of a later date afforded, of the very considerable traffic which had existed between these countries and Constantinople and the East, but into the precise date and details of which this is not the place to enter at large. Suffice it to say that in the dawn of the Middle Ages it formed an important con- nection between East and West, and is the key to those similarities in art which are observable, it may almost be said, all across the Continent from Scotland to China, and in the two most distant islands of Ireland and Japan. The houses in Stockholm are almost plain enough to be called absolutely ugly. They are only an improvement in stone upon the wooden houses they have replaced. None of the people seemed rich, yet none seemed poor ; all seemed contented, even to the women who were working as bricklayers on the tops of the houses. To judge by the bronze statues in Stockholm, art has not reached a high development. One equestrian figure was represented as riding without a hat ; another carried a drawn sword, but there was no scabbard into which to return it. The fol- lowing morning was Sunday, and I set out with the object of seeing something of the popular or national religion of Stockholm. I entered a church near the Palace, which, from the fact that it contained two gilded thrones, I take to have been the Chapel Royal. The whiteness of the walls ; the black marble slab behind the altar; the tombstones set 480 RECORD OF RAMBLES. against the walls, adorned with vases, broken pillars, or weeping cupids — ^what a contrast it all was to what I had just seen in the churches of the Kremlin; aye, and still more, what a contrast to the fervour of devotion we had seen in the sunny south ! Here I was once again sitting face to face with the black gown and bands familiar to our childhood, boxed in a high pew which I was permitted as a' favour to enter; and listening (though I could not understand the words) to the unmistakably Protestant tone of voice of the preacher. Hemming me in, so that escape was hopeless^ was a tight phalanx of prim and prudish females; the children were singing through their noses ; and finally the text of the sermon, which alone occupied twenty minutes, preluded a discourse of an hour's duration. Here was Church and State again, and no mistake. No life, no love, no warmth, no comfort — not even in the cramped pews ! Here was the religion of a cold and cloudy clime, of people who naturally must look for a sunless and smile- less heaven, from an earth which they may not love too well, and in which joyousness is held to partake of the nature of sin. From the church we walked down into the principal square, in which a large building bears the following inscription : " Palatium ordinis equestris. Consilio et sapientiA : claris majorum exemplis : animis et felicibus armis." That the latter words were pecu- liarly appropriate just then we had opportunities of ob- serving in the happy, good-natured faces of the young fellows who swaggered about in uniform in the hotels. Perhaps there is no country less likely to come under the influence of Mars than Sweden. Poverty is indeed the safe- guard of the country, but, although the palace itself wants painting, the poverty of Sweden does not mean want. The peasantry are well-to-do, and their neat picturesque dresses in the market-place add life and colour to the scene. September 13. We sailed at eight a.m. for Lubeck. PETERSBURG AND THE BALTIC. 48 1 Amongst the passengers was Mrs. Bloomfield Moore, an American lady from Philadelphia, and the authoress of a very pretty book of poems, who with her daughter and her son-in-law, the Baron de Bildt, were returning to America ; he being the Swedish representative at the Philadelphia Exhibition. Curiously enough Mrs. Moore had been one of our fellow-passengers on board the Cuba when we sailed for New York, an incident which well illustrates the saying that the world is not so large as we think it. Early in the morning of the next day {Sept. 14) we stopped for an hour at a port in a second isle of Oland, and in the evening sighted a Danish island. This voyage was a par- ticularly pleasant one, a good band playing on deck each, evening. September 15. At nine a.m. we found ourselves close to the long low yellow line which forms the southern, or German, boundary of the Baltic, and soon after our ship was midway between the reedy banks of the Lubeck canal. Over the low marshy flats, the spires of the town soon came in view, though the course was so devious that it was some time before we reached it. When we did so we found it a most curious place, and by the date of the" principal houses the sixteenth century must have seen the zenith of its prosperity. Two French gentlemen, whose acquaintance we had made on board the steamer, undertook to be our guides over it, and we set out accordingly in the first place for the