XVII.] ABUNDANCE OF CHILDREN IN JAPAN. 645 



The post-horses on Nakasendo were so poor and wretched 

 that in Sweden one would have been liable to punishment for 

 cruelty to animals for using them. They went, however, at a 

 pretty good speed. There were places for changing horses 

 at regular distances of fifteen to twenty kilometres. The 

 driver besides halted often on the way at some dwelling-house 

 to take a couple of scoopfuls of water out of the water-vessel 

 standing before it and throw them into the horses' mouths and 

 between their hind-legs. The opportunity was always taken 

 advantage of by the girls of the house to come out and offer 

 the travellers a small cup of Japanese tea, an act of courtesy 

 that was repaid with some friendly words and a copper coin. 



When we visited any of the peasants' gardens by the way- 

 side we were always received with extreme friendliness, either on 

 a special dais in the common room looking to the road, or in an 

 inner room whose floor was covered with a mat of dazzling white- 

 ness, and on whose walls hung pictures, with songs and mottoes. 

 The brazier was brought forward, tea and sweetmeats were 

 handed round, all with lively conversation and frequent bows. 

 The difference between the palace of the rich (if we may dis- 

 tinguish with the name any building in Japan) and the dwelling 

 of the less well-to-do is much smaller here than in Europe. 

 We did not see any beggars in our journey into the interior of 

 the country.^ Nor did the distinction of class appear to be 

 so sharp as might be expected in a land where the evils of rank 

 had been so great as in Old Japan. We several times saw in 

 the inns by the roadside, people of condition who were travelling 

 in jinrikislias eat their rice and drink their said together with 

 the coolies who were drawing their vehicles. 



To judge by the crowds of children who swarmed everywhere 

 along the roads the people must be very prolific. A girl of 

 eight or ten years of age was seldom to be seen without 

 another young one bound on her back. This burden did not 

 appear to trouble the sister or attendant very much. Without 

 giving herself any concern about the child or thinking of its 

 existence, she took part actively in games, ran errands, &c. 



Even in the interior of the country foreigners are received 

 with great friendliness. The lower classes in Japan have also 

 reason for this, for whatever influence the latest political 

 changes may have had on the old huge, daimio, and samurai 

 families of Japan, the position of the cultivator of the soil is now 

 much more secure than before, when he was harried by hundreds 

 of small tyrants. His dress is the same as before, with the ex- 

 ception, however, that a great proportion of the male population, 

 even far into the interior, have laid aside the old troublesome way 



^ On the contrary, we saw a number of beggars on the country roads in 

 the neighbourhood of Yokohama. 



