II.] STREETS OF NAPHA. 33 



gone to Japan, but that his place was filled by the Yice-Governor, 

 who had received our letter and would see us in the course of an 

 hour. We accordingly resolved to explore the town meanwhile, 

 and set off in company with our little Japanese friend, whose 

 presence served to free us from the enormous crowds that had so 

 interfered with our movements on our first arrival. 



The streets have a most peculiar appearance, owing to the 

 houses being built in little compounds, and separated from the 

 street and one another by massive walls from eight to fourteen feet 

 in height. These walls are of great thickness, and slope outwards 

 at the base in the same manner as those of the old feudal castles of 

 Japan. They are composed of large blocks of coralline limestone, 

 and are most beautifully built. For the most part they appear to 

 be of considerable antiquity, and we did not come across any which 

 led us to suppose that the islanders continue to build them at the 

 present day. They were no doubt originally constructed for purposes 

 of defence, most probably on account of the difficulty of defending 

 the town as a whole ; and, in the days of the infancy of artillery, 

 the enemy would have gained but little had they entered the city, 

 while they would in every direction have been exposed to a cross 

 fire which must speedily have decimated them. Every man's 

 house is literally his castle, the entrance to which is through a 

 narrow and easily-defended door in the high wall. Within, however, 

 the scene changes, and in a second of time one is transported to 

 another country. The houses, built entirely of wood, and dark 

 brown with age, display their interior with the inviting hospitality 

 so characteristic of Japan, The inmates, ignorant of the chairs and 

 tables of Western civilisation, recline peacefully on the thick 

 oblong mats neatly plaited of rice straw, and play at shattering 

 their nerves with the contents of lilliputian tea-cups and still more 

 lilliputian pipes. Outside is the familiar garden that all of us, 

 whether from books or from actual experience, know so well. The 

 pebbly paths leading to miniature bridges over embryonic lakes, 

 the little stone lanterns, the quaintly-clipped trees — all are 

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