In the county through which we were moving there was gold, silver and copper mining.[124] Out of its population of 36,000 only 632 were entitled to vote for an M.P.

We rested at a school where the motto was, “Even in this good reign I pray because I wish to make our country more glorious.”  There were portraits of four deceased local celebrities and of Peter the Great, Franklin, Lincoln, Commander Perry and Bismarck.  Illustrated wall charts showed how to sit on a school seat, how to identify poisonous plants and how to conform to the requirements of etiquette.  The following admonitions were also displayed—­a copy of them is given to each child, who is expected to read the twelve counsels every morning before coming to school: 

  1.—­Do your own work and don’t rely on others to do it.

  2.—­Be ardent when you learn or play.

  3.—­Endeavour to do away with your bad habits and cultivate good ones.

  4.—­Never tell a lie and be careful when you speak.

  5.—­Do what you think right in your heart and at the same time have
  good manners.

  6.—­Overcome difficulties and never hold back from hard work.

  7.—­Do not make appointments which you are uncertain to keep.

  8.—­Do not carelessly lend or borrow.

  9.—­Do not pass by another’s difficulties and do not give another
  much trouble.

  10.—­Be careful about things belonging to the public as well as
  about things belonging to yourself.

  11.—­Keep the outside and inside of the school clean and also
  take care of waste paper.

  12.—­Never play with a grumbling spirit.

There was stuck on the roofs of many houses a rod with a piece of white paper attached, a charm against fire.  One house so provided was next door to the fire station.  Frequently we passed a children’s jizo or Buddha, comically decked in the hat and miscellaneous garments of youngsters whose grateful mothers believed them to have been cured by the power of the deity.

Speaking of clothes, it was the hottest July weather and the natural garment was at most a loin cloth.  The women wore a piece of red or coloured cotton from their waist to their knees.  The backs of the men and women who were working in the open were protected by a flapping ricestraw mat or by an armful of green stuff.  The boys under ten or so were naked and so were many little girls.  But the influence of the Westernising period ideas of what was “decent” in the presence of foreigners survives.  So, whenever a policeman was near, people of all ages were to be seen huddling on their kimonos.  I was sorry for a merry group of boys and girls aged 12 or 13 who in that torrid weather[125] were bathing at an ideal spot in the river and suddenly caught sight of a policeman.  It is deplorable that a consciousness of nakedness should be cultivated when nakedness is natural, traditional and hygienic. (Even in the schools the girls are taught to make their kimonos meet at the neck—­with a pin![126]—­much higher than they used to be worn.) It is only fair to bear in mind, however, that some hurrying on of clothes by villagers is done out of respect to the passing superior, before whom it is impolite to appear without permission half dressed or wearing other than the usual clothing.