652 



THE VOYAGE OF THE VEGA. 



[chap. 



graves were often adorned with flowers, and at some of them 

 small foot-high Shinto shrines had been made of wooden pins, 



Savavatari, like Ikaho, is built on the slope of a hill. The 

 streets between the houses are almost all stairs or steep ascents. 

 Here too there well up from the volcanic rocks acidulous 

 springs, at which invalids seek to regain health. The watering- 

 place, however, is of less repute than Ikaho or Kusatsu. 



While we walked about the village in the evening we saw 

 at one place a crowd of people. This was occasioned by a 

 competition going on there. Two young men, who wore no 

 other clothes than a narrow girdle going round the waist and 

 between the legs, wrestled within a circle two or three metres 

 across drawn on- a sandy area. He was considered the victor 

 who threw the other to the ground or forced him beyond the 



JAPANESE KAGO. 



circle. A special judge decided in doubtful cases. The be- 

 ginning of the contest was most peculiar, the combatants 

 kneeling in the middle of the circle and sharply eying each 

 other in order to make the attack at a signal given by the judge, 

 when a single push might at once make an end of the contest. 

 In this competition there took part about a dozen young men, 

 all well grown, who in their turn stepped with some encouraging 

 cries or gestures into the circle in order to test their powers. 

 The spectators consisted of old men and women, and boys and 

 girls of all ages. Most of them were clean and well-dressed, and 

 had a very attractive appearance. 



Here it was the - youth of the village themselves that took 

 part in the contest. But there are also in Japan persons who 



