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diff --git a/15320-8.txt b/15320-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..a5a7710 --- /dev/null +++ b/15320-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,4565 @@ +Project Gutenberg's The Romance of the Milky Way, by Lafcadio Hearn + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Romance of the Milky Way + And Other Studies & Stories + +Author: Lafcadio Hearn + +Release Date: March 10, 2005 [EBook #15320] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE ROMANCE OF THE MILKY WAY *** + + + + +Produced by Ted Garvin, William Flis, and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team. + + + + + + Transcriber's Note: Phonetic characters are represented by the + following symbols: + [=x] = any letter "x" with superior macron + + + + +SHORT STORY + + + + +THE ROMANCE OF THE MILKY WAY + +AND OTHER STUDIES & STORIES + +BY LAFCADIO HEARN + + +HOUGHTON MIFFLIN AND COMPANY BOSTON AND NEW YORK 1905 + + + + +COPYRIGHT 1905 BY HOUGHTON MIFFLIN & COMPANY ALL RIGHTS RESERVED + +PUBLISHED OCTOBER 1905 + + + + +CONTENTS + + + THE ROMANCE OF THE MILKY WAY 1 + + GOBLIN POETRY 51 + + "ULTIMATE QUESTIONS" 103 + + THE MIRROR MAIDEN 125 + + THE STORY OF IT[=O] NORISUKÉ 139 + + STRANGER THAN FICTION 167 + + A LETTER FROM JAPAN 179 + + + + +INTRODUCTION + + +Lafcadio Hearn, known to Nippon as Yakumo Koizumi, was born in +Leucadia in the Ionian Islands, June 27, 1850. His father was an Irish +surgeon in the British Army; his mother was a Greek. Both parents died +while Hearn was still a child, and he was adopted by a great-aunt, +and educated for the priesthood. To this training he owed his +Latin scholarship and, doubtless, something of the subtlety of +his intelligence. He soon found, however, that the prospect of an +ecclesiastical career was alien from his inquiring mind and vivid +temperament, and at the age of nineteen he came to America to seek +his fortune. After working for a time as a proof-reader, he obtained +employment as a newspaper reporter in Cincinnati. Soon he rose to +be an editorial writer, and went in the course of a few years to New +Orleans to join the editorial staff of the "Times-Democrat." Here he +lived until 1887, writing odd fantasies and arabesques for his paper, +contributing articles and sketches to the magazines, and publishing +several curious little books, among them his "Stray Leaves from +Strange Literature," and his translations from Gautier. In the winter +of 1887 he began his pilgrimages to exotic countries, being, as +he wrote to a friend, "a small literary bee in search of inspiring +honey." After a couple of years, spent chiefly in the French West +Indies, with periods of literary work in New York, he went in 1890 +to Japan to prepare a series of articles for a magazine. Here through +some deep affinity of mood with the marvelous people of that country +he seems suddenly to have felt himself at last at home. He married a +Japanese woman; he acquired Japanese citizenship in order to preserve +the succession of his property to his family there; he became a +lecturer in the Imperial University at T[=o]ky[=o]; and in a series +of remarkable books he made himself the interpreter to the Western +World of the very spirit of Japanese life and art. He died there of +paralysis of the heart on the 26th of September, 1904. + + * * * * * + +With the exception of a body of familiar letters now in process of +collection, the present volume contains all of Hearn's writing that +he left uncollected in the magazines or in manuscript of a sufficient +ripeness for publication. It is worth noting, however, that perfect as +is the writing of "Ultimate Questions," and complete as the essay is +in itself, the author regarded it as unfinished, and, had he lived, +would have revised and amplified some portions of it. + +But if this volume lacks the incomparably exquisite touch of its +author in its arrangement and revision, it does, nevertheless, present +him in all of his most characteristic veins, and it is in respect both +to style and to substance perhaps the most mature and significant of +his works. + +In his first days as a writer Hearn had conceived an ideal of his art +as specific as it was ambitious. Early in the eighties he wrote from +New Orleans in an unpublished letter to the Rev. Wayland D. Ball +of Washington: "The lovers of antique loveliness are proving to me +the future possibilities of a long cherished dream,--the English +realization of a Latin style, modeled upon foreign masters, and +rendered even more forcible by that element of _strength_ which +is the characteristic of Northern tongues. This no man can hope +to accomplish, but even a translator may carry his stones to the +master-masons of a new architecture of language." In the realization +of his ideal Hearn took unremitting pains. He gave a minute and +analytical study to the writings of such masters of style as Flaubert +and Gautier, and he chose his miscellaneous reading with a peculiar +care. He wrote again to the same friend: "I never read a book which +does not powerfully impress the imagination; but whatever contains +novel, curious, potent imagery I always read, no matter what +the subject. When the soil of fancy is really well enriched +with innumerable fallen leaves, the flowers of language grow +spontaneously." Finally, to the hard study of technique, to vast +but judicious reading, he added a long, creative brooding time. To +a Japanese friend, Nobushige Amenomori, he wrote in a passage +which contains by implication a deep theory not only of literary +composition, but of all art:-- + +"Now with regard to your own sketch or story. If you are quite +dissatisfied with it, I think this is probably due _not_ to what you +suppose,--imperfection of expression,--but rather to the fact that +some _latent_ thought or emotion has not yet defined itself in your +mind with sufficient sharpness. You feel something and have not been +able to express the feeling--only because you do not yet quite know +what it is. We feel without understanding feeling; and our most +powerful emotions are the most undefinable. This must be so, because +they are inherited accumulations of feeling, and the multiplicity of +them--superimposed one over another--blurs them, and makes them dim, +even though enormously increasing their strength.... _Unconscious_ +brain work is the best to develop such latent feeling or thought. By +quietly writing the thing over and over again, I find that the emotion +or idea often _develops itself_ in the process,--unconsciously. Again, +it is often worth while to _try_ to analyze the feeling that remains +dim. The effort of trying to understand exactly what it is that moves +us sometimes proves successful.... If you have any feeling--no matter +what--strongly latent in the mind (even only a haunting sadness or a +mysterious joy), you may be sure that it is expressible. Some feelings +are, of course, very difficult to develop. I shall show you one +of these days, when we see each other, a page that I worked at for +_months_ before the idea came clearly.... When the best result +comes, it ought to surprise you, for our best work is out of the +Unconscious." + +Through this study, reading, and brooding Lafcadio Hearn's prose +ripened and mellowed consistently to the end. In mere workmanship the +present volume is one of his most admirable, while in its heightened +passages, like the final paragraph of "The Romance of the Milky Way," +the rich, melancholy music, the profound suggestion, are not easily +matched from any but the very greatest English prose. + +In substance the volume is equally significant. In 1884 he wrote to +one of the closest of his friends that he had at last found his +feet intellectually through the reading of Herbert Spencer which +had dispelled all "isms" from his mind and left him "the vague +but omnipotent consolation of the Great Doubt." And in "Ultimate +Questions," which strikes, so to say, the dominant chord of this +volume, we have an almost lyrical expression of the meaning for him of +the Spencerian philosophy and psychology. In it is his characteristic +mingling of Buddhist and Shinto thought with English and French +psychology, strains which in his work "do not simply mix well," as +he says in one of his letters, but "absolutely unite, like chemical +elements--rush together with a shock;"--and in it he strikes his +deepest note. In his steady envisagement of the horror that envelops +the stupendous universe of science, in his power to evoke and revive +old myths and superstitions, and by their glamour to cast a ghostly +light of vanished suns over the darkness of the abyss, he was the most +Lucretian of modern writers. + + * * * * * + +In outward appearance Hearn, the man, was in no way prepossessing. In +the sharply lined picture of him drawn by one of his Japanese comrades +in the "Atlantic" for October, 1905, he appears, "slightly corpulent +in later years, short in stature, hardly five feet high, of somewhat +stooping gait. A little brownish in complexion, and of rather hairy +skin. A thin, sharp, aquiline nose, large protruding eyes, of which +the left was blind and the right very near-sighted." + +The same writer, Nobushige Amenomori, has set down a reminiscence, not +of Hearn the man, but of Hearn the genius, wherewith this introduction +to the last of his writings may fitly conclude: "I shall ever retain +the vivid remembrance of the sight I had when I stayed over night at +his house for the first time. Being used myself also to sit up late, I +read in bed that night. The clock struck one in the morning, but there +was a light in Hearn's study. I heard some low, hoarse coughing. I was +afraid my friend might be ill; so I stepped out of my room and went to +his study. Not wanting, however, to disturb him, if he was at work, +I cautiously opened the door just a little, and peeped in. I saw +my friend intent in writing at his high desk, with his nose almost +touching the paper. Leaf after leaf he wrote on. In a while he held +up his head, and what did I see! It was not the Hearn I was familiar +with; it was another Hearn. His face was mysteriously white; his +large eye gleamed. He appeared like one in touch with some unearthly +presence. + +"Within that homely looking man there burned something pure as the +vestal fire, and in that flame dwelt a mind that called forth life and +poetry out of dust, and grasped the highest themes of human thought." + +F.G. + +September, 1905. + + + + +THE ROMANCE, OF THE MILKY WAY + + + Of old it was said: 'The River of Heaven is the Ghost of + Waters.' We behold it shifting its bed in the course of the + year as an earthly river sometimes does. + + _Ancient Scholar_ + + +Among the many charming festivals celebrated by Old Japan, the most +romantic was the festival of Tanabata-Sama, the Weaving-Lady of the +Milky Way. In the chief cities her holiday is now little observed; and +in T[=o]ky[=o] it is almost forgotten. But in many country districts, +and even in villages, near the capital, it is still celebrated in a +small way. If you happen to visit an old-fashioned country town or +village, on the seventh day of the seventh month (by the ancient +calendar), you will probably notice many freshly-cut bamboos fixed +upon the roofs of the houses, or planted in the ground beside them, +every bamboo having attached to it a number of strips of colored +paper. In some very poor villages you might find that these papers are +white, or of one color only; but the general rule is that the papers +should be of five or seven different colors. Blue, green, red, yellow, +and white are the tints commonly displayed. All these papers are +inscribed with short poems written in praise of Tanabata and her +husband Hikoboshi. After the festival the bamboos are taken down and +thrown into the nearest stream, together with the poems attached to +them. + + * * * * * + +To understand the romance of this old festival, you must know the +legend of those astral divinities to whom offerings used to be made, +even by, the Imperial Household, on the seventh day of the seventh +month. The legend is Chinese. This is the Japanese popular version of +it:-- + +The great god of the firmament had a lovely daughter, Tanabata-tsumé, +who passed her days in weaving garments for her august parent. She +rejoiced in her work, and thought that there was no greater pleasure +than the pleasure of weaving. But one day, as she sat before her loom +at the door of her heavenly dwelling, she saw a handsome peasant lad +pass by, leading an ox, and she fell in love with him. Her august +father, divining her secret wish, gave her the youth for a husband. +But the wedded lovers became too fond of each other, and neglected +their duty to the god of the firmament; the sound of the shuttle was +no longer heard, and the ox wandered, unheeded, over the plains of +heaven. Therefore the great god was displeased, and he separated the +pair. They were sentenced to live thereafter apart, with the Celestial +River between them; but it was permitted them to see each other once +a year, on the seventh night of the seventh moon. On that +night--providing the skies be clear--the birds of heaven make, with +their bodies and wings, a bridge over the stream; and by means of that +bridge the lovers can meet. But if there be rain, the River of Heaven +rises, and becomes so wide that the bridge cannot be formed. So the +husband and wife cannot always meet, even on the seventh night of +the seventh month; it may happen, by reason of bad weather, that they +cannot meet for three or four years at a time. But their love remains +immortally young and eternally patient; and they continue to fulfill +their respective duties each day without fault,--happy in their hope +of being able to meet on the seventh night of the next seventh month. + + * * * * * + +To ancient Chinese fancy, the Milky Way was a luminous river,--the +River of Heaven,--the Silver Stream. It has been stated by Western +writers that Tanabata, the Weaving-Lady, is a star in Lyra; and the +Herdsman, her beloved, a star in Aquila, on the opposite side of the +galaxy. But it were more correct to say that both are represented, to +Far-Eastern imagination, by groups of stars. An old Japanese book puts +the matter thus plainly: "Kengy[=u] (the Ox-Leader) is on the west +side of the Heavenly River, and is represented by three stars in a +row, and looks like a man leading an ox. Shokujo (the Weaving-Lady) +is on the east side of the Heavenly River: three stars so placed as +to appear like the figure of a woman seated at her loom.... The former +presides over all things relating to agriculture; the latter, over all +that relates to women's work." + + * * * * * + +In an old book called Zatsuwa-Shin, it is said that these deities +were of earthly origin. Once in this world they were man and wife, +and lived in China; and the husband was called Ishi, and the wife +Hakuy[=o]. They especially and most devoutly reverenced the Moon. +Every clear evening, after sundown, they waited with eagerness to see +her rise. And when she began to sink towards the horizon, they would +climb to the top of a hill near their house, so that they might be +able to gaze upon her face as long as possible. Then, when she at last +disappeared from view, they would mourn together. At the age of ninety +and nine, the wife died; and her spirit rode up to heaven on a magpie, +and there became a star. The husband, who was then one hundred and +three years old, sought consolation for his bereavement in looking at +the Moon and when he welcomed her rising and mourned her setting, it +seemed to him as if his wife were still beside him. + +One summer night, Hakuy[=o]--now immortally beautiful and +young--descended from heaven upon her magpie, to visit her husband; +and he was made very happy by that visit. But from that time he +could think of nothing but the bliss of becoming a star, and joining +Hakuy[=o] beyond the River of Heaven. At last he also ascended to the +sky, riding upon a crow; and there he became a star-god. But he could +not join Hakuy[=o] at once, as he had hoped;--for between his allotted +place and hers flowed the River of Heaven; and it was not permitted +for either star to cross the stream, because the Master of Heaven +(_Ten-Tei_) daily bathed in its waters. Moreover, there was no bridge. +But on one day every year--the seventh day of the seventh month--they +were allowed to see each other. The Master of Heaven goes always +on that day to the Zenh[=o]do, to hear the preaching of the law of +Buddha; and then the magpies and the crows make, with their hovering +bodies and outspread wings, a bridge over the Celestial Stream; and +Hakuy[=o] crosses that bridge to meet her husband. + +There can be little doubt that the Japanese festival called +Tanabata was originally identical with the festival of the Chinese +Weaving-Goddess, Tchi-Niu; the Japanese holiday seems to have +been especially a woman's holiday, from the earliest times; and +the characters with which the word Tanabata is written signify a +weaving-girl. But as both of the star-deities were worshiped on the +seventh of the seventh month, some Japanese scholars have not been +satisfied with the common explanation of the name, and have stated +that it was originally composed with the word _tané_ (seed, or grain), +and the word _hata_ (loom). Those who accept this etymology make the +appellation, Tanabata-Sama, plural instead of singular, and render +it as "the deities of grain and of the loom,"--that is to say, those +presiding over agriculture and weaving. In old Japanese pictures +the star-gods are represented according to this conception of their +respective attributes;--Hikoboshi being figured as a peasant lad +leading an ox to drink of the Heavenly River, on the farther side of +which Orihimé (Tanabata) appears, weaving at her loom. The garb of +both is Chinese; and the first Japanese pictures of these divinities +were probably copied from some Chinese original. + +In the oldest collection of Japanese poetry extant,--the +Many[=o]sh[=u], dating from 760 A.D.,--the male divinity is usually +called Hikoboshi, and the female Tanabata-tsumé; but in later times +both have been called Tanabata. In Izumo the male deity is popularly +termed O-Tanabata Sama, and the female Mé-Tanabata Sama. Both are +still known by many names. The male is called Kaiboshi as well as +Hikoboshi and Kengy[=u]; while the female is called Asagao-himé +("Morning Glory Princess")[1], Ito-ori-himé ("Thread-Weaving +Princess"), Momoko-himé ("Peach-Child Princess"), Takimono-himé +("Incense Princess"), and Sasagani-himé ("Spider Princess"). Some +of these names are difficult to explain,--especially the last, which +reminds us of the Greek legend of Arachne. Probably the Greek myth and +the Chinese story have nothing whatever in common; but in old Chinese +books there is recorded a curious fact which might well suggest a +relationship. In the time of the Chinese Emperor Ming Hwang (whom the +Japanese call Gens[=o]), it was customary for the ladies of the court, +on the seventh day of the seventh month, to catch spiders and put them +into an incense-box for purposes of divination. On the morning of the +eighth day the box was opened; and if the spiders had spun thick webs +during the night the omen was good. But if they had remained idle the +omen was bad. + +[Footnote 1: Asagao (lit., "morning-face") is the Japanese name for +the beautiful climbing plant which we call "morning glory."] + + * * * * * + +There is a story that, many ages ago, a beautiful woman visited the +dwelling of a farmer in the mountains of Izumo, and taught to the only +daughter of the household an art of weaving never before known. One +evening the beautiful stranger vanished away; and the people knew +that they had seen the Weaving-Lady of Heaven. The daughter of the +farmer became renowned for her skill in weaving. But she would never +marry,--because she had been the companion of Tanabata-Sama. + + * * * * * + +Then there is a Chinese story--delightfully vague--about a man who +once made a visit, unawares, to the Heavenly Land. He had observed +that every year, during the eighth month, a raft of precious wood came +floating to the shore on which he lived; and he wanted to know where +that wood grew. So he loaded a boat with provisions for a two years' +voyage, and sailed away in the direction from which the rafts used to +drift. For months and months he sailed on, over an always placid sea; +and at last he arrived at a pleasant shore, where wonderful trees +were growing. He moored his boat, and proceeded alone into the unknown +land, until he came to the bank of a river whose waters were bright as +silver. On the opposite shore he saw a pavilion; and in the pavilion +a beautiful woman sat weaving; she was white like moonshine, and made +a radiance all about her. Presently he saw a handsome young peasant +approaching, leading an ox to the water; and he asked the young +peasant to tell him the name of the place and the country. But the +youth seemed to be displeased by the question, and answered in a +severe tone: "If you want to know the name of this place, go back +to where you came from, and ask Gen-Kum-Pei."[2] So the voyager, +feeling afraid, hastened to his boat, and returned to China. There he +sought out the sage Gen-Kum-Pei, to whom he related the adventure. +Gen-Kum-Pei clapped his hands for wonder, and exclaimed, "So it was +you!... On the seventh day of the seventh month I was gazing at +the heavens, and I saw that the Herdsman and the Weaver were about +to meet;--but between them was a new Star, which I took to be a +Guest-Star. Fortunate man! you have been to the River of Heaven, and +have looked upon the face of the Weaving-Lady!..." + +[Footnote 2: This is the Japanese reading of the Chinese name.] + + * * * * * + +--It is said that the meeting of the Herdsman and the Weaver can be +observed by any one with good eyes; for whenever it occurs those stars +burn with five different colors. That is why offerings of five colors +are made to the Tanabata divinities, and why the poems composed in +their praise are written upon paper of five different tints. + +But, as I have said before, the pair can meet only in fair weather. +If there be the least rain upon the seventh night, the River of Heaven +will rise, and the lovers must wait another whole year. Therefore the +rain that happens to fall on Tanabata night is called _Namida no Amé_, +"The Rain of Tears." + +When the sky is clear on the seventh night, the lovers are fortunate; +and their stars can be seen to sparkle with delight. If the star +Kengy[=u] then shines very brightly, there will be great rice crops +in the autumn. If the star Shokujo looks brighter than usual, there +will be a prosperous time for weavers, and for every kind of female +industry. + + * * * * * + +In old Japan it was generally supposed that the meeting of the pair +signified good fortune to mortals. Even to-day, in many parts of the +country, children sing a little song on the evening of the Tanabata +festival,--_Tenki ni nari!_ ("O weather, be clear!") In the province +of Iga the young folks also sing a jesting song at the supposed hour +of the lovers' meeting:-- + + Tanabata ya! + Amari isogaba, + Korobubéshi![3] + +But in the province of Izumo, which is a very rainy district, the +contrary belief prevails; and it is thought that if the sky be clear +on the seventh day of the seventh month, misfortune will follow. The +local explanation of this belief is that if the stars can meet, there +will be born from their union many evil deities who will afflict the +country with drought and other calamities. + +[Footnote 3: "Ho! Tanabata! if you hurry too much, you will tumble +down!"] + + * * * * * + +The festival of Tanabata was first celebrated in Japan on the seventh +day of the seventh month of Tomby[=o] Sh[=o]h[=o] (A.D. 755). Perhaps +the Chinese origin of the Tanabata divinities accounts for the fact +that their public worship was at no time represented by many temples. + +I have been able to find record of only one temple to them, called +Tanabata-jinja, which was situated at a village called Hoshiaimura, +in the province of Owari, and surrounded by a grove called +Tanabata-mori.