of some fault; if she was not
wearing it at school her teacher knew that her parents had kept it
back for a similar reason. The girls when they come to school have
often baby brothers or sisters tied on their backs. Otherwise the
girls would have to stay at home in order to look after them. I asked
a schoolmaster what happened when children were kept at home. He said
that when a child had been absent a week he called twice on the
parents in order to remonstrate. If there was no result he reported
the matter to the village authorities, who administered two warnings.
Failing the return of the truant a report was made by the village
authorities to the county authorities. They summoned the father to
appear before them. This meant loss of time and the cost of the
journey. Should the parent choose to continue defiant he was fined 5
to 10 yen for disobedience to authority and up to 30 yen for not
sending his child to school.

I found that a local philanthropic association had provided the
speaker's school with a supply of large oil-paper-covered umbrellas so
that children who had come unprovided could go home on a rainy day
without a parent, elder brother or sister having to leave work to
bring an umbrella to school.

In the playground of this school there was a low platform before which
the children assembled every morning. The headmaster, standing on the
platform, gravely saluted the children and the children as gravely
responded. The scholars also bowed in the direction of Tokyo, in the
centre of which is the Emperor's palace. An inscription hanging in the
school was, "Exert yourself to kill harmful insects." In another
school there was a portrait of a former teacher who had covered the
walls of the school with water-colours of local scenery. I noticed in
the playground of a third school a flower-covered cairn and an
inscribed slab to the memory of a deceased master. Every school
possesses equipment taken from the enemy during the Russo-Japanese
war, usually a shell, a rifle and bayonet and an entrenching spade.

In this prefecture I heard of young men's associations' efforts to
discourage "cheek binding," which is the wearing of the head towel in
such a way as to disguise the face and so enable the cheek binder to
do, if he be so minded, things he might not do if he were
recognisable.

One day I made my headquarters in a town that had just been rebuilt
after a fire. Within four hours the blaze aided by a strong wind h