Market Square, on one side of which was the old Town Hall. Under this was a cellar where the inhabitants go to drink the Rhine wine.. From this place we went to see a clock, on the top of which two figures struck bells to mark the hours, while two eyes, placed in a sun's disc in the centre, rolled backwards and forwards to mark the minutes. The church in which this clock was happened to be under repairs, and on looking in I was surprised to observe that, although a Protestant 2 I 482 RECORD OF RAMBLES. one, the large figure of Christ had not been removed from the rood-screen. The largest church in Lubeck is the Marien Church. It is built of brick, and has two spires. Gne of the antechapels contains a famous picture of the " Dance of Death." The ancient pillars in the nave have been defaced by the monuments and coats of arms of the old mayors of the city, some of which are surmounted by marble figures holding portraits of the deceased. They are exaggerations of the monuments in English churches of .the same period, and date from about 1640 to the beginning of the present century. Amongst them are several oil paintings of noted divines. In the afternoon we set out for Hamburg, and on our way to the station passed under the massive archway of an ancient city gate, built in the German style, and dated 1477. In two hours we reached Hamburg, whence, setting out at noon on the 17th we passed through Munster, and were in Koln at 9.30 p.m., crossing the Rhine by moonlight, and looking down on the beautiful cathedral by the river side. We continued our journey through Aix-la-Chapelle and Brussels to Calais, where we arrived at noon on Sept. 18. Taking the first boat, we were in London by 5.30 p.m., in time to dine in Grosvenor Gardens, having come to the conclusion that the world was round, and that as far as our experience went the human race was probably one. APPENDIX. 483 APPENDIX. ON THE JAPANESE GAME OF SHO-HO-YE, OR CHESS. Taken piincipaUy &Y)m Pkkry's American Execution to yapan. 1. The King (Oho-shio) moves and takes on one square in any direction. He cannot remain in check, so that the mate is the same as in our game. 2. The Gold General, or Councillor (Kin-shio), moves as the King, except that he cannot move diagonally backwards. 3. The Silver General, or Councillor (Gin-shio), moves as the King, except that he cannot move directly on either side ; that is, laterally, nor directly backwards. [Neither the King nor the Gold General can be reversed ; but the Gin-shio and all the other pieces can be. When they move to or from any square in the three first rows, the player can, if he likes, turn them over, and thereby they acquire different powers, and different names. Thus the Gin-shio reversed becomes a Gin-Nari-Kin, and has all the powers of the Kin-shio, and these alone.] 4. The Flying Horse (Kiema) moves like our "knight," except that he is strictly confined to two squares forward, and one laterally, and can never make more than four moves as a Kiema. When reversed he becomes a Kiema-Nari-Kin, with all the powers of the Kin-shio, and these only. 5. The Fragrant Chariot (Kioshia) moves directly forward any number of steps. He may be reversed on either of the first three rows of the adversary, and then becomes a Kioshia-Nari-Kin, with all the powers of the Kin-shio, and these only. 6. The Flying Chariot (Nisha) has the entire powers of our "castle," and when reversed he assumes the name of Rioho, or the Dragon, and acquires, in addition to his fortner powers, those also of the Oho-shio. 7. The Horn (Kaku, "that which goes crossways,") has the "entire powers of our bishop." When reversed he becomes Riome (the 484 RECORD OF RAMBLES. Dragoness), and acquires, in addition to his former moves), those also of the Oho-shio. 8. The Soldiers (Ho-hei) move forward one step only at a time, and may be reversed upon either of the first three rows of the adver- sary. When so reversed, they acquire all the powers of the Kin-shio. Besides the preceding moves and powers, any piece which has been taken may be replaced upon the board at the discretion of the captor, as follows ; viz., When it is his move, instead of moving one of his men, he can replace any one of the captured pieces upon any unoc- cupied square whatever, observing to keep that side up to which it was entitled originally; but it maybe reversed at any move thereafter,' if to or from any square in the before-mentioned three first rows of the adversary, and observing further, that he cannot replace a Ho (soldier) on any column upon which there is already one of his own ; i.e. he cannot double a Ho. It may be further stated that no piece can pass over the head of any other piece in its move, except the Kiema. PLYMOUTH W, BRENDON AND SON. GEORGE STREET. i< ■%' •■ ,^ ,^-' w J'' .-* 1.V '>•/■,' ^^-r'/v ■^V :: » '..:y;:>-/ / ', . iVi-- . ' ',' '^' .'-■ '*. ' '' 'J,