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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/3991.txt b/3991.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..02d9b0d --- /dev/null +++ b/3991.txt @@ -0,0 +1,1981 @@ +The Project Gutenberg Etext of Madame Chrysantheme by Pierre Loti, v1 +#78 in our series The French Immortals Crowned by the French Academy +#3 in our series by Pierre Loti + +Copyright laws are changing all over the world, be sure to check +the laws for your country before redistributing these files!!! + +Please take a look at the important information in this header. +We encourage you to keep this file on your own disk, keeping an +electronic path open for the next readers. + +Please do not remove this. + +This should be the first thing seen when anyone opens the book. +Do not change or edit it without written permission. 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Although of a most energetic character and a veteran of +various campaigns--Japan, Tonkin, Senegal, China (1900)--M. Viaud was so +timid as a young midshipman that his comrades named him "Loti," a small +Indian flower which seems ever discreetly to hide itself. This is, +perhaps, a pleasantry, as elsewhere there is a much more romantic +explanation of the word. Suffice it to say that Pierre Loti has been +always the nom de plume of M. Viaud. + +Lod has no immediate literary ancestor and no pupil worthy of the name. +He indulges in a dainty pessimism and is most of all an impressionist, +not of the vogue of Zola--although he can be, on occasion, as brutally +plain as he--but more in the manner of Victor Hugo, his predecessor, or +Alphonse Daudet, his lifelong friend. In Loti's works, however, +pessimism is softened to a musical melancholy; the style is direct; the +vocabulary exquisite; the moral situations familiar; the characters not +complex. In short, his place is unique, apart from the normal lines of +novelistic development. + +The vein of Loti is not absolutely new, but is certainly novel. In him +it first revealed itself in a receptive sympathy for the rare flood of +experiences that his naval life brought on him, experiences which had not +fallen to the lot of Bernardin de St. Pierre or Chateaubriand, both of +whom he resembles. But neither of those writers possessed Loti's +delicate sensitiveness to exotic nature as it is reflected in the foreign +mind and heart. Strange but real worlds he has conjured up for us in +most of his works and with means that are, as with all great artists, +extremely simple. He may be compared to Kipling and to Stevenson: to +Kipling, because he has done for the French seaman something that the +Englishman has done for "Tommy Atkins," although their methods are often +more opposed than similar; like Stevenson, he has gone searching for +romance in the ends of the earth; like Stevenson, too, he has put into +all of his works a style that is never less than dominant and often +irresistible. Charm, indeed, is the one fine quality that all his +critics, whether friendly or not, acknowledge, and it is one well able to +cover, if need be, a multitude of literary sins. + +Pierre Loti was elected a member of the French Academy in 1891, +succeeding to the chair of Octave Feuillet. Some of his writings are: +'Aziyade,' written in 1879; the scene is laid in Constantinople. This +was followed by 'Rarahu,' a Polynesian idyl (1880; again published under +the title Le Mariage de Loti, 1882). 'Roman d'un Spahi (1881) deals with +Algiers. Taton-gaye is a true 'bete-humaine', sunk in moral slumber or +quivering with ferocious joys. It is in this book that Loti has eclipsed +Zola. One of his masterpieces is 'Mon Freye Yves' (ocean and Brittany), +together with 'Pecheur d'Islande' (1886); both translated into German by +Elizabeth, Queen of Roumania (Carmen Sylva). In 1884 was published 'Les +trois Dames de la Kasbah,' relating also to Algiers, and then came +'Madame Chrysantheme' (1887), crowned by the Academy. 'Japoneries +d'automne' (1889), Japanese scenes; then 'Au Maroc' (Morocco; 1890). +Partly autobiographical are 'Le Roman d'un Enfant' (1890) and 'Le Livre +de la Pitie et de la Mort' (1891). Then followed 'Fantomes d'Orient +(1892), L'Exilee (1893), Le Desert (Syria; 1895), Jerusalem, La Galilee +(Palestine; 1895), Pages choisies (1896), Ramuntcho (1897), Reflets sur +la Sombre Route' (1898), and finally 'Derniers Jours de Pekin' (1903). +Many exquisite pages are to be found in Loti's work. His composition is +now and then somewhat disconnected; the impressions are vague, almost +illusory, and the mirage is a little obscure, but the intense and abiding +charm of Nature remains. Loti has not again reached the level of Madame +Chrysantheme, and English critics at least will have to suspend their +judgment for a while. In any event, he has given to the world many great +books, and is shrined with the Forty "Immortals." + + ALBERT SOREL + de l'Academie Francaise. + + + + +DEDICATION + +To Madame la Duchesse de Richelieu + +MADAME LA DUCHESSE, + +Permit me to beg your acceptance of this work, as a respectful tribute of +my friendship. + +I feel some hesitation in offering it, for its theme can not be deemed +altogether correct; but I have endeavored to make its expression, at +least, in harmony with good taste, and I trust that my endeavors have +been successful. + +This record is the journal of a summer of my life, in which I have +changed nothing, not even the dates, thinking that