At a hot spring we found many patrons because, as I was told, “Ox-day is very suitable for bathing.”  The old pre-Meiji days of the week were twelve:  Rat-, Ox-, Tiger-, Hare-, Dragon-, Snake-, Horse-, Sheep-, Monkey-, Fowl-, Dog-and Boar-day.  When the Western seven days of the week were adopted they were rendered into Japanese as:  Sun, Moon, Fire, Water, Wood, Metal and Earth, followed by the word meaning star or planet and day.  For instance, Sunday is Nichi (Sun) yo (star) bi (day), and Monday, Getsu (Moon) yo (planet) bi (day), or Nichi-yo-bi and Getsu-yo-bi.  For brevity the bi is often dropped off.

The headman of a village we passed through told me that the occasion of my coming was the first on which English had been heard in those parts.  Talking about the people of his village, he said that there had been four divorces in the year.  Once in four or five years a child was born within a few months of marriage.  In the whole county there had been among 310 young men examined for the army only four cases of “disgraceful disease.”  There was no immoral woman in the 75-miles-long valley.  Elsewhere in the county many young men were in debt, but in the headman’s village no youth was without a savings-bank book.  And the local men-folk “did not use women’s savings as in some places.”

One shrine we passed seemed to be dedicated to the moon.  Another was intended to propitiate the horsefly.  Several villages had boxes fastened on posts for the reception of broken glass.  As we approached one village I saw an inscription put up by the young men’s association, “Good Crops and Prosperity to the Village.”  When we came to the next village the schoolmaster was responsible for an inscription, “Peace to the World and Safety to the State.”  In other places I found young men’s society notice boards giving information about the area of land in a village, how it was cropped, the kind of crops, the area of forest, lists of famous places, etc.

[Illustration:  MOVABLE STAGE AT A FESTIVAL FIFTY MILES FROM A RAILWAY. p. 114]

[Illustration:  FARMHOUSE AT WHICH MR. UCHIMURA PREACHED. p. 94]

In the gorges we rode over many suspension bridges and crossed the backbone of Japan in unforgettable scenes of romantic beauty.  From the craggy paths of our highlands, amid a wealth not only of gorgeous flowers and greenery but of great velvety butterflies, we saw the far-off snow-clad Japanese Alps.

[Illustration:  TENANT FARMERS’ HOUSES, p. 37]

[Illustration:  AUTHOR AT THE “SPIRIT MEETING.” p. 36]

[Illustration:  SOME PERFORMERS AT THE “SPIRIT MEETING.” p. 36]