dance, called the
Butterfly Dance (Kocho-Mai), which used to be performed in the Imperial
Palace, by dancers costumed as butterflies. Whether it is danced
occasionally nowadays I do not know. It is said to be very difficult to
learn. Six dancers are required for the proper performance of it; and
they must move in particular figures,--obeying traditional rules for
ever step, pose, or gesture,--and circling about each other very slowly
to the sound of hand-drums and great drums, small flutes and great
flutes, and pandean pipes of a form unknown to Western Pan.

MOSQUITOES

With a view to self-protection I have been reading Dr. Howard's book,
"Mosquitoes." I am persecuted by mosquitoes. There are several species
in my neighborhood; but only one of them is a serious torment,--a tiny
needly thing, all silver-speckled and silver-streaked. The puncture of
it is sharp as an electric burn; and the mere hum of it has a
lancinating quality of tone which foretells the quality of the pain
about to come,--much in the same way that a particular smell suggests a
particular taste. I find that this mosquito much resembles the creature
which Dr. Howard calls Stegomyia fasciata, or Culex fasciatus: and that
its habits are the same as those of the Stegomyia. For example, it is
diurnal rather than nocturnal and becomes most troublesome in the
afternoon. And I have discovered that it comes from the Buddhist
cemetery,--a very old cemetery,--in the rear of my garden.

Dr. Howard's book declares that, in order to rid a neighborhood of
mosquitoes, it is only necessary to pour a little petroleum, or
kerosene oil, into the stagnant water where they breed. Once a week the
oil should be used, "at the rate of once ounce for every fifteen square
feet of water-surface, and a proportionate quantity for any less
surface." ...But please to consider the conditions in my neighborhood!

I have said that my tormentors come from the Buddhist cemetery. Before
nearly every tomb in that old cemetery there is a water-receptacle, or
cistern, called mizutame. In the majority of cases this mizutame is
simply an oblong cavity chiseled in the broad pedestal supporting the
monument; but before tombs of a costly kind, having no pedestal-tank, a
larger separate tank is placed, cut out of a single block of stone, and
decorated with a family crest, or with symbolic carvings. In front of a
tomb of the humblest class, having no mizutame, water is placed in cups
or