in our efforts to +arrange matters we succeed often only in disarranging them. Although the +most important role may appear to devolve on Madame Chrysantheme, it is +very certain that the three principal points of interest are myself, +Japan, and the effect produced on me by that country. + +Do you recollect a certain photograph--rather absurd, I must admit-- +representing that great fellow Yves, a Japanese girl, and myself, grouped +as we were posed by a Nagasaki artist? You smiled when I assured you +that the carefully attired little damsel placed between us had been one +of our neighbors. Kindly receive my book with the same indulgent smile, +without seeking therein a meaning either good or bad, in the same spirit +in which you would receive some quaint bit of pottery, some grotesquely +carved ivory idol, or some fantastic trifle brought to you from this +singular fatherland of all fantasy. + + Believe me, with the deepest respect, + Madame la Duchesse, + Your affectionate + PIERRE LOTI. + + + + +INTRODUCTION + +We were at sea, about two o'clock in the morning, on a fine night, under +a starry sky. + +Yves stood beside me on the bridge, and we talked of the country, unknown +to both, to which destiny was now carrying us. As we were to cast anchor +the next day, we enjoyed our anticipations, and made a thousand plans. + +"For myself," I said, "I shall marry at once." + +"Ah!" said Yves, with the indifferent air of one whom nothing can +surprise. + +"Yes--I shall choose a little, creamy-skinned woman with black hair and +cat's eyes. She must be pretty and not much bigger than a doll. You +shall have a room in our house. It will be a little paper house, in a +green garden, deeply 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 dreamed 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 expressed 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. + +I had quite made up my mind to carry out the scheme I had unfolded to +him. Yes, led on by ennui and solitude, I had gradually arrived at +dreaming of and looking forward to such a 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 sky above France. The 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 +tremendous distance! + + + + +MME. CHRYSANTHEME + +CHAPTER I + +THE MYSTERIOUS LAND + +At dawn we beheld Japan. + +Precisely at the foretold moment the mysterious land arose before us, +afar off, like a black dot in the vast sea, which for so many days had +been but a blank space. + +At first we saw nothing by the rays of the rising sun but a series of +tiny pink-tipped heights (the Fukai Islands). Soon, however, appeared +all along the horizon, like a misty 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, +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. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +STRANGE SCENES + +By three o'clock in the afternoon all these far-off objects were close to +us, so close that they overshadowed us with their rocky masses and deep +green thickets. + +We entered a shady channel between two high ranges of mountains, oddly +symmetrical--like stage scenery, very pretty, though unlike nature. It +seemed as if Japan were opened to our view through an enchanted fissure, +allowing us to penetrate into her very heart. + +Nagasaki, as yet unseen, must be at the extremity of this long and +peculiar bay. All around us was exquisitely green. The strong sea- +breeze had suddenly fallen, and was succeeded by a calm; the atmosphere, +now very warm, was laden with the perfume of flowers. In the valley +resounded the ceaseless whirr of the cicalas, answering one another from +shore to shore; the mountains reechoed with innumerable sounds; the whole +country seemed to vibrate like crystal. We passed among myriads of +Japanese junks, gliding softly, wafted by imperceptible breezes on the +smooth water; their motion could hardly 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 castle- +like in the air, reminding one of the towering ships of the Middle Ages. +In the midst of the verdure 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 +depths 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 manoeuvred by small, yellow, naked men, +with long hair piled up on their heads in feminine fashion. Gradually, +as we advanced farther up the green channel, the perfumes became more +penetrating, and the monotonous chirp of the cicalas swelled out like an +orchestral crescendo. Above us, against the luminous sky, sharply +delineated between the mountains, a kind of hawk hovered, screaming out, +with a deep, human voice, "Ha! Ha! Ha!" its melancholy call prolonged +by the echoes. + +All this fresh and luxuriant nature was of a peculiar Japanese type, +which seemed to impress itself even on the mountain-tops, and produced +the effect of a too artificial prettiness. The trees were grouped in +clusters, with the pretentious grace shown on 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 if artificially created. + +When we looked intently, here and there we saw, 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, like ourselves, a 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 incomprehensible. + +When Nagasaki appeared, the view was rather disappointing. Situated at +the foot of green overhanging mountains, it looked like any other +ordinary town. In front of it lay a tangled mass of vessels, flying 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 warehouses +and factories; nothing was wanting