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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/15335-0.txt b/15335-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..75d2f32 --- /dev/null +++ b/15335-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,6356 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Madame Chrysantheme, by Pierre Loti + +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: Madame Chrysantheme + +Author: Pierre Loti + +Release Date: March 12, 2005 [EBook #15335] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: UTF-8 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MADAME CHRYSANTHEME *** + + + + +Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Ronald Holder, and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team + + + + + + + +MADAME CHRYSANTHEME + +By PIERRE LOTI + +TRANSLATED BY LAURA ENSOR + +THE MODERN LIBRARY + +PUBLISHERS NEW YORK + + + + +_Manufactured in the United States of America_ +_Bound for_ THE MODERN LIBRARY _by H. Wolff_ + + + + +TO MADAME LA DUCHESSE DE RICHELIEU. + +_Madame La Duchesse_, + +_Allow me to crave your acceptance of the following work, as a +respectful tribute of my attachment._ + +_I felt some hesitation in offering it, for its main incident cannot +be deemed altogether proper; but I have striven that in its expression +at least, it should not sin against good taste, and I trust that my +endeavours have been successful._ + +_It is the diary of a summer of my life, in which I have changed +nothing, not even the dates, thinking as I do, that in our efforts to_ +arrange _matters we often only succeed in disarranging them. Although +the most important rôle may appear to devolve on Madame Chrysantheme, +it is very certain that the three principal personages are_ myself, +Japan, _and the effect produced on me by that country._ + +_Do you remember a certain photograph_--_rather ridiculous I must +admit_--_representing that big fellow Yves, a Japanese girl and +myself, grouped closely together as we were placed side by side by a +Nagasaki artist? You smiled when I assured you that the carefully +combed little creature placed between us two, had been_ one of our +neighbours. _Kindly welcome my book with the same indulgent smile, +without seeking therein a meaning either good or bad, in the same +spirit that you would receive some quaint bit of pottery, some +grotesquely carved ivory idol, or some preposterous trifle brought +back for you from this singular fatherland of all preposterousness._ + +_Believe me with the deepest respect, Madame la Duchesse,_ + +_Your affectionate_ + +PIERRE LOTI. + + + + +INTRODUCTION + +At sea, about two o'clock in the morning, on a clear night, under a +star-lit sky. + +Yves stood near me on the bridge, and we were talking of the country, +so utterly unknown to us both, to which the chances of our destiny +were now wafting us. As we were to cast anchor the following day, we +enjoyed the state of expectation, and formed a thousand plans. + +"As for me," I said, "I shall at once marry." + +"Ah!" returned Yves, with the indifferent air of a man whom nothing +can surprise. + +"Yes--I shall choose a little yellow-skinned woman with black hair and +cat's eyes. She must be pretty. Not much bigger than a doll. You shall +have a room in our house. A little paper house, in the midst of green +gardens, prettily shaded. We shall live among flowers, everything +around us shall blossom, and each morning our dwelling shall be filled +with nosegays, nosegays such as you have never dreamt of." + +Yves now began to take an interest in these plans for my future +household; indeed, he would have listened with as much confidence, if +I had manifested the intention of taking temporary vows in some +monastery of this new country, or of marrying some island queen and +shutting myself up with her in a house built of jade, in the middle of +an enchanted lake. + +In reality I had quite made up my mind to carry out the scheme I had +unfolded to him. Yes, actually, led on by ennui and solitude, I had +gradually arrived at dreaming of and looking forward to this absurd +marriage. And then, above all, to live for awhile on land, in some +shady nook, amid trees and flowers. How tempting it sounded after the +long months we had been wasting at the Pescadores (hot and arid +islands, devoid of freshness, woods, or streamlets, full of faint +odors of China and of death). + + +We had made great way in latitude, since our vessel had quitted that +Chinese furnace, and the constellations in the sky had undergone a +series of rapid changes; the Southern Cross had disappeared at the +same time as the other austral stars; and the Great Bear rising on the +horizon, was almost on as high a level as it is in the French sky. The +fresh evening breeze soothed and revived us, bringing back to us the +memory of our summer night watches on the coast of Brittany. + +What a distance we were, however, from those familiar coasts! What a +terrible distance! + + + + +MADAME CHRYSANTHEME + + + + +MADAME CHRYSANTHEME + +I. + + +At dawn of day we sighted Japan. + +Precisely at the foretold moment Japan arose before us, afar off, like +a clear and distinct dot in the vast sea, which for so many days had +been but a blank space. + +At first we saw nothing in the rising sun but a series of tiny +pink-tipped heights (the foremost portion of the Fukai islands). Soon, +however, appeared all along the horizon, like a thick cloud, a dark +veil over the waters, Japan itself; and little by little out of the +dense shadow arose the sharp opaque outlines of the Nagasaki +mountains. + +The wind was dead against us, and the strong breeze, which steadily +increased, seemed as if the country were blowing with all its might +against us, in a vain effort to drive us away from its shores. The +sea, the rigging, the vessel itself, all vibrated and quivered as if +with emotion. + + + + +II. + +By three o'clock in the afternoon all these far-off objects drew close +to us, so close, indeed, that they overshadowed us by their rocky +masses and dense green thickets. + +We now entered into a shady kind of channel enclosed between two high +ranges of mountains, curiously symmetrical in shape--like stage +scenery, very fine, though unlike nature. It seemed as if Japan opened +to our view, through a fairy-like rent, which thus allowed us to +penetrate into her very heart. + +Nagasaki, as yet unseen, must be at the extremity of this long and +curious bay. All around us was admirably green. The strong sea-breeze +had suddenly fallen, and was succeeded by a perfect calm; the +atmosphere, now very warm, was laden with the perfume of flowers. In +the valley resounded the ceaseless whirr of the cicalas, answering +each other from one shore to another; the mountains reëchoed with +innumerable sounds; the whole country seemed to vibrate like crystal. +On our way we passed among myriads of Japanese junks, gliding softly, +wafted by imperceptible breezes on the unruffled water; their motion +could scarcely be heard, and their white sails, stretched out on +yards, fell languidly in a thousand horizontal folds like +window-blinds, their strangely contorted poops rising up castlewise in +the air, reminding one of the towering ships of the middle ages. In +the midst of the intense greenery of this wall of mountains, they +stood out with a snowy whiteness. + +What a country of verdure and shade is Japan; what an unlooked-for +Eden! + +Beyond us, at sea, it must have been full daylight; but here, in the +recesses of the valley, we already felt the impression of evening; +beneath the summits in full sunlight, the base of the mountains and +all the thickly wooded parts near the water's edge were steeped in +twilight. + +The passing junks, gleaming white against the background of dark +foliage, were silently and dexterously maneuvered by small yellow men, +stark naked, with long hair piled up in womanlike fashion on their +heads. Gradually, as we advanced further up the green channel, the +perfumes became more penetrating, and the monotonous chirp of the +cicalas swelled out like an orchestral crescendo. Above us, on the +luminous sky, sharply delineated between the mountains, a species of +hawk hovered about, screaming out with a deep human voice, "Han! Han! +Han!" its melancholy call lengthened out by the surrounding echoes. + +All this fresh and luxurious nature bore the impress of a peculiar +Japanese type, which seemed to pervade even the mountain tops, and +consisted, as it were, in an untruthful aspect of too much prettiness. +The trees were grouped in clusters, with the same pretentious grace as +on the lacquered trays. Large rocks sprang up in exaggerated shapes, +side by side with rounded lawn-like hillocks; all the incongruous +elements of landscape were grouped together as though it were an +artificial creation. + +Looking intently, here and there might be seen, often built in +counterscarp on the very brink of an abyss, some old, tiny, mysterious +pagoda; half hidden in the foliage of the overhanging trees; bringing +to the minds of new arrivals such as ourselves, the sense of +unfamiliarity and strangeness; and the feeling that in this country, +the Spirits, the Sylvan Gods, the antique symbols, faithful guardians +of the woods and forests, were unknown and uncomprehended. + + * * * * * + +When Nagasaki rose before us, the sight that greeted our eyes was +disappointing; situated at the foot of green overhanging mountains, it +looked like any other commonplace town. In front of it lay a tangled +mass of vessels, carrying all the flags of the world; steamboats just +as in any other port, with dark funnels and black smoke, and behind +them quays covered with factories: nothing in fact was wanting in the +way of ordinary, trivial, every-day objects. + +Some day, when man shall have made all things alike, the earth will be +a dull, tedious dwelling-place, and we shall have even to give up +traveling and seeking for a change which shall no longer be found. + +At about six o'clock, we dropped anchor noisily amid the mass of +vessels already there, and were immediately invaded. + +Invaded by a mercantile, bustling, comical Japan, which rushed upon us +in full boat-loads, full junks, like a rising sea; little men and +little women coming in a continuous, uninterrupted stream, without +cries, without squabbles, noiselessly, each one making so smiling a +bow that it was impossible to be angry with them, and that indeed by +reflex action we smiled and bowed also. They all carried on their +backs little baskets, little boxes, receptacles of every shape, +fitting into each other in the most ingenious manner, each one +containing several others, and multiplying till they filled up +everything, in endless number; from these they drew forth all manners +of curious and unexpected things, folding screens, slippers, soap, +lanterns, sleeve-links, live cicalas chirping in little cages, +jewelry, tame white mice turning little cardboard mills, quaint +photographs, hot soups and stews in bowls ready to be served out in +rations to the crew;--china, a legion of vases, teapots, cups, little +pots and plates. In one moment, all this was unpacked, spread out with +astounding rapidity and a certain talent for arrangement; each seller +squatting monkey-like, hands touching feet, behind his fancy +ware--always smiling, bending low with the most engaging bows. Under +the mass of these many-colored things, the deck presented the +appearance of an immense bazaar; the sailors, very much amused and +full of fun, walked among the heaped-up piles, taking the little women +by the chin, buying anything and everything, throwing broadcast their +white dollars. But, good gracious, how ugly, mean and grotesque all +those folk were. Given my projects of marriage, I began to feel +singularly uneasy and disenchanted. + + * * * * * + +Yves and myself were on duty till the next morning, and after the +first bustle, which always takes place on board when settling down in +harbor--(boats to lower, booms to swing out, running rigging to make +taut)--we had nothing more to do but to look on. We said to one +another: "Where are we in reality?--In the United States?--In some +English Colony in Australia, or in New Zealand?" + +Consular residences, custom-house offices, manufactories; a dry dock +in which a Russian frigate was lying; on the heights the large +European concession, sprinkled with villas, and on the quays, American +bars for the sailors. Further off, it is true, further off, far away +behind these common-place objects, in the very depths of the immense +green valley, peered thousands upon thousands of tiny black houses, a +tangled mass of curious appearance, from which here and there emerged +some higher, dark red, painted roofs, probably the true old Japanese +Nagasaki which still exists. And in those quarters, who knows, there +may be, lurking behind a paper screen, some affected cat's-eyed little +woman, whom perhaps in two or three days (having no time to lose) I +shall marry!! But no, the picture painted by my fancy has faded. I can +no longer see this little creature in my mind's eye; the sellers of +the white mice have blurred her image; I fear now, lest she should be +like them. + +At nightfall, the decks were suddenly cleared as by enchantment; in a +second, they had all shut up their boxes, folded their sliding +screens, their trick fans, and, humbly bowing to each of us, the +little men and little women disappeared. + +Slowly, as the shades of night closed around us mingling all things in +the bluish darkness, this Japan surrounding us, became once more, by +degrees, little by little, a fairy-like and enchanted country. The +great mountains, now all black, were mirrored and doubled in the still +water at their feet on which we floated, reflecting therein their +sharply reversed outlines, and presenting the mirage of fearful +precipices, over which we hung:--- the stars also were reversed in +their order, making, in the depths of the imaginary abyss, a +sprinkling of tiny phosphorescent lights. + +Then all Nagasaki became profusely illuminated, covering itself with +multitudes of lanterns: the smallest suburb, the smallest village was +lit up; the tiniest hut perched up on high among the trees, and which +in the daytime was invisible, threw out its little glow-worm glimmer. +Soon there were numberless lights all over the country, on all the +shores of the bay, from top to bottom of the mountains; myriads of +glowing fires shone out in the darkness, conveying the impression of +a vast capital, rising up around us in one bewildering amphitheater. +Beneath, in the silent waters, another town, also illuminated, seemed +to descend into the depths of the abyss. The night was balmy, pure, +delicious; the atmosphere laden with the perfume of flowers came +wafted to us from the mountains. From the "tea houses" and other +nocturnal resorts, the sound of guitars reached our ears, seeming in +the distance the sweetest of music. And the whirr of the +cicalas--which, in Japan, is one of the continuous noises of life, and +which in a few days we shall no longer even be aware of, so completely +is it the background and foundation of all the other terrestrial +sounds--was sonorous, incessant, softly monotonous, just like the +cascade of a crystal waterfall. + + + + +III. + + +The next day the rain came down in torrents, a regular downpour, +merciless and unceasing, blinding and drenching everything,--a thick +rain so dense that it was impossible to see through it from one end of +the vessel to the other. It seemed as though the clouds of the whole +world had amassed themselves in Nagasaki bay, and had chosen this +great green funnel to stream down to their hearts' content. And it +rained, it rained, it became almost as dark as night, so thickly did +the rain fall. Through a veil of crumbled water, we still perceived +the base of the mountains, but the summits were lost to sight among +the great somber masses weighing down upon us. Above us shreds of +clouds, seemingly torn from the dark vault, draggled across the trees, +like vast gray rags,--continually melting away in water, torrents of +water. There was wind too, and it howled through the ravines with a +deep-sounding tone. The whole surface of the bay, bespattered by the +rain, flogged by the gusts of wind that blew from all quarters, +splashed, moaned and seethed in violent agitation. + +What wretched weather for a first landing, and how was I to find a +wife through such a deluge, in an unknown country! + + * * * * * + +No matter! I dressed myself and said to Yves, who smiled at my +obstinate determination in spite of unfavorable circumstances: + +"Hail me a 'sampan,' brother, please." + +Yves then, by a motion of his arm through the wind and rain, summoned +a kind of little white wooden sarcophagus which was skipping near us +on the waves, sculled by a couple of yellow boys stark naked in the +rain. The craft approached us, I jumped into it, then through a little +trap-door shaped like a rat-trap that one of the scullers throws open +for me, I slipped in and stretched myself at full length on a mat in +what is called the "cabin" of a sampan. + +There was just room enough for my body to lie in this floating coffin, +which is moreover scrupulously clean, white with the whiteness of new +deal boards. I was well sheltered from the rain, that fell pattering +on my lid, and thus I started off for the town, lying in this box, +flat on my stomach, rocked by one wave, roughly shaken by another, at +moments almost over-turned; and through the half-opened door of my +rat-trap I saw, upside down, the two little creatures to whom I had +entrusted my fate, children of eight or ten years of age at the most, +who, with little monkeyish faces, had however fully developed muscles +like miniature men, and were already as skillful as any regular old +salts. + + * * * * * + +They began to shout; no doubt we were approaching the landing-place. +And indeed, through my trap-door, which I had now thrown wide open, I +saw quite near to me the gray flag-stones on the quays. I got out of +my sarcophagus and prepared to set foot for the first time in my life +on Japanese soil. + +All was streaming around us, and the irritating, tiresome rain dashed +into my eyes. + +No sooner had I landed, than there bounded towards me about a dozen +strange beings, of what description it was almost impossible to make +out through the blinding showers--a species of human hedge-hog, each +dragging some large black thing; they came screaming around me and +stopped my progress. One of them opened and held over my head an +enormous closely-ribbed umbrella, decorated on its transparent surface +with paintings of storks; and they all smiled at me in an engaging +manner with an air of expectation. + +I had been forewarned: these were only the _djins_ who were touting +for the honor of my preference; nevertheless I was startled at this +sudden attack, this Japanese welcome on a first visit to land (the +_djins_ or _djin-richisans_, are the runners who drag little carts, +and are paid for conveying people to and fro, being hired by the hour +or the distance, as cabs are with us). + +Their legs were naked; to-day they were very wet, and their heads were +hidden under large shady conical hats. By way of waterproofs they wore +nothing less than mats of straw, with all the ends of the straws +turned outwards bristling like porcupines; they seemed clothed in a +thatched roof. They went on smiling, awaiting my choice. + +Not having the honor of being acquainted with any of them in +particular, I choose at haphazard the djin with the umbrella and get +into his little cart, of which he carefully lowers the hood. He draws +an oil-cloth apron over my knees, pulling it up to my face, and then +advancing near, asks me in Japanese something which must have meant: +"Where to, sir?" To which I reply in the same language, "To the +_Garden of Flowers_, my friend." + +I said this in the three words I had parrot-like learnt by heart, +astonished that such sounds could mean anything, astonished too at +their being understood. We started off, he running at full speed, I +dragged along by him, jerked about in his light chariot, wrapped in +oiled cloth, shut up as if in a box;--both of us unceasingly drenched +all the while, and dashing all around us the water and mud of the +sodden ground. + +"To the _Garden of Flowers_," I had said, like an habitual frequenter +of the place, and quite surprised at hearing myself speak. But I was +less ignorant about Japan than might have been supposed. Many of my +friends had, on their return home from that country, told me about it, +and I knew a great deal; the _Garden of Flowers_ is a _tea-house_, an +elegant rendezvous. There, I would inquire for a certain +Kangourou-San, who is at the same time interpreter, washerman, and +confidential agent for the intercourse of races. Perhaps this very +evening, if all went well, I should be introduced to the bride +destined to me by mysterious fate. This thought kept my mind on the +alert during the panting journey we have been making, the djin and +myself, one dragging the other, under the merciless downpour. + + * * * * * + +Oh, what a curious Japan I saw that day, through the gaping of my +oil-cloth coverings! from under the dripping hood of my little cart! A +sullen, muddy, half-drowned Japan. All these houses, men or beasts, +hitherto only known to me by drawings; all these, that I had beheld +painted on blue or pink backgrounds of fans or vases, now appeared to +me in their hard reality, under a dark sky, with umbrellas and wooden +shoes, with tucked-up skirts and pitiful aspect. + +At moments the rain fell so heavily that I tightly closed up every +chink and crevice, and the noise and shaking benumbed me, so that I +completely forgot in what country I was. In the hood of the cart were +holes, through which little streams ran down my back. Then, +remembering that I was going for the first time in my life through the +very heart of Nagasaki, I cast an inquiring look outside, at the risk +of receiving a douche: we were trotting along through a mean, narrow +little back street (there are thousands like it, a perfect labyrinth +of them) the rain falling in cascades from the tops of the roofs on +the gleaming flagstones below, rendering everything indistinct and +vague through the misty atmosphere. At times we passed by a lady, +struggling with her skirts, unsteadily tripping along in her high +wooden shoes, looking exactly like the figures painted on screens, +tucked up under a gaudily daubed paper umbrella. Or else we passed a +pagoda, where an old granite monster, squatting in the water, seemed +to make a hideous, ferocious grimace at me. + +How immense this Nagasaki is! Here had we been running hard for the +last hour, and still it seemed never-ending. It is a flat plain, and +one could never suppose from the offing that so vast a plain could lie +in the recesses of this valley. + +It would, however, have been impossible for me to say where I was, or +in what direction we had run; I abandoned my fate to my djin and to my +good luck. + +What a steam-engine of a man my djin was! I had been accustomed to the +Chinese runners, but they were nothing by the side of this fellow. +When I part my oil-cloths to peep at anything, he is naturally always +the first object in my foreground: his two naked, brown, muscular +legs, scampering one after the other, splashing all around, and his +bristling hedgehog back bending low in the rain. Do the passers-by, +gazing at this little dripping cart, guess that it contains a suitor +in quest of a bride? + + * * * * * + +At last my vehicle stops, and my djin, with many smiles and +precautions lest any fresh rivers should stream down my back, lowers +the hood of the cart; there is a break in the storm, and the rain has +ceased. I had not yet seen his face; by exception to the general rule, +he is good-looking;--a young man of about thirty years of age, of +intelligent and strong appearance, and an open countenance. Who could +have foreseen that a few days later this very djin.--But no, I will +not anticipate, and run the risk of throwing beforehand any discredit +on Chrysanthème. + +We had therefore reached our destination, and found ourselves at the +foot of a tall overhanging mountain; probably beyond the limits of the +town, in some suburban district. It apparently became necessary to +continue our journey on foot, and climb up an almost perpendicular +narrow path. Around us, a number of small country houses, garden +walls, and high bamboo palisades closed in the view. The green hill +crushed us with its towering height; the heavy, dark clouds lowering +over our heads seemed like a leaden canopy confining us in this +unknown spot; it really seemed as though the complete absence of +perspective inclined one all the better to notice the details of this +tiny corner, muddy and wet, of homely Japan, now lying before our +eyes. The earth was very red. The grasses and wild flowers bordering +the pathway were strange to me;--nevertheless, the palings were +covered with convolvuli like our own, and I recognized in the gardens, +china asters, zinnias, and other familiar flowers. The atmosphere +seemed laden with a curiously complicated odor, something besides the +perfume of the plants and soil, arising no doubt from the human +dwelling-places,--a mingled smell, I fancied, of dried fish and +incense. Not a creature was to be seen; of the inhabitants, of their +homes and life, there was not a vestige, and I might have imagined +myself anywhere in the world. + +My djin had fastened up his little cart under a tree, and together we +clambered the steep path on the slippery red soil. + +"We are going to the _Garden of Flowers_, are we not?" I inquired, +anxious to ascertain if I had been understood. + +"Yes, yes," replied the djin, "it is up there, and quite near." + +The road turned, steep banks hemming it in and darkening it. On one +side, it skirted the mountain all covered with a tangle of wet ferns; +on the other appeared a large wooden house almost devoid of apertures +and of evil aspect; it was there that my djin halted. + +What, that sinister-looking house was the _Garden of Flowers_? He +assured me that it was, and seemed very sure of the fact. We knocked +at a big door which opened immediately, slipping back in its groove. +Then two funny little women appeared, oldish-looking, but with evident +pretensions to youth: exact types of the figures painted on vases, +with their baby hands and feet. + +On catching sight of me, they threw themselves on all fours, their +faces touching the floor. Good gracious! what can be the matter? +Nothing at all, it is only the ceremonious salute to which I am as yet +unaccustomed. They rise, and proceed to take off my boots (one never +keeps on one's shoes in a Japanese house), wiping the bottom of my +trousers and feeling my shoulders to see if I am wet. + +What always strikes one on first entering a Japanese dwelling is the +extreme cleanliness, and white and chilling bareness of the rooms. + +Over the most irreproachable mattings, without a crease, a line, or a +stain, I am led upstairs to the first story and ushered into a big +empty room, absolutely empty! The paper walls are mounted on sliding +panels, which fitting into each other, can be made to disappear +entirely,--and all one side of the apartment opens like a verandah on +to the green country and the gray sky beyond. By way of a chair, I am +given a square piece of black velvet, and behold me seated low, in the +middle of this large empty room, which by its very vastness is almost +chilly. The two little women (who are the servants of the house and my +very humble servants too), await my orders, in attitudes expressive of +the profoundest humility. + + * * * * * + +It seemed extraordinary that the quaint words, the curious phrases I +had learnt during our exile at the Pescadores Islands--by sheer dint +of dictionary and grammar book, without attaching the least sense to +them--should mean anything. But so it seemed, however, for I was at +once understood. + + * * * * * + +I wish in the first place to speak to one M. Kangourou, who is +interpreter, washerman, and matrimonial agent. Nothing could be +better: they know him and will go at once in search of him; and the +elder of the waiting-maids gets ready for the purpose her wooden clogs +and her paper umbrella. + +Next I demand a well-served repast, composed of the greatest +delicacies of Japan. Better and better, they rush to the kitchen to +order it. + +Finally, I beg they will give tea and rice to my djin, who is waiting +for me below;--I wish, in short, I wish many things, my dear little +dollies, which I will mention by degrees and with due deliberation, +when I shall have had time to assemble the necessary words. But, the +more I look at you the more uneasy I feel as to what my _fiancée_ of +to-morrow may be like. Almost pretty, I grant you, you are,--in virtue +of quaintness, delicate hands, miniature feet, but ugly after all, and +absurdly small. You look like ouistitis, like little china ornaments, +like I don't know what. I begin to understand that I have arrived at +this house at an ill-chosen moment. Something is going on which does +not concern me, and I feel that I am in the way. + +From the beginning I might have guessed as much, notwithstanding the +excessive politeness of my welcome; for I remember now, that while +they were taking off my boots downstairs, I heard a murmuring chatter +overhead, then a noise of panels moved quickly along their grooves, +evidently to hide from me something I was not intended to see; they +were improvising for me the apartment in which I now am--just as in +menageries they make a separate compartment for some beasts when the +public is admitted. + +Now I am left alone while my orders are being executed, and I listen +attentively, squatted like a Buddha on my black velvet cushion, in the +midst of the whiteness of the walls and mats. + +Behind the paper partitions, worn-out voices, seemingly numerous, are +talking in low tones. Then rises the sound of a guitar, and the song +of a woman, plaintive and gentle in the echoing sonority of the bare +house, in the melancholy of the rainy weather. + +What one can see through the wide-open verandah is very pretty, I will +admit; it resembles the landscape of a fairy tale. There are admirably +wooded mountains, climbing high into the dark and gloomy sky, and +hiding in it the peaks of their summits, and, perched up among the +clouds--a temple. The atmosphere has that absolute transparency, the +distance that clearness which follows a great downpour of rain; but a +thick pall, still heavy with moisture, remains suspended over all, and +on the foliage of the hanging woods still float great flakes of gray +fluff, which remain there, motionless. In the foreground, in front of +and below all this almost fantastic landscape, is a miniature garden +where two beautiful white cats are taking the air, amusing themselves +by pursuing each other through the paths of a Lilliputian labyrinth, +shaking from their paws the sand, which is still wet. The garden is as +conventional as possible: not a flower, but little rocks, little +lakes, dwarf trees cut in a grotesque fashion; all this is not +natural, but it is most ingeniously arranged, so green, so full of +fresh mosses! + +In the rain-soaked country below me, to the very furthest end of the +vast scene, reigns a great silence, an absolute calm. But the woman's +voice, behind the paper wall, continues to sing in a key of gentle +sadness, and the accompanying guitar has somber and even gloomy notes. + +Stay though! Now the music is somewhat quicker--one might even suppose +they were dancing! + +So much the worse! I shall try to look between the fragile divisions, +through a crack which has revealed itself to my notice. + +What a singular spectacle it is; evidently the gilded youth of +Nagasaki holding a great clandestine orgy! In an apartment as bare as +my own, there are a dozen of them, seated in a circle on the ground, +attired in long blue cotton dresses with pagoda sleeves, long, sleek +and greasy hair surmounted by European pot hats; and beneath these, +yellow, worn out, bloodless, foolish faces. On the floor are a number +of little spirit-lamps, little pipes, little lacquer trays, little +tea-pots, little cups--all the accessories and all the remains of a +Japanese feast, resembling nothing so much as a doll's tea-party. In +the midst of this circle of dandies are three over-dressed women, one +might say three weird visions, robed in garments of pale and +undefinable colors, embroidered with golden monsters; and their great +chignons arranged with fantastic art, stuck full of pins and flowers. +Two are seated and turn their back to me: one is holding the guitar, +the other singing with that soft and pretty voice;--thus seen +furtively, from behind, their pose, their hair, the nape of the neck, +all is exquisite, and I tremble lest a movement should reveal to me +faces which might destroy the enchantment. The third one is on her +feet, dancing before this areopagus of idiots, with their lanky locks +and pot hats. What a shock when she turns round! She wears over her +face the horribly grinning, deathly mask of a specter or vampire. The +mask unfastened, falls. And behold! a darling little fairy of about +twelve or fifteen years of age, slim, and already a coquette, already +a woman,--dressed in a long robe of shaded dark blue china crape, +covered with embroidery representing bats--gray bats, black bats, +golden bats. + +Suddenly there are steps on the stairs, the light footsteps of +barefooted women pattering over the white mats. No doubt the first +course of my lunch just about to be served. I quickly fall back, fixed +and motionless, upon my black velvet cushion. There are three of them +now, three waiting-maids who arrive in single file, with smiles and +curtsies. One offers me the spirit-lamp and the tea-pot, another +preserved fruits in delightful little plates, the third, absolutely +indefinable objects upon gems of little trays. And they grovel before +me on the floor, placing all this plaything of a meal at my feet. + +At this moment, my impressions of Japan are charming enough; I feel +myself fairly launched upon this tiny, artificial, fictitious world, +which I felt I knew already from the paintings of lacquer and +porcelains. It is so exact a representation! The three little +squatting women, graceful and dainty, with their narrow slits of eyes, +their magnificent chignons in huge bows, smooth and shining as +boot-polish, and the little tea-service on the floor, the landscape +seen through the verandah, the pagoda perched among the clouds; and +over all the same affectation everywhere, in every detail. Even the +woman's melancholy voice, still to be heard behind the paper +partition, was so evidently the way they should sing, these musicians +I had so often seen painted in amazing colors on rice-paper, half +closing their dreamy eyes in the midst of impossibly large flowers. +Long before I came to it, I had perfectly pictured this Japan to +myself. Nevertheless in the reality it almost seems to be smaller, +more finicking than I had imagined it, and also much more mournful, no +doubt by reason of that great pall of black clouds hanging over us and +this incessant rain. + + * * * * * + +While awaiting M. Kangourou (who is dressing himself it appears, and +will be here shortly), it may be as well to begin lunch. + +In the daintiest bowl imaginable, adorned with flights of storks, is +the most wildly impossible soup made of sea-weed. After which there +are little fish dried in sugar, crabs in sugar, beans in sugar, and +fruits in vinegar and pepper. All this is atrocious, but above all +unexpected and unimaginable. The little women make me eat, laughing +much, with that perpetual irritating laugh, which is the laugh +peculiar to Japan,--they make me eat, according to their fashion, with +dainty chop-sticks, fingered with mannered grace. I am becoming +accustomed to their faces. The whole effect is refined,--a refinement +so utterly different from our own, that at first sight I understand +nothing of it, although in the long run it may end by pleasing me. + +Suddenly there enters, like a night butterfly awakened in broad +daylight, like a rare and surprising moth, the dancing-girl from the +other compartment, the child who wore the horrible mask. No doubt she +wishes to have a look at me. She rolls her eyes like a timid kitten, +and then all at once tamed, nestles against me, with a coaxing air of +childishness, which is a delightfully transparent assumption. She is +slim, elegant, delicate, and smells sweet; drolly painted, white as +plaster, with a little circle of rouge marked very precisely in the +middle of each cheek, the mouth reddened, and a touch of gilding +outlining the under lip. As they could not whiten the back of the neck +on account of all the delicate little curls of hair growing there, +they had, in their love of exactitude, stopped the white plaster in a +straight line, which might have been cut with a knife, and in +consequence at the nape appears a square of natural skin of a deep +yellow. + +An imperious note sounds on the guitar, evidently a summons! Crac! +Away she goes, the little fairy, to rejoice the drivelling fools on +the other side of the screens. + +Supposing I marry this one, without seeking any further. I should +respect her as a child committed to my care; I should take her for +what she is: a fantastic and charming plaything. What an amusing +little household I should set up! Really short of marrying a china +ornament, I should find it difficult to choose better. + +At this moment enters M. Kangourou, clad in a suit of gray tweed, +which might have come from _La Belle Jardiniere_ or the _Pont Neuf_, +with a pot hat and white thread gloves. His countenance is at once +foolish and cunning; he has hardly a nose, hardly any eyes. He makes a +real Japanese salutation: an abrupt dip, the hands placed flat on the +knees, the body making a right angle to the legs, as if the fellow +were breaking in two; a little snake-like hissing (produced by sucking +the saliva between the teeth, and which is the expression _nec plus +ultra_ of obsequious politeness in this country). "You speak French, +M. Kangourou?" + +"_ sir" (renewed bows). + +He makes one for each word I utter, as if he were a mechanical toy +pulled by a string; when he is seated before me on the ground, he +limits himself to a duck of the head--always accompanied by the same +hissing noise of the saliva. + +"A cup of tea, M. Kangourou?" + +Fresh salute and an extra affected gesticulation with the hands, as if +to say, "I should hardly dare. It is too great a condescension on your +part. However, anything to oblige you." + + * * * * * + +He guesses at the first words what I require from him. + +"Of course," he replies, "we will see about it at once; in a week's +time, as it happens, a family from Simonosaki, in which there are two +charming daughters, will be here." + +"What! in a week! You don't know me, M. Kangourou! No, no, either now, +to-morrow, or not at all." + +Again a hissing bow, and Kangourou-San catching my agitation, begins +to pass in feverish review, all the young persons at his disposal in +Nagasaki. + +"Let us see--there was Mdlle. Å’illet. What a pity that I had not +spoken a few days sooner! So pretty! So clever at playing the guitar. +It is an irreparable misfortune; she was engaged only yesterday by a +Russian officer." + +"Ah! Mdlle. Abricot!--Would she suit me, Mdlle. Abricot? She is the +daughter of a wealthy China merchant in the Decima Bazaar, a person of +the highest merit; but she would be very dear: her parents, who think +a great deal of her, will not let her go under a hundred yen[A] a +month. She is very accomplished, thoroughly understands commercial +writings, and has at her finger ends more than two thousand characters +of learned writing. In a poetical competition she gained the first +prize with a sonnet composed in praise of _'the blossoms of the +black-thorn hedges seen in the dew of early morning.'_ Only, she is +not very pretty: one of her eyes is smaller than the other, and she +has a hole in her cheek, resulting from an illness of her childhood." + +[Footnote A: A yen is equal to four shillings.] + +"Oh no! on no account that one! Let us seek amongst a less +distinguished class of young persons, but without scars. And how about +those on the other side of the screen, in those fine gold-embroidered +dresses? For instance, the dancer with the specter mask, M. Kangourou? +or again she who sings in so dulcet a strain and has such a charming +nape to her neck?" + +He does not, at first, understand my drift; then when he gathers my +meaning, he shakes his head almost in a joking way, and says: + +"No, sir, no! Those are only _Guéchas_,[B] sir--_Guéchas!_" + +[Footnote B: _Guéchas_ are professional dancers and singers trained at +the Yeddo Conservatory.] + +"Well, but why not a _Guécha_? What odds can it be to me, whether they +are _Guéchas_ or not?" Later on, no doubt, when I understand Japanese +affairs better, I shall appreciate myself the enormity of my proposal: +one would really suppose I had talked of marrying the devil. + +At this point M. Kangourou suddenly calls to mind one Mdlle. Jasmin. +Heavens! how was it he did not think of her at once; she is absolutely +and exactly what I want; he will go to-morrow or this very evening, to +make the necessary overtures to the parents of this young person who +live a long way off, on the opposite hill, in the suburb of +Diou-djen-dji. She is a very pretty girl of about fifteen. She can +probably be engaged for about eighteen or twenty dollars a month, on +condition of presenting her with a few dresses of the best fashion, +and of lodging her in a pleasant and well-situated house,--all of +which a man of gallantry like myself could not fail to do. + +Well, let us fix upon Mdlle. Jasmin then,--and now we must part; time +presses. M. Kangourou will come on board to-morrow to communicate to +me the result of his first proceedings and to arrange with me for the +interview. For the present he refuses to accept any remuneration; but +I am to give him my washing, and to procure him the custom of my +brother officers of the _Triomphante_. It is all settled. Profound +bows,--they put on my boots again at the door. My djin, profiting by +the interpreter kind fortune has placed in his way, begs to be +recommended to me for future custom; his stand is on the quay; his +number is 415, inscribed in French characters on the lantern of his +vehicle (we have a number 415 on board, one Le Goëlec, gunner, who +serves the left of one of my guns; happy thought, I shall remember +this); his price is sixpence the journey, or five pence an hour, for +his customers. Capital; he shall have my custom, that is promised. And +now, let us be off. The waiting-maids, who have escorted me to the +door, fall on all fours as a final salute, and remain prostrate on the +threshold--as long as I am still in sight down the dark pathway, where +the rain trickles off the great over-arching bracken upon my head. + + +IV. + +Three days have passed. Night is closing, in an apartment which has +been mine since yesterday. Yves and I, on the first floor, move +restlessly over the white mats, striding up and down the great bare +room, of which the thin, dry flooring cracks beneath our footsteps; we +are both of us rather irritated by prolonged expectation. Yves, whose +impatience shows itself the most freely, from time to time takes a +look out of the window. As for myself, a chill suddenly seizes me, at +the idea that I have chosen, and purpose to inhabit this lonely house, +lost in the midst of the suburb of a totally strange town, perched +high on the mountain and almost opening upon the woods. + +What wild notion can have taken possession of me, to settle myself in +surroundings so utterly foreign and unknown, breathing of isolation +and sadness? The waiting unnerves me, and I beguile the time by +examining all the little details of the building. The woodwork of the +ceiling is complicated and ingenious. On the partitions of white paper +which form the walls, are scattered tiny, microscopic, blue-feathered +tortoises. + +"They are late," said Yves, who is still looking out into the street. + +As to being late, that they certainly are, by a good hour already, and +night is falling, and the boat which should take us back to dine on +board will be gone. Probably we shall have to sup, Japanese fashion +to-night, heaven only knows where. The people of this country have no +sense of punctuality, or of the value of time. + +Therefore I continue to inspect the minute and comical details of my +dwelling. Here, instead of handles such as we should have put to pull +these movable partitions, they have made little oval holes, just the +shape of a finger-end, and into which one is evidently to put one's +thumb. These little holes have a bronze ornamentation, and on looking +closely, one sees that the bronze is curiously chased: here is a lady +fanning herself; there, in the next hole, is represented a branch of +cherry in full blossom. What eccentricity there is in the taste of +this people! To bestow assiduous labor on such miniature work, and +then to hide it at the bottom of a hole to put one's finger in, +looking like a mere spot in the middle of a great white panel; to +accumulate so much patient and delicate workmanship on almost +imperceptible accessories, and all to produce an effect which is +absolutely _nil_, an effect of the most utter bareness and nudity. + +Yves still continues to gaze forth, like Sister Anne. From the side on +which he leans, my verandah overlooks a street, or rather a road +bordered with houses, which climbs higher and higher, and loses itself +almost immediately in the verdure of the mountain, in the fields of +tea, the underwood and the cemeteries. As for myself, this delay +finishes by irritating me for good and all, and I turn my glances to +the opposite side: the other front of my house, also a verandah, opens +first of all upon a garden; then upon a marvelous panorama of woods +and mountains, with all the venerable Japanese quarters of Nagasaki +lying confusedly like a black ant-heap, six hundred feet below us. +This evening, in a dull twilight, notwithstanding that it is a +twilight of July, these things are melancholy. There are great clouds +heavy with rain and showers, ready to fall, traveling across the sky. +No, I cannot feel at home, in this strange dwelling I have chosen; I +feel sensations of extreme solitude and strangeness; the mere prospect +of passing the night in it gives me a shudder of horror. + +"Ah! at last, brother," said Yves, "I believe,--yes, I really believe +she is coming at last." + +I look over his shoulder, and I see--a back view of a little doll the +finishing touches to whose toilette are being put in the solitary +street; a last maternal glance given to the enormous bows of the sash, +the folds at the waist. Her dress is of pearl-gray silk, her _obi_ +(sash) of mauve satin; a sprig of silver flowers trembles in her black +hair; a parting ray of sunlight touches the little figure; five or six +persons accompany her. Yes! it is undoubtedly Mdlle. Jasmin; they are +bringing me my _fiancée_! + +I rush to the ground floor inhabited by old Madame Prune my landlady, +and her aged husband; they are absorbed in prayer before the altar of +their ancestors. + +"Here they are, Madame Prune," I cry in Japanese; "here they are! +Bring at once the tea, the lamp, the embers, the little pipes for the +ladies, the little bamboo pots for spittoons! Bring us as quickly as +possible all the accessories for my reception!" + +I hear the front door open, and hasten upstairs again. Wooden clogs +are deposited on the floor, the staircase creaks gently under the +little bare feet. Yves and I look at each other, with a longing to +laugh. + +An old lady enters,--two old ladies,--three old ladies, emerging from +the doorway one after another with jerking and mechanical +salutations, which we return as best we can, fully conscious of our +inferiority in this particular style. Then come persons of +intermediate age,--then quite young ones, a dozen at least, friends, +neighbors, the whole quarter in fact. And the whole company, on +arriving, becomes confusedly engaged in reciprocal salutations: I +salute you,--- you salute me,--I salute you again, and you return +it,--and I re-salute you again, and I express that I shall never, +never be able to return it according to your high merit,--and I bang +my forehead against the ground, and you stick your nose between the +planks of the flooring, and there they are, on all fours one before +the other; it is a polite dispute, all anxious to yield precedence as +to sitting down, or passing first, and compliments without end are +murmured in low tones, with faces against the floor. + +They seat themselves at last, smiling, in a ceremonious circle; we two +remaining standing, our eyes fixed on the staircase. And at length +emerges, in due turn, the little aigrette of silver flowers, the ebony +chignon, the gray silk robe and mauve sash of Mdlle. Jasmin, my +fiancée! + +Heavens! why, I know her already! Long before setting foot in Japan, I +had met with her, on every fan, on every tea-cup--with her silly air, +her puffy little visage, her tiny eyes, mere gimlet-holes above those +expanses of impossible pink and white which are her cheeks. + +She is young, that is all I can say in her favor; she is even so young +that I should almost scruple to accept her. The wish to laugh quits me +suddenly, and instead, a profound chill fastens on my heart. What! +share even an hour of my life with that little doll? Never! + +The next question is, how to get out of it? + +She advances smiling, with an air of repressed triumph, and behind her +looms M. Kangourou, in his suit of gray tweed. Fresh salutes, and +behold her on all fours, she too, before my landlady and before my +neighbors. Yves, the big Yves, who is not going to be married, stands +behind me, with a comical grimace, hardly repressing his +laughter,--while to give myself time to collect my ideas, I offer tea +in little cups, little spittoons and embers to the company. + +Nevertheless, my discomfited air does not escape my visitors. M. +Kangourou anxiously inquires: + +"How do I like her?" And I reply in a low voice, but with great +resolution: + +"Not at all! I won't have that one. Never!" + +I believe that this remark was almost understood in the circle around +me. Consternation was depicted on every face, the jaws dropped, the +pipes went out. And now I address my reproaches to Kangourou: "Why had +he brought her to me in such pomp, before friends and neighbors of +both sexes, instead of showing her to me discreetly as if by chance, +as I had wished? What an affront he will compel me now to put upon all +these polite persons!" + +The old ladies (the mamma no doubt and aunts), prick up their ears, +and M. Kangourou translates to them, softening as much as possible, my +heartrending decision. I feel really almost sorry for them; the fact +is, that for women who, not to put too fine a point upon it, have come +to sell a child, they have an air I was not prepared for: I can hardly +say an air of _respectability_ (a word in use with us, which is +absolutely without meaning in Japan), but an air of unconscious and +good-natured simplicity; they are only accomplishing an act perfectly +admissible in their world, and really it all resembles, more than I +could have thought possible, a _bonâ fide_ marriage. + +"But what fault do I find with the little girl?" asks M. Kangourou, in +consternation. + +I endeavor to present the matter in the most flattering light: + +"She is very young," I say; "and then she is too white, too much like +our own women. I wished for a yellow one just as a change." + +"But that is only the paint they have put on her, sir! Beneath it, I +assure you, she is yellow." + +Yves leans towards me and whispers: + +"Look over there, brother, in that corner by the last panel; have you +noticed the one who is sitting down?" + +Not I. In my annoyance I had not observed her; she had her back to the +light, was dressed in dark colors, and sat in the careless attitude of +one who keeps in the background. The fact is this one pleased me much +better. Eyes with long lashes, rather narrow, but which would have +been called good in any country in the world; almost an expression, +almost a thought. A coppery tint on her rounded cheeks; a straight +nose; slightly thick lips, but well modeled and with pretty corners. +Less young than Mdlle. Jasmin, about eighteen years of age perhaps, +already more of a woman. She wore an expression of ennui, also of a +little contempt, as if she regretted her attendance at a spectacle +which dragged so much, and was so little amusing. + +"M. Kangourou, who is that young lady over there, in dark blue?" + +"Over there, sir? A young lady called Mdlle. Chrysanthème. She came +with the others you see here; she is only here as a spectator. She +pleases you?" said he with eager suddenness, espying a way out of his +difficulty. Then, forgetting all his politeness, all his +ceremoniousness, all his Japanesery, he takes her by the hand, forces +her to rise, to stand in the dying daylight, to let herself be seen. +And she, who has followed our eyes and begins to guess what is on +foot, lowers her head in confusion, with a more decided but more +charming pout, and tries to step back, half sulky, half smiling. + +"It makes no difference," continues M. Kangourou, "it can be arranged +just as well with this one; she is not married either, sir!" + +She is not married! Then why didn't the idiot propose her to me at +once instead of the other, for whom I have a feeling of the greatest +pity, poor little soul, with her pearly gray dress, her sprig of +flowers, her expression which grows sadder, and her eyes which twinkle +like those of a child about to cry. + +"It can be arranged, sir!" repeats Kangourou again, who at this moment +appears to me a go-between of the lowest type, a rascal of the meanest +kind. + +Only, he adds, we, Yves and I, are in the way during the negotiations. +And, while Mdlle. Chrysanthème remains with her eyelids lowered, as +befits the occasion, while the various families, on whose countenances +may be read every degree of astonishment, every phase of expectation, +remain seated in a circle on my white mats, he sends us two into the +verandah, and we gaze down into the depths below us, upon a misty and +vague Nagasaki, a Nagasaki melting into a blue haze of darkness. + +Then ensue long discourses in Japanese, arguments without end. M. +Kangourou, who is washerman and low scamp in French only, has returned +for these discussions to the long formulas of his country. From time +to time I express impatience, I ask this worthy creature whom I am +less and less able to consider in a serious light: + +"Come now, tell us frankly, Kangourou, are we any nearer coming to +some arrangement? is all this ever going to end?" + +"In a moment, sir, in a moment;" and he resumes his air of political +economist seriously debating social problems. + +Well, one must submit to the slowness of this people. And, while the +darkness falls like a veil over the Japanese town, I have leisure to +reflect, with as much melancholy as I please, upon the bargain that is +being concluded behind me. + + * * * * * + +Night has closed in, deep night; it has been necessary to light the +lamps. + +It is ten o'clock when all is finally settled, and M. Kangourou comes +to tell me: + +"All is arranged, sir: her parents will give her up for twenty +dollars a month,--the same price as Mdlle. Jasmin." + +On hearing this, I am possessed suddenly with extreme vexation that I +should have made up my mind so quickly to link myself in ever so +fleeting and transient a manner with this little creature, and dwell +with her in this isolated house. + +We come back into the room; she is the center of the circle and +seated; and they have placed the aigrette of flowers in her hair. +There is actually some expression in her glance, and I am almost +persuaded that she--this one--- thinks. + +Yves is astonished at her modest attitude, at her little timid airs of +a young girl on the verge of matrimony; he had imagined nothing like +it in such a marriage as this, nor I either, I must confess. + +"She is really very pretty, brother," said he; "very pretty, take my +word for it!" + +These good folks, their customs, this scene, strike him dumb with +astonishment; he cannot get over it, and remains in a maze. "Oh! this +is too much," and the idea of writing a long letter to his wife at +Toulven, describing it all, diverts him greatly. + +Chrysanthème and I join hands. Yves too advances and touches the +dainty little paw;--after all, if I wed her, it is chiefly his fault; +I should never have remarked her without his observation that she was +pretty. Who can tell how this strange arrangement will turn out? Is it +a woman or a doll? Well, time will show. + +The families having lighted their many-colored lanterns swinging at +the ends of slight sticks, prepare to beat a retreat with many +compliments, bows and curtsies. When it is a question of descending +the stairs, no one is willing to go first, and at a given moment, the +whole party are again on all fours, motionless and murmuring polite +phrases in undertones. + +_"Haul back there!"_ said Yves, laughing and employing a nautical term +used when there is a stoppage of any kind. + +At length they all melt away, descend the stairs with a last buzzing +accompaniment of civilities and polite phrases finished from one step +to another in voices which gradually die away. He and I remain alone +in the unfriendly empty apartment, where the mats are still littered +with the little cups of tea, the absurd little pipes, and the +miniature trays. + +"Let us watch them go away!" said Yves, leaning out. At the door of +the garden is a renewal of the same salutations and curtsies, and +then the two groups of women separate, their bedaubed paper lanterns +fade away trembling in the distance, balanced at the extremity of +flexible canes which they hold in their finger-tips, as one would hold +a fishing-rod in the dark to catch night-birds. The procession of the +unfortunate Mdlle. Jasmin mounts upwards, towards the mountain, while +that of Mdlle. Chrysanthème winds downwards by a narrow old street, +half stairway, half goat-path, which leads to the town. + +Then we also depart. The night is fresh, silent, exquisite, the +eternal song of the cicalas fills the air. We can still see the red +lanterns of my new family, dwindling away in the distance, as they +descend and gradually become lost in that yawning abyss, at the bottom +of which lies Nagasaki. + +Our way, too, lies downwards, but on an opposite slope by steep paths +leading to the sea. + +And when I find myself once more on board, when the scene enacted on +the hill up above recurs to my mind, it seems to me that my betrothal +is a joke, and my new family a set of puppets. + + + + +V. + + +_July 10th, 1885_. + +It is three days now since my marriage was an accomplished fact. + +In the lower part of the town, in the middle of one of the new +cosmopolitan districts, in the ugly pretentious building which is a +kind of register office, the deed has been signed and countersigned, +with marvelous hieroglyphics, in a large book, in the presence of +those ridiculous little creatures, formerly silken-robed _Samouraï_, +but now called policemen, and dressed up in tight jackets and Russian +caps. + +The ceremony took place in the full heat of mid-day; Chrysanthème and +her mother arrived there together, and I went alone. We seemed to have +met for the purpose of ratifying some discreditable contract, and the +two women trembled in the presence of these ugly little individuals, +who, in their eyes, were the personification of the law. + +In the middle of their official scrawl, they made me write in French +my name, Christian name, and profession. Then they gave me an +extraordinary document on a sheet of rice-paper, which set forth the +permission granted me by the civilian Authorities of the Island of +Kiu-Siu, to inhabit a house situated in the suburb of Diou-djen-dji, +with a person called Chrysanthème, the said permission being available +under protection of the police, during the whole of my stay in Japan. + +In the evening, however, up there in our own quarter, our little +marriage became a very pretty affair,--a procession carrying lanterns, +a festive tea and some music. It was indeed high time. + +Now we are almost an old married couple, and we are gently settling +down into every-day habits. + +Chrysanthème tends the flowers in our bronze vases, dresses herself +with studied care, proud of her socks with the divided big toe, and +strums all day on a kind of long-necked guitar, producing therefrom +plaintive and sad sounds. + + + + +VI. + + +In our home, all has the appearance of a Japanese picture: we have +nothing but little folding-screens, little curiously shaped stools +bearing vases full of nosegays, and at the further end of the +apartment, in a nook forming an altar, a large gilded Buddha sits +enthroned in a lotus. + +The house is just as I had fancied it should be in the many dreams of +Japan I had made before my arrival, during my long night watches: +perched on high, in a peaceful suburb, in the midst of green +gardens;--made up of paper panels, and taken to pieces according to +one's fancy, like a child's toy. Whole families of cicalas chirp day +and night under our old resounding roof. From our verandah, we have a +bewildering bird's-eye view of Nagasaki, of its streets, its junks and +its great pagodas, which, at certain hours, is lit up at our feet like +some fairylike scene. + + + + +VII. + + +As a mere outline, little Chrysanthème has been seen everywhere and by +everybody. Whoever has looked at one of those paintings on china or on +silk that now fill our bazaars, knows by heart the pretty stiff +head-dress, the leaning figure, ever ready to try some new gracious +salutation, the scarf fastened behind in an enormous bow, the large +falling sleeves, the dress slightly clinging about the ankles with a +little crooked train like a lizard's tail. + +But her face, no, every one has not seen it; there is something +special about it. + +Moreover, the type of women the Japanese paint mostly on their vases +is an exceptional one in their country. It is almost exclusively among +the nobility that these personages are found with their long pale +faces, painted in tender rose-tints, and silly long necks which give +them the appearance of storks. This distinguished type (which I am +obliged to admit was also Mdlle. Jasmin's) is rare, particularly at +Nagasaki. + +In the middle class and the people, the ugliness is more pleasant and +sometimes becomes a kind of prettiness. The eyes are still too small +and hardly able to open, but the faces are rounder, browner, more +vivacious; and in the women there remains a certain vagueness in the +features, something childlike which prevails to the very end of their +lives. + +They are so laughing, so merry, all these little Niponese dolls! +Rather a forced mirth, it is true, studied and at times with a false +ring in it; nevertheless one is attracted by it. + +Chrysanthème is an exception, for she is melancholy. What thoughts can +be running through that little brain? My knowledge of her language is +still too restricted to enable me to find out. Moreover, it is a +hundred to one that she has no thoughts whatever. And even if she +had, what do I care? + +I have chosen her to amuse me, and I would really rather she should +have one of those insignificant little thoughtless faces like all the +others. + + + + +VIII. + + +When night closes in, we light two hanging lamps of a religious +character, which burn till morn, before our gilded idol. + +We sleep on the floor, on a thin cotton mattress, which is unfolded +and laid out over our white mats. Chrysanthème's pillow is a little +wooden block, scooped out to fit exactly the nape of the neck, without +disturbing the elaborate head-dress, which must never be taken down; +the pretty black hair I shall probably never see undone. My pillow, a +Chinese model, is a kind of little square drum covered over with +serpent skin. + +We sleep under a gauze mosquito net of somber greenish blue, dark as +the shades of night, stretched out on an orange-colored ribbon. (These +are the traditional colors, and all the respectable families of +Nagaski possess a similar gauze.) It envelops us like a tent; the +mosquitoes and the night-moths dance around it. + + * * * * * + +This sounds very pretty, and written down looks very well. In reality, +however, it is not so; something, I know not what, is wanting, and it +is all very paltry. In other lands, in the delightful isles of +Oceania, in the old lifeless quarters of Stamboul, it seemed as if +mere words could never express all I felt, and I vainly struggled +against my own incompetence to render, in human language, the +penetrating charm surrounding me. + +Here, on the contrary, words exact and truthful in themselves seem +always too thrilling, too great for the subject; seem to embellish it +unduly. I feel as if I were acting, for my own benefit, some +wretchedly trivial and third-rate comedy; and whenever I try to +consider my home in a serious spirit, the scoffing figure of M. +Kangourou rises up before me, the matrimonial agent, to whom I am +indebted for my happiness. + + + + +IX. + + +_July 12th_. + +Yves comes up to us whenever he is free, in the evening at five +o'clock, after his work on board. + +He is our only European visitor, and with the exception of a few +civilities and cups of tea, exchanged with our neighbors, we lead a +very retired life. Only in the evenings, winding our way through the +precipitous little streets and carrying our lanterns at the end of +short sticks, we go down to Nagasaki in search of amusement at the +theaters, at the "tea-houses," or in the bazaars. + +Yves treats this wife of mine as if she were a plaything, and +continually assures me that she is charming. + +Myself, I find her as exasperating as the cicalas on my roof; and when +I am alone at home, side by side with this little creature twanging +the strings of her long-necked guitar, in front of this marvelous +panorama of pagodas and mountains,--I am overcome by a sadness full of +tears. + + + + +X. + + +_July 13th_. + +Last night, as we lay under the Japanese roof of Diou-djen-dji,--under +the thin and ancient wooden roof scorched by a hundred years of +sunshine, vibrating at the least sound, like the stretched-out +parchment of a tamtam,--in the silence which prevails at two o'clock +in the morning, we heard overhead a regular wild huntsman's chase +passing at full gallop: + +"Nidzoumi!" ("the mice!"), said Chrysanthème. + +Suddenly, the word brings back to my mind yet another, spoken in a +very different language, in a country far away from here: "Setchan!" a +word heard elsewhere, a word that has likewise been whispered in my +ear by a woman's voice, under similar circumstances, in a moment of +nocturnal terror--"Setchan!" It was during one of our first nights at +Stamboul spent under the mysterious roof of Eyoub, when danger +surrounded us on all sides; a noise on the steps of the black +staircase had made us tremble, and she also, my dear little Turkish +companion, had said to me in her beloved language, "Setchan!" ("the +mice!"). + +At that fond recollection, a thrill of sweet memories coursed through +my veins; it was as though I had been startled out of a long ten +years' sleep; I looked down upon the doll beside me with a sort of +hatred, wondering why I was there, and I arose, with almost a feeling +of remorse, to escape from that blue gauze net. + +I stepped out upon the verandah, and there I paused, gazing into the +depths of the starlit night. Beneath me Nagasaki lay asleep, wrapt in +a soft light slumber, hushed by the murmuring sound of a thousand +insects in the moonlight, and fairylike with its roseate hues. Then, +turning my head, I saw behind me the gilded idol with our lamps +burning in front of it; the idol smiling its impassive Buddha smile; +and its presence seemed to cast around it something, I know not what, +strange and incomprehensible. Never until now had I slept under the +eye of such a god. + +In the midst of the calm and silence of the night, I strove to recall +my poignant impressions of Stamboul; but alas, I strove in vain, they +would not return to me in this strange, far-off world. Through the +transparent blue gauze appeared my little Japanese, as she lay in her +somber night-dress with all the fantastic grace of her country, the +nape of her neck resting on its wooden block, and her hair arranged in +large shiny bows. Her amber-colored arms, pretty and delicate, +emerged, bare up to the shoulders, from her wide sleeves. + +"What can those mice on the roof have done to him?" thought +Chrysanthème. Of course she could not understand. In a coaxing manner, +like a playful kitten, she glanced at me with her half-closed eyes, +inquiring why I did not come back to sleep,--and I returned to my +place by her side. + + + + +XI. + + +_July 14th_. + +It is the National Fête day of France. In Nagasaki roadstead, all the +ships are dressed out with flags, and salutes are firing in our honor. + +Alas! All day long, I cannot help thinking of that last fourteenth of +July, spent in the deep calm and stillness of my old home, the door +closed to all intruders, while the gay crowd roared outside; there I +had remained till evening, seated on a bench, shaded by a trellis +covered with honeysuckle, where in the bye-gone days of my childhood's +summers, I used to settle myself with my copybooks and pretend to +learn my lessons. Oh! those days when I was supposed to learn my +lessons: how my thoughts used to rove,--what voyages, what distant +lands, what tropical forests did I not behold in my dreams! At that +time, near the garden bench, in some of the crevices in the stone +wall, there dwelt many a big ugly black spider ever on the watch, +peeping out of his nook ready to pounce upon any giddy fly or +wandering centipede. One of my amusements consisted in tickling the +spiders gently, very gently, with a blade of grass or a cherry stalk +in their holes. Mystified, they would rush out, fancying they had to +deal with some sort of prey, whilst I would rapidly draw back my hand +in disgust. Well, last year, on that fourteenth of July, as I recalled +my days of Latin themes and translations, now forever flown, and this +game of boyish days, I actually recognized the very same spiders (or +at least their daughters), lying in wait in the very same holes. +Gazing at them and at the tufts of grass and moss around me, a +thousand memories of those summers of my early life welled up within +me, memories which for years past had lain slumbering under this old +wall, sheltered by the ivy boughs. While all that is ourselves +perpetually changes and passes away, the constancy with which Nature +repeats, always in the same manner, her most infinitesimal details, +seems a wonderful mystery; the same peculiar species of moss grow +afresh for centuries on precisely the same spot, and the same little +insects each summer do the same thing in the same place. + + * * * * * + +I must admit that this episode of my childhood and the spiders, have +little to do with the story of Chrysanthème. But an incongruous +interruption is quite in keeping with the taste of this country; +everywhere it is practiced, in conversation, in music, even in +painting; a landscape painter, for instance, when he has finished a +picture of mountains and crags, will not hesitate to draw in the very +middle of the sky a circle, or a lozenge, or some kind of framework, +within which he will represent anything incoherent and inappropriate: +a bonze fanning himself, or a lady taking a cup of tea. Nothing is +more thoroughly Japanese than such digressions made without the +slightest à propos. + +Moreover, if I roused my past memories, it was the better to force +myself to notice the difference between that 14th of July last year, +so peacefully spent amidst surroundings familiar to me from my +earliest infancy, and the present animated one, passed in the midst of +such a novel world. + +To-day, therefore, under the scorching mid-day sun, at two o'clock, +three quick-footed djins dragged us at full speed,--Yves, Chrysanthème +and myself,--in Indian file, each in a little jolting cart, to the +further end of Nagasaki, and there deposited us at the foot of some +gigantic steps that run straight up into the mountain. + +These are the granite steps leading to the great temple of Osueva; +wide enough to give access to a whole regiment; they are as grand and +imposing as any work of Babylon or Nineveh, and in complete contrast +with all the finical surroundings. + +We climb up and up,--Chrysanthème listlessly, affecting fatigue, under +her paper parasol painted with pink butterflies on a black ground. As +we ascended, we passed under enormous monastic porticos, also in +granite of rude and primitive style. In truth, these steps and these +temple porticos are the only imposing works that this people has +created, and they astonish, for they scarcely seem Japanese. + +We climb up still higher. At this sultry hour of the day, from top to +bottom of the immense gray steps, only we three are to be seen; on all +that granite there are but the pink butterflies on Chrysanthème's +parasol, to throw a cheerful and brilliant note. + +We passed through the first temple yard, in which are a couple of +white china turrets, bronze lanterns, and the statue of a large horse +in jade. Then without pausing at the sanctuary, we turned to the left, +and entered a shady garden, which formed a terrace halfway up the +hill, and at the extremity of which was situated the +_Donko-Tchaya_,--in English: _the tea-house of the Toads_. + +It was here that Chrysanthème was taking us. We sat down at a table, +under a black linen tent, decorated with large white letters (of +funereal aspect), and two laughing _mousmés_ hurried up to wait upon +us. + +The word _mousmé_ means a young girl, or very young woman. It is one +of the prettiest words in the Niponese language; it seems almost as if +there were a little _moue_[C] in the very sound, and as if a pretty +taking little pout such as they put on, and also a little pert +physiognomy, were described by it. I shall often make use of it, +knowing none other in our own language that conveys the same meaning. + +[Footnote C: _Moue_ means "pout" in French.] + +Some Japanese Watteau must have mapped out this _Donko-Tchaya_, for it +has rather an affected air of rurality, though very pretty. Well +shaded, under a thick vault of large trees densely foliaged, a +miniature lake hard by, the chosen residence of a few toads, has given +it its attractive denomination. Lucky toads, who crawl and croak on +the finest of moss, in the midst of tiny artificial islets decked with +gardenias in full bloom. From time to time, one of them informs us of +his thoughts by a "Couac," uttered in a deep bass croak infinitely +more hollow than that of our own toads. + + * * * * * + +Under the tent of this tea-house, we are as it were on a balcony +jutting out from the mountain side, overhanging from on high the +grayish town and its suburbs buried in greenery. Around, above and +beneath us cling and hang on every possible point, clumps of trees and +fresh green woods, with the delicate and varying foliage of the +temperate zone. Then we can see, at our feet, the deep roadstead, +fore-shortened and slanting, diminished in appearance till it looks +like a terrible somber tear in the mass of large green mountains; and +further still, quite low down, on the waters which seem black and +stagnant, are to be seen, very tiny and overwhelmed, the men-of-war, +the steamboats and the junks, flags flying from every mast. On the +dark green, which is the dominant shade around, stand out these +thousand scraps of bunting, emblems of the different nationalities, +all displayed, all flying in honor of far-distant France. The colors +most prevailing in this motley assemblage are the white flag with a +red ball, emblem of the _Empire of the Rising Sun_, where we now are. + + * * * * * + +With the exception of three or four mousmés at the further end who are +practicing with bows and arrows, we are to-day the only people in the +garden, and the mountain round about is silent. + +Having finished her cigarette and her cup of tea, Chrysanthème also +wishes to exert her skill; for archery is still held in honor among +the young women. The old man who keeps the range, picks out for her +his best arrows tipped with white and red feathers,--and she takes aim +with a serious air. The mark is a circle, traced in the middle of a +picture on which is painted in flat gray tones, terrifying chimera +flying through the clouds. + +Chrysanthème is certainly an adroit markswoman, and we admire her as +much as she expected. + +Then Yves, who is usually clever at all games of skill, wishes to try +his luck, and fails. It is amusing to see her, with her mincing ways +and smiles, arrange with the tips of her little fingers, the sailor's +broad hands, placing them on the bow and the string in order to teach +him the proper manner. Never have they seemed to get on so well +together, Yves and my dolly, and I might even feel anxious, were I +less sure of my good brother, and if, moreover, it were not a matter +of perfect indifference to me. + + * * * * * + +In the stillness of the garden, mid the balmy peacefulness of these +mountains, a loud noise suddenly startles us; a unique, powerful, +terrible sound, which is prolonged in infinite metallic vibrations. It +begins again sounding more appalling: _Boum!_ borne to us by the +rising wind. + +"_Nippon Kané!_" explains Chrysanthème,--and she again takes up her +brightly-feathered arrows. "_Nippon Kané_ (the Japanese brass); it is +the Japanese brass that is sounding!" It is the monstrous gong of a +monastery, situated in a suburb beneath us. Well, it is powerful +indeed "the Japanese brass!" When the strokes are ended, when it is no +longer heard, a vibration seems to linger among the suspended foliage, +and an endless quiver runs through the air. + + * * * * * + +I am obliged to admit that Chrysanthème looks very charming shooting +her arrows, her figure well bent back the better to bend her bow; her +loose-hanging sleeves caught up to her shoulders, showing the graceful +bare arms polished like amber and very much of the same color. Each +arrow whistles by with the rustle of a bird's wing,--then a short +sharp little blow is heard, the target is hit, always. + +At nightfall, when Chrysanthème has gone up to Diou-djen-dji, we +cross, Yves and myself, the European concession, on our way to the +ship, to take up our watch till the following day. The cosmopolitan +quarter exhaling an odor of absinthe, is dressed up with flags, and +squibs are being fired off in honor of France. Long lines of djins +pass by, dragging as fast as their naked legs can carry them, the crew +of the _Triomphante_, who are shouting and fanning themselves. The +"Marseillaise" is heard everywhere; English sailors are singing it, +gutturally with a dull and slow cadence like their own "God Save." In +all the American bars, grinding organs are hammering it with many an +odious variation and flourish, in order to attract our men. + + * * * * * + +Just one funny recollection comes back to me of that evening. On our +return, we had by mistake got into a street inhabited by a multitude +of ladies of doubtful reputation. I can still see that big fellow +Yves, struggling with a whole band of tiny little mousmés of some +twelve or fifteen years of age, who barely reached up to his waist, +and were pulling him by the sleeves, anxious to lead him astray. +Astonished and indignant he repeated as he extricated himself from +their clutches: "Oh, this is too much!" So shocked was he at seeing +such mere babies, so young, so tiny, already so brazen and shameless. + + + + +XII. + + +_July 18th_. + +There are now four of us, four officers of my ship, married like +myself, and inhabiting the slopes of the same suburb. It is quite an +ordinary occurrence, and is arranged without difficulties, mystery or +danger, through the negotiations of the same M. Kangourou. + +As a matter of course, we are on visiting terms with all these ladies. + +First there is our very merry neighbor Madame Campanule, who is little +Charles N----'s wife; then Madame Jonquille, who is even merrier than +Campanule, like a young bird and the daintiest fairy of the whole lot: +she has married X----, a fair northerner who adores her; they are a +loverlike and inseparable pair, the only one that will probably weep +when the hour of parting comes. Then Sikou-San with Doctor Y----; and +lastly the midshipman Z---- with the tiny Madame Touki-San, no taller +than a boot: thirteen years old at the outside and already a regular +woman, full of her own importance, a petulant little gossip. In my +childhood, I was sometimes taken to the _Learned Animals_ Theater, and +I remember a certain Madame de Pompadour, a principal rôle, filled by +a gayly dressed-up old monkey; Touki-San reminds me of her. + +In the evening, all these folk generally come and fetch us for a long +processional walk with lighted lanterns. My wife, more serious, more +melancholy, perhaps even more refined, and belonging, I fancy, to a +higher class, tries when these friends come to us to play the part of +the lady of the house. It is comical to see the entry of these +ill-matched couples, partners for a day, the ladies with their +disjointed bows falling on all fours before Chrysanthème, the queen of +the establishment. When we are all assembled, we start off, arm in +arm, one behind the other, and always carrying at the end of our short +sticks little white or red paper lanterns;--it seems it is pretty. + +We are obliged to scramble down the kind of street, or rather +goat's-path, which leads to the Japanese Nagasaki,--with the prospect, +alas! of having to climb up again at night; clamber up all the steps, +all the slippery slopes, stumble over all the stones, before we shall +be able to get home, go to bed, and sleep. We make our descent in the +darkness, under the branches, under the foliage, betwixt dark gardens +and venerable little houses that throw but a faint glimmer on the +road; and when the moon is absent or clouded over, our lanterns are +by no means unnecessary. + +When at last we reach the bottom, suddenly, without transition, we +find ourselves in the very heart of Nagasaki and its busy throng in a +long illuminated street, where vociferating djins hurry along and +thousands of paper lanterns swing and gleam in the wind. It is life +and animation, after the peace of our silent suburb. + +Here, decorum requires we should separate from our wives. All five +take hold of each others' hands, like a batch of little girls out +walking. We follow them with an air of indifference. Seen from behind, +our dolls are really very dainty, with their back hair so tidily done +up, their tortoiseshell pins so coquettishly arranged. They shuffle +along, their high wooden clogs making an ugly sound, striving to walk +with their toes turned in, according to the height of fashion and +elegance. At every minute they burst out laughing. + +Yes, seen from behind, they are very pretty; they have, like all +Japanese women, the most lovely turn of the head. Moreover, they are +very funny, thus drawn up in line. In speaking of them, we say: "Our +little dancing dogs," and in truth they are singularly like them. + +This great Nagasaki is the same from one end to another, with its +numberless petroleum lamps burning, its many-colored lanterns +flickering, and innumerable panting djins. Always the same narrow +streets, lined on each side with the same low houses, built in paper +and wood. Always the same shops, without glass windows, open to all +the winds, equally rudimentary whatever may be sold or made in them; +whether they display the finest gold lacquer ware, the most marvelous +china jars, or old worn-out pots and pans, dried fish, and ragged +frippery. All the salesmen are seated on the ground in the midst of +their valuable or trumpery merchandise, their legs bared nearly to the +waist. And all kinds of queer little trades are carried on under the +public gaze, by strangely primitive means, by workmen of the most +ingenuous type. + +Oh! what wonderful goods are exposed for sale in those streets! what +whimsical extravagances in those bazaars! + +No horses, no carriages are ever seen in the town; nothing but people +on foot, or the comical little carts dragged along by the runners. +Some few Europeans straggling hither and thither, wanderers from the +ships in harbor; some Japanese (fortunately as yet but few in number) +dressed up in coats; other natives who content themselves with adding +to their national costume the pot hat, from which their long sleek +locks hang down; and all around, eager haggling, bargaining,--and +laughter. + +In the bazaars every evening our mousmés make endless purchases; like +spoilt children they buy everything they fancy: toys, pins, ribbons, +flowers. And then they prettily offer each other presents, with +childish little smiles. For instance, Campanule buys for Chrysanthème +an ingeniously contrived lantern on which, set in motion by some +invisible machinery, Chinese shadows dance in a ring round the flame. +In return, Chrysanthème gives Campanule a magic fan, with paintings +that change at will from butterflies fluttering round cherry-blossoms, +to outlandish monsters pursuing each other across black clouds. Touki +offers Sikou a cardboard mask representing the bloated countenance of +Daï-Cok, god of wealth; and Sikou replies by a long crystal trumpet, +by means of which are produced the most extraordinary sounds, like a +turkey gobbling. Everything is uncouth, fantastical to excess, +grotesquely lugubrious; everywhere we are surprised by +incomprehensible conceptions, which seem the work of distorted +imaginations. + +In the fashionable tea-houses where we finish up our evenings, the +little servant-girls now bow to us, on our arrival, with an air of +respectful recognition, as belonging to the fast set of Nagasaki. +There we carry on desultory conversations, full of misunderstandings +and endless _quid pro quo's_ of uncouth words,--in little gardens +lighted up with lanterns, near ponds full of gold fish, with little +bridges, little islets and little ruined towers. They hand us tea and +white and pink-colored sweetmeats flavored with pepper that taste +strange and unfamiliar, and beverages mixed with snow tasting of +flowers or perfumes. + + * * * * * + +To give a faithful account of those evenings, would require a more +affected style than our own; and some kind of graphic sign would have +also to be expressly invented and scattered at haphazard amongst the +words, indicating the moment at which the reader should laugh,--rather +a forced laugh, perhaps, but amiable and gracious. The evening at an +end; it is time to return up there. + +Oh! that street, that road, that we must clamber up every evening, +under the starlit sky, or the heavy thunder-clouds, dragging by the +hand our drowsy mousmé in order to regain our home perched on high +half-way up the hill, where our bed of matting awaits us. + + + + +XIII. + + +The cleverest amongst us has been Louis de S----. Having formerly +inhabited Japan, and made a marriage Japan fashion there, he is now +satisfied to remain the friend of our wives, of whom he has become the +_Komodachi taksan takaï, the very tall friend_ (as they say on account +of his excessive height and slenderness). Talking Japanese more freely +than we can, he is their confidential adviser, disturbs or reconciles +at will our households, and has infinite amusement at our expense. + +This _very tall friend_ of our wives enjoys all the fun that these +little creatures can give him, without any of the worries of domestic +life. With brother Yves, and little Oyouki (the daughter of Madame +Prune, my landlady,) he makes up our incongruous party. + + + + +XIV. + + +M. Sucre and Madame Prune,[D] my landlord and wife, two perfectly +unique personages but recently escaped from the panel of some screen, +live below us on the ground floor; and very old they seem to have this +daughter of fifteen, Oyouki, who is Chrysanthème's inseparable friend. + +[Footnote D: In Japanese: _Sato-san_ and _Oumé-San_.] + +Both of them are entirely absorbed in the practices of Shintoist +devotion: perpetually on their knees before their family altar, +perpetually occupied in murmuring their lengthy orisons to the +Spirits, and clapping their hands from time to time to recall around +them the inattentive essences floating in the atmosphere;--in their +spare moments they cultivate in little pots of gayly-painted +earthenware, dwarf shrubs and unheard-of flowers which smell +deliciously in the evening. + +M. Sucre is taciturn, dislikes society, looks like a mummy in his blue +cotton dress. He writes a great deal, (his memoirs, I fancy) with a +paint-brush held in his finger-tips, on long strips of rice-paper of a +faint gray tint. + +Madame Prune is eagerly attentive, obsequious and rapacious; her +eye-brows are closely shaven, her teeth carefully lacquered with black +as befits a lady of gentility, and at all and no matter what hours, +she appears on all fours at the entrance of our apartment, to offer us +her services. + +As to Oyouki, she rushes upon us ten times a day,--whether we are +sleeping, or dressing,--like a whirlwind on a visit, flashing upon us, +a very gust of dainty youthfulness and droll gayety,--a living peal of +laughter. She is round of figure, round of face; half baby, half girl; +and so affectionate that she bestows kisses on the slightest occasion +with her great puffy lips,--a little moist, it is true, like a +child's, but nevertheless very fresh and very red. + + + + +XV. + + +In our dwelling, open as it is all the night through, the lamps +burning before the gilded Buddha procure us the company of the insect +inhabitants of every garden in the neighborhood. Moths, mosquitoes, +cicalas, and other extraordinary insects of which I don't even know +the names,--all this company assembles around us. + +It is extremely funny, when some unexpected grasshopper, some +free-and-easy beetle presents itself without invitation or excuse, +scampering over our white mats, to see the manner in which +Chrysanthème indicates it to my righteous vengeance,--merely pointing +her finger at it, without another word than "Hou!" said with bent +head, a particular pout, and a scandalized air. + +There is a fan kept expressly for the purpose of blowing them out of +doors again. + + + + +XVI. + + +Here, I must own, that to the reader of my story it must appear to +drag a little. + +In default of exciting intrigues and tragic adventures, I would fain +have known how to infuse into it a little of the sweet perfumes of the +gardens which surround me, something of the gentle warmth of the +sunshine, of the shade of these graceful trees. Love being wanting, I +should like it to breathe of the restful tranquillity of this far-away +suburb. Then, too, I should like it to reëcho the sound of +Chrysanthème's guitar, in which I begin to find a certain charm, for +want of something better, in the silence of the lovely summer +evenings. + +All through these moonlit nights of July, the weather has been calm, +luminous and magnificent. Ah! what glorious clear nights, what +exquisite roseate tints beneath that wonderful moon, what mystery of +blue shadows in the thick tangle of trees. And, from the heights +where stood our verandah, how prettily the town lay sleeping at our +feet! + +After all, I do not positively detest this little Chrysanthème, and +when there is no repugnance on either side, habit turns into a +make-shift of attachment. + + + + +XVII. + + +Always, over, in, and through everything, rises day and night from +this Japanese landscape the song of the cicalas, ceaseless, strident, +and prodigious. It is everywhere, and never-ending, at no matter what +hour of the burning day, what hour of the cool and refreshing night. +In the midst of the roads, as we approached our anchorage, we had +heard it at the same time from the two shores, from both walls of +green mountains. It is wearisome and haunting; it seems to be the +manifestation, the noise expressive of the special kind of life +peculiar to this region of the world. It is the voice of summer in +these islands; it is the song of unconscious rejoicing, always content +with itself and always appearing to inflate, to rise upwards, in a +greater and greater exultation at the sheer happiness of living. + +It is to me the noise characteristic of this country,--this, and the +cry of the falcon, which had in like manner greeted our entry into +Japan. Over the valleys and the deep bay sail these birds, uttering +from time to time their three cries, "Han! han! han!" in a key of +sadness, which seems the extreme of painful astonishment. And the +mountains around re-echo their cry. + + + + +XVIII. + + +Yves, Chrysanthème, and little Oyouki have struck up a friendship so +great that it amuses me: I even think, that in my home life, this +intimacy is what affords me the greatest entertainment. They form a +contrast which gives rise to the most absurd jokes, and most +unforeseen situations. He brings into this fragile little paper house, +his sailor's freedom and ease of manner, and his Breton accent; side +by side with these tiny mousmés of affected manners and bird-like +voices, who, small as they are, rule the big fellow as they please; +make him eat with chopsticks; teach him Japanese "_pigeon-vole_,"--and +cheat him, and quarrel, and almost die of laughter over it all. + +Certainly he and Chrysanthème take a pleasure in each other's company. +But I remain serenely undisturbed, and cannot imagine that this +little chance doll with whom I play at married life, could possibly +bring a serious trouble between this "brother" and myself. + + + + +XIX. + + +My family of Japanese relations, very numerous and very conspicuous, +is a great source of diversion to those of my brother officers who +visit me in my villa on the hill,--most especially to _komodachi +taksan takaï (the immensely tall friend)_. + +I have a charming mother-in-law--quite a woman of the world,--little +sisters-in-law, little cousins, and aunts who are still quite young. + +I have even a poor cousin, twice removed, who is a djin. There was +some hesitation in owning this latter to me; but, behold! during the +ceremony of introduction, we exchanged a smile of recognition, it was +number 415. + +Over this poor 415, my friends on board crack no end of jokes,--one in +particular, who, less than any one has the right to make them, little +Charles N----, for his mother-in-law was once a porter, or something +of the kind, at the gateway of a pagoda. + +I, however, who have a great respect for strength and agility, much +appreciate this new relative of mine. His legs are undoubtedly the +best in all Nagasaki, and whenever I am in a hurry, I always beg +Madame Prune to send down to the djin stand, and engage my cousin. + + + + +XX. + + +I arrived unexpectedly to-day at Diou-djen-dji, in the midst of a +burning noonday heat. At the foot of the stairs lay Chrysanthème's +wooden clogs and her sandals of varnished leather. + +In our rooms, up above, all was open to the air; bamboo blinds lowered +on the sunny side, and through their transparency came warm air and +golden threads of light. To-day, the flowers Chrysanthème had placed +in our bronze vases were lotus, and my eyes fell, as I entered, upon +their great rosy cups. + +According to her usual custom, she was lying flat on the floor +enjoying her daily siesta. + +What a singular originality these bouquets of Chrysanthème always +have: a something difficult to define, a Japanese slimness, a +mannered grace which we should never succeed in imparting to them. + +She was sleeping flat on her face upon the mats, her high headdress +and tortoiseshell pins standing out boldly from the rest of the +horizontal figure. The train of her tunic prolonged her delicate +little body, like the tail of a bird; her arms were stretched +crosswise, the sleeves spread out like wings,--and her long guitar lay +beside her. + +She looked like a dead fairy; or still more did she resemble some +great blue dragon-fly, which, having alighted on that spot, some +unkind hand had pinned to the floor. + +Madame Prune, who had come upstairs after me, always officious and +eager, manifested by her gestures her sentiments of indignation on +beholding the careless reception accorded by Chrysanthème to her lord +and master, and advanced to wake her. + +"Pray do nothing of the kind, my good Madame Prune, you don't know how +much I prefer her like that!" I had left my shoes below, according to +custom, by the side of the little clogs and sandals; and I entered on +the tips of my toes, very, very softly, to go and sit awhile under the +verandah. + +What a pity this little Chrysanthème cannot always be asleep; she is +really extremely decorative seen in this manner,--and like this, at +least, she does not bore me. Who knows what may perchance be going on +in that little head and heart! If I only had the means of finding out! +But strange to say, since we have kept house together, instead of +pushing my studies in the Japanese language further, I have neglected +them, so much have I felt the utter impossibility of ever interesting +myself in the subject. + +Seated under my verandah, my eyes wandered over the temples and +cemeteries spread at my feet, over the woods and green mountains, over +Nagasaki lying bathed in the sunlight. The cicalas were chirping their +loudest, the strident noise trembling feverishly in the hot air. All +was calm, full of light and full of heat. + +Nevertheless, to my taste, it is not yet enough so! What then can have +changed upon the earth? The burning noon-days of summer, such as I can +recall in days gone by, were more brilliant, more full of sunshine; +Nature seemed to me in those days more powerful, more terrible. One +would say this was only a pale copy of all that I knew in early +years,--a copy in which something is wanting. Sadly do I ask +myself,--Is the splendor of the summer only this? _was it_ only this? +or is it the fault of my eyes, and as time goes on shall I behold +everything around me paling still more? + +Behind me a faint and melancholy strain of music,--melancholy enough +to make one shiver,--and shrill, shrill as the song of the +grasshoppers, began to make itself heard, very softly at first, then +growing louder and rising in the silence of the noonday like the +diminutive wail of some poor Japanese soul in pain and anguish; it was +Chrysanthème and her guitar awaking together. + +It pleased me that the idea should have occurred to her to greet me +with music, instead of eagerly hastening to wish me "Good morning." +(At no time have I ever given myself the trouble to pretend the +slightest affection for her, and a certain coldness even has grown up +between us, especially when we are alone.) But to-day I turn to her +with a smile, and wave my hand for her to continue. "Go on, it amuses +me to listen to your quaint little impromptu." It is singular that the +music of this essentially merry people should be so plaintive. But +undoubtedly that which Chrysanthème is playing at this moment is worth +listening to. Whence can it have come to her? What unutterable dreams, +forever hidden from me, fly through her yellow head, when she plays or +sings in this manner? + +Suddenly: Pan, pan, pan! Some one knocks three times, with a harsh +and bony finger against one of the steps of our stairs, and in the +aperture of our doorway appears an idiot, clad in a suit of gray +tweed, who bows low. "Come in, come in, M. Kangourou. How well you +come, just in the nick of time! I was actually becoming enthusiastic +over your country!" + +It was a little washing bill, which M. Kangourou respectfully wished +to hand to me, with a profound bend of the whole body, the correct +pose of the hands on the knees, and a long snake-like hiss. + + + + +XXI. + + +Following the road which climbs past the front of our dwelling, one +passes a dozen or more old villas, a few garden walls, and then there +is nothing but the lonely mountain side, with little paths winding +upwards towards the summit through plantations of tea, bushes of +camellias, underwood and rocks. The mountains round Nagasaki are +covered with cemeteries; for centuries and centuries past it is up +here they have brought their dead. + +But there is neither sadness nor horror in these Japanese sepulchers; +it would seem as if among this frivolous and childish people, death +itself could not be taken seriously. The monuments are either Buddhas, +in granite, seated on lotus, or upright funereal stones with an +inscription in gold; they are grouped together in little enclosures in +the midst of the woods, or on natural terraces delightfully situated, +and are generally reached by long stairways of stone carpeted with +moss; from time to time, these pass under one of the sacred gateways, +of which the shape, always the same, rude and simple, is a smaller +reproduction of those in the temples. + +Up above us, the tombs of our mountain are of so hoary an antiquity +that they no longer alarm any one, even by night. It is a region of +forsaken cemeteries. The dead hidden away there have long since become +one with the earth around them; and these thousands of little gray +stones, these multitudes of ancient little Buddhas, eaten away by +lichens, seem to be now no more than a proof of a series of +existences, long anterior to our own, and lost forever and altogether +in the mysterious depths of ages. + + + + +XXII. + + +Chrysanthème's meals are something indescribable. + +She begins in the morning, when she wakes, by two little green wild +plums pickled in vinegar and rolled in powdered sugar. A cup of tea +completes this almost traditional breakfast of Japan, the very same +Madame Prune is eating downstairs, the same served up to travelers in +the inns. + +During the course of the day the feeding is continued by two little +dinners of the drollest composition. They are brought up on a tray of +red lacquer, in microscopic cups with covers, from Madame Prune's +apartment, where they are cooked: a hashed sparrow, a stuffed prawn, +seaweed with a sauce, a salt sweetmeat, a sugared chili. Chrysanthème +tastes a little of all, with dainty pecks and the aid of her little +chopsticks, raising the tips of her fingers with affected grace. At +every dish she makes a face, leaves three parts of it, and dries her +finger-tips after it in apparent disgust. + +These menus vary according to the inspiration which may have seized +Madame Prune. But one thing never varies, either in our household or +in any other, neither in the north nor in the south of the Empire, and +that is the dessert and the manner of eating it: after all these +little dishes, which are a mere make-believe, is brought in a wooden +bowl, bound with copper,--an enormous bowl, fit for Gargantua, and +filled to the very brim with rice, plainly cooked in water. +Chrysanthème fills another large bowl from it (sometimes twice, +sometimes three times), darkens its snowy whiteness with a black sauce +flavored with fish which is contained in a delicately shaped blue +cruet, mixes it all together, carries the bowl to her lips, and crams +down all the rice, shoveling it with her two chopsticks into her very +throat. Next the little cups and covers are picked up, as well as the +tiniest crumb that may have fallen upon the white mats, the +irreproachable purity of which nothing is allowed to tarnish. And so +ends the dinner. + + + + +XXIII. + +_August 2nd_. + + +Down below in the town, a street singer had established herself in a +little thoroughfare; people had collected around her to listen to her +singing, and we three--that is, Yves, Chrysanthème and I--who chanced +to be passing, stopped like others. + +Quite young, rather fat, fairly pretty, she strummed her guitar and +sang, rolling her eyes fiercely, like a virtuoso executing feats of +difficulty. She lowered her head, stuck her chin into her neck, in +order to draw deeper notes from the furthermost recesses of her body; +and succeeded in bringing forth a great hoarse voice,--a voice that +might have belonged to an aged frog, a ventriloquist's voice, coming +from whence it would be impossible to say (this is the best stage +manner, the final word of art, for the interpretation of tragic +pieces). + +Yves cast an indignant glance upon her: + +"Good gracious," said he, "it's the voice of a--" (words failed him, +in his astonishment) "it's the voice of a--a monster!" + +And he looked at me, almost frightened by this little being, and +anxious to know what I thought of it. + +My poor Yves was out of temper on this occasion, because I had induced +him to come out in a straw hat with a turned-up brim, which did not +please him. + +"It suits you remarkably well, Yves, I assure you." + +"Oh, indeed! You say so, you. For my part, I think it looks like a +magpie's nest!" + +As a fortunate diversion from the singer and the hat, here comes a +cortège, advancing towards us from the end of the street, something +remarkably like a funeral. Bonzes march in front dressed in robes of +black gauze, having much the appearance of Catholic priests; the +principal personage of the procession, the corpse, comes last, laid in +a sort of little closed palanquin which is daintily pretty. This is +followed by a band of mousmés, hiding their laughing faces beneath a +kind of veil, and carrying in vases of the sacred shape the artificial +lotus with silver petals indispensable at a funeral; then come fine +ladies, on foot, smirking and stifling a wish to laugh, beneath +parasols on which are painted in the gayest colors, butterflies and +storks. + +Now they are quite close to us, we must stand back to give them room. +Chrysanthème all at once assumes a suitable air of gravity, and Yves +bares his head, taking off the magpie's nest. + +Yes, it is true, it is death that is passing by! + +I had almost lost sight of the fact, so little does this recall it. + +The procession will climb high up, far away above Nagasaki, into the +heart of the green mountain all peopled with tombs. There the poor +fellow will be laid at rest, with his palanquin above him, and his +vases and his flowers of silvered paper. Well, at least the poor +defunct will lie in a charming spot commanding a lovely view. + +They will now return half laughing, half sniveling, and to-morrow no +one will think of it again. + + + + +XXIV. + +_August 4th_. + + +The _Triomphante_, which has been lying in the roadsteads almost at +the foot of the hill on which stands my house, enters the dock to-day +to undergo repairs rendered necessary by the long blockade of Formosa. + +I am now a long way from my home, and obliged to cross by boat the +whole breadth of the bay when I wish to see Chrysanthème; for the dock +is situated on the shore opposite to Diou-djen-dji. It is sunk in a +little valley, narrow and deep, midst all kinds of foliage,--bamboos, +camellias, trees of all sorts; our masts and spars, seen from the +deck, look as if they were tangled among the branches. + +The situation of the vessel--no longer afloat--gives the crew a +greater facility for clandestine escapes from the ship at no matter +what hour of the night, and our sailors have made friends with all +the girls of the villages perched on the mountains above us. + +These quarters and his excessive liberty, give me some uneasiness +about my poor Yves; for this country of frivolous pleasure has a +little turned his head. Moreover, I am more and more convinced that he +is in love with Chrysanthème. + +It is really a pity that the sentiment has not occurred to me instead, +since it is I who have gone the length of marrying her. + + + + +XXV. + + +Notwithstanding the increased distance, I continue my daily visits to +Diou-djen-dji. When night has fallen, and the four couples who compose +our society have joined us, as well as Yves and the _amazingly tall +friend_,--we descend again into the town, stumbling by lantern light +down the steep stairways and slopes of the old suburb. + +This nocturnal stroll is always the same, and accompanied always by +the same amusements: we pause before the same queer stalls, we drink +the same sugared drinks served to us in the same little gardens. But +our troop is often more numerous: to begin with, we chaperon Oyouki +who is confided to our care by her parents; then we have two cousins +of my wife's--pretty little creatures; and lastly friends--guests of +sometimes only ten or twelve years old, little girls of the +neighborhood to whom our mousmés wish to show some politeness. + +Oh! what a singular company of tiny beings forms our suite and follows +us into the tea-gardens in the evenings! The most absurd faces, with +sprigs of flowers stuck in the oddest fashion in their comical and +childish heads! One might suppose it was a whole school of mousmés out +for an evening's frolic under our care. + +Yves returns with us, when time comes to remount our +hill,--Chrysanthème heaves great sighs like a tired child, and stops +on every step, leaning on our arms. + +When we have reached our destination he says good-night, just touches +Chrysanthème's hand, and descending once more, by the slope which +leads to the quays and the shipping, he crosses the roadstead in a +sampan, to get on board the _Triomphante_. + +Meantime, we, with the aid of a sort of secret key, open the door of +our garden, where Madame Prune's pots of flowers, ranged in the +darkness, send forth delicious odors in the night air. We cross the +garden by moonlight or starlight, and mount to our own rooms. + +If it is very late,--a frequent occurrence,--we find all our wooden +panels drawn and tightly shut by the careful M. Sucre (as a precaution +against thieves), and our apartment is as close and as private as if +it were a real European one. + +In this house, when every chink is thus closed, a strange odor mingles +with the musk and the lotus,--an odor essential to Japan, to the +yellow race, belonging to the soil or emanating from the venerable +woodwork; almost an odor of wild beast. The mosquito curtain of dark +blue gauze ready hung for the night, falls from the ceiling with the +air of a mysterious velum. The gilded Buddha smiles eternally at the +night-lamps burning before him; some great moth, a constant frequenter +of the house, which during the day sleeps clinging to our ceiling, +flutters at this hour under the very nose of the god, turning and +flitting round the thin quivering flames. And, motionless on the wall, +its feelers spread out starwise, sleeps some great garden spider, +which one must not kill because it is night. "Hou!" says Chrysanthème +indignantly, pointing it out to me with leveled finger. "Quick! where +is the fan kept for the purpose, wherewith to hunt it out of doors?" + +Around us reigns a silence which is almost painful after all the +joyous noises of the town, and all the laughter, now hushed, of our +band of mousmés,--a silence of the country, of some sleeping village. + + + + +XXVI. + + +The noise of the innumerable wooden panels which at the fall of night +are pulled and shut in every Japanese house, is one of the +peculiarities of the country which will remain longest imprinted on my +memory. From our neighbors' houses, floating to us over the green +gardens, these noises reach us one after the other, in series, more or +less deadened, more or less distant. + +Just below us, those of Madame Prune move very badly, creak and make a +hideous noise in their worn-out grooves. + +Ours are somewhat noisy too, for the old house is full of echoes, and +there are at least twenty to run over long slides in order to close in +completely the kind of open hall in which we live. Generally it is +Chrysanthème who undertakes this piece of household work, and a great +deal of trouble it gives her, for she often pinches her fingers in the +singular awkwardness of her too tiny hands, which have never been +accustomed to do any work. + +Then comes her toilette for the night. With a certain grace she lets +fall the day-dress, and slips on a more simple one of blue cotton, +which has the same pagoda sleeves, the same shape all but the train, +and which she fastens round her waist by a sash of muslin of the same +color. + +The high head-dress remains untouched, it is needless to say; all but +the pins which are taken out and laid beside her in a lacquer box. + +Then there is the little silver pipe that must absolutely be smoked +before going to sleep; this is one of the customs which most provokes +me, but has to be borne. + +Chrysanthème, like a gypsy, squats before a particular square box, +made of red wood, which contains a little tobacco jar, a little +porcelain stove full of hot embers, and finally a little bamboo pot +serving at the same time as ash-tray and spittoon. (Madame Prune's +smoking-box downstairs, and every smoking-box in Japan, both of men +and women, is exactly the same, and contains precisely the same +objects, arranged in precisely the same manner; and wherever it may +be, whether in the house of the rich or the poor, it always lies +about somewhere on the floor.) + +The word "pipe" is at once too trivial and too big to be applied to +this delicate silver tube, which is perfectly straight and at the end +of which, in a microscopic receptacle, is placed one pinch of golden +tobacco, chopped finer than silken thread. + +Two puffs, or at most three; it lasts scarcely a few seconds, and the +pipe is finished. Then _pan, pan, pan, pan,_ the little tube is struck +smartly against the edge of the smoking-box to knock out the ashes, +which never will fall; and this tapping, heard everywhere, in every +house, at every hour of the day or night, quick and droll as the +scratching of a monkey, is in Japan one of the noises most +characteristic of human life. + +"Anata nominasé!" ("You must smoke too!") says Chrysanthème. + +Having again filled the vexatious little pipe, she puts the silver +tube to my lips with a bow. Courtesy forbids my refusal; but I find it +detestably bitter. + +Now, before laying myself down under the blue mosquito-net, I open two +of the panels in the room, one on the side of the silent and deserted +footpath, the other one on the garden side, overlooking the terraces, +so that the night air may breathe upon us, even at the risk of +bringing us the company of some belated cockchafer, or more giddy +moth. + +Our wooden house, with its thin old walls, vibrates at night like a +great dry fiddle; the slightest noises grow great in it, become +disfigured and positively disquieting. + +Beneath the verandah are hung two little Æolian harps, which at the +least ruffle of the breeze running through their blades of grass, emit +a gentle tinkling sound, like the harmonious murmur of a brook; +outside, to the very furthest limits of the distance, the cicalas +continue their great and everlasting concert; over our heads, on the +black roof, is heard passing like a witch's sabbath, the raging battle +to the death of cats, rats and owls. + +Presently, when in the early dawn, a fresher breeze, mounting upwards +from the sea and the deep harbor, reaches us, Chrysanthème will slyly +get up and shut the panels I have opened. + +Before that, however, she will have risen at least three times to +smoke: having yawned like a cat, stretched herself, twisted in every +direction her little amber arms, and her graceful little hands, she +sits up resolutely, with all the waking groans and half words of a +child, pretty and fascinating enough: then she emerges from the gauze +tent, fills her little pipe, and breathes a few puffs of the bitter +and unpleasant mixture. + +Then comes _pan, pan, pan, pan,_ against the box to shake out the +ashes. In the resounding sonority of the night it makes quite a +terrible noise, which wakes Madame Prune. This is fatal. Madame Prune +is at once seized also with a longing to smoke which may not be +denied; then, to the noise from above, comes an answering _pan, pan, +pan, pan,_ from below, exactly like it, exasperating and inevitable as +an echo. + + + + +XXVII. + + +More cheerful are the noises of the morning: the cocks crowing, the +wooden panels all round the neighborhood sliding back upon their +rollers; or the strange cry of some little fruit-hawker, patrolling +our lofty suburb in the early dawn. And the grasshoppers absolutely +seem to chirp more loudly, to celebrate the return of the sunlight. + +Above all, rises to our ears from below the sound of Madame Prune's +long prayers, ascending through the floor, monotonous as the song of a +somnambulist, regular and soothing as the splash of a fountain. It +lasts three-quarters of an hour at least; it drones along, a rapid +flow of words in a high nasal key; from time to time, when the +inattentive Spirits are not listening, it is accompanied by a clapping +of dry palms, or by harsh sounds from a kind of wooden clapper made of +two discs of mandragora root; it is an uninterrupted stream of prayer; +its flow never ceases, and the quavering continues without stopping, +like the bleating of an old nanny-goat in delirium. + +_"After having washed the hands and feet"_ say the sacred books, _"the +great God Ama-Térace-Omi-Kami, who is the royal power of Japan, must +be invoked; the manes of all the defunct Emperors descended from him +must also be invoked; next, the manes of all his personal ancestors, +to the furthest generation; the Spirits of the Air and Sea; the +Spirits of all secret and impure places; the Spirits of the tombs of +the district whence you spring, etc., etc."_ + +"I worship and implore you," sings Madame Prune, "Oh +Ama-Térace-Omi-Kami, royal power. Cease not to protect your faithful +people, who are ready to sacrifice themselves for their country. Grant +that I may become as holy as yourself, and drive from my mind all dark +thoughts. I am a coward and a sinner; purge me from my cowardice and +sinfulness, even as the north wind drives the dust into the sea. Wash +me clean from all my iniquities, as one washes away uncleanness in the +river of Kamo. Make me the richest woman in the world. I believe in +your glory, which shall be spread over the whole earth, and illuminate +it forever for my happiness. Grant me the continued good health of my +family, and above all, my own, who, oh Ama-Térace-Omi-Kami, do worship +and adore you, and only you, etc., etc." + +Here follow all the Emperors, all the Spirits, and the interminable +list of the ancestors. + +In her trembling old woman's falsetto, Madame Prune sings out all +this, without omitting anything, at a pace which almost takes away her +breath. + +And very strange it is to hear: at length it seems hardly a human +voice; it sounds like a series of magic formulas, unwinding themselves +from an inexhaustible roller, and escaping to take flight through the +air. By its very weirdness, and by the persistency of its incantation, +it ends by producing in my scarcely awakened brain, an almost +religious impression. + +Every day I wake to the sound of this Shintoist litany chanted beneath +me, vibrating through the exquisite clearness of the summer +mornings,--while our night-lamps burn low before the smiling Buddha, +while the eternal sun, scarcely risen, already sends through the +cracks of our wooden panels its bright rays, which dart like golden +arrows through our darkened dwelling and our blue gauze tent. + +This is the moment at which I must rise, descend hurriedly to the sea +by grassy footpaths all wet with dew, and so regain my ship. + +Alas! in the days gone by, it was the cry of the muezzin which used to +awaken me in the dark winter mornings, in far-away night-shrouded +Stamboul. + + + + + +XXVIII + + +Chrysanthème has brought but few things with her, knowing that our +married life would be of short duration. + +She has placed her dresses and her fine sashes in little closed +recesses, hidden in one of the walls of our apartment (the north wall, +the only one of the four which will not take to pieces.) The doors of +these niches are white paper panels; the standing shelves and inside +partitions, consisting of light woodwork, are put together in too +finical a manner, too ingenious a way, giving rise to suspicions of +secret drawers and conjuring tricks. We only put there things without +any value, having a vague feeling that the cupboards themselves might +spirit them away. + +The box in which Chrysanthème stores away her gewgaws and letters, is +one of the things that amuses me the most; it is of English origin, in +tin, and bears on its cover the colored representation of some +manufactory in the neighborhood of London. Of course, it is as an +exotic work of art, as a precious knick-knack, that Chrysanthème +prefers it to any of her other boxes in lacquer or inlaid work. It +contains all that a mousmé requires for her correspondence: Indian +ink, a paintbrush, very thin gray tinted paper, cut up in long narrow +strips, and funnily shaped envelopes, into which these strips are +slipped (after having been folded up in some thirty folds); the +envelopes being ornamented with pictures of landscapes, fishes, crabs, +or birds. + +On some old letters addressed to her, I can make out the two +characters that represent her name: "Kikou-San" (Chrysanthème, +Madame). And when I question her, she replies in Japanese, with an air +of importance: + +"My dear creature, they are letters from my female friends." + +Oh! those friends of Chrysanthème, what funny little faces they have! +That same box contains their portraits, their photographs stuck on +visiting cards, which are printed on the back with the name of Uyeno, +the fashionable photographer in Nagasaki,--little creatures fit only +to figure daintily on painted fans, and who have striven to assume a +dignified attitude when once their necks have been placed in the +head-rest and they have been told: "Now don't move!" + +It would really amuse me to read her friends' letters,--and above all +my mousmé's answers. + + + + +XXIX. + +_August 10th_. + + +This evening it rained heavily, and the night was thick and black. At +about ten o'clock, on our return from one of the fashionable +tea-houses we constantly frequent, we arrived,--Yves, Chrysanthème and +myself,--at the certain familiar angle of the principal street, the +certain turn where we must take leave of the lights and noises of the +town, to clamber up the black steps and steep lanes which lead to our +home at Diou-djen-dji. + +There, before beginning our ascension, we must first buy lanterns from +an old trades-woman called Madame Très-Propre,[E] whose faithful +customers we are. It is amazing what a quantity of these paper +lanterns we consume. They are invariably decorated in the same way, +with painted night-moths or bats; fastened to the ceiling at the +further end of the shop, they hang in enormous clusters, and the old +woman, seeing us arrive, gets upon a table to take them down. Gray or +red are our usual choice; Madame Très-Propre knows our preferences and +leaves the green or blue lanterns aside. But it is always hard work to +unhook one, on account of the little short sticks by which they are +held, and the strings by which they are tied getting entangled +together. In an exaggerated pantomime, Madame Très-Propre expresses +her despair at wasting so much of our valuable time: oh! if it only +depended on her personal efforts! but ah, for the natural perversity +of inanimate things which have no consideration for human dignity. +With monkeyish antics, she even deems it her duty to threaten the +lanterns and shake her fist at these inextricably tangled strings +which have the presumption to delay us. It is all very well, but we +know this maneuver by heart; and if the old lady loses patience, so do +we. Chrysanthème, who is half asleep, is seized with a fit of +kitten-like yawning which she does not even trouble to hide behind +her hand, and which appears to be endless. She pulls a very long face, +at the thought of the steep hill we must struggle up to-night through +the pelting rain. + +[Footnote E: In Japanese: _O Séï-San_.] + +I have the same feeling, and am thoroughly annoyed. + +To what purpose, good heavens, do I clamber up every evening to that +suburb, when it offers me no attraction whatever? + +The rain increases, what are we to do? Outside, djins pass rapidly by, +calling out: "Take care!" splashing the foot-passengers and casting +through the shower streams of light from their many-colored lanterns. +Mousmés and elderly ladies pass by, tucked up, muddy, laughing +nevertheless, under their paper umbrellas, exchanging greetings, +clacking their wooden pattens on the stone pavement; the whole street +is filled with the noise of the pattering feet and pattering rain. + +As good luck will have it, at the same moment passes 415, our poor +relative, who, seeing our distress, stops and promises to help us out +of our difficulty; as soon as he has deposited on the quay an +Englishman he is conveying, he will come to our aid and bring all that +is necessary to relieve us from our lamentable situation. + +At last our lantern is unhooked, lighted, and paid for. There is +another shop opposite, where we stop every evening; it is Madame +L'Heure's,[F] the woman who sells waffles; we always buy a provision +from her, to refresh us on the way. A very lively young woman is this +pastry-cook, and most anxious to make herself agreeable; she looks +quite like a screen picture, behind her piled-up cakes, ornamented +with little posies. We will take shelter under her roof while we wait; +and, to avoid the drops that fall heavily from the water-spouts, wedge +ourselves tightly against her display of white and pink sweetmeats, so +artistically spread out on fresh and delicate branches of cypress. + +[Footnote F: In Japanese: _Tôki-San_.] + +Poor 415, what a providence he is to us! Already he re-appears, most +excellent cousin, ever smiling, ever running, while the water streams +down his handsome bare legs; he brings us two umbrellas, borrowed from +a China merchant, who is also a distant relative of ours. Like me, +Yves has till now never consented to use such a thing, but he now +accepts one because it is droll: in paper, of course, with innumerable +folds waxed and gummed, and the inevitable flight of storks forming a +wreath all round. + +Chrysanthème, yawning more and more in her kitten-like fashion, +becomes coaxing in order to be helped along, and tries to take my arm: + +"I beg you, mousmé, this evening to take the arm of Yves-San; I am +sure that will suit us all three." + +And there they go, she, tiny figure, hanging on to the big fellow, and +so they climb up. I lead the way, carrying the lantern that lights our +steps, and whose flame I protect as well as I can under my fantastic +umbrella. On each side of the road is heard the roaring torrent of +stormy waters rolling down from the mountain side. To-night the way +seems long, difficult and slippery; a succession of interminable +flights of steps, gardens and houses piled up one above another; waste +lands, and trees which in the darkness shake their dripping foliage on +our heads. + +One would say that Nagasaki is ascending at the same time as +ourselves; but yonder, and very far away, in a kind of vapory mist +which seems luminous on the blackness of the sky; and from the town +there rises a confused murmur of voices and rumbling of gongs and +laughter. + +The summer rain has not yet refreshed the atmosphere. On account of +the stormy heat, the little suburban houses have been left open like +sheds, and we can see all that is going on. Lamps ever lighted burn +before the altars dedicated to Buddha and to the souls of the +ancestors; but all good Niponese have already lain down to rest. Under +the traditional tents of bluish-green gauze, we can see them, +stretched out in rows by whole families; they are either sleeping, or +hunting the mosquitoes, or fanning themselves. Niponese men and women, +Niponese babies too, lying side by side with their parents; each one, +young or old, in his little dark-blue cotton night-dress, and with his +little wooden block to rest the nape of his neck. + +A few houses are open, where amusements are still going on; here and +there, from the somber gardens, the sound of a guitar reaches our +ears, some dance giving in its weird rhythm a strange impression of +sadness. + +Here is the well, surrounded by bamboos, where we are wont to make a +nocturnal halt for Chrysanthème to take breath. Yves begs me to throw +forward the red gleam of my lantern, in order to recognize the place, +for it marks our half-way resting place. + +And at last, at last, here is our house! The door is closed, all is +silent and black. Our panels have been carefully shut by M. Sucre and +Madame Prune; the rain streams down the wood of our old black walls. + +In such weather it is impossible to allow Yves to return down hill, +and wander along the shore in quest of a sampan. No, he shall not +return on board to-night; we will put him up in our house. His little +room has indeed been already provided for in the conditions of our +lease, and notwithstanding his discreet refusal, we immediately set to +work to make it. Let us go in, take off our boots, shake ourselves +like so many cats that have been out in a shower, and step up to our +apartment. + +In front of Buddha, the little lamps are burning; in the middle of the +room, the night-blue gauze is stretched. On entering, the first +impression is a favorable one; our dwelling is pretty, this evening, +the late hour and deep silence give it an air of mystery. And then +also, in such weather, it is always pleasant to get home. + +Come, let us at once prepare Yves' room. Chrysanthème, quite elated at +the prospect of having her big friend near her, sets to work with a +good will; moreover, the task is an easy one, we have only to slip +three or four paper panels in their grooves, to make at once a +separate room or compartment in the great box we live in. I had +thought that these panels were entirely white; but no! on each of them +is a group of two storks painted in gray tints in those inevitable +attitudes consecrated by Japanese art: one bearing aloft its proud +head and haughtily raising its leg, the other scratching itself. Oh +these storks! how sick one gets of them, at the end of a month spent +in Japan! + +Yves is now in bed and sleeping under our roof. + +Sleep has come to him sooner than to me to-night; for somehow I fancy +I had seen long glances exchanged between him and Chrysanthème. + +I have left this little creature in his hands like a toy, and I begin +to fear lest I should have thrown some perturbation in his mind. I do +not trouble my head about this little Japanese girl. But Yves,--it +would be decidedly wrong on his part, and would greatly diminish my +faith in him. + +We hear the rain falling on our old roof; the cicalas are mute; odors +of wet earth reach us from the gardens and the mountain. I feel +terribly dreary in this room to-night; the noise of the little pipe +irritates me more than usual, and as Chrysanthème crouches in front of +her smoking-box, I suddenly discover in her an air of low breeding, in +the very worst sense of the word. + +I should hate her, my mousmé, if she were to entice Yves into +committing a fault,--a fault which I should perhaps never be able to +forgive. + + + + +XXX. + +_August 12th_. + + +The Y---- and Sikou-San couple were divorced yesterday. The Charles +N---- and Campanule household is getting on very badly. They have had +some annoyance with those prying, grinding, insupportable little men, +dressed up in suits of gray, who are called police agents and who by +threatening their landlord, have had them turned out of their +house--under the obsequious amiability of this people, there lurks a +secret hatred towards us Europeans--they are therefore obliged to +accept their mother-in-law's hospitality, a very painful position. And +then Charles N---- fancies his wife is faithless. It is hardly +possible, however, for us to deceive ourselves: these would-be +maidens, to whom M. Kangourou has introduced us, are young people who +have already had in their lives one, or perhaps more than one, +adventure; it is therefore only natural that we should have our +suspicions. + +The Z---- and Touki-San couple jog on, quarreling all the time. + +My household maintains a more dignified air, though it is none the +less dreary. I had indeed thought of a divorce, but have really no +good reason for offering Chrysanthème such a gratuitous affront; +moreover there is another more imperative reason why I should remain +quiet: I too have had difficulties with the civilian authorities. + +Day before yesterday, M. Sucre quite upset, Madame Prune almost +swooning, and Mdlle. Oyouki bathed in tears, stormed my rooms. The +Niponese police agents had called and threatened them with the law for +letting rooms outside of the European concession to a Frenchman +morganatically married to a Japanese; and the terror of being +prosecuted brought them to me, with a thousand apologies, but the +humble request that I should leave. + +The next day I therefore went off, accompanied by _the wonderfully +tall friend_, who expresses himself better than I do in Japanese, to +the register office, with the full intention of making a terrible row. + +In the language of this exquisitely polite people, terms of abuse are +totally wanting; when very angry, one is obliged to be satisfied with +using the _thou_, mark of _inferiority_ and the _familiar +conjugation_, habitual towards those of low birth. Seating myself on +the table used for weddings, in the midst of all the flurried little +policemen, I open the conversation in the following terms: + +"In order that _thou shouldest_ leave me in peace in the suburb I am +inhabiting, what bribe must I offer _thee_, set of little beings more +contemptible than any mere street porter?" + +Great and mute scandal, silent consternation, and low bows greet my +words. + +"Certainly," they at last reply, my honorable person shall not be +molested, indeed they ask for nothing better. Only, in order to +subscribe to the laws of the country, I ought to have come here and +given my name and that of the young person that--with whom-- + +"Oh! that is going too far! I came here on purpose, contemptible +creatures, not three weeks ago!" + +Then taking up myself the civil register, and turning over the pages +rapidly, I found my signature and beside it the little hieroglyphics +drawn by Chrysanthème: + +"There, set of idiots, look at that!" + +Arrival of a very high functionary,--a ridiculous little old fellow in +a black coat, who from his office has been listening to the row: + +"What is the matter? What is it? What is this annoyance put upon the +French officers?" + +I politely state my case to this personage, who cannot make apologies +and promises enough. The little agents prostrate themselves on all +fours, sink into the earth; and we leave them, cold and dignified, +without returning their bows. + +M. Sucre and Madame Prune can now make their minds easy, they will not +be disturbed again. + + + + +XXXI. + +_August 23rd_. + + +The prolonged stay of the _Triomphante_ in the dock, and the distance +of our home from town, have been my pretext these last two or three +days for not going up to Diou-djen-dji to see Chrysanthème. + +It is dreary work though in these docks. With the early dawn a legion +of little Japanese workmen invade us, bringing their dinners in +baskets and gourds like the working-men in our arsenals, but with a +needy, shabby appearance, and a ferreting, hurried manner which +reminds one of rats. Silently they slip under the keel, at the bottom +of the hold, in all the holes, sawing, nailing, repairing. + +The heat is intense in this spot, overshadowed by the rocks and +tangled masses of foliage. + +At two o'clock, in the broad sunlight, we have a new and far prettier +kind of invasion: that of the beetles and butterflies. + +Butterflies as wonderful as those on the fans. Some all black, giddily +dash up against us, so light and airy that they seem merely a pair of +quivering wings fastened together without any body. + +Yves astonished, gazes at them, saying in his boyish manner: "Oh, I +saw such a big one just now, such a big one, it quite frightened me; I +thought it was a bat attacking me." + +A steersman who has captured a very curious specimen, carries it off +carefully to press between the leaves of his signal-book, like a +flower. Another sailor passing by, taking his small roast to the oven +in a mess-bowl, looks at him funnily and says: + +"You had much better give it to me. I'd cook it!" + + + + +XXXII. + + +_August 24th_. + +It is nearly five days since I have abandoned my home and +Chrysanthème. + +Since yesterday we have had a storm of rain and wind--(a typhoon that +has passed or is passing over us). We beat to quarters in the middle +of the night to _lower the top-masts, strike the lower yards_, and +take every precaution against bad weather. The butterflies no longer +hover around us, but everything tosses and writhes overhead: on the +steep slopes of the mountain, the trees shiver, the long grasses bend +low as though in pain; terrible gusts rack them with a hissing sound; +branches, bamboo leaves, and earth are showered down like rain upon +us. + +In this land of pretty little trifles, this violent tempest is out of +all harmony; it seems as if its efforts were exaggerated and its music +too loud. + +Towards evening the big dark clouds roll by so rapidly, that the +showers are of short duration and soon pass over. Then I attempt a +walk on the mountain above us, in the wet verdure: little pathways +lead up it, between thickets of camellias and bamboos. + +Waiting till a shower is over, I take refuge in the courtyard of an +old temple half-way up the hill, buried in a wood of centennial trees +of gigantic branches; it is reached by granite steps, through strange +gateways, as deeply furrowed as the old Celtic dolmens. The trees +have also invaded this yard; the daylight is overcast with a greenish +tint, and the drenching rain that pours down in torrents, is full of +torn-up leaves and moss. Old granite monsters, of unknown shapes, are +seated in the corners, and grimace with smiling ferocity; their faces +are full of indefinable mystery that makes me shudder amid the moaning +music of the wind, in the gloomy shadows of the clouds and branches. + +They could not have resembled the Japanese of our day, the men who had +thus conceived these ancient temples, who built them everywhere, and +filled the country with them, even in its most solitary nooks. + + * * * * * + +An hour later, in the twilight of that stormy day, on the same +mountain, I chanced upon a clump of trees somewhat similar to oaks in +appearance; they, too, have been twisted by the tempest, and the tufts +of undulating grass at their feet are laid low, tossed about in every +direction. There, I suddenly have brought back to my mind, my first +impression of a strong wind in the woods of Limoise, in the province +of Saintonge, some twenty-eight years ago, in a month of March of my +childhood. + +That, the first storm of wind my eyes ever beheld sweeping over the +landscape, blew in just the opposite quarter of the world,--and many +years have rapidly passed over that memory,--since then the best part +of my life has been spent. + +I refer too often, I fancy, to my childhood; I am foolishly fond of +it. But it seems to me that then only did I truly experience +sensations or impressions; the smallest trifles I then saw or heard +were full of deep and hidden meaning, recalling past images out of +oblivion, and reawakening memories of prior existence; or else they +were presentiments of existences to come, future incarnations in the +land of dreams, expectations of wondrous marvels that life and the +world held in store for me,--for later, no doubt, when I should be +grown up. Well, I have grown up, and have found nothing that answered +to my undefinable expectations; on the contrary, all has narrowed and +darkened around me, my vague recollections of the past have become +blurred, the horizons before me have slowly closed in and become full +of a gray darkness. Soon will my time come to return to eternal rest, +and I shall leave this world without having understood the mysterious +wherefore of these mirages of my childhood; I shall bear away with me +a lingering regret, of I know not what lost home that I have failed to +find, of the unknown beings ardently longed for, whom, alas, I have +never embraced. + + + + +XXXIII. + + +With many affectations, M. Sucre has dipped the tip of his delicate +paint-brush in Indian ink and traced a couple of charming storks on a +pretty sheet of rice-paper, offering them to me in the most gracious +manner, as a souvenir of himself. They are here, in my cabin on board, +and whenever I look at them, I can fancy I see M. Sucre tracing them +in an airy manner, with elegant facility. + +The saucer in which M. Sucre mixes his ink, is in itself a little gem. +Chiselled out of a piece of jade, it represents a tiny lake with a +carved border imitating rockwork. On this border is a little mama +toad, also in jade, advancing as though to bathe in the little lake in +which M. Sucre carefully keeps a few drops of very dark liquid. The +mama toad has four little baby toads, equally in jade, one perched on +her head, the other three playing about under her. + +M. Sucre has painted many a stork in the course of his lifetime, and +he really excels in reproducing groups and duets, if one may so +express it, of this kind of bird. Few Japanese possess the art of +interpreting this subject in a manner at once so rapid and so +tasteful; first he draws the two beaks, then the four claws, then the +backs, the feathers, dash, dash, dash,--with a dozen strokes of his +clever brush, held in his daintily posed hand, it is done, and always +perfectly well done! + +M. Kangourou relates, without seeing anything wrong in it whatever, +that formerly this talent was of great service to M. Sucre. It appears +that Madame Prune,--how shall I say such a thing, and who could guess +it now, on beholding so devout and sedate an old lady, with eyebrows +so scrupulously shaven!--however, it appears that Madame Prune used to +receive a great many visits from gentlemen,--gentlemen who always came +alone, and it led to some gossip. Therefore, when Madame Prune was +engaged with one visitor, if a new arrival made his appearance, the +ingenious husband, to make him wait patiently, and to while away the +time in the ante-room, immediately offered to paint him some storks in +a variety of attitudes. + +And this is how, in Nagasaki, all the Japanese gentlemen of a certain +age, have in their collections two or three of these little pictures, +for which they are indebted to the delicate and original talent of M. +Sucre. + + + + +XXXIV. + + +_Sunday, August 25th_. + +At about six o'clock, while I was on duty, the _Triomphante_ left her +prison walls between the mountains and came out of dock. After a great +uproar of maneuvering we took up our old moorings in the roadstead, at +the foot of the Diou-djen-dji hills. The weather was again calm and +cloudless, the sky presenting a peculiar clearness as though it had +been swept clean by the cyclone, an exceeding transparency bringing +out the minutest details of the far distance till then unseen; as if +the terrible blast had blown away every vestige of the floating mists +and left behind it nothing but void and boundless space. The coloring +of woods and mountains stood out again in the resplendent verdancy of +spring after the torrents of rain, like the wet colors of some freshly +washed painting. The sampans and junks, which for the last three days +had been lying under shelter, had now put out to sea, and the bay was +covered with their white sails, which looked like an immense flight of +seabirds. + +At eight o'clock, at nightfall, our maneuver being at an end, I +embarked with Yves on board a sampan; this time it is he who is +carrying me off and taking me back to my home. + +On land, a delicious perfume of new-mown hay greets us, and the road +across the mountains lies bathed in glorious moonlight. We go straight +up to Diou-djen-dji to join Chrysanthème; I feel almost remorseful, +although I hardly show it, for my neglect of her. + +Looking up, I recognize from afar my little house, perched on high. It +is wide open and lit up; I even hear the sound of guitar. Then I +perceive the gilt head of my Buddha between: the little bright flames +of its two hanging night lamps. Now Chrysanthème appears on the +verandah, looking out as if she expected us; and with her wonderful +bows of hair and long falling sleeves, her silhouette is thoroughly +Niponese. + +As I enter, she comes forward to kiss me, in a graceful, though rather +hesitating manner, while Oyouki, more demonstrative, throws her arms +around me. + +It is with a certain pleasure that I see once more this Japanese home, +which I wonder to find still mine when I had almost forgotten its +existence. Chrysanthème has put fresh flowers in our vases, spread out +her hair, donned her best clothes, and lighted our lamps to honor my +return. From the balcony she had watched the _Triomphante_ leave the +dock, and, in the expectation of our now prompt return, she had made +her preparations; then, to while away the time, she was studying a +duet on the guitar with Oyouki. Not a question or reproach did she +make. On the contrary: + +"We quite understood," she said, "how impossible it was, in such +dreadful weather, to undertake so lengthy a crossing in a sampan." + +She smiled like a pleased child, and I should be fastidious indeed if +I did not admit that to-night she is charming. + +I announce my intention of starting off for a long stroll through +Nagasaki; we will take Oyouki-San and two little cousins who happen to +be there, as well as some other neighbors, if they wish to; we will +buy the funniest toys, eat all sorts of cakes, and amuse ourselves to +our hearts' content. + +"How lucky we are to be here, just at the right moment," they exclaim, +jumping with joy. "How fortunate we are! This very evening there is to +be a pilgrimage to the great temple of the _Jumping Tortoise!