[4] + +[Footnote 4: There is no mention, however, of any such village in any +modern directory.] + +Even before Temby[=o] Sh[=o]h[=o], however, the legend of the +Weaving-Maiden seems to have been well known in Japan; for it is +recorded that on the seventh night of the seventh year of Y[=o]r[=o] +(A.D. 723) the poet Yamagami no Okura composed the song:-- + + Amanogawa, + Ai-muki tachité, + Waga koďshi + Kimi kimasu nari-- + Himo-toki makina![5] + +It would seem that the Tanabata festival was first established +in Japan eleven hundred and fifty years ago, as an Imperial Court +festival only, in accordance with Chinese precedent. Subsequently +the nobility and the military classes everywhere followed imperial +example; and the custom of celebrating the Hoshi-mat-suri, or +Star-Festival,--as it was popularly called,--spread gradually +downwards, until at last the seventh day of the seventh month became, +in the full sense of the term, a national holiday. But the fashion of +its observance varied considerably at different eras and in different +provinces. + +[Footnote 5: For a translation and explanation of this song, see +_infra_, page 30.] + +The ceremonies at the Imperial Court were of the most elaborate +character: a full account of them is given in the _K[=o]ji +Kongen_,--with explanatory illustrations. On the evening of the +seventh day of the seventh month, mattings were laid down on the east +side of that portion of the Imperial Palace called the Seir-y[=o]den; +and upon these mattings were placed four tables of offerings to the +Star-deities. Besides the customary food-offerings, there were placed +upon these tables rice-wine, incense, vases of red lacquer containing +flowers, a harp and flute, and a needle with five eyes, threaded +with threads of five different colors. Black-lacquered oil-lamps were +placed beside the tables, to illuminate the feast. In another part of +the grounds a tub of water was so placed as to reflect the light of +the Tanabata-stars; and the ladies of the Imperial Household attempted +to thread a needle by the reflection. She who succeeded was to be +fortunate during the following year. The court-nobility (_Kugé_) were +obliged to make certain offerings to the Imperial House on the day +of the festival. The character of these offerings, and the manner of +their presentation, were fixed by decree. They were conveyed to the +palace upon a tray, by a veiled lady of rank, in ceremonial dress. +Above her, as she walked, a great red umbrella was borne by an +attendant. On the tray were placed seven _tanzaku_ (longilateral +slips of fine tinted paper for the writing of poems); seven +_kudzu_-leaves;[6] seven inkstones; seven strings of _s[=o]men_ +(a kind of vermicelli); fourteen writing-brushes; and a bunch of +yam-leaves gathered at night, and thickly sprinkled with dew. In the +palace grounds the ceremony began at the Hour of the Tiger,--4 A.M. +Then the inkstones were carefully washed,--prior to preparing the ink +for the writing of poems in praise of the Star-deities,--and each one +set upon a _kudzu_-leaf. One bunch of bedewed yam-leaves was then +laid upon every inkstone; and with this dew, instead of water, the +writing-ink was prepared. All the ceremonies appear to have been +copied from those in vogue at the Chinese court in the time of the +Emperor Ming-Hwang. + +[Footnote 6: _Pueraria Thunbergiana._] + + * * * * * + +It was not until the time of the Tokugawa Sh[=o]gunate that the +Tanabata festival became really a national holiday; and the popular +custom of attaching _tansaku_ of different colors to freshly-cut +bamboos, in celebration of the occasion, dates only from the era +of Bunser (1818). Previously the _tanzaku_ had been made of a very +costly quality of paper; and the old aristocratic ceremonies had been +not less expensive than elaborate. But in the time of the Tokugawa +Sh[=o]gunate a very cheap paper of various colors was manufactured; +and the holiday ceremonies were suffered to assume an inexpensive +form, in which even the poorest classes could indulge. + +The popular customs relating to the festival differed according to +locality. Those of Izumo--where all classes of society, _samurai_ or +common folk, celebrated the holiday in much the same way--used to be +particularly interesting; and a brief account of them will suggest +something of the happy aspects of life in feudal times. At the Hour +of the Tiger, on the seventh night of the seventh month, everybody +was up; and the work of washing the inkstones and writing-brushes +was performed. Then, in the household garden, dew was collected upon +yam-leaves. This dew was called _Amanogawa no suzuki_ ("drops from the +River of Heaven"); and it was used to make fresh ink for writing the +poems which were to be suspended to bamboos planted in the garden. It +was usual for friends to present each other with new inkstones at the +time of the Tanabata festival; and if there were any new inkstones +in the house, the fresh ink was prepared in these. Each member of +the family then wrote poems. The adults composed verses, according to +their ability, in praise of the Star-deities; and the children either +wrote dictation or tried to improvise. Little folk too young to use +the writing-brush without help had their small hands guided, by parent +or elder sister or elder brother, so as to shape on a _tanzaku_ +the character of some single word or phrase relating to the +festival,--such as "Amanogawa," or "Tanabata," or "Kasasagi no Hashi" +(the Bridge of Magpies). In the garden were planted two freshly-cut +bamboos, with branches and leaves entire,--a male bamboo +(_otoko-daké_) and a female bamboo (_onna-daké_). They were set +up about six feet apart, and to a cord extended between them were +suspended paper-cuttings of five colors, and skeins of dyed thread of +five colors. The paper-cuttings represented upper-robes,--_kimono_. +To the leaves and branches of the bamboos were tied the _tanzaku_ +on which poems had been written by the members of the family. +And upon a table, set between the bamboos, or immediately before +them, were placed vessels containing various offerings to the +Star-deities,--fruits, _s[=o]men_, rice-wine, and vegetables of +different kinds, such as cucumbers and watermelons. + +But the most curious Izumo custom relating to the festival was the +_Nému-nagashi_, or "Sleep-wash-away" ceremony. Before day-break the +young folks used to go to some stream, carrying with them bunches +composed of _némuri_-leaves and bean-leaves mixed together. On +reaching the stream, they would fling their bunches of leaves into the +current, and sing a little song:-- + + Nému wa, nagaré yo! + Mamé no ha wa, tomaré! + +These verses might be rendered in two ways; because the word _nému_ +can be taken in the meaning either of _némuri_ (sleep), or of +_nemuri-gi_ or _némunoki_, the "sleep-plant" (mimosa),--while the +syllables _mamé_, as written in _kana_, can signify either "bean," or +"activity," or "strength," "vigor," "health," etc. But the ceremony +was symbolical, and the intended meaning of the song was:-- + + Drowsiness, drift away! + Leaves of vigor, remain! + +After this, all the young folk would jump into the water, to bathe or +swim, in token of their resolve to shed all laziness for the coming +year, and to maintain a vigorous spirit of endeavor. + + * * * * * + +Yet it was probably in Yédo (now T[=o]ky[=o]) that the Tanabata +festival assumed its most picturesque aspects. During the two days +that the celebration lasted,--the sixth and seventh of the seventh +month,--the city used to present the appearance of one vast bamboo +grove; fresh bamboos, with poems attached to them, being erected upon +the roofs of the houses. Peasants were in those days able to do a +great business in bamboos, which were brought into town by hundreds of +wagonloads for holiday use. Another feature of the Yédo festival was +the children's procession, in which bamboos, with poems attached to +them, were carried about the city. To each such bamboo there was also +fastened a red plaque on which were painted, in Chinese characters, +the names of the Tanabata stars. + +But almost everywhere, under the Tokugawa régime, the Tanabata +festival used to be a merry holiday for the young people of all +classes,--a holiday beginning with lantern displays before sunrise, +and lasting well into the following night. Boys and girls on that day +were dressed in their best, and paid visits of ceremony to friends and +neighbors. + + * * * * * + +--The moon of the seventh month used to be called _Tanabata-tsuki_, or +"The Moon of Tanabata." And it was also called _Fumi-tsuki_, or "The +Literary Moon," because during the seventh month poems were everywhere +composed in praise of the Celestial Lovers. + + * * * * * + +I think that my readers ought to be interested in the following +selection of ancient Japanese poems, treating of the Tanabata legend. +All are from the _Many[=o]sh[=u]_. The _Many[=o]sh[=u]_, or "Gathering +of a Myriad Leaves," is a vast collection of poems composed before the +middle of the eighth century. It was compiled by Imperial order, and +completed early in the ninth century. The number of the poems which +it contains is upwards of four thousand; some being "long poems" +(_naga-uta_), but the great majority _tanka_, or compositions limited +to thirty-one syllables; and the authors were courtiers or high +officials. The first eleven _tanka_ hereafter translated were composed +by Yamagami no Okura, Governor of the province of Chikuzen more than +eleven hundred years ago. His fame as a poet is well deserved; for +not a little of his work will bear comparison with some of the finer +epigrams of the Greek Anthology. The following verses, upon the death +of his little son Furubi, will serve as an example:-- + + Wakakeréba + Nichi-yuki shiraji: + Mahi wa sému, + Shitabé no tsukahi + Ohité-tohorasé. + + --[_As he is so young, he cannot know the way.... To the + messenger of the Underworld I will give a bribe, and entreat + him, saying: "Do thou kindly take the little one upon thy back + along the road."_] + +Eight hundred years earlier, the Greek poet Diodorus Zonas of Sardis +had written:-- + + "_Do thou, who rowest the boat of the dead in the water of + this reedy lake, for Hades, stretch out thy hand, dark + Charon, to the son of Kinyras, as he mounts the ladder by the + gang-way, and receive him. For his sandals will cause the lad + to slip, and he fears to set his feet naked on the sand of the + shore._" + +But the charming epigram of Diodorus was inspired only by a myth,--for +the "son of Kinyras" was no other than Adonis,--whereas the verses of +Okura express for us the yearning of a father's heart. + + * * * * * + +--Though the legend of Tanabata was indeed borrowed from China, the +reader will find nothing Chinese in the following compositions. +They represent the old classic poetry at its purest, free from alien +influence; and they offer us many suggestions as to the condition of +Japanese life and thought twelve hundred years ago. Remembering that +they were written before any modern European literature had yet taken +form, one is startled to find how little the Japanese written language +has changed in the course of so many centuries. Allowing for a few +obsolete words, and sundry slight changes of pronunciation, the +ordinary Japanese reader to-day can enjoy these early productions of +his native muse with about as little difficulty as the English reader +finds in studying the poets of the Elizabethan era. Moreover, the +refinement and the simple charm of the _Many[=o]sh[=u]_ compositions +have never been surpassed, and seldom equaled, by later Japanese +poets. + +As for the forty-odd _tanka_ which I have translated, their chief +attraction lies, I think, in what they reveal to us of the human +nature of their authors. Tanabata-tsumé still represents for us the +Japanese wife, worshipfully loving;--Hikoboshi appears to us with none +of the luminosity of the god, but as the young Japanese husband of the +sixth or seventh century, before Chinese ethical convention had begun +to exercise its restraint upon life and literature. Also these poems +interest us by their expression of the early feeling for natural +beauty. In them we find the scenery and the seasons of Japan +transported to the Blue Plain of High Heaven;--the Celestial Stream +with its rapids and shallows, its sudden risings and clamourings +within its stony bed, and its water-grasses bending in the autumn +wind, might well be the Kamogawa;--and the mists that haunt its shores +are the very mists of Arashiyama. The boat of Hikoboshi, impelled +by a single oar working upon a wooden peg, is not yet obsolete; and +at many a country ferry you may still see the _hiki-funé_ in which +Tanabata-tsumé prayed her husband to cross in a night of storm,--a +flat broad barge pulled over the river by cables. And maids and wives +still sit at their doors in country villages, on pleasant autumn days, +to weave as Tanabata-tsumé wove for the sake of her lord and lover. + + * * * * * + +--It will be observed that, in most of these verses, it is not the +wife who dutifully crosses the Celestial River to meet her husband, +but the husband who rows over the stream to meet the wife; and there +is no reference to the Bridge of Birds.... As for my renderings, those +readers who know by experience the difficulty of translating Japanese +verse will be the most indulgent, I fancy. The Romaji system of +spelling has been followed (except in one or two cases where I thought +it better to indicate the ancient syllabication after the method +adopted by Aston); and words or phrases necessarily supplied have been +inclosed in parentheses. + + Amanogawa + Ai-muki tachité, + Waga koďshi + Kimi kimasu nari + Himo-toki makéna! + + [_He is coming, my long-desired lord, whom I have been waiting + to meet here, on the banks of the River of Heaven.... The + moment of loosening my girdle is nigh!_[7]] + +[Footnote 7: The last line alludes to a charming custom of which +mention is made in the most ancient Japanese literature. Lovers, +ere parting, were wont to tie each other's inner girdle (_himo_) and +pledge themselves to leave the knot untouched until the time of their +next meeting. This poem is said to have been composed in the seventh +year of Y[=o]r[=o],--A.D. 723,--eleven hundred and eighty-two years +ago.] + + Hisakata no[8] + Ama no kawasé ni, + Funé ukété, + Koyoď ka kimi ga + Agari kimasan? + +[Footnote 8: _Hisakata-no_ is a "pillow-word" used by the old poets in +relation to celestial objects; and it is often difficult to translate. +Mr. Aston thinks that the literal meaning of _hisakata_ is simply +"long-hard," in the sense of long-enduring,--_hisa_ (long), _katai_ +(hard, or firm),--so that _hisakata-no_ would have the meaning of +"firmamental." Japanese commentators, however, say that the term +is composed with the three words, _hi_ (sun), _sasu_ (shine), and +_kata_ (side);--and this etymology would justify the rendering +of _hisakata-no_ by some such expression as "light-shedding," +"radiance-giving." On the subject of pillow-words, see Aston's +_Grammar of the Japanese Written Language_.] + + [_Over the Rapids of the Everlasting Heaven, floating in his + boat, my lord will doubtless deign to come to me this very + night._] + + Kazé kumo wa + Futatsu no kishi ni + Kayoëdomo, + Waga toho-tsuma no + Koto zo kayowanu! + + [_Though winds and clouds to either bank may freely come or + go, between myself and my faraway spouse no message whatever + may pass._] + + Tsubuté[9] ni mo + Nagé koshitsu-béki, + Amanogawa + Hédatéréba ka mo, + Amata subé-naki! + + [_To the opposite bank one might easily fling a pebble; yet, + being separated from him by the River of Heaven, alas! to hope + for a meeting (except in autumn) is utterly useless._] + +[Footnote 9: The old text has _tabuté_.] + + Aki-kazé no + Fukinishi hi yori + "Itsushika" to--; + Waga machi koîshi + Kimi zo kimaséru. + + [_From the day that the autumn wind began to blow (I kept + saying to myself), "Ah! when shall we meet?"--but now my + beloved, for whom I waited and longed, has come indeed!_] + + Amanogawa + Ito kawa-nami wa + Tatanédomo, + Samorai gatashi-- + Chikaki kono sé wo. + + [_Though the waters of the River of Heaven have not greatly + risen, (yet to cross) this near stream and to wait upon (my + lord and lover) remains impossible._] + + Sodé furaba + Mi mo kawashitsu-béku + Chika-kerédo, + Wataru subé nashi, + Aki nishi aranéba. + + [_Though she is so near that the waving of her (long) sleeves + can be distinctly seen, yet there is no way to cross the + stream before the season of autumn._] + + Kagéroď no + Honoka ni miété + Wakarénaba;-- + Motonaya koďn + Aü-toki madé wa! + + [_When we were separated, I had seen her for a moment + only,--and dimly as one sees a flying midge;[10] now I + must vainly long for her as before, until time of our next + meeting!_] + + Hikoboshi no + Tsuma mukaë-buné + Kogizurashi,-- + Ama-no-Kawara ni + Kiri no tatéru wa. + +[Footnote 10: _Kagéroď_ is an obsolete form of _kagér[=o]_, meaning an +ephemera.] + + [_Methinks that Hikoboshi must be rowing his boat to meet his + wife,--for a mist (as of oar-spray) is rising over the course + of the Heavenly Stream._] + + Kasumi tatsu + Ama-no-Kawara ni, + Kimi matsu to,-- + Ikay[=o] hodo ni + Mono-suso nurenu. + + [_While awaiting my lord on the misty shore of the River of + Heaven, the skirts of my robe have somehow become wet._] + + Amanogawa, + Mi-tsu no nami oto + Sawagu-nari: + Waga matsu-kimi no + Funadé-surashi mo. + + [_On the River of Heaven, at the place of the august + ferry, the sound of the water has become loud: perhaps my + long-awaited lord will soon be coming in his boat._] + + Tanabata no + Sodé maku yoď no + Akatoki wa, + Kawasé no tazu wa + Nakazu to mo yoshi. + + [_As Tanabata (slumbers) with her long sleeves rolled up, + until the reddening of the dawn, do not, O storks of the + river-shallows, awaken her by your cries._[11]] + +[Footnote 11: Lit., "not to cry out (will be) good"--but a literal +translation of the poem is scarcely possible.] + + Amanogawa + Kiri-tachi-wataru: + Ky[=o], ky[=o], to-- + Waga matsu-koďshi + Funadé-surashi! + + [_(She sees that) a mist is spreading across the River of + Heaven.... "To-day, to-day," she thinks, "my long-awaited lord + will probably come over in his boat."_] + + Amanogawa, + Yasu no watari ni, + Funé ukété;-- + Waga tachi-matsu to + Imo ni tsugé koso. + + [_By the ferry of Yasu, on the River of Heaven, the boat is + floating: I pray you tell my younger sister[12] that I stand + here and wait._] + +[Footnote 12: That is to say, "wife." In archaic Japanese the word +_imo_ signified both "wife" and "younger sister." The term might also +be rendered "darling" or "beloved."] + + [=O]-sora yo + Kay[=o] waré sura, + Na ga yué ni, + Amanokawa-ji no + Nazumité zo koshi. + + [_Though I (being a Star-god) can pass freely to and fro, + through the great sky,--yet to cross over the River of Heaven, + for your sake, was weary work indeed!_] + + Yachihoko no + Kami no mi-yo yori + Tomoshi-zuma;-- + Hito-shiri ni keri + Tsugitéshi omoëba. + + [_From the august Age of the + God-of-Eight-Thousand-Spears_,[13] _she had been my spouse in + secret_[14] _only; yet now, because of my constant longing for + her, our relation has become known to men._] + +[Footnote 13: Yachihoko-no-Kami, who has many other names, is +the Great God of Izumo, and is commonly known by his appellation +Oho-kuni-nushi-no-Kami, or the "Deity-Master-of-the Great-Land." He +is locally worshiped also as the god of marriage,--for which reason, +perhaps, the poet thus refers to him.] + +[Footnote 14: Or, "my seldom-visited spouse." The word _tsuma_ +(_zuma_), in ancient Japanese, signified either wife or husband; and +this poem might be rendered so as to express either the wife's or the +husband's thoughts.] + + Amé tsuchi to + Wakaréshi toki yo + Onoga tsuma; + Shika zo té ni aru + Aki matsu aré wa. + + [_From the time when heaven and earth were parted, she has + been my own wife;--yet, to be with her, I must always wait + till autumn._[15]] + +[Footnote 15: By the ancient calendar, the seventh day of the seventh +month would fall in the autumn season.] + + Waga k[=o]ru + Niho no omo wa + Koyoď mo ka + Ama-no-kawara ni + Ishi-makura makan. + + [_With my beloved, of the ruddy-tinted cheeks_,[16] _this + night indeed will I descend into the bed of the River of + Heaven, to sleep on a pillow of stone._] + +[Footnote 16: The literal meaning is "_béni_-tinted face,"--that is to +say, a face of which the cheeks and lips have been tinted with _béni_, +a kind of rouge.] + + Amanogawa. + Mikomori-gusa no + Aki-kazé ni + Nabikafu miréba, + Toki kitarurashi. + + [_When I see the water-grasses of the River of Heaven bend + in the autumn wind (I think to myself): "The time (for our + meeting) seems to have come."_] + + Waga séko ni + Ura-koi oréba, + Amanogawa + Yo-funé kogi-toyomu + Kaji no 'to kikoyu. + + [_When I feel in my heart a sudden longing for my + husband_,[17] _then on the River of Heaven the sound of the + rowing of the night-boat is heard, and the plash of the oar + resounds._] + +[Footnote 17: In ancient Japanese the word _séko_ signified either +husband or elder brother. The beginning of the poem might also be +rendered thus:--"When I feel a secret longing for my husband," etc.] + + T[=o]-zuma to + Tamakura kawashi + Nétaru yo wa, + Tori-gané na naki + Akéba aku to mo! + + [_In the night when I am reposing with my (now) far-away + spouse, having exchanged jewel-pillows_[18] _with her, let not + the cock crow, even though the day should dawn._] + +[Footnote 18: "To exchange jewel-pillows" signifies to use each +other's arms for pillows. This poetical phrase is often used in +the earliest Japanese literature. The word for jewel, _tama_, often +appears in compounds as an equivalent of "precious," "dear," etc.] + + Yorozu-yo ni + Tazusawari ité + Ai mi-domo, + Omoi-sugu-béki + Koi naranaku ni. + + [_Though for a myriad ages we should remain hand-in-hand and + face to face, our exceeding love could never come to an end. + (Why then should Heaven deem it necessary to part us?)_] + + Waga tamé to, + Tanabata-tsumé no, + Sono yado ni, + Oreru shirotai + Nuďt ken kamo? + + [_The white cloth which Tanabata has woven for my sake, in + that dwelling of hers, is now, I think, being made into a robe + for me._] + + Shirakumo no + I-ho é kakurité + T[=o]-kédomo, + Yoď-sarazu min + Imo ga atari wa. + + [_Though she be far-away, and hidden from me by five hundred + layers of white cloud, still shall I turn my gaze each night + toward the dwelling-place of my younger sister (wife)._] + + Aki saréba + Kawagiri tatéru + Amanogawa, + Kawa ni muki-ité + Kru[19] yo zo [=o]ki! + +[Footnote 19: For _kofuru_.] + + [_When autumn comes, and the river-mists spread over the + Heavenly Stream, I turn toward the river, (and long); and the + nights of my longing are many!_] + + Hito-tosé ni + Nanuka no yo nomi + Aü-hito no-- + Koď mo tsuki-néba + Sayo zo aké ni keru! + + [_But once in the whole year, and only upon the seventh night + (of the seventh month), to meet the beloved person--and + lo! The day has dawned before our mutual love could express + itself!_[20]] + +[Footnote 20: Or "satisfy itself." A literal rendering is difficult.] + + Toshi no koď + Koyoď tsukushíté, + Asu yori wa, + Tsuné no gotoku ya + Waga koď oran. + + [_The love-longing of one whole year having ended to-night, + every day from to-morrow I must again pine for him as + before!_] + + Hikoboshi to + Tanabata-tsumé to + Koyoď aü;-- + Ama-no-Kawa to ni + Nami tatsu-na yumé! + + [_Hikoboshi and Tanabata-tsumé are to meet each other + to-night;--ye waves of the River of Heaven, take heed that ye + do not rise!_] + + Aki-kazé no + Fuki tadayowasu + Shirakumo wa, + Tanabata-tsumé no + Amatsu hiré kamo? + + [_Oh! that white cloud driven by the autumn-wind--can it be + the heavenly hiré[21] of Tana-bata-tsumé?_] + +[Footnote 21: At different times, in the history of Japanese female +costume, different articles of dress were called by this name. In the +present instance, the _hiré_ referred to was probably a white scarf, +worn about the neck and carried over the shoulders to the breast, +where its ends were either allowed to hang loose, or were tied into +an ornamental knot. The _hiré_ was often used to make signals with, +much as handkerchiefs are waved to-day for the same purpose;--and the +question uttered in the poem seems to signify: "Can that be Tanabata +waving her scarf--to call me?" In very early times, the ordinary +costumes worn were white.] + + Shiba-shiba mo + Ai minu kimi wo, + Amanogawa + Funa-dé haya séyo + Yo no fukénu ma ni. + + [_Because he is my not-often-to-be-met beloved, hasten to + row the boat across the River of Heaven ere the night be + advanced._] + + Amanogawa + Kiri tachi-watari + Hikoboshi no + Kaji no 'to kikoyu + Yo no fuké-yukéba. + + [_Late in the night, a mist spreads over_] _the River of + Heaven; and the sound of the oar[22] of Hikoboshi is heard._] + +[Footnote 22: Or, "the creaking of the oar." (The word _kaji_ to-day +means "helm";--the single oar, or scull, working upon a pivot, and +serving at once for rudder and oar, being now called _ro_.) The mist +passing across the Amanogawa is, according to commentators, the spray +from the Star-god's oar.] + + Amanogawa + Kawa 'to sayakéshi: + Hikoboshi no + Haya kogu funé no + Nami no sawagi ka? + + [_On the River of Heaven a sound of plashing can be distinctly + heard: is it the sound of the rippling made by Hikoboshi + quickly rowing his boat?