Chap. IX. MENDICANT NUNS. ’ 137 
ornamental or useful character that was new to our 
English gardens. This, however, could not last for 
ever ; and the time came when I had apparently 
exhausted the novelties in the capital of Japan. 
Baskets were now procured, in which the plants 
were carefully packed and sent down by boat to 
Yokohama, where Ward’s cases were being made, 
in which they were to be planted and sent home to 
England. 
On the 28th of November I left the hospitable 
quarters of the English minister, on my return to 
Kanagawa. I returned hv the way I came — along 
the Tokaido, or great highway of Japan. Again 
we passed through the scenes I have already de- 
scribed : beggars on the wayside, mendicant priests, 
Bihuni or begging nuns, travelling musicians, 
coolies carrying manure as in China, lumbering 
carts * and pack-horses, and travellers of all ranks, 
were met and passed on the road. 
Here are some Bikuni, or mendicant nuns, 
sketched on the spot by my friend Dr. Dickson. 
Kaempfer gives us the following description of 
this religious order : — “ They live under the pro- 
tection of the nunneries at Kamakura f and Miaco, 
to which they pay a certain sum every year, of 
what they get by begging, as an acknowledgment 
of their authority. They are, in my opinion, much 
the handsomest girls we saw in Japan. The 
f Kamakura. See Chap. XIV. 
[ suburbs of Yedo, 
