The Boy Travellers in the Far East [Part First]: Adventures of Two Youths in a Journey to Japan and ChinaKnox, Thomas Wallace
General
The Boy Travellers in the Far East [Part First]: Adventures of Two Youths in a Journey to Japan and China
Knox, Thomas Wallace
China -- Description and travel -- Juvenile literature; Japan -- Description and travel -- Juvenile literature
About every two miles along the way they found little huts or caves,
partly dug in the mass of volcanic rubbish, and partly built up, with
roofs to protect the interior from the rain. These were intended as
refuges for the pilgrims for passing the night or resting during storms,
and had no doubt been of great service to those who preceded them. At
one of these they halted for luncheon, which they took from the pack
of one of their bearers, and later on they halted at another to pass the
night. It is considered too great a journey to be made in a single day,
except by persons of unusual vigor and long accustomed to
mountain-climbing. The customary plan is to pass a night on the mountain
when little more than half way up, and then to finish the ascent, and
make the whole of the descent on the second day.
It was cold that night in the upper air, and there was a strong wind
blowing that chilled our young friends to the bone. The sleeping
accommodations were not of the best, as there were no beds, and they had
nothing but the rugs and shawls they had brought along from the foot of
the mountain. Fred asked if there was any danger of their being
disturbed by tigers or snakes, and was speedily reassured by Frank, who
thought that any well-educated beast or serpent would never undertake a
pilgrimage to the top of Fusiyama; and if one should have strayed as far
as their resting-place, he would be too much played out to attend to any
business. But though large game did not abound, there was plenty of a
smaller kind, as they found before they had been ten minutes in the
huts. Previous visitors had left a large and well-selected assortment of
fleas, for which they had no further use, and their activity indicated
that they had been for some time without food. They made things lively
for the strangers, and what with chilling winds, hard beds, cramped
quarters, and the voracity of the permanent inhabitants of the place,
there was little sleep in that hut during the time of their stay.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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