_ The +whole town will be there; all our married friends have already +started, the whole set, X----, Y----, Z----, Touki-San, Campanule, and +Jonquille, with _the friend of amazing height_." And those two, poor +Chrysanthème and poor Oyouki, would have been obliged to stay at home +with heavy hearts, because we had not yet arrived, and because Madame +Prune had been seized with faintness and hysterics after her dinner. + +Quickly the mousmés must deck themselves out. Chrysanthème is ready; +Oyouki hurries, changes her dress, and, putting on a mouse-colored +gray robe, begs me to arrange the bows of her fine sash--black satin +lined with yellow--sticking at the same time in her hair a silver +top-knot. We light our lanterns, swinging at the end of little sticks; +M. Sucre, overwhelming us with thanks for his daughter, accompanies us +on all fours to the door,--and we go off gayly through the clear and +balmy night. + +Below, we find the town in all the animation of a great holiday. The +streets are thronged; the crowd passes by,--a laughing, capricious, +slow, unequal tide, flowing onwards, however, steadily in the same +direction, towards the same goal. There arises therefrom an immense +but light murmur in which dominate the sounds of laughter, and the +low-toned interchange of polite speeches. Then follow lanterns upon +lanterns. Never in my life have I seen so many, so variegated, so +complicated, and so extraordinary. + +We follow, drifting with the surging crowd, borne along by it. There +are groups of women of every age, decked out in their smartest +clothes, crowds of mousmés with aigrettes of flowers in their hair, or +little silver top-knots like Oyouki,--pretty little physiognomies, +little narrow eyes peeping between slit lids like those of a new-born +kitten, fat pale little cheeks, round, puffed-out, half-opened lips. +They are pretty, nevertheless, these little Niponese, in their smiles +and childishness. + +The men, on the other hand, wear many a pot hat, pompously added to +the long national robe, and giving thereby a finishing touch to their +cheerful ugliness, resembling nothing so much as dancing monkeys. They +carry boughs in their hands, whole shrubs, even, amidst the foliage of +which dangle all sorts of curious lanterns in the shape of imps and +birds. + +As we advance in the direction of the temple, the streets become more +noisy and crowded. All along the houses are endless stalls raised on +trestles, displaying sweetmeats of every color, toys, branches of +flowers, nosegays, and masks. There are masks everywhere, boxes full +of them, carts full of them; the most popular being the one that +represents the livid and cunning muzzle, contracted as by a deathlike +grimace, the long straight ears, sharp-pointed teeth of the white fox, +sacred to the God of Rice. There are also others symbolic of gods or +monsters, livid, grimacing, convulsed, with wigs and beards of natural +hair. All manner of folk, even children, purchase these horrors, and +fasten them over their faces. Every sort of instrument is for sale, +amongst them many of those crystal trumpets which sound so +strangely,--this evening they are enormous, six feet long at +least,--and the noise they make is unlike anything ever heard before: +one would say gigantic turkeys gobbling amongst the crowd, and +striving to inspire fear. + +In the religious amusements of this people it is not possible for us +to penetrate the mysteriously hidden meaning of things; we cannot +divine the boundary at which jesting stops and mystic fear steps in. +These customs, these symbols, these masks, all that tradition and +atavism have jumbled together in the Japanese brain, proceed from +sources utterly dark and unknown to us; even the oldest records fail +to explain them to us in anything but a superficial and cursory +manner, _simply because we have absolutely nothing in common with this +people_. We pass in the midst of their mirth and their laughter +without understanding the wherefore, so totally does it differ from +our own. + + * * * * * + +Chrysanthème with Yves, Oyouki with me, Fraise and Zinia, our cousins, +walking before us under our watchful eye, slowly move through the +crowd, holding each others' hands lest we should lose one another. + +All along the streets leading to the temple, the wealthy inhabitants +have decorated the fronts of their houses with a quantity of vases and +nosegays. The peculiar shed-like buildings habitual in this country, +with their open platform frontage, are particularly well suited for +the display of choice objects; all the houses have been thrown open, +and the interiors are hung with draperies that hide the back of the +apartments. In front of these hangings and slightly standing back from +the movement of the passing crowd, the various exhibited articles are +methodically placed in a row, under the full glare of hanging lamps. +Hardly any flowers compose the nosegays, nothing but foliage,--some +rare and priceless, others chosen as if purposely from amongst the +commonest plants, arranged however with such taste as to make them +appear new and choice; ordinary lettuce leaves, tall cabbage stalks +are placed with exquisite artificial taste in vessels of marvelous +workmanship. All the vases are of bronze, but the designs are varied +according to each changing fancy: some complicated and twisted; +others, and by far the largest number, graceful and simple, but of a +simplicity so studied and exquisite that to our eyes they seem the +revelation of an unknown art, the subversion of all acquired notions +on form. + + * * * * * + +On turning a corner of a street, by good luck we meet our married +comrades of the _Triomphante_ and Jonquille, Touki-San and Campanule! +Bows and curtsies are exchanged by the mousmés, reciprocal +manifestations of joy at meeting; then, forming a compact band, we are +carried off by the ever-increasing crowd and continue our progress in +the direction of the temple. + +The streets gradually ascend (the temples are always built on a +height); and by degrees as we mount up, there is added to the +brilliant fairyland of lanterns and costumes, yet another, ethereally +blue in the haze of distance; all Nagasaki, its pagodas, its +mountains, its still waters full of the rays of moonlight, seem to +rise up with us into the air. Slowly, step by step, one may say it +springs up around, enveloping in one great shimmering veil all the +foreground, with its dazzling red lights and many-colored streamers. + +No doubt we are getting near, for here are the religious steps, +porticos and monsters hewn out of enormous blocks of granite. We now +have to climb a series of steps, almost earned by the surging crowd +ascending with us. + +The temple court-yard; we have arrived. + +This is the last and most astonishing scene in the evening's +fairy-tale,--a luminous and weird scene with fantastic distances +lighted up by the moon and the gigantic trees, the sacred +cryptomerias, stretching forth their dark somber boughs like a vast +dome. + +Here we are all seated with our mousmés, beneath the light awning +wreathed in flowers, of one of the many little tea-houses improvised +in this courtyard. We are on a terrace at the top of the great steps, +up which the crowd continues to flock; we are at the foot of a portico +which stands up erect with the rigid massiveness of a colossus against +the dark night sky; at the foot also of a monster, who stares down +upon us, with his big stony eyes, his cruel grimace and smile. + +This portico and the monster are the two great overwhelming masses in +the foreground of the incredible scene before us; they stand out with +dazzling boldness against the vague and ashy blue of the distant +sphere beyond; behind them, Nagasaki is spread out in a bird's-eye +view, faintly outlined in the transparent darkness with myriads of +little colored lights, and the extravagantly dented profile of the +mountains is delineated on the starlit sky, blue upon blue, +transparency upon transparency. A corner of the harbor is also +visible, high up, undefined like a lake lost in the clouds; the water +faintly illumined by a ray of moonlight shining forth like a sheet of +silver. + +Around us the long crystal trumpets keep up their gobble. Groups of +polite and frivolous persons pass and repass like fantastic shadows: +childish bands of small-eyed mousmés with smile so candidly +meaningless and chignons shining through their bright silver flowers; +ugly men waving at the end of long branches their eternal lanterns +shaped like birds, gods or insects. + +Behind us, in the lit-up and wide-open temple, the bonzes sit, +immovable embodiments of doctrine, in the glittering sanctuary +inhabited by divinities, chimeras and symbols. The crowd, monotonously +droning its mingled prayers and laughter, presses around them, sowing +its alms broadcast; with a continuous jingle, the money rolls on the +ground into the precincts reserved to the priests, where the white +mats entirely disappear under the mass of many-sized coins accumulated +there as after a deluge of silver and bronze. + +We, however, feel thoroughly at sea in the midst of this festivity; we +look on, we laugh like the rest, we make foolish and senseless remarks +in a language insufficiently learned, and which this evening, I know +not why, we can hardly understand. Notwithstanding the night breeze, +we find it very hot under our awning, and we absorb quantities of +funny-looking water-ices, served in cups, which taste like scented +frost, or rather like flowers steeped in snow. Our mousmés order for +themselves great bowls of candied beans mixed with hail,--real +hail-stones such as we would pick up after a hail-storm in March. + +Glou! glou! glou! the crystal trumpets slowly repeat their notes, the +powerful sonority of which has a labored and smothered sound, as +though they came from under water; they mingle with the jingling of +rattles and the noise of castanets. We also have the impression of +being carried away in the irresistible swing of this incomprehensible +gayety, composed in proportions we can scarcely measure, of elements +mystic, puerile and even ghastly. A sort of religious terror is +diffused by the hidden idols divined in the temple behind us; by the +mumbled prayers, confusedly heard; above all, by the horrible heads in +lacquered wood, representing foxes, which, as they pass, hide human +faces,--hideous livid masks. + +In the gardens and outbuildings of the temple the most inconceivable +mountebanks have taken up their quarters, their black streamers, +painted with white letters, looking like funereal trappings as they +float in the wind from the top of their tall flagstaffs. Hither we +turn out steps, as soon as our mousmés have ended their orisons and +bestowed their alms. + +In one of the booths a man stretched on a table, flat on his back, is +alone on the stage; puppets of almost human size, with horribly +grinning masks, spring out of his body; they speak, gesticulate, then +fall back like empty rags; with a sudden spring, they start up again, +change their costumes, change their faces, tearing about in one +continual frenzy. Suddenly three, even four appear at the same time; +they are nothing more than the four limbs of the outstretched man, +whose legs and arms, raised on high, are each one dressed up, and +capped with a wig under which peers a mask; between these phantoms +tremendous fighting and battling take place, and many a sword-thrust +is exchanged. The most fearful of all is a certain puppet representing +an hag; every time she appears, with her weird head and ghastly grin, +the lights burn low, the music of the accompanying orchestra moans +forth a sinister strain given by the flutes, mingled with a rattling +tremolo which sounds like the clatter of bones. This creature +evidently plays an ugly part in the piece,--that of a horrible old +ghoul, spiteful and famished. Still more appalling than her person is +her shadow, which, projected upon a white screen, is abnormally and +vividly distinct; by means of some unknown process this shadow, which +nevertheless follows all her movements, assumes the aspect of a wolf. +At a given moment the hag turns round and presents the profile of her +distorted snub nose as she accepts the bowl of rice which is offered +to her; on the screen at the very same instant appears the elongated +outline of the wolf, with its pointed ears, its muzzle and chops, its +great teeth and hanging tongue. The orchestra grinds, wails, quivers; +then suddenly bursts out into funereal shrieks, like a concert of +owls; the hag is now eating, and her wolfish shadow is eating also, +greedily moving its jaws and nibbling at another shadow easy to +recognize,--the arm of a little child. + +We now go on to see the _great salamander_ of Japan, an animal rare +in this country, and quite unknown elsewhere, a great cold mass; +sluggish and benumbed, looking like some antediluvian _experiment_, +forgotten in the inner seas of this archipelago. + +Next comes the trained elephant, the terror of our mousmés, the +equilibrists, the menagerie. + +It is one o'clock in the morning before we are back at Diou-djen-dji. + +We first get Yves to bed in the little paper room he has already once +occupied. Then we go to bed ourselves, after the inevitable +preparations, the smoking of the little pipe, and the _pan! pan! pan! +pan!_ on the edge of the box. + +Suddenly Yves begins to move restlessly in his sleep, to toss about, +giving great kicks on the wall, and making a frightful noise. + +What can be the matter? I at once imagine that he must be dreaming of +the old hag and her wolfish shadow. Chrysanthème raises herself on her +elbow and listens, with astonishment depicted on her face. + +Ah! happy thought! she has discovered what is tormenting him: + +"Ka!" (mosquitoes) she says. + +And, to impress the more forcibly her meaning on my mind, she pinches +my arm so hard with her little pointed nails, at the same time +imitating, with such an amusing play of her features, the grimace of a +person who is stung, that I exclaim-- + +"Oh! stop, Chrysanthème, this pantomime is too expressive, and indeed +useless! I know the word _Ka_, and had quite understood, I assure +you." + +It is done so drolly and so quickly, with such a pretty pout, that in +truth I cannot think of being angry, although I shall certainly have +to-morrow a blue mark on my arm; about that there is no doubt. + +"Come, we must get up and go to Yves' rescue; he cannot be allowed to +go on thumping in that manner. Let us take a lantern, and see what has +happened." + +It was indeed the mosquitoes. They are hovering in a thick cloud about +him; those of the house and those of the garden all seem collected +together, swarming and buzzing. Chrysanthème indignantly burns several +at the flame of her lantern, and shows me others: "Hou!" covering the +white paper walls. + +He, tired out with his day's amusement, sleeps on; but his slumbers +are restless, as can be easily imagined. Chrysanthème gives him a +shake, wishing him to get up and share our blue mosquito net. + +After a little pressing he does as he is bid and follows us, looking +like an overgrown boy only half awake. I make no objection to this +singular hospitality; after all, it looks so little like a bed, the +matting we are to share, and we sleep in our clothes, as we always do +according to the Niponese fashion. After all, on a journey in a +railway, do not the most estimable ladies stretch themselves without +demur by the side of gentlemen unknown to them? + +I have however placed Chrysanthème's little wooden block in the center +of the gauze tent, between our two pillows. + +Then, without saying a word, in a dignified manner as though she were +rectifying an error of etiquette that I had inadvertently committed, +Chrysanthème takes up her piece of wood, putting in its place my +snake-skin drum; I shall therefore be in the middle between the two. +It is really more correct, decidedly much more proper; Chrysanthème is +evidently a very decorous young person. + +Returning on board next morning, in the clear morning sun, we walk +through pathways full of dew; accompanied by a band of funny little +mousmés of six or eight years of age, who are going off to school. + +Needless to say that the cicalas around us keep up their perpetual +sonorous chirping. The mountain smells delicious. The atmosphere, the +dawning day, the infantine grace of these little girls in their long +frocks and shiny chignons, all is redundant with freshness and youth. +The flowers and grasses on which we tread sparkle with dewdrops, +exhaling a perfume of freshness. What undying beauty there is, even in +Japan, in the first fresh morning hours in the country, and the +dawning hours of life! + +Besides, I am quite ready to admit the attractiveness of the little +Japanese children; some of them are most fascinating. But how is it +that their charm vanishes so rapidly and is so quickly replaced by the +elderly grimace, the smiling ugliness, the monkeyish face? + + + + +XXXV. + + +My mother-in-law Madame Renoncule's small garden is, without +exception, one of the most melancholy spots I have seen during all my +peregrinations through the world. + +Oh, the slow, enervating, dull hours spent in idle and diffuse +conversation in the dimly lighted verandah! Oh, the horrid peppered +jam in the microscopic pots! In the middle of the town, enclosed by +four walls, is this park of five yards square, with little lakes, +little mountains, and little rocks, where all wears an antiquated +appearance, and everything is covered with a greenish moldiness from +want of sun. + +Nevertheless a true feeling for nature has inspired this tiny +representation of a wild spot. The rocks are well placed, the dwarf +cedars, no taller than cabbages, stretch their gnarled boughs over the +valleys in the attitude of giants wearied by the weight of centuries; +and their look of _big trees_ perplexes one and falsifies the +perspective. When from the dark recesses of the apartment one +perceives at a certain distance this diminutive landscape dimly +lighted up, the wonder is whether it is all artificial, or whether one +is not oneself the victim of some morbid illusion; and if it is not +indeed a real country view seen through a distorted vision out of +focus, or through the wrong end of a telescope. + +To any one familiar with Japanese life my mother-in-law's house in +itself reveals a refined nature,--complete nudity, two or three +screens placed here and there, a teapot, a vase full of lotus-flowers, +and nothing more. Woodwork devoid of paint or varnish, but carved in +most elaborate and capricious openwork, the whiteness of the pinewood +being kept up by constant scrubbings of soap and water. The posts and +beams of the framework are varied by the most fanciful taste: some are +cut in precise geometrical forms; others artificially twisted, +imitating trunks of old trees covered with tropical creepers. +Everywhere little hiding-places, little nooks, little closets +concealed in the most ingenious and unexpected manner under the +immaculate uniformity of the white paper panels. + +I cannot help smiling when I think of some of the so-called _Japanese_ +drawing-rooms, overcrowded with knick-knacks and curios and hung with +coarse gold embroideries on exported satins, of our Parisian fine +ladies. I would advise those persons to come and look at the houses of +people of taste out here; to visit the white solitudes of the palaces +at Yeddo. In France we have works of art in order to enjoy them; here +they possess them merely to ticket them and lock them up carefully in +a kind of mysterious underground room shut in by iron gratings called +a _godoun_. On rare occasions, only to honor some visitor of +distinction, do they open this impenetrable depositary. The true +Japanese manner of understanding luxury consists in a scrupulous and +indeed almost excessive cleanliness, white mats and white woodwork; +an appearance of extreme simplicity, and an incredible nicety in the +most infinitesimal details. + +My mother-in-law seems to be really a very nice woman, and were it not +for the insurmountable feeling of spleen the sight of her garden +produces on me, I would often go and see her. She has nothing in +common with the mammas of Jonquille, Campanule or Touki: she is vastly +their superior; and then I can see that she has been very good-looking +and stylish. Her past life puzzles me; but in my position as a +son-in-law, good manners prevent my making further inquiries. + +Some assert that she was formerly a celebrated guécha in Yeddo, who +lost public favor by her folly in becoming a mother. This would +account for her daughter's talent on the guitar; she had probably +herself taught her the touch and style of the Conservatory. + +Since the birth of Chrysanthème (her eldest child and first cause of +this loss of favor), my mother-in-law, an expansive although +distinguished nature, has fallen seven times into the same fatal +error, and I have two little sisters-in-law: Mdlle. La Neige,[G] and +Mdlle. La Lune,[H] as well as five little brothers-in-law: Cerisier, +Pigeon, Liseron, Or, and Bambou. + +[Footnote G: In Japanese: _Oyouki-San_ (like Madame Prune's +daughter).] + +[Footnote H: In Japanese: _Tsouki-San_.] + +Little Bambou is four years old,--a yellow baby, fat and round all +over, with fine bright eyes; coaxing and jolly, sleeping whenever he +is not laughing. Of all my Niponese family, Bambou is the one I love +the most. + + + + +XXXVI. + +_Tuesday, August 27th_. + + +We have spent the day,--Yves, Chrysanthème, Oyouki and +myself,--wandering through dark and dusty nooks, dragged hither and +thither by four quick-footed djins, in search of antiquities in the +bric-à -brac shops. + +Towards sunset, Chrysanthème, who has wearied me more than ever since +the morning, and who doubtless has perceived it, pulls a very long +face, declares herself ill, and begs leave to spend the night at her +mother's, Madame Renoncule. + +I agree to this with the best grace in the world; let her go, tiresome +little mousmé! Oyouki will carry a message to her parents, who will +shut up our rooms; we shall spend the evening, Yves and I, in roaming +about as fancy takes us, without any mousmé dragging at our heels, and +shall afterwards regain our own quarters on board the _Triomphante_, +without having the trouble of climbing up that hill. + +First of all, we make an attempt to dine together in some fashionable +tea-house. Impossible, there is not a place to be had; all the absurd +paper rooms, all the compartments contrived by so many ingenious +dodges of slipping and sliding panels, all the nooks and corners in +the little gardens are filled with Japanese men and women eating +impossible and incredible little dishes! numberless young dandies are +dining _tête-à -tête_ with the lady of their choice, and sounds of +dancing girls and music issue from the private rooms. + +The fact is, that to-day is the third and last day of the great +pilgrimage to the temple of the _Jumping Tortoise_, of which we saw +the commencement yesterday, and all Nagasaki is at this time given +over to amusement. + +At the tea-house of the _Indescribable Butterflies_, which is also +full to overflowing, but where we are well-known, they have had the +bright idea of throwing a temporary flooring over the little +lake,--the pond where the gold-fish live, and it is here that our meal +is served, in the pleasant freshness of the fountain which continues +its murmur under our feet. + +After dinner, we follow the faithful and ascend again to the temple. + +Up there we find the same elfin revelry, the same masks, the same +music. We seat ourselves, as before, under a gauze tent and sip odd +little drinks tasting of flowers. But this evening we are alone, and +the absence of the band of mousmés, whose familiar little faces formed +a bond of union between this holiday-making people and ourselves, +separates and isolates us more than usual from the profusion of +oddities in the midst of which we seem to be lost. Beneath us, lies +always the immense blue background: Nagasaki illumined by moonlight, +and the expanse of silvered, glittering water, which seems like a +vaporous vision suspended in mid-air. Behind us is the great open +temple, where the bonzes officiate to the accompaniment of sacred +bells and wooden clappers,--looking, from where we sit, more like +puppets than anything else, some squatting in rows like peaceful +mummies, others executing rhythmical marches before the golden +background where stand the gods. We do not laugh to-night, and speak +but little, more forcibly struck by the scene than we were on the +first night; we only look on, trying to understand. Suddenly, Yves +turning round, says: + +"Hullo! brother, your mousmé!!" + +Actually there she is, behind him; Chrysanthème almost on all fours, +hidden between the paws of a great granite beast, half tiger, half +dog, against which our fragile tent is leaning. + +"She pulled my trousers with her nails, for all the world like a +little cat," said Yves, still full of surprise, "positively like a +cat!" + +She remains bent double in the most humble form of salutation; she +smiles timidly, afraid of being ill received, and the head of my +little brother-in-law, Bambou, appears smiling too, just above her +own. She has brought this little _mousko_[I] with her, perched astride +on her back; he looks as absurd as ever, with his shaven head, his +long frock and the great bows of his silken sash. There they both +stand gazing at us, anxious to know how their joke will be taken. + +[Footnote I: _Mousko_ is the masculine of _mousmé_, and signifies +little boy. Excessive politeness makes it _mousko-san_ (Mr. little +boy).] + +For my part, I have not the least idea of giving them a cold +reception; on the contrary, the meeting amuses me. It even strikes me +that it is rather pretty of Chrysanthème to come round in this way, +and to bring Bambou-San to the festival; though it savors somewhat of +her low breeding, to tell the truth, to have tacked him on to her +back, as the poorer Japanese women do with their little ones. + +However, let her sit down between Yves and myself: and let them bring +her those iced beans she loves so much; and we will take the jolly +little _mousko_ on our knees and cram him with sugar and sweetness to +his heart's content. + + * * * * * + +The evening over, when we begin to think of leaving, and of going down +again, Chrysanthème replaces her little Bambou astride upon her back, +and sets forth, bending forward under his weight and painfully +dragging her Cinderella slippers over the granite steps and +flagstones. Yes, decidedly low this conduct! but low in the best sense +of the word: nothing in it displeases me; I even consider +Chrysanthème's affection for Bambou-San engaging and attractive in its +simplicity. + +One cannot deny this merit to the Japanese,--a great love for little +children, and a talent for amusing them, for making them laugh, +inventing comical toys for them, making the morning of their life +happy; for a specialty in dressing them, arranging their heads, and +giving to the whole little personage the most diverting appearance +possible. It is the only thing I really like about this country: the +babies and the manner in which they are understood. + + * * * * * + +On our way we meet our married friends of the _Triomphante_, who, much +surprised at seeing me with this _mousko_, chaffingly exclaim: + +"What! a son already?" + +Down in the town, we make a point of bidding good-by to Chrysanthème +at the turning of the street where her mother lives. She smiles +undecided, declares herself well again, and begs to return to our +house on the heights. This did not precisely enter into my plans, I +confess. However, it would look very ungracious to refuse. + +So be it! But we must carry the _mousko_ home to his mamma, and then +begin, by the flickering light of a new lantern bought afresh from +Madame Très-Propre, our weary homeward ascent. + +Here, however, we find ourselves in another predicament: this +ridiculous little Bambou insists upon coming with us! No, he will take +no denial, we must take him with us. This is out of all reason, quite +impossible! + +However, it will not do to make him cry, on the night of a great +festival too, poor little _mousko_. So we must send a message to +Madame Renoncule, that she may not be uneasy about him, and as there +will soon not be a living creature on the footpaths of Diou-djen-dji +to laugh at us, we will take it in turn, Yves and I, to carry him on +our back, all the way up that climb in the darkness. + + * * * * * + +And here am I, who did not wish to return this way to-night, dragging +a mousmé by the hand, actually carrying an extra burden in the shape +of a _mousko_ on my back. What an irony of fate! + +As I had expected, all our shutters and doors are closed, bolted and +barred; no one expects us, and we have to make a prodigious noise at +the door. Chrysanthème sets to work and calls with all her might: + +"Ho! Oumé-San-an-an-an!" (In English: "Hi! Madame Pru-u-u-u-une!") + +These intonations in her little voice are unknown to me; her longdrawn +call in the echoing darkness of midnight has so strange an accent, +something so unexpected and wild, that it impresses me with a dismal +feeling of far-off exile. + +At last Madame Prune appears to open the door to us, only half awake +and much astonished; by way of a night-cap she wears a monstrous +cotton turban, on the blue ground of which a few white storks are +playfully disporting themselves. Holding in the tips of her fingers +with an affectation of graceful fright, the long stalk of her +beflowered lantern, she gazes intently into our faces, one after +another, to assure herself of our identity; but the poor old lady +cannot get over the _mousko_ I am carrying. + + + + +XXXVII + + +At first it was only to Chrysanthème's guitar that I listened with +pleasure: now I am beginning to like her singing also. + +She has nothing of the theatrical, or the deep assumed voice of the +virtuoso; on the contrary, her notes, always very high, are soft, +thin, and plaintive. + +She will often teach Oyouki some romance, slow and dreamy, which she +has composed, or which comes back to her mind. Then they both astonish +me, for on their well-tuned guitars they will search out +accompaniments in parts, and try again each time that the chords are +not perfectly true to their ear, without ever losing themselves in the +confusion of these dissonant harmonies, always weird and always +melancholy. + +Generally, while their music is going on, I am writing in the +verandah, with the superb stretched out in front of me. I write, +seated on a mat on the floor and leaning upon a little Japanese desk, +ornamented with swallows in relief; my ink is Chinese, my ink-stand, +just like that of my landlord, is in jade, with dear little frogs and +toads carved on the rim. In short, I am writing my memoirs,--exactly +as M. Sucre does downstairs! Occasionally I fancy I resemble him--a +very disagreeable fancy. + +My memoirs,--composed of incongruous details, minute observations of +colors, shapes, scents, and sounds. + +It is true that a complete imbroglio, worthy of a romance, seems ever +threatening to appear upon my monotonous horizon; a regular intrigue +seems ever ready to explode in the midst of this little world of +mousmés and grasshoppers: Chrysanthème in love with Yves; Yves with +Chrysanthème; Oyouki with me; I with no one. We might even find here, +ready to hand, the elements of a fratricidal drama, were we in any +other country than Japan; but we are in Japan, and under the narrowing +and dwarfing influence of the surroundings, which turn everything into +ridicule, nothing will come of it all. + + + + +XXXVIII. + + +There is, in this good town of Nagasaki, towards five or six o'clock +in the evening, one hour of the day more comical than any other. At +this moment every living being is naked: children, young people, old +people, old men, old women, every one is seated in a tub of some sort, +taking a bath. This takes place no matter where, without the slightest +screen, in the gardens, the courtyards, in the shops, even upon the +thresholds, in order to give greater facility for conversation among +the neighbors from one side of the street to the other. In this +situation visitors are received; and the bather, without any +hesitation, leaves his tub, holding in his hand his little towel +(invariably blue), to offer the caller a seat, and to exchange with +him some amiable remarks. Nevertheless, neither the mousmés nor the +old ladies gain anything by appearing in this primeval costume. A +Japanese woman, deprived of her long dress and her huge sash with its +pretentious bows, is nothing but a diminutive yellow being, with +crooked legs and flat, unshapely bust; she has no longer a remnant of +her artificial little charms, which have completely disappeared in +company with her costume. + +There is yet another hour, at once joyous and melancholy, a little +later when twilight falls, when the sky seems one vast veil of yellow, +against which stand the clear-cut outlines of jagged mountains and +lofty, fantastic pagodas. It is the hour at which, in the labyrinth of +little gray streets down below, the sacred lamps begin to twinkle in +the ever-open houses, in front of the ancestors' altars and the +familiar Buddhas; while outside, darkness creeps over all, and the +thousand and one indentations and peaks of the old roofs are depicted, +as if in black festoons, on the clear golden sky. At this moment, +there suddenly passes over merry, laughing Japan a somber shadow, +strange, weird, a breath of antiquity, of savagery, of something +indefinable, which casts a gloom of sadness. And then the only gayety +that remains is the gayety of the population of young children, of +little mouskos and little mousmés, who spread themselves like a wave +through the streets filled with shadow, as they swarm out from schools +and workshops. On the dark background of all these wooden buildings, +the little blue and scarlet dresses stand out in startling +contrast,--drolly bedizened, drolly draped; and the fine loops of the +sashes, the flowers, the silver or gold top-knots stuck in these baby +chignons, add to the vivid effect. + +They amuse themselves, they chase each other, their great pagoda +sleeves fly widely open, and these tiny little mousmés of ten, of five +years old, or even younger still, have lofty head-dresses and imposing +bows of hair arranged on their little heads, like grown-up women. Oh! +what loves of supremely absurd dolls at this hour of twilight gambol +through the streets, in their long frocks, blowing their crystal +trumpets, or running with all their might to start their fanciful +kites. This juvenile world of Japan--ludicrous by birth, and fated to +become more so as the years roll on--starts in life with singular +amusements, with strange cries and shouts; its playthings are somewhat +ghastly, and would frighten the children of other countries; even the +kites have great squinting eyes and vampire shapes. + +And every evening, in the little dark streets, bursts forth this +overflow of joyousness, fresh, childish, but withal grotesque to +excess. It would be difficult to have any idea of the incredible +things which, carried by the wind, float in the evening air. + + + + +XXXIX. + + +Little Chrysanthème is always arrayed in dark colors, a sign here of +aristocratic distinction. While her friends Oyouki-San, Madame Touki +and others delight in loud-striped stuffs, and stick gorgeous +ornaments in their chignons, she always wears navy-blue or neutral +gray, fastened round her waist with great black sashes brocaded in +tender shades, and puts nothing in her hair but amber-colored +tortoise-shell pins. If she were of noble descent she would wear +embroidered on her dress in the middle of the back a little white +circle looking like a postmark with some design in the center of +it--the leaf of a tree generally; and this would be her coat of arms. +There is really nothing wanting but this little heraldic blazon on the +back to give her the appearance of a lady of the highest position. + +In Japan the smart dresses of bright colors shaded in clouds, +embroidered with monsters of gold or silver, are reserved by the great +ladies for home use on state occasions; or else they are used on the +stage for the dancers and the courtesans. + +Like all Japanese women, Chrysanthème carries a quantity of things in +her long sleeves, in which pockets are cunningly hidden. There she +keeps letters, various notes written on delicate sheets of rice-paper, +prayer amulets drawn up by the bonzes; and above all a number of +squares of a silky paper which she puts to the most unexpected +uses,--to dry a tea-cup, to hold the damp stalk of a flower, or to +blow her quaint little nose, when the necessity presents itself. After +the operation she at once crumples up the piece of paper, rolls it +into a ball, and throws it out of the window with disgust. + +The very smartest people in Japan blow their noses in this manner. + + + + +XL. + +_September 2nd_. + + +Chance has favored us with a friendship as singular as it is rare: +that of the head bonzes of the temple of the _Jumping Tortoise_, where +we had witnessed last month such a surprising pilgrimage. + +The approach to this place is as solitary now as it was thronged and +bustling on the evenings of the festival; and in broad daylight one is +surprised at the deathlike decay of the religious surroundings which +at night had seemed so full of life. Not a creature to be seen on the +time-worn granite steps; not a creature beneath the vast sumptuous +porticoes; the colors, the gold-work are dim with dust. To reach the +temple one must cross several deserted courtyards terraced on the +mountain side, pass through several solemn gateways, and up and up +endless stairs, rising far above the town and the noises of humanity +into a sacred region filled with innumerable tombs. On all the +pavements, in all the walls, lichen and stonecrop; and over all the +gray tint of extreme age spreads everywhere like a fall of ashes. + +In a side temple near the entrance is enthroned a colossal Buddha +seated in his lotus--a gilded idol some forty-five or sixty feet high, +mounted on an enormous pedestal of bronze. + +At length appears the last doorway with the two traditional giants, +guardians of the sacred court, which stand the one on the right hand, +the other on the left, shut up like wild beasts each one in a cage of +iron. They are in attitudes of fury, with fists upraised as if to +strike, and features atrociously fierce and distorted. Their bodies +are covered all over with bullets of crumbled paper which have been +aimed at them through the bars, and which have stuck to their +monstrous limbs like a white leprosy: this is the manner in which the +faithful strive to appease them, by conveying to them their prayers +written upon delicate leaflets by the pious bonzes. + +Passing between these alarming scarecrows one reaches the innermost +court. The residence of our friends is on the right, the great hall of +the pagoda is before us. + +In this paved court are bronze torch-holders as high as turrets. Here +too stand, and have stood for centuries, cyca palms with fresh green +plumes, their numerous stalks curving with a heavy symmetry, like the +branches of massive candelabra. The temple, which is open along its +entire length, is dark and mysterious, with touches of gilding in +distant corners melting away into the gloom. In the very remotest part +are seated idols, and from outside one can vaguely see their clasped +hands and air of rapt mysticism; in front are the altars, loaded with +marvelous vases in metal-work, whence spring graceful clusters of gold +and silver lotus. From the very entrance one is greeted by the sweet +odor of the incense-sticks unceasingly burnt by the priests before the +gods. + +To penetrate into the dwelling of our friends the bonzes, which is +situated on the right hand side as you enter, is by no means an easy +matter. + +A monster of the fish tribe, but having claws and horns, is hung over +their door by iron chains; at the least breath of wind he swings +creakingly. We pass beneath him and enter the first immense and lofty +hall, dimly lighted, in the corners of which gleam gilded idols, bells +and incomprehensible objects of religious use. + +Quaint little creatures, choir boys or pupils, come forward with a +doubtful welcome to ask what is wanted. + +"_Matsou-San!! Donata-San!!_" they repeat, much astonished, when they +understand to whom we wish to be conducted. Oh! no, impossible, they +cannot be seen; they are resting or are in contemplation. "_Orimas! +Orimas!_" say they, clasping their hands and sketching a genuflection +or two to make us understand better. (They are at prayer! the most +profound prayer!) + +We insist, speak more imperatively; even slip off our shoes like +people determined to take no refusal. + +At last Matsou-San and Donata-San make their appearance from the +tranquil depths of their bonze-house. They are dressed in black crape +and their heads are shaved. Smiling, amiable, full of excuses, they +offer us their hands, and we follow with our feet bare like theirs to +the interior of their mysterious dwelling, through a series of empty +rooms spread with mats of the most unimpeachable whiteness. The +successive halls are separated one from the other only by bamboo +curtains of exquisite delicacy, caught back by tassels and cords of +red silk. + +The whole wainscoting of the interior is of the same wood, of a pale +yellow color joinered with extreme nicety, without the least ornament, +the least carving; everything seems new and unused, as though it had +never been touched by human hand. At distant intervals in this studied +bareness, costly little stools, marvelously inlaid, uphold some +antique bronze monster or a vase of flowers; on the walls hang a few +masterly sketches, vaguely tinted in Indian ink, drawn upon strips of +gray paper most accurately cut but without the slightest attempt at a +frame; this is all: not a seat, not a cushion, not a scrap of +furniture. It is the very acme of studied simplicity, of elegance made +out of nothing, of the most immaculate and incredible cleanliness. And +while following the bonzes through this long suite of empty halls, we +are struck by their contrast with the overflow of knick-knacks +scattered about our rooms in France, and we take a sudden dislike to +the profusion and crowding delighted in at home. + +The spot where this silent march of barefooted folk comes to an end, +the spot where we are to seat ourselves in the delightful coolness of +a semi-darkness, is an interior verandah opening upon an artificial +site; we might suppose it were the bottom of a well; it is a miniature +garden no bigger than the opening of an _oubliette_, overhung on all +sides by the crushing height of the mountain and receiving from on +high but the dim light of dream-land. Nevertheless here is simulated a +great natural ravine in all its wild grandeur: here are caverns, +abrupt rocks, a torrent, a cascade, islands. The trees, dwarfed by a +Japanese process of which we have not the secret, have tiny little +leaves on their decrepit and knotty branches. A pervading hue of the +mossy green of antiquity harmonizes all this medley, which is +undoubtedly centuries old. + +Families of gold-fish swim round and round in the clear water, and +tiny tortoises (_jumpers_ probably) sleep upon the granite islands +which are of the same color as their own gray shell. + +There are even blue dragon-flies which have ventured to descend, +heaven knows from whence, and alight with quivering wings upon the +miniature water-lilies. + +Our friends the bonzes, notwithstanding an unctuousness of manner +thoroughly ecclesiastical, are very ready to laugh,--a simple, +pleased, childish laughter; plump, chubby, shaven and shorn, they +dearly love our French liqueurs and know how to take a joke. + +We talk first of one thing and then another. To the tranquil music of +their little cascade, I launch out before them with phrases of the +most erudite Japanese, I try the effect of a few tenses of verbs: +_desideratives, concessives, hypothetics in ba_. Whilst they chat they +dispatch the affairs of the church, the order of services sealed with +complicated seals for inferior pagodas situated in the neighborhood; +or trace little prayers with a cunning paint-brush as medical remedies +to be swallowed as pills by invalids at a distance. With their white +and dimpled hands they play with a fan as cleverly as any woman, and +when we have tasted different native drinks flavored with essences of +flowers, they bring up as a finish a battle of _Bénédictine_ or +_Chartreuse_, for they appreciate the liqueurs composed by their +Western colleagues. + +When they come on board to return our visits, they by no means disdain +to fasten their great round spectacles on their flat noses in order to +inspect the profane drawings in our illustrated papers, the _Vie +Parisienne_ for instance. And it is even with a certain complacency +that they let their fingers linger upon the pictures which represent +the ladies. + +The religious ceremonies in their great temple are magnificent, and to +one of these we are now invited. At the sound of the gong they make +their entrance before the idols with a stately ritual; twenty or +thirty priests officiate in gala costumes, with genuflections, +clapping of hands and movements to and fro, which look like the +figures of some mystic quadrille. + +But for all that, let the sanctuary be ever so immense and imposing in +its somber gloom, the idols ever so superb, all seems in Japan but a +mere semblance of grandeur. A hopeless pettiness, an irresistible +feeling of the ludicrous, lies at the bottom of all things. + + +And then the congregation is not conducive to thoughtful +contemplation, for among it we generally discover some acquaintance: +my mother-in-law, or a cousin, or the woman from the china-shop who +sold us a vase only yesterday. Charming little mousmés, +monkeyish-looking old ladies enter with their smoking-boxes, their +gayly-daubed parasols, their curtsies, their little cries and +exclamations; prattling, complimenting each other, full of restless +movement, and having the greatest difficulty in maintaining a serious +demeanor. + + + + +XLI. + + +_September 3rd_. + +Chrysanthème, for the first time, paid me a visit on board ship +to-day, chaperoned by Madame Prune, and followed by my youngest +sister-in-law, Mdlle. La Neige. These ladies had the tranquil manners +of the highest gentility. + +In my cabin is a great Buddha on his throne, and before him a lacquer +tray, on which my faithful sailor servant places any small change he +may find lying loose in the pockets of my clothes. Madame Prune, whose +mind is much swayed by mysticism, at once supposed herself before a +regular altar; in the gravest manner possible she addressed a brief +prayer to the god; then, drawing out her purse (which, according to +custom, was attached to her sash behind her back, along with her +little pipe and tobacco-pouch), placed a pious offering in the tray, +while executing a low curtsey. + +They remained on their best behavior all through the visit. But when +the moment of departure came, Chrysanthème, who would not go away +without seeing Yves, asked for him with a thinly-veiled persistency +which was remarkable. Yves, for whom I then sent, made himself +particularly charming to her, so much so, that this time I felt a +shade of more serious annoyance; I even asked myself whether the +laughably pitiable ending, which I had hitherto vaguely foreseen, +might not, after all, soon break upon us. + + + + +XLII. + + +_September 4th_. + +I met yesterday, in an old and ruined quarter of the town, a perfectly +exquisite mousmé, charmingly dressed; a fresh note of color against +the dark background of decayed buildings. + +It was quite at the farthest end of Nagasaki, in the most ancient part +of the town. In this region are trees centuries old, ancient temples +of Buddha, of Amiddah, of Benten, or Kwanon, with steep and pompous +roofs; monsters carved in granite sit there in courtyards silent as +the grave, where the grass grows between the paving-stones. This +deserted quarter is traversed by a narrow torrent running in a deep +channel, across which are thrown little curved bridges with granite +balustrades eaten away by lichen. All the objects there wear the +strange grimace, the quaint arrangement familiar to us in the most +antique Japanese drawings. + +I walked through it all at the burning hour of midday, and saw not a +soul, unless indeed, through the open windows of the bonze-houses, I +caught sight of some priests, guardians of tombs or sanctuaries, +taking their siesta under their dark-blue gauze nets. + +All at once this little mousmé appeared, a little above me, just at +the point of the arch of one of these bridges carpeted with gray moss; +she was in full light, in full sunshine, and stood out in brilliant +clearness, like a fairy vision, against the background of old black +temples and deep shadows. She was holding her dress together with one +hand, gathering it close round her ankles to give herself an air of +greater slimness. Over her quaint little head, her round umbrella with +its thousand ribs threw a great halo of blue and red, edged with +black, and an oleander full of flowers growing among the stones of the +bridge spread its glory beside her, bathed, like herself, in the +sunshine. Behind this youthful figure and this flowering shrub all was +blackness. Upon the pretty red and blue parasol great white letters +formed this inscription, much used among the mousmés, and which I +have learned to recognize: _Stop! clouds, to see her pass by_. And it +was really worth the trouble to stop and look at this exquisite little +person, of a type so ideally Japanese. + +However, it will not do to stop too long and be ensnared,--it would +only be another take-in. A doll like the rest, evidently, an ornament +for a china shelf, and nothing more. While I gaze at her, I say to +myself that Chrysanthème, appearing in this same place, with this +dress, this play of light, and this aureole of sunshine, would produce +just as delightful an effect. + +For Chrysanthème is pretty, there can be no doubt about it. Yesterday +evening, in fact, I positively admired her. It was quite night; we +were returning with the usual escort of little married couples like +our own, from the inevitable tour of the tea-houses and bazaars. While +the other mousmés walked along hand in hand, adorned with new silver +top-knots which they had succeeded in having presented to them, and +amusing themselves with playthings, she, pleading fatigue, followed, +half reclining, in a djin carriage. We had placed beside her great +bunches of flowers destined to fill our vases, late iris and +long-stemmed lotus, the last of the season, already smelling of +autumn. And it was really very pretty to see this Japanese girl in her +little car, lying carelessly among all these water-flowers, lighted by +gleams of ever-changing colors, as they chanced from the lanterns we +met or passed. If, on the evening of my arrival in Japan, any one had +pointed her out to me, and said: "That shall be your mousmé," there +cannot be a doubt I should have been charmed. In reality, however, no, +I am not charmed; it is only Chrysanthème, always Chrysanthème, +nothing but Chrysanthème: a mere plaything to laugh at, a little +creature of finical forms and thoughts, that the agency of M. +Kangourou has supplied me with. + + + + +XLIII. + + +In our house, the water used for drinking, making tea, and lesser +washing purposes, is kept in large white china tubs, decorated with +paintings representing blue fish borne along by a swift current +through distorted rushes. In order to keep them cool, the tubs are +placed out of doors on Madame Prune's roof, at a place where we can, +from the top of our projecting balcony, easily reach them by +stretching out the arm. A real godsend for all the thirsty cats in +the neighborhood on the fine summer nights is this corner of the roof +with our bedaubed tubs, and it proves a delightful trysting-place for +them, after all their caterwauling and long solitary rambles on the +top of the walls. + +I had thought it my duty to warn Yves the first time he wished to +drink this water. + +"Oh!" he replied, rather surprised, "cats do you say? they are not +dirty!" + +On this point Chrysanthème and I agree with him: we do not consider +cats as unclean animals, and we do not object to drink after them. + +Yves considers Chrysanthème much in the same light. "She is not dirty, +either," he says; and he willingly drinks after her, out of the same +cup, putting her in the same category with the cats. + +Well, these china tubs are one of the daily preoccupations of our +household: in the evening, when we return from our walk, after the +clamber up which makes us thirsty, and Madame L'Heure's waffles, which +we have been eating to beguile the way, we always find them empty. It +seems impossible for Madame Prune, or Mdlle. Oyouki, or their young +servant Mdlle. Dédé,[J] to have forethought enough to fill them while +it is still daylight. And when we are late in returning home, these +three ladies are asleep, so we are obliged to attend to the business +ourselves. + +[Footnote J: _Dédé-San_ means "Miss Young Girl," a very common name.] + +We must therefore open all the closed doors, put on our boots, and go +down into the garden to draw water. + +As Chrysanthème would die of fright all alone in the dark, in the +midst of the trees and buzzing of the insects, I am obliged to +accompany her to the well. For this expedition we require a light, and +must seek among the quantity of lanterns purchased at Madame +Très-Propre's booth, which have been thrown night after night into the +bottom of one of our little paper closets; but alas, all the candles +are burnt down; I thought as much! Well, we must resolutely take the +first lantern to hand, and stick a fresh candle on the iron point at +the bottom; Chrysanthème puts forth all her strength, the candle +splits, breaks; the mousmé pricks her fingers, pouts and whimpers. +Such is the inevitable scene that takes place every evening, and +delays our retiring to rest under the dark blue gauze net for a good +quarter of an hour; while the cicalas on the roof seem to mock us with +their ceaseless song. + +All this, which I should find amusing in any one else,--any one I +loved--provokes me in her. + + + + +XLIV. + + +_September 11th_. + +A week has passed by peacefully enough, during which I have written +down nothing. + +Little by little I am becoming accustomed to my Japanese household, to +the strangeness of the language, costumes, and faces. For the last +three weeks, no letters have arrived from Europe; they have no doubt +miscarried, and their absence contributes, as is usually the case, to +throw a veil of oblivion over the past. + +Every day, therefore, I faithfully climb up to my villa, sometimes by +beautiful star-lit nights, sometimes through stormy downpours of rain. +Every morning as the sound of Madame Prune's chanted prayer rises +through the reverberating air, I awake and go down towards the sea, by +the grassy pathways full of dew. + +The chief occupation of this Japanese country, seems to be a perpetual +hunt after curios. We sit down on the mattings, in the +antique-sellers' little booths, take a cup of tea with the salesmen, +and rummage with our own hands in the cupboards and chests, where many +a fantastic piece of old rubbish is huddled away. The bargaining, +much discussed, is laughingly carried on for several days, as though +we were trying to play off some excellent little practical joke upon +each other. + +I really make a sad abuse of the adjective _little_, I am quite aware +of it, but how can I do otherwise? In describing this country, the +temptation is great to use it ten times in every written line. Little, +finical, affected,--all Japan is contained, both physically and +morally, in these three words. + +My purchases are accumulating up there, in my little wood and paper +house; but how much more Japanese it really was, in its bare +emptiness, such as M. Sucre and Madame Prune had conceived it. There +are now many lamps of a religious shape hanging from the ceiling; many +stools and many vases, as many gods and goddesses as in a pagoda. + +There is even a little Shintoist altar, before which Madame Prune has +not been able to restrain her feelings, and before which she has +fallen down and chanted her prayers in her bleating old nanny-goat +voice: + +"Wash me clean from all my impurity, oh Ama-Térace-Omi-Kami, as one +washes away uncleanness in the river of Kamo." + +Alas for poor Ama-Térace-Omi-Kami to have to wash away the impurities +of Madame Prune! What a tedious and ungrateful task!! + +Chrysanthème, who is a Buddhist, prays sometimes in the evening before +lying down; although overcome with sleep, she prays clapping her hands +before the largest of our gilded idols. But she smiles with a childish +disrespect for her Buddha, directly her prayer is ended. I know that +she has also a certain veneration for her _Ottokés_ (the Spirits of +her ancestors), whose rather sumptuous altar is set up at her +mother's, Madame Renoncule's. She asks for their blessings, for +fortune and wisdom. + +Who can make out her ideas about the gods, or about death? Does she +possess a soul? Does she think she has one? Her religion is an obscure +chaos of theogonies as old as the world, treasured up out of respect +for ancient customs; and of more recent ideas about the blessed final +annihilation, imported from India at the epoch of our middle ages by +saintly Chinese missionaries. The bonzes themselves are puzzled; what +a muddle, therefore, must not all this become, when jumbled together +in the childish brain of a sleepy mousmé? + +Two very insignificant episodes have somewhat attached me to +her--(bonds of this kind seldom fail to draw closer in the end). The +first occasion was as follows:-- + +Madame Prune one day brought forth a relic of her gay youth, a +tortoiseshell comb of rare transparency, one of those combs that it is +good style to place on the summit of the head, lightly poised, +scarcely stuck at all in the air, with all the teeth showing. Taking +it out of a pretty little lacquered box, she held it up in the air and +blinked her eyes, looking through it at the sky--a bright summer +sky--as one does to examine the quality of a precious stone. + +"Here is," she said, "an object of great value that you should offer +to your little wife." + +My mousmé, very much taken by it, admired the clearness of the comb +and its graceful shape. + +The lacquered box, however, pleased me most. On the cover was a +wonderful painting in gold on gold, representing a field of rice, seen +very close, on a windy day: a tangle of ears and grass beaten down and +twisted by a terrible squall; here and there, between the distorted +stalks, the muddy earth of the rice-swamp was visible; there were even +little pools of water, produced by bits of the transparent lacquer on +which tiny particles of gold seemed to float about like chaff in a +thick liquid; two or three insects, which required a microscope to be +well seen, were clinging in a terrified manner to the rushes, and the +whole picture was no larger than a woman's hand. + +As for Madame Prune's comb, I confess it left me indifferent, and I +turned a deaf ear, thinking it very insignificant and expensive. Then +Chrysanthème answered mournfully: + +"No, thank you, I don't want it; take it away, dear Madame Prune." + +And at the same time she heaved a deep sigh, full of meaning, which +plainly said: + +"He is not so fond of me as all that.--Useless to bother him." + +I immediately made the wished-for purchase. + +Later on, when Chrysanthème will have become an old monkey like Madame +Prune, with her black teeth and long orisons, she, in her turn, will +retail that comb to some fine lady of a fresh generation. + +On another occasion the sun had given me a headache; I lay on the +floor resting my head on my snake-skin pillow. My eyes were dim, and +everything appeared to turn round: the open verandah, the big expanse +of luminous evening sky, and a variety of kites hovering against its +background; I felt myself vibrating painfully to the rhythmical sound +of the cicalas which filled the atmosphere. + +She, crouching down by my side, strove to relieve me by a Japanese +process, pressing with all her might on my temples with her little +thumbs and turning them rapidly round, as though she were boring a +hole with a gimlet. She had become quite hot and red over this hard +work, which procured me real comfort, something similar to the dreamy +intoxication of opium. + +Then, anxious and fearful lest I should have an attack of fever, she +rolled into a pellet and thrust into my mouth a very efficacious +prayer written on rice-paper, which she carefully kept in the lining +of one of her sleeves. + +Well, I swallowed that prayer without a smile, anxious not to hurt her +feelings or shake her funny little faith. + + + + +XLV. + + +To-day, Yves, my mousmé and myself went to the best photographer in +Nagasaki, to be taken in a group together. + +We shall send the photograph to France. Yves already smiles as he +thinks of his wife's astonishment when she sees Chrysanthème's little +face between us two, and he wonders what explanation he will give her. + +"Well, I will just say it is one of your friends, that's all!" + +There are, in Japan, photographers in the style of our own, with this +one difference, that they are Japanese, and inhabit Japanese houses. +The one we design to honor to-day carries on his profession in the +suburbs, in that ancient quarter of big trees and gloomy pagodas +where, the other day, I met the pretty little mousmé. His signboard, +written in several languages, is stuck up against a wall on the edge +of the little torrent which, rushing down from the green mountain +above, is crossed by many a curved bridge of old granite and lined on +either side by light bamboos or oleanders in full bloom. + +It is astonishing and puzzling to find a photographer perched there, +in the very heart of old Japan. + +We have come at the wrong moment; there is a file of people at the +door. Long rows of djins' cars are stationed there, awaiting the +customers they have brought, who will all have their turn before us. +The runners, naked and tatooed, carefully combed in sleek bands and +shiny chignons, are chatting together, smoking little pipes, or +bathing their muscular legs in the fresh water of the torrent. + +The courtyard is irreproachably Japanese, with its lanterns and dwarf +trees. But the studio where one sits might be in Paris or Pontoise; +the self-same chair in "old oak," the same faded "poufs," plaster +columns and pasteboard rocks. + +The people who are being _taken_ at this moment are two ladies of +quality, evidently mother and daughter, who are sitting together for a +cabinet-sized portrait, with accessories of Louis XV. time. A strange +group this, the first great ladies of this country I have seen so +near, with their long aristocratic faces, dull, lifeless, almost gray +by dint of rice-powder, and their mouths painted heart-shape in vivid +carmine. Withal an undeniable look of good breeding that strongly +impresses us, notwithstanding the intrinsic differences of races and +acquired notions. + +They scanned Chrysanthème with an obvious look of scorn, although her +costume was as ladylike as their own. For my part, I could not take my +eyes off these two creatures; they captivated me like incomprehensible +things that one had never seen before. Their fragile bodies, +outlandishly graceful in posture, are lost in stiff materials and +redundant sashes, of which the ends droop like tired wings. They make +me think, I know not why, of great rare insects; the extraordinary +patterns on their garments have something of the dark motley of +night-moths. Above all, the mystery of their tiny slits of eyes, +drawn back and up so far that the tight-drawn lids can scarcely open; +the mystery of their expression, which seems to denote inner thoughts +of a silly, vague, complacent absurdity, a world of ideas absolutely +closed to ourselves. And I think as I gaze at them: "How far we are +from this Japanese people! how utterly dissimilar are our races!" + +Then we have to let several English sailors pass before us, decked out +in their white drill clothes, fresh, fat and pink like little sugar +figures, who attitudinize in a sheepish manner round the shafts of the +columns. + +At last it is our turn; Chrysanthème slowly settles herself in a very +affected style, turning in the points of her toes as much as possible, +according to the fashion. + +And on the negative we are shown we look like a supremely ridiculous +little family drawn up in a line by a common photographer at a fair. + + + + +XLVI. + +_September 13th_. + + +This evening Yves is off duty three hours earlier than myself; from +time to time this is the case, according to the arrangement of the +watches. On those occasions he lands the first, and goes up to wait +for me at Diou-djen-dji. + +From the deck I can see him through the glasses, climbing up the green +mountain path; he walks with a brisk, rapid step, almost running; what +a hurry he seems in to rejoin little Chrysanthème. + +When I arrive, at about nine o'clock, I find him seated on the floor, +in the middle of my rooms, with naked torso (this is here a +sufficiently proper costume for private life, I admit). Around him are +grouped Chrysanthème, Oyouki, and Mdlle. Dédé the maid, all eagerly +rubbing his back with little blue towels decorated with storks and +humorous subjects. + +Good heavens, what can he have been doing to be so hot, and have put +himself in such a state? + +He tells me that near our house, a little higher up the mountain, he +has discovered a fencing gallery: that till nightfall he had been +engaged in a fencing bout against Japanese, who fought with two-handed +swords, springing like cats, as is the custom of their country. With +his French method of fencing he had given them a thorough good +drubbing. Upon which, with many a low bow, they had shown him their +admiration by bringing him a quantity of nice little iced things to +drink. All this combined had thrown him into a fearful perspiration. + +Ah, very well. Nevertheless this did not quite explain to me. + +He is delighted with his evening; intends to go and amuse himself +every day by beating them; he even thinks of taking pupils. + +Once his back dried, they all together, the three mousmés and himself, +play at Japanese "_pigeon vole_." Really I could not wish for anything +more innocent, or more correct in every respect. + +Charles N---- and Madame Jonquille his wife, arrived unexpectedly at +about ten o'clock. (They were wandering about in the dark shrubberies +in our neighborhood, and, seeing our lights, came up to us.) + +They intend to finish the evening at the tea-house "of the Toads," and +they try to induce us to go and drink some iced sherbets with them. It +is at least an hour's walk from here, on the other side of the town, +half way up the hill, in the gardens of the large pagoda dedicated to +Osueva; but they stick to their idea, pretending that in this clear +night and bright moonlight, we shall have a lovely view from the +terrace of the temple. + +Lovely, I have no doubt, but we had intended going to bed. However, +be it so, let us go with them. + +We hire five djins and five cars down below, in the principal street, +in front of Madame Très-Propre's shop, who, for this late expedition, +chooses for us her largest round lanterns,--big, red balloons, +decorated with star-fish, seaweed, and green sharks. + +It is nearly eleven o'clock when we make our start. In the central +quarters the virtuous Niponese are already closing their little +booths, putting out their lamps, shutting the wooden framework, +drawing their paper panels. + +Further on, in the old-fashioned suburban streets, all is shut up long +ago, and our carts roll on through the black night. We cry out to our +djins: "Ayakou! ayakou!" ("Quick! quick!") and they run as hard as +they can, uttering little shrieks, like some merry animal full of wild +gayety. We rush like a whirlwind through the darkness, all five in +Indian file, dashing and jolting over the old uneven flagstones, dimly +lighted up by our red balloons fluttering at the end of their bamboo +stems. From time to time some Niponese, night-capped in his blue +kerchief, opens a window to see who these noisy madcaps can be, +dashing by so rapidly and so late. Or else some faint glimmer, thrown +by us on our passage, discovers the hideous smile of a large stone +animal seated at the gate of a pagoda. + +At last we arrive at the foot of Osueva's temple, and, leaving our +djins with our little gigs, we clamber up the gigantic steps, +completely deserted at this hour of the night. + +Chrysanthème, who always likes to play the part of a tired little +girl, of a spoilt and pouting child, ascends slowly between Yves and +myself, clinging to our arms. + +Jonquille, on the contrary, skips up like a bird, amusing herself by +counting the endless steps: + +"Hitôts'! F'tâts'! Mits'! Yôts'!" ("One! two! three! four!") she +exclaims, springing up by a series of little light bounds. + +"Itsôôts! Moûts'! Nanâts! Yâts! Kokonôts!" ("Five! six! seven! eight! +nine!") + +She lays a great stress on the accentuations, as though to make the +numbers sound even more droll. + +A little silver aigrette glitters in her beautiful black chignon; her +delicate and graceful figure seems strangely fantastic, and the +darkness that envelops us conceals the fact that her face is almost +ugly, and almost without eyes. + +This evening Chrysanthème and Jonquille really look like little +fairies; at certain moments the most insignificant Japanese have this +appearance, by dint of whimsical elegance and ingenious arrangement. + +The granite stairs, immense, deserted, uniformly gray under the +nocturnal sky, seem to vanish into the empty space above us, and when +we turn round, to disappear in the depths beneath, to fall with the +dizzy rapidity of a dream into the abyss below. On the sloping steps +the black shadows of the gateways through which we must pass stretch +out inordinately; and the shadows, which seem to be broken at each +projecting step, bear on all their extent the regular creases of a +fan. The porticos stand up separately, rising one above the other; +their wonderful shapes are at once remarkably simple and studiously +affected; their outlines stand out sharp and distinct, having +nevertheless the vague appearance of all very large objects in the +pale moonlight. The curved architraves rise up at each extremity like +two menacing horns, pointing upwards towards the far-off blue canopy +of sky bespangled with stars, as thought they would communicate to the +gods the knowledge they have acquired in the depths of their +foundations from the earth, full of sepulchers and death, which +surrounds them. + +We are, indeed, a very small group, lost now in the immensity of the +colossal acclivity as we move onwards, lighted partly by the wan moon +on high, partly by the red lanterns we hold in our hands, ever +floating at the end of their long sticks. + +A deep silence reigns in the precincts of the temple, the sound of the +insects even is hushed as we ascend higher. A sort of reverence, a +kind of religious fear steals over us, and, at the same moment, a +delicious coolness suddenly pervades the air, and passes over us. + +On entering the courtyard above, we feel a little daunted. Here we +find the horse in jade, and the china turrets. The enclosing walls +make it the more gloomy, and our arrival seems to disturb I know not +what mysterious council held between the spirits of the air and the +visible symbols that are there, chimeras and monsters lit up by the +blue rays of the moon. + +We turn to the left, and go through the terraced gardens, to reach the +tea-house "of the Toads," which this evening is our goal; we find it +shut up--expected as much--closed and dark, at this hour! We drum all +together on the door; in the most coaxing tones we call by name the +waiting-maids we know so well: Mdlle. Transparente, Mdlle. Etoile, +Mdlle. Roséematinale, and Mdlle. Marguerite-reine. Not an answer. +Goodbye perfumed sherbets and frosted beans! + +In front of the little archery-house, our mousmés suddenly start on +one side, terrified, and declaring that there is a dead body on the +ground. Yes, indeed, someone is lying there. We cautiously examine the +place by the light of our red balloons, carefully held out at arm's +length for fear of this dead man; it is only the marksman, he who on +the 14th of July chose such magnificent arrows for Chrysanthème; and +he sleeps, good man, with his chignon somewhat dishevelled, a sound +sleep, which it would be cruel to disturb. + +Let us go to the end of the terrace, contemplate the roadstead at our +feet, and then return home. To-night the harbor looks only like a dark +and sinister rent, which the moonbeams cannot fathom,--a yawning +crevasse opening into the very bowels of the earth, at the bottom of +which lie faint and small glimmers, an assembly of glow-worms in a +ditch--the lights of the different vessels lying at anchor. + + + + +XLVII. + + +It is the middle of the night, somewhere about two in the morning. Our +night-lamps are burning still, a little dimly, in front of our +peaceful idols. Chrysanthème wakes me suddenly, and I turn to look at +her: she has raised herself on one arm, and her face expresses the +most intense terror; she makes me a sign, without daring to speak, +that someone is near, or something, creeping up to us. What ill-timed +visit is this? A feeling of fear gains possession of me also. I have a +rapid impression of some immense unknown danger, in this isolated +spot, in this strange country of which I do not even yet comprehend +the inhabitants and the mysteries. It must be something very +frightful, to hold her there, rooted to the spot, half dead with +fright, she who _does_ comprehend all these things. + +It would seem to be outside: it is coming from the garden; with +trembling hand she indicates to me that it will come through the +verandah, over Madame Prune's roof. Certainly, I can hear faint +noises, and they do approach nearer. + +I suggest to her: + +"_Neko-San?_" ("It is Messrs. the cats?") + +"No!" she replies, still terrified and in an alarming tone. + +"_Bakémono-Sama?_" ("Is it my lords the ghosts?") I have already the +Japanese habit of expressing myself with excessive politeness. + +'No!!" _"Dorobo!!"_("Thieves!!") Thieves! Ah this is better; I much +prefer this to a visit such as I have just been, dreading in the +sudden awakening from sleep: from ghosts or spirits of the dead; +thieves, that is to say, worthy fellows very much alive, and having +undoubtedly, in as much as they are Japanese thieves, faces of the +most meritorious oddity. I am not in the least frightened, now that I +know precisely what to expect, and we will immediately set to work to +ascertain the truth, for something is decidedly moving on Madame +Prune's roof; some one is walking upon it. + +I open one of our wooden panels and look out. + +I can see only a vast expanse, calm, peaceful, and exquisite under the +full brilliancy of the moonlight; sleeping Japan lulled by the +sonorous song of the grasshoppers is charming indeed to-night, and the +free pure air is delicious to breathe. + +Chrysanthème, half hidden behind my shoulder, listens tremblingly, +peering forward to examine the gardens and the roofs with dilated eyes +like a frightened cat. No, nothing! not a thing moves. Here and there +are a few strangely substantial shadows, which at the first glance +were not easy to explain, but which turn out to be real shadows, +thrown by bits of wall, by boughs of trees, and which preserve an +extremely reassuring stillness. Everything seems absolutely tranquil, +and profound silence reigns in the dreamy vagueness which moonlight +sheds over all. + +Nothing; nothing to be seen anywhere. It was Messrs, the cats after +all, or perhaps my ladies the owls; sounds increase in volume in the +most amazing manner at night, in this house of ours. + +Let us close the panel again carefully, as a measure of prudence, and +then light a lantern and go downstairs to see if there may be any one +hidden in corners, and if the doors are tightly shut: in short, to +reassure Chrysanthème we will go the round of the house. + +Behold us then, on tip-toe, searching together every hole and corner +of the house, which, to judge by its foundations, must be very +ancient, notwithstanding the fragile appearance of its panels of white +paper. It contains the blackest of cavities, little vaulted cellars +with worm-eaten beams; cupboards for rice which smell of mould and +decay; mysterious hollows where lies accumulated the dust of +centuries. In the middle of the night, and during a hunt for thieves, +this part of the house, as yet unknown to me, has an ugly look. + +Noiselessly we step across the apartment of our landlord and landlady. +Chrysanthème drags me by the hand, and I allow myself to be led. +There they are, sleeping in a row under their blue gauze tent, lighted +by the night-lamps burning before the altars of their ancestors. Ha! I +observe that they are arranged in an order which might give rise to +gossip. First comes Mdlle. Oyouki, very taking in her attitude of +rest. Then Madame Prune, who sleeps with her mouth wide open, showing +her rows of blackened teeth; from her throat arises an intermittent +sound like the grunting of a sow. Oh! poor Madame Prune! how hideous +she is!! Next, M. Sucre, a mere mummy for the time being. And finally, +at his side, last of the row, is their servant, Mdlle. Dédé!!! + +The gauze hanging over them throws reflections as of the sea upon +them; one might suppose them victims drowned in an aquarium. And +withal the sacred lamps, the altar crowded with strange Shintoist +symbols, give a mock religious air to this family picture. + +_Honi soit qui mal y pense_, but why is not that servant-girl rather +laid by the side of her mistresses? Now, when we on the floor above +offer our hospitality to Yves, we are careful to place ourselves under +our mosquito-net in a more correct style. + +One corner, which as a last resort we inspect, inspires me with a +certain amount of apprehension. It is a low, mysterious loft, against +the door of which is stuck, as a thing no longer wanted, a very old +pious image: _Kwanon with the thousand arms, and Kwanon with the +horses' head_, seated among clouds and flames, and horrible both of +them to behold, with their spectral grin. + +We open the door, and Chrysanthème starts back uttering a fearful cry. +I should have thought the robbers were there, had I not seen a little +grey creature, rapid and noiseless, rush by her and disappear; a young +rat that had been eating rice on the top of a shelf, and, in its +alarm, had dashed in her face. + + + + +XLVIII + +_September 14th_. + + +Yves has dropped his silver whistle in the sea, the whistle so +absolutely indispensable for the maneuvers; and we search the town +through all day long, followed by Chrysanthème and Mdlles. La Neige +and La Lune, her sisters, in the endeavor to procure another. + +It is, however, very difficult to find such a thing in Nagasaki; above +all, very difficult to explain in Japanese what is a sailor's whistle +of the traditional shape, curved and with a little ball at the end to +modulate the trills and the various sounds of official orders. For +three hours we are sent from shop to shop; at each one they pretend to +understand perfectly what is wanted and trace on tissue-paper, with a +paint-brush, the addresses of the shops where we shall without fail +meet with what we require,--away we go, full of hope, only to +encounter some fresh mystification, till our breathless djins get +quite bewildered. + +They understand admirably that we want a thing that will make a noise, +music in short; thereupon they offer us instruments of every and the +most unexpected shape,--squeakers for Punch-and-Judy voices, +dog-whistles, trumpets. Each time it is something more and more +absurd, so that at last we are overcome with uncontrollable fits of +laughter. Last of all, an aged Japanese optician, who assumes a most +knowing air, a look of sublime wisdom, goes off to forage in his back +shop, and brings to light a steam fog-horn, a relic from some wrecked +steamer. + +After dinner, the chief event of the evening is a deluge of rain which +takes us by surprise as we leave the tea-houses, on our return from +our fashionable stroll. It so happened that we were a large party, +having with us several mousmé guests, and from the moment that the +rain began to fall from the skies, as if out of a watering-pot turned +upside down, the band became disorganized. The mousmés run off, with +birdlike cries, and take refuge under door-ways, in the shops, under +the hoods of the djins. + +Then, before long,--when the shops shut up in haste, when the emptied +streets are flooded, and almost black, and the paper lanterns, piteous +objects, wet through and extinguished,--I find myself, I know not how +it happens, flattened against a wall, under the projecting eaves, +alone in the company of Mdlle. Fraise, my cousin, who is crying +bitterly because her fine dress is wet through. And in the noise of +the rain, which is still falling and splashing everything; with the +spouts and gutters, which in the darkness plaintively murmur like +running streams, the town appears to me suddenly an abode of the +gloomiest sadness. + +The shower is soon over, and the mousmés come out of their holes like +so many mice; they look for each other, call each other, and their +little voices take the singular melancholy, dragging inflections they +assume whenever they have to call from afar. + +"Hi! Mdlle. Lu-u-u-u une!!" + +"Hi! Madame Jonqui-i-i-i ille!!" + +They shout from one to the other their outlandish names, prolonging +them indefinitely in the now silent night, in the reverberations of +the damp air after the great summer rain. + +At length they are all collected and united again, these tiny +personages with narrow eyes and no brains, and we return to +Diou-djen-dji all wet through. + +For the third time, we have Yves sleeping beside us under our blue +tent. + +There is a great row soon after midnight in the apartment beneath us: +our landlord's family returning from a pilgrimage to a far-distant +temple of the Goddess of Grace. (Although Madame Prune is a Shintoist, +she reveres this deity, who, scandal says, watched over her youth.) A +moment after, Mdlle. Oyouki bursts into our room like a rocket, +bringing, on a charming little tray, sweetmeats which have been +blessed and bought at the gates of the temple yonder, on purpose for +us, and which we must positively eat at once, before the virtue is +gone out of them. Scarcely rousing ourselves, we absorb these little +edibles flavored with sugar and pepper, and return a great many sleepy +thanks. + +Yves sleeps quietly on this occasion, without dealing any blows to the +floor or the panels either with fists or feet. He has hung his watch +on one of the hands of our gilded idol in order to be more sure of +seeing the hour at any time of the night, by the light of the sacred +lamps. He gets up betimes in the morning, asking: "Well, did I behave +properly?" and dresses in haste, preoccupied about duty and the +roll-call. + +Outside, no doubt, it is daylight already: through the tiny holes +which time has pierced in our wooden panels, threads of morning light +penetrate our chamber, and in the atmosphere of our room where night +still lingers, they trace vague white rays. Soon, when the sun shall +have risen, these rays will lengthen and become beautifully golden. +The cocks and the cicalas make themselves heard, and now Madame Prune +will begin her mystic drone. + +Nevertheless, out of politeness for Yves-San, Chrysanthème lights a +lantern and escorts him to the foot of the dark staircase. I even +fancy that, on parting, I hear a kiss exchanged. In Japan this is of +no consequence, that I know; it is very usual, and quite admissible; +no matter where one goes, in houses one enters for the first time, one +is quite at liberty to kiss any mousmé who may be present, without any +notice being taken of it. But with regard to Chrysanthème, Yves is in +a delicate position, and he ought to understand it better. I begin to +feel uneasy about the hours they have so often spent together alone; +and I make up my mind, that this very day I will not play the spy +upon them, but speak frankly to Yves, and make a clear breast of it. + +All at once from below, _clac! clac!_ two dry hands clapped together; +it is Madame Prune's warning to the Great Spirit. And immediately +after her prayer breaks forth, soars upwards in a shrill nasal +falsetto, like a morning alarm when the hour for waking has come, the +mechanical noise of a spring let go and running down. + +_"The richest woman in the world. Cleansed from all my sins, O +Ama-Térace-Omi-Kami, in the river of Kamo."_ + +And this extraordinary bleating, scarcely human, scatters and changes +my ideas, which were very nearly clear at the moment I awoke. + + + + +XLIX. + +_September 15th_. + + +There is a rumor of departure in the air. Since yesterday there has +been vague talk of our being sent to China, to the gulf of Pekin; one +of those rumors which spread, no one knows how, from one end of the +ship to the other, two or three days before the official orders +arrive, and which generally turn out tolerably correct. What will the +last act of my little Japanese comedy be like? the dénouement, the +separation? Will there be any touch of sadness on the part of my +mousmé, or on my own, just a tightening of the heart-strings at the +moment of our final farewell? At this moment I can imagine nothing of +the sort. And then the adieux of Yves and Chrysanthème, what will they +be? This question preoccupies me more than all. + +There is nothing very precise as yet, but it is certain that one way +or another, our stay in Japan is coming to an end. It is this perhaps +which disposes me this evening, to throw a more friendly glance on my +surroundings. It is about six o'clock, after a day spent on duty, when +I reach Diou-djen-dji. The evening sun, low in the sky, on the point +of setting, pours into my room, and floods it with rays of red gold, +lighting up the Buddhas and the great sheaves of quaintly arranged +flowers in the antique vases. Here are assembled five or six little +dolls, my neighbors, amusing themselves by dancing to the sound of +Chrysanthème's guitar. And this evening I experience a real charm in +feeling that this dwelling and the woman who leads the dance, are +mine. On the whole I have perhaps been unjust to this country; it +seems to me that my eyes are at last opened to see it in its true +light, that all my senses are undergoing a strange and abrupt +transition; I suddenly have a better perception and appreciation of +all the infinity of dainty trifles amongst which I live; of the +fragile and studied grace of their forms, the oddity of their +drawings, the refined choice of their colors. + +I stretch myself upon the white mats; Chrysanthème, always eagerly +attentive, brings me my pillow of serpent's skin; and the smiling +mousmés, with the interrupted rhythm of a while ago still running in +their heads, move round me with measured steps. + +Their irreproachable socks with the separate great toes, make no +noise; nothing is heard, as they glide by, but a froufrou of silken +stuffs. I find them all pleasant to look upon; their dollish air has +the gift of pleasing me now, and I fancy I have discovered what it is +that gives it to them: it is not only their round inexpressive faces +with eyebrows far removed from the eyelids, but the excessive +amplitude of their dress. With those huge sleeves, it might be +supposed they have neither back nor shoulders; their delicate figures +are lost in these wide robes, which float around what might be little +marionnettes without bodies at all, and which would slip to the ground +of themselves were they not kept together midway, about where a waist +should be, by the wide silken sashes,--a very different comprehension +of the art of dressing to ours, which endeavors as much as possible to +bring into relief the curves, real or false, of the figure. + +And then, how much I admire the flowers arranged by Chrysanthème in +our vases, with her Japanese taste: lotus flowers, great sacred +flowers of a tender, veined rose-color, the milky rose-color seen on +porcelain; they resemble, when in full bloom, great water-lilies, and +when only in bud, might be taken for long pale tulips. Their soft but +rather cloying scent is added to that other indefinable odor of +mousmés, of yellow race, of Japan, which is always and everywhere in +the air. The late flowers of September, at this season very rare and +expensive, grow on longer stems than the summer blooms; Chrysanthème +has left them their immense aquatic leaves of a melancholy +seaweed-green, and mingled with them tall slight rushes. I look at +them, and recall with some irony those great round bunches in the +shape of cauliflowers, which our florists sell in France, wrapt in +their white lace-paper. + +Still no letters from Europe, from any one. How things change, become +effaced and forgotten. Here I am accommodating myself to this finical +Japan and dwindling down to its affected mannerism; I feel that my +thoughts run in smaller grooves, my tastes incline to smaller +things,--things which suggest nothing greater than a smile. I am +becoming used to tiny and ingenious furniture, to doll-like desks, to +miniature bowls with which to play at dinner, to the immaculate +monotony of the mats, to the finely finished simplicity of the white +woodwork. I am even losing my Western prejudices; all my preconceived +ideas are this evening evaporating and vanishing; crossing the garden +I have courteously saluted M. Sucre, who was watering his dwarf shrubs +and his deformed flowers; and Madame Prune appears to me a highly +respectable old lady, in whose past there is nothing to criticise. + +We shall take no walk to-night; my only wish is to remain stretched +out where I am, listening to the music of my mousmé's _chamécen_. + +Till now, I have always used the word _guitar_, to avoid exotic terms, +for the abuse of which I have been so reproached. But neither the word +_guitar_ nor _mandolin_ suffices to designate this slender instrument +with its long neck, the high notes of which are shriller than the +voice of the grasshopper; henceforth, I will write _chamécen_. + +I will also call my mousmé _Kikou, Kikou-San_; this name suits her +better than Chrysanthème, which though translating the sense exactly, +does not preserve the strange-sounding euphony of the original. + +I therefore say to Kikou, my wife: + +"Play, play on for me; I shall remain here all the evening and listen +to you." + +Astonished to find me in so amiable a mood, she requires pressing a +little, and with almost a bitter curve of triumph and disdain about +her lips, she seats herself in the attitude of an idol, raises her +long, dark-colored sleeves, and begins. The first hesitating notes are +murmured faintly and mingle with the music of the insects humming +outside, in the quiet air of the warm and golden twilight. First she +plays slowly, a confused medley of fragments which she does not seem +to remember perfectly, of which one waits for the finish and waits in +vain; while the other girls giggle, inattentive, and regretful of +their interrupted dance. She herself is absent, sulky, as though she +were performing a duty only. + +Then by degrees, little by little, it becomes more animated, and the +mousmés begin to listen. Now, tremblingly it grows into a feverish +rapidity, and her gaze has no longer the vacant stare of a doll. Then +the music changes again; in it there is the sighing of the wind, the +hideous laughter of ghouls; tears, heartrending plaints, and her +dilated pupils seem to be directed inwardly in settled gaze on some +indescribable _Japanesery_ within her own soul. + +I listen, lying there with eyes half shut, looking out between my +drooping eyelids which are gradually lowering, in involuntary +heaviness, upon the enormous red sun dying away over Nagasaki. I have +a somewhat melancholy feeling that my past life and all other places +in the world are receding from my view and fading away. At this moment +of nightfall I feel almost at home in this corner of Japan, amidst the +gardens of this suburb; I have never had such an impression before. + + + + +L. + +_September 16th_. + + +Seven o'clock in the evening. We shall not go down into the town +to-day; but, like good Japanese citizens, remain in our loftly suburb. + +In undress uniform we shall go, Yves and I, in a neighborly way, as +far as the fencing gallery, which is only two steps off, just above +our villa, and almost abutting on our fresh and scented garden. + +The gallery is closed already and a little mousko seated at the door, +explains with many low bows that we come too late, all the amateurs +are gone; we must come again to-morrow. + +The evening is so mild and so fine, that we remain out of doors, +following without any definite purpose the pathway which rises ever +higher and higher, and loses itself at length in the solitary regions +of the mountain among the upper peaks. + +For an hour at least we wander on,--an unintended walk,--and finally +find ourselves at a great height commanding an endless perspective +lighted by the last gleams of daylight; we are in a desolate and +mournful spot, in the midst of the little Buddhist cemeteries, which +are scattered over the country in every direction. + +We meet a few belated laborers, who are returning from the fields with +bundles of tea upon their shoulders. These peasants have a half savage +air, half naked too, or clothed only in long robes of blue cotton; as +they pass, they salute us with humble bows. + +No trees in this elevated region. Fields of tea alternate with tombs: +old granite statues which represent Buddha in his lotus, or else old +monumental stones on which gleam remains of inscriptions in golden +letters. Rocks, brushwood, uncultivated spaces, surround us on all +sides. + +There are no more passers-by, and the light is failing. We will halt +for a moment, and then it will be time to turn our steps downwards. + +But, close to the spot where we stand, a box in white wood provided +with handles, a sort of sedan-chair, rests on the freshly disturbed +earth, with its lotus of silvered paper, and the little incense-sticks +burning yet, by its side; clearly someone has been buried here this +very evening. + +I cannot picture this personage to myself; the Japanese are so +grotesque in life, that it is almost impossible to imagine them in the +calm majesty of death. Nevertheless, let us move further on, we might +disturb him; he is too recently dead, his presence unnerves us. We +will go and seat ourselves on one of these other tombs, so unutterably +ancient that there can no longer be anything within it but dust. And +there, seated yet in the dying sunlight, while the valleys and plains +of the earth below are already lost in shadow, we will talk together. + +I wish to speak to Yves about Chrysanthème; it is indeed somewhat in +view of this that I have persuaded him to sit down; but how to set +about it without hurting his feelings, and without making myself +ridiculous, I hardly know. However, the pure air playing round me up +here, and the magnificent landscape spread beneath my feet, impart a +certain serenity to my thoughts which makes me feel a contemptuous +pity, both for my suspicions and the cause of them. + +We speak, first of all, of the order for departure which may arrive at +any moment, for China or for France. Soon we shall have to leave this +easy and almost amusing life, this Japanese suburb where chance has +installed us, and our little house buried among flowers. Yves perhaps +will regret all this more than I shall, I know that well enough; for +it is the first time that any such interlude has broken the rude +monotony of his hard-worked career. Formerly, when in an inferior +rank, he was scarcely more often on shore, in foreign countries, than +the sea-gulls themselves; whilst I have, from the very beginning, been +spoilt by residence in all sorts of charming spots, infinitely +superior to this, in all sorts of countries, and the remembrance +pleasurably haunts me still. + +In order to discover how the land lies, I risk the remark: + +"You will perhaps be more sorry to leave this little Chrysanthème than +I am?" + +Silence reigns between us. + +After which I pursue, and, burning my ships, I add: + +"You know, after all, if you have such a fancy for her, I haven't +really married her; one can't really consider her my wife." + +In great surprise he looks in my face: + +"Not your wife, you say? But, by Jove, though, that's just it; she is +your wife." + +There is no need of many words at any time between us two; I know +exactly now, by his tone, by his great good-humored smile, how the +case stands; I understand all that lies in the little phrase: "That's +just it, she is your wife." If she were not, well then he could not +answer for what might happen,--notwithstanding any remorse he might +have in the depths of his heart, since he is no longer a bachelor and +free as air, as in former days. But he considers her my wife, and she +is sacred. I have the fullest faith in his word, and I experience a +positive relief, a real joy, at finding my staunch Yves of bygone +days. How could I have so succumbed to the demeaning influence of my +surroundings as to suspect him even, and invent for myself such a +mean, petty anxiety? + +We will never even mention that doll again. + +We remain up there very late, talking of other things, gazing the +while at the immense depths below our feet, at the valleys and +mountains as they become one by one indistinct and lost in the +deepening darkness. Placed as we are at an enormous height, in the +wide free atmosphere, we seem already to have quitted this miniature +country, already to be freed from the impression of littleness which +it has given us, and from the little links by which it was beginning +to bind us to itself. + +Seen from such heights as these, all the countries of the globe bear a +strong resemblance to each other; they lose the imprint made upon them +by man, and by races; by all the atoms swarming on the surface. + +As of old, in the Breton marshes, in the woods of Toulven, or at sea +in the night-watches, we talk of all those things to which thoughts +naturally revert in darkness; of ghosts, of spirits, of eternity, of +the great hereafter, of chaos--and we entirely forget little +Chrysanthème! + +When we arrive at Diou-djen-dji in the starry night, it is the music +of her _chamécen_, heard from afar, which recalls to us her existence; +she is studying some vocal duet with Mdlle. Oyouki, her pupil. + +I feel myself in very good humor this evening, and, relieved from any +absurd suspicions about my poor Yves, am quite disposed to enjoy +without reserve my last days in Japan, and derive therefrom all the +amusement possible. + +Let us then stretch ourselves out on the dazzling white mats, and +listen to the singular duet sung by these two mousmés: a strange +musical medley, slow and mournful, beginning with two or three high +notes, and descending at each couplet, in almost an imperceptible +manner, into actual solemnity. The song keeps its dragging slowness; +but the accompaniment becoming more and more accentuated, is like the +impetuous sound of a far-off hurricane. At the end, when these girlish +voices, generally so soft, give out their hoarse and guttural notes, +Chrysanthème's hands fly wildly and convulsively over the quivering +strings. Both of them lower their heads, pout their under-lips in the +effort of bringing out these astonishingly deep notes. And at these +moments, their little narrow eyes open and seem to reveal an +unexpected something, almost a soul, under these trappings of +marionnettes. + +But it is a soul which more than ever appears to me of a different +species to my own; I feel my thoughts to be far removed from theirs, +as from the flitting conceptions of a bird, or the dreams of a monkey; +I feel there is betwixt them and myself a great gulf, mysterious and +awful. + +Other sounds of music, wafted to us from the distance outside, +interrupt for a moment that of our mousmés. From the depths below, +down in Nagasaki, arises a sudden noise of gongs and guitars; we rush +to the balcony of the verandah to hear it better. + +It is a _matsouri_, a fête, a procession passing through the quarter +which is not so virtuous as our own, so our mousmés tell us, with a +disdainful toss of the head. Nevertheless, from the heights on which +we dwell, seen thus in a bird's-eye view, by the uncertain light of +the stars, this district has a singularly chaste air, and the concert +going on therein, purified in its ascent from the depths of the abyss +to our lofty altitudes, reaches us confusedly, a smothered, enchanted, +enchanting sound. + +Then it diminishes, and dies away into silence. + +The two little friends return to their seats on the mats, and once +more take up their melancholy duet. An orchestra, discreetly subdued +but innumerable, of crickets and cicalas, accompanies them in an +unceasing tremolo,--the immense far-reaching tremolo, which, gentle +and eternal, never ceases on Japanese land. + + + + +LI. + +_September 17th_. + + +During the hour of siesta, the abrupt order arrives to start to-morrow +for China, for Tchefou (a horrid place in the gulf of Pekin). It is +Yves who comes to wake me in my cabin to bring me the news. + +"I must positively get leave to go on shore this evening," he says, +while I endeavor to shake myself awake, "if it is only to help you to +dismantle and pack up there." + +He gazes through my port-hole, raising his glance towards the green +summits, in the direction of Diou-djen-dji and our echoing old +cottage, hidden from us by a turn of the mountain. + +It is very nice of him to wish to help me in my packing; but I think +he also counts upon saying farewell to his little Japanese friends up +there, and I really cannot find fault with that. + +He gets through his work, and does in fact get leave without help from +me, to go on shore at five o'clock, after drill and manÅ“uvres. + +As for myself, I start off at once, in a hired sampan. In the vast +flood of midday sunshine, to the quivering noise of the cicalas, I +mount up to Diou-djen-dji. + +The paths are solitary, the plants drooping in the heat. Here, +however, is Madame Jonquille, taking the air, in the bright sunshine +of the grasshoppers, sheltering her dainty figure and her charming +face under an immense paper parasol, a huge circle, closely ribbed and +fantastically striped. + +She recognizes me from afar, and laughing as usual, runs to meet me. + +I announce our departure, and a tearful pout suddenly contracts her +childish face. After all, does this news grieve her? Is she going to +shed tears over it? No! it turns to a fit of laughter, a little +nervous perhaps, but unexpected and disconcerting,--dry and clear, +pealing through the silence and warmth of the narrow paths, like a +cascade of little mock pearls. + +Ah, there indeed is a marriage tie which will be broken without much +pain! But she fills me with impatience, poor empty-headed linnet, with +her laughter, and I turn my back upon her to continue my journey. + +Up above, Chrysanthème sleeps, stretched out on the floor; the house +is wide open, and the soft mountain breeze rustles gently through it. + +That same evening we had intended to give a tea-party, and by my +orders flowers had already been placed in every nook and corner of the +house. There were lotus in our vases, beautiful rose-colored lotus, +the last of the season, I verily believe. They must have been ordered +from a special gardener, out yonder near the Great Temple, and they +will cost me dear. + +With a few gentle taps of a fan I awake my surprised mousmé; and, +curious to catch her first impressions, I announce my departure. She +starts up, rubs her eyelids with the back of her little hands, looks +at me, and hangs her head: something like an expression of sadness +passes in her eyes. + +This little sinking at the heart is for Yves, no doubt. + +The news spreads through the house. + +Mdlle. Oyouki dashes upstairs, with half a tear in each of her babyish +eyes; kisses me with her full red lips, which always leave a wet ring +on my cheek; then quickly draws from her wide sleeve a square of +tissue-paper, wipes away her stealthy tears, blows her little nose, +rolls the bit of paper in a ball, and throws it into the street on the +parasol of a passer-by. + +Then Madame Prune makes her appearance; in an agitated and discomposed +manner she successively adopts every attitude expressive of utter +dismay. What on earth is the matter with the old lady, and why will +she keep getting closer and closer to me, till she is almost in my +way? + +It is wonderful all I still have to do this last day, and the endless +drives I have to make to the old curiosity shops, to my tradespeople, +and to the packers. + +Nevertheless before my rooms are dismantled, I intend making a sketch +of them, as I did formerly at Stamboul. It really seems to me as if +all I do here is a bitter parody of all I did over there. + +This time, however, it is not that I care for this dwelling; it is +only because it is pretty and uncommon, and the sketch will be an +interesting souvenir. + +I fetch, therefore, a leaf out of my album, and begin at once, seated +on the floor and leaning on my desk, ornamented with grasshoppers in +relief, while behind me, very, very close to me, the three women +follow the movements of my pencil with an astonished attention. +Japanese art being entirely conventional, they have never before seen +anyone draw from nature, and my style delights them. I may not perhaps +possess the steady and nimble touch of M. Sucre, as he groups his +charming storks, but I am master of a few notions of perspective which +are wanting in him; and I have been taught to draw things as I see +them, without giving them ingeniously distorted and grimacing +attitudes; and the three Japanese are amazed at the air of _reality_ +thrown in my sketch. + +With little shrieks of admiration, they point out to each other the +different things, as little by little their shape and form are +outlined in black on my paper. Chrysanthème gazes at me with a new +kind of interest: "_Anata itchi-ban_!" she says (literally "Thou +first!" meaning: "You are really quite a swell!") Mdlle. Oyouki is +carried away by her admiration and exclaims in a burst of enthusiasm: + +_"Anata bakari!"_ ("Thou alone!" that is to say: "There is no one like +you in the world, all the rest are mere rubbish!") + +Madame Prune says nothing, but I can see that she does not think the +less; her languishing attitudes, her hand that at each moment gently +touches mine, confirm the suspicions that her look of dismay a few +moments ago awoke within me: evidently my physical charms speak to her +imagination, which in spite of years has remained full of romance! I +shall leave with the regret of having understood her too late!! + +If the ladies are satisfied with my sketch, I am far from being so. I +have put everything in its place most exactly, but as a whole, it has +an ordinary, indifferent, French look which does not suit. The +sentiment is not given, and I almost wonder whether I should not have +done better in falsifying the perspective,--Japanese style--and +exaggerating to the very utmost the already abnormal outlines of what +I see before me. And then the pictured dwelling lacks the fragile look +and its sonority, that reminds one of a dry violin. In the penciled +delineation of the woodwork, the minute delicacy with which it is +wrought is wanting; neither have I been able to render the extreme +antiquity, the perfect cleanliness, nor the vibrating song of the +cicalas that seems to have been stored away within it, in its +parched-up fibers, during some hundreds of summers. It does not either +convey the impression this place gives of being in a far-off suburb, +perched aloft among trees, above the drollest of towns. No, all this +cannot be drawn, cannot be expressed, but remains undemonstrable, +undefinable. + +Having sent out our invitations, we shall in spite of everything, give +our tea-party this evening,--a parting tea, therefore, in which we +will display as much pomp as possible. It is, moreover, rather my +custom to wind up my exotic existences with a fête; in other countries +I have done the same. + +Besides our usual set, we shall have my mother-in-law, my relatives, +and all the mousmés of the neighborhood. But, by an extra Japanese +refinement, we shall not admit a single European friend,--not even the +_amazingly tall_ one. Yves alone shall be admitted, and even he shall +be hidden away in a corner behind some flowers and works of art. + +In the last glimmer of twilight, by the first twinkling star, the +ladies, with many charming curtseys, make their appearance. Our house +is soon full of the little crouching women, with their tiny slit eyes +vaguely smiling; their beautifully dressed hair shining like polished +ebony; their fragile bodies lost in the many folds or the exaggerated +wide garments, that gape as if ready to drop from their little +tapering backs and reveal the exquisite napes of their little necks. + +Chrysanthème, with somewhat a melancholy air; my mother-in-law +Renoncule, with many affected graces, busy themselves in the midst of +the different groups, where ere long the miniature pipes are lighted. +Soon there arises a murmuring sound of discreet laughter, expressing +nothing, but having a pretty exotic ring about it, and then begins a +harmony of _pan! pan! pan!_ sharp, rapid taps against the edges of the +finely lacquered smoking-boxes. Pickled and spiced fruits are handed +round on trays of quaint and varied shapes. Then transparent china +tea-cups, no larger than half an egg-shell, make their appearance, and +the ladies are offered a few drops of sugarless tea, poured out of toy +kettles, or a sip of _saki_--(a spirit made from rice which it is the +custom to serve hot, in elegantly shaped vases, long-necked like a +heron's throat). + +Several mousmés execute, one after the other, improvizations on the +_chamécen_. Others sing in sharp high voices hopping about +continually, like cicalas in delirium. + +Madame Prune, no longer able to make a mystery of the long-pent up +feelings that agitate her, pays me the most marked and tender +attentions, and begs my acceptance of a quantity of little souvenirs: +an image, a little vase, a little porcelain goddess of the Moon in +Satsuma ware, a marvelously grotesque ivory figure;--I tremblingly +follow her into the dark corners whither she calls me to give me these +presents in a _tête-à -tête_. + +At about nine o'clock, with a silken rustling, arrive the three +guéchas in vogue in Nagasaki: Mdlles. Pureté, Orange, and Printemps, +whom I have hired at four dollars a head,--an enormous price in this +country. + +These three guéchas are indeed the very same little creatures I heard +singing on the rainy day of my arrival, through the thin paneling of +the _Garden of Flowers_. But as I have now become thoroughly +_Japanized_, to-day they appear to me more diminutive, less +outlandish, and in no way mysterious. I treat them rather as dancers +that I have hired, and the idea that I had ever thought of marrying +one of them now makes me shrug my shoulders,--as it formerly did M. +Kangourou. + +The excessive heat caused by the respiration of the mousmés and the +burning lamps, brings out the perfume of the lotus, which fills the +heavy-laden atmosphere; and the scent of the camelia-oil the ladies +use in profusion to make their hair glisten, is also strong in the +room. + +Mdlle. Orange, the youngest guécha, tiny and dainty, her lips outlined +with gilt paint, executes some delightful steps, donning the most +extraordinary wigs and masks in wood or cardboard. She has masks +imitating old noble ladies which are valuable works of art, signed by +well-known artists. She has also magnificent long robes, fashioned in +the old style, and trains trimmed at the bottom with thick pads, in +order to give to the movements of the costume something rigid and +unnatural which, however, is becoming. + +Now the soft balmy breezes blow through the room, from one verandah to +the other, making the flames of the lamps flicker. They scatter the +lotus flowers faded by the artificial heat, which, falling in pieces +from every vase, sprinkle the guests with their pollen and large pink +petals, looking like bits of broken opal-colored glass. + +The sensational piece, reserved for the end, is a trio on the +_chamécen_, long and monotonous, that the guéchas perform as a rapid +_pizzicato_ on the highest strings, very sharply struck. It sounds +like the very quintescence, the paraphrase, the exasperation if I may +so call it, of the eternal buzz of insects, which issues from the +trees, old roofs, old walls, from everything in fact, and which is the +ground-work of all Japanese sounds. + +Half-past ten! The program has been carried out, and the reception is +over. A last general _pan! pan! pan!_ the little pipes are stowed away +into their chased sheaths, tied up in the sashes, and the mousmés rise +to depart. + +They light, at the end of short sticks, a quantity of red, gray or +blue lanterns, and after a series of endless bows and curtseys, the +guests disperse themselves in the darkness of the lanes and trees. + +We also go down to the town,--Yves, Chrysanthème, Oyouki, and +myself,--in order to conduct my mother-in-law, sisters-in-law, and +youthful aunt, Madame Nénufar, to their house. + +We want to take one last stroll together in our old familiar pleasure +haunts, drink one more iced sherbet at the house of the _Indescribable +Butterflies_, buy one more lantern at Madame Très-Propre's, and eat +some parting waffles at Madame L'Heure's! + +I try to be affected, moved, by this leave-taking, but without +success. In this Japan, as with the little men and women who inhabit +it, there is something decidedly wanting; pleasant enough as a mere +pastime, it begets no feeling of attachment. + +On our return, when I am once more with Yves and the two mousmés +climbing up the road to Diou-djen-dji, which I shall probably never +see again, a vague feeling of melancholy pervades my last stroll. + +It is, however, but the melancholy inseparable from all things that +are about to end without possibility of return. + +Moreover, this calm and splendid summer is also drawing to a close for +us,--since to-morrow we shall go forth to meet the autumn, in Northern +China. I am beginning, alas! to count the youthful summers I may still +hope for; I feel more gloomy each time another fades away, and flies +to rejoin the others already disappeared in the dark and bottomless +abyss, where all past things lie buried. + +At midnight we return home, and my removal begins; while on board the +_amazingly tall friend_ kindly takes my watch. + +It is a nocturnal, rapid, stealthy removal,--_"dorobo_ (thieves) +fashion" remarks Yves, who in frequenting the mousmés has picked up a +smattering of the Niponese language. + +Messrs, the packers have, at my request, sent in the evening several +charming little boxes, with compartments and false bottoms, and +several paper bags (in the untearable Japanese paper), which close of +themselves and are fastened by strings, also in paper, arranged +beforehand in the most ingenious manner,--quite the cleverest and most +handy thing of its kind; for little useful trifles these people are +unrivaled. + +It is a real treat to pack them, and everybody lends a helping +hand,--Yves, Chrysanthème, Madame Prune, her daughter, and M. Sucre. +By the glimmer of the reception-lamps, which are still burning, every +one wraps, rolls, and ties up expeditiously, for it is already late. + +Although Oyouki has a heavy heart, she cannot prevent herself from +indulging in a few bursts of childish laughter while she works. + +Madame Prune, bathed in tears, no longer restrains her feelings; poor +lady, I really very much regret.... + +Chrysanthème is absent-minded and silent. + +But what a fearful amount of luggage! Eighteen cases or parcels, +containing Buddhas, chimeras, and vases, without mentioning the last +lotus that I carry away tied up in a pink cluster. + +All this is piled up in the djins' carts, hired at sunset, which are +waiting at the door, while their runners lie asleep on the grass. + +A starlit and exquisite night. We start off with lighted lanterns, +followed by the three sorrowful ladies who accompany us, and by abrupt +slopes, dangerous in the darkness, we descend towards the sea. + +The djins, stiffening their muscular legs, hold back with all their +might the heavily loaded little cars which would run down by +themselves if let alone, and that so rapidly, that they would rush +into empty space with my most valuable chattels. Chrysanthème walks by +my side, and expresses, in a soft and winning manner, her regret that +the _wonderfully tall friend_ did not offer to replace me for the +whole of my night-watch, as that would have allowed me to spend this +last night, even till morning, under our roof. + +"Listen," she says, "come back to-morrow in the daytime, before +getting under way, to bid me good-by; I shall only return to my mother +in the evening; you will find me still up there." + +And I promise. + +They stop at a certain turn, from whence we have a bird's-eye view of +the whole roadstead; the black stagnant waters reflect innumerable +distant fires, and the ships--tiny immovable little objects, which +seen from our point of view take the shape of fish, seem also to +slumber,--little objects which serve to bear us _elsewhere_, to go far +away, and to forget. + +The three ladies are going to turn back home, for the night is +already far advanced, and lower down, the cosmopolitan quarters near +the quays are not safe at this unusual hour. + +The moment has therefore come for Yves--who will not land again--to +make his last tragic farewells to his friends the little mousmés. + +Now I am very curious to see the parting between Yves and +Chrysanthème; I listen with all my ears, I look with all my eyes, it +takes place in the simplest and quietest fashion: none of that +heartbreaking which will be inevitable between Madame Prune and +myself; I even notice in my mousmé an indifference, an unconcern which +puzzles me; I positively am at a loss to understand what it all means. + +And I muse to myself as I continue to descend towards the sea. "Her +appearance of sadness was not, therefore, on Yves' account. On whose, +then?" and the phrase runs through my head: + +"Come back to-morrow before setting sail, to bid me good-by; I shall +only return to my mother in the evening; you will find me still up +there." + +Japan is indeed most delightful this evening, so fresh and so sweet; +and little Chrysanthème was very charming just now, as she silently +walked beside me through the darkness of the lane. + +It is about two o'clock when we reach the _Triomphante_ in a hired +sampan, where I have heaped up all my cases till there is danger of +sinking. The _very tall friend_ gives over to me the watch that I must +keep till four o'clock; and the sailors on duty, but half awake, make +a chain in the darkness, to haul on board all my fragile luggage. + + + + +LII. + +_September 18th_. + + +I had planned to sleep late this morning, in order to make up for my +lost sleep of last night. + +But behold, at eight o'clock, three persons of the most singular +appearance, led by M. Kangourou, present themselves with endless bows +at the door of my cabin. They are dressed in long robes bedizened with +dark patterns; they have the flowing locks, high foreheads and pallid +countenances of persons too exclusively devoted to the fine arts; and, +perched on the top of their chignons, they wear sailor hats of English +shape stuck jauntily on one side. Under their arms, they carry +portfolios filled with sketches; in their hands, boxes of +water-colors, pencils, and, tied together like fasces, a bundle of +fine stylets the sharp points of which glitter ostensibly. + +At the first glance, even in the bewilderment of waking, I gather from +their appearance what their errand is, and guessing with what visitors +I have to deal, I say:--"Come in, Messieurs the tattooers!" + +These are the specialists most in renown in Nagasaki; I had engaged +them two days ago, not knowing that we were about to leave, and since +they are come I will not turn them away. + +My friendly and intimate relations with primitive man, in Oceania and +elsewhere, have imbued me with a deplorable taste for tattoo work; and +I had wished to carry away on me, as a curiosity, an ornament, a +specimen of the work of the Japanese tattooers, who have a delicacy of +finish which is unequaled. + +From their albums spread out upon my table I make my choice. There are +some remarkably odd designs amongst them, appropriate to the different +parts of the human body: emblems for the arms and legs, sprays of +roses for the shoulders, great grinning faces for the middle of the +back. There are even, to suit the taste of their clients who belong to +foreign navies, trophies of arms, American and French flags entwined, +a "God Save the Queen" amid encircling stars, and figures of women +taken from Grévin's sketches in the _Journal Amusant_. + +My choice rests upon a singular blue and pink dragon a couple of +inches long, which will have a fine effect upon my chest on the side +opposite the heart. + +Then follows an hour and a half of irritation and positive pain. +Stretched out on my bunk and delivered over to the tender mercies of +these personages, I stiffen myself and submit to the million +imperceptible pricks they inflict. When by chance a little blood +flows, confusing the outline by a stream of red, one of the artists +hastens to staunch it with his lips, and I make no objections, knowing +that this is the Japanese manner, the method used by their doctors for +the wounds of both man and beast. + +A piece of work as minute and fine as that of an engraver upon stone +is slowly executed on my person; and their lean hands harrow and worry +me with automatic precision. + +At length it is finished, and the tattooers, falling back with an air +of satisfaction to contemplate their work, declare it will be lovely. + +I dress myself quickly to go on shore, and take advantage of my last +hours in Japan. + +The heat is fearful to-day: the powerful September sun falls with a +certain melancholy upon the yellowing leaves; it is a day of clear +burning heat after an almost chilly morning. + +Like yesterday, it is during the drowsy noon that I ascend to my lofty +suburb, by deserted pathways filled only with light and silence. + +I noiselessly open the door of my dwelling, and enter cautiously on +tiptoe, for fear of Madame Prune. + +At the foot of the staircase, upon the white mats, by the side of the +little clogs and little sandals which are always lying about the +vestibule, there is a great array of luggage ready for departure, +which I recognize at a glance,--pretty dark-colored dresses, familiar +to my sight, carefully folded and wrapped in blue towels tied at the +four corners. I even fancy I feel a little sad when I catch sight of a +corner of the famous box of letters and souvenirs peeping out of one +of these bundles, in which ray portrait by Uyeno now reposes among +divers photographs of mousmés. A sort of long-necked mandolin, also +ready for departure, lies on the top of the pile in its case of +figured silk. It resembles the flitting of some gypsy, or rather it +reminds me of an engraving in a book of fables I owned in my +childhood: the whole thing is exactly like the slender wardrobe and +the long guitar which the Cicala who had sung all the summer, carried +upon her back when she knocked at the door of her neighbor the ant. + +Poor little gypsy! + +I mount the stairs on tiptoe, and stop at the sound of singing that I +hear up in my room. + +It is undoubtedly Chrysanthème's voice and the song is a cheerful one! +This chills me and changes the current of my thoughts. I am almost +sorry I have taken the trouble to come. + +Mingled with the song is a noise I cannot understand: _dzinn! dzinn!_ +a clear metallic ring as of coins being flung vigorously on the floor. +I am well aware that this vibrating house exaggerates every sound +during the silence of night; but all the same, I am puzzled to know +what my mousmé can be doing. _Dzinn! dzinn!_ is she amusing herself +with quoits, or the _jeu du crapaud_, or pitch and toss? + +Nothing of the kind; I fancy I have guessed, and I continue my upward +progress still more gently, on all fours, with the precautions of a +Red Indian, to give myself for the last time the pleasure of +surprising her. + +She has not heard me come in. In our great white room, emptied and +swept out, where the clear sunshine pours in, and the soft wind, and +the yellowed leaves of the garden; she is sitting all alone, her back +turned to the door: she is dressed for walking, ready to go to her +mother's, her rose-colored parasol beside her. + +On the floor are spread out all the fine silver dollars which, +according to our agreement, I had given her the evening before. With +the competent dexterity of an old money-changer she fingers them, +turns them over, throws them on the floor, and armed with a little +mallet _ad hoc,_ rings them vigorously against her ear, singing the +while I know not what little pensive bird-like song which I daresay +she improvises as she goes along. + +Well, after all, it is even more completely Japanese than I could +possibly have imagined it--this last scene of my married life! I feel +inclined to laugh. How simple I have been, to allow myself to be taken +in by the few clever words she whispered yesterday, as she walked +beside me, by a tolerably pretty little phrase embellished as it was +by the silence of two o'clock in the morning, and all the wonderful +enchantments of night. + +Ah! not more for Yves than for me, not more for me than for Yves, has +any feeling passed through that little brain, that little heart. + +When I have looked at her long enough, I call:-- + +"Hi! Chrysanthème!" + +She turns confused, and reddening even to her ears at having been +caught at this work. + +She is quite wrong, however, to be so much troubled, for I am, on the +contrary, delighted. The fear that I might be leaving her in some +sadness had almost given me a pang, and I infinitely prefer that this +marriage should end as it had begun, in a joke. + +"That is a good idea of yours," I say; "a precaution which should +always be taken in this country of yours, where so many evil-minded +people are clever in forging money. Make haste and get through it +before I start, and if any false pieces have found their way into the +number, I will willingly replace them." + +However, she refuses to continue before me, and I expected as much; to +do so would have been contrary to all her notions of politeness, +hereditary and acquired, all her conventionality, all her +_Japanesery_. With a disdainful little foot, clothed as usual in +exquisite socks with a special hood for the great toe, she pushes away +the piles of white dollars and scatters them on the mats. + +"We have hired a large covered sampan," she says to change the +conversation, "and we are all going together,--Campanule, Jonquille, +Touki, all your mousmés--to watch your vessel set sail. Pray sit down +and stay a few minutes." + +"No, I really cannot stay. I have several things to do in the town, +d'you see, and the order was given for every one to be on board by +three o'clock in time for muster before starting. Moreover, I would +rather escape, as you can imagine, while Madame Prune is still +enjoying her siesta; I should be afraid of being drawn into some +corner, or of provoking some heartrending parting scene." + +Chrysanthème bows her head and says no more, but seeing that I am +really going, rises to escort me. + +Without speaking, without the slightest noise, she follows me as we +descend the staircase and cross the garden full of sunshine, where the +dwarf shrubs and the deformed flowers seem, like the rest of the +household, plunged in warm somnolence. + +At the outer gate I stop for the last adieu: the little sad pout has +reappeared, more accentuated than ever on Chrysanthème's face; it is +the right thing, it is correct, and I should feel offended now were it +absent. + +Well, little mousmé, let us part good friends; one last kiss even, if +you like. I took you to amuse me; you have not perhaps succeeded very +well, but after all you have done what you could: given me your little +face, your little curtseys, your little music; in short, you have +been pleasant enough in your Japanese way. And who knows, perchance I +may yet think of you sometimes when I recall this glorious summer, +these pretty quaint gardens, and the ceaseless concert of the cicales. + +She prostrates herself on the threshold of the door, her forehead +against the ground, and remains in this attitude of superlatively +polite salute as long as I am in sight, while I go down the pathway by +which I am to disappear for ever. + +As the distance between us increases, I turn once or twice to look at +her again; but it is a mere civility, and meant to return as it +deserves her grand final salutation. + + + + +LIII. + + +On entering the town, at the turn of the principal street, I have the +good luck to meet No. 415, my poor relation. I was just at that moment +in want of a speedy djin, and I at once get into his vehicle; besides, +it will be an alleviation to my feelings, in this hour of departure, +to take my last drive in company with a member of my family. + +Unaccustomed as I was to be out of doors during the hours of siesta, +I had never yet seen the streets of the town thus overwhelmed by the +sunshine, thus deserted in the silence and solitary brilliancy +peculiar to all hot countries. + +In front of all the shops hang white shades, adorned here and there +with slight designs in black, in the quaintness of which lurks I know +not what,--something mysterious: dragons, emblems, symbolical figures +The sky is too glaring; the light crude, implacable; never has this +old town of Nagasaki appeared to me so old, so worm-eaten, so bald, +notwithstanding all its veneer of new papers and gaudy paintings. +These little wooden houses, of such marvelous cleanly whiteness +inside, are black outside, time-worn, disjointed and _grimacing_. When +one looks closely, this grimace is to be found everywhere: in the +hideous masks laughing in the shop fronts of the innumerable +curio-shops; in the grotesque figures, the playthings, the idols, +cruel, suspicious mad;--it is even found in the buildings: in the +friezes of the religious porticos, in the roofs of the thousand +pagodas; of which the angles and gable-ends writhe and twist like the +yet dangerous remains of ancient and malignant beasts. + +And the disturbing intensity of expression reigning over inanimate +nature, contrasts with the almost absolute blank of the human +countenance, with the smiling foolishness of the simple little folk +who meet one's gaze, as they patiently carry on their minute trades in +the gloom of their tiny open-fronted houses. Workmen squatted on their +heels, carving with their imperceptible tools, the droll or odiously +obscene ivory ornaments, marvelous cabinet curiosities which have made +Japan so famous with the European amateurs who have never seen it. +Unconscious artists tracing with steady hand on a background of +lacquer or of porcelain traditional designs learnt by heart, or +transmitted to their brains by a process of heredity through thousands +of years; automatic painters, whose storks are similar to those of M. +Sucre, with the inevitable little rocks, or little butterflies +eternally the same. The least of these illuminators, with his +insignificant eyeless face, possesses at his fingers' ends the maximum +of dexterity in this art of decoration, light and wittily incongruous, +which threatens to invade us in France, in this epoch of imitative +decadence, and which has become the great resource of our +manufacturers of cheap "_objects of art_." + +Is it because I am about to leave this country, because I have no +longer any link to bind me to it, any resting-place on its soil, and +that my spirit is already on the wing? I know not, but it seems to me +I have never as clearly seen and comprehended it as to-day. And more +even than ever, do I find it little, aged, with worn-out blood and +worn-out sap; I feel more fully its antediluvian antiquity, its +centuries of mummification, which will soon degenerate into hopeless +and grotesque buffoonery, as it comes into contact with Western +novelties. + +It is getting late; little by little, the siestas are everywhere +coming to an end; the queer little streets brighten up and begin to +swarm in the sunshine with many-colored parasols. Now begins the +procession of uglinesses of the most impossible description,--a +procession of long-robed, grotesque figures capped with pot-hats or +sailors' head-gear. Business transactions begin again, and the +struggle for existence, close and bitter here as in one of our own +artisan quarters, but meaner and smaller. + +At the moment of my departure, I can only find within myself a smile +of careless mockery for the swarming crowd of this Liliputian +curtseying people,--laborious, industrious, greedy of gain, tainted +with a constitutional affectation, hereditary insignificance, and +incurable monkeyishness. + +Poor cousin 415, how right I was to have held him in good esteem; he +is by far the best and most disinterested of my Japanese family. When +all my commissions are finished, he puts up his little vehicle under a +tree, and much touched by my departure, insists upon escorting me on +board the _Triomphante_, to watch over my final purchases in the +sampan which conveys me to the ship, and to see them himself safely +into my cabin. + +His, indeed, is the only hand I clasp with a really friendly feeling, +without a suppressed smile, on quitting this Japan. + +No doubt, in this country as in many others, there is more honest +friendship and less ugliness among the simple beings devoted to purely +physical work. + +At five o'clock in the afternoon we set sail. + +Along the line of the shore are two or three sampans; in them the +mousmés, shut up in the narrow cabins, peep at us through the tiny +windows, half hiding their faces on account of the sailors; these are +our wives, who have wished, out of politeness, to look upon us once +more. + +There are other sampans as well, in which other Japanese women are +also watching our departure. These stand upright, under great parasols +decorated with big black letters and daubed over with clouds of varied +and startling colors. + + + + +LIV. + + +We move slowly out of the great green bay. The groups of women become +lost in the distance. The country of round and thousand-ribbed +umbrellas fades gradually from our sight. + +Now the great sea opens before us, immense, colorless, solitary; a +solemn repose after so much that was too ingenious and too small. + +The wooded mountains, the charming capes disappear. And Japan remains +faithful to itself in its last picturesque rocks, its quaint islands +on which the trees tastefully arrange themselves in groups--studied +perhaps, but charmingly pretty. + + + + +LV. + + +In my cabin, one evening, in the midst of the Yellow Sea, my eyes +chance to fall upon the lotus brought from Diou-djen-dji;--they had +lasted for two or three days; but now they have faded, and pitifully +strew my carpet with their pale pink petals. + +I, who have carefully preserved so many faded flowers, fallen, alas! +into dust, stolen here and there, at moments of parting in different +parts of the world; I who have kept so many, that the collection is +now almost a herbarium, ridiculous and incoherent--I try hard, but +without success, to get up a sentiment for these lotus--and yet they +are the last living souvenirs of my summer at Nagasaki. + +I pick them up, however, with a certain amount of consideration, and I +open my port-hole. + +From the gray misty sky a livid light falls upon the waters; a wan and +gloomy kind of twilight creeps down, yellowish upon this Yellow Sea. +We feel that we are moving northwards, that autumn is approaching. + +I throw the poor lotus into the boundless waste of waters, making them +my best excuses for giving to them, natives of Japan, a grave so +solemn and so vast. + + + + +LVI. + + +O Ama-Térace-Omi-Kami, wash me clean from this little marriage of +mine, in the waters of the river of Kamo. + + + + +THE END + + + + +MODERN LIBRARY OF THE WORLD'S BEST BOOKS COMPLETE LIST OF TITLES IN + +THE MODERN LIBRARY + +_For convenience in ordering please use number at right of title_ + +AUTHOR TITLE AND NUMBER + +AIKEN, CONRAD A Comprehensive Anthology of American Verse 101 +AIKEN, CONRAD Modern American Poetry 127 +ANDERSON, SHERWOOD Poor White 115 +ANDERSON, SHERWOOD Winesburg, Ohio 104 +ANDREYEV, LEONID The Seven That Were Hanged, and the Red Laugh 45 +APULEIUS, LUCIUS The Golden Ass 88 + +BALZAC Short Stories 40 +BAUDELAIRE Prose and Poetry 70 +BEARDSLEY, AUBREY 64 Reproductions 42 +BEEBE, WILLIAM Jungle Peace 30 +BEERBOHM, MAX Zuleika Dobson 116 +BIERCE, AMBROSE In the Midst of Life 133 +BLAKE, WILLIAM Poems 91 +BRONTE, EMILY Wuthering Heights 106 +BROWN, GEO. DOUGLAS The House with the Green Shutters 129 +BUTLER, SAMUEL Erewhon 136 +BUTLER, SAMUEL The Way of All Flesh 13 + +CABELL, JAMES BRANCH Beyond Life 25 +CABELL, JAMES BRANCH The Cream of the Jest 126 +CARPENTER, EDWARD Love's Coming of Age 51 +CARROLL, LEWIS Alice in Wonderland, etc. 79 +CASANOVA, JACQUES Memoirs of Casanova 165 +CELLINI, BENVENUTO Autobiography of Benvenuto Cellini 3 +CERVANTES Don Quixote 174 +CHAUCER The Canterbury Tales 161 +CHESTERTON, G. K. 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De Maupin 53 +GEORGE, W. L. A Bed of Roses 75 +GILBERT, W. S. The Mikado, Iolanthe, etc. 26 +GILBERT, W. S. Pinafore and Other Plays 113 +GISSING, GEORGE New Grub Street 125 +GISSING, GEORGE Private Papers of Henry Ryecroft 46 +GONCOURT, E. & J. DE Renee Mauperin 76 +GORKY, MAXIM Creatures That Once Were Men and Other Stories 48 +GOURMONT, REMY DE A Night in the Luxembourg 120 +GOURMONT, REMY DE A Virgin Heart 131 + +HARDY, THOMAS Jude the Obscure 135 +HARDY, THOMAS The Mayor of Casterbridge 17 +HARDY, THOMAS The Return of the Native 121 +HAUPTMANN, GERHART The Heretic of Soana 149 +HAWTHORNE, NATHANIEL The Scarlet Letter 93 +HEARN, LAFCADIO Some Chinese Ghosts 130 +HECHT, BEN Erik Dorn 29 +HEMINGWAY, ERNEST The Sun Also Rises 170 +HOMER The Iliad 166 +HOMER The Odyssey 167 +HUDSON, W. H. Green Mansions 89 +HUDSON, W. H. The Purple Land 24 +HUNEKER, JAMES O. Painted Veils 43 +HUXLEY, ALDOUS A Virgin Heart 131 + +IBSEN, HENRIK A Doll's House, Ghosts, etc. 6 +IBSEN, HENRIK Hedda Gabler, Pillars of Society, + The Master Builder 36 +IBSEN, HENRIK The Wild Duck, Rosmersholm, The League of Youth 54 + +JAMES, HENRY Daisy Miller, etc. 63 +JAMES, HENRY The Turn of the Screw 169 +JAMES, WILLIAM The Philosophy of William James 114 +JOYCE, JAMES Dubliners 124 +JOYCE, JAMES A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man 145 + +KIPLING, RUDYARD Soldiers Three 71 +KOMROFF, MANUEL Oriental Romances 55 + +AUTHOR TITLE AND NUMBER + +LAWRENCE, D. H. Sons and Lovers 109 +LEWISOHN, LUDWIG Upstream 123 +LOTI, PIERRE Mme. Chrysantheme 94 + +MACY, JOHN The Spirit of American Literature 56 +MAUPASSANT, GUY DE Love and Other Stories 72 +MAUPASSANT, GUY DE Mademoiselle Fifi, and Twelve Other Stories 8 +MAUPASSANT, GUY DE Une Vie 57 +MENKEN, H. L. 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Thus, we do not necessarily +keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. + + +Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: + + https://www.gutenberg.org + +This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, +including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to +subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. diff --git a/15335-0.zip b/15335-0.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..344ea82 --- /dev/null +++ b/15335-0.zip diff --git a/15335-8.txt b/15335-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..a10223c --- /dev/null +++ b/15335-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,6356 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Madame Chrysantheme, by Pierre Loti + +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: Madame Chrysantheme + +Author: Pierre Loti + +Release Date: March 12, 2005 [EBook #15335] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MADAME CHRYSANTHEME *** + + + + +Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Ronald Holder, and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team + + + + + +{~--- UTF-8 BOM ---~} + +MADAME CHRYSANTHEME + +By PIERRE LOTI + +TRANSLATED BY LAURA ENSOR + +THE MODERN LIBRARY + +PUBLISHERS NEW YORK + + + + +_Manufactured in the United States of America_ +_Bound for_ THE MODERN LIBRARY _by H. Wolff_ + + + + +TO MADAME LA DUCHESSE DE RICHELIEU. + +_Madame La Duchesse_, + +_Allow me to crave your acceptance of the following work, as a +respectful tribute of my attachment._ + +_I felt some hesitation in offering it, for its main incident cannot +be deemed altogether proper; but I have striven that in its expression +at least, it should not sin against good taste, and I trust that my +endeavours have been successful._ + +_It is the diary of a summer of my life, in which I have changed +nothing, not even the dates, thinking as I do, that in our efforts to_ +arrange _matters we often only succeed in disarranging them. Although +the most important rôle may appear to devolve on Madame Chrysantheme, +it is very certain that the three principal personages are_ myself, +Japan, _and the effect produced on me by that country._ + +_Do you remember a certain photograph_--_rather ridiculous I must +admit_--_representing that big fellow Yves, a Japanese girl and +myself, grouped closely together as we were placed side by side by a +Nagasaki artist? You smiled when I assured you that the carefully +combed little creature placed between us two, had been_ one of our +neighbours. _Kindly welcome my book with the same indulgent smile, +without seeking therein a meaning either good or bad, in the same +spirit that you would receive some quaint bit of pottery, some +grotesquely carved ivory idol, or some preposterous trifle brought +back for you from this singular fatherland of all preposterousness._ + +_Believe me with the deepest respect, Madame la Duchesse,_ + +_Your affectionate_ + +PIERRE LOTI. + + + + +INTRODUCTION + +At sea, about two o'clock in the morning, on a clear night, under a +star-lit sky. + +Yves stood near me on the bridge, and we were talking of the country, +so utterly unknown to us both, to which the chances of our destiny +were now wafting us. As we were to cast anchor the following day, we +enjoyed the state of expectation, and formed a thousand plans. + +"As for me," I said, "I shall at once marry." + +"Ah!" returned Yves, with the indifferent air of a man whom nothing +can surprise. + +"Yes--I shall choose a little yellow-skinned woman with black hair and +cat's eyes. She must be pretty. Not much bigger than a doll. You shall +have a room in our house. A little paper house, in the midst of green +gardens, prettily shaded. We shall live among flowers, everything +around us shall blossom, and each morning our dwelling shall be filled +with nosegays, nosegays such as you have never dreamt of." + +Yves now began to take an interest in these plans for my future +household; indeed, he would have listened with as much confidence, if +I had manifested the intention of taking temporary vows in some +monastery of this new country, or of marrying some island queen and +shutting myself up with her in a house built of jade, in the middle of +an enchanted lake. + +In reality I had quite made up my mind to carry out the scheme I had +unfolded to him. Yes, actually, led on by ennui and solitude, I had +gradually arrived at dreaming of and looking forward to this absurd +marriage. And then, above all, to live for awhile on land, in some +shady nook, amid trees and flowers. How tempting it sounded after the +long months we had been wasting at the Pescadores (hot and arid +islands, devoid of freshness, woods, or streamlets, full of faint +odors of China and of death). + + +We had made great way in latitude, since our vessel had quitted that +Chinese furnace, and the constellations in the sky had undergone a +series of rapid changes; the Southern Cross had disappeared at the +same time as the other austral stars; and the Great Bear rising on the +horizon, was almost on as high a level as it is in the French sky. The +fresh evening breeze soothed and revived us, bringing back to us the +memory of our summer night watches on the coast of Brittany. + +What a distance we were, however, from those familiar coasts! What a +terrible distance! + + + + +MADAME CHRYSANTHEME + + + + +MADAME CHRYSANTHEME + +I. + + +At dawn of day we sighted Japan. + +Precisely at the foretold moment Japan arose before us, afar off, like +a clear and distinct dot in the vast sea, which for so many days had +been but a blank space. + +At first we saw nothing in the rising sun but a series of tiny +pink-tipped heights (the foremost portion of the Fukai islands). Soon, +however, appeared all along the horizon, like a thick cloud, a dark +veil over the waters, Japan itself; and little by little out of the +dense shadow arose the sharp opaque outlines of the Nagasaki +mountains. + +The wind was dead against us, and the strong breeze, which steadily +increased, seemed as if the country were blowing with all its might +against us, in a vain effort to drive us away from its shores. The +sea, the rigging, the vessel itself, all vibrated and quivered as if +with emotion. + + + + +II. + +By three o'clock in the afternoon all these far-off objects drew close +to us, so close, indeed, that they overshadowed us by their rocky +masses and dense green thickets. + +We now entered into a shady kind of channel enclosed between two high +ranges of mountains, curiously symmetrical in shape--like stage +scenery, very fine, though unlike nature. It seemed as if Japan opened +to our view, through a fairy-like rent, which thus allowed us to +penetrate into her very heart. + +Nagasaki, as yet unseen, must be at the extremity of this long and +curious bay. All around us was admirably green. The strong sea-breeze +had suddenly fallen, and was succeeded by a perfect calm; the +atmosphere, now very warm, was laden with the perfume of flowers. In +the valley resounded the ceaseless whirr of the cicalas, answering +each other from one shore to another; the mountains reëchoed with +innumerable sounds; the whole country seemed to vibrate like crystal. +On our way we passed among myriads of Japanese junks, gliding softly, +wafted by imperceptible breezes on the unruffled water; their motion +could scarcely be heard, and their white sails, stretched out on +yards, fell languidly in a thousand horizontal folds like +window-blinds, their strangely contorted poops rising up castlewise in +the air, reminding one of the towering ships of the middle ages. In +the midst of the intense greenery of this wall of mountains, they +stood out with a snowy whiteness. + +What a country of verdure and shade is Japan; what an unlooked-for +Eden! + +Beyond us, at sea, it must have been full daylight; but here, in the +recesses of the valley, we already felt the impression of evening; +beneath the summits in full sunlight, the base of the mountains and +all the thickly wooded parts near the water's edge were steeped in +twilight. + +The passing junks, gleaming white against the background of dark +foliage, were silently and dexterously maneuvered by small yellow men, +stark naked, with long hair piled up in womanlike fashion on their +heads. Gradually, as we advanced further up the green channel, the +perfumes became more penetrating, and the monotonous chirp of the +cicalas swelled out like an orchestral crescendo. Above us, on the +luminous sky, sharply delineated between the mountains, a species of +hawk hovered about, screaming out with a deep human voice, "Han! Han! +Han!" its melancholy call lengthened out by the surrounding echoes. + +All this fresh and luxurious nature bore the impress of a peculiar +Japanese type, which seemed to pervade even the mountain tops, and +consisted, as it were, in an untruthful aspect of too much prettiness. +The trees were grouped in clusters, with the same pretentious grace as +on the lacquered trays. Large rocks sprang up in exaggerated shapes, +side by side with rounded lawn-like hillocks; all the incongruous +elements of landscape were grouped together as though it were an +artificial creation. + +Looking intently, here and there might be seen, often built in +counterscarp on the very brink of an abyss, some old, tiny, mysterious +pagoda; half hidden in the foliage of the overhanging trees; bringing +to the minds of new arrivals such as ourselves, the sense of +unfamiliarity and strangeness; and the feeling that in this country, +the Spirits, the Sylvan Gods, the antique symbols, faithful guardians +of the woods and forests, were unknown and uncomprehended. + + * * * * * + +When Nagasaki rose before us, the sight that greeted our eyes was +disappointing; situated at the foot of green overhanging mountains, it +looked like any other commonplace town. In front of it lay a tangled +mass of vessels, carrying all the flags of the world; steamboats just +as in any other port, with dark funnels and black smoke, and behind +them quays covered with factories: nothing in fact was wanting in the +way of ordinary, trivial, every-day objects. + +Some day, when man shall have made all things alike, the earth will be +a dull, tedious dwelling-place, and we shall have even to give up +traveling and seeking for a change which shall no longer be found. + +At about six o'clock, we dropped anchor noisily amid the mass of +vessels already there, and were immediately invaded. + +Invaded by a mercantile, bustling, comical Japan, which rushed upon us +in full boat-loads, full junks, like a rising sea; little men and +little women coming in a continuous, uninterrupted stream, without +cries, without squabbles, noiselessly, each one making so smiling a +bow that it was impossible to be angry with them, and that indeed by +reflex action we smiled and bowed also. They all carried on their +backs little baskets, little boxes, receptacles of every shape, +fitting into each other in the most ingenious manner, each one +containing several others, and multiplying till they filled up +everything, in endless number; from these they drew forth all manners +of curious and unexpected things, folding screens, slippers, soap, +lanterns, sleeve-links, live cicalas chirping in little cages, +jewelry, tame white mice turning little cardboard mills, quaint +photographs, hot soups and stews in bowls ready to be served out in +rations to the crew;--china, a legion of vases, teapots, cups, little +pots and plates. In one moment, all this was unpacked, spread out with +astounding rapidity and a certain talent for arrangement; each seller +squatting monkey-like, hands touching feet, behind his fancy +ware--always smiling, bending low with the most engaging bows. Under +the mass of these many-colored things, the deck presented the +appearance of an immense bazaar; the sailors, very much amused and +full of fun, walked among the heaped-up piles, taking the little women +by the chin, buying anything and everything, throwing broadcast their +white dollars. But, good gracious, how ugly, mean and grotesque all +those folk were. Given my projects of marriage, I began to feel +singularly uneasy and disenchanted. + + * * * * * + +Yves and myself were on duty till the next morning, and after the +first bustle, which always takes place on board when settling down in +harbor--(boats to lower, booms to swing out, running rigging to make +taut)--we had nothing more to do but to look on. We said to one +another: "Where are we in reality?