, 1890-10-01

nature whence everything lovely and living
has been banished to give vent to the secret
forces of the under world. The earth all
around is poisoned and parti-coloured with
livid blotches and gangrenes the rocks are
crusted with a leprous letter plmples and
ulcers of purple and black and yellow break
out from the level spaces. Some Of these are
alive with an evil activity, and hiss and fume
and bubble, emitting jets OF fat yellow and
green smoke, with now and then a cracking
noise when the crust sinks IN, to open by
and-bye at another black and yellow cash
in the diseased ground. 1t is not safe even
to stand near the melancholy amphitheatre
where reek these caldrons of Acheron. To
pass along the black edge of the stream It
self and into this CHASTITY CORY would be
rash in the extreme, for no one knows where
the surface may not yield, and suddenly
plunge the foot or limb into a bath or boiling
sulphur. A lady of our acquaintance was
severely burned here some time ago, and a
Russian officer lost his life in the treacherous
morass of fame.
1 am requested by an amiable and charm
ing young lady of our party to lnscrlbe upon
her bamboo staff the japanese name OF the
place-which she will certainly never visit
again-together with some suitable record.
Sitting out of reach of the winds from Hades,
under a great cryptoomeria, blasted by It's
neighbourhood, | carve on the Japanese al
penstock a verse which she means to pre-
serve
Staff, which to O Jigoku went, .
Good news to Sinners tell
Demons may climb 10 Paradise,
Now Angels ride to He'll.
AMI vet, just over the ridge, spreads a scene
&c boo,,tifr,I DC thot iI1at omitted 10 tOrh1dUIOO
On the slopes of the D Toni Pass box-trees
and the milky-blossomed GScmi, with the pines
and bamboos, the azaleaS and lilies, make
the mountain fair and glad again and Full
San is seen towering up IN perfect beauty at
the end Of the vast valley. The snow IS
almost all gone from the Lady Of Mountains.
Just here and there are visible, if may
quote my own new poem, the Light OF the
World:
Dark hoIlows where sad winter hides away
From summer, with the SHOWS still IN her lap.
Bv another path the matchltss mount may
be seen looking down upon the deep waters
of Hakone--a great lake OF unknown depth,
and perpetual GOODNESS lying two thousand
feet above the sea. Hakone Lake has Tor
its Japanese name ASH no N1d=a- Una, or
the water of the reeds, > and is a very beauti-
luI IlSLldIlu 6tH ll1G oOOOG, ~ - 0"'' VI
supernatural beings till a Buddhist priest
penetrated these recesses and gave to the
world knowledge and possession of lovely
and cool Hakone. We drink to the pious
memory of Mangwan Shonin as we sit in the
upper gallery OF the tea house, looking over
the rolling blue wavelets of the lake. Close
by Japanese woodmen are cutting III trees
into thin boards, to make or, the boxes IN
which sweetmpats and cakes are presented.
We return in drenching rain, but well re-
warded for this and for all our exertions by
the splendid scenery and the countless OBJ
lects of interest on the road. Perhaps 1t
would not have rained if We had remembered
to put some stones in the lap of the great
rock image of Jizo, whom we passed IN &C
complishing the ascent. He is the god OF
travellers and the protector of children, and
the correct thing is to pay him the little at
tention alluded to. AS we wend homewards
through the picturesque village of Kiga, we
stop to look again at the wonderful fish IN
the gardens of q tea-house there. SWIM
ming about in a pool under a little waterfall
there are exhibited here hundreds of varle-
gated carp-the japanese KOi-wilich are
of every imaginable brilliancy of colour, pur'
pie, russell, citron, saffron, orange, rose red,
gold, and silver. They are tanner than any
pigeons, and come v~oraciously to the bank
to be fed, scrambling for slices Of bean-cake,
and putting their gold and brown noses high
out Of the water in their struggles to secure
H. -oo.- [NI4o al nT n kn faIIG m p