With such dread are these men regarded by the non-combatant classes,
that it frequently happens that one or two will go into a village and
extort what they require without the slightest resistance being
offered.

[Illustration: LONINS, OR OUTLAWS, ROBBING A RICH MERCHANT'S HOUSE.]

[Illustration: EXPOSURE FOR INFIDELITY.]

As a rule, Japanese punishments resemble those inflicted by the
Chinese, and seem to be based on the Mosaic principle of 'an eye for
an eye and a tooth for a tooth.' Arson, for instance, is punished at
the stake; and a thief who endeavours to conceal the results of his
robberies by burying them, has the disadvantages of that mode of
concealment impressed upon him, by being himself embedded for a day or
two in the ground, with only his head out--a mode of instruction that
rarely requires a repetition of the lesson.

_Apropos_ of this punishment is the testimony of an eye-witness, who,
in passing the public execution place at Yeddo, noticed a head on the
ground, which he supposed to have been recently struck off. He had
turned away with a shudder, when a laugh from the bystanders caused
him to look again, when, to his great astonishment, the head was
vigorously puffing at a pipe which the facetious executioner had a few
moments before been smoking himself.

The last illustration shows a man and woman undergoing public exposure
for adultery--a crime which is rare in Japan and which is punished
with great severity.