270 
STREETS OF NAGASAKI. 
now looked down upon tlie land-locked harbour. To 
the right is Desima, and to the left is Pappcnberg, 
doum whose steep sides it is said fifteen thousand 
Christians were once precipitated. All around 
green wooded hills, checkered with fields of yellow 
wheat, rise up from the water’s edge. The dark 
smooth surface of the harbour Avas dotted with 
stranse-fashioned craft. The monotonous cries of 
the boatmen, ‘‘Ilsh-shia, ush-sliia,” faintly reached 
my ear, as, bending to their powerful sculls, these 
semi-nude athletes urged their sharp-proAved boats 
SAviftly through the Avater. Parties of women sang 
gaily as they crossed in boats from shore to shore ; 
fishing-boats AA^ere casting their nets, AA^hile clean 
unpainted trading junks s^^read their AAdiite sails to 
the faA’'Ouring breeze ; and the dark banner-bearing 
barge of the Jajianese governor, proj)elled by many 
oars, and looking like a galley of old Eome, moved 
Avith sloAv and solemn state to the sound of music. 
The long Avide streets of Nagasaki are sometimes 
very gay, especially on festive occasions, or in the 
evening A\dien the labours of the day are over, and 
