the kind of
crops, the area of forest, lists of famous places, etc.

[Illustration: MOVABLE STAGE AT A FESTIVAL FIFTY MILES FROM A RAILWAY.
p. 114]

[Illustration: FARMHOUSE AT WHICH MR. UCHIMURA PREACHED. p. 94]

In the gorges we rode over many suspension bridges and crossed the
backbone of Japan in unforgettable scenes of romantic beauty. From
the craggy paths of our highlands, amid a wealth not only of gorgeous
flowers and greenery but of great velvety butterflies, we saw the
far-off snow-clad Japanese Alps.

[Illustration: TENANT FARMERS' HOUSES, p. 37]

[Illustration: AUTHOR AT THE "SPIRIT MEETING." p. 36]

[Illustration: SOME PERFORMERS AT THE "SPIRIT MEETING." p. 36]

At one of the schools where we lunched I noticed that the large wall
maps were of Siam and Malaya, Borneo, Australia and China (two). The
portraits were of Florence Nightingale, Lincoln, Napoleon and Christ
as the Good Shepherd, the last named being "a present from a believer
friend of the schoolmaster."[127] This school closed at noon from July
10 to July 31, and had twenty days' vacation in August and another
twenty days in the rice-planting and busy sericultural season. The
sewing-room of the school was used in winter as a dormitory for boys
who lived at a distance. Accommodation for girls was provided in the
village. The children brought their rice with them. The products of
the school farm were also eaten by the boarding pupils. It was
estimated that the cost of maintaining the girls was 10 sen a day.
Three-fourths of this expense was borne by the village. The regularity
and strictness of the dormitory management were found to have an
excellent effect. At the winter school, an adjunct of the day school,
there was an attendance of a score of youths and sixty girls.

Speaking of a place where we stayed for the night, one who had a wide
knowledge of rural Japan said that he did not think that there was a
lonelier spot where farming was carried on. There was no market or
fair for 80 or 90 miles and the little groups of houses were 2 or 3
miles apart. In this district, it was explained, "the rich are not so
rich and the poor are not so poor."

We passed somewhere a fine shrine for the welfare of horses. At a
certain festival hundreds of horses are driven down there to gallop
round and round the sacred buildings. Thousands of people attend this
festival, but it was declared that no one was ever hurt by the horses.

The poetical names of c