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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/3993.txt b/3993.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6b9706f --- /dev/null +++ b/3993.txt @@ -0,0 +1,1862 @@ +The Project Gutenberg Etext of Madame Chrysantheme by Pierre Loti, v3 +#80 in our series The French Immortals Crowned by the French Academy +#5 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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The weather was again calm and cloudless, the sky +presenting a peculiar clarity, as if it had been swept by a cyclone, an +exceeding transparency bringing out the minutest details in the 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 a +flight of enormous seabirds. + +At eight o'clock, at nightfall, our manoeuvres having ended, 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 is 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 lighted; I even hear the sound of a 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 veranda, +looking out as if she expected us; and with her wonderful bows of hair +and long, falling sleeves, her silhouette is thoroughly Nipponese. + +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. + +Not without a certain pleasure do 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 prompt return, she had made her +preparations; then, to wile away the time, she was studying a duet on the +guitar with Oyouki. Not a question did she ask, nor a reproach did she +make. Quite the contrary. + +"We 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 taking a long stroll through Nagasaki; we will +take Oyouki-San and two little cousins who happen to be here, as well as +some other neighbors, if they wish it; we will buy the most amusing toys, +eat all sorts of cakes, and entertain 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 these two, poor Chrysantheme and +poor Oyouki, would have been obliged to stay at home with heavy hearts, +had we not arrived, 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 topknot. 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 onward, however, steadily in the same direction, +toward the same goal. From it rises a penetrating 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 topknots like Oyouki--pretty little physiognomies, little, narrow +eyes peeping between their slits like those of new-born kittens, fat, +pale, little cheeks, round, puffed-out, half-opened lips. They are +pretty, nevertheless, these little Nipponese, 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, amid the foliage of which +dangle all sorts of curious lanterns in the shapes 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 and 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, among 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 were gobbling +amid the crowd, 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 can not 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 through the midst +of their mirth and their laughter without understanding the wherefore, so +totally do they differ from our own. + +Chrysantheme with Yves, Oyouki with me, Fraise and Zinnia, our cousins, +walking before us under our watchful eyes, move slowly through the crowd, +holding hands lest we should lose one another. + +Along the streets leading to the temple, the wealthy inhabitants have +decorated the fronts of their houses with vases and nosegays. The +peculiar shed-like buildings common 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 standing slightly back from the movement of the passing +crowd, the various exhibited articles are placed methodically 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 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 marvellous 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 larger 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 of +form. + +On turning a corner of a street, by good luck we meet our married +comrades of the Triomphante and Jonquille, Toukisan and Campanule! Bows +and curtseys 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, 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 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 drawing near, for here are steps, porticoes and monsters +hewn out of enormous blocks of granite. We now have to climb a series of +steps, almost carried by the surging crowd ascending with us. + +We have arrived at the temple courtyard. + +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, with the gigantic trees, the sacred cryptomerias, elevating their +sombre boughs into a vast dome. + +Here we are all seated with our mousmes, beneath the light awning, +wreathed in flowers, of one of the many little teahouses improvised in +this courtyard. We are on a terrace at the top of the great steps, up +which the crowd continues to flock, and at the foot of a portico which +stands 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 also is visible, far up, undefined, +like a lake lost in clouds the water, faintly illumined by a ray of +moonlight, making it shine 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 coiffures 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 illuminated 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 f +disappear under the mass of many-sized coins accumulated there as if +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, 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 odd-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 hailstones, such as we might pick up after a +hailstorm in March. + +Glou! glou! glou! the crystal trumpets slowly repeat their notes, the +powerful sonority of which has a labored and smothered sound, as if they +came from under water; they mingle with the jingling of rattles and the +noise of castanets. We have also the impression of being carried away in +the irresistible swing of this incomprehensible gayety, composed, in +proportions we can hardly 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 funeral trappings as they float in the +wind from the tops of their tall flagstaffs. Thither we turn our 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 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 old 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 tap! tap! tap! +tap! 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 imagine at once 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 guessed 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 can not think of being angry, although I shall certainly have +tomorrow a blue mark on my arm; about that there is no doubt. + +"Come, we must get up and go to Yves's rescue; he must not 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 may 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 +Nipponese 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 centre +of the gauze tent, between our two pillows. + +Without saying a word, in a dignified manner, as if 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 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 to school. + +Needless to say, 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 coiffures-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 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? + + + + +CHAPTER XXXV + +THROUGH A MICROSCOPE + +The small garden of my mother-in-law, Madame Renoncule, is, without +exception, one of the most melancholy spots I have seen in all my travels +through