Volume II Part 5 (1/2)

The pipe, I regret to say, is in vulgar circles used as a dohty may receive a severe bloith the _kiseru_, or even many However, it is not so bad as the instruue elsewhere

I a worth your while to read about the pipe, but I think the japanese pipe is really worth iven it

NOTE Women's pipes have a special, delicate form--and are made very small and dainty--also their _tabako-ire_

TO BASIL HALL CHAMBERLAIN

YURA, August, 1891

DEAR PROFESSOR CHAMBERLAIN,--If you are not frightfully busy, which I suppose nobody is at this time of the year, perhaps some of my adventures will interest you

I found that the Bon-odori is different, not only in every village, but even in every commune So I was very anxious to see all the varieties of this curious dance that I could I heard that at Otsuka, near Yabase, there was a very remarkable kind of dance danced; and I went, in japanese costume, with a dozen citizens of Yabase, to see it It turned out to be not worth seeing at all: the people had no --or rather, much less, than Sioux or Co village,--full of rude energy and, I a to say about any japanese town But I have been in about 50 japanese villages, where I loved all the people, and always made a few of theeneral rule about the relation between foreigners and _hyakusho-no-jin_ At Otsuka the people left their dance to pelt the foreigner with little pellets of sand andout: ”Bikki!--bikki!” What that means I do not know So both I and the whole of the Yabase people turned back

The pelting was not very savage--it was just like the work of naughty children: a foreign mob would have thrown stones, which these folk were very careful not to do--in spite of the fact that there were no police

I passed through this village twice since, and found the attitude of its people peculiarly rough--bordering upon hostility Cohness of--say a Barbadoes avean alien that I have ever had in japan

I have just returned froo-ike,--a place described in your Guide

Frankly, I detest Togo-ike But it is extre japanese--especially the _shobai_ Ied wooded hills, with a lakelet in the(at most) by half a mile broad, and hotels built out into the water The coldest place I have yet been in japan The hotels are supplied with hot water froh bamboo pipes, but the baths do not compare with those of the much humbler Izu, sickly, but this may be idiosyncrasy To one who has lived in the tropics the chill of rice-fields means fever and death; and some of my old tropical fears came up Then the hotel has only _mishi+do_, no _karakami_,--so that one is never alone One hour of Yabase is worth a season at Togo-ike--free of expense--to one who loves quiet and sioing to Mionoseki

I have given up Oki, until winter The health and strength I get froet to Oki later

Ever yours, LAFCADIO HEARN

TO SENTARO NIshi+DA

YABASE, August, 1891

DEAR MR NIshi+DA,--I have had a pleasant ti, drinking sake, and bathing Yabase is about the most pleasant place I ever stopped at here

But, alas!--_I saw no Bon-odori_ at all at shi+one too soon;--at Yabase, there is no Bon-odori; and at Otsuka, where I next travelled, on foot, to see the Bon-odori, I had an adventure of a peculiar kind

Otsuka see noisy countrymen; and when they are full of sake inclined to be ner The foreigner took refuge from the pressure of the crowd in a house, where he sat upon the floor, and smoked The crowd came into the house and round the house, and uttered curious observations and threw sand and water at the foreigner Therefore the people of Yabase, who had accoorous protests; and we all returned to Yabase together At Yabase, the police and some of the principal people more than made up to ized for the Otsuka folk until I was really asha so kindly looked after; and I was entertained very generously; and the police toldin the world I wished their advice or help about, only to send them word (The hostility of the Otsuka folk was really a very childish sort of thing, not wortha fuss about;--a Western croould have thrown stones or rotten eggs Indeed I am not sure whether the croas really hostile at all I rather think that they wanted to see the foreigner move,--so they tried to e)

To-ret leaving Yabase: the people are the kindest, inable And I have ot some beautiful _o fuda_

LAFCADIO HEARN

TO BASIL HALL CHAMBERLAIN

MATSUE, August, 1891

DEAR PROFESSOR CHAMBERLAIN,--Having reached a spot where I can write upon so better than a matted floor, I find three most pleasant letters from you The whole of the questions in theht, but will do so presently, when I obtain the full information