ss, who,
in passing the public execution place at Yeddo, noticed a head on the
ground, which he supposed to have been recently struck off. He had
turned away with a shudder, when a laugh from the bystanders caused
him to look again, when, to his great astonishment, the head was
vigorously puffing at a pipe which the facetious executioner had a few
moments before been smoking himself.

The last illustration shows a man and woman undergoing public exposure
for adultery--a crime which is rare in Japan and which is punished
with great severity.

With such detestation is it regarded, that, in addition to all legal
cognizance, the husband is permitted, in certain instances, to avenge
himself by taking the lives of the offenders upon the spot.

The board on the right contains the official intimation of the crime.

The curious instruments depicted in the woodcut are Japanese emblems
of justice and are to be seen at all the guard-houses; they are used
to catch runaway offenders or to pin a drunken yaconin against a wall
or house, and so facilitate the task of disarming him without danger
to the captors.

[Illustration: Sodingarami, Satsumata, and Squobo.]

Although the Japanese use torture to extract information from
obstinate criminals, they employ all necessary caution to preserve
life; and a doctor and responsible officer are always present when it
is employed, as representatives of the respective claims of humanity
and justice. A singular punishment, to which only the nobles of the
country are liable, is secret banishment to the island of Fatzisiu,
which is situated on the northern coast of the empire. It is small and
barren, rising perpendicularly from the sea. The only communication
with it is by means of a basket, which is lowered from an overhanging
tree to the water, a distance of about fifty feet.[5] From this island
there is no return, and the unhappy, incarcerated nobles, are
compelled to support themselves by weaving silks, which are the most
beautiful the country produces. A junk visits the island once a-year,
when the silks are exchanged for provisions.

[Footnote 5: In 1853 an English man-of-war visited this island, and
two of the officers were hoisted up in the basket for the purpose of
taking sights. One of them, who was my informant, describes it as a
walled-in barren island, with no other mode of ingress or egress than
that described.]

CHAPTER IX.

SUPERSTITIONS AND RELIGIOUS OBSERVANCES.