the world. + +Oh, the slow, enervating, dull hours spent in idle and diffuse +conversation on the dimly lighted veranda! Oh, the detestable peppered +jam in the tiny 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 mold from want of sunlight. + +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 full-grown 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, the wonder +is whether it is all artificial, or whether one is not one's self the +victim of some morbid illusion; and whether 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 bareness, 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 +preserved by constant scrubbing with 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 are artificially twisted, imitating +trunks of old trees covered with tropical creepers. Everywhere are +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 can not help smiling when I think of some of the so-called "Japanese" +drawing-rooms of our Parisian fine ladies, overcrowded with knickknacks +and curios and hung with coarse gold embroideries on exported satins. +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 called a 'godoun', shut in by iron gratings. +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 good woman, and were it not +for the insurmountable feeling of spleen the sight of her garden produces +on me, I should often go to 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 fashionable. +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 geisha 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: Mademoiselle La Neige,--[Oyouki-San]--and +Mademoiselle La Lune,--[Tsouki-San.]--as well as five little brothers- +in-law: Cerisier, Pigeon, Liseron, Or, and Bambou. + +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 Nipponese family, Bambou is the one I love the most. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXVI + +MY NAUGHTY DOLL + +Tuesday, August 27th. + +During this whole day we--Yves, Chrysantheme, Oyouki and myself--have +spent the time 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. + +Toward sunset, Chrysantheme, who has wearied me more than ever since +morning, and who doubtless has perceived it, pulls a very long face, +declares herself ill, and begs leave to spend the night with her mother, +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 +afterward 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! not a place is to be had; all the absurd paper +rooms, all the compartments contrived by so many ingenious tricks 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 ladies of their choice, and sounds of dancing-girls and +music issue from the private rooms. + +The fact is, to-day is the third and last day of the great pilgrimage to +the temple of the jumping Tortoise, of which we saw the beginning +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 +goldfish live--and our meal is served here, 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, there is 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--[Mousko is the masculine of mousme, and signifies +little boy. Excessive politeness makes it mousko-san (Mr. little boy).] +--with her, perched astride 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 stand gazing at us, anxious to know how their joke will be +taken. + +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 around in this way, and to bring +Bambou-San to the festival; though it savors somewhat of her low +breeding, to tell the truth, to carry him on her back, as the poorer +Japanese women carry 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 sweetmeats to his heart's +content. + +When the evening is over, and 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 can not 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 personage the most fascinating 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, jokingly exclaim: + +"What! a son already?" + +Down in the town, we make a point of bidding goodby 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 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 backs, all the way up +that climb in the darkness. + +And here am I, who did not wish to return this way tonight, dragging a +mousme by the hand, and 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 + +"Hou Oume-San-an-an-an!" (In English: "Hi! Madame Pru-u-uu-une!") + +These intonations in her little voice are unknown to me; her long-drawn +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 nightcap 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 reassure herself +of our identity; but the poor old lady can not get over her surprise at +the sight of the mousko I am carrying. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXVII + +COMPLICATIONS + +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 often teaches 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 pick 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. + +Usually, while their music is going on, I am writing on the veranda, with +the superb panorama before 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 inkstand, 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 are 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. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXVIII + +THE HEIGHT OF SOCIABILITY! + +In this fine town of Nagasaki, about five or six o'clock in the evening, +one hour of the day is more comical than any other. At that moment every +human 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 +ceremony 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 polite remarks. Nevertheless, +neither the mousmes nor the old ladies gain anything by appearing in this +primeval costume. A Japanese woman, deprived of her long robe 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 little artificial 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 below, the sacred lamps begin to twinkle in the ever-open +houses, in front of the ancestor's 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, over merry, laughing +Japan, suddenly passes a sombre 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 +young children, of little mouskos and little mousmes, who spread +themselves like a wave through the streets filled with shadow, as they +swarm 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 topknots stuck in these +baby chignons, add to the vivid effect. + +They amuse themselves, they chase one another, their great pagoda sleeves +fly wide 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 the overflow +of joyousness, fresh, childish, but withal grotesque to excess. It would +be difficult to form any idea of the incredible things which, carried by +the wind, float in the evening air. