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
could equal it.
[Illustration: TEMPLE BELL AT KIOTO.]
"We have seen one of the famous bells of Japan, or rather of Kioto,
for it is this city that has always been celebrated for its bells.
The greatest of them lies on the ground just outside of one of the
temples, and it is not a piece of property that a man could put in
his pocket and walk off with. It is fourteen feet high, twenty-four
feet in circumference, and ten inches thick. How much it weighs
nobody knows, as the Japanese never made a pair of scales large
enough to weigh it with. The Japanese bells have generally a very
sweet tone, and to hear them booming out on the evening air is not
by any means disagreeable. The art of casting them was carried to a
state of great perfection, and stood higher, two or three centuries
ago than it does at present.
[Illustration: JAPANESE TEMPLE AND CEMETERY.]
"If I should name half the temples and public places we have seen I
should make you wish, perhaps, that I had not written at all, as
the list alone would be tedious, and I could no more give you an
idea of the peculiar beauty and attractions of each than I could
describe the perfume of each flower in a bouquet from the hands of
the florist. One temple had a large cemetery attached to it, and we
walked around looking at the inscriptions in a language which we
could not read, and studying symbols we could not understand. The
temple stands in a grove, as do nearly all the temples of Kioto,
and the place reminded us very much of some of our burial-places at
home.
[Illustration: REELING COTTON.]
"Then we have had glimpses of the way the people spin cotton, and
perform other work in the manufacturing line. Their apparatus is
very simple, and it is rather surprising than otherwise that they
can accomplish so much with so little machinery. Then we have
walked about the streets, and several times we have had close
escapes from being run over by some of the carts that were carrying
heavy loads. With two men to push them, and two pulling at the same
time, they will move loads that would be no small matter for a pair
of horses. They keep up a great shouting, and at first it puzzles
you to know why they do it until you remember that it is desirable
they should all pull together. You can hear them a long way off,
and if you get in their way it is your own fault, as it was ours.
[Illustration: HANDCART FOR A QUARTETTE.]
"Well, if we kept on telling you all we have seen in Kioto we
should be a long time at it, and so we may as well stop short.
Besides, we are going to Lake Biwa, and it is time to be off. If
you enjoy this letter half as much as we have enjoyed the material
for making it you will have a very pleasant time over it."
[Illustration: HORSE CARRYING LIQUID MANURE.]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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