--In the United States?--In some +English Colony in Australia, or in New Zealand?" + +Consular residences, custom-house offices, manufactories; a dry dock +in which a Russian frigate was lying; on the heights the large +European concession, sprinkled with villas, and on the quays, American +bars for the sailors. Further off, it is true, further off, far away +behind these common-place objects, in the very depths of the immense +green valley, peered thousands upon thousands of tiny black houses, a +tangled mass of curious appearance, from which here and there emerged +some higher, dark red, painted roofs, probably the true old Japanese +Nagasaki which still exists. And in those quarters, who knows, there +may be, lurking behind a paper screen, some affected cat's-eyed little +woman, whom perhaps in two or three days (having no time to lose) I +shall marry!! But no, the picture painted by my fancy has faded. I can +no longer see this little creature in my mind's eye; the sellers of +the white mice have blurred her image; I fear now, lest she should be +like them. + +At nightfall, the decks were suddenly cleared as by enchantment; in a +second, they had all shut up their boxes, folded their sliding +screens, their trick fans, and, humbly bowing to each of us, the +little men and little women disappeared. + +Slowly, as the shades of night closed around us mingling all things in +the bluish darkness, this Japan surrounding us, became once more, by +degrees, little by little, a fairy-like and enchanted country. The +great mountains, now all black, were mirrored and doubled in the still +water at their feet on which we floated, reflecting therein their +sharply reversed outlines, and presenting the mirage of fearful +precipices, over which we hung:--- the stars also were reversed in +their order, making, in the depths of the imaginary abyss, a +sprinkling of tiny phosphorescent lights. + +Then all Nagasaki became profusely illuminated, covering itself with +multitudes of lanterns: the smallest suburb, the smallest village was +lit up; the tiniest hut perched up on high among the trees, and which +in the daytime was invisible, threw out its little glow-worm glimmer. +Soon there were numberless lights all over the country, on all the +shores of the bay, from top to bottom of the mountains; myriads of +glowing fires shone out in the darkness, conveying the impression of +a vast capital, rising up around us in one bewildering amphitheater. +Beneath, in the silent waters, another town, also illuminated, seemed +to descend into the depths of the abyss. The night was balmy, pure, +delicious; the atmosphere laden with the perfume of flowers came +wafted to us from the mountains. From the "tea houses" and other +nocturnal resorts, the sound of guitars reached our ears, seeming in +the distance the sweetest of music. And the whirr of the +cicalas--which, in Japan, is one of the continuous noises of life, and +which in a few days we shall no longer even be aware of, so completely +is it the background and foundation of all the other terrestrial +sounds--was sonorous, incessant, softly monotonous, just like the +cascade of a crystal waterfall. + + + + +III. + + +The next day the rain came down in torrents, a regular downpour, +merciless and unceasing, blinding and drenching everything,--a thick +rain so dense that it was impossible to see through it from one end of +the vessel to the other. It seemed as though the clouds of the whole +world had amassed themselves in Nagasaki bay, and had chosen this +great green funnel to stream down to their hearts' content. And it +rained, it rained, it became almost as dark as night, so thickly did +the rain fall. Through a veil of crumbled water, we still perceived +the base of the mountains, but the summits were lost to sight among +the great somber masses weighing down upon us. Above us shreds of +clouds, seemingly torn from the dark vault, draggled across the trees, +like vast gray rags,--continually melting away in water, torrents of +water. There was wind too, and it howled through the ravines with a +deep-sounding tone. The whole surface of the bay, bespattered by the +rain, flogged by the gusts of wind that blew from all quarters, +splashed, moaned and seethed in violent agitation. + +What wretched weather for a first landing, and how was I to find a +wife through such a deluge, in an unknown country! + + * * * * * + +No matter! I dressed myself and said to Yves, who smiled at my +obstinate determination in spite of unfavorable circumstances: + +"Hail me a 'sampan,' brother, please." + +Yves then, by a motion of his arm through the wind and rain, summoned +a kind of little white wooden sarcophagus which was skipping near us +on the waves, sculled by a couple of yellow boys stark naked in the +rain. The craft approached us, I jumped into it, then through a little +trap-door shaped like a rat-trap that one of the scullers throws open +for me, I slipped in and stretched myself at full length on a mat in +what is called the "cabin" of a sampan. + +There was just room enough for my body to lie in this floating coffin, +which is moreover scrupulously clean, white with the whiteness of new +deal boards. I was well sheltered from the rain, that fell pattering +on my lid, and thus I started off for the town, lying in this box, +flat on my stomach, rocked by one wave, roughly shaken by another, at +moments almost over-turned; and through the half-opened door of my +rat-trap I saw, upside down, the two little creatures to whom I had +entrusted my fate, children of eight or ten years of age at the most, +who, with little monkeyish faces, had however fully developed muscles +like miniature men, and were already as skillful as any regular old +salts. + + * * * * * + +They began to shout; no doubt we were approaching the landing-place. +And indeed, through my trap-door, which I had now thrown wide open, I +saw quite near to me the gray flag-stones on the quays. I got out of +my sarcophagus and prepared to set foot for the first time in my life +on Japanese soil. + +All was streaming around us, and the irritating, tiresome rain dashed +into my eyes. + +No sooner had I landed, than there bounded towards me about a dozen +strange beings, of what description it was almost impossible to make +out through the blinding showers--a species of human hedge-hog, each +dragging some large black thing; they came screaming around me and +stopped my progress. One of them opened and held over my head an +enormous closely-ribbed umbrella, decorated on its transparent surface +with paintings of storks; and they all smiled at me in an engaging +manner with an air of expectation. + +I had been forewarned: these were only the _djins_ who were touting +for the honor of my preference; nevertheless I was startled at this +sudden attack, this Japanese welcome on a first visit to land (the +_djins_ or _djin-richisans_, are the runners who drag little carts, +and are paid for conveying people to and fro, being hired by the hour +or the distance, as cabs are with us). + +Their legs were naked; to-day they were very wet, and their heads were +hidden under large shady conical hats. By way of waterproofs they wore +nothing less than mats of straw, with all the ends of the straws +turned outwards bristling like porcupines; they seemed clothed in a +thatched roof. They went on smiling, awaiting my choice. + +Not having the honor of being acquainted with any of them in +particular, I choose at haphazard the djin with the umbrella and get +into his little cart, of which he carefully lowers the hood. He draws +an oil-cloth apron over my knees, pulling it up to my face, and then +advancing near, asks me in Japanese something which must have meant: +"Where to, sir?" To which I reply in the same language, "To the +_Garden of Flowers_, my friend." + +I said this in the three words I had parrot-like learnt by heart, +astonished that such sounds could mean anything, astonished too at +their being understood. We started off, he running at full speed, I +dragged along by him, jerked about in his light chariot, wrapped in +oiled cloth, shut up as if in a box;--both of us unceasingly drenched +all the while, and dashing all around us the water and mud of the +sodden ground. + +"To the _Garden of Flowers_," I had said, like an habitual frequenter +of the place, and quite surprised at hearing myself speak. But I was +less ignorant about Japan than might have been supposed. Many of my +friends had, on their return home from that country, told me about it, +and I knew a great deal; the _Garden of Flowers_ is a _tea-house_, an +elegant rendezvous. There, I would inquire for a certain +Kangourou-San, who is at the same time interpreter, washerman, and +confidential agent for the intercourse of races. Perhaps this very +evening, if all went well, I should be introduced to the bride +destined to me by mysterious fate. This thought kept my mind on the +alert during the panting journey we have been making, the djin and +myself, one dragging the other, under the merciless downpour. + + * * * * * + +Oh, what a curious Japan I saw that day, through the gaping of my +oil-cloth coverings! from under the dripping hood of my little cart! A +sullen, muddy, half-drowned Japan. All these houses, men or beasts, +hitherto only known to me by drawings; all these, that I had beheld +painted on blue or pink backgrounds of fans or vases, now appeared to +me in their hard reality, under a dark sky, with umbrellas and wooden +shoes, with tucked-up skirts and pitiful aspect. + +At moments the rain fell so heavily that I tightly closed up every +chink and crevice, and the noise and shaking benumbed me, so that I +completely forgot in what country I was. In the hood of the cart were +holes, through which little streams ran down my back. Then, +remembering that I was going for the first time in my life through the +very heart of Nagasaki, I cast an inquiring look outside, at the risk +of receiving a douche: we were trotting along through a mean, narrow +little back street (there are thousands like it, a perfect labyrinth +of them) the rain falling in cascades from the tops of the roofs on +the gleaming flagstones below, rendering everything indistinct and +vague through the misty atmosphere. At times we passed by a lady, +struggling with her skirts, unsteadily tripping along in her high +wooden shoes, looking exactly like the figures painted on screens, +tucked up under a gaudily daubed paper umbrella. Or else we passed a +pagoda, where an old granite monster, squatting in the water, seemed +to make a hideous, ferocious grimace at me. + +How immense this Nagasaki is! Here had we been running hard for the +last hour, and still it seemed never-ending. It is a flat plain, and +one could never suppose from the offing that so vast a plain could lie +in the recesses of this valley. + +It would, however, have been impossible for me to say where I was, or +in what direction we had run; I abandoned my fate to my djin and to my +good luck. + +What a steam-engine of a man my djin was! I had been accustomed to the +Chinese runners, but they were nothing by the side of this fellow. +When I part my oil-cloths to peep at anything, he is naturally always +the first object in my foreground: his two naked, brown, muscular +legs, scampering one after the other, splashing all around, and his +bristling hedgehog back bending low in the rain. Do the passers-by, +gazing at this little dripping cart, guess that it contains a suitor +in quest of a bride? + + * * * * * + +At last my vehicle stops, and my djin, with many smiles and +precautions lest any fresh rivers should stream down my back, lowers +the hood of the cart; there is a break in the storm, and the rain has +ceased. I had not yet seen his face; by exception to the general rule, +he is good-looking;--a young man of about thirty years of age, of +intelligent and strong appearance, and an open countenance. Who could +have foreseen that a few days later this very djin.--But no, I will +not anticipate, and run the risk of throwing beforehand any discredit +on Chrysanthème. + +We had therefore reached our destination, and found ourselves at the +foot of a tall overhanging mountain; probably beyond the limits of the +town, in some suburban district. It apparently became necessary to +continue our journey on foot, and climb up an almost perpendicular +narrow path. Around us, a number of small country houses, garden +walls, and high bamboo palisades closed in the view. The green hill +crushed us with its towering height; the heavy, dark clouds lowering +over our heads seemed like a leaden canopy confining us in this +unknown spot; it really seemed as though the complete absence of +perspective inclined one all the better to notice the details of this +tiny corner, muddy and wet, of homely Japan, now lying before our +eyes. The earth was very red. The grasses and wild flowers bordering +the pathway were strange to me;--nevertheless, the palings were +covered with convolvuli like our own, and I recognized in the gardens, +china asters, zinnias, and other familiar flowers. The atmosphere +seemed laden with a curiously complicated odor, something besides the +perfume of the plants and soil, arising no doubt from the human +dwelling-places,--a mingled smell, I fancied, of dried fish and +incense. Not a creature was to be seen; of the inhabitants, of their +homes and life, there was not a vestige, and I might have imagined +myself anywhere in the world. + +My djin had fastened up his little cart under a tree, and together we +clambered the steep path on the slippery red soil. + +"We are going to the _Garden of Flowers_, are we not?" I inquired, +anxious to ascertain if I had been understood. + +"Yes, yes," replied the djin, "it is up there, and quite near." + +The road turned, steep banks hemming it in and darkening it. On one +side, it skirted the mountain all covered with a tangle of wet ferns; +on the other appeared a large wooden house almost devoid of apertures +and of evil aspect; it was there that my djin halted. + +What, that sinister-looking house was the _Garden of Flowers_? He +assured me that it was, and seemed very sure of the fact. We knocked +at a big door which opened immediately, slipping back in its groove. +Then two funny little women appeared, oldish-looking, but with evident +pretensions to youth: exact types of the figures painted on vases, +with their baby hands and feet. + +On catching sight of me, they threw themselves on all fours, their +faces touching the floor. Good gracious! what can be the matter? +Nothing at all, it is only the ceremonious salute to which I am as yet +unaccustomed. They rise, and proceed to take off my boots (one never +keeps on one's shoes in a Japanese house), wiping the bottom of my +trousers and feeling my shoulders to see if I am wet. + +What always strikes one on first entering a Japanese dwelling is the +extreme cleanliness, and white and chilling bareness of the rooms. + +Over the most irreproachable mattings, without a crease, a line, or a +stain, I am led upstairs to the first story and ushered into a big +empty room, absolutely empty! The paper walls are mounted on sliding +panels, which fitting into each other, can be made to disappear +entirely,--and all one side of the apartment opens like a verandah on +to the green country and the gray sky beyond. By way of a chair, I am +given a square piece of black velvet, and behold me seated low, in the +middle of this large empty room, which by its very vastness is almost +chilly. The two little women (who are the servants of the house and my +very humble servants too), await my orders, in attitudes expressive of +the profoundest humility. + + * * * * * + +It seemed extraordinary that the quaint words, the curious phrases I +had learnt during our exile at the Pescadores Islands--by sheer dint +of dictionary and grammar book, without attaching the least sense to +them--should mean anything. But so it seemed, however, for I was at +once understood. + + * * * * * + +I wish in the first place to speak to one M. Kangourou, who is +interpreter, washerman, and matrimonial agent. Nothing could be +better: they know him and will go at once in search of him; and the +elder of the waiting-maids gets ready for the purpose her wooden clogs +and her paper umbrella. + +Next I demand a well-served repast, composed of the greatest +delicacies of Japan. Better and better, they rush to the kitchen to +order it. + +Finally, I beg they will give tea and rice to my djin, who is waiting +for me below;--I wish, in short, I wish many things, my dear little +dollies, which I will mention by degrees and with due deliberation, +when I shall have had time to assemble the necessary words. But, the +more I look at you the more uneasy I feel as to what my _fiancée_ of +to-morrow may be like. Almost pretty, I grant you, you are,--in virtue +of quaintness, delicate hands, miniature feet, but ugly after all, and +absurdly small. You look like ouistitis, like little china ornaments, +like I don't know what. I begin to understand that I have arrived at +this house at an ill-chosen moment. Something is going on which does +not concern me, and I feel that I am in the way. + +From the beginning I might have guessed as much, notwithstanding the +excessive politeness of my welcome; for I remember now, that while +they were taking off my boots downstairs, I heard a murmuring chatter +overhead, then a noise of panels moved quickly along their grooves, +evidently to hide from me something I was not intended to see; they +were improvising for me the apartment in which I now am--just as in +menageries they make a separate compartment for some beasts when the +public is admitted. + +Now I am left alone while my orders are being executed, and I listen +attentively, squatted like a Buddha on my black velvet cushion, in the +midst of the whiteness of the walls and mats. + +Behind the paper partitions, worn-out voices, seemingly numerous, are +talking in low tones. Then rises the sound of a guitar, and the song +of a woman, plaintive and gentle in the echoing sonority of the bare +house, in the melancholy of the rainy weather. + +What one can see through the wide-open verandah is very pretty, I will +admit; it resembles the landscape of a fairy tale. There are admirably +wooded mountains, climbing high into the dark and gloomy sky, and +hiding in it the peaks of their summits, and, perched up among the +clouds--a temple. The atmosphere has that absolute transparency, the +distance that clearness which follows a great downpour of rain; but a +thick pall, still heavy with moisture, remains suspended over all, and +on the foliage of the hanging woods still float great flakes of gray +fluff, which remain there, motionless. In the foreground, in front of +and below all this almost fantastic landscape, is a miniature garden +where two beautiful white cats are taking the air, amusing themselves +by pursuing each other through the paths of a Lilliputian labyrinth, +shaking from their paws the sand, which is still wet. The garden is as +conventional as possible: not a flower, but little rocks, little +lakes, dwarf trees cut in a grotesque fashion; all this is not +natural, but it is most ingeniously arranged, so green, so full of +fresh mosses! + +In the rain-soaked country below me, to the very furthest end of the +vast scene, reigns a great silence, an absolute calm. But the woman's +voice, behind the paper wall, continues to sing in a key of gentle +sadness, and the accompanying guitar has somber and even gloomy notes. + +Stay though! Now the music is somewhat quicker--one might even suppose +they were dancing! + +So much the worse! I shall try to look between the fragile divisions, +through a crack which has revealed itself to my notice. + +What a singular spectacle it is; evidently the gilded youth of +Nagasaki holding a great clandestine orgy! In an apartment as bare as +my own, there are a dozen of them, seated in a circle on the ground, +attired in long blue cotton dresses with pagoda sleeves, long, sleek +and greasy hair surmounted by European pot hats; and beneath these, +yellow, worn out, bloodless, foolish faces. On the floor are a number +of little spirit-lamps, little pipes, little lacquer trays, little +tea-pots, little cups--all the accessories and all the remains of a +Japanese feast, resembling nothing so much as a doll's tea-party. In +the midst of this circle of dandies are three over-dressed women, one +might say three weird visions, robed in garments of pale and +undefinable colors, embroidered with golden monsters; and their great +chignons arranged with fantastic art, stuck full of pins and flowers. +Two are seated and turn their back to me: one is holding the guitar, +the other singing with that soft and pretty voice;--thus seen +furtively, from behind, their pose, their hair, the nape of the neck, +all is exquisite, and I tremble lest a movement should reveal to me +faces which might destroy the enchantment. The third one is on her +feet, dancing before this areopagus of idiots, with their lanky locks +and pot hats. What a shock when she turns round! She wears over her +face the horribly grinning, deathly mask of a specter or vampire. The +mask unfastened, falls. And behold! a darling little fairy of about +twelve or fifteen years of age, slim, and already a coquette, already +a woman,--dressed in a long robe of shaded dark blue china crape, +covered with embroidery representing bats--gray bats, black bats, +golden bats. + +Suddenly there are steps on the stairs, the light footsteps of +barefooted women pattering over the white mats. No doubt the first +course of my lunch just about to be served. I quickly fall back, fixed +and motionless, upon my black velvet cushion. There are three of them +now, three waiting-maids who arrive in single file, with smiles and +curtsies. One offers me the spirit-lamp and the tea-pot, another +preserved fruits in delightful little plates, the third, absolutely +indefinable objects upon gems of little trays. And they grovel before +me on the floor, placing all this plaything of a meal at my feet. + +At this moment, my impressions of Japan are charming enough; I feel +myself fairly launched upon this tiny, artificial, fictitious world, +which I felt I knew already from the paintings of lacquer and +porcelains. It is so exact a representation! The three little +squatting women, graceful and dainty, with their narrow slits of eyes, +their magnificent chignons in huge bows, smooth and shining as +boot-polish, and the little tea-service on the floor, the landscape +seen through the verandah, the pagoda perched among the clouds; and +over all the same affectation everywhere, in every detail. Even the +woman's melancholy voice, still to be heard behind the paper +partition, was so evidently the way they should sing, these musicians +I had so often seen painted in amazing colors on rice-paper, half +closing their dreamy eyes in the midst of impossibly large flowers. +Long before I came to it, I had perfectly pictured this Japan to +myself. Nevertheless in the reality it almost seems to be smaller, +more finicking than I had imagined it, and also much more mournful, no +doubt by reason of that great pall of black clouds hanging over us and +this incessant rain. + + * * * * * + +While awaiting M. Kangourou (who is dressing himself it appears, and +will be here shortly), it may be as well to begin lunch. + +In the daintiest bowl imaginable, adorned with flights of storks, is +the most wildly impossible soup made of sea-weed. After which there +are little fish dried in sugar, crabs in sugar, beans in sugar, and +fruits in vinegar and pepper. All this is atrocious, but above all +unexpected and unimaginable. The little women make me eat, laughing +much, with that perpetual irritating laugh, which is the laugh +peculiar to Japan,--they make me eat, according to their fashion, with +dainty chop-sticks, fingered with mannered grace. I am becoming +accustomed to their faces. The whole effect is refined,--a refinement +so utterly different from our own, that at first sight I understand +nothing of it, although in the long run it may end by pleasing me. + +Suddenly there enters, like a night butterfly awakened in broad +daylight, like a rare and surprising moth, the dancing-girl from the +other compartment, the child who wore the horrible mask. No doubt she +wishes to have a look at me. She rolls her eyes like a timid kitten, +and then all at once tamed, nestles against me, with a coaxing air of +childishness, which is a delightfully transparent assumption. She is +slim, elegant, delicate, and smells sweet; drolly painted, white as +plaster, with a little circle of rouge marked very precisely in the +middle of each cheek, the mouth reddened, and a touch of gilding +outlining the under lip. As they could not whiten the back of the neck +on account of all the delicate little curls of hair growing there, +they had, in their love of exactitude, stopped the white plaster in a +straight line, which might have been cut with a knife, and in +consequence at the nape appears a square of natural skin of a deep +yellow. + +An imperious note sounds on the guitar, evidently a summons! Crac! +Away she goes, the little fairy, to rejoice the drivelling fools on +the other side of the screens. + +Supposing I marry this one, without seeking any further. I should +respect her as a child committed to my care; I should take her for +what she is: a fantastic and charming plaything. What an amusing +little household I should set up! Really short of marrying a china +ornament, I should find it difficult to choose better. + +At this moment enters M. Kangourou, clad in a suit of gray tweed, +which might have come from _La Belle Jardiniere_ or the _Pont Neuf_, +with a pot hat and white thread gloves. His countenance is at once +foolish and cunning; he has hardly a nose, hardly any eyes. He makes a +real Japanese salutation: an abrupt dip, the hands placed flat on the +knees, the body making a right angle to the legs, as if the fellow +were breaking in two; a little snake-like hissing (produced by sucking +the saliva between the teeth, and which is the expression _nec plus +ultra_ of obsequious politeness in this country). "You speak French, +M. Kangourou?" + +"_ sir" (renewed bows). + +He makes one for each word I utter, as if he were a mechanical toy +pulled by a string; when he is seated before me on the ground, he +limits himself to a duck of the head--always accompanied by the same +hissing noise of the saliva. + +"A cup of tea, M. Kangourou?" + +Fresh salute and an extra affected gesticulation with the hands, as if +to say, "I should hardly dare. It is too great a condescension on your +part. However, anything to oblige you." + + * * * * * + +He guesses at the first words what I require from him. + +"Of course," he replies, "we will see about it at once; in a week's +time, as it happens, a family from Simonosaki, in which there are two +charming daughters, will be here." + +"What! in a week! You don't know me, M. Kangourou! No, no, either now, +to-morrow, or not at all." + +Again a hissing bow, and Kangourou-San catching my agitation, begins +to pass in feverish review, all the young persons at his disposal in +Nagasaki. + +"Let us see--there was Mdlle. OEillet. What a pity that I had not +spoken a few days sooner! So pretty! So clever at playing the guitar. +It is an irreparable misfortune; she was engaged only yesterday by a +Russian officer." + +"Ah! Mdlle. Abricot!--Would she suit me, Mdlle. Abricot? She is the +daughter of a wealthy China merchant in the Decima Bazaar, a person of +the highest merit; but she would be very dear: her parents, who think +a great deal of her, will not let her go under a hundred yen[A] a +month. She is very accomplished, thoroughly understands commercial +writings, and has at her finger ends more than two thousand characters +of learned writing. In a poetical competition she gained the first +prize with a sonnet composed in praise of _'the blossoms of the +black-thorn hedges seen in the dew of early morning.'_ Only, she is +not very pretty: one of her eyes is smaller than the other, and she +has a hole in her cheek, resulting from an illness of her childhood." + +[Footnote A: A yen is equal to four shillings.] + +"Oh no! on no account that one! Let us seek amongst a less +distinguished class of young persons, but without scars. And how about +those on the other side of the screen, in those fine gold-embroidered +dresses? For instance, the dancer with the specter mask, M. Kangourou? +or again she who sings in so dulcet a strain and has such a charming +nape to her neck?" + +He does not, at first, understand my drift; then when he gathers my +meaning, he shakes his head almost in a joking way, and says: + +"No, sir, no! Those are only _Guéchas_,[B] sir--_Guéchas!_" + +[Footnote B: _Guéchas_ are professional dancers and singers trained at +the Yeddo Conservatory.] + +"Well, but why not a _Guécha_? What odds can it be to me, whether they +are _Guéchas_ or not?" Later on, no doubt, when I understand Japanese +affairs better, I shall appreciate myself the enormity of my proposal: +one would really suppose I had talked of marrying the devil. + +At this point M. Kangourou suddenly calls to mind one Mdlle. Jasmin. +Heavens! how was it he did not think of her at once; she is absolutely +and exactly what I want; he will go to-morrow or this very evening, to +make the necessary overtures to the parents of this young person who +live a long way off, on the opposite hill, in the suburb of +Diou-djen-dji. She is a very pretty girl of about fifteen. She can +probably be engaged for about eighteen or twenty dollars a month, on +condition of presenting her with a few dresses of the best fashion, +and of lodging her in a pleasant and well-situated house,--all of +which a man of gallantry like myself could not fail to do. + +Well, let us fix upon Mdlle. Jasmin then,--and now we must part; time +presses. M. Kangourou will come on board to-morrow to communicate to +me the result of his first proceedings and to arrange with me for the +interview. For the present he refuses to accept any remuneration; but +I am to give him my washing, and to procure him the custom of my +brother officers of the _Triomphante_. It is all settled. Profound +bows,--they put on my boots again at the door. My djin, profiting by +the interpreter kind fortune has placed in his way, begs to be +recommended to me for future custom; his stand is on the quay; his +number is 415, inscribed in French characters on the lantern of his +vehicle (we have a number 415 on board, one Le Goëlec, gunner, who +serves the left of one of my guns; happy thought, I shall remember +this); his price is sixpence the journey, or five pence an hour, for +his customers. Capital; he shall have my custom, that is promised. And +now, let us be off. The waiting-maids, who have escorted me to the +door, fall on all fours as a final salute, and remain prostrate on the +threshold--as long as I am still in sight down the dark pathway, where +the rain trickles off the great over-arching bracken upon my head. + + +IV. + +Three days have passed. Night is closing, in an apartment which has +been mine since yesterday. Yves and I, on the first floor, move +restlessly over the white mats, striding up and down the great bare +room, of which the thin, dry flooring cracks beneath our footsteps; we +are both of us rather irritated by prolonged expectation. Yves, whose +impatience shows itself the most freely, from time to time takes a +look out of the window. As for myself, a chill suddenly seizes me, at +the idea that I have chosen, and purpose to inhabit this lonely house, +lost in the midst of the suburb of a totally strange town, perched +high on the mountain and almost opening upon the woods. + +What wild notion can have taken possession of me, to settle myself in +surroundings so utterly foreign and unknown, breathing of isolation +and sadness? The waiting unnerves me, and I beguile the time by +examining all the little details of the building. The woodwork of the +ceiling is complicated and ingenious. On the partitions of white paper +which form the walls, are scattered tiny, microscopic, blue-feathered +tortoises. + +"They are late," said Yves, who is still looking out into the street. + +As to being late, that they certainly are, by a good hour already, and +night is falling, and the boat which should take us back to dine on +board will be gone. Probably we shall have to sup, Japanese fashion +to-night, heaven only knows where. The people of this country have no +sense of punctuality, or of the value of time. + +Therefore I continue to inspect the minute and comical details of my +dwelling. Here, instead of handles such as we should have put to pull +these movable partitions, they have made little oval holes, just the +shape of a finger-end, and into which one is evidently to put one's +thumb. These little holes have a bronze ornamentation, and on looking +closely, one sees that the bronze is curiously chased: here is a lady +fanning herself; there, in the next hole, is represented a branch of +cherry in full blossom. What eccentricity there is in the taste of +this people! To bestow assiduous labor on such miniature work, and +then to hide it at the bottom of a hole to put one's finger in, +looking like a mere spot in the middle of a great white panel; to +accumulate so much patient and delicate workmanship on almost +imperceptible accessories, and all to produce an effect which is +absolutely _nil_, an effect of the most utter bareness and nudity. + +Yves still continues to gaze forth, like Sister Anne. From the side on +which he leans, my verandah overlooks a street, or rather a road +bordered with houses, which climbs higher and higher, and loses itself +almost immediately in the verdure of the mountain, in the fields of +tea, the underwood and the cemeteries. As for myself, this delay +finishes by irritating me for good and all, and I turn my glances to +the opposite side: the other front of my house, also a verandah, opens +first of all upon a garden; then upon a marvelous panorama of woods +and mountains, with all the venerable Japanese quarters of Nagasaki +lying confusedly like a black ant-heap, six hundred feet below us. +This evening, in a dull twilight, notwithstanding that it is a +twilight of July, these things are melancholy. There are great clouds +heavy with rain and showers, ready to fall, traveling across the sky. +No, I cannot feel at home, in this strange dwelling I have chosen; I +feel sensations of extreme solitude and strangeness; the mere prospect +of passing the night in it gives me a shudder of horror. + +"Ah! at last, brother," said Yves, "I believe,--yes, I really believe +she is coming at last." + +I look over his shoulder, and I see--a back view of a little doll the +finishing touches to whose toilette are being put in the solitary +street; a last maternal glance given to the enormous bows of the sash, +the folds at the waist. Her dress is of pearl-gray silk, her _obi_ +(sash) of mauve satin; a sprig of silver flowers trembles in her black +hair; a parting ray of sunlight touches the little figure; five or six +persons accompany her. Yes! it is undoubtedly Mdlle. Jasmin; they are +bringing me my _fiancée_! + +I rush to the ground floor inhabited by old Madame Prune my landlady, +and her aged husband; they are absorbed in prayer before the altar of +their ancestors. + +"Here they are, Madame Prune," I cry in Japanese; "here they are! +Bring at once the tea, the lamp, the embers, the little pipes for the +ladies, the little bamboo pots for spittoons! Bring us as quickly as +possible all the accessories for my reception!" + +I hear the front door open, and hasten upstairs again. Wooden clogs +are deposited on the floor, the staircase creaks gently under the +little bare feet. Yves and I look at each other, with a longing to +laugh. + +An old lady enters,--two old ladies,--three old ladies, emerging from +the doorway one after another with jerking and mechanical +salutations, which we return as best we can, fully conscious of our +inferiority in this particular style. Then come persons of +intermediate age,--then quite young ones, a dozen at least, friends, +neighbors, the whole quarter in fact. And the whole company, on +arriving, becomes confusedly engaged in reciprocal salutations: I +salute you,--- you salute me,--I salute you again, and you return +it,--and I re-salute you again, and I express that I shall never, +never be able to return it according to your high merit,--and I bang +my forehead against the ground, and you stick your nose between the +planks of the flooring, and there they are, on all fours one before +the other; it is a polite dispute, all anxious to yield precedence as +to sitting down, or passing first, and compliments without end are +murmured in low tones, with faces against the floor. + +They seat themselves at last, smiling, in a ceremonious circle; we two +remaining standing, our eyes fixed on the staircase. And at length +emerges, in due turn, the little aigrette of silver flowers, the ebony +chignon, the gray silk robe and mauve sash of Mdlle. Jasmin, my +fiancée! + +Heavens! why, I know her already! Long before setting foot in Japan, I +had met with her, on every fan, on every tea-cup--with her silly air, +her puffy little visage, her tiny eyes, mere gimlet-holes above those +expanses of impossible pink and white which are her cheeks. + +She is young, that is all I can say in her favor; she is even so young +that I should almost scruple to accept her. The wish to laugh quits me +suddenly, and instead, a profound chill fastens on my heart. What! +share even an hour of my life with that little doll? Never! + +The next question is, how to get out of it? + +She advances smiling, with an air of repressed triumph, and behind her +looms M. Kangourou, in his suit of gray tweed. Fresh salutes, and +behold her on all fours, she too, before my landlady and before my +neighbors. Yves, the big Yves, who is not going to be married, stands +behind me, with a comical grimace, hardly repressing his +laughter,--while to give myself time to collect my ideas, I offer tea +in little cups, little spittoons and embers to the company. + +Nevertheless, my discomfited air does not escape my visitors. M. +Kangourou anxiously inquires: + +"How do I like her?" And I reply in a low voice, but with great +resolution: + +"Not at all! I won't have that one. Never!" + +I believe that this remark was almost understood in the circle around +me. Consternation was depicted on every face, the jaws dropped, the +pipes went out. And now I address my reproaches to Kangourou: "Why had +he brought her to me in such pomp, before friends and neighbors of +both sexes, instead of showing her to me discreetly as if by chance, +as I had wished? What an affront he will compel me now to put upon all +these polite persons!" + +The old ladies (the mamma no doubt and aunts), prick up their ears, +and M. Kangourou translates to them, softening as much as possible, my +heartrending decision. I feel really almost sorry for them; the fact +is, that for women who, not to put too fine a point upon it, have come +to sell a child, they have an air I was not prepared for: I can hardly +say an air of _respectability_ (a word in use with us, which is +absolutely without meaning in Japan), but an air of unconscious and +good-natured simplicity; they are only accomplishing an act perfectly +admissible in their world, and really it all resembles, more than I +could have thought possible, a _bonâ fide_ marriage. + +"But what fault do I find with the little girl?" asks M. Kangourou, in +consternation. + +I endeavor to present the matter in the most flattering light: + +"She is very young," I say; "and then she is too white, too much like +our own women. I wished for a yellow one just as a change." + +"But that is only the paint they have put on her, sir! Beneath it, I +assure you, she is yellow." + +Yves leans towards me and whispers: + +"Look over there, brother, in that corner by the last panel; have you +noticed the one who is sitting down?" + +Not I. In my annoyance I had not observed her; she had her back to the +light, was dressed in dark colors, and sat in the careless attitude of +one who keeps in the background. The fact is this one pleased me much +better. Eyes with long lashes, rather narrow, but which would have +been called good in any country in the world; almost an expression, +almost a thought. A coppery tint on her rounded cheeks; a straight +nose; slightly thick lips, but well modeled and with pretty corners. +Less young than Mdlle. Jasmin, about eighteen years of age perhaps, +already more of a woman. She wore an expression of ennui, also of a +little contempt, as if she regretted her attendance at a spectacle +which dragged so much, and was so little amusing. + +"M. Kangourou, who is that young lady over there, in dark blue?" + +"Over there, sir? A young lady called Mdlle. Chrysanthème. She came +with the others you see here; she is only here as a spectator. She +pleases you?" said he with eager suddenness, espying a way out of his +difficulty. Then, forgetting all his politeness, all his +ceremoniousness, all his Japanesery, he takes her by the hand, forces +her to rise, to stand in the dying daylight, to let herself be seen. +And she, who has followed our eyes and begins to guess what is on +foot, lowers her head in confusion, with a more decided but more +charming pout, and tries to step back, half sulky, half smiling. + +"It makes no difference," continues M. Kangourou, "it can be arranged +just as well with this one; she is not married either, sir!" + +She is not married! Then why didn't the idiot propose her to me at +once instead of the other, for whom I have a feeling of the greatest +pity, poor little soul, with her pearly gray dress, her sprig of +flowers, her expression which grows sadder, and her eyes which twinkle +like those of a child about to cry. + +"It can be arranged, sir!" repeats Kangourou again, who at this moment +appears to me a go-between of the lowest type, a rascal of the meanest +kind. + +Only, he adds, we, Yves and I, are in the way during the negotiations. +And, while Mdlle. Chrysanthème remains with her eyelids lowered, as +befits the occasion, while the various families, on whose countenances +may be read every degree of astonishment, every phase of expectation, +remain seated in a circle on my white mats, he sends us two into the +verandah, and we gaze down into the depths below us, upon a misty and +vague Nagasaki, a Nagasaki melting into a blue haze of darkness. + +Then ensue long discourses in Japanese, arguments without end. M. +Kangourou, who is washerman and low scamp in French only, has returned +for these discussions to the long formulas of his country. From time +to time I express impatience, I ask this worthy creature whom I am +less and less able to consider in a serious light: + +"Come now, tell us frankly, Kangourou, are we any nearer coming to +some arrangement? is all this ever going to end?" + +"In a moment, sir, in a moment;" and he resumes his air of political +economist seriously debating social problems. + +Well, one must submit to the slowness of this people. And, while the +darkness falls like a veil over the Japanese town, I have leisure to +reflect, with as much melancholy as I please, upon the bargain that is +being concluded behind me. + + * * * * * + +Night has closed in, deep night; it has been necessary to light the +lamps. + +It is ten o'clock when all is finally settled, and M. Kangourou comes +to tell me: + +"All is arranged, sir: her parents will give her up for twenty +dollars a month,--the same price as Mdlle. Jasmin." + +On hearing this, I am possessed suddenly with extreme vexation that I +should have made up my mind so quickly to link myself in ever so +fleeting and transient a manner with this little creature, and dwell +with her in this isolated house. + +We come back into the room; she is the center of the circle and +seated; and they have placed the aigrette of flowers in her hair. +There is actually some expression in her glance, and I am almost +persuaded that she--this one--- thinks. + +Yves is astonished at her modest attitude, at her little timid airs of +a young girl on the verge of matrimony; he had imagined nothing like +it in such a marriage as this, nor I either, I must confess. + +"She is really very pretty, brother," said he; "very pretty, take my +word for it!" + +These good folks, their customs, this scene, strike him dumb with +astonishment; he cannot get over it, and remains in a maze. "Oh! this +is too much," and the idea of writing a long letter to his wife at +Toulven, describing it all, diverts him greatly. + +Chrysanthème and I join hands. Yves too advances and touches the +dainty little paw;--after all, if I wed her, it is chiefly his fault; +I should never have remarked her without his observation that she was +pretty. Who can tell how this strange arrangement will turn out? Is it +a woman or a doll? Well, time will show. + +The families having lighted their many-colored lanterns swinging at +the ends of slight sticks, prepare to beat a retreat with many +compliments, bows and curtsies. When it is a question of descending +the stairs, no one is willing to go first, and at a given moment, the +whole party are again on all fours, motionless and murmuring polite +phrases in undertones. + +_"Haul back there!"_ said Yves, laughing and employing a nautical term +used when there is a stoppage of any kind. + +At length they all melt away, descend the stairs with a last buzzing +accompaniment of civilities and polite phrases finished from one step +to another in voices which gradually die away. He and I remain alone +in the unfriendly empty apartment, where the mats are still littered +with the little cups of tea, the absurd little pipes, and the +miniature trays. + +"Let us watch them go away!" said Yves, leaning out. At the door of +the garden is a renewal of the same salutations and curtsies, and +then the two groups of women separate, their bedaubed paper lanterns +fade away trembling in the distance, balanced at the extremity of +flexible canes which they hold in their finger-tips, as one would hold +a fishing-rod in the dark to catch night-birds. The procession of the +unfortunate Mdlle. Jasmin mounts upwards, towards the mountain, while +that of Mdlle. Chrysanthème winds downwards by a narrow old street, +half stairway, half goat-path, which leads to the town. + +Then we also depart. The night is fresh, silent, exquisite, the +eternal song of the cicalas fills the air. We can still see the red +lanterns of my new family, dwindling away in the distance, as they +descend and gradually become lost in that yawning abyss, at the bottom +of which lies Nagasaki. + +Our way, too, lies downwards, but on an opposite slope by steep paths +leading to the sea. + +And when I find myself once more on board, when the scene enacted on +the hill up above recurs to my mind, it seems to me that my betrothal +is a joke, and my new family a set of puppets. + + + + +V. + + +_July 10th, 1885_. + +It is three days now since my marriage was an accomplished fact. + +In the lower part of the town, in the middle of one of the new +cosmopolitan districts, in the ugly pretentious building which is a +kind of register office, the deed has been signed and countersigned, +with marvelous hieroglyphics, in a large book, in the presence of +those ridiculous little creatures, formerly silken-robed _Samouraï_, +but now called policemen, and dressed up in tight jackets and Russian +caps. + +The ceremony took place in the full heat of mid-day; Chrysanthème and +her mother arrived there together, and I went alone. We seemed to have +met for the purpose of ratifying some discreditable contract, and the +two women trembled in the presence of these ugly little individuals, +who, in their eyes, were the personification of the law. + +In the middle of their official scrawl, they made me write in French +my name, Christian name, and profession. Then they gave me an +extraordinary document on a sheet of rice-paper, which set forth the +permission granted me by the civilian Authorities of the Island of +Kiu-Siu, to inhabit a house situated in the suburb of Diou-djen-dji, +with a person called Chrysanthème, the said permission being available +under protection of the police, during the whole of my stay in Japan. + +In the evening, however, up there in our own quarter, our little +marriage became a very pretty affair,--a procession carrying lanterns, +a festive tea and some music. It was indeed high time. + +Now we are almost an old married couple, and we are gently settling +down into every-day habits. + +Chrysanthème tends the flowers in our bronze vases, dresses herself +with studied care, proud of her socks with the divided big toe, and +strums all day on a kind of long-necked guitar, producing therefrom +plaintive and sad sounds. + + + + +VI. + + +In our home, all has the appearance of a Japanese picture: we have +nothing but little folding-screens, little curiously shaped stools +bearing vases full of nosegays, and at the further end of the +apartment, in a nook forming an altar, a large gilded Buddha sits +enthroned in a lotus. + +The house is just as I had fancied it should be in the many dreams of +Japan I had made before my arrival, during my long night watches: +perched on high, in a peaceful suburb, in the midst of green +gardens;--made up of paper panels, and taken to pieces according to +one's fancy, like a child's toy. Whole families of cicalas chirp day +and night under our old resounding roof. From our verandah, we have a +bewildering bird's-eye view of Nagasaki, of its streets, its junks and +its great pagodas, which, at certain hours, is lit up at our feet like +some fairylike scene. + + + + +VII. + + +As a mere outline, little Chrysanthème has been seen everywhere and by +everybody. Whoever has looked at one of those paintings on china or on +silk that now fill our bazaars, knows by heart the pretty stiff +head-dress, the leaning figure, ever ready to try some new gracious +salutation, the scarf fastened behind in an enormous bow, the large +falling sleeves, the dress slightly clinging about the ankles with a +little crooked train like a lizard's tail. + +But her face, no, every one has not seen it; there is something +special about it. + +Moreover, the type of women the Japanese paint mostly on their vases +is an exceptional one in their country. It is almost exclusively among +the nobility that these personages are found with their long pale +faces, painted in tender rose-tints, and silly long necks which give +them the appearance of storks. This distinguished type (which I am +obliged to admit was also Mdlle. Jasmin's) is rare, particularly at +Nagasaki. + +In the middle class and the people, the ugliness is more pleasant and +sometimes becomes a kind of prettiness. The eyes are still too small +and hardly able to open, but the faces are rounder, browner, more +vivacious; and in the women there remains a certain vagueness in the +features, something childlike which prevails to the very end of their +lives. + +They are so laughing, so merry, all these little Niponese dolls! +Rather a forced mirth, it is true, studied and at times with a false +ring in it; nevertheless one is attracted by it. + +Chrysanthème is an exception, for she is melancholy. What thoughts can +be running through that little brain? My knowledge of her language is +still too restricted to enable me to find out. Moreover, it is a +hundred to one that she has no thoughts whatever. And even if she +had, what do I care? + +I have chosen her to amuse me, and I would really rather she should +have one of those insignificant little thoughtless faces like all the +others. + + + + +VIII. + + +When night closes in, we light two hanging lamps of a religious +character, which burn till morn, before our gilded idol. + +We sleep on the floor, on a thin cotton mattress, which is unfolded +and laid out over our white mats. Chrysanthème's pillow is a little +wooden block, scooped out to fit exactly the nape of the neck, without +disturbing the elaborate head-dress, which must never be taken down; +the pretty black hair I shall probably never see undone. My pillow, a +Chinese model, is a kind of little square drum covered over with +serpent skin. + +We sleep under a gauze mosquito net of somber greenish blue, dark as +the shades of night, stretched out on an orange-colored ribbon. (These +are the traditional colors, and all the respectable families of +Nagaski possess a similar gauze.) It envelops us like a tent; the +mosquitoes and the night-moths dance around it. + + * * * * * + +This sounds very pretty, and written down looks very well. In reality, +however, it is not so; something, I know not what, is wanting, and it +is all very paltry. In other lands, in the delightful isles of +Oceania, in the old lifeless quarters of Stamboul, it seemed as if +mere words could never express all I felt, and I vainly struggled +against my own incompetence to render, in human language, the +penetrating charm surrounding me. + +Here, on the contrary, words exact and truthful in themselves seem +always too thrilling, too great for the subject; seem to embellish it +unduly. I feel as if I were acting, for my own benefit, some +wretchedly trivial and third-rate comedy; and whenever I try to +consider my home in a serious spirit, the scoffing figure of M. +Kangourou rises up before me, the matrimonial agent, to whom I am +indebted for my happiness. + + + + +IX. + + +_July 12th_. + +Yves comes up to us whenever he is free, in the evening at five +o'clock, after his work on board. + +He is our only European visitor, and with the exception of a few +civilities and cups of tea, exchanged with our neighbors, we lead a +very retired life. Only in the evenings, winding our way through the +precipitous little streets and carrying our lanterns at the end of +short sticks, we go down to Nagasaki in search of amusement at the +theaters, at the "tea-houses," or in the bazaars. + +Yves treats this wife of mine as if she were a plaything, and +continually assures me that she is charming. + +Myself, I find her as exasperating as the cicalas on my roof; and when +I am alone at home, side by side with this little creature twanging +the strings of her long-necked guitar, in front of this marvelous +panorama of pagodas and mountains,--I am overcome by a sadness full of +tears. + + + + +X. + + +_July 13th_. + +Last night, as we lay under the Japanese roof of Diou-djen-dji,--under +the thin and ancient wooden roof scorched by a hundred years of +sunshine, vibrating at the least sound, like the stretched-out +parchment of a tamtam,--in the silence which prevails at two o'clock +in the morning, we heard overhead a regular wild huntsman's chase +passing at full gallop: + +"Nidzoumi!" ("the mice!"), said Chrysanthème. + +Suddenly, the word brings back to my mind yet another, spoken in a +very different language, in a country far away from here: "Setchan!" a +word heard elsewhere, a word that has likewise been whispered in my +ear by a woman's voice, under similar circumstances, in a moment of +nocturnal terror--"Setchan!" It was during one of our first nights at +Stamboul spent under the mysterious roof of Eyoub, when danger +surrounded us on all sides; a noise on the steps of the black +staircase had made us tremble, and she also, my dear little Turkish +companion, had said to me in her beloved language, "Setchan!" ("the +mice!"). + +At that fond recollection, a thrill of sweet memories coursed through +my veins; it was as though I had been startled out of a long ten +years' sleep; I looked down upon the doll beside me with a sort of +hatred, wondering why I was there, and I arose, with almost a feeling +of remorse, to escape from that blue gauze net. + +I stepped out upon the verandah, and there I paused, gazing into the +depths of the starlit night. Beneath me Nagasaki lay asleep, wrapt in +a soft light slumber, hushed by the murmuring sound of a thousand +insects in the moonlight, and fairylike with its roseate hues. Then, +turning my head, I saw behind me the gilded idol with our lamps +burning in front of it; the idol smiling its impassive Buddha smile; +and its presence seemed to cast around it something, I know not what, +strange and incomprehensible. Never until now had I slept under the +eye of such a god. + +In the midst of the calm and silence of the night, I strove to recall +my poignant impressions of Stamboul; but alas, I strove in vain, they +would not return to me in this strange, far-off world. Through the +transparent blue gauze appeared my little Japanese, as she lay in her +somber night-dress with all the fantastic grace of her country, the +nape of her neck resting on its wooden block, and her hair arranged in +large shiny bows. Her amber-colored arms, pretty and delicate, +emerged, bare up to the shoulders, from her wide sleeves. + +"What can those mice on the roof have done to him?" thought +Chrysanthème. Of course she could not understand. In a coaxing manner, +like a playful kitten, she glanced at me with her half-closed eyes, +inquiring why I did not come back to sleep,--and I returned to my +place by her side. + + + + +XI. + + +_July 14th_. + +It is the National Fête day of France. In Nagasaki roadstead, all the +ships are dressed out with flags, and salutes are firing in our honor. + +Alas! All day long, I cannot help thinking of that last fourteenth of +July, spent in the deep calm and stillness of my old home, the door +closed to all intruders, while the gay crowd roared outside; there I +had remained till evening, seated on a bench, shaded by a trellis +covered with honeysuckle, where in the bye-gone days of my childhood's +summers, I used to settle myself with my copybooks and pretend to +learn my lessons. Oh! those days when I was supposed to learn my +lessons: how my thoughts used to rove,--what voyages, what distant +lands, what tropical forests did I not behold in my dreams! At that +time, near the garden bench, in some of the crevices in the stone +wall, there dwelt many a big ugly black spider ever on the watch, +peeping out of his nook ready to pounce upon any giddy fly or +wandering centipede. One of my amusements consisted in tickling the +spiders gently, very gently, with a blade of grass or a cherry stalk +in their holes. Mystified, they would rush out, fancying they had to +deal with some sort of prey, whilst I would rapidly draw back my hand +in disgust. Well, last year, on that fourteenth of July, as I recalled +my days of Latin themes and translations, now forever flown, and this +game of boyish days, I actually recognized the very same spiders (or +at least their daughters), lying in wait in the very same holes. +Gazing at them and at the tufts of grass and moss around me, a +thousand memories of those summers of my early life welled up within +me, memories which for years past had lain slumbering under this old +wall, sheltered by the ivy boughs. While all that is ourselves +perpetually changes and passes away, the constancy with which Nature +repeats, always in the same manner, her most infinitesimal details, +seems a wonderful mystery; the same peculiar species of moss grow +afresh for centuries on precisely the same spot, and the same little +insects each summer do the same thing in the same place. + + * * * * * + +I must admit that this episode of my childhood and the spiders, have +little to do with the story of Chrysanthème. But an incongruous +interruption is quite in keeping with the taste of this country; +everywhere it is practiced, in conversation, in music, even in +painting; a landscape painter, for instance, when he has finished a +picture of mountains and crags, will not hesitate to draw in the very +middle of the sky a circle, or a lozenge, or some kind of framework, +within which he will represent anything incoherent and inappropriate: +a bonze fanning himself, or a lady taking a cup of tea. Nothing is +more thoroughly Japanese than such digressions made without the +slightest àpropos. + +Moreover, if I roused my past memories, it was the better to force +myself to notice the difference between that 14th of July last year, +so peacefully spent amidst surroundings familiar to me from my +earliest infancy, and the present animated one, passed in the midst of +such a novel world. + +To-day, therefore, under the scorching mid-day sun, at two o'clock, +three quick-footed djins dragged us at full speed,--Yves, Chrysanthème +and myself,--in Indian file, each in a little jolting cart, to the +further end of Nagasaki, and there deposited us at the foot of some +gigantic steps that run straight up into the mountain. + +These are the granite steps leading to the great temple of Osueva; +wide enough to give access to a whole regiment; they are as grand and +imposing as any work of Babylon or Nineveh, and in complete contrast +with all the finical surroundings. + +We climb up and up,--Chrysanthème listlessly, affecting fatigue, under +her paper parasol painted with pink butterflies on a black ground. As +we ascended, we passed under enormous monastic porticos, also in +granite of rude and primitive style. In truth, these steps and these +temple porticos are the only imposing works that this people has +created, and they astonish, for they scarcely seem Japanese. + +We climb up still higher. At this sultry hour of the day, from top to +bottom of the immense gray steps, only we three are to be seen; on all +that granite there are but the pink butterflies on Chrysanthème's +parasol, to throw a cheerful and brilliant note. + +We passed through the first temple yard, in which are a couple of +white china turrets, bronze lanterns, and the statue of a large horse +in jade. Then without pausing at the sanctuary, we turned to the left, +and entered a shady garden, which formed a terrace halfway up the +hill, and at the extremity of which was situated the +_Donko-Tchaya_,--in English: _the tea-house of the Toads_. + +It was here that Chrysanthème was taking us. We sat down at a table, +under a black linen tent, decorated with large white letters (of +funereal aspect), and two laughing _mousmés_ hurried up to wait upon +us. + +The word _mousmé_ means a young girl, or very young woman. It is one +of the prettiest words in the Niponese language; it seems almost as if +there were a little _moue_[C] in the very sound, and as if a pretty +taking little pout such as they put on, and also a little pert +physiognomy, were described by it. I shall often make use of it, +knowing none other in our own language that conveys the same meaning. + +[Footnote C: _Moue_ means "pout" in French.] + +Some Japanese Watteau must have mapped out this _Donko-Tchaya_, for it +has rather an affected air of rurality, though very pretty. Well +shaded, under a thick vault of large trees densely foliaged, a +miniature lake hard by, the chosen residence of a few toads, has given +it its attractive denomination. Lucky toads, who crawl and croak on +the finest of moss, in the midst of tiny artificial islets decked with +gardenias in full bloom. From time to time, one of them informs us of +his thoughts by a "Couac," uttered in a deep bass croak infinitely +more hollow than that of our own toads. + + * * * * * + +Under the tent of this tea-house, we are as it were on a balcony +jutting out from the mountain side, overhanging from on high the +grayish town and its suburbs buried in greenery. Around, above and +beneath us cling and hang on every possible point, clumps of trees and +fresh green woods, with the delicate and varying foliage of the +temperate zone. Then we can see, at our feet, the deep roadstead, +fore-shortened and slanting, diminished in appearance till it looks +like a terrible somber tear in the mass of large green mountains; and +further still, quite low down, on the waters which seem black and +stagnant, are to be seen, very tiny and overwhelmed, the men-of-war, +the steamboats and the junks, flags flying from every mast. On the +dark green, which is the dominant shade around, stand out these +thousand scraps of bunting, emblems of the different nationalities, +all displayed, all flying in honor of far-distant France. The colors +most prevailing in this motley assemblage are the white flag with a +red ball, emblem of the _Empire of the Rising Sun_, where we now are. + + * * * * * + +With the exception of three or four mousmés at the further end who are +practicing with bows and arrows, we are to-day the only people in the +garden, and the mountain round about is silent. + +Having finished her cigarette and her cup of tea, Chrysanthème also +wishes to exert her skill; for archery is still held in honor among +the young women. The old man who keeps the range, picks out for her +his best arrows tipped with white and red feathers,--and she takes aim +with a serious air. The mark is a circle, traced in the middle of a +picture on which is painted in flat gray tones, terrifying chimera +flying through the clouds. + +Chrysanthème is certainly an adroit markswoman, and we admire her as +much as she expected. + +Then Yves, who is usually clever at all games of skill, wishes to try +his luck, and fails. It is amusing to see her, with her mincing ways +and smiles, arrange with the tips of her little fingers, the sailor's +broad hands, placing them on the bow and the string in order to teach +him the proper manner. Never have they seemed to get on so well +together, Yves and my dolly, and I might even feel anxious, were I +less sure of my good brother, and if, moreover, it were not a matter +of perfect indifference to me. + + * * * * * + +In the stillness of the garden, mid the balmy peacefulness of these +mountains, a loud noise suddenly startles us; a unique, powerful, +terrible sound, which is prolonged in infinite metallic vibrations. It +begins again sounding more appalling: _Boum!_ borne to us by the +rising wind. + +"_Nippon Kané!_" explains Chrysanthème,--and she again takes up her +brightly-feathered arrows. "_Nippon Kané_ (the Japanese brass); it is +the Japanese brass that is sounding!" It is the monstrous gong of a +monastery, situated in a suburb beneath us. Well, it is powerful +indeed "the Japanese brass!" When the strokes are ended, when it is no +longer heard, a vibration seems to linger among the suspended foliage, +and an endless quiver runs through the air. + + * * * * * + +I am obliged to admit that Chrysanthème looks very charming shooting +her arrows, her figure well bent back the better to bend her bow; her +loose-hanging sleeves caught up to her shoulders, showing the graceful +bare arms polished like amber and very much of the same color. Each +arrow whistles by with the rustle of a bird's wing,--then a short +sharp little blow is heard, the target is hit, always. + +At nightfall, when Chrysanthème has gone up to Diou-djen-dji, we +cross, Yves and myself, the European concession, on our way to the +ship, to take up our watch till the following day. The cosmopolitan +quarter exhaling an odor of absinthe, is dressed up with flags, and +squibs are being fired off in honor of France. Long lines of djins +pass by, dragging as fast as their naked legs can carry them, the crew +of the _Triomphante_, who are shouting and fanning themselves. The +"Marseillaise" is heard everywhere; English sailors are singing it, +gutturally with a dull and slow cadence like their own "God Save." In +all the American bars, grinding organs are hammering it with many an +odious variation and flourish, in order to attract our men. + + * * * * * + +Just one funny recollection comes back to me of that evening. On our +return, we had by mistake got into a street inhabited by a multitude +of ladies of doubtful reputation. I can still see that big fellow +Yves, struggling with a whole band of tiny little mousmés of some +twelve or fifteen years of age, who barely reached up to his waist, +and were pulling him by the sleeves, anxious to lead him astray. +Astonished and indignant he repeated as he extricated himself from +their clutches: "Oh, this is too much!" So shocked was he at seeing +such mere babies, so young, so tiny, already so brazen and shameless. + + + + +XII. + + +_July 18th_. + +There are now four of us, four officers of my ship, married like +myself, and inhabiting the slopes of the same suburb. It is quite an +ordinary occurrence, and is arranged without difficulties, mystery or +danger, through the negotiations of the same M. Kangourou. + +As a matter of course, we are on visiting terms with all these ladies. + +First there is our very merry neighbor Madame Campanule, who is little +Charles N----'s wife; then Madame Jonquille, who is even merrier than +Campanule, like a young bird and the daintiest fairy of the whole lot: +she has married X----, a fair northerner who adores her; they are a +loverlike and inseparable pair, the only one that will probably weep +when the hour of parting comes. Then Sikou-San with Doctor Y----; and +lastly the midshipman Z---- with the tiny Madame Touki-San, no taller +than a boot: thirteen years old at the outside and already a regular +woman, full of her own importance, a petulant little gossip. In my +childhood, I was sometimes taken to the _Learned Animals_ Theater, and +I remember a certain Madame de Pompadour, a principal rôle, filled by +a gayly dressed-up old monkey; Touki-San reminds me of her. + +In the evening, all these folk generally come and fetch us for a long +processional walk with lighted lanterns. My wife, more serious, more +melancholy, perhaps even more refined, and belonging, I fancy, to a +higher class, tries when these friends come to us to play the part of +the lady of the house. It is comical to see the entry of these +ill-matched couples, partners for a day, the ladies with their +disjointed bows falling on all fours before Chrysanthème, the queen of +the establishment. When we are all assembled, we start off, arm in +arm, one behind the other, and always carrying at the end of our short +sticks little white or red paper lanterns;--it seems it is pretty. + +We are obliged to scramble down the kind of street, or rather +goat's-path, which leads to the Japanese Nagasaki,--with the prospect, +alas! of having to climb up again at night; clamber up all the steps, +all the slippery slopes, stumble over all the stones, before we shall +be able to get home, go to bed, and sleep. We make our descent in the +darkness, under the branches, under the foliage, betwixt dark gardens +and venerable little houses that throw but a faint glimmer on the +road; and when the moon is absent or clouded over, our lanterns are +by no means unnecessary. + +When at last we reach the bottom, suddenly, without transition, we +find ourselves in the very heart of Nagasaki and its busy throng in a +long illuminated street, where vociferating djins hurry along and +thousands of paper lanterns swing and gleam in the wind. It is life +and animation, after the peace of our silent suburb. + +Here, decorum requires we should separate from our wives. All five +take hold of each others' hands, like a batch of little girls out +walking. We follow them with an air of indifference. Seen from behind, +our dolls are really very dainty, with their back hair so tidily done +up, their tortoiseshell pins so coquettishly arranged. They shuffle +along, their high wooden clogs making an ugly sound, striving to walk +with their toes turned in, according to the height of fashion and +elegance. At every minute they burst out laughing. + +Yes, seen from behind, they are very pretty; they have, like all +Japanese women, the most lovely turn of the head. Moreover, they are +very funny, thus drawn up in line. In speaking of them, we say: "Our +little dancing dogs," and in truth they are singularly like them. + +This great Nagasaki is the same from one end to another, with its +numberless petroleum lamps burning, its many-colored lanterns +flickering, and innumerable panting djins. Always the same narrow +streets, lined on each side with the same low houses, built in paper +and wood. Always the same shops, without glass windows, open to all +the winds, equally rudimentary whatever may be sold or made in them; +whether they display the finest gold lacquer ware, the most marvelous +china jars, or old worn-out pots and pans, dried fish, and ragged +frippery. All the salesmen are seated on the ground in the midst of +their valuable or trumpery merchandise, their legs bared nearly to the +waist. And all kinds of queer little trades are carried on under the +public gaze, by strangely primitive means, by workmen of the most +ingenuous type. + +Oh! what wonderful goods are exposed for sale in those streets! what +whimsical extravagances in those bazaars! + +No horses, no carriages are ever seen in the town; nothing but people +on foot, or the comical little carts dragged along by the runners. +Some few Europeans straggling hither and thither, wanderers from the +ships in harbor; some Japanese (fortunately as yet but few in number) +dressed up in coats; other natives who content themselves with adding +to their national costume the pot hat, from which their long sleek +locks hang down; and all around, eager haggling, bargaining,--and +laughter. + +In the bazaars every evening our mousmés make endless purchases; like +spoilt children they buy everything they fancy: toys, pins, ribbons, +flowers. And then they prettily offer each other presents, with +childish little smiles. For instance, Campanule buys for Chrysanthème +an ingeniously contrived lantern on which, set in motion by some +invisible machinery, Chinese shadows dance in a ring round the flame. +In return, Chrysanthème gives Campanule a magic fan, with paintings +that change at will from butterflies fluttering round cherry-blossoms, +to outlandish monsters pursuing each other across black clouds. Touki +offers Sikou a cardboard mask representing the bloated countenance of +Daï-Cok, god of wealth; and Sikou replies by a long crystal trumpet, +by means of which are produced the most extraordinary sounds, like a +turkey gobbling. Everything is uncouth, fantastical to excess, +grotesquely lugubrious; everywhere we are surprised by +incomprehensible conceptions, which seem the work of distorted +imaginations. + +In the fashionable tea-houses where we finish up our evenings, the +little servant-girls now bow to us, on our arrival, with an air of +respectful recognition, as belonging to the fast set of Nagasaki. +There we carry on desultory conversations, full of misunderstandings +and endless _quid pro quo's_ of uncouth words,--in little gardens +lighted up with lanterns, near ponds full of gold fish, with little +bridges, little islets and little ruined towers. They hand us tea and +white and pink-colored sweetmeats flavored with pepper that taste +strange and unfamiliar, and beverages mixed with snow tasting of +flowers or perfumes. + + * * * * * + +To give a faithful account of those evenings, would require a more +affected style than our own; and some kind of graphic sign would have +also to be expressly invented and scattered at haphazard amongst the +words, indicating the moment at which the reader should laugh,--rather +a forced laugh, perhaps, but amiable and gracious. The evening at an +end; it is time to return up there. + +Oh! that street, that road, that we must clamber up every evening, +under the starlit sky, or the heavy thunder-clouds, dragging by the +hand our drowsy mousmé in order to regain our home perched on high +half-way up the hill, where our bed of matting awaits us. + + + + +XIII. + + +The cleverest amongst us has been Louis de S----. Having formerly +inhabited Japan, and made a marriage Japan fashion there, he is now +satisfied to remain the friend of our wives, of whom he has become the +_Komodachi taksan takaï, the very tall friend_ (as they say on account +of his excessive height and slenderness). Talking Japanese more freely +than we can, he is their confidential adviser, disturbs or reconciles +at will our households, and has infinite amusement at our expense. + +This _very tall friend_ of our wives enjoys all the fun that these +little creatures can give him, without any of the worries of domestic +life. With brother Yves, and little Oyouki (the daughter of Madame +Prune, my landlady,) he makes up our incongruous party. + + + + +XIV. + + +M. Sucre and Madame Prune,[D] my landlord and wife, two perfectly +unique personages but recently escaped from the panel of some screen, +live below us on the ground floor; and very old they seem to have this +daughter of fifteen, Oyouki, who is Chrysanthème's inseparable friend. + +[Footnote D: In Japanese: _Sato-san_ and _Oumé-San_.] + +Both of them are entirely absorbed in the practices of Shintoist +devotion: perpetually on their knees before their family altar, +perpetually occupied in murmuring their lengthy orisons to the +Spirits, and clapping their hands from time to time to recall around +them the inattentive essences floating in the atmosphere;--in their +spare moments they cultivate in little pots of gayly-painted +earthenware, dwarf shrubs and unheard-of flowers which smell +deliciously in the evening. + +M. Sucre is taciturn, dislikes society, looks like a mummy in his blue +cotton dress. He writes a great deal, (his memoirs, I fancy) with a +paint-brush held in his finger-tips, on long strips of rice-paper of a +faint gray tint. + +Madame Prune is eagerly attentive, obsequious and rapacious; her +eye-brows are closely shaven, her teeth carefully lacquered with black +as befits a lady of gentility, and at all and no matter what hours, +she appears on all fours at the entrance of our apartment, to offer us +her services. + +As to Oyouki, she rushes upon us ten times a day,--whether we are +sleeping, or dressing,--like a whirlwind on a visit, flashing upon us, +a very gust of dainty youthfulness and droll gayety,--a living peal of +laughter. She is round of figure, round of face; half baby, half girl; +and so affectionate that she bestows kisses on the slightest occasion +with her great puffy lips,--a little moist, it is true, like a +child's, but nevertheless very fresh and very red. + + + + +XV. + + +In our dwelling, open as it is all the night through, the lamps +burning before the gilded Buddha procure us the company of the insect +inhabitants of every garden in the neighborhood. Moths, mosquitoes, +cicalas, and other extraordinary insects of which I don't even know +the names,--all this company assembles around us. + +It is extremely funny, when some unexpected grasshopper, some +free-and-easy beetle presents itself without invitation or excuse, +scampering over our white mats, to see the manner in which +Chrysanthème indicates it to my righteous vengeance,--merely pointing +her finger at it, without another word than "Hou!" said with bent +head, a particular pout, and a scandalized air. + +There is a fan kept expressly for the purpose of blowing them out of +doors again. + + + + +XVI. + + +Here, I must own, that to the reader of my story it must appear to +drag a little. + +In default of exciting intrigues and tragic adventures, I would fain +have known how to infuse into it a little of the sweet perfumes of the +gardens which surround me, something of the gentle warmth of the +sunshine, of the shade of these graceful trees. Love being wanting, I +should like it to breathe of the restful tranquillity of this far-away +suburb. Then, too, I should like it to reëcho the sound of +Chrysanthème's guitar, in which I begin to find a certain charm, for +want of something better, in the silence of the lovely summer +evenings. + +All through these moonlit nights of July, the weather has been calm, +luminous and magnificent. Ah! what glorious clear nights, what +exquisite roseate tints beneath that wonderful moon, what mystery of +blue shadows in the thick tangle of trees. And, from the heights +where stood our verandah, how prettily the town lay sleeping at our +feet! + +After all, I do not positively detest this little Chrysanthème, and +when there is no repugnance on either side, habit turns into a +make-shift of attachment. + + + + +XVII. + + +Always, over, in, and through everything, rises day and night from +this Japanese landscape the song of the cicalas, ceaseless, strident, +and prodigious. It is everywhere, and never-ending, at no matter what +hour of the burning day, what hour of the cool and refreshing night. +In the midst of the roads, as we approached our anchorage, we had +heard it at the same time from the two shores, from both walls of +green mountains. It is wearisome and haunting; it seems to be the +manifestation, the noise expressive of the special kind of life +peculiar to this region of the world. It is the voice of summer in +these islands; it is the song of unconscious rejoicing, always content +with itself and always appearing to inflate, to rise upwards, in a +greater and greater exultation at the sheer happiness of living. + +It is to me the noise characteristic of this country,--this, and the +cry of the falcon, which had in like manner greeted our entry into +Japan. Over the valleys and the deep bay sail these birds, uttering +from time to time their three cries, "Han! han! han!" in a key of +sadness, which seems the extreme of painful astonishment. And the +mountains around re-echo their cry. + + + + +XVIII. + + +Yves, Chrysanthème, and little Oyouki have struck up a friendship so +great that it amuses me: I even think, that in my home life, this +intimacy is what affords me the greatest entertainment. They form a +contrast which gives rise to the most absurd jokes, and most +unforeseen situations. He brings into this fragile little paper house, +his sailor's freedom and ease of manner, and his Breton accent; side +by side with these tiny mousmés of affected manners and bird-like +voices, who, small as they are, rule the big fellow as they please; +make him eat with chopsticks; teach him Japanese "_pigeon-vole_,"--and +cheat him, and quarrel, and almost die of laughter over it all. + +Certainly he and Chrysanthème take a pleasure in each other's company. +But I remain serenely undisturbed, and cannot imagine that this +little chance doll with whom I play at married life, could possibly +bring a serious trouble between this "brother" and myself. + + + + +XIX. + + +My family of Japanese relations, very numerous and very conspicuous, +is a great source of diversion to those of my brother officers who +visit me in my villa on the hill,--most especially to _komodachi +taksan takaï (the immensely tall friend)_. + +I have a charming mother-in-law--quite a woman of the world,--little +sisters-in-law, little cousins, and aunts who are still quite young. + +I have even a poor cousin, twice removed, who is a djin. There was +some hesitation in owning this latter to me; but, behold! during the +ceremony of introduction, we exchanged a smile of recognition, it was +number 415. + +Over this poor 415, my friends on board crack no end of jokes,--one in +particular, who, less than any one has the right to make them, little +Charles N----, for his mother-in-law was once a porter, or something +of the kind, at the gateway of a pagoda. + +I, however, who have a great respect for strength and agility, much +appreciate this new relative of mine. His legs are undoubtedly the +best in all Nagasaki, and whenever I am in a hurry, I always beg +Madame Prune to send down to the djin stand, and engage my cousin. + + + + +XX. + + +I arrived unexpectedly to-day at Diou-djen-dji, in the midst of a +burning noonday heat. At the foot of the stairs lay Chrysanthème's +wooden clogs and her sandals of varnished leather. + +In our rooms, up above, all was open to the air; bamboo blinds lowered +on the sunny side, and through their transparency came warm air and +golden threads of light. To-day, the flowers Chrysanthème had placed +in our bronze vases were lotus, and my eyes fell, as I entered, upon +their great rosy cups. + +According to her usual custom, she was lying flat on the floor +enjoying her daily siesta. + +What a singular originality these bouquets of Chrysanthème always +have: a something difficult to define, a Japanese slimness, a +mannered grace which we should never succeed in imparting to them. + +She was sleeping flat on her face upon the mats, her high headdress +and tortoiseshell pins standing out boldly from the rest of the +horizontal figure. The train of her tunic prolonged her delicate +little body, like the tail of a bird; her arms were stretched +crosswise, the sleeves spread out like wings,--and her long guitar lay +beside her. + +She looked like a dead fairy; or still more did she resemble some +great blue dragon-fly, which, having alighted on that spot, some +unkind hand had pinned to the floor. + +Madame Prune, who had come upstairs after me, always officious and +eager, manifested by her gestures her sentiments of indignation on +beholding the careless reception accorded by Chrysanthème to her lord +and master, and advanced to wake her. + +"Pray do nothing of the kind, my good Madame Prune, you don't know how +much I prefer her like that!" I had left my shoes below, according to +custom, by the side of the little clogs and sandals; and I entered on +the tips of my toes, very, very softly, to go and sit awhile under the +verandah. + +What a pity this little Chrysanthème cannot always be asleep; she is +really extremely decorative seen in this manner,--and like this, at +least, she does not bore me. Who knows what may perchance be going on +in that little head and heart! If I only had the means of finding out! +But strange to say, since we have kept house together, instead of +pushing my studies in the Japanese language further, I have neglected +them, so much have I felt the utter impossibility of ever interesting +myself in the subject. + +Seated under my verandah, my eyes wandered over the temples and +cemeteries spread at my feet, over the woods and green mountains, over +Nagasaki lying bathed in the sunlight. The cicalas were chirping their +loudest, the strident noise trembling feverishly in the hot air. All +was calm, full of light and full of heat. + +Nevertheless, to my taste, it is not yet enough so! What then can have +changed upon the earth? The burning noon-days of summer, such as I can +recall in days gone by, were more brilliant, more full of sunshine; +Nature seemed to me in those days more powerful, more terrible. One +would say this was only a pale copy of all that I knew in early +years,--a copy in which something is wanting. Sadly do I ask +myself,--Is the splendor of the summer only this? _was it_ only this? +or is it the fault of my eyes, and as time goes on shall I behold +everything around me paling still more? + +Behind me a faint and melancholy strain of music,--melancholy enough +to make one shiver,--and shrill, shrill as the song of the +grasshoppers, began to make itself heard, very softly at first, then +growing louder and rising in the silence of the noonday like the +diminutive wail of some poor Japanese soul in pain and anguish; it was +Chrysanthème and her guitar awaking together. + +It pleased me that the idea should have occurred to her to greet me +with music, instead of eagerly hastening to wish me "Good morning." +(At no time have I ever given myself the trouble to pretend the +slightest affection for her, and a certain coldness even has grown up +between us, especially when we are alone.) But to-day I turn to her +with a smile, and wave my hand for her to continue. "Go on, it amuses +me to listen to your quaint little impromptu." It is singular that the +music of this essentially merry people should be so plaintive. But +undoubtedly that which Chrysanthème is playing at this moment is worth +listening to. Whence can it have come to her? What unutterable dreams, +forever hidden from me, fly through her yellow head, when she plays or +sings in this manner? + +Suddenly: Pan, pan, pan! Some one knocks three times, with a harsh +and bony finger against one of the steps of our stairs, and in the +aperture of our doorway appears an idiot, clad in a suit of gray +tweed, who bows low. "Come in, come in, M. Kangourou. How well you +come, just in the nick of time! I was actually becoming enthusiastic +over your country!" + +It was a little washing bill, which M. Kangourou respectfully wished +to hand to me, with a profound bend of the whole body, the correct +pose of the hands on the knees, and a long snake-like hiss. + + + + +XXI. + + +Following the road which climbs past the front of our dwelling, one +passes a dozen or more old villas, a few garden walls, and then there +is nothing but the lonely mountain side, with little paths winding +upwards towards the summit through plantations of tea, bushes of +camellias, underwood and rocks. The mountains round Nagasaki are +covered with cemeteries; for centuries and centuries past it is up +here they have brought their dead. + +But there is neither sadness nor horror in these Japanese sepulchers; +it would seem as if among this frivolous and childish people, death +itself could not be taken seriously. The monuments are either Buddhas, +in granite, seated on lotus, or upright funereal stones with an +inscription in gold; they are grouped together in little enclosures in +the midst of the woods, or on natural terraces delightfully situated, +and are generally reached by long stairways of stone carpeted with +moss; from time to time, these pass under one of the sacred gateways, +of which the shape, always the same, rude and simple, is a smaller +reproduction of those in the temples. + +Up above us, the tombs of our mountain are of so hoary an antiquity +that they no longer alarm any one, even by night. It is a region of +forsaken cemeteries. The dead hidden away there have long since become +one with the earth around them; and these thousands of little gray +stones, these multitudes of ancient little Buddhas, eaten away by +lichens, seem to be now no more than a proof of a series of +existences, long anterior to our own, and lost forever and altogether +in the mysterious depths of ages. + + + + +XXII. + + +Chrysanthème's meals are something indescribable. + +She begins in the morning, when she wakes, by two little green wild +plums pickled in vinegar and rolled in powdered sugar. A cup of tea +completes this almost traditional breakfast of Japan, the very same +Madame Prune is eating downstairs, the same served up to travelers in +the inns. + +During the course of the day the feeding is continued by two little +dinners of the drollest composition. They are brought up on a tray of +red lacquer, in microscopic cups with covers, from Madame Prune's +apartment, where they are cooked: a hashed sparrow, a stuffed prawn, +seaweed with a sauce, a salt sweetmeat, a sugared chili. Chrysanthème +tastes a little of all, with dainty pecks and the aid of her little +chopsticks, raising the tips of her fingers with affected grace. At +every dish she makes a face, leaves three parts of it, and dries her +finger-tips after it in apparent disgust. + +These menus vary according to the inspiration which may have seized +Madame Prune. But one thing never varies, either in our household or +in any other, neither in the north nor in the south of the Empire, and +that is the dessert and the manner of eating it: after all these +little dishes, which are a mere make-believe, is brought in a wooden +bowl, bound with copper,--an enormous bowl, fit for Gargantua, and +filled to the very brim with rice, plainly cooked in water. +Chrysanthème fills another large bowl from it (sometimes twice, +sometimes three times), darkens its snowy whiteness with a black sauce +flavored with fish which is contained in a delicately shaped blue +cruet, mixes it all together, carries the bowl to her lips, and crams +down all the rice, shoveling it with her two chopsticks into her very +throat. Next the little cups and covers are picked up, as well as the +tiniest crumb that may have fallen upon the white mats, the +irreproachable purity of which nothing is allowed to tarnish. And so +ends the dinner. + + + + +XXIII. + +_August 2nd_. + + +Down below in the town, a street singer had established herself in a +little thoroughfare; people had collected around her to listen to her +singing, and we three--that is, Yves, Chrysanthème and I--who chanced +to be passing, stopped like others. + +Quite young, rather fat, fairly pretty, she strummed her guitar and +sang, rolling her eyes fiercely, like a virtuoso executing feats of +difficulty. She lowered her head, stuck her chin into her neck, in +order to draw deeper notes from the furthermost recesses of her body; +and succeeded in bringing forth a great hoarse voice,--a voice that +might have belonged to an aged frog, a ventriloquist's voice, coming +from whence it would be impossible to say (this is the best stage +manner, the final word of art, for the interpretation of tragic +pieces). + +Yves cast an indignant glance upon her: + +"Good gracious," said he, "it's the voice of a--" (words failed him, +in his astonishment) "it's the voice of a--a monster!" + +And he looked at me, almost frightened by this little being, and +anxious to know what I thought of it. + +My poor Yves was out of temper on this occasion, because I had induced +him to come out in a straw hat with a turned-up brim, which did not +please him. + +"It suits you remarkably well, Yves, I assure you." + +"Oh, indeed! You say so, you. For my part, I think it looks like a +magpie's nest!" + +As a fortunate diversion from the singer and the hat, here comes a +cortège, advancing towards us from the end of the street, something +remarkably like a funeral. Bonzes march in front dressed in robes of +black gauze, having much the appearance of Catholic priests; the +principal personage of the procession, the corpse, comes last, laid in +a sort of little closed palanquin which is daintily pretty. This is +followed by a band of mousmés, hiding their laughing faces beneath a +kind of veil, and carrying in vases of the sacred shape the artificial +lotus with silver petals indispensable at a funeral; then come fine +ladies, on foot, smirking and stifling a wish to laugh, beneath +parasols on which are painted in the gayest colors, butterflies and +storks. + +Now they are quite close to us, we must stand back to give them room. +Chrysanthème all at once assumes a suitable air of gravity, and Yves +bares his head, taking off the magpie's nest. + +Yes, it is true, it is death that is passing by! + +I had almost lost sight of the fact, so little does this recall it. + +The procession will climb high up, far away above Nagasaki, into the +heart of the green mountain all peopled with tombs. There the poor +fellow will be laid at rest, with his palanquin above him, and his +vases and his flowers of silvered paper. Well, at least the poor +defunct will lie in a charming spot commanding a lovely view. + +They will now return half laughing, half sniveling, and to-morrow no +one will think of it again. + + + + +XXIV. + +_August 4th_. + + +The _Triomphante_, which has been lying in the roadsteads almost at +the foot of the hill on which stands my house, enters the dock to-day +to undergo repairs rendered necessary by the long blockade of Formosa. + +I am now a long way from my home, and obliged to cross by boat the +whole breadth of the bay when I wish to see Chrysanthème; for the dock +is situated on the shore opposite to Diou-djen-dji. It is sunk in a +little valley, narrow and deep, midst all kinds of foliage,--bamboos, +camellias, trees of all sorts; our masts and spars, seen from the +deck, look as if they were tangled among the branches. + +The situation of the vessel--no longer afloat--gives the crew a +greater facility for clandestine escapes from the ship at no matter +what hour of the night, and our sailors have made friends with all +the girls of the villages perched on the mountains above us. + +These quarters and his excessive liberty, give me some uneasiness +about my poor Yves; for this country of frivolous pleasure has a +little turned his head. Moreover, I am more and more convinced that he +is in love with Chrysanthème. + +It is really a pity that the sentiment has not occurred to me instead, +since it is I who have gone the length of marrying her. + + + + +XXV. + + +Notwithstanding the increased distance, I continue my daily visits to +Diou-djen-dji. When night has fallen, and the four couples who compose +our society have joined us, as well as Yves and the _amazingly tall +friend_,--we descend again into the town, stumbling by lantern light +down the steep stairways and slopes of the old suburb. + +This nocturnal stroll is always the same, and accompanied always by +the same amusements: we pause before the same queer stalls, we drink +the same sugared drinks served to us in the same little gardens. But +our troop is often more numerous: to begin with, we chaperon Oyouki +who is confided to our care by her parents; then we have two cousins +of my wife's--pretty little creatures; and lastly friends--guests of +sometimes only ten or twelve years old, little girls of the +neighborhood to whom our mousmés wish to show some politeness. + +Oh! what a singular company of tiny beings forms our suite and follows +us into the tea-gardens in the evenings! The most absurd faces, with +sprigs of flowers stuck in the oddest fashion in their comical and +childish heads! One might suppose it was a whole school of mousmés out +for an evening's frolic under our care. + +Yves returns with us, when time comes to remount our +hill,--Chrysanthème heaves great sighs like a tired child, and stops +on every step, leaning on our arms. + +When we have reached our destination he says good-night, just touches +Chrysanthème's hand, and descending once more, by the slope which +leads to the quays and the shipping, he crosses the roadstead in a +sampan, to get on board the _Triomphante_. + +Meantime, we, with the aid of a sort of secret key, open the door of +our garden, where Madame Prune's pots of flowers, ranged in the +darkness, send forth delicious odors in the night air. We cross the +garden by moonlight or starlight, and mount to our own rooms. + +If it is very late,--a frequent occurrence,--we find all our wooden +panels drawn and tightly shut by the careful M. Sucre (as a precaution +against thieves), and our apartment is as close and as private as if +it were a real European one. + +In this house, when every chink is thus closed, a strange odor mingles +with the musk and the lotus,--an odor essential to Japan, to the +yellow race, belonging to the soil or emanating from the venerable +woodwork; almost an odor of wild beast. The mosquito curtain of dark +blue gauze ready hung for the night, falls from the ceiling with the +air of a mysterious velum. The gilded Buddha smiles eternally at the +night-lamps burning before him; some great moth, a constant frequenter +of the house, which during the day sleeps clinging to our ceiling, +flutters at this hour under the very nose of the god, turning and +flitting round the thin quivering flames. And, motionless on the wall, +its feelers spread out starwise, sleeps some great garden spider, +which one must not kill because it is night. "Hou!" says Chrysanthème +indignantly, pointing it out to me with leveled finger. "Quick! where +is the fan kept for the purpose, wherewith to hunt it out of doors?" + +Around us reigns a silence which is almost painful after all the +joyous noises of the town, and all the laughter, now hushed, of our +band of mousmés,--a silence of the country, of some sleeping village. + + + + +XXVI. + + +The noise of the innumerable wooden panels which at the fall of night +are pulled and shut in every Japanese house, is one of the +peculiarities of the country which will remain longest imprinted on my +memory. From our neighbors' houses, floating to us over the green +gardens, these noises reach us one after the other, in series, more or +less deadened, more or less distant. + +Just below us, those of Madame Prune move very badly, creak and make a +hideous noise in their worn-out grooves. + +Ours are somewhat noisy too, for the old house is full of echoes, and +there are at least twenty to run over long slides in order to close in +completely the kind of open hall in which we live. Generally it is +Chrysanthème who undertakes this piece of household work, and a great +deal of trouble it gives her, for she often pinches her fingers in the +singular awkwardness of her too tiny hands, which have never been +accustomed to do any work. + +Then comes her toilette for the night. With a certain grace she lets +fall the day-dress, and slips on a more simple one of blue cotton, +which has the same pagoda sleeves, the same shape all but the train, +and which she fastens round her waist by a sash of muslin of the same +color. + +The high head-dress remains untouched, it is needless to say; all but +the pins which are taken out and laid beside her in a lacquer box. + +Then there is the little silver pipe that must absolutely be smoked +before going to sleep; this is one of the customs which most provokes +me, but has to be borne. + +Chrysanthème, like a gypsy, squats before a particular square box, +made of red wood, which contains a little tobacco jar, a little +porcelain stove full of hot embers, and finally a little bamboo pot +serving at the same time as ash-tray and spittoon. (Madame Prune's +smoking-box downstairs, and every smoking-box in Japan, both of men +and women, is exactly the same, and contains precisely the same +objects, arranged in precisely the same manner; and wherever it may +be, whether in the house of the rich or the poor, it always lies +about somewhere on the floor.) + +The word "pipe" is at once too trivial and too big to be applied to +this delicate silver tube, which is perfectly straight and at the end +of which, in a microscopic receptacle, is placed one pinch of golden +tobacco, chopped finer than silken thread. + +Two puffs, or at most three; it lasts scarcely a few seconds, and the +pipe is finished. Then _pan, pan, pan, pan,_ the little tube is struck +smartly against the edge of the smoking-box to knock out the ashes, +which never will fall; and this tapping, heard everywhere, in every +house, at every hour of the day or night, quick and droll as the +scratching of a monkey, is in Japan one of the noises most +characteristic of human life. + +"Anata nominasé!" ("You must smoke too!") says Chrysanthème. + +Having again filled the vexatious little pipe, she puts the silver +tube to my lips with a bow. Courtesy forbids my refusal; but I find it +detestably bitter. + +Now, before laying myself down under the blue mosquito-net, I open two +of the panels in the room, one on the side of the silent and deserted +footpath, the other one on the garden side, overlooking the terraces, +so that the night air may breathe upon us, even at the risk of +bringing us the company of some belated cockchafer, or more giddy +moth. + +Our wooden house, with its thin old walls, vibrates at night like a +great dry fiddle; the slightest noises grow great in it, become +disfigured and positively disquieting. + +Beneath the verandah are hung two little Æolian harps, which at the +least ruffle of the breeze running through their blades of grass, emit +a gentle tinkling sound, like the harmonious murmur of a brook; +outside, to the very furthest limits of the distance, the cicalas +continue their great and everlasting concert; over our heads, on the +black roof, is heard passing like a witch's sabbath, the raging battle +to the death of cats, rats and owls. + +Presently, when in the early dawn, a fresher breeze, mounting upwards +from the sea and the deep harbor, reaches us, Chrysanthème will slyly +get up and shut the panels I have opened. + +Before that, however, she will have risen at least three times to +smoke: having yawned like a cat, stretched herself, twisted in every +direction her little amber arms, and her graceful little hands, she +sits up resolutely, with all the waking groans and half words of a +child, pretty and fascinating enough: then she emerges from the gauze +tent, fills her little pipe, and breathes a few puffs of the bitter +and unpleasant mixture. + +Then comes _pan, pan, pan, pan,_ against the box to shake out the +ashes. In the resounding sonority of the night it makes quite a +terrible noise, which wakes Madame Prune. This is fatal. Madame Prune +is at once seized also with a longing to smoke which may not be +denied; then, to the noise from above, comes an answering _pan, pan, +pan, pan,_ from below, exactly like it, exasperating and inevitable as +an echo. + + + + +XXVII. + + +More cheerful are the noises of the morning: the cocks crowing, the +wooden panels all round the neighborhood sliding back upon their +rollers; or the strange cry of some little fruit-hawker, patrolling +our lofty suburb in the early dawn. And the grasshoppers absolutely +seem to chirp more loudly, to celebrate the return of the sunlight. + +Above all, rises to our ears from below the sound of Madame Prune's +long prayers, ascending through the floor, monotonous as the song of a +somnambulist, regular and soothing as the splash of a fountain. It +lasts three-quarters of an hour at least; it drones along, a rapid +flow of words in a high nasal key; from time to time, when the +inattentive Spirits are not listening, it is accompanied by a clapping +of dry palms, or by harsh sounds from a kind of wooden clapper made of +two discs of mandragora root; it is an uninterrupted stream of prayer; +its flow never ceases, and the quavering continues without stopping, +like the bleating of an old nanny-goat in delirium. + +_"After having washed the hands and feet"_ say the sacred books, _"the +great God Ama-Térace-Omi-Kami, who is the royal power of Japan, must +be invoked; the manes of all the defunct Emperors descended from him +must also be invoked; next, the manes of all his personal ancestors, +to the furthest generation; the Spirits of the Air and Sea; the +Spirits of all secret and impure places; the Spirits of the tombs of +the district whence you spring, etc., etc."_ + +"I worship and implore you," sings Madame Prune, "Oh +Ama-Térace-Omi-Kami, royal power. Cease not to protect your faithful +people, who are ready to sacrifice themselves for their country. Grant +that I may become as holy as yourself, and drive from my mind all dark +thoughts. I am a coward and a sinner; purge me from my cowardice and +sinfulness, even as the north wind drives the dust into the sea. Wash +me clean from all my iniquities, as one washes away uncleanness in the +river of Kamo. Make me the richest woman in the world. I believe in +your glory, which shall be spread over the whole earth, and illuminate +it forever for my happiness. Grant me the continued good health of my +family, and above all, my own, who, oh Ama-Térace-Omi-Kami, do worship +and adore you, and only you, etc., etc." + +Here follow all the Emperors, all the Spirits, and the interminable +list of the ancestors. + +In her trembling old woman's falsetto, Madame Prune sings out all +this, without omitting anything, at a pace which almost takes away her +breath. + +And very strange it is to hear: at length it seems hardly a human +voice; it sounds like a series of magic formulas, unwinding themselves +from an inexhaustible roller, and escaping to take flight through the +air. By its very weirdness, and by the persistency of its incantation, +it ends by producing in my scarcely awakened brain, an almost +religious impression. + +Every day I wake to the sound of this Shintoist litany chanted beneath +me, vibrating through the exquisite clearness of the summer +mornings,--while our night-lamps burn low before the smiling Buddha, +while the eternal sun, scarcely risen, already sends through the +cracks of our wooden panels its bright rays, which dart like golden +arrows through our darkened dwelling and our blue gauze tent. + +This is the moment at which I must rise, descend hurriedly to the sea +by grassy footpaths all wet with dew, and so regain my ship. + +Alas! in the days gone by, it was the cry of the muezzin which used to +awaken me in the dark winter mornings, in far-away night-shrouded +Stamboul. + + + + + +XXVIII + + +Chrysanthème has brought but few things with her, knowing that our +married life would be of short duration. + +She has placed her dresses and her fine sashes in little closed +recesses, hidden in one of the walls of our apartment (the north wall, +the only one of the four which will not take to pieces.) The doors of +these niches are white paper panels; the standing shelves and inside +partitions, consisting of light woodwork, are put together in too +finical a manner, too ingenious a way, giving rise to suspicions of +secret drawers and conjuring tricks. We only put there things without +any value, having a vague feeling that the cupboards themselves might +spirit them away. + +The box in which Chrysanthème stores away her gewgaws and letters, is +one of the things that amuses me the most; it is of English origin, in +tin, and bears on its cover the colored representation of some +manufactory in the neighborhood of London. Of course, it is as an +exotic work of art, as a precious knick-knack, that Chrysanthème +prefers it to any of her other boxes in lacquer or inlaid work. It +contains all that a mousmé requires for her correspondence: Indian +ink, a paintbrush, very thin gray tinted paper, cut up in long narrow +strips, and funnily shaped envelopes, into which these strips are +slipped (after having been folded up in some thirty folds); the +envelopes being ornamented with pictures of landscapes, fishes, crabs, +or birds. + +On some old letters addressed to her, I can make out the two +characters that represent her name: "Kikou-San" (Chrysanthème, +Madame). And when I question her, she replies in Japanese, with an air +of importance: + +"My dear creature, they are letters from my female friends." + +Oh! those friends of Chrysanthème, what funny little faces they have! +That same box contains their portraits, their photographs stuck on +visiting cards, which are printed on the back with the name of Uyeno, +the fashionable photographer in Nagasaki,--little creatures fit only +to figure daintily on painted fans, and who have striven to assume a +dignified attitude when once their necks have been placed in the +head-rest and they have been told: "Now don't move!" + +It would really amuse me to read her friends' letters,--and above all +my mousmé's answers. + + + + +XXIX. + +_August 10th_. + + +This evening it rained heavily, and the night was thick and black. At +about ten o'clock, on our return from one of the fashionable +tea-houses we constantly frequent, we arrived,--Yves, Chrysanthème and +myself,--at the certain familiar angle of the principal street, the +certain turn where we must take leave of the lights and noises of the +town, to clamber up the black steps and steep lanes which lead to our +home at Diou-djen-dji. + +There, before beginning our ascension, we must first buy lanterns from +an old trades-woman called Madame Très-Propre,[E] whose faithful +customers we are. It is amazing what a quantity of these paper +lanterns we consume. They are invariably decorated in the same way, +with painted night-moths or bats; fastened to the ceiling at the +further end of the shop, they hang in enormous clusters, and the old +woman, seeing us arrive, gets upon a table to take them down. Gray or +red are our usual choice; Madame Très-Propre knows our preferences and +leaves the green or blue lanterns aside. But it is always hard work to +unhook one, on account of the little short sticks by which they are +held, and the strings by which they are tied getting entangled +together. In an exaggerated pantomime, Madame Très-Propre expresses +her despair at wasting so much of our valuable time: oh! if it only +depended on her personal efforts! but ah, for the natural perversity +of inanimate things which have no consideration for human dignity. +With monkeyish antics, she even deems it her duty to threaten the +lanterns and shake her fist at these inextricably tangled strings +which have the presumption to delay us. It is all very well, but we +know this maneuver by heart; and if the old lady loses patience, so do +we. Chrysanthème, who is half asleep, is seized with a fit of +kitten-like yawning which she does not even trouble to hide behind +her hand, and which appears to be endless. She pulls a very long face, +at the thought of the steep hill we must struggle up to-night through +the pelting rain. + +[Footnote E: In Japanese: _O Séï-San_.] + +I have the same feeling, and am thoroughly annoyed. + +To what purpose, good heavens, do I clamber up every evening to that +suburb, when it offers me no attraction whatever? + +The rain increases, what are we to do? Outside, djins pass rapidly by, +calling out: "Take care!" splashing the foot-passengers and casting +through the shower streams of light from their many-colored lanterns. +Mousmés and elderly ladies pass by, tucked up, muddy, laughing +nevertheless, under their paper umbrellas, exchanging greetings, +clacking their wooden pattens on the stone pavement; the whole street +is filled with the noise of the pattering feet and pattering rain. + +As good luck will have it, at the same moment passes 415, our poor +relative, who, seeing our distress, stops and promises to help us out +of our difficulty; as soon as he has deposited on the quay an +Englishman he is conveying, he will come to our aid and bring all that +is necessary to relieve us from our lamentable situation. + +At last our lantern is unhooked, lighted, and paid for. There is +another shop opposite, where we stop every evening; it is Madame +L'Heure's,[F] the woman who sells waffles; we always buy a provision +from her, to refresh us on the way. A very lively young woman is this +pastry-cook, and most anxious to make herself agreeable; she looks +quite like a screen picture, behind her piled-up cakes, ornamented +with little posies. We will take shelter under her roof while we wait; +and, to avoid the drops that fall heavily from the water-spouts, wedge +ourselves tightly against her display of white and pink sweetmeats, so +artistically spread out on fresh and delicate branches of cypress. + +[Footnote F: In Japanese: _Tôki-San_.] + +Poor 415, what a providence he is to us! Already he re-appears, most +excellent cousin, ever smiling, ever running, while the water streams +down his handsome bare legs; he brings us two umbrellas, borrowed from +a China merchant, who is also a distant relative of ours. Like me, +Yves has till now never consented to use such a thing, but he now +accepts one because it is droll: in paper, of course, with innumerable +folds waxed and gummed, and the inevitable flight of storks forming a +wreath all round. + +Chrysanthème, yawning more and more in her kitten-like fashion, +becomes coaxing in order to be helped along, and tries to take my arm: + +"I beg you, mousmé, this evening to take the arm of Yves-San; I am +sure that will suit us all three." + +And there they go, she, tiny figure, hanging on to the big fellow, and +so they climb up. I lead the way, carrying the lantern that lights our +steps, and whose flame I protect as well as I can under my fantastic +umbrella. On each side of the road is heard the roaring torrent of +stormy waters rolling down from the mountain side. To-night the way +seems long, difficult and slippery; a succession of interminable +flights of steps, gardens and houses piled up one above another; waste +lands, and trees which in the darkness shake their dripping foliage on +our heads. + +One would say that Nagasaki is ascending at the same time as +ourselves; but yonder, and very far away, in a kind of vapory mist +which seems luminous on the blackness of the sky; and from the town +there rises a confused murmur of voices and rumbling of gongs and +laughter. + +The summer rain has not yet refreshed the atmosphere. On account of +the stormy heat, the little suburban houses have been left open like +sheds, and we can see all that is going on. Lamps ever lighted burn +before the altars dedicated to Buddha and to the souls of the +ancestors; but all good Niponese have already lain down to rest. Under +the traditional tents of bluish-green gauze, we can see them, +stretched out in rows by whole families; they are either sleeping, or +hunting the mosquitoes, or fanning themselves. Niponese men and women, +Niponese babies too, lying side by side with their parents; each one, +young or old, in his little dark-blue cotton night-dress, and with his +little wooden block to rest the nape of his neck. + +A few houses are open, where amusements are still going on; here and +there, from the somber gardens, the sound of a guitar reaches our +ears, some dance giving in its weird rhythm a strange impression of +sadness. + +Here is the well, surrounded by bamboos, where we are wont to make a +nocturnal halt for Chrysanthème to take breath. Yves begs me to throw +forward the red gleam of my lantern, in order to recognize the place, +for it marks our half-way resting place. + +And at last, at last, here is our house! The door is closed, all is +silent and black. Our panels have been carefully shut by M. Sucre and +Madame Prune; the rain streams down the wood of our old black walls. + +In such weather it is impossible to allow Yves to return down hill, +and wander along the shore in quest of a sampan. No, he shall not +return on board to-night; we will put him up in our house. His little +room has indeed been already provided for in the conditions of our +lease, and notwithstanding his discreet refusal, we immediately set to +work to make it. Let us go in, take off our boots, shake ourselves +like so many cats that have been out in a shower, and step up to our +apartment. + +In front of Buddha, the little lamps are burning; in the middle of the +room, the night-blue gauze is stretched. On entering, the first +impression is a favorable one; our dwelling is pretty, this evening, +the late hour and deep silence give it an air of mystery. And then +also, in such weather, it is always pleasant to get home. + +Come, let us at once prepare Yves' room. Chrysanthème, quite elated at +the prospect of having her big friend near her, sets to work with a +good will; moreover, the task is an easy one, we have only to slip +three or four paper panels in their grooves, to make at once a +separate room or compartment in the great box we live in. I had +thought that these panels were entirely white; but no! on each of them +is a group of two storks painted in gray tints in those inevitable +attitudes consecrated by Japanese art: one bearing aloft its proud +head and haughtily raising its leg, the other scratching itself. Oh +these storks! how sick one gets of them, at the end of a month spent +in Japan! + +Yves is now in bed and sleeping under our roof. + +Sleep has come to him sooner than to me to-night; for somehow I fancy +I had seen long glances exchanged between him and Chrysanthème. + +I have left this little creature in his hands like a toy, and I begin +to fear lest I should have thrown some perturbation in his mind. I do +not trouble my head about this little Japanese girl. But Yves,--it +would be decidedly wrong on his part, and would greatly diminish my +faith in him. + +We hear the rain falling on our old roof; the cicalas are mute; odors +of wet earth reach us from the gardens and the mountain. I feel +terribly dreary in this room to-night; the noise of the little pipe +irritates me more than usual, and as Chrysanthème crouches in front of +her smoking-box, I suddenly discover in her an air of low breeding, in +the very worst sense of the word. + +I should hate her, my mousmé, if she were to entice Yves into +committing a fault,--a fault which I should perhaps never be able to +forgive. + + + + +XXX. + +_August 12th_. + + +The Y---- and Sikou-San couple were divorced yesterday. The Charles +N---- and Campanule household is getting on very badly. They have had +some annoyance with those prying, grinding, insupportable little men, +dressed up in suits of gray, who are called police agents and who by +threatening their landlord, have had them turned out of their +house--under the obsequious amiability of this people, there lurks a +secret hatred towards us Europeans--they are therefore obliged to +accept their mother-in-law's hospitality, a very painful position. And +then Charles N---- fancies his wife is faithless. It is hardly +possible, however, for us to deceive ourselves: these would-be +maidens, to whom M. Kangourou has introduced us, are young people who +have already had in their lives one, or perhaps more than one, +adventure; it is therefore only natural that we should have our +suspicions. + +The Z---- and Touki-San couple jog on, quarreling all the time. + +My household maintains a more dignified air, though it is none the +less dreary. I had indeed thought of a divorce, but have really no +good reason for offering Chrysanthème such a gratuitous affront; +moreover there is another more imperative reason why I should remain +quiet: I too have had difficulties with the civilian authorities. + +Day before yesterday, M. Sucre quite upset, Madame Prune almost +swooning, and Mdlle. Oyouki bathed in tears, stormed my rooms. The +Niponese police agents had called and threatened them with the law for +letting rooms outside of the European concession to a Frenchman +morganatically married to a Japanese; and the terror of being +prosecuted brought them to me, with a thousand apologies, but the +humble request that I should leave. + +The next day I therefore went off, accompanied by _the wonderfully +tall friend_, who expresses himself better than I do in Japanese, to +the register office, with the full intention of making a terrible row. + +In the language of this exquisitely polite people, terms of abuse are +totally wanting; when very angry, one is obliged to be satisfied with +using the _thou_, mark of _inferiority_ and the _familiar +conjugation_, habitual towards those of low birth. Seating myself on +the table used for weddings, in the midst of all the flurried little +policemen, I open the conversation in the following terms: + +"In order that _thou shouldest_ leave me in peace in the suburb I am +inhabiting, what bribe must I offer _thee_, set of little beings more +contemptible than any mere street porter?" + +Great and mute scandal, silent consternation, and low bows greet my +words. + +"Certainly," they at last reply, my honorable person shall not be +molested, indeed they ask for nothing better. Only, in order to +subscribe to the laws of the country, I ought to have come here and +given my name and that of the young person that--with whom-- + +"Oh! that is going too far! I came here on purpose, contemptible +creatures, not three weeks ago!" + +Then taking up myself the civil register, and turning over the pages +rapidly, I found my signature and beside it the little hieroglyphics +drawn by Chrysanthème: + +"There, set of idiots, look at that!" + +Arrival of a very high functionary,--a ridiculous little old fellow in +a black coat, who from his office has been listening to the row: + +"What is the matter? What is it? What is this annoyance put upon the +French officers?" + +I politely state my case to this personage, who cannot make apologies +and promises enough. The little agents prostrate themselves on all +fours, sink into the earth; and we leave them, cold and dignified, +without returning their bows. + +M. Sucre and Madame Prune can now make their minds easy, they will not +be disturbed again. + + + + +XXXI. + +_August 23rd_. + + +The prolonged stay of the _Triomphante_ in the dock, and the distance +of our home from town, have been my pretext these last two or three +days for not going up to Diou-djen-dji to see Chrysanthème. + +It is dreary work though in these docks. With the early dawn a legion +of little Japanese workmen invade us, bringing their dinners in +baskets and gourds like the working-men in our arsenals, but with a +needy, shabby appearance, and a ferreting, hurried manner which +reminds one of rats. Silently they slip under the keel, at the bottom +of the hold, in all the holes, sawing, nailing, repairing. + +The heat is intense in this spot, overshadowed by the rocks and +tangled masses of foliage. + +At two o'clock, in the broad sunlight, we have a new and far prettier +kind of invasion: that of the beetles and butterflies. + +Butterflies as wonderful as those on the fans. Some all black, giddily +dash up against us, so light and airy that they seem merely a pair of +quivering wings fastened together without any body. + +Yves astonished, gazes at them, saying in his boyish manner: "Oh, I +saw such a big one just now, such a big one, it quite frightened me; I +thought it was a bat attacking me." + +A steersman who has captured a very curious specimen, carries it off +carefully to press between the leaves of his signal-book, like a +flower. Another sailor passing by, taking his small roast to the oven +in a mess-bowl, looks at him funnily and says: + +"You had much better give it to me. I'd cook it!" + + + + +XXXII. + + +_August 24th_. + +It is nearly five days since I have abandoned my home and +Chrysanthème. + +Since yesterday we have had a storm of rain and wind--(a typhoon that +has passed or is passing over us). We beat to quarters in the middle +of the night to _lower the top-masts, strike the lower yards_, and +take every precaution against bad weather. The butterflies no longer +hover around us, but everything tosses and writhes overhead: on the +steep slopes of the mountain, the trees shiver, the long grasses bend +low as though in pain; terrible gusts rack them with a hissing sound; +branches, bamboo leaves, and earth are showered down like rain upon +us. + +In this land of pretty little trifles, this violent tempest is out of +all harmony; it seems as if its efforts were exaggerated and its music +too loud. + +Towards evening the big dark clouds roll by so rapidly, that the +showers are of short duration and soon pass over. Then I attempt a +walk on the mountain above us, in the wet verdure: little pathways +lead up it, between thickets of camellias and bamboos. + +Waiting till a shower is over, I take refuge in the courtyard of an +old temple half-way up the hill, buried in a wood of centennial trees +of gigantic branches; it is reached by granite steps, through strange +gateways, as deeply furrowed as the old Celtic dolmens. The trees +have also invaded this yard; the daylight is overcast with a greenish +tint, and the drenching rain that pours down in torrents, is full of +torn-up leaves and moss. Old granite monsters, of unknown shapes, are +seated in the corners, and grimace with smiling ferocity; their faces +are full of indefinable mystery that makes me shudder amid the moaning +music of the wind, in the gloomy shadows of the clouds and branches. + +They could not have resembled the Japanese of our day, the men who had +thus conceived these ancient temples, who built them everywhere, and +filled the country with them, even in its most solitary nooks. + + * * * * * + +An hour later, in the twilight of that stormy day, on the same +mountain, I chanced upon a clump of trees somewhat similar to oaks in +appearance; they, too, have been twisted by the tempest, and the tufts +of undulating grass at their feet are laid low, tossed about in every +direction. There, I suddenly have brought back to my mind, my first +impression of a strong wind in the woods of Limoise, in the province +of Saintonge, some twenty-eight years ago, in a month of March of my +childhood. + +That, the first storm of wind my eyes ever beheld sweeping over the +landscape, blew in just the opposite quarter of the world,--and many +years have rapidly passed over that memory,--since then the best part +of my life has been spent. + +I refer too often, I fancy, to my childhood; I am foolishly fond of +it. But it seems to me that then only did I truly experience +sensations or impressions; the smallest trifles I then saw or heard +were full of deep and hidden meaning, recalling past images out of +oblivion, and reawakening memories of prior existence; or else they +were presentiments of existences to come, future incarnations in the +land of dreams, expectations of wondrous marvels that life and the +world held in store for me,--for later, no doubt, when I should be +grown up. Well, I have grown up, and have found nothing that answered +to my undefinable expectations; on the contrary, all has narrowed and +darkened around me, my vague recollections of the past have become +blurred, the horizons before me have slowly closed in and become full +of a gray darkness. Soon will my time come to return to eternal rest, +and I shall leave this world without having understood the mysterious +wherefore of these mirages of my childhood; I shall bear away with me +a lingering regret, of I know not what lost home that I have failed to +find, of the unknown beings ardently longed for, whom, alas, I have +never embraced. + + + + +XXXIII. + + +With many affectations, M. Sucre has dipped the tip of his delicate +paint-brush in Indian ink and traced a couple of charming storks on a +pretty sheet of rice-paper, offering them to me in the most gracious +manner, as a souvenir of himself. They are here, in my cabin on board, +and whenever I look at them, I can fancy I see M. Sucre tracing them +in an airy manner, with elegant facility. + +The saucer in which M. Sucre mixes his ink, is in itself a little gem. +Chiselled out of a piece of jade, it represents a tiny lake with a +carved border imitating rockwork. On this border is a little mama +toad, also in jade, advancing as though to bathe in the little lake in +which M. Sucre carefully keeps a few drops of very dark liquid. The +mama toad has four little baby toads, equally in jade, one perched on +her head, the other three playing about under her. + +M. Sucre has painted many a stork in the course of his lifetime, and +he really excels in reproducing groups and duets, if one may so +express it, of this kind of bird. Few Japanese possess the art of +interpreting this subject in a manner at once so rapid and so +tasteful; first he draws the two beaks, then the four claws, then the +backs, the feathers, dash, dash, dash,--with a dozen strokes of his +clever brush, held in his daintily posed hand, it is done, and always +perfectly well done! + +M. Kangourou relates, without seeing anything wrong in it whatever, +that formerly this talent was of great service to M. Sucre. It appears +that Madame Prune,--how shall I say such a thing, and who could guess +it now, on beholding so devout and sedate an old lady, with eyebrows +so scrupulously shaven!--however, it appears that Madame Prune used to +receive a great many visits from gentlemen,--gentlemen who always came +alone, and it led to some gossip. Therefore, when Madame Prune was +engaged with one visitor, if a new arrival made his appearance, the +ingenious husband, to make him wait patiently, and to while away the +time in the ante-room, immediately offered to paint him some storks in +a variety of attitudes. + +And this is how, in Nagasaki, all the Japanese gentlemen of a certain +age, have in their collections two or three of these little pictures, +for which they are indebted to the delicate and original talent of M. +Sucre. + + + + +XXXIV. + + +_Sunday, August 25th_. + +At about six o'clock, while I was on duty, the _Triomphante_ left her +prison walls between the mountains and came out of dock. After a great +uproar of maneuvering we took up our old moorings in the roadstead, at +the foot of the Diou-djen-dji hills. The weather was again calm and +cloudless, the sky presenting a peculiar clearness as though it had +been swept clean by the cyclone, an exceeding transparency bringing +out the minutest details of the far distance till then unseen; as if +the terrible blast had blown away every vestige of the floating mists +and left behind it nothing but void and boundless space. The coloring +of woods and mountains stood out again in the resplendent verdancy of +spring after the torrents of rain, like the wet colors of some freshly +washed painting. The sampans and junks, which for the last three days +had been lying under shelter, had now put out to sea, and the bay was +covered with their white sails, which looked like an immense flight of +seabirds. + +At eight o'clock, at nightfall, our maneuver being at an end, I +embarked with Yves on board a sampan; this time it is he who is +carrying me off and taking me back to my home. + +On land, a delicious perfume of new-mown hay greets us, and the road +across the mountains lies bathed in glorious moonlight. We go straight +up to Diou-djen-dji to join Chrysanthème; I feel almost remorseful, +although I hardly show it, for my neglect of her. + +Looking up, I recognize from afar my little house, perched on high. It +is wide open and lit up; I even hear the sound of guitar. Then I +perceive the gilt head of my Buddha between: the little bright flames +of its two hanging night lamps. Now Chrysanthème appears on the +verandah, looking out as if she expected us; and with her wonderful +bows of hair and long falling sleeves, her silhouette is thoroughly +Niponese. + +As I enter, she comes forward to kiss me, in a graceful, though rather +hesitating manner, while Oyouki, more demonstrative, throws her arms +around me. + +It is with a certain pleasure that I see once more this Japanese home, +which I wonder to find still mine when I had almost forgotten its +existence. Chrysanthème has put fresh flowers in our vases, spread out +her hair, donned her best clothes, and lighted our lamps to honor my +return. From the balcony she had watched the _Triomphante_ leave the +dock, and, in the expectation of our now prompt return, she had made +her preparations; then, to while away the time, she was studying a +duet on the guitar with Oyouki. Not a question or reproach did she +make. On the contrary: + +"We quite understood," she said, "how impossible it was, in such +dreadful weather, to undertake so lengthy a crossing in a sampan." + +She smiled like a pleased child, and I should be fastidious indeed if +I did not admit that to-night she is charming. + +I announce my intention of starting off for a long stroll through +Nagasaki; we will take Oyouki-San and two little cousins who happen to +be there, as well as some other neighbors, if they wish to; we will +buy the funniest toys, eat all sorts of cakes, and amuse ourselves to +our hearts' content. + +"How lucky we are to be here, just at the right moment," they exclaim, +jumping with joy. "How fortunate we are! This very evening there is to +be a pilgrimage to the great temple of the _Jumping Tortoise!_ The +whole town will be there; all our married friends have already +started, the whole set, X----, Y----, Z----, Touki-San, Campanule, and +Jonquille, with _the friend of amazing height_." And those two, poor +Chrysanthème and poor Oyouki, would have been obliged to stay at home +with heavy hearts, because we had not yet arrived, and because Madame +Prune had been seized with faintness and hysterics after her dinner. + +Quickly the mousmés must deck themselves out. Chrysanthème is ready; +Oyouki hurries, changes her dress, and, putting on a mouse-colored +gray robe, begs me to arrange the bows of her fine sash--black satin +lined with yellow--sticking at the same time in her hair a silver +top-knot. We light our lanterns, swinging at the end of little sticks; +M. Sucre, overwhelming us with thanks for his daughter, accompanies us +on all fours to the door,--and we go off gayly through the clear and +balmy night. + +Below, we find the town in all the animation of a great holiday. The +streets are thronged; the crowd passes by,--a laughing, capricious, +slow, unequal tide, flowing onwards, however, steadily in the same +direction, towards the same goal. There arises therefrom an immense +but light murmur in which dominate the sounds of laughter, and the +low-toned interchange of polite speeches. Then follow lanterns upon +lanterns. Never in my life have I seen so many, so variegated, so +complicated, and so extraordinary. + +We follow, drifting with the surging crowd, borne along by it. There +are groups of women of every age, decked out in their smartest +clothes, crowds of mousmés with aigrettes of flowers in their hair, or +little silver top-knots like Oyouki,--pretty little physiognomies, +little narrow eyes peeping between slit lids like those of a new-born +kitten, fat pale little cheeks, round, puffed-out, half-opened lips. +They are pretty, nevertheless, these little Niponese, in their smiles +and childishness. + +The men, on the other hand, wear many a pot hat, pompously added to +the long national robe, and giving thereby a finishing touch to their +cheerful ugliness, resembling nothing so much as dancing monkeys. They +carry boughs in their hands, whole shrubs, even, amidst the foliage of +which dangle all sorts of curious lanterns in the shape of imps and +birds. + +As we advance in the direction of the temple, the streets become more +noisy and crowded. All along the houses are endless stalls raised on +trestles, displaying sweetmeats of every color, toys, branches of +flowers, nosegays, and masks. There are masks everywhere, boxes full +of them, carts full of them; the most popular being the one that +represents the livid and cunning muzzle, contracted as by a deathlike +grimace, the long straight ears, sharp-pointed teeth of the white fox, +sacred to the God of Rice. There are also others symbolic of gods or +monsters, livid, grimacing, convulsed, with wigs and beards of natural +hair. All manner of folk, even children, purchase these horrors, and +fasten them over their faces. Every sort of instrument is for sale, +amongst them many of those crystal trumpets which sound so +strangely,--this evening they are enormous, six feet long at +least,--and the noise they make is unlike anything ever heard before: +one would say gigantic turkeys gobbling amongst the crowd, and +striving to inspire fear. + +In the religious amusements of this people it is not possible for us +to penetrate the mysteriously hidden meaning of things; we cannot +divine the boundary at which jesting stops and mystic fear steps in. +These customs, these symbols, these masks, all that tradition and +atavism have jumbled together in the Japanese brain, proceed from +sources utterly dark and unknown to us; even the oldest records fail +to explain them to us in anything but a superficial and cursory +manner, _simply because we have absolutely nothing in common with this +people_. We pass in the midst of their mirth and their laughter +without understanding the wherefore, so totally does it differ from +our own. + + * * * * * + +Chrysanthème with Yves, Oyouki with me, Fraise and Zinia, our cousins, +walking before us under our watchful eye, slowly move through the +crowd, holding each others' hands lest we should lose one another. + +All along the streets leading to the temple, the wealthy inhabitants +have decorated the fronts of their houses with a quantity of vases and +nosegays. The peculiar shed-like buildings habitual in this country, +with their open platform frontage, are particularly well suited for +the display of choice objects; all the houses have been thrown open, +and the interiors are hung with draperies that hide the back of the +apartments. In front of these hangings and slightly standing back from +the movement of the passing crowd, the various exhibited articles are +methodically placed in a row, under the full glare of hanging lamps. +Hardly any flowers compose the nosegays, nothing but foliage,--some +rare and priceless, others chosen as if purposely from amongst the +commonest plants, arranged however with such taste as to make them +appear new and choice; ordinary lettuce leaves, tall cabbage stalks +are placed with exquisite artificial taste in vessels of marvelous +workmanship. All the vases are of bronze, but the designs are varied +according to each changing fancy: some complicated and twisted; +others, and by far the largest number, graceful and simple, but of a +simplicity so studied and exquisite that to our eyes they seem the +revelation of an unknown art, the subversion of all acquired notions +on form. + + * * * * * + +On turning a corner of a street, by good luck we meet our married +comrades of the _Triomphante_ and Jonquille, Touki-San and Campanule! +Bows and curtsies are exchanged by the mousmés, reciprocal +manifestations of joy at meeting; then, forming a compact band, we are +carried off by the ever-increasing crowd and continue our progress in +the direction of the temple. + +The streets gradually ascend (the temples are always built on a +height); and by degrees as we mount up, there is added to the +brilliant fairyland of lanterns and costumes, yet another, ethereally +blue in the haze of distance; all Nagasaki, its pagodas, its +mountains, its still waters full of the rays of moonlight, seem to +rise up with us into the air. Slowly, step by step, one may say it +springs up around, enveloping in one great shimmering veil all the +foreground, with its dazzling red lights and many-colored streamers. + +No doubt we are getting near, for here are the religious steps, +porticos and monsters hewn out of enormous blocks of granite. We now +have to climb a series of steps, almost earned by the surging crowd +ascending with us. + +The temple court-yard; we have arrived. + +This is the last and most astonishing scene in the evening's +fairy-tale,--a luminous and weird scene with fantastic distances +lighted up by the moon and the gigantic trees, the sacred +cryptomerias, stretching forth their dark somber boughs like a vast +dome. + +Here we are all seated with our mousmés, beneath the light awning +wreathed in flowers, of one of the many little tea-houses improvised +in this courtyard. We are on a terrace at the top of the great steps, +up which the crowd continues to flock; we are at the foot of a portico +which stands up erect with the rigid massiveness of a colossus against +the dark night sky; at the foot also of a monster, who stares down +upon us, with his big stony eyes, his cruel grimace and smile. + +This portico and the monster are the two great overwhelming masses in +the foreground of the incredible scene before us; they stand out with +dazzling boldness against the vague and ashy blue of the distant +sphere beyond; behind them, Nagasaki is spread out in a bird's-eye +view, faintly outlined in the transparent darkness with myriads of +little colored lights, and the extravagantly dented profile of the +mountains is delineated on the starlit sky, blue upon blue, +transparency upon transparency. A corner of the harbor is also +visible, high up, undefined like a lake lost in the clouds; the water +faintly illumined by a ray of moonlight shining forth like a sheet of +silver. + +Around us the long crystal trumpets keep up their gobble. Groups of +polite and frivolous persons pass and repass like fantastic shadows: +childish bands of small-eyed mousmés with smile so candidly +meaningless and chignons shining through their bright silver flowers; +ugly men waving at the end of long branches their eternal lanterns +shaped like birds, gods or insects. + +Behind us, in the lit-up and wide-open temple, the bonzes sit, +immovable embodiments of doctrine, in the glittering sanctuary +inhabited by divinities, chimeras and symbols. The crowd, monotonously +droning its mingled prayers and laughter, presses around them, sowing +its alms broadcast; with a continuous jingle, the money rolls on the +ground into the precincts reserved to the priests, where the white +mats entirely disappear under the mass of many-sized coins accumulated +there as after a deluge of silver and bronze. + +We, however, feel thoroughly at sea in the midst of this festivity; we +look on, we laugh like the rest, we make foolish and senseless remarks +in a language insufficiently learned, and which this evening, I know +not why, we can hardly understand. Notwithstanding the night breeze, +we find it very hot under our awning, and we absorb quantities of +funny-looking water-ices, served in cups, which taste like scented +frost, or rather like flowers steeped in snow. Our mousmés order for +themselves great bowls of candied beans mixed with hail,--real +hail-stones such as we would pick up after a hail-storm in March. + +Glou! glou! glou! the crystal trumpets slowly repeat their notes, the +powerful sonority of which has a labored and smothered sound, as +though they came from under water; they mingle with the jingling of +rattles and the noise of castanets. We also have the impression of +being carried away in the irresistible swing of this incomprehensible +gayety, composed in proportions we can scarcely measure, of elements +mystic, puerile and even ghastly. A sort of religious terror is +diffused by the hidden idols divined in the temple behind us; by the +mumbled prayers, confusedly heard; above all, by the horrible heads in +lacquered wood, representing foxes, which, as they pass, hide human +faces,--hideous livid masks. + +In the gardens and outbuildings of the temple the most inconceivable +mountebanks have taken up their quarters, their black streamers, +painted with white letters, looking like funereal trappings as they +float in the wind from the top of their tall flagstaffs. Hither we +turn out steps, as soon as our mousmés have ended their orisons and +bestowed their alms. + +In one of the booths a man stretched on a table, flat on his back, is +alone on the stage; puppets of almost human size, with horribly +grinning masks, spring out of his body; they speak, gesticulate, then +fall back like empty rags; with a sudden spring, they start up again, +change their costumes, change their faces, tearing about in one +continual frenzy. Suddenly three, even four appear at the same time; +they are nothing more than the four limbs of the outstretched man, +whose legs and arms, raised on high, are each one dressed up, and +capped with a wig under which peers a mask; between these phantoms +tremendous fighting and battling take place, and many a sword-thrust +is exchanged. The most fearful of all is a certain puppet representing +an hag; every time she appears, with her weird head and ghastly grin, +the lights burn low, the music of the accompanying orchestra moans +forth a sinister strain given by the flutes, mingled with a rattling +tremolo which sounds like the clatter of bones. This creature +evidently plays an ugly part in the piece,--that of a horrible old +ghoul, spiteful and famished. Still more appalling than her person is +her shadow, which, projected upon a white screen, is abnormally and +vividly distinct; by means of some unknown process this shadow, which +nevertheless follows all her movements, assumes the aspect of a wolf. +At a given moment the hag turns round and presents the profile of her +distorted snub nose as she accepts the bowl of rice which is offered +to her; on the screen at the very same instant appears the elongated +outline of the wolf, with its pointed ears, its muzzle and chops, its +great teeth and hanging tongue. The orchestra grinds, wails, quivers; +then suddenly bursts out into funereal shrieks, like a concert of +owls; the hag is now eating, and her wolfish shadow is eating also, +greedily moving its jaws and nibbling at another shadow easy to +recognize,--the arm of a little child. + +We now go on to see the _great salamander_ of Japan, an animal rare +in this country, and quite unknown elsewhere, a great cold mass; +sluggish and benumbed, looking like some antediluvian _experiment_, +forgotten in the inner seas of this archipelago. + +Next comes the trained elephant, the terror of our mousmés, the +equilibrists, the menagerie. + +It is one o'clock in the morning before we are back at Diou-djen-dji. + +We first get Yves to bed in the little paper room he has already once +occupied. Then we go to bed ourselves, after the inevitable +preparations, the smoking of the little pipe, and the _pan! pan! pan! +pan!