things as bells, I do as the natives and clap my hands. A far-off
answer of _Hei--i--i_ is returned, and soon the shuffling of feet
is heard again. The housewife appears with the usual low bow, and,
smiling so as to again display what resembles a mouthful of coal, she
listens to the request for a pillow. Opening the little closet before
spoken of, she produces the desired article. It is not a ticking bag
of baked feathers enclosed in a dainty, spotless case of white linen,
but a little upright piece of wood, six inches high and long, and one
wide, rounded at the bottom like the rockers of a cradle. On the
top, lying in a groove, is a tiny rounded bag of calico filled with
rice-chaff, about the size of a sausage. The pillow-case is a piece of
white paper wrapped around the top, and renewed in good hotels daily
for each guest. One can rest about four or six inches of the side of
his _os occipitis_ on a Japanese pillow, and if he wishes may rock
himself to sleep, though the words suggest more than the facts
warrant. By sleeping on civilized feathers one gets out of training,
and the Japanese pillows feel very hard and very much in one place.
The dreams which one has on these pillows are characteristic. In my
first some imps were boring gimlet-holes in the side of my skull,
until they had honeycombed it and removed so much brain that I felt
too light-headed to preserve my equilibrium. On the present occasion,
after falling asleep, I thought that the pillow on which I lay pressed
its shape into my head, and the skull, to be repaired, was being
trepanned. My head actually tumbling off the pillow was the cause of
the fancied operation being suddenly arrested. A short experience in
traveling among the Japanese has satisfied me that they are one of
the most polite, good-natured and happy nations in the world. By
introducing foreign civilization into their beautiful land they may
become richer: they need not expect to be happier.