CHAPTER XXII

JAPAN

Japan, an unsolved mystery - Mother Grundy would expire in a week - A first experience of the great unclothed - The Inland Sea - Scandalous behaviour of Europeans - Sir Harry Keppel - Drowning of American Admiral and eleven of his men - Mikasai and junk-women - Two adventures with bears - Japan's Paphos - The Geisha - The Gaku : Japanese music - Sylvia pays off in Hongkong - Back in England - Florence - Victor Emanuel - H.M.S. Caledonia - Temple of Diana - Affair with brigands - Malta fever - Given up - Pull round - Invalided home - Get married - Retire - A haunted house.

MANY able pens have attempted to describe Japan, but no writer that I know has ever drawn the veil from the inner life of this mysterious people. Hence I do not for a moment pretend that I can.

When I first knew Japan we practically stepped back into a civilisation some two thousand six hundred years old, the Mikado - living far away inland and out of human ken - was more a semi-divine myth than a human ruler : the Tycoon, like the Marshals in the old Court of France, was still all potent, the great feudatory chiefs, the Daimios, still wielded despotic power in their respective principalities : the two-sworded class, the Samurai, still recognised no law but the will of their over-lord and the keen edge of

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HOW TO LEARN GOOD MANNERS

their own swords. No land, no nation, no circumstance of life was ever less understood by the West than was this great group of islands : one felt lost in it, one could not seize any salient point of resemblance between it and one's own country. It seemed inhabited by a different race of beings. And what law and order ! A man could not steal a button and hope to escape detection. He might fly his own part of the country, might wander from north to south, or endeavour to lose himself in the thousand islands of the Inland Sea. Sooner or later he would be tracked, arrested and executed. As a consequence there was no theft, few locks and keys, no doors to the houses. Courtesy and courage seemed indigenous to the soil : I never met a rude man or heard of a coward amongst the Japanese. But then you were in a land where the slightest infraction of good manners carried with it a fair chance of being split in two by a single blow from a sword, without being asked to explain. If a man jostled another of the sword-bearing class in the street, it was a mere matter of who got his sword out first as to which of the two walked off or which remained in the road until what was left of him was picked up by his friends. This kind of thing makes men very civil to each other.

Concerning the women of Japan it is impossible to convey an adequate idea to those who have not known them. That they are fascinating is, of course, a trite remark. Gentle in manner and voice, modest from a point of view the opposite of Western conventionality faithful, affectionate, unselfish, essentially feminine, always amusing and good-tempered ; frequently extremely witty, and of spotless personal cleanliness, it is no wonder that Westerns come under their spell. Then, too, their position in men's affairs is clearly defined. Never meddling in business or "nagging," a wise and patient

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influence in her household, she makes that ideal wife and companion for whom so many men in Western life sigh in vain. With great latitude allowed them before marriage, after it infidelity was almost unheard of before Europeans came on the scene. I once saw a number of people lining the banks of the river at Osaka looking at the bodies of a man and woman, lashed together, floating about in a back water. The interest in the crowd was not the sight of these bodies themselves, but in the fact that they had been unfaithful to the marriage tie.

If such a law obtained in Europe, the waters of every principal river - from the Thames to the Tiber - would be blocked, and there would be no standing room on the bridges for the crowds who had assembled to identify their missing friends.

Amongst these enlightened people of Japan, who, from the profound depth of Western ignorance we then thought something only slightly removed from savages, the pseudo-moral ideas and coercive laws of Mother Grundy and the purity section of the London County Council could not live. The Japanese in those early, uncontaminated days lived wholesome lives, as nearly natural - in the true sense of the word - as the limitations of a complex civilisation rendered possible. I say advisedly - with an experience in all lands which perhaps few have exceeded - that at that time the Japanese were the happiest people, the most contented, the best governed, in the universe. Nowhere on the face of the earth was the material condition of the mass of the people to be compared to that of the Japanese. However that is all gone now - gone their frugal lives, gone the security in which they lived, and gone - if all I hear now is true that virtue which set them so far above Westerns.

The first place in this delightful country on which I set my eyes was Nagasaki, and well I remember the

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bewildering effect it produced on me as we steamed in slowly and dropped an anchor. It is true it had been opened to European trade for some time, and many European business houses were already in full swing, chief amongst them the Glennies. But practically the hand of Western pollution had as yet had no time to leave the stains of its finger marks on the country it had come to rob, and I saw the people precisely as they had been when, with desperate valour, they had faced the wrath of the whole world and - with that far-seeing sagacity which is so essentially Japanese - collected all the missionaries in Japan and flung them into the sea over the cliffs of the island of Papenberg, just outside Nagasaki.