_ on the edge of the box. + +Suddenly Yves begins to move restlessly in his sleep, to toss about, +giving great kicks on the wall, and making a frightful noise. + +What can be the matter? I at once imagine that he must be dreaming of +the old hag and her wolfish shadow. Chrysanthème raises herself on her +elbow and listens, with astonishment depicted on her face. + +Ah! happy thought! she has discovered what is tormenting him: + +"Ka!" (mosquitoes) she says. + +And, to impress the more forcibly her meaning on my mind, she pinches +my arm so hard with her little pointed nails, at the same time +imitating, with such an amusing play of her features, the grimace of a +person who is stung, that I exclaim-- + +"Oh! stop, Chrysanthème, this pantomime is too expressive, and indeed +useless! I know the word _Ka_, and had quite understood, I assure +you." + +It is done so drolly and so quickly, with such a pretty pout, that in +truth I cannot think of being angry, although I shall certainly have +to-morrow a blue mark on my arm; about that there is no doubt. + +"Come, we must get up and go to Yves' rescue; he cannot be allowed to +go on thumping in that manner. Let us take a lantern, and see what has +happened." + +It was indeed the mosquitoes. They are hovering in a thick cloud about +him; those of the house and those of the garden all seem collected +together, swarming and buzzing. Chrysanthème indignantly burns several +at the flame of her lantern, and shows me others: "Hou!" covering the +white paper walls. + +He, tired out with his day's amusement, sleeps on; but his slumbers +are restless, as can be easily imagined. Chrysanthème gives him a +shake, wishing him to get up and share our blue mosquito net. + +After a little pressing he does as he is bid and follows us, looking +like an overgrown boy only half awake. I make no objection to this +singular hospitality; after all, it looks so little like a bed, the +matting we are to share, and we sleep in our clothes, as we always do +according to the Niponese fashion. After all, on a journey in a +railway, do not the most estimable ladies stretch themselves without +demur by the side of gentlemen unknown to them? + +I have however placed Chrysanthème's little wooden block in the center +of the gauze tent, between our two pillows. + +Then, without saying a word, in a dignified manner as though she were +rectifying an error of etiquette that I had inadvertently committed, +Chrysanthème takes up her piece of wood, putting in its place my +snake-skin drum; I shall therefore be in the middle between the two. +It is really more correct, decidedly much more proper; Chrysanthème is +evidently a very decorous young person. + +Returning on board next morning, in the clear morning sun, we walk +through pathways full of dew; accompanied by a band of funny little +mousmés of six or eight years of age, who are going off to school. + +Needless to say that the cicalas around us keep up their perpetual +sonorous chirping. The mountain smells delicious. The atmosphere, the +dawning day, the infantine grace of these little girls in their long +frocks and shiny chignons, all is redundant with freshness and youth. +The flowers and grasses on which we tread sparkle with dewdrops, +exhaling a perfume of freshness. What undying beauty there is, even in +Japan, in the first fresh morning hours in the country, and the +dawning hours of life! + +Besides, I am quite ready to admit the attractiveness of the little +Japanese children; some of them are most fascinating. But how is it +that their charm vanishes so rapidly and is so quickly replaced by the +elderly grimace, the smiling ugliness, the monkeyish face? + + + + +XXXV. + + +My mother-in-law Madame Renoncule's small garden is, without +exception, one of the most melancholy spots I have seen during all my +peregrinations through the world. + +Oh, the slow, enervating, dull hours spent in idle and diffuse +conversation in the dimly lighted verandah! Oh, the horrid peppered +jam in the microscopic pots! In the middle of the town, enclosed by +four walls, is this park of five yards square, with little lakes, +little mountains, and little rocks, where all wears an antiquated +appearance, and everything is covered with a greenish moldiness from +want of sun. + +Nevertheless a true feeling for nature has inspired this tiny +representation of a wild spot. The rocks are well placed, the dwarf +cedars, no taller than cabbages, stretch their gnarled boughs over the +valleys in the attitude of giants wearied by the weight of centuries; +and their look of _big trees_ perplexes one and falsifies the +perspective. When from the dark recesses of the apartment one +perceives at a certain distance this diminutive landscape dimly +lighted up, the wonder is whether it is all artificial, or whether one +is not oneself the victim of some morbid illusion; and if it is not +indeed a real country view seen through a distorted vision out of +focus, or through the wrong end of a telescope. + +To any one familiar with Japanese life my mother-in-law's house in +itself reveals a refined nature,--complete nudity, two or three +screens placed here and there, a teapot, a vase full of lotus-flowers, +and nothing more. Woodwork devoid of paint or varnish, but carved in +most elaborate and capricious openwork, the whiteness of the pinewood +being kept up by constant scrubbings of soap and water. The posts and +beams of the framework are varied by the most fanciful taste: some are +cut in precise geometrical forms; others artificially twisted, +imitating trunks of old trees covered with tropical creepers. +Everywhere little hiding-places, little nooks, little closets +concealed in the most ingenious and unexpected manner under the +immaculate uniformity of the white paper panels. + +I cannot help smiling when I think of some of the so-called _Japanese_ +drawing-rooms, overcrowded with knick-knacks and curios and hung with +coarse gold embroideries on exported satins, of our Parisian fine +ladies. I would advise those persons to come and look at the houses of +people of taste out here; to visit the white solitudes of the palaces +at Yeddo. In France we have works of art in order to enjoy them; here +they possess them merely to ticket them and lock them up carefully in +a kind of mysterious underground room shut in by iron gratings called +a _godoun_. On rare occasions, only to honor some visitor of +distinction, do they open this impenetrable depositary. The true +Japanese manner of understanding luxury consists in a scrupulous and +indeed almost excessive cleanliness, white mats and white woodwork; +an appearance of extreme simplicity, and an incredible nicety in the +most infinitesimal details. + +My mother-in-law seems to be really a very nice woman, and were it not +for the insurmountable feeling of spleen the sight of her garden +produces on me, I would often go and see her. She has nothing in +common with the mammas of Jonquille, Campanule or Touki: she is vastly +their superior; and then I can see that she has been very good-looking +and stylish. Her past life puzzles me; but in my position as a +son-in-law, good manners prevent my making further inquiries. + +Some assert that she was formerly a celebrated guécha in Yeddo, who +lost public favor by her folly in becoming a mother. This would +account for her daughter's talent on the guitar; she had probably +herself taught her the touch and style of the Conservatory. + +Since the birth of Chrysanthème (her eldest child and first cause of +this loss of favor), my mother-in-law, an expansive although +distinguished nature, has fallen seven times into the same fatal +error, and I have two little sisters-in-law: Mdlle. La Neige,[G] and +Mdlle. La Lune,[H] as well as five little brothers-in-law: Cerisier, +Pigeon, Liseron, Or, and Bambou. + +[Footnote G: In Japanese: _Oyouki-San_ (like Madame Prune's +daughter).] + +[Footnote H: In Japanese: _Tsouki-San_.] + +Little Bambou is four years old,--a yellow baby, fat and round all +over, with fine bright eyes; coaxing and jolly, sleeping whenever he +is not laughing. Of all my Niponese family, Bambou is the one I love +the most. + + + + +XXXVI. + +_Tuesday, August 27th_. + + +We have spent the day,--Yves, Chrysanthème, Oyouki and +myself,--wandering through dark and dusty nooks, dragged hither and +thither by four quick-footed djins, in search of antiquities in the +bric-à-brac shops. + +Towards sunset, Chrysanthème, who has wearied me more than ever since +the morning, and who doubtless has perceived it, pulls a very long +face, declares herself ill, and begs leave to spend the night at her +mother's, Madame Renoncule. + +I agree to this with the best grace in the world; let her go, tiresome +little mousmé! Oyouki will carry a message to her parents, who will +shut up our rooms; we shall spend the evening, Yves and I, in roaming +about as fancy takes us, without any mousmé dragging at our heels, and +shall afterwards regain our own quarters on board the _Triomphante_, +without having the trouble of climbing up that hill. + +First of all, we make an attempt to dine together in some fashionable +tea-house. Impossible, there is not a place to be had; all the absurd +paper rooms, all the compartments contrived by so many ingenious +dodges of slipping and sliding panels, all the nooks and corners in +the little gardens are filled with Japanese men and women eating +impossible and incredible little dishes! numberless young dandies are +dining _tête-à-tête_ with the lady of their choice, and sounds of +dancing girls and music issue from the private rooms. + +The fact is, that to-day is the third and last day of the great +pilgrimage to the temple of the _Jumping Tortoise_, of which we saw +the commencement yesterday, and all Nagasaki is at this time given +over to amusement. + +At the tea-house of the _Indescribable Butterflies_, which is also +full to overflowing, but where we are well-known, they have had the +bright idea of throwing a temporary flooring over the little +lake,--the pond where the gold-fish live, and it is here that our meal +is served, in the pleasant freshness of the fountain which continues +its murmur under our feet. + +After dinner, we follow the faithful and ascend again to the temple. + +Up there we find the same elfin revelry, the same masks, the same +music. We seat ourselves, as before, under a gauze tent and sip odd +little drinks tasting of flowers. But this evening we are alone, and +the absence of the band of mousmés, whose familiar little faces formed +a bond of union between this holiday-making people and ourselves, +separates and isolates us more than usual from the profusion of +oddities in the midst of which we seem to be lost. Beneath us, lies +always the immense blue background: Nagasaki illumined by moonlight, +and the expanse of silvered, glittering water, which seems like a +vaporous vision suspended in mid-air. Behind us is the great open +temple, where the bonzes officiate to the accompaniment of sacred +bells and wooden clappers,--looking, from where we sit, more like +puppets than anything else, some squatting in rows like peaceful +mummies, others executing rhythmical marches before the golden +background where stand the gods. We do not laugh to-night, and speak +but little, more forcibly struck by the scene than we were on the +first night; we only look on, trying to understand. Suddenly, Yves +turning round, says: + +"Hullo! brother, your mousmé!!" + +Actually there she is, behind him; Chrysanthème almost on all fours, +hidden between the paws of a great granite beast, half tiger, half +dog, against which our fragile tent is leaning. + +"She pulled my trousers with her nails, for all the world like a +little cat," said Yves, still full of surprise, "positively like a +cat!" + +She remains bent double in the most humble form of salutation; she +smiles timidly, afraid of being ill received, and the head of my +little brother-in-law, Bambou, appears smiling too, just above her +own. She has brought this little _mousko_[I] with her, perched astride +on her back; he looks as absurd as ever, with his shaven head, his +long frock and the great bows of his silken sash. There they both +stand gazing at us, anxious to know how their joke will be taken. + +[Footnote I: _Mousko_ is the masculine of _mousmé_, and signifies +little boy. Excessive politeness makes it _mousko-san_ (Mr. little +boy).] + +For my part, I have not the least idea of giving them a cold +reception; on the contrary, the meeting amuses me. It even strikes me +that it is rather pretty of Chrysanthème to come round in this way, +and to bring Bambou-San to the festival; though it savors somewhat of +her low breeding, to tell the truth, to have tacked him on to her +back, as the poorer Japanese women do with their little ones. + +However, let her sit down between Yves and myself: and let them bring +her those iced beans she loves so much; and we will take the jolly +little _mousko_ on our knees and cram him with sugar and sweetness to +his heart's content. + + * * * * * + +The evening over, when we begin to think of leaving, and of going down +again, Chrysanthème replaces her little Bambou astride upon her back, +and sets forth, bending forward under his weight and painfully +dragging her Cinderella slippers over the granite steps and +flagstones. Yes, decidedly low this conduct! but low in the best sense +of the word: nothing in it displeases me; I even consider +Chrysanthème's affection for Bambou-San engaging and attractive in its +simplicity. + +One cannot deny this merit to the Japanese,--a great love for little +children, and a talent for amusing them, for making them laugh, +inventing comical toys for them, making the morning of their life +happy; for a specialty in dressing them, arranging their heads, and +giving to the whole little personage the most diverting appearance +possible. It is the only thing I really like about this country: the +babies and the manner in which they are understood. + + * * * * * + +On our way we meet our married friends of the _Triomphante_, who, much +surprised at seeing me with this _mousko_, chaffingly exclaim: + +"What! a son already?" + +Down in the town, we make a point of bidding good-by to Chrysanthème +at the turning of the street where her mother lives. She smiles +undecided, declares herself well again, and begs to return to our +house on the heights. This did not precisely enter into my plans, I +confess. However, it would look very ungracious to refuse. + +So be it! But we must carry the _mousko_ home to his mamma, and then +begin, by the flickering light of a new lantern bought afresh from +Madame Très-Propre, our weary homeward ascent. + +Here, however, we find ourselves in another predicament: this +ridiculous little Bambou insists upon coming with us! No, he will take +no denial, we must take him with us. This is out of all reason, quite +impossible! + +However, it will not do to make him cry, on the night of a great +festival too, poor little _mousko_. So we must send a message to +Madame Renoncule, that she may not be uneasy about him, and as there +will soon not be a living creature on the footpaths of Diou-djen-dji +to laugh at us, we will take it in turn, Yves and I, to carry him on +our back, all the way up that climb in the darkness. + + * * * * * + +And here am I, who did not wish to return this way to-night, dragging +a mousmé by the hand, actually carrying an extra burden in the shape +of a _mousko_ on my back. What an irony of fate! + +As I had expected, all our shutters and doors are closed, bolted and +barred; no one expects us, and we have to make a prodigious noise at +the door. Chrysanthème sets to work and calls with all her might: + +"Ho! Oumé-San-an-an-an!" (In English: "Hi! Madame Pru-u-u-u-une!") + +These intonations in her little voice are unknown to me; her longdrawn +call in the echoing darkness of midnight has so strange an accent, +something so unexpected and wild, that it impresses me with a dismal +feeling of far-off exile. + +At last Madame Prune appears to open the door to us, only half awake +and much astonished; by way of a night-cap she wears a monstrous +cotton turban, on the blue ground of which a few white storks are +playfully disporting themselves. Holding in the tips of her fingers +with an affectation of graceful fright, the long stalk of her +beflowered lantern, she gazes intently into our faces, one after +another, to assure herself of our identity; but the poor old lady +cannot get over the _mousko_ I am carrying. + + + + +XXXVII + + +At first it was only to Chrysanthème's guitar that I listened with +pleasure: now I am beginning to like her singing also. + +She has nothing of the theatrical, or the deep assumed voice of the +virtuoso; on the contrary, her notes, always very high, are soft, +thin, and plaintive. + +She will often teach Oyouki some romance, slow and dreamy, which she +has composed, or which comes back to her mind. Then they both astonish +me, for on their well-tuned guitars they will search out +accompaniments in parts, and try again each time that the chords are +not perfectly true to their ear, without ever losing themselves in the +confusion of these dissonant harmonies, always weird and always +melancholy. + +Generally, while their music is going on, I am writing in the +verandah, with the superb stretched out in front of me. I write, +seated on a mat on the floor and leaning upon a little Japanese desk, +ornamented with swallows in relief; my ink is Chinese, my ink-stand, +just like that of my landlord, is in jade, with dear little frogs and +toads carved on the rim. In short, I am writing my memoirs,--exactly +as M. Sucre does downstairs! Occasionally I fancy I resemble him--a +very disagreeable fancy. + +My memoirs,--composed of incongruous details, minute observations of +colors, shapes, scents, and sounds. + +It is true that a complete imbroglio, worthy of a romance, seems ever +threatening to appear upon my monotonous horizon; a regular intrigue +seems ever ready to explode in the midst of this little world of +mousmés and grasshoppers: Chrysanthème in love with Yves; Yves with +Chrysanthème; Oyouki with me; I with no one. We might even find here, +ready to hand, the elements of a fratricidal drama, were we in any +other country than Japan; but we are in Japan, and under the narrowing +and dwarfing influence of the surroundings, which turn everything into +ridicule, nothing will come of it all. + + + + +XXXVIII. + + +There is, in this good town of Nagasaki, towards five or six o'clock +in the evening, one hour of the day more comical than any other. At +this moment every living being is naked: children, young people, old +people, old men, old women, every one is seated in a tub of some sort, +taking a bath. This takes place no matter where, without the slightest +screen, in the gardens, the courtyards, in the shops, even upon the +thresholds, in order to give greater facility for conversation among +the neighbors from one side of the street to the other. In this +situation visitors are received; and the bather, without any +hesitation, leaves his tub, holding in his hand his little towel +(invariably blue), to offer the caller a seat, and to exchange with +him some amiable remarks. Nevertheless, neither the mousmés nor the +old ladies gain anything by appearing in this primeval costume. A +Japanese woman, deprived of her long dress and her huge sash with its +pretentious bows, is nothing but a diminutive yellow being, with +crooked legs and flat, unshapely bust; she has no longer a remnant of +her artificial little charms, which have completely disappeared in +company with her costume. + +There is yet another hour, at once joyous and melancholy, a little +later when twilight falls, when the sky seems one vast veil of yellow, +against which stand the clear-cut outlines of jagged mountains and +lofty, fantastic pagodas. It is the hour at which, in the labyrinth of +little gray streets down below, the sacred lamps begin to twinkle in +the ever-open houses, in front of the ancestors' altars and the +familiar Buddhas; while outside, darkness creeps over all, and the +thousand and one indentations and peaks of the old roofs are depicted, +as if in black festoons, on the clear golden sky. At this moment, +there suddenly passes over merry, laughing Japan a somber shadow, +strange, weird, a breath of antiquity, of savagery, of something +indefinable, which casts a gloom of sadness. And then the only gayety +that remains is the gayety of the population of young children, of +little mouskos and little mousmés, who spread themselves like a wave +through the streets filled with shadow, as they swarm out from schools +and workshops. On the dark background of all these wooden buildings, +the little blue and scarlet dresses stand out in startling +contrast,--drolly bedizened, drolly draped; and the fine loops of the +sashes, the flowers, the silver or gold top-knots stuck in these baby +chignons, add to the vivid effect. + +They amuse themselves, they chase each other, their great pagoda +sleeves fly widely open, and these tiny little mousmés of ten, of five +years old, or even younger still, have lofty head-dresses and imposing +bows of hair arranged on their little heads, like grown-up women. Oh! +what loves of supremely absurd dolls at this hour of twilight gambol +through the streets, in their long frocks, blowing their crystal +trumpets, or running with all their might to start their fanciful +kites. This juvenile world of Japan--ludicrous by birth, and fated to +become more so as the years roll on--starts in life with singular +amusements, with strange cries and shouts; its playthings are somewhat +ghastly, and would frighten the children of other countries; even the +kites have great squinting eyes and vampire shapes. + +And every evening, in the little dark streets, bursts forth this +overflow of joyousness, fresh, childish, but withal grotesque to +excess. It would be difficult to have any idea of the incredible +things which, carried by the wind, float in the evening air. + + + + +XXXIX. + + +Little Chrysanthème is always arrayed in dark colors, a sign here of +aristocratic distinction. While her friends Oyouki-San, Madame Touki +and others delight in loud-striped stuffs, and stick gorgeous +ornaments in their chignons, she always wears navy-blue or neutral +gray, fastened round her waist with great black sashes brocaded in +tender shades, and puts nothing in her hair but amber-colored +tortoise-shell pins. If she were of noble descent she would wear +embroidered on her dress in the middle of the back a little white +circle looking like a postmark with some design in the center of +it--the leaf of a tree generally; and this would be her coat of arms. +There is really nothing wanting but this little heraldic blazon on the +back to give her the appearance of a lady of the highest position. + +In Japan the smart dresses of bright colors shaded in clouds, +embroidered with monsters of gold or silver, are reserved by the great +ladies for home use on state occasions; or else they are used on the +stage for the dancers and the courtesans. + +Like all Japanese women, Chrysanthème carries a quantity of things in +her long sleeves, in which pockets are cunningly hidden. There she +keeps letters, various notes written on delicate sheets of rice-paper, +prayer amulets drawn up by the bonzes; and above all a number of +squares of a silky paper which she puts to the most unexpected +uses,--to dry a tea-cup, to hold the damp stalk of a flower, or to +blow her quaint little nose, when the necessity presents itself. After +the operation she at once crumples up the piece of paper, rolls it +into a ball, and throws it out of the window with disgust. + +The very smartest people in Japan blow their noses in this manner. + + + + +XL. + +_September 2nd_. + + +Chance has favored us with a friendship as singular as it is rare: +that of the head bonzes of the temple of the _Jumping Tortoise_, where +we had witnessed last month such a surprising pilgrimage. + +The approach to this place is as solitary now as it was thronged and +bustling on the evenings of the festival; and in broad daylight one is +surprised at the deathlike decay of the religious surroundings which +at night had seemed so full of life. Not a creature to be seen on the +time-worn granite steps; not a creature beneath the vast sumptuous +porticoes; the colors, the gold-work are dim with dust. To reach the +temple one must cross several deserted courtyards terraced on the +mountain side, pass through several solemn gateways, and up and up +endless stairs, rising far above the town and the noises of humanity +into a sacred region filled with innumerable tombs. On all the +pavements, in all the walls, lichen and stonecrop; and over all the +gray tint of extreme age spreads everywhere like a fall of ashes. + +In a side temple near the entrance is enthroned a colossal Buddha +seated in his lotus--a gilded idol some forty-five or sixty feet high, +mounted on an enormous pedestal of bronze. + +At length appears the last doorway with the two traditional giants, +guardians of the sacred court, which stand the one on the right hand, +the other on the left, shut up like wild beasts each one in a cage of +iron. They are in attitudes of fury, with fists upraised as if to +strike, and features atrociously fierce and distorted. Their bodies +are covered all over with bullets of crumbled paper which have been +aimed at them through the bars, and which have stuck to their +monstrous limbs like a white leprosy: this is the manner in which the +faithful strive to appease them, by conveying to them their prayers +written upon delicate leaflets by the pious bonzes. + +Passing between these alarming scarecrows one reaches the innermost +court. The residence of our friends is on the right, the great hall of +the pagoda is before us. + +In this paved court are bronze torch-holders as high as turrets. Here +too stand, and have stood for centuries, cyca palms with fresh green +plumes, their numerous stalks curving with a heavy symmetry, like the +branches of massive candelabra. The temple, which is open along its +entire length, is dark and mysterious, with touches of gilding in +distant corners melting away into the gloom. In the very remotest part +are seated idols, and from outside one can vaguely see their clasped +hands and air of rapt mysticism; in front are the altars, loaded with +marvelous vases in metal-work, whence spring graceful clusters of gold +and silver lotus. From the very entrance one is greeted by the sweet +odor of the incense-sticks unceasingly burnt by the priests before the +gods. + +To penetrate into the dwelling of our friends the bonzes, which is +situated on the right hand side as you enter, is by no means an easy +matter. + +A monster of the fish tribe, but having claws and horns, is hung over +their door by iron chains; at the least breath of wind he swings +creakingly. We pass beneath him and enter the first immense and lofty +hall, dimly lighted, in the corners of which gleam gilded idols, bells +and incomprehensible objects of religious use. + +Quaint little creatures, choir boys or pupils, come forward with a +doubtful welcome to ask what is wanted. + +"_Matsou-San!! Donata-San!!_" they repeat, much astonished, when they +understand to whom we wish to be conducted. Oh! no, impossible, they +cannot be seen; they are resting or are in contemplation. "_Orimas! +Orimas!_" say they, clasping their hands and sketching a genuflection +or two to make us understand better. (They are at prayer! the most +profound prayer!) + +We insist, speak more imperatively; even slip off our shoes like +people determined to take no refusal. + +At last Matsou-San and Donata-San make their appearance from the +tranquil depths of their bonze-house. They are dressed in black crape +and their heads are shaved. Smiling, amiable, full of excuses, they +offer us their hands, and we follow with our feet bare like theirs to +the interior of their mysterious dwelling, through a series of empty +rooms spread with mats of the most unimpeachable whiteness. The +successive halls are separated one from the other only by bamboo +curtains of exquisite delicacy, caught back by tassels and cords of +red silk. + +The whole wainscoting of the interior is of the same wood, of a pale +yellow color joinered with extreme nicety, without the least ornament, +the least carving; everything seems new and unused, as though it had +never been touched by human hand. At distant intervals in this studied +bareness, costly little stools, marvelously inlaid, uphold some +antique bronze monster or a vase of flowers; on the walls hang a few +masterly sketches, vaguely tinted in Indian ink, drawn upon strips of +gray paper most accurately cut but without the slightest attempt at a +frame; this is all: not a seat, not a cushion, not a scrap of +furniture. It is the very acme of studied simplicity, of elegance made +out of nothing, of the most immaculate and incredible cleanliness. And +while following the bonzes through this long suite of empty halls, we +are struck by their contrast with the overflow of knick-knacks +scattered about our rooms in France, and we take a sudden dislike to +the profusion and crowding delighted in at home. + +The spot where this silent march of barefooted folk comes to an end, +the spot where we are to seat ourselves in the delightful coolness of +a semi-darkness, is an interior verandah opening upon an artificial +site; we might suppose it were the bottom of a well; it is a miniature +garden no bigger than the opening of an _oubliette_, overhung on all +sides by the crushing height of the mountain and receiving from on +high but the dim light of dream-land. Nevertheless here is simulated a +great natural ravine in all its wild grandeur: here are caverns, +abrupt rocks, a torrent, a cascade, islands. The trees, dwarfed by a +Japanese process of which we have not the secret, have tiny little +leaves on their decrepit and knotty branches. A pervading hue of the +mossy green of antiquity harmonizes all this medley, which is +undoubtedly centuries old. + +Families of gold-fish swim round and round in the clear water, and +tiny tortoises (_jumpers_ probably) sleep upon the granite islands +which are of the same color as their own gray shell. + +There are even blue dragon-flies which have ventured to descend, +heaven knows from whence, and alight with quivering wings upon the +miniature water-lilies. + +Our friends the bonzes, notwithstanding an unctuousness of manner +thoroughly ecclesiastical, are very ready to laugh,--a simple, +pleased, childish laughter; plump, chubby, shaven and shorn, they +dearly love our French liqueurs and know how to take a joke. + +We talk first of one thing and then another. To the tranquil music of +their little cascade, I launch out before them with phrases of the +most erudite Japanese, I try the effect of a few tenses of verbs: +_desideratives, concessives, hypothetics in ba_. Whilst they chat they +dispatch the affairs of the church, the order of services sealed with +complicated seals for inferior pagodas situated in the neighborhood; +or trace little prayers with a cunning paint-brush as medical remedies +to be swallowed as pills by invalids at a distance. With their white +and dimpled hands they play with a fan as cleverly as any woman, and +when we have tasted different native drinks flavored with essences of +flowers, they bring up as a finish a battle of _Bénédictine_ or +_Chartreuse_, for they appreciate the liqueurs composed by their +Western colleagues. + +When they come on board to return our visits, they by no means disdain +to fasten their great round spectacles on their flat noses in order to +inspect the profane drawings in our illustrated papers, the _Vie +Parisienne_ for instance. And it is even with a certain complacency +that they let their fingers linger upon the pictures which represent +the ladies. + +The religious ceremonies in their great temple are magnificent, and to +one of these we are now invited. At the sound of the gong they make +their entrance before the idols with a stately ritual; twenty or +thirty priests officiate in gala costumes, with genuflections, +clapping of hands and movements to and fro, which look like the +figures of some mystic quadrille. + +But for all that, let the sanctuary be ever so immense and imposing in +its somber gloom, the idols ever so superb, all seems in Japan but a +mere semblance of grandeur. A hopeless pettiness, an irresistible +feeling of the ludicrous, lies at the bottom of all things. + + +And then the congregation is not conducive to thoughtful +contemplation, for among it we generally discover some acquaintance: +my mother-in-law, or a cousin, or the woman from the china-shop who +sold us a vase only yesterday. Charming little mousmés, +monkeyish-looking old ladies enter with their smoking-boxes, their +gayly-daubed parasols, their curtsies, their little cries and +exclamations; prattling, complimenting each other, full of restless +movement, and having the greatest difficulty in maintaining a serious +demeanor. + + + + +XLI. + + +_September 3rd_. + +Chrysanthème, for the first time, paid me a visit on board ship +to-day, chaperoned by Madame Prune, and followed by my youngest +sister-in-law, Mdlle. La Neige. These ladies had the tranquil manners +of the highest gentility. + +In my cabin is a great Buddha on his throne, and before him a lacquer +tray, on which my faithful sailor servant places any small change he +may find lying loose in the pockets of my clothes. Madame Prune, whose +mind is much swayed by mysticism, at once supposed herself before a +regular altar; in the gravest manner possible she addressed a brief +prayer to the god; then, drawing out her purse (which, according to +custom, was attached to her sash behind her back, along with her +little pipe and tobacco-pouch), placed a pious offering in the tray, +while executing a low curtsey. + +They remained on their best behavior all through the visit. But when +the moment of departure came, Chrysanthème, who would not go away +without seeing Yves, asked for him with a thinly-veiled persistency +which was remarkable. Yves, for whom I then sent, made himself +particularly charming to her, so much so, that this time I felt a +shade of more serious annoyance; I even asked myself whether the +laughably pitiable ending, which I had hitherto vaguely foreseen, +might not, after all, soon break upon us. + + + + +XLII. + + +_September 4th_. + +I met yesterday, in an old and ruined quarter of the town, a perfectly +exquisite mousmé, charmingly dressed; a fresh note of color against +the dark background of decayed buildings. + +It was quite at the farthest end of Nagasaki, in the most ancient part +of the town. In this region are trees centuries old, ancient temples +of Buddha, of Amiddah, of Benten, or Kwanon, with steep and pompous +roofs; monsters carved in granite sit there in courtyards silent as +the grave, where the grass grows between the paving-stones. This +deserted quarter is traversed by a narrow torrent running in a deep +channel, across which are thrown little curved bridges with granite +balustrades eaten away by lichen. All the objects there wear the +strange grimace, the quaint arrangement familiar to us in the most +antique Japanese drawings. + +I walked through it all at the burning hour of midday, and saw not a +soul, unless indeed, through the open windows of the bonze-houses, I +caught sight of some priests, guardians of tombs or sanctuaries, +taking their siesta under their dark-blue gauze nets. + +All at once this little mousmé appeared, a little above me, just at +the point of the arch of one of these bridges carpeted with gray moss; +she was in full light, in full sunshine, and stood out in brilliant +clearness, like a fairy vision, against the background of old black +temples and deep shadows. She was holding her dress together with one +hand, gathering it close round her ankles to give herself an air of +greater slimness. Over her quaint little head, her round umbrella with +its thousand ribs threw a great halo of blue and red, edged with +black, and an oleander full of flowers growing among the stones of the +bridge spread its glory beside her, bathed, like herself, in the +sunshine. Behind this youthful figure and this flowering shrub all was +blackness. Upon the pretty red and blue parasol great white letters +formed this inscription, much used among the mousmés, and which I +have learned to recognize: _Stop! clouds, to see her pass by_. And it +was really worth the trouble to stop and look at this exquisite little +person, of a type so ideally Japanese. + +However, it will not do to stop too long and be ensnared,--it would +only be another take-in. A doll like the rest, evidently, an ornament +for a china shelf, and nothing more. While I gaze at her, I say to +myself that Chrysanthème, appearing in this same place, with this +dress, this play of light, and this aureole of sunshine, would produce +just as delightful an effect. + +For Chrysanthème is pretty, there can be no doubt about it. Yesterday +evening, in fact, I positively admired her. It was quite night; we +were returning with the usual escort of little married couples like +our own, from the inevitable tour of the tea-houses and bazaars. While +the other mousmés walked along hand in hand, adorned with new silver +top-knots which they had succeeded in having presented to them, and +amusing themselves with playthings, she, pleading fatigue, followed, +half reclining, in a djin carriage. We had placed beside her great +bunches of flowers destined to fill our vases, late iris and +long-stemmed lotus, the last of the season, already smelling of +autumn. And it was really very pretty to see this Japanese girl in her +little car, lying carelessly among all these water-flowers, lighted by +gleams of ever-changing colors, as they chanced from the lanterns we +met or passed. If, on the evening of my arrival in Japan, any one had +pointed her out to me, and said: "That shall be your mousmé," there +cannot be a doubt I should have been charmed. In reality, however, no, +I am not charmed; it is only Chrysanthème, always Chrysanthème, +nothing but Chrysanthème: a mere plaything to laugh at, a little +creature of finical forms and thoughts, that the agency of M. +Kangourou has supplied me with. + + + + +XLIII. + + +In our house, the water used for drinking, making tea, and lesser +washing purposes, is kept in large white china tubs, decorated with +paintings representing blue fish borne along by a swift current +through distorted rushes. In order to keep them cool, the tubs are +placed out of doors on Madame Prune's roof, at a place where we can, +from the top of our projecting balcony, easily reach them by +stretching out the arm. A real godsend for all the thirsty cats in +the neighborhood on the fine summer nights is this corner of the roof +with our bedaubed tubs, and it proves a delightful trysting-place for +them, after all their caterwauling and long solitary rambles on the +top of the walls. + +I had thought it my duty to warn Yves the first time he wished to +drink this water. + +"Oh!" he replied, rather surprised, "cats do you say? they are not +dirty!" + +On this point Chrysanthème and I agree with him: we do not consider +cats as unclean animals, and we do not object to drink after them. + +Yves considers Chrysanthème much in the same light. "She is not dirty, +either," he says; and he willingly drinks after her, out of the same +cup, putting her in the same category with the cats. + +Well, these china tubs are one of the daily preoccupations of our +household: in the evening, when we return from our walk, after the +clamber up which makes us thirsty, and Madame L'Heure's waffles, which +we have been eating to beguile the way, we always find them empty. It +seems impossible for Madame Prune, or Mdlle. Oyouki, or their young +servant Mdlle. Dédé,[J] to have forethought enough to fill them while +it is still daylight. And when we are late in returning home, these +three ladies are asleep, so we are obliged to attend to the business +ourselves. + +[Footnote J: _Dédé-San_ means "Miss Young Girl," a very common name.] + +We must therefore open all the closed doors, put on our boots, and go +down into the garden to draw water. + +As Chrysanthème would die of fright all alone in the dark, in the +midst of the trees and buzzing of the insects, I am obliged to +accompany her to the well. For this expedition we require a light, and +must seek among the quantity of lanterns purchased at Madame +Très-Propre's booth, which have been thrown night after night into the +bottom of one of our little paper closets; but alas, all the candles +are burnt down; I thought as much! Well, we must resolutely take the +first lantern to hand, and stick a fresh candle on the iron point at +the bottom; Chrysanthème puts forth all her strength, the candle +splits, breaks; the mousmé pricks her fingers, pouts and whimpers. +Such is the inevitable scene that takes place every evening, and +delays our retiring to rest under the dark blue gauze net for a good +quarter of an hour; while the cicalas on the roof seem to mock us with +their ceaseless song. + +All this, which I should find amusing in any one else,--any one I +loved--provokes me in her. + + + + +XLIV. + + +_September 11th_. + +A week has passed by peacefully enough, during which I have written +down nothing. + +Little by little I am becoming accustomed to my Japanese household, to +the strangeness of the language, costumes, and faces. For the last +three weeks, no letters have arrived from Europe; they have no doubt +miscarried, and their absence contributes, as is usually the case, to +throw a veil of oblivion over the past. + +Every day, therefore, I faithfully climb up to my villa, sometimes by +beautiful star-lit nights, sometimes through stormy downpours of rain. +Every morning as the sound of Madame Prune's chanted prayer rises +through the reverberating air, I awake and go down towards the sea, by +the grassy pathways full of dew. + +The chief occupation of this Japanese country, seems to be a perpetual +hunt after curios. We sit down on the mattings, in the +antique-sellers' little booths, take a cup of tea with the salesmen, +and rummage with our own hands in the cupboards and chests, where many +a fantastic piece of old rubbish is huddled away. The bargaining, +much discussed, is laughingly carried on for several days, as though +we were trying to play off some excellent little practical joke upon +each other. + +I really make a sad abuse of the adjective _little_, I am quite aware +of it, but how can I do otherwise? In describing this country, the +temptation is great to use it ten times in every written line. Little, +finical, affected,--all Japan is contained, both physically and +morally, in these three words. + +My purchases are accumulating up there, in my little wood and paper +house; but how much more Japanese it really was, in its bare +emptiness, such as M. Sucre and Madame Prune had conceived it. There +are now many lamps of a religious shape hanging from the ceiling; many +stools and many vases, as many gods and goddesses as in a pagoda. + +There is even a little Shintoist altar, before which Madame Prune has +not been able to restrain her feelings, and before which she has +fallen down and chanted her prayers in her bleating old nanny-goat +voice: + +"Wash me clean from all my impurity, oh Ama-Térace-Omi-Kami, as one +washes away uncleanness in the river of Kamo." + +Alas for poor Ama-Térace-Omi-Kami to have to wash away the impurities +of Madame Prune! What a tedious and ungrateful task!! + +Chrysanthème, who is a Buddhist, prays sometimes in the evening before +lying down; although overcome with sleep, she prays clapping her hands +before the largest of our gilded idols. But she smiles with a childish +disrespect for her Buddha, directly her prayer is ended. I know that +she has also a certain veneration for her _Ottokés_ (the Spirits of +her ancestors), whose rather sumptuous altar is set up at her +mother's, Madame Renoncule's. She asks for their blessings, for +fortune and wisdom. + +Who can make out her ideas about the gods, or about death? Does she +possess a soul? Does she think she has one? Her religion is an obscure +chaos of theogonies as old as the world, treasured up out of respect +for ancient customs; and of more recent ideas about the blessed final +annihilation, imported from India at the epoch of our middle ages by +saintly Chinese missionaries. The bonzes themselves are puzzled; what +a muddle, therefore, must not all this become, when jumbled together +in the childish brain of a sleepy mousmé? + +Two very insignificant episodes have somewhat attached me to +her--(bonds of this kind seldom fail to draw closer in the end). The +first occasion was as follows:-- + +Madame Prune one day brought forth a relic of her gay youth, a +tortoiseshell comb of rare transparency, one of those combs that it is +good style to place on the summit of the head, lightly poised, +scarcely stuck at all in the air, with all the teeth showing. Taking +it out of a pretty little lacquered box, she held it up in the air and +blinked her eyes, looking through it at the sky--a bright summer +sky--as one does to examine the quality of a precious stone. + +"Here is," she said, "an object of great value that you should offer +to your little wife." + +My mousmé, very much taken by it, admired the clearness of the comb +and its graceful shape. + +The lacquered box, however, pleased me most. On the cover was a +wonderful painting in gold on gold, representing a field of rice, seen +very close, on a windy day: a tangle of ears and grass beaten down and +twisted by a terrible squall; here and there, between the distorted +stalks, the muddy earth of the rice-swamp was visible; there were even +little pools of water, produced by bits of the transparent lacquer on +which tiny particles of gold seemed to float about like chaff in a +thick liquid; two or three insects, which required a microscope to be +well seen, were clinging in a terrified manner to the rushes, and the +whole picture was no larger than a woman's hand. + +As for Madame Prune's comb, I confess it left me indifferent, and I +turned a deaf ear, thinking it very insignificant and expensive. Then +Chrysanthème answered mournfully: + +"No, thank you, I don't want it; take it away, dear Madame Prune." + +And at the same time she heaved a deep sigh, full of meaning, which +plainly said: + +"He is not so fond of me as all that.--Useless to bother him." + +I immediately made the wished-for purchase. + +Later on, when Chrysanthème will have become an old monkey like Madame +Prune, with her black teeth and long orisons, she, in her turn, will +retail that comb to some fine lady of a fresh generation. + +On another occasion the sun had given me a headache; I lay on the +floor resting my head on my snake-skin pillow. My eyes were dim, and +everything appeared to turn round: the open verandah, the big expanse +of luminous evening sky, and a variety of kites hovering against its +background; I felt myself vibrating painfully to the rhythmical sound +of the cicalas which filled the atmosphere. + +She, crouching down by my side, strove to relieve me by a Japanese +process, pressing with all her might on my temples with her little +thumbs and turning them rapidly round, as though she were boring a +hole with a gimlet. She had become quite hot and red over this hard +work, which procured me real comfort, something similar to the dreamy +intoxication of opium. + +Then, anxious and fearful lest I should have an attack of fever, she +rolled into a pellet and thrust into my mouth a very efficacious +prayer written on rice-paper, which she carefully kept in the lining +of one of her sleeves. + +Well, I swallowed that prayer without a smile, anxious not to hurt her +feelings or shake her funny little faith. + + + + +XLV. + + +To-day, Yves, my mousmé and myself went to the best photographer in +Nagasaki, to be taken in a group together. + +We shall send the photograph to France. Yves already smiles as he +thinks of his wife's astonishment when she sees Chrysanthème's little +face between us two, and he wonders what explanation he will give her. + +"Well, I will just say it is one of your friends, that's all!" + +There are, in Japan, photographers in the style of our own, with this +one difference, that they are Japanese, and inhabit Japanese houses. +The one we design to honor to-day carries on his profession in the +suburbs, in that ancient quarter of big trees and gloomy pagodas +where, the other day, I met the pretty little mousmé. His signboard, +written in several languages, is stuck up against a wall on the edge +of the little torrent which, rushing down from the green mountain +above, is crossed by many a curved bridge of old granite and lined on +either side by light bamboos or oleanders in full bloom. + +It is astonishing and puzzling to find a photographer perched there, +in the very heart of old Japan. + +We have come at the wrong moment; there is a file of people at the +door. Long rows of djins' cars are stationed there, awaiting the +customers they have brought, who will all have their turn before us. +The runners, naked and tatooed, carefully combed in sleek bands and +shiny chignons, are chatting together, smoking little pipes, or +bathing their muscular legs in the fresh water of the torrent. + +The courtyard is irreproachably Japanese, with its lanterns and dwarf +trees. But the studio where one sits might be in Paris or Pontoise; +the self-same chair in "old oak," the same faded "poufs," plaster +columns and pasteboard rocks. + +The people who are being _taken_ at this moment are two ladies of +quality, evidently mother and daughter, who are sitting together for a +cabinet-sized portrait, with accessories of Louis XV. time. A strange +group this, the first great ladies of this country I have seen so +near, with their long aristocratic faces, dull, lifeless, almost gray +by dint of rice-powder, and their mouths painted heart-shape in vivid +carmine. Withal an undeniable look of good breeding that strongly +impresses us, notwithstanding the intrinsic differences of races and +acquired notions. + +They scanned Chrysanthème with an obvious look of scorn, although her +costume was as ladylike as their own. For my part, I could not take my +eyes off these two creatures; they captivated me like incomprehensible +things that one had never seen before. Their fragile bodies, +outlandishly graceful in posture, are lost in stiff materials and +redundant sashes, of which the ends droop like tired wings. They make +me think, I know not why, of great rare insects; the extraordinary +patterns on their garments have something of the dark motley of +night-moths. Above all, the mystery of their tiny slits of eyes, +drawn back and up so far that the tight-drawn lids can scarcely open; +the mystery of their expression, which seems to denote inner thoughts +of a silly, vague, complacent absurdity, a world of ideas absolutely +closed to ourselves. And I think as I gaze at them: "How far we are +from this Japanese people! how utterly dissimilar are our races!" + +Then we have to let several English sailors pass before us, decked out +in their white drill clothes, fresh, fat and pink like little sugar +figures, who attitudinize in a sheepish manner round the shafts of the +columns. + +At last it is our turn; Chrysanthème slowly settles herself in a very +affected style, turning in the points of her toes as much as possible, +according to the fashion. + +And on the negative we are shown we look like a supremely ridiculous +little family drawn up in a line by a common photographer at a fair. + + + + +XLVI. + +_September 13th_. + + +This evening Yves is off duty three hours earlier than myself; from +time to time this is the case, according to the arrangement of the +watches. On those occasions he lands the first, and goes up to wait +for me at Diou-djen-dji. + +From the deck I can see him through the glasses, climbing up the green +mountain path; he walks with a brisk, rapid step, almost running; what +a hurry he seems in to rejoin little Chrysanthème. + +When I arrive, at about nine o'clock, I find him seated on the floor, +in the middle of my rooms, with naked torso (this is here a +sufficiently proper costume for private life, I admit). Around him are +grouped Chrysanthème, Oyouki, and Mdlle. Dédé the maid, all eagerly +rubbing his back with little blue towels decorated with storks and +humorous subjects. + +Good heavens, what can he have been doing to be so hot, and have put +himself in such a state? + +He tells me that near our house, a little higher up the mountain, he +has discovered a fencing gallery: that till nightfall he had been +engaged in a fencing bout against Japanese, who fought with two-handed +swords, springing like cats, as is the custom of their country. With +his French method of fencing he had given them a thorough good +drubbing. Upon which, with many a low bow, they had shown him their +admiration by bringing him a quantity of nice little iced things to +drink. All this combined had thrown him into a fearful perspiration. + +Ah, very well. Nevertheless this did not quite explain to me. + +He is delighted with his evening; intends to go and amuse himself +every day by beating them; he even thinks of taking pupils. + +Once his back dried, they all together, the three mousmés and himself, +play at Japanese "_pigeon vole_." Really I could not wish for anything +more innocent, or more correct in every respect. + +Charles N---- and Madame Jonquille his wife, arrived unexpectedly at +about ten o'clock. (They were wandering about in the dark shrubberies +in our neighborhood, and, seeing our lights, came up to us.) + +They intend to finish the evening at the tea-house "of the Toads," and +they try to induce us to go and drink some iced sherbets with them. It +is at least an hour's walk from here, on the other side of the town, +half way up the hill, in the gardens of the large pagoda dedicated to +Osueva; but they stick to their idea, pretending that in this clear +night and bright moonlight, we shall have a lovely view from the +terrace of the temple. + +Lovely, I have no doubt, but we had intended going to bed. However, +be it so, let us go with them. + +We hire five djins and five cars down below, in the principal street, +in front of Madame Très-Propre's shop, who, for this late expedition, +chooses for us her largest round lanterns,--big, red balloons, +decorated with star-fish, seaweed, and green sharks. + +It is nearly eleven o'clock when we make our start. In the central +quarters the virtuous Niponese are already closing their little +booths, putting out their lamps, shutting the wooden framework, +drawing their paper panels. + +Further on, in the old-fashioned suburban streets, all is shut up long +ago, and our carts roll on through the black night. We cry out to our +djins: "Ayakou! ayakou!" ("Quick! quick!") and they run as hard as +they can, uttering little shrieks, like some merry animal full of wild +gayety. We rush like a whirlwind through the darkness, all five in +Indian file, dashing and jolting over the old uneven flagstones, dimly +lighted up by our red balloons fluttering at the end of their bamboo +stems. From time to time some Niponese, night-capped in his blue +kerchief, opens a window to see who these noisy madcaps can be, +dashing by so rapidly and so late. Or else some faint glimmer, thrown +by us on our passage, discovers the hideous smile of a large stone +animal seated at the gate of a pagoda. + +At last we arrive at the foot of Osueva's temple, and, leaving our +djins with our little gigs, we clamber up the gigantic steps, +completely deserted at this hour of the night. + +Chrysanthème, who always likes to play the part of a tired little +girl, of a spoilt and pouting child, ascends slowly between Yves and +myself, clinging to our arms. + +Jonquille, on the contrary, skips up like a bird, amusing herself by +counting the endless steps: + +"Hitôts'! F'tâts'! Mits'! Yôts'!" ("One! two! three! four!") she +exclaims, springing up by a series of little light bounds. + +"Itsôôts! Moûts'! Nanâts! Yâts! Kokonôts!" ("Five! six! seven! eight! +nine!") + +She lays a great stress on the accentuations, as though to make the +numbers sound even more droll. + +A little silver aigrette glitters in her beautiful black chignon; her +delicate and graceful figure seems strangely fantastic, and the +darkness that envelops us conceals the fact that her face is almost +ugly, and almost without eyes. + +This evening Chrysanthème and Jonquille really look like little +fairies; at certain moments the most insignificant Japanese have this +appearance, by dint of whimsical elegance and ingenious arrangement. + +The granite stairs, immense, deserted, uniformly gray under the +nocturnal sky, seem to vanish into the empty space above us, and when +we turn round, to disappear in the depths beneath, to fall with the +dizzy rapidity of a dream into the abyss below. On the sloping steps +the black shadows of the gateways through which we must pass stretch +out inordinately; and the shadows, which seem to be broken at each +projecting step, bear on all their extent the regular creases of a +fan. The porticos stand up separately, rising one above the other; +their wonderful shapes are at once remarkably simple and studiously +affected; their outlines stand out sharp and distinct, having +nevertheless the vague appearance of all very large objects in the +pale moonlight. The curved architraves rise up at each extremity like +two menacing horns, pointing upwards towards the far-off blue canopy +of sky bespangled with stars, as thought they would communicate to the +gods the knowledge they have acquired in the depths of their +foundations from the earth, full of sepulchers and death, which +surrounds them. + +We are, indeed, a very small group, lost now in the immensity of the +colossal acclivity as we move onwards, lighted partly by the wan moon +on high, partly by the red lanterns we hold in our hands, ever +floating at the end of their long sticks. + +A deep silence reigns in the precincts of the temple, the sound of the +insects even is hushed as we ascend higher. A sort of reverence, a +kind of religious fear steals over us, and, at the same moment, a +delicious coolness suddenly pervades the air, and passes over us. + +On entering the courtyard above, we feel a little daunted. Here we +find the horse in jade, and the china turrets. The enclosing walls +make it the more gloomy, and our arrival seems to disturb I know not +what mysterious council held between the spirits of the air and the +visible symbols that are there, chimeras and monsters lit up by the +blue rays of the moon. + +We turn to the left, and go through the terraced gardens, to reach the +tea-house "of the Toads," which this evening is our goal; we find it +shut up--expected as much--closed and dark, at this hour! We drum all +together on the door; in the most coaxing tones we call by name the +waiting-maids we know so well: Mdlle. Transparente, Mdlle. Etoile, +Mdlle. Roséematinale, and Mdlle. Marguerite-reine. Not an answer. +Goodbye perfumed sherbets and frosted beans! + +In front of the little archery-house, our mousmés suddenly start on +one side, terrified, and declaring that there is a dead body on the +ground. Yes, indeed, someone is lying there. We cautiously examine the +place by the light of our red balloons, carefully held out at arm's +length for fear of this dead man; it is only the marksman, he who on +the 14th of July chose such magnificent arrows for Chrysanthème; and +he sleeps, good man, with his chignon somewhat dishevelled, a sound +sleep, which it would be cruel to disturb. + +Let us go to the end of the terrace, contemplate the roadstead at our +feet, and then return home. To-night the harbor looks only like a dark +and sinister rent, which the moonbeams cannot fathom,--a yawning +crevasse opening into the very bowels of the earth, at the bottom of +which lie faint and small glimmers, an assembly of glow-worms in a +ditch--the lights of the different vessels lying at anchor. + + + + +XLVII. + + +It is the middle of the night, somewhere about two in the morning. Our +night-lamps are burning still, a little dimly, in front of our +peaceful idols. Chrysanthème wakes me suddenly, and I turn to look at +her: she has raised herself on one arm, and her face expresses the +most intense terror; she makes me a sign, without daring to speak, +that someone is near, or something, creeping up to us. What ill-timed +visit is this? A feeling of fear gains possession of me also. I have a +rapid impression of some immense unknown danger, in this isolated +spot, in this strange country of which I do not even yet comprehend +the inhabitants and the mysteries. It must be something very +frightful, to hold her there, rooted to the spot, half dead with +fright, she who _does_ comprehend all these things. + +It would seem to be outside: it is coming from the garden; with +trembling hand she indicates to me that it will come through the +verandah, over Madame Prune's roof. Certainly, I can hear faint +noises, and they do approach nearer. + +I suggest to her: + +"_Neko-San?_" ("It is Messrs. the cats?") + +"No!" she replies, still terrified and in an alarming tone. + +"_Bakémono-Sama?_" ("Is it my lords the ghosts?") I have already the +Japanese habit of expressing myself with excessive politeness. + +'No!!" _"Dorobo!!"_("Thieves!!") Thieves! Ah this is better; I much +prefer this to a visit such as I have just been, dreading in the +sudden awakening from sleep: from ghosts or spirits of the dead; +thieves, that is to say, worthy fellows very much alive, and having +undoubtedly, in as much as they are Japanese thieves, faces of the +most meritorious oddity. I am not in the least frightened, now that I +know precisely what to expect, and we will immediately set to work to +ascertain the truth, for something is decidedly moving on Madame +Prune's roof; some one is walking upon it. + +I open one of our wooden panels and look out. + +I can see only a vast expanse, calm, peaceful, and exquisite under the +full brilliancy of the moonlight; sleeping Japan lulled by the +sonorous song of the grasshoppers is charming indeed to-night, and the +free pure air is delicious to breathe. + +Chrysanthème, half hidden behind my shoulder, listens tremblingly, +peering forward to examine the gardens and the roofs with dilated eyes +like a frightened cat. No, nothing! not a thing moves. Here and there +are a few strangely substantial shadows, which at the first glance +were not easy to explain, but which turn out to be real shadows, +thrown by bits of wall, by boughs of trees, and which preserve an +extremely reassuring stillness. Everything seems absolutely tranquil, +and profound silence reigns in the dreamy vagueness which moonlight +sheds over all. + +Nothing; nothing to be seen anywhere. It was Messrs, the cats after +all, or perhaps my ladies the owls; sounds increase in volume in the +most amazing manner at night, in this house of ours. + +Let us close the panel again carefully, as a measure of prudence, and +then light a lantern and go downstairs to see if there may be any one +hidden in corners, and if the doors are tightly shut: in short, to +reassure Chrysanthème we will go the round of the house. + +Behold us then, on tip-toe, searching together every hole and corner +of the house, which, to judge by its foundations, must be very +ancient, notwithstanding the fragile appearance of its panels of white +paper. It contains the blackest of cavities, little vaulted cellars +with worm-eaten beams; cupboards for rice which smell of mould and +decay; mysterious hollows where lies accumulated the dust of +centuries. In the middle of the night, and during a hunt for thieves, +this part of the house, as yet unknown to me, has an ugly look. + +Noiselessly we step across the apartment of our landlord and landlady. +Chrysanthème drags me by the hand, and I allow myself to be led. +There they are, sleeping in a row under their blue gauze tent, lighted +by the night-lamps burning before the altars of their ancestors. Ha! I +observe that they are arranged in an order which might give rise to +gossip. First comes Mdlle. Oyouki, very taking in her attitude of +rest. Then Madame Prune, who sleeps with her mouth wide open, showing +her rows of blackened teeth; from her throat arises an intermittent +sound like the grunting of a sow. Oh! poor Madame Prune! how hideous +she is!! Next, M. Sucre, a mere mummy for the time being. And finally, +at his side, last of the row, is their servant, Mdlle. Dédé!!! + +The gauze hanging over them throws reflections as of the sea upon +them; one might suppose them victims drowned in an aquarium. And +withal the sacred lamps, the altar crowded with strange Shintoist +symbols, give a mock religious air to this family picture. + +_Honi soit qui mal y pense_, but why is not that servant-girl rather +laid by the side of her mistresses? Now, when we on the floor above +offer our hospitality to Yves, we are careful to place ourselves under +our mosquito-net in a more correct style. + +One corner, which as a last resort we inspect, inspires me with a +certain amount of apprehension. It is a low, mysterious loft, against +the door of which is stuck, as a thing no longer wanted, a very old +pious image: _Kwanon with the thousand arms, and Kwanon with the +horses' head_, seated among clouds and flames, and horrible both of +them to behold, with their spectral grin. + +We open the door, and Chrysanthème starts back uttering a fearful cry. +I should have thought the robbers were there, had I not seen a little +grey creature, rapid and noiseless, rush by her and disappear; a young +rat that had been eating rice on the top of a shelf, and, in its +alarm, had dashed in her face. + + + + +XLVIII + +_September 14th_. + + +Yves has dropped his silver whistle in the sea, the whistle so +absolutely indispensable for the maneuvers; and we search the town +through all day long, followed by Chrysanthème and Mdlles. La Neige +and La Lune, her sisters, in the endeavor to procure another. + +It is, however, very difficult to find such a thing in Nagasaki; above +all, very difficult to explain in Japanese what is a sailor's whistle +of the traditional shape, curved and with a little ball at the end to +modulate the trills and the various sounds of official orders. For +three hours we are sent from shop to shop; at each one they pretend to +understand perfectly what is wanted and trace on tissue-paper, with a +paint-brush, the addresses of the shops where we shall without fail +meet with what we require,--away we go, full of hope, only to +encounter some fresh mystification, till our breathless djins get +quite bewildered. + +They understand admirably that we want a thing that will make a noise, +music in short; thereupon they offer us instruments of every and the +most unexpected shape,--squeakers for Punch-and-Judy voices, +dog-whistles, trumpets. Each time it is something more and more +absurd, so that at last we are overcome with uncontrollable fits of +laughter. Last of all, an aged Japanese optician, who assumes a most +knowing air, a look of sublime wisdom, goes off to forage in his back +shop, and brings to light a steam fog-horn, a relic from some wrecked +steamer. + +After dinner, the chief event of the evening is a deluge of rain which +takes us by surprise as we leave the tea-houses, on our return from +our fashionable stroll. It so happened that we were a large party, +having with us several mousmé guests, and from the moment that the +rain began to fall from the skies, as if out of a watering-pot turned +upside down, the band became disorganized. The mousmés run off, with +birdlike cries, and take refuge under door-ways, in the shops, under +the hoods of the djins. + +Then, before long,--when the shops shut up in haste, when the emptied +streets are flooded, and almost black, and the paper lanterns, piteous +objects, wet through and extinguished,--I find myself, I know not how +it happens, flattened against a wall, under the projecting eaves, +alone in the company of Mdlle. Fraise, my cousin, who is crying +bitterly because her fine dress is wet through. And in the noise of +the rain, which is still falling and splashing everything; with the +spouts and gutters, which in the darkness plaintively murmur like +running streams, the town appears to me suddenly an abode of the +gloomiest sadness. + +The shower is soon over, and the mousmés come out of their holes like +so many mice; they look for each other, call each other, and their +little voices take the singular melancholy, dragging inflections they +assume whenever they have to call from afar. + +"Hi! Mdlle. Lu-u-u-u une!!" + +"Hi! Madame Jonqui-i-i-i ille!!" + +They shout from one to the other their outlandish names, prolonging +them indefinitely in the now silent night, in the reverberations of +the damp air after the great summer rain. + +At length they are all collected and united again, these tiny +personages with narrow eyes and no brains, and we return to +Diou-djen-dji all wet through. + +For the third time, we have Yves sleeping beside us under our blue +tent. + +There is a great row soon after midnight in the apartment beneath us: +our landlord's family returning from a pilgrimage to a far-distant +temple of the Goddess of Grace. (Although Madame Prune is a Shintoist, +she reveres this deity, who, scandal says, watched over her youth.) A +moment after, Mdlle. Oyouki bursts into our room like a rocket, +bringing, on a charming little tray, sweetmeats which have been +blessed and bought at the gates of the temple yonder, on purpose for +us, and which we must positively eat at once, before the virtue is +gone out of them. Scarcely rousing ourselves, we absorb these little +edibles flavored with sugar and pepper, and return a great many sleepy +thanks. + +Yves sleeps quietly on this occasion, without dealing any blows to the +floor or the panels either with fists or feet. He has hung his watch +on one of the hands of our gilded idol in order to be more sure of +seeing the hour at any time of the night, by the light of the sacred +lamps. He gets up betimes in the morning, asking: "Well, did I behave +properly?" and dresses in haste, preoccupied about duty and the +roll-call. + +Outside, no doubt, it is daylight already: through the tiny holes +which time has pierced in our wooden panels, threads of morning light +penetrate our chamber, and in the atmosphere of our room where night +still lingers, they trace vague white rays. Soon, when the sun shall +have risen, these rays will lengthen and become beautifully golden. +The cocks and the cicalas make themselves heard, and now Madame Prune +will begin her mystic drone. + +Nevertheless, out of politeness for Yves-San, Chrysanthème lights a +lantern and escorts him to the foot of the dark staircase. I even +fancy that, on parting, I hear a kiss exchanged. In Japan this is of +no consequence, that I know; it is very usual, and quite admissible; +no matter where one goes, in houses one enters for the first time, one +is quite at liberty to kiss any mousmé who may be present, without any +notice being taken of it. But with regard to Chrysanthème, Yves is in +a delicate position, and he ought to understand it better. I begin to +feel uneasy about the hours they have so often spent together alone; +and I make up my mind, that this very day I will not play the spy +upon them, but speak frankly to Yves, and make a clear breast of it. + +All at once from below, _clac! clac!_ two dry hands clapped together; +it is Madame Prune's warning to the Great Spirit. And immediately +after her prayer breaks forth, soars upwards in a shrill nasal +falsetto, like a morning alarm when the hour for waking has come, the +mechanical noise of a spring let go and running down. + +_"The richest woman in the world. Cleansed from all my sins, O +Ama-Térace-Omi-Kami, in the river of Kamo."_ + +And this extraordinary bleating, scarcely human, scatters and changes +my ideas, which were very nearly clear at the moment I awoke. + + + + +XLIX. + +_September 15th_. + + +There is a rumor of departure in the air. Since yesterday there has +been vague talk of our being sent to China, to the gulf of Pekin; one +of those rumors which spread, no one knows how, from one end of the +ship to the other, two or three days before the official orders +arrive, and which generally turn out tolerably correct. What will the +last act of my little Japanese comedy be like? the dénouement, the +separation? Will there be any touch of sadness on the part of my +mousmé, or on my own, just a tightening of the heart-strings at the +moment of our final farewell? At this moment I can imagine nothing of +the sort. And then the adieux of Yves and Chrysanthème, what will they +be? This question preoccupies me more than all. + +There is nothing very precise as yet, but it is certain that one way +or another, our stay in Japan is coming to an end. It is this perhaps +which disposes me this evening, to throw a more friendly glance on my +surroundings. It is about six o'clock, after a day spent on duty, when +I reach Diou-djen-dji. The evening sun, low in the sky, on the point +of setting, pours into my room, and floods it with rays of red gold, +lighting up the Buddhas and the great sheaves of quaintly arranged +flowers in the antique vases. Here are assembled five or six little +dolls, my neighbors, amusing themselves by dancing to the sound of +Chrysanthème's guitar. And this evening I experience a real charm in +feeling that this dwelling and the woman who leads the dance, are +mine. On the whole I have perhaps been unjust to this country; it +seems to me that my eyes are at last opened to see it in its true +light, that all my senses are undergoing a strange and abrupt +transition; I suddenly have a better perception and appreciation of +all the infinity of dainty trifles amongst which I live; of the +fragile and studied grace of their forms, the oddity of their +drawings, the refined choice of their colors. + +I stretch myself upon the white mats; Chrysanthème, always eagerly +attentive, brings me my pillow of serpent's skin; and the smiling +mousmés, with the interrupted rhythm of a while ago still running in +their heads, move round me with measured steps. + +Their irreproachable socks with the separate great toes, make no +noise; nothing is heard, as they glide by, but a froufrou of silken +stuffs. I find them all pleasant to look upon; their dollish air has +the gift of pleasing me now, and I fancy I have discovered what it is +that gives it to them: it is not only their round inexpressive faces +with eyebrows far removed from the eyelids, but the excessive +amplitude of their dress. With those huge sleeves, it might be +supposed they have neither back nor shoulders; their delicate figures +are lost in these wide robes, which float around what might be little +marionnettes without bodies at all, and which would slip to the ground +of themselves were they not kept together midway, about where a waist +should be, by the wide silken sashes,--a very different comprehension +of the art of dressing to ours, which endeavors as much as possible to +bring into relief the curves, real or false, of the figure. + +And then, how much I admire the flowers arranged by Chrysanthème in +our vases, with her Japanese taste: lotus flowers, great sacred +flowers of a tender, veined rose-color, the milky rose-color seen on +porcelain; they resemble, when in full bloom, great water-lilies, and +when only in bud, might be taken for long pale tulips. Their soft but +rather cloying scent is added to that other indefinable odor of +mousmés, of yellow race, of Japan, which is always and everywhere in +the air. The late flowers of September, at this season very rare and +expensive, grow on longer stems than the summer blooms; Chrysanthème +has left them their immense aquatic leaves of a melancholy +seaweed-green, and mingled with them tall slight rushes. I look at +them, and recall with some irony those great round bunches in the +shape of cauliflowers, which our florists sell in France, wrapt in +their white lace-paper. + +Still no letters from Europe, from any one. How things change, become +effaced and forgotten. Here I am accommodating myself to this finical +Japan and dwindling down to its affected mannerism; I feel that my +thoughts run in smaller grooves, my tastes incline to smaller +things,--things which suggest nothing greater than a smile. I am +becoming used to tiny and ingenious furniture, to doll-like desks, to +miniature bowls with which to play at dinner, to the immaculate +monotony of the mats, to the finely finished simplicity of the white +woodwork. I am even losing my Western prejudices; all my preconceived +ideas are this evening evaporating and vanishing; crossing the garden +I have courteously saluted M. Sucre, who was watering his dwarf shrubs +and his deformed flowers; and Madame Prune appears to me a highly +respectable old lady, in whose past there is nothing to criticise. + +We shall take no walk to-night; my only wish is to remain stretched +out where I am, listening to the music of my mousmé's _chamécen_. + +Till now, I have always used the word _guitar_, to avoid exotic terms, +for the abuse of which I have been so reproached. But neither the word +_guitar_ nor _mandolin_ suffices to designate this slender instrument +with its long neck, the high notes of which are shriller than the +voice of the grasshopper; henceforth, I will write _chamécen_. + +I will also call my mousmé _Kikou, Kikou-San_; this name suits her +better than Chrysanthème, which though translating the sense exactly, +does not preserve the strange-sounding euphony of the original. + +I therefore say to Kikou, my wife: + +"Play, play on for me; I shall remain here all the evening and listen +to you." + +Astonished to find me in so amiable a mood, she requires pressing a +little, and with almost a bitter curve of triumph and disdain about +her lips, she seats herself in the attitude of an idol, raises her +long, dark-colored sleeves, and begins. The first hesitating notes are +murmured faintly and mingle with the music of the insects humming +outside, in the quiet air of the warm and golden twilight. First she +plays slowly, a confused medley of fragments which she does not seem +to remember perfectly, of which one waits for the finish and waits in +vain; while the other girls giggle, inattentive, and regretful of +their interrupted dance. She herself is absent, sulky, as though she +were performing a duty only. + +Then by degrees, little by little, it becomes more animated, and the +mousmés begin to listen. Now, tremblingly it grows into a feverish +rapidity, and her gaze has no longer the vacant stare of a doll. Then +the music changes again; in it there is the sighing of the wind, the +hideous laughter of ghouls; tears, heartrending plaints, and her +dilated pupils seem to be directed inwardly in settled gaze on some +indescribable _Japanesery_ within her own soul. + +I listen, lying there with eyes half shut, looking out between my +drooping eyelids which are gradually lowering, in involuntary +heaviness, upon the enormous red sun dying away over Nagasaki. I have +a somewhat melancholy feeling that my past life and all other places +in the world are receding from my view and fading away. At this moment +of nightfall I feel almost at home in this corner of Japan, amidst the +gardens of this suburb; I have never had such an impression before. + + + + +L. + +_September 16th_. + + +Seven o'clock in the evening. We shall not go down into the town +to-day; but, like good Japanese citizens, remain in our loftly suburb. + +In undress uniform we shall go, Yves and I, in a neighborly way, as +far as the fencing gallery, which is only two steps off, just above +our villa, and almost abutting on our fresh and scented garden. + +The gallery is closed already and a little mousko seated at the door, +explains with many low bows that we come too late, all the amateurs +are gone; we must come again to-morrow. + +The evening is so mild and so fine, that we remain out of doors, +following without any definite purpose the pathway which rises ever +higher and higher, and loses itself at length in the solitary regions +of the mountain among the upper peaks. + +For an hour at least we wander on,--an unintended walk,--and finally +find ourselves at a great height commanding an endless perspective +lighted by the last gleams of daylight; we are in a desolate and +mournful spot, in the midst of the little Buddhist cemeteries, which +are scattered over the country in every direction. + +We meet a few belated laborers, who are returning from the fields with +bundles of tea upon their shoulders. These peasants have a half savage +air, half naked too, or clothed only in long robes of blue cotton; as +they pass, they salute us with humble bows. + +No trees in this elevated region. Fields of tea alternate with tombs: +old granite statues which represent Buddha in his lotus, or else old +monumental stones on which gleam remains of inscriptions in golden +letters. Rocks, brushwood, uncultivated spaces, surround us on all +sides. + +There are no more passers-by, and the light is failing. We will halt +for a moment, and then it will be time to turn our steps downwards. + +But, close to the spot where we stand, a box in white wood provided +with handles, a sort of sedan-chair, rests on the freshly disturbed +earth, with its lotus of silvered paper, and the little incense-sticks +burning yet, by its side; clearly someone has been buried here this +very evening. + +I cannot picture this personage to myself; the Japanese are so +grotesque in life, that it is almost impossible to imagine them in the +calm majesty of death. Nevertheless, let us move further on, we might +disturb him; he is too recently dead, his presence unnerves us. We +will go and seat ourselves on one of these other tombs, so unutterably +ancient that there can no longer be anything within it but dust. And +there, seated yet in the dying sunlight, while the valleys and plains +of the earth below are already lost in shadow, we will talk together. + +I wish to speak to Yves about Chrysanthème; it is indeed somewhat in +view of this that I have persuaded him to sit down; but how to set +about it without hurting his feelings, and without making myself +ridiculous, I hardly know. However, the pure air playing round me up +here, and the magnificent landscape spread beneath my feet, impart a +certain serenity to my thoughts which makes me feel a contemptuous +pity, both for my suspicions and the cause of them. + +We speak, first of all, of the order for departure which may arrive at +any moment, for China or for France. Soon we shall have to leave this +easy and almost amusing life, this Japanese suburb where chance has +installed us, and our little house buried among flowers. Yves perhaps +will regret all this more than I shall, I know that well enough; for +it is the first time that any such interlude has broken the rude +monotony of his hard-worked career. Formerly, when in an inferior +rank, he was scarcely more often on shore, in foreign countries, than +the sea-gulls themselves; whilst I have, from the very beginning, been +spoilt by residence in all sorts of charming spots, infinitely +superior to this, in all sorts of countries, and the remembrance +pleasurably haunts me still. + +In order to discover how the land lies, I risk the remark: + +"You will perhaps be more sorry to leave this little Chrysanthème than +I am?" + +Silence reigns between us. + +After which I pursue, and, burning my ships, I add: + +"You know, after all, if you have such a fancy for her, I haven't +really married her; one can't really consider her my wife." + +In great surprise he looks in my face: + +"Not your wife, you say? But, by Jove, though, that's just it; she is +your wife." + +There is no need of many words at any time between us two; I know +exactly now, by his tone, by his great good-humored smile, how the +case stands; I understand all that lies in the little phrase: "That's +just it, she is your wife." If she were not, well then he could not +answer for what might happen,--notwithstanding any remorse he might +have in the depths of his heart, since he is no longer a bachelor and +free as air, as in former days. But he considers her my wife, and she +is sacred. I have the fullest faith in his word, and I experience a +positive relief, a real joy, at finding my staunch Yves of bygone +days. How could I have so succumbed to the demeaning influence of my +surroundings as to suspect him even, and invent for myself such a +mean, petty anxiety? + +We will never even mention that doll again. + +We remain up there very late, talking of other things, gazing the +while at the immense depths below our feet, at the valleys and +mountains as they become one by one indistinct and lost in the +deepening darkness. Placed as we are at an enormous height, in the +wide free atmosphere, we seem already to have quitted this miniature +country, already to be freed from the impression of littleness which +it has given us, and from the little links by which it was beginning +to bind us to itself. + +Seen from such heights as these, all the countries of the globe bear a +strong resemblance to each other; they lose the imprint made upon them +by man, and by races; by all the atoms swarming on the surface. + +As of old, in the Breton marshes, in the woods of Toulven, or at sea +in the night-watches, we talk of all those things to which thoughts +naturally revert in darkness; of ghosts, of spirits, of eternity, of +the great hereafter, of chaos--and we entirely forget little +Chrysanthème! + +When we arrive at Diou-djen-dji in the starry night, it is the music +of her _chamécen_, heard from afar, which recalls to us her existence; +she is studying some vocal duet with Mdlle. Oyouki, her pupil. + +I feel myself in very good humor this evening, and, relieved from any +absurd suspicions about my poor Yves, am quite disposed to enjoy +without reserve my last days in Japan, and derive therefrom all the +amusement possible. + +Let us then stretch ourselves out on the dazzling white mats, and +listen to the singular duet sung by these two mousmés: a strange +musical medley, slow and mournful, beginning with two or three high +notes, and descending at each couplet, in almost an imperceptible +manner, into actual solemnity. The song keeps its dragging slowness; +but the accompaniment becoming more and more accentuated, is like the +impetuous sound of a far-off hurricane. At the end, when these girlish +voices, generally so soft, give out their hoarse and guttural notes, +Chrysanthème's hands fly wildly and convulsively over the quivering +strings. Both of them lower their heads, pout their under-lips in the +effort of bringing out these astonishingly deep notes. And at these +moments, their little narrow eyes open and seem to reveal an +unexpected something, almost a soul, under these trappings of +marionnettes. + +But it is a soul which more than ever appears to me of a different +species to my own; I feel my thoughts to be far removed from theirs, +as from the flitting conceptions of a bird, or the dreams of a monkey; +I feel there is betwixt them and myself a great gulf, mysterious and +awful. + +Other sounds of music, wafted to us from the distance outside, +interrupt for a moment that of our mousmés. From the depths below, +down in Nagasaki, arises a sudden noise of gongs and guitars; we rush +to the balcony of the verandah to hear it better. + +It is a _matsouri_, a fête, a procession passing through the quarter +which is not so virtuous as our own, so our mousmés tell us, with a +disdainful toss of the head. Nevertheless, from the heights on which +we dwell, seen thus in a bird's-eye view, by the uncertain light of +the stars, this district has a singularly chaste air, and the concert +going on therein, purified in its ascent from the depths of the abyss +to our lofty altitudes, reaches us confusedly, a smothered, enchanted, +enchanting sound. + +Then it diminishes, and dies away into silence. + +The two little friends return to their seats on the mats, and once +more take up their melancholy duet. An orchestra, discreetly subdued +but innumerable, of crickets and cicalas, accompanies them in an +unceasing tremolo,--the immense far-reaching tremolo, which, gentle +and eternal, never ceases on Japanese land. + + + + +LI. + +_September 17th_. + + +During the hour of siesta, the abrupt order arrives to start to-morrow +for China, for Tchefou (a horrid place in the gulf of Pekin). It is +Yves who comes to wake me in my cabin to bring me the news. + +"I must positively get leave to go on shore this evening," he says, +while I endeavor to shake myself awake, "if it is only to help you to +dismantle and pack up there." + +He gazes through my port-hole, raising his glance towards the green +summits, in the direction of Diou-djen-dji and our echoing old +cottage, hidden from us by a turn of the mountain. + +It is very nice of him to wish to help me in my packing; but I think +he also counts upon saying farewell to his little Japanese friends up +there, and I really cannot find fault with that. + +He gets through his work, and does in fact get leave without help from +me, to go on shore at five o'clock, after drill and manoeuvres. + +As for myself, I start off at once, in a hired sampan. In the vast +flood of midday sunshine, to the quivering noise of the cicalas, I +mount up to Diou-djen-dji. + +The paths are solitary, the plants drooping in the heat. Here, +however, is Madame Jonquille, taking the air, in the bright sunshine +of the grasshoppers, sheltering her dainty figure and her charming +face under an immense paper parasol, a huge circle, closely ribbed and +fantastically striped. + +She recognizes me from afar, and laughing as usual, runs to meet me. + +I announce our departure, and a tearful pout suddenly contracts her +childish face. After all, does this news grieve her? Is she going to +shed tears over it? No! it turns to a fit of laughter, a little +nervous perhaps, but unexpected and disconcerting,--dry and clear, +pealing through the silence and warmth of the narrow paths, like a +cascade of little mock pearls. + +Ah, there indeed is a marriage tie which will be broken without much +pain! But she fills me with impatience, poor empty-headed linnet, with +her laughter, and I turn my back upon her to continue my journey. + +Up above, Chrysanthème sleeps, stretched out on the floor; the house +is wide open, and the soft mountain breeze rustles gently through it. + +That same evening we had intended to give a tea-party, and by my +orders flowers had already been placed in every nook and corner of the +house. There were lotus in our vases, beautiful rose-colored lotus, +the last of the season, I verily believe. They must have been ordered +from a special gardener, out yonder near the Great Temple, and they +will cost me dear. + +With a few gentle taps of a fan I awake my surprised mousmé; and, +curious to catch her first impressions, I announce my departure. She +starts up, rubs her eyelids with the back of her little hands, looks +at me, and hangs her head: something like an expression of sadness +passes in her eyes. + +This little sinking at the heart is for Yves, no doubt. + +The news spreads through the house. + +Mdlle. Oyouki dashes upstairs, with half a tear in each of her babyish +eyes; kisses me with her full red lips, which always leave a wet ring +on my cheek; then quickly draws from her wide sleeve a square of +tissue-paper, wipes away her stealthy tears, blows her little nose, +rolls the bit of paper in a ball, and throws it into the street on the +parasol of a passer-by. + +Then Madame Prune makes her appearance; in an agitated and discomposed +manner she successively adopts every attitude expressive of utter +dismay. What on earth is the matter with the old lady, and why will +she keep getting closer and closer to me, till she is almost in my +way? + +It is wonderful all I still have to do this last day, and the endless +drives I have to make to the old curiosity shops, to my tradespeople, +and to the packers. + +Nevertheless before my rooms are dismantled, I intend making a sketch +of them, as I did formerly at Stamboul. It really seems to me as if +all I do here is a bitter parody of all I did over there. + +This time, however, it is not that I care for this dwelling; it is +only because it is pretty and uncommon, and the sketch will be an +interesting souvenir. + +I fetch, therefore, a leaf out of my album, and begin at once, seated +on the floor and leaning on my desk, ornamented with grasshoppers in +relief, while behind me, very, very close to me, the three women +follow the movements of my pencil with an astonished attention. +Japanese art being entirely conventional, they have never before seen +anyone draw from nature, and my style delights them. I may not perhaps +possess the steady and nimble touch of M. Sucre, as he groups his +charming storks, but I am master of a few notions of perspective which +are wanting in him; and I have been taught to draw things as I see +them, without giving them ingeniously distorted and grimacing +attitudes; and the three Japanese are amazed at the air of _reality_ +thrown in my sketch. + +With little shrieks of admiration, they point out to each other the +different things, as little by little their shape and form are +outlined in black on my paper. Chrysanthème gazes at me with a new +kind of interest: "_Anata itchi-ban_!" she says (literally "Thou +first!" meaning: "You are really quite a swell!") Mdlle. Oyouki is +carried away by her admiration and exclaims in a burst of enthusiasm: + +_"Anata bakari!"_ ("Thou alone!" that is to say: "There is no one like +you in the world, all the rest are mere rubbish!") + +Madame Prune says nothing, but I can see that she does not think the +less; her languishing attitudes, her hand that at each moment gently +touches mine, confirm the suspicions that her look of dismay a few +moments ago awoke within me: evidently my physical charms speak to her +imagination, which in spite of years has remained full of romance! I +shall leave with the regret of having understood her too late!! + +If the ladies are satisfied with my sketch, I am far from being so. I +have put everything in its place most exactly, but as a whole, it has +an ordinary, indifferent, French look which does not suit. The +sentiment is not given, and I almost wonder whether I should not have +done better in falsifying the perspective,--Japanese style--and +exaggerating to the very utmost the already abnormal outlines of what +I see before me. And then the pictured dwelling lacks the fragile look +and its sonority, that reminds one of a dry violin. In the penciled +delineation of the woodwork, the minute delicacy with which it is +wrought is wanting; neither have I been able to render the extreme +antiquity, the perfect cleanliness, nor the vibrating song of the +cicalas that seems to have been stored away within it, in its +parched-up fibers, during some hundreds of summers. It does not either +convey the impression this place gives of being in a far-off suburb, +perched aloft among trees, above the drollest of towns. No, all this +cannot be drawn, cannot be expressed, but remains undemonstrable, +undefinable. + +Having sent out our invitations, we shall in spite of everything, give +our tea-party this evening,--a parting tea, therefore, in which we +will display as much pomp as possible. It is, moreover, rather my +custom to wind up my exotic existences with a fête; in other countries +I have done the same. + +Besides our usual set, we shall have my mother-in-law, my relatives, +and all the mousmés of the neighborhood. But, by an extra Japanese +refinement, we shall not admit a single European friend,--not even the +_amazingly tall_ one. Yves alone shall be admitted, and even he shall +be hidden away in a corner behind some flowers and works of art. + +In the last glimmer of twilight, by the first twinkling star, the +ladies, with many charming curtseys, make their appearance. Our house +is soon full of the little crouching women, with their tiny slit eyes +vaguely smiling; their beautifully dressed hair shining like polished +ebony; their fragile bodies lost in the many folds or the exaggerated +wide garments, that gape as if ready to drop from their little +tapering backs and reveal the exquisite napes of their little necks. + +Chrysanthème, with somewhat a melancholy air; my mother-in-law +Renoncule, with many affected graces, busy themselves in the midst of +the different groups, where ere long the miniature pipes are lighted. +Soon there arises a murmuring sound of discreet laughter, expressing +nothing, but having a pretty exotic ring about it, and then begins a +harmony of _pan! pan! pan!_ sharp, rapid taps against the edges of the +finely lacquered smoking-boxes. Pickled and spiced fruits are handed +round on trays of quaint and varied shapes. Then transparent china +tea-cups, no larger than half an egg-shell, make their appearance, and +the ladies are offered a few drops of sugarless tea, poured out of toy +kettles, or a sip of _saki_--(a spirit made from rice which it is the +custom to serve hot, in elegantly shaped vases, long-necked like a +heron's throat). + +Several mousmés execute, one after the other, improvizations on the +_chamécen_. Others sing in sharp high voices hopping about +continually, like cicalas in delirium. + +Madame Prune, no longer able to make a mystery of the long-pent up +feelings that agitate her, pays me the most marked and tender +attentions, and begs my acceptance of a quantity of little souvenirs: +an image, a little vase, a little porcelain goddess of the Moon in +Satsuma ware, a marvelously grotesque ivory figure;--I tremblingly +follow her into the dark corners whither she calls me to give me these +presents in a _tête-à-tête_. + +At about nine o'clock, with a silken rustling, arrive the three +guéchas in vogue in Nagasaki: Mdlles. Pureté, Orange, and Printemps, +whom I have hired at four dollars a head,--an enormous price in this +country. + +These three guéchas are indeed the very same little creatures I heard +singing on the rainy day of my arrival, through the thin paneling of +the _Garden of Flowers_. But as I have now become thoroughly +_Japanized_, to-day they appear to me more diminutive, less +outlandish, and in no way mysterious. I treat them rather as dancers +that I have hired, and the idea that I had ever thought of marrying +one of them now makes me shrug my shoulders,--as it formerly did M. +Kangourou. + +The excessive heat caused by the respiration of the mousmés and the +burning lamps, brings out the perfume of the lotus, which fills the +heavy-laden atmosphere; and the scent of the camelia-oil the ladies +use in profusion to make their hair glisten, is also strong in the +room. + +Mdlle. Orange, the youngest guécha, tiny and dainty, her lips outlined +with gilt paint, executes some delightful steps, donning the most +extraordinary wigs and masks in wood or cardboard. She has masks +imitating old noble ladies which are valuable works of art, signed by +well-known artists. She has also magnificent long robes, fashioned in +the old style, and trains trimmed at the bottom with thick pads, in +order to give to the movements of the costume something rigid and +unnatural which, however, is becoming. + +Now the soft balmy breezes blow through the room, from one verandah to +the other, making the flames of the lamps flicker. They scatter the +lotus flowers faded by the artificial heat, which, falling in pieces +from every vase, sprinkle the guests with their pollen and large pink +petals, looking like bits of broken opal-colored glass. + +The sensational piece, reserved for the end, is a trio on the +_chamécen_, long and monotonous, that the guéchas perform as a rapid +_pizzicato_ on the highest strings, very sharply struck. It sounds +like the very quintescence, the paraphrase, the exasperation if I may +so call it, of the eternal buzz of insects, which issues from the +trees, old roofs, old walls, from everything in fact, and which is the +ground-work of all Japanese sounds. + +Half-past ten! The program has been carried out, and the reception is +over. A last general _pan! pan! pan!_ the little pipes are stowed away +into their chased sheaths, tied up in the sashes, and the mousmés rise +to depart. + +They light, at the end of short sticks, a quantity of red, gray or +blue lanterns, and after a series of endless bows and curtseys, the +guests disperse themselves in the darkness of the lanes and trees. + +We also go down to the town,--Yves, Chrysanthème, Oyouki, and +myself,--in order to conduct my mother-in-law, sisters-in-law, and +youthful aunt, Madame Nénufar, to their house. + +We want to take one last stroll together in our old familiar pleasure +haunts, drink one more iced sherbet at the house of the _Indescribable +Butterflies_, buy one more lantern at Madame Très-Propre's, and eat +some parting waffles at Madame L'Heure's! + +I try to be affected, moved, by this leave-taking, but without +success. In this Japan, as with the little men and women who inhabit +it, there is something decidedly wanting; pleasant enough as a mere +pastime, it begets no feeling of attachment. + +On our return, when I am once more with Yves and the two mousmés +climbing up the road to Diou-djen-dji, which I shall probably never +see again, a vague feeling of melancholy pervades my last stroll. + +It is, however, but the melancholy inseparable from all things that +are about to end without possibility of return. + +Moreover, this calm and splendid summer is also drawing to a close for +us,--since to-morrow we shall go forth to meet the autumn, in Northern +China. I am beginning, alas! to count the youthful summers I may still +hope for; I feel more gloomy each time another fades away, and flies +to rejoin the others already disappeared in the dark and bottomless +abyss, where all past things lie buried. + +At midnight we return home, and my removal begins; while on board the +_amazingly tall friend_ kindly takes my watch. + +It is a nocturnal, rapid, stealthy removal,--_"dorobo_ (thieves) +fashion" remarks Yves, who in frequenting the mousmés has picked up a +smattering of the Niponese language. + +Messrs, the packers have, at my request, sent in the evening several +charming little boxes, with compartments and false bottoms, and +several paper bags (in the untearable Japanese paper), which close of +themselves and are fastened by strings, also in paper, arranged +beforehand in the most ingenious manner,--quite the cleverest and most +handy thing of its kind; for little useful trifles these people are +unrivaled. + +It is a real treat to pack them, and everybody lends a helping +hand,--Yves, Chrysanthème, Madame Prune, her daughter, and M. Sucre. +By the glimmer of the reception-lamps, which are still burning, every +one wraps, rolls, and ties up expeditiously, for it is already late. + +Although Oyouki has a heavy heart, she cannot prevent herself from +indulging in a few bursts of childish laughter while she works. + +Madame Prune, bathed in tears, no longer restrains her feelings; poor +lady, I really very much regret.... + +Chrysanthème is absent-minded and silent. + +But what a fearful amount of luggage! Eighteen cases or parcels, +containing Buddhas, chimeras, and vases, without mentioning the last +lotus that I carry away tied up in a pink cluster. + +All this is piled up in the djins' carts, hired at sunset, which are +waiting at the door, while their runners lie asleep on the grass. + +A starlit and exquisite night. We start off with lighted lanterns, +followed by the three sorrowful ladies who accompany us, and by abrupt +slopes, dangerous in the darkness, we descend towards the sea. + +The djins, stiffening their muscular legs, hold back with all their +might the heavily loaded little cars which would run down by +themselves if let alone, and that so rapidly, that they would rush +into empty space with my most valuable chattels. Chrysanthème walks by +my side, and expresses, in a soft and winning manner, her regret that +the _wonderfully tall friend_ did not offer to replace me for the +whole of my night-watch, as that would have allowed me to spend this +last night, even till morning, under our roof. + +"Listen," she says, "come back to-morrow in the daytime, before +getting under way, to bid me good-by; I shall only return to my mother +in the evening; you will find me still up there." + +And I promise. + +They stop at a certain turn, from whence we have a bird's-eye view of +the whole roadstead; the black stagnant waters reflect innumerable +distant fires, and the ships--tiny immovable little objects, which +seen from our point of view take the shape of fish, seem also to +slumber,--little objects which serve to bear us _elsewhere_, to go far +away, and to forget. + +The three ladies are going to turn back home, for the night is +already far advanced, and lower down, the cosmopolitan quarters near +the quays are not safe at this unusual hour. + +The moment has therefore come for Yves--who will not land again--to +make his last tragic farewells to his friends the little mousmés. + +Now I am very curious to see the parting between Yves and +Chrysanthème; I listen with all my ears, I look with all my eyes, it +takes place in the simplest and quietest fashion: none of that +heartbreaking which will be inevitable between Madame Prune and +myself; I even notice in my mousmé an indifference, an unconcern which +puzzles me; I positively am at a loss to understand what it all means. + +And I muse to myself as I continue to descend towards the sea. "Her +appearance of sadness was not, therefore, on Yves' account. On whose, +then?" and the phrase runs through my head: + +"Come back to-morrow before setting sail, to bid me good-by; I shall +only return to my mother in the evening; you will find me still up +there." + +Japan is indeed most delightful this evening, so fresh and so sweet; +and little Chrysanthème was very charming just now, as she silently +walked beside me through the darkness of the lane. + +It is about two o'clock when we reach the _Triomphante_ in a hired +sampan, where I have heaped up all my cases till there is danger of +sinking. The _very tall friend_ gives over to me the watch that I must +keep till four o'clock; and the sailors on duty, but half awake, make +a chain in the darkness, to haul on board all my fragile luggage. + + + + +LII. + +_September 18th_. + + +I had planned to sleep late this morning, in order to make up for my +lost sleep of last night. + +But behold, at eight o'clock, three persons of the most singular +appearance, led by M. Kangourou, present themselves with endless bows +at the door of my cabin. They are dressed in long robes bedizened with +dark patterns; they have the flowing locks, high foreheads and pallid +countenances of persons too exclusively devoted to the fine arts; and, +perched on the top of their chignons, they wear sailor hats of English +shape stuck jauntily on one side. Under their arms, they carry +portfolios filled with sketches; in their hands, boxes of +water-colors, pencils, and, tied together like fasces, a bundle of +fine stylets the sharp points of which glitter ostensibly. + +At the first glance, even in the bewilderment of waking, I gather from +their appearance what their errand is, and guessing with what visitors +I have to deal, I say:--"Come in, Messieurs the tattooers!" + +These are the specialists most in renown in Nagasaki; I had engaged +them two days ago, not knowing that we were about to leave, and since +they are come I will not turn them away. + +My friendly and intimate relations with primitive man, in Oceania and +elsewhere, have imbued me with a deplorable taste for tattoo work; and +I had wished to carry away on me, as a curiosity, an ornament, a +specimen of the work of the Japanese tattooers, who have a delicacy of +finish which is unequaled. + +From their albums spread out upon my table I make my choice. There are +some remarkably odd designs amongst them, appropriate to the different +parts of the human body: emblems for the arms and legs, sprays of +roses for the shoulders, great grinning faces for the middle of the +back. There are even, to suit the taste of their clients who belong to +foreign navies, trophies of arms, American and French flags entwined, +a "God Save the Queen" amid encircling stars, and figures of women +taken from Grévin's sketches in the _Journal Amusant_. + +My choice rests upon a singular blue and pink dragon a couple of +inches long, which will have a fine effect upon my chest on the side +opposite the heart. + +Then follows an hour and a half of irritation and positive pain. +Stretched out on my bunk and delivered over to the tender mercies of +these personages, I stiffen myself and submit to the million +imperceptible pricks they inflict. When by chance a little blood +flows, confusing the outline by a stream of red, one of the artists +hastens to staunch it with his lips, and I make no objections, knowing +that this is the Japanese manner, the method used by their doctors for +the wounds of both man and beast. + +A piece of work as minute and fine as that of an engraver upon stone +is slowly executed on my person; and their lean hands harrow and worry +me with automatic precision. + +At length it is finished, and the tattooers, falling back with an air +of satisfaction to contemplate their work, declare it will be lovely. + +I dress myself quickly to go on shore, and take advantage of my last +hours in Japan. + +The heat is fearful to-day: the powerful September sun falls with a +certain melancholy upon the yellowing leaves; it is a day of clear +burning heat after an almost chilly morning. + +Like yesterday, it is during the drowsy noon that I ascend to my lofty +suburb, by deserted pathways filled only with light and silence. + +I noiselessly open the door of my dwelling, and enter cautiously on +tiptoe, for fear of Madame Prune. + +At the foot of the staircase, upon the white mats, by the side of the +little clogs and little sandals which are always lying about the +vestibule, there is a great array of luggage ready for departure, +which I recognize at a glance,--pretty dark-colored dresses, familiar +to my sight, carefully folded and wrapped in blue towels tied at the +four corners. I even fancy I feel a little sad when I catch sight of a +corner of the famous box of letters and souvenirs peeping out of one +of these bundles, in which ray portrait by Uyeno now reposes among +divers photographs of mousmés. A sort of long-necked mandolin, also +ready for departure, lies on the top of the pile in its case of +figured silk. It resembles the flitting of some gypsy, or rather it +reminds me of an engraving in a book of fables I owned in my +childhood: the whole thing is exactly like the slender wardrobe and +the long guitar which the Cicala who had sung all the summer, carried +upon her back when she knocked at the door of her neighbor the ant. + +Poor little gypsy! + +I mount the stairs on tiptoe, and stop at the sound of singing that I +hear up in my room. + +It is undoubtedly Chrysanthème's voice and the song is a cheerful one! +This chills me and changes the current of my thoughts. I am almost +sorry I have taken the trouble to come. + +Mingled with the song is a noise I cannot understand: _dzinn! dzinn!_ +a clear metallic ring as of coins being flung vigorously on the floor. +I am well aware that this vibrating house exaggerates every sound +during the silence of night; but all the same, I am puzzled to know +what my mousmé can be doing. _Dzinn! dzinn!_ is she amusing herself +with quoits, or the _jeu du crapaud_, or pitch and toss? + +Nothing of the kind; I fancy I have guessed, and I continue my upward +progress still more gently, on all fours, with the precautions of a +Red Indian, to give myself for the last time the pleasure of +surprising her. + +She has not heard me come in. In our great white room, emptied and +swept out, where the clear sunshine pours in, and the soft wind, and +the yellowed leaves of the garden; she is sitting all alone, her back +turned to the door: she is dressed for walking, ready to go to her +mother's, her rose-colored parasol beside her. + +On the floor are spread out all the fine silver dollars which, +according to our agreement, I had given her the evening before. With +the competent dexterity of an old money-changer she fingers them, +turns them over, throws them on the floor, and armed with a little +mallet _ad hoc,_ rings them vigorously against her ear, singing the +while I know not what little pensive bird-like song which I daresay +she improvises as she goes along. + +Well, after all, it is even more completely Japanese than I could +possibly have imagined it--this last scene of my married life! I feel +inclined to laugh. How simple I have been, to allow myself to be taken +in by the few clever words she whispered yesterday, as she walked +beside me, by a tolerably pretty little phrase embellished as it was +by the silence of two o'clock in the morning, and all the wonderful +enchantments of night. + +Ah! not more for Yves than for me, not more for me than for Yves, has +any feeling passed through that little brain, that little heart. + +When I have looked at her long enough, I call:-- + +"Hi! Chrysanthème!" + +She turns confused, and reddening even to her ears at having been +caught at this work. + +She is quite wrong, however, to be so much troubled, for I am, on the +contrary, delighted. The fear that I might be leaving her in some +sadness had almost given me a pang, and I infinitely prefer that this +marriage should end as it had begun, in a joke. + +"That is a good idea of yours," I say; "a precaution which should +always be taken in this country of yours, where so many evil-minded +people are clever in forging money. Make haste and get through it +before I start, and if any false pieces have found their way into the +number, I will willingly replace them." + +However, she refuses to continue before me, and I expected as much; to +do so would have been contrary to all her notions of politeness, +hereditary and acquired, all her conventionality, all her +_Japanesery_. With a disdainful little foot, clothed as usual in +exquisite socks with a special hood for the great toe, she pushes away +the piles of white dollars and scatters them on the mats. + +"We have hired a large covered sampan," she says to change the +conversation, "and we are all going together,--Campanule, Jonquille, +Touki, all your mousmés--to watch your vessel set sail. Pray sit down +and stay a few minutes." + +"No, I really cannot stay. I have several things to do in the town, +d'you see, and the order was given for every one to be on board by +three o'clock in time for muster before starting. Moreover, I would +rather escape, as you can imagine, while Madame Prune is still +enjoying her siesta; I should be afraid of being drawn into some +corner, or of provoking some heartrending parting scene." + +Chrysanthème bows her head and says no more, but seeing that I am +really going, rises to escort me. + +Without speaking, without the slightest noise, she follows me as we +descend the staircase and cross the garden full of sunshine, where the +dwarf shrubs and the deformed flowers seem, like the rest of the +household, plunged in warm somnolence. + +At the outer gate I stop for the last adieu: the little sad pout has +reappeared, more accentuated than ever on Chrysanthème's face; it is +the right thing, it is correct, and I should feel offended now were it +absent. + +Well, little mousmé, let us part good friends; one last kiss even, if +you like. I took you to amuse me; you have not perhaps succeeded very +well, but after all you have done what you could: given me your little +face, your little curtseys, your little music; in short, you have +been pleasant enough in your Japanese way. And who knows, perchance I +may yet think of you sometimes when I recall this glorious summer, +these pretty quaint gardens, and the ceaseless concert of the cicales. + +She prostrates herself on the threshold of the door, her forehead +against the ground, and remains in this attitude of superlatively +polite salute as long as I am in sight, while I go down the pathway by +which I am to disappear for ever. + +As the distance between us increases, I turn once or twice to look at +her again; but it is a mere civility, and meant to return as it +deserves her grand final salutation. + + + + +LIII. + + +On entering the town, at the turn of the principal street, I have the +good luck to meet No. 415, my poor relation. I was just at that moment +in want of a speedy djin, and I at once get into his vehicle; besides, +it will be an alleviation to my feelings, in this hour of departure, +to take my last drive in company with a member of my family. + +Unaccustomed as I was to be out of doors during the hours of siesta, +I had never yet seen the streets of the town thus overwhelmed by the +sunshine, thus deserted in the silence and solitary brilliancy +peculiar to all hot countries. + +In front of all the shops hang white shades, adorned here and there +with slight designs in black, in the quaintness of which lurks I know +not what,--something mysterious: dragons, emblems, symbolical figures +The sky is too glaring; the light crude, implacable; never has this +old town of Nagasaki appeared to me so old, so worm-eaten, so bald, +notwithstanding all its veneer of new papers and gaudy paintings. +These little wooden houses, of such marvelous cleanly whiteness +inside, are black outside, time-worn, disjointed and _grimacing_. When +one looks closely, this grimace is to be found everywhere: in the +hideous masks laughing in the shop fronts of the innumerable +curio-shops; in the grotesque figures, the playthings, the idols, +cruel, suspicious mad;--it is even found in the buildings: in the +friezes of the religious porticos, in the roofs of the thousand +pagodas; of which the angles and gable-ends writhe and twist like the +yet dangerous remains of ancient and malignant beasts. + +And the disturbing intensity of expression reigning over inanimate +nature, contrasts with the almost absolute blank of the human +countenance, with the smiling foolishness of the simple little folk +who meet one's gaze, as they patiently carry on their minute trades in +the gloom of their tiny open-fronted houses. Workmen squatted on their +heels, carving with their imperceptible tools, the droll or odiously +obscene ivory ornaments, marvelous cabinet curiosities which have made +Japan so famous with the European amateurs who have never seen it. +Unconscious artists tracing with steady hand on a background of +lacquer or of porcelain traditional designs learnt by heart, or +transmitted to their brains by a process of heredity through thousands +of years; automatic painters, whose storks are similar to those of M. +Sucre, with the inevitable little rocks, or little butterflies +eternally the same. The least of these illuminators, with his +insignificant eyeless face, possesses at his fingers' ends the maximum +of dexterity in this art of decoration, light and wittily incongruous, +which threatens to invade us in France, in this epoch of imitative +decadence, and which has become the great resource of our +manufacturers of cheap "_objects of art_." + +Is it because I am about to leave this country, because I have no +longer any link to bind me to it, any resting-place on its soil, and +that my spirit is already on the wing? I know not, but it seems to me +I have never as clearly seen and comprehended it as to-day. And more +even than ever, do I find it little, aged, with worn-out blood and +worn-out sap; I feel more fully its antediluvian antiquity, its +centuries of mummification, which will soon degenerate into hopeless +and grotesque buffoonery, as it comes into contact with Western +novelties. + +It is getting late; little by little, the siestas are everywhere +coming to an end; the queer little streets brighten up and begin to +swarm in the sunshine with many-colored parasols. Now begins the +procession of uglinesses of the most impossible description,--a +procession of long-robed, grotesque figures capped with pot-hats or +sailors' head-gear. Business transactions begin again, and the +struggle for existence, close and bitter here as in one of our own +artisan quarters, but meaner and smaller. + +At the moment of my departure, I can only find within myself a smile +of careless mockery for the swarming crowd of this Liliputian +curtseying people,--laborious, industrious, greedy of gain, tainted +with a constitutional affectation, hereditary insignificance, and +incurable monkeyishness. + +Poor cousin 415, how right I was to have held him in good esteem; he +is by far the best and most disinterested of my Japanese family. When +all my commissions are finished, he puts up his little vehicle under a +tree, and much touched by my departure, insists upon escorting me on +board the _Triomphante_, to watch over my final purchases in the +sampan which conveys me to the ship, and to see them himself safely +into my cabin. + +His, indeed, is the only hand I clasp with a really friendly feeling, +without a suppressed smile, on quitting this Japan. + +No doubt, in this country as in many others, there is more honest +friendship and less ugliness among the simple beings devoted to purely +physical work. + +At five o'clock in the afternoon we set sail. + +Along the line of the shore are two or three sampans; in them the +mousmés, shut up in the narrow cabins, peep at us through the tiny +windows, half hiding their faces on account of the sailors; these are +our wives, who have wished, out of politeness, to look upon us once +more. + +There are other sampans as well, in which other Japanese women are +also watching our departure. These stand upright, under great parasols +decorated with big black letters and daubed over with clouds of varied +and startling colors. + + + + +LIV. + + +We move slowly out of the great green bay. The groups of women become +lost in the distance. The country of round and thousand-ribbed +umbrellas fades gradually from our sight. + +Now the great sea opens before us, immense, colorless, solitary; a +solemn repose after so much that was too ingenious and too small. + +The wooded mountains, the charming capes disappear. And Japan remains +faithful to itself in its last picturesque rocks, its quaint islands +on which the trees tastefully arrange themselves in groups--studied +perhaps, but charmingly pretty. + + + + +LV. + + +In my cabin, one evening, in the midst of the Yellow Sea, my eyes +chance to fall upon the lotus brought from Diou-djen-dji;--they had +lasted for two or three days; but now they have faded, and pitifully +strew my carpet with their pale pink petals. + +I, who have carefully preserved so many faded flowers, fallen, alas! +into dust, stolen here and there, at moments of parting in different +parts of the world; I who have kept so many, that the collection is +now almost a herbarium, ridiculous and incoherent--I try hard, but +without success, to get up a sentiment for these lotus--and yet they +are the last living souvenirs of my summer at Nagasaki. + +I pick them up, however, with a certain amount of consideration, and I +open my port-hole. + +From the gray misty sky a livid light falls upon the waters; a wan and +gloomy kind of twilight creeps down, yellowish upon this Yellow Sea. +We feel that we are moving northwards, that autumn is approaching. + +I throw the poor lotus into the boundless waste of waters, making them +my best excuses for giving to them, natives of Japan, a grave so +solemn and so vast. + + + + +LVI. + + +O Ama-Térace-Omi-Kami, wash me clean from this little marriage of +mine, in the waters of the river of Kamo. + + + + +THE END + + + + +MODERN LIBRARY OF THE WORLD'S BEST BOOKS COMPLETE LIST OF TITLES IN + +THE MODERN LIBRARY + +_For convenience in ordering please use number at right of title_ + +AUTHOR TITLE AND NUMBER + +AIKEN, CONRAD A Comprehensive Anthology of American Verse 101 +AIKEN, CONRAD Modern American Poetry 127 +ANDERSON, SHERWOOD Poor White 115 +ANDERSON, SHERWOOD Winesburg, Ohio 104 +ANDREYEV, LEONID The Seven That Were Hanged, and the Red Laugh 45 +APULEIUS, LUCIUS The Golden Ass 88 + +BALZAC Short Stories 40 +BAUDELAIRE Prose and Poetry 70 +BEARDSLEY, AUBREY 64 Reproductions 42 +BEEBE, WILLIAM Jungle Peace 30 +BEERBOHM, MAX Zuleika Dobson 116 +BIERCE, AMBROSE In the Midst of Life 133 +BLAKE, WILLIAM Poems 91 +BRONTE, EMILY Wuthering Heights 106 +BROWN, GEO. DOUGLAS The House with the Green Shutters 129 +BUTLER, SAMUEL Erewhon 136 +BUTLER, SAMUEL The Way of All Flesh 13 + +CABELL, JAMES BRANCH Beyond Life 25 +CABELL, JAMES BRANCH The Cream of the Jest 126 +CARPENTER, EDWARD Love's Coming of Age 51 +CARROLL, LEWIS Alice in Wonderland, etc. 79 +CASANOVA, JACQUES Memoirs of Casanova 165 +CELLINI, BENVENUTO Autobiography of Benvenuto Cellini 3 +CERVANTES Don Quixote 174 +CHAUCER The Canterbury Tales 161 +CHESTERTON, G. K. Man Who Was Thursday 35 +CRANE, STEPHEN Men, Women and Boats 102 + +D'ANNUNZIO, GABRIELE Flame of Life 65 +D'ANNUNZIO, GABRIELE The Child of Pleasure 98 +D'ANNUNZIO, GABRIELE The Triumph of Death 112 +DAUDET, ALPHONSE Sappho 85 +DEFOE, DANIEL Moll Flanders 122 +DEWEY, JOHN Human Nature and Conduct 173 +DOSTOYEVSKY, FYODOR The Brothers Karamazov 151 +DOSTOYEVSKY, FYODOR Poor People 10 +DOUGLAS, NORMAN Old Calabria 141 +DOUGLAS, NORMAN South Wind 5 +DOWSON, ERNEST Poems and Prose + +AUTHOR TITLE AND NUMBER + +DUMAS, ALEXANDRE Camille 69 +DUMAS, ALEXANDRE The Three Musketeers 143 +DUNSANY, LORD A Dreamer's Tales 34 + +ELLIS, HAVELOCK The Dance of Life 160 +ELLIS, HAVELOCK The New Spirit 95 + +FLAUBERT, GUSTAVE Madame Bovary 28 +FLAUBERT, GUSTAVE Salammbo 118 +FLAUBERT, GUSTAVE Temptation of St. Anthony 92 +FRANCE, ANATOLE Crime of Sylvestre Bonnard 22 +FRANCE, ANATOLE The Queen Pedauque 110 +FRANCE, ANATOLE The Red Lily 7 +FRANCE, ANATOLE The Revolt of the Angels 11 +FRANCE, ANATOLE Thais 67 + +GAUTIER, THEOPHILE Mlle. De Maupin 53 +GEORGE, W. L. A Bed of Roses 75 +GILBERT, W. S. The Mikado, Iolanthe, etc. 26 +GILBERT, W. S. Pinafore and Other Plays 113 +GISSING, GEORGE New Grub Street 125 +GISSING, GEORGE Private Papers of Henry Ryecroft 46 +GONCOURT, E. & J. DE Renee Mauperin 76 +GORKY, MAXIM Creatures That Once Were Men and Other Stories 48 +GOURMONT, REMY DE A Night in the Luxembourg 120 +GOURMONT, REMY DE A Virgin Heart 131 + +HARDY, THOMAS Jude the Obscure 135 +HARDY, THOMAS The Mayor of Casterbridge 17 +HARDY, THOMAS The Return of the Native 121 +HAUPTMANN, GERHART The Heretic of Soana 149 +HAWTHORNE, NATHANIEL The Scarlet Letter 93 +HEARN, LAFCADIO Some Chinese Ghosts 130 +HECHT, BEN Erik Dorn 29 +HEMINGWAY, ERNEST The Sun Also Rises 170 +HOMER The Iliad 166 +HOMER The Odyssey 167 +HUDSON, W. H. Green Mansions 89 +HUDSON, W. H. The Purple Land 24 +HUNEKER, JAMES O. Painted Veils 43 +HUXLEY, ALDOUS A Virgin Heart 131 + +IBSEN, HENRIK A Doll's House, Ghosts, etc. 6 +IBSEN, HENRIK Hedda Gabler, Pillars of Society, + The Master Builder 36 +IBSEN, HENRIK The Wild Duck, Rosmersholm, The League of Youth 54 + +JAMES, HENRY Daisy Miller, etc. 63 +JAMES, HENRY The Turn of the Screw 169 +JAMES, WILLIAM The Philosophy of William James 114 +JOYCE, JAMES Dubliners 124 +JOYCE, JAMES A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man 145 + +KIPLING, RUDYARD Soldiers Three 71 +KOMROFF, MANUEL Oriental Romances 55 + +AUTHOR TITLE AND NUMBER + +LAWRENCE, D. H. Sons and Lovers 109 +LEWISOHN, LUDWIG Upstream 123 +LOTI, PIERRE Mme. Chrysantheme 94 + +MACY, JOHN The Spirit of American Literature 56 +MAUPASSANT, GUY DE Love and Other Stories 72 +MAUPASSANT, GUY DE Mademoiselle Fifi, and Twelve Other Stories 8 +MAUPASSANT, GUY DE Une Vie 57 +MENKEN, H. L. Selected Prejudices 107 +MELVILLE, HERMAN Moby Dick 119 +MEREDITH, GEORGE Diana of the Crossways 14 +MEREDITH, GEORGE The Ordeal of Richard Feverel 134 +MEREJKOWSKI, DMITRI The Death of the Gods 153 +MEREJKOWSKI, DMITRI Peter and Alexis 175 +MEREJKOWSKI, DMITRI The Romance of Leonardo da Vinci 138 +MISCELLANEOUS An Anthology of American Negro Literature 163 + A Modern Book of Criticism 81 + Best Ghost Stories 73 + Best American Humorous Short Stories 87 + Best Russian Short Stories 18 + Four Famous Greek Plays 158 + Fourteen Great Detective Stories 144 + Great Modern Short Stories 168 + Edited by Grant Overton and including + stories by Joseph Conrad, D. H. + Lawrence, Katherine Mansfield, + Sherwood Anderson, Glenway Westcott, + E. M. Forster, etc. + Outline of Abnormal Psychology 152 + Outline of Psychoanalysis 66 +MOLIERE Plays 78 +MOORE, GEORGE Confessions of a Young Man 16 +MORRISON, ARTHUR Tales of Mean Streets 100 + +NIETZSCHE, FRIEDRICH Beyond Good and Evil 20 +NIETZSCHE, FRIEDRICH Ecce Homo and the Birth of Tragedy 68 +NIETZSCHE, FRIEDRICH Genealogy of Morals 62 +NIETZSCHE, FRIEDRICH Thus Spake Zarathustra 9 + +O'NEILL, EUGENE The Emperor Jones and The Straw 146 +O'NEILL, EUGENE Seven Plays of the Sea 111 + +PAINE, THOMAS Writings 108 +PATER, WALTER The Renaissance 86 +PATER, WALTER Marius the Epicurean 90 +PEPYS, SAMUEL Samuel Pepys' Diary 103 +PETRONIUS ARBITER The Satyricon 156 +POE, EDGAR ALLAN Best Tales 82 +PREVOST, ANTOINE Manon Lescaut 85 +PROUST, MARCEL Swann's Way 59 +PROUST, MARCEL Within A Budding Grove 172 + +AUTHOR TITLE AND NUMBER + +RODIN 64 Reproductions 41 +ROSTAND, EDMOND Cyrano de Bergerac 154 +RUSSELL, BERTRAND Selected Papers of Bertrand Russell 137 + +SALTUS, EDGAR The Imperial Orgy 139 +SCHNITZLER, ARTHUR Anatol, Green Cockatoo, etc. 32 +SCHNITZLER, ARTHUR Bertha Garlan 39 +SCHOPENHAUER The Philosophy of Schopenhauer 52 +SCHOPENHAUER Studies in Pessimism 12 +SCHREINER, OLIVE The Story of an African Farm 132 +SHAW, G.B. 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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: Madame Chrysantheme + +Author: Pierre Loti + +Release Date: March 12, 2005 [EBook #15335] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MADAME CHRYSANTHEME *** + + + + +Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Ronald Holder, and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team + + + + + + +</pre> + + +<h1><!-- Page 1 -->MADAME <br />CHRYSANTHEME</h1> + +<h2>By PIERRE LOTI</h2> + +<p class="center">TRANSLATED BY LAURA ENSOR</p> + +<p class="center">THE MODERN LIBRARY</p> + +<p class="center">PUBLISHERS NEW YORK</p> + +<p> </p> +<p> </p> + +<p class="center"> +<!-- Page 2 --><i>Manufactured in the United States of America</i><br /> +<i>Bound for</i> THE MODERN LIBRARY <i>by H. Wolff</i></p> + +<p> </p> +<p> </p> + +<!-- Autogenerated TOC. Modify or delete as required. --> +<table cellspacing="0" cellpadding="12" border="0"> +<tr> + <td align="center" colspan="6"><a href="#INTRODUCTION"><b>INTRODUCTION</b></a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td align="right"><a href="#I"><b>I.</b></a></td> + <td align="right"><a href="#XI"><b>XI.</b></a></td> + <td align="right"><a href="#XXI"><b>XXI.</b></a></td> + <td align="right"><a href="#XXXI"><b>XXXI.</b></a></td> + <td align="right"><a href="#XLI"><b>XLI.</b></a></td> + <td align="right"><a href="#LI"><b>LI.</b></a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td align="right"><a href="#II"><b>II.</b></a></td> + <td align="right"><a href="#XII"><b>XII.</b></a></td> + <td align="right"><a href="#XXII"><b>XXII.</b></a></td> + <td align="right"><a href="#XXXII"><b>XXXII.</b></a></td> + <td align="right"><a href="#XLII"><b>XLII.</b></a></td> + <td align="right"><a href="#LII"><b>LII.</b></a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td align="right"><a href="#III"><b>III.</b></a></td> + <td align="right"><a href="#XIII"><b>XIII.</b></a></td> + <td align="right"><a href="#XXIII"><b>XXIII.</b></a></td> + <td align="right"><a href="#XXXIII"><b>XXXIII.</b></a></td> + <td align="right"><a href="#XLIII"><b>XLIII.</b></a></td> + <td align="right"><a href="#LIII"><b>LIII.</b></a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td align="right"><a href="#IV"><b>IV.</b></a></td> + <td align="right"><a href="#XIV"><b>XIV.</b></a></td> + <td align="right"><a href="#XXIV"><b>XXIV.</b></a></td> + <td align="right"><a href="#XXXIV"><b>XXXIV.</b></a></td> + <td align="right"><a href="#XLIV"><b>XLIV.</b></a></td> + <td align="right"><a href="#LIV"><b>LIV.</b></a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td align="right"><a href="#V"><b>V.</b></a></td> + <td align="right"><a href="#XV"><b>XV.</b></a></td> + <td align="right"><a href="#XXV"><b>XXV.</b></a></td> + <td align="right"><a href="#XXXV"><b>XXXV.</b></a></td> + <td align="right"><a href="#XLV"><b>XLV.</b></a></td> + <td align="right"><a href="#LV"><b>LV.</b></a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td align="right"><a href="#VI"><b>VI.</b></a></td> + <td align="right"><a href="#XVI"><b>XVI.</b></a></td> + <td align="right"><a href="#XXVI"><b>XXVI.</b></a></td> + <td align="right"><a href="#XXXVI"><b>XXXVI.</b></a></td> + <td align="right"><a href="#XLVI"><b>XLVI.</b></a></td> + <td align="right"><a href="#LVI"><b>LVI.</b></a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td align="right"><a href="#VII"><b>VII.</b></a></td> + <td align="right"><a href="#XVII"><b>XVII.</b></a></td> + <td align="right"><a href="#XXVII"><b>XXVII.</b></a></td> + <td align="right"><a href="#XXXVII"><b>XXXVII</b></a></td> + <td align="right"><a href="#XLVII"><b>XLVII.</b></a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td align="right"><a href="#VIII"><b>VIII.</b></a></td> + <td align="right"><a href="#XVIII"><b>XVIII.</b></a></td> + <td align="right"><a href="#XXVIII"><b>XXVIII</b></a></td> + <td align="right"><a href="#XXXVIII"><b>XXXVIII.</b></a></td> + <td align="right"><a href="#XLVIII"><b>XLVIII</b></a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td align="right"><a href="#IX"><b>IX.</b></a></td> + <td align="right"><a href="#XIX"><b>XIX.</b></a></td> + <td align="right"><a href="#XXIX"><b>XXIX.</b></a></td> + <td align="right"><a href="#XXXIX"><b>XXXIX.</b></a></td> + <td align="right"><a href="#XLIX"><b>XLIX.</b></a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td align="right"><a href="#X"><b>X.</b></a></td> + <td align="right"><a href="#XX"><b>XX.</b></a></td> + <td align="right"><a href="#XXX"><b>XXX.</b></a></td> + <td align="right"><a href="#XL"><b>XL.</b></a></td> + <td align="right"><a href="#L"><b>L.</b></a></td> +</tr> +</table> + +<!-- End Autogenerated TOC. --> + +<p> </p> +<p class="schdg"><!-- Page 3 -->TO MADAME LA DUCHESSE <br />DE RICHELIEU.</p> + +<p><i>Madame La Duchesse</i>,</p> + +<p><i>Allow me to crave your acceptance of the following work, as a +respectful tribute of my attachment.</i></p> + +<p><i>I felt some hesitation in offering it, for its main incident cannot +be deemed altogether proper; but I have striven that in its expression +at least, it should not sin against good taste, and I trust that my +endeavours have been successful.</i></p> + +<p><i>It is the diary of a summer of my life, in which I have changed +nothing, not even the dates, thinking as I do, that in our efforts to</i> +arrange <i>matters we often only succeed in disarranging them. Although +the most important rôle may appear to devolve on Madame Chrysantheme, +it is very certain that the three principal personages are</i> myself, +Japan, <i>and the effect produced on me by that country.</i></p> + +<p><i>Do you remember a certain photograph</i>—<i>rather ridiculous I must +admit</i>—<i>representing that big fellow Yves, a Japanese girl and +myself, grouped closely together as we were placed side by side by a +Nagasaki artist? You smiled when I assured you that the carefully +combed little creature placed between us two, had been</i> one of our +neighbours. <i>Kindly welcome my book with the same indulgent smile, +without seeking therein a meaning either good or bad, in the same +spirit that you would receive some quaint bit of pottery, some +grotesquely carved ivory idol, or some preposterous trifle brought +back for you from this singular fatherland of all preposterousness.</i></p> + +<p><i>Believe me with the deepest respect, Madame la Duchesse,</i></p> + +<p><i>Your affectionate</i></p> + +<p>PIERRE LOTI.</p> + + + +<p> </p> +<p class="schdg"><a name="INTRODUCTION" id="INTRODUCTION"><!-- Page 4 --><!-- Page 5 -->INTRODUCTION</a></p> + +<p>At sea, about two o'clock in the morning, on a clear night, under a +star-lit sky.</p> + +<p>Yves stood near me on the bridge, and we were talking of the country, +so utterly unknown to us both, to which the chances of our destiny +were now wafting us. As we were to cast anchor the following day, we +enjoyed the state of expectation, and formed a thousand plans.</p> + +<p>"As for me," I said, "I shall at once marry."</p> + +<p>"Ah!" returned Yves, with the indifferent air of a man whom nothing +can surprise.</p> + +<p>"Yes—I shall choose a little yellow-skinned woman with black hair and +cat's eyes. She must be pretty. Not much bigger than a doll. You shall +have a room in our house. A little paper house, in the midst of green +gardens, prettily shaded. We shall live among flowers, everything +around us shall blossom, and each morning our dwelling shall be filled +with nosegays, nosegays such as you have never dreamt of."</p> + +<p><!-- Page 6 -->Yves now began to take an interest in these plans for my future +household; indeed, he would have listened with as much confidence, if +I had manifested the intention of taking temporary vows in some +monastery of this new country, or of marrying some island queen and +shutting myself up with her in a house built of jade, in the middle of +an enchanted lake.</p> + +<p>In reality I had quite made up my mind to carry out the scheme I had +unfolded to him. Yes, actually, led on by ennui and solitude, I had +gradually arrived at dreaming of and looking forward to this absurd +marriage. And then, above all, to live for awhile on land, in some +shady nook, amid trees and flowers. How tempting it sounded after the +long months we had been wasting at the Pescadores (hot and arid +islands, devoid of freshness, woods, or streamlets, full of faint +odors of China and of death).</p> + + +<p>We had made great way in latitude, since our vessel had quitted that +Chinese furnace, and the constellations in the sky had undergone a +series of rapid changes; the Southern Cross had disappeared at the +same time as the other austral stars; and the Great Bear rising on the +horizon, was almost on as high a level as it is in the French sky. The +fresh evening breeze soothed and revived us, bringing back to us the +memory <!-- Page 7 -->of our summer night watches on the coast of Brittany.</p> + +<p>What a distance we were, however, from those familiar coasts! What a +terrible distance!</p> + +<p> </p> +<p> </p> + +<h2><!-- Page 8 --><!-- Page 9 -->MADAME CHRYSANTHEME</h2> + + +<p> </p> +<p> </p> + +<h2><!-- Page 10 --><!-- Page 11 -->MADAME CHRYSANTHEME</h2> + +<p> </p> + +<p class="schdg"><a name="I" id="I">I.</a></p> + +<p>At dawn of day we sighted Japan.</p> + +<p>Precisely at the foretold moment Japan arose before us, afar off, like +a clear and distinct dot in the vast sea, which for so many days had +been but a blank space.</p> + +<p>At first we saw nothing in the rising sun but a series of tiny +pink-tipped heights (the foremost portion of the Fukai islands). Soon, +however, appeared all along the horizon, like a thick cloud, a dark +veil over the waters, Japan itself; and little by little out of the +dense shadow arose the sharp opaque outlines of the Nagasaki +mountains.</p> + +<p>The wind was dead against us, and the strong breeze, which steadily +increased, seemed as if the country were blowing with all its might +against us, in a vain effort to drive us away from its shores. The +sea, the rigging, the <!-- Page 12 -->vessel itself, all vibrated and quivered as if +with emotion.</p> + + +<p> </p> +<p> </p> +<p class="schdg"><a name="II" id="II">II.</a></p> + +<p>By three o'clock in the afternoon all these far-off objects drew close +to us, so close, indeed, that they overshadowed us by their rocky +masses and dense green thickets.</p> + +<p>We now entered into a shady kind of channel enclosed between two high +ranges of mountains, curiously symmetrical in shape—like stage +scenery, very fine, though unlike nature. It seemed as if Japan opened +to our view, through a fairy-like rent, which thus allowed us to +penetrate into her very heart.</p> + +<p>Nagasaki, as yet unseen, must be at the extremity of this long and +curious bay. All around us was admirably green. The strong sea-breeze +had suddenly fallen, and was succeeded by a perfect calm; the +atmosphere, now very warm, was laden with the perfume of flowers. In +the valley resounded the ceaseless whirr of the cicalas, answering +each other from one shore to another; the mountains reëchoed with +innumerable sounds; the whole country seemed to vibrate like crystal. +On our way we passed among myriads of Japanese junks, <!-- Page 13 -->gliding softly, +wafted by imperceptible breezes on the unruffled water; their motion +could scarcely be heard, and their white sails, stretched out on +yards, fell languidly in a thousand horizontal folds like +window-blinds, their strangely contorted poops rising up castlewise in +the air, reminding one of the towering ships of the middle ages. In +the midst of the intense greenery of this wall of mountains, they +stood out with a snowy whiteness.</p> + +<p>What a country of verdure and shade is Japan; what an unlooked-for +Eden!</p> + +<p>Beyond us, at sea, it must have been full daylight; but here, in the +recesses of the valley, we already felt the impression of evening; +beneath the summits in full sunlight, the base of the mountains and +all the thickly wooded parts near the water's edge were steeped in +twilight.</p> + +<p>The passing junks, gleaming white against the background of dark +foliage, were silently and dexterously maneuvered by small yellow men, +stark naked, with long hair piled up in womanlike fashion on their +heads. Gradually, as we advanced further up the green channel, the +perfumes became more penetrating, and the monotonous chirp of the +cicalas swelled out like an orchestral crescendo. Above us, on the +luminous sky, sharply delineated between <!-- Page 14 -->the mountains, a species of +hawk hovered about, screaming out with a deep human voice, "Han! Han! +Han!" its melancholy call lengthened out by the surrounding echoes.</p> + +<p>All this fresh and luxurious nature bore the impress of a peculiar +Japanese type, which seemed to pervade even the mountain tops, and +consisted, as it were, in an untruthful aspect of too much prettiness. +The trees were grouped in clusters, with the same pretentious grace as +on the lacquered trays. Large rocks sprang up in exaggerated shapes, +side by side with rounded lawn-like hillocks; all the incongruous +elements of landscape were grouped together as though it were an +artificial creation.</p> + +<p>Looking intently, here and there might be seen, often built in +counterscarp on the very brink of an abyss, some old, tiny, mysterious +pagoda; half hidden in the foliage of the overhanging trees; bringing +to the minds of new arrivals such as ourselves, the sense of +unfamiliarity and strangeness; and the feeling that in this country, +the Spirits, the Sylvan Gods, the antique symbols, faithful guardians +of the woods and forests, were unknown and uncomprehended.</p> + +<hr /> + +<p>When Nagasaki rose before us, the sight <!-- Page 15 -->that greeted our eyes was +disappointing; situated at the foot of green overhanging mountains, it +looked like any other commonplace town. In front of it lay a tangled +mass of vessels, carrying all the flags of the world; steamboats just +as in any other port, with dark funnels and black smoke, and behind +them quays covered with factories: nothing in fact was wanting in the +way of ordinary, trivial, every-day objects.</p> + +<p>Some day, when man shall have made all things alike, the earth will be +a dull, tedious dwelling-place, and we shall have even to give up +traveling and seeking for a change which shall no longer be found.</p> + +<p>At about six o'clock, we dropped anchor noisily amid the mass of +vessels already there, and were immediately invaded.</p> + +<p>Invaded by a mercantile, bustling, comical Japan, which rushed upon us +in full boat-loads, full junks, like a rising sea; little men and +little women coming in a continuous, uninterrupted stream, without +cries, without squabbles, noiselessly, each one making so smiling a +bow that it was impossible to be angry with them, and that indeed by +reflex action we smiled and bowed also. They all carried on their +backs little baskets, little boxes, receptacles of every shape, +fitting into each other in the most ingenious manner, each one +containing several <!