within the period of a century, should now
present the aspect only of fertile fields of grain. But when it is
remembered of what fragile material the natives build their
dwellings,--namely, of light, thin wood and paper,--their utter
disappearance ceases to surprise us. It is a curious fact that this
people, contemporary with Greece and Rome at their zenith, who have only
reared cities of wood and temples of lacquer, have outlived the classic
nations whose half-ruined monuments are our choicest models. The Greek
and Latin races have passed away, but Japan still remains, without a
change of dynasty and with an inviolate country.

In journeying inland we are struck with many peculiarities showing how
entirely opposite to our own methods are many of theirs. At the
post-stations the horses are placed and tied in their stalls with their
heads to the passage-way, and their tails where we place their heads.
Instead of iron shoes, the Japanese pony is shod with close-braided
rice-straw. Carpenters, in using the fore-plane, draw it towards them
instead of pushing it from them. It is the same in using a saw, the
teeth being set accordingly. So the tailor sews from him, not towards
his body, and holds his thread with his toes. The women ride astride,
like the Hawaiians.

A trip of fifteen miles from Yokohama will take us to the town of
Kamakura, where we find the remarkable idol of Dai-Butsu. This great
Buddha image, composed of gold, silver, and copper, forms a bronze
figure of nearly sixty feet in height, within which a hundred persons
may stand together, the interior being fitted at the base as a small
chapel. A vast number of little scraps of paper bearing Japanese
characters, flutter from the interior walls of the big idol, fastened
there by pious pilgrims, forming petitions to the presiding deity. As we
enter, these scraps, agitated by the winds, rustle like an army of white
bats. This sacred figure is as remarkable as the Sphinx, which presides
so placidly at the feet of the great Pyramids. As a work of art, its
only merits consist in the calm dignity of expression and repose upon
its colossal features. It is many centuries old, and how such an
enormous amount of bronze metal was ever cast, or how set up in such
perfect shape when finished, no one can say. It must have been
completed in sections and put together in the place where it stands, the
joints being so perfectly welded as not to be obvious. It was formerly
covere