in the way of ordinary, trivial, +every-day objects. + +Some time, 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 +travelling and seeking for a change which can no longer be found. + +About six o'clock we dropped anchor noisily amid the mass of vessels +already in the harbor, and were immediately invaded. + +We were visited by a mercantile, bustling, comical Japan, which rushed +upon us in full boat-loads, in waves, like a rising sea. Little men and +little women came in a continuous, uninterrupted stream, but without +cries, without squabbles, noiselessly, each one making so smiling a bow +that it was impossible to be angry with them, so that by reflex action we +smiled and bowed also. They carried on their backs little baskets, tiny +boxes, receptacles of every shape, fitting into one another in the most +ingenious manner, each containing several others, and multiplying till +they filled up everything, in endless number. From these they drew forth +all manner 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 how +ugly, mean, and grotesque all those folk were! I began to feel +singularly uneasy and disenchanted regarding my possible marriage. + +Yves and I 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 look on. We said to each other: "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. Farther off, it is true, far away behind these commonplace +objects, in the very depths of the vast 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 shut up their boxes, folded their sliding screens and +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, Japan became once more, little by little, a fairy- +like and enchanted country. The great mountains, now black, were +mirrored and doubled in the still water at their feet, reflecting therein +their sharply reversed outlines, and presenting the mirage of fearful +precipices, over which we seemed to hang. 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, sparkling with multitudes +of lanterns: the smallest suburb, the smallest village was lighted up; +the tiniest but perched up among the trees, which in the daytime was +invisible, threw out its little glowworm glimmer. Soon there were +innumerable 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 around +us in one bewildering amphitheatre. 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 other terrestrial +sounds--was sonorous, incessant, softly monotonous, like the murmur of a +waterfall. + + + + +CHAPTER III + +THE GARDEN OF FLOWERS + +The next day the rain fell in torrents, merciless and unceasing, blinding +and drenching everything--a rain so dense that it was impossible to see +through it from one end of the vessel to the other. It seemed as if the +clouds of the whole world had amassed themselves in Nagasaki Bay, and +chosen this great green funnel to stream down. And so thickly did the +rain fall that it became almost as dark as night. Through a veil of +restless water, we still perceived the base of the mountains, but the +summits were lost to sight among the great dark masses overshadowing us. +Above us shreds of clouds, seemingly torn from the dark vault, draggled +across the trees, like gray rags-continually melting away in torrents of +water. The wind howled through the ravines with a deep 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 depressing 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 two 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 threw 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 was 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 for the town, lying in this box, flat on my +stomach, rocked by one wave, roughly shaken by another, at moments almost +overturned; and through the half-opened door of my rattrap 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 skilful as regular old salts. + +Suddenly 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 flagstones on the quays. I got out +of my sarcophagus and prepared to set foot on Japanese soil for the first +time in my life. + +All was streaming around us, and the tiresome rain dashed into my eyes. + +Hardly had I landed, when there bounded toward me a dozen strange beings, +of what description it was almost impossible to distinguish through the +blinding rain--a species of human hedgehog, each dragging some large +black object; 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 hired in Europe). + +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 +outward, bristling like porcupines; they seemed clothed in a thatched +roof. They continued to smile, awaiting my choice. + +Not having the honor of being acquainted with any of them in particular, +I chose at haphazard the djin with the umbrella and got into his little +cart, of which he carefully lowered the hood. He drew an oilcloth apron +over my knees, pulling it up to my face, and then advancing, asked me, in +Japanese, something which must have meant: "Where to, sir?" To which I +replied, in the same language, "To the Garden of Flowers, my friend." + +I said this in the three words I had, parrot-like, learned by heart, +astonished that such sounds could mean anything, astonished, too, at +their being understood. We started, he running at full speed, I dragged +along and jerked about in his light chariot, wrapped in oilcloth, 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 a 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, +on their return home from that country, had told me about it, and I