Connecticut western news., 1880-05-12
Japan Letter No. 1O.
Written by MT. Thomas 0. Bradbury, to hi, family in Ashley Falls, Mass, and fu, nlshed THE NEWS for publication.

u1eneO 4AE NEWS 1Or puDuc2GO0.
 KOBE, Japan, Sept. 2sth, 1879.
 tell you the morals of the foreign popula can write to you, and in the eyes of the na. tives they are all Christians. In this view | the case, what chance have the missionaries t, I teach morality to the nativesP Aside from thu, | great evil, the most influential foreigners d, not respect Sunday at all. They run their tes | firing establishments every Sunday; the Jap anese do not want to work on Sunday, they want one day out of seven to themselves.
 The farmers are beginning to harvest the rice, and the crop is said to be large. It is s good thing, for rice has been very scarce anG dear, which has caused 6 great deal of suffer ing among the poor people. It is TOW sbou, f H c. nts pound, and the usual price is about 1 L cents. This makes 6 great difference to a man with family who is working for about l6 cents day. The season of festivities has commenced, and last evening the main street in the native town was wonder to see. Int shops were trimmed gaily and lighted with colored lanterns, and booths were built in every vacant place where eatables peculiar t. the Japanese were sold. It was like reading the Arabian Nights to walk in the streets, and such crowd dressed in their holiday fnery. It was beyond description, so very novel and strange to foreigner. To-day grand festi- val begins at the temple near here. In front of the temple is large pagoda. and at this season of the year the 'sArk of the Covenant" (as the foreigners call it, I cannot write the Japanese name), is brought out of the tempt. and placed in the pagoda, and At times it is taken out by the priests and carried in pro- cession as the Israelites carried the Ark of the Covenant. All around the grounds about the temple there are stands where fancy goods and eatables are sold, and several Punch ana Judy shows are in their turn attracting the attention of the people. There is one buiid- ing which has been s mystery to me until to- day, having always been closed whenever have been there, and often go there, for there is fine grove about the temple, and usually it is very quiet. The building alluded to was open to-day, and displayed Q room about 16 feet square. At one side there are two llfe- sized statues seated in chairs, representing an old man and woman, and in front of them there is a kind of altar. At the other side of the room there is 8 large drum, at which there is priest seated. The officiating person is . young girl about 16 years old. The ceremony seemed for children only, A woman steps up to the railing in tlont Of the room. (which is open the whole side, and more like the stage of theatre than anything else), with an in- lant in her arms, and hands an offering to the priestess, who then takes . cluster of small bells of of the altar, in front of the images, and dances about with waltzing step to the beating of the drum. After dancing in front of the image for about two minutes, she lays the offering on the altar, and takes 6 slip oi paper and hands it to the mother, at the same time shaking the bells over the head of the | infant, which completes the ceremony. II seems to be like infant baptism with us, 6 re- hgious ceremony. They have kept the priest. ess dancing pretty constantly to-day, for there have been thousands upon thousands there to- day. The girl is dressed very prettily in white ! and red, and has the peculiar eye of the upper class of Japanese. The most comical thing was 8 man who had 6 concertina 1t was q great wonder to the Japanese. He had very comical dress on. The part that came over his head was shaped like the head of an ele. phant without the trunk, but open in front in which the mans face locked about like 6 pea in quart mug. This shell continued be. low his waist, but was drawn in 80 tight that it rested on his shoulders, and was larger around at the bottom than & barrel. He had holes in the side through which he put hi arms. His business was selling mag nifyinf 1 E asses, and he advertised his wares and drev 8 crowd around him by see-sawing on the tn, concertina and caperlng around in the mos
 comical manner. Of course he had no idea 0
 tune, but it did just as well. The shell, o
 outside dress was red, which added to the at
 traction. In one part of the performance 2
 the commencement of the festival, they ha,
 five caldrons placed on furnaces, filled witt
 water. and placed in front of the temple
 There were bamboo poles set up, and ban
 boo rope stretched around them, inclosing
 space 20 feet square around the caldron (
 boiling water. The priestess took her stan,
 in the inclosure with bamboo brush or swal
 in each hand, and dipping the bushes in th
 boiling water, first one, then the other, sin
 threw the boiling water around her in ever
 direction. I do not know what the ceremon
 meant, but am told that it is to drive away tn
 evil spirits. There are . great many strang
 things connected with the religious ceremo nies of this people, and have not time O
 space to tell of the many strange things g.in
 on around me. It is impossible to get infor
 nation about these things, for men who spea
 English either do not know about the meanin
 Of the ceremonies, or are not willing to te
 anything.
 The business of this part of the world is be } ing taken out of the hands of foreigners, an ? monopolized by the Japanese. The stear
 boats and ships are run almost entirely b Ups. to the exclusion of foreigners. Al
 branches of trade is the same. think tn
 Japs make mistake, and try to do everythin
 before they get thorough knowledge of tn business, but they are so anxious to do with out the help of foreigners they get clear ( them as soon ss possible. There are man
 men sent home by subscription who were ono rich enough to retire independent. but drin , and vice ruin every third man st least ou