ANOTIIEK KICKIXa-MATCII. 
273 
ated only by curiosity. After a while, however, they took 
it upon themselves to drive off some poor people who 
were picking up the refuse fish, at which I beckoned to 
the three men nearest me, and — considerably emboldened 
by the action of “ the prophet” at Si-mo-da — gave the 
officers several hearty kicks, when they ran off in great 
confusion, tripping over their swords and being followed 
by their ten or fifteen attendants. We then called the 
poor people back, one of whom was so delighted at the 
turn which things had taken that he at once commenced 
eating his fish raw, to our extreme disgust. He would 
pick a six-inch fellow up out of the sand by the tail, give 
him a flirt through the water to wash the sand off’ and 
then commence by biting off the entire head, after which 
he went regularly down to the tail, which he only threw 
away to enable him to grasp another. In justice to the 
Japanese at large, however, I must say that this was the 
only thing of the kind we ever saw. 
The kicking which we had administered to the officials 
seemed to have had the desired effect. They did not re- 
appear to trouble us, and we shortly returned on board 
with a well-loaded boat, and continued our sport daily as 
long as we remained. In this way one boat and a dozen 
men supplied our entire ship’s-company with fine fish ; 
while, had we consented to be browbeaten by the arro- 
gant officials, they would have furnished us an uncertain 
and stale supply at a greater cost than a butcher in the 
United States would charge for supplying a ship’s crew 
with beef and vegetables. 
At Ila-ko-da-di we found public bathing conducted 
exactly as at Si-mo-da, and in all other respects the people 
18 
