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You are in the southern province of Higo on the island of Kyushu, and about half way up toward the top of the principal peak. This is the famous volcano whose old crater is the largest in the world (fourteen miles in diameter) with farms and villages established in its former basin. That old crater, down below where you are now, is like the saucer of a candlestick, the present crater representing the part holding the candle. It is vigorously afire too! This boiling spring of Yunotani, where you see steam rising in scalding clouds, is only one of many signs that Aso San has by no means gone to sleep. Reddish mud, boiling hot, is the specialty of this geyser, and the men who stand there watching the display would assure you that the overflow is the best application on earth for an obstinate case of rheumatism. When it first boils up, its heat is much too great for endurance even by these Japanese who like bathing in water many degrees hotter than any westerner can bear. There is an arrangement here by which supplies of the muddy water are drawn off from this spring into baths, and rheumatic tourists think they are beneficial. 

That coolie in the blue cotton frock with a cap of similar stuff is lightly clad in a fashion often seen through Japan. He has straw sandals held on his bare feet by a strap of plaited straw passing over the toes. The still airier costume of the other man is likewise not unusual. If circumstances make it more convenient or comfortable to discard parts of the customary clothing, nobody appears disturbed; it is understood as frankly as it is done and no one pays the least attention to it. Japanese draughtsmen have many more opportunities than westerners to study the human figure in action. 

From Notes of Travel, No. 8, copyright, 1904, by Underwood & Underwood. 

[[Double-line]]

Watching an Eruption of Steam and Boiling Mud at Aso San; Japan. 
Regardant une Irruption de Vapeur et de Boue Bouillante à Aso San; Japon. 
Beobachlung eines Uushbruchs von Dampf und fochendem Schlammingas dem Aso San; Japan. 
Mirando una Erupción de Vapor y Fango Herviente en Aso San; Japón.
Seende ett utbrott af het gas och kokande gytja vid Aso San; Japan. 
Наблюденіе извер[[?]]я пара и горячей грязи въ АсоCah; Японія.

Transcription Notes:
Added in most special characters, but couldn't find a few Russian/Cyrillic characters and decipher through the paper tear/smudge through a few lines.