_] + + Kono y[=u]bé, + Furikuru amé wa, + Hikoboshi no + Haya kogu funé no + Kaď no chiri ka mo. + + [_Perhaps this evening shower is but the spray (flung down) + from the oar of Hikoboshi, rowing his boat in haste._] + + Waga tama-doko wo + Asu yori wa + Uchi haraď, + Kimi to inézuté + Hitori ka mo nen! + + [_From to-morrow, alas! after having put my jewel-bed in + order, no longer reposing with my lord, I must sleep alone!_] + + Kazé fukité, + Kawa-nami tachinu;-- + Hiki-funé ni + Watari mo kimasé + Yo no fukénu ma ni. + + [_The wind having risen, the waves of the river have become + high;--this night cross over in a towboat,[23] I pray thee, + before the hour be late!_] + +[Footnote 23: Lit. "pull-boat" (_hiki-funé_),--a barge or boat pulled +by a rope.] + + Amanogawa + Nami wa tatsutomo, + Waga funé wa + Iza kogi iden + Yo no fukénu ma ni. + + [_Even though the waves of the River of_ _Heaven run high, I + must row over quickly, before it becomes late in the night._] + + Inishié ni + Oritéshi hata wo; + Kono y[=u]bé + Koromo ni nuďté-- + Kimi matsu aré wo! + + [_Long ago I finished weaving the material; and, this evening, + having finished sewing the garment for him--(why must) I still + wait for my lord?_] + + Amanogawa + Sé wo hayami ka mo? + Nubatama no + Yo wa fuké ni tsutsu, + Awanu Hikoboshi! + +[_Is it that the current of the River of_ _Heaven (has become too) +rapid? The jet-black night[24] advances--and Hikoboshi has not come!_] + +[Footnote 24: _Nubatama no yo_ might better be rendered by some such +phrase as "the berry-black night,"--but the intended effect would be +thus lost in translation. _Nubatama-no_ (a "pillow-word") is written +with characters signifying "like the black fruits of _Karasu-[=O]gi_;" +and the ancient phrase "_nubatama no yo_" therefore may be said +to have the same meaning as our expressions "jet-black night," or +"pitch-dark night."] + + Watashi-mori, + Funé haya watasé;-- + Hito-tosé ni + Futatabi kay[=o] + Kimi naranaku ni! + + [_Oh, ferryman, make speed across the stream!--my lord is not + one who can come and go twice in a year!_] + + Aki kazé no + Fukinishi hi yori, + Amanogawa + Kawasé ni dédachi;-- + Matsu to tsugé koso! + + [_On the very day that the autumn-wind began to blow, I set + out for the shallows of the River of Heaven;--I pray you, tell + my lord that I am waiting here still!_] + + Tanabata no + Funanori surashi,-- + Maso-kagami, + Kiyoki tsuki-yo ni + Kumo tachi-wataru. + + [_Methinks Tanabata must be coming in her boat; for a cloud is + even now passing across the clear face of the moon._[25]] + +[Footnote 25: Composed by the famous poet [=O]tomo no Sukuné +Yakamochi, while gazing at the Milky Way, on the seventh night of +the seventh month of the tenth year of Tampy[=o] (A.D. 738). The +pillow-word in the third line (_maso-kagami_) is untranslatable.] + +--And yet it has been gravely asserted that the old Japanese poets +could find no beauty in starry skies!... + +Perhaps the legend of Tanabata, as it was understood by those old +poets, can make but a faint appeal to Western minds. Nevertheless, +in the silence of transparent nights, before the rising of the moon, +the charm of the ancient tale sometimes descends upon me, out of the +scintillant sky,--to make me forget the monstrous facts of science, +and the stupendous horror of Space. Then I no longer behold the Milky +Way as that awful Ring of the Cosmos, whose hundred million suns are +powerless to lighten the Abyss, but as the very Amanogawa itself,--the +River Celestial. I see the thrill of its shining stream, and the mists +that hover along its verge, and the water-grasses that bend in the +winds of autumn. White Orihimé I see at her starry loom, and the Ox +that grazes on the farther shore;--and I know that the falling dew is +the spray from the Herdsman's oar. And the heaven seems very near and +warm and human; and the silence about me is filled with the dream of +a love unchanging, immortal,--forever yearning and forever young, and +forever left unsatisfied by the paternal wisdom of the gods. + + + + +GOBLIN POETRY + + +Recently, while groping about an old book shop, I found a collection +of Goblin Poetry in three volumes, containing many pictures of +goblins. The title of the collection is _Ky[=o]ka Hyaku-Monogatari_, +or "The Mad Poetry of the _Hyaku-Monogatari_." The _Hyaku-Monogatari_, +or "Hundred Tales," is a famous book of ghost stories. On the subject +of each of the stories, poems were composed at different times +by various persons,--poems of the sort called _Ky[=o]ka_, or Mad +Poetry,--and these were collected and edited to form the three volumes +of which I became the fortunate possessor. The collecting was done by +a certain Takumi Jingor[=o], who wrote under the literary pseudonym +"Temmér Ré[=o]jin" (Ancient of the Temmér Era). Takumi died in the +first year of Bunky[=u] (1861), at the good age of eighty; and his +collection seems to have been published in the sixth year of Kaéď +(1853). The pictures were made by an artist called Masazumi, who +worked under the pseudonym "Ry[=o]sai Kanjin." + +From a prefatory note it appears that Takumi Jingor[=o] published his +collection with the hope of reviving interest in a once popular kind +of poetry which had fallen into neglect before the middle of the +century. The word _ky[=o]ka_ is written with a Chinese character +signifying "insane" or "crazy;" and it means a particular and +extraordinary variety of comic poetry. The form is that of the classic +_tanka_ of thirty-one syllables (arranged 57577);--but the subjects +are always the extreme reverse of classical; and the artistic effects +depend upon methods of verbal jugglery which cannot be explained +without the help of numerous examples. The collection published by +Takumi includes a good deal of matter in which a Western reader can +discover no merit; but the best of it has a distinctly grotesque +quality that reminds one of Hood's weird cleverness in playing with +grim subjects. This quality, and the peculiar Japanese method of +mingling the playful with the terrific, can be suggested and explained +only by reproducing in Romaji the texts of various _ky[=o]ka_, with +translations and notes. + +The selection which I have made should prove interesting, not merely +because it will introduce the reader to a class of Japanese poetry +about which little or nothing has yet been written in English, but +much more because it will afford some glimpses of a supernatural world +which still remains for the most part unexplored. Without knowledge +of Far Eastern superstitions and folk-tales, no real understanding of +Japanese fiction or drama or poetry will ever become possible. + + * * * * * + +There are many hundreds of poems in the three volumes of the _Ky[=o]ka +Hyaku-Monogatari_; but the number of the ghosts and goblins falls +short of the one hundred suggested by the title. There are just +ninety-five. I could not expect to interest my readers in the whole +of this goblinry, and my selection includes less than one seventh +of the subjects. The Faceless Babe, The Long-Tongued Maiden, +The Three-Eyed Monk, The Pillow-Mover, The Thousand Heads, The +Acolyte-with-the-Lantern, The Stone-that-Cries-in-the-Night, +The Goblin-Heron, The Goblin-Wind, The Dragon-Lights, and The +Mountain-Nurse, did not much impress me. I omitted _ky[=o]ka_ dealing +with fancies too gruesome for Western nerves,--such as that of the +_Obumédori_,--also those treating of merely local tradition. +The subjects chosen represent national rather than provincial +folklore,--old beliefs (mostly of Chinese origin) once prevalent +throughout the country, and often referred to in its popular +literature. + + +I. KITSUNÉ-BI + +The Will-o'-the-wisp is called _kitsuné-bi_ ("fox-fire"), because +the goblin-fox was formerly supposed to create it. In old Japanese +pictures it is represented as a tongue of pale red flame, hovering +in darkness, and shedding no radiance upon the surfaces over which it +glides. + +To understand some of the following _ky[=o]ka_ on the subject, the +reader should know that certain superstitions about the magical power +of the fox have given rise to several queer folk-sayings,--one of +which relates to marrying a stranger. Formerly a good citizen was +expected to marry within his own community, not outside of it; and the +man who dared to ignore traditional custom in this regard would have +found it difficult to appease the communal indignation. Even to-day +the villager who, after a long absence from his birthplace, returns +with a strange bride, is likely to hear unpleasant things said,--such +as: "_Wakaranai-mono we hippaté-kita!... Doko no uma no honé da ka?_" +("Goodness knows what kind of a thing he has dragged here after him! +Where did he pick up that old horse-bone?") The expression _uma no +honé_, "old horse-bone," requires explanation. + +A goblin-fox has the power to assume many shapes; but, for the purpose +of deceiving _men_, he usually takes the form of a pretty woman. When +he wants to create a charming phantom of this kind, he picks up an old +horse-bone or cow-bone, and holds it in his mouth. Presently the bone +becomes luminous; and the figure of a woman defines about it,--the +figure of a courtesan or singing-girl.... So the village query about +the man who marries a strange wife, "What old horse-bone has he picked +up?" signifies really, "What wanton has bewitched him?" It further +implies the suspicion that the stranger may be of outcast blood: a +certain class of women of pleasure having been chiefly recruited, from +ancient time, among the daughters of Éta and other pariah-people. + + Hi tomoshité + Kitsuné no kwaséshi, + Asobimé[26] wa-- + Izuka no uma no + Honé ni ya aruran! + +[Footnote 26: _Asobimé_, a courtesan: lit., "sporting-woman." The Éta +and other pariah classes furnished a large proportion of these women. +The whole meaning of the poem is as follows: "See that young wanton +with her lantern! It is a pretty sight--but so is the sight of a fox, +when the creature kindles his goblin-fire and assumes the shape of +a girl. And just as your fox-woman will prove to be no more than an +old horse-bone, so that young courtesan, whose beauty deludes men to +folly, may be nothing better than an Éta."] + + [_--Ah the wanton (lighting her lantern)!--so a fox-fire is + kindled in the time of fox-transformation!... Perhaps she is + really nothing more than an old horse-bone from somewhere or + other...._] + + Kitsuné-bi no + Moyuru ni tsukété, + Waga tama no + Kiyuru y[=o] nari + Kokoro-hoso-michi! + + [_Because of that Fox-fire burning there, the very soul of me + is like to be extinguished in this narrow path (or, in this + heart-depressing solitude)._[27]] + +[Footnote 27: The supposed utterance of a belated traveler frightened +by a will-o'-the-wisp. The last line allows of two readings. +_Kokoro-hosoi_ means "timid;" and _hosoi michi_ (_hoso-michi_) means a +"narrow path," and, by implication, a "lonesome path."] + + +II. RIKOMBY[=O] + +The term _Rikomby[=o]_ is composed with the word _rikon_, signifying +a "shade," "ghost," or "spectre," and the word _by[=o]_, signifying +"sickness," "disease." An almost literal rendering would be +"ghost-sickness." In Japanese-English dictionaries you will find the +meaning of _Rikomby[=o]_ given as "hypochondria;" and doctors really +use the term in this modern sense. But the ancient meaning was _a +disorder of the mind which produced a Double_; and there is a whole +strange literature about this weird disease. It used to be supposed, +both in China and Japan, that under the influence of intense grief +or longing, caused by love, the spirit of the suffering person would +create a Double. Thus the victim of _Rikomby[=o]_ would appear to have +two bodies, exactly alike; and one of these bodies would go to join +the absent beloved, while the other remained at home. (In my "Exotics +and Retrospectives," under the title "A Question in the Zen Texts," +the reader will find a typical Chinese story on the subject,--the +story of the girl Ts'ing.) Some form of the primitive belief in +doubles and wraiths probably exists in every part of the world; but +this Far Eastern variety is of peculiar interest because the double +is supposed to be caused by love, and the subjects of the affliction +to belong to the gentler sex.... The term _Rikomby[=o]_ seems to be +applied to the apparition as well as to the mental disorder supposed +to produce the apparition: it signifies "doppelgänger" as well as +"ghost-disease." + + * * * * * + +--With these necessary explanations, the quality of the following +_ky[=o]ka_ can be understood. A picture which appears in the _Ky[=o]ka +Hyaku-Monogatari_ shows a maid-servant anxious to offer a cup of tea +to her mistress,--a victim of the "ghost-sickness." The servant cannot +distinguish between the original and the apparitional shapes before +her; and the difficulties of the situation are suggested in the first +of the _ky[=o]ka_ which I have translated:-- + + Ko-ya, soré to? + Ayamé mo wakanu + Rikomby[=o]: + Izuré we tsuma to + Hiku zo wazuraü! + + [_Which one is this?--which one is that? Between the two + shapes of the Rikomby[=o] it is not possible to distinguish. + To find out which is the real wife--that will be an affliction + of spirit indeed!_] + + Futatsu naki + Inochi nagara mo + Kakégaë no + Karada no miyuru-- + Kage no wazurai! + + [_Two lives there certainly are not;--nevertheless an extra + body is visible, by reason of the Shadow-Sickness._] + + Naga-tabi no + Oto we shitaďté + Mi futatsu ni + Naru wa onna no + S[=a]ru rikomby[=o]. + + [_Yearning after her far-journeying husband, the woman has + thus become two bodies, by reason of her ghostly sickness._] + + Miru kagé mo + Naki wazurai no + Rikomby[=o],-- + Omoi no hoka ni + Futatsu miru kagé! + + [_Though (it was said that), because of her ghostly sickness, + there was not even a shadow of her left to be seen,--yet, + contrary to expectation, there are two shadows of her to be + seen!_[28]] + +[Footnote 28: The Japanese say of a person greatly emaciated by +sickness, _miru-kagé mo naki_: "Even a visible shadow of him is +not!"--Another rendering is made possible by the fact that the same +expression is used in the sense of "unfit to be seen,"--"though the +face of the person afflicted with this ghostly sickness is unfit to be +seen, yet by reason of her secret longing [for another man] there are +now two of her faces to be seen." The phrase _omoi no hoka_, in the +fourth line, means "contrary to expectation;" but it is ingeniously +made to suggest also the idea of secret longing.] + + Rikomby[=o] + Hito ni kakushité + Oku-zashiki, + Omoté y dëasanu + Kagé no wazurai. + + [_Afflicted with the Rikomby[=o], she hides away from people + in the back room, and never approaches the front of the + house,--because of her Shadow-disease._[29]] + +[Footnote 29: There is a curious play on words in the fourth line. +The word _omoté_, meaning "the front," might, in reading, be sounded +as _omotté_, "thinking." The verses therefore might also be thus +translated:--"She keeps her real thoughts hidden in the back part +of the house, and never allows them to be seen in the front part of +the house,--because she is suffering from the 'Shadow-Sickness' [of +love]."] + + Mi wa koko ni; + Tama wa otoko ni + Soďné suru;-- + Kokoro mo shiraga + Haha ga kaih[=o]. + + [_Here her body lies; but her soul is far away, asleep in the + arms of a man;--and the white-haired mother, little knowing + her daughter's heart, is nursing (only the body)._[30]] + +[Footnote 30: There is a double meaning, suggested rather than +expressed, in the fourth line. The word _shiraga_, "white-hair," +suggests _shirazu_, "not knowing."] + + Tamakushigé + Futatsu no sugata + Misénuru wa, + Awasé-kagami no + Kagé no wazurai. + + [_If, when seated before her toilet-stand, she sees two faces + reflected in her mirror,--that might be caused by the + mirror doubling itself under the influence of the + Shadow-Sickness._[31]] + +[Footnote 31: There is in this poem a multiplicity of suggestion +impossible to render in translation. While making her toilet, the +Japanese woman uses two mirrors (_awasé-kagami_)--one of which, a +hand-mirror, serves to show her the appearance of the back part of +her coiffure, by reflecting it into the larger stationary mirror. But +in this case of Rikomby[=o], the woman sees more than her face and +the back of her head in the larger mirror: she sees her own double. +The verses indicate that one of the mirrors may have caught the +Shadow-Sickness, and doubled itself. And there is a further suggestion +of the ghostly sympathy said to exist between a mirror and the soul of +its possessor.] + + +III. [=O]-GAMA + +In the old Chinese and Japanese literature the toad is credited with +supernatural capacities,--such as the power to call down clouds, the +power to make rain, the power to exhale from its mouth a magical +mist which creates the most beautiful illusions. Some toads are good +spirits,--friends of holy men; and in Japanese art a famous Rishi +called "Gama-Sennin" (Toad Rishi) is usually represented with a white +toad resting upon his shoulder, or squatting beside him. Some toads +are evil goblins, and create phantasms for the purpose of luring men +to destruction. A typical story about a creature of this class will be +found in my "Kott[=o]," entitled "The Story of Chug[=o]r[=o]." + + Mé wa kagami, + Kuchi wa tarai no + Hodo ni aku: + Gama mo késh[=o] no + Mono to kos[=o] shiré. + + [_The eye of it, widely open, like a (round) mirror; the mouth + of it opening like a wash-basin--by these things you may know + that the Toad is a goblin-thing (or, that the Toad is a toilet + article)._[32]] + +[Footnote 32: There are two Japanese words, _kesh[=o]_, which in +_kana_ are written alike and pronounced alike, though represented +by very different Chinese characters. As written in _kana_, the +term _kesh[=o]-no-mono_ may signify either "toilet articles" or "a +monstrous being," "a goblin."] + + +IV. SHINKIR[=O] + +The term _Shinkir[=o]_ is used in the meaning of "mirage," and also as +another name for H[=o]rai, the Elf-land of Far Eastern fable. Various +beings in Japanese myth are credited with power to delude mortals +by creating a mirage of H[=o]rai. In old pictures one may see a toad +represented in the act of exhaling from its mouth a vapor that shapes +the apparition of H[=o]rai. + +But the creature especially wont to produce this illusion is the +_Hamaguri_,--a Japanese mollusk much resembling a clam. Opening its +shell, it sends into the air a purplish misty breath; and that mist +takes form and defines, in tints of mother-of-pearl, the luminous +vision of H[=o]rai and the palace of the Dragon-King. + + Hamaguri no + Kuchi aku toki ya, + Shinkir[=o]! + Yo ni shiraré ken + Tatsu-no-miya-himé! + + [_When the hamaguri opens its mouth--lo! Shinkir[=o] + appears!... Then all can clearly see the Maiden-Princess of + the Dragon-Palace._] + + Shinkir[=o]-- + Tatsu no miyako no + Hinagata[33] wo + Shio-hi no oki ni + Misuru hamaguri! + + [_Lo! in the offing at ebb-tide, the hamaguri makes visible + the miniature image of Shinkir[=o]--the Dragon-Capital!_] + +[Footnote 33: _Hinagata_ means especially "a model," "a miniature +copy," "a drawn plan," etc.] + + +V. ROKURO-KUBI + +The etymological meaning of _Rokuro-Kubi_ can scarcely be indicated +by any English rendering. The term _rokuro_ is indifferently used to +designate many revolving objects--objects as dissimilar as a pulley, +a capstan, a windlass, a turning lathe, and a potter's wheel. Such +renderings of Rokuro-Kubi as "Whirling-Neck" and "Rotating-Neck" are +unsatisfactory;--for the idea which the term suggests to Japanese +fancy is that of a neck which revolves, _and lengthens or retracts +according to the direction of the revolution_.... As for the ghostly +meaning of the expression, a Rokuro-Kubi is either (1) a person whose +neck lengthens prodigiously during sleep, so that the head can wander +about in all directions, seeking what it may devour, or (2) a person +able to detach his or her head completely from the body, and to rejoin +it to the neck afterwards. (About this last mentioned variety of +_Rokuro-Kubi_ there is a curious story in my "Kwaidan," translated +from the Japanese.) In Chinese mythology the being whose neck is so +constructed as to allow of the head being completely detached belongs +to a special class; but in Japanese folk-tale this distinction is not +always maintained. One of the bad habits attributed to the Rokuro-Kubi +is that of drinking the oil in night-lamps. In Japanese pictures the +Rokuro-Kubi is usually depicted as a woman; and old books tell us +that a woman might become a Rokuro-Kubi without knowing it,--much as +a somnambulist walks about while asleep, without being aware of the +fact.... The following verses about the Rokuro-Kubi have been selected +from a group of twenty in the _Ky[=o]ka Hyaku-Monogatari_:-- + + Nemidaré no + Nagaki kami woba + Furi-wakété, + Chi hiro ni nobasu + Rokuro-Kubi kana! + + [_Oh!... Shaking loose her long hair disheveled by sleep, the + Rokuro-Kubi stretches her neck to the length of a thousand + fathoms!_] + + "Atama naki + Bakémono nari"--to + Rokuro-Kubi, + Mité odorokan + Onoga karada we. + + [_Will not the Rokuro-Kubi, viewing with_ _astonishment her + own body (left behind) cry out, "Oh, what a headless goblin + have you become!_"] + + Tsuka-no-ma ni + Hari we tsutawaru, + Rokuro-Kubi + Kéta-kéta warau-- + Kao no kowasa yo! + + [_Swiftly gliding along the roof-beam (and among the props + of the roof), the Rokuro-Kubi laughs with the sound of + "kéta-kéta"--oh! the fearfulness of her face!_[34]] + +[Footnote 34: It is not possible to render all the double meanings in +this composition. _Tsuka-no-ma_ signifies "in a moment" or "quickly"; +but it may also mean "in the space [_ma_] between the roof-props" +[_tsuka_]. "_Kéta_" means a cross-beam, but _kéta-kéta warau_ means to +chuckle or laugh in a mocking way. Ghosts are said to laugh with the +sound of kéta-kéta.] + + Roku shaku no + By[=o]bu ni nobiru + Rokuro-Kubi + Mité wa, go shaku no + Mi wo chijimi-kéri! + + [_Beholding the Rokuro-Kubi rise up above the six-foot screen, + any five-foot person would have become shortened by fear (or, + "the stature of any person five feet high would have been + diminished")._[35]] + +[Footnote 35: The ordinary height of a full screen is six Japanese +feet.] + + +VI. YUKI-ONNA + +The Snow-Woman, or Snow-Spectre, assumes various forms; but in most +of the old folk-tales she appears as a beautiful phantom, whose +embrace is death. (A very curious story about her can be found in my +"Kwaidan.") + + Yuki-Onna-- + Yos[=o] kushi mo + Atsu k[=o]ri; + Sasu-k[=o]gai ya + K[=o]ri naruran. + + [_As for the Snow-Woman,--even her best comb, if I mistake + not, is made of thick ice; and her hair-pin[36], too, is + probably made of ice._] + +[Footnote 36: _K[=o]gai_ is the name now given to a quadrangular bar +of tortoise-shell passed under the coiffure, which leaves only the +ends of the bar exposed. The true hair-pin is called _kanzashi_.] + + Honrai wa + K[=u] naru mono ka, + Yuki-Onna? + Yoku-yoku mireba + Ichi-butsu mo nashi! + + [_Was she, then, a delusion from the very first, that + Snow-Woman,--a thing that vanishes into empty space? When I + look carefully all about me, not one trace of her is to be + seen!_] + + Yo-akéréba + Kiété yuku é wa + Shirayuki[37] no + Onna to mishi mo + Yanagi nari-keri! + + [_Having vanished at daybreak (that Snow-Woman), none + could say whither she had gone. But what had seemed to be a + snow-white woman became indeed a willow-tree!