cial
manure. Near them two Minorcas were laying in open boxes. In this
family there were seven children, "three or four of whom can work."
The hired land was 8 _tan_ of paddy and 2-1/2 of dry. There was
nothing to the good at the end of the year. Indeed rice had had to be
borrowed from the landlord. The family was therefore working merely to
keep itself alive. But it looked cheerful enough. Looking cheerful is,
however, a Japanese habit. The conditions of life here were what many
Westerners would consider intolerable. But it was not Westerners but
Orientals who were concerned, and what one had to try to guess was how
far the conditions were satisfactory to Eastern imaginations and
requirements. The people at every house I visited--as it happened to
be a holiday the mending of clothing and implements seemed to be in
order--were plainly getting enjoyment from the warm sunshine.
Undoubtedly the long spells of sunshine in the comparatively idle
period of the year make hard conditions of life more endurable.

In a very small house which was little more than a shelter, the father
and mother of a tenant were living. It is not uncommon for old
peasants to build a dwelling for themselves when they get nearly past
work, or sometimes after the eldest son marries.

I found a 1-_cho_ peasant proprietor playing _go_ and rather the worse
for sake, though it was early in the morning. A 3-_cho_ proprietor was
living in a good-sized house which had a courtyard and an imposing
gateway.

On the thatch of one house I noticed a small straw horse perhaps two
feet long. On July 7 such a horse is taken by young people to the
hills, where a bale of grass is tied on its back. On the reappearance
of the figure at the house, dishes of the ceremonial red rice and of
the ordinary food of the family are set before it. "The offering of
other than horse food indicates," it was explained, "that the desire
is to keep the straw animal as a little deity." Finally the horse is
flung on the roof.

I went some distance to visit an _oaza_ of twenty families. It was
described to me as "well off and peaceful." Alas, one peasant
proprietor had gone to Tokyo, where he had made money, and on his
return had built his second son a house with Tokyo labour instead of
with the labour of his neighbours. So the _oaza_ was "excited with
bitter inward animosity." Like our own hamlets, these _oaza_ in the
sunshine, seemingly so peaceful, whisper nothing to townsfolk of t