ot
on a stool, obligingly steadied by a supposedly invisible attendant,
and pretended to clamber up a corner post of the stage.) While he was
eating the persimmons he was discovered by their owner. The farmer was
a man of humour and said that he thought that "that must be a crow in
the tree." So the poor priest tried to caw. "No," said the farmer, "it
is surely a monkey." So the priest began to scratch after the manner
of monkeys. "But perhaps," the farmer went on, "it is really a kite."
The priest flapped his arms--and fell. The farmer thought that he had
the priest at his mercy. But the priest, rubbing his beads together,
put a spell on him and escaped. The word _No_ is written with an
ideograph which means ability, but _No_ also stands for
agriculture.[220]

FOOTNOTES:

[211] The Kwanto plain (73 by 96 miles) includes most of Tokyo and
Saitama prefecture, and also the larger part of Kanagawa and Chiba and
parts of Ibaraki, Gumma and Tochigi.

[212] The characters on these slabs are beautifully written. They have
usually been penned by distinguished men.

[213] The Japanese man wears below his kimono or trousers a pair of
bathing shorts. Peasants frequently wear in the fields nothing but a
little cotton bag and string.

[214] Poor households ordinarily use, instead of movable _hibachi_, a
big square box in an opening in the floor and resting on the earth.

[215] When I was in Tokyo, tradesmen's messenger boys received only
their food, lodging and clothing and an occasional present, with help
no doubt in starting a linked business when they were out of their
time. Now such youths, as a development of the labour movement, are on
a wage basis and receive 20 yen a month.

[216] The place has since been burnt down. A bigger building has been
erected.

[217] See Appendix LXII.

[218] There is also the occasional whiff of the _benjo_; but, as an
agricultural expert said, "It is not a bad thing that a people which
is increasingly under the influence of industrialism should be
compelled to give a thought to agriculture." There are European
countries famous for their farming whose sanitary experts are
evidently similarly minded.

[219] The fact that Dr. Waley's scholarly book is the third work on
the _No_ to be published in England in recent years is evidence that a
knowledge of a form of lyrical drama of rare artistry is gradually
extending in the West.

[220] Hence the names of the two national agricultural or