322 



I)IS(:ovi;hy 



ing warning in luigli-li was posted in one of these 

 vehicles, though it is only fair to explain that the 

 apparent discrimination was bj' no means intentionally 

 offensive : — 



All parsons icho arc intoxicated, lunatics, or injected 

 arc not allowed in here ! 



The rural Japanese always show courtesy and kind- 

 ness to strangers, a fact which I emphasised in an 

 earlier article in Discovery,' but I cannot refrain from 

 giving some further illustrations of these characteris- 

 tics here. Years ago, in the course of the exploration 

 of the line but unfamiliar peak of Akaishi-san, in the 

 central mass of the Southern Japanese Alps, I was 



TWO IICXTURS IN Tin; NORTIIICRN JAr.\Xi:Si; ALPS. 



Note the two distinct types : on tlie left the pudding faced Japanese peasant, 



and on the right the Korean. 



conducted, through the kind offices of the local police- 

 man, whose remote and lonely beat took him nearest 

 to the foot of my peak, to the shelter of the onsen of 

 Koshibu, the most secluded I had ever yet seen, and 

 hitherto unvisited by any European traveller. Its 

 guardian was a venerable old man of seventy- three, 

 with patriarchal air and prince-like manners. The 

 large bath tank, some twelve feet square, with its 

 water heated to about 120° F., stood before the 

 entrance of the rough chalet which did duty for an inn, 

 and was occupied, on my arrival, by a dozen bathers of 

 both sexes. My request for accommodation was 

 received with many signs of embarrassment and with 



' Vol. ii, No. 21. 



apologies for the deficiencies of his house ; "for you 

 see, sir," said he, " you are the first foreign gentleman 

 I have ever seen and my accommodation is so dis- 

 gustingly filthy that it is abominably rude of me to offer 

 it to you." He subsequently, unknown to me, turned 

 out the family party occupying the best room, such as 

 it was, and offered to eject the bathers from the bath, 

 in order that I might enjoy them both in privacy. He 

 only begged one favour in return, which was that when 

 the time for my evening meal arrived he might be 

 allowed to sit on the doorstep of my chamber and 

 watch me eat in " foreign style with foreign food." 

 During the days of my sojourn under his primitive but 

 most hospitable roof his sole prepossession was to 

 minister to my comfort and, indeed, to anticipate my 

 every wish, slender and simple though his resources 

 were. When at length I was about to take my leave 

 and no bill was forthcoming, I begged to know the 

 amount of my indebtedness. At first he refused pay- 

 ment, but at length, after much persuasion, he succeeded 

 in stammering out : 



" Do you think that 5 sen (a penny farthing) would 

 be too much ? " 



On my way back down the valley I paid a second 

 visit to a little inn whose landlord had already received 

 me with much hospitable attention. No sooner had I 

 arrived than he at once dispatched, unasked, a messen- 

 1,'er to a village in a neighbouring valley to bring back 

 for my inspection a wonderful stone which he was told 

 had been discovered in the stomach of an iuashika 

 (mountain antelope), the chamois of the Japanese 

 Alps. It proved to be about the size and shape of a 

 turkey's egg, of a buff colour and quite smooth, except 

 • I a one side where a piece had been cliipped off. Sub- 

 >.quent investigation revealed it to be a bezoar stone 

 Mich as is described by Dr. Bonney in his Alpine 

 Regions." p. 180, when speaking of the chamois of 

 Switzerland : " Owing probably to the resin contained 

 in so much of their food and its fibrous character, a 

 hard, dark-coloured ball, from the size of a walnut to 

 that of an egg, of a bitter taste but of a pleasant odour, 

 is often found in their stomachs. This is called 

 ' Bezoar,' and it was anciently supposed to cure all 

 evils and to be a protection even against musket 

 shots." 



Later on I found mj'self once more beyond the region 

 of hotels or inns, bound for the ascent of Jonendake. 

 another fine peak hitherto unascended by foreign 

 travellers, and was constrained to throw myself on the 

 hospitality of a complete stranger, the patriarchal 

 head man of a small scattered hamlet in the foot-liills 

 w-est of the Matsumoto plain amid the Northern Alps 

 of Japan. On making known my object. I was received 

 with the politest of greetings, first from the good sonclio 



2 Published by DciRhton, Bell & Co.. Cambridse. 186S. 