_] + +[Footnote 37: The term _shirayuki_, as here used, offers an example +of what Japanese poets call _Keny[=o]gen_, or "double-purpose words." +Joined to the words immediately following, it makes the phrase +"white-snow woman" (_shirayuki no onna_);--united with the words +immediately preceding, it suggests the reading, "whither-gone +not-knowing" (_yuku é wa shira[zu]_).] + + Yuki-Onna + Mité wa yasathiku, + Matsu wo ori + Nama-daké hishigu + Chikara ari-keri! + + [_Though the Snow-Woman appears to sight slender and gentle, + yet, to snap the pine-trees asunder and to crush the live + bamboos, she must have had strength._] + + Samukésa ni + Zotto[38] wa surédo + Yuki-Onna,-- + Yuki oré no naki + Yanagi-goshi ka mo! + +[_Though the Snow-Woman makes one shiver by her coldness,--ah, the +willowy grace of her form cannot be broken by the snow (i.e. charms us +in spite of the cold)._] + +[Footnote 38: _Zotto_ is a difficult word to render literally: perhaps +the nearest English equivalent is "thrilling." _Zotto suru_ signifies +"to cause a thrill" or "to give a shock," or "to make shiver;" +and of a very beautiful person it is said "_Zotto-suru hodo no +bijin_,"--meaning! "She is so pretty that it gives one a shock merely +to look at her." The term _yanagi-goshi_ ("willow-loins") in the last +line is a common expression designating a slender and graceful figure; +and the reader should observe that the first half of the term is +ingeniously made to do double duty here,--suggesting, with the +context, not only the grace of willow branches weighed down by snow, +but also the grace of a human figure that one must stop to admire, in +spite of the cold.] + + +VII. FUNA-Y[=U]RÉĎ + +The spirits of the drowned are said to follow after ships, calling for +a bucket or a water-dipper (_hishaku_). To refuse the bucket or the +dipper is dangerous; but the bottom of the utensil should be knocked +out before the request is complied with, and the spectres must not +be allowed to see this operation performed. If an undamaged bucket +or dipper be thrown to the ghosts, it will be used to fill and to +sink the ship. These phantoms are commonly called _Funa-Y[=u]réď_ +("Ship-Ghosts"). + +The spirits of those warriors of the Héďké clan who perished in the +great sea-fight at Dan-no-ura, in the year 1185, are famous among +Funa-Y[=u]réď. Taďra no Tomomori, one of the chiefs of the clan, is +celebrated in this weird rôle: old pictures represent him, followed by +the ghosts of his warriors, running over the waves to attack passing +ships. Once he menaced a vessel in which Benkéď, the celebrated +retainer of Yoshitsuné, was voyaging; and Benkéď was able to save +the ship only by means of his Buddhist rosary, which frightened the +spectres away.... + +Tomomori is frequently pictured as walking upon the sea, carrying +a ship's anchor on his back. He and his fellow-ghosts are said to +have been in the habit of uprooting and making off with the anchors +of vessels imprudently moored in their particular domain,--the +neighborhood of Shimonoséki. + + Erimoto yé + Mizu kakéraruru + Kokochi seri, + "Hishaku kasé" ch[=o] + Funé no kowané ni. + + [_As if the nape of our necks had been sprinkled with cold + water,--so we felt while listening_ _to the voice of the + ship-ghost, saying:--"Lend me a dipper!"_[39]] + +[Footnote 39: _Hishaku_, a wooden dipper with a long handle, used to +transfer water from a bucket to smaller vessels.] + + Y[=u]rei ni + Kasu-hishaku yori + Ichi-hayaku + Onoré ga koshi mo + Nukéru sench[=o]. + + [_The loins of the captain himself were knocked out very much + more quickly than the bottom of the dipper that was to be + given to the ghost._[40]] + +[Footnote 40: The common expression _Koshi ga nukéru_ (to have one's +loins taken out) means to be unable to stand up by reason of fear. +The suggestion is that while the captain was trying to knock out the +bottom of a dipper, before giving it to the ghost, he fell senseless +from fright.] + + Benkéď no + Zuzu no kuriki ni + Tomomori no + Sugata mo ukamu-- + Funé no y[=u]réď. + + [_By the virtue of Benkéď's rosary, even_ _the ship-following + ghost--even the apparition of Tomomori--is saved._] + + Y[=u]réď wa + Ki naru Izumi no + Hito nagara, + Aö-umibara ni + Nadoté itsuran? + + [_Since any ghost must be an inhabitant of the Yellow Springs, + how should a ghost appear on the Blue Sea-Plain?_[41]] + +[Footnote 41: The Underworld of the Dead--_Yomi_ or K[=o]sen--is +called "The Yellow Springs;" these names being written with two +Chinese characters respectively signifying "yellow" and "fountain." A +very ancient term for the ocean, frequently used in the old Shint[=o] +rituals, is "The Blue Sea-Plain."] + + Sono sugata, + Ikari wo [=o]té, + Tsuki-matoü + Funé no hésaki ya + Tomomori no réď! + + [_That Shape, carrying the anchor on its back, and following + after the ship--now at the bow and now at the stern--ah, the + ghost of Tomomori._[42]] + +[Footnote 42: There is an untranslatable play upon words in the last +two lines. The above rendering includes two possible readings.] + + Tsumi fukaki + Umi ni shidzumishi, + Y[=u]réď no + "Ukaman" toté ya! + Funé ni sugaréru. + + [_Crying, "Now perchance I shall be saved!" The ghost + that sank into the deep Sea of Sin clings to the passing + ship!_[43]] + +[Footnote 43: There is more weirdness in this poem than the above +rendering suggests. The word _ukaman_ in the fourth line can be +rendered as "shall perhaps float," or as "shall perhaps be saved" (in +the Buddhist sense of salvation),--as there are two verbs _ukami_. +According to an old superstition, the spirits of the drowned must +continue to dwell in the waters _until such time as they can lure the +living to destruction_. When the ghost of any drowned person succeeds +in drowning somebody, it may be able to obtain rebirth, and to leave +the sea forever. The exclamation of the ghost in this poem really +means, "Now perhaps I shall be able to drown somebody." (A very +similar superstition is said to exist on the Breton coast.) A common +Japanese saying about a child or any person who follows another +too closely and persistently is: _Kawa de shinda-y[=u]réď no yona +tsuré-hoshigaru!_--"Wants to follow you everywhere like the ghost of +a drowned person."] + + Ukaman to + Funé we shitaëru + Yuréď wa, + Shidzumishi híto no + Omoď naruran. + + [_The ghosts following after our ship in their efforts to rise + again (or, "to be saved") might perhaps be the (last vengeful) + thoughts of drowned men.[44]] + +[Footnote 44: Here I cannot attempt to render the various plays upon +words; but the term "_omoď_" needs explanation. It means "thought" +or "thoughts;" but in colloquial phraseology it is often used as a +euphemism for a dying person's last desire of vengeance. In various +dramas it has been used in the signification of "avenging ghost." Thus +the exclamation, "His _thought_ has come back!"--in reference to a +dead man--really means: "His angry ghost appears!"] + + Uraméshiki + Sugata wa sugoki + Yuréď no, + Kaji we jama suru + Funé no Tomomori. + + [_With vengeful aspect, the grisly ghost of Tomomori + (rises) at the stern of the ship to hinder the play of her + rudder._[45]] + +[Footnote 45: There is a double meaning given by the use of the name +_Tomomori_ in the last line. _Tomo_ means "the stern" of a ship; +_mori_ means "to leak." So the poem suggests that the ghost of +Tomomori not only interferes with the ship's rudder, but causes her +to leak.] + + Ochi-irité, + Uwo no éjiki to + Nari ni ken;-- + Funa-y[=u]réď mo + Nama-kusaki kazé. + + [_Having perished in the sea, (those Héďké) would probably + have become food for fishes. (Anyhow, whenever) the + ship-following ghosts (appear), the wind has a smell of raw + fish!_[46]] + +[Footnote 46: _Namakusaki-kaze_ really means a wind having a "raw +stench;" but the smell of bait is suggested by the second line of the +poem. A literal rendering is not possible in this case; the art of the +composition being altogether suggestive.] + + +VIII. HÉĎKÉGANĚ + +Readers can find in my "Kott[=o]" a paper about the Héďké-Crabs, +which have on their upper shells various wrinklings that resemble the +outlines of an angry face. At Shimono-séki dried specimens of these +curious creatures are offered for sale.... The Héďké-Crabs are said to +be the transformed angry spirits of the Héďké warriors who perished at +Dan-no-ura. + + Shiwo-hi ni wa + Séďzoroë shité, + Héďkégani + Ukiyo no sama we + Yoko ni niramitsu. + + [_Marshaled (on the beach) at the ebb of the tide, the + Héďké-crabs obliquely glare at the apparition of this + miserable world._[47]] + +[Footnote 47: _Hi_, the third syllable of the first line of the poem, +does duty for _hi_, signifying "ebb," and for _hikata_, "dry beach." +_Séďzoroë_ is a noun signifying "battle-array"--in the sense of +the Roman term _acies_;--and _séďzoroé shité_ means "drawn up in +battle-array."] + + Saikai ni + Shizumi-nurédomo, + Héďkégani + K[=o]ra no iro mo + Yahari aka-hata. + + [_Though (the Héďké) long ago sank and perished in the Western + Sea, the Héďké-crabs still display_ _upon their upper shells + the color of the Red Standard._[48]] + +[Footnote 48: The ensign of the Héďké, or Taďra clan was red; while +that of their rivals, the Genji or Minamot[=o], was white.] + + Maké-ikusa + Munen to muné ni + Hasami ken;-- + Kao mo makka ni + Naru Héďkégani. + + [_Because of the pain of defeat, claws have grown on their + breasts, I think;--even the faces of the Héďké-crabs have + become crimson (with anger and shame)._] + + Mikata mina + Oshi-tsubusaréshi + Héďkégani + Ikon we muné ni + Hasami mochikéri. + + [_All the (Héďké) party having been utterly crushed, claws + have grown upon the breasts of the Héďké-crabs because of the + resentment in their hearts._[49]] + +[Footnote 49: The use of the word _hasami_ in the fifth line is a +very good example of _keny[=o]gen_. There is a noun _hasami_, meaning +the nippers of a crab, or a pair of scissors; and there is a verb +_hasami_, meaning to harbor, to cherish, or to entertain. (_Ikon wo +hasamu_ means "to harbor resentment against.") Reading the word only +in connection with those which follow it, we have the phrase _hasami +mochikéri_, "got claws;" but, reading it with the words preceding, +we have the expression _ikon wo muné ni hasami_, "resentment in their +breasts nourishing."] + + +IX. YANARI + +Modern dictionaries ignore the uncanny significations of the word +_Yanari_,--only telling us that it means the sound of the shaking of +a house during an earthquake. But the word used to mean the noise of +the shaking of a house moved by a goblin; and the invisible shaker was +also called _Yanari_. When, without apparent cause, some house would +shudder and creak and groan in the night, folk used to suppose that it +was being shaken from without by supernatural malevolence. + + Tokonoma ni + Ikéshi tachiki mo + Taoré-keri; + Yanari ni yama no + Ugoku kakémono! + + [_Even the live tree set in the alcove has fallen down; and + the mountains in the hanging picture tremble to the quaking + made by the Yanari!_[50]] + +[Footnote 50: The _tokonoma_ in a Japanese room is a sort of +ornamental recess or alcove, in which a picture is usually hung, and +vases of flowers, or a dwarf tree, are placed.] + + +X. SAKASA-BASHIRA + +The term _Sakasa-bashira_ (in these _ky[=o]ka_ often shortened into +_saka-bashira_) literally means "upside-down post." A wooden post or +pillar, especially a house-post, should be set up according to the +original position of the tree from which it was hewn,--that is to say, +with the part nearest to the roots downward. To erect a house-post in +the contrary way is thought to be unlucky;--formerly such a blunder +was believed to involve unpleasant consequences of a ghostly kind, +because an "upside-down" pillar would do malignant things. It would +moan and groan in the night, and move all its cracks like mouths, and +open all its knots like eyes. Moreover, the spirit of it (for every +house-post has a spirit) would detach its long body from the timber, +and wander about the rooms, head-downwards, making faces at people. +Nor was this all. A _Sakasa-bashira_ knew how to make all the affairs +of a household go wrong,--how to foment domestic quarrels,--how to +contrive misfortune for each of the family and the servants,--how +to render existence almost insupportable until such time as the +carpenter's blunder should be discovered and remedied. + + Saka-bashira + Tatéshi wa tazo ya? + Kokoro ni mo + Fushi aru hito no + Shiwaza naruran. + + [_Who set the house-pillar upside-down? Surely that must have + been the work of a man with a knot in his heart._] + + Hidayama we + Kiri-kité tatéshi + Saka-bashira-- + Nanno takumi[51] no + Shiwaza naruran? + + [_That house-pillar hewn in the mountains of Hida, and thence + brought here and erected upside-down--what carpenter's work + can it be? (or, "for what evil design can this deed have been + done?")_] + +[Footnote 51: The word _takumi_, as written in _kana_, may signify +either "carpenter" or "intrigue," "evil plot," "wicked device." Thus +two readings are possible. According to one reading, the post was +fixed upside-down through inadvertence; according to the other, it was +so fixed with malice prepense.] + + Uë shita wo + Chigaëté tatéshi + Hashira ni wa + Sakasama-goto no + Uréď aranan. + + [_As for that house-pillar mistakenly planted upside-down, it + will certainly cause adversity and sorrow._[52]] + +[Footnote 52: Lit., "upside-down-matter-sorrow." _Sakasama-goto_, +"up-side-down affair," is a common expression for calamity, +contrariety, adversity, vexation.] + + Kabé ni mimi + Arité, kiké to ka? + Sakashima ni + Tateshi hashira ni + Yanari suru oto! + + [_O Ears that be in the wall![53] listen, will ye? to the + groaning and the creaking of the house-post that was planted + upside-down!_] + +[Footnote 53: Alluding to the proverb, _Kabé ni mimi ari_ ("There are +ears in the wall"), which signifies: "Be careful how you talk about +other people, even in private."] + + Uri-iyé no + Aruji we toëba, + Oto arité: + Waré mé ga kuchi wo + Aku saka-bashira. + + [_When I inquired for the master of the house that was + for sale, there came to me only a strange sound by way of + reply,--the sound of the upside-down house-post opening its + eyes and mouth![54] (i.e. its cracks)._] + +[Footnote 54: There is a pun in the fourth line which suggests more +than even a free translation can express. _Waré_ means "I," or "mine," +or "one's own," etc., according to circumstances; and _waré mé_ +(written separately) might be rendered "its own eyes." But _warémé_ +(one word) means a crack, rent, split, or fissure. The reader should +remember that the term _saka-bashira_ means not only "upside-down +post," but also the goblin or spectre of the upside-down post.] + + Omoďkiya! + Sakasa-bashira no + Hashira-kaké + Kakinishit uta mo + Yamai ari to wa! + + [_Who could have thought it!--even the poem inscribed upon + the pillar-tablet, attached to the pillar which was planted + upside-down, has taken the same (ghostly) sickness._[55]] + +[Footnote 55: That is to say, "Even the poem on the tablet is +up-side-down,"--all wrong. _Hashira-kaké_ ("pillar-suspended thing") +is the name given to a thin tablet of fine wood, inscribed or painted, +which is hung to a post by way of ornament.] + + +XI. BAKÉ-JIZÖ + +The figure of the Bodhi-sattva Jizö, the savior of children's ghosts, +is one of the most beautiful and humane in Japanese Buddhism. Statues +of this divinity may be seen in almost every village and by every +roadside. But some statues of Jizö are said to do uncanny things--such +as to walk about at night in various disguises. A statue of this kind +is called a _Baké-Jiz[=o]_[56],--meaning a Jiz[=o]; that undergoes +transformation. A conventional picture shows a little boy about to +place the customary child's-offering of rice-cakes before the stone +image of Jiz[=o],--not suspecting that the statue moves, and is slowly +bending down towards him. + +[Footnote 56: Perhaps the term might be rendered "Shape-changing +Jiz[=o]." The verb _bakéru_ means to change shape, to undergo +metamorphosis, to haunt, and many other supernatural things.] + + Nanigé naki + Ishi no Jiz[=o] no + Sugata saë, + Yo wa osoroshiki + Mikagé to zo naki. + + [_Though the stone Jiz[=o] looks as if nothing were the matter + with it, they say that at night it assumes an awful aspect + (or, "Though this image appears to be a common stone Jiz[=o], + they say that at night it becomes an awful Jiz[=o]; of + granite."_[57])] + +[Footnote 57: The Japanese word for granite is _mikagé_; and there is +also an honorific term _mikagé_, applied to divinities and emperors, +which signifies "august aspect," "sacred presence," etc.... No literal +rendering can suggest the effect, in the fifth line, of the latter +reading. _Kagé_ signifies "shadow," "aspect," and "power"--especially +occult power; the honorific prefix _mi_, attached to names and +attributes of divinities, may be rendered "august."] + + +XII. UMI-B[=O]ZU + +Place a large cuttlefish on a table, body upwards and tentacles +downwards--and you will have before you the grotesque reality that +first suggested the fancy of the _Umi-B[=o]zu_, or Priest of the Sea. +For the great bald body in this position, with the staring eyes below, +bears a distorted resemblance to the shaven head of a priest; while +the crawling tentacles underneath (which are in some species united +by a dark web) suggests the wavering motion of the priest's upper +robe.... The Umi-B[=o]zu figures a good deal in the literature of +Japanese goblinry, and in the old-fashioned picture-books. He rises +from the deep in foul weather to seize his prey. + + Ita hitoë + Shita wa Jigoku ni, + Sumizomé no + B[=o]zu no umi ni + Déru mo ayashina! + + [_Since there is but the thickness of a single plank (between + the voyager and the sea), and underneath is Hell, 'tis indeed + a weird thing that a black-robed priest should rise from + the sea (or, "'tis surely a marvelous happening that," + etc.!_[58])] + +[Footnote 58: The puns are too much for me.... _Ayashii_ means +"suspicious," "marvelous," "supernatural," "weird," "doubtful."--In +the first two lines there is a reference to the Buddhist proverb: +_Funa-ita ichi-mai shita wa Jigoku_ ("under the thickness of a single +ship's-plank is Hell"). (See my _Gleanings in Buddha-Fields_, p. 206, +for another reference to this saying.)] + + +XIII. FUDA-HÉGASHI[59] + +Homes are protected from evil spirits by holy texts and charms. In any +Japanese village, or any city by-street, you can see these texts when +the sliding-doors are closed at night: they are not visible by day, +when the sliding-doors have been pushed back into the _tobukuro_. +Such texts are called _o-fuda_ (august scripts): they are written in +Chinese characters upon strips of white paper, which are attached +to the door with rice-paste; and there are many kinds of them. Some +are texts selected from sutras--such as the Sűtra of Transcendent +Wisdom (Pragńa-Pâramitâ-Hridaya-Sűtra), or the Sűtra of the Lotos of +the Good Law (Saddharma-Pundarikâ-Sűtra). Some are texts from the +dhâranîs,--which are magical. Some are invocations only, indicating +the Buddhist sect of the household.... Besides these you may see +various smaller texts, or little prints, pasted above or beside +windows or apertures,--some being names of Shinto gods; others, +symbolical pictures only, or pictures of Buddhas and Bodhi-sattvas. +All are holy charms,--_o-fuda_: they protect the houses; and no goblin +or ghost can enter by night into a dwelling so protected, unless the +_o-fuda_ be removed. + +[Footnote 59: _Hégashi_ is the causative form of the verb _hégu_, +"to pull off," "peel off," "strip off," "split off." The term +_Fuda-hégashi_ signifies "Make-peel-off-august-charm Ghost." In my +_Ghostly Japan_ the reader can find a good Japanese story about a +_Fuda-hégashi_.] + +Vengeful ghosts cannot themselves remove an _o-fuda_; but they will +endeavor by threats or promises or bribes to make some person remove +it for them. A ghost that wants to have the _o-fuda_ pulled off a door +is called a _Fuda-hégashi_. + + Hégasan to + Rokuji-no-fuda wo, + Yuréď mo + Nam'mai d[=a] to + Kazoëté zo mini. + + [_Even the ghost that would remove the charms written with six + characters actually tries to count them, repeating: "How many + sheets are there?" (or, repeating, "Hail to thee, O Buddha + Amitábha!"[60])_] + +[Footnote 60: The fourth line gives these two readings:-- + +_Nam'mai da?_--"How many sheets are there?" + +_Nam[u] A[m]ida!_--"Hail, O Amitâbha!" + +The invocation, _Namu Amida Butsu_, is chiefly used by members of the +great Shin sect; but it is also used by other sects, and especially in +praying for the dead. While repeating it, the person praying numbers +the utterances upon his Buddhist rosary; and this custom is suggested +by the use of the word _kazoëté_, "counting."] + + Tada ichi no + Kami no o-fuda wa + Sasuga ni mo + Noriké naku to mo + Hégashi kanékéri. + + [_Of the august written-charms of the god (which were pasted + upon the walls of the house), not even one could by any effort + be pulled off, though the rice-paste with which they had been + fastened was all gone._] + + +XIV. FURU-TSUBAKI + +The old Japanese, like the old Greeks, had their flower-spirits and +their hamadryads, concerning whom some charming stories are told. They +also believed in trees inhabited by malevolent beings,--goblin trees. +Among other weird trees, the beautiful _tsubaki_ (_Camellia Japonica_) +was said to be an unlucky tree;--this was said, at least, of the +red-flowering variety, the white-flowering kind having a better +reputation and being prized as a rarity. The large fleshy crimson +flowers have this curious habit: they detach themselves bodily from +the stem, when they begin to fade; and they fall with an audible thud. +To old Japanese fancy the falling of these heavy red flowers was like +the falling of human heads under the sword; and the dull sound of +their dropping was said to be like the thud made by a severed head +striking the ground. Nevertheless the tsubaki seems to have been +a favorite in Japanese gardens because of the beauty of its glossy +foliage; and its flowers were used for the decoration of alcoves. But +in samurai homes it was a rule never to place tsubaki-flowers in an +alcove _during war-time_. + +The reader will notice that in the following _ky[=o]ka_--which, as +grotesques, seem to me the best in the collection--the goblin-tsubaki +is called _furu-tsubaki_, "old tsubaki." The young tree was not +supposed to have goblin-propensities,--these being developed only +after many years. Other uncanny trees--such as the willow and the +_énoki_--were likewise said to become dangerous only as they became +old; and a similar belief prevailed on the subject of uncanny animals, +such as the cat--innocent in kittenhood, but devilish in age. + + Yo-arashi ni + Chishiho itadaku + Furu tsubaki, + Hota-hota ochiru + Hana no nama-kubi. + + [_When by the night-storm is shaken the blood-crowned and + ancient tsubaki-tree, then one by one fall the gory heads of + the flowers, (with the sound of) hota-hota!_[61]] + +[Footnote 61: The word _furu_ in the third line is made to do double +duty,--as the adjective, _furu[i]_, "ancient"; and as the verb _furu_, +"to shake." The old term _nama-kuhi_ (lit., "raw head") means a human +head, freshly-severed, from which the blood is still oozing.] + + Kusa mo ki mo + Némuréru koro no + Sayo kazé ni, + Méhana no ugoku + Furu-tsubaki kana! + + [_When even the grass and the trees are sleeping under the + faint wind of the night,--then do the eyes and the noses of + the old tsubaki-tree (or "the buds and the flowers of the old + tsubaki-tree") move!_[62]] + +[Footnote 62: Two Japanese words are written, in _kana_, as "mé"--one +meaning "a bud;" the other "eye." The syllables "hana" in like +fashion, may signify either "flower" or "nose." As a grotesque, this +little poem is decidedly successful.] + + Tomoshibi no + Kagé ayashigé ni + Miyénuru wa + Abura shiborishi + Furu-tsubaki ka-mo? + + [_As for (the reason why) the light of that lamp appears to be + a Weirdness,[63]--perhaps the oil was expressed from (the nuts + of) the ancient tsu-baki?_] + +[Footnote 63: _Ayashigé_ is a noun formed from the adjective _ayashi_, +"suspicious," "strange," "supernatural," "doubtful." The word _kagé_ +signifies both "light" and "shadow,"--and is here used with double +suggestiveness. The vegetable oil used in the old Japanese lamps +used to be obtained from the nuts of the _tsubaki_. The reader should +remember that the expression "ancient tsubaki" is equivalent to the +expression "goblin-tsubaki,"--the tsubaki being supposed to turn into +a goblin-tree only when it becomes old.] + + * * * * * + +--Nearly all the stories and folk-beliefs about which these _ky[=o]ka_ +were written seem to have come from China; and most of the Japanese +tales of tree-spirits appear to have had a Chinese origin. As the +flower-spirits and hamadryads of the Far East are as yet little +known to Western readers, the following Chinese story may be found +interesting. + + * * * * * + +There was a Chinese scholar--called, in Japanese books, T[=o] no +Busanshi--who was famous for his love of flowers. He was particularly +fond of peonies, and cultivated them with great skill and +patience.