THE DAIMIO 459 



of his side, with Avhich he starts and is kept provided, into 

 goal, and to prevent his opponents from so doing- with 

 their own. A barrier keeps the players from coming 

 within eighteen feet of goaL Seven balls goaled on either 

 side finishes the first stage of the game, when one ball 

 alone, for the side having so scored, is kept on the field. 

 If this side can also goal this last ball, it wins. Games 

 lasting over half an honr are drawn. The game is very 

 full of nicety, but lacks the vigor of ours. 



In olden times — and olden times in Japan date only 

 back of 1855, when Commodore Perry so lustily knocked 

 at her doors — there was a rider in this land of the rising 

 sun. Tradition and art combine to prove his existence. 

 He may have been a daimio or baron ; he may have be- 

 longed to the samurai or gentry, which was also the war- 

 rior class. As every one who has ever seen a Japanese 

 picture-book will remember, this rider is generally repre- 

 sented by the old artists in a peculiarly fierce attitude, and 

 with an expression which the vulgar imagine to be evoked 

 b}^ the determination to conquer some mighty enemy, to 

 slay some grewsome dragon, or to face some gibbering, 

 squeaking ghost, the most fiendish of all Japanese fiends ; 

 but to my horseman's eve the expression clearlv denotes 

 a determination to stick to the saddle for the next half- 

 hour or perish in the attempt. The act of riding appears 

 to have been more terrible to the ancient Japanese war- 

 rior than the enemy. If the daimio rode as he is depicted 

 as riding, he was not even a man on horseback ; he was a 

 man who might stay on horseback or might not. Like 

 Jolin Leech's Frenchman describing his experiences in the 

 hunting-field, he might explain : " Ven she joamp easj^, I 

 am; 7na{s ven she joamp so 'ar-r-rd, I do not r-r-remain." 



But he had a noteworthy saddle, this daimio — a saddle 

 of gold lacquer. This may not sound very wonderful. 



