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FEOM KAMAKURA TO YEDO. 201
"We should be safer to let such wild schemes
alone, friend Ban," said Honda; "and if we want
to overthrow the bakufu and restore our Mikado
to his ancient power, we must have more patience."
" You are right, comrade. And now, what say
you to a moonlight sail to Kanagawa?"
The plan was a welcome one, for it was the night
for full moon.
After an hour's ride over the silvery
waves and past Yokohama, then an obscure hamlet,
rest was enjoyed in Kanagawa at the inn of " The
Crystal and the Dragon."
Instead of going to bed, the bed came to them.
The rosy-cheeked maids opened a cuddy, rolled out
the padded quilts which served for mattresses, laid
on them the wrappers or coat-like coverlets, and then
prepared the pillows. These were blocks of wood
shaped like bricks. They stood on edge with a
to fit a fair-sized
groove on the top large enough
Bologna sausage. The bolster was a little muslin
bag stuffed with rice-chaff and fitting into the groove.
Around this the maids rolled a clean sheet of white
mulberry-bark paper, and tying it on the block by
the string running through the hole in the center of
the wood, there was, presto ! a clean pillow-case. On
this pillow the Japanese gentleman with a top-knot,
and the lady with carefully built hair-architecture,
could rest two or three inches of skull and save
their hair-dressing, so that once a week was enough
to submit to the barber. After a hot bath and goodnight
the paper sliding screens were drawn and the
two gentlemen lay down to sleep,
Honda to rest