a corruption of the word for octopus.
The island devoted itself mainly to the growing of peonies and
ginseng. The ginseng is largely exported to China and Korea, but there
is a certain consumption in Japan. Ginseng is sometimes chewed, but is
generally soaked, the liquid being drunk. Ginseng is popularly
supposed to be an invigorant, and Japanese doctors in Korea have
lately declared that it has some value. The root is costly, hence the
proverb about eating ginseng and hanging oneself, i.e. getting into
debt.

In walking across the island I passed a forlorn little shrine. It was
merely a rough shed with a wide shelf at the back, on which stood a
row of worn and dusty figures, decked with the clothes of children
whose recovery was supposed to have been due to their influence. It
was raining and the shelter was full of children playing in the
company of an old crone with a baby on her back. Further on in the
village I came across a new public bath. The price of admission was
one sen, children half price.

A small port was pointed out to me as being open to foreign trade.
Everybody is not aware that in Japan there is a restriction upon
foreign shipping except at sixty specified places.[193] The reason
given for the restriction is the unprofitableness of custom houses at
small places. One day, perhaps, the world will wake up to the
inconvenience and financial burden imposed by the custom-house system
of raising revenue.

We stayed the night at a little place at the eastern extremity of the
Shimane promontory where there is a shrine and no cultivation of any
sort is allowed "for fear of defilement." Waste products are taken
away by boat. I marked a contrast between theoretical and practical
holiness. Our inn overlooked a special landing-place where, because a
"sacred boat" from the shrine is launched there, a notice had been put
up forbidding the throwing of rubbish into the sea. A few minutes
after the board had been pointed out to me I saw an old man cast a
considerable mass of rubbish into the water not six feet away from it.
When we visited the shrine three pilgrims were at their devotions. The
next morning when our steamer left and the chief priest of the shrine
was bidding us adieu my attention was attracted by loud conversation
in the second storey of an inn, the _shoji_ of which were open. Our
pilgrims, two of whom were bald, had spent the night at an inn of bad
character and were now in the company of prostitute