u with small cups of tea and cake, to say nothing of
the peppermint candies offered for a few pennies with a low bow and
bewitching smile. Cushions to rest upon--with invisible occupants
(fleas), who insist upon accompanying you during the journey,
notwithstanding your efforts to shake them off. If a bright day is
vouchsafed the traveler the view from the summit is glorious, the tea
house commodious; fishing with nets adroitly thrown brings in an
abundant supply for the table. Our curiosity led us into an apartment
where the noon meal was being prepared by a wife for her liege lord. The
cooking was done over a few coals in a brass brazier filled with ashes.
A steel skewer placed upright in the ashes on which was suspended a
fish, overhanging the coals, which by frequent turnings was most
effectually dried and apparently made a savory dish. An omelet most
tempting and a bowl of rice was then placed upon a low table before
which the husband sat upon his haunches and ate most leisurely, while
the wife retired into a corner endeavoring to satisfy a hungry infant.
The great question of the Orient is: Will the day ever come when an
equality of sex will be acknowledged? We put the question to our
well-educated guide, who shook his head and replied, "In America women
rule, but in Japan the master is man." A missionary told me that they
endeavored early to marry the converted man to the Christian woman and
to insist that they should sit together at their meals, but it was a
hard lesson and seldom adopted.

The temples of Niko surpass all others that we saw in Japan. Broad
avenues, well shaded, lead up to the hills upon which they were built.
In 1617 Hidetada, the second Shogun, removed the body of his father to
this spot. He was deified by an order of the Mikado, under a name
signifying "The Light of the East," the great incarnation of Buddha. His
grandson finished the temple erected in memory of his grandfather and
was himself enshrined there. The five-story pagoda, 105 feet high, lends
interest to this spot. The decorations of these temples are of carved
wood in panels, painted in gorgeous coloring. Much of this carving is
the handiwork of the celebrated "Hidare Jingoro," other work that of
"Tunza." The group of three monkeys, blind, deaf and dumb, and the
"sleeping cat," all have religious signification. The floors of these
temples are covered with padded matting; in consequence, no one is
allowed to enter without removing hi