heaven knows from whence, and alight with quivering wings upon the
miniature water-lilies.

Our friends the bonzes, notwithstanding an unctuousness of manner
thoroughly ecclesiastical, are very ready to laugh,--a simple,
pleased, childish laughter; plump, chubby, shaven and shorn, they
dearly love our French liqueurs and know how to take a joke.

We talk first of one thing and then another. To the tranquil music of
their little cascade, I launch out before them with phrases of the
most erudite Japanese, I try the effect of a few tenses of verbs:
_desideratives, concessives, hypothetics in ba_. Whilst they chat they
dispatch the affairs of the church, the order of services sealed with
complicated seals for inferior pagodas situated in the neighborhood;
or trace little prayers with a cunning paint-brush as medical remedies
to be swallowed as pills by invalids at a distance. With their white
and dimpled hands they play with a fan as cleverly as any woman, and
when we have tasted different native drinks flavored with essences of
flowers, they bring up as a finish a battle of _Bénédictine_ or
_Chartreuse_, for they appreciate the liqueurs composed by their
Western colleagues.

When they come on board to return our visits, they by no means disdain
to fasten their great round spectacles on their flat noses in order to
inspect the profane drawings in our illustrated papers, the _Vie
Parisienne_ for instance. And it is even with a certain complacency
that they let their fingers linger upon the pictures which represent
the ladies.

The religious ceremonies in their great temple are magnificent, and to