ON THE ROAD TO FUSIYAMA.
The morning after their return from Enoshima was mostly spent at the
hotel, as all three of the excursionists were somewhat fatigued with
their journey. The boys embraced the opportunity to ask the Doctor the
meaning of certain things they had observed in Japan, and which had not
been brought up in conversation.
"For one thing," said Frank, "why is it that so many of the people, the
coolies especially, have large scars on their skins, as if they had been
burned. There is hardly a coolie I have seen that is without them, and
one of the men that drew my jin-riki-sha to Enoshima had his legs
covered with scars, and also a fresh sore on each leg."
"Those scars," the Doctor answered, "are from the moxa, which is used to
some extent in medical practice in Europe and America. Don't you
remember that when your uncle Charles had a disease of the spine the
doctors applied a hot iron to his back, along each side of the
backbone?"
"Certainly, I remember that," Frank replied; "and it cured him, too."
"Well, that was the moxa. It is not very often used in our country, nor
in Europe, but it is very common in Japan."
"I should think it would be a very painful remedy," Fred remarked, "and
that a man would be quite unwilling to have it applied."
"That is the case," answered the Doctor, "with us, but it is not so
here. The Japanese take the moxa as calmly as we would swallow a pill,
and with far less opposition than some of us make to a common blister.
"They take the moxa for nearly everything, real or imaginary. Sometimes
they have the advice of a doctor, but oftener they go to a priest, who
makes a mark on them where the burn is to be applied; then they go to a
man who sells the burning material, and he puts it on as a druggist with
us would fill up a prescription."
"What do they use for the burning?"
"They have a little cone the size of the intended blister. It is made
of the pith of a certain tree, and burns exactly like the punk with
which all boys in the country are familiar. It is placed over the spot
to be cauterized, and is then lighted from a red-hot coal. It burns
slowly and steadily down, and in a few minutes the patient begins to
squirm, and perhaps wish he had tried some milder mode of cure.
Sometimes he has half a dozen of these things burning at once, and I
have seen them fully an inch in diameter.
"Nearly every native has himself cauterized as often as once a year by
way of precaution; and if he does not feel well some morning, he is very
likely to go to the temple and have an application of the moxa. It is
even applied to very young children. I have seen an infant not a month
old lying across its mother's knee while another woman was amusing
herself by burning a couple of these pith cones on the abdomen of the
child. He objected to the operation by screaming and kicking with all
his might, but it was of no use. The moxa was considered good for him,
and he was obliged to submit."
"Another thing," said Fred--"why is it that the grooms are covered with
tattoo-marks, and wear so little clothing?"
"I cannot say exactly why it is," the Doctor replied, "further than that
such is the custom. If you ask a Japanese for the reason, he will answer
that it is the old custom, and I can hardly say more than he would.
[Illustration: BETTOS, OR GROOMS, IN FULL DRESS.]
"But the grooms, or 'bettos,' as the Japanese call them, are not the
only ones who indulge in tattooing. You will see many of the 'sendos,'
or boat-coolies, thus marked, but in a less degree than the bettos.
Perhaps it is because the grooms are obliged to run so much, and
consequently wish to lay aside all garments. As they must wear
something, they have their skins decorated in this way, and thus have a
suit of clothing always about them.
"And, speaking of these grooms, it is astonishing at what a pace they
can run, and how long they will keep it up. You may go out with your
carriage or on horseback, and, no matter how rapidly you go, the groom
will be always at your side, and ready to take the bridle of your horse
the moment you halt. They are powerful fellows, but their reputation for
honesty is not first-class."
Conversation ran on various topics for an hour or more, and then Doctor
Bronson announced that he would go out for a while, and hoped to give
them some interesting information on his return. The boys busied
themselves with their journals, and in this way a couple of hours
slipped along without their suspecting how rapidly the time was flying.
They were still occupied when the Doctor returned.
"Well, my boys," he said, "you must be ready for another journey
to-morrow. And it will be much longer and more fatiguing than the one we
have just made."