[64] + +[Footnote 64: The tree-peony (_botan_) is here referred to,--a flower +much esteemed in Japan. It is said to have been introduced from China +during the eighth century; and no less than five hundred varieties of +it are now cultivated by Japanese gardeners.] + +One day a very comely girl came to the house of Busanshi, and begged +to be taken into his service. She said that circumstances obliged +her to seek humble employment, but that she had received a literary +education, and therefore wished to enter, if possible, into the +service of a scholar. Busanshi was charmed by her beauty, and took her +into his household without further questioning. She proved to be much +more than a good domestic: indeed, the nature of her accomplishments +made Busanshi suspect that she had been brought up in the court of +some prince, or in the palace of some great lord. She displayed +a perfect knowledge of the etiquette and the polite arts which +are taught only to ladies of the highest rank; and she possessed +astonishing skill in calligraphy, in painting, and in every kind of +poetical composition. Busanshi presently fell in love with her, and +thought only of how to please her. When scholar-friends or other +visitors of importance came to the house, he would send for the new +maid that she might entertain and wait upon his guests; and all who +saw her were amazed by her grace and charm. + +One day Busanshi received a visit from the great Teki-Shin-Ketsu, a +famous teacher of moral doctrine; and the maid did not respond to her +master's call. Busanshi went himself to seek her, being desirous that +Teki-Shin-Ketsu should see her and admire her; but she was nowhere to +be found. After having searched the whole house in vain, Busanshi was +returning to the guest-room when he suddenly caught sight of the maid, +gliding soundlessly before him along a corridor. He called to her, and +hurried after her. Then she turned half-round, and flattened herself +against the wall like a spider; and as he reached her she sank +backwards into the wall, so that there remained of her nothing visible +but a colored shadow,--level like a picture painted on the plaster. +But the shadow moved its lips and eyes, and spoke to him in a whisper, +saying:-- + +"Pardon me that I did not obey your august call!... I am not a +mankind-person;--I am only the Soul of a Peony. Because you loved +peonies so much, I was able to take human shape, and to serve you. +But now this Teki-Shin-Ketsu has come,--and he is a person of dreadful +propriety,--and I dare not keep this form any longer.... I must return +to the place from which I came." + +Then she sank back into the wall, and vanished altogether: there was +nothing where she had been except the naked plaster. And Busanshi +never saw her again. + +This story is written in a Chinese book which the Japanese call +"Kai-ten-i-ji." + + + + +"ULTIMATE QUESTIONS" + + +A memory of long ago.... I am walking upon a granite pavement that +rings like iron, between buildings of granite bathed in the light of +a cloudless noon. Shadows are short and sharp: there is no stir in the +hot bright air; and the sound of my footsteps, strangely loud, is the +only sound in the street.... Suddenly an odd feeling comes to me, +with a sort of tingling shock,--a feeling, or suspicion, of universal +illusion. The pavement, the bulks of hewn stone, the iron rails, +and all things visible, are dreams! Light, color, form, weight, +solidity--all sensed existences--are but phantoms of being, +manifestations only of one infinite ghostliness for which the language +of man has not any word.... + +This experience had been produced by study of the first volume of +the Synthetic Philosophy, which an American friend had taught me +how to read. I did not find it easy reading; partly because I am a +slow thinker, but chiefly because my mind had never been trained to +sustained effort in such directions. To learn the "First Principles" +occupied me many months: no other volume of the series gave me equal +trouble. I would read one section at a time,--rarely two,--never +venturing upon a fresh section until I thought that I had made sure +of the preceding. Very cautious and slow my progress was, like that +of a man mounting, for the first time, a long series of ladders in +darkness. Reaching the light at last, I caught a sudden new vision of +things,--a momentary perception of the illusion of surfaces,--and from +that time the world never again appeared to me quite the same as it +had appeared before. + + * * * * * + +--This memory of more than twenty years ago, and the extraordinary +thrill of the moment, were recently revived for me by the reading of +the essay "Ultimate Questions," in the last and not least precious +volume bequeathed us by the world's greatest thinker. The essay +contains his final utterance about the riddle of life and death, +as that riddle presented itself to his vast mind in the dusk of a +lifetime of intellectual toil. Certainly the substance of what he had +to tell us might have been inferred from the Synthetic Philosophy; +but the particular interest of this last essay is made by the writer's +expression of personal sentiment regarding the problem that troubles +all deep thinkers. Perhaps few of us could have remained satisfied +with his purely scientific position. Even while fully accepting his +declaration of the identity of the power that "wells up in us under +the form of consciousness" with that Power Unknowable which shapes +all things, most disciples of the master must have longed for some +chance to ask him directly, "But how do _you_ feel in regard to the +prospect of personal dissolution?" And this merely emotional question +he has answered as frankly and as fully as any of us could have +desired,--perhaps even more frankly. "Old people," he remarks +apologetically, "must have many reflections in common. Doubtless +one which I have now in mind is very familiar. For years past, when +watching the unfolding buds in the spring, there has arisen the +thought, 'Shall I ever again see the buds unfold? Shall I ever again +be awakened at dawn by the song of the thrush?' Now that the end is +not likely to be long postponed, there results an increasing tendency +to meditate upon ultimate questions."... Then he tells us that these +ultimate questions--"of the How and the Why, of the Whence and the +Whither"--occupy much more space in the minds of those who cannot +accept the creed of Christendom, than the current conception fills +in the minds of the majority of men. The enormity of the problem of +existence becomes manifest only to those who have permitted themselves +to think freely and widely and deeply, with all such aids to thought +as exact science can furnish; and the larger the knowledge of the +thinker, the more pressing and tremendous the problem appears, and the +more hopelessly unanswerable. To Herbert Spencer himself it must have +assumed a vastness beyond the apprehension of the average mind; and +it weighed upon him more and more inexorably the nearer he approached +to death. He could not avoid the conviction--plainly suggested in his +magnificent Psychology and in other volumes of his great work--that +there exists no rational evidence for any belief in the continuance of +conscious personality after death:-- + + "After studying primitive beliefs, and finding that there is + no origin for the idea of an after-life, save the conclusion + which the savage draws, from the notion suggested by dreams, + of a wandering double which comes back on awaking, and + which goes away for an indefinite time at death;--and after + contemplating the inscrutable relation between brain and + consciousness, and finding that we can get no evidence of the + existence of the last without the activity of the first,--we + seem obliged to relinquish the thought that consciousness + continues after physical organization has become inactive." + +In this measured utterance there is no word of hope; but there is +at least a carefully stated doubt, which those who will may try +to develop into the germ of a hope. The guarded phrase, "we _seem_ +obliged to relinquish," certainly suggests that, although in the +present state of human knowledge we have no reason to believe in the +perpetuity of consciousness, some larger future knowledge might help +us to a less forlorn prospect. From the prospect as it now appears +even this mightiest of thinkers recoiled:-- + + ... "But it seems a strange and repugnant conclusion that with + the cessation of consciousness at death there ceases to be any + knowledge of having existed. With his last breath it becomes + to each the same thing as though he had never lived. + + "And then the consciousness itself--what is it during the time + that it continues? And what becomes of it when it ends? We can + only infer that it is a specialized and individualized form + of that Infinite and Eternal Energy which transcends both our + knowledge and our imagination; and that at death its elements + lapse into that Infinite and Eternal Energy whence they were + derived." + + * * * * * + +--_With his last breath it becomes to each the same thing as though +he had never lived?_ To the individual, perhaps--surely not to the +humanity made wiser and better by his labors.... But the world must +pass away: will it thereafter be the same for the universe as if +humanity had never existed? That might depend upon the possibilities +of future inter-planetary communication.... But the whole universe +of suns and planets must also perish: thereafter will it be the same +as if no intelligent life had ever toiled and suffered upon those +countless worlds? We have at least the certainty that the energies +of life cannot be destroyed, and the strong probability that +they will help to form another life and thought in universes +yet to be evolved.... Nevertheless, allowing for all imagined +possibilities,--granting even the likelihood of some inapprehensible +relation between all past and all future conditioned-being,--the +tremendous question remains: What signifies the whole of apparitional +existence to the Unconditioned? As flickers of sheet-lightning leave +no record in the night, so in that Darkness a million billion trillion +universes might come and go, and leave no trace of their having been. + + * * * * * + +To every aspect of the problem Herbert Spencer must have given +thought; but he has plainly declared that the human intellect, as at +present constituted, can offer no solution. The greatest mind that +this world has yet produced--the mind that systematized all human +knowledge, that revolutionized modern science, that dissipated +materialism forever, that revealed to us the ghostly unity of all +existence, that reestablished all ethics upon an immutable and eternal +foundation,--the mind that could expound with equal lucidity, and by +the same universal formula, the history of a gnat or the history of a +sun--confessed itself, before the Riddle of Existence, scarcely less +helpless than the mind of a child. + +But for me the supreme value of this last essay is made by the fact +that in its pathetic statement of uncertainties and probabilities one +can discern something very much resembling a declaration of faith. +Though assured that we have yet no foundation for any belief in the +persistence of consciousness after the death of the brain, we are +bidden to remember that the ultimate nature of consciousness remains +inscrutable. Though we cannot surmise the relation of consciousness +to the unseen, we are reminded that it must be considered as a +manifestation of the Infinite Energy, and that its elements, if +dissociated by death, will return to the timeless and measureless +Source of Life.... Science to-day also assures us that whatever +existence has been--all individual life that ever moved in animal +or plant,--all feeling and thought that ever stirred in human +consciousness--must have flashed self-record beyond the sphere of +sentiency; and though we cannot know, we cannot help imagining that +the best of such registration may be destined to perpetuity. On this +latter subject, for obvious reasons, Herbert Spencer has remained +silent; but the reader may ponder a remarkable paragraph in the final +sixth edition of the "First Principles,"--a paragraph dealing with +the hypothesis that consciousness may belong to the cosmic ether. +This hypothesis has not been lightly dismissed by him; and even while +proving its inadequacy, he seems to intimate that it may represent +imperfectly some truth yet inapprehensible by the human mind:-- + + "The only supposition having consistency is that that in which + consciousness inheres is the all-pervading ether. This we + know can be affected by molecules of matter in motion, and + conversely can affect the motions of molecules;--as witness + the action of light on the retina. In pursuance of this + supposition we may assume that the ether, which pervades not + only all space but all matter, is, under special conditions in + certain parts of the nervous system, capable of being affected + by the nervous changes in such way as to result in feeling, + and is reciprocally capable under these conditions of + affecting the nervous changes. But if we accept this + explanation, we must assume that the potentiality of feeling + is universal, and that the evolution of feeling in the ether + takes place only under the extremely complex conditions + occurring in certain nervous centres. This, however, is but + a semblance of an explanation, since we know not what the + ether is, and since, by confession of those most capable of + judging, no hypothesis that has been framed accounts for + all its powers. Such an explanation may be said to do no + more than symbolize the phenomena by symbols of unknown + natures."--["First Principles," § 71 _c_, definitive edition + of 1900.] + + --"Inscrutable is this complex consciousness which has + slowly evolved out of infantine vacuity--consciousness + which, in other shapes, is manifested by animate beings at + large--consciousness which, during the development of every + creature, makes its appearance out of what seems unconscious + matter; _suggesting the thought that consciousness, in some + rudimentary form, is omnipresent._"[65] + +[Footnote 65: _Autobiography_, vol. ii, p. 470.] + +--Of all modern thinkers, Spencer was perhaps the most careful to +avoid giving encouragement to any hypothesis unsupported by powerful +evidence. Even the simple sum of his own creed is uttered only, +with due reservation, as a statement of three probabilities: that +consciousness represents a specialized and individualized form of the +infinite Energy; that it is dissolved by death; and that its elements +then return to the source of all being. As for our mental attitude +toward the infinite Mystery, his advice is plain. We must resign +ourselves to the eternal law, and endeavor to vanquish our ancient +inheritance of superstitious terrors, remembering that, "merciless as +is the Cosmic process worked out by an Unknown Power, yet vengeance is +nowhere to be found in it."[66] + +[Footnote 66: _Facts and Comments_, p. 201.] + + * * * * * + +In the same brief essay there is another confession of singular +interest,--an acknowledgment of the terror of Space. To even the +ordinary mind, the notion of infinite Space, as forced upon us by +those monstrous facts of astronomy which require no serious study +to apprehend, is terrifying;--I mean the mere vague idea of that +everlasting Night into which the blazing of millions of suns can bring +neither light nor warmth. But to the intellect of Herbert Spencer the +idea of Space must have presented itself after a manner incomparably +more mysterious and stupendous. The mathematician alone will +comprehend the full significance of the paragraph dealing with the +Geometry of Position and the mystery of space-relations,--or the +startling declaration that "even could we penetrate the mysteries of +existence, there would remain still more transcendent mysteries." +But Herbert Spencer tells us that, apart from the conception of these +geometrical mysteries, the problem of naked Space itself became for +him, in the twilight of his age, an obsession and a dismay:-- + + ... "And then comes the thought of this universal matrix + itself, anteceding alike creation or evolution, whichever be + assumed, and infinitely transcending both, alike in extent and + duration; since both, if conceived at all, must be conceived + as having had beginnings, while Space had no beginning. The + thought of this blank form of existence which, explored in + all directions as far as imagination can reach, has, beyond + that, an unexplored region compared with which the part which + imagination has traversed is but infinitesimal,--the thought + of a Space compared with which our immeasurable sidereal + system dwindles to a point is a thought too overwhelming to + be dwelt upon. Of late years the consciousness that without + origin or cause infinite Space has ever existed and must ever + exist, produces in me a feeling from which I shrink." + + * * * * * + +How the idea of infinite Space may affect a mind incomparably more +powerful than my own, I cannot know;--neither can I divine the nature +of certain problems which the laws of space-relation present to the +geometrician. But when I try to determine the cause of the horror +which that idea evokes within my own feeble imagination, I am able +to distinguish different elements of the emotion,--particular forms +of terror responding to particular ideas (rational and irrational) +suggested by the revelations of science. One feeling--perhaps the +main element of the horror--is made by the thought of being _prisoned_ +forever and ever within that unutterable Viewlessness which occupies +infinite Space. + +Behind this feeling there is more than the thought of eternal +circumscription;--there is also the idea of being perpetually +penetrated, traversed, thrilled by the Nameless;--there is likewise +the certainty that no least particle of innermost secret Self could +shun the eternal touch of It;--there is furthermore the tremendous +conviction that could the Self of me rush with the swiftness of +light,--with more than the swiftness of light,--beyond all galaxies, +beyond durations of time so vast that Science knows no sign by which +their magnitudes might be indicated,--and still flee onward, onward, +downward, upward,--always, always,--never could that Self of me reach +nearer to any verge, never speed farther from any centre. For, in that +Silence, all vastitude and height and depth and time and direction are +swallowed up: relation therein could have no meaning but for the speck +of my fleeting consciousness,--atom of terror pulsating alone through +atomless, soundless, nameless, illimitable potentiality. + +And the idea of that potentiality awakens another quality of +horror,--the horror of infinite Possibility. For this Inscrutable that +pulses through substance as if substance were not at all,--so subtly +that none can feel the flowing of its tides, yet so swiftly that no +life-time would suffice to count the number of the oscillations which +it makes within the fraction of one second,--thrills to us out of +endlessness;--and the force of infinity dwells in its lightest tremor; +the weight of eternity presses behind its faintest shudder. To that +phantom-Touch, the tinting of a blossom or the dissipation of a +universe were equally facile: here it caresses the eye with the charm +and illusion of color; there it bestirs into being a cluster of giant +suns. All that human mind is capable of conceiving as possible +(and how much also that human mind must forever remain incapable of +conceiving?) may be wrought anywhere, everywhere, by a single tremor +of that Abyss.... + + * * * * * + +Is it true, as some would have us believe, that the fear of the +extinction of self is the terror supreme?... For the thought of +personal perpetuity in the infinite vortex is enough to evoke sudden +trepidations that no tongue can utter,--fugitive instants of a horror +too vast to enter wholly into consciousness: a horror that can be +endured in swift black glimpsings only. And the trust that we are one +with the Absolute--dim points of thrilling in the abyss of It--can +prove a consoling faith only to those who find themselves obliged to +think that consciousness dissolves with the crumbling of the brain.... +It seems to me that few (or none) dare to utter frankly those +stupendous doubts and fears which force mortal intelligence to +recoil upon itself at every fresh attempt to pass the barrier of the +Knowable. Were that barrier unexpectedly pushed back,--were knowledge +to be suddenly and vastly expanded beyond its present limits,--perhaps +we should find ourselves unable to endure the revelation.... + + * * * * * + +Mr. Percival Lowell's astonishing book, "Mars," sets one to thinking +about the results of being able to hold communication with the +habitants of an older and a wiser world,--some race of beings more +highly evolved than we, both intellectually and morally, and able to +interpret a thousand mysteries that still baffle our science. Perhaps, +in such event, we should not find ourselves able to comprehend the +methods, even could we borrow the results, of wisdom older than all +our civilization by myriads or hundreds of myriads of years. But would +not the sudden advent of larger knowledge from some elder planet prove +for us, by reason, of the present moral condition of mankind, nothing +less than a catastrophe?--might it not even result in the extinction +of the human species?... + +The rule seems to be that the dissemination of dangerous higher +knowledge, before the masses of a people are ethically prepared to +receive it, will always be prevented by the conservative instinct; and +we have reason to suppose (allowing for individual exceptions) that +the power to gain higher knowledge is developed only as the moral +ability to profit by such knowledge is evolved. I fancy that if the +power of holding intellectual converse with other worlds could now +serve us, we should presently obtain it. But if, by some astonishing +chance,--as by the discovery, let us suppose, of some method of +ether-telegraphy,--this power were prematurely acquired, its exercise +would in all probability be prohibited.... Imagine, for example, what +would have happened during the Middle Ages to the person guilty of +discovering means to communicate with the people of a neighboring +planet! Assuredly that inventor and his apparatus and his records +would have been burned; every trace and memory of his labors would +have been extirpated. Even to-day the sudden discovery of truths +unsupported by human experience, the sudden revelation of facts +totally opposed to existing convictions, might evoke some frantic +revival of superstitious terrors,--some religious panic-fury that +would strangle science, and replunge the world in mental darkness +for a thousand years. + + + + +THE MIRROR MAIDEN + + +In the period of the Ashikaga Sh[=o]gunate the shrine of +Ogawachi-My[=o]jin, at Minami-Isé, fell into decay; and the daimy[=o] +of the district, the Lord Kitahataké, found himself unable, by reason +of war and other circumstances, to provide for the reparation of the +building. Then the Shint[=o] priest in charge, Matsumura Hy[=o]go, +sought help at Ky[=o]to from the great daimy[=o] Hosokawa, who was +known to have influence with the Sh[=o]gun. The Lord Hosokawa received +the priest kindly, and promised to speak to the Sh[=o]gun about the +condition of Ogawachi-My[=o]jin. But he said that, in any event, a +grant for the restoration of the temple could not be made without +due investigation and considerable delay; and he advised Matsumura to +remain in the capital while the matter was being arranged. Matsumura +therefore brought his family to Ky[=o]to, and rented a house in the +old Ky[=o]goku quarter. + +This house, although handsome and spacious, had been long unoccupied. +It was said to be an unlucky house. On the northeast side of it there +was a well; and several former tenants had drowned themselves in +that well, without any known cause. But Matsumura, being a Shint[=o] +priest, had no fear of evil spirits; and he soon made himself very +comfortable in his new home. + + * * * * * + +In the summer of that year there was a great drought. For months no +rain had fallen in the Five Home-Provinces; the river-beds dried +up, the wells failed; and even in the capital there was a dearth of +water. But the well in Matsumura's garden remained nearly full; and +the water--which was very cold and clear, with a faint bluish +tinge--seemed to be supplied by a spring. During the hot season many +people came from all parts of the city to beg for water; and Matsumura +allowed them to draw as much as they pleased. Nevertheless the supply +did not appear to be diminished. + +But one morning the dead body of a young servant, who had been sent +from a neighboring residence to fetch water, was found floating in +the well. No cause for a suicide could be imagined; and Matsumura, +remembering many unpleasant stories about the well, began to suspect +some invisible malevolence. He went to examine the well, with the +intention of having a fence built around it; and while standing there +alone he was startled by a sudden motion in the water, as of something +alive. The motion soon ceased; and then he perceived, clearly +reflected in the still surface, the figure of a young woman, +apparently about nineteen or twenty years of age. She seemed to be +occupied with her toilet: he distinctly saw her touching her lips +with _béni_[67] At first her face was visible in profile only; but +presently she turned towards him and smiled. Immediately he felt a +strange shock at his heart, and a dizziness came upon him like the +dizziness of wine, and everything became dark, except that smiling +face,--white and beautiful as moonlight, and always seeming to grow +more beautiful, and to be drawing him down--down--down into the +darkness. But with a desperate effort he recovered his will and closed +his eyes. When he opened them again, the face was gone, and the light +had returned; and he found himself leaning down over the curb of the +well. A moment more of that dizziness,--a moment more of that dazzling +lure,--and he would never again have looked upon the sun... + +[Footnote 67: A kind of rouge, now used only to color the lips.] + +Returning to the house, he gave orders to his people not to approach +the well under any circumstances, or allow any person to draw water +from it. And the next day he had a strong fence built round the well. + + * * * * * + +About a week after the fence had been built, the long drought was +broken by a great rain-storm, accompanied by wind and lightning and +thunder,--thunder so tremendous that the whole city shook to the +rolling of it, as if shaken by an earthquake. For three days and three +nights the downpour and the lightnings and the thunder continued; and +the Kamogawa rose as it had never risen before, carrying away many +bridges. During the third night of the storm, at the Hour of the Ox, +there was heard a knocking at the door of the priest's dwelling, and +the voice of a woman pleading for admittance. But Matsumura, warned by +his experience at the well, forbade his servants to answer the appeal. +He went himself to the entrance, and asked,-- + +"Who calls?" + +A feminine voice responded:-- + +"Pardon! it is I,--Yayoi![68]... I have something to say to Matsumura +Sama,--something of great moment. Please open!"