igoo] Hard Luck 



best of our catch came not from the sea, but from 

 scraping the ditches in the rice fields. The inn, wauhesof 

 though friendly, was primitive, and as often happens '■^' '"«''' 

 in the humbler houses, night seemed to be divided 

 into watches. For the first hour mice scampered 

 over the floor; then, all becoming quiet, a starved 

 cat got on the roof and wailed dejectedly for an 

 hour or two. Japanese cats, I may say, play in the 

 hardest kind of luck, having neither milk nor meat, 

 only scraps, mostly fishbones, which no one else will 

 eat. Dogs suffer the same sorrows; most of them are 

 cross and miserable. At Tsuruga I saw one being fed 

 on sweet pickles supplemented by only a tiny scrap of 

 fish, and he looked up sadly as he pushed the pickles 

 aside as much as to say: "I'd like to, but I can't." 



By the time the cat was quiet, up rose a bantam 

 rooster, a tiny red fellow about as big as a robin, who 

 crowed lustily. The hen made her nest on a shelf 

 in the hotel office, and the cock occasionally flew up 

 to sit beside her — very friendly and nice of him if 

 he had not got up so early. As to the cat again, we 

 noticed with pain that cat bridges extend from one 

 roof to another; but were consoled by the reflection 

 that they are used going as well as coming. 



From Kawatana we proceeded inland to Kurume, Kmume 

 .a quiet, old-fashioned city on the banks of the f^^^^^^^ 

 Chikugo, a big river, and for our purposes the best 

 stream in Japan, since from it we obtained collec- 

 tions of unusual scientific interest. Near Kurume 

 are the mineral springs of Funayado on a high bluff 

 above a rushing river. The carbonated water is 

 of excellent quality, the inn attractive, and well-to-do 

 folk from the countryside gather there to drink, 

 bathe, fish, and loiter. 



c 35 : 



