338 
THE VOYAGE OF THE VEGA. 
[chap. 
speed however, so that we traversed the road between Ikaho 
and Savavatari, 6 ri, or 23*6 kilometres in length, in ten hours. 
The road, which was exceedingly beautiful, ran along flowery 
banks of rivulets, overgrown with luxuriant bamboo thickets, 
and many different kinds of broad-leaved trees. Only round 
the old temples, mostly small and inconsiderable, were to be 
seen ancient tall Cryptomeria and Ginko trees. The burying 
places were commonly situated, not as at home, in the neigh¬ 
bourhood of the larger temples, but near the villages. They 
were not inclosed, but marked out by stone monuments from a 
third of a metre to half a metre in height, on one side of which 
an image of Buddha was sometimes sculptured. The recent 
graves were often adorned with flowers, and at some of them 
small foot-high Shinto shrines had been made of wooden pins. 
Savavatari, like Ikaho, is built on the slope of a hill. The 
streets between the houses are almost all stairs or steep ascents. 
Here too there well up from the volcanic rocks acidulous 
springs, at which invalids seek to regain health. The watering- 
place, however, is of less repute than Ikaho or Kusatsu. 
While we walked about the village in the evening we saw 
at one place a crowd of people. This was occasioned by a 
competition going on there. Two young men, who wore no 
other clothes than a narrow girdle going round the waist and 
between the legs, wrestled within a circle two or three metres 
across drawn on a sandy area. He was considered the victor 
who threw the other to the ground or forced him beyond the 
circle. A special judge decided in doubtful cases. The be¬ 
ginning of the contest was most peculiar, the combatants 
kneeling in the middle of the circle and sharply eying each 
other in order to make the attack at a signal given by the judge, 
when a single push might at once make an end of the contest. 
In this competition there took part about a dozen young men, 
all well grown, who in their turn stepped with some encouraging 
cries or gestures into the circle in order to test their powers. 