... + +[Footnote 68: This name, though uncommon, is still in use.] + +Matsumura half opened the door, very cautiously; and he saw the same +beautiful face that had smiled upon him from the well. But it was not +smiling now: it had a very sad look. + +"Into my house you shall not come," the priest exclaimed. "You are not +a human being, but a Well-Person.... Why do you thus wickedly try to +delude and destroy people?" + +The Well-Person made answer in a voice musical as a tinkling of jewels +(_tama-wo-korogasu-koë_.):-- + +"It is of that very matter that I want to speak.... I have never +wished to injure human beings. But from ancient time a Poison-Dragon +dwelt in that well. He was the Master of the Well; and because of him +the well was always full. Long ago I fell into the water there, and +so became subject to him; and he had power to make me lure people to +death, in order that he might drink their blood. But now the Heavenly +Ruler has commanded the Dragon to dwell hereafter in the lake called +Torii-no-Iké, in the Province of Shinsh[=u]; and the gods have decided +that he shall never be allowed to return to this city. So to-night, +after he had gone away, I was able to come out, to beg for your kindly +help. There is now very little water in the well, because of the +Dragon's departure; and if you will order search to be made, my body +will be found there. I pray you to save my body from the well without +delay; and I shall certainly return your benevolence."... + +So saying, she vanished into the night. + + * * * * * + +Before dawn the tempest had passed; and when the sun arose there was +no trace of cloud in the pure blue sky. Matsumura sent at an early +hour for well-cleaners to search the well. Then, to everybody's +surprise, the well proved to be almost dry. It was easily cleaned; and +at the bottom of it were found some hair-ornaments of a very ancient +fashion, and a metal mirror of curious form--but no trace of any body, +animal or human. + +Matusmura imagined, however, that the mirror might yield some +explanation of the mystery; for every such mirror is a weird thing, +having a soul of its own,--and the soul of a mirror is feminine. This +mirror, which seemed to be very old, was deeply crusted with scurf. +But when it had been carefully cleaned, by the priest's order, it +proved to be of rare and costly workmanship; and there were wonderful +designs upon the back of it,--also several characters. Some of the +characters had become indistinguishable; but there could still be +discerned part of a date, and ideographs signifying, "_third month, +the third day_." Now the third month used to be termed _Yayoi_ +(meaning, the Month of Increase); and the third day of the third +month, which is a festival day, is still called _Yayoi-no-sekku_. +Remembering that the Well-Person called herself "Yayoi," Matsumura +felt almost sure that his ghostly visitant had been none other than +the Soul of the Mirror. + +He therefore resolved to treat the mirror with all the consideration +due to a Spirit. After having caused it to be carefully repolished +and resilvered, he had a case of precious wood made for it, and a +particular room in the house prepared to receive it. On the evening +of the same day that it had been respectfully deposited in that room, +Yayoi herself unexpectedly appeared before the priest as he sat alone +in his study. She looked even more lovely than before; but the light +of her beauty was now soft as the light of a summer moon shining +through pure white clouds. After having humbly saluted Matsumura, she +said in her sweetly tinkling voice:-- + +"Now that you have saved me from solitude and sorrow, I have come to +thank you.... I am indeed, as you supposed, the Spirit of the Mirror. +It was in the time of the Emperor Saimei that I was first brought here +from Kudara; and I dwelt in the august residence until the time of +the Emperor Saga, when I was augustly bestowed upon the Lady Kamo, +Naishinn[=o] of the Imperial Court.[69] Thereafter I became an +heirloom in the House of Fuji-wara, and so remained until the period +of H[=o]gen, when I was dropped into the well. There I was left and +forgotten during the years of the great war.[70] The Master of the +Well[71] was a venomous Dragon, who used to live in a lake that once +covered a great part of this district. After the lake had been filled +in, by government order, in order that houses might be built upon +the place of it, the Dragon took possession of the well; and when I +fell into the well I became subject to him; and he compelled me to +lure many people to their deaths. But the gods have banished him +forever.... Now I have one more favor to beseech: I entreat that you +will cause me to be offered up to the Sh[=o]gun, the Lord Yoshimasa, +who by descent is related to my former possessors. Do me but this last +great kindness, and it will bring you good-fortune.... But I have also +to warn you of a danger. In this house, after to-morrow, you must +not stay, because it will be destroyed."... And with these words of +warning Yayoi disappeared. + +[Footnote 69: The Emperor Saimei reigned from 655 to 662 (A.D.); +the Emperor Saga from 810 to 842.--Kudara was an ancient kingdom in +southwestern Korea, frequently mentioned in early Japanese history.--A +_Naishinn[=o]_ was of Imperial blood. In the ancient court-hierarchy +there were twenty-five ranks or grades of noble ladies;--that of +_Naishinno_ was seventh in order of precedence.] + +[Footnote 70: For centuries the wives of the emperors and the ladies +of the Imperial Court were chosen from the Fujiwara clan--The period +called H[=o]gen lasted from 1156 to 1159: the war referred to is the +famous war between the Taira and Minamoto clans.] + +[Footnote 71: In old-time belief every lake or spring had its +invisible guardian, supposed to sometimes take the form of a serpent +or dragon. The spirit of a lake or pond was commonly spoken of +as _Iké-no-Mushi_, the Master of the Lake. Here we find the title +"Master" given to a dragon living in a well; but the guardian of wells +is really the god Suijin.] + + * * * * * + +Matsumura was able to profit by this premonition. He removed his +people and his belongings to another district the next day; and almost +immediately afterwards another storm arose, even more violent than the +first, causing a flood which swept away the house in which he had been +residing. + +Some time later, by favor of the Lord Hosokawa, Matsumura was enabled +to obtain an audience of the Sh[=o]gun Yoshimasa, to whom he presented +the mirror, together with a written account of its wonderful history. +Then the prediction of the Spirit of the Mirror was fulfilled; for the +Sh[=o]gun, greatly pleased with this strange gift, not only bestowed +costly presents upon Matsumura, but also made an ample grant of money +for the rebuilding of the Temple of Ogawachi-My[=o]jin. + + + + +THE STORY OF IT[=O] NORISUKÉ + + +In the town of Uji, in the province of Yamashiro, there lived, about +six hundred years ago, a young samurai named It[=o] Tatéwaki Norisuké, +whose ancestors were of the Héďké clan. It[=o] was of handsome person +and amiable character, a good scholar and apt at arms. But his family +were poor; and he had no patron among the military nobility,--so +that his prospects were small. He lived in a very quiet way, devoting +himself to the study of literature, and having (says the Japanese +story-teller) "only the Moon and the Wind for friends." + +One autumn evening, as he was taking a solitary walk in the +neighborhood of the hill called Kotobikiyama, he happened to overtake +a young girl who was following the same path. She was richly dressed, +and seemed to be about eleven or twelve years old. It[=o] greeted her, +and said, "The sun will soon be setting, damsel, and this is rather a +lonesome place. May I ask if you have lost your way?" She looked up +at him with a bright smile, and answered deprecatingly: "Nay! I am +a _miya-dzukai_,[72] serving in this neighborhood; and I have only a +little way to go." + +[Footnote 72: August-residence servant.] + +By her use of the term _miya-dzukai_, It[=o] knew that the girl must +be in the service of persons of rank; and her statement surprised him, +because he had never heard of any family of distinction residing in +that vicinity. But he only said: "I am returning to Uji, where my home +is. Perhaps you will allow me to accompany you on the way, as this is +a very lonesome place." She thanked him gracefully, seeming pleased +by his offer; and they walked on together, chatting as they went. She +talked about the weather, the flowers, the butterflies, and the birds; +about a visit that she had once made to Uji, about the famous sights +of the capital, where she had been born;--and the moments passed +pleasantly for It[=o], as he listened to her fresh prattle. Presently, +at a turn in the road, they entered a hamlet, densely shadowed by a +grove of young trees. + + * * * * * + +[Here I must interrupt the story to tell you that, without having +actually seen them, you cannot imagine how dark some Japanese country +villages remain even in the brightest and hottest weather. In the +neighborhood of T[=o]ky[=o] itself there are many villages of this +kind. At a short distance from such a settlement you see no houses: +nothing is visible but a dense grove of evergreen trees. The grove, +which is usually composed of young cedars and bamboos, serves to +shelter the village from storms, and also to supply timber for various +purposes. So closely are the trees planted that there is no room to +pass between the trunks of them: they stand straight as masts, and +mingle their crests so as to form a roof that excludes the sun. Each +thatched cottage occupies a clear space in the plantation, the trees +forming a fence about it, double the height of the building. Under +the trees it is always twilight, even at high noon; and the houses, +morning or evening, are half in shadow. What makes the first +impression of such a village almost disquieting is, not the +transparent gloom, which has a certain weird charm of its own, but +the stillness. There may be fifty or a hundred dwellings; but you see +nobody; and you hear no sound but the twitter of invisible birds, the +occasional crowing of cocks, and the shrilling of cicadć. Even the +cicadć, however, find these groves too dim, and sing faintly; being +sun-lovers, they prefer the trees outside the village. I forgot to +say that you may sometimes hear a viewless shuttle--_chaka-ton, +chaka-ton_;--but that familiar sound, in the great green silence, +seems an elfish happening. The reason of the hush is simply that the +people are not at home. All the adults, excepting some feeble elders, +have gone to the neighboring fields, the women carrying their babies +on their backs; and most of the children have gone to the nearest +school, perhaps not less than a mile away. Verily, in these dim +hushed villages, one seems to behold the mysterious perpetuation of +conditions recorded in the texts of Kwang-Tze:-- + + "_The ancients who had the nourishment of the world wished for + nothing, and the world had enough:--they did nothing, and all + things were transformed:--their stillness was abysmal, and the + people were all composed._"] + + * * * * * + +... The village was very dark when It[=o] reached it; for the sun +had set, and the after-glow made no twilight in the shadowing of the +trees. "Now, kind sir," the child said, pointing to a narrow lane +opening upon the main road, "I have to go this way." "Permit me, then, +to see you home," It[=o] responded; and he turned into the lane with +her, feeling rather than seeing his way. But the girl soon stopped +before a small gate, dimly visible in the gloom,--a gate of +trelliswork, beyond which the lights of a dwelling could be seen. +"Here," she said, "is the honorable residence in which I serve. As you +have come thus far out of your way, kind sir, will you not deign to +enter and to rest a while?" It[=o] assented. He was pleased by the +informal invitation; and he wished to learn what persons of superior +condition had chosen to reside in so lonesome a village. He knew that +sometimes a family of rank would retire in this manner from public +life, by reason of government displeasure or political trouble; and +he imagined that such might be the history of the occupants of the +dwelling before him. Passing the gate, which his young guide opened +for him, he found himself in a large quaint garden. A miniature +landscape, traversed by a winding stream, was faintly distinguishable. +"Deign for one little moment to wait," the child said; "I go to +announce the honorable coming;" and hurried toward the house. It was +a spacious house, but seemed very old, and built in the fashion of +another time. The sliding doors were not closed; but the lighted +interior was concealed by a beautiful bamboo curtain extending +along the gallery front. Behind it shadows were moving--shadows of +women;--and suddenly the music of a _koto_ rippled into the night. So +light and sweet was the playing that It[=o] could scarcely believe the +evidence of his senses. A slumbrous feeling of delight stole over him +as he listened,--a delight strangely mingled with sadness. He wondered +how any woman could have learned to play thus,--wondered whether the +player could be a woman,--wondered even whether he was hearing earthly +music; for enchantment seemed to have entered into his blood with the +sound of it. + + * * * * * + +The soft music ceased; and almost at the same moment It[=o] found the +little _miya-dzukai_ beside him. "Sir," she said, "it is requested +that you will honorably enter." She conducted him to the entrance, +where he removed his sandals; and an aged woman, whom he thought to be +the _R[=o]jo_, or matron of the household, came to welcome him at the +threshold. The old woman then led him through many apartments to a +large and well-lighted room in the rear of the house, and with many +respectful salutations requested him to take the place of honor +accorded to guests of distinction. He was surprised by the stateliness +of the chamber, and the curious beauty of its decorations. Presently +some maid-servants brought refreshments; and he noticed that the cups +and other vessels set before him were of rare and costly workmanship, +and ornamented with a design indicating the high rank of the +possessor. More and more he wondered what noble person had chosen +this lonely retreat, and what happening could have inspired the wish +for such solitude. But the aged attendant suddenly interrupted his +reflections with the question: + +"Am I wrong in supposing that you are It[=o] Sama, of Uji,--It[=o] +Tatéwaki Norisuké?" + +It[=o] bowed in assent. He had not told his name to the little +_miya-dzukai_, and the manner of the inquiry startled him. + +"Please do not think my question rude," continued the attendant. "An +old woman like myself may ask questions without improper curiosity. +When you came to the house, I thought that I knew your face; and I +asked your name only to clear away all doubt, before speaking of +other matters. I have some thing of moment to tell you. You often pass +through this village, and our young Himégimi-Sama[73] happened one +morning to see you going by; and ever since that moment she has been +thinking about you, day and night. Indeed, she thought so much that +she became ill; and we have been very uneasy about her. For that +reason I took means to find out your name and residence; and I was on +the point of sending you a letter when--so unexpectedly!--you came to +our gate with the little attendant. Now, to say how happy I am to see +you is not possible; it seems almost too fortunate a happening to be +true! Really I think that this meeting must have been brought about by +the favor of Enmusubi-no-Kami,--that great God of Izumo who ties the +knots of fortunate union. And now that so lucky a destiny has led you +hither, perhaps you will not refuse--if there be no obstacle in the +way of such a union--to make happy the heart of our Himégimi-Sama?" + +[Footnote 73: A scarcely translatable honorific title compounded of +the word _himé_ (princess) and _kimi_ (sovereign, master or mistress, +lord or lady, etc.).] + +For the moment It[=o] did not know how to reply. If the old woman had +spoken the truth, an extraordinary chance was being offered to him. +Only a great passion could impel the daughter of a noble house to +seek, of her own will, the affection of an obscure and masterless +samurai, possessing neither wealth nor any sort of prospects. On the +other hand, it was not in the honorable nature of the man to further +his own interests by taking advantage of a feminine weakness. +Moreover, the circumstances were disquietingly mysterious. Yet how to +decline the proposal, so unexpectedly made, troubled him not a little. +After a short silence, he replied:-- + +"There would be no obstacle, as I have no wife, and no betrothed, and +no relation with any woman. Until now I have lived with my parents; +and the matter of my marriage was never discussed by them. You must +know that I am a poor samurai, without any patron among persons of +rank; and I did not wish to marry until I could find some chance to +improve my condition. As to the proposal which you have done me +the very great honor to make, I can only say that I know myself yet +unworthy of the notice of any noble maiden." + +The old woman smiled as if pleased by these words, and responded:-- + +"Until you have seen our Himégimi-Sama, it were better that you make +no decision. Perhaps you will feel no hesitation after you have seen +her. Deign now to come with me, that I may present you to her." + +She conducted him to another larger guest-room, where preparations for +a feast had been made, and having shown him the place of honor, left +him for a moment alone. She returned accompanied by the Himégimi-Sama; +and, at the first sight of the young mistress, It[=o] felt again +the strange thrill of wonder and delight that had come to him in +the garden, as he listened to the music of the _koto_. Never had he +dreamed of so beautiful a being. Light seemed to radiate from her +presence, and to shine through her garments, as the light of the moon +through flossy clouds; her loosely flowing hair swayed about her +as she moved, like the boughs of the drooping willow bestirred by +the breezes of spring; her lips were like flowers of the peach +besprinkled with morning dew. It[=o] was bewildered by the vision. +He asked himself whether he was not looking upon the person of +Amano-kawara-no-Ori-Himé herself,--the Weaving-Maiden who dwells by +the shining River of Heaven. + +Smiling, the aged woman turned to the fair one, who remained +speechless, with downcast eyes and flushing cheeks, and said to her:-- + +"See, my child!--at the moment when we could least have hoped for such +a thing, the very person whom you wished to meet has come of his own +accord. So fortunate a happening could have been brought about only by +the will of the high gods. To think of it makes me weep for joy." And +she sobbed aloud. "But now," she continued, wiping away her tears +with her sleeve, "it only remains for you both--unless either prove +unwilling, which I doubt--to pledge yourselves to each other, and to +partake of your wedding feast." + + * * * * * + +It[=o] answered by no word: the incomparable vision before him had +numbed his will and tied his tongue. Maid-servants entered, bearing +dishes and wine: the wedding feast was spread before the pair; and the +pledges were given. It[=o] nevertheless remained as in a trance: the +marvel of the adventure, and the wonder of the beauty of the bride, +still bewildered him. A gladness, beyond aught that he had ever known +before, filled his heart--like a great silence. But gradually he +recovered his wonted calm; and thereafter he found himself able to +converse without embarrassment. Of the wine he partook freely; and +he ventured to speak, in a self-depreciating but merry way, about the +doubts and fears that had oppressed him. Meanwhile the bride remained +still as moonlight, never lifting her eyes, and replying only by a +blush or a smile when he addressed her. + +It[=o] said to the aged attendant:-- + +"Many times, in my solitary walks, I have passed through this village +without knowing of the existence of this honorable dwelling. And ever +since entering here, I have been wondering why this noble household +should have chosen so lonesome a place of sojourn.... Now that your +Himégimi-Sama and I have become pledged to each other, it seems to me +a strange thing that I do not yet know the name of her august family." + +At this utterance, a shadow passed over the kindly face of the old +woman; and the bride, who had yet hardly spoken, turned pale, and +appeared to become painfully anxious. After some moments of silence, +the aged woman responded:-- + +"To keep our secret from you much longer would be difficult; and I +think that, under any circumstances, you should be made aware of the +facts, now that you are one of us. Know then, Sir It[=o], that your +bride is the daughter of Shigéhira-Ky[=o], the great and unfortunate +San-mi Chüj[=o]." + +At those words--"Shigéhira-Ky[=o], San-mi Chüj[=o]"--the young +samurai felt a chill, as of ice, strike through all his veins. +Shigéhira-Ky[=o], the great Héďké general and statesman, had been dust +for centuries. And It[=o] suddenly understood that everything around +him--the chamber and the lights and the banquet--was a dream of the +past; that the forms before him were not people, but shadows of people +dead. + +But in another instant the icy chill had passed; and the charm +returned, and seemed to deepen about him; and he felt no fear. Though +his bride had come to him out of Yomi,--out of the place of the Yellow +Springs of death,--his heart had been wholly won. Who weds a ghost +must become a ghost;--yet he knew himself ready to die, not once, but +many times, rather than betray by word or look one thought that might +bring a shadow of pain to the brow of the beautiful illusion before +him. Of the affection proffered he had no misgiving: the truth had +been told him when any unloving purpose might better have been served +by deception. But these thoughts and emotions passed in a flash, +leaving him resolved to accept the strange situation as it had +presented itself, and to act just as he would have done if chosen, in +the years of Jü-ei, by Shigéhira's daughter. + +"Ah, the pity of it!" he exclaimed; "I have heard of the cruel fate of +the august Lord Shigéhira." + +"Ay," responded the aged woman, sobbing as she spoke;--"it was indeed +a cruel fate. His horse, you know, was killed by an arrow, and fell +upon him; and when he called for help, those who had lived upon his +bounty deserted him in his need. Then he was taken prisoner, and sent +to Kamakura, where they treated him shamefully, and at last put him +to death.