"Where are we going, please?" said Frank.
"I have arranged to go to Hakone and Fusiyama," the Doctor replied; "and
if we get favorable weather, and are not too tired when we arrive, we
will go to the summit of the mountain."
Frank and Fred clapped their hands with delight, and thought of nothing
else for some minutes than the journey to Fusiyama. It was an excursion
they had wanted very much to make, and which very few visitors to Japan
think of attempting. And now Doctor Bronson had arranged it for them,
and they were to be off the next morning. Could anything be more
fortunate?
The arrangement for the journey was somewhat more serious than the one
for Enoshima. It would take several days, and for a considerable part of
the way the accommodations were entirely Japanese. This might do for a
trip of a day or two where no unusual fatigue was to be expected; but in
a tour of considerable length, where there was likely to be much hard
work, and consequently much exhaustion, it was necessary to make the
most complete preparations. The Doctor foresaw this, and arranged his
plans accordingly.
A Japanese who had been with parties to the holy mountain, and
understood the ways and wants of the foreigners, had made a contract to
accompany our friends to Fusiyama. He was to supply them with the
necessary means of conveyance, servants, provisions, and whatever else
they wanted. The contract was carefully drawn, and it was agreed that
any points in dispute should be decided by a gentleman in Yokohama on
their return.
They were off at an early hour, and, as before, their route was along
the Tokaido. The provisions and other things had been sent on ahead
during the night, and they did not see them until they came to the place
where they were to sleep. They took a light meal before starting from
Yokohama, and found a substantial breakfast waiting for them at
Totsooka. Their host was a famous character in the East--an English
actor who had drifted through China and Japan, and finally settled down
here as a hotel-keeper.
"I met George Pauncefort in China years ago," said the Doctor, as they
entered the hotel; "I wonder if he will recognize me."
George greeted the travellers with all the dignity of an emperor
saluting an embassy from a brother emperor, and wished them welcome to
his roof and all beneath it. Then he straightened up to the very highest
line of erectness, and rested his gaze upon Doctor Bronson.
For fully a minute he stood without moving a muscle, and then struck an
attitude of astonishment.
"Can it be? Yes! No! Impossible!" he exclaimed. "Do my eyes deceive me?
No, they do not; it is; it must be he! it must! it must!"
Then he shook hands with the Doctor, struck another attitude of
astonishment, and with the same Macbethian air turned to a servant and
told him to put the steaks and the chicken on the table.
It is said by the residents of Yokohama, with whom the hotel at Totsooka
is a favorite resort, that George Pauncefort stirs an omelette as though
he were playing Hamlet, and his conception of Sir Peter Teazle is
manifested when he prepares a glass of stimulating fluid for a thirsty
patron.
[Illustration: A JAPANESE LOOM.]
Various industrial processes were visible as our party rode along. Some
women were weaving cotton at a native loom, and they halted the
jin-riki-shas a few moments to look at the process. The loom was a very
primitive affair, and the operator sat on the floor in front of it. A
man who appeared to be the chief of the establishment was calmly smoking
a pipe close by, and on the other side of the weaver a woman was winding
some cotton thread on a spool by means of a simple reel. After looking a
few moments at the loom, and the mode of weaving in Japan, the party
moved on. The boys had learned to say "Sayonara" on bidding farewell to
the Japanese, and they pronounced it on this occasion in the most
approved style. The Japanese salutation on meeting is "Ohio," and it is
pronounced exactly like the name of our Western state of which Columbus
is the capital. Everywhere the Japanese greet you with "Ohio," and a
stranger does not need to be long in the country to know how exceedingly
polite are the people we were accustomed only a few years ago to
consider as barbarians.
There is a story current in Japan of a gentleman from Cincinnati who
arrived one evening in Yokohama, and the following morning went into the
country for a stroll. Everywhere the men, women, and children greeted
him with the customary salutation, "Ohio, ohio," and the word rang in
his ears till he returned to his hotel.