I pass over my first impressions of the country and its inhabitants because they in no way differed from those of hundreds of writers who have described them. But my first day's experience was certainly something to remember, for on landing I met some people with whom I had been very friendly in Hongkong, a parson, who had come as chaplain to the place, and his wife. We were all absolute novices to the country - they only having arrived the day before. I managed to get some horses - from the Glennies - and the lady and I went for a ride, being directed to a village about four miles out. The road led over the hills, and below us lay the winding harbour and an archipelago of islands, with Papenberg a conspicuous object in the foreground : and, by chance, a fleet of some fifty or sixty large junks standing down the channel - their sails snow-white above their yellow hulls - the cognizances of the Daimios, to whom they owed allegiance, showing in black patches. As we crested the hill the road debouched suddenly on the village from amongst thick bamboo plantations, so that our approach had not been noticed, partly also to be accounted for by the fact

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that it was about three o'clock, the usual hour for the Japanese daily bath.

The long straight street, with all its curious Japanese features - its paper houses, its swinging sign-boards, and the inevitable temple at the end of it - lay deserted before us, but some one finally espied us, and setting up a shout of " Togin ! Togin ! " (foreigners), pell-mell, out of two or three large wash-houses, came the entire population of the place - all entirely nude, of all ages and of both sexes - and gathered round our horses staring at us in unabashed wonder. They came about us like bees, and though perfectly polite were embarrassingly inquisitive, the women placing their hands on my companion's knees to try and follow the mystery of a side saddle, whilst - though what they said was of course unintelligible to us - it was easy enough to understand they were struck with admiration at her pretty face and the charm of her smile. It was an awkward moment for us both, this surging mass of white nakedness - for it is the colour makes all the difference - but, fortunately, my friend was too much of a lady, in the restricted meaning of the word, to be a prude, so we made the best of it ; and, to show them we had no fear of molestation, we dismounted and stood amongst them, my companion - a childless wife with a passion for children - taking up in her arms a tiny tot of two or three, as naked as the day it was born, and kissing it. Then these hospitable people led us off to the head villager's house, where sans ceremonie the family donned their clothes and gave us hot saki, tea, and all kinds of food : more curious than palatable.

Except for the circumstance that they were unclothed, I contend that these people were infinitely more civilised - in the true sense of being civil - than our vulgar crowds in Oxford Street or the Strand, who will jeer and jabber at any unfortunate Oriental who may appear in his own

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HONI SOIT QUI MAL Y PENSE

costume. There is more decorum in a Japanese public bath than in a London church, and less necessity for beadles and vergers. Honi soit qui mal y pense might be written all over Japan : for there is only one class of persons which is excluded from their public baths in Japan, the sort of people who are permitted to wander about St. Paul's Cathedral at dusk.

Consideration for others as all the world over is the basis of Japanese good breeding. A woman in a Japanese bath house has more of it than her European sister in a matinée hat in a theatre. They have, however, one point of resemblance: neither of them feel shame.

In those days in Japan every man, woman, and child had a hot bath once a day : the custom dating from possibly six centuries before Christ. The bath house in towns and villages, a long low building, was, I believe, supported entirely at public expense - like those of ancient Rome. Entering you put your clothes into a pigeon-hole and walked down into the water, which, shallow at one end, might be four or five feet deep at the other, and was often too hot for Europeans to find agreeable. But the Japanese, by use, could stand it almost boiling. No indecorum takes place, and an unwashed British mob in Exeter Hall does not behave as well. Some of the Japanese use soap, and wash it off at a spout before going into the general bath, others content themselves with bobbing about in the water. When you come out you find a small towel, the size of a pocket-handkerchief, in your pigeon-hole, with which you dry yourself as best you may, and the ceremony is over.

Japanese is not a difficult language to learn colloquially, that is, enough to get about with, for it is mellifluous in sound and easily caught - resembling Italian to some extent - and the very opposite of the illusive, impossible

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tones of Chinese. In a short time many of us picked up a fair smattering of tea-house Japanese, could ask our way, tell a Moosmé she was pretty, or buy things. One or two of my more studious messmates, notably Maxwell and Butt - one of our lieutenants - learnt it really well, the latter taking lessons daily from the best teachers he could find.

Much of our work lay in the Inland Sea, certainly the most beautiful expanse of salt water in the world. Some three hundred miles long it varies in width from sixty miles to two or three, dotted with innumerable islands, with towns and villages lining its shores. To the south stretches a long range of snow mountains, whilst everywhere scenes of most fantastic beauty present themselves. In those days the smaller islands were full of game, deer of many kind - from the red deer to small roes - pheasants, wild duck, wild goose, teal, widgeon, and in some of the marshy parts of the mainland millions of snipe. I had many a delightful expedition, camping out on these islands, and one night witnessed a rare sight : a battle between two fine stags. It was broad moonlight, and I was sitting outside my tent, when I heard the war challenge of a stag - not half a mile off - which was soon taken up by another, apparently on a hill about a mile away. Gradually the challenger and his answering foe got nearer and nearer to each other, so I seized my gun and hurried off to where I thought they would meet. Soon the sound of clashing antlers - which I could distinctly hear - told me the battle had already begun, and creeping down into an open glade, I saw two splendid animals battering into each other with the utmost fury, every now and then drawing back, and then rushing together with such a shock that both reeled back on their haunches. I watched the fight for several minutes, the animals trying all manner of tactics to get

