238 HOUSES, DOORS, AND WINDOWS. 
beautiful piece of work, truly, but then what use can it 
be put to?’' “I don't believe they would know what to 
do with it themselves,” &c. &c. ; and it was really singular 
how many things there were to which similar remarks 
would apply. 
And now let me end this chapter by giving a rough 
idea of the Japanese .houses. They are generally built 
of rough stone-masonry, or upright poles placed very 
close together and plastered over like laths, and they 
are from one to two stories in height. They are some- 
times thatched, but more general!}' tiled, and at Ila-ko- 
da-di these tiles were in turn covered by tons of difiei'ent- 
sized stones, apparently sufficient in some cases to crush 
in the whole roof. They are partitioned off into several 
mysterious apartments, and have doors hung on iron 
or wooden hinges and which fasten with the ordinary 
string-latch. The floors of all those which I entered were 
raised about a foot, and covered by oblong sections of 
stuffed matting, which fitted so snugly together that there 
was no danger of getting the foot into the cracks. These 
mats were as soft as the seat of an ordinary hair-sofa, 
and were always kept^ beautifully clean, — persons leaving 
their sandals in a square earthen cuddy-hole before step- 
ping upon them. 
These rooms receive light and ventilation thi’ough 
most ingeniously-contrived windows, and many of the 
partitions and doors are after the same idea. Having no 
glass, they are forced to use a very strong and semi-trans- 
parent bamboo-paper, which they stretch over the frames 
very tightly and then paste down. These frames are just 
like ours, only the surface of the cross-pieces is flat, to 
