erest to the traveler, gaining its business as the sea-port for the
imperial city of Osaka, with which it is connected by the river Yedo.
After looking about us here for a day, visiting some lofty and pretty
falls in the neighborhood, and some curious Buddhist shrines in a grove
back of the town, the cars were taken for Kioto, sixty miles inland,
where we arrived in the afternoon and found a good native public house,
the Masuyama Hotel, situated on a hill-side completely overlooking the
town. Here we had beds, wash-stands, chairs, and the ordinary comforts
of civilization. Kioto has a population of over three hundred thousand,
and, as we were told, once numbered two million of inhabitants, which
one can easily credit, since it was in the past the political capital of
the country and sole residence of the emperors; but now the Mikado lives
permanently at Tokio.

Kioto is called the City of Temples, and we certainly visited so many
that only a confused memory of them in the aggregate is retained. They
were by no means equal in grandeur, ornamentation, architecture, or age
to those of Nikko, Kamakura, or Tokio. More religious pretentiousness
was obvious here,--more people were congregated before the images,
engaged in acts of devotion. It might be added, if there was any
chastening influence in the ceremonies, they were more needed at Kioto
than at any other place, perhaps, in the whole country, judging from
only too obvious circumstances. The Japanese character presents as much
unlikeness to the Oriental as to the European type, and is comparable
only to itself. In nothing is this more apparent than in the fact that a
people who are so intelligent, who can reason calmly and cogently on
nearly any other subject, should be so obtuse in religious matters. A
Japanese believes the little caricature in ivory or wood, which has
perhaps been manufactured under his own eye, or even by his own hands,
is sacred, and will address his prayers to it with a solemn conviction
of its powers to respond. Than this idolatry cannot further go. His most
revered gods are effigies of renowned warriors and successful generals.
African fetich is no blinder than such baseless adoration performed by
an intelligent people. Some of the indigenous animals, such as foxes,
badgers, and snakes, are protected with superstitious reverence, if not
absolutely worshiped. At Tokio we saw ponies that were held sacred,
dedicated in some way to the use of the churc