is gripped
quite close to the bull's head. The result of this measure of control
is, it was averred, that a contest resolves itself into a struggle to
decide not which bull can fight better but which animal can push
harder with his head. That the bulls are occasionally injured there
can be no doubt. The contests are said to last from fifteen to twenty
minutes and are decided by one of the combatants turning tail. There
is a good deal of gambling on the issue. In another prefecture of
Shikoku the rustics enjoy struggles between muzzled dogs. A taste for
this sport is also cultivated in Akita. A certain amount of dog and
cock fighting goes on in Tokyo.

At an inn there was an evident desire to do us honour by providing a
special dinner. One bowl contained transparent fish soup. Lying at the
bottom was a glassy eye staring up balefully at me. (The head,
especially the eye, of a fish is reckoned the daintiest morsel.) There
was a relish consisting of grapes in mustard. A third dish presented
an entire squid. I passed honourable dishes numbers two and three and
drank the fish soup through clenched teeth and with averted gaze.

I interrogated several chief constables on the absence of assaults on
women from the lists of crimes in the rural statistics I had
collected. Various explanations were offered to me: if there were
cases of assault they were kept secret for the credit of the woman's
family; no prosecution could be instituted except at the instance of
the woman, or, if married, the woman's husband; women did not go out
much alone; the number of cases was not in fact as large as might be
imagined, because the people were well behaved. An official who had
had police experience in the north of Japan declared that the south
was more "moral and more civilised and had higher tastes." In Ehime,
for example, there was very little illegitimacy and fewer children
still-born than in any other prefecture. Nevertheless four offences
against women had occurred in villages in Ehime within the preceding
twelve months.

One of the most interesting stories of rural regeneration I heard was
told me by a blind man who had become headman of his village at the
time of the war with Russia. His life had been indecorous and he had
gradually lost his sight, and he took the headmanship with the wish to
make some atonement for his careless years. This is his story:

"Although I thought it important to advance the economic condition of
the vil