One side of the square, which must have been about 80 yards, was covered in and fitted with chairs and seats for the Prince and his friends. On the raised platform in the centre, which was about 20 feet square, and likewise roofed over, was an altar, on which incense was offered to propitiate some deity. The leading wrestlers from one side then appeared and formed a ring on the platform, and went through certain mystic movements, clapping of hands, extending arms, then legs, stamping heavily with first one foot, hands resting on one knee, then the other. This over, they retired to a small building erected at the corner near the end of the building in which the Prince and his guests sat, and from which to the platform there was a pathway railed off. Another party then issued from the opposite corner at the other end of the Prince’s stand, and went through the same ceremony. After these had retired, a herald summoned a man from each side. Certain ceremonies were again gone through. A friendly pinch of salt was brought by each and mixed with the soil on which they stood; they extended the arms and stamped and kow-towed and then squatted and watched each other like two game-cocks, until the signal was given by the umpire, when they sprang at each other with a yell and wrestled in earnest. I did not observe anything peculiar in that manner of wrestling. There must have been as many as a hundred of each of the best. The wrestling of the champions was reserved for the last and was exceedingly fine. The good Prince Nwajima and the smaller officer Uwajima were the only strange guests. After dinner the walks through the pleasure-grounds were lighted up, and from one of the summer-houses on the edge of the lake we witnessed some inferior fireworks, but the best these good people could produce. In another pavilion was a native band in full costume, probably the Mikado’s. The night was calm and fine. On return from the Legation, I found in my room a present from His Majesty in the shape of a handsome sword. Acrobats came shortly after breakfast and performed some of the most extraordinary balancing ever seen. For instance: a man lying on his back balances on the soles of his feet four small things piled on one another. One of them was a glass bowl with fish in it; another, a bird-cage with a canary; a larger box on top, out of which came a child, who climbed to the end of a branch that projected nearly at right angles from a bamboo-tree growing out of the upper box--difficult to describe, as I never saw the like. After luncheon there was fishing with casting-nets: all good in its way, the scenery being so picturesque. [Sidenote: Yedo to Yokohama, Sept. 7.]