The wire has first to be cut
the desired length, then filed to a point at one end and the other
flattened ready for the eye to be drilled, and finally the whole has to
be filed up and smoothed off, and all by one man. The Japanese are but
indifferent sewers, all their seams exhibiting numerous "holidays."
Pretty children, with their hair clipped around their heads like a
priest's tonsure, sport around us, but are not intrusive. Each child has
a little pouch attached to his girdle, which, we are informed, contains
the address of the child's parents, and also an invocation to the little
one's protecting god, in case of his straying from home. We meet with
cheerful looks and pleasant greetings everywhere. The gentle and musical
"_o-hi-o_," "_good day_," with its softly accented second syllable, and
as we pass the earnest "_sayonara_," the "_au revoir_" of the French,
tell us very plainly we are no unwelcome visitors, whilst their bows are
the most graceful, because natural, and therefore unaffected, actions it
is possible to conceive.

We notice, too, that numbers of the males are in full European costume,
which generally hangs about them in a most awkward manner, reminding
one of a broom-handle dressed in a frock coat. Others, again, don't
discard the national dress altogether, but compromise matters by
putting on, in addition to their long gown, a European hat and shoes,
which, if anything, looks worse still. The ladies have not yet adopted
the European style which, perhaps, they have sense enough to see, is
far more complex and inconvenient than their own. Of this much I am
certain that no mysterious production of Worth would be more becoming,
or suit them better than their own graceful, national dress.

At our imperative "_chop_, _chop_," jack's sole stock-in-trade of that
intellectual puzzle, the Chinese language, and which he finds equally
serviceable this side the water, our Jehus start off like an arrow shot
from a bow. What endurance these men possess, and what limbs!

After a pleasant half-an-hour's ride, a sudden jolt indicates we are at
our destination.

We alight at the base of a flight of broad stone stairs leading to the
temple, and which we can just discern at a considerable altitude above
us, peeping out of the dark shadow of a grove of firs. Arches of a
curious and simple design, under which it is necessary to pass, are the
distinguishing features of a kami or sintoo temple, and perhaps of Japan
itsel