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their antlers side ways into the other's ribs. Suddenly one of them, with foam streaming from his muzzle, sprang six or eight feet into the air, looking enormous in the moonlight, and, lighting almost on the back of his enemy, bore him down to the earth, driving his antler under his ribs. The wounded beast tried to stagger up, but the conqueror had him down again in a moment, battering him unmercifully all over the body and head with his horns, jumping and trampling on him with his sharp hoofs. I could easily have shot both these gallant beasts for I was now not fifteen yards off, hidden in deep bracken, but I felt that the conqueror deserved to live. So I stood up and gave a shout, holding my gun ready and half expecting he would charge. But he looked at me for a moment in the broad moonlight, and then, with a great bound, plunged into the forest, from whence immediately came the sound of a herd of hinds - which, unseen by me, had been watching the combat - following after him. I went up to the wounded animal, but he was panting with his last gasp, so I put him out of his pain. It was the world's everlasting story : he was an old stag and his time had come to give place to younger blood. As I look up in my study I see one of his feet arranged as a bell pull, and before me rises all that scene - with lessons, too, one does not easily forget - of lost battles.

It was a matter of immense interest to many of us that we were brought into contact with people of whom Europe still knew nothing; into the presence of great Daimios, whose castles were measured by miles of moat with garrisons of five hundred to a thousand men, and into great and well-built towns whose very names were unknown in the West. Without being aware of it we constantly handled, or were offered for purchase, art objects of almost incalculable value : fourteenth-century

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paintings, wood and ivory carvings of the eighth century, rare writings, arms fashioned long before William the Conqueror invaded England, pottery now priceless, silks and materials more valuable than the rarest lace. All this we ignorant sea-faring men knew nothing about, though literally a fortune was lying within our reach, It is true I sent my people many curios - good, bad and indifferent - but, at home - and in England generally - people were no more enlightened as to their merits than I was, so that when my father's house was broken up they were all sold and scattered. But by chance a small piece of pottery came into my possession again, and I believe it to be unique. It was made in Japan before the present race of Japanese had conquered the land, when the whole of the islands were inhabited by Ainos, that hairy race now confined to the northern islands.

In the Sylvia we were present when a great international function came off : the official opening to trade of the Port of Kobe. It is difficult to picture the difference between the Kobe of then and of to-day, for the hostility of the Japanese to foreigners was so marked in that part that there were no fewer than twelve British, three American, and three French men-of-war assembled to enforce this Article of the Treaty with Japan, which Sir Harry Parkes had just extorted from its unwilling Government.

It was an invidious and unpleasant spectacle ; for under the protection of our guns which fired royal salutes, apparently quite out of place, as nothing less royal can be imagined - a cloud of so-called traders, the scum of the foreign communities from Chinese ports, rushed ashore with indecent haste, bringing with them dozens of cases of whisky, or - as bluejackets call it, with more force than elegance, rot-gut - with bales of trashy soft goods and all manner of fraudulent rubbish,

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which the unhappy Japanese were to be cajoled into buying : always having to pay the purest gold and silver, at an exorbitant rate of exchange, fixed by Treaty.

By evening rows and rows of canvas shanties had been built on the Concession ground, whilst a few Japanese houses had been taken possession of and were already in full swing as grog shops. So that, long before dark, this peaceful, orderly Japanese town, in which for centuries riot had been unknown, was converted into a place where hell seemed to be let loose, with Japanese and Europeans rolling about drunk, fighting, Hawling, chasing women, and behaving in a manner which would not have been tolerated anywhere in the civilised world. It was a coarse and degrading debauch this inauguration of Christian civilisation.

The Concession, in which Westerns might trade, was a sandy piece of land some forty or fifty acres in extent, but beyond its limits it was unsafe to go, for Samurai stood all round, and even the drunken rowdies knew what that meant. Whilst all this was going on a cloud of Consular flags of almost every known description was already to be seen fluttering over houses that had been allotted to the various nationalities, all of which, save the English, American and French, had sneaked in under alien protection, conspicuous amongst these world-interlopers, the Germans.

The Fleets remained in Kobe for about a week, until some kind of order gradually evolved itself out of the chaos, and then my ship, embarking Sir Harry Keppel and a crowd of British and foreign officials, sailed for Osaka, the stronghold of a great Daimio, an adherent of the Mikado, and in opposition to the Tycoon. Arrived off the mouth of the river, in spite of extremely bad weather and a very heavy swell on the bar, our Admiral and his staff landed and paid an official visit, but it was

