156 ALL ABOARD FOR SUNRISE LANDS.

exhibited. They are nicely dressed. There are other toys made ta
imitate cooking apparatus or toilet articles that a lady might need.
In this assortment of mementoes you will find dolls representing the
emperor and court-personages. The celebration includes a feast, and
there is a happy time, all rejoicing. Dolls may be kept from one
generation to another. They are as diminutive as a few inches, and
then they are two and a half feet high. The week before the feast
there is a great trade in dolls here in Tokiyo.”

“You ought to see the girls play battledoor and shuttlecock,” said
Rick.
«And you ought to see the boys spin tops and fly kites
Ralph.

“ Japanese boys love kites,” said the doctor. “The frame is of

1»

exclaimed

bamboo, and strong paper is pasted over it. Many are rectangular,
some I have seen being five feet square; and indeed they are of all
shapes, and are made to resemble birds sometimes, or men, or animals ;
and on some there are pictures. Across the top is a very thin strip
of whalebone, which makes a musical hum in the wind.”

“Oh yes,” said Rick, “I—I-—TI heard the humming overhead and
-could not make it out, at’ first.”
, “The boys,” said the doctor, “sometimes have kite-fights. They
glue pounded glass to the string below the kite-frame, and then crossing
strings they will make one saw through another. The kite that falls
goes to the other side as victor. The boys, too, have a good deal of
fun and exercise on long stilts. I know you would enjoy, boys, the
Feast of Flags; for the day brings its games and toys. You will see
figures of heroes, soldiers, wrestlers, or a daimiyo’s procession. In-
doors they have a merry time, and out-doors they hang from a
bamboo pole a large paper fish that the wind fills and buoys up. Some-
times the fish is six feet long and even more, and is a sure sign that