-- Page 16 -->others, and multiplying till they filled up +everything, in endless number; from these they drew forth all manners +of curious and unexpected things, folding screens, slippers, soap, +lanterns, sleeve-links, live cicalas chirping in little cages, +jewelry, tame white mice turning little cardboard mills, quaint +photographs, hot soups and stews in bowls ready to be served out in +rations to the crew;—china, a legion of vases, teapots, cups, little +pots and plates. In one moment, all this was unpacked, spread out with +astounding rapidity and a certain talent for arrangement; each seller +squatting monkey-like, hands touching feet, behind his fancy +ware—always smiling, bending low with the most engaging bows. Under +the mass of these many-colored things, the deck presented the +appearance of an immense bazaar; the sailors, very much amused and +full of fun, walked among the heaped-up piles, taking the little women +by the chin, buying anything and everything, throwing broadcast their +white dollars. But, good gracious, how ugly, mean and grotesque all +those folk were. Given my projects of marriage, I began to feel +singularly uneasy and disenchanted.</p> + +<hr /> + +<p>Yves and myself were on duty till the next morning, and after the +first bustle, which <!-- Page 17 -->always takes place on board when settling down in +harbor—(boats to lower, booms to swing out, running rigging to make +taut)—we had nothing more to do but to look on. We said to one +another: "Where are we in reality?—In the United States?—In some +English Colony in Australia, or in New Zealand?"</p> + +<p>Consular residences, custom-house offices, manufactories; a dry dock +in which a Russian frigate was lying; on the heights the large +European concession, sprinkled with villas, and on the quays, American +bars for the sailors. Further off, it is true, further off, far away +behind these common-place objects, in the very depths of the immense +green valley, peered thousands upon thousands of tiny black houses, a +tangled mass of curious appearance, from which here and there emerged +some higher, dark red, painted roofs, probably the true old Japanese +Nagasaki which still exists. And in those quarters, who knows, there +may be, lurking behind a paper screen, some affected cat's-eyed little +woman, whom perhaps in two or three days (having no time to lose) I +shall marry!! But no, the picture painted by my fancy has faded. I can +no longer see this little creature in my mind's eye; the sellers of +the white mice have blurred her image; I fear now, lest she should be +like them.</p> + +<p><!-- Page 18 -->At nightfall, the decks were suddenly cleared as by enchantment; in a +second, they had all shut up their boxes, folded their sliding +screens, their trick fans, and, humbly bowing to each of us, the +little men and little women disappeared.</p> + +<p>Slowly, as the shades of night closed around us mingling all things in +the bluish darkness, this Japan surrounding us, became once more, by +degrees, little by little, a fairy-like and enchanted country. The +great mountains, now all black, were mirrored and doubled in the still +water at their feet on which we floated, reflecting therein their +sharply reversed outlines, and presenting the mirage of fearful +precipices, over which we hung:—- the stars also were reversed in +their order, making, in the depths of the imaginary abyss, a +sprinkling of tiny phosphorescent lights.</p> + +<p>Then all Nagasaki became profusely illuminated, covering itself with +multitudes of lanterns: the smallest suburb, the smallest village was +lit up; the tiniest hut perched up on high among the trees, and which +in the daytime was invisible, threw out its little glow-worm glimmer. +Soon there were numberless lights all over the country, on all the +shores of the bay, from top to bottom of the mountains; myriads of +glowing fires shone out in the dark<!-- Page 19 -->ness, conveying the impression of +a vast capital, rising up around us in one bewildering amphitheater. +Beneath, in the silent waters, another town, also illuminated, seemed +to descend into the depths of the abyss. The night was balmy, pure, +delicious; the atmosphere laden with the perfume of flowers came +wafted to us from the mountains. From the "tea houses" and other +nocturnal resorts, the sound of guitars reached our ears, seeming in +the distance the sweetest of music. And the whirr of the +cicalas—which, in Japan, is one of the continuous noises of life, and +which in a few days we shall no longer even be aware of, so completely +is it the background and foundation of all the other terrestrial +sounds—was sonorous, incessant, softly monotonous, just like the +cascade of a crystal waterfall.</p> + + +<p> </p> +<p> </p> +<p class="schdg"><a name="III" id="III">III.</a></p> + + +<p>The next day the rain came down in torrents, a regular downpour, +merciless and unceasing, blinding and drenching everything,—a thick +rain so dense that it was impossible to see through it from one end of +the vessel to the other. It seemed as though the clouds of the whole +world had amassed themselves in Naga<!-- Page 20 -->saki bay, and had chosen this +great green funnel to stream down to their hearts' content. And it +rained, it rained, it became almost as dark as night, so thickly did +the rain fall. Through a veil of crumbled water, we still perceived +the base of the mountains, but the summits were lost to sight among +the great somber masses weighing down upon us. Above us shreds of +clouds, seemingly torn from the dark vault, draggled across the trees, +like vast gray rags,—continually melting away in water, torrents of +water. There was wind too, and it howled through the ravines with a +deep-sounding tone. The whole surface of the bay, bespattered by the +rain, flogged by the gusts of wind that blew from all quarters, +splashed, moaned and seethed in violent agitation.</p> + +<p>What wretched weather for a first landing, and how was I to find a +wife through such a deluge, in an unknown country!</p> + +<hr /> + +<p>No matter! I dressed myself and said to Yves, who smiled at my +obstinate determination in spite of unfavorable circumstances:</p> + +<p>"Hail me a 'sampan,' brother, please."</p> + +<p>Yves then, by a motion of his arm through the wind and rain, summoned +a kind of little white wooden sarcophagus which was skipping near us +on the waves, sculled by a couple of <!-- Page 21 -->yellow boys stark naked in the +rain. The craft approached us, I jumped into it, then through a little +trap-door shaped like a rat-trap that one of the scullers throws open +for me, I slipped in and stretched myself at full length on a mat in +what is called the "cabin" of a sampan.</p> + +<p>There was just room enough for my body to lie in this floating coffin, +which is moreover scrupulously clean, white with the whiteness of new +deal boards. I was well sheltered from the rain, that fell pattering +on my lid, and thus I started off for the town, lying in this box, +flat on my stomach, rocked by one wave, roughly shaken by another, at +moments almost over-turned; and through the half-opened door of my +rat-trap I saw, upside down, the two little creatures to whom I had +entrusted my fate, children of eight or ten years of age at the most, +who, with little monkeyish faces, had however fully developed muscles +like miniature men, and were already as skillful as any regular old +salts.</p> + +<hr /> + +<p>They began to shout; no doubt we were approaching the landing-place. +And indeed, through my trap-door, which I had now thrown wide open, I +saw quite near to me the gray flag-stones on the quays. I got out of +my sarcophagus and prepared to set foot for the first time in my life +on Japanese soil.</p> + +<p><!-- Page 22 -->All was streaming around us, and the irritating, tiresome rain dashed +into my eyes.</p> + +<p>No sooner had I landed, than there bounded towards me about a dozen +strange beings, of what description it was almost impossible to make +out through the blinding showers—a species of human hedge-hog, each +dragging some large black thing; they came screaming around me and +stopped my progress. One of them opened and held over my head an +enormous closely-ribbed umbrella, decorated on its transparent surface +with paintings of storks; and they all smiled at me in an engaging +manner with an air of expectation.</p> + +<p>I had been forewarned: these were only the <i>djins</i> who were touting +for the honor of my preference; nevertheless I was startled at this +sudden attack, this Japanese welcome on a first visit to land (the +<i>djins</i> or <i>djin-richisans</i>, are the runners who drag little carts, +and are paid for conveying people to and fro, being hired by the hour +or the distance, as cabs are with us).</p> + +<p>Their legs were naked; to-day they were very wet, and their heads were +hidden under large shady conical hats. By way of waterproofs they wore +nothing less than mats of straw, with all the ends of the straws +turned outwards bristling like porcupines; they seemed <!-- Page 23 -->clothed in a +thatched roof. They went on smiling, awaiting my choice.</p> + +<p>Not having the honor of being acquainted with any of them in +particular, I choose at haphazard the djin with the umbrella and get +into his little cart, of which he carefully lowers the hood. He draws +an oil-cloth apron over my knees, pulling it up to my face, and then +advancing near, asks me in Japanese something which must have meant: +"Where to, sir?" To which I reply in the same language, "To the +<i>Garden of Flowers</i>, my friend."</p> + +<p>I said this in the three words I had parrot-like learnt by heart, +astonished that such sounds could mean anything, astonished too at +their being understood. We started off, he running at full speed, I +dragged along by him, jerked about in his light chariot, wrapped in +oiled cloth, shut up as if in a box;—both of us unceasingly drenched +all the while, and dashing all around us the water and mud of the +sodden ground.</p> + +<p>"To the <i>Garden of Flowers</i>," I had said, like an habitual frequenter +of the place, and quite surprised at hearing myself speak. But I was +less ignorant about Japan than might have been supposed. Many of my +friends had, on their return home from that country, told me about it, +and I knew a great deal; the <i>Garden of Flowers</i> is a <i>tea-house</i>, an +elegant rendezvous. <!-- Page 24 -->There, I would inquire for a certain +Kangourou-San, who is at the same time interpreter, washerman, and +confidential agent for the intercourse of races. Perhaps this very +evening, if all went well, I should be introduced to the bride +destined to me by mysterious fate. This thought kept my mind on the +alert during the panting journey we have been making, the djin and +myself, one dragging the other, under the merciless downpour.</p> + +<hr /> + +<p>Oh, what a curious Japan I saw that day, through the gaping of my +oil-cloth coverings! from under the dripping hood of my little cart! A +sullen, muddy, half-drowned Japan. All these houses, men or beasts, +hitherto only known to me by drawings; all these, that I had beheld +painted on blue or pink backgrounds of fans or vases, now appeared to +me in their hard reality, under a dark sky, with umbrellas and wooden +shoes, with tucked-up skirts and pitiful aspect.</p> + +<p>At moments the rain fell so heavily that I tightly closed up every +chink and crevice, and the noise and shaking benumbed me, so that I +completely forgot in what country I was. In the hood of the cart were +holes, through which little streams ran down my back. Then, +remembering that I was going for the first time in my life through the +very heart of Nagasaki, I <!-- Page 25 -->cast an inquiring look outside, at the risk +of receiving a douche: we were trotting along through a mean, narrow +little back street (there are thousands like it, a perfect labyrinth +of them) the rain falling in cascades from the tops of the roofs on +the gleaming flagstones below, rendering everything indistinct and +vague through the misty atmosphere. At times we passed by a lady, +struggling with her skirts, unsteadily tripping along in her high +wooden shoes, looking exactly like the figures painted on screens, +tucked up under a gaudily daubed paper umbrella. Or else we passed a +pagoda, where an old granite monster, squatting in the water, seemed +to make a hideous, ferocious grimace at me.</p> + +<p>How immense this Nagasaki is! Here had we been running hard for the +last hour, and still it seemed never-ending. It is a flat plain, and +one could never suppose from the offing that so vast a plain could lie +in the recesses of this valley.</p> + +<p>It would, however, have been impossible for me to say where I was, or +in what direction we had run; I abandoned my fate to my djin and to my +good luck.</p> + +<p>What a steam-engine of a man my djin was! I had been accustomed to the +Chinese runners, but they were nothing by the side of this fellow. +<!-- Page 26 -->When I part my oil-cloths to peep at anything, he is naturally always +the first object in my foreground: his two naked, brown, muscular +legs, scampering one after the other, splashing all around, and his +bristling hedgehog back bending low in the rain. Do the passers-by, +gazing at this little dripping cart, guess that it contains a suitor +in quest of a bride?</p> + +<hr /> + +<p>At last my vehicle stops, and my djin, with many smiles and +precautions lest any fresh rivers should stream down my back, lowers +the hood of the cart; there is a break in the storm, and the rain has +ceased. I had not yet seen his face; by exception to the general rule, +he is good-looking;—a young man of about thirty years of age, of +intelligent and strong appearance, and an open countenance. Who could +have foreseen that a few days later this very djin.—But no, I will +not anticipate, and run the risk of throwing beforehand any discredit +on Chrysanthème.</p> + +<p>We had therefore reached our destination, and found ourselves at the +foot of a tall overhanging mountain; probably beyond the limits of the +town, in some suburban district. It apparently became necessary to +continue our journey on foot, and climb up an almost perpendicular +narrow path. Around us, a number <!-- Page 27 -->of small country houses, garden +walls, and high bamboo palisades closed in the view. The green hill +crushed us with its towering height; the heavy, dark clouds lowering +over our heads seemed like a leaden canopy confining us in this +unknown spot; it really seemed as though the complete absence of +perspective inclined one all the better to notice the details of this +tiny corner, muddy and wet, of homely Japan, now lying before our +eyes. The earth was very red. The grasses and wild flowers bordering +the pathway were strange to me;—nevertheless, the palings were +covered with convolvuli like our own, and I recognized in the gardens, +china asters, zinnias, and other familiar flowers. The atmosphere +seemed laden with a curiously complicated odor, something besides the +perfume of the plants and soil, arising no doubt from the human +dwelling-places,—a mingled smell, I fancied, of dried fish and +incense. Not a creature was to be seen; of the inhabitants, of their +homes and life, there was not a vestige, and I might have imagined +myself anywhere in the world.</p> + +<p>My djin had fastened up his little cart under a tree, and together we +clambered the steep path on the slippery red soil.</p> + +<p>"We are going to the <i>Garden of Flowers</i>, <!-- Page 28 -->are we not?" I inquired, +anxious to ascertain if I had been understood.</p> + +<p>"Yes, yes," replied the djin, "it is up there, and quite near."</p> + +<p>The road turned, steep banks hemming it in and darkening it. On one +side, it skirted the mountain all covered with a tangle of wet ferns; +on the other appeared a large wooden house almost devoid of apertures +and of evil aspect; it was there that my djin halted.</p> + +<p>What, that sinister-looking house was the <i>Garden of Flowers</i>? He +assured me that it was, and seemed very sure of the fact. We knocked +at a big door which opened immediately, slipping back in its groove. +Then two funny little women appeared, oldish-looking, but with evident +pretensions to youth: exact types of the figures painted on vases, +with their baby hands and feet.</p> + +<p>On catching sight of me, they threw themselves on all fours, their +faces touching the floor. Good gracious! what can be the matter? +Nothing at all, it is only the ceremonious salute to which I am as yet +unaccustomed. They rise, and proceed to take off my boots (one never +keeps on one's shoes in a Japanese house), wiping the bottom of my +trousers and feeling my shoulders to see if I am wet.</p> + +<p><!-- Page 29 -->What always strikes one on first entering a Japanese dwelling is the +extreme cleanliness, and white and chilling bareness of the rooms.</p> + +<p>Over the most irreproachable mattings, without a crease, a line, or a +stain, I am led upstairs to the first story and ushered into a big +empty room, absolutely empty! The paper walls are mounted on sliding +panels, which fitting into each other, can be made to disappear +entirely,—and all one side of the apartment opens like a verandah on +to the green country and the gray sky beyond. By way of a chair, I am +given a square piece of black velvet, and behold me seated low, in the +middle of this large empty room, which by its very vastness is almost +chilly. The two little women (who are the servants of the house and my +very humble servants too), await my orders, in attitudes expressive of +the profoundest humility.</p> + +<hr /> + +<p>It seemed extraordinary that the quaint words, the curious phrases I +had learnt during our exile at the Pescadores Islands—by sheer dint +of dictionary and grammar book, without attaching the least sense to +them—should mean anything. But so it seemed, however, for I was at +once understood.</p> + +<hr /> + +<p>I wish in the first place to speak to one <!-- Page 30 -->M. Kangourou, who is +interpreter, washerman, and matrimonial agent. Nothing could be +better: they know him and will go at once in search of him; and the +elder of the waiting-maids gets ready for the purpose her wooden clogs +and her paper umbrella.</p> + +<p>Next I demand a well-served repast, composed of the greatest +delicacies of Japan. Better and better, they rush to the kitchen to +order it.</p> + +<p>Finally, I beg they will give tea and rice to my djin, who is waiting +for me below;—I wish, in short, I wish many things, my dear little +dollies, which I will mention by degrees and with due deliberation, +when I shall have had time to assemble the necessary words. But, the +more I look at you the more uneasy I feel as to what my <i>fiancée</i> of +to-morrow may be like. Almost pretty, I grant you, you are,—in virtue +of quaintness, delicate hands, miniature feet, but ugly after all, and +absurdly small. You look like ouistitis, like little china ornaments, +like I don't know what. I begin to understand that I have arrived at +this house at an ill-chosen moment. Something is going on which does +not concern me, and I feel that I am in the way.</p> + +<p>From the beginning I might have guessed as much, notwithstanding the +excessive politeness <!-- Page 31 -->of my welcome; for I remember now, that while +they were taking off my boots downstairs, I heard a murmuring chatter +overhead, then a noise of panels moved quickly along their grooves, +evidently to hide from me something I was not intended to see; they +were improvising for me the apartment in which I now am—just as in +menageries they make a separate compartment for some beasts when the +public is admitted.</p> + +<p>Now I am left alone while my orders are being executed, and I listen +attentively, squatted like a Buddha on my black velvet cushion, in the +midst of the whiteness of the walls and mats.</p> + +<p>Behind the paper partitions, worn-out voices, seemingly numerous, are +talking in low tones. Then rises the sound of a guitar, and the song +of a woman, plaintive and gentle in the echoing sonority of the bare +house, in the melancholy of the rainy weather.</p> + +<p>What one can see through the wide-open verandah is very pretty, I will +admit; it resembles the landscape of a fairy tale. There are admirably +wooded mountains, climbing high into the dark and gloomy sky, and +hiding in it the peaks of their summits, and, perched up among the +clouds—a temple. The atmosphere has that absolute transparency, the +<!-- Page 32 -->distance that clearness which follows a great downpour of rain; but a +thick pall, still heavy with moisture, remains suspended over all, and +on the foliage of the hanging woods still float great flakes of gray +fluff, which remain there, motionless. In the foreground, in front of +and below all this almost fantastic landscape, is a miniature garden +where two beautiful white cats are taking the air, amusing themselves +by pursuing each other through the paths of a Lilliputian labyrinth, +shaking from their paws the sand, which is still wet. The garden is as +conventional as possible: not a flower, but little rocks, little +lakes, dwarf trees cut in a grotesque fashion; all this is not +natural, but it is most ingeniously arranged, so green, so full of +fresh mosses!</p> + +<p>In the rain-soaked country below me, to the very furthest end of the +vast scene, reigns a great silence, an absolute calm. But the woman's +voice, behind the paper wall, continues to sing in a key of gentle +sadness, and the accompanying guitar has somber and even gloomy notes.</p> + +<p>Stay though! Now the music is somewhat quicker—one might even suppose +they were dancing!</p> + +<p>So much the worse! I shall try to look <!-- Page 33 -->between the fragile divisions, +through a crack which has revealed itself to my notice.</p> + +<p>What a singular spectacle it is; evidently the gilded youth of +Nagasaki holding a great clandestine orgy! In an apartment as bare as +my own, there are a dozen of them, seated in a circle on the ground, +attired in long blue cotton dresses with pagoda sleeves, long, sleek +and greasy hair surmounted by European pot hats; and beneath these, +yellow, worn out, bloodless, foolish faces. On the floor are a number +of little spirit-lamps, little pipes, little lacquer trays, little +tea-pots, little cups—all the accessories and all the remains of a +Japanese feast, resembling nothing so much as a doll's tea-party. In +the midst of this circle of dandies are three over-dressed women, one +might say three weird visions, robed in garments of pale and +undefinable colors, embroidered with golden monsters; and their great +chignons arranged with fantastic art, stuck full of pins and flowers. +Two are seated and turn their back to me: one is holding the guitar, +the other singing with that soft and pretty voice;—thus seen +furtively, from behind, their pose, their hair, the nape of the neck, +all is exquisite, and I tremble lest a movement should reveal to me +faces which might destroy the enchantment. The third one is on her +feet, dancing before this areopagus of <!-- Page 34 -->idiots, with their lanky locks +and pot hats. What a shock when she turns round! She wears over her +face the horribly grinning, deathly mask of a specter or vampire. The +mask unfastened, falls. And behold! a darling little fairy of about +twelve or fifteen years of age, slim, and already a coquette, already +a woman,—dressed in a long robe of shaded dark blue china crape, +covered with embroidery representing bats—gray bats, black bats, +golden bats.</p> + +<p>Suddenly there are steps on the stairs, the light footsteps of +barefooted women pattering over the white mats. No doubt the first +course of my lunch just about to be served. I quickly fall back, fixed +and motionless, upon my black velvet cushion. There are three of them +now, three waiting-maids who arrive in single file, with smiles and +curtsies. One offers me the spirit-lamp and the tea-pot, another +preserved fruits in delightful little plates, the third, absolutely +indefinable objects upon gems of little trays. And they grovel before +me on the floor, placing all this plaything of a meal at my feet.</p> + +<p>At this moment, my impressions of Japan are charming enough; I feel +myself fairly launched upon this tiny, artificial, fictitious world, +which I felt I knew already from the paintings of lacquer and +porcelains. It is so exact a representation<!-- Page 35 -->! The three little +squatting women, graceful and dainty, with their narrow slits of eyes, +their magnificent chignons in huge bows, smooth and shining as +boot-polish, and the little tea-service on the floor, the landscape +seen through the verandah, the pagoda perched among the clouds; and +over all the same affectation everywhere, in every detail. Even the +woman's melancholy voice, still to be heard behind the paper +partition, was so evidently the way they should sing, these musicians +I had so often seen painted in amazing colors on rice-paper, half +closing their dreamy eyes in the midst of impossibly large flowers. +Long before I came to it, I had perfectly pictured this Japan to +myself. Nevertheless in the reality it almost seems to be smaller, +more finicking than I had imagined it, and also much more mournful, no +doubt by reason of that great pall of black clouds hanging over us and +this incessant rain.</p> + +<hr /> + +<p>While awaiting M. Kangourou (who is dressing himself it appears, and +will be here shortly), it may be as well to begin lunch.</p> + +<p>In the daintiest bowl imaginable, adorned with flights of storks, is +the most wildly impossible soup made of sea-weed. After which there +are little fish dried in sugar, crabs in sugar, beans in sugar, and +fruits in vinegar <!-- Page 36 -->and pepper. All this is atrocious, but above all +unexpected and unimaginable. The little women make me eat, laughing +much, with that perpetual irritating laugh, which is the laugh +peculiar to Japan,—they make me eat, according to their fashion, with +dainty chop-sticks, fingered with mannered grace. I am becoming +accustomed to their faces. The whole effect is refined,—a refinement +so utterly different from our own, that at first sight I understand +nothing of it, although in the long run it may end by pleasing me.</p> + +<p>Suddenly there enters, like a night butterfly awakened in broad +daylight, like a rare and surprising moth, the dancing-girl from the +other compartment, the child who wore the horrible mask. No doubt she +wishes to have a look at me. She rolls her eyes like a timid kitten, +and then all at once tamed, nestles against me, with a coaxing air of +childishness, which is a delightfully transparent assumption. She is +slim, elegant, delicate, and smells sweet; drolly painted, white as +plaster, with a little circle of rouge marked very precisely in the +middle of each cheek, the mouth reddened, and a touch of gilding +outlining the under lip. As they could not whiten the back of the neck +on account of all the delicate little curls of hair growing there, +they had, in their love of ex<!-- Page 37 -->actitude, stopped the white plaster in a +straight line, which might have been cut with a knife, and in +consequence at the nape appears a square of natural skin of a deep +yellow.</p> + +<p>An imperious note sounds on the guitar, evidently a summons! Crac! +Away she goes, the little fairy, to rejoice the drivelling fools on +the other side of the screens.</p> + +<p>Supposing I marry this one, without seeking any further. I should +respect her as a child committed to my care; I should take her for +what she is: a fantastic and charming plaything. What an amusing +little household I should set up! Really short of marrying a china +ornament, I should find it difficult to choose better.</p> + +<p>At this moment enters M. Kangourou, clad in a suit of gray tweed, +which might have come from <i>La Belle Jardiniere</i> or the <i>Pont Neuf</i>, +with a pot hat and white thread gloves. His countenance is at once +foolish and cunning; he has hardly a nose, hardly any eyes. He makes a +real Japanese salutation: an abrupt dip, the hands placed flat on the +knees, the body making a right angle to the legs, as if the fellow +were breaking in two; a little snake-like hissing (produced by sucking +the saliva between the teeth, and which is the expression <i>nec plus +ultra</i> of obsequious politeness in this country). "<!-- Page 38 -->You speak French, +M. Kangourou?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, sir" (renewed bows).</p> + +<p>He makes one for each word I utter, as if he were a mechanical toy +pulled by a string; when he is seated before me on the ground, he +limits himself to a duck of the head—always accompanied by the same +hissing noise of the saliva.</p> + +<p>"A cup of tea, M. Kangourou?"</p> + +<p>Fresh salute and an extra affected gesticulation with the hands, as if +to say, "I should hardly dare. It is too great a condescension on your +part. However, anything to oblige you."</p> + +<hr /> + +<p>He guesses at the first words what I require from him.</p> + +<p>"Of course," he replies, "we will see about it at once; in a week's +time, as it happens, a family from Simonosaki, in which there are two +charming daughters, will be here."</p> + +<p>"What! in a week! You don't know me, M. Kangourou! No, no, either now, +to-morrow, or not at all."</p> + +<p>Again a hissing bow, and Kangourou-San catching my agitation, begins +to pass in feverish review, all the young persons at his disposal in +Nagasaki.</p> + +<p>"Let us see—there was Mdlle. Œillet. What a pity that I had not +spoken a few days sooner! So pretty! So clever at playing the <!-- Page 39 -->guitar. +It is an irreparable misfortune; she was engaged only yesterday by a +Russian officer."</p> + +<p>"Ah! Mdlle. Abricot!—Would she suit me, Mdlle. Abricot? She is the +daughter of a wealthy China merchant in the Decima Bazaar, a person of +the highest merit; but she would be very dear: her parents, who think +a great deal of her, will not let her go under a hundred +yen<a name="FNanchor_A_1" id="FNanchor_A_1" /> +<a href="#Footnote_A_1" class="fnanchor">[A]</a> a month. +She is very accomplished, thoroughly understands commercial +writings, and has at her finger ends more than two thousand characters +of learned writing. In a poetical competition she gained the first +prize with a sonnet composed in praise of <i>'the blossoms of the +black-thorn hedges seen in the dew of early morning.'</i> Only, she is +not very pretty: one of her eyes is smaller than the other, and she +has a hole in her cheek, resulting from an illness of her childhood."</p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_A_1" id="Footnote_A_1" /> +<a href="#FNanchor_A_1"><span class="label">[A]</span> +</a> A yen is equal to four shillings.</p></div> + +<p>"Oh no! on no account that one! Let us seek amongst a less +distinguished class of young persons, but without scars. And how about +those on the other side of the screen, in those fine gold-embroidered +dresses? For instance, the dancer with the specter mask, M. Kangourou? +or again she who sings in so dulcet <!-- Page 40 -->a strain and has such a charming +nape to her neck?"</p> + +<p>He does not, at first, understand my drift; then when he gathers my +meaning, he shakes his head almost in a joking way, and says:</p> + +<p>"No, sir, no! Those are only <i>Guéchas</i>,<a name="FNanchor_B_2" id="FNanchor_B_2" /> +<a href="#Footnote_B_2" class="fnanchor">[B]</a> sir—<i>Guéchas!</i>"</p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_B_2" id="Footnote_B_2" /><a href="#FNanchor_B_2"> +<span class="label">[B]</span></a> <i>Guéchas</i> are professional +dancers and singers trained at the Yeddo Conservatory.</p></div> + +<p>"Well, but why not a <i>Guécha</i>? What odds can it be to me, whether they +are <i>Guéchas</i> or not?" Later on, no doubt, when I understand Japanese +affairs better, I shall appreciate myself the enormity of my proposal: +one would really suppose I had talked of marrying the devil.</p> + +<p>At this point M. Kangourou suddenly calls to mind one Mdlle. Jasmin. +Heavens! how was it he did not think of her at once; she is absolutely +and exactly what I want; he will go to-morrow or this very evening, to +make the necessary overtures to the parents of this young person who +live a long way off, on the opposite hill, in the suburb of +Diou-djen-dji. She is a very pretty girl of about fifteen. She can +probably be engaged for about eighteen or twenty dollars a month, on +condition of presenting her with a few dresses of the best fashion, +and of lodging her in a pleasant and well-situated <!-- Page 41 -->house,—all of +which a man of gallantry like myself could not fail to do.</p> + +<p>Well, let us fix upon Mdlle. Jasmin then,—and now we must part; time +presses. M. Kangourou will come on board to-morrow to communicate to +me the result of his first proceedings and to arrange with me for the +interview. For the present he refuses to accept any remuneration; but +I am to give him my washing, and to procure him the custom of my +brother officers of the <i>Triomphante</i>. It is all settled. Profound +bows,—they put on my boots again at the door. My djin, profiting by +the interpreter kind fortune has placed in his way, begs to be +recommended to me for future custom; his stand is on the quay; his +number is 415, inscribed in French characters on the lantern of his +vehicle (we have a number 415 on board, one Le Goëlec, gunner, who +serves the left of one of my guns; happy thought, I shall remember +this); his price is sixpence the journey, or five pence an hour, for +his customers. Capital; he shall have my custom, that is promised. And +now, let us be off. The waiting-maids, who have escorted me to the +door, fall on all fours as a final salute, and remain prostrate on the +threshold—as long as I am still in sight down the dark pathway, where +the rain trickles <!-- Page 42 -->off the great over-arching bracken upon my head.</p> + + +<p> </p> +<p> </p> +<p class="schdg"><a name="IV" id="IV">IV.</a></p> + +<p>Three days have passed. Night is closing, in an apartment which has +been mine since yesterday. Yves and I, on the first floor, move +restlessly over the white mats, striding up and down the great bare +room, of which the thin, dry flooring cracks beneath our footsteps; we +are both of us rather irritated by prolonged expectation. Yves, whose +impatience shows itself the most freely, from time to time takes a +look out of the window. As for myself, a chill suddenly seizes me, at +the idea that I have chosen, and purpose to inhabit this lonely house, +lost in the midst of the suburb of a totally strange town, perched +high on the mountain and almost opening upon the woods.</p> + +<p>What wild notion can have taken possession of me, to settle myself in +surroundings so utterly foreign and unknown, breathing of isolation +and sadness? The waiting unnerves me, and I beguile the time by +examining all the little details of the building. The woodwork of the +ceiling is complicated and ingenious. On the partitions of white paper +which form the <!-- Page 43 -->walls, are scattered tiny, microscopic, blue-feathered +tortoises.</p> + +<p>"They are late," said Yves, who is still looking out into the street.</p> + +<p>As to being late, that they certainly are, by a good hour already, and +night is falling, and the boat which should take us back to dine on +board will be gone. Probably we shall have to sup, Japanese fashion +to-night, heaven only knows where. The people of this country have no +sense of punctuality, or of the value of time.</p> + +<p>Therefore I continue to inspect the minute and comical details of my +dwelling. Here, instead of handles such as we should have put to pull +these movable partitions, they have made little oval holes, just the +shape of a finger-end, and into which one is evidently to put one's +thumb. These little holes have a bronze ornamentation, and on looking +closely, one sees that the bronze is curiously chased: here is a lady +fanning herself; there, in the next hole, is represented a branch of +cherry in full blossom. What eccentricity there is in the taste of +this people! To bestow assiduous labor on such miniature work, and +then to hide it at the bottom of a hole to put one's finger in, +looking like a mere spot in the middle of a great white panel; to +accumulate so much patient and delicate workmanship on almost +imperceptible accessories, <!-- Page 44 -->and all to produce an effect which is +absolutely <i>nil</i>, an effect of the most utter bareness and nudity.</p> + +<p>Yves still continues to gaze forth, like Sister Anne. From the side on +which he leans, my verandah overlooks a street, or rather a road +bordered with houses, which climbs higher and higher, and loses itself +almost immediately in the verdure of the mountain, in the fields of +tea, the underwood and the cemeteries. As for myself, this delay +finishes by irritating me for good and all, and I turn my glances to +the opposite side: the other front of my house, also a verandah, opens +first of all upon a garden; then upon a marvelous panorama of woods +and mountains, with all the venerable Japanese quarters of Nagasaki +lying confusedly like a black ant-heap, six hundred feet below us. +This evening, in a dull twilight, notwithstanding that it is a +twilight of July, these things are melancholy. There are great clouds +heavy with rain and showers, ready to fall, traveling across the sky. +No, I cannot feel at home, in this strange dwelling I have chosen; I +feel sensations of extreme solitude and strangeness; the mere prospect +of passing the night in it gives me a shudder of horror.</p> + +<p>"Ah! at last, brother," said Yves, "I believe,—yes, I really believe +she is coming at last."</p> + +<p><!-- Page 45 -->I look over his shoulder, and I see—a back view of a little doll the +finishing touches to whose toilette are being put in the solitary +street; a last maternal glance given to the enormous bows of the sash, +the folds at the waist. Her dress is of pearl-gray silk, her <i>obi</i> +(sash) of mauve satin; a sprig of silver flowers trembles in her black +hair; a parting ray of sunlight touches the little figure; five or six +persons accompany her. Yes! it is undoubtedly Mdlle. Jasmin; they are +bringing me my <i>fiancée</i>!</p> + +<p>I rush to the ground floor inhabited by old Madame Prune my landlady, +and her aged husband; they are absorbed in prayer before the altar of +their ancestors.</p> + +<p>"Here they are, Madame Prune," I cry in Japanese; "here they are! +Bring at once the tea, the lamp, the embers, the little pipes for the +ladies, the little bamboo pots for spittoons! Bring us as quickly as +possible all the accessories for my reception!"</p> + +<p>I hear the front door open, and hasten upstairs again. Wooden clogs +are deposited on the floor, the staircase creaks gently under the +little bare feet. Yves and I look at each other, with a longing to +laugh.</p> + +<p>An old lady enters,—two old ladies,—three old ladies, emerging from +the doorway one after another with jerking and mechanical +saluta<!-- Page 46 -->tions, which we return as best we can, fully conscious of our +inferiority in this particular style. Then come persons of +intermediate age,—then quite young ones, a dozen at least, friends, +neighbors, the whole quarter in fact. And the whole company, on +arriving, becomes confusedly engaged in reciprocal salutations: I +salute you,—- you salute me,—I salute you again, and you return +it,—and I re-salute you again, and I express that I shall never, +never be able to return it according to your high merit,—and I bang +my forehead against the ground, and you stick your nose between the +planks of the flooring, and there they are, on all fours one before +the other; it is a polite dispute, all anxious to yield precedence as +to sitting down, or passing first, and compliments without end are +murmured in low tones, with faces against the floor.</p> + +<p>They seat themselves at last, smiling, in a ceremonious circle; we two +remaining standing, our eyes fixed on the staircase. And at length +emerges, in due turn, the little aigrette of silver flowers, the ebony +chignon, the gray silk robe and mauve sash of Mdlle. Jasmin, my +fiancée!</p> + +<p>Heavens! why, I know her already! Long before setting foot in Japan, I +had met with her, on every fan, on every tea-cup—with her silly air, +her puffy little visage, her tiny eyes, <!-- Page 47 -->mere gimlet-holes above those +expanses of impossible pink and white which are her cheeks.</p> + +<p>She is young, that is all I can say in her favor; she is even so young +that I should almost scruple to accept her. The wish to laugh quits me +suddenly, and instead, a profound chill fastens on my heart. What! +share even an hour of my life with that little doll? Never!</p> + +<p>The next question is, how to get out of it?</p> + +<p>She advances smiling, with an air of repressed triumph, and behind her +looms M. Kangourou, in his suit of gray tweed. Fresh salutes, and +behold her on all fours, she too, before my landlady and before my +neighbors. Yves, the big Yves, who is not going to be married, stands +behind me, with a comical grimace, hardly repressing his +laughter,—while to give myself time to collect my ideas, I offer tea +in little cups, little spittoons and embers to the company.</p> + +<p>Nevertheless, my discomfited air does not escape my visitors. M. +Kangourou anxiously inquires:</p> + +<p>"How do I like her?" And I reply in a low voice, but with great +resolution:</p> + +<p>"Not at all! I won't have that one. Never!"</p> + +<p>I believe that this remark was almost understood in the circle around +me. Consternation was depicted on every face, the jaws dropped, <!-- Page 48 -->the +pipes went out. And now I address my reproaches to Kangourou: "Why had +he brought her to me in such pomp, before friends and neighbors of +both sexes, instead of showing her to me discreetly as if by chance, +as I had wished? What an affront he will compel me now to put upon all +these polite persons!"</p> + +<p>The old ladies (the mamma no doubt and aunts), prick up their ears, +and M. Kangourou translates to them, softening as much as possible, my +heartrending decision. I feel really almost sorry for them; the fact +is, that for women who, not to put too fine a point upon it, have come +to sell a child, they have an air I was not prepared for: I can hardly +say an air of <i>respectability</i> (a word in use with us, which is +absolutely without meaning in Japan), but an air of unconscious and +good-natured simplicity; they are only accomplishing an act perfectly +admissible in their world, and really it all resembles, more than I +could have thought possible, a <i>bonâ fide</i> marriage.</p> + +<p>"But what fault do I find with the little girl?" asks M. Kangourou, in +consternation.</p> + +<p>I endeavor to present the matter in the most flattering light:</p> + +<p>"She is very young," I say; "and then she is too white, too much like +our own women. I wished for a yellow one just as a change."</p> + +<p>"<!-- Page 49 -->But that is only the paint they have put on her, sir! Beneath it, I +assure you, she is yellow."</p> + +<p>Yves leans towards me and whispers:</p> + +<p>"Look over there, brother, in that corner by the last panel; have you +noticed the one who is sitting down?"</p> + +<p>Not I. In my annoyance I had not observed her; she had her back to the +light, was dressed in dark colors, and sat in the careless attitude of +one who keeps in the background. The fact is this one pleased me much +better. Eyes with long lashes, rather narrow, but which would have +been called good in any country in the world; almost an expression, +almost a thought. A coppery tint on her rounded cheeks; a straight +nose; slightly thick lips, but well modeled and with pretty corners. +Less young than Mdlle. Jasmin, about eighteen years of age perhaps, +already more of a woman. She wore an expression of ennui, also of a +little contempt, as if she regretted her attendance at a spectacle +which dragged so much, and was so little amusing.</p> + +<p>"M. Kangourou, who is that young lady over there, in dark blue?"</p> + +<p>"Over there, sir? A young lady called Mdlle. Chrysanthème. She came +with the others you see here; she is only here as a spectator. She +pleases you?" said he with eager suddenness, espying a way out of his +difficulty. <!-- Page 50 -->Then, forgetting all his politeness, all his +ceremoniousness, all his Japanesery, he takes her by the hand, forces +her to rise, to stand in the dying daylight, to let herself be seen. +And she, who has followed our eyes and begins to guess what is on +foot, lowers her head in confusion, with a more decided but more +charming pout, and tries to step back, half sulky, half smiling.</p> + +<p>"It makes no difference," continues M. Kangourou, "it can be arranged +just as well with this one; she is not married either, sir!"</p> + +<p>She is not married! Then why didn't the idiot propose her to me at +once instead of the other, for whom I have a feeling of the greatest +pity, poor little soul, with her pearly gray dress, her sprig of +flowers, her expression which grows sadder, and her eyes which twinkle +like those of a child about to cry.</p> + +<p>"It can be arranged, sir!" repeats Kangourou again, who at this moment +appears to me a go-between of the lowest type, a rascal of the meanest +kind.</p> + +<p>Only, he adds, we, Yves and I, are in the way during the negotiations. +And, while Mdlle. Chrysanthème remains with her eyelids lowered, as +befits the occasion, while the various families, on whose countenances +may be read every degree of astonishment, every phase of expectation, +remain seated in a circle on my white <!-- Page 51 -->mats, he sends us two into the +verandah, and we gaze down into the depths below us, upon a misty and +vague Nagasaki, a Nagasaki melting into a blue haze of darkness.</p> + +<p>Then ensue long discourses in Japanese, arguments without end. M. +Kangourou, who is washerman and low scamp in French only, has returned +for these discussions to the long formulas of his country. From time +to time I express impatience, I ask this worthy creature whom I am +less and less able to consider in a serious light:</p> + +<p>"Come now, tell us frankly, Kangourou, are we any nearer coming to +some arrangement? is all this ever going to end?"</p> + +<p>"In a moment, sir, in a moment;" and he resumes his air of political +economist seriously debating social problems.</p> + +<p>Well, one must submit to the slowness of this people. And, while the +darkness falls like a veil over the Japanese town, I have leisure to +reflect, with as much melancholy as I please, upon the bargain that is +being concluded behind me.</p> + +<hr /> + +<p>Night has closed in, deep night; it has been necessary to light the +lamps.</p> + +<p>It is ten o'clock when all is finally settled, and M. Kangourou comes +to tell me:</p> + +<p>"<!-- Page 52 -->All is arranged, sir: her parents will give her up for twenty +dollars a month,—the same price as Mdlle. Jasmin."</p> + +<p>On hearing this, I am possessed suddenly with extreme vexation that I +should have made up my mind so quickly to link myself in ever so +fleeting and transient a manner with this little creature, and dwell +with her in this isolated house.</p> + +<p>We come back into the room; she is the center of the circle and +seated; and they have placed the aigrette of flowers in her hair. +There is actually some expression in her glance, and I am almost +persuaded that she—this one—- thinks.</p> + +<p>Yves is astonished at her modest attitude, at her little timid airs of +a young girl on the verge of matrimony; he had imagined nothing like +it in such a marriage as this, nor I either, I must confess.</p> + +<p>"She is really very pretty, brother," said he; "very pretty, take my +word for it!"</p> + +<p>These good folks, their customs, this scene, strike him dumb with +astonishment; he cannot get over it, and remains in a maze. "Oh! this +is too much," and the idea of writing a long letter to his wife at +Toulven, describing it all, diverts him greatly.</p> + +<p><!-- Page 53 -->Chrysanthème and I join hands. Yves too advances and touches the +dainty little paw;—after all, if I wed her, it is chiefly his fault; +I should never have remarked her without his observation that she was +pretty. Who can tell how this strange arrangement will turn out? Is it +a woman or a doll? Well, time will show.</p> + +<p>The families having lighted their many-colored lanterns swinging at +the ends of slight sticks, prepare to beat a retreat with many +compliments, bows and curtsies. When it is a question of descending +the stairs, no one is willing to go first, and at a given moment, the +whole party are again on all fours, motionless and murmuring polite +phrases in undertones.</p> + +<p><i>"Haul back there!"</i> said Yves, laughing and employing a nautical term +used when there is a stoppage of any kind.</p> + +<p>At length they all melt away, descend the stairs with a last buzzing +accompaniment of civilities and polite phrases finished from one step +to another in voices which gradually die away. He and I remain alone +in the unfriendly empty apartment, where the mats are still littered +with the little cups of tea, the absurd little pipes, and the +miniature trays.</p> + +<p>"Let us watch them go away!" said Yves, leaning out. At the door of +the garden is a renewal of the same salutations and curtsies, and +<!-- Page 54 -->then the two groups of women separate, their bedaubed paper lanterns +fade away trembling in the distance, balanced at the extremity of +flexible canes which they hold in their finger-tips, as one would hold +a fishing-rod in the dark to catch night-birds. The procession of the +unfortunate Mdlle. Jasmin mounts upwards, towards the mountain, while +that of Mdlle. Chrysanthème winds downwards by a narrow old street, +half stairway, half goat-path, which leads to the town.</p> + +<p>Then we also depart. The night is fresh, silent, exquisite, the +eternal song of the cicalas fills the air. We can still see the red +lanterns of my new family, dwindling away in the distance, as they +descend and gradually become lost in that yawning abyss, at the bottom +of which lies Nagasaki.</p> + +<p>Our way, too, lies downwards, but on an opposite slope by steep paths +leading to the sea.</p> + +<p>And when I find myself once more on board, when the scene enacted on +the hill up above recurs to my mind, it seems to me that my betrothal +is a joke, and my new family a set of puppets.</p> + + +<p> </p> +<p> </p> +<p class="schdg"><a name="V" id="V"><!-- Page 55 -->V.</a></p> + + +<p><i>July 10th, 1885</i>.</p> + +<p>It is three days now since my marriage was an accomplished fact.</p> + +<p>In the lower part of the town, in the middle of one of the new +cosmopolitan districts, in the ugly pretentious building which is a +kind of register office, the deed has been signed and countersigned, +with marvelous hieroglyphics, in a large book, in the presence of +those ridiculous little creatures, formerly silken-robed <i>Samouraï</i>, +but now called policemen, and dressed up in tight jackets and Russian +caps.</p> + +<p>The ceremony took place in the full heat of mid-day; Chrysanthème and +her mother arrived there together, and I went alone. We seemed to have +met for the purpose of ratifying some discreditable contract, and the +two women trembled in the presence of these ugly little individuals, +who, in their eyes, were the personification of the law.</p> + +<p>In the middle of their official scrawl, they made me write in French +my name, Christian name, and profession. Then they gave me an +extraordinary document on a sheet of rice-paper, which set forth the +permission granted <!-- Page 56 -->me by the civilian Authorities of the Island of +Kiu-Siu, to inhabit a house situated in the suburb of Diou-djen-dji, +with a person called Chrysanthème, the said permission being available +under protection of the police, during the whole of my stay in Japan.</p> + +<p>In the evening, however, up there in our own quarter, our little +marriage became a very pretty affair,—a procession carrying lanterns, +a festive tea and some music. It was indeed high time.</p> + +<p>Now we are almost an old married couple, and we are gently settling +down into every-day habits.</p> + +<p>Chrysanthème tends the flowers in our bronze vases, dresses herself +with studied care, proud of her socks with the divided big toe, and +strums all day on a kind of long-necked guitar, producing therefrom +plaintive and sad sounds.</p> + + +<p> </p> +<p> </p> +<p class="schdg"><a name="VI" id="VI">VI.</a></p> + + +<p>In our home, all has the appearance of a Japanese picture: we have +nothing but little folding-screens, little curiously shaped stools +bearing vases full of nosegays, and at the further end of the +apartment, in a nook forming <!-- Page 57 -->an altar, a large gilded Buddha sits +enthroned in a lotus.</p> + +<p>The house is just as I had fancied it should be in the many dreams of +Japan I had made before my arrival, during my long night watches: +perched on high, in a peaceful suburb, in the midst of green +gardens;—made up of paper panels, and taken to pieces according to +one's fancy, like a child's toy. Whole families of cicalas chirp day +and night under our old resounding roof. From our verandah, we have a +bewildering bird's-eye view of Nagasaki, of its streets, its junks and +its great pagodas, which, at certain hours, is lit up at our feet like +some fairylike scene.</p> + + +<p> </p> +<p> </p> +<p class="schdg"><a name="VII" id="VII">VII.</a></p> + + +<p>As a mere outline, little Chrysanthème has been seen everywhere and by +everybody. Whoever has looked at one of those paintings on china or on +silk that now fill our bazaars, knows by heart the pretty stiff +head-dress, the leaning figure, ever ready to try some new gracious +salutation, the scarf fastened behind in an enormous bow, the large +falling sleeves, the dress slightly clinging about the ankles with a +little crooked train like a lizard's tail.</p> + +<p><!-- Page 58 -->But her face, no, every one has not seen it; there is something +special about it.</p> + +<p>Moreover, the type of women the Japanese paint mostly on their vases +is an exceptional one in their country. It is almost exclusively among +the nobility that these personages are found with their long pale +faces, painted in tender rose-tints, and silly long necks which give +them the appearance of storks. This distinguished type (which I am +obliged to admit was also Mdlle. Jasmin's) is rare, particularly at +Nagasaki.</p> + +<p>In the middle class and the people, the ugliness is more pleasant and +sometimes becomes a kind of prettiness. The eyes are still too small +and hardly able to open, but the faces are rounder, browner, more +vivacious; and in the women there remains a certain vagueness in the +features, something childlike which prevails to the very end of their +lives.</p> + +<p>They are so laughing, so merry, all these little Niponese dolls! +Rather a forced mirth, it is true, studied and at times with a false +ring in it; nevertheless one is attracted by it.</p> + +<p>Chrysanthème is an exception, for she is melancholy. What thoughts can +be running through that little brain? My knowledge of her language is +still too restricted to enable me to find out. Moreover, it is a +hundred to one <!-- Page 59 -->that she has no thoughts whatever. And even if she +had, what do I care?</p> + +<p>I have chosen her to amuse me, and I would really rather she should +have one of those insignificant little thoughtless faces like all the +others.</p> + + +<p> </p> +<p> </p> +<p class="schdg"><a name="VIII" id="VIII">VIII.</a></p> + + +<p>When night closes in, we light two hanging lamps of a religious +character, which burn till morn, before our gilded idol.</p> + +<p>We sleep on the floor, on a thin cotton mattress, which is unfolded +and laid out over our white mats. Chrysanthème's pillow is a little +wooden block, scooped out to fit exactly the nape of the neck, without +disturbing the elaborate head-dress, which must never be taken down; +the pretty black hair I shall probably never see undone. My pillow, a +Chinese model, is a kind of little square drum covered over with +serpent skin.</p> + +<p>We sleep under a gauze mosquito net of somber greenish blue, dark as +the shades of night, stretched out on an orange-colored ribbon. (These +are the traditional colors, and all the respectable families of +Nagaski possess a similar gauze.) It envelops us like a tent; <!-- Page 60 -->the +mosquitoes and the night-moths dance around it.</p> + +<hr /> + +<p>This sounds very pretty, and written down looks very well. In reality, +however, it is not so; something, I know not what, is wanting, and it +is all very paltry. In other lands, in the delightful isles of +Oceania, in the old lifeless quarters of Stamboul, it seemed as if +mere words could never express all I felt, and I vainly struggled +against my own incompetence to render, in human language, the +penetrating charm surrounding me.</p> + +<p>Here, on the contrary, words exact and truthful in themselves seem +always too thrilling, too great for the subject; seem to embellish it +unduly. I feel as if I were acting, for my own benefit, some +wretchedly trivial and third-rate comedy; and whenever I try to +consider my home in a serious spirit, the scoffing figure of M. +Kangourou rises up before me, the matrimonial agent, to whom I am +indebted for my happiness.</p> + + +<p> </p> +<p> </p> +<p class="schdg"><a name="IX" id="IX">IX.</a></p> + + +<p><i>July 12th</i>.</p> + +<p>Yves comes up to us whenever he is free, in the evening at five +o'clock, after his work on board.</p> + +<p><!-- Page 61 -->He is our only European visitor, and with the exception of a few +civilities and cups of tea, exchanged with our neighbors, we lead a +very retired life. Only in the evenings, winding our way through the +precipitous little streets and carrying our lanterns at the end of +short sticks, we go down to Nagasaki in search of amusement at the +theaters, at the "tea-houses," or in the bazaars.</p> + +<p>Yves treats this wife of mine as if she were a plaything, and +continually assures me that she is charming.</p> + +<p>Myself, I find her as exasperating as the cicalas on my roof; and when +I am alone at home, side by side with this little creature twanging +the strings of her long-necked guitar, in front of this marvelous +panorama of pagodas and mountains,—I am overcome by a sadness full of +tears.</p> + + +<p> </p> +<p> </p> +<p class="schdg"><a name="X" id="X">X.</a></p> + + +<p><i>July 13th</i>.</p> + +<p>Last night, as we lay under the Japanese roof of Diou-djen-dji,—under +the thin and ancient wooden roof scorched by a hundred years of +sunshine, vibrating at the least sound, like the stretched-out +parchment of a tamtam,—in the silence which prevails at two o'clock +<!-- Page 62 -->in the morning, we heard overhead a regular wild huntsman's chase +passing at full gallop:</p> + +<p>"Nidzoumi!" ("the mice!"), said Chrysanthème.</p> + +<p>Suddenly, the word brings back to my mind yet another, spoken in a +very different language, in a country far away from here: "Setchan!" a +word heard elsewhere, a word that has likewise been whispered in my +ear by a woman's voice, under similar circumstances, in a moment of +nocturnal terror—"Setchan!" It was during one of our first nights at +Stamboul spent under the mysterious roof of Eyoub, when danger +surrounded us on all sides; a noise on the steps of the black +staircase had made us tremble, and she also, my dear little Turkish +companion, had said to me in her beloved language, "Setchan!" ("the +mice!").</p> + +<p>At that fond recollection, a thrill of sweet memories coursed through +my veins; it was as though I had been startled out of a long ten +years' sleep; I looked down upon the doll beside me with a sort of +hatred, wondering why I was there, and I arose, with almost a feeling +of remorse, to escape from that blue gauze net.</p> + +<p>I stepped out upon the verandah, and there I paused, gazing into the +depths of the starlit night. Beneath me Nagasaki lay asleep, wrapt in +a soft light slumber, hushed by the murmur<!-- Page 63 -->ing sound of a thousand +insects in the moonlight, and fairylike with its roseate hues. Then, +turning my head, I saw behind me the gilded idol with our lamps +burning in front of it; the idol smiling its impassive Buddha smile; +and its presence seemed to cast around it something, I know not what, +strange and incomprehensible. Never until now had I slept under the +eye of such a god.</p> + +<p>In the midst of the calm and silence of the night, I strove to recall +my poignant impressions of Stamboul; but alas, I strove in vain, they +would not return to me in this strange, far-off world. Through the +transparent blue gauze appeared my little Japanese, as she lay in her +somber night-dress with all the fantastic grace of her country, the +nape of her neck resting on its wooden block, and her hair arranged in +large shiny bows. Her amber-colored arms, pretty and delicate, +emerged, bare up to the shoulders, from her wide sleeves.</p> + +<p>"What can those mice on the roof have done to him?" thought +Chrysanthème. Of course she could not understand. In a coaxing manner, +like a playful kitten, she glanced at me with her half-closed eyes, +inquiring why I did not come back to sleep,—and I returned to my +place by her side.</p> + + +<p> </p> +<p> </p> +<p class="schdg"><a name="XI" id="XI"><!-- Page 64 -->XI.</a></p> + + +<p><i>July 14th</i>.</p> + +<p>It is the National Fête day of France. In Nagasaki roadstead, all the +ships are dressed out with flags, and salutes are firing in our honor.</p> + +<p>Alas! All day long, I cannot help thinking of that last fourteenth of +July, spent in the deep calm and stillness of my old home, the door +closed to all intruders, while the gay crowd roared outside; there I +had remained till evening, seated on a bench, shaded by a trellis +covered with honeysuckle, where in the bye-gone days of my childhood's +summers, I used to settle myself with my copybooks and pretend to +learn my lessons. Oh! those days when I was supposed to learn my +lessons: how my thoughts used to rove,—what voyages, what distant +lands, what tropical forests did I not behold in my dreams! At that +time, near the garden bench, in some of the crevices in the stone +wall, there dwelt many a big ugly black spider ever on the watch, +peeping out of his nook ready to pounce upon any giddy fly or +wandering centipede. One of my amusements consisted in tickling the +spiders gently, very <!-- Page 65 -->gently, with a blade of grass or a cherry stalk +in their holes. Mystified, they would rush out, fancying they had to +deal with some sort of prey, whilst I would rapidly draw back my hand +in disgust. Well, last year, on that fourteenth of July, as I recalled +my days of Latin themes and translations, now forever flown, and this +game of boyish days, I actually recognized the very same spiders (or +at least their daughters), lying in wait in the very same holes. +Gazing at them and at the tufts of grass and moss around me, a +thousand memories of those summers of my early life welled up within +me, memories which for years past had lain slumbering under this old +wall, sheltered by the ivy boughs. While all that is ourselves +perpetually changes and passes away, the constancy with which Nature +repeats, always in the same manner, her most infinitesimal details, +seems a wonderful mystery; the same peculiar species of moss grow +afresh for centuries on precisely the same spot, and the same little +insects each summer do the same thing in the same place.</p> + +<hr /> + +<p>I must admit that this episode of my childhood and the spiders, have +little to do with the story of Chrysanthème. But an incongruous +interruption is quite in keeping with the taste of this country; +everywhere it is practiced, in <!-- Page 66 -->conversation, in music, even in +painting; a landscape painter, for instance, when he has finished a +picture of mountains and crags, will not hesitate to draw in the very +middle of the sky a circle, or a lozenge, or some kind of framework, +within which he will represent anything incoherent and inappropriate: +a bonze fanning himself, or a lady taking a cup of tea. Nothing is +more thoroughly Japanese than such digressions made without the +slightest àpropos.</p> + +<p>Moreover, if I roused my past memories, it was the better to force +myself to notice the difference between that 14th of July last year, +so peacefully spent amidst surroundings familiar to me from my +earliest infancy, and the present animated one, passed in the midst of +such a novel world.</p> + +<p>To-day, therefore, under the scorching mid-day sun, at two o'clock, +three quick-footed djins dragged us at full speed,—Yves, Chrysanthème +and myself,—in Indian file, each in a little jolting cart, to the +further end of Nagasaki, and there deposited us at the foot of some +gigantic steps that run straight up into the mountain.</p> + +<p>These are the granite steps leading to the great temple of Osueva; +wide enough to give access to a whole regiment; they are as grand and +imposing as any work of Babylon or <!-- Page 67 -->Nineveh, and in complete contrast +with all the finical surroundings.</p> + +<p>We climb up and up,—Chrysanthème listlessly, affecting fatigue, under +her paper parasol painted with pink butterflies on a black ground. As +we ascended, we passed under enormous monastic porticos, also in +granite of rude and primitive style. In truth, these steps and these +temple porticos are the only imposing works that this people has +created, and they astonish, for they scarcely seem Japanese.</p> + +<p>We climb up still higher. At this sultry hour of the day, from top to +bottom of the immense gray steps, only we three are to be seen; on all +that granite there are but the pink butterflies on Chrysanthème's +parasol, to throw a cheerful and brilliant note.</p> + +<p>We passed through the first temple yard, in which are a couple of +white china turrets, bronze lanterns, and the statue of a large horse +in jade. Then without pausing at the sanctuary, we turned to the left, +and entered a shady garden, which formed a terrace halfway up the +hill, and at the extremity of which was situated the +<i>Donko-Tchaya</i>,—in English: <i>the tea-house of the Toads</i>.</p> + +<p>It was here that Chrysanthème was taking us. We sat down at a table, +under a black linen tent, decorated with large white letters (of +<!-- Page 68 -->funereal aspect), and two laughing <i>mousmés</i> hurried up to wait upon +us.</p> + +<p>The word <i>mousmé</i> means a young girl, or very young woman. It is one +of the prettiest words in the Niponese language; it seems almost as if +there were a little <i>moue</i><a name="FNanchor_C_3" id="FNanchor_C_3" /> +<a href="#Footnote_C_3" class="fnanchor">[C]</a> in the very sound, +and as if a pretty taking little pout such as they put on, and also a little pert +physiognomy, were described by it. I shall often make use of it, +knowing none other in our own language that conveys the same meaning.</p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_C_3" id="Footnote_C_3" /> +<a href="#FNanchor_C_3"><span class="label">[C]</span></a> +<i>Moue</i> means "pout" in French.</p></div> + +<p>Some Japanese Watteau must have mapped out this <i>Donko-Tchaya</i>, for it +has rather an affected air of rurality, though very pretty. Well +shaded, under a thick vault of large trees densely foliaged, a +miniature lake hard by, the chosen residence of a few toads, has given +it its attractive denomination. Lucky toads, who crawl and croak on +the finest of moss, in the midst of tiny artificial islets decked with +gardenias in full bloom. From time to time, one of them informs us of +his thoughts by a "Couac," uttered in a deep bass croak infinitely +more hollow than that of our own toads.</p> + +<hr /> + +<p>Under the tent of this tea-house, we are as it were on a balcony +jutting out from the moun<!-- Page 69 -->tain side, overhanging from on high the +grayish town and its suburbs buried in greenery. Around, above and +beneath us cling and hang on every possible point, clumps of trees and +fresh green woods, with the delicate and varying foliage of the +temperate zone. Then we can see, at our feet, the deep roadstead, +fore-shortened and slanting, diminished in appearance till it looks +like a terrible somber tear in the mass of large green mountains; and +further still, quite low down, on the waters which seem black and +stagnant, are to be seen, very tiny and overwhelmed, the men-of-war, +the steamboats and the junks, flags flying from every mast. On the +dark green, which is the dominant shade around, stand out these +thousand scraps of bunting, emblems of the different nationalities, +all displayed, all flying in honor of far-distant France. The colors +most prevailing in this motley assemblage are the white flag with a +red ball, emblem of the <i>Empire of the Rising Sun</i>, where we now are.</p> + +<hr /> + +<p>With the exception of three or four mousmés at the further end who are +practicing with bows and arrows, we are to-day the only people in the +garden, and the mountain round about is silent.</p> + +<p>Having finished her cigarette and her cup of <!-- Page 70 -->tea, Chrysanthème also +wishes to exert her skill; for archery is still held in honor among +the young women. The old man who keeps the range, picks out for her +his best arrows tipped with white and red feathers,—and she takes aim +with a serious air. The mark is a circle, traced in the middle of a +picture on which is painted in flat gray tones, terrifying chimera +flying through the clouds.</p> + +<p>Chrysanthème is certainly an adroit markswoman, and we admire her as +much as she expected.</p> + +<p>Then Yves, who is usually clever at all games of skill, wishes to try +his luck, and fails. It is amusing to see her, with her mincing ways +and smiles, arrange with the tips of her little fingers, the sailor's +broad hands, placing them on the bow and the string in order to teach +him the proper manner. Never have they seemed to get on so well +together, Yves and my dolly, and I might even feel anxious, were I +less sure of my good brother, and if, moreover, it were not a matter +of perfect indifference to me.</p> + +<hr /> + +<p>In the stillness of the garden, mid the balmy peacefulness of these +mountains, a loud noise suddenly startles us; a unique, powerful, +terrible sound, which is prolonged in infinite metallic vibrations. It +begins again sounding <!-- Page 71 -->more appalling: <i>Boum!</i> borne to us by the +rising wind.</p> + +<p>"<i>Nippon Kané!</i>" explains Chrysanthème,—and she again takes up her +brightly-feathered arrows. "<i>Nippon Kané</i> (the Japanese brass); it is +the Japanese brass that is sounding!" It is the monstrous gong of a +monastery, situated in a suburb beneath us. Well, it is powerful +indeed "the Japanese brass!" When the strokes are ended, when it is no +longer heard, a vibration seems to linger among the suspended foliage, +and an endless quiver runs through the air.</p> + +<hr /> + +<p>I am obliged to admit that Chrysanthème looks very charming shooting +her arrows, her figure well bent back the better to bend her bow; her +loose-hanging sleeves caught up to her shoulders, showing the graceful +bare arms polished like amber and very much of the same color. Each +arrow whistles by with the rustle of a bird's wing,—then a short +sharp little blow is heard, the target is hit, always.</p> + +<p>At nightfall, when Chrysanthème has gone up to Diou-djen-dji, we +cross, Yves and myself, the European concession, on our way to the +ship, to take up our watch till the following day. The cosmopolitan +quarter exhaling an odor of absinthe, is dressed up with flags, and +<!-- Page 72 -->squibs are being fired off in honor of France. Long lines of djins +pass by, dragging as fast as their naked legs can carry them, the crew +of the <i>Triomphante</i>, who are shouting and fanning themselves. The +"Marseillaise" is heard everywhere; English sailors are singing it, +gutturally with a dull and slow cadence like their own "God Save." In +all the American bars, grinding organs are hammering it with many an +odious variation and flourish, in order to attract our men.</p> + +<hr /> + +<p>Just one funny recollection comes back to me of that evening. On our +return, we had by mistake got into a street inhabited by a multitude +of ladies of doubtful reputation. I can still see that big fellow +Yves, struggling with a whole band of tiny little mousmés of some +twelve or fifteen years of age, who barely reached up to his waist, +and were pulling him by the sleeves, anxious to lead him astray. +Astonished and indignant he repeated as he extricated himself from +their clutches: "Oh, this is too much!" So shocked was he at seeing +such mere babies, so young, so tiny, already so brazen and shameless.</p> + + +<p> </p> +<p> </p> +<p class="schdg"><a name="XII" id="XII"><!-- Page 73 -->XII.</a></p> + + +<p><i>July 18th</i>.</p> + +<p>There are now four of us, four officers of my ship, married like +myself, and inhabiting the slopes of the same suburb. It is quite an +ordinary occurrence, and is arranged without difficulties, mystery or +danger, through the negotiations of the same M. Kangourou.</p> + +<p>As a matter of course, we are on visiting terms with all these ladies.</p> + +<p>First there is our very merry neighbor Madame Campanule, who is little +Charles N——'s wife; then Madame Jonquille, who is even merrier than +Campanule, like a young bird and the daintiest fairy of the whole lot: +she has married X——, a fair northerner who adores her; they are a +loverlike and inseparable pair, the only one that will probably weep +when the hour of parting comes. Then Sikou-San with Doctor Y——; and +lastly the midshipman Z—— with the tiny Madame Touki-San, no taller +than a boot: thirteen years old at the outside and already a regular +woman, full of her own importance, a petulant little gossip. In my +childhood, I was sometimes taken to the <i>Learned Animals</i> Theater, and +I remember a certain Madame de Pompadour, a principal <!-- Page 74 -->rôle, filled by +a gayly dressed-up old monkey; Touki-San reminds me of her.</p> + +<p>In the evening, all these folk generally come and fetch us for a long +processional walk with lighted lanterns. My wife, more serious, more +melancholy, perhaps even more refined, and belonging, I fancy, to a +higher class, tries when these friends come to us to play the part of +the lady of the house. It is comical to see the entry of these +ill-matched couples, partners for a day, the ladies with their +disjointed bows falling on all fours before Chrysanthème, the queen of +the establishment. When we are all assembled, we start off, arm in +arm, one behind the other, and always carrying at the end of our short +sticks little white or red paper lanterns;—it seems it is pretty.</p> + +<p>We are obliged to scramble down the kind of street, or rather +goat's-path, which leads to the Japanese Nagasaki,—with the prospect, +alas! of having to climb up again at night; clamber up all the steps, +all the slippery slopes, stumble over all the stones, before we shall +be able to get home, go to bed, and sleep. We make our descent in the +darkness, under the branches, under the foliage, betwixt dark gardens +and venerable little houses that throw but a faint glimmer on the +road; and when the moon is <!-- Page 75 -->absent or clouded over, our lanterns are +by no means unnecessary.</p> + +<p>When at last we reach the bottom, suddenly, without transition, we +find ourselves in the very heart of Nagasaki and its busy throng in a +long illuminated street, where vociferating djins hurry along and +thousands of paper lanterns swing and gleam in the wind. It is life +and animation, after the peace of our silent suburb.</p> + +<p>Here, decorum requires we should separate from our wives. All five +take hold of each others' hands, like a batch of little girls out +walking. We follow them with an air of indifference. Seen from behind, +our dolls are really very dainty, with their back hair so tidily done +up, their tortoiseshell pins so coquettishly arranged. They shuffle +along, their high wooden clogs making an ugly sound, striving to walk +with their toes turned in, according to the height of fashion and +elegance. At every minute they burst out laughing.</p> + +<p>Yes, seen from behind, they are very pretty; they have, like all +Japanese women, the most lovely turn of the head. Moreover, they are +very funny, thus drawn up in line. In speaking of them, we say: "Our +little dancing dogs," and in truth they are singularly like them.</p> + +<p>This great Nagasaki is the same from one end to another, with its +numberless petroleum <!-- Page 76 -->lamps burning, its many-colored lanterns +flickering, and innumerable panting djins. Always the same narrow +streets, lined on each side with the same low houses, built in paper +and wood. Always the same shops, without glass windows, open to all +the winds, equally rudimentary whatever may be sold or made in them; +whether they display the finest gold lacquer ware, the most marvelous +china jars, or old worn-out pots and pans, dried fish, and ragged +frippery. All the salesmen are seated on the ground in the midst of +their valuable or trumpery merchandise, their legs bared nearly to the +waist. And all kinds of queer little trades are carried on under the +public gaze, by strangely primitive means, by workmen of the most +ingenuous type.</p> + +<p>Oh! what wonderful goods are exposed for sale in those streets! what +whimsical extravagances in those bazaars!</p> + +<p>No horses, no carriages are ever seen in the town; nothing but people +on foot, or the comical little carts dragged along by the runners. +Some few Europeans straggling hither and thither, wanderers from the +ships in harbor; some Japanese (fortunately as yet but few in number) +dressed up in coats; other natives who content themselves with adding +to their national costume the pot hat, from which their long sleek +locks hang down; and all <!-- Page 77 -->around, eager haggling, bargaining,—and +laughter.</p> + +<p>In the bazaars every evening our mousmés make endless purchases; like +spoilt children they buy everything they fancy: toys, pins, ribbons, +flowers. And then they prettily offer each other presents, with +childish little smiles. For instance, Campanule buys for Chrysanthème +an ingeniously contrived lantern on which, set in motion by some +invisible machinery, Chinese shadows dance in a ring round the flame. +In return, Chrysanthème gives Campanule a magic fan, with paintings +that change at will from butterflies fluttering round cherry-blossoms, +to outlandish monsters pursuing each other across black clouds. Touki +offers Sikou a cardboard mask representing the bloated countenance of +Daï-Cok, god of wealth; and Sikou replies by a long crystal trumpet, +by means of which are produced the most extraordinary sounds, like a +turkey gobbling. Everything is uncouth, fantastical to excess, +grotesquely lugubrious; everywhere we are surprised by +incomprehensible conceptions, which seem the work of distorted +imaginations.</p> + +<p>In the fashionable tea-houses where we finish up our evenings, the +little servant-girls now bow to us, on our arrival, with an air of +re<!-- Page 78 -->spectful recognition, as belonging to the fast set of Nagasaki. +There we carry on desultory conversations, full of misunderstandings +and endless <i>quid pro quo's</i> of uncouth words,—in little gardens +lighted up with lanterns, near ponds full of gold fish, with little +bridges, little islets and little ruined towers. They hand us tea and +white and pink-colored sweetmeats flavored with pepper that taste +strange and unfamiliar, and beverages mixed with snow tasting of +flowers or perfumes.</p> + +<hr /> + +<p>To give a faithful account of those evenings, would require a more +affected style than our own; and some kind of graphic sign would have +also to be expressly invented and scattered at haphazard amongst the +words, indicating the moment at which the reader should laugh,—rather +a forced laugh, perhaps, but amiable and gracious. The evening at an +end; it is time to return up there.</p> + +<p>Oh! that street, that road, that we must clamber up every evening, +under the starlit sky, or the heavy thunder-clouds, dragging by the +hand our drowsy mousmé in order to regain our home perched on high +half-way up the hill, where our bed of matting awaits us.</p> + + +<p> </p> +<p> </p> +<p class="schdg"><a name="XIII" id="XIII"><!-- Page 79 -->XIII.</a></p> + + +<p>The cleverest amongst us has been Louis de S——. Having formerly +inhabited Japan, and made a marriage Japan fashion there, he is now +satisfied to remain the friend of our wives, of whom he has become the +<i>Komodachi taksan takaï, the very tall friend</i> (as they say on account +of his excessive height and slenderness). Talking Japanese more freely +than we can, he is their confidential adviser, disturbs or reconciles +at will our households, and has infinite amusement at our expense.</p> + +<p>This <i>very tall friend</i> of our wives enjoys all the fun that these +little creatures can give him, without any of the worries of domestic +life. With brother Yves, and little Oyouki (the daughter of Madame +Prune, my landlady,) he makes up our incongruous party.</p> + + +<p> </p> +<p> </p> +<p class="schdg"><a name="XIV" id="XIV">XIV.</a></p> + + +<p>M. Sucre and Madame Prune,<a name="FNanchor_D_4" id="FNanchor_D_4" /> +<a href="#Footnote_D_4" class="fnanchor">[D]</a> my landlord and wife, two perfectly +unique personages <!-- Page 80 -->but recently escaped from the panel of some screen, +live below us on the ground floor; and very old they seem to have this +daughter of fifteen, Oyouki, who is Chrysanthème's inseparable friend.</p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_D_4" id="Footnote_D_4" /> +<a href="#FNanchor_D_4"><span class="label">[D]</span> +</a> In Japanese: <i>Sato-san</i> and <i>Oumé-San</i>.</p></div> + +<p>Both of them are entirely absorbed in the practices of Shintoist +devotion: perpetually on their knees before their family altar, +perpetually occupied in murmuring their lengthy orisons to the +Spirits, and clapping their hands from time to time to recall around +them the inattentive essences floating in the atmosphere;—in their +spare moments they cultivate in little pots of gayly-painted +earthenware, dwarf shrubs and unheard-of flowers which smell +deliciously in the evening.</p> + +<p>M. Sucre is taciturn, dislikes society, looks like a mummy in his blue +cotton dress. He writes a great deal, (his memoirs, I fancy) with a +paint-brush held in his finger-tips, on long strips of rice-paper of a +faint gray tint.</p> + +<p>Madame Prune is eagerly attentive, obsequious and rapacious; her +eye-brows are closely shaven, her teeth carefully lacquered with black +as befits a lady of gentility, and at all and no matter what hours, +she appears on all fours at the entrance of our apartment, to offer us +her services.</p> + +<p>As to Oyouki, she rushes upon us ten times <!-- Page 81 -->a day,—whether we are +sleeping, or dressing,—like a whirlwind on a visit, flashing upon us, +a very gust of dainty youthfulness and droll gayety,—a living peal of +laughter. She is round of figure, round of face; half baby, half girl; +and so affectionate that she bestows kisses on the slightest occasion +with her great puffy lips,—a little moist, it is true, like a +child's, but nevertheless very fresh and very red.</p> + + +<p> </p> +<p> </p> +<p class="schdg"><a name="XV" id="XV">XV.</a></p> + + +<p>In our dwelling, open as it is all the night through, the lamps +burning before the gilded Buddha procure us the company of the insect +inhabitants of every garden in the neighborhood. Moths, mosquitoes, +cicalas, and other extraordinary insects of which I don't even know +the names,—all this company assembles around us.</p> + +<p>It is extremely funny, when some unexpected grasshopper, some +free-and-easy beetle presents itself without invitation or excuse, +scampering over our white mats, to see the manner in which +Chrysanthème indicates it to my righteous vengeance,—merely pointing +her finger at it, without another word than "Hou!" <!-- Page 82 -->said with bent +head, a particular pout, and a scandalized air.</p> + +<p>There is a fan kept expressly for the purpose of blowing them out of +doors again.</p> + + +<p> </p> +<p> </p> +<p class="schdg"><a name="XVI" id="XVI">XVI.</a></p> + + +<p>Here, I must own, that to the reader of my story it must appear to +drag a little.</p> + +<p>In default of exciting intrigues and tragic adventures, I would fain +have known how to infuse into it a little of the sweet perfumes of the +gardens which surround me, something of the gentle warmth of the +sunshine, of the shade of these graceful trees. Love being wanting, I +should like it to breathe of the restful tranquillity of this far-away +suburb. Then, too, I should like it to reëcho the sound of +Chrysanthème's guitar, in which I begin to find a certain charm, for +want of something better, in the silence of the lovely summer +evenings.</p> + +<p>All through these moonlit nights of July, the weather has been calm, +luminous and magnificent. Ah! what glorious clear nights, what +exquisite roseate tints beneath that wonderful moon, what mystery of +blue shadows in the thick tangle of trees. And, from the heights +<!-- Page 83 -->where stood our verandah, how prettily the town lay sleeping at our +feet!</p> + +<p>After all, I do not positively detest this little Chrysanthème, and +when there is no repugnance on either side, habit turns into a +make-shift of attachment.</p> + + +<p> </p> +<p> </p> +<p class="schdg"><a name="XVII" id="XVII">XVII.</a></p> + + +<p>Always, over, in, and through everything, rises day and night from +this Japanese landscape the song of the cicalas, ceaseless, strident, +and prodigious. It is everywhere, and never-ending, at no matter what +hour of the burning day, what hour of the cool and refreshing night. +In the midst of the roads, as we approached our anchorage, we had +heard it at the same time from the two shores, from both walls of +green mountains. It is wearisome and haunting; it seems to be the +manifestation, the noise expressive of the special kind of life +peculiar to this region of the world. It is the voice of summer in +these islands; it is the song of unconscious rejoicing, always content +with itself and always appearing to inflate, to rise upwards, in a +greater and greater exultation at the sheer happiness of living.</p> + +<p>It is to me the noise characteristic of this <!-- Page 84 -->country,—this, and the +cry of the falcon, which had in like manner greeted our entry into +Japan. Over the valleys and the deep bay sail these birds, uttering +from time to time their three cries, "Han! han! han!" in a key of +sadness, which seems the extreme of painful astonishment. And the +mountains around re-echo their cry.</p> + + +<p> </p> +<p> </p> +<p class="schdg"><a name="XVIII" id="XVIII">XVIII.</a></p> + + +<p>Yves, Chrysanthème, and little Oyouki have struck up a friendship so +great that it amuses me: I even think, that in my home life, this +intimacy is what affords me the greatest entertainment. They form a +contrast which gives rise to the most absurd jokes, and most +unforeseen situations. He brings into this fragile little paper house, +his sailor's freedom and ease of manner, and his Breton accent; side +by side with these tiny mousmés of affected manners and bird-like +voices, who, small as they are, rule the big fellow as they please; +make him eat with chopsticks; teach him Japanese "<i>pigeon-vole</i>,"—and +cheat him, and quarrel, and almost die of laughter over it all.</p> + +<p>Certainly he and Chrysanthème take a pleasure in each other's company. +But I re<!-- Page 85 -->main serenely undisturbed, and cannot imagine that this +little chance doll with whom I play at married life, could possibly +bring a serious trouble between this "brother" and myself.</p> + + +<p> </p> +<p> </p> +<p class="schdg"><a name="XIX" id="XIX">XIX.</a></p> + + +<p>My family of Japanese relations, very numerous and very conspicuous, +is a great source of diversion to those of my brother officers who +visit me in my villa on the hill,—most especially to <i>komodachi +taksan takaï (the immensely tall friend)</i>.</p> + +<p>I have a charming mother-in-law—quite a woman of the world,—little +sisters-in-law, little cousins, and aunts who are still quite young.</p> + +<p>I have even a poor cousin, twice removed, who is a djin. There was +some hesitation in owning this latter to me; but, behold! during the +ceremony of introduction, we exchanged a smile of recognition, it was +number 415.</p> + +<p>Over this poor 415, my friends on board crack no end of jokes,—one in +particular, who, less than any one has the right to make them, little +Charles N——, for his mother-in-law was once a porter, or something +of the kind, at the gateway of a pagoda.</p> + +<p><!-- Page 86 -->I, however, who have a great respect for strength and agility, much +appreciate this new relative of mine. His legs are undoubtedly the +best in all Nagasaki, and whenever I am in a hurry, I always beg +Madame Prune to send down to the djin stand, and engage my cousin.</p> + + +<p> </p> +<p> </p> +<p class="schdg"><a name="XX" id="XX">XX.</a></p> + + +<p>I arrived unexpectedly to-day at Diou-djen-dji, in the midst of a +burning noonday heat. At the foot of the stairs lay Chrysanthème's +wooden clogs and her sandals of varnished leather.</p> + +<p>In our rooms, up above, all was open to the air; bamboo blinds lowered +on the sunny side, and through their transparency came warm air and +golden threads of light. To-day, the flowers Chrysanthème had placed +in our bronze vases were lotus, and my eyes fell, as I entered, upon +their great rosy cups.</p> + +<p>According to her usual custom, she was lying flat on the floor +enjoying her daily siesta.</p> + +<p>What a singular originality these bouquets of Chrysanthème always +have: a something difficult to define, a Japanese slimness, a +man<!-- Page 87 -->nered grace which we should never succeed in imparting to them.</p> + +<p>She was sleeping flat on her face upon the mats, her high headdress +and tortoiseshell pins standing out boldly from the rest of the +horizontal figure. The train of her tunic prolonged her delicate +little body, like the tail of a bird; her arms were stretched +crosswise, the sleeves spread out like wings,—and her long guitar lay +beside her.</p> + +<p>She looked like a dead fairy; or still more did she resemble some +great blue dragon-fly, which, having alighted on that spot, some +unkind hand had pinned to the floor.</p> + +<p>Madame Prune, who had come upstairs after me, always officious and +eager, manifested by her gestures her sentiments of indignation on +beholding the careless reception accorded by Chrysanthème to her lord +and master, and advanced to wake her.</p> + +<p>"Pray do nothing of the kind, my good Madame Prune, you don't know how +much I prefer her like that!" I had left my shoes below, according to +custom, by the side of the little clogs and sandals; and I entered on +the tips of my toes, very, very softly, to go and sit awhile under the +verandah.</p> + +<p>What a pity this little Chrysanthème cannot always be asleep; she is +really extremely <!-- Page 88 -->decorative seen in this manner,—and like this, at +least, she does not bore me. Who knows what may perchance be going on +in that little head and heart! If I only had the means of finding out! +But strange to say, since we have kept house together, instead of +pushing my studies in the Japanese language further, I have neglected +them, so much have I felt the utter impossibility of ever interesting +myself in the subject.</p> + +<p>Seated under my verandah, my eyes wandered over the temples and +cemeteries spread at my feet, over the woods and green mountains, over +Nagasaki lying bathed in the sunlight. The cicalas were chirping their +loudest, the strident noise trembling feverishly in the hot air. All +was calm, full of light and full of heat.</p> + +<p>Nevertheless, to my taste, it is not yet enough so! What then can have +changed upon the earth? The burning noon-days of summer, such as I can +recall in days gone by, were more brilliant, more full of sunshine; +Nature seemed to me in those days more powerful, more terrible. One +would say this was only a pale copy of all that I knew in early +years,—a copy in which something is wanting. Sadly do I ask +myself,—Is the splendor of the summer only this? <i>was it</i> only this? +or is it the fault <!-- Page 89 -->of my eyes, and as time goes on shall I behold +everything around me paling still more?</p> + +<p>Behind me a faint and melancholy strain of music,—melancholy enough +to make one shiver,—and shrill, shrill as the song of the +grasshoppers, began to make itself heard, very softly at first, then +growing louder and rising in the silence of the noonday like the +diminutive wail of some poor Japanese soul in pain and anguish; it was +Chrysanthème and her guitar awaking together.</p> + +<p>It pleased me that the idea should have occurred to her to greet me +with music, instead of eagerly hastening to wish me "Good morning." +(At no time have I ever given myself the trouble to pretend the +slightest affection for her, and a certain coldness even has grown up +between us, especially when we are alone.) But to-day I turn to her +with a smile, and wave my hand for her to continue. "Go on, it amuses +me to listen to your quaint little impromptu." It is singular that the +music of this essentially merry people should be so plaintive. But +undoubtedly that which Chrysanthème is playing at this moment is worth +listening to. Whence can it have come to her? What unutterable dreams, +forever hidden from me, fly through her yellow head, when she plays or +sings in this manner?</p> + +<p><!-- Page 90 -->Suddenly: Pan, pan, pan! Some one knocks three times, with a harsh +and bony finger against one of the steps of our stairs, and in the +aperture of our doorway appears an idiot, clad in a suit of gray +tweed, who bows low. "Come in, come in, M. Kangourou. How well you +come, just in the nick of time! I was actually becoming enthusiastic +over your country!"</p> + +<p>It was a little washing bill, which M. Kangourou respectfully wished +to hand to me, with a profound bend of the whole body, the correct +pose of the hands on the knees, and a long snake-like hiss.</p> + + +<p> </p> +<p> </p> +<p class="schdg"><a name="XXI" id="XXI">XXI.</a></p> + + +<p>Following the road which climbs past the front of our dwelling, one +passes a dozen or more old villas, a few garden walls, and then there +is nothing but the lonely mountain side, with little paths winding +upwards towards the summit through plantations of tea, bushes of +camellias, underwood and rocks. The mountains round Nagasaki are +covered with cemeteries; for centuries and centuries past it is up +here they have brought their dead.</p> + +<p>But there is neither sadness nor horror in <!-- Page 91 -->these Japanese sepulchers; +it would seem as if among this frivolous and childish people, death +itself could not be taken seriously. The monuments are either Buddhas, +in granite, seated on lotus, or upright funereal stones with an +inscription in gold; they are grouped together in little enclosures in +the midst of the woods, or on natural terraces delightfully situated, +and are generally reached by long stairways of stone carpeted with +moss; from time to time, these pass under one of the sacred gateways, +of which the shape, always the same, rude and simple, is a smaller +reproduction of those in the temples.</p> + +<p>Up above us, the tombs of our mountain are of so hoary an antiquity +that they no longer alarm any one, even by night. It is a region of +forsaken cemeteries. The dead hidden away there have long since become +one with the earth around them; and these thousands of little gray +stones, these multitudes of ancient little Buddhas, eaten away by +lichens, seem to be now no more than a proof of a series of +existences, long anterior to our own, and lost forever and altogether +in the mysterious depths of ages.</p> + + + +<p> </p> +<p class="schdg"><a name="XXII" id="XXII"><!-- Page 92 -->XXII.</a></p> + + +<p>Chrysanthème's meals are something indescribable.</p> + +<p>She begins in the morning, when she wakes, by two little green wild +plums pickled in vinegar and rolled in powdered sugar. A cup of tea +completes this almost traditional breakfast of Japan, the very same +Madame Prune is eating downstairs, the same served up to travelers in +the inns.</p> + +<p>During the course of the day the feeding is continued by two little +dinners of the drollest composition. They are brought up on a tray of +red lacquer, in microscopic cups with covers, from Madame Prune's +apartment, where they are cooked: a hashed sparrow, a stuffed prawn, +seaweed with a sauce, a salt sweetmeat, a sugared chili. Chrysanthème +tastes a little of all, with dainty pecks and the aid of her little +chopsticks, raising the tips of her fingers with affected grace. At +every dish she makes a face, leaves three parts of it, and dries her +finger-tips after it in apparent disgust.</p> + +<p>These menus vary according to the inspiration which may have seized +Madame Prune. But one thing never varies, either in our house<!-- Page 93 -->hold or +in any other, neither in the north nor in the south of the Empire, and +that is the dessert and the manner of eating it: after all these +little dishes, which are a mere make-believe, is brought in a wooden +bowl, bound with copper,—an enormous bowl, fit for Gargantua, and +filled to the very brim with rice, plainly cooked in water. +Chrysanthème fills another large bowl from it (sometimes twice, +sometimes three times), darkens its snowy whiteness with a black sauce +flavored with fish which is contained in a delicately shaped blue +cruet, mixes it all together, carries the bowl to her lips, and crams +down all the rice, shoveling it with her two chopsticks into her very +throat. Next the little cups and covers are picked up, as well as the +tiniest crumb that may have fallen upon the white mats, the +irreproachable purity of which nothing is allowed to tarnish. And so +ends the dinner.</p> + + +<p> </p> +<p> </p> +<p class="schdg"><a name="XXIII" id="XXIII">XXIII.</a></p> + +<p><i>August 2nd</i>.</p> + + +<p>Down below in the town, a street singer had established herself in a +little thoroughfare; people had collected around her to listen to her +singing, and we three—that is, Yves, Chrysan<!-- Page 94 -->thème and I—who chanced +to be passing, stopped like others.</p> + +<p>Quite young, rather fat, fairly pretty, she strummed her guitar and +sang, rolling her eyes fiercely, like a virtuoso executing feats of +difficulty. She lowered her head, stuck her chin into her neck, in +order to draw deeper notes from the furthermost recesses of her body; +and succeeded in bringing forth a great hoarse voice,—a voice that +might have belonged to an aged frog, a ventriloquist's voice, coming +from whence it would be impossible to say (this is the best stage +manner, the final word of art, for the interpretation of tragic +pieces).</p> + +<p>Yves cast an indignant glance upon her:</p> + +<p>"Good gracious," said he, "it's the voice of a—" (words failed him, +in his astonishment) "it's the voice of a—a monster!"</p> + +<p>And he looked at me, almost frightened by this little being, and +anxious to know what I thought of it.</p> + +<p>My poor Yves was out of temper on this occasion, because I had induced +him to come out in a straw hat with a turned-up brim, which did not +please him.</p> + +<p>"It suits you remarkably well, Yves, I assure you."</p> + +<p>"Oh, indeed! You say so, you. For my part, I think it looks like a +magpie's nest!"</p> + +<p><!-- Page 95 -->As a fortunate diversion from the singer and the hat, here comes a +cortège, advancing towards us from the end of the street, something +remarkably like a funeral. Bonzes march in front dressed in robes of +black gauze, having much the appearance of Catholic priests; the +principal personage of the procession, the corpse, comes last, laid in +a sort of little closed palanquin which is daintily pretty. This is +followed by a band of mousmés, hiding their laughing faces beneath a +kind of veil, and carrying in vases of the sacred shape the artificial +lotus with silver petals indispensable at a funeral; then come fine +ladies, on foot, smirking and stifling a wish to laugh, beneath +parasols on which are painted in the gayest colors, butterflies and +storks.</p> + +<p>Now they are quite close to us, we must stand back to give them room. +Chrysanthème all at once assumes a suitable air of gravity, and Yves +bares his head, taking off the magpie's nest.</p> + +<p>Yes, it is true, it is death that is passing by!</p> + +<p>I had almost lost sight of the fact, so little does this recall it.</p> + +<hr /> + +<p>The procession will climb high up, far away above Nagasaki, into the +heart of the green mountain all peopled with tombs. There the <!-- Page 96 -->poor +fellow will be laid at rest, with his palanquin above him, and his +vases and his flowers of silvered paper. Well, at least the poor +defunct will lie in a charming spot commanding a lovely view.</p> + +<p>They will now return half laughing, half sniveling, and to-morrow no +one will think of it again.</p> + + +<p> </p> +<p> </p> +<p class="schdg"><a name="XXIV" id="XXIV">XXIV.</a></p> + +<p><i>August 4th</i>.</p> + + +<p>The <i>Triomphante</i>, which has been lying in the roadsteads almost at +the foot of the hill on which stands my house, enters the dock to-day +to undergo repairs rendered necessary by the long blockade of Formosa.</p> + +<p>I am now a long way from my home, and obliged to cross by boat the +whole breadth of the bay when I wish to see Chrysanthème; for the dock +is situated on the shore opposite to Diou-djen-dji. It is sunk in a +little valley, narrow and deep, midst all kinds of foliage,—bamboos, +camellias, trees of all sorts; our masts and spars, seen from the +deck, look as if they were tangled among the branches.</p> + +<p>The situation of the vessel—no longer afloat—gives the crew a +greater facility for clandestine escapes from the ship at no matter +what <!-- Page 97 -->hour of the night, and our sailors have made friends with all +the girls of the villages perched on the mountains above us.</p> + +<p>These quarters and his excessive liberty, give me some uneasiness +about my poor Yves; for this country of frivolous pleasure has a +little turned his head. Moreover, I am more and more convinced that he +is in love with Chrysanthème.</p> + +<p>It is really a pity that the sentiment has not occurred to me instead, +since it is I who have gone the length of marrying her.</p> + + +<p> </p> +<p> </p> +<p class="schdg"><a name="XXV" id="XXV">XXV.</a></p> + + +<p>Notwithstanding the increased distance, I continue my daily visits to +Diou-djen-dji. When night has fallen, and the four couples who compose +our society have joined us, as well as Yves and the <i>amazingly tall +friend</i>,—we descend again into the town, stumbling by lantern light +down the steep stairways and slopes of the old suburb.</p> + +<p>This nocturnal stroll is always the same, and accompanied always by +the same amusements: we pause before the same queer stalls, we drink +the same sugared drinks served to us in the <!-- Page 98 -->same little gardens. But +our troop is often more numerous: to begin with, we chaperon Oyouki +who is confided to our care by her parents; then we have two cousins +of my wife's—pretty little creatures; and lastly friends—guests of +sometimes only ten or twelve years old, little girls of the +neighborhood to whom our mousmés wish to show some politeness.</p> + +<p>Oh! what a singular company of tiny beings forms our suite and follows +us into the tea-gardens in the evenings! The most absurd faces, with +sprigs of flowers stuck in the oddest fashion in their comical and +childish heads! One might suppose it was a whole school of mousmés out +for an evening's frolic under our care.</p> + +<hr /> + +<p>Yves returns with us, when time comes to remount our +hill,—Chrysanthème heaves great sighs like a tired child, and stops +on every step, leaning on our arms.</p> + +<p>When we have reached our destination he says good-night, just touches +Chrysanthème's hand, and descending once more, by the slope which +leads to the quays and the shipping, he crosses the roadstead in a +sampan, to get on board the <i>Triomphante</i>.</p> + +<p>Meantime, we, with the aid of a sort of secret key, open the door of +our garden, where <!-- Page 99 -->Madame Prune's pots of flowers, ranged in the +darkness, send forth delicious odors in the night air. We cross the +garden by moonlight or starlight, and mount to our own rooms.</p> + +<p>If it is very late,—a frequent occurrence,—we find all our wooden +panels drawn and tightly shut by the careful M. Sucre (as a precaution +against thieves), and our apartment is as close and as private as if +it were a real European one.</p> + +<p>In this house, when every chink is thus closed, a strange odor mingles +with the musk and the lotus,—an odor essential to Japan, to the +yellow race, belonging to the soil or emanating from the venerable +woodwork; almost an odor of wild beast. The mosquito curtain of dark +blue gauze ready hung for the night, falls from the ceiling with the +air of a mysterious velum. The gilded Buddha smiles eternally at the +night-lamps burning before him; some great moth, a constant frequenter +of the house, which during the day sleeps clinging to our ceiling, +flutters at this hour under the very nose of the god, turning and +flitting round the thin quivering flames. And, motionless on the wall, +its feelers spread out starwise, sleeps some great garden spider, +which one must not kill because it is night. "Hou!" says Chrysanthème +indignantly, pointing it out to me with <!-- Page 100 -->leveled finger. "Quick! where +is the fan kept for the purpose, wherewith to hunt it out of doors?"</p> + +<p>Around us reigns a silence which is almost painful after all the +joyous noises of the town, and all the laughter, now hushed, of our +band of mousmés,—a silence of the country, of some sleeping village.</p> + + +<p> </p> +<p> </p> +<p class="schdg"><a name="XXVI" id="XXVI">XXVI.</a></p> + + +<p>The noise of the innumerable wooden panels which at the fall of night +are pulled and shut in every Japanese house, is one of the +peculiarities of the country which will remain longest imprinted on my +memory. From our neighbors' houses, floating to us over the green +gardens, these noises reach us one after the other, in series, more or +less deadened, more or less distant.</p> + +<p>Just below us, those of Madame Prune move very badly, creak and make a +hideous noise in their worn-out grooves.</p> + +<p>Ours are somewhat noisy too, for the old house is full of echoes, and +there are at least twenty to run over long slides in order to close in +completely the kind of open hall in which we live. Generally it is +Chrysanthème who <!-- Page 101 -->undertakes this piece of household work, and a great +deal of trouble it gives her, for she often pinches her fingers in the +singular awkwardness of her too tiny hands, which have never been +accustomed to do any work.</p> + +<p>Then comes her toilette for the night. With a certain grace she lets +fall the day-dress, and slips on a more simple one of blue cotton, +which has the same pagoda sleeves, the same shape all but the train, +and which she fastens round her waist by a sash of muslin of the same +color.</p> + +<p>The high head-dress remains untouched, it is needless to say; all but +the pins which are taken out and laid beside her in a lacquer box.</p> + +<p>Then there is the little silver pipe that must absolutely be smoked +before going to sleep; this is one of the customs which most provokes +me, but has to be borne.</p> + +<p>Chrysanthème, like a gypsy, squats before a particular square box, +made of red wood, which contains a little tobacco jar, a little +porcelain stove full of hot embers, and finally a little bamboo pot +serving at the same time as ash-tray and spittoon. (Madame Prune's +smoking-box downstairs, and every smoking-box in Japan, both of men +and women, is exactly the same, and contains precisely the same +objects, arranged in precisely the same manner; and wherever it may +be, whether in the house of <!-- Page 102 -->the rich or the poor, it always lies +about somewhere on the floor.)</p> + +<p>The word "pipe" is at once too trivial and too big to be applied to +this delicate silver tube, which is perfectly straight and at the end +of which, in a microscopic receptacle, is placed one pinch of golden +tobacco, chopped finer than silken thread.</p> + +<p>Two puffs, or at most three; it lasts scarcely a few seconds, and the +pipe is finished. Then <i>pan, pan, pan, pan,</i> the little tube is struck +smartly against the edge of the smoking-box to knock out the ashes, +which never will fall; and this tapping, heard everywhere, in every +house, at every hour of the day or night, quick and droll as the +scratching of a monkey, is in Japan one of the noises most +characteristic of human life.</p> + +<p>"Anata nominasé!" ("You must smoke too!") says Chrysanthème.</p> + +<p>Having again filled the vexatious little pipe, she puts the silver +tube to my lips with a bow. Courtesy forbids my refusal; but I find it +detestably bitter.</p> + +<p>Now, before laying myself down under the blue mosquito-net, I open two +of the panels in the room, one on the side of the silent and deserted +footpath, the other one on the garden side, overlooking the terraces, +so that the night <!-- Page 103 -->air may breathe upon us, even at the risk of +bringing us the company of some belated cockchafer, or more giddy +moth.</p> + +<p>Our wooden house, with its thin old walls, vibrates at night like a +great dry fiddle; the slightest noises grow great in it, become +disfigured and positively disquieting.</p> + +<p>Beneath the verandah are hung two little Æolian harps, which at the +least ruffle of the breeze running through their blades of grass, emit +a gentle tinkling sound, like the harmonious murmur of a brook; +outside, to the very furthest limits of the distance, the cicalas +continue their great and everlasting concert; over our heads, on the +black roof, is heard passing like a witch's sabbath, the raging battle +to the death of cats, rats and owls.</p> + +<hr /> + +<p>Presently, when in the early dawn, a fresher breeze, mounting upwards +from the sea and the deep harbor, reaches us, Chrysanthème will slyly +get up and shut the panels I have opened.</p> + +<p>Before that, however, she will have risen at least three times to +smoke: having yawned like a cat, stretched herself, twisted in every +direction her little amber arms, and her graceful little hands, she +sits up resolutely, with all the waking groans and half words of a +child, pretty and fascinating enough: then she emerges from <!-- Page 104 -->the gauze +tent, fills her little pipe, and breathes a few puffs of the bitter +and unpleasant mixture.</p> + +<p>Then comes <i>pan, pan, pan, pan,</i> against the box to shake out the +ashes. In the resounding sonority of the night it makes quite a +terrible noise, which wakes Madame Prune. This is fatal. Madame Prune +is at once seized also with a longing to smoke which may not be +denied; then, to the noise from above, comes an answering <i>pan, pan, +pan, pan,</i> from below, exactly like it, exasperating and inevitable as +an echo.</p> + + +<p> </p> +<p> </p> +<p class="schdg"><a name="XXVII" id="XXVII">XXVII.</a></p> + + +<p>More cheerful are the noises of the morning: the cocks crowing, the +wooden panels all round the neighborhood sliding back upon their +rollers; or the strange cry of some little fruit-hawker, patrolling +our lofty suburb in the early dawn. And the grasshoppers absolutely +seem to chirp more loudly, to celebrate the return of the sunlight.</p> + +<p>Above all, rises to our ears from below the sound of Madame Prune's +long prayers, ascending through the floor, monotonous as the song of a +somnambulist, regular and soothing as the splash of a fountain. It +lasts three-quarters of <!-- Page 105 -->an hour at least; it drones along, a rapid +flow of words in a high nasal key; from time to time, when the +inattentive Spirits are not listening, it is accompanied by a clapping +of dry palms, or by harsh sounds from a kind of wooden clapper made of +two discs of mandragora root; it is an uninterrupted stream of prayer; +its flow never ceases, and the quavering continues without stopping, +like the bleating of an old nanny-goat in delirium.</p> + +<p><i>"After having washed the hands and feet"</i> say the sacred books, <i>"the +great God Ama-Térace-Omi-Kami, who is the royal power of Japan, must +be invoked; the manes of all the defunct Emperors descended from him +must also be invoked; next, the manes of all his personal ancestors, +to the furthest generation; the Spirits of the Air and Sea; the +Spirits of all secret and impure places; the Spirits of the tombs of +the district whence you spring, etc., etc."</i></p> + +<p>"I worship and implore you," sings Madame Prune, "Oh +Ama-Térace-Omi-Kami, royal power. Cease not to protect your faithful +people, who are ready to sacrifice themselves for their country. Grant +that I may become as holy as yourself, and drive from my mind all dark +thoughts. I am a coward and a sinner; purge me from my cowardice and +sinfulness, <!-- Page 106 -->even as the north wind drives the dust into the sea. Wash +me clean from all my iniquities, as one washes away uncleanness in the +river of Kamo. Make me the richest woman in the world. I believe in +your glory, which shall be spread over the whole earth, and illuminate +it forever for my happiness. Grant me the continued good health of my +family, and above all, my own, who, oh Ama-Térace-Omi-Kami, do worship +and adore you, and only you, etc., etc."</p> + +<p>Here follow all the Emperors, all the Spirits, and the interminable +list of the ancestors.</p> + +<p>In her trembling old woman's falsetto, Madame Prune sings out all +this, without omitting anything, at a pace which almost takes away her +breath.</p> + +<p>And very strange it is to hear: at length it seems hardly a human +voice; it sounds like a series of magic formulas, unwinding themselves +from an inexhaustible roller, and escaping to take flight through the +air. By its very weirdness, and by the persistency of its incantation, +it ends by producing in my scarcely awakened brain, an almost +religious impression.</p> + +<p>Every day I wake to the sound of this Shintoist litany chanted beneath +me, vibrating through the exquisite clearness of the summer +mornings,—while our night-lamps burn low before the smiling Buddha, +while the eternal <!-- Page 107 -->sun, scarcely risen, already sends through the +cracks of our wooden panels its bright rays, which dart like golden +arrows through our darkened dwelling and our blue gauze tent.</p> + +<p>This is the moment at which I must rise, descend hurriedly to the sea +by grassy footpaths all wet with dew, and so regain my ship.</p> + +<p>Alas! in the days gone by, it was the cry of the muezzin which used to +awaken me in the dark winter mornings, in far-away night-shrouded +Stamboul.</p> + + + +<p> </p> +<p> </p> +<p class="schdg"><a name="XXVIII" id="XXVIII">XXVIII</a></p> + + +<p>Chrysanthème has brought but few things with her, knowing that our +married life would be of short duration.</p> + +<p>She has placed her dresses and her fine sashes in little closed +recesses, hidden in one of the walls of our apartment (the north wall, +the only one of the four which will not take to pieces.) The doors of +these niches are white paper panels; the standing shelves and inside +partitions, consisting of light woodwork, are put together in too +finical a manner, too ingenious a way, giving rise to suspicions of +secret <!-- Page 108 -->drawers and conjuring tricks. We only put there things without +any value, having a vague feeling that the cupboards themselves might +spirit them away.</p> + +<p>The box in which Chrysanthème stores away her gewgaws and letters, is +one of the things that amuses me the most; it is of English origin, in +tin, and bears on its cover the colored representation of some +manufactory in the neighborhood of London. Of course, it is as an +exotic work of art, as a precious knick-knack, that Chrysanthème +prefers it to any of her other boxes in lacquer or inlaid work. It +contains all that a mousmé requires for her correspondence: Indian +ink, a paintbrush, very thin gray tinted paper, cut up in long narrow +strips, and funnily shaped envelopes, into which these strips are +slipped (after having been folded up in some thirty folds); the +envelopes being ornamented with pictures of landscapes, fishes, crabs, +or birds.</p> + +<p>On some old letters addressed to her, I can make out the two +characters that represent her name: "Kikou-San" (Chrysanthème, +Madame). And when I question her, she replies in Japanese, with an air +of importance:</p> + +<p>"My dear creature, they are letters from my female friends."</p> + +<p>Oh! those friends of Chrysanthème, what <!-- Page 109 -->funny little faces they have! +That same box contains their portraits, their photographs stuck on +visiting cards, which are printed on the back with the name of Uyeno, +the fashionable photographer in Nagasaki,—little creatures fit only +to figure daintily on painted fans, and who have striven to assume a +dignified attitude when once their necks have been placed in the +head-rest and they have been told: "Now don't move!"</p> + +<p>It would really amuse me to read her friends' letters,—and above all +my mousmé's answers.</p> + + +<p> </p> +<p> </p> +<p class="schdg"><a name="XXIX" id="XXIX">XXIX.</a></p> + +<p><i>August 10th</i>.</p> + + +<p>This evening it rained heavily, and the night was thick and black. At +about ten o'clock, on our return from one of the fashionable +tea-houses we constantly frequent, we arrived,—Yves, Chrysanthème and +myself,—at the certain familiar angle of the principal street, the +certain turn where we must take leave of the lights and noises of the +town, to clamber up the black steps and steep lanes which lead to our +home at Diou-djen-dji.</p> + +<p>There, before beginning our ascension, we must first buy lanterns from +an old trades-<!-- Page 110 -->woman called Madame +Très-Propre,<a name="FNanchor_E_5" id="FNanchor_E_5" /> +<a href="#Footnote_E_5" class="fnanchor">[E]</a> whose faithful +customers we are. It is amazing what a quantity of these paper +lanterns we consume. They are invariably decorated in the same way, +with painted night-moths or bats; fastened to the ceiling at the +further end of the shop, they hang in enormous clusters, and the old +woman, seeing us arrive, gets upon a table to take them down. Gray or +red are our usual choice; Madame Très-Propre knows our preferences and +leaves the green or blue lanterns aside. But it is always hard work to +unhook one, on account of the little short sticks by which they are +held, and the strings by which they are tied getting entangled +together. In an exaggerated pantomime, Madame Très-Propre expresses +her despair at wasting so much of our valuable time: oh! if it only +depended on her personal efforts! but ah, for the natural perversity +of inanimate things which have no consideration for human dignity. +With monkeyish antics, she even deems it her duty to threaten the +lanterns and shake her fist at these inextricably tangled strings +which have the presumption to delay us. It is all very well, but we +know this maneuver by heart; and if the old lady loses patience, so do +we. Chrysanthème, who is half asleep, is seized with a fit of +kitten-like yawning <!-- Page 111 -->which she does not even trouble to hide behind +her hand, and which appears to be endless. She pulls a very long face, +at the thought of the steep hill we must struggle up to-night through +the pelting rain.</p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_E_5" id="Footnote_E_5" /> +<a href="#FNanchor_E_5"><span class="label">[E]</span> +</a> In Japanese: <i>O Séï-San</i>.</p></div> + +<p>I have the same feeling, and am thoroughly annoyed.</p> + +<p>To what purpose, good heavens, do I clamber up every evening to that +suburb, when it offers me no attraction whatever?</p> + +<p>The rain increases, what are we to do? Outside, djins pass rapidly by, +calling out: "Take care!" splashing the foot-passengers and casting +through the shower streams of light from their many-colored lanterns. +Mousmés and elderly ladies pass by, tucked up, muddy, laughing +nevertheless, under their paper umbrellas, exchanging greetings, +clacking their wooden pattens on the stone pavement; the whole street +is filled with the noise of the pattering feet and pattering rain.</p> + +<p>As good luck will have it, at the same moment passes 415, our poor +relative, who, seeing our distress, stops and promises to help us out +of our difficulty; as soon as he has deposited on the quay an +Englishman he is conveying, he will come to our aid and bring all that +is necessary to relieve us from our lamentable situation.</p> + +<p><!-- Page 112 -->At last our lantern is unhooked, lighted, and paid for. There is +another shop opposite, where we stop every evening; it is Madame +L'Heure's,<a name="FNanchor_F_6" id="FNanchor_F_6" /> +<a href="#Footnote_F_6" class="fnanchor">[F]</a> the +woman who sells waffles; we always buy a provision +from her, to refresh us on the way. A very lively young woman is this +pastry-cook, and most anxious to make herself agreeable; she looks +quite like a screen picture, behind her piled-up cakes, ornamented +with little posies. We will take shelter under her roof while we wait; +and, to avoid the drops that fall heavily from the water-spouts, wedge +ourselves tightly against her display of white and pink sweetmeats, so +artistically spread out on fresh and delicate branches of cypress.</p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_F_6" id="Footnote_F_6" /> +<a href="#FNanchor_F_6"><span class="label">[F]</span> +</a> In Japanese: <i>Tôki-San</i>.</p></div> + +<p>Poor 415, what a providence he is to us! Already he re-appears, most +excellent cousin, ever smiling, ever running, while the water streams +down his handsome bare legs; he brings us two umbrellas, borrowed from +a China merchant, who is also a distant relative of ours. Like me, +Yves has till now never consented to use such a thing, but he now +accepts one because it is droll: in paper, of course, with innumerable +folds waxed and gummed, and the inevitable flight of storks forming a +wreath all round.</p> + +<p>Chrysanthème, yawning more and more in <!-- Page 113 -->her kitten-like fashion, +becomes coaxing in order to be helped along, and tries to take my arm:</p> + +<p>"I beg you, mousmé, this evening to take the arm of Yves-San; I am +sure that will suit us all three."</p> + +<p>And there they go, she, tiny figure, hanging on to the big fellow, and +so they climb up. I lead the way, carrying the lantern that lights our +steps, and whose flame I protect as well as I can under my fantastic +umbrella. On each side of the road is heard the roaring torrent of +stormy waters rolling down from the mountain side. To-night the way +seems long, difficult and slippery; a succession of interminable +flights of steps, gardens and houses piled up one above another; waste +lands, and trees which in the darkness shake their dripping foliage on +our heads.</p> + +<p>One would say that Nagasaki is ascending at the same time as +ourselves; but yonder, and very far away, in a kind of vapory mist +which seems luminous on the blackness of the sky; and from the town +there rises a confused murmur of voices and rumbling of gongs and +laughter.</p> + +<p>The summer rain has not yet refreshed the atmosphere. On account of +the stormy heat, the little suburban houses have been left open <!-- Page 114 -->like +sheds, and we can see all that is going on. Lamps ever lighted burn +before the altars dedicated to Buddha and to the souls of the +ancestors; but all good Niponese have already lain down to rest. Under +the traditional tents of bluish-green gauze, we can see them, +stretched out in rows by whole families; they are either sleeping, or +hunting the mosquitoes, or fanning themselves. Niponese men and women, +Niponese babies too, lying side by side with their parents; each one, +young or old, in his little dark-blue cotton night-dress, and with his +little wooden block to rest the nape of his neck.</p> + +<p>A few houses are open, where amusements are still going on; here and +there, from the somber gardens, the sound of a guitar reaches our +ears, some dance giving in its weird rhythm a strange impression of +sadness.</p> + +<hr /> + +<p>Here is the well, surrounded by bamboos, where we are wont to make a +nocturnal halt for Chrysanthème to take breath. Yves begs me to throw +forward the red gleam of my lantern, in order to recognize the place, +for it marks our half-way resting place.</p> + +<p>And at last, at last, here is our house! The door is closed, all is +silent and black. Our panels have been carefully shut by M. Sucre and +Madame Prune; the rain streams down the <!-- Page 115 -->wood of our old black walls.</p> + +<p>In such weather it is impossible to allow Yves to return down hill, +and wander along the shore in quest of a sampan. No, he shall not +return on board to-night; we will put him up in our house. His little +room has indeed been already provided for in the conditions of our +lease, and notwithstanding his discreet refusal, we immediately set to +work to make it. Let us go in, take off our boots, shake ourselves +like so many cats that have been out in a shower, and step up to our +apartment.</p> + +<p>In front of Buddha, the little lamps are burning; in the middle of the +room, the night-blue gauze is stretched. On entering, the first +impression is a favorable one; our dwelling is pretty, this evening, +the late hour and deep silence give it an air of mystery. And then +also, in such weather, it is always pleasant to get home.</p> + +<p>Come, let us at once prepare Yves' room. Chrysanthème, quite elated at +the prospect of having her big friend near her, sets to work with a +good will; moreover, the task is an easy one, we have only to slip +three or four paper panels in their grooves, to make at once a +separate room or compartment in the great box we live in. I had +thought that these panels were entirely white; but no! on each of them +is a <!-- Page 116 -->group of two storks painted in gray tints in those inevitable +attitudes consecrated by Japanese art: one bearing aloft its proud +head and haughtily raising its leg, the other scratching itself. Oh +these storks! how sick one gets of them, at the end of a month spent +in Japan!</p> + +<hr /> + +<p>Yves is now in bed and sleeping under our roof.</p> + +<p>Sleep has come to him sooner than to me to-night; for somehow I fancy +I had seen long glances exchanged between him and Chrysanthème.</p> + +<p>I have left this little creature in his hands like a toy, and I begin +to fear lest I should have thrown some perturbation in his mind. I do +not trouble my head about this little Japanese girl. But Yves,—it +would be decidedly wrong on his part, and would greatly diminish my +faith in him.</p> + +<p>We hear the rain falling on our old roof; the cicalas are mute; odors +of wet earth reach us from the gardens and the mountain. I feel +terribly dreary in this room to-night; the noise of the little pipe +irritates me more than usual, and as Chrysanthème crouches in front of +her smoking-box, I suddenly discover in her an air of low breeding, in +the very worst sense of the word.</p> + +<p><!-- Page 117 -->I should hate her, my mousmé, if she were to entice Yves into +committing a fault,—a fault which I should perhaps never be able to +forgive.</p> + + +<p> </p> +<p> </p> +<p class="schdg"><a name="XXX" id="XXX">XXX.</a></p> + +<p><i>August 12th</i>.</p> + + +<p>The Y—— and Sikou-San couple were divorced yesterday. The Charles +N—— and Campanule household is getting on very badly. They have had +some annoyance with those prying, grinding, insupportable little men, +dressed up in suits of gray, who are called police agents and who by +threatening their landlord, have had them turned out of their +house—under the obsequious amiability of this people, there lurks a +secret hatred towards us Europeans—they are therefore obliged to +accept their mother-in-law's hospitality, a very painful position. And +then Charles N—— fancies his wife is faithless. It is hardly +possible, however, for us to deceive ourselves: these would-be +maidens, to whom M. Kangourou has introduced us, are young people who +have already had in their lives one, or perhaps more than one, +adventure; it is therefore only natural that we should have our +suspicions.</p> + +<p><!-- Page 118 -->The Z—— and Touki-San couple jog on, quarreling all the time.</p> + +<p>My household maintains a more dignified air, though it is none the +less dreary. I had indeed thought of a divorce, but have really no +good reason for offering Chrysanthème such a gratuitous affront; +moreover there is another more imperative reason why I should remain +quiet: I too have had difficulties with the civilian authorities.</p> + +<p>Day before yesterday, M. Sucre quite upset, Madame Prune almost +swooning, and Mdlle. Oyouki bathed in tears, stormed my rooms. The +Niponese police agents had called and threatened them with the law for +letting rooms outside of the European concession to a Frenchman +morganatically married to a Japanese; and the terror of being +prosecuted brought them to me, with a thousand apologies, but the +humble request that I should leave.</p> + +<p>The next day I therefore went off, accompanied by <i>the wonderfully +tall friend</i>, who expresses himself better than I do in Japanese, to +the register office, with the full intention of making a terrible row.</p> + +<p>In the language of this exquisitely polite people, terms of abuse are +totally wanting; when very angry, one is obliged to be satisfied with +using the <i>thou</i>, mark of <i>inferiority</i> and the <!-- Page 119 --><i>familiar +conjugation</i>, habitual towards those of low birth. Seating myself on +the table used for weddings, in the midst of all the flurried little +policemen, I open the conversation in the following terms:</p> + +<p>"In order that <i>thou shouldest</i> leave me in peace in the suburb I am +inhabiting, what bribe must I offer <i>thee</i>, set of little beings more +contemptible than any mere street porter?"</p> + +<p>Great and mute scandal, silent consternation, and low bows greet my +words.</p> + +<p>"Certainly," they at last reply, my honorable person shall not be +molested, indeed they ask for nothing better. Only, in order to +subscribe to the laws of the country, I ought to have come here and +given my name and that of the young person that—with whom—</p> + +<p>"Oh! that is going too far! I came here on purpose, contemptible +creatures, not three weeks ago!"</p> + +<p>Then taking up myself the civil register, and turning over the pages +rapidly, I found my signature and beside it the little hieroglyphics +drawn by Chrysanthème:</p> + +<p>"There, set of idiots, look at that!"</p> + +<p>Arrival of a very high functionary,—a ridiculous little old fellow in +a black coat, who from his office has been listening to the row:</p> + +<p>"What is the matter? What is it? What is <!-- Page 120 -->this annoyance put upon the +French officers?"</p> + +<p>I politely state my case to this personage, who cannot make apologies +and promises enough. The little agents prostrate themselves on all +fours, sink into the earth; and we leave them, cold and dignified, +without returning their bows.</p> + +<p>M. Sucre and Madame Prune can now make their minds easy, they will not +be disturbed again.</p> + + +<p> </p> +<p> </p> +<p class="schdg"><a name="XXXI" id="XXXI">XXXI.</a></p> + +<p><i>August 23rd</i>.</p> + + +<p>The prolonged stay of the <i>Triomphante</i> in the dock, and the distance +of our home from town, have been my pretext these last two or three +days for not going up to Diou-djen-dji to see Chrysanthème.</p> + +<p>It is dreary work though in these docks. With the early dawn a legion +of little Japanese workmen invade us, bringing their dinners in +baskets and gourds like the working-men in our arsenals, but with a +needy, shabby appearance, and a ferreting, hurried manner which +reminds one of rats. Silently they slip under the keel, at the bottom +of the hold, in all the holes, sawing, nailing, repairing.</p> + +<p><!-- Page 121 -->The heat is intense in this spot, overshadowed by the rocks and +tangled masses of foliage.</p> + +<p>At two o'clock, in the broad sunlight, we have a new and far prettier +kind of invasion: that of the beetles and butterflies.</p> + +<p>Butterflies as wonderful as those on the fans. Some all black, giddily +dash up against us, so light and airy that they seem merely a pair of +quivering wings fastened together without any body.</p> + +<p>Yves astonished, gazes at them, saying in his boyish manner: "Oh, I +saw such a big one just now, such a big one, it quite frightened me; I +thought it was a bat attacking me."</p> + +<p>A steersman who has captured a very curious specimen, carries it off +carefully to press between the leaves of his signal-book, like a +flower. Another sailor passing by, taking his small roast to the oven +in a mess-bowl, looks at him funnily and says:</p> + +<p>"You had much better give it to me. I'd cook it!"</p> + + +<p> </p> +<p> </p> +<p class="schdg"><a name="XXXII" id="XXXII">XXXII.</a></p> + + +<p><i>August 24th</i>.</p> + +<p>It is nearly five days since I have abandoned my home and +Chrysanthème.</p> + +<p><!-- Page 122 -->Since yesterday we have had a storm of rain and wind—(a typhoon that +has passed or is passing over us). We beat to quarters in the middle +of the night to <i>lower the top-masts, strike the lower yards</i>, and +take every precaution against bad weather. The butterflies no longer +hover around us, but everything tosses and writhes overhead: on the +steep slopes of the mountain, the trees shiver, the long grasses bend +low as though in pain; terrible gusts rack them with a hissing sound; +branches, bamboo leaves, and earth are showered down like rain upon +us.</p> + +<p>In this land of pretty little trifles, this violent tempest is out of +all harmony; it seems as if its efforts were exaggerated and its music +too loud.</p> + +<hr /> + +<p>Towards evening the big dark clouds roll by so rapidly, that the +showers are of short duration and soon pass over. Then I attempt a +walk on the mountain above us, in the wet verdure: little pathways +lead up it, between thickets of camellias and bamboos.</p> + +<p>Waiting till a shower is over, I take refuge in the courtyard of an +old temple half-way up the hill, buried in a wood of centennial trees +of gigantic branches; it is reached by granite steps, through strange +gateways, as deeply furrowed <!-- Page 123 -->as the old Celtic dolmens. The trees +have also invaded this yard; the daylight is overcast with a greenish +tint, and the drenching rain that pours down in torrents, is full of +torn-up leaves and moss. Old granite monsters, of unknown shapes, are +seated in the corners, and grimace with smiling ferocity; their faces +are full of indefinable mystery that makes me shudder amid the moaning +music of the wind, in the gloomy shadows of the clouds and branches.</p> + +<p>They could not have resembled the Japanese of our day, the men who had +thus conceived these ancient temples, who built them everywhere, and +filled the country with them, even in its most solitary nooks.</p> + +<hr /> + +<p>An hour later, in the twilight of that stormy day, on the same +mountain, I chanced upon a clump of trees somewhat similar to oaks in +appearance; they, too, have been twisted by the tempest, and the tufts +of undulating grass at their feet are laid low, tossed about in every +direction. There, I suddenly have brought back to my mind, my first +impression of a strong wind in the woods of Limoise, in the province +of Saintonge, some twenty-eight years ago, in a month of March of my +childhood.</p> + +<p>That, the first storm of wind my eyes ever beheld sweeping over the +landscape, blew in <!-- Page 124 -->just the opposite quarter of the world,—and many +years have rapidly passed over that memory,—since then the best part +of my life has been spent.</p> + +<p>I refer too often, I fancy, to my childhood; I am foolishly fond of +it. But it seems to me that then only did I truly experience +sensations or impressions; the smallest trifles I then saw or heard +were full of deep and hidden meaning, recalling past images out of +oblivion, and reawakening memories of prior existence; or else they +were presentiments of existences to come, future incarnations in the +land of dreams, expectations of wondrous marvels that life and the +world held in store for me,—for later, no doubt, when I should be +grown up. Well, I have grown up, and have found nothing that answered +to my undefinable expectations; on the contrary, all has narrowed and +darkened around me, my vague recollections of the past have become +blurred, the horizons before me have slowly closed in and become full +of a gray darkness. Soon will my time come to return to eternal rest, +and I shall leave this world without having understood the mysterious +wherefore of these mirages of my childhood; I shall bear away with me +a lingering regret, of I know not what lost home that I have failed to +<!-- Page 125 -->find, of the unknown beings ardently longed for, whom, alas, I have +never embraced.</p> + + +<p> </p> +<p> </p> +<p class="schdg"><a name="XXXIII" id="XXXIII">XXXIII.</a></p> + + +<p>With many affectations, M. Sucre has dipped the tip of his delicate +paint-brush in Indian ink and traced a couple of charming storks on a +pretty sheet of rice-paper, offering them to me in the most gracious +manner, as a souvenir of himself. They are here, in my cabin on board, +and whenever I look at them, I can fancy I see M. Sucre tracing them +in an airy manner, with elegant facility.</p> + +<p>The saucer in which M. Sucre mixes his ink, is in itself a little gem. +Chiselled out of a piece of jade, it represents a tiny lake with a +carved border imitating rockwork. On this border is a little mama +toad, also in jade, advancing as though to bathe in the little lake in +which M. Sucre carefully keeps a few drops of very dark liquid. The +mama toad has four little baby toads, equally in jade, one perched on +her head, the other three playing about under her.</p> + +<p>M. Sucre has painted many a stork in the course of his lifetime, and +he really excels in <!-- Page 126 -->reproducing groups and duets, if one may so +express it, of this kind of bird. Few Japanese possess the art of +interpreting this subject in a manner at once so rapid and so +tasteful; first he draws the two beaks, then the four claws, then the +backs, the feathers, dash, dash, dash,—with a dozen strokes of his +clever brush, held in his daintily posed hand, it is done, and always +perfectly well done!</p> + +<p>M. Kangourou relates, without seeing anything wrong in it whatever, +that formerly this talent was of great service to M. Sucre. It appears +that Madame Prune,—how shall I say such a thing, and who could guess +it now, on beholding so devout and sedate an old lady, with eyebrows +so scrupulously shaven!—however, it appears that Madame Prune used to +receive a great many visits from gentlemen,—gentlemen who always came +alone, and it led to some gossip. Therefore, when Madame Prune was +engaged with one visitor, if a new arrival made his appearance, the +ingenious husband, to make him wait patiently, and to while away the +time in the ante-room, immediately offered to paint him some storks in +a variety of attitudes.</p> + +<p>And this is how, in Nagasaki, all the Japanese gentlemen of a certain +age, have in their collections two or three of these little pic<!-- Page 127 -->tures, +for which they are indebted to the delicate and original talent of M. +Sucre.</p> + + +<p> </p> +<p> </p> +<p class="schdg"><a name="XXXIV" id="XXXIV">XXXIV.</a></p> + + +<p><i>Sunday, August 25th</i>.</p> + +<p>At about six o'clock, while I was on duty, the <i>Triomphante</i> left her +prison walls between the mountains and came out of dock. After a great +uproar of maneuvering we took up our old moorings in the roadstead, at +the foot of the Diou-djen-dji hills. The weather was again calm and +cloudless, the sky presenting a peculiar clearness as though it had +been swept clean by the cyclone, an exceeding transparency bringing +out the minutest details of the far distance till then unseen; as if +the terrible blast had blown away every vestige of the floating mists +and left behind it nothing but void and boundless space. The coloring +of woods and mountains stood out again in the resplendent verdancy of +spring after the torrents of rain, like the wet colors of some freshly +washed painting. The sampans and junks, which for the last three days +had been lying under shelter, had now put out to sea, and the bay was +covered with their white sails, which looked like an immense flight of +seabirds.</p> + +<p><!-- Page 128 -->At eight o'clock, at nightfall, our maneuver being at an end, I +embarked with Yves on board a sampan; this time it is he who is +carrying me off and taking me back to my home.</p> + +<p>On land, a delicious perfume of new-mown hay greets us, and the road +across the mountains lies bathed in glorious moonlight. We go straight +up to Diou-djen-dji to join Chrysanthème; I feel almost remorseful, +although I hardly show it, for my neglect of her.</p> + +<p>Looking up, I recognize from afar my little house, perched on high. It +is wide open and lit up; I even hear the sound of guitar. Then I +perceive the gilt head of my Buddha between: the little bright flames +of its two hanging night lamps. Now Chrysanthème appears on the +verandah, looking out as if she expected us; and with her wonderful +bows of hair and long falling sleeves, her silhouette is thoroughly +Niponese.</p> + +<p>As I enter, she comes forward to kiss me, in a graceful, though rather +hesitating manner, while Oyouki, more demonstrative, throws her arms +around me.</p> + +<p>It is with a certain pleasure that I see once more this Japanese home, +which I wonder to find still mine when I had almost forgotten its +existence. Chrysanthème has put fresh flowers in our vases, spread out +her hair, donned her <!-- Page 129 -->best clothes, and lighted our lamps to honor my +return. From the balcony she had watched the <i>Triomphante</i> leave the +dock, and, in the expectation of our now prompt return, she had made +her preparations; then, to while away the time, she was studying a +duet on the guitar with Oyouki. Not a question or reproach did she +make. On the contrary:</p> + +<p>"We quite understood," she said, "how impossible it was, in such +dreadful weather, to undertake so lengthy a crossing in a sampan."</p> + +<p>She smiled like a pleased child, and I should be fastidious indeed if +I did not admit that to-night she is charming.</p> + +<p>I announce my intention of starting off for a long stroll through +Nagasaki; we will take Oyouki-San and two little cousins who happen to +be there, as well as some other neighbors, if they wish to; we will +buy the funniest toys, eat all sorts of cakes, and amuse ourselves to +our hearts' content.</p> + +<p>"How lucky we are to be here, just at the right moment," they exclaim, +jumping with joy. "How fortunate we are! This very evening there is to +be a pilgrimage to the great temple of the <i>Jumping Tortoise!</i> The +whole town will be there; all our married friends have already +started, the whole set, X——, Y——, Z——, Touki-San, Campanule, and +Jonquille, <!-- Page 130 -->with <i>the friend of amazing height</i>." And those two, poor +Chrysanthème and poor Oyouki, would have been obliged to stay at home +with heavy hearts, because we had not yet arrived, and because Madame +Prune had been seized with faintness and hysterics after her dinner.</p> + +<p>Quickly the mousmés must deck themselves out. Chrysanthème is ready; +Oyouki hurries, changes her dress, and, putting on a mouse-colored +gray robe, begs me to arrange the bows of her fine sash—black satin +lined with yellow—sticking at the same time in her hair a silver +top-knot. We light our lanterns, swinging at the end of little sticks; +M. Sucre, overwhelming us with thanks for his daughter, accompanies us +on all fours to the door,—and we go off gayly through the clear and +balmy night.</p> + +<p>Below, we find the town in all the animation of a great holiday. The +streets are thronged; the crowd passes by,—a laughing, capricious, +slow, unequal tide, flowing onwards, however, steadily in the same +direction, towards the same goal. There arises therefrom an immense +but light murmur in which dominate the sounds of laughter, and the +low-toned interchange of polite speeches. Then follow lanterns upon +lanterns. Never in my life have I seen so <!-- Page 131 -->many, so variegated, so +complicated, and so extraordinary.</p> + +<p>We follow, drifting with the surging crowd, borne along by it. There +are groups of women of every age, decked out in their smartest +clothes, crowds of mousmés with aigrettes of flowers in their hair, or +little silver top-knots like Oyouki,—pretty little physiognomies, +little narrow eyes peeping between slit lids like those of a new-born +kitten, fat pale little cheeks, round, puffed-out, half-opened lips. +They are pretty, nevertheless, these little Niponese, in their smiles +and childishness.</p> + +<p>The men, on the other hand, wear many a pot hat, pompously added to +the long national robe, and giving thereby a finishing touch to their +cheerful ugliness, resembling nothing so much as dancing monkeys. They +carry boughs in their hands, whole shrubs, even, amidst the foliage of +which dangle all sorts of curious lanterns in the shape of imps and +birds.</p> + +<p>As we advance in the direction of the temple, the streets become more +noisy and crowded. All along the houses are endless stalls raised on +trestles, displaying sweetmeats of every color, toys, branches of +flowers, nosegays, and masks. There are masks everywhere, boxes full +of them, carts full of them; the most popular being the one that +represents the livid <!-- Page 132 -->and cunning muzzle, contracted as by a deathlike +grimace, the long straight ears, sharp-pointed teeth of the white fox, +sacred to the God of Rice. There are also others symbolic of gods or +monsters, livid, grimacing, convulsed, with wigs and beards of natural +hair. All manner of folk, even children, purchase these horrors, and +fasten them over their faces. Every sort of instrument is for sale, +amongst them many of those crystal trumpets which sound so +strangely,—this evening they are enormous, six feet long at +least,—and the noise they make is unlike anything ever heard before: +one would say gigantic turkeys gobbling amongst the crowd, and +striving to inspire fear.</p> + +<p>In the religious amusements of this people it is not possible for us +to penetrate the mysteriously hidden meaning of things; we cannot +divine the boundary at which jesting stops and mystic fear steps in. +These customs, these symbols, these masks, all that tradition and +atavism have jumbled together in the Japanese brain, proceed from +sources utterly dark and unknown to us; even the oldest records fail +to explain them to us in anything but a superficial and cursory +manner, <i>simply because we have absolutely nothing in common with this +people</i>. We pass in the midst of their mirth and their <!-- Page 133 -->laughter +without understanding the wherefore, so totally does it differ from +our own.</p> + +<hr /> + +<p>Chrysanthème with Yves, Oyouki with me, Fraise and Zinia, our cousins, +walking before us under our watchful eye, slowly move through the +crowd, holding each others' hands lest we should lose one another.