tly the right principles and takes up his abode
therein. He is easily captured, for he refuses to let go his vase when
it is brought to the surface. Indeed the only way to dislodge him is
to pour hot water through the hole in the bottom of his upturned
tenement.

FOOTNOTES:

[203] The Japanese firepot, which is made of wood or porcelain as well
as metal, contains pieces of charcoal smouldering in wood ash.

[204] I saw poultry of the table breeds which we call Indian Game or
Malay; the Japanese call them Siamese.

[205] See Appendix LVIII.

[206] In 1918 carp was produced to the value of a million and a half
yen and eels to the value of nearly a million.

[207] See Appendix LIX.

[208] See Appendix LX.

[209] To cite a word already used in these pages, there are half a
dozen words spelt _ko_ and as many as fourteen spelt _ko_, but all
have a different ideograph. When the prolongation of the educational
course by the ideographs is dwelt on, it is wholesome for us to
remember Professor Gilbert Murray's declaration that "English spelling
entails a loss of one year in the child's school time." Other
authorities have considered the loss to be much more.

[210] For statistics of stamina, heights and weights of children, see
Appendix LXI.

CHAPTER XXXV

THE HUSBANDMAN, THE WRESTLER AND THE CARPENTER

(SAITAMA, GUMMA AND TOKYO)

We are here to search the wounds of the realm, not to skim them
over.--BACON

One day in the third week of October when the roads were sprinkled
with fallen leaves I made an excursion into the Kwanto plain and
passed from the prefecture of Tokyo into that of Saitama.[211] The
weather now made it necessary for Japanese to wear double kimonos.
During the middle of the day, however, I was glad to walk with my
jacket over my arm, and many little boys and girls were running about
naked. The region visited had a naturally well-drained dark soil,
composed of river silt, of volcanic dust and of humus from buried
vegetation, and it went down to a depth beyond the need of the longest
_daikon_ (giant radish). Sweet potatoes and taro were still on the
ground, and large areas, worked to a perfect tilth, had been sown or
were in course of preparation for winter wheat and barley; but the
most conspicuous crop was _daikon_. There were miles and miles of it
at all sorts of stages from newly transplanted rows to roots ready for
pulling. There is _daikon_ production up to the value of about a