14a INTERIOR OF A COTTAGE. 
winter. The richer inhabitants have gardens and 
courtyards ornamented with fish-ponds, and planted 
with dwarfed trees in the Japanese style. 
In a quiet stroll I came across a stone-built 
cabin, a sort of isolated cottage j)laced in a little 
garden. Not a soul was visible, so I entered cau- 
tiously and peered about. It was a long narrow 
house, with two pointed gable-ends, and a sloping 
roof, which' projected into wide eaves, forming a 
balcony, supported by stout wooden posts, under 
the shade of which a long raised bench or platform 
extended the whole length of the building. On this 
platform I pictured . the entire finnily sitting cross- 
legged on a long summer s day, smoking, chatting, 
and laughing at some good joke. The windows 
were square, and instead of glass were covered with 
oiled paper; they were furnished, moreover, with 
moveable wooden shutters. I entered the cooking 
room, and found it a very dirty, dingy, low, 
unsavoury kitchen, with a bench at the further 
end, elevated a little above the floor, whereon stood 
the cooking utensils belonging to the household, a 
