ed by real knowledge and love of the "lower creation."
The Japanese have a keen appreciation of the "song" of an amazing
variety of "musical" insects--there are 20,000 kinds of insects. It is
an appreciation not vouchsafed to the foreigner whose nerves are
racked by the insistent bizz of the _semi_ or cicada--there are 38
kinds of cicada. Everyone will recall Hearn's chapter on the trade in
"singing insects."

One of my hosts in Aichi had two tiny cages which each contained one
of these creatures. The cages were hung from the eaves. In the evening
when the stone lantern in the garden was lit, and it was desired to
give an illusion of greater coolness after a hot day a servant was
sent up to the roof to pour down a tubful of water in order to produce
the dripping sound of rain; and this at once set the caged insects
chirping.

The sensitive foreigner is distressed by the way in which newly born
puppies and kittens are thrown out to die because their Buddhist
owners are too scrupulous to kill them. The stranger's feelings are
also worked on by the unhappy demeanour and uncared-for look of dogs
and cats. On chancing to enter in a Japanese city an English home
where there were three dogs I could not but mark how they contrasted
in bearing and appearance with the generality of the animals I had
seen. Yet these dogs were all mongrel foundlings which had been
abandoned near my friend's house or dropped into her garden. No doubt
most Japanese dogs suffer from having too much rice--and polished at
that--and practically no bones. An excuse for the neglect of cats is
that they scratch woodwork and _tatami_ and insist on carrying their
food into the best room.

Horses are often overloaded and mercilessly driven on hilly
roads.[249] On the other hand, carters lead their horses. It might be
added that the coolies who haul and push handcarts bearing enormous
loads never spare themselves. I was told more than once of people who
had been too tenderhearted to make an end of old horses. I also heard
of hens which had been allowed to live on until they died of old age.
In some mountain communities it is the custom, when a chicken must be
killed for a visitor's meal, for an exchange of birds to be made with
a neighbour in order that the killing may not be too painful for the
owner.[250]

Except in hotels and stores in Tokyo and the cities which cater for
foreigners, one seldom sees such an animal product as cheese. On the
Government f