120 A WALK IN KIUSIU. 



Myrtles aad azaleas grew on all the more open 

 places ; the latter being in Ml blossom, and forming a 

 rich and beautiful carpet. Presently I heard some 

 laughing voices coming from the higher ground, and 

 almost immediately afterwards five girls hove in sight 

 each carrying a bundle of sticks. The two smallest, 

 who were only about three feet high, certainly had very 

 tiny bundles, of about half-a-dozen sticks apiece, but 

 the elder girls had enormous loads on their heads. 

 They rested a little, and told me they had come from 

 the village early in the morning. 



" You don't mean the village where the sulphur 

 spring is?" I said. 



" Yes, that's the one," they answered. 



" And these little things too, did they come all that 

 way?" I remarked. 



" Oh yes." 



" Why, it's one rii" (three miles), I said. 



" I think so," they answered. 



I candidly own the heap of sticks these girls carried 

 I could hardly move, except by rolling them along the 

 ground ; and to observe the way they again got them 

 on their heads was both instructive and curious. 

 Kneeling down in front of the bundles, they got their 

 head underneath them by some extraordinary working. 