knew +a great deal; the Garden of Flowers is a tea-house, an elegant +rendezvous. There I should inquire for a certain Kangourou-San, who is +at the same time interpreter, laundryman, and confidential agent for the +intercourse of races. Perhaps this very evening, if all went well, I +should be introduced to the bride destined for me by mysterious fate. +This thought kept my mind on the alert during the panting journey we +made, the djin and I, one dragging the other, under the merciless +downpour. + +Oh, what a curious Japan I saw that day, through the gaping of my +oilcloth coverings, from under the dripping hood of my little cart! A +sullen, muddy, half-drowned Japan. All these houses, men, and beasts, +hitherto known to me only in 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 times the rain fell so heavily that I closed up tightly 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 +drenching: we were trotting along through a mean, narrow, little back +street (there are thousands like it, a 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 a woman struggling with her skirts, +unsteadily tripping along in her high wooden shoes, looking exactly like +the figures painted on screens, cowering under a gaudily daubed paper +umbrella. Again, we passed a pagoda, where an old granite monster, +squatting in the water, seemed to make a hideous, ferocious grimace at +me. + +How large 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 +never would suppose from the view in the offing that so vast a plain lies +in the depth 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 beside this fellow. When I part +my oilcloth to peep at anything, he is naturally always the first object +in my foreground; his two naked, brown, muscular legs, scampering along, +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; as an exception to the general rule, he is good- +looking; a young man of about thirty years of age, of intelligent and +strong appearance, and a frank 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 high, overhanging mountain; probably beyond the limits of the town, +in some suburban district. It apparently became necessary to continue +our journey on foot, and to climb up an almost perpendicular narrow path. + +Around us, a number of small country-houses, garden-walls, and high +bamboo palisades shut off 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 if 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 china +asters, zinnias, and other familiar flowers in the gardens. 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 odor, 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 his little cart under a tree, and together we +climbed the steep path on the slippery red soil. + +"We are going to the Garden of Flowers, are we not?" I inquired, +desirous to ascertain whether 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 openings and of evil +aspect; it was there that my djin halted. + +What, was that sinister-looking house the Garden of Flowers? He assured +me that it was, and seemed very sure of the fact. We knocked at a large +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 tiny +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? I asked +myself. Nothing at all, it was only the ceremonious salute, to which I +am as yet unaccustomed. They arose, and proceeded to take off my boots +(one never keeps on one's shoes in a Japanese house), wiping the bottoms +of my trousers, and feeling my shoulders to see whether I am wet. + +What always strikes one on first entering a Japanese dwelling is the +extreme cleanliness, the white and chilling bareness of the rooms. + +Over the most irreproachable mattings, without a crease, a line, or a +stain, I was led upstairs to the first story and ushered into a large, +empty room--absolutely empty! The paper walls were mounted on sliding +panels, which, fitting into each other, can be made to disappear--and all +one side of the apartment opened like a veranda, giving a view of the +green country and the gray sky beyond. By way of a chair, they gave me a +square cushion 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), awaited my orders, in attitudes expressive of the +profoundest humility. + +It seemed extraordinary that the quaint words, the curious phrases I had +learned during our exile at the Pescadores Islands--by sheer dint of +dictionary and grammar, without attaching the least sense to them--should +mean anything. But so it seemed, however, for I was at once understood. + +I wished in the first place to speak to one M. Kangourou, who is +interpreter, laundryman, and matrimonial agent. Nothing could be easier: +they knew him and were willing to go at once in search of him; and the +elder of the waiting-maids made ready for the purpose her wooden clogs +and her paper umbrella. + +Next I demanded a well-served repast, composed of the greatest delicacies +of Japan. Better and better! they rushed 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 dolls, +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 little monkeys, 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 not intended for me 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, feeble 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 veranda is very pretty; I will +admit that it resembles the landscape of a fairytale. 