ver and suddenly
caught sight of a policeman. It is deplorable that a consciousness of
nakedness should be cultivated when nakedness is natural, traditional
and hygienic. (Even in the schools the girls are taught to make their
kimonos meet at the neck--with a pin![126]--much higher than they used
to be worn.) It is only fair to bear in mind, however, that some
hurrying on of clothes by villagers is done out of respect to the
passing superior, before whom it is impolite to appear without
permission half dressed or wearing other than the usual clothing.

At a hot spring we found many patrons because, as I was told, "Ox-day
is very suitable for bathing." The old pre-Meiji days of the week were
twelve: Rat-, Ox-, Tiger-, Hare-, Dragon-, Snake-, Horse-, Sheep-,
Monkey-, Fowl-, Dog-and Boar-day. When the Western seven days of the
week were adopted they were rendered into Japanese as: Sun, Moon,
Fire, Water, Wood, Metal and Earth, followed by the word meaning star
or planet and day. For instance, Sunday is _Nichi_ (Sun) _yo_ (star)
_bi_ (day), and Monday, _Getsu_ (Moon) _yo_ (planet) _bi_ (day), or
_Nichi-yo-bi_ and _Getsu-yo-bi_. For brevity the _bi_ is often dropped
off.

The headman of a village we passed through told me that the occasion
of my coming was the first on which English had been heard in those
parts. Talking about the people of his village, he said that there had
been four divorces in the year. Once in four or five years a child was
born within a few months of marriage. In the whole county there had
been among 310 young men examined for the army only four cases of
"disgraceful disease." There was no immoral woman in the 75-miles-long
valley. Elsewhere in the county many young men were in debt, but in
the headman's village no youth was without a savings-bank book. And
the local men-folk "did not use women's savings as in some places."

One shrine we passed seemed to be dedicated to the moon. Another was
intended to propitiate the horsefly. Several villages had boxes
fastened on posts for the reception of broken glass. As we approached
one village I saw an inscription put up by the young men's
association, "Good Crops and Prosperity to the Village." When we came
to the next village the schoolmaster was responsible for an
inscription, "Peace to the World and Safety to the State." In other
places I found young men's society notice boards giving information
about the area of land in a village, how it was cropped,