THE NAKASENDO 
139 
inches high for tea, and by it an iron, or bronze, brazier for kettle, 
pipe, and the warming of hands. Voild tout! Anything more abso¬ 
lutely unlike the busy fussiness of an English lady’s boudoir d 
la Japonais could scarcely be conceived. What, I repeat, was one 
to do ? As a fact I sat down on the floor and felt like a new doll 
plumped down in a strange doll’s house. While thus engaged, or it 
might be while dressing or undressing, a panel in the wall would 
noiselessly open, and a woman enter, cross the room, and disappear 
ghost-like through the opposite wall (for it is possible to walk right 
through a Japanese house in any direction). As the intruding lady 
manifested neither surprise nor abashment at my presence, why 
should I object to hers ? 
In these country inns the bedding consists of a number of very 
thick cotton quilts laid upon the floor, the guest insinuates himself at 
any desired level, under one, two, or three quilts according to the 
temperature—an excellent arrangement. Washing is done in a 
copper basin at a sink in the public passage, where soap is allowed; 
not so in the hot bath, the great Japanese institution. Out of defer¬ 
ence to our prejudices we were taken one by one to the bathroom, 
and as a very special attention the hand-maiden closed the door. 
The natives sit in rows in the bath, usually with the door open. A 
clergyman who has spent many years in the country told me that 
when the Mikado not long ago issued an edict stopping mixed bath¬ 
ing, the police in some cases, as a transition measure, were satisfied 
if a string was stretched across the bath with notices on either side: 
“ for ladies,” and, “ for gentlemen! ” 
Mais, revenons d nos moutons: several butterflies were taken the 
first day, May 7th, along the lower part of the road, 1 i.e. below 
2000 ft.; such were the big before-mentioned Satyr Blanaida gosch- 
Jcevitschii , of which but one was captured, though others were seen ; 
Argynnis anadyomene , Feld., a Fritillary recalling paphia , of which 
two were taken on mud in the road; Dichorrhagia nesimachus, 
Boisd., a nearly black FTymphaline butterfly with a weak fluttering 
flight, of which a single specimen was taken on a white dusty road, 
where, with its wings fully expanded and appressed to the surface, it 
was very conspicuous; our old friend Pyrameis cardui turned up, 
a worn specimen; of Libythea lepita , Moore, one was taken and 
another seen, both by the road on the first day of the expedition; 
three Swallow-tails come into the same category— Papilio maeilentus , 
1 This was written four years after the journey, and as my notes do not in all 
cases give the details it is quite possible that some of these species may have been 
seen at greater elevations. 