</p> + +<p>All along the streets leading to the temple, the wealthy inhabitants +have decorated the fronts of their houses with a quantity of vases and +nosegays. The peculiar shed-like buildings habitual in this country, +with their open platform frontage, are particularly well suited for +the display of choice objects; all the houses have been thrown open, +and the interiors are hung with draperies that hide the back of the +apartments. In front of these hangings and slightly standing back from +the movement of the passing crowd, the various exhibited articles are +methodically placed in a row, under the full glare of hanging lamps. +Hardly any flowers compose the nosegays, nothing but foliage,—some +rare and priceless, others chosen as if purposely from amongst the +commonest plants, arranged however with such taste as to make them +appear new and choice; ordinary lettuce leaves, tall cabbage stalks +are placed with exquisite artificial taste in vessels of mar<!-- Page 134 -->velous +workmanship. All the vases are of bronze, but the designs are varied +according to each changing fancy: some complicated and twisted; +others, and by far the largest number, graceful and simple, but of a +simplicity so studied and exquisite that to our eyes they seem the +revelation of an unknown art, the subversion of all acquired notions +on form.</p> + +<hr /> + +<p>On turning a corner of a street, by good luck we meet our married +comrades of the <i>Triomphante</i> and Jonquille, Touki-San and Campanule! +Bows and curtsies are exchanged by the mousmés, reciprocal +manifestations of joy at meeting; then, forming a compact band, we are +carried off by the ever-increasing crowd and continue our progress in +the direction of the temple.</p> + +<p>The streets gradually ascend (the temples are always built on a +height); and by degrees as we mount up, there is added to the +brilliant fairyland of lanterns and costumes, yet another, ethereally +blue in the haze of distance; all Nagasaki, its pagodas, its +mountains, its still waters full of the rays of moonlight, seem to +rise up with us into the air. Slowly, step by step, one may say it +springs up around, enveloping in one great shimmering veil all the +fore<!-- Page 135 -->ground, with its dazzling red lights and many-colored streamers.</p> + +<p>No doubt we are getting near, for here are the religious steps, +porticos and monsters hewn out of enormous blocks of granite. We now +have to climb a series of steps, almost earned by the surging crowd +ascending with us.</p> + +<hr /> + +<p>The temple court-yard; we have arrived.</p> + +<p>This is the last and most astonishing scene in the evening's +fairy-tale,—a luminous and weird scene with fantastic distances +lighted up by the moon and the gigantic trees, the sacred +cryptomerias, stretching forth their dark somber boughs like a vast +dome.</p> + +<p>Here we are all seated with our mousmés, beneath the light awning +wreathed in flowers, of one of the many little tea-houses improvised +in this courtyard. We are on a terrace at the top of the great steps, +up which the crowd continues to flock; we are at the foot of a portico +which stands up erect with the rigid massiveness of a colossus against +the dark night sky; at the foot also of a monster, who stares down +upon us, with his big stony eyes, his cruel grimace and smile.</p> + +<p>This portico and the monster are the two great overwhelming masses in +the foreground of the incredible scene before us; they stand <!-- Page 136 -->out with +dazzling boldness against the vague and ashy blue of the distant +sphere beyond; behind them, Nagasaki is spread out in a bird's-eye +view, faintly outlined in the transparent darkness with myriads of +little colored lights, and the extravagantly dented profile of the +mountains is delineated on the starlit sky, blue upon blue, +transparency upon transparency. A corner of the harbor is also +visible, high up, undefined like a lake lost in the clouds; the water +faintly illumined by a ray of moonlight shining forth like a sheet of +silver.</p> + +<p>Around us the long crystal trumpets keep up their gobble. Groups of +polite and frivolous persons pass and repass like fantastic shadows: +childish bands of small-eyed mousmés with smile so candidly +meaningless and chignons shining through their bright silver flowers; +ugly men waving at the end of long branches their eternal lanterns +shaped like birds, gods or insects.</p> + +<p>Behind us, in the lit-up and wide-open temple, the bonzes sit, +immovable embodiments of doctrine, in the glittering sanctuary +inhabited by divinities, chimeras and symbols. The crowd, monotonously +droning its mingled prayers and laughter, presses around them, sowing +its alms broadcast; with a continuous jingle, the money rolls on the +ground into the precincts reserved <!-- Page 137 -->to the priests, where the white +mats entirely disappear under the mass of many-sized coins accumulated +there as after a deluge of silver and bronze.</p> + +<p>We, however, feel thoroughly at sea in the midst of this festivity; we +look on, we laugh like the rest, we make foolish and senseless remarks +in a language insufficiently learned, and which this evening, I know +not why, we can hardly understand. Notwithstanding the night breeze, +we find it very hot under our awning, and we absorb quantities of +funny-looking water-ices, served in cups, which taste like scented +frost, or rather like flowers steeped in snow. Our mousmés order for +themselves great bowls of candied beans mixed with hail,—real +hail-stones such as we would pick up after a hail-storm in March.</p> + +<p>Glou! glou! glou! the crystal trumpets slowly repeat their notes, the +powerful sonority of which has a labored and smothered sound, as +though they came from under water; they mingle with the jingling of +rattles and the noise of castanets. We also have the impression of +being carried away in the irresistible swing of this incomprehensible +gayety, composed in proportions we can scarcely measure, of elements +mystic, puerile and even ghastly. A sort of religious terror is +diffused <!-- Page 138 -->by the hidden idols divined in the temple behind us; by the +mumbled prayers, confusedly heard; above all, by the horrible heads in +lacquered wood, representing foxes, which, as they pass, hide human +faces,—hideous livid masks.</p> + +<hr /> + +<p>In the gardens and outbuildings of the temple the most inconceivable +mountebanks have taken up their quarters, their black streamers, +painted with white letters, looking like funereal trappings as they +float in the wind from the top of their tall flagstaffs. Hither we +turn out steps, as soon as our mousmés have ended their orisons and +bestowed their alms.</p> + +<p>In one of the booths a man stretched on a table, flat on his back, is +alone on the stage; puppets of almost human size, with horribly +grinning masks, spring out of his body; they speak, gesticulate, then +fall back like empty rags; with a sudden spring, they start up again, +change their costumes, change their faces, tearing about in one +continual frenzy. Suddenly three, even four appear at the same time; +they are nothing more than the four limbs of the outstretched man, +whose legs and arms, raised on high, are each one dressed up, and +capped with a wig under which peers a mask; between these phantoms +tremendous fighting and battling take place, and many a <!-- Page 139 -->sword-thrust +is exchanged. The most fearful of all is a certain puppet representing +an hag; every time she appears, with her weird head and ghastly grin, +the lights burn low, the music of the accompanying orchestra moans +forth a sinister strain given by the flutes, mingled with a rattling +tremolo which sounds like the clatter of bones. This creature +evidently plays an ugly part in the piece,—that of a horrible old +ghoul, spiteful and famished. Still more appalling than her person is +her shadow, which, projected upon a white screen, is abnormally and +vividly distinct; by means of some unknown process this shadow, which +nevertheless follows all her movements, assumes the aspect of a wolf. +At a given moment the hag turns round and presents the profile of her +distorted snub nose as she accepts the bowl of rice which is offered +to her; on the screen at the very same instant appears the elongated +outline of the wolf, with its pointed ears, its muzzle and chops, its +great teeth and hanging tongue. The orchestra grinds, wails, quivers; +then suddenly bursts out into funereal shrieks, like a concert of +owls; the hag is now eating, and her wolfish shadow is eating also, +greedily moving its jaws and nibbling at another shadow easy to +recognize,—the arm of a little child.</p> + +<p><!-- Page 140 -->We now go on to see the <i>great salamander</i> of Japan, an animal rare +in this country, and quite unknown elsewhere, a great cold mass; +sluggish and benumbed, looking like some antediluvian <i>experiment</i>, +forgotten in the inner seas of this archipelago.</p> + +<p>Next comes the trained elephant, the terror of our mousmés, the +equilibrists, the menagerie.</p> + +<p>It is one o'clock in the morning before we are back at Diou-djen-dji.</p> + +<p>We first get Yves to bed in the little paper room he has already once +occupied. Then we go to bed ourselves, after the inevitable +preparations, the smoking of the little pipe, and the <i>pan! pan! pan! +pan!</i> on the edge of the box.</p> + +<p>Suddenly Yves begins to move restlessly in his sleep, to toss about, +giving great kicks on the wall, and making a frightful noise.</p> + +<p>What can be the matter? I at once imagine that he must be dreaming of +the old hag and her wolfish shadow. Chrysanthème raises herself on her +elbow and listens, with astonishment depicted on her face.</p> + +<p>Ah! happy thought! she has discovered what is tormenting him:</p> + +<p>"Ka!" (mosquitoes) she says.</p> + +<p>And, to impress the more forcibly her meaning on my mind, she pinches +my arm so hard <!-- Page 141 -->with her little pointed nails, at the same time +imitating, with such an amusing play of her features, the grimace of a +person who is stung, that I exclaim—</p> + +<p>"Oh! stop, Chrysanthème, this pantomime is too expressive, and indeed +useless! I know the word <i>Ka</i>, and had quite understood, I assure +you."</p> + +<p>It is done so drolly and so quickly, with such a pretty pout, that in +truth I cannot think of being angry, although I shall certainly have +to-morrow a blue mark on my arm; about that there is no doubt.</p> + +<p>"Come, we must get up and go to Yves' rescue; he cannot be allowed to +go on thumping in that manner. Let us take a lantern, and see what has +happened."</p> + +<p>It was indeed the mosquitoes. They are hovering in a thick cloud about +him; those of the house and those of the garden all seem collected +together, swarming and buzzing. Chrysanthème indignantly burns several +at the flame of her lantern, and shows me others: "Hou!" covering the +white paper walls.</p> + +<p>He, tired out with his day's amusement, sleeps on; but his slumbers +are restless, as can be easily imagined. Chrysanthème gives him a +shake, wishing him to get up and share our blue mosquito net.</p> + +<p><!-- Page 142 -->After a little pressing he does as he is bid and follows us, looking +like an overgrown boy only half awake. I make no objection to this +singular hospitality; after all, it looks so little like a bed, the +matting we are to share, and we sleep in our clothes, as we always do +according to the Niponese fashion. After all, on a journey in a +railway, do not the most estimable ladies stretch themselves without +demur by the side of gentlemen unknown to them?</p> + +<p>I have however placed Chrysanthème's little wooden block in the center +of the gauze tent, between our two pillows.</p> + +<p>Then, without saying a word, in a dignified manner as though she were +rectifying an error of etiquette that I had inadvertently committed, +Chrysanthème takes up her piece of wood, putting in its place my +snake-skin drum; I shall therefore be in the middle between the two. +It is really more correct, decidedly much more proper; Chrysanthème is +evidently a very decorous young person.</p> + +<hr /> + +<p>Returning on board next morning, in the clear morning sun, we walk +through pathways full of dew; accompanied by a band of funny little +mousmés of six or eight years of age, who are going off to school.</p> + +<p>Needless to say that the cicalas around us <!-- Page 143 -->keep up their perpetual +sonorous chirping. The mountain smells delicious. The atmosphere, the +dawning day, the infantine grace of these little girls in their long +frocks and shiny chignons, all is redundant with freshness and youth. +The flowers and grasses on which we tread sparkle with dewdrops, +exhaling a perfume of freshness. What undying beauty there is, even in +Japan, in the first fresh morning hours in the country, and the +dawning hours of life!</p> + +<p>Besides, I am quite ready to admit the attractiveness of the little +Japanese children; some of them are most fascinating. But how is it +that their charm vanishes so rapidly and is so quickly replaced by the +elderly grimace, the smiling ugliness, the monkeyish face?</p> + + +<p> </p> +<p> </p> +<p class="schdg"><a name="XXXV" id="XXXV">XXXV.</a></p> + + +<p>My mother-in-law Madame Renoncule's small garden is, without +exception, one of the most melancholy spots I have seen during all my +peregrinations through the world.</p> + +<p>Oh, the slow, enervating, dull hours spent in idle and diffuse +conversation in the dimly lighted verandah! Oh, the horrid peppered +<!-- Page 144 -->jam in the microscopic pots! In the middle of the town, enclosed by +four walls, is this park of five yards square, with little lakes, +little mountains, and little rocks, where all wears an antiquated +appearance, and everything is covered with a greenish moldiness from +want of sun.</p> + +<p>Nevertheless a true feeling for nature has inspired this tiny +representation of a wild spot. The rocks are well placed, the dwarf +cedars, no taller than cabbages, stretch their gnarled boughs over the +valleys in the attitude of giants wearied by the weight of centuries; +and their look of <i>big trees</i> perplexes one and falsifies the +perspective. When from the dark recesses of the apartment one +perceives at a certain distance this diminutive landscape dimly +lighted up, the wonder is whether it is all artificial, or whether one +is not oneself the victim of some morbid illusion; and if it is not +indeed a real country view seen through a distorted vision out of +focus, or through the wrong end of a telescope.</p> + +<p>To any one familiar with Japanese life my mother-in-law's house in +itself reveals a refined nature,—complete nudity, two or three +screens placed here and there, a teapot, a vase full of lotus-flowers, +and nothing more. Woodwork devoid of paint or varnish, but carved in +most <!-- Page 145 -->elaborate and capricious openwork, the whiteness of the pinewood +being kept up by constant scrubbings of soap and water. The posts and +beams of the framework are varied by the most fanciful taste: some are +cut in precise geometrical forms; others artificially twisted, +imitating trunks of old trees covered with tropical creepers. +Everywhere little hiding-places, little nooks, little closets +concealed in the most ingenious and unexpected manner under the +immaculate uniformity of the white paper panels.</p> + +<p>I cannot help smiling when I think of some of the so-called <i>Japanese</i> +drawing-rooms, overcrowded with knick-knacks and curios and hung with +coarse gold embroideries on exported satins, of our Parisian fine +ladies. I would advise those persons to come and look at the houses of +people of taste out here; to visit the white solitudes of the palaces +at Yeddo. In France we have works of art in order to enjoy them; here +they possess them merely to ticket them and lock them up carefully in +a kind of mysterious underground room shut in by iron gratings called +a <i>godoun</i>. On rare occasions, only to honor some visitor of +distinction, do they open this impenetrable depositary. The true +Japanese manner of understanding luxury consists in a scrupulous and +indeed almost excessive cleanliness, white mats and white wood<!-- Page 146 -->work; +an appearance of extreme simplicity, and an incredible nicety in the +most infinitesimal details.</p> + +<p>My mother-in-law seems to be really a very nice woman, and were it not +for the insurmountable feeling of spleen the sight of her garden +produces on me, I would often go and see her. She has nothing in +common with the mammas of Jonquille, Campanule or Touki: she is vastly +their superior; and then I can see that she has been very good-looking +and stylish. Her past life puzzles me; but in my position as a +son-in-law, good manners prevent my making further inquiries.</p> + +<p>Some assert that she was formerly a celebrated guécha in Yeddo, who +lost public favor by her folly in becoming a mother. This would +account for her daughter's talent on the guitar; she had probably +herself taught her the touch and style of the Conservatory.</p> + +<hr /> + +<p>Since the birth of Chrysanthème (her eldest child and first cause of +this loss of favor), my mother-in-law, an expansive although +distinguished nature, has fallen seven times into the same fatal +error, and I have two little sisters-in-law: Mdlle. La +Neige,<a name="FNanchor_G_7" id="FNanchor_G_7" /> +<a href="#Footnote_G_7" class="fnanchor">[G]</a> and +Mdlle. La <!-- Page 147 -->Lune,<a name="FNanchor_H_8" id="FNanchor_H_8" /> +<a href="#Footnote_H_8" class="fnanchor">[H]</a> as well as +five little brothers-in-law: Cerisier, Pigeon, Liseron, Or, and Bambou.</p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_G_7" id="Footnote_G_7" /> +<a href="#FNanchor_G_7"><span class="label">[G]</span></a> In +Japanese: <i>Oyouki-San</i> (like Madame Prune's daughter).</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_H_8" id="Footnote_H_8" /> +<a href="#FNanchor_H_8"><span class="label">[H]</span> +</a> In Japanese: <i>Tsouki-San</i>.</p></div> + +<p>Little Bambou is four years old,—a yellow baby, fat and round all +over, with fine bright eyes; coaxing and jolly, sleeping whenever he +is not laughing. Of all my Niponese family, Bambou is the one I love +the most.</p> + + +<p> </p> +<p> </p> +<p class="schdg"><a name="XXXVI" id="XXXVI">XXXVI.</a></p> + +<p><i>Tuesday, August 27th</i>.</p> + + +<p>We have spent the day,—Yves, Chrysanthème, Oyouki and +myself,—wandering through dark and dusty nooks, dragged hither and +thither by four quick-footed djins, in search of antiquities in the +bric-à-brac shops.</p> + +<p>Towards sunset, Chrysanthème, who has wearied me more than ever since +the morning, and who doubtless has perceived it, pulls a very long +face, declares herself ill, and begs leave to spend the night at her +mother's, Madame Renoncule.</p> + +<p>I agree to this with the best grace in the world; let her go, tiresome +little mousmé! Oyouki will carry a message to her parents, who will +shut up our rooms; we shall spend the <!-- Page 148 -->evening, Yves and I, in roaming +about as fancy takes us, without any mousmé dragging at our heels, and +shall afterwards regain our own quarters on board the <i>Triomphante</i>, +without having the trouble of climbing up that hill.</p> + +<hr /> + +<p>First of all, we make an attempt to dine together in some fashionable +tea-house. Impossible, there is not a place to be had; all the absurd +paper rooms, all the compartments contrived by so many ingenious +dodges of slipping and sliding panels, all the nooks and corners in +the little gardens are filled with Japanese men and women eating +impossible and incredible little dishes! numberless young dandies are +dining <i>tête-à-tête</i> with the lady of their choice, and sounds of +dancing girls and music issue from the private rooms.</p> + +<p>The fact is, that to-day is the third and last day of the great +pilgrimage to the temple of the <i>Jumping Tortoise</i>, of which we saw +the commencement yesterday, and all Nagasaki is at this time given +over to amusement.</p> + +<p>At the tea-house of the <i>Indescribable Butterflies</i>, which is also +full to overflowing, but where we are well-known, they have had the +bright idea of throwing a temporary flooring over the little +lake,—the pond where the gold-fish live, and it is here that our meal +is served, <!-- Page 149 -->in the pleasant freshness of the fountain which continues +its murmur under our feet.</p> + +<p>After dinner, we follow the faithful and ascend again to the temple.</p> + +<p>Up there we find the same elfin revelry, the same masks, the same +music. We seat ourselves, as before, under a gauze tent and sip odd +little drinks tasting of flowers. But this evening we are alone, and +the absence of the band of mousmés, whose familiar little faces formed +a bond of union between this holiday-making people and ourselves, +separates and isolates us more than usual from the profusion of +oddities in the midst of which we seem to be lost. Beneath us, lies +always the immense blue background: Nagasaki illumined by moonlight, +and the expanse of silvered, glittering water, which seems like a +vaporous vision suspended in mid-air. Behind us is the great open +temple, where the bonzes officiate to the accompaniment of sacred +bells and wooden clappers,—looking, from where we sit, more like +puppets than anything else, some squatting in rows like peaceful +mummies, others executing rhythmical marches before the golden +background where stand the gods. We do not laugh to-night, and speak +but little, more forcibly struck by the scene than we were on the +<!-- Page 150 -->first night; we only look on, trying to understand. Suddenly, Yves +turning round, says:</p> + +<p>"Hullo! brother, your mousmé!!"</p> + +<p>Actually there she is, behind him; Chrysanthème almost on all fours, +hidden between the paws of a great granite beast, half tiger, half +dog, against which our fragile tent is leaning.</p> + +<p>"She pulled my trousers with her nails, for all the world like a +little cat," said Yves, still full of surprise, "positively like a +cat!"</p> + +<p>She remains bent double in the most humble form of salutation; she +smiles timidly, afraid of being ill received, and the head of my +little brother-in-law, Bambou, appears smiling too, just above her +own. She has brought this little <i>mousko</i><a name="FNanchor_I_9" id="FNanchor_I_9" /> +<a href="#Footnote_I_9" class="fnanchor">[I]</a> with her, perched astride +on her back; he looks as absurd as ever, with his shaven head, his +long frock and the great bows of his silken sash. There they both +stand gazing at us, anxious to know how their joke will be taken.</p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I_9" id="Footnote_I_9" /> +<a href="#FNanchor_I_9"><span class="label">[I]</span></a> +<i>Mousko</i> is the masculine of <i>mousmé</i>, and signifies +little boy. Excessive politeness makes it <i>mousko-san</i> (Mr. little +boy).</p></div> + +<p>For my part, I have not the least idea of giving them a cold +reception; on the contrary, the meeting amuses me. It even strikes me +that it is rather pretty of Chrysanthème to come round in this way, +and to bring Bambou-<!-- Page 151 -->San to the festival; though it savors somewhat of +her low breeding, to tell the truth, to have tacked him on to her +back, as the poorer Japanese women do with their little ones.</p> + +<p>However, let her sit down between Yves and myself: and let them bring +her those iced beans she loves so much; and we will take the jolly +little <i>mousko</i> on our knees and cram him with sugar and sweetness to +his heart's content.</p> + +<hr /> + +<p>The evening over, when we begin to think of leaving, and of going down +again, Chrysanthème replaces her little Bambou astride upon her back, +and sets forth, bending forward under his weight and painfully +dragging her Cinderella slippers over the granite steps and +flagstones. Yes, decidedly low this conduct! but low in the best sense +of the word: nothing in it displeases me; I even consider +Chrysanthème's affection for Bambou-San engaging and attractive in its +simplicity.</p> + +<p>One cannot deny this merit to the Japanese,—a great love for little +children, and a talent for amusing them, for making them laugh, +inventing comical toys for them, making the morning of their life +happy; for a specialty in dressing them, arranging their heads, and +giving to the whole little personage the most diverting appearance +possible. It is the only thing I <!-- Page 152 -->really like about this country: the +babies and the manner in which they are understood.</p> + +<hr /> + +<p>On our way we meet our married friends of the <i>Triomphante</i>, who, much +surprised at seeing me with this <i>mousko</i>, chaffingly exclaim:</p> + +<p>"What! a son already?"</p> + +<p>Down in the town, we make a point of bidding good-by to Chrysanthème +at the turning of the street where her mother lives. She smiles +undecided, declares herself well again, and begs to return to our +house on the heights. This did not precisely enter into my plans, I +confess. However, it would look very ungracious to refuse.</p> + +<p>So be it! But we must carry the <i>mousko</i> home to his mamma, and then +begin, by the flickering light of a new lantern bought afresh from +Madame Très-Propre, our weary homeward ascent.</p> + +<p>Here, however, we find ourselves in another predicament: this +ridiculous little Bambou insists upon coming with us! No, he will take +no denial, we must take him with us. This is out of all reason, quite +impossible!</p> + +<p>However, it will not do to make him cry, on the night of a great +festival too, poor little <i>mousko</i>. So we must send a message to +Madame Renoncule, that she may not be uneasy about <!-- Page 153 -->him, and as there +will soon not be a living creature on the footpaths of Diou-djen-dji +to laugh at us, we will take it in turn, Yves and I, to carry him on +our back, all the way up that climb in the darkness.</p> + +<hr /> + +<p>And here am I, who did not wish to return this way to-night, dragging +a mousmé by the hand, actually carrying an extra burden in the shape +of a <i>mousko</i> on my back. What an irony of fate!</p> + +<p>As I had expected, all our shutters and doors are closed, bolted and +barred; no one expects us, and we have to make a prodigious noise at +the door. Chrysanthème sets to work and calls with all her might:</p> + +<p>"Ho! Oumé-San-an-an-an!" (In English: "Hi! Madame Pru-u-u-u-une!")</p> + +<p>These intonations in her little voice are unknown to me; her longdrawn +call in the echoing darkness of midnight has so strange an accent, +something so unexpected and wild, that it impresses me with a dismal +feeling of far-off exile.</p> + +<p>At last Madame Prune appears to open the door to us, only half awake +and much astonished; by way of a night-cap she wears a monstrous +cotton turban, on the blue ground of which a few white storks are +playfully disporting themselves. Holding in the tips of her <!-- Page 154 -->fingers +with an affectation of graceful fright, the long stalk of her +beflowered lantern, she gazes intently into our faces, one after +another, to assure herself of our identity; but the poor old lady +cannot get over the <i>mousko</i> I am carrying.</p> + + +<p> </p> +<p> </p> +<p class="schdg"><a name="XXXVII" id="XXXVII">XXXVII</a></p> + + +<p>At first it was only to Chrysanthème's guitar that I listened with +pleasure: now I am beginning to like her singing also.</p> + +<p>She has nothing of the theatrical, or the deep assumed voice of the +virtuoso; on the contrary, her notes, always very high, are soft, +thin, and plaintive.</p> + +<p>She will often teach Oyouki some romance, slow and dreamy, which she +has composed, or which comes back to her mind. Then they both astonish +me, for on their well-tuned guitars they will search out +accompaniments in parts, and try again each time that the chords are +not perfectly true to their ear, without ever losing themselves in the +confusion of these dissonant harmonies, always weird and always +melancholy.</p> + +<p>Generally, while their music is going on, I am writing in the +verandah, with the superb <!-- Page 155 -->stretched out in front of me. I write, +seated on a mat on the floor and leaning upon a little Japanese desk, +ornamented with swallows in relief; my ink is Chinese, my ink-stand, +just like that of my landlord, is in jade, with dear little frogs and +toads carved on the rim. In short, I am writing my memoirs,—exactly +as M. Sucre does downstairs! Occasionally I fancy I resemble him—a +very disagreeable fancy.</p> + +<p>My memoirs,—composed of incongruous details, minute observations of +colors, shapes, scents, and sounds.</p> + +<p>It is true that a complete imbroglio, worthy of a romance, seems ever +threatening to appear upon my monotonous horizon; a regular intrigue +seems ever ready to explode in the midst of this little world of +mousmés and grasshoppers: Chrysanthème in love with Yves; Yves with +Chrysanthème; Oyouki with me; I with no one. We might even find here, +ready to hand, the elements of a fratricidal drama, were we in any +other country than Japan; but we are in Japan, and under the narrowing +and dwarfing influence of the surroundings, which turn everything into +ridicule, nothing will come of it all.</p> + + +<p> </p> +<p> </p> +<p class="schdg"><a name="XXXVIII" id="XXXVIII"><!-- Page 156 -->XXXVIII.</a></p> + + +<p>There is, in this good town of Nagasaki, towards five or six o'clock +in the evening, one hour of the day more comical than any other. At +this moment every living being is naked: children, young people, old +people, old men, old women, every one is seated in a tub of some sort, +taking a bath. This takes place no matter where, without the slightest +screen, in the gardens, the courtyards, in the shops, even upon the +thresholds, in order to give greater facility for conversation among +the neighbors from one side of the street to the other. In this +situation visitors are received; and the bather, without any +hesitation, leaves his tub, holding in his hand his little towel +(invariably blue), to offer the caller a seat, and to exchange with +him some amiable remarks. Nevertheless, neither the mousmés nor the +old ladies gain anything by appearing in this primeval costume. A +Japanese woman, deprived of her long dress and her huge sash with its +pretentious bows, is nothing but a diminutive yellow being, with +crooked legs and flat, unshapely bust; she has no longer a remnant of +her artificial little charms, which <!-- Page 157 -->have completely disappeared in +company with her costume.</p> + +<hr /> + +<p>There is yet another hour, at once joyous and melancholy, a little +later when twilight falls, when the sky seems one vast veil of yellow, +against which stand the clear-cut outlines of jagged mountains and +lofty, fantastic pagodas. It is the hour at which, in the labyrinth of +little gray streets down below, the sacred lamps begin to twinkle in +the ever-open houses, in front of the ancestors' altars and the +familiar Buddhas; while outside, darkness creeps over all, and the +thousand and one indentations and peaks of the old roofs are depicted, +as if in black festoons, on the clear golden sky. At this moment, +there suddenly passes over merry, laughing Japan a somber shadow, +strange, weird, a breath of antiquity, of savagery, of something +indefinable, which casts a gloom of sadness. And then the only gayety +that remains is the gayety of the population of young children, of +little mouskos and little mousmés, who spread themselves like a wave +through the streets filled with shadow, as they swarm out from schools +and workshops. On the dark background of all these wooden buildings, +the little blue and scarlet dresses stand out in startling +contrast,—drolly bedizened, drolly draped; <!-- Page 158 -->and the fine loops of the +sashes, the flowers, the silver or gold top-knots stuck in these baby +chignons, add to the vivid effect.</p> + +<p>They amuse themselves, they chase each other, their great pagoda +sleeves fly widely open, and these tiny little mousmés of ten, of five +years old, or even younger still, have lofty head-dresses and imposing +bows of hair arranged on their little heads, like grown-up women. Oh! +what loves of supremely absurd dolls at this hour of twilight gambol +through the streets, in their long frocks, blowing their crystal +trumpets, or running with all their might to start their fanciful +kites. This juvenile world of Japan—ludicrous by birth, and fated to +become more so as the years roll on—starts in life with singular +amusements, with strange cries and shouts; its playthings are somewhat +ghastly, and would frighten the children of other countries; even the +kites have great squinting eyes and vampire shapes.</p> + +<p>And every evening, in the little dark streets, bursts forth this +overflow of joyousness, fresh, childish, but withal grotesque to +excess. It would be difficult to have any idea of the incredible +things which, carried by the wind, float in the evening air.</p> + + +<p> </p> +<p> </p> +<p class="schdg"><a name="XXXIX" id="XXXIX"><!-- Page 159 -->XXXIX.</a></p> + + +<p>Little Chrysanthème is always arrayed in dark colors, a sign here of +aristocratic distinction. While her friends Oyouki-San, Madame Touki +and others delight in loud-striped stuffs, and stick gorgeous +ornaments in their chignons, she always wears navy-blue or neutral +gray, fastened round her waist with great black sashes brocaded in +tender shades, and puts nothing in her hair but amber-colored +tortoise-shell pins. If she were of noble descent she would wear +embroidered on her dress in the middle of the back a little white +circle looking like a postmark with some design in the center of +it—the leaf of a tree generally; and this would be her coat of arms. +There is really nothing wanting but this little heraldic blazon on the +back to give her the appearance of a lady of the highest position.</p> + +<p>In Japan the smart dresses of bright colors shaded in clouds, +embroidered with monsters of gold or silver, are reserved by the great +ladies for home use on state occasions; or else they are used on the +stage for the dancers and the courtesans.</p> + +<p><!-- Page 160 -->Like all Japanese women, Chrysanthème carries a quantity of things in +her long sleeves, in which pockets are cunningly hidden. There she +keeps letters, various notes written on delicate sheets of rice-paper, +prayer amulets drawn up by the bonzes; and above all a number of +squares of a silky paper which she puts to the most unexpected +uses,—to dry a tea-cup, to hold the damp stalk of a flower, or to +blow her quaint little nose, when the necessity presents itself. After +the operation she at once crumples up the piece of paper, rolls it +into a ball, and throws it out of the window with disgust.</p> + +<p>The very smartest people in Japan blow their noses in this manner.</p> + + +<p> </p> +<p> </p> +<p class="schdg"><a name="XL" id="XL">XL.</a></p> + +<p><i>September 2nd</i>.</p> + + +<p>Chance has favored us with a friendship as singular as it is rare: +that of the head bonzes of the temple of the <i>Jumping Tortoise</i>, where +we had witnessed last month such a surprising pilgrimage.</p> + +<p>The approach to this place is as solitary now as it was thronged and +bustling on the evenings of the festival; and in broad daylight one is +<!-- Page 161 -->surprised at the deathlike decay of the religious surroundings which +at night had seemed so full of life. Not a creature to be seen on the +time-worn granite steps; not a creature beneath the vast sumptuous +porticoes; the colors, the gold-work are dim with dust. To reach the +temple one must cross several deserted courtyards terraced on the +mountain side, pass through several solemn gateways, and up and up +endless stairs, rising far above the town and the noises of humanity +into a sacred region filled with innumerable tombs. On all the +pavements, in all the walls, lichen and stonecrop; and over all the +gray tint of extreme age spreads everywhere like a fall of ashes.</p> + +<p>In a side temple near the entrance is enthroned a colossal Buddha +seated in his lotus—a gilded idol some forty-five or sixty feet high, +mounted on an enormous pedestal of bronze.</p> + +<p>At length appears the last doorway with the two traditional giants, +guardians of the sacred court, which stand the one on the right hand, +the other on the left, shut up like wild beasts each one in a cage of +iron. They are in attitudes of fury, with fists upraised as if to +strike, and features atrociously fierce and distorted. Their bodies +are covered all over with bullets of crumbled paper which have been +aimed at them through the bars, and which have stuck to <!-- Page 162 -->their +monstrous limbs like a white leprosy: this is the manner in which the +faithful strive to appease them, by conveying to them their prayers +written upon delicate leaflets by the pious bonzes.</p> + +<p>Passing between these alarming scarecrows one reaches the innermost +court. The residence of our friends is on the right, the great hall of +the pagoda is before us.</p> + +<p>In this paved court are bronze torch-holders as high as turrets. Here +too stand, and have stood for centuries, cyca palms with fresh green +plumes, their numerous stalks curving with a heavy symmetry, like the +branches of massive candelabra. The temple, which is open along its +entire length, is dark and mysterious, with touches of gilding in +distant corners melting away into the gloom. In the very remotest part +are seated idols, and from outside one can vaguely see their clasped +hands and air of rapt mysticism; in front are the altars, loaded with +marvelous vases in metal-work, whence spring graceful clusters of gold +and silver lotus. From the very entrance one is greeted by the sweet +odor of the incense-sticks unceasingly burnt by the priests before the +gods.</p> + +<hr /> + +<p>To penetrate into the dwelling of our friends the bonzes, which is +situated on the right hand <!-- Page 163 -->side as you enter, is by no means an easy +matter.</p> + +<p>A monster of the fish tribe, but having claws and horns, is hung over +their door by iron chains; at the least breath of wind he swings +creakingly. We pass beneath him and enter the first immense and lofty +hall, dimly lighted, in the corners of which gleam gilded idols, bells +and incomprehensible objects of religious use.</p> + +<p>Quaint little creatures, choir boys or pupils, come forward with a +doubtful welcome to ask what is wanted.</p> + +<p>"<i>Matsou-San!! Donata-San!!</i>" they repeat, much astonished, when they +understand to whom we wish to be conducted. Oh! no, impossible, they +cannot be seen; they are resting or are in contemplation. "<i>Orimas! +Orimas!</i>" say they, clasping their hands and sketching a genuflection +or two to make us understand better. (They are at prayer! the most +profound prayer!)</p> + +<p>We insist, speak more imperatively; even slip off our shoes like +people determined to take no refusal.</p> + +<p>At last Matsou-San and Donata-San make their appearance from the +tranquil depths of their bonze-house. They are dressed in black crape +and their heads are shaved. Smiling, amiable, full of excuses, they +offer us their <!-- Page 164 -->hands, and we follow with our feet bare like theirs to +the interior of their mysterious dwelling, through a series of empty +rooms spread with mats of the most unimpeachable whiteness. The +successive halls are separated one from the other only by bamboo +curtains of exquisite delicacy, caught back by tassels and cords of +red silk.</p> + +<p>The whole wainscoting of the interior is of the same wood, of a pale +yellow color joinered with extreme nicety, without the least ornament, +the least carving; everything seems new and unused, as though it had +never been touched by human hand. At distant intervals in this studied +bareness, costly little stools, marvelously inlaid, uphold some +antique bronze monster or a vase of flowers; on the walls hang a few +masterly sketches, vaguely tinted in Indian ink, drawn upon strips of +gray paper most accurately cut but without the slightest attempt at a +frame; this is all: not a seat, not a cushion, not a scrap of +furniture. It is the very acme of studied simplicity, of elegance made +out of nothing, of the most immaculate and incredible cleanliness. And +while following the bonzes through this long suite of empty halls, we +are struck by their contrast with the overflow of knick-knacks +scattered about our rooms in France, and we take a sudden dislike <!-- Page 165 -->to +the profusion and crowding delighted in at home.</p> + +<p>The spot where this silent march of barefooted folk comes to an end, +the spot where we are to seat ourselves in the delightful coolness of +a semi-darkness, is an interior verandah opening upon an artificial +site; we might suppose it were the bottom of a well; it is a miniature +garden no bigger than the opening of an <i>oubliette</i>, overhung on all +sides by the crushing height of the mountain and receiving from on +high but the dim light of dream-land. Nevertheless here is simulated a +great natural ravine in all its wild grandeur: here are caverns, +abrupt rocks, a torrent, a cascade, islands. The trees, dwarfed by a +Japanese process of which we have not the secret, have tiny little +leaves on their decrepit and knotty branches. A pervading hue of the +mossy green of antiquity harmonizes all this medley, which is +undoubtedly centuries old.</p> + +<p>Families of gold-fish swim round and round in the clear water, and +tiny tortoises (<i>jumpers</i> probably) sleep upon the granite islands +which are of the same color as their own gray shell.</p> + +<p>There are even blue dragon-flies which have ventured to descend, +heaven knows from whence, and alight with quivering wings upon the +miniature water-lilies.</p> + +<p><!-- Page 166 -->Our friends the bonzes, notwithstanding an unctuousness of manner +thoroughly ecclesiastical, are very ready to laugh,—a simple, +pleased, childish laughter; plump, chubby, shaven and shorn, they +dearly love our French liqueurs and know how to take a joke.</p> + +<p>We talk first of one thing and then another. To the tranquil music of +their little cascade, I launch out before them with phrases of the +most erudite Japanese, I try the effect of a few tenses of verbs: +<i>desideratives, concessives, hypothetics in ba</i>. Whilst they chat they +dispatch the affairs of the church, the order of services sealed with +complicated seals for inferior pagodas situated in the neighborhood; +or trace little prayers with a cunning paint-brush as medical remedies +to be swallowed as pills by invalids at a distance. With their white +and dimpled hands they play with a fan as cleverly as any woman, and +when we have tasted different native drinks flavored with essences of +flowers, they bring up as a finish a battle of <i>Bénédictine</i> or +<i>Chartreuse</i>, for they appreciate the liqueurs composed by their +Western colleagues.</p> + +<p>When they come on board to return our visits, they by no means disdain +to fasten their great round spectacles on their flat noses in order to +inspect the profane drawings in our <!-- Page 167 -->illustrated papers, the <i>Vie +Parisienne</i> for instance. And it is even with a certain complacency +that they let their fingers linger upon the pictures which represent +the ladies.</p> + +<p>The religious ceremonies in their great temple are magnificent, and to +one of these we are now invited. At the sound of the gong they make +their entrance before the idols with a stately ritual; twenty or +thirty priests officiate in gala costumes, with genuflections, +clapping of hands and movements to and fro, which look like the +figures of some mystic quadrille.</p> + +<p>But for all that, let the sanctuary be ever so immense and imposing in +its somber gloom, the idols ever so superb, all seems in Japan but a +mere semblance of grandeur. A hopeless pettiness, an irresistible +feeling of the ludicrous, lies at the bottom of all things.</p> + + +<p>And then the congregation is not conducive to thoughtful +contemplation, for among it we generally discover some acquaintance: +my mother-in-law, or a cousin, or the woman from the china-shop who +sold us a vase only yesterday. Charming little mousmés, +monkeyish-looking old ladies enter with their smoking-boxes, their +gayly-daubed parasols, their curtsies, their little cries and +exclamations; prattling, complimenting each other, full of <!-- Page 168 -->restless +movement, and having the greatest difficulty in maintaining a serious +demeanor.</p> + + +<p> </p> +<p> </p> +<p class="schdg"><a name="XLI" id="XLI">XLI.</a></p> + + +<p><i>September 3rd</i>.</p> + +<p>Chrysanthème, for the first time, paid me a visit on board ship +to-day, chaperoned by Madame Prune, and followed by my youngest +sister-in-law, Mdlle. La Neige. These ladies had the tranquil manners +of the highest gentility.</p> + +<p>In my cabin is a great Buddha on his throne, and before him a lacquer +tray, on which my faithful sailor servant places any small change he +may find lying loose in the pockets of my clothes. Madame Prune, whose +mind is much swayed by mysticism, at once supposed herself before a +regular altar; in the gravest manner possible she addressed a brief +prayer to the god; then, drawing out her purse (which, according to +custom, was attached to her sash behind her back, along with her +little pipe and tobacco-pouch), placed a pious offering in the tray, +while executing a low curtsey.</p> + +<p>They remained on their best behavior all through the visit. But when +the moment of <!-- Page 169 -->departure came, Chrysanthème, who would not go away +without seeing Yves, asked for him with a thinly-veiled persistency +which was remarkable. Yves, for whom I then sent, made himself +particularly charming to her, so much so, that this time I felt a +shade of more serious annoyance; I even asked myself whether the +laughably pitiable ending, which I had hitherto vaguely foreseen, +might not, after all, soon break upon us.</p> + + +<p> </p> +<p> </p> +<p class="schdg"><a name="XLII" id="XLII">XLII.</a></p> + + +<p><i>September 4th</i>.</p> + +<p>I met yesterday, in an old and ruined quarter of the town, a perfectly +exquisite mousmé, charmingly dressed; a fresh note of color against +the dark background of decayed buildings.</p> + +<p>It was quite at the farthest end of Nagasaki, in the most ancient part +of the town. In this region are trees centuries old, ancient temples +of Buddha, of Amiddah, of Benten, or Kwanon, with steep and pompous +roofs; monsters carved in granite sit there in courtyards silent as +the grave, where the grass grows between the paving-stones. This +deserted quarter is traversed by a narrow torrent running in a deep +<!-- Page 170 -->channel, across which are thrown little curved bridges with granite +balustrades eaten away by lichen. All the objects there wear the +strange grimace, the quaint arrangement familiar to us in the most +antique Japanese drawings.</p> + +<p>I walked through it all at the burning hour of midday, and saw not a +soul, unless indeed, through the open windows of the bonze-houses, I +caught sight of some priests, guardians of tombs or sanctuaries, +taking their siesta under their dark-blue gauze nets.</p> + +<p>All at once this little mousmé appeared, a little above me, just at +the point of the arch of one of these bridges carpeted with gray moss; +she was in full light, in full sunshine, and stood out in brilliant +clearness, like a fairy vision, against the background of old black +temples and deep shadows. She was holding her dress together with one +hand, gathering it close round her ankles to give herself an air of +greater slimness. Over her quaint little head, her round umbrella with +its thousand ribs threw a great halo of blue and red, edged with +black, and an oleander full of flowers growing among the stones of the +bridge spread its glory beside her, bathed, like herself, in the +sunshine. Behind this youthful figure and this flowering shrub all was +blackness. Upon the pretty red and blue parasol great white letters +formed <!-- Page 171 -->this inscription, much used among the mousmés, and which I +have learned to recognize: <i>Stop! clouds, to see her pass by</i>. And it +was really worth the trouble to stop and look at this exquisite little +person, of a type so ideally Japanese.</p> + +<p>However, it will not do to stop too long and be ensnared,—it would +only be another take-in. A doll like the rest, evidently, an ornament +for a china shelf, and nothing more. While I gaze at her, I say to +myself that Chrysanthème, appearing in this same place, with this +dress, this play of light, and this aureole of sunshine, would produce +just as delightful an effect.</p> + +<p>For Chrysanthème is pretty, there can be no doubt about it. Yesterday +evening, in fact, I positively admired her. It was quite night; we +were returning with the usual escort of little married couples like +our own, from the inevitable tour of the tea-houses and bazaars. While +the other mousmés walked along hand in hand, adorned with new silver +top-knots which they had succeeded in having presented to them, and +amusing themselves with playthings, she, pleading fatigue, followed, +half reclining, in a djin carriage. We had placed beside her great +bunches of flowers destined to fill our vases, late iris and +long-stemmed lotus, the last of the season, already smelling <!-- Page 172 -->of +autumn. And it was really very pretty to see this Japanese girl in her +little car, lying carelessly among all these water-flowers, lighted by +gleams of ever-changing colors, as they chanced from the lanterns we +met or passed. If, on the evening of my arrival in Japan, any one had +pointed her out to me, and said: "That shall be your mousmé," there +cannot be a doubt I should have been charmed. In reality, however, no, +I am not charmed; it is only Chrysanthème, always Chrysanthème, +nothing but Chrysanthème: a mere plaything to laugh at, a little +creature of finical forms and thoughts, that the agency of M. +Kangourou has supplied me with.</p> + + +<p> </p> +<p> </p> +<p class="schdg"><a name="XLIII" id="XLIII">XLIII.</a></p> + + +<p>In our house, the water used for drinking, making tea, and lesser +washing purposes, is kept in large white china tubs, decorated with +paintings representing blue fish borne along by a swift current +through distorted rushes. In order to keep them cool, the tubs are +placed out of doors on Madame Prune's roof, at a place where we can, +from the top of our projecting balcony, easily reach them by +stretching out the arm. A real godsend for all the thirsty cats <!-- Page 173 -->in +the neighborhood on the fine summer nights is this corner of the roof +with our bedaubed tubs, and it proves a delightful trysting-place for +them, after all their caterwauling and long solitary rambles on the +top of the walls.</p> + +<p>I had thought it my duty to warn Yves the first time he wished to +drink this water.</p> + +<p>"Oh!" he replied, rather surprised, "cats do you say? they are not +dirty!"</p> + +<p>On this point Chrysanthème and I agree with him: we do not consider +cats as unclean animals, and we do not object to drink after them.</p> + +<p>Yves considers Chrysanthème much in the same light. "She is not dirty, +either," he says; and he willingly drinks after her, out of the same +cup, putting her in the same category with the cats.</p> + +<p>Well, these china tubs are one of the daily preoccupations of our +household: in the evening, when we return from our walk, after the +clamber up which makes us thirsty, and Madame L'Heure's waffles, which +we have been eating to beguile the way, we always find them empty. It +seems impossible for Madame Prune, or Mdlle. Oyouki, or their young +servant Mdlle. Dédé,<a name="FNanchor_J_10" id="FNanchor_J_10" /> +<a href="#Footnote_J_10" class="fnanchor">[J]</a> to have +forethought <!-- Page 174 -->enough to fill them while +it is still daylight. And when we are late in returning home, these +three ladies are asleep, so we are obliged to attend to the business +ourselves.</p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_J_10" id="Footnote_J_10" /> +<a href="#FNanchor_J_10"><span class="label">[J]</span> +</a> <i>Dédé-San</i> means "Miss Young Girl," a very common name.</p></div> + +<p>We must therefore open all the closed doors, put on our boots, and go +down into the garden to draw water.</p> + +<p>As Chrysanthème would die of fright all alone in the dark, in the +midst of the trees and buzzing of the insects, I am obliged to +accompany her to the well. For this expedition we require a light, and +must seek among the quantity of lanterns purchased at Madame +Très-Propre's booth, which have been thrown night after night into the +bottom of one of our little paper closets; but alas, all the candles +are burnt down; I thought as much! Well, we must resolutely take the +first lantern to hand, and stick a fresh candle on the iron point at +the bottom; Chrysanthème puts forth all her strength, the candle +splits, breaks; the mousmé pricks her fingers, pouts and whimpers. +Such is the inevitable scene that takes place every evening, and +delays our retiring to rest under the dark blue gauze net for a good +quarter of an hour; while the cicalas on the roof seem to mock us with +their ceaseless song.</p> + +<p>All this, which I should find amusing in any <!-- Page 175 -->one else,—any one I +loved—provokes me in her.</p> + + +<p> </p> +<p> </p> +<p class="schdg"><a name="XLIV" id="XLIV">XLIV.</a></p> + + +<p><i>September 11th</i>.</p> + +<p>A week has passed by peacefully enough, during which I have written +down nothing.</p> + +<p>Little by little I am becoming accustomed to my Japanese household, to +the strangeness of the language, costumes, and faces. For the last +three weeks, no letters have arrived from Europe; they have no doubt +miscarried, and their absence contributes, as is usually the case, to +throw a veil of oblivion over the past.</p> + +<p>Every day, therefore, I faithfully climb up to my villa, sometimes by +beautiful star-lit nights, sometimes through stormy downpours of rain. +Every morning as the sound of Madame Prune's chanted prayer rises +through the reverberating air, I awake and go down towards the sea, by +the grassy pathways full of dew.</p> + +<p>The chief occupation of this Japanese country, seems to be a perpetual +hunt after curios. We sit down on the mattings, in the +antique-sellers' little booths, take a cup of tea with the salesmen, +and rummage with our own hands in the cupboards and chests, where many +a fan<!-- Page 176 -->tastic piece of old rubbish is huddled away. The bargaining, +much discussed, is laughingly carried on for several days, as though +we were trying to play off some excellent little practical joke upon +each other.</p> + +<p>I really make a sad abuse of the adjective <i>little</i>, I am quite aware +of it, but how can I do otherwise? In describing this country, the +temptation is great to use it ten times in every written line. Little, +finical, affected,—all Japan is contained, both physically and +morally, in these three words.</p> + +<p>My purchases are accumulating up there, in my little wood and paper +house; but how much more Japanese it really was, in its bare +emptiness, such as M. Sucre and Madame Prune had conceived it. There +are now many lamps of a religious shape hanging from the ceiling; many +stools and many vases, as many gods and goddesses as in a pagoda.</p> + +<p>There is even a little Shintoist altar, before which Madame Prune has +not been able to restrain her feelings, and before which she has +fallen down and chanted her prayers in her bleating old nanny-goat +voice:</p> + +<p>"Wash me clean from all my impurity, oh Ama-Térace-Omi-Kami, as one +washes away uncleanness in the river of Kamo."</p> + +<p>Alas for poor Ama-Térace-Omi-Kami to <!-- Page 177 -->have to wash away the impurities +of Madame Prune! What a tedious and ungrateful task!!</p> + +<p>Chrysanthème, who is a Buddhist, prays sometimes in the evening before +lying down; although overcome with sleep, she prays clapping her hands +before the largest of our gilded idols. But she smiles with a childish +disrespect for her Buddha, directly her prayer is ended. I know that +she has also a certain veneration for her <i>Ottokés</i> (the Spirits of +her ancestors), whose rather sumptuous altar is set up at her +mother's, Madame Renoncule's. She asks for their blessings, for +fortune and wisdom.</p> + +<p>Who can make out her ideas about the gods, or about death? Does she +possess a soul? Does she think she has one? Her religion is an obscure +chaos of theogonies as old as the world, treasured up out of respect +for ancient customs; and of more recent ideas about the blessed final +annihilation, imported from India at the epoch of our middle ages by +saintly Chinese missionaries. The bonzes themselves are puzzled; what +a muddle, therefore, must not all this become, when jumbled together +in the childish brain of a sleepy mousmé?</p> + +<p>Two very insignificant episodes have somewhat attached me to +her—(bonds of this kind <!-- Page 178 -->seldom fail to draw closer in the end). The +first occasion was as follows:—</p> + +<p>Madame Prune one day brought forth a relic of her gay youth, a +tortoiseshell comb of rare transparency, one of those combs that it is +good style to place on the summit of the head, lightly poised, +scarcely stuck at all in the air, with all the teeth showing. Taking +it out of a pretty little lacquered box, she held it up in the air and +blinked her eyes, looking through it at the sky—a bright summer +sky—as one does to examine the quality of a precious stone.</p> + +<p>"Here is," she said, "an object of great value that you should offer +to your little wife."</p> + +<p>My mousmé, very much taken by it, admired the clearness of the comb +and its graceful shape.</p> + +<p>The lacquered box, however, pleased me most. On the cover was a +wonderful painting in gold on gold, representing a field of rice, seen +very close, on a windy day: a tangle of ears and grass beaten down and +twisted by a terrible squall; here and there, between the distorted +stalks, the muddy earth of the rice-swamp was visible; there were even +little pools of water, produced by bits of the transparent lacquer on +which tiny particles of gold seemed to float about like chaff in a +thick liquid; two or three insects, which required a microscope to <!-- Page 179 -->be +well seen, were clinging in a terrified manner to the rushes, and the +whole picture was no larger than a woman's hand.</p> + +<p>As for Madame Prune's comb, I confess it left me indifferent, and I +turned a deaf ear, thinking it very insignificant and expensive. Then +Chrysanthème answered mournfully:</p> + +<p>"No, thank you, I don't want it; take it away, dear Madame Prune."</p> + +<p>And at the same time she heaved a deep sigh, full of meaning, which +plainly said:</p> + +<p>"He is not so fond of me as all that.—Useless to bother him."</p> + +<p>I immediately made the wished-for purchase.</p> + +<p>Later on, when Chrysanthème will have become an old monkey like Madame +Prune, with her black teeth and long orisons, she, in her turn, will +retail that comb to some fine lady of a fresh generation.</p> + +<p>On another occasion the sun had given me a headache; I lay on the +floor resting my head on my snake-skin pillow. My eyes were dim, and +everything appeared to turn round: the open verandah, the big expanse +of luminous evening sky, and a variety of kites hovering against its +background; I felt myself vibrating painfully to the rhythmical sound +of the cicalas which filled the atmosphere.</p> + +<p>She, crouching down by my side, strove to <!-- Page 180 -->relieve me by a Japanese +process, pressing with all her might on my temples with her little +thumbs and turning them rapidly round, as though she were boring a +hole with a gimlet. She had become quite hot and red over this hard +work, which procured me real comfort, something similar to the dreamy +intoxication of opium.</p> + +<p>Then, anxious and fearful lest I should have an attack of fever, she +rolled into a pellet and thrust into my mouth a very efficacious +prayer written on rice-paper, which she carefully kept in the lining +of one of her sleeves.</p> + +<p>Well, I swallowed that prayer without a smile, anxious not to hurt her +feelings or shake her funny little faith.</p> + + +<p> </p> +<p> </p> +<p class="schdg"><a name="XLV" id="XLV">XLV.</a></p> + + +<p>To-day, Yves, my mousmé and myself went to the best photographer in +Nagasaki, to be taken in a group together.</p> + +<p>We shall send the photograph to France. Yves already smiles as he +thinks of his wife's astonishment when she sees Chrysanthème's little +face between us two, and he wonders what explanation he will give her.</p> + +<p>"<!-- Page 181 -->Well, I will just say it is one of your friends, that's all!"</p> + +<p>There are, in Japan, photographers in the style of our own, with this +one difference, that they are Japanese, and inhabit Japanese houses. +The one we design to honor to-day carries on his profession in the +suburbs, in that ancient quarter of big trees and gloomy pagodas +where, the other day, I met the pretty little mousmé. His signboard, +written in several languages, is stuck up against a wall on the edge +of the little torrent which, rushing down from the green mountain +above, is crossed by many a curved bridge of old granite and lined on +either side by light bamboos or oleanders in full bloom.</p> + +<p>It is astonishing and puzzling to find a photographer perched there, +in the very heart of old Japan.</p> + +<p>We have come at the wrong moment; there is a file of people at the +door. Long rows of djins' cars are stationed there, awaiting the +customers they have brought, who will all have their turn before us. +The runners, naked and tatooed, carefully combed in sleek bands and +shiny chignons, are chatting together, smoking little pipes, or +bathing their muscular legs in the fresh water of the torrent.</p> + +<p>The courtyard is irreproachably Japanese, with its lanterns and dwarf +trees. But the <!-- Page 182 -->studio where one sits might be in Paris or Pontoise; +the self-same chair in "old oak," the same faded "poufs," plaster +columns and pasteboard rocks.</p> + +<p>The people who are being <i>taken</i> at this moment are two ladies of +quality, evidently mother and daughter, who are sitting together for a +cabinet-sized portrait, with accessories of Louis XV. time. A strange +group this, the first great ladies of this country I have seen so +near, with their long aristocratic faces, dull, lifeless, almost gray +by dint of rice-powder, and their mouths painted heart-shape in vivid +carmine. Withal an undeniable look of good breeding that strongly +impresses us, notwithstanding the intrinsic differences of races and +acquired notions.</p> + +<p>They scanned Chrysanthème with an obvious look of scorn, although her +costume was as ladylike as their own. For my part, I could not take my +eyes off these two creatures; they captivated me like incomprehensible +things that one had never seen before. Their fragile bodies, +outlandishly graceful in posture, are lost in stiff materials and +redundant sashes, of which the ends droop like tired wings. They make +me think, I know not why, of great rare insects; the extraordinary +patterns on their garments have something of the dark motley of +<!-- Page 183 -->night-moths. Above all, the mystery of their tiny slits of eyes, +drawn back and up so far that the tight-drawn lids can scarcely open; +the mystery of their expression, which seems to denote inner thoughts +of a silly, vague, complacent absurdity, a world of ideas absolutely +closed to ourselves. And I think as I gaze at them: "How far we are +from this Japanese people! how utterly dissimilar are our races!"</p> + +<p>Then we have to let several English sailors pass before us, decked out +in their white drill clothes, fresh, fat and pink like little sugar +figures, who attitudinize in a sheepish manner round the shafts of the +columns.</p> + +<p>At last it is our turn; Chrysanthème slowly settles herself in a very +affected style, turning in the points of her toes as much as possible, +according to the fashion.</p> + +<p>And on the negative we are shown we look like a supremely ridiculous +little family drawn up in a line by a common photographer at a fair.</p> + + +<p> </p> +<p> </p> +<p class="schdg"><a name="XLVI" id="XLVI">XLVI.</a></p> + +<p><i>September 13th</i>.</p> + + +<p>This evening Yves is off duty three hours earlier than myself; from +time to time this is <!-- Page 184 -->the case, according to the arrangement of the +watches. On those occasions he lands the first, and goes up to wait +for me at Diou-djen-dji.</p> + +<p>From the deck I can see him through the glasses, climbing up the green +mountain path; he walks with a brisk, rapid step, almost running; what +a hurry he seems in to rejoin little Chrysanthème.</p> + +<p>When I arrive, at about nine o'clock, I find him seated on the floor, +in the middle of my rooms, with naked torso (this is here a +sufficiently proper costume for private life, I admit). Around him are +grouped Chrysanthème, Oyouki, and Mdlle. Dédé the maid, all eagerly +rubbing his back with little blue towels decorated with storks and +humorous subjects.</p> + +<p>Good heavens, what can he have been doing to be so hot, and have put +himself in such a state?</p> + +<p>He tells me that near our house, a little higher up the mountain, he +has discovered a fencing gallery: that till nightfall he had been +engaged in a fencing bout against Japanese, who fought with two-handed +swords, springing like cats, as is the custom of their country. With +his French method of fencing he had given them a thorough good +drubbing. Upon which, with many a low bow, they had shown <!-- Page 185 -->him their +admiration by bringing him a quantity of nice little iced things to +drink. All this combined had thrown him into a fearful perspiration.</p> + +<p>Ah, very well. Nevertheless this did not quite explain to me.</p> + +<p>He is delighted with his evening; intends to go and amuse himself +every day by beating them; he even thinks of taking pupils.</p> + +<p>Once his back dried, they all together, the three mousmés and himself, +play at Japanese "<i>pigeon vole</i>." Really I could not wish for anything +more innocent, or more correct in every respect.</p> + +<p>Charles N—— and Madame Jonquille his wife, arrived unexpectedly at +about ten o'clock. (They were wandering about in the dark shrubberies +in our neighborhood, and, seeing our lights, came up to us.)</p> + +<p>They intend to finish the evening at the tea-house "of the Toads," and +they try to induce us to go and drink some iced sherbets with them. It +is at least an hour's walk from here, on the other side of the town, +half way up the hill, in the gardens of the large pagoda dedicated to +Osueva; but they stick to their idea, pretending that in this clear +night and bright moonlight, we shall have a lovely view from the +terrace of the temple.</p> + +<p><!-- Page 186 -->Lovely, I have no doubt, but we had intended going to bed. However, +be it so, let us go with them.</p> + +<p>We hire five djins and five cars down below, in the principal street, +in front of Madame Très-Propre's shop, who, for this late expedition, +chooses for us her largest round lanterns,—big, red balloons, +decorated with star-fish, seaweed, and green sharks.</p> + +<p>It is nearly eleven o'clock when we make our start. In the central +quarters the virtuous Niponese are already closing their little +booths, putting out their lamps, shutting the wooden framework, +drawing their paper panels.</p> + +<p>Further on, in the old-fashioned suburban streets, all is shut up long +ago, and our carts roll on through the black night. We cry out to our +djins: "Ayakou! ayakou!" ("Quick! quick!") and they run as hard as +they can, uttering little shrieks, like some merry animal full of wild +gayety. We rush like a whirlwind through the darkness, all five in +Indian file, dashing and jolting over the old uneven flagstones, dimly +lighted up by our red balloons fluttering at the end of their bamboo +stems. From time to time some Niponese, night-capped in his blue +kerchief, opens a window to see who these noisy madcaps can be, +dashing by so rapidly and so late. Or else some faint <!-- Page 187 -->glimmer, thrown +by us on our passage, discovers the hideous smile of a large stone +animal seated at the gate of a pagoda.</p> + +<p>At last we arrive at the foot of Osueva's temple, and, leaving our +djins with our little gigs, we clamber up the gigantic steps, +completely deserted at this hour of the night.</p> + +<p>Chrysanthème, who always likes to play the part of a tired little +girl, of a spoilt and pouting child, ascends slowly between Yves and +myself, clinging to our arms.</p> + +<p>Jonquille, on the contrary, skips up like a bird, amusing herself by +counting the endless steps:</p> + +<p>"Hitôts'! F'tâts'! Mits'! Yôts'!" ("One! two! three! four!") she +exclaims, springing up by a series of little light bounds.</p> + +<p>"Itsôôts! Moûts'! Nanâts! Yâts! Kokonôts!" ("Five! six! seven! eight! +nine!")</p> + +<p>She lays a great stress on the accentuations, as though to make the +numbers sound even more droll.</p> + +<p>A little silver aigrette glitters in her beautiful black chignon; her +delicate and graceful figure seems strangely fantastic, and the +darkness that envelops us conceals the fact that her face is almost +ugly, and almost without eyes.</p> + +<p>This evening Chrysanthème and Jonquille really look like little +fairies; at certain moments <!-- Page 188 -->the most insignificant Japanese have this +appearance, by dint of whimsical elegance and ingenious arrangement.</p> + +<p>The granite stairs, immense, deserted, uniformly gray under the +nocturnal sky, seem to vanish into the empty space above us, and when +we turn round, to disappear in the depths beneath, to fall with the +dizzy rapidity of a dream into the abyss below. On the sloping steps +the black shadows of the gateways through which we must pass stretch +out inordinately; and the shadows, which seem to be broken at each +projecting step, bear on all their extent the regular creases of a +fan. The porticos stand up separately, rising one above the other; +their wonderful shapes are at once remarkably simple and studiously +affected; their outlines stand out sharp and distinct, having +nevertheless the vague appearance of all very large objects in the +pale moonlight. The curved architraves rise up at each extremity like +two menacing horns, pointing upwards towards the far-off blue canopy +of sky bespangled with stars, as thought they would communicate to the +gods the knowledge they have acquired in the depths of their +foundations from the earth, full of sepulchers and death, which +surrounds them.</p> + +<p>We are, indeed, a very small group, lost now <!-- Page 189 -->in the immensity of the +colossal acclivity as we move onwards, lighted partly by the wan moon +on high, partly by the red lanterns we hold in our hands, ever +floating at the end of their long sticks.</p> + +<p>A deep silence reigns in the precincts of the temple, the sound of the +insects even is hushed as we ascend higher. A sort of reverence, a +kind of religious fear steals over us, and, at the same moment, a +delicious coolness suddenly pervades the air, and passes over us.</p> + +<p>On entering the courtyard above, we feel a little daunted. Here we +find the horse in jade, and the china turrets. The enclosing walls +make it the more gloomy, and our arrival seems to disturb I know not +what mysterious council held between the spirits of the air and the +visible symbols that are there, chimeras and monsters lit up by the +blue rays of the moon.</p> + +<p>We turn to the left, and go through the terraced gardens, to reach the +tea-house "of the Toads," which this evening is our goal; we find it +shut up—expected as much—closed and dark, at this hour! We drum all +together on the door; in the most coaxing tones we call by name the +waiting-maids we know so well: Mdlle. Transparente, Mdlle. Etoile, +Mdlle. Roséematinale, and Mdlle. Marguerite-reine. Not an <!-- Page 190 -->answer. +Goodbye perfumed sherbets and frosted beans!</p> + +<p>In front of the little archery-house, our mousmés suddenly start on +one side, terrified, and declaring that there is a dead body on the +ground. Yes, indeed, someone is lying there. We cautiously examine the +place by the light of our red balloons, carefully held out at arm's +length for fear of this dead man; it is only the marksman, he who on +the 14th of July chose such magnificent arrows for Chrysanthème; and +he sleeps, good man, with his chignon somewhat dishevelled, a sound +sleep, which it would be cruel to disturb.</p> + +<p>Let us go to the end of the terrace, contemplate the roadstead at our +feet, and then return home. To-night the harbor looks only like a dark +and sinister rent, which the moonbeams cannot fathom,—a yawning +crevasse opening into the very bowels of the earth, at the bottom of +which lie faint and small glimmers, an assembly of glow-worms in a +ditch—the lights of the different vessels lying at anchor.</p> + + +<p> </p> +<p> </p> +<p class="schdg"><a name="XLVII" id="XLVII">XLVII.</a></p> + + +<p>It is the middle of the night, somewhere about two in the morning. Our +night-lamps <!-- Page 191 -->are burning still, a little dimly, in front of our +peaceful idols. Chrysanthème wakes me suddenly, and I turn to look at +her: she has raised herself on one arm, and her face expresses the +most intense terror; she makes me a sign, without daring to speak, +that someone is near, or something, creeping up to us. What ill-timed +visit is this? A feeling of fear gains possession of me also. I have a +rapid impression of some immense unknown danger, in this isolated +spot, in this strange country of which I do not even yet comprehend +the inhabitants and the mysteries. It must be something very +frightful, to hold her there, rooted to the spot, half dead with +fright, she who <i>does</i> comprehend all these things.</p> + +<p>It would seem to be outside: it is coming from the garden; with +trembling hand she indicates to me that it will come through the +verandah, over Madame Prune's roof. Certainly, I can hear faint +noises, and they do approach nearer.</p> + +<p>I suggest to her:</p> + +<p>"<i>Neko-San?</i>" ("It is Messrs. the cats?")</p> + +<p>"No!" she replies, still terrified and in an alarming tone.</p> + +<p>"<i>Bakémono-Sama?</i>" ("Is it my lords the ghosts?") I have already the +Japanese habit of expressing myself with excessive politeness.</p> + +<p>'No!!" <i>"Dorobo!!"</i>("Thieves!!") <!-- Page 192 -->Thieves! Ah this is better; I much +prefer this to a visit such as I have just been, dreading in the +sudden awakening from sleep: from ghosts or spirits of the dead; +thieves, that is to say, worthy fellows very much alive, and having +undoubtedly, in as much as they are Japanese thieves, faces of the +most meritorious oddity. I am not in the least frightened, now that I +know precisely what to expect, and we will immediately set to work to +ascertain the truth, for something is decidedly moving on Madame +Prune's roof; some one is walking upon it.</p> + +<p>I open one of our wooden panels and look out.</p> + +<p>I can see only a vast expanse, calm, peaceful, and exquisite under the +full brilliancy of the moonlight; sleeping Japan lulled by the +sonorous song of the grasshoppers is charming indeed to-night, and the +free pure air is delicious to breathe.</p> + +<p>Chrysanthème, half hidden behind my shoulder, listens tremblingly, +peering forward to examine the gardens and the roofs with dilated eyes +like a frightened cat. No, nothing! not a thing moves. Here and there +are a few strangely substantial shadows, which at the first glance +were not easy to explain, but which turn out to be real shadows, +thrown by bits of wall, by boughs of trees, and which preserve an +<!-- Page 193 -->extremely reassuring stillness. Everything seems absolutely tranquil, +and profound silence reigns in the dreamy vagueness which moonlight +sheds over all.</p> + +<p>Nothing; nothing to be seen anywhere. It was Messrs, the cats after +all, or perhaps my ladies the owls; sounds increase in volume in the +most amazing manner at night, in this house of ours.</p> + +<p>Let us close the panel again carefully, as a measure of prudence, and +then light a lantern and go downstairs to see if there may be any one +hidden in corners, and if the doors are tightly shut: in short, to +reassure Chrysanthème we will go the round of the house.</p> + +<p>Behold us then, on tip-toe, searching together every hole and corner +of the house, which, to judge by its foundations, must be very +ancient, notwithstanding the fragile appearance of its panels of white +paper. It contains the blackest of cavities, little vaulted cellars +with worm-eaten beams; cupboards for rice which smell of mould and +decay; mysterious hollows where lies accumulated the dust of +centuries. In the middle of the night, and during a hunt for thieves, +this part of the house, as yet unknown to me, has an ugly look.</p> + +<p>Noiselessly we step across the apartment of our landlord and landlady. +Chrysanthème <!-- Page 194 -->drags me by the hand, and I allow myself to be led. +There they are, sleeping in a row under their blue gauze tent, lighted +by the night-lamps burning before the altars of their ancestors. Ha! I +observe that they are arranged in an order which might give rise to +gossip. First comes Mdlle. Oyouki, very taking in her attitude of +rest. Then Madame Prune, who sleeps with her mouth wide open, showing +her rows of blackened teeth; from her throat arises an intermittent +sound like the grunting of a sow. Oh! poor Madame Prune! how hideous +she is!! Next, M. Sucre, a mere mummy for the time being. And finally, +at his side, last of the row, is their servant, Mdlle. Dédé!!!</p> + +<p>The gauze hanging over them throws reflections as of the sea upon +them; one might suppose them victims drowned in an aquarium. And +withal the sacred lamps, the altar crowded with strange Shintoist +symbols, give a mock religious air to this family picture.</p> + +<p><i>Honi soit qui mal y pense</i>, but why is not that servant-girl rather +laid by the side of her mistresses? Now, when we on the floor above +offer our hospitality to Yves, we are careful to place ourselves under +our mosquito-net in a more correct style.</p> + +<p>One corner, which as a last resort we inspect, inspires me with a +certain amount of apprehen<!-- Page 195 -->sion. It is a low, mysterious loft, against +the door of which is stuck, as a thing no longer wanted, a very old +pious image: <i>Kwanon with the thousand arms, and Kwanon with the +horses' head</i>, seated among clouds and flames, and horrible both of +them to behold, with their spectral grin.</p> + +<p>We open the door, and Chrysanthème starts back uttering a fearful cry. +I should have thought the robbers were there, had I not seen a little +grey creature, rapid and noiseless, rush by her and disappear; a young +rat that had been eating rice on the top of a shelf, and, in its +alarm, had dashed in her face.</p> + + +<p> </p> +<p> </p> +<p class="schdg"><a name="XLVIII" id="XLVIII">XLVIII</a></p> + +<p><i>September 14th</i>.</p> + + +<p>Yves has dropped his silver whistle in the sea, the whistle so +absolutely indispensable for the maneuvers; and we search the town +through all day long, followed by Chrysanthème and Mdlles. La Neige +and La Lune, her sisters, in the endeavor to procure another.</p> + +<p>It is, however, very difficult to find such a thing in Nagasaki; above +all, very difficult to explain in Japanese what is a sailor's whistle +of the traditional shape, curved and with a little <!-- Page 196 -->ball at the end to +modulate the trills and the various sounds of official orders. For +three hours we are sent from shop to shop; at each one they pretend to +understand perfectly what is wanted and trace on tissue-paper, with a +paint-brush, the addresses of the shops where we shall without fail +meet with what we require,—away we go, full of hope, only to +encounter some fresh mystification, till our breathless djins get +quite bewildered.</p> + +<p>They understand admirably that we want a thing that will make a noise, +music in short; thereupon they offer us instruments of every and the +most unexpected shape,—squeakers for Punch-and-Judy voices, +dog-whistles, trumpets. Each time it is something more and more +absurd, so that at last we are overcome with uncontrollable fits of +laughter. Last of all, an aged Japanese optician, who assumes a most +knowing air, a look of sublime wisdom, goes off to forage in his back +shop, and brings to light a steam fog-horn, a relic from some wrecked +steamer.</p> + +<p>After dinner, the chief event of the evening is a deluge of rain which +takes us by surprise as we leave the tea-houses, on our return from +our fashionable stroll. It so happened that we were a large party, +having with us several mousmé guests, and from the moment that the +<!-- Page 197 -->rain began to fall from the skies, as if out of a watering-pot turned +upside down, the band became disorganized. The mousmés run off, with +birdlike cries, and take refuge under door-ways, in the shops, under +the hoods of the djins.</p> + +<p>Then, before long,—when the shops shut up in haste, when the emptied +streets are flooded, and almost black, and the paper lanterns, piteous +objects, wet through and extinguished,—I find myself, I know not how +it happens, flattened against a wall, under the projecting eaves, +alone in the company of Mdlle. Fraise, my cousin, who is crying +bitterly because her fine dress is wet through. And in the noise of +the rain, which is still falling and splashing everything; with the +spouts and gutters, which in the darkness plaintively murmur like +running streams, the town appears to me suddenly an abode of the +gloomiest sadness.</p> + +<p>The shower is soon over, and the mousmés come out of their holes like +so many mice; they look for each other, call each other, and their +little voices take the singular melancholy, dragging inflections they +assume whenever they have to call from afar.</p> + +<p>"Hi! Mdlle. Lu-u-u-u une!!"</p> + +<p>"Hi! Madame Jonqui-i-i-i ille!!"</p> + +<p>They shout from one to the other their outlandish names, prolonging +them indefinitely in <!-- Page 198 -->the now silent night, in the reverberations of +the damp air after the great summer rain.</p> + +<p>At length they are all collected and united again, these tiny +personages with narrow eyes and no brains, and we return to +Diou-djen-dji all wet through.</p> + +<p>For the third time, we have Yves sleeping beside us under our blue +tent.</p> + +<p>There is a great row soon after midnight in the apartment beneath us: +our landlord's family returning from a pilgrimage to a far-distant +temple of the Goddess of Grace. (Although Madame Prune is a Shintoist, +she reveres this deity, who, scandal says, watched over her youth.) A +moment after, Mdlle. Oyouki bursts into our room like a rocket, +bringing, on a charming little tray, sweetmeats which have been +blessed and bought at the gates of the temple yonder, on purpose for +us, and which we must positively eat at once, before the virtue is +gone out of them. Scarcely rousing ourselves, we absorb these little +edibles flavored with sugar and pepper, and return a great many sleepy +thanks.</p> + +<p>Yves sleeps quietly on this occasion, without dealing any blows to the +floor or the panels either with fists or feet. He has hung his watch +on one of the hands of our gilded idol in order to be more sure of +seeing the hour at any <!-- Page 199 -->time of the night, by the light of the sacred +lamps. He gets up betimes in the morning, asking: "Well, did I behave +properly?" and dresses in haste, preoccupied about duty and the +roll-call.</p> + +<p>Outside, no doubt, it is daylight already: through the tiny holes +which time has pierced in our wooden panels, threads of morning light +penetrate our chamber, and in the atmosphere of our room where night +still lingers, they trace vague white rays. Soon, when the sun shall +have risen, these rays will lengthen and become beautifully golden. +The cocks and the cicalas make themselves heard, and now Madame Prune +will begin her mystic drone.</p> + +<p>Nevertheless, out of politeness for Yves-San, Chrysanthème lights a +lantern and escorts him to the foot of the dark staircase. I even +fancy that, on parting, I hear a kiss exchanged. In Japan this is of +no consequence, that I know; it is very usual, and quite admissible; +no matter where one goes, in houses one enters for the first time, one +is quite at liberty to kiss any mousmé who may be present, without any +notice being taken of it. But with regard to Chrysanthème, Yves is in +a delicate position, and he ought to understand it better. I begin to +feel uneasy about the hours they have so often spent together alone; +and I make up my mind, that <!-- Page 200 -->this very day I will not play the spy +upon them, but speak frankly to Yves, and make a clear breast of it.</p> + +<p>All at once from below, <i>clac! clac!</i> two dry hands clapped together; +it is Madame Prune's warning to the Great Spirit. And immediately +after her prayer breaks forth, soars upwards in a shrill nasal +falsetto, like a morning alarm when the hour for waking has come, the +mechanical noise of a spring let go and running down.</p> + +<p><i>"The richest woman in the world. Cleansed from all my sins, O +Ama-Térace-Omi-Kami, in the river of Kamo."</i></p> + +<p>And this extraordinary bleating, scarcely human, scatters and changes +my ideas, which were very nearly clear at the moment I awoke.</p> + + +<p> </p> +<p> </p> +<p class="schdg"><a name="XLIX" id="XLIX">XLIX.</a></p> + +<p><i>September 15th</i>.</p> + + +<p>There is a rumor of departure in the air. Since yesterday there has +been vague talk of our being sent to China, to the gulf of Pekin; one +of those rumors which spread, no one knows how, from one end of the +ship to the other, two or three days before the official orders +arrive, and which generally turn out tolerably <!-- Page 201 -->correct. What will the +last act of my little Japanese comedy be like? the dénouement, the +separation? Will there be any touch of sadness on the part of my +mousmé, or on my own, just a tightening of the heart-strings at the +moment of our final farewell? At this moment I can imagine nothing of +the sort. And then the adieux of Yves and Chrysanthème, what will they +be? This question preoccupies me more than all.</p> + +<p>There is nothing very precise as yet, but it is certain that one way +or another, our stay in Japan is coming to an end. It is this perhaps +which disposes me this evening, to throw a more friendly glance on my +surroundings. It is about six o'clock, after a day spent on duty, when +I reach Diou-djen-dji. The evening sun, low in the sky, on the point +of setting, pours into my room, and floods it with rays of red gold, +lighting up the Buddhas and the great sheaves of quaintly arranged +flowers in the antique vases. Here are assembled five or six little +dolls, my neighbors, amusing themselves by dancing to the sound of +Chrysanthème's guitar. And this evening I experience a real charm in +feeling that this dwelling and the woman who leads the dance, are +mine. On the whole I have perhaps been unjust to this country; it +seems to me that my eyes are at last opened to see it in its true +<!-- Page 202 -->light, that all my senses are undergoing a strange and abrupt +transition; I suddenly have a better perception and appreciation of +all the infinity of dainty trifles amongst which I live; of the +fragile and studied grace of their forms, the oddity of their +drawings, the refined choice of their colors.</p> + +<p>I stretch myself upon the white mats; Chrysanthème, always eagerly +attentive, brings me my pillow of serpent's skin; and the smiling +mousmés, with the interrupted rhythm of a while ago still running in +their heads, move round me with measured steps.</p> + +<p>Their irreproachable socks with the separate great toes, make no +noise; nothing is heard, as they glide by, but a froufrou of silken +stuffs. I find them all pleasant to look upon; their dollish air has +the gift of pleasing me now, and I fancy I have discovered what it is +that gives it to them: it is not only their round inexpressive faces +with eyebrows far removed from the eyelids, but the excessive +amplitude of their dress. With those huge sleeves, it might be +supposed they have neither back nor shoulders; their delicate figures +are lost in these wide robes, which float around what might be little +marionnettes without bodies at all, and which would slip to the ground +of themselves were they not kept together midway, about where a waist +<!-- Page 203 -->should be, by the wide silken sashes,—a very different comprehension +of the art of dressing to ours, which endeavors as much as possible to +bring into relief the curves, real or false, of the figure.</p> + +<p>And then, how much I admire the flowers arranged by Chrysanthème in +our vases, with her Japanese taste: lotus flowers, great sacred +flowers of a tender, veined rose-color, the milky rose-color seen on +porcelain; they resemble, when in full bloom, great water-lilies, and +when only in bud, might be taken for long pale tulips. Their soft but +rather cloying scent is added to that other indefinable odor of +mousmés, of yellow race, of Japan, which is always and everywhere in +the air. The late flowers of September, at this season very rare and +expensive, grow on longer stems than the summer blooms; Chrysanthème +has left them their immense aquatic leaves of a melancholy +seaweed-green, and mingled with them tall slight rushes. I look at +them, and recall with some irony those great round bunches in the +shape of cauliflowers, which our florists sell in France, wrapt in +their white lace-paper.</p> + +<p>Still no letters from Europe, from any one. How things change, become +effaced and forgotten. Here I am accommodating myself to this finical +Japan and dwindling down to its <!-- Page 204 -->affected mannerism; I feel that my +thoughts run in smaller grooves, my tastes incline to smaller +things,—things which suggest nothing greater than a smile. I am +becoming used to tiny and ingenious furniture, to doll-like desks, to +miniature bowls with which to play at dinner, to the immaculate +monotony of the mats, to the finely finished simplicity of the white +woodwork. I am even losing my Western prejudices; all my preconceived +ideas are this evening evaporating and vanishing; crossing the garden +I have courteously saluted M. Sucre, who was watering his dwarf shrubs +and his deformed flowers; and Madame Prune appears to me a highly +respectable old lady, in whose past there is nothing to criticise.</p> + +<p>We shall take no walk to-night; my only wish is to remain stretched +out where I am, listening to the music of my mousmé's <i>chamécen</i>.</p> + +<p>Till now, I have always used the word <i>guitar</i>, to avoid exotic terms, +for the abuse of which I have been so reproached. But neither the word +<i>guitar</i> nor <i>mandolin</i> suffices to designate this slender instrument +with its long neck, the high notes of which are shriller than the +voice of the grasshopper; henceforth, I will write <i>chamécen</i>.</p> + +<p>I will also call my mousmé <i>Kikou, Kikou-San</i>; this name suits her +better than Chrysanthème, <!-- Page 205 -->which though translating the sense exactly, +does not preserve the strange-sounding euphony of the original.</p> + +<p>I therefore say to Kikou, my wife:</p> + +<p>"Play, play on for me; I shall remain here all the evening and listen +to you."</p> + +<p>Astonished to find me in so amiable a mood, she requires pressing a +little, and with almost a bitter curve of triumph and disdain about +her lips, she seats herself in the attitude of an idol, raises her +long, dark-colored sleeves, and begins. The first hesitating notes are +murmured faintly and mingle with the music of the insects humming +outside, in the quiet air of the warm and golden twilight. First she +plays slowly, a confused medley of fragments which she does not seem +to remember perfectly, of which one waits for the finish and waits in +vain; while the other girls giggle, inattentive, and regretful of +their interrupted dance. She herself is absent, sulky, as though she +were performing a duty only.</p> + +<p>Then by degrees, little by little, it becomes more animated, and the +mousmés begin to listen. Now, tremblingly it grows into a feverish +rapidity, and her gaze has no longer the vacant stare of a doll. Then +the music changes again; in it there is the sighing of the wind, the +hideous laughter of ghouls; tears, heartrending plaints, <!-- Page 206 -->and her +dilated pupils seem to be directed inwardly in settled gaze on some +indescribable <i>Japanesery</i> within her own soul.</p> + +<p>I listen, lying there with eyes half shut, looking out between my +drooping eyelids which are gradually lowering, in involuntary +heaviness, upon the enormous red sun dying away over Nagasaki. I have +a somewhat melancholy feeling that my past life and all other places +in the world are receding from my view and fading away. At this moment +of nightfall I feel almost at home in this corner of Japan, amidst the +gardens of this suburb; I have never had such an impression before.</p> + + +<p> </p> +<p> </p> +<p class="schdg"><a name="L" id="L">L.</a></p> + +<p><i>September 16th</i>.</p> + + +<p>Seven o'clock in the evening. We shall not go down into the town +to-day; but, like good Japanese citizens, remain in our loftly suburb.</p> + +<p>In undress uniform we shall go, Yves and I, in a neighborly way, as +far as the fencing gallery, which is only two steps off, just above +our villa, and almost abutting on our fresh and scented garden.</p> + +<p>The gallery is closed already and a little mousko seated at the door, +explains with many <!-- Page 207 -->low bows that we come too late, all the amateurs +are gone; we must come again to-morrow.</p> + +<p>The evening is so mild and so fine, that we remain out of doors, +following without any definite purpose the pathway which rises ever +higher and higher, and loses itself at length in the solitary regions +of the mountain among the upper peaks.</p> + +<p>For an hour at least we wander on,—an unintended walk,—and finally +find ourselves at a great height commanding an endless perspective +lighted by the last gleams of daylight; we are in a desolate and +mournful spot, in the midst of the little Buddhist cemeteries, which +are scattered over the country in every direction.</p> + +<p>We meet a few belated laborers, who are returning from the fields with +bundles of tea upon their shoulders. These peasants have a half savage +air, half naked too, or clothed only in long robes of blue cotton; as +they pass, they salute us with humble bows.</p> + +<p>No trees in this elevated region. Fields of tea alternate with tombs: +old granite statues which represent Buddha in his lotus, or else old +monumental stones on which gleam remains of inscriptions in golden +letters. Rocks, brushwood, uncultivated spaces, surround us on all +sides.</p> + +<p>There are no more passers-by, and the light <!-- Page 208 -->is failing. We will halt +for a moment, and then it will be time to turn our steps downwards.</p> + +<p>But, close to the spot where we stand, a box in white wood provided +with handles, a sort of sedan-chair, rests on the freshly disturbed +earth, with its lotus of silvered paper, and the little incense-sticks +burning yet, by its side; clearly someone has been buried here this +very evening.</p> + +<p>I cannot picture this personage to myself; the Japanese are so +grotesque in life, that it is almost impossible to imagine them in the +calm majesty of death. Nevertheless, let us move further on, we might +disturb him; he is too recently dead, his presence unnerves us. We +will go and seat ourselves on one of these other tombs, so unutterably +ancient that there can no longer be anything within it but dust. And +there, seated yet in the dying sunlight, while the valleys and plains +of the earth below are already lost in shadow, we will talk together.</p> + +<p>I wish to speak to Yves about Chrysanthème; it is indeed somewhat in +view of this that I have persuaded him to sit down; but how to set +about it without hurting his feelings, and without making myself +ridiculous, I hardly know. However, the pure air playing round me up +here, and the magnificent landscape spread beneath my feet, impart a +certain serenity to my thoughts which makes me feel a <!-- Page 209 -->contemptuous +pity, both for my suspicions and the cause of them.</p> + +<p>We speak, first of all, of the order for departure which may arrive at +any moment, for China or for France. Soon we shall have to leave this +easy and almost amusing life, this Japanese suburb where chance has +installed us, and our little house buried among flowers. Yves perhaps +will regret all this more than I shall, I know that well enough; for +it is the first time that any such interlude has broken the rude +monotony of his hard-worked career. Formerly, when in an inferior +rank, he was scarcely more often on shore, in foreign countries, than +the sea-gulls themselves; whilst I have, from the very beginning, been +spoilt by residence in all sorts of charming spots, infinitely +superior to this, in all sorts of countries, and the remembrance +pleasurably haunts me still.</p> + +<p>In order to discover how the land lies, I risk the remark:</p> + +<p>"You will perhaps be more sorry to leave this little Chrysanthème than +I am?"</p> + +<p>Silence reigns between us.</p> + +<p>After which I pursue, and, burning my ships, I add:</p> + +<p>"You know, after all, if you have such a fancy for her, I haven't +really married her; one can't really consider her my wife."</p> + +<p><!-- Page 210 -->In great surprise he looks in my face:</p> + +<p>"Not your wife, you say? But, by Jove, though, that's just it; she is +your wife."</p> + +<p>There is no need of many words at any time between us two; I know +exactly now, by his tone, by his great good-humored smile, how the +case stands; I understand all that lies in the little phrase: "That's +just it, she is your wife." If she were not, well then he could not +answer for what might happen,—notwithstanding any remorse he might +have in the depths of his heart, since he is no longer a bachelor and +free as air, as in former days. But he considers her my wife, and she +is sacred. I have the fullest faith in his word, and I experience a +positive relief, a real joy, at finding my staunch Yves of bygone +days. How could I have so succumbed to the demeaning influence of my +surroundings as to suspect him even, and invent for myself such a +mean, petty anxiety?</p> + +<p>We will never even mention that doll again.</p> + +<p>We remain up there very late, talking of other things, gazing the +while at the immense depths below our feet, at the valleys and +mountains as they become one by one indistinct and lost in the +deepening darkness. Placed as we are at an enormous height, in the +wide free atmosphere, we seem already to have quitted this miniature +country, already to be freed <!-- Page 211 -->from the impression of littleness which +it has given us, and from the little links by which it was beginning +to bind us to itself.</p> + +<p>Seen from such heights as these, all the countries of the globe bear a +strong resemblance to each other; they lose the imprint made upon them +by man, and by races; by all the atoms swarming on the surface.</p> + +<p>As of old, in the Breton marshes, in the woods of Toulven, or at sea +in the night-watches, we talk of all those things to which thoughts +naturally revert in darkness; of ghosts, of spirits, of eternity, of +the great hereafter, of chaos—and we entirely forget little +Chrysanthème!</p> + +<p>When we arrive at Diou-djen-dji in the starry night, it is the music +of her <i>chamécen</i>, heard from afar, which recalls to us her existence; +she is studying some vocal duet with Mdlle. Oyouki, her pupil.</p> + +<p>I feel myself in very good humor this evening, and, relieved from any +absurd suspicions about my poor Yves, am quite disposed to enjoy +without reserve my last days in Japan, and derive therefrom all the +amusement possible.</p> + +<p>Let us then stretch ourselves out on the dazzling white mats, and +listen to the singular duet sung by these two mousmés: a strange +musical medley, slow and mournful, beginning with two <!-- Page 212 -->or three high +notes, and descending at each couplet, in almost an imperceptible +manner, into actual solemnity. The song keeps its dragging slowness; +but the accompaniment becoming more and more accentuated, is like the +impetuous sound of a far-off hurricane. At the end, when these girlish +voices, generally so soft, give out their hoarse and guttural notes, +Chrysanthème's hands fly wildly and convulsively over the quivering +strings. Both of them lower their heads, pout their under-lips in the +effort of bringing out these astonishingly deep notes. And at these +moments, their little narrow eyes open and seem to reveal an +unexpected something, almost a soul, under these trappings of +marionnettes.</p> + +<p>But it is a soul which more than ever appears to me of a different +species to my own; I feel my thoughts to be far removed from theirs, +as from the flitting conceptions of a bird, or the dreams of a monkey; +I feel there is betwixt them and myself a great gulf, mysterious and +awful.</p> + +<p>Other sounds of music, wafted to us from the distance outside, +interrupt for a moment that of our mousmés. From the depths below, +down in Nagasaki, arises a sudden noise of gongs and guitars; we rush +to the balcony of the verandah to hear it better.</p> + +<p><!-- Page 213 -->It is a <i>matsouri</i>, a fête, a procession passing through the quarter +which is not so virtuous as our own, so our mousmés tell us, with a +disdainful toss of the head. Nevertheless, from the heights on which +we dwell, seen thus in a bird's-eye view, by the uncertain light of +the stars, this district has a singularly chaste air, and the concert +going on therein, purified in its ascent from the depths of the abyss +to our lofty altitudes, reaches us confusedly, a smothered, enchanted, +enchanting sound.</p> + +<p>Then it diminishes, and dies away into silence.</p> + +<p>The two little friends return to their seats on the mats, and once +more take up their melancholy duet. An orchestra, discreetly subdued +but innumerable, of crickets and cicalas, accompanies them in an +unceasing tremolo,—the immense far-reaching tremolo, which, gentle +and eternal, never ceases on Japanese land.</p> + + +<p> </p> +<p> </p> +<p class="schdg"><a name="LI" id="LI">LI.</a></p> + +<p><i>September 17th</i>.</p> + + +<p>During the hour of siesta, the abrupt order arrives to start to-morrow +for China, for Tchefou (a horrid place in the gulf of Pekin). It is +Yves who comes to wake me in my cabin to bring me the news.</p> + +<p>"<!-- Page 214 -->I must positively get leave to go on shore this evening," he says, +while I endeavor to shake myself awake, "if it is only to help you to +dismantle and pack up there."</p> + +<p>He gazes through my port-hole, raising his glance towards the green +summits, in the direction of Diou-djen-dji and our echoing old +cottage, hidden from us by a turn of the mountain.</p> + +<p>It is very nice of him to wish to help me in my packing; but I think +he also counts upon saying farewell to his little Japanese friends up +there, and I really cannot find fault with that.</p> + +<p>He gets through his work, and does in fact get leave without help from +me, to go on shore at five o'clock, after drill and manœuvres.</p> + +<p>As for myself, I start off at once, in a hired sampan. In the vast +flood of midday sunshine, to the quivering noise of the cicalas, I +mount up to Diou-djen-dji.</p> + +<p>The paths are solitary, the plants drooping in the heat. Here, +however, is Madame Jonquille, taking the air, in the bright sunshine +of the grasshoppers, sheltering her dainty figure and her charming +face under an immense paper parasol, a huge circle, closely ribbed and +fantastically striped.</p> + +<p>She recognizes me from afar, and laughing as usual, runs to meet me.</p> + +<p>I announce our departure, and a tearful pout <!-- Page 215 -->suddenly contracts her +childish face. After all, does this news grieve her? Is she going to +shed tears over it? No! it turns to a fit of laughter, a little +nervous perhaps, but unexpected and disconcerting,—dry and clear, +pealing through the silence and warmth of the narrow paths, like a +cascade of little mock pearls.</p> + +<p>Ah, there indeed is a marriage tie which will be broken without much +pain! But she fills me with impatience, poor empty-headed linnet, with +her laughter, and I turn my back upon her to continue my journey.</p> + +<p>Up above, Chrysanthème sleeps, stretched out on the floor; the house +is wide open, and the soft mountain breeze rustles gently through it.</p> + +<p>That same evening we had intended to give a tea-party, and by my +orders flowers had already been placed in every nook and corner of the +house. There were lotus in our vases, beautiful rose-colored lotus, +the last of the season, I verily believe. They must have been ordered +from a special gardener, out yonder near the Great Temple, and they +will cost me dear.</p> + +<p>With a few gentle taps of a fan I awake my surprised mousmé; and, +curious to catch her first impressions, I announce my departure. She +starts up, rubs her eyelids with the back of her little hands, looks +at me, and hangs her head: <!-- Page 216 -->something like an expression of sadness +passes in her eyes.</p> + +<p>This little sinking at the heart is for Yves, no doubt.</p> + +<p>The news spreads through the house.</p> + +<p>Mdlle. Oyouki dashes upstairs, with half a tear in each of her babyish +eyes; kisses me with her full red lips, which always leave a wet ring +on my cheek; then quickly draws from her wide sleeve a square of +tissue-paper, wipes away her stealthy tears, blows her little nose, +rolls the bit of paper in a ball, and throws it into the street on the +parasol of a passer-by.</p> + +<p>Then Madame Prune makes her appearance; in an agitated and discomposed +manner she successively adopts every attitude expressive of utter +dismay. What on earth is the matter with the old lady, and why will +she keep getting closer and closer to me, till she is almost in my +way?</p> + +<p>It is wonderful all I still have to do this last day, and the endless +drives I have to make to the old curiosity shops, to my tradespeople, +and to the packers.</p> + +<p>Nevertheless before my rooms are dismantled, I intend making a sketch +of them, as I did formerly at Stamboul. It really seems to me as if +all I do here is a bitter parody of all I did over there.</p> + +<p><!-- Page 217 -->This time, however, it is not that I care for this dwelling; it is +only because it is pretty and uncommon, and the sketch will be an +interesting souvenir.</p> + +<p>I fetch, therefore, a leaf out of my album, and begin at once, seated +on the floor and leaning on my desk, ornamented with grasshoppers in +relief, while behind me, very, very close to me, the three women +follow the movements of my pencil with an astonished attention. +Japanese art being entirely conventional, they have never before seen +anyone draw from nature, and my style delights them. I may not perhaps +possess the steady and nimble touch of M. Sucre, as he groups his +charming storks, but I am master of a few notions of perspective which +are wanting in him; and I have been taught to draw things as I see +them, without giving them ingeniously distorted and grimacing +attitudes; and the three Japanese are amazed at the air of <i>reality</i> +thrown in my sketch.</p> + +<p>With little shrieks of admiration, they point out to each other the +different things, as little by little their shape and form are +outlined in black on my paper. Chrysanthème gazes at me with a new +kind of interest: "<i>Anata itchi-ban</i>!" she says (literally "Thou +first!" meaning: "You are really quite a swell!") Mdlle. Oyouki is +carried away by her ad<!-- Page 218 -->miration and exclaims in a burst of enthusiasm:</p> + +<p><i>"Anata bakari!"</i> ("Thou alone!" that is to say: "There is no one like +you in the world, all the rest are mere rubbish!")</p> + +<p>Madame Prune says nothing, but I can see that she does not think the +less; her languishing attitudes, her hand that at each moment gently +touches mine, confirm the suspicions that her look of dismay a few +moments ago awoke within me: evidently my physical charms speak to her +imagination, which in spite of years has remained full of romance! I +shall leave with the regret of having understood her too late!!</p> + +<p>If the ladies are satisfied with my sketch, I am far from being so. I +have put everything in its place most exactly, but as a whole, it has +an ordinary, indifferent, French look which does not suit. The +sentiment is not given, and I almost wonder whether I should not have +done better in falsifying the perspective,—Japanese style—and +exaggerating to the very utmost the already abnormal outlines of what +I see before me. And then the pictured dwelling lacks the fragile look +and its sonority, that reminds one of a dry violin. In the penciled +delineation of the woodwork, the minute delicacy with which it is +wrought is wanting; neither have I been able to render the extreme +antiquity, the perfect cleanliness, nor the <!-- Page 219 -->vibrating song of the +cicalas that seems to have been stored away within it, in its +parched-up fibers, during some hundreds of summers. It does not either +convey the impression this place gives of being in a far-off suburb, +perched aloft among trees, above the drollest of towns. No, all this +cannot be drawn, cannot be expressed, but remains undemonstrable, +undefinable.</p> + +<p>Having sent out our invitations, we shall in spite of everything, give +our tea-party this evening,—a parting tea, therefore, in which we +will display as much pomp as possible. It is, moreover, rather my +custom to wind up my exotic existences with a fête; in other countries +I have done the same.</p> + +<p>Besides our usual set, we shall have my mother-in-law, my relatives, +and all the mousmés of the neighborhood. But, by an extra Japanese +refinement, we shall not admit a single European friend,—not even the +<i>amazingly tall</i> one. Yves alone shall be admitted, and even he shall +be hidden away in a corner behind some flowers and works of art.</p> + +<p>In the last glimmer of twilight, by the first twinkling star, the +ladies, with many charming curtseys, make their appearance. Our house +is soon full of the little crouching women, with their tiny slit eyes +vaguely smiling; their beautifully dressed hair shining like polished +ebony; <!-- Page 220 -->their fragile bodies lost in the many folds or the exaggerated +wide garments, that gape as if ready to drop from their little +tapering backs and reveal the exquisite napes of their little necks.</p> + +<p>Chrysanthème, with somewhat a melancholy air; my mother-in-law +Renoncule, with many affected graces, busy themselves in the midst of +the different groups, where ere long the miniature pipes are lighted. +Soon there arises a murmuring sound of discreet laughter, expressing +nothing, but having a pretty exotic ring about it, and then begins a +harmony of <i>pan! pan! pan!</i> sharp, rapid taps against the edges of the +finely lacquered smoking-boxes. Pickled and spiced fruits are handed +round on trays of quaint and varied shapes. Then transparent china +tea-cups, no larger than half an egg-shell, make their appearance, and +the ladies are offered a few drops of sugarless tea, poured out of toy +kettles, or a sip of <i>saki</i>—(a spirit made from rice which it is the +custom to serve hot, in elegantly shaped vases, long-necked like a +heron's throat).</p> + +<p>Several mousmés execute, one after the other, improvizations on the +<i>chamécen</i>. Others sing in sharp high voices hopping about +continually, like cicalas in delirium.</p> + +<p>Madame Prune, no longer able to make a <!-- Page 221 -->mystery of the long-pent up +feelings that agitate her, pays me the most marked and tender +attentions, and begs my acceptance of a quantity of little souvenirs: +an image, a little vase, a little porcelain goddess of the Moon in +Satsuma ware, a marvelously grotesque ivory figure;—I tremblingly +follow her into the dark corners whither she calls me to give me these +presents in a <i>tête-à-tête</i>.</p> + +<p>At about nine o'clock, with a silken rustling, arrive the three +guéchas in vogue in Nagasaki: Mdlles. Pureté, Orange, and Printemps, +whom I have hired at four dollars a head,—an enormous price in this +country.</p> + +<p>These three guéchas are indeed the very same little creatures I heard +singing on the rainy day of my arrival, through the thin paneling of +the <i>Garden of Flowers</i>. But as I have now become thoroughly +<i>Japanized</i>, to-day they appear to me more diminutive, less +outlandish, and in no way mysterious. I treat them rather as dancers +that I have hired, and the idea that I had ever thought of marrying +one of them now makes me shrug my shoulders,—as it formerly did M. +Kangourou.</p> + +<p>The excessive heat caused by the respiration of the mousmés and the +burning lamps, brings out the perfume of the lotus, which fills the +heavy-laden atmosphere; and the scent of the <!-- Page 222 -->camelia-oil the ladies +use in profusion to make their hair glisten, is also strong in the +room.</p> + +<p>Mdlle. Orange, the youngest guécha, tiny and dainty, her lips outlined +with gilt paint, executes some delightful steps, donning the most +extraordinary wigs and masks in wood or cardboard. She has masks +imitating old noble ladies which are valuable works of art, signed by +well-known artists. She has also magnificent long robes, fashioned in +the old style, and trains trimmed at the bottom with thick pads, in +order to give to the movements of the costume something rigid and +unnatural which, however, is becoming.</p> + +<p>Now the soft balmy breezes blow through the room, from one verandah to +the other, making the flames of the lamps flicker. They scatter the +lotus flowers faded by the artificial heat, which, falling in pieces +from every vase, sprinkle the guests with their pollen and large pink +petals, looking like bits of broken opal-colored glass.</p> + +<p>The sensational piece, reserved for the end, is a trio on the +<i>chamécen</i>, long and monotonous, that the guéchas perform as a rapid +<i>pizzicato</i> on the highest strings, very sharply struck. It sounds +like the very quintescence, the paraphrase, the exasperation if I may +so call it, of the eternal buzz of insects, which <!-- Page 223 -->issues from the +trees, old roofs, old walls, from everything in fact, and which is the +ground-work of all Japanese sounds.</p> + +<p>Half-past ten! The program has been carried out, and the reception is +over. A last general <i>pan! pan! pan!</i> the little pipes are stowed away +into their chased sheaths, tied up in the sashes, and the mousmés rise +to depart.</p> + +<p>They light, at the end of short sticks, a quantity of red, gray or +blue lanterns, and after a series of endless bows and curtseys, the +guests disperse themselves in the darkness of the lanes and trees.</p> + +<p>We also go down to the town,—Yves, Chrysanthème, Oyouki, and +myself,—in order to conduct my mother-in-law, sisters-in-law, and +youthful aunt, Madame Nénufar, to their house.</p> + +<p>We want to take one last stroll together in our old familiar pleasure +haunts, drink one more iced sherbet at the house of the <i>Indescribable +Butterflies</i>, buy one more lantern at Madame Très-Propre's, and eat +some parting waffles at Madame L'Heure's!</p> + +<p>I try to be affected, moved, by this leave-taking, but without +success. In this Japan, as with the little men and women who inhabit +it, there is something decidedly wanting; pleasant <!-- Page 224 -->enough as a mere +pastime, it begets no feeling of attachment.</p> + +<p>On our return, when I am once more with Yves and the two mousmés +climbing up the road to Diou-djen-dji, which I shall probably never +see again, a vague feeling of melancholy pervades my last stroll.</p> + +<p>It is, however, but the melancholy inseparable from all things that +are about to end without possibility of return.</p> + +<p>Moreover, this calm and splendid summer is also drawing to a close for +us,—since to-morrow we shall go forth to meet the autumn, in Northern +China. I am beginning, alas! to count the youthful summers I may still +hope for; I feel more gloomy each time another fades away, and flies +to rejoin the others already disappeared in the dark and bottomless +abyss, where all past things lie buried.</p> + +<p>At midnight we return home, and my removal begins; while on board the +<i>amazingly tall friend</i> kindly takes my watch.</p> + +<p>It is a nocturnal, rapid, stealthy removal,—<i>"dorobo</i> (thieves) +fashion" remarks Yves, who in frequenting the mousmés has picked up a +smattering of the Niponese language.</p> + +<p>Messrs, the packers have, at my request, sent in the evening several +charming little boxes, with compartments and false bottoms, <!-- Page 225 -->and +several paper bags (in the untearable Japanese paper), which close of +themselves and are fastened by strings, also in paper, arranged +beforehand in the most ingenious manner,—quite the cleverest and most +handy thing of its kind; for little useful trifles these people are +unrivaled.</p> + +<p>It is a real treat to pack them, and everybody lends a helping +hand,—Yves, Chrysanthème, Madame Prune, her daughter, and M. Sucre. +By the glimmer of the reception-lamps, which are still burning, every +one wraps, rolls, and ties up expeditiously, for it is already late.</p> + +<p>Although Oyouki has a heavy heart, she cannot prevent herself from +indulging in a few bursts of childish laughter while she works.</p> + +<p>Madame Prune, bathed in tears, no longer restrains her feelings; poor +lady, I really very much regret....</p> + +<p>Chrysanthème is absent-minded and silent.</p> + +<p>But what a fearful amount of luggage! Eighteen cases or parcels, +containing Buddhas, chimeras, and vases, without mentioning the last +lotus that I carry away tied up in a pink cluster.</p> + +<p>All this is piled up in the djins' carts, hired at sunset, which are +waiting at the door, while their runners lie asleep on the grass.</p> + +<p>A starlit and exquisite night. We start off <!-- Page 226 -->with lighted lanterns, +followed by the three sorrowful ladies who accompany us, and by abrupt +slopes, dangerous in the darkness, we descend towards the sea.</p> + +<p>The djins, stiffening their muscular legs, hold back with all their +might the heavily loaded little cars which would run down by +themselves if let alone, and that so rapidly, that they would rush +into empty space with my most valuable chattels. Chrysanthème walks by +my side, and expresses, in a soft and winning manner, her regret that +the <i>wonderfully tall friend</i> did not offer to replace me for the +whole of my night-watch, as that would have allowed me to spend this +last night, even till morning, under our roof.</p> + +<p>"Listen," she says, "come back to-morrow in the daytime, before +getting under way, to bid me good-by; I shall only return to my mother +in the evening; you will find me still up there."</p> + +<p>And I promise.</p> + +<p>They stop at a certain turn, from whence we have a bird's-eye view of +the whole roadstead; the black stagnant waters reflect innumerable +distant fires, and the ships—tiny immovable little objects, which +seen from our point of view take the shape of fish, seem also to +slumber,—little objects which serve to bear us <i>elsewhere</i>, to go far +away, and to forget.</p> + +<p><!-- Page 227 -->The three ladies are going to turn back home, for the night is +already far advanced, and lower down, the cosmopolitan quarters near +the quays are not safe at this unusual hour.</p> + +<p>The moment has therefore come for Yves—who will not land again—to +make his last tragic farewells to his friends the little mousmés.</p> + +<p>Now I am very curious to see the parting between Yves and +Chrysanthème; I listen with all my ears, I look with all my eyes, it +takes place in the simplest and quietest fashion: none of that +heartbreaking which will be inevitable between Madame Prune and +myself; I even notice in my mousmé an indifference, an unconcern which +puzzles me; I positively am at a loss to understand what it all means.</p> + +<p>And I muse to myself as I continue to descend towards the sea. "Her +appearance of sadness was not, therefore, on Yves' account. On whose, +then?" and the phrase runs through my head:</p> + +<p>"Come back to-morrow before setting sail, to bid me good-by; I shall +only return to my mother in the evening; you will find me still up +there."</p> + +<p>Japan is indeed most delightful this evening, so fresh and so sweet; +and little Chrysan<!-- Page 228 -->thème was very charming just now, as she silently +walked beside me through the darkness of the lane.</p> + +<p>It is about two o'clock when we reach the <i>Triomphante</i> in a hired +sampan, where I have heaped up all my cases till there is danger of +sinking. The <i>very tall friend</i> gives over to me the watch that I must +keep till four o'clock; and the sailors on duty, but half awake, make +a chain in the darkness, to haul on board all my fragile luggage.</p> + + +<p> </p> +<p> </p> +<p class="schdg"><a name="LII" id="LII">LII.</a></p> + +<p><i>September 18th</i>.</p> + + +<p>I had planned to sleep late this morning, in order to make up for my +lost sleep of last night.</p> + +<p>But behold, at eight o'clock, three persons of the most singular +appearance, led by M. Kangourou, present themselves with endless bows +at the door of my cabin. They are dressed in long robes bedizened with +dark patterns; they have the flowing locks, high foreheads and pallid +countenances of persons too exclusively devoted to the fine arts; and, +perched on the top of their chignons, they wear sailor hats of English +shape stuck jauntily on one side. Under their arms, they carry +portfolios filled <!-- Page 229 -->with sketches; in their hands, boxes of +water-colors, pencils, and, tied together like fasces, a bundle of +fine stylets the sharp points of which glitter ostensibly.</p> + +<p>At the first glance, even in the bewilderment of waking, I gather from +their appearance what their errand is, and guessing with what visitors +I have to deal, I say:—"Come in, Messieurs the tattooers!"</p> + +<p>These are the specialists most in renown in Nagasaki; I had engaged +them two days ago, not knowing that we were about to leave, and since +they are come I will not turn them away.</p> + +<p>My friendly and intimate relations with primitive man, in Oceania and +elsewhere, have imbued me with a deplorable taste for tattoo work; and +I had wished to carry away on me, as a curiosity, an ornament, a +specimen of the work of the Japanese tattooers, who have a delicacy of +finish which is unequaled.</p> + +<p>From their albums spread out upon my table I make my choice. There are +some remarkably odd designs amongst them, appropriate to the different +parts of the human body: emblems for the arms and legs, sprays of +roses for the shoulders, great grinning faces for the middle of the +back. There are even, to suit the taste of their clients who belong to +foreign navies, trophies of arms, American and French flags entwined, +<!-- Page 230 -->a "God Save the Queen" amid encircling stars, and figures of women +taken from Grévin's sketches in the <i>Journal Amusant</i>.</p> + +<p>My choice rests upon a singular blue and pink dragon a couple of +inches long, which will have a fine effect upon my chest on the side +opposite the heart.</p> + +<p>Then follows an hour and a half of irritation and positive pain. +Stretched out on my bunk and delivered over to the tender mercies of +these personages, I stiffen myself and submit to the million +imperceptible pricks they inflict. When by chance a little blood +flows, confusing the outline by a stream of red, one of the artists +hastens to staunch it with his lips, and I make no objections, knowing +that this is the Japanese manner, the method used by their doctors for +the wounds of both man and beast.</p> + +<p>A piece of work as minute and fine as that of an engraver upon stone +is slowly executed on my person; and their lean hands harrow and worry +me with automatic precision.</p> + +<p>At length it is finished, and the tattooers, falling back with an air +of satisfaction to contemplate their work, declare it will be lovely.</p> + +<p>I dress myself quickly to go on shore, and take advantage of my last +hours in Japan.</p> + +<p>The heat is fearful to-day: the powerful September sun falls with a +certain melancholy <!-- Page 231 -->upon the yellowing leaves; it is a day of clear +burning heat after an almost chilly morning.</p> + +<p>Like yesterday, it is during the drowsy noon that I ascend to my lofty +suburb, by deserted pathways filled only with light and silence.</p> + +<p>I noiselessly open the door of my dwelling, and enter cautiously on +tiptoe, for fear of Madame Prune.</p> + +<p>At the foot of the staircase, upon the white mats, by the side of the +little clogs and little sandals which are always lying about the +vestibule, there is a great array of luggage ready for departure, +which I recognize at a glance,—pretty dark-colored dresses, familiar +to my sight, carefully folded and wrapped in blue towels tied at the +four corners. I even fancy I feel a little sad when I catch sight of a +corner of the famous box of letters and souvenirs peeping out of one +of these bundles, in which ray portrait by Uyeno now reposes among +divers photographs of mousmés. A sort of long-necked mandolin, also +ready for departure, lies on the top of the pile in its case of +figured silk. It resembles the flitting of some gypsy, or rather it +reminds me of an engraving in a book of fables I owned in my +childhood: the whole thing is exactly like the slender wardrobe and +the long guitar which the Cicala who had sung all the summer, carried +upon her back <!-- Page 232 -->when she knocked at the door of her neighbor the ant.</p> + +<p>Poor little gypsy!</p> + +<p>I mount the stairs on tiptoe, and stop at the sound of singing that I +hear up in my room.</p> + +<p>It is undoubtedly Chrysanthème's voice and the song is a cheerful one! +This chills me and changes the current of my thoughts. I am almost +sorry I have taken the trouble to come.</p> + +<p>Mingled with the song is a noise I cannot understand: <i>dzinn! dzinn!</i> +a clear metallic ring as of coins being flung vigorously on the floor. +I am well aware that this vibrating house exaggerates every sound +during the silence of night; but all the same, I am puzzled to know +what my mousmé can be doing. <i>Dzinn! dzinn!</i> is she amusing herself +with quoits, or the <i>jeu du crapaud</i>, or pitch and toss?</p> + +<p>Nothing of the kind; I fancy I have guessed, and I continue my upward +progress still more gently, on all fours, with the precautions of a +Red Indian, to give myself for the last time the pleasure of +surprising her.</p> + +<p>She has not heard me come in. In our great white room, emptied and +swept out, where the clear sunshine pours in, and the soft wind, and +the yellowed leaves of the garden; she is sitting all alone, her back +turned to the door: she is dressed for walking, ready to go to her +<!-- Page 233 -->mother's, her rose-colored parasol beside her.</p> + +<p>On the floor are spread out all the fine silver dollars which, +according to our agreement, I had given her the evening before. With +the competent dexterity of an old money-changer she fingers them, +turns them over, throws them on the floor, and armed with a little +mallet <i>ad hoc,</i> rings them vigorously against her ear, singing the +while I know not what little pensive bird-like song which I daresay +she improvises as she goes along.</p> + +<p>Well, after all, it is even more completely Japanese than I could +possibly have imagined it—this last scene of my married life! I feel +inclined to laugh. How simple I have been, to allow myself to be taken +in by the few clever words she whispered yesterday, as she walked +beside me, by a tolerably pretty little phrase embellished as it was +by the silence of two o'clock in the morning, and all the wonderful +enchantments of night.</p> + +<p>Ah! not more for Yves than for me, not more for me than for Yves, has +any feeling passed through that little brain, that little heart.</p> + +<p>When I have looked at her long enough, I call:—</p> + +<p>"Hi! Chrysanthème!"</p> + +<p>She turns confused, and reddening even to <!-- Page 234 -->her ears at having been +caught at this work.</p> + +<p>She is quite wrong, however, to be so much troubled, for I am, on the +contrary, delighted. The fear that I might be leaving her in some +sadness had almost given me a pang, and I infinitely prefer that this +marriage should end as it had begun, in a joke.</p> + +<p>"That is a good idea of yours," I say; "a precaution which should +always be taken in this country of yours, where so many evil-minded +people are clever in forging money. Make haste and get through it +before I start, and if any false pieces have found their way into the +number, I will willingly replace them."</p> + +<p>However, she refuses to continue before me, and I expected as much; to +do so would have been contrary to all her notions of politeness, +hereditary and acquired, all her conventionality, all her +<i>Japanesery</i>. With a disdainful little foot, clothed as usual in +exquisite socks with a special hood for the great toe, she pushes away +the piles of white dollars and scatters them on the mats.</p> + +<p>"We have hired a large covered sampan," she says to change the +conversation, "and we are all going together,—Campanule, Jonquille, +Touki, all your mousmés—to watch your vessel set sail. Pray sit down +and stay a few minutes."</p> + +<p>"<!-- Page 235 -->No, I really cannot stay. I have several things to do in the town, +d'you see, and the order was given for every one to be on board by +three o'clock in time for muster before starting. Moreover, I would +rather escape, as you can imagine, while Madame Prune is still +enjoying her siesta; I should be afraid of being drawn into some +corner, or of provoking some heartrending parting scene."</p> + +<p>Chrysanthème bows her head and says no more, but seeing that I am +really going, rises to escort me.</p> + +<p>Without speaking, without the slightest noise, she follows me as we +descend the staircase and cross the garden full of sunshine, where the +dwarf shrubs and the deformed flowers seem, like the rest of the +household, plunged in warm somnolence.</p> + +<p>At the outer gate I stop for the last adieu: the little sad pout has +reappeared, more accentuated than ever on Chrysanthème's face; it is +the right thing, it is correct, and I should feel offended now were it +absent.</p> + +<p>Well, little mousmé, let us part good friends; one last kiss even, if +you like. I took you to amuse me; you have not perhaps succeeded very +well, but after all you have done what you could: given me your little +face, your little curtseys, your little music; in short, you <!-- Page 236 -->have +been pleasant enough in your Japanese way. And who knows, perchance I +may yet think of you sometimes when I recall this glorious summer, +these pretty quaint gardens, and the ceaseless concert of the cicales.</p> + +<p>She prostrates herself on the threshold of the door, her forehead +against the ground, and remains in this attitude of superlatively +polite salute as long as I am in sight, while I go down the pathway by +which I am to disappear for ever.</p> + +<p>As the distance between us increases, I turn once or twice to look at +her again; but it is a mere civility, and meant to return as it +deserves her grand final salutation.</p> + + +<p> </p> +<p> </p> +<p class="schdg"><a name="LIII" id="LIII">LIII.</a></p> + + +<p>On entering the town, at the turn of the principal street, I have the +good luck to meet No. 415, my poor relation. I was just at that moment +in want of a speedy djin, and I at once get into his vehicle; besides, +it will be an alleviation to my feelings, in this hour of departure, +to take my last drive in company with a member of my family.</p> + +<p>Unaccustomed as I was to be out of doors <!-- Page 237 -->during the hours of siesta, +I had never yet seen the streets of the town thus overwhelmed by the +sunshine, thus deserted in the silence and solitary brilliancy +peculiar to all hot countries.</p> + +<p>In front of all the shops hang white shades, adorned here and there +with slight designs in black, in the quaintness of which lurks I know +not what,—something mysterious: dragons, emblems, symbolical figures +The sky is too glaring; the light crude, implacable; never has this +old town of Nagasaki appeared to me so old, so worm-eaten, so bald, +notwithstanding all its veneer of new papers and gaudy paintings. +These little wooden houses, of such marvelous cleanly whiteness +inside, are black outside, time-worn, disjointed and <i>grimacing</i>. When +one looks closely, this grimace is to be found everywhere: in the +hideous masks laughing in the shop fronts of the innumerable +curio-shops; in the grotesque figures, the playthings, the idols, +cruel, suspicious mad;—it is even found in the buildings: in the +friezes of the religious porticos, in the roofs of the thousand +pagodas; of which the angles and gable-ends writhe and twist like the +yet dangerous remains of ancient and malignant beasts.</p> + +<p>And the disturbing intensity of expression reigning over inanimate +nature, contrasts with the almost absolute blank of the human +counte<!-- Page 238 -->nance, with the smiling foolishness of the simple little folk +who meet one's gaze, as they patiently carry on their minute trades in +the gloom of their tiny open-fronted houses. Workmen squatted on their +heels, carving with their imperceptible tools, the droll or odiously +obscene ivory ornaments, marvelous cabinet curiosities which have made +Japan so famous with the European amateurs who have never seen it. +Unconscious artists tracing with steady hand on a background of +lacquer or of porcelain traditional designs learnt by heart, or +transmitted to their brains by a process of heredity through thousands +of years; automatic painters, whose storks are similar to those of M. +Sucre, with the inevitable little rocks, or little butterflies +eternally the same. The least of these illuminators, with his +insignificant eyeless face, possesses at his fingers' ends the maximum +of dexterity in this art of decoration, light and wittily incongruous, +which threatens to invade us in France, in this epoch of imitative +decadence, and which has become the great resource of our +manufacturers of cheap "<i>objects of art</i>."</p> + +<p>Is it because I am about to leave this country, because I have no +longer any link to bind me to it, any resting-place on its soil, and +that my spirit is already on the wing? I know not, but <!-- Page 239 -->it seems to me +I have never as clearly seen and comprehended it as to-day. And more +even than ever, do I find it little, aged, with worn-out blood and +worn-out sap; I feel more fully its antediluvian antiquity, its +centuries of mummification, which will soon degenerate into hopeless +and grotesque buffoonery, as it comes into contact with Western +novelties.</p> + +<p>It is getting late; little by little, the siestas are everywhere +coming to an end; the queer little streets brighten up and begin to +swarm in the sunshine with many-colored parasols. Now begins the +procession of uglinesses of the most impossible description,—a +procession of long-robed, grotesque figures capped with pot-hats or +sailors' head-gear. Business transactions begin again, and the +struggle for existence, close and bitter here as in one of our own +artisan quarters, but meaner and smaller.</p> + +<p>At the moment of my departure, I can only find within myself a smile +of careless mockery for the swarming crowd of this Liliputian +curtseying people,—laborious, industrious, greedy of gain, tainted +with a constitutional affectation, hereditary insignificance, and +incurable monkeyishness.</p> + +<p>Poor cousin 415, how right I was to have held him in good esteem; he +is by far the best and most disinterested of my Japanese family. <!-- Page 240 -->When +all my commissions are finished, he puts up his little vehicle under a +tree, and much touched by my departure, insists upon escorting me on +board the <i>Triomphante</i>, to watch over my final purchases in the +sampan which conveys me to the ship, and to see them himself safely +into my cabin.</p> + +<p>His, indeed, is the only hand I clasp with a really friendly feeling, +without a suppressed smile, on quitting this Japan.</p> + +<p>No doubt, in this country as in many others, there is more honest +friendship and less ugliness among the simple beings devoted to purely +physical work.</p> + +<p>At five o'clock in the afternoon we set sail.</p> + +<p>Along the line of the shore are two or three sampans; in them the +mousmés, shut up in the narrow cabins, peep at us through the tiny +windows, half hiding their faces on account of the sailors; these are +our wives, who have wished, out of politeness, to look upon us once +more.</p> + +<p>There are other sampans as well, in which other Japanese women are +also watching our departure. These stand upright, under great parasols +decorated with big black letters and daubed over with clouds of varied +and startling colors.</p> + + + +<p> </p> +<p class="schdg"><a name="LIV" id="LIV"><!-- Page 241 -->LIV.</a></p> + + +<p>We move slowly out of the great green bay. The groups of women become +lost in the distance. The country of round and thousand-ribbed +umbrellas fades gradually from our sight.</p> + +<p>Now the great sea opens before us, immense, colorless, solitary; a +solemn repose after so much that was too ingenious and too small.</p> + +<p>The wooded mountains, the charming capes disappear. And Japan remains +faithful to itself in its last picturesque rocks, its quaint islands +on which the trees tastefully arrange themselves in groups—studied +perhaps, but charmingly pretty.</p> + + +<p> </p> +<p> </p> +<p class="schdg"><a name="LV" id="LV">LV.</a></p> + + +<p>In my cabin, one evening, in the midst of the Yellow Sea, my eyes +chance to fall upon the lotus brought from Diou-djen-dji;—they had +lasted for two or three days; but now they have faded, and pitifully +strew my carpet with their pale pink petals.</p> + +<p>I, who have carefully preserved so many <!-- Page 242 -->faded flowers, fallen, alas! +into dust, stolen here and there, at moments of parting in different +parts of the world; I who have kept so many, that the collection is +now almost a herbarium, ridiculous and incoherent—I try hard, but +without success, to get up a sentiment for these lotus—and yet they +are the last living souvenirs of my summer at Nagasaki.</p> + +<p>I pick them up, however, with a certain amount of consideration, and I +open my port-hole.</p> + +<p>From the gray misty sky a livid light falls upon the waters; a wan and +gloomy kind of twilight creeps down, yellowish upon this Yellow Sea. +We feel that we are moving northwards, that autumn is approaching.</p> + +<p>I throw the poor lotus into the boundless waste of waters, making them +my best excuses for giving to them, natives of Japan, a grave so +solemn and so vast.</p> + + +<p> </p> +<p> </p> +<p class="schdg"><a name="LVI" id="LVI">LVI.</a></p> + + +<p>O Ama-Térace-Omi-Kami, wash me clean from this little marriage of +mine, in the waters of the river of Kamo.</p> + + + +<p> </p> +<h3>THE END</h3> + +<p> </p> +<p> </p> + +<hr /> + +<p> </p> +<p> </p> +<p class="schdg"> +<!-- Page 243 -->Modern Library of the World's Best Books</p> + +<p class="lghdg">COMPLETE LIST OF TITLES IN<br /> +THE MODERN LIBRARY</p> + +<p class="center"><i>For convenience in ordering please use number at right of title</i></p> + +<table border="0" cellpadding="3"> +<tr><th>AUTHOR</th> <th>TITLE AND NUMBER</th></tr> + +<tr><td><br /> +AIKEN, CONRAD</td><td><br />A Comprehensive Anthology of American Verse 101</td></tr><tr><td> +AIKEN, CONRAD</td><td>Modern American Poetry 127</td></tr><tr><td> +ANDERSON, SHERWOOD</td><td>Poor White 115</td></tr><tr><td> +ANDERSON, SHERWOOD</td><td>Winesburg, Ohio 104</td></tr><tr><td> +ANDREYEV, LEONID</td><td>The Seven That Were Hanged, and the Red Laugh 45</td></tr><tr><td> +APULEIUS, LUCIUS</td><td>The Golden Ass 88</td></tr><tr><td> +<br /> +BALZAC</td><td><br />Short Stories 40</td></tr><tr><td> +BAUDELAIRE</td><td>Prose and Poetry 70</td></tr><tr><td> +BEARDSLEY, AUBREY</td><td>64 Reproductions 42</td></tr><tr><td> +BEEBE, WILLIAM</td><td>Jungle Peace 30</td></tr><tr><td> +BEERBOHM, MAX</td><td>Zuleika Dobson 116</td></tr><tr><td> +BIERCE, AMBROSE</td><td>In the Midst of Life 133</td></tr><tr><td> +BLAKE, WILLIAM</td><td>Poems 91</td></tr><tr><td> +BRONTE, EMILY</td><td>Wuthering Heights 106</td></tr><tr><td> +BROWN, GEO. DOUGLAS</td><td>The House with the Green Shutters 129</td></tr><tr><td> +BUTLER, SAMUEL</td><td>Erewhon 136</td></tr><tr><td> +BUTLER, SAMUEL</td><td>The Way of All Flesh 13</td></tr><tr><td> +<br /> +CABELL, JAMES BRANCH</td><td><br />Beyond Life 25</td></tr><tr><td> +CABELL, JAMES BRANCH</td><td>The Cream of the Jest 126</td></tr><tr><td> +CARPENTER, EDWARD</td><td>Love's Coming of Age 51</td></tr><tr><td> +CARROLL, LEWIS</td><td>Alice in Wonderland, etc. 79</td></tr><tr><td> +CASANOVA, JACQUES</td><td>Memoirs of Casanova 165</td></tr><tr><td> +CELLINI, BENVENUTO</td><td>Autobiography of Benvenuto Cellini 3</td></tr><tr><td> +CERVANTES</td><td>Don Quixote 174</td></tr><tr><td> +CHAUCER </td><td>The Canterbury Tales 161</td></tr><tr><td> +CHESTERTON, G. K.</td><td>Man Who Was Thursday 35</td></tr><tr><td> +CRANE, STEPHEN</td><td>Men, Women and Boats 102</td></tr><tr><td> +<br /> +D'ANNUNZIO, GABRIELE</td><td><br />Flame of Life 65</td></tr><tr><td> +D'ANNUNZIO, GABRIELE</td><td>The Child of Pleasure 98</td></tr><tr><td> +D'ANNUNZIO, GABRIELE</td><td>The Triumph of Death 112</td></tr><tr><td> +DAUDET, ALPHONSE</td><td>Sappho 85</td></tr><tr><td> +DEFOE, DANIEL</td><td>Moll Flanders 122</td></tr><tr><td> +DEWEY, JOHN</td><td>Human Nature and Conduct 173</td></tr><tr><td> +DOSTOYEVSKY, FYODOR</td><td>The Brothers Karamazov 151</td></tr><tr><td> +DOSTOYEVSKY, FYODOR</td><td>Poor People 10</td></tr><tr><td> +DOUGLAS, NORMAN</td><td>Old Calabria 141</td></tr><tr><td> +DOUGLAS, NORMAN</td><td>South Wind 5</td></tr><tr><td> +DOWSON, ERNEST</td><td>Poems and Prose</td></tr><tr><td> +DUMAS, ALEXANDRE</td><td>Camille 69</td></tr><tr><td> +DUMAS, ALEXANDRE</td><td>The Three Musketeers 143</td></tr><tr><td> +DUNSANY, LORD</td><td>A Dreamer's Tales 34</td></tr><tr><td> +<br /> +ELLIS, HAVELOCK</td><td><br />The Dance of Life 160</td></tr><tr><td> +ELLIS, HAVELOCK</td><td>The New Spirit 95</td></tr><tr><td> +<br /> +FLAUBERT, GUSTAVE</td><td><br />Madame Bovary 28</td></tr><tr><td> +FLAUBERT, GUSTAVE</td><td>Salammbo 118</td></tr><tr><td> +FLAUBERT, GUSTAVE</td><td>Temptation of St. Anthony 92</td></tr><tr><td> +FRANCE, ANATOLE</td><td>Crime of Sylvestre Bonnard 22</td></tr><tr><td> +FRANCE, ANATOLE</td><td>The Queen Pedauque 110</td></tr><tr><td> +FRANCE, ANATOLE</td><td>The Red Lily 7</td></tr><tr><td> +FRANCE, ANATOLE</td><td>The Revolt of the Angels 11</td></tr><tr><td> +FRANCE, ANATOLE</td><td>Thais 67</td></tr><tr><td> +<br /> +GAUTIER, THEOPHILE</td><td><br />Mlle. De Maupin 53</td></tr><tr><td> +GEORGE, W. L.</td><td> A Bed of Roses 75</td></tr><tr><td> +GILBERT, W. S.</td><td>The Mikado, Iolanthe, etc. 26</td></tr><tr><td> +GILBERT, W. S.</td><td>Pinafore and Other Plays 113</td></tr><tr><td> +GISSING, GEORGE</td><td>New Grub Street 125</td></tr><tr><td> +GISSING, GEORGE</td><td>Private Papers of Henry Ryecroft 46</td></tr><tr><td> +GONCOURT, E. & J. DE</td><td>Renee Mauperin 76</td></tr><tr><td> +GORKY, MAXIM</td><td>Creatures That Once Were Men and Other Stories 48</td></tr><tr><td> +GOURMONT, REMY DE</td><td>A Night in the Luxembourg 120</td></tr><tr><td> +GOURMONT, REMY DE</td><td>A Virgin Heart 131</td></tr><tr><td> +<br /> +HARDY, THOMAS</td><td><br />Jude the Obscure 135</td></tr><tr><td> +HARDY, THOMAS</td><td>The Mayor of Casterbridge 17</td></tr><tr><td> +HARDY, THOMAS</td><td>The Return of the Native 121</td></tr><tr><td> +HAUPTMANN, GERHART</td><td>The Heretic of Soana 149</td></tr><tr><td> +HAWTHORNE, NATHANIEL </td><td>The Scarlet Letter 93</td></tr><tr><td> +HEARN, LAFCADIO</td><td>Some Chinese Ghosts 130</td></tr><tr><td> +HECHT, BEN</td><td>Erik Dorn 29</td></tr><tr><td> +HEMINGWAY, ERNEST</td><td>The Sun Also Rises 170</td></tr><tr><td> +HOMER</td><td>The Iliad 166</td></tr><tr><td> +HOMER</td><td>The Odyssey 167</td></tr><tr><td> +HUDSON, W. H</td><td>Green Mansions 89</td></tr><tr><td> +HUDSON, W. H.</td><td>The Purple Land 24</td></tr><tr><td> +HUNEKER, JAMES O.</td><td>Painted Veils 43</td></tr><tr><td> +HUXLEY, ALDOUS</td><td>A Virgin Heart 131</td></tr><tr><td> +<br /> +IBSEN, HENRIK</td><td><br />A Doll's House, Ghosts, etc. 6</td></tr><tr><td> +IBSEN, HENRIK</td><td>Hedda Gabler, Pillars of Society, The Master Builder 36</td></tr><tr><td> +IBSEN, HENRIK</td><td>The Wild Duck, Rosmersholm, The League of Youth 54</td></tr><tr><td> +<br /> +JAMES, HENRY</td><td><br />Daisy Miller, etc. 63</td></tr><tr><td> +JAMES, HENRY</td><td>The Turn of the Screw 169</td></tr><tr><td> +JAMES, WILLIAM</td><td>The Philosophy of William James 114</td></tr><tr><td> +JOYCE, JAMES</td><td>Dubliners 124</td></tr><tr><td> +JOYCE, JAMES</td><td>A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man 145</td></tr><tr><td> +<br /> +KIPLING, RUDYARD</td><td><br />Soldiers Three 71</td></tr><tr><td> +KOMROFF, MANUEL</td><td>Oriental Romances 55</td></tr><tr><td> + +<br /> +LAWRENCE, D. H.</td><td><br />Sons and Lovers 109</td></tr><tr><td> +LEWISOHN, LUDWIG</td><td>Upstream 123</td></tr><tr><td> +LOTI, PIERRE </td><td>Mme. Chrysantheme 94</td></tr><tr><td> +<br /> +MACY, JOHN</td><td><br />The Spirit of American Literature 56</td></tr><tr><td> +MAUPASSANT, GUY DE</td><td>Love and Other Stories 72</td></tr><tr><td> +MAUPASSANT, GUY DE</td><td>Mademoiselle Fifi, and Twelve Other Stories 8</td></tr><tr><td> +MAUPASSANT, GUY DE</td><td>Une Vie 57</td></tr><tr><td> +MENKEN, H. L. </td><td>Selected Prejudices 107</td></tr><tr><td> +MELVILLE, HERMAN</td><td>Moby Dick 119</td></tr><tr><td> +MEREDITH, GEORGE</td><td>Diana of the Crossways 14</td></tr><tr><td> +MEREDITH, GEORGE</td><td>The Ordeal of Richard Feverel 134</td></tr><tr><td> +MEREJKOWSKI, DMITRI</td><td>The Death of the Gods 153</td></tr><tr><td> +MEREJKOWSKI, DMITRI</td><td>Peter and Alexis 175</td></tr><tr><td> +MEREJKOWSKI, DMITRI</td><td>The Romance of Leonardo da Vinci 138</td></tr><tr><td> +MISCELLANEOUS</td><td>An Anthology of American Negro Literature 163</td></tr><tr><td> + </td><td>A Modern Book of Criticism 81</td></tr><tr><td> + </td><td>Best Ghost Stories 73</td></tr><tr><td> + </td><td>Best American Humorous Short Stories 87</td></tr><tr><td> + </td><td>Best Russian Short Stories 18</td></tr><tr><td> + </td><td>Four Famous Greek Plays 158</td></tr><tr><td> + </td><td>Fourteen Great Detective Stories 144</td></tr><tr><td> + </td><td>Great Modern Short Stories 168</td></tr><tr><td> + </td><td>Edited by Grant Overton and including<br /> +stories by Joseph Conrad, D. H. Lawrence, <br />Katherine Mansfield, Sherwood Anderson, +<br />Glenway Westcott, E. M. Forster, etc.