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, is a temple. The atmosphere has that absolute transparency, that +distance and clearness which follows a great fall 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 +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 the wet +sand from their paws. The garden is as conventional as possible: not a +flower, but little rocks, little lakes, dwarf trees cut in 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 farthest 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 sombre 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 teapots, 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 overdressed women, one might say three weird +visions, robed in garments of pale and indefinable colors, embroidered +with golden monsters; their great coiffures are arranged with fantastic +art, stuck full of pins and flowers. Two are seated with their backs +turned to me: one is holding the guitar, the other singing with that +soft, pretty voice; thus seen furtively, from behind, their pose, their +hair, the nape of their necks, all is exquisite, and I tremble lest a +movement should reveal to me faces which might destroy the enchantment. +The third girl 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, death-like mask of a +spectre or a 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 foot steps of +barefooted women pattering over the white mats. No doubt the first +course of my luncheon is just about to be served. I fall back quickly, +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 +curtseys. One offers me the spirit-lamp and the teapot; 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 on 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 +coiffures in huge bows, smooth and shining as shoe-polish, and the little +tea-service on the floor, the landscape seen through the veranda, 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 evidently the proper way for +them to sing--these musicians I had so often seen painted in amazing +colors on rice-paper, half closing their dreamy eyes among impossibly +large flowers. Long before I arrived there, I had perfectly pictured +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 luncheon. + +In the daintiest bowl imaginable, adorned with flights of storks, is the +most wildly impossible soup made of seaweed. 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 peculiar to Japan--they make me eat, +according to their fashion, with dainty chop-sticks, fingered with +affected grace. I am becoming accustomed to their faces. The whole +effect is refined--a refinement so entirely 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 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; she is 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 her 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 entertain the drivelling fools on the +other side of the screens. + +Suppose 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 any nose or 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, which is +the highest expression of obsequious politeness in this country). + +"You speak French, Monsieur Kangourou?" + +"Yes, Monsieur" (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, Monsieur 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 shall see about it at once. In a week's +time, as it happens, a family from Simonoseki, in which there are two +charming daughters, will be here!" + +"What! in a week! You don't know me, Monsieur Kangourou! No, no, +either now, to-morrow, or not at all." + +Again a hissing bow, and Kangourou-San, understanding my agitation, +begins to pass in feverish review all the young persons at his disposal +in Nagasaki. + +"Let us see--there was Mademoiselle Oeillet. What a pity that you did +not speak 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! Mademoiselle Abricot!--Would she suit you, Mademoiselle 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 yen is equal to four shillings.]--a month. She is very accomplished, +thoroughly understands commercial writing, and has at her fingers'-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 blackthorn 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." + +"Oh, no! on no account that one! Let us seek among 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 spectre mask, Monsieur 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, Monsieur, no! Those are only geishas,--[Geishas are professional +dancers and singers trained at the Yeddo Conservatory.]--Monsieur-- +geishas!" + +"Well, but why not a geisha? What difference can it make to me whether +they are geishas or not?" Later, 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 Mademoiselle +Jasmin. Heavens! how was it he had not thought 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 costumes 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 Mademoiselle 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 +overarching bracken upon my head. