About three hours brought us to the once celebrated (in Japanese annals) city, now village, of Kama Kura, passing through which, and by the entrances to grounds surrounding sacred temples, we came to the end of a straight bit of road where a path turns off abruptly to the right, leading to the famous bronze statue, but here we dismounted to examine the spot and have again described to us the cruel murder which took place in 1864 of two fine young fellows of the 20th Regiment, Major Baldwin and Lieutenant Bird, who were cut down by some fanatical Yakonie, while returning from a visit to the Great Bhudda. The assassins were eventually executed in front of the English camp; one of them requesting to chaunt a song before being executed, prided himself on what he had done and would do again if he lived, and cautioned his countrymen that the foreigner would take the country from them. Had this fellow died fighting he might have been a patriot; as it was, he and another committed a most dastardly murder on two unarmed gentlemen by lying in ambush and striking behind. CHAPTER LXXXVIII DAIBOOTZ [Sidenote: 1867. July 24.] We dismounted when near the statue, and, leaving our ponies, entered a shrubbery by a path which, taking a turn to the left, brought us suddenly, at the distance of about 100 yards, in front of Daibootz himself. It is a huge and imposing spectacle, built, not cast, of sundry pieces of bronze, but so beautifully put together that joints are imperceptible at first from the outside. It is only on going inside that you see how it was riveted, in much the same way as we should (forgive the comparison) a huge boiler. The inside, too, has been desecrated by the usual number of Saxon names. Several of our military friends, who had previously seen this gigantic statue, advised our not taking our eyes from the ground until close up to it, but that is a mistake; you are astonished at the size, but it is only at a distance you see the beautiful proportions of the whole figure. The rising ground and green foliage at the back add much to the effect, and the best view is that which the people who erected it intended you should have, by the turn given to the path when it first appears in view. On our way back we visited the Temple of Hakiman, the largest of the hundred in the neighbourhood. It is curious and handsome. The site, too, as in all the temples of both China and Japan, is well chosen for its picturesque situation, as well as for the view to be obtained from it. But these temples are the work of men’s hands, and not to be compared with the beautiful scenery through which we afterwards passed on our return home, by another route.