DISCOVERY 



319 



families have almost despotic authority, and only the 

 heir, who is usually, though not invariably, the eldest 

 son, is allowed to marry. The other sons make irregu- 

 lar unions, the children of which are adopted into the 

 family of the mother. Some of the " villages " number 

 only two or three houses, while in one case there is but 

 a single house and to that is allotted a post-office of its 

 own ! In some of the side valleys leading off the main 

 one a distinct type of physiognomy has been observed. 

 ^\'hile the girls are noted for their good looks, both 

 they and the men generally possess oval faces, a white 

 complexion and regular features. Mv friend, Mr. 

 Oswald White, the British Consul at Nagasaki, one of 

 the few European travellers who have visited the valley, 

 tells me that these types appear to be possibly of 

 Korean origin, a conjecture which has additional 

 support from the fact that the northern borders of 

 the province in which they are found are \sithin a 

 few miles of the sea, across which Korea is easily 

 accessible. 



A tragic light was thrown on some of the strange 

 social sur\'iv£ds that are occasionally encountered in 

 secluded communities far removed from the sphere of 

 law and order administered by their official repre- 

 sentatives, through the discovery, by my hunters am I 

 myself, of the remains of some unfortunate man wh 

 had met the fate most repellent to a Japanese- i 

 violent death followed by no burial rites. Near th 

 foot of a peak in the heart of the Northern Japant^c- 

 Alps we found the bones of an outlaw whose fellow- 

 villagers had expelled him from their midst many years 

 before on account of his quarrelsome disposition and 

 unruly deeds. Some sort of mutual discipline was an 

 absolute necessity in lonely spots where no guardians of 

 the peace were at hand to help. For the common good 

 it was usual, in the case of such a persistent and in- 

 tractable reprobate, to erase his name for ever from 

 the village register, to present him with his birth 

 certificate, and then drive him forth never to return. 

 He then became a hi-nin-a (" no man "), a human 

 being who no longer possessed the rights or privileges 

 of manhood or of citizenship, for henceforth he belonged 

 to neither State, village, nor family. He was not only 

 without a home, but almost without a hope in the 

 world, for it was practically impossible for him to 

 obtain emplovment or assistance of any kind, however 

 sore his need. 



The hideousness of such a prospect can be fully 

 understood only by those who are familiar witli the 

 exceedingly sociable character of the dwellers in rural 

 Japan and the communistic nature of their daily life 

 and toil. There is, perhaps, no more interesting or 

 entertaining illustration of this engaging feature of 

 peasant life than is to be seen in the habits and customs 

 connected with the use of the " honourable hot water," 



whether in the semi-private bath of the country inn, 

 or in that public and popular institution, the mountain 

 mineral spring. Each of these is characteristically 

 Japanese. 



The European traveller on the unfrequented ways, 

 if he asks for the bathroom, will be conducted to 

 the corner of the front verandah of the house and 

 invited to step into the large oval tub that serves 

 for bath, and there submit to that process of 

 prolonged soaking which constitutes the Japanese 

 idea of a hot bath. He will be expected to do this 

 in full view of the friendly passers by, with whom he 

 can the more pleasantly pass the time in conversation. 

 There is, however, usually some competition for the 

 privilege of the first dip, if such a term is sufficiently 

 descriptive of an operation which involves a half-hour 

 of parboiling at a temperature of 110-115° F., 



succeeded by the actual washing dune uuUidc the 

 bath. Next follow, after his exit, the other guests 

 in order of arrival or of dignity, as the case may 

 be — men always first, then the landlord, succeeded 

 by the remaining males of the family. Finally, after 

 the landlady and the other female relatives have 

 finished, come the domestics, irrespective of sex, 

 according to the size of the tub and to the number 

 desirous of getting in at the same time. Thus the 

 splashing and chattering go on without ceasing for five 

 or si.v hours at a stretch. 



But it is the mountain mineral spring — the onsen — ■ 

 that furnishes us with the most striking and character- 

 istic popular institution of rural Japan, giving, as it 

 does, full scope to the sociability of its inhabitants ; 

 there is nothing quite like it in any other land. It is 