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with great difficulty and danger that they finally got back to the Sylvia late at night, in a launch belonging to the Rodney, all wet through and half famished. For in the tremendous seas on the bar the fires of the launch had been almost entirely extinguished, and certain death would have awaited all in her if she had drifted back into the rollers. But, under Providence, they managed to get hold of a line payed out over the stern of a French man-of-war, the Laplace, and so were hauled up in comparative safety until the fires were once more lighted. And here occurred a strikingly characteristic act of that "dear old Harry," which should be recorded as exemplifying why he was so immensely popular with all classes. The French Captain offered to rig up a chair and hoist the Admiral on board his vessel. The Admiral asked if he would also hoist in all his crew, but for some curious reason the Frenchman declined. "Alors, Monsieur, je reste ici!" shouted back the Admiral, adding also, " What is good enough for the others is good enough for me." And there he sat, wet through, cold, hungry, and shivering. When they got alongside the Sylvia it was with difficulty we got them aboard. I got over the side, and up to my waist in water lifted the old Admiral up to others ready to catch hold of him, for he was too stiff to move. Then followed Captain Stanhope and Harry Stephenson, the Admiral's nephew, and our own little skipper, Brooker, and the crew. I had had an anxious time whilst left in command, and felt most thankful when I had got them all aboard. But Sir Harry himself was as jovial as if he had been at a wedding, for nothing ever put him out. The Sylvia's steam cutter had been unable to cross the bar so bad was the weather, and, with fires extinguished, had drifted back up the river. Never was boat in a more perilous position, but thanks to the admirable nerve and seamanship of Butt and Maxwell,

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who were in her, she got round safely and headed for the river. But as the Admiral had to return to the Fleet we took him to his flagship at Kobe and went back next day to Osaka for our boat ; not without some anxiety for the fate of the people in her. They, however, had been courteously treated ; a strong guard having been placed over them. For stories of the abomination of the Settlement at Kobe had already spread far and wide, and everywhere the Japanese were furious at this desecration of their sacred soil.

A day or two after this it was the turn of Admiral Bell, of the United States Navy, to visit the Daimio of Osaka, but refusing the offer of a British steam launch, in order that he might land flying the Stars and Stripes, and in spite of warning of the danger of the bar, he insisted on crossing it in his own rowing barge, when his boat swamped - as every one knew it would - drowning him, his Flag-Lieutenant, and eleven men. It did Western prestige much harm, for the Daimio, who, we heard, witnessed the scene from his walls, was reported to have said, that it was one of the most foolhardy things ever seen, and that no man pretending to be a seaman would have attempted it.

With such scenes as these going on it is not surprising that the Japanese had the profoundest contempt for the Westerns, more especially as the general belief was that they were all, more or less, rascals, and their civilisation a disgraceful sham. They may not be entirely wrong if they think so still, though such rapid strides have been made since those days towards ours that I doubt if anywhere in the kingdom of the Mikado there are now people so unsophisticated as to expect anything else. A very striking difference between Japanese and Western peoples was that, associating with the lower classes in Japan, one never felt shocked or one's sense of decency outraged.

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To compare the Japanese of the peasant or working class with corresponding classes in Europe is impossible. The adaptation of artistic ideas, consistent with utility, to everything he handles is second nature to a Japanese, and seems to have refined his manners. His patient industry, the care with which he tills his land, and the peace of his home life stand in sad contrast to the indolence, the domestic strife, the brutish disregard of everything that is beautiful, the contempt for everything approaching refinement common to the great majority of our lower orders. Then consider the infinite labour the Japanese bestow on irrigation. A stream of water will be carried in bamboo pipes through gorges where to fix them and keep them in repair, men have to descend over perilous precipices perhaps hundreds of feet high, where a slip would be fatal. Yet this risk is incurred to water a patch of rice less than a quarter of an acre in extent.

But I do not wish to champion Japanese ethics in every respect, for certain of their religious rites would have disgraced Eleusis, notably those of a celebrated temple in the Gulf of Yeddo which I visited. But even here it was only the most superstitious and ignorant of the people that were to be found as worshippers. I believe we were the first Europeans who had ever seen this extraordinary place, for it had been kept secret, even from some Japanese, for centuries. I have sketches of it carefully locked away from public gaze.

In the Inland Sea we went to Mitasai, a place of call for trading junks going on long voyages to China, the Loochoo Islands, Formosa, or the Korea. Here almost the entire population consisted of women who were prepared to embark with any sailor requiring a companion. There was a regular tariff, according to age and looks, and a commission of so much per cent.

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went to the over-lord. But we must not throw stones, for it was very much the same on the lower deck of any British man-of-war in the eighteenth century and well on into the nineteenth.

Yokohama was our headquarters during our stay in Japan, and here we frequently remained for many weeks at a time. The 9th Regiment was there then : the moving spirits in it, as regards sport, being Jephson, and Fennel Elmhirst the well-known M.F.H. Drag hunts were our chief amusement, over very stiff country on stubborn Japanese ponies, almost impossible to hold, and, being accustomed to being led, difficult to guide. Large American steamers had already begun to run from San Francisco, and boarding one, one day, in my gig a ridiculous thing occurred, which threw light on a then American female custom, now doubtless abandoned. Seeing a pretty, smartly-dressed American woman with astonishing masses of golden hair, looking about for means of disembarking, I ventured to speak to her, and discovered that she was alone and knew no one in Yokohama, or where to go on landing. With the affability of a sailor, tempered by his diffidence, I offered her my services, which she somewhat eagerly accepted, and, collecting her baggage, I hailed the gig to come alongside. As there was a heavy " lop of a sea " on it was difficult for the boat to get hold of the side ladder, the bowman making several ineffectual attempts to catch on with his boat-hook, until, pitched off his feet by a sudden lurch of the boat and making a desperate grab at anything, he unfortunately hooked on to the American girl's hat - she standing at the bottom of the ladder ready to jump into the boat when she could get an opportunity - and dropped it into the water. Alas ! off came her headgear, and, with it, every scrap of her charming hair, displaying an absolutely bald and snow-white poll. Strange to say she

