WHALE HUNTING WITH GUN AND CAMERA 



cific, of which he had so often told her. And when 

 the season was ended and she had ventured to ask 

 the American-san himself to thank the joss, and to 

 please her he had done so, her joy could hardly be 

 contained and the tip of her little nose was almost 

 red from constant rubbing on the tatami (floor mat- 

 ting) in her bows of thanks and farewell. 



Even though it was the very middle of the night 

 when a ship's whistle sounded, long before the whale 

 had been dropped at the wharf paper lanterns, flash- 

 ing like fireflies, would begin to shine and disappear 

 among the thatched-roofed cottages and the crowd of 

 villagers gathering at the end of the wharf. Half- 

 naked men, child-faced geishas, and little youngsters 

 carrying sleeping babies as large as themselves 

 strapped to their backs, formed a curious, picturesque, 

 ever changing group. 



Fires of coal and fat in iron racks along the wharf 

 threw a brilliant, yellow light far out over the bay 

 filled with whale ships, heavy, square-sterned fishing- 

 boats and sampans, and gave weird fantastic shapes 

 to the cutters as it glistened on their dripping knife 

 blades and danced over the pools of blood. But the 

 work always went on as quickly as in the daytime, 

 no matter what the hour or weather, for the meat and 

 blubber must be hurried on board fast transports and 

 sent to the nearest city to be sold in the markets and 

 peddled from house to house. 



Few people realize the great part which whale meat 

 plays in the life of the ordinary Japanese. Too poor 

 to buy beef, their diet would include little but rice, 



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