25i KOREA. 



a fuss, dashing dowu close to his head, and screaming 

 ao angrily, that he beat a hasty retreat, much to my 

 anmsement. A couple of eagles were always hovering 

 about the peak, or along the rocks off the shore. They 

 were immature birds, which had probably crossed 

 over from Korea. 



The Japanese who inhabit the Goto Islands are 

 very poor. They live, like all the others, chiefly on fish 

 and rice, but seem to have less of it, and their lives 

 are harder than those on the mainland. In fact, they 

 appear very much neglected and unthought of by the 

 Government. I had some difficulty in finding accom- 

 modation for a surveying party, which I intended leav- 

 ing on one of the islands. At last a fair lady turned 

 up, who had a house she would let, though very 

 reluctantly ; she never appeared herself, but transacted 

 the business through a friend. The house was shown 

 to me by her servant, a nice-looking musumee. On my 

 returning in a month or so, the young widow ^ not only 

 had got over her antipathy to the foreigners, but looked 

 on them in a most friendly way, coming on board, and 

 appearing by no means anxious to part with her tenants. 

 Her little domestic was as sorry to lose the society of 

 the blue-jackets as her mistress was that of the officers. 

 ' The one referred to, p. 184. 



