26 EXPEDITION TO JAPAN. 



large tenants, and by them sub-let to smaller ones, until it reaches the family or individual 

 cultivator. All this is upon the Metayer system, or plan of paying (in this instance "as 

 taxes") a certain proportion of the produce. 



Labor and habitations.— -Labor is almost exclusively performed by human beings— men and 



women a small portion only being done by horses and bulls. The laborers are supervised 



by men in authority, who carry umbrellas. "Whether they are policemen, tenants directing 

 their employes, or agents of government acting as overseers, I do not know. If the latter, it 

 would make the government landlord and tenant both, and leave the laborer to be paid in 

 kind. 



The habitations are not scattered promiscuously over the land, but are collected into villages, 

 larger or smaller, according to the fertility of the district, and are located upon a rocky or 

 sterile spot, when not inconvenient, and all the inhabitants repair to them at night. The 

 houses and their arrangements are all alike. Placed a little back from the streets, they are 

 embowered on all sides by bamboos or trees, with a small open space or yard around them. In 

 this, to the rear, is the invariable pig-pen, and, in front, the equally invariable hutch or poul- 

 try-house. In several, are a cow-house and a stable; and in a few, granaries. The houses 

 themselves are of frame-work and boards, with plank floors and thatched roofs, comfortable, 

 though small. The streets are lined on either side by bamboos or evergreen trees; and when 

 these are not sufficiently close to insure privacy, that is effected by cane matting or stone 

 walls ; many of them are so worn by long use as to be several feet below the original surface. 

 These villages are quite romantic, and more beautiful than any of like pretensions I have ever 

 seen. 



Implements, — rude and simple. The plough is small and light, tnade upon the old Greek 

 or Koman model, and drawn by one bull, or a single horse. 



The harrow is a large rake, of one bull or head-piece, from four to six feet long, and the same 

 number of inches square. Two upright pieces and a cross-bar answer for a handle. The teeth 

 are of iron, six to ten inches long, and about eight apart. 



The large hoe is shaped to cut twelve or sixteen inches deep at one lick. It is five or six 

 inches wide at the cutting-edge, and eight or ten inches at the top. The "eye" is peculiar, 

 being formed by a broad flat piece of iron welded across the top of the blade, leaving an open- 

 ing below, into which the helve or handle is inserted. This broad piece serves to strengthen 

 the handle when used in leverage. The helve is only some two or three feet long. 



The small hoe is about the size of an American grubbing-hoe, with "eye" as above, and a 

 small handle six or eight inches long. 



The sickle (hook or reaper) is an iron blade one inch wide, some eight inches long, very 

 slightly curved, and attached at right angles to a wooden handle a foot in length. 



The axe is a wooden mallet, with a handle of the usual length, and the head-piece small, but 

 long and shod with iron — the cutting-part. Indeed, iron is so scarce that their anvils are not 

 equal in size to a block six inches square. 



These are all the implements of agriculture recollected to have been seen, except a sugar- 

 mill and a quern or hand-mill, (if these fall under that denomination,) which will be noticed 

 hereafter. 



Grading, culture, &c. — Two objects seem to influence the islanders in all their operations, 

 viz : the retention of water or moisture, and the avoidance of surface-washing. To effect these 