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was neither angry nor disconcerted, but laughed more than any of us, whilst the bluejacket fished the whole apparatus up out of the waves and handed it to her, all dripping wet. But she preferred to tie a silk scarf round her head, and thus attired leapt nimbly into the boat and so landed. She told me that she was not naturally bald, but that she found it infinitely less trouble to have her head shaved and to keep a lot of coiffures ready, wig, hat, and all complete, and to clap them on as it suited her fancy. I often met her in Yokohama, and observed that she must have dozens of them, her hair never being two days alike.

* * * * *

We returned to the Inland Sea, where trouble had broken out. For the Tycoon had been defeated at Osaka by the Mikado's troops, and Bizen's men had fired on Sir Harry Parkes, the British Envoy, and on Captain Stanhope of our Navy. All the Navies - or what there were of them - had landed men at Hiogo, fortifications had been thrown up, and Sir Harry Parkes had ordered the seizure of all the Japanese junks, trading vessels, and steamers, the latter having their machinery disabled. But the Mikado sent high officials to apologise, and in a few days the whole affair was amicably settled : by some of the Tycoon's men committing Hari-Kari.

The following year we again embarked Sir Harry Keppel and also a friend of mine, Charlie Scott, who later on inherited Rotherfield, near Alton, from his brother. The object of this trip was to visit the Island of Quelpart ; its capital a curious, old-walled town with thatched houses and streets of incredible filth and nastiness. The inhabitants are Koreans. After getting rid of the Admiral and our other guests we resumed our work in the Inland Sea, and, one beautiful morning, steamed into an unknown gulf of great extent, its name now

A KOREAN AND HIS WIFE.

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forgotten. Narrow, canoe-like boats were dotted all over the water, in each boat two persons, a man and a woman, the man paddling gently, the woman standing up in the stern of the boat, with no covering but a narrow strip of linen round the waist, in which was stuck a long sharp knife. Scores of such women were swimming about amongst the boats, some holding on to the gunwale to rest, others climbing into their boat and paddling away to some other spot in the gulf. Every now and then we would see a flash in the sunlight, a woman's white and shining form curving gracefully through the air, to disappear in the blue water, here about twenty fathoms deep. We tried to time them, and came to the conclusion that some of them would remain between two and three minutes under water before returning to the surface, when they would reappear with a large cuttle fish in one hand and their sharp curved knive in the other. It is an extremely dangerous business, and many women never come to the surface again, being caught by the tentaculæ of the fish and drowned. A peculiarity in these women was that many had lost one breast, some even both, the scars of wounds or of a rough and ready operation clearly visible. We were given to understand by our interpreter - who always came with us in the ship - that this gulf is infested by a water demon who attacks men in preference to women. Hence the men rarely or never dive. But if this demon attacks a woman she promptly shears away her own breast and leaves it to be devoured by the monster. But searching for a reasonable explanation of this mutilation I thought that, as the sea-bottom in this part is full of rocks, the women, in plunging, may graze their breasts against them.

Wild animals were still numerous in Japan, the mountains - even near towns - being inhabited by bears and wolves. On one occasion, with two of my

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mess-mates - Haslewood and Bawden - I made an excursion to Arima, where the finest Chinese ink is manufactured from the burnt ashes of the bamboo. It is a day's march from Hiogo. On our way back, Haslewood - who was in advance of Bawden and myself - turning a corner in the mountain path found himself face to face with two large bears drinking water in a pool. The animals appear to have been quite as much surprised as he was ; they looked at him for a moment, and then trotted off. Our servants carrying our guns were some way behind, and Haslewood had only a revolver with him, but, with sailorlike indifference to risk, he opened a raking fire on the hindquarters of the animals, which had the effect of sending them lumbering off double quick, bolting up a small mound about a hundred yards off, when, getting the other side of it, they turned round and peered at us over the top of it, with just their heads showing. By this time Bawden and I had arrived on the scene, and if I remember right we all three opened fire, but apparently without doing the bears any harm. We then rushed up the mound, but where the beasts had gone is a mystery : for, though there was nothing but rock and sand to be seen, they had entirely disappeared. Their cave must have been close by, though we could not discover it. Haslewood measured one of their footprints : it was eight inches across, but whether this is large or small for a bear I do not know.

