n.

One man I spoke with during my journey south gave a vivid impression
of the influence of young men's associations. "Before they started,"
said he, "the young men spent their time in singing indecent songs, in
gambling, in talking foolishly, and twice or thrice a year in
immorality. A young widow has sometimes been at fault; the
parents-in-law need her help and village sentiment is against her
remarriage. The suppression of _Bon_ dances has done more harm than
good by keeping out of sight what used to be said and done
openly[168]. Two or three priests are active in this prefecture. Where
the Shinshu sect is strong you will find little divorce. But the
influence of Buddhism has been stationary in recent years. There is
some action by missionaries of the Japanese Christian church, but the
number of Christians among real rustics is very small."

At Sendai it was pleasant to see a prefectural office--or most of
it--housed in a Japanese building instead of a dreadful edifice "in
Western style." In feudal times the building was a school. Portraits
of daimyos and famous scholars of the Sendai clan surround the
Governor's room, and adjoining it is the _tatami_-covered apartment in
which the daimyo used to sit when he was present at the examinations.
Among the portraits is one of a retainer which was painted in Rome,
where he had been sent on a mission of inquiry.

[Illustration: A SCARECROW.--A SKETCH BY PROFESSOR NASU.]

In his scarecrow-making the Japanese farmer seems to have great faith
in the Western-style cap, felt hat, or even umbrella, if he can get
hold of one. Ordinarily, the bogey man has a bow with the arrow
strung. Occasionally a farmer seeks to scare birds by means of
clappers which he places in the hands of a child or an old man who
sits in a rough shelter raised high enough to overtop the rice. Now
and then there is a clapper connected with a string to the farm-house.
I have also seen a row of bamboos carried across a paddy field with a
square piece of wood hanging loosely against each one. A rope
connecting all the bamboos with one another was carried to the
roadway, and now and then a passer-by of a benevolent disposition, or
with nothing better to do, or, it may be, standing in some degree of
relationship to the paddy-field proprietor, gave the rope a tug. Then
all the bamboos bent, and as they smartly straightened themselves
caused the clappers to give forth a sound sufficiently agitating to
sparrow