I 
CIIAPTEE XII. 
WE LAND IN JAPAN, AND VISIT A NUMBER OP AMERICANS AND ONE RUS- 
SIAN — ‘‘MAHOMET AND THE MOUNTAIN” DIFFER AS TO THE MOST PLEA- 
SANT DIRECTION FOR A STROLL, AND FINALLY PART COMPANY, TO THE 
EVIDENT ANNOYANCE OF THE LATTER. 
And now we were in Japan, among the mysterious 
people who for the last three hundred years had amused 
themselves by tying and otherwise harshly treating all 
shipwrecked mariners of whatever nation, and with whom 
the world was now beginning to renew its acquaintance 
after an isolation of centuries. It was a thrilling thought 
— the very idea of landing among them; and, although 
it was raining when our guests of the last chapter left, 
several of us armed ourselves with umbrellas and took a 
boat for the beach. We landed between Ka-ga-sa-ki and 
the sea, and followed the beach until we reached the out- 
skirts of the former, when we began to be struck by the 
great number of children and pretty girls that came for- 
ward to welcome us. They seemed quite anxious to see 
strangers, coming out of their houses, and lining our 
path with their fancifully-painted umbrellas overhead 
and their awkward stilt-like sandals underfoot. There 
was considerable pertness, too, as well as curiosity, in their 
glances, but as a general rule their bearing was marked 
by any thing but boldness. The people of this particular 
locality had seen so mixch of our countrymen, and appa- 
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