G50 THE VOYAGE OF THE VEGA. [ciiAi-. 



still so hot notwithstanJiug that I could only with difficulty 

 remain in it a couple of seconds. 



In the streets of the town we often met blind persons who 

 walked about very safely without any attendant, only feeling 

 their way with a long bamboo. They blew a short pipe now 

 and then to warn passers-by of their presence. I thought 

 at first that these unfortunates were trying to regain the sight 

 of the eye at the hot springs, but on inquiring whether the 

 water was beneficial in that respect, I was informed that they 

 w^ere not there as seekers after health, but as " massageurs " 

 (shampooers). Massage has been in use in Japan for several 

 centuries back, and therefore persons are often to be met with 

 in the streets offering their services as massageurs, crying in 

 the streets in about the same way as the fruit-sellers in liussia. 



The inn where we lodged for the night, consisted as usual of 

 a number of very clean rooms covered with mats, without 

 furniture, but ornamented with songs and mottoes on the walls. 

 One would live here exceedingly well, if like the Japanese he 

 could manage to live wholly on the floor and conform carefully 

 to the indispensable rules, an observance which besides is 

 necessary, because otherwise the inmate is exposed to a very 

 unfriendly reception not only from his host but also from the 

 attendants. An inconvenience in travelling in Japan is the 

 difficulty a European has in accustoming himself to the dietary 

 of the Japanese. Bread they do not use, nor meat, but their 

 food consists mainly of rice and fish, with fowls, fruit, mush- 

 rooms, 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 Avishes 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 dimier of five 

 dishes, consisting of chicken soup, fowl omelette, fowl-beefsteak, 

 fowl fricassS, 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 j^leasing 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 " Stikerhets tandstickor utan svafvel och fosfor." 



