Japanese Landscape. Fording a River. (Fac-simile.)
inasmuch as they were expert in the use of arms. To these islands the Japanese went annually in vessels freighted with merchandise, for exchange with the natives, and for some time there had been an interchange of tendernesses between the Japanese seamen and the fair inhabitants of those islands, leading of course to the result usual in such cases—“et pour eviter entre eux a tout inconvenient,” the following rules were laid down. Directly the Japanese vessels arrived at these islands, two messengers landed, for the purpose of informing the king or queen who ruled over these fair nymphs of their arrival, and of the number of men in the vessels. A day was then appointed on which the Japanese “blue jackets” were to be allowed to land. On that day a bright troop of young ladies, equal in number to the Lotharios from Nipon, sallied down to the strand, each carrying a pair of shoes or sandals, carefully marked with the name of the proprietress. These sandals were then, in sight of the visitors, thrown indiscriminately together upon the sands of the sea-shore, and the nymphs again retired. “Alors!” says the good priest, in racy old language, “les hommes sautant à terre chaussent chaucun les premiers souliers qu’ils encontrent, et incontinent approchent les femmes.” Each of the fair dames of this Eastern Amazonia then claimed for her admirer the Japanese sailor who bore her sandals in his hand. All remonstrance, choice, or exchange was out of the question, whether the lady was ugly, humpbacked, or deformed; and each Alphonso was fain to be content with his fair Imogene—an arbitrary proceeding upon the part of the ladies, only to be justified in Amazonia. Great care was taken to register the names and residences of all parties, in order that when the Japanese vessels returned in the following year, the sweet pledges of affection which should have been ushered into the world in the meantime might be duly presented to their blushing fathers, and that the rule might be carried out of allowing
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