III.] SHIUEI. 55 



Here and there we got glimpses of pretty valleys lying on either 

 side of our path, but, on approaching Shiuri, walls of heavy masonry 

 shut out all view except that immediately in front of us. The gate 

 of the city is more Chinese than Japanese in construction — a sort 

 of two-storied porch, the gable ends of which are slightly upturned, 

 supported on four enormous wooden pillars, which are strengthened 

 by piers after the fashion of the hea\der torii in front of the Shinto 

 temples in Japan. The road leads hence straight up to the fort 

 and palace on the summit of the hill, but our destination being the 

 guard-house, which here, as at Napha, appears to serve also as a 

 sort of kung-kiua or rest-house, we diverged to the left. Ac- 

 companied by a crowd which threatened before long to reach the 

 dimensions of the one that witnessed our start, we passed through 

 a broad street, and disinterring our cramped limbs from the un- 

 comfortable palanquins, found ourselves before one of the quaintest 

 scenes imaginable. 



Perhaps one of the greatest charms that Japan has for Europeans, 

 at any rate on first acquaintance, is its unreality. As far as it 

 affects the natural features of the country, I confess that I think 

 the attraction fades with wonderful rapidity. I do not mean that 

 there is no scenery of real beauty in Japan, for every one who has 

 seen Nikko under the reddening maples, or explored the splendid 

 gorges of the Tenriu-gawa, must allow that their beauty is hardly 

 likely to be surpassed in any country. But the ordinary views of 

 village life, which are to the new-comer so attractive from their 

 very novelty, eventually become rather more than wearisome. The 

 scene that lay before us had this Japanese peculiarity of quaintness 

 and unreality to a marked degree, but was at the same tmie so 

 beautiful that it was a great disappointment to me when I after- 

 wards discovered that, owing to a faulty plate, my photograph of it 

 had been a complete failure. The house was placed at the edge of 

 a miniature lake, whose still, black waters were dotted with lotus 

 plant. The rich green leaves and delicate pink flowers were 

 mirrored on its surface with marvellous clearness, and on the 