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXIX + +A LADY OF JAPAN + +My little Chrysantheme is always attired in dark colors, a sign here of +aristocratic distinction. While her friends Oyouki-San, Madame Touki, +and others, delight in gay-striped stuffs, and thrust 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 +she puts nothing in her hair but amber-colored tortoiseshell 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 centre of it--usually the leaf of a tree; 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 rank. + +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 +dancers and 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 teacup, +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. + + + + +CHAPTER XL + +OUR FRIENDS THE BONZES + +September 2d. + +Fate has favored us with a friendship as strange as it is rare: that of +the head bonzes of the temple of the jumping Tortoise, where we 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 sacred 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, are +lichen and stonecrop; and over all the, gray tint of extreme age spreads +like a fall of ashes. + +In a side temple near the entrance is enthroned a colossal Buddha seated +in his lotus--a gilded idol from forty-five to sixty feet high, mounted +on an enormous bronze pedestal. + +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 in an iron cage. +They are in attitudes of fury, with fists upraised as if to strike, and +features atrociously fierce and distorted. Their bodies are covered with +bullets of crumbled paper, which have been aimed at them through the +bars, and which have stuck to their monstrous limbs, producing an +appearance of 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 +marvellous vases in metalwork, 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 burned by the priests before the +gods. + +To penetrate into the dwelling of our friends the bonzes, which is +situated on the right 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 vast 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!! Dondta-San!!" they repeat, much astonished, when they +understand to whom we wish to be conducted. Oh! no, impossible, they +can not 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 shade made with extreme nicety, without the least ornament, the +least carving; everything seems new and unused, as if it had never been +touched by human hand. At distant intervals in this studied bareness, +costly little stools, marvellously 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 knickknacks 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 veranda opening upon an artificial site. We +might suppose it 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 +dreamland. 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 goldfish 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 shells. + +There are even blue dragon-flies which have ventured to descend, heaven +knows 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'. While they chant they +despatch 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 like 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 bottle 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 representing women. + +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 sombre gloom, the idols ever so superb, all seems in Japan but a mere +semblance of grandeur. A hopeless pettiness, an irresistible effect the +ludicrous, lies at the bottom of all things. + +And then the congregation is not conducive to thoughtful contemplation, +for among it we usually 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 curtseys, +their little cries and exclamations; prattling, complimenting one +another, full of restless movement, and having the greatest difficulty in +maintaining a serious demeanor. + + + + +CHAPTER XLI + +AN UNEXPECTED CALL + +September 3d. + +My little Chrysantheme for the first time visited me on board-ship to +day, chaperoned by Madame Prune, and followed by my youngest sister in- +law, Mademoiselle 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 is a lacquer tray, on which my faithful sailor servant places +any small change he may find 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 were on their best behavior throughout 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. + + + + +CHAPTER XLII + +AN ORIENTAL VISION + +September 4th. + +Yesterday I encountered, in an ancient and ruined quarter of the town, a +perfectly exquisite mousme, charmingly dressed; a fresh touch of color +against the sombre background of decayed buildings. + +I met her at the farthest end of Nagasaki, in the most ancient part of +the town. In this region are trees centuries old, antique 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 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 few priests, guardians of tombs or sanctuaries, +taking their siesta under dark-blue gauze nets. + +Suddenly 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 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 robe 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-tree 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!' 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 delusion. 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 ourselves, +from the inevitable tour of the tea-houses and bazaars. While the other +mousmes walked along hand in hand, adorned with new silver topknots 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 can not be a doubt I should have been +charmed. In reality, however, 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, with whom the agency +of M. Kangourou has supplied me. + + + + +CHAPTER XLIII + +THE CATS AND THE DOLLS + +The water used for drinking in our house, for making tea, and for 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 kept 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 an arm. A +real godsend for all the thirsty cats in the neighborhood, on warm summer +nights, is this corner of the roof with our gayly painted tubs, and it +proves a delightful trysting-place for them, after all their caterwauling +and long solitary rambles on the tops 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? But they are not +dirty!" + +On this point Chrysantheme and I agree with him: we do not consider cats +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. + +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 Mademoiselle Oyouki, or their young servant, +Mademoiselle Dede,--[Dede-San means "Miss Young Girl," a very common +name.]--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. + +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 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 burned 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 +--irritates me in her. + + + + +CHAPTER XLIV + +TENDER MINISTRATIONS + +September 11th. + +A week has passed very quietly, during which I have written nothing. + +By degrees 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 climb up to my villa, sometimes by beautiful +starlit nights, sometimes through downpours of rain. Every morning as +the sound of Madame Prune's chanted prayer rises through the +reverberating air, I awake and go down toward the sea, by grassy pathways +full of dew. + +The chief occupation in Japan seems to be a perpetual hunt after curios. +We sit down on the mattings, in the antique-sellers' little booths, +taking 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 if 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 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 sacred +symbolism 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, goat-like voice: + +"Wash me clean from all my impurity, O 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, as soon as 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 the house of her +mother, Madame Renoncule. She asks for their blessings, for fortune and +wisdom. + +Who can fathom 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 by saintly Chinese missionaries at the +epoch of our Middle Ages. 