the ring and shiver, for the evening is cold,
until called out by the master of ceremonies. The two selected take a
small handful of salt from baskets of that ingredient suspended on posts,
and fling toward each other. They then advance into the arena, and
furthermore challenge and defy their opponent by stamping their bare feet
on the ground, in a manner to display their superior muscularity. Another
order from the gentleman wielding the fiddle-shaped insignia, and they
rush violently together, engage in a "catch-as-catch-can" scuffle, which,
in less than half a minute usually, results in a decisive victory for one
or the other. The master of ceremonies waves them out of the ring,
straightens himself up, assumes a very haughty expression, until he looks
like the very important personage he feels himself to be, and announces
the name of the victor to the spectators.

The one portion of the Tokaido impassable with a wheel commences at
Mishima, the famous Hakone Pass, which for sixteen miles offers a steep
surface of rough bowlder-paved paths. Coolies at Mishima make their
livelihood by carrying goods and passengers over the pass on kagoa (the
Japanese palanquin). Obtaining a couple of men to carry the bicycle, the
chilly weather proves an inducement for following them afoot, rather than
occupy a kago myself. The block road is broad enough for a wagon, being
constructed, no doubt, with a view to military transport service. The
long steep slopes are literally carpeted in places with the worn-out
straw shoes of men and horses.

The country observed from the elevation of the Hakone Pass is extremely
beautiful, the white-tipped cone of the magnificent Fuji towering over
all, like a presiding genius. Near the hamlet of Yamanaka is a famous
point, called Fuji-mi-taira (terrace for looking at Fuji). Big
cryptomerias shade the broad stony path along much of its southern slope
to Hakone village and lake.

Hakone is a very lovely and interesting region, nowadays a favorite
summer resort of the European residents of Tokio and Yokohama. From the
latter place Hakone Lake is but about fifty miles distant, and by
jinrikisha and kago may be reached in one day. The lake is a most
charming little body of water, a regular mountain-gem, reflecting in its
clear, crystal depths the pine-clad slopes that encompass it round about,
as though its surface were a mirror. Japanese mythology peopled the
region round with supernatural beings in the e