He immediately sought the landlord and said, "I wish to ask if there is
anything in my personal appearance that indicates what part of the
States I am from."
The landlord assured him that there was no peculiarity of his costume
that he could point out as any such indication.
"And yet," answered the stranger, "all the Japanese have discovered it.
They knew me at a glance as a native of Ohio, as every one of them
invariably said 'Ohio' when I met them. And I must give them the credit
to say that they always did it very politely."
He was somewhat astonished, and also a trifle disappointed, when he
learned the exact state of affairs.
[Illustration: ARTISTS AT WORK.]
They passed a house where some artists were at work with the tools of
their trade on the floor before them, forming a neat and curious
collection. There were little saucers filled with paints of various
colors, and the ever-present teapot with its refreshing contents. There
were three persons in the group, and they kept steadily at their
occupation without regarding the visitors who were looking at them. They
were engaged upon pictures on thin paper, intended for the ornamentation
of boxes for packing small articles of merchandise. Larger pictures are
placed on an easel, as with us, but the small ones are invariably held
in the hand.
[Illustration: COOPERS HOOPING A VAT.]
In front of a house by the roadside some coopers were hooping a vat, and
Frank instantly recognized the fidelity of a picture he had seen by a
native artist showing how the Japanese coopers performed their work.
They make excellent articles in their line, and sell them for an
astonishingly low price, when we compare them with similar things from
an American maker. The fidelity of the work is to be commended, and the
pails and tubs from their hands will last a long time without the least
necessity of repairs.
Near the end of the first day's journey the party stopped at a Japanese
inn that had been previously selected by their conductor, and there they
found their baggage, and, what was quite as welcome, a substantial
dinner from the hands of the cook that had been sent on ahead of them.
They had sharp appetites, and the dinner was very much to their liking.
It was more foreign than Japanese, as it consisted largely of articles
from America; but there was a liberal supply of boiled rice, and the
savory stew of fish was not wanting.
The boys were rather surprised when they sat down to a dinner at which
stewed oysters, green corn, and other things with which they were
familiar at home were smoking before them; and Fred remarked that the
Japanese cooking was not so unlike that of America, after all. Doctor
Bronson smiled and said the cooking was done in America, and all that
the Japanese cook had to do with the articles was to warm them up after
opening the cans.
"And so these things come here in cans, do they?" Frank inquired.
"Certainly," the Doctor responded, "these things come here in cans, and
a great many other things as well. They serve to make life endurable to
an American in a distant land like Japan, and they also serve to keep
him patriotic by constantly reminding him of home.
"No one," he continued, "who has not been in foreign lands, or has no
direct connection with the business of canning our fruits, meats, and
vegetables, can have an idea of the extent of our trade in these things.
The invention of the process of preserving in a fresh state these
products which are ordinarily considered perishable has enabled us to
sell of our abundance, and supply the whole world with what the whole
world could not otherwise obtain. You may sit down to a dinner in Tokio
or Cairo, Calcutta or Melbourne, Singapore or Rome, and the entire meal
may consist of canned fish, canned meats, canned fruits, or canned
vegetables from the United States. A year or two ago the American consul
at Bangkok, Siam, gave a Christmas dinner at which everything on the
table was of home production, and a very substantial dinner it was."
"I wonder what they had for dinner that day," said Fred, with a laugh.
"As near as I can remember," the Doctor replied, "they began with oyster
and clam soup. Then they had boiled codfish and fresh salmon, and, as if
there were not fish enough, they had stewed eels. For meats they had
turkey, chicken, ham, a goose that had been put up whole, stewed beef,
roast beef, tongue, sausages, prairie chickens, ducks, and a few other
things; and as for vegetables and fruits, you can hardly name any
product of our gardens and orchards that they did not have before them.
For drinks they had American wines, American beer, American cider, and,
besides, they had honey just out of the comb that astonished everybody
with its freshness. All who were present pronounced the dinner as good
as any they had ever eaten, and it made them feel very patriotic to
think that everything came from home.
