MANSION OF PLUM-TREES. 
Chap. IY. 
means the “ Mansion of Plum-trees.” Here we 
were met by mine host and some pretty damsels, 
and invited to partake of the usual refreshment. 
The “ Mansion of Plum-trees ” is one of the best 
of the class to which it belongs. It is arranged in 
the usual style, — that is, it has a number of apart- 
ments separated from each other by sliding doors, 
and raised floors covered with mats kept scrupu- 
lously clean, upon which the natives sit down to 
eat their meals and drink tea or saki. In front of 
the door there is a matted platform, raised about 
a foot from the ground and covered overhead. 
Ladies travelling in norimons or kangos, when 
about to stop at the tea-house, are brought along- 
side of this platform, the bearers give the convey- 
ance a tilt on one side, and the fair ones are literally 
emptied out upon the stage. They seem quite ac- 
customed to this treatment, and immediately gather 
themselves up in the most coquettish way pos- 
sible, and assume the squatting posture common in 
Japan. 
Whether we really needed refreshment, or whe- 
ther we could not resist the laughing-faced damsels 
above mentioned, is not of much moment to the 
general reader ; one thing is certain, that somehow 
or other we found ourselves within the “ Man- 
sion of Plum-trees,” surrounded by pretty, good- 
humoured girls, and sipping a cup of fragrant tea. 
One lady, not particularly young, and whom I took 
for the hostess, had adorned herself by pulling out 
her eyebrows and blackening her teeth, which cer- 
