Japan and the Japanese

828 JAPAN. A. D. 1C90 1092.
princes and their retinues. The roads are swept and cleaned before
us, and in cities and villages they are watered to lay the dust.
The common people, laborers and idle spectators, who are so very
troublesome to travellers upon the great island Nipon, are kept out
of the way, and the inhabitants of the houses on either side of the
roads and streets see us go by, either sitting in the back part of
their houses, or kneeling in the fore part, behind a screen, with
great respect and in a profound silence. All the princes and lords,
whose dominions we are to pass through, send one of their noblemen
to compliment us, as soon as we enter upon their territories;
but, as he is not suffered to address us in person, he makes his com-
pliment in his master's name to the Bugio, or commander-in-chief
of our train, and to the chief interpreter, offering,
at the same time,
what horses and men we want for us and our baggage. He like-
wise orders four footmen to walk by every Dutchman's side, and
two gentlemen of some note at his court, who are clad in black silk,
with staffs in their hands, to precede tl\p whole train. After this
manner they lead us through their master's territories, and, when
we come to the limits thereof, the Japanese companions of our
voyage arc treated with saki and socntio, and so they take their
leave. For our passage over the bays of Omj/ra and Sintalara,
the lords of these two places lend us their own pleasure-barges, arid
their own watermen, besides that they furnish us with abundance
of provisions, without expecting even so much as a small present in
return for their civil and courteous behavior ; and yet our thievish
interpreters never miss to lay hold of this advantage, putting this
article upon our accounts as if we had actually been at the expense ;
and they commonly put the money into their own pockets. In our
whole journey from Nagasaki to Kokura, everybody we meet with
shows us and our train that deference and respect which is due only
to the princes arid lords of the country. Private travellers, whether
they travel on foot or on horseback, must retire out of the way
those who hesitate about it being compelled to it by the officers
and, bareheaded, humbly bowing, wait in the next field till our
whole retinue is gone by. I took notice of some country people ;
who do not only retire out of the way, but turn us their back, as
not worthy to behold us the greatest mark of civility a Japanese
can possibly show. None, or but few, of these public marks of