y tunnels.
Not a few miserable dwellings were to be seen as we passed into Akita
prefecture. We broke our journey after some hours' travelling to stay
the night at a rather primitive hot spring inn four or five miles up
in the hills. A slight rain was falling. Four passengers at a time
made the ascent to the hotel, squatting on a mat in an old
contractor's wagon, pushed along roughly laid rails by two perspiring
youths in rain-cloaks of bark strips. At the inn, on going to the
bath, I found therein a miscellaneous collection of people of both
sexes from grandparents to grandchildren. One bather enlivened us by
performances on the flute, which, if a musical instrument must be
played in a bath, seems as suitable as any. In this rambling inn there
were many farmers who, by preparing their own food and doing for
themselves generally, were holiday-making at bedrock prices.

As it was the _Bon_ season, when the spirits of the dead are supposed
to return, I was a witness of the method adopted to help the ghosts to
find their old homes. At the top of a 30 or 40 ft. pole a lantern is
fixed with a pulley. Fastened up beside the lantern is a bunch of
green stuff, cryptomeria in many cases. The lantern is lighted each
evening for a week. Having heard a good deal about the suppression of
_Bon_ dances and songs I was interested when a fellow-guest began
talking about them. He had seen many _Bon_ dances and had heard many
_Bon_ songs. There can be no doubt that there has been some
unenlightened interference with the _Bon_ gathering. The country
people seem to be suffering from the determination of officialdom to
make an end of everything in country as well as town that may be
considered "uncivilised" by any foreigner, however ill instructed. In
towns the sexes are not accustomed to meet, but country people must
work together; therefore they find it natural to dance and sing
together. As to the _Bon_ songs, it is common sense that expressions
which may be regarded as outrageous and indecent in a drawing-room may
not be so terrible on a hilltop among rustics used to very plain
speech and to easy recognition of natural facts that are veiled from
townspeople. My chance acquaintance at the inn recited a number of
_Bon_ songs and next morning brought me some more that he had
remembered and had been kind enough to write down. They merely
established the fact that bucolic wit is as elemental in Japan as in
other lands. Most of the songs had