</td></tr><tr><td> + </td><td>Outline of Abnormal Psychology 152</td></tr><tr><td> + </td><td>Outline of Psychoanalysis 66</td></tr><tr><td> +MOLIERE</td><td>Plays 78</td></tr><tr><td> +MOORE, GEORGE</td><td>Confessions of a Young Man 16</td></tr><tr><td> +MORRISON, ARTHUR</td><td>Tales of Mean Streets 100</td></tr><tr><td> +<br /> +NIETZSCHE, FRIEDRICH</td><td><br />Beyond Good and Evil 20</td></tr><tr><td> +NIETZSCHE, FRIEDRICH</td><td>Ecce Homo and the Birth of Tragedy 68</td></tr><tr><td> +NIETZSCHE, FRIEDRICH</td><td>Genealogy of Morals 62</td></tr><tr><td> +NIETZSCHE, FRIEDRICH</td><td>Thus Spake Zarathustra 9</td></tr><tr><td> +<br /> +O'NEILL, EUGENE</td><td><br />The Emperor Jones and The Straw 146</td></tr><tr><td> +O'NEILL, EUGENE</td><td>Seven Plays of the Sea 111</td></tr><tr><td> +<br /> +PAINE, THOMAS</td><td><br />Writings 108</td></tr><tr><td> +PATER, WALTER</td><td>The Renaissance 86</td></tr><tr><td> +PATER, WALTER</td><td>Marius the Epicurean 90</td></tr><tr><td> +PEPYS, SAMUEL</td><td>Samuel Pepys' Diary 103</td></tr><tr><td> +PETRONIUS ARBITER</td><td>The Satyricon 156</td></tr><tr><td> +POE, EDGAR ALLAN</td><td>Best Tales 82</td></tr><tr><td> +PREVOST, ANTOINE</td><td>Manon Lescaut 85</td></tr><tr><td> +PROUST, MARCEL</td><td>Swann's Way 59</td></tr><tr><td> +PROUST, MARCEL</td><td>Within A Budding Grove 172</td></tr><tr><td> +<br /> +RODIN</td><td><br />64 Reproductions 41</td></tr><tr><td> +ROSTAND, EDMOND</td><td>Cyrano de Bergerac 154</td></tr><tr><td> +RUSSELL, BERTRAND</td><td>Selected Papers of Bertrand Russell 137</td></tr><tr><td> +<br /> +SALTUS, EDGAR</td><td><br />The Imperial Orgy 139</td></tr><tr><td> +SCHNITZLER, ARTHUR</td><td>Anatol, Green Cockatoo, etc. 32</td></tr><tr><td> +SCHNITZLER, ARTHUR</td><td>Bertha Garlan 39</td></tr><tr><td> +SCHOPENHAUER</td><td>The Philosophy of Schopenhauer 52</td></tr><tr><td> +SCHOPENHAUER</td><td>Studies in Pessimism 12</td></tr><tr><td> +SCHREINER, OLIVE </td><td>The Story of an African Farm 132</td></tr><tr><td> +SHAW, G.B. </td><td>An Unsocial Socialist 15</td></tr><tr><td> +SMOLLETT, TOBIAS</td><td>Humphrey Clinker 159</td></tr><tr><td> +SPINOZA</td><td>The Philosophy of Spinoza 60</td></tr><tr><td> +STENDHAL</td><td>The Red and the Black 157</td></tr><tr><td> +STERNE, LAURENCE</td><td>Tristram Shandy 147</td></tr><tr><td> +STRINDBERG, AUGUST</td><td>Married 2</td></tr><tr><td> +SUDERMANN, HERMANN</td><td>Dame Care 33</td></tr><tr><td> +SUDERMANN, HERMANN</td><td>The Song of Songs 162</td></tr><tr><td> +SWINBURNE, CHARLES</td><td>Poems 23</td></tr><tr><td> +SYMONDS, JOHN A.</td><td>The Life of Michelangelo 49</td></tr><tr><td> +<br /> +TCHEKOV</td><td><br />Rothschild's Fiddle, etc. 31</td></tr><tr><td> +TCHEKOV</td><td>Sea Gull, Cherry Orchard, Three Sisters, etc. 171</td></tr><tr><td> +THOMPSON, FRANCIS</td><td>Complete Poems 38</td></tr><tr><td> +TOLSTOY, LEO</td><td>Anna Karenina 37</td></tr><tr><td> +TOLSTOY, LEO</td><td>Redemption and Other Plays 77</td></tr><tr><td> +TOLSTOY, LEO</td><td>The Death of Ivan Ilyitch and Four Other Stories 64</td></tr><tr><td> +TOMLINSON, H. M.</td><td>The Sea and The Jungle 99</td></tr><tr><td> +TURGENEV, IVAN</td><td>Fathers and Sons 21</td></tr><tr><td> +TURGENEV, IVAN </td><td>Smoke 80</td></tr><tr><td> +<br /> +VAN LOON, HENDRIK W.</td><td><br />Ancient Man 105</td></tr><tr><td> +VAN VECHTEN, CARL </td><td>Peter Whiffle 164</td></tr><tr><td> +VILLON, FRANCOIS </td><td>Poems 58</td></tr><tr><td> +VOLTAIRE </td><td>Candide 47</td></tr><tr><td> +<br /> +WELLS, H.G. </td><td><br />Ann Veronica 27</td></tr><tr><td> +WHISTLER, J. MCNEIL </td><td>The Art of Whistler with 32 Reproductions 150</td></tr><tr><td> +WHITMAN, WALT</td><td>Leaves of Grass 97</td></tr><tr><td> +WILDE, OSCAR </td><td>An Ideal Husband, A Woman of No Importance 84</td></tr><tr><td> +WILDE, OSCAR </td><td>De Profundis 117</td></tr><tr><td> +WILDE, OSCAR </td><td>Dorian Gray 1</td></tr><tr><td> +WILDE, OSCAR </td><td>Poems 19</td></tr><tr><td> +WILDE, OSCAR</td><td>Fairy Tales, Poems in Prose 61</td></tr><tr><td> +WILDE, OSCAR</td><td>Salome, The Importance of Being Earnest, etc. 83</td></tr><tr><td> +WILDER, THORNTON</td><td>The Cabala 155</td></tr><tr><td> +WOOLF, VIRGINIA</td><td> Mrs. Dalloway 96</td></tr><tr><td> +<br /> +YEATS, W.B.</td><td><br />Irish Fairy and Folk Tales 44</td></tr> +</table> + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Madame Chrysantheme, by Pierre Loti + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MADAME CHRYSANTHEME *** + +***** This file should be named 15335-h.htm or 15335-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/5/3/3/15335/ + +Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Ronald Holder, 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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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: Madame Chrysantheme + +Author: Pierre Loti + +Release Date: March 12, 2005 [EBook #15335] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MADAME CHRYSANTHEME *** + + + + +Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Ronald Holder, and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team + + + + + +{~--- UTF-8 BOM ---~} + +MADAME CHRYSANTHEME + +By PIERRE LOTI + +TRANSLATED BY LAURA ENSOR + +THE MODERN LIBRARY + +PUBLISHERS NEW YORK + + + + +_Manufactured in the United States of America_ +_Bound for_ THE MODERN LIBRARY _by H. Wolff_ + + + + +TO MADAME LA DUCHESSE DE RICHELIEU. + +_Madame La Duchesse_, + +_Allow me to crave your acceptance of the following work, as a +respectful tribute of my attachment._ + +_I felt some hesitation in offering it, for its main incident cannot +be deemed altogether proper; but I have striven that in its expression +at least, it should not sin against good taste, and I trust that my +endeavours have been successful._ + +_It is the diary of a summer of my life, in which I have changed +nothing, not even the dates, thinking as I do, that in our efforts to_ +arrange _matters we often only succeed in disarranging them. Although +the most important role may appear to devolve on Madame Chrysantheme, +it is very certain that the three principal personages are_ myself, +Japan, _and the effect produced on me by that country._ + +_Do you remember a certain photograph_--_rather ridiculous I must +admit_--_representing that big fellow Yves, a Japanese girl and +myself, grouped closely together as we were placed side by side by a +Nagasaki artist? You smiled when I assured you that the carefully +combed little creature placed between us two, had been_ one of our +neighbours. _Kindly welcome my book with the same indulgent smile, +without seeking therein a meaning either good or bad, in the same +spirit that you would receive some quaint bit of pottery, some +grotesquely carved ivory idol, or some preposterous trifle brought +back for you from this singular fatherland of all preposterousness._ + +_Believe me with the deepest respect, Madame la Duchesse,_ + +_Your affectionate_ + +PIERRE LOTI. + + + + +INTRODUCTION + +At sea, about two o'clock in the morning, on a clear night, under a +star-lit sky. + +Yves stood near me on the bridge, and we were talking of the country, +so utterly unknown to us both, to which the chances of our destiny +were now wafting us. As we were to cast anchor the following day, we +enjoyed the state of expectation, and formed a thousand plans. + +"As for me," I said, "I shall at once marry." + +"Ah!" returned Yves, with the indifferent air of a man whom nothing +can surprise. + +"Yes--I shall choose a little yellow-skinned woman with black hair and +cat's eyes. She must be pretty. Not much bigger than a doll. You shall +have a room in our house. A little paper house, in the midst of green +gardens, prettily shaded. We shall live among flowers, everything +around us shall blossom, and each morning our dwelling shall be filled +with nosegays, nosegays such as you have never dreamt of." + +Yves now began to take an interest in these plans for my future +household; indeed, he would have listened with as much confidence, if +I had manifested the intention of taking temporary vows in some +monastery of this new country, or of marrying some island queen and +shutting myself up with her in a house built of jade, in the middle of +an enchanted lake. + +In reality I had quite made up my mind to carry out the scheme I had +unfolded to him. Yes, actually, led on by ennui and solitude, I had +gradually arrived at dreaming of and looking forward to this absurd +marriage. And then, above all, to live for awhile on land, in some +shady nook, amid trees and flowers. How tempting it sounded after the +long months we had been wasting at the Pescadores (hot and arid +islands, devoid of freshness, woods, or streamlets, full of faint +odors of China and of death). + + +We had made great way in latitude, since our vessel had quitted that +Chinese furnace, and the constellations in the sky had undergone a +series of rapid changes; the Southern Cross had disappeared at the +same time as the other austral stars; and the Great Bear rising on the +horizon, was almost on as high a level as it is in the French sky. The +fresh evening breeze soothed and revived us, bringing back to us the +memory of our summer night watches on the coast of Brittany. + +What a distance we were, however, from those familiar coasts! What a +terrible distance! + + + + +MADAME CHRYSANTHEME + + + + +MADAME CHRYSANTHEME + +I. + + +At dawn of day we sighted Japan. + +Precisely at the foretold moment Japan arose before us, afar off, like +a clear and distinct dot in the vast sea, which for so many days had +been but a blank space. + +At first we saw nothing in the rising sun but a series of tiny +pink-tipped heights (the foremost portion of the Fukai islands). Soon, +however, appeared all along the horizon, like a thick cloud, a dark +veil over the waters, Japan itself; and little by little out of the +dense shadow arose the sharp opaque outlines of the Nagasaki +mountains. + +The wind was dead against us, and the strong breeze, which steadily +increased, seemed as if the country were blowing with all its might +against us, in a vain effort to drive us away from its shores. The +sea, the rigging, the vessel itself, all vibrated and quivered as if +with emotion. + + + + +II. + +By three o'clock in the afternoon all these far-off objects drew close +to us, so close, indeed, that they overshadowed us by their rocky +masses and dense green thickets. + +We now entered into a shady kind of channel enclosed between two high +ranges of mountains, curiously symmetrical in shape--like stage +scenery, very fine, though unlike nature. It seemed as if Japan opened +to our view, through a fairy-like rent, which thus allowed us to +penetrate into her very heart. + +Nagasaki, as yet unseen, must be at the extremity of this long and +curious bay. All around us was admirably green. The strong sea-breeze +had suddenly fallen, and was succeeded by a perfect calm; the +atmosphere, now very warm, was laden with the perfume of flowers. In +the valley resounded the ceaseless whirr of the cicalas, answering +each other from one shore to another; the mountains reechoed with +innumerable sounds; the whole country seemed to vibrate like crystal. +On our way we passed among myriads of Japanese junks, gliding softly, +wafted by imperceptible breezes on the unruffled water; their motion +could scarcely be heard, and their white sails, stretched out on +yards, fell languidly in a thousand horizontal folds like +window-blinds, their strangely contorted poops rising up castlewise in +the air, reminding one of the towering ships of the middle ages. In +the midst of the intense greenery of this wall of mountains, they +stood out with a snowy whiteness. + +What a country of verdure and shade is Japan; what an unlooked-for +Eden! + +Beyond us, at sea, it must have been full daylight; but here, in the +recesses of the valley, we already felt the impression of evening; +beneath the summits in full sunlight, the base of the mountains and +all the thickly wooded parts near the water's edge were steeped in +twilight. + +The passing junks, gleaming white against the background of dark +foliage, were silently and dexterously maneuvered by small yellow men, +stark naked, with long hair piled up in womanlike fashion on their +heads. Gradually, as we advanced further up the green channel, the +perfumes became more penetrating, and the monotonous chirp of the +cicalas swelled out like an orchestral crescendo. Above us, on the +luminous sky, sharply delineated between the mountains, a species of +hawk hovered about, screaming out with a deep human voice, "Han! Han! +Han!" its melancholy call lengthened out by the surrounding echoes. + +All this fresh and luxurious nature bore the impress of a peculiar +Japanese type, which seemed to pervade even the mountain tops, and +consisted, as it were, in an untruthful aspect of too much prettiness. +The trees were grouped in clusters, with the same pretentious grace as +on the lacquered trays. Large rocks sprang up in exaggerated shapes, +side by side with rounded lawn-like hillocks; all the incongruous +elements of landscape were grouped together as though it were an +artificial creation. + +Looking intently, here and there might be seen, often built in +counterscarp on the very brink of an abyss, some old, tiny, mysterious +pagoda; half hidden in the foliage of the overhanging trees; bringing +to the minds of new arrivals such as ourselves, the sense of +unfamiliarity and strangeness; and the feeling that in this country, +the Spirits, the Sylvan Gods, the antique symbols, faithful guardians +of the woods and forests, were unknown and uncomprehended. + + * * * * * + +When Nagasaki rose before us, the sight that greeted our eyes was +disappointing; situated at the foot of green overhanging mountains, it +looked like any other commonplace town. In front of it lay a tangled +mass of vessels, carrying all the flags of the world; steamboats just +as in any other port, with dark funnels and black smoke, and behind +them quays covered with factories: nothing in fact was wanting in the +way of ordinary, trivial, every-day objects. + +Some day, when man shall have made all things alike, the earth will be +a dull, tedious dwelling-place, and we shall have even to give up +traveling and seeking for a change which shall no longer be found. + +At about six o'clock, we dropped anchor noisily amid the mass of +vessels already there, and were immediately invaded. + +Invaded by a mercantile, bustling, comical Japan, which rushed upon us +in full boat-loads, full junks, like a rising sea; little men and +little women coming in a continuous, uninterrupted stream, without +cries, without squabbles, noiselessly, each one making so smiling a +bow that it was impossible to be angry with them, and that indeed by +reflex action we smiled and bowed also. They all carried on their +backs little baskets, little boxes, receptacles of every shape, +fitting into each other in the most ingenious manner, each one +containing several others, and multiplying till they filled up +everything, in endless number; from these they drew forth all manners +of curious and unexpected things, folding screens, slippers, soap, +lanterns, sleeve-links, live cicalas chirping in little cages, +jewelry, tame white mice turning little cardboard mills, quaint +photographs, hot soups and stews in bowls ready to be served out in +rations to the crew;--china, a legion of vases, teapots, cups, little +pots and plates. In one moment, all this was unpacked, spread out with +astounding rapidity and a certain talent for arrangement; each seller +squatting monkey-like, hands touching feet, behind his fancy +ware--always smiling, bending low with the most engaging bows. Under +the mass of these many-colored things, the deck presented the +appearance of an immense bazaar; the sailors, very much amused and +full of fun, walked among the heaped-up piles, taking the little women +by the chin, buying anything and everything, throwing broadcast their +white dollars. But, good gracious, how ugly, mean and grotesque all +those folk were. Given my projects of marriage, I began to feel +singularly uneasy and disenchanted. + + * * * * * + +Yves and myself were on duty till the next morning, and after the +first bustle, which always takes place on board when settling down in +harbor--(boats to lower, booms to swing out, running rigging to make +taut)--we had nothing more to do but to look on. We said to one +another: "Where are we in reality?--In the United States?--In some +English Colony in Australia, or in New Zealand?" + +Consular residences, custom-house offices, manufactories; a dry dock +in which a Russian frigate was lying; on the heights the large +European concession, sprinkled with villas, and on the quays, American +bars for the sailors. Further off, it is true, further off, far away +behind these common-place objects, in the very depths of the immense +green valley, peered thousands upon thousands of tiny black houses, a +tangled mass of curious appearance, from which here and there emerged +some higher, dark red, painted roofs, probably the true old Japanese +Nagasaki which still exists. And in those quarters, who knows, there +may be, lurking behind a paper screen, some affected cat's-eyed little +woman, whom perhaps in two or three days (having no time to lose) I +shall marry!! But no, the picture painted by my fancy has faded. I can +no longer see this little creature in my mind's eye; the sellers of +the white mice have blurred her image; I fear now, lest she should be +like them. + +At nightfall, the decks were suddenly cleared as by enchantment; in a +second, they had all shut up their boxes, folded their sliding +screens, their trick fans, and, humbly bowing to each of us, the +little men and little women disappeared. + +Slowly, as the shades of night closed around us mingling all things in +the bluish darkness, this Japan surrounding us, became once more, by +degrees, little by little, a fairy-like and enchanted country. The +great mountains, now all black, were mirrored and doubled in the still +water at their feet on which we floated, reflecting therein their +sharply reversed outlines, and presenting the mirage of fearful +precipices, over which we hung:--- the stars also were reversed in +their order, making, in the depths of the imaginary abyss, a +sprinkling of tiny phosphorescent lights. + +Then all Nagasaki became profusely illuminated, covering itself with +multitudes of lanterns: the smallest suburb, the smallest village was +lit up; the tiniest hut perched up on high among the trees, and which +in the daytime was invisible, threw out its little glow-worm glimmer. +Soon there were numberless lights all over the country, on all the +shores of the bay, from top to bottom of the mountains; myriads of +glowing fires shone out in the darkness, conveying the impression of +a vast capital, rising up around us in one bewildering amphitheater. +Beneath, in the silent waters, another town, also illuminated, seemed +to descend into the depths of the abyss. The night was balmy, pure, +delicious; the atmosphere laden with the perfume of flowers came +wafted to us from the mountains. From the "tea houses" and other +nocturnal resorts, the sound of guitars reached our ears, seeming in +the distance the sweetest of music. And the whirr of the +cicalas--which, in Japan, is one of the continuous noises of life, and +which in a few days we shall no longer even be aware of, so completely +is it the background and foundation of all the other terrestrial +sounds--was sonorous, incessant, softly monotonous, just like the +cascade of a crystal waterfall. + + + + +III. + + +The next day the rain came down in torrents, a regular downpour, +merciless and unceasing, blinding and drenching everything,--a thick +rain so dense that it was impossible to see through it from one end of +the vessel to the other. It seemed as though the clouds of the whole +world had amassed themselves in Nagasaki bay, and had chosen this +great green funnel to stream down to their hearts' content. And it +rained, it rained, it became almost as dark as night, so thickly did +the rain fall. Through a veil of crumbled water, we still perceived +the base of the mountains, but the summits were lost to sight among +the great somber masses weighing down upon us. Above us shreds of +clouds, seemingly torn from the dark vault, draggled across the trees, +like vast gray rags,--continually melting away in water, torrents of +water. There was wind too, and it howled through the ravines with a +deep-sounding tone. The whole surface of the bay, bespattered by the +rain, flogged by the gusts of wind that blew from all quarters, +splashed, moaned and seethed in violent agitation. + +What wretched weather for a first landing, and how was I to find a +wife through such a deluge, in an unknown country! + + * * * * * + +No matter! I dressed myself and said to Yves, who smiled at my +obstinate determination in spite of unfavorable circumstances: + +"Hail me a 'sampan,' brother, please." + +Yves then, by a motion of his arm through the wind and rain, summoned +a kind of little white wooden sarcophagus which was skipping near us +on the waves, sculled by a couple of yellow boys stark naked in the +rain. The craft approached us, I jumped into it, then through a little +trap-door shaped like a rat-trap that one of the scullers throws open +for me, I slipped in and stretched myself at full length on a mat in +what is called the "cabin" of a sampan. + +There was just room enough for my body to lie in this floating coffin, +which is moreover scrupulously clean, white with the whiteness of new +deal boards. I was well sheltered from the rain, that fell pattering +on my lid, and thus I started off for the town, lying in this box, +flat on my stomach, rocked by one wave, roughly shaken by another, at +moments almost over-turned; and through the half-opened door of my +rat-trap I saw, upside down, the two little creatures to whom I had +entrusted my fate, children of eight or ten years of age at the most, +who, with little monkeyish faces, had however fully developed muscles +like miniature men, and were already as skillful as any regular old +salts. + + * * * * * + +They began to shout; no doubt we were approaching the landing-place. +And indeed, through my trap-door, which I had now thrown wide open, I +saw quite near to me the gray flag-stones on the quays. I got out of +my sarcophagus and prepared to set foot for the first time in my life +on Japanese soil. + +All was streaming around us, and the irritating, tiresome rain dashed +into my eyes. + +No sooner had I landed, than there bounded towards me about a dozen +strange beings, of what description it was almost impossible to make +out through the blinding showers--a species of human hedge-hog, each +dragging some large black thing; they came screaming around me and +stopped my progress. One of them opened and held over my head an +enormous closely-ribbed umbrella, decorated on its transparent surface +with paintings of storks; and they all smiled at me in an engaging +manner with an air of expectation. + +I had been forewarned: these were only the _djins_ who were touting +for the honor of my preference; nevertheless I was startled at this +sudden attack, this Japanese welcome on a first visit to land (the +_djins_ or _djin-richisans_, are the runners who drag little carts, +and are paid for conveying people to and fro, being hired by the hour +or the distance, as cabs are with us). + +Their legs were naked; to-day they were very wet, and their heads were +hidden under large shady conical hats. By way of waterproofs they wore +nothing less than mats of straw, with all the ends of the straws +turned outwards bristling like porcupines; they seemed clothed in a +thatched roof. They went on smiling, awaiting my choice. + +Not having the honor of being acquainted with any of them in +particular, I choose at haphazard the djin with the umbrella and get +into his little cart, of which he carefully lowers the hood. He draws +an oil-cloth apron over my knees, pulling it up to my face, and then +advancing near, asks me in Japanese something which must have meant: +"Where to, sir?" To which I reply in the same language, "To the +_Garden of Flowers_, my friend." + +I said this in the three words I had parrot-like learnt by heart, +astonished that such sounds could mean anything, astonished too at +their being understood. We started off, he running at full speed, I +dragged along by him, jerked about in his light chariot, wrapped in +oiled cloth, shut up as if in a box;--both of us unceasingly drenched +all the while, and dashing all around us the water and mud of the +sodden ground. + +"To the _Garden of Flowers_," I had said, like an habitual frequenter +of the place, and quite surprised at hearing myself speak. But I was +less ignorant about Japan than might have been supposed. Many of my +friends had, on their return home from that country, told me about it, +and I knew a great deal; the _Garden of Flowers_ is a _tea-house_, an +elegant rendezvous. There, I would inquire for a certain +Kangourou-San, who is at the same time interpreter, washerman, and +confidential agent for the intercourse of races. Perhaps this very +evening, if all went well, I should be introduced to the bride +destined to me by mysterious fate. This thought kept my mind on the +alert during the panting journey we have been making, the djin and +myself, one dragging the other, under the merciless downpour. + + * * * * * + +Oh, what a curious Japan I saw that day, through the gaping of my +oil-cloth coverings! from under the dripping hood of my little cart! A +sullen, muddy, half-drowned Japan. All these houses, men or beasts, +hitherto only known to me by drawings; all these, that I had beheld +painted on blue or pink backgrounds of fans or vases, now appeared to +me in their hard reality, under a dark sky, with umbrellas and wooden +shoes, with tucked-up skirts and pitiful aspect. + +At moments the rain fell so heavily that I tightly closed up every +chink and crevice, and the noise and shaking benumbed me, so that I +completely forgot in what country I was. In the hood of the cart were +holes, through which little streams ran down my back. Then, +remembering that I was going for the first time in my life through the +very heart of Nagasaki, I cast an inquiring look outside, at the risk +of receiving a douche: we were trotting along through a mean, narrow +little back street (there are thousands like it, a perfect labyrinth +of them) the rain falling in cascades from the tops of the roofs on +the gleaming flagstones below, rendering everything indistinct and +vague through the misty atmosphere. At times we passed by a lady, +struggling with her skirts, unsteadily tripping along in her high +wooden shoes, looking exactly like the figures painted on screens, +tucked up under a gaudily daubed paper umbrella. Or else we passed a +pagoda, where an old granite monster, squatting in the water, seemed +to make a hideous, ferocious grimace at me. + +How immense this Nagasaki is! Here had we been running hard for the +last hour, and still it seemed never-ending. It is a flat plain, and +one could never suppose from the offing that so vast a plain could lie +in the recesses of this valley. + +It would, however, have been impossible for me to say where I was, or +in what direction we had run; I abandoned my fate to my djin and to my +good luck. + +What a steam-engine of a man my djin was! I had been accustomed to the +Chinese runners, but they were nothing by the side of this fellow. +When I part my oil-cloths to peep at anything, he is naturally always +the first object in my foreground: his two naked, brown, muscular +legs, scampering one after the other, splashing all around, and his +bristling hedgehog back bending low in the rain. Do the passers-by, +gazing at this little dripping cart, guess that it contains a suitor +in quest of a bride? + + * * * * * + +At last my vehicle stops, and my djin, with many smiles and +precautions lest any fresh rivers should stream down my back, lowers +the hood of the cart; there is a break in the storm, and the rain has +ceased. I had not yet seen his face; by exception to the general rule, +he is good-looking;--a young man of about thirty years of age, of +intelligent and strong appearance, and an open countenance. Who could +have foreseen that a few days later this very djin.--But no, I will +not anticipate, and run the risk of throwing beforehand any discredit +on Chrysantheme. + +We had therefore reached our destination, and found ourselves at the +foot of a tall overhanging mountain; probably beyond the limits of the +town, in some suburban district. It apparently became necessary to +continue our journey on foot, and climb up an almost perpendicular +narrow path. Around us, a number of small country houses, garden +walls, and high bamboo palisades closed in the view. The green hill +crushed us with its towering height; the heavy, dark clouds lowering +over our heads seemed like a leaden canopy confining us in this +unknown spot; it really seemed as though the complete absence of +perspective inclined one all the better to notice the details of this +tiny corner, muddy and wet, of homely Japan, now lying before our +eyes. The earth was very red. The grasses and wild flowers bordering +the pathway were strange to me;--nevertheless, the palings were +covered with convolvuli like our own, and I recognized in the gardens, +china asters, zinnias, and other familiar flowers. The atmosphere +seemed laden with a curiously complicated odor, something besides the +perfume of the plants and soil, arising no doubt from the human +dwelling-places,--a mingled smell, I fancied, of dried fish and +incense. Not a creature was to be seen; of the inhabitants, of their +homes and life, there was not a vestige, and I might have imagined +myself anywhere in the world. + +My djin had fastened up his little cart under a tree, and together we +clambered the steep path on the slippery red soil. + +"We are going to the _Garden of Flowers_, are we not?" I inquired, +anxious to ascertain if I had been understood. + +"Yes, yes," replied the djin, "it is up there, and quite near." + +The road turned, steep banks hemming it in and darkening it. On one +side, it skirted the mountain all covered with a tangle of wet ferns; +on the other appeared a large wooden house almost devoid of apertures +and of evil aspect; it was there that my djin halted. + +What, that sinister-looking house was the _Garden of Flowers_? He +assured me that it was, and seemed very sure of the fact. We knocked +at a big door which opened immediately, slipping back in its groove. +Then two funny little women appeared, oldish-looking, but with evident +pretensions to youth: exact types of the figures painted on vases, +with their baby hands and feet. + +On catching sight of me, they threw themselves on all fours, their +faces touching the floor. Good gracious! what can be the matter? +Nothing at all, it is only the ceremonious salute to which I am as yet +unaccustomed. They rise, and proceed to take off my boots (one never +keeps on one's shoes in a Japanese house), wiping the bottom of my +trousers and feeling my shoulders to see if I am wet. + +What always strikes one on first entering a Japanese dwelling is the +extreme cleanliness, and white and chilling bareness of the rooms. + +Over the most irreproachable mattings, without a crease, a line, or a +stain, I am led upstairs to the first story and ushered into a big +empty room, absolutely empty! The paper walls are mounted on sliding +panels, which fitting into each other, can be made to disappear +entirely,--and all one side of the apartment opens like a verandah on +to the green country and the gray sky beyond. By way of a chair, I am +given a square piece of black velvet, and behold me seated low, in the +middle of this large empty room, which by its very vastness is almost +chilly. The two little women (who are the servants of the house and my +very humble servants too), await my orders, in attitudes expressive of +the profoundest humility. + + * * * * * + +It seemed extraordinary that the quaint words, the curious phrases I +had learnt during our exile at the Pescadores Islands--by sheer dint +of dictionary and grammar book, without attaching the least sense to +them--should mean anything. But so it seemed, however, for I was at +once understood. + + * * * * * + +I wish in the first place to speak to one M. Kangourou, who is +interpreter, washerman, and matrimonial agent. Nothing could be +better: they know him and will go at once in search of him; and the +elder of the waiting-maids gets ready for the purpose her wooden clogs +and her paper umbrella. + +Next I demand a well-served repast, composed of the greatest +delicacies of Japan. Better and better, they rush to the kitchen to +order it. + +Finally, I beg they will give tea and rice to my djin, who is waiting +for me below;--I wish, in short, I wish many things, my dear little +dollies, which I will mention by degrees and with due deliberation, +when I shall have had time to assemble the necessary words. But, the +more I look at you the more uneasy I feel as to what my _fiancee_ of +to-morrow may be like. Almost pretty, I grant you, you are,--in virtue +of quaintness, delicate hands, miniature feet, but ugly after all, and +absurdly small. You look like ouistitis, like little china ornaments, +like I don't know what. I begin to understand that I have arrived at +this house at an ill-chosen moment. Something is going on which does +not concern me, and I feel that I am in the way. + +From the beginning I might have guessed as much, notwithstanding the +excessive politeness of my welcome; for I remember now, that while +they were taking off my boots downstairs, I heard a murmuring chatter +overhead, then a noise of panels moved quickly along their grooves, +evidently to hide from me something I was not intended to see; they +were improvising for me the apartment in which I now am--just as in +menageries they make a separate compartment for some beasts when the +public is admitted. + +Now I am left alone while my orders are being executed, and I listen +attentively, squatted like a Buddha on my black velvet cushion, in the +midst of the whiteness of the walls and mats. + +Behind the paper partitions, worn-out voices, seemingly numerous, are +talking in low tones. Then rises the sound of a guitar, and the song +of a woman, plaintive and gentle in the echoing sonority of the bare +house, in the melancholy of the rainy weather. + +What one can see through the wide-open verandah is very pretty, I will +admit; it resembles the landscape of a fairy tale. There are admirably +wooded mountains, climbing high into the dark and gloomy sky, and +hiding in it the peaks of their summits, and, perched up among the +clouds--a temple. The atmosphere has that absolute transparency, the +distance that clearness which follows a great downpour of rain; but a +thick pall, still heavy with moisture, remains suspended over all, and +on the foliage of the hanging woods still float great flakes of gray +fluff, which remain there, motionless. In the foreground, in front of +and below all this almost fantastic landscape, is a miniature garden +where two beautiful white cats are taking the air, amusing themselves +by pursuing each other through the paths of a Lilliputian labyrinth, +shaking from their paws the sand, which is still wet. The garden is as +conventional as possible: not a flower, but little rocks, little +lakes, dwarf trees cut in a grotesque fashion; all this is not +natural, but it is most ingeniously arranged, so green, so full of +fresh mosses! + +In the rain-soaked country below me, to the very furthest end of the +vast scene, reigns a great silence, an absolute calm. But the woman's +voice, behind the paper wall, continues to sing in a key of gentle +sadness, and the accompanying guitar has somber and even gloomy notes. + +Stay though! Now the music is somewhat quicker--one might even suppose +they were dancing! + +So much the worse! I shall try to look between the fragile divisions, +through a crack which has revealed itself to my notice. + +What a singular spectacle it is; evidently the gilded youth of +Nagasaki holding a great clandestine orgy! In an apartment as bare as +my own, there are a dozen of them, seated in a circle on the ground, +attired in long blue cotton dresses with pagoda sleeves, long, sleek +and greasy hair surmounted by European pot hats; and beneath these, +yellow, worn out, bloodless, foolish faces. On the floor are a number +of little spirit-lamps, little pipes, little lacquer trays, little +tea-pots, little cups--all the accessories and all the remains of a +Japanese feast, resembling nothing so much as a doll's tea-party. In +the midst of this circle of dandies are three over-dressed women, one +might say three weird visions, robed in garments of pale and +undefinable colors, embroidered with golden monsters; and their great +chignons arranged with fantastic art, stuck full of pins and flowers. +Two are seated and turn their back to me: one is holding the guitar, +the other singing with that soft and pretty voice;--thus seen +furtively, from behind, their pose, their hair, the nape of the neck, +all is exquisite, and I tremble lest a movement should reveal to me +faces which might destroy the enchantment. The third one is on her +feet, dancing before this areopagus of idiots, with their lanky locks +and pot hats. What a shock when she turns round! She wears over her +face the horribly grinning, deathly mask of a specter or vampire. The +mask unfastened, falls. And behold! a darling little fairy of about +twelve or fifteen years of age, slim, and already a coquette, already +a woman,--dressed in a long robe of shaded dark blue china crape, +covered with embroidery representing bats--gray bats, black bats, +golden bats. + +Suddenly there are steps on the stairs, the light footsteps of +barefooted women pattering over the white mats. No doubt the first +course of my lunch just about to be served. I quickly fall back, fixed +and motionless, upon my black velvet cushion. There are three of them +now, three waiting-maids who arrive in single file, with smiles and +curtsies. One offers me the spirit-lamp and the tea-pot, another +preserved fruits in delightful little plates, the third, absolutely +indefinable objects upon gems of little trays. And they grovel before +me on the floor, placing all this plaything of a meal at my feet. + +At this moment, my impressions of Japan are charming enough; I feel +myself fairly launched upon this tiny, artificial, fictitious world, +which I felt I knew already from the paintings of lacquer and +porcelains. It is so exact a representation! The three little +squatting women, graceful and dainty, with their narrow slits of eyes, +their magnificent chignons in huge bows, smooth and shining as +boot-polish, and the little tea-service on the floor, the landscape +seen through the verandah, the pagoda perched among the clouds; and +over all the same affectation everywhere, in every detail. Even the +woman's melancholy voice, still to be heard behind the paper +partition, was so evidently the way they should sing, these musicians +I had so often seen painted in amazing colors on rice-paper, half +closing their dreamy eyes in the midst of impossibly large flowers. +Long before I came to it, I had perfectly pictured this Japan to +myself. Nevertheless in the reality it almost seems to be smaller, +more finicking than I had imagined it, and also much more mournful, no +doubt by reason of that great pall of black clouds hanging over us and +this incessant rain. + + * * * * * + +While awaiting M. Kangourou (who is dressing himself it appears, and +will be here shortly), it may be as well to begin lunch. + +In the daintiest bowl imaginable, adorned with flights of storks, is +the most wildly impossible soup made of sea-weed. After which there +are little fish dried in sugar, crabs in sugar, beans in sugar, and +fruits in vinegar and pepper. All this is atrocious, but above all +unexpected and unimaginable. The little women make me eat, laughing +much, with that perpetual irritating laugh, which is the laugh +peculiar to Japan,--they make me eat, according to their fashion, with +dainty chop-sticks, fingered with mannered grace. I am becoming +accustomed to their faces. The whole effect is refined,--a refinement +so utterly different from our own, that at first sight I understand +nothing of it, although in the long run it may end by pleasing me. + +Suddenly there enters, like a night butterfly awakened in broad +daylight, like a rare and surprising moth, the dancing-girl from the +other compartment, the child who wore the horrible mask. No doubt she +wishes to have a look at me. She rolls her eyes like a timid kitten, +and then all at once tamed, nestles against me, with a coaxing air of +childishness, which is a delightfully transparent assumption. She is +slim, elegant, delicate, and smells sweet; drolly painted, white as +plaster, with a little circle of rouge marked very precisely in the +middle of each cheek, the mouth reddened, and a touch of gilding +outlining the under lip. As they could not whiten the back of the neck +on account of all the delicate little curls of hair growing there, +they had, in their love of exactitude, stopped the white plaster in a +straight line, which might have been cut with a knife, and in +consequence at the nape appears a square of natural skin of a deep +yellow. + +An imperious note sounds on the guitar, evidently a summons! Crac! +Away she goes, the little fairy, to rejoice the drivelling fools on +the other side of the screens. + +Supposing I marry this one, without seeking any further. I should +respect her as a child committed to my care; I should take her for +what she is: a fantastic and charming plaything. What an amusing +little household I should set up! Really short of marrying a china +ornament, I should find it difficult to choose better. + +At this moment enters M. Kangourou, clad in a suit of gray tweed, +which might have come from _La Belle Jardiniere_ or the _Pont Neuf_, +with a pot hat and white thread gloves. His countenance is at once +foolish and cunning; he has hardly a nose, hardly any eyes. He makes a +real Japanese salutation: an abrupt dip, the hands placed flat on the +knees, the body making a right angle to the legs, as if the fellow +were breaking in two; a little snake-like hissing (produced by sucking +the saliva between the teeth, and which is the expression _nec plus +ultra_ of obsequious politeness in this country). "You speak French, +M. Kangourou?" + +"_ sir" (renewed bows). + +He makes one for each word I utter, as if he were a mechanical toy +pulled by a string; when he is seated before me on the ground, he +limits himself to a duck of the head--always accompanied by the same +hissing noise of the saliva. + +"A cup of tea, M. Kangourou?" + +Fresh salute and an extra affected gesticulation with the hands, as if +to say, "I should hardly dare. It is too great a condescension on your +part. However, anything to oblige you." + + * * * * * + +He guesses at the first words what I require from him. + +"Of course," he replies, "we will see about it at once; in a week's +time, as it happens, a family from Simonosaki, in which there are two +charming daughters, will be here." + +"What! in a week! You don't know me, M. Kangourou! No, no, either now, +to-morrow, or not at all." + +Again a hissing bow, and Kangourou-San catching my agitation, begins +to pass in feverish review, all the young persons at his disposal in +Nagasaki. + +"Let us see--there was Mdlle. OEillet. What a pity that I had not +spoken a few days sooner! So pretty! So clever at playing the guitar. +It is an irreparable misfortune; she was engaged only yesterday by a +Russian officer." + +"Ah! Mdlle. Abricot!--Would she suit me, Mdlle. Abricot? She is the +daughter of a wealthy China merchant in the Decima Bazaar, a person of +the highest merit; but she would be very dear: her parents, who think +a great deal of her, will not let her go under a hundred yen[A] a +month. She is very accomplished, thoroughly understands commercial +writings, and has at her finger ends more than two thousand characters +of learned writing. In a poetical competition she gained the first +prize with a sonnet composed in praise of _'the blossoms of the +black-thorn hedges seen in the dew of early morning.'_ Only, she is +not very pretty: one of her eyes is smaller than the other, and she +has a hole in her cheek, resulting from an illness of her childhood." + +[Footnote A: A yen is equal to four shillings.] + +"Oh no! on no account that one! Let us seek amongst a less +distinguished class of young persons, but without scars. And how about +those on the other side of the screen, in those fine gold-embroidered +dresses? For instance, the dancer with the specter mask, M. Kangourou? +or again she who sings in so dulcet a strain and has such a charming +nape to her neck?" + +He does not, at first, understand my drift; then when he gathers my +meaning, he shakes his head almost in a joking way, and says: + +"No, sir, no! Those are only _Guechas_,[B] sir--_Guechas!_" + +[Footnote B: _Guechas_ are professional dancers and singers trained at +the Yeddo Conservatory.] + +"Well, but why not a _Guecha_? What odds can it be to me, whether they +are _Guechas_ or not?" Later on, no doubt, when I understand Japanese +affairs better, I shall appreciate myself the enormity of my proposal: +one would really suppose I had talked of marrying the devil. + +At this point M. Kangourou suddenly calls to mind one Mdlle. Jasmin. +Heavens! how was it he did not think of her at once; she is absolutely +and exactly what I want; he will go to-morrow or this very evening, to +make the necessary overtures to the parents of this young person who +live a long way off, on the opposite hill, in the suburb of +Diou-djen-dji. She is a very pretty girl of about fifteen. She can +probably be engaged for about eighteen or twenty dollars a month, on +condition of presenting her with a few dresses of the best fashion, +and of lodging her in a pleasant and well-situated house,--all of +which a man of gallantry like myself could not fail to do. + +Well, let us fix upon Mdlle. Jasmin then,--and now we must part; time +presses. M. Kangourou will come on board to-morrow to communicate to +me the result of his first proceedings and to arrange with me for the +interview. For the present he refuses to accept any remuneration; but +I am to give him my washing, and to procure him the custom of my +brother officers of the _Triomphante_. It is all settled. Profound +bows,--they put on my boots again at the door. My djin, profiting by +the interpreter kind fortune has placed in his way, begs to be +recommended to me for future custom; his stand is on the quay; his +number is 415, inscribed in French characters on the lantern of his +vehicle (we have a number 415 on board, one Le Goelec, gunner, who +serves the left of one of my guns; happy thought, I shall remember +this); his price is sixpence the journey, or five pence an hour, for +his customers. Capital; he shall have my custom, that is promised. And +now, let us be off. The waiting-maids, who have escorted me to the +door, fall on all fours as a final salute, and remain prostrate on the +threshold--as long as I am still in sight down the dark pathway, where +the rain trickles off the great over-arching bracken upon my head. + + +IV. + +Three days have passed. Night is closing, in an apartment which has +been mine since yesterday. Yves and I, on the first floor, move +restlessly over the white mats, striding up and down the great bare +room, of which the thin, dry flooring cracks beneath our footsteps; we +are both of us rather irritated by prolonged expectation. Yves, whose +impatience shows itself the most freely, from time to time takes a +look out of the window. As for myself, a chill suddenly seizes me, at +the idea that I have chosen, and purpose to inhabit this lonely house, +lost in the midst of the suburb of a totally strange town, perched +high on the mountain and almost opening upon the woods. + +What wild notion can have taken possession of me, to settle myself in +surroundings so utterly foreign and unknown, breathing of isolation +and sadness? The waiting unnerves me, and I beguile the time by +examining all the little details of the building. The woodwork of the +ceiling is complicated and ingenious. On the partitions of white paper +which form the walls, are scattered tiny, microscopic, blue-feathered +tortoises. + +"They are late," said Yves, who is still looking out into the street. + +As to being late, that they certainly are, by a good hour already, and +night is falling, and the boat which should take us back to dine on +board will be gone. Probably we shall have to sup, Japanese fashion +to-night, heaven only knows where. The people of this country have no +sense of punctuality, or of the value of time. + +Therefore I continue to inspect the minute and comical details of my +dwelling. Here, instead of handles such as we should have put to pull +these movable partitions, they have made little oval holes, just the +shape of a finger-end, and into which one is evidently to put one's +thumb. These little holes have a bronze ornamentation, and on looking +closely, one sees that the bronze is curiously chased: here is a lady +fanning herself; there, in the next hole, is represented a branch of +cherry in full blossom. What eccentricity there is in the taste of +this people! To bestow assiduous labor on such miniature work, and +then to hide it at the bottom of a hole to put one's finger in, +looking like a mere spot in the middle of a great white panel; to +accumulate so much patient and delicate workmanship on almost +imperceptible accessories, and all to produce an effect which is +absolutely _nil_, an effect of the most utter bareness and nudity. + +Yves still continues to gaze forth, like Sister Anne. From the side on +which he leans, my verandah overlooks a street, or rather a road +bordered with houses, which climbs higher and higher, and loses itself +almost immediately in the verdure of the mountain, in the fields of +tea, the underwood and the cemeteries. As for myself, this delay +finishes by irritating me for good and all, and I turn my glances to +the opposite side: the other front of my house, also a verandah, opens +first of all upon a garden; then upon a marvelous panorama of woods +and mountains, with all the venerable Japanese quarters of Nagasaki +lying confusedly like a black ant-heap, six hundred feet below us. +This evening, in a dull twilight, notwithstanding that it is a +twilight of July, these things are melancholy. There are great clouds +heavy with rain and showers, ready to fall, traveling across the sky. +No, I cannot feel at home, in this strange dwelling I have chosen; I +feel sensations of extreme solitude and strangeness; the mere prospect +of passing the night in it gives me a shudder of horror. + +"Ah! at last, brother," said Yves, "I believe,--yes, I really believe +she is coming at last." + +I look over his shoulder, and I see--a back view of a little doll the +finishing touches to whose toilette are being put in the solitary +street; a last maternal glance given to the enormous bows of the sash, +the folds at the waist. Her dress is of pearl-gray silk, her _obi_ +(sash) of mauve satin; a sprig of silver flowers trembles in her black +hair; a parting ray of sunlight touches the little figure; five or six +persons accompany her. Yes! it is undoubtedly Mdlle. Jasmin; they are +bringing me my _fiancee_! + +I rush to the ground floor inhabited by old Madame Prune my landlady, +and her aged husband; they are absorbed in prayer before the altar of +their ancestors. + +"Here they are, Madame Prune," I cry in Japanese; "here they are! +Bring at once the tea, the lamp, the embers, the little pipes for the +ladies, the little bamboo pots for spittoons! Bring us as quickly as +possible all the accessories for my reception!" + +I hear the front door open, and hasten upstairs again. Wooden clogs +are deposited on the floor, the staircase creaks gently under the +little bare feet. Yves and I look at each other, with a longing to +laugh. + +An old lady enters,--two old ladies,--three old ladies, emerging from +the doorway one after another with jerking and mechanical +salutations, which we return as best we can, fully conscious of our +inferiority in this particular style. Then come persons of +intermediate age,--then quite young ones, a dozen at least, friends, +neighbors, the whole quarter in fact. And the whole company, on +arriving, becomes confusedly engaged in reciprocal salutations: I +salute you,--- you salute me,--I salute you again, and you return +it,--and I re-salute you again, and I express that I shall never, +never be able to return it according to your high merit,--and I bang +my forehead against the ground, and you stick your nose between the +planks of the flooring, and there they are, on all fours one before +the other; it is a polite dispute, all anxious to yield precedence as +to sitting down, or passing first, and compliments without end are +murmured in low tones, with faces against the floor. + +They seat themselves at last, smiling, in a ceremonious circle; we two +remaining standing, our eyes fixed on the staircase. And at length +emerges, in due turn, the little aigrette of silver flowers, the ebony +chignon, the gray silk robe and mauve sash of Mdlle. Jasmin, my +fiancee! + +Heavens! why, I know her already! Long before setting foot in Japan, I +had met with her, on every fan, on every tea-cup--with her silly air, +her puffy little visage, her tiny eyes, mere gimlet-holes above those +expanses of impossible pink and white which are her cheeks. + +She is young, that is all I can say in her favor; she is even so young +that I should almost scruple to accept her. The wish to laugh quits me +suddenly, and instead, a profound chill fastens on my heart. What! +share even an hour of my life with that little doll? Never! + +The next question is, how to get out of it? + +She advances smiling, with an air of repressed triumph, and behind her +looms M. Kangourou, in his suit of gray tweed. Fresh salutes, and +behold her on all fours, she too, before my landlady and before my +neighbors. Yves, the big Yves, who is not going to be married, stands +behind me, with a comical grimace, hardly repressing his +laughter,--while to give myself time to collect my ideas, I offer tea +in little cups, little spittoons and embers to the company. + +Nevertheless, my discomfited air does not escape my visitors. M. +Kangourou anxiously inquires: + +"How do I like her?" And I reply in a low voice, but with great +resolution: + +"Not at all! I won't have that one. Never!" + +I believe that this remark was almost understood in the circle around +me. Consternation was depicted on every face, the jaws dropped, the +pipes went out. And now I address my reproaches to Kangourou: "Why had +he brought her to me in such pomp, before friends and neighbors of +both sexes, instead of showing her to me discreetly as if by chance, +as I had wished? What an affront he will compel me now to put upon all +these polite persons!" + +The old ladies (the mamma no doubt and aunts), prick up their ears, +and M. Kangourou translates to them, softening as much as possible, my +heartrending decision. I feel really almost sorry for them; the fact +is, that for women who, not to put too fine a point upon it, have come +to sell a child, they have an air I was not prepared for: I can hardly +say an air of _respectability_ (a word in use with us, which is +absolutely without meaning in Japan), but an air of unconscious and +good-natured simplicity; they are only accomplishing an act perfectly +admissible in their world, and really it all resembles, more than I +could have thought possible, a _bona fide_ marriage. + +"But what fault do I find with the little girl?" asks M. Kangourou, in +consternation. + +I endeavor to present the matter in the most flattering light: + +"She is very young," I say; "and then she is too white, too much like +our own women. I wished for a yellow one just as a change." + +"But that is only the paint they have put on her, sir! Beneath it, I +assure you, she is yellow." + +Yves leans towards me and whispers: + +"Look over there, brother, in that corner by the last panel; have you +noticed the one who is sitting down?" + +Not I. In my annoyance I had not observed her; she had her back to the +light, was dressed in dark colors, and sat in the careless attitude of +one who keeps in the background. The fact is this one pleased me much +better. Eyes with long lashes, rather narrow, but which would have +been called good in any country in the world; almost an expression, +almost a thought. A coppery tint on her rounded cheeks; a straight +nose; slightly thick lips, but well modeled and with pretty corners. +Less young than Mdlle. Jasmin, about eighteen years of age perhaps, +already more of a woman. She wore an expression of ennui, also of a +little contempt, as if she regretted her attendance at a spectacle +which dragged so much, and was so little amusing. + +"M. Kangourou, who is that young lady over there, in dark blue?" + +"Over there, sir? A young lady called Mdlle. Chrysantheme. She came +with the others you see here; she is only here as a spectator. She +pleases you?" said he with eager suddenness, espying a way out of his +difficulty. Then, forgetting all his politeness, all his +ceremoniousness, all his Japanesery, he takes her by the hand, forces +her to rise, to stand in the dying daylight, to let herself be seen. +And she, who has followed our eyes and begins to guess what is on +foot, lowers her head in confusion, with a more decided but more +charming pout, and tries to step back, half sulky, half smiling. + +"It makes no difference," continues M. Kangourou, "it can be arranged +just as well with this one; she is not married either, sir!" + +She is not married! Then why didn't the idiot propose her to me at +once instead of the other, for whom I have a feeling of the greatest +pity, poor little soul, with her pearly gray dress, her sprig of +flowers, her expression which grows sadder, and her eyes which twinkle +like those of a child about to cry. + +"It can be arranged, sir!" repeats Kangourou again, who at this moment +appears to me a go-between of the lowest type, a rascal of the meanest +kind. + +Only, he adds, we, Yves and I, are in the way during the negotiations. +And, while Mdlle. Chrysantheme remains with her eyelids lowered, as +befits the occasion, while the various families, on whose countenances +may be read every degree of astonishment, every phase of expectation, +remain seated in a circle on my white mats, he sends us two into the +verandah, and we gaze down into the depths below us, upon a misty and +vague Nagasaki, a Nagasaki melting into a blue haze of darkness. + +Then ensue long discourses in Japanese, arguments without end. M. +Kangourou, who is washerman and low scamp in French only, has returned +for these discussions to the long formulas of his country. From time +to time I express impatience, I ask this worthy creature whom I am +less and less able to consider in a serious light: + +"Come now, tell us frankly, Kangourou, are we any nearer coming to +some arrangement? is all this ever going to end?" + +"In a moment, sir, in a moment;" and he resumes his air of political +economist seriously debating social problems. + +Well, one must submit to the slowness of this people. And, while the +darkness falls like a veil over the Japanese town, I have leisure to +reflect, with as much melancholy as I please, upon the bargain that is +being concluded behind me. + + * * * * * + +Night has closed in, deep night; it has been necessary to light the +lamps. + +It is ten o'clock when all is finally settled, and M. Kangourou comes +to tell me: + +"All is arranged, sir: her parents will give her up for twenty +dollars a month,--the same price as Mdlle. Jasmin." + +On hearing this, I am possessed suddenly with extreme vexation that I +should have made up my mind so quickly to link myself in ever so +fleeting and transient a manner with this little creature, and dwell +with her in this isolated house. + +We come back into the room; she is the center of the circle and +seated; and they have placed the aigrette of flowers in her hair. +There is actually some expression in her glance, and I am almost +persuaded that she--this one--- thinks. + +Yves is astonished at her modest attitude, at her little timid airs of +a young girl on the verge of matrimony; he had imagined nothing like +it in such a marriage as this, nor I either, I must confess. + +"She is really very pretty, brother," said he; "very pretty, take my +word for it!" + +These good folks, their customs, this scene, strike him dumb with +astonishment; he cannot get over it, and remains in a maze. "Oh! this +is too much," and the idea of writing a long letter to his wife at +Toulven, describing it all, diverts him greatly. + +Chrysantheme and I join hands. Yves too advances and touches the +dainty little paw;--after all, if I wed her, it is chiefly his fault; +I should never have remarked her without his observation that she was +pretty. Who can tell how this strange arrangement will turn out? Is it +a woman or a doll? Well, time will show. + +The families having lighted their many-colored lanterns swinging at +the ends of slight sticks, prepare to beat a retreat with many +compliments, bows and curtsies. When it is a question of descending +the stairs, no one is willing to go first, and at a given moment, the +whole party are again on all fours, motionless and murmuring polite +phrases in undertones. + +_"Haul back there!"_ said Yves, laughing and employing a nautical term +used when there is a stoppage of any kind. + +At length they all melt away, descend the stairs with a last buzzing +accompaniment of civilities and polite phrases finished from one step +to another in voices which gradually die away. He and I remain alone +in the unfriendly empty apartment, where the mats are still littered +with the little cups of tea, the absurd little pipes, and the +miniature trays. + +"Let us watch them go away!" said Yves, leaning out. At the door of +the garden is a renewal of the same salutations and curtsies, and +then the two groups of women separate, their bedaubed paper lanterns +fade away trembling in the distance, balanced at the extremity of +flexible canes which they hold in their finger-tips, as one would hold +a fishing-rod in the dark to catch night-birds. The procession of the +unfortunate Mdlle. Jasmin mounts upwards, towards the mountain, while +that of Mdlle. Chrysantheme winds downwards by a narrow old street, +half stairway, half goat-path, which leads to the town. + +Then we also depart. The night is fresh, silent, exquisite, the +eternal song of the cicalas fills the air. We can still see the red +lanterns of my new family, dwindling away in the distance, as they +descend and gradually become lost in that yawning abyss, at the bottom +of which lies Nagasaki. + +Our way, too, lies downwards, but on an opposite slope by steep paths +leading to the sea. + +And when I find myself once more on board, when the scene enacted on +the hill up above recurs to my mind, it seems to me that my betrothal +is a joke, and my new family a set of puppets. + + + + +V. + + +_July 10th, 1885_. + +It is three days now since my marriage was an accomplished fact. + +In the lower part of the town, in the middle of one of the new +cosmopolitan districts, in the ugly pretentious building which is a +kind of register office, the deed has been signed and countersigned, +with marvelous hieroglyphics, in a large book, in the presence of +those ridiculous little creatures, formerly silken-robed _Samourai_, +but now called policemen, and dressed up in tight jackets and Russian +caps. + +The ceremony took place in the full heat of mid-day; Chrysantheme and +her mother arrived there together, and I went alone. We seemed to have +met for the purpose of ratifying some discreditable contract, and the +two women trembled in the presence of these ugly little individuals, +who, in their eyes, were the personification of the law. + +In the middle of their official scrawl, they made me write in French +my name, Christian name, and profession. Then they gave me an +extraordinary document on a sheet of rice-paper, which set forth the +permission granted me by the civilian Authorities of the Island of +Kiu-Siu, to inhabit a house situated in the suburb of Diou-djen-dji, +with a person called Chrysantheme, the said permission being available +under protection of the police, during the whole of my stay in Japan. + +In the evening, however, up there in our own quarter, our little +marriage became a very pretty affair,--a procession carrying lanterns, +a festive tea and some music. It was indeed high time. + +Now we are almost an old married couple, and we are gently settling +down into every-day habits. + +Chrysantheme tends the flowers in our bronze vases, dresses herself +with studied care, proud of her socks with the divided big toe, and +strums all day on a kind of long-necked guitar, producing therefrom +plaintive and sad sounds. + + + + +VI. + + +In our home, all has the appearance of a Japanese picture: we have +nothing but little folding-screens, little curiously shaped stools +bearing vases full of nosegays, and at the further end of the +apartment, in a nook forming an altar, a large gilded Buddha sits +enthroned in a lotus. + +The house is just as I had fancied it should be in the many dreams of +Japan I had made before my arrival, during my long night watches: +perched on high, in a peaceful suburb, in the midst of green +gardens;--made up of paper panels, and taken to pieces according to +one's fancy, like a child's toy. Whole families of cicalas chirp day +and night under our old resounding roof. From our verandah, we have a +bewildering bird's-eye view of Nagasaki, of its streets, its junks and +its great pagodas, which, at certain hours, is lit up at our feet like +some fairylike scene. + + + + +VII. + + +As a mere outline, little Chrysantheme has been seen everywhere and by +everybody. Whoever has looked at one of those paintings on china or on +silk that now fill our bazaars, knows by heart the pretty stiff +head-dress, the leaning figure, ever ready to try some new gracious +salutation, the scarf fastened behind in an enormous bow, the large +falling sleeves, the dress slightly clinging about the ankles with a +little crooked train like a lizard's tail. + +But her face, no, every one has not seen it; there is something +special about it. + +Moreover, the type of women the Japanese paint mostly on their vases +is an exceptional one in their country. It is almost exclusively among +the nobility that these personages are found with their long pale +faces, painted in tender rose-tints, and silly long necks which give +them the appearance of storks. This distinguished type (which I am +obliged to admit was also Mdlle. Jasmin's) is rare, particularly at +Nagasaki. + +In the middle class and the people, the ugliness is more pleasant and +sometimes becomes a kind of prettiness. The eyes are still too small +and hardly able to open, but the faces are rounder, browner, more +vivacious; and in the women there remains a certain vagueness in the +features, something childlike which prevails to the very end of their +lives. + +They are so laughing, so merry, all these little Niponese dolls! +Rather a forced mirth, it is true, studied and at times with a false +ring in it; nevertheless one is attracted by it. + +Chrysantheme is an exception, for she is melancholy. What thoughts can +be running through that little brain? My knowledge of her language is +still too restricted to enable me to find out. Moreover, it is a +hundred to one that she has no thoughts whatever. And even if she +had, what do I care? + +I have chosen her to amuse me, and I would really rather she should +have one of those insignificant little thoughtless faces like all the +others. + + + + +VIII. + + +When night closes in, we light two hanging lamps of a religious +character, which burn till morn, before our gilded idol. + +We sleep on the floor, on a thin cotton mattress, which is unfolded +and laid out over our white mats. Chrysantheme's pillow is a little +wooden block, scooped out to fit exactly the nape of the neck, without +disturbing the elaborate head-dress, which must never be taken down; +the pretty black hair I shall probably never see undone. My pillow, a +Chinese model, is a kind of little square drum covered over with +serpent skin. + +We sleep under a gauze mosquito net of somber greenish blue, dark as +the shades of night, stretched out on an orange-colored ribbon. (These +are the traditional colors, and all the respectable families of +Nagaski possess a similar gauze.) It envelops us like a tent; the +mosquitoes and the night-moths dance around it. + + * * * * * + +This sounds very pretty, and written down looks very well. In reality, +however, it is not so; something, I know not what, is wanting, and it +is all very paltry. In other lands, in the delightful isles of +Oceania, in the old lifeless quarters of Stamboul, it seemed as if +mere words could never express all I felt, and I vainly struggled +against my own incompetence to render, in human language, the +penetrating charm surrounding me. + +Here, on the contrary, words exact and truthful in themselves seem +always too thrilling, too great for the subject; seem to embellish it +unduly. I feel as if I were acting, for my own benefit, some +wretchedly trivial and third-rate comedy; and whenever I try to +consider my home in a serious spirit, the scoffing figure of M. +Kangourou rises up before me, the matrimonial agent, to whom I am +indebted for my happiness. + + + + +IX. + + +_July 12th_. + +Yves comes up to us whenever he is free, in the evening at five +o'clock, after his work on board. + +He is our only European visitor, and with the exception of a few +civilities and cups of tea, exchanged with our neighbors, we lead a +very retired life. Only in the evenings, winding our way through the +precipitous little streets and carrying our lanterns at the end of +short sticks, we go down to Nagasaki in search of amusement at the +theaters, at the "tea-houses," or in the bazaars. + +Yves treats this wife of mine as if she were a plaything, and +continually assures me that she is charming. + +Myself, I find her as exasperating as the cicalas on my roof; and when +I am alone at home, side by side with this little creature twanging +the strings of her long-necked guitar, in front of this marvelous +panorama of pagodas and mountains,--I am overcome by a sadness full of +tears. + + + + +X. + + +_July 13th_. + +Last night, as we lay under the Japanese roof of Diou-djen-dji,--under +the thin and ancient wooden roof scorched by a hundred years of +sunshine, vibrating at the least sound, like the stretched-out +parchment of a tamtam,--in the silence which prevails at two o'clock +in the morning, we heard overhead a regular wild huntsman's chase +passing at full gallop: + +"Nidzoumi!" ("the mice!"), said Chrysantheme. + +Suddenly, the word brings back to my mind yet another, spoken in a +very different language, in a country far away from here: "Setchan!" a +word heard elsewhere, a word that has likewise been whispered in my +ear by a woman's voice, under similar circumstances, in a moment of +nocturnal terror--"Setchan!" It was during one of our first nights at +Stamboul spent under the mysterious roof of Eyoub, when danger +surrounded us on all sides; a noise on the steps of the black +staircase had made us tremble, and she also, my dear little Turkish +companion, had said to me in her beloved language, "Setchan!" ("the +mice!"). + +At that fond recollection, a thrill of sweet memories coursed through +my veins; it was as though I had been startled out of a long ten +years' sleep; I looked down upon the doll beside me with a sort of +hatred, wondering why I was there, and I arose, with almost a feeling +of remorse, to escape from that blue gauze net. + +I stepped out upon the verandah, and there I paused, gazing into the +depths of the starlit night. Beneath me Nagasaki lay asleep, wrapt in +a soft light slumber, hushed by the murmuring sound of a thousand +insects in the moonlight, and fairylike with its roseate hues. Then, +turning my head, I saw behind me the gilded idol with our lamps +burning in front of it; the idol smiling its impassive Buddha smile; +and its presence seemed to cast around it something, I know not what, +strange and incomprehensible. Never until now had I slept under the +eye of such a god. + +In the midst of the calm and silence of the night, I strove to recall +my poignant impressions of Stamboul; but alas, I strove in vain, they +would not return to me in this strange, far-off world. Through the +transparent blue gauze appeared my little Japanese, as she lay in her +somber night-dress with all the fantastic grace of her country, the +nape of her neck resting on its wooden block, and her hair arranged in +large shiny bows. Her amber-colored arms, pretty and delicate, +emerged, bare up to the shoulders, from her wide sleeves. + +"What can those mice on the roof have done to him?" thought +Chrysantheme. Of course she could not understand. In a coaxing manner, +like a playful kitten, she glanced at me with her half-closed eyes, +inquiring why I did not come back to sleep,--and I returned to my +place by her side. + + + + +XI. + + +_July 14th_. + +It is the National Fete day of France. In Nagasaki roadstead, all the +ships are dressed out with flags, and salutes are firing in our honor. + +Alas! All day long, I cannot help thinking of that last fourteenth of +July, spent in the deep calm and stillness of my old home, the door +closed to all intruders, while the gay crowd roared outside; there I +had remained till evening, seated on a bench, shaded by a trellis +covered with honeysuckle, where in the bye-gone days of my childhood's +summers, I used to settle myself with my copybooks and pretend to +learn my lessons. Oh! those days when I was supposed to learn my +lessons: how my thoughts used to rove,--what voyages, what distant +lands, what tropical forests did I not behold in my dreams! At that +time, near the garden bench, in some of the crevices in the stone +wall, there dwelt many a big ugly black spider ever on the watch, +peeping out of his nook ready to pounce upon any giddy fly or +wandering centipede. One of my amusements consisted in tickling the +spiders gently, very gently, with a blade of grass or a cherry stalk +in their holes. Mystified, they would rush out, fancying they had to +deal with some sort of prey, whilst I would rapidly draw back my hand +in disgust. Well, last year, on that fourteenth of July, as I recalled +my days of Latin themes and translations, now forever flown, and this +game of boyish days, I actually recognized the very same spiders (or +at least their daughters), lying in wait in the very same holes. +Gazing at them and at the tufts of grass and moss around me, a +thousand memories of those summers of my early life welled up within +me, memories which for years past had lain slumbering under this old +wall, sheltered by the ivy boughs. While all that is ourselves +perpetually changes and passes away, the constancy with which Nature +repeats, always in the same manner, her most infinitesimal details, +seems a wonderful mystery; the same peculiar species of moss grow +afresh for centuries on precisely the same spot, and the same little +insects each summer do the same thing in the same place. + + * * * * * + +I must admit that this episode of my childhood and the spiders, have +little to do with the story of Chrysantheme. But an incongruous +interruption is quite in keeping with the taste of this country; +everywhere it is practiced, in conversation, in music, even in +painting; a landscape painter, for instance, when he has finished a +picture of mountains and crags, will not hesitate to draw in the very +middle of the sky a circle, or a lozenge, or some kind of framework, +within which he will represent anything incoherent and inappropriate: +a bonze fanning himself, or a lady taking a cup of tea. Nothing is +more thoroughly Japanese than such digressions made without the +slightest apropos. + +Moreover, if I roused my past memories, it was the better to force +myself to notice the difference between that 14th of July last year, +so peacefully spent amidst surroundings familiar to me from my +earliest infancy, and the present animated one, passed in the midst of +such a novel world. + +To-day, therefore, under the scorching mid-day sun, at two o'clock, +three quick-footed djins dragged us at full speed,--Yves, Chrysantheme +and myself,--in Indian file, each in a little jolting cart, to the +further end of Nagasaki, and there deposited us at the foot of some +gigantic steps that run straight up into the mountain. + +These are the granite steps leading to the great temple of Osueva; +wide enough to give access to a whole regiment; they are as grand and +imposing as any work of Babylon or Nineveh, and in complete contrast +with all the finical surroundings. + +We climb up and up,--Chrysantheme listlessly, affecting fatigue, under +her paper parasol painted with pink butterflies on a black ground. As +we ascended, we passed under enormous monastic porticos, also in +granite of rude and primitive style. In truth, these steps and these +temple porticos are the only imposing works that this people has +created, and they astonish, for they scarcely seem Japanese. + +We climb up still higher. At this sultry hour of the day, from top to +bottom of the immense gray steps, only we three are to be seen; on all +that granite there are but the pink butterflies on Chrysantheme's +parasol, to throw a cheerful and brilliant note. + +We passed through the first temple yard, in which are a couple of +white china turrets, bronze lanterns, and the statue of a large horse +in jade. Then without pausing at the sanctuary, we turned to the left, +and entered a shady garden, which formed a terrace halfway up the +hill, and at the extremity of which was situated the +_Donko-Tchaya_,--in English: _the tea-house of the Toads_. + +It was here that Chrysantheme was taking us. We sat down at a table, +under a black linen tent, decorated with large white letters (of +funereal aspect), and two laughing _mousmes_ hurried up to wait upon +us. + +The word _mousme_ means a young girl, or very young woman. It is one +of the prettiest words in the Niponese language; it seems almost as if +there were a little _moue_[C] in the very sound, and as if a pretty +taking little pout such as they put on, and also a little pert +physiognomy, were described by it. I shall often make use of it, +knowing none other in our own language that conveys the same meaning. + +[Footnote C: _Moue_ means "pout" in French.] + +Some Japanese Watteau must have mapped out this _Donko-Tchaya_, for it +has rather an affected air of rurality, though very pretty. Well +shaded, under a thick vault of large trees densely foliaged, a +miniature lake hard by, the chosen residence of a few toads, has given +it its attractive denomination. Lucky toads, who crawl and croak on +the finest of moss, in the midst of tiny artificial islets decked with +gardenias in full bloom. From time to time, one of them informs us of +his thoughts by a "Couac," uttered in a deep bass croak infinitely +more hollow than that of our own toads. + + * * * * * + +Under the tent of this tea-house, we are as it were on a balcony +jutting out from the mountain side, overhanging from on high the +grayish town and its suburbs buried in greenery. Around, above and +beneath us cling and hang on every possible point, clumps of trees and +fresh green woods, with the delicate and varying foliage of the +temperate zone. Then we can see, at our feet, the deep roadstead, +fore-shortened and slanting, diminished in appearance till it looks +like a terrible somber tear in the mass of large green mountains; and +further still, quite low down, on the waters which seem black and +stagnant, are to be seen, very tiny and overwhelmed, the men-of-war, +the steamboats and the junks, flags flying from every mast. On the +dark green, which is the dominant shade around, stand out these +thousand scraps of bunting, emblems of the different nationalities, +all displayed, all flying in honor of far-distant France. The colors +most prevailing in this motley assemblage are the white flag with a +red ball, emblem of the _Empire of the Rising Sun_, where we now are. + + * * * * * + +With the exception of three or four mousmes at the further end who are +practicing with bows and arrows, we are to-day the only people in the +garden, and the mountain round about is silent. + +Having finished her cigarette and her cup of tea, Chrysantheme also +wishes to exert her skill; for archery is still held in honor among +the young women. The old man who keeps the range, picks out for her +his best arrows tipped with white and red feathers,--and she takes aim +with a serious air. The mark is a circle, traced in the middle of a +picture on which is painted in flat gray tones, terrifying chimera +flying through the clouds. + +Chrysantheme is certainly an adroit markswoman, and we admire her as +much as she expected. + +Then Yves, who is usually clever at all games of skill, wishes to try +his luck, and fails. It is amusing to see her, with her mincing ways +and smiles, arrange with the tips of her little fingers, the sailor's +broad hands, placing them on the bow and the string in order to teach +him the proper manner. Never have they seemed to get on so well +together, Yves and my dolly, and I might even feel anxious, were I +less sure of my good brother, and if, moreover, it were not a matter +of perfect indifference to me. + + * * * * * + +In the stillness of the garden, mid the balmy peacefulness of these +mountains, a loud noise suddenly startles us; a unique, powerful, +terrible sound, which is prolonged in infinite metallic vibrations. It +begins again sounding more appalling: _Boum!_ borne to us by the +rising wind. + +"_Nippon Kane!_" explains Chrysantheme,--and she again takes up her +brightly-feathered arrows. "_Nippon Kane_ (the Japanese brass); it is +the Japanese brass that is sounding!" It is the monstrous gong of a +monastery, situated in a suburb beneath us. Well, it is powerful +indeed "the Japanese brass!" When the strokes are ended, when it is no +longer heard, a vibration seems to linger among the suspended foliage, +and an endless quiver runs through the air. + + * * * * * + +I am obliged to admit that Chrysantheme looks very charming shooting +her arrows, her figure well bent back the better to bend her bow; her +loose-hanging sleeves caught up to her shoulders, showing the graceful +bare arms polished like amber and very much of the same color. Each +arrow whistles by with the rustle of a bird's wing,--then a short +sharp little blow is heard, the target is hit, always. + +At nightfall, when Chrysantheme has gone up to Diou-djen-dji, we +cross, Yves and myself, the European concession, on our way to the +ship, to take up our watch till the following day. The cosmopolitan +quarter exhaling an odor of absinthe, is dressed up with flags, and +squibs are being fired off in honor of France. Long lines of djins +pass by, dragging as fast as their naked legs can carry them, the crew +of the _Triomphante_, who are shouting and fanning themselves. The +"Marseillaise" is heard everywhere; English sailors are singing it, +gutturally with a dull and slow cadence like their own "God Save." In +all the American bars, grinding organs are hammering it with many an +odious variation and flourish, in order to attract our men. + + * * * * * + +Just one funny recollection comes back to me of that evening. On our +return, we had by mistake got into a street inhabited by a multitude +of ladies of doubtful reputation. I can still see that big fellow +Yves, struggling with a whole band of tiny little mousmes of some +twelve or fifteen years of age, who barely reached up to his waist, +and were pulling him by the sleeves, anxious to lead him astray. +Astonished and indignant he repeated as he extricated himself from +their clutches: "Oh, this is too much!" So shocked was he at seeing +such mere babies, so young, so tiny, already so brazen and shameless. + + + + +XII. + + +_July 18th_. + +There are now four of us, four officers of my ship, married like +myself, and inhabiting the slopes of the same suburb. It is quite an +ordinary occurrence, and is arranged without difficulties, mystery or +danger, through the negotiations of the same M. Kangourou. + +As a matter of course, we are on visiting terms with all these ladies. + +First there is our very merry neighbor Madame Campanule, who is little +Charles N----'s wife; then Madame Jonquille, who is even merrier than +Campanule, like a young bird and the daintiest fairy of the whole lot: +she has married X----, a fair northerner who adores her; they are a +loverlike and inseparable pair, the only one that will probably weep +when the hour of parting comes. Then Sikou-San with Doctor Y----; and +lastly the midshipman Z---- with the tiny Madame Touki-San, no taller +than a boot: thirteen years old at the outside and already a regular +woman, full of her own importance, a petulant little gossip. In my +childhood, I was sometimes taken to the _Learned Animals_ Theater, and +I remember a certain Madame de Pompadour, a principal role, filled by +a gayly dressed-up old monkey; Touki-San reminds me of her. + +In the evening, all these folk generally come and fetch us for a long +processional walk with lighted lanterns. My wife, more serious, more +melancholy, perhaps even more refined, and belonging, I fancy, to a +higher class, tries when these friends come to us to play the part of +the lady of the house. It is comical to see the entry of these +ill-matched couples, partners for a day, the ladies with their +disjointed bows falling on all fours before Chrysantheme, the queen of +the establishment. When we are all assembled, we start off, arm in +arm, one behind the other, and always carrying at the end of our short +sticks little white or red paper lanterns;--it seems it is pretty. + +We are obliged to scramble down the kind of street, or rather +goat's-path, which leads to the Japanese Nagasaki,--with the prospect, +alas! of having to climb up again at night; clamber up all the steps, +all the slippery slopes, stumble over all the stones, before we shall +be able to get home, go to bed, and sleep. We make our descent in the +darkness, under the branches, under the foliage, betwixt dark gardens +and venerable little houses that throw but a faint glimmer on the +road; and when the moon is absent or clouded over, our lanterns are +by no means unnecessary. + +When at last we reach the bottom, suddenly, without transition, we +find ourselves in the very heart of Nagasaki and its busy throng in a +long illuminated street, where vociferating djins hurry along and +thousands of paper lanterns swing and gleam in the wind. It is life +and animation, after the peace of our silent suburb. + +Here, decorum requires we should separate from our wives. All five +take hold of each others' hands, like a batch of little girls out +walking. We follow them with an air of indifference. Seen from behind, +our dolls are really very dainty, with their back hair so tidily done +up, their tortoiseshell pins so coquettishly arranged. They shuffle +along, their high wooden clogs making an ugly sound, striving to walk +with their toes turned in, according to the height of fashion and +elegance. At every minute they burst out laughing. + +Yes, seen from behind, they are very pretty; they have, like all +Japanese women, the most lovely turn of the head. Moreover, they are +very funny, thus drawn up in line. In speaking of them, we say: "Our +little dancing dogs," and in truth they are singularly like them. + +This great Nagasaki is the same from one end to another, with its +numberless petroleum lamps burning, its many-colored lanterns +flickering, and innumerable panting djins. Always the same narrow +streets, lined on each side with the same low houses, built in paper +and wood. Always the same shops, without glass windows, open to all +the winds, equally rudimentary whatever may be sold or made in them; +whether they display the finest gold lacquer ware, the most marvelous +china jars, or old worn-out pots and pans, dried fish, and ragged +frippery. All the salesmen are seated on the ground in the midst of +their valuable or trumpery merchandise, their legs bared nearly to the +waist. And all kinds of queer little trades are carried on under the +public gaze, by strangely primitive means, by workmen of the most +ingenuous type. + +Oh! what wonderful goods are exposed for sale in those streets! what +whimsical extravagances in those bazaars! + +No horses, no carriages are ever seen in the town; nothing but people +on foot, or the comical little carts dragged along by the runners. +Some few Europeans straggling hither and thither, wanderers from the +ships in harbor; some Japanese (fortunately as yet but few in number) +dressed up in coats; other natives who content themselves with adding +to their national costume the pot hat, from which their long sleek +locks hang down; and all around, eager haggling, bargaining,--and +laughter. + +In the bazaars every evening our mousmes make endless purchases; like +spoilt children they buy everything they fancy: toys, pins, ribbons, +flowers. And then they prettily offer each other presents, with +childish little smiles. For instance, Campanule buys for Chrysantheme +an ingeniously contrived lantern on which, set in motion by some +invisible machinery, Chinese shadows dance in a ring round the flame. +In return, Chrysantheme gives Campanule a magic fan, with paintings +that change at will from butterflies fluttering round cherry-blossoms, +to outlandish monsters pursuing each other across black clouds. Touki +offers Sikou a cardboard mask representing the bloated countenance of +Dai-Cok, god of wealth; and Sikou replies by a long crystal trumpet, +by means of which are produced the most extraordinary sounds, like a +turkey gobbling. Everything is uncouth, fantastical to excess, +grotesquely lugubrious; everywhere we are surprised by +incomprehensible conceptions, which seem the work of distorted +imaginations. + +In the fashionable tea-houses where we finish up our evenings, the +little servant-girls now bow to us, on our arrival, with an air of +respectful recognition, as belonging to the fast set of Nagasaki. +There we carry on desultory conversations, full of misunderstandings +and endless _quid pro quo's_ of uncouth words,--in little gardens +lighted up with lanterns, near ponds full of gold fish, with little +bridges, little islets and little ruined towers. They hand us tea and +white and pink-colored sweetmeats flavored with pepper that taste +strange and unfamiliar, and beverages mixed with snow tasting of +flowers or perfumes. + + * * * * * + +To give a faithful account of those evenings, would require a more +affected style than our own; and some kind of graphic sign would have +also to be expressly invented and scattered at haphazard amongst the +words, indicating the moment at which the reader should laugh,--rather +a forced laugh, perhaps, but amiable and gracious. The evening at an +end; it is time to return up there. + +Oh! that street, that road, that we must clamber up every evening, +under the starlit sky, or the heavy thunder-clouds, dragging by the +hand our drowsy mousme in order to regain our home perched on high +half-way up the hill, where our bed of matting awaits us. + + + + +XIII. + + +The cleverest amongst us has been Louis de S----. Having formerly +inhabited Japan, and made a marriage Japan fashion there, he is now +satisfied to remain the friend of our wives, of whom he has become the +_Komodachi taksan takai, the very tall friend_ (as they say on account +of his excessive height and slenderness). Talking Japanese more freely +than we can, he is their confidential adviser, disturbs or reconciles +at will our households, and has infinite amusement at our expense. + +This _very tall friend_ of our wives enjoys all the fun that these +little creatures can give him, without any of the worries of domestic +life. With brother Yves, and little Oyouki (the daughter of Madame +Prune, my landlady,) he makes up our incongruous party. + + + + +XIV. + + +M. Sucre and Madame Prune,[D] my landlord and wife, two perfectly +unique personages but recently escaped from the panel of some screen, +live below us on the ground floor; and very old they seem to have this +daughter of fifteen, Oyouki, who is Chrysantheme's inseparable friend. + +[Footnote D: In Japanese: _Sato-san_ and _Oume-San_.] + +Both of them are entirely absorbed in the practices of Shintoist +devotion: perpetually on their knees before their family altar, +perpetually occupied in murmuring their lengthy orisons to the +Spirits, and clapping their hands from time to time to recall around +them the inattentive essences floating in the atmosphere;--in their +spare moments they cultivate in little pots of gayly-painted +earthenware, dwarf shrubs and unheard-of flowers which smell +deliciously in the evening. + +M. Sucre is taciturn, dislikes society, looks like a mummy in his blue +cotton dress. He writes a great deal, (his memoirs, I fancy) with a +paint-brush held in his finger-tips, on long strips of rice-paper of a +faint gray tint. + +Madame Prune is eagerly attentive, obsequious and rapacious; her +eye-brows are closely shaven, her teeth carefully lacquered with black +as befits a lady of gentility, and at all and no matter what hours, +she appears on all fours at the entrance of our apartment, to offer us +her services. + +As to Oyouki, she rushes upon us ten times a day,--whether we are +sleeping, or dressing,--like a whirlwind on a visit, flashing upon us, +a very gust of dainty youthfulness and droll gayety,--a living peal of +laughter. She is round of figure, round of face; half baby, half girl; +and so affectionate that she bestows kisses on the slightest occasion +with her great puffy lips,--a little moist, it is true, like a +child's, but nevertheless very fresh and very red. + + + + +XV. + + +In our dwelling, open as it is all the night through, the lamps +burning before the gilded Buddha procure us the company of the insect +inhabitants of every garden in the neighborhood. Moths, mosquitoes, +cicalas, and other extraordinary insects of which I don't even know +the names,--all this company assembles around us. + +It is extremely funny, when some unexpected grasshopper, some +free-and-easy beetle presents itself without invitation or excuse, +scampering over our white mats, to see the manner in which +Chrysantheme indicates it to my righteous vengeance,--merely pointing +her finger at it, without another word than "Hou!" said with bent +head, a particular pout, and a scandalized air. + +There is a fan kept expressly for the purpose of blowing them out of +doors again. + + + + +XVI. + + +Here, I must own, that to the reader of my story it must appear to +drag a little. + +In default of exciting intrigues and tragic adventures, I would fain +have known how to infuse into it a little of the sweet perfumes of the +gardens which surround me, something of the gentle warmth of the +sunshine, of the shade of these graceful trees. Love being wanting, I +should like it to breathe of the restful tranquillity of this far-away +suburb. Then, too, I should like it to reecho the sound of +Chrysantheme's guitar, in which I begin to find a certain charm, for +want of something better, in the silence of the lovely summer +evenings. + +All through these moonlit nights of July, the weather has been calm, +luminous and magnificent. Ah! what glorious clear nights, what +exquisite roseate tints beneath that wonderful moon, what mystery of +blue shadows in the thick tangle of trees. And, from the heights +where stood our verandah, how prettily the town lay sleeping at our +feet! + +After all, I do not positively detest this little Chrysantheme, and +when there is no repugnance on either side, habit turns into a +make-shift of attachment. + + + + +XVII. + + +Always, over, in, and through everything, rises day and night from +this Japanese landscape the song of the cicalas, ceaseless, strident, +and prodigious. It is everywhere, and never-ending, at no matter what +hour of the burning day, what hour of the cool and refreshing night. +In the midst of the roads, as we approached our anchorage, we had +heard it at the same time from the two shores, from both walls of +green mountains. It is wearisome and haunting; it seems to be the +manifestation, the noise expressive of the special kind of life +peculiar to this region of the world. It is the voice of summer in +these islands; it is the song of unconscious rejoicing, always content +with itself and always appearing to inflate, to rise upwards, in a +greater and greater exultation at the sheer happiness of living. + +It is to me the noise characteristic of this country,--this, and the +cry of the falcon, which had in like manner greeted our entry into +Japan. Over the valleys and the deep bay sail these birds, uttering +from time to time their three cries, "Han! han! han!" in a key of +sadness, which seems the extreme of painful astonishment. And the +mountains around re-echo their cry. + + + + +XVIII. + + +Yves, Chrysantheme, and little Oyouki have struck up a friendship so +great that it amuses me: I even think, that in my home life, this +intimacy is what affords me the greatest entertainment. They form a +contrast which gives rise to the most absurd jokes, and most +unforeseen situations. He brings into this fragile little paper house, +his sailor's freedom and ease of manner, and his Breton accent; side +by side with these tiny mousmes of affected manners and bird-like +voices, who, small as they are, rule the big fellow as they please; +make him eat with chopsticks; teach him Japanese "_pigeon-vole_,"--and +cheat him, and quarrel, and almost die of laughter over it all. + +Certainly he and Chrysantheme take a pleasure in each other's company. +But I remain serenely undisturbed, and cannot imagine that this +little chance doll with whom I play at married life, could possibly +bring a serious trouble between this "brother" and myself. + + + + +XIX. + + +My family of Japanese relations, very numerous and very conspicuous, +is a great source of diversion to those of my brother officers who +visit me in my villa on the hill,--most especially to _komodachi +taksan takai (the immensely tall friend)_. + +I have a charming mother-in-law--quite a woman of the world,--little +sisters-in-law, little cousins, and aunts who are still quite young. + +I have even a poor cousin, twice removed, who is a djin. There was +some hesitation in owning this latter to me; but, behold! during the +ceremony of introduction, we exchanged a smile of recognition, it was +number 415. + +Over this poor 415, my friends on board crack no end of jokes,--one in +particular, who, less than any one has the right to make them, little +Charles N----, for his mother-in-law was once a porter, or something +of the kind, at the gateway of a pagoda. + +I, however, who have a great respect for strength and agility, much +appreciate this new relative of mine. His legs are undoubtedly the +best in all Nagasaki, and whenever I am in a hurry, I always beg +Madame Prune to send down to the djin stand, and engage my cousin. + + + + +XX. + + +I arrived unexpectedly to-day at Diou-djen-dji, in the midst of a +burning noonday heat. At the foot of the stairs lay Chrysantheme's +wooden clogs and her sandals of varnished leather. + +In our rooms, up above, all was open to the air; bamboo blinds lowered +on the sunny side, and through their transparency came warm air and +golden threads of light. To-day, the flowers Chrysantheme had placed +in our bronze vases were lotus, and my eyes fell, as I entered, upon +their great rosy cups. + +According to her usual custom, she was lying flat on the floor +enjoying her daily siesta. + +What a singular originality these bouquets of Chrysantheme always +have: a something difficult to define, a Japanese slimness, a +mannered grace which we should never succeed in imparting to them. + +She was sleeping flat on her face upon the mats, her high headdress +and tortoiseshell pins standing out boldly from the rest of the +horizontal figure. The train of her tunic prolonged her delicate +little body, like the tail of a bird; her arms were stretched +crosswise, the sleeves spread out like wings,--and her long guitar lay +beside her. + +She looked like a dead fairy; or still more did she resemble some +great blue dragon-fly, which, having alighted on that spot, some +unkind hand had pinned to the floor. + +Madame Prune, who had come upstairs after me, always officious and +eager, manifested by her gestures her sentiments of indignation on +beholding the careless reception accorded by Chrysantheme to her lord +and master, and advanced to wake her. + +"Pray do nothing of the kind, my good Madame Prune, you don't know how +much I prefer her like that!" I had left my shoes below, according to +custom, by the side of the little clogs and sandals; and I entered on +the tips of my toes, very, very softly, to go and sit awhile under the +verandah. + +What a pity this little Chrysantheme cannot always be asleep; she is +really extremely decorative seen in this manner,--and like this, at +least, she does not bore me. Who knows what may perchance be going on +in that little head and heart! If I only had the means of finding out! +But strange to say, since we have kept house together, instead of +pushing my studies in the Japanese language further, I have neglected +them, so much have I felt the utter impossibility of ever interesting +myself in the subject. + +Seated under my verandah, my eyes wandered over the temples and +cemeteries spread at my feet, over the woods and green mountains, over +Nagasaki lying bathed in the sunlight. The cicalas were chirping their +loudest, the strident noise trembling feverishly in the hot air. All +was calm, full of light and full of heat. + +Nevertheless, to my taste, it is not yet enough so! What then can have +changed upon the earth? The burning noon-days of summer, such as I can +recall in days gone by, were more brilliant, more full of sunshine; +Nature seemed to me in those days more powerful, more terrible. One +would say this was only a pale copy of all that I knew in early +years,--a copy in which something is wanting. Sadly do I ask +myself,--Is the splendor of the summer only this? _was it_ only this? +or is it the fault of my eyes, and as time goes on shall I behold +everything around me paling still more? + +Behind me a faint and melancholy strain of music,--melancholy enough +to make one shiver,--and shrill, shrill as the song of the +grasshoppers, began to make itself heard, very softly at first, then +growing louder and rising in the silence of the noonday like the +diminutive wail of some poor Japanese soul in pain and anguish; it was +Chrysantheme and her guitar awaking together. + +It pleased me that the idea should have occurred to her to greet me +with music, instead of eagerly hastening to wish me "Good morning." +(At no time have I ever given myself the trouble to pretend the +slightest affection for her, and a certain coldness even has grown up +between us, especially when we are alone.) But to-day I turn to her +with a smile, and wave my hand for her to continue. "Go on, it amuses +me to listen to your quaint little impromptu." It is singular that the +music of this essentially merry people should be so plaintive. But +undoubtedly that which Chrysantheme is playing at this moment is worth +listening to. Whence can it have come to her? What unutterable dreams, +forever hidden from me, fly through her yellow head, when she plays or +sings in this manner? + +Suddenly: Pan, pan, pan! Some one knocks three times, with a harsh +and bony finger against one of the steps of our stairs, and in the +aperture of our doorway appears an idiot, clad in a suit of gray +tweed, who bows low. "Come in, come in, M. Kangourou. How well you +come, just in the nick of time! I was actually becoming enthusiastic +over your country!" + +It was a little washing bill, which M. Kangourou respectfully wished +to hand to me, with a profound bend of the whole body, the correct +pose of the hands on the knees, and a long snake-like hiss. + + + + +XXI. + + +Following the road which climbs past the front of our dwelling, one +passes a dozen or more old villas, a few garden walls, and then there +is nothing but the lonely mountain side, with little paths winding +upwards towards the summit through plantations of tea, bushes of +camellias, underwood and rocks. The mountains round Nagasaki are +covered with cemeteries; for centuries and centuries past it is up +here they have brought their dead. + +But there is neither sadness nor horror in these Japanese sepulchers; +it would seem as if among this frivolous and childish people, death +itself could not be taken seriously. The monuments are either Buddhas, +in granite, seated on lotus, or upright funereal stones with an +inscription in gold; they are grouped together in little enclosures in +the midst of the woods, or on natural terraces delightfully situated, +and are generally reached by long stairways of stone carpeted with +moss; from time to time, these pass under one of the sacred gateways, +of which the shape, always the same, rude and simple, is a smaller +reproduction of those in the temples. + +Up above us, the tombs of our mountain are of so hoary an antiquity +that they no longer alarm any one, even by night. It is a region of +forsaken cemeteries. The dead hidden away there have long since become +one with the earth around them; and these thousands of little gray +stones, these multitudes of ancient little Buddhas, eaten away by +lichens, seem to be now no more than a proof of a series of +existences, long anterior to our own, and lost forever and altogether +in the mysterious depths of ages. + + + + +XXII. + + +Chrysantheme's meals are something indescribable. + +She begins in the morning, when she wakes, by two little green wild +plums pickled in vinegar and rolled in powdered sugar. A cup of tea +completes this almost traditional breakfast of Japan, the very same +Madame Prune is eating downstairs, the same served up to travelers in +the inns. + +During the course of the day the feeding is continued by two little +dinners of the drollest composition. They are brought up on a tray of +red lacquer, in microscopic cups with covers, from Madame Prune's +apartment, where they are cooked: a hashed sparrow, a stuffed prawn, +seaweed with a sauce, a salt sweetmeat, a sugared chili. Chrysantheme +tastes a little of all, with dainty pecks and the aid of her little +chopsticks, raising the tips of her fingers with affected grace. At +every dish she makes a face, leaves three parts of it, and dries her +finger-tips after it in apparent disgust. + +These menus vary according to the inspiration which may have seized +Madame Prune. But one thing never varies, either in our household or +in any other, neither in the north nor in the south of the Empire, and +that is the dessert and the manner of eating it: after all these +little dishes, which are a mere make-believe, is brought in a wooden +bowl, bound with copper,--an enormous bowl, fit for Gargantua, and +filled to the very brim with rice, plainly cooked in water. +Chrysantheme fills another large bowl from it (sometimes twice, +sometimes three times), darkens its snowy whiteness with a black sauce +flavored with fish which is contained in a delicately shaped blue +cruet, mixes it all together, carries the bowl to her lips, and crams +down all the rice, shoveling it with her two chopsticks into her very +throat. Next the little cups and covers are picked up, as well as the +tiniest crumb that may have fallen upon the white mats, the +irreproachable purity of which nothing is allowed to tarnish. And so +ends the dinner. + + + + +XXIII. + +_August 2nd_. + + +Down below in the town, a street singer had established herself in a +little thoroughfare; people had collected around her to listen to her +singing, and we three--that is, Yves, Chrysantheme and I--who chanced +to be passing, stopped like others. + +Quite young, rather fat, fairly pretty, she strummed her guitar and +sang, rolling her eyes fiercely, like a virtuoso executing feats of +difficulty. She lowered her head, stuck her chin into her neck, in +order to draw deeper notes from the furthermost recesses of her body; +and succeeded in bringing forth a great hoarse voice,--a voice that +might have belonged to an aged frog, a ventriloquist's voice, coming +from whence it would be impossible to say (this is the best stage +manner, the final word of art, for the interpretation of tragic +pieces). + +Yves cast an indignant glance upon her: + +"Good gracious," said he, "it's the voice of a--" (words failed him, +in his astonishment) "it's the voice of a--a monster!" + +And he looked at me, almost frightened by this little being, and +anxious to know what I thought of it. + +My poor Yves was out of temper on this occasion, because I had induced +him to come out in a straw hat with a turned-up brim, which did not +please him. + +"It suits you remarkably well, Yves, I assure you." + +"Oh, indeed! You say so, you. For my part, I think it looks like a +magpie's nest!" + +As a fortunate diversion from the singer and the hat, here comes a +cortege, advancing towards us from the end of the street, something +remarkably like a funeral. Bonzes march in front dressed in robes of +black gauze, having much the appearance of Catholic priests; the +principal personage of the procession, the corpse, comes last, laid in +a sort of little closed palanquin which is daintily pretty. This is +followed by a band of mousmes, hiding their laughing faces beneath a +kind of veil, and carrying in vases of the sacred shape the artificial +lotus with silver petals indispensable at a funeral; then come fine +ladies, on foot, smirking and stifling a wish to laugh, beneath +parasols on which are painted in the gayest colors, butterflies and +storks. + +Now they are quite close to us, we must stand back to give them room. +Chrysantheme all at once assumes a suitable air of gravity, and Yves +bares his head, taking off the magpie's nest. + +Yes, it is true, it is death that is passing by! + +I had almost lost sight of the fact, so little does this recall it. + +The procession will climb high up, far away above Nagasaki, into the +heart of the green mountain all peopled with tombs. There the poor +fellow will be laid at rest, with his palanquin above him, and his +vases and his flowers of silvered paper. Well, at least the poor +defunct will lie in a charming spot commanding a lovely view. + +They will now return half laughing, half sniveling, and to-morrow no +one will think of it again. + + + + +XXIV. + +_August 4th_. + + +The _Triomphante_, which has been lying in the roadsteads almost at +the foot of the hill on which stands my house, enters the dock to-day +to undergo repairs rendered necessary by the long blockade of Formosa. + +I am now a long way from my home, and obliged to cross by boat the +whole breadth of the bay when I wish to see Chrysantheme; for the dock +is situated on the shore opposite to Diou-djen-dji. It is sunk in a +little valley, narrow and deep, midst all kinds of foliage,--bamboos, +camellias, trees of all sorts; our masts and spars, seen from the +deck, look as if they were tangled among the branches. + +The situation of the vessel--no longer afloat--gives the crew a +greater facility for clandestine escapes from the ship at no matter +what hour of the night, and our sailors have made friends with all +the girls of the villages perched on the mountains above us. + +These quarters and his excessive liberty, give me some uneasiness +about my poor Yves; for this country of frivolous pleasure has a +little turned his head. Moreover, I am more and more convinced that he +is in love with Chrysantheme. + +It is really a pity that the sentiment has not occurred to me instead, +since it is I who have gone the length of marrying her. + + + + +XXV. + + +Notwithstanding the increased distance, I continue my daily visits to +Diou-djen-dji. When night has fallen, and the four couples who compose +our society have joined us, as well as Yves and the _amazingly tall +friend_,--we descend again into the town, stumbling by lantern light +down the steep stairways and slopes of the old suburb. + +This nocturnal stroll is always the same, and accompanied always by +the same amusements: we pause before the same queer stalls, we drink +the same sugared drinks served to us in the same little gardens. But +our troop is often more numerous: to begin with, we chaperon Oyouki +who is confided to our care by her parents; then we have two cousins +of my wife's--pretty little creatures; and lastly friends--guests of +sometimes only ten or twelve years old, little girls of the +neighborhood to whom our mousmes wish to show some politeness. + +Oh! what a singular company of tiny beings forms our suite and follows +us into the tea-gardens in the evenings! The most absurd faces, with +sprigs of flowers stuck in the oddest fashion in their comical and +childish heads! One might suppose it was a whole school of mousmes out +for an evening's frolic under our care. + +Yves returns with us, when time comes to remount our +hill,--Chrysantheme heaves great sighs like a tired child, and stops +on every step, leaning on our arms. + +When we have reached our destination he says good-night, just touches +Chrysantheme's hand, and descending once more, by the slope which +leads to the quays and the shipping, he crosses the roadstead in a +sampan, to get on board the _Triomphante_. + +Meantime, we, with the aid of a sort of secret key, open the door of +our garden, where Madame Prune's pots of flowers, ranged in the +darkness, send forth delicious odors in the night air. We cross the +garden by moonlight or starlight, and mount to our own rooms. + +If it is very late,--a frequent occurrence,--we find all our wooden +panels drawn and tightly shut by the careful M. Sucre (as a precaution +against thieves), and our apartment is as close and as private as if +it were a real European one. + +In this house, when every chink is thus closed, a strange odor mingles +with the musk and the lotus,--an odor essential to Japan, to the +yellow race, belonging to the soil or emanating from the venerable +woodwork; almost an odor of wild beast. The mosquito curtain of dark +blue gauze ready hung for the night, falls from the ceiling with the +air of a mysterious velum. The gilded Buddha smiles eternally at the +night-lamps burning before him; some great moth, a constant frequenter +of the house, which during the day sleeps clinging to our ceiling, +flutters at this hour under the very nose of the god, turning and +flitting round the thin quivering flames. And, motionless on the wall, +its feelers spread out starwise, sleeps some great garden spider, +which one must not kill because it is night. "Hou!" says Chrysantheme +indignantly, pointing it out to me with leveled finger. "Quick! where +is the fan kept for the purpose, wherewith to hunt it out of doors?" + +Around us reigns a silence which is almost painful after all the +joyous noises of the town, and all the laughter, now hushed, of our +band of mousmes,--a silence of the country, of some sleeping village. + + + + +XXVI. + + +The noise of the innumerable wooden panels which at the fall of night +are pulled and shut in every Japanese house, is one of the +peculiarities of the country which will remain longest imprinted on my +memory. From our neighbors' houses, floating to us over the green +gardens, these noises reach us one after the other, in series, more or +less deadened, more or less distant. + +Just below us, those of Madame Prune move very badly, creak and make a +hideous noise in their worn-out grooves. + +Ours are somewhat noisy too, for the old house is full of echoes, and +there are at least twenty to run over long slides in order to close in +completely the kind of open hall in which we live. Generally it is +Chrysantheme who undertakes this piece of household work, and a great +deal of trouble it gives her, for she often pinches her fingers in the +singular awkwardness of her too tiny hands, which have never been +accustomed to do any work. + +Then comes her toilette for the night. With a certain grace she lets +fall the day-dress, and slips on a more simple one of blue cotton, +which has the same pagoda sleeves, the same shape all but the train, +and which she fastens round her waist by a sash of muslin of the same +color. + +The high head-dress remains untouched, it is needless to say; all but +the pins which are taken out and laid beside her in a lacquer box. + +Then there is the little silver pipe that must absolutely be smoked +before going to sleep; this is one of the customs which most provokes +me, but has to be borne. + +Chrysantheme, like a gypsy, squats before a particular square box, +made of red wood, which contains a little tobacco jar, a little +porcelain stove full of hot embers, and finally a little bamboo pot +serving at the same time as ash-tray and spittoon. (Madame Prune's +smoking-box downstairs, and every smoking-box in Japan, both of men +and women, is exactly the same, and contains precisely the same +objects, arranged in precisely the same manner; and wherever it may +be, whether in the house of the rich or the poor, it always lies +about somewhere on the floor.) + +The word "pipe" is at once too trivial and too big to be applied to +this delicate silver tube, which is perfectly straight and at the end +of which, in a microscopic receptacle, is placed one pinch of golden +tobacco, chopped finer than silken thread. + +Two puffs, or at most three; it lasts scarcely a few seconds, and the +pipe is finished. Then _pan, pan, pan, pan,_ the little tube is struck +smartly against the edge of the smoking-box to knock out the ashes, +which never will fall; and this tapping, heard everywhere, in every +house, at every hour of the day or night, quick and droll as the +scratching of a monkey, is in Japan one of the noises most +characteristic of human life. + +"Anata nominase!" ("You must smoke too!") says Chrysantheme. + +Having again filled the vexatious little pipe, she puts the silver +tube to my lips with a bow. Courtesy forbids my refusal; but I find it +detestably bitter. + +Now, before laying myself down under the blue mosquito-net, I open two +of the panels in the room, one on the side of the silent and deserted +footpath, the other one on the garden side, overlooking the terraces, +so that the night air may breathe upon us, even at the risk of +bringing us the company of some belated cockchafer, or more giddy +moth. + +Our wooden house, with its thin old walls, vibrates at night like a +great dry fiddle; the slightest noises grow great in it, become +disfigured and positively disquieting. + +Beneath the verandah are hung two little AEolian harps, which at the +least ruffle of the breeze running through their blades of grass, emit +a gentle tinkling sound, like the harmonious murmur of a brook; +outside, to the very furthest limits of the distance, the cicalas +continue their great and everlasting concert; over our heads, on the +black roof, is heard passing like a witch's sabbath, the raging battle +to the death of cats, rats and owls. + +Presently, when in the early dawn, a fresher breeze, mounting upwards +from the sea and the deep harbor, reaches us, Chrysantheme will slyly +get up and shut the panels I have opened. + +Before that, however, she will have risen at least three times to +smoke: having yawned like a cat, stretched herself, twisted in every +direction her little amber arms, and her graceful little hands, she +sits up resolutely, with all the waking groans and half words of a +child, pretty and fascinating enough: then she emerges from the gauze +tent, fills her little pipe, and breathes a few puffs of the bitter +and unpleasant mixture. + +Then comes _pan, pan, pan, pan,_ against the box to shake out the +ashes. In the resounding sonority of the night it makes quite a +terrible noise, which wakes Madame Prune. This is fatal. Madame Prune +is at once seized also with a longing to smoke which may not be +denied; then, to the noise from above, comes an answering _pan, pan, +pan, pan,_ from below, exactly like it, exasperating and inevitable as +an echo. + + + + +XXVII. + + +More cheerful are the noises of the morning: the cocks crowing, the +wooden panels all round the neighborhood sliding back upon their +rollers; or the strange cry of some little fruit-hawker, patrolling +our lofty suburb in the early dawn. And the grasshoppers absolutely +seem to chirp more loudly, to celebrate the return of the sunlight. + +Above all, rises to our ears from below the sound of Madame Prune's +long prayers, ascending through the floor, monotonous as the song of a +somnambulist, regular and soothing as the splash of a fountain. It +lasts three-quarters of an hour at least; it drones along, a rapid +flow of words in a high nasal key; from time to time, when the +inattentive Spirits are not listening, it is accompanied by a clapping +of dry palms, or by harsh sounds from a kind of wooden clapper made of +two discs of mandragora root; it is an uninterrupted stream of prayer; +its flow never ceases, and the quavering continues without stopping, +like the bleating of an old nanny-goat in delirium. + +_"After having washed the hands and feet"_ say the sacred books, _"the +great God Ama-Terace-Omi-Kami, who is the royal power of Japan, must +be invoked; the manes of all the defunct Emperors descended from him +must also be invoked; next, the manes of all his personal ancestors, +to the furthest generation; the Spirits of the Air and Sea; the +Spirits of all secret and impure places; the Spirits of the tombs of +the district whence you spring, etc., etc."_ + +"I worship and implore you," sings Madame Prune, "Oh +Ama-Terace-Omi-Kami, royal power. Cease not to protect your faithful +people, who are ready to sacrifice themselves for their country. Grant +that I may become as holy as yourself, and drive from my mind all dark +thoughts. I am a coward and a sinner; purge me from my cowardice and +sinfulness, even as the north wind drives the dust into the sea. Wash +me clean from all my iniquities, as one washes away uncleanness in the +river of Kamo. Make me the richest woman in the world. I believe in +your glory, which shall be spread over the whole earth, and illuminate +it forever for my happiness. Grant me the continued good health of my +family, and above all, my own, who, oh Ama-Terace-Omi-Kami, do worship +and adore you, and only you, etc., etc." + +Here follow all the Emperors, all the Spirits, and the interminable +list of the ancestors. + +In her trembling old woman's falsetto, Madame Prune sings out all +this, without omitting anything, at a pace which almost takes away her +breath. + +And very strange it is to hear: at length it seems hardly a human +voice; it sounds like a series of magic formulas, unwinding themselves +from an inexhaustible roller, and escaping to take flight through the +air. By its very weirdness, and by the persistency of its incantation, +it ends by producing in my scarcely awakened brain, an almost +religious impression. + +Every day I wake to the sound of this Shintoist litany chanted beneath +me, vibrating through the exquisite clearness of the summer +mornings,--while our night-lamps burn low before the smiling Buddha, +while the eternal sun, scarcely risen, already sends through the +cracks of our wooden panels its bright rays, which dart like golden +arrows through our darkened dwelling and our blue gauze tent. + +This is the moment at which I must rise, descend hurriedly to the sea +by grassy footpaths all wet with dew, and so regain my ship. + +Alas! in the days gone by, it was the cry of the muezzin which used to +awaken me in the dark winter mornings, in far-away night-shrouded +Stamboul. + + + + + +XXVIII + + +Chrysantheme has brought but few things with her, knowing that our +married life would be of short duration. + +She has placed her dresses and her fine sashes in little closed +recesses, hidden in one of the walls of our apartment (the north wall, +the only one of the four which will not take to pieces.) The doors of +these niches are white paper panels; the standing shelves and inside +partitions, consisting of light woodwork, are put together in too +finical a manner, too ingenious a way, giving rise to suspicions of +secret drawers and conjuring tricks. We only put there things without +any value, having a vague feeling that the cupboards themselves might +spirit them away. + +The box in which Chrysantheme stores away her gewgaws and letters, is +one of the things that amuses me the most; it is of English origin, in +tin, and bears on its cover the colored representation of some +manufactory in the neighborhood of London. Of course, it is as an +exotic work of art, as a precious knick-knack, that Chrysantheme +prefers it to any of her other boxes in lacquer or inlaid work. It +contains all that a mousme requires for her correspondence: Indian +ink, a paintbrush, very thin gray tinted paper, cut up in long narrow +strips, and funnily shaped envelopes, into which these strips are +slipped (after having been folded up in some thirty folds); the +envelopes being ornamented with pictures of landscapes, fishes, crabs, +or birds. + +On some old letters addressed to her, I can make out the two +characters that represent her name: "Kikou-San" (Chrysantheme, +Madame). And when I question her, she replies in Japanese, with an air +of importance: + +"My dear creature, they are letters from my female friends." + +Oh! those friends of Chrysantheme, what funny little faces they have! +That same box contains their portraits, their photographs stuck on +visiting cards, which are printed on the back with the name of Uyeno, +the fashionable photographer in Nagasaki,--little creatures fit only +to figure daintily on painted fans, and who have striven to assume a +dignified attitude when once their necks have been placed in the +head-rest and they have been told: "Now don't move!" + +It would really amuse me to read her friends' letters,--and above all +my mousme's answers. + + + + +XXIX. + +_August 10th_. + + +This evening it rained heavily, and the night was thick and black. At +about ten o'clock, on our return from one of the fashionable +tea-houses we constantly frequent, we arrived,--Yves, Chrysantheme and +myself,--at the certain familiar angle of the principal street, the +certain turn where we must take leave of the lights and noises of the +town, to clamber up the black steps and steep lanes which lead to our +home at Diou-djen-dji. + +There, before beginning our ascension, we must first buy lanterns from +an old trades-woman called Madame Tres-Propre,[E] whose faithful +customers we are. It is amazing what a quantity of these paper +lanterns we consume. They are invariably decorated in the same way, +with painted night-moths or bats; fastened to the ceiling at the +further end of the shop, they hang in enormous clusters, and the old +woman, seeing us arrive, gets upon a table to take them down. Gray or +red are our usual choice; Madame Tres-Propre knows our preferences and +leaves the green or blue lanterns aside. But it is always hard work to +unhook one, on account of the little short sticks by which they are +held, and the strings by which they are tied getting entangled +together. In an exaggerated pantomime, Madame Tres-Propre expresses +her despair at wasting so much of our valuable time: oh! if it only +depended on her personal efforts! but ah, for the natural perversity +of inanimate things which have no consideration for human dignity. +With monkeyish antics, she even deems it her duty to threaten the +lanterns and shake her fist at these inextricably tangled strings +which have the presumption to delay us. It is all very well, but we +know this maneuver by heart; and if the old lady loses patience, so do +we. Chrysantheme, who is half asleep, is seized with a fit of +kitten-like yawning which she does not even trouble to hide behind +her hand, and which appears to be endless. She pulls a very long face, +at the thought of the steep hill we must struggle up to-night through +the pelting rain. + +[Footnote E: In Japanese: _O Sei-San_.] + +I have the same feeling, and am thoroughly annoyed. + +To what purpose, good heavens, do I clamber up every evening to that +suburb, when it offers me no attraction whatever? + +The rain increases, what are we to do? Outside, djins pass rapidly by, +calling out: "Take care!" splashing the foot-passengers and casting +through the shower streams of light from their many-colored lanterns. +Mousmes and elderly ladies pass by, tucked up, muddy, laughing +nevertheless, under their paper umbrellas, exchanging greetings, +clacking their wooden pattens on the stone pavement; the whole street +is filled with the noise of the pattering feet and pattering rain. + +As good luck will have it, at the same moment passes 415, our poor +relative, who, seeing our distress, stops and promises to help us out +of our difficulty; as soon as he has deposited on the quay an +Englishman he is conveying, he will come to our aid and bring all that +is necessary to relieve us from our lamentable situation. + +At last our lantern is unhooked, lighted, and paid for. There is +another shop opposite, where we stop every evening; it is Madame +L'Heure's,[F] the woman who sells waffles; we always buy a provision +from her, to refresh us on the way. A very lively young woman is this +pastry-cook, and most anxious to make herself agreeable; she looks +quite like a screen picture, behind her piled-up cakes, ornamented +with little posies. We will take shelter under her roof while we wait; +and, to avoid the drops that fall heavily from the water-spouts, wedge +ourselves tightly against her display of white and pink sweetmeats, so +artistically spread out on fresh and delicate branches of cypress. + +[Footnote F: In Japanese: _Toki-San_.] + +Poor 415, what a providence he is to us! Already he re-appears, most +excellent cousin, ever smiling, ever running, while the water streams +down his handsome bare legs; he brings us two umbrellas, borrowed from +a China merchant, who is also a distant relative of ours. Like me, +Yves has till now never consented to use such a thing, but he now +accepts one because it is droll: in paper, of course, with innumerable +folds waxed and gummed, and the inevitable flight of storks forming a +wreath all round. + +Chrysantheme, yawning more and more in her kitten-like fashion, +becomes coaxing in order to be helped along, and tries to take my arm: + +"I beg you, mousme, this evening to take the arm of Yves-San; I am +sure that will suit us all three." + +And there they go, she, tiny figure, hanging on to the big fellow, and +so they climb up. I lead the way, carrying the lantern that lights our +steps, and whose flame I protect as well as I can under my fantastic +umbrella. On each side of the road is heard the roaring torrent of +stormy waters rolling down from the mountain side. To-night the way +seems long, difficult and slippery; a succession of interminable +flights of steps, gardens and houses piled up one above another; waste +lands, and trees which in the darkness shake their dripping foliage on +our heads. + +One would say that Nagasaki is ascending at the same time as +ourselves; but yonder, and very far away, in a kind of vapory mist +which seems luminous on the blackness of the sky; and from the town +there rises a confused murmur of voices and rumbling of gongs and +laughter. + +The summer rain has not yet refreshed the atmosphere. On account of +the stormy heat, the little suburban houses have been left open like +sheds, and we can see all that is going on. Lamps ever lighted burn +before the altars dedicated to Buddha and to the souls of the +ancestors; but all good Niponese have already lain down to rest. Under +the traditional tents of bluish-green gauze, we can see them, +stretched out in rows by whole families; they are either sleeping, or +hunting the mosquitoes, or fanning themselves. Niponese men and women, +Niponese babies too, lying side by side with their parents; each one, +young or old, in his little dark-blue cotton night-dress, and with his +little wooden block to rest the nape of his neck. + +A few houses are open, where amusements are still going on; here and +there, from the somber gardens, the sound of a guitar reaches our +ears, some dance giving in its weird rhythm a strange impression of +sadness. + +Here is the well, surrounded by bamboos, where we are wont to make a +nocturnal halt for Chrysantheme to take breath. Yves begs me to throw +forward the red gleam of my lantern, in order to recognize the place, +for it marks our half-way resting place. + +And at last, at last, here is our house! The door is closed, all is +silent and black. Our panels have been carefully shut by M. Sucre and +Madame Prune; the rain streams down the wood of our old black walls. + +In such weather it is impossible to allow Yves to return down hill, +and wander along the shore in quest of a sampan. No, he shall not +return on board to-night; we will put him up in our house. His little +room has indeed been already provided for in the conditions of our +lease, and notwithstanding his discreet refusal, we immediately set to +work to make it. Let us go in, take off our boots, shake ourselves +like so many cats that have been out in a shower, and step up to our +apartment. + +In front of Buddha, the little lamps are burning; in the middle of the +room, the night-blue gauze is stretched. On entering, the first +impression is a favorable one; our dwelling is pretty, this evening, +the late hour and deep silence give it an air of mystery. And then +also, in such weather, it is always pleasant to get home. + +Come, let us at once prepare Yves' room. Chrysantheme, quite elated at +the prospect of having her big friend near her, sets to work with a +good will; moreover, the task is an easy one, we have only to slip +three or four paper panels in their grooves, to make at once a +separate room or compartment in the great box we live in. I had +thought that these panels were entirely white; but no! on each of them +is a group of two storks painted in gray tints in those inevitable +attitudes consecrated by Japanese art: one bearing aloft its proud +head and haughtily raising its leg, the other scratching itself. Oh +these storks! how sick one gets of them, at the end of a month spent +in Japan! + +Yves is now in bed and sleeping under our roof. + +Sleep has come to him sooner than to me to-night; for somehow I fancy +I had seen long glances exchanged between him and Chrysantheme. + +I have left this little creature in his hands like a toy, and I begin +to fear lest I should have thrown some perturbation in his mind. I do +not trouble my head about this little Japanese girl. But Yves,--it +would be decidedly wrong on his part, and would greatly diminish my +faith in him. + +We hear the rain falling on our old roof; the cicalas are mute; odors +of wet earth reach us from the gardens and the mountain. I feel +terribly dreary in this room to-night; the noise of the little pipe +irritates me more than usual, and as Chrysantheme crouches in front of +her smoking-box, I suddenly discover in her an air of low breeding, in +the very worst sense of the word. + +I should hate her, my mousme, if she were to entice Yves into +committing a fault,--a fault which I should perhaps never be able to +forgive. + + + + +XXX. + +_August 12th_. + + +The Y---- and Sikou-San couple were divorced yesterday. The Charles +N---- and Campanule household is getting on very badly. They have had +some annoyance with those prying, grinding, insupportable little men, +dressed up in suits of gray, who are called police agents and who by +threatening their landlord, have had them turned out of their +house--under the obsequious amiability of this people, there lurks a +secret hatred towards us Europeans--they are therefore obliged to +accept their mother-in-law's hospitality, a very painful position. And +then Charles N---- fancies his wife is faithless. It is hardly +possible, however, for us to deceive ourselves: these would-be +maidens, to whom M. Kangourou has introduced us, are young people who +have already had in their lives one, or perhaps more than one, +adventure; it is therefore only natural that we should have our +suspicions. + +The Z---- and Touki-San couple jog on, quarreling all the time. + +My household maintains a more dignified air, though it is none the +less dreary. I had indeed thought of a divorce, but have really no +good reason for offering Chrysantheme such a gratuitous affront; +moreover there is another more imperative reason why I should remain +quiet: I too have had difficulties with the civilian authorities. + +Day before yesterday, M. Sucre quite upset, Madame Prune almost +swooning, and Mdlle. Oyouki bathed in tears, stormed my rooms. The +Niponese police agents had called and threatened them with the law for +letting rooms outside of the European concession to a Frenchman +morganatically married to a Japanese; and the terror of being +prosecuted brought them to me, with a thousand apologies, but the +humble request that I should leave. + +The next day I therefore went off, accompanied by _the wonderfully +tall friend_, who expresses himself better than I do in Japanese, to +the register office, with the full intention of making a terrible row. + +In the language of this exquisitely polite people, terms of abuse are +totally wanting; when very angry, one is obliged to be satisfied with +using the _thou_, mark of _inferiority_ and the _familiar +conjugation_, habitual towards those of low birth. Seating myself on +the table used for weddings, in the midst of all the flurried little +policemen, I open the conversation in the following terms: + +"In order that _thou shouldest_ leave me in peace in the suburb I am +inhabiting, what bribe must I offer _thee_, set of little beings more +contemptible than any mere street porter?" + +Great and mute scandal, silent consternation, and low bows greet my +words. + +"Certainly," they at last reply, my honorable person shall not be +molested, indeed they ask for nothing better. Only, in order to +subscribe to the laws of the country, I ought to have come here and +given my name and that of the young person that--with whom-- + +"Oh! that is going too far! I came here on purpose, contemptible +creatures, not three weeks ago!" + +Then taking up myself the civil register, and turning over the pages +rapidly, I found my signature and beside it the little hieroglyphics +drawn by Chrysantheme: + +"There, set of idiots, look at that!" + +Arrival of a very high functionary,--a ridiculous little old fellow in +a black coat, who from his office has been listening to the row: + +"What is the matter? What is it? What is this annoyance put upon the +French officers?" + +I politely state my case to this personage, who cannot make apologies +and promises enough. The little agents prostrate themselves on all +fours, sink into the earth; and we leave them, cold and dignified, +without returning their bows. + +M. Sucre and Madame Prune can now make their minds easy, they will not +be disturbed again. + + + + +XXXI. + +_August 23rd_. + + +The prolonged stay of the _Triomphante_ in the dock, and the distance +of our home from town, have been my pretext these last two or three +days for not going up to Diou-djen-dji to see Chrysantheme. + +It is dreary work though in these docks. With the early dawn a legion +of little Japanese workmen invade us, bringing their dinners in +baskets and gourds like the working-men in our arsenals, but with a +needy, shabby appearance, and a ferreting, hurried manner which +reminds one of rats. Silently they slip under the keel, at the bottom +of the hold, in all the holes, sawing, nailing, repairing. + +The heat is intense in this spot, overshadowed by the rocks and +tangled masses of foliage. + +At two o'clock, in the broad sunlight, we have a new and far prettier +kind of invasion: that of the beetles and butterflies. + +Butterflies as wonderful as those on the fans. Some all black, giddily +dash up against us, so light and airy that they seem merely a pair of +quivering wings fastened together without any body. + +Yves astonished, gazes at them, saying in his boyish manner: "Oh, I +saw such a big one just now, such a big one, it quite frightened me; I +thought it was a bat attacking me." + +A steersman who has captured a very curious specimen, carries it off +carefully to press between the leaves of his signal-book, like a +flower. Another sailor passing by, taking his small roast to the oven +in a mess-bowl, looks at him funnily and says: + +"You had much better give it to me. I'd cook it!" + + + + +XXXII. + + +_August 24th_. + +It is nearly five days since I have abandoned my home and +Chrysantheme. + +Since yesterday we have had a storm of rain and wind--(a typhoon that +has passed or is passing over us). We beat to quarters in the middle +of the night to _lower the top-masts, strike the lower yards_, and +take every precaution against bad weather. The butterflies no longer +hover around us, but everything tosses and writhes overhead: on the +steep slopes of the mountain, the trees shiver, the long grasses bend +low as though in pain; terrible gusts rack them with a hissing sound; +branches, bamboo leaves, and earth are showered down like rain upon +us. + +In this land of pretty little trifles, this violent tempest is out of +all harmony; it seems as if its efforts were exaggerated and its music +too loud. + +Towards evening the big dark clouds roll by so rapidly, that the +showers are of short duration and soon pass over. Then I attempt a +walk on the mountain above us, in the wet verdure: little pathways +lead up it, between thickets of camellias and bamboos. + +Waiting till a shower is over, I take refuge in the courtyard of an +old temple half-way up the hill, buried in a wood of centennial trees +of gigantic branches; it is reached by granite steps, through strange +gateways, as deeply furrowed as the old Celtic dolmens. The trees +have also invaded this yard; the daylight is overcast with a greenish +tint, and the drenching rain that pours down in torrents, is full of +torn-up leaves and moss. Old granite monsters, of unknown shapes, are +seated in the corners, and grimace with smiling ferocity; their faces +are full of indefinable mystery that makes me shudder amid the moaning +music of the wind, in the gloomy shadows of the clouds and branches. + +They could not have resembled the Japanese of our day, the men who had +thus conceived these ancient temples, who built them everywhere, and +filled the country with them, even in its most solitary nooks. + + * * * * * + +An hour later, in the twilight of that stormy day, on the same +mountain, I chanced upon a clump of trees somewhat similar to oaks in +appearance; they, too, have been twisted by the tempest, and the tufts +of undulating grass at their feet are laid low, tossed about in every +direction. There, I suddenly have brought back to my mind, my first +impression of a strong wind in the woods of Limoise, in the province +of Saintonge, some twenty-eight years ago, in a month of March of my +childhood. + +That, the first storm of wind my eyes ever beheld sweeping over the +landscape, blew in just the opposite quarter of the world,--and many +years have rapidly passed over that memory,--since then the best part +of my life has been spent. + +I refer too often, I fancy, to my childhood; I am foolishly fond of +it. But it seems to me that then only did I truly experience +sensations or impressions; the smallest trifles I then saw or heard +were full of deep and hidden meaning, recalling past images out of +oblivion, and reawakening memories of prior existence; or else they +were presentiments of existences to come, future incarnations in the +land of dreams, expectations of wondrous marvels that life and the +world held in store for me,--for later, no doubt, when I should be +grown up. Well, I have grown up, and have found nothing that answered +to my undefinable expectations; on the contrary, all has narrowed and +darkened around me, my vague recollections of the past have become +blurred, the horizons before me have slowly closed in and become full +of a gray darkness. Soon will my time come to return to eternal rest, +and I shall leave this world without having understood the mysterious +wherefore of these mirages of my childhood; I shall bear away with me +a lingering regret, of I know not what lost home that I have failed to +find, of the unknown beings ardently longed for, whom, alas, I have +never embraced. + + + + +XXXIII. + + +With many affectations, M. Sucre has dipped the tip of his delicate +paint-brush in Indian ink and traced a couple of charming storks on a +pretty sheet of rice-paper, offering them to me in the most gracious +manner, as a souvenir of himself. They are here, in my cabin on board, +and whenever I look at them, I can fancy I see M. Sucre tracing them +in an airy manner, with elegant facility. + +The saucer in which M. Sucre mixes his ink, is in itself a little gem. +Chiselled out of a piece of jade, it represents a tiny lake with a +carved border imitating rockwork. On this border is a little mama +toad, also in jade, advancing as though to bathe in the little lake in +which M. Sucre carefully keeps a few drops of very dark liquid. The +mama toad has four little baby toads, equally in jade, one perched on +her head, the other three playing about under her. + +M. Sucre has painted many a stork in the course of his lifetime, and +he really excels in reproducing groups and duets, if one may so +express it, of this kind of bird. Few Japanese possess the art of +interpreting this subject in a manner at once so rapid and so +tasteful; first he draws the two beaks, then the four claws, then the +backs, the feathers, dash, dash, dash,--with a dozen strokes of his +clever brush, held in his daintily posed hand, it is done, and always +perfectly well done! + +M. Kangourou relates, without seeing anything wrong in it whatever, +that formerly this talent was of great service to M. Sucre. It appears +that Madame Prune,--how shall I say such a thing, and who could guess +it now, on beholding so devout and sedate an old lady, with eyebrows +so scrupulously shaven!