Japan and the Japanese

462 JAPAN. A. D. 18111813.
and for which purpose the cords about the ankles were removed, and
those above the knees loosened. The cords were drawn so tight aa
to be very painful, and even after a while to cut into the flesh ; yet,
though in all other respects the Japanese seemed inclined to consult
the comfort of the prisoners, they would not for the first six or sever
days, be induced to loosen them, of which the chief reason turned
out to be their apprehension lest the prisoners might commit suicide,
that being the Japanese resource under such extremities.
Their escort consisted of from one hundred and fifty to two hun-
dred men. Two Japanese guides from the neighboring villages,
changed at each new district, led the way, bearing handsomelycarved
staves. Then came three soldiers, then Captain Golownin
with a soldier on one side, and on the other an attendant with a
twig to drive off the gnats, which were troublesome, and against
which his bound hands prevented him from defending himself
Behind came an officer holding the ends of the ropes by which the
prisoner was bound, then a party of Kuriles, bearing his kango,
followed by another relief party. The other captives followed, one
by one, escorted in the same manner. Finally came three soldiers,
and a number of Japanese and Kurile servants carrying provisions
and baggage. Each of the escort had a wooden tablet, suspended
from his girdle, on which were inscribed his duties and which pris-
oner he was stationed with ;
and the commanding officer had a cor-
responding list of the whole. The prisoners had the same fare with
the escort, three meals a day, generally of rice boiled to a thick
gruel, two pieces of pickled radish* for seasoning, soup made of
radishes or various wild roots and herbs, a kind of macaroni, and a
piece of broiled or boiled fish. Sometimes they
had stewed mush-
rooms, and each a hard-boiled egg. Their general drink was very
indifferent tea, without sugar, and sometimes saki. Their conduc-
tors frequently stopped at the villages to rest, or to drink tea and
smoke tobacco, and they also rested for an hour after dinner. They
* " The Japanese radish," says Golownin, "is in form find taste very
different from ours. It is thin and extremely long. The taste is not very
acrid, but sweetish, almost like our turnips. Whole fields are covered with
it. A great part of the crop is salted, the remainder is buried in the groi jic]
for winter, and boiled in soup. Not even the radish-leaves remain unused
they are boiled in soup or salted and eaten as salad. They manure the radish
this we ourselves saw at Matsmai."
fields with night-soil ;