r mouth wide open, showing
her rows of blackened teeth; from her throat arises an intermittent
sound like the grunting of a sow. Oh! poor Madame Prune! how hideous
she is!! Next, M. Sucre, a mere mummy for the time being. And finally,
at his side, last of the row, is their servant, Mdlle. Dede!!!

The gauze hanging over them throws reflections as of the sea upon
them; one might suppose them victims drowned in an aquarium. And
withal the sacred lamps, the altar crowded with strange Shintoist
symbols, give a mock religious air to this family picture.

_Honi soit qui mal y pense_, but why is not that servant-girl rather
laid by the side of her mistresses? Now, when we on the floor above
offer our hospitality to Yves, we are careful to place ourselves under
our mosquito-net in a more correct style.

One corner, which as a last resort we inspect, inspires me with a
certain amount of apprehension. It is a low, mysterious loft, against
the door of which is stuck, as a thing no longer wanted, a very old
pious image: _Kwanon with the thousand arms, and Kwanon with the
horses' head_, seated among clouds and flames, and horrible both of
them to behold, with their spectral grin.

We open the door, and Chrysantheme starts back uttering a fearful cry.
I should have thought the robbers were there, had I not seen a little
grey creature, rapid and noiseless, rush by her and disappear; a young
rat that had been eating rice on the top of a shelf, and, in its
alarm, had dashed in her face.

XLVIII

_September 14th_.

Yves has dropped his silver whistle in the sea, the whistle so
absolutely indispensable for the maneuvers; and we search the town
through all day long, followed by Chrysantheme and Mdlles. La Neige
and La Lune, her sisters, in the endeavor to procure another.

It is, however, very difficult to find such a thing in Nagasaki; above
all, very difficult to explain in Japanese what is a sailor's whistle
of the traditional shape, curved and with a little ball at the end to
modulate the trills and the various sounds of official orders. For
three hours we are sent from shop to shop; at each one they pretend to
understand perfectly what is wanted and trace on tissue-paper, with a
paint-brush, the addresses of the shops where we shall without fail
meet with what we require,--away we go, full of hope, only to
encounter some fresh mystification, till our breathless djins get
quite bewildered.

They understand admirably