--however, it appears that Madame Prune used to +receive a great many visits from gentlemen,--gentlemen who always came +alone, and it led to some gossip. Therefore, when Madame Prune was +engaged with one visitor, if a new arrival made his appearance, the +ingenious husband, to make him wait patiently, and to while away the +time in the ante-room, immediately offered to paint him some storks in +a variety of attitudes. + +And this is how, in Nagasaki, all the Japanese gentlemen of a certain +age, have in their collections two or three of these little pictures, +for which they are indebted to the delicate and original talent of M. +Sucre. + + + + +XXXIV. + + +_Sunday, August 25th_. + +At about six o'clock, while I was on duty, the _Triomphante_ left her +prison walls between the mountains and came out of dock. After a great +uproar of maneuvering we took up our old moorings in the roadstead, at +the foot of the Diou-djen-dji hills. The weather was again calm and +cloudless, the sky presenting a peculiar clearness as though it had +been swept clean by the cyclone, an exceeding transparency bringing +out the minutest details of the far distance till then unseen; as if +the terrible blast had blown away every vestige of the floating mists +and left behind it nothing but void and boundless space. The coloring +of woods and mountains stood out again in the resplendent verdancy of +spring after the torrents of rain, like the wet colors of some freshly +washed painting. The sampans and junks, which for the last three days +had been lying under shelter, had now put out to sea, and the bay was +covered with their white sails, which looked like an immense flight of +seabirds. + +At eight o'clock, at nightfall, our maneuver being at an end, I +embarked with Yves on board a sampan; this time it is he who is +carrying me off and taking me back to my home. + +On land, a delicious perfume of new-mown hay greets us, and the road +across the mountains lies bathed in glorious moonlight. We go straight +up to Diou-djen-dji to join Chrysantheme; I feel almost remorseful, +although I hardly show it, for my neglect of her. + +Looking up, I recognize from afar my little house, perched on high. It +is wide open and lit up; I even hear the sound of guitar. Then I +perceive the gilt head of my Buddha between: the little bright flames +of its two hanging night lamps. Now Chrysantheme appears on the +verandah, looking out as if she expected us; and with her wonderful +bows of hair and long falling sleeves, her silhouette is thoroughly +Niponese. + +As I enter, she comes forward to kiss me, in a graceful, though rather +hesitating manner, while Oyouki, more demonstrative, throws her arms +around me. + +It is with a certain pleasure that I see once more this Japanese home, +which I wonder to find still mine when I had almost forgotten its +existence. Chrysantheme has put fresh flowers in our vases, spread out +her hair, donned her best clothes, and lighted our lamps to honor my +return. From the balcony she had watched the _Triomphante_ leave the +dock, and, in the expectation of our now prompt return, she had made +her preparations; then, to while away the time, she was studying a +duet on the guitar with Oyouki. Not a question or reproach did she +make. On the contrary: + +"We quite understood," she said, "how impossible it was, in such +dreadful weather, to undertake so lengthy a crossing in a sampan." + +She smiled like a pleased child, and I should be fastidious indeed if +I did not admit that to-night she is charming. + +I announce my intention of starting off for a long stroll through +Nagasaki; we will take Oyouki-San and two little cousins who happen to +be there, as well as some other neighbors, if they wish to; we will +buy the funniest toys, eat all sorts of cakes, and amuse ourselves to +our hearts' content. + +"How lucky we are to be here, just at the right moment," they exclaim, +jumping with joy. "How fortunate we are! This very evening there is to +be a pilgrimage to the great temple of the _Jumping Tortoise!_ The +whole town will be there; all our married friends have already +started, the whole set, X----, Y----, Z----, Touki-San, Campanule, and +Jonquille, with _the friend of amazing height_." And those two, poor +Chrysantheme and poor Oyouki, would have been obliged to stay at home +with heavy hearts, because we had not yet arrived, and because Madame +Prune had been seized with faintness and hysterics after her dinner. + +Quickly the mousmes must deck themselves out. Chrysantheme is ready; +Oyouki hurries, changes her dress, and, putting on a mouse-colored +gray robe, begs me to arrange the bows of her fine sash--black satin +lined with yellow--sticking at the same time in her hair a silver +top-knot. We light our lanterns, swinging at the end of little sticks; +M. Sucre, overwhelming us with thanks for his daughter, accompanies us +on all fours to the door,--and we go off gayly through the clear and +balmy night. + +Below, we find the town in all the animation of a great holiday. The +streets are thronged; the crowd passes by,--a laughing, capricious, +slow, unequal tide, flowing onwards, however, steadily in the same +direction, towards the same goal. There arises therefrom an immense +but light murmur in which dominate the sounds of laughter, and the +low-toned interchange of polite speeches. Then follow lanterns upon +lanterns. Never in my life have I seen so many, so variegated, so +complicated, and so extraordinary. + +We follow, drifting with the surging crowd, borne along by it. There +are groups of women of every age, decked out in their smartest +clothes, crowds of mousmes with aigrettes of flowers in their hair, or +little silver top-knots like Oyouki,--pretty little physiognomies, +little narrow eyes peeping between slit lids like those of a new-born +kitten, fat pale little cheeks, round, puffed-out, half-opened lips. +They are pretty, nevertheless, these little Niponese, in their smiles +and childishness. + +The men, on the other hand, wear many a pot hat, pompously added to +the long national robe, and giving thereby a finishing touch to their +cheerful ugliness, resembling nothing so much as dancing monkeys. They +carry boughs in their hands, whole shrubs, even, amidst the foliage of +which dangle all sorts of curious lanterns in the shape of imps and +birds. + +As we advance in the direction of the temple, the streets become more +noisy and crowded. All along the houses are endless stalls raised on +trestles, displaying sweetmeats of every color, toys, branches of +flowers, nosegays, and masks. There are masks everywhere, boxes full +of them, carts full of them; the most popular being the one that +represents the livid and cunning muzzle, contracted as by a deathlike +grimace, the long straight ears, sharp-pointed teeth of the white fox, +sacred to the God of Rice. There are also others symbolic of gods or +monsters, livid, grimacing, convulsed, with wigs and beards of natural +hair. All manner of folk, even children, purchase these horrors, and +fasten them over their faces. Every sort of instrument is for sale, +amongst them many of those crystal trumpets which sound so +strangely,--this evening they are enormous, six feet long at +least,--and the noise they make is unlike anything ever heard before: +one would say gigantic turkeys gobbling amongst the crowd, and +striving to inspire fear. + +In the religious amusements of this people it is not possible for us +to penetrate the mysteriously hidden meaning of things; we cannot +divine the boundary at which jesting stops and mystic fear steps in. +These customs, these symbols, these masks, all that tradition and +atavism have jumbled together in the Japanese brain, proceed from +sources utterly dark and unknown to us; even the oldest records fail +to explain them to us in anything but a superficial and cursory +manner, _simply because we have absolutely nothing in common with this +people_. We pass in the midst of their mirth and their laughter +without understanding the wherefore, so totally does it differ from +our own. + + * * * * * + +Chrysantheme with Yves, Oyouki with me, Fraise and Zinia, our cousins, +walking before us under our watchful eye, slowly move through the +crowd, holding each others' hands lest we should lose one another. + +All along the streets leading to the temple, the wealthy inhabitants +have decorated the fronts of their houses with a quantity of vases and +nosegays. The peculiar shed-like buildings habitual in this country, +with their open platform frontage, are particularly well suited for +the display of choice objects; all the houses have been thrown open, +and the interiors are hung with draperies that hide the back of the +apartments. In front of these hangings and slightly standing back from +the movement of the passing crowd, the various exhibited articles are +methodically placed in a row, under the full glare of hanging lamps. +Hardly any flowers compose the nosegays, nothing but foliage,--some +rare and priceless, others chosen as if purposely from amongst the +commonest plants, arranged however with such taste as to make them +appear new and choice; ordinary lettuce leaves, tall cabbage stalks +are placed with exquisite artificial taste in vessels of marvelous +workmanship. All the vases are of bronze, but the designs are varied +according to each changing fancy: some complicated and twisted; +others, and by far the largest number, graceful and simple, but of a +simplicity so studied and exquisite that to our eyes they seem the +revelation of an unknown art, the subversion of all acquired notions +on form. + + * * * * * + +On turning a corner of a street, by good luck we meet our married +comrades of the _Triomphante_ and Jonquille, Touki-San and Campanule! +Bows and curtsies are exchanged by the mousmes, reciprocal +manifestations of joy at meeting; then, forming a compact band, we are +carried off by the ever-increasing crowd and continue our progress in +the direction of the temple. + +The streets gradually ascend (the temples are always built on a +height); and by degrees as we mount up, there is added to the +brilliant fairyland of lanterns and costumes, yet another, ethereally +blue in the haze of distance; all Nagasaki, its pagodas, its +mountains, its still waters full of the rays of moonlight, seem to +rise up with us into the air. Slowly, step by step, one may say it +springs up around, enveloping in one great shimmering veil all the +foreground, with its dazzling red lights and many-colored streamers. + +No doubt we are getting near, for here are the religious steps, +porticos and monsters hewn out of enormous blocks of granite. We now +have to climb a series of steps, almost earned by the surging crowd +ascending with us. + +The temple court-yard; we have arrived. + +This is the last and most astonishing scene in the evening's +fairy-tale,--a luminous and weird scene with fantastic distances +lighted up by the moon and the gigantic trees, the sacred +cryptomerias, stretching forth their dark somber boughs like a vast +dome. + +Here we are all seated with our mousmes, beneath the light awning +wreathed in flowers, of one of the many little tea-houses improvised +in this courtyard. We are on a terrace at the top of the great steps, +up which the crowd continues to flock; we are at the foot of a portico +which stands up erect with the rigid massiveness of a colossus against +the dark night sky; at the foot also of a monster, who stares down +upon us, with his big stony eyes, his cruel grimace and smile. + +This portico and the monster are the two great overwhelming masses in +the foreground of the incredible scene before us; they stand out with +dazzling boldness against the vague and ashy blue of the distant +sphere beyond; behind them, Nagasaki is spread out in a bird's-eye +view, faintly outlined in the transparent darkness with myriads of +little colored lights, and the extravagantly dented profile of the +mountains is delineated on the starlit sky, blue upon blue, +transparency upon transparency. A corner of the harbor is also +visible, high up, undefined like a lake lost in the clouds; the water +faintly illumined by a ray of moonlight shining forth like a sheet of +silver. + +Around us the long crystal trumpets keep up their gobble. Groups of +polite and frivolous persons pass and repass like fantastic shadows: +childish bands of small-eyed mousmes with smile so candidly +meaningless and chignons shining through their bright silver flowers; +ugly men waving at the end of long branches their eternal lanterns +shaped like birds, gods or insects. + +Behind us, in the lit-up and wide-open temple, the bonzes sit, +immovable embodiments of doctrine, in the glittering sanctuary +inhabited by divinities, chimeras and symbols. The crowd, monotonously +droning its mingled prayers and laughter, presses around them, sowing +its alms broadcast; with a continuous jingle, the money rolls on the +ground into the precincts reserved to the priests, where the white +mats entirely disappear under the mass of many-sized coins accumulated +there as after a deluge of silver and bronze. + +We, however, feel thoroughly at sea in the midst of this festivity; we +look on, we laugh like the rest, we make foolish and senseless remarks +in a language insufficiently learned, and which this evening, I know +not why, we can hardly understand. Notwithstanding the night breeze, +we find it very hot under our awning, and we absorb quantities of +funny-looking water-ices, served in cups, which taste like scented +frost, or rather like flowers steeped in snow. Our mousmes order for +themselves great bowls of candied beans mixed with hail,--real +hail-stones such as we would pick up after a hail-storm in March. + +Glou! glou! glou! the crystal trumpets slowly repeat their notes, the +powerful sonority of which has a labored and smothered sound, as +though they came from under water; they mingle with the jingling of +rattles and the noise of castanets. We also have the impression of +being carried away in the irresistible swing of this incomprehensible +gayety, composed in proportions we can scarcely measure, of elements +mystic, puerile and even ghastly. A sort of religious terror is +diffused by the hidden idols divined in the temple behind us; by the +mumbled prayers, confusedly heard; above all, by the horrible heads in +lacquered wood, representing foxes, which, as they pass, hide human +faces,--hideous livid masks. + +In the gardens and outbuildings of the temple the most inconceivable +mountebanks have taken up their quarters, their black streamers, +painted with white letters, looking like funereal trappings as they +float in the wind from the top of their tall flagstaffs. Hither we +turn out steps, as soon as our mousmes have ended their orisons and +bestowed their alms. + +In one of the booths a man stretched on a table, flat on his back, is +alone on the stage; puppets of almost human size, with horribly +grinning masks, spring out of his body; they speak, gesticulate, then +fall back like empty rags; with a sudden spring, they start up again, +change their costumes, change their faces, tearing about in one +continual frenzy. Suddenly three, even four appear at the same time; +they are nothing more than the four limbs of the outstretched man, +whose legs and arms, raised on high, are each one dressed up, and +capped with a wig under which peers a mask; between these phantoms +tremendous fighting and battling take place, and many a sword-thrust +is exchanged. The most fearful of all is a certain puppet representing +an hag; every time she appears, with her weird head and ghastly grin, +the lights burn low, the music of the accompanying orchestra moans +forth a sinister strain given by the flutes, mingled with a rattling +tremolo which sounds like the clatter of bones. This creature +evidently plays an ugly part in the piece,--that of a horrible old +ghoul, spiteful and famished. Still more appalling than her person is +her shadow, which, projected upon a white screen, is abnormally and +vividly distinct; by means of some unknown process this shadow, which +nevertheless follows all her movements, assumes the aspect of a wolf. +At a given moment the hag turns round and presents the profile of her +distorted snub nose as she accepts the bowl of rice which is offered +to her; on the screen at the very same instant appears the elongated +outline of the wolf, with its pointed ears, its muzzle and chops, its +great teeth and hanging tongue. The orchestra grinds, wails, quivers; +then suddenly bursts out into funereal shrieks, like a concert of +owls; the hag is now eating, and her wolfish shadow is eating also, +greedily moving its jaws and nibbling at another shadow easy to +recognize,--the arm of a little child. + +We now go on to see the _great salamander_ of Japan, an animal rare +in this country, and quite unknown elsewhere, a great cold mass; +sluggish and benumbed, looking like some antediluvian _experiment_, +forgotten in the inner seas of this archipelago. + +Next comes the trained elephant, the terror of our mousmes, the +equilibrists, the menagerie. + +It is one o'clock in the morning before we are back at Diou-djen-dji. + +We first get Yves to bed in the little paper room he has already once +occupied. Then we go to bed ourselves, after the inevitable +preparations, the smoking of the little pipe, and the _pan! pan! pan! +pan!_ on the edge of the box. + +Suddenly Yves begins to move restlessly in his sleep, to toss about, +giving great kicks on the wall, and making a frightful noise. + +What can be the matter? I at once imagine that he must be dreaming of +the old hag and her wolfish shadow. Chrysantheme raises herself on her +elbow and listens, with astonishment depicted on her face. + +Ah! happy thought! she has discovered what is tormenting him: + +"Ka!" (mosquitoes) she says. + +And, to impress the more forcibly her meaning on my mind, she pinches +my arm so hard with her little pointed nails, at the same time +imitating, with such an amusing play of her features, the grimace of a +person who is stung, that I exclaim-- + +"Oh! stop, Chrysantheme, this pantomime is too expressive, and indeed +useless! I know the word _Ka_, and had quite understood, I assure +you." + +It is done so drolly and so quickly, with such a pretty pout, that in +truth I cannot think of being angry, although I shall certainly have +to-morrow a blue mark on my arm; about that there is no doubt. + +"Come, we must get up and go to Yves' rescue; he cannot be allowed to +go on thumping in that manner. Let us take a lantern, and see what has +happened." + +It was indeed the mosquitoes. They are hovering in a thick cloud about +him; those of the house and those of the garden all seem collected +together, swarming and buzzing. Chrysantheme indignantly burns several +at the flame of her lantern, and shows me others: "Hou!" covering the +white paper walls. + +He, tired out with his day's amusement, sleeps on; but his slumbers +are restless, as can be easily imagined. Chrysantheme gives him a +shake, wishing him to get up and share our blue mosquito net. + +After a little pressing he does as he is bid and follows us, looking +like an overgrown boy only half awake. I make no objection to this +singular hospitality; after all, it looks so little like a bed, the +matting we are to share, and we sleep in our clothes, as we always do +according to the Niponese fashion. After all, on a journey in a +railway, do not the most estimable ladies stretch themselves without +demur by the side of gentlemen unknown to them? + +I have however placed Chrysantheme's little wooden block in the center +of the gauze tent, between our two pillows. + +Then, without saying a word, in a dignified manner as though she were +rectifying an error of etiquette that I had inadvertently committed, +Chrysantheme takes up her piece of wood, putting in its place my +snake-skin drum; I shall therefore be in the middle between the two. +It is really more correct, decidedly much more proper; Chrysantheme is +evidently a very decorous young person. + +Returning on board next morning, in the clear morning sun, we walk +through pathways full of dew; accompanied by a band of funny little +mousmes of six or eight years of age, who are going off to school. + +Needless to say that the cicalas around us keep up their perpetual +sonorous chirping. The mountain smells delicious. The atmosphere, the +dawning day, the infantine grace of these little girls in their long +frocks and shiny chignons, all is redundant with freshness and youth. +The flowers and grasses on which we tread sparkle with dewdrops, +exhaling a perfume of freshness. What undying beauty there is, even in +Japan, in the first fresh morning hours in the country, and the +dawning hours of life! + +Besides, I am quite ready to admit the attractiveness of the little +Japanese children; some of them are most fascinating. But how is it +that their charm vanishes so rapidly and is so quickly replaced by the +elderly grimace, the smiling ugliness, the monkeyish face? + + + + +XXXV. + + +My mother-in-law Madame Renoncule's small garden is, without +exception, one of the most melancholy spots I have seen during all my +peregrinations through the world. + +Oh, the slow, enervating, dull hours spent in idle and diffuse +conversation in the dimly lighted verandah! Oh, the horrid peppered +jam in the microscopic pots! In the middle of the town, enclosed by +four walls, is this park of five yards square, with little lakes, +little mountains, and little rocks, where all wears an antiquated +appearance, and everything is covered with a greenish moldiness from +want of sun. + +Nevertheless a true feeling for nature has inspired this tiny +representation of a wild spot. The rocks are well placed, the dwarf +cedars, no taller than cabbages, stretch their gnarled boughs over the +valleys in the attitude of giants wearied by the weight of centuries; +and their look of _big trees_ perplexes one and falsifies the +perspective. When from the dark recesses of the apartment one +perceives at a certain distance this diminutive landscape dimly +lighted up, the wonder is whether it is all artificial, or whether one +is not oneself the victim of some morbid illusion; and if it is not +indeed a real country view seen through a distorted vision out of +focus, or through the wrong end of a telescope. + +To any one familiar with Japanese life my mother-in-law's house in +itself reveals a refined nature,--complete nudity, two or three +screens placed here and there, a teapot, a vase full of lotus-flowers, +and nothing more. Woodwork devoid of paint or varnish, but carved in +most elaborate and capricious openwork, the whiteness of the pinewood +being kept up by constant scrubbings of soap and water. The posts and +beams of the framework are varied by the most fanciful taste: some are +cut in precise geometrical forms; others artificially twisted, +imitating trunks of old trees covered with tropical creepers. +Everywhere little hiding-places, little nooks, little closets +concealed in the most ingenious and unexpected manner under the +immaculate uniformity of the white paper panels. + +I cannot help smiling when I think of some of the so-called _Japanese_ +drawing-rooms, overcrowded with knick-knacks and curios and hung with +coarse gold embroideries on exported satins, of our Parisian fine +ladies. I would advise those persons to come and look at the houses of +people of taste out here; to visit the white solitudes of the palaces +at Yeddo. In France we have works of art in order to enjoy them; here +they possess them merely to ticket them and lock them up carefully in +a kind of mysterious underground room shut in by iron gratings called +a _godoun_. On rare occasions, only to honor some visitor of +distinction, do they open this impenetrable depositary. The true +Japanese manner of understanding luxury consists in a scrupulous and +indeed almost excessive cleanliness, white mats and white woodwork; +an appearance of extreme simplicity, and an incredible nicety in the +most infinitesimal details. + +My mother-in-law seems to be really a very nice woman, and were it not +for the insurmountable feeling of spleen the sight of her garden +produces on me, I would often go and see her. She has nothing in +common with the mammas of Jonquille, Campanule or Touki: she is vastly +their superior; and then I can see that she has been very good-looking +and stylish. Her past life puzzles me; but in my position as a +son-in-law, good manners prevent my making further inquiries. + +Some assert that she was formerly a celebrated guecha in Yeddo, who +lost public favor by her folly in becoming a mother. This would +account for her daughter's talent on the guitar; she had probably +herself taught her the touch and style of the Conservatory. + +Since the birth of Chrysantheme (her eldest child and first cause of +this loss of favor), my mother-in-law, an expansive although +distinguished nature, has fallen seven times into the same fatal +error, and I have two little sisters-in-law: Mdlle. La Neige,[G] and +Mdlle. La Lune,[H] as well as five little brothers-in-law: Cerisier, +Pigeon, Liseron, Or, and Bambou. + +[Footnote G: In Japanese: _Oyouki-San_ (like Madame Prune's +daughter).] + +[Footnote H: In Japanese: _Tsouki-San_.] + +Little Bambou is four years old,--a yellow baby, fat and round all +over, with fine bright eyes; coaxing and jolly, sleeping whenever he +is not laughing. Of all my Niponese family, Bambou is the one I love +the most. + + + + +XXXVI. + +_Tuesday, August 27th_. + + +We have spent the day,--Yves, Chrysantheme, Oyouki and +myself,--wandering through dark and dusty nooks, dragged hither and +thither by four quick-footed djins, in search of antiquities in the +bric-a-brac shops. + +Towards sunset, Chrysantheme, who has wearied me more than ever since +the morning, and who doubtless has perceived it, pulls a very long +face, declares herself ill, and begs leave to spend the night at her +mother's, Madame Renoncule. + +I agree to this with the best grace in the world; let her go, tiresome +little mousme! Oyouki will carry a message to her parents, who will +shut up our rooms; we shall spend the evening, Yves and I, in roaming +about as fancy takes us, without any mousme dragging at our heels, and +shall afterwards regain our own quarters on board the _Triomphante_, +without having the trouble of climbing up that hill. + +First of all, we make an attempt to dine together in some fashionable +tea-house. Impossible, there is not a place to be had; all the absurd +paper rooms, all the compartments contrived by so many ingenious +dodges of slipping and sliding panels, all the nooks and corners in +the little gardens are filled with Japanese men and women eating +impossible and incredible little dishes! numberless young dandies are +dining _tete-a-tete_ with the lady of their choice, and sounds of +dancing girls and music issue from the private rooms. + +The fact is, that to-day is the third and last day of the great +pilgrimage to the temple of the _Jumping Tortoise_, of which we saw +the commencement yesterday, and all Nagasaki is at this time given +over to amusement. + +At the tea-house of the _Indescribable Butterflies_, which is also +full to overflowing, but where we are well-known, they have had the +bright idea of throwing a temporary flooring over the little +lake,--the pond where the gold-fish live, and it is here that our meal +is served, in the pleasant freshness of the fountain which continues +its murmur under our feet. + +After dinner, we follow the faithful and ascend again to the temple. + +Up there we find the same elfin revelry, the same masks, the same +music. We seat ourselves, as before, under a gauze tent and sip odd +little drinks tasting of flowers. But this evening we are alone, and +the absence of the band of mousmes, whose familiar little faces formed +a bond of union between this holiday-making people and ourselves, +separates and isolates us more than usual from the profusion of +oddities in the midst of which we seem to be lost. Beneath us, lies +always the immense blue background: Nagasaki illumined by moonlight, +and the expanse of silvered, glittering water, which seems like a +vaporous vision suspended in mid-air. Behind us is the great open +temple, where the bonzes officiate to the accompaniment of sacred +bells and wooden clappers,--looking, from where we sit, more like +puppets than anything else, some squatting in rows like peaceful +mummies, others executing rhythmical marches before the golden +background where stand the gods. We do not laugh to-night, and speak +but little, more forcibly struck by the scene than we were on the +first night; we only look on, trying to understand. Suddenly, Yves +turning round, says: + +"Hullo! brother, your mousme!!" + +Actually there she is, behind him; Chrysantheme almost on all fours, +hidden between the paws of a great granite beast, half tiger, half +dog, against which our fragile tent is leaning. + +"She pulled my trousers with her nails, for all the world like a +little cat," said Yves, still full of surprise, "positively like a +cat!" + +She remains bent double in the most humble form of salutation; she +smiles timidly, afraid of being ill received, and the head of my +little brother-in-law, Bambou, appears smiling too, just above her +own. She has brought this little _mousko_[I] with her, perched astride +on her back; he looks as absurd as ever, with his shaven head, his +long frock and the great bows of his silken sash. There they both +stand gazing at us, anxious to know how their joke will be taken. + +[Footnote I: _Mousko_ is the masculine of _mousme_, and signifies +little boy. Excessive politeness makes it _mousko-san_ (Mr. little +boy).] + +For my part, I have not the least idea of giving them a cold +reception; on the contrary, the meeting amuses me. It even strikes me +that it is rather pretty of Chrysantheme to come round in this way, +and to bring Bambou-San to the festival; though it savors somewhat of +her low breeding, to tell the truth, to have tacked him on to her +back, as the poorer Japanese women do with their little ones. + +However, let her sit down between Yves and myself: and let them bring +her those iced beans she loves so much; and we will take the jolly +little _mousko_ on our knees and cram him with sugar and sweetness to +his heart's content. + + * * * * * + +The evening over, when we begin to think of leaving, and of going down +again, Chrysantheme replaces her little Bambou astride upon her back, +and sets forth, bending forward under his weight and painfully +dragging her Cinderella slippers over the granite steps and +flagstones. Yes, decidedly low this conduct! but low in the best sense +of the word: nothing in it displeases me; I even consider +Chrysantheme's affection for Bambou-San engaging and attractive in its +simplicity. + +One cannot deny this merit to the Japanese,--a great love for little +children, and a talent for amusing them, for making them laugh, +inventing comical toys for them, making the morning of their life +happy; for a specialty in dressing them, arranging their heads, and +giving to the whole little personage the most diverting appearance +possible. It is the only thing I really like about this country: the +babies and the manner in which they are understood. + + * * * * * + +On our way we meet our married friends of the _Triomphante_, who, much +surprised at seeing me with this _mousko_, chaffingly exclaim: + +"What! a son already?" + +Down in the town, we make a point of bidding good-by to Chrysantheme +at the turning of the street where her mother lives. She smiles +undecided, declares herself well again, and begs to return to our +house on the heights. This did not precisely enter into my plans, I +confess. However, it would look very ungracious to refuse. + +So be it! But we must carry the _mousko_ home to his mamma, and then +begin, by the flickering light of a new lantern bought afresh from +Madame Tres-Propre, our weary homeward ascent. + +Here, however, we find ourselves in another predicament: this +ridiculous little Bambou insists upon coming with us! No, he will take +no denial, we must take him with us. This is out of all reason, quite +impossible! + +However, it will not do to make him cry, on the night of a great +festival too, poor little _mousko_. So we must send a message to +Madame Renoncule, that she may not be uneasy about him, and as there +will soon not be a living creature on the footpaths of Diou-djen-dji +to laugh at us, we will take it in turn, Yves and I, to carry him on +our back, all the way up that climb in the darkness. + + * * * * * + +And here am I, who did not wish to return this way to-night, dragging +a mousme by the hand, actually carrying an extra burden in the shape +of a _mousko_ on my back. What an irony of fate! + +As I had expected, all our shutters and doors are closed, bolted and +barred; no one expects us, and we have to make a prodigious noise at +the door. Chrysantheme sets to work and calls with all her might: + +"Ho! Oume-San-an-an-an!" (In English: "Hi! Madame Pru-u-u-u-une!") + +These intonations in her little voice are unknown to me; her longdrawn +call in the echoing darkness of midnight has so strange an accent, +something so unexpected and wild, that it impresses me with a dismal +feeling of far-off exile. + +At last Madame Prune appears to open the door to us, only half awake +and much astonished; by way of a night-cap she wears a monstrous +cotton turban, on the blue ground of which a few white storks are +playfully disporting themselves. Holding in the tips of her fingers +with an affectation of graceful fright, the long stalk of her +beflowered lantern, she gazes intently into our faces, one after +another, to assure herself of our identity; but the poor old lady +cannot get over the _mousko_ I am carrying. + + + + +XXXVII + + +At first it was only to Chrysantheme's guitar that I listened with +pleasure: now I am beginning to like her singing also. + +She has nothing of the theatrical, or the deep assumed voice of the +virtuoso; on the contrary, her notes, always very high, are soft, +thin, and plaintive. + +She will often teach Oyouki some romance, slow and dreamy, which she +has composed, or which comes back to her mind. Then they both astonish +me, for on their well-tuned guitars they will search out +accompaniments in parts, and try again each time that the chords are +not perfectly true to their ear, without ever losing themselves in the +confusion of these dissonant harmonies, always weird and always +melancholy. + +Generally, while their music is going on, I am writing in the +verandah, with the superb stretched out in front of me. I write, +seated on a mat on the floor and leaning upon a little Japanese desk, +ornamented with swallows in relief; my ink is Chinese, my ink-stand, +just like that of my landlord, is in jade, with dear little frogs and +toads carved on the rim. In short, I am writing my memoirs,--exactly +as M. Sucre does downstairs! Occasionally I fancy I resemble him--a +very disagreeable fancy. + +My memoirs,--composed of incongruous details, minute observations of +colors, shapes, scents, and sounds. + +It is true that a complete imbroglio, worthy of a romance, seems ever +threatening to appear upon my monotonous horizon; a regular intrigue +seems ever ready to explode in the midst of this little world of +mousmes and grasshoppers: Chrysantheme in love with Yves; Yves with +Chrysantheme; Oyouki with me; I with no one. We might even find here, +ready to hand, the elements of a fratricidal drama, were we in any +other country than Japan; but we are in Japan, and under the narrowing +and dwarfing influence of the surroundings, which turn everything into +ridicule, nothing will come of it all. + + + + +XXXVIII. + + +There is, in this good town of Nagasaki, towards five or six o'clock +in the evening, one hour of the day more comical than any other. At +this moment every living being is naked: children, young people, old +people, old men, old women, every one is seated in a tub of some sort, +taking a bath. This takes place no matter where, without the slightest +screen, in the gardens, the courtyards, in the shops, even upon the +thresholds, in order to give greater facility for conversation among +the neighbors from one side of the street to the other. In this +situation visitors are received; and the bather, without any +hesitation, leaves his tub, holding in his hand his little towel +(invariably blue), to offer the caller a seat, and to exchange with +him some amiable remarks. Nevertheless, neither the mousmes nor the +old ladies gain anything by appearing in this primeval costume. A +Japanese woman, deprived of her long dress and her huge sash with its +pretentious bows, is nothing but a diminutive yellow being, with +crooked legs and flat, unshapely bust; she has no longer a remnant of +her artificial little charms, which have completely disappeared in +company with her costume. + +There is yet another hour, at once joyous and melancholy, a little +later when twilight falls, when the sky seems one vast veil of yellow, +against which stand the clear-cut outlines of jagged mountains and +lofty, fantastic pagodas. It is the hour at which, in the labyrinth of +little gray streets down below, the sacred lamps begin to twinkle in +the ever-open houses, in front of the ancestors' altars and the +familiar Buddhas; while outside, darkness creeps over all, and the +thousand and one indentations and peaks of the old roofs are depicted, +as if in black festoons, on the clear golden sky. At this moment, +there suddenly passes over merry, laughing Japan a somber shadow, +strange, weird, a breath of antiquity, of savagery, of something +indefinable, which casts a gloom of sadness. And then the only gayety +that remains is the gayety of the population of young children, of +little mouskos and little mousmes, who spread themselves like a wave +through the streets filled with shadow, as they swarm out from schools +and workshops. On the dark background of all these wooden buildings, +the little blue and scarlet dresses stand out in startling +contrast,--drolly bedizened, drolly draped; and the fine loops of the +sashes, the flowers, the silver or gold top-knots stuck in these baby +chignons, add to the vivid effect. + +They amuse themselves, they chase each other, their great pagoda +sleeves fly widely open, and these tiny little mousmes of ten, of five +years old, or even younger still, have lofty head-dresses and imposing +bows of hair arranged on their little heads, like grown-up women. Oh! +what loves of supremely absurd dolls at this hour of twilight gambol +through the streets, in their long frocks, blowing their crystal +trumpets, or running with all their might to start their fanciful +kites. This juvenile world of Japan--ludicrous by birth, and fated to +become more so as the years roll on--starts in life with singular +amusements, with strange cries and shouts; its playthings are somewhat +ghastly, and would frighten the children of other countries; even the +kites have great squinting eyes and vampire shapes. + +And every evening, in the little dark streets, bursts forth this +overflow of joyousness, fresh, childish, but withal grotesque to +excess. It would be difficult to have any idea of the incredible +things which, carried by the wind, float in the evening air. + + + + +XXXIX. + + +Little Chrysantheme is always arrayed in dark colors, a sign here of +aristocratic distinction. While her friends Oyouki-San, Madame Touki +and others delight in loud-striped stuffs, and stick gorgeous +ornaments in their chignons, she always wears navy-blue or neutral +gray, fastened round her waist with great black sashes brocaded in +tender shades, and puts nothing in her hair but amber-colored +tortoise-shell pins. If she were of noble descent she would wear +embroidered on her dress in the middle of the back a little white +circle looking like a postmark with some design in the center of +it--the leaf of a tree generally; and this would be her coat of arms. +There is really nothing wanting but this little heraldic blazon on the +back to give her the appearance of a lady of the highest position. + +In Japan the smart dresses of bright colors shaded in clouds, +embroidered with monsters of gold or silver, are reserved by the great +ladies for home use on state occasions; or else they are used on the +stage for the dancers and the courtesans. + +Like all Japanese women, Chrysantheme carries a quantity of things in +her long sleeves, in which pockets are cunningly hidden. There she +keeps letters, various notes written on delicate sheets of rice-paper, +prayer amulets drawn up by the bonzes; and above all a number of +squares of a silky paper which she puts to the most unexpected +uses,--to dry a tea-cup, to hold the damp stalk of a flower, or to +blow her quaint little nose, when the necessity presents itself. After +the operation she at once crumples up the piece of paper, rolls it +into a ball, and throws it out of the window with disgust. + +The very smartest people in Japan blow their noses in this manner. + + + + +XL. + +_September 2nd_. + + +Chance has favored us with a friendship as singular as it is rare: +that of the head bonzes of the temple of the _Jumping Tortoise_, where +we had witnessed last month such a surprising pilgrimage. + +The approach to this place is as solitary now as it was thronged and +bustling on the evenings of the festival; and in broad daylight one is +surprised at the deathlike decay of the religious surroundings which +at night had seemed so full of life. Not a creature to be seen on the +time-worn granite steps; not a creature beneath the vast sumptuous +porticoes; the colors, the gold-work are dim with dust. To reach the +temple one must cross several deserted courtyards terraced on the +mountain side, pass through several solemn gateways, and up and up +endless stairs, rising far above the town and the noises of humanity +into a sacred region filled with innumerable tombs. On all the +pavements, in all the walls, lichen and stonecrop; and over all the +gray tint of extreme age spreads everywhere like a fall of ashes. + +In a side temple near the entrance is enthroned a colossal Buddha +seated in his lotus--a gilded idol some forty-five or sixty feet high, +mounted on an enormous pedestal of bronze. + +At length appears the last doorway with the two traditional giants, +guardians of the sacred court, which stand the one on the right hand, +the other on the left, shut up like wild beasts each one in a cage of +iron. They are in attitudes of fury, with fists upraised as if to +strike, and features atrociously fierce and distorted. Their bodies +are covered all over with bullets of crumbled paper which have been +aimed at them through the bars, and which have stuck to their +monstrous limbs like a white leprosy: this is the manner in which the +faithful strive to appease them, by conveying to them their prayers +written upon delicate leaflets by the pious bonzes. + +Passing between these alarming scarecrows one reaches the innermost +court. The residence of our friends is on the right, the great hall of +the pagoda is before us. + +In this paved court are bronze torch-holders as high as turrets. Here +too stand, and have stood for centuries, cyca palms with fresh green +plumes, their numerous stalks curving with a heavy symmetry, like the +branches of massive candelabra. The temple, which is open along its +entire length, is dark and mysterious, with touches of gilding in +distant corners melting away into the gloom. In the very remotest part +are seated idols, and from outside one can vaguely see their clasped +hands and air of rapt mysticism; in front are the altars, loaded with +marvelous vases in metal-work, whence spring graceful clusters of gold +and silver lotus. From the very entrance one is greeted by the sweet +odor of the incense-sticks unceasingly burnt by the priests before the +gods. + +To penetrate into the dwelling of our friends the bonzes, which is +situated on the right hand side as you enter, is by no means an easy +matter. + +A monster of the fish tribe, but having claws and horns, is hung over +their door by iron chains; at the least breath of wind he swings +creakingly. We pass beneath him and enter the first immense and lofty +hall, dimly lighted, in the corners of which gleam gilded idols, bells +and incomprehensible objects of religious use. + +Quaint little creatures, choir boys or pupils, come forward with a +doubtful welcome to ask what is wanted. + +"_Matsou-San!! Donata-San!!_" they repeat, much astonished, when they +understand to whom we wish to be conducted. Oh! no, impossible, they +cannot be seen; they are resting or are in contemplation. "_Orimas! +Orimas!_" say they, clasping their hands and sketching a genuflection +or two to make us understand better. (They are at prayer! the most +profound prayer!) + +We insist, speak more imperatively; even slip off our shoes like +people determined to take no refusal. + +At last Matsou-San and Donata-San make their appearance from the +tranquil depths of their bonze-house. They are dressed in black crape +and their heads are shaved. Smiling, amiable, full of excuses, they +offer us their hands, and we follow with our feet bare like theirs to +the interior of their mysterious dwelling, through a series of empty +rooms spread with mats of the most unimpeachable whiteness. The +successive halls are separated one from the other only by bamboo +curtains of exquisite delicacy, caught back by tassels and cords of +red silk. + +The whole wainscoting of the interior is of the same wood, of a pale +yellow color joinered with extreme nicety, without the least ornament, +the least carving; everything seems new and unused, as though it had +never been touched by human hand. At distant intervals in this studied +bareness, costly little stools, marvelously inlaid, uphold some +antique bronze monster or a vase of flowers; on the walls hang a few +masterly sketches, vaguely tinted in Indian ink, drawn upon strips of +gray paper most accurately cut but without the slightest attempt at a +frame; this is all: not a seat, not a cushion, not a scrap of +furniture. It is the very acme of studied simplicity, of elegance made +out of nothing, of the most immaculate and incredible cleanliness. And +while following the bonzes through this long suite of empty halls, we +are struck by their contrast with the overflow of knick-knacks +scattered about our rooms in France, and we take a sudden dislike to +the profusion and crowding delighted in at home. + +The spot where this silent march of barefooted folk comes to an end, +the spot where we are to seat ourselves in the delightful coolness of +a semi-darkness, is an interior verandah opening upon an artificial +site; we might suppose it were the bottom of a well; it is a miniature +garden no bigger than the opening of an _oubliette_, overhung on all +sides by the crushing height of the mountain and receiving from on +high but the dim light of dream-land. Nevertheless here is simulated a +great natural ravine in all its wild grandeur: here are caverns, +abrupt rocks, a torrent, a cascade, islands. The trees, dwarfed by a +Japanese process of which we have not the secret, have tiny little +leaves on their decrepit and knotty branches. A pervading hue of the +mossy green of antiquity harmonizes all this medley, which is +undoubtedly centuries old. + +Families of gold-fish swim round and round in the clear water, and +tiny tortoises (_jumpers_ probably) sleep upon the granite islands +which are of the same color as their own gray shell. + +There are even blue dragon-flies which have ventured to descend, +heaven knows from whence, and alight with quivering wings upon the +miniature water-lilies. + +Our friends the bonzes, notwithstanding an unctuousness of manner +thoroughly ecclesiastical, are very ready to laugh,--a simple, +pleased, childish laughter; plump, chubby, shaven and shorn, they +dearly love our French liqueurs and know how to take a joke. + +We talk first of one thing and then another. To the tranquil music of +their little cascade, I launch out before them with phrases of the +most erudite Japanese, I try the effect of a few tenses of verbs: +_desideratives, concessives, hypothetics in ba_. Whilst they chat they +dispatch the affairs of the church, the order of services sealed with +complicated seals for inferior pagodas situated in the neighborhood; +or trace little prayers with a cunning paint-brush as medical remedies +to be swallowed as pills by invalids at a distance. With their white +and dimpled hands they play with a fan as cleverly as any woman, and +when we have tasted different native drinks flavored with essences of +flowers, they bring up as a finish a battle of _Benedictine_ or +_Chartreuse_, for they appreciate the liqueurs composed by their +Western colleagues. + +When they come on board to return our visits, they by no means disdain +to fasten their great round spectacles on their flat noses in order to +inspect the profane drawings in our illustrated papers, the _Vie +Parisienne_ for instance. And it is even with a certain complacency +that they let their fingers linger upon the pictures which represent +the ladies. + +The religious ceremonies in their great temple are magnificent, and to +one of these we are now invited. At the sound of the gong they make +their entrance before the idols with a stately ritual; twenty or +thirty priests officiate in gala costumes, with genuflections, +clapping of hands and movements to and fro, which look like the +figures of some mystic quadrille. + +But for all that, let the sanctuary be ever so immense and imposing in +its somber gloom, the idols ever so superb, all seems in Japan but a +mere semblance of grandeur. A hopeless pettiness, an irresistible +feeling of the ludicrous, lies at the bottom of all things. + + +And then the congregation is not conducive to thoughtful +contemplation, for among it we generally discover some acquaintance: +my mother-in-law, or a cousin, or the woman from the china-shop who +sold us a vase only yesterday. Charming little mousmes, +monkeyish-looking old ladies enter with their smoking-boxes, their +gayly-daubed parasols, their curtsies, their little cries and +exclamations; prattling, complimenting each other, full of restless +movement, and having the greatest difficulty in maintaining a serious +demeanor. + + + + +XLI. + + +_September 3rd_. + +Chrysantheme, for the first time, paid me a visit on board ship +to-day, chaperoned by Madame Prune, and followed by my youngest +sister-in-law, Mdlle. La Neige. These ladies had the tranquil manners +of the highest gentility. + +In my cabin is a great Buddha on his throne, and before him a lacquer +tray, on which my faithful sailor servant places any small change he +may find lying loose in the pockets of my clothes. Madame Prune, whose +mind is much swayed by mysticism, at once supposed herself before a +regular altar; in the gravest manner possible she addressed a brief +prayer to the god; then, drawing out her purse (which, according to +custom, was attached to her sash behind her back, along with her +little pipe and tobacco-pouch), placed a pious offering in the tray, +while executing a low curtsey. + +They remained on their best behavior all through the visit. But when +the moment of departure came, Chrysantheme, who would not go away +without seeing Yves, asked for him with a thinly-veiled persistency +which was remarkable. Yves, for whom I then sent, made himself +particularly charming to her, so much so, that this time I felt a +shade of more serious annoyance; I even asked myself whether the +laughably pitiable ending, which I had hitherto vaguely foreseen, +might not, after all, soon break upon us. + + + + +XLII. + + +_September 4th_. + +I met yesterday, in an old and ruined quarter of the town, a perfectly +exquisite mousme, charmingly dressed; a fresh note of color against +the dark background of decayed buildings. + +It was quite at the farthest end of Nagasaki, in the most ancient part +of the town. In this region are trees centuries old, ancient temples +of Buddha, of Amiddah, of Benten, or Kwanon, with steep and pompous +roofs; monsters carved in granite sit there in courtyards silent as +the grave, where the grass grows between the paving-stones. This +deserted quarter is traversed by a narrow torrent running in a deep +channel, across which are thrown little curved bridges with granite +balustrades eaten away by lichen. All the objects there wear the +strange grimace, the quaint arrangement familiar to us in the most +antique Japanese drawings. + +I walked through it all at the burning hour of midday, and saw not a +soul, unless indeed, through the open windows of the bonze-houses, I +caught sight of some priests, guardians of tombs or sanctuaries, +taking their siesta under their dark-blue gauze nets. + +All at once this little mousme appeared, a little above me, just at +the point of the arch of one of these bridges carpeted with gray moss; +she was in full light, in full sunshine, and stood out in brilliant +clearness, like a fairy vision, against the background of old black +temples and deep shadows. She was holding her dress together with one +hand, gathering it close round her ankles to give herself an air of +greater slimness. Over her quaint little head, her round umbrella with +its thousand ribs threw a great halo of blue and red, edged with +black, and an oleander full of flowers growing among the stones of the +bridge spread its glory beside her, bathed, like herself, in the +sunshine. Behind this youthful figure and this flowering shrub all was +blackness. Upon the pretty red and blue parasol great white letters +formed this inscription, much used among the mousmes, and which I +have learned to recognize: _Stop! clouds, to see her pass by_. And it +was really worth the trouble to stop and look at this exquisite little +person, of a type so ideally Japanese. + +However, it will not do to stop too long and be ensnared,--it would +only be another take-in. A doll like the rest, evidently, an ornament +for a china shelf, and nothing more. While I gaze at her, I say to +myself that Chrysantheme, appearing in this same place, with this +dress, this play of light, and this aureole of sunshine, would produce +just as delightful an effect. + +For Chrysantheme is pretty, there can be no doubt about it. Yesterday +evening, in fact, I positively admired her. It was quite night; we +were returning with the usual escort of little married couples like +our own, from the inevitable tour of the tea-houses and bazaars. While +the other mousmes walked along hand in hand, adorned with new silver +top-knots which they had succeeded in having presented to them, and +amusing themselves with playthings, she, pleading fatigue, followed, +half reclining, in a djin carriage. We had placed beside her great +bunches of flowers destined to fill our vases, late iris and +long-stemmed lotus, the last of the season, already smelling of +autumn. And it was really very pretty to see this Japanese girl in her +little car, lying carelessly among all these water-flowers, lighted by +gleams of ever-changing colors, as they chanced from the lanterns we +met or passed. If, on the evening of my arrival in Japan, any one had +pointed her out to me, and said: "That shall be your mousme," there +cannot be a doubt I should have been charmed. In reality, however, no, +I am not charmed; it is only Chrysantheme, always Chrysantheme, +nothing but Chrysantheme: a mere plaything to laugh at, a little +creature of finical forms and thoughts, that the agency of M. +Kangourou has supplied me with. + + + + +XLIII. + + +In our house, the water used for drinking, making tea, and lesser +washing purposes, is kept in large white china tubs, decorated with +paintings representing blue fish borne along by a swift current +through distorted rushes. In order to keep them cool, the tubs are +placed out of doors on Madame Prune's roof, at a place where we can, +from the top of our projecting balcony, easily reach them by +stretching out the arm. A real godsend for all the thirsty cats in +the neighborhood on the fine summer nights is this corner of the roof +with our bedaubed tubs, and it proves a delightful trysting-place for +them, after all their caterwauling and long solitary rambles on the +top of the walls. + +I had thought it my duty to warn Yves the first time he wished to +drink this water. + +"Oh!" he replied, rather surprised, "cats do you say? they are not +dirty!" + +On this point Chrysantheme and I agree with him: we do not consider +cats as unclean animals, and we do not object to drink after them. + +Yves considers Chrysantheme much in the same light. "She is not dirty, +either," he says; and he willingly drinks after her, out of the same +cup, putting her in the same category with the cats. + +Well, these china tubs are one of the daily preoccupations of our +household: in the evening, when we return from our walk, after the +clamber up which makes us thirsty, and Madame L'Heure's waffles, which +we have been eating to beguile the way, we always find them empty. It +seems impossible for Madame Prune, or Mdlle. Oyouki, or their young +servant Mdlle. Dede,[J] to have forethought enough to fill them while +it is still daylight. And when we are late in returning home, these +three ladies are asleep, so we are obliged to attend to the business +ourselves. + +[Footnote J: _Dede-San_ means "Miss Young Girl," a very common name.] + +We must therefore open all the closed doors, put on our boots, and go +down into the garden to draw water. + +As Chrysantheme would die of fright all alone in the dark, in the +midst of the trees and buzzing of the insects, I am obliged to +accompany her to the well. For this expedition we require a light, and +must seek among the quantity of lanterns purchased at Madame +Tres-Propre's booth, which have been thrown night after night into the +bottom of one of our little paper closets; but alas, all the candles +are burnt down; I thought as much! Well, we must resolutely take the +first lantern to hand, and stick a fresh candle on the iron point at +the bottom; Chrysantheme puts forth all her strength, the candle +splits, breaks; the mousme pricks her fingers, pouts and whimpers. +Such is the inevitable scene that takes place every evening, and +delays our retiring to rest under the dark blue gauze net for a good +quarter of an hour; while the cicalas on the roof seem to mock us with +their ceaseless song. + +All this, which I should find amusing in any one else,--any one I +loved--provokes me in her. + + + + +XLIV. + + +_September 11th_. + +A week has passed by peacefully enough, during which I have written +down nothing. + +Little by little I am becoming accustomed to my Japanese household, to +the strangeness of the language, costumes, and faces. For the last +three weeks, no letters have arrived from Europe; they have no doubt +miscarried, and their absence contributes, as is usually the case, to +throw a veil of oblivion over the past. + +Every day, therefore, I faithfully climb up to my villa, sometimes by +beautiful star-lit nights, sometimes through stormy downpours of rain. +Every morning as the sound of Madame Prune's chanted prayer rises +through the reverberating air, I awake and go down towards the sea, by +the grassy pathways full of dew. + +The chief occupation of this Japanese country, seems to be a perpetual +hunt after curios. We sit down on the mattings, in the +antique-sellers' little booths, take a cup of tea with the salesmen, +and rummage with our own hands in the cupboards and chests, where many +a fantastic piece of old rubbish is huddled away. The bargaining, +much discussed, is laughingly carried on for several days, as though +we were trying to play off some excellent little practical joke upon +each other. + +I really make a sad abuse of the adjective _little_, I am quite aware +of it, but how can I do otherwise? In describing this country, the +temptation is great to use it ten times in every written line. Little, +finical, affected,--all Japan is contained, both physically and +morally, in these three words. + +My purchases are accumulating up there, in my little wood and paper +house; but how much more Japanese it really was, in its bare +emptiness, such as M. Sucre and Madame Prune had conceived it. There +are now many lamps of a religious shape hanging from the ceiling; many +stools and many vases, as many gods and goddesses as in a pagoda. + +There is even a little Shintoist altar, before which Madame Prune has +not been able to restrain her feelings, and before which she has +fallen down and chanted her prayers in her bleating old nanny-goat +voice: + +"Wash me clean from all my impurity, oh Ama-Terace-Omi-Kami, as one +washes away uncleanness in the river of Kamo." + +Alas for poor Ama-Terace-Omi-Kami to have to wash away the impurities +of Madame Prune! What a tedious and ungrateful task!! + +Chrysantheme, who is a Buddhist, prays sometimes in the evening before +lying down; although overcome with sleep, she prays clapping her hands +before the largest of our gilded idols. But she smiles with a childish +disrespect for her Buddha, directly her prayer is ended. I know that +she has also a certain veneration for her _Ottokes_ (the Spirits of +her ancestors), whose rather sumptuous altar is set up at her +mother's, Madame Renoncule's. She asks for their blessings, for +fortune and wisdom. + +Who can make out her ideas about the gods, or about death? Does she +possess a soul? Does she think she has one? Her religion is an obscure +chaos of theogonies as old as the world, treasured up out of respect +for ancient customs; and of more recent ideas about the blessed final +annihilation, imported from India at the epoch of our middle ages by +saintly Chinese missionaries. The bonzes themselves are puzzled; what +a muddle, therefore, must not all this become, when jumbled together +in the childish brain of a sleepy mousme? + +Two very insignificant episodes have somewhat attached me to +her--(bonds of this kind seldom fail to draw closer in the end). The +first occasion was as follows:-- + +Madame Prune one day brought forth a relic of her gay youth, a +tortoiseshell comb of rare transparency, one of those combs that it is +good style to place on the summit of the head, lightly poised, +scarcely stuck at all in the air, with all the teeth showing. Taking +it out of a pretty little lacquered box, she held it up in the air and +blinked her eyes, looking through it at the sky--a bright summer +sky--as one does to examine the quality of a precious stone. + +"Here is," she said, "an object of great value that you should offer +to your little wife." + +My mousme, very much taken by it, admired the clearness of the comb +and its graceful shape. + +The lacquered box, however, pleased me most. On the cover was a +wonderful painting in gold on gold, representing a field of rice, seen +very close, on a windy day: a tangle of ears and grass beaten down and +twisted by a terrible squall; here and there, between the distorted +stalks, the muddy earth of the rice-swamp was visible; there were even +little pools of water, produced by bits of the transparent lacquer on +which tiny particles of gold seemed to float about like chaff in a +thick liquid; two or three insects, which required a microscope to be +well seen, were clinging in a terrified manner to the rushes, and the +whole picture was no larger than a woman's hand. + +As for Madame Prune's comb, I confess it left me indifferent, and I +turned a deaf ear, thinking it very insignificant and expensive. Then +Chrysantheme answered mournfully: + +"No, thank you, I don't want it; take it away, dear Madame Prune." + +And at the same time she heaved a deep sigh, full of meaning, which +plainly said: + +"He is not so fond of me as all that.--Useless to bother him." + +I immediately made the wished-for purchase. + +Later on, when Chrysantheme will have become an old monkey like Madame +Prune, with her black teeth and long orisons, she, in her turn, will +retail that comb to some fine lady of a fresh generation. + +On another occasion the sun had given me a headache; I lay on the +floor resting my head on my snake-skin pillow. My eyes were dim, and +everything appeared to turn round: the open verandah, the big expanse +of luminous evening sky, and a variety of kites hovering against its +background; I felt myself vibrating painfully to the rhythmical sound +of the cicalas which filled the atmosphere. + +She, crouching down by my side, strove to relieve me by a Japanese +process, pressing with all her might on my temples with her little +thumbs and turning them rapidly round, as though she were boring a +hole with a gimlet. She had become quite hot and red over this hard +work, which procured me real comfort, something similar to the dreamy +intoxication of opium. + +Then, anxious and fearful lest I should have an attack of fever, she +rolled into a pellet and thrust into my mouth a very efficacious +prayer written on rice-paper, which she carefully kept in the lining +of one of her sleeves. + +Well, I swallowed that prayer without a smile, anxious not to hurt her +feelings or shake her funny little faith. + + + + +XLV. + + +To-day, Yves, my mousme and myself went to the best photographer in +Nagasaki, to be taken in a group together. + +We shall send the photograph to France. Yves already smiles as he +thinks of his wife's astonishment when she sees Chrysantheme's little +face between us two, and he wonders what explanation he will give her. + +"Well, I will just say it is one of your friends, that's all!" + +There are, in Japan, photographers in the style of our own, with this +one difference, that they are Japanese, and inhabit Japanese houses. +The one we design to honor to-day carries on his profession in the +suburbs, in that ancient quarter of big trees and gloomy pagodas +where, the other day, I met the pretty little mousme. His signboard, +written in several languages, is stuck up against a wall on the edge +of the little torrent which, rushing down from the green mountain +above, is crossed by many a curved bridge of old granite and lined on +either side by light bamboos or oleanders in full bloom. + +It is astonishing and puzzling to find a photographer perched there, +in the very heart of old Japan. + +We have come at the wrong moment; there is a file of people at the +door. Long rows of djins' cars are stationed there, awaiting the +customers they have brought, who will all have their turn before us. +The runners, naked and tatooed, carefully combed in sleek bands and +shiny chignons, are chatting together, smoking little pipes, or +bathing their muscular legs in the fresh water of the torrent. + +The courtyard is irreproachably Japanese, with its lanterns and dwarf +trees. But the studio where one sits might be in Paris or Pontoise; +the self-same chair in "old oak," the same faded "poufs," plaster +columns and pasteboard rocks. + +The people who are being _taken_ at this moment are two ladies of +quality, evidently mother and daughter, who are sitting together for a +cabinet-sized portrait, with accessories of Louis XV. time. A strange +group this, the first great ladies of this country I have seen so +near, with their long aristocratic faces, dull, lifeless, almost gray +by dint of rice-powder, and their mouths painted heart-shape in vivid +carmine. Withal an undeniable look of good breeding that strongly +impresses us, notwithstanding the intrinsic differences of races and +acquired notions. + +They scanned Chrysantheme with an obvious look of scorn, although her +costume was as ladylike as their own. For my part, I could not take my +eyes off these two creatures; they captivated me like incomprehensible +things that one had never seen before. Their fragile bodies, +outlandishly graceful in posture, are lost in stiff materials and +redundant sashes, of which the ends droop like tired wings. They make +me think, I know not why, of great rare insects; the extraordinary +patterns on their garments have something of the dark motley of +night-moths. Above all, the mystery of their tiny slits of eyes, +drawn back and up so far that the tight-drawn lids can scarcely open; +the mystery of their expression, which seems to denote inner thoughts +of a silly, vague, complacent absurdity, a world of ideas absolutely +closed to ourselves. And I think as I gaze at them: "How far we are +from this Japanese people! how utterly dissimilar are our races!" + +Then we have to let several English sailors pass before us, decked out +in their white drill clothes, fresh, fat and pink like little sugar +figures, who attitudinize in a sheepish manner round the shafts of the +columns. + +At last it is our turn; Chrysantheme slowly settles herself in a very +affected style, turning in the points of her toes as much as possible, +according to the fashion. + +And on the negative we are shown we look like a supremely ridiculous +little family drawn up in a line by a common photographer at a fair. + + + + +XLVI. + +_September 13th_. + + +This evening Yves is off duty three hours earlier than myself; from +time to time this is the case, according to the arrangement of the +watches. On those occasions he lands the first, and goes up to wait +for me at Diou-djen-dji. + +From the deck I can see him through the glasses, climbing up the green +mountain path; he walks with a brisk, rapid step, almost running; what +a hurry he seems in to rejoin little Chrysantheme. + +When I arrive, at about nine o'clock, I find him seated on the floor, +in the middle of my rooms, with naked torso (this is here a +sufficiently proper costume for private life, I admit). Around him are +grouped Chrysantheme, Oyouki, and Mdlle. Dede the maid, all eagerly +rubbing his back with little blue towels decorated with storks and +humorous subjects. + +Good heavens, what can he have been doing to be so hot, and have put +himself in such a state? + +He tells me that near our house, a little higher up the mountain, he +has discovered a fencing gallery: that till nightfall he had been +engaged in a fencing bout against Japanese, who fought with two-handed +swords, springing like cats, as is the custom of their country. With +his French method of fencing he had given them a thorough good +drubbing. Upon which, with many a low bow, they had shown him their +admiration by bringing him a quantity of nice little iced things to +drink. All this combined had thrown him into a fearful perspiration. + +Ah, very well. Nevertheless this did not quite explain to me. + +He is delighted with his evening; intends to go and amuse himself +every day by beating them; he even thinks of taking pupils. + +Once his back dried, they all together, the three mousmes and himself, +play at Japanese "_pigeon vole_." Really I could not wish for anything +more innocent, or more correct in every respect. + +Charles N---- and Madame Jonquille his wife, arrived unexpectedly at +about ten o'clock. (They were wandering about in the dark shrubberies +in our neighborhood, and, seeing our lights, came up to us.) + +They intend to finish the evening at the tea-house "of the Toads," and +they try to induce us to go and drink some iced sherbets with them. It +is at least an hour's walk from here, on the other side of the town, +half way up the hill, in the gardens of the large pagoda dedicated to +Osueva; but they stick to their idea, pretending that in this clear +night and bright moonlight, we shall have a lovely view from the +terrace of the temple. + +Lovely, I have no doubt, but we had intended going to bed. However, +be it so, let us go with them. + +We hire five djins and five cars down below, in the principal street, +in front of Madame Tres-Propre's shop, who, for this late expedition, +chooses for us her largest round lanterns,--big, red balloons, +decorated with star-fish, seaweed, and green sharks. + +It is nearly eleven o'clock when we make our start. In the central +quarters the virtuous Niponese are already closing their little +booths, putting out their lamps, shutting the wooden framework, +drawing their paper panels. + +Further on, in the old-fashioned suburban streets, all is shut up long +ago, and our carts roll on through the black night. We cry out to our +djins: "Ayakou! ayakou!" ("Quick! quick!") and they run as hard as +they can, uttering little shrieks, like some merry animal full of wild +gayety. We rush like a whirlwind through the darkness, all five in +Indian file, dashing and jolting over the old uneven flagstones, dimly +lighted up by our red balloons fluttering at the end of their bamboo +stems. From time to time some Niponese, night-capped in his blue +kerchief, opens a window to see who these noisy madcaps can be, +dashing by so rapidly and so late. Or else some faint glimmer, thrown +by us on our passage, discovers the hideous smile of a large stone +animal seated at the gate of a pagoda. + +At last we arrive at the foot of Osueva's temple, and, leaving our +djins with our little gigs, we clamber up the gigantic steps, +completely deserted at this hour of the night. + +Chrysantheme, who always likes to play the part of a tired little +girl, of a spoilt and pouting child, ascends slowly between Yves and +myself, clinging to our arms. + +Jonquille, on the contrary, skips up like a bird, amusing herself by +counting the endless steps: + +"Hitots'! F'tats'! Mits'! Yots'!" ("One! two! three! four!") she +exclaims, springing up by a series of little light bounds. + +"Itsoots! Mouts'! Nanats! Yats! Kokonots!" ("Five! six! seven! eight! +nine!") + +She lays a great stress on the accentuations, as though to make the +numbers sound even more droll. + +A little silver aigrette glitters in her beautiful black chignon; her +delicate and graceful figure seems strangely fantastic, and the +darkness that envelops us conceals the fact that her face is almost +ugly, and almost without eyes. + +This evening Chrysantheme and Jonquille really look like little +fairies; at certain moments the most insignificant Japanese have this +appearance, by dint of whimsical elegance and ingenious arrangement. + +The granite stairs, immense, deserted, uniformly gray under the +nocturnal sky, seem to vanish into the empty space above us, and when +we turn round, to disappear in the depths beneath, to fall with the +dizzy rapidity of a dream into the abyss below. On the sloping steps +the black shadows of the gateways through which we must pass stretch +out inordinately; and the shadows, which seem to be broken at each +projecting step, bear on all their extent the regular creases of a +fan. The porticos stand up separately, rising one above the other; +their wonderful shapes are at once remarkably simple and studiously +affected; their outlines stand out sharp and distinct, having +nevertheless the vague appearance of all very large objects in the +pale moonlight. The curved architraves rise up at each extremity like +two menacing horns, pointing upwards towards the far-off blue canopy +of sky bespangled with stars, as thought they would communicate to the +gods the knowledge they have acquired in the depths of their +foundations from the earth, full of sepulchers and death, which +surrounds them. + +We are, indeed, a very small group, lost now in the immensity of the +colossal acclivity as we move onwards, lighted partly by the wan moon +on high, partly by the red lanterns we hold in our hands, ever +floating at the end of their long sticks. + +A deep silence reigns in the precincts of the temple, the sound of the +insects even is hushed as we ascend higher. A sort of reverence, a +kind of religious fear steals over us, and, at the same moment, a +delicious coolness suddenly pervades the air, and passes over us. + +On entering the courtyard above, we feel a little daunted. Here we +find the horse in jade, and the china turrets. The enclosing walls +make it the more gloomy, and our arrival seems to disturb I know not +what mysterious council held between the spirits of the air and the +visible symbols that are there, chimeras and monsters lit up by the +blue rays of the moon. + +We turn to the left, and go through the terraced gardens, to reach the +tea-house "of the Toads," which this evening is our goal; we find it +shut up--expected as much--closed and dark, at this hour! We drum all +together on the door; in the most coaxing tones we call by name the +waiting-maids we know so well: Mdlle. Transparente, Mdlle. Etoile, +Mdlle. Roseematinale, and Mdlle. Marguerite-reine. Not an answer. +Goodbye perfumed sherbets and frosted beans! + +In front of the little archery-house, our mousmes suddenly start on +one side, terrified, and declaring that there is a dead body on the +ground. Yes, indeed, someone is lying there. We cautiously examine the +place by the light of our red balloons, carefully held out at arm's +length for fear of this dead man; it is only the marksman, he who on +the 14th of July chose such magnificent arrows for Chrysantheme; and +he sleeps, good man, with his chignon somewhat dishevelled, a sound +sleep, which it would be cruel to disturb. + +Let us go to the end of the terrace, contemplate the roadstead at our +feet, and then return home. To-night the harbor looks only like a dark +and sinister rent, which the moonbeams cannot fathom,--a yawning +crevasse opening into the very bowels of the earth, at the bottom of +which lie faint and small glimmers, an assembly of glow-worms in a +ditch--the lights of the different vessels lying at anchor. + + + + +XLVII. + + +It is the middle of the night, somewhere about two in the morning. Our +night-lamps are burning still, a little dimly, in front of our +peaceful idols. Chrysantheme wakes me suddenly, and I turn to look at +her: she has raised herself on one arm, and her face expresses the +most intense terror; she makes me a sign, without daring to speak, +that someone is near, or something, creeping up to us. What ill-timed +visit is this? A feeling of fear gains possession of me also. I have a +rapid impression of some immense unknown danger, in this isolated +spot, in this strange country of which I do not even yet comprehend +the inhabitants and the mysteries. It must be something very +frightful, to hold her there, rooted to the spot, half dead with +fright, she who _does_ comprehend all these things. + +It would seem to be outside: it is coming from the garden; with +trembling hand she indicates to me that it will come through the +verandah, over Madame Prune's roof. Certainly, I can hear faint +noises, and they do approach nearer. + +I suggest to her: + +"_Neko-San?_" ("It is Messrs. the cats?") + +"No!" she replies, still terrified and in an alarming tone. + +"_Bakemono-Sama?_" ("Is it my lords the ghosts?") I have already the +Japanese habit of expressing myself with excessive politeness. + +'No!!" _"Dorobo!!"_("Thieves!!") Thieves! Ah this is better; I much +prefer this to a visit such as I have just been, dreading in the +sudden awakening from sleep: from ghosts or spirits of the dead; +thieves, that is to say, worthy fellows very much alive, and having +undoubtedly, in as much as they are Japanese thieves, faces of the +most meritorious oddity. I am not in the least frightened, now that I +know precisely what to expect, and we will immediately set to work to +ascertain the truth, for something is decidedly moving on Madame +Prune's roof; some one is walking upon it. + +I open one of our wooden panels and look out. + +I can see only a vast expanse, calm, peaceful, and exquisite under the +full brilliancy of the moonlight; sleeping Japan lulled by the +sonorous song of the grasshoppers is charming indeed to-night, and the +free pure air is delicious to breathe. + +Chrysantheme, half hidden behind my shoulder, listens tremblingly, +peering forward to examine the gardens and the roofs with dilated eyes +like a frightened cat. No, nothing! not a thing moves. Here and there +are a few strangely substantial shadows, which at the first glance +were not easy to explain, but which turn out to be real shadows, +thrown by bits of wall, by boughs of trees, and which preserve an +extremely reassuring stillness. Everything seems absolutely tranquil, +and profound silence reigns in the dreamy vagueness which moonlight +sheds over all. + +Nothing; nothing to be seen anywhere. It was Messrs, the cats after +all, or perhaps my ladies the owls; sounds increase in volume in the +most amazing manner at night, in this house of ours. + +Let us close the panel again carefully, as a measure of prudence, and +then light a lantern and go downstairs to see if there may be any one +hidden in corners, and if the doors are tightly shut: in short, to +reassure Chrysantheme we will go the round of the house. + +Behold us then, on tip-toe, searching together every hole and corner +of the house, which, to judge by its foundations, must be very +ancient, notwithstanding the fragile appearance of its panels of white +paper. It contains the blackest of cavities, little vaulted cellars +with worm-eaten beams; cupboards for rice which smell of mould and +decay; mysterious hollows where lies accumulated the dust of +centuries. In the middle of the night, and during a hunt for thieves, +this part of the house, as yet unknown to me, has an ugly look. + +Noiselessly we step across the apartment of our landlord and landlady. +Chrysantheme drags me by the hand, and I allow myself to be led. +There they are, sleeping in a row under their blue gauze tent, lighted +by the night-lamps burning before the altars of their ancestors. Ha! I +observe that they are arranged in an order which might give rise to +gossip. First comes Mdlle. Oyouki, very taking in her attitude of +rest. Then Madame Prune, who sleeps with her mouth wide open, showing +her rows of blackened teeth; from her throat arises an intermittent +sound like the grunting of a sow. Oh! poor Madame Prune! how hideous +she is!! Next, M. Sucre, a mere mummy for the time being. And finally, +at his side, last of the row, is their servant, Mdlle. Dede!!! + +The gauze hanging over them throws reflections as of the sea upon +them; one might suppose them victims drowned in an aquarium. And +withal the sacred lamps, the altar crowded with strange Shintoist +symbols, give a mock religious air to this family picture. + +_Honi soit qui mal y pense_, but why is not that servant-girl rather +laid by the side of her mistresses? Now, when we on the floor above +offer our hospitality to Yves, we are careful to place ourselves under +our mosquito-net in a more correct style. + +One corner, which as a last resort we inspect, inspires me with a +certain amount of apprehension. It is a low, mysterious loft, against +the door of which is stuck, as a thing no longer wanted, a very old +pious image: _Kwanon with the thousand arms, and Kwanon with the +horses' head_, seated among clouds and flames, and horrible both of +them to behold, with their spectral grin. + +We open the door, and Chrysantheme starts back uttering a fearful cry. +I should have thought the robbers were there, had I not seen a little +grey creature, rapid and noiseless, rush by her and disappear; a young +rat that had been eating rice on the top of a shelf, and, in its +alarm, had dashed in her face. + + + + +XLVIII + +_September 14th_. + + +Yves has dropped his silver whistle in the sea, the whistle so +absolutely indispensable for the maneuvers; and we search the town +through all day long, followed by Chrysantheme and Mdlles. La Neige +and La Lune, her sisters, in the endeavor to procure another. + +It is, however, very difficult to find such a thing in Nagasaki; above +all, very difficult to explain in Japanese what is a sailor's whistle +of the traditional shape, curved and with a little ball at the end to +modulate the trills and the various sounds of official orders. For +three hours we are sent from shop to shop; at each one they pretend to +understand perfectly what is wanted and trace on tissue-paper, with a +paint-brush, the addresses of the shops where we shall without fail +meet with what we require,--away we go, full of hope, only to +encounter some fresh mystification, till our breathless djins get +quite bewildered. + +They understand admirably that we want a thing that will make a noise, +music in short; thereupon they offer us instruments of every and the +most unexpected shape,--squeakers for Punch-and-Judy voices, +dog-whistles, trumpets. Each time it is something more and more +absurd, so that at last we are overcome with uncontrollable fits of +laughter. Last of all, an aged Japanese optician, who assumes a most +knowing air, a look of sublime wisdom, goes off to forage in his back +shop, and brings to light a steam fog-horn, a relic from some wrecked +steamer. + +After dinner, the chief event of the evening is a deluge of rain which +takes us by surprise as we leave the tea-houses, on our return from +our fashionable stroll. It so happened that we were a large party, +having with us several mousme guests, and from the moment that the +rain began to fall from the skies, as if out of a watering-pot turned +upside down, the band became disorganized. The mousmes run off, with +birdlike cries, and take refuge under door-ways, in the shops, under +the hoods of the djins. + +Then, before long,--when the shops shut up in haste, when the emptied +streets are flooded, and almost black, and the paper lanterns, piteous +objects, wet through and extinguished,--I find myself, I know not how +it happens, flattened against a wall, under the projecting eaves, +alone in the company of Mdlle. Fraise, my cousin, who is crying +bitterly because her fine dress is wet through. And in the noise of +the rain, which is still falling and splashing everything; with the +spouts and gutters, which in the darkness plaintively murmur like +running streams, the town appears to me suddenly an abode of the +gloomiest sadness. + +The shower is soon over, and the mousmes come out of their holes like +so many mice; they look for each other, call each other, and their +little voices take the singular melancholy, dragging inflections they +assume whenever they have to call from afar. + +"Hi! Mdlle. Lu-u-u-u une!!" + +"Hi! Madame Jonqui-i-i-i ille!!" + +They shout from one to the other their outlandish names, prolonging +them indefinitely in the now silent night, in the reverberations of +the damp air after the great summer rain. + +At length they are all collected and united again, these tiny +personages with narrow eyes and no brains, and we return to +Diou-djen-dji all wet through. + +For the third time, we have Yves sleeping beside us under our blue +tent. + +There is a great row soon after midnight in the apartment beneath us: +our landlord's family returning from a pilgrimage to a far-distant +temple of the Goddess of Grace. (Although Madame Prune is a Shintoist, +she reveres this deity, who, scandal says, watched over her youth.) A +moment after, Mdlle. Oyouki bursts into our room like a rocket, +bringing, on a charming little tray, sweetmeats which have been +blessed and bought at the gates of the temple yonder, on purpose for +us, and which we must positively eat at once, before the virtue is +gone out of them. Scarcely rousing ourselves, we absorb these little +edibles flavored with sugar and pepper, and return a great many sleepy +thanks. + +Yves sleeps quietly on this occasion, without dealing any blows to the +floor or the panels either with fists or feet. He has hung his watch +on one of the hands of our gilded idol in order to be more sure of +seeing the hour at any time of the night, by the light of the sacred +lamps. He gets up betimes in the morning, asking: "Well, did I behave +properly?" and dresses in haste, preoccupied about duty and the +roll-call. + +Outside, no doubt, it is daylight already: through the tiny holes +which time has pierced in our wooden panels, threads of morning light +penetrate our chamber, and in the atmosphere of our room where night +still lingers, they trace vague white rays. Soon, when the sun shall +have risen, these rays will lengthen and become beautifully golden. +The cocks and the cicalas make themselves heard, and now Madame Prune +will begin her mystic drone. + +Nevertheless, out of politeness for Yves-San, Chrysantheme lights a +lantern and escorts him to the foot of the dark staircase. I even +fancy that, on parting, I hear a kiss exchanged. In Japan this is of +no consequence, that I know; it is very usual, and quite admissible; +no matter where one goes, in houses one enters for the first time, one +is quite at liberty to kiss any mousme who may be present, without any +notice being taken of it. But with regard to Chrysantheme, Yves is in +a delicate position, and he ought to understand it better. I begin to +feel uneasy about the hours they have so often spent together alone; +and I make up my mind, that this very day I will not play the spy +upon them, but speak frankly to Yves, and make a clear breast of it. + +All at once from below, _clac! clac!_ two dry hands clapped together; +it is Madame Prune's warning to the Great Spirit. And immediately +after her prayer breaks forth, soars upwards in a shrill nasal +falsetto, like a morning alarm when the hour for waking has come, the +mechanical noise of a spring let go and running down. + +_"The richest woman in the world. Cleansed from all my sins, O +Ama-Terace-Omi-Kami, in the river of Kamo."_ + +And this extraordinary bleating, scarcely human, scatters and changes +my ideas, which were very nearly clear at the moment I awoke. + + + + +XLIX. + +_September 15th_. + + +There is a rumor of departure in the air. Since yesterday there has +been vague talk of our being sent to China, to the gulf of Pekin; one +of those rumors which spread, no one knows how, from one end of the +ship to the other, two or three days before the official orders +arrive, and which generally turn out tolerably correct. What will the +last act of my little Japanese comedy be like? the denouement, the +separation? Will there be any touch of sadness on the part of my +mousme, or on my own, just a tightening of the heart-strings at the +moment of our final farewell? At this moment I can imagine nothing of +the sort. And then the adieux of Yves and Chrysantheme, what will they +be? This question preoccupies me more than all. + +There is nothing very precise as yet, but it is certain that one way +or another, our stay in Japan is coming to an end. It is this perhaps +which disposes me this evening, to throw a more friendly glance on my +surroundings. It is about six o'clock, after a day spent on duty, when +I reach Diou-djen-dji. The evening sun, low in the sky, on the point +of setting, pours into my room, and floods it with rays of red gold, +lighting up the Buddhas and the great sheaves of quaintly arranged +flowers in the antique vases. Here are assembled five or six little +dolls, my neighbors, amusing themselves by dancing to the sound of +Chrysantheme's guitar. And this evening I experience a real charm in +feeling that this dwelling and the woman who leads the dance, are +mine. On the whole I have perhaps been unjust to this country; it +seems to me that my eyes are at last opened to see it in its true +light, that all my senses are undergoing a strange and abrupt +transition; I suddenly have a better perception and appreciation of +all the infinity of dainty trifles amongst which I live; of the +fragile and studied grace of their forms, the oddity of their +drawings, the refined choice of their colors. + +I stretch myself upon the white mats; Chrysantheme, always eagerly +attentive, brings me my pillow of serpent's skin; and the smiling +mousmes, with the interrupted rhythm of a while ago still running in +their heads, move round me with measured steps. + +Their irreproachable socks with the separate great toes, make no +noise; nothing is heard, as they glide by, but a froufrou of silken +stuffs. I find them all pleasant to look upon; their dollish air has +the gift of pleasing me now, and I fancy I have discovered what it is +that gives it to them: it is not only their round inexpressive faces +with eyebrows far removed from the eyelids, but the excessive +amplitude of their dress. With those huge sleeves, it might be +supposed they have neither back nor shoulders; their delicate figures +are lost in these wide robes, which float around what might be little +marionnettes without bodies at all, and which would slip to the ground +of themselves were they not kept together midway, about where a waist +should be, by the wide silken sashes,--a very different comprehension +of the art of dressing to ours, which endeavors as much as possible to +bring into relief the curves, real or false, of the figure. + +And then, how much I admire the flowers arranged by Chrysantheme in +our vases, with her Japanese taste: lotus flowers, great sacred +flowers of a tender, veined rose-color, the milky rose-color seen on +porcelain; they resemble, when in full bloom, great water-lilies, and +when only in bud, might be taken for long pale tulips. Their soft but +rather cloying scent is added to that other indefinable odor of +mousmes, of yellow race, of Japan, which is always and everywhere in +the air. The late flowers of September, at this season very rare and +expensive, grow on longer stems than the summer blooms; Chrysantheme +has left them their immense aquatic leaves of a melancholy +seaweed-green, and mingled with them tall slight rushes. I look at +them, and recall with some irony those great round bunches in the +shape of cauliflowers, which our florists sell in France, wrapt in +their white lace-paper. + +Still no letters from Europe, from any one. How things change, become +effaced and forgotten. Here I am accommodating myself to this finical +Japan and dwindling down to its affected mannerism; I feel that my +thoughts run in smaller grooves, my tastes incline to smaller +things,--things which suggest nothing greater than a smile. I am +becoming used to tiny and ingenious furniture, to doll-like desks, to +miniature bowls with which to play at dinner, to the immaculate +monotony of the mats, to the finely finished simplicity of the white +woodwork. I am even losing my Western prejudices; all my preconceived +ideas are this evening evaporating and vanishing; crossing the garden +I have courteously saluted M. Sucre, who was watering his dwarf shrubs +and his deformed flowers; and Madame Prune appears to me a highly +respectable old lady, in whose past there is nothing to criticise. + +We shall take no walk to-night; my only wish is to remain stretched +out where I am, listening to the music of my mousme's _chamecen_. + +Till now, I have always used the word _guitar_, to avoid exotic terms, +for the abuse of which I have been so reproached. But neither the word +_guitar_ nor _mandolin_ suffices to designate this slender instrument +with its long neck, the high notes of which are shriller than the +voice of the grasshopper; henceforth, I will write _chamecen_. + +I will also call my mousme _Kikou, Kikou-San_; this name suits her +better than Chrysantheme, which though translating the sense exactly, +does not preserve the strange-sounding euphony of the original. + +I therefore say to Kikou, my wife: + +"Play, play on for me; I shall remain here all the evening and listen +to you." + +Astonished to find me in so amiable a mood, she requires pressing a +little, and with almost a bitter curve of triumph and disdain about +her lips, she seats herself in the attitude of an idol, raises her +long, dark-colored sleeves, and begins. The first hesitating notes are +murmured faintly and mingle with the music of the insects humming +outside, in the quiet air of the warm and golden twilight. First she +plays slowly, a confused medley of fragments which she does not seem +to remember perfectly, of which one waits for the finish and waits in +vain; while the other girls giggle, inattentive, and regretful of +their interrupted dance. She herself is absent, sulky, as though she +were performing a duty only. + +Then by degrees, little by little, it becomes more animated, and the +mousmes begin to listen. Now, tremblingly it grows into a feverish +rapidity, and her gaze has no longer the vacant stare of a doll. Then +the music changes again; in it there is the sighing of the wind, the +hideous laughter of ghouls; tears, heartrending plaints, and her +dilated pupils seem to be directed inwardly in settled gaze on some +indescribable _Japanesery_ within her own soul. + +I listen, lying there with eyes half shut, looking out between my +drooping eyelids which are gradually lowering, in involuntary +heaviness, upon the enormous red sun dying away over Nagasaki. I have +a somewhat melancholy feeling that my past life and all other places +in the world are receding from my view and fading away. At this moment +of nightfall I feel almost at home in this corner of Japan, amidst the +gardens of this suburb; I have never had such an impression before. + + + + +L. + +_September 16th_. + + +Seven o'clock in the evening. We shall not go down into the town +to-day; but, like good Japanese citizens, remain in our loftly suburb. + +In undress uniform we shall go, Yves and I, in a neighborly way, as +far as the fencing gallery, which is only two steps off, just above +our villa, and almost abutting on our fresh and scented garden. + +The gallery is closed already and a little mousko seated at the door, +explains with many low bows that we come too late, all the amateurs +are gone; we must come again to-morrow. + +The evening is so mild and so fine, that we remain out of doors, +following without any definite purpose the pathway which rises ever +higher and higher, and loses itself at length in the solitary regions +of the mountain among the upper peaks. + +For an hour at least we wander on,--an unintended walk,--and finally +find ourselves at a great height commanding an endless perspective +lighted by the last gleams of daylight; we are in a desolate and +mournful spot, in the midst of the little Buddhist cemeteries, which +are scattered over the country in every direction. + +We meet a few belated laborers, who are returning from the fields with +bundles of tea upon their shoulders. These peasants have a half savage +air, half naked too, or clothed only in long robes of blue cotton; as +they pass, they salute us with humble bows. + +No trees in this elevated region. Fields of tea alternate with tombs: +old granite statues which represent Buddha in his lotus, or else old +monumental stones on which gleam remains of inscriptions in golden +letters. Rocks, brushwood, uncultivated spaces, surround us on all +sides. + +There are no more passers-by, and the light is failing. We will halt +for a moment, and then it will be time to turn our steps downwards. + +But, close to the spot where we stand, a box in white wood provided +with handles, a sort of sedan-chair, rests on the freshly disturbed +earth, with its lotus of silvered paper, and the little incense-sticks +burning yet, by its side; clearly someone has been buried here this +very evening. + +I cannot picture this personage to myself; the Japanese are so +grotesque in life, that it is almost impossible to imagine them in the +calm majesty of death. Nevertheless, let us move further on, we might +disturb him; he is too recently dead, his presence unnerves us. We +will go and seat ourselves on one of these other tombs, so unutterably +ancient that there can no longer be anything within it but dust. And +there, seated yet in the dying sunlight, while the valleys and plains +of the earth below are already lost in shadow, we will talk together. + +I wish to speak to Yves about Chrysantheme; it is indeed somewhat in +view of this that I have persuaded him to sit down; but how to set +about it without hurting his feelings, and without making myself +ridiculous, I hardly know. However, the pure air playing round me up +here, and the magnificent landscape spread beneath my feet, impart a +certain serenity to my thoughts which makes me feel a contemptuous +pity, both for my suspicions and the cause of them. + +We speak, first of all, of the order for departure which may arrive at +any moment, for China or for France. Soon we shall have to leave this +easy and almost amusing life, this Japanese suburb where chance has +installed us, and our little house buried among flowers. Yves perhaps +will regret all this more than I shall, I know that well enough; for +it is the first time that any such interlude has broken the rude +monotony of his hard-worked career. Formerly, when in an inferior +rank, he was scarcely more often on shore, in foreign countries, than +the sea-gulls themselves; whilst I have, from the very beginning, been +spoilt by residence in all sorts of charming spots, infinitely +superior to this, in all sorts of countries, and the remembrance +pleasurably haunts me still. + +In order to discover how the land lies, I risk the remark: + +"You will perhaps be more sorry to leave this little Chrysantheme than +I am?" + +Silence reigns between us. + +After which I pursue, and, burning my ships, I add: + +"You know, after all, if you have such a fancy for her, I haven't +really married her; one can't really consider her my wife." + +In great surprise he looks in my face: + +"Not your wife, you say? But, by Jove, though, that's just it; she is +your wife." + +There is no need of many words at any time between us two; I know +exactly now, by his tone, by his great good-humored smile, how the +case stands; I understand all that lies in the little phrase: "That's +just it, she is your wife." If she were not, well then he could not +answer for what might happen,--notwithstanding any remorse he might +have in the depths of his heart, since he is no longer a bachelor and +free as air, as in former days. But he considers her my wife, and she +is sacred. I have the fullest faith in his word, and I experience a +positive relief, a real joy, at finding my staunch Yves of bygone +days. How could I have so succumbed to the demeaning influence of my +surroundings as to suspect him even, and invent for myself such a +mean, petty anxiety? + +We will never even mention that doll again. + +We remain up there very late, talking of other things, gazing the +while at the immense depths below our feet, at the valleys and +mountains as they become one by one indistinct and lost in the +deepening darkness. Placed as we are at an enormous height, in the +wide free atmosphere, we seem already to have quitted this miniature +country, already to be freed from the impression of littleness which +it has given us, and from the little links by which it was beginning +to bind us to itself. + +Seen from such heights as these, all the countries of the globe bear a +strong resemblance to each other; they lose the imprint made upon them +by man, and by races; by all the atoms swarming on the surface. + +As of old, in the Breton marshes, in the woods of Toulven, or at sea +in the night-watches, we talk of all those things to which thoughts +naturally revert in darkness; of ghosts, of spirits, of eternity, of +the great hereafter, of chaos--and we entirely forget little +Chrysantheme! + +When we arrive at Diou-djen-dji in the starry night, it is the music +of her _chamecen_, heard from afar, which recalls to us her existence; +she is studying some vocal duet with Mdlle. Oyouki, her pupil. + +I feel myself in very good humor this evening, and, relieved from any +absurd suspicions about my poor Yves, am quite disposed to enjoy +without reserve my last days in Japan, and derive therefrom all the +amusement possible. + +Let us then stretch ourselves out on the dazzling white mats, and +listen to the singular duet sung by these two mousmes: a strange +musical medley, slow and mournful, beginning with two or three high +notes, and descending at each couplet, in almost an imperceptible +manner, into actual solemnity. The song keeps its dragging slowness; +but the accompaniment becoming more and more accentuated, is like the +impetuous sound of a far-off hurricane. At the end, when these girlish +voices, generally so soft, give out their hoarse and guttural notes, +Chrysantheme's hands fly wildly and convulsively over the quivering +strings. Both of them lower their heads, pout their under-lips in the +effort of bringing out these astonishingly deep notes. And at these +moments, their little narrow eyes open and seem to reveal an +unexpected something, almost a soul, under these trappings of +marionnettes. + +But it is a soul which more than ever appears to me of a different +species to my own; I feel my thoughts to be far removed from theirs, +as from the flitting conceptions of a bird, or the dreams of a monkey; +I feel there is betwixt them and myself a great gulf, mysterious and +awful. + +Other sounds of music, wafted to us from the distance outside, +interrupt for a moment that of our mousmes. From the depths below, +down in Nagasaki, arises a sudden noise of gongs and guitars; we rush +to the balcony of the verandah to hear it better. + +It is a _matsouri_, a fete, a procession passing through the quarter +which is not so virtuous as our own, so our mousmes tell us, with a +disdainful toss of the head. Nevertheless, from the heights on which +we dwell, seen thus in a bird's-eye view, by the uncertain light of +the stars, this district has a singularly chaste air, and the concert +going on therein, purified in its ascent from the depths of the abyss +to our lofty altitudes, reaches us confusedly, a smothered, enchanted, +enchanting sound. + +Then it diminishes, and dies away into silence. + +The two little friends return to their seats on the mats, and once +more take up their melancholy duet. An orchestra, discreetly subdued +but innumerable, of crickets and cicalas, accompanies them in an +unceasing tremolo,--the immense far-reaching tremolo, which, gentle +and eternal, never ceases on Japanese land. + + + + +LI. + +_September 17th_. + + +During the hour of siesta, the abrupt order arrives to start to-morrow +for China, for Tchefou (a horrid place in the gulf of Pekin). It is +Yves who comes to wake me in my cabin to bring me the news. + +"I must positively get leave to go on shore this evening," he says, +while I endeavor to shake myself awake, "if it is only to help you to +dismantle and pack up there." + +He gazes through my port-hole, raising his glance towards the green +summits, in the direction of Diou-djen-dji and our echoing old +cottage, hidden from us by a turn of the mountain. + +It is very nice of him to wish to help me in my packing; but I think +he also counts upon saying farewell to his little Japanese friends up +there, and I really cannot find fault with that. + +He gets through his work, and does in fact get leave without help from +me, to go on shore at five o'clock, after drill and manoeuvres. + +As for myself, I start off at once, in a hired sampan. In the vast +flood of midday sunshine, to the quivering noise of the cicalas, I +mount up to Diou-djen-dji. + +The paths are solitary, the plants drooping in the heat. Here, +however, is Madame Jonquille, taking the air, in the bright sunshine +of the grasshoppers, sheltering her dainty figure and her charming +face under an immense paper parasol, a huge circle, closely ribbed and +fantastically striped. + +She recognizes me from afar, and laughing as usual, runs to meet me. + +I announce our departure, and a tearful pout suddenly contracts her +childish face. After all, does this news grieve her? Is she going to +shed tears over it? No! it turns to a fit of laughter, a little +nervous perhaps, but unexpected and disconcerting,--dry and clear, +pealing through the silence and warmth of the narrow paths, like a +cascade of little mock pearls. + +Ah, there indeed is a marriage tie which will be broken without much +pain! But she fills me with impatience, poor empty-headed linnet, with +her laughter, and I turn my back upon her to continue my journey. + +Up above, Chrysantheme sleeps, stretched out on the floor; the house +is wide open, and the soft mountain breeze rustles gently through it. + +That same evening we had intended to give a tea-party, and by my +orders flowers had already been placed in every nook and corner of the +house. There were lotus in our vases, beautiful rose-colored lotus, +the last of the season, I verily believe. They must have been ordered +from a special gardener, out yonder near the Great Temple, and they +will cost me dear. + +With a few gentle taps of a fan I awake my surprised mousme; and, +curious to catch her first impressions, I announce my departure. She +starts up, rubs her eyelids with the back of her little hands, looks +at me, and hangs her head: something like an expression of sadness +passes in her eyes. + +This little sinking at the heart is for Yves, no doubt. + +The news spreads through the house. + +Mdlle. Oyouki dashes upstairs, with half a tear in each of her babyish +eyes; kisses me with her full red lips, which always leave a wet ring +on my cheek; then quickly draws from her wide sleeve a square of +tissue-paper, wipes away her stealthy tears, blows her little nose, +rolls the bit of paper in a ball, and throws it into the street on the +parasol of a passer-by. + +Then Madame Prune makes her appearance; in an agitated and discomposed +manner she successively adopts every attitude expressive of utter +dismay. What on earth is the matter with the old lady, and why will +she keep getting closer and closer to me, till she is almost in my +way? + +It is wonderful all I still have to do this last day, and the endless +drives I have to make to the old curiosity shops, to my tradespeople, +and to the packers. + +Nevertheless before my rooms are dismantled, I intend making a sketch +of them, as I did formerly at Stamboul. It really seems to me as if +all I do here is a bitter parody of all I did over there. + +This time, however, it is not that I care for this dwelling; it is +only because it is pretty and uncommon, and the sketch will be an +interesting souvenir. + +I fetch, therefore, a leaf out of my album, and begin at once, seated +on the floor and leaning on my desk, ornamented with grasshoppers in +relief, while behind me, very, very close to me, the three women +follow the movements of my pencil with an astonished attention. +Japanese art being entirely conventional, they have never before seen +anyone draw from nature, and my style delights them. I may not perhaps +possess the steady and nimble touch of M. Sucre, as he groups his +charming storks, but I am master of a few notions of perspective which +are wanting in him; and I have been taught to draw things as I see +them, without giving them ingeniously distorted and grimacing +attitudes; and the three Japanese are amazed at the air of _reality_ +thrown in my sketch. + +With little shrieks of admiration, they point out to each other the +different things, as little by little their shape and form are +outlined in black on my paper. Chrysantheme gazes at me with a new +kind of interest: "_Anata itchi-ban_!" she says (literally "Thou +first!" meaning: "You are really quite a swell!") Mdlle. Oyouki is +carried away by her admiration and exclaims in a burst of enthusiasm: + +_"Anata bakari!"_ ("Thou alone!" that is to say: "There is no one like +you in the world, all the rest are mere rubbish!") + +Madame Prune says nothing, but I can see that she does not think the +less; her languishing attitudes, her hand that at each moment gently +touches mine, confirm the suspicions that her look of dismay a few +moments ago awoke within me: evidently my physical charms speak to her +imagination, which in spite of years has remained full of romance! I +shall leave with the regret of having understood her too late!! + +If the ladies are satisfied with my sketch, I am far from being so. I +have put everything in its place most exactly, but as a whole, it has +an ordinary, indifferent, French look which does not suit. The +sentiment is not given, and I almost wonder whether I should not have +done better in falsifying the perspective,--Japanese style--and +exaggerating to the very utmost the already abnormal outlines of what +I see before me. And then the pictured dwelling lacks the fragile look +and its sonority, that reminds one of a dry violin. In the penciled +delineation of the woodwork, the minute delicacy with which it is +wrought is wanting; neither have I been able to render the extreme +antiquity, the perfect cleanliness, nor the vibrating song of the +cicalas that seems to have been stored away within it, in its +parched-up fibers, during some hundreds of summers. It does not either +convey the impression this place gives of being in a far-off suburb, +perched aloft among trees, above the drollest of towns. No, all this +cannot be drawn, cannot be expressed, but remains undemonstrable, +undefinable. + +Having sent out our invitations, we shall in spite of everything, give +our tea-party this evening,--a parting tea, therefore, in which we +will display as much pomp as possible. It is, moreover, rather my +custom to wind up my exotic existences with a fete; in other countries +I have done the same. + +Besides our usual set, we shall have my mother-in-law, my relatives, +and all the mousmes of the neighborhood. But, by an extra Japanese +refinement, we shall not admit a single European friend,--not even the +_amazingly tall_ one. Yves alone shall be admitted, and even he shall +be hidden away in a corner behind some flowers and works of art. + +In the last glimmer of twilight, by the first twinkling star, the +ladies, with many charming curtseys, make their appearance. Our house +is soon full of the little crouching women, with their tiny slit eyes +vaguely smiling; their beautifully dressed hair shining like polished +ebony; their fragile bodies lost in the many folds or the exaggerated +wide garments, that gape as if ready to drop from their little +tapering backs and reveal the exquisite napes of their little necks. + +Chrysantheme, with somewhat a melancholy air; my mother-in-law +Renoncule, with many affected graces, busy themselves in the midst of +the different groups, where ere long the miniature pipes are lighted. +Soon there arises a murmuring sound of discreet laughter, expressing +nothing, but having a pretty exotic ring about it, and then begins a +harmony of _pan! pan! pan!_ sharp, rapid taps against the edges of the +finely lacquered smoking-boxes. Pickled and spiced fruits are handed +round on trays of quaint and varied shapes. Then transparent china +tea-cups, no larger than half an egg-shell, make their appearance, and +the ladies are offered a few drops of sugarless tea, poured out of toy +kettles, or a sip of _saki_--(a spirit made from rice which it is the +custom to serve hot, in elegantly shaped vases, long-necked like a +heron's throat). + +Several mousmes execute, one after the other, improvizations on the +_chamecen_. Others sing in sharp high voices hopping about +continually, like cicalas in delirium. + +Madame Prune, no longer able to make a mystery of the long-pent up +feelings that agitate her, pays me the most marked and tender +attentions, and begs my acceptance of a quantity of little souvenirs: +an image, a little vase, a little porcelain goddess of the Moon in +Satsuma ware, a marvelously grotesque ivory figure;--I tremblingly +follow her into the dark corners whither she calls me to give me these +presents in a _tete-a-tete_. + +At about nine o'clock, with a silken rustling, arrive the three +guechas in vogue in Nagasaki: Mdlles. Purete, Orange, and Printemps, +whom I have hired at four dollars a head,--an enormous price in this +country. + +These three guechas are indeed the very same little creatures I heard +singing on the rainy day of my arrival, through the thin paneling of +the _Garden of Flowers_. But as I have now become thoroughly +_Japanized_, to-day they appear to me more diminutive, less +outlandish, and in no way mysterious. I treat them rather as dancers +that I have hired, and the idea that I had ever thought of marrying +one of them now makes me shrug my shoulders,--as it formerly did M. +Kangourou. + +The excessive heat caused by the respiration of the mousmes and the +burning lamps, brings out the perfume of the lotus, which fills the +heavy-laden atmosphere; and the scent of the camelia-oil the ladies +use in profusion to make their hair glisten, is also strong in the +room. + +Mdlle. Orange, the youngest guecha, tiny and dainty, her lips outlined +with gilt paint, executes some delightful steps, donning the most +extraordinary wigs and masks in wood or cardboard. She has masks +imitating old noble ladies which are valuable works of art, signed by +well-known artists. She has also magnificent long robes, fashioned in +the old style, and trains trimmed at the bottom with thick pads, in +order to give to the movements of the costume something rigid and +unnatural which, however, is becoming. + +Now the soft balmy breezes blow through the room, from one verandah to +the other, making the flames of the lamps flicker. They scatter the +lotus flowers faded by the artificial heat, which, falling in pieces +from every vase, sprinkle the guests with their pollen and large pink +petals, looking like bits of broken opal-colored glass. + +The sensational piece, reserved for the end, is a trio on the +_chamecen_, long and monotonous, that the guechas perform as a rapid +_pizzicato_ on the highest strings, very sharply struck. It sounds +like the very quintescence, the paraphrase, the exasperation if I may +so call it, of the eternal buzz of insects, which issues from the +trees, old roofs, old walls, from everything in fact, and which is the +ground-work of all Japanese sounds. + +Half-past ten! The program has been carried out, and the reception is +over. A last general _pan! pan! pan!_ the little pipes are stowed away +into their chased sheaths, tied up in the sashes, and the mousmes rise +to depart. + +They light, at the end of short sticks, a quantity of red, gray or +blue lanterns, and after a series of endless bows and curtseys, the +guests disperse themselves in the darkness of the lanes and trees. + +We also go down to the town,--Yves, Chrysantheme, Oyouki, and +myself,--in order to conduct my mother-in-law, sisters-in-law, and +youthful aunt, Madame Nenufar, to their house. + +We want to take one last stroll together in our old familiar pleasure +haunts, drink one more iced sherbet at the house of the _Indescribable +Butterflies_, buy one more lantern at Madame Tres-Propre's, and eat +some parting waffles at Madame L'Heure's! + +I try to be affected, moved, by this leave-taking, but without +success. In this Japan, as with the little men and women who inhabit +it, there is something decidedly wanting; pleasant enough as a mere +pastime, it begets no feeling of attachment. + +On our return, when I am once more with Yves and the two mousmes +climbing up the road to Diou-djen-dji, which I shall probably never +see again, a vague feeling of melancholy pervades my last stroll. + +It is, however, but the melancholy inseparable from all things that +are about to end without possibility of return. + +Moreover, this calm and splendid summer is also drawing to a close for +us,--since to-morrow we shall go forth to meet the autumn, in Northern +China. I am beginning, alas! to count the youthful summers I may still +hope for; I feel more gloomy each time another fades away, and flies +to rejoin the others already disappeared in the dark and bottomless +abyss, where all past things lie buried. + +At midnight we return home, and my removal begins; while on board the +_amazingly tall friend_ kindly takes my watch. + +It is a nocturnal, rapid, stealthy removal,--_"dorobo_ (thieves) +fashion" remarks Yves, who in frequenting the mousmes has picked up a +smattering of the Niponese language. + +Messrs, the packers have, at my request, sent in the evening several +charming little boxes, with compartments and false bottoms, and +several paper bags (in the untearable Japanese paper), which close of +themselves and are fastened by strings, also in paper, arranged +beforehand in the most ingenious manner,--quite the cleverest and most +handy thing of its kind; for little useful trifles these people are +unrivaled. + +It is a real treat to pack them, and everybody lends a helping +hand,--Yves, Chrysantheme, Madame Prune, her daughter, and M. Sucre. +By the glimmer of the reception-lamps, which are still burning, every +one wraps, rolls, and ties up expeditiously, for it is already late. + +Although Oyouki has a heavy heart, she cannot prevent herself from +indulging in a few bursts of childish laughter while she works. + +Madame Prune, bathed in tears, no longer restrains her feelings; poor +lady, I really very much regret.... + +Chrysantheme is absent-minded and silent. + +But what a fearful amount of luggage! Eighteen cases or parcels, +containing Buddhas, chimeras, and vases, without mentioning the last +lotus that I carry away tied up in a pink cluster. + +All this is piled up in the djins' carts, hired at sunset, which are +waiting at the door, while their runners lie asleep on the grass. + +A starlit and exquisite night. We start off with lighted lanterns, +followed by the three sorrowful ladies who accompany us, and by abrupt +slopes, dangerous in the darkness, we descend towards the sea. + +The djins, stiffening their muscular legs, hold back with all their +might the heavily loaded little cars which would run down by +themselves if let alone, and that so rapidly, that they would rush +into empty space with my most valuable chattels. Chrysantheme walks by +my side, and expresses, in a soft and winning manner, her regret that +the _wonderfully tall friend_ did not offer to replace me for the +whole of my night-watch, as that would have allowed me to spend this +last night, even till morning, under our roof. + +"Listen," she says, "come back to-morrow in the daytime, before +getting under way, to bid me good-by; I shall only return to my mother +in the evening; you will find me still up there." + +And I promise. + +They stop at a certain turn, from whence we have a bird's-eye view of +the whole roadstead; the black stagnant waters reflect innumerable +distant fires, and the ships--tiny immovable little objects, which +seen from our point of view take the shape of fish, seem also to +slumber,--little objects which serve to bear us _elsewhere_, to go far +away, and to forget. + +The three ladies are going to turn back home, for the night is +already far advanced, and lower down, the cosmopolitan quarters near +the quays are not safe at this unusual hour. + +The moment has therefore come for Yves--who will not land again--to +make his last tragic farewells to his friends the little mousmes. + +Now I am very curious to see the parting between Yves and +Chrysantheme; I listen with all my ears, I look with all my eyes, it +takes place in the simplest and quietest fashion: none of that +heartbreaking which will be inevitable between Madame Prune and +myself; I even notice in my mousme an indifference, an unconcern which +puzzles me; I positively am at a loss to understand what it all means. + +And I muse to myself as I continue to descend towards the sea. "Her +appearance of sadness was not, therefore, on Yves' account. On whose, +then?" and the phrase runs through my head: + +"Come back to-morrow before setting sail, to bid me good-by; I shall +only return to my mother in the evening; you will find me still up +there." + +Japan is indeed most delightful this evening, so fresh and so sweet; +and little Chrysantheme was very charming just now, as she silently +walked beside me through the darkness of the lane. + +It is about two o'clock when we reach the _Triomphante_ in a hired +sampan, where I have heaped up all my cases till there is danger of +sinking. The _very tall friend_ gives over to me the watch that I must +keep till four o'clock; and the sailors on duty, but half awake, make +a chain in the darkness, to haul on board all my fragile luggage. + + + + +LII. + +_September 18th_. + + +I had planned to sleep late this morning, in order to make up for my +lost sleep of last night. + +But behold, at eight o'clock, three persons of the most singular +appearance, led by M. Kangourou, present themselves with endless bows +at the door of my cabin. They are dressed in long robes bedizened with +dark patterns; they have the flowing locks, high foreheads and pallid +countenances of persons too exclusively devoted to the fine arts; and, +perched on the top of their chignons, they wear sailor hats of English +shape stuck jauntily on one side. Under their arms, they carry +portfolios filled with sketches; in their hands, boxes of +water-colors, pencils, and, tied together like fasces, a bundle of +fine stylets the sharp points of which glitter ostensibly. + +At the first glance, even in the bewilderment of waking, I gather from +their appearance what their errand is, and guessing with what visitors +I have to deal, I say:--"Come in, Messieurs the tattooers!" + +These are the specialists most in renown in Nagasaki; I had engaged +them two days ago, not knowing that we were about to leave, and since +they are come I will not turn them away. + +My friendly and intimate relations with primitive man, in Oceania and +elsewhere, have imbued me with a deplorable taste for tattoo work; and +I had wished to carry away on me, as a curiosity, an ornament, a +specimen of the work of the Japanese tattooers, who have a delicacy of +finish which is unequaled. + +From their albums spread out upon my table I make my choice. There are +some remarkably odd designs amongst them, appropriate to the different +parts of the human body: emblems for the arms and legs, sprays of +roses for the shoulders, great grinning faces for the middle of the +back. There are even, to suit the taste of their clients who belong to +foreign navies, trophies of arms, American and French flags entwined, +a "God Save the Queen" amid encircling stars, and figures of women +taken from Grevin's sketches in the _Journal Amusant_. + +My choice rests upon a singular blue and pink dragon a couple of +inches long, which will have a fine effect upon my chest on the side +opposite the heart. + +Then follows an hour and a half of irritation and positive pain. +Stretched out on my bunk and delivered over to the tender mercies of +these personages, I stiffen myself and submit to the million +imperceptible pricks they inflict. When by chance a little blood +flows, confusing the outline by a stream of red, one of the artists +hastens to staunch it with his lips, and I make no objections, knowing +that this is the Japanese manner, the method used by their doctors for +the wounds of both man and beast. + +A piece of work as minute and fine as that of an engraver upon stone +is slowly executed on my person; and their lean hands harrow and worry +me with automatic precision. + +At length it is finished, and the tattooers, falling back with an air +of satisfaction to contemplate their work, declare it will be lovely. + +I dress myself quickly to go on shore, and take advantage of my last +hours in Japan. + +The heat is fearful to-day: the powerful September sun falls with a +certain melancholy upon the yellowing leaves; it is a day of clear +burning heat after an almost chilly morning. + +Like yesterday, it is during the drowsy noon that I ascend to my lofty +suburb, by deserted pathways filled only with light and silence. + +I noiselessly open the door of my dwelling, and enter cautiously on +tiptoe, for fear of Madame Prune. + +At the foot of the staircase, upon the white mats, by the side of the +little clogs and little sandals which are always lying about the +vestibule, there is a great array of luggage ready for departure, +which I recognize at a glance,--pretty dark-colored dresses, familiar +to my sight, carefully folded and wrapped in blue towels tied at the +four corners. I even fancy I feel a little sad when I catch sight of a +corner of the famous box of letters and souvenirs peeping out of one +of these bundles, in which ray portrait by Uyeno now reposes among +divers photographs of mousmes. A sort of long-necked mandolin, also +ready for departure, lies on the top of the pile in its case of +figured silk. It resembles the flitting of some gypsy, or rather it +reminds me of an engraving in a book of fables I owned in my +childhood: the whole thing is exactly like the slender wardrobe and +the long guitar which the Cicala who had sung all the summer, carried +upon her back when she knocked at the door of her neighbor the ant. + +Poor little gypsy! + +I mount the stairs on tiptoe, and stop at the sound of singing that I +hear up in my room. + +It is undoubtedly Chrysantheme's voice and the song is a cheerful one! +This chills me and changes the current of my thoughts. I am almost +sorry I have taken the trouble to come. + +Mingled with the song is a noise I cannot understand: _dzinn! dzinn!_ +a clear metallic ring as of coins being flung vigorously on the floor. +I am well aware that this vibrating house exaggerates every sound +during the silence of night; but all the same, I am puzzled to know +what my mousme can be doing. _Dzinn! dzinn!_ is she amusing herself +with quoits, or the _jeu du crapaud_, or pitch and toss? + +Nothing of the kind; I fancy I have guessed, and I continue my upward +progress still more gently, on all fours, with the precautions of a +Red Indian, to give myself for the last time the pleasure of +surprising her. + +She has not heard me come in. In our great white room, emptied and +swept out, where the clear sunshine pours in, and the soft wind, and +the yellowed leaves of the garden; she is sitting all alone, her back +turned to the door: she is dressed for walking, ready to go to her +mother's, her rose-colored parasol beside her. + +On the floor are spread out all the fine silver dollars which, +according to our agreement, I had given her the evening before. With +the competent dexterity of an old money-changer she fingers them, +turns them over, throws them on the floor, and armed with a little +mallet _ad hoc,_ rings them vigorously against her ear, singing the +while I know not what little pensive bird-like song which I daresay +she improvises as she goes along. + +Well, after all, it is even more completely Japanese than I could +possibly have imagined it--this last scene of my married life! I feel +inclined to laugh. How simple I have been, to allow myself to be taken +in by the few clever words she whispered yesterday, as she walked +beside me, by a tolerably pretty little phrase embellished as it was +by the silence of two o'clock in the morning, and all the wonderful +enchantments of night. + +Ah! not more for Yves than for me, not more for me than for Yves, has +any feeling passed through that little brain, that little heart. + +When I have looked at her long enough, I call:-- + +"Hi! Chrysantheme!" + +She turns confused, and reddening even to her ears at having been +caught at this work. + +She is quite wrong, however, to be so much troubled, for I am, on the +contrary, delighted. The fear that I might be leaving her in some +sadness had almost given me a pang, and I infinitely prefer that this +marriage should end as it had begun, in a joke. + +"That is a good idea of yours," I say; "a precaution which should +always be taken in this country of yours, where so many evil-minded +people are clever in forging money. Make haste and get through it +before I start, and if any false pieces have found their way into the +number, I will willingly replace them." + +However, she refuses to continue before me, and I expected as much; to +do so would have been contrary to all her notions of politeness, +hereditary and acquired, all her conventionality, all her +_Japanesery_. With a disdainful little foot, clothed as usual in +exquisite socks with a special hood for the great toe, she pushes away +the piles of white dollars and scatters them on the mats. + +"We have hired a large covered sampan," she says to change the +conversation, "and we are all going together,--Campanule, Jonquille, +Touki, all your mousmes--to watch your vessel set sail. Pray sit down +and stay a few minutes." + +"No, I really cannot stay. I have several things to do in the town, +d'you see, and the order was given for every one to be on board by +three o'clock in time for muster before starting. Moreover, I would +rather escape, as you can imagine, while Madame Prune is still +enjoying her siesta; I should be afraid of being drawn into some +corner, or of provoking some heartrending parting scene." + +Chrysantheme bows her head and says no more, but seeing that I am +really going, rises to escort me. + +Without speaking, without the slightest noise, she follows me as we +descend the staircase and cross the garden full of sunshine, where the +dwarf shrubs and the deformed flowers seem, like the rest of the +household, plunged in warm somnolence. + +At the outer gate I stop for the last adieu: the little sad pout has +reappeared, more accentuated than ever on Chrysantheme's face; it is +the right thing, it is correct, and I should feel offended now were it +absent. + +Well, little mousme, let us part good friends; one last kiss even, if +you like. I took you to amuse me; you have not perhaps succeeded very +well, but after all you have done what you could: given me your little +face, your little curtseys, your little music; in short, you have +been pleasant enough in your Japanese way. And who knows, perchance I +may yet think of you sometimes when I recall this glorious summer, +these pretty quaint gardens, and the ceaseless concert of the cicales. + +She prostrates herself on the threshold of the door, her forehead +against the ground, and remains in this attitude of superlatively +polite salute as long as I am in sight, while I go down the pathway by +which I am to disappear for ever. + +As the distance between us increases, I turn once or twice to look at +her again; but it is a mere civility, and meant to return as it +deserves her grand final salutation. + + + + +LIII. + + +On entering the town, at the turn of the principal street, I have the +good luck to meet No. 415, my poor relation. I was just at that moment +in want of a speedy djin, and I at once get into his vehicle; besides, +it will be an alleviation to my feelings, in this hour of departure, +to take my last drive in company with a member of my family. + +Unaccustomed as I was to be out of doors during the hours of siesta, +I had never yet seen the streets of the town thus overwhelmed by the +sunshine, thus deserted in the silence and solitary brilliancy +peculiar to all hot countries. + +In front of all the shops hang white shades, adorned here and there +with slight designs in black, in the quaintness of which lurks I know +not what,--something mysterious: dragons, emblems, symbolical figures +The sky is too glaring; the light crude, implacable; never has this +old town of Nagasaki appeared to me so old, so worm-eaten, so bald, +notwithstanding all its veneer of new papers and gaudy paintings. +These little wooden houses, of such marvelous cleanly whiteness +inside, are black outside, time-worn, disjointed and _grimacing_. When +one looks closely, this grimace is to be found everywhere: in the +hideous masks laughing in the shop fronts of the innumerable +curio-shops; in the grotesque figures, the playthings, the idols, +cruel, suspicious mad;--it is even found in the buildings: in the +friezes of the religious porticos, in the roofs of the thousand +pagodas; of which the angles and gable-ends writhe and twist like the +yet dangerous remains of ancient and malignant beasts. + +And the disturbing intensity of expression reigning over inanimate +nature, contrasts with the almost absolute blank of the human +countenance, with the smiling foolishness of the simple little folk +who meet one's gaze, as they patiently carry on their minute trades in +the gloom of their tiny open-fronted houses. Workmen squatted on their +heels, carving with their imperceptible tools, the droll or odiously +obscene ivory ornaments, marvelous cabinet curiosities which have made +Japan so famous with the European amateurs who have never seen it. +Unconscious artists tracing with steady hand on a background of +lacquer or of porcelain traditional designs learnt by heart, or +transmitted to their brains by a process of heredity through thousands +of years; automatic painters, whose storks are similar to those of M. +Sucre, with the inevitable little rocks, or little butterflies +eternally the same. The least of these illuminators, with his +insignificant eyeless face, possesses at his fingers' ends the maximum +of dexterity in this art of decoration, light and wittily incongruous, +which threatens to invade us in France, in this epoch of imitative +decadence, and which has become the great resource of our +manufacturers of cheap "_objects of art_." + +Is it because I am about to leave this country, because I have no +longer any link to bind me to it, any resting-place on its soil, and +that my spirit is already on the wing? I know not, but it seems to me +I have never as clearly seen and comprehended it as to-day. And more +even than ever, do I find it little, aged, with worn-out blood and +worn-out sap; I feel more fully its antediluvian antiquity, its +centuries of mummification, which will soon degenerate into hopeless +and grotesque buffoonery, as it comes into contact with Western +novelties. + +It is getting late; little by little, the siestas are everywhere +coming to an end; the queer little streets brighten up and begin to +swarm in the sunshine with many-colored parasols. Now begins the +procession of uglinesses of the most impossible description,--a +procession of long-robed, grotesque figures capped with pot-hats or +sailors' head-gear. Business transactions begin again, and the +struggle for existence, close and bitter here as in one of our own +artisan quarters, but meaner and smaller. + +At the moment of my departure, I can only find within myself a smile +of careless mockery for the swarming crowd of this Liliputian +curtseying people,--laborious, industrious, greedy of gain, tainted +with a constitutional affectation, hereditary insignificance, and +incurable monkeyishness. + +Poor cousin 415, how right I was to have held him in good esteem; he +is by far the best and most disinterested of my Japanese family. When +all my commissions are finished, he puts up his little vehicle under a +tree, and much touched by my departure, insists upon escorting me on +board the _Triomphante_, to watch over my final purchases in the +sampan which conveys me to the ship, and to see them himself safely +into my cabin. + +His, indeed, is the only hand I clasp with a really friendly feeling, +without a suppressed smile, on quitting this Japan. + +No doubt, in this country as in many others, there is more honest +friendship and less ugliness among the simple beings devoted to purely +physical work. + +At five o'clock in the afternoon we set sail. + +Along the line of the shore are two or three sampans; in them the +mousmes, shut up in the narrow cabins, peep at us through the tiny +windows, half hiding their faces on account of the sailors; these are +our wives, who have wished, out of politeness, to look upon us once +more. + +There are other sampans as well, in which other Japanese women are +also watching our departure. These stand upright, under great parasols +decorated with big black letters and daubed over with clouds of varied +and startling colors. + + + + +LIV. + + +We move slowly out of the great green bay. The groups of women become +lost in the distance. The country of round and thousand-ribbed +umbrellas fades gradually from our sight. + +Now the great sea opens before us, immense, colorless, solitary; a +solemn repose after so much that was too ingenious and too small. + +The wooded mountains, the charming capes disappear. And Japan remains +faithful to itself in its last picturesque rocks, its quaint islands +on which the trees tastefully arrange themselves in groups--studied +perhaps, but charmingly pretty. + + + + +LV. + + +In my cabin, one evening, in the midst of the Yellow Sea, my eyes +chance to fall upon the lotus brought from Diou-djen-dji;--they had +lasted for two or three days; but now they have faded, and pitifully +strew my carpet with their pale pink petals. + +I, who have carefully preserved so many faded flowers, fallen, alas! +into dust, stolen here and there, at moments of parting in different +parts of the world; I who have kept so many, that the collection is +now almost a herbarium, ridiculous and incoherent--I try hard, but +without success, to get up a sentiment for these lotus--and yet they +are the last living souvenirs of my summer at Nagasaki. + +I pick them up, however, with a certain amount of consideration, and I +open my port-hole. + +From the gray misty sky a livid light falls upon the waters; a wan and +gloomy kind of twilight creeps down, yellowish upon this Yellow Sea. +We feel that we are moving northwards, that autumn is approaching. + +I throw the poor lotus into the boundless waste of waters, making them +my best excuses for giving to them, natives of Japan, a grave so +solemn and so vast. + + + + +LVI. + + +O Ama-Terace-Omi-Kami, wash me clean from this little marriage of +mine, in the waters of the river of Kamo. + + + + +THE END + + + + +MODERN LIBRARY OF THE WORLD'S BEST BOOKS COMPLETE LIST OF TITLES IN + +THE MODERN LIBRARY + +_For convenience in ordering please use number at right of title_ + +AUTHOR TITLE AND NUMBER + +AIKEN, CONRAD A Comprehensive Anthology of American Verse 101 +AIKEN, CONRAD Modern American Poetry 127 +ANDERSON, SHERWOOD Poor White 115 +ANDERSON, SHERWOOD Winesburg, Ohio 104 +ANDREYEV, LEONID The Seven That Were Hanged, and the Red Laugh 45 +APULEIUS, LUCIUS The Golden Ass 88 + +BALZAC Short Stories 40 +BAUDELAIRE Prose and Poetry 70 +BEARDSLEY, AUBREY 64 Reproductions 42 +BEEBE, WILLIAM Jungle Peace 30 +BEERBOHM, MAX Zuleika Dobson 116 +BIERCE, AMBROSE In the Midst of Life 133 +BLAKE, WILLIAM Poems 91 +BRONTE, EMILY Wuthering Heights 106 +BROWN, GEO. DOUGLAS The House with the Green Shutters 129 +BUTLER, SAMUEL Erewhon 136 +BUTLER, SAMUEL The Way of All Flesh 13 + +CABELL, JAMES BRANCH Beyond Life 25 +CABELL, JAMES BRANCH The Cream of the Jest 126 +CARPENTER, EDWARD Love's Coming of Age 51 +CARROLL, LEWIS Alice in Wonderland, etc. 79 +CASANOVA, JACQUES Memoirs of Casanova 165 +CELLINI, BENVENUTO Autobiography of Benvenuto Cellini 3 +CERVANTES Don Quixote 174 +CHAUCER The Canterbury Tales 161 +CHESTERTON, G. K. Man Who Was Thursday 35 +CRANE, STEPHEN Men, Women and Boats 102 + +D'ANNUNZIO, GABRIELE Flame of Life 65 +D'ANNUNZIO, GABRIELE The Child of Pleasure 98 +D'ANNUNZIO, GABRIELE The Triumph of Death 112 +DAUDET, ALPHONSE Sappho 85 +DEFOE, DANIEL Moll Flanders 122 +DEWEY, JOHN Human Nature and Conduct 173 +DOSTOYEVSKY, FYODOR The Brothers Karamazov 151 +DOSTOYEVSKY, FYODOR Poor People 10 +DOUGLAS, NORMAN Old Calabria 141 +DOUGLAS, NORMAN South Wind 5 +DOWSON, ERNEST Poems and Prose + +AUTHOR TITLE AND NUMBER + +DUMAS, ALEXANDRE Camille 69 +DUMAS, ALEXANDRE The Three Musketeers 143 +DUNSANY, LORD A Dreamer's Tales 34 + +ELLIS, HAVELOCK The Dance of Life 160 +ELLIS, HAVELOCK The New Spirit 95 + +FLAUBERT, GUSTAVE Madame Bovary 28 +FLAUBERT, GUSTAVE Salammbo 118 +FLAUBERT, GUSTAVE Temptation of St. Anthony 92 +FRANCE, ANATOLE Crime of Sylvestre Bonnard 22 +FRANCE, ANATOLE The Queen Pedauque 110 +FRANCE, ANATOLE The Red Lily 7 +FRANCE, ANATOLE The Revolt of the Angels 11 +FRANCE, ANATOLE Thais 67 + +GAUTIER, THEOPHILE Mlle. De Maupin 53 +GEORGE, W. L. A Bed of Roses 75 +GILBERT, W. S. The Mikado, Iolanthe, etc. 26 +GILBERT, W. S. Pinafore and Other Plays 113 +GISSING, GEORGE New Grub Street 125 +GISSING, GEORGE Private Papers of Henry Ryecroft 46 +GONCOURT, E. & J. DE Renee Mauperin 76 +GORKY, MAXIM Creatures That Once Were Men and Other Stories 48 +GOURMONT, REMY DE A Night in the Luxembourg 120 +GOURMONT, REMY DE A Virgin Heart 131 + +HARDY, THOMAS Jude the Obscure 135 +HARDY, THOMAS The Mayor of Casterbridge 17 +HARDY, THOMAS The Return of the Native 121 +HAUPTMANN, GERHART The Heretic of Soana 149 +HAWTHORNE, NATHANIEL The Scarlet Letter 93 +HEARN, LAFCADIO Some Chinese Ghosts 130 +HECHT, BEN Erik Dorn 29 +HEMINGWAY, ERNEST The Sun Also Rises 170 +HOMER The Iliad 166 +HOMER The Odyssey 167 +HUDSON, W. H. Green Mansions 89 +HUDSON, W. H. The Purple Land 24 +HUNEKER, JAMES O. Painted Veils 43 +HUXLEY, ALDOUS A Virgin Heart 131 + +IBSEN, HENRIK A Doll's House, Ghosts, etc. 6 +IBSEN, HENRIK Hedda Gabler, Pillars of Society, + The Master Builder 36 +IBSEN, HENRIK The Wild Duck, Rosmersholm, The League of Youth 54 + +JAMES, HENRY Daisy Miller, etc. 63 +JAMES, HENRY The Turn of the Screw 169 +JAMES, WILLIAM The Philosophy of William James 114 +JOYCE, JAMES Dubliners 124 +JOYCE, JAMES A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man 145 + +KIPLING, RUDYARD Soldiers Three 71 +KOMROFF, MANUEL Oriental Romances 55 + +AUTHOR TITLE AND NUMBER + +LAWRENCE, D. H. Sons and Lovers 109 +LEWISOHN, LUDWIG Upstream 123 +LOTI, PIERRE Mme. Chrysantheme 94 + +MACY, JOHN The Spirit of American Literature 56 +MAUPASSANT, GUY DE Love and Other Stories 72 +MAUPASSANT, GUY DE Mademoiselle Fifi, and Twelve Other Stories 8 +MAUPASSANT, GUY DE Une Vie 57 +MENKEN, H. L. Selected Prejudices 107 +MELVILLE, HERMAN Moby Dick 119 +MEREDITH, GEORGE Diana of the Crossways 14 +MEREDITH, GEORGE The Ordeal of Richard Feverel 134 +MEREJKOWSKI, DMITRI The Death of the Gods 153 +MEREJKOWSKI, DMITRI Peter and Alexis 175 +MEREJKOWSKI, DMITRI The Romance of Leonardo da Vinci 138 +MISCELLANEOUS An Anthology of American Negro Literature 163 + A Modern Book of Criticism 81 + Best Ghost Stories 73 + Best American Humorous Short Stories 87 + Best Russian Short Stories 18 + Four Famous Greek Plays 158 + Fourteen Great Detective Stories 144 + Great Modern Short Stories 168 + Edited by Grant Overton and including + stories by Joseph Conrad, D. H. + Lawrence, Katherine Mansfield, + Sherwood Anderson, Glenway Westcott, + E. M. Forster, etc. + Outline of Abnormal Psychology 152 + Outline of Psychoanalysis 66 +MOLIERE Plays 78 +MOORE, GEORGE Confessions of a Young Man 16 +MORRISON, ARTHUR Tales of Mean Streets 100 + +NIETZSCHE, FRIEDRICH Beyond Good and Evil 20 +NIETZSCHE, FRIEDRICH Ecce Homo and the Birth of Tragedy 68 +NIETZSCHE, FRIEDRICH Genealogy of Morals 62 +NIETZSCHE, FRIEDRICH Thus Spake Zarathustra 9 + +O'NEILL, EUGENE The Emperor Jones and The Straw 146 +O'NEILL, EUGENE Seven Plays of the Sea 111 + +PAINE, THOMAS Writings 108 +PATER, WALTER The Renaissance 86 +PATER, WALTER Marius the Epicurean 90 +PEPYS, SAMUEL Samuel Pepys' Diary 103 +PETRONIUS ARBITER The Satyricon 156 +POE, EDGAR ALLAN Best Tales 82 +PREVOST, ANTOINE Manon Lescaut 85 +PROUST, MARCEL Swann's Way 59 +PROUST, MARCEL Within A Budding Grove 172 + +AUTHOR TITLE AND NUMBER + +RODIN 64 Reproductions 41 +ROSTAND, EDMOND Cyrano de Bergerac 154 +RUSSELL, BERTRAND Selected Papers of Bertrand Russell 137 + +SALTUS, EDGAR The Imperial Orgy 139 +SCHNITZLER, ARTHUR Anatol, Green Cockatoo, etc. 32 +SCHNITZLER, ARTHUR Bertha Garlan 39 +SCHOPENHAUER The Philosophy of Schopenhauer 52 +SCHOPENHAUER Studies in Pessimism 12 +SCHREINER, OLIVE The Story of an African Farm 132 +SHAW, G.B. An Unsocial Socialist 15 +SMOLLETT, TOBIAS Humphrey Clinker 159 +SPINOZA The Philosophy of Spinoza 60 +STENDHAL The Red and the Black 157 +STERNE, LAURENCE Tristram Shandy 147 +STRINDBERG, AUGUST Married 2 +SUDERMANN, HERMANN Dame Care 33 +SUDERMANN, HERMANN The Song of Songs 162 +SWINBURNE, CHARLES Poems 23 +SYMONDS, JOHN A. The Life of Michelangelo 49 +TCHEKOV Rothschild's Fiddle, etc. 31 +TCHEKOV Sea Gull, Cherry Orchard, Three Sisters, etc. 171 + +THOMPSON, FRANCIS Complete Poems 38 +TOLSTOY, LEO Anna Karenina 37 +TOLSTOY, LEO Redemption and Other Plays 77 +TOLSTOY, LEO The Death of Ivan Ilyitch and Four Other Stories 64 +TOMLINSON, H. M. The Sea and The Jungle 99 +TURGENEV, IVAN Fathers and Sons 21 +TURGENEV, IVAN Smoke 80 + +VAN LOON, HENDRIK W. Ancient Man 105 +VAN VECHTEN, CARL Peter Whiffle 164 +VILLON, FRANCOIS Poems 58 +VOLTAIRE Candide 47 + +WELLS, H.G. Ann Veronica 27 +WHISTLER, J. MCNEIL The Art of Whistler with 32 Reproductions 150 +WHITMAN, WALT Leaves of Grass 97 +WILDE, OSCAR An Ideal Husband, A Woman of No Importance 84 +WILDE, OSCAR De Profundis 117 +WILDE, OSCAR Dorian Gray 1 +WILDE, OSCAR Poems 19 +WILDE, OSCAR Fairy Tales, Poems in Prose 61 +WILDE, OSCAR Salome, The Importance of Being Earnest, etc. 83 +WILDER, THORNTON The Cabala 155 +WOOLF, VIRGINIA Mrs. Dalloway 96 + +YEATS, W.B. Irish Fairy and Folk Tales 44 + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Madame Chrysantheme, by Pierre Loti + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MADAME CHRYSANTHEME *** + +***** This file should be named 15335.txt or 15335.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/5/3/3/15335/ + +Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Ronald Holder, 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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