Chap. XIY. HER EXTRAORDINARY CONDUCT. 229 
the fierce heat to which we had been exposed for 
some hours, crowds of people assembled on the road 
in front of the inn, all anxious to get a glimpse of 
their foreign visitors. All at once there seemed 
some commotion amongst them, and they rushed 
away to look at some one who was coming towards 
our inn by a cross road not visible from the rooms 
we occupied. At first we thought this excite- 
ment was caused by a fresh arrival of foreigners 
from Kanagawa, who had promised to come after 
us and join our party. Presently, however, our 
mad friend came in sight, carrying in her arms a 
bundle of branches and some sticks of incense, as 
if she contemplated paying a visit to the temples 
or to the tombs. Poor thing ! she seemed to be 
good-humoured and harmless in her insanity ; and 
even the little children, although they ran away 
when she approached them, did not seem much 
afraid of her. She soon returned from the tem- 
ples, and then employed herself in fetching water 
and pulling grass and weeds for our horses, which 
were tied up on the roadside in front of the inn. 
While engaged in this operation she seemed to 
fancy that the horses were fit objects of adoration ; 
and as she fed each animal with grass, or gave it 
water, she closed her hands in an attitude of devo- 
tion, and muttered to it some Buddhist form of 
prayer. 
When we had rested a short time in the inn we 
rode out to pay a visit to a large bronze statue 
which is considered one of the lions of the district. 
