3 182202465 1721 s$J%*mf- m^W Jfe*'^^*^ *'* WWW;: -'W - Library

MEN, MONKEYS, HOUSES, AND SOTS. 147
the riding-school, and the race-course or polo-ground.
Close to them were the lovely grounds and substantial
buildings of the monastery of the Shin sect of
Buddhists. Every one of the Japanese clans or
feudal bodies, numbering three hundred or more,
into which the Japanese nation was divided, possessed
one of these stables for the gentry, the horses
numbering from ten to five hundred, according to
the wealth of the clan. In Fukui the number was
fifty.
These clan stables were the relics of the old
Genji and He*ik days when each nobleman had his
following of knights who owned their own horses.
In the long peace the knights, or samurai, owned
horses in common.
The stable was a wooden structure four hundred
feet long and about twenty feet wide. The windows
facing the street were of paper, about eight feet
from the ground. On entering the main gate we
stepped into an open, shady space, skirted with tall
trees. To the left was the range of stables; to the
right,
one long building consisting of neatly matted
rooms, with sliding paper-covered windows looking
out on the riding-ground, on which polo was played
and races held. Mr. Honda's office was in a building
by itself. These matted rooms in the gallery-like
edifice overlooking the course were for the accommodation
of spectators on extra occasions. The
riding-course was about six hundred feet long and
forty feet wide, covered with sand, shaded by fine
old trees.
We should have found many things to
amuse us