"You can hardly go anywhere in the world where there is an approach to
civilization without finding our canned goods, as the merchants call
them. They are widely known and appreciated, and well deserve the
reputation they bear."
This conversation went on while the party were engaged in the
consumption of the dinner, and the presence of many of the things named
gave it an additional point. When they were through dinner, they took a
short period of lounging on the veranda, and soon retired to rest. We
can be sure they slept well, for they had had a long and weary ride.
They were off again early in the morning, and in a little while came to
the banks of a river which they were to cross. Frank looked for a
bridge, and saw none; then he looked for a ferry-boat, but none was
visible.
"Well," he said, half to himself, "I wonder how we are to get over to
the other bank."
"There are the boatmen, but no boats," said Fred, as he pointed to some
stalwart men who were sitting on the bank, and evidently waiting for
something to turn up.
[Illustration: CROSSING THE RIVER.]
The mystery was soon solved. The river was neither wide nor deep, and
the men they saw waiting by the bank were porters who carried people
across, and also carried merchandise. The stream was said to rise very
rapidly, and owing to the nature of the bottom it was difficult to
maintain a bridge there for any length of time. The porters took the
party across very speedily; they carried the servants by what the boys
called "pick-a-back," while Doctor Bronson and the boys were borne on
chairs resting on poles, with six men to each chair. Some horses
belonging to another party were led through the river at the same time,
and evidently were not pleased with the bath they were receiving.
Frank wondered if accidents did not happen sometimes, and asked their
conductor about it. The latter told him that the Japanese law protected
the traveller by requiring the head of the porter in case a person
should be drowned in his charge. He said the law allowed no excuse,
and the porter must pay with his life for any accident.
Frank thought it would be a good thing to have the same system in the
management of railways in America; but then he remembered that Miss
Effie's uncle, who lived in New York, was a director in a railway, and
perhaps it would be just as well to say nothing about his new discovery.
It might bring trouble into the family and lead to unpleasant remarks.
Since the party made their excursion to Fusiyama a bridge has been built
over the river, and the occupation of the porters is gone. Some of them
cling to the hope that the river will one day rise in its might, and
protest against this invasion of its rights by sweeping away the
structure that spans it, thus compelling travellers to return to the
methods of the olden time.
From the river they proceeded to Odiwara, where they had a rest of
several hours, as the town contained certain things that they wished to
see. They found that foreigners were not very numerous at Odiwara, and
there was considerable curiosity to see them. Whenever they halted in
front of a shop, or to look at anything, of interest, a crowd was
speedily collected; and the longer they stood, the greater it became.
But there was no impertinence, and not the least insult was offered to
them; there was a manifestation of good-natured curiosity, and nothing
more. Men, women, and children were equally respectful; and whenever
they pressed too closely it was only necessary for the guide to say that
the strangers were being inconvenienced, when the crowd immediately fell
back. Every day and hour of their stay in Japan confirmed our friends
more and more in the belief that there are no more polite people in the
world than the Japanese.
[Illustration: MOTHER AND SON.]
Fred tried to open a conversation with a boy who was evidently out for a
walk with his mother. The little fellow was somewhat shy at first, but
very soon he became entirely confident that the stranger would not harm
him, and he did his best to talk. They did not succeed very well in
their interchange of ideas, as neither could speak the language of the
other, and so they attempted an exchange of presents. Fred gave the
young native an American lead-pencil that opened and closed with a
screw, and received in return the fan which the youth carried in his
hand. Both appeared well pleased with the transaction, and after several
bows and "sayonaras" they separated.
[Illustration: A FISHING PARTY.]
Frank had several fish-hooks in his pockets, and was determined not to
be behind Fred in making a trade. His eye rested on a family group that
was evidently returning from a fishing excursion; the man was carrying
some fishing-tackle and a small bag, while the woman bore a basket of
fish on her head and held a child to her breast. A boy six or eight
years old was dragging a live tortoise by a string, and it occurred to
Frank to free the tortoise from captivity.