I had another bear adventure in a remote part of Japan which might well have ended differently. I was alone shooting pheasants and was forcing my way down a thickly wooded gorge, when close to me I heard a scuffling in the underwood and a squeaking, which I took to be boar. Suddenly out rushed two small dark beasts, almost at my feet, and, still thinking it must be boar, I fired and rolled over one, though only loaded with

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No. 5 shot. Then, to my sorrow, I saw it was a little fluffy baby bear. I leant over it ; it looked up in my face, gave a litle sigh, stretched itself out, and lay dead. I was indescribably sorry, but had not much time for indulging in contrition when a crashing noise, not twenty yards off, heralded the approach of some big beast. I instantly guessed it must be the mother, and, knowing well what the wrath of such an animal can be if harm is done to its offspring, I dashed into the thick cover and up into a tree, not in the least knowing if the bear could climb or not. Here I witnessed a piteous scene, and, if ever any animal wept, surely that poor mother bear shed tears. She smelt her poor little cub all over, turned it gently with her paw, licked the wound and then the face and eyes, shaking her head all the time from side to side in mute misery. She sat down by its side and seemed to think. Then - all of a sudden - she sprang up, sniffed the ground, and must have smelt my track, for, with a fierce roar, she darted off up the gorge in the direction from which I had originally come. I was thankful to see her clear out, and let her get away a good distance before coming out of my tree, and when I did I made the best of my way in the opposite direction. I saw no more of her, and wondered if she had found the other cub, and hesitated whether or not to go back for the dead one. But I heard the mother growling hoarsely up the gorge, and, having only small shot with me, thought it wiser to leave her and her cubs alone.

We visited a place called Fukuoka, the capital of Tchikugen, a fine, well-built town, noted for the stature of its men and beauty of its women. In no other part of Japan did we see either men or women of more stately manners or dignity of bearing, whilst they averaged considerably taller than the inhabitants elsewhere. The tea-houses here were on an especially sumptuous scale, and

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the Geishas as remarkable for their looks as for their amiability. It was the Paphos of the Far East. The Ushiwara, an institution in all Japanese towns, was on a particularly fine scale. It is a large space containing, perhaps, from fifty to one hundred tea-houses, according to the size of the town, and is surrounded by a high straw or bamboo fence (hence, I believe, the name). At the entrance gate you receive a ticket, entitling you to entertainment of the class to which your payment corresponds, from tea-houses of the most select, almost extravagant luxury, down to such humble resorts as suit the requirements of junkmen and coolies. The attendant Moosmés are, of course, in like categories, ranging from extreme youth and beauty to withered crones : from well-bred city damsels to country bumpkins. Music, dancing, playing forfeits, and drinking of hot saki - which in time becomes palatable though disagreeable at first - are the diversions offered in all alike. It is also by no means uncommon in an Ushiwara to come across a drunken Yakonin - the private soldier of the Samourai class - a dangerous person in his cups ; and Ronins, also, that is, men who have voluntarily surrendered allegiance to, or no longer seek the protection of their Daimio ; bent on some personal errand of revenge ; their lives becoming forfeit to any one who likes to kill them. Wearing a peculiar kind of basket helmet, which completely hides their features, these Ronins wander all over Japan, perhaps for years and years, before finally accomplishing the end they have in view.

I think one of the most striking peculiarities of the Japanese is their irrepressible mirthfulness. From the highest to the lowest the Japanese seem ever ready to make merry, a feast on every imaginable occasion, and always graced by the presence of the Geisha, a woman trained in all the art of making herself agreeable. True

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MUSIC AND CAT-GUT

Geishas occupy a unique position in the world of to-day as they have done for centuries behind us. They are not the Greek hetyra, nor the Roman slave girl trained to delight the guests of an Imperial feast, nor have they anything in common with Nautch girls, and are as far removed from the habituées of a music-hall promenade or the Moulin Rouge as is a symphony of Beethoven from a cake-walk. With exquisite grace and charming manners, the Geisha is often a well-read woman and an admirable comic raconteuse ; singing, dancing, and playing her samisen as easily as she breathes ; whilst the ridiculous waddle to which we are treated in London theatres as representing their ordinary gait resembles nothing ever seen in Japan. The generally accepted idea in the West that " Geisha " corresponds to demi-mondaine is entirely erroneous. It is true that the Japanese demi-mondaine of the seaports and towns where Europeans congregate have adopted the name, but the high-class Geishas are as respectable as any class of women in the world. This statement appears all the more astounding when one discovers that they are trained in the Ushiwara before described. But there are many puzzling things in Japan and this is one of them. Many a Geisha has married into the highest nobility, and the blood of the semi-divine Tenshi, the Mikado, is itself by no means free of such an admixture. Of Japanese music we very soon heard more than we wanted. I am told there is some rhythm in their Gaku, but I suppose my ear was not sufficiently acute to detect it, much as I love music - of our sort. Stringed instruments are those chiefly in use in Japan, accompanying most discordant singing, and it always struck me that all the musical sounds sought after might be produced with much less trouble and in one operation - by simply hauling the gut out of a live cat.

