294 
YOKOHAMA. 
distilleries, where we passed along dark narrow 
galleries, full of huge wooden casks and puncheons, 
and piled with flasks, jars, and queer-shaped vessels 
filled with the favourite spirit. 
It was a source of great amusement to me during 
our stay at Yokohama, where w^e remained a short 
time, to rummage among the art treasures in the 
bazaars and curiosity shops. The love of the 
grotesque, so strongly developed among flie people, 
is shown in many ways, and among others in those 
small wood and ivory carvings called buttons,'^ 
which the better classes wear attached to their 
tobacco-pouches. These exquisite carvings in ivory 
are difficult to obtain, although inferior imitations 
• ° 
are not uncommon. 
In the course of my researches I became ac- 
quainted with an old curiosity dealer, a melancholy, 
ugly being, by the way, between whom and myself 
a close friendship was cemented, in consequence of 
our common appreciation of these quaint little 
“ curios.” He would draw in his breath, and heave 
a sigh of profound admiration as he produced from 
