298 SPORT AND TRAVEL PAPERS 



along with the aid of a stick, warning people of his approach by 

 occasional very plaintive notes on a bamboo flute, while the 

 strains of a samisen here and there mingled with the shouts 

 and clatter of the many people hurrying to and fro. The men 

 were mostly clad in dark blues, the women in greys, relieved 

 with bright obis, many with a flower in their raven coiffure. 

 The low houses on either side with their dark wooden gables 

 were embellished with many-coloured cotton hangings, paper 

 lanterns, or large banners covered with Japanese characters 

 attached to long poles ; picture advertisements are everywhere 

 seen, chiefly of cigarettes and tobacco. The most frequent of 

 these was a vividly coloured representation of the god " Tengu," 

 with a brilliantly carmine and extremely long nose, in close 

 attendance upon a lady, who, to judge from her looks, does 

 not greatly appreciate his celestial attentions ; also another, a 

 Japanese officer in full uniform, and thorough enjoyment ap- 

 parently, of an enormous cigarette. The houses were still all 

 open and lighted up, affording interesting glimpses of Japanese 

 home life and the industrious natives yet busy at their various 

 trades, for this is a hard-working people with no nonsense about 

 eight hours. Here and there, however, men and women, the 

 day's labour over, sat round the charcoal brazier smoking their 

 tiny pipes and sipping tea from pretty little cups, evidently dis- 

 cussing current affairs. A constantly shifting scene of busy life 

 in most attractive colouring, and highly interesting as it unrolled 

 itself before the rapidly passing stranger. 



After a forty minutes' drive we arrived at the foot of a bridge 

 which spans the river, and here we got out and found our way, 

 with the help of a lantern, to the water-side and our boat. A 

 very comfortable boat it was, with a " house " in the middle, the 

 shutters open all round, the floor covered with mats and cushions, 

 and lighted by those very pretty paper lanterns for the making 

 of which Gifu is famous. On many of these are coloured illus- 

 trations of cormorant fishing. Thus comfortably settled, we 

 were poled into the dark night, lighted only by numerous fire- 

 flies, and across the darker river, under the bridges and down- 

 stream, until presently we saw a big light, which on nearer 

 approach proved to be the brightly burning fire in an iron 

 brazier suspended beyond the bows of a fishing-boat. The 

 strong light made the night beyond doubly dark, but lighted 



