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A JOURNEY THROUGH A PRISON. 281
men of the eta, or hi-nin, class. As the travelers approached
the black gate opening into the awful place
of death, eight or ten of these social outcasts, who
were standing near in their uniform dress of blue cotton,
at the beck of the chief officer sprang forward to
unbar the gate. When they had done this, Mr. Rai
stood in the place of despair and on the ground where
the eyes of the intended victims were bandaged with
paper before being led to doom. How many thousands
have from that spot taken their last look on
earthly things, seeing only sky and black prison
walls ! No for only a few feet off was a tree which
in spring was a mass of blossoms, and in summer
thick with green leaves
the one beautiful thing in
this field of blood.
The prison-yard was about eighty feet square. In
the north end, under a long covered space, were a
number of plain black palanquins, in which criminals
of the samurai class were carried to court. Very
rough kayos, or open basket-palanquins, for ordinary
criminals unable by reason of torture or weakness to
walk, but able to sit, were ranged under another
shed, together with long bamboo baskets, in which
criminals senseless from the torture, unable to sit or
walk, were carried in a recumbent position.
Torture was the regular method of procedure
taken to obtain evidence and confession. Whether
innocent or guilty, the accused was compelled to
testify against himself; and if he did not say what,
according to the preconceived notions of the judge
or examiner, he ought to say, he was put to the