While contemplating these substantial evidences of Japanese generosity, and puzzling themselves with all sorts of impossible contrivances for storing them away on their arrival at Washington, in Mr. Pierce’s quarters, and speculating upon the possible effects of a prolonged diet of rice upon the warlike characteristics of the President's kitchen cabinet, the attention of the Commodore and his party was suddenly riveted upon a body of monstrous fellows who came tramping down the beach like so many huge elephants. They were professional wrestlers, and formed part of the retinue of the Japanese princes, who keep them for their private amusement and for public entertainments. They were twenty-five in all, and were men enormously tall in stature and immense in weight of flesh. Their scant costume - which was merely a colored cloth about the loins, adorned with fringes, and emblazoned with the armorial bearings of the prince to whose service each belonged - revealed their gigantic proportions, in all the bloated fullness of fat and breadth of muscle. Their proprietors, the princes, seemed proud of them, and were careful to show their points to the greatest advantage before the astonished spectators. Some two or three of the huge monsters were the most famous wrestlers in Japan, and ranked as the champion Tom Cribs and Hyers of the land. Koyanagi, the reputed bully of the capital, was one of these, and paraded himself with conscious pride of superior immensity and strength. He was brought especially to the Commodore, that he might examine his massive form. The Commissioners insisted that the monstrous fellow should be minutely inspected, that the hardness of his well-rounded muscles should be felt, and that the fatness of his cushioned frame should be tested by the touch. The Commodore accordingly attempted to grasp his arm, which he found as solid as it was huge, and then passed his hand over the enormous neck, which fell, in folds of massive flesh, like the dew-lap of a prize-ox. As some surprise was naturally expressed at this wondrous exhibition of animal development, the monster himself gave a grunt, expressive of his flattered vanity.

    They were all so immense in flesh, that they appeared to have lost their distinctive features, and seemed only twenty-five masses of fat. Their eyes were barely visible through a long perspective of socket, the prominence of their noses was lost in the puffiness of their bloated cheeks, and their heads were almost directly set upon their bodies, with only folds of flesh where the neck and chin are usually found. Their great size, however, was more owing to the development of muscle than to the mere deposition of fat; for although they were evidently well-fed, they were not less well exercised and capable of great feats of strength. As a preliminary exhibition of the power of these men, the princes set them to removing the sacks of rice to a convenient place on the shore for shipping. All the sacks weighed one hundred and twenty-five pounds a piece, and there were only a couple of the wrestlers who did not each carry two sacks at a time. They bore the sacks on the right shoulder, lifting the first from the ground themselves and adjusting it, but obtaining aid for the raising of the second. One man carried a sack suspended by his teeth, and another, taking one in his arms, kept turning repeated somersaults as he held it, and apparently with as much ease as if his tons of flesh had been only so much gossamer, and his load a feather.

    After this preliminary display, the Commissioners proposed that the Commodore and his party should retire to the Treaty House, where they would have an opportunity of seeing the wrestlers exhibit their professional feats. The wrestlers themselves were most carefully provided for, having constantly about them a number of attendants, who were always at hand to supply them with fans, which they often required, and to assist them in dressing and undressing. While at rest, they were ordinarily clothed in richly adorned robes of the usual Japanese fashion; but when exercising, they were stripped naked, with the exception of the cloth about the loins. After the performance with the sacks of rice, their servitors spread upon the huge frames of the wrestlers their rich garments, and led them up to the Treaty house.

    A circular space of some twelve feet in diameter had been inclosed within a ring, and the ground carefully broken up and smoothed in front of the building; while in the portico divans covered with red cloth were arranged for the Japanese Commissioners, the Commodore, his officers, and their various attendants. The bands from the ships were also present, and enlivened the intervals during the performance with occasional stirring tunes. As soon as the spectators had taken their seats, the naked wrestlers were brought out into the ring, and the whole number being divided into two opposing parties, tramped heavily backward and forward, looking defiance at each other, but not engaging in any contest, as their object was merely to parade their points, to give the beholders, as it were, an opportunity to form an estimate of their comparative powers, and to make up their betting-books. They soon retired behind some screens placed for the purpose, where all, with the exception of two, were again clothed in full dress, and took their position on seats in front of the spectators.

    The two who had been reserved out of the band, now, on the signal being given by the heralds, presented themselves. They came in, one after the other, from behind the screens, and walked with slow and deliberate steps, as became such huge animals, into the centre of the ring. Here they ranged themselves, one against the other, at a distance of a few yards. They stood for a while eyeing each other with a wary look, as if both were watching a chance to catch their antagonist off his guard. As the spectator looked on and beheld these overfed monsters, whose animal natures had been so carefully and successfully developed, and as he watched them, glaring with brutal ferocity at each other, ready to exhibit the cruel instincts even their look and movements. As they continued to eye each other, they stamped the ground heavily, pawing, as it were, with impatience, and then stooping their huge bodies, they grasped handfuls of the earth, and flung it with an angry toss over their backs, or rubbed it impatiently between their massive palms or under their stalwart shoulders. They now crouched down low, still keeping their eyes fixed upon one another and watching each movement, and in a moment they had both simultaneously heaved their massive frames in opposing force, body to body, with a shock that might have stunned an ox. The equilibrium of their monstrous persons was hardly disturbed by the encounter, the effect of which was but barely visible in the quiver of the hanging flesh of their bodies. As they came together, they had flung their brawny arms about each other, and were now entwined in a desperate struggle, with all their strength, to throw their antagonist. Their great muscles rose with the distinct outline of the sculptured form of a colossal Hercules, their bloated faces swelled up with gushes of red blood, which seemed almost to burst through the skin, and their huge bodies palpitated with savage emotion as the struggle continued. At last, one of the antagonists fell with his immense weight upon the ground, and being declared vanquished, he was assisted to his feet and conducted from the ring.

    The scene was now somewhat varied by a change in the kind of contest between the two succeeding wrestlers. The heralds, as before, summoned the antagonists, and one having taken his place in the ring, he assumed an attitude of defense, with one leg in advance as if to steady himself, and his body, with his head lowered, placed in position as if to receive an attack. Immediately after, in rushed the other, bellowing loudly like a hull, and, making at once for the man in the ring, dashed, with his head lowered and thrust forward, against his opponent, who bore the shock with the steadiness of a rock, although the blood streamed down his face from his bruised forehead, which had been struck in the encounter. This manoeuvre was repeated again and again, one acting always as the opposing and the other as the resisting force, and thus they kept up this brutal contest until their foreheads were besmeared  with blood, and the flesh of their breasts rose in great swollen tumors from the repeated blows. This disgusting exhibition did not terminate until the whole twenty-five had successively, in  pairs, displayed their immense powers and say age qualities. From the brutal performance of  the wrestlers, the Americans turned with pride to the exhibition to which the Japanese Commissioners were now in their turn invited, of a savage nature, it was easy for him to lose those triumphs of civilization - the telegraph all sense of their being human creatures, and to and the railroad.