So he produced one of his fish-hooks, and intimated that he would give
it for the captive. There was a brief conversation between father and
son, which resulted in the desired exchange. Frank handed the tortoise
over to the guide, with instructions to set it free at a favorable time
and place. The latter complied by delivering the prize to the cook as an
agreeable addition to the bill of fare for the next meal. So the freedom
of the tortoise was not exactly the kind that his liberator had
intended.
But there was an unforeseen result to this transaction, for it was soon
noised about among the small boys that the foreigners were giving
fish-hooks for tortoises; and as there was a good supply of the latter,
and not a good one of the former, there was a public anxiety to benefit
by the newly opened commerce. In less than half an hour there was a
movement in the market that assumed serious importance, and Frank found
himself in the character of a merchant in a foreign land. He became the
owner of nearly a dozen of the kindred of his first purchase, and would
have kept on longer had not his stock-in-trade given out. The guide took
the purchases in charge, and they followed the fate of the pioneer in
the business in finding their way to the cooking-pot. When the traffic
was ended, and the Japanese urchins found that the market was closed,
they pronounced their "sayonaras" and withdrew as quietly as they had
come.
From Odiwara the roads were worse than they had found them thus far.
They had come by jin-riki-shas from Yokohama, and had had no trouble;
but from this place onward they were told that the roads were not
everywhere practicable for wheeled carriages. The Japanese are improving
their roads every year, and therefore a description for one season does
not exactly indicate the character of another. Anybody who reads this
story and then goes to Japan may find good routes where formerly there
were only impassable gorges, and hotels and comfortable lodging-houses
where, only a year before, there was nothing of the kind. In no country
in the world at the present time, with the possible exception of the
Western States of North America, are the changes so rapid as in the land
of the Mikado. Wheeled carriages were practically unknown before
Commodore Perry landed on Japanese soil, and the railway was an
innovation undreamed of in the Japanese philosophy. Now wheeled vehicles
are common, and the railway is a popular institution, that bids fair to
extend its benefits in many directions. Progress, progress, progress, is
the motto of the Japan of to-day.
Besides the natural desire to see Odiwara, the party had another reason
for their delay, which was to give the conductor time to engage cangos
for their transport in such localities as would not admit of the
jin-riki-sha. We will see by-and-by what the cango is.
[Illustration: THE MAN THEY MET.]
The boys had been much amused at the appearance of a Japanese they met
on the road just before reaching Odiwara, and wondered if they would be
obliged to adopt that mode of riding before they finished their journey.
The man in question was seated on a horse, not in the way in which we
are accustomed to sit, but literally on the back of the animal. His
baggage was fastened around him behind and on each side, and he was
rather uncomfortably crouched (at least, so it seemed to Fred) on a flat
pad like the one used by a circus-rider. A servant led the horse, and
the pace was a walking one. Altogether, the appearance of the man was
decidedly ludicrous, and the boys were somewhat surprised to learn that
this was the ordinary way of travelling on horseback in the olden time.
Before the arrival of foreigners in Japan it was not the fashion for a
traveller to be in a hurry, and, even at the present time, it is not
always easy to make a native understand the value of a day or an hour. A
man setting out on a journey did not concern himself about the time he
would consume on the road; if the weather was unfavorable, he was
perfectly willing to rest for an indefinite period, and it mattered
little if he occupied three weeks in making a journey that could be
covered in one. In matters of business the Japanese have not yet learned
the importance of time, and the foreign merchants complain greatly of
the native dilatoriness. A Japanese will make a contract to deliver
goods at a certain date; on the day appointed, or perhaps a week or two
later, he will inform the other party to the agreement that he will not
be ready for a month or two, and he is quite unable to comprehend the
indignation of the disappointed merchant. He demurely says, "I can't
have the goods ready," and does not realize that he has given any cause
for anger. Time is of no consequence to him, and he cannot understand
that anybody else should have any regard for it. The Japanese are every
year becoming more and more familiarized with the foreign ways of
business, and will doubtless learn, after a while, the advantages of
punctuality.