476 EXPEDITION TO JAPAN. 



By the burial gi-ound at Hakodadi, whicli was allotted to oiii' countrymen and had been lorg 



used by the Japanese themselves, there is a Buddhist temple surrounded with an enclosure 



containing large roughly carved stones, intended to represent deities, and inscribed with various 



devices and religious apothegms. There are also several of the rotary praying machines, 



already described, and when the chaplain turned enquiringly to the apparatus, the Japanese 



put their hands together, signifying that it was intended for prayer, and then pointed to the 



prayer-book in Mr. Jones' hands, implying that it was used for the same purpose, an 



explanation which the good chaplain felt to be anything but a compliment to his much valued 



manual of devotion. By the way, on the subject of prayer, the chaplain had an opportunity to 



obtain further information. One day he wandered into a Buddhist temjile when the Japanese 



were at worship. There was a large altar exactly similar to that in a Komish church, with a 



gilt image in its recess ; two handsome lamps lighted, two large candles burning, artificial 



flowers, &c., with an abundance of gilding; there were also two side altars with candles on 



them burning. Before the principal altar, within an enclosure, were five j^riests, robed and on 



their knees, the chief one striking a small saucer-shaped bell, and three others with padded 



drumsticks striking hollow wooden lacquered vessels, which emitted a dull sound. They kej^t 



time, and toned their prayers to their music in chanting ; after chanting, they knelt again, and 



touched the floor with their foreheads ; after which they repaired to the side altars and had a 



short ceremony before each of them. When all was over, one of the priests approached, and, 



pointing to an image, asked Mr. Jones what it was called in America. He answered : " Nai," 



" we have it not." He then pointed to the altars and asked the same question, to which he 



received the same reply. When the chaplain left the temple, as he walked on, his official 



attendant asked him ' if the people prayed in America ? ' He was answered in the affirmative, 



and Mr. Jones, dropping on one knee, joined his hands, and, with upturned face, closed his 



eyes, and pointed to the heavens, to intimate by signs that we pray to a being there. He then 



asked his attendants if they prayed to that being? He replied : " Yes ; we pray to Tien," their 



word for heaven or God. 



To return to our narrative of matters connected with the funeral, it was found, in a few days 

 after the interment of our countryman, that the Japanese authorities had caused to be erected a 

 neat picket fence around the American graves, before it was known to our officers.* 



After a farewell visit of ceremony on shore, and an interchange of courtesies and presents, 

 (among which was a block of granite for the Washington monument,) the Powhatan and 

 Mississippi, which were the only vessels of the squadron left, took their departure for Simoda 



* The seamen of the Vandalia, to the crew of which ship the deceased had belonged, with a pious reverence for their 

 departed sliipmates sleeping in that distant land, erected a gravestone, upon which was inscribed an epitaph of tlieir own 

 composition, in the following words, cut by the Japanese in English letters from a copy furnished them : 



" Sleeping on a foreign shore, 

 Rest, sailor, rest! thy trials o'er; 

 Thy shipmates leave this token here. 

 That some, percliance, may drop a tear 

 For one that braved so long the blast, 

 And served his country to the last." 



The want of poetic inspiration in this humble tribute may well be forgiven for the sake of its mingled affection and patriotism. 

 Poor Jack may not be able to write poetry, and yet his heart may feel as strongly as another man's those deep emotions of our 

 nature which underlie the poet's work, when, " with his singing-robes about him," he soars aloft witli bis impassioned gushes 

 of spirit-stirring song, or, it may be, in gentler mood, breathes, as it were, on iEolian harp-slrings, maliing the sadder " music 

 hat can move to tears. " 



