I have a rural note of one of my visits to the _Nō_.[219] One farce brought on an inferior priest of a sect which is now extinct but surely deserves to be remembered for its encouragement of mountain climbing. This "mountain climber," as he was called, was hungry and climbed a farmer's tree in order to steal persimmons. (The actor got on a stool, obligingly steadied by a supposedly invisible attendant, and pretended to clamber up a corner post of the stage.) While he was eating the persimmons he was discovered by their owner. The farmer was a man of humour and said that he thought that "that must be a crow in the tree." So the poor priest tried to caw. "No," said the farmer, "it is surely a monkey." So the priest began to scratch after the manner of monkeys. "But perhaps," the farmer went on, "it is really a kite." The priest flapped his arms--and fell. The farmer thought that he had the priest at his mercy. But the priest, rubbing his beads together, put a spell on him and escaped. The word _Nō_ is written with an ideograph which means ability, but _Nō_ also stands for agriculture.[220] FOOTNOTES: [211] The Kwanto plain (73 by 96 miles) includes most of Tokyo and Saitama prefecture, and also the larger part of Kanagawa and Chiba and parts of Ibaraki, Gumma and Tochigi. [212] The characters on these slabs are beautifully written. They have usually been penned by distinguished men. [213] The Japanese man wears below his kimono or trousers a pair of bathing shorts. Peasants frequently wear in the fields nothing but a little cotton bag and string. [214] Poor households ordinarily use, instead of movable _hibachi_, a big square box in an opening in the floor and resting on the earth. [215] When I was in Tokyo, tradesmen's messenger boys received only their food, lodging and clothing and an occasional present, with help no doubt in starting a linked business when they were out of their time. Now such youths, as a development of the labour movement, are on a wage basis and receive 20 yen a month. [216] The place has since been burnt down. A bigger building has been erected. [217] See Appendix LXII. [218] There is also the occasional whiff of the _benjo_; but, as an agricultural expert said, "It is not a bad thing that a people which is increasingly under the influence of industrialism should be compelled to give a thought to agriculture." There are European countries famous for their farming whose sanitary experts are evidently similarly minded. [219] The fact that Dr. Waley's scholarly book is the third work on the _Nō_ to be published in England in recent years is evidence that a knowledge of a form of lyrical drama of rare artistry is gradually extending in the West. [220] Hence the names of the two national agricultural organisations, Teikoku Nōkai, that is the Imperial Agricultural Society, and Dai Nippon Nōkai, that is the Great Japan Agricultural Society. CHAPTER XXXVI "THEY FEEL THE MERCY OF THE SUN"