CHAPTER XXII.
THE BAMBOO, RAIN-COATS AND BLIND MEN.

NCLE NAT had made occasional di

gressions from the Tokaido, and, reach-
ing a picturesque neighborhood, now turned
off again, hoping to find some object of
interest. The road that he took wound
between hills bordered by rice-fields. There
was one valley they found that had an
enclosure of the beautiful bamboo, and
at the head of the valley rose hills shaggy
with forests of pine and fir.

 

“The bamboo is a very useful tree here
in Japan,” said the doctor; “ very useful indeed.”

“ And a pretty tree, too,” replied Uncle Nat. “It looks so feathery
waving in the wind. In the East I don’t know what they would do with-
out the bamboo. When it is just beginning to shoot, you can eat it like
asparagus. The grains are eatable, and, mixing these with honey,
the Hindoos regard the compound as a, delicacy when roasted.
Then how many uses the bamboo-stem, so straight and jomted, can
be put to!

_ “Bamboo-joints can be used for bottles, and in Borneo, among
the Dayak’s, serve as cooking vessels. Then the tree is extensively
used for building; for masts of vessels, also. Baskets are plaited

217