shape tipped jauntily on one side. Tucked under their arms, they
carry portfolios filled with sketches; in their hands are boxes of
water-colors, pencils, and, bound together like fasces, a bundle of fine
stylets with the sharp and glittering points.

At the first glance, even in the bewilderment of waking up, I gather
from their appearance what their errand is, and guessing with what
visitors I have to deal, I say: "Come in, Messieurs the tattooers!"

These are the specialists most in renown in Nagasaki; I had engaged them
two days ago, not knowing that we were about to leave, and since they
are here I will not turn them away.

My friendly and intimate relations with primitive man, in Oceania and
elsewhere, have imbued me with a deplorable taste for tattoo-work; and I
had wished to carry away on my own person, as a curiosity, an ornament,
a specimen of the work of the Japanese tattooers, who have a delicacy of
finish which is unequalled.

From their albums spread out upon my table I make my choice. There are
some remarkably odd designs among them, appropriate to the different
parts of the human body: emblems for the arms and legs, sprays of roses
for the shoulders, great grinning faces for the middle of the back.
There are even, to suit the taste of their clients who belong to foreign
navies, trophies of arms, American and French flags entwined, a "God
Save the Queen" amid encircling stars, and figures of women taken from
Grevin's sketches in the Journal Amusant.

My choice rests upon a singular blue and pink dragon two inches long,
which will have a fine effect upon my chest on the side opposite the
heart.

Then follows an hour and a half of irritation and positive pain.
Stretched out on my bunk and delivered over to the tender mercies
of these personages, I stiffen myself and submit to the million
imperceptible pricks they inflict. When by chance a little blood flows,
confusing the outline by a stream of red, one of the artists hastens to
stanch it with his lips, and I make no objections, knowing that this is
the Japanese manner, the method used by their doctors for the wounds of
both man and beast.

A piece of work, as minute and fine as that of an engraver upon stone,
is slowly executed on my person; and their lean hands harrow and worry
me with automatic precision.

Finally it is finished, and the tattooers, falling back with an air of
satisfaction to contemplate their work, declare it to be lovely.

I