462 STRENGTH OF JAPANESE 



with flowers and storks and dragons, and ample enough 

 to cover half his horse as well as to hide his own person. 

 He was a gay bird, indeed, but nothing in the old pictures, 

 or in the modern horse, shows him to have been much of 

 a rider. 



The modern Japanese horse is properly a beast of bur- 

 den ; so is the bullock ; so are the men and women. But 

 there are few horses and fewer bullocks, while men and 

 women are plenty. It seems to me that the Japanese 

 works harder than any other peasant in the world. The 

 loads he drags on his long two -wheeled cart are enor- 

 mous ; the speed and endurance of the jinricksha cooly 

 surpass those of any other. He is built for hard work. 

 With an extra big body in proportion to his small stature, 

 he has legs which are wonderful for their muscular devel- 

 opment; and he seems to be able to keep at his work 

 without distress. The 'ricksha man neither sweats nor 

 puffs, even after a long pull. A set of tandems took my 

 party sixteen long miles one morning in two hours and 

 twenty minutes, over a rise of four hundred feet ; they 

 went the last three miles downhill at a full run, apparent- 

 ly for the fun of it ; and when they pulled up not one of 

 the eight men was even breathing hard. The home trip 

 was at an equally lively pace. The demand has called out 

 a supply of runners. There is no need of a light draught- 

 horse in Japan. 



The Japanese is essentially a strong man of his inches, 

 and has endurance unspoiled by bad national habits. The 

 athletes are very able ; but until I saw them, I never 

 could explain to myself how men who eat and drink 

 themselves into mountains of fat could retain their pow- 

 ers of wrestling. On seeing the imperial champion, a 

 man of perhaps five feet seven this is tall for a Jap, 

 whose average height is little over five feet and weigh- 