384

JAPAN

On returning from one of our summer cruises in the Inland Sea, our unfortunate little Skipper was discovered by the medical pundits at Yokohama to be seriously ill, so much so that he was at once ordered home, and Sir Harry Keppel very kindly gave me the acting command of the Sylvia, whereas by all precedent, and quite fairly, as far as I was concerned, he might have conferred it on Rose, his Flag-Lieutenant. However, he thought it best not to put an entire stranger into the ship who had no knowledge of the ways of the surveying service. I remained in command until superseded by Captain St. John.

The commission from that time was entirely uneventful, and after our four years were up we were paid off in Hongkong, and I was sent home in charge of time-expired men in a fine old sailing ship chartered by the Government. It was not an interesting voyage, and beyond my being compelled to confine the master of the ship to his cabin and keep him prisoner until we reached England, nothing broke its monotony.

* * * * *

Arrived in England I was free to do as I liked, and remained on half-pay for some time, spending most of it in Florence, my father having drifted out to the congenial atmosphere of Italy - my poor mother a confirmed invalid.

I saw a good deal of Italian Society - for my father's cousin had married Delia Marmora, the well-known Italian General - at that time Prime Minister - and we had, of course, very many friends of the old days. The Court was then still in Florence and I was presented to Victor Emanuel, and on several occasions afterwards had conversation with this great King. He was a man who impressed one greatly. His force of character was

385

HARD UP AGAIN

patent to the least observant, and his personal appearance was not less remarkable. Many human beings seem to typify some animal : Victor Emanuel suggested a wild boar ; in fact, I never saw a man or woman with animal propensities so plainly indicated, his passionate nature stamped on every line of his face. He stood amongst his Ministers and Staff with a stolid defiant look that no one could misunderstand. He would have gripped the biggest and stoutest man alive by the throat and would have died in a death struggle. He was a man of resolute belief in himself, of sound common-sense, but no high intellect. He was remarkably ugly, with deep-set eyes ; very short and of immense girth. He had a pleasant smile when he chose, and his grip of your hand - like putting it in a carpenter's vice and turning on the screw slowly - was extremely characteristic.

Florence was delightfully gay at that time, and balls at the Pitti Palace, at the Strozzi, and other great houses were frequent. There was a large English Society as well : amongst them the present Lady Colin Campbell, then a quite young and beautiful girl, who, with her father and sister, lived in our hotel.

But I had very soon to go to sea again, for what little I had saved in China went like smoke in these surroundings, as may be imagined, and I got appointed to the Caledonia - a masted ironclad of a type long ago obsolete - then stationed in the Channel Fleet. We were not long in the Channel, however, before we were ordered to the Mediterranean. Here, the most interesting thing that occurred to me was being selected to excavate and bring away the remains of the Temple of Diana at Ephesus. It was a heavy and tedious business : the German Government gratuitously thrusting its nose into the affair through the personal spite and jealousy of some rival excavator, who felt exasperated at any one finding

386

EPHESUS

anything that could not be lugged off to Berlin. Of course the German pose - that these valuable relics should remain in Turkey and be sent to Constantinople was purely dog in the manger, but whilst the Powers were wrangling over it, and though I had received a positive order from the Pasha of Smyrna that the work must not go on, I worked away all I knew, replying to the Pasha, that I could only take orders from Captain Stanhope of the Caledonia, who naturally gave me none. With much difficulty, owing to their great size many of them fourteen tons weight the remains of this wondrous temple were finally hoisted on board the Caledonia, when the ship immediately sailed. I believe a few hours after we had left the long-delayed Firman came from the Sultan forbidding them to be removed. But it was too late, and they are now safe in the British Museum.

The neighbourhood of Ayasolook (Ephesus) was in its normal state of occupation by brigands. I had gone out shooting one day, accompanied by a Greek who spoke some English, and when returning to camp, over bare and rocky hills, I noticed some men lurking about below us in a way I thought suspicious, dodging first one side of the path then the other. My Greek quickly spied them, too, and pulled me up.

"Those are brigand man," he said. " Zebecks and bad Greeks : think want take you, sir."

I felt extremely uneasy - though my camp and all my men were not two miles off - and I halted to watch them. With my glasses I could plainly see that they were evidently hiding on both sides of the path, and I felt sure the Greek was right. Evening was falling fast, and I knew that I might fire fifty shots and no one in the camp would take any notice of it, for men were shooting all day long amongst these hills. I stopped to think. To

387

IN PURSUIT OF ART

return across the hills to a village some five miles off was out of the question : for the inhabitants were quite as likely to be brigands as the fellows on the path. At last I determined to settle affairs my own way : and as two of the brigands were conspicuously in sight, I left the path and crawled down the hill to get nearer, making the Greek go in front of me, fearing treachery on his part. I got within about three hundred yards of the men, who had not noticed that we had left the track, and, resting my rifle, took a steady aim at the rock immediately above their heads. The ball struck the rock fair, and I saw them both spring up bewildered, eagerly looking up to see whence came the shot. I crammed in another cartridge and again let fly in their direction, when they turned and bolted, and, in a moment or two, I saw the other three jump up and run off as well. I loaded and fired at random after them as quickly as I could until I lost sight of them amongst the olive-trees below.