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +CHOOSING A BRIDE + +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 to and fro in the great bare room, of which +the thin, dry flooring cracks beneath our footsteps; we are both rather +irritated by prolonged expectation. Yves, whose impatience shows itself +more freely, from time to time looks out of the window. As for myself, a +chill suddenly seizes me, at the idea that I have chosen 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 could have taken possession of me, to settle myself in +surroundings so 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 tonight, +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 made to pull +these movable partitions, they have made little oval-holes, just the +shape of a finger-end, 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 complete +bareness and nudity. + +Yves still continues to gaze forth, like Sister Anne. From the side on +which he leans, my veranda 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 finally +irritates me thoroughly, and I turn my glances to the opposite side. +The other end of my house, also a veranda, opens first of all upon a +garden; then upon a marvellous 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. Great clouds heavy with rain and showers, ready to fall, are +travelling across the sky. No, I can not 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 is given 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 Mademoiselle 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! Bring up, 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 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 entire 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 +another; it is a polite dispute, all eager 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 the little aigrette of silver flowers, the ebony coiffure, the +gray silk robe and mauve sash of Mademoiselle Jasmin, my fiancee! + +Heavens! why, I know her already! Long before setting foot in Japan, +I had met her, on every fan, on every teacup with her silly air, her +puffy little face, her tiny eyes, mere gimlet-holes above those expanses +of impossible pink and white 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 leaves me +suddenly, and instead, a profound chill seizes my heart. What! share +even an hour of my life with that little doll? Never! + +The next question is, how to get rid of her. + +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 about 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 you 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, jaws dropped, and pipes went +out. And now I address my reproaches to Kangourou: "Why have you 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 you 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 doing a thing that is 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 you 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 one with an ivory skin, just as a change." + +"But that is only the paint they have put on her, Monsieur! Beneath it, +I assure you, she is of an ivory hue." + +Yves leans toward 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; with almost an expression, +almost a thought. A coppery tint on her rounded cheeks; a straight nose; +slightly thick lips, but well modelled and with pretty corners. A little +older than Mademoiselle 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. + +"Monsieur Kangourou, who is that young lady over there, in dark blue?" + +"Over there, Monsieur? She is called Mademoiselle 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, Monsieur!" + +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 pearl-gray dress, her sprig of flowers, her +now sad and mortified expression, and her eyes which twinkle like those +of a child about to cry. + +"It can be arranged, Monsieur!" 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 Mademoiselle 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 +veranda, 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 laundryman 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, Monsieur, 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; 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, Monsieur: her parents will give her up for twenty +dollars a month--the same price as Mademoiselle 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 return to the room; she is the centre 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 connection 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 can not get over it, and remains in a maze. "Oh! this +is too much," he says, 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 never should 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 retire with many compliments, bows, and +curtseys. 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, descending 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 curtseys, 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 fingertips as one would hold a fishing-rod in +the dark to catch night-birds. The procession of the unfortunate +Mademoiselle Jasmin mounts upward toward the mountain, while that of +Mademoiselle Chrysantheme winds downward 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 downward, 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 above recurs to my mind, it seems to me that my betrothal is a joke, +and my new family a set of puppets. + + + + +CHAPTER V + +A FANTASTIC MARRIAGE + +July 10, 1885. + +Three days have passed since my marriage was an accomplished fact. + +In the lower part of the town, in one of the new cosmopolitan districts, +in an ugly, pretentious building, which is a sort of registry office, the +deed was signed and countersigned, with marvellous hieroglyphics, in a +large book, in the presence of those absurd little creatures, formerly +silken-robed Samurai, but now called policemen, dressed up in tight +jackets and Russian caps. + +The ceremony took place in the full heat of midday; Chrysantheme and her +mother arrived together, and I 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 men, 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 under the protection of the +police during the whole of my stay in Japan. + +In the evening, however, in our own quarter, our little marriage became a +very pretty affair--a procession carrying lanterns, a festive tea and +some music. All this seemed quite necessary. + +Now we are almost an old married couple, and we are gently settling down +into everyday 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 sweet and plaintive +sounds. