July 27th.—The weather is quite warm, one feels that we are nearing Japan. Half-naked Japs and Chinamen lay stretched on mats in the hold, fanning themselves lazily, whilst their spouses are occupied in dressing their hair. They grease it with an ointment which makes it stick together, and mould it into a solid mass. This marvellous structure is left without being taken down for a week at a time. These voluntary martyrs sleep with their necks resting on a sort of wooden footstool placed under a thin bolster, which supports the neck, not the head, so that not one hair should be put out of place. They are evidently acquainted with the French proverb which says, Pour être belle il faut souffrir.
I was told that an old Chinaman, who had died on board on the third day of our voyage, had been embalmed on the boat. I remember now that the smell of aromas had spread all over the ship that day. Ancestor worship is a striking feature of China. All Chinamen insist on being buried in their native land, and when death overtakes one of them in a foreign country, his remains are always transported to China to be interred there, after the Buddhist rites.
CHAPTER LXV
YOKOHAMA
Towards eight o’clock in the morning we saw a dark outline on the horizon, and made such a fuss over the first lump of sand, as if we were discovering the North Pole. The Island of Goto, precipitous and craggy, was the first sight of Japan; as it fades into greyness behind, there rises far away the high, jagged coast-line of Japan, with mountains in the far distance. Above the eternal snow-line appeared the cone of the sacred mountain Fuji-Yama, with its crown of snow. The peak was visible for a few moments only, retiring again behind the clouds. The Fuji-Yama is an ancient extinct volcano which sprang up in the year 862 before Christ. At the present moment there are four active volcanoes in Japan, which are the cause of frequent earthquakes in this country.
We are surrounded by fishing-smacks, with bronzed fishermen, who wore nothing above the waist-line and not much below it, their whole costume consisting only of a narrow belt. We passed two formidable-looking British cruisers before entering the port of Yokohama, which is rather a difficult undertaking among all this multitude of vessels encumbering the harbour of Yokohama. Sampans, in which stood policemen in snow-white uniform and Japanese quarantine officers scurried towards us. They came to see if we had any ailing passengers on board.
The Peru comes to anchor at Yokohama Beach. What joy to touch land after 18 days at sea!
We are met on the quay by the Russian consul, Prince Lobanoff-Rostovski, accompanied by Mr. Vassilieff, attached to the Russian mission at Yokohama, and Mr. Omaio, secretary of the Japanese Embassy at St. Petersburg, who was at home on leave. The Governor of the town has sent five servants to take care of our luggage, and three carriages were put at our disposal. We took our places in a victoria drawn by a pair of ponies, and drove to the Grand Hôtel, through the European quarter of the city with big brick houses and gay cafés and shops. I was very much astonished to see little two-wheeled vehicles called rikshas, drawn by men who trotted between the shafts. They wear a short blue wide-sleeved jacket, close-fitting blue drawers reaching to the ankles, straw sandals and a white mushroom-shaped hat, bearing their name and number; a blue rag hangs on their shoulder to wipe their perspiration.
We occupied an apartment of two rooms with a balcony at the Grand Hôtel for four Mexican dollars ahead = two American dollars. It is peculiar that the Mexican dollar, though much larger, and containing therefore more silver than the American dollar, is worth only the half. Why is it so? A mystery of the Exchange Office, I suppose.