oms, sweetmeats, Japanese tea, &c., in addition. Fish
is generally eaten raw, and in that case is said to differ little in
taste from our pickled salmon. The food is not unfrequently cooked
with fish oils of anything but an agreeable taste. If a traveller
wishes to avoid this dietary, he must have his own cook with him on
the journey. In this capacity there attended us a Japanese, whose
name was Senkiti-San, but who was commonly called by his companions
Kok-San (Mr. Cook). He had learned European (French) cooking at
Yokohama, and during the journey devoted himself with so great zeal
to his calling, that even in the deserts at the foot of Asamayama he
gave himself no rest until he could offer us a dinner of five
dishes, consisting of chicken soup, fowl omelette, fowl-beefsteak,
fowl _fricasse_, and omelette _aux confitures_, all thus consisting
only of fowls and hens' eggs, cooked in different ways.

For some years back lucifer matches have been an article of
necessity in Japan, and it was pleasing to us Swedes to observe that
the Swedish matches have here a distinct preference over those of
other countries. In nearly every little shop, even in the interior
of the country, are to be seen the well-known boxes with the
inscription "Saekerhets taendstickor utan svafvel och fosfor." But if
we examine the boxes more carefully, we find upon many of them,
along with the magic sentence unintelligible to the Japanese, an
inscription indicating that they have been made by some Japanese
manufacturer. On other boxes this is completely wanting, but the
falsification is shown by an unfortunate error in the inscription.
It thus appears that the Swedish matches are not only introduced
into Japan on a large scale, but are also counterfeited, being made
with the Swedish inscription on the box and with a cover resembling
that used at home. The imitation, however, is not nearly so good as
the original, and my Japanese servant bade me therefore, when I
purchased a box of matches, observe carefully that I got one of the
right (Swedish) sort.

Photography also has spread so rapidly in the country that at many
places in small towns and villages in the interior Japanese
photographers are to be met with who put out of their hands by no
means bad work. The Japanese appear to have a great liking for
having their by no means remarkable dwellings photographed. On
several occasions, when we left a place we received from our host as
a parting gift a