" Zebeck no come back, sir,�* said my Greek. " He no stop now."

So we continued our journey and got into camp with no further adventure, nor did I ever hear anything more about it.

* * * * *

On returning to Malta we found an epidemic of smallpox raging. Nearly every one in the Fleet was revaccinated : but Captain Stanhope - either an unbeliever in vaccination or indifferent to it - refused to have it done. I do not think we lost a single man, though great numbers had the disease : but poor Stanhope died of it. I caught sight of his face as he was being carried over the side in a cot to go to the hospital. I shall never forget it : his features were already almost obliterated, in the frightful confluent form of the malady.

388

MALTA

I started a studio ashore, and took to painting in oils; poor rubbish it was too. Moreover, the basement under my studio contained as I afterwards discovered an open pipe connected with the sewer or cess pit, and I got typhoid fever ; and growing seriously ill was sent to the Naval Hospital where I lay for several weeks at the point of death. In the next bed to me, also practically dying, was Lord Walter Kerr, his mother, the Marchioness of Lothian, having come out to nurse him. He got better : I got worse. One night in a semi-conscious state I heard the doctor say to my nurse, "All right ; his bed will be vacant for the man coming in to-morrow ; he can't live through the night."

I recall distinctly that hearing this did not in the least distress me, for I was so weak I did not care one way or the other. But I turned the corner in the night, to the surprise of the doctor who told me so himself, and only a few days after I was sitting in the sun out in the hospital garden, a bare kind of place with straight gravel paths. I remember to this day watching a long string of black ants crossing and recrossing the path, all apparently in vigorous health, and contrasting their activity and eagerness with my helplessness and lassitude. It seemed odd to think that these creatures had been busy and thriving all the weeks I had been lying up there in the big white hospital. I saw them bringing in dead flies ; so I amused myself catching as many as I could reach, and put them on their track, when the greatest excitement followed, one carcase after another being hauled away and disappearing down a hole across the path. Then it struck me that perhaps the flies might think it unfair, and that the ants ought to hunt for themselves : so I discontinued supplying my black friends.

At last came the time when I was strong enough to be lifted into a cot and carried on board a P. and 0. bound

389

I BECOME A BENEDICK

for England. My recovery was most rapid, and before the Sierra Nevada and the coast of Spain rose in view I was feeling almost well again. Fortunately for me I found on board some friends of mine - the Kings - who I had known well in Malta, and no one could have been kinder to me than they were.

Having been invalided home a generous Government put me on half-pay, five shillings a day - to recover, as best I could, on that fattening sum. Had I been in the Army, with a sore toe, I should have been given a year's sick leave on full pay - after going before a Medical Board, and after that I should have got another six months, but the Navy had no plums of this sort - kicks more plentiful than ha'pence : and if a man's health broke down - so much the worse for him - he had to grub along as best he could.

Though I had really nothing seriously the matter with me, still it took me a long time to recover from the effects of that deadly fever which carries off so many and injures for life so many more.

It was fortunate for me that I had a sister in England at this time, home from India, and herself in indifferent health, so we forgathered and went off to a charming place, Cluny, near Forres, in Morayshire, and thus - by the merest chance altered the whole plan of my life. For here, staying in the same house, I met her who became my wife - Catherine Murdoch Wilson. She was Scotch of the Scotch, and I doubt if there was ever an admixture of any other blood in her veins. Her father - who had been in business - owned a small property in Stirlingshire, called Calliambae, the chief interest in it being the fact that Calliambae was the Gaelic form of Columba, and that the place was called after the great saint of that name, who lived there before going to settle in lona - about the middle of the sixth century.

390

HADDINGTONSHIRE

In the following spring we were married, and whilst waiting for some better employment I served in the Asia at Portsmouth, the Earl of Clanwilliam my Captain. Then the Childers' retirement scheme came out, and I accepted it. I pass over two or three years of my life now, for though full of incidents their interest is entirely personal to us. We travelled on the Continent, and, by a curious coincidence, our first child - a daughter - was born in the room where my mother had died and on my mother's birthday - St. Valentine's day.

Eventually we returned to Scotland, and, hunting about for a house to live in - with some vague idea of adopting literature as a career - we stumbled on a charming little place called Gifford Vale, near Yester, in Haddingtonshire.

We had the place extremely cheap ; but when I took it I was told we should not remain in it long - no one did - as it was haunted. Some hideous person who had committed a murder in it was supposed to haunt the kitchen, and amuse himself by grinning in at the lower windows. Also a woman in a silk dress went up and down the stairs - but neither my wife nor I ever saw either of these ghostly visitants. But the servants did - or said they did - which is the same thing as no one can contradict a statement except on other evidence. But whatever was the matter with the house, we gradually got a horror of it and left it in six months, migrating to the Bridge of Allan, where our son - who perished in the collision between the Victoria and Camperdown - was born.

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