[74] His wife and child--this dear maid here--were then in +hiding; for everywhere the Héďké were being sought out and killed. +When the news of the Lord Shigéhira's death reached us, the pain +proved too great for the mother to bear, so the child was left with +no one to care for her but me,--since her kindred had all perished or +disappeared. She was only five years old. I had been her milk-nurse, +and I did what I could for her. Year after year we wandered from place +to place, traveling in pilgrim-garb.... But these tales of grief are +ill-timed," exclaimed the nurse, wiping away her tears;--"pardon +the foolish heart of an old woman who cannot forget the past. See! +the little maid whom I fostered has now become a Himégimi-Sama +indeed!--were we living in the good days of the Emperor Takakura, what +a destiny might be reserved for her! However, she has obtained the +husband whom she desired; that is the greatest happiness.... But the +hour is late. The bridal-chamber has been prepared; and I must now +leave you to care for each other until morning." + +[Footnote 74: Shigéhira, after a brave fight in defense of the +capital,--then held by the Taďra (or Héďké) party,--was surprised and +routed by Yoshitsuné, leader of the Minamoto forces. A soldier named +Iyénaga, who was a skilled archer, shot down Shigéhira's horse; and +Shigéhira fell under the struggling animal. He cried to an attendant +to bring another horse; but the man fled. Shigéhira was then +captured by Iyénaga, and eventually given up to Yoritomo, head of +the Minamoto clan, who caused him to be sent in a cage to Kamakura. +There, after sundry humiliations, he was treated for a time with +consideration,--having been able, by a Chinese poem, to touch even the +cruel heart of Yoritomo. But in the following year he was executed by +request of the Buddhist priests of Nanto, against whom he had formerly +waged war by order of Kiyomori.] + +She rose, and sliding back the screens parting the guest-room from +the adjoining chamber, ushered them to their sleeping apartment. Then, +with many words of joy and congratulation, she withdrew; and It[=o] +was left alone with his bride. + +As they reposed together, It[=o] said:-- + +"Tell me, my loved one, when was it that you first wished to have me +for your husband." + +(For everything appeared so real that he had almost ceased to think of +the illusion woven around him.) + +She answered, in a voice like a dove's voice:-- + +"My august lord and husband, it was at the temple of Ishiyama, where +I went with my foster-mother, that I saw you for the first time. And +because of seeing you, the world became changed to me from that hour +and moment. But you do not remember, because our meeting was not in +this, your present life: it was very, very long ago. Since that time +you have passed through many deaths and births, and have had many +comely bodies. But I have remained always that which you see me now: +I could not obtain another body, nor enter into another state of +existence, because of my great wish for you. My dear lord and husband, +I have waited for you through many ages of men." + +And the bridegroom felt nowise afraid at hearing these strange words, +but desired nothing more in life, or in all his lives to come, than to +feel her arms about him, and to hear the caress of her voice. + + * * * * * + +But the pealing of a temple-bell proclaimed the coming of dawn. Birds +began to twitter; a morning breeze set all the trees a-whispering. +Suddenly the old nurse pushed apart the sliding screens of the +bridal-chamber, and exclaimed:-- + +"My children, it is time to separate! By daylight you must not be +together, even for an instant: that were fatal! You must bid each +other good-by." + +Without a word, It[=o] made ready to depart. He vaguely understood +the warning uttered, and resigned himself wholly to destiny. His will +belonged to him no more; he desired only to please his shadowy bride. + +She placed in his hands a little _suzuri_, or ink-stone, curiously +carved, and said:-- + +"My young lord and husband is a scholar; therefore this small gift +will probably not be despised by him. It is of strange fashion because +it is old, having been augustly bestowed upon my father by the favor +of the Emperor Takakura. For that reason only, I thought it to be a +precious thing." + +It[=o], in return, besought her to accept for a remembrance the +_k[=o]gai_[75] of his sword, which were decorated with inlaid work of +silver and gold, representing plum-flowers and nightingales. + +[Footnote 75: This was the name given to a pair of metal rods attached +to a sword-sheath, and used like chop-sticks. They were sometimes +exquisitely ornamented.] + +Then the little _miya-dzukai_ came to guide him through the garden, +and his bride with her foster-mother accompanied him to the threshold. + +As he turned at the foot of the steps to make his parting salute, the +old woman said:-- + +"We shall meet again the next Year of the Boar, at the same hour of +the same day of the same month that you came here. This being the Year +of the Tiger, you will have to wait ten years. But, for reasons which +I must not say, we shall not be able to meet again in this place; +we are going to the neighborhood of Ky[=o]to, where the good Emperor +Takakura and our fathers and many of our people are dwelling. All the +Héďké will be rejoiced by your coming. We shall send a _kago_[76] for +you on the appointed day." + +[Footnote 76: A kind of palanquin.] + + * * * * * + +Above the village the stars were burning as It[=o] passed the gate; +but on reaching the open road he saw the dawn brightening beyond +leagues of silent fields. In his bosom he carried the gift of his +bride. The charm of her voice lingered in his ears,--and nevertheless, +had it not been for the memento which he touched with questioning +fingers, he could have persuaded himself that the memories of the +night were memories of sleep, and that his life still belonged to him. + +But the certainty that he had doomed himself evoked no least regret: +he was troubled only by the pain of separation, and the thought of the +seasons that would have to pass before the illusion could be renewed +for him. Ten years!--and every day of those years would seem how long! +The mystery of the delay he could not hope to solve; the secret ways +of the dead are known to the gods alone. + + * * * * * + +Often and often, in his solitary walks, It[=o] revisited the village +at Kotobikiyama, vaguely hoping to obtain another glimpse of the past. +But never again, by night or by day, was he able to find the rustic +gate in the shadowed lane; never again could he perceive the figure of +the little _miya-dzukai_, walking alone in the sunset-glow. + +The village people, whom he questioned carefully, thought him +bewitched. No person of rank, they said, had ever dwelt in the +settlement; and there had never been, in the neighborhood, any such +garden as he described. But there had once been a great Buddhist +temple near the place of which he spoke; and some gravestones of the +temple-cemetery were still to be seen. It[=o] discovered the monuments +in the middle of a dense thicket. They were of an ancient Chinese +form, and were covered with moss and lichens. The characters that had +been cut upon them could no longer be deciphered. + + * * * * * + +Of his adventure It[=o] spoke to no one. But friends and kindred soon +perceived a great change in his appearance and manner. Day by day he +seemed to become more pale and thin, though physicians declared that +he had no bodily ailment; he looked like a ghost, and moved like +a shadow. Thoughtful and solitary he had always been, but now he +appeared indifferent to everything which had formerly given him +pleasure,--even to those literary studies by means of which he +might have hoped to win distinction. To his mother--who thought that +marriage might quicken his former ambition, and revive his interest in +life--he said that he had made a vow to marry no living woman. And the +months dragged by. + +At last came the Year of the Boar, and the season of autumn; but I to +could no longer take the solitary walks that he loved. He could not +even rise from his bed. His life was ebbing, though none could divine +the cause; and he slept so deeply and so long that his sleep was often +mistaken for death. + +Out of such a sleep he was startled, one bright evening, by the voice +of a child; and he saw at his bedside the little _miya-dsukai_ who had +guided him, ten years before, to the gate of the vanished garden. She +saluted him, and smiled, and said: "I am bidden to tell you that you +will be received to-night at Öhara, near Ky[=o]to, where the new home +is, and that a _kago_ has been sent for you." Then she disappeared. + +It[=o] knew that he was being summoned away from the light of the sun; +but the message so rejoiced him that he found strength to sit up and +call his mother. To her he then for the first time related the story +of his bridal, and he showed her the ink-stone which had been given +him. He asked that it should be placed in his coffin,--and then he +died. + + * * * * * + +The ink-stone was buried with him. But before the funeral ceremonies +it was examined by experts, who said that it had been made in the +period of _J[=o]-an_(1169 A.D.), and that it bore the seal-mark of an +artist who had lived in the time of the Emperor Takakura. + + + + +STRANGER THAN FICTION + + +It was a perfect West Indian day. My friend the notary and I were +crossing the island by a wonderful road which wound up through tropic +forest to the clouds, and thence looped down again, through gold-green +slopes of cane, and scenery amazing of violet and blue and ghost-gray +peaks, to the roaring coast of the trade winds. All the morning we had +been ascending,--walking after our carriage, most of the time, for the +sake of the brave little mule;--and the sea had been climbing behind +us till it looked like a monstrous wall of blue, pansy-blue, under the +ever heightening horizon. The heat was like the heat of a vapor-bath, +but the air was good to breathe with its tropical odor,--an odor made +up of smells of strange saps, queer spicy scents of mould, exhalations +of aromatic decay. Moreover, the views were glimpses of Paradise; and +it was a joy to watch the torrents roaring down their gorges under +shadows of tree-fern and bamboo. + +My friend stopped the carriage before a gateway set into a hedge full +of flowers that looked like pink-and-white butterflies. "I have to +make a call here," he said;--"come in with me." We dismounted, and he +knocked on the gate with the butt of his whip. Within, at the end of +a shady garden, I could see the porch of a planter's house; beyond +were rows of cocoa palms, and glimpses of yellowing cane. Presently +a negro, wearing only a pair of canvas trousers and a great straw +hat, came hobbling to open the gate,--followed by a multitude, an +astonishing multitude, of chippering chickens. Under the shadow of +that huge straw hat I could not see the negro's face; but I noticed +that his limbs and body were strangely shrunken,--looked as if +withered to the bone. A weirder creature I had never beheld; and I +wondered at his following of chickens. + +"Eh!" exclaimed the notary, "your chickens are as lively as ever!... I +want to see Madame Floran." + +"_Moin ké di_," the goblin responded huskily, in his patois; and he +limped on before us, all the chickens hopping and cheeping at his +withered heels. + +"That fellow," my friend observed, "was bitten by a _fer-de-lance_ +about eight or nine years ago. He got cured, or at least half-cured, +in some extraordinary way; but ever since then he has been a skeleton. +See how he limps!" + +The skeleton passed out of sight behind the house, and we waited a +while at the front porch. Then a métisse--turbaned in wasp colors, and +robed in iris colors, and wonderful to behold--came to tell us that +Madame hoped we would rest ourselves in the garden, as the house was +very warm. Chairs and a little table were then set for us in a shady +place, and the métisse brought out lemons, sugar-syrup, a bottle of +the clear plantation rum that smells like apple juice, and ice-cold +water in a _dobanne_ of thick red clay. My friend prepared the +refreshments; and then our hostess came to greet us, and to sit with +us,--a nice old lady with hair like newly minted silver. I had never +seen a smile sweeter than that with which she bade us welcome; and I +wondered whether she could ever have been more charming in her Creole +girlhood than she now appeared,--with her kindly wrinkles, and argent +hair, and frank, black, sparkling eyes.... + + * * * * * + +In the conversation that followed I was not able to take part, as +it related only to some question of title. The notary soon arranged +whatever there was to arrange; and, after some charmingly spoken words +of farewell from the gentle lady, we took our departure. Again the +mummified negro hobbled before us, to open the gate,--followed by +all his callow rabble of chickens. As we resumed our places in the +carriage we could still hear the chippering of the creatures, pursuing +after that ancient scarecrow. + +"Is it African sorcery?" I queried.... "How does he bewitch those +chickens?" + +"Queer--is it not?" the notary responded as we drove away. "That negro +must now be at least eighty years old; and he may live for twenty +years more,--the wretch!" + +The tone in which my friend uttered this epithet--_le +miserable!_--somewhat surprised me, as I knew him to be one of the +kindliest men in the world, and singularly free from prejudice. I +suspected that a story was coming, and I waited for it in silence. + +"Listen," said the notary, after a pause, during which we left the +plantation well behind us; "that old sorcerer, as you call him, was +born upon the estate, a slave. The estate belonged to M. Floran,--the +husband of the lady whom we visited; and she was a cousin, and the +marriage was a love-match. They had been married about two years when +the revolt occurred (fortunately there were no children),--the black +revolt of eighteen hundred and forty-eight. Several planters were +murdered; and M. Floran was one of the first to be killed. And the old +negro whom we saw to-day--the old sorcerer, as you call him--left the +plantation, and joined the rising: do you understand?" + +"Yes," I said; "but he might have done that through fear of the mob." + +"Certainly: the other hands did the same. But it was he that killed M. +Floran,--for no reason whatever,--cut him up with a cutlass. M. Floran +was riding home when the attack was made,--about a mile below the +plantation.... Sober, that negro would not have dared to face M. +Floran: the scoundrel was drunk, of course,--raving drunk. Most of +the blacks had been drinking tafia, with dead wasps in it, to give +themselves courage." + +"But," I interrupted, "how does it happen that the fellow is still on +the Floran plantation?" + +"Wait a moment!... When the military got control of the mob, search +was made everywhere for the murderer of M. Floran; but he could not +be found. He was lying out in the cane,--in M. Floran's cane!--like a +field-rat, like a snake. One morning, while the gendarmes were still +looking for him, he rushed into the house, and threw himself down in +front of Madame, weeping and screaming, '_Aďe-yaďe-yaďe-yaďe!--moin +té tchoué y! moin té tchoué y!--aďe-yaďe-yaďe!_' Those were his very +words:--'I killed him! I killed him!' And he begged for mercy. When +he was asked why he killed M. Floran, he cried out that it was the +devil--_diabe-ŕ_--that had made him do it!... Well, Madame forgave +him!" + +"But how could she?" I queried. + +"Oh, she had always been very religious," my friend +responded,--"sincerely religious. She only said, 'May God pardon me +as I now pardon you!' She made her servants hide the creature and feed +him; and they kept him hidden until the excitement was over. Then she +sent him back to work; and he has been working for her ever since. Of +course he is now too old to be of any use in the field;--he only takes +care of the chickens." + +"But how," I persisted, "could the relatives allow Madame to forgive +him?" + +"Well, Madame insisted that he was not mentally responsible,--that he +was only a poor fool who had killed without knowing what he was doing; +and she argued that if _she_ could forgive him, others could more +easily do the same. There was a consultation; and the relatives +decided so to arrange matters that Madame could have her own way." + +"But why?" + +"Because they knew that she found a sort of religious consolation--a +kind of religious comfort--in forgiving the wretch. She imagined +that it was her duty as a Christian, not only to forgive him, but to +take care of him. We thought that she was mistaken,--but we could +understand.... Well, there is an example of what religion can do."... + + * * * * * + +The surprise of a new fact, or the sudden perception of something +never before imagined, may cause an involuntary smile. Unconsciously +I smiled, while my friend was yet speaking; and the good notary's brow +darkened. + +"Ah, you laugh!" he exclaimed,--"you laugh! That is wrong!--that is a +mistake!... But you do not believe: you do not know what it is,--the +true religion,--the real Christianity!" + +Earnestly I made answer:-- + +"Pardon me! I do believe every word of what you have told me. If I +laughed unthinkingly, it was only because I could not help wondering" +... + +"At what?" he questioned gravely. + +"At the marvelous instinct of that negro." + +"Ah, yes!" he returned approvingly. "Yes, the cunning of the animal +it was,--the instinct of the brute!... She was the only person in the +world who could have saved him." + +"And he knew it," I ventured to add. + +"No--no--no!" my friend emphatically dissented,--"he never could have +known it! He only _felt_ it!... Find me an instinct like that, and I +will show you a brain incapable of any knowledge, any thinking, any +understanding: not the mind of a man, but the brain of a beast!" + + + + +A LETTER FROM JAPAN + + +Tokyo, August 1, 1904. + +Here, in this quiet suburb, where the green peace is broken only by +the voices of children at play and the shrilling of cicadć, it is +difficult to imagine that, a few hundred miles away, there is being +carried on one of the most tremendous wars of modern times, between +armies aggregating more than half a million of men, or that, on the +intervening sea, a hundred ships of war have been battling. This +contest, between the mightiest of Western powers and a people that +began to study Western science only within the recollection of many +persons still in vigorous life, is, on one side at least, a struggle +for national existence. It was inevitable, this struggle,--might +perhaps have been delayed, but certainly not averted. Japan has +boldly challenged an empire capable of threatening simultaneously +the civilizations of the East and the West,--a medićval power that, +unless vigorously checked, seems destined to absorb Scandinavia and +to dominate China. For all industrial civilization the contest is one +of vast moment;--for Japan it is probably the supreme crisis in her +national life. As to what her fleets and her armies have been doing, +the world is fully informed; but as to what her people are doing at +home, little has been written. + +To inexperienced observation they would appear to be doing nothing +unusual; and this strange calm is worthy of record. At the +beginning of hostilities an Imperial mandate was issued, bidding all +non-combatants to pursue their avocations as usual, and to trouble +themselves as little as possible about exterior events;--and this +command has been obeyed to the letter. It would be natural to suppose +that all the sacrifices, tragedies, and uncertainties of the contest +had thrown their gloom over the life of the capital in especial; but +there is really nothing whatever to indicate a condition of anxiety or +depression. On the contrary, one is astonished by the joyous tone of +public confidence, and the admirably restrained pride of the nation +in its victories. Western tides have strewn the coast with Japanese +corpses; regiments have been blown out of existence in the storming of +positions defended by wire-entanglements; battleships have been lost: +yet at no moment has there been the least public excitement. The +people are following their daily occupations just as they did before +the war; the cheery aspect of things is just the same; the theatres +and flower displays are not less well patronized. The life of +T[=o]ky[=o] has been, to outward seeming, hardly more affected by the +events of the war than the life of nature beyond it, where the flowers +are blooming and the butterflies hovering as in other summers. Except +after the news of some great victory,--celebrated with fireworks and +lantern processions,--there are no signs of public emotion; and but +for the frequent distribution of newspaper extras, by runners ringing +bells, you could almost persuade yourself that the whole story of the +war is an evil dream. + +Yet there has been, of necessity, a vast amount of suffering--viewless +and voiceless suffering--repressed by that sense of social and +patriotic duty which is Japanese religion. As a seventeen-syllable +poem of the hour tells us, the news of every victory must bring pain +as well as joy:-- + + G[=o]gwai no + Tabi teki mikata + Goké ga fuč. + + [_Each time that an extra is circulated the widows of foes and + friends have increased in multitude._] + +The great quiet and the smiling tearlessness testify to the more than +Spartan discipline of the race. Anciently the people were trained, not +only to conceal their emotions, but to speak in a cheerful voice and +to show a pleasant face under any stress of moral suffering; and they +are obedient to that teaching to-day. It would still be thought a +shame to betray personal sorrow for the loss of those who die for +Emperor and fatherland. The public seem to view the events of the war +as they would watch the scenes of a popular play. They are interested +without being excited; and their extraordinary self-control is +particularly shown in various manifestations of the "Play-impulse." +Everywhere the theatres are producing war dramas (based upon actual +fact); the newspapers and magazines are publishing war stories and +novels; the cinematograph exhibits the monstrous methods of modern +warfare; and numberless industries are turning out objects of art or +utility designed to commemorate the Japanese triumphs. + +But the present psychological condition, the cheerful and even playful +tone of public feeling, can be indicated less by any general statement +than by the mention of ordinary facts,--every-day matters recorded in +the writer's diary. + + * * * * * + +Never before were the photographers so busy; it is said that they +have not been able to fulfill half of the demands made upon them. +The hundreds of thousands of men sent to the war wished to leave +photographs with their families, and also to take with them portraits +of parents, children, and other beloved persons. The nation was being +photographed during the past six months. + +A fact of sociological interest is that photography has added +something new to the poetry of the domestic faith. From the time of +its first introduction, photography became popular in Japan; and none +of those superstitions, which inspire fear of the camera among less +civilized races, offered any obstacle to the rapid development of a +new industry. It is true that there exists some queer-folk beliefs +about photographs,--ideas of mysterious relation between the +sun-picture and the person imaged. For example: if, in the photograph +of a group, one figure appear indistinct or blurred, that is thought +to be an omen of sickness or death. But this superstition has its +industrial value: it has compelled photographers to be careful about +their work,--especially in these days of war, when everybody wants to +have a good clear portrait, because the portrait might be needed for +another