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +MY NEW MENAGE + +In our home, everything looks like a Japanese picture: we have folding- +screens, little odd-shaped stools bearing vases full of flowers, and at +the farther end of the apartment, in a nook forming a kind of 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 had before my arrival, during the 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 veranda we have a bewildering bird's-eye view +of Nagasaki, of its streets, its junks, and its great pagodas, which, at +certain hours, is illuminated at our feet like some scene in fairyland. + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +THE LADIES OF THE FANS + +Regarded as a mere outline, little Chrysantheme has been seen everywhere +and by everybody. Whoever has looked at one of those paintings on china +or silk that are sold in our bazaars, knows perfectly the pretty, stiff +head-dress, the leaning figure, ever ready to try some new gracious +salutation, the sash fastened behind in an enormous bow, the large, +flowing sleeves, the drapery slightly clinging about the ankles with a +little crooked train like a lizard's tail. + +But her face--no, not every one has seen that; 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 Mademoiselle Jasmin's) is rare, particularly at Nagasaki. + +Among the middle classes and the common 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 remains a certain vagueness of feature, +something childlike which prevails to the very end of their lives. + +They are so laughing, and so merry, all these little Nipponese dolls! +Rather a forced mirth, it is true, studied, and at times with a false +ring; nevertheless one is attracted by it. + +Chrysantheme is an exception, for she is melancholy. What thoughts are +running through that little brain? My knowledge of her language is still +too limited 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 should really prefer that she should +have one of those insignificant little thoughtless faces like all the +others. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +THE NECESSARY VEIL + +When night comes on, we light two hanging lamps of religious symbolism, +which burn till daylight, before our gilded idol. + +We sleep on the floor, on a thin cotton mattress, which is unfolded and +laid out over our white matting. Chrysantheme's pillow is a little +wooden block, cut so as to fit exactly the nape of her 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 sombre greenish-blue, dark as the +shades of night, stretched out on an orange-colored ribbon. (These are +the traditional colors, and all respectable families of Nagasaki possess +a similar net.) It envelops us like a tent; the mosquitoes and the night- +moths whirl 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 lacking, and +everything is 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 struggled vainly against my +own inability 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 before me-- +the matrimonial agent, to whom I am indebted for my happiness. + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +MY PLAYTHING + +July 12th + +Yves visits us whenever he is free, in the evening at five o'clock, after +his duties on board are fulfilled. + +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 steep, +narrow streets and carrying our lanterns at the end of short sticks, we +go down to Nagasaki in search of amusement at the theatres, at the tea- +houses, or in the bazaars. + +Yves treats my wife as if she were a plaything, and continually assures +me that she is charming. + +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, facing this marvellous panorama of pagodas and +mountains, I am overcome by sadness almost to tears. + + + + +CHAPTER X + +NOCTURNAL TERRORS + +July 13th. + +Last night, as we reposed under the Japanese roof of Diou-djen-dji--the +thin old wooden roof scorched by a hundred years of sunshine, vibrating +at the least sound, like the stretched-out parchment of a tomtom--in the +silence which prevails at two o'clock in the morning, we heard overhead a +sound like 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 phrase, 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 if 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 veranda, and there I paused, gazing into the +depths of the starlit night. Beneath me Nagasaki lay asleep, wrapped in +a soft, light slumber, hushed by the murmuring sound of a thousand +insects in the moonlight, and fairy-like 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 the impassive smile of Buddha; 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 sombre night- +robe 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-tinted 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. + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +A GAME OF ARCHERY + +July 14th. + +This is the National Fete day of France. In Nagasaki Harbor, all the +ships are adorned with