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MEN, MONKEYS, HORSES, AND BOYS. 153
of very low social rank and were given to gambling.
They had a guild with rigid rules and a chief whose
word is law. Even gentlemen of rank and influence
found to their cost that they were powerless against
this guild if its members should combine to drive
away, or "run off," any obnoxious betto brought
from another neighborhood. The betto did not
usually trouble himself with clothing, and instead
of girding up his loins for a race, he divested himself
of all clothing and ran with only a breech-cloth and
a pair of socks. On short runs they wore a blue
cloak on which was marked their master's coat-ofarms.
Most of them were tattooed on back and
shoulders.
The jockey was not an unknown character. This
gentleman possessed the secret of the Fountain of
Youth. He could transform a superannuated beast
into a fiery charger that would keep supple and
sprightly until after sale. Filing the teeth, feeding
with arsenic, clipping, paring, and all the arts oy
which age is concealed and youth simulated were
practiced by the native jockey, who was also a veterinary
doctor and consulting trainer. He could
astound even old bettos with the prodigious amount
of horse-lore carried in his noddle.
One of the best characters in Fukui was the mon-
key dancer. It was believed that a monkey in a
stable warded off infectious diseases. One of these
four-handed animals was a permanent boarder with
the four-legged guests in the stall. At New Year's
the proprietor went from stable to stable, his monkey