206 
A JAPANESE GRAVEYARD. 
built tbe temple. Between this latter and the hill-side — 
in fact, extending up into the bushes — was a Japanese 
graveyard, — a most singular-looking graveyard to stranger 
eyes, and yet incapable of being mistaken for any thing 
else. 
It was laid out in walks and beds something after the 
fashion of a flower-gal’den, and contained thousands and 
thousands of small stone images that varied in size from 
six inches to two or three feet. These were arranged 
about in spots without much regard to the beauty of 
effect, being piled together like so many bricks, or scat- 
tered about in the most convenient corners and crevices. 
Some I even saw stuck up in the spreading branches of 
the trees, and others again that, having been put at the 
foot of a tree between two roots, the latter had grown 
around them and rendered their removal no longer pos- 
sible. We were given to understand, by one Japanese, 
that these images contain the ashes of defunct officers; 
and, by another, that they were intended simply as tomb- 
stones to mark where the ashes had been laid. And this 
latter authority I rather incline to, though it is dangerous 
to believe any thing that a two-sworded Japanese tells 
you. 
As we entered upon the cleanly-swept space in front 
of the temple and looked around us, "we saw a dozen or 
more of these two-sworded gentry lounging about the 
yard, while a number of others were engaged with their 
pipes in the spy-house. These latter were the superiors, 
who, in that dreamy state of enjoyment, awaited the fre- 
quent reports that were brought to them by the former in 
regard to every movement of the occupants of the temple. 