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 tortoise- +shell comb of rare transparency, one of those combs that it is good style +to place on the summit of the head, lightly poised, hardly stuck at all +in the hair, 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 more. 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 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 around: the open veranda, 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 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 around, as if 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 had kept carefully in the lining of one +of her sleeves. + +Well, I swallowed that prayer without a smile, not wishing to hurt her +feelings or shake her funny little faith. + + + + +CHAPTER XLV + +TWO FAIR ARISTOCRATS + +Today, Yves, my mousme and I went to the best photographer in Nagasaki, +to be taken in a group. We shall send the picture to France. Yves +laughs as he thinks of his wife's astonishment when she sees +Chrysantheme's little face between us, and he wonders how he shall +explain it to her. + +"I shall just say it is one of your friends, that's all!" he says to me. + +In Japan there are many photographers like our own, with this difference, +that they are Japanese, and inhabit Japanese houses. The one we intend +to honor to-day carries on his business 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 +posted 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 with 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 tattooed, their hair carefully combed in sleek bands and shiny +chignons, are chatting, 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 poses 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 photographed at this moment are two ladies of +quality, evidently mother and daughter, who are sitting together for a +cabinet-size portrait, with accessories of the time of Louis XV. 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 they have an undeniable look of good breeding that +strongly impresses us, notwithstanding the intrinsic differences of race +and acquired notions. + +They scanned Chrysantheme with a look of obvious 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 never had 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, I ponder over the mystery of their tiny slits of eyes, drawn +back and up so far that the tight-drawn lids can hardly 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 totally dissimilar are our races!" + +We are compelled 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 around the shafts of the +columns. + +At last it is our turn; Chrysantheme settles herself slowly in a very +affected style, turning in the points of her toes as much as possible, +according to the fashion. + +And on the negative shown to us we look like a supremely ridiculous +little family drawn up in a line by a common photographer at a fair. + + + + +CHAPTER XLVI + +GRAVE SUSPICIONS + +September 13th. + +Tonight Yves is off duty three hours earlier than I; occasionally this +happens, according to the arrangement of the watches. At those times he +lands first, and goes up to wait for me at Diou-djen-dji. + +From the deck I can see him through my glass, 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, about nine o'clock, I find him seated on the floor, in the +middle of my rooms, with naked torso (this is a sufficiently proper +costume for private life here, I admit). Around him are grouped +Chrysantheme, Oyouki, and Mademoiselle 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 to have put +himself in such a state? + +He tells me that near our house, a little farther 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 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 is dried, 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 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, halfway 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 starfish, seaweed, and green sharks. + +It is nearly eleven o'clock when we make our start. In the central +quarters the virtuous Nipponese are already closing their little booths, +putting out their lamps, shutting the wooden framework, drawing their +paper panels. + +Farther 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 merry animals 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 Japanese, 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 spoiled 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. + +She lays a great stress on the accentuations, as if to make the numbers +sound even more droll. + +A little silver aigrette glitters in her beautiful black coiffure; her +delicate and graceful figure seems strangely fantastic, and the darkness +that envelops us conceals the fact that her face is quite 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, imposing, deserted, uniformly gray under the +nocturnal sky, appear to vanish into the empty space above us, and, when +we turn round, to disappear in the depths beneath, to fall into the abyss +with the dizzy rapidity of a dream. On the sloping steps the black +shadows of the gateways through which we must pass stretch out +indefinitely; and the shadows, which seem to be broken at each projecting +step, look like the regular creases of a fan. The porticoes stand up +separately, rising one above another; 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 at each +extremity like two menacing horns, pointing upward toward the far-off +blue canopy of the star-spangled sky, as if they would communicate to the +gods the knowledge they have acquired in the depths of their foundations +from the earth, full of sepulchres and death, which surrounds them. + +We are, indeed, a very small group, lost now in the immensity of the +colossal acclivity as we move onward, lighted partly by the wan moon, +partly by the red lanterns we hold in our hands, floating at the ends of +their long sticks. + +A deep silence reigns in the precincts of the temple, even the sound of +insects is hushed as we ascend. 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 illuminated 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--I 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: Mademoiselle Transparente, Mademoiselle +Etoile, Mademoiselle Rosee-matinale, and Mademoiselle Margueritereine. +Not an answer. Good-by, perfumed sherbets and frosted beans! + +In front of the little archery-house our mousmes suddenly jump aside, +terrified, declaring that there is a dead body on the ground. Yes, +indeed, some one 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 4th 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 harbor at our feet, +and then return home. To-night the harbor looks like only a dark and +sinister rent, which the moonbeams can not fathom--a yawning crevasse +opening into the very bowels of the earth, at the bottom of which lie +faint, small glimmers, an assembly of glowworms in a ditch--the lights of +the different vessels lying at anchor. + + + + +ETEXT EDITOR'S BOOKMARKS: + +Dull hours spent in idle and diffuse conversation +Prayers swallowed like pills by invalids at a distance +Trees, dwarfed by a Japanese process +Which I should find amusing in any one else,--any one I loved + + + + +End of this Project Gutenberg Etext of Madame Chrysantheme, v3 +by Pierre Loti + diff --git a/3993.zip b/3993.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..ac1c820 --- /dev/null +++ b/3993.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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