INFLUENZA.

Taranaki Daily News, 16 July 1919, Page 7

INFLUENZA.

; OPJENT "Even while the deaths numbered over two millions and each day huge piles of dead were being burned in the different cremation grounds the Japanese went about their daily business quite undisturbed,' 'remarked Mr. Edward Batt, a New Zealander who has just returned from a tour through Japan, China, and the Philippine Islands. "You see, the Japanese are fatalists, and think that no precautions can alter the destiny allotted to them. Their great worry appeared to be that it was impossible for each family to recover the ashes of their individual dead. NEARLY BURNT ALIVE. "I remember hearing that one old lady, who had bribed the man in charge of the crematorium ,to burn her daughter's body separately, heard groans from the casket, and when it wa;s opened she found her daughter alive. "The chief reason why the influenza ; Was so serious in Japan is that the houses are so cold, the only fireplace—the hebachi—being a round flower-pot half filled with ash, over which the Inmates kneel for warmth. The amount of poisonous gas which they inhale is responsible for their continual coughing, which spreads the disease so rapidly. "Prom Japan," continued Mr. Batt, "I went on to China, where I found the 'flu condition even worse than it "had been in Japan. China possesses such a seething mass of population, the struggle for existence is so hard, and the state in which the majority live is so filthy that the disease spread like wildfire. It was no novel thing, upon taking a morning stroll, to find the pavement practically littered with dead bodies.

FORCEFUL INNOCULATION. "One strange custom which helped greatly to spread the plague was that when one member of a household contracted the disease he put his mouth against those of the other inmates and breathed down their throats! The theory was that if ft perfectly healthy person was innoculated with the germ be had a much better chance of recovery than if he caught the disease when in a low state of health.

"The continual fighting in China makes it extremely difficult to carry on trade, as the soldiers when not paid turn brigands. These are very numerous in the north, and in the mountainous parts travelling is so dangerous that the train time-table is altered daily, looking from my carriage window when travelling I was horrified to see heads, in different stages of decomposition, stuck on poles all along the railway line. These were the heads of captured brigands, put there as a frightful example to the others. SOCIETY DINNER PARTY. "1 shall never forget the first dinner to which I. was invited. We all sat round in a ring on our haunches, and were each provided with a bowl of seaweed soup, whioh is drunk as a digestive, and a plate of rice. After a few momenta waiting, an enormous bowl, which contained meat, poultry, and fish, all chopped up together, was brought in and placed in the centre of the ring. Without waiting an invitation from their host, all the guests literally fell to and picked out whatever they most fancied, eating what they liked and spitting the rest all over the floor. In striking contrast to this, I found the table manners of Japan always dainty and clean." THE DOG EATERS. Mr. Batt's next port of call was the Philippine Islands, and the town which fascinated him most was Baggio, near Manila, the home of the Igorottos. "These peculiar natives arc dog-caters, and when you approach a settlement you can hardly hear yourself speak for the barking of these When young they are fed splendidly, but directly the dogs are full-sized they are chained to a tree and left there to starve for several weeks. Then two of them are tied to the end of a long pole and driven to the market and sold. The new owner, upon reaching home, places before the doy an enormous plate of rice, which it devours greedily. Then it is knocked on the head and roasted, after which the animal is cut open and the rice, which the Igorotto considers a most choice djsh. is taken tout tVnd eaten. Later the dog serves as a dish upon which to fea9t."