purpose than preservation in an album. + +During the last twenty years there has gradually come into existence +the custom of placing the photograph of a dead parent, brother, +husband, or child, beside the mortuary tablet kept in the Buddhist +household shrine. For this reason, also, the departing soldier wishes +to leave at home a good likeness of himself. + +The rites of domestic affection, in old samurai families, are not +confined to the cult of the dead. On certain occasions, the picture +of the absent parent, husband, brother, or betrothed, is placed in +the alcove of the guest-room, and a feast laid out before it. The +photograph, in such cases, is fixed upon a little stand (_dai_); and +the feast is served as if the person were present. This pretty custom +of preparing a meal for the absent is probably more ancient than any +art of portraiture; but the modern photograph adds to the human poetry +of the rite. In feudal time it was the rule to set the repast facing +the direction in which the absent person had gone--north, south, east, +or west. After a brief interval the covers of the vessels containing +the cooked food were lifted and examined. If the lacquered inner +surface was thickly beaded with vapor, all was well; but if +the surface was dry, that was an omen of death, a sign that the +disembodied spirit had returned to absorb the essence of the +offerings. + + * * * * * + +As might have been expected, in a country where the "play-impulse" is +stronger, perhaps, than in any other part of the world, the Zeitgeist +found manifestation in the flower displays of the year. I visited +those in my neighborhood, which is the Quarter of the Gardeners. This +quarter is famous for its azaleas (_tsutsuji_); and every spring +the azalea gardens attract thousands of visitors,--not only by the +wonderful exhibition then made of shrubs which look like solid masses +of blossom (ranging up from snowy white, through all shades of pink, +to a flamboyant purple) but also by displays of effigies: groups +of figures ingeniously formed with living leaves and flowers. These +figures, life-size, usually represent famous incidents of history or +drama. In many cases--though not in all--the bodies and the costumes +are composed of foliage and flowers trained to grow about a framework; +while the faces, feet, and hands are represented by some kind of +flesh-colored composition. + +This year, however, a majority of the displays represented scenes +of the war,--such as an engagement between Japanese infantry and +mounted Cossacks, a night attack by torpedo boats, the sinking of +a battleship. In the last-mentioned display, Russian bluejackets +appeared, swimming for their lives in a rough sea;--the pasteboard +waves and the swimming figures being made to rise and fall by the +pulling of a string; while the crackling of quick-firing guns was +imitated by a mechanism contrived with sheets of zinc. + +It is said that Admiral T[=o]g[=o] sent to T[=o]ky[=o] for some +flowering-trees in pots--inasmuch as his responsibilities allowed him +no chance of seeing the cherry-flowers and the plum-blossoms in their +season,--and that the gardeners responded even too generously. + + * * * * * + +Almost immediately after the beginning of hostilities, thousands of +"war pictures"--mostly cheap lithographs--were published. The drawing +and coloring were better than those of the prints issued at the +time of the war with China; but the details were to a great extent +imaginary,--altogether imaginary as to the appearance of Russian +troops. Pictures of the engagements with the Russian fleet were +effective, despite some lurid exaggeration. The most startling things +were pictures of Russian defeats in Korea, published before a single +military engagement had taken place;--the artist had "flushed to +anticipate the scene." In these prints the Russians were depicted +as fleeing in utter rout, leaving their officers--very fine-looking +officers--dead upon the field; while the Japanese infantry, with +dreadfully determined faces, were coming up at a double. The propriety +and the wisdom of thus pictorially predicting victory, and easy +victory to boot, may be questioned. But I am told that the custom of +so doing is an old one; and it is thought that to realize the common +hope thus imaginatively is lucky. At all events, there is no attempt +at deception in these pictorial undertakings;--they help to keep up +the public courage, and they ought to be pleasing to the gods. + +Some of the earlier pictures have now been realized in grim fact. +The victories in China had been similarly foreshadowed: they amply +justified the faith of the artist.... To-day the war pictures continue +to multiply; but they have changed character. The inexorable truth +of the photograph, and the sketches of the war correspondent, now +bring all the vividness and violence of fact to help the artist's +imagination. There was something naďve and theatrical in the drawings +of anticipation; but the pictures of the hour represent the most +tragic reality,--always becoming more terrible. At this writing, Japan +has yet lost no single battle; but not a few of her victories have +been dearly won. + +To enumerate even a tenth of the various articles ornamented with +designs inspired by the war--articles such as combs, clasps, fans, +brooches, card-cases, purses--would require a volume. Even cakes and +confectionery are stamped with naval or military designs; and the +glass or paper windows of shops--not to mention the signboards--have +pictures of Japanese victories painted upon them. At night the shop +lanterns proclaim the pride of the nation in its fleets and armies; +and a whole chapter might easily be written about the new designs in +transparencies and toy lanterns. A new revolving lantern--turned by +the air-current which its own flame creates--has become very popular. +It represents a charge of Japanese infantry upon Russian defenses; +and holes pierced in the colored paper, so as to produce a continuous +vivid flashing while the transparency revolves, suggest the exploding +of shells and the volleying of machine guns. + +Some displays of the art-impulse, as inspired by the war, have been +made in directions entirely unfamiliar to Western experience,--in +the manufacture, for example, of women's hair ornaments and dress +materials. Dress goods decorated with war pictures have actually +become a fashion,--especially crępe silks for underwear, and figured +silk linings for cloaks and sleeves. More remarkable than these +are the new hairpins;--by hairpins I mean those long double-pronged +ornaments of flexible metal which are called _kanzashi_, and are more +or less ornamented according to the age of the wearer. (The _kanzashi_ +made for young girls are highly decorative; those worn by older folk +are plain, or adorned only with a ball of coral or polished stone.) +The new hairpins might be called commemorative: one, of which the +decoration represents a British and a Japanese flag intercrossed, +celebrates the Anglo-Japanese alliance; another represents an +officer's cap and sword; and the best of all is surmounted by a +tiny metal model of a battleship. The battleship-pin is not merely +fantastic: it is actually pretty! + +As might have been expected, military and naval subjects occupy a +large place among the year's designs for toweling. The towel designs +celebrating naval victories have been particularly successful: they +are mostly in white, on a blue ground; or in black, on a white ground. +One of the best--blue and white--represented only a flock of gulls +wheeling about the masthead of a sunken iron-clad, and, far away, the +silhouettes of Japanese battleships passing to the horizon.... What +especially struck me in this, and in several other designs, was the +original manner in which the Japanese artist had seized upon the +traits of the modern battleship,--the powerful and sinister lines of +its shape,--just as he would have caught for us the typical character +of a beetle or a lobster. The lines have been just enough exaggerated +to convey, at one glance, the real impression made by the aspect of +these iron monsters,--vague impression of bulk and force and menace, +very difficult to express by ordinary methods of drawing. + +Besides towels decorated with artistic sketches of this sort, there +have been placed upon the market many kinds of towels bearing comic +war pictures,--caricatures or cartoons which are amusing without being +malignant. It will be remembered that at the time of the first attack +made upon the Port Arthur squadron, several of the Russian officers +were in the Dalny theatre,--never dreaming that the Japanese would +dare to strike the first blow. This incident has been made the subject +of a towel design. At one end of the towel is a comic study of the +faces of the Russians, delightedly watching the gyrations of a +ballet dancer. At the other end is a study of the faces of the same +commanders when they find, on returning to the port, only the masts +of their battleships above water. Another towel shows a procession +of fish in front of a surgeon's office--waiting their turns to be +relieved of sundry bayonets, swords, revolvers, and rifles, which have +stuck in their throats. A third towel picture represents a Russian +diver examining, with a prodigious magnifying-glass, the holes made by +torpedoes in the hull of a sunken cruiser. Comic verses or legends, in +cursive text, are printed beside these pictures. + +The great house of Mitsui, which placed the best of these designs on +the market, also produced some beautiful souvenirs of the war, in +the shape of _fukusa_. (A _fukusa_ is an ornamental silk covering, +or wrapper, put over presents sent to friends on certain occasions, +and returned after the present has been received.) These are made of +the heaviest and costliest silk, and inclosed within appropriately +decorated covers. Upon one _fukusa_ is a colored picture of the +cruisers Nisshin and Kasuga, under full steam; and upon another has +been printed, in beautiful Chinese characters, the full text of the +Imperial Declaration of war. + +But the strangest things that I have seen in this line of production +were silk dresses for baby girls,--figured stuffs which, when looked +at from a little distance, appeared incomparably pretty, owing to the +masterly juxtaposition of tints and colors. On closer inspection the +charming design proved to be composed entirely of war pictures,--or, +rather, fragments of pictures, blended into one astonishing +combination: naval battles; burning warships; submarine mines +exploding; torpedo boats attacking; charges of Cossacks repulsed by +Japanese infantry; artillery rushing into position; storming of forts; +long lines of soldiery advancing through mist. Here were colors of +blood and fire, tints of morning haze and evening glow, noon-blue +and starred night-purple, sea-gray and field-green,--most wonderful +thing!... I suppose that the child of a military or naval officer +might, without impropriety, be clad in such a robe. But then--the +unspeakable pity of things! + + * * * * * + +The war toys are innumerable: I can attempt to mention only a few of +the more remarkable kinds. + +Japanese children play many sorts of card games, some of which are +old, others quite new. There are poetical card games, for example, +played with a pack of which each card bears the text of a poem, or +part of a poem; and the player should be able to remember the name of +the author of any quotation in the set. Then there are geographical +card games, in which each of the cards used bears the name, and +perhaps a little picture, of some famous site, town, or temple; and +the player should be able to remember the district and province in +which the mentioned place is situated. The latest novelty in this line +is a pack of cards with pictures upon them of the Russian war vessels; +and the player should be able to state what has become of every vessel +named,--whether sunk, disabled, or confined in Port Arthur. + +There is another card game in which the battleships, cruisers, and +torpedo craft of both Japan and Russia are represented. The winner in +this game destroys his "captures" by tearing the cards taken. But the +shops keep packages of each class of warship cards in stock; and when +all the destroyers or cruisers of one country have been put _hors +de combat_, the defeated party can purchase new vessels abroad. One +torpedo boat costs about one farthing; but five torpedo boats can be +bought for a penny. + +The toy-shops are crammed with models of battleships,--in wood, clay, +porcelain, lead, and tin,--of many sizes and prices. Some of the +larger ones, moved by clockwork, are named after Japanese battleships: +Shikishima, Fuji, Mikasa. One mechanical toy represents the sinking of +a Russian vessel by a Japanese torpedo boat. Among cheaper things of +this class is a box of colored sand, for the representation of naval +engagements. Children arrange the sand so as to resemble waves; and +with each box of sand are sold two fleets of tiny leaden vessels. The +Japanese ships are white, and the Russian black; and explosions of +torpedoes are to be figured by small cuttings of vermilion paper, +planted in the sand. + + * * * * * + +The children of the poorest classes make their own war toys; and I +have been wondering whether those ancient feudal laws (translated +by Professor Wigmore), which fixed the cost and quality of toys to +be given to children, did not help to develop that ingenuity which +the little folk display. Recently I saw a group of children in +our neighborhood playing at the siege of Port Arthur, with fleets +improvised out of scraps of wood and some rusty nails. A tub of water +represented Port Arthur. Battleships were figured by bits of plank, +into which chop-sticks had been fixed to represent masts, and rolls of +paper to represent funnels. Little flags, appropriately colored, were +fastened to the masts with rice paste. Torpedo boats were imaged by +splinters, into each of which a short thick nail had been planted to +indicate a smokestack. Stationary submarine mines were represented +by small squares of wood, each having one long nail driven into it; +and these little things, when dropped into water with the nail-head +downwards, would keep up a curious bobbing motion for a long time. +Other squares of wood, having clusters of short nails driven into +them, represented floating mines: and the mimic battleships were made +to drag for these, with lines of thread. The pictures in the Japanese +papers had doubtless helped the children to imagine the events of the +war with tolerable accuracy. + +Naval caps for children have become, of course, more in vogue than +ever before. Some of the caps bear, in Chinese characters of burnished +metal, the name of a battleship, or the words _Nippon Teikoku_ +(Empire of Japan),--disposed like the characters upon the cap of a +blue-jacket. On some caps, however, the ship's name appears in English +letters,--Yashima, Fuji, etc. + + * * * * * + +The play-impulse, I had almost forgotten to say, is shared by the +soldiers themselves,--though most of those called to the front do not +expect to return in the body. They ask only to be remembered at the +Spirit-Invoking Shrine (_Sh[=o]konsha_), where the shades of all who +die for Emperor and country are believed to gather. The men of the +regiments temporarily quartered in our suburb, on their way to the +war, found time to play at mimic war with the small folk of the +neighborhood. (At all times Japanese soldiers are very kind to +children; and the children here march with them, join in their +military songs, and correctly salute their officers, feeling sure +that the gravest officer will return the salute of a little child.) +When the last regiment went away, the men distributed toys among +the children assembled at the station to give them a parting +cheer,--hairpins, with military symbols for ornament, to the girls; +wooden infantry and tin cavalry to the boys. The oddest present was +a small clay model of a Russian soldier's head, presented with the +jocose promise: "If we come back, we shall bring you some real ones." +In the top of the head there is a small wire loop, to which a rubber +string can be attached. At the time of the war with China, little clay +models of Chinese heads, with very long queues, were favorite toys. + + * * * * * + +The war has also suggested a variety of new designs for that charming +object, the _toko-niwa_. Few of my readers know what a _toko-niwa_, or +"alcove-garden," is. It is a miniature garden--perhaps less than two +feet square--contrived within an ornamental shallow basin of porcelain +or other material, and placed in the alcove of a guest-room by way +of decoration. You may see there a tiny pond; a streamlet crossed by +humped bridges of Chinese pattern; dwarf trees forming a grove, and +shading the model of a Shinto temple; imitations in baked clay of +stone lanterns,--perhaps even the appearance of a hamlet of thatched +cottages. If the _toko-niwa_ be not too small, you may see real fish +swimming in the pond, or a pet tortoise crawling among the rockwork. +Sometimes the miniature garden represents H[=o]rai, and the palace of +the Dragon-King. + +Two new varieties have come into fashion. One is a model of Port +Arthur, showing the harbor and the forts; and with the materials for +the display there is sold a little map, showing how to place certain +tiny battle-ships, representing the imprisoned and the investing +fleets. The other _toko-niwa_ represents a Korean or Chinese +landscape, with hill ranges and rivers and woods; and the appearance +of a battle is created by masses of toy soldiers--cavalry, infantry, +and artillery--in all positions of attack and defense. Minute forts of +baked clay, bristling with cannon about the size of small pins, occupy +elevated positions. When properly arranged the effect is panoramic. +The soldiers in the foreground are about an inch long; those a little +farther away about half as long; and those upon the hills are no +larger than flies. + +But the most remarkable novelty of this sort yet produced is a kind +of _toko-niwa_ recently on display at a famous shop in Ginza. A label +bearing the inscription, _Kaď-téď no Ikken_ (View of the Ocean-Bed) +sufficiently explained the design. The _suďbon_, or "water-tray," +containing the display was half filled with rocks and sand so as to +resemble a sea-bottom; and little fishes appeared swarming in the +fore-ground. A little farther back, upon an elevation, stood Otohimé, +the Dragon-King's daughter, surrounded by her maiden attendants, and +gazing, with just the shadow of a smile, at two men in naval uniform +who were shaking hands,--dead heroes of the war: Admiral Makaroff and +Commander Hirosé!... These had esteemed each other in life; and it was +a happy thought thus to represent their friendly meeting in the world +of Spirits. + + * * * * * + +Though his name is perhaps unfamiliar to English readers, Commander +Takeo Hirosé has become, deservedly, one of Japan's national heroes. +On the 27th of March, during the second attempt made to block the +entrance to Port Arthur, he was killed while endeavoring to help a +comrade,--a comrade who had formerly saved him from death. For five +years Hirosé had been a naval attaché at St. Petersburg, and had made +many friends in Russian naval and military circles. From boyhood his +life had been devoted to study and duty; and it was commonly said of +him that he had no particle of selfishness in his nature. Unlike most +of his brother officers, he remained unmarried,--holding that no man +who might be called on at any moment to lay down his life for his +country had a moral right to marry. The only amusements in which +he was ever known to indulge were physical exercises; and he was +acknowledged one of the best _j[=u]jutsu_ (wrestlers) in the empire. +The heroism of his death, at the age of thirty-six, had much less to +do with the honors paid to his memory than the self-denying heroism of +his life. + +Now his picture is in thousands of homes, and his name is celebrated +in every village. It is celebrated also by the manufacture of +various souvenirs, which are sold by myriads. For example, there +is a new fashion in sleeve-buttons, called _Kinen-botan_, or +"Commemoration-buttons." Each button bears a miniature portrait of +the commander, with the inscription, _Shichi-sh[=o] h[=o]koku_, "Even +in seven successive lives--for love of country." It is recorded that +Hirosé often cited, to friends who criticised his ascetic devotion to +duty, the famous utterance of Kusunoki Masashigé, who declared, ere +laying down his life for the Emperor Go-Daigo, that he desired to die +for his sovereign in seven successive existences. + +But the highest honor paid to the memory of Hirosé is of a sort now +possible only in the East, though once possible also in the West, when +the Greek or Roman patriot-hero might be raised, by the common love of +his people, to the place of the Immortals.... Wine-cups of porcelain +have been made, decorated with his portrait; and beneath the portrait +appears, in ideographs of gold, the inscription, _Gunshin Hirosé +Ch[=u]sa_. The character "gun" signifies war; the character "_shin_" +a god,--either in the sense of _divus_ or _deus_, according to +circumstances; and the Chinese text, read in the Japanese way, is +_Ikusa no Kami_. Whether that stern and valiant spirit is really +invoked by the millions who believe that no brave soul is doomed to +extinction, no well-spent life laid down in vain, no heroism cast +away, I do not know. But, in any event, human affection and gratitude +can go no farther than this; and it must be confessed that Old Japan +is still able to confer honors worth dying for. + + * * * * * + +Boys and girls in all the children's schools are now singing the Song +of Hirosé Ch[=u]sa, which is a marching song. The words and the +music are published in a little booklet, with a portrait of the late +commander upon the cover. Everywhere, and at all hours of the day, one +hears this song being sung:-- + + _He whose every word and deed gave to men an example of what + the war-folk of the_ _Empire of Nippon should be,--Commander + Hirosé: is he really dead?_ + + _Though the body die, the spirit dies not. He who wished to + be reborn seven times into this world, for the sake of + serving his country, for the sake of requiting the Imperial + favor,--Commander Hirosé: has he really died?_ + + _"Since I am a son of the Country of the Gods, the fire of the + evil-hearted Russians cannot touch me!"--The sturdy Takeo who + spoke thus: can he really be dead?..._ + + _Nay! that glorious war-death meant undying fame;--beyond a + thousand years the valiant heart shall live;--as to a god of + war shall reverence be paid to him...._ + + * * * * * + +Observing the playful confidence of this wonderful people in their +struggle for existence against the mightiest power of the West,--their +perfect trust in the wisdom of their leaders and the valor of their +armies,--the good humor of their irony when mocking the enemy's +blunders,--their strange capacity to find, in the world-stirring +events of the hour, the same amusement that they would find in +watching a melodrama,--one is tempted to ask: "What would be the +moral consequence of a national defeat?"... It would depend, I think, +upon circumstances. Were Kuropatkin able to fulfill his rash threat +of invading Japan, the nation would probably rise as one man. But +otherwise the knowledge of any great disaster would be bravely borne. +From time unknown Japan has been a land of cataclysms,--earth-quakes +that ruin cities in the space of a moment; tidal waves, two hundred +miles long, sweeping whole coast populations out of existence; floods +submerging hundreds of leagues of well-tilled fields; eruptions +burying provinces. Calamities like this have disciplined the race in +resignation and in patience; and it has been well trained also to bear +with courage all the misfortunes of war. Even by the foreign peoples +that have been most closely in contact with her, the capacities of +Japan remained unguessed. Perhaps her power to resist aggression is +far surpassed by her power to endure. + + + + + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's The Romance of the Milky Way, by Lafcadio Hearn + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE ROMANCE OF THE MILKY WAY *** + +***** This file should be named 15320-8.txt or 15320-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/5/3/2/15320/ + +Produced by Ted Garvin, William Flis, and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team. + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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