yal presents, to include a
certain quantity of rice, although he did not say whether the quantity
always amounted, as on the present occasion, to hundreds of sacks.

While contemplating these substantial evidences of Japanese generosity,
the attention of all was suddenly riveted upon twenty-five monstrous
fellows who tramped down the beach like so many huge elephants. They
were professional wrestlers and formed part of the retinue of the
princes, who kept them for their private amusement and for public
entertainment. They were enormously tall, and tremendously heavy. Their
scant costume, which was merely a colored cloth about the loins, adorned
with fringes and emblazoned with the armorial bearings of the prince to
whom each belonged, revealed their gigantic proportions in all the
bloated fulness of fat and extent of muscle.

Two or three of these huge monsters were the most famous wrestlers in
Japan and ranked as the champion Tom Cribbs and Sayers of the country.
Koyanagi, the reputed bully of the capital, was one of them, and paraded
himself with the conscious pride of superior size and strength. He was
especially brought to the Commodore that he might examine his massive
form. The commissioners insisted that the monstrous fellow should be
minutely inspected, that the hardness of his well-rounded muscle should
be felt, and that the fatness of his cushioned frame should be tested by
the touch. The Commodore accordingly attempted to grasp his arm, which
he found as solid as it was huge, and then passed his hand over the
monstrous neck, which fell in folds of massive flesh, like the dewlap of
a prize ox. As some surprise was naturally expressed at this wondrous
exhibition of animal development the monster himself gave a grunt
expressive of his flattered vanity.

They were so enormously big that they appeared to have lost their
distinctive features, and seemed to be only twenty-five masses of fat.
Their eyes were barely visible through a long perspective of socket, the
prominence of their noses was lost in the puffiness of their bloated
cheeks, and their heads were set almost directly on their bodies with
merely folds of flesh where the neck and chin are usually found. Their
great size, however, was more owing to development of muscle than to
deposition of fat; for, although they were evidently well fed, they were
not less well exercised, and capable of great feats of strength.

As a preliminary exhibition of the power