Japan and the Japanese

SARIS' JOURNEY TO COURT. 167
and arrows, and icayadalkes, described as like a Welsh hook. They
marched five abreast, with an officer to every ten files, withou*
colors or musical instruments, in regiments of from a hundred and
fifty to five hundred men, of which one followed the other at the
distance of a league or two, and were met for two or three days
on the road. Captain Saris was very favorably impressed with
the discipline and martial bearing of these troops. The captain-
general, whom they met in the rear, marched in very great state,
hunting and hawking all the way, the hawks being managed exactly
after the European fashion. The horses were of middle size, small-
headed, and very full of mettle.
At Fusimi, Captain Saris and his company quitted their bark, and
were furnished each man with a horse to travel over land to Suruga,
where the emperor held his court. For Captain Saris a palanquin
was also provided, with bearers to carry it, two at a time, six in
number where the way was level, but increased to ten when it
became hilly. A spare horse was led beside the palanquin for him
to ride when he pleased, and, according to the custom of the coun-
try with persons of importance, a slave was appointed to run before
him, bearing a pike.
Thus they travelled, at the rate of some forty-five miles a day,
over a highway for the most part very level, but in some places cut
through mountains ; the distances being marked,
in divisions of
about three miles, by two little hillocks on each side of the way,
planted at the top with a fair pine-tree, " trimmed round in fashion
of an arbor." This road, which was full of travellers, led by a
succession of farms, country-houses, villages, and great
towns. It
passed many fresh rivers by ferries, and near many fotoquis, or
temples, situated in groves, "the most pleasantest places for delighi
in the whole country."
Every town and village was well furnished with taverns, where
meals could be had at a moment's warning. Here, too, lodging;
were obtained, and horses and men for the palanquin were taken
up by the director of the journey, like post-horses in England. The
general food was observed to be rice. The people ate also fish, wild
fowl of various kinds, fresh and salted, and various picked herbs and
roots. They ploughed with horses and oxen, as in Europe, and