WHALE HUNTING WITH GUN AND CAMERA 



bone or swung the hundred-pound chunks of flesh 

 into the waiting hand cars which carried them to the 

 washing vats. Sometimes a kimona-clad, bare-footed 

 girl slipped on the oily boards or treacherous, slid- 

 ing, blubber cakes and sprawled into a great pool of 

 blood, rising amid roars of laughter to shake herself, 

 wipe the red blotches from her little snub nose and 

 go on as merrily as before. 



It was essentially a good-natured crowd, working 

 hard and ceaselessly but apparently deriving as much 

 fun from their labor as though it were a holiday. 

 The spirit of the place was infectious, and as I 

 splashed about in the blood and grease, I talked and 

 joked with the cutters in bad Japanese, causing 

 screams of laughter when I seriously informed them 

 that "the sun was very hot water" by the quite natu- 

 ral mistake of substituting the word cotsui-yu for 

 atsui (hot). 



Almost every night we would be awakened by the 

 siren whistle bringing the news of more whales. If 

 I did not at once stir, the little amah (maid), always 

 devoted to my interests, would quietly slide back the 

 paper screen to the sleeping room and say, ''Andrews- 

 San, go Hogei wa kujira ga torri mashita" (Hogei 

 No. 5 has caught whales). When I had rolled out 

 of the comfortable futons and begun to dress, I would 

 hear little Scio-san pattering about in the other room, 

 gathering my pencils, notebook, and tape measure. 

 Looking like a beautiful night-moth in her bright-col- 

 ored kimona, with the huge bow of her obi (sash) al- 

 ways neatly arranged, she would be there to help me 



