business by means of an
impressive outfit. One typical cure-all seller, who had his medicines
in a shiny bag slung over his shoulders, wore yellow shoes, cotton
drawers, a frock coat, a peaked cap with three gold stripes, and a
mysterious badge. On his hands he had white cotton gloves and as he
walked he played a concertina. A common practice is to leave with
housewives a bag of medicines without charge. Next year another call
is made, when the pills and what not which have been used are paid for
and a new bag is exchanged for the old one.

The use of dogs to help to draw _kuruma_ is forbidden in some
prefectures, but in three stages of our journey in Shimane we had the
aid of robust dogs. During this period, however, I saw, attached to
_kuruma_ we passed, three dogs which did not seem up to their work.
Dogs suffer when used for draught purposes because their chests are
not adapted for pulling and because the pads of their feet get tender.
The animals we had were treated well. Each _kuruma_ had a cord, with a
hook at the end, attached to it; and this hook was slipped into a ring
on the dog's harness. The dogs were released when we went downhill and
usually on the level. Several times during each run, when we came to a
stream or a pond or even a ditch, the dogs were released for a bathe.
They invariably leapt into the water, drank moderately, and then, if
the water was too shallow for swimming, sat down in it and then lay
down. Sometimes a dog temporarily at liberty would find on his own
account a small water hole, and it was comical to see him taking a
sitz bath in it. When the sun was hot a dog would sometimes be
retained on his cord when not pulling in order that he might trot
along in the shade below the _kuruma_. The dog of the _kuruma_
following mine usually managed when pulling to take advantage of the
shade thrown by my vehicle. A _kurumaya_ told me that he had given 8
yen for his dog. Dogs were sometimes sold for from 10 to 15 yen. The
difficulty was to get a dog that had good feet and would pull. The
dogs I saw were all mongrels with sometimes a retriever, bloodhound or
Great Dane strain.

I made enquiries about another county town library. There were 18,000
volumes of which 300 consisted of European books and 600 of bound
magazines. The annual expenditure on books, and I presume magazines,
was 600 yen.

We passed a "special tribe" hamlet. Here the Eta were devoting
themselves to tanning and bamboo work. I