Japan and the Japanese

RECEPTIONS AT MIAKO. 347
" Feb. 29, early in the morning, we sent the presents
for the
chief justice and the governors to their palaces, laid, according to
the country fashion, upon particular small tables made of fir, and
kept for no other use but this. We followed soon after, about ten
in the forenoon, in kangos. Their palaces were at the west end of
the city, opposite the castle of the Dairi. We were conducted
through a court-yard, twenty paces broad, into the hall or fore-room
of the house, which is called Ban, or the chief guard, and is the
rendezvous of numbers of clerks, inspectors, &c. Hence we were
taken, through two other rooms, into a third, where they desired us
to sit down. Soon after came in his lordship's steward, an old
gentleman who seemed upwards of sixty years of age, clad in a
gray or ash-colored honor-gown, who seated himself at about four
paces from us, in order to receive, in his master's name, both our
compliments and presents, which stood in the same room, laid out
in a becoming order. They consisted of a flask of Tent wine, be-
sides twenty pieces of silk, woollen and linen stuffs. The steward
having very civiily returned us thanks for our presents, boxes with
tobacco and pipes and proper tvtensils for smoking were set before
us, and a dish of tea was presented to each of us by a servant, at
three different times, the steward and the chief gentlemen pressing
us to drink. Having staid about a quarter of an hour, we took our
leave, and were conducted by the steward himself to the door of
their room, and thence by other officers back to the gate.
" This first visit being over, we walked thence on foot to the
palace of the commanding governor, who was but lately arrived
from Jedo. Some sentinels stood upon duty at the gate, and in
the ban, or hall, we found very near fifty people, besides some
young boys, neatly clad, all sitting in very good order. Through
this hall we were conducted into a side apartment, where we were
civilly received by the two secretaries, both elderly men, and were
treated with tea, sugar, &c. ; receiving, also, repeated assurances
that we should be soon admitted into the governor's presence.
" Having staid full half an hour in this room, we were conducted
into another, where, after a little while, the lattices of two screens
being suddenly opene;! just over against us, the governor appeared,
sitting at fourteen paces distant. He wore, as usual, a garment of
Ceremony over his black dress. He seemed to be about thirty-six