280 
'W HAT WE SAW IN THE SEA-GOD’S TEMPLE. 
something very much like an ordinary dog-kennel. This 
■was by no means pleasant climbing, as one every now and 
then put his hand upon a king-crab, a young bat, or some 
object ecpially pleasant to the touch: still, we climbed on, 
and finally reached the top. 
It proved to be a rugged mound, half rock and half 
earth, and the dog-kennel to be a grotesquely-carved josh- 
house, within whose closed portals we discovered a finely- 
executed bronze casting of their sea-god. A number of 
copper cash were around about his sacred feet, and a 
gilded serpent twined around his licad and reared its 
wide-spread jaws over the stupid Oriental eyes of the 
image. Altogether it was a most singular-looking ^‘josh,'* 
and more than one of the party (as it was subsequently 
acknowledged, though every one protested at the time 
that it would be a wanton outrage against the Japanese) 
came to the secret determination to get possession of it 
before leaving the port. Ho one had the face to molest 
it then^ from the simple fact that we knew that the Ja- 
panese spies had kept their glasses (they get these 
through the Dutch at Han-ga-sa-ki) on our every movement 
since leaving the ship, and that they would visit the cave 
immediately after night to see if we had carried off any 
thing. So we went away empty-handed, if I may except 
an unfortunate young bat which was mercilessly crowded 
into a large-mouthed bottle by our enterprising assistant 
naturalist and acting junior engineer, L. M. Squires, Esq. 
While making our exit from this heathen temple, we 
noticed that the archway which led to it was about 
one hundred jmrds long, crooked like an elbow, from 
five to ten yards in width, and of an average height 