flags, and salutes are fired in our honor. + +Alas! All day long, I can not help thinking of that last fourteenth of +July, spent in the deep calm and quiet of my old home, the door shut +against all intruders, while the gay crowd roared outside; there I had +remained till evening, seated on a bench, shaded by an arbor covered with +honeysuckle, where, in the bygone 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, dwelt many a big, ugly, black spider +always on the alert, 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 webs. Mystified, they would rush out, fancying +they had to deal with some sort of prey, while 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 places. +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 grows 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 practised, 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 day of July last year, so +peacefully spent amid surroundings familiar to me from my earliest +infancy, and my present animated life passed in the midst of such a novel +world. + +To-day, therefore, under the scorching midday sun, at two o'clock, three +swift-footed djins dragged us at full speed--Yves, Chrysantheme, and +myself--in Indian file, each in a little jolting cart, to the farther end +of Nagasaki, and there deposited us at the foot of some gigantic steps +that run straight up 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 porticoes, also in granite of +rude and primitive style. In truth, these steps and these temple +porticoes are the only imposing works that this people has created, and +they astonish, for they do not seem Japanese. + +We climb still higher. At this sultry hour of the day, from top to +bottom of the enormous gray steps, only we three are to be seen; on all +that granite there are but the pink butterflies on Chrysantheme's parasol +to give a cheerful and brilliant touch. + +We passed through the first temple yard, in which are two 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, at the +extremity of which was situated the Donko-Tchaya--in English, the +Teahouse of the Toads. + +This was the place where Chrysantheme had wished to take us. We sat down +at a table, under a black linen tent decorated with large white letters +(of funereal aspect), and two laughing 'mousmes' hastened to wait upon +us. + +The word 'mousme' means a young girl, or very young woman. It is one of +the prettiest words in the Nipponese language; it seems almost as if +there were a little pout in the very sound--a pretty, taking little pout, +such as they put on, and also as if 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. + +Some Japanese Watteau must have mapped out this Donko-Tchaya, for it has +rather an affected air of rurality, though very pretty. It is well +shaded, under a shelter of large trees with dense foliage, and a +miniature lake close 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 sit on a sort of 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. We can see, +at our feet, the deep roadstead, foreshortened and slanting, diminished +in appearance till it looks like a sombre rent in the mass of large green +mountains; and farther still, quite low on the black and stagnant waters, +are the men-of-war, the steamboats and the junks, with flags flying from +every mast. Against the dark green, which is the dominant shade +everywhere, 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 farther end, who are +practising with bows and arrows, we are today 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 doll, and I might even feel anxious, were I less sure of my good +brother, and if, moreover, it was not a matter of perfect indifference to +me. + +In the stillness of the garden, amid 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!" exclaims 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. 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 a prolonged +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 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 I, 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. + +One amusing recollection comes back to me of that evening. On our +return, we had by mistake turned 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 twelve or +fifteen years of age, who barely reached up to his waist, and were +pulling him by the sleeves, eager 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. + + + + +ETEXT EDITOR'S BOOKMARKS: + +Efforts to arrange matters we succeed often only in disarranging +Irritating laugh which is peculiar to Japan +Ordinary, trivial, every-day objects +Seeking for a change which can no longer be found + + + + +End of this Project Gutenberg Etext of Madame Chrysantheme, v1 +by Pierre Loti + diff --git a/3991.zip b/3991.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..50a2fa8 --- /dev/null +++ b/3991.zip diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6312041 --- /dev/null +++ b/LICENSE.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11 @@ +This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements, +metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be +in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES. + +Procedures for determining public domain status are described in +the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org. + +No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in +jurisdictions other than the United States. 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