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278
HONDA THE 8AMUEAI.
character, who was reading a book and explaining
it to them. These "forty thieves," who had been
arrested for petty larcenies, were serving out terms
of short length. Some of them, dressed in the
prison-suit of red, went out daily to work on the
public roads, but were allowed to spend an hour
at some intellectual entertainment after five P.M.
At night they were taken to other cells.
Mr. Rai passed with the officer round to the end
of the ward, seeing the north side of the cells,
which were exactly like those of the south side, and
then visited the eastern wing. Here was the cell for
samurai. It contained about twelve men, one of
whom was a portly and noble-looking man of fifty.
One instinctively shrunk from vulgarly gazing at
such a man. The cells were like the others as to
size, strength, and cleanliness. Everything was very
clean, and it was evident that the cleanliness was
not merely for the occasion. This was very differ-
ent, as Mr. Rai knew by observation, from many
of the provincial jails, where the filth, dampness,
and general wretchedness of the cells were in keeping
with the rapacity and cruelty of the keepers of
the prisons. In some places the temporary prisonpens
were simply large wooden boxes about fourteen
feet square, shaped like fire-proof safes, with-
out light or air except as these could filter in
through the cracks. The jailers
were of the most
degraded and degrading characters, who maltreated,
mulcted, or starved the poor wretches under their
charge. The Yedo prison was one of the very best
in the empire.