Japan and the Japanese

544 JAPAN. A. D. 14 16CO.
a Japanese official, and the low valuation put upon American
wart-.*, as estimated in Japanese currency, were additional
obstacles.
Mr. Harris obtained the confidence and {rood-will of the au-
thorities at Siinoda, and succeeded in negotiating a convention,
in March 18.~>7, by which American citizens were allowed to
reside at Siinoda and Hakodade, and to trade at Nangasaki ;
and
by which, also, it wa^ hoped that the currency difficulty would
be arranged.
Mr. Harris had brought with him a letter from the President
to the Kmperor. and at length, after much importunity and
more than a year's delay, he obtained leave to visit Jedo to
deliver it. Jedo is only eighty miles by land from Simoda,
yet it took several days to make the journey. Mr. Harris thus
describes it in a private letter:
" My train numbered some one hundred and fifty persons, composed of
guards, norrimon-bearers, cooks, grooms, shoe-bearers, cane- bearers, fanbearers,
iMid last, though not least, tt standard-bearer, and a large number
of eoolies. I had permitted the Japanese to arrange and drvss my train
according to their ideas of propriety, and what they conceived was due to
the representative of the 1'resideiit of the United States. My guards, each
with two swords in the girdle, and clad in new silk dresses, as they swelled
'
and strutted ubuut, apjicarcd to be mightily uplifted in heart,' while they
and my bearers and '
grooms appeared to have broken out '
all over their
bodies with '
spread eagles,' as the back, breast, and sleeves of their dresses
were sprinkled over with the arms of the United States, which were neatly
painted on them. I |>crforined the journey partly on hi rsehack, and partly
in a norrimon, which is the Japanese name for a palanquin. The .Japan-
ese norrirnon will compare with the celebrated iron caires of Cardinal Halne,
of France, in which the poor inmate could neither lie down nor stand up.
In the norrimon the Japanese kneel and place their feet close together, and
then sit on their heels; if they wish to repose themselves they lean forward,
and rest the chin on their knees, so that the body nnd limbs form
three horizontal folds or piles a position that they assume and keep
without annovance. from lonj; practice, and from the great flexibility of
their joint*, hut which is almost unattainable by a white man, and is ab-
solutely unendurable.
"I had n norrimon made for me seven feet Ion?, and in it I put n mat-
tress nnd pillows, which made it ns comfortable as the Indian palanquin;
but, of all the modes of travelling, the camel, the elephant, and the pulau-
quin are the most fati^uin^.