rt for another toll-place higher up.
Subsequently, however, I learn it to be a return ticket, the old
toll-keeper very naturally thinking I would return, by and by, to
Nagasaki.

Ponies and buffaloes, laden with baskets of rice, fodder, firewood, and
various agricultural products, are encountered on the pass, in charge of
Japanese rustics in broad bamboo-hats, red blankets, bare legs, and straw
sandals, who lead their charges by long halter-ropes. Both horses and
buffaloes are shod with shoes of the same unsubstantial material as the
men. When the Japanese traveller sets out on a journey, he provides
himself with a new pair of straw sandals; these last him for a tramp of
from ten to twenty miles, according to the nature of the road. When worn
out, his foot-gear may be readily renewed at any village for a mere song.
The same may be said of his horse or buffalo, although several extra
shoes are generally carried along in case of need.

The summit of the pass is distinguished by a very deep cutting through
the ridge rock of the mountain, and a series of successive sharp turns
back and forth along narrow-terraced gardens and fields bring the road
down into the valley of a clear little stream, called the Himi-gawa.
Smooth, hard roads follow along this purling rivulet, now and then
crossing it on a stone or wooden bridge. A small estuary, reaching inland
like a big bite out of a cake, is passed, and the pretty little village
of Yagami reached for dinner. The eating-house, like nearly all Japanese
eating-places, is neat and cleanly, the brown wood-work being fairly
polished bright from floor to ceiling.

Sitting down on the edge of the raised floor, I am approached by the
landlady, who kneels down and bows her forehead to the floor. Her
politeness is very charming, and her smile would no doubt be more or less
winsome were it not for the hideous blackening of the teeth. Blackened
teeth is the distinguishing mark between maid and matron in the flowery
kingdom of the Mikados. The teeth are stained black at marriage, and
henceforth a smile that heretofore displayed rows of small white ivories,
and perchance was fairly bewitching, becomes positively repulsive to the
Western mind.

Fish and rice (sakana and meshi) are the most readily obtainable things
to eat at a Japanese hotel, and often form the only bill of fare. Sake,
or rice-beer, is usually included in the Jap's own meal, but the average
European traveller at first prefer