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274
HONDA THE SAMURAI.
ship could supply to suit refined tastes. The Middle
Yashiki was less pretentious, while the Lower House,
or caravanserai, was more like a comfortable hollow
square of barracks, with vegetable gardens in the
center.
So numerous were these vast yashikis with open
court-yards within, and so great was the space in
Yedo devoted to gardens, groves, and temple areas,
despite the million of human souls crowded in the
great city, that foxes and badgers and wild birds
of many a feather felt almost as much at home as in
Fukui, where occasionally a deer or wild boar, or
even a " spear-rat," or hedgehog, was captured in the
streets.
This was the camp-city of Yedo, modeled after the
quarters of an army, with the Tycoon's castle or
head-quarters at the center, and the principal wooden
tents, or yashikis, of his staff officers on the most
commanding locations. It was a city governed by
military force, for at the beck and call of the Tycoon,
or commander-in-chief, were eighty thousand
hata-moto, or flag-supporters.