wo miles (a ri is something over two English miles) to the village of
Moji. Here I obtain passage on a little ferry-boat across to Shimonoseki,
arriving there about two o'clock in the afternoon.

A twenty-four hours' halt is made at Shimonoseki in deference to rainy
weather. The landlady of the yadoya understands enough about European
cookery to prepare me a very decent beefsteak and a pot of coffee.
Shimonoseki is full of European goods, and clever imitations of the same;
a stroll of an hour through the streets reveals the extent of the Japs'
appreciation of foreign things. Every other shop, almost, seems devoted
to the goods that come from other countries, or their counterfeits. Not
content with merely copying an imported article, the Japanese artisan
generally endeavors to make some improvement on the original. For
instance, after making an exact imitation of a petroleum-lamp, the Jap
workman constructs a neat little lacquer cabinet to set it in when not in
use. The coffee-pot in which the coffee served at my yadoya is prepared
is an ingenious contrivance with three chambers, evidently a reproduction
of Yankee ingenuity.

A big Shinto temple occupies the crest of a little hill near by, and
flights of stone steps lead up to the entrance. At the foot of the steps,
and repeated at several stages up the slope, are the peculiar torii, or
"bird-perches," that form the distinctive mark of a Shinto temple.
Numerous shrines occupy the court-yard of the temple; the shrines are
built of wood mostly, and contain representations of the various gods to
whose particular worship they are dedicated. Before each shrine is a
barred receptacle for coins. The Japanese devotee poses for a minute
before the shrine, bowing his head and smiting together the palms of his
hands; he then tosses a diminutive coin or two into the barred treasury,
and passes on round to the next shrine he wishes to pay his respects to.
In the main building are numerous pictures, bows, arrows, swords, and
various articles, evidently votive offerings. The shrine of the deity
that presides over the destiny of fishermen is distinguished by a huge
silver-paper fish and numerous three-pronged fish-spears. Among other
queer objects whose meaning defies the penetration of the traveller
unversed in Japanese mythology is a monstrous human face, with a nose at
least three feet long, and altogether out of proportion.

Strolling about to while away a rainy forenoon I pass big